Times 25348 – At the second hole on the final day of the Masters…..

Solving time: 16 minutes

Music: Pictures at an Exhibition – Richter

This is by far the easiest puzzle I have ever blogged. I don’t know what got into them, but some of the clues are barely cryptic at all. If I hadn’t gotten stuck for a few minutes in the NW, I might have broken 10 minutes, which would be a record for me. Perhaps some of our beginners will find that they have finally completed a Times puzzle unaided.

I would not have much of a blog if I left out all the obvious clues, so I’ll be lowering the standard a bit tonight.

Across
1 SCRUB, double definition.
4 IRISH STEW, anagram of TRIES HIS + W[ife].
9 ALBATROSS. Triple definition – an allusion to The Ancient Mariner, a 2 on a par 5, and another, more indirect, allusion to The Ancient Mariner.
10 OCTET, O + CT + E[legan]T.
11 DINNER, D[uke] + INNER.
12 Omitted!
14 Omitted!
16 SMART, S + MART.
17 Omitted!
19 SPOON-FEED, SPOON (the golf club) + FEED.
21 RARA AVIS, RA + RA + A + VIS.
22 STUPOR, ST(UP)OR[e], as in a store of knowledge.
25 U-BOAT, anagram of ABOUT. Too bad the enumeration gives it away.
26 AEGEAN SEA. A[rea] + E.G. + anagram of ‘Aeneas’.
27 DESTROYER, double definition.
28 FROTH, FR + anagram of HOT.
 
Down
1 STAND ONE’S GROUND, STAND ONE’S (G[allons])ROUND
2 ROBIN, NIB OR upside down. I wanted to put ‘raven’ for a while.
3 BATTERY, double definition.
4 IRON, NORI upside down, my first in.
5 INSULATION, IN + anagram of UNIT ALSO. I had never heard of this meaning of ‘lagging’, the only vaguely obscure point in the puzzle.
6 HOOKERS, double definition.
7 TITILLATE, T(I + TILL)ATE.
8 WITH BATED BREATH, WITH (having) + sounds like ‘baited’ + B(R[oyal]E[ngineers})ATH.
13 CONSPIRACY, CONS PIRACY.
15 NOTORIOUS, anagram of NOIR, TOO + US.
18 PLATTER, P(L)ATTER[n], where ‘detailed’ has the ‘cut off its tail’ meaning.
20 Omitted!
23 Omitted – look for it!
24 AGAR, A GAR.

32 comments on “Times 25348 – At the second hole on the final day of the Masters…..”

  1. Straight into the park and out again; no time even for a stroll! Got most of them from checking letters and literals. Definitely one for the Nursery Slopes folder.
  2. I screwed up! I was going so fast I put in RAREBIRD without bother with most of the word play. Then when I realized it had to be AVIS I forgot to change RARE to RARA. Otherwise it would have been a PB I’m sure. About 11 minutes.
  3. I didn’t find this quite as easy as comments here and solving times on the leader board suggest that it is.

    Most of it fell into place easily enough but I was not helped by never having heard of RARA AVIS (although its translation is familiar enough) or the Japanese seaweed. I think I must have been still tired after a long Sunday dinner!

  4. I’m still in shock: 4:51, a pb with oak leaf cluster (I think I’ve been under 10′ once). I kept waiting for one clue to bring me to a halt, but for once it was not to be. As Mctext might say, granted it was an easy one but.
  5. I finished this too, in what was for me a record time of about 20 minutes (though I never time it because usually it’s an hour or more).
  6. A very easy just under five minutes for me. Now if my brain continues to work that well, the office team should do well in the organisation’s Christmas quiz this morning.
  7. Yep, super easy. My solving experience was positively Severian: I got horribly bogged down in the NW, where I bunged in LARCENY and took forever to sort it out. Eventually finished in a sluggish 6:54.
  8. I’ve reverted to ‘observer status’ on the site in recent weeks (with the builders around for so long I fell well behind with the crosswords). So, first of all, many thanks to all the bloggers whom I haven’t thanked in that time.

    I’ve broken my silence to record my first and probably only sub 10-minute solve of a Times crossword. For once, I had absolutely no hold-ups. So this must be about as fast as I could ever make, given the time it takes me just to complete the mechanics (i.e. read clues, solve and then enter answers).

    1. 19.28 so a very rara avis of a sub 20. Held up by that one and also by inexplicably putting in BROTH for 28a. Having completed Saturdays in under 30 I am on a high!
  9. Agreed. By far the easiest Times puzzle I’ve ever encountered – just on 10 mins for me, which is less than half my previous PB. The real speed merchants will be completing this in nanoseconds, I would think – indeed, Kevin very nearly has. As Vinyl says, some of the clues are barely cryptic. If 27 ac were re-worded as “Saboteur; warship (9)”, it could go straight into the Concise. All that said, I don’t object to the occasional very easy puzzle to boost morale!
  10. Just to join in the fun, 6:39 here. I generally gauge how relatively fast I’ve been by looking for the five or six regular solvers whose times are normally in the same ball park as mine, so even if I hadn’t read the comments above, I’d have realised I hadn’t turned into Magoo overnight. By the same token, I normally think I’ve done OK if I finish in less than twice his time, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he threatens 4 minutes for this one…

  11. Also a PB, 11 minutes, while eating / drinking soup and sandwich, pleasing but if it was this easy every day I’d be getting poor value time-wise for my membership fee. No doubt we’ll be humbled again very soon.
  12. By far the easiest Times cryptic I have encountered over many years. Roughly 10 minutes, would have been quicker but for Rare Avis – got from wordplay.
  13. I clocked probably the longest recorded time of anyone here – a whole 21 minutes. Still, close to a personal best. Incidentally, did you hear about the cat that ate a piece of cheese and then waited by a mousehole with baited breath…?
  14. I am a regular reader of the blog but one who rarely contributes (I wonder how many others are like me in this respect?) but I feel I must record the fact that I too have broken all my previous timings. I usually allow around an hour and am delighted if very occasionally I halve this but today – no more than fifteen minutes, probably nearer ten. I can’t be precise as I never look at the clock.
    But please don’t have too many as easy as this one as I feel a bit deprived of a challenge!
    Barry J
  15. First one I’ve completed unaided for weeks. It used to be quite common to refer to lagging ( a.k.a. insulation ) on pipes.
  16. Could not believe it – So rare for me to finish in one session
    – What do I doo for the rest of the day ?
  17. Don’t forget there are a lot of people like me that are trying to start doing the crossword
    It’s not helping if you you don’t explain 5 clues just because you know how it works.
    1. This is from “About this blog” (at the top of the page):-
      We don’t give solutions to all the clues in each puzzle, for three reasons. One: lack of time – writing this stuff takes longer than you might think! Two: so that we’re not seen as completely ruining the paper’s chance to make money with their “Phone for today’s answers” service. Three: to encourage you to try solving just a few clues yourself, with help from the checking letters provided by the rest. But if we miss out the one clue that stumps you, ask about it in a comment. If you do so on the day of publication, the answer will usually come quickly.
  18. Well, it would have been my PB if I hadn’t botched up RARA AVIS (same problem as paulmcl, except that RARA AVIS was somewhat new to me). I just forgot to question the RE that was still in it and submitted in a hurry to cash in on my fast time (not fast for most of you, of course — 32 minutes), generally a bad idea in any case. But it was a puzzle with few difficulties indeed, except for the one mentioned.

    P.S. This puzzle was actually so dull I don’t even mind having messed it up.

    Edited at 2012-12-17 05:30 pm (UTC)

  19. Another PB here at 12 minutes. That’s almost as long as it takes me to read the clues and write in the answers. I can’t actually see the numbers on the grid so have to go by the position of the clue. I think this puzzle took about 5 minutes actual thinking time. One of the easiest in many decades of struggle. I expect tomorrow’s to be fiendish so that we don’t start getting above ourselves. Ann
  20. Not a PB here, but not much over 10 minutes either. We’ll soon get our comeuppance, I’m sure.

    To the first anon, as a holiday offering, the missing ones are: 12 GLEE CLUB (joy, nightspot); 14 NANNY GOAT (sorta cryptic) 17 SET (television) UP (promoted); 20 NOT HALF (double def, I guess); and 23 PESTO (hidden). Good luck to you and others starting to do these crosswords. Bear in mind the first note from ‘About this blog’, and that we all appreciate the time spent by the bloggers to explain the clues, even when leaving a few out. Regards to all.

  21. As a relative beginner I was really pleased that the answers were going pretty quickly so I knew this must be an easy puzzle. However DNF due to Rara Avis and Conspiracy! Sorry experienced solvers but I do like an occasional entry level puzzle every now and then to boost the confidence
    1. You’re very welcome. Some experienced solvers (me, for instance) have no objection to easy crosswords which we can knock off reasonably quickly – though sadly my days of clocking up a PB from one like today’s are long past.
  22. I didn’t find it that easy. 19 minutes. Didn’t know the Hitchcock film or the seaweed. 14 seems horrifically easy but otherwise gentle fare rather than a spoonfeed, for me. But can’t argue with a virtual storm of excellent times.
  23. 5:02 for me – an uneasy mixture of clues I solved quite briskly and others that I made heavy weather of.

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