Times 26889 – Puzzle #3 in the TCC round 1. One wrong?

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Another 25 minutes of pleasure with this one, apart from 1a where I had heard of the word as a make or brand of electric guitars but not in connection with horses; and 9a where (at the time of writing this) the answer I have is I believe correct but when I submitted I found the currently published solution is different. Perhaps our esteemed editor will spot it and change either the clue or the answer!

Across
1 Horse’s trappings a Trojan prince wrapped in fleece? (9)
CAPARISON – CON = fleece; insert A, PARIS being a Trojan prince, Helen’s bloke.
6 Quiet fellow taking dip in river (5)
PIANO – The River PO as in Northern Italy, has the fellow IAN inserted, giving us the Italian / musical term for quiet.
9 Short advert: for a second (5)
PHOTO – or PROMO? Seems to me, it should be PROMO; PRO = for, MO = a second. Wrong answer? Or wrong clue?
10 Peevish cashier in combative exchange of views (9)
CROSSFIRE –  Peevish = cross, FIRE = cashier, dismiss.
11 Brief review of small vessel with digital protection? (9,6)
THUMBNAIL SKETCH – KETCH = small vessle, THUMBNAIL’S = digital’s = digital protection I suppose.
13 Hide from royal runner in study (8)
DEERSKIN – ER = Royal, SKI = runner, insert those into DEN = study.
14 Books university set aside for records (6)
ANNALS – ANNUALS = books, has its U set aside.
16 Half-dozen in Rome with capacity to become realistic (6)
VIABLE – VI = six in Roman numerals, ABLE = with capacity to.
18 Guarantee with absolute certainty, ultimately (8)
WARRANTY – W= with, ARRANT = absolute, Y = end of certaintY.
21 Race little boy about to go to the French art establishment? (8,7)
NATIONAL GALLERY – I dissect this one as; NATION = race, ALGY = little boy, insert ALLER being the French for ‘to go’.
23 Revolutionary way Gunners pursue ends of other players (9)
ORCHESTRA – OR = the ends of ‘OtheR’; CHE = our usual revolutionary; ST = way; RA = Royal Artillery.
25 A range of hearing (5)
AURAL – A, URAL mountain range.
26 Cheers football teams? They’re going places! (5)
TAXIS – TA = cheers, thanks; XIs = teams, elevens.
27 Where some may hear a posh leader endlessly (9)
AUDITORIA – A, U = posh, (E)DITORIA(L) = leader as in paper column, with ends off.

Down
1 Firm piece of advice rejected: suffer the consequences? (3,2)
COP IT – CO = firm, TIP reversed.
2 Proud punter beginning to row boat for a change (11)
PROTUBERANT – anagram of PUNTER R(OW) BOAT. I think Protuberant will be one of my 8 Desert Island Word choices. I love it.
3 Greek character on passenger vehicle carrying minute figure (7)
RHOMBUS – RHO = Greek letter, BUS = passenger vehicle, insert M = minute. Today’s educational bit:

The word “rhombus” comes from Greek ῥόμβος (rhombos), meaning something that spins, which derives from the verb ῥέμβω (rhembō), meaning “to turn round and round.The word was used both by Euclid and Archimedes, who used the term “solid rhombus” for two right circular cones sharing a common base.

The surface we refer to as rhombus today is a cross section of this solid rhombus through the apex of each of the two cones.
4 Sort of philosophy actor gets involved in thus (8)
SOCRATIC – SIC = thus in Latin; insert (ACTOR)*.
5 Simple person’s word of refusal upset the Spanish party (6)
NOODLE – NO = word of refusal, EL, DO = the Spanish, party; reverse that bit.
6 Russian writer — sort mostly supporting press (7)
PUSHKIN – PUSH = press, KIN(D) = sort of mostly. Pushkin wrote those plays and books which are more famous (to me at least) as the sources of operas; Eugene Onegin, Ruslan & Ludmila, Boris Godunov.
7 Boxer’s son ditched by girl? (3)
ALI – ALIS is a not very common girl’s name, remove the S(on). EDIT Doh! More common as a name is ALISON, then ditch the SON. See below.
8 Too quick to have yarns regularly spun (9)
OVERHASTY – YARNS regularly = Y R S, add these to TO HAVE for the anagram fodder (TO HAVE YRS)*.
12 Attendant, one enduring inclement weather after end of shoot (11)
TRAINBEARER – T = end of shoot, RAIN BEARER would be one enduring inclement weather. Nothing to do with idle guards on Southern Rail, that would be a TRAINB***ER.
13 Fellow left to collect new item of furniture (9)
DAVENPORT – DAVE is our fellow, PORT is left, inset N for new. A Davenport is a sort of sofa, a generic word which like HOOVER was originally the name of the company making it, Massachusetts furniture manufacturer A. H. Davenport and Company, now defunct.
15 Person keeping eye on commercial vehicle, perhaps, in front (8)
VANGUARD – A VAN GUARD would be doing that, so a DD, one literal.
17 One who may have pride in her companions? (7)
LIONESS – cryptic definition.
19 Dependent on arrest being set up on time (7)
RELIANT – RE = on, NAIL = arrest, reverse that, add T for time.
20 Sacred word in a set of books collected by male artist (6)
MANTRA – A, NT inserted into M = male, RA = artist.
22 Yankee area accommodating key conference centre once (5)
YALTA – Y(ankee) A(rea, insert ALT = key. Conference held in said resort in February 1945 to discuss the post-war future of Germany. Subject of Churchill’s Triumph by my college chum Michael Dobbs, a good read.
24 Charlie — neat participant in boat race, perhaps (3)
COX – C for Charlie, OX = neat. Unlike in my day, they seem to be all female now.

73 comments on “Times 26889 – Puzzle #3 in the TCC round 1. One wrong?”

  1. I had PROMO too and came here to find out what could possibly be wrong with it and whether there was something else that fitted that I hadn’t thought of.

    I’m glad I didn’t have to do this under competition conditions. I’d never heard of CAPARISON, either as a guitar or a horsey thing. I didn’t know DAVENPORT as a sofa, although it was certainly plausible.

    I think 7d is weird. SALI and ALIS are weird spellings of Sally and Alice, but both don’t seem quite “Times” enough. The “?” makes me think we are all missing something.

  2. Rather worrying that there is an error in one of the Championship puzzles. Was there an error on the day that’s only just come to light? Do we need a recount?

    I got through this in 38 minutes which wasn’t too bad and was pleased to know CAPARISON. It came up in a puzzle I blogged in February defined only as “rich clothing” and I didn’t know it, but in the course of writing the blog I looked it up and reminded myself that I vaguely knew it as the finery worn by horses ridden by knights of old.

    Many thanks to all for their kind remarks yesterday. Very much appreciated

  3. This is crazy, it’s gotta be PROMO.
    On another note, back in West Virginia my late, lamented parents used to call our sofa the DAVENPORT, but I hadn’t heard the word in years.
  4. Easiest for me – a tad over 20 minutes. Couldn’t see EDITORIAL, or ALLER in ALGY – they were guesses – and tried to write PROTRUBERANT in 2 down, thinking of PROTRUDE. Other holdups were justifying ALI (could only see boxer Ali’s losing S to give girl Ali e.g. MacGraw), CROSSFIRE and un-fixating on DIVAN as the first 5 letters of 13 down, but smooth sailing otherwise.
    Oh, and definitely a PROMO.

    Edited at 2017-11-22 07:20 am (UTC)

  5. Happy enough with 53 minutes on this one. FOI 1d COP IT, LOI the unknown 22d YALTA, closely preceded by 6a PIANO, which I thought was a lovely piece of misdirection.

    It’s the writing desk that springs to my mind when I think of a 13d DAVENPORT. I like the idea of having one, but then that’s possibly just another way for me to procrastinate around writing, rather than actually doing it.

    Glad we seem to agree on PROMO, and I also had that moment of “Alis? Who… Oh! Alison!” Thanks to setter for being fun, fair and on my wavelength and to Pip for putting me out of my misery on AUDITORIA, among others…

    Edited at 2017-11-22 07:43 am (UTC)

  6. The easiest for me on the day – maybe about 7m. The printed answers distributed afterwards have PROMO as the answer to 9A. Wasn’t 100% sure I’d heard of a DAVENPORT but the wordplay was unambiguous – the sofa version cropped up again just last night in a Dorothy Parker story I was reading (not my cup of tea but the book was a present so I kind of feel obliged to wade through it).
    2. Be grateful, Someone gave me 2666 by Roberto Bolano which is over a 1000 pages long and utterly dire.

      Straightforward crossword in my usual time.

      1. My commiserations – fortunately this one’s only 600-ish. A friend recommended 2666 to me about ten years ago but its sheer size has always put me off, not to mention comments from other people that echo your verdict of “utterly dire”.
  7. 25 minutes, or 3.5 mohns, which means, I believe, that I would have come 7th in the Championships.
  8. 35 mins with yoghurt, granola, banana (sorry – no marmalade excitement).
    Almost put off my breakfast by Protuberant Cox. Really!
    Nothing especially caught my eye as witty or unusual – except maybe ‘arrant’.
    Took a long time to parse (e)ditoria(l) – and never could parse Algy (random boy alert!). We’d already had Dave and Ian and Alison.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2017-11-22 08:19 am (UTC)

  9. Can’t remember how long this took the day after the champs but I think it was the easiest of the three for me. CROSSFIRE was the last in and my favourite clue.

    Nothing very tricky in this … or was there? A certain blogger of this parish should be along in a while to explain how he tripped over a sofa and missed out on the grand final.

    Edited at 2017-11-22 08:38 am (UTC)

  10. But with a PROMO naturally. I found this by far the easiest of the three, having struggled over the last few clues last week, so to my surprise came in 3 minutes under the hour in total. All much easier in my dressing gown with a cup of coffee of course.
  11. What’s the confusion with PHOTO/PROMO, please? I can only see PROMO and don’t understand how you might get PHOTO instead? I usually give myself twenty minutes on the Times daily cryptic and occasionally manage to finish inside that time. I consider it good if I’m four or fewer shy of a complete solve. I completed this in 17.09, which for me is unheard of when it comes to championship puzzles.
    1. The problem is that The Times app says that PROMO is incorrect so there is a pigs-ear somewhere. It is obviously PROMO.
  12. This is a wonderful clue. But nobody has seen that the correct
    answer has to be PIANO, and not photo or promo, neither of which fits the word play of the clue. It’s clearly Ian (fellow) inside Po (river), so the definition is QUIET. (a musical term) Now isn’t that perfect?
    Barbara (just an amateur)
  13. I rather wish I’d had this as the third crossword of round 2, because this was easy, and took me 14.51. On the other hand, solving in non-competitive mode, there wasn’t much to excite the senses, with VANGUARD and LIONESS clues the only ones to raise even a flicker of a smile.
    I do remember PUSHKIN being clued by “Uncle Nepot?” once, which may not be entirely Ximenean but had something going for it.
    I wonder haw tough it is these days to clue ORCHESTRA, knowing that you can’t just say it’s an anagram of carthorse?
  14. My apologies. I must have been looking at the answers cross-eyed,
    and confused 6ac. with 9ac. Mea culpa.
    Barbara, very embarrassed.
    1. Happens to most of us at some time or other. Don’t run away! It is an excellent place to learn ….
  16. It is 9 Across under discussion & I, too, could only come up with PROMO.

    Piano is correct for 6 Across.

  17. I think I found this the easiest of the three, but then I think I said that about the second one. The first one was definitely hardest, and this was definitely the one I finished first. It all seems a long time ago now.
    I didn’t know DAVENPORT, which turned out to be an advantage because it prevented me from bunging in something similar-sounding on the basis of a vague memory. Not all escaped this fate, as we will no doubt hear in due course…
    1. Finished? What is this word of which you speak? All 3 with many fine blank spaces left for me on the day. With no obvious reason when revisiting under more normal solving conditions.
  18. As SNITCH is currently on zero for this can we assume that nobody has yet submitted the ‘correct’ answer to 9a?
    That aside a fairly straightforward solve in under 20 minutes.
    1. The Times app when you click REVEAL WORD today is still showing PHOTO as the answer to 9a, I am surprised someone hasn’t put it right as apparently the printed answers on the comp day showed it as PROMO. Mr Editor?
  19. A fine confidence booster this one, after crashing on the other championship puzzle. Anyone remember Nigel Davenport? Thanks pip and setter.
  20. Was very surprised to find myself 4th out of 79 for this puzzle with one wrong, only to see the editorial cock-up. A couple of biffs (NATIONAL GALLERY and AUDITORIA) for which I had to come here for the parsing. Almost makes me want to enter the finals next year….
  21. Having done this in just under 20 minutes, was cross to be flagged with an error (the dreaded 9ac) – I hope the club’s records will be put right in due course.
    No problems otherwise: 1ac was FOI – I know ‘davenport’ as a writing-desk, having seen one on antiques programmes occasionally. At 21ac., I’d got GALLERY from ‘le’ in ‘Gary’ without seeing where the other L came from, so thanks for correct parsing.

    Edited at 2017-11-22 11:08 am (UTC)

  23. Probably the easiest least difficult on the day for me, actually managing to finish more of it than not.

    Just over 14 minutes today – with the same one wrong as everyone else (I got that on the day) – Some of the ones I’d already got still had to be thought about when re-solving, which I suppose is a bit of a concern, not least for my medium-term memory.

    Time is probably representative of what it would normally take as didn’t stop the clock for a couple of breaks in the interest of fairness, having said that 9ac stuffed me up anyway, as if my stats on the club site needed any more stuffing up after last weeks finger issues.

    1. If it’s any comfort, I often forget a lot of the answers between solving the puzzle on a Sunday and writing my blog during the course of the following week. Mind you I’m hardly a benchmark: this morning I was tasked with making sure all the kids were out of bed and I forgot one of them.
  24. Printed out as usual thus 9ac PROMO.

    Barbara’s error is quite amusing! Poor luv’. Taxi for one!

    Is the Editor on vacation?

    FOI 26ac TAXIS LOI 7dn ALI took a long time to see the ditched SON.

    COD 21 ac NATIONAL GALLERY

    WOD 8dn OVERHASTY and BARBARA

    Time 31 mins easiest of the three.

    Edited at 2017-11-22 12:01 pm (UTC)

      1. Qui moi!? Please!……re-read Barb-ara’s somewhat triumphal original comment.

        Did you enjoy Fawlty Towers?

        And it’s horryd not Horryd!

  25. Oh rats – of course I had PROMO. I agree this was the easiest so far. Davenport, as a sofa, crops up in Raymond Chandler (and probably Dashiell Hammett though I haven’t read him lately). Philip Marlowe wades through the velvety carpet with a pile high enough to tickle his ankles to find, asleep on the davenport, a blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window etc. Zabadak did a rather good blog along these lines at one point. 15.04

    I forgot to say that I didn’t know PROTUBERANT as “proud” – I thought it just meant “bulging”, as in eyes.

    Edited at 2017-11-22 12:45 pm (UTC)

    2. Your P Marlowe has reminded me of that brilliant short story by SJ Perelman, ‘Somewhere a roscoe…’. I’m sure you will know it, but if not I am sure you will love it.
      1. Aha, cool. I’ve found it and saved it and will enjoy it (with a glass of something) when I’m done with the prep for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving.
  27. 12:05 so by far the easiest of the three for me. I don’t think prior knowledge of Davenportgate gave me much of an advantage. Thanks for the parsing of warranty and the gallery.

  28. The site showed PROMO as incorrect but on reviewing it now shows as correct.

    Overall, I found this tough and finished in 1:09:42 so technically a DNF. CAPARISON went in from word play, THUMBNAIL SKETCH took far longer than it should have done (I don’t understand the apostrophe in the blog btw – thumbnails protect your inner digits).

    I got NATIONAL GALLERY without parsing – I got as far as NATIONAL for the race, GARY for the boy and LE for the French, which clearly doesn’t work. Mind you, neither does ALLER mean “to go to” – that would be ALLER A surely?

    Anyway, thanks for the blog and hats off to everyone who can actually do these in the 20 mins allowed.

  29. Having completed this in a, for me, rapid 21:38, I was mightily miffed to see the pink squares in 9a, and even more outraged as I pondered and decided it could not possibly be wrong. However it is with relief that I see my diagnosis of an Editorial blunder is confirmed. Didn’t fully parse ALGY and Co, but did remember CAPARISON from a previous outing. I originally biffed DEVONPORT, but immediately changed it to DAVENPORT on a more careful reading of the clue. FOI COP IT and LOI OVERHASTY, which I apparently wasn’t. An enjoyable solve apart from the spoiled record in the club. Thanks setter and Pip.
    On edit: As MrChumley says, the club site has been corrected and a review shows all correct with the scoring for the puzzle also adjusted. Hooray!

    Edited at 2017-11-22 01:07 pm (UTC)

  30. I was in the other half of the draw so this was new to me today. 11m 08s, with the last 2.5 minutes or so spent on 6a – somehow. Should have been a write-in. Oh dear.
  32. Yes, it’s all true, I froze up on D_V_NPORT, surely the fellow had to be a DON and so what else could it be but DEVONPORT (somehow?) Thirty seconds later and panicking somewhat I held my paper up, within sixty seconds or so after it had been collected I had the correct answer… and I’m pretty sure nobody else had handed in their paper during that time, either. I was 4th on time so I could certainly have taken five minutes to meditate on furniture. You live and (don’t) learn!
      1. No idea mate. Now if it had been clued as “an actor from Pirates of the Caribbean”, I’d have been right in there.
          1. I had a mate once named Devo – Devo short for Devon like Dave is short for David. Chambers has devonport as an alternative spelling for davenport, so a protest would surely have seen it marked as correct, onward and upward to a glorious defeat of Magoo.
  33. I didn’t have any great problems with this one on the day (40 minutes for all three puzzles, meaning my time was presumably a bit less than one third of 40), so it’s slightly worrying that I went through it now without submitting just to refresh my memory, and found I couldn’t for the life of me work out (or remember) ANNALS. On the day, I remember thinking that both Alis and Sali were valid girls’ names, if a little obscure for a championship puzzle, so I’ve had a belated penny-drop moment as well. Nice puzzle, anyway.
  34. There’s rather a nice run through from Magoo today on his youtube channel “Cracking the Cryptic” in which he solves the thing in 4 mins 4 secs only to submit it and be told he’s got 9ac wrong!

    Edited at 2017-11-22 03:03 pm (UTC)

  35. Coming to it afresh I’d forgotten most of the answers. Yes I too think it was the easiest of the 3 in the first session on the day. I came to it in a panic having got stuck on the second puzzle. Biffed a couple on the way and must have finished in about 15 minutes. Never got Alison or Algy/Aller at the time, so thanks for clearing that up, Pip.
  36. For a horrible, horrible moment I thought we were having another Monday instead of the Wednesday I’d been expecting. This one was definitely on the easy side, sufficiently so to make my time almost acceptable at 15 minutes.

    CAPARISON had me wondering for a while – I knew I knew it, I just didn’t know it until all the checkers were in. YALTA was an NHO, but sounded more likely than Yesca (which is in Mexico) or Ydela (which isn’t anywhere) or, looking at my Macbook’s keyboard, Ycmda, (which is presumably in Wales). And the photo/promo situation had evidently been resolved before I started on this one.

  37. 16 mins on the commute this a.m and 24 mins at lunchtime got most of this done but needed another 9 mins after work to tidy up a few stragglers. A bit hesitant at “cashier” for fire in 10ac but the Def was drawing me towards crossfire and by that time I was too afflicted with the “crossfire hurricane” earworm of Jumpin’ Jack Flash to do an alphabet trawl for realistic alternatives. I parsed 21ac and 27ac post solve, initially having the race as the National and not appreciating that the leader was endless at both ends. Came here wondering: Who the f**k is Alis and am glad to have the bleedin’ obvious pointed out. Nothing too challenging for one of the prelims – not that I could have done three in an hour mind or anything close!
  38. 12m with the erroneous PROMO but then I had almost done it before but that fact completely escaped me until I was halfway through and encountered DAVENPORT then the memory of Verlaine’s lamentations triggered others. So I can’t really be pleased with a 12m rerun but on the day I was about 18 for this one but was well stuffed by the other two! So big thank you, setter, since on the day you made me feel a little less incapable! And thanks for the blog, Pip as else I had thought serious madness had arrived over PROMO!

    Edited at 2017-11-22 08:24 pm (UTC)

  40. Didn’t get around to this until very late in the day (next puzzle should show up within 10 minutes), but of the championship puzzles posted so far I found this the easiest to finish (though I didn’t get many acrosses on a first run through), and came in at 10:30.
  41. This was the only one of the three I finished on the day. Today is still took me 11 min 55 to finish!

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