Times 24946 – Make that a double

29 comments on “Times 24946 – Make that a double”

1. 28 minutes, so a very rare excursion sub-30 for me despite not actually knowing GODOLPHIN, VEDIC, or LANGUR. ADRIATIC was my last in. Staying up late to watch tennis seems to improve my solving skills.
2. A tale of what might have been, as I looked set for a very rare sub-30 (well done, Jack!) before stumbling to a finish in 53 minutes. The major hold-ups were in the NW, where putting ‘media’ for the art lecturer medium clue didn’t help. After I’d sorted that out, the flower fell and I was able to polish off the two ‘beverages’.

   Does anyone else remember the 70s ad for the horrible Dutch drink with the sadly unforgettable tagline, ‘Eveninks and morninks, I drink Warninks’?

   An odd mix, with several of these (6, 21, 26) at a DT level.

   1. I don’t recall that slogan but I do remember Warninks and the ‘snowball’ of which it was the main ingredient. I think ‘Vladivar Wodka from Varrington” was around that time too, or perhaps a little later.

      Thanks for the congrats. I did today’s Guardian in 20 so I would be feeling quite chipper if I hadn’t also tackled ST 4449 this morning and come to grief on it.

      1. The terrific 10 across did for me on that one.
      2. ST 4449 is one of the best cryptic crosswords I’ve ever seen. Just look at those elegant, straightforward yet concise surface readings. Great stuff.
         1. Agreed, and not overly difficult, lest other plodders like me be out off trying.
3. Back from a summer break to this relatively straightforward offering…

   I too had abriatic as my (unknown!) drink, and the only other one with a query against it was 26a, where I put irate. Have just checked a solver to find the bleeding obvious!

4. 10 minutes, with HEATHY the last in (it had the word “shrubs” in the clue), but it didn’t feel too much like an easy one.
   Enjoyed INHABIT and DILATE, joint C’soD.
   And yes, I sadly can’t forget “eveninks and morninks”, but I didn’t believe it then, either. Horrible looking stuff.
5. Is there really a Canterbury in southern Europe? Southern England and southern New Zealand, yes!
   1. It’s a pretty good guess that the majority of the European land mass lies above a line drawn through London, so technically that makes Canterbury part of Southern Europe. Unless of course you don’t count the UK as part of Europe at all.
      1. Don’t tell this to the creative types. They’ll be advertising holidays to “Sunny Southern European destinations: Corfu, Crete, Torremolinos, Majorca and Margate”!
         1. There was a hint of irony in my entry, since the Wiki article mentioned Southern European origins, I was wondering how Canterbury managed to claim it as its own. Mind you, plant origins are often inadvertently or deliberately exoticised. The tendency in Australia seems to be to call something either Chinese or Japanese if in any doubt. The Chinese Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius) comes from South America, for example.
            1. And in a bit of reverse engineering, the good old Chinese Gooseberry of my youth became the Kiwifruit.
      2. The Mercator projection (making northern areas look much larger) would suggest that Canterbury is southern, but a globe makes it look more even. Big question: where is Europe’s boundary on the eastern side, north of the Bosporus? And is Cyprus in Europe or Asia?
6. 13 minutes, so I found this pretty straightforward.
   I didn’t know CLANGOUR the last time it came up, clued in almost exactly the same way, but I remembered it this time.
   Today’s unknowns were ACERB and (of course) the flower, but both were clear.
7. About 25 enjoyable minutes with no major problems except the wordplay for REINDEER (I share koro’s quibbles). I was rather surprised by the number of words lurking in the recesses of my knowledge (ADVOCAAT, GODOLPHIN, CLANGOUR, OUBLIETTE) which somehow sprang relatively easily to mind: thank you, setter, for writing clues which prompted the right responses!

   And thank you, koro, for as ever an entertaining blog: I particularly liked the gloss on 25ac.

8. Godolphin sounds like food for cetaceans. We’ve been giving the cat Go Cat for some time, but he’s still here.
9. 20:15 here.

   I quite liked a lot of this, including the first def in 5, the use of ‘in a bit’ at 14 and the homophone at 16.

   I originally typed clamour at 28 but had a blank square at the end. Obviously confusing lemur with langour. Do they look alike?

   Thanks Koro for explaining starch and reindeer, the latter my LOI.

10. Thanks for the blog, Koro, and especially for elucidating STARCH and ACERB.
    Here is a link to the Godolphin Arabian, which I had never heard of.
    According to the COED, the CANTERBURY BELLS were named after the bells on the horses of Canterbury pilgrims. Here in South-East England, further North than Newfoundland, we certainly don’t feel like Southern Europeans.
    Thanks to the setter for providing a chance for a sub-30min time (29 minutes on the button).
    1. Oh I don’t know Keith.. Here in mid-Kent I have a vineyard one side of my house, an orchard the other side, the sun is shining and I have a glass of wine in hand.. I’m doing my best, anyway!
    2. That would make some sense of the Canterbury. I assumed they were named after the cathedral bells, but then why not, say, Wells Bells.
11. 11 minutes, some nice clear wordplay here, which was good, I needed it to get CLANGOUR, CANTERBURY BELLS, GODOLPHIN and ADVOCAAT (I seem to recall that being spelled with a K in Australia).
12. A very pleasant stroll in the park after a windswept golf course. Some good stuff here plus some very easy giveaways mixed in. I think 17D is a classic “reverse engineering” clue where you guess REINDEER and then spot IN DEE in the middle of it.

    ADVOCAAT must be a strong contender for the most disgusting drink imaginable, sickly sweet custard almost – a real palate killer – and the irritating advert used to send me sceaming from the room

13. And as one who acted. A batman in 70s they were a complete pain to wash…..
    I’d rather (not) have a snowball

14. Took me far longer than I think it should have but got there in the end. No mistakes even though a few were based on guesswork.
    Louise
15. 26 minutes, slowed down a bit by thinking up Atlantic instead of ADRIATIC, and then, as always, having trouble getting it out of my head. Had no idea whatever what GODOLPHIN had to do with horses, but it seemed inevitable, and fortunately was also correct. Also didn’t twig to STARCH until about 10 minutes after submitting. Finally remembered ADVOCAAT — from an advertisement, certainly not from experience. I mean, Scotch before, wine during, port after–what else does one need? Well, food, I guess.
16. Advocaat is OK providing you have a Guinness handy – drink the Advocaat as quick as you can (you’re right it’s horrible) but it’s all worth it when you taste the Guinness (preferably draught). Interestng that this spell checker recognises Guinness but not advocaat!
17. …because I never heard of advocaat! It seems just as well, my time was far from great anyway, and I put in ‘starch’ and ‘reindeer’ without understanding.

    So what sort of puzzle do you think I’ll get next week? If it’s a real toughie, maybe I’ll solve it anyway, but it’s likely enough to be a beginner’s special.

18. 8:17 for me – slower than it ought to have been, but perhaps not too bad considering that it took me a couple of minutes to get my brain into gear and actually solve my first clue!

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