24475

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 6:55

An easier puzzle than I was expecting today, though I was probably helped by some strange words remembered from barred-grid puzzles. Last to go in were these in the NW corner – 1A and D, 2, 13, 11. 16 and 10 entered without full wordplay understanding.

Across
1 MUZZLE=guard,LOADER=ordeal*
8 IN(G) RAIN
9 PE(N)DANT
11 DR. = “GP”, OP = operation = surgical procedure, OFF = cancelled – curious surface reading as you’d have difficulty accepting something that was cancelled! I wonder whether this started off as something like “Reject cancellation of surgical procedure by doctor” and was changed to make “op off” clearer.
12 NETSUKE – SET* in NUKE
13 CATES (choice dainty food – not in COED but in Collins and ODE) = “Kate’s” = shrew’s = 19’s, by way of Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew where Kate is the shrew – Cole Porter’s Kiss me Kate version is an aid to memory for this.
14 C = clubs, LASSLESS = “with lads only”
16 (hu)T, W.O. = Warrant Officer, HANDED = passed
19 SH(R)EW – Xanthippe, Mrs Socrates, was an alleged shrew
21 OU = Open University, TWENT(y) = score
23 NOIS(fOrM)E
24 SAILING – in which a one may jib may be used – see kurihan’s comment for the detail, as I’m a land-lubber
25 I’M PET,U.S.
26 omitted – ask if baffled
 
Down
1 MUG=fool,WOR = rev. of row=argument,T(ractor). Mugwort is a.k.a. wormwood
2 ZEALOUS – Z=unknown replacing J=judge, in “jealous”
3 LONG = hunger (vb.), FACED = confronted
4 LUPIN(e)
5 ANNA = “a girl”, TES = rev. of set = group of people = band – the most shared def. I can think of – corrected after duncansh’s comment “set up” = raised – annates is an old word for a payment remembered from barred-grid puzzles
6 ERASURE = (rare use)*
7 V-INDICATIONS
10 TEENS,Y(WEENS=”directions”)Y – some may quibble about the imprecision of the “directions” part, but if you know the word starts “teensy”, what else can possibly follow?
15 A,N,DAN,TIN,O=over
17 (m)OST RICH
18 A,T(EL)IER
19 SNI(PPE)T
20 RO(O)STER
22 T.A. = (Territorial) Army, GUS = man – the Tagus is the longest river of the Iberian peninsula.

30 comments on “24475”

  1. Spent 100 mins on this challenging – and not-as-enjoyable-as-a-Saturday – puzzle before resorting to aids for the remaining half dozen and getting the rest fairly quickly. My relatively poor historical knowledge stymied me on 1ac and 5dn, while my botanical inadequacies were exposed by MUGWORT. My COD goes to VINDICATION, because it’s like those cream cakes I miss from the Virginia Water bakery, naughty but nice.
  2. 40 minutes without aids and held up mainly by 19ac and its cross-reference, never having heard of CATES. Having settled on SHREW, the checking letters and the possible Cole Porter connection led me to guess 13 correctly. Also didn’t know NETSUKE, and ANNATES was nothing but a vague memory of something met sometime maybe long ago. I thought 17 was going to be another river so I wasted time trying to think of one to fit OST????.
  3. Wordplay suffcient to allow a quick and correct solve but with no less than 9 guesses – 10 if I include the curious OUTWENT. I suppose this indicates progress of sorts but not exactly satisfying. Oh, and not too impressed with SAILING either.
  4. For the first time for a long time, I got some more or less uninterrupted time to do this online in the office and finished in about 18mins, which I think must make it fairly easy.

    Had to guess ANNATES and CATES from the wordplay, for which reason they were last in.

    At 24dn I don’t think the “jib” (which has to be a verb) is a reference to the sail but rather to the verb meaning “to cause to gybe” (which is when a boat changes tack with the wind behind, causing the boom to swing across violently (not generally recommended!), the whole being a cryptic definition.

  5. Thanks – note amended. I didn’t think to look up a verb meaning of “jib”, which is there in Collins.
  6. Back to the Other Ranks today, clocking a 28. Not too chuffed about the possible DBE in 25 and the two chaps, Gus and Dan. However, clewing SHEW as “historical display” and having that relate to CATES (the way-back confection) was neat. (NB: “shew” is still within living memory among Cambridge philosophers, notably Wittgenstein’s translators.)
    I’m giving COD to TEENSY-WEENSY simply for getting the so-an-so into the grid. Confession (Ulaca listening?): I once tried to write a puzzle in which the answers only used the last half of the alphabet. Started badly with the only twelve-letterer I think there is: TOOTSY-WOOTSY! Roll over Georges Perec!
  7. Another 15 minute job but thanks only to similar knowledge to that spoken of by Peter from bar crosswords.

    There are too many obscurities here for a normal daily puzzle, for example “snit” in 19D and of course both ANNATES and NETSUKE. For me CATES is the worst because it combines obscurity with a homophone cryptic and a reference to another clue.

    I like difficulty created by cleverness and creativity not abstruseness

    1. Disagree on snit (which I didn’t think of as American until COD said so), and netsuke, which Mrs B identified confidently, attributing her knowledge to the Antiques Roadshow and/or seeing them at the V&A. At least the cates homophone is bullet-proof …
      1. Mrs.B and I studied Japanese art at the same university (the University of Sunday Afternoon in Front of the Telly with a Cup of Tea). I also half-remember an episode of CSI or Law & Order or something of that ilk which revolved around a netsuke collector. And to think that some people boast about not having a telly – I mean, how do these people get an education?
    2. I don’t quite understand why you dislike CATES so much. Is it all the elements you mention, or the combination of them that particular offends? They all seem to me perfectly valid devices in themselves. That said, there were, I agree, rather a lot of words of a barred-grid level obscurity in this puzzle (CATES, ANNATES, NETSUKE – though I happened to know this, having lived for a while in Japan – and SNIT, which I personally hadn’t encountered before). At the same time, there were several almost absurdly easy clues – e.g. CLASSLESS, where the definition is so obvious that the wordplay is redundant, SAILING (likewise) and ROOSTER (where both wordplay and definition are transparent). All in all, an odd puzzle.
      1. Its the combination of the factors in a daily puzzle. As you say an odd puzzle.
  8. Nearly very pleased with myself but did not get outwent unaided (quick dic-trawl). 9 m to that last one; like others helped by obscurities met elsewhere, and enjoyed 13/19.
  9. 17:29 .. last in CATES – the only real obscurity for me. Enjoyed VINDICATIONS.
  10. Just under 20 minutes. ANNATES was last in – a bit of a guess which I thought was more likely than AGNATES, the only other word I could fit. I am still not clear what role the word ‘band’ plays in the clue. I can’t find a definition that has ‘band’=’set’.

    I only got CATES from the Taming of the SHREW as I hadn’t come across the meaning of CATES before.

    First in was TWO HANDED followed by a fairly steady solve throughout.

    Liked INGRAIN and VINDICATION.

    1. A sound point: I guess set and band are both to be thought of as groups of people, and the wordplay isn’t as fiendish as I thought.
  11. 25 minutes but with cates left blank (well, the unches anyway).

    Had a QM against 19 down where I cleverly remembered that a pet was a hissy fit of sorts but shuddered at the thought that students were being taught how to perform vasectomies.

    At 5d I assumed set/band were synonymous with a group of people (jet set, Robin Hood and his band of men).

    A teensy-weensy bit too much obscurity for me, especially being expected to combine Shakespeare with foody terms that pre-date even Fanny Craddock and Graeme Kerr.

    1. … and their immortal lines:
      Fanny: May all your sausage skins turn out like Johnny’s.
      Johnny: And may all your donuts turn out like Fanny’s.
  12. 18 mins, delayed by the obscurities referred to by everyone else. CATES was last in. I’m sure I’d know all this stuff if only we had a telly…

    Tom B.

  13. About 25 minutes for all but CATES, which I had to look up. Incomplete Shakespeare knowledge prevented even a good guess here, and I’d never come across the ‘dainty food’ definition before. NETSUKE, ANNATES and MUGWORT also new to me but solved from wordplay. I did like VINDICATIONS and IMPETUS. Regards to everybody.
  14. CATES, ANNATES and NETSUKE were guesses based on wordplay. The rest I liked. COD to VINDICATIONS.
  15. One of those puzzles pitched at barred-grid aficionados, and seasoned pros, who would no doubt find this a bland and unfulfilling solve. If you were neither of the former there was next to no chance of completing this without resorting to aids. Not sure how this puzzle even begins to qualify for the reasonably-educated / 45-minute solve test.
    Agree with dorsetjimbo that there were far too many obscurities here, particularly the 13A/19A connection where two unrelated items of relatively obscure knowledge were required. All told I felt this was a dull puzzle with nothing remotely ingenious or amusing to recommend it – a complete contrast to yesterday’s.
  16. Arg had to get ‘annates’ from the dictionary and got 13 wrong putting in ‘cutts’ instead. So it goes….at least others found those two clues a stumbling block as well.

    COD to 7. Regards to all.

  17. Done in by CATES which doesn’t seem to be that unusual. After feeling good about knowing ANNATES and NETSUKE. Oh well…
  18. I didn’t finish this puzzle, being put off by the abtruseness already mentioned by others. Enjoyed 7dn, though.
    1. He was, but this seems to be just a coincidence, as I can’t find any connection between the CATES in soCrATES and the answer to 13. Are you suggesting that there is one?
  20. Gave up 23 minutes with 1 wrong (ANNETES or ANNATES? guessed wrong) and one missing (CATES) which I could never have solved without aids since I have never heard of cates, and did not know that Kate was the tamed shrew (Don’t know how come I have never watched or read it). Otherwise the puzzle is in keeping with the rest of the week so far.

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