A most enjoyable puzzle from Hurley today. I blogged a Hurley puzzle a couple of months ago when I was suffering from a self-inflicted sore head, and I was correspondingly jaded in my assessment of it. Well, this time I’m full of spring beans, or something like that: after a holiday, this is only my fourth puzzle in three weeks (both of Monday’s at the airport, and yesterday’s QC before this). And what can I say? The clues positively leapt out at me with wit and wisdom, fun and satisfaction, like a dear old friend met with even fonder heart. Aren’t these cryptic crossword things just great? I was a bit under 11 minutes, much like yesterday, if that tells you anything at all. So yes, many thanks both to Hurley, and of course to the Rotter for (showing me up with) an excellent blog last week – unfortunately that means it will be two weeks before you get him again!
| Across | |
| 1 | Difficult retreating in rich silk city (8) |
| TICKLISH – “retreating in” the letters of ricH SILK CITy. | |
| 5 | Tense, gave instruction in speech (4) |
| TAUT – Taught (gave instruction) = taut, in speech | |
| 8 | No longer asleep — needing a wash? (5) |
| AWAKE – the wash of a boat = the wake of a boat. Very nice. | |
| 9 | Policy to retain age of certain popes (7) |
| LEONINE – LINE (policy) to retain EON (age): relating to the popes Leo. Leo XIII was the most recent, from 1878-1903, and has the honour of being the first totally perfect pope. (Not really, unless you take great liberties with the concept of papal infallibility, made dogma only towards the end of the preceding pope’s tenure.) | |
| 11 | Right to speak, for example (3) |
| SAY – double definition: you’ve got “say” if you’ve got a right to speak. Very nice again. | |
| 12 | Left-winger isn’t last I upset (9) |
| STALINIST – anagram (upset) of ISNT LAST I – other synonyms for the answer are available. | |
| 13 | Note two dukes, indeed twelve (6) |
| MIDDAY – MI (note – do, re, mi…) DD (two dukes) AY (indeed) | |
| 15 | One’s particular responsibility for bird (6) |
| PIGEON – double definition, the first I was unaware of: literally an area of responsibility or business. It in fact derives from the Chinese pronunciation of the English word “business” via a number of changes (busin – pushin – pigeon). So, “pidgin English” was originally a corruption of “business English”, as trade picked up between the two nations. | |
| 18 | Extraordinarily call sit-in for small thing (9) |
| SCINTILLA – anagram (extraordinarily) of CALL SIT IN. | |
| 19 | Wolves’ first home victory (3) |
| WIN – W (Wolves’ first letter) IN (home). | |
| 20 | Red coat fashioned in 1930s style (3,4) |
| ART DECO – Anagram (fashioned) of RED COAT. | |
| 21 | Cake in historic Scottish location (5) |
| SCONE – double definition. | |
| 22 | Some order van fuel (4) |
| DERV – “Some” of the letters of orDER Van. | |
| 23 | Unwilling to spend, nicking artist’s fish? (5-3) |
| STING-RAY – STINGY (unwilling to spend) nicks/takes RA (artist). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Money kidnapper demands after time that’s found in ship (7) |
| TRANSOM – RANSOM (money kidnapper demands) after T(ime) | |
| 2 | Cautious cleaning lady ultimately busy (5) |
| CHARY – CHAR (cleaning lady) Y (busY, ultimately) | |
| 3 | Selects deal organised for tourist attraction (5,6) |
| LEEDS CASTLE – anagram (organised) of SELECTS DEAL. | |
| 4 | Greeting upset mother unfortunately (6) |
| SALAAM – MA ALAS (mother ; unfortunately), upset/turned upside-down | |
| 6 | Stupid, like idiot’s opening figure (7) |
| ASININE – AS (like) I (idiot’s opening letter) NINE (figure) | |
| 7 | Abstainer penning little message (5) |
| TWEET – TT (teetotaller/abstainer) penning WEE (little) | |
| 10 | Wrong from the start? (8,3) |
| ORIGINAL SIN – Cryptic definition – in this instance a common enough phrase is artfully used to define something entirely different. | |
| 14 | Difference of opinion admitted by the German wanderer (7) |
| DRIFTER – RIFT (difference of opinion) admitted by DER (the, German). | |
| 16 | Sisters here in turn, one early regularly (7) |
| NUNNERY – hidden in the regular/even letters of: in turn, one early. | |
| 17 | Charitable donations cut on old street? Very nearly (6) |
| ALMOST – ALMS (charitable donations), cut the last letter; on O(ld) ST(reet). | |
| 18 | Sober and sedate way to help (5) |
| STAID – ST (street = way) AID (help) | |
| 19 | With one’s own enthusiastic Romeo, first of all — this one? (5) |
| WOOER – The only way I can get this to work is as an &lit: “With One’s Own Enthusiastic Romeo, first of all” = WOOER. AS for the literal: if one is with a lover/Romeo, first of all there must have been… a wooer. (Unless it was mutual love at first sight, hence the question mark.) Better explanations heartily welcome! | |
I needed only 6 minutes more for the main puzzle today, so any QC-er looking to progress to the 15×15 may like to chance their arm.
I didn’t give a second thought to the Romeo one. I assumed “this one?” mean Romeo himself, since he was a wooer. It is interesting that Romeo is used to mean a ladies’ man, whereas Romeo had just one girlfriend and was so committed that when he though she had died, he killed himself in sorrow.
I didn’t find this too easy, and DNK the other meaning of PIGEON. Incidentally, when solving this morning on the rattler, I faced a choice of PIGEON or WIGEON for 15a and went for the wrong one initially, so I appreciate your explanation.
I was very familiar with that definition of TRANSOM after a career as a thrusting young defence executive in the Royal Navy.
19 minutes for me to get it correct, but a technical DNF due to the W / P substitution referred to. Otherwise, an excellent work out, thanks Hurley.
Edited at 2017-11-30 09:39 am (UTC)
Yet another excellent rule of thumb in my “things to remember but usually forgotten” file is something someone said on here a few months ago – if all else fails look for a hidden word. Backwards hidden words are an absolute Achilles heel for me, I never spot them.
Otherwise very enjoyable. Had to chew my pen over MIDDAY but remembered do-re-mi in the end.
I knew transom but must admit I vaguely thought it was another word for the ship’s rail – now I know.
As for Romeo being a one-girl man – don’t forget that he starts the play madly in love with Rosaline!
On another note, Nick The Novice posted something so brilliant last night on yesterday’s QC that I’m going to copy it and paste it below to make sure it wasn’t missed. Nick, I completely agree with you.
Templar
Templar
PS surely everyone uses a stopwatch during sex? No? Oh
Re: Yardstick
OK, let me attempt to deal with this recurring observation from Horryd once and for all. There is a fair amount I want to say about this, so please bear with me.
When the QC first came out in March 2014, I had the privilege of being invited to be a blogger (I had recently discovered the TftT forum as a genuine novice attempting the 15×15, and the then site administrator – Linxit – thought it would be a good idea to have some newbies blogging the new QC). I blogged QC number 3, and have continued as a QC blogger ever since.
The original statement of intent with regard to the role of the QC (by Richard Rogan, then Times crossword editor) was as follows: “it will be reduced in size and hopefully in difficulty too [relative to the 15×15], the intention being to introduce new people to cryptic crosswords, and to encourage those solvers who’d like to have a go at the main puzzle but feel daunted by it, or who can perhaps only solve a handful of clues”.
What happened? In the first couple of months, some new solvers started contributing to the TftT QC blogs, which was great. However, the majority of comments on the QC were from seasoned 15×15 campaigners who (as per the convention on the traditional TftT 15×15 blog) published their completion times – some of which were around the 4 minute mark.
Not surprisingly, the genuine newbies (i.e. the target market) found this intimidating / dispiriting, and a number of them raised this as an issue in the forum. This seemed eminently reasonable to me. A newcomer who is thrilled to have completed a QC in, say, 45 minutes who then goes to the forum and finds that most people are claiming completion times of 5 minutes or so is probably going to feel like a complete failure – whereas in fact they should be congratulated on their achievement.
As a result of these comments, there was something of a “policy” debate around month 3 of the QC as to whether it was appropriate for people to post their QC completion times. Of course, as a purely for fun hobbyist’s forum, the outcome of the debate was never going to “bind” anyone to any particular future conduct. However, bloggers and commenters were (to a degree) galvanised into taking a stance.
My personal conclusion was very clear. Given the intent of the QC, it seemed to me entirely wrong in principle to intimidate newcomers by posting completion times. Others took a different view – and of course, that’s fine too. But I have to remain true to my view. If this is unacceptable to the majority of the commenters on the QC site then I will happily resign my blogging spot.
In addition to the overall “philosophical” viewpoint stated above, I would also make the following more specific points:
1. The “etymology” point seems to me a complete red herring. When the TftT site was set up, the QC did not exist. The QC is a totally different animal. It is a good thing that the TftT site embraces the QC: it would be a bad thing if traditional aspects of the TftT site (such as giving solution times) undermined the overall intent and purpose of the QC.
2. Individual completion times seem to me a complete irrelevance in terms of indicating the degree of difficulty of a puzzle. Some might regard a 30 minute solve as indicating an “easy” solve: for others “easy” might equate to 5 minutes. It all depends on your level of experience and overall capability.
3. I personally think an indicator of “degree of difficulty” is useful – hence my use of “quite tricky”, “fairly straightforward” etc. etc. This seems to me far more useful than a solving time, given the point made in 2. above.
4. Finally I’ve personally never understood the interest in completion times for crosswords anyway. I suppose if you are someone who enters the competitions then these things matter. However, I’ve always regarded crosswords as a fun recreation rather than a competitive thing (I get plenty of competitive adrenalin flowing in my ‘real’ life). Rather, one might (in a loose kind of way) equate doing a crossword with recreational sex: it’s fun, and the longer it goes on the better – do you set a stop watch?
It’s worth remembering that the small number of bloggers and contributors when TftT was established were nearly all candidates for the annual Times Championship title so it would naturally follow that solving times would feature prominently, and that’s how the site got its name. There’s a far wider range of expertise now so they are of far less importance, and a good thing too in my view. And as Nick has said, the QC is a different animal anyway.
It has always been clear in my time here (10 years now) that stating times and style of presentation are entirely at the individual blogger’s discretion and there should be no question whatsoever of your giving up your slot, Nick, on that account or any other.
Perhaps we can now appeal to the better side of our Shanghai correspondent’s nature (I think I can spot that he has one!) and ask him to can this discussion once and for all?
Edited at 2017-11-30 12:10 pm (UTC)
On the rare occasions that I get quicker times than (presumably) more experienced solvers such as yourself (as I did on Monday) I genuinely feel a sense of achievement, so I hope you will continue to post them.
Equally, I find this a pleasant forum for exchanging thoughts on parsings, the fairness of clues etc so I have no problem with those who choose not to post times.
In any case, I very much appreciate the time and effort taken by the bloggers and I hope none of you will feel put off by the comments of a very small number of posters.
Incidentally (or not) this took me over half an hour, so Monday’s warm glow sadly failed to last the week.
But the actual time it takes me is neither here nor there. Like any puzzle, much of it comes down to the chance of your own knowledge on the day. Today I knew of Leeds Castle and the sense of “pigeon” – but very often the answers are well beyond my ken (eg know nothing about cricketing terms as I’m a female Scot!). I usually call a halt when I feel I’ve spent long enough and look up this helpful blog to find out what I’ve missed or how things are parsed.
Sorry, but I tend to view an obsession with competitive times as a male thing… It’s only a game 🙂
Lots of excellent clues including 10d and 6d.
Thanks for the blog
Anyway the puzzle took a bit less time. Started with TRANSOM and finished with LEONINE.
When I started doing the 15×15 almost 7 years ago there was no QC. The Times for the Times site was a lifesaver for me. The first puzzle I tried (having previously done the Mail cryptic on a regular basis) took 3 days to get 75% of the way through, and that was using every aid I could find including Google. For the next few years I could usually complete 95% of the puzzles in around 90 minutes. Practice and the tips from the very friendly, helpful and polite(99.9% of the time:-)) group of people who inhabit this blog have helped me to get to the stage I’m at now. There isn’t a shortcut to being a fast solver, and it isn’t necessary to be quick to enjoy the puzzles, but seeing other peoples’ times does help to judge the difficulty of particular puzzles, and also gives an indication of how you’re progressing. I enjoy reading the newbies’ comments and it’s a pleasure to see the improvement a lot of them have made in a relatively short period of time. It’s also nice to be able to help occasionally when further enlightenment is requested on a particular clue. As with most activities that require some experience and expertise, I find it encouraging to be able to chat with people who are far better at it than I am. If you play football, for example, or a musical instrument, it’s nice to get tips from a top player, but you don’t expect to be able emulate them immediately, or even ever! Right, over to the 15×15 which I hope is as relatively straightforward as John suggests:-)
Edited at 2017-11-30 03:00 pm (UTC)
I found today’s puzzle a real struggle. I had four left after 42 minutes -9a 4d 13a and 15a. After a break for lunch I came back and eventually got all but 4d where my best shot was Saluam -note to self, learn more foreign greetings. COD to 1a.
In a broader context, I have been doing the QC now for over three years. I have improved enormously thanks to practice and this blog. I average about 20 minutes for the QC now and rarely fail to complete it eventually.
And I have moved on to the main puzzles which I do at the weekend. Last Saturday’s puzzle I found very difficult but I managed to complete Sunday’s without aids. In a sense that is the epitome of what I want to achieve. And it’s great fun too albeit frequently frustrating.
David
Some tricky stuff here, I thought, and I only managed to scrape in five minutes quicker than I managed for today’s 15×15, so I second the recommendations to go and have a bash if you fancy moving on to the bigger grid!
I would also like to echo my support for Nick the Novice – your blogs are great, and i have laughed out loud at some of your stories. Please don’t go:) PSB
4 remaining plus chary and pigeon threw me where my “alternatives” were a poor 2nd best.
for me the time doesn’t matter, as a learner, these blogs are excellent and I couldn’t care less whether people posted completion times or not – the sharing of solving the crosswords is plenty for me.
thank you to all who contribute. I’ve come on leaps and bounds in 3 months (albeit, some days I’m not so sure!).
Carl
The good, unfaithful doctor (Trevor Howard) claims that pneumoconiosis (and its prevention) is his “special pigeon”.
Of course, that film is probably watched avidly by followers of this blog, because of its crossword clue scene. The 7-letter answer was “romance”, I seem to remember.
Edited at 2017-11-30 07:31 pm (UTC)
Pleased to get the rest fairly quickly for me though, particularly as some relatively unusual vocab.