Times 25,301

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
13:53 on the Club timer for a puzzle which was somewhere down the middle in terms of difficulty. A couple of words which are a bit off the beaten track, but which a search reveals to have cropped up in these parts in the not too distant past. Pleasant, solid solve.

Across
1 STARVE – marineR in STAVE. Paticularly with the checkers, this had to be what it was, though “verse” is right at the bottom of the list of meanings of “stave” in the dictionary.
4 BUILDER – British + GUILDER with no Good. I am no numismatist, but I think one has to join the dots here i.e. a florin is any foreign gold coin, and a guilder is a particular example. Bob, of course, is the children’s programme which asked “Can we fix it?”, thus inspiring President Obama to say “yes we can”.
9 IROKO – IRON + (OK)rev. This rang a vague bell, which a search of this blog suggests goes back to puzzle 24,866, where a regular commentator shared a little detail about their kitchen.
10 INTESTATE – WINTER + STATE.
11 TO A NICETY – [A NICE Time] in TOY.
12 MORAY – MORNAY (French cheese sauce, often served with fish, appropriately enough) minus the New, gives the large eel.
13 GOOD – GO(=turn) + (DO)rev.
14 MIDSHIPMEN – [HIP Male] in (DENIMS)*. Navy blue, in this case, as in Mr Midshipman Hornblower.
18 TIE THE KNOT – THE King, NOT after TIE(=obligation).
20 LUCK – PLUCK minus Piano. Pizzicato (instruction to play the strings by plucking) is one of the more common bits of Italian musical notation used regularly in crosswords.
23 BASIC – B.A. SIC(“as originally presented” in printers’ notation).
24 AFFRONTED – A FF RON + TED.
25 TIE AND DYE – one of those rather loose clues i.e. “find a pattern-making method which is constructed of two words which rhyme”. I was more familiar with “tie-dye” without the “and”.
26 ANGLE – TANGLE without the Tons. Tangle, aka tang, as a sort of seaweed was another one that rang a fairly distant bell, and turned out to have cropped up in a full house of daily, Jumbo and Mephisto.
27 LANTERN – Large, A Northern TERN. Didn’t know the technical term, but it seemed fairly obvious, given that the lit-up bit of a lighthouse is really just a big light fitting.
28 MANTIS – Million ANTI’S.
 
Down
1 SKIN TIGHT – SKINT, LIGHT.
2 AVOCADO – A Very Old Cape ADO. Tne traditional colour of the archetypal 70s bathroom suite.
3 VIOLIN – (OIL)* in VIN, as in vin rouge.
4 BOTHY – BOTH + y. Fairly sure this crops up in The 39 Steps as Richard Hannay crosses the Scottish moors.
5 INSOMNIA – (1MANSION)*.
6 DIAGRAM – (AID)rev. + GRAMMIES.
7 REEDY – GREEDY without Grams.
8 LIMERICK – (RICEMILK)*. Limerick isn’t the most obvious port, but I guess this may be true of many places which sit on an estuary rather than the open sea.
15 SCOT FREE – [COT FR.] in SEE; COT is a poetic word for cottage, which doesn’t stretch the imagination, even if you’re not already familiar with it.
16 NAKEDNESS – (SNAKE’SDEN)*.
17 CHACONNE – CHA(=tea) + CONNED. An allegedly suggestive and fiery Spanish dance, for which I relied on wordplay rather than faint ringing of bells.
19 EASTERN – ExAm + STERN.
21 UPTIGHT – UP(at university) + TIGHT(drunk).
22 SONATA – reaSON A TAngo.
23 BETEL =”BEETLE”. Mmmm…stimulating.
24 ARDEN – GARDEN minus Gets. The Forest of Arden is the setting for As You Like It.

Meanwhile I am feeling quite chipper after the weekend, having reached the final of the competition for the first time, which was a pleasant surprise. I first had a stab at the Birmingham regional final back in the early 90s, and intermittently after that; and since I returned on a regular basis five years ago, I’ve mostly been happy to enjoy the day out, while improving (if only by a little) every year. It just goes to show one should never give up hope!

P.S. Thank you for the kind words below; having made the final I was, of course, put firmly in my place – I think my racecard notes would say weakened before last, tailed off – but that in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the occasion. And in case anyone is interested, and has missed the link in the comments below, Tony Sever of this parish has put the details of another remarkable win for Mark Goodliffe on his blog.

41 comments on “Times 25,301”

  1. Tuesday is the new Monday … this week at least. Only one unknown word, IROKO: but easy from the cryptic indication. Will report when I’ve built my first txalaparta (one for the Monthly perhaps).

    Counted no fewer than 9 single letter deletions; something of a record I suspect.

    Guilder & Florin: Mac Oxford, for the latter, has “a foreign coin of gold or silver, esp. a Dutch guilder” — but I knew it from the two kingdoms in The Princess Bride!

    Good to see lawn bowls make an appearance in the surface at 24dn.

    Only complaints are 22dn and 23dn where adjectival phrases furnish the literal indications for nouns in the answer. (Just possibly the DBE in 3dn — but I think the question-mark is OK when it’s right up against the potentially offending word. Otherwise, much less so.) And: do we need the “clearly” at 10ac?

    And to Tim: congrats on reaching the final. Watch out Magoo!

    Edited at 2012-10-23 01:42 am (UTC)

    1. We don’t actually need ‘clearly’ but it is included in one of the definitions in at least one of the usual sources so it’s perfectly valid.
    2. I was also struck by the Princess Bride reference but didn’t mention it, as I thought it might just be me. Inconceivable.
    3. Agree entirely with mctext about 22dn and 23dn – these are really awful! I’m happy enough with ‘claret?’ = VIN at 3dn, but yes, there are too many liberties taken with question marks referring to earlier elements of the clue.

      Thanks for the blog, Tim, and congratulations on making the final on Saturday.

      Edited at 2012-10-23 09:43 pm (UTC)

  2. 51 minutes but with three wrong (24, 25 and 26). Should have got ARDEN, which would have opened up TIE AND DYE, where I plumped for ‘toe and roe’. ANGLE also gettable, but I bailed out with a very hopeful, and rather green, ‘algae’. Wouldn’t have known BOTHY but for my father’s funeral being held at a church with one of these a few years back.

    Enough of these sombre reflections, though. Time to congratulate all the regulars who were brave enough to enter the fray at the weekend – with a nod to Tim on his achievement in getting through to the final. Putting oneself through the torture of the anticipation and the event itself deserves a medal in my book. And, while I have the floor, as it were, get well soon wishes to Andy, esteemed sub-landlord of this fine site, as well as to Tony after his recent op.

    Edited at 2012-10-23 01:48 am (UTC)

  3. I made heavy weather of this one after a strong start in every quarter but with a lot missing in the middle of the puzzle until the bitter end which came after about 50 minutes and one cheat to get IROKO, my LOI.

    Congrats on your competition success, Tim, but talking of improving and never giving up hope I’m afraid today’s puzzle has provided me with evidence to the contrary with regard to my own efforts because IROKO turned up on my watch in that old puzzle and it evidently didn’t stick. And on that occasion, unlike today, I was able to work it out from the wordplay.

    I don’t often do CODs but I think 5dn deserves a mention here.

    Sonatas are not always limited to one or two players but I suppose that’s the most common type and the question mark covers other possibilities.

    I knew BOTHY from years of reading Scottish title deeds in a former life.

    Edited at 2012-10-23 01:51 am (UTC)

    1. A florin is familiar to anyone aged around 50 or over as a ‘2 bob piece’ making the clue somewhat intertextual.
      1. Indeed! There’s a moment in one of the Just William books where our hero’s sister’s BF flicks him a coin. William: “Cor! Two Bob!”
  4. Squoze under the half-hour with 29:17. Wasted vast heaps of time, it seemed, getting 6d wrong in various ways (‘plan’=map, ‘over’=pam, ‘gram’ at the beginning,…). More heaps running through the alphabet trying to come up with IROKO, which I was pretty sure I’d come across here. DNK BOTHY or Bob the BUILDER; and in the US (or in my US), it’s tie-dye. I liked a number of the clues (1d,15d, 14ac), but my COD goes to MORAY. Congrats, Tim; I look on you and all the contestants with, as Noddy Boffin would put, hadmiration amounting to hawe.
    1. I think it’s more commonly tie-dye on this side of the Pond too, even if the practice is seen much less often than in my youth.
      Apparently, you can pick up Bob the Builder on PBS Kids.
  5. I agree with Tim, a middle of the road puzzle perhaps leaning towards the easier side of the distribution curve.

    When solving I thought CHACONNE was a ballet but on looking it up I see it’s a stately Mexican dance in Chambers – nothing about fiery passion Tim. As I don’t know how to pronounce BETEL can’t comment on the clue but does it really sound like beetle?

    Congratulations Tim on reaching the final. Is somebody going to give us an account of what happened? I assume Magoo won again?

    1. Yup. First prelim was thought to be harder than second, but 7 of the top ten in the final came from the second.
      1. I’ve just seen the full results for the first time and this is borne out by the numbers: only 18 people finished all three puzzles correctly in the first prelim, compared to 31 in the second.
        I must say this makes me feel a bit better about my three mistakes.
        1. Not just harder than the second prelim but also harder than last year. Last time I was all-correct, just within the hour, which placed me 28th. This year I struggled and at the end of the hour had 5 gaps and, it appears, two mistakes, probably just careless slips of the pen. That dragged me down to 37th.

          To answer Jimbo, yes, Magoo won, solving the three final puzzles in 20 minutes, 10 minutes ahead of his nearest rival.

          Edited at 2012-10-23 11:54 am (UTC)

    2. Chaconne appears to have changed its musical meaning over the years – the wikipedia entry concentrates on the baroque musical form, but I found what seemed a reputable source for the earlier dance here.

      And as far as my limited experience goes (it’s a word I’ve seen written down a great deal more than I’ve heard it said out loud), BETEL is fine for even the most demanding judges of homophones.

      As for the competition, in one of the gaps between Saturday’s solving sessions, I was able to say hello to self-styled tortoise Tony Sever in real life for the first time, and he’s published an account of the final on his blog. Lots of familiar names of TFFT bloggers past and present in the list of finalists…

      1. Thanks for that Tim.It sounds like it owes something to flamenco. If so, I think I may have seen it danced one hot night in Saville when it was indeed a very evocative performance – not quite what one expects in such a conservative part of the world.
    3. It is also a ballet by Balanchine for the NYC Ballet set to music by Gluck, so your instinct was right (well that’s how I got it too). Hearty congrats to Tim – very impressive.
    4. I never knew there was any modern dance called a chaconne. Wonderful site this for extending your GK. On the other hand I have played chaconnes hundreds of time but they were all part of baroque suites by Bach and such like. Roll on the allemandes, bourees and gigues. Makes a nice change from cricket!
  6. An oddly subdued 21 minutes today – maybe I misread my analogue watch for the start time, but in truth the NE slowed me to a crawl. Chaps in blue refused to be anything other than policemen for far too long.
    Devastated by the indirect news that Bob the Builder is dead. Fortunately my grandsons are more Fireman Sam, so may not have noticed.
    I’ve always pronounced BETEL as beetle, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been wrong.

    My own experience at the second preliminary was sort of encouraging: in the last two, I’ve been 26th, outside the free places by 1. This year, I managed all three grids in 40 minutes, just over twice as long as Magoo, but failed to overturn on appeal the judgement that my answer to 1d in the first grid was not as acceptable as the real one. 33rd, would have been 17th had the convention of over 20 years that all appeals are fruitless not been continued.

  7. About thirty minutes today. FOI Starve. Feared I was heading for another DNF because I was held up at the end by Midshipmen, Diagram and LOI Builder. Got the latter by going through the alphabet to get the second letter. To A Nicety also took a good think.

    Mantis: Any Strictly Come Dancing fans out there will remember Craig Revel Horwood likening Jerry Hall to a praying mantis on Saturday!!

    Bothy: I’ve spent a few nights in bothies in Scotland, e.g. Shenavall, Faindouran and Ben Alder Cottage. The Mountain Bothies Association maintains about 100 bothies in the UK.

    Congratulations to everyone on their successes on Saturday. I found Grand Final Puzzle #1 quite manageable last night. Tackling #2 tonight.

    1. Could you tell me how to find the Grand Final puzzles – I don’t see them on the Club site. I don’t get the print newspaper (I’m in NYC) and I’m not a subscriber to the online paper.
      1. They should appear here as “dailies” in due course.

        I have access to the newspaper but they haven’t been set up to print properly so I spent ages reformatting and still ended up straining my eyes to read them.

      2. I don’t know Olivia. If you subscribe to the Times Crossword Club you could ask Peter Biddlecombe via the Forum. I imagine they’ll be the daily cryptics at some point. I think starting tomorrow for the next six Wednesdays the cryptics will be the puzzles from the two preliminary sessions.
  8. 22m. Pleasant middle-of-the-road puzzle as others have said. No unknowns today, including IROKO – it was my kitchen last time, and still is.
    Congratulations on getting through to the final, Tim.
  9. 28.17 and similar to yesterday in that the last 7 were on 14a and 15d neither of which were difficult or obscure! Must be the passing years and running out of intellectual steam after 20 minutes. Much of this seemed very straightforward so perhaps that’s a sign of some improvement even if intermittent and short lived! Congrats to Tim and all those who took part. I look forward to being suitably humbled when the puzzles appear!
  10. 19:16 but I went all Buzz Lightyear at 11 and made up TO A FINETY. Muppet indeed.

    At least that gave me the ammo to get bothy then builder, my last two in. The cack-handedness that probably gave me the extra two errors on Saturday led me to nakkedn… before seeing that I was about to run out of squares and to sonato before the insect came to my rescue.

  11. 23 mins and 28 secs with one wrong. I stuck algae in without sufficient thought.

    Didn’t know Chaconne or Iroko and Iroko took me ages to get.

    Is the work play in Iroko, Good = OK, OK for turning = KO? Or is it Good for = OK and OK turning = KO?

    1. I reckon it must be the first, as I can’t think of a context where ‘good for’ does not equate to ‘OK for‘.
  12. Finished in 25 and was surprised to find I’d plumped correctly for IROKO and CHACONNE which were unknown and guessed from wordplay. Otherwise a steady, pleasant solve to take my mind off the very sad situation here dog wise.
    1. Always sorry to hear of sad dog situations. Five years since I lost the mutt in the picture and still missing him.
  13. This took me longer than usual, about 40 minutes, ending with the unknown (to me) BOTHY. The NE held me up, because I didn’t know of ‘stave’ as a verse, or IROKO, and I thought VIOLIN had to be trickier than it turned out to be. I add my salute to those from here who ventured into the Championship competition, and I share the general amazement that Mr. Goodliffe could complete his final round 10 minutes ahead of the next finisher, and doing 3 puzzles in 20 minutes. Good heavens, that’s pretty amazing. Regards to all.
  14. I didn’t know STAVE as a verse at 1a. But bunged it in straight away from the definition. A lucky guess, as it happened.No other vocabulary problems. I loved 10a (my COD)for the misleading definition. 26 enjoyable minutes. Ann
  16. 8:46 here, with the easy MIDSHIPMEN taking me a ridiculously long time at the end. Another pleasant, straightforward puzzle.
  17. I took my usual hour to solve this and as usual was vastly surprised to find out the solution was correct, as BOTHY and IROKO were just educated guesses based on wordplay. Otherwise fairly straightforward.

    As for florin and guilder, the pre-Euro Dutch currency, if I recall correctly (it has been a decade) was called the gulden (which would be guilder in English) but abbreviated fl.

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