Times Crossword 24310

Author   sabine_tkPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 11.48

This puzzle seemed to have a very high proportion of proper nouns among the answers. I hesitated for a quite a while at the end before writing in 5A and 5D, because I couldn’t figure out the wordplay for either. Then I saw how 5D (WIT) worked – 5A now had to be WOODCUT, so I wrote it down, stopped the clock and left the wordplay for later.

I found this a pleasant but not outstanding puzzle. There are some neat surface readings, though in most cases I didn’t even notice them at the time.

Across
1
   C,Y,C,LOPS – a Cyclops is a giant with a single eye in the middle of its forehead.
5
   WOODCUT – the wordplay for this puzzled me for a while, but I think it must be that “as plan” are two words that can be formed by removing the last letter of a tree (ash, plane) and are therefore two examples of wood, cut.
9
   C,OLD FRONT = “front” here in the sense of boldness.
10
   TERSE, hidden in quartermasTER SErgeant.
11
   REITH – (their)*. John Reith was Director-General and Chairman in the early years of the BBC .
12
   EFFECTIVE – is this a triple definition? “operative” and “producing the desired result” seem to be definitions, though I wasn’t sure about “striking”.
14
   TREASURE I,S,LAND – with “treasure” and “love” here being terms of endearment. I got “Shetland Island” into my head, led astray, as intended, by the yarn, though in my defence, “good yarn” immediately sounded to me like a story, so I thought that by forcing myself to think of the other meaning, the sheepish one, I was actually avoiding the setter’s trap.
21
   RE(GIST,R)AR – essence=GIST, right=R, all inside (cased) by REAR (back). This held me up a while because “in back case” seems at first glance much more likely to indicate a reversal of a word meaning “case”.
24
   INTRO (IN TROY, not finishing). Priam was murdered in the sack of Troy. I expected at first that I would have to think of a 6-letter overture and remove the last letter to reveal the deathplace of Priam, which led to nothing but the unpromising EGMON.
25
   PAST,ORAL,E – another musical movement following neatly on from the INTRO. I had always thought of a pastorale as a piece of music, at least, though from the clue it seems it could also be a play.
26
   HOL(B)E,IN – HOLE=predicament, IN= at residence. A very friendly clue given that Hans Holbein is surely one of the most famous of all court painters.
27
   NEEDFUL – “heedful” with the H replaced by an N (“new for husband”). This was the first clue I looked at and the first I solved – I saw right away what was going on, though had to juggle my way past “heeding and “needing” to get there.
 
Down
1
   C,ICE,RO – C=about, ICE=chill, and RO=half of Rome.
2
   COLLIER, both a ship and a coal miner, though if that’s all there is to this clue it feels a bit awkward = “Cargo ship, one unable to…” would sound right. But I may have misunderstood. This often happens.
3
   OFF THE AIR – behaviour that’s “a bit off” is unfair or unacceptable.
4
   STONECUTTER – “coping” is part of a brick or stone wall.
5
   WIT(h) “having” is the definition for WITH, which loses the H (“lead in Helmand”.) A moment’s mild panic at the thought that I might be expected to know anything about the geography of Afghanistan.
6
   OP,TIC
7
   COR,SI,CA. COR=my, as in “oh my” and “cor blimey”, and the rest is AC (air conditioning) and IS, all reversed (set up).
8
   THE BENDS
13
   FLEET PRISON, made up from STIR, E (English) and FELON, all anagrammed around a P (penny).
15
   S(E,MAP)HORE – “fixing” must be a containment indicator, which i didn’t realise at first glance.
16
   QU(IRK)IS,H – a good example of why it’s always worth trying out a Q at the start of a word where you have U as the second letter – though in this instance the Queen was helpfully present to give a regal nod in the right direction.
18
   DIGIT,A,L – “Dig it” is what you might do to a plot of land, and A L = “a line”.
20
   CAVE,LL, a reference to Edith Cavell, a British nurse killed by German firing squad. “Cave” here is a slang word for “beware”, derived from the Latin cavere (to take care).
22
   S,TORE

40 comments on “Times Crossword 24310”

  1. A pleasant 28 minutes, with much of it trying to get my last one in – 16 dn QUIRKISH, which I don’t think I have ever come across before. (Quirky wouldn’t fit, so I abandoned that line). In retrospect, it is so well clued, that I should have got it right off! No absolute standout clues, just a consistently good puzzle. The easiest of the week because of this consistency.
  2. 18:03 .. a flying start with both the 1s straight off the bat, then a bit of a struggle throughout. I imagine times will vary hugely on this one.

    First in CICERO, last in CAVELL. COD 6d OPTIC – nicely done.

  3. Like Sotira, both 1’s straight off the bat. About 30 minutes, nice to be back in the saddle again. Somewhat UK-centric, yes, but solvable without too much stretching. First in, both 1D and 1A, last CAVELL, from remembering ‘caveat emptor’. I don’t yet understand the ‘at the bar’ reference in OPTIC. I originally thought of ‘Wavell’, as your British General, I think, but he fought in the SE Asia region, as I recall, so not shot by Germans. My google search for CAVELL reveals a quite admirable personality, so I include a salute to Ms. Cavell. By the way, COD: FLEET PRISON. Further by the way, Sabine, I’d suggest an EFFECTIVE is a ‘striking operative’, as in ” the force included 5,000 effectives”. At least that’s my take on it. Best to all.
    1. Optics are the drinks dispensers that clip on to the inverted bottles of spirits that you see behind the bar at any licensed premises.
      1. Why thanks Dave. Those do exist over here, but are not common; most alcoholic drinks in the US, at least in the NY area, are poured freehand. I don’t know what they’re commonly called over here either, though I’ve never heard the term ‘optic’. A google search reveals them for sale from US based suppliers with the term “shot dispenser”. Thanks again.
  4. Spent about 15 minutes on this minus … wait for it … 22dn. A complete mental block — I won’t go into what I had in mind — and didn’t get it until a bit of a correspondence with an occasional user of this site over the matter of the wordplay for WOODCUT — a real terror that neither of us understood until coming here. For this relief, sabine, much thanks.
    Just one query: doesn’t “odd behaviour” –> QUIRKISH break the rule about parts of speech?
  5. 22 mins for me (and I’m another one who knew it was woodcut but couldn’t understand the wordplay at all).

    Surely QUIRKISH is “with odd behaviour” and then the part of speech is OK.

  6. Another very patchy solve for me, bunging in answers all over the grid and unable to achieve much flow.

    I finished in 50 minutes with at least 10 consecutive unproductive minutes along the way i.e. I was completely stuck.

    Some of the wordplay (WOODCUT, WITH) was too intricate for me to spot even after solving the clues, and I always find this rather disappointing. Like the setter has gone to a lot of trouble and it was completely lost on me as i just solved it from the definition and checking letters.

    On the other hand there were some feeble things too unless I am missing something e.g. COLLIER at 2dn as Sabine has already pointed out, THE BENDS at 8dn where I spent ages considering “drivers” might somehow become “divers” to make the clue more devious (and interesting) than it was, and the definition “Where one might replace clothes” at 22dn. One might replace anything in a store.

    Kevin, an optic is a gadget fitted into the necks of inverted bottles which dispense the correct measure of spirits for example, hence the “bar” reference at 6dn.

    Collins has “effective” = “striking”.

  7. 8:02 for this – another good start, but two daft slips which probably wasted a minute or more: a hasty notion that 12’s E???C?I?E made EXECUTIVE a good bet (deleted but scruffily), and rushing into HEEDFUL at 27 as it matched a possible def. and ??E?F?L. This (as well as a fairly subtle construction) made 13 difficult until I decided ?R?S?H was impossible for the second word.

    For COLLIER, I think “unable to avoid contact with mine” is a misleading description of the ship rather than a definition for “coal miner”.

  8. Like jackkt, a patchy and unfulfilling solve. I had no idea at 20d, but thought a carell might be a kind of luger. Wavell was indeed shot by the Germans in WWI, so could have been a possibility, along with a goodly number of others. Also perplexed by WOODCUT, although got as far as can=cut, so plan would have to be wood, but then it would have to be plane and what were the two examples? Oh, well.
  9. A study in frustration generally this week.
    Left half complete in about 20 minutes and all but 6 answers at around the hour.
    Breakfast, ablutions etc., then solved NEEDFUL and dredged the COR! from “My” for CORSICA.
    These allowed me to guess the others and although I eventually worked out FLEET PRISON, had no idea about the wordplay for WIT, WOODCUT and EFFECTIVE.
    Don’t care much for WIT or EFFECTIVE but WOODCUT is my COD. I think some while before I will be able to solve clues as classy as that.
    Oh! And 1 mistake with WAVELL which it could be argued,works.
  10. I didn’t have any trouble with poor Edith Cavell, arguably the best known person shot by the Germans in WW1 and surely the best known executed by them. Nice statue of her just above the NE corner of Trafalgar Square. She deserves to be remembered.
    Also nice to see the Fleet Prison again, once renowned as England’s most expensive, in the days when they were profitable institutions.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Prison
    London has a rich supply of old prisons such as the Clink, Newgate, Marshalsea etc.
  11. About 25′ for me today but, like some others, without fully understanding WOODCUT and WIT.
  12. Initially thought it was going to be a welcome easy one after some harder offerings, with both 1s going in immediately and the entire bottom half going in first read (PRISON without the FLEET included), but then spent an age on 2,14,12,5,5, and 7 (oh and the top half of 13).

    Didnt help to have put in STONEFITTER (ie dieting makes you fitter) and I am sure if I had plumped for CUTTER, then TREASURE would have been obvious. As it was, TREASURE made me realise that FITTER was wrong. Surprised that _S___D did not throw up ISLAND, since i spent ages wondering what sort of word could possibly fit in there. Perhaps I should have used trial and error starting with the vowels, may have got there quicker.

    Had WIT lightly entered since the beginning, but not knowing why I was hesitant to commit to it. Also spent way too long assuming 7 was an anagram of MYAIR sitting atop SI, and needed WOODCUT to change that plan.

    All in all it was a decent crossword with the exception of 2D which i still dont quite see, and i put a lot down to my stupidity rather than any bad setting.

  13. I enjoyed this puzzle which at times required real concentration to solve it.

    The intersecting WOODCUT and WIT are particularly good. I don’t personally consider that I’ve finished a puzzle until I’ve both filled the grid correctly and understood the wordplay (so I’m not operating to Cheltenham rules) and these two stretched a 25 minute “Cheltenham solve” out to a nearly 30 minutes personal solve with WOODCUT particularly tricky.

    FLEET PRISON was predominantly a debtors prison which makes 13D a particularly good clue.

    1. I just about resisted nominating FLEET PRISON as my bad clue of the day. Now it becomes my COD.

      I wonder if you noticed the setter’s comment at the end of yesterday’s blog?

      1. Yes, I did. I think it’s excellent when setters join in the blog and wish more of them would do it.
    2. Thanks, Jimbo, for reminding me that the Fleet was a debtors’ prison, which, as you say, makes 13dn an especially good clue, giving a new twist to an old chestnut (stir=prison). Agree with your verdict on the puzzle as a whole – the wordplays for WIT and WOODCUT were particularly good, the latter only fully understood by me on coming here. I had a slight cavil over CAVELL (sorry!)in that for anyone who has heard of the lady – and she is probably the best-known Brit ever shot by the Germans – this was pretty much a straight general knowledge question that rendered the excellent wordplay superfluous. I’m also with those (e.g. Tom B below) who feel vaguely unsatisfied by COLLIER at 2dn. Even after Sabine’s explanation (which was broadly te same as mine at the time of doing the puzzle), and Peter B’s gloss, the wordplay doesn’t seem to me to work properly. Can you throw any more light on it? Otherwise a 30 min (Cheltenham) solve for me, which would probably have stretched to several weeks if I’d waited until I’d understood the WOODCUT wordplay!
      1. I took it to be a weakish cryptic definition using a word play on “mine” as a collier is specifically a ship for carrying coal. I didn’t think collier=miner came into it (and still don’t).
  14. This was a very entertaining puzzle, ending a week of entertaining puzzles. It flatters the solver by seeming to be harder than it really is. Some of the clues, such as the King Priam one, give the impression that a classical knowledge is necessary when really the answer is quite obvious. Well, to be honest, Intro was my last answer.

    I got off to a bad start by confidently entering Pantomime at 25A, reading it as a brilliant &Lit. I had to abandon the idea when I got Not Half, which could not be anything else

  15. 16:30 here. I keot grinding to a halt on this one, then after a minute’s mild panic get started again, only to founder half a dozen clues later. Last to fall was the SW corner, which I eventually cracked when I saw REGISTRAR.
  16. Ten minutes in all. Thanks for the explanation of WOODCUT – I couldn’t figure the wordplay at all, very abstruse. While it’s more satisfying to have understood all the wordplays, I don’t set myself as high standards as jimbo – if the grid’s completed correctly, it’s solved!
  17. Two problematic clues – WOODCUT – as(h) and plan(e) – that seems to be correct – brilliant of the solver.

    But – I don’t think we have a satisfactory explanation of EFFECTIVE yet.

  18. Do I detect a certain degree of what “a friend” calls PCT — Pre-Cheletenham Tension? Good job it’s many thousands of miles from Minjup. I’d be crap anyway!
    1. It’s a bit early yet, with just over 6 weeks to go!

      I’m sure others are like me and have the odd really bad solve in the week or so before – notably when the puzzle the day before the first Cheltenham finals, 6 years after the previous championship, was a real stinker and took the reigning champ an agonising 37 minutes, partly because of an unnoticed wrong answer. It’s here for those with crossword club membership.

  19. About 23 mins, a lot of which was spent trying and failing to understand how 2D COLLIER works. I have to go with Sabine’s interpretation but feel that either her suggested amendment or a ? at the end would help. I spent too long convinced that ‘unable to avoid contact’ implied COLLIDER was involved in the wordplay. I thought 18D DIGITAL worked well and choose it as COD.

    Tom B.

  20. This took me 30 minutes, with a few question marks against clues I got without initially understanding wordplay (2, 5, 12, 15, 25), though all worked out in the end. The clue to WOODCUT was neat, but I’m a little doubtful about having both “here are…” and “..can show”. Either one or the other, but surely not both.
    “here are two examples as plan” works, as does “as plan can show”. Fully punctuated the given clue reads “… here are two examples: ‘as’, ‘plan’ can show”. Something wrong, methinks.
    I don’t think the triple def in 12 is very ‘effective’, mainly because the definitions are fairly close.
    No real complaints, however. Some good surfaces and a nice &lit for FLEET PRISON.
  21. 31:09 – but with one mistake and one unsolved (because of the mistake).

    I stupidly put PASTORALS in at 25a, and subsequently had -A-S-L at 20 which remained unsolved.

    I had no problem remembering where Priam was killed, having only watched the Brad Pitt film two days ago, in which the marvellous Peter O’Toole played the Trojan King.

    Like several others, 1a/1d went straight in, as did the long anagram at 17. I was quite pleased to get the proper name references in REITH, HOLBEIN & FLEET PRISON – I often struggle with these.

    Several went in without full understanding – COLLIER, WOODCUT, WIT, TERSE & SEMAPHORE. COD 13 for the neat &lit.

  22. 7.03. One of these days where a lot of answers went in without working without knowing why. Only hold up was putting in MINORCA for 7 , as M with anagram of aircon. However a simple 10 put me on right track.
    18 was nicely worded.
  23. 20 minutes with half a dozen or so lucky “guesses”. As Sabine so elegantly implies there are too many “is that how it works?” clues here.

    1ac rock – synth-heavy, baggy nu-rave festival favourites Digital Cyclops

  24. Well, that’s me stuffed. Just over an hour. I can do sudokus quicker than that.

    Bamboozled by perfectly fair clues – just a case of not getting onto the wavelength, but I’m glad I persevered as there’s some lovely stuff here. CYCLOPS – very smooth surface; WOODCUT – a novel approach; HOLBEIN – great to see new wording for “in”; STONECUTTER – love “coping”; OPTIC – beauty; CORSICA – ditto; FLEET PRISON – brilliantly constructed; DIGITAL – “what one may do to plot” is marvellous; CAVELL – straightforward but nicely observed; PAN – wonderful.

    I enjoyed this greatly, despite the punishment, which is what sets me apart from Max Mosley.

    Q-0 E-8 D-8 COD 25D PAN – perfection

    PS: Apologies for mentioning sudoku. It won’t happen again.

    1. Hi Wil

      Chambers has first entries “full of need”, “having need” but goes on to list “necessary” & “requisite”. I hadn’t been aware of these takes on it until Stephen King’s novel Needful Things was published.

      1. Also (in US) needful = means of paying. You must have the needful to make a purchase. In that sense, something that cannot be done without.
        1. That’s interesting – it ties in very much with the storyline of King’s novel.

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