Times 27195 – TCC Heat 1 number three. Humbled again.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Oh dear. I began this with high hopes, not of finishing in the 3 minutes or so remaining within my theoretical hour, but at least getting it right in 20 minutes. It started well, I had about two-thirds of it done in ten or eleven minutes, and felt pleased with seeing some of the longer clues like 12a and 21a as well as taking a correct punt on 19d. Then we went off the rails; I hastily bunged in RIO GRAND for 17d, which caused a few problems, not least with 26a. Then I thought, hang on, it ought to be GRANDE, must be wrong.
Left after thirty-odd minutes with 4a, 7d and 5d, with 4a being probably something WEB, I chewed the pencil for another long minute before seeing MENTORING and MOB. Guessed LAKKA (spelling it wrongly) and guessed 4a correctly although not an expression I’d heard. So, all in all, a disaster, darling.
Anyway here are the correct answers and my attempts at explaining them.
Well done to all those who did this in under 20 minutes, I thought it was the hardest of the three in Heat 1.

Across
1 Wife leaving farm building knocked on the head? (6)
COSHED – A COW SHED is your building, drop the W for wife.
4 Fool in fat group coordinated online (5,3)
FLASH MOB – I didn’t know this expression and only made a lucky guess as I didn’t understand the wordplay either. I now see it is FLAB for FAT, around SHMO, a variant of SCHMO which apparently is a Yiddish word for fool, especially in USA. Yiddish and poetry are two wide gaps in my otherwise reasonably wide GK.
10 Meat and drink obtained by Ben maybe, crossing street (4,5)
RUMP STEAK – RUM = drink, PEAK = Ben, mountain in Scotland, insert ST for street.
11 Article returned by fellow is an unexpected gift (5)
MANNA – MAN = fellow, NA = AN reversed; as in Manna from Heaven.
12 Sanctuaries with oil desecrated in movement against religion (14)
SECULARISATION – (SANCTUARIES OIL)*. Quickly spotted and unravelled with S and C in place.
14 Management notice time is short (5)
ADMIN – AD = notice, MIN = short time.
16 Resourceful monarch lay in foul environment (9)
VERSATILE – VILE = foul, insert ER and SAT = lay.
18 A lot of work left, mostly for unnamed hero (9)
PORTFOLIO – PORT = left, FO = mostly for, LIO(N) = unnamed hero.
20 Trivial affront son brushed off (5)
LIGHT – SLIGHT loses its S.
21 Call about individual rolling round pub before dash to get sedative (14)
PHENOBARBITONE – Complicated wordplay, but easy to biff. Call = PHONE. insert ONE reversed (ENO) then BAR (pub) and BIT (dash).
25 Lively row lacking any extreme language (5)
HINDI – SHINDIG = row, loses its first and last.
26 Always wearing fur that could be split (9)
SEVERABLE – EVER inside SABLE = fur. Easy once I’d established S*V- instead of S*N-.
27 Women’s team has got established in part of New York (4,4)
WEST SIDE – W SIDE insert EST for established.
28 Heading off, hobbled with little energy — cramp? (6)
IMPEDE – (L)IMPED, E for energy.

Down
1 Dodgy dealers entertaining people, quick to get involved (4-6)
CARD-SHARPS – CARDS = entertaining people, SHARP = quick, involve sharp into cards.
2 Copper’s grabbing a maiden climbing tree (5)
SUMAC – CU’S = copper’s, insert A M, reverse all.
3 Greek character’s record still regularly being played (7)
EPSILON – EP = record, S I L = regular letters of still, ON = being played.
5 Hundreds of thousands of Indians wanting needs to be heard (5)
LAKHS – Oh dear. I vaguely remembered there was something called a LAK for a unit of 100,000 rupees, we’ve had it before. And it sounds like LACKS = needs. But I spelt it wrongly.
6 Island’s Sanskrit sayings arts graduate collected (7)
SUMATRA – For ages I was trying to put something Sanskrit into BA or MA to make the island. But it’s not so. MA goes into SUTRA which I should have clocked having like all naughty schoolboys seen the KARMA SUTRA a long time ago.
7 Advising chaps on journey having left university behind (9)
MENTORING – MEN = chaps, TOURING loses its U. I should have got this faster, as it’s what I used to do, for small businesses.
8 Duck served in club — one may have gravy (4)
BOAT – O for duck inside BAT for club. A meal without gravy, like a meal without wine, is like a day without sunshine, IMO.
9 Censure for five, outwardly genuine (8)
REPROVAL – REAL = genuine, insert PRO = for, V = five.
13 I may forecast what’s coming, if I can get a hearing (7,3)
WEATHER EYE – Weather eye sounds like whether I  = if I.
15 Car with county folk doing business (9)
MERCHANTS – MERC = car, as in Mercedes-Benz; HANTS = Hampshire. Neat one.
17 River I love that’s wonderful — this one in North America? (3,5)
RIO BRAVO – R= river, I, O = love, BRAVO = that’s wonderful. Alternative name for the Rio Grande.
19 Enjoyment ends for some strict believers (7)
FUNDIES – the FUN DIES when enjoyment ends. Apparently fundie is a nickname or abbr. for a (Christian) Fundamentalist. I guessed it.
20 Garland presented to neat county (7)
LEITRIM –  LEI = garland, as in Hawaii, TRIM = neat. Leitrim is a rather sad little county, one of the three Ulster counties in the Republic of Ireland. EDIT I have given you duff guff, I just looked it up on Wiki as, in spite of having lived in Ireland for 14 years until 1988, I couldn’t remember the name of the county town (Carrick-on-Shannon) and it’s not in Ulster, it’s in Connaught. The three Ulster counties in the Republic are, of course, Cavan, Monaghan and beautiful Donegal.
22 Established plot involving poisonous element (5)
BASED – BED = plot, holds AS, or As, chemical symbol for arsenic.
23 Terrible boredom without party game (5)
OMBRE – Remove DO = party from boredom, then you have (BOREM)*. Card game originating in Spain.
24 Woodcutter set about hard wood (4)
SHAW – SAW has H inserted. Shaw is an old name for a small wood or coppice.

38 comments on “Times 27195 – TCC Heat 1 number three. Humbled again.”

  1. I typed in RIO GRANDE, too, although of course it stopped at GRAND; when I finally noticed that I switched to BRAVO, or rather BRAVP. When I finally noticed THAT, it was in pink. I figured that SHAW was something to do with forests or woods, and that FUNDIE is a term for fundamentalists. I looked up LAKH to make sure before submitting, but it seemed vaguely familiar. In the US, the drug is phenobarbital, which fortunately isn’t long enough, so I had to come up with the UK version. I also went for FLASH MOB without parsing, twigged after. A SHMO isn’t a fool in my book, rather an unfortunate, well, schmo, to whom things happen, not particularly because of low intelligence.
  2. I finished this in 40 minutes which I consider quite reasonable for me for a hard puzzle containing several unknowns. I’m quite happy with that, recognising as as I first did some years ago that I am never going to be able to compete in the competition stakes. Even knowing that it was a competition puzzle is enough to add 10-15 minutes to my solving time.

    Unknowns or forgottens were SHAW as a wood, LEITRIM, LAKHS and FUNDIES. I was very pleased to know FLASHMOB.

  3. Woo-hoo! 16 min 20s, which would be speedy for a Monday. Right on the wavelength after two struggles the past two weeks.
    Raised an eyebrow at Rio Grande’s spelling, but in it went. Quickly corrected by severally. Leitrim (cf Antrim) and Fundie guesses from the crossers, never heard of. Otherwise no problems, even knew the lakhs. Merc was helped by having all the brand names last week.
  4. I enjoyed this very much, and I’d almost say this puzzle LAKHS nothing (sorry). There’s a rarely used word of which it is good to be reminded, lest I totally forget, SHAW, and at least one term you’d never hear in the US of A, COSHED.
    The West German Greens were split into FUNDIE and Realo factions, but I don’t know if I’ve encountered the word in any other context.
    I’ve been drinking SUMATRAn coffee daily for 26 years. My LOI was another psychotropic substance, PHENOBARBIT… ONE! Hurray!

    Edited at 2018-11-28 07:07 am (UTC)

  5. I think this is the first time ever I finished a competition puzzle in under the 20 minute budget you end up with if you are going to do 3 in an hour. I also fell into the RIO GRANDE although it ended up as RIO GRANE since I didn’t immediately notice I’d typed more letters than fitted the grid. The correct answer ended up being my LOI.

    I too guessed FUNDIE, and LEITRIM (there is a country I’ve never heard of, it seems), and SHAW (with that meaning).

    LAKHS was no problem since I’ve done various things requiring budgets in India. It is really hard to get your head around counting in 10^5s (and 10^4s in Chinese is hard too).

  6. Curses! I did well on the whole, filling the grid in 51 minutes. Unfortunately my last letter in was the incorrect A of RIO BRAVA—for some reason that rang more of a bell. Geography’s not my strong point, and it seems to fit the wordplay just as well. (It seems from Google that the film is more famous than the Mexican name of the river, but it was made fourteen years before I was born and I’ve never really been into westerns.)

    Still, I count myself lucky to only have the one letter wrong, and at least I avoided the RIO GRAND trap.

    For those of you who’ve never seen a FLASH MOB, here’s a video I shot of one taking place in the local shopping centre.

    Edited at 2018-11-28 08:20 am (UTC)

  7. 50 mins with yoghurt, granola, blueberries, etc.
    Held up by Flash Mob/Lakhs but eventually managed to guess them, including the H. But foreign homophone spellings are tricky if you don’t know the word.
    I was pleased that words like Lei and Sutra, only known from crosswords, now spring readily to mind.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
  8. 52 minutes, indicating why I don’t enter. Finished eventually in NE with the scarcely known FLASH MOB. In fact, I don’t think I know it at all; I’m confusing it with a flash flood. That was after I finally managed to find a comfortable position for an MA in the Sutra. DNK FUNDIES or OMBRE, but the clues were soluble with crossers. SECULARISATION took a long time to see as I thought it was going to be ANTI something or other. I can waste so much time on long anagrams. Thank you Pip and setter.
  9. Well I did this in 20 minutes (minus 3 seconds) so if it was the hardest I might have been ok. I thought for a competition puzzle, the vocab was a bit demanding, from the George Bernard Forest in the south to its constituent member in the north, though SUMAC, being incredibly unlikely, rather sticks in the memory. LEITRIM is yet another Irish county that didn’t exist before it was required in the crossword. I lost time trying to work out how -CESTER or NSTER could be fitted in.
    LAKHS from IPL, of course, where man of the match awards are given in one lakh or more amounts, with the curious 1,00,000 notation.
    I was (yet) another RIO GRAND. Apparently the RIO BRAVO is the same river, only in Mexico, not that that helps much.
    I wonder if the MERC inclusion was a pitch for sponsorship? Do Germans get cryptic crosswords?
    Thanks Pip for working it all out and presenting in an entertaining was. (Rio) Bravo!

    Edited at 2018-11-28 09:12 am (UTC)

  10. Thank you for the parsing of FLASH MOB Pip. I only got as far as wondering if F was an acceptable abbreviation for fat given that a MOB was clearly a group and LASH might have a hitherto unknown meaning of ‘fool’. Other biffs included SECULARISATION from the C that went in early on and PHENOBARBITONE from the H. I realise now that it was probably the V in love that subconsciously made me put in RIO BRAVO straight off having first thought that ‘wonderful’ might be an anagram indicator. If only my incorrect reasoning always led to the correct answer.
      1. 42.23 plus however long it would have taken me to get DIAERESIS (you will recall we had a sneak preview of that one).
  11. Despite not finishing another of the heat 1 puzzles, as with the previous one I thought it was easier than all three in heat 2. But then I would say that.

    Like others I hampered myself by putting in RIO GRAND despite knowing that it ends in an E. I also had CARD SHARKS in place for a while. Once I’d sorted them out I managed all but LAKHS.

  12. Silly me – went for MENTORISM without thinking about mentoring – doh – led to a world of pain!
  13. Clearly I LAKKS the ability to spell Indian words.
    Started at a sprint and crawled to the (DN)finish.
  14. On the day this was my best effort. All but 4 done correctly, I think.

    I think the ones I didn’t get were Lakhs, Flash Mob, Hindi and Fundies.

    I don’t think I will do quite so well with the Heat 2 puzzles! However I have a copy of all three Heat 2 puzzles so I may attempt these in the allowed time before next week.

  15. I do like these competition puzzles even if they are rather humbling. Another excellent offering today which was a steady solve but of course included RIO GRAND before the light dawned.

    Great blog Pip but not sure why LEITRIM is “sad”. Very pretty place with mountains towards Donegal and lovely lakes of which Lough Allen is probably best known. It even has a very short coastline. In the news of course because it shares a border with Fermanagh which is in NI

    1. I just remember finding that whole NW area of ROI a bit sad and forgotten, when passing that way for work or holidays in Donegal when we lived in Tipperary then Dublin. I see now its population is growing faster than the rest of Connaught so perhaps the Celtic Tiger’s roar has reached that far into the hinterland.
  16. Casting my mind back to the dim and distant past of very nearly a whole month ago, I remember a) I felt very pleased that SHAW came up, as it’s on my big list of Known Unknowns compiled from crosswords past, and I actually remembered it this time; b) in isolation, I came up with SIKHS for 5d, and until it became apparent that it had to begin with L, I found my answer quite convincing. Happily, I’ve followed enough IPL auctions to know the real answer, so there wasn’t too much of a delay there.
  17. ….you make me break down….

    More accurately, slow down ! 11A was altered to MANNA once SUMATRA was sighted.

    Done in test conditions on the Monday after the Championship. Biffed FLASH MOB, and PORTFOLIO, both successfully parsed on completion, and finished in a single attempt.

    Didn’t like PHENOBARBITONE.

    FOI COSHED
    LOI FUNDIES
    COD FLASH MOB
    TIME 14:14

  18. Just over 15 min – my best for any of the competition puzzles. LOI 18ac, having eventually realised that ‘hero’ wasn’t the definition: didn’t check parsing of several answers, but did check for typos, so avoided BRAVA at 17dn.
  19. I managed to chew my way through this reasonably well until my LOI, LAKHS, which I just didn’t know. The possibilities for L_K_S seemed overwhelming with LOKIS, LAKIS, LIKIS LYKAS all seeming possible as large Asian tribes, so I looked it up. I avoided RIO GRAND by already having SEVERABLE. SUMAC and EPSILON were my first 2 in. I had DONNA until SUMATRA put me right. Knew about FLASH MOBS. I quite enjoyed this puzzle. 30:38 with 1 cheat for LAKHS. Thanks setter and Pip.
  20. This was more devious than it looked and I fell for all the setter’s tricks which certainly added minutes to my time. I was another one with Sikhs (there must be 100s of 1000s of them) until “asses m*b” just didn’t cut it. I agree with Kevin about “schmo” – Joe Schmo means just an average bloke. And of course I got the river wrong initially (John Wayne and Dean Martin to the rescue).

    SUMACs are the quintessential NY urban trees (A Tree Grows In Brooklyn) – they fill up all the vacant lots very fast. Sherlock’s giant rat of SUMATRA was the tale for which the world was not yet ready. 19.06

  21. I seem to have made the same errors as our blogger, plus some. I had “lakks” for 5d, and at 9d I managed to do a complete backflip and land on my arse. I managed to create the word “perreval”, having the wrong type of “for” in the wrong place. Ah well.

    Regarding SCHMO, my mother (who had some Jewish roots somewhere along the line) used it to mean a daft or foolish person, but also as “Joe Schmo” to mean any arbitary person.

    Edited at 2018-11-28 12:42 pm (UTC)

  22. 27’16, about where I feel I am as regards the average needed. Bernstein’s W.S.Story music pounded away somewhere all through the down clues and over and round, and doesn’t look like going any time soon. May need 21.
  23. 20’27” – and in the office! This must have been the easiest of the three competition crosswords. LOI Shaw, which I didn’t know.

  24. I thought I was doing OK on this one – after 45 minutes I just had 23 down and 28 across left to enter. Worked out the anagram fodder for 23 down and came up with OMBER – Googled it to check the spelling – yup, it’s a card game – bunged it in and then hit the buffers. -M-R-E for 28 across was never going to let me finish.

    Note to self: when checking unknown words, make sure there isn’t an alternative spelling.

    Time: DNF in 50 minutes.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  25. 15:50 for this. I couldn’t biff the sedative as I didn’t know the word but I enjoyed piecing it together from wordplay.

    We’ve had SHAW at least twice before and I knew it anyway, and having written in LAKKS at 5 I knew it didn’t look right so we must have seen that in a previous puzzle as well.

    So about 32 minutes for this and the puzzle from 2 weeks ago and another 16 for last week’s without ACONITE. Timing wise I’d have been on for top 25 but I’m not sure that aconite would ever have come to me.

  26. Geez, no championships for me. Just as well that the ocean presents an obstacle that prevents me being tempted to enter. I also had to correct SIKHS to guess at the LAKHS, who I assumed were people, not money. But I had to look up the FUNDIES, whom I’d never heard of. To throw in my NY two cents worth, a schmoe to me implies someone lacking common sense; Joe Schmoe, yes, any average guy. Regards.
  27. …but successfully completed. LAKHS vaguely known. FUNDIES is the sort of name you’d give to saucy lingerie. REPROVAL was the one that was on the tip of my tongue for ages.
  28. Me too. OMBER duly looked up is a card game so my final effort at doing IMPEDE with .M.R.E was impossible and had to come here for the solution. Me too with RIO GRAND as well. So what started off as a bit of a quickie ended up as very slowie.
  29. I’m very pleased to say I had my own mistake, which no one seems to share (and an almost reasonable one at that). In 8 down, my club was a BAR (they are sometimes called clubs, aren’t they?) and so I had BOAR instead of BOAT and wasn’t worried, since you would want gravy with a plate of wild boar, wouldn’t you?

    Of course I tried the SIKHS as well, wondering how many of them there really were, until FLASH MOB made that impossible and I replaced it with LAKHS with a similar spelling turning out to be correct. RIO GRANDE wouldn’t fit, so it had to be RIO BRAVO and everything else, if not familiar, was clear from wordplay.

    My time was 35 minutes, with the one mistake. Why can I do the competition puzzles so fast if I can’t manage the regular ones in under an hour?

    Edited at 2018-11-28 08:33 pm (UTC)

  30. With five left after 40 minutes I had to put the puzzle down and return to work. 14ac, 15dn and 18ac all fell within two or three minutes of picking the puzzle up again after work. I needed another 5 minutes to get 19dn and LOI 25ac. Very tricky.
  31. SNITCH only applies to those solvers who have finished a puzzle correctly. Wouldn’t a fairer measure of hardness take into account those who made mistakes? I ask, having noted that this perhaps harder-than-average puzzle has a SNITCH under 100.
  32. I would have done pretty well in the 1st heat despite not trying to speed-solve (I’m a paper based fully parsed before entry kind of solver) with all 3 done in a little over 12 mins each.

    They didn’t feel especially easy but they all yielded steadily in what for me is a pretty quick time. I suspect I may just have been on the right wavelength & will get my comeuppance in the rest of the puzzles.

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