Times 29233 – “…and the Spiders from Mars!”

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 23:59

Music: Beethoven, Pathetique Sonata, Walter Gieseking

Hi, I’m back.   If you were expecting Ulaca, he’s off traveling around Asia, so I have taken over the month of May – he will return to the blog to cover the June puzzles.

I found the puzzle a bit strange, as it is an admixture of clues suitable for the Quickie with a few that are very  convoluted.     If you just put in the obvious answers, you’ll finish, but you may want to know why the answers are the answers.  Well, that’s what we do here, so if you’ve never heard of Lawrence Oates, or can’t quite recall Robin’s agnomen, you’ve come to the right place.

 

Across
1 Disappear, having run out of polish (6)
VANISH – VA[r]NISH.
4 Ambassador travels by horse around British Isles (8)
HEBRIDES – H.E. (B) RIDES.
10 Such deception — Harry Lime enraged! (11)
LEGERDEMAIN – Anagram of LIME ENRAGED, with harry as a verb.
11 Music from eastern half of US state (3)
SKA – [ala]SKA.   Anyone put sas?
12 Torment Scotsman bored by island hotel (7)
ANGUISH – ANGU(I)S + H.   If he’s not Mac or Ian, he must be Angus.
14 Polar explorer injected with constant drugs (7)
OPIATES – O(PI)ATES.   Lawrence Oates; if I had been the setter, I would have used Titus.
15 Source of food for which we have to thank Providence? (5,6,3)
RHODE ISLAND RED – Cryptic hint – Providence is the capital of Rhode Island.   The literal is very vague, but the answer is eminently biffable.
17 Mass churchgoers, for example going around African capital (14)
CONGLOMERATION –  CONGR[e.g.]ATION going around LOME, the capital of Togo.   This is not a substitution clue, because Lome does not go in the same place e.g. came out of.    Very tricky.
21 Mistake to entertain listener not keen on the stock market (7)
BEARISH – B(EAR)ISH.
22 Flash cravat sported by peacekeeping force policeman (7)
MOUNTIE – MO (UN) TIE.
23 Boy wonder exposed witchcraft (3)
OBI – [r]OBI[n], i.e Batman’s sidekick.   Another one you may be able to biff, but not parse.
24 Timid girl told fibs about retired vicar (4-7)
LILY-LIVERED – LILY LI(REV backwards)ED.   A oddly archaic  expression, but  this is the Times puzzle.
26 Exciting Sudanese stage performer (8)
DANSEUSE – Anagram of SUDANESE.
27 Paint stiffly formal English king (6)
PRIMER – PRIM + E + R.
Down
1 Writer almost published following potential difference (8)
VOLTAIRE -VOLT + AIRE[d].    This involves the technical electrical meaning of volt, which most solvers won’t know.
2 After heading off, hitch horse (3)
NAG – [s]NAG.
3 Mass rally begins with it (7)
SERVICE – Cryptic hint; a tennis rally starts with a serve.
5 1D made KP nuts, a canned product (10,4)
EVAPORATED MILK – Anagram of VOLTAIRE MADE KP.
6 Managed Oscar, famously said to have lost control (3,4)
RAN WILD –  RAN + WILD, sounds like Oscar Wilde, the famous one.
7 Ed’s third hit stirred up gossip (not in a good way) (4,3,4)
DISH THE DIRT – Anagram of ED’S THIRD HIT.
8 Birdies, pars, eagles going round few and far between (6)
SPARSE – Hidden in [birdie]S, PARS, E[agles].    Well, pars are fairly common at majors, but the leaders couldn’t find very many birdies and eagles today.
9 The hopeless PM failing to contain the onset of inner demon (14)
MEPHISTOPHELES – Anagram of THE HOPELESS PM containing I[nner].
13 Grenoble regularly calling wanting Victor’s GPS coordinates (11)
GEOLOCATION – G[r]E[n]O[b]L[e] + [v]OCATION.
16 English monarch supporting dying cause (8)
ENGENDER – ENG + END, E.R.
18 In Scotland, he’s paid to find the net and secure the game (7)
GHILLIE – CD, I believe.
19 Leader of archers put on his equipment, trembling (7)
AQUIVER – A[rchers] + QUIVER.
20 Sailor on the way overseas (6)
ABROAD – AB.+ ROAD.
25 Pack animal (3)
RAM – Double definition.

90 comments on “Times 29233 – “…and the Spiders from Mars!””

  1. I thought GHILLIE was a bit odd, seems more like a concise clue than a cryptic, unless I’m missing something.
    Didn’t parse CONGLOMERATION, so thanks for that. I knew ‘congregation’ had to be in there somewhere but missed the removal of ‘eg’. LILY-LIVERED I remember from some old western films. Really liked the reference clue for EVAPORATED MILK, using voltaire (which I got from checkers, so thanks again). Liked GEOLOCATION along with DISH THE DIRT and RHODE ISLAND RED. COD to AQUIVER.
    Thanks V and setter.

  2. 20:49
    This took me longer than it should have. LOI (and one reason it took me too long) ENGENDER: I failed to separate English from monarch and thought that -ER was the English monarch. Finally saw the light. Biffed CONGLOMERATION, like Quadrophenia. Another delay caused by failure to recall GHILLIE; I just came up with BAILIE, which fortunately didn’t have enough letters.

  3. 34 minutes, and I’m another with ENGENDER as my LOI.

    NHO LOMÉ as the capital of Togo, or of anywhere else so I had to rely on ‘mass’ as the definition and CONGREGATION (churchgoers) to get me to CONGLOMERATION.

    This was a very enjoyable solve apart from the clue to GHILLIE where I really can’t see what’s going on. If it’s intended to be a cryptic definition it fails completely. It looks as if there’s wordplay to be found, but if so, I’m unable to spot it.

    1. The cryptic element is that you’re supposed to think of tennis. A GHILLIE might be charged with finding a net and ‘securing’ the fish (which can be referred to as ‘game’) on a fishing trip.

      1. Ah, somewhat ironic that never occurred to me despite tennis being the only sport I have any interest in! Fishing and game hunting are both associated with a ghillie’s paid duties so net and game along with Scottish sent me straight to the answer. I suppose Scottish was meant to make us think of the Murrays.

        1. Yes I suspect so. I was a bit confused by ‘securing game’, because I would not normally use the word ‘game’ to refer to fish. The usual dictionaries agree with me, with the exception of Collins.

          1. Well, game fishing is a thing e.g. see the entry for Game Fish on Wiki, but I suspect it doesn’t involve nets other than keep-nets. Playing the fish with rod and line is the sport.

            1. In fly fishing you need a net at the end to get the fish out of the water safely.

            2. A keep net is only used for so-called coarse fishing (ie freshwater species other than salmon, sea trout, trout and grayling – these are game fish). In competitions it allows all the fish caught to be weighed when fishing stops, with the heaviest catch winning first prize. Game fish are either released or – rarely these days – killed immediately.

              1. Interesting thanks. I’m no expert so perhaps this was unusual but on the one occasion I’ve tried fly fishing there was a net to help get the fish (trout in this case) out of the water at the end. I don’t know how you’d have done it otherwise.

                1. You’re welcome! Incidentally what you were using to get the fish out of the water is called a landing net.

        2. Spot on.
          19 m for me and thanks Vinyl for the explanation of ‘conglomeration’.

    2. I wondered (though I hope its not…) whether GHILLIE is am attempting at a homophone for “goalie” with a Scottish accent. A goalie secures the game, as opposed to someone who finds the net. Overthinking maybe

  4. Not a good start to the week with a DNF.

    No such thing as RHODE ISLAND HEN and OLI was not the boy wonder we were after. I solved a lot of this like a concise, justifying the answer afterwards. I needed the blog a lot today for whilst Inwas confident in a lot of answers I didn’t fully get the parsing.

    COD: HEBRIDES

  5. Some fast and slow going but held up in the end by RAM and PRIMED. I put in RAT for Sinatra and the Rat Pack. It looked quite reasonable at the time but it should have had a question mark to have a chance. It took me ages to read the clue correctly so my LOI was PRIMED. Lots of biffed answers so I really needed the blog.
    Thanks V.

  6. A slightly odd puzzle- long anagrams (not bothered with) and long words with elaborate constructions (work not necessary with crossers in). And no anxiety about accuracy.

    I did wonder at first whether there was a Scottish footballer named GHILLIE – have since found that a homophone plays for Hibs, but he’s a defender.

    I remember EVAPORATED MILK (with tinned peaches, only pudding of the week).

    9’29”, thanks vinyl and setter.

  7. I think RUN WILD works for 6D too. Managed can be RUN or RAN and you’ve lost control already if you are running wild.

    3. But the first part of the clue refers to a truncated word for angry speech, i.e. ran(t).
      Unless you can point to a tirade starting “run”, all the discussion hereafter referring to management is totally missing the point.

  8. DNF. Not knowing the West African/Caribbean word for witchcraft had me at a disadvantage, and I gave it away at the half hour. Like others I struggled with the many long answers, and while there were plenty of accessible clues there were some real challenges here. CONGLOMERATION (people in Lome might know the word for witchcraft) was one example, and EVAPORATED MILK was unlikely to happen if you didn’t know 1dn VOLTAIRE. I also struggled with MOUNTIE, RAN WILD and LEGERDEMAIN because tbh I never really knew what it meant. Many thanks V.

    From Workingman’s Blues #2:
    There’s an evening haze settling over the town, starlight by the edge of the creek
    The buying power of the proletariat’s gone down, money’s getting shallow and weak
    The place I love best is a sweet memory, it’s a new path that we trod
    They say low wages are a reality if we want to compete ABROAD

  9. 21.40 so a reasonable start to the week. I don’t mind GHILLIE as much as some other commenters, partly because I occasionally fish with them so there was the comfort of familiarity, even though the ambiguity footballer/someone netting your salmon is tissue thin. Thanks setter and V.

  10. Well V you summed up my solve in your intro. 38 mins. FOI NAG. L2I PRIMER & ENGENDER. AS you’ve mentioned, very tricksy in places, especially the longer clues.

    I liked LEGERDEMAIN & LILY-LIVERED.

    Thanks V and quirky setter.

  11. 22 mins, missing a rare sub 20 due to prolonged parsing of CONGLOMERATION and LOI OPIATES.
    Liked VANISH to start, like an old oak table.
    Vinyl summed it up perfectly, thanks and to setter for a gentle start to the week.

  12. 18:21 with a typo (EVAPOTARED MILK)

    Slightly annoying but it isn’t my first and won’t be my last as I stubbornly refuse to proof read.

    A challenging start to the week so thanks to both.

  13. DNF, defeated by RAN WILD (I put RUN WILD, and I agree with Christ West above), by not knowing how to spell GHILLIE (I put GUILLIE – I think the surface reading is supposed to be getting at football, though it doesn’t work that well) and by RHODE ISLAND RED (I got the Rhode Island bit, but didn’t know the chicken breed so put ‘tea’ as the last word – I was thinking of a Long Island iced tea!).

    – Didn’t know Lome for CONGLOMERATION
    – Couldn’t have told you what MEPHISTOPHELES is
    – Couldn’t parse ENGENDER as I keep forgetting ‘English’ can give ‘Eng’

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

    COD Danseuse

  14. Fairly standard Monday fare, an enjoyable start to the week. HEBRIDES was FOI and ENGENDER the LOI with a completion time of 15:38. I knew LOME as it famously is the only four letter capital of a four letter country but failed to parse OBI. Not sure I’ve had EVAPORATED MILK but easy enough once I got VOLTAIRE. My thanks to the setter and blogger.

  15. 4:52 with one ‘error’. I whizzed through this and then paused at the end trying to decide between RUN WILD and RAN WILD. In the end I thought if you ‘have lost control’ then you have RUN WILD. In fact I think that the words ‘to have’ are just filler and the definition is ‘lost control’, which makes RAN WILD and RUN WILD equally valid. Harumph.

    1. I got RAN from “managed” since this is the past tense. Managed seems to be used a lot in these cryptics where it always becomes “ran”. I checked and in the last year of doing the Times Cryptic Managed became RAN 11 times not counting today.

      1. RUN is also the past tense. ‘Managed’ can give RUN or RAN exactly as ‘consumed’ can give EATEN or ATE. Neither is invalidated by infrequency of appearance!

        1. RUN isn’t past tense, at least in standard English; it has no tense. You’re right, of course, that ‘run’ and ‘ran’ are equally possible here.

              1. Thanks! The pink square is particularly galling in the circumstances…

          2. you might be interested to know that, in the version of this puzzle in The Austrslian, the clue has been re-written: “Most of angry speech playwright read out was out of control.” So definitely “ran”.

        2. Since the GROWN/GROAN debacle I have allowed myself to check before submitting when there are two valid answers, by using the Cryptic Crossword outside the Crossword Club.

  16. Didn’t like it – inconsistent clue difficulty – but perhaps I am just grumpy on Monday.

  17. Decided to guess Rhode Island Hen above Tea. But both wrong.

    Luckily came across the word Ghillies last night in Precipice by Robert Harris and looked up the meaning.

  19. 08:50, 1 error (technically). I was another who hesitated momentarily and finally went with RUN WILD. I’m fairly sure it would be allowed on appeal if it happened on Finals Day, but still a bit annoying to have the pink square of doom.

  20. 21:05 for a good start to the week. Took a while to discard Ian and Mac in favour of Angus, but no problem with GHILLIE; it’s what I call my sleeveless outdoor top. ENGENDER was hard to nail down. Glad I didn’t think of RUN

    1. I have an amused mental image of you wearing a ghillie suit, the camouflage worn by snipers. The internet has some fab videos of them rising from apparently unpopulated landscapes. They look rather like small ents.

      I guess you’re being facetious, wearing a gilet, a term which stumps vendors of outdoor clothing in Australia, where the closest description is the inelegant puffer vest.

      1. I hadn’t come across a ghillie suit before. And now I want one. Just imagine suddenly appearing like that, out of nowhere, in the High Street.
        Meanwhile, I will continue to wear my gilet, still rejecting the “proper” poncy french pronunciation in favour of ghillie.

  21. 21 minutes but one stupid typing error – forgetting to check again!
    NHO BISH but couldn’t see any alternative.
    Never quite understood the difference between EVAPORATED and condensed milk and wasted time pondering the matter.
    Times crossword probably the only theatre still featuring DANSEUSES and chanteuses – properly pronounced shantoozies I believe?
    Thanks to setter and vinyl.

    1. Condensed milk is much thicker, it trickles rather than pours, and it is sweetened, whereas evaporated milk is not.

  22. 19 minutes. Last two in MEPHISTOPHELES and ENGENDER, I’d biffed CONGLOMERATION and put GHILLIE in, meaning to come back and check thinking there must be more to it, but then forgot. I don’t think there was. A strange mix of easy and tricky. Jelly and evaporated milk for me please. Thank you V and setter.

  23. Thanks vinyl and setter.
    I agree, easy until it isn’t. I nearly gave up in the SE corner, and still worry about 16d, Engender, as dying=end looks wrong, although 25d Ram and 27a LOI Primer I am sure of. For the ram I thought of the Rat Pack, and also wondered what relation I could find with Roo.
    11a Ska, HHO but forgotten about.
    17a Conglomeration biffed, Thanks vinyl for unravelling it.
    1d Voltaire, surely most Times readers will know enough science to know that p.d.=voltage? Named after Alessandro Volta, famous Italian.
    5d Evap. I biffed this, reading the clue as beginning ID rather than 1d. I wish they’d used lower case “d” then I would have seen it. I could see that there was quite a lot of relevant anagrist in the clue, but no L or V.
    18d Ghillie, pencilled lightly, but OK.

  24. Biffed CONGLOMERATION, LOI was ENGENDER. Glad I didn’t think of RUN WILD, but I think managed=ran is a more “natural” reading than managed=run.

    12:10

  25. I found this pretty straightforward in about 23′. Luckily we have a cutting board with different types of hen on it, including Rhode Island Red, otherwise “hen” would have been a write in. I posted above that GHILLIE might be a homophone for goalie in a Scots accent (though not mine…) I hope it’s not. Thanks Vinyl and setter.

  26. Failed to spot some parsings (esp 1 dn’s involvement in 5 dn — I read ‘1D’ as ‘ID’ —, and Mr Oates) but got ’em all correct anyway, by dint of a bit of judicious ‘had-to-be-the-answer’ biffs.
    FOI VANISH
    LOI ENGENDER
    COD for ‘SERVICE’

  27. I opted for ‘eel’ as the most plausible option for the Rhode Island food source

  28. 33 minutes, no real hold-ups except that I had ghilkie instead of GHILLIE (for no good reason, just fat fingers), which made LILY-LIVERED a problem. I much liked CONGLOMERATION. As Vinyl says, a mixture of write-ins and some quite complicated ones.

  29. 18.56

    Couldn’t see the parsing for CONGLOMERATION but with all the checkers as my LOI had to be

  30. A lot of write ins with some very tricky parsing intermingled. I started with VANISH and HEBRIDES. RAN was next and WILD came along a bit later. Glad I didn’t think of RUN! A while later as I was wrestling with the congregation, I managed to summon up CONGLOMERATION, but with no idea about the African capital. SPARSE came next. I’d totally missed the hidden on previous readings of the clue, and SKA was LOI. I’d held off putting it in as I’d only thought of Nebraska, and it certainly wasn’t half of that! Then Alaska popped up. Phew. 17:21. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

    1. was anyone else tempted by SAX for11 across? TEXAS from the east, though admittedly more than half

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