There’s a fairly obvious theme in today’s Quick Cryptic from Asp. Did you spot it? The puzzle is about average difficulty, if my time is anything to go by, finishing in 04:58. Thank-you Asp! How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 143 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Criticise grasping wife and weak man (4) |
| PAWN – W (wife) in PAN (criticise). | |
| 4 | Disapproving response securing end of rubbish comprehensive (5-3) |
| CATCH-ALL – Last letter [end] of rubbisH in CATCALL (disapproving response). | |
| 8 | Angry girl upset about a song (8) |
| MADRIGAL – MAD (angry) and (girl)* [upset] about A. | |
| 9 | Bird caught by escaping criminal (4) |
| ROOK – {c}ROOK (criminal) without the initial C (caught by) [escaping]. | |
| 10 | Advantage, for instance, of French revolutionary (4) |
| EDGE – EG (for instance) + DE (of in French) all reversed [revolutionary]. | |
| 11 | Standard means for processing cheese (8) |
| PARMESAN – PAR (standard) (means)* [for processing]. | |
| 12 | Who fought in the dark reportedly? (6) |
| KNIGHT – Sounds like NIGHT (the dark) [reportedly]. | |
| 14 | Cleric somewhat entertained by dance (6) |
| BISHOP – By now I had seen the theme, so I just needed “cleric” to get the answer. It’s ISH (somewhat) in BOP (dance). | |
| 16 | Level with peer that is bored by society (8) |
| EQUALISE – EQUAL (peer) + S (society) in I.E. (id est; that is). | |
| 18 | Plans to return unwanted correspondence (4) |
| SPAM – MAPS (plans) [returned] -> SPAM. The term “spam” for unwanted email originated from a 1970 Monty Python sketch, where the word “Spam” was repeatedly chanted to the point of drowning out all other conversation. This comedic repetition became a metaphor for the overwhelming and repetitive nature of unsolicited bulk messages that began to flood early online forums and later, email inboxes. | |
| 19 | Support others (4) |
| REST – Double definition, the first being a noun. | |
| 20 | Understood simplicity has no limits (8) |
| IMPLICIT – {s}IMPLICIT{y} without its outside letters [has no limits]. | |
| 22 | Charm of actor’s appearance on stage (8) |
| ENTRANCE – Double definition, the first being a verb. | |
| 23 | Royal family meeting head of government (4) |
| KING – KIN (family) + first letter [head] of Government. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | One group performing in desert (7) |
| ABANDON – A (one) BAND (group) ON (performing), with”desert” being a verb in the cryptic reading. A bit of a chestnut, I think. | |
| 3 | Sensation created by this boldness (5) |
| NERVE – Double definition. | |
| 4 | Constant effort required to turn part of machine (3) |
| COG – C (constant) + GO (effort required) reversed [to turn] -> OG. | |
| 5 | Fairly good label tore unexpectedly (9) |
| TOLERABLE – (label tore)* [unexpectedly]. | |
| 6 | Arrangement of straps has to restrain drinkers regularly (7) |
| HARNESS – Alternate letters of dRiNkErS in HAS. | |
| 7 | What may scrub answer idiot brought up? (5) |
| LOOFA – A (answer) + FOOL (idiot) all reversed [brought up]. | |
| 11 | Aristocratic Irishman snubbed Scotsman (9) |
| PATRICIAN – PATRIC{k} (Irishman) without the last letter, [snubbed], IAN (Scotsman). | |
| 13 | Worker starts to get really behind (7) |
| GRAFTER -First letters of, [starts to], Get Really + AFTER (behind). | |
| 15 | Circular letter helping speech (7) |
| ORATION – O (circular letter) + RATION (helping). | |
| 17 | Tom’s partner belongs to baroque ensemble (5) |
| QUEEN – Hidden in [belongs to] baroQUE ENsemble. | |
| 18 | Criticism of branch with little substance? (5) |
| STICK – Double definition. | |
| 21 | Writer of verse, for the most part? (3) |
| POE – All but the last letter of, [for the most part], POE{m} (verse). | |
I found this hard, but got there in the end. The theme gave away a couple of answers. How does ‘effort required’ lead to go- or ‘helping’ mean ration?
I parsed GO as ‘effort’ with ‘required to turn’ as the reversal indicator. Not saying I’m right, but that’s how I read it.
‘Helping’ and ‘ration’ can both mean ‘portion’ or ‘share’, e.g of food.
Yes. I think you could be right, but I was thinking “(get up and) go” being the effort required to succeed.
“Gave it a good go”
Ration – portion – helping, as with food
Sorry. Your comment arrived after I started mine.
If you “Have a go” you may give it a “decent effort”. As for “helping” your helping of a pie might be your portion or ration (particularly if there isn’t a lot to go round).
I also saw it as how many go(s) needed to achieve something.
Thanks for spotting the Nina.
Cams turn and the word is part of machine if you reverse it and it starts with C and while clearly not the answer that stopped me thinking of anything else and I couldn’t think of MADRIGAL for ages, although when I did it, the G made COG inevitable. But I’d never have got there from the clue. Also though the dance was a ‘hop’ so was desperately trying to get ‘bis’ to mean ‘somewhat entertained’. Wanted ROOK to be ‘crow’ for ages too. Enjoyed this but a bit outclassed. Needed the hints, thanks John (and Asp for the duffing up). All green in 19.33.
I followed the same path with CAM/COG. I only realised that cam might be wrong when I thought of MADRIGAL from the available crossers but set it aside because the M of cam was in the way. I came back to it after wasting a fair bit of time and re-thought it all since MADRIGAL was clearly an anagram.
An ambiguous clue, I thought.
My time was within seconds of yours.
BISHOP went in with the crossers, and I also saw ‘hop’ rather than ‘bop’, but accepted ‘bis’ with a shrug… I like it now…
Another HOPper here.
Yep, and me.
Thought Cam as an engineer, and Hop also.
7:38 for by far the hardest of the week for me. I kept wanting ABANDON to be ALADDIN which certainly slowed me down. MADRIGAL also wasn’t a particularly easy word. Nice puzzle overall though. Thank you Asp and John.
Tried Saladin was he in the desert maybe not, and Aladdin too.
11 minutes. Even though solving online makes reporting the odd seconds easy, I am sticking to my customary QC practice of rounding up or down to the nearest minute. I’ve always had in mind that if I were to complete the puzzles regularly within 5 minutes I’d start recording the seconds, but I think I may have achieved that level no more than once or twice over the years so I’m unlikely suddenly to up my game now.
I had to go back at the end to parse BISHOP, as my first thought for ‘dance’ had been HOP which would have left BIS unexplained.
I missed the theme as so often these days as I have lost track of which setters favour them. For many years it was really only RR with his multiple identities, and this made them easier to spot.
A bit chewy in places and I still don’t really understand ROOK, more specifically what ‘by’ is doing. Still an enjoyable solve with EQUALISE being the stand out clue.
Started with PAWN and finished with the ROOK/LOOFA (which I would spell with an ‘h’) in 8.54.
Thanks to John and Asp
I wondered about ‘by’, too, and thought that cricket ‘c’ stands for ‘caught by’, although it’s always been just ‘caught’ here. ‘by’ isn’t necessary in this clue.
That makes sense. In cricket caught by is often shortened to just caught, which I overlooked.
I must admit I too had a MER at ‘caught by’ for ‘c’. In reading the cricket scoresheet the ‘by’ is not used. E.g. “Lillee caught Willey bowled Dilley“.
The scoresheet will actually say Lilly c Willy b Dilly. That just shorthand to save space – Lilly didnt catch Willy, he was caught by Willy, that is what the c is standing for.
16:24 In a weird cryptic mirrors game way I saw how the King, Queen and Pawn work but struggled making sense of the Knight. As for the rest, just about managed to equalise with patrician abandon from the bishop.
Ta JAA
I just avoided the SCC at 19.50. I jumped about the grid (not unusual for me) and slowly filled in the gaps but had a major issue with COG/CAM (see also Mendesest above) which took time.
I didn’t parse BISHOP but was so immersed in details that I failed to see the chess theme which would have helped elsewhere. STICK delayed me for a while (I was thinking SLICK, for ‘with little substance’ replacing the T of stick…. no, it was never going to work…
I was not impressed by LOOFA(H). My COD was IMPLICIT.
Thanks ASP and John.
Suppose it was time we were brought to heel by the headmaster with a really hard one; some will like it. After more than an hour it’s time to throw in the towel, with several difficult ones finally solved, eight more not, so thank you John for unlocking these secrets of the inner circle. Hardest, I think (having read your excellent blog), was GRAFTER. Liked (and got!) IMPLICIT.
13:07. Nice crossword. I was held up at the end by ROOK (not seeing c=caught by) and BISHOP (where I was at the hop) both of which I eventually bunged in without parsing and still without seeing the theme! I liked the way IMPLICIT was just sitting there inside simplicity.
Thanks to Asp and to John for the blog
12:05 with LOI STICK.
I could not parse ROOK, but it was the only bird that fitted . If I had spotted the theme I would have spent less time hesitating before pressing submit.
Thanks John and Asp
Tom’s partner = queen? I was trying to get Jerry in there somewhere! Pls explain as struggling to understand this one!
Male cat, female cat.
You need to think cats, Tom and queen the male and female of the species.
Like you, I failed to see the Tom (male cat) and Queen (female cat) reasoning.
Perhaps it is common knowledge but I have never called a cat a Queen!
Doh -ok! Cross with self as actually have it in my extensive list of crossword clues to remember. But forgot – obv! Thanks all!
Oh yes remember now, we’ve had it before, don’t like cats!
If the lion is the king of the jungle …
It is common knowledge in crossword land. It comes up time and again. Never seen it anywhere else though.
You would, if you were involved in cat breeding.
Yes, me too! From the answers below I had never heard of queen for a female cat.
Another one that comes up occasionally in cryptics is OUNCE for a Snow Leopard.
Please tell me why??
It has lots of useful crossing letters so helps the setter when trying to fill the grid.
Top quality puzzle. Would have got under 10 minutes but didn’t trust ROOK until I’d sorted the parsing (having failed to spot the theme as usual). 11:04.
About average time. Asp’s puzzles are definitely easier these days. Of course, I didn’t spot the theme, but that didn’t hold up my solving. FOI QUEEN, LOI NERVE. COD to BISHOP. No issues.
14 minutes of hard work and not all fully parsed when solving. LOI ROOK.
This was clearly a tougher QC than others this week. It took me a couple of minutes to find FOI EDGE.
Some great clues. My COD candidates were PARMESAN and PATRICIAN.
LOOFAH and MYNAH for example crop up with variant spellings. Annoying but the dictionaries allow them apparently. Watch out for these.
David
Also tried to make BISHOP from bis and hop. NHO QUEEN meaning female cat, but obvious given the theme. Needed blog to parse EQUALISE. Thanks John for the great blog – interesting to see derivation of spam long before its current use.
I’d never heard of Queen for female cat either until I started doing these puzzles. One of those ones that you just have to keep in your head for when it crops up again.
Me neither! And now, as soon as I saw Tom’s partner, I thought ‘queen’ before even finishing reading the clue 😅 That’s what 10 years of this does to you!
8:35 for the solve. Very pleased with that because there was some chewy stuff in there and it was Asp. Didn’t spot the theme until afterwards. Enjoyed the STICK, ORATION, CATCH-ALL in particular. LOI ENTRANCE – also a 👍
Another good week for me with 5/5 for a total of 43:46.
Have a good weekend everybody and thanks to JohnI and Asp.
Edit: thanks also to Phil for the weekender – 12:12
Entrance always seems popular. As is the way of things, I’ve seen it in a few different cryptic puzzles recently.
I quite liked the ENTRANCE clue being a double def because you often get it as part of a clue misdirected with one of them. And as you say, it comes up from time to time, earlier this week we had its sibling “enthral”
Good to see you on a new streak #5.
Thanks #5 – prior to this recent run, I’d be averaging about one fail per week (82%) so it’s been good to be almost error-free for the past couple of months
From PAWN to ENTRANCE in 8:31. I didn’t spot the theme, as usual, until John pointed it out, whereupon it was obvious. I found the top half chewier than the bottom. Thanks Asp and John.
Lots missing after going through the acrosses, but then got all the downs except LOI STICK, then mopping up. I never really lost momentum, having decided to try not to chew too long on a clue if I can’t see it quite quickly. Missed both the partial anagrams first time through; also spent a while trying to figure out the RIC in PATRICIAN, since I thought the snubbed Irishman was just Pat! Durr.
Got there in 08:53, enjoyed it very much, didn’t think to look for a theme but as soon as I read John’s intro I had a look and even I could spot that one. I just never pick them up while solving.
Many thanks Asp and John.
I breezed through the QC today. My only hesitations were with clues 21d and 22a. I tried Pen but I couldn’t parse it. ENTRANCE swiftly solved the problem. Thanks John. Time spent -4:52 which is a very rare sub John.
*applause*
Nice one. Well done.
A fair old slog through but nothing difficult enough to be irritating. I seem to be at odds with others the ones they found hard went straight in (Grafter) and some nobody else has mentioned taking ages (Equalise). Very enjoyable – thanks Asp and John.
Felt tough at the time but I seem to have finished slightly faster than my average, at 12:30. Particularly enjoyed PARMESAN.
Thank you for the blog!
Super crossword, and thanks for parsing BISHOP, John, as I was stuck on HOP for the dance, so shrugged and moved on, and forgot to go back to work it out. 9 mins of fun – thanks Asp and John
I’ve just done the fortnightly cryptic, which was also terrific – thanks, Phil!
Thanks Dai – glad you enjoyed it.
5.57
ROOK LOI – It had to be but thanks to John for the parsing. Even I spotted the theme but as I play a lot of chess I certainly should have. Some lovely surfaces – thanks Asp/John.
My thanks to Asp and Johninterred.
I missed the theme as usual. I did kind of notice there were some chess pieces but didn’t notice it was all 6. Actually I thought there were more than 6 pieces, but no. There are 32 on the board at the beginning, but only 6 types.
Quite a tricky QC I thought.
14a Bishop, saw a hop but could not parse as it was the bop we needed.
7d Loofa, DNK this spelling.
31:35
Really struggled with the top left, not helped by having Atacama for the desert and cam for the part of a machine. Finally saw EDGE which forced me to cross out my earlier work. Even then it was a struggle to get MADRIGAL and finally, LOI COG.
Nudged into the SCC by Asp at 22 minutes. I couldn’t parse ROOK or BISHOP and completely missed the theme as usual.
FOI – 1ac PAWN
LOI – 2dn ABANDON
CODs – liked CATCH ALL and ORATION
Thanks to Asp and John
Scuppered by two in NE corner. PAWN and ABANDON.
Not sure where the “man” comes in with PAWN. Was looking for something with m, he etc. I suppose a weak man can be a pawn but did have a mer at this definition.
Still trying to make up my mind about NERVE as well. I found this definition very loose as strictly speaking they don’t carry sensations.
A hard QC. I was not on the wavelength at all. Pleased I only failed on two clues. Missed the theme of course…
Thanks for the blog.
It’s chess terminology for the pieces on a board.
Tx.
Aaah so that ia where it fits in.
The hardest of the week as far as I was concerned with only four solved on the first pass of the across clues. As usual I failed to see the theme in solving, which may have assured me that I had ROOK right as I didn’t initially parse it. A pretty tardy 13.08 was the result of my labours with PATRICIAN my LOI.
My total time for the week was 49.01, somewhat extended by today being my only solve outside my ten minute target time. This gave me my average for the week at 9.48.
19 mins…
Have to admit, until I looked at the blog there were a few I wasn’t sure about. Rather than it being a lack of knowledge, there was some rather cunning wordplay. 9ac “Rook”, 18dn “Stick”, 15dn “Ration” and 11dn “Patrician” all come to mind. Overall, a clever puzzle from Asp (who has always provided a fairly stiff challenge).
FOI – 2dn “Abandon”
LOI – 11dn “Patrician”
COD – 14ac “Bishop”
Thanks as usual!
Finished all OK but not that quickly. Had I spotted the theme, I might have solved LOI ROOK sooner. POI HARNESS, a tricky one. Was also a bit slow to see the obvious KNIGHT, which helped with PATRICIAN and PARMESAN.
Liked many, inc MADRIGAL, GRAFTER, IMPLICIT, & STICK.
Thanks for vital blog, John. CNP various.
12.31 If I’d spotted the theme I wouldn’t have spent a minute parsing ROOK. Then again, if I hadn’t been drinking last night it probably wouldn’t have taken me a minute. Finished with PATRICIAN. Another good week taking just under 40 minutes. Thanks John and Asp.
As an experienced solver, I didn’t have much difficulty, although there were some more advanced clues here. I did think the dance was a hop, and not a bop, but bishop was the obvious answer so in it went. I didn’t actually notice the theme while solving, but I was going at a fair clip.
Time: 8:00
I still find Asp’s cluing style quite difficult to untangle, and consequently seem to spend much longer trying to parse the answers than usual – I still needed the blog (thanks, John) to fully understand Patrician, Bishop and Rook today.
I also completely missed the Nina, but then I never bother to look for them in the first place, so that’s not too surprising.
CoD, in a sluggish 30min solve, to Madrigal for the pdm. Invariant
Forgot to time myself but somewhere around 20 mins.
Another disappointing week overall, with Wednesday being the low point.
19.04 held up here and there….GRAFTER slow… COG needed checkers as tried CAM (couldn’t parse either). Am still a little at odds with modern world use of being ‘bored of’ something ( e.g. shopping, reading etc.) so rather happy to see ‘bored by’ (notwithstanding ‘of’ would not have been right here).
1A wondered about CAIN (weak to not handle jealousy etc.??) with CAN as criticise ..then of course ‘I’ was an issue. But such is the lot of a learning solver that failure to biff is more expected and acceptable than it is to seasoned solvers. Got there in the end, and out of the SCC! Off to Johni and tribe’s offering.
Thank you ASP and Johninterred.
6:32
Definitely a gentler puzzle from Asp, who I generally find is one of the harder setters. Not many pauses during this – didn’t get the wordplay for BISHOP in flight, had HOP as the dance so wondered what BIS meant. Job jobbed with 11d, 11a and LOI 6d.
Thanks John and Asp
13:45 with as many biffed as parsed. I too find that Asp’s clueing style challenges me, as if my brain has to perform a reset before I can start to understand what’s happening. Hence all the biffing.
Liked MADRIGALS.
Thanks Asp for the challenge and John for the enlightenment.
10:47, a bleary-eyed finish while still waking up, and failed to notice the obvious theme. Parsing MADRIGAL held me up with its clever “girl” for fodder when “gal” was staring me in the face. I barely escaped biffing SLICK for “with little substance” instead of STICK, which was not in my vocabulary as “criticism”. Liked COG and PAWN best. Off to work now (!)
Thanks Asp and John, help with parsing details is appreciated as always. Today I couldn’t account for “by” in the clue for 9a ROOK, not understanding that C can be for “caught by” as well as “caught”.
Tricky one taking 44 minutes. Some clues of 15*15 standard I thought but no harm in that as it stretches us towards that goal and there has to be some overlap.
Wish I’d spotted the theme as I had CROW instead of ROOK for a while – neither parsed.
Thanks Asp and John. Looking forward to trying the crossword over the weekend.
My first attempt at rook – gave me CLAG which I was trying to convince myself I’d heard is a bird from the moorland …
16:06
Actually saw the Nina, but only at the end when I was checking for errors.
LOI PARMESAN/PATRICIAN. Didn’t see “snubbed” as a truncation indicator.
COD CATCH ALL
DNF
All parsed then waiting to be taken into the SCC with 8a MADRIGAL (DNK) where I threw the towel in.
Thought the answer must mean angry but just could not think of a synonym made from the anagram A, AIR & GIRL.
Still, I’ve learnt a new word 🙂
FOI: SPAM
LOI: DNF
COD: CATCH ALL
Thanks to Asp and John
Did get there, parsing omissions on the cat thing mentioned above, and was baffled by the ‘Ish’ which missed me by miles.
9.35. I tend not to look for themes, and I missed this one. I also skimped on some parsing.
I enjoyed this rather tougher one. Finally got started in the south and east and had to push to complete in the NE.
FOI 18a Spam
LOI 3d Nerve
COD 12a Knight.
Didn’t we have Loofah earlier in the week?
Well remembered… it was in my latest Weekend QC. Lol.
After a very rare escape from the SCC yesterday, back to earth with a bump. DNF by three, MADRIGAL, EDGE and ABANDON. All gettable in hindsight.
Did I spot the theme? Well there’s a first time for everything! Particularly surprised to do that today, since chess is anathema to me.
Good luck to those of you having a crack at my Weekend Special.
FOI PAWN
LOI ROOK
COD BISHOP
TIME 4:25
….and good(K)NIGHT to you all…
I understand baldness is nerve but not nerve as a sensation for the DD. A nerve transmits but is not the sensation itself.
Am I missing something (most likely!) or does this clue not quite fit together?