24122

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time 10:53

Some of this should have been quicker – 1A should have been a first-look answer, which would have got several downs and a good start. Felt very humbled by 3D where the wordplay structure should not have fooled me for more than a few seconds as I must have seen it ten times at least.

Across
1 SPEED MERCHANT – 2 defs. Of course neither is “quick solver of cryptic crosswords, mildly derog.” which is how it’s sometimes used by solvers of barred grid puzzles.
8 JAWS – 2 defs, one colloquial.
9 TAPE RECORD = (pre-Art deco)* – obvious anag fodder.
10 B,E.R.,LINER – I failed to lift and separate “German ship” on first look
11 SuNg,AT,CH. – as in “I sauntered homeward humming a snatch of song” – found by Google for me, somewhere in an online Literature library.
13 WAL((e)LSTREE)T
16 GOAT / “go at”
17 W,ARM – “warm” as in hide-and-seek discussions
18 DEMONOLOGY = (MONO,LOG) in YE’D rev. I had EP / LP down as possible types of record – nice to see other choices. “Hate list” must count as a slightly cryptic def as the dictionaries don’t support it.
20 BER(i)BER(i)
22 S,WEE,TISH=this*. Not mad keen on “pieces of” as anagrind.
24 LAVATORIAL = (a rival a lot)*
26 RO(m)AN – with stuff like “Caligula for one” it pays to start with the obvious stuff like Roman, rather than looking for anything more specific.
27 FIN(ger),NAN,HAD,DOCK – No issue for me with had = eaten
 
Down
1 STAG,EMAN=name rev.,AGE
2 EASE,L
4 EX PARTE = (Extra PE) – know your Latin tags from your learned friends.
5 CO(R)DS – to cod is to kid. Took a while to find, and wasted a few secs wondering about CURBS as some kind of trews.
6 ARCH,ANGEL – lucky guess at the port got this first time. Angel tube station is the same Angel as in the Monopoly set, and used to be memorable for one of those dangerous-looking ‘island’ platforms in a single tunnel containing both lines. Now replaced for safety reasons, but Wikipedia tells me you can still see these at Clapham Common & Clapham North.
7 TAR(n) – nice simply structured clue which felt new.
12 The pile of cash is a “CHANGE STACK”. It’s amazing how many two-word phrases can be made into something else by shifting just the one letter.
14 LAME=lamé(BRA),IN
15 TUN(NELL)ED – strange to find Nell so close to Nelly – if it helped, it did so subconciously as I only just noticed.
19 MESSIAH – ME,A in HISS rev.
23 TORS=sort,O
25 ALF(red), hidden in palfrey (a docile horse, for those like me who can’t remember).

59 comments on “24122”

  1. Another fairly straightforward one solved on the commute so I can’t give an exact time. My only problems were at 8 and 17. I can forgive myself 8 because there were so many possibilities with -A-S in place, but I should have got 17 on first reading of the clue.

    After completion I had some difficulty understanding “cool” in 14 as it appeared to be superfluous but then I realised it provided the last two letters (IN) which I had originally thought came from “in” in the clue.

    Still no stinker this week. I’m getting worried about my Friday blog now and am preparing myself to cancel all other commitments if necessary.

      1. Many hours later.

        Yes, I went for “Jaws” eventually. Having read through the extensive comments I’m surprised there has been no mention of Jack Kennedy or doughnuts in connection with 10a.

          1. But surely there is a recording of him saying it? And unless my mind is playing tricks I have actually heard it more than once.
            1. If you go to the link, the general drift seems to be (I know no German by the way!) that what he said was perfectly correct. Apparently “Ich bin Berliner” means “I am a native of Berlin” which would have been incorrect for an American, while “Ich bin ein Berliner” (which is what he said) means “I am a citizen of Berlin” which carries a more metaphorical meaning of identification with the city, as intended. It can also mean “I am a doughnut” but no German speaker would have construed it that way in context. Apparently his speech was professionally translated and vetted.
              So in short what he said was quite correct in context. I had been under the same apprehension, I have just gleaned that from the website. So now we know.
  2. Straightforward , yes, especially on reflection, but this took me 35mins because of taking time to see some of the short clues – 8, 16, 17 in particular. I had JAWS at 8.

  3. After 7 minutes I had most of the top half done and was thinking “This is how they do it”. Then brain meltdown occurred and the SW corner eluded me for ages. Was convinced Nelly was some Edwardian actress I’d never heard of and no matter how many i’s I removed from Libya, it still didn’t end in R. Oh, well. Nelly indeed. This one was replete with some old favourites. JAWS (always a movie), TORSO, RIOJA, GOAT, BRA (always a garment unless it’s ALB) Went looking for something more difficult at 27; think that comes up from time to time as well. Not sure about WARM = Approaching. I suppose you can be warm and inviting, so why not.

    I’ll take heart from remembering Ellstree film studios and leave you in the good hands of one of its favourite sons: “I’m leaning on the lampost…

  4. ‘warm’ here means approaching target as in a child’s game – ‘you are (getting) warm’.
  5. About average level of difficulty I guess. Straightforward but not a complete give away. About 30 minutes to solve. I agree JAWS at 8A and WARM at 17A where presumably definition by example produced the question mark. Some good surfaces starting with 1A amongst several others.
    1. I was going to have a little whinge about the def by ex at 17, but decided the ? saved it. In 27 does “eaten” clue HAD?
  6. At first I thought this was going to be another very easy one, but after 25 minutes I still had 8, 14, 17 and 20 to do, and it took me more than 5 more minutes to get those last four. I assume the answer to 16 is GEAR but I don’t recognise the second definition.
    I think ‘eaten’ for HAD is OK.
    2. Well. it’s in the COED as “eat or drink” but as an example under the general sense of performing a noun action, e.g. “I have had dinner” or “I’ve had a beer”, which is really no different from “I’ve had a baby” or “I’ve had an unmentionable disease”. It just substitutes other verbs (“eaten” “drunk” “given birth to” or “contracted”). In that sense I think it’s a bit weak, but as it has the COED’s blessing, fair enough.
  7. I seem to be out of step in having found this tough, giving up with a few unsolved. Pride before a fall, I guess – I’d been doing quite well in finishing some puzzles that were generally regarded as tough but then stumbled at one considered fairly easy. I suspect one reason may be a profusion of “old chestnut” elements, quickly spotted by older hands, but not by me. bc
  8. I had this as GOAT, with the alternative definition arrived at if you insert a space in the middle.

    A not-so-easy 25 minutes today: the SE corner giving most difficulty…

    Neil

  9. 19:22 .. As so often, three little words spelt trouble – JAWS, GOAT and WARM all gave me extended pause. Otherwise, similar solving experience to several others on this quite tricky puzzle. I’d never encountered DEMONOLOGY as a list of hated figures. That one, and the transecting ARCHANGEL were the last in for me.

    Doing a little reading this morning, I gather that Caligula’s feted love for the horse Incitatus may have been fabricated, the suggestion now being that threatening to make the horse a consul was an almighty wind-up by the emporer – a bit like Bush senior threatening to make Dan Quayle the VP. Oh, hold on, he actually did that. Anyway, Caligula may, like the much maligned Canute, have been not as green as he was cabbage looking.

    Very much enjoyed BERLINER and STAGE MANAGE for their surfaces. SNATCH, a rather ugly word, is elegantly clued.

    Q-0, E-7, D-8 .. COD 10 BERLINER

  10. It’s the chicken pic again for me I’m afraid. Could’t get JAWS but I should have, wrongly entered GEAR eventhough I couldn’t explain it. 18a beat me – I hadn’t even considered YE’D and wanted a word beginning with DUO. Would have got 19d if I had 18a – that was some build up. CHANGE STACK got the biggest laugh and wins my COD nom.
    About 15 minutes with 4 (count them – FOUR) wrong. Ah well, roll on tomorrow
  11. 19 minutes, slow start and then the last few went in with the accompanying “of course it’s…” thought.

    DEMONOLOGY and FINNAN HADDOCK were new, I liked the wordplay for the latter. Some very nice clueing of CHANGE STACK and MESSIAH.

    And the wait for the stinker continues (damn, it’s me tomorrow)

  12. Put me down as another muppet who put gear instead of goat.

    19:30 with one boo-boo. I can’t see how 1d works and just went with stage manage on the basis of def and checkers (luckily jaws and warm didn’t stump me).

    Like 7dP I was looking for duo- something at 18 but luckily spotted the very naughty boy at 19d to give me the M.

    Q-0, E-7, D-6.5, COD detonated.

      1. Thanks Jimbo. I’d got the age bit but the presence of m(an) put me off on the wrong secent for male and I couldn’t see how egats = celebrity.
    1. Writer is ME (as in crossword setter) and interference is presumable HISS upside down (clued by over) with an a (article) in there, the whole thing being defined by ‘he saves’ as in ‘Jesus saves’.

      Can’t quite understand ‘rejected’ though…

      1. “rejecting” indicates the reversal of HISS. ‘over’ means that the rejected HISS covers the article ‘a’.
      2. ah, presumably ‘rejecting’ means ‘pushing back’ and this in fact clues turning HISS upside down whilst ‘over’ means here ‘including’. Would that be right?
        1. I agree that ‘rejected’ is a standard reversal indicator in The Times crossword, and therefore I know how to interpret it, but I’ve always regarded it with a good deal of suspicion. It’s certainly not supported by Oxford or Chambers. If I reject someone’s advances I refuse to respond to them; if I reject the advertising material that has just been sent to me I may throw it away; if I reject your argument ,I don’t accept it (or I refute it). In none of these cases do I necessarily send something back.
          1. I agree – we have become used to it but it’s a bit loose. I can live with it through a rather figurative interpretation of its etymological meaning of “throw back” or “cast back”.
          2. I’ve always thought of it as coming from the phrase “to knock back” which means to reject and is defined as such in Chambers.
  14. 16 minutes but put in GEAR instead of GOAT. Found it a good challenging puzzle and took ages to get the DEMONOLOGY/MESSIAH pairing – looking for a DU— word initially. Liked 18 and also 27 although we Scots would always call it a FINNAN HADDIE.
    MESSIAH = ME (Writer) HISS=INTERFERENCE backwards around A (article) = Saviour
    JohnPMarshall
  15. Hi Guys, 25 min, and guess what: Had trouble with “jaws”, “warm” and “gear” – oops! – “goat”. The more I looked at this puzzle, the more I liked it. There were some very nice touches (most mentioned above), some of which only emerged on closer inspection, after the answer had been found.
  17. About 25 minutes for all but 8, then another 10 minutes more going through the possibilities there. Finally hit on JAWS and felt like a bonehead for needing so long. Didn’t know LAMEBRAIN for Nelly, but it fit and sounded right, and ‘cod’=’tease’ was also new. Otherwise a nice puzzle, especially 1D, 27, 20. Regards til tomorrow.
  18. I note that JAWS, SNATCH and WALL STREET are all very well-known films. Any others noticeable?
    1. well-spotted… maybe Finian’s Rainbow Haddock, the Berber of Seville and anything by Lavatorial Fields?
    2. Hello stranger, welcome back!

      Lucky guess on my part, but Archangel (2006) had Daniel Craig in it apparently. “The Messiah” and “Speed Merchants” are near misses but not yet convinced that this is more than fluke.

  19. I really liked Lamebrain…just so clever…as was archangel!
    nice puzzle and good blog and comments
    not too hard
    as some say prepare for a tough one soon!
  20. This one was too good for me. I didn’t know LAMEBRAIN (or that meaning of ‘nelly’) and would never have figured it out. I hope there are two more comments, to bring up the 50…

    Tom B.

  21. Curses. Fell six fences short of the finish today.

    As on previous days, I didn’t have too much trouble with some of the clues that other posters found difficult, like BERBER, LAMEBRAIN, DEMONOLOGY, ARCHANGEL, MESSIAH (although wasn’t sure where the ‘ME’ came from) and CORDS, but let myself down with some of the more straightforward ones, like TAPE RECORD and SPEED MERCHANT.

    It’s still taking me far too long too… a good two hours again, and I didn’t even finish it today. Still, I learnt about the significance of ‘over’, which is a good one to learn. Onwards and upwards 🙂

    1. Don’t attach much significance to the apparent difficulty of clues – you can get lucky with a tricky one from a first-time definition guess, or miss something “simple” that others see.

      After a few weeks, 6 short in two hours is good!

  22. A late comment today, lost my lunchtime to work matters… I was pottering along quite happily with this, until I hit the SW corner. Specifically, 14d, 17ac, 20ac, at which point I threw in the towel. Having looked at the blog, I’m not convinced I would ever have got them. I’d toyed with LAMEBRAIN for 14d, but couldn’t for the life of me justify the wordplay so chucked it out of court. Onwards!
  23. Hello! This is my first comment, though I have been reading the blog with interest for a while now. I’m not particularly good at crosswords, but decided the blog could use an idiot’s perspective!

    I made some pleasing progress in the puzzles from earlier in the week, notwithstanding the odd persistent gap (Prester who?); today felt a little tougher, requiring the reference at an earlier stage. Some of the tiddlers proved strangely elusive this time, with GOAT, WARM and JAWS all catching me out.

    1. Those three seem to have given problems to most people.

      If there’s any point that you don’t follow, just ask, and someone will explain. Even the most experienced solvers (I’m not one of them) miss things on occasions and have a “D’oh!” moment when all is revealed. Happens to me all the time!

  24. Strangely elusive tiddlers (4-letter words with checkers like ?A?S) could still be your biggest source of Times xwd grief years or decades into the future.

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