What special day, you may ask? Well, you’ll have to solve the puzzle to find out. You can find the interactive version here, and a PDF to print out here.
This puzzle was created to celebrate this special day by some of the administrators and bloggers here at Times for the Times. We hope you have as much fun solving it as we did creating it.
If you open this post, you will find the standard puzzle blog, only the answers are initially not given and the clue parsings are not yet supplied. When you have completed the puzzle, and are writing your comment, you are invited pick one or two clues that have not yet been discussed, and blog them in the style of your favourite blogger. I will copy your blog entries into the blog until it is complete.
The solvers will have discovered the theme by now. Yes, on December 3, 2005, Peter Biddlecombe posted the very first cryptic crossword solving blog on the internet. The earliest blogs were very rudimentary, with only the most difficult clues parsed. The community version, with multiple bloggers, was announced on Oct 31, 2006, and the first blog in this format appeared on November 1. These are the earliest entries retained on the current site.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Architect and headless serviceman found in medical facility (8) |
| SAARINEN – [m] ARINE (headless serviceman) in SAN (medical facility) | |
| 5 | Standard way to collect leaves (6) |
| STAPLE – Cryptic hint – you use a staple to bind leaves of paper. | |
| 10 | Tangle with card game for talking trees, say? (7) |
| ENTWIST – Sounds like ENT WHIST. | |
| 11 | On a very strange river in France (7) |
| AVEYRON – Anagram of ON A VERY. | |
| 12 | Bonds down by a hundred after key bit of information in financial reports (10) |
| STATEMENTS – STAT [key bit of information] + {c}EMENTS [bonds, missing C = a hundred]. | |
| 14 | Clumsy actor drops a necklace (4) |
| TORC – anagram [clumsy] of “actor” without the a. Talking of clumsy people dropping things, did you see the Pommy fielders?! Not that I’m going to mention it of course. Hahahahahahahahahaha. Hope they’re better at golf, they certainly practice it more! | |
| 16 | Breed created by them for special navarin (7) |
| NIRVANA – Anagram of NAVARIN. Breed was a cut on Nirvana’s second album, Nevermind. | |
| 18 | Ran around to adjudge recount (7) |
| NARRATE – reversal of “ran” + “rate”. | |
| 19 | They’re so high, they can’t get off horse (7) |
| ADDICTS – Cryptic definition, with more of the usual drug references from this setter. As a law-abiding citizen I do resent having to learn and remember drug cant. | |
| 20 | Bemoan run down men ousting an alien (7) |
| DEPLORE – DEPL(-et,+OR)E, a substitution clue. | |
| 22 | France in early October? It’s dry and often cold (4) |
| FINO – F [France] + IN + O[ctober]. That reminds me that I need to get some sherry, my mother’s coming for Christmas. | |
| 23 | Nothing inside his drains after snaking them – no sweat! (10) |
| ANHIDROSIS – Anagram of HIS DRAINS around O. | |
| 26 | Drive a Trojan horse back into the fortification (7) |
| RAMPART – RAM [drive] + reversal of TRAP [a Trojan horse back] | |
| 27 | Fall guy in movie (4,3) |
| RAIN MAN – RAIN “fall” MAN “guy”.
Wearing my proofreading chapeau, I would contend that there were two issues with this otherwise excellent clue. Firstly, “precipitation” is the correct term for the first lemma. It’s amazing how many people get that wrong. Secondly, my name should always be capitalized! |
|
| 29 | Pass plastic ketchup bottles (6) |
| TICKET – Hidden in [plas]TIC KET[chup]. | |
| 30 | See lambs foolishly flock together (8) |
| ASSEMBLE – anagram [foolishly] of “see lambs”. The various European words for the animal known in English as the lamb all come from the same Chinese root 茶, with the variations stemming largely from mistaken attempts at aping the local Cantonese pronunciation. The Dutch, interestingly, took the word from the Malay (connected to the Hokkien pronunciation) and added a Persian suffix. In his 1528 work “Adagia”, of course, Erasmus pointed out the obvious connections with Rauði in old Icelandic. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Offensive partner puts on tin hat (7) |
| STETSON – TET [offensive] + S.O. [partner – significant other] surrounded by [puts on] SN [tin].
I can’t believe setters are still using the twentieth century expression “significant other”. Young people have a thousand phrases for their bed partners and I can assure you that “significant other” isn’t one of them. Also, when did anyone ever encounter the abbreviation SO “in the wild” as opposed to “in a dictionary”? At least the setter didn’t make use of the ETON in STETSON, so small mercies. But this is no way to attract a younger crowd of solvers. |
|
| 2 | Paper with leading article towards the back (3) |
| AFT – FT [paper] with A in front of it [leading article] | |
| 3 | Wandering canine I try to get relocated (10) |
| ITINERANCY – Anagram of CANINE I TRY, where solvers may assume that wandering is the anagram indicator -but it’s the literal. | |
| 4 | Scots aim to colonise – it’s a non-starter! (5) |
| ETTLE – [s]ETTLE. This is a stock word in Mephisto. | |
| 6 | Starting to go mawkishly sentimental (4) |
| WEE – T [starting to] + WEE [go]. | |
| 7 | A senior office to return “Schedule S” for mess equipment (11) |
| PERCOLATORS – PER + COL + ROTA backwards + S. A clue that paints an amusing picture of the what the regiment has to do to order coffee makers. | |
| 8 | Dennis discovered a little crystal he put in a special place (7) |
| ENNICHE – [d]ENNI[s] + C[rystal] + HE. | |
| 9 | Neutrino, note, meets with nasty end – stretched on rack! (8) |
| TAUTENED – TAU + TE + anagram of END. A tau neutrino, with a rather topical surface. | |
| 13 | Sleek, funny comedian Ray (11) |
| AERODYNAMIC – anagram [funny] of COMEDIAN RAY. | |
| 15 | One segment in routine involving a threesome (10) |
| TRIPARTITE – I PART [one segment] inside TRITE [routine]. | |
| 17 | As found within, it’s the end after gunners lose a line (8) |
| ARSENITE – ARSEN[AL] IT [TH] E, a reference to the nickname for the football team, with a chemical symbol in the literal. | |
| 19 | Players not caught accepting split up, to begin with (2,5) |
| AT FIRST – AST [cast without the c, “players not caught”] containing [accepting] a reversal of RIFT [split up]. | |
| 21 | Distinctive character of City church (7) |
| ESSENCE – ESSEN + CE. | |
| 24 | Knight and princess rise for Libyan king (5) |
| IDRIS – SIR (Knight) and DI (princess) all reversed [rise]. ‘Rise’ is apposite as this is a down clue |
|
| 25 | Dolores is in a fog – she’s almost some kind of nut! (4) |
| HAZE – Dolores HAZE, and HAZE[l] – two cryptics for the price of one, and the definition in the middle! | |
| 28 | Frenchman with sailor and legendary queen (3) |
| MAB – M [Monsieur, Frenchman] + AB [sailor]. One for the Romeo & Juliet fans. | |
I’ll kick this off, then! A tip of the hat to our Adminstrator-in-Chief.
1a Architect and headless serviceman found in medical facility (8)
SAARINEN – [m] ARINE (headless serviceman) in SAN (medical facility)
A write-in for experienced solvers. Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect, best known for the Gateway Arch in St Louis.
This one took soooo long, despite having heard the name before and thinking of SAN immediately. Just didn’t countenance the adjacent As. Torture!
This was by some distance my LOI
Ha! – my clue. John wanted to use a different word, but I already had good clue for it and didn’t want to give it up.
galspray
19 Players not caught accepting split up, to begin with (2,5)
AT FIRST – CAST (players) minus C (caught) to include (accepting) RIFT (split) reversed (up)
Greetings from the Gabba where, AT FIRST, I booked a hotel room for the four nights but after the first Test have reduced that to two. This clue in no way reflects the post-match debrief by the visitors.
Excellent!
🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍
Spooky.
I wasn’t going to comment because I had two ‘pink’ squares due to an erroneous FAST**** for the ‘neutrino’ of 9D after wrestling for an hour with this fiendish, satisfying beast. However, since nobody else has bitten yet, I will say a hearty congratulations and thanks to all!
Not sure if this is allowed with my DNF, but will try for fun, vaguely aping the style of a blogger whom I wonder whether will notice (now there’s a classic example of a Chomskyan ungrammatical sentence which is nevertheless ‘perfectly understandable’):
12 Bonds down by a hundred after key bit of information in financial reports (10)
STATEMENTS – STAT [key bit of information] + {c}EMENTS [bonds, missing C = a hundred].
or, if blogged by keriothe
I don’t wish to be pedantic but, having worked in the financial sector for 25 years, if a bond is purchased at a price of 100 (meaning 100% of par value), a drop of one hundred would mean the bond is now priced at 0, which is an extreme and highly unlikely scenario. It is technically possible so I will cut the setter some slack.
Sorry but that is absolutely nothing like me. As if I would ever not wish to be pedantic.
😁
Ah sorry I seem to have completely missed the point of making a humorous comment in the style of a blogger, concentrating instead on the formatting. How boring of me! Anyway, it was supposed to be Templar haha.
Didn’t time myself, but under an hour. Some of this looked quite impenetrable at first, but became clearer with a few checkers in place. Cheated a little with the unknown architect (tricky if you’ve not heard of them) and the unknown French river – really could have been any combination of letters. I, too, failed with 9d, initially going with FASTENED – so used an aid to reach the answer, more or less impossible if you’ve never heard of that sort of Neutrino (got to admit, I didn’t even know what a neutrino was until a few weeks back).
I’ll pick up 24d – Knight and princess rise for Libyan king (5)
Definition is Libyan king – Wordplay is: SIR (Knight) and DI (princess) all reversed [rise]
‘rise’ is apposite as this is a down clue
All that said, it was a very fitting way to celebrate. Congratulations to all admins and bloggers involved for producing a very enjoyable challenge.
1d – STETSON. TET [offensive] + SO [partner – significant other] surrounded by [puts on] SN [tin].
[Merlin]
I can’t believe setters are still using the twentieth century expression “significant other”. Young people have a thousand phrases for their bed partners and I can assure you that “significant other” isn’t one of them. Also, when did anyone ever encounter the abbreviation SO “in the wild” as opposed to “in a dictionary”? At least the setter didn’t make use of the ETON in STETSON, so small mercies. But this is no way to attract a younger crowd of solvers.
Excellent
That analysis is much better than my clue.
‘Bed partners!’
Very good clue!
Aw, shucks…
Yes, that’s just the kind of thing I’d say, along with enumerating it as my pet peeves number 23. Also, would have blown my top if setter had used STET, “who edits a written manuscript these days”.
I had to reveal 4: the architect, French river, Scots thing and financial reports because I had ground to a halt but the rest followed. Thanks for this bonus.
I have to choose this as a personal fave. Not naming names.
16a Breed created by them for special navarin (7)
I didn’t know this of course but biffed it from the anagram fodder and looked it up later. Nirvana were a rock band who achieved brief fame in the 90s and Breed is a track from their Nevermind album. Is this really famous enough for the Times Cryptic?
Despite being a fan I might have to agree on this occasion.
I think you have a few covered there.
That’s everyone, isn’t it? 🙂
Very good.
I will own own up to this one.
There was actually some discussion about the reference here: our esteemed editor’s initial reaction was that it was too obscure. I managed to persuade him that this is a generational thing: to people of my age this album is seminal: indeed you could make a case that it is the rock album of the nineties.
I think the clincher was the fact that when I asked my daughter (22) and her boyfriend ‘who wrote Breed?’, they looked puzzled and my daughter said ‘do you mean the Nirvana song?’ To them it was so obvious that they thought it must be a trick question. So clearly the fame of the band and album have survived at least one generation
I thought the obscure reference you were talking about was ‘navarin!’
No clue what that meant.
(Probably said that the last time it came up.)
No that was clearly considered obvious general knowledge!
Only a foodie like K (and me) would think “navarin” common knowledge!
And vinyl, clearly!
One of a few I gave up on in the end. I expect song titles to be encased in quotation marks! Honestly, this clue seems more appropriate for a themed puzzle, with others of its ilk, or a fan magazine. Nevermind…
Just noticed I missed the explanation and jumped straight to the indignation.
Also misused BIFD as a verb, this is the opposite and should read “bunged in”. Technical slips none of our bloggers would make.
They’re so high, they can’t get off horse (7)
Cryptic definition, with more of the usual drug references from this setter. As a law-abiding citizen I do resent having to learn and remember drug cant.
Lol.
Well done all. I’ve worked out the theme!
I won’t attempt to impersonate any of our esteemed bloggers and will restrict myself instead to nominating my favourite clue.
COD: 27 across. 👍
Good choice 🙂
Thanks for putting this together. I think you may collectively have learnt how difficult it can be to include a theme or Nina without straying from your usual standards. For a recent TLS crossword of mine, I decided to use some answers matching the theme of the issue, but that forced some answers I wouldn’t normally use. And the grid for my next ST GK, which currently has about 7 theme answers among about 50, isn’t yet filled with other answers that I’m happy with.
I’m commenting late as this is a very busy time. If I’d known what starting the blog would eventually play a part in, I’d have begun in November or January. 27A was my favourite clue, with 14, 20 and 29 A and 2, 3, 4, 9, 13 and 21 D as collective runners-up.
Thanks for keeping going and adding new features like the SNITCH.
You are very right – I found a suitable grid, and put in the Nina letters, and said to myself that this shouldn’t be difficult. It was not difficult to find words for those letters, but once you have something, then you have to cross those with something else. Then we discovered two of the words weren’t well enough attested in standard dictionaries, and a whole section had to be redone.
I think the bloggers did a fine job, particularly on the very difficult words. John M was a tremendous help as co-editor.
And for the first time, one of my clues gets a hat-tip. Peter B must have mellowed!
29a was one of mine, thanks for giving it a”highly commended”.
RAINBOW
27 Fall guy in movie (4,3)
I indicate (ANAG RAMS*) like this, and reversed anagrams like this (RAMS ANAG*)
RAIN, “fall” MAN, “guy”
Wearing my proofreading chapeau, I would contend that there were two issues with this otherwise excellent clue. Firstly, “precipitation” is the correct term for the first lemma. It’s amazing how many people get that wrong. Secondly, my name should always be capitalized!
Verrry funny!
May I remind you, proofreading does not equate to copy-editing.
There would be a plus sign in my parsing between the two… parts.
But flattered, I’m sure.
No time as solved in quite a number of bits and pieces. Suffice to say it was after midday on Thursday the 4th when the final clues came to light. POI at 5a and LOI at 6d. Why is it always the short answers that hold out the longest and need a light-bulb moment to reveal annoyingly simple solutions? DOH!
My blog entry is as follows:
40 minutes+ to solve on blogging day, so towards the harder end of the spectrum. Some obscurities that would be more at home in a Mephisto, but they contributed to the better-than-vanilla flavour to the puzzle. A refreshing inclusion of some chemistry at 17d:
17d ARSEN (AL) IT (TH) E – an Arsenic(III) compound and also a denizen of the former Highbury and present-day Emirates Stadium. Literal in the clue is “As in this”.
Well done everyone. Twenty Years of TFTT! I found this tough and after working on the pdf version for 90 minutes, couldn’t solve 1a. The nearest I got was SCANINER . (g)I in an MRI machine anyone?? Didn’t have a clue about the architect. I then resorted to the Interactive version and found I had one other error. I had FASTENED instead of TAUTENED. I’m now going to lie down!
Funny I still think of myself as a newbie on here. But I think I first dipped my toe in around 2007 which means I’ve been around for most of it.
Some great characters have come and gone, and even more have stuck around. I still dream of Sotira rejoining us one day!
Speaking of which, does anybody remember Thud ‘n’ Blunder, who always commented late in the day? He was a surgeon with a swashbuckling approach to solving and commenting (and surgery, according to his posts) and he made me laugh out loud almost every day.
Thud left us soon after Tony Sever stopped commenting here, after a rise in the subs, if I recall correctly. He liked to respond to Tony, so I guess Tony’s departure may have had something to do with it.
Sotira was getting increasingly irked by reference to public schools and Oxbridge!
Heh. Just makes me miss her more!
I still catch up with our old mate McText occasionally. He and you were always the early commenters back in the day. Would love to get him back on here but he mainly restricts himself to the Guardian these days.
Please give my old Wednesday oppo a hello from me, when you see him next …
He was good chums with the chap I took over the Monday slot from in 2012. Connections all round.
Dr Thud was a scream. Used to make me laugh out loud too!
I first discovered TfTT around 2011. My daughter took me to a holiday cottage in Suffolk for my 60th birthday and there was a copy of the Times lying around. I spent 3 days doing 75% of the crossword (with every aid I could think of) and discovered TfTT shortly afterwards. It was a revelation!
Hi Vinyl,
Any chance of completing the blog, seems it’s run out of steam. Puzzle was too hard for me, and having seen some of the answers I couldn’t (Nirvana, stetson, tautened) and still can’t (staple) parse them.
Thanks in advance?
I want to give everyone a chance to think. In a bit….
P.S. Most of the harder clues are now blogged, will keep going.
Well, thanks, I think, and in fact I just finished after picking away at it for three days, using Collins to confirm that 4d and 10a (cute!) are actually words. I would never have got them without the nina. I don’t feel able to ventriloquize any bloggers though, sorry.
A tough and ultimately satisfying solve for me, so thank you! And congratulations to all who made and make TfTT what it is.
30a – See lambs foolishly flock together (8)
ASSEMBLE – anagram [foolishly] of “see lambs”.
[Cedric]
The various European words for the animal known in English as the lamb all come from the same Chinese root 茶, with the variations stemming largely from mistaken attempts at aping the local Cantonese pronunciation. The Dutch, interestingly, took the word from the Malay (connected to the Hokkien pronunciation) and added a Persian suffix. In his 1528 work “Adagia”, of course, Erasmus pointed out the obvious connections with Rauði in old Icelandic.
14a – Clumsy actor drops a necklace (4)
TORC – anagram [clumsy] of “actor” without the a.
[ulaca]
Talking of clumsy people dropping things, did you see the Pommy fielders?! Not that I’m going to mention it of course. Hahahahahahahahahaha. Hope they’re better at golf, they certainly practice it more!
Ha! That was Ulaca’s clue, and a very good one. He was the only setter whose clues were accepted without change. His other clue was the one for Stetson.
I’m just going to straight blog the remaining clues, so that vinyl can finish the blog.
18 Ran around to adjudge recount (7)
NARRATE – reversal of “ran” + “rate”.
22 France in early October? It’s dry and often cold (4)
FINO – F [France] + IN + O[ctober]. That reminds me that I need to get some sherry, my mother’s coming for Christmas.
26 Drive a Trojan horse back into the fortification (7)
RAMPART – RAM [drive] + reversal of TRAP [a Trojan horse back].
29 Pass plastic ketchup bottles (6)
TICKET – hidden.
2 Paper with leading article towards the back (3)
AFT – FT [paper] with A in front of it [leading article].
6 Starting to go mawkishly sentimental (4)
TWEE – T [starting to] + WEE [go].
13 Sleek, funny comedian Ray (11)
AERODYNAMIC – anagram [funny] of “comedian Ray”.
15 One segment in routine involving a threesome (10)
TRIPARTITE – I PART [one segment] inside TRITE [routine].
19 Players not caught accepting split up, to begin with (2,5)
AT FIRST – AST [cast without the c, “players not caught”] containing [accepting] a reversal of RIFT [split up].
21 Distinctive character of City church (7)
ESSENCE – ESSEN + CE.
28 Frenchman with sailor and legendary queen (3)
MAB – M [Monsieur, Frenchman] + AB [sailor]. One for the Romeo & Juliet fans.
I think that’s the lot!