Times 25853 – it’s on the tip of my tongue

51 comments on “Times 25853 – it’s on the tip of my tongue”

1. I think 17dn is LAM(e), BASTED as lamb is not classified as game as far as I know. A very enjoyable puzzle which took me 51 minutes although the last 15 of these were spent on only three or four clues.

   Edited at 2014-07-31 12:35 am (UTC)

2. Found this tough going but fair and enjoyable to boot. Lots of misdirection: the possibility of an anagram at 6dn (I’ve allowed) being a case in point. Took me ages to get the actual answer. I also assumed 22dn had to end in N (ending in pain). And DOPE was looming at 3dn.

   Perhaps the best misdirection is “so we hear” as the literal in 5dn. Had me fooled anyway.

   Toyed with HEPTAMERON at 21ac. (As George notes, “hep” is indeed a rather unpopular word for “popular”.) Pity it’s a prose work.

   The list of things called “a split” in ODO is fascinating (re 16ac). I hope we don’t get a 3+ definition for SPLIT one of these days.

   Edited at 2014-07-31 02:09 am (UTC)

3. Large swatches of time spent staring at the screen, even after I’d opened the grid; picked up speed finally, but too late for the half-hour. Like Mctext, I thought of (iveallowed)*, and that 22d ended in N, and tried to make ‘dope’ work; I also thought for a short while that the notorious B. Tree might be in 19ac. And once again, at 10ac, I could think of ‘ache’, ‘yen’, and ‘pine’ (wondered for a while whether ‘peacher’ was britspeak for some sort of sportsman), but not ‘itch’. DNK PRESSIE, or that ‘ready’ could be pluralized. Jack has evidently never known the pleasure of stalking the wily lamb among the mountains of Cambridgeshire.
4. Nice puzzle, indeed. Didn’t know the ‘chiefly Irish and Scottish’ usage of PRESS for cupboard probably because I’m not Irish and only somewhat Scottish. That and READIES were my last in after HEPTAMETER opened up the SW. Also held up by the BRAWN/UNCLE VANYA ‘couplet’ further north. Just trying to remember SPLIT as a half bottle of champers will be enough for me for one day’s self-improvement.

   Edited at 2014-07-31 02:25 am (UTC)

5. But technically a DNF. I googled UNCLE VAN_A for the correct answer. Probably would have plumped for VANZA if forced to choose.

   Got TELEVISION from the checkers but enjoyed unravelling the parsing afterwards.

   Thanks setter and blogger.

   1. I believe the convention is a 12-minute penalty for being one letter out.
      1. I’ll factor that in, along with the two-minute credit for having to change location mid-solve.
6. I wonder if I am somehow misunderstanding the clue, but as far as I am aware Doncaster is not a city. I read that in 2012 as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations Donny failed in it’s bid to become one. Anyway, in light of the parsing in it went.

   I enjoyed this crossword, which I found medium/difficult and was therefore pleased to complete it in just over an hour.

   1. Jason has dug up a quote from somewhere on the internet that Doncaster is Britain’s 9th most musical city, but that’s hard to verify as I can’t get the relevant page to open. Unusually for a well-known British town, it seems to have virtually no US counterparts. It’s got a Minster. And the Rovers.
      Apparently there was a Liberty ship trading under the name “City of Doncaster” between 1947 and 1961. There is also a City of Doncaster & Templestowe NE of Melbourne. I doubt if any of the above is what the setter had in mind.
      We do this research so you don’t have to.
      1. I think Jason was confused with Dallas.
         1. We so need a ‘Like’ button on this site.
            1. Sadly (for my sense of humour’s reputation), that wasn’t even intended in jest – his comment on the forum mentioned it ranking 9th in the US, which tallies with Dallas (in 18A) for population rather than Doncaster for musicality.
               1. You really shouldn’t have let on (but I applaud your honesty). I still love the idea of someone getting Dallas and Doncaster mixed up.
                  1. I think when I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue visited Birmingham, Jack Dee’s intro was along the lines of “You join us this week in Birmingham, a city often described as the Venice of the Midlands; by people who’ve never been to Venice. Or Birmingham.”
                     1. I see, in his ‘never mind’ speech after Donnie had failed in its ‘shoestring budget’ 2012 bid for city status, the Mayor Peter Davies said ‘Doncaster is definitely going places…’
                        Where exactly can Doncaster go to? Leeds? Barnsley?

                        Too many cities these days, like universities, devaluing the genre.

            2. Voila!

               Edited at 2014-07-31 03:54 pm (UTC)

               1. I’ve changed my mind. It’s a terrible idea.
                  1. !
         2. Bizarrely, it’s true.
            1. …and confirmation of the “city” tag from “Doncaster Centre”, in the same vein:
               “In 2010, Doncaster was named the UK’s ninth “most musical” city by PRS for Music.”
            2. Aah – I’d incorrectly thought you were referring to Jason’s comment in the forum thread for today’s cryptic (and had wondered where the musical part was coming from). Presumably the success of One Direction will have dropped Doncaster further down the list.
      2. Call me an old cynic, but I think that would be hard to justify even if you could get the webpage to open.
7. A not-easy 24.20 for me, but maybe I need to wait until I’m fully awake before attempting these days. Most treacly in the NE corner where Doncaster is, not entirely accurately, placed. TELEVISON (a fine backwards clue) TASTE BUD (bounced off it – good clue though) BRAWN (bran as a cereal per se didn’t spring Shreddiely to mind) and LOI UNCLE VANYA (another gave up, put it into electric Chambers, got nothing, solved it anyway clue) all contributed grit to the smooth machinery of the solving mind.
   Put me down as another who wondered about PEACHER. Pitchers’s a kind of jug in English, isn’t it?
   1. Sounds like sour grape-nuts to me.
      1. Mmmmm Grape Nuts. Disappeared from supermarket shelves a couple of years ago, but now freely available again. I say freely….
8. Very enjoyable puzzle, 20 minutes to solve, not over difficult but with some well constructed clues. I loved RAN,DRY and in particular TASTE,BUD. A couple of obscure meanings for common words – press and split – but I like that.

   I’m certain Doncaster isn’t a city – and it’s main current claim to fame is that it boasts Ed Milliband as MP for Doncaster North. Make of that what you will.

   Thanks for the kind words George

9. Thanks for the blog George. I learned a great deal from it today including: game(for lame), hep, van, press, bee and split(half-bottle of champagne). Never knowingly come across Uncle Vanya, antinovel or heptameter in the wild either but that just shows my ignorance in matters of the arts.
   1. I wonder if you’re more familiar with the variant ‘gammy’ as in the expression ‘gammy leg’?
      1. Hi Jack, yes I am familiar with gammy but didn’t realise it was related because the pronunciation for both senses of game was identical. Now I see from the etymology of gammy that it is. Thank you very much for that.

         Edited at 2014-07-31 09:22 am (UTC)

10. 21:33 .. very enjoyable, with just the right dose of deviousness for a weekday puzzle. RAN DRY is terrific.
11. 31′ but with a moronic rank for ring. Couldn’t quite recall the drama and had a few wild and whirling uncles in mind, Tanya, Zanya etc.

    Edited at 2014-07-31 09:13 am (UTC)

12. 14 mins. 1ac was an easy start to the puzzle for me and I had all the required GK, including knowing that DONCASTER isn’t a city but it went in with a shrug anyway. I finished in the SW with the HEPTAMETER/PRESSIE crossers, the latter of which I would always spell “prezzie”.
13. A very pleasant 12 minutes, helped by my ignorance of Doncaster’s status, which meant I never questioned the clue. If in doubt about whether somewhere is a city or town, I generally think of the football team, but “Rovers” obviously doesn’t help on such occasions.
14. Nope, couldn’t finish this one… SPLIT and TUBA (aaargh, should’ve got those two) and HEPTAMETER all blank after 45 mins.
15. Stopwatch didn’t start but judging by what I looked at before I turned over the piece of paper, I’d guess that I spent about 15 mins on this crossword. A fine mix of the write it straight in/spend time head-scratching.
    1. I’m now left pondering what you looked at.
       1. Nothing very exciting – a new comment that arrived on another crossword blog when I refreshed the page.
    2. Turning over the page. Now I can’t get this image of Mr Bean doing his exam out of my mind.
       1. Just getting ready for October 😉
16. A breezy 12:07 with the NW corner (apart from the play) going in clean-sweep-wise. Thereafter I went steadily anti-clockwise but had to skip over heptameter, engender and prang whcih were my last 3 when I went back to them.

    Taste bud and Uncle Vanya only parsed post-solve, COD to television.

    If you get the right train on the East Cost Mainline the guard (or chief customer experience officer or whatever they’re called this week) has a nice line in patter as the train approaches Doncaster along the lines of: “We are now approaching Doncaster. You’ll notice grey clouds gathering and the sky getting darker. That’s because this is where my mother-in-law lives”.

    1. Well, you’re steaming ahead of me on the clock these days. But, after telling you yesterday that I’d got slower since moving over here, I did go on to record my first ever sub-5 minute solve. Admittedly it was the Telegraph, but 4:59 is 4:59. I didn’t know I could complete a 15-squared grid that fast.
       1. Great stuff. Congratulations.
       2. 4:56

          (Only kidding)

17. 20m here. A nice puzzle, as others have said. I didn’t know this meaning of SPLIT, but then I’ve never understood the purpose of a half bottle of champagne.
    1. Splits of champagne are useful on aeroplanes when you don’t have time to drink a whole bottle, and you’re not in the posher seats where they serve it by the glass. And for air crew to take to parties. Otherwise, I agree, they have no need to exist.
       1. ?
       2. I’ve now got this image of Pip as the David Boon of the Stansted – La Rochelle run!
18. I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one to be a bit tardy with this one.
    Excuses time: I’m a little out of practice with the Times, and my concentration was somewhat distracted by listening to the CDs I’ve just obtained of songs from ‘The Singing Detective’ – a serial I missed when it was shown on television.
    Only slightly delayed by carelessly entering ‘divergent’ temporarily at 15a.
    Comments as informative and entertaining as ever.
    1. Now I’ll be thinking about Joanne Whalley in a nurse’s outfit and I’ll never get to sleep
       1. Thanks for the message.
          I can tell you that there is a remedy for this fixation: marry a nurse as I did forty years’ ago (and she’s still beautiful).:-)
19. 9:18 here for a pleasant straightforward solve (though SPLIT = “half a bottle of champagne” rang only the faintest of bells).

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