Times 27555 – TCC Heat 1 – where you from, pet?

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I see 47 of 81 solvers attempting this last December completed it correctly, while just 30 of 81 got all three in this heat correct. I tried it against the clock (not my usual habit) and found it took me 19 minutes, solved and understood, not just biffed in hope. Half of this time was spent, or wasted, on the SW corner where 21D refused to explain itself and 27A took too long to see. The long anagrams at 5D and 10D and the easy 4A got me off to a fast start. If they’re all as fair and straightforward as this, I might splash out a fee and train fare next year!

Across
1 Stay on edge (6)
RESIDE – RE = on (the subject of), SIDE = edge e.g. of a triangle. My son’s in-laws in Scotland, when we risk a visit, often ask us “where are you staying?”. It took me a while to realise they meant “where are you living / residing?”, not where were we temporarily dossing down in Aberdeenshire while visiting them. So I think this definition has a Scottish tang.
4 Dating drunk drinking fashionable cocktail (3,3,2)
GIN AND IT – (DATING)* with IN (fashionable) inserted.
9 Really hot cafe, door guards going around (2,5)
DE FACTO – Reversed hidden in H(OT CAFE D)OOR… Latin meaning ‘in reality’.
11 Nervous when there’s wages about to steal (7)
PANICKY – PAY around NICK.
12 Starts off at seven in the morning, after small tea (5)
ASSAM – A S = starts from ‘at seven’, S for small, AM = in the morning.
13 Dog with dog lead evenly trimmed (9)
CURTAILED – CUR = dog 1, TAIL = dog 2 verb, E D = lEaD evenly.
14 Artificial part of expert’s argument (10)
PROSTHESIS – A Pro’s thesis would be an expert’s argument.
16 Broadcast live in two different ways (4)
BEAM – BE and AM being two synonyms for live, exist, as infinitive and present tense.
19 Fuss excessively, hosting duke (2-2)
TO-DO – Insert D for duke into TOO excessively.
20 Rows in southern river, showing determination (10)
STEELINESS – S, TEES river, has LINES inserted.
22 Foremost of adventurers travelling to Saturn? (9)
ASTRONAUT – A, (TO SATURN)*. Gets my CoD award.
23 Teeming area with wood (5)
AWASH – A(rea) W(ith) ASH wood.
25 Tough soldiers, retreating Roman men (7)
SIGNORI – IRON (tough) GI’S (soldiers) all reversed.
26 Russian politician still to admit large crime (7)
YELTSIN – YET (still) has L inserted then SIN for crime. Seems a lifetime since old Boris ran Russia, Putin has been the man so long. Actually it was 1991 – 1999.
27 Hanging around with sailor and Yankee in band (8)
TARRYING – TAR = sailor, RING = band, insert Y for Yankee.
28 Pair with say back pain (6)
TWINGE – TWIN = pair, EG (say) reversed. Trivia: near me and Rutland Water is a small village on the A606 called Whitwell. As you enter the village, a proper sign says “TWINNED WITH PARIS” ! Apparently it is, sort of. The Charman of the Parish council in 1980 wrote to President Chirac, proposing why his village was suitable for twinning with Paris (being a centrally located metropolis) and if no reply was received, they would take it as agreed. None was, so it is.
Down
1 Seaside resort one favoured for special treatment (3,6)
RED CARPET – REDCAR is by the seaside, near Middlesborough I believe; PET = one favoured, also a much used term of endearment e,g, by checkout operators, in the North East. I have never been to Redcar, but I had the idea it was more of a place for a RETORT than a resort. Is steel works tourism the new thing? Maybe John_dun can tell us.
2 Strongboxes commandos lined with iron (5)
SAFES – The SAS have FE (Fe, iron) inside them.
3 Get rid of much of cold that’s upset friend (8)
DECIMATE – ICED upset, MATE = friend. If you decimated something you’d remove nine-tenths, or get rid of much of it.
5 Mixed peel with mint in? Try with sauce (13)
IMPERTINENTLY – (PEEL MINT IN TRY)*.
6 Queen with extremely awful temper (6)
ANNEAL – Queen ANNE, add A(wfu)L.
7 Showing bust firm left beset by strike (9)
DECOLLETE – DELETE (strike) has CO and L inserted. A French word décolleté meaning having a low neckline. How much bust is shown is optional.
8 Flirted with you once in turning point (5)
TOYED – DOT (point) reversed, insert YE = you once.
10 Men helping to defend box and scoring (13)
ORCHESTRATION – OR (men), RATION (helping), insert CHEST (box).
15 One who’s experienced love, great LSD trips (3,6)
OLD STAGER – (O GREAT LSD)*.
17 Mechanic’s unfortunate bad luck (9)
MISCHANCE – (MECHANICS)*.
18 Papers turning a pallid colour in refuse (8)
DISALLOW – ID = papers, turning = DI, SALLOW = a pallid colour.
21 Community around London’s West End, reluctant to come forward (6)
COLONY – Annoyingly, I got hung up on the idea that the def. meant ‘reluctant to come forward’. But no, the thing is LON (London’d West End) inserted into COY meaning as it says. Even with *O*O*Y as my LOI there aren’t many options, but seeing how it parsed held me up.
22 Help when ready (5)
ASSET – AS (when) SET (ready).
24 Clergyman dismissing his first offence (5)
ARSON – PARSON dismisses his P.

​

75 comments on “Times 27555 – TCC Heat 1 – where you from, pet?”

  1. The first of these always seems to be any easy one, but I know better than to think I’d ever qualify. But I started slow, FOI being 19ac. I knew of REDCAR, had no idea where it is, let alone that it’s on the sea. Biffed 10d based on OR, then saw how it worked once I typed it; biffed 9ac similarly. POI SIGNORI, LOI COLONY; like Pip, I thought the def might be ‘reluctant…’, and thought ‘London’s West End’ might actually refer to some district in the West End; COLONY seemed unavoidable, but it took me a while to see the light. And like Pip, I’ll give my COD to ASTRONAUT.
    1. I was close to qualifying and your average is better than mine on the SNITCH which suggests you’d have a fair chance.
  2. Surprisingly easy fare and would be good for QCers to sharpen their claws.

    FOI 18ac TO DO or not TO DO? That is the question.

    LOI 21dn Once upon a time in Soho (London’s West End) existed the notorious Colony Club, the haunt of Francis Bacon and friends and run by the fearsome Muriel Belcher. Only for the very brave!

    COD Can’t give this to 22ac ASTRONAUT as on the print-out the clue reads Satum and not Saturn. More kerning please Ed.! So 1dn RED CARPET from this week’s Golden Globes where Ricky Jervais holds court.

    WOD 7dn DECOLLETTE taking the plunge.

    Time 21 minutes – in the old days, down at Park Lane, this would have taken quite a bit longer due to that ‘Friday’ fear factor!

    Shanghai is twinned with Los Angeles.

    Edited at 2020-01-08 06:49 am (UTC)

      1. I suspect only New Yorkers would know of the NY club Paul. It’s a very posh and rather stuffy women’s club on the Upper East Side. Though I did see Andy Warhol going in there once (I presume as a guest) I’ve never set foot in it myself.
        1. Paul, combining the two clubs would be a nightmare. Muriel would have forty fits! It would probably have been known as ‘The Queen’s Club’, with Andy and Francis the first life members.
        2. I figured the JohnBulls would have to Google it, but if they did they would immediately understand why twinning would be a nightmare for either membership and good fun for the rest of us.
  3. 27 minutes. I lost time working out DECOLLETE because the only associated word I knew was DECOLLETAGE, and it wouldn’t fit. I wonder if any contestants biffed PROSTHETIC at 14ac, as I so nearly did?

    Edited at 2020-01-08 06:37 am (UTC)

  4. This puzzle seemed easier than those I tackled in heat 2 but that could well be because I didn’t solve this in exam conditions.

    I did come close to biffing PROSTHETIC like Jack mentioned above but managed to avoid it. My only doubt on finishing was what WASH had to do with wood in AWASH, having not spotted the W for ‘with’. LOI DÉCOLLETÉ, where I was thinking I had to get a G in there somewhere towards the end, realising afterwards that I’d been thinking of the more familiar ‘décolletage’.

  5. 12:22 … a gentle start to the series. No doubt there are tougher to come. Can’t argue with ASTRONAUT as COD.

    Thanks for the Rutland trivia, Pip. Presumably Whitwell is known to travel show presenters as “the Paris of the East Midlands.”

  6. I confess to having biffed PROSTHETIC and not gone back, but I was going for speed today to give myself something of the feel of a championship, albeit from the comfort of my sofa. 32 minutes wasn’t bad, I feel, even with one wrong, but I should definitely add “just have another check of your question marks at the end” as a tactic on these ones…

    Edited at 2020-01-08 08:47 am (UTC)

  7. 23 minutes. with LOI BEAM after I corrected a misspelt DECOLLETE. I spent some time trying to make it ‘prosthetic’ before I saw PROSTHESIS. Isn’t REDCAR the ultimate place to spend your holidays? This was easier than I expected, but I’m still glad I didn’t enter. Thank you Pip and setter(s).
    1. For some reason your comment prompted me to reflect that ‘the ultimate place to spend your holidays’ and ‘the last place I’d spend my holidays’ are two phrases that appear to mean the same thing, but very much don’t.
      1. Captain Corcoran: I am the last person to insult a British sailor, Sir Joseph.
        Sir Joseph: You are the last person who did, Captain Corcoran.
      2. Like most of my jokes, it’s not original. I first heard it as a teenager, told by a scouser to a Manc comparing the microclimates of the two cities. He followed it up with: “In most places the tide goes in and out. In Manchester, it comes straight down.”
  8. 30 mins with yoghurt, granola, etc. So I don’t think I have what it takes.
    No question marks, no MERs, no dramas, no nothing.
    Thanks excellent setter and Pip.
  9. Delighted with a sub-30m time, held up like Pip by wrestling with the wrong end of the COLONY clue for some time, eventually entered with a shrug and a prayer. I only knew Redcar with ‘racing from’ prepended – never knew it was on the coast.

    Are the SAS technically commandos? They are drawn from the Paras, while the RM elite go to the SBS I believe.

    Some lovely clues here, thanks setter and Pip.

  10. One of the easiest Championship puzzles I can remember .. presumably part of their deliberate plan to get more folk involved.
    The first nine years of my life were spent in Sheffield, and I have fond, if nowadays rather vague memories of happy holidays spent in Redcar, Staithes, Runswick Bay, Robin Hood’s Bay …
  11. I had this one all correct in Heat One in around 8 minutes – today it took me 8:20 and I got one wrong, as for some reason I thought PROSTHETIC seemed to be the better option. In the Championships I considered it and dismissed it. A typo in the Concise for the second day in a row too, so the Christmas hangover continues well into the new year…
  12. 7:04, but with the silly speed-solving error of PROSTHETIC. I just saw the definition ‘artificial’, biffed and moved on. I don’t actually solve like this in the championship – I am terrified of mistakes so make much more effort to understand everything – so I don’t think I’d have made the same mistake in that context. Perhaps there’s a lesson in that for me, but if there is I don’t intend to learn it.
    I always get REDCAR and Redruth mixed up, so I was a bit surprised by the reference to the seaside.

    Edited at 2020-01-08 10:13 am (UTC)

  13. 13 mins, handwritten on paper, so on the easier side. I didn’t enter this year, as I was a bit unsettled by the new format, and was also on the waiting list for a Steve Hackett show on that date, but was encouraged by this. It is one of the easiest championship puzzles I’ve seen, though. Thanks pip.
  14. I kept expecting to hit a wall but never did. I am slightly surprised that such a high percentage of entrants failed to complete it. Obviously ‘exam conditions’ must play their part and the need to move on to the other puzzles.
  15. 19 mins but with a RED XARPET. Wouldn’t have done that in the champs at least.
    Like our esteemed blogger, my only difficulty was with COLONY, which I had to come here to parse. Also, I only knew DÉCOLLETAGE!
  16. As a sign of the way crosswording brains work (well…my crosswording brain), I had to get a few clues in before I was absolutely certain this was a puzzle I’d solved before, and apparently all correctly. Once I got going, I remembered some elements (most notably that other people on the day biffed PROSTHETIC with much wailing and gnashing of teeth); and couldn’t remember others, so getting to COLONY took longer than you’d hope from someone who already knew the right answer. As on the day, got there in the end.
  17. My fastest time ever! BUT ….

    1. I did do this in the Championship itself – where I managed to solve it all correctly in about 11 or 12 mins, I think.

    2. Today I had two errors! PROSTHETIC for PROSTHESIS and a typo, ARSSN for ARSON.

    So yes, as keriothe points out, you have to be very careful on the day and spend a minute or two longer to try and avoid careless errors.

    And yes, as pootle and others have suggested, I think this was a lot easier Championship puzzle than is usually the case. For which I was very grateful!

  18. ….a prosthetic brain. Fortunately I competed in Heat 2.

    FOI GIN AND IT (but tonic for me thanks)
    LOI COLONY
    COD DECOLLETE
    WHOOPS PROSTHETIC
    TIME 10:47 which wasn’t quick even allowing for the error.

  19. I wonder if this puzzle is meant to give a false sense of hope? Having determined I’d be hopeless at the championships and so did not enter, I found this one straightforward – but then I wasn’t under any exam conditions. I look forward to the rest of the championship puzzles!

    DECOLLETE my COD, beating the excellent surface of ASTRONAUT.

    10′ 47″, thanks pip and setter.

  20. I was well into this before I recognised it as one I had solved. I even wondered if it was a Heat 2 puzzle that had been mislabelled, but I did eventually recognise some of the answers. I think it took me about 12-13 minutes on the day, and 9:19 today. It was certainly a confidence booster for me on the day.
  21. 11:33 so a good loosener if this was puzzle #1 – mostly straightforward but with a bear trap, a funny word and a bit of Yoda wordplay to sort the W from the C.

  22. If I remember my history correctly, the Roman military practice of decimation involved killing one person out of ten, not nine out of ten, for example as a punishment for a unit which had shown insufficient ‘enthusiasm’ in battle. It would certainly be more etymologically correct that way. And I see that Wikipedia agrees with my recollection.
  23. This all seemed too simple, with only DECOLLETE and PROSTHESIS needing serious thinking time. The former I’d never heard of, but knowing decolletage what else could it be? Couldn’t quite see how COLONY worked at first because I was only looking for the single letter L as the West End (LON looks more like the western half than just the end.) Thanks Pip for the blog, like you I might think about entering next year if they’re all like this.
  24. I parsed 3D as D (much of) C (cold) I.E. (that’s) to get DECI-

    COLONY was my LOI

    44 mins which is the fastest I’ve done any Times cryptic 🙂

    Chris

  25. … just under 10 minutes on the day. This was my first ever TCC puzzle. It went downhill from there.
  26. …was on the PROSTHETIC bus.

    Didn’t even notice until finished that this was one of the Heat 1 grids – might have been less laconic if I’d spotted that.

  27. As Pip says, Redcar is close to Middlesbrough. In fact I can be on the seafront 10 minutes after leaving home(assuming I drive rather than walk). The now defunct Steel Works looms large from the town, and Wilton Site(The old ICI Wilton) also has a Redcar postcode, so plenty of retorts there. Here’s a link to a few pics of Redcar I took last year. https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtISbwJlBmVWheNAMl7uw6uq07lFLw?e=NLGjwx Some are from the top of Councillor Dunning’s Vertical Pier(Known locally as Dunning’s D**k) which is also pictured, looking from the south. I made a rapid start(appropriately enough) with RED CARPET, then kept going to finish on COLONY with a respectable(for me) 21:24. I was tempted by PROSTHETIC, but as it didn’t fit the wordplay, immediately came up with PROSTHESIS. Took me a while to lift and separate correctly to see how STEELINESS worked. Doh! I also knew DECOLLETAGE rather than DECOLLETE, but the wordplay and checkers kept me right. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Pip.
    1. Nice pics, John. REDCAR of course is almost on the TEES, as you know. And a certain mohn2 is somewhat of a local, I seem to recall. As youngsters, we were more likely to be taken to the nearby Saltburn or Marske for a paddle.
      1. Thanks John. Yes I knew Mohn2 was a local. I spend a lot of time at Saltburn myself. Did you see the episode of Inspector George Gently about a holiday camp, where the body of one of the Blue Coats washed up under Saltburn pier. One of my friends met Lee Ingleby while they were filming. Apparently Martin Shaw didn’t mingle though.
    2. Thanks for the photos. It must be over 40 years ago I was there – but I still remember the girl I met in Redcar!
  28. 11.01. I didn’t notice the blurb saying this was one of the heat one puzzles until a couple of minutes in. I was very excited to find that I had completed it in a new PB, knocking a good minute and a half off my most recent PB from a couple of weeks ago, even if it was one at the easier end of the spectrum. It didn’t feel like I was going particularly fast, perhaps there’s more in the tank. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts. I suspect the rest of the puzzles from the heat and the other championship puzzles may prove humbling. I think the Redcar pet was the one that raised the biggest smile.
      1. Thanks Pootle. I think the champs are a little bit out of my league but I’m looking forward to seeing how I get on with the other puzzles from 2019.
  29. Please forgive this, my first contribution to the blog, and any breaches of blog etiquette, but, as this puzzle has been giving me nightmares since Finals Day, I feel the need to comment. I finished fourth in the first heat/semi-final, in around 30 minutes, but biffed PROSTHETIC and thus was relegated to the C final. The consolation was the splendid afternoon spent nearby with other competitors.
    1. Finishing fourth is excellent. From my armchair perspective the crosswords are easier to comprehend than the Championship structure.

Comments are closed.