Times Crossword 24465

Author   sabine_tkPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 8.10

This seemed like a fairly easy workout, with a handful of long anagrams opening the grid up nicely. My stupidity of the day was a failure to read a multi-word clue word length properly, leading to a temporary blockage in the lower part of the grid. Last to go in was 17D – I’m still a bit suspicious of the _L_ combination after the awkward FLY-POSTING in my last blog, and needed to reassure myself there couldn’t, possibly, be such a thing as Fly Latin.

Across
1
   PULSE – a double meaning, pulses being beans, peas, lentils etc, and a flageolet a small pale green bean, as well as a small high-pitched flute.
4
   HABITABLE, made up from H=husband, and A BIT ABLE=rather talented, though I’m not sure being a bit able would be sufficient to inspire me with great confidence.
9
   S(EVER)ALLY
11
   MATT(HE,W ARN)OLD – MATT=dull, OLD=ancient, and the midsection is HE (the man) plus WARN (alert).
14
   SEA,M, “the drink” here being a term for the sea.
15
   ITALIANATE, (A la Titian)* + E – a nice helpful anagram that was the first clue I solved….
18
   EXHILARATE – … and this was the second, also an anagram, here of (heat I relax).
19
   SKUA – a reversal of AUKS.
21
   ROLLER COASTER – a roller being a long sea-wave. I stitched myself up on this not very difficult clue by misreading the word length as (8,7) – I’m wearing some rather old glasses rather than my usual contact lenses, and 6’s and 8’s look awfully similar – and focusing entirely on the first word, which read R_L_E_C_, a collection that not surprisingly had me quite baffled.
24
   PI,PIT – PIT here in the sense of the area by a race track where cars pull in.
27
   DETONATOR, hidden in privilegeD ETON A TORy
28
   S,EDGE
 
Down
1
   PAST MASTER
2
   LEV(ies) – the lev is the unit of currency of Bulgaria, made up of 100 stotinki.
3
   EARTHY, the thing in front of the (h)’ome fire being of course the (h)’earth.
4
   HOLD WATER, the reference being to the Henry of the song “There’s a Hole in my Bucket“.
5
   BUYER, which can be either a customer or a person who buys goods for a shop.
6
   TE,MP,ORAL – TE=”the”, heartless, MP=politician, ORAL=said.
7
   BREADBASKET, both this and “corporation” being terms for the stomach, which I did not know. I’m sure I’d have tried “breadwinner” if I hadn’t already had the “A” of 15A to stop me.
8
   (s)EVEN
12
   TEACHER’S PET, an anagram of (hate + respect).
13
   R(EPATRI)ATE
16
   LA(TEC, O)ME,R – I got this from the definition and pieced it together later. It’s TEC (dick, a term for a detective) and O=round, inside LAME (limping) and followed by R=right.
17
   OLD LATIN – (also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin) – the Latin language prior to 75 BC, after which it became Classical Latin. I didn’t know this term, nor could I have dated Scipio, but Wikipedia tells me he was born in 236 BC. I was slightly hesitant about writing this in – though what else could it possibly have been, with those crossing letters – and was slightly puzzled by the wordplay – certainly O=nothing and L=left, but is OL an abbreviation for “Old Latin”? Not that I can find. Is it just “abbreviate” in the sense of “shorten”, then?
20
   MADRAS, a kind of medium-hot curry, Given my relative knowledge of curries and Islamic colleges I was confidently expecting to solve this from the definition, as turned out to be the case, though I have actually just about heard of a MADRASA, the Muslim college or mosque school that is the word to be shortened.
22
   EM,ME,T – ME=this person, going first up then down, and T=ending of “hut”. An emmet is an ant.
26
   NOD, the place to the East of Eden where Cain fled after murdering Abel – a reversal of DON (fellow).

28 comments on “Times Crossword 24465”

  1. Much harder for me: 34 minutes; despite the help from the anagrams and the straight charades at 4ac and 6dn.

    > is OL an abbreviation for “Old Latin”?
    Seems so, according to the Acronym Finder.

  2. Solved a lot of this from the definitions alone in 29 minutes. Anything under half an hour is quick for me, so I guess this can safely be classed as easy. I enjoyed the weak joke leading to HABITABLE at 4ac; most of my excursions into DIY have had the opposite effect.

    I’m still reeling, by the way, from Peter B’s time yesterday (five and a half minutes – it was posted late so some of you may have missed it). Amazing, certainly the most extraordinary time I’ve seen in the six months or so I’ve been following this blog, so congratulations Peter.

  3. No time to post because I was watching the Olympics, but I solved it top to bottom, right to left (unusual for me), except for having to return to PAST MASTER, which wasn’t cryptic enough for my taste, I think. So it felt more on the easier side, but I can’t say I measured it in any way. Not much to say, except that the def. for 13D is imaginative and clever. Regards.
  4. 56 minutes for me, and still kicking myself for being unable to get REPATRIATE, the search for which took up the last five minutes. Pretty ordinary puzzle, 14ac being my COD.
  5. 43 minutes. Finally plumped for OLD LATIN after a 14 minute struggle having read the clue nigh on 20 times. Be grateful if someone can provide an explanation. An otherwise well-crafted puzzle-tough but not too tough.Just how I like them. Loved BREAD BASKET and TEACHER’S PET clues. COD to superb HOLD WATER. Didn’t like wicked as an anagram indicator for pirate in REPATRIATE. Messed about, all over the place, great, but wicked?
    1. The Roman general Scipio would have spoken what is now termed Old Latin. The abbreviation – OL – is nothing and left in crossword-speak.

      Why Scipio was chosen as an example of an old Roman I’ve no idea. Looking through his Wiki entry though, I noticed that he seems to have written his memoirs in Greek.

  6. Got off to a slow start with first in being 26dn but soon recovered and finished in 20 minutes which is fast for me. After the initial glitch it all flowed rather nicely. Several went in without fully understanding the wordplay but the only one I didn’t manage to work out later without reference to the dictionary was MADRAS(a or ah).
  7. About 20 mins, last in by far was OLD LATIN. I suppose Scipio was chosen as a figure from the Roman Republic rather than the later Empire, but I didn’t recognise the abbreviation OL. I flung in TEAM at 14A (TEA + M), ‘team effort=joint effort’, which made 1D quite tricky. 23D SPUD is my COD.

    Tom B.

    1. Sheesh
      For two days running, I got all the clues within 20 minutes and I said to myself that if that were so, then Peter B must do them in less than 6 minutes or thereabout. AND he did that two days running. (according to Newton’s fourth Law of Motion which states that Uncle Yap will require more than three times the amount of time to solve a Times crossword puzzle than Peter B.)

      Peter B, I will never be a threat to you if ever I were to join the Times Crossword Competition. BTW, I did better today than yesterday

  9. In a rush today so came here for explanations for PIPIT, EMMET, MADRAS, LATECOMER and my last in OLD LATIN, but finished in 40 minutes so if there is any doubt this must really have been easy.
    Add my congrats to PB for yesterday’s 5:32 which given the difficulty must be equivalent to Mr Dean’s 3:45.
  10. I enjoyed this puzzle which me took 25 minutes of steady work. Didn’t understand the wordplay for OLD LATIN and LATECOMER so thanks sabine for explaining those. SPUD made me smile as did PAST MASTER, PULSE, HOLD WATER and SKUA. Solved MADRAS from the wordplay. Had Viet(NAM) initially for 26 which stopped me getting SEDGE until I’d corrected it. Even then I thought NOD was a reference to the Land of Nod/sleep! Biblical references are not my strong point. First in LEV, last in MADRAS.
  11. I also enjoyed this. There were some friendly anagrams to get me started and lots of crossword favourites: Lev, Skua, Emmet, Pipit. I liked the clue for habitable and also for Madras, simple but elegant. One of my last answers was the hidden word in four parts, which almost seems to be de rigueur these days.
  12. After going into a near terminal dither over 7 dn, I took a punt with OLD LATIN, and stopped the clock at (for me) a sensational 14 min. I have to admit that many went in without analysis, but with a hubristic self confidence. No standout clues, but COD to 22 for a tidy attempt. Nearly foundered on 14 ac by confidently entering TEA + M, equating a joint effort to a team effort.
  13. Nice enough but pretty straightforward.

    Following yesterday’s comments about Dowding and Bentley’s given names, 17dn reminds me that “Sam” Mussabini, Harold Abraham’s coach made famous in Chariots of Fire, was so called from his initials. His given names were Scipio Africanus – he must have gone through hell at school!

  14. 7:32 – nearly with an error, as I also put in TEAM instead of SEAM, but then overtyped it when I put in PAST MASTER. Saved, for once, rather than punished, by doing the puzzle online, where I obviously can’t pencil an answer in tentatively (and usually find that means I’ve failed to revisit something I wasn’t sure about).

    I thought that Scipio must have something to do with Africa but was over-elaborating, and as he was a military man rather than an orator, the significance of “speech” gave it away soon enough.

  15. Not a puzzle to give rise to a great deal of discussion. Very straightforward 15 minutes top left to bottom right. First in PULSE last in NOD.
  18. i found this puzzle the easiest for a long time, between 15-20 minutes, which is easily my fastest time and quite a relief after the last two days!
  19. As dorsetjimbo says, there’s not a lot to say about this puzzle, the easiest of the week, taking me 20 minutes. I wasn’t familiar with the first definition for BREADBASKET but the answer came easily enough. MADRAS was my last solve.
  20. 15 minutes for me – with one error, again! SKWA instead of SKUA.
    I was doubtful of breadbasket; not having come across it before as one word and also not being aware of it’s meaning as “stomach”. I wonder if the setter was hoping to misdirect us with Corporation, towards Broadcaster, as in the BBC? Broadcaster fits until the last two crossing words are in.
  21. 9:11 so they don’t come much more straightforward than this. I, too associated the land of nod with sleep. Madras from def, emmet from wordplay.
  22. This must have been one of the easiest for a while, since it is almost certainly my personal best ever. Unfortunately it wasnt timed precisely but at three and a half tube stops I suspect it was around the seven minute mark. Given that any previous sub 10s have been by a scrape this is a momentous achievement. For me the reason can only have been the absence of any real stinkers. Often you get all but a couple in quick time and then spend ten minutes gazing at the spoilsports at the end, but none of these seem to fit the bill. Last in was OLD LATIN, but even that dawned quick-ish.
  23. Andrew K

    A completion, but with much delving in ‘Bradford’. For me, harder than February 9th’s puzzle, which didn’t require any aids. However, I only really got concentrating on it this evening.

    I liked 25: I haven’t seen ‘here and there’ used as an anagram indicator before.

    A day off now before another AZED.

  24. There are not many omissions from blogs any more but 3 left out here:

    10a What makes this writer see that’s unbelievable! (2,3)
    MY EYE. An expression that doesn’t get much use these days?

    25a Man roamed here and there, making notes (9)
    MEMORANDA Anagram of (man roamed). Anagram indicator = (here and there)?

    23d Vegetable soup’s first course (4)
    S PUD

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