Christmas Turkey “roasting” 2014

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Other Crosswords

Solving time: about 15 minutes

Thanks to Sotira and JerryWh for another chance to briefly re-live the days of producing crossword-related material which you can still change after a few people have read it. I’m writing this before watching QI on Friday night – 36 minutes left as I type this, so I need to get moving. [That was two hours ago, as I re-read before pressing the final button]. Before I forget, a very merry Christmas to all of you. The solving experience felt much smoother than last year, possibly the result of two editing brains instead of one, or maybe just clue writers knowing what the probable report writer might be looking for. (Clarification: I did watch QI, and now having read previous Turkey postings more carefully, I can see that the smoother solving experience is mainly the result of editorial policy)

Across
1 WASHTUB – was,h,but< – I wondered a bit about but = just, but the dictionary reminded me of “but a shadow of his former self”
5 YTTRIUM -Y,T,TRIUM(ph) – as stated in today’s Sunday Times clue writing report, I’m happy with “cut short” meaning five sevenths of the answer rather than six.
9 TAO – reverse hidden – precise definition when I looked it up, and surface reading OK as long as we’re overturning the nature rather than the universe, “in Croatia”
10 CHAIN SMOKER – cryptic definition – one of the most pleasing clues on a second look, because I don’t think I’ve seen this clever idea before
11 EGGHEADS – E, (shagged)* – another very pleasing clue, using two meanings of “wonky”
12 SHUFTI – initial letters – a risky enterprise (in terms of maintaining good surface meaning) for a 6-letter answer, but we at least have a mild frisson from wondering whether “first glance” means G and being relieved not to repeat the stock lecture about that
15 SASH – S AS H=husband – a fairly convincing surface, though “son” and “husband” rely on us taking the viewpoint of the mother/wife
16 CAN OF WORMS – (a woman’s froc(k))* – good spot on the anagram fodder leading to a lively surface story
18 FOOTLIGHTS – F(OO)T,LIGHTS – a clue that relies on solvers knowing that both David Frost and Peter Cook were in the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club. Safe ground for a good number of solvers.
19 HERB – (Hebridean)* – (N, idea)* – technically this is flawed, as we should really have an anagram indicator for the (N, idea) that’s subtracted. But I’d be more worried about the artistic side – I’m struggling a bit to see how an idea could make “fare” more palatable, and the reason why it should be a shaking person that tosses it out.
22 ADDLED – L in ADDED – this is another that I like because it uses a simple but effective idea which isn’t one I can remember seeing many times before
23 FAROUCHE – (café hour)* – I seem to have a false memory here – I thought farouche was a noun like “sulky” – a carriage for one. But it seems to be just “unsociable” as this clue says. So the clue is much better than I wrongly thought. Getting this kind of point wrong in my job means an embarrassing climb-down when the setter shows you that they’re the one with the right end of the stick.
25 CREPUSCULAR – CREP(e), (m)USCULAR – I liked the “dusky maiden”, though the rest exploits some of the opportunities you can have in a clue about preparing or eating food.
27 IKE – (b)IKE – starting issues for Eisenhower
28 POLEAXE – PO,LEAVE with X for V – a nicely-done charade and letter swap with “Lombard Banker” for the familiar Po.
29 WISE GUY – W IS, E, GUY – surface meaning seesms to be “phone a friend’s spouse”
Down
1 WITNESS – reverse hidden in “dissent I was” – I think the hidden word indication overlaps the “hiding place”, so solvable but non-standard
2 SMORGASBORD = (dogs mar Bros)* – plausible rather than really convincing surface meaning
3 TICKER – T(h)icker – one of those surface meanings that looks less good when you start to think – “more dense” and “less hard” seem contradictory
4 BY AND LARGE = BY,L – surface doesn’t mean terribly much but gives us something to think about
5 YANK – 2 definitions – possibly not the first time I’ve seen this idea, but seems a good clue for an unpromising-looking word
6 TOMAHAWK – (khat, woma(n)) – maybe another where the word to be clued wasn’t helpful
7 INK = “inc” – the “submarine release” being from a squid. Seems original, and again a possibly awkward word to clue well
8 MARGINS – GIN in MARS – I liked this as “sides of planet” did not indicate PT.
13 FAR-REACHING (Afghan rice, R)* – “really starts” for R seems OK technically, but in the surface reading “starts” alone seems just as good, creating a “pointer” for observant solvers
14 CONTRAFLOW – CON,FART<,LOW – good snigger value for the “wind up” when you realise what the wordplay is
17 ALLELUIA – (c)ALLE(r), (p)LU(m), (p)I(e), (h)A(d) – this seems a definite short straw in the “who clues what” draw, so full marks for a clue that looks original and has a pretty good surface
18 FLAT CAP – (pact, Alf)< – pleasing enough for it not to matter too much than an agreement with someone could provide many things
20 BREWERY – (were*, R) in BY – unlikely but topical brewing location in the surface reading
21 COBRAS – C., 0 BRAS – cobras do “strike”, so there’s a good definition, and “support up front” is a bit different to the over-used support=bra
24 OCHE – O/C,H.E. – “toe the line here” does a nice metaphorical/literal flip between surface and cryptic readings
26 ELL – hidden in “Petrel loops” – quite impressed to see just one hidden word in a situation where about 30 people are choosing clue types – surface seems a bit odd, as looping suggests covering a distance more than once to me.

61 comments on “Christmas Turkey “roasting” 2014”

  1. I think you’re thinking of barouche, Peter. Lots of fun, this. I laughed out loud at 14d, but also liked 8d and 20d. Had no idea what the Ramsey reference was, but fortunately didn’t need to. Thanks again to Sotira and Jerry and all the contributors.
  2. I needed a little over an hour for this one, the last 20 minutes of which were devoted entirely to CONTRAFLOW, FAROUCHE (unknown) and COBRAS (LOI). Very enjoyable though.

    Somebody claimed to have spotted a Nina and it would be interesting to know whether it exists, and if so, was it intentional? Since setters were given the option to change their designated word whilst retaining checkers, I somewhat doubt it. In fact I changed my word from MARLINS to MARGINS as I didn’t want to risk a wrangle about pluralised fish.

    I had only one query, re 26dn, is ‘short’ part of the definition? I’ve never thought of an ELL as a being particularly ‘short’, but it’s all relative of course.

    Edited at 2014-12-20 06:44 am (UTC)

    1. That was me, but Sotira told me it was unintentional. It didn’t really add up to a proper Nina anyway, but there were some imperial units of length in the grid – FOOT, CHAIN and POLE. I hope nobody spent too long searching for it!
    2. We had some trouble with 26dn because the original suggestion was to put in a specific length (eg 1 1/4 yards).. but it turns out it rather depends, as it has been used for several different lengths over the centuries – so in the end we settled for “short!”
      No, no intentional nina.
      I must say I thought your clue was excellent, Jack
      1. Thanks for that, Jerry. As I said, it’s all relative but it just happens that the first time I came across ELL (donkey’s years ago) it was in a line from a song by Henry Purcell “give him an inch and he’ll soon take an ell” where obviously the ell is being represented as longer rather than shorter. According to my dictionary it’s a measurement mainly of cloth, 45 inches in England, 37.2 in Scotland and 27 in the Low Countries. Not that any of this matters as the answer was perfectly clear anyway.
    3. “long” and “short” can be murky water, with a scale from angstroms to gigaparsecs (probably further at both ends). I might have tried changing “length” to “distance”. It’s still all relative, but I think fewer would question “short distance” than “short length”. It’s an extreme case, but look up “parsec” in Wikipedia and see how often “distance” is used when describing this “unit of length” .

      Edited at 2014-12-20 10:24 am (UTC)

  3. Terrific fun, and thanks to all the cluers and above all our editors. Hard to pick a favourite amongst so many crackers, but I thought 18 ac was outstanding, and 11, 12 and 16 ac were great surfaces.

    Farouche was unknown, but went in (as LOI) as the most likely anagram of café and hour given the cross checkers.

    Merry Christmas to all – finding and having the opportunity to participate in this most civilised of forums has been one of the highlights of my year!

    Edited at 2014-12-20 07:48 am (UTC)

    1. Glad you liked it, Nick. I have to admit that I phoned a friend when the triple definition I had proposed couldn’t work all its kinks out.
  4. Well done to all the setters and especially sotira and Jerry. LOI COBRAS, COD EGGHEADS, and a bonus point to SMORGASBORD for the Bros reference.
    1. Thanks Mohn, your COD vote marks the pinnacle of my otherwise undistinguished crossword career!
      1. Thanks for the bonus point. Whilst, as Peter rightly points out, this wasn’t the most convincing surface reading ever I did quite like the idea of Matt and Luke in HMV promoting their latest CD singing a medley of their hit then being put off by a pack of hyenas just escaped from the local zoo,

        Smorgasbord was a bit of a bugger to clue. The censor ruled out “Almost climax after kinky sex on table dislodging a buffet” (SM + ORGAS(m) + BO(a)RD) and an initial letter clue kicking off with “starters of Swedish Meatballs” wasn’t quite elegant enough.

        I also had a neat Anaxesque half an idea involving “small wild boar sandwiches” (S in BOAR*) but couldn’t develop it into a full clue.

        The shortage of vowels (3 out of 11 letters) certainly didn’t help.

        Edited at 2014-12-20 07:30 pm (UTC)

        1. Based on previous music comments here, I had assumed that either you or keriothe were responsible for SMORGASBORD. But given that k revealed a worrying lack of Spandau Ballet knowledge a few weeks ago, I figured you might be the better bet – not sure how you’re going to feel about that …
          1. I’m cool about that Mohn. I went a bit funny in the 80s and started liking all sorts of what I now know to be rubbish (not Bros mindst).
  6. Pleased to improve on last year’s HM’s report – mine was 28a. Actually, my second choice as I was intent on working a football reference to olé into the clue. Sadly, it was red-carded by Sotira – most unfairly, I thought, as there surely must always be a place for the thesis-length abstruse clue. A shocking decision!

    8d my favourite for its elegance, but lots of good stuff here. Like Jack, a little over the hour for me.

  7. Mine was 1d and Jerry pointed out at the time that, as Peter says, it’s non-standard. I also had 3 alternative clues for w*t*e*s as in: WITLESS. Stupid Tory leader axed in wets list reshuffle. I didn’t record a time but I think it was under the 30. Of course the setters had a one-clue advantage. I thought this was a pretty classy puzzle, and I loved the puff adder and the dusky maiden.
  9. I think whoever was given the task of setting 5ac with checking letters Y*T*I*M did a splendid job! My favourite was COBRA but I, too, enjoyed “puff adder” and “dusky maiden”. Again, congratulations to compilers, Sotira, Jerrywh and all clue setters.
    1. Thank you Martin – I wrestled with YTTRIUM having been instructed by Sarah that she couldn’t possibly give it to anybody else. I’m still pondering the possible meanings of that.
  10. I have no wish to detract from the universal praise for “Puff adder” = CHAIN SMOKER, but I still have the feeling I’m missing something as I just don’t quite “get it” as a cryptic definition. I’m surely not reading it right. Can someone enlighten me please?
    1. Thanks Jack, exactly what I wanted to say! Apparently it’s a great clue, but I don’t quite get it either.
    2. I’m not normally a fan of cryptic definitions, but I confess that when this one struck me during ruminations about making Lapsang Souchong by putting CHA IN SMOKER or playing with the promising heroin derivatives SMACK and HORSE, its extreme brevity had considerable appeal. It’s along the lines of a chain smoker adding one puff to another in continuous series.
      I was delighted with the response of those who “got it” but well aware that there would be some who didn’t who would chuck it to the bottom of the pile.
      1. Thanks z8, and for confirming my tenative interpretation of the clue. There’s no way I wanted to denigrate it but one or two comments from others led me to wonder if I was missing something.
  11. Glad that my effort was not blasted out of the water by PB so thanks Peter, sotira and jerrywh. Enjoyable fun.
  12. Enjoyable helping set. Enjoyable solving. Enjoyable getting some more Biddlecombe-insight into how an editor works through clues. Most enjoyable being able to say very well done to Sotira and Jerrywh. Again. Very well done.

    Edited at 2014-12-20 07:55 pm (UTC)

  13. Had to cheat to get my unknowns at 23a and 25a. I was able to get the definition and all the wordplay except for the O in 21d. 14d appealed to my base humour. The defensive submarine release and the word play for 28a were also very good and 5a definitely the short straw in my book. Thanks to all involved.
  14. As a novice I was pleased to get all the clues bar two but it took several attempts. It has given me the confidence to try the main crosswords as well as the quick ones. I got COBRAS and I understand C is caught and BRA is support but don’t understand the O and S. Can someone please explain. Thanks to setters. Very enjoyable.
    1. O = 0 as in zero and S just makes the plural, so 0 BRAS = “no bras” or “without support up front”. Very clever, making use of the old chestnut “bra” = ” support” but somehow seeming to hide it beautifully. On reflection it’s probably my favourite clue, certainly the hardest to solve (for me) and providing both a satisfactory “doh” moment and a giggle when the penny finally dropped.

      Edited at 2014-12-20 06:04 pm (UTC)

      1. Glad to get a COD and even gladder that it was a few people’s LOI. It probably should have had a q.-mark as someone has suggested. A very pleasant Christmas offering Sarah and Jerry, with thanks to Peter, and all. It was a little easier than I ideally would have liked to solve, but on the other hand out of few people’s reach yet entertaining throughout. An early cracker, as in the Platonic ideal of cracker, the absolute antithesis of those bits of witless paper that are one of our stranger rituals. I feel I’ve had a good lunch with you all. Here’s to the next virtual Christmas!
      2. Thanks for this. All I could think of was the vocative case from my Latin lessons years ago when Mensa was translated as ‘O Table’. Quite why anyone would address an inanimate object, let alone a bra, I could never understand.
        1. Churchill as a schoolboy at Rugby had the same idea; and on voicing it found himself (then or later) dropping Latin, which stopped his being accepted for Oxford University. Thank the Lord – the thought of him going the Bullingdon way…
  15. I will confess to 6dn. It isn’t very good but, well, I failed to come up with anything better. I won’t give up the day job just yet.
    Thanks again to Jerry and sotira and well done to the rest of the setting team.
  16. FWIW Alleluia was my favourite, combining a great surface reading with an interesting device very well executed. Hats off to whoever crafted that one.
    1. Thanks! It was a toughie to clue, with no possibility of anagrams, homonyms, hiddens etc. I enjoyed solving the puzzle too, with a readily apparent mixture of setting styles on display.
  17. Very busy yesterday (partly with a chicken rather than a turkey), so I’m blogging rather late. I enjoyed the puzzle very much and especially Peter’s comments, very helpful for us amateur setters, but I wasn’t actually able to finish it. OONI (only one not in) was OCHE, which in my many years of not playing darts I had never heard of. I was relieved on reading the blog to discover that I didn’t really stand a chance with this one anyway. All I could think of for 24dn was ACHE (Artillery commander and ambassador?) which didn’t seem to fit toeing the line, despite my wish that this might be an obscure meaning of ACHE used only in Tasmania or something like that. The other purely British entry, SHUFTI, was at least unequivocal from the wordplay, as were the FOOTLIGHTS even if I had never heard of the dramatics club. My COD in this would be COBRAS (because of the “0 bras”).

    Many thanks to Sarah and Jerry for organising this delightful exercise and for a pleasant e-mail conversation when submitting my clue, and to Peter for his professional view on our efforts. I had a great time and will surely try to participate again next year.

    And Merry Christmas to all (even if the chicken I am cooking today is a Rosh Hashanah recipe from the other Times, the one across the pond).

    Edited at 2014-12-21 12:58 pm (UTC)

    1. All these years and I never knew you were a fellow statesider. Hello. Your chicken certainly looks good (rather better than our Thanksgiving turkey which had a pronounced list to starboard) so I must check out the recipe in our Times. I only learned OCHE from doing these puzzles. So, um, which clue was yours?
      1. How pleasant to read the daily spam report from my e-mail provider and find the mails informing me about these three replies (and have the chance to rescue them) — hopefully the spam filter has learned now that LiveJournal is not a spam source. Thank you, Olivia and bigtone and Vinyl for your comments. The bird in the photograph is actually our 34 pound Thanksgiving turkey (today’s chicken was a bit smaller). And I am originally a statesider (or I wouldn’t stand any chance at all of solving cryptic crosswords), but exiled in Germany (which has strange side effects like the German Keyboard on my Computer and the spelling checker’s consequent tendency to try to capitalise every other word).

        My clue was the one for SASH and actually I gave Sarah a choice of five clues (easy word to clue), but the one published was the one she liked best. Some of the others were rather boring.

        Now I do know OCHE and I am sure I will never again Forget (just as I have learned that INCH is an Island, OUNCE a cat, and HOBBY a falcon) and I do believe Vinyl when he says that OCHE has appeared frequently, but unfortunately probably in the even more frequent puzzles I can’t even begin to solve. Another few years and I will get better.

        Nice people to talk to here anyway, clever people, witty people. I really enjoy this blog.

        Edited at 2014-12-21 11:02 pm (UTC)

    2. Sorry, but I fess up to OCHE, having negotiated a change with Jerry on what I was given. I appreciate that it may be a bit Britcentric, but ‘stepping up to the OCHE’ is a mainstay of televised darts tournaments here.

      Merry Christmas All.

      Edited at 2014-12-21 03:25 pm (UTC)

  18. As of Sunday evening, 6 days after publishing, we estimate 950 have either downloaded the puzzle or solved it online — or at least had a look at it. Definitely well up on last year.

    It’s impossible to be sure of numbers, but that figure is based on first-time visitors to the site (minus automated callers).

    1. Printed a while ago wih the intention of solving during the quiet times at parents in law on Christomas day. This proved an extremely pleasant way to spend the time. Thanks to editors, setters and ‘roaster’. I can confirm that 1ac definitely had a smoother solving experience as the result of patient and always helpful editorial policy 🙂

      Edited at 2014-12-26 09:08 am (UTC)

  19. Late to the party again! Just a few sprouts and a half-eaten mince pie left for me.

    My clue was CREPUSCULAR. Until I saw YTTRIUM I thought I’d got the rough end of the stick. There’s very little in the way of anagrams, contained words or even definitions to play with. I eventually had to settle for the double omission. Thanks to Olivia & Martin for giving it the thumbs up 🙂

    Could somebody please explain how EGGHEADS might be wonky? It must be me – nobody else seems to have a problem.

    I personally like INK and COBRAS

    Thanks again to all contributors, especially Sarah & Jerry.

    Merry Christmas to all

    Edited at 2014-12-22 11:58 am (UTC)

    1. I think the major meaning has to do with the fact that a physical egg is not tremendously stable – and tends to roll around, or, to keep to the ‘head’ part, to wobble a bit in an eggcup or perhaps when being boiled. The secondary meaning Peter refers to may be referencing the idea that intellectuals can be a bit wobbly too.
      1. My interpretation of “wonky” was “like a wonk”, wonk being “North American informal, derogatory A studious or hard-working person:” (ODE), though Collins has “a person who is obsessively interested in a specified subject”, which is a bit further from “egghead”.

        Edited at 2014-12-22 12:50 pm (UTC)

    2. Sorry Penguin, I thought I was on safe ground as WONK came up fairly recently here. It refers, as Peter suggests, to someone with an excessive (nerdy) knowledge of a particular topic. Most often seen in the expression “policy wonk”.

      The idea was that an egghead could be “wonky” in this context. Also one may feel a little wonky (off-kilter) after an exhausting performance.

      And like a good joke, it doesn’t seem so clever now that I’ve had to explain it!

      1. You only had to explain it to me though. Now you come to mention it, I do remember the “policy wonk” discussion from a short while ago but, like too many things these days, it just evaporated rather than registered
  20. Hello all, and Merry Christmas. I wasn’t able to check in over the weekend. I’m sorry PB didn’t particularly cotton to my contribution (which was HERB), but nonetheless I enjoyed the effort and the result. Thanks to Jerry, Sotira and Peter B for allowing us all to have a go at the other side of crosswords. Best regards to all.
  21. 12:28 for me (according to the timer) with COBRAS holding me up at the end. I was rather less keen than others on this clue, as for me it spoilt a good idea by failing to provide an indication of the plural “bras” in the wordplay. “Striker caught without support up front (5)” for COBRA would have been first rate.

    As it was, I particularly liked 28ac (POLEAXE), 4dn (BY AND LARGE) and 17dn (ALLELUIA), even though the surface readings in all three felt a little artificial. Thanks to all concerned for an interesting solve.

    Addendum
    On further reflection, my comment on the COBRAS clue doesn’t really make sense (I think I was probably just annoyed with myself for not twigging it sooner), so I’ll re-assess it as first rate as it stands, and apologise to the setter for dissing him or her.

    Edited at 2014-12-23 12:41 am (UTC)

      1. It’s possible that strict Ximeneans might demand one, but its absence certainly doesn’t bother me.
  23. Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle that provided a good work-out while remaining eminently solvable. I don’t understand any of the objections/quibbles re CHAIN SMOKER/puff adder, which seems to me a first-rate cryptic def. Congratulations to Jerry, Sotira and all their co-workers.

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