Times Crossword 15,832 – easy anagrams..

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Other Crosswords
Solving Time: I must say I found this quite easy, 14 minutes in all.

Here we go with yet another (and hopefully, the last) double header. I will publish the other blog on 24 May, when the solution is available. I found this a light-hearted, easygoing crossword with some unusually simple anagrams and several “gimme” clues. Not that I’m complaining! It was as entertaining as ever and I enjoyed it. We might think one or two of the clues a trifle loose today, but that seldom bothers me unduly.
Because I think this is only published on the website and not in the paper, I have not gone to town with the blog, but do please ask if anything is unclear

30 Oct 2012 ***Please Note *** owing to the volume of spam, comments to this entry have been frozen. If you’re deperate to make a legitimate comment, you can do so via today’s blog or via a message to me..

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–).

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across
1 charthouse – CHART(ER)HOUSE
6 blot – BLOT(TO)
10 Gilbert – cd, WS Gilbert of Savoy opera fame being the gentleman referred to, and Patience one of his works. The older the crossword, the more I go in fear of the literary content finding my patchy education out, but this was not too taxing
11 allowed – nothing paid, so all owed, ha ha. This same clue popped up only a few days ago, I seem to recall
12 detriment – *(TERMIN(A)TED)
13 tarry – cd, ie tarred, but not yet feathered..
14 omitted.. The answer’s rubbish
15 landscape – head = CAPE + lights = LANDS, but “out of order,” ie reversed
17 cheapside – CIDE(R) containing lots = HEAPS. One of the more historic city streets, leading as it does from Bank to St Pauls
20 pacer – P + ACER
21 lover – REVOL(UTION) rev.
23 volunteer – *(LOVER + TUNE). Perversely, I got this first and then used it to solve 21ac
25 Tripoli – voyage = TRIP + I LO rev.
26 pealing – PEA + LING
27 reef – a dd, one cryptic – “not” = (REEF) knot
28 reverently – *(RELENT VERY)
Down
1 – omitted..
2 all at once – a simple dd.
3 the first person – another simple dd., “I” being the first person singular
4 oatmeal – hidden: have a gO AT ME ALl …
5 spartan – bridge = SPAN containing skill = ART
7 lower – 21ac LOVER, with the V changed to a W
8 teddy-bear – TAR containing “go round and round” = EDDY + BE = live
9 flat as a pancake – *(ALPACA KAFTANS) + E. Perhaps not the perfect surface reading, this clue!
14 peculator – (S)PECULATOR
16 alchemist – *(THE CLAIMS) this took me longer than it should have because I counted the letters in “the claims” as being eight.. claims just looked like a five-letter word!
18 invoice – IN + 22dn = VOICE
19 ellipse – some other = ELSE containing sauce = LIP. I’m not absolutely sure “some other” really does = else, but I give it the benefit of any doubt
22 voice – VICE (as in vice versa) containing O
24 rugby – mat = RUG + B(O)Y

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

12 comments on “Times Crossword 15,832 – easy anagrams..”

  1. … a quite refreshing retro this time. Didn’t bother with the timer, but a bit under the 15 I’d guess. It’s been a while since we’ve seen C for “many” (1dn) and the direct repeat in 22dn/18dn probably wouldn’t cut it these days. Also, the excess baggage in the hidden answer (4dn) might not get past today’s editor. Have to say I liked 9dn with its implied pause between “out” and “east”.

    Edited at 2012-05-16 04:56 am (UTC)

  2. Jerry, when I click on your Oxford Dictionaries Online link, I get some kind of unrelated sales site. Maybe it’s to do with my being outside the UK?
    1. No, good spot, the link seems to have been corrupted somehow.. I have corrected it. Strange though
  3. 32 minutes for this one which, despite having been set 30 years ago, didn’t seem very different from some of the easier ones published today. It was certainly a very enjoyable solve.

    I needed to amend two answers on checking the wordplay after completing the grid. In my haste I had taken 22dn as the concealed ‘veins’ and 27ac as ‘risk’ neither of which stood up to close examination. I particularly enjoyed TARRY so I hope that no-one is going to complain about it.

  4. I’ve been on a mini-roll since Sunday; I only wish I could attribute it to improvement in my solving skills, but I think it’s just a series of easy puzzles. Anyway, I topped yesterday’s PB with a new one today, 10:59. I fear for tomorrow. I agree with Jackkt about TARRY, and can’t imagine anyone taking exception to it. (‘Tar baby’, I gather, is absolutely taboo, at least in the States.) ‘acer’ is yet another NYT chestnut.
  5. … with the last 15 spent on 27, 14 and 17. Had thought of REEF but could NOT justify it (d’oh!). Wasted most of that time because I tried to make the gambler clue far more complicated than it was, although I wasn’t helped by not being familiar with PECULATOR, which looks as if it should be related to sin (peccare) but is actually related to property according to the moody ODO. COD to BLOT in memory of the good old days when I used to be able to achieve the [full] state.

    I don’t much care for these puzzles where you’re sent round the houses by street number, as it were.

    (On edit) CHARTHOUSE, which I’d never heard of in this sense, is eminently guessable, but only if you know the English public school.

    Edited at 2012-05-16 04:37 am (UTC)

  6. To my surprise, I rather enjoyed this! Grumpily realised that it was an ‘historic’ puzzle only after I’d downloaded it and I prepared for the worst (I usually find these past offerings somewhat alien). In the end, I fully agreed with jackkt that it ‘didn’t seem very different from some of the easier ones published today. It was certainly a very enjoyable solve’.
  7. 20m. I solved this on the iPad Times app, which didn’t mention it was an old puzzle and I didn’t even notice! As already noted there was a bit of looseness – I was slowed down a bit by dismissing the possibility of a hidden because of the padding in 4dn, for instance – but not much.
  8. 8:19 .. I didn’t realise it was an oldie until coming here (which may have helped in the solving time) but thought the style seemed very unusual!

    Fun, though.

  9. I must have done this puzzle in a previous life. I wonder how long it took me then. Anyway, today it was quite an enjoyable 20 minutes with no real problems or surprises.
  10. About 15 minutes, which felt just fine because in the past I also have been utterly befuddled by the retro puzzles. But this one felt right in stride. I got a kick out of TARRY. Regards.
  11. 7:16 for me – slowed by typing into a spreadsheet (with the use of arrow keys adding several seconds). I’d have done this back in 1982, but the only clue that was immediately familiar was 14dn (PECULATOR). No problems, no complaints. Nice puzzle.

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