Well, that was fun! Having carefully planned the day around ensuring adequate time to complete the blog before breakfast time for the UK contingent (i.e. by late afternoon here in Sydney), I was thwarted as the puzzle did not appear online. Eventually, the redoubtable jackkt rode to the rescue by posting an image of the elusive offering on his website: sir, I am utterly indebted to you. Thank you.
OK, so here goes – first blog on this august forum, so please forgive any faux pas. Enjoyed this puzzle: good mix (I thought) of a few “gimmes” to get you rolling, and a few that (at least for those of us still wearing our L plates) were quite tricky. Glad to see the new offering does not (so far) seem to require the same levels of arcane GK as the traditional cryptic – which for my money makes it more of a fair tussle. (Of course, the usual caveat applies: what is arcane to one may be blindingly obvious to another – and vice versa. I was particularly lucky today as I am not at all a plant man – but I happened to have 7 down tucked away somewhere in my store of trivia).
Thank you to the setter (I live in hope of one who styles himself “Red”: probably an old gag amongst the crossword fraternity, but it only just occurred to me… bear with me, it’s been a long day).
Oh, and if anyone is interested, took me about an hour including time out to feed cat and also welcome home wife.
| Across | |
| 1 | CAMPFIRE -Cryptic definition, conjuring up images of the bewoggled lads belting out “In the quartermaster’s store” (or maybe that is dating me somewhat) as the fire blazes… Somewhat unsatisfactory clue I felt as there was no alternative angle other than the obvious. |
| 5 |
BIFF -Hit is the definition bit of the clue. The answer is also derived from the first letters (“fronting”) b |
| 9 |
RINSE -Hair treatment is the definition bit. It is also revealed in some (“provided by some”) of the letters in |
| 10 | BROTHER -Sibling is the definition bit. The wordplay also giving the answer is BOTHER (“worry”) about R (Rivalry’s beginning – i.e. first letter) |
| 11 | AIM -Mission is the definition bit. The wordplay is the “even” letters of “Racism” (i.e. a, I and m) with the odd letters (i.e. r, c and s) being “ignored”. |
| 12 | CONSTABLE -Artist is the definition bit (hay wain bloke rather than the local bobby who knocks up a quick sketch of the suspect). Wordplay also giving the answer is “CON” (scam) with “STABLE” (not likely to shake). Nice. |
| 13 | SERAPH -“Angel” is the definition bit, arrived at from an anagram of HARP with edges of “simple” (s and e): “extremely” often points to the first and last letters of the following word. |
| 15 | BOLT-ON -“Additional” gives the definition (i.e. a bolt on being something added on) with the reinforcement of the answer from Notlob (as anyone from the Python era still thinks of the fair town of Bolton which is up north) |
| 17 | MINELAYER -Naval vessel is the definition bit, and the answer is also derived from an anagram of “enemy lair” (the inclusion in the clue of “blowing up” is one of many potential signals that there is an anagram lurking in here…) Must admit I was not aware of this particular vessel. However, given familiarity with the Minesweeper I figured (eventually!) that there was a strong logical possibility that a minelayer might be it’s natural foe (or its raison d’etre depending on how you look at it). Lesson to be learned: if it feels right and is reinforced by some kind of strong corroborative evidence (in this case an anagram) then slap it in. Probably not advice from the purist school, but works for me! |
| 19 | CUT -Double definition type of clue. Ignore socially, and get the secateurs out. |
| 20 | SWANSEA -Bit underwhelmed by this one. “Port” is the definition bit. The word play is “SWANS” (gliders) with EA (being an abbreviation of Each). I’m sure Swans glide, but are they noted for it? To the same extent that (e.g.) bats do? Probably just being picky. But I didn’t like it. |
| 21 | EXPEL -Nice clue with some tight wordplay. “Kick out” is the definition bit. The wordplay that also gives the answer is “P” (being start – ie. first letter of – “Paddle”) “in” the river Exe (delightful river in Devon) with L being added on the end (being standard abbreviation for Lake). |
| 22 | RAKE -Double definition. “Rake” (as in hunt around for) and “he’s a bit of a rake” (sound advice to young ladies administered in the 1950’s, so I’m told). |
| 23 | UNAFRAID -“Fearless” gives us our definition. The word play that also provides the answer is UNA (“girl”) with F (leader – i.e. first letter of – “Foreign”) and RAID (incursion). |
| Down | |
| 1 | CARPALS -“Bones” is the definition. The word play is CARP (‘fish”) with ALS (being “also” – as in “too” – shortened). |
| 2 | MINIM -“Note” gives our definition (“minim” being a term of musical notation I vaguely remember from early days playing the recorder). It is constructed from MINI (car) on M (being the standard abbreviation of a motorway). |
| 3 | FRENCH POLISH -This one also went in somewhat on a wing and a prayer, but it just had to be right (given the word play and the checkers) – and lo, subsequent validation justified my rashness. “Shine” gives us our definition. The Curie’s were of Polish origin, but made their home in France. So, they were French Polish, so to speak… |
| 4 | ROBIN -Neat clue. “Bird” is the definition. The wordplay is PROBING (“investigating”) without the P and the G (being its “wings” – i.e. edges). |
| 6 | INHABIT -“People” gives the definition: in this sense it’s the verb “to people” (i.e. to populate by putting people in there) I believe (grammarians please correct me). And a habit is some kind of riding clobber worn by ladies, I seem to recall. So, if you are In Habit, you are, presumably, hot to trot. |
| 7 | FURZE -“Sounds like” kind of clue (“reportedly” being the indicator of this). “Furze” is a kind of gorse like plant, and sounds like “Firs” (trees). |
| 8 | DO IT YOURSELF -Double cryptic definition. Further comment probably superfluous. |
| 14 | RANSACK -“Loot” gives us the definition (i.e. to ransack, to loot). The answer is also derived from the wordplay of RA (= Royal Artillery = gunmen) N (abbreviation for note) and SACK (get rid of as in “you’re sacked, son…”) |
| 16 | NETTLED -Tricky one, I thought. “Cross” is the definition (not sure how widespread this usage is outside the UK). The wordplay is NETT (“clear” – as in nett of tax / clear of tax) with LED (being a type of light that tech people refer to). |
| 17 | MISER -Scrooge, everyone’s favourite “miser”, with the “endless woe” being MISERY without the end Y. |
| 18 | YEARN -Initially went down the wrong track on this one, as I was relishing the fact that in a recent Times cryptic I’d picked up that Quito was the capital of Ecuador. This was information too good to waste, so I thought. Turned out to be a complete red herring, as the “capital” here was the crossword convention of “first letter” (i.e. capital of Ecuador gave us E). The E is then embedded in YARN (“story”) with the whole giving us YEARN meaning to long for. |
| 19 | -Probably my favourite today. Neat. “Drink” is the definition bit, with the wordplay coming from C (“caught” – cricketing abbreviations are big around here so bone up on your O, B, LBW, R etc.) with UP and PA (“old man”). |
Anyway, still no sign and unfortunately I cannot access the e-newspaper (my research indicates that requires a subscription of a type not available to those of us overseas – but I may have got lost in the jungle of different package offerings described…)
Very frustrating!
Take a deep breath, check in to that site from time to time and then take your time solving and blogging, when it finally appears.
We record solving times here, not blogging times!!
Edited at 2014-03-12 06:56 am (UTC)
I haven’t been able to do the main puzzle because my iPad app still has yesterday’s and the Crossword Club doesn’t work with the obscure browser our IT department choose to use. When I complained to them about this at the Times they explained that they don’t support Microsoft Explorer and I should install something else.
Today’s puzzle only just came up on the on-line newspaper. I’m still frustrated by the lack of a print button and no way to see previous solutions.
On edit: Excellent blog Nick!
Edited at 2014-03-12 10:51 am (UTC)
Thanks ever so to Jack for posting a pic of it.. if I give you my crossword club subscription, will you do that every day? Only joking.. 🙂
Edited at 2014-03-12 10:23 am (UTC)
I have seen Simon’s Cat, but not Henri.. will look out for him, thanks for the tip
7 minutes for this, with the Curies being by far the best of the clues (it helps if you know Mrs Curie was born Marie Skłodowska in Warsaw. Pierre Curie was born in Paris, so the clue works really well.
Top notch, informative and readable blogging, Nick, with or without the trying circumstances.
This is more or less my guiding principle when solving!
I forgot to mention earlier that I sat down with my daughter to go through some of the clues in the second of these yesterday evening. They’re much too difficult for a ten-year-old to do alone of course but they are simple enough for her to get some of the answers with help – she got DOZE almost on her own for instance – and more importantly to understand and enjoy the cleverness of the wordplay. It was sheer bliss, and for that half-hour alone I am grateful for this new format.
Edited at 2014-03-12 11:07 am (UTC)
We had another little session this evening. There’s an awful lot you have to explain but she really seems to enjoy it. I hope it’s something we’ll keep doing together. I’m trying not to think of myself as a kind of Mike Agassi, targeting the eventual overthrow of Magoo in 2030… 😉
I
A very enjoyable read. I like the way you put the definition part at the front of your explanations. When solving, I tend to try and identify that part of the clue first. Is that what most do?
I didn’t get CARPALS. I had guessed CARCASS but that didn’t fit the wordplay. Got the homophone for FURZE but had never heard of the plant name before and didn’t know the spelling.
I got stuck for ages in the SE corner. Thanks for explaining NETTLED. I just couldn’t parse that and of course it is so obvious when explained.
Like many others, my favourite was FRENCH POLISH. Very clever I thought but I had to resort to google to verify my guess about the husband being Pierre.
If you read the main cryptic blog regularly you may notice that the definition part of the clue is omitted more often than not. This is probably historical as in the early days the participants were mostly very experienced solvers who took that part of the clue for granted, and that tradition has continued as, apart from anything else, it saves time.
When I set out to blog the first Quickie on Monday I took the view that the potential audience for this blog may be on the whole less experienced, and the info put out by the Times suggested that they see the puzzle as part of a learning curve, a stepping stone to the main cryptic puzzle, so I decided to include every definition along with explanations of the wordplay. We can continue with this or not as suits individual bloggers and/or their mood on the day.
Edited at 2014-03-12 12:22 pm (UTC)
For harder crosswords I find I’m not able to get the definition straight away and then the clunky process of sorting out word play/clue types starts. I find the most frustrating clues are cryptic definitions where the whole clue is the definition and you can spend ages trying to work out what’s not there!
> placement instructions: in, on, by
> instructions to do something to a word: back, first to last, curtailed, short…
> …or take a particular bit from it: at the end, last bit of, ending in, top of, middle of
> words with common abbreviations: second, united, runs, wide, account, tons, height, court, area, gold, work
> anagram indicators: silly, terribly, loose
> homophone indicators: for the listener, on the radio
> words that just appear very regularly: a container is a can, a stole is a boa, a fish is an ide, an informer is a rat (and to inform is to sing), drama is Noh (or no)
I think the main benefit of practice and experience is that you gradually acquire the ability to recognise these things immediately, even when they’re quite well disguised. This helps to work out how the clue is constructed, i.e. which bit is the definition, which is wordplay.
I struck lucky on several fronts here. CARPALS was something I knew because of several breakages of said bones when playing cricket and rugby. FURZE was embedded somewhere in the back of the mind.
NETTLED was also my LOI. Tricky clue, I thought.
1dn LOI by a long way, as I couldn’t think of anything better than CARCASS, and eventually had to resort to an aid to see if anything else fitted checkers
Nick, I did like your blog – a fresh voice is always welcome here.
I too toyed with the CARCASS solution, but then recalled the sporting injuries I’d had around the CARPALS. Pure luck.
linxit was very kind in sending me the html templates etc. for the blog, which worked beautifully. Lot of support here if you do fancy having a go.
I’m not sure these Concise Cryptics are a whole lot easier, just smaller.
Edited at 2014-03-12 12:25 pm (UTC)
Thinking about it, my evolutionary options would appear to be Nun or Sister – both of which seem a tad questionable given my personal circumstances…
Are puzzles 1 and 2 still obtainable, or is this going to be like the Independent where if you don’t do them on the day (or on the two weeks the files stay up on the site), they’re gone forever?
You might also try via twitter to @timescrosswords if you are that way inclined.
You can access old Independent puzzles via a process that is described on Tony’s blog (linked to under Other Crossword Sites on the right of this page), in the entry for 1st July 2013. I’ve been able to access puzzles from months ago using that technique.
Nah, that would spoil it.
On edit: They seem to go out to #11 on 21/2.
Edited at 2014-03-12 03:11 pm (UTC)
Nairobi Wallah.
Well done on a difficult day, Nick_the
I had firmly made up my mind to depart these shores, blogging included, when my crossword club membership expires (in June?) and try pastures new with the Guardian, FT and Independent, all of which are free. However The Times’ cunning move of supplying a new cryptic, which can only be accessed via the main website and not the crossword club, (accident? I think not) has got me thinking again. All to play for still
I’ll add my congratulations to Nick for an excellent first blog, but that isn’t to say that the previous two weren’t good.
Anyway, let me add my congratulations to Nick the ex-Novice; splendid job.