Times 24608 – Galleon of Treasures

52 comments on “Times 24608 – Galleon of Treasures”

1. Fortunately, I had heard of ‘tambourin’ and ‘mistral’ (thanks to Maserati), but ‘brandade’ was new to me. Fortunately, the anagram was clear, and I only had to place two D’s and a B correctly. I don’t think I’ve seen ‘cod’ used adjectivally as an anagram indicator, quite cute.

   I’ll admit I didn’t bother to work out the wordplay for ‘appendectomy’ or ‘Louis Pasteur’, just banged them in. The ones I got stuck on were the subtle ‘existence’ and the rather obvious ‘preference’, which were my last two. ‘Putschists’ and ‘half time score’ were just a bit elusive, but nothing terrible.

   My COD is the ‘cod’ clue, of course!

   1. I had also meant to say that 10 could have been made much more difficult, by saying something like ‘Galleon, eventually’, and not giving away the whole idea.
      1. I suspect that with the enumeration (and at some stage checkers) then “Galleon?” may even have sufficed.
2. So … moving from light gauge to medium as the week goes on. Something heavy tomorrow perhaps?
   Spent far too long on this one (42 mins) not knowing the two Provençal refs at the 22/17 cross; and stubbornly refusing, as a minor student of philosophy, to believe that “Being” could signal EXISTENCE! Also slightly bemused by the expression “Getting up a fag…”. Be interesting to see what the cross-ponders make of this one.
3. 73 minutes – last in PUTSCHISTS, which I expect may be the case for others. Nice combination in the puzzle of old British and Irish slang (‘cod’ – here presumably used in its meaning of play a trick on/ mess about with – and ‘fag’ – still had them at school in my day) and southern French culture and cuisine. I had ‘tumbourain’ at first, but changed it when I got REPROACH.

   My knowledge of baseball just about extends to SHORTSTOP, although I am of course more familiar with the prep school cricket position of long stop, where a fielder is placed directly behind a less than ‘ept’ wicket-keeper.

   Thanks to Yap Suk for explanations for 10 and 14, where my list of first names in _O_I_ comprised Boris, Colin and Robin before Louis P jumped out.

   Really enjoyable puzzle, on the hard side of medium, I would say.

4. I thought this was a fun puzzle with orignal wordplay, made easy by some straightforward definitions and helpful pointers (eg in 14ac “hospital” points to a surgical operation, and in 17dn “cod” points to brandade (de morue)).

   13 is a reminder of the fun setters would have had if Eliot had been named Stearns Thomas instead.

   1. Agreed: there aren’t anywhere near as many possibilities with reversing the original. But in our house, he’s always affectionately known as Toilets.
5. It is a pleasure when the setter takes such care with the surfaces. ALL IN GOOD TIME went in without understanding the brilliantly packed clue (I was lured by the “ME” at the end of the answer). Last in was PUTSCHISTS.
6. PS – Another superb detail suddenly struck me, that BRANDADE is a dish made with … cod! Salt cod, to be precise: Brandade de Morue.
   1. you haven’t read the earlier comment, have you?
7. Lots to enjoy here, and I was happy to finish in an hour. Looked like getting stuck in the top half at one point, but getting 1dn was a big help. MISTRIAL also came up in yesterday’s clues- strange how often that happens.

   Last in was PUTSCHISTS, after I’d been distracted for a long time by the possibility of ANARCHISTS. My clue of the day, as a Yorkshireman, was APPENDECTOMY – although the brilliance of ALL IN GOOD TIME was lost on me in my haste to finish.

8. Agree Yap, ALL IN GOOD TIME clue of the week, clue of the month… One can but marvel at a mind that can come up with such delights, I suppose the reason I keep plodding away with these things.
   To finish had to cheat for PUTSCHISTS which gave me UNTIE, otherwise not too bad.
9. Still suspect the adjectival meaning in this particular case. But what do I know?
10. 40 minutes. Mostly a straightforward solve with 3ac and 17dn the only sticking points.

    At 3ac, having played with ANARCHISTS for a while I got the U from UNTIE and guessed it had to be PUTSCHISTS although I didn’t know it exists nor the word SCHIST which one needs to make sense of the wordplay.

    At 17dn I came up with DRONCADE by wrongly assuming ‘and er cod’ was the anagrist and ‘dab’ the anagrind. I couldn’t see ‘cod’ as anagram indicator and without access to the usual sources I’m still not sure I understand it now.

    1. I also wondered about this. Chambers gives “mock” (adj). So equivalent to “bogus”, “false” etc. Does that work perhaps?
    2. Having arrived home I checked ‘cod’ and found Collins has it as ‘tease’ (amongst other things) and this, perhaps in the sense of ‘play with’ does the trick for me. All reservations withdrawn.
11. As written above, I think it may be being used in its meaning of ‘play a trick on’ or ‘mess about with’.
12. 3, 17 and 18 clobbered me for quite some time. Focussed too much on the -O-I- forename; a lot of them – did you entertain Sonia, ulaca? Clever, frustrating puzzle. 41 minutes.
    1. No, I wrote down just the three I mentioned – hopelessly sexist, I fear. The only female scientists that come to mind are Marie Curie and Margaret Thatcher …
       1. Mary Archer?
13. A fine crossword, this one. Last in was Putschists, and then only because put = shot put came up somewhere a day or two ago. I echo the comment about care with the surface readings, which imo can transform a competent crossword into a brilliant one. If you read through these clues, every one of them is plausible. I especially like 24ac, 17dn for the double use of “cod,” and best of all the elegant 14ac.
14. I read 20(d) as (f)ore warning then LSE as the “central London school”
    1. It got you to the right answer which is the main thing but it would be a bad clue if that were the setter’s thinking because there would be no definition i.e. Warning = Or Else.
15. 26 delightful minutes of wrangling, my last in being OR ELSE for which I also imagined the LSE to be a central London school. Right answer, wrong (and conceded as erroneous) reasoning.

    I had two Provençal jamais-couché-avec’s intersecting in the SE, and nearly invented both the Tamburino and the Broncade, though still not sure which is the dish and which the dance.

    I agree that, across the pond, 23 might well be misconstrued, as it might also be at Eton.

    While the long ones were all candidates for unreasoning entry, all I thought had excellent construction: I liked the well disguised anagram at 6, and the two charades at 14 and 18, with “no hospital” in the former technically redundant but helpful for the surface and the unwrapping.

    GALLEON deserves a place among the all time greats.

16. 16:11 here. I agree with most others here that the clue for ALL IN GOOD TIME was brilliant. Two unknowns for me – TAMBOURIN (easy to guess) and BRANDADE (not so easy). In the end I felt that “cod” was a better anagrind than “dab”, and that DRONCADE was a less likely name for a dish.
17. If it’s a month to my birthday it’s a month before my birthday. I wish.
18. On closer inspection, I don’t see exactly how the -DECTO- in 14ac works, although Dec[ember] is obvious enough. How does ‘available a month (before)’ fit in?
    1. It’s “no hosptial available”.
    2. Thanks. I was trying to see how before = to and couldn’t see it for looking.
19. 19:52 .. several of the cleverer clues not fully appreciated while solving thanks to helpful enumerations and checking letters, the brilliantly observed dismantling of galleon included.

    Nice work from the setter. Last in PUTSCHISTS which I’d thought of earlier but convinced myself didn’t fit until I actually wrote it down.

20. After finding yesterday’s much harder than most I seem to have found this a bit easier than most – finished in 14 minutes. Quite a lot went in without full understanding so I spent a while going back to unravel it all, which gave me the opportunity to appreciate properly a delightful puzzle.
    It’s been said already but I’ll say it again: 10dn is simply brilliant.
21. 30 minutes, great puzzle with vg ticks against 5 down clues. Needed aids to get putschists and sort of had to guess at the crossing tambourin and brandade.

    Hope it’s challenging tomorrow – ‘appen I’ll need something to occupy me o the 2½ hour flight from Yorkshire to t’Italy.

    Request to the blogger – please can you stop putting answers from the puzzle in the topic header. Thanks

22. Nope, couldn’t finish today. Failed miserably on 3ac (is PUT really a synonym of THROW?), and guessed wrongly that 13ac might be a reversal of that well known poet ENIWT.

    Didn’t understand the wordplay for 14ac, 18ac, 1d or 10d while solving.

    COD 19d.

    1. It is when it’s putting the shot in field athletics. That said, you don’t put the javelin!
       1. Doh! Thanks!
23. Uncle Yap would like to ask penfold61 why he requested “can you stop putting answers from the puzzle in the topic header”

    What is wrong with that? Today, I thought this was the best clue of all and wanted to highlight it.

    People who come here to read will be exposed to all the answers; so it is not as if the header would be a spoiler. But if you can give me a cogent reason, I will try and respect that in future.

    1. I think there was some discussion about the headings some time ago. Not all people come here looking for the latest puzzle, having fallen off the relentless pace for whatever reason, and can’t help seeing a spoiler for a puzzle not yet attempted. This would also apply to those seeking the day before’s blog early in the morning, not expecting to see the day’s blog already there, either by magic of international time differences or chronic crossword insomia. I think it was suggested that references to answers should be oblique, or in some cases (not excluding my own) unfathomable.
    2. Uncle Yap – perhaps Penfold is already packing his boaters and cravats ready for his annual Grand Tour, but I’d certainly echo his sentiment.

       I tend to have this site open in a browser tab whenever I’m online (which is most of the time). While checking for blogs of non-daily puzzles or when opening my browser I sometimes catch a glimpse of the daily puzzle blog before I’ve solved the puzzle itself. Due to the size and weight of the title font it’s almost impossible not to take in what is printed there before looking away. If a solution is in there, it rather spoils the solving experience. It’s happened to me a couple of times and is somewhat annoying.

       Oblique references that only make sense after solving are greatly preferred by this reader.

    3. What my dear friends koro and the lovely sotira have said sums up my beef perfectly Uncle Yap. Thanks for considering the request.

       For sotira – cravats packed, boaters go in last, upside down with a stilton in one and a dundee cake in the other. Taking 12 Times crosswords (one per day) from Jan 2008, the month before I started my daily assault on the Times cryptic.

       1. I would say you have everything a chap needs for survival right there in one steamer trunk. Buon viaggio!
       2. Hehe….
24. Another puzzle that took me almost an hour to crack. Unlike yesterday, looking back I can see why. PUTSCHISTS and BRANDADE I was always going to struggle with, and did! All the others were clear (eventually!) but the wording of the clues was very clever and, for me at least, extremely misleading.

    Well done Setter: excellent puzzle.

25. I enjoyed this one which I don’t think has a duff clue in it. All of high standard with flashes of brilliance. Didn’t understand the galleon trick until some time after solving the puzzle. 25 fun filled minutes – thank you setter.
26. Another congrats to setter. The PUTSCHISTS were finally overcome in something like an hour, I forgot to check when I finished. BRANDADE was a calculated guess and coming here I see some of my parsings were less than complete. COD to GALLEON, of course.
27. Okay, I hear you loud and clear
    Henceforth, I will not use any answer in the heading for the blog … sorry if I had unwittingly spoilt anybody’s pleasure
    1. No worries, Uncle Yap. Excellent blog as always, by the way.
28. Echoing everybody’s sentiments, a lovely puzzle. About 25 minutes. Didn’t know this meaning of ‘mistral’, or the two Provencal references, but got them from the wordplay. The 10D clue’s reverse engineering was fantastic, but the one that drew a laugh from me was MULLION. Thanks to the setter, regards to everyone else.
29. Well there goes that one, picked the wrong anagrindicator and devised the delicious dish CRONDADE which is made with rainbows and unicorns and will knock your salted codcoction on its rear end.
30. About 9 minutes – forgot to look at the clock immediately after finishing. Nothing new to add, though I should admit as an LSE graduate to failing to notice it was the school, believing that nothing else(!) would fit ?R ?L?E and not bothering with the wordplay. Another with 3A last in.
31. Loved the All in good time clue.
    Pleased to see ‘Bradford’s crossword dictionary’ available as iPhone App, but a bit pricey at £18-99. Still, makes the travel bag a bit lighter.
32. …so maybe not that straightforward, then 🙂
    1. I’m afraid I don’t understand your point. I said ‘mostly a straightforward solve’ and cited 17dn as one of the few exceptions.

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