I thought about whether to renew for some time before deciding to sign up with the cheapest available subscription*. I won’t rehash all the arguments, especially as it’s too late now for it to change anything; suffice it to say, I think the changes could have been handled much better, but in the end, compared with other vices a middle-aged man might have, the Times crossword is fairly harmless, and reasonable value (even if I once more have to buy the entire paper to get it).
Oh yes, the actual crossword. Today’s first return on my investment took 16 minutes, as detailed below. Some novelty, with an occasional whiff of chestnut.
So, I’m still here**. Anybody else?
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | POCHARD – a POD of peas, filled with CHAR(“daily”). This rang a vague bell, possibly more likely from a menu than an ornithological text. |
| 5 | BLASTED – LAST(“most unlikely” as in the last person you’d suspect) in BED. Blasted=blooming in euphemistic bad language; see also flipping, flaming, and numerous other minced oaths. |
| 9 | STALEMATE – A LEM in STATE; I think if you’re old enough to have taken an interest in the Apollo missions, you might well remember LEM (the Lunar Excursion Module, the bit which actually landed on the Moon), though I expect plenty of solvers to have just whacked it in from definition. |
| 10 | CHINA – double def., China plate=”mate” in Cockney Rhyming Slang. |
| 11 | MARCHIONESSES – (SMASHERSONCEI)*. |
| 13 |
MARSH GAS – G |
| 15 |
PINTER – P |
| 17 |
RECEDE – RE |
| 19 | CINNAMON – INN, A.M. inside CON. |
| 22 | VESTAL VIRGINS – (SERVANTSVIGIL)*. Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth, and the Vestal Virgins kept her sacred flame burning, as well as providing material for Carry On Cleo. |
| 25 | SLING – SAILING minus A1. |
| 26 | CANDIDATE – CAN(“ditch”, especially if you’re American), DI, DATE(“potential partner”). |
| 27 | REGNANT – PREGNANT(“expecting”) minus the first letter; we had a very good recent clue which used this device citing Marie Antoinette rather than a nameless occupant of a throne. |
| 28 | SEGMENT – G-MEN in a SET. |
| Down | |
| 1 |
POSY – PROSY without the R |
| 2 | CHARMER – ARM in CHER(French for “dear”). |
| 3 | AMEER – ME(“this person”) in A E.R.(“head of state”). I hesitated over this for a little while, but was quite prepared to believe in an alternative spelling of “emir”/”amir”, and turned out to be right. Admittedly, most of my confidence came from the multiple spellings I’ve seen in the names of Pakistani cricketers called Amir/Ameer/Aamer, so it may have no basis in fact. |
| 4 |
DEAD HEAT – [AD, HE] in DEAT |
| 5 | BRETON – BAR without A, ETON. |
| 6 | ACCRETION – (NICEACTOR)*. |
| 7 | TWINSET – (N,S,E) in TWIT(“silly”). I’m not normally keen on answers which involve “three card players”, or “three musical notes”, and this didn’t change my mind. |
| 8 |
DRAWSTRING – (WARD)rev. + |
| 12 | IMPROVISER – IMP, [IS in ROVER]. |
| 14 |
HYDRANGEA – anagram of (A |
| 16 | MIGRANTS – (I’M)rev. + GRANTS. |
| 18 | COSTING – CO. STING. |
| 20 | MISTAKE – M1 STAKE(“hazard” as in gamble). |
| 21 | AVOCET – (TOCAVE)*. |
| 23 | ICING =”I SING”. |
| 24 | BELT – one of those horrible four letter words with two common checkers; luckily, when you lift and separate the Lake and District, and realise that the third letter is probably L, BELT leaps out, a district as in the Central Belt in Scotland. |
*If there’s anyone who’s still seeking advice on the matter, without wishing to act as a shill for News International, I can vouch for the advice given on the Crossword Club forum i.e. to call 0800 028 4173, and quote code CC88X. That gives you access to the cheapest sub, which costs £1 a week for the first 3 months, £2 a week after that.
**for a year, anyway, if spared
Not much to say about the puzzle, another good one, a little easier than average I think.
Not much to say about this one, except it was nice to see the oblique reference to one of Dickens’s more memorable characters at 11a and I needed the dog at 12d to change to the -er ending from the -or. The duck and middle-eastern chappie last in.
Anyway I’m still here, but that’s because I switched to a subscription to the newspaper some 18 months before the abolition of the standalone payment was first announced.
As to this puzzle, I was delayed at the end and rather surprised to find that my solving time had extended as far as 50 minutes before I wrote in my last answer at 24dn. Ashamed to say I wondered long and hard about ‘staFINate’ at 9ac before spotting the obvious.
I can’t say I’m over familiar with ‘silly’ used as a noun as required in the wordplay at 7dn, but SOED confirms it with reference to the wonderful Joyce Grenfell: “I am a big silly aren’t I?”
Edited at 2014-07-01 05:06 am (UTC)
Second, and more relevant, today was supposed to be the day when crossword-only subscriptions all ended once and for all, so only people with some sort of subscription to the full paper would be able to access the puzzle.
However, as far as we can see, at time of writing this hasn’t happened (those of us with long experience of the Crossword Club’s ability to deliver IT that does what it is supposed to do will be utterly unsurprised).
Easy puzzle that I worked through top to bottom left to right with no hold ups in a 20 minute jaunt. No stand out clue.
I like the Ascot hat Jack – suits you!
Tim’s comment on the LEM was a further confirmation of the passing of the years: time was when, excited by the grand adventure, I could name most of the 3 million parts of a Saturn V moonrocket, and now we live in an age when, for the majority of Earth’s citizens, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are, very nearly, as distant a memory as Alcock and Brown were then. Perhaps even this great achievement, with its constituent parts “familiar in his mouth as household words” will fall victim to ignorance even among this erudite, learned and polymathic crew. My stars, I hope not!
Edited at 2014-07-01 08:27 am (UTC)
My LOI and my COD is DRAWSTRING – a well hidden definition.
Last in were MISTAKE and SLING.
Good thing I bothered to check my work today as I had ‘improvisor’ before correcting it.
Nice quick solve today 17 minutes, nothing to add, hope tomorrow’s is as easy.
I haven’t really been following the crossword club stuff but it has never been clear to me where the idea that it was all going to end today came from. I usually solve on the train, so I have to buy a full subscription to the paper anyway.
I’m not usually a fan of the ‘some letters’ device in 7dn either, but I thought that in this case, where you need three out of four possibilities, it was less imprecise than it can be.
Ulaca (um, not logged out of anything, just on the wife’s iPad while I recharge)
I too love that picture Jim. Quite a few knuckleheads around the world would do well to contemplate it now and then.
Enjoyed the puzzle although in sluggish mode this morning. In the nursery bookshelf in my grandmother’s house in Rutland, along with Little Lord Fauntleroy and the Secret Garden, was the Making of a Marchioness, also by F.H. Burnett. None of them were my cuppa. 18.13.
Always nice to start a puzzle with a good clue like that for POCHARD, and I also nodded appreciatively at MARCHIONESSES and DRAWSTRING.
Most of the rest was fairly straightforward, and you could rely on the cryptics. I thought ‘drawstring was very good, with a fine hidden literal that kept me guessing until I saw the answer and reverse-engineered the clue. I’m not sure how that happens, that your subconscious presents you with the answer from the literal you didn’t see, but there you go.
No having been around back in the day, I had to tediously construct ‘pochard’. At least I’ve still got Tiepolo and Beerbohm Tree in my brain!
I thought the LEM was the “lunar landing module”, remembered from the lovingly pieced-together Airfix model. I even made a lunar landscape to display it on, using inverted jar lids for craters with papier-mache and flour & water paste.
Re the CC I panicked yesterday and used the same code as Tim to get the £1 a week for 3 months offer.
LOI Blasted.
FOI was Breton – came to mind immediately because Bretons appeared throughout my holiday book (The Man In The Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas).
Didn’t know what a LEM was but have heard of Gagarin and recognised the amazing ‘Earthrise’ photo.
No subscription renewal angst today – the missus and I signed up for the Times digital pack six months or so ago.
Anyhow, crypticsue here – this enjoyable puzzle took me 10:15 and I was delighted at the return of the POCHARD to Crosswordland. When I first started cryptic crossword solving many moons ago, this lovely duck was a regular in the crossword but hasn’t been in favour for many a long year.
P.S. I’m now not so sure my membership was really about to expire because others seem to have been on borrowed time for months until now – so I could have saved myself a few bucks. No further comment on that subject.
PPS Let us know what happens.
Edited at 2014-07-01 07:57 pm (UTC)
COD drawstring – very well hidden. Bar was also a region of France, but in Lorraine where I’m sure they didn’t speak Breton…..
No idea how I knew POCHARD – pretty sure I’ve never eaten or been bitten or infected by one, which is how I know most species. Liked MARCHIONESSES, not for the clue but for the answer, which is one of those words I cannot see myself ever using.
Spent a while insisting that 28ac had to be “dissect” (sect, with the introduction of DIs), and had “plot” at 24d (a L(ake) in “pot” – as in take a pot at something… a bit tenuous I know). Still, got it sorted in the end.
Knew LEM, although sadly I was just slightly too young to have bought the giant Airfix Apollo model – my older brother had it, and I well remember the endless nozzles, widgets and propellant tanks. I was dead jealous; on the other hand I’ve now got a Jag and he’s got a knackered Volvo, so there’s some justice.
I liked VESTAL VIRGINS too, but only because it reminded me of the most obscene drinking song I’ve ever heard, taught to me by a muslim Ob/Gyn (lapsed, I very much suspect).
Like others, I find I still have access to the Times Crossword Club, but I don’t expect it will last too much longer.