A very enjoyable puzzle from Orpheus today – I usually find his puzzles well crafted and fun, and this was no exception. I was on for a fast finish before I was held up by my LOI 4A (a classic breezeblock), and this pushed me out to 11:38.
That apart, there were some old favourites. The Royal Engineers featured again – they probably put in as much time in our crosswords as they ever do on the parade ground – as did Crosswordland’s favourite cathedral Ely, and what appears to be just about its only port, Rio. All three give very useful letter combinations of course, but might one hope our setters could ring the changes occasionally?
I think there are only one or two words which might be less than well known, at 21A and perhaps also 14D, but they are not difficult to construct from very clear wordplay, so all in all a very fine puzzle all round. Thank you Orpheus!
How did everyone else find it? Do tell me below or, if you are coming to the TfTT drinks at the George this lunchtime, I’ll be there so you can tell me then.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Most of a month’s brandy (4) |
| MARC – MARC |
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| 4 | Assess legacy the writer’s received (8) |
| ESTIMATE – ESTATE (legacy) containing IM (I’m, the inclusion indicator being “received”).
This was my LOI and the parsing puzzled me, as I was initially thinking of “writer’s” as the possessive S, so I was trying to fit “mine” or “my” in there somehow. But instead it is “writer is”, and via “I am” I finally reached “I’m”. Slow and back of the class on this one. |
|
| 8 | Endless reality badly restricting Italian people of letters (8) |
| LITERATI – (realit)* – ie reality without the y (“endless”) – containing IT (Italian). We have to lift and separate Italian and people here. | |
| 9 | High-flyer’s frivolous escapade (4) |
| LARK – A Double Definition, and the cue for one of the corniest of old jokes from the courts:
Judge: Why did you steal the chicken? Those were the days when even minor thefts received a jail sentence. These days the jails are so full that even much more serious offences merit not much more than a slap on the wrist. |
|
| 10 | Breakaway group accepting army corps confidence (6) |
| SECRET – SECT (breakaway group) containing RE (Royal Engineers, an army corps). | |
| 11 | Organ accompanying old musical (6) |
| OLIVER – O (old) + LIVER (organ of the body).
Oliver! is a musical written by Lionel Bart based on Charles Dickens’ book Oliver Twist. It was first performed on the stage in 1960, and made into a highly successful film in 1968. It was also (personal note) the first musical I ever acted in, at primary school. And once the school had heard me sing, it was also the last. |
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| 12 | Balanced in favour of food allocation consumed (13) |
| PROPORTIONATE – PRO (in favour of) + PORTION (food allocation) + ATE (consumed). A very neat surface. | |
| 16 | Light meals NAAFI originally served in bags (6) |
| SNACKS – SACKS (bags) containing N (NAAFI “originally”, ie the first letter of the word). | |
| 17 | Brothers’ house in quiet port by railway (6) |
| PRIORY – P (quiet) + RIO (port) + RY (railway). Or it could be a sisters’ house, if made up of nuns and run by a prioress. | |
| 19 | Work in outskirts of 5, making pith helmet (4) |
| TOPI – TI (“outskirts of”, ie first and last letters of, Tripoli, the answer to 5D) containing OP (work). | |
| 20 | Munitions finally kept in alpine garden (8) |
| ROCKETRY – ROCKERY (Alpine garden) containing T (“finally”, ie last letter of, kept). | |
| 21 | Fierce woman carrying mother’s old Middle East guide (8) |
| DRAGOMAN – DRAGON (fierce woman) containing (ie “carrying”) MA (mother).
A word I only know because I have just been reading about travelling in the Middle East in the Victorian era. The dragomans were originally senior diplomatic officials in the Ottoman empire; their skills included interpretation for visiting dignitaries and organising the affairs of the Porte or Ottoman government. These linguistic and organisational skills were much sought after by 19th century western travellers in Turkey and Arab lands, and the word became used for the fixer/go-between/guide without whom their travel would have been very much more difficult. |
|
| 22 | Barrister — second class? (4) |
| SILK – S (second) + ILK (class, type). “Silk” is the colloquial term for a senior barrister or King’s Counsel, so far from second class – hence the question mark! I think the reference is to the silk gowns they traditionally wear as part of their court dress. And I am now hoping I have that right and that Templar does not have to correct me. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Supple soldier dipping into drink (5) |
| AGILE – GI (soldier, specifically a US soldier) inserted into (“dipping into”) ALE (drink).
I always used to think GI stood for General Infantry, but I have also read that it stands for Government Issue or General Issue, a term for something issued by the US Federal Government for its soldiers to use. Perhaps one of our American colleagues could put us straight? |
|
| 3 | Choosing the best job on the fruit farm? (6-7) |
| CHERRY-PICKING – A very nice Double Definition, and it was most pleasing to get a long clue very early on. | |
| 4 | Spot on former partner initially attracting court (5) |
| EXACT – EX (former partner) + A (initial letter of attracting) + CT (court). | |
| 5 | Mistake over oil spilt in N African capital (7) |
| TRIPOLI – TRIP (mistake) + OLI (anagram of oil, the anagram indicator being “spilt”). Tripoli is the capital of Libya. | |
| 6 | Rich woman’s son with role in Mali is thrown out (13) |
| MILLIONAIRESS – (role in mali is)*, with the anagram indicator being “thrown out”, + S (son). | |
| 7 | Badger blokes caught by civil wrong (7) |
| TORMENT – MEN (blokes) inserted into (ie “caught by”) TORT (civil wrong).
Torment was an answer as recently as last Wednesday (QC 2700), when Pedro clued it as “Left-winger taken aback about blokes in distress”. Do we detect some angst in the setters’ coffee-room? |
|
| 10 | Substance that’s primarily sustaining assorted plants (3) |
| SAP – The initial letters (ie “primarily”) of Sustaining Assorted Plants. I’ve marked the whole clue as the definition, even though technically one could claim that “Substance” would suffice, as sap is indeed a substance. | |
| 13 | Resentment private soldier expressed vocally (7) |
| RANCOUR – sounds like Ranker or private soldier, with the aural wordplay indicated by “expressed vocally”. | |
| 14 | On which one conducts, or turns up to play ineptly? (7) |
| ROSTRUM – RO (or “turned up”, ie reversed) + STRUM (play ineptly). I was a little surprised to see the word “ineptly”; strumming a guitar seems to me to imply playing it casually rather than badly. Perhaps the question mark allows Orpheus to get away with it? | |
| 15 | See replays regularly (3) |
| ELY – the even letters of rEpLaYs. This is “see” as a diocese or seat of a cathedral: ELY, as well as being a magnificent cathedral, is such a useful three letter combination that it is not really very surprising that it comes up so often. It would be a brave setter who tried to include say the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich in a clue. | |
| 17 | Writer ringing about a type of nut (5) |
| PECAN – PEN (writer) with C (about) and A (from the clue) inserted into it. | |
| 18 | Country river, one in Russia (5) |
| RURAL – R (river) + URAL (one in Russia, ie a river in Russia).
I started here by trying to find a country beginning with R, but there are only three (Russia, Romania and Rwanda) and none of them have 5 letters. Instead we are after the adjectival use of country, as in “of the countryside”, for example “a country walk” or for those with more money than me “my country estate”. But this really should not have taken me so long as, for the second clue today, we have an echo of a very recent one: we had Country in the adjectival sense last Monday (QC 2698), when Mara used it as the definition for the answer Pastoral. |
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A gentle one that let me beat my target time for the first time in ages. LOI DRAGOMAN, one of those thousands of words that I sort of know but couldn’t define for you. 4:49.
7:24. OLIVER, SILK, and PROPORTIONATE were my favourites. Like Cedric I never thought STRUM implied playing poorly. Curious about which role you played in OLIVER!
A very small part, one of the inmates at the workhouse. “Food, glorious food” and all that.
Back to back sub-8 days … I will be contacting The Committee to demand an investigation!
Yes, I seem to have hit “a rich vein of form” as the football commentators sometimes say. I think it might come down to making a conscious effort to concentrate, i.e focus on the word being looked for as a solution to the clue, not a word calling up a country, book, movie, historical event,political figure, etc. I enjoy those extraneous thoughts a lot but of course they certainly add time. I have to postpone the tangential daydreams for after completion!
Sounds to me like you potentially have a couple of books to write …
1) The New Way to Enjoy Cryptic Crosswords in which you detail how to go off at tangents when confronted by clues. Obviously including many, many examples for the reader to enjoy.
2) The FAST Way to Solve Cryptic Crosswords …
Yes, great idea- could prove lucrative!
I went pretty quickly with the chestnuts, but the rest was slow. Chestnuts: rural, Tripoli, agile, silk, Oliver. However, I had to think hard to remember dragoman, and I kept trying to fit marchioness into the slot where millionairess should go. So a mixed bag for me – at least I didn’t have any typos.
Time: 8:05.
9 minutes. DRAGOMAN is a word I know of but can never remember its meaning.
Steady going today with no major hold ups. Was fortunate to have used a travel company called DRAGOMAN in the past or 21a might have proved a bit of a stumbling block.
Like our blogger the parsing of ESTIMATE required a bit of thought and I managed to avoid the temptation to biff ‘kepi’ at 19a when I just had the final ‘i’ as a checker.
Started with LARK and finished with ROCKETRY in 7.24 with COD to PROPORTIONATE.
Thanks to Cedric
I stood next to a Legionnaire once, while on holiday in France, and admired his absolutely immaculate uniform: a pith helmet wouldn’t have worked.
22:00, found this hard.
I had SPIRIT for SECRET for a long time which made my LOI AGILE impossible.
DRAGON for “fierce woman” is the kind of word like “battle axe” that could do with being retired in the grounds that such traits in men would be viewed positively.
There’s an article by the puzzle editor today which refers to several of our bloggers.
What’s wrong with having disparaging words for one sex or the other? There are plenty for men which would not be viewed positively – brute, ruffian, swine, lout, cad, rotter, rat, bastard, martinet and so on.
I must agree. Though women can be martinets I believe. Martinettes? (Is this where I say I’ll get my coat? I’m still trying to fit in here.)
Ha ha – no word-related jokes ever require you to get your coat, SC!
The link didn’t work for me but I found the article on p26 of today’s paper paper.
I don’t mind Dragon – because dragons are cool. I don’t mind words used for one gender and not another, as long as it’s not used disparagingly or the gender itself is the bad thing! (remember when we had the answer ‘old-womanish’?!)
Wow Cedric, were you up early for the meeting or late and planning to sleep in! Very much looking forward to meeting you later, will tell you my of my school performance of Oliver 😀
Anyway, back to the puzzle, great stuff from Orpheus leading to a steady more or less top to bottom. In 22.39. NHO Marc or our LOI dragoman but both were well clued and found from the word play.
Thought the answer to 20a was rockery until it didn’t fit! Took too long to realise it was most of it.
See you later.
24 mins…
At last – a Saturday success – and a complete sweep for the week. I didn’t find this straight forward and wasn’t sure about 21ac “Dragoman”, but I’ll take it none the less.
FOI – 10dn “Sap”
LOI – 9ac “Lark”
COD – 22ac “Silk”
Thanks as usual!
4.30
Knew the GK (DRAGOMAN from those very useful Aubrey/Maturin books) so a bit of a biff-fest here but none the worse for that.
Thanks Cedric and Orpheus
Have a lovely time, everyone going to the George today
Phew. Made heavy weather of this but got there in the end. Struggled in NW and SE with LOsI MARC/AGILE and SILK/RURAL – being unable to think of a country.
Nairobi had to be changed to TRIPOLI when the penny dropped with ESTIMATE. Was also slow on SECRET and ELY – Can’t think why as we have the latter practically every week.
Liked DRAGOMAN, SNACKS, CHERRY PICKING, PROPORTIONATE.
Thanks vm, Cedric.
Hope you all have a good party today!
Difficult today. Got many without any confidence that they were right eg Marc and NHO of Dragoman (used reveal).
Oi Orpheus. 22a. I see you.
Very enjoyable, Orpheus bowling off his short run up to give us a chance I thought. Only ROCKETRY, DRAGOMAN (great word – I spent some time when it was all blank trying to justify “harridan”) and LOI ESTIMATE required second visits. With ESTIMATE, I immediately thought of it from the checkers and spent a minute or so trying and failing to parse it in my head. So I thought I’d type it in and see what it looked like, and as soon as I did the I’M and ESTATE jumped out at me. Funny how I couldn’t see it till I literally saw it.
All done in 07:28 for 1.7K and a Decent Day. Great blog Cedric, and you are absolutely right about SILK. Fortunately we don’t have to wear the kit very often in civil cases these days – only the Court of Appeal and Chancery trials (and most modern Chancery judges are quite content to allow Counsel to dispense with robes on request these days). A stiff collar and a heavy silk gown are not conducive to personal comfort, especially in summer.
Many thanks, Orpheus.
Templar
Please would someone tell me in which section of the paper the article by the puzzle editor appears. I cannot find it in my on-line paper and the link set by Merlin is not working for me either
in the online paper it is the Feedback column under the Comment tab. In the physical paper it is a page or two after the leader page. Or here if the link works:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/apologies-if-our-rank-language-offended-anyone-vxgm5m5vb
P. 26 of the main section.
Good fun despite dragoman and NHO Ranker before. Part of the joy if the QC is new learning and especially reading the excellent bloggers.
Thank you very much Cedric.
Most enjoyable puzzle from Orpheus completed in just under 40m which seems to be my time for a steady solve.
Same comments as others on Dragoman – such an interesting sounding word but can never quite define it.
Sorry not to be able to make The George but I will try to be in London next year at the right time.
Thanks Cedric for the informative blog.
Shot out of the blocks in the NW, and a sub-20 seemed a foregone conclusion right up until the moment it wasn’t. NHO Dragoman was the culprit, abetted by his immediate predecessor, Rancour, which Orpheus naturally overlapped to make doubly sure my target was missed by a minute or two. Lots to enjoy though, with 17d Pecan my CoD for the surface. Invariant
7:01
No issues – everything seemed to come sooner or later without too much overthinking, though did have to say 13d to myself a few times to ‘get’ it – L2I were LARK and MILLIONAIRESS. An enjoyable blog as usual Cedric – enjoy your event at The George folks!
Thanks also to Orpheus
An enjoyable and instructive 16:56 solve. So many good clues, but my favorite was 17A PRIORY for the vivid surface. (I live in a quiet neighborhood by a railway, which seems like a contradiction in terms until you experience it.)
What I learned today: ranker=private, marc=brandy, strum=play ineptly (it’s in the dictionary), the Ural is a river not only a mountain range, dragoman is of Akkadian origin via Aramaic, Arabic, Greek, and Italian. Quite a journey from the language of Sargon.
While trying to parse ROSTRUM at first I thought I saw “turn” backwards, no, that would be TURM you idiot, no TRUM, hmm, maybe MURT is some kind of British slang for “play ineptly”, short for murder maybe? Oh skip it. Always a barrel of laughs in the solving mind.
“I took it for a lark” 😂
Thanks to Orpheus for a lovely solving experience and to Cedric for the informative and amusing blog.
From MARC to SILK in 7:12. Held up by ESTIMATE and then struggling to parse it. Thanks Cedric and Orpheus.
9.02 DNF. I thought the word was DRAGOMAN, but then I somehow thought “mother’s old” was MO so I put DRAGOMON for a pink square. ROCKETRY was LOI. Three DNFs is my worst week ever but they’ve all been sloppy ones so I just need to pay attention. Thanks Cedric and Orpheus.
Accidentally opened the 15×15 and found it as hard as ever. I may be ready to move up one today but today is not that day. Didn’t find this one that easy either, although being all green in 16 was pretty reasonable. NHO DRAGOMAN and took a very long time to unravel MILLIONAIRESS without paper but one that went in LARK and ESTIMATE soon followed.
Quite a zippy 7:10 here. I expected the unfinished SILK, ESTIMATE and, loi TOPI to push the time back and back but they fell into place quite happily. Just returned from a 6 year old’s birthday party – maybe that’s good training for a QC? Thanks for the blog.
14:30 here, but I never parsed ESTIMATE and thought that ROSTRUM was an anagram without actually checking the letters!
Thanks to Cedric and Orpheus.
DNF – NHO DRAGOMAN at all – nor TOPI, although this was guessable from the clue. Didn’t get SILK either. OK with the rest.