Times Cryptic – 26000

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

This was a very lively puzzle as befits one that marks the turn of a millennium, and the wordplay is often quite involved. I knew I was in for a tough time as soon as I saw the length of the clues. I’m sure there’s a feast here for those who relish surface readings but in keeping with my usual policy I haven’t studied them in any detail as there was quite enough to fill my time unravelling the solutions. I completed the grid apart from two letters at 2dn in 50 minutes but after another 10 minutes I gave in and looked the answer up.

On edit @ 7:45 GMT: As others have subsequently pointed out there is a Nina lurking within the grid only it’d be fair to say that those not of a particular frame of mind (such as myself) may never work out exactly what’s going on without a little help. Having got there eventually I think perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to mention that one of the answers if spotted might nudge one in the right direction.

I don’t know what the etiquette on spoilers is for Ninas but assuming we’d like to comment on it at some point in the discussion I’d suggest nobody reveals it before 14:00 GMT and after that it’s fair game.

On edit @ 14:00 GMT: please now feel free to discuss details of the Nina if you wish.

{deletions} [anagram indicators]

Across
1 BINARY – BAR (but) outside IN (at home), Y (unknown)
4 DRAGSTER – DRAG (bore), S (singular), TER{m} (name)
10 FUNBOARDS – Anagram [wave] of BANDSFOUR. My first unknown of the day.
11 GEN UP – PUN (something of verbal dexterity) + EG (say) all reversed
12 CONGREGATED – NG (no good) inside CORE (centre), GATED (with barriers)
14 PAU – PA (a year – per annum), U (university). Another unknown.
15 LATVIAN – LAN (network) encloses TV (tube) + AI (first class – reversed)
17 OWNING – {br}OWNING (poet)
19 SITTER – Double definition. A dolly is an easy ball in various games, as is a sitter.
21 THEORBO – Reversed alternate letters inside rObBeR sOmEwHaT. It’s a large sort of lute. I’m quite good on ancient instruments, so no problem for me here.
23 OHM – O (appeal), HM (head of state – Her Majesty)
24 RADNORSHIRE – Anagram [poor] of {bowle}R IS HARDER ON. “Old county” because it’s now part of Powys. I’m bad on Welsh counties but I knew this one.
26 OSIER – {r}OSIER (more optimistic). This material used in basket-weaving etc came up only a few days ago and was new to some solvers. That may have been in a Quickie, though.
27 CLOUD BASE – Anagram [artificial] of AS COULD BE
29 THIRTEEN – I (one) + RTE (Irish broadcaster) inside THEN (at that time). We had cardinal defining a number a few days ago too, but again that may have been in a Quickie.
30 BABOON – BA (graduate), BOON (blessing)

Down
1 BIFOCALS – Anagram [drunk] of OF BASIC L{ager}
2 NINON – NO ‘N’ IN reversed – what Sue Pat and Bob don’t have but Ann does. I never heard of this material and I needed aids to come up with it as I found the wordplay of no help.
3 ROO – Sounds like “rue” (lament). Short for ‘kangaroo’ (jumper)
5 RISOTTO – OT (books – Old Testament) + TO + SIR (teacher) all reversed
6 GO-GO DANCERS – GOG (giant) + anagram [conversion] of SCORE AND
7 TIN OPENER – TIER (row) encloses NO PEN (lack of markers)
8 RIP OUT – ROUT (hammer) encloses {h}IP (joint)
9 ORIGIN – ORIG{am}I (folding), N (note)
13 REINTERPRET – I (one) inside RENTER (tenant), PR, ET (film)
16 TRIUMVIRI – Originally three public officers back in Roman times. I think “crowd” is a reference to the saying “two’s company, three’s a crowd”
18 FORESEEN – FORES{t} (trees), E’EN (end of the day – poetic usage)
20 RADICLE – Hidden and reversed inside {fe}EL CID AR{rest}
21 TOOK ON – Triple definition, the first being “got upset” as in the expression “don’t take on so”.
22 TO BOOT – Double definition, the first cryptic perhaps with reference to stowing luggage in the boot of a car.
25 IDAHO – Sounds like “I’d a hoe”
28 DNA – AND (with) reversed. I wondered about the enumeration (3) but can’t remember if there’s a convention that applies when the letters of an abbreviated term are pronounced individually as here.

65 comments on “Times Cryptic – 26000”

  1. I could make no sense of 19ac, and now I see why: DNK ‘dolly’ and DNK ‘sitter’. Also DNK FUNBOARDS, RTE, & GEN UP. (‘Cardinal’ clues are my Dr. Fell, but at least the ‘then’ made things easy, even without the Irish broadcaster.) But I did know NINON–which probably means, Jack, that we had it in some cryptic–and PAU. Several of these took ages–I finally submitted at about 48′: 16d (finally thought of 3’s a crowd), 18d after a run through the alphabet, and 9d.
  2. This was entertaining for the first or last of the millennium. My mother used to say, disapprovingly, of a scantily-dressed woman that she was wearing ninon over none on so I got that OK. Had to take Radnorshire on trust and Idaho elicited only a barely audible groan.
  3. …miscounted the anagrist letters and ended up with RADDONSHIRE. I think I’d have plumped for RADNORSHIRE if I’d counted more carefully, so I’m claiming a moral victory.

    Other unknowns were NINON, PAU and THEORBO, so a bit of a challenge but a high quality puzzle IMHO.

    I also wondered about “crowd” in 16dn, but I think you’ve cleared that up Jack. Well spotted.

    Looking forward to the next thousand.

  4. … when I stopped the clock. Is this the most obscure daily Times puzzle ever? It’s either the clue (say 19ac) or the answer (say, FUNBOARDS [which BTW needs an S in the blog] or RADNORSHIRE or PAU …) I could go on. And I have the strangest feeling that the “fill” was computer generated.

    On the other hand … it may just be because I’m thick.

  5. Having famously blogged Times No. 25000 and missed the all too obvious Nina, I searched for one here in search of redemption. To my surprise I found it, or at least one.

    As for the crossword, my usual shortcomings applied and I stumbled home in 42 minutes or so.

      1. Isn’t that frowned on in these circles? You just have to look at it for a bit, if that isn’t saying too much.

        BTW in my original post, read 47 minutes or so. Seems my short term memory isn’t what it was.

  7. Like jackkt I also had to look up NINON. FUNBOARD and THEORBO were unknown but gettable.

    You don’t need to look far to spot the nina, but I’m not going to spill the beans….

  8. So I went back to look for the Nina, and thought to myself, “So what? Just a bunch of oh, my God!” Fantastic.
  9. Well, I stumbled through this one, and made it to the end, with…

    one blank: THEORBO (dnk the instrument)
    one wrong: nanon (well, the cryptic worked ok-ish, shame it’s not a word)
    one question mark: dnk SITTER = dolly, but liked the ‘eyed by a drawer’ def

    FOI: PAU

    Thanks for the blog, Jack, now I’m off to look for the NINA…

    On edit: that’s amazing! Hidden in plain sight, as they say.

    Edited at 2015-01-20 08:08 am (UTC)

  10. 25m. Tough challenge this, I thought, with several unfamiliar words and some quite tricky wordplay.
    In 19ac the second definition refers to someone sitting for a portrait so even if like me you don’t know ‘dolly’ there’s another way in.
    Fantastic nina! ninas!

    Edited at 2015-01-20 11:08 pm (UTC)

  11. I am new to NINAs and am fascinated. But I am not sure how deep the rabbit hole goes. I see a clear pattern and a clue link … but am I missing some greater subtlety?
  12. The stopwatch timer on my phone stopped at 01:50 for some reason, but it felt like about 20 minutes, most of which were in the bottom half. My only unknown was FUNBOARDS.

    Spotted the Nina before I finished the puzzle, but I was looking out for one.

  13. My 25.17 looks pretty good today, and it felt like a good challenge. Didn’t spot the Nina until submitting and checking the discussion: a fine idea well executed, without especially messing up any clues.
    I’m not sure what it indicates about me, but I knew THEORBO, RADNORSHIRE and PAU (even without T’ on the front) but not FUNBOARDS. My spellchecker knows none of them, but then it doesn’t know “spellchecker” either. Chambers has the surfboard, though the urban dictionary (surprisingly?) doesn’t.
  14. After staring at the completed puzzle for what seemed like ages the penny dropped and I had a big smile on my face.
  15. A bit chewy this one with FUNBOARDS completely unknown, THEORBO somewhere in the memory and likewise RADNORSHIRE. Clever puzzle overall.

    I was looking for the nina before I started and as an ex computer programmer from the very early days saw it quite quickly – congratulations to the setter

  16. 24 mins dead with some enjoyable clueing. The nina is impressive and as z8 points out, it passes the test of not gruesomely distorting the surrounding solutions, not that I noticed it by myself.
    Thank you setter and jack.
  17. 20:25 … one of those where I happened to know all the less common words. I live in an area where you often see small shops closed and a “Gone Surfing” sign on the door, so FUNBOARDS was a write-in (I always solve in hurache sandals).

    Naturally, Watson, I deduced the emerging nina after a mere handful of grid entries and was immediately able to fill in a further 12 unchecked lights. Oh, hang on, that was a dream I once had. Thank you to all who pointed out the nina, of which I was blithely ignorant. Bravo, the setter.

  18. I don’t think very much of 13d – the triumviri (i.e. Caesar-Pompey-Crassus and Mark Antony – Octavian – Lepidus) weren’t officials and they didn’t represent anyone. Plus the English ‘triumvirs’ is used 99.999% of the time, not triumviri (annoying since I had got 26a and 29a). The literal definition was crying out for “tribune”.
    Sorry if that sounds pedantic – but that’s what a classics degree does to you 🙁
    1. “Representing” refers I think to the fact that a word meaning “three men” might represent a (three’s a) crowd in Ancient Rome. Perhaps oddly, although the dictionaries give TRIUMVIRS as a plural form I don’t think I have ever heard or seen it used.
      And I don’t think “triumviri” were limited to the triumviri of the first and second triumvirate either. And in fact wikipedia suggests that the term was only applied to them retrospectively by later scholars

      fgbp (also a classics bod :- )

  19. I had all except FORESEEN solved in 20 mins but then I had brain-freeze, and it took me a further 13 mins to realise how the clue for it worked. Although I knew TRIUMVIRI and saw how the clue worked I feel sorry for solvers who didn’t know the word because it is more of a GK clue.

    If Jimbo (or anyone else for that matter) fancies a puzzle with a distinct scientific bent I recommend today’s Puck puzzle in the Guardian which can be accessed online for free.

  20. Abandoned after 60m today with 2d, 12a, 23a and 16d not done – oh and I didn’t spot the NINA and had to look that up too. Not a good day all round. Thanks for the blog, Jack. At least I now know why I didn’t complete. I can’t say I enjoyed this much – too tortuous and I thought 16d as poor a clue as I’ve seen: as anon above suggests it seems to be not much more than incorrect GK, despite Jack’s sympathetic and clever suggested parsing.
        1. rows 2 and 4 contain the number 26000 in BINARY and it also appears in BASE THIRTEEN in the bottom row BABO
                1. rrricharrrd,
                  It does not stand for anything. Google ‘nina crossword’ though and you will find it. I cannot give you the link directly as it get blocked, not being a superior being (ie blogger)
                  1. Found it, thanks. I’ve been doing crosswords for years and have never heard the term. Very impressive.
              2. Was/is he in IT Sue? Back in the good old days we had to learn how to work in hexadecimal and, being the weird types we were, this led us to look at other bases of which, for some reason I now can’t remember, 13 was popular. Like learning a language I guess once in the old grey matter these things never completely go away.
            1. I’ve just worked it out. Never used base 13 but then it dawned on me that you need new symbols for 10,11 and 12 so what better than A,B,C!
  22. I gave up after an hour without FUNBOARDS and ORIGIN, which in retrospect I felt I should have got. However, I had RUE at 3D which stymied me.

    Plenty of unknowns but all gettable from the cryptic making for a fair puzzle.

  23. I enjoyed this over about 50 minutes. Didn’t notice the Nina of course (didn’t spot the number of the puzzle either for that matter). Clever stuff, though I have to admit I haven’t used binary since my schooldays and would have had a hard job deciphering it even if I’d spotted it. Thankfully technology hides all that away in a place I don’t go!

    Edit: While writing the above I find there’s a second Nina I didn’t spot. Binary’s one thing, but base thirteen!. I’d never have got that if my life had depended on it. Thanks for pointing it out, Sue.

    Edited at 2015-01-20 02:35 pm (UTC)

    1. Probably worth trotting out the old chestnut…

      There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don’t!

  24. 01110111 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100001!

    I also wondered whether the CLOUDBASE had anything to do with it, and thought the THIRTEEN might refer to 13d, REINTERPRET, which was sort of appropriate, but I’ve never had cause to count in bakers’ dozens.
    I was going to comment more directly than I did that the weirder clues were not in the top half where the binary stuff might have caused problems, but in the bottom half. Little did I know.

    Edited at 2015-01-20 02:54 pm (UTC)

  25. Thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle, though I totally failed to see the ninas and solved 9d despite failing to parse the clue successfully ( I spent some time trying to make ‘origin’ an anagram of ‘morning’ without the ‘m’.
  26. Found this one difficult and it ate up most of a lunch break where I was hoping to finish the three dailies I have access to. Saw BASE THIRTEEN and BINARY and figured they must have had something to do with the puzzle but didn’t go to the extent of working out the digits.

    Tricky puzzle – glad there wasn’t a RADRONSHIRE back in the day.

  27. Ninas flew over my head as I don’t speak binary or base thirteen. Otherwise, 25 minutes to end with SITTER from def. and checkers only. I then looked up both sitter and dolly and found the always unknown cricket references. I also hadn’t known THEORBO, but wouldn’t be surprised to hear it’s appeared before, and RADNORSHIRE because over here we have many English derived place names, and with the available letters thought of Radnor, PA. Regards, and a salute to the nimble setter for marking the occasion of 26000.
  28. 46 minutes but had to check 2 down which I have never come across before. Not experienced enough to know that I should look for a Nina or two but would definitely not have spotted the base thirteen. Like Jimbo I was a fairly early computer programmer (1973) where my classics degree helped no end! At that time I was working in octal on ICL machines.
  29. Im lucky enough to live near the coast in Cornwall . I took myself off to the quietude of the nearby beach and completed this Binary offereing in about 30minutes (or maybe thats 30 in base thirteen) anyhow
  31. I used to work on tape drive test equipment back in the day , where binary code was used to swith relays which then routed the stimuli to the desired test point. Hexidecimal was also a popular form of machine code then .
  32. Golly, that has to be the most impressive pair of ninas I’ve ever seen. Well done indeed, setter!
  33. While one end of the Murdoch Empire (and the BBC1 6 o’clock news) is agog with the End Of The World As We Know It, that being the demise of the topless Page 3 Girl, the other end is going barmy over binary!! Funny old world, innit?!
    I don’t know if it’s relevant but the word octal has cropped up in these comments. cloud cover (27ac refers ) is expressed in oktas. Just saying.
    This was the hardest this month, I thought. Loved 2d, 9d, 10ac and 21ac although I have jackkt here to thank for explaining 21ac.
    1hr 24m 45s of brow furrowing effort.

    Edited at 2015-01-20 08:55 pm (UTC)

  34. Very many thanks to the people who contribute to this site. Without them I would have been blissfully unaware of the hidden beauty in this milestone of a puzzle. Having joined International Computers in 1966 and programmed in binary I should have spotted the binary Nina. Never in a million years would I have got the second one though. The setter of crossword 27,000 faces a tremendous challenge to surpass this one. I only hope I am spared long enough to see how she or he gets on.

    1. I joined ICT permanently in 1966, having previously worked for them before going up to university and in my long vacs.

      I was initially based on the Fulham side of Putney Bridge, working for Zvi Herzenshtein on linear programming for the 1900 series, writing in PLAN. (I’d started out, like dorsetjimbo, programming the 1300 in machine code, and subsequently moved on to the 1500, writing in FORTRAN.)

      Later I worked in Reading (ugh!), plus on various customer projects, e.g. OPCON and MOD Mult (if either of those means anything to you), before moving to Bracknell (ugh squared!) where I finished up.

      I retired 10 years ago (with Fujitsu now paying my pension).

  35. 19:30 for me, held up at the end by FORESEEN – my vocalophobia not helping!

    FUNBOARDS was new to me: fortunately the wordplay made the answer pretty clear, otherwise I’d almost certainly have guessed FINBOARDS.

    I spotted the binary Nina, but assumed that was all there was and so missed the base 13 Nina. Clever stuff!

  36. why do computer scientists think halloweed is the same as christmas? because oct 31 ios the same as dec 25 (octal, base 8 means 3*8+1=25 which is 25 (duh) in decimal)
  38. Ex-programmer, ex-computer scientist, but never spotted the ninas, even though 1 across was binary! doh! Well done setter! Araucaria himself would have been proud

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