Times Crossword 13,030 – A Blast from the Past!

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Other Crosswords
Solving Time: About 25 minutes, including recovery from shock..

An interesting puzzle this, begging the question: “How does it differ from today’s efforts?” For me the main differences seemed to be two tricky quotations, a few arcane words or meanings, and a huge number of cryptic definitions, many incorporating an excruciatingly bad pun. Overall though I really enjoyed it, it made a pleasant change for me from today’s occasionally formulaic grids and I didn’t find it too hard to solve.
We are treated to this throwback because the first 2012 Championship Qualifier has been published.. it is now available on the main Times website, for those with access, and will be blogged here in due course no doubt.

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*

”

“

Across
1 ironing board – cd.. Do all ironing boards fold?
9 Thirlmere – (reel + mirth)* actually a reservoir, in the Lake District
10 upper – because a master is expected to have the upper hand, geddit?
11 nimbus – cd, a nimbus being the aura or halo supposedly surrounding a saint, as well as a raincloud
12 lashings – doesn’t really need explaining does it?
13 Euston – SUE rev + TO + N, a point of the compass
15 elements – cd, the elements = ABC in the elementary school sense of the word, as well as being what one braves
18 stirrups – cd
19 lissom – a quotation from Brooke’s “The Old Vicarage, Grantchester:” “..Curates, long dust, will come and go
On lissom, clerical, printless toe;” .. Curiously, I might conceivably have punted up to it from Cambridge on the day this crossword was published
21 ordnance – cd. A reference to both the Ordnance Survey, and the Royal Army Ordnance Corps
23 frigid – feet = F + RIGID. F = foot is new to me but is in Chambers
26 liege – LI(EG)E
27 Bangalore – BAN + GALORE
28 hairdressers – musical = HAIR + DRESSERS = sideboards. I thought hairdressers frequented salons rather than saloons..
Down
1 intense – IN + TENSE, as in (eg) future tense..
2 odium – (S)ODIUM, a rare scientific reference for the 1970s..
3 ill humour – cd
4 glee – gleeful is joyous, and a glee is also a song for men’s voices in three or more parts. You also need to know however, that a catch can also be a musical round for three or more voices.. Not common knowledge even then, I suspect
5 overalls – because supreme command = overall command
6 rough – a golfing cd, sure to please Jimbo
7 omitted..
8 irises – cd.. The eyes have them
14 skin deep – cd – because beauty can be skin deep
16 main roads – sea = main as in spanish main, and roads are anchorages
17 space bar – no explanation needed?
18 shoals – cd.. Shoals of fish, hidden shoals a danger to shipping..
20 madness – another quote, this time from King Lear, Act 3 Scene 4: “No, I will weep no more. In such a night
To shut me out? Pour on; I will endure.
In such a night as this? O Regan, Goneril!
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all—
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that.”
22 omitted.. –
24 glove – cd
25 oner – a “oner” being, according to the ODE: “archaic: a remarkable person or thing.”

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

25 comments on “Times Crossword 13,030 – A Blast from the Past!”

  1. 10′, except for the two I didn’t get, and, after another 15 or so minutes, decided I didn’t want to bother to try to get. Almost immediately, I felt myself torn between the excitement of thinking I might set a PB and the sense that these were really boring clues. Except for the two I didn’t get, of course. And no, some ironing boards come out of the wall, like a Murphy bed.
    Jerry, please: This puzzle begs no questions; it raises one, perhaps, the question you do, viz. “How does it differ…?”
    1. Kevin, your view is a traditional one, but it is not shared by the dictionaries. The Oxford Dictionary Online, for example, says:
      “However, over the last 100 years or so another, more general use has arisen: ‘invite an obvious question’, as in some definitions of mental illness beg the question of what constitutes normal behaviour. This is by far the commonest use today and is the usual one in modern standard English.”
      1. God, just what I needed: yet more evidence that I’m over a hundred years old.
  2. 40 minutes with both ‘sadness’ and ‘badness’ being tried at 20 before the obvious dawned, “that way madness lies” having entered the lexicon. Not many six-letter words of the type _I_S_M to choose from after that.

    As a fan of the cryptic clue, I found this fun too – it took me back to my first fumbling attempts at the Telegraph puzzle at around the same time – ‘though it must be said that, in general, the quality and quantity of the modern version has improved markedly. Anyway, nice to be taken away from Bletchley if just for a day!

  3. DNF. Having spent 30 minutes even just finding 25116 and another 30 solving it (I was on course for a PB but got stuck in the SE corner) I came to this one feeling a bit jaded. I did much better than expected for a while but ran out of enthusiasm on realising there was no way I would find the answer to the Curate of Granchester’s toe without cheating. I was quite pleased to get the Lear quotation and have no problem with glees and catches and their ilk.

    For anyone who couldn’t find the qualifier puzzle it’s at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00275/first-qual_275649a.jpg
    The printing defaults to 25% so you may want to adjust this before printing.

    Edited at 2012-03-21 02:50 am (UTC)

    1. Forgot to say congrats on your blog, Jerry, especially for getting it written up so promptly. I hope I never get a surprise like this one when I’m on duty.
  4. Or, if you prefer, an infinite amount of time. That is, I didn’t bother with this one. (Also apologies to Jim for missing yesterday’s blog — I actually had work to do for a change!)

    The Club website says (on selecting “Print”):
    “The puzzle 25,116 is the first of the Qualifying puzzles for The Times Crossword Championships 2012 and will be interactive on March 29. A PDF for entry is available online. This puzzle 13,030 is from March 21, 1972. – March 21, 2012”.

    So, two puzzles next Wednesday; or just one out of sequence?

    Thanks to Jack for the URL for the .pdf, which I will now try to find.

    Who is on blogging duty for what?

  5. I don’t enjoy these old puzzles very much, finding them irritating – particularly the barely disguised direct quotations. As it happens the “madness” one is well known and its intersecting one can be solved from checkers.

    The puns are excruiating and the point about the hairdressers and salons rather than saloons is well made. The rest is frankly pretty boring stuff but well done Jerry

    Thanks for the link Jack

  6. I see they have now amended the club site so that the link to the Cryptic goes to the Qualifier 25116. However 13030 is no longer featured anywhere so newcomers seeing us discussing it will have to trawl the archives if they want to solve it and join in.
    1. So what’s the protocol on blogging 25116?
      Andy? Dave? Jerry? Anyone?
      I’ve finished it and could do so as required.
      2. Crossword 13030 is still featured as a separate item on the crossword club home page. But readers of the print edition must be wondering what we are on about!
        As for blogging, it depends on whether there are two crosswords featured on 29 March or just 25116. George is down to do one, but I would assume there will be two so this one would seem to need a blogging volunteer..
        I note with some trepidation that I am down to blog both the days qualifiers 2 and 3 are published. Wednesdays seems to be a bit of a hot seat, mc!

        Edited at 2012-03-21 10:31 am (UTC)

  7. 18:49 .. I rather enjoyed it. Well, bits of it. The style is certainly different, but this was the 1970s: everyone thought prog. rock, bellbottoms and big moustaches were cool. I yearned for a mood ring.

    I do think IRONING BOARD is a pretty good pun – sure, they don’t all fold but it’s the conventional design.

    For context, here is the UK Top Ten from that week:

    1.WITHOUT YOU – NILSSON
    2. AMERICAN PIE – DON MCLEAN
    3 BEG, STEAL OR BORROW – NEW SEEKERS
    4. SON OF MY FATHER – CHICORY TIP
    5. MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION – PAUL SIMON
    6. ALONE AGAIN (NATURALLY) – GILBERT O’SULLIVAN
    7. GOT TO BE THERE – MICHAEL JACKSON
    8. BLUE IS THE COLOUR – CHELSEA FOOTBALL TEAM
    9. MEET ME ON THE CORNER – LINDISFARNE
    10. MOTHER OF MINE – NEIL REID

    .. which, in defiance of all expectations, really isn’t bad at all.

    1. It’s an absolute disgrace that Webb, Osgood, Hutchinson, Harris, Tambling and the others never got the recognition they deserved.
      1. Who can forget the 1970 cup final v Leeds. First ever drawn Wembley final and then the replay at Old Trafford. Chelsea’s first goal (Cook to Osgood) was superb but the real cracker was the second. Hutchinson throwin that hit Webby on top of the head and bounced into the net. Jack Charlton’s face was a picture!
    2. Thanks for the Top Ten, Sotira; I’ve had a really enjoyable nostalgic half-hour, wallowing with the aid of You Tube. It made such a pleasant change from my usual memories of the 70s, which are of galloping inflation, strikes, power black-outs and appallingly cut suits that were tight in all the wrong places.
      1. Fun, isn’t it – a real memory lane thing. The only one I couldn’t immediately place was ‘Wee’ Neil Reid who, according to Wikipedia, is now an Independent Financial Adviser living in Blackpool. But for a while there….

        As for the new Seekers song, they placed second in Eurovision with that smash. Now, come on, Engelbert…

  8. Interesting top 10 from Sotira. “Without You” was written by a chap who lived just up the road here in Swansea. Rather hijacked by Nillson but such a good song. I did this crossword in increasing puzzlement because I didn’t realise until coming here that it was an oldie. (I should have read the bit at the top!)I couldn’t believe the almost direct quotations. Quotes used to be staple fare back in the day. Anyway I finished it including quotations in 34 minutes. I knew the King Lear but got the Granchester one from the checkers. Does any other word fit? An interesting variation but I’ll be glad to get back to normal tomorrow.
  9. Just signing in to admit I couldn’t do this. Finished about half, in 25 minutes, and then gave up. But I do appreciate the UK Top Ten. I’ll try 25116 now. Thanks for the link Jack, and regards.
  10. I didn’t time this but found it much easier than I expected: I’d guess about 25 minutes, with quite a lot at the end mulling GLEE, ELEMENTS, LISSOM and MAIN ROADS. I didn’t understand MAIN ROADS and LISSOM was a complete guess. I know the vicarage more from the deservedly famous Araucaria clue.
    I thought this a nice change overall: the clues had a certain pleasing simplicity to them. I wouldn’t want them to be like this all the time though.
    None of the memory lane stuff rings any bells with me though: I was a bit distracted by the demands of gestation when this puzzle was published.
  11. I found this a little tricky, 42 minutes, but pleasurable, in a slightly irritating way. I may well have done it at the time. It was 1972 plus or minus a year that I sat in a large room contesting the London Final B session of the Times Championship and coming 222= out of 244. Not too nifty, but I did improve at a later date to about halfway up I think. They were the only two occasions I entered. A football memory of the time is the Spurs song ‘Nice one, Cyril…’ for one C. Knowles whenever he scored a goal.
  12. 5:51 for me – helped by knowing both the quotations. Had to go to the Times Archive (access kindly provided by my local public library), identify the spreadsheet I use for this particular grid (fortunately I already had a blank version of it ready to copy) and fill it in – a rather slower process than usual as I have to use the arrow keys to move from cell to cell, otherwise I’d have been a bit faster.

    No complaints. My sort of puzzle really.

  13. I forgot to throw in the remark that ONER is yet one more chestnut from the NY Times crosswords; and from nowhere else in the English language as used by any of us.

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