Times 24,673 – A Cheltenham Special

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This crossword was just my style: about average difficulty overall, but with some tricky clues that needed thought and some tip-top surfaces to many clues. After 20 minutes, I had two clues left (20ac, 25dn) which however took a further 6 minutes to resolve, so 26 minutes in all. This is my first daily cryptic blog, and the relatively short timescale for blogging does add a certain frisson to the solving experience. I suspect we may get some reasonably fast times today, but also some errors!

This is the second of the six crosswords used in the preliminary stages of the recent Championships. Peter B is on holiday at present, but he has left us some comments:
“Prelim 1 Puzzle 2: I started this one at the same speed as Puzzle 1, but came to a halt in the SW corner, mainly from being unable to answer the question “Why Mack with a K?” at 4 down. When answered (I’m sure the tune was on my iPod waiting for use after handing in my puzzles), others like 26, 28 17 and 19 fell quite quickly. Other source of delay and mystery: trying to find wordplay for AVOCET in 28. Maybe 10 minutes, in two chunks – Puzzle 3 was done as a way of re-jigging some brain cells while stuck. 10A was the other trap I was thinking of when discussing last Wednesday’s 19A.”

Across
1 vivacity – exam = VIVA + CITY, a “great place”
5 Cannae – a homophone, or thereabouts. .. for “canny.” and also Scots for “can’t.” Sorry if that was not clear Cannae was one of the battles where the Carthaginian general Hannibal demonstrated his exceptional tactical abilities
9 – deliberately omitted.. ask if unsure
10 uninhabited – not self-conscious = UNINHIBITED, with the I being removed and replaced with A to make UNINHABITED – a fine clue, this one, elegant surface and tricky underneath.. easy to get caught out, as Peter says
12 cricket bat – two fliers, = CRICKET + BAT, the result being used for, eg, a leg glance..
13 fair – F(A)IR as in “a fair size”
15 clutch – 2 defs.
16 rankled – road = RD containing ANKLE = joint
18 outback – blooming = OUT + BACK = “in the past”
20 stifle – ELF + ITS, rev. My second last in, I was convince the fairy was contained inside “it” or alternatively was outside another word that meant to strangle. I first thought of “skilla,” a word for fairy that sadly does not exist..
23 ward – WAR + D, to give custody in the “ward of court” sense
24 Micronesia – (INCOMER IS A)* Another fine clue; beautiful anagram, beautiful surface
26 raw material – artist = RA + (LAW I)* containing mother = MATER. I had a bit of trouble unravelling the wordplay, though the answer was clear enough
27 – deliberately omitted.. think duvet
28 dunlin – debt collector = DUN + NIL rev. To my inexpert eye a dunlin’s beak looks as straight as a die, unlike an avocet’s but what do I know?
29 stubborn – (BOB TURNS)* ..another elegant surface
 
Down
1 Venice – V(E)NICE
2 vitriol – V + I + TRIO + L, the V, I & L being our old friends, Roman numerals
3 chuck steak – CHUCKS + TEAK
4 twist the knife – cheat = TWIST, + THE KNIFE as in Mack The Knife. I had a lot of fun choosing the link here, do try a couple of other versions too if you have the time. Though I doubt if this tune would end up on my ipod. If I had one.
6 asbo – YOBS ARE rev., ie up
7 – surely this one doesn’t need an explanation?
8 Eldorado – (LOADED)* containing gold = OR
11 head restraint – (STARTED HERNIA)* .. another fine surface reading and my COD, I think!
14 indian club – orient = INDIAN + CLUB = “footballers maybe.” Would “oriental” be better? ..no it wouldn’t, the reference being to Leyton Orient, a club based in East London; thanks to Fathippy
17 hot-wired – employed = HIRED containing OT + E , the def. being “started probably illegally.”
19 throw in – a reference to the worlds of boxing (“throw in the towel”) and association football apparently, both something of a closed book to me but even I knew that when the ball leaves the pitch a throw-in is a normal result
21 lesotho – “for fear” = LEST containing O, + house = HO
22 bang on – 2 defs.
25 Bali – I thought of party = a do, etc, I thought of party as in “third party,” but even though BALI was a strong candidate for the last space left in my grid, it took me forever to see party = LABOUR party… ie LAB rev. + I. Not a hard clue, when the penny finally dropped!

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

44 comments on “Times 24,673 – A Cheltenham Special”

    1. Also – re 14D the use of Orient is because there is an East London club called Leyton Orient (or Orient for short) hence the surface and the misleading quality. Oriental would have ruined all of that.

      That said – i had never heard of Indian Clubs, so struggled with this one, having to run through the letters one by one… ENSIGN CLUB anyone ??

  2. Hmm.. none of my links seem to be working 🙁 .. Livejournal has inserted an html address of its own in front of the address I supplied, thus breaking them.. does anyone know why? I do hate html
    1. .. I can’t see anything wrong with my script. Meantime, you can make the link work by clicking on it and then deleting the Livejournal part of the web address of the resulting page.
      1. This phenomena happens to me when I use a word processor like Word or similar to prepare my HTML script instead of something which understands it’s just text; the double quotation marks look like double quotation marks to the eye, but not to the computer. I find the only cure is retype all my href=”” double quotation marks in the Live Journal editing window.
        1. Oh, well done Koro, the links are working now.. I will try doing the next blog in Wordpad or something..
          1. I have a spreadsheet that I use which does all the formatting for me. I have emailed it to you in case it’s of any use.
  3. Agreed, a good mid-level puzzle with an easier end (29ac) and a harder (28ac): 26 minutes, strangely held up by 17dn which would have had me done for at Chelters.
    Just wondering if there will be North-of-the-border complaints about the homophone at 5ac. Does nae bother me.
    And 12ac reminded me of the Yorkshireman who asked where bats go in winter. “I don’t know, but if you don’t oil ’em, they crack”.
  4. Just got an email from the Crossword Club offering a discount for a year’s renewal (£19.99/$Aus32.16). But if you click the link in the email, you just get sent to the puzzles site. And there’s no further info on the “My Invoices” page.
    1. McT, just spotted this on another board:

      “I just received an email about the possibility to renew my subscription when it expires next year (Do I honestly want to put myself through another year of battling with the Listener?) and clicked the link. It didn’t work and I emailed the customer service. An instant, most courteous reply came back, saying that they were having a problem with the link that will be fixed within an hour. Things do seem to be looking up.”

    2. I also have had a polite reply from The Times, not instant but within the hour, enclosing a new link which worked fine. I am torn between thinking on the one hand that even when they are asking for money they can’t get it right, how astonishingly incompetent is that?.. and on the other, well i emailed them and they dealt with it quickly and sorted out the problem.. sort of 15-all, I suppose
      1. I’ve just used the link on the original email and it works fine now.

        I note they don’t advise when the new subscription actually starts and finishes so in view of previous hassle over renewals I have written asking for confirmation in writing.

        I believe we are all supposed to get an additional month free of charge before the new sub starts and I’ve an idea I was also offered some extra days as compensation for some cock-up or other they made over my renewal last time.

        You’ve got to watch them as they are quite capable of taking the money twice.

        1. After posting in the crossword club forum I was told that the new subscription begins whenever your old one ends (including the free month), and after hearing that, I did renew and can confirm this information. It’s not clear when you will be billed, though — I think the reduced subscription is billed when you order it, but it’s not clear when the renewals will be billed (one year from now, or when the subscriptions expire).
  5. Slowed by early, confident entry of PINBALL (for NETBALL, PIN being my trap), only resolved once figuring that CANNAE must be a battle. Then horribly stuck in SW corner till sorting OUTBACK which was the key to HOT-WIRED. Then a fluke guess for DUNLIN so at least I finished with a correct grid. 2 finished and 1 to go ie in the non-elite race.
  6. 45 minutes but was unable to finish without use of aids at 28ac. I had all the checkers and suspected it would end with NIL reversed but I have never heard of the bird or the debt-collector so there was no way into it for me. I think it’s a bit much having a clue that relies on one knowing two obscure words but then I’m probably only miffed because I didn’t solve it.

    I’m VERY angry that the Times have messed around yet again with the appearance of the puzzle when printed in grey (the lines of the grid are now in heavy black which is distracting and it wastes ink). Also for the first time for me it didn’t print on one page when using the default font size which seems to be point 14.

    1. May I suggest that in the print dialog box you reduce the size to 70% and print
      draft. This provides a decent-sized grid with quite readable clues, lots of space to
      work things out in and a traditional black-square puzzle without using a lot of ink.
      I also prefer solving using black ink with a bottle of correction fluid close at hand.
      The overall effect is quite pleasing to the eye with a feeling akin to ‘oatmeal you can stand on’.
  7. I had no problems with this and cruised through in 20 minutes.

    Got 5A CANNAE from the “battle” and “Scots can’t”, ignored the homophone. I liked 10A, UNINHABITED – a very slippery clue that forces one to read carefully. I think bar crossword solvers will have known DUN=debt collecting but I don’t recall seeing DUNLIN before, so quite obscure really

    Speaking of bar crosswords I’ve won a prize for Mephisto 2615, the first I’ve ever won for any Times crossword – so still running behind Barry!

    1. The only competitors bringing up my rear are 2 guys, rather unfairly I thought, running as a team. Mind you, they are dressed in a donkey suit.

      Excellent news Jimbo.

  8. Started well but lost the setter’s wavelength after halfway, making it a bit of a slog to the finish. Actually, didn’t quite make it that far on my own, as I needed aids for DUNLIN (for which I got as far as D-NLIN), INDIAN CLUB (never heard of this – also flirted with ‘ensign’ but cannae enough not to put it in) and STIFLE (for which I got as far as STI-L-). The last named was a fine clue, but I think I’ll award my COD to one I actually got – CLUTCH.
  9. I’ve just tried to print today’s Cryptic and Concise in “Grey”. Both came out in black.

    Also, the font choices are such that the smallest is near microscopic and the next size up (the default) is larger than necessary. Neither matches yesterday’s take it or leave it font which, for me, was fine.

    Mike O
    Skiathos

    1. My “black” squares came out grey (fine) but the lines of the grid are now heavy black. I agree with you about the font sizes.

      I have reported this in the General forum without much hope, but perhaps if many people do this they just might put in a quick fix.

  10. 18:35 .. with a lengthy scratching of the head at the end before INDIAN CLUB and STIFLE fell into place.
  11. 16 minutes with no major issues and avoidance of the Heffalump trap at 10. CoD to RAW MATERIAL for clever cluing.
  12. Defeated by DUNLIN after 35m: two obscurities in one making for a slightly unfair clue.
    Otherwise I made very heavy weather of this. I didn’t help myself by writing SCREW THE KNIFE, immediately realising it was wrong, then confidently writing CHICKEN in at 12ac. Again I immediately realised this was not just wrong but daft, but at this point the NW was a bit of a mess. Somehow it’s hard to ignore letters in the grid even when you know they’re wrong and I had more trouble than necessary with 1ac and 10ac as a result.
    More haste, less speed.
    INDIAN CLUBS have appeared somewhere very recently: if not here then in a jumbo or the FT.
  13. I remembered this was a prelim puzzle fairly late into the end-of-pen-sucking process I like to call solving and immediately felt for those poor would be champions at Cheltenham. This one would certainly have done for me. I was held up pretty much everywhere; in the SW by the clues and in the NE by the pinball. Last in, the fairy and the bird. An excellent crossword, though. COD to RANKLED… no STIFLE… no OUTBACK… no…
  14. This was the easiest for me for a long time and I’m delighted to have broken the 20m barrier for the first time (I rarely get below 30m). The sun is shining and all is well with the world!

    Nick M

  15. 42:08 although could have been quicker if I’d had a little more confidence in my answers. I thought of CANNAE early on, but hadn’t heard of the battle so I talked myself out of it. Also went through the same process for DUNLIN, but didn’t know the bird or the debt collector. Went with it as a wild guess in the end, and was pleased (and a little surprised) to find it correct. All in all, probably lost 10 minutes to dithering.

    So that’s 2 out of 2 all finished and correct for me so far, although I’m already over the hour (just)!

  16. Tried to solve this in “virtual Cheltenham” mode. Completed in 6:11, but fell headlong into the 10A trap. More haste, less speed.
  17. DUNLIN did me in, I put in DANLIN, not having heard of the debt collector or the bird. The smaller font size was a great relief to me, as most of the daily crosswords haven’t been printing on one page, and the small font came in with about four lines to spare at the bottom of the page.
  18. The RHS done in no time at all, but came to grief in the SW corner and the intersection of 1ac / 2d. Eventually got the latter two, cheated to get 18ac (and promptly kicked myself), and had to cheat again to get 28ac, having never heard of DUN or DUNLIN. COD a toss up between 1ac, 10ac, and 8d.
  19. A lengthy slog ending with the now familiar five-way guess for d-nlin. Though there may be debt collectors called Dan, there is apparently no such bird as a danlin so I suppose I don’t go through to the finals.
  20. I think I had most of this cracked in about 17 or 18 minutes but with 28ac, 17dn and possibly one or two others missing before I moved on to puzzle 3. I came back to it after getting as far as I could with puzzle 3 and got hot-wired and whatever else was missing but 28 still eluded me beyond D?NLIN so I went back and finished puzzle 3.

    As the clock ticked towards the hour I just stared at 28, deciding that however likely it was that there was a debt collector called Dan, Den or Don in Hardy, Austen or Trollope, Dunlin sounded more like a bird so that’s what I went with, holding up my number with about 1½ minutes to spare.

  21. ……..I can’t believe I had even written down RA for artist and still couldn’t figure out raw material!
  22. from your Scottish correspondent: no problem with ‘canny’ (as in ‘ye canny shove yer granny aff a bus’, a favourite childhood song) and the ‘shrewd’ meaning; my problem is that people who listened to the Latin teacher would pronounce the battle “can I”. Sorry for delay, I do the xword with lunch
    cheers
    1. I love the sound of the song. Though of course, technically speaking, you can. But you probably shouldnae, even in Scotland.
  23. I went through this in about 15 minutes, without great problems as I knew the DUNLIN and the battle. I didn’t, and still don’t, know what on earth as ASBO might be. Last entry, the only other thing I didn’t know, was the INDIAN CLUB, with STIFLE going in just before (nice clue). Regards to all.
    1. Hello Kevin. An Anti-Social Behaviour Order. A device used by the courts to try to curb anti-social behaviour and sought after by yobs as a right of passage into the inner circle of their local gang.
  24. This one took me about 10 minutes at Cheltenham, and about 6 minutes this morning, the first couple of which were fairly slow going until I finally recognised a couple of answers and realised I’d seen it before.
  25. yes it is, thanks: I’ve been trying to remember what else has the same tune.
    cheers
    Joe
  26. Apropos 5a – What is the difference between Perry Como and Walt Disney? Perry sings and Walt disnae.
  27. Once again several answers marked with a question mark (CANNAE, ASBO, TOG, DUNLIN) but they all turned out to be correct — I did fall into the 10A trap, having thought of UNINHIBITED after some pondering, then worked out the wordplay, without realizing that the other! word was the one that was wanted. Time: the usual ages, well above an hour, and as usual I’m surprised that I (nearly) completed it.
  28. Somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes, but I had seen/heard one or two of the answers before (I did the afternoon session, but people were still discussing the morning one). Still can’t see the grid properly onscreen, and can’t submit – got error 500 twice and gave up. No way am I renewing my sub until they get it sorted.

    And an ASBO is an Anti Social Behaviour Order. Wiki says it’s “a civil order made against a person who has been shown, on the balance of evidence, to have engaged in anti-social behaviour” – so can we award one to the developers of the new site, please?

  29. I can’t remember how long this took in Cheltenham, but I remember the DUNLIN was a lucky guess based on NIL reversed; and I remember panicking after handing the puzzles in, realising that UNINHIBITED / UNINHABITED was a trap for the unwary into which I’d obviously fallen (I hadn’t)!

    Having done a lot of Brecht at school, Mack the Knife sprung to mind immediately.

    overall, another tough but enjoyable qualifier (he says with the benefit of hindsight…). My favourite clue? CRICKET BAT due to two non-avian fliers and a great definition.

Comments are closed.