Times Crossword 24,099

30 comments on “Times Crossword 24,099”

1. Well, after yesterday’s little trot this was a tough work-out. Again no idea of time, but it was not fast! Lots of deception and very enjoyable. A strange proliferation of Bs.

   I won’t pre-empt the blog with any particular comments.

2. I thought this was a very good puzzle indeed and quite tough. I took ages (6 minutes) to find even one answer, and then made a right dog’s dinner of it before arriving at work and eventually finishing it off with a little assistance from the Chamber’s wizard at 22, 23 and, to my eternal shame, 27, as dear old Sir John is one of my all-time heroes.

   If I’m not to blame my own stupidity for this debacle I have to find something else and I have decided it must be down to the recent changes in my commuting routine by which I have lost 10-15 relatively peaceful and relaxing minutes in the booking hall whilst waiting for my train (the station building is now locked at that time), the timetable has been changed so that I now travel on a crowded train instead of in a virtually empty compartment, and it has a PA system which keeps putting out recorded announcements. Oh, and it now misses out two stops so I have 8 minutes less of what used to be my most productive solving time of my journey. In view of all this I am no longer going to attempt to record my solving times on commuting days (Tuesdays-Thursdays) as I don’t think they reflect my performance fairly.

   1. I assume you mean Sir John in 17, not 27, Jack. A very unfashionable hero! I always loved Peter Cook’s take-off of “Business Girls” – I never really warmed to the original!
      1. I told you I was having a bad day with this puzzle! Yes, 17, indeed.
   2. It’s a few years since I lived in the UK, but it sounds as though the rail companies have declared war on their passengers. Now they’re locking you out of the station then bombarding you with recorded announcements while you travel? You have my sympathies, jackkt. I think the noble British commuter deserves better.
      1. Yes, it does feel a bit like war has been declared on us, soitira. On my return journey I like to spend the time waiting for the train home doing the Times Killer Sudoku, but now the waiting rooms at that station have all been closed whilst repairs to the canopy roofs are in progress (i.e. they have been filled with builders’ equipment and locked to passengers). Needless to say there is no sign of any work going on and the passengers are to be left out in the cold for the foreseeable future. And the fares increase next month.
         1. Again, my sympathies. You really wouldn’t think it beyond the wit of man to make train travel an enjoyable experience. The Victorians managed it, but we seem to have lost their flair. If only we could return the running of the railways to a few of those bespectacled Victorian clerks who thought about something other than the bottom line.
3. A real work out. Was left with 23 Dn, 26 Ac, and total brain failure. After attending to some more mundane necessities of life, 26 Ac popped out of the woodwork (nice one!), then after much agonizing, 23 Dn. Is that really acceptable as a word?
   1. Chambers OK’s it, and even lists the participle with that spelling
      1. My new Chambers doesn’t have it, but that could be because it was bought in 1977 to replace one which had disintegrated from overuse. Could it be time to move up again?
         1. My parents had an ancient Chambers when I was a kid and it always fascinated me with its very small dense type. I bought my first in 1970 (1968) edition, and replaced it with the 7th edition (1988). I don’t like the way it is becoming more legible – I still love the dense text.

            1968 edition has only “okay” in the main dictionary (plus O.K. in the abbreviations.

            1988 has OK as the main entry, and also various parts of speech including “OKing”.

            It may be time…

4. 15:05 – a slow start, but worked up from bottom right towards top left. My old Collins and Concise Oxford both have OKING, with punctuation extras which tend to be ignored these days.
5. What a splendid puzzle – about 40 minutes to solve. I stopped ticking clues in the end there were so many real crackers.

   I see we are now branching out into Spanish football teams. No problem as Real Madrid are far better known than say Stoke City let alone some of the tiddlers we’ve had in the past.

   My only guess was OKING, my last go in. I reasoned “passing” was the definition which gave the leading O from “close to gazebo” and “king” as a crowned draughts piece but wasn’t certain that the word OKING existed.

   Full marks to the setter for a first class piece of work

6. “Oking”? How crass. It seems to me that no matter how badly misused or misspelt a word may be, if it is repeated more than a couple of times it will find it’s way into a dictionary and then copied into others. This is the way language develops, some may say. I say it’s a good thing the dictionary makers are not producing maths text books!
7. Harder than the last two days, taking me 40 minutes. But it seems I had one wrong. Could seen nothing other than OWING for 23. I don’t like such a ridiculous word in a daily cryptic, especially where there’s an alternative word to fit; more accepatable in a barred thematic, where constraints might force such a choice on the setter.
   Apart from that there were some excellent, quite deceptive, clues, 3 being my favourite.
8. 16:04 for me, the last 5 minutes spent puzzling over 22A/23D. I still can’t quite see how 22 works – I assume the answer is BARBITONE…

   COD for me was 8A – great word. Also liked “make history” = ZAP in 20A, and a few other original and witty definitions.

   1. BAR-BIT-ONE; pole=BAR; I=ONE; part=BIT
      1. I’m not sure I like this one (Drug supplied by Pole – I swallowed part (9)). Doesn’t it have two finite verbs? You could say: “Mess made by child swallowing milkshake”, but not “Mess made by child swallowed milkshake”. Or am I mis-reading the clue?
         1. I’m with you. I don’t comment on these loose constructions any more because the standard has slipped to such an extent that one would be forever moaning and I think a lot of people find that boring. I don’t want to detract from the clear benefit that the site gives to new and newish solvers. However, my old English master, who introduced me to The Times, must be turning in his grave.
9. 29:31 … with one blunder. At least it seems I’m not alone in having struggled with 23d. And since the wordplay didn’t mean a lot to me, I opted for the rather dark ODING (taking an OD) as a very tenuous interpretation of ‘passing’, and thinking that maybe a ‘ding’ was a large slurp of strong beer. And, I have to say, ODING is no less ghastly a word than OKING.

   Otherwise, a splendid example of the more challenging daily puzzle. Loving a good bad joke, my COD is the lovely 2d ASSAM.

10. First thought for powerful draught was OPIUM.
    Not happy with OKING at all.
    What’s 26a?
    1. ROGET; definition=bookmaker; odd letters of “RoOm GuEsT” You can make your own mind up on the word “reserved”
       1. Thanks for that. Reserved is superfluous here. Not having oking did not help. In spite of complaining about oking (should be “okaying”), I have seen it before….
11. OKING at 23 dn was one of the last to go in, and, like others, I wasted some time wondering whether such a word really existed (though I was familiar enough with “to okay” as a transitive verb). Chambers clearly allows it, however, so a fair cop by the setter in my view. I recently expressed support for sotira’s attractive dictum that setters should stick to usages and definitions that “bore some resemblance to the language as she is spoke”. But Peter B reasonably pointed out that this would lead to endless argument over acceptability (as now over OKING). Dictionaries, like the law, are sometimes an ass, including definitions and usages that few would use in normal speech, but, like the law, they must (I reluctantly concede) be obeyed, otherwise we are on shifting sands.

    All in all, a splendid, tough puzzle. A good 60 mins if not more for me. 10 ac held me up for an unreasonably long time. Although house = semi is a frequently used device, I never seem to remember it.

    Michael H

12. A super puzzle with some fun constructions like the aforementioned zap and paticularly “shows behind” for moons. Tokk about 25 minutes.

    I hadn’t ever encountered ciphers = nobodies before and had to check barbitone and oking ex-post.

    Isn’t discombobulate a Ken Dodd word?

    Q-0, E-9, D-7, COD moonscape

13. Colonel Thomas Blood 1618-1680 known as the man who stole the Crown Jewels
14. 70 minutes, and a couple of mistakes in there, so I didn’t find it that easy! COD 3d.
15. After yesterday’s struggle I found this OK. i.e done within the afternoon.Only 23D not done and now I can see why. I just love the word discombobulated-the first in for me.It’s what I was yesterday.
16. I personally dont think that 23 is a fair clue…as peter says it has dots in it. why bother to clue words like Below the belt as three words and not 1.1.3 for O.K.ing if you see what i mean
    other than that i was challenged by this but did it i think in about 40 minutes…some nice clues…I thought panic buy was a good one. assam anjd betjeman and Topaz
17. My LOI was OWING at 23d because I just did not see OKING as a word. You can get it from the wordplay though – OWING doesn’t fit that – so I accept that I was beaten fair and square. I’m OK with that – it happens a lot. I did get 16d BAD BLOOD from the literal and checkers without knowing about Colonel Thomas Blood. I have just learned something more from TftT – thanks Jimbo.

    There are 7 “easies” left out here:

    4a Shop frantically knocked up cabin at end of multi-storey (5-3)
    PANIC-BU Y. Anagram of (up cabin) with (multi-store)Y.

    12a Rogue so roughly held in both hands (6)
    R AS CA L. AS = so, CA = roughly in hands R & L.

    14a Left prison to pursue live opera singing (3,5)
    BE L CAN TO. Live = BE as in Hamlet’s soliloquy.

    24a Film church to broadcast about street violence postponed by curate ultimately (8,2,4)
    CH A RIOTS OFF IR E

    6d Chap bitter when arrested by band of citizens (5)
    C ALE B. Bitter = ALE is one of those “by example” definitions that appear to be tolerated and CB = Citizens Band as in RADIO.

    7d Under it an alien lay (9)
    UNTRAINED. Anagram of (under it an), anagrind = alien, as in strange, and literal = LAY as in LAY PREACHER.

    15d Receive pro after invitation to enter (4,2,3)
    COME IN FOR

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