Wurm in a gentler mood than he sometimes is. That and a friendly grid made this a relatively rapid solve for me at 06:36, though as always your mileage may vary.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Pastry in cafe frump ordered (5,4) |
| CREAM PUFF – anagram [ordered] of “cafe frump”. | |
| 6 | Faculty notice about New Society (5) |
| SENSE – SEE [notice] going round [about] N [New] and S [Society]. | |
| 8 | Debauched and dissolute tribe entering queue (9) |
| LIBERTINE – anagram [dissolute] of “tribe” going inside [entering] LINE [queue]. I didn’t know that LIBERTINE could be an adjective as well as a noun, but it’s in the usual sources. | |
| 9 | Big animal Argentino keeps (5) |
| LARGE – hidden. | |
| 10 | Minding one’s business? (9) |
| BODYGUARD – a “minder” is a BODYGUARD, as popularised by the long-running ITV show, and I suppose that therefore if one is a bodyguard then minding is one’s business … I liked that, COD from me. | |
| 12 | Majestic month (6) |
| AUGUST – Ye Olde Double Definition. | |
| 13 | Spoil that short woman (6) |
| MARTHA – MAR [spoil] + THA{t} [that short] = random female name. | |
| 16 | Rebel in south demanding immediate action (9) |
| INSURGENT – IN [in] + S [south] + URGENT [demanding immediate action]. | |
| 18 | Island MP the Spanish urge forward (5) |
| IMPEL – I [island] + MP [err, MP] + EL [the Spanish]. | |
| 19 | Old Italians punished recusants (9) |
| ETRUSCANS – anagram [punished] of “recusants”. | |
| 21 | Adult model recalled Greek fabulist (5) |
| AESOP – A [adult] + reversal of POSE [model recalled]. | |
| 22 | Intoxicated Estonian’s feeling (9) |
| SENSATION – anagram [intoxicated] of “Estonian’s”. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | English among stars in Sulawesi once (7) |
| CELEBES – E [English] inside [among] CELEBS [stars]. An Indonesian island (which some sources, eg Britannica, say is actually still called CELEBES, so the “once” is questionable). NHO and pretty jolly obscure, I thought, but fortunately the grid meant I only had to find one letter. | |
| 2 | War reporters: their bosses accepting award? (6) |
| EMBEDS – EDS, short for “editors”, are the “bosses” of “reporters”. Insert MBE [accepting award]. I’ve never encountered this noun, but reporters being “embedded” with troops was a familiar idea and the word play was clear enough. | |
| 3 | Millions love to tease Scottish girl (5) |
| MORAG – M [millions] + O [love] + RAG [tease]. | |
| 4 | Burn oil periodically in college (3) |
| UNI – every other letter [periodically] of “burn oil”. | |
| 5 | Pru finalised changes, revealing error (8,4) |
| FREUDIAN SLIP – anagram [changes] of “Pru finalised”. | |
| 6 | Upset as it is loner’s condition? (12) |
| SOLITARINESS – anagram [upset] of “as it is loner’s”. Feels a bit odd to have “loner” both as part of the anagram fodder and part of the definition, but I can’t see how to avoid that because “condition?” on its own doesn’t seem to me to be enough of a definition. [On edit – I may be wrong about this, having read the comments from BR and others.] I wondered if it was an &Lit, but I can’t see how “upset” could be part of the definition. Looking forward to the Clue Police turning up. Anyway, a very good if slightly sad clue. Chin up, Wurm. | |
| 7 | Bottle good as weapon (5,3) |
| NERVE GAS – NERVE [bottle, as in courage] + G [good] + AS [as]. | |
| 11 | Tries bait regularly with lures (8) |
| ATTEMPTS – AT [bait regularly] + TEMPTS [lures]. | |
| 14 | Little Arthur is an expert worker (7) |
| ARTISAN – ART [little Arthur] + IS + AN. | |
| 15 | Asian writer sent up boxer (6) |
| NEPALI – NEP [reversal of “pen”, writer sent up] + ALI [boxer]. | |
| 17 | God with saint and a believer (5) |
| RASTA – RA [ancient Egyptian sun god] + ST [saint] + A [and a]. Rastafarianism began in the 1930s and has a distinctive belief system. | |
| 20 | Manage to escape (3) |
| RUN – double definition. | |
I’ve heard of embedded troops but never knew it meant journalists or media personnel traveling and living with military units during conflicts, according to a quick search. Thought BODYGUARD was quite clever. Liked SOLITARINESS and wondered about the use of ‘loner’s’ as both part of the anagrist and definition. Didn’t know CELEBES but it came from wordplay. All good in the end and I sincerely hope it ends that way too in Adelaide, but we’re already four wickets down for 70 odd runs.
Thanks Templar and setter.
Could you help me parse the BODYGUARD clue – From my reading it should say Minding*’s* one’s business? I cant find a way to read the clue that works.
I agree that it’s “minding [is] one’s business?”, with the [is] being tacit.
It’s not uncommon for English to allow a main verb to be omitted and the meaning to be conveyed by context or style – think of a headline like “Mayor, Prime Minister at odds” or a question like “Anyone home?”
Yes, read it like a newspaper headline essentially, I accept
Occasionally I write my own clues and I use this device frequently. Something about this clue obscured that explanation from me.
I went through this at great speed – until the end. Celebes and embeds were a bit difficult, but I was really flummoxed when I was left with B _ D _ G _ A _ D. What sort of word fits this? A cryptic definition with a strange combination of crossing letters is something no solver wants to see. I finally saw body = one, and then the answer.
Time: 7:10
15 minutes. I agree with the comments on CELEBES, a word that seemed out of place but was redeemed by a helpful clue. EMBEDS as a noun seemed strange too. The long anagram of SOLITARINESS took me far too long to unravel.
We found this really tough at the end. Took ages to spot bodyguard and solitariness and Rasta until the r crosser, 33.05 for a frustrating morning. Maybe last night’s Jazz club was too late for a school night!
Thanks Wurm and Templar
Unlike our speedy blogger I found this quite chewy. I made little progress at the top so solved this one from the bottom up.
I spent a long time thinking that the definition for SOLITARINESS was ‘condition’ so went down the ‘Ts & Cs’ and then illnesses routes for a while and spent a long time at the end on the BODYGUARD/CELEBES combo.
Finished in 8.42
Thanks to Templar and Wurm
12:56
Stuck for a long time in SOLITARINESS, thinking I was looking for an illness. I needed to resort to pen and paper to unscramble it.
I needed the B from CELEBES before spotting my LOI, BODYGUARD.
Thanks Templar and Wurm
8 minutes. Off to a good start with CREAM PUFF and enjoyed the rest. BODYGUARD was my COD too, helped by being lucky in seeing the word quickly with the crossers in place and by reminders of George Cole et al – thanks for the link. Never heard of EMBEDS as a noun and even if it is in Collins etc, I’m not a fan.
So that ‘loner’s’ is not doing double duty, like Plett11, I thought just ‘condition?’ may be the def for SOLITARINESS , in which case, to coin a phrase, “the question mark is doing some heavy lifting”.
Thanks to Wurm and Templar
I ground to a halt in the NE, finally coming home in 15:35 after biffing CELEBES, EMBEDS and BODYGUARD in a rare gung-ho moment. Despite parsing post-solve this leaves me feeling somewhat dissatisfied.
Maybe this one wasn’t for me.
Thanks both
Same problems as everyone else, except that Mrs M is an Indonesianist so CELEBES was a write-in.
L2I the difficult BODYGUARD and the mystifying EMBEDS which reluctantly went in one letter by one letter. Oh well, phew – got away with it! Still don’t really understand it, though, despite your good blog, thank you, Templar. (War reporters should be a plural noun, but EMBEDS is surely a verb?)
Sorry for not being more explicit. EMBED is a noun as well as a verb: Collins “7. a person or thing that is embedded, esp a journalist accompanying an active military unit”.
I’d never come across it, but I did know about war reporters being “embedded” with troops and the wordplay was clear.
Thanks both. In that case I just retreat to a simple NHO!
By the way, en route to this blog we get “Bob Marley and other celebs” – what’s that about, please?
Bob Marley was a RASTA and “celebs” is part of the wordplay for CELEBES.
It’s used here in nounal form meaning people embedded.
22.59 to struggle home, needing to biff CELEBES (NHO), EMBEDS (unaware of war reference), BODYGUARD and wondering if SOLITARINESS exists. A somewhat convoluted puzzle from Wurm, I felt.
I found this quite difficult and was stuck on several including SOLITARINESS, CELEBES and LOI, EMBEDS. The M for the latter took an age to evict O or C from my brain! A laggardly 14:38. Thanks Wurm and Templar.
54min marathon.
Not on wavelength and got firmly stuck in N.
NHO Celebes was LOI which finally fell after I got BODYGUARD.
For me this was the hardest so far this week.
Thanks for the blog.
I certainly didn’t find this as straightforward as Templar did, needing 11.57 to complete. After being tuned in to the setter’s wavelength all week, I was definitely tuned to the wrong station today. I initially biffed LIFEGUARD for 10ac, but quickly changed it once the correct alternative came to me. My main problem was with CELEBES and finally EMBEDS, the latter seeming plausible but not heard of.
Fairly straightforward but initially put in nerve gun for 7d until I realised (a) it didn’t parse and (b) there’s probably no such thing and I was presumably thinking of Nerf gun. Doh!
9:13 for the solve with a stutter at the end trying to figure out R-STA 🤷♂️ NEPALI also a nice misdirection with the “Asian writer”. I notice I am beginning to get worse at cutting up clues and not being misdirected by surfaces.
Good solid puzzle from Wurm – thought SOLITARINESS was a good clue/anagram. The first three Downs (CELEBES NHO, EMBEDS NHO and MORAG can’t think of a famous one) were a little nasty but nicely clued.
Thanks to Templar and Wurm
I really found this quite difficult, and even wondered if Wrum had picked up the Nina habit when some of the clues started to seem a bit forced. I still had four left at my usual 30min cut off, but Libertine, Bodyguard, vho Embeds and nho Celebes finaly came through as a group in a world of their own.
CoD to one of the straightforward escapees, Insurgent. Invariant
I did not think I would finish this; too many known unknowns like the other name for Sulawesi and the “condition”.
However I stuck to the wordplay, used the checkers and finally thought of LOI BODYGUARD which I still don’t think is a great clue.
NHO EMBEDS in this sense but the clue instructions were clear.
But all done in 18 minutes and, on reflection, the setter gave me just enough information to get the job done.
David
10:34 for a relatively speedy solve, but not without the odd furrowed brow. RASTA took some digging out, and I didn’t see the grammar in BODYGUARD – thanks Templar for explaining that the wordplay needs to be read as “The art of minding is one’s business”. On reflection, a clever clue – too clever for me! The two long down anagrams also took some ferreting out. OTOH CELEBES well known for some inexplicable reason and (since I decided to start with the down clues for a change) was my FOI.
Many thanks for the blog.
Not as easy for me as it was for our blogger (no change there, then)…..
I was slow to get footholds but doggedly built up the (forbidding) grid. NHO EMBEDS and CELEBES but worked out both. I thought I would avoid the SCC, at least, but SOLITARINESS took me close (needed paper and pencil) and BODYGUARD took me on to 22 mins. I just couldn’t see it until the clang of a PDM.
Some nice clues but the clouds of frustration had to clear before I began to appreciate them.
Thanks to both.
7:52
Not keen on CELEBES or EMBEDS, neither of which were familiar. Fortunately, one of my first dates was with a very lovely MORAG, so nae bother there. I liked SOLITARINESS. Unfortunately, I fell down in typing RAN rather than RUN to earn myself a pink square.
Thanks Templar and Wurm
My thanks to Wurm and Templar.
19a Etruscans, 22a Sensation both involve anagrams of nationals. Coincidence?
6d Solitariness. I think the choice of “loner’s” as anagrist was just to be helpful. Anyway I solved the anagram faster than my mechanical anagrammer could.
My experience was similar to others. Quite tricky in places.
I like a clue like MARTHA where my assumptions are turned on their head. ‘Spoil’ is often an anagram indicator and ‘short’ can be ‘s’ or maybe even ‘sh’ so off I go on an anagram hunt until finally realising spoil is a synonym and short is an instruction. It’s clues like this that make the QC a (mixed) pleasure to do.
Thanks Templar and Wurm.
A bit slow for me. Last three were CELEBES, giving BODYGUARD, giving EMBEDS. Nevertheless an enjoyable puzzle. Still some warmth in the cuppa when I finished.
CoD: BODYGUARD
Thanks Wurm and Templar
Very slow to unpick SOLITARINESS. Unfortunately I totally missed the extra clue in ‘loner’s’ at the time – very nice and a retrospective COD. LOI by a good few minutes was BODYGUARD (groan). NHO CELEBES but clear wordplay. VHO EMBEDS used as a noun. I did like the surface for MARTHA 😆 This didn’t feel a typical Wurm puzzle but enjoyable nonetheless. Many thanks to Templar and Wurm.
CELEBES and EMBED left hehind
Rummaged around in my memory and came up with CELEBES eventually. Pretty slow with anagrams and everything else today. DNK EMBED was a noun but biffed. Yes, PDM BODYGUARD COD.
Thanks vm, Templar.
14:40 Like others I struggled with the following whether it be Celebes Rasta Embeds Etruscans or
Etruscans Embed Celebes Rasta.
Ta TAW
Straightforward and fun on the whole until I came to 1,2,3,4 and 5 d none of which made any sense: until I looked again at 1a and saw that I had entered PUFF CREAM instead of CREAM PUFF! Both delicious but 5,4 is definitely not 4,5! Schoolboy error. Then I took a while over CELEBES (nho) and EMBEDS (OK but convoluted). My cod was 8a – having researched an eighteenth century French libertine for years, I felt like I’d encountered an old friend! Tks setter and blogger, as always
Steady but unspectacular progress leading to an 18 minute finish. EMBEDS entered from the wordplay- NHO used as a noun. CELEBES dredged from the depths of my memory somewhere. I initially had ‘nerve gun’ at 7dn but INSURGENT soon forced a correction. I don’t know what recusants are which was worrying as for a long time I thought that was the definition at 19ac.
FOI – 1ac CREAM PUFF
LOI – 19ac ETRUSCANS
COD – 10ac BODYGUARD
Thanks to Wurm and Templar
25 mins…
On the harder side I thought, not helped by initially putting “Insistent” for 16ac. NHO of the 19ac “Etruscans” so it was a bit of a finger in the air with the anagram.
FOI – 2dn “Embeds”
LOI – 17dn “Rasta”
COD – 7dn “Nerve Gas”
Thanks as usual!
DNF.
As far as I am concerned 2 Down (Embeds) was an unfair clue.
Never heard of this word before.
And I hope I never do again.
I did not know CELEBES or EMBEDS but fortunately there were checkers aplenty for CELEBES and the wordplay was forgiving for EMBEDS (I briefly considered Eobeds and Ecbeds). I spent a lot of time constructing my LOI SOLITARINESS. 09:01 Thanks Templar
As founder member of ‘Bottom End of The Curve Club’ I solved 8 clues in 30 mins. That’s 5 more than yesterday, but not a measure of progress yet, but more due to the vicarious Compiler variable convolved with various other imponderables!
7.47 This felt quite chewy. I had to come back to a great many though I didn’t get stuck. NHO CELEBES or Sulawesi. Finished with NERVE GAS. Thanks Templar and Wurm.
Quite quick except last 4, finally got 11d, and then stared at 6d, 10a and 19a for ages (on and off). My least favourite type of crossword, but nothing unfair. Thanks to Wurm and Templar.
You know what’s coming, so feel free to move on to the next post 🤣
35 minute DNF.
Another nightmare capped off by putting EOBEDS for 2 dn. I’m really not sure how much more of this daily torture can take before I decide to give up. The solvers I once regarded as my competitors are so far ahead of me that I wonder why I bother. I struggled with so many clues and it is dispiriting beyond words to come here and read how easy most solvers found it. Where do I go wrong? I try so hard (including the 15 x 15) and have damn all to show for it.
I honestly do not understand how most of you are able to do this in under 10 minutes when I’m still scrambling for answers after half an hour.
I have always wondered why somedays I can appear to be doing well (under 20 mins for me currently) and then have a day like today (see post below) when, as you say, other commentators appear to breeze through.
I’ve come to the conclusion that, differing abilities/backgrounds aside, it must be down to the number of solves and accompanying experience/knowledge that they have acquired.
I too get frustrated when I draw a blank after trying so hard but I can see how much I’ve improved and how many QC’s I can now solve that would not have been possible (even a couple of months ago) and that’s the pleasure I take.
But, at the end of the day, if pain out weighs the gain, why would you?
Thanks Captain Jack. Wise words which I will try to learn from. 👍
Gary, you keep forgetting that ‘most of you’ is actually just a very small subset of the folk who bother trying their hand at this game. If it worries you, don’t include your time, just say you found the puzzle hard/average/easy. Invariant
PS I found today’s really difficult as well
You’re right. I’m too competitive for my own good. Thanks for the reminder. 👍
I long since gave up timing. If I have a steady tick of solves then I dont mind if they are slow. I didnt like this one much because I raced through two-thirds and then stared at blanks for a long time. I go and do other things and come back. The key to me getting occasional good performances is firstly to look for the definition, it could be one, two three or even four words at the beginning or the end, dont spent too long convinced it is one of them, spend a short amount of time on each of the possibles. The only other help I can give is to cycle through all of the possible clue types one at a time without spending too long on any one, some of my worst performances have been convinced it is an anagram when it is an inclusion etc. etc. The other thing to try is time yourself to say 30 mins and always give up then, that way you can watch your number solved increase rather than time going down. I have been doing them since no 1 and do enjoy them even though I still get a good 10% DNFs. (including this one – welcome the new italian tribe of the ecrustans). Finally dont forget that the guys that post times on here are the absolute cream of the crop, many of them also regularly do the 15*15 and other grown-up crosswords.
Thanks for those tips Ham. Some of my poorer performances have come from getting fixated on one definition or type of clue, rather than considering the alternatives, so the advice was very welcome. 👍
Welcome – final word; look for the times QC books on ebay they are only about £2, and the early QCs were consistently easier than the current ones.
Thanks Ham, will do.
25:29
I struggled with this one and had to look up Sulawesi to get to CELEBES (without which I would never have got my LOI) and old Italian races for ETRUSCANS – so technically, probably a DNF?
Needed all the checkers and pen & paper for SOLITARINESS and, as others, biffed EMBEDS (NHO in that context).
Yeah, a bit of a work out – but my education continues.
FOI: LARGE
LOI: BODYGUARD
COD: NERVE GAS
Thanks to Wurm and Templar
14:26 for me, which is around my average, and I enjoyed it a lot despite my incompetent performance on the anagrams. I particularly liked CELEBES, always very satisfying to get a word I’ve NHO by chipping away at the wordplay.
Thank you for the blog!
12:41 and a pleasing solve with plenty to think about and no frustrations. The two Fs should have given me 1a CREAM PUFF immediately, but it often happens that my emotional reactions interfere with my solving — and I detest cream puffs. Thank goodness I was able to guess CELEBES (a word I recognize only from boring NY Times crosswords) from the crossers. And I spent a while trying to convince myself that MORIB might be some weird Scottish name I’ve never seen before “rag” came to mind.
FOI UNI (that college/university thing again), LOI and COD SOLITARINESS.
Thanks to Wurm and Templar.
09:40. Tricksy! really enjoyed the challenge there with some pretty wild vocab for the QC.
Did not get it but wasn’t it the Falklands when reporters were embedded with troops for the first time. Did just struggle into CELEBES, but BODYGUARD went over my head, too clever.
I have an inkling that it goes back to Vietnam; but then thinking about it I wondered who took the picture of the flag being raised in Iwo Jima in WWII to which the answer is an Associated Press photographer
I’m sure you’re right, I had in mind UK forces, I seem to think it was an issue at the time.
I see – obviously Brian Hanrahan counting them out and counting them was a memorable bit of journalism there.
Rastas refute ism. They prefer the term Rastafari.
8.28.
A late but pretty speedy 7:41. It helped that I’d heard of both CELEBES and EMBEDS though I couldn’t have told you that the former equated to Sulawesi. Wasn’t madly keen on the two random people’s names but then I suppose the likes of CELEBES and AESOP are names too so can’t really complain. Thanks, all.
Slow but a finish. Thanks all
No time today as I forgot to stop the timer between two sessions, but no massive hold-ups today. Liked FREUDIAN SLIP the most today.
Thanks to Wurm and Templar.
5:11 Solving a date late after returning from a funeral in Glasgow yesterday. How come you have to wait for a funeral for a great extended family get together? RIP Aunt Agnes. As for the puzzle, it was only post-solve that I remembered I’d seen EMBED the noun before. NURSEMAID was my first thought for 10a, but just as well I didn’t put it in until some crossers ruled it out. About an average time for me. COD to NERVE GAS for the witty surface. Thanks Wurm and Templar.
Playing catch up on the week today
Beaten by embeds – failed to recall mbe so went for eobeds over ecbeds. Neither likely but best I had. Ah well.
FOI Cream Puff
LOI dnf
COD Solitariness
thanks Templar and Wurm