Times 25,117 – Leisurely Walk

40 comments on “Times 25,117 – Leisurely Walk”

1. 28 minutes, so pretty straightforward, with the unknown RAMPION easy to get from the wordplay. LINEAR A rang a faint bell from Ancient History A-Level (incidentally, the world’s easiest A-Level back in the day).

   Without wanting to draw too much attention to Yap Suk’s dreadful joke, our chairman steps down in May at the grand old age of 94. He’s insisted on using the same photo in the annual report for 12 years.

2. 16:27. I’d actually never heard of Linear A, only B; but if there’s a B, after all, there ought to be an A. Thanks, Uncle, for the explanation of 3d and 2d. Somehow I ‘knew’ RAMPION (i.e. the word was somewhere in my memory), but hadn’t parsed the clue. It was my last in, on faith alone (Now faith is the evidence of things unseen, the substance of things hoped for). My heart sank when I saw 25d, as I felt sure there had to be a real Raul Sanguineti, and I hadn’t the faintest who he might (have) be(en). Fortunately, I realized at last that it didn’t matter.
3. What is that picture which accompanies Ulaca’s posts? I’m stumped.
   Barbara
4. It’s a capybara from Hula Lake Park in the Upper Galilee. It was introduced from South America in the hope that it could be farmed for fur. Instead, it eats a goodly proportion of the fish in the lake.
5. … still doing actual labour. (Unless you’ve tried it, you’ll have no idea how hard it is for two blokes to make 14 meters of shadecloth fit straight.)

   Still, felt this was quite easy and probably no more than 20 minutes all up.

   We all have our bêtes noires, and mine is plants — except for Australian natives and they don’t turn up much. Knew of campions, but not rampions. Hence CARPENTER was last in. Had to be a groundsman of some kind eh? Cocurator?

   I always find it strange that MOT can mean several words in combination. DNK: ANGEVIN, but the wordplay made it obvious.

   Edited at 2012-03-22 04:41 am (UTC)

6. This was a very scrappy solve for me with odd words going in all over the grid and taking ages to get some sort of flow going and complete any one quarter. In the end it all came together rather suddenly and I was finished in 38 minutes.

   There’s quite a lot going on in some of the clues with some details not yet mentioned, for example “See what a rent the envious Casca made” is the quotation from Shakespeare referred to in 1dn, and Scott Joplin (1867-1917)the American musician and composer of piano rags is referred to in 5dn. His music enjoyed a revival of interest in the 1970s after it was used extensively in the Newman/Redford film, The Sting.

   Didn’t know RAMPION or ANGEVIN and LINEAR A had completely slipped my mind.

   Knowing Times setters’ obsession with a certain subject my first thought at 1ac was ‘cricketer’. Surely I was not alone thinking this?

   Edited at 2012-03-22 06:48 am (UTC)

7. RAMPION unknown but gettable. Otherwise a straightforward, but enjoyable, 20 minute solve with no clues really standing out as candidates for COD.
8. I enjoyed this and thought it contained some clever touches.. such as “peak district” = ANDES, and “worker at seam” as an indication for WELDER
   cod. 12ac for the fine surface
9. wouldn’t cocreator and campion also work in the NW?
   1. How do you get the sharp rebuke in 2dn?
10. 20m. As UY says, some easy ones and some tricky ones. A good workout.
    I got very held up in the SE, where I didn’t know LINEAR A and hesitated over “quick” for READY. I suppose a ready wit is a quick wit. Am I missing something more obvious? The script went in from wordplay and was a bit of a leap of faith.
    Other unknowns: RAMPION, ANGEVIN.
    1. Another 25 minutes solve, last ones in were Linear A and Ready (I see now, ready wit…) had to have stringent explained by blog because I keep forgetting tent is wine.
       My CoD Linear A – I was thinking of Shakespeare Kings at first, ending in I or V… how often is a single letter word an A when at the end?
       If we’re talking avatars, where or what is yours keriothe?
       1. Collins also has “a ready response” as an example.
          My avatar is the Romanée-Conti vineyard. This is the wine I am planning to drink every day when I have worked out how to become a billionaire. Suggestions welcome.

          Edited at 2012-03-22 11:38 am (UTC)

          1. Thanks keriothe, I see it now on Wiki, but your pic is better. Personally I prefer a modest Bordeaux but there again I do live near St Emilion.
             Fastest way to become a billionaire is probably to invent and sell the next big website (c.f. Facebook). Being aged 14 or less would probably be an advantage.
             My plan A is to win the Euromillions, without having to move to Nottingham first (or it is Northampton where they keep winning?)
             Apologies to purists, this is not much to do with TFTT.
             1. I’d be very surprised if you (or anyone else) preferred a modest Bordeaux to Romanée-Conti if given the opportunity to compare. However at around £6,000 a bottle (in an off year), and in the absence of any computer knowledge, I’m going to need a Euromillions win to test this theory.
                1. I have tried some posh burgundies (in the good old days when the college cellar was treated as part of your education) admittedly not at 6k a bottle, but 100% pinot noir is not my cup of tea. Whichever of us wins first pays, we meet up and sample?
                   1. Well Bordeaux isn’t my cup of tea but if you offered me a choice between ’61 Lafite and a modest village burgundy I’d overcome my prejudice!
                      Anyway, you have a deal. Mind you I don’t much fancy my chances of winning the lottery unless I start buying tickets.
                      1. Probabilistically speaking, I think you have more chance of winning if you don’t buy a ticket.
                         1. Shhh! My syndicate (8 of us) are already talking to the bank manager about a big advance and how we’ll make his career when we win. And one of them lives part time near Northampton so we’re all set. We live in hope. Stranger things have happened…
                            If I had some 61 Lafite, I’d be doing as Chris de Burgh.
                            http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/502723/chris-de-burgh-to-sell-lafite-45-latour-61-mouton
                            Now, a 1990 Petrus, that I would open.
11. 
    28/32 today with two errors (Campion not Rampion and a wrong guess at Angiven not Angevin).
    Missing Carpenter, Casca, Linear A and Ready.
    Liked Peak District for Andes.
    Alibi’s one of my favourite channels on Virgin – essential viewing if you like crime dramas.
    1. And mine!
12. Like Jackkt, I also could not shake off the idea that 1 across was something to do with cricket, so that was one of my last ones in. P.G. Wodehouse would have been delighted to see the sun god Ra featuring in 18 down; I was half expecting one of the three-letter words to be emu! Didn’t time myself, but guess about 35 minutes.
13. 
    Found most of this quite straightforward, but came to grief in the NW:

    As others, I knew campion (but not RAMPION) so in that went. This lead 1ac to finish –creator. And at 1dn, I had the unlikely ‘mesca’, thinking that ‘mesa’ might stretch in Spanish to ‘house’ (I know now it doesn’t!). CASCA unknown.

    Other unknowns worked out from wordplay: MOT, LINEAR A, ANGEVIN.

    Since I solve from the print version, I couldn’t do yesterday’s old fashioned offering. Shame.

14. …as I confess to having ‘cricketer’ for a long time, only to have it knocked out by ‘earlier on’. I couldn’t spell ‘samurai’, either.

    I believe we have seen these clues for ‘roller skate’ and ‘springboard’ before, and I still couldn’t get them for a while.

15. Another frustrating attempt for me. Didn’t spot half the anagrams and was trying to anagram wrong words. I also had sections of words but couldn’t get the rest of the answer.

    Edited at 2012-03-22 12:18 pm (UTC)

16. You can add me to the CRICKETER group. I didn’t know RAMPION or LINEAR A, although the latter I could get from the wordplay. I spent probably the best part of 10 minutes at the end on the CARPENTER/RAMPION combination.
    I thought 1a was the weakest cd I’ve seen for some time. It was so vague, it could have led to many different solutions. Impossible to get without checkers, and that makes it a bad clue in my book.
17. A 40 minute solve firing on only 5 neurons. RAMPION was unknown but I had more trouble with READY and LINEAR A. I liked it in spite of myself. COD to READY
18. Cricketer fitted pun and was my first in. This was without entering Casca, after which I was absolutely convinced cricketer was correct. Eventually, and close to completion, only carpenter fitted once I had rampion. Given the explanation for carpenter my feeling is the clue needs sandpapering. That aside and linear a was an agreeable 37 minutes.

    Rnigma

19. Trundled along in 26 minutes (once I took the cheese salad off the table). Nothing too stringent, or memorable. Still, even with a run-of-the-mill puzzle, there’s always what I call the verbarium to enjoy. The wildflower word-bed of assorted answers, part of why I do these things.
20. About 15 minutes, so I found it on the easier side. This is an instance where my ignorance of cricket was helpful, since I don’t know why the clue would lead anyone toward ‘cricketer’ as the answer, and thus I wasn’t tempted in that direction at all. RAMPION and LINEAR A from wordplay, the latter being a complete unknown, while I got the former since ‘ramps’ show up in fancy restaurant menus around here sometimes. They don’t look like either the bellflowers or roots cited by Uncle Yap, though, so these ramps are probably a totally different plant. But that’s how I got to RAMPION, right or wrong. COD to the TRISYLLABLE trick. Thanks for the blog, and regards to all.
    1. Hi, Kevin,

       Lord’s (complete with apostrophe as in the clue) is “the home of cricket” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Cricket_Ground

       Regards

       1. Oh, now I see. Well, that certainly would have led me down the primrose path, had I been aware. Today, ignorance is bliss. Thanks Jack.
          In the utterly unlikely event it comes up someday, the American baseball equivalent is Cooperstown, the ancestral home of novelist James Fenimore Cooper, who, incidentally, had nothing whatever to do with baseball.
21. Seems odd to describe cricket as work, although I suppose it is. However the inclusiion of “the” in the clue made me feel the answer lay elsewhere, which was confirmed when I unravelled RAMPION.
22. If I were Chris de Burgh, I’d drink it.
    1. With a Lady in Red?
23. My daughter-in-law comes from Le Mans and went to university in Angers, so I suppose that makes her an ANGEVIN. She told me that Queen Berengaria, wife of R the Lion Heart, has a tomb in Le Mans. Does Anjou still exist? I’m sure the experts here will know. I hastily bunged in SANGRIA at 9a when I saw the word “drink” and had S***R**. It totally messed up the anagram at 4d. I had 2 down ending in ION quite early on but couldn’t get CAMPION to fit and had never heard of RAMPION. Took me some time to sort out that corner. 40 minutes
    1. Hi, my first wife’s sister is married to a chap from Angers so I know the area quite well. In terms of administration it’s now known as Maine-et-Loire but the name lives on locally. In particular with the wine of the district – Rose d’Anjou is particularly refreshing
       1. I’ve never been to the area but would very much like to. Maybe they’ll take me when they finish their stint in Australia. I remember Rose D’Anjou – very tasty.
24. 8:12 here for a nice straightforward puzzle.

    I thought of CRICKETER for 1ac, but felt that “the” in the clue wasn’t quite right, so held my fire.

25. … and you were right, Tony. ‘One does Lord’s work’ would have been either a bad CD or a bad definition for CRICKETER, but with ‘THE Lord’s’, given the general requirement for accuracy at The Times, more solverly thought on this clue was required. It seems those who jumped in paid the price!

    Edited at 2012-03-23 02:20 am (UTC)

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