Times 24108

32 comments on “Times 24108”

1. MP in bus = bumps
   1. Thanks. That’s much better than my idea!
2. I struggled with this and was interrupted but would guess at 40 minutes to solve. After a long period being free of daffy literary references we have two today, both just guessed from wordplay and checking letters. Some of the wordplay was tricky, 27A for example, and there are some nice clues, BODYGUARD at 1D for example.
   1. I suppose our view of what is obscure and what is reasonable depends on our own knowledge, but I thought the Vanity Fair reference was OK. I’ve probably read it twice in the past few years – Becky Sharp is one of the great literary heroines. The BBC adaptation with Natasha Little is as excellent as the Reese Witherspoon film is execrable.
      1. A more balanced approach would be nice. 2009 will see both the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of publication of Origin of Species. What are the odds that solvers will be required to have some knowledge of either as distinct from unimportant fictional characters? And don’t start me on the work of mathematicians, physicists etc.
         1. I agree on the need for balance. If you recall, there was an excellent Saturday puzzle about 3 months ago which had plenty of both science and literature – I think 1ac was RED SHIFT – which got it pretty much right and was very enjoyable. It would be nice to think that someone is already working on a Darwin puzzle!
3. It was a thundery day in Sydney and I had a splitting headache all day, so anything was going to be hard, and I struggled a bit today.

   I used to spend holidays in Brittany and knew of Ouessant, but never knew the English name – missed that one.

   I thought the Trollope reference was a bit obscure (does anyone still read Trollope?) but the wordplay was easy so fair enough.

   By the way (especially for Sotira) the Australian cricket team also seem to be “just resting” at the moment.

4. This took me 75 minutes with one unsolved at 23 because I’ve never heard of Ushant and couldn’t see the word-play. Neither Word Matcher nor the Chambers word-search has heard of it either.

   1. Curiously, I did not consciously remember Ushant, but was able to dredge it up from somewhere. I said to myself, ‘Ushant’ is something, maybe it’s an island.

      Same thing with ‘gravid’.

5. Thought that this was very tough
   Liked 1 across but again tough
   Vanity Fair was my clue of the day
   U shant! was obscure too obscure for me
   75 minutes and no answer to 23across!
   Happy New year every one!
6. I think the Ushant features prominently in the Hornblower novels. Another literary reference. Also, if memory serves me, in the story of how the RN was convinced of the accuracy of Harrison’s clock in the measurement of longitude.
   1. Can’t remember Hornblower, but in “Longitude” it is referred to as “Ile d’Ouessant” (Chap 2 para 2)
      1. According to Collins it was the site of two sea-battles between England and France.

         On reflection I think this was an unfair clue as the answer is at least a little obscure and the definition is no more than “island”. One might have expected some indication of its whereabouts so if for example it had been another island in the Corfu region that would have been fine but otherwise it’s not.

7. Wikipedia gives the quintessential reference to the Ushant as the sea shanty “Spanish Ladies”

   We’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British sailors,
   We’ll rant and we’ll roar across the salt seas,
   Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England,
   From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five leagues.

   Speaking of the Australian cricket team’s performance, the more earthy Australian version (Brisbane Ladies) could well be Mathew Haydn’s valedictory

   We’ll rant and we’ll roar like true Queensland drovers
   We’ll rant and we’ll roar as onward we push
   Until we return to the Augathella station
   Oh, it’s flamin’ dry goin’ through the old Queensland bush.

8. I feel much less embarrassed about my 35 min now. Ushant raised an appreciative groan, and would be my COD. I didn’t cotton on to the logic of bumps until coming here. A tad Mephistophelean perhaps?
9. Missed USHANT – maybe I’m in a grumpy mood after watching the cricket all night but this was a bit to litechurchy for my liking. Apologies to the setter
10. Sorry, that should have been Matthew Hayden. I was confusing him with someone who used to open for Austria in the early 19th century. Farewell and Adieu, indeed.

    My time was somwhere between lunch & tea on the fourth day, by the way. Got stuck on NW corner like some others, then had to flog myself when the answers became apparent. I always forget that trunk = torso = body and not bag or portmanteau or nose for that matter. Must also work out how to become a member, now that I subscribe and get the Times in real time.

11. My 19:30 doesn’t seem so bad after coming here. My last three were 3D – unlike foggy, I could see the fireworks meaning, but I didn’t get the sporting one until he explained it -, 14A – hard work to construct from the wordplay -, and 23A – I eventually guessed USHANT, which I had a feeling was a word, and I was sure that ASLANT didn’t make any sense. Immediately after stopping the clock, I at last saw how the wordplay for 23 worked – brilliant and definitely my COD.
12. 38:40 .. and a victory for dogged determination. Last in was the innocuous SET PIECE.

    No grumbles for me. USHANT rang a faint bell, and, in an all-round difficult puzzle like this I don’t mind having to dredge the memory banks for the odd literary reference. Both such references were gettable from wordplay and checking letters this time. But I’d support jimbo’s call for a bit more science.

    Some very entertaining clues in here, especially BODYGUARD and the small, but perfectly formed, ALICE.

    kurihan – I am, of course, deeply saddened at the embarrassment of our dear cousins down under. If there’s anything we can do – transport a few strapping villains or whatever – to help out, I’m sure we’ll be happy to condescend.

    Q-0, E-8, D-9 .. COD 24d ALICE

13. I’ll join the chorus of rumblings about Ushant. Too cute. Would very much appreciate an explanation of 4D.
    1. I had it going something like SLOB (a fat, idle bloke) whose head – S – drops down (to the bottom) giving LOBS: “throws up”.

       And before Jimbo tars all of we scientists with the same brush, I find his ‘unimportant’ unreasonably curmudgeonly!

       Neil

14. Of course! Thanks much.
15. Thanks, Neil, I was going to make a similar point about Jimbo’s comments – philistine springs to mind as well as curmudgeonly! The Trollope reference was tolerably obscure, but, as others have said, very gettable from the wordplay once you had a cross-checking letter or two. As for the Thackeray at 13dn (lovely surface reading by the way), I can’t imagine that anyone smart enough to do the Times xword hasn’t heard of Vanity Fair and Becky Sharp. Are you acquainted with any of the great works of English literature, Jimbo? Given that solvers are expected to have at their fingertips such arcana as the abbreviations of chemical elements and the zip codes of American states, the occasional fictional allusion is surely acceptable.

    Michael H

    1. What I asked for was balance. It might help if you read and understood the comment before throwing insults around. If you and others want to kid yourself that literary characters, however well known, are as important as real events that have shaped our understanding of the world we live in that’s up to you. I would like to see those real events gain greater recognition in this crossword.
    2. Those are the postal state codes. The ZIP codes are all numeric, and would not be of any use in puzzles….I hope!
16. I understood the comment. I just didn’t think it very pertinent. As for science v. literature, I’ve never personally had any difficulty in embracing both of C.P Snow’s “two cultures”. Great works of fiction, I would submit, have also “shaped our understanding of the world”, though in a different way from the great discoveries of science. As for balance, the names of scientists and mathematicians, and references thereto, feature quite often in Times clues, in my experience; and I would be amazed if we don’t (quite properly) get lots of Darwinian allusions over the coming twelvemonth.

    Happy New Year.

    Michael H

17. About 45 minutes to solve, in what I found a fairly tough but enjoyable puzzle. Had to look up GRAVID, which I didn’t know, nor did I know the AV abbreviation for the Bible. I had heard vaguely of USHANT, as a place with some nautical connection, so no quibble from me. A lot of the rest came from wordplay, because I also wasn’t familiar with ‘conge’=’leave’, the Trollope reference, SET PIECE as a firework, ANTECHAPEL, SAGE DERBY, or a MULTIGYM, which I imagine must be what we Americans call a ‘Universal’.

    I agree with Jimbo that the subjects covered in these puzzles should reflect a balance among all aspects of general knowledge. Whether that is the case is evidently a matter of varying opinion, and I’d suggest that this blog is a place that can tolerate varied opinion. Continued best wishes for the holidays to all.

18. I did actually have a phase in my late 30s when I read through the majority of Trollope’s novels, including both the Barsetshire and Palliser series.

    I must admit, though, I can’t remember much, except for my favorite, The Way We Live Now.

    1. Thanks, that’s interesting. I’ll put it on my list for the future.
       1. It is the one about economic booms, and what happens then. You might find it amusing, or depressing.
19. My time….who knows? I did some, wrote another page of deployment instructions, and then did some more. It all works out much better that way for me. I got all the answers without book, and had a much more pleasant afternoon than if I had buckled down hard.

    I thought ‘conger eel’, ‘Arthurian’, and ‘Sage Derby’ were all quite good. BTW, ‘conge’ for ‘leave’ is more of a genteelism than a military expression, I believe.

20. This was a really good crossword for me. I knew about Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair but not Trollope’s heiress – Dunstable is a place just down the A5 for me. I can’t see 20a PICCALILLI without thinking of the Bonzo Dog song “Lily the Pink” which is extraordinary in many ways including using the word efficacious in a popular song and the line “sadly pickled, lily died” evoking the piquant condiment of 20a.

    There are 9 “easies”:

    4a Cavalryman engages a paid entertainer (3,6)
    L A PD ANCER

    12a It’s never wrong to return to the market (8)
    REINVEST. Anagram of (it’s never) that I took a long time to unravel.

    19a Sandwich brought back at noon? Much earlier (4)
    DAW N. WAD = SANDWICH backwards.

    26a As medical man, I shall practise (5)
    DR I’LL

    1d Heavy trunk carried by railwayman (9)
    BODY GUARD. Soon Guard might have to be clued as “old railwayman”.

    4d Fat, idle bloke drops head right down and throws up (4)
    (S) LOB S. SLOB becomes LOBS by dropping the S from head to tail. Pretty yucky imagery in the clue. Nice one setter.

    5d Liking testimonial to be under a page (10)
    P REFERENCE

    21d Ones taken under a mile – in the wrong direction? (6)
    M 1’S LED

    24d Girl caught in a deception (5)
    A LI C E

Comments are closed.