Times 27477 – nothing to be afraid of, or 7d.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

An enjoyable 21 minutes without rushing, 3d being the only obscure answer which I did vaguely know but had to dredge from the grey depths. I’m usually floored by Scottish dialect words but both of those in here were familiar. While drafting this report I found myself straying idly into Wikipedia to learn more about 4ds and 7d. I’ll have forgotten it all tomorrow. You may not have heard of the pastime at 10a but the wordplay is pretty obvious.

The blurb about entering the TCC is still appearing daily, so I assume this means they haven’t sold all the tickets? I found the bit about “more than £2500 to be won across three ability groups” a major turn-off, IMO making a mockery of the idea of a merit based competition.

Across
1 Promoter of change, one leaving country in company of actors (8)
CATALYST – CAST = company of actors, insert (I)TALY = one leaving country.
5 When speaking, caught sight of a predator (6)
SPIDER – Sounds like “spied a”. We’ve had SPIDER recently, similarly clued, but I can’t just remember when.
9 Sacked constables gathered round first of remote rock formations (8)
OUTCROPS – OUT (sacked) COPS have R (first of remote) inserted.
10 Monstrous female knocked back game on ship (6)
OGRESS – ERGO is a long established board game. Reverse it and add SS for ship. EDIT some below prefer the parsing GO for the game, RE for on, SS for ship, which I can see is less demanding as far as board game knowledge goes.
12 Dispersed, as licensed trade could be (13)
DECENTRALISED – (LICENSED TRADE)*.
15 Partly useful — narrow like some bones (5)
ULNAR – the ulna bening the longer of the two bones in the forearm; hidden word in USEF(UL NAR)ROW.
16 Dread voiced? Manage to accept conclusion of this forecast (9)
HOROSCOPE – HORO sounds like HORROR = dread, then COPE = manage, then insert S = conclusion of thiS.
17 Waste material produced by club after fight (5,4)
SCRAP IRON – SCRAP = fight, IRON = (golf) club.
19 Stick used by extremely brittle Muslim prince’s widow (5)
BEGUM – B E (extremes of brittle) GUM (stick). An Urdu word derived originally from Turkish; familiar too as a surname, as in Shemima Begum who was recently in the News, being a teenage Isis bride trying to return to the UK.
20 Overseas leader’s note misinterpreted race’s torment (13)
CONCERTMASTER – C (note) then (RACES TORMENT)*. The leader, first violininst, of an orchestra, more usually called just the leader in UK, but derived from KONZERTMEISTER in German,
22 Voucher scam taking in publisher (6)
COUPON – CON (scam) has OUP (Oxford Univ. Press) inserted.
23 Sports contest initially banned in most of Leinster town (8)
BIATHLON – B I = initial letters of banned in, ATHLON = most of Athlone, a large town in central Ireland on the River Shannon.
25 Isotonic solution chap brought into function (6)
SALINE – AL, a chap, is borught into SINE, a trig. function.
26 King trapped in vessel leads to banner headline (8)
STREAMER – R for king goes into STEAMER.
Down
1 Precipitate downfall of brash hangers-on in court (10)
CLOUDBURST – LOUD (brash) BURS (hangers-on) go into CT for court. BUR is a less usual spelling of BURR.
2 Small child’s drink (3)
TOT – Double definition.
3 Old metalworker alternatively employed in seagoing vessel (7)
LORINER – OR (alternatively) goes into LINER a seagoing vessel. The Worshipful Company of Loriners is one of the ancient Livery companies of the City of London, makers of metal horse tackle; the word is derived from Latin LORUM meaning bridle.
4 Police officer, one demanding payment for engine booster (12)
SUPERCHARGER – SUPER being a senior cop, and CHARGER being one asking for payment. Someone has taken the trouble to write a Wiki article explaining how a supercharger differs from a turbocharger, I glazed over quite quickly but you might find it fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercharger .
6 Stars secure as you and me? (7)
PEGASUS – PEG = secure, as verb; AS US.
7 Old battleship from Aden at sea in dry period (11)
DREADNOUGHT – DROUGHT has (ADEN)* inserted. There have apparently been 10 Navy warships so named, since 1553, the latest being a class of submarine.
8 Baby food from river, one in South Wales (4)
RUSK – R for river, the River Usk being found in South Wales.
11 Musician caught by Liberal painter digesting popular film (12)
CLARINETTIST – C (caught) L (Liberal) ARTIST (painter); the artist then digests IN (popular) and ET (the movie).
13 Narrow American abandoning stock covered by agreement (11)
CONTRACTUAL – CONTRACT – narrow, as verb: USUAL (stock) loses its US.
14 Old woman in dam near barking dog (10)
WEIMARANER – WEIR (dam) has MA (old woman) inserted, then (NEAR)*, barking being the anagrind. Weimaraners are beautiful silver-grey-brown hunting dogs, I’d like one but I’m too old to exercise one enough. So we’ve got a 15 year old wire-haired fox terrier instead, who can do 100 yards on a good day.
18 Game taking place over in borders of Pakistan (7)
PONTOON – Twenty-one, vingt-et-un, pontoon, names for the same card game, which we used to play for money, along with brag, in secret places at school. P N the borders of Pakistan, insert ONTO (taking place) O (over).
19 Little creature regularly baited around Orient (7)
BEASTIE – B I E the alternate letters of baited, around EAST. As in the ‘tim’rous beastie’ in Rabbie Burns poem ‘To a Mouse’,
21 Book theatre turns (4)
ACTS – double definition.
24 Scottish smoker cross about being abandoned by English (3)
LUM – a MULE is a cross, ‘about’ = ELUM, then remove the E. Scottish word for a chimney, often found in crosswordland; I learnt it from a Scottish pal in France who at Hogmanay kept wishing me ‘may yer lum aye reek,’

55 comments on “Times 27477 – nothing to be afraid of, or 7d.”

  1. I was reluctant to accept CLARINETTIST, with the double T. I parsed the clue, but thought a letter was missing, till I checked the enumeration. NHO LORINER, but it had to be. POI was BIATHLON but just because it’s the only sports thing what fits the def. Not knowing the bloody town, it looked to me like the B would be stuck “in” whatever beheaded or truncated unknown burg made up the rest of the clue. LOI WEIMARANER, after realizing only “near” was anagrammed, and not also “dam” (“Or is that ‘darn’? Damn!”)

    Edited at 2019-10-09 06:19 am (UTC)

  2. I did most of this in less than 20 mins but was defeated by Begum, Biathlon and Weimaraner.

    COD: Decentralised. Nice anagram.

  3. Jackkt beat me to it, but I see that there is indeed a board game called ERGO; NHOI. But isn’t ‘A on B’ BA? which would give SSOGRE. (Or, if ‘on ship’ indicates S…S, SOGRES.) Jack’s explained this a couple of times, but I always forget (GBA: Gregg’s Binary Amnesia). FOI 1ac, seldom happens; and then got SPIDER. Rather chuffed to spot a non-rhotic homophone; less chuffed to find there was a second at 16ac. DNK LORINER, only lorimer, but figured it had to be a variant. Surprised by 2d, QC material.

    Edited at 2019-10-09 06:16 am (UTC)

    1. I was taught that A on B should be used in a down clue to indicate AB, but it’s less clear if it’s an across clue. For the record, I parsed it like Jack, which avoids the question.
    2. I’m glad you picked up the A on B = BA convention, Kevin, as I was going to raise it myself to dispose of the ERGO theory, but this time you beat me to it. Anyway you have it absolutely correct although there have been exceptions in past puzzles, and even Peter B was not aware or sure about it at one time. All the stuff I assembled on the subject is on my own TftT page accessible by clicking my user-id . It was the result of a discussion started by Nila Palin (I’ve got the name right this time!).
  4. How odd. I wonder if one has to take a test to determine class placement, or is a person could just go wherever they feel most comfortable… or likely to win!
    1. Your placing in the first round determines which group you are in, so in a sense there is a test to determine class placement!
    2. It is odd. If you’re in 30th place you just come last in the first group, but if you’re in 31st place you win a prize! Likewise 60th/61st.

      Edited at 2019-10-09 09:11 am (UTC)

      1. That’s not quite how it works. The three groups are entirely distinct, so it’s not a case of arbitrarily selecting a cut-off point after 30 and 60 solvers and giving the next solver a prize. If you are in Group B, for instance, while you could still win a prize, the trade-off is that you are debarred from winning any of the bigger Group A prizes or having the kudos and satisfaction of appearing in the final Group A rankings. Effectively, the prelims split the solvers into three divisions: a bit like the Premier League, Championship and League One!

        I think it’s worth saying that in many ways, the competition structure is very similar to previous years. It’s just that 66 of the solvers who would usually go home after one round, now get to stay to compete in a further round – and have a reasonable chance of winning something.

        For more info, the webpage is: thetimes.co.uk/crosswordchampionship

        David Parfitt
        (Puzzles Editor, Puzzles Editor)

        1. Thanks David. I like the format, though extending your football analogy I might need you to go down to the Vauxhall Conference to give me a chance 🙂
        3. I don’t really have any objection to it – I recognise the value of allowing people to compete for a bit longer and I don’t care about winning a prize – but I do find it a bit odd.
          My more substantive objection to the new arrangements is the timing but I am willing to concede – reluctantly – that you can’t necessarily organise things according to my personal scheduling convenience.

          Edited at 2019-10-09 11:08 am (UTC)

      2. I thought it was odd at first, as well, but on reflection, this is how lots of competitive leagues work. It is often remarked upon in cricket, to give another example, that the team which wins Division 2 of the County Championship gets a trophy and a cash prize – the team which finishes 5th in Division 1 gets neither of those. Not everyone thinks this is fair, but that doesn’t stop it happening…

        Anything can happen on the day, of course, but my previous performances suggest I am a good candidate to be bottom of the Premier League – will I feel better if I qualify for Group A and finish 30th, or just miss out on the top tier, and do well in Group B, thus winning an actual prize? I guess this is what fans of West Brom ask themselves every season.

        1. I guess that like Premier League teams, Group A puzzlers will earn more overall once you consider sponsorship deals 😉
  5. 16:24 … I got into a real mess for a while, not noticing that my single-T clarinetist had fallen one square short of the STREAMER, giving me a clarinetistt and making the sporting event even more perplexing.

    I’m slightly surprised to learn from jackkt that WEIMARANER has only appeared once before. It feels much more familiar than that.

    Confession time re. CONCERTMASTER. I was utterly baffled by the ‘overseas’ bit and eventually assumed concertmaster could be a sarcastic term for the political leader of ‘anywhere foreign’. This may be because I lived in Canada for a decade and was a regular at the local symphony, where a CONCERTMASTER was of course entirely standard. Having rarely been to concerts since returning to the UK, I’d forgotten that concertmasters were ever leaders. Proof that you can never actually be overseas. You’re always exactly where you are.

  6. 10ac is GO (game) reversed [knocked back], RE (on), SS ship).

    A technical DNF here as I gave in and looked up the dog and the sports contest. I was going to say NHO WEIMARANER but it has come up once before, 9 years ago, when I also didn’t know it. Sport related clues hold fear for me, so that in combination with ‘town in Leinster’ (a place of which I know nothing except vaguely that its in Ireland somewhere) was enough to have me reaching for aids after only a few moments thought.

    I knew LORINER as an alternative to the more familiar ‘Lorimer’ which survives as a not uncommon surname.

    Edited at 2019-10-09 06:09 am (UTC)

    1. Yeah, that was my take. Never heard of that board game.

      Edited at 2019-10-09 06:52 am (UTC)

  7. Much of my time today was spent on BIATHLON which took several trawls of the alphabet to finally come up with.

    I like the new format of the TCC, largely because I am a middling solver and so it gives me something to aim for rather than just making up the numbers. Maybe my view would be different if I was amongst the top solvers.

  8. Ok with this. The same difficulties as others (e.g. WEIMARANER, BIATHLON) but I managed to parse them without aids.

    I took PONTOON as “taking place” = on and “over” = too, but I didn’t like it over much. How does “onto” equate with “taking place”?

    2. In solving, that was my (unsatisfactory) take on how the clue worked. Post-solve Oxford didn’t help, but Chambers has “to a place” as a ?verb? as a definition of onto ?preposition? Still extremely unsatisfactory – another example of the editors of Chambers just making things up as a joke on the rest of us – but it seems to let the editor and setter off the hook.
      Otherwise… failed on biathlon/Athlone which I’m sure we’ve had before. Is Leinster in Wales? Who knows?

      Edited at 2019-10-09 01:27 pm (UTC)

  9. A DNF for me; I managed to find the BIATHLON and vaguely remembered Athlone from my Big List of Crossword Stuff, but the unknown dog at 14d had me still barking up the wrong wordplay (assuming DAM NEAR was anagrist) when my hour bell went off.

    Oh well. At least I managed to come up with BEGUM and LORINER correctly along the way, shrugging off the strange “onto” and not worrying why a CONCERTMASTER was from overseas along the way.

  11. About 35 minutes while the world moves around me. Mrs BW is supervising as removal men move my in-laws furniture to their new assisted living home. She clearly needs no help from me. LOI WEIMARANER, a dog I know but whose spelling needed all checkers. A methodical solve. COD to HOROSCOPE. Thank you Pip and setter.
  12. Managed to misspell WEIMARANER with a middle E, despite the clue being quite clear. Lovely dogs. I take it your 15 year-old is past diving down rabbit holes, Pip!
    Peter Lorimer (not LORINER) was a Scottish winger who played for Leeds in their “Damned United” days as I remember it.
    28m 13s but with one error.
  13. Relatively easy puzzle today although I had to check the spelling of the dog. Didn’t understand the overseas reference at 20A and can’t see that the clue needs it. Knew LORINER from the Livery Company.
  14. 25 minutes, but didn’t pay enough attention to wordplay, so had WEIMARINER at 14d.
    Not being aware of the board game ERGO, I parsed 10a as GO reversed + ‘on’=RE + SS, so significance of “A on B” wasn’t relevant.
  16. 11:16. A steady, enjoyable solve with a few funny words to keep the level of interest up. A classic Times puzzle really.
    A friend of mine has a wire-haired WEIMARANER so they’re perfectly familiar to me. He’s a very good-natured dog but daft as a brush.
    I wondered briefly if SCRAP WOOD was a thing.
  17. I got well and truly bogged down in this one, but eventually brought it to heel after I stopped trying to use DAM NEAR as anagrist for the dog. We’ve had it fairly recently in a Jumbo, I think. A careless DREADNAUGHT held up HOROSCOPE for a while. Knew LORIMER and have a vague feeling LORINER came up in the not too distant past as an alternative spelling, leading to a discussion on Vaux draymen and Lorimer’s Ale. CONCERTMASTER and BIATHLON were my last 2 in. 55:09. Thanks setter and Pip.
  18. ….was Athlone, as it appeared on the dial of our enormous radio set. Like John Dun, I spent too long juggling with “dam near” before the penny finally dropped.

    I needed to write out the anagrist before I could see CONCERTMASTER.

    Thanks to Pip for parsing CONTRACTUAL – my only biff.

    My earworm for the day is BEASTIE by Jethro Tull.

    FOI CATALYST
    LOI BIATHLON
    COD WEIMARANER
    TIME 12:39

  19. DNF for me, giving up in the 15th minute with BIATHLON unsolved – I should have got it from the checkers, but having never heard of Athlone (or, at least, having forgotten it – it rings a vague bell as having come up in a crossword before) the cryptic wasn’t going to help much.

    WEIMARANER looked marginally more plausible than WEIMARENAR so fortunately that one was OK. Dogs are almost as bad for me as plants.

  20. A neighbour up the street used to have two WEIMARANERs and very eye-catching they were. I agree with Guy, Jack et al on the parsing of OGRESS and I didn’t bother with PONTOON though I still don’t quite see “onto”=taking place. Royal ladies of yore (the BEGUM Aga Khan and Princess Alice of Athlone) produced the necessary in the SE corner, otherwise I’d have been stuck for a town in Leinster. I stalled in the SW corner for a bit thinking there must be a “man” in the isotonic solution and wondering how to squeeze Amos into 21d. 18.26
  21. This has to be as Jack has it (sorry Pip, it really is the game go after all) because The Times never has AB for A on B in an across clue, so ‘on’ isn’t a juxtaposition indicator here and it is an indicator of something, in this case ‘re’.
  22. With a good third of that on the meastro and the dog, which I eventually worked out. Lorimer (as in Peter of Leeds) means the same as Loriner. Peter was renowned for having the fastest shot in the League.
  23. A bit of a struggle, it seems, though it’s hard to see exactly why with hindsight. That makes it a good puzzle to my mind, or just means that I was being a bit thick-headed.
  24. I think that you have the number of the crossword wrong in the title. Apologies if it has been mentioned above.
  25. Well I got the rest in 20 mins, but BIATHLON and WEIMARANER had me stumped for the other 10 mins. To keep the 2 most misleading cryptics in the hardest words in the puzzle left me flummoxed. Didn’t help that I’ve never come across the said dog.
    As usual a curate’s egg of a crossword.
  26. Becalmed for ages with 2 to go, but I eventually deciphered WEIMARANER, another of these dog breeds I’d never heard of, but will hopefully remember now, and BIATHLON, being somewhat surprised that the B was not in the middle. I had no idea which county it was in but I did know ATHLONE was a town somewhere in Ireland. No particular stand-out clues for me today. 18:42
  27. Well, I thought it was tricky – needed 2 sessions to finish it. No time recorded, as I was doing other stuff alongside it.
    I dunno about the championships… Last 3 years I’ve qualified and taken part with no real hope of winning, but just there for the experience. The new format has spooked me a bit, though; partly owing to the management of my ET at this sort of thing – it sort of helps if I know exactly what to expect.
    Thanks pip, good blog.
  28. No real time to offer today as I “lost concentration” on the way in favour of the charms of Morpheus. CONTRACTUAL I struggled with as I surmised it might be an Americanism for something cut short so failed to see the definition. Add me to those who couldn’t see what overseas was doing in the maestro clue: it felt like a word in British English.
  29. If anyone is still there, I’d love to know how ‘onto’ can equal ‘taking place.
    1. There have been various comments / interpretations of this earlier in the blog. The only way I could parse it was “taking place” = “on” [Despite the rain the match is on / taking place after all] and “over” = “too” as in overcomplicated = too complicated. Jeffrey
  31. Stumped by the dog and the town so DNF, did the rest of it in 32 mins, everything else I would have said has been said already!

    Templar

  32. Phew. I got an F for this puzzle – much better than my previous run of DNFs – but it took me half an hour. LORINER went in with a shrug since, like others here, I knew only “lorimer”. However, I had no idea what either a LORINER or a lorimer does, and would have guessed that it had something to do with falconry, cabinet making, coconut processing or the like. Thanks to Pip (backed up by Wikipedia – not that I don’t trust you) for the clarification.
    BEGUM (as a word) was also unknown, of course – anyone who actually knows all these supremely obscure words is obviously in league with the devil (or plays too much Scrabble).

    Oh, I’m with Tringmardo in wondering how “onto” equates with “taking place”.

    My LOsI were BIATHLON (I’d’ve guessed that Leinster was a town, which left me no hope of knowing Athlone, though I’m sure it’s terribly nice) and CONCERTMASTER. For the latter, I sat staring at the clue for a long time not being able to decide which way up to hang it, and I’m still not sure how I arrived at the answer.

  34. Pretty much like yesterday’s, I finished correctly in just over an hour on the timer, but with a longish break just before the end, after which the last few (LORINER, WEIMARANER, BIATHLON) just appeared out of nowhere. I have no idea what’s going on inside my brain, what there is of it.

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