24:12. The second outing for our new setter, and I for one found it a stiff challenge. I had a sense of engaging with a new and unfamiliar setting mind, and struggling to find the wavelength. Of course I probably imagined this just because it was a bit of a tough puzzle and I knew we had a new setter, but in any event I enjoyed the experience a lot.
There are one or two things in here I don’t entirely like (a bit of looseness here, a questionable abbreviation there) but nothing too egregious, and if they’re part of the package that also includes this sort of inventiveness then I’m a buyer. There’s some really neat stuff in here, but my favourite clue is 15ac: I enjoy the idea of The Traveling Wilburys being supported by One Direction.
Across |
1 |
Some editors may long to be this advanced |
AHEAD OF THE TIMES – if you were editor of the The Bridgnorth, Shifnal and Albrighton Argus (with which is incorporated The Wheat-Growers’ Intelligencer and Stock-breeders’ Gazetteer) you might long to be head of the Times. It’s only ‘some editors’ though, because the idea would of course fill any self-respecting editor of the Guardian with horror. Edit: this is nonsense. See below for a much more sensible suggestion from vinyl1
|
9 |
Career MP out with son, lively little lad?
|
SCAMPERER – (CAREER MP, S)*. The definition here is by example, and a little bit loose, but the question mark is there to put you on your guard for that sort of thing. |
10 |
A unit of old soldiers boarding vessel
|
AORTA – A(OR)TA. Here ‘unit of old’ is the TA, now the Army Reserve. The soldiers are, as so often, the other ranks or OR. |
11 |
Such as a superior that’s left for the front |
LETTER – L replacing the first letter of BETTER (superior). Another DBE, cunningly concealed. |
12 |
Vampire book or The Remains of the Day? |
TWILIGHT – a sort of DD, the second moderately cryptic. Being the father of a 12-year-old girl helped a lot here. I am more familiar with the films starring RPatz (aka Cedric Diggory) and KStew, but I also know there are books and that by common consent the books are much better than the films, whereas with Maze Runner it’s the films that are much better than the books. Or possibly the other way round. |
13 |
Make beloved finish off peeled pears |
ENDEAR – END, pEARs. |
15 |
Singer taking large boy band on tour |
BOB DYLAN – (L, BOY BAND)*. Great clue! |
18 |
Legal woe that’s affected high-flyer
|
EAGLE OWL – (LEGAL WOE)*. |
19 |
Series of houses upgrading drains
|
USES UP – contained in ‘houses upgrading’. |
21 |
Sport Gucci’s latest in English clothing outlet |
EVENTING – a bit of a matryoshka clue: ENG contains I (Gucci’s latest), and then the resulting EING contains VENT (outlet). |
23 |
See Liberals about fuss over nothing
|
SOD ALL – I think this is a reversal of LL(ADO)S, where LLS denotes ‘Liberals’. I suppose if LS can denote ‘Liberals’, then if you add another L to it you still have ‘Liberals’, just one more of them. If this is the right reading, there’s something about it that seems not quite cricket to me, but I can’t quite put my finger on what. Edit: more nonsense I’m afraid. I’m really not doing very well this week, am I? See Peter’s helpful comment below.
|
26 |
Hear blooming riveting woman in 40s?
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ROSIE – sounds like ‘rosy’ (blooming). I didn’t know about Rosie the Riveter, so I got this from the wordplay. |
27 |
Plant container of grass on fellow junior |
FLOWERPOT – F, LOWER, POT. |
28 |
A holiday message Pink Floyd release
|
WISH YOU WERE HERE – DD, referring to the 1975 Pink Floyd album with the distinctive cover depicting two men in suits shaking hands, only one of whom is on fire. |
Down |
1 |
What you may do under a bishop? Pardon! |
ABSOLVE – A, B, SOLVE. I did, eventually. |
2 |
Call for Congress to give leader the elbow |
EXACT – sEX ACT. Cheeky! |
3 |
Condemn drop in value on one’s release |
DEPRECATE – DEPRECiATE. A meaning of the word DEPRECATE that seems less in use these days than the ‘belittle’ sense, perhaps because ‘self-deprecating’ has become so common. |
4 |
Alert to danger of Balls going to Greens? |
FORE – CD. I’m no golf expert, but if the ball is heading towards the green, you shouldn’t need to shout FORE, should you? Unless it’s the wrong green, I suppose… |
5 |
A way to gate-crash hotel club in Aspen?
|
HARDWOOD – H(A, RD), WOOD. Another DBE, indicated by the question mark. |
6 |
One following others around royal route
|
TRAIL – T(R)AIL. I’m not very keen on R for ‘royal’: I’m generally in favour of limiting the number of ‘permitted’ abbreviations. I was going to comment that we don’t want to allow every blinking abbreviation in Chambers in these puzzles, or where will it end for Pete’s sake? But it turns out this one isn’t even in Chambers! It’s in Collins, but with a capital R in ‘Royal’. |
7 |
Spooner’s said Oldman models bloomers
|
MARIGOLDS – sounds like a Spoonerism of ‘Gary moulds’. Some people don’t like Spoonerisms, but I do, even if they are a bit obvious. |
8 |
Austere hospital screening section |
SPARTAN – S(PART)AN. SAN, short for ‘sanatorium’ is a word for a hospital that I know from crosswords. |
14 |
Note female cats leaving town — strays? |
DIGRESSES – D, tIGRESSES. Another slightly questionable abbreviation in T for ‘town’. This one isn’t in Chambers either, or Collins, but it is in ODO. |
16 |
Break apart lettering advertising club? |
DISCOHERE – or DISCO HERE. Not a word you see every day. |
17 |
Bug or second sickness caused by drink? |
SWINE FLU – S, WINE FLU. This clue has coined a term that as a regular sufferer I am definitely going to use. |
18 |
One may be plucked by intellectual in Bow, say |
EYEBROW – sounds like “’ighbrow”, don’ it, cor blimey Mary Poppins? |
20 |
Grant-holding head for board of artists
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PALETTE – PA(LET)TE. ‘Grant-holding head’ is a neat construction. |
22 |
Support getting topless any minute
|
TEENY – TEE, aNY. |
24 |
Very quiet beer outside The Empire? |
APPLE – A(PP)LE. When I solved this I thought it was a reference to New York being the Big Apple and the Empire State. But when I thought about it a bit afterwards I realised that this doesn’t really work, if only because one is the city and the other is the state, so I reconsidered. Empire turns out to be a variety of APPLE. |
25 |
Extra capital on switching banks to Rotterdam |
MORE – ROME with R and M (the ‘banks to Rotterdam’) swapped. |
‘Deprecate’ is what we do with obsolete Java classes, which seem to be proliferating.
Sorry I don’t have a clue about my time, I think it was about the usual 30-40 minutes for me.
Edited at 2016-01-31 11:01 am (UTC)
I’m afraid I’m none the wiser about anything in 12ac after reading the explanation. I simply don’t get it though I assume it’s referring to something beyond my ken.
I agree LLS for Liberals is dodgy. LL yes, LS no, LLS absolutely not.
I also don’t like ‘T’ for ‘town’ at 14dn. The guidance on abbreviations written by the current ST crossword editor some years before taking up that position was “The Times puzzle does not let setters use all the abbreviations in any dictionary. For one-letter abbrev’s in particular, there is believed to be a fairly short list of acceptable ones”. I know this is the Sunday Times and things have probably moved on, but I really don’t welcome this and it seems like lazy cluing, reaching for an easy option instead of coming up with something better.
I had no idea what Pink Floyd had to do with 28 but the answer was obvious by other means.
DISCOHERE is not in any of the usual sources (Chambers, COED or Collins) and in fact is not even found in a OneLook search. I did however track it down in SOED and OED.
Edited at 2016-01-31 06:08 am (UTC)
R = Royal as in (for example) Royal Air Force does not seem a stretch to me at all. I might agree that A for Air might be a step too far, but RAC, RCMP, RSPCA, RA, RE… spot the connection, anyone?
Cohere is in all dictionaries and so is dis- “Meaning not, or a reversal (Chambers).” So not a stretch either.
Being instructed that it’s apparently OK to use LL but not LS or LLS is plain daft.
Anyway, don’t listen to them David (or PB)! I for one am enjoying the fresh air
Edited at 2016-01-31 10:14 am (UTC)
The current esteemed ST editor presumably recognises this as he refers below to Chambers not normally being used as a source of words, and in his previous role as founder of this forum he originated a list of “rules” that, whilst not in any way being definitive, were intended to give some guidance as to what solvers might expect. They are still available here for those who may be interested: http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/174088.html
On specifics, I am relieved to find that there is an alternative explanation for LLS in 23ac. It involves a single-letter abbreviation that I have never come across before but it’s far better than relying on LLS to stand for ‘Liberals’ as seemed to be accepted as valid until PB’s intervention.
As for DISCOHERE, as mentioned in my previous contribution, it doesn’t appear in my fairly recent printed editions of Chambers, COED or Collins, nor is it accepted in Chambers on-line as a valid word, nor is it to be found by OneLook which searches dozens of on-line dictionaries, so despite its appearance in the two-volume SOED and even larger OED I’d say it’s perfectly reasonable to query its place in a regular Times or ST cryptic puzzle.
Edited at 2016-01-31 07:12 pm (UTC)
I don’t have any problem at all with DISCOHERE, personally. It may not be in some of the usual dictionaries, but from a solving point of view this makes no difference (compared to an unknown word that is in Collins, say), so as long as the wordplay is clear I’m happy.
Edited at 2016-01-31 07:37 pm (UTC)
Chambers on-line ( http://www.chambers.co.uk/search.php ) uses Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, which is a fair bit shorter than Chambers Dictionary, and not one of our references. In the case of “discohere”, I can’t see that you need a dictionary to understand it unless the meanings of “cohere” or “dis-” are new to you.
As for DISCOHERE, it’s not a question of needing a dictionary to understand what it means, but if one arrives at an unfamiliar word through wordplay and checkers it’s not unreasonable for the intelligent solver to wonder if the word actually exists and to use a dictionary to confirm it.
In this case none of the more usual sources, by which I mean Collins, COED and Chambers (the printed editions), list it, nor is it found by OneLook which searches most if not all of the on-line dictionaries. I discovered it eventually in the two-volume SOED and in OED so after that I never questioned its validity as a word but I did wonder whether its apparent rarity made it suitable for inclusion in a regular cryptic puzzle (as opposed to Mephisto or other more specialist puzzle).
As editor that’s your final decision and of course I acknowledge and respect that but once again it’s almost inevitable that comments will be made if new ground is being broken.
Edited at 2016-02-03 12:12 am (UTC)
Edited at 2016-01-31 10:34 am (UTC)
Edited at 2016-01-31 10:36 am (UTC)
Not to be taken personally
Chambers isn’t permitted as a source of words unless I think it has something the others should have included (rare), or it’s the dictionary that specifically mentions something like “discohere” while the others leave you to work it out. So you will never see “take” indicating R in the ST crossword, only in Mephisto. ST xwd abbreviations are required to be in Collins or ODE, like the words (apart from proper nouns, song titles and the like).
And thanks for the helpful clarification.
Edited at 2016-01-31 01:03 pm (UTC)
Thought 2dn was an ST classic (and very neat misdirection), 11a was clever, and 5d took a bit of unravelling. Thanks for the entertaining blog Keriothe: your dry observation re. WYWH was worth the price of admission on its own! And thanks to “Harry” for a fine puzzle.
Edited at 2016-02-07 10:11 am (UTC)