Times 26301 – normal service resumed

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
After nine weeks of leisurely blogging of the Championship puzzles, today we were back to the usual routine of “make the tea, print off the puzzle, hope you can solve it for a timely blog”. Not usually a problem, and I like the slight tension – and the determination to avoid errors and not have to call upon a fellow blogger to shed light here and there.
Today’s was not a problem. 15 minutes of steady solving from NW to SE saw it done, a couple had to be unravelled afterwards for their convoluted parsing, and away we go.

Across
1 TREK – Hidden word in THEA(TRE K)NOW, D a long day’s journey into night, say, nothing to do with Eugene O’Neill.
3 FLASHPOINT – Double def., your camera is pointed and flashes, and it’s a volatile situation.
9 MUGSHOT – DD; Careful, cocoa drinker, the MUG’S HOT; and an “arresting” picture. Nice clue which I think we’ve seen before.
11 WHOPPER – W = wide, CHOPPER = machete, edge off = remove C; D a big one.
12 SMEAR CAMPAIGN – You probably biffed this from the checking letters; SIGN = placard, split and insert all of the following; EAR (attention) CAMP (faction) inside MA (mother); D dirty tricks.
14 GO OFF – DD. Nothing more to say.
15 GUINEVERE – GUE(STS) = half of visitors; insert IN (popular) EVER (always); D queen consort.
17 ANGORA CAT – (AT A GARCON)*; D longhair, a white, hairy cat usually known as a Turkish Angora.
19 AFTER – RAFTER = beam, remove the R (end of laser’s missing); D subsequently.
21 INSUBORDINATE – IN SUB = aboard sinking boat, OR = men, DIN = commotion, ATE worried; D disobeying orders.
24 RETSINA – RE = concerned with, N in (ASTI)*; D wine, the Greek stuff you can only tolerate in Greece.
25 LENIENT – LENIN (Communist) embraces E, then T = Trot’s conclusion; D soft.
26 PRESENT-DAY – PRESENT = give, DAY = period of light; D current.
27 EYOT – TOYED = did trifle, remove the D (so it’s ‘mostly’); reverse; D small isolated place, a small island with various spelling options.

Down
1 TIME SIGNAL – (SLIM EATING)*; D pips.
2 EL GRECO – ELG(A)R = English composer, dismiss the A; ECO = conservationist; D Spanish artist.
4 LETHARGIC – (TEACH GIRL)*; D not inclined to move.
5 SEW UP – DD.
6 PROLIFERATION – PRO LIFE ( for living) RATION (allowance); D great number.
7 IMPINGE – IMP (mischief-maker); (S)INGE(R) = INGE, unclothed vocalist; D make an impression.
8 TURF – F = fine, RUT = furrow, “over” = all reversed; D top of field.
10 HEREFORDSHIRE – HERE (in this place) FOR (benefiting) DIRE (poor), insert SH (silence!); D part of England.
13 BEARDED TIT – BEAR = tolerate, DDT = insecticide, insert E = drug, so DED T; IT; D songbird, more usually known as the bearded reedling.
16 INTER ALIA – INTER = bury, A (article), LIA = AIL (trouble) reversed; D with others.
18 GRISTLE – (LEG STIR)*; D it’s tough to eat. But not to solve.
20 TRAGEDY – TRY = attempt; insert AGED = grey; D that doesn’t end well?
22 BEAUT – Sounds like BUTE, a Scottish isle; D fine example, Aussie slang but originally American it seems.
23 CROP – CR(edit) OP (work); D produce, stress on the first syllable.

41 comments on “Times 26301 – normal service resumed”

  1. 15 minutes with a couple spent on 25a my LOI. Somehow couldn’t get LEFT, FELT or RED out of my head. COD to 1d.
  2. …submitted with that nagging sense of “wasn’t I going to go back to check something?”.

    Sure enough, I had entered HERTFORDSHIRE from checkers with a mental note that I should parse it. Oh well, I knew it was one of those places with a relatively low frequency of intense low pressure systems.

    COD MUGSHOT. Thanks setter and Pip.

  3. Just over 20 mins. I liked MUGSHOT, not only because it made me smile but also because it stopped me trying to write in Staffordshire
  4. 20 minutes and a welcome return to normality for me too, after the unscheduled arrival at my office yesterday morning of Hong Kong’s Commissioner for Transport knocked me off my solving stride just after I’d started the crossword online.

    How inconsiderate can these government people be!

  5. Rather nice to be back to normal. I wonder if in future it wouldn’t be better to publish the Champs puzzles in batches of three to make it simpler for non-participants to have a bash at the 1-hour 3-puzzle solve and to get the thing done and dusted a little quicker. At one a week for nine weeks it does drag on.

    9:33 for this. I’m giving myself a pass on my mistyped MUSGHOT. Some very smooth surfaces in here. Last in the BEARDED TIT, COD HEREFORDSHIRE

    1. Looks like we recorded the same time, to the second: 9.33 for me as well. The last minute or so of that was spent on BEAUT, not helped by the fact that I hadn’t heard of the island.

      In order to complete 13a I had to sing some Joni Mitchell lyrics to myself: “Farmer, farmer…”

  6. 11m. Steady solve with no real hold-ups.
    I went to a wedding on Queen’s Eyot a few years ago, and in all the invitations and whatnot it was referred to as ‘Queen’s Eyot Island’. You will be relieved to know that I resisted the temptation to point out the pleonasm to the bride and groom.
  7. Aout 25mins, the last few spent on BEAUT. All others ok… agree with Sotira, would be better to put all champs puzzles together. Best wishes to all for 2016.
    1. If we’re starting a petition count me in! Would love the opportunity to attack the three puzzles in one (extremely long) session.
      1. The organisers of the championship might send you the puzzles immediately if you ask: they have done so for me in the past when I forgot to pick a copy up when I was there.
        Make a note for next year!

  9. 24ac RETSINA tastes just fine in Charlotte Street,London too.

    25 mins so no probs FOI 2dn EL GRECO LOI 15ac GUINEVERE

    COD 1dn TIME SIGNAL

    Heading for Singapore then Charlotte Street, London then I can use pen on newsprint itself! Marvellous.

    horryd Shanghai

  10. Yes, a very pleasant puzzle and I’m really pleased to be back to normal on Wednesdays. Speaking as only one person who didn’t participate, it has felt like 9 weeks of people discussing a party one didn’t attend. 26 minutes.

    I think AIT came up in Quickie very recently and caught some people out so perhaps I should warn them about this alternative spelling.

    I enjoyed Galspray’s oblique reference to the Lerner & Lowe song!

    Edited at 2016-01-06 11:36 am (UTC)

    1. I was at the party, as it were, but I’m also pleased: no more opening the puzzle on my Wednesday commute and thinking ‘oh dear, I’ll just have to read the paper’!
  11. I agree the championship puzzles did drag on, so I too welcome a return to normality.
    Another puzzle where I slowed after a rapid start, not helped by writing in STAFFORDHIRE first, merely on the basis that ‘silence’ could be ST. It took a while to parse 12 after getting the answer. 25 minutes in all.

    Clueing POINT as ‘thing to do with camera’ seemed pretty lame to me, and to break down PRESENT-DAY into PRESENT and DAY strikes me as poor practice.

  12. 10:07, tipped over the 10-minute mark by the hairy thing as I’d misenumerated as 3,6 and my best stab at ANG ARACOT didn’t look likely as either a cow or blues musician Professor Longhair’s real name (which turns out to be Henry Roeland “Roy” Byrd).

    Biffed most of the long’uns, didn’t even consider Hertfordshire (perhaps fortuitously) and enjoyed mugshot.

  13. Liked MUGSHOT. Otherwise all went in pretty quickly except where the unfamiliar EYOT spelling and not knowing BUTE needed a little thought and crossed fingers.
    1. Only on Monday Dr Thud said ‘NHO of AIT, though I might have recognized it if I’d known it was an alternative spelling of “eyot”.
      1. Ah yes. Unfortunately therein lies a sad hint to solving the numerical question: How many times a week do you get to do the puzzle and read the blog?

        But that does make me think that somebody should trawl back through 10 years of posts and compile our best wit (and favourite rants). I expect DrT would have several entries.

  14. 26:20 after which I had to consult a list of Scottish islands. A steady solve with no surprises or struggles to mention.

    I should add that I used the vinyl-ian technique of listening to some classical music while I solved. Since I had just returned home from a rehearsal of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, I decided to listen to his Ninth symphony (one of my absolute favorite works), as performed by the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zürich, led by David Zinman. I finished the puzzle before the first movement ended.

    Edited at 2016-01-06 04:33 pm (UTC)

  15. Not much to say. About 15 minutes ending with the BEARDED TIT. Jeremy, you’ll be intrigued to know that once outside Carnegie Hall a scalper approached me trying to buy my tickets to a Mahler performance. Apparently, you’re not the only Mahler fan, also you can evidently scalp a ticket for most anything in NYC. Regards to all.
  16. 11 mins with TIME SIGNAL my LOI after the amusing MUGSHOT despite it being a chestnut. HEREFORDSHIRE took longer to see than it should have done.

    Here on Merseyside BEAUT can have a completely different meaning – think “complete berk” or “embarrassing idiot”.

  17. 34:23, so for me that means quite easy, but still a nice puzzle. It was obvious that there would be a DDT in 13dn (BEARDED TIT) but not at first clear where it would go. TURF and HEREFORDSHIRE were good misleading clues too (I was helped by the fact that HEREFORDSHIRE is one of the few counties whose name springs to my mind right away). LOI was BEAUT, which was a beaut. For EYOT I first had SYLT, which is also a small isolated island (the only access by land being a railway bridge, I believe) and which is hidden backwards in “mostly sent”, but fortunately a German island seemed a bit unlikely so I thought a bit more about the trifle and did end up with the right answer.
    1. I was pretty sure I had driven onto Sylt, but you are right.. I had driven onto Romo, the island next door. It turned out to be full of vast naked sunbathing Germans, the memory of which is with me still…
  18. 27m so a better Wednesday performance than I’ve had for a while. Enjoyed MUGSHOT and held up by not noticing the cat was two words so had ANGARCOAT for too long (‘keeps you warm when the plane’s delayed?’). Thanks for the blog.
  19. El Greco wasn’t actually Spanish, he was born on Crete, hence his his adopted name in Spanish. Thanks as always to all the bloggers – I really enjoy this site. Linda Lofthouse
  20. Oh dear. I goofed completely on 21ac, putting in “insubordinant” (which, apparently, isn’t a word), leaving me unable to furnish a suitable tit at 13d.

  21. With time to spare after completing today’s QC (new setter), I thought I’d have a quick look at this. Well it was up my street and I finished all of it bar 22d in about 30 minutes (record time for me).Feeling like a batsman on 99 I had to finish it and I probably spent nearly as long again on 22d. I tried to think of all the Scottish islands I knew, as well as just going through the alphabet repeatedly; finally it came to me! Now I feel very chuffed. David
  23. 9:30 for me, anxious not to make a mistake so early in the year and then making heavy weather of parsing several clues, in particular 10dn (needing to rule out HERT…) and 7dn (choosing the wrong wordplay and then wrestling with TURF = “fine”).
  24. I thought that I had this cracked in 14m 22s, but looked through again after a few minutes only to notice that I had overlooked 27a. Promptly filled it in, but carelessness cost me a pretty decent time by my standards. It’s happened before, and I always tell myself ‘never again’. I remember that Michael Rich always used to advise contestants at the regional Championship heats to check that they had completed every clue as, every year, at least one good competitor dropped a clanger.
  25. I agree with the earlier ‘anonymous’. Domenikos Theotokopoulos was a Greek painter, for goodness’ sake. Place of residence and acquired citizenship are neither here nor there. One wouldn’t call Stravinsky or Rakhmaninov an American composer, would one?

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