24077 At Sixes but not Sevens

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Rather surprisingly I took 45 minutes over this one which had started so well. It seemed to be a mixture of incredibly easy clues, one or two of them even a bit feeble, and others which, whilst not really difficult to solve, required some thinking about before blogging. All of my solving time in excess of 30 minutes was spent on 14, 18, 19, 24 and 26.

Across
1 T,OFF – All those times I watched Easter Parade with Fred and Judy singing “We’re a Couple of Swells” paid dividends today. I wonder if I would know this meaning of “swell” if Irving Berlin hadn’t written that song.
3 SM(O,KIN,G O)UT
10 A,VAILED – Sounds like ” a veiled”
11 C(APT)AIN – Cain, the first murderer
12 NOW YOU’RE TALKING – (Out wrong like any)*
13 REV,IE,W
14 ARGONAUT – ORANG-UTA(n)* – My last one in and for some reason it took me ages to spot the clue as an anagram
18 LIT,MUS – Problem = SUM (rev)
21 HASTE MAKES WASTE – I’m not familiar with this expression so I needed most of the checking letters before guessing it. I toyed with HASTE SAVES WASTE for a while before deciding it didn’t make sense of the clue.
24 MAR(XIS)T – T(SIX)RAM (rev). This was not quite my last in but it took by far the longest to see how it works and I eventually cracked it long after completing the puzzle. “Tub” is apparently another name for a tram car, which was news to me. That left me with XIS or SIX to explain as I wasn’t sure whether “turned” referred to just one or both elements of the word. Taking XIs (elevens) as a possibility I thought of sport and as I know Cubs is used in the world of baseball I wondered if there might be 11 players in a baseball team but Wikipedia quickly disillusioned me of that idea. So I explored SIX and at last found that a “Six” is a division of Brownie or Cub pack. The maddening thing is that I was once a Cub Scout and I realise I knew this term when I was a child but I doubt I have thought of it in over 50 years until today.
26 (g)ONER – It’s a heavy blow apparently but not in COED for some reason. I found it in Collins and Chambers.
 
Down
1 TRAIN,ER – I like ER=Tudor monarch for a change
4 MODE,RN
5 KICK-TURN – Rather a feeble clue, I thought, made only a little harder by my not knowing the term
6 NAPOLEONIC WARS – (In palaces or now)*
8 T(ON)IGHT
9 ALL OVER THE SHOP – Disarray
15 AD,MISSION
16 SO-C(ALL)ED – ALL inside CODES*
17 B(OH)E,MIA – OH=Ohio, End=AIM (rev)
19 SWEA(T(h)E)R – I wasn’t familiar with this meaning, but the dictionary confirms it can be an employer of sweated labour
20 HER,MI,A – This is a reference to A Midsummer Night;s Dream
22 SPRAT – TARP(aulin)S (rev)

24 comments on “24077 At Sixes but not Sevens”

  1. I’m with you on that Jack! 50 mins, but it really shouldn’t have been so long.

    ARGONAUT was first in! I think the main problem was the two long across clues (12 and 21). I could see 12 was an anagram but the apostrophe put me off the scent. Same as Jack on 21 – I’m still not sure that it works properly.

    I was a sixer in cubs, but took ages to think about it!

  2. Was distracted by other matters, and got nowhere on pass 1. Then answers came tumbling out of the sky. Probably about 35 minutes in total, but no complaints.
  3. 20:59 here, but really struggled with the top half for some reason. Three of the long answers went in immediately, but I couldn’t work out the anagram at 12 untl I had a few more crossing letters. The top right corner was the hardest for me, with 3, 5, 14, 11 and 7 the last to go in.
  4. I also made heavy weather of this – 45 minutes to solve. I stupidly guessed “stop turn” at 5D without some checking letters and didn’t sort that out until I got first 11A and then 3A.

    I don’t know this haste/waste adage either and guessed it in the end once 17D went in. I’m still pondering quite how the clue works. I then struggled with the SE corner, wrote in MARXIST as a guess (not being familiar with cub packs), had a “doh” moment with LITMUS and finished with SWEATER.

    I liked 13A “that is penned” and 17A “local furniture”. All in all a bit tougher than of late and enjoyable for that.

  5. I agree with everyone else that this was harder than it appears. My longest time this week. All the same, I’m making progress – I completed all the puzzles this week without aids, all in respectable times (for me) of 15-30 minutes, and with only one missing clue (I’d never heard of a tenon saw). I doubt I’d have been capable of that a few months ago, even allowing for this week’s puzzles being relatively straightforward. bc
  6. It took me 30 minutes, with some clues solved in seconds and others taking considerably longer. Getting 6 and 9 very early helped to get lots of letters in the grid. I was slow to see 12 and 14 were anagrams, and MARXIST was the last entry; I’m not familiar with the TRAM/TUB equation. The adage in 21 is also unfamiliar, so I wasn’t completely sure of MAKES as the central word, but couldn’t see what else it could be. I chuckled at the cheeky surface of 3.
  7. 14.14. Seems I wasn’t alone in having to take a guess at the central word of 21ac, or in not knowing TUB=TRAM. Also took way too long over the long anagram at 12ac, thinking for some reason it would start with NEW.
  8. Another enjoyable one for me. Like others, I’ve never heard of “Haste makes waste” and presume it’s similar to “more haste less speed”. Didn’t understand 24a so many thanks to Jack for that. 3a was superb.
  9. My experience v similar to jackkt’s – though I needed 60 mins to his 45. As he says, a mix of the easy and the difficult. For me too MARXIST was the last to go in, partly a guess – I did eventually come to the conclusion that TUB had to be another word for TRAM (though I could find no warrant for this in any of the dictionaries I consulted), but the six=cubs equation eluded me completely (despite, like jackkt, having been in the scouts briefly in my teens). I was minded to quibble over SWEATER= employer of sweated labour as one of those manufactured definitions that doesn’t exist in real life, but some of the dictionaries appear to have it, so, on the Peter B rule that “the dictionary is always right”, I withdraw my quibble.

    Michael H

    1. This is TRAM=a truck used in mines=TUB. It came up in a bar crossword sometime, somewhere. (I can’t remember details so you’re not alone, Ken)
  10. For CAPTAIN we were given US policeman instead of the usual officer; and for ER we had a Tudor monarch instead of simply monarch or queen. I guess they do this for obfuscation.
  11. Defeated! By the NE corner, and 24ac / 26ac / 19d, after 50 minutes and the conclusion of my lunchtime. Annoyed, as I’d even thought red = communist… Doh!
  12. 13 minutes including about 2 minutes before anything went in.Would never have solved (solved is the wrong word actually – “correctly guessed” is more appropriate) MARXIST without the checking letters as I would never have worked out either part of the wordplay.Agree with Jack – quite nice to see “Tudor monarch” used for ER , a bit more difficult than the usual “queen” etc. COD was 3 , convoluted but the clue scanned well.
    Good puzzle,challenging but fair
    JohnPMarshall
  13. About 35 minutes, with a very slow start. I completed the SW first, and spread out from there. I’m surprised that ‘haste makes waste’ is unfamiliar to many. It may be more commonly used here. Unfamiliar to me, though, were the ‘tram’ and ‘six’ in 24, which was my final entry, like some others. I intended to ask why these words mean ‘tub’ and ‘six’ but I see it explained above, thanks much. I was a boy scout here in the US and I do not remember being in a six, however. I will, though, ask why ‘people with oomph’ gets you KINGO. I can’t translate this, so any help appreciated in advance. My favorite is 25, because I just like the way it reads. Regards.
      1. Thanks Jimbo. It’s the go=oomph part that trips me up. Sort of as in ‘get up and go’, eh?
  14. I wonder if the setter is 25ac? (does Phi set for the Times?), because this one was full of terms I was comfortable with from growing up in Australia, and breezed through in 16 minutes with one interruption.

    HASTE MAKES WASTE very common in Australia, put it in straight away, I was a SIXer back in the dark ages, similarly ALL OVER THE SHOP. Last in were the SMOKING OUT/KICK TURN pair.

  15. 24:37, with exactly the same last few in as Jack. I eventually got sweater and litmus, oner and marxist then fell straight in.

    Some very nice clues… in addition to the aforementioned 3 I also liked 13 and 17 for the reasons Jimbo cited.

    Q-o, E-8, D-7, COD 3

  16. About 30 mins, I found it very difficult but enjoyable – I usually give up at 20 mins, but this one had enough to keep me solving.

    Tom B.

  17. Now back online – I took about 20 seconds longer than Sabiine from memory – say 14:30 in round numbers.
  18. I had TURN DOWN at 5d from an early stage but every time I solved one of the acrosses at 3a, 11a 12a and 14a it became abundantly clear that it was wrong. Eventually KICK TURN presented itself although I am not familiar with that particular technique despite being a skier for 34 years.

    There are 5 “easies”:

    17a Stops stolen goods circulating – local furniture perhaps (3,5)
    BARS TOOL. TOOL being LOOT backwards.

    23a Put in order, God must come before Prince (7)
    MARS HAL

    25a Brit’s description of Aussie doctors in a notepad (10)
    ANTIPODEAN. Anagram of (in a notepad).

    2d Patriot’s decline beginning to worry state (4-5)
    FLAG W (orry) AVER

    7d Middle Eastern island invested in petroleum mainly (5)
    O MAN I (L)

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