Times 24717

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 61 mins. Nothing too difficult, I don’t think. The only assistance I needed was to look up Mr Smollett’s first name. I’d been staring at the NW corner for about 10 minutes, unable to gain a foothold until then.

I seemed to go in fits and starts today. It took quite a while to get going, and I got stuck several times. Overall, despite not quite making it in under the hour, I was quite pleased to finish under my own steam. Although, yet again, I mistyped an answer so officially registered 1 wrong – I seem to do that a lot. I really ought to check the grid before I submit it.

I think my time would have been reduced considerably if either of the two long ones down the middle had fallen at the start. I could see that 4 was an anagram ending in ATION, and the 5 was probably a cd involving turning, but both stubbornly refused to come until some time later.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 S(NOW + Boats)OUND – My last in. I failed to spot the definition as ‘cut off by fall’ – I was looking at ‘Immediately’ instead.
6 DORIC = ICe after ROD rev. An order of classical architecture.
9 B(RIG)AND
10 CALYPSO = C + (PLAYS)* + SO
11 deliberately omitted
12 ROW(DINES)S
13 DRAM + A
14 SPIDERMAN = (DREAM)* in SPIN – I’ve not heard the term, but I imagine it refers to those incredible men who you see in black and white photos, eating their lunch perched on girders hundreds of feet in the air. Here’s the great Harold Lloyd demonstrating how not to do it.
17 CHECKLIST = “CZECH LISZT” &ltgroan&gt
18 Orangey Colour Heavily Resembling Earth – A nice little &lit clue, if a little telegraphed.
19 DOBERMANN = (BAN MODERN)*
22 U-TRAP = United + PART rev – I threw U-BEND in hastily at first, but luckily I solved 23 before looking at the checkers so realised my mistake.
24 ORIGAMI = GIRO rev + A + MI
25 TWINSET = WIN in TEST rev
26 S + mOGGY
27 NONENTITY = (N + NOT YET IN)* – I guess we can blame Oscar Wilde for the superfluous sexism displayed here.
Down
1 SABOT = TOBiAS rev – I had to look up Tobias Smollett as I hadn’t heard of him or the clog.
2 OR(I + GI)NATE
3 BLACK + JACK – For those not familiar with Bowls, the jack is the small white ball that you have to get your large black balls as close as possible to.
4 UNDERESTIMATION = (NOTED MINIATURES)*
5 DICK WHITTINGTON – A well-known pantomime (hence seasonal show). I’ve no idea how well-known this is outside the UK, but for those who may not know, there’s an important scene where Dick is leaving London but stops when he fancies he hears the church bells singing ‘Turn again, Dick Whittington’.
6 DELHI = H + LED all rev + I
7 RU(Poor European)E – The currency of India, plus several other surrounding countries.
8 CLO(I + SON)NE – Not a word I knew, but it was deducible from the wordplay.
13 DECIDUOUS = DUO in ICED rev + US – fall being the American word for autumn.
15 EVOLUTION – cd, although only slightly cryptic.
16 MAtaHARI’S + HI
20 BilLING
21 hidden
23 PATSY = PAY about benefiTS

39 comments on “Times 24717”

  1. 12 minutes, found this pretty breezy though I was wired in the middle of the night solving. CLOISONNE from wordplay, SABOT from definition
  2. hello it’s me anonymous – no not mr crossword rage of recent times, but the one who sometimes comes on and asks stupid questions.

    my understanding of &lit clues was that the WHOLE clue had to be both the word play AND the definition – so it depends on one’s reading of the clue how one sees it. In 18ac only part of the clue is the definition (orangey colour) and the rest of it at the level of the definition is just empty verbiage.Surely that just makes it a dodgy clue – the fact that even I got it just reflects that it was an easy clue. Or am I missing something? Anyway, I’m not in a rage about it!

    1. For a clue to be truly &lit, the entire clue should be able to be read as both the wordplay and the definition. While ‘Orangey colour’ could be read as a definition on its own, ochre is orangey-brown, therefore resembling earth so the whole clue can be treated as a definition. Plus of course all the words within the clue form part of the wordplay, so it would certainly be classed as a true &lit.

      You’re right about it being quite straightforward though, I would think it was an immediate write-in for most solvers.

    1. As so often, I can immediately answer my own question, it is “with decoration” of course.

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