Times 29091 – workers, workouts and workshops

A pleasant workout with a couple of unusual words but nothing exceptional. So far I have failed to parse 21a to my satisfaction. I liked “announcement about match” best. No hidden word clues. Not much more to add.

EDIT can’t believe I failed to see the explanation for KNOCK, thanks jackkt and others for the input.

Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].

Across
1 Crucial moment of stomach workout? (6,4)
CRUNCH TIME – cryptic definition
6 Seize boat that’s docked in reverse (4)
GRAB – BARG[e] = boat, docked, then in reverse.
10 Construction of bars seen around extravagant home (7)
COTTAGE – CAGE around OTT = over the top.
11 Was on the bench, say, with team lacking water carrier? (7)
SATCHEL – SAT (what judges do), CHEL[sea]. Team, lacking sea / water.
12 Time taken up by mixing delicate drink (4,5)
ICED LATTE – (DELICATE T)*.
13 Grumpy after end of director’s cut for Taxi Driver (5)
CABBY – CRABBY (grumpy) loses R the end of director.
14 Over Tannoy, makes illegal announcement about match (5)
BANNS – sounds like BANS, but wedding banns.
15 Exploits Democrat blundering before event (7-2)
DERRING-DO – D, ERRING, DO = an event.
17 States things in a camera incorrectly? (9)
AMERICANA –  (IN A CAMERA)*.
20 Said yes, ignoring a deadly sin (5)
GREED – AGREED loses A.
21 Period spent in strike? (5)
KNOCK – well, knock can mean strike. But “period spent in”? Is this a slang term for prison time? I can’t find it in prison slang dictionaries. How else does “period spent (in)” mean knock? Enlighten us, please.
23 Detectives lost out (9)
DISMISSED – DI’S (Detective Inspectors), MISSED (lost). Out as in cricket perhaps.
25 Refuse place in sport workshop (7)
WEBINAR – BIN (refuse), inside WEAR (sport clothing). My LOI, as I’ve never been at a webinar, having retired from proper work in 2004 before such exotica existed.
26 Delivered beer intended for infirmity (7)
AILMENT – sounds like (“delivered”) ALE MEANT.
27 Star returns seizing time for snack (4)
NUTS – SUN reversed with T in it.
28 Queen, potentially, with even less money for merchant? (10)
PAWNBROKER – a pawn can become a queen in chess; someone broker = more broke, has even less money.
Down
1 Prickly types caught opening of play (5)
CACTI – C[aught], ACT 1 of a play.
2 Put ethane in a new configuration to add more risk (2,3,4)
UP THE ANTE – (PUT ETHANE)*.
3 Islanders check out novel writer (7,7)
CHARLES DICKENS – (ISLANDERS CHECK)*.
4 Sweet Edward posted to followers (7)
TWEETED – TWEE = sweet, TED = Edward.
5 Back worker to assemble bulk of money? (7)
MASSEUR – MASS (assemble), EUR[o].
7 Right, what was that muscle treatment programme? (5)
REHAB -R[ight], EH? (what was that?), AB[dominal muscle].
8 Boy secures lines on trees for film industry (9)
BOLLYWOOD – put LL into BOY then WOOD = trees.
9 Present lady’s leg? (8,6)
STOCKING FILLER – double definition, one whimsical.
14 Bishop doesn’t have pale or dark pen, perhaps? (5,4)
BLACK SWAN – B[ishop], LACKS, WAN (pale). A pen being a female swan.
16 Cries of surprise reach a climax after grand technical jargon (9)
GEEKSPEAK – G[rand], EEKS! PEAK. Not a word I knew existed but obvious enough.
18 Fixed radar on small European country (7)
ANDORRA – (RADAR ON)*.
19 Pass with two good marks and a bad one (7)
ABSTAIN – A, B (two good marks) STAIN (a bad one).
22 Tour regularly has scrap round route (5)
ORBIT – [t]O[u]R, BIT = scrap.
24 Possibly does without roof of tower block (5)
DETER – DEER (possibly does, lady deer) with T[ower] inserted.

 

84 comments on “Times 29091 – workers, workouts and workshops”

  1. 34 minutes.

    KNOCK is cricket jargon for an innings (period spent in), also the score achieved by a player during it.

    Although the answer came easily enough I had no idea what was going with CRUNCH TIME, but then I found that crunches are exercises for strengthening the stomach muscles.

    Nice puzzle.

    1. That’s got to be the correct one – I didn’t see it at the time but couldn’t be anything else (KAYAK definitely wasn’t going to work!)

  2. 22.43. Very enjoyable puzzle, even with NHO answers like GEEKSPEAK. Thanks to Nelson and Jack above for explaining a couple I had no idea about, namely COTTAGE and KNOCK. I’m a regular cricket watcher but missed that reference. Many good ones here, I liked BLACK SWAN, PAWNBROKER and BOLLYWOOD among others.

    From Black Diamond Bay:
    I was sitting home alone one night
    In L.A. watching old Cronkite
    On the seven o’clock news
    Seems there was an earthquake that
    Left nothing but a Panama hat
    And a pair of old Greek shoes
    Didn’t seem like much was happening so I turned it off and went to GRAB another beer
    Seems every time you turn around there’s another hard-luck story that you’re gonna hear
    And there’s really nothing anyone can say…

  3. Perhaps my quickest ever, but I couldn’t parse REHAB or SATCHEL (or KNOCK – thanks). More embarrassingly I overbiffed the novelist as CHARLES KINGSLY (even misspelling his name), which meant the SW corner become very problematic. Ho hum. Good fun though – thanks.

  4. 18:30
    I didn’t get the CHEL of SATCHEL, and now I see why. DNK KNOCK, assumed it meant ‘period of time’ in some context or other–cricket, natch. I liked ‘delivered’.

  5. 24m 50s Thanks, Pip.
    What Jack said about KNOCK.
    Since my last outing, when I mentioned the OUP Word of the Year, ‘brain rot’ and my recent discovery of ‘doomscrolling’, I’ve come across another ‘newbie’.
    As a subscriber, I get regular email updates from the Washington Post and the subject line in one email today said:
    ‘Today’s Opinions: A dadcore look at the Hunter Biden pardon’.
    ‘Dadcore’?
    All Collins Online has on it is:
    “New Word Suggestion
    clothes stereotypically worn by fathers viewed as a fashion trend”
    Meanwhile Wiktionary has:
    “dadcore (uncountable) A genre, aesthetic or fashion trend stereotypically associated with fatherhood or particularly popular among fathers.”

    Neither seem to describe what is going on in the WaPo email. Any suggestions and will we see it soon in the Cryptic?

    1. One that I came across recently was WASTEMAN, for which Collins Online has
      “New Word Suggestion A man who acts like a boy, lacking maturity, and gererally wastes his time and life by doing everything to achieve nothing.” This was a litte too close to home for me so I stopped looking further.

  6. Around 60 minutes for a most enjoyable puzzle. FOI DERRING-DO. Loved BOLLYWOOD, BLACK SWAN, CRUNCH TIME
    Thanks Piquet

  7. 10:33. I likewise failed to parse KNOCK, though I do know the cricket reference. I was also bemused by TWEETED, where I had taken ED to be Edward and wondered how TWEET could mean sweet. I was therefore pleased to find I had all correct having been half expecting a pratfall.

  8. 24 minutes. My only anxiety on clicking the “Submit” button was wondering how a PAWN was a ‘Queen, potentially’ and I’ve since looked this up. Bunged in HOLLYWOOD first for 8d until I bothered to look at the wordplay. I liked STOCKING FILLER and BLACK SWAN.

  9. 7.40

    Good fun this one – and unlike the QC, which took me a similar amount of time, I entered all the answers before submitting!

    Thanks both.

    PS. I see Solver52 is back on the Snitch, but is clearly a typist these days.

    And would it be possible to stop tracking my commented times, now my Crossword Club times (as Amoeba89) are also being pulled through?

    1. Just spotted the same re Solver52.

      I had same issue re both times being recorded. I contacted starstruck_au who was able to fix it.

      1. Thank you – I don’t know how to contact him directly, although I know he often reads the comments, so am hoping he spots this!

              1. Thanks to you both. I’ve marked both Solver52 and cacs as neutrinos, so they should be removed from the daily results list.

                I need to do a bit of work to align solver name with blog name and stop the doubling up. But I’ll get onto this when I can. Thanks for letting me know.

        1. OK, Amoeba, I’ve combined your blog solving results with your new club solver identity (Ameoba89) and now just show the latter. I trust that this is what you were after.

  10. 21:57

    Whenever I see K _ _ _ K I mentally biff KAYAK. One day it’ll be right …

    Great puzzle, was held up by SATCHEL longer than I should have been perhaps.

    COD to PAWNBROKER.

  11. This was a breeze, and a refreshing one. Didn’t know what was up with KNOCK but found the cricket ref in Collins. I like to do CRUNCHes, and probably need to now, as it’s been a while…

  12. 11.56 with an error

    For my skill level I raced through this but ignorance got me in the end. Much like Roy in the IT Crowd putting someone on a PEDAL STOOL, I’ve always thought that the BANDS were read in Church.
    Back to Sunday School with you Rowlands.

  13. 19:37 – Very enjoyable puzzle. Held up a little at the end by COTTAGE and TWEETED. Personal favourite was GEEKSPEAK – lovely to see it emerge from the wordplay. I didn’t parse SATCHEL as couldn’t see the team – now Chelsea is another synonym for me to forget next time.

    Thank you both!

  14. 28 minutes with LOI DETER. COD to GEEKSPEAK, which this geek has never heard of before. I’m getting there though, recently joining a webinar with my financial adviser, although there is no way I’m ordering an ICED LATTE. Enjoyable. Thank you Pip and setter.

  15. To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
    And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core
    (To Autumn, Keats)

    15 mins with brekker. I liked it. Very gentle, I thought, with enough trickery.
    Held up at the end by only seeing Kiosk for a while.
    Ta setter and Pip

    1. I wonder if Rilke had read Keats? From Autumn Day:
      “Bid the last fruits to be full;
      give them another two more southerly days,
      press them to ripeness…..”

      1. Interestingly I think that translation is by Galway Kinnell who definitely knows “To Autumn”. See his poem “Oatmeal” in which he has brekker with Keats.

  16. 10.30
    Fairly straightforward – I knew KNOCK’s cricket meaning, worked out NHO GEEKSPEAK, biffed WEBINAR.
    BLACK SWAN was the title of a ballet-based psychological thriller I saw in the cinema when it came out and reviewed as “For people who thought ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’ wasn’t mad enough”.
    LOI ABSTAIN
    COD CHARLES DICKENS

  17. Fun and easy but 2 errors due to lazily biffing in AMERICANS despite the obvious lack of an S in the anagram thus leaving SUSTAIN which clearly does not parse.
    Carried away with the possibility of a rare sub 20 min time I got careless. Kicking myself but not the setter. Enjoyed the GEEKSPEAK like WEBINAR and as it is now December cant grumble too much about the early festive reference.

  18. About 15 minutes, all parsed for once.

    – Took longer than I should have done to get CHARLES DICKENS, even with all the checkers for Charles
    – Needed all the checkers to get WEBINAR despite having thought of both ‘wear’ and ‘bin’ for the wordplay early on – I was thinking of a more traditional kind of physical workshop
    – NHO GEEKSPEAK but the cluing was kind

    Thanks piquet and setter.

    FOI Cacti
    LOI Knock
    COD Rehab

  19. 45 mins but would have been quicker had I not carelessly bunged in HOLLYWOOD leaving me staring at the end at -R-H for ages. Eek. Finally saw the error of my ways when I reread 8d properly.

    Lots to like, particularly the great anagram for the « Boz » and Queen, potentially.

    Also confounded re KNOCK so thanks Jack for that.

    Thanks pip and setter.

  20. 18:36
    Not difficult but full of fun and I was almost sorry when it finished.

    After many years, I stil regularly fall for the does/deer trick (see also winds and supply). Had SEMINAR for a while but BLACK SWAN (my COD) put paid to that.

    Thanks to Pip and the setter

  21. An excellent workout with much to enjoy. NHO my LOI but it made sense. The chess clue passed me by – I just biffed it.

    FOI GRAB
    LOI GEEKSPEAK
    COD BANNS
    TIME 13:00

  22. 12:49. Nice puzzle. LOI GEEKSPEAK needed all the checkers. COD to KNOCK nicely juxtaposed with DISMISSED after it Thanks Pip and setter.

  23. 11:50 for a gentle but very enjoyable puzzle. Should have been a bit quicker but lazily biffing AMERICANS cost me some time. I love it when a word like GEEKSPEAK emerges from bits of wordplay.

  24. Hot on heels of a decent performance in the QC a PB in the longer form of the game for me today finishing all green in 18:56.

    Just on the right wavelength I guess today with no real blockers.

    FOI:CACTI
    LOI:KNOCK
    COD: Many contenders but I will go with BLACK SWAN.

    It must be extremely rare that I have both of them nailed in less than a combined hour let alone 25 mins. Now feeling sad that I have to go back to doing real work. Until tomorrow.

    Thanks Piquet and setter.

  25. Like others, couldn’t parse KNOCK even though I know the cricket meaning. Also carelessly had HOLLYWOOD for ages, which made GRAB impossible. The penny eventually dropped when I bothered to read the 8d clue properly. D’oh.

  26. Despite my checking method referenced yesterday, I managed a spoiling pink for no good reason, but otherwise clocked 14.36. I expected the pink (two of them, to be precise) to turn up in KNOCK, because it might just as well have been KIOSK for the sense I made of the clue. Oh, but of course! Thanks everyone!
    Took a while to divest myself of the thought that a potential queen was a kitten, which was odd, because my recent FB feeds have been deluged with chess problems.
    As someone whose (normal) coffee gets discarded once it gets cold, I guess I don’t belong to the GEEKSPEAK/WEBINAR generation. And I can’t do CRUNCHes these days either!

  27. 1a Crunch Time. NHO the exercises, but it couldn’t be anything else.
    4d Tweeted. MER at sweet=twee. To me twee is sickly sweet, not the same thing at all. On the other hand Wiktionary has “From a childish pronunciation of sweet” so OK I suppose.
    7d Rehab. Half parsed only. Didn’t spot the ab muscle, so whole clue was meaningless.
    DNF, NHO 16d Geekspeak, not in Cheating Machine, added. I was really dim not to get this from wordplay, I only needed to get from g?e? to geek, not hard at all. DOH.
    If anyone wants my C.M. drop me a line at apwfisher@hotmail.com

  28. 23:29
    I had biffed HOLLYWOOD, and so got stuck at the end on 6a. GRAB was therefore my LOI.

    Thanks Piquet and setter

  29. 9:49. Steady solve, no particular hold-ups. A fun puzzle with a refreshingly modern set of references: crunches, ICED LATTE, WEBINAR, GEEKSPEAK, BOLLYWOOD. I did a WEBINAR yesterday so it came to mind easily.

  30. A shade under an hour but needed a bit of help in the SW corner, when KNOCK wouldn’t parse. When the O was checked, ORBIT, WEBINAR and the last three of BLACKSWAN, which had been stuck at BLACK S- – – for ages.

    STOCKING FILLER was the main blocker, when that went in I was able to clean up the RHS. Liked PAWNBROKER and BOLLYWOOD.

    I’ve worked in tech my whole career and have never heard of GEEKSPEAK.

  31. A rare sub 20′ for me, mostly falling into place with no GK problems. I did falter at BLACK SWAN, looking for some meaning of “unpredictable” rather than the simpler “dark pen”. I liked AMERICANA as “states things” and I’m glad to be reminded that I no longer have to attend WEBINARS. Thanks Piquet and setter.

  32. KNOCK was a very good clue: I’m keen on cricket but failed to see ‘Period spent in’ as a unit. 42 minutes, got a bit stuck but refused to use aids and forced myself to work out clues like GEEKSPEAK (not difficult since one only needed a three-letter word for a cry of surprise, but I was very slow here). STOCKING FILLER was nice but I think I’ve seen it before.

  33. I found that straightforward taking 16:32. My last two in were PAWNBROKER (got BROKER but couldn’t think of PAWN) and then LOI ABSTAIN. Thanks for explaining KNOCK and the CHEL of SATCHEL.
    Thanks setter and blogger

  34. NHO GEEKSPEAK, DICKENS took an embarrassing amount of time to emerge from the jumble of letters on my notepad. All done and parsed in what I thought was a reasonable time, but SNITCH tells me it was well under par!

    LOI was ABSTAIN. I liked the “potential queen” and KNOCK.

    16:34

  35. 11:30 – nothing too taxing. I didn’t know the cricketing term and also assumed it was slang for prison time. WEBINAR needed all the crossers though it should be familiar by now.

  36. 20:48

    Lovely puzzle, so many satisfying PDM’s.

    LOI MASSEUR for some reason took over 3’.

    Thanks all.

  37. 7:57. Steady progress but took a while sorting out the SE corner. Only quibble was for ORBIT being a “round” route; “usually elliptical” wouldn’t have made for a good surface.

  38. 20:09

    Not bad but held up at the end with the assumed G_E_SPEAK and K_O_K.
    The first took a while to drop but could not parse the second, even though I used to play a lot of cricket – doh!

    Thanks P and setter

  39. DNF as I had carelessly entered Americans, and that led to onward trouble. Gave up with most of the puzzle done. GEEKSPEAK, ABSTAIN and PAWNBROKER were the ones I couldn’t get, all as a consequence of that 17ac error I think.
    Tarnation!

  40. 38:59, a good time for me.

    FOI CRUNCH TIME
    LOI KNOCK
    COD ABSTAIN
    NHO BANNS or GEEKSPEAK but guessed both from the wordplay

  41. 14.54 of reasonably easy progress. Nothing too daunting making for an enjoyable puzzle. Thx setter and blogger.

  42. I’m late to this and still have yesterday’s 15×15 to do as my laptop died on Saturday and I’ve been setting up the new one. It’s easier than it used to be, but there’s still an awful lot of configuration to do. CRUNCH was first bit in with TIME coming after MASSEUR made it more likely. Liked GEEKSPEAK and PAWNBROKER. Realised what KNOCK was about after submitting. ABSTAIN was LOI. 17:54. Thanks setter and Pip.

  43. 25.18 About two thirds of this flew in and the rest went in steadily until last two PAWNBROKER and ABSTAIN held me up for seven minutes. First successful solve of the week anyway. Thanks piquet for explaining SATCHEL.

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