Times 24196 Tortoise’s Hell

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I made very slow progress on this one but having completed it I can’t really understand what my difficulty was. I think perhaps I’m a bit nervous on days when it’s my turn to blog and unless I get off to a flying start I begin to think this may be the day when I’m unable deliver the goods. Anyway today wasn’t it, though on first reading through the clues they seemed somewhat daunting as I failed all the Acrosses and got as far as 2d before managing to solve one. So I’m afraid I have to admit to 70 minutes (but at least without resorting to aids) which may encourage some of the newcomers around here who have said they are alarmed by the speeds recorded by the old hands. I thought we were in for a pangram, but unless I’ve got something wrong or I can’t see it for looking at my answers, there is no F. On edit: Indeed I wonder why the setter didn’t go for it. For example 2d could have been AFORE and 11a could have been ELEVATE.

Across
1 CL,A,MP,DOWN
6 RE,BUS A puzzle made up of pictures and letters
9 NOOS,(fi)E(ld) – NOOS being “soon” reversed
10 SAGE,DERBY A type of cheese. A simple clue that took for ever to solve
11 E,M(AN)ATE
12 E,ZE(n),KIEL – My last one in followed by a huge sigh of relief
13 SIEGE MENTALITY – It was obviously going to be an anagram of “many elites get I” but it took me ages to unscramble it…
17 SCATTER DIAGRAM – …and even longer for this one from “star grimaced at”. I needed all but one of the checking letters in place before I spotted the answer. Then I wondered whether “plot” might be a dodgy definition but this was resolved later on checking the dictionary and finding it’s also called a “scatter plot”.
25 GAUCHERIE – An easier anagram for me at last. This one is of “huge race + 1”
27 T(oug)H,ROB Skin meaning to rob
28 ODD-J(udge), (r)OBBER – And more robbery going on here
 
Down
1 CON,VERSE
2 AGO,(a)R(e)A – A meeting or market place
3 P(REV)ALE,N.T.
4 (j)OB,SCENE
6 RID(G)E – “Drum” means “ridge” in Ireland or Scotland apparently, but I didn’t know this so although I thought of the answer quite early in the proceedings I didn’t have the confidence to write it in until the first two checking letters were in place.
7 BARRI(ST)ER
8 SCYLLA – This is “ally’s” reversed around C. Scylla was a sea monster in Greek legend. Another clue where I thought of the correct wordplay quite early but didn’t know the word itself so I waited for some checking letters. I had a tough time in the NE corner what with this, 6d and 12a. And 10a gave me problems too despite being really easy, with hindsight.
15 LLANDUDNO – Anagram of “old ‘un” around “land”
16 I’M,PRO,PER(son) – When solving I thought “support” was “prop”, but now I think it has to be just “pro” so that the remainder of the clue works.
18 ESPARTO – Anagram of “ropes” and “at” from the centre of “mats”. I knew esparto grass was used for making paper but it’s also for ropes and wickerwork apparently.
20 S(PIG)OT – It’s a bung or tap. It has two humorous associations for me. The Tom Lehrer song “Bright College Days” :
 
Turn on the spigot,
Pour the beer and swig it,
And gaudeamus igit-ur.

And not forgetting Dudley Moore as Mr Spigot applying for the role of Tarzan.
22 SA(H)IB – “Bias” reversed around H
24 CO(O)MB

26 comments on “Times 24196 Tortoise’s Hell”

  1. Found myself wading through treacle, so resorted to the aids after about 20 min. Even so, it still took another 20 min to finish which was, on reflection, a fair challenge. Again little in the way of the unusual amongst the answers except perhaps agora, and drum as a ridge. Rather like 12 ac and 28 ac.
    I am glad I am not doing this with ink, as I have a cat attacking my typing fingers.
    Now she is walking on the keyboard, so I am correcting like mad. Bye…
  2. You did better than me Jack! I looked at it for about 30 mins (about half of which was spent playing with the anagrams at 13 and 17) and got no further than completing the SW corner. It may be because I had got up early to watch the golf, but I got nothing at all from the rest of the clues. So I went back to sleep instead.

  3. 20 minutes, but that may have been helped by some lucky guesses and getting the long anagrams early!
    COD? Probably shared by those two anagrams.
    Oli
  4. I relate to your comments about nerves Jack. I think you started doing the blogs at the same time that I did (late 2007) and whilst I’m better than I was I still have this fear of hitting a puzzle I can’t do – even though I can’t remember the last one I failed to finish – and it definitely has some effect, particularly when you run up against something pretty obscure. I walk away from it, make a coffee, and then resume.

    I seem to have had less trouble with this one than you did. I think I’ve seen the clue for SAGE DERBY before, I solved SIEGE MENTALITY from the definition and the statisticians shouldn’t have any trouble with SCATTER DIAGRAM. Buddhism=Zen is a knee jerk reaction. There was a good mix of knowledge required for this very pleasant puzzle. About 30 minutes to solve.

  5. A struggle for me as well. By the time I finished I’d forgotten exactly when I started. Lots of succint clues which admiited several interpretations and some well disguised definitions. Nothing terribly esoteric or British, except DRUM for ridge, and maybe COOMB and SCYLLA, although the latter is standard crossword fare.

    Perhaps the mark of a well written crossword is putting pen down at the end and wondering why you had so much bother. The key was the two long anagrams and I didn’t get either till late. I haven’t referred to a SCATTER DIAGRAM as such for years. Common parlance is SCATTERPLOT (one word) these days, possibly under US influence? COD SPIGOT in memory of Dud & Pete.

  6. 11:52 – quite a struggle, with both the long anagrams requiring written letter-jumbles. Justified drum = ridge from drumlin (one of those glacial deposit hillocks like eskers and kames) – it’s just a “little ridge”. So with all that A-level geography stuff still in my head, why couldn’t I see COOMB at 24? The cornerlet of the SE-most 3 downs and 2 acrosses was last to fall, with ODD-JOB MAN trying to be written in despite not fitting (3-6). Good thing I resisted.
  7. I’m relieved so many experienced solvers had problems with this one. It took me ages, and I didn’t get 9 across because I was convinced that 2 down was ‘atria’, though I couldn’t see where the ‘i’ came from. Noose! I should hang myself.
    1. There’s atria being plural as well – ‘twould have to be “meeting places” to fit. Grammatical pedantry can get you a long way in this caper.
    2. And this is really the point of posting solving times, at least for the bloggers: it’s not so much “hey, look, I’m incredibly good at these puzzles, bow down before my supreme awesomeness” …. but if you know that Peter, for example, normally takes between 8-10 minutes, if that; then on a day that he’s held up for almost twelve, it’s very probably a tougher puzzle than normal. If you, on the other hand, didn’t take any longer than you normally do, then you had a good day.
      1. Some schadenfreude value, too. On the very rare occasions when Peter takes 15 minutes there’s always a small, unworthy part of me that cheers – like watching Tiger Woods put one into the Rae’s Creek.
  8. 12:43 – unlike Peter, who thinks he’s had a desperately difficult time when he records almost twelve minutes, I found this comparatively easy. The long anagrams took me a while to untangle, partly because I’d invented NOSTEND as an obscure word for balloon (SON for boy). On the other hand, EZEKIEL was an instant win and not much else left me scratching my head. DROOP wanted to be DROWN but clearly wasn’t.
  9. 15 minutes, quite a bit that fell into my comfort zone (DISTEND) words that have beaten me before and will not beat me again (LLANDUDNO), and some pieced together from wordplay (ESPARTO, GAUCHERIE, SCYLLA). Solid wordplay throughout, a good one to improve the wordplay skills on. Loved the clue for 17, tricky anagram, nice surface, had the DIAGRAM part before the SCATTER came by.
  10. 27:23 .. another flying start – the 1s and 6a flying in and me thinking “Ha! This won’t take long.” I wonder if this is one of Anax’ Bond villain double-bluff openings, ‘cos the rest was a whole lot tougher.

    Tricky long anagrams, too. Like PB, I had to make word jumbles for both.

    Some nice vocabulary, especially in the SW where SPIGOT and THROB are worthy of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue (the same inherent comedy value as ‘plinth’). I’d give COD to OBSCENE for leading me up the garden path with ‘work’ and that initial ‘O’, and a neat surface.

  11. 17:40 for me, after wasting a fruitless three minutes at the start trying to solve the two long anagrams. I had to give up on both of them and wait for a few crossing letters instead, which I should have done in the first place.
  12. …learn all the books of the bible. After I’ve memorised a list of dog breeds of course.

    Old hands will laugh but I failed on Ezekiel. If the Church of England is the Tory Party at prayer, I have often thought that the Times crossword is the Church of England at play. Which leaves heathens like me out of the loop. But I’ve learned my lesson. I will memorise that list, along with their abbreviated names of course.

    1. Don’t go too mad. I’ll be singing in the choir in an Easter service in 40 minutes, but I doubt very much I could name all the books. The abbreviations are all pretty obvious, so even less worth memorising. You might get more value out of the old/monkish names of services (Prime, Sext and so on) or the names of canticles (Venite, Nunc Dimittis, …).
  13. was proud to get 23/30.
    Sahib appeared recently on the first times xwd I managed to complete, except I think it was a better clue.

    chris, oxford

  15. First at 2d AGORA, second at 5d NEGLECT all the rest and then penultimate 1a CLAMPDOWN and LOI 4d OBSCENE.

    There are 6 omissions here:

    21a Exercise mounted by journalists(5-2)
    PRESS UP

    23a Cocktail that’s hurried is sent back (7)
    SIDECAR. Raced is backwards.

    26a Daughter miserable going back to sink (5)
    D ROOP. Miserable = poor backwards.

    5d In e.g. lectures shows lack of concern? (7)
    N E.G. LECT

    14d Treasury without an auditor, we hear (9)
    EXCHEQUER. Sounds like EX CHECKER.

    19d Boy going up to nurse for balloon (7)
    DIS TEND. SID somersaults over nurse.

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