Times 24352 – Pieces of Eight

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
 Is this one of the new grids? It doesn’t look familiar and I don’t remember one being so dominated by 8-letter answers , 8 of them across and another 8 down. And even the one cross-reference was to 8!  My heart sank when I saw this as I tend to use short answers to get myself going and there was a notable lack of these today with only 4 x 4-letter words on offer. So after the panic at not solving a single clue on the first read-through I spotted the anagram at 19dn and worked steadily from there. Having written the blog I can’t say that there was anything particularly difficult here, and certainly no obscure words or bits of knowledge were required, but for some reason I found it hard and took just over an hour to crack it.

Across
1 STAT(UTE)S – Hm. If UTE can mean somebody from Utah where the Mormon Church is based I haven’t been able to find a reference. It seems to have a more specific meaning which appears to have nothing to do with the Mormons. Also I doubt that all Mormons come from Utah and everyone in Utah is a Mormon. Right, I’ll scrap that and start again: STAT(UT)ES – UT being Utah aka the Mormon state. Thanks to Mike for pointing out my error. I had a bad start to the day!
 9 TY(NE)SIDE – Anagram of “yes it’d” around NE
10 D(1,SP)ENSE – SP = Species
12 GRINDSTONE
15 ENDEMIC – Anagram of “medicine” minus an “I” ( “1”)
17 BA(t),LANCE
21 E(insteinia)N,V(elocit)Y – With a cross reference to “begrudge” at 8dn
22 SKATE BOARD
23 C,AST-IR,ON
25 D(O,ORB)ELL
26 S(HOW,CA’S)E
27 ROT,HE,SAY – The principal town on the Isle of Bute
 
Down
2 TRIM,ARAN – As in “Trim one’s sails to the wind” and the islands in Galway Bay
3 TAP DANCE – I wondered whether this might be a genuine expression used by sanitary engineers but having mislaid my book of plumbers jargon I looked it up in a dictionary of slang and rather wished I hadn’t!
4 (s)TANK – More plumbing!
7 MI(STAKE)N(e)
8 B(EG,R)UDGE
13 SLIPS,TR(E)AM – Having spotted “stream” in “garments” I was looking for an anagram here, but it wasn’t to be
15 EXERCISE – Double meaning
16 DIVISION – Ditto
18 ADORABLE – Hidden
19 CORDELIA – (Lear Co I’d)* Cordelia being one of King Lear’s daughters
20 L(egal),A(ge),UNDER – Although “launder” in the sense required here is in all the dictionaries I am rather surprised that “money laundering” hasn’t yet made it
24 JO(L)T

28 comments on “Times 24352 – Pieces of Eight”

  1. Can’t give a time: did most of the RH side over breakfast and quite quickly; and the LH side during various stops along the road. I guess at least 30 mins. Some great wordplay here with some very neat disguses — I have parsing marks all over the place. COD to CORDELIA; though ROTHESAY brought back fond memories of the folk song.
  4. 8:33 – mixture of good solving and bad, e.g. an initial guess at TEESSIDE for 9A which failed to trigger the right answer. Also very pleased that CATAMARAN didn’t fit the grid as I found it from {boat / -ARAN}. There is a fairly plausibe polite route from cock to tap, via “stopcock”.

    At 22 I think you have to treat “skate board” as 2 defs, one whimsical/cryptic – “subsidiary of fisheries ministry?” – there’s nothing to give you skate and board as separate words. (And Mike O is right about 1 – the related meaning of “ute” is not involved. Not everyone in Utah is a Mormon, but around two-thirds are, so “Mormon one” seems a fair description.)

    1. Yes 1ac was a careless error and my time would have been better spent noticing that I had omitted the E from STATES rather than worrying about the other stuff.

  5. … isn’t that new – it’s no. 72.

    Edited at 2009-10-09 08:05 am (UTC)

  6. This kept my nose to the grindstone for about 30 minutes. Quite a good workout I would guess for those Cheltenham bound (and good luck to everybody from our community).

    One small quibble. A learner driver isn’t strictly “unlicensed”. The rest has some excellent and nicely misleading stuff. I loved “ballcock” to “cock-ball” to TAP DANCE.

    1. > “ballcock” to “cock-ball” to TAP DANCE.

      Made me think of the story of the {insert nationality of choice} tap dancer: fell in the sink.

  7. 21:34 .. the hard way – not getting STATUTES, SLIPSTREAM or EXERCISE until all checking letters were in place.

    COD SKATEBOARD – what’s not to love?

    Nicely observed blog title, jackkt.

  8. Another one I found pretty much impenetrable; about an hour to complete with at least 10 minutes staring at E_E_C_S_ at 15d and thinking the only word that fits is EXERCISE but it doesn’t mean employment or worry. On finally writing it in and going to Collins, I found it means both. Lummy! Also baulked at ROTHESAY, but it sounded Scottish enough. COD to TAP DANCE.
  9. I’m not quite comfortable with this: ‘Trim’ = what exactly? ‘Move to take advantage of wind’? That’s what I’d have thought, in which case ‘Aran’ is/are Atlantic islands. So what is the ‘from’ doing? It seems to be a combination of a nothing link-word that helps the surface, and a misleading one because if it’s ‘from’ Atlantic islands then the Atlantic islands should go first.

    Please can someone explain.

    1. It’s OK because Collins has Aran = “of or relating to the Aran islands”. COED isn’t quite as explicit but has Aran has an adjective about knitwear associated with the islands.
  10. This was one of those puzzles where you look back and wonder why it took you so long. I suppose the reason is that I should have got the simple anagrams: Predator, Tyneside and Cordelia more quickly. Also it did not help that I initially had Tea Dance. I was thinking of the clatter of teacups. I finished with the tenuously defined Exercise and then Showcase. I had quite a few question marks as I was solving. For instance, I thought the answer to 15A was the wrong part of speech but, on checking I see that endemic can be a noun. I had the same thought as Jimbo though, that someone with a provisional licence cannot be considered to be unlicensed.

    Skateboard stands out amongst a collection of undistinguished clues.

  11. 57:30 – but like kororareka, spent 5 or 10 minutes at the end trying to think of an alternative to EXERCISE. Had eleven left after about 20 minutes, but those eleven went in very slowly indeed.

    Some good clues, and nothing obscure, but no real excuse for taking so long.

  12. 20.28 Similar time to yesterday.Problems in the bottom half with SLIPSTREAM and SHOWCASE but last filled was the NW corner despite having got 1 early on.
    I didn’t make the Atlantic/Aran connection thinking more Azores or Canaries.
    No problems with Rothesay and just as well as my mother was born there.
    I just couldn’t get on the setter’s wavelength quick enough. Agreed regarding SKATEBOARD, also thought 23 was good.
  13. 20 minutes again. It took a while to get going with no apparent gimmes and everything needed some thought. Sped up towards the end with more checkers in place, solving anti-clockwise from the bottom left with trimaran and tap dance last in, both based on definition. My other question mark was against Cordelia as I’ve neither seen nor read King Lear.

    As seems to be the norm of late the hidden word was well-disguised and I also enjoyed stepson and of course skateboard which made me chuckle and is my COD for today.

  15. As others have said, a mix of the relatively straightforward and the difficult. Can’t improve on Jimbo’s verdict – “quite a good workout”.

    My only quibble was with 19dn, CORDELIA. Both anagrind and anagram were easily identifiable, and the answer not difficult for anyone with a passing knowledge of King Lear. But where was the definition of the solution? Can anyone help?

    1. I think the intention must be that Cordelia upset Lear and other people, and the clue is an &lit/all-in-one. But my knowledge of King Lear goes no further than a few names of characters and the general nature of the play.
      1. Yes, of course, that must be the explanation. Thanks. It just about fits the plot – Cordelia does indeed upset her father by not expressing her love for him in sufficiently extravagant fashion, and also falls out with her unlovely sisters Regan and Goneril, which could account for the “and Co”. Lamenting her deathin Act V, Lear says “Her voice was ever soft,/gentle and low – an excellent thing in woman”. Not a trait that would universally be seen as a virtue today, I guess!

        Good luck at Cheltenham.

  16. About 20 minutes, first in STATUTES, last SKATE BOARD, but when I checked my entry for 27, where facing R_T_E_A_ I tried ROTSEDAY, with ED as the man, I found it wrong and discovered that a place called ROTHESAY existed. So, one wrong today. Good luck to those planning to compete. Regards.
  17. 28 min, and had to go to the aids for ROTHESAY. I may be of Scots extraction, but my knowledge of Scottish topography is sadly lacking. For some unfathomable reason I had entered BLIP for 24 dn which cost me dearly. Once the DOORBELL rang, I was looking at ROTHERAM? which did not help one little bit. Ah well.

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