Times 27004 – in wordplay we trust

66 comments on “Times 27004 – in wordplay we trust”

1. I had no questions here. Even though I’m not sure I’d ever heard of Ms. Gaskell either. I was thinking of someone else. Whose name is probably different.
2. Thanks for doing the Chiliarch and the Gaskell research for us, George. I had the same three finger-crosses, but the cluing was clear, wasn’t it? I also hesitated over Niggle, not being familiar with that sense of use. And I wondered if the “used by” in the Climber clue was there mostly to make those of us at the back end of the cleverness pack try to remember if Hillary’s team had included a Cudsbey or a Cebudsy. Thankfully crossers came quickly.
3. …since Mrs Gaskell is reasonably well-known, and a ‘chiliarch’ clearly points to two expected Greek roots. I biffed a fair number, such as ‘dramatist’, ‘destination’, and ‘bagatelle’, all the evident answer. Time about 25 minutes.
4. I should have been quicker than my 28 mins as this was fairly straightforward.

   1dn MINORCA v MENORCA?

   FOI 1ac MADE A BOMB
   LOI 16ac HALT (think haltingly)
   COD 23dn TIGON
   WOD 15dn CHILIARCH DNK

   14ac ARSENICAL – the Gooners get yet another mention!

   1. My FOI was 1ac too but MADE A PILE. Which I don’t think is *completely* ridiculous?
      1. Seems reasonable, though I think it was mostly Fermi who actually made the piles. Glad I didn’t think of it, as MADE A BOMB seemed a bit too obvious for a 1a!
         1. Impressive scientific knowledge, V, from an avowed non-scientist!
      2. I started off with MADE A PILE, too; thought ‘Did they make a reactor as well?’ and moved on. Finally remembered the BOMB phrase (not US).
         1. Same here. Seemed to be obviously right, until it wasn’t.
5. 6m12 here, so as you say not really much scary at all. I hesitated a moment over MINORCA, but the cluing couldn’t really have been more generous. Surprised more people haven’t heard of Elizabeth Gaskell: there was quite a good TV adaptation of North and South within living memory.

   I hope I’m not the only one today to be earwormed by Tenpole Tudor’s “Swords of a Thousand Men” on account of 15dn, at least not not that I’ve brought it up here.

6. 24 minutes with time lost working out the unknown CHILIARCH from wordplay, though actually I, ARCH was obvious, so it was only the CHIL bit that delayed me. Was glad that I took my time considering wordplay at 1dn avoiding the tempation of MINORCA.
7. 11:32 … with a few stutters when rushing for the finishing line, ARSENICAL not being in my canon (though obviously I have a cannon in my arsenal), which in turn threw a bit of doubt over the CHILIARCH. But, as George says, in wordplay we trust.

   I had a bit of trouble with SEDUCED, too. I’m never too thrilled with the EC = city thing.

   BASQUE was my ‘exotic language’ as part of a linguistics degree under the tutelage of the inspiring NY-born Basque expert Larry Trask. He revelled in teaching us gloriously redundant things, starting on Day One with “There are no public toilets in the centre of Liverpool.” My kind of teacher

   1. I’d never realised the Liverpool lack of toilets. They didn’t leak much last night though. Visiting as a lad with parents, we’d go into Lewis’s and use the facilities on the restaurants (5th?)floor. Later on, we’d be in the pub. Those at the Philharmonic were pretty classy.
      1. Ah, yes, I’ve seen the famed marble urinals at the Phil. I read that they did after-hours tours for the benefit of female patrons, but no one really bothered if women just wandered in to take a look … well, except the guys using them at the time, perhaps.

         In fairness to my esteemed tutor, Liverpool was probably no worse off for public lavs than any other British town

8. 28 mins on IPad.
   Brekker is half a dark chocolate bounty. Still on the road.
   A mix of very easy and Chiliarch.
   Thanks setter and George.
9. Glad that I finally put HALT in when I could only think of “wait” as anything else that vaguely fitted. That last ten minutes of staring at it—so many possibilities!—drove me up to 55 minutes.

   Had the same worries as others of MENORCA and CHILIARCH, no idea what was going on with BAGATELLE, and I don’t think of AILERONS as flaps, though I suppose they are, in a general sense. Apart from that everything went in fairly smoothly, if sluggishly…

10. Didn’t know HALT for limping, so that was my last in as a half guess, adding disproportionately to my eventual 40 minute time. CHILIARCH was also new. Did remember Elizabeth GASKELL from ‘North and South’ on the TV and I see a couple of her other books were adapted by the BBC. “The Elizabeth Gaskell Collection” DVD is a steal at only $67.98 if you’re interested.

    I could recall Port Mahon in Minorca as one of Jack Aubrey’s favourite haunts but wasn’t aware of the alternate spelling until now.

    I agree that ‘Flaps’ and AILERONS are different in aeronautics, but I think the clue still passed muster due to the clever def including the anagram fodder as a homophone – ‘Flaps, performing in a “roll”…’.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

11. Easy peasy .. but some very neat clues, it goes to show how enjoyable a straightforward crossword can be. Chiliarch not known to me, perhaps it should have been, but the wordplay was clear.
    Ailerons are flaps, according to Collins
12. Mrs Gaskell sets the boundaries but from Cranford, aka Knutsford? 21 minutes on this reasonably straightforward puzzle, with LOI MENORCA, determined as I was that the isle was of Man. DNK CHILIARCH of course, but the crossers and cryptic made it obvious. Are birds free from the chains of the skyway – the only song his Bobship regrets writing? Or like Leonard, like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, can they never be? COD to ARSENICAL. Thank you George and setter.
    1. I was pleased to see Mrs Gaskell here. I was force fed Cranford in school. It’s not a good choice as a class reader for teenage girls. Wittering old ladies and lots of deaths. (But now I’m myself one of the old ladies I’ve grown to love the book) We should have read North and South instead. A great romance – like Pride & Prejudice with a social conscience. But Cranford had innoculated me against Gaskell and so I didn’t read the other books until I saw the TV adaptations of “North & South” and “Wives & Daughters”. Great stuff.
       1. Sadly, we don’t get any younger, Ann. At an all-boys grammar school, we were force-fed Dickens. We had David Copperfield for our termly home-reader in the lower fifth and I left reading it until the last weekend, all 896 pages of it. I came top in the class test, but it put me off Victorian novels for about a decade. We had Aldous Huxley and Brave New World the next term and I took a shine to that. In the sixth, I was on the science side and reading was allowed to be a pleasure, with Alan Sillitoe, John Braine, Kingsley Amis and the like where it was at. To the extent I could, I caught up with Mrs G and other Victorian authors in my twenties.
          1. Classroom readers have a lot to answer for. I had to teach Geoffrey Household’s “Rogue Male” when I was a novice teacher. To a mixed class of 13 year olds! Selected by an ex-army head of English. But I ended up eventually having a say in what we inflicted on the little dears. The greatest successes were “The Ghost of Thomas Kempe” by Penelope Lively (This actually got a round of applause from my class. When we reached the end a boy labelled as a slow reader shouted “Three cheers for the author”.) and “Truckers” by the always-reliable Terry Pratchett. Ann
13. I did most of this quickly but then took spent about half my time on MENORCA, ARSENICAL and CHILIARCH. I then hesitantly put in HALT to finish, not knowing it as a definition for limping.

    AILERONS should be straightforward for regular Countdown watchers as it comes up quite often due to its common letters.

14. MADE A MINT and CHICIARCH came and went.

    I recommend ‘The Basque history of the world’ by Mark Kurlansky (and his other books – Cod: a biography of the fish that changed the world, Salt: A world history and, especially, The big Oyster (which is a history of New York)).

15. Too busy with ’77 Sunset Strip (Click Click)’ – see QC.
16. I think that makes four perfectly pleasant, and mostly straight down the line puzzles this week – what will Friday bring, more of the same or a completely different beast? Google tells me CHILIARCH appears in texts which I’ve definitely read, but as I can’t remember crosswords from three months ago, I’m not surprised at failing to recollect a word I’ve not encountered in the wild for over three decades. I did at least remember what both CHILI- and -ARCH mean, and the wordplay is pretty clear even for non-smart-arse classicists.
17. Lynyrd Skynyrd for me from FREE AS A BIRD.
18. A good time for me at 21 mins. At 18 mins only CHILIARCH remained. -IARCH seemed sure, but I just couldn’t believe that CHIL[D]-I- makes a viable word. So I sat there for 3 more long, slow, drawn-out minutes until I bunged it in. Aaaaargh! (I had no Greek education and have only picked up tidbits from years of bookish study.) Gaskell on the other hand was a write in!
    An enjoyable puzzle, I think.
    Thanks, George, for fine blog.
19. Oh, and I had NUMBER in 21d for a while — which I thought was rather clever, if wrong.
    1. You weren’t alone!
       1. Well .. I have wasted so many minutes over the last year or two seeing ‘number’ in Times clues and fiddling around with NO, N, ONE, TWO, TEN, FOUR, INTEGER, DECIMAL, V, D, M, C, L…. aaaaaaaaaargh!
20. My earworm today is “5-4-3-2-1”. An explanation will follow shortly !
21. 19′, a fair bit spent on an alphabet trawl which came up with CHILIARCH – had heard the word chiliasm through EP Thompson’s ‘Making of the English Working Class’. In mathematics etc. ITERATING has a much more precise meaning than ‘repeatedly mentioning’. Thanks gl and setter.
22. …..but actually it wasn’t, and I shall deconstruct my outrageous biff at 1D shortly.

    FOI MADE A BOMB, and despite quickly adding NIGGLED and RUDER, I moved east with 1D and 14A not completed.

    Biffed BAGATELLE (thanks George), and also briefly had GALIPOT at 20D, but fortunately HANDS DOWN saw that one quickly sorted.

    DNK CHILIARCH but cracked it easily enough.

    COD JABBER.

    After having “duh” moments over both DRAMATIST and SILO, I eventually returned to the two remaining clues in the NW corner. I decided that “island” was MAN, that F just could be an abbreviation for “folk”, and that “dangerous” could be “RED” as in a signal. Thus it was that I biffed MANFRED as a DNK sea creature.

    Luckily I limped over the line a minute or so later (13:05) when I finally spotted ARSENICAL and the dawn broke over MENORCA.

    1. A pretty flamingo?
       1. John, here’s one that made me laugh….
          https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FSimon_Pegg%2Fstatus%2F981429218658615297&h=ATOBELop8TEzVS75MfVVwgDeAWzCptqrSINdbFBfESed7ceK5-Rg3hBsukk3vpMZSPejpD13VUFHHMcGs294ZE0gxRi1ALYt74kAuSdyIQjkeS86SOdw6uLnhShZ6yqEKwNfrGPN
          1. Diddle lada Diddle lada
             dalang dalang dalang dalang da la

             Both the spelling and the scansion may be wrong!

             1. I’ll take your word for it. I’m on the outside of a couple of Newky Browns and several Sauv blancs now 🙂

                Edited at 2018-04-05 08:04 pm (UTC)

23. A shade under the half hour for this one, with a good few minutes spent trawling the alphabet for CHILIARCH. I was unsure whether I was looking for a youngster, tailed, by one clever… or a youngster, tailed by one clever…

    1. I suppose the 21st century equivalent of a chiliarch would be a Primary Trust Chairperson.. though without the same level of accountability, I suspect. but a better pension, perhaps 🙂
       1. And thus has human society fallen.
24. Nice and easy with just one unknown. My misreading of the word ‘tailed’ caused a big delay in CHILIARCH. Nearly entered CHITIARCH. Still recovering from last night’s match (yes!) which I couldn’t watch so had to listen on the radio. 14a had some alternative Reds….
25. 8:07. Similar experience to others’. Didn’t know CHILIARCH, slightly surprised by people not knowing GASKELL, easy but enjoyable puzzle.
26. 22’03. Hardly a bagatelle for this oldie. Liked the beardy description. A little surprised the animal cross is a normative animal – but it has rights too and we don’t want its keeper to sue us. Sorry, neighbour. The chiliarch took a little dredging-up.
27. 14 minutes, so easy today, with HALT the only ‘I hope’ entry. Was familiar with the Spanish / Catalan spelling for Minorca more usual in English package tour brochures I remember.
28. Looks like I made heavier weather of this than many – the SW corner seemed to take forever to fall, although I can’t really see why. I had the same problems with CHILIARCH and MENORCA, and mused briefly on AELIRONS before retreating to safe ground. COD was 7d for concealing its anagram fodder so well. 10m 14s.
29. 17-ish minutes, with the now obligatory typo making the time irrelevant anyway.

    I blame having just been on a driving holiday to the party hotspots of Europe*, then getting up in the middle of the night to make sure we could get the family holiday to Florida’s in August next year booked.

    Or it could have just been my fingers and laziness in not bothering to notice it of course.

    1d took a bit of time to make sure the wordplay fitted with my memory – can’t help but think that the island is spelt with an I sometimes when it suits? (See also COS/KOS). Wordplay made it clear though so at least that one was OK.

    *We went to Amsterdam so daughter (age 8) could see Anne Frank’s house, then stopped off to visit the Tyne Cot cemetery on the way home. We did get to see and smell the atmosphere of Amsterdam though. Especially smell. Actually I think I’m still hungry.

30. 12:02. I got off to an absolute flier in the NW corner but soon slowed down.

    I case it isn’t obvious from previous comments Menorca and Minorca are the same island. I’ve been to both of it. Twice.

    1. Once each? 🙂
31. Nicely straightforward. I hesitated at CHILIARCH but it rang a faint bell so I bunged it in. 20 minutes. Ann
32. Paul Simon will lull me to sleep with his paean to Widnes railway station (re 12d), which I suppose is better than the wheels on the blasted bus (thanks grandson). Nice easy puzzle foe me today with only 15d unknown. All done in 30 mins. Thanks all
33. Around 20 minutes to get through. I’d never encountered CHILIARCH before, but it went in from the wordplay. And of course as a US person I began with MADE A PILE. OLDIE set that straight. Pretty gentle apart from the unknown word. Regards.
34. Not too hard today, although I had to look up “Chiliarch” – spent a while trying to figure out how “Patriarch” would make sense. I biffed “Galleon” assuming that gallon meant brass in some esoteric way. Otherwise, one of my better days! I’m sure I had a childhood game called “Bagatelle” – like an early, manual version of pinball.
    1. Yes I had one of those!
    2. We bought a beautiful wooden bagatelle board when the kids were little. It was a big favourite, even if “that deaf dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean game of bagatelle” doesn’t scan that well.
       1. 🙂
35. I did this puzzle having arrived back from a boat ride to Staffa, in bright sunshine and a minimal breeze, to see Fingal’s Cave and wander round the island, after a breakfast of porridge, banana, grapes and blueberries. I must have been invigorated by the sea air as I trundled through it in 19:54, although I did resort to a check on the NHO CHILIARCH before submitting. A very enjoyable puzzle to round off a very enjoyable day. A Newcastle Brown Ale accompanied me through the puzzle and my daughter is now creating the evening meal for the family. Can life get any better? Thanks setter and George.
    PS the skipper played Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture as we approached the island. Cheesy but fun!

    Edited at 2018-04-05 04:36 pm (UTC)

36. By the way, Orcas are not always dangerous sea creatures – at least not to humans. A colleague of mine came nose-to-nose with one whilst diving in New Zealand. He headed for the surface sharpish ( not easy to say quickly) and the Orca went with him nose-to-nose all the way up. They parted on friendly terms.
37. 16 mins 22 secs. Done on the train on my small iPhone and my time includes a short interruption by the guard to check my ticket. Well I assumed he was the guard as he was wearing a uniform – but I didn’t ask to see his ID. Maybe I, or somebody, should have done? Who will guard the guards themselves?

    I also initially had number for jabber and didn’t know Minorca and Menorca were the same place.

38. 46:10. I made relatively smooth progress apart from being another who had to correct number to jabber when I saw dramatist. Delayed a bit by the chil- bit of the unknown chiliarch but biggest hold up was LOI 16ac where I needed an alphabet trawl to narrow it down and plumped for halt over wait on the basis of “he spoke haltingly” for example. Was not confident on that one though.
39. Very easy today, my leaderboard entry says 24 minutes. Very much unlike yesterday. CHILIARCH was my LOI and perhaps the hardest clue, but easy to solve with the wordplay.
40. It looks like I managed to complete this correctly by trusting the wordplay as mentioned by our blogger.
    My wife had the T2 first this morning so I started on this then and completed it during the ad breaks for The Masters. Four days in front of the TV to come. LOI was Arsenical.
    Was in Liverpool yesterday; plenty of toilets. And plenty of people on the Beatles tours. David
    PS tough QC today.
41. I couldn’t get past CHITIARCH for 15 down, although I knew it was wrong, on the basis that a CHIT is a youngster, with “tailed by” meaning followed by. Not happy with “tailed” being used independently of “topped and”.
42. Did this late evening (it was a grandchild day) and after getting 1a and 6a without pausing for breath, I thought I’d see how far I could get going straight through. Turned out ARSENICAL put paid to that idea, but then completed in 14.39 leaving that ’til last.
    Friendly, entertaining, with one unlikely word to make us all feel clever, and that spelling test at 1d to remind us all to pay attention to the wordplay.
43. 18 mins. Great blog, cheers.
44. Completed Jan 2020 – just catching up with some I’d missed

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