Times 24836 – Here’s to the happy couple!

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Within about 30 seconds of starting this I realised that it was themed, and my heart sank. I often find the clues in themed grids tend to be a little more strained and subsequently harder to get my head around. But actually, if anything, the theme helped me in the solve especially since I spotted the Nina quite early on with only half the letters for it in place. So this gave me quite a few useful extra checking letters.

For those of you out there unfamiliar with Ninas – they are letter patterns hidden within the grid which spell out words or phrases when put together in the right way. Today’s can be spotted by taking the unconnected letters from rows 2 & 14 and putting them together to make a phrase that sums up the common theme running through a lot of the clues.

Overall, a good fun crossword. Some of the wordplay may be a little strained, but only slightly, and it doesn’t detract from the puzzle.

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

Across
1 deliberately omitted – a nice easy starter
5 E + S(Calm)ORTED – Hand = E seems a little dubious, but I guess we’re talking about the bridge position.
9 WHITE + LIE
10 T(OWN)IE – To ‘tie the knot’ is to get married
11 SEVER + ribboN – ‘flower’ = river, of course
12 TEST + CASE
14 OUT + MAN + OEUVRE – My dictionary lists ‘to outwit’ amongst the many and varied definitions for ‘dish’, so a good clue.
17 WEDDING MARCH – Mendelssohn composed the famous tune as incidental music to accompany Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
20 MIGRATES = bridegrooM + (IS GREAT)*
22 WOO + FE + Resolution
23 DI + SOWN – There are two references to the Princess Diana today, and they rather neatly cross each other.
25 ARM(C + AND)Y
26 ANT + ELOPE
27 NOODLE = (LONDOn)* + princE
Down
2 AWHEEL = A + W + “HE’LL”
3 TITLE-HOLDER – dd
4 ELLINGTON = WELLINGTON without the WestminsterDuke Ellington was a famous big band leader.
5 ELECT + RA – Princess Electra was the daughter of King Agamemnon in Greek mythology.
6 CITES – breaks down as CS (gas) about I (second in lIne) + TE (ThronE empty)
7 RAW + “ROAR”
8 EMISSARY = MISS (girl yet to meet husband) in EARLY (too soon) without the Love
13 COUCH POTATO = CO + (UP TO CHAT)* + O
15 OARSWOMAN – cd – although the ‘young’ seems a little superfluous.
16 M + ER + I + DIANa – I’m not sure about the definition here. Meridian is the name given to a number of Intercity trains in Britain, so I guess ‘appearing in station’ is it.
18 MISTAKE – I think this is suggesting that MIS-TAKE = (TAKE)* = KATE, but it seems a touch strained for the purposes of the theme to me.
19 MEN + DEaL – Gregor Mendel is generally considered to be the father of modern genetics
21 hidden
24 ONE – dd – Posh people might use it instead of I.

30 comments on “Times 24836 – Here’s to the happy couple!”

  1. I took ‘titled’ to be a reference to the play by Euripides of which she is the eponymous heroine.
  2. I assumed that calling Electra a titled lady was a crosswordese reference to the fact that “Electra” is the title of a play.
    1. Sorry, Ulaca’s comment above didn’t show up on my page when I made that comment.
  3. Off to a flyer but slowed to a crawl as I struggled with quite a few (even the easy starter). Didn’t like the ‘young’ in 15 or the ‘Miss Kate’, didn’t ‘get’ MERIDIAN, and didn’t get ARM CANDY (which I’d never heard of), putting that famous branch of the Saudi Arabian armed forces, ‘Arm Saudi’, instead.

    On reflection, I take the E in ESCORTED to refer to the direction or quarter (east), ‘though that didn’t do me much god at the time as I bunged in ‘escorter’. COD to the ruminant: so trickily clued that it proved harder to get than all the more obscure versions that form a staple of Times crosswords.

    As a bit of light relief, here’s Rowan Atkinson as the hi-fi salesman from hell offering Mel Smith woofers and tweeters.

  4. Grate fun. Didn’t help that I was totally flummoxed by 1. which was almost the last in. Well done the setter for resisting any canoodling on the last across. Well done the setter indeed. Never heard of arm candy but like it. 41 minutes and that’s my wedding service done.
  5. With jackkt on this one: spent too much time looking at the surfaces, thinking, “oh no, not another one”. Hence the hour + finish. Not my cup of English Breakfast at all. Vive La République!
  6. LH went in easily enough apart from 14ac and 5dn which I got when I resorted to aids after an hour having made virtually no progress for 20 minutes.

    The others I didn’t get without cheating were ESCORTED, OARSWOMAN (why ‘young’, indeed?) and EMISSARY. Guessed MENDEL but didn’t see the reference or that DEAL = “board”. Missed the Nina.

    To be honest I just about lost interest after grinding to a halt because I felt the setter was overstretching things to fit the theme and was not playing entirely fair.

  7. is nowhere sacrosanct in repsect of today’s events!
    and i thought that the clues were strained….
    Mistake being a prime example!
    30 minutes
  8. Having struggled to produce themed crosswords, I actually thought this was a masterpiece even before I was told (here) about the NINA. I do think some latitude is allowed to carry the theme right through, strains or not. I’m still not certain about MERIDIAN – it is a TV station, I suppose, but if you’re not geographically blessed, it doesn’t spring readily to mind. ESCORTED held me up the longest: I assumed hand=E was the conventional bridge connection, and I can’t see where else you’d get the E from.
    No CoD, I think, just respect for an all round piece of cleverness. Off to watch the real thing.
  9. Once again the blog says 11 comments but I can only see 6 – very frustrating

    I can see one anonymous contribution confirming that MERIDIAN is a TV station, which is correct. Others may already have confirmed that.

    Good to see the Times joining in the general fun with a very enjoyable puzzle. Let’s hope the day goes well for everbody

  10. I am always impressed by the craft in a themed puzzle and this was no exception. There are some great surfaces (27a springs to mind for a totally non-wedding related answer) – in fact there are only a handful that do not read as connected in any way to the topical issue. The fact that most of these are the last of the downs makes me wonder whether the setter “ran out of time” or got bored with forcing them to do so.

    I have to say that I didnt even see the nina until I came on here, and this would definitely have helped solve the downs in the NE corner a little quicker.

    My one question would be why “pay” in 22A. Is “pay court” a form of court?

  11. This was fun. Didn’t spot the Nina (but wasn’t looking). I admired the ingenuity of all the wedding-related clues. I have question marks by the E in ESCORTED and by the definition “station” at 16d. Apart from that, a smooth and satisfying solve. Now must go and watch my recording of the event (Recorded so I can skip all the waffle that the BBC does so well) 29 minutes. Btw, 3rd time this week my password has been rejected. What is wrong with this site.
  12. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Duke Ellington is mentioned, since today would have been his 102nd birthday.

    Conrad

  13. Great fun, even if I wasn’t convinced of all my answers (ESCORTED, AWHEEL, ARM CANDY) until seeing that Dave agreed and had disentangled the wordplay to show why! Thanks for a great blog. Never heard of Nina before so shall look out for her in future.
  14. Finished while watching TV wedding spectacle but brain numbed and can’t see the Nina. Can someone please spell it out for me?
    jfr
    1. As Dave says “Today’s (NINA) can be spotted by taking the unconnected letters from rows 2 & 14 and putting them together”
  15. Great puzzle – I was hoping they’d break with tradition and have a rare thematic, and they didn’t disappoint! I only spotted the Nina towards the end, but it helped me confirm RAW, which then gave me ESCORTED, my last one in. 18:06 in the end, held up a little bit by the thematic surface readings of most of the clues.

    By the way, martinfred, don’t waste too much time looking for Ninas here – it’s only about the 10th one they’ve had in the last 5 years or so! If you want to look out for Ninas, try the Concise, where there’s one to be found 3-4 times a week.

    I’ve added this entry to the Memories section under “Themes and Ninas”

  16. Found this hard for some reason.. when it comes to royal weddings, I tend to fall into the “bah, humbug” school of thought so maybe that was it. last in was outmanoeuvre, not seeing the connection with dish
  17. A puzzle worthy of a memorable day. I struggled with it, but at least it didn’t make me cry (unlike the Royal Wedding).
  18. 12:52 here. Not really my sort of puzzle, I’m afraid. If MERIDIAN is justified by virtue of being a TV station, I don’t think much of it. And MISTAKE is straining even my usually tolerant attitude to clueing.
  19. Also groaned at the theme and struggled to finish it, needed two sittings to piece it together with last in OARSWOMAN (cryptic definitions not my forte).
  20. Got it, but not with full understanding, as the reference is too specialised if you don’t live in the area covered by that station.
  21. What’s a NINA? And even when you tell me what letters to look at, I still can’t see it.

    WELUMNEVE?????

    1. anon – read straight across the second horizontal row of letters in the finished grid. Then do the same with the horizontal row that is second from bottom.

      If it doesn’t read intelligibly, you must have some incorrect solutions in your completed grid.

      A Nina is a hidden message.

  22. DNF, as I finally gave up on 14ac und entered the checked letters into my electronic Chambers — OUTMANOEUVRE is the only word that fits them, and knowing it, I understand the wordplay, but I would never have got it on my own. Last in of the rest were SEVERN and OARSWOMAN. I had ESCORTER rather than ESCORTED, because I assumed this would be the person whose hand the bride was holding as she walked down the aisle. And I couldn’t figure out what the E was doing in it.

    Of course this theme was to have been expected yesterday, but it ruined my attempt to avoid the R***L W*****G entirely. Among the women in the house (wife, British neighbour, German mother-in-law) there was no other topic of conversation, and the puzzle was to have been my respite!

  23. After three days in the wilds of south-west Western Australia, out of phone, television, radio and internet range, I had managed to blissfully avoid all coverage of Friday’s events. Especially as Osama had graciously taken over the spotlight by the time I returned.
    Settling in tonight to catch up on my crosswords, I feel like I’ve been ambushed. As, no doubt, did Osama.
    Still, all correct in 48 minutes, and managed to avoid throwing up, so no real cause for complaint.
  24. From the vantage point of 9 years in the future, we recognised the wedding theme very early, but couldn’t remember which royal wedding had taken place in 2011. The Nina gave the answer. I managed to avoid the coverage of both William and Harry’s weddings when they took place. Got ambushed tonight. 33mins. Roll on the Republic of Australia.

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