23,594 – short in duration

Author   foggywebPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 27 minutes
Very fast for me. Got off to a great start and kept going. I think the only unfamiliar words for me were beetle=jut, barge=hopper and the composer Orlando di Lasso.
Reading through the clues, they seemed mostly very straightforward – so I’d expect most solvers to do well today. Perhaps an easier puzzle was published to encourage us to try the Bank Holiday Jumbo as well.

Across

1 JACK LONDON – the answer came straightaway although I only know the name.
9 TALK TURKEY
10 HUG,O – Victor Hugo, the French writer
14 RU(F,F)LE
15 OUT,RIGHT
17 GRAYLING; anagram of angrily +G(=gravity).
19 ECLAIR; anagram of Alice + R(=last piece of Hatter). Eclair is defined in Chambers as ‘a cake, long in shape but short in duration.’
22 ORLANDO D(1 LASS)O – ORLANDO is Rosalind’s lover in As You Like It. I didn’t know any composers called Orlando – but party=DO and girl=LASS came quickly to mind and it all fitted with the other letters.
24 PLAN[e]
25 I,M,PATIENCE – I’ve heard of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera Patience and presumed it contained a character called Patience. Pleased to get a G+S reference so quickly.
26 RITZ=”writs” – I didn’t know RITZ was Swiss; in fact I didn’t know the hotels were named after their founder, César Ritz. The word ritzy comes from him too.
27 IN,TERN,ALLY

Down

1 JUT,E(=top of each) – fairly sure JUTE was a fibrous plant, but didn’t know beetle=jut; apparently first mentioned in Hamlet, so I must have seen before – I don’t remember everything though.
3 LET WELL ALONE
5 OVER,HAUL=”hall”
7 A,M(US)ING
8 SHORTS,TORY
13 FROGHOPPER; F=’flotilla’s leader’, RO=’run out'(cricket), G=grand, HOPPER=barge. I didn’t know HOPPER (a barge with an opening in the bottom for discharging refuse).
16 IN,COMMON – Home is often IN.
18 AT L(E)AST
21 P(=’publisher’s head’),IRATE
23 DEN,Y(=’close to study’)

9 comments on “23,594 – short in duration”

  1. 7:09, so not that quick – knew hopper as a similar kind of railway wagon, so the barge made sense. A grayling as a butterfly was also new, but there was a similar analogy to other creatures.
  2. I assumed ‘SHORTS’ for drinks as in spirits..

    Talking of which, mine’s a G&T!

    Neil

  3. Wondering if my guesses make sense:
    6A: PASS – means transfer and approval
    8D: SHORT STORY – SHORTS is some kind of byproduct (is it also a drink?) and TORY is conservative

    Can someone please explain?

  4. Yes, no question-marks left against anything today after I had checked beetle=jut, barge=hopper as did Foggyweb. I knew de Lasso though and eventually dredged up his first name from memory.

    Buzzword

  6. I seem to remember reading once that the Times always provided an easier puzzle on Monday than on other days, on the grounds that Mondays were bad enough already without having a stinker of a crossword to do. Recently they have been going the other way, with some truly awful Monday puzzles (in my opinion!) So nice that today wasn’t too bad – and for once I am able to record a time better than Peter’s: 4 minutes 55 seconds! Very gratifying, and quite possibly something that will never happen again, which is why I am writing it here for posterity! (I must admit I had never heard of Orlando di Lasso before today, and had this been a competition puzzle would probably have spent longer agonising before putting it in)
    1. I reckon you’ll beat me at least once a month – everybody has slow days, otherwise I’d never beat Magoo.
  7. A clean sweep for me in 5:47, though it felt very slow (I like to think I’d have been a lot faster 25 years ago). Like Hilary I was surprised to find myself faster than Peter (I was guessing he’d be under 4:00), but also surprised that she hadn’t heard of Orlando di Lasso – though, goodness knows, I’ve enough areas of ignorance (musical and otherwise) myself that I’m far from being one to scoff! I just have to hope (as always) that other people’s ignorance rather than mine is exposed in the Championship. Nowadays, though, with less arcane knowledge required, my main hope is that the fast brigade hassle each other into making silly mistakes.
  8. A couple of writers, a couple of insects and a posh hotelier today. A handful of “easies” to fill in:

    6a Transfer to be approved (4)
    PASS. A double def (DD) – sorry this confirmation is a tad late for anon above.

    12a Reach small promontory and stop rambling? (4,2,3,5)
    COME TO THE POINT

    2d Order to desist, so visit cancelled (4,3)
    CALL OFF

    4d New weapon, limited in scope (6)
    N ARROW

    11d Rise in recognition (12)
    APPRECIATION. Another DD.

    20d Football club magazine (7)
    ARSENAL. A footy DD. Funnily enough I was watching the Sutton Utd v Arsenal “Piegate” Cup Tie when solving this one.

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