Times 24734

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time taken to solve: 35 minutes. I thought we might be in for a stinker today but most of this went in without difficulty though I lost a little time on 6dn and 11ac. An easy end to the week and the year so, hangovers permitting, I imagine there will be some very fast solves today. There’s not really much to say about this so I’ll shut up and get on with it as soon as I have wished all bloggers and commenters a very Happy New Year.

Across
1 MOUTH-WATERING – Anagram of ‘ham, wine rotgut’.
8 FLAT – Double definition.
9 RAMSHACKLE – Anagram of ‘real’ contains Motorway,SHACK .
10 TIDE RACE – T(IDE)RACE – TIDE RACE is a fast moving tidal current. IDE is a type of carp.
11 REMAIN – RE,MAIN
13 UNESCORTED – Anagram of ‘our descent’.
16 OMSK – The Russian city is concealed and reversed inside ‘black smoke’.
17 FINN – Double definition. Huckleberry FINN was Tom Sawyer’s best pal in the Mark Twain stories.
18 THREEPENCE – THENCE contains PEER reversed.
20 REVIEW – RE,VIE,With
22 DOMESTIC – Anagram of ‘Times’ inside DO,C.
24 EMANCIPATE – ET,Ace,PIC,NAME all reversed.
26 I’ll leave this one out for starters.
27 CLEMENT ATTLEE – C,LE(MEN,TATTLE)E.
 
Down
1 MILLIONAIRE – MILL,1,ON,AIRE
2 UNTIE – U,NT,InexpensivE
3 HEREABOUT – Sounds like “Hear a bout”.
4 ARMREST – A(Refreshment)M,REST
5 ESHER – EStHER
6 INCOMMODE – INCOM(Ministry Of Defence)E
7 My second omission.
12 INSECTICIDE – IN,S(hECTIC)IDE
14 SENTIENCE – SENT(1)ENCE
15 DREAMIEST – Anagram of ‘read Times’.
19 REDRAFT – RED,Republican,A,Financial Times. ‘Withholds’ in the sense of ‘restrains’ is the containment indicator.
21 WRITE – W,RITE
23 SEOUL – Sounds like “sole”.
25 MAC – The River CAM reversed

28 comments on “Times 24734”

  1. 32 minutes, with a bit of time spent working out the INCOMMODE/REMAIN crossing at the end. OMSK sounded Russian, although I hadn’t heard of it, but it sent me off looking for a word ending in ome at 6dn.

    Happy New Year to all, especially the bloggers for their efforts. This is my first year as a regular participant, and I’m grateful for all the tips and advice I’ve picked up, and for the rich entertainment the site provides.

  2. A reasonably straightforward 45 minutes, although TIDE RACE entered without confidence. I didn’t know ‘ide’ as a fish; and I thought it was a ‘tidal race’ rather than ‘tide race’.
  3. A tidy, unexciting end to the year. 18 minutes. Thanks for the Lehrer – brings back memories of the Vatican Rag. Recommended on the stroke of midnight tonight.
  4. A rapid start with 1ac, 1dn, 2, 4 and 7 entered in the first minute. This led me to think the whole thing would be easy, but in the end I spent 30 minutes on it. 6 and 11 held me up at the end also.

    I thought there were some good clues, jotting ticks against 8, 18, 6 and 12. 12 was particularly inventive with it’s deceptive definition and coherent surface.

    A Happy New Year to All.

  5. 12 minutes, so quite easy by my standards, but what a smashing set of clues. INSECTICIDE is as clean and polished a misdirection as you might hope to see and beats the neatly reversed EMANCIPATE to my CoD
    Lots to smile about, nothing too testing but nothing clunky either. Bigger challenges can wait: this is a time for party games.
    Happy New Year, everyone.
  6. Possibly the easiest of the holiday puzzles. Less than 15 minutes and no real talking points.

    Best wishes for the New Year to everybody.

  7. Amazing. 3 cans of Guinness, a bottle of pinot noir and a stiff brandy, then 24 minutes to solve. Guess I was somewhat relaxed. It will be new year in just under an hour here, so maybe a large port or two to see 2011 in though a gentle haze. Happy New Year to all setters and bloggers from a very warm and somewhat shakey New Zealand.
  8. About 8.5 minutes, last in was 10A TIDE RACE where I mixed up my IDs and my IDEs for a while. I liked 4D and 6D most. Does anyone else think 22A should begin ‘Conservative party first…’ or is it just me?

    Tom B.

    1. I think both ways are acceptable for both the wordplay and the surface? I suspect the printed way is marginally better as the “verbal” ‘s completes an otherwise verbless statement.
  9. Agreed. Easy stuff for a Friday. About 30 mins for me. I suspect there will be quite a few 5-10min times for the speed merchants. No show-stopping clues to write home about, but I thought EMANCIPATE, HEREABOUT and INSECTICIDE were all good.
  10. 12:50 for me, but I was up till 3am last night so I plead tiredness, as it seemed easier than that. I started off rapidly, but the eyelids started drooping halfway through.
  11. 25 minutes. Pleased to see Mr. Attlee getting a mention. I read that during the 1951 election campaign, his wife, Vi, drove him round the country from village hall to village hall in a Morris Traveller: how innocent were those times! Mrs. T also admired him for being “all substance and no show”: so different from many modern politicians. The crossword? Thought INSECTICIDE very clever.
  12. Yes, I agree, not too taxing (well, I managed to finish it, albeit with one wrong ‘un: TIDE WAVE was thrown in in desperation as a last resort). CsOD: INSECTICIDE and CLEMENT ATTLEE.

    Best wishes and Happy New Year to all! Janie

  13. We are a new husband and wife combo in beginner’s class. We echo richnorth’s comments about how these blogs and comments provide help, encouragement and entertainment.

    Today’s time 48 minutes with some use of aids.

    John of Lancs is right about Mrs Attlee. However her driving represented a serious risk to all other road users.

    Many thanks to all especially Peter B and a very Happy New Year.

  14. This should have been a half hour solve for me but I wasted about 10 minutes looking for a word beginning with “A” for 9a before realising that I had a spelling mistake at 6d. HEARABOUT. A senior moment. Otherwise a straightforward solve but slowish – my mind is on how to organise tonight’s pre-pub dinner with friends which I madly agreed to host. I’d like to wish all contributors here a very happy New Year – Blwyddyn Newydd Dda, as they say in these parts.
  15. 13:48 for this last of the year which I really enjoyed. Some very high quality clues and a delight to solve them. Best wishes to all who make this website such a pleasure to visit.
    Happy New Year
    Richard Mardo
  16. 25 largely untroubled minutes. COD to INSECTICIDE. It’s approaching the witching hour here in Oz, with a choice between the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and Leonard Cohen live from the Isle of Wight in 1970 on the telly. I hope the New Year brings more variety than this to you all.
  17. 18:03 so a good time for me.

    New Year’s resolution is to aim to hit some sub 15 min times.

    Happy New Year to all here.

  18. 5:06 online – slightly annoying as a now rare sub-5 would have made a good farewell. From now, you’ll need to be a Times xwd club member to see my times on their daily stats, as and when I get round to solving them.
  19. Similar story here, about 25 minutes with no real problems. COD to REMAIN, with extra credit for the succinctness of the surface. Happy New Year to all here, and best regards to Peter B, whose learned oversight has been appreciated by all. Best of luck in the new position.

    While you’re there at HQ, please pass along my observation that the growling and grumpiness often expressed over 404 errors, login problems etc., have all but disappeared since the new site format was adopted. It’s only fair to give credit when due, after we were quick to criticize earlier. A job evidently well done. Again, thanks and best regards, and best wishes to everyone.

  20. A nice example of the world’s best daily crossword to finish the year on.
    A Happy New Year to all us bloggers & solvers, and best of luck to Peter in his new job.
  21. I believe CR Attlee was a keen Times solver.

    This site gets better and better. I have learned so much here.

    Happy New Year, and all the best to Pete with the new job

    Andrew Kitching

  22. 6:58 for me. Although my Times Crossword Club subscription has expired (and I’m not renewing it) I discovered I was able to solve the puzzle online via the Times Online access we were given free some months back. It’ll probably expire at the end of today, but what the heck!

    This made for a slightly unusual solving experience, with the Enter key not behaving as expected and with runs of letters I’d typed being lost occasionally, but not enough to spoil things.

    A pleasantly straightforward puzzle, making for an enjoyable end to the year.

  23. Well, I thought this was going to be very easy last evening and I took about 40 minutes (my best time) to do all but 10ac, but neither TIDE RACE nor the IDE hidden in it were known to me and there were too many possibilities to fill in the crossing letters, so I slept on it and resorted to a cheat today. I had been looking for things with DATE at the end, thinking the clue might be “current”.

    Of the other clues I also liked INSECTICIDE quite well, and was amused to see the reference to Tom Lehrer in the blog — that’s how I know OMSK as well. Tom Lehrer is of course also a great help on chemistry clues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4yiERTZj8 (perhaps the funniest song ever written).

    Happy New Year to everyone who contributes to the blog and thank you for making my crossword experience very much more enjoyable.

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