Times 27481 – Under the wether

51 comments on “Times 27481 – Under the wether”

1. Generally smooth sailing, with a couple of DNKs (ACCENTOR, PUNCHBALL American game though it be) and a couple of biffs (DECREPIT, GLOCKENSPIEL). FOI SWISH, LOI SPARSE, although I thought of it at the start; SPARE=mad? (I note the setter used ‘about’ 3 times–5ac, 14ac, 1d–twice for inclusion, once for reversal.) FALCON was late in coming, as I took ‘to the west’ as a reversal indicator. U, when next you rise from your bed of pain, there are some definitions lacking an underline, and 8d should read [gree]N.
   1. Thanks, Kevin. I imagine you are wet but celebrating…
      1. Celebrating? Wet? On edit: Having read Horryd’s comment, I infer that Japan beat Scotland in a rugby game, and that it was wet? To answer H, I’m about as into rugby as cricket; I’ve never watched more of a match than might show up on the evening news.

         Edited at 2019-10-14 02:21 am (UTC)

   2. ‘Go spare’ is to get ravingly angry
      1. Thanks; I inferred that at the time (or rather inferred ‘insane’ rather than ‘angry’), and Ulaca has since provided the parsing of the clue.
2. I too was about 40 mins, sensa lurgy, but a bit the worse for wear after the Japan Scotland slug-fest. Wow! Is Our Kev into ‘rugger’?

   FOI 1ac SKIPPING

   LOI 9ac ACCENTOR

   COD 4dn NEO-DARWINISM

   WOD 7dn DECREPIT

3. A technical DNF. One of those puzzles where I had done quite well and worked out a number of tricky words that were either unknown or forgotten, but I was still left with a couple of gaps where I wasn’t convinced I’d recognise the answers when I saw them so after 40 minutes I gave up and resorted to aids. Sometimes in that situation I’d find myself determined to struggle on and not be beaten, but I was frankly bored with this one by that stage.

   The answers that did for me were ATLANTEAN and VIRIDIAN, both on their first outing in a 15×15 and both now underlined in wavy red by my spellchecker. My successes were ACCENTOR and ISCHIA (also their first outing and underlined in red), and MENANDER which has appeared once before.

   I’m tempted to say that in general the puzzle was bordering on the wilfully obscure without being remotely entertaining or amusing in compensation, but it could just be down to me feeling a bit grumpy. Certainly it wasn’t typical Monday fare anyway.

   Edited at 2019-10-14 04:06 am (UTC)

4. Yes, like Jack, I found this relying on too much obscure knowledge to be really enjoyable.

   I really liked some clues, e.g. ASSASSIN, GLEESOME, DECREPIT, where the clever wordplay turns out to be surprisingly simple. But the “double obscurities” (e.g. knowing Warwickshire and Wick; ISA as a savings account and ISCHIA as an island, Atlantan and ATLANTEAN) on top of a lot of other GK (ACCENTOR, VIRIDIAN, braw and PUNCHBALL) just seemed like too much hard work.

   I was happy to finish with all my guesses correct, though I did check a few items before submission.

   Thanks, U, for the sheepish title and timely blog despite your indisposition. I hope you get better soon!

   1. Pleased you didn’t write the title off as a typo…

      I checked my SNITCH alignment and it is 1.26. Does this mean a) I do better on easier puzzles than harder, b) I do better on harder puzzles than easier, c) I have completely missed the point or d) I am in danger of turning into a Neutrino?

      1. Yes, (a) is correct on the basis on my analysis. Does that seem right from your experience?
         1. Absolutely. I’m a flat-track bully!
5. By the way, I’ve done some work on identifying Neutrinos and documented this on the SNITCH site under a new section. Some of you might find this interesting, as I think it allows us to differentiate Neutrinos from other fast solvers.

   It also gives some insights on how I intend to update Reference solvers for the SNITCH in future months.

   I will post a link that someone can unspam for me in a linked comment. And I welcome any feedback.

   1. OTHER fast solvers? I believe you mean fast solvers.
      1. Indeed I do! Please give yourself a nerd gold star 🙂
   2. And the link is: https://xwdsnitch.herokuapp.com/solvers/neutrinos.

      You can also browse to the normal SNITCH page and select “Neutrinos” in the top right navigation menu.

      1. Unspammed
   3. More fantastic work, starstruck. I did skim that page, and understood exactly as much as I would have done had it been written in Swahili, but I’m very grateful there are people who DO understand these things and care enough to put together things like this. Thank you!
   4. Very interesting. Thank-you for that. You’ve got me thinking about what makes the low ratios. I have been tracking my own NITCH v SNITCH for quite some time, but I haven’t been excluding the times when I make 1 or more mistakes. My conjecture is that a NITCH;SNITCH of <1 means you are improving…. or I like to think I am! I need to do more analysis as I also record times and NITCHES for the weekend puzzles. More anon!
   5. Well, that’s cleared up a lot for me. I shall now count how many neutrinos are above me in the table, as I today reached my highest ever position of 39th.

      Thanks very much.

   6. My only feedback as a data nerd is that I am, as always, loving your work 🙂
      1. May I write an open letter to all of you nerds? If there was such a programme as Strictly Come Nerding I would be the producer’s first choice. I am still sending airmail letters trying to procure paper for my telex machine.

         So, from quite a low base, may I ask if it is possible to know:
         How many people are there on the TfTT site? What is their geographical distribution?

   7. I am extremely honoured to be (apparently) the reference solver’s reference solver! Also, breathing a sigh of relief that I passed the Turing Test.
   8. Hi Starstruck

      Very impressive work identifying the neutrinos!

      I couldn’t help but think you’d missed one or two out, though. Abramowich springs to mind…

      On the other side of the fence, shouldn’t vinyl1 be a reference solver?

      Dzhigit

      1. Thanks very much for the interest and the questions.

         Someone else mentioned Abramowitz, but it looks like they’ve only submitted one 15×15 cryptic on the Crossword Club page in the last 6 months (on 26 April). I’d be very keen to know if there are more entries that I’ve missed, as it would likely be a bug in my software.

         And I don’t think vinyl1 uses the Club submission for his solving. But, again, if you see entries that I’m missing, I’d be more than willing to investigate.

         Thanks again for taking the time to follow up.

6. 30 mins.
   Weird vocab.
   Thanks setter and U.
   1. ‘Abele’, anyway, is a NYT chestnut, alternating with ‘acer’.
7. … that’s why I sing in this key. All done in 24 minutes. GLEESOME was a bit of a biff, not quite sure if GLEE was the song or a type of singing. I knew VIRIDIAN as the Northern Ireland Electricity Service in its privatised incarnation, and ATLANTEAN as a bus made by Leyland Motors when they were still good at it. I didn’t know PUNCHBALL as a game, only as a boxer’s training accessory, but it could be nothing else. COD to MEANIE. Melanie was once a favourite of mine. What have I done to her song? Tricky in places. Thank you U and setter.
   PS My avatar was in the the ST General Knowledge Crossword yesterday.

   Edited at 2019-10-14 08:46 am (UTC)

8. Abandoned with a few left, for the reasons jackkt and others have alluded to.

   I did really like the SOCIALITE clue but I’m wondering why there’s a dash in it. Is that necessary for some technical reason that’s over my head?

9. starstruck_au has pretty much summed it up for me. COD to FALCON.
10. 49 minutes, with it mostly being the rather “out there” vocab that others have mentioned adding to my time. Having said that, this felt like an easy breath of modern fresh air compared to another crossword I’ve attempted recently that shall remain nameless, so perhaps I was at least in the right frame of mind…

    Hope the lurgy clears up fast, U.

    1. To put a name to that which shall remain nameless, was it Saturday? I found that tough going.
       1. I thought it was just the hangover that was causing me gyp, but I couldn’t do it on Sunday, either…
11. 22:45. That was a bit of a slog. I don’t know if I enjoyed it but working out obscurities from often quite devious wordplay is satisfying in its way.
12. Similar experience to others, not knowing PUNCHBALL, ATLANTEAN (my LOI), ABELE or MENANDER, but got there on the wordplay eventually. I did wonder if REB could mean sore to give BERWICKSHIRE for 14A, before I headed south-west to the Midlands. Held up for ages seeing FALCON as, like Kevin, I was looking for a reversal. 29:08.

    Edited at 2019-10-14 08:17 am (UTC)

13. I’m on jackkt s team, found this a slog with some weird words. Had to use aids to confirm 8d and 13a and didn’t understand 27a. Liked 5a, 11d, 15d. Tough and a bit too demanding.

    Edited at 2019-10-14 10:46 am (UTC)

14. Tricky for a Monday, and another chewy puzzle with plenty for the classicists. However, my main hold up came from biffing SOCIALIST at 15dn, which makes no sense at all, and left me trying to find the word which would fit _L_T_O_E. There isn’t one, as it turns out. I shall return tomorrow once I’ve bandaged this gunshot wound in my foot *limps away*
    1. What a clothole.
       1. 🙂
15. I found this a bit of a slog too and took 17:47. Mind you, I did miss some “quick wins”, for example not spotting how straightforward 1a was, considering ISA and CHI for 2d but not together, and starting at the “wrong” end of the alphabet on the alphabet trawl for counties.
16. 20:15. I found this puzzle engaging and enjoyable. There were a number of unknowns satisfyingly derived from wp: accentor, Atlantean, abele, viridian, gleesome, ischia, punchball and a few where the odd bit of GK was helpful: remembering Falmouth as a place in Cornwall helped with the river in 10ac, knowing of the Scottish town in 14ac and the Greek dramatist in 8dn for example.

    Edited at 2019-10-14 01:42 pm (UTC)

17. ….c’est le seule chose que je peux faire, et ce n’est pas bon ma. Puzzles ain’t what they used to be.

    NHO PUNCHBALL, or MENANDER, and parsed GLOCKENSPIEL afterwards (Ginger Baker played one on Cream’s “Those Were The Days”). How he ever lived to be 80 I don’t know !

    FOI SKIPPING
    LOI GLEESOME
    COD ASSASSIN (also liked WARWICKSHIRE)
    TIME 12:50

18. Bunged in quite a few without really understanding but they came good.
19. Like others I met a lot of words I didn’t really know – including the baseball like game! – only some of which were clued easily enough for me to sort out.
20. A more or less average 23 minutes, but for all the shared reasons above no pushover.
    In PUNCH-BALL apparently, “the “batter” essentially plays “fungo” without a bat, bouncing or tossing up the ball and then using a volleyball-type approach to put the ball (usually a spaldeen or pensie pinkie) in play, punching the ball with his fist. Stealing and bunting are not allowed.” I’m glad I know that.
    I managed (initially) to devise SECTIONAL from the anagrist at 15 which as wrong on two levels.

    I am in awe of the analytical and computational skills displayed by starstuck, not least with respect to the indisputable identification of neutrinos. I’m sure some of you will say it’s easy stuff, but even HTML (if that’s the right order) is a closed book to me. Great to have such people included in our shining company.

    1. That reads like an extract from How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen.
21. I found this tough for a Monday, to the extent that I became totally bogged down in the NW corner with 1a, 3d and 9a missing. It didn’t help that I’d put NEW DARWINISM instead of NEO, but I did eventually spot that. However I still needed a wordfinder to convert my ____HBALL to PUNCHBALL, after which I saw SKIPPING with a facepalm moment, and then managed to work out the unknown ACCENTOR, which I may have got earlier if it hadn’t been for my stray W. So 48:39 with a cheat for 3d. Other unknowns constructed from wordplay were, ISCHIA, IBIDEM, MENANDER and VIRIDIAN. Not the most enjoyable of crosswords, perhaps due to the expectation that a Monday crossword wouldn’t usually be so obscure. However, thanks to the setter for the challenge, and to U for rising from his sick bed to enlighten us. Get well soon U. Thanks also go to Starstruck for the amazing insights he has produced into the workings of Neutrinos. I’m Awestruck!

    Edited at 2019-10-14 06:06 pm (UTC)

22. Let this run to 90 mins by which time I was bored.

    NHO ACCENTOR, ABELE, VIRIDIAN, MENANDER nor GLEE as a song. Must try harder with IBIDEM = in the same place. It’s not sticking.

23. Brain not fully in gear – resorted to aids to complete final four clues in SE corner – could not pluck “Viridian” from the recesses of my mind.
24. I feel I should comment more often on this site. I always read it – but usually in the night when there’s little left to say. Tonight, as usual, I check the site on my return from the pub quiz. As usual all has been said. But I really enjoyed this puzzle. I took a while to get started but had no problems once I’d found a way in. ACCENTOR was the only unknown vocab but what else could it be? A faster solve than usual for me. 20 minutes. Ann
25. An unnecessary question mark in 11d. It’s a straightforward parse isn’t it? Mr Grumpy
26. Well, here I am a day late. I found this one quite tough, needing several bashes at it for a total time of 49 minutes. Never heard of MENANDER, but then again I don’t expect he’s heard of me. ATLANTEAN and ACCENTOR were equally unknown, and ISCHIA was only vaguely familiar (or at least plausible once constructed). Phew.

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