Times Crossword 25,942 – 2014 Championships, First Preliminary, Puzzle 2

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: About 20 mins. I did the Prelim. 1 puzzles on the day (as a guest, not a competitor) and managed to complete all three just about within the hour, give or take. All the puzzles seemed easier than last year, including this one. Nevertheless it feels like a top class effort to me, with some very elegant clues – look at 12 and 13ac for example. And all done without using any obscure words…

I’m not sure why, but for some reason I always keep an eye out for puzzles with no proper nouns in the answers. I have never seen one, ever, but this one comes very close as it has only one, at 24ac.

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online


Across
1 chamber – (cas)H in CAMBER (lean)
5 abject – AB (able Bodied seaman, so not an Ordinary or Leading one) + C(aught) in JET (plane)
8 rookeries – ERIE (lake) in ROOKS, or castles as those who know nothing about chess sometimes call them
9 sheaf – EH (what?) in FAS, (notes), all rev. FA being, of course, a long, long way to run. From my distant childhood I can still remember sheaves being gathered into stooks, and then built into ricks, but the ubiquitous baler was more common even then.
11 eight – (H)EIGHT, a summit. and eight, what the boat race boats contain, plus a cox
12 variation – VACATION, (holiday) with the C (hundred) replaced by R(hode) I(sland), the def. being simply departure. A very slick clue
13 satirise – IRIS( flowering plant) in SATE (gorge). A thing of beauty, this clue
15 rostra – ARTS (skills) + OR (men, ie “other ranks”), both rev.
17 in time – a dimple dd, and I pause only to remark that some bands do it better than others..
19 aesthete – *(THESE) in ATE (worried)
22 press stud – another dd, one a bit fanciful, hence the ?
23 facet – CE (church, of England) in FAT (substantial)
24 Rhine – R(iver) + H(OCK) + (W)INE(S). The “river” is not doing double duty, it is an &lit, ie the def. is the entire clue. Hock incidentally is not a term a German would recognise. Earlier, in Pepys’ time, they were called Rhenish wines, and Germans wouldn’t recognise that term either. We seem to have a talent for inventing Anglicised words for wine (eg claret, port, sherry) that the growers never used but which caught on anyway
25 on the nail – another dd.
26 heckle – (C)HECK, (arrest) + LE, French “the” along with la and les
27 portray – PORT (left) with RAY (beam)

Down

1 carpet slipper – *(SPECTRAL PIPER) my first in and a big help. Easy to spot it’s an anagram, less easy to solve it quickly!
2 amongst – MO (doctor, ie medical officer) in ANGST (great worry)
3 blest – B(ARRISTER’S) + LEST, in case, eg “Lest we forget..”
4 reinvest – REIN (to control) + VEST (warm clothing). Never wear ’em, so will leave others to determine if they are warm or not. Presumably all clothing makes you warmer on than off..
5 assert – TRESS (lock, of hair) + A (key) both rev.
6 just about – JUST (appropriate) + ABOUT (touching, as in touching on a subject). I would have thought that in quantitive terms, just about enough was more than not quite enough, not synonymous
7 coexist – E XI (English team) in COST (expenditure)
10 fundamentally – FUND (stock, in the investment sense) + AMEN (we agree) + TALLY (match up)
14 rump steak – RU (game, specifically rugby union) + MPS (members, ie of parliament) + *(TAKE), the def. being “cut.”
16 reed stop – RE ( (royal) engineers) + *(DEPOTS). A reed stop is “an organ stop controlling a rank of reed pipes” (Collins)
18 the like – THE (article) + LIKE (prefer)
20 en clair – N(ew) in ÉCLAIR (cake)
21 strove – (MOUNTAINEE)R in STOVE (range)
23 freer – ER (word of doubt) in REF (judge), both rev.

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

59 comments on “Times Crossword 25,942 – 2014 Championships, First Preliminary, Puzzle 2”

  1. 42 minutes, so a year or two away from booking my passage to the champs. Jerry nearly noticed a first, and I think I probably managed one: completing the entire right-hand side before anything went in on the left. CHAMBER finally set off the ‘landslide’ there.

    Post-championship solvers were lucky to have had ON THE NAIL very recently. Lots of nice stuff, including my last two in, PRESS STUD and STROVE.

    I think ‘just about ready’ is close enough to ‘not quite ready’ in a context where immediate readiness (of, say, an accompanist) is required.

  2. Back to a more usual time today. Couldn’t solve this very methodically, bunging in answers wherever I had a hunch. Then stuck on THE LIKE and RHINE at the end, adding considerably to the time.

    Agree with Jerry about 6dn. Don’t we say “almost, but not quite” to mean “falls short” (of, say, the grade) — by a small margin? While “just about” means “makes (the grade)” — again, by a small margin. As Jerry also notes (though without complaint), “about” means “touching on” — the “on” seems to be required for equivalence.

    Otherwise, the clues all seem fair — and some are top class.

  4. Collins has ‘on the subject of; relating to’, which covers it. A relatively formal usage, but seen in sentences such as ‘There were different opinions touching the thorny issue of stadium expansion.’
  5. I can’t remember my score on the first one, but I can’t believe they’ve ever been easier than these two. Which gives me a bad feeling about the next. I didn’t know that about hock; but of course, we call the Germans Germans. LOI HECKLE, which I wouldn’t have defined as ‘hamper’. Easy the puzzle may have been, but I agree with Jerry as to the quality of the clues; lots of wonderfully smooth surfaces.
    1. I think it’s ‘hamper speaker’ rather than just ‘hamper’ but agree it was a very enjoyable crossword.
      rednim
  6. With numerous interruptions, so not bad by my standards.

    JUST ABOUT is interesting. I had always understood it to mean “nearly” or “close to”, which seems to be what the setter intends here. But I have noticed (particularly in recent years?) that English people use it to mean “just made it”.

    So when the fielding team is attempting a run out, and the commentator says the batsman “just about got there”, it makes a world of difference whether that commentator is English or not.

    Not suggesting that there is a right or wrong meaning, just that the different usage is interesting.

    1. That is really interesting, thanks. It’s so interesting in fact that I don’t seen how anyone could possibly be disinterested.
  7. On the day, I remember starting on this one just as the chap sitting next to me held up his number to indicate he’d finished all three puzzles (he’s a regular finalist). I spent the next 10 minutes in a blind panic, solving nothing at all. I had to come back to this later and finish it in a mad rush. I’m fairly certain that CARPET SLIPPER was my last in, which is what’s known as doing it the hard way.

    Now I look at it with less frantic eyes, it’s a really nice crossword! And probably as close to average daily difficulty as you could get.

    I do remember managing a smile at PRESS STUD even under rather stressful conditions, so thank you to the setter for that one. But CARPET SLIPPER gets my vote for the rather beautiful image of the spectral piper piping his lullaby.

  8. Very nice crossword with only 6D raising an eyebrow as already covered above. An overall very high standard of cluing with for me 12A and 24A the standout ones. 25 minutes to solve with the western side going in well before the east thanks really to CARPET SLIPPER

    I’m intrigued Jerry that you look for puzzles without proper nouns and am a little concerned that I may now start doing that myself – for why?

    1. Probably the same reason why, when I was a kid, I
      scanned everything I read for the most consecutive words containing the letter ‘o’.

      I’m better now.

    2. Yes, it could well be catching, Jim. I have not the least idea why it should matter; maybe because it’s easier to check on than ninas and pangrams, which I usually miss?
      1. This one had a Nina: the middle line of unches reads LUTRUM, which turns out to be a company offering “trusted computer support for businesses Nationwide”. Perhaps the setter’s veiled hint to the IT boys at the Times as to where they can get help with the things they find difficult, like providing access to the Quickie?
      2. Forgive my ignorance, but what is a nina? I can see LUTRUM, but have no idea why it should be relevant.

        And whilst replying, you might also shed some light on &lit and some of the other obscure terms that you guys use. Or is there a jargon dictionary somewhere that I have missed? I did manage to work out what a pangram might be.

        Thanks in anticipation.

        1. A NINA is a hidden message contained within the grid so that certain unchecked letters say will spell out a name or a slogan or somesuch. I don’t think z8 is serious about LUTRUM!

          “& lit” means that the whole of the clue is both the cryptic version and also stands as the literal. So “River, source of hock, unlimited wines” is in full a definition of RHINE

          Edited at 2014-11-12 04:10 pm (UTC)

            1. You probably wont find them in the daily Times cryptics as the Crossword Editor has set his face against them, except on very special occasions (such as a setter’s 1500th puzzle, as recently). They are more common in the Concise and it is all bets off for the Sunday Times cryptic; so much so that a potential NINA was identified last Sunday to the complete surprise of the setter.
              1. Just to say why it’s called a Nina:

                Al Hirschfeld was an American caricaturist, who was famous for hiding his daughter’s name “Nina” into his drawings. Wikipedia says:

                The name would appear in a sleeve, in a hairdo, or somewhere in the background. Sometimes “Nina” would show up more than once and Hirschfeld would helpfully add a number next to his signature, to let people know how many times her name would appear.”

                How the concept transferred itself to crossword grids, I’ve never discovered.

  9. CARPET SLIPPER was my FOI which was a great help. However I managed to find plenty of misdirection. I wanted an anagram of ‘Arty type’ at 19A, an anagram of members at 14D and the doctor at 2D was leaning me towards DROUGHT or DRAUGHT. I sometimes wonder whether such misdirection is a great skill on the part of the setter or a coincidence. Anyhow, having got past these I finished in 27 minutes.
  10. 17.07, and I swear I’d not looked at it on the day (or since, until just about now). The time would have made my average for the 2nd Prelim: without the RHINE crossing it would have been about 5 minutes quicker. Don’t tell me the first round was harder.
    I have been know to wear my carpet slippers first thing in the morning (after being woken up by that dam’ piper, perhaps) but on balance I suppose the “late evening” in the clue was helpful. CoD to PRESS STUD for wit, and for that unlikely-looking triple S in the grid.
    The leaderboard header still looks ridiculous: “Results for This puzzle was solved within 60 mins by….” (sic)

  11. About 45 mins for me today, and I too had pretty much everything in the rhs before anything in the left. Finished with HECKLE, without parsing, and not sure it meant hamper, not realising that in fact the def in hamper speaker.
    Misdirection had me looking for anagrams at AESTHETE and RUMP STEAK, but I figured them out in the end.

  12. A rare midweek attempt for me, and an even rarer solve (albeit with a couple not fully parsed). That said, the time taken would have meant I’d have been in the way of the cleaners after the comp had finished.

    Interestingly for me (a propos of other comments above), found the left side significantly easier than the right: contrary or wot? COD to PRESS STUD – very droll.

    Thanks to Jerry for very clear blog.

  13. . . . but slowed down by scribbling in RHONE untilI saw the light, with THE LIKE being the LYI. A carefully-crafted puzzle and blog.
  14. 23’31. Neat. I too am charmed by the faraway note of ‘Carpet Slipper’ (with a touch of the Scott Joplins); and hope not to have caught propernounitis. ‘Just about’ is often a reply to ‘Are you OK now?’, a cheerful ‘not quite’; which maybe balances the more literal take. All in the tone of voice. (But then the ‘touching’ suggestion gives mine the lie.) Liked ‘blest’ though it might have been ‘old revered…’
  15. It was only when I came to comment here that I understood 6 down. I was going to write: “This one took me JUST ABOUT half an hour” (28 minutes or so).

    Everything else was reasonably straightforward, though THE LIKE and HECKLE, with their cleverly hidden definitions, were my last in.

  16. A shade over 20 minutes with a bit of a struggle over THE LIKE and HECKLE. ‘Speaker’s’ had me looking for a homophone for far too long. And then I came here and saw that it was a 1st Prelim puzzle that I had solved the day after the Championships. So i failed to remember it was Wednesday, missed the small print below the clues and didn’t remember any of them. I now vaguely remember that this is the puzzle I had to come back to while completing the first set.

    Edited at 2014-11-12 10:08 am (UTC)

  17. 25 min – but had to resort to aid on 2dn to find something to fit __O_G_T, after trying for five minutes to think of anything better than DROUGHT. Once I had that, the rest of the NE was clear enough.
  18. Clearly the brain (or at least my poor ageing brain) has difficulty absorbing Finals puzzles, as this seemed terribly unfamiliar given how recently I first solved it; it felt so much like a normal solve that I even accidentally submitted neutrino-style, which means I’m up there next to Magoo on the leaderboard, though I’m glad to say that doesn’t feel like a triumph (so I am no closer to understanding why they do it). Anyway, I think this was the trickiest one on the day as far as I was concerned, probably thanks to the SW corner if today’s second stab is any guide. Also, considering it away from that context, it’s an elegantly phrased puzzle and well up to scratch all round.
  19. If only this conversation had taken place before I solved today’s puzzle:

    “The taxi’s arrived, my dear.”
    “Yes, darling; I’m just about ready.”

    2. Whereas I’m just more confused. In my experience ‘just about’ in this context means something like ‘nowhere near’, and is a signal to send the taxi away and order another one for half an hour later.
        1. ‘Not quite’ means ‘cancel the taxi until further notice and have a G&T’.

          Edited at 2014-11-12 12:49 pm (UTC)

          1. Surely we are inviting a fairly dusty riposte from (eg) Crypticsue or Sotira, here?
            In fact my wife is quite good about being ready on time, but don’t tell her I said so..
            2. I’ll oblige with the dust. When husband says 5 minutes it means at least half an hour. It’s driven me nuts for over 35 years. Just occasionally I’ll quietly move the minute hand forward on the clocks when it’s a case of getting to the airport. Got that idea from an early Agatha Christie.
              1. Mrs Galspray has been using that trick with the clocks for years Olivia. You mean she’s trying to tell me something?
              2. So perhaps my experience is entirely typical, just not in the way I had assumed. For the assumption, however, mea culpa.
                Actually when it comes to going to the airport the roles reverse in our house: Mrs K likes to arrive in plenty of time, whereas I’m happy to cut it a bit fine. When we went on holiday this year she booked the tickets and lied to me about the time.

                Edited at 2014-11-12 05:30 pm (UTC)

  20. I didn’t find any of these three puzzles particularly harder than the others on the day.
    According to Chambers ‘Hock’ is short for ‘Hockamore’, which is an anglicisation of ‘Hochheimer’. You still see ‘clairet’ occasionally.
  21. A struggling 51m with a hold up in the SW having bunged in IN TUNE for the band – curses to that Sean Rafferty! This made 14d impenetrable and until I had the K 26a. I was put off 16a too as I didn’t know the phrase and couldn’t see the anagrind for DESPOT as the engineers didn’t seem in this construction to be doing double duty. However the inevitable shrug and nothing else fits meant it went in anyway. Apart from those problems I enjoyed the rest with PRESS STUD being my pick especially after I had flirted with PAPER CLIP which seemed to my odd mind to fit the definition.

    Edited at 2014-11-12 12:47 pm (UTC)

    1. I couldn’t see how this worked either. Realised early on it was a rank of organ pipes ending in ‘stop’ (used to play the church organ) but tried to get an anagram out of ‘by depots’. Thought of ‘beyd stop’ before I realised what was going on. So the anagrind is ‘supply’? Or am I missing something?
  22. It seems a long time ago now but I seem to remember that I found this one the easiest of the three on the day, probably about the 10 min mark.

    As for who waits for whom – I was brought up by someone who had to be at least five minutes early for everything… Mr CS wasn’t!

  23. Yes, nice diversion with a time of about one hour, which was way longer than it should have been. Even with CARPET SLIPPER helping enormously early on, the NW was still the recalcitrant corner for me.

    Nice puzzle, and thanks to all involved for an engaging discussion.

  24. Good puzzle, did it in 23 minutes on the train to Bordeaux for yet another medical discussion. Only just back, to read the comments. Reed stop was my only newbie but the wordplay was clear. Nice blog, Jerry.
  25. Did this in three quick peeks so didn’t really get a good timing on it. I think it might have frustrated me if I was competing as I couldn’t see the wordplays for HECKLE or CHAMBER and both went in on a “hope this fits the definition well enough”.
  26. About 25 minutes ending with HECKLE, because I fell into the trap of misreading the def. as just ‘hamper’, and was searching for a homophone. Finally saw it the right way round. Nice puzzle altogether, but it contains a few booby traps for competition purposes. Regards.
  27. I’m not sure how long this took me on the day, but I’m pretty sure that (like crypticsue) I found this the easiest of the three, with no real hold-ups.

    Just to add my three-penn’orth to the “just about ready” discussion, my wife is almost always ready about half-an-hour early, and gets very cross with me for being almost always ready about half-a-minute early.

  28. I had a problem with ‘On the Nail’, which I always associate with ‘exactly’ or ‘Spot on’, but I seem to recall that payment ‘On the Nail’ means straight away. I didn’t think of that at the time, but I did get the correct answer. I also failed to parse 10d, as the checking letters pretty much gave the answer away. A very enjoyable puzzle.
  29. This took me 40 enjoyable minutes, but I still don’t understand the presence of ‘for’ in 12ac. ‘From’ would make more sense, and in fact there’s no need for either.

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