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. 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.

  2. 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
  3. 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 !
  4. Just recently started doing the Times every day after a long absence. 24.39 my best so far.
  5. ….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’.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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…?
  9. 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

  10. 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)

  11. 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.
  12. 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

  13. 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)

  14. 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.

  15. 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!

  16. 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.
  17. 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

  18. 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!

  19. 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.

  20. 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.
  21. Finished this, with loi the unknown Carapace, in about 55 mins, but then spent another four trying to parse Tight and the Thesaurus/Train combination, but without any luck. Stopped just short of the hour mark in oder to finally have a finish measured in minutes. Easy or not, I was feeling happy with that until I read some of the times posted by my fellow QC wanderers. Must try harder. Invariant
  22. I’m a regular poster on the QC blog, but this is my first true solve of the Big Board. Time was about 69 mins, and I don’t care if it was the easiest one of the year!
  23. As a person trying to graduate from the Quick Cryptic via the Monday’s 15×15, this was an excellent puzzle for me. I really enjoyed it only missing out on correctly parsing TRAIN, but nevertheless getting the right answer.
  24. only my third ever successful 15 x 15 – and first this year. Like others above, I’m trying to move up to the main puzzle from the QC and using Monday as a segway usually with lots of help from the brilliant bloggers on here. I still find most other days 15 x 15 almost impossible bar a few clues here and there. Held up on this puzzle by SW corner and CARAPACE was LOI. Time? about 2 hours over several sessions – so still very much non-league compared to most folk on here :-))

    Ged

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