Times 27579 – Second TCC heat, #2 I assume.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Easier than last week’s puzzle from the same heat, in my view, with similar scope for biffing and guessing correctly if you’re on the clock. 19a and 4d probably gave some trouble, unless you were an arachnophile and/or had spent time on a sled in Alaska. 25 minutes for me, including checking those two afterwards. I liked 3d for its smooth surface, although not a tricky one, and 23d for the ‘feel down’ definition idea.

Across
1 Likely to see red snake in fancy (7)
WASPISH – ASP (snake) in WISH (fancy).
5 Wine endlessly consumed in unspoilt meadow (7)
PASTURE – AST(I) = wine endlessly, inside PURE = unspoilt.
9 Soul-stirring volume returned by learner on Scottish island (9)
EMOTIONAL – TOME reversed, IONA, L(earner).
10 More than one fell in love with men in the script (5)
MOORS – O and OR inside MS.
11 Danish canapés potentially causing discomfort (5,3,5)
ACHES AND PAINS – (DANISH CANAPES)*.
13 Cover design with male bird, put back for book (8)
NEHEMIAH – HE (male), insert AIM (design), add HEN (bird), then reverse it all.
15 Bad experience the end for Edward the Confessor? (6)
DOWNER – D (end for Edward) OWNER (confessor, as in I own/confess I did say that).
17 Alumnus, boring perhaps, certainly not square (6)
OBLONG – OB (old boy, alumnus), LONG (boring perhaps).
19 Only bitch barks in this breed? (8)
MALEMUTE – I was discombobulated by this, my LOI, because I’d heard of the Alaskan husky type dog breed MALAMUTE but it didn’t fit the checkers. MALEMUTE seems to me to be a mis-spelling, not an optional spelling, although our setter must know otherwise. Anyway MALEMUTE obviously fits the &lit.
22 Dance crew walk unsteadily after a few (9,4)
EIGHTSOME REEL – Well, an EIGHT is a rowing crew; to REEL is to walk unsteadily. And before reel, SOME is a few.
25 Light that warns companion leaving compartment (5)
AMBER – CHAMBER loses CH.
26 Cast made moral sentiment the focus here? (9)
MELODRAMA – (MADE MORAL)*.
27 Betrayal Tristan’s principal motivation (7)
TREASON – T(ristan), REASON (motivation).
28 Tusked beast smuggled back with prince (7)
NARWHAL – RAN (smuggled) reversed, W(ith), HAL (prince).

Down
1 Petite flyer no man in Royal Navy (4)
WREN – Wrens were the nickname of members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service in WWII.
2 Bear cat in bag 4’s opening (7)
STOMACH – TOM (cat) inside SAC, H = first letter of 4d.
3 One Murdoch hails originally from Dublin? (5)
IRISH – IRIS (Murdoch the writer), H = hails originally. Smart, because Iris M was actually born in Dublin.
4 Person embracing books succeeded venomous crawler (8)
HUNTSMAN – A person is a HUMAN, here embracing NT (books) S (succeeded). I put it in from wordplay then went to Wiki, where I learnt a huntsman is a family of venomous (but not deadly to humans) spiders with eight eyes and a leg span of typically six inches. If you see one lurking in the bath, take a shower in the en suite instead.
5 Italian river joins lake with country (6)
POLAND – A QC level clue… the River PO joins with L for lake and AND = with.
6 What about plan received by sensitive signalling system? (9)
SEMAPHORE – EH? (what?) about MAP (plan) all inside SORE = sensitive.
7 Idealistic reformer best protected by posh Scotsman (7)
UTOPIAN – TOP (best) protected by / inside U (posh) IAN (typical Scottish chap).
8 English setter say barking in comfortable situation (4,6)
EASY STREET – (E SETTER SAY)*.
12 Keen on extremely loathsome diatribe? Evidently not? (10)
INTOLERANT – INTO (keen on) L E (ends of loathsome) RANT (diatribe). Evidently not (keen on).
14 Mr Smetana rearranged lines we once made up (3-2-4)
MEN-AT-ARMS – (MR SMETANA)*.
16 One learned all about northern explorer (8)
MAGELLAN – MAGE (one learned), LLA (all about) N (northern).
18 Complex libel cases for example clear enough? (7)
LEGIBLE – Insert EG (for example) into (LIBEL)*.
20 Not caught, pawnbroker remains free (7)
UNLEASH – UNCLE (pawnbroker) loses his C for caught, then ASH = remains.
21 Founder of sect keeping room for one of different faith (6)
MORMON – Well, Sun Myung MOON founded the Moonies sect, so insert RM (abbr. for room) to get a Mormon.
23 Occasionally behind peers: feel down about this? (5)
EIDER – Alternative letters of b E h I n D p E e R s, spells your duck.
24 Athena, as concealed in shadow (4)
PALL – the Greek goddess Athena is also known as PALLAS Athena, so take off her AS (as concealed) and get PALL, here meaning shadow.

​

52 comments on “Times 27579 – Second TCC heat, #2 I assume.”

  1. MEN-AT-ARMS was the only thing I could make out of the anagram, but the definition seemed rather indefinite.

    When I got HUNTSMAN, finally, I was thinking I’d heard of it somewhere but the image in my head was a snake. And it was a “red snake” that held me up a bit for the (very nice) WASPISH.

    NHO the dance, but the cryptic and crossers spelled it out.

    I thought the parsing of NEHEMIAH had stumped me but I looked at it again before checking the blog and the old penny dropped.

    WREN took a while in coming, as always happens before I realize something’s a CD.

  2. MALEMUTE is in SOED as an alternative spelling. In fact it’s in all the usual sources except the web version of Chambers on-line – it’s in their printed edition.

    But for all that, MALEMUTE stumped me as I didn’t know the creature with any spelling. Also PALL as I didn’t know PALLAS for Athene and the ‘shadow’ meaning didn’t occur to me. I plumped for TAIL (shadow) but with little expectation of it being correct.

    There was plenty for me to enjoy elsewhere but these days I feel really defeated when I have to give up with one or two words missing.

    Edited at 2020-02-05 07:16 am (UTC)

  3. I’d completed the top half of this puzzle today before I realised it was one I’d previously solved at the championships. In December I came up one short, not managing MALEMUTE which I think is quite tough from the cryptic if you don’t know the dog.

    Jack – you are in good company with TAIL for shadow; several people had that on the day. I was fortunate to have thought of PALL and not TAIL as I didn’t know Pallas.

  4. 35 minutes. I had no problem with the spider or the dog; it was the unknown dance at 22a that gave me most problems. I wanted it to be EIGHTYONE something for ages. I still don’t understand 14d, but the anagram was fairly obvious, at least.

    Enjoyed 10a’s “More than one fell”. FOI 3d IRISH, LOI EIGHTSOME REEL WOD NARWHAL.

  5. We were not informed that this was a Championship jobbie, so my time was reasonably decent at 33 mins. Had I known…

    FOI 5ac PASTURE

    LOI 24ac PALL never thought of tail

    COD 22ac EIGHTSOME REEL – I would think that Gothick Matt and Guy du Sable, suitably kilted and sporraned, would cut quite a dash at Lord Brownlow’s Strathspey!

    WOD 13ac NEHEMIAH

    As for 14ac MEN-AT-ARMS – I read it as back in the day armies were made up of lines of common men – us – not regulars.

    And just why did Terry Pratchett take Evelyn Waugh’s title?

    Edited at 2020-02-05 08:23 am (UTC)

    1. While there is apparently some Scots in my ancestry, it unfortunately hasn’t bestowed upon me any sense of rhythm or dancing coordination 🙂
  6. I don’t think 19ac -MALEMUTE- is an &lit, Pip. I think the definition is just ‘breed’. As far as i’m aware, neither sex barks much, if at all.

    Another who went for TAIL!

  7. 20 mins (with yoghurt, etc.) to leave two:
    13ac which I decided was a bible book, but not one in my Ladybird book of bible stories.
    24dn which must be something to do with Athena not mentioned in any Tony Curtis films I’ve seen.
    Where are the Ninja Turtles when you need them?
    Luckily I guessed right.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
    1. Hah! I Ninja Turtled Pallas Athena from the name of a sentient computer in Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love…
        1. Yes, me too. I’m a softy liberal by inclination, but I do enjoy Heinlein’s very-much-libertarian characters.
      2. I must have read that in the dim and distant past, but alas the connection didn’t surface:(
  8. I remembered that this was going to be a champs puzzle but still didn’t recognise at least three-quarters of the clues. It’s shocking how bad my memory is.
    The ones I did remember were the ones that gave me trouble. I knew the book was going to be the one that’s like NEMEHEMAHUMAHEH or something (not to be confused with the one that’s like HAKKABBAKKUKKABBUK or something) but without the crossing A from HUNTSMAN I struggled to unpick the wordplay. When I eventually got the spider it fell into place.
    Like many others on the day I was tempted by TAIL but I couldn’t justify it and fortunately ‘Pallas Athene’ rang the vaguest of bells.
    Between those two this one felt like a bit of a narrow escape.

    Edited at 2020-02-05 08:52 am (UTC)

  9. Still not a contender. 34 minutes, but with a biffed TAIL. I didn’t know ATHENA had another name. The shop selling the naughty tennis player poster didn’t. And I chiefly know PALL from Wilfred Owen, and I think it meant something more tangible than a shadow there. I successfully constructed EIGHTSOME REEL, and assumed COD MALEMUTE could be spelt that way. HUNTSMAN was constructed too but there I felt a slight resonance. A frustratingly enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.
  11. Just thought the HUNTSMAN was a snake I didn’t know and left it at that. I spent a lot of my 15.36 dithering over 24d wondering if Athena could be A in some phonetic alphabet and if “til” could stand in for “as” – then O level Greek came to the rescue. I learned the components of the EIGHTSOME REEL in Miss Ballantyne’s dancing class in extreme youth but sadly have never been able to put it into practice as an adult – it is serious fun. It’s “malAmute” in all the Iditarod literature in the US. That’s my mother in her WWII WREN hat. P.S. Do we know why they’ve stopped identifying these as champs puzzles?
  12. ….was that HUNTSMAN was a DNK.

    FOI EMOTIONAL
    LOI HUNTSMAN
    COD DOWNER
    TIME Under 10 minutes

  14. I think it refers to the expression “one over the eight” thus giving a second hint for the eightsome reel
    AndyF
  15. Solved once more (in the absence of the usual message up top) without realising beforehand it was a championship puzzle. Obviously I would have been delighted to get more of this on the day. Lots of nice stuff, but even as I was solving it, I was thinking “I bet there are things here that don’t fall into everyone’s definition of “general” knowledge…
  16. Completed in 13’20” without realising it was a championship puzzle 🙂 so I have 16′ left for next week.

    MALEMUTE LOI, dredged up. PALLAS came up somewhere recently. NARWHAL has been in the news because of the tusk. Thought MEN-AT-ARMS weak.

    Thanks pip and setter.

  17. The last 3+ minutes were devoted to profitless worrying about Athena, thinking exactly as Olivia did, but failing to remember Pallas (on a pallid bust of whom the famous raven perched), so winding up with TAIL. I don’t think I knew of the specific spider, but I did know that there are hunting spiders as well as the ones that wait patiently by their webs. The MALAMUTE is my favorite dog, after spending an evening years ago with one glommed on to my arm. Like a wolf, but with better manners.
    1. I very much like the word (a new one on me) but I’m left with no idea if it was attached with teeth, slobber, or something else.

      Edited at 2020-02-05 12:58 pm (UTC)

      1. I’m not sure if there’s a prescribed way to glom, but this one gently but firmly held on to my forearm as I sat schmoosing with his owner, tugging him forward and letting him pull me back. No slobber; as I said, better manners.
  18. Another TAIL here. Apart from that I enjoyed the puzzle and made reasonable time. After 27 minutes I only had _A_E_U_T_ left at 19a, but it took me up to 33:00 before I cracked it. Didn’t know the alternate spelling so I just went with the wordplay. Liked WREN; nice pic of your mother, Olivia:) Knew the HUNTSMAN spider. First one in was IRISH and LOI MALEMUTE. 33:00 WOE. Thanks setter and Pip.
  20. 8:25 today but on the day I got a bit stuck on the book and the shadow. Eventually I put PALL more in hope than expectation (when others told me they’d put TAIL I was convinced I was wrong) and, being of feeble brain at the time, managed to misconstruct NEHEMIAN. Pity my Ns and Hs are distinguishable from each other.
  21. Well 23 minutes for all but 15ac… because I’d been parsing the very easy 8 dn while writing it in: english say, anagrammed, and street is an anagram of setter, whereupon I wrote setter instead of street. Which made Edward the Confessor impossible. Fortunately (?) I had TAIL wrong as well.
    Couldn’t parse the moors… thought maybe in a Shakespeare manuscript there were famous moors who famously fell in love with other famous characters, making it an &lit. Wrong. No troubles with the malemute or huntsman – must be an Australian thing, see huntsmen all the time. Big horrible hairy things. And they’re grippy. My niece is terrified of spiders. One was on the outside of our car once as we drove home. It’ll blow off I said, as we cruised down the freeway at 110 km/hr. No, it was still there when we parked.
  22. Managed to transpose two letters when I entered HUNSTMAN otherwise I’d have been happy with 21:28. Main holdup (once I’d found that snake) was NEHEMIAH. I don’t know my bible well enough so was very happy to work it out. PALL was LOI. Dithered over putting TAIL in for ages but knew it was wrong so made myself work harder to drag up PALLAS.
  23. Didn’t even notice that this was a Champs grid though a few answers were of the ‘seen that word recently’ sort. I didn’t manage to finish it on the day but did check the answers afterwards but still NHO MALEMUTE…

    This wasn’t grid 2 though. That was last weeks’?

    Edited at 2020-02-05 02:09 pm (UTC)

  24. Everyone should read the Iliad and the Odyssey at some point, two of the foundation stones of literature. When Pallas Athene would soon be familiar.
    1. I may have read some of the Iliad for Latin O Level, but it obviously didn’t stick:)
      1. The Iliad and the odyssey are unlikely to be on any O level syllabus as they are in Greek.
    2. I read the Odyssey quite recently, which is perhaps why it rang a bell! The thing I recall more about Athena is that she’s constantly described as ‘bright-eyed’.
  25. Did not realise this was a championship so quite pleased with my time. I got stuck at the end on Nehemiah (kept thinking Nahum…), Huntsman and the reel. Got there in the end. Luckily I did not realise Malemute was only an alternative spelling.
  26. In the old days, like last year even, I used to dread the Wednesdays when the competition puzzles would appear, but either I’m slowly improving or – so far this year – they are a bit easier. Whichever, I have been managing to complete them in recent weeks, if somewhat slowly. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be today – it was the pesky dog that did for me. Not helped by the fact that when I went to the crossword solver, the first option to come up was mamaluke, which sounded ok but is quite a different thing I now know!

    24d took a while to fall. I do find that if I let my mind drift, a bit of word association seems to do the trick. Today I just idly thought: what sorts of Athena are there – oh Pallas! PDM 😀

    Mostly I found this a pleasant challenge and there are quite a lot of ticks by the clues so another day when picking COD isn’t so easy. Moors, eightsome reel, wren and easy street are all on the list.

    FOI Poland
    POI Magellan
    COD Aches and pains – a smorgasbord of a clue?
    DNF in 40 minutes

    Thanks setter and Pip

  27. Not much comment from me today, and no time to post either since I didn’t pay attention to the clock. But everything went in at a leisurely pace, including PALL somewhere near the end. I never thought of tail, and I don’t know if I’d have been tempted. PALL as a shadow came first to mind, and I vaguely recalled some connection of Pallas to Athena. Regards.
  28. and squeezed in just under the hour (54 seconds under the hour, to be exact — somehow, that reads better than 59 minutes 6 seconds). Fortunately, I have learned not to believe any biffed answer I can’t fully explain, and since I couldn’t explain TAIL, I did, at the last minute, think of PALL, which was my LOI. Just before that came HUNTSMAN, WASPISH, WREN (originally I had tried to convince myself that perhaps sailors in the Royal Navy are called BEEFs, with BEE being the petite flyer and F of course “no man”), but then I couldn’t find a word to fit in 1ac. WASPISH there then led to WREN. Not an easy puzzle, but lots of fun.

    Edited at 2020-02-05 07:06 pm (UTC)

  29. 24:03. I found this a satisfying challenge, a few easy starters and a few trickier ones which needed teasing out. Completely forgot it was going to be a champs puzzle so quite pleasing to get through in under 25 mins.
  30. Thought this could be a trial and I know it would have been in contest conditions but made steady progress and finished in 18.08. Last one in was malemute which came as divine inspiration after realising the reference to Pallas Athena.

    Wren proved a kick yourself clue duh…Liked downer at 15 across. Enjoyable and fair with no need for random guesses to get the right answer.

  31. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I’ve given up posting times. However, this one was enjoyable. I spent a stupid amount of time trying to anagramize “snake in” at 1ac, and almost as long trying (successfully in the end) to parse NEHEMIAH. I was quite proud of myself (non-classicist that I am) for getting PALL and understanding why. However, I confess that whenever I see the name “Athena”, all I can see is that poster of the tennis player.
    1. Collins offers this but we may be in thesaurus territory:

      If a pall of smoke hangs over a place, there is a thick cloud of smoke above it.
      A pall of oily black smoke drifted over the cliff-top.
      Synonyms: cloud, shadow, veil, mantle

  33. I read somewhere that a top solver would time his soft-boiled egg by doing the crossword. I have now reached the dizzy heights of being able to complete it before my black coffee goes cold. 17 minutes with very few delays. LOI nehemiah. As a confirmed atheist, I detest biblical clues. But I hate even more the fact that I know the answers.
    1. I imagine my eggs will forever remain hardboiled, but it’s nice to find someone else who counts a good day as one where there’s coffee left to drink when the puzzle’s done!
  34. 30mins with all correct, but not quick enough for the championship.
    Lockdown tightens. In three days travel out of our region will be banned. But we do have lots of huntsman spiders for company. They are very common here, though we didn’t know that they are venomous. We might have to stop picking them up to put outside when they get into the house! They don’t make webs but hunt their prey by sight.
    Recent crosswords with Drosera and Huntsman…..does the setter live near us?

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