Times 27739 – What Uncle Toby was looking for?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 45 minutes
Music: Albeniz, Iberia

I was definitely off the wavelenght here, and struggled with a lot of the clues.    There is a lot of original cluing here, which makes it difficult to lean on your vast experience and put in the same answer you have put in many times before.    I had a fair idea how most of the clues worked after reading them, but I still took a long time to find the answer.   Having an idea or two does help when you get a checker, which often results in getting nowhere for 20 minutes and then having the answers pour in during the final 10.

Still, it should not have been that hard, and I would not be surprised if the SNITCH ends up at an even 100 or less. 

Across
1 Spark is appropriate around Scottish chimney, on reflection (8)
STIMULUS – SU(LUM)ITS, all backwards.   At least I got lum quickly enough.
6 Uninspired old head of BBC grasping pen? On the contrary (6)
STODGY – ST(O D.G)Y.   I put in the answer, erased it, and then saw how it worked and put it back in.
9 Supporting company agreement after some strain? That is indicator of future prospects (7,6)
FORTUNE COOKIE – FOR + TUNE + CO OK + I.E.   I couldn’t read my own K, and thought the second element must be course for a long time.
10 This is the ultimate in blasphemy? (6)
HERESY –  HERE’S Y.    A nice &lit, and a very clever clue.
11 Objective of female coming on board for departures (4-4)
SEND-OFFS – S(END OF F)S. 
13 Activist theatrical in rage, going wild (10)
CAMPAIGNER – CAMP + anagram of IN RAGE.
15 Unemployed one gets appropriate payment, nothing less (4)
IDLE – I + D[o]LE.
16 Suggestion assistant should postpone article (4)
IDEA – AIDE with the A moved to the end – an inversion of this clue appeared in a recent Mephisto.
18 See Yorkshire river beside event in Sheffield, say (5,5)
LOCAL DERBY – LO + CALDER + BY, a river I’ve never heard of, but the obvious answer.
21 No shift involving doctor in thirty days (8)
NOVEMBER – NO + VE(MB)ER.
22 Unequivocal gossip gets investment from City (6)
DIRECT – DI(EC)RT.
23 What produces reduction of scale in floods more frequently (5,8)
WATER SOFTENER –  WATERS + OFTENER.
25 Mark, my son, turned to run, losing time (6)
SYMBOL – MY S backwards + BOL[t]
26 Hitch after cat does for small performer (3,5)
TOM THUMB – TOM + THUMB in entirely different senses.
Down
2 Delicate stuff, oil turning up on cheese (7)
TAFFETA – FAT upside-down on FETA.     They’re using fat for oil a lot these days, even thought they’re not exactly the same thing.
3 Horse carrying pack let loose in town square (11)
MARKETPLACE –  MAR(anagram of PACK LET)E.
4 Start of last over — our players end in ignominy, being dreadful (5)
LOUSY – L(ast) + O + US + [ignomin}Y
5 Family member hurries to get rid of it (7)
STEPSON – STEPS ON [it].
6 A French duke brought in twenty pounds for a rascal (9)
SCOUNDREL –  SCO(UN D)RE + L.
7 Reasonable to secure a source of wood (3)
OAK –  O(A)K, a Quickie clue.
8 Ear about to sense upset with great pleasure (7)
GLEEFUL –  LU(FEEL)G, all upside-down.
12 Conciliatory gesture, as it happens, in outside broadcast on farm (5,6)
OLIVE BRANCH – O(LIVE)B + RANCH.
14 Prejudiced and wrong about African country from which one’s deported (9)
ILLIBERAL – IL(LIBER[i]A)L, where ill is not the first word you think of when you see wrong.
17 Behave as we do after ignoring University opening (7)
DOORWAY –  DO O[u]R WAY.
19 Vehicle staying outside reduced opening in garage (7)
CARPORT – CAR(POR[t])T.   In the US, at least, a carport is different from a garage, but the cryptic gives you the obvious answer.
20 Coarse stuff from males (7)
BUCKRAM – BUCK + RAM, a cheastnut.
22 Corporation supporting US lawyer in fact (5)
DATUM – DA + TUM, another chestnut.
24 Flutter taken up? There’s an amount to pay (3)
TAB – BAT backwards, one we had recently in the Quickie.

80 comments on “Times 27739 – What Uncle Toby was looking for?”

  1. Like Vinyl, I dithered over STODGY, finally put it in but only parsed it post-submission. I got the DERBY from the B, but took a long time to get LOCAL; NHO the river. Delayed things by biffing FORTUNE TELLER. Liked HERESY. Is a SEND-OFF a departure? he asked rhetorically.
  2. First things first — Albeniz’s Iberia is one of my first loves in the piano repertoire. I play several of the pieces, and shame on you for not identifying the specific recording!

    Secondly, like our blogger, I also felt well off the wavelength, and about halfway through I was about to throw in the towel. I just couldn’t get a foothold on the bottom half. But I persisted, and was rewarded with a very average time by my standards, so I’m quite pleased.

    Thanks for explaining the strange wordplay in CARPORT (PORT reduced to yield PORT — well, not really, but still).

    I originally had FORTUNE TELLER, but I knew the second half couldn’t be right.

      1. Was something said often, unusual as she wasn’t scottish at all. Reek means smoke.
        I thought por(e) as well.
        Andyf
    2. I didn’t like the clue for carport much either; I decided the “reduced opening” was in fact por(e), not por(t). Makes it slightly more bearable
  5. LOI LOCAL DERBY (had never heard of the river either). Does this really have “dictionary status”? Seems a bit “green paint”–ish.
    1. A “Local Derby” is definitely a “thing” in UK and Australia. “Thing” being “tautology”? It’s in the three on-line dictionaries, and my treeware Australian dictionary.
    2. What is it called in US when e.g. LA Rams play LA Chargers, or NY Mets face NY Yankees? Seem to remember a “Subway Series” for the world series a few years back, but how about one-off games?
      1. I don’t know if we Yanks have such a term, but (as may come as a surprise to no one) sports is not really my field.

    3. An important game or contest; spec. (freq. local derby) a sports match between two teams from the same area. E20.

      The significance of Sheffield not so far noted is that it has two major football teams, ‘Sheffield United’ and ‘Sheffield Wednesday’. I understand that when they play each other it’s referred to as the ‘Steel City Derby’ with reference to the city’s major manufacturing industry.

      1. I knew it flows from Lancashire into Yorkshire, so looked it up, but alas it doesn’t go as far south as Sheffield, which would have made the clue too good to be true.
        1. Now if the clue had cited an event in Wakefield, it may be that no-one (unfamiliar with Rugby League) would have got it, but it would have achieved that perfection. Wakefield Trinity v Castleford Tigers is even known as the Calder Valley Derby.
  6. This felt harder, more screwed-down tight, than SNITCH seems to think. I liked Send Offs and Stepson, but I fell in love with Heresy. Nice blog, vinyl (and no mention of the golf?) Thanks setter & ed.
  7. Maybe wavelength, but it didn’t seem so hard? Apart from needing to guess Calder, all the tricky bits were in the bottom left, but otherwise Mondayish.
    Liked campaigner, idle, olive branch. Not so keen on carport, but only saw por(t) while solving, not por(e).
  8. A big fat COD to WATER SOFTENER. The definition “What produces reduction of scale” is excellent. I’m more than familiar with LOCAL DERBY being a Tottenham fan and therefore twice a year or more suffering the anxiety of watching us play against some Johnny-come-latelies from Woolwich. At least I did until first VAR (Video Assistant Replay) and then games being played in empty stadiums removed too much joy from the sport.
    1. “Johnny-come-latelies from Woolwich”

      I do think it’s time Spurs fans got over that .

  9. I don’t have a precise solving time because I forgot to note when I started, but I’d estimate it at no more than 30 minutes as I didn’t find it at all hard.

    Re 19dn, another POR{e} here which I’m sure is what the setter intended, but ‘port’ can be an opening too so I wouldn’t say it’s wrong. Unlike the definition, as a carport is not the same as a garage. The former is open sided and is often nothing more than a corrugated sheet of metal or plastic supported by makeshift pillars.

  10. Very much enjoyed this puzzle – not particularly difficult but entertaining. Especially liked “reduction in scale” definition.

    The river CALDER played a large part in the industrial revolution. Many mills were built along its length and it was a major transport link for raw materials and finished goods. The Calder Valley contains several SSSI and I’m told that following a huge amount of work, salmon are returning to the river

  11. 34 minutes. LOI GLEEFUL. COD to WATER SOFTENER by a short head from LOCAL DERBY and HERESY. I only learnt about FORTUNE COOKIEs recently. Just in time technology at work? I’m typing this while trying to control an eight week old puppy having a mad half hour. A good puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
  12. Like yon Oak, Bright in spring, Living gold.
    25 mins pre-brekker, on iPad, on hols, in Ulm.
    I liked it. I worried for a while as to how to fit stuff=ram into 20dn, but of course there was no need.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
    1. See if you can visit the geburtshaus of renowned composer Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mitzweimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönendanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft while you’re there.
  13. 18′ or so. I once learned a list of rivers that flow into the North Sea – Swale, Ure , Nidd, Wharfe, Aire (through Leeds), Calder, Don (through Sheffield). I then failed A level Geography.
  14. Distracted by 1A – saw the reversed LUM = MUL, and wanted to make “Muriel” Spark. Undeterred by the letter count, I was Loitering with Intent for several minutes before moving on.
  15. 13:07. I was a bit stodgy at times with this until the longer answers fell into place. I liked WATER SOFTENER and LOCAL DERBY, but COD to HERESY, my LOI.
  16. Steady progress today, with lum and lug quick to come to mind. Thought of Reith for old BBC head, but twas not to be. BUCKRAM went straight in as something of a chestnut.

    COD: WATER SOFTENER, nicely misleading.

    Friday’s answer: Singapore, Dublin, … Tripoli! Capitals that are closest to single, double, triple. OK, that was fairly obscure, I admit.

    Today’s question: what is the name for the symbol that is a combined question mark and exclamation mark?

  17. Easy today.
    One of my very favourite places, Hebden Bridge, is in the Calder Valley, aka Calderdale. A lovely town, sadly beset by flooding from the unruly Calder.
    A carport is not a garage; it just isn’t .. even Collins, which puts up with all sorts of misdefinitions, does not claim that it is
    1. A beautiful place, and well worth a visit. According to Wiki, it’s also “the lesbian capital of the UK”, which may or may not be an additional reason to visit.
      1. No doubt, though I can confirm that they run excellent B&Bs.
        The folk of Hebden Bridge are a strange and wonderful mixture of New Age hippies and similar, and traditional old-fashioned Yorkshire types. It really ought not to work as well as it does… love the place.
    2. Even the most optimistic estate agent would not dare to describe a carport as a garage.

      Edited at 2020-08-10 10:35 am (UTC)

      1. Ah, don’t tempt them Jack .. I know from recent experience that there is virtually nothing that estate agents will not dare to say ..
    3. My family, the Uttleys, originated in Heptonstall at the time of the Black Death, and moved down the hill to Hebden Bridge as glaziers and plumbers in the early 19th century as water and steam power took off. They then crossed the Pennines into Manchester.
  18. 18.28, which might have been quicker if I’d not mis-entered CARPORT* slowing up the SW corner. Mind you SYMBOL was slow in anyway, bemused as I was by the number of standard wordplay items in the clue.
    HERESY was genius.

    I don’t think I’d ever registered the CALDER as a river before, which is nonsensical because I certainly knew of Calder Valley, which apart from its geographical nature is the local Parliamentary constituency.

    *when I’m typing in answers, I sometimes start in the wrong space, usually putting the first letter of the answer in the second square. If only I had learned to watch the screen as I type…

  19. …. as I bunged in REVERY, don’t ask me why, and had LOCKRAM for 20d so could never see the DERBY bit doh. Generally though a good crossie. Liked 6d and 9ac especially. Thank you vinyl1 and setter.
  22. A lot of semi-biffing today, where I figured out part of the wordplay and went from there – e.g. FORTUNE COOKIE had to end in IE, and I already had the K, so biffed from there.

    First half easy; second half not so easy, as Sven would have said. 6m 32.

  23. Slowish here in 31’35. Bat = flutter? Carport = garage? Outers counting as inners I’d say. joekobi
  24. Very well crafted puzzle. Delightful surfaces, especially for IDLE and HERESY. Never heard of the river, but ‘local derby’ had to be. A pity there were no birds, as the oak and olive branch might have provided perches. 26:12
  25. 12:39. I started really slowly on this, with only a small handful of the acrosses solved on my first pass through. However I picked up pace and ended up with an almost exactly average time. Nice puzzle, in spite of a couple of MERs already noted by others.
  26. Lexico has identical definitions for fat and oil with the only distinction being whether they are liquid or solid:

    any of a group of natural esters of glycerol and various fatty acids, which are solid(fat)/liquid(oil) at room temperature

      1. No, but I would do the opposite, since ice is a form of water. I don’t think that applies here, and I’m not defending it: I just thought it was interesting.
        The main context I come across these words is in cooking, where I would associate ‘fat’ with animal-based products (butter, lard, the fat on a pork chop) and ‘oil’ with plant-based products. Irrespective of whether the substance in question is a solid or a liquid!

        Edited at 2020-08-10 11:13 am (UTC)

  27. Onaroll today with STIMULUS going in as soon as I got LOUSY to site MUL and saw it wasn’t STIMULATE, which didn’t fit. Ater that my only pause for thought was my LOI, CARPORT, which went in on a wing and a prayer. Loved “What produces reduction in scale.” 16:05. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

    Edited at 2020-08-10 11:00 am (UTC)

  28. good crossword where many answers were well hidden
    direct LOI when I finally saw how it worked
    Due to the amount of “leisure” time I have had this year, i have done several walks in the Hebden Bridge area, Stooley Pike being a particular favourite, but i was struck by how steep the valley is and you clearly see how devastatingly high the river calder has been, indeed the canal towpath is still closed for repairs several months later! It really will be a challenge to stop future flooding there!

  29. Nice to see my home town get a mention today, even though it will probably be a goodly while before our football teams engage in another local derby. United ( surprisingly ) seem to be well ensconced in the Premiership, whilst Wednesday may well be destined for the lower reaches next season, having broken some arcane financial rules concerning the sale of their stadium to themselves ( ??? ) – I think ….

    My brother-in-law attempted to explain the intricacies of the deal to me but I started to nod off after about 30 seconds.

    Rather off the pace today, but completed in 38.58.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  30. ….. which is surprising as I am sat in a hospital car park dying from the heat. Excellent crossword. COD to the WATER SOFTENER.
  31. ….I received the news that Mark, my late son’s best man and godfather to my grandson, had passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was only 46, so you may understand why I ground to a halt at 25A and broke down in tears.

    FOI “take-offs”
    SOI STEPSON
    TOI SEND-OFFS
    COD WATER SOFTENER
    SCOD HERESY
    TIME 10:42 (would have been around 8 minutes if I hadn’t cracked up)

    1. Whoever organises Synchronicity was obviously feeling particularly malicious today. A cruel touch, and my sympathies.
  32. It was nice to be reminded of Miss Jean Brodie in 1a even though it was the wrong answer. I was in my teens when I saw Vanessa Redgrave in the original play. Years later my elder daughter played Sister Helena in her high school production. 12.51
  34. Huddersfield and along the Calder Valley is where all my Dad’s family came from. Textile trade mostly. Also been to Hebden Bridge recently, and loved Happy Valley (highly recommended though don’t expect too much happiness)

    Was still my LOI though

    Loved the crossword as others have said and for the same reasons

    24 mins

    Thanks Setter and Vinyl

    2. I read anon’s post about his Dad and thought that’s a coincidence … And then realised it was my twin brother. Lovely crossword. Just the right amount of difficulty for me. Would have been a tad quicker if I had remembered the Scottish chimney. At 31 mins my twin has beaten me by 7 mins but I trounced him on the QC …

      Thanks very much to setter and Vinyl and I shall now listen to Albeniz and his Iberia …

  35. 29.33. Not your average Monday offering if I and the blogger are anything to go by. Took me a while to get going- stepsonFOI and never really accelerated. LOI campaigner largely due to thinking an anagram of rage would provide the ends of the solution.

    Lots of clues to enjoy, my favourites local derby , water softener and fortune cookie.

  36. 24.36 I found this clever and quite tricky for a Monday. I was scratching around the grid a bit trying to get a foothold for much of the solve. A good quality puzzle.
  37. I was also a bit off wavelength, somehow – very fair crossword but perhaps a little tougher than the average Monday?
    Luckily, Water Softener came immediately to mind – and I used to live close to the Aire & Calder Navigation (at Ferrybridge).
    We do tend to say Local Derby, but aren’t all Derbies local?
    1. “We do tend to say Local Derby, but aren’t all Derbies local?”

      Not necessarily. Atletico v Real and Barca v Espanyol are local derbies – Real v Barca is a derby.

      Martin Hill

      1. Thanks Martin – didn’t know that Real Madrid v Barcelona would classify as a Derby.
        I’m not aware of any two city Derbies in the UK though – or is Crystal Palace v Brighton called the M23 Derby?
        1. One of the largest city derbies in the UK is Liverpool v Manchester United – a rivalry built not only on the varying fortunes of the football clubs (both have experienced periods of dominance) but also culturally, in particular the importance placed on the pop music scenes of the two cities.

          Real v Barca is one of the largest derbies in world football – it goes by the name El Clasico.

          Martin Hill

  38. Lots of biffing today so thanks to Vinyl for his enlightening blog.
    I hadn’t heard of the Calder but there were some lightbulb moments along the way and I particularly enjoyed HERESY, MARKETPLACE and OLIVE BRANCH.
    My WOD has to be GLEEFUL which was exactly how I felt when I entered my LOI BUCKRAM after 45 minutes.
    Thanks to the setter for the Monday workout.

    Edited at 2020-08-10 01:41 pm (UTC)

    1. Well, this is Chambers under illiberal: “narrow-minded, intolerant or prejudiced; niggardly, ungenerous; narrow in opinion or culture, unenlightened.” I doubt the setter was necessarily expecting us to equate il-liberal with some other creed, such as Conservative or MAGA
  40. I didn’t feel that this was going very well so was quite surprised to see that I finished in less than three quarters of an hour. There were some very quirky structures going on here – 6a for example, although I twigged quite quickly what the ‘on the contrary’ bit meant. All the same, the fact that I didn’t get going until 15a shows it was a slow start. BUCKRAM maybe a chestnut but I still liked it; also STIMULUS (have finally remembered LUM), STODGY, and HERESY. Having seen IN-AN-E twice recently, here’s y wasn’t quite such a challenge as it might have been. It made a change for the Yorkshire river not to be the Ure, the Ouse or the Aire. I did briefly toy with Nidd in the parsing, but couldn’t make that work!

    FOI Idle
    LOI Symbol
    COD Local Derby
    Time 42 mins

    Thanks setter and Vinyl

  41. At one point I thought I wasn’t going to finish but unusually for me the last clues arrived in a rush.
    The key was TAFFETA which was held up by the ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’ part of the clue. Having got that, STIMULUS and everything else flew in.
    Would it be HERESY to add myself to the fans of this clue?
  42. Not particularly enjoyable. Took ages to string a few together though none of the answers were particularly unusual. Thought this was harder than the SNITCH suggested.

    It would have helped to know my Yorkshire rivers.

    I was a bit perplexed by ‘event in Sheffield’. Why Sheffield particularly apart from The Wednesday vs United? Seemed a bit odd though I suppose perhaps not much else happens in Sheffield (apart from a bit of steel-making)?

    1. Snooker championships. The clue has ‘Sheffield, say’ so it’s not Sheffield in particular, it’s just an example.

      Edited at 2020-08-10 05:56 pm (UTC)

Comments are closed.