Times 24760 – I am the walrus

Author   kororarekaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: 26 minutes

Even though I wasn’t in top form (much like a certain Scottish tennis player on whom I wasted way too much emotional energy last night) most clues fell at first sight, often from the definition alone, so I expect others will also find this relatively easy. Add to this an appearance by our favourite inspector. Who could wish for more on a Monday? Certainly not I on a blogging day.

Across
1 EXPOS for “big shows” containing SURE for certain = EXPOSURES
6 MORES = MORSE for inspector (who else?) with last two letters reversed. My first in.
9 VERSIFY = VERIFY for check containing Sentimentality
10 INFIDEL = IN for within + FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) for “chess organisation” + L for left.
11 STOAT = S for small + TO A “T” for precisely. I liked this one, although initially penning the wrong answer to 13ac in these lights didn’t help my cause, much like a certain Scottish tennis player’s overhead volleys.
12 LULLABIES, a cryptic definition, rather than a double, and my last in, attempting for too long to think of something ending in arias, apart from malarias, which had something to do with a composer.
13 TANGO, being the letter T for Tchaikovsky in the alphabet of the air, as in Whisky Tango Foxtrot. No, liede (sounds like “leader” for first) isn’t the answer, or in fact a word.
14 (IT’S A LONG)* + A for article = NOSTALGIA
17 MAMA for mother, ‘s for is, encircling (OLDER)* = MELODRAMA. Hands up those who thought that was a greengrocer’s apostrophe. I take it “parts” as an anagrind has more to do with breaking up than with components, but I’ll stand up so I can be corrected.
18 ASSAY = A + S for Southeren + SAY for state
19 SPHERICAL = (CLEAR SHIP)*
22 Deliberately omitted. Even if your form is as bad as mine, you should get this.
24 VINTAGE = TV reversed containing IN for popular + AGE for time
25 INITIAL, a double definition, subscribe in the sense of sign
26 RAY for “some light” containing IN for home = RAINY. Visitors to Perth, when it’s not beset by cyclones, have remarked that it’s the only city where you have to wear sunglasses in rain squalls.
27 aT nIGHT mEN lED = TIGHTENED, and much applause for pulling that construction off.

Down
1 E for European + AVES for birds = EAVES
2 PERSONNEL = (REPS – NONE)* + L at the end
3 Society + AIN’T HOOD for “isn’t criminal” = SAINTHOOD.
4 ROYAL AND ANCIENT, being a golf course in Scotland where you can still hire a sporran to carry your wee mashies and spoons. I’ve never played there myself, but I’ve heard it’s a tough audience. King Lear himself was, well, …
5 SHILLING for bob containing both SHY* and ALLY for friend = SHILLYSHALLYING. A great word for dithering, almost onomatopoeic. Collins has it sans hyphen.
6 A for area + IF for “supposing that” + AM for American (as in Amtrak) all reversed = MAFIA
7 Deliberately omitted, although some may be up in arms.
8 SALESLADY = SADLY* around ALES for drinks
13 TIMES for publication on top of AVER for state = TIMESAVER
15 ANARCHIST being RomAN ARCH IS Threatened contained. Take it away Adrian, who was such a nice boy.
16 GESTATION = EG reversed + STATION for base
20 H for hospital supported by IONA for island, reversed = HANOI
21 READY = studY placed after READ for the other study. Ready as in prompt or rapid.
23 SOLD for “went for money” around I for one = SOLID.

58 comments on “Times 24760 – I am the walrus”

  1. … 13 minutes. Had to think a bit about “subscribe” (transitive) in 25ac, but it didn’t take long to see it. Also wondered if (27ac) “and” (as link word) was missing between “led” and “became” — for surface effect. Then saw the other reading (again, of the surface). Otherwise not much else to add. Though I like the origin of “shillyshally”:

    mid 18th cent.: originally as shill I, shall I, reduplication of shall I?

    Make yer mind up Jimmy!

    Edited at 2011-01-31 05:09 am (UTC)

  2. Took 38 minutes, which seemed well over even my par. STOAT was put in without any idea why (so thanks Koro – your efforts have not been wasted). As one who used to do a bit of p/t repping in the distant past (the days of Ford Cortinas, indeed), I queried ‘saleslady’, a term I’d associate with a shop. Chambers backs me up (citing only salesman, -woman and -person) for the traveller. Perhaps another dictionary allows it?
        1. Coincidences continue to happen.
          1. Eastwood played Rowdy Yates in Rawhide, re my YouTube link.
          2. Koro’s YouTube link includes not only TANGO but MORES.
          3. Next … ?
  3. Back to a reasonable time, 22 minutes, a pleasant and alert challenge, though I relish the extra twist this puzzle lacks. The masochism of the long-distance solver. Rather liked 12.
  4. After a first pass turned up nothing but PERSONNEL, I was worried, but somehow everything then fell into place, and I got through in a record 16 minutes. It helped that e.g. 13d & 16 were guessable with just the checking letters; I didn’t read the clue until after. Liked 11 & 27ac. I suppose one of these days I’m going to have to watch an Inspector Morse drama, he shows up here so often.
  5. 30 minutes dead although I hadn’t worked out ‘TO A T’ for ‘exactly’ at 11 before coming here and couldn’t remember the name of the chess organisation despite having met it several times before

    Collins has SALESLADY as “selling merchandise or services in a shop or by canvassing in a designated area”.

  6. 11:42 for me. Not far short of a personal best.

    Something odd about Mctext’s imdb link above…

    When I clicked it I got a message I’ve never seen before…
    1 Click into the address bar
    2 Press enter
    3 Click reload

    I use imdb a lot but have never seen this before. Anybody else getting this?

    Mike O,
    Skiathos

  7. This must have been an easy one, as I scored a huge PB with an unofficial time of “Reading to Edgware Rd” (~40 minutes including changing trains at Paddington). As still something of a novice solver – solving completely is still fairly infrequent, hence the lack of a time – I was pleased to see a lack of real obscurities, although wasn’t too pleased with SALESLADY either, and it took me all the way to Barbican to convince myself of the wordplay TANGO.
    2. Well done on the PB. We are novices too, and spent 42 mins, of which 6 on explaining stoat to our satisfaction. But then… we didn’t have to change trains…only this week’s washing.
  8. Nice easy on to start the week! 9:05 so not far off a PB. Agree about saleslady being a bit dodgy but some very pleasing clues.
  9. 19 minutes for this enjoyable start to the week. Particularly liked 4, 11 and 12, though it took a few minutes to see “to-a-t” as I thought “toat” was perhaps an abbreviated form of totally that you might find in use at the Drones Club.

    NOSTALGIA is an interesting word, what Fowler might call a “worsened word”. Originally coined as a term for morbid homesickness, evolving into a type of melancholia brought on by thinking of past times, it is now reduced to meaning “fond reminiscences”.

  10. 16 minutes, the last couple spent justifying STOAT – a neat clue that I think I’ve seen before, but resistant to the dropping of pennies. Gets my CoD, though I also liked the construction of TIGHTENED.
  11. A surprising sub 20 minutes (very fast for me). The subconscious pulled out a number of answers which, on checking, fitted the wordplay. TANGO took longest to resolve (a bit put off by ‘music’ rather than ‘dance’, with the NATO alphabet not immediately coming to mind). COD to STOAT: I particularly liked the ‘to a t’ element.
  12. I was travelling at the end of last week, so didn’t get a chance to comment here. I did however get two hours on a flight to do Thursday’s and Friday’s crackers without interruption, which was a treat.
    This was very much easier, and took me 14 minutes in spite of constant interruptions on a crowded train. People kept asking me to move down, or just tutting and trying to pass me. You try doing the Times crossword while stopping every two minutes to say, “there’s a bloke sitting on the floor. Yes. On the floor. Yes. Sitting. On the floor.” It plays havoc with the concentration.
    FIDE is, in my case at least, pure Times Crossword knowledge.
  13. 23 minutes on my return to the competitive arena. Hello again to the regulars.

    I enjoyed 4, after wondering for a couple of minutes where ROYAL AND was heading. Good to see ‘links’ being used properly – jimbo will approve. It’s not really all that tough, Koro, although I’ve never played it in anything more testing than a gentle breeze.

  14. Very easy this, rattled through it in no time at all.. 6 or 7 minutes… Magoo for a day! I expect there will be some very fast times today.
    I was for many years (via the BCF) a member of FIDE, a strange body indeed, and so corrupt it makes FIFA look saintly by comparison
  15. Not quite so fast, at 9:27, thanks to STOAT, which I puzzled over for a bit before entering it on the basis that it couldn’t be anything else – very clever now it’s been explained.

    I’ve been trying out the online leaderboard, but the number of obviously pseudo entries are off-putting. Presumably these idiots have to pay the annual sub in order to look stupid!

  16. An easy 20-minute solve, but some nice clues to savour (12 was particularly neat) As I’m not a golf fan my entry for 4 was a bit tentative.
  17. 8:07 .. my fastest in a long while but there was still time for a few smiles of appreciation along the way. A model of an easier but elegant crossword.

    Among a clutch of delights, STOAT and LULLABIES stood out for me.

  18. Of course, the Royal and Ancient is actually a golf club that doesn’t own a golf course, the links at St Andrews being run by The Links Trust (http://www.standrews.org.uk/), though it does have “links to play” through that arangement. Despite having seen Iona, I didn’t spot the island reversed so thanks for that explanation!
  19. A weasel is weaselly recognised…but a stoat is stoatally different.
    Must have been an easy one today. I achieved a PB by a VERY long way (40mins 5secs) but still found myself down in the 50s on the daily leaderboard. Clever clueing, I thought in 13ac. I work in that part of aviation where the phonetic alphabet trips off the tongue, but “on the radio” sent me down the wrong path completely. I liked 12ac a lot but my COD was 27ac. Very clever
    1. Its not an impenetrable ferret, its a stoat. Well, this ferret’s stoatally impenetrable! Thank-you Tim Brooke Taylor. Whenever I’m hungry, I just peel me a bwana!
      1. Sorry, meant to mention, 15 minutes for me today. Last in the Tango, to a T! Missed the wordplay from the radio alphabet somehow, and the “to a T” for stoat, which went in anyway.
  20. Most of it has been said – I put in MELODRAMA without understanding the wordplay, but most everything went in on a first or second reading and my 10 minutes on the dot was good enough for second at the time, but now in the teens on the crossword club leaderboard.
  21. Easy Street, Easyville but not unwelcome for all that. What’s the current thinking on a difficulty gradient over the week, I’ve lost track?

    Thanks to mctext & John for the interesting linguistic asides.

  23. Am I the only one who’s never encountered aves before?

    That caused me doubts over mt last in, eaves, which I eventually bunged in on the basis that it could scarcely be anything else.

    13:01 online which was actually 12:58 when I pressed submit and for the sake of argument let’s call it the equivalent of a “paper” solve of, um, *checks Sotira’s time* 8:06.

    I enjoyed the definition for R&A.

      1. Hmm. I though about going with an aves/ave nots joke but thought better of it.

        And as for staot/weasel jokes, there’ll be another one along in ermine it.

    2. I fully accept that adjustment. I think that’s how Hosni Mubarak works out his election results so it must be right.
  24. Finished today for the first time in a long while – was determined not to leave an elusive last one, and STOAT, when I finally unravelled it, was a fine one to finish on. That and TIGHTENED are my joint CoDs.

    Hadn’t come across FIDE, so that’s one for the Xword knowledgebank.

  25. The first weekday one I have finished unaided in past fortnight. Was starting to thing I should subscribe to an easier crossword!!
    Louise
  26. 10 mins of good fun. HANOI last in, I don’t really know why. I agree with the scathing judgement upon FIDE.

    Tom B.

  27. A friendly 20 minute stroll along the fairway with no hint of rough and bunkerplay not required.

    Links golf is not really the same as ordinary golf. In ordinary golf by and large one aims at the green. In links golf you have the locals holding their aching sides in laughter as you aim at the green and the ball gets carried away over hillocks to finish somewhere miles away from the intended destination. Nice clue though.

  28. Wow! Thirty-two minutes 41 seconds solved online with a few interruptions from doctors as I am still in the hospital (having wi-fi put in to replace a kidney stone [see http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times/661268.html?thread=10354708#t10354708%5D seems to have led to more kidney stones and a kidney infection; by now I have had the grand tour of the operating tract of the hospital including the most modern kidney stone smashing machine in Europe, I suppose). Anyway, that’s definitely my fastest time ever, and it would have been even faster if I hadn’t spent 6 or 7 minutes discovering the wordplay for STOAT, obviously the only furry animal with the right crossing letters and my COD.

    An enjoyable puzzle, despite being easy, with a few other very nice clues (like LULLABIES, RAINY, READY and MORES).

    1. Well, very best wishes, hydrochoos. I think you’re allowed a Penfold-style time adjustment for adverse solving conditions.

      I like the sound of Europe’s best kidney stone smashing machine. Sounds a bit like the particle accelerator at CERN. If you spend much more time in there you’ll be solving puzzles before they’re published.

      Get well soon (this time that’s an order, as you seem to have ignored the previous entreaty).

    2. A speedy recovery to you hydrochoos. I’ve had the treatment and it sure beats surgery.
      As to the puzzle….also about a half hour with 6 or 7 minutes for STOAT.
  29. must have been easy as even i finished without aids, which is quite infrequent for me on weekdays. have to say though that i was looking for a plural word for 17ac, and still don’t see why it should not be so.
    1. Well, it could have been so, except you’d need another square; but ‘melodrama’ here refers to the class of play, of which any given melodrama is a member. As in ‘The heroines [not heroine] of melodrama are …’
    2. I raised an eyebrow at it too but then thought if ‘drama’ can mean ‘plays’ (as it obviously can) there’s no reason why ‘melodrama’ shouldn’t mean ‘sensational plays’ to fit the clue.
  30. I think everything that needed to be said has been said already. About 15 minutes here. The left side went in entirely on first read, and much of the right as well. Regards to everybody.
  31. 5:01 for me, leaving me slightly annoyed that I didn’t break 5 minutes. A nice straightforward start to the week.

  32. 7:23 for me, solved on the way home tonight rather than on the way in to work. Nice (and unusual) to get some amazed comments from three businessmen who were sharing the table with me on the train.

    Quick survey – how many of the regulars here solve the crossword on the train every morning (or evening)? It used to be a cliché that that’s what commuters do, but I’ve been commuting to London from Coventry every weekday for the last two years, solving puzzles in both directions, and have only seen a fellow solver two or three times. Sudoku has a lot to answer for, but are we really becoming such an endangered species, or am I just getting on the wrong train?

    1. I solve the Times on the way in and the FT on the way home. I almost never see anyone else doing cryptic crosswords.
    2. If you’re doing them that quickly other less skilled solvers will avoid sitting anywhere near you!
    3. I used to solve the puzzle every morning on my way to work, but in retirement I’ve taken to solving online late in the evening to avoid interruptions (other than from our visiting cat). I occasionally see people solving on the underground, but it’s less common than it was and (as you say) has been overtaken by Sudoku.

Comments are closed.