Times Crossword 24382

Author   sabine_tkPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 16.59

Not expecting any medals for this time. I was held up in quite a few places by unfamiliar words or phrases and had to rely on wordplay, which was fortunately unambiguous. I didn’t get any of the long multi-word answers at 1, 7 and 26 for a good while, though I correctly pencilled in the “THE” in all three of them, which proved to be more helpful than I probably deserved. Last to go in were the 21/22 pair in the SW corner.

Across
1
 GO FOR THE BURN – not a phrase I’d heard of, and I needed both the B and the R before I was able to work out what I could possibly be going for.
8
 BALD,RIC – BALD=plain, and RIC(e) is cereal short of energy. Before I met this clue I had no idea that a baldric(k) was a warrior’s belt or sash for supporting a sword.
9
 PO-FACED – DECAF OP, all backwards.
11
 VALET,TA – the capital of Malta.
12
 SEA L(EG)S – E.G.=say. A very precise definition, completely useless to me for quite some time because, with an S at the start and the end, I was thinking that “on board” referred to the SS device that’s used in this way.
13
 T,HEIR
14
 G,AR,ROTTED = G=start of Great, (w)AR= War (leaving wife), ROTTED = went off.
18
 EMBRACERY, being an anagram of B (leader of bar) + “my career”. Embracery is the attempted corruption of jurors, making three definitions I had to look up already, and we’re barely halfway through the acrosses.
19
 PI(a)ZZA
21
 ALUM(I)NA – yet another word I didn’t really know, though it was obviously right when I got to it, which I did after staring at A_U_I__ until ALUMNA eventually popped into my head. “Alumina” is one of several names for the abrasive material aluminium oxide.
23
 LOO,K O,UT – There is usually a clue whose wordplay defeats me until I’m all but finished blogging, and this one was this week’s culprit. It’s LOO=ladies (lavatory), K.O = floor (knock out) and UT is “just” with the odd letters missing. I knew about the UT, but kept trying to do the same thing (remove odd letters) to “floor”, which did yield the LO but left the obviously impossible OKO.
24
 T(W)ITTER – hmm, I suspect this isn’t the last time we’re going to see TWITTER clued this way. (Although – in ten years’ time will it be largely forgotten that in 2009 we used to tweet?)
25
 ADO, RING
26
 THE RED PLANET, a nickname for Mars, and therefore not our world. I was stuck at THE RED for much too long.
Down
1
 GAL,I,LEE, GAL(e) being endless wind. A galilee is a porch or chapel at the west end of a church – another one I got entirely from the wordplay.
2
 FO(R)STER, a reference to E. M. Forster.
4
 HOP,E,S, East and South being opponents in the game of bridge.
6
 RI,CHEST (RI = Rhode Island)
7
 ABOVE THE SALT – to be seated above the salt cellar was a sign of high social class, while in another sense if you are above the salt you are over the sea.
10
 DI(SAD(VAN)TAG)E – till I put this together I thought that “fail” was the definition, but the definition is “cost” – DIE=fail, SAD=blue, VAN=vehicle and TAG=label, with “secure” and “covers” indicating two levels of containment.
15
 ROYAL M(AI)L – the road is the A1, inside (morally)*. If the recent strikes had involved picket lines this clue might have been damn near perfect. (Did they? I didn’t notice…)
17
 BRUTISH – “British” with one letter changed, although actually since “one” in a clue can mean I, it’s probably meant as a specific instruction to change the I.
18
 AVI,A,TOR – “no end keen” being AVI(d).
19
 PRONOUN – “I” is a pronoun, and so the definition (adding a comma for clarity) is “I, say”. The wordplay requires CEMENT to be removed from PRONOUNCEMENT (a statement), to make it not binding. Which I thought was rather clever.
20
 Z,IONIST – Z-unknown, IONIST = (is into)*.
22
 AI,RED, with A1, a road in a previous clue, this time in the sense of fine, first-rate. Even after spotting RED I still needed the A from ALUMINA before I could finish this one.

52 comments on “Times Crossword 24382”

  1. Nice clear blog. I wonder a bit about 22D: AIRED=dry? — do the parts of speech match? Does word replacement work: “it’s dry” == “it’s aired”?
  2. Considering I spent some eight hours on the A1 yesterday I took far to long to spot its appearance…

    ilanc, clothes or beds that have been aired are consequently dry.

    sidey

  3. 40 minutes with one cheat at the end (17dn) where my failure to find a word that fitted A?U?I?A began to raise doubts in my mind that 17dn was BRUTISH rather than BRITISH so I decided enough was enough.

    I took 4 minutes to find my first answer but after that progress was steady and I enjoyed this one.

    Never heard of GO FOR THE BURN. According to Brewers this derives from the world of sport, physical training etc which would account for my ignorance of the expression.

    Also new to me were EMBRACERY, ALUMINA and the meaning of GALILEE required here. I was vaguely aware of BALDRIC being some garment or accessory of old that the character in “Blackadder” was named after.

    I forgot to go back to LOOK OUT to see if I could understand the wordplay.

    Nice to see one of my favourite writers at 2dn after some of the obscure ones we have had recently.

  4. 12:47 with one mistake – at 7D I imagined that “over seas” might describe “above the mast”, an imagined but non-existent description of someone in nautical command. (Ironically, ABOVE THE SALT could mean much the same!) 12, 23 and 19 went in without wordplay understanding. Knew baldric precisely, embracery as some kind of crime, but not alumina = an abrasive. “Go for the burn” just about rang a bell – presumably the same as “eyeballs out” in my fitter days.

    Edited at 2009-11-13 11:10 am (UTC)

  5. Another easy one today, though good. Familiar with “go for the burn” though more from the gym than from running; never heard of embracery, fortunately could see no real alternative..
  6. Didnt find it easy at all in parts this time top left (NW) and having put British instead of brutish it took me an age to see that it was brutish and then Alumina slotted into place. took ages to see Galilee and Forster because i too didnt know immendiately that Baldric was a sash for a sword…but I do now…must say also that Go for the burn is a phrase used in running/cross country but neither of those is my strong suit..did lots in 25 minutes but then took another 35 to sort out the problem ones!
    frustrating but satisfying eventually!
  7. A long sruggle with 2 wrong finally. I went for SEA NETS at 12, thinking it was vaguely balance related (obviously couldn’t be bothered reading the rest of the clue) and ABOVE THE MAST at 7, arguing if there was a “before the mast”, there had to be a behind, above and below as well, although some part of my brain was saying “it’s salt, you idiot” as I wrote it in. Ironically GO FOR THE BURN was my first in. As for galilee, embracery & baldric, I didn’t have much of a clue, but got there in the end. COD to DISADVANTAGE, which should not be taken as an endorsement of recursive inclusion in general.
    1. I too fell for SEA NETS at 12, Koro, and toyed with ABOVE THE MAST at 7 before hitting on the right solution. My cryptic parsing of 12 was, I thought, quite ingenious: NET (=balance) inside (indicated by “on”) SEA S, which when spoken (indicated by “say”) sounds like “seize”, which could be a synonym for “board” in the sense of “to board a ship”. Unfortunately that leaves “accepted by” as redundant, so I fear we can’t claim this as an alternative correct solution.
  8. I did like this – not as fast as yesterday’s but after about 5 mins (the top half went in like lightning) only the pairs 21 & 18, 19 & 25 remained. It was only 10 mins later that all the pennies had finally dropped.
  9. Does anyone ever get the cryptic part of a clue such as 19d first, in order to arrive at the answer, or are we merely expected to locate the definition, pick a possible, and then grin at the sheer complexity of the construction?

    I have to say I put it in without knowing the reason, and it was only coming on here that enlightened me.

    1. At the risk of banging on and boring people to death if you do the bar crosswords like Mephisto you have to derive the answer from convoluted wordplay because the answer is a totally obscure word that you then have to verify by using Chambers. So the answer to your question is yes and the process helps to train your mind to break up clues into definition and wordplay.
    2. Mephisto solvers aside, there’s sure to be someone (possibly just back from an Italian holiday) who saw square = PIAZZA and worked out the rest from there.

      As you gain experience, you’ll graduate from “put it in without knowing why” to “solved it from the def and then saw why”, and then “saw it from the wordplay and then confirmed the def”. The last will never apply to all the clues, but the percentage will increase. The second should eventually apply to all but a couple of clues (barring corner-cutting by speed merchants).

      1. What he said. Peter’s on the money with how my solving is evolving. There might be yet another dimension, let’s call it “just knew” and banged it in. I believe it’s a subconscious thing from which I derive a great deal of pleasure.
        I knew BALDRIC from boyhood fascination with knights and chivalry ‘n stuff.
        Having had GREAVE as a homonym in a clue the other day are we now to be vigilant about hauberk. besagew or even bascinet?
  10. Much the same experience as most others. 30 minutes to solve. A number of unknown phrases and obscure meanings but all derivable. I knew about the salt so wasn’t tempted by “mast” but not about the “burn” but B?R? as a synonym for “stream” was easy.

    We have a definition by example at son=heir. As predicted the original occasional use of the device is turning into burn. I liked ROYAL MAIL – excellent clue.

    1. {son => HEIR} is definition by example, but this is hinted at by the question mark, so I believe this clue would have been accepted by previous xwd eds Brian Greer or Mike Laws, as well as Richard Browne with his revised rules about this.
      1. Sadly I think you’re right. I notice they’ve started to appear in Mephisto lately where I object to them even more than in the daily.
  11. Yet another formidable blog from Sabine. His/her blogs are always like reliving nightmares with every grisly detail.
    Finished with guesses for AVIATOR, BALDRIC, FORSTER and LOOK OUT. On the latter which once the checkers are in could not be anything else I wonder why the wordplay is so complex. Seems like a waste of effort.
    2 wrong alas, SEA NETS for SEA LEGS (smack on wrist for this) and ABOVE THE MAST (my vague recollection on subsequent research turns out to be Two Years BEFORE the Mast, a novel by Richard Henry Dana Jr. which I think was on my bookshelf as a boy).
  12. I meant to say that there were many marvellous clues here, so my thanks to setter. In particular I liked VALETTA, PIZZA, TWITTER and PRONOUN (at least once I figured that I needed CEMENT for binding, not just CE), my favourites probably reflecting my frivolous nature.
  13. Enjoyed this puzzle, 27 mins, good variety. COD ADORING. Less familiar entries given easier wordplay which was good as others have noted.
  14. Add me to the above the mast club. Quite disappointing when I managed to untangle the wordplay for other unknown words such as galilee and embracery.

    This brings an end to a run of 10 all-correct solutions for me. I only mention this because I wish to promote the Silver Solver index as an alternative performance measure for solvers of more mature years who cannot compete with the younger speed merchants. So, that’s an SS10 for me today

    1. Solvers of all ages should be aiming for accuracy before worrying about speed. In the competitive situations where speed actually matters, accuracy counts too!
      1. In my earlier days as a broadcast journalist in Toronto I had the good fortune of having two former newspapermen as news directors. They insisted on clean copy
        before you headed into the broadcast booth. We wondered why when nobody else was going to see it. Then of course the penny dropped… you were less likely to boot it on the air.
        I’m not a speed merchant, although I’ve experienced the satisfaction of finishing
        some daily and weekend puzzles in under 20 minutes. I’ve always used black ink
        with a fountain or felt-tip pen which shows up nicely now that I’m printing the grids on letter-size paper and can doodle or draw in the blank spaces alongside the musings over clues like anagrinds. Not great art, but good fun and so as not to appear pretentious, liquid paper is always close at hand.
        Incidentally, some years ago I found a jigsaw puzzle of a Times cryptic, assembled it and solved it then used Letraset on acetate as an overlay and framed it. Beyond that I’ve fallen short of having a grid carved into my tombstone.

  15. needed a little help to finish sw corner, but found this a very satisfying puzzle with the harder words clued sensibly. lots of great clues but cod 26ac by a whisker.
  16. At least I’m in good company then! I also had ABOVE THE MAST, “remembering” the phrase from somewhere. Time 18:49, but about 5 minutes trying to sort out that SW corner. ALUMINA, AIRED, AVIATOR and TWITTER were the last four to go in before I finally wrote in MAST.
  17. Several unfamiliar answers here. I’ve never heard of 1 across, which doesn’t appear in COD or Chambers, so presumably it’s in Collins. ‘Embracery’ and Galilee were also unfamiliar and were very tentative entries, and in the case of 7dn, I didn’t enter the last word until I consulted a dictionary.
    Rather a long solve, probably an hour, with some dictionary assistance.
    Some very good clues. Not sure which is the best, but 19dn has some clever wordplay and 26 was neat.
    1. I don’t have a current Collins, but the Oxford Dictionary of English has 1A under “burn”. For phrases (especially those made up of familiar words), I’m not troubled by the occasional foray outside the usual dictionaries.
      1. My Collins has GO FOR THE BURN under BURN reference 26. Not sure I expect all phrases or sayings in puzzles to be quoted verbatim in the dictionaries.
        1. I’m not necessarily surprised that GOING FOR THE BURN was not familiar to some, but I am surprised that no one has mentioned the context with which I thought this phrase was most closely associated. I did a small survey and, on hearing the phrase, five out of six associated it with Jane Fonda. Philip S.
  18. As a newbie I was pleased with 5 blanks within the hour. sea legs, aired, alumina, baldric and above the salt. I reckon given another hour I still would be scratching my head!
  19. I’m now going to conclude that ABOVE THE MAST must be accepted as correct, if Peter, Andy and I all put it in! Bugger.
  20. 24 minutes, good to see RI come up after yesterday’s near RIGA/RI mix-up. Slowed up a bit by hyphenating the light for 8 instead of 9 and trying to find something to fit b?-????c

    COD to look-out but lots of clever clues. Same knowledge gaps as others.

  21. The definition of the Silver Solver Index that I have been using includes only the six daily puzzles each week. Including the Saturday puzzle does make the index provisional but, in my experience, you can always check a guessed or dubious answer after finishing so you can be at least 99% certain of a correct solution.
  23. I hoped someone might explain. I got this from the word play, but what in the clue is “aviator” the answer to?
    1. The whole clue! This is an &lit/all-in-one – the whole clue is simultaneously both the wordplay and a rather elaborate definition. Arguably, an aviator could go round a peak instead of over it, but I don’t think that matters.
    2. The whole clue defines AVIATOR and the cryptic is AVI(d)-TOR where “avid”=keen and a “tor” is a peak. Note the “?” at the end to crave your indulgence.
  24. Surely another one is in 23ac, or am I wrong in my assumption that a loo can perfectly well be a gents?
    1. Not as clear cut I think wil. I guess if there is a generic term it’s “toilet” which covers a whole range of mainly slang words (can, head, john, they go on and on). So loo=ladies or gents is probably OK but then so is loo=toilet really so I think we just have a whole bunch of synonyms here.
  26. About 30 minutes here, but that’s an estimate due to interruptions. I confess to consulting the computer to complete what you’re above in 7D. Never heard the phrase. Incidentally, in the Dana book, being ‘before the mast’ was far from being in anything like an exalted position. My recollection is that the protagonist didn’t enjoy his 3 years at all. COD: PRONOUN, but also thought LOOK OUT and ROYAL MAIL were close. Very clever puzzle, with the many obscure words well indicated by the wordplay. Regards.

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