Times 24487

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 6:45

A pretty easy puzzle, partly for the reason mentioned by linxit yesterday – this puzzle has 6 multi-word answers compared to yesterday’s 1. I think there are also a few more easy wordplay elements too. There’s a rather churchy corner in the SE, with LAIC, CANONRY, VESTRY and St Columba’s Isle of Iona.

Across
1 TAPERED = reversal of words in “red tape” – I’m not 100% convinced that it’s fair to indicate this by “Just the opposite” rather than “Just the reverse” – strictly a synonym too far, I think.
5 B=British (easy wordplay element),ASSIST = “pass to American team-mate” – in (Ice) Hockey and (American) Football and some other sports (see comments), players making the last pass to a goalscorer are credited with assists in the statistics which are recorded in pretty much all American sport.
9 NOTICEBOARD – (B = book (e.w.e.)) in decoration*
10 omitted – ask if baffled
11 LATE=overdue,N.T. = book (e.w.e.)
12 P(L – e.w.e.)AY,BILL
14 PRIVATE = soldier, SECTOR = escort*
17 UNITED KINGDOM – (didn’t go in EU, MK)* – MK from “much keenness”. For those who like to get their classification right, this is a semi-&lit – “This country” is one def, and the rest of the clue is the anagram wordplay. The whole clue gives you an extended def recalling our slowness in joining what was then the EEC, though de Gaulle provided some other lack of keenness. Almost a classic, marred just a little by the fact that “go in EU” really wants to be “go into EU”, and the EEC/EU name change. Bonus point for the first to tell us what it was called before “EEC” (ideally without the help of Wikipedia)
21 W=with – e.w.e.,I(T) CHING – the I Ching, or “Book of Changes” is a sort of Chinese Tarot, known to the West for centuries, but possibly most fashionable from the 1950s to the 1970s – John Cage used it for some of his aleatoric compositions. Now filed for many people with other past oriental imports like mah-jong and feng shui, which we don’t hear much about any more
23 OR ELSE – whose letters are all found in “Elsinore” for a sort of three-quarter anagram. If you take “in” out of Elsinore, you’re left with a true anagram, but although the clue contains “in”, I don’t think it’s meant to indicate the true anagram. A clue that will doubtless generate some comment. Correct – including the fact that it’s actually (ELS in ORE):
25 omitted – ask if baffled
26 PRO = skilled player, TAG ON = add, 1=one (e.w.e.), ST=stone (e.w.e.) – solved from the back end
27 SCRATCH – two defs – the “informal: money” one in ODE was new for me
28 CANONRY = clergyman’s office, = “cannonry” – artillery – in Collins, not Oxford and marked as “rare” there, but easily worked out from “cannon”.
 
Down
1 TANG,{L(arg)E=another e.w.e.} – my first mental guess was “pongle”
2 PIT’S = bed’s, TOP=best
3 RE(formed),C.(ON DIT=rumour)E. – church = C.E. would be an e.w.e. if not disguised by the need to read “Leaders of reformed church” in the right way, though seeing the elephant trap interpretation “RC” might make you ask why the setter didn’t just put “Catholic”
4 D(ebat)E,B(u)T – entirely “e.w.e”!
5 BY ALL = unanimously, MEANS = implies
6 SADLY – LD = Lib Dem, reversed in SAY=express
7 1,M(P.R.)INT
8 TUTELARY – (utterly, a=article)*. tutelary is worth looking up if your grip on its meaning is as loose as mine was
13 MACKINTOSH – 2 defs, one referring to Charles Rennie of that ilk, the other a descriptive definition
15 EIDERDOWN – 1=one (e.w.e.) in wondered* – “retired” for “in bed” is a very old trick
16 OUT=unacceptable,WARDS=”children needing (tutelary!) care”
18 INTEGER = (entire, G=gallon)* – if you’re about to say “surely they meant ‘whole number’, not just ‘whole’ “, you need to know (as I didn’t) that there’s a “thing complete in itself” definition as well
19 MULL,ION(a) – Mull and Iona are very close neighbours – the ferry from Fionnphort to Iona takes only a few minutes. The clue nearly tells a Biddlecombe story – we once discovered that if you go to the right B&B in Fionnphort, the village and abbey on Iona are indeed visible in part of the (bathroom) window. Other curiosity: the peninsula leading to Fionnphort is sadly the “Ross of Mull” rather than the “Mull of Mull”. That’s enough Mull memories – Ed. A mullion is a vertical bar between window panes.
20 VE(ST.)RY – I liked this because for once, “jolly” did NOT indicate RM=Royal Marine=”jolly”. As well as a clerical changing room (and office), a vestry is a meeting of parishioners, originally in the vestry. The term “Vestry meeting” is still used in connection with a C of E parish annual meeting.
22 HOPI = Indians, T=time (e.w.e)
24 LAIC = relating to lay people rather than clerics – reverse hidden in “officials”

53 comments on “Times 24487”

  1. I found this a little more difficult than Peter, needing 70 minutes to finish. At 21ac, I got WITCHING from ‘twitching’ or manual divination, minus the ‘T’. Seems equally plausible.
    1. …although on reflection I’m sure Peter’s explanation is correct. Right answer, wrong route.
  3. No way in the world I could do this under 10! In fact: 28 minutes. But this is a good puzzle with something for everyone except, perhaps the maddest of scientists. And, indeed, one does have to comment on “Elsinore” => “or else”. I did wonder if something was missing from the clue. Perhaps “in (or out of) Elsinore”, or words to that effect. Also wondered if the setter has submitted 2dn for this month’s clue comp. Probably just a coincidence.

  4. Well, I for one would disagree this was an easy one and in fact I wasn’t able to finish it on my journey to work other than by guessing the last few and hoping for the best.

    Examples VESTRY (the meaning required here), BASSIST (never heard of assist in this context), CANONRY (never met it), TUTELARY (vaguely knew it but only the checking letters and the fact it was an anagram led me to it), TANGLE (never met the seaweed), I CHING (never met it, or long forgotten it), SCRATCH (meaning money), HOPI (only vaguely heard of it).

    I guess this just means I’m an ignorant wotsit but there we go! Any one or two of these might not have delayed me too much but the onslaught in every part of the grid did not make it an easy solve.

  5. No worries – it happens all the time, especially when the eager Aussie bloggers pile in as soon as the blog is up!
    1. This will probably not get read as it’s so long after the original post, but this British born Aussie is wondering how Aussies can participate as the crossword that you did on 17th March has just today (23rd April) been printed in the Australian.
      1. Have a look at my Aussie link page at
        http://www.low.met.au/xwords/showlinks.php
        You can email me from there.
        maybe an aussie solvers sub-forum?
        there are a few of us who solve the australian puzzle and then link to the “Times for The Times”.

        See also the link on the right of the “Times for The Times” page under “Syndicated Times puzzles”
        Roy Low

      2. For £25 a year you can subscribe to the crossword online from times.co.uk, no geographical limitations. Even in Oz you get the current day’s crossword.
        1. Or just Google for ‘Times Crossword’ and press the “I’m feeling lucky” button.
  6. Peter, forgive me, but what does “e.w.e” mean?

    I found this straightforward and was pleased to solve it in one sitting without aids in half an hour. First in LATENT, last in PLAYBILL. New word TUTELARY. RECONDITE, DEBT and WITCHING entered without understanding the wordplay. Thanks for explaining those. The phrase “on dit” is new to me.

    A curious gathering of ecclesiastical terms in the SE corner, but, today being 17 March, a missed opportunity to reference St Patrick in VESTRY? Seeing very=jolly a couple of weeks ago helped with that one.

  7. 22 minutes for me, but half of them spent on BASSIST. That “American” qualifier really threw me, and I was looking for something more specifically US. I know Chambers has “assist” defined in this meaning as “chiefly N A” but it’s so common in British sport, especially proper football, that I thought “American” was superfluous.
    I hope we get better offerings in clue of the month for 2d!
    CoD EIDERDOWN, even if it is “a very old trick”. Old jokes are often the best ones.
  8. 20m so rather average, last in bassist. Noticed same word twice in clues – elements – rather close to each other. Liked the eiderdown these duvet-ridden days, and the Euro clue. Wasn’t the first EU a coal and steel consortium?
    1. OK, half a point each for this nifty idea and the nearly-named European Coal and Steel Community.
  10. I found this quite tricky after starting with three long gimmes: Private sector, United Kingdom and Mackintosh. I did not know the church meeting meaning of vestry and I did not know canonry or cannonry although it was obviously canon-something.

    In the NE, I thought that the wordplay for 8 indicated A followed by an anagram of utterly so I was surprised when the answer was tutelary. I was also thrown by the “pass to American” in 5A because assist is in common UK parlance (C. defines it as chiefly N. Am) so I was looking for a word similar to buspass.

    I liked the clever way that on dit and I Ching were slipped into the wordplay and I enjoyed tapered, despite Peter’s reservations. I made.one sloppy error today. I had stretch instead of scratch bringing to an end a good run of all-correct solves.

    I notice that my comment on assist more or less repeats Zabadak’s but is not supported by Jack’s comment although Jack is avowedly non-sporty.

  12. 8dn I very much liked because of the surface reading – very clever. TUTELARY I knew from the “Three Little Maids” song in the The Mikado where the maids leaving school are “freed from its genius tutelary”, but I think that is in the different sense of “instructional”

    At 15dn, I initially missed the “retired”=”in bed” trick and tried to make an a word starting ENDOW.. as I thought an ENDOWMENT was a form of retirement insurance. The nearest I could get with the letters was ENDOWRIED (having a dowry perhaps?)

    I sometimes wonder how often that sort of error is foreseen by the setter.

  13. 14:33, but should have been quicker. I got stuck on a couple of anagrams – (escort)* -> SECTOR(!) and (B in decoration)* -> NOTICEBOARD, plus a struggle to justify IMPRINT at the end.
  14. Another 20 minute stroll that would have been quicker but for “American” in 5A. Like Lennyco and others I associate “assist” with particularly football where detailed statistics are kept. I kept looking for “bud” as an American team-mate with that leading “b”

    I didn’t understand the Els-in-ore gag when solving and was going to have a moan. It’s very Grauniad style and a construction not often found in the Times these days, much commoner years ago.

    17A, UK, is nearly very good indeed if quite easy to solve. I don’t think we can entirely blame De Gaulle for what happened. Macmillan refused to participate in the initial talks because it might offend the National Union of Miners – what a lost opportunity!

    1. Wot! No problems with “vestry” as obscure churchy jargon? (Must have been a good round of golf!)
      1. My parents used to shunt me off to morning and evening services whilst not attending themselves, so I had a strong grounding in the ways of the Baptist Church and a healthy scepticism to matters religious from a young age. Anyway, as a result I was familiar with this use of “vestry”.
  15. 80 minutes for me. Last in LAIC, which held me up until I saw it hiding there. COD to TUTELARY, as I have never bought a copy of the Guardian, and used only to read it in trains if no one had left The Sun behind. Close second to BASSIST for the clever admixture of sport and music, British and American.

    Re assist, as an avowedly sporty person of possibly an average setter’s antiquity, I’d say it’s only come into its own in the UK in the SKY/fantasy football era. Very rarely heard Coleman or Motty use it.

    1. From another website:
      The one thing I am praying for is a bus to hit John Motson. Did anyone hear his commentry on MoTD the other night “a partial assist for John Terry”
      It does happen!
      1. That actually supports my point, as Motson is a throwback to the sheepskin coat and orange balls in the snow. He’s just not comfortable with all this new-fangled language.
  16. Started this one very late and slept on it with the top half full and the bottom half empty. RECONDITE is a word I remember seeing but not really knowing the definition of. Finished it off in less than 10 minutes in the morning, so probably 20 minutes in all with a 5 hour snooze break.
  17. All sorts of problems with Livejournal today. (Did Araucaria, and happily finished, while waiting; if you want to continue the eider theme have a go).
    Well, I loved BASSIST, my last in. Made me laugh and thus is COD. Surely this is a word (ASSIST) borrowed from over the pond and not standard usage here. Guessed the seaweed and the Indians. Confused by the See in 26 and didn’t get the ELSINORE gag. But enjoyed this very much.
  18. I didn’t find it too difficult to fill the grid in 30 minutes, but I entered several answers without fully understanding the wordplay or definition, though I worked most out in the end (eg 6ac where it was possibly to guess at the American element). I wasn’t familiar with ‘scratch’ for ‘money’ nor ‘meeting of parishioners’ for vestry. I very much liked the clue to the latter, which had me playing around with BEDE, TAR, RM, before I realized the ” venerable type” was ST.
  19. An enjoyable 32 minutes for me; happy to recover from the embarrassment of Monday. I though Elsinore was a good spot from the setter, so didn’t begrudge it. I wasn’t so fussed about “leaders of reformed” however. Thin end of the wedge and all that. BASSIST & UK were good but COD to EIDERDOWN.
    1. Any views, from your expert POV, whether the clue for PIT STOP would win this month’s comp?
  20. 23 minutes with 3 of the 4 ourside downs the last to go in – TUTELARY, VESTRY and OUTWARDS. I needed all the crossing letters.

    An enjoyable puzzle from start to finish with a good mix of the long and the short. I prefer three letter words to four letter words given that there are only 26 options when I’m stuck.

    CODs BASSIST and RECONDITE.

    I was another one who got WITCHING from the erroneous idea that TWITCHING had something to do with water divining.

  21. I’m with the faction that didn’t find this puzzle all that easy. Admittedly, I didn’t help myself by initially entering HAWKSMOORE at 13dn, which apart from being misspelt couldn’t possibly be made to yield the required wordplay (it’s only a slight consolation to see that I wasn’t the only one to make this mistake). I too knew TUTELARY from the Three Little Maids song from The Mikado, where it probably combines both the “instructional” and “guardian-like” meanings. I didn’t see quite how OR ELSE worked until reading Kurihan’s explanation (thanks). Now that it’s been explained, it seems to me very clever.
  22. I found this a bit tough, too. Like Peter, I had entered PONG+LE for the seaweed, which threw off my NW corner for some time.

    Not familiar over here with the saying “hop it,” though I was able to solve with crossers/wordplay.

  23. No doubt obvious to everyone else, but what does ‘e.w.e’ stand for in the blog?
  24. About 30 minutes, ending with VESTRY, which went in from definition alone. I applaud vinyl for educating everyone about assists in US baseball, and I agree that the setter’s use of ‘pass’ means the allusion is to any of the other sports where players pass: basketball, hockey, soccer. I’d never heard of ‘on dit’ either, so RECONDITE also from def. I saw the I Ching thing, but didn’t catch the ELSinORE gag til seeing it here. I feel I have to give a COD nod to ELSINORE which fooled me by hiding in plain sight, but I also thought LATENT to be very good. Regards all, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate.
  25. Hi as a novice, can I ask why for some answers you just type ‘omitted’?
  26. A bit more on Vestry — in the (American) Episcopal church, the Vestry is an elected board of lay congregational representatives, which meets regularly and more or less runs the church. As I recall from my days in the Church of England the Parochial Church Council served largely the same function there, though there may significant differences in level of autonomy.

    And, to continue the pedantry, I’m fairly sure that American football doesn’t credit assists as such, since scoring almost always involves only two players touching the ball — the quarterback and the receiver or running back. Only very rarely is the ball otherwise passed among team members and even then, such passes are subject to rigid rules about lateral passing, so they almost never do it except when the game is on the line.

    …Robert

    1. Re passing in American football. I recall 25 or more years ago watching a game on TV between two university sides. One team came up with a passing rush – leading to a touchdown – which any rugby side would have been proud of. The opposition appeared to be totally bamboozled.

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