Times 27484 – a solver in training

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time taken: 11:01. Relieved that this was correct as there is one answer that went in completely from wordplay, and I’m going to have to figure out how the definition plays in to things as I write it up (a quick check of Chambers does not help – it is 25 across).

I’m rather taken with this one – the surfaces are brilliant, there’s some good puns and tricky wordplay, so my sort of puzzle. Hope you did well!

Away we go…

Across
1 Stone seat from which one has furthest to rise? (4,6)
ROCK BOTTOM – ROCK(stone), BOTTOM(seat)
6 Means of dispatching members (4)
ARMS – double definition
9 Bed salesmen assuming new functions (10)
COTANGENTS – COT(bed), AGENTS(salesmen) containing N(new)
10 Disturb fairies, by the sound of it (4)
FAZE – Sounds like FAYS (or FAES if you are in the American South) for fairies
12 Record held by green worker, a better service provider (4,10)
TURF ACCOUNTANT –  ACCOUNT(record) inside TURF(green) and a worker ANT
14 Classical region‘s key citizen volunteers once, going west (6)
ATTICA – A(musical key), CIT(citizen), TA(volunteers) all reversed
15 Potentially dangerous mineral like prime salt (8)
ASBESTOS – AS(like), BEST(prime), OS(Ordinary Seaman, salt)
17 Our opponents adopting main rule of Olympians? (8)
THEARCHY – our opponents are THEY, insert ARCH(main)
19 Standard of Federation partially raised in tribute (6)
DOFFED – hidden inside standarD OF FEDeration
22 Reminder of past content expected in Good Friday sermon? (5-9)
CROSS-REFERENCE – double definition, the second one partly cryptic
24 Sentiment for those who perished on Scott’s last journey (4)
TRIP – RIP(sentiment for those who perished) after the last letter in ScotT
25 Local office bar, one entered on a points system? (6,4)
BRANCH LINE – BRANCH(local office), LINE(bar). OK – I got this from wordplay and shows how little I know about trains, points are the switches that allow trains to move from one track to another. Don’t tell anyone I’m the grandson of the stationmaster of Rockbank railway station.
26 Action man‘s love captured by Communist in Revolution (4)
DOER – O(love) inside RED(communist) reversed
27 “Gutsy” batting twice bagging international a half-century (10)
INTESTINAL – IN and IN (batting twice) containing TEST(international match), then A, L(50, half-century)

Down
1 Naughty drivers close to boundary (4)
RACY – the drivers are RAC, then the last letter in boundarY
2 Queen possibly needing case for garment she’s unlikely to wear (7)
CATSUIT – CAT(queen, possibly), and SUIT(legal case)
3 Supporter‘s complaint, on introduction of northern player (12)
BENEFACTRESS – BEEF(complaint) containing N(northern), then ACTRESS(player)
4 Extreme parts in twelfth edition come from such a source (6)
THENCE – the outside letters in TweftH EditioN ComE
5 Where to store stuff you formerly dumped in river (8)
OUTHOUSE – THOU(you, formerly) inside the river OUSE. Not the function I usually think of for this word, but it means any external building
7 Register liable to change again (7)
READAPT – READ(register), APT(liable)
8 Dismissed SA team lamented getting involved (5,5)
SWEPT ASIDE – SA SIDE(team) containing WEPT(lamented)
11 Baby bonnet, apparently, in secret storage space (5,4,3)
UNDER ONES HAT – love this clue – a baby bonnet could be an UNDER ONE’S HAT
13 Academist given extra time to work ground (10)
MASTICATED – anagram of ACADEMIST and T(time)
16 Fine fencing placed originally on a French pasture (5-3)
SHEEP-RUN – SHEER(fine) containing the first letter of Placed, then UN(a in French)
18 Gut-wrenching reason for going online? (7)
EMOTIVE – the reason for going online could be an E-MOTIVE
20 No one stands up to support particular sect (7)
FACTION – NO, I(one) all reversed after FACT(particlar)
21 Heartless orphan presented by the author as “spoilsport” (6)
MEANIE – remove the middle letter from orphan ANNIE, then put ME(the author) on top
23 Rock and roll dance north of the border (4)
REEL – double definition

42 comments on “Times 27484 – a solver in training”

  1. Technical DNF here as I used aids for 3 clues, two of which involving things I’d never heard of, namely SHEEP-RUN (which Collins advises is an Australian term) and ‘fays’ meaning ‘fairies’. I should have got READAPT though.

    The clue to UNDER ONE’S HAT on its own would have been worth the price of admission.

    Edited at 2019-10-17 06:20 am (UTC)

  2. Very enjoyable puzzle. I was thinking US AND THEM for 17ac, my LOI, so it took a while for THEY to emerge.

    I also just caught up on the amazing neutrino analysis carried out by starstruck_au – excellent

    1. Thanks, aphis. As we noted yesterday, it highlights just how remarkable your normal times are – along with the other fast solvers. You guys are in a class of your own.
  3. Found this tough. Finally dredged up THEARCHY remembering ‘they’ from bridge scoring, and FAZE after alphabet trawl. I note that only three others have posted by 7.42 UK time.

    CODs to READAPT, for which I needed all the checkers, and MEANIE, on which I spent ages trying to fit ‘on’

    27’25”, Thanks gl and setter.

  4. As per Mr. Aphis (I reckon you’ll shortly be 100. Telegram etc! Marvellous!) a very enjoyable puzzle.

    I had one wrong. At 10ac I confidently expected a ‘wayke’ to be a Danish fairy. WAKE it weren’t, FAZE it was.

    FOI 9ac COTANGENT

    LOI 23dn REEL. I at first thought this might be a reference to the wee village of Jive just outside Kelso.
    I bet the Bolton Wanderer has been there.

    COD 13dn MASTICATED – the anagram completely failed to register as I took MA to be the Academist. 18 dn EMOTIVE took silver.

    WOD ATTICA as it reminded me of Ian Fleming’s contribution to the gossip columns of the mid-fifties.
    I have them all.

    This took me two half-hour sessions, and later 3.439 nano-seconds using the new improved ‘Super-Neutrino’ method.(So fast it wasn’t able to be recorded!)
    Suck on that Trevor Cooke & Co!

    Edited at 2019-10-17 06:55 am (UTC)

    1. Aphis99 was born in the sixties. My namesake (the former Australian PM) would be over 150 by now

  5. 28 mins.
    Lovely puzzle but needed a mammoth alphabet trawl for (LOI) Faze.
    Mostly I liked: Trip, Cross reference, Intestinal and COD to the baby bonnet.
    Thanks setter and G.
  6. 32 minutes, badly held up by LOI FAZE, a 26 by 26 alphabet trawl only producing an answer of FAZE on the third run. I never did properly learn to jive, H, but I could do simultaneous equations. That didn’t work quite as well in pulling the girls. With that track record, I liked COTANGENTS of course, but I enjoyed most the two long ones of TURF ACCOUNTANT and COD CROSS-REFERENCE. Earlier years of Thomas the Tank Engine and then trainspotting were helpful on BRANCH LINE. Enjoyable until the last bit. Thank you George and setter.
  7. Beaten in my hour by SHEEP RUN and THEARCHY. Just couldn’t find them. I enjoyed a lot along the road to my failure, especially E-MOTIVE, the baby bonnet and CROSS-REFERENCE. As with others, very much held up by FAZE; I knew both “fay” and “fae”, but in both cases only used as plurals themselves, with no need to stick an “s” on the end…
  8. High class puzzle with some brilliant definitions. Loved the points system but hats off to the baby bonnet. Thank you setter and well blogged George
  9. A steady solve again in near enough 27 minutes, with a liking for the CROSS-REFERENCE and of course the baby bonnet.
    READAPT with its underwhelming and biff proof collection of letters was my last in.
    Just saying: TA was once again a “volunteers once”.
    Decent time, George, and helpful blog.
  10. ….entering a song entitled ROCK BOTTOM for the Eurovision in 1977 was tempting fate, but Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran actually came second with it.

    My take on 25A is that bar = line as in heraldry. A train certainly needs to utilise a points system to access a branch line.

    I held myself up due to stubbornly refusing to accept that “academist” was anything other than RA, and only spotting that it was an anagram quite late in the day.

    After 14 minutes I came to a halt in the NE corner, and had to alpha-trawl FAZE. Even then I needed a further alpha-trawl on my LOI.

    FOI ARMS
    LOI READAPT
    COD INTESTINAL (although CATSUIT made me smile)

  11. Happy to finish in under 45 mins – I must have been helped by the “sheep-run” reference and managing to get FAZE quite quickly. And, like others, I really enjoyed the baby bonnet when the penny dropped.
  12. THEARCHY was my LOI. Many chuckles along the way – the bookies, the hat, the cross reference and BRANCH LINE.
  13. 48:24 I was slow on the uptake with lots of this but it was definitely a top notch puzzle. I was desperately trying to crowbar RA into my solution for 13dn for far too long, brilliant misdirection. DNK 16dn so that required a bit of working out. Also wanted the they in 17ac to be a them for ages. Great stuff!
  14. Another day, another enjoyable puzzle solved in a rather dilatory time. As well as the tricky READAPT/FAZE nexus, I also wasted a lot of time chasing THEM instead of THEY, though at least I was quick to answer the question “What do points make?”
  15. I remembered Morgan Le Fay from the King Arthur stories – she was the sorceress who got Merlin in a tizzy. I thought I recalled BRANCH LINE from the Flanders & Swann nostalgic Slow Train but having checked the lyrics I see it’s actually a “goods siding”. Yes, very good time George. 22.05
    1. I’m so pleased you mentioned the F&S song, Olivia, as it’s one of my very favourites of their lesser known pieces. I had already sought it out on YouTube this morning where there’s more than one version, but this is the best as it shows actual photos of most of the stations mentioned in the lyric: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTFcN8RsJbs

      Enough to bring a nostalgic tear to the eye!

      My local branch line station was Stanmore Village which was built in the style of a country chapel: http://www.stanmoretouristboard.org.uk/the-harrow-and-stanmore-railway/the-stanmore-branch-line.html

      1. Now THAT is a station. And thank you for the clip Jack, I hadn’t seen it before. Blandford Forum was the painfully remembered station for boarding school (closed about the time I was through with it) and Trouble House Halt was on a branch line near my parents’ house near Tetbury though I never actually stopped there.
      2. Labour government ? Shome mishtake shurely ? HMSO published Beeching’s report in 1963, at which point the Conservatives had been in power for some twelve years.

        Jim R

    2. Mooching round South West London a few weeks ago I chanced upon a house with a Blue Plaque dedicated to F&S and immediately though of this community.

      A quick check reveals that I was on Scarsdale Villas, Kensington: F&S

  16. Another flying start in the NW, with RACY FOI. Only TURF ACCOUNTANT and ATTICA had to wait for more inspiration(and crossers). I picked off some low hanging fruit in the rest of the grid, but then became becalmed and had to extract the rest like teeth. Liked CROSS REFERENCE and BRANCH LINE. SHEEP RUN and POI, MASTICATED took a while. I didn’t see the anagram for MASTICATED until I did a proof read before submitting, and spent a couple of minutes trying to justify RA or MA as the academist. Then “CLANG” went the penny. I also liked the IKEA clue at 27a. FAZE was my LOI after a brief moment of considering an alphabet trawl and then having an inspiration. 39:58. Thanks setter and George.
  17. This is the sort of puzzle I really like and usually blitz, with lots of hard-to-spot, offbeat definition: e.g. an under-one for a baby, or a better service provider. Maybe I was tired, but I was way off the wavelength and really struggled. Though unlike most had no trouble with FAZE – decided it must be a Z or an S to sound like a plural, and while not knowing FAY as fairy I knew fey as.. well I couldn’t define it but it’s something otherworldly/supernatural so was close enough.

  18. 14:40. I started well but hit the buffers about 3/4 of the way in and had to tease out the last handful of trickier clues (e.g. Thearchy, faze, swept aside, faction).
  20. I considered throwing in the towel with READAPT and FAZE missing, but was glad I persevered with my dictionary trawls. When I did get FAZE I thought it was a rather un-PC clue to do with campness – fey and fairies. Glad to realise the Times hadn’t lowered it’s tone.
  21. Flanders & Swann are absolute heroes to me, whereas Beeching is the opposite. The youtube comments are disingenuous .. he was tasked with reviewing railway profitability and decided for himself that closing all those that apparently weren’t, was the way forward. Whether it was him, Marples, or both – the fact remains that it has cost Britain very dear indeed
    1. Beeching was naïve. The Labour Govt told him to present his report in two portions. The first was about saving money by streamlining. The second was about investing into the streamlined railways to give an overall enhanced outcome. The Govt enacted part one and threw part two in the proverbial bin.
  22. Very much taken by this image of her Majesty, which surely has a future as an exclamation along the lines of Christ on a Bike. Finished this in 26’01” – slowed down at the end by sheep-run, branch line and thearchy. Altogether very enjoyable fare.
  23. All solved in an unimpressive time of 28:55… and feeling a bit thick. How could a baby’s bonnet be “under ones hat”, presumably revealed when you hat is 19A? I don’t get it.
    1. Took me a while to fall in but age wise a baby is an “under one”.

      Edited at 2019-10-17 04:11 pm (UTC)

  24. Half finished quickly, and half not so quickly. LOI the notorious READAPT/FAZE axis.

    Some good clues there…

  25. I see they’ve started advertising the championships again in the header. But again, not the sort of puzzle that’s going to have the punters queuing up to get in. This one relied too much on obscure GK (Sheep run, faze, thearchy). Not convinced by the alleged first definition of cross-reference either. Mr Grumpy

Comments are closed.