A fairly gentle puzzle from our wiggly friend today with plenty of straighforward clues to get you going and nothing, I think, to scare the horses. It took me 4:10, so I expect some fast times today. Very entertaining. Thank-you Wurm!
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 155 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mr Kite arranged for frog that sings (6) |
| KERMIT – (Mr Kite)* [arranged]. | |
| 5 | Pupils do this in absurd detail (6) |
| DILATE – [absurd] (detail)*. Nice misdirection to make you think of schoolkids. | |
| 8 | Fall short with man’s jolly character (8) |
| FALSTAFF – FAL{l} [short] + STAFF (man, the verb). | |
| 9 | Affected part in it we excise (4) |
| TWEE – Hidden in [part in] iT WE Exercise. | |
| 10 | Regularly sat by set, eyelid sore (4) |
| STYE – Alternate letters, [regularly], of SaT bY sEt. Nice surface. Yes – too much TV is surely bad for you. | |
| 11 | Tass long spreading Gorbachev policy (8) |
| GLASNOST – (Tass long)* [spreading]. Tass, if you didn’t know it, is a long-standing Russian news agancy, and you can read about Glasnost (which means “openness”) here. | |
| 12 | Deny organisation backed limiting means of preventing erosion (6) |
| GROYNE – Reverse hidden in sENY ORGanisation [backed limiting]. Nice one. It took me a while to spot that. | |
| 14 | Home country far from sea (6) |
| INLAND – IN (home) + LAND (country). It would be churlish of me to quibble about “far from” as not being necessarily true, so I won’t. | |
| 16 | Slug in news report (8) |
| BULLETIN – BULLET (slug) + IN. e.g. “Slug ate prize lettuce! Shock! Horror!” | |
| 18 | Northern primate’s neck part (4) |
| NAPE – N (Northern) + APE (primate). | |
| 20 | Dynasty name Russian fighter protects (4) |
| MING – N (name) in MIG (Russian fighter aircraft). “The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) was the ruling imperial dynasty of China, following the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty and preceding the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. Founded by the Hongwu Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang) after a successful peasant rebellion, it was the last dynasty ruled by the Han people, characterized by strong autocratic rule, economic growth, significant population growth, and cultural, artistic, and maritime achievements.” or so my AI pal tells. me. | |
| 21 | Like Titanic in reality? (2,6) |
| AT BOTTOM – Double definition, the first a cryptic hint. | |
| 23 | Insect Ringo for example caught? (6) |
| BEETLE – Sounds like, [caught], BEATLE (Ringo for example). | |
| 24 | Damage counts for US city (6) |
| TUCSON – [Damage] (counts)*. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Done deed? Absolutely correct (5) |
| EXACT – A deed that’s been done may be an EX ACT. | |
| 3 | Teacher and head of year’s expertise (7) |
| MASTERY – MASTER (teacher) + [head of] Year. | |
| 4 | XI perhaps missing final in Assam, say (3) |
| TEA – TEA{m} (XI perhaps, eleven; number in a football or cricket team) without the last letter [missing final]. | |
| 5 | Problem with economy not failed, rocking (9) |
| DEFLATION – (not failed)* [rocking]. | |
| 6 | Language the French can put together (5) |
| LATIN – LA (the in French) + TIN (can). | |
| 7 | Senator ruined in betrayal (7) |
| TREASON -(senator)* [ruined]. | |
| 11 | Scooby-Doo possibly smashing Hamlet? (5,4) |
| GREAT DANE – GREAT (smashing) + DANE (Hamlet?) – the “possibly” and ? both indicating definitions by example. | |
| 13 | Soldier out in Egypt bears standard (7) |
| ROUTINE – Nicely hidden in soldieR OUT IN Egypt. | |
| 15 | A cult in Barking? Barking! (7) |
| LUNATIC – (A cult in)* [barking]. Nice one. | |
| 17 | Match not serious (5) |
| LIGHT – Double definition. | |
| 19 | Post Office holding saucy image (5) |
| PHOTO – HOT (saucy) in P.O. (Post Office). | |
| 22 | Vampire perhaps in club (3) |
| BAT – Double definition. | |
I was rocketing along until I hit a wall in the SW, where both GROYNE and ROUTINE failed to reveal themselves. And wadda ya know, both were hiddens that I missed completely. Then it turned out I had a typo somewhere, and by the time I tracked that down (MASYERY) I was near the 10-minute mark which sounds like it might be a bit of a fail on the day. Never mind, a fun puzzle, thanks John and Wurm. I appreciated the two nods to the Fab Four along the bottom.
I thought a WA boy would’ve spotted GROYNE Lindsay. It was unknown to me until I moved to Perth.
I confess to a bit of a double-take when someone first suggested that we should “meet at the groyne”.
When the P did eventually D there was a definite Doh!! moment…
I lucked into GROYNE by initially thinking “backed limitinG” = G and prompted me to thing of groyne as a means of preventing erosion. Then I saw the reverse hidden.
Lot of groynes down here along the golden sands of Bournemouth and Poole.
I remember my brothers and I being lacerated by the barnacles several times as a child after getting too close to those very groynes. Fisherman’s Walk was our favoured area.
They had a replacement project for the groynes down at Fisherman’s Walk about a decade ago. Massive new groynes and posts to replace the ones that I can remember from at least the 70s. Some big cranes and diggers parked along the beach for a whole winter
Didn’t BCP waste £millions trying to instal an underwater barrier (near Boscombe pier?) in a doomed attempt at creating a surfing facility?
BCP didn’t but Bournemouth Council did. It was back in about 2009 tried to create a surf reef next to Boscombe pier. Think it was about £3million wasted. They already had a lot of surfers next to the pier and this was supposed to bring in bigger waves or something.
But I don’t think the groyne replacements were necessarily a waste of money. The sand was eroding off the beaches as the old ones were small and rotting.
Ouch! Poor little toes.
Three nods, what about for the benefit of Mr Kite?
Oh yes! Thanks. I was thinking of Peter Sellers in I’m all right Jack.
You must be older than me 🙂
Peter Sellers memorable scene in Girl in my soup – I wish you ‘appyness…
Ah yes!
I expect I am older. Not looking forward to my 76th in 10 days.
Only half a year in it…
The first film I remember watching at a cinema was Grand Prix. We had four cinemas in High Wycombe at the time.
oops 18 mos, i will be 77. I loved grand prix, they wre filmed on f4 cars i think. i live in bucks too – Brill.
Ditto LindsayO’s first two sentences word for word. Nevertheless I still finished in 8 minutes making this my fastest QC solve and first sub-10 minute job in roughly 4 weeks.
LindsayO spoke for me too.
4:43
No problems. Surprised myself by spotting (and knowing) GROYNE.
Nice puzzle to start the weekend. 10.10 which I think might be my fastest ever! Thanks Wurm and John.
Well done on the PB. I thought we might see some today.
Drawing longshore drift was one of the delights of geography O’ level. Lots of yellow sand and blue sea and nice curves between the GROYNES. Plus a massive arrow to show the angle of the tide. Like everyone else went fast until the ROUTINE / GROYNE crossing pair. No wonder I couldn’t see what the clue was asking me to do. TUCSON slowed me a bit as did AT BOTTOM but only briefly. All green in a pretty swift 7.32.
I also learnt this word in Geography class about longshore drift.
I assume you also remember U-shaped valleys, oxbow lakes and the like. Back when Geography classes were about geography.
What are they about now?
Human geography these days strays a long way from what us oldies understood by the term geography, back in the day.
(LORD OF THE RINGS)*
Great spot! It would make the basis of a super clue for “Longshore drift”. Maybe Wurm would like to use it in one of his 15x15s?
I first encountered this via Dean in 2012 but I think the (sadly) late Richard Palmer used it first as Merlin in the Indy way back in 2008. The pedant in me worries about the missing initial “The” but it’s a nice one nonetheless. Richard Palmer also gave us SEMI-TRAUMATISED/EMIRATES STADIUM and BOLTON WANDERERS/NON-WORLDBEATERS so he was clearly something of a savant with long anagrams.
16 mins…
As above, I struggled with 12ac “Groyne” and 13dn “Routine”, both very cleverly hidden. Overall, a good puzzle from Wurm.
FOI – 1ac “Kermit”
LOI – 12ac “Groyne”
COD – 12ac “Groyne”
Thanks as usual!
Fairly gentle but very enjoyable.
I biffed GROYNE and then took it out as I couldn’t see how it parsed but when I returned to it later I saw what was going on. Other than that the only minor hold up was with LOI AT BOTTOM.
Finished in 5.36 with COD to EXACT.
Thanks to John and Wurm.
Just like LindsayO and Jack! ¾ of the puzzle done extremely fast, then I ground to a halt in the SW. Seeing GROYNE opened it up for me, and I finally finished in 10:37 – still a fastish time for me but not what it might have been.
GLASNOST – I wonder how many times we have had a Russian word in a QC. (And how many people actually know what it means – I confess I didn’t until I looked it up).
Many thanks John for the blog, and I look forward to the Sunday Special.
I seem to recall Glasnost meant openness? Hadn’t thought about the clue surface but wasn’t Tass the Russian news agency.
And we also have MIG indirectly today.
Like London buses, you wait for one Russian word to come along and then three come along together.
Yes TASS is the Russian news agency, and still is. It’s an acronym, as it was originally called the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (sic, in English).
I recall the two main papers in the USSR were Pravda (which means “truth”) and Izvestiya (which means “news”). Pravda was the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party and entirely propaganda, and Izvestiya, while nominally slightly more independent, published only the news the Party allowed it to. Hence the old Soviet-era joke that there was never any news in Pravda nor truth in Izvestiya.
😄 thanks for filling out the missing details.
I think I remember seeing PERESTROIKA in a Cryptic Jumbo not so long ago.
It would have been a nicer surface if TASS had been correctly capitalised.
Tass (sic) is as listed in Collins and ODE so okay for Times crosswords. Only Chambers insists on TASS, but add that it was superseded in 1992 by ITAR-Tass.
9:50
I’d be amazed if anyone’s first in wasn’t KERMIT. I like the idea of having 1a a “gimme”. The Qc is supposed to introduce people to cryptically, so an easy one to start us off seems like a good idea.
COD TREASON
10:32. As noted, GROYNE and ROUTINE performed their hidden roles perfectly. I also had trouble with ‘Scooby-Doo’ who I’d forgotten was a GREAT DANE and (no excuses) with the EX ACT. Favourite was the AT BOTTOM double def / extended def.
Thanks to John and Wurm
3:13, my 10th-fastest Quickie according to the Snitch. Consequently not a lot to say other than thank you John and Wurm.
Outstanding!
Scorchio!
Nice. Now you just need to combine that with a sub-27 time at parkrun 😀
A forlorn hope these days I’m afraid. Think I could still aim for a sub-32 ParkSolve if the planets aligned.
That’s a shame, I’ll root for your sub32 in that case
Whoosh!
Speedy 🔥
3:14 which the SNITCH says is my fastest.
*shakes fist*
Congratulations!
It’s those two seconds spent fumbling for the submit button.
DNF and not an enjoyable puzzle for me.
Most of the clues were trivially easy, and then I was stuck on 3 Breeze Blocks
GLASNOST is a IMO truly terrible clue with a poor surface, a screamingly obvious clue breakdown and a very obscure word. I did solve that one though.
DNF with AT BOTTOM (I was looking for As B_T_O_ and a second word meaning huge). NHO the phrase “at bottom”, and its IMO quite a cumbersome one, not one I will be adding to my vocab.
And a second DNF with the NHO TUCSON. I was fooled by the clue, not spotting the anagram – COD for me
Nothing wrong with the surface to GLASNOST clue. As I point out above, Tass is the Russian news agency so they would have been tasked with spreading the propaganda.
Interesting that you find Glasnost an obscure word. When I was a teen in the late 80s, any casual viewing of the news often involved mention of Glasnost. Am I right to recall that you said you are one of the younger solvers?
Agree. For many of us of a certain age the mere mention of Gorbachev automatically brings GLASNOST (and PERESTROIKA) to mind. Possibly the only two Russian words I know (besides nyet).
Yes, same here.
6:09 for the solve for the Quitch. Guffaws of laughter at Kermit and Scooby-Doo.
No particular hold-ups other than the being unsure whether “Like Titanic” wanted AT or like=AS. The phrase “at bottom” seems nonsensical to me and while I can see its relationship to reality through other phrases like “the bottom line”, “at the end of the day”; I can’t say I’ve ever heard it specifically. Can anyone provide an example?
Almost my best ever week. Just Wednesday’s disaster stopping me from a week which would have been sub-40mins; and close to thirty five. Oh well, maybe next week.
Thanks to JohnI and Wurm for a very enjoyable puzzle. Have a good weekend everybody.
I agree with you (and Blue92) about ‘AT BOTTOM’ – I’ve never heard this used, yet no one else has questioned it, so I guess it must be in common usage. Nevertheless it had to be the answer (given the Titantic ref) and went in with a shrug for a 6 minute completion. Nice crossword and blog – thanks Wurm and John
Collins supplies “he’s a kind man at bottom” and “They knew at bottom that they were only deceiving themselves.”
Thank you for finding something. Definitely not a phrase I’ve ever heard
“Deep down” seems to the version of that phrase that I’ve heard many times. Never heard “at bottom”.
One of those phrases that’s technically in the dictionary but in risk of being labelled (archaic) in the next edition.
The four examples I found online were all pre-WW2: Carlyle, Orwell and (translations of) Nietzsche and Sartre.
I don’t think I can really remember ever seeing AT BOTTOM either.
You can include me in the group not knowing AT BOTTOM!
8:58
I suspect that those unfamiliar with GLASNOST are too young to have been reading newspapers in the Gorbachev era, when the word was in daily use. I even remember an episode of the children’s cartoon Pingu, in which a signpost had directions marked гласность and перестройка.
LOI was the unknown TUCSON.
Thanks John and Wurm
‘Get Back’ by the Beatles. Jojo was a loner…..from TUCSON Arizona – or words to that effect.
Jo Jo left his home in Tucson Arizona for some California grass
4:12. Terrific puzzle in my book, helped by having the GK required (FALSTAFF, GLASNOST, GROYNE and TUCSON – I can imagine some might complain at some of those in the QC).
For me, GLASNOST was COD.
A very enjoyable QC. I did not rush, filled it in steadily until, like Lindsay and Jack, I came across the brick wall of GROYNE and ROUTINE. These added 2 or 3 minutes to mean that I finally finished in 11.28.
Many thanks to Wurm for a good puzzle (the bright spot this week and worthy of the QC description for a change) and to JohnI for a good blog.
4:59 which would have been I think my second or third best effort but alas FML a fat fingered typo means it won’t count.
31 minutes to finish.
LoI groyne – Geography O Level was in 1967
Almost went Beatle
Expect Perestroika in a future Wurm offering.
Thanks J and W
Aaarrrghh DNF WOE – not a typo either. When “legit” fitted the checkers at 17d and seemed to match the last word (“serious”) for a definition, I put it in thinking “I’ll come back to that at the end”. I then got stuck on LOI GROYNE and after puzzling it out (v good) I forgot all about going back … two DPSs were my reward. Would have been just under six minutes had I not Horlicksed that up.
Cracking puzzle, COD GLASNOST for the brilliant surface. Many thanks Wurm and John.
I also went with legit, spoiling a pretty strong time (for me).
5:10
Thought of GROYNE on the first pass but had no checkers in at the time, and didn’t see the reverse hidden. Scooby well-remembered, surely the longest-lived Great Dane in history (average lifespan is around 8 years).
Thanks John and Wurm
Probably have Get Back as an ear-worm all day now!!
No problems until I experienced a complete brain freeze in the SW corner. Everything else was complete but I only had BEETLE in that quadrant. After a great deal of thought I saw LIGHT which prompted MING and BULLETIN which in turn revealed GREAT DANE. The remaining 13dn and 12ac required aids as I failed to see the hiddens. Not one of my best efforts despite having all the GK required. Well there’s always next week.
FOI – 1ac KERMIT
LOI – 12ac GROYNE
COD – 24ac TUCSON
Thanks to Wurm and John
Well, Merlin, KERMIT was very far from my FOI, in fact NHO it (kindly supplied by Mrs M though even she doesn’t know the context) and since I had 2d “right” (instead of EXACT) I was about to guess KreMIT. Humph. May we know, please, for those who don’t know their soaps/pantomimes/cartoons or whatever, who or what KERMIT is? Thanks. Otherwise it was all fine, LOI PDM GREAT DANE (is that what Scooby-Doo is?).
Oh I loved “XI perhaps”, imagining this to mean Chinese, i.e. TEA. But I fear that’s too far-fetched.
I glossed over the XI as being a name as the checkers of T– immediately led me think of Ten. But you’re correct that Xi is a Chinese name – Xi Jinping, leader of China, has been in the headlines this past week with Donald Trump visiting.
As for Kermit, I think you’ll have to google or Youtube that!
KERMIT is *the* most famous frog.
Thanks, both – did as I was told and googled it. So, a Muppet. They passed me by – nothing about them appeals or interests. What is to like? How many other named Muppets are deemed to be GK, so need to be learnt?! Thanks, though ….
Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear would probably be fair game as GK.
Have to say I never watched The Muppet Show but I did watch one of the films “Muppets take Manhattan” last Christmas. But they’re really not that new. I mean Sesame Street started in 1969 and The Muppet Show was the mid-70s.
Golly! NHO either. Thanks for the warning; have duly made a note of all three for future reference. No, not “new”, but I have a pet theory that there’s little of lasting value post-1965.
In my childhood one might have had Jeremy Fisher in that spot but alas I think you are now right. Poor Jeremy, supplanted by a muppet.
Agree entirely with your sentiment. Probably we are dinosaurs but I continue to insist that cultural standards are descending. Similarly, Narnia supplanted by Harry Potter, sad …
Thing is that Sesame Street and its successor The Muppets were very funny and, in the case of Sesame Street, also educational.
New is not necessarily Bad!
Jeremy Fisher was published in 1906, I see.
Now where are you going with that, I wonder? No, I concede Monty Python was post-1965.
Muppet
Great way to finish the week, even if breeze-blocked by LOI Tucson for five minutes and a cup of tea. 19.25.
Thanks to Wurm and John
Like so many before us, toppled at the SW corner. GROYNE was our undoing in terms of time, TUCSON held me up – though himself knew of the place from movies apparently (and could pronounce it…).
Missed any number of the anagrams. KERMIT bought a smile. Recalled Scooby-Doo, though forgot his size, breed etc… so barking up wrong tree there. : )
We seem to have stalled in terms of improved times. Keen to get out of the teens more regularly if we can.
Thank you John – chuckled at your exercise of restraint for INLAND. Thanks to WURM too.
I agree with John that this was a straightforward puzzle, albeit with a couple of sneaky hiddens. I was hoping to post a reasonable time, but unfortunately I had to take a lengthy call from the black horse bank – only those who have tried to switch into a new joint account with them can begin to imagine the issue. I’m sure my actual solving time was sub-20.
CoD to Lunatic for the smile. Invariant
Whizzed through this one finishing in 5.18, and if I didn’t have to correct my biffed INFLATION for 5dn, might have been under five minutes. Fortunately DILATE was obvious and the error was corrected. I did pause for a few seconds with AT BOTTOM, where I wasn’t keen on this being an expression in common usage.
My total time for the week was 38.45, giving me a daily average of 7.45. The first time for quite a while I’ve averaged under eight minutes, so I guess it must have been the easiest set of weekly QCs for a while.
My thanks to Wurm and Johninterred.
Not too hard, and very good.
21a At bottom LOI.
5d Deflation. I was delayed by slapping in INflation.
Whizzed through it
Thanks Wurm and John
9 minutes.
Spent 2 minutes on GROYNE!
Would have been an ok week but for Monday’s dreadful 37 minute DNF.
From KERMIT to TUCSON in 5:47. Good fun with a couple of fondly remembered TV series recalled. Loved the Muppets! Had to peer intently to see the hiddens. Thanks Wurm and John.
The Muppet Show was one of the great innocent pleasures of my young adulthood.
11:53 like others a Rare Sub Ten and possible PB were perversely eroded by the backward routine groyne.
Ta JAW
Another 5:47 here. GROYNE was new to me but for once I was quick in spotting the hidden. I recalled Gorbachev’s GLASNOST along with his other cat, Perestroika, but I confess that I didn’t fully understand the surface. As I recall, Glasnost was the smaller but more spirited of the two, and became chief mouser at the Kremlin in the late 80s.
Thank you for the blog!
Too much Trivial Knowledge for me – didn’t know Scooby was a great dane, had vaguely heard of Kermit but biffed it from the anagrist. VHO groyne. I wonder if Wurm is American? Quite a few US slang words in – e.g. SLUG, and I suspect ‘at bottom’ is an American phrase. Enjoyed the Shakespeare references. Finished in 10.00, so not too difficult. Thanks to J and W.
Not so – his real name is Paul Bringloe, a UK adman turned setter.
I notice that we American solvers often assume any unfamiliar term is British, and vice-versa. As far as I know, “at bottom” is transatlantically unfamiliar.
If unfamiliar to both UK and US solvers, perhaps it is from Down Under then, given their position on the globe …
(Though before Galspray and LindsayO splutter, I do know globes don’t have bottoms! On the other hand Ushuaia in Argentinian Tierra del Fuego definitely markets itself as La Ciudad del fin del Mundo – The City at the end of the World).
Missed the hidden GROYNE and ended up revealing – particularly frustrating as I grew up in Brighton where they are ten a penny (grrr). Thought GLASNOST was a brilliant clue, and happy to see reference to both KERMIT and SCOOBY-DOO in the same puzzle. Also liked EXACT. Slow to solve DILATE as I’d biffed inFLATION. Nice one Wurm, and thanks for the blog John.
All done in about 30 minutes. Nicely pitched puzzle. Setter obviously has grasped the concept of quick cryptic well.
Surprisingly straight forward for a Friday and Wurm. Familiar with Groyne from one constructed at great cost on adjacent island. Almost as ineffective as the hundreds of thousand tons of sand dredged off shore and deposited along the beaches. It seems that Americans have never learnt of the experience of King Canute. Lots to like, no complaints for a rare sub 20 Friday finish. Celebratory coffee with smashed avo on toast ahead. Ta John & Wurm
The King Canute story is widely misunderstood: he was far from an arrogant fool who believed he could command the ocean waves. In reality, he staged the event as an act of profound humility, using the rising tide to prove to his fawning courtiers that earthly kings are powerless compared to the divine. (With acknowledgment to Google AI!)
Glad you posted that because I was going to say the same.
Much enjoyed this puzzle. Smiled at FOI KERMIT. Guessed that Scooby Doo was a GREAT DANE. AT BOTTOM was also amusing in a grim sort of way.
LOI unparsed GROYNE – missed the hidden.
I think all those saying they NHO TUCSON probably don’t realise it is pronounced something like Tooson.
Yes, GLASNOST is one of the 3 Russian words I know. I wish there was more of it around these days.
Thanks vm, John.
Re glasnost, so do I, passionately.
Gorbachev was a good man.
Very pleased today. Just 17 minutes for me, which is almost unheard of with Wurm. Is he alright?
I started with KERMIT, then stumbled briefly before getting going properly once I’d moved away from the NW corner.
My favourite clue was LUNATIC (probably well known to the experts) and I finished with FALSTAFF and EXACT.
Thanks to John and Wurm.
All but 6 clues solved in 20 mins. I’ve still not finished one of these, and I have concluded that it’s largely down to my poor trivia knowledge, rather than an inability to solve the word-play. In fact I overdo the latter and end up with numerous possibilities that don’t work, because I don’t have the trivia knowledge. Today this would include Groyne, Scooby Doo ( didn’t know what it is) and two other clues! I used to be in a pub trivia team and I was the ‘weakest link’ – our team name was Densa! – which seems apt!
When I was growing up GK was not considered trivial!
Couldn’t see hiddens, couldn’t spell Tucson, so slow for me. At least I knew Kermit and Scooby-Doo, even though I am not a fan of children’s TV shows.
Time: 9:16
21 mins. Born in the early 70s so Muppets, classic cartoons and Glasnost all good with me. Was on a school trip to Moscow and Leningrad in the 80s and saw Mrs Thatcher in a limo driving through Red Square.
FOI Kermit
LOI Routine
COD Tucson
thanks Wurm and John
I got a pathetic 6 answers on the 15 x 15 before giving up in sheer frustration at my lack of ability. I just couldn’t see how the clues work and never really got started. A truly inept performance even by my dreadfully low standards.
The scars from this will take a long time to heal. Five years at cryptics and I remain at the very bottom of the pile with no chance of improvement. So demoralised by this. Don’t reply.
Do you read the comments and blog on the 15 x 15 Gary? The general consensus there was that it was tough, and I imagine some of the commenters have been enjoying cryptics for quite a lot longer than 5 years! Remember also that it’s a hobby not a competition 😉
Thanks fabian. I’ll take a look at the comments. After coming close to a PB on the QC, I perhaps had unrealistic expectations when tacking the 15 x 15 today.
Well done ongetting close to a PB on this today. A member of my U3A Cryptic Crosswords Group has a similar problem to you – can do the QC most of the time but finds the 15×15 difficult. My advice to her (and you) is to focus on the basics with each clue… “What is the definition?” It will usually be at the begining or the end of clue and “What is the wordplay indicator?” anagrams, hidden words, insertions, deletions, letter sections, reversals etc. can all be indicated in the clue. It’s all logical, you know, although you sometimes need a bit of imagination to spot the cryptic hints.
Thanks John. I’ll follow that advice in future. I tend to panic when I look at a typical 15 x 15 clue, rather than approaching it in the way you suggest.
Avoid Fridays on the 15×15. That’s a day for just reading the blog and learning a few more tricks. Like “live=AM” today.
Thanks Merlin – good advice!
It seems an age since we had a really fast time but we can’t really complain about 8:22, in part we were too slow to see that TUCSON was an anagram. GROYNE we were familiar with though before we spotted the hidden and we are of an age where GLASNOST was once a word commonly heard on the news.
Thanks to John and Wurm.
6.30 KERMIT made me smile. I was a bit slow on LUNATIC, TUCSON and PHOTO at the end. Thanks John and Wurm.
13:08 – my quicest ever, I think! Just ambled through with only the odd temporary hold up.
Well done!
12:56
Nice straight forward QC, though as others, never heard of the term AT BOTTOM.
ROUTINE was spotted early on and guessing ‘organisation backed’ indicated GRO…. teased the dimly remembered GROYNE from the depths of my memory.
FOI: KERMIT
LOI: GROYNE
COD: LUNATIC (clever!)
Thanks to Wurm and John
Outside the top hundred again with 6:37 on the clock. Clearly this was a gentle offering for a Friday. I confess I didn’t know FALSTAFF was a jolly man or what GLASNOST entailed until I looked them up. Thanks John
Wow. Fastest ever 7:48 after struggling to complete over recent weeks. I always find the discussion about GK interesting as what is obvious to one may not be to another so I try to avoid the assumption that anything is GK. You either know something or you don’t. I was put off Shakespeare at school and have never found the plays interesting since but other things that others struggle with are a shoe in.
Well done on the PB.
I have certainly come across AT BOTTOM in my general reading, e.g.: “He had his idiosyncrasies but was, at bottom, a decent man.”
As soon as I had the Y I thought of GROYNE, as some of my childhood was spent by the sea, although we more often called them (incorrectly?) breakwaters.
I think we’ve had SENATOR/TREASON before; a nice clue!
A great QC. Thanks to John and Wurm