Times 29043 – stretched to the limit

96 comments on “Times 29043 – stretched to the limit”

1. I had a fleeting misgiving, but the O in ANODYNE is pronounced by dictionaries, if not by my brain, as a schwa, so that’s fine.
   I didn’t really try to parse ELECTRON GUN once I had a few crossers—got from the definition (though I am no physicist).
   Collins gives a definition of CAN that is equivalent to “May,” though the pedant in me wants to object. (“2. used as an auxiliary to indicate permission or the right to something  can I have a drink?”)
   I don’t know when I’ve ever seen WHORL except in reference to fingerprints…
   I liked (P)ROOFLESS, but “session” for BOOZE-UP seemed rather thin.
   LOI KRUGERRANDS, which then took some time to parse.

   1. In British English at least ‘session’ is a direct synonym for BOOZE-UP. I think (based purely on what a ‘session ale’ is) that the meaning may be slightly different in North America.

      1. Haven’t found that—with such specificity—in Collins (“a period of activity of any kind”), Dictionary.com (“a period of time during which a group of persons meets to pursue a particular activity”) or even Chambers, which latter does have, however, “A period of time spent in any one activity, eg teaching, drinking or making music.” (All three draw a blank for “session ale.”)

         1. It is bizarre that ‘session ales’ are by definition rather weak. You’d still be standing at the end of a very protracted session after several pints of some of them.

   2. A bit surprised ‘session’ doesn’t get its own dictionary entry, but it does feature in Collins collocation online with ‘coaching’, ‘counselling’ and ‘gym.’

2. Amazing work on parsing ELECTRON GUN – I did not attempt to unravel it, and entered the phrase on a wing and a prayer anyway.

   Lots of nudge-nudge here (actors in bed, chaps in bed, then sex itself appearing in a clue). One would be enough

3. 48 minutes, so a bit of a slog in a few places. I was slowed by writing ANODINE at 9ac which prevented me thinking of FRYING PAN for far too long.

   I haven’t checked every source, but a CANTATA is surely more than a ‘concert aria’. Usually a collection of arias, recitatives etc, I think.

   I delayed writing END at 25dn until both checkers were in place. I wasn’t sure about the definition but then a design can be a purpose, intention or aim, and we must have seen ‘aim/end’ as synonyms in clues dozens of times over the years.

   1. CANTATA – I had similar misgivings but Chambers has “The modern concert aria” as another meaning.

4. ELECTRON GUN did for me as well as several others, just wasn’t on the wavelength. I also put in RAP for dance until BOOZE-UP came for session. NHO SOP for puddle. Didn’t really enjoy this one to be honest.
   Thanks piquet and setter.

   1. SOP, me neither. I found it as “puddle” only in Chambers, not in Collins or Dictionary.com.

      1. Thanks Guy. I only knew it as a foolish or weak person (Collins)

5. I took 55 minutes over this one, but mostly I think that was because I kept falling back asleep; I blame the Night Nurse I’m taking for my cold. I would never have parsed ELECTRON GUN, as NHO WRONG-UN for a googly, but with the GUN there the electron was fairly obvious. My LOIs were COMPUTE/ERUDITE.

   There used to be an ELECTRON GUN in most people’s living rooms, but I suppose they wouldn’t necessarily have to have known that to have watched the telly.

   1. I used to recondition old TVs way back in the 90s and reguarly replaced worn out tubes/crts with regunned ones. I used a back street rebuilder in Bradford. Sometimes he’d have popular types in stock, other times I’d have to wait for mine to be rebuilt. Once I realised where the clue was going ELECTRON GUN was a write in.

6. I slogged away for nearly 2 hours with this one. I took ages to get the SE corner as I initially had TAP instead of BOP. They both fit the clue which only gives vague definitions. I put in ELECTRON GUN where beamer makes no sense for a physicist. KRUGERRANDS fitted in but I had no idea even of the definition. I managed to parse all the across clues but I had significant problems with those down.
   Thanks Piquet.

7. 49m 56s
   I agree with all of your comments, Pip, especially the ones on ANODYNE and ELECTRON GUN.

8. 38 minutes with the NW and PROOFLESS last to fall. As a former physicist and cricketer, I got ELECTRON GUN with crossers but it was a stretch. ERSTWHILE wasn’t even bad enough to be good, but I did like the KRUGERRANDS. COD to FRYING PAN. Enjoyable in a perverse way, and not anodyne, however it’s pronounced. Thank you Pip and setter.

9. 25:53
   Pip has given voice to my eyebrows, although I’m OK with ANODYNE. But ERRAND, END (the design is to achieve an end, not to be it), PROOFLESS, … I actually got to ELECTRON GUN fairly quickly, once I dropped ELECTION (return) and thought of ELECTRON for no good reason (no idea what a googly is, just that it’s something in cricket hence beyond me). I’m not sure how I got KRUGERRANDS, having once made sure of the K_U; i guess I thought of the champagne finally. CANTATA seemed just plain wrong; the Coffee Cantata an aria? DNK SESSION. And so on.

10. DNF

    Too much in here that I didn’t enjoy – managed about two-thirds in fairly quick time, and then really did come to a solid brick wall with 1a, 15a, 17a, 3d, 4d, 13d, 16d, 18d all unsolved. Managed to get PROTUBERANT and FRYING PAN after another ten minutes or so, but lost heart with the rest. I thought ‘beamer’ might be SUN which gave little chance of getting SECOND GUESS. COMPUTE did cross my mind but I failed to parse it.

    Looking forward to a more enjoyable puzzle tomorrow. Thanks P

11. Piquet summed it up for me. Not an easy puzzle, completed in about 40 but that’s a guess because of interruptions. Not sure what the diff is between a possum and an OPOSSUM, one appeared at the patio door the other night and peered in very cutely. In one of those crazy crossword coincidences the can v may debate appeared in Another Place this very day. As an elderly relative once explained to me, ‘you can but you may not.’

    From Floater (Too Much To Ask):
    The old men round here, sometimes they get on
    Bad terms with the younger men
    But old, young, age don’t carry weight
    It doesn’t matter in the END

12. 11:51, with a smile at recalling Blackadder’s very own BOOZE-UP. A few eyebrows here is there, but I enjoyed myself.

    Thanks both.

    1. Ah, thanks for reminding me of this. I seem to remember it was a GREAT BOOZE-UP.

13. 12:53. I thought this was bit loose in places but breezed through most of it. DNK that meaning of cantata or sop. Held up for a couple of minutes at the end by WHORL (being unamused by a bit of an impression) and ERSTWHILE. Thanks Pip and setter.

14. 22:59

    No major hold-ups and for once the Spoonerism came relatively quickly, but I didn’t have a clue how ELECTRON GUN worked aside from the “beamer” definition.

    The NW caused me the most difficulties, but once I saw FRYING PAN it all started to fall into place. COD is between that and KRUGERRANDS for me.

    Thanks to both.

15. Another who fell at the NHO ELECTRON GUN. Totally agree with our blogger, far too many leaps of faith and « oh well, if you insists »!

    I also had ANODYINE for while which made 3d impossible. Didn’t understand WHORL, bunged in from wp.

    Not pleasant.

    Thanks pip for the hard work.

    1. Anodyine would not make 3dn impossible … and which square did you put two letters in?!
       Perhaps you meant anodine?

       1. That’s exactly what I meant, my apologies. Bit of a rush this morning as late for a RDV.

16. Since “beamer”, like “googly”, is also cricket slang for a particular type of delivery, I reckon 4D is something of a triumph. Hope the setter will disregard some of the negative comments above – at least one solver thinks it’s the COD.

    1. Agree with you.

    2. Agreed.

    3. I think the point is, some contributors, including myself, have never heard of the alternative expression for a googly, being a « wrong-un. Pretty esoteric IMHO.

17. Well I liked this a good deal more than our esteemed blogger seems to have done .. no problem for example with electron gun, even though I never spotted what the googly was doing. Whorl as part of a fingerprint seemed OK to me, and I couldn’t tell you what a cantata was anyway, beyond being something musical, so no problem there either.. or with today’s dodgy homophone, which is pretty much how I would pronounce it and also how Collins pronounces it.
    My loi was the Spoonerism, I don’t dislike them but I often find them difficult to visualise.

    1. Ditto all of the above: thank you Jerry.

18. 15.00
    A few slightly odd wordplay indicators (“heard”, “bulk of”, “snubbed”) and a dodgy homophone, but otherwise great fun.
    I enjoyed the unexpected word divisions (ELECT (W)RONG’UN, SHORTS TOP, KRUG ERRANDS), and even the Spoonerism wasn’t too infuriating. Knowing a little too much about Dr Who led me to suspect his “follower” might be COM(panion, as his sidekicks are referred to by Whovians).
    LOI BOP
    COD ELECTRON GUN

19. I actually got ELECTRON GUN from the wordplay, as I had never heard of the thing itself. Did old TV’s have electron guns in the tube maybe? Anyway finished in 31:30. LOI PROTUBERANT where I had fixated on it being a pro bus something (I had proboscis in mind) and really slowed myself down with that. Didn’t understand the O in anodyne, I never heard it pronounced anna-dine but I suppose that must be the setter’s intention.
    I thought this was a good puzzle my only ? was anodyne.
    Thanks setter and blogger

20. 08:12, quicker than average for me, due to the silky smooth surfaces. Thanks to setter & blogger.

21. Interesting to see some not very positive comments about this puzzle. I enjoyed it and was done in about 20 minutes, which is fairly fast by my standards.

    Slightly surprised to see ELECTRON GUN described as one of the most obscure clues ever seen. I’m the least physics-minded person you could imagine, and I’ve never got googly=wrong ‘un firmly lodged in my head (despite being a cricket fan), but I still parsed it reasonably quickly. And surely we’re all used to words ending in -er indicating ‘thing that does X’ to see what ‘beamer’ might be hinting at. To me, KRUGERRANDS was rather more obscure.

    – Not familiar with pit meaning bed for PIMENTO
    – Can’t recall seeing ‘snubbed’ meaning ‘cut short’ before as required for INSISTENT
    – Didn’t quite realise how PSALM worked, but it couldn’t be anything else
    – Relied on wordplay for the unfamiliar WHORL
    – Didn’t know that LYMPH is a vital fluid
    – Had to trust that sop can mean puddle for OPOSSUM
    – Having queried what I thought was an unnecessary question mark yesterday, today I think the clue for SHORTSTOP maybe should have had one

    Thanks Piquet and setter.

    FOI Sap
    LOI Erudite
    COD Protuberant

22. After many years of passive enjoyment of this excellent blog (thank you) I feel moved to counter the negativity today. I enjoyed this far more than the last 2 days. Blessedly free of opera, 18th century composers / poets / essayists and musical notation. Nice to see a hint of science which is every bit as much part of human culture.
    I do agree with the dislike of homophones but Spoonerisms are supposed to make you groan a little.
    There is originality in todays puzzle without which they become too formulaic

    1. …and I agree with you..

       1. And so do I

    2. Not to mention it didn’t have 15 clues where a single letter was added or removed.

    3. Ditto

23. Well, the puzzles this week just keep getting better and better. Much to enjoy here and no quibbles from me re definitions (design for end is good and supported by the dictionaries), homophones (I hear ‘anna-dine’ from almost everyone in rapid, connected British English speech) and NEUTRON GUN was something of a tour de force.

    Incidentally, a wrong’un (or ‘wrong one’, as subcontinental commentators would have it) is a googly, which is traditionally a delivery by a right-arm wrist-spinning bowler that comes out of the back of the hand. Until recent times, the left-arm equivalent of a googly was a chinaman, but that fell foul of the PC brigade, along, sadly, with ‘batsman.’*

    * We are told to use the ugly ‘batter’. I do, but only when talking about pancakes and Yorkshire pudding.

    Around half an hour. Looking forward to tomorrow.

    1. I agree with you.. so apologies for mentioning the “neutron” gun

       1. Science was never my strong suit…

    2. As a Lancastrian, I’d always called them batters. Cyril Washbrook was a batter, Geoff Pullar was a batter. I can recall up at Oxford being told that they were batsmen and on about 5o% of occasions after that I managed to remember.But I’m pleased that these days I can forget.

       1. Even among southern softies, the option was always there. Just always sounded odd to my ears, like ‘soccer.’

          1. Not using Soccer and Football interchangeably does seem a more recent (ie last fifty years) phenomenon. I didn’t have a hangup about it back in the fifties as a kid but I’ll always say football now.

             1. I’ve never had the remotest interest in either game but in the circles I was forced to mix in schooldays soccer was soccer (from Association Football) football was Rugby (Union).

                1. I think that can only work now in the English speaking world, unpopular as it also is there. The game called Football is far and away the most popular game worldwide whereas Rugby and American Football are much more connected to certain territories. And the rest of the world call it football or derivatives of this. Football authorities are bound to exploit this.

    3. I always thought the left handed wrist spinner’s googly was still a google, and the stock delivery the now banned word (what’s it called now?).
       The only left arm wrist spinner I can recall of recent years was Paul Adams of RSA.
       Nice to discuss this on Richie Benaud’s birthday (according to a Facebook post I saw this morning.

       1. There’s a school of thought that left-arm wrist spinners are so rare because their stock ball turns in to right-handers, who are more common than left-handers. Perhaps this is why in the 60s and 70s when I was growing up playing and watching a lot of cricket ‘chinaman’ was heard a lot more than ‘left-arm wrist spin’ or ‘left-arm unorthodox’. (Plus, it’s a catchy name, fun – at the time – for commentators to use.) I guess at that time only Gary Sobers at the top level bowled left-arm wrist spin (together with his seamers and left-arm orthodox).

          Now, with the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Shamsi playing international cricket and starring in the IPL, left-arm wrist spin is much better known. In the interim, there were, as you mentioned, Adams and also Brad Hogg.

          The chinaman is generally called a googly now.

    4. I’m not sure the MCC and PC quite go together. The Laws now refer to ‘batters’ for reasons which are surely obvious, and, to me at least, it is a simple matter of politeness to a very large and increasing population of players of the game to use it. I confess, however, that I struggle with the use of the term ‘third’ to describe a fielding position. The Laws are silent on this (as on all fielding positions other than wicket-keeper), and perhaps there is a case for an ungendered term here. I’d rather it were a noun than an adjective personally. I guess, Ulaca, we have different bug-bears!

       1. I don’t mind at all the laws referring to ‘batters’. What I do mind is being told not to use ‘batsman’. It should be a matter of choice.

          Re ‘third’, I simply don’t know what you are referring to. That’s not meant to sound aggressive. Can’t convey tone of voice and body language online!

          1. The fielding position which I grew up knowing as ‘third man’ is now often referred to by broadcasters – Michael Vaughan being one – as ‘third’. It grates.

             1. I see. Well, I can’t blame the former England captain, after he was hung out to dry in the Yorkshire ‘racism’ business.

24. 20:53. I didn’t entirely enjoy this, but I’m blaming myself for that because I made unduly heavy weather of several clues which turned out to be excellent, most notably KRUGERRAND and ERSTWHILE. I thought it was a first-rate puzzle, with lots of really original and clever stuff.
    There are a few rather peevish objections being made here today, none of which I think are really fair:
    > MAY and CAN are exactly synonymous in everyday English (if I say ‘can I do x?’ my kids like to say ‘I don’t know, CAN you?’ to annoy me)
    > A fingerprint is an impression, a WHORL is a bit of one, this is a great definition!
    > The central vowel of ANODYNE is, as I and I’ve no doubt the vast majority of people pronounce it, a schwa, as is the central vowel in ‘Anna dine’
    > Collins defines ELECTRON GUN as a device ‘for producing and focusing a beam of electrons’, if you don’t like ‘beamer’, take it up with them
    > Chambers defines CANTATA as ‘since the later introduction of an air, the modern concert aria’ (admittedly it is alone in this)

25. 14.32

    … and I liked it very much. All of it, so there.

26. Lots of problems with this one; share everyone else’s misgivings. Had TAP instead of BOP, which made 19dn impossible. Gave up at 45 mins with that and WHORL/LAYER missing in the SE corner. Never got on with this one.

27. I thought this was a “wavelength” puzzle but in a rather different way. While I recognise the several, even many places, where eyebrows might be raised or irritation blossom, I found myself making much the same leaps as the setter. FRYING PAN ->fire took a while, but otherwise everything else fell into place, often happily. So CANTATA for aria, “AN~DYNE” and nice, shiny gold KRUGERRANDS, probably still a popular way of acquiring gold bullion and I believe developed for that purpose. Cathode ray TVs needed an ELECTRON GUN to make the screen glow, three for colour, and it seems an odd thing not to know. WHORL is so linked in my mind to fingerprints that a bit of an impression was almost a giveaway. Mind you, I still have no idea how my smartphone distinguishes my fingerprint from any others however carelessly I touch the on-off button.
    And just be thankful PROOFLESS wasn’t clued as “Parking without mercy in the East End? No evidence” or some such.
    I liked this. 19.43.

28. I wasn’t really concentrating on this because my mind is on other things today. Having kitchen delivered. So I took just over an hour. How people manage to have a reasonable time when waiting for a hospital appointment or in an airport I can’t imagine. Lots of negative comments, most of which didn’t really seem fair; I thought it was quite good. Even understood about the wrong-un although only in retrospect.

29. 17:07. I enjoyed this puzzle very much, especially compared with yesterday’s which I found a real slog. I thought there were some lovely witty definitions and references today.

    Thanks piquet for the parsing of ELECTRON GUN which I couldn’t fathom, although with hindsight probably should have.

30. 16.49, usually fast for me, with no fat finger typo, which is also unusual. I’m in the “liked it” camp.

31. I have to admit I enjoyed this puzzle, even being taken back to a past life by ELECTRON GUN, an item I used to get replaced by a CRT Regunner in Bradford when I reconditioned TVs. It took me a while to get rid of the postulated TION and the end of the first word before the penny dropped. I had a slight mer at ANODYNE as I tend to pronounce the O, but that has been dealt with above. I did find it difficut to get started. My first 2 in were END and DISTEMPER. LOI ERSTWHILE with a smile. 24:57. Thanks setter and Pip.

32. After stating that my brain wasn’t working properly due to a slow time on the QC, when everyone else seems to have found it a doddle, I fully expected to find todays 15×15 a really tough test that I would be unlikely to finish. Well I seem to have recovered my form somewhat with a fast finishing time for me of 28.24, with everything correctly parsed as I went. I was only held up to any great extent at the end with PROOFLESS which I agree with Piquet was a bit loose, but the E enabled me to get ELECTRON GUN to wrap things up.

33. 28m and a very enjoyable wrestle it was too. I liked this a lot with the gun and the gold my stand-outs. Thank you, setter, more please! And also thank you to our blogger for explaining some of the things I’d simply guessed.

34. I thought this was terrific. Listening to Test Match Special whilst solving 4d definitely helped, but I thought it was a fantastic clue, getting “googly”, “wide” and “beamer” i.e. 3 cricketing terms into a clue whose answer had nothing to do with cricket. Really clever work. Thank you setter.
    19:32

35. Took an age. Cheated throughout. DNF anyway. But I enjoyed it.
    1a Proofless; agree with piquet it is a strange word; not in Cheating Machine but was in Wiktionary. Added to CM. I had looked for Phomeless meaning something, so not ungettable if you have the word.
    9a Anodyne I pronounce the O as O not A too. Easy enough by the standards of this puzzle though. It crossed my mind that Anno is a name in say Albania (specified because I know zip about it.) But Guy has it right; even I have noticed that many people use a schwa.
    11a Mason; had an inkling masons wore aprons but felt the need to google mason apron; got hits. Added to CM.
    15a ProTubeRant; why, WHY did this take me so long to get?! COD.
    19a DNF (apart from cheating) Bop; was so happy with Tap I stayed with that. Grrr.
    22a Whorl, didn’t connect with impression. Some kind of chocolate isn’t it?
    27a Trend; took an age to accept “all the rage” covers it. Doh!
    2d Opossum; couldn’t find sop=puddle anywhere I looked, so shrugged and moved on.
    4d Electron G; couldn’t parse; DNK “wrong ‘un” for googly and thought it might refer to Ron(ald) Reagan. Wiktionary mentions wrong ‘un; should have looked there. On the other hand HHO E Gun; there is one or three in every (old, pre LED) TV.
    7d Cantata, never really knew what one of these is so wasn’t misled by the def!
    13d Krugerrands; pleased to find this in CM; never would have worked it out, and unparsed.
    14d Can’t spell; InsistAnt for a long time, thinking we were black US speaking sister/sista, but Erudite finally fixed it. Oh, and I read the clue properly at last.
    16d Erstwhile; was desperately searching the keyboard for an Ile key, shrugged and moved on. Doh!
    18d ComMute; unparsable of course. Missed the Order of M.
    23d pLAYERs too clever for me, biffed.
    25d End. Easy to get but hard to be happy with.

36. I hope the championships aren’t like this – failed on ELECTRON GUN & KRUGERRANDS, not helped in the second case by not knowing the word and also not remembering if the champagne was Krug or (as I wrote) Klug. A teetotaller’s lament.

    PROOFLESS also took a long time. I’m rather with our blogger on this.

    1. I on the other hand hope they are, if I am to have any chance at all of a decent placing 🙂

37. 23:40
    Very much a mixed bag. I thought PROTUBERANT, WHORL, SECOND GUESS, and INSISTENT were excellent. ELECTRON GUN, SHORTSTOP, ERSTWHILE and PROOFLESS significantly less so.

    Thanks to Pip and the setter

38. 4 down was Parsing strange and my dislike of spooner clues continues but whats 2 iffy (to me)clues out of 32

39. 46:53, all done, after a bit of a struggle here and there.
    I do not know my cricket terms well enough, so at 4dn after getting ELECT I decided that “but not” gave NOR and “googly” was the instruction to reverse it. This left “wide” needing to mean “gun”, but since I know an ELECTRON GUN is a thing, in it went.
    I did not know SOP as a puddle but I suppose I do know that, if I go out in the rain, I can get sopping wet. I liked FRYING PAN and PROTUBERANT (vaguely remembering recent discussion about that meaning of “proud”).
    Well satisfied to finish, and so an enjoyable puzzle

40. I read the blog and nodded knowingly, but as I read through the comments I realised this was in fact a very good puzzle.
    I didn’t know alternative meanings of SOP and googly, but what else could they be?
    I like a booze up, and the spoonerism was a classic in my opinion.
    Proofless was rather an average clue, but overall an enjoyable workout.

41. Wow, that was hard. But got most of it done, apart from FRYING PAN and ELECTRON GUN.

    Thought PROTUBERANT was brilliant. And WHORL pretty brilliant as well.

    END seems pretty weak.
    RAP was a viable solution for BOP, its a club and a dance.

    1. I had TAP, a dance and what you might do to a nail with a hammer.

42. I really enjoyed this, late in the day.

    No issue with the superb ELECTRON GUN. Non-cricket-followers may also wish to investigate Reggie Bosanquet’s dad – hence ‘bosie’.

    18’12”, thanks pip and setter.

43. To clear up the confusion, a googly can be bowled by either a left arm or a right arm bowler. A Chinaman is not a left armer’s googly, it is an off spinner bowled by a left armer. It is a topic on which I once had a letter published in the Times.

44. Apart from 1ac and ERSTWHILE (are Spoonerisms happening more often?), I enjoyed this. It took me a long time to work out COMPUTE. Always like a cricket clue, especially if it involves a spin bowling allusion. It would be nice to see RHODES, VERITY or the recently deceased UNDERWOOD at some point! Sadly we don’t produce many wrist spinners these days.
    Thanks to blogger and setter.

45. 26.13. I can be added to the list of contributors who enjoyed this puzzle.

46. No real trouble with this, but I didn’t like it all that much, as I’m in broad agreement with piquet on it. ELECTRON GUN I thought a pretty bad clue, with the rest being all right if somewhat less than enthralling for me.

47. 31m – so not the fastest solve, which I attribute to the lousy aftermath of a double flu/covid booster, but I thought it was a terrific puzzle. I was fine with ERRANDS for shopping and unless I have misunderstood the blog, doesn’t the “local” bit merely signal that it is a bit of local dialect along the lines of “messages” in Scotland? Chambers doesn’t say which bit of the country it hails from. My money’s on Manchester or Yorkshire.

48. You’ll have to put me down in the ‘likers’ list, and, having immediately spotted the wrong’un (I’m a bit of what Australian prime minister John Howard calls a cricket tragic), the ELECTRON GUN was my third or fourth one in and a candidate for COD. Only ERSTWHILE rankled – as our blogger suggests, ‘worst isle’ doesn’t quite trip off the tongue and I doubt Spooner would have had cause either to say or to mangle it. But I enjoyed the puzzle and the 24 minutes it occupied.

49. Loved it, even though I found it a bit difficult, and only just squeezed into the top 100 at this late stage of the day.

    ELECTRON GUN my favourite once I saw the parsing – bravo setter.

    23:50

50. I found this something of a struggle, with some clues going in quickly once I had crossers, others resisting stubbornly. The NW gave me the most trouble, being largely empty save for ANODYNE and MASON, and I compounded the difficulty by initially putting in ANODINE. So until that was corrected, 3d was impossible, which meant that I couldn’t work out 1a either. LOI ELECTRON GUN, which I freely admit is not a term that I’m familiar with, though I must have heard it. I also didn’t know that a googly was referred to as a ‘wrong-un’, which would have been helpful. BOP went in as the first thought – tap didn’t occur to me, luckily, and rap isn’t a dance!

    I’m ambivalent about the enjoyment, since the last four or so took so long, and I never parsed COMPUTE, while wondering if it could be COMMUTE, which seemed equally possible, and missing both ‘cute’ and ‘OM’. However, I did like KRUGERRANDS, ERSTWHILE, PROTUBERANT and INSISTENT, which, like AndyF, I initially misspelled, delaying ERUDITE considerably. So though I’m undoubtedly getting better at solving, I seem to be getting more careless at filling in!

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