This is Wurm in a very generous mood and I am expecting some fast times. I had all the acrosses bar two (10 and 15) in order at the first pass, then all the downs in order, then mopped up for 05:36.
Despite the relative ease there were lots of quality clues, as always from Wurm, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Earl visiting wealthy composer Steve (5) |
| REICH – E [Earl] inside [visiting] RICH [wealthy]. The minimalist composer Steve Reich was on the fringes of my GK but the wordplay was clear and after a short hesitation I stuck him in. Having now looked him up I realise that I was actually thinking of Philip Glass so that was a thick edge through the slips for four. They all count, though. | |
| 4 | Trauma’s unsettled Asian island (7) |
| SUMATRA – anagram [unsettled] of “trauma’s”. | |
| 8 | Talented sons bumped off (7) |
| SKILLED – S [sons] + KILLED [bumped off]. | |
| 9 | Puts up with market pessimists (5) |
| BEARS – double definition. Theories abound online about why “bulls” and “bears” are so called; I didn’t find any of them particularly convincing. | |
| 10 | Funny Charlie wearing absurd hairstyle (10) |
| HYSTERICAL – anagram [absurd] of “hairstyle” containing [wearing] C [Charlie]. | |
| 14 | Curtailed difficult argument in school (6) |
| HARROW – HAR{d} [curtailed difficult] + ROW [argument]. It’s very important to be reminded every now and then that Britain has two schools, not just one. | |
| 15 | Bowled in a cricket match if all goes well (2,4) |
| AT BEST – B [bowled] inside [in] A TEST [a cricket match]. Terrific clue. | |
| 17 | Hire candle out for classy illumination (10) |
| CHANDELIER – anagram [out] of “hire candle”. Are CHANDELIERs necessarily classy? I think not, they can be extremely vulgar. | |
| 20 | Across the pond, English occupied (2,3) |
| IN USE – IN US [across the pond] + E [English]. As in “This cubicle is occupied/in use”. | |
| 22 | Awkward redhead stuck (7) |
| ADHERED – anagram [awkward] of “redhead”. | |
| 23 | Pineapple class to admit men, not married (7) |
| GRENADE – GRADE [class] containing [to admit] {m}EN [men, not married – i.e. without the “m”]. The WW1 Mills bombs were nicknamed “pineapples” because they look a bit like them. My military correspondent (son #2, Light Cavalry) tells me that this is no longer current British army usage. | |
| 24 | Intended inscribing name in heart (5) |
| MEANT – N [name] inside [in] MEAT [heart – the meat/heart of the matter]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Climbing plant came up (4) |
| ROSE – double definition. Not all roses are climbers, though *twitches eyebrow*. | |
| 2 | Girl is bit of a looker (4) |
| IRIS – random girl’s name with a cryptic hint (a part of the eye). | |
| 3 | Tinseltown religious club admitting learner (9) |
| HOLLYWOOD – HOLY [religious] + WOOD [club, as in golf club] containing [admitting] L [learner]. | |
| 4 | Dignified drunk teased (6) |
| SEDATE – anagram [drunk] of “teased”. | |
| 5 | Masculine old boy in violent crowd (3) |
| MOB – M [masculine] + OB [old boy]. | |
| 6 | Old PM not this dear to Macron? (8) |
| THATCHER – THAT [“not this”, very good!] + CHER [expensive in French and thus “dear to Macron?”]. Loved this, COD from me. | |
| 7 | Total rubbish at boules (8) |
| ABSOLUTE – anagram [rubbish] of “at boules”. Neat surface. | |
| 11 | Drive around different hotel in northern town (9) |
| ROTHERHAM – had to pause to parse this while solving but I got there. It’s RAM [drive] containing [around] OTHER [different] + H [hotel]. | |
| 12 | Very big cut in flank (8) |
| WHACKING – HACK [cut] inside [in] WING [flank]. | |
| 13 | Regularly target a certain prize (8) |
| TREASURE – TRE [regularly target] + A [a] + SURE [certain]. | |
| 16 | Delight where property initially let (6) |
| PLEASE -P [property initially] + LEASE [let]. | |
| 18 | Song a von Trapp doesn’t start … (4) |
| ARIA – {M}aria von Trapp, as in The Sound of Music. A friend of mine used to attend a church where one family gradually took over all the music for services; he thought they were so bad at it that he nicknamed them the von Crapps and eventually moved church. | |
| 19 | … version Piaf doesn’t finish? (4) |
| EDIT – EDIT{h} Piaf, the famous chanteuse. | |
| 21 | Long time inside after attacks (3) |
| ERA – hidden [inside]. | |
Not exactly a Ninja T if you got from one high-brow to another high-brow by accident; I got there from the wordplay, and then learnt what I’d got from the interweb after I finished. I liked Thatcher best. Thanks Templar, and Wurm
The rose/iris and aria/edit pairs were a bit amusing, with similar cryptics for each pair – haven’t seen that before. I was able to Rotherham easily enough from the cryptic, but I was detained by whacking. All in all, I should have done better.
Time: 8:24
All but two (whacking and grenade) after 7 minutes or so, then took another 7 to get each of them. Shouldn’t have done, given my father served, albeit in the navy. For me, a well disguised surface.
10 minutes. NHO the composer, REICH.
I reckon I can call myself a crossworder now. Saw ‘pineapple’ thought GRENADE. Struggled with WHACKING and only got there after a alphabet trawl, via a pause at ‘shocking’. Not sure I’ve heard it use to mean ‘very large’ on its own, usually as part of “whacking great big” and then only in relation to hangovers. Never heard of REICH but sympathetically clued – summoned the motivation to ask Alexa to play me some of his stuff. Acquired taste? All green in 9.36.
Top quality puzzle but a double DPS for me due to a careless SHOCKING, which I meant to go back and parse…
Other than that no problems but I was relieved that the uknown composer was kindly clued.
Thanks to Templar and Wurm
13:15
LOI GRENADE which I built up from the pieces. Sounds pretty dated, along with whizz-bang or potato-masher.
Always a fan of a fine public school reference.
COD AT BEST, NHO REICH
Wasn’t totally sure about Drive = Ram in ROTHERHAM, and GRENADE put in from checkers as I DK the military slang, but otherwise no real holdups once I had summoned up the courage to put in the NHO REICH, for a pleasant solve and a 9:21 finish.
Many thanks Templar for the blog.
After 4 minutes we were staring miserably at the only answer in the grid! Gradually built some more then the RHS came in a rush to finish in 21.23. Some days it takes a while to get in the groove. Lots of good clues but we fell for every misdirection.
Thanks Mr T for the amusement and info as ever, and to Wurm
7:44. A good one from Wurm which seemed about right for a QC to me. REICH was the only unknown but went in without much trouble from wordplay. I liked ROSE and IRIS and the two references to the names of women singers in the opposite corner of the grid.
I liked ROTHERHAM which did need some nutting out and WHACKING, a good word for ‘very big’.
Thanks to Wurm and Templar
An excellent puzzle. Don’t look to us for a good time – started well then fell repeatedly. Loved every trip and tumble. Took (almost) forever on the NW corner. NHO REICH. Initially thought ‘lass’ part of ‘glass’ .. as in looking… yes, quite a contorted deviation and distraction. So many delightful clues. THATCHER the winner in our book.
Always enjoy a Templar blog.
We start the day cheerful.
Another very good QC from Wurm. I saw 1a immediately (Steve & composer could only mean REICH to me) which started me off well. I motored quickly until brought to a halt, like others above, in the bottom left corner with GRENADE and WHACKING. The former did click after a while and, at least gave me the ING to complete my LOI in 16.31.
A disappointing time after the bulk went in so quickly. Ah well…
All my top clues have been listed by others already so will not repeat.
Thanks to both; excellent puzzle and blog.
15 after 20 minutes then nothing…NW corner blank.
For the first time ever, I think, I got every clue in order in the whole grid without any typos or other errors. I spent a bit of time on REICH but eventually shrugged and thought there must be a composer with that name. Also lost a while trying to bring to mind the word the French use for the game also known as BOULES (it is Petanque, I think), before realising it was anagram. Everything else went in with minimal thought. So I was mildly disappointed that my 4:27 was a few seconds slower than yesterday and over 30 seconds slower than my PB (how did I do it that quickly???) Still my 3rd fastest ever so very happy with that. I did have to go back and parse a couple, but with all the checkers what other Northern town could it be?
Thanks Wurm, thanks Templar.
Well done!
Very well done on the clean sweep. Boules and Pétanque are not quite the same. Both involve pitching steel balls at a small wooden jack (cochonnet/piglet), but in Pétanque this is from a stationary position (ie no run up allowed).
I did not consider this one easy – came in just over my average with SaMuTRA for 2 pink squares
Great puzzle though – its always long anagrams that slow me down and this had its fair share
TYTBAS
10:57 Biffed Thatcher then struggled with whacking grenade.
Ta TAW
3:33. Nice one. LOI WHACKING. Thanks Wurm and Templar.
7:55 for the solve. Agree that it was an excellent puzzle. NHO REICH but pencilled straight in from the wordplay; THATCHER was a laugh out loud clue. AT-BEST, CHANDELIER, WHACKING taking me out past six mins.
Thanks to Templar and Wurm
12:58, with GRENADE and WHACKING my last two in.
Not familiar with WW1 slang, so no idea that about pineapple=grenade. Etymologically a grenade is a pomegranate.
Thanks Templar and Wurm
We’ve had it a couple of times –
Pineapples: sad, green, withered (8) QC 2109 by Alfie 8 April 2022
Gardener mad about one pineapple specialist? (9) QC 2092 by Wurm 22 March 2022
Stymied by GRENADE and WHACKING, which seem quite tough decodes for QC IMHO ( but then pleasant breezes like yesterday would be less so without something more testing at other times). NHO Reich. All very fair and enjoyable. Thanks to both
Got away with it! L2I GRENADE (PDM, I suppose) and finally bunged in WHACKING though no idea why, thanks Templar. Failed the difficult parsing of ROTHERHAM, too, so thanks again.
Oh, for those who NHO REICH: you haven’t missed anything, it’s like hammering your head against a brick wall a thousand times, then another thousand.
Speeding along until the GRENADE/WHACKING combo took me out to 12 minutes. In fact you could say my fast time was blown up by a giant pineapple.
Well clued puzzle from Wurm. COD: AT BEST.
After a run of accessible QCs this week are we being set up for a stinker tomorrow?
Thanks to both.
Mainly very straightforward, but much of my 19:44 taken up by AT BEST, WHACKING and GRENADE . Biffed ROTHERHAM. Fortunately REICH remembered, but obvious from clue. ROSE not necessarily a climber at all.
From ROSE to WHACKING in 5:50. Thanks Wurm and Templar.
6:28 but…
…pink square for a mistyped ANSOLUTE. Nothing else too tricky though I hadn’t heard of Steve REICH – bunged it in anyway as it seemed the obvious answer from the wordplay. Slightly slowed thinking of WHACKING, GRENADE and finally, seeing the hidden ERA.
Thanks Templar and Wurm
I thought this was quite tricky in places, and so wasn’t overly surprised to end up with a limited choice of window seats. Might have been a touch quicker, but I needed to re-visit Shocking at the end when it refused to parse. Reich was a nho, and will remain that way given Martinů’s unfavourable review.
CoD to At Best for the parsing.
My thanks to Templar and Wurm. Invariant