Times Crossword 10,334 – Another Antique!

Solving Time: About 22 minutes. We have another offering from the 1960s today, as the second qualifier is published. I thought this a pleasant, essentially fair crossword, if a little strange in places. It didn’t seem at all difficult, so I was rather startled on entering it this morning to be told I have two wrong. I can’t see any typos, so unless I see something as I do the blog, suggestions will be welcomed..on edit: see 4dn, 15dn.. stupid boy!

The qualifier can be found here, thanks mc. I will blog it later, and publish when the solution becomes available.

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across
1 standard – seek election = STAND + A R(URAL) D(ISTRICT)
5 wallop – everything = ALL in captive = POW rev.
9 counsels – COUNSELS. I confess I looked this up, though if I’d had all the checkers in place I think it might have been gettable.
10 sample – MP in SALE (Cheshire).
12 Edith – hidden in bED I THought. I assumed the sleeping bit was just padding to improve the surface, but it might in fact be a reference to Matthew 9, 24-26: “He said unto them, Depart: for the girl is not dead, but sleeps. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put outside, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the fame of this went abroad into all that land.”
13 eglantine – *(INELEGANT)
14 presentiment – hmm, not a cd or a dd, just a d really.. even for those days, a little odd. Not an easy clue to check, if you’re trying to find an error!
18 stage manager – *(GERMAN AGATES)
21 land-reeve – *(REVEALED IN) .. but with a surplus I, presumably accounted for by the “mostly”
23 arrow – school = (H)ARROW
24 exarch – EX + ARCH. An exarch is one of various kinds of satrap or provincial governer
25 Wendover – WEND + OVER
26 sodden – rum = ODD in S, E & N. I wondered if this is one I got wrong, since really the clue should say “soaked.”
27 estrange – EST(ABLISHED) + RANGE (of hills)
Down
1 sicker – SICKER(T), a reference to Walter Sickert, an artist so well known even I had heard of him
2 Anubis – A NUB IS. Anubis is the doggy-headed member of the Egyptian pantheon
3 discharge – D IS CHARGE – nowadays it would have to be “An old penny is…”
4 roller-skates – a jocular cd, but I carelessly put “roller-skater,” and I think that’s one of my two errors
6 again – a success = A GAIN
7 lop-sided – *(ODD PILES)
8 presents – *(TEN) in papers = PRESS
11 Plantagenets – *(AGENT) in stars = PLANETS. Though they don’t of course, not for me at any rate
15 Icelander – but stupidly I put IRELANDER for my other mistake.. just didn’t notice the dual possibility. The word does exist, but I’m not sure if it’s in the “usual sources” or not. It isn’t in ODO, which helpfully says “Did you mean Icelander?”
16 psalters – footnote = PS + ALTERS
17 mainland – sea = MAIN + country = LAND. A simple but neat clue
19 graven – G + RAVEN. I wondered if I had this one right, since the G is not really explained.. is it meant to be FINISHIN(G)?
20 swerve – *(V(I)EWERS)
22 ruche – CH in RUE, CH being a Companion of Honour

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

15 comments on “Times Crossword 10,334 – Another Antique!”

  1. 11:51 but with a mistake, which I presume is IRELANDER (I saw both possibilities and in lieu of tossing a coin, went for the closest to home…) As you say, Jerry, far from the most dated example of an old-style cryptic, even if certain clues wouldn’t pass muster today, and perfectly entertaining by those standards.

    (P.S. I assumed that reading FINISHING as “Finish ‘ING'” was one of those things which was acceptable in those days).

    1. I’m almost certain that “finishing” has nothing to do with “finish in G”, but simply means that the answer ends in a bird. There was no obligation to provide wordplay for every letter of the answer in those days (and in fact there isn’t nowadays either).
      1. I was puzzled by this clue, and I appreciated Tim’s explanation, but I’m sure you’re right. The wordplay points to a word meaning “carved” with six letters, ending in RAVEN. It really couldn’t be clearer. It’s remarkable how Ximenean expectations can make us* a bit thick.

        *OK, me

        Edited at 2013-06-13 12:21 am (UTC)

  2. Thought this was much easier than the usual vintage puzzles. Unfortunately I went for CRAVEN instead of GRAVEN.
    I was sure that I remembered Sister James mentioning craven images in our daily primary school religious instruction. If I’d paid more attention to her instead of staring at the sweep second hand for the entire excruciating forty minutes, I’d have nailed this one.

  3. 16:03, but 2 mistakes, ‘Irelander’ and ‘craven’. The latter was my LOI, as I could make no sense of ‘craven’ on the one hand, and obviously couldn’t come up with the correct word. I put in ‘Osiris’ at first at 2d, which didn’t help matters. And I cheated and Googled Dryden. DNK Sale, but it didn’t matter, fortunately. This was enjoyable enough, but all in all I prefer the current style.
  4. Raced through this one but got stuck towards the end. 34 minutes after trying to cheat at 9ac but I couldn’t find the quote so I picked COUNSELS as a more likely option than CLUMSILY, the only other fit I could think of for the checkers.

    Jerry, SODDEN can be a verb so 26ac is okay.

    PRESENTIMENT may be familiar to fans of Coward’s most famous play “Private Lives” in which it comes up more than once.

    Edited at 2013-06-12 08:05 am (UTC)

  5. … as usual with the retros. But this is a fair bit easier than the last offering of that ilk. Not much to say really that hasn’t be said already. Griped at planets being stars and the “quick”-type clue at 14ac. Expectable in 1963 though. Was equally surprised to find “sodden” as an archaic verb. Usw.

    Just about to delete my earler post. So if anyone wants to find 25499, today’s qualifier puzzle, it’s at:
    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00421/Crossword_Champions_421191a.pdf

    On edit: opps, just noticed that Jerry already gave that link in his preamble. Sorry.

    Edited at 2013-06-12 09:52 am (UTC)

  6. 18 minutes, but with IRELANDER, not thinking of the alternative and now not seeing any reason why it should be preferred, since only the antelope bit is clued. I have to concede it’s not in today’s Chambers, though I can’t check the contemporary version.
    I felt this was much closer to the flavour of the crosswords I was doing some five years later, and conformed more closely to the current “rules” than the previous antique. CoD to ROLLER SKATES, clever enough to keep me guessing even with most of the checkers in place but which would stand well in modern grids.
  7. 18:31 … rather fun. I would think you’re right, Jerry, about the biblical allusion in 12, in which case it’s damned clever.

    I needed a few minutes at the end to work out what set before the raven but G made more sense than anything else.

    Are any of the setters from this period still with us, does anyone know?

    1. Quite possibly – they’d only need to be in their 80s.

      On hearing the news today that the world’s oldest man died today (aged 116) a colleague of mine asked how many people born in the 19th century are still alive. Not many of course – Google estimates the number of supercentenarians (> 110 years old) as 200-350.

  8. Approached this with some trepidation because I’ve struggled with vintage puzzles in the past. In the end it wasn’t too difficult and I had just three missing: Anubis, the Dryden quote and Graven. Unknowns Land-Reeve, Exarch and Wendover from wordplay. Happily I guessed Icelander correctly over Irelander.
    Joint CODs to Psalters and Estrange.
    Seeing inelegant/eglantine and the Harrow school in this puzzle and recent ones makes me wonder just how many times they’ve appeared over the years!

    Edited at 2013-06-12 11:39 am (UTC)

  9. I actually finished this, unlike the previous vintage offering, and many earlier ones too, except I also went for CRAVEN. Oops. The Dryden quote of course I don’t know, but there weren’t many choices when the checkers were in place. Interesting stuff. Regards.
  10. 6:59 for me, held up by mistyping PLANTAGENETS (with the first E as an A), by dithering a bit over SODDEN which I didn’t know could mean “soak” rather than “soaked” – it’s in ODO, Jerry, where it’s marked “archaic”, though it wouldn’t have been so archaic in 1963 – and difficulty making a word from C‑U‑S‑L‑ (I didn’t know the quotation, but was reasonably happy with COUNSELS once I’d thought of it).

    I’ve been familiar with ICELAND/IRELAND for ages (probably picked the wrong one many years ago), and had little hesitation in plumping for ICELANDER.

    I’m not convinced about the biblical reference for EDITH.

    1. Only a suggestion of course, but this is a well-known parable that echoes in the modern age, with “not dead, only sleeping…” often appearing as a knowing allusion to it. otoh if that was the intention, the wording is clumsy and incomplete; so most likely you are right..
      Although I did the blog in the morning I solved the crossword after midnight and both my mistakes were just tired slips, really. I wonder if it might be easier to make mistakes, solving this style of crossword.. quite a lot have been reported.
  11. Much to my surprise, I rather enjoyed this. It seems pretty close to the modern style, sufficiently so that the looseness and “wit” are welcome rather than infuriating. Even the Dryden quote is gettable (translation: I got it without looking it up). Like some others I had IRELANDER, but I’m going to tell myself that’s a valid answer.

    Edited at 2013-06-12 11:56 pm (UTC)

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