Times 26145 – 2nd TCC qualifier published on Wednesday 18 May 2016

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
The solution to this one should be published in the paper today. I completed it in 15 minutes having just done the 1970 puzzle (220170) and had two coffees so was warmed up. Like the first qualifier, it was straightforward – no doubt to encourage entries – with only 21d causing me to think through the options before plumping.

Across
1 ARIADNE – ARIA = song, DNE = end, reversed, D Greek princess.
5 AUCTION – U inserted into ACTION: D where lots are knocked down.
9 ARTILLERY – Take alternate letters of fairly = A R Y, insert TILLER = sailors’ bar; D soldiers.
10 UPPER – Double definition. Pill and shoe.
11 GIANT TORTOISE – (IT EATING ROOTS)*, D large reptile.
13 CAROLINE – CAR LINE = range of vehicles, insert O)ld); D English Queen, at least two to choose from.
15 SCATTY – S for son, CATTY = exhibiting spitefulness, D hare-brained.
17 LASCAR – LA SCALA the opera house, remove LA = French ‘the’, add R; D sailor.
19 SYCAMORE – D tree, sounds like it is ‘sicker more’.
22 TIME TRAVELLER – I MET RAVEL the composer, inserted into TILER the roofer, D Who, for example (Doctor).
25 ENVOI – Hidden in GOLD(EN VOI)CE; D poet’s last words, “An envoi or envoy is a short stanza at the end of a poem used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.”
26 FRAGRANCE – FACE = front, insert R for Queen and GRAN for old woman; D perfume.
27 SORCERY – Insert CE for church into SORRY: D diablerie.
28 TADPOLE – TAD for a bit, POLE being a perch (or a rod), 5.5 yards; D aquatic creature.

Down
1 ADAM – A, MAD reversed, D Scottish architect.
2 INTEGER – Insert E, G = keys into INTER = bury; D one, for example?
3 DELTA – LED = commanded, rising = DEL, TA = army, D character abroad.
4 EVENTING – Insert T into EVENING: D equestrian pursuit.
5 ANYHOW – WA = Washington, put up = AW, insert NY (city) HO (house), D in a slapdash way.
6 CRUSTACEA – (CURE A CAT’S)*, D prawns and the like.
7 IMPRINT – I’M = the setter’s, PINT = drink, insert R; D mark.
8 NURSERYMEN – Double def; they rear plants, and ‘where children may be, servants’.
12 SCULPTRESS – S = finally perfectS, TRESS = lock, insert CU LP (copper disc); D craftswoman.
14 LEASTWISE – LAST = most unlikely, insert E = Eric at first, WISE as in Ernie Wise, D anyway.
16 TYPECAST – TYPE = eg Roman, CAST = set; D always chosen to play villains, say.
18 SAMOVAR – SAMOA = Pacific Islands, insert V = see, add R = king; D tea urn.
20 OTRANTO – OTTO Bismarck’s first name, insert RAN = managed; D Italian port.
21 MAYFLY – Well if it may fly it could arguably do so, D insect.
23 LURID – LUD = law lord, insert R (robber’s leader), I (one); D ghastly.
24 BEDE – BED = resting place, E = shrine ultimately; D saint, also known to us as the Venerable Bede.

18 comments on “Times 26145 – 2nd TCC qualifier published on Wednesday 18 May 2016”

  1. Pip, I think you’ve overlooked the D, which I assume is ‘[Dr.] Who, for example’.
  2. Roughly, in fits and starts; like Jack, I suspect I could have been a bit faster if the pdf hadn’t had such tiny print. Biffed 9ac. Remembered LASCAR from ‘Moby Dick’, where Ahab smuggles a crew of them for his whaleboat, and OTRANTO from the castle thereof, which I’ve never read and never will. The only envois I’ve ever read were from Villon (addressed to an anonymous Prince) and Dorothy Parker (ditto, if I recall); there’s an odd pairing for you.

    Edited at 2016-05-26 06:17 am (UTC)

    1. I’m not sure what one can do with Adobe Reader (which I regard as bloatware) – but with Foxit Reader it is very simple to select just the grid and clues, and then print them at suitable magnification to fill an A4 sheet.
      1. Thanks for the tip; I’d never heard of Foxit. I’ll ask our boffins forthwith.
        1. Foxit does a lot more than extract from PDFs. Mostly for developers. A simpler solution is to take a partial screenshot of the bits you want: grid and clues. On the Mac (sorry Jerry, but Mac OSX is just a Unix OS with pictures) this is Cmd-Shift-4. Then drag the cross-hairs around the relevant screen area. There must be a Windoze equivalent. They always follow Apple’s lead.
  3. Another easy one as is traditional for these qualifiers – which makes them far different from those used in the competition! Since they are all published (and blogged here) in the weeks following the competition, I recommend trying to solve one or two of those against the clock if you would like a more realistic idea of how the day might go..

    Yes, agree with Kevin, the definition of 22ac is “Who, for example”

  4. Struggled a fair bit on this one, missing the obvious CAROLINE and churning around Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment rather than Eric’s partner. 37′. As it happens, can’t make the finals day anyway.:)
    1. Neither can I. Well that leaves the field wide open for the others then doesn’t it?
  5. This was the one I chose to send off, with no better than an okay time.

    Nothing difficult, but a few things in here that for me needed careful handling — the spelling of SYCAMORE, was ARIDANE the right old Greek?, is OTRANTO in Italy? etc.

  6. 24 minutes for me, so quite encouraging for once on a qualifier where I always feel I start with a disadvantage solving a squashed up grid and set of clues as opposed to the spacious layout that the crossword club affords, using up every inch of a sheet of A4.

    Dug up LASCAR from somewhere and worked out the unknown OTRANTO from wordplay. Otherwise it was straightforward fare.

  7. 9 or 10 minutes for this. They do seem to make the entry puzzles easy, but then I’m not sure there are hundreds of people applying for a place in the championships and being disappointed.
  8. A question, as it’s come up a couple of times recently: why does “V” equal “see”? (I got SAMOVAR, but I couldn’t adequately explain it…)

    Edited at 2016-05-26 12:07 pm (UTC)

      1. Okaaaay… I know enough Latin to know that, but I suppose my question is now, “well, why doesn’t ‘window’ crop up regularly as a clue for the letter ‘F'”?
        1. I may be missing your point here, Matt, but v is not acceptable for vide just because vide happens to begin with a v – the v=vide equivalence is recognised by the usual dictionaries and in “real life” is found in textual references. There is no such f=fenestra equivalence.

          In normal Times cryptic crosswords, there is only a certain set of such abbreviations that is allowed, so you aren’t going to see (for example) S as equivalent to 70 (which exists in mediaeval Roman numerals), but if you do the Listener or Mephisto then such obscurities will become your stock-in-trade.

          1. Yes, thanks, that was the bit I was missing — perhaps I skipped over it when checking the plethora of “v” definitions, or perhaps I need a better dictionary than the Collins app. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in “real life”, either — but I don’t read much in the way of books with textual references, I suppose.
  9. A few seconds over 30 minutes, which confirms my belief that I am not championship material. As with yesterday’s, it was the SE corner that held me up, with TYPECAST my LOI. I was glad that LASCAR and OTRANTO had come up before, otherwise I would’ve struggled even more.

  10. I saw this appeared on the crossword club this morning so i could print it off in the normal font. The pdf was a strange size and wouldn’t print for me last week. Took me a lot less time than today’s.

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