Times 24264: An airborne wizard stopped in Dublin for a drink….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 19 minutes

Music: Smetana, Ma Vlast, Kubelik/VPO

Another not terribly challenging Monday puzzle. Kororareka is getting all the difficult ones for now, but that is likely to change at any time. I felt a little chagrined at my time, considering how easy some of the clues I puzzled over were.

Across
5 HOMESPUN, HOM[L}ES’ PUN. The answer suggests that Sherlock Holmes’ surname can be pronounced with a silent ‘L’, like Ralph in the UK, but here in the US I have never heard it treated thus.
9 CRACKPOT, CRACK + POT. If you wasted five minutes working on an anagram of ‘SHOT LEADS’, as I did, you have blotted your copybook.
12 PASSPORT, PASS + PORT. I put this in quickly based on the literal, but now that I look at it, I cannot think of an example where ‘pass’ = ‘express’. I am sure there must be one, however.
14 CONTROL TOWER, where keep is a castle keep. The clever concealment of the cryptic is rendered useless by the obvious literal answer.
17 SODA FOUNTAIN, anagram of ‘DATA, INFO ON US;. Since soda fountain is just about the first 4,7 drinks dispenser one would think of, not very deceptive..
20 BRASS HAT, where brass is money and a hat represents a role. Presumably, the generals would do better to put on their fighting hat and let the administration worry about the budget.
25 CHARADES, anagram of ‘HEARS A CD’. If asked to name an example of a party game, what is likely to be the first thing that comes to mind?
27 KAKAPO, initial letters of ‘KEEN ABOUT KEEPING ATTRACTIVE PIGEON OR’. A bird I never heard of, but the cryptic hands it to you on a platter.
 
Down
2 HERMIT, HERM + IT. I did not know of a Channel Island named Herm, but put this in with confidence anyway. I just looked for it on Google, and there it is.
4 ESPERANTO, anagram of ‘PARENT SO’ following ‘E’. We had Ido last week in the hard puzzle, so it is only fitting we should have Esperanto in an easy one.
5 HOTSPUR, anagram of PROUST + H. The solution to this anagram eluded me for a while, as I was expecting a more general word, but ‘a Hotspur’ is indeed the word for a fiery type.
6 MOSES, MOSS with an E in it. Rather obvious unless you skipped Sunday School that week.
7 SEA, middle letters of ‘passing, yet has’. A ‘lift and separate’, clue, where you have to separate ‘one passing’. Not hard once you see that.
13 PHOENIX PARK. PHOENIX + P + ARK. While driving to Connecticut on Thursday, I amused myself by attempting to clue this Dublin landmark, so of course I recognized it instantly. My reverie was set off by a mention in a Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill CD I was playing.
15 LOAN SHARK, cryptic definition, and a good one, since most people would think of a junk bond or something like that.
18 NOTICED, NOTICE + D. A very weak clue indeed, althoug NOT ICED would also have been a bit of a chestnut.
21 HENNA, ANNE + H(AIR) up. A staple of US puzzles, so not obscure to me.

39 comments on “Times 24264: An airborne wizard stopped in Dublin for a drink….”

  3. 25 mins after a slow start; so relatively straightforward. Perhaps we should swap weeks, although second guessing the editor might lead to disaster.

    Good to see the Kakapo appearing. Our collection of NZ birds must almost be complete now. We know the names and addresses of all existing Kakapos and could send each of them Christmas cards for the price of a coffee in Subiaco (Perth, Australia). I liked CONTROL TOWER and “bow of pleasure” = “p”.

    Interesting you mention Maighread, since I featured her sister Triona singing in my blog last week. A serendipitous segue. I have to say the levels of prescience being displayed in this blog are rising beyond significant, statistically speaking, although you didn’t say what your alternative clues to Phoenix Park were.

    Oh, and “pass a remark” more or less equates to “express a remark”.

  4. 20 minutes which is my PB since I started saving my times back in March. From memory I think I may have achieved 15 minutes on a couple of previous occasions. I found this pretty straightforward with most clues being solved on first reading. The only ones I needed to return to were 27a (KAKAPO), 19d (DONE UP), 15d (LOAN SHARK) and my last in 2d (HERMIT).

    At 12a I was thinking “pass/express an opinion”.

  5. About 50 minutes for me with nothing particularly memorable. Raced away by trying to fit the 10 letter ELEMENTARY into an 8 letter answer (“simple”, “Holmes” – what else could it be?). Rather spoiled the look of a grid as otherwise unblemished as a Mozart score.
  6. on previous form-last week and the week before this easy a puzzle will precede a stinker or two…

    i agree that it was an easy solve…rather liked Chaste which it took me some time to see and Joyrider was a clever clue i thought..around 30 minutes soon the quick side! (for me)

    a lot of anagrams!

  7. 5:29 which doesn’t feel that good – missed 1A, 9 and 11 on first look, and one of the first two would have opened up the NW corner, 3 and 4 being easy. Could be Mark T’s second sub-5.
  8. Knew the quick people would like this – just 10m for me, liked all those Ks and the holiday feel; why did I take more than a few seconds to see the sea?
  9. Should have been a record time, sadly wrote in senna also a dye at 21d, which led to irish set – must have been influenced by phoenix park. This was a really attractive race course when i first went to dublin, but now sadly it is a housing estate.
  10. 5:11, which would have been sub-5 (just) if I’d known PHOENIX PARK (13dn).  Apparently the name is a corruption of the Irish fionn uisce, meaning “clear water”; Seamus Heaney has written a poem exploiting this idea.

    I too was bemused by “express => PASS” at 12ac, and I don’t quite buy the explanation.  The “hat/ROLE” association in 20ac is loose (pace Collins).  And those who sweated to get SECOND-CLASS degrees should be miffed at the second-rate definition in 3dn.

    Clue of the Day: 19dn (DONE UP).

  11. Made my day with a time of about 4 and a half mins, which is the first time I ever broke 5 mins. Likely to remain my PB as I don’t think I could write faster than that.
    1. Well done!  Peter has written before about how long it takes to write in answers you already know, the answer basically being about 2 minutes (though of course YMMV).  So writing time is almost certainly not the limiting factor.

      The fastest I’ve ever solved a puzzle, to my knowledge, was 3:54 for Sunday Times 4327, which Neil Talbott managed in just 2:56 (albeit with one mistake).  Does anyone know what constitutes a record in this area?

      1. A summary of all the claims I know about….

        I once stopped the clock at about 2:37 for a Sunday Times puzzle but had heard in advance that it was extremely easy. I claim a best-ever for the Times of 3:00, but I’m pretty sure that in just over 3½ years of recording times here, I have not beaten four minutes again for a current puzzle. In Azed’s “A-Z of Crosswords” book, the entry for 1996 Times champ John Henderson (Enigmatist, Nimrod, Io, Elgar in various papers) says that he “lays claim to the title of quickets Times crossword solver with a time of two minutes and fifty-three seconds” – the fastest time I’ve seen quoted in print. I believe this was at the championship (possibly audience prize at old-style finals) but the book doesn’t confirm this. I believe Paul Henderson (Phi in the Indie) was timed at 3:15 winning an audience prize. Mark Goodliffe described a time of 2:55 as his second fastest ever on this blog a year or two ago, but didn’t say what his record was. I suspect all all of these, Neil Talbott and a few others may have dipped down to something in the 2:30-2:50 range in unwitnessed solves of the Times or other broadsheet cryptics.

        1. Thanks for such a detailed response!  It seems the cruciverbal equivalent of the four-minute mile is the three-minute Times.  At that end of things, writing speed must start to be a serious factor.

          This talk of practically superhuman times shouldn’t detract from the records being posted today.  Well done to mctext for a quick solve in less-than-ideal circumstances, and to Jack for hitting 20 minutes – my girlfriend will be jealous!

  12. As easy as they get for me and could have had a PB if I’d timed myself – certainly under 15 mins which is fast for me (best is around 11). bc
  13. As usual, didn’t or couldn’t set the stopwatch. But did this in the car (as a passenger!) and this might be my first Times under 10 minutes.
    I’d just done the awful “Sunday Times” (638) in The Australian which included such answers as KULTARR, WOLLONGONG and COCKY APPLE. It also expected us to know that a YARRA is/was a stupid person. So the obvious answers in the real Times weren’t too hard after all that.
    I particulary liked 9ac which looked like an anag of “leads cup” with “shot” as the anagind [NB Australian spelling].
    The anaginds at 4dn (“confused”) and 17ac (“Processed”) were a bit of a “WILL” — a dead give away??

  14. This was a very quick solve but we must not complain. I initially entered Crackpot at 9A rather than 5A which made the top half slightly more difficult. I finished with Kakapo and Hermit. I considered Kokape with OK Ape being a charade for attractive parrot before I saw the obvious answer. Hermit held me up because I could not remember whether the 1½ mile long island was called Herm, Herme, Hern or Herne.
  15. Very easy start to the week although I was by no means among the frontrunners, coming in at around 10 minutes. I got held up by 15D (simple word-blindness) which of course delayed the eventually obvious answer at 27A, otherwise this could have been finished in around 6-7 minutes.

    All straightforward stuff. Interesting to see so many answers split into the most basic wordplay components; CONTROL+TOWER, IRON+HAND, SECOND+CLASS, UP+MARKET, JOY+RIDER, DONE+UP. Absolutely no complaints about that; a perfect chance for newer solvers to practice simple charade wordplay without getting into the more complex variety such as SM+ARMY, W+INNER etc etc.

    Q-0 E-5 D-5 COD 7D SEA – unexpected treatment

  16. 8:49 for me, although it felt slower as I was solving. I wasted a bit of time in the top half before getting into my stride, then the bottm half went in very quickly. On the same train journey I also managed yesterday’s Sunday Times puzzle in 8:43, so I was feeling quite pleased with myself until I saw the (expected) quicker times here. 🙂
  17. 28mins here. I’m always happy with anything under the half-hour. Hadn’t heard of Phoenix Park, Kakapo, or Herm, but they all went in without too much delay. Not held up by any one clue in particular. All-in-all, a very straightforward solve.
  18. Found this very easy, 10:55 with a slow first half eating a sandwich whilst solving. I agree with Anax that this would be a good beginners’ puzzle.
    1. As far as fiishing the puzzle goes, I suspect Herm and the Kakapo might throw beginners more than you think. It takes a bit of experience to see what a giveaway “initially” can be.
      1. Herm threw this beginner completely, kakapo was clear. I was glad to think of this one as an easy crossword, even though I didn’t finish it.

        Isabel

      2. Actually Kakapo was very obvious. ‘Initially’ was one of the first conventions I learnt, after looking for anagrams. Had to look at Herm on Google Earth though, is that bad form? Learning new words etc is still part of the fun at this stage in my crossword development. I only bother with the Monday ones, too, heard they were easiest.
  19. 8:23 for me, while eating a fruit salad (perhaps crossword solving should have degrees of difficulty added).

    Herm is my favourite Channel Island (the largest after the big four that most people have heard of – Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark) and I have had a family holiday there for the last six years in a row. Lovely place, no cars or even bicycles. The residents are known as Hermites rather than the more satisfying Hermits, apparently. Didn’t know solitary could be a noun.

    Confidently wrote PROC.. at the beginning of 13d but had the wrong fabulous bird.

    Slight quibble that Holmes has its last letter pronounced as a ‘z’, in contrast to the ‘s’ sound in homespun.

    COD 7d – answer has nothing to do with cards but difficult to avoid thinking it does and the join in the clue is seamless.

  20. 7 minutes, no complaints though, this was a well-constructed crossword, there just aren’t many obscure words or really tricky wordplay. Which helps – PHOENIX PARK from wordplay, HERMIT from definition.
  21. 7.05. Spent a minute or more on the last two ,JOYRIDER which then gave ODDS ON (which I should have seen a bit quicker).
    Everthing else was fairly routine although I didn’t get the wordplay for SEA. When I see “North for one” I immediately think PM (Prime Minister)
  22. 12 minutes. No real talking points. I bet tomorrow’s is more difficult – I wonder whose turn it is to do the blog?
  23. I think the setter is imagining “Holmes” spoken by a user of “dark L” sounds, for whom milk is “miwk”. When they say “Holmes”, their tongue moves in a way that is doesn’t for “homes”, but the resulting sound is pretty much the same. The best word to hear with dark L is South London football club Millwall, as pronounced by many of their supporters.
  24. About 20 minutes, and I agree it was somewhat easy, but not the absolute cakewalk some of the faster folks found it to be. Congrats on the fast times and PB’s to those who flew through this. I’m lucky to remember the big Channel Islands, so HERMIT was a guess from the definition. Other than that, the rest was pretty straightforward, but I’ll nominate SEA and JOYRIDER as very nicely constructed clues. I will be away for a few days, so regards to all til next week.
  25. My second successful Times puzzle! Done in bits over the day, when time allowed.

    As a novice I found 27 KAKAPO ok, and LOANSHARK next one in. Did about half of it this morning, and finshed it this evening. SW cormner most difficult for me. Last in 28a.

    This is a great site- but your times are daunting!

    1. Well done!  I’d love to be able to recapture the feeling of completing my second puzzle.  You’ll get much quicker if you keep reading this blog, of course, but don’t worry about the times posted here – a site like this is bound to attract experienced obsessives as well as interested novices.  There’s some discussion of this here.
  26. It is for me… first time I ever finished a cryptic without recourse to a dictionary etc. I was watching Murray get into the quarter finals at the time though… go Andy!
    1. For your first complete solution without a dictionary, and while watching the tennis, I’d say 3 hours was pretty good.
  27. Thanks Mark.

    A bit rubbish this week after Monday. I look forward to saturdays, as there is no time pressure, and even a prize to compete for!

  28. If you think noticed is weak, can you reparse notice as, “Not I, C(hief) E(excutive)!”

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