Times 26907 – TCC heat 2 puzzle 3 – no slowing down please.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Some time ago I suggested, when the answers to a particular puzzle prompted the idea, that we had a little competition to see who could create a short but readable story using all the words in the grid. I had one entry that was so good, it obviously put others off having a go!
The answers to this puzzle seem like another interesting set of words to go into a short story, so entries are invited! There might even be a prize.

This one seemed to me to be the easiest of the three in the second heat, it took me just on the 20 minutes and had no obscure Shakespearean prostitutes (after last week’s Doll Tearsheet stumped me). Nevertheless had I been in London and entered the competition I think I’d have preferred to have been in heat 1. Next week we’ll be into the deeper end of things with the final three.

Across
1 People left child generous little gift (6,4)
WIDOWS MITE – WIDOWS are people left (by bereavement) and a MITE is a child. My FOI.
6 Vestment returned by bishop let out (4)
BLAB – ALB = vestment, reverse and add B for bishop.
10 Pardon felon, finally turning to stand (7)
WHATNOT – WHAT? = pardon? N = felon finally, TO reversed. A whatnot being a ‘stand’ usually with shelves, like a French étagère.
11 Voluntarily exposed no end of bosom (7)
UNASKED – UNMASKED = exposed, remove the end of bosoM.
12 Inspector polishes up English speech (9)
DISCOURSE – DI = inspector, SCOURS = polishes up, E(nglish).
13 Sweet tin disappointingly empty (5)
CANDY – CAN = tin, D Y = disappointingly, empty.
14 Small amount of money that’s found in the sea (5)
SQUID – S = small, QUID = amount of money, a chestnut clue.
15 Criminal cut and ran, say, for refuge (9)
SANCTUARY – (CUT RAN SAY)*
17 Virgin for one seized by less intelligent dealer (9)
DISPENSER – DENSER = less intelligent; insert ISP = internet service provider of which Virgin may well be one in UK.
20 As a precaution, not taking all native people (5)
INCAS – IN CASE = as a precaution.
21 Bugle call outside a sort of bar (5)
TAPAS – TAPS is the last bugle call of the day, meaning lights out; insert another A.
23 Around noon, a son late rising again (9)
RENASCENT – Noon a son = N A S , insert into RECENT = late.
25 Penalty is roughly presented in numbers (7)
APLENTY – (PENALTY)*. So easy it was easy to miss it.
26 Principal begging head to leave (7)
LEADING – PLEADING loses its P.
27 Hawk that is blown by the wind (4)
KITE – Cryptic double definition.
28 It’s worse if anything, they say, to be wiser (4,6)
KNOW BETTER – sounds like ‘no better’.

Down
1 Amazed wife married without love (5)
WOWED – Insert O into W(ife) WED.
2 Imaginary people in book: loads used in new edition (4,5)
DEAD SOULS –  (LOADS USED)*.
3 Light morning activity creating favourable impression (6-8)
WINDOW-DRESSING – WINDOW = light, DRESSING a morning activity.
4 Heard legends about one god or another (7)
MITHRAS – MITHS sounds like MYTHS, insert RA an Egyptian God, to get a Roman / Iranian one.
5 May child perhaps cross? Near disastrous (7)
TAUREAN – TAU being a form of T-shaped cross, then (NEAR)*. The zodiac sign Taurus being April 19 – May 20.
7 Compare what one-kilogram bags brought over (5)
LIKEN – Hidden reversed in O(NE KIL)OGRAM.
8 Extras including current bit of breakfast and child’s cot (5-4)
BEDDY-BYES – BYES being extras in cricket; EDDY being current, B being a bit of breakfast. Assemble.
9 See what I can do; room for more later (5,4,5)
WATCH THIS SPACE – Cryptic definition. But see Verlaine’s alternative view below as to the definition. Either seems to work.
14 Two features of old record are misleading (9)
SIDETRACK – SIDE and TRACK being things an old record had.
16 Fancy his metal changed (lead only)? (9)
ALCHEMIST – (HIS METAL C)*, the C from changed; Definition &lit.
18 Keep remarking about pair coming out in mist (5-2)
SPRAY-ON – SAY = keep remarking, about = ON, insert PR = pair.
19 Starts to become exhausted and lose time (4,3)
RUNS LOW – or RUN SLOW = lose time.
22 Guide one through area of ground (5)
PILOT – Insert I into PLOT.
24 Energetic person say caught by slowing up (5)
TIGER –  Insert E.G. = say, into RIT.  short for ritardando meaning slowing down in musical terms; reverse all ‘up’.

69 comments on “Times 26907 – TCC heat 2 puzzle 3 – no slowing down please.”

  1. I scraped in under the hour at 57:23. I found this tough but enjoyable. I had a lot of “when am I going to get another answer?” moments, but something kept turning up. I knew ALB, WHATNOT and WIDOW’S MITE, but TAPAS was a biff. BLAB was my FOI. BEDDY BYES didn’t cause any lifted eyebrows as it seemed reasonable enough. RENASCENT was my LOI. DISPENSER took some parsing but I did get there after dismissing DUSHEMBER, with SHE as the virgin. Couldn’t fit vestal in. SIDETRACK eventually opened up the SW. Nice puzzle. Just glad to be doing it in a relaxing environment. Thanks setter and Pip.

  2. Was never going to finish this one, as I had (b)races for INCAS, thinking ‘belt and braces’ for ‘as a precaution’. Oops!

  3. I rattled off most of this in 22 mins on the morning commute before work rather tiresomely intervened. With just a couple in the SE and a few more in the SW left to go, I wrapped it all up in 10 mins at lunchtime. I felt like I was going through this one like a hot knife through butter so was a bit surprised so many found it of above average difficulty. I had most of the GK apart from the stand meaning of whatnot and the taps/bugle connection. Held up by thinking virgin at 17ac might mean island and reading “around noon a son” at 23ac as “re” “n” “a” “s” so wondering how cent meant late. Also held up at 24dn even though t-g-r left little room for doubt the parsing itself was quite tricky. I bunged in 8dn on the basis of solid wordplay and a vague sense of it being in the area of children, cots and bedtime but did not spend any time thinking too hard on it. A very enjoyable puzzle – just the right level of challenge for me, with clever wordplay, nicely constructed cluing and PDMs. I feel some trepidation at the prospect of the next three Wednesday puzzles though.
  4. CLOCK THIS SPACE, then CHECK THIS SPACE, and only eventually the correct answer, when I was told electronically that there was no fill-in for U.L.K.D, nor for U.H.K.D. So it took ages. Also I never knew of the taps.
  5. Well, I almost finished, by the usual strategy of taking a break in the middle and then discovering that my brain can see things like the WINDOW in 3dn where there was absolutely nothing before; the DRESSING of course was easy then. But it took nearly an hour and a half, after which I was so frustrated that I didn’t check anything, so I had one wrong: BLOB instead of BLAB, which makes far more sense. Never heard of the vestment, though.
  6. I seem to have been in the zone for this puzzle, considering other contributors comments. Still not Championship material I admit, but satisfied to continue my ‘all correct’ record on the ones published so far.
  7. Well, given that so many have pointed out how easy this one was, I now find myself even grumpier than usual (which is, in any case, deeply grumpy), having hacked my way through this one with slow persistence. Solving time was off the scale, and it would be quicker to list the few I found easy than the ones I didn’t. Not helped by WIDOW’S MITE and DEAD SOULS both being NHOs.
  8. I seem to have been in the zone for this puzzle, considering other contributors comments. Still not Championship material I admit, but satisfied to continue my ‘all correct’ record on the ones published so far.
  9. I didn’t start this until midnight and finally curled up after 90 mins!

    Then forget to submit, but for the record…

    FOI 10ac WHATNOT

    LOI 6ac BLAB! I had BELT.

    COD 25ac APLENTY

    WOD BEDDY-BYES g’night!

  10. A couple of days late and several hours spent, but I did eventually finish this one, and to my surprise got it all correct, too.

    I didn’t know WIDOW’S MITE, WHATNOT or DEAD SOULS, so I think I did pretty well to finish off that NW corner, and I do feel something of a sense of achievement for having completed this puzzle. Now all I need to do is get faster by a factor of ten or so, and I can join in the championships!

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