Times 27715 – Peanut butter? Peter Biddlecombe?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 11 minutes
Music: None, outdoor porch solve

No, the correct answer is Personal Best.   I was really on the wavelength for this one, and unlike all those maddening puzzles where you put in all the answers but two in ten minutes, and then end up taking eighteen, I was able to finish what I started.   I don’t know what the SNITCH will say, but this one is definitely quite easy, and I will invite the beginners to have a go when the Quickie blog comes up.

Naturally, there were lots of chestnuts and write-ins, and you could probably biff a fair number of answers.   I would think that under 3 minutes might be achievable by our very top solvers.   For me, single digits on a 15 x 15 are still out of reach, and I would be very lucky to get there.

Across
1 Shield quickly attached to vehicle (8)
CARAPACE – CAR + APACE, a write-in.   A naturally occurring shield
5 Free renegade held by US soldiers (6)
GRATIS – G(RAT)IS.
10 Close lit up (5)
TIGHT – Double definition, a simple one.
11 Powerful weaponry, ominous positioned in middle of major road (9)
ARTILLERY – ART(ILL)ERY, where ill is ominous as in an ill omen.
12 Flag: change motif, perhaps incorporating name (3,6)
RED ENSIGN – REDE(N)SIGN.
13 Exercise self-control lacking in others (5)
TRAIN –  [res]TRAIN[t], a rather tricky cryptic for an obvious answer.
14 Mate ringing wife, good for gossipy conversation (7)
CHINWAG – CHIN(W)A + G.   Never assume it must be -ing if a word ends in G.
16 Various kingfishers, maybe (6)
DIVERS – Double definition, one relying on British spelling.
18 Like a squirrel checking its tail in light fall of snow? (6)
FLURRY – F([squirre]L)URRY.
20 Clever reply from Republican that is shown round office (7)
RIPOSTE – R + I(POST)E.
22 Capital outlay initially required to make Don Juan? (5)
ROMEO – ROME + O[utlay].
23 One travelling to Saturn? (9)
ASTRONAUT – A + anagram of TO SATURN, an &lit.
25 Replacement policy and stuff (9)
SUBSTANCE – SUB + STANCE.
26 Lyric poem about a concert hall (5)
ODEON – ODE + ON.
27 Exceptional boy, very likely to succeed (4-2)
ODDS-ON – ODD SON, a chestnut.
28 Period of history, period enthralling one (5,3)
STONE AGE – ST(ONE)AGE.
Down
1 New picture frames charged firstly at a reduced rate (3-5)
CUT-PRICE – Anagram of PICTURE + C[harged].
2 Inflexible, doctor over papers (5)
RIGID – RIG + I.D.
3 Make favourable mention of what one may have done here? (3,2,1,4,2,3)
PUT IN A WORD OR TWO – Double definition, one jocular.   I hope you put in all the words!
4 Constant irrational hunger (7)
CRAVING – C + RAVING.
6 What that might be? (8,7)
RELATIVE PRONOUN –  One use of THAT, the other being a demonstrative.
7 Book the man’s found in house (9)
THESAURUS – T(HE’S)AURUS, an astrological house.
8 Motto, for example, popular with Guides, primarily (6)
SAYING – SAY + IN + G[uides].
9 Made up for deficiencies, perhaps, of sound in commercial (6)
ATONED – A(TONE)D.
15 I harshly criticise a poor Asian capital (9)
ISLAMABAD – I SLAM A BAD, another chestnut.
17 Feeling upon missing one’s verdict (8)
SENTENCE – SENT(i)ENCE.   A sentence is not, of course, a verdict, but it’s close enough.
19 Yen merits getting longs (6)
YEARNS – Y + EARNS.
20 Give ground on the subject of indulgence (7)
RETREAT – RE TREAT.
21 Heading for Newport having left English city suddenly (6)
PRESTO – PRESTO[n[ewport]].
24 Indefinite number in parish theatre (5)
ARENA – ARE(N)A.   A parish is indeed an area, but this verges on DBE.

89 comments on “Times 27715 – Peanut butter? Peter Biddlecombe?”

  1. 17minutes for me, so definitely on the easy end of things. But ASTRONAUT is not an anagram of “to saturn” since it has 9 letters. I thought it was too, but I just noticed reading your blog that there is a second “A” missing.
  2. A rare sub-10′; definitely a puzzle for the QC folk to have a go at. FOI CARAPACE, POI PRESTO, LOI ODDS-ON. I liked TRAIN. Actually, V, I think it’s not a bad idea to assume that a word ending in G ends in -ING, so long as you don’t ink it in.
  3. I used to call it a Peter Beater much to the chagrin of the Sunday Times puzzles editor. But it was certainly one today – 4:10, and that was with a few seconds checking through to make sure I didn’t have a daft mistake.
  4. There were some clever clues – I liked Cut Price – for an easy go.
    thanks, vinyl. Sad that you didn’t think to put the minute waltz on before you headed for the porch. If you’d pressed ‘repeat’, and included the here to there walking time, you would have finished just about the time you got bored with the fourth or fifth run though.
  5. That is certainly a PB since I started solving via the club site last year and with the SNITCH a sea of green I’m sure there’ll be a few more today.

    I started with PUT IN A WORD OR TWO then proceeded to biff many other words. Debate over whether or not A should be clued by ‘One’ aside, I thought ASTRONAUT a very nice clue.

  6. A nice way to ease into the week. No PB here, but twenty minutes is definitely at the faster end of my spectrum.

    Very nearly made it much harder work for myself by biffing PRONTO at 21d when I had the R and the O, mind, but something made me think again and try to parse it.

    FOI 1a CARAPACE LOI 7d THESAURUS, where I never seem to think of astrology when I see “house”.

  7. Comfortably solved in 28 minutes.

    I lost a little time at 23ac thinking at first it was a pure anagram but then realising it wasn’t. On the ‘One / a’ rule here’s what Peter B posted as recently as last August:

    “The word from a fairly recent copy of The Times notes for setters is that “A” in a clue can’t indicate I in the answer, and “one” in a clue can’t indicate A in the answer, except in a phrase like ‘One cup’ for ‘A TROPHY’.”

    If I’ve understood this correctly the exception should not apply here because A in the answer is not serving as an indefinite article. Peter went on to say that they don’t worry about this matter at The Sunday Times.

    Edited at 2020-07-13 05:19 am (UTC)

    1. I have never seen “one” clued for A (or v.v) in the daily crossword. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve even seen it in the Sunday, despite Peter’s relaxed rules. I have to think that this is an error of some sort.
      1. I’ve certainly seen it but whether in the Daily or Sunday or both I couldn’t say, and it’s not something that lends itself to searching on, but I suspect you’re right that today was an error that slipped through. I shall enquire in the Times forum and see if I can get a response from RR or David.
        1. Assuming he also edits the Sunday Concise, Peter will be quite busy this morning fending off an angry mob of solvers. Only 10 correct answers as of today and many dozens of 575s (ncluding Verlaine and me!) due to a sloppy clue.
          1. I suggested in the thread for yesterday’s Concise that those of us, the very many of us, who put NEARBY and not NEARLY, should march on Times HQ with pitchforks and lit torches demanding the head of the setter on a spike!
            1. Thanks for the spoiler! I was going to have a go at it to see what the fuss was about.
      2. I agree with you Paul. Something I never noticed. If the setter had been aware of it we would have had something along the lines of ‘A tripper to Saturn?’ [not good enough, but you see what I mean].

        What does ‘“one” in a clue can’t indicate A in the answer, except in a phrase like ‘One cup’ for ‘A TROPHY’.’ mean? Either ‘one’ can indicate A or it can’t, surely?

    2. Given that A clued as “one” was the opening of a “pure cryptic”, rather than being contained elsewhere, I felt it was completely acceptable. My own gripe comes later !
  9. 45 mins, with typo for reposte which I had parsed correctly and the hit and hope red indian for 12a!

    COD Artillery or craving.

    Edited at 2020-07-13 07:07 am (UTC)

  10. A steady and for me rapid solve in 21:05, which (just)
    achieved my 6Verlaine target. A nice gentle introduction to the week: the SNITCH is currently saying this is the easiest puzzle since December last year. Thanks kind setter and Vinyl.

    I thoroughly enjoyed Tom Hanks’s film Greyhound (of the excellent CS Forester book The Good Shepherd) on Apple TV+ over the weekend. I wonder if this is how all movies will be released in future – straight to stream.

    Edited at 2020-07-13 07:27 am (UTC)

  11. Like Jackkt, as I often am, came home in 20 mins. Agreed nice start to the week. Biffed ASTRONAUT but couldn’t see how it worked. After J’s comment above, I still don’t ! COD 6d. What is bizarre, is that, since I signed up to the Time online and can comment on a daily basis, almost every crossword had had a French word (or its equivalent in English) in it. Weird. Today’s word is CARAPACE of course.
    1. Adopted from French (who imported it from Portugese) but now in my opinion an English word.
      Andyf
  12. Did my three-quarters-empty Train pull out…
    11 mins with croissant and strawberry jam, hoorah!
    Very minor MERs in passing at the One=A and at ‘checking its tail in’. I’m not sure I’ve seen ‘checking in’ as a containment indicator before.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  13. Possibly my fastest time since doing them online, but then the snitch says this is the easiest crossword since 2 January.

    COD: ASTRONAUT for a full &lit

    Friday’s answer: the only place Elvis Presley set foot in the UK was Prestwick Airport.

    Today’s question: JM Barrie said ‘Captain Hook is not wholly evil, he has a [what?] in his cabin’?

    1. I knew it was either Prestwick or Mildenhall for Presley.

      PS: I found a 44 on 29Oct2018.

      Edited at 2020-07-13 08:12 am (UTC)

  14. 10:31. Which is a bit slower than it might have been as I stuttered over the SW corner and the parsing of ODEON. COD to ASTRONAUT.
  15. A PB by a wide margin. It would have been 13m 53s had I pressed submit immediately upon completion but I chose to cross-check my entry to avoid spoiling it.
  16. 6:43. A few in here that slowed me down a little bit, including the bizarre PUT IN A WORD OR TWO, which isn’t a standard expression I recognise. Quite a few others that weren’t hard but where I needed checkers. Still, not hard.
    I suspect the relaxation of the one/A rule at 23ac was just a concession to a particularly neat &Lit.

    Edited at 2020-07-13 07:12 am (UTC)

    1. This felt fine at the time, but you planted a seed of doubt, and in fact I doubt that I’ve come across it–that is, with OR TWO tacked on. But ‘put in a word’ for someone, or as my E-J dictionary has it ‘put in a (good) word’, seems familiar enough. ODE doesn’t seem to have it.
      1. It’s the OR TWO that I’m questioning. The expression ‘put in a (good) word for’ is perfectly familiar to me but here (unlike in ‘cut down a peg or two’ where they are intrinsic to the idiom) the words OR TWO seem like a random addition. It’s like having ‘frighten the horses a bit’ or ‘really push the boat out’ as an answer.
      2. I am pretty sure that this has featured before as I have it as a phrase in my private cheat sheet. I might have thought of “put in a good word” on my own, but I would not have thought of “… word or two” on my own.
        Andyf
    2. My first thought was “put in a good word” but I’ve heard “put in a word or two” used as well.
    3. Agree on both points. Never heard of the “or two” variant, which held me up with the SW corner, as did PRESTO, which I thought of and dismissed, since it doesn’t mean “suddenly” in music.
      1. I am usually out of my depth on the 15×15 but there were several comments on our part of the blog that this was approachable today so I tried it. And I have definitely heard the phrase with “or two” added; so much so that this was almost my FOI with just 1 checker (the W as it happens, a most useful letter).

        So may I suggest it is probably fair? And it helped me to a 25:53 finish, only my second ever on the main cryptic.

        Cedric

  17. 13 minutes, dawdling in the SW because I wasn’t quite sure of the OR TWO bit. A Google search led first to the crossword solver sites and this crossword in particular, before revealing it in Twain and Richardson. No dictionary entries appear in the first 100 or so entries, suggesting it lacks conventional verification. Unusual.
    I couldn’t see how TRAIN worked, and submitted half expecting pink. It’s pretty clever as is ASTRONAUT. S*d the “rules”.
  19. Somewhere between 8 and 9 minutes. I’d have clocked the second hand more carefully if I’d known. I see Davidivad1’s home town, sorry, city, nearly features again. The trouble with going for a sub 10 is that you don’s take in the scenery. COD to PUT IN A WORD OR TWO, a lovely phrase I’ve not heard for a while. I’ve got an interview on North Manchester Radio at lunchtime plugging my new book, so I hope the interviewer does just that. This may have been easy but there was a nice feel to it. Thank you V and setter.
  20. Also, DIVERS is not so much an English spelling as an antiquated one, i think.
  21. Mostly easy but got bogged down a bit in the SW corner. Couldn’t imagine what the last two words after PUT IN A (GOOD) WORD might be – eventually my last in.

    Also RETRACT instead of RETREAT didn’t help.

  22. I had to delete part of my biffed PUT IN A GOOD WORD FOR. OR TWO came to mind later. I think I must have been still on the sleepy side, as I didn’t polish this off as quickly as I might have expected after the comments on the QC blog. At least I didn’t have any pink squares in today’s puzzles, and still finished this inside 20 minutes. RIGID was my FOI. CRAVING brought up the rear. 19:45. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  23. Some fabulous times posted here today. This was definitely in break the Ten Minute Barrier territory – but I failed to do so. And I managed an error which I sort of knew was wrong. ODEAN for ODEON.

    COD: CUT-PRICE. Nice surface reading and wordplay.

  24. Easiest I can remember for a long time. A quick tally tells me I solved 16 and biffed 14. COD was ASTRONAUT, which as others have said was a very nice &lit. I don’t fully understand the problem with this clue as A literally means ONE. Perhaps someone can explain it to me.
  26. Didn’t find it as easy as some. 18’17. Rather like the 18 picture; otherwise all a little unimaginative, summed up by ‘longs’ as an unconvincing noun in 19. (Unless it’s an investment term or similar I suppose.)
    1. ‘Long’ as a noun is short for a long position but the wording is still a bit awkward. It would be better for me without the word ‘getting’.
      1. I had assumed that getting was a synonym for giving, as in getting the sum of Y(en) and earns?
        Andyf
        1. Yes that’s what it’s doing in the wordplay but it’s unnecessary, and to me the surface reading works a bit better without it.
  28. Usually I only post in the quick cryptic blog, but Kevin suggested that the proper cryptic was quite easy today, so I decided to give it a go. Not as fast as everyone above, but that’s to be expected for a first-post solve. Came in at 25:58. Thanks to Kevin for suggesting this puzzle.
    1. A good result – now you should keep trying the 15×15 and using this blog to wrap up any shortfalls. That’s the key to progress.
      1. Agree I *should* do that daily, but I very much doubt I’ll have the time. It’s possible I’ll be able to do more at the weekend, but that’s unlikely to have the same effect
  30. Tried for a PB but not quite with it this morning. As above, my assumed ING failed me with CHINWAG which held me up. I agree with Olivia, the WORD OR TWO is not exactly the ‘favourable mention’ given here.
    COD CHINWAG for the confusion and ASTRONAUT I also liked.

  31. Thank you setter for for the opportunity to go faster! As a relatively sedate solver I rarely come in under 30 minutes and this made a nice change.

    All correct in 23.07.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  32. I was tipped off on the QC blog that this was fairly easy so I shut the door and gave it my full concentration.
    A big PB in 16:22; first time under 20 minutes for a 15×15.
    FOI was GRATIS; LOI CRAVING. Held up by trying to put a good word in when it wouldn’t fit;but I knew the required phrase.
    Ironically I arrived in Preston rather late but at least I parsed it quickly! Thanks BW -Preston was granted city status as part of the Queen’s jubilee celebrations in 2002.
    Relieved not to have made a typing error. COD to 3d.
    David
  33. I know I’ve said that I’m going to have a word or two with someone when I mean I’m going to give them a piece of my mind, but I agree it looks a bit odd here. Now I see it ASTRONAUT is very neat but at the time I thought it seemed to have escaped from a concise. 9.03 and I’m faster than that only about once a year.
    1. I no longer give anybody a piece of my mind, since I don’t seem to have enough of it left !
  34. Just recently started doing the Times every day after a long absence. 24.39 my best so far.
  35. ….with a sub-7 minute solve, but I feel I failed to do myself justice. Spent too long over “OR TWO”, and had PRONOUN but took a while to see RELATIVE.

    I disagree with Vinyl as regards “verdict = SENTENCE”. The verdict is either “guilty”, “not guilty”, or in Angus Walker’s neck of the woods “not proven”. Sentencing may not take place for quite some time afterwards, what with “reports” and similar red tape, so is a separate part of the proceedings. Support your local pedant !

    FOI CARAPACE
    LOI ROMEO
    COD ASTRONAUT
    TIME 6:47

    Edited at 2020-07-13 11:18 am (UTC)

    1. In Wonderland, it’s sentence first, verdict afterward. In Japan, the verdict is ‘guilty’.
  36. THESAURUS was my last one in, as I kept trying to think of biblical books and never associate “house” with astrology. Was also slowed down by thinking the first word of 6d would be “question” until the checkers proved otherwise. CARAPACE is one of those words I’m aware of without really knowing what it means, and I’ll almost certainly forget it again after today.

    FOI Astronaut
    LOI Thesaurus
    COD Cut-price

    1. When the moon is in the 7th house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars…. Yes it’s all rubbish but it’s useful for crosswords Chris.
  37. 15’07” is pretty much as fast as a one fingered typist with dyslexia can go. Did consider PRONTO for 21d, wondering if there might be an English town called Pronton. Was in two minds for a second or two over OR TWO at the end of 3d, and finished with a flurry.
  38. Very happy with that. Probably a PB. I raised an eye at “… OR TWO” and didn’t spot the subtlety in ASTRONAUT, mainly, I think, because I thought I must have seen the anagram before. Now I’m questioning that. I don’t really have a problem for “one” = A, though. I feel I’ve seen it plenty of times before but maybe that’s been in the Listener…?
  39. Another PB here and by some distance

    Agree with our esteemed blogger about getting to the last few and often getting the proverbial nosebleed. No hankies needed on this one though

    Subtleties of the rather good ASTRONAUT passed me by and probably sacrilege to say it but I probably prefer ones like Friday’s when it’s a bit of a struggle but as others have said this had a v nice feel to it

    Thanks Setter and Vinyl

  40. Enticed by Vinyl’s alert to the QC gang that this was a good day to step up I did just that for only a second 15×15 solve. Bit of dismay early on with lots of gaps and wondering how this could be relatively simple and then suddenly it was done! LOI was TIGHT – didn’t know the second definition but with 60% in from checkers I felt brave enough to stick it in.

    Edited at 2020-07-13 01:34 pm (UTC)

  41. That time isn’t visible on the leaderboard, of course, because I invented the RELATOVE PRONOUN. As always, you imagine it’s the sort of thing you wouldn’t do if solving with pen and paper, but are an ever-present danger for the fat-fingered typist.
  42. Yes, it was pretty easy but most enjoyable with some interesting vocab. MER at 19d – I also thought it was rather clumsy. I liked DIVERS, and ASTRONAUT went in so quickly that I didn’t register that it wasn’t a straightforward anagram, but I still thought it was a great clue! It’s been a good couple of days – Saturday’s prize and jumbo cryptics completed without any help, and quite a quick time here today. It won’t last ….

    Nice to see lots of familiar names from the quickie here today 😄 Hope you’ll all carry on keeping me company!

    FOI Gratis
    LOI Romeo
    COD Astronaut
    Time 26 mins – it might have been a bit quicker if I hadn’t made sure that everything was parsed

    Thanks setter for the friendly start to the week, and to Vinyl – congrats on the PB. In fact, congrats to everyone for their PBs! PB

  43. Having been informed by my twin brother (Dvynys) that he had solved this puzzle in a little under 12 mins I metaphorically girded my loins and set to work. 11:19 mins later I had smashed my personal best and as importantly gained bragging rights for the day …

    … sadly I had a dreaded pink square (atuned) … (Sigh)

  44. What a difference a weekend makes. Much easier progress today after Friday’s enjoyable trials. 11.40 with consistent progress through the clues. FOI carapace, LOI retreat having first of all opted for retract. Fortunately, on this occasion I recognised my error. If onlythat were always the case.

    Nothing to add apart from thanks to setter and blogger.

  45. A PB by some 4 minutes or so – 8:04, which is 32 seconds quicker than I managed today’s QC…

    I don’t suppose I’ll ever get close to this time again, unless the editor lets slip another one as straightforward!

  46. At 18 minutes (the last one or two spent making sure TRAIN was right), also a PB for me, and I’m sure it was the easiest puzzle I have ever seen here. TRAIN would also be my CD, the only clue that required any hesitation at all.
  47. Wow. Due to circumstances I normally do only the Friday xword, and after a couple of hours I have 2 or 3 to get. This week I got the Monday paper – what a treat to finish in 54 minutes, even if it was relatively easy.

    Thanks setter and all bloggers for helping me along

  48. I tackled this one on recommendation from the QC blog and very much enjoyed it, finishing in about two hours with a few distractions along the way. Lots of nice clues to work through steadily until I hit a block with the combination of 21D, 22A, 25A and 27A. But still, all but four completed before resorting to aides is a huge improvement on my normal half a dozen clues! I liked 23A Astronaut (despite the extra a) in particular.

    Thanks for the blog and a lovely accessible puzzle!

  49. A rare completion for the 15×15 for me – undertaken in about 30 mins which must be a PB for the big one, albeit I knew it was one of the easier ones.

    Thanks.

  50. 26:21 a back of the pack run from me today eating the dust of those in front. I was a bit hesitant over the “or two” at the end of 3dn but the main problem I caused myself was putting retract at 20dn. “Subject of indulgence” had me thinking of a tract or treatise on indulgences in the medieval Catholic church. Sometimes you can overthink these things. I was very slow to see the error even though it meant 25ac ending in “a” (subagenda anyone?). Eventually parsed substance properly and reviewed retract to get retreat.

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