Times 26913 – TTC Finals puzzle #1. Calm before the storm?

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
For some reason I whizzed through this (by my standards) in just under the par of 20 minutes. Some nice clues but not the spectacular I was expecting for a Finals puzzle. Can’t find anything more to say about it. No doubt next week will see me head-scratching and grovelling. Seasons Greetings to all.

I am adopting the trendy new style keriothe has advocated; definitions underlined, anagram fodder thus ( )*, anagram indicator thus,

Across
1 Quick! School bell’s ringing, but head’s absent (7)
SCHNELL – SCH = school, (K)NELL. I’ve tried a few times to master the German language, to add to the 1.5 foreign tongues I can do, but never succeeded. (Latin not counted).I think I learnt this word by watching episodes of Hello Hello.
5 Bear with what speaker holds as representative (7)
TOTEMIC – TOTE = bear, MIC(rophone).
9 Abstract artist keeping one in shop (9)
STATIONER – Insert ONE into (ARTIST)*.
10 Sitcom’s beginning with Nora Batty giving offence (5)
ARSON – (S NORA)*.
11 It may enable reception venue to accommodate a famous Swiss beauty (9,4)
SATELLITE DISH – SITE = venue, insert A TELL (as in William), DISH = beauty.
13 Painter working only in certain colours (8)
REYNOLDS – Insert (ONLY)* into REDS. Sir Josh.
15 Vintage year following fine footballer (6)
CRUYFF – CRU = vintage, Y(ear), F(ollowing), F(ine). Reasonably good Dutch footballer who won the ballon d’or 3 times in the 70s.
17 Odd bits of tissue and loo roll get cleaned out (2,4)
GO BUST – Took me a while to see how this worked. T S U = odd bits of tissue. BOG = loo (a bit downmarket for this organ?) Reverse all = ‘roll’.
19 One suppressing inconvenient report on firing? (8)
SILENCER – Nice cryptic definition, as in gun firing.
22 Be impatient winner: rather gripping series of races against that fellow (5,2,3,3)
CHAMP AT THE BIT – CHAMP = winner, A BIT = rather, insert all of TT (races) HE = that fellow.
25 Pound making comeback cheers nation (5)
MALTA – LAM = pound, reverse and add TA = cheers.
26 Astonished group of rugby players led by a point (9)
AWESTRUCK – A, WEST, RUCK.
27 Church put out over replacing Conservative member of flock? (7)
CHEVIOT – CH, EVICT = put out, exchange the C for an O = over. My CoD. Cheviot being a breed of sheep.
28 Buzz around there, regularly going back for honey (7)
SWEETEN – NEWS = buzz, T E E = there regularly, insert into NEWS and reverse all. Apparently ‘honey’ can be a verb.

Down
1 Average doubled in this manner (2-2)
SO-SO – SO = in this manner, have two of them.
2 Tittle-tattle from ex-grass, perhaps, drawing in listeners (7)
HEARSAY – HAY = ex-grass (I like it!) insert EARS.
3 Order some sweet cider from the south (5)
EDICT – Hidden reversed in SWEE(T CIDE)R.
4 One letting Desperate Dan dally (8)
LANDLADY – (DAN DALLY)*.
5 Can defending holder of the Ashes retire? (4,2)
TURN IN – TIN = can, insert URN as in The Ashes. Minute of silence please.
6 Fairly horrible smell mostly trailing behind stinker, say (2,1,6)
TO A DEGREE – TOAD = stinker, EG = say, REE(K) = horrible smell mostly.
7 Puzzle from the setter’s pen, provided within (7)
MYSTIFY – MY STY = the setter’s pen, insert IF = provided.
8 Study chapter one on class resembling scallops? (10)
CONCHIFORM – CON = study, CH(apter), I FORM = one on class. Shell-shaped.
12 Wanting an actor, magic in plays, showing dramatic range (10)
TRAGICOMIC – Anagram of the letters of ACTOR MAGIC IN withouth the letters AN. (CTOR MAGIC I)*
14 I go around a hospital to set up feeding tubes (9)
OESOPHAGI – I GO around A H POSE, all reversed.
16 Greeting appropriate over the telephone in the main (4,4)
HIGH SEAS – HIGH = HI !, SEAS sounds like SEIZE = appropriate.
18 Script read with feeling (7)
BRAILLE – Nice cryptic definition.
20 Item worn with cape at clubs, say (7)
CATSUIT – C(ape), AT, SUIT = clubs say.
21 House opening around 4th of January (6)
STUART – START around U fourth letter of JanUary.
23 Black articles in wash (5)
BATHE – B(lack), A, THE.
24 A brief sort of a piece (4)
AKIN -A, KIN(D) = brief sort.

53 comments on “Times 26913 – TTC Finals puzzle #1. Calm before the storm?”

  1. Started rather well in the early hours with most of the top half complete, but ran out of steam, and dispirited by the football clue, an answer I would never know if correct without looking it up, I threw in the towel until this morning. On resumption I got it from wordplay but still didn’t know it. The SE then fell without much resistance but I was stuck for ever in the SW and eventually resorted to aids to get things moving again. What is SCHNELL doing in an English crossword? It’s not in any of the usual sources. Not hard to solve, but I just wonder how many more random foreign words we should expect.

    Edited at 2017-12-20 07:46 am (UTC)

    1. Is in Collins English, says “German word meaning quick”. So, just another other loan word.

      Edited at 2017-12-20 08:00 am (UTC)

      2. Yes, I now see it’s in Collins, I must have looked in Chambers (on-line) twice. I now see, as z8 has confirmed below, that it’s in Chambers printed dictionary and it’s also in their Word Wizard as an allowable Scrabble word, so I ask myself why it isn’t in their on-line dictionary?

        There used to be only 3 places one needed to look for Times Crossword purposes but there now seem to be about 10 if one takes into account all the printed and on-line versions of the principal 3.

        Edited at 2017-12-20 01:49 pm (UTC)

        1. That would be 10 formal sources, plus the ultimate arbiter: the TftT blog, right Jack?
    2. Absolutely, jackkt! I, too, found it rather unsettling that the resolutely German word SCHNELL is treated as if it had become a loan-word into English.

      Years ago I worked in lexicography, during the period when a corpus-based methodology was being pioneered. Collins (owned by NewsCorp, the owners of The Times) led the way in making native-speaker English dictionaries which are based on computer evidence of the current usage of words. I suspect that ‘schnell’ has crept into dictionaries simply because the word appears in large text samples with a frequency which almost certainly exceeds Standard English words such as ‘caitiff’ or ‘oesophagi’.

      1. D’you happen to know a man called Mike Ashton? I’m curious because I was at Warwick with him and I know he worked on the Collins corpus for a while some years ago…
  2. When I saw Y_F, I contemplated stopping right there, but somehow the name finally arose to consciousness, though I couldn’t have said if it was the name of a player (of soccer? rugby?) or a team. I thought of STATIONER early on, but couldn’t see how the man who runs the shop could be the shop. Biffed several, but then I would have in the competition, had I been fool enough to enter the competition. 14d took a lot of extra time simply because, although I can spell like a Brit, the spellings don’t immediately come to mind. DNK CATSUIT. On edit: Jack has reminded me that I was surprised by SCHNELL; having been told often enough as a child to mach schnell, I didn’t have much of a problem with it–well, I did, actually–but I figured it was something like ‘shtum’, having settled into UK speech. Evidently not.

    Edited at 2017-12-20 07:55 am (UTC)

  3. Got all but two in my hour, but pushing it another 20 minutes didn’t get me the (obvious in hindsight) 18d BRAILLE nor its unknown crosser 27a CHEVIOT, though I knew how that clue was meant to work. Just didn’t think of “evict”. “Put out” has so many meanings!

    I only knew CRUYFF from a previous puzzle: he came up in June. I’m guessing he’s rather more famous in his own field…

    Edited at 2017-12-20 07:57 am (UTC)

  4. Was thinking this didn’t seem *that* hard today, until I noticed that it was a Grand Finals puzzle so presumably I’d done it already, while drunk as a skunk at the back of the tournament hall. Not that I remembered more than a couple of clues, but still, it wouldn’t have been fair to submit my 7m30ish time – which, rather depressingly, was still a fair bit slower than Jason taking it on for the actual first time! Ah well…
  5. 45 mins with yoghurt, blueberry compote, granola, etc. All very enjoyable.
    I was slightly surprised to see ‘Bog’ in such a reputable crossword and I think Cru is the place and Vintage is the age/year (I know they both point to ‘quality’, but…).

    The ‘wanting an’ swapping the A for an I was devious in 12dn.

    Mostly I liked: Nora Batty, Painter in reds (COD) and the astonished rugby players.

    I will leave it to others to wax lyrical about the Cruyff turn, etc.

    Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2017-12-20 08:37 am (UTC)

  6. Dawdled over this for nearly 25 minutes, with only TRAGICOMIC not fully worked out. Perhaps if I got pi**ed before trying it I’d do better: seems to work for some.
    SCHNELL from Blackadder, of course.
    Had CHAFE at the bit to begin with but obviously couldn’t make it stick.
      1. Yes, quite right: clearly the tendency for YouTube to kick on to the next clip a fraction before you copy the URL scuppered my otherwise brilliant observation. Bit worried about blogging tonight now, as this seems to be my year for making absurd errors.
  7. 12:05. This seemed very easy for a finals puzzle. Wavelength thing I guess: the opposite of what happened to me with the last puzzle of heat 2.
    SCHELL has sort of entered the language. Most often heard from Colin Hunt types alongside words like ‘achtung’ and ‘obergruppensturmbannführer’, possibly accompanied by goose-stepping.
  8. Through gritted teeth in 58 minutes. The top half flew in, but, boy, the lower half was really tricky. Still, I finished it, so at least I have a sense of satisfaction. If I could only quarter my solving time I might be in with a chance…
    SCHNELL was easy for one brought up on a diet of the Victor comic and war films. Oh, and TV shows such as Hogan’s Heroes which, surreally I once saw on TV in Munich dubbed into German!
  9. Took about 10m on the day, which included a lot of biffing as well as much too long spent trying to parse STATIONER even though it seemed the obvious answer – it was my LOI for the entire final. Couldn’t honestly say I’d heard of CONCHIFORM before but the wordplay was clear and it seemed a likely word.

    Edited at 2017-12-20 09:55 am (UTC)

  10. 24′ 11″ so very pleasing. Knew SCHNELL from comics, like others. TRAGICOMIC LOI, biffed. Held myself up by thinking CHAFE rather than CHAMP at the bit. Can we please stop using ‘dish’ for ‘beauty’?

    Thanks pip and setter.

  11. This was SO-SO easy for a Grand Final.

    But I DNF! I had 22ac as CHAMP ON THE BIT thus STUART did not arrive!

    The top half raced in with FOsI in 1dn SO-SO, 2dn HEARSAY, 3dn EDICT and 4dn LANDLADY going in just like that.

    COD 20dn CATSUIT

    WOD JOAN COLLINS

    Look out for the exciting ‘The Avatar of the Year Award’ – new entries will be accepted by midnight Friday 22 December.
    Otherwise all avatars used in TftT in 2017 will automatically qualify, unless you are Antipodean or support Arsenal.
    The Top Ten will be published in early January, and there will be splendid prizes for the Top Three lucky winners!
    Only Meldrew cannot enter as he is ‘avatared-out’.
    The judging criteria will include originality, visibility and amusement.

    Edited at 2017-12-20 09:57 am (UTC)

    1. Not a new one but someone has to start the ball rolling… thanks horryd for sponsoring the wonderful prizes.
      1. P.S. Mrs K used to support Arsenal but has given up in disgust, I am of a Southamptonish persuasion.
    2. No Antipodeans! How unfair.
      Lost track of the cricket recently – I wonder how that’s going
  12. 24.48 and enjoyed this every bit as much as I disliked yesterday’s. Lots of fun unpicking some intricate wordplay and neat definitions.
    I view the appearance of the inventor of the Cruyff Turn – a write-in for me – as payback for all those obscure painters and composers over the years. Every dog has his day.
  13. I hoped briefly that CRUYFF was going to be Finney, especially for our contributor David, a great Preston fan. Johan might have had a great turn, but it wasn’t a full U-bend. That clue was written in quickly but I struggled with this puzzle. I finally got home in 55 minutes, with LOI CHEVIOT after my TRAGICOMIC efforts on 12d eventually paid off. I’ll give COD to SATELLITE DISH, as I saw it quickly. I recall David Frost’s definition of a cultured person as someone who could listen to the William Tell overture without saying “The Lone Ranger” along to it. Needless to say, I never have been able to. Hard but enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.
  14. Edgy in the way a speed test for the greats should be, I reckon. Hardly speedy here at 30.43 yet stayed with the pack for the top half, then laboured. Revelled in the word conchiform.
  15. Didn’t realise this was a finals puzzle till I came here – toyed with GO WEST for a while as I was stuck on the last 2, so BRAILLE was my LOI. Had to check that Johan had actually died (and thereby qualified for this Xword) – seems like I was watching him only 5 mins ago.
  16. 20:43 with no plants today. Yay! Liked the ‘script with feeling’ and created the unknown CONCHIFORM from the parsing. Over 50 years ago as part of a scholarship application to my public school, I had to have a 15 minute conversation in German with a language master. Somehow this happened but these days I am only good for Achtung and SCHNELL. Nice puzzle and blog
  17. I did all but one (19a silencer) in 60 minutes; 20/30 in the first 30 minutes.

    I wonder whether there is a place on your webpages where jargon used by the regulars can be explained. I know that “dnf” = did not finish, but “biff” seems to come up a lot. Does it mean “guess”? Which dictionaries have the meaning that you guys use for “biff”?

    I was sorry to see the appearance of “Cruyff”, as I only half remembered that he had 6, 3, 6 (attacked the unit of data).

    Jim

    1. Biff comes from Grestyman’s creation of BIFD = Bunged In From Definition. By extenstion, to Biff is to stick something in from definition without necessarily understanding the parsing.
        2. Embed is good, but smacks too much of striving. Stakeholder is the clear winner. Beautiful nonsense.
        4. Or, to paraphrase Cruyff: If they’d wanted you to understand it, they would have explained it better
    2. Hi Jim, here’s some of the regular jargon I’ve decrypted thus far:

      Biff / Biffed / Biff-fest
      an essentially-unparsed solution bunged in purely from the (perceived) definition in the clue

      COD
      the Clue Of (the) Day … for the contributor concerned

      crossers
      the known letters of an as-yet unsolved clue, derived from an already-solved clue that crosses it

      DNF
      Did Not Finish

      DNK
      Did Not Know

      FOI
      First One In

      LOI
      Last One In

      Mephisto
      a weekly cryptic crossword in the Sunday Times newspaper

      NE
      North East i.e. the top-right quarter of the grid

      NHO
      Never Heard Of

      NW
      North West i.e. the top-left quarter of the grid

      Pangram
      a completed crossword where every letter of the alphabet appears at least once

      QC
      the cryptic Quick Crossword in the guardian daily newspaper

      SE
      South-East i.e. the bottom-right quarter of the grid

      SW
      South-West i.e. the bottom-left quarter of the grid

      unches
      unchecked letters i.e. letters not verified from crossers (see above)

      WOD
      the Word Of (the) Day … a new (or savoured) word for the contributor concerned

  18. Hi Jim .. yes, I agree that we should have a page of explanation and jargon clarification .. we do have “about this site” above, but it is well out of date and only does part of the job. The subject has come up before, but nothing done .. watch this space. Maybe its time has come ..

  19. Pleased to complete in about an hour. I would never have thought I would complete such a (championship) puzzle two years ago – so thank you to everyone here for helping. Stuck for a bit where I’d put Sweetie but couldn’t make it work. Thanks all
  20. I had SWEETIE too for a while, until AKIN went in. Enjoyed the puzzle and managed to solve all except SCHNELL which I’d never come across, consciously, despite watching all the Blackadder and Allo Allo series. I eventually went for an anagram(ringing) of BELL’S without the head of (b)UT after SCH for school, making an obviously wrong momble SCHLESL, but I’d lost the will to live by then and just submitted. Liked BRAILLE, a forehead slapping moment, and knew the sheep breed. 59:08. Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2017-12-20 02:41 pm (UTC)

  21. Similar experience here – tough but not that tough, and largely resistant to biffing – left me thinking that this must have been the “easy one” in the Grand Final. Another who toyed with GO WEST and SWEETIE before straightening it all out. Mrs Topical has finished work for the holidays, and looked at this over my shoulder with the decisive comment that SCHNELL wasn’t a fit word for an English crossword. When we looked it up in the dictionary and saw “German word for quick”, she was forced to concede that it was permissible, but by that line of reasoning, you could put literally any foreign word in an English dictionary…
  22. Forgive me if someone else has already mentioned this, but I have just discovered that it is now possible to print all of the puzzles going back to 1 Jan 2000! This is excellent news I think; it had been my habit to do the puzzle that was exactly ten years old, each Sunday, until that became impossible because of changes to the site. And what with the new enlarged size and usefully grey grid, there is much to be thankful for. Many thanks to those responsible for this significant improvement.
    The puzzle today took me 26 mins and was excellent I thought.
  23. 34 min 53 secs with one wrong. Chemist for Cheviot. Initially I badly misspelt oesophagi which held me up badly.
  24. I thought this was fun – like others I was a little surprised that parts seemed very easy and direct for a final, but then there was the football GK which I’m betting was difficult for a good part of the finals-day group, and the oesophagi / cheviot crossing…
  25. After completing top half in about 15 minutes, gave up and resorted to aids to find words to fit checkers, as had only half of rest in another hour. Finished with an error as had tried GO LOST at 17, and forgot to back after seeing 18 (I had been trying for ‘sounds like feeling’).
  27. I found this fairly accessible for a finals puzzle. Until, of course, I was utterly stopped by the crossing GO BUST and BRAILLE. I didn’t understand what a loo had to do with anything, until an alphabet trawl for the crossing letter finally yielded the “B” of BRAILLE, leading me to finish by biffing the GO BUST answer. Regards.
  28. I can’t really claim my time as I did the puzzle over two sessions, and that allows the subconscious to mull over the clues. While I completed everything, I confess that I did not parse all the solutions, so, once again, thanks to the blogger.
  29. I did this in 3 sessions of about 20 mins each over the course of the day. I couldn’t get started with any of the acrosses but the first few downs went in fairly steadily. A fun puzzle with no unknowns except perhaps honey as a verb. For some reason I’m always more inclined to chomp at the bit (yum) rather than champ at it but the winner in 22ac left little room for doubt.
  30. 26:21 A day late getting to the crossword again. A lunchtime treat in a largely empty, and thus unusually quiet, open-plan office. Like others, I took a while to parse GO BUST. It all went a bit slow-slow-quick-quick-slow, but in the end it wasn’t too hard and not much over my average time. I liked a lot of the clues. 18d my favourite.
  31. Second attempt at 15×15. 14 answers looked up yesterday, only 7 needed today. SW particularly tricky for me, but progress of sorts…

    Mighty

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