Times Crossword 24549

Author   sabine_tkPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 12.00

I found this a middling sort of puzzle both in difficulty and entertainment level. One wrongly entered answer (see 4Ac – I really should have known better) caused a bit of a hiccup, but in general the answers went in at a steady rate and all over the grid, the last I solved being 14D.

 

Across
1
   CO(MB)AT – needed the C and M in place before I made any progress with this, as I thought “take cover” would be the definition.
4
   P,R(E)AMBLE. I was very nearly undone by this, writing in TROLLOPE. “First thoughts” would be the T, roll could just about be wander, like a rolling stone, and apart from that annoying “without” the rest of the clue spelt out OPE. And the R and E were both there in the right places… Luckily I was aware enough of the gaping holes in my reasoning to pencil it in very faintly, and also luckily, 6 and 7 down came to look so wildly unlikely that I realised pretty soon that I must be wrong.
11
   PI,MP,LED
12
   FELT, the first letters of “further education little Tommy”.
13
   FIRING LINE, as defined by Chambers as “a position of exposure to fierce criticism”.
15
   BOYFRIEND, an anagram of “finer body”.
16
   D(EG)AS – “Turner’s blue” is an instruction to reverse SAD, and the rest of the wordplay places EG (e.g., “for instance”) inside.
18
   AORT,A – this was obvious from the definition, though the wordplay baffled me for a while – how to remove an IRP from an airport? It’s actually “A or T”, A and T being the letters at either end of “airport”, followed by A=area.
19
   DI(S,COVER)Y – S=succeeded, COVER=cladding, all inside DIY.
21
   HEA(R)T,BREAK
23
   ED,IT
26
   UNI(COR)N – this one I pencilled in correctly and then erased for a while because I couldn’t see how it worked – I thought I needed to remove an O from something meaning “goodness”, whereas the O must be removed from UNION (marriage) and replaced by COR (goodness, as in “oh my goodness!”).
27
   THRO,W-IN – THRO here is an abbreviation for “through”, defined by “by means of”.
28
   EBENEZER – this is a reference to Ebenezer Scrooge, the partner of Jacob Marley in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. “Close” in the clue is meant in the sense of miserliness, Scrooge awaking on Christmas Day transformed into the very model of Christmassy generosity and goodwill to all men. Etc.
29
   WE,I,R,DO – DO=party, WE=both of us, I=one and R=right.
 
Down
1
   C(H)AFF – the small restaurant being a CAFF, as I realised after toying with “chafe” for a while.
3
   APS,E – APS is SPA reversed and therefore “well over”.
5
   REP,LIED – REP is always one of the first things to try for “traveller”, and a LIED is a German song.
6
   A,RM,AGED,DON – RM=jolly (slang for a Royal Marine, another thing well worth remembering if you didn’t know it), AGED=old and DON=chap. To reduce Armageddon to something so natural sounding as “a jolly old chap” was pretty clever, I thought.
7
   BALTI(more)
8
   ENDLES,SLY – ENDLES because Both “nobles” and “proles” end with LES, followed by SLY (cunning).
9
   BYLINE – BY is “busy” with the US removed (U/S or u/s is an abbreviation for “unserviceable”), and the definition is “credit for one reporting”.
14
   BREASTBONE, sounding like “Brest”, a French city, and “Beaune”, a French wine. I didn’t immediately grasp that two soundalikes were involved, and was therefore looking for a wine that went _O_E. I admit I came perilously close to writing in BREASTROSE – maybe the chest piece of a suit of armour? Then I told myself not to be ridiculous, started going through the alphabet placing letters after BREAST and hit gold right away.
15
   B,OATH,OUSE
17
   GLEN,DOWER = GLEN=valley, and the rest is (E word)*. Owen Glendower was the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales.
19
   DERANGE, meaning here to put out of place or order, and hidden in olDER ANGEls.
20
   S(CAT)TY
22
   (m)ALICE
24
   TANGO – after your holiday you sadly watch as your golden tan fades away.
25
   (s)URGE

37 comments on “Times Crossword 24549”

  1. 20 minutes, with some pretty sly devices (AORTA, ENDLESSLY, TANGO, UNICORN) slowing things up with reverse construction on the way. Credit to Sabine for unwrapping everything, especially DEGAS, the slyest of the lot, which I put in without understanding. I initially guessed PROLOGUE for 4a, with rogue standing for wander and the LO (or OL) needing some sort of translation for energy. The way I figured it, a setter who could clue “much less close” for “less miserly” was capable of anything, and since I worked anticlockwise from NW, I was prepared for the most devious subtlety by then. I think I enjoyed this in a Through the Looking Glass sort of way. CoD to TANGO. Sorry.
  2. Just less than 20 minutes for me, so I didn’t encounter any real problems. Last entry: EDIT, which I thought clever with the misdirecting part of speech. I also liked ENDLESSLY. Nice blog, Sabine. Regards to all.
  3. Thanks to sabine for a fine blog – I now now why I got 16, 23 and 26 right! But, I managed to get two wrong in my 47 minutes, writing ‘pompled’ for PIMPLED (don’t ask) and the impossible ‘beachouse’ for BOATHOUSE. I console myself that I get more careless as I get better at these things …

    BTW, you mean 4Ac (rather than 6) in your preamble.

    1. Thanks for pointing this out – I’ve amended the preamble so it correctly points to “preamble”…
  4. Figured this out then went online to verify.
    Spent a while thinking about biblical references
    then Dickens dawned on me for EBENEZER.
    BALTI unknown to me but I got a recipe and
    plan on whipping some u soon
    This week’s efforts all under 30 minutes and very enjoyable.
  5. Much the same story as yesterday for me. Today I had all but four completed in 29 minutes (4ac, 7dn, 14dn & 28ac). In the next 10 minutes I solved three of these and was left with one (28ac) that I knew I would not get so I gave up and cheated. After yesterday I’m not prepared to get through most of a puzzle in reasonable time (for me) and then spend as long again thinking about a single clue that is obviously yet another cryptic reference with no alternative way into it.

    I also considered Trollope at 4ac but couldn’t justify it so it stayed out. As for the rest of it I found it fairly straightforward apart from not seeing the explanation of DEGAS and forgetting to go back to it before coming here.

  6. I liked this one, after 15 minutes I only had five or six gaps left but it took me another fifteen to mop them all up. Armageddon last in, delayed by not knowing RM = jolly and by doubts about why chap = Don.. of course it is just a chap’s name, not necessarily connected with uni.

    Will those who complained about Sisyphus also complain about Scrooge, I wonder?

  7. Unlike Vinyl I was only able to see the wordplay for ARMAGEDDON after convincing myself of the correct spelling. Last in was EBENEZER once I rid myself of thoughts Old Testament. Nice puzzle with some originality (might be because I am still relatively new to cryptics) AORTA and ENDLESSY in particular. Was thrown a bit by the “Foreign” in 24. Didn’t understand the bone bit in BREASTBONE.
    Another splendid “warts and all” blog from Sabine. We always seem to meet the same cul de sacs albeit in different gears. The thing I have in common with our other Friday blogger is that the XWD Club has just removed 2 lots of £24.99 from my bank account.
    1. I’m in the same camp, Barry, fighting an annual battle to recover one of my two subscription payments. In truth, it’s the only online subscription I’m happy to pay, but I’d rather do it just the once.

      Talking of paid content, has anyone else signed up for the preview of the ‘future of online news’/’revolution in online media’ etc etc that is the new Times website? Apart from making it look a bit more like the printed paper, I’m struggling to see what the difference is.

      1. I deliberately haven’t signed up. My belief is that the sub I pay to belong to the crossword club should also entitle me to read the rest of the paper and I’m not forking out even more when there are so many alternative news sources.
        1. I’m not intending to keep it up once they start charging, as I rarely do more than glance at the Opinion area, but I was interested to see if they were offering anything that could actually tempt me. So far, nothing has. I’m sure their online readership is going to plummet when they put the paywall up. I don’t know what the answer is to the financial troubles of newspapers, but turning yourself into an internet backwater can’t be it.
          1. They told me “As a Crossword Club member you’ll have access until 31st January 2011.” – does this not mean free access?
            1. I’m not sure, Sabine. I’ve signed up for the ‘free preview’, which is definitely free at the moment. That’s the first time I’ve heard a definite date for the end of the free lunch. I’ll be watching my credit card statements around that time in case I’ve inadvertantly signed up to ‘presumed subscription’.
  8. I’m also in the Trollope club, entered foolishly on the basis of T-ROLL without working out the rest of it. Luckily US City without more had to be BALTI and that corrected the error. The rest was straightforward except for EBENEZER, which I don’t like as a clue.

    As with Sisyphus yesterday the clue relies upon somewhat arcane knowledge without offering an alternative means of solving. In some ways both are a throwback to the 1960s when typical solvers were steeped in this sort of nonsense. As a result of doing these puzzles for years I have this knowledge but I think such clues unfair.

    1. Come off it Jim, everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol and the names of the protagonists. If it was about some of the lesser characters from The Old Curiosity Shop or Bleak House you might have a point. Mind you, I agree with the point about Sisyphus yesterday (even though I knew it), but this isn’t in the same bracket at all.

      Anyway, 11:07 for me, nice easy puzzle. Glad I didn’t look at 4A until after I’d put in BALTI, as I can see myself falling into the TROLLOPE trap otherwise, and did think I was looking for a writer at first. COD to ENDLESSLY, I like those sort of tricks.

      1. Actually it was the opposite for me. I’ve never read “A Christmas Carol” (or stayed awake through the film) so although generally aware of the story I didn’t know about Jacob Marley and had to get it from wordplay (which was very cunning).
        Sisyphus on the other hand has been familar since schooldays from Camus’ “Le Mythe de Sisyphe”.
        One person’s general knowledge is another’s obscurity.

          1. Yes sorry, I’m being thick, it’s not wordplay at all is it?
            I got the answer purely from “who grew much less close overnight” and crossing letters.
            Whatever it is it’s cunning!
      2. Take your point Andy – I agree that Dickens is nothing like as obscure as the rolling stone, although quite a number of contributors appear to have experienced problems with the clue (probably the unusual use of “close” as much as anything). It was mainly the style of clue I was trying to highlight, which I don’t think lends itself to this type of knowledge. I would object just as much to say “Pierre’s partner when he was searching for Ra (5)”
    2. You can add me to the list of short-lived subscribers to the Trollope Club (following much the same reasoning as that attempted by Sabine). That apart, a reasonably straightforward solve for a Friday puzzle. I thought ARMAGEDDON, ENDLESSLY and FIRING LINE were ingenious and witty and all worthy COD candidates.

      I take your point, Jimbo, about SISYPHEAN ystdy and tdy’s EBENEZER and the lack of an alternative wordplay route to the solution. Such clues are, I agree, a throw-back to an earlier Times crossword era, but I personally don’t mind their (occasional) reappearance. In defence of SISYPHEAN, I would say that the quirky definition was so good that(for me at least)it trumped the “arcane knowledge” objection, and, in fairness, the tale of Sisyphus must surely be one of the best known of all Greek myths and one which the vast majority of Times readers/crossword solvers might reasonably be expected to know. The Christmas Carol and EBENEZER Scrooge are equally, if noteven better, known to most people, and arriving at that destination via the Jacob>Marley>Scrooge’s partner in The Christmas Carol>EBENEZER who is “close” (miserly)route was quite straightforward once you’d made the initial Jacob/Marley link, which was admittedly the tricky and perhaps mildly (but only mildly) unfair bit. The first thing that popped into my head on reading the clue was the text chosen by Alan Bennett for his famous spoof sermon in Beyond the Fringe: “My brother Esau was an hairy man, but I am a smooth man”. I wasted an inordinate amount of time trying work ESAU into the solution.

  9. I must have been on the setter’s wavelength today: at last a quick solve NOT held up by a small number of hold-outs. I finished this in 15 minutes, which has put a spring in my step. Back down to earth tomorrow no doubt but I’ll enjoy it while I can.
    On what we might call the Ebenezer-Sisyphus Question, I would only say that there are many things that I only know at all because they appear in the Times crossword. “Pi” for sanctimonious is an example, and yesterday you had to know either that duck is a fabric or that two ducks is a pair to have a chance of finishing. What constitutes general knowledge will always be a matter of debate, but as long as Peter and other contributors here are consistently finishing the puzzle more quickly than I can write the answers in I figure I have to accept that the fault lies not in the setter but in myself.
  10. After the Cor! At 26 I looked at the checked letters in 28 and thought EEEE by gum! I made my life difficult by immediately thinking of Ebenezer Scrooge and deciding he did not fit. I rejected the bible on the grounds that people had wives in those days rather than partners and returned, much later to reconsider Ebenezer.

    I found this an enjoyable solve and thought the setter hit a purple patch in the run of clues going Armageddon, balti, endlessly, byline and breastbone.

  11. 9:10 for this one. 4A was last in but didn’t consider TROLLOPE – “first thoughts” for T would simply never happen in the Times puzzle.
  12. It would have been a sub-30 minute if not for EBENEZER, which remains a blank. I wasted much time trying to sort some kind of wordplay out before realizing it must be a straight cryptic that I was never going to get. Must write another note to self; if it doesn’t make any sense it’s probably a Dickens character. On the other hand ARMAGEDDON was a cracker. Enjoyed it in spite of myself.
  13. Sheer relief at being able to finish without resorting to aids for the first time this week. So the 23 min was neither here nor there. Nothing leapt out except for the beautifully observed ARMAGEDDON.
  14. 15:22 .. Somehow managed to avoid the Trollope trap, despite being about a hundred pages into Barchester Towers (lured into it by our own Tony Sever on the TLS blog).

    Last in: COMBAT (the gloomy teenager that I never quite left behind is tempted to resurrect One Across Rock with a memory of The Clash).

    An interesting week of puzzles. Thank you, all the setters concerned.

  15. About 30 mins. I got ebenezer by the simple expedient that nothing else would fit, and I assumed it was something to do with Jacob in the old testament without thinking about it too much. ebenezer does appear in the old testament but in Samuel not Genesis. Of course I thought of the Christmas Carol connection too but didn’t make the close=miserly connection.

    I wasn’t quite sure about chaff as straw, I think of it as the outer layers of the grain after it’s been threshed, but it’s in Chambers (can even be hay, apparently).

  16. Came badly unstuck in the NE corner – two wrong ones with TROLLOPE for 4, and a bit of a guess at MOTTLED for 11, meant a fail.
  17. LH half bar 29 in easily, then tackled RH – nothing “came” till Glendower gave Degas (saw that wordplay for once) and and the SE corner. The 4 e’s produced Ebenezer in my head, re-read the clue and rejoiced to realise which Jacob it was. Last in 4, 6, 7, 8 (groan) and oddly 20 which was not really one of the harder ones in retrospect. 22 m.
  18. 18 mins, NE corner the slowest for me as well. ARMAGEDDON and PREAMBLE last in. EBENEZER was a part-guess, in that I didn’t know of Jacob Marley. I would also give COD to 8D ENDLESSLY. I thought ‘may bring’ was a bit loose for the juxtaposition of IR with WE in 29A.

    Tom B.

  19. 8:53 for this, with EBENEZER put in last, and without full understanding, though the light dawned thirty seconds later. COD to the deeply impressive ARMAGEDDON, closely followed by ENDLESSLY. Thanks for an excellent blog
  20. 40mins without resorting to aids. last in 25d and was held up by having written in chafe at 1d. thought it had to be ebenezer though i did not remember the marley connection. cod has to be 14d for an excellent double homophone.
  21. 23 minutes with 14 and 28 left and then another 7 for those. ‘Beaune’ had me foxed. Personally I think it’ll be a sad day if we can’t assume knowledge of a few top Greek myths. I don’t complain that I didn’t know the wine. Marley’s first name seems a tough call – ‘Jacob’ held me up most. Liked 24.
  22. Pretty straightforward although I didn’t time it. Goodness knows why Bachelors of Arts, Science etc are BA,BSC etc but a Batchelor of Medicine is an MB. BONE for BEAUNE is a perfectly reasonable homophone if, like me, you pronounce French with a Dagenham accent.
  23. Another enjoyable puzzle, even though I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t get 7dn, BALTI is new to me and was stuck on offer=bid. Temporarily stumped by 1dn/12ac. Was sure small restaurant=cafe, but then FELT set me right. I put in EBENEZER without understanding the wordplay, but A Christmas Carol is a favorite of mine. Seen most of the film adaptations, Reginald Owen as Scrooge is my fave, with Alistair Sim a close second, most of the others are horrible IMHO. I liked the wordplay in 24dn, and 8dn is my COD. Thanks to Sabine for a great blog!

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