A typically witty Quick Cryptic from Wurm today with a couple of tricky bits that took me to a longer than average time of 06:10. I particularly liked the dig at the eminent politician and the state to go to for hip replacements. Thank-you Wurm! How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. As an added bonus for the first of our puzzles of the year, Phil has provided a 15×15 grid, but don’t worry – it is no more difficult than the usual 13x13s. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 146 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions}and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Patriarch backing wicked Tory (8) |
| BADENOCH – ENOCH (Hebrew patriarch, father of Methuselah) after [backing] BAD (wicked). “Wicked Tory”. Ha Ha! | |
| 5 | Finish second to peloton’s leader (4) |
| STOP – S (second) + TO + first letter [leader] of Peleton. | |
| 9 | Endlessly cunning vixen (5) |
| SHREW – SHREW{d} (cunning) without the last letter [endlessly]. | |
| 10 | Heather penning books — saucy ones? (7) |
| EROTICA – OT (Old Testament; books) in ERICA (genus of heather). | |
| 11 | What one cold year could be? (3) |
| ICY – I (one) + C (cold) + Y (tear) | |
| 12 | Old spaceman’s weapon powerful (9) |
| ARMSTRONG – ARM (weapon) + STRONG (powerful). Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. | |
| 13 | Acting company moving to Peru (6) |
| TROUPE – [moving] (to Peru)*. | |
| 15 | Poem shown in text regularly (6) |
| SONNET – Alternate letters, [regularly], of ShOwN iN tExT. | |
| 17 | Cleaner keeping Charles for patron (9) |
| PURCHASER – PURER (cleaner) outside [keeping] CHAS (Charles) | |
| 19 | Power and energy beginning to assist plant (3) |
| PEA – P (power) + E (energy) + A first letter of Assist. | |
| 20 | Small child to argue in deprived area (4,3) |
| SKID ROW – S (Small) + KID (child) + ROW (argue). | |
| 21 | Chapter in story reversing brilliant success (5) |
| ECLAT – C (Chapter) in TALE (story) -> TALCE, then all reversing. | |
| 22 | Continuous pain expert rings hospital (4) |
| ACHE – ACE (expert) outside, [rings], H (hospital). | |
| 23 | Intellectually deep expert discovered (8) |
| PROFOUND – PRO (expert) + FOUND (discovered). Our second “expert” in a row. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Book to help musician (7) |
| BASSIST –B (book) + ASSIST (help). | |
| 2 | US bowler in local match (5) |
| DERBY – Double definition. The first is the US name for a bowler hat. | |
| 3 | State where man’s hip receives treatment (3,9) |
| NEW HAMPSHIRE – (where man’s hip)* [receives treatment]. | |
| 4 | Best stuff about English (5) |
| CREAM – CRAM (stuff) about E (English). | |
| 6 | King I see wearing ripped hat (7) |
| TRICORN – R (Rex; King) I C (I see in txtspeak) in TORN (ripped). This one held me up as I tried to find something with an anagram of “hat” at first to give me a King. | |
| 7 | Police initially called to crash (5) |
| PRANG – Police [initially] + RANG (called). | |
| 8 | Reassemble tediously for work at home? (2-2-8) |
| DO-IT-YOURSELF – [Reassemble] (tediously for)*. | |
| 14 | Fantastic hero is good as Shrek say (7) |
| OGREISH – [Fantastic] (hero is g)*, with “g” for “good”. | |
| 16 | Tried eating duck lightly browned (7) |
| TOASTED – TASTED (tried) containing [eating] O (0; duck – score of 0 in cricket). | |
| 17 | Italian food in shop a staple (5) |
| PASTA – Hedden in shoP A STAple. | |
| 18 | Seamstress in underground conduit (5) |
| SEWER – Double definition. Homographs, but not homophones. | |
| 19 | Rice dish Pauli ruined (5) |
| PILAU – (Pauli)* [ruined]. | |
6:56
I biffed the two long downs without bothering to parse them. It took me a moment to realise that I did in fact know the Tory, or at least knew the name.
On wavelength today with a 8:24 solve. No significant issues and as a bonus I have learnt what the US calls a bowler hat. I wonder if it is pronounced Dar-bi or Dur-bi.
Many thanks John for the blog and I look forward to the Sunday Special.
Durbi.
Thank you!
I was definitely stumped for a while by Badenoch, and I was thinking if it’s a state, it can’t end in -shire, that’s a county. I have to admit ‘tediously for’ is a brilliant anagram, even though I biffed the answer and then parsed it. Nothing else was particularly difficult.
Time: 7:28
9 minutes. It took me a while to cotton on to the Tory leader. It never occurred to me before today that her name is spelt BAD ENOCH!
As in Powell?
Exactly. Not that I’m making any comparisons, it just struck me as odd.
Yes, that joke has been made in a number of places.
Spent a while trying to parse TRICORN before just whacking it in, so thanks for unravelling that John. I’d previously tried to extract the poem from the wrong words – ‘eteual’ nearly went in before the biggest head slap of the year to date. Pleased with myself for unravelling PURCHASER and for coming in under ten on a day I had to work hard. All green in 9.42.
A steady solve of a most entertaining puzzle. My main holdups were the parsing of PURCHASING and TRICORN but I got there in the end.
Started with PRANG and finished with the hat in 7.36. COD to BADENOCH.
Thanks to John and Wurm
9 minutes. Enjoyable and a welcome confidence builder after today’s tough 15×15. I especially liked the BAD ENOCH and the DO-IT-YOURSELF anagram. Fooled by the part of speech for ‘Cleaner’ at 17a and I didn’t see either SONNET or TRICORN straight away so plenty to keep me on my toes.
Thanks to John and Wurm
Minor subbing: The H in ACHE (22A) comes from Hospital, not Hotel – I think from this sort of sign https://www.stocksigns.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/77606.jpg )
Otherwise this was pretty nice. No real holdups and done in a reasonable time (for me)
If I detect a MER at the clueing for 1A, I think it would work the same with “useless Tory”…
Thanks as ever to Wurm and John
Oops. Yes. Blogging of Autopilot gave me the wrong H. Will fix.
That link is the sort of URL that you could come a cropper on if you typed it.
10 in 20 minutes if you count prang which is slang as far as I am concerned. it’s almost onomataopeic if it’s a very minor prang.
I didn’t get an further.
Thanks J and W
Oh, woe is us. Just (only just) entered the SCC.
Spent too long on PURCHASER.. cleaner..polisher, char, then to ‘shinier’ then sat on C not Chas and on it went. Some great clues.
Felt we learnt a great deal about method from this.
Thanks Wurm and Johninterred.
I found this very tough. Just a bit too clever for a QC, I thought. The SNITCH (‘moderate’) just emphasises how thick I must be today.
I found the bottom half fairly approachable but, back in the top half, BADENOCH took quite a while and the NE was my downfall – very slow to get most of these including ARMSTRONG, EROTICA (doh!) and my LOI TRICORN (which I didn’t parse; thanks, John). I didn’t like OGREISH (shades of the Uxbridge English dictionary?) but it was easy to solve, at least. DO-IT-YOURSELF was a brilliant anagram.
My time was off my scale and the pleasure evaporated as I trudged through this. Looking at the posts above, I suppose I was just seriously off wavelength. Looking back, that is not uncommon for me with Wurm.
A disappointing end to the week. Ah well…..
Slow but got there eventually with hint for SHREW (not keen on that clue – impolite all round😯. ). But otherwise great puzzle. PDM BADENOCH took a while. Liked D-I-Y which is Bricolage in French, in case anyone doesn’t know. OGREISH another late arrival. CNP TRICORN.
Also liked ARMSTRONG, PROFOUND, and PRANG.
Thanks vm, John.
Lovely piece of unguessable trivia – well done – can we now have it in the other languages (German, Italian, Spanish, Polish etc.), please?
Sorry, my vocab in the above languages is limited, but if you see a sign in France saying Brico-Jardin it means a DIY store with a garden centre, like, say, B&Q. And you can also use Bricoler as a verb, meaning to fix up something yourself, unprofessionally.
My favourite TftT trail of the week – thanks both!
😀
Je suis un bricolier incompétent 😂
Bricoleur!
20:25, so about average for me. Struggled with PURCHASER and TRICORN (biffed). COD definitely BADENOCH!
Finished it so mustn’t grumble, but goodness I needed you, John – thank you. Patriarch? Cleaner? All that US culture: NHO any US bowler, nor SKID ROW (though Mrs M says I’ll be laughed out of court by you all). LOI OGREISH – surely we had OGRISH recently? Should it be one or the other?
Ah – was expecting “backing” to = reversed, so it can mean “after” – thanks. DNK ENOCH was a patriarch – but do now!
Dare I suggest that PEA and PILAU are weak?
This felt tricky and was the slowest solve of the week but there were no individual hold ups and I finished in 32:19.
Managed to insult all pursers past and present by parsing PURCHASER as Purser and Cha. Purer for cleaner makes more sense.
I enjoyed all of the clues.
Thanks Wurm and John.
Nice one, Wurm!
Well-pitched difficulty level, lovely anagram for DO IT YOURSELF. TRICORN held me up for a mo until I wrote it down, at which time it became obvious.
Thanks Wurm and John
6.26
Whatever the Snitch says, this certainly had some trickiness to it, but some nice/amusing clues with some cracking anagrams – NEW HAMPSHIRE my fave.
Thanks Wurm and John.
Could not parse TRICORN – limited knowledge of textspeak – but otherwise no problems in this enjoyable puzzle today. Thanks Wurm and John
DNF (have never heard the word ECLAT before…. every day is a learning day) but 20 minutes to get to that point is pretty good for a Friday puzzle for me.
Also another person who will put their hand up to biffing TRICORN without being able to parse it until after the fact.
Is the the Friday QC traditionally a little tougher than the rest of the week? Always feels that way to me (not that I’m complaining).
Lotus Eclat! – only way I had ever heard of it.
If you have a look at the Quitch (linked above in the sidebar of every page on this site) you’ll find that the tendency is for the QCs to get harder as the week progresses, though I can’t say that I personally notice much of a change. I think that perhaps the difference is more pronounced for experienced solvers.
Comfortable cruise through exept 1A which I eventually gave up on, not knowing either the patriarch or how to spell the politician’s name (would have guessed a K at the end). Thanks Wurm and John.
All the pictures back today!
12 minutes today but not all parsed e.g. Badenoch; but I was pretty confident about them.
LOI OGREISH which took me a while- a strange word about a character I don’t really know.
I enjoyed the quirky humour of this.
COD to DO IT YOURSELF.
David
On wavelength for a puzzle which I thought was quite brilliant, the best for ages. Very clever, very witty, packed with elegant surfaces. Bravo.
Like Plett I paused over the parsing of PURCHASER and TRICORN; I also had to get the B before I could get BADENOCH. But all told it was only 06:08, which is a vanishingly rare sub-John and so this has to be a Red Letter Day. I’m off for a celebratory coffee, I know how to live.
Many thanks John and Wurm.
9:52
Surprised to see Kemi at 1a, tough one if you are not up to speed on Tory Leaders.
TEDIOUSLY FOR is a top anagram.
LOI TRICORN
Believe me, there are quite a few I will never forget
Especially the short-lived ones 🙄
Like a few others BADENOCH was my LOI, and I wondered if the setter was subtly showing their political preference by including ‘wicked Tory’ in the clue, and SHREW, OGREISH and ICY elsewhere! An enjoyable puzzle that I managed to finish within my allotted target time at 8.25.
My total time for the week was 44.14, giving me a daily average of 8.51. A good steady week of solving with only one time outside target, but only marginally at 10.18.
Fun, and not too difficult puzzle: BADENOCH made me laugh. 8:20 for me.
6:12
Much enjoyed after a poor start. Suddenly clicked into gear after the fourth across clue. Can’t say I would have guessed that that is what ECLAT means, but bunged in anyway and justified by crossing answers. Last in was the PM-in-waiting, which took a few additional moments to see…
Thanks John and Wurm
Not sure but this could be Wurm’s 100th QC, am sure somebody has list – Jack?
A quick search on TfTT shows it is his 102nd. Thank-you Wurm! Sorry we missed your century.
I can’t find a list of setters and totals on TfTT, can you please explain where to find?
There isn’t. But if you search using the setters name, you find all the blogs with that name in the title (and then other blogs where the name is in the body). Wurm gives you 10 pages of 10 (starting with today’s) + 2 more on page 11. I think Jackkt maintains his own records.
Thank you! I thought I’d missed something obvious. I can’t help thinking that it ought to be easy to have an index of setters and their running totals – but maybe not of great interest to most people.
I can confirm 102 from my own records.
Thanks!
It must be around the ton mark by now. My latest sent in is numbered 110, but I haven’t been counting, honest!
I think we can take 102 published as definitive. John’s figure is taken from the TfTT archive whereas my records are on a spreadsheet compiled over the years and updated each day as a new puzzle appears.
Failed to see 1a straight off, so started with BASSIST and carried on with the downs until I spotted BADENOCH, then filled the top half and went down under. PROFOUND finished the job. 6:36. Thanks Wurm and John.
11:25, which is a relief after an atrocious start. Fortunately, getting a few checking letters let me get 1d and then 1a, after which it all unravelled very nicely.
Thank you for the blog!
17:29
3 1/2 minutes added on for my partially parsed LOI TRICORN, with further doubt added by my only being familiar with the TRICORNE spelling.
DKN the biblical patriarch, so BADENOCH was also entered with fingers crossed and I was not expecting an actual astronaut for 12a.
I thought this a strange mixture or really easy clues mixed in with (for me) some toughies. But I do agree, on revisiting, very clever and witty. And, no SCC today – Yay!
FOI: STOP
LOI: TRICORN
COD: NEW HAMPSHIRE/DO IT YOURSELF (a couple of beauties!)
Thanks to Wurm and John
I was going swimmingly but completely flummoxed by BADENOCH and TRICORN. (Don’t know text speak). So a disappointing DNF.
Well, that turned out to be a bit easier than I thought it would be at the half way point. Getting Tricorn, Armstrong and Purchaser had seemed an impossible task, but it’s amazing what a few crossers and a bit of parsing can do.
Squeezed in a sub-20, with CoD to Profound, a ‘seriously’ good clue 🙂
My thanks to Wurm and John. Invariant
A very enjoyable 9:49
Thanks to Wurm for a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle, although I biffed my LOI. I see that I was not alone…..
FOI BADENOCH (almost COD)
LOI TRICORN (thanks for parsing John)
COD NEW HAMPSHIRE (top anagram)
TIME 4:51 (above Qsnitch average, but well worth those extra seconds)
Good luck to everyone attempting my Weekend Special – as John says, don’t be intimidated by the larger grid. Whether I attempt it again will depend on solver reaction, so do please post in the comments section on John’s blog.
Started with STOP (!) and worked my way through to TRICORN in 2 sessions totalling 17 minutes. I enjoyed the odd mixture of rather easy clues and definite head-scratchers. I didn’t pause to parse DO IT YOURSELF or TRICORN and I couldn’t parse PURCHASER. I liked the authoress of saucy literature at 10ac.
Thanks to Wurm and John.
My thanks to Wurm and Johninterred.
Good puzzle.
LOI Purchaser, which I parsed about 10 seconds after entering it, oh, adjectival cleaner, slaps forehead.
COD 1a Badenoch. I knew that Powell’s name came from the Old Testament but not that Enoch was a patriarch.
17 mins…
Have to admit, I thought a “Badenoch” was a “patriarch” and that the clue was parsed Bad Enoch (which has obviously been made numerous times in the satirical press). However, I can’t help but think the setter was being somewhat mischievous.
The rest went in fairly steadily, although I wasn’t keen on the “see” = “c”, and I once again took an age to see 12ac “Armstrong”.
FOI – 11ac “Icy”
LOI – 16dn “Toasted”
COD – 1ac “Badenoch”
Thanks as usual!
Nice, witty QC. Needed blog to parse PURCHASER. Didn’t know that text speak (see = C in TRICORN) could be used without a homophone indicator, so I’ve learned something new. Many thanks for the blog John. COD BADENOCH (spelling henceforth firmly lodged in my brain!)
DNF. 22 minutes, but I put ScREW at 9a. I had NHO SHREW for vixen and never thought of shrewd for cunning. Screwy for cunning didn’t seem quite right, but I’ve seen plenty of less likely synonyms here, so in it had to go.
Very frustrating, given the fast time (for me) and the setter.
Many thanks to John and Wurm.
7.23 I did like DO IT YOURSELF. LOI OGREISH. Thanks John and Wurm.
DNF.
Very nasty.
I won’t be bothering with these puzzles
for a while unless they start being doable
again.
Managed to get in and comment. All complete fairly swiftly for me; starting in the SE corner probably helped. Not all parsed – purchaser, badenoch and troupe were all hard for me to work out the clueing on. Overall an enjoyable solve.
Thanks Wurm and John
PURCHASER took a little thinking about but we finished in a modestly quick 10:15. Didn’t see BADENOCH on the first pass but it sang out to me as such once we had the B, D and N checkers even before looking at the clue again. Fully deserves COD for its wit I think. Thanks, John and Wurm.
Straightforward, but with some clever clues, so a perfect QC. 7 mins. Thanks Wurm and John.
…and thanks, Phil, for the weekend special – really excellent stuff, much enjoyed!
I thought this was a hard puzzle and was initially very pleased with my time of 11 minutes. I was surprised to then come here and see that most found it straightforward. My surprise turned to shock when I saw the Snitch rating of ‘easier’.
10:48 to do this witty but not frustrating offering from Wurm. A little surprised to come in under 15 as this setter often gives me trouble. Embarrassingly, NEW HAMPSHIRE was not a write-in. I loved, loved, loved DO IT YOURSELF though it took some time. WOD PRANG because it’s just such a bizarre word. Of course BADENOCH (another great clue) was my last in, happily I keep a quarter of an eye on UK political news but still.
Thanks to Wurm and John.
I always associate the word PRANG with the WW2 films of my childhood, when the brave fighter pilot comes back from a dogfight with half an aeroplane, and says in a typically understated way: ‘I’ve just had a bit of a prang!’ Very stiff upper lip!
Perfect!
11:24 for me. I found the down clues much easier than the acrosses: I thought I was in for a long hard slog with only 3 acrosses after the first pass, but most of the downs went in quickly. COD to DO-IT-YOURSELF.
Thanks to Wurm and John.
9.28. I found the puzzle strangely unsatisfying.
Slow going and OGREISH defeated me so dnf. Finding a pro at 23a was fun and assist for help at 1d gave only one option. Took a while over PURCHASER, and TOASTED was how I felt when I finally got it. 20 minutes plus… and I consulted the blog (thanks) for 14d. Despite slowness, very enjoyable! Thank you Wurm
OK, rumbled, I concede. Shrek I knew but decided I could not solve the clue, definitely thought it was specialist knowledge. OGREISH clever! Enjoy weekend