Times Cryptic 29330

56 comments on “Times Cryptic 29330”

1. I solved this in a reasonable time, in part by biffing. There was some GK required, as I struggled to remember spatchcock and blancmange, both of which I biffed and then parsed. I wasn’t too sure of exit and away, although they seemed likely to be correct, and didn’t parse whoa until after finishing. I did have to take scaffolder on faith – that’s what the anagram letters are saying.

   Time: 26:06

2. Just over an hour with aids. The parsing eluded me on many.
   Took nearly an hour to be able to print the puzzle due to constant server errors.
   Thanks Jack

   1. Oh no, not server errors at The Times too? I printed several puzzles this morning without problems.

      1. A mixture of server errors and and page not found errors. I couldn’t get to the printing page either through the crossword club link to printing or the crossword display link.

         1. Likewise, very frustrating. Took me age to finally find a devious way of printing the crossword on madame’s computer.

3. Not in the correct mindset for this setter today. Did not complete by about a third, but really should have done a bit better based on the info from blogger.
   Actually liked some of the clues we missed such as 27ac BLANCMANGE (which for some reason we were trying to fill with the less obvious ‘frangipane’); and 22d EARN (despite or perhaps because of the slightly odd direction).
   MER on 17ac because of month in a foreign calendar without any hint; and 13d, 14d and 16d because of the general degree of arcane in meaning and process.
   Also dishonorable mention to 7d JOHN RUSKIN for using the can without a hint, and for being only described as a critic.
   Not all bad, but not really good either.
   Apologies for any crossers, I will read others.
   Thank you jackkt and setter for the challenge.

4. 50:48. Not available on the Club site (just checked and “Sorry we can’t find the page you are looking for (error 404)” still showing) so had to do this in the general puzzles area of the app. Became stuck on SPATCHCOCK, not being very familiar with the word and having trouble working out the def. After eventually realising the clue for 5d wasn’t an anagram, I still couldn’t see that {B}ANTER was being referred to for ‘teasing’ and I didn’t bother to go on a capital city trawl for {B}OGOT{A} at 26a.

   Fortunate to remember NISAN and WOOLGATHERER from past appearances. Favourite was the surface and ‘progressive characters’ device for WHOA.

5. Finished at 40 with SPATHCOCK ungot, the ‘prepared’ bit threw me. It was only after coming here that I understood how JOHN RUSKIN, TOGO and EXIT worked, so thanks Jack.

   From If You See Her, Say Hello:
   I see a lot of people, as I make the rounds
   And I hear her name, HERE and there, as I go from town to town
   And I’ve never gotten used to it, I just learned to turn it off
   Either I’m too sensitive, or else I’m getting soft

6. I was horribly put off by having to use the regular Puzzles page rather than the broken Crossword Club link (that’s three for three resources hobbled!) – at least that’s my excuse for giving up at 20′ without EARN and PASSIONATE.

   On the other hand, I (like BletchleyReject) loved the WHOA device – is it new?

   1. Not new, but certainly recent ..

7. 42 mins but had to confirm my LOI, WOOLGATHERER. Once I’d finally managed to break into the crossword site through some devious back door. Very frustrating

   I too biffed quite a few without really understanding the clue. Some nice anagrams though.

   Thanks Jack and setter.

8. About 25 minutes.

   – Didn’t parse SPATCHCOCK but got it once I had enough checkers
   – Dimly remembered that meaning of WOOLGATHERER
   – Had no idea which calendar features NISAN, but with N_S_N and the car in the clue it had to be
   – Took ages to get ENCHANTER as I thought it was going to be an anagram of ‘ervant irl’ (‘servant girl’ without the first letter of each word)
   – Didn’t parse BANISHMENT as I was looking for a revolutionary of some kind

   Thanks Jack and setter.

   FOI Sash
   LOI Enchanter
   COD Whoa

9. 50 minutes but without SPATCHCOCK and WOOLGATHERER. Quite a toughie, I thought. Potted paste sandwiches followed by jelly and blancmange was the standard fare of children’s parties and that was after the end of rationing. No wonder my taste in food is questionable. Thank you Jack and setter.

10. 20.43 with a typo

    Liked it. Middle of the road and nothing wrong with that at all. Not sure WOOLGATHERER is easy if you don’t know the term but always happy to see a reference to a fine Number 9.

    Thanks Jackkt and setter.

11. 27 mins which is currently 6th on the leaderboard. It’s also the slowest correct entry but we’ll gloss over that.
    NHO NISAN and didn’t parse WHOA or EARN.
    One of the more old fashioned style today.
    COD THUNDERSTORM. Thanks both.

12. 23:37
    A fairly steady solve but I took an age on PASSIONATE in the end as I was obsessed by it being a hot island such as Lanzarote. ENCHANTER also too far too long as I wanted to parse it before committing myself.

    A tad over target but an enjoyable solve so thanks to both.

13. 12:44 on the clock with only PASSIONATE to go for a massive PB but it just was not coming to me. 23:57 in the end. I think somewhat hampered by thinking it was possibly an NHO tropical island. I was certainly on wavelength for most of it and , other than NISAN which was fairly clued, my general knowledge was rarely lacking for a change.

    COD BANISHMENT

    Thanks blogger and setter

14. 9:33. No problems with this once I finally got access to it. On my iPad I still get a 404 error but on my laptop the puzzle is accessible. Very strange.
    In my experience SPATCHCOCK is most commonly a way of preparing a chicken (I did it myself only last week) so ‘game’ surprised me a bit.

    1. I have a chicken on the kitchen counter that I am about to SPATCHCOCK. I, too, didn’t associate it with game but it is not exactly a surprise either.

15. I keep getting this when I go onto TFTT:
    Error 500 – Internal server error
    And I can’t sign in (harmonic_row)

16. This error 500 is a pain. I could get in after a couple of tries this morning, but last night I tried again and again and eventually gave up. What does the 500 error mean? Who is responsible for it and can cure things? Are there any particular times of day when it is worse?

    But in trying to post this I have repeatedly failed. Was eventually successful but who knows if this will ever appear?

17. Biff, biff and biff some more! Thanks so much Jack for explaining all the answers. I finished in a reasonable time – but so many guesses were possible once the grid had some letters to help. Not a very satisfying crossy to be honest

18. 24.25 It seems the problems with the club site have been fixed in time for me to play, which probably accounts for my registering 10th place on entry, though I see I’m dropping fairly rapidly. I didn’t find this easy, with definitions often hard to spot and sometimes hard to justify. I don’t think I’d have got TOGO without the crossing letters: think of (a) capital, remove ends, reverse, get (a) country: rather too many variables. I spent too long on my LOI, EARN, going for something to mean “make sense of” rather than just “make, and this despite having something very similar at the weekend. AJAR was “it could be, I suppose” , though that’s surely not its familiar meaning.
    WHOA was good, though the progression idea is not new.

19. My thanks to jackkt and setter.
    Mainly easy but with some thorny bits.
    17a Nisan, wasn’t 100% confident here but knew the car manufacturer, no not maker of Sierras.
    DNF 24a Exit. The only novel I could think of was Eric, so in he went, little by little. I am surprised knowledge of It was assumed, NHO.
    26a Togo. Forgot to reverse it so never found Bogota, so biffed.
    5d Enchanter. Wench I got but banter eluded me; I pressed on regardless.
    7d HHO John Ruskin. Had a vague idea he might be a critic.
    13d Banishment largely biffed.
    14d God fearing.I was hoping it was going to be God botherer but it didn’t fit and a bishopless god otherer isn’t a thing.
    22d Earn. It seemed very vague, could easily have been wrong I thought. But I liked Beethoven’s Ninth.

20. From SASH to EXIT in 24:21. Made reasonable progress until I got breezeblocked in the SW. Eventually managed to parse the suspected TOGO, and after some serious cogitation came up with BANISHMENT, leaving E-I-. Not knowing the horror novel, EXIT went in with fingers crossed. Thanks setter and Jack.

21. I thought this a bit tough for so early in the week. 43 minutes, but DNF as I was completely bamboozled by 17ac, looking in vain for a range of hills by removing an ‘a’ from a car manufacturer. But I enjoyed some of the clues, including BANISHMENT and GOD-FEARING. Now I must go away and learn the Jewish calendar.
    Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.

22. 30:02

    Enjoyable puzzle, though held up at the end in the south-west + 25a. Went for coffee, brain reset and the last six all went in fairly swiftly. I liked WHOA. Notes follow:

    AGONY AUNT – LOI – needed all of the checkers to get this and then parsed post-flight
    NISAN – NHO, probably should learn the Jewish months which pop up reasonably regularly
    PASSIONATE – might have got there more quickly if the odd letters had been checked
    TOGO – didn’t think of reversing the letters and consequently couldn’t work this out until both checkers were in
    GOD-FEARING – my key to solving the SW

    Thanks Jack and setter

23. Thought 26 was IRAN: capital (Tirana) eliminating the borders around it.n

24. 15’56”, felt sluggish due to the horrid new format. Worked out that AWAY had to be an imperative, not read IT but have heard of it. SPATCHCOCK and eventually PASSIONATE went in without bothering to parse them.

    Have come across the WHOA device (elsewhere?) – needs to be telegraphed.

    As a 14d person, knew NISAN, 14 or 15 Nisan being the date of Jesus’s crucifixion.

    Thanks jack and setter.

25. 24:20 – felt like fairly standard difficulty but with some eccentricities, like the definition of AJAR and, as mentioned above, spatchcock chicken classified as game.

    1. To be fair Collins and ODE both say ‘chicken or game bird’, so technically this is just an unindicated definition by example.

26. DNF. Couldn’t see SPATCHCOCK, and those three C checkers looked very odd.

    Also I had STALE for out-of-date, which led me away from PASSIONATE.

    The progressive characters beat me, I kept trying different sets of characters. But 1234 I never thought of. Guess d it might be HALT.

    And got confused about whether I was looking for a capital or a county. Found a capital with G in third position, and in RIGA went.

27. Another having to use the new format on the general puzzles page, at least I started there before having to leave for golf. Not a pleasant experience (the formatting, not the golf)
    DNF, not getting EARN and biffing the unparseable “dawn” as “make sense of” (I know it doesn’t work…). A few others biffed along the way such as NHO NISAN and unparsed WHOA.
    Thanks Jack and setter.

28. A regular biff-fest today, so thanks for explaining the parsing on spatchcock, passionate, banishment and others.

    Must look out for WHOA type clues in future.

29. I took ages on this and there seemed to be plenty of tricky clues, particularly for SPATCHCOCK. Eventually I took 73 minutes, with aids.

    Now for the difficult part, getting this posted. I see nobody has answered my questions above. One can’t expect most of the readers of this blog to know them, but you’d think someone would know.

    1. There have been occasional updates on the 500 error posted here over the past few days. I’m not a techie but my understanding is that some sort of fault or incompatibility with the WordPress platform has arisen and attempts are being made to overcome it which so far have not been entirely successful although I have noticed a slight improvement today and yesterday.

       The last I heard was that the WordPress helpdesk had passed the matter to their technical team (who don’t work weekends) and their response was still awaited.

       You may be aware that TfTT is run entirely by volunteers and whilst there are people with technical expertise they have other calls upon their time and limited resources are available.

       1. Thanks Jack. You were quite right to criticise my tetchiness, politely though you did. What I didn’t know was whether the error was caused by some failure in the software which has been written by willing helpers from the site, or by a problem with WordPress. I see now, we are in their hands and must hope for the best.

          And yes, things seem better. I had no problem in posting the above, and fingers crossed for when I try to post this.

          1. Thanks, Wil. The WordPress thing is particularly unfortunate coming at a time when we are also facing problems with blog production caused by the relaunch of The Times puzzles site.

30. 18min.
    Not surprised you had trouble with 12dn, cos there isn’t one 🙂

    1. I do wish people wouldn’t refer to clues by their numbers. Every reader has to waste time looking up which clue is meant, and commenters frequently get the number wrong.

       1. Ah, the spirit of Horryd lives on! This was one of his pet hates.

          1. I remember that well!

Comments are closed.