Times 24279: Don’t 1D 2 without a 16

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : I did this in breaks during a rehearsal so didn’t get a time. It was a very slow start, particularly on the acrosses (I need to start using my Mephisto tactic and work on the bottom right corner first). I found the down clues considerably more accessible and things fell into place pretty quickly after that. There could be some Britvantage in the long answer for 10 down. Similar to yesterday there were not a lot of flat-out easy clues, so it’ll be hard to choose what to leave out of the blog. At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I get two mentions in a pretty decent spread in the local newspaper yesterday.

Across
1 COMMERCE: M,M (thousands) in COERCE
5 GODWIT: a plover. Wordplay is DOG reversed, W (with), IT (appeal)
9 MESSIEURS: RUE reversed in I.E. after MESS (some food)
12 ASSURED: Got the ED part at the end first, the rest is RUSSIA reversed without the I
14 CHARTER FLIGHT: CHAR, then FRET reversed, LIGHT – got the answer from definition first
16 LIFE PRESERVER: double definition, I wasn’t aware that LIFE PRESERVER meant club, but it’s confirmed by Chambers
20 EX,TRACT(or): for some reason I struggled with this, I think I was looking for an old word for vehicle
21 HOSTAGE: (HAS GOT)* then E
23 INERT: I then TREN(d) reversed
24 EQUERRIES: (th)E then R(=queen) in QUERIES. Good old Queen, you can be Q, R or ER (or RANI)
25 GREASE: sounds like GREECE – this was my second entry, and from the parsing of the clue I wasn’t sure which was going in, so I just put the G and E
26 TENDENCY: TEN then C in DENY
 
Down
1 COMBAT: MB in COAT
2 MUSES: the nine muses are Erato, Clio, Doc, Bashful, Grumpy, Dopey, Huey, Dewey and Peter B.
3 ERITREA: IT in ERRE(d) then A (area)
4 COUP DE THEATRE: I liked this one a lot – (DEER THAT) in COUPE
7 WARMONGER: ARM(y) in WON,GER
10 SOMERSET HOUSE: SOME (several) then (OTHER USES)* – had to use the wordplay to get this, though I suspected it ended in HOUSE before seeing the rest
14 CAFETIERE: (C,TEA,I,FREE) – in Australia we called this a Bodum or a plunger, and here a French Press. I had to work it out from the wordplay
15 FLEET,IN,G: I had the IN,G before the rest
17 PLAUTUS: L.A. in PUT then U.S. – Roman playwright that can be determined from wordplay.
19 MERSEY: a hidden clue hidden as not a hidden clue – imMERSE Yourself. Read it as the opposite is that the river is in “immerse yourself”

37 comments on “Times 24279: Don’t 1D 2 without a 16”

  1. Hello all. Glad to see Peter B. deservedly listed among the Muses. About 45 minutes here, last in MERSEY, which, once I finally understood, I found absolutely delightful. Great clue. Like vinyl, I tried everything I could think of for it, but at the end I really enjoyed it. I needed all the checkers for CAFETIERE also, to sus the spelling. George, SOMERSET HOUSE wasn’t that tough for this US guy, it’s well known. I have greater problems with words that mean one thing here and another in the UK like, well, ‘car transporter’. Regards to all.
      1. If you live in NY, it means someone who will drive your car to, say, Florida, for a fee.
  2. Same prob with MERSEY — which is odd given my origins [not the one in Tasmania this time!] Spent about 30 mins on it including a phone fracas with Australia Post re British passports. I thought FLEETING (15dn) was superbly clued: assuming everyone was thinking of ships that PASS in the night.
  3. Another very slow starter. I couldn’t get any purchase on this at all. Finally finished in about 80 mins with the vast majority done in the final 20. Can’t even blame some external distraction. Must have been an internal one. Last night’s curry?

    Excellent clueing throughout; all totally mystifying but thoroughly fair. Too many good clues to mention.

    The spelling of CAFETIERE as something which holds coffee should have been obvious to anybody with a soupçon of French (he tells himself as he batters his head with life preserver).

  4. Since this took me just short of half an hour, I expect v. fast times from the fast-timers. “Light” in 14ac seemed to me to be missing an ‘a’ ([a]light); one might “light on”, say, some new theory, but to light on land seems a stretch (plus, why “about” instead of “on”?). People regularly list their last words to go in, which always interests me, but I wish they also named their first solved clue. For me today it was two at the same moment: 9ac, because “Frenchmen” gave it away on first glance; and 17d, because LA and US made no other dramatist, living or long dead, possible. I’m glad to see that Prof. Heard is a hit in TN.
    1. Why “about”?: “About” is needed to indicate the reversal of FRET=worry.
  5. 7:52 for this one. Partly as (fulfilling the request above) 1A went straight in, starting with “thousands must be MM” – forgetting about KK and GG didn’t matter this time, and the first three downs followed on promptly (can’t remember whether 4 fell on first look). 9A took a couple of ticks too long as I wondered briefly about ‘MONSIEURS’. 19D was last in and a pleasing ending (after a brief stab at “Immerse river in yourself”).

    The Somerset House website shows several current uses, as well as historical ones.

    Two minor points: at 5A it’s really “WDOG” = “with, tail” that’s reversed. And 25A is GREASE with no doubt, because in “The fat of the land, say”, the “say” cannot logically relate to the fat.

    The cheque for the Muse name-check is in the post.

    Edited at 2009-07-16 06:39 am (UTC)

  6. Around 45 minutes but with one wrong at 5ac. I had the checking letters and worked out the ending was WIT but I missed the wordplay and didn’t think of GODWIT though I have met it before.

    I needed most of the checking letters before I spotted SOMERSET HOUSE at 10dn which I would never have got from its description as an art gallery but there came a time when it was the only possible answer that fitted. And similarly PRESERVER in 16ac where I knew the first word would be LIFE. Speaking of which and referring back to yesterday for a moment, I later found that Collins mentions GOOD LIFE, but without a hyphen.

    I’m having a testing week and hoping things can only get better when I blog tomorrow’s puzzle.

  7. Does George really take Chambers to rehearsals?

    Ditto Barbara, thanks Kororareka.

    Since I go looking for hidden words was infuriated that MERSEY was last in. A killer clue. (Would have put money on it being Peter’s last in as well).

    Found this even tougher than yesterday’s but with fewer rewards.

    1. I don’t take Chambers to rehearsals, but I’ve been known to take Bradfords with me when I’m on the road, just in case.
  8. As is frequently the case, one of the few answers not discussed was the only one I don’t understand.
    22. A Welsh girl, or one from further parts (5)
    Alien ??
    Please explain the ‘Welsh girl’ part of the clue. Barbara
    1. Not quite that far. Its Asian, with Sian as the Welsh girl, although Lien is of Chinese origin.
      1. Oh, that’s two mistakes for me then. I meant to go back and think about it again but forgot.
        1. I have to confess being quite happy with ALIEN myself until Barbara posed the question.
          1. I didn’t even think of ALIEN so I left that out of the blog. SIAN as a Welsh name pops up from time to time.
  10. This has been an abnormally tough week so far. This was another slow, no gimmes kind of puzzle. about 45 in total. Funnily enough my first one in was PASSING at 15D until I got to the N and realised it didnt have enough letters! Kudos to the setter for (!)setting everybody up on this one. As checkers arrived I amended to DRIFTING, FLOATING, and finally FLEETING when EXTRACTOR went in, only then realising the word play and that it wasnt a simple double or cryptic def.

    Had to look up GODWIT as never heard of it, didnt get the word play for EQUERRIES and like many others kicking myself that MERSEY was last in.

  11. 8 and a half mins but unthinkingly joined the ranks of the ALIEN spotters, despite knowing perfectly well that Lien isn’t a Welsh name.
  12. 24 min, but with 2 on-line cheats after stalling. Vastly easier than yesterdays horror. I cannot believe that I needed assistance for INERT and MESSIEURS. My only uncertainty is 22 dn for which I have pencilled in ALIEN but cannot see the word play. I will now go back and read everyone elses comments! Regards to all.
    1. Ah well. So I was wrong about my Alien, then again LIEN or SIAN could equally well be a Welsh name for a girl. Just 4 random letters to my knowledge.
      1. As a PPS, I am hugely against the use of untargeted personal names as part of, or the answer to a clue. Smacks of laziness, or lack of inspiration. Even the cliched use of Ivan the Russian or Rene the Frenchman jars unless coupled to a possibly oblique reference to an individual (eg The Terrible, Descartes). I would imagine that just about every combination of up to 6 or so letters (perhaps with transliteration) will be a personal name in some language or another. Any one else feeling grumpy?
        1. If Descartes is used for RENE, others may moan about it being too obvious! For those who have never come across anyone called Sian, ALIEN was an unfortunate coincidence, but for anyone in the UK, it seems fair to expect an example like weather presenter Sian Lloyd to be on your radar.
  13. 11:19, with one mistake: yes, ALIEN for ASIAN (22dn).  My only unknown was LIFE PRESERVER (16ac), in either sense.

    Another nice puzzle, though not as dazzling as yesterday’s.  For me it was mostly a slow and steady solve, with some common hold-ups – thoughts about PASSING at 15dn and MONSIEURS at 9ac, and failures to parse 19dn – plus one of my own, rashly writing in PEEWIT for GODWIT at 5ac.

    Clues of the Day: 24ac (EQUERRIES), 25ac (GREASE) [an old chestnut?], 10dn (SOMERSET HOUSE), 15dn (FLEETING), 18dn (VISORED), 19dn (MERSEY).

  14. Satisfying, but sadly one mistake. I too went for Alien, not Asian.

    Put in a couple without fully understanding the clues. Not sure why 6dn is what it is, any help?

    Neither do I understand why life preserver is a club.

    Nice to see a 2 letter girl not being ‘Di’.

    COD for me was ‘Fleeting’ if only because it was near on impossible to rid my mind of the word ‘passing’.

    W

    1. Ordinal is defined by “maybe first”. test is ORAL, in which D (lower than C) and IN (accepted) go into.
  15. Easier than yesterday’s brain-frazzler, but by no means a doddle. I was heading for a respectable time of 35 minutes but then lost the plot in the SW corner, where I’d entered FLOATING at 15dn, which, apart from the minor flaw of being wrong and making a nonsense of 20ac, fitted quite nicely! By the time I’d sorted that out an ice age or three had passed.
  16. About 45 minutes, which is better than average for me, albeit with one mistake (ALIEN). A steady solve, without getting held up for long anywhere. I got delayed for a short time in the borrom right corner until I get 21, then the rest fell in.

    I had to verify GODWIT & PLAUTUS before writing them in, as they were new to me. I hadn’t come across LIFE PRESERVER as a club, and I didn’t know SOMERSET HOUSE was an art gallery.

    COD, probably 19 MERSEY, which was also last in.

  17. 20:08 .. A puzzle that wore its difficulty lightly. First in, DEREK (I love a clue that mentions the outskirts of Dubrovnik – the sort of place I usually end up lost when I go travelling). Last in, GODWIT. Favourite: FLEETING.
  18. I found this very difficult, although i managed a handful of clues in this case. To be fair this is the first time in a while that i can remember the crossword being so tough to the point of really struggling to get into it.

    I’m off on an environmental science course from friday for a week, so hope i’ll be sharper when i return!

  19. Back to normal time for me at around 25m after two tough ones in a row, but I didn’t know godwit and didn’t hazard a guess. A fairly average puzzle otherwise. bc
  20. 32 minutes. First one in was DEREK, with outskirts of Dubrovnik screaming DK. Last one in was MERSEY (excellent clue).

    No serious problems other than trying to remember how to spell CAFETIERE. PLAUTUS came from the wordplay alone. The Mae West clue had to be LIFE PRESERVER but I handn’t encountered the ‘club’ definition before.

    Good fun.

  21. I think you have to cut the setter some slack. It’s not an easy job at the best of times.
    What is a pps? if a parliamentary private secretary, why does that predispose you against the use of personal names?

    Honourable mention for “mersey,” a fine clue indeed (and a fine river)

  22. Exactly the same experience as Jackkt with the legendary ‘polwit’ as my flight of fancy.

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