Times 24840, 3rd Qualifier, 4th May

Author   mctextPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 22 minutes.

Another straightforward Qualifier, bolstering suspicions that they’re after a goodly pile of £15 15-acrosses. Had to look up ‘existence’ for ENTITY and check on the material constitution of the RUCHE.

 

Across
 1 BOVVER. Cricket: B (bowled) & OVER (six balls); insert V for ‘very’.
 4 SOLUTION. Two defs: you want a solution to the clue; and a solution is (as I nearly wrote) a dilution.
10 RESI(LIEN)T. Reversal of ‘Neil’.
11 RU(CH)E. The lawn is the fine linen used to make a decorative pleat, a ruche.
12 UN(REMIT)TING. ‘Brief’ = REMIT. This inside ’UNTING.
14 BYE. More cricket, a sundry; and a farewell prior to, for example, running.
15 DEPOSIT. Two defs. Fur is a deposit or crust on, say, kettles caused by mineral salts in the water.
17 E,N(TIT)Y. The bird is in E (European) & NY (New York, city). Existence: archaic, a being or entity.
19 W,EIGHT. W (with) and EIGHT. A brace is 2; a pair of braces is 4; two pairs of braces are 8.
21 CH(EER)IO. The archaic ‘e’er’. Chio{s} is the Greek isle, mostly. The def is ‘Good health!’, a drinking salutation. Perhaps less appropriate now, given the recent findings about alcohol and cancer?
23 COO. As in snog.
24 NOBODYS FOOL. Charles Pooter, hero of The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. An occasional visitor to our puzzle.
26 AMISS. Inclusive.
27 EL(EVEN)SES. A word for ‘flat’ in ELS{i}ES.
29 ODYSSEUS. {b}ODY, S (son), reversal of SUES. A very well constructed surface.
30 SEE,THE.
Down
 1 BU,R(GUN)D,Y. The sportsman is a GUN. He’s kettled (eh?) in a road (RD). All this inside BUY (purchase).
 2 VISOR. {Ad}visor.
 3 EEL. Reversal of LEE.
 5 OUT,LINE.
 6 UPRIGHTNESS. Upright as in piano (aka Joanna).
 7 IN,CU(BA)TOR. The wrapper is an anagram of ‘court’.
 8 NEEDED. Sounds like ‘kneaded’.
 9 BEAT IT. Or ‘be at it’. Would Anax have split it differently?
13 MIS(O,GYNIST)S. Included is an anagram of ‘stingy’ and O for ‘old’.
16 P,RE,CO,CITY. Straight charade with RE for ‘on’.
18 N(OB)(LESS)E. First letters of ‘of Barons’ and LESS (not so); inside NE, North East.
20 TAB,LEAU. Sounds like ‘low’.
21 COD,GER. Reverse RE (about) and G (first of ‘grandson’).
22 OCT,A,V,O. Another straight charade.
25 ON,SET. ON (performing). SET is muso-speak for a sequence of pieces played between drinks.
28 EX,E.

 

9 comments on “Times 24840, 3rd Qualifier, 4th May”

  1. This one had rather an English flavor (or flavour) to it: BOVVER (and cricket in the clue), East Ender pronunciation, more cricket (14ac), CHEERIO, ELEVENSES, joanna (at least I don’t think that’s reached the US), Northumberland, the Exe. But nothing untoward. Kettling, I learned from Vallaw on the Club forum, is a custom much favored by large men in uniforms with shields and truncheons to enclose and confine a crowd, thus making them think twice about exercising their rights of assembly and speech. There is, naturally, a Wikipedia article on it, s.v. ‘kettling’. As for existence=entity; aren’t you forgetting the owner of Eric the Half-a-Bee?
    Half a bee, philosophically,
    Must ipso facto half not be;
    But half a bee has got to be
    Vis-a-vis its entity;
    D’you see?
  3. I too thought this almost suspiciously easy and straightforward. I was surprised by the informal nature of the puzzle, with a high quotient of slang and inf. words: bovver, bye, cheerio, coo, beat it, elevenses, kettling..
  4. I was going to quote vallaw’s explanation but Kevin got there first! I’ve written 1hr 23mins on my print-out but can’t remember where I got held up. I do know I have ??? written against DEPOSIT, BURGUNDY and NOBLESSE, so thank you, MCTEXT!
  5. I found this about average in difficulty. Not particularly fast but no real problems. 34 minutes
  6. I finished it in just under 32 min, which would probably have qualified, but didn’t send it in as I realised we will probably be away on the weekend of the finals this year. It was right, but I still don’t really understand 9d. – which could also be read as “be a tit”, but that doesn’t make much sense either!
    1. If you’re “at it”, you’re engaging in suspect activity. Much loved of Carry-On films: “Is he at it again?”

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