Times 27949 – Chestnut Season

90 comments on “Times 27949 – Chestnut Season”

1. DNK SLIP, but assumed it was something cricketian. Also DNK the non-underwear meaning of ‘skivvies’, and wondered if DRUDGES was britslang for underwear. A bit too mild, even for a Monday, but it was nice to get in under 10 minutes.
   1. Kevin, I had not come across the word cricketian before. But the ‘Cricketian’ does abide on Facebook. I would have used cricketty, but I am quite obviously living in The Dark Ages!

      Unlike baseball the area behind the batsman is in play and there the slip fielders (slips) cluster around the wicket-keeper (the backstop) awaiting an ‘edge’ or a ‘snick’. It can really hurt! But no glove(s) are allowed.

      At the age of 35 I played my last match at The Oval for the Dennis Compton XI.

      An horridly good Time by the way!

      Edited at 2021-04-12 05:55 am (UTC)

2. Very Mondayish at 13 minutes for me, which is very fast. I rarely break 15 minutes. ODONTOLOGY, my LOI, was the only one I’d never heard off, but the clue gives you Ikea-style assembly instructions.

   Talking of which, I saw a good joke somewhere today. “The CEO of IKEA has been appointed prime-minister of Sweden. He should have his cabinet together by next week.”

3. I only really got stuck on the slipstream/disputable crossing, which ended up not taking very long. If you’ve heard of gavotte and charcuterie, there’s not much to this.

   Skivvies does mean underwear in the US, but the UK meaning is common in early-20th-century great house novels and memoirs, the Downton Abbey sort of thing. Fortunately, there is no Elijah Rawers in Dickens.

4. After some hard ones at the end of last week and over the weekend, I was happy to have solved this gentle offering in 18 minutes. Not quite a write-in though, with VANCOUVER ISLAND not the first ‘part of Canada’ to come to mind and it took me a while to see RAMADAN, my LOI.

   A skivvy is also a polo-necked cotton shirt. We thought they looked pretty good in the late 60’s / early 70’s. Maybe they’ll be back some time.

   Thanks to ulaca (if I’d gone with autocorrect you would have been ‘unavailable’!) and setter.

5. Reminded me of Rufus of a Monday in the Guardian — come to think of it, what happened to Rufus ?
   1. He retired, I believe. I think there was a mention in the Guardian crossword blog – you could seek it out.
   2. Yes, now retired, about three years ago. I usually found his puzzles less gentle than others did. According to his Wikipedia entry he compiled 70,000 crosswords comprising over 2 million clues and he was a Fleet Air Arm pilot (including surviving a crash into the sea) in a previous existence. Quite some life.
6. Ho hum, I can’t spell INSOUCIANCE [wanders off whistling nonchalantly]
   1. I only rescued myself from a wrong spelling with a final check of the anagrist letters pre-submission.
   2. I checked the anagrist 3 times!
7. It should have much less, but I was innocently held up in the south-west descent.

   FOI 5ac GAUCHO – a Club for the Cowboys of Soho

   LOI 26ac TREE FERN

   COD 24dn ACNE marshes, horses, carriages, cream etc

   WOD 15ac EPSILON – Operation ‘Epsilon’ at Farm Hall, Godmanchester, where the top ten German nuclear scientists had their ‘pips squeaked’, June-December 1945.
   I used to park my Karmann Ghia next door some thirty years later. Thet all used to drive Mercedes and later Cadillacs over in Palo Alto,

   21dn POSER was such a wimpy clue.

   Edited at 2021-04-12 04:55 am (UTC)

   1. Kharmann Ghia wins hands down, a class act. Pity you don’t have it today.
8. Dear Sawbill – As you popped ’em in without a second thought, I would make your time around half a minute – which is a world record,’neutrinos’ included! No one can do ’em faster! QED

   Edited at 2021-04-12 05:38 am (UTC)

   1. You need to factor in my keyboard skills so let’s settle on 10 minutes.
      By the way, this was not as easy as today’s Concise … take a look at 15d.
   2. Well, if you’re looking for a world record, John McCabe’s 2:50 looks pretty good to me.
      1. That is extraordinary – unless he was the setter!
9. For me this was the easiest for years. I wrote everything in without a second thought. I don’t time myself but I cannot do them faster.
   1. I have eyesight problems and each clue takes a while to get in focus. I’m another who filled the grid with hardly any thinking time. My 14 minutes is as good as it’s ever going to be….
10. 9 minutes 20 seconds with the only hold-up OLDSTER for thirty seconds or so. I’ve learnt something from coming here though. SKIVVIES only means DRUDGES to me, as billed, not underwear, so no confusion there. An easy puzzle but it’s nice once in a while to zip through one. Thank you U and setter.
11. …And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

    How sublime!
    15 mins for the puzzle, held up unaccountably by LOI Disputable, pre-brekker.
    One mark, a tick for ‘acne.
    Thanks setter and U.

12. A nice palate cleanser before the more substantial fare that I presume we will dine on for the rest of the week. My thanks to Chas ‘n’ Dave, whose Give It Gavotte helped me with 1D.
13. As I entered my final answer I realised that I had failed to note my starting time so I can’t be sure exactly how long this took. I’d estimate 20 minutes.

    VANCOUVER ISLAND was my first in and GAUCHO was my last, the only clue that required me to revisit it more than once. My first thought had been RANCHO but never got to writing it in.

14. Similar experience here. Disappointingly easy. I don’t time myself, but wrll within my PB.
15. 07.54 which I think is my fastest ever solve. Just on the wavelength today but I suspect others will have had the same experience.

    Nothing much to add really, will luxuriate in the experience at least until tomorrow.

16. Well, OK, by the standards of everyone else I crawled along for 13.28, mostly because I can neither spell nor pronounce INSOUCIANCE. AN-SOO-EE-SONCE? AN-SWEE-SONCE? AN-SOU-SEE-ANCE? At least the anagrist persuaded me to dispense with a second S, but the multiplicity of possible card games crossing at 29 didn’t help with the real word.

    We’ve actually had quite a light weekend: both the Listener and Mephisto were relatively straightforward, recommended to anyone who would like to dip their toe in the (usually more challenging) waters.

    1. Dear Z, I think it is a word that needs a”light” French accent so your first attempt is nearest! I would say AN-SOU-SI-ANCE.
       1. Sorry, I meant last attempt. Oops.
17. Agree this was very simple. Seven minutes is a record for me by some margin.
18. INNOCENTS ABROAD miss the hid-
    den TWITTERING thing in this grid
    The setter, I’m sure
    Knows penguin EMPEROR
    I’m an OLDSTER — I saw what you did.
19. As said, a very gentle start to the week which I very much enjoyed. 22mins. No probs with V I as we have good friends who live in Victoria.

    Mostly I liked INSOUCIANCE and INNOCENTS ABROAD. LOI DRUDGES. Thanks U and setter.

20. Had the most trouble with the ODONTOLOGY/DRUDGES intersection, as I didn’t know what skivvies are and Rudge took a while to occur to me. Otherwise this was pretty straightforward, though I spent some time trying to fit ‘rapidly’ into 20d before realising it wasn’t that kind of fast and I never fully parsed DISPUTABLE. Nice to have one of the less common Greek letters in crosswordland, and NESTLING is a lovely word.

    FOI Gaucho
    LOI Drudges
    COD Insouciance

    1. There are three Greek letters that are only used in archaic dialects – sampi, koppa, and digamma – now that would be a challenge for many solvers!
21. 08:51 with the last couple of minutes on the SW corner, having to derive the unknown phrase at 25A from the anagram. Very QC-ish and I see jackkt has already recommended this to the QC regulars. COD to INSOUCIANCE.
22. 13 mins while drinking coffee and eating a banana.
23. 15m today so another (not so) rare sub 20. All straightforward enough and enjoyed the puzzle. Thank you setter and blogger today.
24. Sixth fastest time ever.

    I liked Barnaby Rudge, one of two Dickens historical novels.

    20d is very topical, as it begins at sundown today.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

25. A big thank you to Jack for commenting on the QC blog that this might be accessible for us less experienced (or possibly in my case, thicker) solvers, and also to the school in Southend that decided they no longer needed my services today, leaving me free to attempt this after a warm up of Oink. My previous best for the 15 x 15 was 64 minutes, but I sailed through this in 35:51. Didn’t manage to parse DISPUTABLE or SLIPSTREAM and I couldn’t see why EVEN meant “no less”, so thanks to ulaca for explaining those and, of course, thanks to the setter for being so kind. FOI GAUCHO, LOI TREE FERN, COD to SLIPSTREAM now I know how it works.
    1. Well done (and to everyone from QCland who gave it a try). Clearly a school in Southend has lost a valuable asset.
26. in ancient days by emperor and clown. The latter I, held up by the obvs. here and there. 19’51.
27. On the QC blog I was tipped off that the 15×15 (as we Quickies say) was approachable today. And a PB of 40:30 resulted. Had I been commuting to the office I could have finished before Waterloo, which is 42 mins on the timetable (and never in reality)

    Sadly I wasted several minutes on the easy ELEVEN, my LOI.

    Enjoyed the construction of ODONTOLOGY, a word I did not know. I had MAINSTREAM for SLIPSTREAM, with MAINS=current and mainstream=current.

    I know we are not supposed to read surfaces in the context of the answer, but Vancouver Island certainly is a posh part of Canada. Posh enough for Harry & Meghan, who have quite exacting standards, it seems.

    WOD/COD : GAVOTTE

    1. Not when it comes to common decency.
28. A nice easy start to the week, with GRENOBLE, GAVOTTE and EON giving me a flying start which, unusually, didn’t come to a grinding halt! A biffed ORTHODONTICS didn’t fit and was also ruled out by VANCOUVER ISLAND, so the unknown ODONTOLOGY had to wait for a few crossers and the wordplay to drop into place. RAMADAN soon replaced a biffed RAPIDLY when SLIPSTREAM became apparent. Otherwise a clockwise solve which must be close to a PB for me. 12:39. Thanks setter and U.
29. 5:56. Easy, but I did slow down a bit in the SW corner where it took me a while to let go of the idea that 27ac would contain an anagram of TEAM and I was unsure about CRIB. Using ‘briefly’ to indicate removing half the letters from an eight-letter word struck me as not really on, but I see from Collins that CRIB is a recognised abbreviation for CRIBBAGE so that’s fine.
    1. I’ve played it since childhood and at various times in local leagues etc but don’t recall coming across anyone who called it ‘cribbage’. The ‘crib’ is actually a feature of play – an extra hand every round to be scored by the dealer – and in that context crib is not short for cribbage. That’s what most people think of when they refer to the game.

       Edited at 2021-04-12 11:29 am (UTC)

       1. I’ve never played it so have no direct experience but it’s in all the usual dictionaries (Collins, Lexico, OED, Chambers) as a name for the game (as well as the more specific meaning you mention).
          1. Yes, of course it would be and I didn’t mean to suggest there was anything wrong with calling it cribbage, only that CRIB is the most usual name for the game amongst the people who play it. If I’d been setting the clue (spare us that!) it would never have occurred to me to treat it as an abbreviation.
             1. I’m happy with the Crib even though my grandfather (Suffolk) called it Cribbage’. But the scorer with the matchsticks was ever called the ‘Cribbage Board’ in our domain. I’ve not heard ‘Crib Board’. Might there be regional variations?
                1. My old mate Pete Banbury and I devised our own 9 card version of crib, which we played most lunchtimes in the bar of the Brooklands Tap in Sale between 179 and 1993 — six cards in hand, three cards discarded to the box, first to 151. It baffled many non-regulars who saw it.
                   1. I used to play crib with a law student in the adjoining flat after we had all spent the evening in the pub. Once a month we would tally up the cumulative score and the loser bought a curry.
                      I wonder if my experience of poker and bridge between lectures helped as I think I was the more successful.
                      An illustrious group, one has even ended up in the HoL. Happy days.

                      Edited at 2021-04-13 07:11 am (UTC)

30. Like everyone else I found this one on the easy side, although it still took a while to get going and I probably should have been a fair bit quicker.

    INNOCENTS ABROAD was new to me – seems to come from a Mark Twain book.

31. but I was rather pleased to finish in under 10 minutes, for the first time. Only 8 seconds under, but it was still gratifying (until I looked at the times recorded at the top of the table – I don’t know how they do it).
    1. I believe the speedsters write in one clue while they are reading another (and for all I know, solving a third). It’s a skill beyond my understanding, never mind my capability.
32. Thank heavens for an easy start to the week.
    Plenty of TREE FERNS where I live.
33. Easy stuff — just wished my brain could read twice as fast and I could type twice as fast on my ‘phone at 1am this morning.
    1. Of the fastest genuine solvers, Mohn and Jason are indeed in the UK, but Verlaine is now in California and Aphis99 is in Australia, so only some of them are solving after midnight.
       1. It would be enlightening, if one of them would post on here about the process. I experimented once by solving on paper, and then typing the answers in as quickly as I could; I think it took me about 4 and a half minutes!
          1. You could watch some of the old Mark Goodliffe videos on YouTube, where he does live solves. Unfortunately, he has gone on to Sudoku.
             1. Yes I do watch Cracking the Cryptic, I’ll see if I can find the older ones.
          2. I would say that the two crucial skills for fast solving are pattern-matching (i.e. seeing some letters in the grid and being able to think of words that might fit) and spotting where the definition is in a clue. When combined, these two skills mean you can see a potential answer without even needing to crack the wordplay element of the clue, thus reducing the puzzle to essentially a Concise crossword. Unfortunately developing these skills requires doing thousands and thousands of puzzles over tens of years.

             Today’s puzzle started something like this for me. 1A “Work unit” = ERG, reverse it, I only know one French city of the form GRE????? and “illustrious” fits the last five letters. 1D “too much” usually equals OTT and the definition is apparently “dance”, already have the initial G, can think of an answer that fits and the bit outside the OTT means “Handed over”. 3D is long hence worth a shot in order to get some crossing letters for other answers – already have the initial O, which in all likelihood corresponds to “Ring”, and “lecturer” generally equals DON. I know that words beginning ODONT are usually something to do with teeth, and TOLOGY fits the rest of the wordplay. 10A is another potentially helpful long one and the “Canada” bit, when combined with the initial V, suggests VANCOUVER something. Etc. Progress generally made use of previous answers, preferably where they had given an initial letter to an unanswered clue. The only hold-up was 20D RAMADAN, where the artist (often RA) and what appeared to be the definition (“fast”) suggested RAPIDLY, which I filled in but then deleted as I had spotted the “publicity” in the clue and couldn’t see how that could possibly be represented as part of PIDLY. I then moved on to another clue as nothing else came to mind, and by the time I came to 20D again I already had all the crossing letters. I think in this entire puzzle, the only bit of “cold solving” (i.e. where there were no letters already in the grid for a particular answer) was 1A.

             With regards to online solving, typing speed is critical (I solve much faster online than on paper). I can fill in a grid in 45s if I already know the answers. If it takes you 4m30s to do something similar, then your typing speed is one barrier to getting fast times online. The good news is that you can get better at typing in mere weeks.

             Note that solving quickly is only really of any use at the Championships (which are done on paper, not online). Enjoying a puzzle and savouring the clues is best done at a more gentle pace.

             John (mohn/mohn2)

             1. Thanks for that fascinating insight. I agree that it’s better to enjoy the solve at a steady pace; I only asked out of curiosity, as it astonishes me to see these times each day.
34. so perhaps a little ponderous compared to some of you. I found myself jumping to another clue if I didn’t see the answer immediately.
    LOI CRIB as I has no idea of cribbage, having never played it. In fact, I didn’t realise it was a card game.
35. Pointed here by Jackkt’s recommendation over on the QC, this was one of my faster solves for the 15 x 15, at just under 25 minutes, so thanks Jackkt. I knew GAUCHO, but just couldn’t recall the word for ages, and I enjoyed solving the two longest clues from wordplay. Thanks both.
36. A gentle stroll in 11 minutes with the solutions coming as fast as I could write them in — the sort of puzzle that makes me wonder, as per previous comments today, what physical and mental characteristics are required to complete the same puzzle in less than half the time.
37. The low SNITCH score encouraged me to venture from the security of the QC to one of my less frequent ventures into the comparative uncertainty of the 15×15, and I was rewarded by a straightforward, encouraging solve. Thank-you, setter.
38. I managed to complete this in 25 minutes, which is fast for me, confirming the general view that this was an easier than usual Monday Cryptic. Could have been faster if I hadn’t taken longer than I should have done to get SLIPSTREAM (22Ac) and RAMADAN (20D), my LOIs. Not surprised that the Leaderboard shows a clutch of sub-4 min times. The board is led by Mohn with an incredible 2.50 minutes. I’d have difficulty matching that even if I knew all the solutions in advance.
39. Nice and gentle which suited me fine. Had my first AstraZeneca jab on Friday (we’re a fair way behind the UK here) and was a little surprised to be completely knackered on Saturday. More or less back to normal yesterday, so no great harm done.
    1. I had my second on Saturday. No side effects at all, though the first one did put me out of sorts for a few hours. Hope your second jab is as easy as mine.
    2. I had my first jab at the beginning of February and had a slight headache next day, and felt very lethargic for a few days, but that was it. Second jab due 2 weeks from Wednesday.
    3. I too had a bad reaction to my first AZ jab, but as you say, after 48 hours all was well. I’m now ‘looking forwards’ to my booster (no date yet) with some trepidation.
    4. Just to balance things, I had my first AZ jab in February with no after-effects at all.
40. Like many above, I think this must have been unusually straightforward. A PB for me by quite some time – about six minutes, in fact.
41. Easy, no issues, 11 minutes, FOI GAUCHO LOI CRIB.
42. My best time for quite a while. Easily broke the Ten Minute Barrier.

    COD:SLIPSTREAM.

43. My second ever time under 10 minutes, and it was around 8, so my fastest ever. More time was spent writing than solving.
44. And yet another happy QC visitor.
45. I figured everybody would find this pretty easy, as I filled in almost all of the down answers (starting at the bottom) before doing any acrosses. Was glad, as I didn’t get around to it until I was almost ready to sleep. Like Kevin, I was was assuming DRUDGES was a somewhat unpleasant Brit term for undergarments, but I had heard of Barnaby.

    Edited at 2021-04-12 03:07 pm (UTC)

46. Another QCer to complete. LOI TREE FERN. It still took me a while but I shall blame the support I gave at lunchtime to the reopening pubs. Bracing to sit outside-in London, not Skegness.
    David
47. How does one make a banana last 13 minutes ?
    1. You don’t wanna know… :))
48. ….Di gifted at 14D ? The word seems superfluous. I found nothing of any note otherwise.

    FOI GRENOBLE
    LOI VANCOUVER ISLAND
    COD SLIPSTREAM
    TIME 6:50

    1. “Gifted” clues the “able” part. Di’s + put is on top of it.
       1. Ah, right. Brain not fully in gear today — thank you.
49. Very Mondayish, but Mondays have as much right to exist as any other day, I guess. Nothing wrong with a pleasant but easy solve.

    I am back on the TV tonight, for those that enjoy such things. Tonight, I shall be tested on my knowledge of the popular beat combo R.E.M. in an exciting semi-final…

    1. Rather like my effort way back when — did well on the GK, but didn’t capitalize on the specialist subject. At least it’s not “The End of the World As We Know It”. Are you going to try again ? 15 points in the GK round is a really good showing (I would have scored 12 on your questions).
       1. Cheers, Phil, yes, music can be a tricky specialism, can’t it…lesson learned, anyway. And yes, I very much expect I’ll have another crack, but not for a year or two – having to learn something in the required depth takes a lot of commitment. I even did a third subject, as I was a reserve for the final, and by the end of that I thought I’d just stick to my normal quizzes for a while!
50. Lots of comments on the QC blog that this was a gift, so I went to the trouble of noting start and finish times. A touch under 40 mins (sorry Merlin) in total, including parsing, which makes it a new PB (unfortunately by a country mile.) Wouldn’t mind the odd one like this every couple of weeks, if only to make up for the tough ones in between — last Friday’s being a good example. Invariant

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