Times 27,917: Taken Down A Peg Or Two

70 comments on “Times 27,917: Taken Down A Peg Or Two”

1. I took that as SO (very) RE (concerning).
   1. Much more convincing! Thank you!

      Edited at 2021-03-05 01:09 am (UTC)

2. I slowed an already slow myself down by bunging in RECHERCHE at 16d, and, much more significantly, UNPIN. After wasting heaps of time playing with the alphabet, I finally thought maybe 4d was wrong and immediately got UNPEG, and LOI BATTENING. Like V, I thought UNPIN was a better solution. Didn’t know ER was specifically US. DNK the bob; wondered if it was some ghastly hairstyle. DNK SIGHTER. Biffed SACRISTAN from TAN, parsed post-submission. The ‘a’ in ‘a street’ looks like one of Myrtilus’s pet peeves. I liked SHRIVE & APPREHEND, but COD to RECONDITE.
   1. ERs in the UK are A&E, probably still useful for crosswords but a little less so. Yes, I didn’t see the whole nine yards of the SARIS until afterwards either.
3. I was undone by the upper left corner. I was another in the UNPIN group, thinking we were going to have a gerund for 11 Across. I also had SHRIFT for awhile, not having read the clue carefully.

   I think the ‘the’ in ‘the scoundrel’ is quite bad, because it very clearly indicates that the word to put inside should be another synonym of ‘scoundrel’, not another poet. In any case I didn’t know SWINBURNE.

   My true undoing was EASTERLIES. I was convinced we needed an anagram of I LEFT inside a word meaning ‘winds’ to get some spring flowers. Unfortunately this theory was greatly supported by the crossing letters. TRENCHER was another — I had T _ _ _ CHER and couldn’t go farther.

   The trouble with these really tough puzzles is they only come around every so often…. I want another crack at one!

   1. But we do have a gerund at 11ac.
      As for the ‘the’, I didn’t notice at the time, but I think it’s rather like the ‘a’ in ‘a street’, i.e. otiose. But I don’t see how it indicates inclusion one way or the other. The commas, on the other hand, make it ambiguous who’s doing the pinching, the poet or the scoundrel.
      1. Yes sorry I was being too terse. By ‘gerund’ I meant where we get a gerund in the clue but the answer ends in -TION. (Or vice versa.)

         Actually, now that I read the surface of 2 Down, the required reading does actually work. I was so in “wordplay mode” that ignored that, grammatically, ‘another’ refers back to the grammatical subject, not the embedded clause. (I had ignored the commas!)

   2. My performance today was quite dour
      It took me five sixths of an hour
      Seventeen’s COD
      And the last one for me
      EASTERLIES, which wasn’t a flower
4. Grrr… Dangling articles, random French (knew cher meant dear romantically, but not expensively), unknown trencher plates and treen, Easter as spring, battening. Not to my liking, even with the usual tranche of excellent clues in there. Ultimately failed, guessing TRESCHER as some sort of electroplating. Also carelessly put unswept from the crossers without rereading the clue, but that one’s down to me. As is the first guess at UNPIN, which I managed to correct.

   Edited at 2021-03-05 03:12 am (UTC)

   1. To be fair, Easter Lilies are a thing, to be seen at any Church, at great expense to the ladies of the flower guild, on Easter Sunday. And that’s generally springtime.
      1. Apologies to the setter. I’d lifted and separated spring flowers, never heard of Easter lilies. Grumpy mood is probably exacerbated by now two days in a row with puzzles that weren’t superb (IMO), which is unusual.
5. I did fine until the end. But I had SHRIFT at 1A instead of SHRIVE, which made 3D FALLEN as the only reasonable choice, although I couldn’t see the wordplay. And I’d never heard of BATTENING either. I also had UNPIN until I could only fit BATALLION for 11A, so I thought I should try for an -ING ending and then saw UNPEG (although I agree that PEG is not slang for a leg, as far as I know, so UNPIN seems a better fit for amputation). SWINBURNE took a long time since I thought I was trying to insert another scoundrel, not another poet, and I could only half remember his name anyway (SWIMBORNE? SWINBORNE?)
   1. ‘Peg’ is a word for leg, in both Collins and Lexico. I agree that UNPIN is the better answer though!
6. I was thoroughly stuck after about an hour, so I put it aside and did the Guardian puzzle. After thoroughly scrambling my brain with Paul’s tricks, I came back and finished in a few minutes.

   My big problem was unpin, which had started as unarm. I saw battening at once when I returned, and realized 3 must be valley, and not valste. Returning to the SW, I saw how Georgian worked, with a MER over whether Georgia is really in Europe or not. I was working with an anagram of I left, thinking my target was winds in the sense of coils up. Entangles nearly fit, and encircles. I realized the gap was probably an I, which made me think of lilies – ah, eastlilies, Well, not exactly, but the correct answer soon followed. Sighter was my LOI, easy once you have the opening S.

   Previously, I struggled with trencher because it is often a wooden plate, and I though you had to manipulate a trencher to get something else. Then I remembered treen, which used to appear all the time in the 2005-10 era, and saw how that one worked.

   Upon completion, I understood everything except for the literal of skeleton, but that had to be the answer. No time, of course.

7. Had never heard of a SIGHTER, in that sense, but was also held up a long time by having UNPIN for UNPEG. Wasn’t sure of TREEN without looking it up. Of course, it’s probably been around here before.
   1. I knew “Treen” from watching “Bargain Hunt” — how desperate is that?
8. I ended up feeling a bit cheated by this as I battled through most of it remembering some less than common vocabulary acquired from previous puzzles (EPOXY, SACRISTAN, TRENCHER and SKELETON bob which was in a ST puzzle last December), only to be utterly scuppered in the NW corner.

   I filled the grid eventually after resorting to aids but never stood a chance as SHRIVE ‘confess’ and BATTENING ‘feasting greedily’ were completely unknown to me, and even though I got near to considering both via wordplay I didn’t recognise them as possibly fitting the definitions. And finally I was put off finding what should have been an easy answer at 4dn by the redundant ‘a’ and as a result I am now fully signed up to Myrtilus’s school of thought.

   Never got near SWINBURNE either as I was missing the two most important checkers, but I did at least know him.

   Edited at 2021-03-05 05:48 am (UTC)

   1. I have the feeling we’ve had this before, because I had a déja MER feeling this time, since for me it is the priest who shrives, not the confessor. But I see that ODE also has ‘shrive oneself’ for the confessor; which perhaps isn’t quite as near as dammit for ‘confess’.
      1. SOED has: 3a verb refl. & intrans. Confess one’s sins, go to confession.

         Collins has similar also at 3. Your definition is at 1 in both.

      2. I’ve got an idea it was very recent, the past week or two, but it might have been in connection with Shrove Tuesday.
         1. I think it was a Saturday not too long ago.
   2. Do you mean ‘a’ street at 3dn? Glad to see you calling out the danglers.
      1. Yes, sorry!
9. …Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,

   After 35 mins I gave up on Shrive/Swinburne even though I was sure ‘can it’ would be Sh. Go figure.
   Also Battening, unhelped by having Unpin at 4dn, which is a shame as I have loved the word ever since reading The Kraken as a youth. Imagine lying at the bottom of the sea for years battening upon huge sea worms in your sleep. Heaven.
   Thanks setter and V.

10. I thought b******s, then, MERde (minor eyebrow raise with gallic shrug). COD to RECONDITE (as they say).
11. Finished in 57 minutes. I thought it would be a DNF all the way through. LOI was SWIPE, after DERANGE was ventured as a possibility. The only BATTENING I’ve heard of concerns hatches but the crossers were kind, as eventually they were for UPSWEPT. I’m giving COD to RECONDITE, as I guessed ON DIT must mean rumour. I liked INTUITIVE too. The daffodils seem to come out earlier each year and are dying back by Easter. Global warming? Tough puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
12. My longest solve in a long time, mostly because, like verlaine I couldn’t make sense of 11ac with a wrong answer in 4d. Like others I had UNPIN there but eventually saw the light.
    NHO BATTENING, SHRIVE or TRE(e)N in TRENCHER.
    LOI SHRIVE/BATTENING.
    Marginally more enjoyable than yesterday but only marginally.
13. Tough puzzle not helped by slight sloppiness of the dangling articles. Enjoyed much of it, however, even if I had to biff BATTENING. Perhaps too much of a good thing with the multiple substitution clues and I ummed and aahed too long over SHRIVE / SHROVE at 1ac, wasting a couple of minutes at the end, not really knowing what either of them meant other than the wrong one being recently related to crêpes…
14. 16:44. Another member of the UNPIN club. One of those puzzles that felt hard by dint of obscurity and/or loose definitions rather than cleverness, and like others I found these danglers (which I often don’t notice) quite obtrusive. Some good stuff too, though. I liked ‘with what purpose?’
15. 38:36. Rather heavy going and stuck for ages at the end in the NW corner, but at least I got there in the end. I had a lot of missing vocabulary which didn’t help… and writing INTUITIVE in the space for 24A rather than 25A made a mess of the grid. SACRISTAN took a while to see (and then parse). DNK TREEN for wooden ware, RIVE for split or BATTENING for feasting greedily. FOI IN ALL. LOI SHRIVE after I eventually remembered V for see. I liked GEORGIAN (which I failed to see as an anagram for too long) and SIGHTER best, but there was plenty more to enjoy. Thank-you V and setter.

    Edited at 2021-03-05 08:47 am (UTC)

16. A most unsatisfying feeling when I learned that BATTENING was an old Norse eating disorder.

    I further note the American Gerund Club is back in town!

    FOI 20ac CHIC

    (LOI) 3dn VALLEY – I once went to Chad Valley!

    COD 1dn SWINBURNE – a poet associated with ‘indecent themes’, no less!

    WOD 4dn -“UNPEG the basket on the house’s top.
    Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
    To try conclusions, in the basket creep
    And break your own neck down.”

    Edited at 2021-03-05 09:15 am (UTC)

17. Completely foxed by the NW corner so gave up after 57 mins, another three were not going to make a difference!
    Undone by shrive and valley. I would have got valley if I’d known V was a clue to see but shrive would still have been a mystery, NHO that as an alternative for confess.

    Despite not finishing, I really enjoyed the challenge . Lots of tough clues as far as I was concerned and I was especially pleased with myself for getting Swinburne.

    Thanks setter and blogger for explaining the gaps in my workings out.

18. Half an hour on this, watching cricket, it seemed a pleasant one not as hard as a usual Friday. Then came to a halt with 4d and 11a to fill in. UNPEG and 11a ending in G looked more likely, but never heard of BATTENING, so wavered between BUTTERING and BATTERING (as in battered fried Mars bars?) for feasting greedily. Both were wrong.
    Liked INTUITIVE and TRENCHER which were well constructed.
19. Decent progress until the last half dozen or so.

    EASTERLIES preferred over westerlies, but then much thought before SWINBURNE. Thinking 11ac might end in ING had me pencil in UNPEG, but had to work through the cryptic for the unheard of (in this sense) BATTENING.

    Down in the SE corner, pencilled in the not-quite-sure-of-its-meaning RECONDITE — also never heard of ON DIT but then I was never very good at French – which helped with REVERE, and finally last in HOTLINE which on the laptop was an anagram over two lines so perhaps a shade harder to spot.

20. My 17.42, which I thought to be an average sort of time, appears to be quite good really, and I was untroubled by the many issues enumerated above.

    It helped that I got the NW corner pretty smoothly, not giving the proverbial about the dangling A in 3d and processing BATTENING without blinking. That meant UNPEG couldn’t be anything else. Pace everyone else it seems, I would venture that in this case it IS the better answer.

    Now then, that dangling A. It’s difficult to equate ALLEY with street, except in a particular case (two cases if you count the US version). Put Tin Pan in front and it’s Denmark Street. A street gives ALLEY, while any street does not. (A) Small point, perhaps, but I think it smudges the issue beyond an automatic tut, tut.

    My last in was GEORGIAN with its clever suggestion that you had to remove something from an American to get a European, and one of the best disguised anagrams you could hope to see.

    I liked this one.

    1. Tut, tut.
       1. Tsk.
21. Didn’t parse SHRIVE and LOI GEORGIAN – great clue.

    Thanks setter and Verlaine

22. Pushed for time, so I had to give in grumpily, with the SW still to clear up. Sighter was new to me, and I was far from Intuitive. Oh well, Recondite, Apprehend and Skeleton made it worth.
    Thank you setter and blogger.
23. Ground to a lengthy halt with the sneaky GEORGIAN — can’t recall seeing a double definition and cryptic before, but presumably I have. Lots of very slick cluing here. 26m 32s
24. After REACTED and REDO, my first 2 in, the N”W refused to yield and I moved on. On my return, some 45 minutes later, I hunkered down for the long haul. I still hadn’t figured out the spring flowers either, but they came along eventually. My first breakthrough was 9a, which went in originally on definition, but was eventually parsed. Then I arrived at V for see at 3d and saw VALLEY. That gave me the vaguely remembered SHRIVE and then I worked out the unknown SWINBURNE. That left me with 11a which was an unknown meaning and I had to revise UNPIN to UNPEG before finally seeing the wordplay. A bit of a beast! 80:32. Thanks setter(I think) and V. I was amazed to find I was at 40 out of 77 on the Leaderboard with that time. Will have a look at the SNITCH now!
25. Hard one.

    I didn’t consider UNPIN but I did go up, down, and back up again every other blind alley going:

    18a EASTERLIES – tried to put I L or (I left)* in a word for winds to get some flowers.

    1d SWINBURNE – convinced myself that the truncated inner poet could only be BAR{d} and the whole would be some bleeding Roman or Greek poet I’d never heard of ending -BARUS or summat like.

    17d GEORGIAN, – thought I had to remove ARE from an American statesman to get the E. European. Went through many instances of both, to no avail obviously.

26. I seem to be more in Z’s party on this one, albeit several minutes slower. Rather a paschal feel to this with the lilies and SHRIVE. I’d always thought that being shriven meant being given absolution after confession but I can’t say I’d given it a lot of consideration. Took a very long time to parse SACRISTAN – no doubt he has his special duties at Easter. It’s a bit dismissive to describe an UPSWEPT hairdo as “piled in a heap”. When I was going to dances in my late teens I’d spend literally hours at the hairdresser getting it done right. 22.48
    1. Now, if you’d had a perm you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble.
       1. Dam’ straight Kevin!
27. 32:35
    Good puzzle; enjoyed it. Thanks v.
28. Another to put in ‘unpin’ before I worked out the unknown BATTENING from the wordplay. I liked the ‘Sort of bob’ at 5d and spent a while thinking of various hairdos after PERM yesterday and UPSWEPT today, before the Winter Olympics came to mind.

    Happy to finish with all correct and to come in under the hour at 57 minutes.

    Thanks to setter and blogger (and to “Bargain Hunt” for teaching me what TREEN is).

    1. Bargain Hunt? Tsk, surely you meant “Antiques Roadshow”
       1. Tim Wonnacott (BH) specialises in Treen!
       2. Definitely “Bargain Hunt” – “Antiques Roadshow” is a bit too high rent for me I’m afraid!
29. I found this off the scale hard, hence I have only just finished when I’m normally done by 7am. My big problem was four in the NW corner — SWINBURNE, SHRIVE, VALLEY and BATTENING, and I was another UNPIN.

    After yesterday I was a little disappointed that the scoundrel in 1D was not a Greek, or maybe a Turk or a Cypriot for balance 😉

30. I really liked this one, even though it had a couple of esotericisms..
    I have fired literally hundreds of sighters in my time, so no trouble there. Shrive a bit of a stretch, it has a religious feel to it .. what the Inquisition insisted on, no doubt. And then executed you anyway.
    As for the dangler at 3dn, its intended function is obvious and I will continue treat antidanglers with the utter contempt they deserve.. 🙂
    17dn is a very fine clue indeed, worth the price of admission all on its own..

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