Times 26,285 A Perfect Circle

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
One of the benefits of having to write out the workings of a puzzle in full every week is getting a real sense of its construction, I adjudge this to be a very elegantly clued crossword, hardly anything causing even a flicker on the tortuometer during parsing. And this is of course something that is much harder to do than it looks to the untrained eye, so a big round of applause to the setter. Especially when you factor in the other axis of this puzzle, to wit its educativity: by the end of solving it we’ve taken in some moderately obscure bits of 18th century history, an obscure Biblical figure and Giotto’s perfect penmanship, coming away feeling smarter. But crucially, not having a clue about any of these things won’t bring you to a grinding halt, all the answers are quite gettable from the wordplay or just biffable. Exemplary setting I think.

Difficulty-wise, for the aforementioned reasons, none of this was very hard for the trained solver, and the usual suspects came in under or around the 5 minute mark. Being an unlettered fool as I am I took about 7 and a half, having a blazing start in the top half but slowing down somewhat in the SE. I didn’t necessarily understand why 6ac should be found in royal blood particularly, if someone would like to take the helm and explain that one, and 22ac took the longest time to parse, being a much less straightforward type of cluing than everything else in the puzzle, and definitely my COD.

I can’t remember what happens on the Times Crossword front next Friday, maybe I won’t see you for two weeks? It’s my work Christmas party tonight, a silly showing-off-to-the-industry free bar extravaganza, so don’t be surprised if my time on tomorrow’s leaderboard is 38 minutes with 5 errors posted at 4.37 a.m. Merry Christmas one and all!

Across
1 GRACELAND – mansion of rock (music, that is) in Memphis: GRACE LAND [to look good in | countryside]
6 SERUM – something in the royal blood: SUM [problem] about E.R. [the Queen]
9 INKSPOT – dark marking: INKS POT [tattoos | big belly]
10 SLOBBER – drool: S {c}LOBBER [small | clothes “club banned”]
11 DURER – artist: D{o}URER [gloomier “losing something Giotto famously drew”]
12 FIDGETING – restless: trapped inside FIN [plane’s tail], I’D GET [I would | become] + G [good]
13 WAGON – van: GO [travel] in WAN [white]
14 EXAMINING – work of testers: reverse of AXE [cut “back”] + MINING [boring]
17 TIT FOR TAT – like repayment: I.T. FORT{e} [PCs, etc | “mostly” loud] with TAT [rubbish] cladding
18 FRAME – support: RAM [force] in FE [iron]
19 EASTER EGG – seasonal gift: E ASTER E.G. G [English | flower | for example | grand]
22 UNDER – at the foot: AS this, i.e. ASUNDER, is apart
24 IMPLODE – to collapse violently: I’M PLOD [admission of policeman] taking E [ecstasy]
25 OMNIBUS – double def: book / transport for a number of passengers
26 GLYPH – Mayan carving: G{uessed} L{ikely} Y{ucatec} P{erhaps} H{onduran} “in origins”
27 TESTAMENT – will: AMEN [last word] on TEST [trial] + T [“end in” {judgemen}T]

Down
1 GUILD – group of workers: homophone of GILLED [“reportedly” equipped for life under water]
2 ARKWRIGHT – cotton magnate (Richard, 1732-92): ARK WRIGHT [ship | plane pioneer (Orville or Wilbur)]
3 ESPERANTO – language: E.S.P ERA TO [mental power | time | to] take in N [new]
4 ACT OF SETTLEMENT – law limiting who can succeed (in 1701): (TEAM LEFT CONTEST*) [“about”]
5 DISADVANTAGEOUS – not being helpful: (DUO AGAINST DAVE’S*) [“reforms”]
6 SMOKE – double def: cure / what cigarette addict often has
7 RABBI – religious leader: RABBI{t} [“short” talk]
8 MORTGAGEE – lender: RT GAG [right | to silence] over E E [identical notes] under M.O. [way of working]
13 WITHERING – scornful: WIT [humour] displayed by HE RING [male | band]
15 INFLUENZA – infection: FLUE [smoke duct] in INN Z A[pub | an unknown | “first in” A{frica}]
16 INAUDIBLE – not heard: {s}IN {l}AUD {b}IBLE “never started”
20 SOPPY – feeble: SPY [agent] getting in OP [little work]
21 ENOCH – Biblical patriarch (father of Methuselah, great-grandfather of Noah): reverse of ONE [an individual “that’s set up”] + CH [church]
23 RESIT – repeated test: S [son] in reverse of TIER [row “over”]

27 comments on “Times 26,285 A Perfect Circle”

  1. First ever completion and then in less than 30 mins. Most days have a couple of dohs when I read the blog. Thanks to blogger today for explaining why it was esperanto.
  2. 25 minutes with 11 unparsed because I didn’t know about the perfect O, or if I did I have forgotten about it.

    We had a special on-line puzzle last year, 251214 (geddit?), but it doesn’t appear in the Club archive. No idea what will happen this year, but I’ve just asked in the Forum.

    Edited at 2015-12-18 10:19 am (UTC)

    1. There will be Christmas Day puzzles as last year indeed:

      15×15, Quick Cryptic, and Jumbo – all appearing online only

      RR

  3. Yes, nice and easy for a Friday – about 23 minutes for me, helped by knowing all the GK (the artist, the mansion, the cotton magnate and the patriarch). I didn’t have any trouble parsing 22, and GLYPH was obvious, but I didn’t know the Mayan carving use and thought it was just an icon or similar.

  4. Thought I’d finished in 25 minutes but alas LOI 1ac I biffed GRAVEYARD without a thought it was of cources GRACELAND!! Aaagh!

    10 ac SLOBBER reminds me of a restaurant’s large window sign in Pudong, Shanghai many years back. It read in English:-

    “Our food so delicious – it make you slobber!”

    I dined elsewhere.

    horryd Shanghai

    1. Thanks for the laugh on a dreary Friday. It reminded me of the take-out menu from our local Wok&Roll (since closed by the Health dept.- I wonder why) some years ago. It advertised “customer cooking” – which suggests more than one unappetising idea.

      Edited at 2015-12-18 12:34 pm (UTC)

  5. Easy apart from 1d and 11a which did for me. First of all I had 1d as NEWTS from the national union of teachers and then GHILS which I though may be a contraction of ghillies. If only I had heard of DURER and Giotto’s perfect O.
  7. This was a milestone for me: my first sub-20 minute solve. I wonder how long I’ll have to wait to achieve the same thing again.

    Gradese

  8. Properly in London this week, and solving in the paper itself. I don’t like the across-the-bottom-of-the-page layout; folding the paper vertically made the down-the-side easier.
    That rant was because I had to moan about something, and there was nothing at all moanable about today’s puzzle, was there? Elegant was the word Verlaine used and it is exactly right. Especially agree with the comments about today’s GK – just the right kind to please the knower but still be gettable.
    Thanks V, thanks v much setter

  9. Strangely for a Friday, I solved this enjoyable puzzle in a time between a Magoo and a Jason. Perhaps our setter knew I would have to sneak this crossword in under some work as we are off to our office Christmas lunch later and so it was a ‘now or never’ moment.
  10. Fine and fair puzzle, 14 minutes, not rushing, no arguments. Didn’t see why a glyph was particularly Mayan but it made the clue a bit more exotic. Liked the Giotto clue best.
  11. About 10 mins on the train this morning. Our art teacher at school told us the story of Giotto’s circle, then demonstrated it perfectly on the blackboard!
  13. 25 minutes for this largely straightforward puzzle, but another GRAVEYARD for 1ac, that being all I could think of to fit. I had several queries, such as the Giotto reference in 11, a construction I haven’t come across before in 22, and the purpose of ‘royal’ in the definition of 6.
    1. Sometimes a word is needed for the clue. Sometimes it’s additional to make the surface work. This time seemed to be to add a bit of misdirection. I think I’m happier when extra is for misdirection, less happy when it is needed to make an awkward surface work.
  14. Got held up, because originally had “PATCH” for 6d – a computer patch to solve/cure a programming bug and a nicotine patch for the cigarette addict …
    Glad to get the proper explanation for 27a – I had parsed it as TEST plus MENT (the end in judgeMENT) and couldn’t work out where the missing “A” came in!!!
  15. 12:24. I didn’t know about Giotto’s circle or the cotton magnate, but as verlaine says everything was gettable. Nice puzzle.
  16. 16:23 on the Times app clock but unsure whether it stops when the whole iPad freezes and rebooting is necessary. Prep school taught me about Arkwright’s Spinning Jenny (and Compton’s Mule) and accountancy training reminded me who does what between mortgagors and mortgagees. GRACELAND was a write-in after seeing Memphis but ACT OF SUCCESSION held me up until the EGG disproved it. A pleasant Friday stroll so thanks V and setter.
  17. 15:30 munching on a free turkey sandwich. Merry Christmas.

    I was slowed down by not knowing the act or what Giotto drew and by the parsing of UNDER which I never did see.

    I also wasted time trying to justify emphysema at 15, what with it being caused by smoke and having PH (for pub) in it. Never mind that it’s a disease rather than an infection.

  18. This was a pleasant Friday puzzle with some biffing with fingers crossed – UNDER for example. So blog much appreciated, V, and I hope the after effects of the free bar are not too long lasting! Thanks to setter for 25m of enjoyment!
  19. 12:52 … another one held up by a biffed Act of Succession.

    Enjoyed the GRACELAND and GUILD clues, especially.

  20. Despite falling for the ACT OF SUCCESSION, I hit a personal best of 17 minutes, while eating a meal of steak and chips. I really should have given it my full attention, as there is much to enjoy here. An excellent one to offer to first-time solvers, so long as they have the requisite GK.
  21. One hour and a half for this, which l consider not bad for a foreign solver, what with ‘plod’ for cop which l’ve now got the hang of.Got Graceland when Memphis reminded me of Elvis. COD SMOKE. (ONG’ARA, NAIROBI )
  22. A 10 minute solve, no problems here, despite not knowing of Giotto’s “O” or Mr. Arkwright, and the OMNIBUS book didn’t spring to mind either but the ‘transport’ was enough for that one. Apparently a holiday gift from the setter, so thanks to him/her, right back atcha, as they sometimes say over here. Same to Verlaine, and I’m willing to chalk up my quick time to what he labels the elegance of today’s clues. Regards to all.
  23. Given how tired I was feeling, it would probably have made more sense if I hadn’t gone for a clean sweep; but after solving the first three across clues straight off, I couldn’t resist the temptation and in the end limped home, exhausted but successful, in 8:15.

    ACT OF SETTLEMENT was a typical case. I had the first three checked letters in place when I reached the clue, but just couldn’t think of the damned answer; and if I hadn’t been after my clean sweep, I’d have moved on and waited for more checked letters to jog my memory. ACT OF SUCCESSION would clearly fit, but I knew it wasn’t right. Fortunately the wordplay (which I belatedly decided to read properly for the first time) was enough to recall the correct answer to mind, but I’d squandered several seconds by that point.

    An interesting and enjoyable puzzle, though I agree that “royal” in 6ac appears to have no purpose other than to make the clue read slightly better.

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