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 My military correspondent (son #2, Light Cavalry) tells me that this is no longer current British army usage.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
Yes, I thought that was very neat too.
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.
Well, Reich is at least better than that other one, Glass. There are better minimalists.
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.
If I may be so bold, the solution to the NW lay in HOLLYWOOD. The trick here is that when you see two words in the the clue that « grate » (here religious and club) you start looking for a portmanteau word. You know from « admitting learner » that there will be an extra «L » included. Hope this helps.
I appreciate the tuition, thank you.
Similar at 2d today and I didn’t see that:-(
Precisely. Don’t worry, you’ll get it, you already have!
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
I hadn’t heard of “Reich” either – so it could easily have been “Riech” or “Riceh” until I sorted out 2dn.
Indeed. I pencilled in Reich as Frank Reich was a NFL player,coach so that surname was familiar. fortunately putting the I helped me get Iris immediately
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
plus, of course, the really famous one that is on everyone’s list if asked their all-time favourite clue:
Pineapple rings in syrup (9)
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.
I have to agree. I have tried to open my mind to the compositions of minimalists like Reich and Glass on many occasions over the years but they just don’t click for me.
Repetition will never replace structure, melody, and harmony imo.
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.
I always expect Friday, Saturday to be tougher but sometimes they prove okay.
I’d say the vast majority of this year’s puzzles have felt appropriate to the QC slot.
That is testament to the Editor’s work with the setters and them taking on board feedback after some of us raised concerns last year.
In fact with so many of the setters now giving us the Q in QC, there probably aren’t enough Fridays in the month in which to place the tougher puzzles (eg Shay, Cheeko, Bjorn) so we have to expect the occasional tough run.
I agree about Friday/Saturday offerings and have to say that I enjoy the sporadic tougher challenges, feeling that they challenge me to improve. As a wannabe 15×15 solver I need those challenges to see progress. Or not.
However, I’m aware that not all solvers feel the same way.
You can’t please all of the people all of the time!
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
15:48
This was going well but slowed towards the end with WHACKING then LOI GRENADE adding several minutes to the clock.
NHO REICH and faced with blank blank I blank H for Steve I instantly thought of England nemesis SMITH.
A very good puzzle from Wurm with lots of clever clueing. The QC puzzles this week have been of a very good standard I think. I’ve not heard of the composer REICH, and although I suspected that was the spelling, I left it to the end once IRIS was solved.
I particularly liked the THATCHER clue. In the end, I crossed the line in 8.15 for a reasonably good day.
Was doing fine until GRENADE and WHACKING, which I gave up on. Not familiar with Pineapple in that sense and Whacking off my radar, though I could see how the clue worked.
I first put LASS for 2D – a bit of a looker = (G)lass!
A lot of good guessing today, e.g. PINEAPPLE, ROTHERHAM, HYSTERICAL, but a bad biff was Shocking. Really not sure that AT BEST means the same as ‘if all goes well’.
I didn’t enjoy this as much as others did. NHO REICH so biffed.
Smiled at HARROW. Liked ARIA and EDIT.
Thanks vm, Templar. The blog was crucial.
If all goes well/At best it’s going to cost at least £100 to fix
10:22, held up for a while by the grim suspicion that I was looking for a “pineapple class”, i.e. some sort of biological genus. Great fun other than that.
Thank you for the blog!
DNF.
Missed by 4 clues. Much too hard
for me.
1 across – have seen this clue about Steve R. twice before in crosswords, which would make it:
the Third Reich.
😂
10 minutes including time parsing LOI WHACKING; I thought of it early but struggled to parse it.
I knew all the GK so raced through most of this.
A nice puzzle overall.
COD to THATCHER.
David
I was slow to get started but things did get a bit easier as I progressed, though I wouldn’t class this an an easy QC (but then again I wouldn’t say it was difficult either).
I have never heard of Steve REICH. When I saw pineapple I immediately thought of grenade but didn’t put it in as I couldn’t see it being that. However, as letters started to appear I saw it was in fact GRENADE.
First Lap: 5
Answered (without help): 24
Answered (with help): 2
Time: 33:20
17 mins…
Not sure this was that straight forward. 1ac “Reich”, 12dn “Whacking” and 23ac “Grenade” all took a bit of thought – as did working out “Meat” = “Heart”.
Good puzzle overall though.
FOI – 8ac “Skilled”
LOI – 12dn “Whacking”
COD – 23ac “Grenade”
Thanks as usual!
QUITCH running at 78 so definitely on the easier side.
Doesn’t cher translate as dear in French, not as expensive.
both 🙂
It’s an adjectif mobile in French. So as a general rule, when it means dear as in “beloved” it comes before the noun (“Une chère amie”), and when it means dear as in “expensive” it comes after the noun (“le café est cher”).
But the wordplay isn’t connected to expensive; that’s just the surface.
It’s a classic case of needing to separate “not that” from “dear to Macron” and convert them as Templar explains.
8.07 THATCHER was very good but I biffed it without noticing. Finished with WHACKING after CHANDELIER took a while. Thanks Templar and Wurm.
Not sure how much time I spent on the last two WHACKING and GRENADE. I eventually gave up on them and came here. No real difficulties with the rest. I’d even (vaguely) heard of REICH.
FOI – 4ac SUMATRA
LOI – DNF
COD – 20ac IN USE. Also liked the ARIA/EDIT pairing.
Thanks to Wurm and Templar.
12 clues solved in 20 mins – back to where I was six months ago. I found several clues obscure and talented is not the same as skilled!
In crosswordland synonyms don’t need to be “the same as”, only overlapping in some way, and common parlance generally wins out.
GRENADE was my first thought having seen pineapple but the parsing took us a while. Hadn’t heard of REICH but the wordplay was sufficient once you had IRIS to distinguish the possibility of Riech. And fortunately, having pencilled in SHOCKING without being able to fully parse it (hock made sense as a cut and the whole might have been at least a reaction to something very large), we backed it out before entering POI ROSE. A correct LOI WHACKING emerged at a better than average 10:46 and a very enjoyable run through. Thanks to Wurm and Templar.
15:51 here. Like many others, the L2I were GRENADE and WHACKING, with THATCHER as COD. Reich the composer was lurking at the edge of my general knowledge, but is E really ever used as an abbreviation for earl in the real world?
Thanks to Wurm and Templar.
…. and not just in their abbreviated form. Earls themselves have never yet featured in my world.
Yes, standard abbreviation in Burke’s Peerage for example.
Very pleased to complete a Wurm QC in less than half an hour. 29 minutes for me, although I feared I may not finish at all as I had ground to a complete halt with five or six clues to go.
My last five in were PLEASE, ADHERED, GRENADE (not in my knowledge set), SKILLED and IRIS (where I was desperately trying to make a case for ‘Isla’).
My CoD was ABSOLUTE – very clever.
Many thanks to Templar and Wurm.
This member of the SCC was delighted to finish again! NHO Steve Reich (and given comments above, probably don’t want to!). No idea how I linked pineapple and GRENADE. Pretty sure that slang wasn’t in my 1960’s Valiant comic (other comics available). And some of the parsing was beyond me (e.g. ROTHERHAM and WHACKING) but I guess that helps me learn / grow / develop.
Whizzed round the grid until LOI WHACKING. Ended up alpha-trawling first letter (doh). COD IRIS made me smile, but I also liked EDIT and ARIA. Many thanks.
7:25, so I found the Wurm less wiggly today than usual. A little bump at ROSE while I raised my eyebrow in synch with Templar. Loved HYSTERICAL for the funny clue surface, and CHANDELIER’s clue also very smooth. But COD in a very strong field was ABSOLUTE.
Thanks to Wurm and Templar. I think the meaning of “classy” itself can include “vulgar”.
OK done that, but parsing failed on HARROW and THATCHER. Winston Churchill went to Harrow it said in The Beano when I was small, who says reading comics is a waste of time. Thanks him/her Wurm.
8.30. How can so many commenters have been fortunate enough to avoid exposure to the ‘music’ of Steve Reich ?
A lousy 16 minutes.
NHO Steve REICH. Not as bad as MAN RAY last week, but very obscure.
Took 3 minutes to get IRIS.
This should have been doable in 10 mins for me.
I am already at 68 mins for the week. Nowhere near acceptable given my experience and the difficulty levels.
My time today was more than double that of my comparators. ☹️
Did get time for this yesterday. Anyway an enjoyable dnf in 25 mins, using aids for Reich and Grenade. Some lovely clues, and very easy anagrams.
FOI sumatra
LOI dnf
COD Thatcher
thanks Wurm and Templar