24511

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 9:59

A mixture of easy clues and some old-fashioned touches which I suspect I’d have seen through faster a couple of decades ago when they were more common. The SW corner was tricky for me, with 23, 20 and 25 in that order needing about 1:30 at the end, though their 30 seconds each rather than slightly under 20 for the rest could have been a lot worse. One device was used rather a lot – between 1A, 17, 23, 7 and 16 we have “last of many”, “managed ultimately”, “last of fine”, “collie finally”, and “end of regiment” – the same idea 5 times.

Across
1 CHAL(i)CE,DON=fellow,Y from manY – chalcedony turns out to be a whole range of semi-precious gemstones
6 O=moon,VI=six,D=denarii = (old) pence – hence “before 1971” in the clue. I’m sure some of you will hate moon=O, judging from the comments about glasses = OO yesterday. I mentally justified it from the full moon symbol seen in diaries, but don’t know of any other use of the same symbol.
9 LEARNER = (Alan Jay) “Lerner”, partner of Frederick Loewe
10 S(PARR)OW – the ‘last wife’ here is a bit less obvious/hackneyed than “first mate” = Eve
13 IN = fashionable, modish (Collins) = “modern”,EP = record,T=time,NESS=head – there are enough clichés in this one to make most of us feel very ept by solving it on sight.
14 ON ONE’S HIGH HORSE – cryptic def relating to this statue
17 TIGHTEN ONE’S BELT – it’s corporation=tummy again in this CD
20 D(RAG)OONE,D from manageD – R D Blackmore’s Lorna Doone is probably read about as often as Rider Haggard’s She, and “rag” for “torment” goes back to the days of Molesworth
21 ANGLE – def and allusive def
23 BA(p)TIST,E from finE – here’s your first cloth
24 LE = “the French”,IS=”takes place”,URE=river – the one that should be the River Wensley.
25 (t)RACK – one of those irritating clues where you (or I at least) see the def and wordplay immediately but struggle to find the right decapitated ‘pathway’. I justified the def from “rack and ruin”, but the instrument of torture is a much clearer synonym
26 UNFRIENDLY – CD based on the old name for Tonga – reading the wiki article taught me that Tonga is an archipelago rather than a single island.
 
Down
1 COLTS = inexperienced players (Brit. term for “member of a junior sports team”),FOOT=support – some time wasted trying to make support into the usual BRA. Here’s today’s plant
2 A,M(A)IN – amain is a poetic term for “with great strengh, speed or haste” (Collins, not in COED). A few seconds wasted pondering the more obvious APACE
3 CON=Tory,SCIENTI(O,U)S(t) – “boffin for scientist?” – it’s only a word-game Jimbo!
4 (D ARK = “Democrat’s vessel” or D,ARK = “Democrat has vessel”),IS,H=hot – “D ARK” seems insulting if you remember Douglas Adams’s idea of the B Ark
5 NEST-EGG = savings – (ST. = street = way, e.g. = for example), in reversal of GEN = information
7 VERT = green (in English dictionaries from heraldry),E from colliE, BRAE = hillside, as in Burns’s Ye Banks and Braes
8 DOWNS = D=Duke owns = “belonging to Duke” – “The bike Duke owns” is the same as “The bike belonging to Duke”. Some may quibble that if Duke is a personal name, D doesn’t stand for it.
11 ANTIHISTAMINE = (he maintains it)*
15 ORGIASTIC = (sot,I=one,cigar)*
16 EX=old,T from regimenT,R.E.M.E. = soldiers,L(argel)Y
18 NAN=old woman,KEEN=weep – here’s your second cloth
19 NODULAR – L=lake in (around)*
20 D,E = “keys”, BAR = rod – to black something is to debar it – today’s OED citation: 1960 Guardian 21 Dec. 2/4 Four men who refused to repair ‘blacked’ machinery.
22 GO(cUrRy)D – here’s the Pan you need for this – disguised by his position at the beginning of the clue, where a cooking pan would be “Pan”.

22 comments on “24511”

  1. 26 minutes, but a lot of that held up by the apparently simpler answers: RACK and AMAIN.
    With the former, I was perplexed as to just what was “missing” and from what. Having finally hit on RACK as “track-minus-T”, I too could only see the “… and ruin” meaning, overlooking the blindingly obvious bit of torture equipment. With the second, I knew only one instance, remembered from Pope’s translation of the Odyssey (yes, I had one of those strange educations):

    There foul adulterers to thy bride resort,
    And lordly gluttons riot in thy court.
    But vengeance hastes amain!

    Now this great master of the language couldn’t possibly have meant “vengeance hastes in great haste”, could he? On seeking assistance from a higher authority, though, it seems – as Peter notes – there are other uses of the word that fit the clue much better. I must read more widely.

  2. Back to reality today and some help needed due to vocab limitations. Here for explanations for SPARROW and LEISURE. OVID came to me in the bath (and much fun was had by all).
  3. Much the same as Monday and Tuesday. Very straightforward – about 20 minutes – with the two long clues in particular simply read and entered.

    Some looseness. I can’t justify moon=O any more than sun, venus or mars=O. I shall resist the temptation to rant about boffin but old woman=nan is also questionable. When we were fostering we met far too many grandmothers in the 30s – and that isn’t old by any stretch of the imagination.

  4. Two familiar comments today. First, as often, I shared Jack’s experience; on first read I thought it was going to be a real stinker, but it turned out to be a pretty smooth solve.

    Second, in my morning read on the train in to work I had come across NANKEEN in “Middlemarch” (albeit spelt NANKIN). Odd how often that happens.

    On the other cloth, the late lamented Simpsons of Piccadilly used to make very nice shirts in “cotton batiste”.

  5. This was one of my fastest ever solves, helped by getting the two long phrases at first glance. I recently failed to finish a Guardian crossword because, thinking in Times mode, I had entered “ones” instead of “your”. I was happy not to have that dilemma today.

    Otherwise lots of answers went in on definition alone without bothering to work out the wordplay. After all, how many words meaning allergy inhibitor are there?

    I loved Ovid. I thought it was naughty but nice.

    Department of strangely acquired information: the only reason I got chalcedony was because I remembered a 1960’s comic strip in the Daily Express in which Jeff Hawke’s extraterrestrial adversary was named Chalcedon.

  6. 23 minutes except that got coltsfoot wrong, making up coldshoot, which I just thought might be a mistake (bloomer)in filming, and has inexperienced (cold) and another bloomer (shoot) in support … it doesn’t begin to work, and the sickening thing is I know of coltsfoot quite familiarly even if I couldn’t draw it. If I had my mind in front of me I’d lay into it somewhat. Liked 6, and especially to be reminded of what for me is WSM’s masterpiece.
  7. I’m only a bit annoyed about moon= O – why coudn’t it also stand for C for example, in its crescent state? Or D? But I liked the clever use of the title enough not to worry, and to make it my COD- it stood out from an otherwise fairly humdrum set.
    While I was doing it, I thought the cluing in 14 led more to HIS rather than ONE’S, but of course that doesn’t fit. 16 minutes.

  8. I found this a very lively and entertaining puzzle that turned out to be mostly straightforward though on first reading of the clues I had thought it might not be.

    I finished all but six clues in my first 20 minute session but it took me another 20 to fill in the gaps in the NW and SW corners where there were a few words I didn’t know so had to understand the wordplay in order to find them. In the end I got one wrong, having plumped for CALFSFOOT at 1dn. I’ve never heard of COLTSFOOT nor of COLT with specific reference to an inexperienced player. I also didn’t know CHALCEDONY, AMAIN or BATISTE. Just how many more obscure words for “linen” are we going to be treated to? Also lost time by carelessly writing ORGAISTIC at 15dn.

  9. 9:21 here. I was on track for sub 7 mins, but spent nearly three minutes on the same three as Peter in the SW corner. Pretty straightforward bar those, I thought.
  10. Finally cracked this one after a long struggle and a bit of cheating at 1ac. A pity that, as I had –CEDONY, but couldn’t quite get the rest, my knowledge of semi-precious stones not being up to much.

    Having just started rehearsing “Get Me to the Church on Time” with the HKWMVC yesterday, LEARNER went straight in. Last in were DEBAR and BATISTE in the SW corner; not knowing that sense of the defining term (black) in the former and not knowing the target word in the latter. Had never heard of the WSM (that’s W. Somerset Maugham to the uninitiated – had to Google that) novella, but was able to metamorphose the cryptic into OVID amain.

  11. I thought I was in for a record time because I completed over half the puzzle in well under 10 minutes, including the long ones, which were instantly solvable. Even Chalcedony came immediately because of the Y indication in the clue. It was the SW corner and OVID/DOWNS that did for me and extended my total time to 30 minutes. After some pondering I got RACK, BATISTE (unfamiliar), DRAGOONED (too fixed on seeing LORNA as anagram fodder) and DEBAR in that order.
  12. When 1a solved the instant I’d read the clue – the y was the dead giveaway – I thought a time might be worth noting, and 12 m later I was pleased. Top down solve, last in 25a & 20d mostly because of their position. Analysing why I found it quick I afterwards marked 14 of the clues as “no heavy thought needed” which included 14 & 17, and oddly enough 6a which I rather liked as a result! My dic says O can be anything round or nearly so which leaves a lot of possibilities, did the Bard not call his theatre a wooden O in HenV?
  13. A most enjoyable puzzle for me. I had to give up after an hour having been stumped by AMAIN which I had to look up. I spent last week in hospital and was looking forward to a pile of gentle puzzles for my recuperation only to find a specially difficult week for me. Anyway, they are still there and I shall get through them eventually.
  14. I’m the odd one out then, making heavy weather of this, despite writing the two 15’s and two 14’s in pretty much at first glance. Writing nansook as a possible variant of nainsook at 18 didn’t help, but I was never convinced by the k in 26ac. In the end I couldn’t get Dubai (lots of off-shore islands or keys)out of my head at 20d and threw it away in disgust. Coming back to it I saw debar & rack almost immediately. More fits of pique might do wonders for my solving times. I didn’t mind the moon=O and give it my COD. I can’t forgive boffin though.
  15. Had to double check quite a few new words . names:
    Ovid, amain, chalcedony, coltsfoot & colt, batiste & that meaning of keen.
    Didn’t see Pan possibly = God but it didn’t stop me.
    Finished on & off upto lunchtime. I expect when I come back here in 50 years i’ll be as quick as you guys!
  16. About 25 minutes for me, similar tale to many others, with all the long clues going in first, and getting stuck at the end in the SW, last in: DEBAR/RACK. But I got 1 wrong also: my entry for 1D was COLTSROOT. That sounded pretty plausible until I came here to discover my error. Better luck tomorrow, and regards to everyone.
  17. After solving the last four puzzles without aids I thought I might manage a fifth and so set about this one with stopwatch in hand. Alas, after 20 minutes I’d solved only 18 and had hit the buffers. A second go an hour later got me six more but I needed aids to get COLTSFOOT, DRAGOONED, BATISTE and DEBAR. Didn’t make the Lorna Doone connection. There’s an unread copy on my bookshelf.
  18. Haven’t been getting to the Times until way late lately, and slogged through this, but went for CALFSFOOT… oh well
  19. Disappointed with this clue, allowing for the full moon. He didn’t write, well actually he did. He didn’t write “The moon and sixpence”, well a lot of other people didn’t write it either? Am I missing something?
    1. What you’re missing may be solving experience from a few decades ago when this kind of clue was more common. On a practical basis, the V and D were fairly easy to get from other answers and leave you with no other word to fit the slot.

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