Solving time: 15:58
Yikes! I found this quite tricky in places, and was not helped by a brief spousal ’emergency’ (Mrs H wrestled a mouse from the jaws of one of our cats – named Roary, though he probably tells other cats his name is Night Prowler – and while releasing it in the nearby park at stupid o’clock in the morning, managed to get poked in the eye by a sharp stick – she’s OK, thanks for asking, but I lost my solving mojo briefly).
A bigger issue was yet to come though as I struggled with my L2I 17d and 22a – fine clues both, but I am reckoning on the crossword equivalent of a huge pile-up as several solvers come to grief on the same pair of answers.
As for 3d, did he make it in America or Australia? Do tell…
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. I have also adopted jackkt’s use of the tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues.
| Across | |
| 1 | Perhaps Robinson Crusoe players off on tour (8) |
| CASTAWAY – CAST (players) AWAY (off on tour)
‘Perhaps’ implies that Robinson Crusoe is an example of a CASTAWAY. Fewer people will have heard of Chuck Noland… The full title of the novel Robinson Crusoe, originally published in 1719, was: The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself. |
|
| 5 | Beautiful female with distinctive appearance (4) |
| FAIR – F (female) with AIR (distinctive appearance) | |
| 8 | Grand car here, ordered for the duchess (3,5) |
| HER GRACE – Anagram [ordered] of G (Grand) CAR HERE
An example of Grand abbreviated to G can be found in the nickname of the Republican Party of the USA – Grand Old Party (GOP) |
|
| 9 | Quickly turn page in grave error (4) |
| SPIN – P (page) inserted into S~IN (grave error) | |
| 11 | Strum balalaika, holding a dance (5) |
| RUMBA – Hidden [holding] in Strum balalaika | |
| 12 | Tons of tarnish replaced with very glossy coat (7) |
| VARNISH – Replace the T (Tons) of |
|
| 13 | Text message about father’s cramps (6) |
| SPASMS – S~MS (Text message i.e. abbreviation for Short Message Service) about PA‘S (father’s) | |
| 15 | Worries before small stroke (6) |
| CARESS – CARES (Worries) before S (small) | |
| 18 | One taking a trip may have a generous whisky here (7) |
| TUMBLER – Mildly cryptic double definitions
TUMBLER (aka Rocks Glass, Lowball or Old Fashioned) is one of the four basic types of glass from which whisky is usually drunk. The others are Highball (for whisky cocktails), Shot Glass (for whisky shots), and Nosing Glass (for whisky tasting – aka Tulip, Snifter or Copita). |
|
| 19 | Takes hot drink, unfinished in hurry (5) |
| HASTE – HAS TE |
|
| 21 | Skin: what it does after too much sun? (4) |
| PEEL – The ‘it’ of the second part of the clue refers back to the definition…
…though arguably ‘skin peels’ or ‘it peels’ (both with an ‘s’ on the end) might be more grammatically correct answers than simply answering ‘peel’ |
|
| 22 | Coaxed with caution, came to the front (8) |
| WHEEDLED – W (with) HEED (caution) LED (came to the front)
My LOI following a lengthy think. WHEEDLE meaning “to entice by soft words; get by flattery” is from the 1660s, and is perhaps connected with a survival of Old English wædlian “to beg” from wædl “poverty”. |
|
| 23 | Appealing to reduce energy (4) |
| CUTE – CUT (reduce) E (energy) | |
| 24 | Mother more dapper becoming seductress (3-5) |
| MAN-EATER – MA (Mother) NEATER (more dapper) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | In centres of reactors, high explosive holds together (7) |
| COHERES – Insert HE (high explosive) into CO~RES (centres of reactors) | |
| 2 | Get out first piece of stored stuff (5) |
| SCRAM – First letter [piece] of S{tored} then CRAM (stuff)
SCRAM meaning “depart quickly,” often as an interjection, comes either from: 1920s U.S. slang, as a shortened form of scramble (i.e. a rapid take-off of a group of aircraft); or from German schramm, imperative singular of schrammen “depart”. |
|
| 3 | Crazy idea, normal for teenage diarist (6,4) |
| ADRIAN MOLE – Anagram [Crazy] of IDEA NORMAL
There probably aren’t too many teenage diarists to choose from, but I did wonder whether this might be a bridge too far for our overseas solvers… Sue Townsend wrote eight books about ADRIAN MOLE. The first book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 (published 1982) sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and was translated into 48 languages. |
|
| 4 | A sweetheart embraces Charlie in quiet corner (6) |
| ALCOVE – A L~OVE (sweetheart) containing [embraces] C (Charlie – NATO phonetic alphabet) | |
| 6 | Advise of a very quiet pay increase (7) |
| APPRISE – A PP (very quiet i.e. musical notation pp = pianissimo) RISE (pay increase) | |
| 7 | Was responsible for church estate (5) |
| RANCH – RAN (Was responsible for) CH (church) | |
| 10 | Sportswoman excited at her title (10) |
| TRIATHLETE – Anagram (excited) of AT HER TITLE | |
| 14 | Holster, could one say, that may be beside you as you sit down? (7) |
| ARMREST – One might say that a Holster is a resting place for one’s gun i.e. an ARM REST.
Within the mildly cryptic definition part of the clue, ‘that’ refers to the answer. I am not sure that everyone is going to enjoy this clue… |
|
| 16 | Fine line intercepted by transmitter (7) |
| SLENDER – L (line) inserted into [intercepted by] S~ENDER (transmitter) | |
| 17 | Composer finally changes into a god (6) |
| BRAHMA – The final letter of BRAHM My second last in, crossing with 22a – tough with only vowel checkers in place. BRAHMA (the Creator) is a Hindu god, part of the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu (the Preserver) and Shiva (the Destroyer). He is prominently mentioned in creation legends. |
|
| 18 | Subject to snap (5) |
| TOPIC – TO PIC (snap i.e. snapshot) | |
| 20 | Relax around place for break (5) |
| SPLIT – S~IT (Relax) around PL (place) | |
From CASTAWAY to WHEEDLED in 7:02. Apparently on the wavelength. Thanks Teazel and Mike.
Thanks Teazel and Mike Harper.
Quite tricky I thought, unlike the 15*15 which seemed easy.
18a Tumbler. I was very interested in all those glass types, and thank you Mike.
22a / 20d Wheedled/Split L2I. Not easy.
3d Adrian Mole. The first book had me LOL-ing at the ashtray in the piano. It does not sound hilarious but you have to read it to enjoy it.
14d Holster. Tricksy I think. I pencilled it in lightly.
17d Brahma, took an age. I had to look him up out of curiosity.
I’m going to have a bash at the 15×15 then…
Excellent!
On the wavelength until I fell off it. Very fast then stuck on last two. Needed hints from CCD for WHEEDLED and BRAHMA.
Enjoyable though.
Thanks vm, Mike.
At the door of SCC – some extra seconds due to adjusting to new format.
Overall a pleasant jaunt. Thought solve of 18d minimally cryptic and reliant primarily upon GK. Not too keen on ‘TO-PIC’.
WHEEDLED? Familiar with word in context of, ‘he wheedled his way into the private member’s room by saying x, y,z etc’, however would not substitute ‘coaxed’ – though I suppose that is what actually happens. In my book it is more sneaky…
Really enjoyed the rest of the puzzle and being reminded about the life of long alone Mr Crusoe.
Thank you Teazel and Mouse Saviour Mike Harper.
14:07 (English recapture parts of Wales from Owain Glyndŵr)
The top half of the grid flew in, and I thought I was heading for a good time, then slowed down by the same ones as nearly everyone else, especially WHEEDLED, ARMREST, TUMBLER and TOPIC. LOI was PEEL.
Thanks Mike and Teazel
I’m in the pile up. I thought of BRAHMA but wasn’t confident it was right and and failed on WHEEDLED. DNF but thanks Mike.
11.23 The top half was quick but the bottom was much tougher. I was lucky with BRAHMA. After a few Europeans he was the first Indian god I thought of. WHEEDLED was biffed to finish. Thanks Mike and Teazel.
P.S. “Tough with only vowel checkers”?
Yes, I was mistaken there – I had the R and A checkers rather than two As
DNF.
Not on wavelength.
I will put it down to incompetence, the battle with a full leaking waterbutt at 6.30am ( and in hosepipe ban area) along with a sore hand from a cat bite yesterday ( thankfully not infected), as well as a tough QC.
Thanks for the blog.
How is co-res “centre of reactors” in coheres?
Read it as CORES – the ~ is merely to show where the HE should be inserted (see my notes at the beginning of my blog)
It’s cores, not co-res
I’m another member of the BRAHMA and WHEEDLED last ones in club.
Not overly keen on the clue for 16d
Nevertheless, enjoyed a puzzle that was more challenging than of late
Thanks Teazel and Mike
20:59
Very slow to get going (new format or just Teazel?).
Slowly circled the grid not really flowing with answers emerging after much head scratching.
16 mins later hit a dead stop taking another 5 mins for the clue of my LOI to make sense and reveal the answer.
I did however really enjoy the workout for a change with some very nice, and I thought clever, clues.
FOI: RUMBA
LOI: BRAHMA
COD: TUMBLER
(Edit: Have I just made a rhyme?)
Thanks to Teasel and Mike Harper
Sorry but I can’t resist one more Adrian Mole quote (end of the first book):
Saturday April 3rd
8 AM. Britain is at war with Argentina!!! Radio Four has just announced it. I am overcome with excitement. Half of me thinks it is tragic and the other half of me thinks it is dead exciting.
10 AM. Woke my father up to tell him Argentina has invaded the Falklands. He shot out of bed because he thought the Falklands lay off the coast of Scotland. When I pointed out that they were eight thousand miles away he got back into bed and pulled the covers over his head.
4 PM. I have just had the most humiliating experience of my life. It started when I began to assemble my model aeroplane. I had nearly finished it when I thought I would try an experimental sniff of glue. I put my nose to the undercarriage and sniffed for five seconds, nothing spiritual happened but my nose stuck to the plane! My father took me to Casualty to have it removed, how I endured the laughing and sniggering I don’t know.
The Casualty doctor wrote ‘Glue Sniffer’ on my outpatient’s card.
I rang Pandora; she is coming round after her viola lesson. Love is the only thing that keeps me sane…
I’ve been reading it this afternoon with lots of laughing out loud. The constant switching between superiority/angst/naivety is great.
It is! And for it to have been written by a 36-year-old woman – that’s some serious creativity.
Momentary howls of laughter and near tears when I read ….
Sunday April 19th
Easter Sunday
Today is the day that Jesus escaped the cave. I expect that Houdini got the idea from him
Interesting to read her Wikipedia entry and understand how much of the books were reflections of being a divorced parent and trying to look at it through the eyes of her teenage son.
That is good! I’ve been missing out I see.
Scuppered after 29 minutes, falling (as Mike predicted) to the combo of BRAHMA and WHEEDLED. I managed to parse the former (after revealing it) but not the latter. Vicious pair.
Thank you for the blog!
WHEEDLED over my pay grade
Got only 3 on the first pass, and gave up 20 minutes later. Sorry but not fit for a QC not even a challenging QC
DNF. Gave up after 60 minutes. An enjoyable 40 minutes ruined by a further 20 minutes of fruitless graft on 22a (___E_L_D) and 17d (_R___A).
Why do setters do this? Are they unaware of who they’re setting for? Or maybe they just want to show off. Do they care or give it any thought? Whichever, it always makes me want to jack it in altogether.
Many thanks to Mike H for the blog.
I don’t mind puzzles being easy, medium or hard – what I don’t like is when there is something straight forward and then they drop a grenade in right at the end which makes a solve incredibly difficult.
Yes, I agree. 40+ minutes for me shows that I found it hard going but, as stated in my post, I enjoyed the challenge up to that point. Then came the grenade ….
I’ve had similar thoughts — but when I’ve toyed with writing clues myself, I realize that I sometimes have no idea how hard they are!
Seems we were on the wavelength today, 10:22 being somewhat faster than our average. Notably we were not far off from having a clean sweep of the acrosses (I think we’ve only managed it once) but had to come back to HASTE and WHEEDLED. LOI BRAHMA didn’t hold us up for too long, perhaps helped by the letter substitution type of clue already having come up in 12a VARNISH. Thanks, Mike and Teazel.
Dnf…
1dn “Coheres”, 17dn “Brahma” and 22ac “Wheedled” did it for me – putting in “Cohorts”, “Ariana” and “Carelled” instead – the latter which I’m not sure are even real. Even then it took a good 25 mins to get to my final three.
Definitely don’t remember Teazel being his hard before – will have to check my stats.
FOI – 11ac “Rumba”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 13ac “Spasms”
Thanks as usual!
I am ok with the new crossword format but they have really messed up the sudoku. My brain had got used to plain paper with numbers. Shaded backgrounds really mess with my head.
Oh Mike, it’s not funny, but it sounds like something from Friday Night Dinner! I do hope everyone is ok now, especially Mrs H. Based on all the comments above, I’m glad we only have dogs in the family – one of them does try to catch flies, usually from a prone position, which is very funny, but she always misses!
I’m also glad that I usually solve on paper – it sounds as if there are a lot of hiccups involved in the new format.
I enjoyed this one (except for – yes – ARMREST). Not super easy but lots of fun along the way and there are ticks all over the grid. I especially liked CASTAWAY, HASTE, TRIATHLETE and BRAHMA. No problem with the GK, and Brahms’ 4th symphony is one my favourite pieces of music.
11:06 FOI Castaway LOI Cute COD Adrian Mole (set in this part of the world so I always enjoy the local references. Sue Townsend really was a wonderful writer))
Thanks Teazel and Mike
The rain is coming down in stair rods – perhaps the brown will finally turn to green 🤞
Enjoyed the comments, as usual, especially about the cats, rather than the clues which we found hard going.
15:51 here. COD to ARMREST, which I totally failed to parse. Reading people’s cat stories has made me appreciate our very unmartial pair.
Thanks to Teazel and Mike.
Feeling pretty pleased with myself until I got the south-east corner. I had Foreward in place of Wheeled (hoping for a parsing that eluded me and explain the extra e). But it made Split and Brahma even more difficult. Resigned @ 20 mins. Thanks all
Ps still don’t understand the parsing of Coheres
Centre of a nuclear reactor is its CORE. You should be able to get it from there.
Quick for me. I was left with 17D, 22A and 9d before finishing first cup of coffee. Wordplay for 17D was obvious so alpha trawl of composers Alkan, Brahms ta ta! 22A then took a while, and LOI 9A took ages until I realised that answer to 6D was not APRAISE (I wondered what the “very” was doing in the clue), Doh! Very enjoyable, thanks to Teazel and Mike.
No time to report as I struggled with the new format.
Oh Teazel. So good, so difficult. 23:39 to complete this. As usual, though, looking back it seems much easier than it did while solving. HASTE my favorite. ADRIAN MOLE only VHO (so yes in the US but never read it myself), so very grateful for the anagram. My recent resolve to look for hiddens sooner tripped me up when I, too, fell for “veer” at 9a; thank goodness RANCH was straightforward. And lucky for me, BRAHMs/A came to mind quickly.
Thanks Teazel, great blogging and title Mike.
Now had time to read the comments – great cat stories 😺
What a total nightmare – 36 minutes, capped off by taking 10 mins to realise I had misspelt APPRISE and so couldn’t get SPIN. I am useless.
My day of misery was made complete by failing to finish 15 x 15. One clue off. It will doubtless be easy when I look at the blog, but I spent 30 mins looking at it in total confusion. Couldn’t recognise the type of clue or spot the word play and the straight definition. Useless again.
No sense of satisfaction or accomplishment today.
Found it harder than most QCs but surprised from blog that nobody else put in ROTINA for 17d which held me up until I realised 18a just had to be TUMBLER.
Like others, all was going swimmingly until we were breeze-blocked by 1D, 17D and 22A. Tried to to fit CT into 1D; we thought of Brahms but NHO Brahma; which didn’t help WHEEDLED.
Also constantly get the Error 500 message – even when trying to post this.
Thanks Teasel, but joined the pile-up for the last three; thanks for the helpful blog Mike.