Times 24,749

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
16:21 on the Club timer, which was a good deal quicker than I thought was going to be the case. I think what I mean is that this was a tricksy puzzle and I was lucky enough to be on the right wavelength, rather than it being particularly straightforward. I certainly enjoyed it, anyway, even if more than one answer went in without being fully parsed at the time; lots of sleight (appropriately) of hand from the setter. Now hoping I can actually manage to show my working, having established that my instincts were all correct…

Across
1 HOSTESS – Hardy + (SO)rev. + TESS.
5 MANDALA – MANDALAy.
9 LOX – double def., one being liquid oxygen, the other smoked salmon.
10 SECOND RATER – RAT in SECONDER. Rat is perhaps a slightly mild way of describing Judas.
11 BEHOLDER – EH(=what?) in BOLD + E.R.
12 PASS UP – PA’S SUP.
15 TOOK – TOO + K.
16 EAVESDROPS – (PASSEDOVER)*.
18 SAMOTHRACE – (THOMAS)* + RACE.
19 STAB – (BATS)rev.
22 ENRAPT – (ARNE)rev. + ParT.
23 BLACK DOG – BLACK(=jet) + DOG(=setter); Churchill frequently referred to his depressive moods thus.
25 GREENBOTTLE – cryptic def.; blowflies of a similar type to the more familiar bluebottle, also referring to the popular children’s song.
27 IKE – lIKE. Made easier by the enduring echo of his Presidential campaign slogan “I Like Ike”, of course.
28 TROCHEE – cryptic def.; at last, reward for those years of learning to scan classical poetry.
29 RAMEKIN – (NIKE + MARs)rev.
 
Down
1 HALIBUT – mALIBU in Hard Time.
2 SIXTH FORMER – X in (THIS)* + FORMER(=old).
3 EASILY – AS 1 in ELY.
4 SECRETAIRE – i.e. SECRET AIRE (=concealed river).
5 MANY – foreigN in MAY.
6 NORMANDY – New ORMANDY. One of my educated guesses, as I’d never heard of the conductor…
7 ACT – ACTon.
8 APROPOS – A PROPOSe.
13 SPOTTED DICK – SPOT(=jam) + TED + DICK. Stop sniggering at the back, there.
14 PERCOLATOR – COLA in (PORTER)*.
17 AT A PINCH – A TAx + PINCH. Another potential Liberal Democrat policy delivered in cryptic form, there. Lovely.
18 SLEIGHT =”SLIGHT”.
20 BOGBEAN – (O.B.)rev. + BEGAN with the G raised. As is traditional, I was utterly unfamiliar with the plant. Get beyond daffodils and snowdrops and I am guessing.
21 SCREAM – policE in SCRAM(“beat it”) gives “riot”, i.e. scream, good time.
24 TOTE – double def.; having never been a parent (to my knowledge) I had a vague idea that as well as the betting Tote, this must refer to some sort of baby-carrying sling or similar. Research suggests that a tote bag actually carries the numerous accessories relating to babies, which doesn’t really seem to equate to “child-bearing” to my mind. Anyone with more experience of either carrying children or solving crosswords care to add to my assessment? Ah, failure to see wood for trees: as per keriothe in first comment, it’s TOT(child) + E (bearing), as well as the aforementioned betting Tote.
26 EGO – bErGsOn. I started reading about Bergson, to see if he was a particularly appropriate choice for the surface of this clue, but my head began to spin.

32 comments on “Times 24,749”

  1. 27 minutes.
    After yesterday’s this was an interesting lesson in what slows me down and makes me so inconsistent. Using the statistical resources of the Times Crossword Club and the standard measure of crossword speed, the Biddlecombe, I calculate that my time yesterday of 1.14pb contrasts starkly with today’s 3.73pb.
    Part of the difference is just form and competence, because I spent far too long today on some pretty simple clues (MANY, ACT, TOOK), messed myself up in the SE by writing in SCREME, and even once I’d seen this mistake puzzled over RAMEKIN because I couldn’t see the wordplay.
    Mostly however it’s ignorance. Today I didn’t know MANDALA, LOX (in the Liquid Oxygen sense), SAMOTHRACE, ORMANDY or BOGBEAN. I know the word TROCHEE but couldn’t remember what it meant so needed all the checkers to have a 19ac at 28ac.
    The good news is that things are steadily improving, thanks in large part to this blog. Like Eric Ambler yesterday Thomas Arne (with his fellow composers Arthur Bliss, Edmond Dede and Bedrich Smetana) is one of those names I know and look out for because I’ve seen them before here. Like the gemsbok I’m sure they’re grateful for the attention.
    I think 24ac is TOT (child) + E (bearing).

  2. Found this rather tricky and took nearly an hour all told: a few curve balls in there (though I hardly know what one is). Last to go in was 20 – a device (the raised g) I’m often slow to see. COD 2 – very simple once I’d got it but took some time.
  3. This was quite a struggle. After filling in about a quarter of the answers quickly, the rest came in a slow trickle and I finally had to resort to aids for Samothrace, Mandala and a couple of others.
    Louise
  4. I’m in awe of anyone who managed to solve this stinker in 16 minutes. This took me most of the day, on and off, and even I then had BOGFERN as a random guess for BOGBEAN. Nearly every one was a tussle, particularly SIXTH FORMER, SAMOTHRACE AND LOX, my last, but by no means least, in.
  5. I am as always very grateful for the blog, today even more so because there was a handful of clues I couldn’t parse, even if I saw the answer.

    The bogbean took me a long time, especially because I happily put STUN for 19a, being reversal of nuts.

  6. Well over an hour, in two or three stints. Wordplay-inspired guesswork correctly led me to MANDALA, SAMOTHRACE, ENRAPT; but incorrectly to BOGFERN (glad to see I wasn’t alone). Never heard of Ormandy but, with all checkers in place, what else could the old duchy be? A good, enjoyable challenge, properly putting me in my place after yesterday’s gentle outing.
  7. I thought this was a hell of a good puzzle, and the 37 minutes were all well spent. Lots of parsing all over the page; and blowed if I could see the gods in 29ac; or the BEGAN in 20dn. All ex post facto I’m afraid. Not helped by mis-entering PONY at 24dn either. Pennies dropping all over the place like the “sand” under New Brighton Pier. I’d love to compose a puzzle like this one day.
  8. 45 minutes for this one with two wrong guesses and one correct one.

    I did this in three 15 minute sessions. The first and last of these were productive but for the middle one I was stumped and only managed one entry, TOOK at 15ac.

    My correct guess was choosing SAMOTHRACE over SOMATHRACE. Somehow I have managed not to know of this island until today.

    At 9ac I plumped for LAX because I know gravlax from Sweden and Lachs in German. I didn’t know the other meaning.

    At 20dn I had BOGFERN.

  9. No time today – too many distractions following the discovery that I had forgotten to take a pen on the Tube. Felt like a 25 minuter, though I gave up on BOGBEAN because I couldn’t break the cryptic and didn’t know the plant. Pother.
    Lots of excellent clues and space for educated guesses. Favourite today was the dish of the Gods at 29.
  10. 40 minutes. Enjoyed this very much, even if I did buy a few of the setter’s dummies. For example, it took me a while to unpick RAMEKIN, thinking that “round” was part of the definition.

    I remember saving up to buy Eugene Ormandy’s recording of Sibelius’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, issued in commemoration of the composer’s ninetieth birthday. Thirty-seven-shillings-and-sixpence, I think it was.

    Lots of good clues, but GREEN BOTTLE is the one I liked best.

  11. Very annoying that the site has lost my username/pw.

    Found this quite tricky, taking 45 minutes. I’ve never heard of SAMOTHRACE, nor the second definition of LOX, but at least TROCHEE and MANDALA were familiar.

    Another excellent Tuesday puzzle, with particular praise for 2, 8, 14, 21.

    Dyste

  12. 15:29 here. A lot of tricky bits here requiring guesswork and/or trusting to luck. For example, I didn’t know LOX as a deli item, but knew the rocket fuel. I’d never heard of ORMANDY the conductor either, but that couldn’t be anything else once the crossing letters were in. Also didn’t know BOGBEAN, but got it from the wordplay.
  13. 18:12 .. similar experience to others, with quite a few going in on the grounds that I ‘knew’ they were right but damned if I knew why they were right. RAMEKIN in particular I ‘solved’ then needed a night’s sleep to understand.

    A proper test, for sure.

    I’m afraid, Tim, I did snigger at 13d, despite supposedly being a grown-up. It’s just funny, no getting around it.

  14. 16:10 online. Like Tim and others I got TOTE for the wrong reason and didn’t know BOGBEAN or Ormandy.
    Also took a bit to get 25 as I hadn’t come across that before either. TROCHEE is one I only know from previous puzzles where I didn’t get it – so it sticks in the mind now. I enjoyed this puzzle today apart from erasing my online answers halfway through and having to start again. A lot of originality in the cluing.
  15. Really enjoyed this one…just my level of difficulty. Managed to complete the whole lot unaided in a pretty swift (for me!) time – that means anything less than an hour that I manage to finish while sorting out the family’s breakfasts/pack lunches/homework etc. However, when I say finished…

    Like others, I didn’t get the marsh plant wordplay, and stuffed in BOGFERN, I took a lucky punt with SAMOTHRACE, got RAMAKIN (sic) because, though I knew the dish, couldn’t spell it, and wasn’t familiar with the gods, and lastly scribbled in TROPHIE which sounded like it should be a word…

    Unlike Linxit, I knew LOX from the deli item, but not the air fuel. Others went in on either wordplay or def alone.

    Thanks for blog, really needed it to unravel several answers today.

  16. 25 minutes for a good standard puzzle with some excellent wordplay. Particularly grateful for the “perhaps” in 23A. Thank you setter.
  17. Couldn’t finish this but liked it because the arcane stuff was mostly eminently deducible.
    I just couldn’t get past LPG for the fuel – never going to be an answer in the Times
  19. Tough but enjoyable puzzle with a nice mix of clues, ranging from Classical antiquity to popular culture. Unfortunately, I was defeated in the SE by the deity clue (in spite of the crossing ‘k’, which should have put me onto Nike), not helped by failing to get 21 ac, which gets my COD. Also needed help to finish the NW, BEHOLDER kick-starting that corner, where TOOK was especially elegant, I thought.
  20. Tough puzzle, about an hour, although I was watching basketball throughout. A whole barrel full of unfamiliarities: SAMOTHRACE, ‘may’ as ‘blossom’, SECRETAIRE, BLACK DOG and the TROCHEE. I finally unravelled the BOGBEAN but still had RAMEKIN on def. only until coming here. Quite a workout for me. Regards to all.
  21. Rough sledding on this one, ca. 45 minutes, but more enjoyable than many a quicker solve. And I actually understood each solution, except for ‘tote’. I particularly liked 11ac, 18ac, 19ac. I knew Samothrace only because there was a historical novel, ‘Tros of Samothrace’ that must have been fairly popular when I worked in a public library as a high school student; but since I had put in ‘in a pinch’–which is how I say it–it took a while.
  22. Failed to get MANDALAY having put SET in instead of ACT (London area = SE, NOT taking ON leaves T). Oh well.
  23. Agree with all that there was lots of good stuff in this puzzle. About an hour with one not entered – took. Got ‘ramekin’ but missed the reference to the Greek god of athletic footwear. Blog and comments invaluable as always. COD to ‘greenbottle’ in agreement with John from Lancs,perhaps an age thing!
  24. 8:44 for me – I’d have been faster if I hadn’t rashly put in BUND for 5D even though I wasn’t really convinced that BUD = “blossom” or that BUND (as in der Bund) = “foreign [i.e. German] legion”.

    No problems with any of today’s words, in particular I’ve sung once or twice under Eugene Ormandy’s baton many years ago (but so many that I can’t remember which works).

  25. 30 mins apart from bean foolish and hoping it was a fern.

    So the standard measure for scoring is now the pb, eh? I like it, and am pleased to remember all those people who included that they had managed a pb in the last puzzle I saw blogged! Well done to you all!

Comments are closed.