Times 29147 – when in a wood, bay the bear.

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

46:37

A stiff enough test for a Friday, if workaday.

I had only one (wrong) entry in the top half before starting again more successfully in the bottom. The NE corner held out for the longest, accounting for at least a third of my time.

LOI 5ac, somewhat inexplicably. COD to 12ac for taking me through a rapid series of feelings (What? Maybe? Aha! Are you sure? Hat tip).

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 When acting clumsily journalist is overcome by remorse (7)
ASHAMED – AS (when) + HAM (acting clumsily) + ED (journalist).
5 What’s left after touching electricity supply? (7)
REMAINS – RE (touching) + MAINS (electricity supply).
9 What bacilli regularly can make you (3)
AIL – every other letter from (regularly) bAcIlLi. I scanned this one quickly looking for somewhere to get a start, and bunged in ‘ill’. 1dn showed me the error, eventually.
10 Frank has cut short walk clutching right shoe (5,3,3)
WARTS AND ALL – all but the last of (cut short) WALk, containing all of RT (right) + SANDAL (shoe).
11 Britain for one day leading way, finally (8)
MONARCHY – MON (day) + ARCH (leading) + last of (finally) waY.
12 Pretended to beg money from speaker (6)
PSEUDO – sounds like (from speaker) “sue” (to beg) and “dough” (money). I was looking for a homophone of a currency, and would not usually think to use either of the words defined. The PS at the start also threw me off.
15 Very loud goodbye from texter leads to slap! (4)
CUFF – FF (fortissimo, very loud) that CU (see you, goodbye from texter) is in front of (leads).
16 Mother keeping small object in hatch (10)
MASTERMIND – MATER (mother) containing (keeping) S (small), then MIND (object). I spend a while trying to justify term=object (from maths/computing or the like), then wondering where the D came from / why DAM was reversed.
18 Outside help needed with repair, surprisingly (10)
PERIPHERAL – anagram (surprisingly) of HELP with REPAIR.
19 Uncertain period after expulsion of old member (4)
LIMB – LIMBo (uncertain period), minus (after the expulsion of) O (old).
22 Modest earnings for salesperson, potentially a predator (6)
COYOTE – COY (modest) + OTE (on-target earnings, earnings for a salesperson, potentially). This is not my thing, and I had to guess ‘overall take-home earnings’ or something, but could see what we were after.
23 Delegating eg pundit for broadcast (8)
DEPUTING – anagram (for broadcast) EG PUNDIT.
25 Making disclosure about an old soldier’s farewell (5-6)
LEAVE-TAKING – LEAKING (making disclosure) containing (about) VET (old soldier).
27 Husband turning to one during the match (3)
TIE – ‘h’ replaced by (turning to) I (one) in ThE.
28 Get down tips on symphony for composer (7)
DEBUSSY – DE-BUS (get down, from bus) + first and last from (tips on) SymphonY.
29 Left winger beginning to backtrack, as requested (2,5)
TO ORDER – RED (left winger) + ROOT (beginning), all reversed (to backtrack).
Down
1 Bloodless revolution for agents capturing base (7)
ANAEMIC – reversal of (revolution for) CIA (agents) containing MEAN (base).
2 Classic beauty peculiar to English female — only her (5,2,4)
HELEN OF TROY – anagram of (peculiar) TO + E (English) + F (female) + ONLY HER. Almost hidden in plain sight, but it took me ages to count the letters of the fodder!
3 Gracious thing that I should keep! (2,4)
MY WORD – double definition.
4 Villain in film shoot, female, interrupted by very short commercial (5,5)
DARTH VADER – DART (shoot), then HER (female) containing (interrupted by) V (very) with AD (short commercial).
5 Grew flower: one used for spray? (4)
ROSE – triple definition, the last pertaining to the device attached to the end of a watering can.
6 Government department tax giving certain cars priority (8)
MINISTRY – TRY (tax) preceded by (giving priority to) MINIS (certain cars).
7 Great part of Crete seen during holidays (3)
IDA – hidden in holIDAys. Mountain in Crete.
8 In depression collecting pounds in aid of English city (7)
SALFORD – SAD (in depression) containing (collecting) all of L (pounds) + FOR (in aid of).
13 Lay egg, fine on reflection, as one must eat (11)
UNINITIATED – UNITED (as one) contains (must eat) NIT (egg) with AI (A1, fine) reversed. UNI(NIT)(AI<)TED.
14 General way to assess meaning (10)
STRATEGIST – ST (way) + RATE (to assess) + GIST (meaning). Any person acting as leader, planning tactics or management.
17 Place not so clean (8)
SPOTLESS – SPOT (place) + LESS (not so).
18 Cream light source is preserved (7)
PICKLED – PICK (cream, of the crop) + LED (light source).
20 Stomach infection introduces source of irritation (7)
BUGBEAR – BEAR (stomach) that BUG (infection) introduces.
21 Extremely enthusiastic piece first to highlight boring essay (4,2)
GUNG HO – GUN (piece), then first of Highlight contained by (boring) GO (try, essay).
24 Unknown quantity, some clown (4)
ZANY – Z (unknown quantity) + ANY (some).
26 White garment turning up in shrubland (3)
ALB – reverse hidden (turning up in) shruBLAnd.

69 comments on “Times 29147 – when in a wood, bay the bear.”

  2. 40 minutes for all but the crossing pair 12ac and 13dn. I then spent what must have been 15-20 minutes trying to finish them off but with9ut any success, so I abandoned the puzzle until dawn. Then it was another 10 minutes until I spotted that UNINITIATED fitted the checkers an d might just about pass as a synonym for ‘lay’. The arrival of the U-checker meant that PSEUDO then fell into place. I was still unable to parse UNINITITATED, but I eventually worked it out.

    NHO OTE at 22ac but I was sure of COYOTE so I didn’t hang around.

    I didn’t know that SALFORD is a city. I always thought it was a suburb of Manchester, but I’ve never been to either, nor anywhere near them.

    1. Salford is not only a city, but contains one in MediaCityUK, where both BBC and ITV record a slew of their most popular programmes. I’ve been there with Mrs Z on one of her many forays into TV quizzing.

      1. Also the location of the excellent Manchester branch of the Imperial War Museum, beside parkland surrounding former canal docks.

    2. I worked for Salford City Council many moons ago so I had no problem there. I worked in the town twinning department – as the city council had been formed from the councils of various boroughs like Eccles and Swinton it ended up with four twin towns, 3 French and one German.

      1. That’s strange – I must have been sitting in Salford for the last 20 years in the Sir Alex Ferguson stand.

        The ground is situated in the borough of Trafford which is one of the ten boroughs in Greater Manchester. Not Salford as far as I’m aware.
        The former training ground, the Cliff, was situated in Salford.

    5. just in case you see this Salford is now known as media city because the BBC has moved a lot of it’s productions there.. think this was about showing it cared about the north and wasn’t so London centric!

  3. Biffed HELEN, never did parse it; didn’t see ‘peculiar’ as an anagrind. Biffed UNINITIATED, GUNG HO, parsed post-submissiion. Didn’t understand the OTE of COYOTE. I liked the surface ‘lay egg’ of 13d and ‘stomach infection’ of 20d. COD to UNINITIATED.

  4. All done in about 25 minutes, so fast for me, with the last 5 spent staring at U_I_I_I_T_D before filling in the only word that fitted – a bit of a stretch IMHO.
    I’m also puzzled by “bay the bear”. Please enlighten me!

    1. Challenge someone powerful or dangerous, apparently. Reminded me of bell the cat, which is close-ish but not the same.

    2. The bylines in my posts are just a little private joke. There is a theme to them. I suppose this week I meant: if you’re lost in the woods (or these clues), you just have to struggle through and slay the beast, but it doesn’t really mean anything.

  5. 12.25

    I had to zip around the grid a bit here, and then kept initially missing the instructions that meant XY actually had to be YX. I managed to biff DARTH VADER but not HELEN OF TROY, despite being (marginally) more familiar with Homer than Han Solo – enjoyable to see them together though. OTE pops up in job adverts occasionally. A slightly chewier end to a fairly gentle week.

    Thanks both.

  6. 27 mins

    One of those that had me patting myself on the back even though there weren’t any unknowns.

    COD to UNINITIATED as it had me going the longest

  7. 82m 17s
    OTE? That’s a bit esoteric for a standard cryptic, Friday or no Friday!
    15ac: BIFF also fits the clue very well but doesn’t do much for 1d. Also, I guess a biff is a bit more than a slap.

  8. A good end to the working week. UNINITIATED POI, with PSEUDO LOI – helped by having had PSEUD as an answer somewhere recently.

    Like jack, had no idea SALFORD was a city, but there has been quite a crop, at and since the millennium (or rather the year before the actual millennium). Nho OTE.

    20’07”, thanks william and setter.

    1. The former County Borough of Salford was made a city in 1926, and its scope was extended in 1974, so it’s hardly a newish one!

  9. How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
    The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
    Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
    (Eloisa to Abelard, Pope)

    Well mostly done in 30 mins but ages to finish off the stragglers, mainly the Red Root and General StRateGist.
    Ta setter and W

  10. No time as am dog sitting today but managed this comfortably between interruptions. Just biffed COYOTE. COD to WARTS AND ALL. Thank you William and setter.

  11. Just over half an hour.

    – Only saw how REMAINS worked after I’d entered it
    – Took ages to get PSEUDO, and was on the verge of biffing a desperate ESCUDO before it came to me
    – Not familiar with the ‘ote’ part of COYOTE, but it had to be right
    – Wasn’t certain about ‘debus’ in DEBUSSY, but now it’s explained, I’m sure we’ve had it before
    – Didn’t know the third definition of ROSE
    – Hadn’t heard of IDA the mountain
    – Couldn’t parse UNINITIATED

    Thanks William and setter.

    FOI Ail
    LOI Pseudo
    COD Peripheral

  12. Just over the hour being stuck in the SW for a while. Eventually saw how PICKLED worked and then PERIPHERAL, COYOTE & LEAVE TAKING all fell into place.

    Luckily SALFORD came up as low-scoring city on Pointless recently.

    HELEN & DARTH, beauty and the beast, anyone?

    Thanks William for the several parsings I missed. Ta setter.

  13. Tough but enjoyable, 37.55 for me, and needing William’s help to untangle MASTERMIND, COYOTE and several more. LOI UNINITIATED.

    From Hurricane:
    How can the life of such a man
    Be in the palm of some fool’s hand?
    To see him obviously framed
    Couldn’t help but make you feel ASHAMED
    To live in a land where justice
    Is a game

  15. Just under the half-hour, with the last five minutes spent trying to lay the ghost of UNINITIATED. I saw the word would fit, but could not parse the clue . . .

  16. Agree with William as to this somewhat prosaic offering.

    It had that put-things-together-like-this feel to it, which I don’t really like. I’m tempted to say, yes I know how to do it — now give me ART!

    Apart from that I had a reasonable solve time, with COYOTE’s OTE giving me the heebie-jeebies, when suddenly a PREDATOR got me out of there.

  17. AIL was FOI. The NE gave me most trouble, but the SE was also a struggle. SALFORD was the big breakthrough, giving PSEUDO which quickly led to UNINITIATED, which I didn’t fully parse, but the egg and definition were sufficient. BUGBEAR and TIE took a while. SALFORD also led to WARTS AND ALL, which led to MINISTRY, IDA and LOI, ROSE. 24:35. Thanks setter and William.

  18. 50′ or so with interruptions. Not quite a full-on Friday but tougher than the rest of the week. Finished with UNINITIATED, looking for something that meant failure (“lay an egg”) rather than just “lay”; in the end just stuck in the only word I could find that fitted… Also didn’t parse PSEUD, though OTE was known to me. Thanks William and setter.

  19. Enjoyable. Thanks setter and William.
    No-one mentions the on-line facility for checking the correctness or otherwise of guesses, as far as I am aware. Am I the only one resorting to this particular aid then? Or is it assumed that the mention of “aids” by a commenter implies its use?

    1. “Aids” for me includes the use of “Magic Chambers”, the facility for untangling anagrams and filling in spaces, and the brute force of copying the clue into Google when it gets answered in Danword and similar giveaway resources. Since I rarely solve on the main Times site (only when the Club is down) I don’t have access to the check facility – I leave that to Sudoku!
      Of course, I never ever use any of the above when being competitive!

      1. Thank you for that, Zabadak. I think there is a distinction to be made between the NHO “Danword” and similar, and a straightforward yes/no regarding a guessed letter.

        The reason I asked was that on the few occasions I have had to use the on-line “reveal” functionality I feel disappointed.

        Worth a try I suggest. As I intimated it seems few know of it.

        Surely in competition the deputy-head walks up and down the rows of desks!

        1. I have just learnt that there are TWO versions of The Times crossword, one of which does not have a ‘check’ facility! A bit like finding a new planet! Thanks Ulaca for mentioning this in a post you made in September 2022.
          Some research needed.

  20. 24.14, a lot of it spent on the crossing UNINITIATED and MASTERMIND, the latter struggling to make the link to hatch as the definition. I’m pretty sure the programme would not attract as many contestants were it called Hatch.
    I got familiar with OTE working in the employment field, where “what does OTE mean?” was a common query from those scanning job adverts.
    I don’t think I parsed either HELEN or DARTH on the way through, and though I’ve been to Crete the connection I made (with apparently no foundation) was to Princess IDA.

  22. Mainly didn’t have a clue.
    Was very stuck, came here to see 12a PSEUDO. Then struggled thru the rest, lots BIFFed. I love the idea of a BIFF at 15a. HHO OTE but couldn’t parse 22a Coyote even so. I think I knew Salford is a city. I definitely do know Southend is one – I once lived there so remember things like that.
    Didn’t enjoy it much – too much defeated me.

  24. I was well and truly stumped by the PSEUDO (nice when I eventually understood and gave up on escudo) — UNINITIATED crossing, where I couldn’t believe there was a word that fitted. Aids necessary here. My aids are a) look in a list, to see synonyms and examples; b) use the electronic Chambers anagram facility; c) use the electronic Chambers word-filling facility. Only when all this fails do I use Google. 53 minutes. I liked this.

  25. 17:24

    Maybe my biffing HELEN OF T and DARTH V is what led me to decide that 15a was BIFF (for all I know the kids use BI for BYE in texts). That made ANAEMIC more than a little tricky until i realised where I’d erred.

    As mentioned in my reply to jackkt I worked for SALFORD city council in the early ’90s which helped today.

  26. 47:30

    I found the RHS very difficult – eventually managed to fill in the very top, but I don’t like long words where there is a lot of building to do and a lot of combinations to do it with. Having said that, on completion, the parsing is of course, all pretty fair – glad that most of 12a appeared just the other day otherwise I don’t think I would have thought of that

    Thanks William and setter

  27. Liked this one, and struggle to see how exactly it is “prosaic.”
    Nho OTE but no matter..

    1. I agree.
      I resorted to aids to finish it but it’s the sort of crossword I prefer. No dictionary required, difficult but precise parsing clearly indicated, no obscurities, no setter self-indulgence, and no possible ambiguity. And, for once, no clunker of a clue to ruin it.
      If this means ‘prosaic’, give me prosaic every day of the week please. We can but hope for the next prosaic offering next month. Maybe.

  28. 34.15 so hardest this week by far. One of my bugbears are 3/4 word solutions that take me too long to work out. Zany was typical and my LOI, also put in biff before anaemic proved it had to be otherwise. Didn’t parse mastermind but the hatch reference made my mind up for me.

    Other troublespots were uninitiated- second LOI- and bugbear which was just dim of me. Anyway all’s well and all that. Had to pick Darth Vader as COD.

  29. 26:40 – PSEUDO last in, after trying improbable pronunciations of escudo for far too long.

  30. 35 minutes, quite rapid for me on a Friday, despite having to go all the way to the bottom for FOI DEBUSSY. Thereafter slow but fairly steady progress, held up at the end like some others by PSEUDO. The only way I would link “sue” with “beg for” is in the phrase “sue for peace”; if I sue someone for damages I am demanding money, not begging for it, although the behaviour of some beggars verges on the aggressive.

  31. 76:22. rather slow, but there were some tricky wordplay in there. OTE was a new one for me. I had CAYMAN for a while as it fitted the crosses I had. PSEUDO got me, I saw the DO quickly but couldn’t finish it for ages. thank you for the workout!

  32. Found this quite tough and was pleased to finish unaided in around 35 minutes. I thought the OP’s description of it as “workaday” a bit harsh.

  33. 9:58. Well I really liked this one, just the right level of chewiness for me. I had to take OTE and Mount IDA on trust.

  34. 51 mins. My ON ORDER led me into thinking there must be some kind of foreign general I hadn’t heard of, until I thought about the clue a bit harder.
    SALFORD is a bit of an oddity, a city in the suburbs of Manchester.
    Several of these I got the answer for, then had to scratch my head trying to work out why. Sign of a good setter.

  35. 40:40. Steady(ish) progress at first, then slowed right down at the end by STRATEGIST, MASTERMIND and UNINITIATED which I actually enjoyed constructing. But COD to simpler offerings elsewhere: PICKLED SPOTLESS my joint favourites

  36. 10ac very apposite as my name is Frank and my new walking boots are rubbing How did they know?
    That gets my COD vote
    LOI pseudo after falling into “escudo” trap
    A 45 min effort but enjoyed it

  38. Salford’s musical claim to fame is the song by Ewan MaColl, written in about 1949, called Dirty Old Town
    Worth a listen!

  40. Finished all correct in about 1 hour.

    We had Pseud = Pretender just the other day and also Alb, both of which helped.

    Didn’t understand what was going on with Tie and didn’t know Ida, but luckily both were obvious when I had two letters out of three.

    My COD: Mastermind

  41. 42’15”
    Constantly pushed along to keep up, no extra closing stages.

    However, all parsed bar my BUGBEAR the three-letter-abbreviation. Alongside Zabadak, I associated HRH Ida with Crete but had forgotten she was as great as that.
    Come to think of it, bleeding and bruised after twenty bare-knuckled rounds with Paul, it’s surprising I had the energy to climb into the ring again; so to be over-Nitch but sub-Snitch was a welcome surprise.
    A very enjoyable tussle; thank you setter and William.

  43. DNF when falling at the last after 47 minutes, deciding that ASCURO at least parsed for 12 across. I see I was not alone in going for this, Astonvilla1 having similar thoughts.

  44. I spent too long on this and eventually ground to a halt with the 12a/13d crossers. I had the DO bit for money, but still couldn’t see PSEU, so eventually revealed it, which immediately gave me the answer to UNINITIATED, though I had to unpick it to be sure. I only ever reveal when I have effectively given up – normally I would go for missing letter lists or synonyms. A bit annoying to get within 2 clues of the end and not finish. FWIW I really don’t like PSEUDO – it doesn’t mean pretended so much as false. Otherwise a great and challenging crossword.

  45. I too nearly fell into the ‘escudo’ trap before parsing. Biffed IDA although have been to Crete so no excuse. Agree re looseness of hatch = mastermind. This took me over an hour; wine a possible factor.

  46. I thought this was comparatively gentle for a Friday. No issues, and all done in 33 minutes, about average for me. It took longer than it should for me to crack the two last clues, at 16ac and 14dn, despite having most of the letters in place. As a keen trainspotter in my distant youth I am pretty sure I remember a locomotive called City of Salford, so that did not cause me to stumble. Overall an enjoyable workout.
    FOI – REMAINS
    LOI – STRATEGIST
    COD – WARTS AND ALL
    Thanks to william and other contributors.

  47. 1 hour 12 minutes in all. I found this very hard, but also very enjoyable when the pennies dropped after sticking seriously on their way down. I managed about 70% of this before I faced a completely blank wall, but when I returned an hour later things slowly moved into place. I found MASTERMIND very good and WARTS AND ALL even better and enjoyed the very misleading definitions in many of the clues. Of course I have never heard of OTE and didn’t know DEPUTE was really a word (but it’s in my online OED). Perhaps yesterday’s covid shot has slowed me down a bit today.

  48. 52:17, with LOI UNINITIATED unparsed.
    A very tough solve.
    MASTERMIND was very hard – I had exhausted all the other words for mother before finally remembering mater.

    Thanks all

  49. 41:20, I found the RHS hard and was doing OK until then.
    I found hatch (a plan) = mastermind (a plan) to be a bit dubious
    Also I thought zany was an adjective whereas clown is a noun or a verb
    Though I well be missing something
    LOI uninitiated and that was very clever
    Thanks setter and blogger

  50. Failed with LOI escudo but at least it allowed me to get UNINITIATED as my POI.
    FOI AIL
    COD ANAEMIC

Comments are closed.