Times 24,343 – Sheer Poetry

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found this to be a very enjoyable 14 minutes, flirting with some quite chestnutty material without being trite, and introducing me to one or two new things for future reference. The fact that I confidently deduced the solutions to the latter from wordplay alone (and the fact that a hidden word was one of the last to fall) combined to make me think it was a good and precise puzzle. The long clues at 4 and 5 down in this grid are obviously key, and as today’s were very straightforward, the whole puzzle opened up fairly quickly, so it was an even puzzle as well, with no area giving particular trouble.

Across
1 BUCHAREST – ‘U’ + CHAR in BEST.
6 HITCH – double def.
9 BREATHE – RE in BATH + (centr)E; one of those where I could see how the construction was going to work, but not what the elements were at first, as the definition – as in “don’t breathe a word” – was far from the obvious one for “express”.
10 EQUINOX – EQUIN(e)+OX.
11 PIPPA – PIP + PA: the first one where I had to rely on wordplay – Pippa Passes is a work by Browning, and is the source of the lines “God’s in his Heaven, all’s right with the world”; one of those cases where a random couplet has become much more familiar than the work as a whole.
12 TROUT FARM – cryptic def.
13 PIECE – double def. a knight is a chess piece, and a piece of music (though I guess the alternative “fantasia” is more common, both appear to mean the same musically).
14 INNERMOST – INNER + M(edical)O(fficer) + ST(reet) – I think we had a clue very recently with this usage of “inner” being a scoring ring on an archery target.
17 OBSESSION – (NOISEBOSS)* which didn’t fall absolutely instantly because I was looking at “thing making noise” as the definition and not just “thing”.
18 VICAR – C(aught) in VIA + (doo)R.
19 GUATEMALA – (U-TEAM)* inside GALA.
22 CHESS – DUCHESS.
24 MARCONI – MARC ON I(sland) – the difference between “marc” and regular brandy is that the latter is generally distilled from wine, the former from the pulped grapes which have made the wine.
25 TABITHA – noT A BIT HArd.
26 NODDY – double def., the bird is here, Enid Blyton’s creation is here.
27 NURSEMAID – (RUN)rev + S.E. + MAID (“made”).
 
Down
1 BEBOP – BE + B(roadcast) + OP – worth noting for possible future use that Charlie Parker is often used as a way of clueing “bird”.
2 CHEAPNESS – (SHEEPCAN)* + S(pring).
3 ANTEATERS – “Ann teeters”.
4 ELECTRIFICATION – (not very) cryptic def.
5 THE MORNING AFTER – another (not very) cryptic def. I must admit Sunday was one of those days for me. It hardly needs saying that I shan’t be doing that again…well, at least until the next time.
6 HAUNT – H(enry) + AUNT (Sally); this version of skittles is still played in lots of pubs near to me, and is a lot more difficult than it looks.
7 TONGA – N(ational) in TOGA gives the light carriage, rather than the more obvious country; second one today which I didn’t know already, but which couldn’t really be anything else.
8 HEXAMETER – H(ood) + A.M. in EXETER; a hexameter is a six-footed line which means it’s often seen in crosswords, where a setter can make “six feet” refer to poetry instead of height or insects.
13 PLOUGHMAN – one’s “share” can, of course, be a very solid and metal thing rather than a theoretical division of something…
15 REVOCABLE – REV. + O(ld) CABLE referring to the VICAR with which it intersects.
16 ORCHESTRA – CHEST in ORRA: solution #3 derived from wordplay rather than knowledge; again, it had to be what it is, but I didn’t know ORRA, which is a Scots Gaelic word for “odd”, so that you get an “orra-man” who is an odd-job man.
20 ACRID – (C.A.) rev. + RID.
21 EBONY – E + BOY round N.
23 STAID – “stayed”.

As an aside, this is my last blog before Cheltenham – personally, I’m looking forward to a nice weekend away without any hopes of challenging for actual honours, but good luck to those among us who have such hopes, and I hope I get the chance to say hello to some members of this community at some point before or after the competitive bits of the Sunday…

32 comments on “Times 24,343 – Sheer Poetry”

  1. 18 mins here, but without understanding a few things in advance of the post-solve look-up: such as “Anne Teeters” and the ORRA-bit of 16dn.
    I’ve commented on PIPPA before. But there’s a coincidence (for Swedish speakers) to do with Browning’s naivety concerning certain parts.
    Too many cryptic defs for me today (12ac, 4dn, 5dn, 13dn).
    And 27ac was also in the Sunday puzzle (27 Sept) at 16dn, though clued there via yet another cryptic def.

  2. A game of two halves. RH led by the two long downs was swift, LH slower, last in 3d and 13a, I agree piece is a bit loose, but I should have been less literal in my thinking for 3d and remembered this is a cryptic crossword. Has anyone read the whole work with Pippa in? I tried once, found it very hard going. 17m.
  3. 5:48 for this one – trickiest area was the top, with 1A/D, 3, 7, 8 among the last few answers (can’t remember the exact order). Bottom half very easy. Speed possibly assisted by the grid – all but two answers have the very popular 5/7/9 word lengths.
  4. Nice puzzle, as Tim says an even solve. Some odd stuff but all gettable from wordplay. Could have done without ORRA, not sure if BREATHE is precise enough for express, or for fantasy as a PIECE. Enjoyed TROUT FARM but COD to BEBOP simply because anything to do with Bird destroys me.
  5. I’m in uncharted waters here with 9 all-correct solves in a row, ever since the Samuel Johnson debacle a couple of weeks ago. There does seem to have been a run of friendly puzzles recently. I was looking for a fast time here but I got held up at the end by the outrageous homophone of Anteater and the feeble Piece.

    Some people, as Tim suggests, know Pippa Passes for the “God’s in his heaven…” line, others, as Mctext suggests, know it for the unfortunate alternative to a cardinal’s hat. Like Fmks I once tried to read the whole thing but did not get very far. I’m sure Vinyl has read it all though

  6. An easy 15 minutes with too many barely cryptic definitions in key slots. If you do bar crosswords ORRA will not have been a problem and several of us keep suggesting it to folk as a sure way of improving your performance on the daily cryptic.

    Groaned a bit as Ann teetered but liked the clue for HEXAMETER. Thought immediately of Jack when “bird” Parker appeared – one of my favourite musicians. Shocked to discover a physicist even if it is the old chestnut Marconi.

    We are due a difficult puzzle!

    1. I knew I was in for a slapped wrist.
      In a way, my feeble, occasional attempts at Mephisto did help when left with the unknown ORRA and having Scottish in the clue (bars and Scots go together!).
      And on the subject of great alto players I am just off to my local where we have the quite marvellous young(well, compared to me) Brit altoist Matt Wates, more Westcoast than East but a wonderful player nevertheless.
  7. I decided to tackle this shortly after it became available at midnight and wrote in all but two answers in 20 minutes. I spent another 5 staring at them blankly and then decided to abandon it until this morning when another 5 minutes effort revealed the answers. So 30 minutes in all which is about as good as things get for me.

    The ones that gave trouble were ANTEATERS at 3dn and PIECE at 13ac, the first of which is very good but the second I feel is a bit feeble. I had considered the correct answer long before writing it in but thought I was looking for something more complicated in the wordplay.

    My favourite clue today was to BEBOP at 1dn. NODDY, the bird, was new to me.

    1. I am curious to know what is feeble about 13ac. To me it seems like a bog standard double definition: piece = chess piece and = musical piece, eg a fantasy. Made tricky by the need to equate fantasy with music. Not the most original clue ever, perhaps, but hard to fault.. what did I miss?
      1. Well the chess reference is fine but the other is a rather loose example of definition by example. That’s the way I read it anyway. But probably I’m just peeved because it was my last one in, as it was with at least one contributor below.
  8. Is anyone having trouble logging on today? My password has been rejected several times.

    Annoying, when you’ve paid £25 for the annual fee.

    It makes you think about doing the Guardian and Indy instead!

    1. No problems for me c. 8 am this morning, but I still have occasional problems of this sort, and yes, it is annoying. I find it hard to believe that the Times is seriously considering charging for all its online content when they still can’t manage the process successfully for this one small part of it!
  9. The RH side, along with the two (as others have already noted, barely cryptic) long down clues, went in so quickly I foolishly permitted myself tantalising visions of a first-ever sub-10 mins solve. But these evaporated like a mirage in the desert as I slowed down on the LH side, running out finally at 22 mins. But that is v fast for me, so not surprised to see some lightning times from the speedsters. ANTEATERS made me chuckle, though I can see why purists might quibble over the homophone – the T sound belonging phonetically with AN in ANTEATERS and with “eeters” in Anne teeters. But some latitude must be allowed to setters in this area, it seems to me. All in all, a fun puzzle.
  10. 17:23 here, about 5 of which were wasted on the top left at the end (despite BUCHAREST being my first answer in). I eventually got BEBOP, then remembered PIPPA, finally got the very easy CHEAPNESS, but still struggled a bit before getting BREATHE and ANTEATERS.
  11. I got 4dn, 5dn and 13dn straight off, which broke the back of the grid rather and mopping up didn’t take long. Enjoyable, nonetheless.
  12. 20:02 .. neat puzzle with some nice touches, especially a couple of artfully concealed definitions (17a, 16d).

    First in ELECTRIFICATION (which I can’t hear without silently mouthing “of the Soviet Union” – another mental tic), last in PIECE, though the terrific TABITHA was close to last, hidden better than a particularly small child wedged in the back of the airing cupboard in a game of sardines.

    One Across Rock: The Bucharest Anteater Orchestra played a little remarked set at Sting’s wedding.

  13. I clearly wasn’t on the right wavelength today. I resorted to aids after 45 mins to get the last two – HAUNT which for some unknown reason never occurred to me, and PIECE which I had considered but couldn’t see either definition.

    The two long ones went in straight away, and the bottom half followed quite quickly, but then I found the top two corners hard going. Several new words for me – NODDY as a bird, TONGA as a vehicle, PIPPA as a Browning character. Didn’t understand CHESS, PIECE or ANTEATERS before coming here.

    Must do better tomorrow.

  14. I solved all but two clues in 20 minutes, then stared blankly at 9 and 3, for a further 6 minutes, going through various synonyms for ‘hesitates’ but not coming up with the right one. By this time it was getting dark so left my solving spot for home, where I’m afraid I used an aid to get 3 and put me out of my misery. Once I had the T in 9 the answer followed. ‘Express’ was quite a tricky definition.

    An enjoyable puzzle. I liked the use of ‘dawns’ in 5.

  15. About 12-15 minutes here. First in BUCHAREST, last PIPPA. No real quibbles, although wasn’t familiar with the Browning work or TONGA as a carriage. I liked the hidden at 25, so COD to that. Regards all.
  16. 20 minutes, I’m going to register the “eh” on this one, too many cryptic definitions for my taste, though there were some nice clues, I liked BUCHAREST and the hiding of TABITHA
  17. 8.21. The two long answers came quickly and if I could have got 1a quicker might have had a good time. NODDY as a seabird always sticks in my mind from a Listener puzzle of a couple of years ago so it went in automatically. Just a bit delay in trying to justify PIECE and didn’t work out the wordplay for CHESS until after.Last in was BREATHE where the definition was fair but deceptive I thought.
    Hope to see you in Cheltenham ,Tim – and anybody else who is going along
    2. If I’m right in remembering it as the Kemble Brewery, click the name for details. It’s been the traditional place for various contenders to gather on the Saturday evening, followed by a curry. I should be at the pub this year.
      1. Kemble it has been for last 3 years right enough , Peter, and I expect there will be a few arriving there at various points of the evening before going for the traditional curry later on.
  18. I struggled with this as well; mainly in the pippa/anteater crossing and most of the NE corner. COD to HEXAMETER.

    Charlie Parker is of course famous for having died laughing. I once mentioned a quote of his to a class of about 100 Gen-Xers (or Yers?), none of whom had ever heard of him. They thought the joke was on me for being out of touch.

  19. A relaxed 24 min. Helped by getting the long down answers quickly. Quite happy with PIECE, probably because knight = piece is almost a reflex. COD TABITHA. Talk about hiding in plain sight!
  20. Wasn’t there a very similar, if not identical, clue to VICAR in the Times Crossword quite recently?
  21. I was stumped by “breathe.” “RE” for soldiers did not occur to me, but I see in Wikipedia that RE can stand for “Royal Engineers” who, presumably, are soldiers (I will follow up on that). I am used to “OR” as the shorthand for soldiers in these puzzles, although I don’t know what that stands for and will follow up on that, too.
    I had “beeline” for 9ac (express). It fit well if “express” was the main definition, but I couldn’t figure out how “Berlin” (city) could become “beelin” by taking soldiers in!
    With that error, 3dn (anteaters)was not soluble. With “i” as the third letter, I was trying to fit “apiarists” or the like into that space, but it wouldn’t go. The taking in of bees occurred to me, but not the taking in of ants! Oh well.
    1. You’re correct about the Royal Engineers and you’ll see it a lot! O.R. is short for Other Ranks, i.e, men as opposed to officers.

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