I was not sure what to expect today, even though I was solving the Times Cryptic in the ‘70s and ‘80s. When I located the article in question, (thanks to Peter’s link, see his entry below) finding that it took Mark Goodliffe only 5m 20s to complete it did nothing to ease the pressure. Still, I set sail and after a little acclimatisation found it ws not really so hard. After 15 minutes I had 7 clues left: 20dn and most of the SW corner. My first concession was to look up “ADSUM” in Chambers and discover that it is latin for “I am here,” and once 22dn went the others fell into place. Last in were DATURA and CHASSE, neither of which I had heard of previously. Nevertheless I think I definitely got the easiest one of the three “oldies.”
The puzzle was curiously similar and yet dissimilar to today’s cryptics. I think I vastly prefer today’s version, the 1981 puzzle seems very “loose” to me and woolly. No science at all Jimbo, unless Britannia metal counts, which would be stretching a point. There were a number of literary references but they seemed not to impede too much. COD probably 1ac, simple and effective. DogOD 22dn by a country mile
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CENOTAPH – (NOT CHEAP)* |
| 5 | FELLED – ruthless = FELL, + ED |
| 9 |
COMMUNED – COMMUNE, a “French division,” + D |
| 10 | GLANCE – seems to be a dble def., “look” + “an oblique impact or movement” (Chambers) which I suppose is more or less equivalent to “a shot” |
| 12 | LILAC – just a cryptic def.. I have a very vague memory of childhood references to “lilac time,” ie late spring though even the OED, which lists it, does not elucidate. Nowadays it is a rock band, according to Google 🙂 |
| 13 | OLEANDERS – old style = OS, a calendric reference to the Julian as opposed to Gregorian calendar, containing LEANDER |
| 14 |
REMINISCENCE – Engineers = RE + MINI + SC |
| 18 | IN CONFIDENCE – a cryptic reference to “Sub Rosa,” latin for “beneath the rose,” a phrase well used in Papal circles for confidential matters, so I understand |
| 21 | BRITANNIA – a triple reference to the “old country” as motherland, and as an old name for Britain, and to Britannia metal, a cheap base for silver plating |
| 23 | DUTCH – no dodgy homonyms in this crossword, (though see 22dn) but two topical cockney references, this one being to the Duchess of Fife = wife |
| 24 | REEFER – simple double def. |
| 25 | SHAMBLES – mid Sussex = SS containing Hamble |
| 26 | DATURA – DATA containing UR. My second last in, and not a word I knew though I have heard of two of the plants’ constituent toxins, atropine and scopolamine |
| 27 | EDENTATE – EDEN, garden of, + Harry TATE Edentate unsurprisingly means “toothless” one of the few things I happen to know about sloths. |
| Down | |
| 1 | COCKLE – a barely disguised reference to cockleshell. Remarkable how wide the variation in clue difficulty is in this puzzle |
| 2 | NIMBLE – a reference to the old nursery rhyme, Jack Be Nimble |
| 3 | TRUNCHEON – (TURN)* + CHE + ON |
| 4 | PREMONITIONS – (MORE POINTS IN)* ..not quite sure about “hunches” as an anag. indicator note: as Peter points out below, I had it the wrong way round and the anag. indicator is “permutation,” and “hunches” the def.. so the clue is at least technically sound! |
| 6 |
ELLEN – |
| 7 | LANTERNS – Bull’s-eye LANTERN, not so hard even though few will know the reference to Lantern-land, a fictional place in Rabelais’ “Gargantua and Pantagruel.” I certainly didn’t. |
| 8 | DEEMSTER – (RED MEETS)* – a rather obvious anagram, fortunately |
| 11 | SEMI DETACHED – simple cryptic def. |
| 15 | CACODEMON – Is able to = CAN, containing CO + DEMO.. I word I knew, though spelled as cacodaemon. |
| 16 | TIMBERED – (Tiny) TIM (Cratchit) + BE RED, = wooded. I was afraid this was a literary reference to something buried deep in “A Christmas Carol” , a typically sickly and moralistic tale by the writer Dickens, but no, not really. I suppose the clue is perfectly valid, but it seems somehow unsatisfactory to me even so. |
| 17 | ACCIDENT – a slightly ludicrous quotation, that eventually becomes obvious, though Google has no trouble with it at all |
| 19 | STELLA – TELL as in bank teller, inside SA = South Africa. No problem to this retired banker, but still looks a loose clue to me, the definition being a vague “she” |
| 20 | CHASSE – a double def., easy if you know the rather esoteric meanings. My last in, and needing a little trial and error with Chambers. I happened upon it while looking up “chaste.” Even back in the dark days of 1981 I don’t suppose it was in very common usage. |
| 22 | AMEER – AM ‘EER .. is this a very rare example of a combined dodgy cockney reference and dodgy homophone? I do hope so.. I do hope it is rare, and remains so, is what I mean. (grimaces) |
4D – I was puzzled too until I decided that “hunches” had to be the def, and therefore “permutation” must be the anagram indicator in this rather nonsensical clue. I doubt that “Permutation – more points in hunches” would pass surface-meaning muster now.
Edited at 2010-02-01 12:23 pm (UTC)
My old granny liked Harry Tate. She was not usually a good judge of comic talent however. She called Charlie Drake “that funny little woman” ..
Just over the 30 minute mark, which is about twice my average. Unfortunately, however, three incomplete at 25 minutes, and needed help to solve DATURA, CACODEMON and AMEER – so even that time doesn’t count.
I find it a bit difficult to believe that I would have got these in 1981, ao there must be other forces at work.
Interesting, though…
I have to confess that I couldn’t remember the quotation, though it sounded vaguely familiar once I had the crossing letters in place (but then I have seen Othello a few times); and I had no idea about Rabelais’s LANTERN-land, though I almost certainly looked it up when I first did the puzzle back in 1981.
I seem to remember that Harry Tate used to come up quite regularly in the old days. I wonder if this was the last time he appeared.