Times 29257 – Very suddenly and violently

71 comments on “Times 29257 – Very suddenly and violently”

1. 27 minutes for this one which makes it typical Monday fare, at least for me.

   I had to work a bit harder for MASSIF CENTRAL because I didn’t know it. MASSIF had straightforward wordplay so that went in, but I was mystified by the second part. What was this strange word in the clue ‘c a r n e t’ or ‘c a m e t’? Unknown to me in either case. Eventually checkers came to my aid and I realised I needed 6-letters of anagrist, so it had to be ‘c a r n e t’. Still never heard of it.

   I’ve no idea what ‘featuring dozens of cards’ is doing at 25ac. All card games I can think of are played with dozens of cards, usually a standard pack of 52, sometimes plus Jokers, but OMBRE uses only 40 cards – either a special pack or a standard one with 8s, 9s and 10s removed.

   Edit: Okay, let me get it in before anyone else does, ‘carnet’ has come up twice before in puzzles I have commented on, including a Jumbo as recently as last month.

   1. I started using carnet tickets in the late 20teens when the move to working from home twice a week made my railway season tickets a less efficient investment.

   2. I knew MASSIF CENTRAL, but haven’t we had it before?

      1. MASSIF has come up a few times and several bloggers have added “-as in Massif Central” but it’s never appeared as an answer before today, or been referenced in a clue.

   3. lol

   4. The “dozens of cards” piece is to make the surface reading better as the whole puzzle is football themed. If a football match featured dozens of (red and yellow) cards, it would contribute to its dismalness. It is also a helpful hint that you are looking for a card game in the answer.

2. Quite a lot to biff here with just one or two crossers. REPERTOIRE FOI, then a steady solve, not stopping to parse VESTED INTEREST, MASSIF CENTRAL, FAIRY STORY.

   I do not follow football (soccer), but having worked in S. London know that the original LIONESSES (Millwall) played at The Den.

   Excellent to see the wonderful Carole King referenced.

   9’03” thanks ulaca and setter.

3. 29.02 including a break to empty the washing machine. An enjoyable start to the week. Had my first ever skiing trip in the MASSIF CENTRAL over 50 years ago, but I’m not quite old enough to have played golf with a NIBLICK. NHO OMBRE but worked it out from the crossers. Is CAROUSE an Americanism for “party”?
   FOI LEFT
   LOI TEACH-IN

   Thanks U and setter.

   1. CAROUSEL is the American word for merry-go-round.

      1. Ah, thank you, that makes sense – rather like parakeets in London I’d become so used to hearing it in a local context that I’d forgotten (if I ever knew) its exotic origins.

4. Enjoyed this, some clues were a bit Mondayish, other not so much. About 30′ but with a feeling it should have been quicker. Stared at Undertones for a while hoping for an answer referencing the band. Biffed the answer with all the checkers, but needed the explanation here. Also almost caught out with BARCAROLE, initially pencilling “barracole” assuming Cole was the old king, but having seen the answer in previous puzzles finally saw the light and the lovely songstress. Thanks Ulaca and setter.

   1. I was another thinking of COLE for the king.

      1. BB!

         1. Albert

         2. Not to mention Freddie or Albert!

5. Done with no errors, but a slow time for sure. LOI was SOTTO VOCE (which I first learned from Asterix cartoons).

   NHO OMBRE or BARCAROLE. But did know NIBLICK, (which features in an Agatha Christie story), Other old names include brassie, spoon and jigger. Also NHO of Mama Cass.

   UNBOX-ing is a big thing on Tik-Tok these days, so they say.

   COD VESTED INTEREST

   1. Cass Eliot of the Mamas and Papas.

6. a8:56
   I had no idea how TEACH-IN worked, and would never have thought of one as a conference; but it looked like it had to be. DNK the soccer (soccer?) team. And I definitely didn’t know CAROUSEL was an Americanism; I’ve always called it a merry-go-round, as has every American I know. SWORDFISH was an impressive hidden.

   1. Never heard of the 1956 movie Carousel, with Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae featuring the well-known song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’?

      1. I didn’t say I didn’t know the word, just didn’t know that it’s an Americanism. And, to repeat, I call a merry-go-round a merry-go-round.

7. 19:44

   I had most of this done within about 10 minutes but I struggled to finish in the end, with the unknown TEACH-IN eventually going in with a shrug and a few letters trawls required for the card game.

   An entertaining solve so thanks to both.

8. Lovely Monday puzzle, not too tricky with some brilliant wordplay. I didn’t know what a ‘carnet’ was and couldn’t understand why the setter didn’t use ‘trance’ instead, kind of works with the rest of the clue. Loved the inclusion of Carole King and Mama Cass. BREAD SAUCE was good. NHO of the game OMBRE. COD to VESTED INTEREST.
   Thanks U and setter..

9. Nice to see Mama Cass and Carole King in the same puzzle, shame I missed the latter completely so ended up a DNF in about 26 because I couldn’t prise the name of the song out of my memory and the cryptic was giving me nuthin’. Also NHO chin meaning attack so entered that one with some hesitation. Otherwise an enjoyable solve, made easier by getting the long ones across the top and down the side. Thanks Ulaca, enjoy Kos. I have family in Zia and recommend Taverna Dikeos.

   From Isis:
   She said where you been? I said no place special
   She said you look different, I said well, I guess…
   She said you been gone, I said it’s only NATURAL
   She said you gonna stay? I said if you want me to, YES!

10. I was mired in BACON SAUCE until I saw the error of my ways and switched to BREAD SAUCE. I also had LEICESTER stuck in my mind for quite a while and was half-convinced it might be a setter’s error until LIONESSES caught my eye.

    Very nice Monday fare, thanks SAB

11. 11.08
    Helpful checkers made full parsing of the four long ones superfluous and helped towards a fairly sprightly finish.

12. Pretty straightforward, 26 mins. My only unknown was the card game, my LOI, but with O-B-E it couldn’t be much else although I did think maybe OMBLE was a word.

    One certainly had to know some old singers.

    I liked MACARONI CHEESE.

    Thanks U and setter.

13. About half an hour.

    – Dimly remembered NIBLICK, probably from one of these crosswords
    – Not familiar with OMBRE, but the checkers helped me get there
    – Took a while to get TEACH-IN as I hadn’t heard of it

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

    FOI Scarp
    LOI Teach-in
    COD Emergency exit

14. 24 mins held up by teach in, turns on and vested interest. Testing start to the week but very enjoyable.

    1. Exactly the same for me, and the same time too.

       1. #Me too!

15. This would have been a rare sub-20 with the whole bottom half filled in on the first pass but SOTTO VOCE was a NHO and I just couldn’t assemble something I was happy with and consequently hitting reveal without submitting a guess. I think I would have got it if the V was checked.

    Other than that plain sailing other than being convinced MASTIF CENTRAL had to be MASTER something for a student. Sometimes the checking letters don’t help.

    Liked LIONESSES for the misdirection

    Thanks blogger and setter

16. 50 minutes with LOI VESTED INTEREST. Anybody else play Vests v Skins in an improvised game of basketball at school? An enjoyable and somewhat quirky puzzle with CASSOCK my COD and TEACH-IN my least favourite. Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day. Good to see Carole King too. Thank you U and setter

17. Nice puzzle with an entertaining smattering of GK. Had a long delay when I couldn’t parse -E-T-D INTEREST. Kept thing of one’s interest being wetted (even though I knew that’s whetted). COD MASSIF CENTRAL

    Thanks to Ulaca and the setter

18. 19.57, held up in the end by TURNS ON and TEACH-IN. I couldn’t get WORKS ON out of my head for the first and was looking for some sort of attack outcome for the second.
    Are there any card games that don’t use dozens of cards? Even euchre has at least 2. That also took a while.
    Despite the musical, I don’t really think of CAROUSEL as peculiarly American, and Chambers goes so far as to allow the N American version can be spelled with 2 Rs.
    Rather meaty for a Monday, I thought, though I appreciated the singing mini theme.
    Neat blog, Ulaca, but aren’t the “under-achieving” Lionesses the reigning European champions?

19. 18:29 – with a corrected typo!

    Thanks for the Alan Bennett link ulaca. I’d not come across that before. Very funny!

20. 17’56”. Not the easy Monday we sometimes get. Don’t particularly like TEACH-In but Chambers has it. Liked the Boris reference in 13d. Many thanks.

21. 30:27, with a delay at the end caused by TEACH-IN. I eventually saw that chin might possibly mean attack, but I have never heard a conference described as a teach-in.
    NHO OMBRE.
    I initially had UNTIE instead of UNBOX, which delayed seeing the EXIT.

    Thanks Ulaca and setter

22. A little trickier than a typical Monday, so completed in around 27 mins . I took an interesting dive down the carousel/merry-go-round rabbit hole and found out that they are sometimes called ‘gallopers’ or ‘dobbies’, with ‘galloper’ and ‘dobby’ sometimes being used to describe a carousel horse, as well as the ride itself.

    1. They were the Hobby Horses at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which I aways take as the last word on any fairground subject.

23. Stared at 1a and 1d for a while then went elsewhere in search of solvable stuff, of which there was plenty. Note to self, if 1a and 1d are hard, go elsewhere.
    10a Sotto Voce, never found the “to” DOH!
    24a Swordfish. L(but 1)I. I am bad at seeing the hiddens.
    4d Cassock. NHO Mama Cass, biffed. HHO the Mamas & the Papas, which didn’t help me one little bit.
    15a Barcarole. NHO Carole King, so biffed.
    7d Lionesses, NHO the Den but HHO the Lionesses as the English women’s team. I hate footie.
    19d Teach In. Missed the chinning so biffed.
    Thanks ulaca and setter.

24. The last time I heard of a TEACH-IN was in the 1960s when I was at university, a teach-in on Vietnam. Lots of words had ‘-in’ added to make something and this was very much of that era, because I think it has completely dropped out of use, so I’m not at all surprised that it mystifies some. NHO Mama Cass of course, so was unsure of CASSOCK. Never understood SOTTO VOCE but now I see it it’s excellent. I’d never heard of ROOK in that sense as a noun.

    1. Teach-In won the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest.

25. FOI was CASSOCK with Mama Cass springing into mind immediately. I was delayed later by BB King being the first thing that sprang to mind at 15d. MASSIF arrived early but CENTRAL came much later and helped with ROOK and LIONESSES. OMBRE was LOI. 20:16. Thanks U and setter.

    1. My first thought was Nat King Cole so very confusing to parse the spare letters!

26. Slow today, but lots to enjoy. The long ones round the edge were all good and SWORDFISH was a splendid reverse hidden. Like Mudge above, I’d made some BACON SAUCE, and wondered why I’d never come across such a delicious-sounding sauce before, before settling for BREAD SAUCE instead. Held up at the end by 19ac TURNS ON and 19dn TEACH-IN. Mama Cass and Carole King both known so CODs to CASSOCK and BARCAROLE

27. 13:47

    On the wavelength today – a few not-quite-knowns e.g. OMBRE, UNBOX (seems to be an internet thing these days where some ‘content creator’ opens a box of goodies for potential purchasers to appreciate before committing), but plenty to enjoy. Last five in were ROOK, CASSOCK, MASSIF CENTRAL (remember this from school Geography), VESTED INTEREST and finally TEACH-IN (which I only knew as a term from the 70s Eurovision Song Contest winners).

    Thanks U and setter

28. 6:58. No real problems today. A bit surprised, like others, to learn that ‘carousel’ is American. NHO Mama Cass but I just bunged the answer in from checkers and definition so I didn’t even notice her presence while solving. I have heard of the Mamas and Papas of course.

29. That’s my sort of crossword. A few unknowns but all gettable.
    FOI CLAMP
    LOI FAIRY STORY (an easy one)
    COD SWORDFISH

30. 32 mins. Totally stuck for ages on TURNS ON/TEACH IN

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