Times 24419 – Reckless driver placed in isolation cell!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 37 minutes

Music: Brahms, Cello Sonatas, Starker/Sybok

I felt kind of dull as I did this – couldn’t invoke the solver’s spark. After 22 minutes, I had only about a third done. Then I had to get up to flip the record, and as usually happens after any sort of break, I was able to fill in another third within three minutes of returning. Then I lost it, and had to solve the last bits by brute force, making full use of the checking letters.

This is really only a medium-level puzzle, although the setter is adept at avoiding the commonest cryptic cliches. I see only a few that are obvious enough to omit from the blog.

Across
1 TOAD IN THE HOLE, double definition. I understood this at once, but was unable to call it to mind until the second half of my solving session.
8 ABLE, sounds like ABEL.
9 FAR-SIGHTED, FAR(SIGHT)ED. Smooth surface, puzzled me for a bit.
10 SCOT FREE, a relatively easy cross-reference, although not an anagram as I first suspected. The ‘scot’ in the phrase refers to an obsolete tax, not to a person.
11 HORNET, HO(R[a]N[g]E[r])T. I wasted a lot of time with ‘mad’.
13 CONSTANTIA, CONSTANT + I + A[ppreciated]. I never heard of this wine, but it is evident once you have the checking letters.
18 THIRTEENTH, anagram of THREAT IN THE – A[udience]. The literal is a bit obscure, but see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth
20 STAKES, double definition. I had ‘fences’ for a long time, thinking of show jumping, although that’s not the term of art.
22 IMPRISON, sounds like IMP RISEN. The literal is slightly obscured, but ‘mischief-maker’ = ‘imp’ is too common to fool even an intermediate-level solver.
24 ERGONOMICS, ER(G + MONO backwards)ICS. A clue that doesn’t quite come off, because ‘mono’ is not really equivalent to ‘record’. When I say that the Brahms sonatas LP I am playing is a mono, I am using a predicate adjective.
27 JOB’S COMFORTER. Not a good attempt – the surface could only be a cryptic clue.
 
Down
1 TOBACCONIST, cryptic defintion, using secondary meanings of ‘Virginia’, and ‘plugs’.
4 TORRENT, TORMENT with [rescue]R replacing M[aiden].
5 EDITH, H[usband] + TIDE backwards. I knew I wanted a female Sitwell, but couldn’t remember any until I had checking letters.
6 OTHERWISE, O(THE)R + WISE. Should be easy, if you happen to think of the correct soldiers.
7 EYE, cryptic definition, ‘keep an eye out’. My last in, easier for everyone else, I hope.
12 ELECTIONEER, anagram of EIRE ONCE LET. I was afraid this might have something to do with Ogham, and was relieved to discover a straightforward anagram.
14 STINK BOMB, double cryptic definition, or am I missing something?
15 ANTIPASTO, A + N(TIP)AST[y] + O[ld]. A common answer, at least, that we have seen several times in the past few months.
19 IRIDIUM, I(RID)I + UM. The cryptic should make it easy, provided you have heard of iridium.
22 INGOT, GOT IN reversed. I don’t consider ‘got in’ and ‘arrived’ entirely synonymous, although they’re close.
27 RAJ, JAR backwards. A good surface on this one.

21 comments on “Times 24419 – Reckless driver placed in isolation cell!”

  1. Mainly easy but a few clues slowed me down to 35 minutes or so, especially the wine. At 18, the anagrist is THREAT IN THE – A, which I’m sure you meant to type. The thirteenth and similar intervals feature in Chopin Mazurkas, if I remember correctly, resolving to twelfths etc. on minor beats; a trademark sound. As for 14ac, I had “a right fuss” = STINK, “mine” = BOMB, which makes the rest either some semi-&lit device or the definition or both. COD to RAJ, in spite of its hyphen.
  2. I had the same complaint about MONO = “record” but Chambers confirms it’s okay by defining it as “a monaural gramophone record”. It’s interesting that according to the same source there is no stereo equivalent as “stereo” on its own means equipment that reproduces stereo sound.

    1. I thought I was in for a speedy solve today as I had more than three-quarters completed in 15 minutes, the ones giving trouble being 16, 18, 22 24 and 26 across and 19 and 24 down. It took me another 40 minutes to crack these.
    2. If my memory serves me well we used to talk about 78s, 45s, and LPs. I don’t think “mono” featured back then did it? Probably not until stereo reproduction came into being and then we used it as a differentiator of the sound system rather than the record itself?
      1. Yes, your memories coincide with mine, Jimbo, as I have no recollection of mono being used in the sense required in today’s puzzle. I was surprised to find it in Chambers so I thought I would mention that it’s there. SOED has it too, btw.
  3. Found this a bit tiresome with a faintly musty odour. Fi must be one of those Raj gals perhaps in the Sitwell set, at least if my answers for 17 and 26 are correct. Might have been better disposed had my solving been accompanied by those sublime sonatas.
  4. Christmas having shot my normal timetable to pieces I printed this off and solved it last night.. c20mins, only the whisky & port made it difficult.. I had trouble getting “ergonomics” for some reason but accept “mono” as a legitimate usage, though not one I ever used..
  5. An easy puzzle solved in 25 leisurely minutes. Both Mephisto and AZED were very easy yesterday so only Saturday’s cryptic has had anything tricky about it. I also solved 14D as fuss=STINK and mine=BOMB with the whole clue being a definition of sorts.
  6. I found this pretty easy and finished in 22 minutes, without understanding 9 at first.
    I also queried GOT IN from ‘arrived’, but then considered it OK when I thought of its use in “The train got in an hour late”.

    I was slightly puzzled by 17. I assume the answer is FIJI, but I couldn’t explain the final I unless it’s got from ‘in’, which is fine in barred cryptics, but I didn’t know it was acceptable in the Times daily. Or have I missed something else, blindingly obvious to others.

    24 and 1 down appealed.

    1. My reading was the same as yours F=female=woman, I=one, J=judge, I=in. I’m so used to that substitution it never occurred to me to query it as far as the daily puzzle is concerned.
  7. I found this not too difficult but slightly irritating since I need all the checkers for Constantia, thirteenth and ergonomics. Of those, only Constantia was new to me. On discovering that it is a sweet South African wine, I am not surprised.

    I think I was thrown by the corrosion inhibitor definition of iridium the last time it turned up. I got it OK today but it might cause trouble for anyone not intimately acquainted with the properties of iridium.

  8. Got interrupted by two phone calls so no time, but it was a long one – I got off to a pretty bad start by writing in COLD COMFORTER and STUMPS (I was also watching the cricket). Once these errors were resolved the rest went in. CONSTANTIA was a new one, but saw it from wordplay.
  9. No time to post because: I fell asleep about halfway through the puzzle. That’s not a comment on the puzzle, but caused more by my schedule over the past couple of days. I liked RAJ after I came to, so it’s my COD nomination. I was unfamiliar with the wine and JOBS COMFORTER. And I’m a little sleepy today too, so I hope it doesn’t happen again. Regards.
  11. This is the first time in ages I deliberately didn’t bother finishing a Times puzzle. Maybe there should be a limit to the number of cryptic defs per puzzle, as there is for inclusives and full anagrams. I just doze off when I see one.

Comments are closed.