Times Cryptic 29054

65 comments on “Times Cryptic 29054”

1. Nice puzzle. Around an hour. Biggest slowdown was finding a word to fit I_A_I_. When it first came up early in the solve I gave up and left it until last. Finally biffed ISATIN and then checked to see it was an actual word. Nice to see LEDERHOSEN again. I had a problem when I put DEMONIC in since “de mon” sounded very French. It took a while to change to FRANTIC which obviously raised the solve speed halted by demonic.
   Thanks Jack

2. Like the majority of early posters, I dithered between ‘noontime’ and NOONTIDE, and plumped for the former since I read ‘issue’ as EMIT, and the rest seemed close enough.

   Buy my real struggles were with ISATIN, which I didn’t know, and WARRANTY, which outfoxed me. All bar around four done in less than ten minutes (including one error), then more than that again for the rest.

   1. Same for me. W for ‘women’s’ feels like a stretch. It’s clearly OK as part of some longer abbreviations (WI, YWCA, once upon a time WRAF, to name but three), but on its own I’ve only seen it on one or two toilet doors. And if the apostrophe in the clue is indicating a contraction rather than a possessive, it’s even more of a stretch. Even so, 21’32” is quick for me, even for a straightforward puzzle as this was.

      1. M (Men) and W (Women) are found on clothing labels.

      2. I think the ’s in the clue is just an abbreviation for ‘is’, as a link word. [Wordplay] is [definition]. It’s a fairly common formulation which you also see in 10ac and 24dn.

         1. You may be right, but Chambers and SOED have w = women and w = women’s.

            1. And actually I see that ODE only has women’s! Works either way.

3. I’m a little under the weather (from my Covid booster and flu jab, I think), so that’s my excuse for the excellent PIANISSIMO keeping me guessing so long. I thought of SERVERY long before I resigned myself to such a silly-seeming word being the answer, and the NHO or unremembered ISTATIN came in last.

   I have a friend from GUAM, a US territory on which Uncle Sam generously rained nuclear fallout. Tony hosts karaoke under the name Tokyo Rosenberg.

4. I saw that both noontime and noontide were possible, so I made sure to parse the clue completely – this is how biffing can lead to disaster. Isatin and servery seemed a bit strange, but they were the evident answers. I was very careful with the spelling of alleluia after my mess-up in the Championship puzzle.

   Time: 18:01

5. DNF, but in good company according to the leader board. NOONTIME was so close to parsing, but NOONTIDE was very good. If it was a deliberate trap, it’s a clever one.

   Jack, at 3dn I’m thinking of courtroom-speak such as “I hold that you sir, were in the vicinity of the offence on the night of…”

   LOI ISATIN entered with some confidence despite never having heard of it.

   Nice puzzle. Thanks Jack and setter.

   1. Many thanks. I think that covers it nicely.

   2. (A barrister writes: if anyone actually said that in court, they’d be laughed out of it!)

6. 5:24 – pretty breezy solve, liked ALLELUIA, but did not see the wordplay for DOGGEREL, so was relived when that was correct.

7. 15:42 WOE, and you know what it was
   Like Jack and Ulaca, had NOONTIDE; only dithered at the end, and wasted a couple of minutes dithering before hitting the M key. NHO ISATIN. No problem with ALLEGE=hold (for one thing, I see I never parsed the clue); Schwartz holds/alleges that p.

8. DNF. I don’t recall seeing more failures than successes on the SNITCH before but currently over 70% have at least one error. Thus I feel like I’ve helped to make history with my NOONTIME.

9. Sub 20′ which is always good for me, except it isn’t as I chose NOONTImE (I couldn’t parse either option)… I also had a pencilled-in caRVERY wondering why a carver might be an acolyte, thankfully the greyhounds put me right. Otherwise pretty straightforward, thanks Jackkt and setter.

10. 27.56, would have been sub-20 but for BLUR, ALLELUIA and WARRANTY taking a big chunk of time at the end. Not spelling NEAPOLITAN right the first time didn’t help, thanks Jack.

    A rerun from yesterday!
    From You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go:
    DRAGON clouds so high above
    I’ve only known careless love
    It’s always hit me from below
    This time around it’s more correct
    Right on target, so irect
    You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go

11. Another NOONTIME – the fact that issue = EMIT and NO is a denial was enough for me, which did admittedly leave a mysterious for one = ON. As yesterday, at least I’m not alone (and I’m less annoyed!).

    Thanks both.

12. — I am like a Slip of comet,
    Scarce worth discovery, in some corner seen
    Bridging the slender difference of two stars
    (GM Hopkins)

    15 mins pre-brekker – but with Noontime – and I saw it was a substitution but somehow ignored the spelling of Emission.
    I liked it. Neat and tidy with some smooth surfaces.
    Ta setter and J

    1. As an aside.
       You will all know the old joke where you tell someone the clue, “Heavily laden postman” and when they ask “How many letters?”, you say “Bloody thousands!”.

       Well in pubs in Scotland the gag is to offer the clue “8 letters, Abandoned on an island” and when someone says “Marooned!” you all say “That’s very kind of you, I’ll have a large scotch”.

       1. Lol.

       2. My version, for what it’s worth is having a pint in a pub, « sorry lads, I’ve got to go and do my chores ». Someone pipes up, « what chores » «  oh mine’s a pint ta ».!

       3. 🤣

       4. 🫣🥸😂

13. 19.31. A welcome relief after yesterday’s trials.

14. 23 minutes held up at the end by the unknown ISATIN and then trying to decide between the two NOON possibilities. I eventually got there. COD to DOGGEREL which tickled me although it was easy. Thank you setter and Jack, particularly for the Thora Hird, who looked and sounded just like my Mum. They don’t make them like that any more.

15. 17:27

    FOI: MACAROON
    LOI: WARRANTY

    All good, helped by coincidentally browsing through Lamb’s essays yesterday evening and failing to spot the possibility of noontime.

    Thank you to jackkt and the setter.

16. 9:11. Quite gentle on the whole. Luckily I didn’t think of NOONTIME and biffed NOONTIDE. DNK a greyhound could be a ship and I took a while to parse my LOI WARRANTY at the end. I liked the neat anagram for ASPIRED. Thanks Jackkt and setter.

    1. AFAIK the ocean greyhound is a Naval destroyer only.
       Oops, looked it up and Wiktionary says any fast steamer.

17. I feel robbed this morning by NOONTIDE, and note that with one error I am currently 37/92 on the leaderboard. I was on for a PB until agonising over the nho ISATIN. 🙁

    Thanks jack and setter.

18. 31m 35s
    With FRANTIC in place in 16ac my initial thought for 16d was FORMOSAN.
    One or two commenters on the crossword club site reckon NOONTIME is equally valid but a little light parsing proves otherwise.

    1. Oh yes, there’s no doubt that NOONTIDE is the correct answer and NOONTIME would be wrong, although both would be equally valid as synonyms of ‘midday’. The problem in my case arose because I tried to parse my original answer NOONTIDE but couldn’t immediately see how it worked so I let myself be distracted by equating ‘issue’ with ’emit’ as it so often does in crossword puzzles. That and ‘no’ for ‘denial’ seemed very tempting so with still half an eye on the clock as the puzzle had been unusually easy I bunged it in and moved on.

19. 36 mins. Last two, the unknown ISATIN when I finally saw the civil disobedience bit, and ARMLET. There the problem was my clumsy spelling of « ALIEGIANCE » once I saw my error, ARMLET went straight in of course. Doh.

    Definitely a pleasure after yesterday’s monster as has been mentioned.

    PIANISSIMO my favourite.

    Thanks Jack and friendly setter.

20. DNF, defeated by the unknown ISATIN and the NOONTIDE booby trap.

    – Can’t recall seeing fillip=excite before (more familiar with it as a noun)
    – Took ages to get WARRANTY, as I kept trying to fit DA for attorney in there
    – Failing to get ISATIN made me doubt INVIGORATE, as I momentarily forgot that current can give ‘in’ and thought it might just be giving I
    – LEDERHOSEN feels an inherently unsatisfying word to use in a crossword, as you kind of have to include the Bavarian bit in the clue, which then makes it more or less a write-in

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    COD Musket

21. Having completed the Championship final puzzle online yesterday for the first time ever, my confidence was high, and it soared further as answers appeared in rapid succession and an all-time PB beckoned. Just two left after eight minutes but having finally decoded WARRANTY the adrenaline led me to pick the wrong option for NOONTIME and fail to spot a typo in OCEAN GOING. Two pinks and I missed the PB anyway. Thanks for a fun romp, setter, with COD to the tricksy WARRANTY.

22. Ha ha I “finished” in 16:05 but made exactly the same error as Jack with time and tide. Actually when I see how that clue works I think it’s by far the hardest clue and a bit of a mean trick by the setter!
    Anyway thanks Jack and setter

23. 13 something WOE

    Another one fallen into the trap!

24. 9a AlleluYa, can’t spell, but parsing proved it wrong.
    26a NoontiMe, biffed wrongly.
    6d Blur, I thought the hanger-on was a burr, but Wiktionary supports bur.
    17a Servery, just discovered it was absent from Cheating Machine. Added. Was tempted by caRVERY as others.
    DNF, 8d Warranty, couldn’t parse it and didn’t enter it. Doh! Thanks jackkt.
    16d Filipino. Had no idea when to use F or PH. Have looked it up and might remember in future…? Using PH wrongly can cause offence I gather.

25. Now I understand why my 14.09 is so relatively high on the leaderboard, and could have been higher had I not got stuck on ALLIEGENCE for the last 3 minutes or so (you mean it’s not spelled like that?!). NOONTIDE, and a short time later the parsing thereof, was my only thought for the entry. Untroubled by BILITERAL thinking, teehee!
    After yesterday’s barely solvable shenanigans, this felt and proved a comfortable, morale boosting solve. Thanks Jackkt for a fine exposition.

26. 7:15, with three of those minutes spent puzzling over WARRANTY and ISATIN. In the end I was glad this wasn’t a sub-5 as I’m another who fell into the EMIT trap, and there’s something particularly annoying about a fast time with a pink square.

27. 19:01 with 5 minutes spent on the LOI and unknown ISATIN.

28. Finished in 33:28 with what seems like today’s ubiquitous error, so technically a DNF.

    If you’re going to present a NOONTIME vs. NOONTIDE type of conundrum to the solver, make the M/D a checked letter. Of course, that wasn’t possible in this grid configuration, so perhaps go with the Chambers-approved NEOPHILE instead? “Hipster is one confused by the French and Greek character.” or some such would work, methinks.

29. Tore through this in under 20 mins, fast for me, but then stopped dead on the NHO ISATIN. Simply couldn’t imagine what it might be, so a v irritating DNF.

30. I gave up on 25a (NHO) but at least I got noontide, which seems to have tripped up some distinguished solvers.

31. Gentle but pleasant, 19 minutes, with NOONTIDE correct but not parsed. Thanks for that one jackkt.

32. A quick time at 16.45 but ruined by NOONTIME. I didn’t give it a second thought unfortunately, even though I recognised the parsing wasn’t quite right.

33. DNF – NHO “isatin” and, unless the wordplay is absolutely transparent (and it has to be VERY transparent for me) I tend not to get words I’ve not heard.

    I couldn’t work out from the clue whether 26ac was NOONTIDE or NOONTIME, but plumped for the former.

    There were a few others that I struggled to parse fully or at all – not that I tried very hard – ALLEGIANCE, PIANISSIMO, WARRANTY and (especially) FILIPINO because I was unaware that ‘fillip’ was a verb as well as a noun (although according to the COD the verb is archaic and only has the meaning of to propel something with a flick of the fingers and thumb, i.e. ‘flip’, and not the figurative meaning of urge/stimulate; no doubt, someone will point out that meaning in another dictionary. All a bit academic, since my semi-biffs were correct for all four.

    1. Wiktionary has the right sense; number 4 of 5 for the verb:
       4) (transitive, figuratively) To drive as if by a fillip (noun sense 1); to excite, stimulate, whet.
       >>>> quote: The spicy aroma filliped my appetite.

34. 18.19. LOI ISATIN. If I were being really pedantic (go on, I hear you say, you just can’t help yourself), I’d say Hal describes the young prince Henry of Henry IV part I and II, and by the time you get to Henry V he’s grown up and known as Henry or Harry (“God for England, Harry and St. George!”). But if you can’t be a pedant on a crossword blog, where can you, eh? Thank you Jackkt and setter.

35. Careless errors again. Fell for Noontime, got Alleluya wrong, and NOH ISATIN. I enjoyed a lot of this, especially WARRANTY, and I feel I’m getting close to an all correct Mon-Fri at some stage, but it is going to require some patience.
    Thanks Jack and Setter.

36. 14:35 but…

    …same as many, many others. Going into the puzzle on the mobile app (where I solved today on my lunchtime walk), I saw that the average points thus far was at 679, suggesting even without the tide of neutrinos, that this might be a very hard puzzle. Like others, I was pleasantly surprised, and it was only on completion that I realised why.

    Unless I am mistaken, NOONTIDE seems to be something of an oddity being the only time-based TIDE. Each of the other TIDEs would seem to cover periods of days or months – Eastertide, Springtide, Christmastide and probably many more. While it’s a clever clue, I contend that the setter’s job isn’t to trick the solver, merely to confound, and I hope that any unintended ambiguity was simply an error on the editor’s part. The rest of the grid was great, it’s such a shame that for so many it should be spoiled in this way.

    (On edit, I see that morningTIDE and eveningTIDE are also allowed (according to Wiktionary), as well as a wide variety of religious festivals. The most unusual being CovidTIDE, defined as the period of the Covid-19 pandemic – looking forward to seeing that in a future puzzle…)

    Thanks Jack and setter

37. 21:05 but with 1 error, for NOONTIME. I carefully thought about both options and couldnt parse either cleanly… bah.

    thanks both!

38. LOI WARRANTY -parsed eventually.
    But another NOONTIME.
    D

39. 28.38 WOE. I spent ten minutes coming up with the NHO ISATIN only to fall into the same trap as everyone else. Thanks Jack.

40. Another member of the OWL club here, would’ve been 13:29 if not for the error.

41. 23’20”
    Enough early pace to take a bit of a tug and avoid the hazard closing stages.

    I was chuffed to have parsed all -good job I did- and still get home in less than the half hour; an increasingly rare occurrence these days.
    Thank you Jack and setter.

42. 18.50 but I had not the foggiest as to how noontide was the answer to 26 ac. Wasn’t entirely sure about pianissimo either.

    Remembered an earlier puzzle so I satin was easy enough. Liked warranty and especially, doggerel.
    Thx setter and blogger.

43. I also thought I had parsed NOONTIME. Never mind.

44. Spent almost as long on my LOI ISATIN as on the rest of the crossword but ultimately undone by putting NOONTIME like so many others.
    FOI MACAROON
    COD PIANISSIMO

45. 17 min DNF, but not NOONTIDE – even parsed it – it was the NHO ISATIN that did for me. After 5 fruitless minutes I gave up and looked it up. I think I need to work on my stamina.

    Fun puzzle, COD PIANISSIMO. Thanks Jack.

46. With a low 65 Snitch, I am 57th out of 313 with a time of 13’01”. Something’s not right. I’m high up the order on a not very impressive time. It must be that there are an awful lot of quick solves with one error. NOONTIDE or ALLELUIA I would guess. Raced through most of it in six or seven minutes then slowed considerably for the last few. LOI WARRANTY.

47. It seems the NOONTIME people almost have a majority — too bad we can’t vote on it. But I did wonder about how the wordplay would fit and just decided the setter didn’t know how to spell “emission”. At least I’m in good company. My other mistake was ALLELUYA, since my knowledge of Lamb is not precise enough. Otherwise an easy puzzle, which I didn’t like too much because the surface readings often seemed a bit contrived (for example, what in the world would “midday issue with denial for one retracted” actually mean in real life?).

48. 46 minutes. ALLALUIA I couldn’t get (finished up putting in ALLELUHA because wouldn’t resort to external help)and ISATIN also held me up. These two clues were annoyingly obscure; seems to me that the compiler shoved them in to complete the job, having been left with a couple of inconvenient gaps!

49. I am a day late and it is many decades since Henry V was my English O-level. However I do recall that before we had to cry out for Harry, we had to stand like greyhounds in the slips. Perhaps there is a theme to this crossword which the sharper minds of this column may well be able to expand upon…

50. Fared much better on this one than usual, with a good start in MACAROON. The rest of the NW fell relatively quickly, and my only hold-ups proved to be the general ones of a mis-spelt HALLELUJA, a NHO ISATIN, and a blind-spot for WARRANTY. Oh, and would you believe it, held fast to GOO for the sticky substance and thought I just didn’t know the relevant island! But all almost finished in under a half hour, so not unhappy. (Thought I’d come here to find most thought it a walk in the park!)

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