Times 29059 – A Comedy of Errors

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 48:10

Music: Stan Getz, West Coast Jazz

I will admit I thoroughly messed up this puzzle.   I couldn’t read my own handwriting, put the word separators in the wrong place, misidentified the literal, etc, etc.   At the same time, I realized this was a high quality puzzle with a lot of novel wordplay.     I struggled to get started, then wrote in the longer answers fairly quickly, and then got stuck at the end.

My problem crossing was redesigned and Nimrod.   I was operating under the assumption that left = red, and that I was looking for a place to sleep in, but I just couldn’t make Orion or Diana upside-down work.   It looks from the early SNITCH like everyone else is doing considerably better.

Oops, I nearly marked the blog as Mephisto – looks like it’s just not my day.

 

Across
1 Something spicy for starters, made by expert (4)
MACE – M[ade] ACE
3 Grass up old lag, getting time inside as such? (10)
SHOPLIFTER – SHOP + LIF(T)ER.
9 One’s legendary in performing musical phrases back to front (7)
GRIFFIN – RIFFING, with the G moved to the front.
11 Defender turned to protect area, leading 5-1 (7)
SAVIOUR – S(A, V, I)OUR.   Turned meaning turned sour.
12 Achievement in martial arts something to build upon? Not ideally (9)
GREENBELT – GREEN BELT.   Not a DD, because the martial arts achievement is  two words.
13 Go off to collect a small piece of meat (5)
ROAST – RO(A,S)T.
14 I’m surprised — small figure’s brought in by top earner (5-7)
MONEY-SPINNER –  M(ONE)Y + SPINNER.
18 Grunting, chew nuts — awful! (3-9)
GUT-WRENCHING – Anagram of GRUNTING, CHEW.
21 “Excuse me from meal”, I repeated, interjecting “Bravo!” (5)
ALIBI – [me]AL + I(B)I, where the B is from the NATO alphabet.
22 Fugitive’s fantastic leap across border — Steve, actor featuring at the end (9)
EPHEMERAL – EP(HEM, [stev]E, [acto]R)AL, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of leap.
24 Crazy fool keeps on grabbing son (7)
BERSERK –  BE(R(S)E)RK.  No etymology, please.
25 Accuracy is maintained by compass (7)
REALISM – REAL(IS)M,  where both realm and compass indicate a large extent.
26 Journalist, left outside, changed plans (10)
REDESIGNED – R(ED)ESIGNED.
27 Hide pepper (4)
PELT – Double definition, hide as a noun, pepper as a verb.
Down
1 Married twice, gauges somehow it’s a futile endeavour (4,4)
MUGS GAME –  Anagram of M,M and GAUGES.
2 Church is welcoming poor country’s folk (8)
CHILEANS –  CH I(LEAN)S.
4 It may be concealed by varnishing edge (5)
HINGE – Concealed in [varnis]HING E[dge].
5 Form of verb is beyond many English (4,5)
PAST TENSE – PAST + TENS + E.   Are tens many?
6 Mark seen in the middle of hammock? (8,5)
INVERTED COMMA –  Yes [h]AMMOC]k] contains an upside-down comma in a down clue.
7 Blimey — hemmed in by river in both directions! (3-3)
TWO-WAY – T(WOW!)AY.
8 Equality with king usurping power is an uncommon thing (6)
RARITY – (-p,+R)ARITY.
10 One vessel capsized in curious Scottish loch — foul play? (5,8)
FUNNY BUSINESS – FUNNY (I SUB upside down) NESS.
15 Under pressure, worked shifts say, in potentially dangerous situation (6,3)
POWDER KEG – P + anagram of WORKED + E.G.
16 Fighter with precipitate manoeuvre, ultimately leading to painful episode (8)
MIGRAINE – MIG + RAIN + [manoeuvr]E.
17 A hair product I’m regularly into — you’re never too old, unless it’s applied (3,5)
AGE LIMIT – A GEL + I’M + I[n]T[o].
19 Caught traffic light about to change, arriving at curve in road (6)
CAMBER – C + AMBER.
20 Hunter erected a place to sleep in (6)
NIMROD – DORM +IN upside-down.
23 Maybe old farm worker’s beginning to regret cutting into pipe (5)
HORSE – HO(R[egret]SE.   I was hung up on hand for a long time.

61 comments on “Times 29059 – A Comedy of Errors”

  1. Just a silly OWL with Griffon letting me down.
    Excellent puzzle. Liked INVERTED COMMA and NIMROD. We had FUNNY BUSINESS on Friday.

  2. 16:45

    A very pleasing Monday puzzle where much that I thought of went in quickly. Didn’t equate ‘Fugitive’ with EPHEMERAL but the wordplay was clear. Held up at the end only by NIMROD – could not think beyond Diana for a while particularly with both I and D checkers.

    Thanks V and setter

  3. 15:20 – a steady solve with no pencil-chewing pauses, though I would never have written green belt as one word in either of its senses. I am not sure what was gained by doing so here.

  4. 21.08 but sadly my 7d somehow went in as TWO-WAA. Drat! Missed it on the cursory proof read too. MACE was FOI and I finished with CHILEAN, GREENBELT and NIMROD in that order. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

  5. 23:23
    Lots to like in this, particularly TWO WAY and INVERTED COMMA. Had a narrow escape by realising just in time that Griffon was the French spelling. Didn’t fully understand BERSERK until I saw vinyl’s parsing.

    Thanks to vinyl and the setter.

  6. 24:45. Very nice puzzle and tricky too.

    Eventually I escaped from a few traps. Shopfitter, Griffon and Reversed Comma all had to be corrected before successfully getting over the line unscathed. LOI was TWO-WAY and COD: INVERTED COMMA.

  7. No time to record as done in two sessions, but would guess at approximately 40 minutes. A very enjoyable puzzle where I got very little on the first pass, but nearly everything on second inspection. REDESIGNED came to me right away, as the answer to the clue ‘changed plans’ perfectly describes what an architect does for a fair proportion of his (or her) working day.

  8. Stuck with two at the end. Couldn’t decide between GRIFFON and GRIFFIN because I couldn’t parse it, and plumped for the wrong one. And my REVERSED COMMA (is it a thing?) prevented me from getting SHOPLIFTER until I spotted my error.

  9. I dont mind taking an hour as I did when it is so enjoyable.I confess that I missed parsed saviour by inventing Ruos a spanish footballer.

  10. 34’30”
    Eased when couldn’t trouble leaders.

    This reminded me of the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown Park; try and take the Railway Fences flat out, in the style of a dashing Captain of cavalry, and you’ll come a cropper.
    So, back on the bridle, got the griffOns, greyhounds, Wyverns, Orions et al out of my noodle, and finished safely under standard (albeit my standard) with all parsed.
    I wondered whether the river was two-way too, but a Yat’s a gate/gorge not a tributary of the Wye, it seems.
    Great fun; many thanks to the setter and Vinyl.

  11. 37:39. A tricky treat, I thought. Ended up a bit stuck in the north-east until SHOPLIFTER got me going again. I liked INVERTED COMMA (you don’t often see just the one) and AGE LIMIT. I agree with andyf that ALIBI is being somewhere else but, even with the two of us, it is a lost cause

  12. Really fun puzzle for a QCer who only occasionally ventures across the border. All done in 22:31 with lots of answers coming quickly. I had to winkle out LOI MIGRAINE with an appropriately painful trawl. Many thanks vinyl.

  13. Likewise QC visitor, but only to check the answers – couldn’t achieve too much first pass.
    How come they look so easy when you are given the answer??
    Anyway minor point – 19d in the blog incorrect definition underlined…
    Only proving I read it thanks!!

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