Times 26;971 – We like sheep…..

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time: 21 minutes
Music: Handel, Water Music, Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music

An easy puzzle, but one on which I was not quite on the wavelength.   I did manage to biff ‘advowson’ and ‘ostia’, only to get stuck on ones I should have seen instantly.   Fair is fair, I suppose, and one seldom comes across a puzzle where everything is right up your alley.  I did think it was going to be very easy at first, and while I never quite got stuck I struggled in places.   I ended up putting in ‘Herdwick’ and ‘grub screw’ without being quite sure they were the right answer, but my scribblings turned out to be all correct.

I expect we will see some very fast times on this one, as the SNITCH shows that our more skilled solvers are whipping through their solves.   But if you don’t have some of the knowledge, it would be all too easy to have a wrong letter or two.

Across
1 Diplomat’s responsibility, introducing flowers across river (6,9)
CHARGE DAFFAIRES – CHARGE + DAFF(AIRE)S
9 Revisit UN building uninvited? (9)
INTRUSIVE – Anagram of REVISIT UN
10 Rigorous training medic badly needed (5)
DRILL – DR + ILL
11 Cut affecting dimensions, so to speak (6)
INCISE – Sounds like IN SIZE.
12 Ecclesiastical right an academic pledges to get accepted (8)
ADVOWSON –  A D(VOWS)ON.  Amazingly, some advowsons still seem to be extant!
13 Key vote leftist returned to secure by intimidation (6)
EXTORT – E + X + TROT backwards.
15 Too young to back say a revolutionary new university (5,3)
UNDER AGE – E.G. A RED N U, all backwards.
18 A woman’s place in Caithness once accommodating 500 sheep (8)
HERDWICK – HER (D) WICK.   A breed of sheep I didn’t know, which luckily wasn’t Herdwich.
19 Exultant cry on entering English country area? (6)
EUREKA – E (U (RE) K) A, the first person singular perfect of εὑρίσκω, of course.
21 As actors may be, exposing unfairness (8)
INEQUITY – IN EQUITY, the actor’s trade union in both the US and the UK.
23 Scribble second letter principally about crop (6)
SCRAWL – S (CRAW) L[etter].
26 Old way one originally approached a Roman port (5)
OSTIA – O + ST I A[pproached], another answer I just biffed when I saw Roman port and five letters.
27 Current of air rattling thin guard (9)
INDRAUGHT – Anagram of THIN GUARD, and not an obvious one.
28 Wartime medical auxiliary sometimes transporting litter? (9-6)
STRETCHER-BEARER – A not-very cryptic definition, apparently.

Down
1 Copper is at home with Oriental cooking (7)
CUISINE – CU + IS + IN + E.
2 Large vehicle, caught leaving polar region (5)
ARTIC – AR[c]TIC, what we would call a ‘semi’ in the US, which is a house in the UK!
3 Search by prison officer: an aid to security (4,5)
GRUB SCREW – GRUB + SCREW, in different senses.   You ‘grub’ for something by searching in the ground.
4 Char mostly served in lower house (4)
DAIL – DAIL[y], the Irish parliament.
5 English novelist employed at Lord’s, possibly? (8)
FIELDING – What they do on the cricket field, or for that matter at Yankee Stadium.
6 Sound uniform on girl wearing a ring (5)
AUDIO – A(U DI)O, where ‘sound’ is not a homonym indicator!
7 Bring back charge covering quarter of current month (9)
REINSTATE – R(E + INST)ATE, where ‘inst’ is an old business-letter abbreviation, now obsolescent.
8 Put a stop to evil gripping the French church (7)
SILENCE – SI(LE)N + C.E.
14 Rubbish about adviser being inflicter of suffering (9)
TORMENTOR – ROT upside-down + MENTOR.
16 Clearly pronounce a tune nice for broadcasting (9)
ENUNCIATE – anagram of A TUNE NICE.
17 Glaswegian, possibly, rather like Sir Walter? (8)
SCOTTISH – Like Sir Walter SCOTT, a clue that would be considered too easy even for the Quickie.
18 A man with common sense holds one to be shocking (7)
HEINOUS – HE (I) NOUS.
20 Distinguished sailor supporting a Society admitting Liberals (3-4)
ALL-STAR – A (LL) S + TAR.
22 Socially acceptable time to snatch forty winks? Quite inappropriate! (5)
UNAPT – U(NAP)T.
24 Foresee a month going over ancient city (5)
AUGUR – AUG + UR.
25 Poem written on river, one flowing into Baltic (4)
ODER – ODE + R.

69 comments on “Times 26;971 – We like sheep…..”

  1. All but 12 and 18ac went in easily enough but I got myself caught up on these last two for ages and when I finally completed the grid (after 27 minutes, so still within my target time) I found I had one wrong answer – at 12ac. During my alphabet trawl looking for a word meanining ‘pledges’ to fit ?O?S I hit upon IOUs and bunged it in giving me the answer ADIOUSON instead of ADVOWSON. I’m afraid as a heathen, my answer didn’t seem in any way unlikely as a possibility given that I was looking for an ecclesiastical obscurity.

    As a big fan of your disc of the day, vinyl1, may I recommend the same aristes’ recording of the Boyce Symphonies Opus 2 if you don’t already have them in your collection? I also love his overtures and concerti grossi as performed by Cantilena under Adrian Shepherd. A very underrated English composer.

    Edited at 2018-02-26 05:36 am (UTC)

    1. I forgot to ask what ‘once’ is doing in this clue? If it’s referring to WICK or Caithness, both place names seem to be current, and the former is still within the latter so I don’t understand it.

      Edited at 2018-02-26 06:42 am (UTC)

      1. I had the same question. I think it might be something to do with constituency boundaries, but the fact that these might have changed doesn’t mean that Caithness ceases to exist!
        1. I read the Wikipedia entry for Caithness, which seems to indicate that in local government terms Caithness does indeed no longer exist .. but straightforward, it is not
          1. Yes I did the same. To my mind it is quite straightforward: local government boundaries are not the only criteria by which we define these things, Caithness exists and Wick is in it! In fact look at the Wiki entry for Wick (the Wicki entry, if you will): ‘Wick is a town and royal burgh in Caithness’.

            Edited at 2018-02-26 10:15 am (UTC)

          2. As I understand it, the old counties were never abolished, but ceased to do anything. So reading Cheshire Life in Widnes isn’t mandatory and my chorus of ‘O Lanky, Lanky …’ whenever crossing the Thelwall Viaduct from the south is permissible. Sadly it will probably be an anachronism though in less than another generation.
            1. Well, Huntingdonshire and Rutland were indeed abolished. Rutland refused to accept this and has managed to reinstate itself as an Unitary Authority which it has renamed “Rutland County Council!” Hunts, however has now disappeared completely and is just a part of Cambridgeshire. For this (and other things) I shall never forgive Grocer Heath. If we ever meet I shall have a few words to say to the old fool.
              1. Driving down Oxhey Lane from Watford to Harrow last year I was delighted to see a ‘Middlesex’ sign at the county boundary. In good nick it was too, not some left-over from a bygone era.
  2. 12 was my LOI, and I looked it up to make sure there was such a word. It would be a very easy clue if only one had heard of the word. And I put in HERDWICK guessing about the WICK part. It seemed like it would have been an easy one, otherwise, if I’d had fewer distractions.

    Edited at 2018-02-26 05:41 am (UTC)

  3. 1ac CHARGE DAFFAIRES was my COD and a charge it was as this Monday puzzle took a mere 17.30 to tumble into place.

    God knows what the Time Lords Verlaine and Mohn2 made of it – mincemeat I imagine.

    FOI was 2d ARTIC

    LOI 15ab UNDER AGE (‘cos it was there!)

    WOD 12ac ADVOWSON

    A lot of rather easy anagrams in this ‘double-cross’ grid.

  4. I sympathise with Jack, as a new PB was stymied by putting in ADIOUSON as I raced through. 22 minutes, otherwise, including the unknown HERDWICK, so at least I guessed right on that one.
  5. Somewhat less than 20 mins before I (like Jack and Matt) bunged in IOUS with a note to self: swot up on ecclesiastical rights.
    All with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    Too easy, except the hard one.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  6. I didn’t exactly whizz through this one, taking an unspectacular 18.22. I knew the word ADVOWSON but couldn’t swear to knowing what it was, so I suppose “just lucky, then” fits the bill.
    HERDWICK might be buried somewhere in my forgettery, possibly even as a sheep, but it’s getting harder for me to distinguish between real and phantom memory. I assumed, anent Jack, that it was “once” because Caithness fell victim to reorganisation and is no longer a county, but Wiki is remarkably vague about even that. It’s apparently part of Highlands, but exists as a “place” for various other purposes, so I think the setter was just covering his bases in case anyone really knew what was going on.
    The whimsy of SCOTTISH tickled my fancy today.
    1. Cue another rant from me about some setters’ insistence on covering bases when it comes to any sort of historical reference.
  7. Very Mondayish. Finished in 14 minutes with the unknown ADVOWSON and the perhaps known HERDWICK less boldly entered. I decided that ‘once’ must refer to Caithness which I assumed was one of the counties replaced but not actually abolished during Edward Heath’s wretched administration. Or was someone else guilty in Scotland? I’m sure Wick is still there! COD INEQUITY. LOI AUDIO. Thank you V and setter.
  8. 12:47. I didn’t find this particularly easy, and I hesitated for a couple of minutes over ADVOWSON, which doesn’t really pass the ‘looks like a real word’ test. I couldn’t think of anything else (including ADIOUSON, fortunately) so in it went.
    As mentioned above I wondered about ‘once’ in 18ac. I have spent some time in that part of the world and the locals still seem to think they’re in Caithness.
    It now looks fairly certain that I will be in New York on the evening of 15 March, so it would be lovely to meet some of the local residents. Make a note of it, details to follow.

    Edited at 2018-02-26 10:35 am (UTC)

  10. HERDWICK almost a write-in, made famous by Beatrix Potter, who bred them on her farm in the Lake District. Considered RALEIGHISH for 17d but couldn’t get the Glaswegian bit (just kidding). Eleven and a half minutes, thanks vinyl and setter.

    ‘All we like sheep’ is one of my favourite pieces from Messiah, and the four words can be interpreted in many ways.

  11. Very easy. No problem with HERDWICK but checked ADVOWSON in the dictionary. I also don’t understand the “once” in 18A.
  12. A fast but unknown time thanks to a tryping error on my ipad. Managed to convince myself that ADVOWSON looked a more likely word than ADIOUSON (but not much). I once had shared custody of some Herdwicks – they will eat anything remotely green and have a flair for escapology.
  14. For me quite a quick solve in 25 mins: and it certainly felt like a low-scorer on the snitchometer. Vinyl is quite right about 17d: I think that any solution that takes longer to type in than it does to solve is too simple.

    Add me to the ADIOUSON club! It was only in for a minute or so, until I thought VOWS looked more plausible. NHO the solution, needless to say.

    Vinyl, your “obsolescent” jumped out at me — I have a bête-noire about the contorted ‘obsolescent’ driving out the established and more natural ‘obsolete’. Is this an American- vs British-English thing, perhaps? I felt similarly about the solution ‘solitariness’ which appeared in a cryptic last week: oh please, can’t we just stick with ‘solitude’?

    Anyway, I much enjoyed the blog, thank you. And the puzzle.

  15. ADVOWSON was the only thing approaching an unknown, but fortunately fell into the category of “words I know to exist but would have no hope of defining out of context”. As has been pointed out directly above, I have definitely encountered it here at least once before, so at least it’s an improvement on never having heard it before for a second time.

    You can get a range of Herdwick branded goods in appropriate shops, so as I sit at the kitchen table, I can actually see the sheep-related oven gloves which my wife acquired last time we were in the Lake District. If you are married to a knitter, as I am, you acquire a working knowledge of sheep breeds by osmosis.

  16. Rather slower than the puzzle merited. ADVOWSON sounds very much like a made-up word – all I can say is ‘never ‘eard of it’.
  17. No real holdups, so done just inside 20 min – I needed to remember that apostrophes are ignored in the enumeration here before I could get 1ac. I was with topicaltim on 12ac, and robrolfe on 18ac.
  18. Tonight we dine without the Master –
    Nocturnal vapours do not please –
    The port goes round so much the faster,
    Topics are raised with no less ease:
    Which advowson looks the fairest,
    What the wood from Snape will fetch,
    Names for pudendum mulieris,
    Why is Judas like Jack Ketch?

    (From the third (I think) section of ‘Livings’ by Philip Larkin.)
    fourlegger

  19. Well, I got lucky with HERDWICK, but failed on ADVOWSON, for which I had the equally implausible (but at least parsable and fitting) “adiouson”.
    1. Disappointed, Thud .. not because of the ridiculous advowson, but Herdwick sheep are fine, good-looking animals of aristocratic ancestry. They are famous because Beatrix Potter helped to save the breed, but really should be valued in their own right.
      1. Do these aristocratic sheep taste better than regular ones? That’s usually my main criterion when it comes to things edible/drinkable…
          1. That is intriguing. Perhaps, as aristocrats, they’ve evolved to be chauffered rather than walking. A quick Google also suggests that they do indeed taste different to other sheep.
  20. 14.40 today, which seemed longer than it should have. No real issues, except the “in Caithness once” bit. As a Yorkshireman, I should like to see anyone try to assert that that blasted Heath’s local government reorganisation in any way succeeded in abolishing God’s own country.
  21. Those of us who sweated through first year real property law would know this. Also it turns up in Pride & Prejudice as part of the plot but not by that name – it’s referred to as a “living” that’s in the gift of the late and current Mr. Darcy that George Wickham claims should have been his. 12.39
  22. Advowson wasn’t a problem here, nor Herdwick, I was held up trying to force PT or PE into 10across until the penny finally dropped. Nice Monday workout.
    Roin
  23. 30m (and 1 Second so just missing out on a rarish sub 30). Like others held up by the ecclesiastical word and the lower house but a pleasant solve. Lots of Herdwick around these parts. Thanks, setter for an encouraging start to the week and thank you for the elucidating blog.
    1. 17’43. No problems, but my natural stroll is a slow one. All a bit bland; but fair enough apart perhaps from what might get on a resident’s place in Caithness once.
  24. I was heading for a rare 15 minute solve, but then ground to a halt with 5d and 12a to go. After an alphabet trawl, FIELDING finally shouted EUREKA and I was able to concentrate on ADIOUSAL, which didn’t look right, so I used Google to see if it existed, which it didn’t, so I had a rethink which yielded ADVOWSAL. So not quite unaided, but I didn’t actually look the word up. 21:22. Thanks setter and Vinyl. I’ve had a bit of involvement with vinyl records this week as my daughter got me a Joan Baez album and an Owen Brannigan album for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and a friend at the folk club loaned me a number of rather worn examples which I’ve loaded onto the computer and de-scratched. They are now residing on my phone as MP3s. In the 70s I used to keep the vinyls as masters and record them to cassettes for everyday use. Plus ca change!
  25. Strange crossword, technically quite easy but then prone to hit you with some really quite abstruse vocabulary (to ADVOWSON and HERDWICK I might add GRUB SCREW, OSTIA and even CHARGE D’AFFAIRES which fortunately has come up before in recent years. Made it inside of 7 minutes IIRC but it seems like a cropper could easily have been come.
    1. I feel you might have been shirking the DIY duties if you think GRUB SCREW abstruse! I recently put up two toilet roll holders and a towel ring and all of them had grub screws.
      1. Having Google Image Searched them, I’m inclined to think that I may have come across them in my time, probably in an Ikea flatpack context, but I never bothered to find out if they had a name…
        2. They’re a key part of Meccano sets, which is where I first encountered them as a boy, but as with Pootle my latest encounter was when putting up a towel rail…
      2. I didn’t know it, but I can certainly confirm that I’m a pro when it comes to shirking DIY duties.
  26. 12 mins, the last two of which were spent teasing out HERDWICK and ADVOWSON, so pretty much the same experience as everyone else.
  27. 10:03, with the process of choosing between ADVOWSON and ADIOUSON sending me over the 10-minute mark.
  28. Well after dredging up ADVOWSON and HERDWICK from wordplay, I thought it was looking good, hit submit and immediately see CHAAGE DAFFARIRES. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.
  30. Was not going to attempt this as I have other things to do today, but a glance at the puzzle led to Oder and then I solved it bottom up finishing with Dail.
    I got Advowson from wordplay, had heard of Herdwick sheep but knew nothing about boundary changes and am in the Verlaine school of DIY but managed to get Grub Screw.
    COD to 1a; also liked 21a.
    Solved in well under an hour so I still have time for those other things. David
  31. I didn’t remember Grub Screw although we’ve had it before, and I tried for too long to fit D Ram into Herdwick. I was once tangentially associated with the replacement of a retiring rector in a case where the local aristocrat had a voice in the selection process, and I believe then had to request that the Bishop appoint the consensus choice. I didn’t know the process as Advowson – just as a complete pain in the grub screw.
  33. HEINOUS being an exception to the rule which held me up for but a brief while until I got INEQUITY. After 6 minutes I had only the NE corner left. I too tried out ADIOUSON but fortunately light dawned.

    The clue that held me back was AUDIO, though I know not why, and I took a ridiculous amount of time to spot REINSTATE.

    Finally finished in 10.35 (used the stopwatch on my phone as I was at home).

    FOI 9A
    LOI 6D
    COD 3D

  34. In my digital version 3d reads “Fair prison officer …”. Was this a draft version? It would have been ok as “fair sounding”.
  36. 22:30. Quick but I can’t help thinking I should have been quicker still. Slowed myself down perhaps by balancing solving whilst shovelling lunch into the conveniently located hole in my face and trying not to spill any down the front of my shirt (failed). I had the same uncertainties as most others with advowson (could there be another -o-s 4-letter word for “pledges” that I had missed?) and Herdwick (could there be another 4-letter w-c- word for “place in Caithness once” that I had missed?). Fortunately I got them right. Everything else seemed straightforward.
  37. Took a tad more than 15 minutes, ending with HERDWICK and the GRUB SCREW. As noted, we in the US call it a ‘set screw’. I didn’t think of the IOU before ‘vow’ when looking for a pledge, so I wasn’t tempted. But I certainly didn’t know the word and looked it up afterwards, that and Herdwick too.
  38. Grumpy day for me. Had it all done in 8 minutes apart from the ecclesiastical whatsit and the sheep. I settled on ADVOWSON but had to check it in the dictionary, it looks so unlikely a word (and if you don’t know it, it takes some believing). I also guessed the sheep correctly, but felt the need to check that, too. Any clue that requires a knowledge of outdated county boundaries of no particular concern to anyone not living within them should probably go back to the drawing board.

    Two strangely difficult and unsatisfying clues in a puzzle that was otherwise very easy.

  39. DNF, but it wasn’t HERDWICK or ADVOWSON that got me (the latter did seem to be more likely than ADIOUSON, even if the spelling seemed rather strange). Perhaps I should take out a patent on the GLUE SCREW (you know, a screw that is kept tight with epoxy resin or suchlike). I’m not sure what glue has to do with searching, but the same would be true of GRUB.

Comments are closed.