Times 26923 – That you, Steve?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time:  40 mins
Music:  Dvorak, New World Symphony, Horenstein/RPO

I found this a very fine puzzle indeed, equal to some of the competition finals that we have recently been treated to.   Deceptive literals and clever word play are the order of the day, and I must admit I had my hands full for quite a while.   These are the sorts of puzzles you think you’ll never finish, but if you’re paitent and follow the wordplay, you’ll get there eventually.   The vocaubulary isn’t that obscure, and the cryptics are merely cleverly disguised allusions to things you should know.   My grid was very sparse for a long time, and then everything started to click.   On my first few readings, I note how the clues might work, and what little words might need to be put together, without actually being able to solve anything.   But eventually, when I return for the third or the fourth time, the elements magically rearrange themselves and the answer jumps out.

My New Years Eve music is the conclusion to a forward traversal of the Dvorak symphonies, which followed a backwards traversal of the Tchaikovsky.   I try to listen to a wide variety of conductors, and I certainly have plenty to chose from.   The only time I nearly got stuck was when I thought I couldn’t come up with a Dvorak 3rd, and had to take it out of the Kubelik complete set.   Later on this evening, I will play a side of the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s concert, the real New Year’s Eve music.   Of course, it will probably already be 2018 by the time you read this.

Across
1 Conservative search for gain (8)
CONQUEST – CON + QUEST, perfectly simply, only I never think of words that start with ‘Q’ and needed 3 down.
9 Trouble-making horse, one ladies at hotel backed (8)
HOOLIGAN – NAG + I + LOO + H, all backwards.  I thought the horse was the ‘H’, allowing me to see the answer at once.
10 Girl comes to a celebration of workers of mine (4)
GALA – GAL +_ A.   If the clue had five words, it would be obvious, but I’m not sure what to do with the last four.   That is the answer, however.
11 Smoother, crossing hands here to play (6,6)
RUBBER BRIDGE – RUBBER + BRIDGE, in entirely different senses.
13 Arab enemy I shot (6)
YEMENI – Anagram of ENEMY I.
14 Hated being dropped from international match? (8)
DETESTED – DE – TESTED, an outrageous pun with all kinds of possible applications.
15 Almost engage with wise text (7)
MESSAGE – MES[h] + SAGE.
16 Sorry there’s no proper leader for the paper (7)
ASHAMED – A SHAM ED.   At least they didn’t say for the blog….
20 The very thing dividing boy and girl is splitting sides? (8)
HILARITY – HILAR(IT)Y, where Hilary is a common epicene name.
22 Free beer drunk in turn — got it down, not for the first time (6)
RELAID – R(ALE backwards)ID
23 Cooked seafood in hold without oxygen, not with it (3-9)
OLD-FASHIONED – anagram of SEAFOOD IN H[o]LD
25 Old craft has special terminology, but no tips (4)
ARGO – [j]ARGO[n], one we’ve seen before.
26 Monster deity’s worse, we hear (8)
GODZILLA – Sounds like GOD’S ILLER, for you non-rhotic speakers out there.
27 Endless wine is knocked back, boding no good (8)
SINISTER – RETSIN[a] IS backwards.

Down
2 Cut off a bit, like (2,1,5)
OF A PIECE – OF[f] + A PIECE.
3 Pole who has only three fellow employees? (12)
QUARTERSTAFF – Double definition, one contrived.
4 Making possible showy accessories woman put on (8)
ENABLING – ENA + BLING.
5 In your study, barely noticeable (7)
THREADY – TH(READ)Y.
6 Took, say, cooker and sank teeth in (6)
HOBBIT – HOB + BIT.   I spotted this at once, but was frustrated because ‘Peregrine’ wouldn’t fit.   But as I remarked in the preface, that prepared my mind to see the correct answer.
7 England regularly failing, dammit (4)
EGAD –  E[n]G[l]A[n]D.
8 Special one from among a number ceased to exist: one less (8)
INTENDED – INT + ENDED, I think, only I can’t explain the ‘one less’ part.  Comments welcome.  Yes, it’s really IN TEN D[i]ED – only a programmer would think of a number as an int. 
12 Rays steadily caused damage? Not sure yet (3,5,4)
ITS EARLY DAYS – Anagram of RAYS STEADILY.
15 Paper in which John played good game (3-5)
MAH-JONGG – MA(anagram of JOHN)G + G.
17 Wizened personnel in a sort of garden (8)
SHRUNKEN –  S(H.R.)UNKEN.   I was helped here because at my Friday club, we were discussing the fad for sunken living rooms in 50s houses.
18 Oriental canoe changes hands, that’s the last you hear (8)
EPILOGUE – E + PI(-r,+L)OGUE, a very clever hand-changing clue indeed.
19 Turned up miserable, chilling line in poem (7)
LYCIDAS – SAD, ICY L upside-down.   A poem that has rather fallen out of fashion, and is not much read nowadays.
21 Fresh out of good books, one may be under one’s feet (6)
INSOLE – INSOLE[nt], a brilliant removal clue.
24 One not going off with European dandy (4)
DUDE – DUD + E.

40 comments on “Times 26923 – That you, Steve?”

  1. I think “IN TEN” is “among a number”, D{I}ED is “ceased to exist”, with the I taken out, since “one less”.
  2. Perhaps it’s native Yankee politeness that prevented our blogger suggesting 7dn is the cricketing clue of the day?
  3. I recall studying Lycidas in English classes at school (yes, it was some time ago in the 1980s) – little has stuck, but on rereading it today it seemed familiar. It finishes with the line ‘Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new’ – an apt description of our daily Times habit. HOBBIT was my last, and I still don’t get it – I assume TOOK is the name of one of them?

    Edited at 2018-01-01 07:07 am (UTC)

  4. I think 10ac may be referring to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Miners%27_Gala

    This was hard work but rewarding. Never heard of RUBBER BRIDGE nor LYCIDAS but worked out both from wordplay. Nor THREADY as ‘barely noticeable’ for that matter, which SOED informs me relates to sound and particuarly the voice. Didn’t know the game at 15dn could end with two Gs. Failed to spot the wordplay at 21, so thanks for that.

    Edited at 2018-01-01 07:40 am (UTC)

    1. I think THREADY in this context would apply to a heartbeat that is barely noticeable.
  5. 22:22 … cracking puzzle to kick off the year.

    Last in the tricky SHRUNKEN — consonant clusters like SHR are always tough to find in puzzles. That one and the crossing RELAID and ASHAMED made for a tricky corner.

    Thanks, jackkt, for explaining the mine reference in GALA. Like Aphis I just assumed TOOK was a Hobbit. Wikipedia confirms that the Took clan “was one of the most famous Hobbit families”.

    Happy New Year, all. Let’s hope it’s a good one …

  6. A bit harsh to hit us with on NYD – not least that red herring of the missing X from an obvious pangram (there’s no V or W either)
    28 minutes for me, hampered not least by my wilful ignorance of all things Middle Earth. I also agonised long over BRIDGE, because I couldn’t see how 12d could start I?S. Apostrophes, eh, what can you do?
    Perhaps I’ll have a bit of a lie down before tackling the Monthly.
    Merry New Year, everyone.
    1. No, I was down to 8d and “cleverly” tried to work out the remaining pangram letter(s), only to be proven fruitlessly wrong at the far end of the alphabet!
  7. 42 minutes, which is surprising, given that there were so many unknown/near unknown bits and pieces: the hobbit, the mining connection for the GALA(thanks jackkt), the poem, the canoe, how to spell MAH JONGG, and so on.

    Got through it without much of a hold-up despite all that, though, on the way agreeing with Z that THREADY is strongly associated with “thready pulse” (I’ve watched a lot of House over the holidays!) and mostly taking all the correct leaps of faith, so perhaps my instincts are improving.

    Happy new year, everyone!

  8. Enjoyed this one in 24 minutes, guessing LYCIDAS from wordplay as poems are not my thing, as you know. LOI were SHRUNKEN and ASHAMED, am ashamed to say of the latter I couldn’t see the parsing for an age.
    THREADY I thought here wss about a pulse, but perhaps a thready blog is one with lots of threads?
    HNY to all, see you Wednesday for the final Final one, which I am about to tackle.
    Farewell jerrywh from the Club Monthly duty, your work is admired and appreciated, I only wish I could finish it often enough to have volunteered for blog-service.
  9. 45 mins with croissant and Frank Cooper (hoorah)and an old fashioned (just kidding although I could do wit one).
    Ashamed was tricky – and I don’t know what the mine workers were doing. Otherwise ok.
    I liked Took and the Milton.
    Must rush.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  10. 25′ for this chewy puzzle, held up by HILARITY and LYCIDAS. Knew GALA pretty much straightaway, guessed non-UK solvers may be a bit bemused. Thanks vinyl and setter. Happy New Year to all!
  11. Tough but very enjoyable puzzle. Only unknown/forgotten was LYCIDAS but wordplay was friendly.

    Best wishes to everybody for 2018

  12. I couldn’t see this at all for a while but the rest of this rather neat puzzle came within my ken (well except for the miners’ knees-up). In addition to Aphis’s reference to “fresh woods” there are a couple of other Milton quotations from the poem that remain familiar – “to sport with Amaryllis in the shade” and “fame is the spur” among them. This time last year I looked forward to 2017 with dread but there is just a glimmer for 2018. A Very Happy New year to all. 20.23
  13. Happy New Year to you all. This was 28 mins of struggle with LYCIDAS my LOI. I’m another who initially screwed up 15dn because I “knew” how to spell it, and I didn’t read the clue properly until I couldn’t make 26ac work. I had the most trouble in the SE in general, and while it was a tough challenge I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Saturday’s Jumbo, which had plenty of penny-drop moments followed by a mental “now that was clever”.
  14. Note to self: do not attempt this type of puzzle on New Year’s morning with only 4 hours’ sleep and a boisterous 2-year old grandson running around. Finished 4 hours later in fits and starts so I don’t feel I’ve been unable to do the setter’s undoubted craft as much justice as it deserves.
    As an alumnus of Durham University and a keen TOlkienite, 6d & 10a were much appreciated.
    1. I did this puzzle returning from a New Year’s Eve party a little after 4am, in an appropriate level of sobriety. “It’s a Monday puzzle, it’ll be fine” was a silly think to have thought through the haze. I vaguely remember enjoying it though…
  15. 17:22, finishing with ASHAMED & SHRUNKEN and slowed a bit by putting SANDER as the second half of 11.

    HNY all.

  16. A very nice start to the year, and compliments of 2018 to all. My NYD began with a drive back from Norfolk, also accompanied by the music from Vienna, which certainly stops you dozing off on the A14. Clearly this alertness has carried on. Mind you, I was about to say I hadn’t come across the canoe before, then thought perhaps it would be more accurate to say I don’t remember coming across the canoe before; and indeed, a search reveals that’s exactly what I said when it came up in 2012, so I shall make the same crossword resolution as I do every year, and try to be surprised by new words just the once.
  17. Oh dear, an inauspicious start to the year with a DNF. I had most of this tidied up in around 30mins but could not see or guess at the third word in 2dn – it’s just not an expression that I use or have adequate familiarity with others using for it to spring to mind. Shame, this was a neat puzzle. I was hesitant to enter the obvious gala at 10ac because I didn’t get the mine workers reference. Dnk but guessed what Took in 6dn had to be. Until 15dn proved a letter short I would quite happily have misspelt mah-jongg with one “g”. I didn’t see how fresh out of good books worked in 21dn, now it’s been explained I think it’s a terrific clue. Happy new year to you all.
  18. 12:04. On the wavelength for this one, it seems. Somehow I wasn’t slowed down much by the things I didn’t know, although there were several.
    Happy new year everyone.
  19. I found this on the easier side than some above, I fancy. My first thought on sight of TOOK was Tolkien, so I was obviously on the wavelength. I missed the obvious anagram for YEMENI though, so was held up for the LOI OF A PIECE. Happy New Year to one and all!
  21. DNF in 40, as after ten minutes stuck at same point as Penfold, needed a peek at Bradford’s ‘wizen’ to nudge me to finish. Otherwise no real holdups, with the Durham miners being helpful, and not much time wasted on the pangram possibility, as after the Z & J pointed me to the Q there wasn’t going to be anywhere I might find the others.
    Happy new year to all !
  22. …say, if I had stayed in last night to work it, instead of leaving it unfinished before going out to carouse, then getting up late and feeling my day slipping away already while I stared at impenetrable clues. Up to that point it had seemed easy (though I had already Googled to make sure some miners have some famous-over-there gala). I resorted to aids, and then I came here to resolve the last unknowns. HOOLIGAN defined as an adjective (for a horse) threw me. The name of a Hobbit?!—good grief, no way I would ever know that, though on another day I might have guessed as much, finding that word in an alphabet trawl. I should have remembered INT, though (as opposed to a “float”).

    I still don’t know why “three fellow workers” makes a “quarterstaff.” “Thready” is an interesting word that I was surprised to see emerge here (whereas “relaid” just seems boring random filler). I can’t remember the last (and it might have been the first) time I heard “it’s early days.”

    But it is early days for 2018. Excelsior!

    Edited at 2018-01-01 05:55 pm (UTC)

  23. No newspaper delivery today and I can’t drive yet with the recently acquired injuries from my fall which I’m milking for all they’re worth. An email to the patron saint of turkeys came to my rescue in my hour of need after a glum morning. A late arrival at the ball, as well as me, was Mr and Mrs Bridge and their flexible son. But LOI was SHRUNKEN, and I did know about a sunken garden. I deduced there must be a pirogue canoe, having heard a few too many EPILOGUEs in my time. No, you can never hear too many. You stop listening first. I vaguely remembered the name Took as being from Tolkien. About 50 minutes on this really good puzzle. COD HILARITY which fortunately didn’t prove too much of a rib-tickler. Thank you V, setter and St S.
  24. I had to leave this after about 25 minutes with the SE missing 16a, 17d and 27a in order to join the family festivities a short drive away. On returning and recommencing battle, it was 47:26 before I managed to fill in those 3 clues, with at least 2 minutes spent staring at LOI 16a, trying and failing to parse it after I’d entered it. SINISTER was the breakthrough after I’d spent a fruitless 15 minutes staring at each clue in turn hoping for inspiration. I took Took on trust, missed the parsing of 21d, but did manage to figure out the rest. A challenging puzzle indeed. For the last 2 years the annual Van Mildert College reunion has been held on the same weekend as the Miner’s Gala, so I’ve attended both of them 2 years running. Thanks setter and V, and a Happy New Year to all. As it happens, the teenage son of my daughter’s friends, with whom I spent today, was playing drums for the Easington Colliery Band at the Gala last July.

    Edited at 2018-01-01 10:57 pm (UTC)

  25. Once again I find myself several neurons short of the requirements.

    Beaten by EPILOGUE, SHRUNKEN and ASHAMED, with no plausible excuse. Hello, 2018.

  28. Running a day late again, with festive New Year’s Day cooking duties and bibulous consequences. Several unknowns : pirogue, Lycidas and how to spell Mah Jongg, but all solved from the wordplay, getting me to an under par 21:20. Cod to Godzilla. Thanks vinyl and setter. And count me as another who is wondering Steve is.
  29. Too many other duties recently.
    Times Crossword 26923

    FOI 24dn! DUDE LOI 27ac SINISTER and I adore retsina.

    WOD 26ac GODZILLA COD 3dn QUARTERSTAFF

    HNY to all!

Comments are closed.