Anyway, I shan’t labour the point, suffice it to say it’s all a bit amateur hour, and comes at a time when there have been lots of annoying little misprints and typos across a variety of puzzles.
Meanwhile, returning to the actual crossword, some of the bits that did have clues were tricky, and there were several places where it took me a while to work out the right road to go down.
2:50am: Mistigris on the Club forum has revealed that it is possible to force letters into the grid, despite first appearances, so I have been able to submit a full solution, and can now confirm that I had everything else right, and that the clueless BON APPETIT is indeed the answer at 15ac. And while my time wasn’t especially fast, it was definitely less than 2 hours 19 minutes.
9:30am Added after a night’s sleep: nobody at the Crossword Club appears to have acknowledged the error, or corrected 15ac yet, but we do at least know what the clue was. 10:15am The Crossword Editor has posted that he has asked for the missing clue to be reinstated, and is unable to explain its omission. As the printed version was fine, it seems people were correct in attributing the problem to whoever / whatever process converts the day’s puzzle for web publication, rather than any editorial oversight. 11:00am and it’s fixed, so late solvers will have no problems (at least technical ones).
Across | |
---|---|
1 | NOTED – NOTEPAD minus PA(=old man). Meaning #1 of PC today… |
4 | SHADOW-BOX – SHADOW(=spy), BOX(=TV). |
9 |
WINNEBAGO – WINNE |
10 | LLAMA – (A MALL)rev. |
11 |
COMPASSIONATE – COMPASS(=reach), IONA T |
14 | SESH – hidden in senSES He, as in the abbreviated form of “session”. |
15 |
BON APPETIT – thanks to those who have revealed that the actual clue, which does appear in the paper, is “Nice diner may say this quietly with a pint to be drunk (3, 7)”, so it’s actually quite a straightforward clue, (P |
18 |
EYEWITNESS – W |
19 | VAMP – (AV)rev. + M.P. for the politician. A.V., the Authorised Version of the Bible, appears less frequently than the more general O.T. or N.T. |
21 | FUNDAMENTALLY – and just as I was saying it made a change for books not to mean “NT”, here it is, appearing inside FUN(=entertaining), DAME(=lady), ALLY(=friend). |
24 |
ISLAM – S |
25 |
GUILLEMOT – [L |
27 |
MAYORALTY – MAY(=girl), L |
28 |
SCOOP – S |
Down | |
1 |
NEWSCASTER – NEW(=novel), [CASTE(=class) in S |
2 | TUN – (NUT)rev. |
3 | DEEJAY =”D,J”. Like its close relative “emcee”, I always find it difficult to spot this one. |
4 |
SWANSDOWN – WAN(=pale) inside S,S (i.e. replacing the material inside S |
5 | AGOGO – A GO, GO. As Jack points out in comments, you can take your pick as to whether it should be (1,4) or (5), as both appear. At the same time as inserting 15ac, someone has clearly decided that (1,4) is the correct alternative. |
6 |
OIL LAMPS – OIL(=grease), [M |
7 | BLAZE A TRAIL – [LAZE in BAT], RAIL. |
8 |
XMAS – X(=ten), M |
12 |
MASTERFULLY – L |
13 | STEP BY STEP – BY(=times) in (PETS)x2 rev. |
16 | AUSTERITY – (ISAYUTTER)*. |
17 |
MISNOMER – [NO M |
20 | STALLS – TALL(=unlikely), where “on board” is represented by being on a ship, i.e. “in S.S.”. |
22 |
ANGEL – ANGER(“put out”) with a change of sides, so R |
23 | FIRM – double def., one of which I didn’t know, so I banged this in on trust, mostly wondering if I was missing something to do with “firm” being at the centre of “infirmary”. It appears that a hopsital consultant is backed up by a team of doctors who are known as a firm, something I thought only applied as a collective noun for armed robbers until looking it up just now. |
26 |
MOO – MOO |
Bon apetit!
After making very slow progress for about half-an-hour I resorted to liberal use of aids. Why would one waste one’s life poring over clues indefinitely that one can’t trust to be correct? I got there eventually and even guessed the missing answer but with no sense of achievement or enjoyment whatsoever.
What with this and continuing chaos over access to the Quickie (today’s button links to last Tuesday’s puzzle) it really is time for somebody at Wapping to get a grip and sort things out once and for all.
According to the OED, for 5dn they could have added (as further alternative enumerations) 1-4, 1,2,2, 1,2-2, and 1-2-2. Next time perhaps.
Edited at 2014-05-06 06:09 pm (UTC)
Nice diner may say this quietly with a pint to be drunk (3, 7)
Edited at 2014-05-06 08:53 am (UTC)
Re Java code with line missing in part: I hope you choke and die! (3,7)
I’m surmising the definition is meant to be interpreted ironically.
Apart from the coding slip (hey, we’re all human – apart from teachers and quondam friends according to Brand New) I enjoyed this one, although some of the answers raised an eyebrow. It took me about 30 minutes with the unlikely SESH my LOI (BON APPETIT remains incomplete)
Edited at 2014-05-06 05:51 am (UTC)
Anyway, a bad start to the day for the second day running and happening far too often.
I very much doubt the puzzle left the editor’s desk in this state. It all smacks of a systemic problem which may well be defeating the best efforts of the editor. And it’s a real shame that we’re seeing this sort of thing. The Times has always been the one puzzle I felt I could rely on — if something didn’t make sense, I knew the problem was with me, not the puzzle. Now, not so much.
It’s not hard to think of ways to prevent this kind of thing happening. I hope RR gets the cooperation he needs from other departments in Murdoch Towers to put this right. Otherwise I may just have to take out the fountain pen and the bonded paper and write a jolly stern letter to the editor. I know, I know, it’s an extreme measure. But I feel I may have no choice.
On the plus side, I think kevin_from_ny’s alternative clue is a work of satirical genius! Thank you, kevin, for turning my frown upside down.
In the hard copy, and therefore of course the online facsimile edition.
How foolish of me! I should have checked and then guessed that you could force feed the entry!
What do French people say for “bon appetit”?
It did put rather a blight on the proceedings, and my time of nearly 24 minutes reflects that as much as the difficulty/obscurity level. SESH is “do you want” in Polish (only the Poles spell it chcesz); FIRM on (NHS) Trust; NOTED no idea how it worked other than from definition; WINNEBAGO is surely no longer – erm- PC; I had to learn that SWANSDOWN (5-4?) was not just feathers inside a pillow, or indeed on a swan.
Moo(d)? not exactly grumpy, more that sort of amused indignant feeling I used to get with the TLS before St Peter took it in hand, since when it’s been immaculate in conception.
We have yet to negotiate the transition from crossword club to main site (assuming that’s still going to happen). What joys await!
Agree with you about the migration: call me a glass-half-empty guy, but when I think of all my experiences of such things, I’m struggling to think of one where everyone sat down afterwards and said “Well that went very smoothly”, rather than all wanting to kill each other.
All but the missing BON APPETIT in about 40 minutes or so, so not too bad for me. DNK SWANSDOWN, or that meaning of FIRM or WINNEBAGO, but gettable, and CNP (could not parse) STALLS. All others ok. Didn’t think there were that many obscurities, in fact, McT, compared to many other puzzles. Ah well, I guess, as ever, it’s all about the GK that you know…
The fact that the rogue clue appeared in the paper edition but not in the electronic versions tells you something about where in the process things went wrong. I’ve no idea what it tells you, but whatever it is the editor may have had no bearing on it.
Tim, in 18ac I think the anagrind is ‘with crooks’.
“I think the problem with 15ac may be related to the fact that it had an accent on it – the system, notoriously, does not like them, and this one may have slipped through.
I can only apologise once more”
which sort of raises the question of why answers with accents are used but never mind.
malcj, the app is indeed strange. As well as unilaterally deciding that incomplete sudokus are incorrect, if you do the cryptic and then the QC, you get a combined time for the latter.
I wasn’t convinced about notepad for PC at 1A. I know some laptops call themselves notebooks, but even then I think of laptops as being distinct from PCs.
Otherwise entirely enjoyable, lots of clever misdirection and simple clues tricked up like Chinese boxes. FOI NEWSCASTER, LOI (not counting FIRM) ISLAM. COD SHADOW-BOX, because the clue seemed to inexorably point to “Danger Man” a favourite TV spy series of my childhood, starring Patrick McGoohan in his pre Prisoner days.
BTW, who actually uses “deejay” instead of “DJ”? Perhaps those nice chaps at the BeeBeeCee or the OhEeeDee?
The clue’s a bit odd: a kind of dehomophonisation.
Cheers
Chris.
Same unknowns as others (swansdown and firm), stalls and guillemot last two in.
Reasonable puzzle I thought.
Edited at 2014-05-06 07:31 pm (UTC)
Anyway, I do apologise for the errors that have crept in over the past few weeks, most recently today, although I have to say that the issues with the online puzzle today were beyond my reasonable control.
The software that handles the crossword club puzzles does not like accents in solutions and I reckon that was the reason for the non-appearance of 15ac. They normally get stripped out if they exist. At least it can handle them in the clues, unlike the Quick Cryptic software.
I didn’t see the double enumeration at 5dn, but I’m guessing it was because there was a space between the 1 and the 4 of the original, as there is no such error in any version of the puzzles that I can see at my end.
SWANSDOWN – never heard of it, apparently a type of flannel cloth?
DEEJAY – pathetic clue, IMO, D J ‘picked up’?
Came to this late after failing to break 80 today on the saturated golf course, so at least I could enjoy the nice clue for 15 ac.
30 minutes of mixed feelings. CoD WINNEBAGO.
Re APPETIT – is usual to omit the accent on capital letters unless it affects the sense, so using caps would perhaps solve the software problem?
You’d think so, but any accents persist even with capitals (which are indeed used)Indeed, arguably they are harder to see.
RR
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bd2rAxyofpg/TvEHQAKnL4I/AAAAAAAACSo/gg2TA6x18qA/s320/PrincessBeatriceMauveWhiteDown.jpg
Edited at 2014-05-08 02:35 am (UTC)
FIRM was easier for me as I have one of my own……
As a retired software professional I have utter contempt for whoever has over-all responsibility for the appalling, amateurish rubbish that Times Crossword Club members (and the poor bloody crossword editor) have to put up with.
Doing the print version of the puzzle meant that I didn’t encounter the missing clue problem, and I thought the setter did a good job, apart from ‘sesh’, which is (in my eyes) an abomination, whether it appears in the Concise Oxford Dictionary or not.