Time: 26:11
Music: Mozart Piano Concertos, Barenboim/LSO
My solve was held back by over-confident mistakes. Seeing that 1 across was obvious, I started writing in obvious answers which were not, in fact, the correct answers. Well, security blanket almost works, and eliminate does mean get rid of. Eventually, I saw streaming and institute, and erased both the culprits, but my hopes for a speedy solve were dashed. And at the very end, I had gaucho on the tip of my brain, but just could not remember the word for several minutes. Not my finest hour.
And you?
Note to later solvers: As a result of our discussion, the Times crossword editor has changed the clue for 2 down. I am retaining the original clue, because that’s what most of the discussion is based on.
| Across | |
| 1 | Not going in right direction, as misguided Express perhaps (2,3,5,5) |
| ON THE WRONG TRACK – Double definition, barely cryptic, a write-in for me. | |
| 9 | Angry about king’s coursing (9) |
| STREAMING – ST(R)EAMING. | |
| 10 | Frivolous interlude ending thus? (5) |
| INANE – IN AN E, for [interlud]E. | |
| 11 | French female left in charge (6) |
| GALLIC – GAL + L + I.C. | |
| 12 | Increasingly blunt head of state revealing all (8) |
| STARKERS – STARKER + S[tate]. | |
| 13 | Grief consuming British family (6) |
| TRIBAL – TRI(B)AL. Family as an adjective. | |
| 15 | Supremely inept cowboy cut short time on eastern seaboard (8) |
| GAUCHEST – GAUCH[o] + E.S.T, Eastern Standard Time. Of course, right now we have EDT. | |
| 18 | New bats I destroyed — put them here? (5,3) |
| WASTE BIN – Anagram of NEW BATS I. | |
| 19 | I disapprove of short skirts (3-3) |
| TUT-TUT – TUT[u] TUT[u]. | |
| 21 | Has fun in Rolls, going round India (8) |
| ROISTERS – RO(I)STERS. | |
| 23 | More work beginning to use revolutionary artificial intelligence corporation (6) |
| UTOPIA – U[se] + AI POT backwards. Sir Thomas More, that is. | |
| 26 | Exploit a brief kiss — hope at last? (5) |
| ABUSE – A BUS[s] + [hop]E. | |
| 27 | Courts are wrong to identify union officials (9) |
| EUROCRATS – Anagram of COURTS ARE. | |
| 28 | Source of comfort in bitter retirement times? (8,7) |
| ELECTRIC BLANKET – Cryptic definition, with bitter in the sense of cold. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Old books inspiring weary expression at first glance (2,5) |
| ON SIGHT – O N(SIGH)T. Yep, the Old New Testament. | |
| 2 | Two learners in mountainous region (5)
Clue amended by Times editor to: Group taking railway around mountainous region (5) |
| TYROL – TYRO + L. | |
| 3 | Get rid of model created with AI (9) |
| ERADICATE – Anagram of CREATED + AI. It seems like AI is a gift to setters. | |
| 4 | Sally’s unfinished journal turned up (4) |
| RAID – DIAR[y]. I had thought of Sally Ride, but then saw how it worked. | |
| 5 | Singer’s glass of beer in the evening? (8) |
| NIGHTJAR – NIGHT + JAR, not the first thing you think of for a glass of beer – must be one of those fancy brewpubs that serve $12 pints in Mason jars. | |
| 6 | German city bank welcoming reforms at first (5) |
| TRIER -T(R[eforms])IER. | |
| 7 | Humiliation as Sam beaten badly (9) |
| ABASEMENT – Anagram of SAM BEATEN. | |
| 8 | House weakness Etonian conceals (7) |
| KNESSET – Hidden in [wea]KNESS ET[onian]. | |
| 14 | Establish seat of learning (9) |
| INSTITUTE – Double definition. | |
| 16 | Accurate cast netting small shrimps? (9) |
| CRUSTACEA – Anagram of ACCURATE around S. | |
| 17 | PM’s daughter a citizen of foreign power (8) |
| DISRAELI – D + ISRAELI. | |
| 18 | Conflict upset Green Party’s provisions? (7) |
| WARFARE – RAW upside-down + FARE. | |
| 20 | Partners getting into property conveyance (7) |
| TRANSIT – TRA(N,S)IT. Bridge partners, that is. | |
| 22 | Nurse’s nice surprise (5) |
| TREAT – Double definition. | |
| 24 | Physicist announced part of political party’s programme (5) |
| PLANK – Sounds like PLANCK. | |
| 25 | Writer coming out of shell in bed (4) |
| CRIB – [s]CRIB[e]. | |
37:55. Clean solve, no aids.
LOI UTOPIA, “More work”, very clever, didn’t see it. If pot=corporation because of that tiresome “stomach” device, it mars what could have been a great clue.
Buss=kiss is pretty obscure, never heard of that word, I shrugged and in it went. I thought of bust, busk, bush, busy: to try and find a “kiss”.
In ROISTERS I was sure that “rolls” = RR, which is on the front of the car. And I thought Trent (as in “council of”) was in Germany, which held up STARKERS ( good clue).
I liked DISRAELI, but should imagine it’s a chestnut.
In 20 is the conveyance the Ford Transit, that’s how I understood it. There’s a clever Latin joke about telling a glamorous woman that her new souped up van will be be ready at the start of the week sic transit gloria mundi
COD TRANSIT
‘Jar’ =(Brit) (informal) a glass of beer (ODE).
I didn’t submit this for the leaderboard, because I wasn’t sure whether 2d was TIROL or TYROL (TIRO, TYRO). Just as well, as not only did I go for TIROL, I had a typo, or tipo, elsewhere.
Yes, my comment is obviously a joke.
Around 35 minutes which is nearly my fastest. FOI was the obvious write-in of 1ac. I was able to easily parse most clues as I solved them.
Thanks V
11:51 Hovered for quite a while over ABUSE as I don’t think I’ve come across buss for kiss. Would have had the same dilemma as Kevin over Tyrol / Tirol but the memory of an old Andy Stewart album cover for “The Scottish Soldier” came to the rescue. (My parents’ record collection, not mine!)
Jar is pretty standard usage in Ireland. Reminds me of an Irish friend, a talented story teller. When he has the listener in his grasp, his voice drops to a stage whisper, at which point he’ll often punctuate the story with “and I must say (listener’s name)… I do love a jar”.
Thanks Vinyl and setter.
I have a dim memory of Tirol appearing here some time back, which is why I dithered. ODE and Collins both have tiro/tyro as variants.
I knew ‘buss’–never heard it used. ODE marks it ‘(archaic) or (N. Amer.)’.
You and Google have convinced me that either one could (should?) be acceptable.
I’m not sure that 1960s Andy Stewart album covers are amongst the recognised references at The Times, so maybe I was just lucky.
Now we’re too old to have a party to go to, The White Heather Club with A Scottish Soldier and Donald, where’s your troosers? sounds a much better bet for New Year’s telly than the wretched ‘money up in smoke’ fireworks display and the ‘in-between ‘concert we get nowadays. I’ve no Scots in me, but I end up the evening longing for my ain folk. Your parents’ choice is fine with me.
There’s a great video on YouTube of Andy Stewart singing A Scottish Soldier.
My mate and I had the 45 record and played it over and over. It’s just as stirring 60 years on.
And there are several whole episodes of The White Heather Club available on YouTube.
My parents only two albums were The Alexander Brothers and the Sound of Music. They weren’t too chuffed when I took ownership of the Dansette for my Zeppelin and Yes albums ..
27:06, held up by a few things that felt chestnutty such as remembering GAUCHE means inept, TYRO, etc. Interesting that GALLIC came up when some of us just had it as an error for GAELIC a few days ago.
‘Bus’ would have done for me had I not seen it in a puzzle recently. I’ve never heard it, but ‘Bussi’ is very familiar from (southern) German, also meaning ‘[a] kiss’. Speaking of southern German, I lived in Tyrol and my understanding is that Tirol is the modern German spelling, whereas Tyrol is the traditional and still prescribed English spelling. However, these things change over time – witness traditional English ‘Basle’ in line with French ‘Bâle’ losing ground to the German form ‘Basel’.
Thanks all!
Another day, another typo, with EUROCRATD for some reason, one key off. My LOI was also GAUCHEST with my brain telling me it was a Spanish word for a cowboy, and only being able to come up with vaquero for a few minutes. No problem with buss, tyrol, or jar for me.
EOROCRATS did for me too!
31 minutes. I had all but 4 answers in the SE quarter within 20 minutes but then got bogged down for a while until suddenly I broke through. LOI was GAUCHEST.
I tossed a coin for TYROL knowing full well that both ‘Tirol / Tyrol’ and ‘tiro / tyro’ are in common use and listed in Collins, Chambers and the Oxfords. This has come up before on more than one occasion and has been discussed at some length. If I know this the editors and setters should also be aware and ensure clues include a separate indication of the spelling required on the day.
Having said that, I must express support for setters who are criticised one minute for over-using standard crossword devices or synonyms and the next for resurrecting others less used that solvers may not be so familiar with or have not met before. It really seems they can’t win!
25.45 so a reasonable start to the week. Like V I saw 1ac straight away; I even made some of the same mistakes (ELIMINATE) but got back on the right track.
LOI DISRAELI
COD (joint) INANE and UTOPIA
Thanks V and setter.
6:33. My fourth fastest time on the SNITCH. In my haste I risked coming unstuck with the cowboy where my first thought was rancho leading to an answer of RANCHEST. I was hesitant enough not to put it in and gaucho came to me soon after (i now see I was wrong with the cowboy anyway, who is a ranchero).
Great time. Any chance you were thinking of Rancho Relaxo from the Simpsons?
I don’t think so. I’m a fan of The Simpsons but can’t recall that character.
Ranchest : “mum, I’m not familiar with all these salad dressings, which is the Ranchest”?
😁
38:44 for an enjoyable puzzle.
Didn’t know buss for kiss, but was saved by my German wife. I thought Tyro/Tyrol was a little unfair since both have an alternative spelling with an ‘i’ but overall I thought it was full of clever and slightly surprising clues that defied your first guesses.
23 minutes with LOI CRIB. I very nearly biffed CRAB. I had to assume that to BUSS was to kiss. COD to GAUCHEST. Thank you V and setter.
I always thought Merrilee Rush was singing ‘just buss my cheek before you leave me’ in Angel of the Morning, so the buss thing was no problem. But I just listened to it again and I think she says ‘touch’ so that’s probably the epitome of dumb luck. 20.10, enjoyable puzzle, thanks V.
From One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later):
I didn’t mean to TREAT you so bad
You shouldn’t take it so personal
I didn’t mean to make you so sad
You just happened to be there, that’s all
I agree TYROL is ambiguous, although I got it right in a rare sub-5 sprint. I think both the newbie & the region (in English) more commonly have a Y, but I wasn’t helped by remembering the long-defunct Austrian football club Tirol Innsbruck.
Thanks both.
25 minutes but with a careless typo.
Was breezing along until held up by STARKERS and GAUCHEST. Almost forgot that stark could be blunt and that cowboys were to be found beyond the Wild West. ROISTERS took longer than it justified, bit of a chestnut. I had the impression that tyro had fallen from grace in crossword land and was delighted to see it again.
Overall a pleasant start to the week. COD 5dn.
Thanks to setter and vinyl1.
4:27, but with a stupid CRAB, which I realised was wrong as I hit submit.
The ambiguity in TYROL is unfortunate.
Is it not logical, though, to assume that where an alternate spelling is not forced by a crosser, the answer will be given in the most common, standard spelling? It would be downright evil if this unchecked Y turned out to be “correctly” an I. What kind of monster would do that?
DNF, caught a CRAB at 25d, thought it might be the name of a writer, probably is if you google hard enough.
Very quick bordering on QC until the SW corner where Nurse = TREAT was a bit of a stretch.
COD UTOPIA for the excellent surface use of More.
Thanks vinyl and setter.
It’s the summer holidays so solving on my phone inbetween ferrying little people about so won’t be posting times. Shame as I think this one would have been right up there. The long 1a proved not to be prophetic.
I’m finding it hard to think of what caused me any major problems.
UTOPIA I spent the most time on as thought ‘More work’ was clueing OT/overtime at the start of the word. Disappointing as I have seen that definition before.
ABUSE- not heard of buss/kiss but couldn’t come up with anything better.
Far too long to spot the hidden KNESSET as was having a mental rant about the Times clueing people as Etonians.
INANE was the last one in. I already had the idea but the penny didn’t drop in the parsing until later.
COD: TUT-TUT
Thanks blogger and setter
39 mins. But a careless Instigate and Abase in the SW so DNF. Definitely 1A there!
DNF. Too much I didn’t know.
STARKERS (went stopless), GAUCHEST (went slackest), ROISTERS, NIGHTJAR all too much.
11:22
Top half went straight in but had to work a bit harder at the bottom. I find whimsical CDs like 28a either appear immediately or take a while.
Ditto. Had security blanket for a while until warfare forced a rethink.
Missed gauchest.
I was really surprised that the editor had substituted a clue at 2d. Is this a first?
12.55. For those of you who need him, I give you Roger CRAB, 1621-1680, puritan author of polemics with fabulously long titles. I put CRIB. And TYROL, so escaping the threatening pink squares. My hold out was STARKERS, where I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition.
That Roger Crab Wikipedia entry is great, and what an epitaph on his grave.
Quick today, although I was on the wrong lines for a little while until knesset arrived.
Always been Tyrol in my house so no problem there.
Liked Utopia
Not to difficult, yet I DNF anyway. DOH!
9a Streaming. DNF, put streaKing and couldn’t parse it oddly enough.
26a Abuse. I was aware of buss=kiss (archaic.) Must be in Shakespeare somewhere?
2d Tyrol. Was blissfully unaware of the alternative spelling.
25d Crib. I unthinkingly put Crab. I thought there was a writer called Crabbe but that doesn’t help anyway. In retrospect it would have had COD if I had thought of sCRIBe.
Thanks to vinyl1 and setter.
ESSEN was always the go to German city in crossword land. But now it seems that God loves a TRIER.
19:55
Decent puzzle – buss was new to me.
Thanks, v.
About 20 minutes.
– MER over grief=trial when solving, though I don’t really know why now as it’s clearly fine
– Eventually remembered the ‘More’ trick, though I didn’t know UTOPIA was a work of his
– WARFARE was a while in coming because I didn’t realise ‘Conflict’ was the definition, thinking it was giving ‘war’ as part of the answer
Thanks vinyl and setter.
FOI On sight
LOI Utopia
CODs Eurocrats / Raid / Transit (all had nice surfaces)
Apologies for the ambiguity in the clue for TYROL. I didn’t spot this when test-solving and editing the puzzle – I’ve always spelt it TYROL.
Although Collins gives TIROL as an alternative, ODE says that TIROL is the German spelling. So, although one might argue TYROL is the correct answer in a UK crossword, I will be changing the clue to avoid any confusion or doubt for those who have yet to solve the puzzle.
And Jason is true to his word. At 11:00 the clue now reads
Group taking railway around mountainous region (5)
LOT (group) containing R{ailwa}Y, all reversed [around]
Is this substitution a first? I was really surprised to see it.
The top half was virtually a write-in and reminded me of the easy Mondays that memory suggests used to be much more common. The bottom half was a bit chewier without ever getting very tricky. At least I completed it, bringing to an end my longest streak of DNFs in ages, all I think owing to one troublesome clue per puzzle.
Held up in the SW by a biffed INSTIGATE which stopped ABUSE until I revisited it. INSTITUTE was then LOI. I also was delayed by expecting 3d to be ELIMINATED. STREAMING took a long time to come and confirm ERADICATED. FOsI were TYROL(how I’ve always spelled it luckily), RAID, TRIER and KNESSET, which then enabled me to get ON THE WRONG TRACK. 30:00 on the dot. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
Andrew Sinclair in one of his novels that I read in my youth refers to a man giving a woman a buss. For some reason I’ve remembered the word since then. 15ac defeated me for a long time since I thought the last letter was T = time. 43 minutes, mostly pleasant and straightfoward although I suspected CRAB not CRIB, more or less justified I now see.
My 2d reads “Group taking railway around mountainous region” so lot and ry? Seen the response now
I have amended the blog to note the change in this clue.
Very easy except where it wasn’t. Transit which I don’t think is a Ford, Crib and Eurocrats held me up at the end. Tempted by Roger Crab but eventually saw sCRIBe. All to no avail: a previously unrecorded error, NIGHTCAP. The definitive late-night drink. And birds are like plants, I don’t know them and any random collection of letters can seemingly be one.
Another one here who caught a CRAB, although I did wonder if there was a better alternative. It looks like I’ll have to hang my hat on Zabadak’s discovery of the celebrated Roger Crab. Other than that an enjoyable 42.24 minutes.
While walking on the Mornington Peninsula one evening with a friend, near my aunt’s place at Mount Martha, I came across a nightjar. A very distinctive bird.
19’
Finished early this morning before rushing to a golf game, and before the change to 2d. Nevertheless didn’t know the Tirol alternative so not caught out. Found it tougher than others and a few unparsed (buss?) and the More/UTOPIA meaning but did finish in about 40’… and won my golf KO game! Thanks Vinyl and setter.
Always refreshing when the blogger admits to having taken a wrong step – encouraging for those of us who are not sub-10 minute solvers.
Thought I might join that club at one point today, but some tricky ones in the bottom half thwarted me.
DNF due to failing to visit Specsavers, and pressing submit after 8:04 without having solved WARFARE (or more accurately with “war a e”).
COD NIGHTJAR, despite the fact that, as a singer, the bird sounds like Leonard Cohen on a bad night.
13.11
GAUCHEST held me up for the same reasons as Pootle (wanted RANCHER) but sanity prevailed. Was lucky BUSS came up in an old puzzle I did recently.
By the time I solved the TYROL clue had been changed but like a few others I only know it as TYROL (and co-incidentally have just come back from walking the Lechweg which passes through the northern part. Highly recommended for any walkers listening).
Thanks Setter/Vinyl
22:32
COD to UTOPIA
LOI was STREAMING
Thanks vinyl and setter
22.15 . Delayed by starkers due to thinking the head of state was the first letter rather than the last. Oh silly me. The rest was fine .
Something here just didn’t ‘click’ today, and, on reading the blog, I simply have no idea why that should be. Nothing to frighten the horses, but mine threw me several furlongs from home. Oh, well … another day tomorrow.
No problem with ‘jar’ for a drink, but to refer to a nightjar as a singer is a stretch, especially if you’ve ever heard one
Reminiscent of a road drill!
I enjoyed this one and the ambiguity in TYROL completely escaped me, so I had no problem. As soon as I came here though, I remembered that I’d seen at least one previous discussion over TIRO / TYRO or maybe TIROL / TYROL before.
Even though it has come up loads I couldn’t bring GAUCHO to mind for the cowboy so ended up cheating to find synonyms, and immediately kicked myself.
Well, if you’re going to have two typos, it might as well be on the day you can’t spell CRUSTACEA either. Oopsy.
Been off air for a bit as we’ve been travelling for quite a few days. Finally found a copy of the Times this afternoon. I got stuck in the bottom half, creeping rust is my excuse,but sort of managed to finish it but then realised, too late, that I’d left -R-B at 25d. Drat.
I think this is the setter that I call Mr (or Miss/Mrs) question mark. 7 today!
Anyway, NHO of buss for kiss.
Thanks V and setter
A pleasant Monday effort, all done in 20 minutes after being held up for too long on GAUCHEST and CRIB. I eventually saw the way through to the former, but biffed the latter as the least worst option, having failed to parse it at the time, so thanks for the explanation. I have only ever known the 2dn area as TYROL. so for me there was no ambiguity, just a useful ignorance.
FOI – ON THE WRONG TRACK
LOI – CRIB
COD – ELECTRIC BLANKET
Thanks to vinyl and other contributors.
ROISTER was in my mind only yesterday, because it’s one of Chips Channon’s euphemisms for sexual shenanigans. Usually with his brother-in-law! “Roistered again with Alan”. And while we’re on the subject of his diaries (worth reading), I also came across yesterday the first ever reference I’ve seen to SA meaning sex-appeal. General Archie Wavell (Middle East commander at the time) while speaking of a woman says she has “no S.A.”. A short step to “IT”. 21’53”, which felt slow.
18:47
The TYROL/TIROL clue had been fixed by the time I saw it, so no issue for me. An enjoyable and not too difficult Monday solve – liked UTOPIA once the penny dropped.
Thanks V and setter