Times 29131 – The Pardoner’s Tale? No!

Time: 19:49

Music: Bruckner, Symphony #4, Jochum/Dresden

Another easy Monday; I went quite fast for a while, and then got just a little stuck at the end.   I got the two long ones quickly, but the bottom row gave trouble, and I biffed a wrong answer for the final across clue before seeing what the answer must be.   Decent solvers correct errors quickly, but they still waste time; I have started to say that if it doesn’t parse, that’s because it’s the wrong answer.

The early solvers on the SNITCH are whipping through this one; how did you do?

 

 

Across
1 Sees term transformed into something similar (8)
SEMESTER – Anagram of SEES TERM, where a semester is similar to a term.
5 Damage rascal with broadcast (6)
IMPAIR – IMP + AIR, a chestnut if there ever was one.
10 Perhaps I’m mistakenly reaching conclusion, failing to understand (15)
MISAPPREHENDING – Anagram of PERHAPS I’M + ENDING.
11 Plant people put back inside in top condition (7)
ANEMONE – A(MEN backwards)-ONE.
12 Warm and cold air mixed (7)
CORDIAL – Anagram of COLD AIR.
13 Frequently ring London newspapers (8)
OFTTIMES – O + F.T. + TIMES.
15 Heroin to some extent creates addiction (5)
HABIT – H + A BIT.
18 US, for example, wanting inn as reminder of the past (5)
RELIC – RE[pub]LIC, one we’ve seen before.
20 I get up having rested first and take off (8)
SATIRISE – SAT + I RISE.
23 Rubbish in front of elm and two other trees (7)
EYEWASH – E[lm] + YEW + ASH.
25 Put in charge by clubs in game, player blows it (7)
PICCOLO – P(I.C. + C)OLO.
26 It is parliament that’s reformed, including one opposed to colonies (4-11)
ANTI-IMPERIALIST – Anagram of IT IS PARLIAMENT + I.
27 Closed pen containing area that’s warm and cosy (6)
TOASTY – TO (A) STY.
28 Kind of sin or virtueor expert on the difference? (8)
CARDINAL – Double definition.
Down
1 South American vessel or East Asian boat (6)
SAMPAN – S +AM + PAN.
2 Expert wrongly faults me over one of the three R’s (9)
MASTERFUL – Anagram of FAULTS ME around R.
3 Champion ahead in game (7)
SUPPORT – S(UP)PORT.
4 Sinister English upset Ireland (5)
EERIE – E + EIRE upside-down.
6 Butterfly about in part of spring (7)
MONARCH – M(ON)ARCH.
7 Greatest boxer briefly penetrated defence (5)
ALIBI – ALI + BI[t].
8 State of ruler is good, in fact (8)
REGALITY – RE(G)ALITY.
9 Sturdily built son hiding in copse (8)
THICKSET – THICK(S)ET.
14 Inappropriately form altered emphasis (8)
MISSHAPE – Anagram of EMPHASIS.
16 Balkan citizen welcoming to American citizen (9)
BOSTONIAN – BOS(TO)NIAN.
17 Cultural object regularly written into key piece of information (8)
ARTEFACT – A ([w]R[i]T[t]E]n]) FACT, where A is a musical key.
19 Vehicle used when battling a disturbance after church (7)
CHARIOT – CH + A RIOT.
21 Man’s prosperous firm forming merger (7)
RICHARD – RIC (H) ARD, where the H is part of both components.
22 Form of accommodation assimilating second to create another (6)
HOSTEL – HO(S)TEL.
24 What is more, it can be taken out of context randomly (5)
EXTRA – Hidden in [cont]EXT RA[ndomly]
25 Run into parents in ham and cheese place (5)
PARMA – PA (R) MA.    Parma ham and Parmesan cheese.

65 comments on “Times 29131 – The Pardoner’s Tale? No!”

  1. Around 45 minutes for a reasonably straight forward puzzle. FOI PARMA LOI BOSTONIAN. ANTI-IMPERIALIST was almost a write-in. I got the anagram letters later. The first 15 letter word was easy once I had a few crossers. I got all except the SE corner completed in less than 30 minutes but I spent another 15 minutes or so getting out about 4 or 5 clues.
    Thanks V

  2. If I can do it in 16.29 it’s gotta be on the easier side of the ledger. I too was held up by the SE but it fell in a rush when I cracked RICHARD and BOSTONIAN. Thank you V, the rule about ‘if it doesn’t parse it’s probably wrong’ is sound in theory but it doesn’t work when you have no idea what the parsing is. In the Fleming books Bond would sneeringly say EYEWASH to set straight any pretty girl who argued with him, he was a bit of a tosser.

    From Like A Rolling Stone:
    You said you’d never compromise
    With the mystery tramp, but now you realise
    He’s not selling any ALIBIs
    As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
    And say do you want to make a deal?
    How does it feel…

    1. Yowza! Another 16:29, and a rare successful solve with no serious hold-ups for me – I’ve been giving it 20 minutes a day recently, and usually end up peevishly hitting the Reveal button before heading off to earn a crust.

      Anyway, heading into the home straight now, planning to retire for the second time in a few months, whereupon I will be getting match-fit again, and posting here daily. Regards Denise

      1. If I gave myself a 20-minute limit my completion rate would be dismal! But what the hell, let’s smash that 15-minute barrier tomorrow ha ha ha ha ha…I only retired once but can heartily recommend it so go for it Denise.

      2. I’m also a “double-retiree”; going back to work only confirmed that I was right to retire in the first place!

  3. 29 minutes but had been caught up towards the end on 4 clues mostly in the SE: MISSHAPE (missed for too long that it is an anagram), RICHARD, SATIRISE and CARDINAL . The SE clues all gave way suddenly.

  4. 17:08
    I biffed ANTI-IMPERIALIST, assuming that all the anagrist was there. I liked RICHARD; has that sort of clue been done before?

    1. I’ve seen it elsewhere, although not sure if it’s been done here, and not with ‘merger’ as the indicator, e.g. Two overlapping signs for lenders (9)

      1. Librarians! Nice one. This was very Mondayish – 17 minutes, which is pretty quick for me.
        Good choice of music, vinyl – Jochum is a fine Brucknerian.

  5. 5.46, about as quick as I get. The parsing of RELIC took me a moment, but deletion clues usually do. I liked RICHARD.

    Thanks both.

  6. Pretty quick 20′ for me; not often I finish before my golf game. Haven’t quite worked out “TO”-A-STY and luckily checked parsing of ANEnOmE before completing (I don’t always do so…). Thanks Vinyl and setter.

  7. The fish ofttimes the burger dispossessed,
    And sat not as a meat but as a guest.
    (The Character of Holland, Andrew Marvell)

    20 mins pre-brekker. A very gentle start to the week. I especially liked 10ac and thought it could even stand as an &Lit without the added definition.
    Ta setter and V

    1. Thought it might have been Oscar’s Silentium Amoris today, but to scan it had to be often-times; thanks for a bit of Andy to look up – Marvellous!

  8. 35 mins and another held up a bit in the SE. BOSTONIAN finally opened up the flood gates and CARDINAL, RICHARD & PARMA swiftly followed.

    Lots of juicy anagrams and I enjoyed the long clues. What a nice word CORDIAL is.

    Thanks V and setter.

  9. DNF, defeated by SAMPAN. I imagine it’s come up before, but I didn’t know (or remember) it and didn’t think of pan as the vessel. Straightforward otherwise, though I didn’t fully parse MISAPPREHENDING as I missed the anagram.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

    COD Cordial

    1. Got stuck on that one as well – I really need to remember that South American can mean either South American (SA) or South (S) and American (AM) – or indeed Brazilian on occasion!! COD was 16D for me.

  10. Flew through this in 9 mins – a record for me. Writing them in almost as fast as reading them. Only EYEWASH held me up at all.

  11. 16:11
    Fast enough for not too much head-scratching and slow enough to ensure no typos.

    Not much to add but I slowed myself by confidently typing in REGALISM which caused issues getting the straightforward HABIT. Like others the SW caused the most issues, with BOSTONIAN, RICHARD and CARDINAL holding out the longest.

    A nice start to the week so thanks to both.

  12. Fair start to the week, 21:59 with relatively few hiccups. FOI SEMESTER, then getting the two long clues quickly gave a following wind, LOI ARTEFACT.

  13. Well I struggled with the SW, missing that the missing letters were in “written” which I thought was needed for other purposes. Also never thought of RE(pub)LIC so a biff. Toasty was clever.

  14. 15:41
    Fairly straightforward though REGALITY gave me pause for a while. I liked BOSTONIAN, EYEWASH and SATIRISE.
    I’ve been to PARMA; a charming place but if you are stationary for more than a minute you risk being force-fed cheese and ham.

    Thanks to vinyl and the setter.

  15. 24 minutes with LOI REGALITY, having put right the MISAPPREHENSION about MISAPPREHENDING. COD to THICKSET as it was unexpected.Nice puzzle. Thank you V and setter.

  16. 16,59 but with a careless typo, MISAAPREHENDING. Cue wailing and gnashing of teeth. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

  17. 16:30 – enjoyable stroll. Briefly puzzled by the double T in OFTTIMES, but not long enough to make any material difference.

  18. Initially put in THICKEST which made OFTTIMES my LOI after making the correction.
    FOI SEMESTER
    COD BOSTONIAN
    Easier today but none the worse for that.

  19. Everything went in almost immediately at first and I seemed to be heading for a record time. For once I could straight away see how all the clues worked. But eventually reality struck, with PICCOLO (a very good clue I thought, which initially I wanted to end …horn) and PARMA, which I entered without parsing because of the checkers, before the obvious reason stared me in the face. 24 minutes.

  20. I’d done about three quarters in 20 minutes or so, but came to a halt in the SE quarter. I’d got the policy, rather than the personality at 26ac (suddenly I can hear To y Benn in my head), and that left an M in 22d , which caused a long and fruitless trawl for a suitable house/home. Eventually realised my mistake and it all came together. I couldn’t parse RELIC, but so obvious when explained.
    Let us hope, in The republic can be kept, as Benjamin Franklin warned.
    Thanks to setteernand Vinyl.

  21. 22:01

    More or less exactly on my Snitch target of 22m (Snitch currently = 62), I felt a little slow on the uptake in places, not seeing the long answers too easily, though most answers were pretty straightforward on reflection. Took a while to build around the grid eventually finishing on COD BOSTONIAN, then HABIT and finally REGALITY.

    Thanks V and setter

  22. I put in MISAPPREHENSION figuring I’d work out the parsing later, which is why REGALITY was my last in. Otherwise a (fairly) brisk 13.21, a long way down the board.

  23. Very approachable, although DNF BOSTONIAN 🙄 New to me were to=closed in TOASTY, and the double-duty wordplay device in RICHARD. Many thanks for the blog V. Liked building up RELIC and EYEWASH. Many thanks all.

  24. 16 minutes, ending with TOASTY, always try to spell / pronounce the flower ANENOME not anemone, so this was a reminder to think about it. Thanks vinyl, Bruckner is one of few composers whose music I struggle to enjoy.

  25. 33:28. Oh dear. I found it hard. I was feeling sorry for the QCers who had been encouraged to have a go at it. But it turns out to be just me.
    I have seen the RICHARD device before (but still struggled with it today). Here’s an example from a Saturday cryptic in April 2023

    Musical dramas back to back, merging in effect (9)
    OPERATIVE – OPERA forwards + EVITA backwards, overlapping in the middle.

  26. 19’30”
    Maintained good early pace, but all out closing stages.

    Stuck to “Less speed, more haste !” -I think it works better that way- which saved me from a misapprehension that was one, which made me smile.
    All parsed and only a wee BIFFette at 26, and a rare double digit Monday Witch; cannot keep up with the young speedsters these days.
    Very enjoyable, particularly the LOI not so expert cleric, thank you setter and Vinyl.

  27. 35 minutes held up by Eyewash at the end.
    I saw the possibility of E+YEW+ASH but didn’t see the whole word “EYEWASH” until I came back to it ( if you see what I mean).
    Nice Monday puzzle.

  28. Around 15 mins but nearly gave up, would’ve been just under 12 mins but it took 3 minutes solid staring to get ARTEFACT

  29. Can anyone tell me where the TO in TOASTY comes from? This was the only clue I couldn’t parse in what for me was a rare finish.

  30. 19 mins, much delayed by the same error as many above of biffing MISAPPREHENSION and then struggling with REGALITY.

  31. Plain sailing until I was left with 17dn and 27ac that took me longer than the rest of the crossword put together. Eventually I saw ARTEFACT and, once I had that final T, I was able to work out TOASTY from the wordplay, although I wasn’t fully convinced there was any such word and feel that the language would be better off without it.

  32. DNF. I submitted with a typo OFFTIMES, idiotic as I had parsed it. otherwise would have been a massive PB at 14:19. Gah. Other than my own clumsiness, a lovely puzzle for a Monday with a really smooth flow.

  33. This was fun – technically a DNF as I got stuck in the SW corner and didn’t work out ARTEFACT so missed out on EYEWASH. Some good clues – SATIRISE, BOSTONIAN and CORDIAL. Relieved to manage most of this after a poor run! Thanks again to setter and blogger and all those who contribute to this discussion.

  34. Phew, narrowly avoided biffing REGULATE at the end. Got off to flying start in the top half, but gradually realised I was not going to make the 10 minute barrier. PARMA is — appropriately enough – HQ of the EU food agency, where I once had to give a talk. 15’42”. Many thanks to all.

  35. What does “London” add to 13ac? (I also mistyped offtimes otherwise would have had a (not impressive) record time)

  36. 20.06 but in a rush put misapp…ion in instead of ing which muddied matters till I twigged with regality- really?- my LOI. Eyewash took a while as did ofttimes. Nothing particularly hard and given the time of year, toasty gave a bit of comfort despite losing my WFA😉

  37. DNF (Bosnovian!) lots of answers with double letters here PP, II, SS, CC, TT. Wonder whether it meant anything?

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