Times Cryptic 24151 – Full House and Several Pairs

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A pangrammatic puzzle (I guessed this was going to be the case quite early when 1 across contained a J, which was swiftly followed by an X, and not one but two Zs, Vs and Ys in quick succession) which I solved in about 18 minutes, so nothing to frighten the horses. Various pairs – two artists (one much better known than the other), two films (both very famous), two puddings… Q0-E6-D6

Across
1 CAJUN – C(old) A JUN(e). This started me humming Jambalaya to myself – I suspect the song was popular in this country long before many people tasted the food it mentions.
4 CONSTABLE – John is the painter; in the UK, though possibly not in other territories, the police are the Boys in Blue.
10 EXACT – (patien)T + C(ongeal) + AXE, all rev.
11 HECTOR BERLIOZ – hassle = HECTOR + B(ritish) ER (formal queen)+ LIZ (informal Queen) round 0.
14 RARE – obviously four-leafed clovers are proverbially rare, but it took me a while to see why rare = red, then I suddenly thought of steak and the penny dropped.
15 LOVEY DOVEY – LOVE + DOVE in Y(ear) x 2.
18 SQUARENESS – A R(epublican) inside (QUEENS)* inside SS.
19 FLOW – (WOLF)rev, I tried more obvious synonyms such as RAKE and ROUE before checking letters gave me this.
24 ARSON – “going up” as in catching alight; sadly topical given recent events in Australia.
27 TOWELLING – ELL inside TOWING; the ell is one of those measurements that was last used in the nineteenth century (in this case by cloth merchants), but lives on in crosswords.
28 YIKES – 1 K(ilo) insode YES. I guess “That was hot!” is a bit of a woolly way of indicating that the answer is an exclamation which in itself doesn’t mean anything, but it paints a quite clear picture to my mind…
 
Down
1 COUCH GRASS – even my limited botanical knowledge stretches to this weed, possibly because I grow weeds more successfully than anything else.
2 JAW – JAW(s).
3 NELSON – I can do no better than quote Nelson’s signal at the Battle of the Nile as related by Edmund Blackadder: “England knows that Lady Hamilton is a virgin. Poke my eye out and cut off my arm if I’m wrong.”
5 NIGER – REGIN(a) rev.
6 THE BIRDS – (BE)rev. inside THIRDS
7 BRAZZAVILLE – A-Z + Z + A(re) V(isible) inside BRAILLE, with the definition simply being “capital”, in this case of the Republic of the Congo (not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
8 ETTY – quiET TYpes gives this man.
13 EYEWITNESS – YEW inside (TIE)rev + NESS.
17 CRACKNEL – CRACK + NEL(l), which is a sort of biscuit, but, just to confuse the issue, I can remember the sweets of my youth including Mint Cracknell (two ‘l’s?) and, in Quality Street tins, Hazelnut Cracknell (again, double ‘l’?). And to add even further to my education, I checked whether “crack” or “craic” was the more regular version of the word that means banter. I had assumed it was an Irish word, but debate suggests it was originally the Scots word “crack”, which became Gaelicised to “craic”, rather than the other way round, and that this was both comparatively recent and possibly instigated by the likes of Guinness and the Irish Tourist board…
22 MASAI – I AM A S*(outh).
23 TART – A tart is a sweet, but something tart isn’t sweet. I suppose it’s peculiarities of the English language like this which allow cryptic crosswords to exist..
26 ILK – dIsLiKe.

30 comments on “Times Cryptic 24151 – Full House and Several Pairs”

  1. 26 min. Panic when nothing came out of a first reading of the acrosses. I never thought I would be pleased to see couch grass, but it gave good traction! Then steady progress from there, but a stuttering finish with accompaniment/cracknel fighting to the death.
  2. Not easy for me, about 45 minutes. Fouled up in the SW by entering ‘sour’ instead of TART at first. Never heard of CRACKNEL before, but allowed myself to be convinced that it existed because it fit the wordplay so well. One of those cases where I think, ” Well, those British people may have a word that means this…”, even though it is an unknown. That was the last entry. COD is NELSON. The long ACCOMPANIMENT was a nice clue, tough, for me, with a whole lot of things going on there, and took a while to fight through it. Regards everyone.
  3. Found this tough going. It didn’t help that I had c(LIP) instead of JAW, as well as not knowing Hector or Etty. I thought NIGER and TART were clever. The image of ‘sozzled grannies’ gave me a grin.
  4. I had a real tussle with this one which took me about an hour with one unsolved at 13 when I ran out of time and resorted to on-line assistance. I’m afraid the modern trend of omitting hyphens causes this oldie a lot of hassle sometimes.

    I was also not helped by assuming (at 4d) that a clue containing both “Conservative” and “sad” with an answer 5-4, would have the word “blue” as its second part.

  5. 13:25 for this – slowed down a bit by putting SOUR at 23 (Maynards alternative to good old Wine Gums). 17 and 24 were last to go in. Another very well-constructed puzzle, with 4 and 5 pretty much level for my COD.
  6. With one l in a Saki short story, the chocolates left in the box because nobody liked them!
  7. I thought this a good test with a lot of answers that needed teasing out. One or two solved from definition and reverse engineered such as EYEWITNESS. Lots of good clues so let’s give 22D a mention, not difficult but neat. My only guess was CRACKNEL from word play and checking letters. About 30 minutes to solve.
  8. Bugger! Got back yesterday from 10 days computerless to find that I can no longer download my bedtime reading i.e. the cryptic via the backdoor. The miserable sods seem to have closed all avenues.
    Has anyone solved the problem yet or am I now confined to the Grauniad?
    2. If the “problem” is to find a way of getting the puzzles without paying, the answer is no as far as I am aware – as it always should have been. Ignoring the printing costs that also apply to free puzzles, an annual sub of £24.99 works out at less than 10 pence per puzzle, assuming you only solve the Times cryptic puzzle. If that’s too much, an occasional £4.95 monthly sub will let you download and print as many puzzles as you like. You could grab 180-odd recent and older puzzles now, and then the last 6-months worth, 6 months later. That would cost £9.90 a year.

      I don’t see why people who charge you for something are “miserable sods”. Your choice is simple: pay, or take whatever puzzles are available legitimately for nothing. That currently includes three of the five “broadsheet” puzzles, so you’d hardly be going short.

        1. Considering that it’s his site teesween, that his unstinting generosity of time and thought for fellow crossworders is or certainly should be legendary, and that theft is bad for the soul you might want to reconsider such an intemperate remark.

          Just because you post late don’t presume nobody will read after you!

        2. Peter and I often don’t see quite eye to eye on the question of clues, standards and all the rest of it. However on this I’m full square behind him. I pay to access these crosswords and don’t see why I should subsidise you. Getting the crossword when the site isn’t working is one thing. Deliberately avoiding paying quite another.

          He also doesn’t deserve the comment that you’ve posted and it would be nice if you posted an apology.

        3. I was also disappointed that the “backdoor” method had closed (tho strangely much happier about it now after reading one or two of the comments!). However, not because I cease to get my puzzles for nothing, but simply because, even as a member, it was quicker for me to summon up the previous day’s URL from my browser cache and adjust the date. I used to print the puzzles from work but can now no longer do so for some reason and I had hoped that my old dodge might at least work via a login screen. I would have thought that changing the URL would not be necessary if one had a proper check in place for session expiry/non-existence. I suspect that the URL has changed as part of the reorg of the site, and not simply as a so-called mean-spirited attempt to keep out the freeloaders.
  9. 19:18 .. Another good ‘un. Last in was ACCOMPANIMENT, one of those words I have serious problems spelling. I also pencilled in ‘sour’ at 23d. Loads of good surfaces, but I’ll single out the African Queen at 5d, which also gets the Oscar for best use of an apostrophe in a cryptic clue.

    If anyone has too much time on their hands or work to avoid, they’re welome to join me in my latest trivial pursuit of finding the names of plausible pop groups in every puzzle, the only rule being that 1a must be involved. Yesterday it was 70’s psychedelic space-rock act Mystic Jim-Jams. Today it’s The Cajun Cracknel (little known Zydeco Mod outfit from Plumstead).

    1. I’m pretty sure there’s a UK “indie” band called Cajun Dance Party.

      I’ll go for effete arthouse combo Constable Cajun, or electro-popsters Cajun Squareness.

      1. I have a horrible feeling I’ve got an album by Constable Cajun somewhere. Effete arthouse combos have always been a weakness.
  10. I found this another tough one. By the end I had one clue unsolved and one wrong. I couldn’t get 17 unaided, the answer to which is totally unfamiliar to me. Although I thought of ARSON for 24 very early on, I wasn’t convinced that was the answer so didn’t enter it. Later I entered MINT for 23 (just about justifiable), which convinced me that ARSON was wrong. Not doing too well this week.
    I was initially puzzled to see “patient’s bottom” to indicate the last letter in an across clue (10). I suppose the justification is that “the bottom of the garden” means the end of the garden.
  11. Top half fast. Bottom half very slow, particularly SW corner. I struggled with Kevin on cracknel accompanied by towelling tarts and circular saws. Every time there’s a saw I have to make a mental tour of my workshop. Would have got the circular variety sooner if it wasn’t for the fact that I always refer to it as “the zit-zit”. No excuse for that, or for being held up by the clue which gets my COD, just edging out the grannies.

    Wiki says of Etty : “He should not be confused with William Etty (c.1675 – 1734) architect of Holy Trinity Church in Sunderland (1719) and many other churches.” Uncanny. I always confuse him with St Cuthbert’s Bewcastle although I know he’s not so tall.

  12. I found this one a slog, very slow start and there never really was a rush of answers, a few at a time, until I put in CRACKNEL (a complete guess) after 26 minutes. 18 was a very long hold-up for me, trying to justify TRUSTINESS, then the recent wording TRUTHINESS, before trying to fit a Q in there somewhere let to the right answer. 28 made me smile.
  13. Well that’s two very satisfying puzzles to start the week. 19 minutes for this, helped by also being old enough to remember TV ads for “New Mint Cracknell” and the red-wrapped Quality Street version. Very crunchy.

    I liked the use of “every so often” as an alternative to regularly or oddly, and thought the use of saying as a verb/noun whatsit in 12 made for a terrific surface. COD, though, has to go to Emma Hamilton’s wrestling hold.

    Q-0, E-8.5, D-5

  14. Blimey! After an hour of banging my head against a brick wall, I gave up with 8d / 14ac / 23d / 24ac / 17d still unfilled, and 2d / 9ac both wrong. Better luck tomorrow!
  15. 16.13 – held up mostly in the SW corner, where with A_S__ in place at 24 I went through some very tortured processes to try to justify first AISLE and then ASSET. Also was for some reason unable to get ACCOMPANIMENT until I had every single crossing letter in place.
  16. Some people put SOUR for this before the dawn of realisation, I happily put in FOOL without any checking letters, assuming it to be a play on other-wise. DOH !!
  17. 14.35 – About same time as yesterday. Slow to get started.Got BRAZZAVILLE quite easily and with the few others I already had I sensed a possible pangram. This only really helped me with SQUARENESS where I guessed a ‘Q’ would be included.Liked the image which 16 conjured up!
    Last to go in was RARE due to being held up by second-last CIRCULAR SAW.
    Good fun
  18. As someone who usually gets about 10 clues out in my half hour lunchbreak I was somewhat taken aback to read “nothing to frighten the horses”. This horse was petrified. I only got 16d on my first run through and that was it. Looking at the answers I think I might still be drawing a blank even now. So for me exceptionally hard.
  19. I would say this was harder than average, though I don’t have a time due to disruptions. Last in was CIRCULAR, long after I got the SAW bit. A very enjoyable crossword, it has indeed been a good week so far.

    Tom B.

  20. Nice crossword, but several rather odd little things I thought: 1ac: Is ‘almost’ necessary? JUN is good enough as a month, isn’t it? 13dn: Why ‘observed’? What is there about the word that suggests the past tense? This looks like unfair misleading of the solver. 20dn: ‘only’ has what significance? 23dn: Why the question mark? There can be no doubt, surely.

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