Times 24802 – Waiting for BST

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 37 minutes

Music: Beethoven, Overtures, Furtwangler/VPO

This puzzle seemed more like a Sunday offering, with short but gnarly clues, which draw general knowledge more into play than usual. I did manage to complete the right-hand half fairly promptly, but the left, and particularly the SW corner, held me up. There were some tricky literals here, which gives the cryptics a much stronger defense. Even when I worked out the cryptic, I couldn’t see how it could be the answer.

This is not necessarily the type of puzzle I most enjoy, preferring something like last Friday’s puzzle. There is more of a feeling of triumph when you tease an obscure word out of a complicated cryptic, rather than just slap in an answer and say that must be it. I only had one in that category, but it bothers me not to see it. If I don’t unravel it while writing the blog, I’m sure someone will be able to explain it.

Across
1 VENISON, NO(SINE)V, all backwards.
5 BA(TT)Y. I was trying to think of an English dialect word for this, probably something along the lines of ‘scatty’, but the real answer turned out to be quite simple.
9 Omitted.
10 ELABORATE, anagram of OR EATABLE, quite an easy one..
11 CLAMOUR, CLAM + [c]OUR[t]. I wasted a lot of time trying to put something inside of CT, although this made a mess of 3 down.
12 TACKLED, CAT backwards + ELK backwards + D[ied].
13 COTTAGE PIE, anagram of GET A POETIC. Not such an easy one for me.
15 Omitted.
18 RASH, RA’S H[oney], where hives are a disease rather than homes for bees.
20 DIAGNOSTIC, DI + AGNOSTIC. I’m surprised I haven’t seen this one before.
23 PROVERB, double definition. A gnome is a proverbial saying in one of the ancient Germanic languages; examples survive in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse.
24 BOOKLET. BO(OK)LE + T[ime]. Here, ‘OK” is a verb that means ‘allow’. Thanks, aphis99!Well, that’s the answer. Is it BOO(KLE)T, i.e. the trunk in the USA is the boot in the UK? That leaves KLE up in the air. The blog will be amended when the first correct solution is posted!
25 ALLEGORIC, anagram of REAL LOGIC. Not easy for me because I had a wrong word.
26 SOBER, S(O.B.E)R, the Order of the British Empire. ,famously awarded to the Beatles.
27 LODGE, EG + DOL[l] backwards. You have to use ‘lodge’ as a verb, as in ‘lodge a complaint’ – then it can mean ‘present’.
28 HONESTY, HO(NEST)Y. A bit of guess for me, but I vaguely remembered ‘Hoy’, and it seemed like the most probable plant name.
 
Down
1 VAGRANT, VA + GRANT. They could also use the Veteran’s Authority Administration, but the names of US government departments do not usually appear.
2 NATIONAL, RATIONAL – R + N. An arbitrary change of first letter clue, not everyone’s favorite here.
3 STEER, ST + E’ER. ‘Steer’ as a noun meaning ‘a bit of advice’ is not the first meaning that springs to mind; it is most often seen in the phrase ‘a bum steer’.
4 NEAR THING, anagram of THEN A GRIN.
5 BROACH, B + ROACH, one of our favorites fishes, along with ling and ide.
6 Omitted.
7 YIELD, double definition, or maybe one and a half.
8 STOCK CAR, COT’S + RACK, both backwards, but separately. I don’t quite follow what ‘first’ means in the clue. For that matter, how did a NASCAR racer get into a UK puzzle?
14 EDINBURGH, anagram of BIRD HE + GUN, very well-concealed. I put in ‘Edinburgh’, and then erased it when I couldn’t justify it….then I saw it!
16 TACITURN, CAT backwards + 1 TURN.
17 COLOSSUS, hidden backwards (or upwards) in [worrie]S US, SO LOC[ked].
19 SCOWLED, SCOW + LED.
21 Omitted.
22 LEAGUE, LE + AGUE. Rather tricky. I spotted ‘band together’ as the literal, but was puzzled by ‘fit’ for a while.
23 PEARL, PEA(R)L. I don’t usually think of pearl as a gem, so got briefly stuck on this.
24 BACON, B + A CON. I carelessly put ‘Baden’ at first, which is not even the whole surname.

47 comments on “Times 24802 – Waiting for BST”

  1. 24 is (to) OK in BOLE + T.

    Not sure I like the clue for PROVERB, as it seems to me to be two synonymous definitions (though they do have other meanings).

  2. Used to feature quite a bit on TV (‘World of Sport’ with Dick Davies and his moustache, anyone?) in Britain in the 70s. British stock car racing has many facets. To quote Wikipedia, ‘currently, the three main branches of the sport are “Hot rods”, “Stock cars”, and “Bangers”.’

    I think ‘first’ just means you need to carry out the reversals before getting the solution.

  3. Just missed my 30-minute target, which I might have broken had I known the meaning of advice for ‘steer’, as I had that pencilled in early, but ended up putting it in last, after CLAMOUR had fallen. Nice to have a new plant I might actually remember given its memorable name. ’Though STOCK CAR and BOOKLET are clever (I only worked out the wordplay post-solve), they’re easily bunged in from the definition, so COD to the pithy PROVERB. 32 minutes.
  4. I rather liked this. I has some different and interesting words and meanings but is easy enough for a Monday morning.

    I was flipping between A GNOSTIC and AGNOSTIC at 20ac and amused myself by reflecting that the clue could just as easily have started “Girl, a believer..”

  5. After a fast start I got stuck in the SW in the same places as vinyl. Finally limped home in 43 minutes. I didn’t think this was a particularly elegant puzzle – the clunky wording of 1ac gave a fair indication of what was in store.

    Just discovered my name among the Saturday puzzle prizewinners from a couple of weeks ago – so there, the tortoises do beat the hares occasionally. Now where’s the nearest branch of WH Smith?

    And btw if anybody hasn’t tackled it yet, the Saturday puzzle just gone was a beast.

    2. Agreed with that, richnorth. I have just returned to it and finally finished – well it looks OK anyway!
  6. Feared this would happen. Was going so well (by my standards) that I started watching the clock, which prompted me to throw in three stupid answers at the end in an attempt to break eighteen minutes. After submitting, a couple of minutes of quiet reflection yielded all three correct answers (HONESTY, CLAMOUR and VAGRANT). Would have been much happier with an all-correct 20-minute solve than an 18-minute dog’s breakfast.
    I hereby resolve that in all future attempts I will ignore the clock until after submission.
  7. Clock-racing all too often leads to my downfall as well galspray. Today round in 13 minutes except for Honesty which cost me another 6. Enjoyable puzzle, nothing Holmesian about it shall we say. My picture drawn by six-year-old friend should have come through more sharply after a steer from my son – I’ll soon know.
  8. Bit of a romp today at 10m 50s; no particular COD but it was all fairly constructed. Foolishly thought of ‘Baden’ for 24D for a bit (author of a scouting manual perhaps?) then 25 ac put me back on the right track.
  9. A somewhat shaky solve that took me 40 minutes. I got to BOOKLET by the same route as Vinyl1 but managed to unravel the correct explanation after completing the grid. CLAMOUR caused a similar problem. It had to be right but I was thrown by “centre of court” and took ages to see why.

    The only word new to me today was STEER meaning a piece of advice. Of course I knew the expression “a bum steer” but I’ve never stopped to think what it actually means before.

    On the whole I think this was quite a clever puzzle for the misdirection in a number of clues.

  10. 26 minutes but should have been quicker but for a few klutzy glitches in the SW. Knew the “saw”/”gnome” thing had to generate another word for “chestnut” but couldn’t think of one. And that held the whole thing up for far too long.

    Had no idea at all — no nothing — not a thing — about the parsing for BOOKLET, so ta to aphis99 for pointing that one out. The “allow” = OK (not LET) went straight over my head. But there was no other possible answer. (Hate to enter answers without at least some idea of the parsing.)

    My COD goes to 12ac (TACKLED) for the Bullwinkle flavours of the clue. Boris (to Natsaha): “I get cat, you get moose!”

  11. Gentle start to the week, completed without aids in about 30 minutes. Most of my hold-ups were in the SE corner. Took a long time to see the hidden COLOSSUS. First in BATTY, last in HONESTY. Saw several stock cars on the M6 yesterday on my way home from a day’s volunteering at the Shugborough estate in Stafford.
  12. 15 minutes today. Could have been quicker but it took me ages to see EDINBURGH and PEARL for some reason.
    Today’s unknowns: gnome, bole, HONESTY.
  13. One of those ones which you think is going to be doddle but then turns out to have more meat than you thought, to mix several metaphors. 25 minutes all up. I agree that saw & gnome are pretty much the same definition, but otherwise sound clues throughout with a fair smattering of cleverness and trickery. Ditto about the steer. I always thought it was something to do with bulls. COD to LEAGUE which for some reason tickled my fancy.

    I thought 8 was bed’s (with) frame first all turned up, if somebody else hasn’t already said that.

  14. Comfortably completed in under 20 mins (very fast for me) so surprised to see others who usually significantly outpace me taking longer; I was obviously on setter’s wavelength. About two-thirds went in on first reading (clues seemed mostly smooth and in places elegant). Helped (12ac) that we’ve seen the ‘ELK’ + ‘CAT’ (reversed) combination at least twice recently. Thanks to vinyl1 for the blog and to aphis99 for the parsing of 24ac.
  16. Havnig not been posting recently I thought I must get back in the habit. Raced through this and then spent a bit of time on Honesty – not knowing the plant. LEAGUE and COLOSSUS worked very well IMO.
  17. 19 minutes, but my treacly section was the NW, for no reason that now seems …reasonable. Not helped by essaying MIGRANT for 1d, despite it being rude to migrants.
    CoD for the very smooth RASH
  20. nice blog. just thought i’d let you know that the beatles only got mbe’s (till macca got his knighthood that is).

    ak

  21. Thanks for the blog – but just to say that the Beatles got the MBE, not the OBE, later returned by John Lennon. Paul subsequently went a lot better by being knighted, of course, an honour being campaigned for on b ehalf of the other survivor, Ringo.
  22. I found this a bit of a struggle and finished in 34 minutes but with several question marks against answers. I didn’t know STEER with this meaning. Had heard of a “bum steer” but always thought it had something to do with cattle. You learn a lot from these crosswords… I didn’t see at first how LODGE could mean “present”. Bunged it in but I still don’t like it much. My COD is BOOKLET on which I wasted minutes trying to incorporate “boot” as the “trunk” part of the clue. I had the answer but needed to come here for the explanation. A clever piece of misdirection on the part of the setter.
  23. 27:08 but after 14 minutes I clicked something I shouldn’t have and ended up at the club homepage. When I went back into the puzzle the clock was still running but all my answers had disappeared. Stupid computers.

    Not a particularly enjoyable solve either. There was too much I didn’t like:
    “Possibly” in 10;
    “Name for a” in 13;
    The already-mentioned closeness of the two definitions for proverb;
    Woolly definitions for diagnostic, lodge, national, league and hunter for cat.

    Bah

  24. Agree with George – good beginner’s puzzle. 15 minutes to solve top left to bottom right with no scares along the way
  25. Took me about 35 minutes, because I didn’t know ‘bole’, HONESTY, or the PROVERB/gnome connection. That latter seems faintly recognizable now, and may have appeared here before, but my memory didn’t retain it, and it had to be re-learned. I liked TACITURN, which I thought had a decent surface. Regards to everyone.
  26. In the print copy 5ac is called 8ac, a trivial mistake to which nobody has referred. To begin with I thought they had printed the wrong grid. Quite an easy puzzle, and this hardly delayed me. Didn’t like the way you had to reverse things strangely in 8dn.
  27. …but only had the one blank: HONESTY, which I should’ve got, knowing the flower…just couldn’t get away from “in” for “home”. Same unknowns as others (gnome, bole, etc).

    Cod to COLOSSUS, which I put in thinking COLS were some sort of “worries” – doh! Excellent hidden word!

    Thanks for clear blog, vinyl, much appreciated.

  28. My watch needs a new battery, so I have no idea how long this took me; I started off well, but the NW slowed me down a bunch, until finally VENISON, VAGRANT, & CLAMOUR came to me in a flash. HONESTY was my last; just staring me in the face, demanding to be entered, but I was determined that ‘home’=IN. At long last I looked up ‘honesty’ to see if by chance it was the name of a plant as well. Vagrants aren’t necessarily beggars, nor beggars vagrants; and the VA in the US is the Veterans’ Administration, not Authority. Not that it matters, of course.
  29. Finished all but three clues in the SW very quickly. I carelessly but an unchecked Today in 27 across which meant it took me even longer to unravel that corner. I had to look up proverb. I also made up my own plant for 28 across!!
    Louise
  30. What happened to 19d today? Perhaps it is a blog ritual of which I’m not aware but no one has mentioned it…
  31. 7:37 for me.

    If it’s any consolation, I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to justify BOOKLET based on “trunk” = BOOT before light finally dawned.

    I also wasn’t familiar with that STEER = “piece of advice”, having (like others) always assumed that a “bum steer” was somehow related to cattle.

  32. Just under an hour, although the spirit of 28ac I must admit that I didn’t really finish, needing some help for that clue. My geographical knowledge about the Orkneys is limited to knowing where they are (I have cycled to John o’ Groats and found it rather frightening to look across black water to the islands) but not what they are called. And I have never heard of the plant.

    Apart from that I agree with john_from_lancs: I found COLOSSUS easy to get but not to explain, and never saw that it was a hidden word clue, and CLAMOUR is delightful, with the “silent type” at the beginning contradicting the whole and leading one’s thoughts in entirely the wrong direction.

  33. About 10 minutes for me – I can’t be any more accurate as my phone battery was dead this morning, but I managed this one, the Guardian Saturday puzzle by Araucaria and the Saturday Times on the train, in 10, 20, and 30 minutes respectively, more or less. As others have mentioned, Saturday’s was an absolute belter.

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