Times 24300: But is he below the Mendoza Line?

57 comments on “Times 24300: But is he below the Mendoza Line?”

1. It’s 24300 not 23400.

   29 mins for me, while I was taking care of something else so not a real time.

   I think “import” is just an introduction (to a country) and, obviously, significance.

   13ac is “gaiters” (those things you put on your ankles), sounds like ‘gators (alligators)

   I thought “nightwatchmen” were just the batters in at the end of the day’s play, so not necessarily inferior.

   Paul

   1. I think a nightwatchman is always a non-specialist batsman and thus considered expendable, which I suppose makes him inferior to the batsman whose place on the team sheet he’s assuming.
      1. My understanding was that the point of the nightwatchman was to protect the better batsmen from the risk of having to play themselves in twice over – just before the end of one day, and at the start of the next. Supposedly, the chance of being out is highest in the first few balls you face under fresh conditions. However, the wikipedia article describes different reasons.
         1. I wouldnt read too much into the wikipedia articles, it seems to be one of the less well founded entries. For example, the author has clearly been picked up on his selections for century makers and justified them quite weekly. [Mark Boucher would be unlikely ever to bat much below 6 (as wicketkeeper – a bit like Gilchrist) and has also opened at times. How he “rises” above more notable batsmen to number 6 in the order is beyond me.] For what it is worth I think your understanding is the most common one, alongside the fact that it conditions are generally worse at that time.
            1. er…weakly that should be
               1. For how not to do it, see Jimmy Anderson in the recently finished Test – sent in as nightwatchman, taking a single of the first ball of an over to put Alistair Cook on strike, and watching him get out from the other end. For a more considered examination than wiki, one can look here
                  http://blogs.cricinfo.com/itfigures/archives/2008/06/the_best_nightwatchman_in_test.php

                  Meanwhile, after EURIPIDES last week I was glad to see EUMENIDES. There aren’t many jokes in classics, but I do remember that this is the warning given before trying clothes on in a Greek tailor’s – Euripdes trousers, Eumenides trousers. I know, they did tragedy better.

                  1. Fantastic! Thanks, Tim. I thought that was going over my head until I read it out loud and realised that it was just at my level.
                  2. Yep, that’s the ‘sounds like’ clue I was alluding to!
2. Oh, and 19 down (lessee). I don’t think it’s an &lit. Contractor is the definition (someone signing a contract, in this case a lease) and “for big reduction” is the hidden indicator.
3. 10 minutes, pretty gentle start to the week, I didn’t see the wordplay for ONTARIO until afterwards, and got EUMENIDES from the wordplay. I think 13 is GAITERS.
   1. Corrected. An inexplicable mental lapse, since I know the meaning of both words.
      1. You going to correct IMPORT too?
         1. Since the answer I gave is the correct answer, I let it stand. My method of getting there may be eccentric, but I did arrive at the right destination.
            1. The “fortified wine speaks” notion is fun but I hope I’m right in expecting never to see “introduction” alone used as wordplay for an IM-something word – nearly every IM-something word can have “I’m {something}” wordplay, so you end up with partial wordplay of a kind that hasn’t been used for a few decades.
4. 14 min, so an easy start to the week. Last in LESSEE. Didn’t see that it was a hidden word until reviewing my answers.
5. 16:11 .. fair puzzle, in both senses. No gripes. Last in GAITERS.
6. Yep, “gaiters” and something introduced/imported. Zipped through in 11 mins, helped by the 3 long anagrams. Anyone notice the connection between 14ac and 4dn, both using “out of line”? The cricket refs were apt given yesterday’s hiding of England by Australia. Several of the anti-lit crew will be pleased that Eliot’s The Family Reunion didn’t make an appearance at 24ac! COD to 15dn: reduced anagram with a nicely misleading surface.
   1. 15 dn, eh? And I thought it too obvious to blog; it was one of my first ones in. The literal stuck me as once as the literal, being a bit contrived, and then the wordplay fell instantly.
      1. Maybe COD because it’s a bit easy. If you look at Jimbo’s blog, you’ll see I’ve been struggling with the dread Mephistos and needed a break!
7. Oh, to (p)ronto. I couldn’t see why. That was the only one.
   For a moment for 3d I invented a word: “mucable”, which could be sick, as in “I’m feeling mucable today”, and then I realized that a mule is only half a horse, so…macabre.
8. 11:08 for this one – slow start, with 16 the first answer to fall. Last few answers were 15, 23, 14D, 14A, 20. Nothing to add to points already made.
9. I wondered about NIGHTWATCHMAN too but COED defines the batsman as “inferior”.

   34 minutes for me today. I assumed 18dn was TORONTO but couldn’t work out all the wordplay. Before coming here I noted that TARANTO is also a capital but I couldn’t make complete sense of that one either.

   I didn’t know EUMENIDES but the wordplay was clear enough, and CALIBAN, my last in, was the only name that fitted the checking letters. Until then I had assumed Sycorax featured in a Greek myth.

   1. Yes, Taranto was the wrong answer I had that was corrected when I figured out the cryptic for the blog.
10. Flabbergasted at how straightforward all commenters found this which I only finished after wiki searches on Sycorax and Eumenides. Spent 10 minutes post-solve working out NOT ON YOU LIFE and still don’t get TORONTO despite explanations above (no doubt obvious). The hidden word LESSEE was new to me not helped by the weird definition.
    Thicker than usual today.

    Monday morning quarterback.

    Have just spent 5 wonderful, sun-filled days in the glorious setting of the Whitgift School cricket ground (Peter will recall from his Croydon days), much of it watching hapless Derbyshire bowlers being brutally assaulted by, indisputably, the country’s leading number 3 batsman Mark Ramprakash, during the course of which he took his first-class average for the season beyond 3 figures and his career first-class hundreds to 108. Are you too old at 40? Ask Tom Watson.

    1. ah the joy of cricket discussion. i dont think the question is the age (although it is pertinent) more his frequent inability to step up a level. He has always been brilliant at county level and suspect at test level. I cant think of similar names in the past, Graeme Hick perhaps, but in footballing terms, he is a bit of a Steve Bull.
       1. Of course you are right (tongue in cheek suggestion), although your Bull comparison is precisely that. But it does suggest as axiomatic that stepping up a class is not feasible after a certain age in which case I might as well give up the Times crossword pronto.

          Ah Hick! Who was it that called him “the flat track assassin”?

          1. The “flat track bully” name was from NZ player and coach John Bracewell.

             Stepping up a class in terms of puzzles you finish seems perfectly feasible at any age. It’s only finishing them in silly times that seems to require starting young.

             1. Why do you think that the speed part requires starting young. Is it a brain-speed concept, or just the amount of practice required takes time, and us oldies dont have that on our side?
                1. Main reason for the connclusion: observation – when asked, most if not all contestants in a Times championship Grand Final will admit to starting to solve cryptics before they were twenty. The best I can do for the causality is that in your teens there must be something left of the abilities that make language-learning easy for two-year-olds, and that less and less is left as you get older.
    2. I think the key point in 18D is that “Pronto!” and “Now!” both mean the same in a task-urgency context.
       (You should be able to find “until” as a synonym for “to” in the dictionary as well).

       I went to the wrong school to appreciate the good facilities at Whitgift (more than just a cricket pitch I think). Whitgift’s contribution to crosswords is former Times xwd editor Mike Laws.

    3. Stop being so fucking “poor little me”. It is difficult – okay! The smug wankers on this site will make you feel bad. Stop ingratiating yourself with them and just learn their tricks.
       1. I’m not sure how you equate Barry’s “Ouch! A bit harsh Jimbo.” on Tuesday’s puzzle with “ingratiating yourself with them”. And if you think we’re just a bunch of smug wankers, I don’t know why you bother to look at the site.

          Future contributions in this vein may be deleted without comment.

          Edited at 2009-08-12 06:21 am (UTC)

       2. Why not grow up?
          1. I’m addressing “trite law” of course.
11. 23 across please? thanks!
    1. ORANGES peeled I think (O)RANGE (S). Range is a line ie products.
12. Sorry to be thick, but can someone tell me what 21 ac is? It’s the only one I can’t get and it must be obvious as it isn’t blogged.
    1. CORRODE (defined by “eat”) – ROD=stick in CORE=the middle of fruit – simple when you see it, but if you think “in the middle of” is a containment indicator, it may take a while to see!

       Edited at 2009-08-10 10:08 am (UTC)

13. I found this pretty easy. Even the cricket entry came early and Sycorax’s son and the furious females were give-aways. So 20 minutes was enough to finish it, though that’s ignoring time taken afterwards to work out the wordplay to 4dn.
    I liked 5, but I’m afraid nobody will persuade me that 3 works with two hyphens that have to be ignored to make sense of the cryptic.
14. Thanks so much, Pete – and ‘doh’!!! I did indeed see ‘middle of’ as a containment indicator. Must do better.
15. im afraid i dont get 18d please help!
    1. Let’s do this slowly as you’re not the first to ask. Clue: Capital in till now coin’s been removed

       Capital – definition – TORONTO is the capital of the province of Ontario (not the capital of Canada which is of course Ottawa)
       in – definition/wordplay link – the answer is “in” the material which you construct in the wordplay
       till – TO – both are synonyms for “until”
       now – PRONTO – “Now” and “pronto” are synonymous when they tell you when to do something
       coin – P = penny
       ‘s been removed – statement that P has been removed from PRONTO – note that ‘s is short for “has” here, as in “it’s been a tough job parsing this clue”.

       Edited at 2009-08-10 01:26 pm (UTC)

       1. ty verymuch petebiddlecomb, the penny has just dropped!
16. 6.02. The top left and the four long entries came quickly which gave a good start. I didn’t get the wordplay for IMPORT and only worked out PRINCETON afterwards. I guessed correctly from the options of EC or EU for 24 as I was not familiar with the word although I just assumed it would have something to do with ‘The Furies’.Weren’t they an Irish folk group?
    Cricket bore alert** Wasn’t Jimmy Anderson taking a single natural as Cook was the settled batsmen and if he hadn’t taken the single then Anderson might as easily have been out next ball which would have just created another problem – anyway all irrelevant given what followed. Jason Gillespie made 200 as a Nightwatchman in a Test I seem to remember
    1. True, if you think the point of the nightwatchman (if there is a point*) is to specifically protect a batsman who hasn’t yet batted, but not one who’s already at the crease, who ought to be able to look after himself.

       *I tend to defer to the opinion of Steve Waugh, who stopped using the nightwatchman when he became Australian captain. His thinking was that if you weren’t confident enough to bat in your normal position at ten to six one evening, why would you feel any more so at ten past eleven the next day?

17. 10:07 for me, despite a slow start. I spent too long figuring out the long anagram for NOT ON YOUR LIFE, and after three minutes had only two answers in. After that most of them went in at first glance.
18. Import = significance (sermons of great doctrinal import)
    Import = in the sense of bringing something in (introducing)
19. I thought this a fun puzzle, nothing too difficult but always interesting. The obscurities can all be deduced from the wordplay. 20 minutes to solve. I love the port introducing itself and much prefer it to other more sober explanations.
20. I found this harder than the usual Monday fare, but don’t have a time to post due to stopping/starting several times. I’m unfamiliar with Sycorax and Eumenides, and all things cricket, perhaps explaining some of my difficulty. I didn’t particularly like IMPORT, or ‘jump’=’caper’. COD, if any, GAITERS. As one of the Americans, vinyl, I appreciate your blog title’s reference to the inferior batsman. For others’ benefit, the Mendoza line is American baseball-speak for a .200 batting average, below which you are considered a lousy hitter/batter. Best to all.
    1. Done while sitting in my house in mid-town TORONTO watching the Jays finally besting New York and on their home turf at that. Most came easily, even the cricket terms. Last in STATIONER and LESSEE which I didn’t much care for. Lots of fun.
21. Found this fairly straightforward except Toronto where I didn’t see the wordplay ’til I came here. Interesting comments re fast times Peter – I always assumed the vast majority of crossword enthusiasts took it up later in life. Your theory may explain why I’ll never be very fast, although presumably only a minority of youthful starters become quick so I probably wouldn’t have been even if I’d started earlier. bc
    1. I’m sure you’re right about the vast majority of enthusiasts, but the quickest people are a much smaller group.
22. 5 across is just a simple double meaning. the justification for the answer by V1 is nonsensical.
23. Well not that angry.
    I didn’t get the fact that it was referncing one of the furies and couldn’t figure the wordplay.

    I thought of Toronto but just couldn’t explain it and so was fearful of putting it in.

    Still not convinced by lessee, otherwise a relatively easy one for me. But then I like cricket. (Unlike 10cc)

24. How very pleased you sound with yourself. – And yes, I completed the crossword in 15 mins.
    1. Do you ever wonder why nobody likes you?
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