Times 27855 – back to Tier One.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
After last week’s toughie, the last of the three competition puzzles which weren’t, we’re back to a lower level of difficulty with this one. Quite a lot of convoluted wordplay there if you can be bothered, or have to blog it, but several clues which will be BIFD by the speed merchants if not everyone. Apart from nearly falling into an error at 24a, it was straightforward and took me half an hour to decipher the wordplay to my satisfaction.
I’m one mile inside Leicestershire in tier 3, Rutland is in tier 2, Stamford is in tier 3 at the other end of Rutland (it’s only 10 miles wide) and the car park of my golf course in Burghley Park half a mile from Stamford is in tier 4 although it’s a long way from Peterborough. It’s all rather confusing for all. Probably be rained off anyway.
Merry Christmas to everyone, from tiers 1 though 4. Ho Ho Ho !

Across
1 I carefully observe trouble — not good, putting it tersely (2,5)
IN BRIEF – I, N.B. (carefully observe) GRIEF delete G.
5 I’m getting stuck into beer vessel without end (7)
AIMLESS – I’M inside ALE, SS for vessel.
9 Protection from hackers initially going in hard with us, possibly (9)
SHINGUARD – (HARD WITH US)* with G (going initially) inserted.
10 Cultivate source of munitions — and do so again? (5)
REARM – REAR (cultivate) M (source of munitions).
11 Backed America and much of European country (5)
SUDAN – All reversed, DAN(E), US.
12 Rev might, after inviting duke in for tea (9)
GUNPOWDER – GUN (rev, as in rev a motor) POWER (might) insert D(uke). Variety of green tea.
13 Artist reversed cut in representation of harp — the best (3-10)
PRE-RAPHAELITE – Insert PARE (cut) reversed into (HARP*) then add ELITE for best. Or biff it once you have P blank E.
17 Late learner falls due to disapproving word about private office (6,7)
MATURE STUDENT – MATURES (falls due, as in a bond), DEN (private office) in TUT (disapproving word).
21 Plane guided back, mark, after securing victory (5,4)
DELTA WING – LED reversed, TAG (mark) insert WIN. Shape of aircraft which works best at supersonic speeds. All to do with shock waves.
24 Right to block postponement? Get lost (5)
STRAY – Insert R into STAY = postponement. I had SCRAM (get lost) to start with, but couldn’t relate a SCAM to a postponement.
25 Time to follow Times, in time producing a special edition (5)
EXTRA – X (times, by) T, inserted into ERA (in time).
26 A lot of freedom to fix position (9)
PLACEMENT – PLA(Y) = a lot of freedom, CEMENT = fix.
27 Recalled article: trail is just starting (7)
NASCENT – AN reversed + SCENT (trail).
28 Insect seen round about, invading the whole room (7)
SANCTUM – C(about) invades ANT, which invades SUM (the whole).

Down
1 Is and isn’t wrong to demand (6)
INSIST – (IS ISN’T)*.
2 Additions to window over sink? Not something I can comment on perhaps (5,4)
BLIND SPOT – BLINDS as additions to window; POT = sink as in snooker.
3 Artless individual in group giving off singular energy (7)
INGENUE – IN, GENU(S), E.
4 Father getting a garbled signal in contrived language (9)
FRANGLAIS – FR (Father), A, (SIGNAL)*
5 Poet: study area University put foremost (5)
AUDEN – DEN (study) with A(rea), U(niversity) in front.
6 Unpleasant experience, accommodating gloomy playwright (7)
MARLOWE – MARE (nightmare, unleasant experience) has LOW (gloomy) inserted.
7 Ruminant, note, observed in climbing valley (5)
ELAND – DALE reversed with N inserted. Today’s antelope.
8 County cricket season reportedly prepared (8)
SOMERSET – SOMER sounds like summer, the cricket season (except in 2020 it was Autumn), SET = prepared.
14 Girl is after varying rough indicator of time (9)
HOURGLASS –  (ROUGH)*, LASS = girl.
15 One percent, upset with temperature, head off (9)
INTERCEPT – I (one), (PERCENT)*, T.
16 A little boy swallowing an insect (8)
SMIDGEON – SON swallows MIDGE.
18 Alcoholic drink consumed by Voltaire à la légère (4,3)
REAL ALE – hidden word as in bold italics above.
19 Sculptor records note with it (7)
EPSTEIN – EPS (records) TE (note) IN (with it). I wonder in how many decades the use of LPS and EPS for records will cease? Not to mention CDS. On the other hand Vinyl1 may be here for decades too.
20 Article extracted from speeches satisfied rising organisation (6)
SYSTEM – S(A)YS, MET reversed.
22 Soporific plant: scoundrel, out of Ecstasy, will import tons (5)
LOTUS – LOUS(E) = scoundrel without E, insert T.
23 Contribution from one head assuming power (5)
INPUT – I (one) NUT (head) insert P for power.

​

59 comments on “Times 27855 – back to Tier One.”

  1. I was tempted by SCRAM too, but couldn’t justify SCAM. And 4D was obviously ESPERANTO until I couldn’t see anything to do with the wordplay and then saw it. Otherwise nothing to scare the horses.
  2. At 50 minutes I didn’t find this easy. There were a number of places where an answer jumped out at me e.g. MATURE STUDENT for ‘late learner’, but I struggled to make sense of the wordplay so I delayed writing in the grid.

    I wasn’t entirely convinced by ‘says’ = ‘speeches’ at 20dn as I must have missed all my life that ‘speech’ can be a ‘verb’ as I now learn that it is! I’d have said ‘give / make a speech’, or even ‘speechify’.

    Edited at 2020-12-23 07:03 am (UTC)

  3. Thanks, Pip, especially for IN BRIEF and GUNPOWDER. I missed the N.B. connection in 1ac and didn’t know GUNPOWDER was a variety of green tea.
    I enjoyed this with SHINGUARD being my COD.
    I sympathise with your plight in being twixt several tiers. All is smooth sailing here in NZ but I have friends in Groombridge. Their half of the village is in Sussex but their pub of choice is in Kent which is in a higher tier so the pub is closed.

    Edited at 2020-12-23 07:11 am (UTC)

  4. I don’t know if I’d call FRANGLAIS “contrived”; it is a natural development of the interplay between languages, not something invented in a lab (for that reason, I too was tempted by ESPERANTO).
    “Room” is quite the minimal definition for SANCTUM! So one of my last.
    Just did all three of the week’s cryptics so far today. I was surprised to realize that the championship puzzles have all already appeared. How time flies.
  5. I agree with what you say about speeches, Jack. I couldn’t parse 20d, so SYSTEM went in without conviction, thinking SYS might be an ancient Greek oratorical device. 31’42”
  6. Remind me not to do puzzles at 2 in the morning. Not that it was easy, but it wasn’t as hard as I made it out to be, that’s for sure!
  7. Pip I think rather than speech being a verb here (which would be both hideous and ultra-arcane) it’s say being a noun, as in having a say: Chambers gives definition 5 of say (n) as speech.

    Just over the half hour for me. Nothing particularly noteworthy but a nice reminder of the fine Squeeze song Hourglass. Thanks setter and Pip.

    1. I agree with you; I thought it was “say” in the sense you suggest, but didn’t think it necessary to spell it out; obviously it was necessary as some have commented on it being a verb.
      1. That was my initial thought too (before I found the obscure verb option) but is there an example of a substitution that works? I could only think in terms of ‘having a say’ / ‘having a speech’ which fails completely in my view. But perhaps there’s something better?

        Edited at 2020-12-23 02:26 pm (UTC)

            1. Yes and no ! If you have your say, you’re generally speaking at some kind of length, so a speech would describe that. There’s no escaping the fact that it isn’t the greatest clue, however we analyse it.
              1. Amen. But some of the rest, Extra for example, was quite good.

                Edited at 2020-12-23 09:34 pm (UTC)

  8. I had a BLIND SPOT about the parsing for 1a, but otherwise everything made sense. I enjoyed the wordplay for EXTRA and working out the parsing of PRE-RAPHAELITE. GUNPOWDER as a sort of tea was new.

    I just bunged in SYSTEM without too much thought. ‘Say’ though can be a noun, as pleasuredome8 points out.

    Just broke the half hour barrier at 29 minutes; clearly last on the Club site when I submitted.

    Thank you to setter and to our multi-tiered blogger – hope you return to a more level existence soon.

  9. 17:05 but I see I neglected to parse a couple until later. I liked “Protection from hackers” for SHINGUARD and EXTRA best. Thanks Pip and setter.
  10. After two days with an error I was pleased to finish correctly in 21′.

    SMIDGEON was clever, I overthought AUDEN, ELAND seemed too obvious.

    I love the pre-Raphaelites, the painting of Hypatia is my favourite.

    Thanks pip and setter.

  11. 38 minutes, with LOI INTERCEPT. COD to SOMERSET. Will we ever see proper county cricket again? Manchester Originals, indeed. They couldn’t even come up with an alliterative name. Manchester Mechanicals and I might have shown a spot of interest. I had to work harder at this than I expected from initial successes. Fortunately, I had a vague memory of GUNPOWDER tea, from here I think. I had a love/hate relationship with SHINGUARDS and à la George Best would often dispense with them. Jack Grealish seems to have cut his in half by way of solution. A fair puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.
  12. IN BRIEF, EXTRA easy today
    By no SMIDGEON did my INPUT STRAY
    Those who love the crossword
    INSIST “It isn’t merde”
    (Well they might if they’ve mastered FRANGLAIS)
    2. If they could speak FRANGLAIS (he sweared),
      They never would rhyme “word” with “merde.”
  13. 46mins today so quite chewy but lots to enjoy. I particularly liked SHINGUARD, EXTRA, PRE-RAPHAELITE AND DELTA WING. MATURE STUDENT took a while to see and LOI MARLOWE. I also liked without end for AIMLESS. Some MERs at a few definitions which I thought were a bit loose, most of which have already been mentioned. One or two were also left unparsed so thank you to Pip for those. Our Golf club has been closed for ages and only opened last week so I am playing tomorrow, goodie. Luckily the only Tier system there is the new (higher) tee boxes they have installed during the closure.
  14. 35 mins with banana and granola (we have inexplicably run out of yoghurt – I blame Boris or Brexit or Macron or Covid or something).
    This wasn’t my cup of tea. Speeches=Says is just unacceptable.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

    PS Do you remember BAWB (BIFD and worked backwards). This crossword was full of ’em.

    Edited at 2020-12-23 09:03 am (UTC)

  15. Or not: it actually ended in just under 18 minutes, though I freely admit I was picky about what I parsed and what I didn’t bother with. In the bottom half, SANCTUM, LOTUS and DELTA WING all needed proper solving, in the top half SHINGUARD and PRE-R didn’t, and didn’t get it.
    FRANGLAIS kicks off for me with Miles Kington in the 70s, though I’m aware of earlier versions such as Shakespeare’s pipi-take in Henry V. And let’s not oublier le guard de chateau en “Graal” avec “fetchez la vache”
    For a slightly different take, I can recommend (if you can find it) “Mots d’Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D’Antin Manuscript”, which I once presented to my wife. She tried hard to appreciate this arcane piece of French literature, until I got her to read it out loud: A sample:
    Un petit d’un petit
    S’étonne aux Halles
    Un petit d’un petit
    Ah! degrés te fallent
    1. I’ll second that recommendation. My wife – an Honours grad in French – received the same book as a present, and was completely bemused for several hours.
      1. I also remember that Z. And there was a companion piece featuring Little Red Riding Hood. Ladle Rat Rotten Hut who lived in a ladle cordage wetter murder.
    2. My mother is French-Swiss. Many Christmases ago my brother and I were in hysterics as she read aloud to us from this book with perfectly natural French enunciation. For ages she thought we were laughing purely at the gibberish she was speaking, not quite understanding why we found it so hilarious.
    3. How delightful that there is someone else in the universe who remembers this delightful piece of literature, if one can call it that. There is a copy on my bookshelf, but I will probably never be able to find it since my wife sorted all our books by the colour of their jackets (Mots d’heure, gousse, rames was blue if I remember correctly).
  16. 9:31. Much biffing this morning. I just can’t see how ‘says’ can possibly mean ‘speeches’, whatever Chambers says.
    1. “Says” pronounced with a long A, as a noun.
      Yes, one commonly has a say but makes a speech.
      But some crossword editors insist that the substitution test isn’t de rigueur.
      1. Not remotely the same thing! If you ‘have a say’, your expressed opinion has an influence on a decision. The word ‘speech’ doesn’t have anything like this meaning in any context.
        I suspect ‘say’ is just an archaic word for a speech.
        1. This is all Collins has on that

          NOUN
          18. the right or chance to speak
          let him have his say
          19. authority, esp to influence a decision
          she has a lot of say in the company’s policy
          20. a statement of opinion
          you’ve had your say, now let me have mine

  17. On the wavelength, and would have been comfortably under ten minutes, if I hadn’t tried entering (on paper) 22d at 23d, and 25a at 22d, which kind of delayed the SW corner.

    Edited at 2020-12-23 10:56 am (UTC)

  18. I simply lost interest in this puzzle.

    FOI 1dn INSIST

    LOI 9ac SHINGUARD

    COD 8dn SOMERSET

    WOD 5dn AUDEN

    Timeless

  19. no doubt a tad distressed by the spelling of ‘smidgen’ and some over-intricate parsing. Pip, your explanation of the anagram in 9 ac. needs editing. A bit aimless here for a time but it soon started to blow into place. 25’16. PS I think ‘say’ for ‘speech’ as a noun is grim but just about within the bounds, but the plural ‘says’ is not on.

    Edited at 2020-12-23 11:46 am (UTC)

  20. Another “scram” here which I changed to “scray” when I had 20d. I suppose I was thinking of the pig Latin for scram which is “amscray” but I knew I’d have to go back and fix it. I also tried hard for Spanglish because I was sure Pa must be in there somewhere. Not all that easy. 18.25
  22. 20.56. Really enjoyed this one. FOI insist and last Pre Raphaelite. Top LH took a while but eventually yielded leading swiftly to my LOI. Didn’t parse placement but as it looked a good fit , took the plunge. Liked in brief, shinguards- definitely needed them for Sunday league matches- sanctum and extra( where I almost put in tetra.

    Thanks blogger and setter.

  23. A nice workmanlike feel to this. 26m with some prolonged staring at assembly instructions for SANCTUM.
  24. Was left with several answers where I had most of the checkers but the words just wouldn’t come to mind.

    Then, like magic, they all came to me, one after the other, in very quick succession. Funny how the brain works.

  25. SE corner caused me the most problems: SYSTEM took a while to come (and I’m not entirely convinced by says = speeches); only once I’d thought of that did I realise 24a was the non-confrontational meaning of “get lost” and get STRAY; the insertion into another insertion to get SANCTUM eluded me for a while, as the “seen round about” made me think it would be an insect backwards; and although I thought of PLACEMENT relatively early on I couldn’t parse it until it was my LOI and I figured out what the “A lot of” was doing.

    FOI Rearm
    LOI Placement
    COD Blind spot

  26. I didn’t get much more than INSIST out of the NW, part from IN ____ at 1a and SU___ at 11a, but once the ELAND reared up in the NE, and MARLOWE and SOMERSET had appeared, I began to make progress with GUNPOWDER leading to FRANGLAIS, and that leading to IN BRIEF. BLIND SPOT and INGENUE led to a biffed PRE-RAPHAELITE, and then the lower half went in without too much fuss. SMIDGEON was LOI. 29:49. Thanks setter and Pip.
  27. I was too slow spotting “Pre Raphaelite” thus preventing a faster solve. Also had “Hundredth” pencilled in for 15dn until I realised I was on completely the wrong track.
    Enjoyed the puzzle.
  29. 25.38, I found this pretty fiddly in parts and definitely didn’t do the hard work necessary to parse pre-raphaelite, just bunged in the obvious artist with enough checkers in play. Was thrown by says/speeches in system and by trying to find scram or equivalent for the imperative type of get lost instead of stray.
  30. I must have been on the setter’s wavelength (maybe it was two bottles of belgian tripel before solving), and breezed in to 8:23. I’m a little peeved that I can’t find the Samurai sudoku, though the rest of the bonus puzzles are in the puzzles section. I’ve enjoyed those, hope they are continuing.
  31. ….my eventual COD, where I was initially convinced it was some kind of computer “ware”. I eventually repositioned to SW, and worked widdershins back to the top. Not a bad puzzle, but spoiled by 20D.

    FOI INSIST
    LOI PRE-RAPHAELITE (I was without the P for too long !)
    COD SHINGUARD
    TIME 10:02

  32. My time of 41 minutes included a doze so no idea what it should have been. All perfectly doable with several holding me up due to preconceptions, especially SMIDGEON for which I had already put the A in as the first l
  33. My time of 41 minutes included a doze so no idea what it should have been. All perfectly doable with several holding me up due to preconceptions, especially SMIDGEON for which I had already put the A in as the first letter. LOI SHINGUARD where I misinterpreted the anagram.
    We are right on the border between England and Wales, even worse here…
  35. I ploughed through this somewhat doggedly and with a lot of biffing. 32 minutes. Btw, just received an email (orignally in Russian) purportedly from Live Journal saying I have to change my password as the old one is no longer being recognised and asking for a new password. Suspect a scam. If this comment passes via my existing password then scam is confirmed….
  36. About 25 mins for me, but I should have done better. I have recently started submitting my solutions to the Crossword Club, and been astounded by the leading solving times. Is it possible to achieve a time of less than two minutes? I think it would take me that long just to complete the grid, even if I knew the answers in advance
    1. These are posted by what we call “neutrinos”, who get the answers beforehand (on paper or from an online aid) then type them in. A meaningless feat, irritating, but they persist. The fastest regular proper solvers, the likes of magoo, mohn2, verlaine etc., are seldom below 4 minutes, and even that I find astounding. My PB is just under 12 but I am not trying to beat the clock, I like to wallow and often take 40 or more.
  37. A slow but steady solve, in 41 minutes, but there was nothing really difficult or astounding. I also felt uneasy about speeches as SAYS, but obviously that’s what it had to be. COD perhaps to SMIDGEON (which always reminds me of the Tom Lehrer song Poisoning Pigeons in the Park — what else would rhyme with “pigeon”?).
  38. OK that’s a bit closer but still not close enough IMO. Chambers defines say as ‘a speech’ separately from ‘opportunity of speech’ and ‘influence in a decision’, which is why I suspect it may be an old meaning. I’d check in the OED but my library card number has stopped working as a log in, annoyingly.

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