Times 25936 – heat one puzzle one

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
“This puzzle was solved within 60 mins by 43 of the 74 competitors in Heat One of the 2014 Times Crossword Championship” says the headline. (A bit misleading; you also solve 2 other puzzles within the hour, as Sotira points out below; I wasn’t there). I’m not surprised; I solved it in 20 minutes with some interruptions (making more tea for wife ill in bed). Plenty of anagrams, no obscure knowledge, but a few fiendish surfaces were making the definitions hard to spot at first read.

Across
1 LOSS OF FACE – Cryptic double def.
6 AXED – Alternate letters of reversed: aDiEu XmAs: def. cancelled.
10 PRETEXT – Hidden word, interPRET EXTenuation; def. dishonest excuse.
11 AQUINAS – A QUIN (result of noteworthy birth) AS (in the role of); def. a theologian. Something of an understatement; Saint Thomas Aquinas, 1224 – 1275, canonised in 1323.
12 DARWINIST – DART (race) with WIN IS (success consists of) entering; def. (natural) selection is crucial to me.
13 TENOR – TEN (a number) OR (initially O(pposing) R(orke’s); def. drift. As in ‘to get the drift of a subject.’ Thanks Jimbo for pointing out easier parsing than my original convoluted one.
14 WIELD – E (European) inside WILD (without restraint); def. use.
15 MAN FRIDAY – MAN (an island), (AID)* inside FRY (Cook); def. aid enlisted by a castaway. Friday himself was not a castaway, but a native ‘Carib’.
17 INSOLUBLE – (BULL IS ONE)*, ‘rampant’; def. one that must remain a problem.
20 ABLER – AMBLER (person doing an easy walk) loses M, (miles short); def. fitter.
21 SABRE – ERAS (significant times, reversed), with B inserted; def. cavalryman. The term can apply to the soldiers as well as to the weapons.
23 ROUGHCAST – ROUGH (plastered), CAST (performers); def. suited to knockabout. EDIT: but see comment 34 below, alternative parsing; I’m not terriby keen on either, to be honest, nor did I know that roughcast is a kind of plastering.
25 CUTICLE – CUT ICE (presumably have influence), insert L (last of animal); def. dead skin. Not always dead, but one meaning gives ‘dead or cornified epidermis’.
26 ARRAIGN – ARRAN (another Scottish Isle) has IG (occupants of Eigg, i.e. central letters) inserted; def. charge.
27 LANK – FLANK (something above hip) has no F (female); def. gaunt.
28 BLUEPRINTS/strong> – Cryptic def.

Down
1 LOPED – OP (work) inside LED (electric light source); def. bounded.
2 SHEERNESS – Pun on vertical nature, town in Kent; I’ve never been but I hear it is not bijou.
3 OVERINDULGENCE – (COULD REV ENGINE)*; def. excess.
4 FATTISM – (MATS FIT)*; def. bias based on size.
5 CHASTEN – CHA (tea) then NETS (catches) reversed; def. cow, to overawe; not quite a synonym IMO.
7 XENON – NONE X (nobody, cross) reversed; def. ‘foreign’ gas; XENON is a trace component of air, an ‘inert’ gas, element 54, named by William Ramsey after the Greek word ξένον meaning stranger or foreigner.
8 DESTROYER – DESER(T) (endless wasteland) with TROY (ancient city) inserted; def. someone ruining.
9 HUNTER-GATHERER – (ANGER HURT)* with ‘THERE’ (soothing word) inserted, as in ‘there, there’; def. person without cultivation. Our ancestors, foragers, before they started cultivating crops
14 WHIMSICAL – WHI(G) (Tory’s opponent, docked), (CLAIMS)*; def. fantastic, a thing of fancy.
16 DALMATIAN – sort of witty cryptic def., spotted breed of dog, as in the movie 101 Dalmatians.
18 BARBELL – BARBE(D) (hooked, short), LL (lines); def. weighted rod.
19 EXUDATE – Def. something sweated, sounds like ‘Ex you date’.
22 BATON – BAT ON(E) would be ‘hit me’, one being a formal form for ‘me’; def. rhythm stick.
24 TUNIS – T (temperature), UNIS (graduation places, universities); def. city on North African coast.

48 comments on “Times 25936 – heat one puzzle one”

  1. Not so fast… 25.06 for me, possibly explained by lack of adrenalin and concentration, and not doing it on treeware. Several solutions were hampered by my dear Miss Typing.
    Top half sped in, bottom half did a passable imitation of treacle flowing uphill. I did not know SABRE as a cavalryman, and was rather put off by the proud knowledge that SPAHI was. Discounted TUNIS because of that saucy “graduation places” wordplay. Did not know that CUTICLE was dead skin: doesn’t feel like it if it develops into an agnail. Nearly spelt DALMATIAN with an O, and AQUINAS (shame on me) with a U. Tried to squeeze an A into INSOLUBLE.
  2. “This puzzle was solved within 60 mins by 43 of the 74 competitors” … you can count me as one of the other 31!

    In fairness, that tagline should read “solved within the 60 minutes allowed for this and two other puzzles”, so effectively 20 minutes. I did actually finish it on the day, but I made a mistake which I’m fairly certain was ‘dalmation’. This belief is supported by the fact that I typed -ion in again today before correcting it!

    1. Just realised I’ve done the same thing with the spotty dog! So that’s two errors for me – I’m going to stop looking!
      1. Yes I had ION too but saw it when transcribing from the treeware. Didn’t realized I’d cribbed your comment about the heading and the other 2 puzzles on the club Forum. Sorry! A sluggish 24.56, a good part of which was spent trying to justify (F)LANK and I see from Jerry, Ulaca and Sue below that that caused trouble on the day of.

        Edited at 2014-11-05 10:58 am (UTC)

    2. Well, I thought about adding this but I did not want to “rub it in” for those for whom solving one Times Crossword in 60 minutes is an achievement (probably the majority)
      There is sadly no way currently of timing people for individual puzzles. In the old days people had 30 minutes for a single puzzle.

      RR

  3. Like Sotire, had trouble with the spotty clue, enterting ****CREST confidently – like a pro, I thought. Delusions…

    But that wasn’t my mistake – I was flummoxed by 27a and chucked in LENA, because, as someone once said, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and I was determined to finish in under 30 minutes…

    Couldn’t even manage that in the end.

  4. From memory, the crosswords in the first heat were deemed somewhat more difficult than those in the second.. and a higher than usual number of errors, many caused by 27ac.
    1. I had a go at the second heat puzzles at home and I thought the first heat puzzles easier, apart from my nemesis – 27a in this one.
      1. Go on, make me feel better, Sue. Were you a LENA too?

        Edited at 2014-11-05 08:47 am (UTC)

        1. Sadly I was. I decided that I was never going to work out the correct answer and went for a good time! Looking at the results sheet, it appears to be a case of ‘so near, yet so far away’.
          1. Having been in the same position myself, I do sympathise, Sue: you’re pretty sure that if your guess is correct, you’ll make it through to the final; but if you leave the decision much longer, you’ll blow your chances.

            The worst thing is that the right answer looks so darned obvious afterwards!

            Better luck next year.

  5. I didn’t know this was a Championship puzzle, the Android edition not informing solvers of this. I’m pleased to have solved such a puzzle in 27 minutes.

    Like z8b8d8k I found the bottom half harder, in particular the right hand side, finishing with EXUDATE/BLUEPRINTS. I also took quite some time trying to parse LANK before the penny dropped.

  6. Pip – I think the parsing at 13A is TEN-O(pposing)-R(orke) – it’s simpler than your explanation

    Strangely I found the LHS easier than the RHS and almost ended up solving two adjacent puzzles. I guessed FATTISM, never having come across the term, and wondered about the “foreign” in 7D but stuck in XENON anyway.

    Not a difficult puzzle sitting at home with a coffee. Different kettle of fish in competition me thinks

    2. Ditto on that Jim. I thought maybe it just hadn’t crossed to this side of the Atlantic but if you didn’t know it either…
      1. I remember a comedian punning on the homonyms fattest and fattist: “You’re fattist”…”No, you’re fattest” (I’m sure this loses a lot being written down).
  7. 37 minutes with a hiatus in the middle. Just stopped myself writing AQUINUS by thoroughly checking the wordplay but unfortunately there was nothing to prevent DALMATION going in at 16dn. Generally a lively and enjoyable puzzle though.
  8. Thought 1ac seemed familiar but had solved four more before realising I had completed the puzzle a few weeks ago. As a spectator cum lurker cum stalker at the Championships I had acquired a full set of qualifying puzzles which I essayed at home the next day under self-imposed exam conditions (i.e. wife agreeing not to speak to me for an hour). I found this experience terrifying enough (the crosswords not my wife) without hands going up all round me but finished the first set in 50 minutes so will claim 17ish for this one. I felt the second set was more challenging while solving but completed them in the same time.

    Edited at 2014-11-05 09:02 am (UTC)

  9. One of my better times of something less than 40 minutes, with all but one completed on the train (DARWINIST loi). I also wondered about the foreign ‘foreign’ in 7, so thanks for that explanation Pip. Count me as another trying to spell the dog with …ION, but I did rethink it and changed before completion.

    Like Jim above, I parsed 13A that way too.

    Nice easy puzzle and no fireworks for this guy at least.

  10. Early solve and home in 27m except I was another LANK failure bunging in LYNX for no good reason I can think of. Raced through the top half and the SW corner in 15m but came to a juddering halt and took an age to work out EXUDATE and BLUEPRINTS. I can only imagine the panicky feeling that would have engendered in the Competition environment. It’s good to be non competitive sometimes! Thanks for the blog.

    Edited at 2014-11-05 09:16 am (UTC)

  11. I jumped from puzzle to puzzle on the day, so I can’t say how long any of them took me; pretty sure this wasn’t the hardest of the three for me, though I left 27ac to be my LOI across the lot – before we went in, I was saying that my nightmare was being left with a four letter word which would return dozens of common alternatives if you put it into an electronic aid, and of course, there it was, L_N_ with a very hard to spot definition. Luckily I followed my lately-imposed rule of “if you can’t parse your answer, it’s almost certainly wrong” and didn’t go with my first stab of LANA.

    The other thing we discussed before going in was whether it’s worth spending an extra minute or two checking before submitting, rather than trusting yourself as you go along; I said that better solvers than me definitely thought it was, and they were proved right when I spotted HUTTER GATHERER before holding my hand up.

  12. 21:18 so behind the target if I had been there on the day. Top half quicker than bottom half and SE last of all.

    Did not know the greek but I do know what xenophobia is so not alarmed by the foreign reference. Anyway, not too many choices for a five-letter word beginning with X (although to my surprise, I now see that Chambers lists 21)

  13. This is why I don’t enter the championships. Well, this and the air fare.

    I too was tempted by LENA (call me Thomas Covenant), but kept staring at it until LANK revealed itself.

    Main problem was the unknown EXUDATE. Wish I had thought of it, as EXUMATE didn’t really work.

    Also entered DALMATION, which I thought was unforgivable, but I see I’m in some pretty distinguished company with that one.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  14. On the day, I had this completed in around 20 minutes with the exception of 27A and 28A. It took me about the same time today though I did get 28A the second time round. I am not really sure what message I should take from the fact that I can’t improve my time to solve the same crossword about two weeks after my first attempt! Hopefully it means that I thrive under pressure but somehow I doubt that. Like grestyman, I threw in LYNX for no apparent reason. I couldn’t hang around on the day but am slightly encouraged by the comment of jerry that the first heat was generally considered to be harder.
  15. Not much to say except glad that didn’t find it 17 but need to be 20 to compete. 27.10. However the (55-yr.-) old crossword co-efficient seems to be holding up. 11 last in – could only see alumnus for a time.
  17. Isn’t the definition supposed to be at the start or end of the clue (or both)? I can’t see how this works, unless it’s a cryptic definition, but it doesn’t seem to be that. Could someone enlighten me?

    Paul S.

    1. Definition can come anywhere but is usually at start, end or the whole clue

      Structure of this is: F=Female + this=answer=LANK meaning “gaunt” would create FLANK being something above the hip

      1. Thanks for the reply Jimbo. Can’t say I like this structure for a clue though. I had the answer long before I committed to it.

        Paul S.

        1. Paul I thought I had explained this in the blog. I agree, definitions are supposed to be at the start or end, but the clue is a sort of &lit as jimbo spells out. pip
          1. I’ve no idea where the idea that definitions are supposed to be at the start or end arose, but (as this clue neatly illustrates) it’s complete rubbish! BTW it’s not an &lit.

            Edited at 2014-11-05 11:29 pm (UTC)

  18. I’m one of the 43.

    On the day I think I got most of this out in about 12 minutes but had to come back later to finish off with roughcast and exudate.

    Today it took me 6:03 which, for a puzzle I did only a couple of weeks ago, shows that I need to write faster. I can also say that the pressure of the comp slows me down rather than speeding me up.

  19. Solved this in a waiting-room, felt like it was well under 10 minutes. FATTISM and EXUDATE new words to me from wordplay.
  20. This should have been my first puzzle of the day but I was the “victim” of probably the biggest cock up in the history of the championships. I opened my puzzle booklet to be faced with an answer sheet but, being the honest sort, I immediately turned the offending sheet over and proceeded to solve the puzzles. After the hour was up I was discussing with Penfold the clues that gave us the most trouble. He looked baffled at the clues I struggled with and I looked baffled at his. It slowly dawned that not only had I been given the answers, I’d also been given the afternoon’s set of puzzles.

    The organisers told me I could have an honorary place in the final if I got all the answers correct. I can strongly recommend Tim’s advice above – if I had checked my answers I would have realised that AHCHORAGE isn’t a proper word.

    I’m almost sure I had a go at this puzzle later in the day but when solving it today, none of the clues or answers were familiar, other than LANK (which Sue had told me on the day that she got wrong) and DALMATIAN (which Sotira told me she spelt wrong). It could have been the beer addling my mind, but I reckon it was more likely that my brain was reeling at the thought of having paid £4.15 for a pint.

    Today it took me just over 7 minutes, but that must have been wind-assisted.

    Edited at 2014-11-05 03:45 pm (UTC)

    1. “This should have been my first puzzle of the day but I was the “victim” of probably the biggest cock up in the history of the championships”

      Believe me, it isn’t!

      RR

  21. I think that this clue is made up from “performers suited to knockabout” being a ROUGH CAST which when merged makes ROUGHCAST, a form of wall plaster, which is also used as an adjective to describe a wall plastered in that way, so the definition is “Plastered”.

    505 survivor

    2. There’s absolutely no doubt that your interpretation is correct. A nicely constructed clue.
  22. 17 mins, with the last couple of them on LANK. I got EXUDATE from the wordplay, and I was glad when I finally saw AQUINAS because I was tempted to bung in an unparsed “alumnus”, although I was fairly sure it couldn’t be right.
  23. I got through most of it in 15 minutes, and then came to 27a. I stared at it for a few minutes, and then put in LUNG. Oops. Wrongo. So had I been at the competition I’d be in the right timing range but with insufficient brainpower. Congrats to those who were there and solved correctly. Regards.
  24. 40 relaxed minutes, and I was feeling quite chuffed until our blogger pointed out that this was only one of three puzzles to be solved within the hour. Ah well.

    I was most of the way there in 20min, and had only 27ac left by 30min. I wasn’t happy with the wordplay on first reading, since I took “this gaunt” to mean “as gaunt as this” – in which case it doesn’t work. But I suppose if you take “lank” to mean “this gaunt” (as in “this particular word for gaunt”), then it works. I put in LANK without much hope, having rejected LENA, LANA and LYNN.

    Other than that, I thought this was fairly straightforward. My COD was DARWINIST.

  25. Reading the various comments, I’m surprised so many solvers, many more seasoned than I am, struggled with 27a. I just saw, LANK = synonym for gaunt; FLANK is above hip, F + LANK = female this gaunt, surface works. I must have been lucky, or just not analytical enough to give myself a problem.
    1. The key, Pip, is to see the bit you don’t mention F = female. If you don’t, you’re in crossword swampland – unlikely to escape without aid.
  26. I was if anything even more nervous than usual when starting out on the three puzzles, but was relieved when this one got me off to a reasonable start.

    With just the initial L in place, I wasted time trying to fit LOIN into 27ac, but once I had the N, then LANK came reasonably quickly, and I had no other real problems.

    I thought the wording of 16dn – “One … in … a ton …” was cleverly designed to lure solvers into ending the answer with ATION (I had to think twice myself).

    A nicely constructed crossword, well-suited to a Championship preliminary. My compliments to the setter.

  27. Did the puzzle yesterday in 26 minutes but have only just come to TfTT. I had no problem with LANK – saw it straightaway. In fact, I had no major holdups. A slowish but steady solve apart from having SEVENOAKS as the Kentish town and trying to fit THERE into the first word of 9d. Ann

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