Times 28183 – Happy trails!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 13 minutes
Music: Debussy, Iberia, Dorati/National Orchestra.

The run of easy Mondays evidently continues, with the SNITCH running at about 50.   I wrote in all the answers in with hardly a pause, and there are a few that have yet to parsed – I’m pretty sure that won’t be hard.    There were a lot of chestnuts and well-know crossword memes here, and experience will give your solve a bit of a push.   There will probably be a lot of personal bests today.  

Across
1 Element identified by sharp-witted cook at sea (11)
QUICKSILVER – QUICK + SILVER, Long John Silver, that is, whose prior occupation was indeed cook.
7 Swindles of husband initially appalling son (3)
HAS – H + A[ppalling] S[on].
9 Woman in Missouri shelter mostly the worse for wear (4-5)
MOTH-EATEN – MO (THEA) TEN[t].
10 Fling involving pair in 27, for example (5)
SPREE – S(PR)EE, where Ely in 27 is indeed an episcopal see.
11 Sings rhythm and blues primarily in part of UK (7)
WARBLES – WA(R&B)LES.
12 Collieries about to terminate regular pay (7)
STIPEND – PITS backwards + END.
13 Fabric bringing US city half of capital (5)
NYLON – NY + LON[don].
15 Sign a rough tap damaged (9)
AUTOGRAPH – Anagram of A ROUGH TAP.
17 The French strip — she washes and irons (9)
LAUNDRESS – LA + UNDRESS.
19 Fellow soldier fencing run for dog (5)
CORGI – CO-(R)-GI.
20 Yankee moneymaker, one with aspirations (7)
YEARNER – Y + EARNER, Nato alphabet for Y.
22 Bearing left for Luton, possibly (7)
AIRPORT – AIR + PORT.
24 Garlic mayonnaise made by girl about ten (5)
AIOLI – A(10)LI.
25 Foolishness, a crime in country Capone abandoned (9)
ASININITY – A + SIN + IN + IT[al]Y.
27 English youth leader seen around large city (3)
ELY – E(L)Y[outh].
28 Improved quality of cane men then distributed (11)
ENHANCEMENT – Anagram of CANE MEN THEN.
Down
1 Introductions to quiet old men in Iranian city (3)
QOM – Q[uiet] O[ol] M[en], sometimes spelt Qum, a rug-weaving city.
2 Popular monarch snatching time in Bury? (5)
INTER –  IN(T)ER.
3 King beheaded mischief-maker in citadel (7)
KREMLIN – K + [g]REMLIN.
4 Lacking will, belonging to trial rowing team, one hears (9)
INTESTATE – Sounds like IN TEST EIGHT.
5 Symbol of love, in Heaven usually (5)
VENUS –  Hidden in [hea]VEN US[usally].
6 Relaxing French art treasures originally pinched by gang (7)
RESTING – R(ES T[reasures])ING.
7 Material provided by hacks principally, or a shire, oddly (9)
HORSEHAIR – H[acks] + anagram of OR A SHIRE.
8 Pass plant, being extravagant purchaser (11)
SPENDTHRIFT – SPEND + THRIFT – creeping phlox, apparently, which I DNK.
11 Preacher touring north finally rejected beer and cheese (11)
WENSLEYDALE –  WE(N)SLEY + [rejecte]D + ALE.
14 Like speech praising old archbishop, a right-winger (9)
LAUDATORY – LAUD + A TORY.
16 Islander cheers Welsh girl entertaining crew (9)
TASMANIAN –  TA + S(MAN)IAN.
18 Study can ultimately define calcified tissue (7)
DENTINE – DEN + TIN + [defin]E.
19 Appreciative comment of one first seeing this moulding? (7)
CORNICE – COR! NICE!
21 Bill plugging Royal Opera House? Something fishy here (5)
ROACH – RO(AC)H.
23 Woman — old, as it happens (5)
OLIVE – O + LIVE.
26 Legendary mountain-dweller, one not appearing up till now (3)
YET – YET[i].

108 comments on “Times 28183 – Happy trails!”

  1. A bit of an AAAARGH moment when I confidently submitted and then saw green square on mistyped VENNS … particularly vexing since QC had been already done in 3:04 so would have been (morally, was) sub-8 min “double”. Not much to say about puzzle apart from everything flying in a little too easily … but still need to spend a second or two(haha)checking one’s grid before submitting … ah well, at least Stoke got through to the 4th round of the cup …
  3. 10′ 05″, but with a cold. Spent a while not parsing MOTH-EATEN, is this other new random woman short for Anthea?

    Nice to see the British cultural references of Luton Airport and Wensleydale.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

  4. I’ve been solving since 1978 and this is the poorest Times puzzle I can remember .

    Really facile cluing.

    Can’t believe it was compiled by a regular.

  5. Don’t fully understand the ways of “the snitch” but it would make sense that this is a low one as I rarely (if ever) break an hour on the biggie but did today. No doubt will get kicked in the whatnots for the rest of the week by it in setters’ revenge.

    Biffed RESTING and has taken me a while to parse it even with Vinyl’s blog but now see ES as French for “are” and therefore “art” too. I like that.

  6. Cor! Nice! Twenty minutes. Nineteen on first pass. Still had to dig among the grey matter, and did not parse everything. Thanks, V, for allowing me to see the light on those, and setter for a doable grid.
  7. Just about as easy as they get, with many answers going straight in. I Would have been well under 15 minutes but CORNICE for some reason eluded me for a while, even with all checked letters in place. I also had to revisit 10 (SPREE), for which I’d bunged in SURGE lightly. I knew it was probaby wrong, but it took a minute or two to see wordplay and answer.
  8. Another PB here. 7:10! Now it’s time to hit the road back to England. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
    1. The flaming hot like button has disappeared for me, so let me congratulate you out loud.

      Sizzling time John, much faster than I’ve ever done. Well played!

  9. 11:15. Possibly an all-time PB, but I don’t keep track. Certainly the fastest within my increasingly short memory — possibly nudging the terminal velocity at which I can read the clues and write the answers.
  10. Perhaps 1a should have been QUICKSOLVER, given how many PBs are flooding in – and count me among their number, as I knocked 21 seconds off mine: KREMLIN was my LOI in 3m 15s.

    Lots of biffing, semi-biffing and entering based on the crossers (nothing in the glossary… BIFC?), particularly when I realised a PB was on the cards, and threw caution to the wind.

    SNITCH is at 46 as I write…

  11. Looks like I missed an opportunity for a good result here. Hadn’t had my coffee, the cruciverbal equivalent of being forced to bowl your spinners at the crucial moment.

    My 12:21 would have been ok, if not matching the scintillating speeds of others. But entering CORMINE instead of CORNICE was like Steve Smith’s half-tracker to James Anderson to complete the indignity.

    1. Ouch. But I’m sure lots will appreciate your post from such an experienced solver knowing that even for the best it doesn’t always go perfectly
  12. Wow! A scorcher of a 15 x 15. I was directed to it by various comments on the QC, and therefore felt slightly under pressure to perform well, but a PB of 17 minutes was beyond all of my expectations. And that was after messing up with the (nearly) perfectly acceptable SPRAY instead of SPREE, which took a while to resolve. I did wonder what the reference to 27 was all about, it being redundant in my parsing. Despite the PB I feel slightly disappointed that a Times 15 x 15 was this easy.
    1. Not for the first time, Rotter, we march together. Also directed here by comments on the QC blog, and also a 17 minute finish — by a very long way a PB on the 15×15.

      I presume aficionados of the 15×15 are above such things as the SCC, but if it exists in the rarefied world of the Biggie, I have for the first time avoided it!

      Cedric

      1. Even the SCC of the QC crossing the finishing line today, albeit in leisurely fashion. Still, any 15×15 completion is a sort of PB for me.
  13. My progress through this can only be described as glacial compared to many here.

    COD: CORNICE

  14. As a Quick Cryptic solver I had a go at this as it was flagged up as an easy 15×15. I managed just over half as opposed to just the odd one or two, so it must be a generous one today.
  15. Not quite a pb but a rare under-tenner. Was racing the clock at the end, which could easily have led to gaffes but didn’t. I knew we’d have silver = cook again one of these days!
  16. Well I never. 06.58 which is my personal best and the first sub 10 in a while. Haven’t checked yet but I’m guessing there will be some outrageously quick times today.

    Thanks setter for putting a spring in my step, now off to see whether the elation will survive nine holes😊

  17. My first ever sub 15 puzzle, which is nice. LOI SPREE which doesn’t really mean fling in my mind, but had to be correct. I can see there is dictionary support for it but I raised my eyebrow a little.
  18. ….but probably in the top 10. NHO QOM.

    FOI HAS
    LOI KREMLIN
    COD ASININITY (and no fat finger — hurrah !)
    TIME 5:32

  20. I’ll add my name to the list of PBs. Difficult for me to imagine being able to do a Times Crossword any quicker.
  21. Sub 10 is certainly hen’s teeth for me, but I have dipped under 9 before.

    13:48 for the combined QC and 15×15 on the same day must certainly be a PB though, so I’ll take that. Let’s go and see if there’s more of a challenge elsewhere.

    9:18.

  22. I’ll join the long list of PBers with a 14.03.

    Over 7 and 1/2 mins better than the previous mark. Almost too much of an outlier tbh!

  23. It was a few minutes before I realised that this was as easy as it was, completing bottom left, then bottom right then the top half, leaving two sets of two crossers to think about (RESTING/SPREE and MOTH-EATEN/KREMLIN). If I had spotted the easiness earlier (though I would argue that THEA was a pretty random choice of woman’s name), I might not have bothered to parse what I did.

    I’m going back to parse what I missed now….

  24. Not a PB but only because I got distracted half-way through. ASININITY the only one to make me pause for any length of time.

    Nice to see ELY get a double mention. Other episcopal cities are available.

    Thanks to vinyl and the setter.

  25. 10.45. Not much bite to this. I could possibly have gone quicker but paused to mull over thrift, whether there might be a radoh fish and to see how 27 related to spree. Asininity took a few seconds at the end too.
  26. Less than 30 minutes over lunch. Started with HAS and HORSEHAIR. Ended rather slowly with KREMLIN, not my first thought for a citadel and I often quake at words beginning with K. WARBLES POI.
    I liked AIRPORT and SPREE.
    David
  27. We’re using the SNITCH to help identify 15x15s for us to try. We’re having a go at all of the easier puzzles and we finished this one in its entirety — good day
    1. SNITCH is a good pointer, but if there’s a “bear trap” clue that catches a significant number out, it can skew the readings.
      1. Thanks Phil, that’s a really good point. I think we’ll just have a go at all of them!
  28. 12 minutes. I think a PB. I prefer them a bit harder so as to wring the maximum enjoyment out of solving.
  29. 15 minutes for me. Not quite a PB. Held up for a minute at the end on ASININITY. A lot went in without parsing fully.
  30. Took me far too long to parse 9a because I didn’t consider “Thea” as the woman; silly me!

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