Times Crossword 24154

Author   sabine_tkPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 14.54

I thought this was a very good puzzle, with lots of clever devices and disguises to trip up solvers. My main problems arose with the NE corner, though looking at it now there is nothing there that should really have held me up for so long. Happily my printer was in a good mood tonight and consented to print the puzzle off without decorating it with a lacy pattern of white horizontal smudges, which it has been doing intermittently since the change of format to express its disapproval.

The completed grid is a pangram.

Across
1
   ZIPPER – a closer of flies. I’m not sure if there’s anything more to the rest of the clue than “speedy performer” meaning someone who does things quickly, and therefore zips through them.
5
   LIFE PEER, one who sits in the House of Lords. I’m ashamed at how long it took me to see that “sizeable bird” is LIFE because “bird” here means a prison sentence, and to abandon finally the perplexing concepts of the Lory Peer, the Lark Peer and the Loon Peer.
9
   VI(NT,AGE) CAR – the vicar being the first of three ministers to appear in this crossword.
10
   WATT – alternate letters of “We act it”, indicated by “out with every second”. I grumble a great deal about overuse of “regularly” and so am glad to cheer more creative devices such as this.
11
   VAL,HALL,A – VAL being LAV reversed (small room’s back). Valhalla is the majestic hall in Norse mythology that received the souls of fallen heroes, ie “those bravely turning up late”.
12
   RED BOX – “bear” here meaning to carry, these boxes being full of official papers for ministers – government ministers this time -to deal with.
13
   THOU, the subject of the verb “art”. I thought this was very neat indeed.
15
   ABSEILED – a simple anagram (side able)* that for some reason baffled me almost until the end.
18
   ANTI,QUES- “not for” = ANTI, and “hunting timeless” is QUES(t).
19
   LUT,Z. The theologian is (Martin) Luther, who “drops her” to get LUT, while “head on 1” refers to the first letter of 1 across. A lutz is a jump in ice skating. Hands up all those who thought “Oh come on, you can’t seriously expect anyone to have heard of a female theologian….”
21
   HYSS,OP
23
   CON,JUROR
25
   A(R)EA – the AEA is the Atomic Energy Authority, and “far edge of Outer” is R, leaving just “space” as the definition.
26
   HELLO DOLLY – a dolly being an easy catch in cricket.
27
   E(PILE)PSY
28
   KIRSTY – (skirt)* (flapping) + the variable Y.
 
Down
2
   I(BIZ)A – AI is fine, so IA, in this down clue is “fine up-and-coming”, while BIZ, slang for “business” is “Works informally”.
4
   RE,GALE – RE meaning “with reference to” and therefore “On”, while a gale is a blower.
5
   LACK,A,DAIS(ICALL)Y
6
   FIRE R,IS,K. “Letter off” = FIRER, as in one who fires something like a gun. “One’s” = IS and “desk, finally” provides the K. I struggled with this until I had discarded my LOON PEER and all the other lame birds I mistakenly had serving time in the House of Lords at 5 ac.
8
   EXTRO(VER)T – the third and last of our ministers is a REV, reversed (retiring) and embraced by everyone’s favourite old Communist, the Ex-Trot.
14
   HONE,Y TRAP – Y TRAP being PARTY reversed and therefore “company up”.
17
   JUMP SHIP, the wordplay being JUMPS=starts and HIP=with it. I admire the economy of this clue. I admire economy in clues generally.
20
   IN HOCK
22
   SHAW,L – GB here being George Bernard.
24
   OWLET – hidden, reversed in hoTEL WOrker.

33 comments on “Times Crossword 24154”

  1. Regards Sabine. This took me about 30 minutes while enjoying a nightcap here. My problems were with ABSEILED, and AREA, where not knowing you had an AEA (which I’ve learned from reading your blog), I had to venture this as ‘atomic energy’=AE, around ‘r’,plus ‘space’=’a’ for ‘are’. Your explanation seems much simpler. I had never heard the word ‘abseiled’, we ‘rappel’ over here, so it was a guess from the checking letters, the only possible guess, it appeared to me. When I guessed I was guessing it was to drop an outrageous comment in conversation, not a vertical descent. I’m happy to learn new things. Regards to all in advance, see you next week.
  2. 29:50 … phew, that was tough. I wasn’t even close to this setter’s wavelength and almost every clue was a struggle. Some very clever things, for sure. 17d stood out for me, too. But 5a LIFE PEER is brilliant.

    Had to resort to Wikipedia for the One Across Rock, but was thankful to find Tennessee New Wave Country act Zipper, Where art Thou?, and East Fife’s very own family of naked performance artists Watt, no zipper?. I think the less said about “exuberant” Australian childrens’ entertainers Zipper and the Extroverts, the better.

  3. This one suited me and I had all done bar the last letter of LUTZ in 14 mins. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, that needed another 3 mins. I also like economy in clues, so 17D’s my COD and 11A has to stand in the corner for prolixity.

    Tom B.

  4. Firstly if Jimbo complains this was too easy I may lose heart and give up for ever!

    It took me an hour to complete all but ten clues. The next 30 minutes saw six more go in and then I resorted to aids for the last four. These were 17, 21 and 22 in the SW and 19. I never even thought of GBS which as a theatre addict was disgraceful.

    For all the problems I had I recognised early on that this was an exceptionally clever puzzle and I have no complaints about even a single word of it.

    1. Unbelievably hard. OK i was tired and didnt get much time to concentrate bit some of these clues were very well hidden…lets hope we dont get this setter too often and thank goodness someone else on here took a liong time too. about 90 minues for me all told. North east corner went in last
  5. 15:38 – also struggled at the end with the NE, with the pesky 4-letter LUTZ last to go in, after eventually sorting out EXTROVERT and the BOX end of 12. Lots of challenging clues and other good stuff – setter must have been quietly chuffed with the wacky selection of letters in the outside unch columns.
  6. What a great puzzle! I have no idea of time – I did it in odd periods through the day – but I doubt it would have been much less than an hour all up.

    All clues are excellent. I look forward to Jimbo’s comments!

    I wondered at one point if it was going to be a “double” pangram, only the second F, G and Q are missing.

    Thanks and congrats to the setter.

  7. Best puzzle of the week and great fun to solve – about 30 minutes Jack and nothing easy about it so please don’t give up!

    One has to comment on the marvellous economy of some of these clues with 13A and 17D particularly good examples. Also the misleading use of things like “outer space” and “on the blower”. I wasn’t fooled by “bird” seeing peer=look and making the connection with “house” straight away (“bird” for a stretch at HM’s pleasure is of course rhyming slang – bird (lime) for time)

  8. Great puzzle, I agree, but it took me an awfully long time to get into it this morning. I was beginning to panic when after 10 minutes I had only 3 answers in place, but after a long fight I eventually finished in 33:40 – my slowest time of the year so far.

    I thought the clues to some of the shorter answers were brilliant – 13A, 19A, 25A and 22D particularly.

  9. Tough enough even for jimbo, I see. 20 mins to complete it but without fully understanding the word play on one or two. LUTZ was the last to go in, and yes, my hand is up having muttered about the obscurity of references to female theologians
  10. Phew! I completed all of the RH side apart from the central 5d and 19a in 12 minutes, but the LH side was completely blank. Then got 5d and 3d (dimly remembered oil), which got me going again, but the whole of the LH was a struggle. After 1 hour and 5 minutes I had all but 1a, 2d and 19a and decided I was not going to complete it without electronic aids or Bradfords, but at the last minute I decided ‘fine’ must be AI (hitherto I was working on F or OK), then got IBIZA, ZIPPER and, lastly, helped by the essential Z, LUTZ.

    An excellent puzzle, rivalling or surpassing Monday’s, but the number of indirect references, whether in the definition or wordplay, made for a tough solve. I’ve placed appreciative ticks against 1, 5, 13, 17, 18, 19, 27. COD to 17 – a beautifully compact clue with a fine bit of grammatical misdirection.

  11. I found this quite difficult, at 40 minutes, with a few I didn’t fully understand (9ac, 18ac, 19ac, 6d, 14d), and was surprised to find that I only got 19ac wrong (I made a wild stab in the dark, thinking it must end in I)! COD for me 5d, amongst many other good ones.
  12. Never heard of RED BOX and put in RED ROW. Managed to guess LUTZ and LIFE PEER which were new to me.
    1. I never thought but should have realised that Red Box is a bit UK-centric. They are the official “badge of office” for a cabinet minister and office holders are allowed to keep one as a memento when they get booted out. The most famous is Gladstone’s which is still used by some Chancellors of The Exchequer to carry the budget to parliament. They pose outside 11 Downing Street holding it up in the air and grinning like loons. In case it comes up in the future the Queen has a blue box to hold papers of state requiring the royal assent.
      1. Turns out the Times website even has a Red Box blog, giving you a “rolling insider guide to Westminster”. Currently scoring a great victory for Times journalism by, er, printing a complete article from that magnificent organ, Private Eye.
        1. Thanks – well now I’ve heard of it, it shall not stump me again. I should have thought of BOX as a better alternative to ROW, but that didn’t happen last night.
          1. I didn’t understand either of these when solving, just guessed from the checkers. I had figured the ‘oversized bird’ in 5A as L=large, and IFE= some kind of bird or slang. I luckily thought of BOX at 12A, as well as ‘row’, and figured BOX was actually something that could be carried, so I went with it. I pictured it being toted by a Reverend, though, not a cabinet member.
            1. Kevin, I guess you know that The Lords is the “check and balance” house to The Commons (where elected Members of Parliament sit). The Lords used to be all hereditary peers with entitlements going back to such as the Tudor monarchs. A small number of these remain but have been largely replaced by Life Peers, worthies appointed via patronage but only for their lifetime. The whole thing is a mess but successive parliaments have lacked either the will or the nous or both to sort it out.
  13. Like dyste I found this a puzzle of two halves in that I had all but 19a in the right hand half after 30 minutes and only the letter H from HELLO DOLLY in the left half.

    Slowly worked my way through the left half to finish in 55 minutes.

    Although tough, I really enjoyed this with many clues bringing a smile when they were cracked.

  14. A great puzzle today. Agree with all the above. Just to clarify about 1A – a zipper “closes your flies” in case anyone didn’t get it. 13A my COD
  15. 30 minutes – another excellent puzzle – it’s been a good week.Mostly a bit too good for me to get anything much without some real head scratching and some really devious , misleading clueing – totally fair. 17 was a cracker , 1 and 5 (sizeable bird = life!!). Too many to comment on. Last to go in was LUTZ – which I also see now was a brilliant clue.
  16. Ok after 4 seprate attemps of an hour each. i gave up without a single clue entered.

    I nearly got extrovert, but couldn’t for the life of me work out the wordplay.

    Very hard today. I prefered mondays where i got in to double figures with the clues entered.

    I have infact just finished reading Tim Moorey’s book. (abet very slowly… see below)

    Just out of interes dose anyone else here suffer from dyslexia, or am i the only masochist trying to stick two fingers up at my condition?

    oh well roll on monday when i can try again 🙂

    1. I’m not aware of any other dyslexia sufferers here. Given the advantage I get when I can confidently write in an answer like “FAUTE DE MIEUX” (a big gainer in a London regional final of 2000, IIRC), that’s a pretty big two fingers!
  17. Too clever by half! Didn’t get “area” or “lutz”. Flirted with area, but couldn’t see how it worked. Lutz is new to me. BUT it was a cracking crossword.
  18. I’m late commenting here because I was late finishing the crossword.. I found it quite tough and it must have taken me over an hour altogether, the last few minutes in bed, my occasional solving spot of last resort.

    Super crossword though, I can find nothing to complain about at all. I also like the elegance of 9ac

  19. Due to time constraints yesterday I had only had a few minutes to have a go at this yesterday so finished off this morning. Easily the hardest puzzle of the week taking 31:50 but easily the best of the year so far. I gave up ticking COD candidates as there were too many brilliant clues to choose from. I reckon this has the mark of Anax about it.

    Last in for me was lutz as well but I remember the term from various winter olympic commentaries. That said salkos, toe-loops and lutzes all look the bloody same to me. Had to resort to online aid to get hyssop.

    Q-0, E-10, D-9, COD all of them, 1 across rock: Texan metal legends Pawed Zipper.

    The Grammy for the best band name of the week goes to Mystic Jim-Jams.

  20. This one was very good and very enjoyable, but 24,134 remains my favourite of the year.

    Tom B.

  21. I saw this as “Letter off” as in someone who lets you off or fires you from a job…

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