Hmmm… well about 15 minutes into this one, I accidentally closed the window. So reloading it, and trying to remember what I had typed in the first time, I managed to get a little further. I then crawled, limped and sauntered towards the finish until I was left with just 5 across. With the timer at 42:27, I bunged my guess in to 5 across and submitted, only to find that I have one mistake.
I found this one really difficult to get into, and I’m pretty sure my error is in 5 across, but it could be somewhere else – the difference between my wavelength and the setters may not even lie in this universe.
To compound things, I probably won’t be conscious much longer, so the hive mind can correct my wrongdoings shortly, but the true answers will most likely live in the comments until mid-afternoon UK time.
So like Lou Vincent on his way to the bookies, away we go…
Edit: I’m back in the land of the living. A few typos and mistooks are being edited, thanks for the “patience” of those of you in commentland
Across | |
---|---|
1 | DIPS(declines),TICK(give a good mark) – what I said in the preamble doesn’t apply to 1 across which was a fun clue for a standard piece of schoolboy slang in Australia in the 70s |
5 | MANTLE?: I had this as a double definition for a heat-resistant material and a part of a bird, but it was the one I was least sure of And in the first comment we are corrected – it’s WATTLE, double definition |
10 | PHENOMENA: PEN, then OMEN, A(about) containing H Edit: misparsed this last night – the A is a note |
11 | G,LINT: LINT is a wound dressing |
12 | BET(chance),A |
13 | MILK STOUT: or MILKS TOUT |
15 | ASTRINGENT: A,STRING(twine) then an anagram of NET |
17 | STUD |
19 | LOOM: cryptic definition referencing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” where Bottom is a weaver |
20 | COME TO REST: or COMET ORES, T |
22 | COSTA RICA: STAR,1 in COCA(drug crop) |
24 | AIR,E |
26 | O,VERT |
27 | UNIT(company),TRUST(expect) |
28 | HUSTLE: (SLEUTH)* |
29 | POSEIDON: POSE(present) then DO(as, ditto) in IN |
Down | |
1 | DOPE: or DO PE |
2 | PRETENTIOUSNESS: TENT for C in PRECIOUS, NESS Edit: I had missed the comma originally |
3 | THORACIC: HO in (ARCTIC)* |
4 | CREAM: E in CRAM |
6 | AU,GUST |
7 | THIN ON THE GROUND: THING ON THE GROUND missing G |
8 | ESTATE(car),DUTY(tax) |
9 | PARLANCE: AN in (PARCEL)* |
14 | TABLE(propose),CLOT(thicken),H |
16 | GLORIOUS: I got this from the checking letters and a definition – I think the other comes from the first day of goose-shooting being known as the glorious twelfth |
18 | IOLANTHE: anagram of E,LOTHIAN |
21 | PASTE(artificial gems),L |
23 | AMIGO: AGO(back in town), holding MI(another name for the musical note ME) |
25 | S,TUN |
Rob
George: slight typo at 16dn.
Edited at 2014-07-03 04:15 am (UTC)
Edited at 2014-07-03 05:21 am (UTC)
Couldn’t even reverse engineer POSEIDON, so glad it wasn’t my turn to blog this week.
I also puzzled over why UNIT=company: I can only assume we are talking military, as it surely can’t be as in unit on an industrial estate. And I wasn’t mad keen on “constricting” for ASTRINGENT, though I see from Chambers that they dog-leg around “contract”. But this is just nit-picking round a challenge that was clearly far from easy for everyone and where I’m still 4th on the list at this time of the morning.
My downfall eventually was 16dn (where you have two typos, George, one letter omitted in answer and ‘goose’ for ‘grouse’ in the explanation). Unfortunately I happened to know the actual date referred to was 12th August but I couldn’t for the life of me see how that could be fitted into the answer. I was also stuck on the first word at 20ac so I was missing one of the checkers at 16 and the only word I could think of that fitted was ‘gracious’, and I became fixated on that even though it was so obviously incorrect. I’m really mad with myself because the date in question was that of a family anniversary and my father was always going on about ‘the glorious twelfth’, yet it never crossed my mind for a moment.
I knew both meanings at 5ac but might still have been stuck on it for a while if WATTLE hadn’t come up on Countdown only yesterday when both meanings were discussed, so it was fresh in my mind and a write-in for me.
The definition part of 8dn makes no sense to me: “…paid after one had to the end of the road” and I suspect a word has been omitted after “had”, possibly “got” or “driven”.
No problems at all thinking of POSEIDON and reverse engineering to understand POSE for ‘present’.
Edited at 2014-07-03 06:09 am (UTC)
I enjoyed this – I found it a bit tricky but finished with everything accounted for.
At 2dn I confidently started to write in BOMBASTICNESS (BOMB(as in “da bomb”)+ASTI+C+NESS) before realising that it was a couple of letters short. Also, and just as persuasively, it’s not a word.
George 5ac is your national flower!
Edited at 2014-07-03 07:42 am (UTC)
it’s the emblem of our land.
You can stick it in a bottle,
You can hold it in your hand”
Irresistible, especially as I’m off to the O2 tonight.
And on edit: I’m not that surprised those who might otherwise be ex-subscribers (having run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible) are still with us. The Times’ IT guys only know how to cut people off accidentally.
Edited at 2014-07-03 07:56 am (UTC)
Australia, Australia, Australia, you bloody beauty!
But thanks for the timely reminder to book cinema tickets for the final night.
Took way too long to see answers that should have come more quickly, especially ESTATE DUTY and POSEIDON.
Not helped by having GLEAM at 11ac for a long time. Was so looking forward to coming here to find out what a leam is.
Oh well, there’s always another one tomorrow. Probably.
Overall I enjoyed this puzzle which is tricky but fair. Thanks setter for 25 minuites of fun.
Though my Crossword Club subscription seems to be sailing merrily on, I did notice yesterday that my subscription to the main Times site had ceased, meaning that the Quick Cryptic is currently out of reach.
How is 19ac supposed to work? Bottom is a weaver, but how does this mean he was ‘raised’ on a LOOM? In any event this doesn’t seem that far off the old ‘like quills upon the fretful __________’ style clues.
Can someone explain why IOLANTHE is a ‘show of peers’? [Edit] Don’t worry: got it. I now know that it’s Iolanthe, or the Peer and the Peri. Somehow I don’t feel that this knowledge has added a great deal to my life.
Funnily enough WATTLE went straight in, because I happened to know both definitions. WATTLE often appears with daub. Well not exactly ‘often’, but you know what I mean.
Edited at 2014-07-03 10:06 am (UTC)
Probably what you meant, but reading the blog it looks as if you can somehow get an A from about!
Cheers!
Mark
Edited at 2014-07-03 01:03 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2014-07-03 01:49 pm (UTC)
Whisper it softly, but the answer came to me from the place where one sits and thinks, though I have to admit I was struggling to account for the ‘m’.
Edited at 2014-07-03 03:16 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2014-07-03 03:27 pm (UTC)
Are you guys serious about Agamemnon and Antigone being ‘Greek GK’? I mean, I never studied Classics or anything, but just by general reading, surely you’d come by it. Or on the bloody telly. Amazing.
Pleased that I could bring you such amazement.
I had an Andy Murray day and sort of mumbled and stuttered and made a few half-hearted attempts before losing the will and coming straight here for the post-match press conference.
There must be something in the air.
I hope that the Andy Murray day did not involve the swearing.
I can’t compare with yesterday’s as I haven’t had time to tackle that one yet.
Oh, forgot to say that after 30 minutes I gave up with Poseidon missing.
Edited at 2014-07-03 12:41 pm (UTC)
Missed the poor “Loom ” cue as I put it straight in without really thinking.
Edited at 2014-07-03 03:24 pm (UTC)
With you on “street arab”
Don’t stay an anon – sign up and join in the fun properly
The intricacy of the clues (particularly when compared with the puzzle from 1946 I’d just solved) made me suspect this might be one of Dean Mayer’s.
If I’d finished it, I’d be entitled to grumble that 16d was a very feeble clue.