24709

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 10:12

Near enough exactly average difficulty for this one – a mixture easy and difficult clues, with the trickiest ones for me in the SW – 13 and 26.

Across
1 SCHNAPPS – drunken version of “snaps” = shots
5 DALLAS = city – reversal of “all” in “sad”, with overtones of the Kennedy assassination
9 PO(o)R TRAIT
10 BAN,QU.,O=old – Banquo in the Scottish play seems to have been a general
12 EVERYMAN = morality play, JACK = “one that uplifts”
15 A, L(I)AS(s)
16 SPIN = rev. of nips, DRIFT = coast = move without use of an engine – some time wasted here with words like “darts” for “hurries”, until the checker from 11D showed the way
18 PEP = energy, PER = rev. of rep, POT = drug
19 GRUEL = thin food – RU = “game”, in rev. of ‘leg’
20 CUT = share, AND = with, T(H from bench)RUST – trust and custody are both “protective guardianship”
24 IN HERE = “not out there”
25 HESITANT = “like one who’s lost” (“he who hesitates …”) – (tie, hasn’t)*
26 (n)OODLES – very well disguised – “bags of pasta” suggesting ravioli or similar, and “pasta” suggesting an Italian word
27 STONKING = v. large – TONKIN in SG from “sign”. I didn’t know the part of Vietnam
 
Down
1 SEPT = clan – EP in ST from Self-interesT
2 HARE = “that may be electric” (greyhound racing) = “Hair” = musical
3 ARRIVISTE = self-seeker – visit with the second I moved to the beginning, in rare*
4 PRIMROSE PATH – it turns out that the fictional Vicar of Wakefield was called Primrose, allowing this old-style allusive clue, which Tony Sever will solve in nanoseconds
6 A, MA(I)N – “man” and “rook, possibly” being “chess piece”
7 LO(t) = crowd briefly, QUAC(k) = cut charlatan, I.O.U.’S
8 STOCK = standard, S(heep), TILL = work on farm
11 EMBITTERMENT = sourness – (BITTER, MEN) = “blokes with beer”, in Met*
13 CAP = lid, PUCCINO = composer finally changed – more time wasted, by trying to find a suitably amended composer at the front.
14 DI(SPA=resort)TCHED
17 DIGESTION = (got inside)*
21 today’s one for you to work out
22 M.(AL)I.
23 STAG – 2 def’s, one who buys shares in new issues, hoping for an immediate increase in the price

34 comments on “24709”

  1. A slowish 48 mins for me, tested by some uncommon but not too unfamiliar words – including the very fine “spindrift”.
  2. Hardly electric hare, more three-legged tortoise, but at least I managed to finish in 93 minutes. Held up in the NW and the SW (opposites? opponents?), with STAG last to fall. Was in Vietnam in October, so ought to have done better on that clue. In the NW, I did myself no favours by entering ‘hair’ (electric with static!), making the relatively simple 9ac all but impossible. Once I’d got that sorted, PRIMROSE PATH was an educated guess.

    COD to SEPT with its large, cross-hyphen heart to extract and its potential for confusion with ‘sect’.

  3. I thought this was on the hard side of average, although I ramped up the difficulty by coming up early on with a ridiculous answer for the anagram at 17 which I’m now too embarrassed to share with the world. A good puzzle though, with 11 and 12 as my COD nominations. Last in were the two elusive four-letter animals, HARE and STAG. 83 minutes.
  4. Enjoyed this one and quite pleased with my 22 minutes till I found I’d carelessly written cappuchino. Liked the mindset generally.
  5. Kind of snowbound so it was good to get something requiring a bit of work. New words today: SEPT, AMAIN, STAG as a speculator (although I contented myself that it was something about blokes out on the prowl). The parsing of ARRIVISTE should by now occur natural, but doesn’t. Bottom half OK, top half tough.
  6. 14:51 today. Last in 26 across. As a Scot, I wonder whether a part can fully represent the whole in 1d?
    1. If a clan is “a close-knit group of interrelated families, especially in the Scottish Highlands”, I guess the same description might apply to a “subdivision of a clan”.
  7. About 45 minutes and much of it went in on trust, words I didn’t know so solved from wordplay (SEPT, AMAIN) and answers that jumped out at me so I didn’t bother with the wordplay (PRIMROSE PATH, EVERY MAN JACK, CUT AND THRUST).

    I had no problem with the Vietnam reference. Those alive at the time might remember that it was attacks by the North Vietnamese torpedo ships on US Navy vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin that led directly to US military involvemnt in the Vietnam war.

  8. 27 minutes. Impressed by many of the surface readings — most setters would be proud of these. I’d nominate 25ac as the best; though 17dn’s not far behind. Trying my best to shorten the latter given the possible overlap between “got inside” and “digestion” as such. Any takers?
  9. Easier than yesterday for me with steady progress from right to left, top to bottom in 20 minutes. Nothing in it for our misguided anon friends to rant about (is 70+ comments yesterday a record?)

    Like Jack I knew Tonkin for the same reason. I think 5A DALLAS is an excellent if sad clue.

  10. 46 minutes. Enjoyed this puzzle very much with its variety of interesting clues, even though it took me a while; best put on a woolly hat for tomorrow’s attempt. Clues 1a, 24a, 25a, 2d and 23d were all very good in their different ways.
  11. 15:12 for me, fairly slow going at first but by the time I finished I’d understood all the wordplay and not ground to a halt completely.
  12. I wonder how many non-Italian speakers could spell this word correctly first go without the letter count?
  13. 22 minutes for this rather fine crossword.
    I knew of the Gulf of Tonkin for reasons already stated, though pointing to it on a map would not be an option.. I didn’t bother even to try to link the Vicar of Wakefield with primroses, knowing I would discover the connection here..
  14. An enjoyable 45 minutes for me but SPINDRIFT, SEPT and AMAIN went in from wordplay only. Slowed down by ‘dispatched’ rather than ‘despatched’; looked at HARE for a long time before penny dropped; Gulf of Tonkin resolution (see jacktt) very useful prompt for ‘part of Vietnam’.
  15. If this easy “coffee time” style puzzle had had more anagrams to tackle, I might have had cause to rant about the impingement upon my scrible pad by a lilly-livered apology for the perfectly good clue yesterday. Fortunately, the scant anagrams on offer were all solveable within the grey matter.

    Glad to hear that there might have been some kind of record set yesterday about the ‘North/South divide’. Quite an inappropriate cliche, I’m sure you’d agree, given the fact that we now know that they’re indisputably partners. That must account for the number of cockneys that support football clubs from the north west.

    Thanks for your insights, Dorsetjim.

    Oh, eleven minutes and a bit.

  16. Lots of new vocab to be stored away for future crossword use (AMAIN, SEPT, INHERE…), these went in on wordplay alone. Had to look up vicar ref to get PRIMROSE, and, I too, got the spelling of the coffee incorrect. Convinced myself TONK was part of VN (in SIGN*), so got the answer in a roundabout way. Last one in HESITANT.

    COD to ARRIVISTE (… or maybe PEPPER POT…)

  17. About 30 mins for me today. Didn’t know Tonkin or Primrose references but both easily guessed.
  18. Very slow to finish this (50 minutes), with the NW corner being the toughest. A lot of good clues made it a pleasure to spend time on.
  19. I endorse the general verdict – reasonably straightforward overall but with areas of difficulty. I shared Peter B’s experience in being slowed down in the SW corner, with 26 and 13 the last to go in. Nor did I help myself by foolishly having FLOWER POT instead of PEPPER POT at 18 for a while (I think flower pots do usually do have a hole in the bottom to let water out, but still not clever). I had forgotten (did I ever know?) that the Vicar of Wakefield was called Primrose, so pure guesswork there, but no problems with sTONKINg at 27, having visited ‘Nam as a journalist in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Very nice surface read and wordplay read there, I thought, as with DISPATCHED, DALLAS, SEPT and INHERE.
  20. 9.13 Finally managed to do an on-line puzzle without an incorrect (intentional or not) entry.
    Liked HARE which was the key to getting 1a. Initially had 2 N’s in the coffee and didn’t know the Vicar’s name so needed most checking letters. Last in was HESITANT , took about a minute and thought I was going to be stuck on this one.The anagram indicator wasn’t obvious to me.
  21. Quick time, but undone by 27a where I went for a rather desperate STUNNING.

    As mctext and others have said, some really fine surfaces – the one for DALLAS the most memorable, if poignant.

  22. 57:19 – Amazed to finish without aids or mistakes in under an hour. Still had 8 left (4 in the NW, 4 in the SE) after 51 minutes and on the verge of giving up, when they all started falling into place.
    Several unknowns, guessed from wordplay – SEPT, AMAIN, INHERE & PRIMROSE PATH.
  23. 35 minutes, although I had to put it down and come back later to get OODLES & STONKING, both fine clues, as were all in general. My vote goes to DALLAS too, although HESITANT is close to perfect.
  24. I had to read “The Vicar of Wakefield” at school. I thought it was boring but the drippy name of the protagonist stuck in my mind. It has never proved useful until today. It took me ages to see SCHNAPPS which held up the NW corner. I’d forgotten about SEPT and was trying to make SECT fit in and so couldn’t get 9a. Finally saw the light after 35 enjoyable minutes.
  25. 6:20 with an error. I somehow managed to type HERITANT for the excellent 25A. Helped by impatience: I put in most of the long answers on the basis of definition and crossing letters, without worrying about wordplay – and they all turned out right this time.
  26. Definitely on the harder side of average as far as I was concerned, spent ages off and on through the day to end up with 3d and 24ac blank, whereupon I cheated. Can honestly say I would not have got either however long I’d stared at them. 4d also required a Google visit. Pretty difficult week, so far…
  27. Looks like I’m in eminent company with sotira in thinking that STUNNING was the best option, hoping there was a TUNN somewhere in Vietnam.
  28. 22 minutes, except for 23 & 27; never heard of ‘stag’ with that meaning, or ‘stonking’ at all, which cost me probably another 20″. Didn’t get ‘Tonkin’ until I realized I’d written ‘digesting’ instead of ‘digestion’. Then it came easily; no American of my generation is likely to have forgotten the WMD of that era.
    It was only when I read the blog that I remembered that I had not gone back to try to figure out how 3d and 20ac worked; I doubt that I would have succeeded.
  29. The setter and I definitely were not on the same wavelength. This was a struggle from start to finish. Never a good sign when I get to the bottom of the across clues without a single answer! Fortunately the down clues gave me a bit of a start but it was still a very slow solve for me.

    Louise (an often anonymous poster who doesn’t really care too much if N & S are opponents or not!!)

  30. About 30 minutes, and I thought this was an above average puzzle. Many very good clues, my favorites being OODLES and SCHNAPPS. I never heard of STONKING, but the ‘Tonkin’ part had to be correct, so in it went. Also not familiar with the vicar, but enough checking letters brought him out. Thanks to the setter. Regards to everyone.

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