Times 24841 – Journey to the Corners of the Grid

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 15:57 on the club timer. I found this a hard one to get a handle on – it’s an interesting grid, with no answers longer than 10 letters and not much of an overlapping in the middle, so it was kind of make an inroad and fill out a corner before moving on. In order I solved the corners as Florida first, then Alaska, New England and finally California. I was relieved to see that my grid came back as correct as there was one anagram from wordplay, and you know how those can sometimes go bumph.

Anyone else noticed there seemed to be a lot of W’s and K’s in the grid? And a lot of fun definitions.

Away we go…

Across
1 A,PRO,POS: The POS are Petty Officers
5 MEWED: EWE in M.D.
9 TURBO: BRUT reversed(wheels), followed by O
10 QUARTER TO: QUART for the two pints, then RE reversed, and TO for something near. Semi &lit for QUARTER TO being time to get your last two pints.
11 SMUGGLE: GUMS(sticks) reversed then (LEG)*
12 K,U,WAIT,1: I liked the surface here, with wait being “hold on”
13 INDIAN FILE: INDIA as (he says through gritted teeth) recent Cricket World Cup champions and then (FINE,L)*. This was my guess from wordplay, it means one behind another
15 S,KIT: I’ve written a few of these
18 GAG,A: insane
20 MANGETOUTS: (MAO,TSE,TUNG)* – over here known as snow peas or sugar snap peas
23 OVERSAW: amusing double def
24 MO,UNTIE: loved this clue – Modus Operandi and the definition is a policeman up
25 SKIN-DIVER: SKIVER with IND in the middle and another crafty definition
26 I’ll leave this one neddih
27 SINUS: the pole S is IN the US
28 RUN INTO: RUN-IN, then T(w)O
 
Down
1 AGROUND: G in AROUND(roughly)
2 RIOT GEAR: (I,GOT) in REAR
3 PIQUE: sounds like PEEK
4 S,PARK,PLUG: I liked “leave car” for PARK
5 MOTOWN: TOM(friend of the queen/cat) reversed, OWN. Checked Chambers after the fact, it can mean the type of music, so “soul” works
6 WARWICK: RAW reversed then WICK(strip awaiting match)
7 your downly omission
8 STASHING: TASH(facial hair) in SING
14 FLAG,WAVER
16 TASTE BUD: I have this as a cryptic definition – TASTE is there, but I can’t parse BUD from the rest of the clue
17 ETRUSCAN: (CENTAURS)*
19 GRECIAN: REC(field) in GIAN(t)
21 UPTEMPO: TEMP in OP,U(superior)
22 B-SIDES: Take the E out of BESIDES – my last one in
23 OASIS: since there’ll be 0,AS,IS
24 MO,R,ON: “leg” in the cricketing sense

37 comments on “Times 24841 – Journey to the Corners of the Grid”

  1. Back later with a report. Meantime just a query about 10ac. I read the TO as “nearly closing” as in “the door is to”, almost closed. So the def is just “time”. Could that be it George?
  2. 56’, so a darn sight harder than George’s experience by far. While the right-hand side went in quite quickly, I was left with the left almost blank, staring at imponderables like 11ac. Might have helped if the def for 1ac were not so obscure: “touching” = APROPOS? And as for 19dn … well, the games may be Grecian but there’s a strong suspicion of wrong-part-of-speech syndrome here. Or am I missing something?

    Still, these are well made up for by the amusing defs that George mentions: particularly the ‘policeman up’. Got this right off after suffering the first hour of the Heartbeat Canadian ‘movie special’ last night. Ghastly!

    1. Combining two comments in one reply comment. I didn’t blink at APROPOS = in reference to = touching (maybe with on).

      You’re most likely right about TO = nearly closing, but I’ll leave my interpretation up because it makes closing time seem like a happy event.

      I think “Of ancient Olympia” = GRECIAN works – “games” is part of the REC indicator.

      1. Thanks for the clarification. I was indeed missing something! Happens a lot these days.

        Suspect you’re right that 16dn is just a cd. The BUD is, roughly, “there”, i.e., where there’s a little sense/sensation. Or where there’s a little thing that senses. Parsing cds can be an endless task but!

  3. 23:57 .. wasted a lot of time by typing in STACHING, which led to much delay in getting SMUGGLE.

    Really fine puzzle.

    COD .. B-SIDES is terrific. Not that anyone listens to vinyl these days…

    OASIS, (Dionne) WARWICK, MOTOWN, (Lady) GAGA, UPTEMPO and B-SIDES… any other music in here?

  4. If you take bud as ‘friend’, then you’ll not want to give him a smack.
  5. 97 minutes, but no mistakes, so honours shared. Not familiar with a propos or up tempo as single words, and TASTE BUD held me up until I got the skit. Also had ‘time’ as definition for 10ac.

    Last in STASHING followed by TURBO; INDIAN FILE from the definition. Thanks to George for the full monty on that one, as well as MOTOWN and OASIS.

    I can never hear ‘mew’ without thinking of this (7:25).

  6. After the initial shock of coming here and seeing George’s solving time I was relieved to read the comments so far which confirm that I was not alone in finding this extremely difficult. I lost track of my own time but it must have been around 90 minutes spread over two hours, some of it on the commute.

    Intitial progress was in the SE corner, then the NE but like mctext I had little on the LH side for ages, PIQUE, FLAG-WAVER and OASIS being about the sum total. Before I had any checkers at 11ac I wasted ages trying to make REGLUES fit.

    I would have found this a nightmare on a blogging day simply because progress was so slow I know panic stations would have taken over. The only positive I take from the experience is that eventually I was able to solve it correctly without resort to aids.

  7. Very busy at the moment but had to make time to thank the setter for this terrific puzzle. About 2 hours (including morning chores) unaided but didn’t understand OASIS.
  8. 27 minutes, definitely on the hard side. I also spelt STASHED with a C, which is wrong, apparently, and really killed the NW until corrected. QUARTER TO caused a lot of head scratching too – I was innocent in the days of proper closing times, but wasn’t it 11, making the definition “nearly closing time? TASTE BUD is a weird clue that I still don’t really get, though there’s some decent stabs here. I initially essayed SLOT for the take off opportunity in 15, without being able to justify LOT=gear, making WARWICK WARMILL or some other town I hadn’t heard of.
    A point of interest for me in this one was the high number of “unusual” crossing letters (K W V F and such) and word endings (O U) which would normally make solving easier by reducing options, but didn’t in this case.
    Astonished by the Mao anagram.
    A puzzle which invited more mistakes than usual, but fair enough. CoD to the OASIS charade. Thanks George – impressive time.
    1. I think as mctext says above the definition has to be just “time”. If it’s “nearly closing time” then TO isn’t clued. If it’s “closing time” then it’s wrong, because as you say closing time isn’t QUARTER TO. If it’s “time” then TO is clued by “nearly closing” and the whole thing works.
  9. Thanks z8 but I should have said that I didn’t understand OASIS until hearing from George.
  10. Defeated by a great crossword (thanks, setter); finally gave up after about two hours with NW corner mostly blank. It’s good to have such a fair, but demanding, challenge which properly puts me in my place. Came here for rescue. Thanks for an excellent blog, George: I take consolation from the fact that at least, in most cases, I was on the right lines (though very cross with myself for not getting INDIAN FILE). Too many potential CODs to enumerate.
  11. 27 minutes. I really enjoyed this one: nothing obscure, just cunning clues. Lots of eureka, very little grind. Thanks setter.
  12. The answer must be 2000. (This “joke” has been carbon-dated to approximately 300AD.
    This was my sort of crossword. I chuckled my way through this for about an hour and a quarter and wanting to, playfully, beat the setter about the head with a rolled-up copy of The Times. Too many goodies to mention, really, but OVERSAW was my favourite and who knew that Mao was a secret Green?! Thanks for the explanation of OASIS, George, and for “mate of the queen’s”, although I felt the latter was stretching things a bit. Yes, I did notice the W’s and the K’s! When I see the same letters popping up, the slightly unusual ones, I tend to go looking for more.
  14. I don’t get chance to comment much these days, but felt I had to today. This was the best puzzle for a long, long time. Full of smiles, a-ha (another musical ref) moments and clever defining.

    I’ll give B SIDES my COD nod but there are many other to choose from.

    Huge thanks to the setter

    1. Not to mention the appearance of the first authenticated Lady Gaga clue in The Times.
  15. Excellent puzzle that was a struggle after 18 holes and a short respite in the 19th. My only questions, such as TASTE BUD, have all been aired. Well done George and thank you setter.
  16. I’m relieved some others found this on the challenging side. After a good opening top half, I slowed to a rambling standstill, but came home strongly in 45 minutes. A superb puzzle for all that. COD to the gobsmackingly good MANGETOUTS, or is that lipsmackingly, as per 16d.

    As for Closing Time, didn’t Tom Waits devote a whole album to the topic, including this song which has been earworming me for about 30 years; every time I’m up early enough to see the sun rise, which fortunately isn’t often. I hope it doesn’t have the same effect on anyone game enough to follow the link – it’s from his mannerist period and not quite so infectious as the original.

  17. Took two hours and needed aids to get apropos and mangetouts, so would have to call this a difficult one. Was actually pleased to get as many as I did, with so many excellent but challenging clues.
    I’m in awe that someone could knock this off in less than 16 minutes, so well done George.
  18. For what it’s worth, I’m usually aiming for 10 minutes and under when I do it online, as I type MUCH faster than I can write. Solving with pen and paper, I’ve rarely broken 10 minutes.

    Back in the early days, this blog was a sort of an unofficial competition for times, however it appears most of the sub-10 minute crowd have left the blogging team, at one point around the NMS’s, Grafens, Carons, Magoos and Biddecombes of the world, I was the slow-poke.

    Thanks for all the time congrats, but I think it was a tricky crossword – a peek at the online timer has very few “legit” times under 10 minutes. And I’m sure there’s a good reason, but at least on that clock, I have an extremely rare PB!

  19. Surely the clue isn’t quite right? FOUND would place A(nswer) inside GAG, not at its end.
  20. Very nice puzzle, and I echo the thanks to the setter. My COD goes to the SKIN DIVER, for the ‘going to bed out of habit’. My take on TASTE BUD was that you smack your lips when you taste something good. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it’s how I got there. About 45 minutes of fun, ending with the INDIAN FILE/RIOT GEAR crossing. Regards to everybody.
  21. I intended to comment earlier about how wonderful this puzzle is but got hijacked. Now it’s all been said. For me this was the best, though not the fastest, puzzle in ages. It took me a while to get started but once I had the NE corner the rest flowed slowly but smoothly. Lots of LOL moments. Wonderful MANGETOUT anagram (Who’d have thought it!!) and great cryptic definitions – SKIN DIVER, B-SIDE,INDIAN FILE. A very enjoyable 46 minutes.
  22. Ouch, blinder, finally shoved in motown on a prayer at something over an hour spread out over distractions. Definitely had to ratchet up a notch for this and took a long time to do it. This was one to separate the sheep from the goats and I remain in woollen coat, bleating pitifully.
  23. Hear hear, an excellent puzzle and a possible contender for the hall of fame. I needed to sleep on it before finishing off the last half dozen. MOUNTIE was a gem, my only slight quibble was/is over TASTE BUD.
  24. After a long and frustrating solve (I printed out the puzzle with about two-thirds of it solved after an hour, took it square dancing and finished it during the breaks) and upon reflection I do agree that it has a number of superb clues (OVERSAW, MANGETOUTS, MOUNTIE, SINUS, OASIS, I could go on and on), a few I never really understood though I got them right, and one or two I didn’t like which no one seems really to understand (TASTE BUD, in particular). Butcher = peek? A mystery to me until Chambers told me it’s rhyming slang. GRECIAN? For some reason I parsed “Huge, truncated” as GRAN(d) and tried to read ECI as a field (in physics, perhaps?) And of course there’s the one entry in Welsh, which I don’t entirely like the clue to (is “needs” really a containment indicator?).

    Still I will gladly chime in on the kudos to the setter.

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