Times 25294 – Haha, Mr Wilson, haha, Mr Heath……

Solving time: 27 Minutes

Music: Brahms, Piano Concerto #2, Gilels, Reiner/CSO

Another easy Monday puzzle for you experienced solvers. How beginners will fare, I have no idea, because I’ve been at this too long and am wise to many tricks that beginners have never seen.

This puzzle features no obscure vocabulary or esoteric allusions, although there are a few things I will have to look up as I do the blog.

A note to my fellow bloggers regarding spam attacks on old blogs. After spending hours deleting spam, I found that it is possible to lock the specific blog under attack to comments. While we do allow late comments to accommodate overseas solvers, I didn’t hesitate the lock a blog from nearly a year ago that seemed to be the target of a spammer’s script.

Across
1 ARACHNID, anagram of HAD CAR IN. The trick is to know that a ‘harvestman’ is a spider.
6 CURFEW, RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) backwards + FEW. This is where the beginner might be at a loss, while hardened solvers automatically think ‘RUC’ when they see ‘old policemen’.
9 SUMMIT, SU(MM)IT. MM = ‘Military Medal’, a rather generic name for a particular award in the British Army.
10 OPULENCE, O P(U[nusua]L)ENCE, a bit of a chestnut, I believe.
11 VETO, VET + [p]O[pe]. Not a literary clue, as I at first suspected.
12 OVERSTRUNG, OVER ST + RUN + G[rand]. A technical term referring to a particular type of piano construction, which I did not know, and did not need to know.
14 EGGSHELL. Double definition, where ‘Dorking’ is a hen as well as a town. One I had to research, since my original answer was based only on the literal.
16 Omitted – look for it!
18 EARN, sounds like ERNE.
19 VARIANCE, V + ARIAN + CE. Heretics are almost always Arians in these puzzles. Pelagians and Donatists just don’t fit.
21 BEDEVILLED, double definition. Not very accurate, because ‘devilled’ foods are not usually highly spiced compared to some cuisines.
22 MACE, MA(C)E. You just have to interpret ‘West’ correctly.
24 TANGIBLE, anagram of BENGAL IT.
26 AIR BED, AIR([aha]B)ED.
27 TAXMAN, T + AXMAN.
28 TREELESS, TR(EEL)ESS.
 
Down
2 ROUTE, R(OUT)E, where ‘determined’ has the sense of already known, publicly available.
3 COMMON SENSE, COMMON + S + E + N + S + E, or something like that. Most solvers won’t bother with the cryptic, which is very weak.
4 NITROGEN, anagram of RINGTONE, another well-used cryptic.
5 DO ONE’S LEVEL BEST, double definition, one jocular.
6 Omitted!
7 Omitted as well!
8 ECCENTRIC, double definition, neither very cryptic.
13 REAR ADMIRAL, RE[-d + A R] ADMIRAL. A letter-substitution cryptic, but the answer is very evident with a few checking letters.
15 GUATEMALA, G(U + anagram of TEAM)ALA.
17 GRADUATE, GR(AD + U)ATE. A ‘graduate’ may well not be a scholar any more, and may never have been very scholarly.
20 GIBBON, NOB, BIG upside down.
23 C(H)ESS, a cesspit. Usually a ‘cess’ is a tax around here.
25 GEM, MEG upside down. Cairngorms are both a Scottish mountain range and yellowish-brown quartz gem that was formerly mined there.

34 comments on “Times 25294 – Haha, Mr Wilson, haha, Mr Heath……”

  1. 15:07, although my first in was 22ac, which didn’t bode well. I had to look up Dorking, since all I could think of to fit was ‘seashell’; once I did look it up, I realized that I should have known about Dorking hens. Ulaca’s right about 3d; I’d add that I wish setters would stop with the ‘directions’-type clue. (While I’m at it, I don’t care for ‘cardinal’ either; there, I said it.) Vinyl, 15d is GuatEmala.
    1. One would have thought that with his age, wisdom and experience he would have noticed that!
      1. Dear Nonnie,

        With the double wisdom that comes of noting another’s slip and noting too said person’s undoubted and much-proven wisdom, might it not have been expected of you to take cognisance of the wisdom of the one with the jesting picture which seems to be crying out to you?

        Edited at 2012-10-15 04:56 am (UTC)

      2. And if you (Anonymous) have those attributes yourself one would have thought you would have learned some manners. Anyone can make a typographical error but it takes a deliberate effort to point it out so rudely.

        Edited at 2012-10-15 05:05 am (UTC)

  2. 35 minutes, with my COD BEDEVILLED followed by GRADUATE last in. The few unfamiliars (GEM, EGGSHELL China, and OVERSTRUNG didn’t cause much of a hold-up, even if I had to attend closely to the wordplay of the last to avoid ‘openstrung’).

    Note to fellow Monday blogger: I think 3d is COMMONS (archaic word for shared grub) + E N S E.

  3. Took 2 hours and didn’t finish because I had Vice instead of Rear Admiral. Liked 21ac.
  4. 36 minutes delayed by a slow start as on the first read through only RUE and AFRO went in immediately. Fortunately on the second pass I remembered what a harvestman was and having solved 1ac things started to fall into place.

    I hadn’t understood exactly how 3dn worked before coming here so thanks to ulaca for that one. I have met (short) COMMONS previously but it had completely slipped my mind. Similarly Cairngorms, the gemstone

    Edited at 2012-10-15 08:23 am (UTC)

  5. 18 some minutes, slowed by the bright sun on a dull screen on a beach in Paphos. The struggles we have!
    My first instinct on the Gaullism was NON, as in je regret infiniment mais… as said to Heath if not Wilson.
    SW corner put up the biggest fight, and GEM was a best guess (could conceivably have been gam, I suppose). An assumption to go with harvestman=spider and (faint bell ringing) Dorking=hen. COMMONS=food rang a louder, Mephisto resonant bell. EGGSHELL my favourite.
  6. 25:02 .. the Dorking chicken and GUATEMALA completely foxed me and I ended up just working through words that might fit until something did. I’m adding crockery and chickens to the long list of things I know nothing about.
  7. 19m, so about average, although it felt a little bit harder than that somehow. Didn’t know harvestman or the GEM. Dorking ran a vague bell but only after putting the answer in from checkers.
    I think “out” in 2dn is “determined” in the sense of “they’re all out to get me”.
    1. Thanks – my chance to mention that I used to hate this sort of ‘substitutes that are not-at-all synonyms’ clue, but now I find it kind of cute.
  8. I really must take a break when foxed. Here I had everything bar earn and bedevilled in 17 minutes, then after 15 more staring at those two had to go out; on return did them immediately. I find determined for out strange; maybe when the solution to a puzzle’s out it works. I approve of the idea of a chess pit.
  9. 6Omitted!

    7Omitted as well!

    1. Why are answers sometimes omitted?

    2. And how then do I learn how a clue works?

  10. I found parts of this quite difficult but I don’t really see why it took me 19 mins. Nice to see the return of the Dorking hen – we were only discussing whether people had heard of it apart from in crosswords at a crossword workshop last Thursday.
  11. 14:38 almost ruined by a guessed TAMMAN at 27 but the Columbo in me reasoned that “feller” rather than “fellow” was significant.

    Good point well made Vinyl ref being “wise to many tricks that beginners have never seen”. 4 years ago I’d have struggled with some elements but RUC reversed, GEM, see = V, O pence, West = MAE were spotted pretty much straight away.

  12. Twenty minutes while eating up bits for lunch and deafened by squawking grandchildren, not the usual tranquil idyll this week. Put all in except BEDEVILLED then reluctantly entered that as no other obvious answer, but am still not happy with it… spicy food? Devilled prunes? I wanted a chilli in it somewhere. Why are Arians heretics? I was born under Aries and am not one as far as I am aware. Otherwise some excellent entertainment.

    Ah, having been to Wiki, I learn that Arius was a C3 bishop chap who was a bit off piste doctrine wise – all rather uninteresting for a practising atheist / heretic like me.

    Edited at 2012-10-15 12:53 pm (UTC)

    1. I’m not sure I’ve ever had devilled prunes, but if you think devilled kidneys you may get closer to the mark.
      The definition of “devil” (as a verb) in Chambers is “to season highly and broil”.
    2. Nothing to do with star signs. Arianism was a doctrine that challenged early Christian beliefs.
  13. A leisurely 42 mins, with a slight niggle that an ECCENTRIC is not the same as a cam, though they may perform similar functions.

    “Certainly, my home at my uncle’s brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears and Vices, I saw enough. Now, do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat.”

    This comes, surprisingly enough, from Jane Austen.

  14. Very much with Vinyl on this one, both easy and cliched. The sort of puzzle most setters could create in their sleep. 15 minutes after a fun Texas Scramble.
  15. 10:53 for a pleasantly Mondayish puzzle. Looking at the online scoreboard, I see certain people are tapering, as they say in athletic circles, in readiness for the weekend. Suffice it to say, I don’t think the lunch I have booked at the same time as the final is in danger of being cancelled…
    1. Tapering? What does that mean?
      What I appear to be doing in preparation for the weekend is going through a slow patch.
      1. Athletes preparing for marathons, Olympics, Tour de Frances etc. gradually cut down their heavy training programmes before the event, hence “tapering”. (I think. The closest I’ve got to any of those things is applauding from the sidelines, obviously). In the same way, I like to imagine Magoo devouring scores of old puzzles until a week before the event, when he just does one a day, in four and a half minutes, and crushes the spirit of everyone else.

        His domination is becoming so Lance Armstrong-esque I expect drug testing to be in place before long. (This testing will also reveal that I’ve invariably had one pint too many the night before the competition, which probably helps. That said, I don’t expect this year to be any different).

        1. The problem with drug tests at the Times Crossword Final is that so far as I know, there aren’t actually any banned substances yet… they are welcome to produce a list, so long as it doesn’t include alcohol.
  16. A disappointing 8:19. I failed to find the setter’s wavelength and kept dismissing answers which eventually turned out to be correct.
  17. Vinly1 – I’m a slogger! As such – first I appreciate that you don’t discard the blog on the day of the crossword – I find I can finish off some clues on the morning after. Second – I’m aware of some ‘tricks’ but was stumped on v = see and mm = medal. Are you aware of a ‘list of tricks’ somewhere for reference by us unenlightened (but keen)?
    1. A recent edition of the Times had a useful section on “How to Solve the Times Crossword” but I can’t remember what day it was. In any case, you pick these things up as you go along, and I think it’s more fun that way.

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