24,356

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 7:48, one mistake

I’ve got 4 reports to write today – this one and the conversion of biro scribble to typed text for the three puzzles from round 1 of the championship prelims. So for the moment I’ll leave you to discuss this one while I type up the others.

(clue analysis added c. 12:45)

I now have to don the cap as I put in a careless answer at 22D.

Across
1 INCA = Indian, HOOTS=laughs
6 LOCUM – cryptic def based on a locum relieving other medics. I thought for a while that it was a charade of “Lo!” and a doctor abbrev/synonym
9 GR(O.U.P.)IE(f) – as their dictionaries are the best, an occasional plug for Oxford Univ. Press is OK with me.
10 BABY,LON(don)
12 (choke)S,MOG
14 LARGO from CARGO and C = 100 = 2 x L= 50
15 P.(TEROSAU= (as route)*)R.
16 B.,ADMIN,TON
18 TA(S),TE
20 ROSE – 2 defs
21 WING COLLAR = (can girl low)* – “neckline” is a slightly vague def.
25 TRI(p),DENT
28 C.A.P. (Common Agricultural Policy),IN HAND
 
Down
1 INGOT, from “got in” = managed to enter
2 C(ROW B)AR
3 H(app)Y,PERSON=chap,I/C – potential trouble from supersonic as noted in comments
4 OMEGA = rev. of AGE,MO – at least the third Greek letter I’ve mentioned today in four puzzles – so a possible beginner’s task: know your Greek alphabet
5 SU(BALT)E,R.N. – remember “Balt” as a general purpose N European, as well as Lett, Esth, and so on
6 L,O.B.E.
7 COL((j)UMB(o))A – full wordplay only seen when writing this. In the Times at least, crossword=Jumbo
8 M.,E(NAG)ERIE
13 POSTMODERN – for which I’ll offer you lot the chance to explain the wordplay – I can’t see it and I’m flagging now that I’ve exceeded a ton of clue write-ups for the day! – POST-MO(D,E = poor (social) classes)RN – explanation courtesy of Jimbo
14 LIBERA(l),TOR=rev. of rot
15 PATRI(O,TI = rev. of it = (sex) appeal)C(k)
17 DUSTING – 2 defs, one as in a dusting of snow
22 GO = green,TUP=sheep. 20=ROSE is the def. I garbled the tense, failed to analyse the wordplay and put “GET UP”. Still, at least it happened today and not on Sunday, he says, still remembering the SEPTET/SEXTET disaster of the 2006 championship.
23 RILED = rev. of DELI=food shop,(owne)R

30 comments on “24,356”

  1. Note to self, read clue carefully before writing – slowed by super instead of hyper but still 20 mins, last in the wicked city crossing the missionary. Liked 22d, and enough anagrams to help the rest.
  2. 2 unsolved (1ac & 1dn), a consequence of entry of SUPERSONIC which I justified with the effete Super for extremely happy, son for chap, ic for in charge.
    Lots of guesses. Still no idea why POSTMODERN other than PM being in there somehow, and if COLUMBA is what I think then it is wicked (in the old sense).
    Liked CROWBAR which might have got my COD but I think we had ROW B recently, so it goes to CAP IN HAND which is delightful.
    1. Not certain if you’re asking for help or not. It’s HYPERSONIC and POSTMO(DE)RN where D and E are socio-economic class classifications
      1. fmks (2nd comment behind Jack) revealed my error in SUPERSONIC. That allowed me to get the 2 unfinished.
        Didn’t know about class classifications, so thanks. Nice for setters to have such to fill in awkward gaps.
  3. 35 minutes today, so not too bad for me, and some very clever clues made it worthwhile. Spent ages after the event trying to work out the crossword reference in COLUMBA and all the wordplay in POSTMODERN but I got there in the end. Not sure that “From” works in 24ac.
    1. I justified the “from” as “from answer get this deconstruction” instead of the usual “from this construction get answer”. It’s all very 13d.
  4. An easy 20 minutes for this one with some old friends (nut alas for SULTANA!!). I don’t recall seeing IN CAHOOTS clued like that before and didn’t get that until I had the C and the H as checking letters.

    Like Jack I was puzzled by the “from” in “from spear”. I recall that this TRI(p)-DENT construction is usually put round the other way with the definition at the end?

    1. Like you, I wondered where that clue was going, but decided in the end it was a reference to Bodhisattva or laughing meditation. I’m not sure that excuses the definition of Inca though.
  5. There was lots to enjoy here and some of the alternatives forced me to unravel the tortuous wordplay. I was torn between Largo and Lento at 14 so I had to work out the clever substitution. I was not sure whether the missionary was Colombo and the detective was Columba or the other way round, so I had to justify the UMB in the middle. I got the HY quickly enough at 3 but, for too long, wanted it to be Hyperbolic. Last in was Ingot, I can’t think why.

    One raised eyebrow for Indian defining Inca. I know it’s in the dictionary but it’s non-PC. A bit like bwana yesterday.

  6. If I may quote my favourite piece of verse,

    Across the wires the electric message came
    “He is no better, he is much the same”
    (From The Illness of the Prince of Wales attributed to Alfred Austin but probably not his, says my Penguin Dictionary of Quotations)

    except that I think I might be getting worse. This took me about an hour. This is one of the new grids, unless I’m mistaken, and this particular one seems to be my nemesis. I couldn’t get the COLUMBA/BABYLON crossing with SUBALTERN, which cascaded into BADMINTON/DUSTING/LIBERATOR/ROSE. I also fell for Barry’s supersonic construction even though HY had to be in there somewhere.

    As for Gladstone, for some time I thought he was a Labour orator, and a bad one at that, but what exactly does a laborator deliver? (Oh, deliver as in free!) Like lennyco, I had a O/U conundrum at 7 and eventually plumped for the country rather than the river. I couldn’t see how either fitted the middle of the crossword, until some time later. (Middle of a cross word, perhaps? Crumbs? No, it’s not in the middle… and so on) Anyway, I liked the LARGO construction but COD to TOENAIL. An enjoyable rout for me.

  7. 18:19 .. I usually have trouble remembering yesterday’s crossword, but even I recognized a few constructions here.

    On 1ac and matters PC, I think “Amerindian” has so far escaped censure, and “Indian”, even here in North America, seems to be making a bit of a comeback, but I ran the clue through the Hackney Borough Council website thought translator and it came out as:

    “Academically differently-abled South American victim of brutal European colonial oppression laughs (2, 7)”, which doesn’t work at all, and rather takes the pith out of it.

    COD 7d COLUMBA, for the penny-drop moment.

  8. I’ve definitely seen this before… perhaps 3 or 4 years ago in a Times crossword….

    By the way, Gladstone in 14d began his career as a Tory, and was viewed as a rising hope of “stern and unbending” Toryism….

  9. 20 minutes, had to go back to understand Babylon, ingot and subaltern and didn’t see how postmodern worked at all until reading Jimbo’s explanation above. Which leaves Columba and I still can’t see where the UMB comes from so will some kind soul please put me out of my m?

    I, too, had supersonic for a time but corrected that when I got in cahoots.

    2. Not that it matters but I read “crossword” as the setter’s devious version of “cross word” or grUMBle
      1. Indeed and whilst I was certain that “jumbo” was what was intended this alternative meaning also occurred to me and set me wondering quite what might be acceptable and what might be barred. “grumble” is obviously OK but I can think of at least one that might not be politically correct!
  10. I took longer on this one than any of the puzzles from the final! A 27-minute struggle this morning, but I thought it was me rather than the puzzle that was the problem, which is confirmed here.
  11. 11.11 back into normal mode today. Hadn’t seen the Thick Indian before so that raised a smile. MENAGERIE was also well clued.
    Is the definition in 15 “for his country” ok?
  12. Not timing today — giving it a brief rest. Some nice clues, though I didn’t understand the wordplay for POSTMODERN, and I am still not happy with it — as I understand it (and as I put in reports), social class E does not necessarily mean poor; retired people are E, and they might be very well-off. I don’t like ‘Indian’ for INCA, either.
  13. An embarrassing 41 minutes. started out steadily enough, then everything went (and stayed) blank. Finally plucked from oblivion by the Mesozoic aeronaut. Like others I put in COLUMBA and POST MODERN without fully understanding. And struggled for ages with WING COLLAR as last in. Couldn’t make out the anagrist: DOH! COD: INCA HOOTS
  14. About 45 minutes for me today. A fun puzzle which I found on the harder side. First in: TABERNACLE, last LOCUM. Over here, I don’t think ‘Indian’ has yet sunk to the taboo level, so it didn’t raise any eyebrows with me, although ‘Amerindian’ has become the term of choice for individuals. However, we still have hundreds of ‘Indian reservations’ in the US, and I’ve never heard anyone refer to an ‘Amerindian reservation’. I didn’t get the wordplay for POSTMODERN either. Didn’t know of C.A.P.=EU policy. Regards to all.
  15. Didn’t get an uninterrupted break so did this in dribs and drabs. Was trying to justify VATICAN when I saw BABYLON and the rest fell in – didn’t see the wordplay in COLUMBA (but oddly enough, just before I had a session I sent an email to someone at Columbia University)).

    I hadn’t seen INCA HOOTS before and laughed out loud at it.

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