24705 – Bringing you sunshine

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: one left (7d) after an hour, so turned to aids for it. It’s not a word I’m familiar with, and I think the wordplay was sufficiently tricky to prevent me from getting it however long I’d stared at it.

I struggled to get going today, although this may have been a mixture of tiredness and bloggers nerves. A couple had to go in on faith because I wasn’t aware of the word (AMBLER & TRENCHERMAN). There were some good clues here, but the highlight was undoubtedly searching for YouTube clips to go with 11d.

Anyway, it’s late and it’s cold and I want my bed so let’s get on with it.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 STAND OUT – not completely clear how this works. I think it’s ‘Persist’ = STAND + ‘in opposing’ = OUT. I filled it in from the checkers & definition. Or maybe it’s just a straightforward dd – see comments below.
5 RE(WIN)D
9 rev hidden word
10 CHINESE WALL = Confrontation + (WHEN ALLIES)* – I assumed this was a reference to the Great Wall, but it’s actually a type of firewall set up in business (particularly investment banks) to isolate certain areas and prevent conflicts of interest.
12 Volume + AN(IT)Y + FAIR – The novel by William Makepeace Thackeray. Nice misdirection with ‘in any case it’ meaning IT encased by ANY.
13 sWARM – It took me ages to see this. I don’t know why. Not having the second letter didn’t help I suppose.
15 A(Mysteries)BLER – Eric Ambler wrote several thrillers around the time of the Second World War.
16 MEAd + NEST
18 HIGH TEA = THIGH with the inital T ‘very delayed’, i.e. moved to the end + EAch
20 REEFER = REF + E’ER all rev
23 dd – another one it unaccountably took me ages to see.
24 DISC (recording) + OUR AGE (the 21st century)
26 T(R)ENCH + gERMAN
27 PrOsE
28 dd – Royal attendants are seen WITH E.R.
29 T(ERR)IERS
Down
1 S + TROVE
2 ANTONYM = (NOT MANY)* – A very natural surface despite an awkward set of letters for an anagram.
3 DE(CATH)LETE
4 UNI + N(FORM)ATIVE
6 summertimE collareD dovE iN
7 I + M (A) + MATE – This is the one that defeated me. I’d not heard of an IMAMATE before, although I was aware that an IMAM was a Moslem cleric, so maybe I should have got it. But MATE = couple was sufficiently obscure to prevent me from doing so.
8 DOLOMITE = DO + LO + (TIME)* – I didn’t know this was a rock, but I’m aware of the Dolomites as a European mountain range, so it was a small leap from there.
11 (REMEMBER A COmIC)* for one of our greatest national treasures. I’m spoilt for choice on clips here – there’s this one or this one or even this one. Enjoy.
14 PAGE + TURNER
17 C(HEP + ST)OW – Hep is an obsolete alternative for HIP, in the ‘fashionable’ sense. A Jersey is a breed of cow.
19 G(ARM)ENT
21 EXAM + P(L)E
22 RarE + CESS
25 deliberately omited

64 comments on “24705 – Bringing you sunshine”

  1. Didn’t know CESS, or HEP as an obsolete form of “hip”. Guessed the former but not the latter, hoping to find later there was a Chipstow somewhere in the world. There isn’t of course, although Google leads you to think there might once have been, but there are enough typos on the internet to justify almost anything. 47 minutes with that irritating slip. Dave – Brilliant clips for 11d – though you have omitted the actual answer.
  2. This puzzled me too, but I think you’re right: ‘stand’ meaning ‘persist’ or ‘continue to exist’ (only it’s hard to think of circumstances where the verbs could be used interchangeably) + ‘out’ meaning ‘in opposing’, giving the definition ‘project’.
  3. 56 minutes for this blend of chestnuts and imaginative clues, with several UK-centric items thrown in to keep the colonials on their mettle. Good to see MORECAMBE take centre stage a week after his straight man appeared, while CHEPSTOW is known to me as the home of the Welsh Grand National. Took an age on AMBLER despite having read one of his novels on holiday this summer. Last in TERRIERS; COD to DISCOURAGE.

    Surely ‘mate’ meaning ‘couple’ isn’t obscure in a verbal sense.

  4. It had to be “FANITY FAIR” but the clue seems somewhat awkward, in particular, the “‘s” on “it” (considering its position in the clue). Better might have been “Small volume – it’s in any case, just a novel”. Am I missing something? – Vince
      1. I even speak that way (e.g., “It’s been a long time.”). But it always eludes me in cryptics; I want “it’s” to be “it is”. Thanks.
  5. Hmm … only a dozen or so breaks between overs on most of this; until I got to PERK / GARMENT / WITHER — and that was most of the morning’s play gone. Liked the two Erics, especially as we had Ernie at the weekend (was it?) to make the double. EM’s best joke ended in “… looked like the Five of Spades!” Mail me for the rest in case you don’t remember it.
    1. Oh, forgot to mention … I took 1ac as a simple double def — where “stand out” can mean “persist in opposing”. Looked it up just now in the big OED and one sense of “stand out” is:
      “To resist, persist in opposition or resistance, refuse to yield or comply, hold out. Const. against (an opponent, proposal, etc.), with (an opponent)”.
          1. Yes, I actually wrote dd first when doing the blog, then changed my mind at the last minute. Maybe I should have stuck with my original thought.
  7. Much as I hated Tuesday’s puzzle (the exercise in obscurity, remember?) it’s at least taught me that a CESS is a tax, so 22 went in straight away. So did quite a few others, but I seem to be developing a blind spot for dog breeds, so TERRIERS was the last in after 55 minutes.

    Don’t want to prolong the debate about 12, but I don’t have any problem with reading “it’s” as “it is” (I wish there was a more elegant way of saying that…).

    1. think it is more likely to be ‘has’, ‘though greater minds than mine may disagree. While ‘has just’ may be parsed as ‘followed by fair’, ‘is just’ would need a rather torturous parsing as ‘”it” is in any case’, with ‘just’ tagged on without a link word.
  8. 24 minutes here, delayed at the off by going for Stick out and a kick-something competitor. Enjoyable obstacle-course. In 12 the ‘s can be it is or it has with the tendency to the latter, I’d say. Nice to think of the uncertainties of quantum theory invading the classical fixities of dictionary and grid.
  9. 39 minutes, so the easiest of the week for me. I had no major problems but ran out of steam for a while in the middle of solving with several unproductive minutes lost.

    There were no unknown words except PERK meaning to make coffee as I might have expected it to be spelt with a C. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it written down before.

    (I just looked it up in SOED which lists PERC as an alternative but obviously it has to be K here to fit the other part of the clue)

    1. I wasn’t a Friends fan, but the cafe on the show was known as the Central Perk, so it must be pretty well established. I much preferred Frasier and the Cafe Nervosa.
          1. My interest in US TV comedy shows ended around the time of Bilko. Having said that I was lured back for a while by the cartoon series Family Guy and American Dad. I’ve stopped watching them now because they seem to be going on for ever and I am bored with them. There’s something to be said for writing a limited number of episodes and calling it a day.
  10. 9:33, delayed briefly at the beginning by a rash punt on STICK OUT at 1A (reviewed when 2D looked like an anagram with no I), and at the end by a hasty DOLERITE at 8D, reviewed after ?A?R for 13 looked really unpromising.
    1. 7:44

      I’m with you on STICK OUT. Once I’d sorted that my last two were 28A and 29A.

      I’m still not sure whether I like solving online compared to the paper version. I do feel more stressed, even though I have my phoen stopwatch running when solving in the newspaper.

      Incidentally, I don’t know whether anyone else has looked at the new i newspaper from the Independent. It is only 20p and they have a prize cryptic crossword on a Friday. It was an iPad last week (I did not win) and a watch this week.

      1. I feel a bit more stressed solving online too, but I think that’s just because I know that lots of people will be able to see (and in some cases beat) my time.
        But for anyone with championship ambitions, that’s just the kind of practice you need.

        I’ve only bought i once, on another day of the week, when it had the “5 clue cryptic crossword” – done in less than a minute so not tried again. The comp one sounds possibly worth a punt …

  11. 15:41 today. Looked like sub-10 minutes until I got stalled in the SE corner, specifically 24 and 29 ac – don’t know why, they are quite straightforward. I’m happy with dd for 1ac and “it’s” = “it is” and no link word to “just” in 12 ac
  12. Jack appears to have solved the problem of how to avoid Friends, the default of desperate TV schedulers. Flew through all but 3 in SW corner but “ground” to a halt with PERK which proved the key to completion. Glad to see the back of a week in which I seem to have gone backwards.
  13. Thank you Dave for an informative blog except you did not explain PERK, which would fox many. I got held up by 17D when I first ventured WOOLSTON, ins of ST in WOOL ON (in jersey, perhaps) But the superb 28A soon put me right.

    29A uses a device TIERS (people using ropes) which I saw recently in a Guardian puzzle by Araucaria; so my guess is that the good Reverend may be the setter today.

    1. I have never seen John Graham named in the lists of setters given in books of past Times crosswords, and confidently expect never to see him as a future Times setter. According to crossword legend, he doesn’t like editors changing his clues, so would never fit into the “house style” system at the Times, which can apparently involve considerable changes to the puzzle sent by the setter.
  14. Was so excited to have finished it all without aids, only to come on here and find I’d made two mistakes! Carelessly put in MORECOMBE, and like David was convinced that CHIPSTOW was the town. Hadn’t heard of the author, or the clergy’s office, but managed them from wordplay.

    Am glad to say that all this new vocab I’m learning is being put to good use … in solving further crosswords! I’ll have to try and get CESS into conversation at some point…!

  15. 17 minutes, and would have been quicker if I hadn’t put in STICK OUT (I’m in good company there at least).
    However I too had MORECOMBE making this the fourth failure to complete correctly this week. Certainly a record. Very annoying for a straightforward puzzle with, very unusually, only one unknown (AMBLER).
    I wondered if there was a meaning for CHINESE WALL other than the one I’m familiar with, which is just a set of procedures. There isn’t really a “barrier” involved any more than there is a barrier preventing me from telling my kids that the tooth fairy doesn’t really exist. However I see that ODE uses the word “barrier” in the definition so I’ll shut up.
  16. Easiest of the week for me with every across clue from 1 to 16 solved in sequence without checkers. I put STAND OUT above the grid rather than it until 2D confirmed the A (probably easier to do when speed is not your main criteria). 15 minutes to solve.

    I was in the thick of working when Chinese Walls became an issue following a spate of mergers and acquisitions. In my experience they are a complete fiction with key information leaking verbally all over the odd bottle of wine in a City wine bar.

    1. People in the City spend a lot less time in wine bars than they used to, but it would be rash to discard a healthy degree of cynicism. I have more than once heard tongue-in-cheek reference to “Japanese Walls”: they’re like Chinese Walls but they’re made of paper. Geddit?
      1. This sounds very sad. I remember The City as one of the best watering holes in the world. The pubs offering London Pride and Young’s Best. The wine bars with excellent quaffing reds drunk with runny brie or ripe stilton. Has that all gone?
        1. If it’s Young’s, it’s “Special” not best. Remembered from ordering pints of “mixed” – half Special, half Ordinary (now apparently just called Youngs Bitter).

          I’m sure many of the establishments are still there, but believe most trade is now in the evening rather than lunchtime. (City worker most of 1981-2000)

        2. Not entirely but it’s gradually being replaced by a different sort of establishment: more lager and spring rolls than quaffing reds and runny cheese.
          More to the point when half of one’s colleagues have been laid off one is less inclined to indulge in long boozy lunches. The restaurant and bar trade in the City has been hit very hard by the credit crunch.
      2. Or, in the words of my former boss (a high-priest of political incorrectness): “By definition, a Chinese Wall is always full of Chinks”.
  17. Fell at the final fence at ‘Chepstow’ after about an hour getting there. Why ‘cow’ didn’t come to mind for ‘Jersey’ is a mystery: I’ve milked one in the past (long ago).
  18. 38 min; last in was PAGE TURNER as I kept wanting it to be the name of another specific book, e.g. KITE RUNNER! Pleased to have got IMAMATE from the wordplay.

    Re 12 ac, no one seemed to have yet mentioned that old ladies’ travel standby, the “vanity case” (sorry, I can’t see how to put hyperlinks in these posts, but just google it and there are lots).

    1. Hyperlinks:

      As axplained by Peter a couple of years ago:

      “Use followed by the ‘name’ and . Apparently ‘a’ means ‘anchor’ and and ‘href’ = “hypertext reference”.

      e.g.
      Times for the Times blog

      [When you put a URL in a comment, LiveJournal automatically makes it into a hyperlink – unless you choose the “Don’t auto-format” option as I have in this case to avoid the URL in my example becoming a link.]

      If you use links, it’s well worth using the Preview option to check that they work as you intended. Use copy and paste from your browser’s “address bar” to get the URL – typing URLs by hand is a mug’s game.”

      I’ve saved this meesage in word and just copy the URL I want into the bit between the tags and the add my own title.

      1. Aw crap. I was sure I ticked “Don’t autformat”. Can’t log in to delete the rubbish above either.

        Use the archive for 28 March 2008 and look for Peter’s post about 3/4 of the way down the comments

        1. Found that archive, but there doesn’t seem to be anything in there about hyperlinks?

          Sorry to be a pain when you’re trying so hard to be helpful!

      2. Thanks – this would have been really helpful, except that the “don’t auto-format” option obviously didn’t take any notice!

        If you can manage somehow to make it appear in plain, I’d be very glad to save it for future reference.

  19. A difficult end to a difficult week as far as I’m concerned. Had all but 7d, and most of the SW corner in about an hour before I ground to a halt. I thought 18ac was probably HIGH TEA, but couldn’t for the life of me work out why, so in the end cheated on 26ac and 17d to get me moving. The latter to my shame, as it’s only a couple of miles down the road.

    COD the very clever 24ac.

  20. This was another nice steady solve. Clocked off at 30mins. CHEPSTOW went in straight away – maybe because I went through it in the train last week. A castle perched on a cliff overlooing the Wye – a specacular view from the railway bridge. It’s a great “keep a welcome” moment when you come home again to Wales. Noticed also two Erics in one crossword. I wonder if this is a first..
  21. 15 minutes, despite STICK OUT at 1ac and a tentative (R)ALLY at 13, which I thought was reasonable. I was glad to see from Dave that the Chinese wall was not the Great one. CoD to WITHER
  22. 21:07 .. might have been faster but solved while listening to the afternoon session from the test – the time difference here in Atlantic Canada is, for once, working quite well for me. I get to relive the wonder years of childhood, lying in bed at midnight listening to the gentle, meandering conversation of the Test Match Special commentary team from faraway places.

    Oh, the puzzle was pretty good. Last in IMAMATE.

  23. 23:25. Imamate gave me problems too. Not becuase I didn’t know it, but because I’d foolishly put record at 5ac. Terriers held me up as well as I thought the def was at the front.

    I thought with ER, our age and way to summon were very good devices.

  24. 28 minutes. Quite a few clever touches in this puzzle, don’t you think? It’s what I call a really good Friday crossword: concise, witty clues, worth the effort of solving but not desperately difficult. Having put in VANITY FAIR, I looked for another title for 14; Eric AMBLER, however, certainly wrote a PAGE TURNER or two. Amusing anagram for ERIC MORECAMBE; he often makes an appearance. I recall a clue a few years ago, something like “Wise companion in seaside resort (9)”. Wonder why we never see Spike Milligan mentioned: his name is full of possibilities.

    By the way, the name I always associate with “Hep” is Slim Gaillard. Here he is with Chicken Rhythm, which, almost unbelievably, he managed to get past the BBC censors in the 1950s. Follow the link only if you’re not easily offended or are innocence personified, as those censors must have been.

  25. I solved this in a few sessions, last in the CHEPSTOW and WITHER crossing. Rather nice crossword I thought.
  26. For some reason could not see dolomite (even though it is mined locally) so cheated to finish in 25. Then found that I had misspelled Eric M. Ah well. Incidentally comedy does not always travel well. When Morcambe and Wise were introduced with much fanfare to prime time TV in New Zealand if flopped spectacularly and was pulled.

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