Times 24683 – Normal service has been resumed

Author   kororarekaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: 25 minutes

I picked a good day to swap blogs (apologies in advance if next Monday’s is a stinker, vinyl1, but them’s the breaks). Rapid progress was only halted by three clues, all plant related either directly, 13 d & 10ac, or indirectly, 11d. Today’s heading relates not only to the ease of this puzzle but also the end of daylight saving in the UK, which took me unawares as I logged into the Crossword Club at 7 a.m. (local time) and was more than usually perturbed to find Sunday’s crosswords still on the home page.

Across
1 AVANT GARDE = (VAT A DANGER)* with anagrind “if unstable”
6 Deliberately omitted, even though this might cause no end of scandal in a less rigorous crossword.
9 BLEAK HOUSE = sucH + OUSE for English river placed after BLEAK for fish. As with many a crossword fish, the Bleak is small pelagic fish of the Cyprinid family. I didn’t even know it was a fish, let alone small or pelagic, but Bream House isn’t a book.
10 ARUM = SARUM. Current Salisbury is New Sarum, as opposed to Old Sarum, as Thomas Hardy aficionados would well know. My recollection of Sarum was vague, but I know the Arum Lily as a noxious weed of Australian wet places.
12 KINDERGARTEN = KIND for class + ART inside GENRE*
15 OUT OF GEAR, a double definition, the second cryptic.
17 ASSET = bASSET, the definition being “plus point”
18 HIPPO is contained in bullwHIP, POssibly.
19 LETTING GO = GO for game after LETTING for agreeing to.
20 AN ARM AND A LEG, a double definition.
24 RIDE = RID for free, at as in by, vehiclE
25 (I GOT LEHAR Piece)* = LIGHT OPERA. That would be Sigmund Romberg, whose “best-known operettas The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926) and The New Moon (1928), … are in a style similar to the Viennese operettas of Franz Lehár”. You’d be familiar with this classic, often confused with Vilja from The Merry Widow. Vale Joan.
26 EARL = EARLy
27 REINSTATED = REIN for check, STATE for say, next to D for daughter

Down
1 ABBE = ABBEy
2 APE for primate + X for cross = APEX
3 TAKE IT FROM ME, a double definition, the first cryptic
4 AVID for “very keen”, employing in the sense of engaging(?) or keeping occupied(?), O for old = AVOID
5 DESERT RAT = TAR for sailor reversed after DESERT for leave.
7 CU for copper + (GETS GEAR)* = CURATE’S EGG.
8 NOMINATION = OM for award + IN for popular all contained in NATION for country.
11 PARADISE LOST = PARADE for march containing IS for island + LOST for futile. Put down your Hardy and read some Milton.
13 JOSH for “indulge in banter” + TAU for Greek character, reversed, + RE for about + E for European = JOSHUA TREE, Yucca brevifolia and not Yuck, an interminable folio
14 LADDER for run underneath STEP for stage = STEPLADDER
16 EGLANTINE = EG for say + ANT for worker inside LINE for row. A plant which didn’t hold me up and another weed in Australia.
21 SHE for female in AN for article = ASHEN
22 BET for wager around S for singular = BEST. The fame and infamy of George Best may even have crossed the Atlantic.
23 Deliberately omitted. I’m sure you’ll be able to ace this one unaided.

43 comments on “Times 24683 – Normal service has been resumed”

  1. Not sure if it was just the contrast with last week’s tribulations, but this seemed a bit bland. Straightforward solve in 34 minutes.
  2. 38 minutes, with a fair bit spent on JOSHUA TREE at the end and earlier on sorting out the SE after putting in ‘Merry Widow’ at 25ac. The song ‘Stout hearted men’ from Romberg’s New Moon is a staple of male voice choirs the world over.
  3. Yes indeed, it’s quite nice to have a run of the mill puzzle. 31 minutes, no real problems. But lots of arty answers, i suppose, which won’t please everyone. Now, must get back to Saturday’s brain-bender…
  4. Ooh, I’ve equalled the blogger and beaten all contributors so far! That’s a first for me. 25 minutes with the last 6 spent on 13dn and 14dn. I don’t understand the reference to scene-shifter in 14ac.
    1. As joekobi points out below, scene-shifters could use stepladders, but more obvious stage hands might spring to mind, like lighting technicians.
  5. 14 minutes something. Held up by old Joshua. Rather enjoyed the easy solve after the stormsnarling brainscrambles of recent days. As long as it doesn’t happen too often. The stepladder is used to help shift scenery which is there to help make the stage real … as it were.
  6. Almost embarrassed to enter some of these answers. As ever though, held up at the end by JOSHUA TREE and was quite pleased to work it out on my way to the laptop. (Note to self: add TAU to list of Greek characters). Didn’t know BLEAK was a fish or that LOST could be futile (Love’s Labour’s?).
  7. Held up by ARUM for which I had to duck away from the baseball game to look up and even then I had rough going until coming here for enlightenment. I reckon about 40 minutes but then again, I was watching Texas lose to the Giants 4-0.
  8. An equal double-take this morning at 7:05, Koro, to find the Sunday puzzles. But that was made up for later by the Club Monthly being on the main page — and on 1st November! A welcome change of policy. Now I just have to work out how to switch off the stats about which I could(n’t) care less.
    The latter proved impentrable as ever, making today’s puzzle quite straightforward. So 17 mins with the only real problem at 13dn — the dread un-crossed J. Also didn’t know the eglantine was a rose, just thought it was a weed (see blog). On checking, it seems it’s called Rosa eleganteria and is also called Sweetbrier/briar.
  9. Pleased with this at 10 min 30 sec and me too with a bit of a hold up on Joshua tree. Thanks setter for a nice start to the week now I am back at work!
  10. Agreed, very easy this morning – 7:43 for me. The train had barely got out of the station before I was finishing it off! Luckily I had all the weekend’s puzzles with me too, so I didn’t get bored.
  11. I got quite excited when I glanced at the clock to see that only 8 minutes had passed with only two clues unsolved. PARADISE LOST unaccountably took me another minute and a half so the personal best was blown, but surely a second ever sub-ten-minuter was on the cards…. half an hour later I gave up. DNF.
    I’d worked out that I was looking at a plant I’d never heard of combined with a meaning of Salisbury I didn’t know minus an S, but that was not enough.
    So all in all a combination of the easy to the point of blandness (does 20ac belong in the Times?) with the downright impossible.
    Harumph.
    1. This type of puzzle (very easy except for a few) has its place. Ditto the (s)ARUM clue where either moderately difficult history or easy botany/gardening (the arum lily isn’t an obscure plant) should give you enough.
      1. No doubt these puzzles have their place but it’s a bit like giving sweeties to a toddler and then taking them away again. The setter can expect tantrums.
        Perhaps I’ve been spending too much time with my five-year-old son…
  12. Yippee! At last one I could do (almost!) without any aids… the damn sporting one got me… I used good old Wiki to find out that someone called BEIT was an Israeli footballer, so concluded that must surely have been the answer… (and by the way, yes, I have, just, heard of BEST…!)
    1. Well done Janie.
      Setters wouldn’t admit it but they eagerly await the passing of PELE so they have another 4 letter footballer to work with. Possibly the only footballer other than George Best who non-fans might have heard of.
      1. Ditto runners COE and CRAM, I suspect. Like Cram, Best is doubly useful because his name is an everyday English word.
  13. 5:20 and would have been comfortably sub-5 if not delayed for 30 secs or so by the unlikely-looking ?O?H?A TREE – thinking of tau (and the right meaning of “about”) eventually did the trick.
  14. 15 straightforward minutes, with the last in 11, 16, 14 and 13: all of them with all checkers in place. Must be some kind of negative record.
    CoD to PARADISE LOST (once I saw it)
      1. Quite happy with second half of clue, but interpreted “gear” as clothing. First half was the bit I didn’t find convincing.
          2. I tend to use “out of whack” as meaning not functioning properly, and “out of gear” as not functioning at all, as with the car metaphor it evidently stems from.

            Peter, I occasionally feel the lack of a copy of either the COD and the Collins that The Times seem to like to use as their reference dictionaries. Do you think that the online ODE is a suitable substitute for these? At least it’s free!

            1. As far as I know, everything in COD is in ODE. There seem to be a few Collins-only meanings and words, but not very many – I think the online ODE is an excellent free service.
  16. 21 minutes with STEPLADDER being the last in, probably because I‘d been lulled into thinking that “run” would be R when it turned out to be “ladder”; it also took a while before the cogs engaged for OUT OF GEAR.
    Wild Arum, (also known as Lords and Ladies, Cuckoo Pint and other names useful to crossword compilers) is one of the few plants that will grow in the deep shade that covers much of my garden, and provides interest for several months of the year.
    The mere mention of Sigmund Romberg immediately brings to mind Richard Tauber’s 1941 recording of Lover Come Back to Me.

      1. Well, Sigmund Romberg did write a song called I live, I die for you, though I can’t find a recording of it on YouTube. You might enjoy The Desert Song, the first number (High on a Hill) being performed by Sid and the Riffs, which I always thought sounded like a punk rock group. Way ahead of his time was our Siggie!
  17. I couldn’t believe how easy this was until I got stuck on the last entry, 13. Most of the time I was writing the answers in as soon as I read the clue, the only speed limitation being my pen and pausing for sips of drink. After 7 minutes I had all but 3 done. I was slow to see LIGHT OPERA, even though it was obviously an anagram. I think I was put off by the unfamiliar Romberg. But it was 13 (also unfamiliar) that raised my time from 9 minutes to a disappointing 17. I finally got it when I realized the Greek letter was TAU.
  18. One of my fastest solves ever, ARUM being the last in (and a guess) for an 8 minute solve. JOSHUA TREE, BLEAK HOUSE and PARADISE LOST went in without understanding the full clue.
  19. 5:03 from me, but then I did know that BLEAK was a fish, having caught many of the little things whilst trying to catch bigger specimens.

    JOSHUA TREE and PARADISE LOST needed all the checking letters.

  20. 39:08, but that was after spending 15 mins or so on 10a. Never heard of either ARUM or SARUM, so had to resort to aids to finally crack it. Also accidentally closed the tab while pondering this one, so lost another 3 or 4 minutes re-entering all the other answers and generally muttering a choice selection of oaths and curses.

    I lost a couple of minutes on 13, thinking it was going to be some hideous latin name because of the crossing A, but the classic U2 album came to my rescue – I probably wouldn’t have known it otherwise.

    I found it quite pleasant to get an easy one upon my return to work after a week off

  21. Nice and easy, knocked out in a very fast for me 30 minutes, apart from 10ac where I had no hope, never having heard of SARUM or ARUM for that matter, so I scribbled in TRIM knowing it was probably wrong. Also didn’t help the cause by initially guessing REINVESTED for 27ac, despite lack of wordplay support.

    COD 8d.

  22. 16:37 solved online. No problems with Joshua tree, U2 making themselves useful for a change. What slowed me down was Paradise Lost with unhelpful checking letters, hard-to-spot wordplay (3 elements squeezed into 4 words) and a well-hidden definition (epic, epic march or futile?).
  23. An easier offering, 18 minutes for me. Knew the ARUM and the JOSHUA TREE, didn’t know of ‘Sarum’. Last entry was EARL. I even knew BEST, but admittedly, only from doing these puzzles. Regards to all.
  24. Well , a PB for me today at 4:45 , previous quickest was just over 5 minutes which I thought would be my limit but with a lot of answers going in immediately I knew a quick time was on so ended up putting the potentially awkward 11 ,12 and 13 without fully checking wordplay. Similar story for last in which was EGLANTINE. A lot of easy clues so , a bit of a 7 ,which was my COD
  25. Raced through this in under 15 minutes with no hold ups. Also thought the “scene shifter’s portable aid” a bit strange.

    Old Sarum should be known to UK solvers – it’s another example of the strange way history isn’t taught in this country. Old Sarum, north of Salisbury, (New Sarum) and close to the Avon was probably the most notorious of the rotten boroughs until The Reform Act put an end to all that. It’s now a national heritage site and worth a visit.

  26. 12 minutes between cases this morning. As I was born in Odstock Hospital and lived the first 18 years of my life in Salisbury, (S)ARUM was not difficult. Spent far too long on PARADISE LOST. Nice, straightforward puzzle.

    Oli

  27. Yes, it was easy and straightforward (after a week in which there were two or three puzzles I couldn’t finish), but I still didn’t finish, having put in BEIT instead of BEST (perhaps it’s ethnic — although I’ve never heard of either of them). And ARUM needed a dictionary check as the second choice after a tentative CRUM (thinking SCRUM might be a sporting term having something to do with Salisbury — I’m really very bad on sports). Blogging very late because I didn’t have time to start the puzzle until half past midnight.

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