Solving time: 10:33
Something of a leisurely stroll about today’s grid, with some less-than-usual words and terms in play. They’re all in your head somewhere, I hope…
12a needed a little extra brainpower to solve the anagram, and it certainly provided that all-important letter to conquer 3d – though I’ve heard the word in a literary context, I didn’t know of it as defined in this clue.
I found myself held up at the end by 23a and 17d. A case of solve one and the other fell into place shortly after.
What did you make of it all?
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 | People struggling to get these advantages (8) |
| BENEFITS – The mildly cryptic first part of the clue suggests those who are struggling financially and are supported by the state, will receive BENEFITS.
Of course, there are others who receive benefits for spending time caring for someone, or are living with a health condition or disability. Child benefit is given to many families that may not be struggling. Are advantages and BENEFITS synonymous? Consider: “One of the benefits/advantages of working from home is the flexibility it gives you.” |
|
| 5 | Chatter quietly and catch one’s breath (4) |
| GASP – GAS (Chatter) P (quietly – musical notation for piano) | |
| 8 | One may be thrown into the air in driving accident (5) |
| DIVOT – A cryptic all-in – the driving accident being golf-related, presumably when the golfer, whilst playing a shot, hoiks a chunk of turf (called a DIVOT) into the air, which may or may not be accompanied by the ball… | |
| 9 | Wow! I am a reporter (7) |
| IMPRESS – I’M (I am) PRESS (a reporter)
WOW is a verb here. |
|
| 11 | Misfortune contributing to evil life (3) |
| ILL – Hidden [contributing to] in evil life | |
| 12 | Very obvious trail grew confused (4,5) |
| WRIT LARGE – Anagram [confused] of TRAIL GREW
The earliest recorded figurative use appears in John Milton’s 1673 poem “On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament”, where he wrote: “New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ large,” implying something expressed more fully or prominently. |
|
| 13 | No longer fit? Blow! (6) |
| EXHALE – EX (No longer) HALE (fit) | |
| 15 | Dog set about heavy food (6) |
| STODGE – Anagram [about] of DOG SET | |
| 18 | Hall I’ve sublet needing renovation (9) |
| VESTIBULE – Anagram [needing renovation] of I’VE SUBLET From the Latin vestibulum “enclosed fore-court between a house and the street.” |
|
| 19 | A little butter is exactly right (3) |
| PAT – Double definition…
…though I think the second is most likely to be preceded by ‘off’ or ‘down’ e.g. Johnny had memorised his speech off pat. or They’ve got their system down pat. |
|
| 20 | Around a mile, navigate ship (7) |
| STEAMER – Around A M (mile), STE^ER (navigate) | |
| 21 | Traditional tales about one river (5) |
| LOIRE – LO^RE (Traditional tales) about I (one) | |
| 22 | Spots rook in front of tree (4) |
| RASH – R (rook – chess notation) ASH (tree) | |
| 23 | Lose grasp of modern technology? Not a chance (6,2) |
| FORGET IT – FORGET (Lose grasp of) IT (modern technology) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | After collapsing Deb dies, her loved ones here? (7) |
| BEDSIDE – Anagram [After collapsing] of DEB DIES
Where might Deb’s loved ones congregate if she were to collapse? |
|
| 2 | Volume received during Christmas, a piece of fiction (5) |
| NOVEL – V (Volume) contained [received during] by NOEL (Christmas)
I can taste chestnuts… …roasting over an open fire, quite possibly! |
|
| 3 | Cambridge college is suitable for prince, by the sound of it (11) |
| FITZWILLIAM – Homophone [by the sound of it] of FITS (is suitable for), then WILLIAM (prince)
FITZWILLIAM College was named after Richard, the 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam (1745-1816). Notable alumni include Norman Lamont, Vince Cable, David Starkey and prospective Prime Minister (assuming he can win the Makerfield by-election and then overthrow Sir Keir Starmer), Andy Burnham. |
|
| 4 | Tease, grabbing one left in the half-dark (6) |
| TWILIT – TW^IT (tease) containing I L (left)
TWIT is an old verb (from Old English ætwitan “at blame”) meaning “to taunt, mock, or reproach someone lightly” – essentially to tease them. |
|
| 6 | Maintained a verse went wrong (7) |
| AVERRED – A V (verse) ERRED (went wrong) | |
| 7 | Gang’s attitude holding spades (5) |
| POSSE – PO^SE (attitude) containing S (spades)
The caret could of course, come either before or after the S in POSE. Shortening of posse comitatus “the force of the county,” from Medieval Latin posse “body of men; power,” from Latin posse “have power, be able” + comitatus “of the county.” Now perhaps more familiar if you have spent many hours watching westerns… |
|
| 10 | Withdraw advert to stop something happening (4,3,4) |
| PULL THE PLUG – PULL (Withdraw) THE PLUG (advert)
This idiom comes from the idea of stopping something by pulling a plug, either literally or figuratively. |
|
| 14 | Gets a move on and bears ten sons? (7) |
| HASTENS – HAS (bears) TEN S (sons) | |
| 16 | Beg to go in, short of energy, and take food (7) |
| ENTREAT – ENT |
|
| 17 | Book quantity of liquid oxygen (6) |
| QUARTO – QUART (quantity of liquid) O (oxygen – chemical symbol)
A QUARTO is a book in which each printed sheet is folded twice—in half, and then in half again—to produce four double-sided leaves, or eight pages. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays were printed in this small, inexpensive format, during his lifetime. QUARTOs were sold in flimsy bindings or sometimes no bindings at all, making them vulnerable to damage and loss over the years. The early Shakespeare quartos are now extraordinarily rare; some survive in only a single copy. These days, QUARTO is more likely to refer to the physical dimensions of the book, typically referring to those which are of between 10-13 inches in height. |
|
| 18 | Face mask — guest loses it (5) |
| VISOR – VIS |
|
| 19 | Indicate place for full stop (5) |
| POINT – A full stop is referred to as a POINT when it is acting as a decimal separator. On edit: Too often Lost suggests that this is perhaps a triple definition i.e. POINT (Indicate) POINT (place) POINT (full stop) |
|
Not too tough – I hesitated a little on writ large until I had some checkers, and I had trouble bringing vestibule to mind even when I knew it started with a V.
The golf clue is a bit subtle – you are supposed to take a divot if you are hitting a shot from the fairway with an iron, but when teeing off with a driver you are hitting a ball perched on a tee, and are not supposed to hit the ground. But accidents do happen, usually when you try to over-swing.
Time: 8:31
My concentration let me down and I found on reviewing the puzzle just now that I still had an answer missing which I was not immediately able to solve, so I’ve decided to write the whole thing off as a DNF.
5:44
I biffed BENEFITS; could make nothing of the cryptic part of the clue. DNK the college.
8.18, took ages to figure out BENEFITS which, along with FORGET IT, is not my clue of the year. Liked the WRIT LARGE anagram and biffed the NHO college after getting a single L in the right place. I don’t know a lot of princes but it didn’t look like it was going to be Hal. Thank you Teazel and Mike.
Enjoyed this. Luckily was familiar with the Cambridge college and managed to see Forget It and Writ Large. LOI Quarto for a satisfactory 14.45. Thank you Teasel and Mike, for a most informative blog
Right on Teazel’s wavelength today. After passing over a couple of clues, saw divot straight away and followed the checkers around the grid to finish in a very sprightly 13.01. Writ large took a couple of crossers, after staring at the letters and an opening w, wire was the only option that jumped out. Like exhale
Thanks Teazel and Mike
I found this surprisingly difficult and time consuming. WRIT LARGE dropped in after solving LARGE and VESTIBULE was a write in as was FITZWILLIAM, being but a stone’s throw away. DNK Twit = tease. Could only match Twit as a fool or bird Twitter. COD HASTENS. In the end I signed off after 35 mins, completed in two sessions.
Thanks Mike for the detailed aetiology and Teazel for a well crafted, but tricky puzzle.
I found this hard throughout. Only three of the acrosses went straight in and then progress slowed from there. POINT for full stop was clearly right when I got to it and I needed that for PAT. Previously struggled on loads but at least my typing was accurate. All green in 18.14.
Another steady solve but I was very relieved when I realised that the college was not going to require an in depth knowledge of the university. I also found BENEFITS and QUARTO tricky until plenty of checkers were in place.
Started with GASP and finished with QUARTO in 7.14.
Thanks to Mike and Teazel
All done in 8:24, but BENEFITS biffed and I had no idea what was happening with the clue. FITZWILLIAM straight in having been to Cambridge; it is also the name of a very fine museum in the city and the origin of the name of a chain of rather nice cafés, Fitzbillies.
Many thanks Mike for the blog.
I’m drawing a veil over this one!
Standard ( but no less satisfying for it) fare. DNK twit as a verb, or QUARTO as the book itself rather than its size.
Thanks to both
18.10 for us – held up by TWILIT (NHO) and DIVOT (ball sports of all kind never our thing). Rather wondered if POINT was a triple definition – point out, point where we stop, point as full stop.
Much enjoyed.
Thanks to Mike Harper and Teazel
That’s a good shout, Too often Lost, I have updated the blog with your suggestion.
Enjoyable steady solve. FOI BEDSIDE, then biffing BENEFITS gave me the great clue FITZWILLIAM. Also liked PULL THE PLUG, FORGET IT, EXHALE and IMPRESS. Struggled with WRIT LARGE.
Among LOsI were AVERRED, TWILIT and QUARTO.
Thanks vm, Mike.
In the OWL Club with a fat fingered AVERRDD. To be fair I was trying to phone-type with thumb/middle finger, since my index finger is sore.
Hey ho. Would have been about average. COD BEDSIDE, very neat. (I had to force myself not to put DUVET once the checkers were in place!)
Many thanks Mike and Teazel.
6:47. I thought quite difficult, as most of the answers are not obvious words, and include GK such as FITZWILLIAM and LOIRE. Good fun.
14:02
FITZWILLIAM was my LOI; I had assumed the college would be part of the wordplay, and probably King’s, so took a long time to consider college names long enough to fit the answer.
Thanks Mike and Teazel
Biffed BENEFITS as couldn’t see how it worked. LOI QUARTO. Thanks Mike for interesting and informative blog.
Exactly the same here.
Definitely not an easy tease today but an enjoyable tussle. I picked off the few sitting ducks and crawled around the rest of the grid, held up by most of the same difficulties listed by others above. I could almost have written Countrywoman’s post above.
In the end, I couldn’t avoid just stepping into the SCC but I don’t mind; I was too immersed to care. At least I finished all correct. I parsed them all and will now check Mike’s blog to see if I was correct in this, too. I did waste time trying to make something of Harman who had ten sons (Book of Esther in the OT) before the penny dropped. Thanks to both.
18:15 (Waterloo)
Another toughie, with LOI TWILIT.
PULL THE PLUG was surprisingly hard, “hold the line” worked for me.
I always thought WRIT LARGE came from Galatians 6:11 when Paul takes the pen away from his scribe to write the conclusion himself. He writes:
See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.”
I didn’t like 1a as a cryptic.
I was sure “a little butter”’was going to be KID.
Andy Burnham went to Fitzwilliam College? Wow, the King of the North keeps that quiet on the stump in Wigan. Alice Thompson makes this point in the paper today, that a degree is seen as a liability in the current political climate.
I find Teazel tricky in that you often have to have the GK to complete it. For example, unless you knew the rather obscure term for a lump of sod thrown up in a golf swing, you were never going to finish. Wordplay won’t get you there… Luckily, after a short freeze, the VHO word came to mind. Otherwise, done in a reasonable time – at least FITZWILLIAM was solvable for non-Cambridge graduates! Thanks for the informative blog, Mike – hope to meet you next Saturday.
Vey nice jog through, apart from benefits all parsed in flight.
Thanks Teazel and Mike.