Having said that I have a few immediate gripes that I hope can be put down to teething troubles that will be addressed and sorted out within a day or two. Firstly this puzzle was not available on-line in the Club area and it was with some difficulty that I eventually tracked it down in the on-line newspaper. It ought to sit alongside the other puzzles and offer the same opportunities for leaderboarding and comment in the forum. Secondly, as far as I can see there is no facility to print it other than by printing the screen or by similar cut-and-paste means. Thirdly, if as seemed to be suggested in the pre-publicity, this puzzle is intended as a stepping-stone to the Times Cryptic, I think it’s very important that it should follow the same basic rules, most importantly that answers consisting of multiple or hyphenated words should be indicated in the enumeration of the clues. Not doing so raises the level of difficulty significantly and puts the puzzle in a different league altogether. I lost ages before I realised what was going on.
Edit at 6:40 A.M. : Now that the e-newspaper has been published (the on-line facsimile of the printed edition) I am very pleased to see that the enumeration of multi-word and hyphenated answers is shown correctly. Also there is a print option there although it’s extremely fiddly to use it, including changing the default size of paper from A3.
And so to the blogging: We have a NINA of sorts in the top and bottom rows. On edit: Thanks to z8 for pointing out that the top part of the NINA continues at 7dn. I was worried about that apparently inconsequential THE at 6ac.
Time taken: Far longer than it should have.
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | GREETINGS – Anagram of GET SINGER. Definition: hello |
6 | THE – hidden. Def: article |
8 | PLACARD – P (parking), then CAR (vehicle) inside LAD (boy). Def: notice |
9 | OKAPI – OK (fine), API (Applications Programming Interface). Def: browser – as in the animal. I never heard of this acronym |
10 |
ALL SYSTEMS GO – STEMS (checks) inside anagram of G |
12 | FROM – First letters of Make Oneself Read Fiction reversed. Def: not to |
13 | EROS – Alternate letters of tEaRoOmS. Def: figure seen in Piccadilly, which is not true as that statue is of Anteros |
17 | WEIGHTLIFTER – W (women), EIGHT (regatta team), LIFT (raise), ER (Royal). Def: sportsperson |
20 | DYLAN – hidden. Def: Welshman |
21 | TO SPARE – SPAR (box) inside TOE (boot). Def: extra |
23 | NEW – Sounds like “knew” (understood). Def: novel |
24 | CROSSWORD – CROSS (go over), WORD (promise). Def: this |
Down |
|
1 | GAPE – G (grand), APE (parrot). Def: stare |
2 |
ENABLER – Anagram of BEEN, LAR |
3 | TEA – TE (note), A (answer). Def: leaves |
4 | NUDIST – DI’S (CID officer’S – Detective Inspector’S) inside NUT (lunatic). Def: streaker? |
5 |
STONE-DEAF – Anagram of NOTES, DE |
6 |
THAWS – TH (Thursday), then W |
7 | EDITOR – E (energy), ID (reversed), ROT (nonsense, reversed). Def: press person |
11 | SYMPHONIC – Anagram of CHOPINS MY. Def: sort of composition, with ‘sort’ doing double-duty as anagrind (anagram indicator) |
14 | OREGANO – REGAN (ungrateful daughter – of King Lear) inside 00 (ducks). Def: herb |
15 | SWEDEN – WED (married) inside SEN (old nurse – State Enrolled Nurse). Def: country |
16 | BLOTTO – BLOT (stain), OT (part of bible, reversed). Def: very drunk |
18 | IN-LAW – IN-LAW opposite of ‘outlaw’ (what Robin Hood was). Def: relative |
19 | WELD – WE (you and me), LD (Lord). Def: join together |
22 | SIS – double definition: girl in family / MI6 – service supplying agents |
I would, however, have taken considerably longer had I not read Jack’s comments re enumeration. Hopefully, a glitch they will shortly solve. I wonder if the Print option can be so easily implemented. I hope so, as this is the kind of thing I might do over ‘tea’.
I don’t know how to write one of these blog entries so I thought I should familiarise myself with it all before my first post tomorrow.
Thanks
Ian
Interesting to see the Show Solution button. I wonder if that will be there every day and if so what the motive for having it is. I might find it too tempting sometimes.
Unlike the main puzzle, I note that the new software allows you to complete the puzzle on an iPad which is handy although personally I prefer hardcopy.
I found it easier than the main puzzle because the definition part of each clue seemed less well disguised. Pitched well for a beginner like me. I still found some of the wordplay difficult to work out.
What’s a NINA?
Edited at 2014-03-10 08:17 am (UTC)
A Nina is a hidden message. In this case, as far as I can see, it’s: GREETINGS THE (at 1 & 6ac) and NEW CROSSWORD (at 23 and 24ac). I’ll leave the explanation of the origin to others although it may already be somewhere in “About This Blog”.
Edited at 2014-03-10 08:31 am (UTC)
I’m very disappointed that it hasn’t been published on the Crossword Club site though, with the usual leaderboard etc.
I can see it going down well with the grannies at my bridge club who all have iPads and tablets.
Nice straightforward solve, glad the bugs are being ironed out. I found it a bit frustrating just after midnight, but given a little bedding in time, it will be a good addition to the fold.
Can I be the first to plead the setters’ names stay here and nowhere else?
Indeed. The ST Cryptic is spoiled for me by having the setter’s name shown.
How do you mean? The pseudonyms are being published with the puzzles, but I don’t know who “Des” is, and nobody’s outed him on here yet. From the Nina I can guess, but it’s not his usual pseudonym elsewhere.
Edited at 2014-03-11 12:02 am (UTC)
Took me a while to find – not on my Times Android app but via the main website, where the enumeration initially was incorrect. In the paper version, the enumeration is correct.
The “show solution” button also picks out errors in your completed grid, which of course I only found out by entering an experimental wrong answer.
As to the crossword itself, I put in EROS knowing that it isn’t really but is by popular acclamation., and noted there are a brazen two hiddens.
Like IN-LAW, and INLAW, of course.
Other NINA-ish elements, I thought: it was hard not to read “greetings from the editor” even if you had to elevate the “from”. And was ALLSYSTEMSGO (sic) a triumph of expectation over delivery, since clearly some systems are not yet go?
On the puzzle, for me a pleasant wind-down after the big one. As far as I can see, no reference to either here or The Times Crossword Club in RR’s article.
At least they managed to fix the punctuation.
Not timed – there’s no club timer – but was slowed seriously by the ‘helpful’ features: entered letters were automatically skipped, so that whenever there were crossing words, typing in my solution gave nonsense, so I had to reposition the cursor and correct it. Also the automatic moving on to the next clue meant that the habit of hitting return resulted in going to the second cell. So I had to be sure to always look at the grid while entering solutions on the desktop, which I didn’t need to do for the main puzzle. (I haven’t yet tried to see how well it goes on the tablet.)
Also, def 2 of browse in Chambers online is:
2 said of certain animals, eg deer: to feed by continually nibbling on young buds, shoots, leaves and stems of trees and shrubs, as opposed to grazing.
And if Times high-ups want people actually to do the thing, why put it in the handy throw-away supplement?
To boot, calling the Shaftesbury Memorial “Eros” is a schoolboy howler. O tempora, o mores! (Oh Times, Oh Daily Mirror!)
Aunt Eros
There are a couple of clues that I don’t understand, even after reading this post though…
Specifically, how does ‘ducks’ lead to ‘oo’?
Also, I am not totally sure I see how an ‘okapi’ is a ‘browser’?
Thanks! -Paul
I am still in the dark about ducks = oo though … 🙁
Your query about ducks is easily dealt with if you are familiar with cricket terminology. If a batsman has scored nothing he is said to be “out for a duck” so duck = 0 and by extension for cryptic crossword purposes, ducks = 00 (or more 0s if you can think of a word that requires more than two).
The query about the book is not so easy, partly because I have never seen it, but I think I gathered from a recent comment in the blog that the puzzle numbers are not given, which seems something of an oversight on the part of the publishers. The best I can suggest is you take a look at the comments under this puzzle http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1604224.html#comments , scrolling down to the Anonymous comment posted by Diana with the heading “At last!”. The replies following on from that may be of help.
If you have further queries or comments I’d suggest you put them in the Quick Cryptic blog for the current day where more people will see it and will be happy to help you. I only knew about your query today because as the person who initiated this very early blog I get notified by email if anyone adds to it.
Kinds regards
jackkt
Edited at 2016-10-07 12:29 am (UTC)
Kind regards, -Paul