Times Cryptic 29306

72 comments on “Times Cryptic 29306”

1. Depending on where you are in the States, and whether your maiden aunt or your mother in law is within earshot, Schmuck is a word to be careful with.
   I like the ~ jack

2. I thought this was at least as easy as yesterday’s, where I filled in most of the longest answers near the center in short order to begin with and was only held up briefly at the end by the one I had to guess (as did everyone else). I didn’t remember HEARTWOOD but it captured my heart. LOI GOALPOST—it would be a sports clue.

   1. Worth also remembering ‘sapwood’ – the outer layer where the woodworm live. I was told by a compagnon du devoir that the mediaeval craftsmen, lacking machinery to saw oak beams straight, used the less wasteful method of removing the sapwood with an adze, leaving a rippled finish now much imitated in plastic. They’re then impervious to death-watch beetle, at least until the roof starts to leak.

3. I’ve never heard the phrase OF THE FIRST WATER before, so it could have been IN. It took too long to get COMBAT (with a suspicious O that might be an I). Held up by my LOI GOALPOST for which, since I used to play the oboe and have to play that A, I have no excuse. The rest was pretty straightforward.

   I saw Paul’s comment above about SCHMUCK and looked it up in Chambers. And, yes, you would not want to use that word to your Yiddish-speaking great aunt.

4. I agree this was somewhat difficult. I have little idea of the correct spelling of tournedos, and Welsh names are always tricky. I only vaguely knew dimity, but timid was the obvious answer once you figure out roman – or Roman. I didn’t parse them all, but I was close enough and all correct.

   Time: 39:31

5. Very hard for me. DNF at submission of 35′, as I had ON THE FIRST WATER, and I can’t believe I missed the obvious SCHMUCK, particularly as someone with a fondness for Yiddishisms. Went with SCHGUNK (!)

   Everything else made sense to me in the ample time I had for parsing, though took me a while to see ‘gate’ as people. NHO ‘dimity’ so something learned. Thanks!

6. Wanted to invent ‘schlump’ (Yiddish has never been my strong suit) and was stymied by the crossing ROMAN and TIMID until I remembered my ‘Roman de la Rose’ (a favourite of CS Lewis’s).

   Last in was GOALPOST. I always thought the oboe played a D at the start of a gig. Apparently, it’s an A because, typically, all stringed instruments have an A string.

   25:37

   1. Also that strings are the largest contingent in a standard concert orchestra. Typically 60 players, and their instruments are the most likely to go out of tune in the shortest time.

7. Can one of you Brits OF THE FIRST WATER please clarify to this Yank how GO = “bash” here? Is it as in to bash someone/something is to have a go at them/it? Or is it as in a bash as a party, which is also a go? Or is it something else entirely? GOALPOST was my LOI, and I biffed it based on the checking letters plus knowing that orchestras tune on A.

   Ta in advance. And thank you to Jack and setter.

   1. To ‘have a bash at’ is to attempt, have a go.

8. Didn’t get GOALPOST even after alphabet trawl – I blame not being interested in football.

   OF THE FIRST WATER seems like a phrase never ever used nowadays.

   Must look up SCHMUCK now.

   Thanks jack and setter.

   1. You see it in Wodehouse (and Heyer :-)) but I doubt anyone would use that phrase today unless for effect.

   2. #Me Too!

9. 47.31 but WOE, a carelessly misspelt TOURNADOS. Annoying, should have checked the anagrist. LOI was GOALPOST where I had no idea at all and just clung to ‘upright’. GATEAU and UNITED also came late but all up this was a very good puzzle which was hard but, as Jack said, you always felt you were going to get there. Or nearly there, in my case.

   From Lonesome Day Blues:
   I see your lover-man coming, coming across the barren field
   I see your lover-man coming, coming across the barren field
   He’s not a gentleman at all, he’s ROTTEN to the core
   He’s a coward and he steals

10. 1 error in about 25 minutes

    I’d entered ON when I first looked at the unknown OF THE FIRST WATER and I didn’t return to it once I’d filled in the rest of the clue so more fool me. Otherwise I didn’t understand the parsing for TIMID and ROMAN (they were entered based on checkers and definitions), the unknown TOURNEDOS seemed like the most likely collection of letters, I took far too long over FAFFED and PARASOL, and last in GOALPOST took an eternity.

    A good challenge so thanks to the setter and to jackkt for filling in the blanks.

11. 22.40

    Got stuck on EDITOR and ROTTEN as the former as a program is not very familiar to me and went through the whole list of possible synonyms for sailors, managing to miss RN. Last in though was the rather good GOALPOST

12. A steady solve, no unknowns.
    Dimity quite familar to us Heyerites.
    Usual crop of unannounced Americanisms. Apart from Ft Worth, Collins says schmuck is “Derogatary US slang.”
    Also a bit of a mer at Roman.. Roman a clef not all that common in English and still a deduction to be made to get it to = novel. Still, the checkers are helpful.

13. I don’t think anyone’s said this yet, so to save you looking it up, from WP:

    “In the gemstone trade, first water means “highest quality”. The clarity of diamonds is assessed by their translucence; the more like water, the higher the quality.” (Idiom by extension.)

    1. Thanks, Dr S. I think this has come up before but I had forgotten all about.

14. DNF. Thought this was going to be another quickie with most complete in around 20 mins but then ground to a halt. Gave up on 45 mins with GOALPOST and TIMID missing, ROMAN not understood and the first water thing not trusted despite working out the parsing.
    Too much unknown GK for me but thanks all round.

    P.S. Also not helped by odd keyboard behaviour on the Times website. Typing this post is fine so not my device but in the club crossword it randomly misses letters, pauses and eventually locked entirely.

    1. Clearing your cache may help, but when I had the problem recently I uninstalled/reinstalled the app, and that did the trick.

    2. I had a similar problem yesterday. It seems that either clearing data & cookies (not just the cache) works, as does opening the website in a private/incognito tab.

       1. Thanks. I use incognito by default with a few exceptions to remember logins, like TftT and Times. Will try it tomorrow.

    3. The book I’m reading has just used the phrase “not quite of the same water” and now I know what it means. Thank you TftT

15. All correct and unaided in 38 minutes! Delayed by GOALPOST not being very sporty, EDITOR as I NHO it as a computer program and, inexplicably, by COMBAT which is surely a bit of a warhorse. COD OF THE FIRST WATER and thanks to Dr Shred for saving me the faff of researching its origin.
    Very fair and an enjoyable outing today. Thanks to jackkt and setter.

    1. I don’t think it’s a specific program, just a basic function of many

16. DNF – for some reason I had SCHNOOK and so couldn’t make anything work for 12A except TRANSPOSE. Of course SCHMUCK works much better!

17. 37 minutes with TIMID biffed. I knew the phrase OF THE FIRST WATER but not its derivation. I didn’t know HEARTWOOD but it could be little else with a couple of crossers. COD to BIOSPHERE. I found this harder than it looked. Thank you Jack and setter.

18. I biffed a few (OF THE FIRST WATER, FORT WORTH, BIOSPHERE) and parsed them all after completion, but had to come here to learn that A is a tuning note before I was happy with how my LOI worked. I thought this was pretty straightforward for a Wednesday – maybe they’re softening us up…..

    FOI COMBAT
    LOI GOALPOST
    COD TIMID
    TIME 6:55

    1. It’s Tuesday 😉

       1. Tempus fugit, especially when you get older!

          1. Indeed! I’ve got a regular social function today which has been moved from its customary Wednesday slot, so I’m blaming my befuddlement on that 🤣

    2. Er, unless I’m going mad it’s Tuesday…

19. Just under half an hour.

    – Eventually saw which meaning of ‘Upright’ was required, but I still had no idea how GOALPOST worked (and I have the same lack-of-excuse as Paul above that I used to play the oboe)
    – Biffed FORT WORTH once I had the W (like Jack, I thought the last word of 6d might be ORDER for a while, and only once I had a rethink and got OF THE FIRST WATER did the Texan city occur to me)
    – Had to hope I’d got the non-checking letters right for TOURNEDOS as I’d forgotten that word
    – NHO dimity, but I had T_M_D so TIMID had to be right
    – Had no idea about ROMAN as a French word for a novel, though I knew that it’s the German word for it

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    FOI Alpha
    LOI Goalpost
    COD Gateau

20. 34 minutes. Harder than yesterday’s. Didn’t know the ‘tuning note’ at 1a which put me off seeing the now clear def and answer and after I’d ‘Fussed vaguely’ for too long, I learnt there’s no such word as MAFFET.

    I only knew OF THE FIRST WATER from previous discussion here when WATER has appeared for “quality” or “class”. I became stuck on ECOSPHERE, which was just about OK for the def but didn’t fit the wordplay for 7d, and was therefore looking in vain for some obscure ‘film’ for 5a, my eventual last in.

    Thanks to Jack and setter

21. Another who thought this was going to be a DODDLE but went astray here and there with DOODLE not TODDLE, the Welsh name and the Yiddish expression which I had vaguely heard but not know its meaning was foolish person. TIMID was also a long time coming as I’d forgotten dimity was a material. Not my best effort today.

22. 26 mins with LOI goalpost. Struggled with that one for what seemed like an age. Bit disappointing considering that on a rare visit north to see my team( and my mum) , I saw a 4-0 win and one shot which clattered into the upright.

23. 13:40 steady progress

24. Another for whom GOALPOST was the last making for a 21.38 solve. It was hard to get away from “upright piano” and there were so many variations in a clue including “bash” and “ruined”. I also need to revise my Welsh and its peculiar variations on which letter is doubled. And yes, I know Welsh pronunciations are much more fixed than English!

25. I enjoyed this, chewy but all ultimately gettable, the only unknown being EARTHWOOD which was generously clued. The reference to the championship at the start made me wonder if this had been a championship puzzle and had me thinking that although it was a good puzzle it wasn’t one I’d have liked much in a race against the clock. Harder than yesterday for me.

26. DNF. Beaten by TIMID (NHO dimity) AND POSTERN, which I should have got. Mildly frustrating mix of very easy and not.

27. My thanks to jackkt and setter.
    I found it mainly fairly easy apart from 9d Gateau and 16a United which defeated me.
    I like the tilde in the blog. DNF.
    1a Goalpost. Biffed. I thought the orchestra used C as the tuning note, so that didn’t help me to parse it.
    26a Timid biffed. DNK dimity, just like I didn’t know it last time.
    3d Press Conference. I like the mention of the Diet or Worms, always good for a schoolboy snigger. Wiki says “Other imperial diets took place at Worms in the years 829, 926, 1076, 1122, 1495, and 1545, but unless plainly qualified, the term “Diet of Worms” usually refers to the assembly of 1521″ (which is the one that condemned Martin Luther). I thought you might want to know that.

28. Some tricky parsing in this one. I was fortunate to see GOALPOST straight away which gave me a good start. SCHMUCK presented no problems either. I FAFFED about for ages in the SE as I didn’t know ROMAN as a novel or dimity, but once the last word of 6d looked like WATER, OF THE FIRST came straight to mind. Then TIMID had to be and so did ROMAN. We had EDITOR as a program quite recently and it spawned many posts on Unix editors such as vi. HEARTWOOD and GATEAU were my last 2 in. 23:47. Thanks setter and Jack.

29. Everything went in quite smoothly (apart from HEARTWOOD, which I looked up to check its meaning) and when I looked at it afterwards everything seemed pretty straightforward, so I was expecting some good times, and thought my 41 minutes would be on the high side, but evidently no.

30. Two short on the hour mark, and one of those days when I was pleased to pull stumps as TIMID and ROMAN would never have come. Roman=novel and Dimity were both unknown, I had shrinking and novel as indicators not definitions, and missed the crucial “of” in the city. Only city that fitted was ROUEN.

    But pleased to get GOALPOST towards the end. Had fight=RUMBLE on the basis that “rule” and “film” each have loads of synonyms and two of them must be equivalent somewhere.

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