Times 27585 – Second TCC heat, third puzzle I assume.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Penfold_61 in last Wednesday’s blog comments told us that puzzle 27579 was the third in the booklet, so presumably this was the second, but the last in the heats to be blogged. I wish the editors would tell us in the headers, as was previously the case, so we know if this was a TCC puzzle or a regular ‘new’ offering.
I found it much easier than last week’s, more on a par with the heat 1 puzzles, if not easier. I completed it with no complaints in well under 20 minutes. The longer clues went in early on, making the shorter ones easier to get.

Presumably we’ll need our ’28 acrosses’ next week, when we get into the semi-finals puzzles, where just 33 of the qualifying 82 contestants managed to complete all three error-free.

Across
1 Animal bound to go after some chips (8)
ANTELOPE – Well, after six years of banging on about whether or not a puzzle contains an obscure even-toed ungulate, here we are with the actual animal family as the answer. ANTE is your pre-play bet using the chips, and to LOPE is to bound.
5 This person talks a long time: flipping endlessly (6)
GASBAG – GABS = talks AG(E) = a long time endlessly, reverse all (flipping).
9 Beam that’s almost three feet round (3)
RAY – YAR(D) reversed.
10 Grounded because of dodgy heart (4-2-5)
DOWN-TO-EARTH – because of = DOWN TO, (HEART)*.
12 Appropriate opening of zoo with Mr Durrell, a writer (10)
FITZGERALD – FIT = appropriate, Z = opening of zoo, Gerald Durrell (author of My Family and Other Animals), answer e.g. F Scott Fitzgerald another writer.
13 You will quaintly call out (4)
YELL – YE being old fashioned for YOU, YE’LL = you will.
15 Comparatively mean returns in restructured insurance (6)
SNIDER – Well, if snide means mean (as in a snide remark), i suppose SNIDER means meaner. It’s hidden reversed in RESTRUCTU(RED INS)URANCE.
16 Coppers accepting an act of contrition (7)
PENANCE – AN inside PENCE. Chestnut time.
18 Partial duplication of travel document is concerning (3-1-3)
VIS-A-VIS – VISA VIS(A). Another chestnut.
20 Unusual urge to put iron back inside safe place (6)
REFUGE – Insert FE (Fe, iron) reversed into (URGE)*.
23 Informal jumper: knitter’s first piece (4)
ROOK – ROO (informal kangaroo) + K(nitter).
24 Charlie and I get a rest arranged — we’re puffed! (10)
CIGARETTES – C I (GET A REST)*.
26 High flyer? (11)
HUMMINGBIRD – Cryptic defintion, a humming, or high, as in smelly, bird.
27 Board amidships with this? (3)
OAR – Seems to be as simple as the middle of B(OAR)D.
28 Dye covering half of hair in helmet (3,3)
TIN HAT – HA(IR) inside TINT.
29 Noble, like the News at Ten broadcast? (8)
KNIGHTLY – homophone of NIGHTLY as the News is.

Down
1 Purposeless commercial break (6)
ADRIFT – AD (commercial), RIFT (break).
2 Fishy character suppressing yen to attempt scam (3,2,2)
TRY IT ON – TRITON a fishy character has Y for yen inserted. A triton was a Greek sea god.
3 Female rider that jockeys avidly goad (4,6)
LADY GODIVA – (AVIDLY GOAD)*.
4 Current fashion? (5,8)
POWER DRESSING – Cryptic definition.
6 Answer recognised when heard again (4)
ANEW – A for answer, NEW sounds like KNEW = recognised.
7 Caterpillar turning an age to undergo rapid development (7)
BURGEON – GRUB (caterpillar) turns > BURG, EON = an age.
8 Poorly made glove has split down the middle (2,6)
GO HALVES – (GLOVE HAS)*.
11 Pseudoscientific movement to interpolate blunders (13)
TELEPORTATION – (TO INTERPOLATE)*.
14 Police assistant has possible cold case to pursue (7,3)
SNIFFER DOG – A sniffer might be someone with a cold, to DOG = to pursue.
17 At least a dozen deliveries, stolen or missed (8)
OVERSHOT – Two overs = 12 balls in cricket, so OVERS, HOT = stolen.
19 Winter figure, small currently, lots having been cut (7)
SNOWMAN – S (small) NOW (currently) MAN(Y) = lots cut.
21 Have problems navigating on your bike! (3,4)
GET LOST – double definition.
22 Bird like this turned up by quarry (6)
OSPREY – SO (like this) reversed, PREY = quarry.
25 European city is area under pressure (4)
PISA – P (pressure), IS, A (area).

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72 comments on “Times 27585 – Second TCC heat, third puzzle I assume.”

  1. Forty minutes, though this was (I felt) quite a gentle one and I should have been quicker. My only quibble would be over describing TELEPORTATION as pseudoscientific. Just because nobody’s figured out how to do it yet doesn’t put it in the same basket as telepathy or homeopathy.

    Is it just me, or have sightings of OSPREYs here increased markedly of late?

    1. I thought it was rather nice misdirection, myself. Technically I suppose all science fiction is pseudoscience!
    2. I agree, but better Ospreys than Nyalas or Bushbacks, eh?
      (My suspicion is that setters come across a good word – Finzi comes to mind – and then have several ideas for cluing it and they can’t resist using several of them; then their pals see the word and have an idea or two they riff off of).
  2. Like Pip I smiled at the setter’s clever response to the Ed’s (presumed) dictat “you’ve got to include at least one antelope”. I’m not sure I trust SNITCH completely on the re-printed championship puzzles, but no question this was a well-below-100 rating. So why did it take me minutes to fill in Anew?
    1. Could I ask what SNITCH means please? Is it one of the codes this excellent site uses?

      Thank you
      Cedric

      1. If you click the link at the top right you will find out all about Aussie Starstruck’s brilliant creation.
  3. The QC blog said this was not too difficult. I agree and got to my LOI 6d in under an hour. I then spent a long time looking at alternatives and found AMEN, so joining Sawbill, and possibly others, in the One Wrong Club.
    BTW Wordsworth was on Radio 4 this morning -not live obviously.
    David
  5. I’ve been dabbling in cryptics for a year or so, mainly the QCs, but this was my first full solve. Took 89 mins but I’m very pleased. I’m still learning all the abbreviations and indicators.

    I am 35 and fairly well read but I find some clues tough/impossible due to archaic language or obscure (read ancient) cultural references. The puzzles certainly broaden the mind as they have resulted in multiple Googles and Wikipedia rabbitholes.

    1. You are approaching the challenge in exactly the right way. It’s not unlike learning to speak a foreign language, and once you’re fluent you’ll have a better chance of solving unknown words from the surface of the clue.
  6. 6:50 for me without having seen it before, as I didn’t manage to get a copy of the Heat 2 puzzles this year. Definitely the easiest Championship puzzle I’ve come across. BTW, there’s a header on the Times site to tell us this was a Championship puzzle now.
  8. RAY was my FOI, and given that it wasn’t a total gimme I thought we were in for a tough puzzle… but then I finished in 26 mins
  9. Managed over half of the clues – very new to all this. It’s becoming clear to me that I need to gen up on cricket. A sport I have absolutely zero interest in! Really enjoy all your comments. If it wasn’t for this blog there is no way I would be learning as fast as I am!
  10. Foolish fellow me. All done in 23 minutes but a mistake at 6 down. Wish I’d known it was anew. Rest of the puzzle went OK but top right- including anew – probably added five minutes to what would have been a decent time for me. Wasn’t osprey an answer earlier this week?

    COD burgeon. FOI try it on. Hope for no silly mistakes tomorrow.

  11. Only ever finished about 10 puzzles over c.3 years and time I’ve ever finished in less than 4 hours over a few sessions and at 16mins in a single sitting that was quite a feat – so wasn’t exactly surprised to see “easy” comments on here but can’t pretend I wasnt a bit deflated by them! COD 26a HUMMINGBIRD and LOI 6d ANEW….
  12. Very easy for a championship puzzle, so what more to say. I took 40 leisurely minutes, but no real problems anywhere (although I did try to insert ADRUPT in 1dnk, hoping it would be a word, before I saw FITZGERALD and then ADRIFT, which really is a word).
  13. Drat (definitely with a capital D). I really thought I was on for a third straight 15×15 solve (and probably the easiest one at that), but then ground to a halt with just three left in the NE corner (5ac, 6d and 7d). After a long pause I worked out Burgeon, and that suggested Gasbag for 5ac, but I couldn’t parse it. That left A*e* for 6d. Nothing came to mind that seemed to fit the clue and, since I wasn’t even sure about the first letter, I pulled stumps and read Pip’s blog. So near, but no prize. CoD to 14d, Sniffer Dog – nice clue. Invariant
  14. Even if it was a qualifier it seems a bit odd to have 21d yesterday followed by 22d today.
      1. Ha ha – not in my wildest dreams would I enter that exalted company! Might come and watch maybe, in which case you’re on.

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