Times 24,369

Author   richardvgPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 21:30

Really sorry this is late. Thanks to George for placeholder and for reminding me about it.

Therefore done in a rush and pretty thin. Happy to fill it out as people tell me what I have missed.

Across

1 GET ONE’S HEAD DOWN – two meanings. I foolishly guessed YOUR instead of ONE’S to begin with
9 VIGILANTE – (GIVEN TAIL)*
10 TITLE (=”tight’ll”)
11 T(H)RIPS
12 ST + A + (i)MPEDE
13 ENSURE – alternate letters of “feints, guarded”
15 PEM + BROKE, the first part being (M.E.P.)(rev)
18 DEAD HEAT – just a cryptic definition, despite my various attempts to break it down
19 INFERS (=”in furs”)
21 SKIM + POLE – character from Bleak House
23 G(I)OT TO – I was trying HADITO. Does the tense work?
26 (b)OUNCE
27 BAL(LOT)TING On edit: As two people have commented, “making random selection” is an odd definition for this word. I have never heard “ballot” used in this sense, but Chambers gives as the second intransitive verb meaning: “to draw lots”
28 TERENCE RATTIGAN – [(ACTING ENTERTAINER’S) – (IN)]* – only just worked this out

Down

1 GAVOTTE – can’t see why On edit: Thanks to Penfold for pointing out this is GAVE (hosted) around (staying) OTT (ridiculously lavish). Staying is an interesting containment indicator.
2 T(IG)ER(m) – IG being GI(rev)
3 NI(LE PER)CH(e)
4 SINK – ie SICK with N for C
5 EVENT + HEN
6 DA(T.U.)M
7 ON THE NOSE – two meanings, the second a gambling one
8 NDEBELE – (BEEN LED)*
14 STATIONER – two meanings
16 BANDI(COO)T
17 FALLIBLE – (F(rai)L + LIABLE)*
18 D + I + SHOUT
20 SLO(E)G + IN
22 P(R.E.)EN
24 THIN + G
25 FLEA – hidden

30 comments on “Times 24,369”

  1. 1d is GAVE (hosted) around (staying) OTT (ridiculously lavish).

    just over 30 mins here, tricky in parts with some unknowns (thrips, Ndebele (had to look it up as there was no other way of getting the letters in the right order) and Skimpole, about which the less said the better. Grr.

        1. Yes it was. (Though it was also the way I got to the answer, as HER came into my head before HEN.) I will edit.
  3. Working slowly but steadily through this one I expected to finish it in about 45 minutes but then hit a brick wall unable to solve 8dn even using a solver, and much of the SW gave trouble too. I eventually finished that corner having used a solver without success at 21ac so I Googled my earlier guess from the wordplay, SKIMPOLE, and found it was correct. I hate clues to fictional characters that give no suggestion that one is looking for a fictional character, especially if it turns out to be one I’ve never heard of.

    Never heard of THRIPS or NDEBELE either.

  4. There used to be a wonderful S. African restaurant here in Edinburgh called Ndebele (in de belly) geddit?
  5. I was beginning to this this one hadn’t been blogged because richard enyoyed it as much as I did. Which is to say not at all.

    Probably was just too hard for me, far too many blank spaces. Even when I got the answer the clues left me unsatisfied.

    W

  6. Started last night, finished this morning, relieved to find NDEBELE is a word, was toying between it and NLEDEBE.

    28 reminded me of the first episode I saw earlier in the week of what is to be a six-part documentary about Monty Python – I think it was Michael Palin saying that one of the bizarre things about the longevity of the show is that people know the names of objects of ridicule in the 60s that have faded into obscurity by now. I know 28 for no other reason.

  7. I really struggled with this one. I resorted to aids with less than half done after about 45mins.

    I’ve never heard of SKIMPOLE, GIOTTO, NDEBELE or THRIPS and I don’t see how BALLOTING = Making random selection. What’s random about it?

    No, don’t like this one. Didn’t enjoy it.

  8. About half an hour, one mistake. I gave up and stuck in SKIMPILY for 21A, as I didn’t know the Bleak House character, but “knew” there was no such word as SKIMPOLE! Should have had more faith in the wordplay. Annoying, that – I’m normally pretty good with the literary references. I also didn’t get the wordplay for GAVOTTE before coming here, and there were two or three others that I only worked out after solving.

    Very tough, but fair in the end. The Times still expects its solvers to know their Dickens and Shakespeare, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing even if it occasionally catches me out.

  9. Irritating puzzle that can only be solved by most folk by using reference works. Had vaguely heard of NDEBELE (bar crossword sometime?) but used Google to verify the answer. Detest clues like SKIM POLE where again Google came to my aid. Not that enamoured of the rest of it really – 30 minutes including look ups.
  10. Very glad to hear others found this tough and somewhat irritating. I only had 20 minutes of lunchtime to devote to the puzzle, and no access to reference books, making this way too difficult to be enjoyable!
  11. I found this v difficult too, 49 mins. Did have the same query re BALLOTING that someone mentioned above. COD DEAD HEAT, and also liked DISH OUT and INFERS.
    1. Now that I have time to look it up, I find that Chambers has two meanings for the intransitive verb to ballot: (a) to vote by ballot, and (b) to draw lots.
  12. 23:25 .. but I had SLIPPOLE, assuming it to be an antiquated word for a skinflint. I’ve never got around to Bleak House.

    Otherwise I enjoyed it well enough. I liked DEAD HEAT, which caused me a lot of head scratching, but is really very neatly done.

  13. 32 minutes, with Skimpole being last by a good way. As I haven’t read Bleak House or even seen the well-received BBC version, it was always likely to give me trouble, I suppose. Can’t blame the setter for not sharing my aversion to Mr Dickens, after all.
  14. Another plodder – 32 min. Had to get assistance for SKIP/SLIP/SAIL/SKIMPOLE. Never heard of him. 8 dn had to be, then could not be, then finally was an anagram, and a word I was familiar with. A mind set problem – any word starting N?… has to have a vowel as the second letter. BALLOTING for drawing lots is quite familiar, at least here in NZ. Mind you, I would spell it with a double T. Nice solid puzzle. COD: The Winslow Boy boy.
  15. Took a full hour here, and with one mistake: SLIPPOLE, not SKIMPOLE. I don’t blame myself for that one either. First entry: SINK, last GAVOTTE. Other things I didn’t know: that sense of BALLOTING, or that sense of shout, what a NILE PERCH is, THRIPS as singular, or PEMBROKE College. Pretty tough. I’d actually heard of the Ndebele people somewhere. COD: INFERS. Regards.
    1. Kevin,

      Shout in that sense is in pretty common usage on this side of the pond…

      Cove A: Let me get you a drink old boy.
      Cove B: No, no, I’ll get these, it’s my shout. Two large whisky and sodas please George.

  16. Bad day. Read all the way down to 26 before using the pencil. Then scrappily in several sessions as better things to do (!) but suppose at least another half hour or so in all. Did not know thrips is singular but put it in anyway, and happy to have guessed 8d correctly. 21a tried various ideas opting for skidpole, I now hate Dickens even more. Last in 10a & 19a (winced at both) and glad others did not like today’s much either!
  18. I had a similar experience to several others, viz. 25-30 mins for all except SKIMPOLE, where if forced I’d probably have guessed SAILPOLE. I think that if a literary reference isn’t widely known, the wordplay needs to be unambiguous.

    Tom B.

    1. I agree. Furthermore I think “scrounger” is a rather unfair definition for “SKIMPOLE” – had there actually been some other hint that a Dickens character was involved then it might have allowed those for whom the answer was plain guesswork to come up with the answer as a more Dickensian-sounding word.
      I’ve read and enjoyed Bleak House but have no recollection whatever of the character, still less that he was a scrounger.
  19. It’s the same word for singular and plural, odd though that may sound (not that I have had many occasions to need to point out an individual thrips…)
  20. THRIPS is both singular and plural.

    No problem with any of this – I rather enjoyed it! THRIPS reminded me of Lord Emsworth and his roses. The appalling character of SKIMPOLE was apparently a rather accurate portrayal of Leigh Hunt.

  21. 13:32 with one mistake on my post-holiday catch-up – guessed at SKIDPOLE for 21A. One route to ballot = “draw lots” is the Last Night of the Proms – the process of drawing lots for tickets has been the “Last Night Ballot” for a few decades.

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