According to the club website, this puzzle was solved inside the time limit by 65% of contestants at the championships. I believe this equates with “very easy” – with the old half hour limit for one puzzle, a percentage over 40% was unusual in regional finals, but these had more competitors than Cheltenham prelims. The current time limit is of course a movable feast – 60 minutes if you don’t mind finishing only one puzzle, much less if you aim to finish all 3. I suspect most people who finished all three puzzles completed this one inside about 12 minutes.
If you think this one is too easy for a championship: of the 6 solvers who were in the first 10 finishers but had one or more mistakes, 3 had a mistake in this puzzle.
I forgot to mention one unusual aspect of this puzzle on the day. When telling us there were 5 minutes left, organiser David Levy stated that there was still at least one place in the Grand Final available to an all-correct solver inside the time limit. Except for “Keep solving Bryan, he’s made at least one mistake” in a tie-breaker, I can’t remember any such announcement being made before. That said, I’m pretty sure that other prelims since the 2006 restart have always provided 12 all-correct solutions well inside the hour. This one was a bit more like the old days, when the number of all-corrects from 240-odd solvers in a London regional final could be as low as a dozen or even 3 – of the 77 solvers, just 15 were all-correct, though I think there were some optimistic punts in the last few minutes, as well as some unnecessarily hurried attempts to get into the first 16 or so finishers – the number normally needed for 12 finalists. Time order positions of the 15: 2, 3, 6, 9, 14, 15, 16, 22, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33, 38, 45.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | S(CRIB = manger)E, with the external SE from “empty stable” – minor diversion here as STERNE must be to of my S????E writers mental list – I then wasted a few seconds looking for alternative writers before trying for a synonym rather than an example. |
| 4 | SHORE = Hero’s*, D.U.P. = party in Stormont – “shored up” is the def., using this kind of shore |
| 9 | HEAD OFF – 2 definitions |
| 11 | LAMBENT = shedding some light – B=book, in LAMENT = keen – potentially misleading if you miss B=book and start pondering abbreviations for books of the Bible |
| 12 | ROYAL = “one in palace” = ROY,AL = “two names” |
| 13 | TRADESMAN = (and master)* |
| 14 | COOK’S TRAIT = “characteristic of chef” – the Cook Strait divides NZ’s North and South Islands |
| 16 | BO(L)D – {bod = person} is old-fashioned slang |
| 19 | LIEN = right – N=name replaces D = duke, in lied = song. As the N is unchecked, it’s possible to see “song” as a possible def. and hastily put LIED, but “right here” and “with name for Duke” should both help you to identify the right answer. For old hands, the letter swap in an unchecked spot should scream “potential trap”, however clear the rest of the clue, and you should take that extra time to make absolutely sure you’ve got the right choice. As you tackle the other two puzzles from this preliminary, watch out for another of these. |
| 20 | APOPLECTIC = seeing red – POP = drink, in ALEC = smart chap, then IT reversed, C=cold |
| 22 | SOLDIER = tommy, O(fte)N – a fairly easy one as the “soldier” in answer and wordplay are pretty much the same |
| 23 | NABOB = “a very wealthy man” – rev. of BAN=outlaw, then O = old, B = bishop |
| 25 | Omitted for you to work out from checking letters and the clue |
| 26 | E(x)TERNAL – using “Eternal city” = Rome |
| 27 | HE = male, N.(PART = role)Y. – “male role” needs lifting and separating |
| 28 | (l)ASSES,S – “rate” is the def., lifted and separated from “second rate” |
| Down | |
| 1 | Omitted for you to work out from checking letters and the clue |
| 2 | READ = study, Y = close of plaY |
| 3 | BOOTLESS = unprofitable – BOOTLE(g),S(eem)S |
| 5 | HALF A SIXPENCE = musical – (a chef explains)* – the fact that this clue is the second with a chef in it is exactly the kind of thing you should not be noticing under competition conditions |
| 6 | RUMMER – 2 defs – a whimsical “stranger” and a glass |
| 7 | DREAMBOAT = “very attractive man” = (“met aboard”)* – I like the cruise ship surface meaning, and the incidental closeness of ?????BOAT and “aboard” |
| 8 | PUT ON = don (verb) – reversal of “not up” = down |
| 10 | FUTURE PERFECT – two definitions – “tense”, and “terse utopian forecast” – the closeness of the words “tense” and “terse” in the clue might divert you, but isn’t significant |
| 15 | (l)OVER = “beau goes topless”, L = left, ADEN = port – removing an L and then adding one is something else that might divert you |
| 17 | DUCK = avoid, BILLS = legislation – duckbill = platypus |
| 18 | MEANNESS = spite – ANNE = queen, in MESS = portion of pottage – one of my last answers, I think |
| 21 | VIENNA – N = “centre for finaNcier”, in naive* |
| 22 | S = small, L=large, ASH = tree |
| 24 | BONCE = head – more old slang = B(razil),ONCE |
Many of the long ones are rather easy, I put in ‘Cook’s Strait’, ‘duckbill’, ‘soldier on’, and apoplectic’ very early on. There’s nothing like plenty of crossing letters to speed things up.
If they are going to have all the championship puzzles shouldn’t the participants get a subscription extension?
Having said that, I found the Final puzzles much harder, and only had one fully finished in the hour. That wouldn’t have been much fun.
In all of us, Jim, in all of us. That and many other neuroses, I’m sure!
Nobody’s complained abut manger=crib yet, when the most authoritative text on the matter clearly states “Away in a manger, no crib for a bed.”!
CoD today to the cute PUT ON at 8d.
I’m not improving any more; the final finals i couldn’t finish to my own satisfaction and living with my mediocrity has become my primary task. Any commentary on 3 final puzzles now the solutions have been published?
Thank you in anticipation.
Carole H.,Fermo,Italy
As Ulaca has hinted the unusual words were soundly clued so didn’t cause any problems.
This does seem easy. But against the clock and with other puzzles waiting to be solved I think I might have thrown in LIED as well. I’ll refrain from passing judgment until I’ve had the nerve to turn up for the Championship myself.
I took advantage of the fact I’d already done this puzzle to have a go at online solving for the first time. It took a while to get used to (kept putting spaces in multi-word answers and kept getting letters in the wrong places) and it took 6 minutes odd but I managed to make a right horlicks of it and submitted a puzzle with lambant and draemboat crossing.
COD 24d, for making me frantically try to recall old capitals / currencies of Brazil, until the simplicity of the clue finally dawned.
I did like the comment about solvers’ masochism, above, which I hadn’t come across before.
My Submit button worked for the first time today!
Not sure about what is coming up, though!
My overall time was 45 minutes for the three puzzles; this was the easiest, but deliberated over LAMBENT and RUMMER for a while so tried the other puzzles before I went back to this one. Had spotted the LIED / LIEN ambiguity on first read so double parsed the clue!
Note on Peter’s comments above: when the results were initially read out (before MMC withdrew) I qualified in 11th; Stephen in 12th said he’d finished in 47min. So David Levy’s comment was inaccurate and possibly a little unhelpful – I wonder if any would-be all corrects were caught out in the rush after them?
I think the puzzles were probably tougher than last years first qualifier; again finished with a time of 45, but was 38th to put my hand up then, and 28th this year.
Oli
All my holdups were in the RHS. Last six in were DUCKBILLS, BOLD, DREAMBOAT, HALF A SIXPENCE (which I guessed when I spotted SIXPENCE as a fit for the last word – didn’t realise it was an anagram until coming here – d’uh!), LAMBENT (new word for me) and finally RUMMER (ditto).
While looking for the Grand Final puzzles on the crossword club website I was amused to see that John Daly competed at Cheltenham – presumably not the big hitting US golfer !!
when will the championship puzzles be on line on the crossword site?
CoD for antipodeans must be the duckbill!
As crosswords are mostly produced months ahead of publication, I can’t see much reason why they shouldn’t be published simultaneously in all the papers owned by the same organisation, given 21st century technology. (The International Herald Tribune has the current New York Times crossword every day.)
Pending a major change of heart, your quickest route to current xwds is probably to pay for a Crossword Club subscription, which is at least cheaper than buying the paper every day.