Times 23642 – Dormer

Author   foggywebPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 43 mins – one missing

Not too bad today – did just over half at breakfast and finished off at lunch – with the exception of 28A which I just couldn’t fathom.

A few new words, though, which I have since looked up to check.

Across

1 SALAAM; MA ALAS reversed – last to go in abart from 28 which I didn’t get. I was looking for a BA in there.
5 SYLLABU[b],S – this went in quite early but I was pretty sure it referred to a word I didn’t know – syllabub is a drink or dish made of milk or cream, mixed with wine, spirit or fruit juice. I think I’ll remember that one.
9 POLITICIAN – “Polly Titian”
10 BRAY – I guessed this was right, but didn’t understand the vicar reference – I have since looked it up to read later!
11 ANTI-HERO; Leander was in love with Hero, so wouldn’t be anti her.
15 TIRE(SOM)E; SOM is the odd letters of storms; Tiree is the Scottish island.
18 CLAYMORE – I didn’t know this type of anti-personnel mine.
21 FILLIP = “Phillip”
25 A NIL[e]
27 THICK SET – not a term you’d find teachers using outside of the staffroom.
28 D,ORMER – I couldn’t find anything to fit in here before going to the dictionary. A dormer is a window in a roof (light meaning window in this clue); also I didn’t know ormer – the picture on Wikipedia doesn’t look all that appetising.

Down

3 ABIDING,LY(extremes of lavishly)
4 MA(IDE)N – took a while, even though IDE popped into my head immediately!
6 L(AND,M)ARK – also took a while, I saw the word cairn and thought of memorial, so tried to get that to work at first.
8 UNA,SHAME,ED
14 MILL,IONTH(anag of ‘hit on’)
17 M,ORPHEUS – I didn’t know that Morpheus was the god of dreams but I did know that Orpheus was a poet and musician.
20 A,GREED = GREEK with K replaced by D.
24 NUR,S,E – I correctly guessed that NUR was the National Union of Railwayman – it ceased to exist in 1990, I just read. I certainly remember around that time a series of strikes by ASLEF (I wrote a poem about a trip I had to cancel!)

7 comments on “Times 23642 – Dormer”

  1. 8 mins for me. I didn’t know CLAYMORE was a mine, but apparently it is. DORMER was a tricky one, but it came reasonably quickly. I filled in LANDMARK without being too clear why this should be defined by “calm”, only to realise that the clue said “cairn”. The text size on my laptop is rather small and not always clear! ABIDINGLY was last to go in, and I have no idea why I found it difficult. I thought the “camel” clue was rather weak, but I guess the point is it’s Monday so we’re keeping it simple. Jason J
  2. I am not a native English speaker so probably am missing something in the way this is pronounced.

    I have no problem with the weak clues though. Good motivation for people like me who can rarely complete the crossword 🙂

  4. 7:40 for me. I should really have been a lot faster as this was just the sort of puzzle I like, but I wasted time going for a clean sweep, which eventually fizzled out (after I’d completed the left side of the puzzle) on LANDMARK.
  5. I also failed to get 28a, knowing nothing of ormers, and ‘dormer’ only being lodged somewhere at the back of my head. I tried to get ‘Masala’ to mean ‘greeting’ for 1a, and also wasted time with ‘lastingly’ instead of ‘abidingly’ at 3d.
  6. 8:45 here – remembered ormer from a holiday in Guernsey – where I think they eat them, or used to.
  7. A good mixture of hard and easy ones here with 10 “easies” omitted from the blog:

    12a Drive over pitch? It’s waterlogged (6)
    MAR SHY. That is RAM = Drive which is reversed (over) and pitch = SHY as in Coconut Shy.

    13a Self-satisfied, giving sweets back (4)
    SMUG. GUMS backwards.

    19a An InDiAn oddly in title role (4)
    AIDA. An Indian could play this part as long as she has a good soprano voice and can pass as an Ethiopian Princess.

    23a Attractive, holding fast (8)
    ENGAGING

    26a Simple, (yet real)* crazy about blokes (10)
    ELE MEN TARY

    2d Fruit a naval commander identifies (5)
    A CO RN

    5d Camel floating across the sand? (4,2,3,6)
    SHIP OF THE DESERT

    7d Fossilised resin found in CookhAM, BErks (5)
    AMBER

    16d (Real thugs)* prepared to kill (9)
    SLAUGHTER

    22d Resinous substance coating the Italian shrub (5)
    L IL AC

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