Times 26860 – a definite climb up a 1 across

55 comments on “Times 26860 – a definite climb up a 1 across”

1. 20:55 … and a bit surprised not to have at least one error as I didn’t know what the ‘fifteen’ of LEINSTER was about, guessing some geographical enumeration of Irish counties or something like that.

   I’ve never read a word of Beatrix Potter, either (despite or because of attempts at indoctrination by my mother) but SAMUEL WHISKERS felt familiar. Did it come up before?

   Oh, and I couldn’t parse FINIAL so that was a hit-and-hope. All round, a pretty sure-footed solve!

   Some nice things, though. I enjoyed ARVO and especially SWEEPSTAKE

   Thanks, George – I felt as at sea as you

   Edited at 2017-10-19 05:12 am (UTC)

2. Started well with both 1s going in immediately but I soon ran into problems after that and it was then an uphill solve all the way taking me several minutes over the hour to complete the grid.

   DK ENNEADS although it has come up once or twice over the years and would have been foxed by LEINSTER except that it was clearly an anagram and the checkers didn’t leave room for other options and I had at least heard of the place without knowing it had rugby connections. I think there may have been a radio station of that name in the days when wireless sets had illuminated glass panels for tuning in. DK SAMUEL WHISKERS but again the anagrist helped.

   Feb 2015: Revolutionary greeting in Indian language (7) [cf. 20dn today]

   George, you have a typo in the answer at 5dn.

   Edited at 2017-10-19 04:26 am (UTC)

   1. And a typo in 4dn – the “abbreviation of PRO PROCURATIONEM” yould be PRO PRO!

      I liked this pleasantly brain-stretching puzzle, but I can see how it rubbed people up the wrong way. I hadn’t worked out why there were enneads in Felixstowe at all, so thanks for the parse, George.

      1. Ta, both fixed.
3. I had a feeling I was running aground on GK here, as I petered out at 50 minutes, spending the rest of my hour pencilling in very tentatively the unknowns of LEINSTER, ENNEADS and SAMUEL WHISKERS. Still had plenty left in the SE; it didn’t help that I’d thought of SWELTERING but didn’t know “welter” for “roll” and didn’t know MARATHI or MARAT…

   So, a third DNF in the SE for me this week. Fiddle.

4. Many thanks for the blog. I’d assumed Felixstowe must have 9 letters in it – no time to count them, and SAMUEL WHISKERS seemed the most likely arrangement of the available letters, but that left me none the sounder about who, or as it turns out, what he was. These seem to be becoming too hard for my ageing brain, but what else am I going to do at east in the morning?
5. An hour with porridge. Scraped through with guesses. Too hard.
   I liked: Owed, Calm and Sweep’s take.
   Mostly I didn’t like: Enneads, Sam Whatsit, Whatnot, Finial and War Widow.
   Too hard – did I mention that?
   Thanks setter and George.
6. I suppose 2 down is a triple definition too then.

   Apart from containing way too much stuff I’d never heard of, the clues were quite well put together and I found at the end that if I tilted my head slightly, and squinted just the right amount, I could come up with something approaching an answer for each clue. Cracking a beer helped too

7. I only had 30 minutes spare today at which time I was nowhere near finishing. Thanks for the blog, I needed it. I thought that there was some clever misdirection in this crossword. COD to LEINSTER.
8. A bit hard for me although I’m here in 45 minutes. I used checkers though for MARATHI and ENNEADS. I should have seen MARATHI without but got hung up on Mao despite MARAT having figured recently. I’ve only heard of ENNEADS in connection with Plotinus and Trinitarian philosophy, and he only wrote six of them. Maybe I was holding it upside down. LOI SWEEPSTAKE, needing all the crossers. COD WAR WIDOW. My family much prefers the Little Grey Rabbit books to Beatrix Potter. Thank you George and setter.
9. Very well done George – a difficult blog

   I shall quickly forget this puzzle

   1. me too, Jimbo, didn’t enjoy it at all. Beatrix Potter characters in a cryptic? Did twig Leinster though feel it isn’t well clued.
10. By ‘eck that was hard! Crawled over the line in 41:20, with the penny finally dropping on LEINSTER.
    I too have zero knowledge of Beatrix Potter so was pleased to construct the rat’s name from just two checkers but had no idea who he or Anna Maria might be.
    Slightly surprised by STANLEY KNIFE – a branded product – but it’s in Chambers.
11. Greetings, thought I’d join you on this site (tried twice already this morning).
    Couldn’t parse enneads but otherwise quite smooth.
    1. Welcome to the merry throng, Tom. I hope we’ll hear a lot more from you now that you’ve managed to make contact!
    2. Wondered when you might turn up here Tom – very nice to see you. I’ve been hanging out in these parts for a while even though my (and Sotira’s, Verlaine’s and Zabadak’s) TLS blogs have now fallen foul of the new Club regime.
12. Again sorry to bother but can’t find J1287. I’ve reread the clues and convinced myself that the only one I really don’t get is:
    Last but one in political residence (6,3) NUMBER TEN
    But why?
    Most grateful.
    1. Think the first bit is a cricket reference
       1. Thank you! (Of course it is! Why I didn’t see it………………
          I do despair at times!)
13. 44 mins of torture. I was way off the setter’s wavelength but at least I got there in the end with FINIAL my LOI.
14. Over 40 minutes, though actual time rather less, as Chrome didn’t respond to ‘submit’ so went to make a cuppa while waiting. At 6ac biffed AWED on basis of outstanding=awesome: didn’t see how OWED could work, so thanks George for parsing – also explanation of ENNEADS (got from anagram).
15. Is the road out. Once had friend (worst driver in the World) drive me to Ipswich. We ended up in Felixstowe. This puzzle was too hard for me but at least there are a few more words to add to the collection of words never used except in crosswords (is there a word for such words?). Some fun here but with lots of groans. Well done those who fully parsed.
    1. I think they’re known as ‘lesser books of the bible’.
16. Thank you for the blog George, with the parsing of the Felixstowe thing and that awful HERMES clue.

    All in all plenty to dislike here, I thought.

    Dereklam

17. Well, I found this easier than yesterday’s at 26:06. Marat always reminds me of the Madame Toussauds waxwork in the Chamber of Horrors of him in his bath getting the wrong end of Charlotte Corday’s knife. Wonder whether it is still there. Just bunged in ENNEADS from the crossers and anagram so thanks for the explanation George.
    1. I think Tussaud’s got that tableau from the Jacques-Louis David painting – it’s certainly riveting! No idea if it’s still there.
18. Bit of a fight this, limping over the line in 27.20 on paper (giving up the iPad solving for a couple of weeks so I can remember how to form letters on the 4th).

    DNK – too much of it although especially MARATHI and Mr Whiskers.
    Unparsed – include me in the ENNEADS list.

    Also count me in on the dislike of 19a HERMES – although possibly because I get too many (mostly Fleabay, and ordered by Mrs O) parcels delivered* by them. The clue was crap too. Surely that should lead to HERMYS?

    *by delivered I mean “thrown over the gate”, “dumped somewhere in the back garden after trampling over the lawn” and, my personal favourite this, “you weren’t home so we left the parcel safely in your blue bin”. On blue bin collection day.

19. I got home late and started this but couldn’t get on the right wavelength so gave up and went to bed. Woke early this morning and finished it off without too much difficulty but without a lot of enjoyment. I was somewhat surprised when I submitted that it was all correct since there were several clues where I didn’t entirely understand what was going on (LEINSTER, ENNEADS and maybe another). I was a bit surprised to see STANLEY KNIFE since it’s a company name (Chambers has it as a registered trademark) which I thought was a no-no in the TImes (except on Sundays).
20. 13:59 with biffing aplenty. I has to discount Messrs Whistler and Whitaker before alighting on the correct Samuel, but I’d never heard of his missus.

    I also wondered why the setter used “we feel” rather than “I feel” for OW at 6a.

    The only parsing I couldn’t see post-solve was for ENNEADS, so thanks for that.

21. I inadvertently spotted GREASY SPOON in George’s blog before I realized that I shouldn’t be there, although it didn’t help me much; it still took me forever, in a desultory almost-solve (never got [never heard of] PER PRO). Never heard of the rat, or of the knife, or understood what LEINSTER had to do with anything; but I actually did spot the IXS early on. LYSANDER stuck out like a sore thumb.
    1. Is it the case that ‘per pro’ is further abbreviated to ‘pp’ when signing on behalf of someone else – pp is much more familiar I think to most of us.

       Don’t bother answering the question – I just looked it up and that is the case.

22. Hi, I’m looking forward to the upcoming Championships, but I appear to have mislaid my acceptance letter. Could someone let me know if I need to bring the letter or just my ID on the day? Is there an email address I can contact about this if needs be.

    Thanks for any help!

    1. I’m sure I can put you in touch with the powers that be. I can’t remember if you had to show your letter in previous years, but I find it hard to imagine people would be turned away for having the wrong documentation… no harm checking of course!
    2. The editor says he’s “sure ID would be fine”.
       1. Thanks very much!
          1. Actually, while I’m at it, could you also let me know what time the second qualifying round starts? Thanks
    3. Ah, I’m glad you asked as I had the same question. I’m overseas and will be going direct to the venue on my return and don’t have the letter with me. You’ve saved my an enquiry. Thank you.
       1. That was me, logged out.
    4. I had to ask this question a while ago for the same reason and the letter still hasn’t turned up. Verlaine kindly told me it was Nov 4th but exactly where it is in Wapping/ London Bridge? i’m still hazy
23. I struggled for nearly an hour last night, and still had most of the NE missing. Rather than check the blog, I decided to go to bed and try in the morning. I didn’t really expect it, but suddenly everything became clear. I put in ‘whatnot’, ‘Leinster’, and ‘Stanley knife’, and then I saw the missing big one must be ‘hammer and tongs’. This meant that the momble ‘Sister Street’ must be wrong, and it got replaced with ‘Sesame Street’.

    I did not really understand about a third of the answers I put in, but at least I finished all correct.

24. Rather surprised my time wasn’t much slower because I had “tinsel” in 21d (LEST=in case with IN, some of it backwards – or something). That made rubbish of ADMINISTER and took a while to sort out. Same as others on LEINSTER. We had ENNEAD in the TLS recently so it was fresh in mind or that would have really bogged me down because I never saw the IXs. Helpful blog George, thanks. 22.34
    1. Hello Olivia, I also fell into the tinsel trap and also benefited from Ennead’s recent appearance in a TLS. Speaking of which, I don’t suppose you happened to solve Talos 1192 did you? There is a clue there, 28ac: Rachel Riley’s producer and I broadcast Countdown’s finale (5), where I derived the answer from wordplay, checkers and a bit of a punt on the position of the other two letters but I don’t know what the answer means or alludes to.
       1. No I hadn’t a clue, never even having heard of the programme, let alone watched it in the US. I googled it and the answer came up in the Answerbank but that didn’t make me any the wiser….
          1. Thanks for directing me to the answerbank. I just checked the entry there and now understand. The answer alludes to Joanna Nadin, whom Wiki tells me is the author of a series of children’s books featuring a character called Rachel Riley. I had been wondering if there was a famous Rachel Riley character from literature who had a hen called Nadin.
       2. At least you got it – I didn’t. By then I was just aaargh!
25. My hold-up was the 25a/21d crossing. I saw “in case” at 21d as LEST. Reversed it and got T**SEL. Since the definition was “decoration” I just biffed TINSEL. Hence 25a became ungettable until I realised that there was no alternative to ADMINISTER and had to rethink 21d. The rest of the puzzle had gone in smoothly up to then. Btw, did anyone else think that “film” in 12a could be SNOT – reversed inc G for TONGS? 35 minutes. Ann
26. and in two half hour sessions (aka jeffs)managed to get across the line with LOI 2dn ENNEADS- a very annoying group on a par with The Smiths (I’m sure Verlaine will complaine!) Having SEAMSTRESS @ 9ac instead of SONGSTRESS didn’t help much.

    FOI 24ac ARVO

    COD 15ac LEINSTER had to be rugger! How can a clue refer to itself!? Also liked 16dn WAR WIDOW.

    WOD 22dn SAMUEL WHISKERS am I the only one who enjoyed TToSW or ‘Roly Poly Pudding’!?

    Tommorrow being a Friday is likely to be Hurricane ‘Quinton’.

27. Well, I can’t explain how I finished this, but I did in 30 minutes, error-free, somehow. There were things I didn’t know all over the place, similarly to others here. LEINSTER? I assumed it was related to the # of Irish counties it contained, as said above. The SAMUEL character, HAMMER, and that use of ‘welter’ also unknown. Phew. Regards.
28. I cannot deny that I was forced to use aids to get this completed, and then compounded my DNF by mis-spelling SESAME STREET (I won’t reveal the extent of my idiocy by revealing what the mis-spelling actually was!).

    I never understood LEINSTER despite being a Tigers fan (thanks George), although I was eventually able to parse everything else.

    I rarely get time for the 15 x 15 these days, but was induced here by comments on the QC blog today, and despite the difficulties, enjoyed my little outing ‘across the divide’.

29. 24:42. Quite a grind this, but I enjoyed it in a masochistic sort of way. I was a bit surprised to find I didn’t have any errors as ENNEADS and FINIAL felt like pretty desperate guesses.
30. Another struggle for me. Eventually got all but the SE, so put it down for a few hours then returned and finished it off. Held up like others by seeing “in case” as “lest” and so falling into the tinsel trap (which is not but definitely ought to be a thing). Finally saw “administer” and twigged “finial” for my LOI. Fortunate to have seen the word “Ennead” in a recent TLS and bunged it in on the basis of groups and the anagram without clocking the IX. Thought Leinster a very good clue which had me perplexed until a very nice Eureka moment. DNK Mr Whiskers so bunged him in with fingers crossed. Enjoyed “sweepstake” and “war widow”. Pleased to stick with this one and finish all correct.
31. A toughie, but I enjoyed it on the whole, despite also falling victim to a tentative TINSEL and not understanding a number of wordplays at the time. Good clues in particular for SONGSTRESS and ARVO (definition for the latter a bit of a chestnut now though)
32. Came to this late after golf at Whitley Bay. Walked off the eighteenth green just as the heavens opened. My luck held out throughout this puzzle, which although it took 57:46, I completed correctly. Several unknowns such as ENNEADS, SAMUEL WHISKERS and MARATHI were constructed from anagrams, crossers and wordplay. Hadn’t a clue what Felixstowe was doing! I did know MARAT, and LEINSTER as a Rugby Side. Like a few others I originally had TINSEL with LEST for in case, until I saw ADMINISTERED. Had WHATSIT for 7d until HAMMER AND TONGS put me right. FOI GREASY POLE. LOI WISEST. Quite a challenge Mr Setter!! Thanks for the blog George.

    Edited at 2017-10-19 09:52 pm (UTC)

33. Forty-four minutes, and I found this one tough but not impenetrable. ENNEADS was only vaguely known, and I had no idea of either its meaning or the relevance of Felixtowe. MARATHI was equally dodgy, though I did have a half-memory of Marat. LEINSTER was unknown, but looked more plausible than any of the other options. SAMUEL WHISKERS also an NHO for me.

    Thanks to the setter for an enjoyable puzzle, and of course to our blogger.

34. An hour and a half, but I’m astounded I finished at all, since I had to guess a large number of answers (LEINSTER, SAMUEL WHISKERS, ARVO, ENNEADS, LYSANDER, FINIAL, STANLEY KNIFE): The wordplay helped on some, but not on ENNEADS or LEINSTER — I just couldn’t think of any other word that might fit the crossing letters. LYSANDER at least sounded vaguely familiar, but that’s about it. Whew!

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