Times 24810 — What’s worn underneath the kilt? (Reprise)

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 58 minutes

Probably the most difficult puzzle I’ve had to blog since I took over the Wednesday slot. A bit like sticking your head in a bucket of water: horrible at the time but feels good when it’s over. I’d have been stuffed on 21ac if I hadn’t suspected the double pangram early on. A very highly crafted puzzle.

 

 

Across
 1 ZIPPER. Two defs. Some prefer ‘zip’ and ‘flies’ for the fastener. Jim Royle: “The cage is open but the beast is asleep”.
 4 UPBRAIDS. U, as so often, for ‘posh’; PB (lead) for the heavy metal, RAIDS for busts. The def is ‘carpets’, admonishes.
10 LIE DOWN. Anagram of ‘Now idle’.
11 ANGU(I)S,H. The Scots division (local government area) is Angus, once known as Forfarshire; as in the great football result: East Fife 4, Forfar 5. Also includes the inimitable Brechin City (wilderness years, 1906 to the present).
12 HOAX. Last letters of ‘with two aquaria’; X for ‘ten’. The def is ‘cod’, trick.
13 GOODS TRAIN. GO (proceed); OD (take too much); STRAIN (tax).
15 KI(LOVO)LTS. The bracketed bit is V (very, briefly) in the LOO. And: see title.
16 Omitted. Though it is a bit fishy, you could probably catch it by sheer serendipity.
18 CIDER. This is RIDER with a C for the initial R (right, hand).
19 GUFF,AWING. The crack is a joke.
21 ART,AXER,XES. Drawing → ART; lumberjack → AXER with a SEX (relations) reversal. Any of several Kings of Persia. Never heard of him.
23 SNUB. Turned up, as in retroussé. Reversal of BUNS.
26 ON THE Q T. Take ‘This tone’ and drop the IS (one’s lacking). So anagram of TH+TONE around Q. The def is ‘in confidence’. Is there any other expression that goes (2,3,1,1)?
27 ZER,MATT. ZERO minus its last. Somewhere in Switzerland.
28 TIMIDEST. Lift and separate ‘paper towel’; so the badge (ID) is in this paper (TIMES), plus the initial of ‘Towel’.
29 JERKIN. The letters J and K come after I, alphabetically. They include ER (our leading lady who’s about to turn up in 1dn). IN is in the clue before the def: ‘jacket’.
Down
 1 ZIL,CH. Here she is! Then Cold and Hot (taps).
 2 P(REV)A,I,LED. I LED after PA packs his gun (REV, verb: as in to gun one’s engine).
 3 Omitted. You can get sore looking up at it.
 5 Ps AND Qs. S’posed to sound like ‘Pisan queues’. Ho ho!
 6 RIGHT OF WAY. OK → ‘righto’; WAY (method) containing F for ‘following’.
 7 I,BIZ,A. BIZ is ‘deals, informally’.
 8 SCHÖNBERG. Arnold, Austrian composer. Anagram of ‘song Brecht’ minus T (‘timeless’).
 9 UN,ROLL. A successful run, when you’re on it, is a roll. (The clue reminded me of Nicole Kidman; but then many things do.)
14 OVER,EX,TEND. Done → OVER; former → EX; nurse → TEND.
15 KICK ABOUT. Anagram of ‘1 back to UK’.
17 UNION JACK. ‘College’ → UNI; ‘working’ → ON; ‘to raise’ → JACK.
19 G(YR)ATES. Yr, abbrev. for ‘younger’, in GATES (wickets).
20 FREEZE. Peg, as in fix (prices). Sounds like ‘frieze’.
22 TOTEM. Reverse inclusive.
24 BATON. Reverse inclusive from the regular letters in ‘aNnOy TeAm By’.
25 BRIEfed.

Total Scrabble score for this puzzle: 230dn + 232ac = 462.
Highest scoring column or row: ZILCH / KICK ABOUT = 40.

55 comments on “Times 24810 — What’s worn underneath the kilt? (Reprise)”

  1. What? Never heard of Artaxerxes III? I grant you, the others were unfamiliar to me, but still. Somehow I managed to get this done in 33 minutes; the secret, I think, was in postponing any thought of how the clues worked until afterwards. On rare occasions, trusting one’s instinct can work. Certainly worked for me with 29, where I only figured out the clue 10 minutes after I’d submitted the solution. CODs all the hell over the place, but I’d single out 11ac and 13ac.
    But is ‘finding land’ really necessary? And is there a policy on the dieresis? I started writing in ‘Schoenberg’ until I realized there weren’t enough squares.
      1. Ah, that would explain it; thing is (was), for me ‘fluke’ is a noun meaning ‘chance’ (It was only by a fluke that I got the meaning of the JERKIN clue), hence my query. In any case, I yield to no one in my, as Noddy Boffin would put it, my hadmiration amounting to hawe for the setter’s skill.
  2. Just over an hour for all bar 4 ac, for which I resorted to aids after a further five minutes’ struggle. Excellent puzzle – we’re on a roll in that regard this week – with my nod for COD going to GUFFAW, but only because I’m too anguished to nominate UPBRAID.

    Artaxerxes I is best known for being the Persian king who allowed the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem.

  3. This took me 2 hours. I think it’s an extremely clever puzzle, confirmed it as a pangram, probably a double but it’s too late here in NY to check that all out after stretching my brain on the extended solve. I’m happy with myself for getting through it at all. Too many COD’s to mention any particular clue. I detect either a new setter from the Bizaaro planet, or else a former habitue of this site. That’s not to set off a discussion of the setter’s identity, but more to comment on the utterly different style displayed by today’s clues. Brilliant. Pisan Ques? Couple after I’ve? I recommend this for the archives. Regards. I’m going to sleep.
  4. mctext, thanks for the blog but I envy you not. What a tough nut to crack, taking me over the hour and even then had to come here for a couple of answers. Never heard of ON THE Q T. I really hope tomorrow’s puzzle will not be as knotty.
    1. I dredged it up from the film LA Confidential, where the Danny de Vito character ends his newspaper columns with ‘Off the record, on the QT and very hush hush’. QT is an abbbreviation for ‘quiet’, in case anyone is wondering.
      1. I had much the same thought, ulaca. The phrase comes straight out of James Ellroy’s book.
      2. As it happens I only watched L.A. Confidential last week as part of my mammoth attempt to watch all the IMDB Top 250 by the end of the year, so it was very fresh in my mind. I think I’d have struggled to remember it otherwise.
  5. Brilliant puzzle, brilliant grid, a real tour de force. I suspect Kevin’s right on the attribution. Took me 26 mins, not helped by carelessly putting in KICK AROUND first for 15D.

    Tom B.

    1. It’s Times Grid #96, one of the ‘new’ set (## 93-98).

      Edited at 2011-03-30 05:44 am (UTC)

  6. Exactly an hour but I failed to clinch 21ac where I had spotted AXER and thought of XERXES (known from the opera containing Handel’s Largo)but I didn’t know ARTAXERXES and I was unable to unravel the wordplay. Knowing we were in for a double pangram was no help here because I already had two Xs at 12 and 14.

    It was a shame not knowing the additional letters at the front of XERXES to make the king in question, however I would have known the additional letters required in front of EROS to make the correct name of the subject of the “London statue” at 3ac had I been called upon to do so.

    I think the correct euphemism at 15ac is “smallest room”.

    But enough of the quibbles! It was a brilliant puzzle and a most enjoyable solve.

  7. Highly crafted puzzle, highly crafted blog. Thanks to the setter and mctext.
    It took me 30 minutes to get all of this but the 8th and 10th letters of the king. I never saw the SEX, partly because I wasn’t sure about FREEZE for “peg”.
    I’ll put it down to having to get up at 5am.
  8. 4 to get after 2 hours. Cheated for ARTAXERXES which gave up FREEZE and ZERMATT. Would have got those last 2 if I was good enough to look for pangrams. Then stuck in JERKIN convinced it was wrong. Always felt I was in with a chance (apart from the pesky Persian) which is the sign of a good puzzle. This more than qualifies if only for getting Ps and Qs and On the Q T in the same puzzle.
  9. Solved in just short of an hour, which is pretty quick for me (and combined with yesterday’s, I think my first ever back-to-back solve). Last in was ‘guffawing’ with absolutely no understanding at all, simply the only word I could fit in there. Never heard of 21ac either, but went in quite happily from the cryptic. Oversall I thought it was a fairly straightforward solve.

    Not at all happy with ‘kilovolts’ as a force unit though. Newton surely?

  10. This isn’t just hard it’s also highly original which adds to the degree of difficulty. If puzzles were like this every day nobody could ever get started so if you’re a newish solver and eventually lost the will to live don’t beat yourself up. See it as a learning experience and study the excellent blog.

    This took me 35 minutes of really enjoyable struggle. I even forgave the setter the leaning tower joke so good are the clues. Take 29A JERKIN as just one example of real class cluing. Thank you setter and well done Mctext – did you at any time get that little wave of “I’m not going to finish this” blogger’s panic? I think I might have!

    1. You got it, Jim. When I said “like sticking your head in a bucket of water” I was refering purely to blogger’s panic. On another day, I may have sat back and enjoyed it.
  11. I agree, a superb puzzle, with loads of PDMs.

    Was held up a little by putting in DHURRIES for the carpets, but that soon became clear when I got 5dn (which I must admit, I did like!).

    A couple went in without FU (CIDER, JERKIN), and there were gaps at the king (though, in my defence, I had got as far as ARTAXER—), the two 19s and also 20dn. I somehow couldn’t get beyond AFFEARING, or something to do with AWAKENING for 19ac, and, seeing the cricket ref at 19dn, I assumed it was beyond my sphere… Not sure I’d have got the peg=FREEZE def however long I’d thought about it.

    Brilliant puzzle, COD to UPBRAIDS (once I’d finally worked it out!)

    Great blog, too, McT, so thanks for that.

  12. Well done, mctext, for a superb blog! An enjoyable challenge but DNF: defeated by ARTAXERXES, GYRATES and ON THE Q T and did not understand full wordplay for KILOVOLTS, JERKIN and PREVAILED until coming here.

    COD: PS AND QS (it’s such an awful homophone that it’s good …).

  13. We thought this was a fabulous but not too difficult puzzle, lots of good clues an a double pangram to boot. 65 minutes with two uses of aids. Thanks to MCT for the blog and the scrabble scoring.
    Pity that, at the time of posting, it seems impossible to read the comments.
  14. This was one of those days when it was worth taking some extra time to savour the ingenuity of the clues…and it my case that added up to 90 minutes. Even then I missed the Pisan queues joke.

    Lots here to enjoy – definitely the best puzzle for a long time.

  15. 24 minutes (minus the bit where I had to go and talk to the plumbers who have spent the last two days making alarming noises in my bathroom) which felt like a triumph. Lots of thought required, and lots of originality involved. One of those puzzles where you wish the Times followed the suggestion (seen here, afraid I can’t remember who made it) that setters remain anonymous when puzzles are published, but are identified along with the solution, so that you know where to direct the plaudits. And as other bloggers have suggested, I enjoyed this one much more for knowing I was solving it for pleasure and wasn’t going to have to write about it, so well done mctext
  16. Pleased to finish this in 55 mins. I thought it was great stuff – by far the cleverest and most entertaining puzzle for a long while.
  17. Glad it wasn’t just me! 36 mins on the train home at 3:00 this afternoon, after two 4:30am starts at work which turned into a 13-hour followed by a 10-hour shift, and I ain’t used to it! I had to stay in one of the world’s worst hotels (in Shepherd’s Bush), and I’m not a morning person at the best of times!

    I nodded off a couple of times while looking at the last three or four answers, and was very glad to finish it. Spotted the double pangram possibility early, but it didn’t help with the last few. Brilliant puzzle though – I think I’ll put it in the Good Puzzles section.

  18. Struggled through this while watching India v Pakistan. The match was very much like the puzzle, highly entertaining but an unfortunate outcome!
    Had to resort to aids for the last couple. Great puzzle.
  19. A work of art. Time insignificant. (All right, a little over an hour.) It should be put in one of those rockets together with a Leonardo drawing etc. to take something of the essence of being human to extra-terrestrial minds. (Should keep them away for good.)
  20. Fabulous puzzle.

    I must have been quite close to the setter’s wavelength if not exactly bang on it as this took me exactly 27 minutes with a couple of brief interruptions and despite accidentally navigating away from the page with about 6 lights left to fill and being confronted with a blank grid when I navigated back.

    Too many good clues to pick a favourite, thanks very much to the setter.

  21. Late posting today because of grandfatherly duties and an internet connection which takes me right back to the heady days of 14.4 modems. Lost track of time in a bit of a wonderland puzzle, full of technical fireworks and whimsy in about equal measure.
    Last in was the carpet, which needed lifting, separating and finally throwing up in the air and random guessing.
    CoD though to the brilliant JERKIN, which combined a technical masterstroke with J&L and affectionate whimsy with ‘ER in Windsor.
    I note SCHÖNBERG spelt his name for most of his life with the OE out of deference to the US of A, but it was nice to be able to put in the umlaut (on paper, anyway – bet it couldn’t be done online)
    Has anyone noticed that this is a double pangram (teehee)?
  22. I can’t realy read this blog without a word of thanks for the (over?) generous comments. Difficult puzzles are not usually made so on purpose and if they are a slog to solve they are even worse, so I am relieved that people here at least enjoyed in on the whole.
    I am not from the planet Bizaaro as far as I know, but I have been a habitue of this site since it started and am always indebted to the contributors for their informative and constructive criticism.
    1. Thank you, Mr. Habitue, for a true tour de force. You’ve replaced the ‘penny drop moment’ with the ‘Holy Toledo, that’s unbelievable!’ realization. Regards to you.
    2. Had to break my recent vow of silence to say thank you for today’s puzzle, though it’s your fault my partner thinks I’m going doolally – I kept chuckling at moments throughout the day as ‘Pisan queues’ popped back into my head. Top drawer, top notch, top hole entertainment, even if I messed up by having ‘set’ backwards at the end of the king’s name, rather than having ‘sex’ backwards.

      And the puzzle got the blog it deserved, so thank you also, mctext.

    3. I’d have said more earlier if I hadn’t been posting on my Blackberry from City Airport at 6.30am (is there something wrong with my priorities? No!), but the comments I have read above are by no means over generous. This was an absolutely superb puzzle, in my opinion the best we’ve had for some months. Today you defeated me, but it was fair and square.
      Thank you very much.
  23. I have been trying to get on this site all day. Don’t know what went wrong. Brilliant puzzle – the most enjoyable for a long time. Some mild guffawing over the foreign tourists. Too many nice clues to enumerate. Spotted the double pangram and the highscoring scrabble letters quite early on. A joy throughout. Not quick though – 50 minutes.
    1. I assume they were doing maintenance and did a restore at some point because many of the later messages disappeared for a while. It would be nice if Live Journal told us in advance if it was planned, or if not, apologised and explained once things got back to normal. They are quick enough at sending me emails I don’t want to receive.
  24. been to scotland and back and this kept me quiet for around an hour!
    Great puzzle…great blog..great comments
  25. 11:22 here. A fine puzzle apart from the annoying misspelling of SCHOENBERG at 8D.
    1. I wondered about this (and was highly displeased to see he’d changed his name!), but decided that SCHO(with umlaut ignored as is conventional in the Times Crossword))NBERG was also OK given that that spelling is also commonly in use.
      1. The convention is of course unnecessary for German words where there’s a perfectly decent rendition avoiding the umlaut, but I find it particularly objectionable for Schoenberg who deliberately chose that spelling himself.

        In the past the Times Cryptic has, I believe, always spelled him SCHOENBERG, so I’m slightly surprised the editor allowed SCHONBERG through; but perhaps he felt the rest of the crossword was so good that he didn’t want to alter it (and that there’d be too much whingeing if he changed the definition from “composer” to “music critic”).

  26. Couldn’t access the site yesterday. A real tour de force which occupied and astounded me for 63 minutes. Congratulations to the setter and to mctext for service above and beyond.
  27. Late coming to the blog thanks to a puzzling inability to access it from my hotel room in AlMaty. Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle but spoilt by two awful errors in 19d and 20d. No excuse; I was just in a hurry to put something in that felt like the correct answer and didn’t bother to analyse what I had written. COD for me was 5d and the well-behaved tourists in Italy. Enjoyed the blog very much, too, especially the reference to the obscure nature of Scottish football results. I have a theory that none of these places exist but were invented by the BBC as a time-filler when it started Grandstand in the 1960s and have since been given existential credibility by the sonorous tones of James Alexander Gordon. On the other hand, back in 1979, while working at Glasgow Airport, one sleepy Sunday afternoon I went for a lengthy drive and passed through somewhere like Dumbarton, or perhaps it was Kilmarnock, but either way it was closed!

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