Solving time: 12:09
A fitting puzzle for April Fool’s Day. In my experience, Asp is the toughest of the regular QC setters.
While I’d completed most of this in just over eight minutes, three answers pushed my time out by another 50%.
In retrospect, two of these were fairly straightforward, and in my humble opinion, the trickiest to parse without checkers, was a three-letter answer…
Did Asp make a fool of you, too?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. The caret ^ indicates an insertion point in containment clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Prevent completion of work on street (4) |
| STOP – ST (street) OP (work i.e. short for ‘opus’ – a musical work) | |
| 4 | Second act precedes retreat (4,4) |
| TURN BACK – TURN (act) precedes BACK (Second)
Surprisingly, this was one of those I found tricky. I wrote in BACK very early on, but just didn’t think of TURN = act, nor the whole answer given the probable definition. |
|
| 8 | Nastiest corrupt individual of immense strength (8) |
| TITANESS – Anagram [corrupt] of NASTIEST | |
| 9 | Develop good part of grid (4) |
| GROW – G (good) ROW (part of grid) | |
| 10 | Offshore part of UK broadcaster close to collapse (4) |
| SKYE – SKY (broadcaster) then last letter [close to] of {collaps}E The answer refers, of course, to the Isle of SKYE. | |
| 11 | Meetings concerning groups supporting workers (8) |
| REUNIONS – RE (concerning) UNIONS (groups supporting workers) | |
| 12 | Minor disturbance in this small vessel? (6) |
| TEACUP – The cryptic refers to the phrase ‘storm in a TEACUP’ which means a big fuss over a trivial matter | |
| 14 | Wicked people right to be dropped by US sitcom (6) |
| FIENDS – The US sitcom is F |
|
| 16 | Sit astride bicycle seat holding traveller’s coat (8) |
| STRADDLE – S^ADDLE (bicycle seat) containing [holding] end letters [coat] of T{ravelle}R | |
| 18 | Band like to enter in silence (4) |
| SASH – AS (like) entered into S^H (silence) | |
| 19 | What was used during war to protect post? (4) |
| MAIL – Double definition – the first (seven words) being barely cryptic, the second (single word) being straightforward | |
| 20 | Strengthened new deal backing former monarch (8) |
| ANNEALED – Anagram [new] of DEAL following [backing] ANNE (former monarch)
Strengthened here, in particular to do with the heating and cooling of materials, such as glass or metals, to toughen them. From the Old English onælan “to set on fire, kindle; inspire, incite.” |
|
| 22 | What may accommodate men bound by principle? (8) |
| TENEMENT – MEN inserted [bound by] into TENE^T (principle) | |
| 23 | Team playing final stage of game (4) |
| MATE – Anagram [playing] of TEAM
The definition refers to the final stage of a game of chess. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Drip fled naked after fool (7) |
| TRICKLE – TRICK (fool), then |
|
| 3 | Fool primarily expected to talk foolishly (5) |
| PRATE – PRAT (Fool) then first letter [primarily] of E{xpected}
PRAT is from the Old English præt meaning “trick, prank, craft, art, wile.” In the 16th century, it was a slang term for a buttock or a person’s bottom. In more recent times, a fool or contemptible person. |
|
| 4 | Seconds to stop fool revealing part of body (3) |
| TOE – Second letters of [Seconds to] {s}T{op} {f}O{ol} {r}E{vealing}
If you managed to solve 4a early (which I didn’t!), you probably managed to get this quickly as well. |
|
| 5 | Shake up loud vacuous fool stopping us here unexpectedly (9) |
| RESHUFFLE – F (loud i.e. abbreviation for ‘forte’ in musical notation) and F |
|
| 6 | Fool recited great passage (7) |
| BEGUILE – Homophone [recited] of BIG (great) AISLE (passage)
‘Fool’ as a verb… |
|
| 7 | Monarchy replacing Republican with Liberal fool (5) |
| CLOWN – C ‘fool’ as a noun. |
|
| 11 | Deny judge accepts one fool returning (9) |
| REPUDIATE – R^ATE (judge) containing [accepts] I (one) DUPE (fool) both reversed [returning] | |
| 13 | Fool cleaning woman with untrue story (7) |
| CHARLIE – CHAR (cleaning woman) and LIE (untrue story) | |
| 15 | Abandon broadcast for fool? (7) |
| DESSERT – Homophone [broadcast] of DESERT (Abandon)
Oh, that kind of fool. My third last in….. eventually! |
|
| 17 | Fool contributing to waste, as expected (5) |
| TEASE – Hidden [contributing to] in wasTE AS Expected | |
| 18 | Attack fool filling manuscript up (5) |
| SPASM – SAP (fool) inserted [filling] into M^S (manuscript) all reversed [up] | |
| 21 | Fool regularly forgetting anxiety (3) |
| NIT – every other letter ignored [regularly forgetting] of aNxIeTy
Short for NITWIT, as is TWIT. NITWIT is probably from German nix, a dialectal variant of nichts meaning “nothing,” and WIT “mental capacity.” In other words, no mental capacity… |
|
I noticed neither the date nor theme, and that probably helped to whizz through inside 3 minutes without really enjoying it much.
10.29. Very apt puzzle for today.
I had a small window of opportunity this morning before a busy day, so was really looking for a quick solve. . . best laid plans etc. Came back this evening and totally surprised myself by finishing in what now looks like a fairly respectable total of 30mins.
I’m still not sure how I managed to resist loi Swarm for attack for so long, when repeated alpha-trawls struggled come up with anything else. For me, Spasm was definitely the most difficult answer – in quite a strong field.
CoD to Straddle – that was one I did like. Invariant
Really struggled with this, especially the ‘fool’ clues, and decided to take a break from it for a few hours. Came back this evening and it seemed a relative doddle, although the total time of 19:23 tells its own story.
Found this v difficult to get into before tuning into the 3 different meanings of fool. Thanks for the non fool clues, giving me checkers. In the end I was missing only Beguile (despite all the checkers), annealed and spasm.
Thanks Mike and Asp
More difficult than the 15×15. The across clues were almost write-ins, but the down clues were on another level entirely, even with checkers in place. Which is a bit unfair on the solver.
The first time ever I’ve failed to complete the quickie.
I’ve been solving the Q C since day one. This is the first puzzle to give me solver’s block. Having gone through the answers there is no reason why I didn’t get on the wavelength. I think I just got frustrated trying to find so many synonyms for ‘fool’.
Thanks Mike and Asp, also Jason for your responses.
This was one of the most difficult QC puzzles we have done, and it took us three sessions spread throughout the day. Nevertheless we finished it as we always do, usually without aids.
I always start things off, as wordplay is not my wife’s strong suit. However, once there are plenty of checkers she is excellent at spotting words that fit them, much better than I am. This is a bit surprising as English is not her first language. Our brains must be wired differently.
As well as the above deficiency, and like Countrywoman1, I have difficulty coming up with synonyms despite having a wide vocabulary. There are few answers where the word is unknown to me. So what makes a clue difficult for me is when the definition in the clue is but a distant synonym of the answer. And today finding numerous synonyms for ‘fool’ was a particular challenge.
But I don’t object to a difficult QC once in a while. It means I need more help from my other half, which is satisfying for both of us.
Excellent puzzle, Asp! Wasn’t fooled a bit.
Hi Asp,
I’m definitely still an apprentice solver, but on the days I commute I do both the QC and the 15×15. This was definitely a tricky QC for me, as it took me 44 minutes compared to 54 for the main (with one check each).
Apart from the fool fatigue (not just as a synonym for ass, which I have only just got into my brain), it was the definitions and synonyms that held my back:
Monarchy for crown (I was looking for a country)
Act for turn
Spasm for attack – I was trying to convince myself of swarm, and did many alphabet trawls on this one…
Meetings for reunions ( I was also looking for ants or bees or men or OR in this one)
Fool for tease
Plus there was uncertainty that titaness was a real word, and once i had decided that it was the answer, that made me think other words I didn’t know might be in play. So beguile might have been biggile or bigline or sonething, (which i know doesn’t wholly work, but i was convinced it started with big).
Also reshuffle had two potential anagram indicators in ‘shake up’ and ‘unexpectedly’ and two four letter words for part of the anagram…
Sorry for the long message! Having said all that, it was still quicker than the 15×15, I enjoyed the challenge, and it gave me a real sense of achievement! So personally, I don’t have any complaints!
Thanks!
I’m late on commenting on this. It was perhaps the worst DNF I have ever had. I won’t embarrass myself by putting my usual progress here.
Judging by the number of negative comments and DNFs by some of the more skilled solvers here, I believe this QC was a bit too much for a QC. The over use of the word “fool” in the clue list was a real distraction for me and threw me off the edge of the cliff. I ended up just throwing away the puzzle and booting up the PlayStation 🤣
Late to the party hence slow to realise why all the fools till penny dropped.
I love the variety of setters and the varying challenges in solving they provide. Thank you for asking for feedback back from those who found this a challenge but can I please ask that you don’t dumb the quick down as what would be the point if it became another standard crossword, the beauty lies in the quick cryptic quality of the clues and if not a small challenge then why waste time doing them. If folk are after pure speed over a slight challenge then I suggest they are doing the wrong crossword and they try another papers offerings.
I would also like to request the level of challenge rising during the week be a formal policy as would help new comers start with Mondays and see progress as they finally tackle Saturdays challenge. It would also allow those after speed and ease of solve to stick to the early part of the week.
Much appreciate the time and effort the setters go to in setting and the bloggers in explaining, my thanks to you all.