Times Cryptic 26384

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
There were one or two unusual words or meanings but on the whole the wordplay was very precise (if somewhat convoluted in a few cases) and given sufficient time everything was gettable one way or another. Spotting often vague definitions, many consisting of a single word in rather wordy clues was my main difficulty and for that reason I have included most of them in the blog indicated in bold italics.

As usual {deletions} are in curly brackets and [indicators] in square ones.

Across
1 DISTANCE – 1ST (first) inside [to block] DANCE (ball). Definition: reserve
5 SHIRAZ – SH (pipe down – be quiet!), I (one), RAZ{e} (level [with end sawn off]). Definition: red – wine
10 PARLIAMENTARIAN – PAR (the usual), anagram [upset] of MEAL IN A TRAIN. Definition: diet expert – ‘diet’ as ‘parliament’ or ‘assembly’ has come up several times recently.
11 NOBLEST – OB (passed on – obit – dec’d) + L (pound) inside [to open] NEST (shelter). Definition: most generous – I’m not sure I have come across ‘generous’ meaning ‘of noble birth’ before but in SOED it’s ranked above what I’d consider the more common usage.
12 TBILISI – Anagram [strangely] of IS I (one) B{u}ILT [without university]. Definition: capital – of Georgia.
13 LANDMINE – LAND (secure e.g. a contract), MINE (abundant source). Definition: weapon
15 SEPTA – Reversed and hidden [about accommodating] inside {gre)AT PES{simism}. Definition: divisions. Unknown to me, but it’s the plural of ‘septum’, a word I have come across though I couldn’t have defined it other than its being vaguely anatomical.
18 HADES – HAD (experienced), ES (hands in opposition – bridge). Definition: shadowy world
20 INDECENT – IND{i}E (record company [one leaving]), CENT (little money). Definition: offensive
23 MATTHAU – MATT (dull finish), HAU{l} (drag [forgetting line]). Walter of that name was one of ‘The Odd Couple’ and ‘Grumpy Old Men’. Definition: Hollywood actor
25 SCOURGE – SCOUR (comb), EG (for one) reversed [back]. Definition: flog
26 SUB-POSTMISTRESS – SUB (fee), POST (following), MI (note – music), STRESS emphasis. Definition: office manager. A gender-neutral definition of a gender-specific answer.
27 PLONKS – I’d say this is two definitions: drops and of inferior alcohol, although I can see other possible interpretations
28 COMPADRE – CORE (heart) encloses [carrying] M (maiden – cricket) + PAD (home). Definition: friend

Down
1 DAPHNE – DA (lawyer – District Attorney – US), PH{o}NE (call [centre abandoned]). Definition: female
2 SCRUBLAND – SC (that is – scilicet), RUBL{e} (foreign currency [briefly]), AND (also). Definition: area of stunted growth
3 ANISEED – AN (article), I SEED (incorrect witness statement – should be ‘I saw’). Definition: flavour
4 COMET – C (caught), O (roundabout!), MET (police – in London). Definition: high-speed traveller
6 HEAVIES – HE’S (chap’s) encloses [going without] A + VIE (struggle). Definition: &lit
7 REIKI – RE (touching), {k}I{c}K{s} I{n} [regularly]. Definition: healing technique. Didn’t know this.
8 ZANZIBAR – RAN (managed) encloses [packing] BIZ (business informally), A, Z (variable) all reversed [from south). Definition: island
9 KNOTWEED – KO (big punch – knock-out) encloses [around] N (noon), TWEED (rough stuff). Definition: plant
14 INIQUITY – IN (home), I QUIT (resignation announcement), {secretar}Y. Definition: misdeed
16 PENFRIEND – PEN (confined space), FRI (24 hours), END (conclude). Definition: correspondent
17 THUMBS UP – THUS (so) encloses [about] MB (doctor), UP (cheerful). Definition: encouraging signal
19 SCHLOCK – SCH (school), LOCK (Yale). Definition: rubbish
21 CROP TOP – CROP (yield), TO, P (pressure). Definition: revealing garment
22 PENSEE – PEN (bird – swan), SEE (spot). Definition: thought. Didn’t know this.
24 TABOO – TAB (bill), O O (loves). Definition: &lit or semi
25 SLIGO – SLI sounds like “sly” (employing craft), GO (leave). Definition: Irish port

48 comments on “Times Cryptic 26384”

  1. Submitted online without noticing that I had nothing at 22dn. Which didn’t matter much as I don’t think I’d have got it anyway, despite both components of the answer occurring to me while solving.
    PENSEE just doesn’t look like a word.

    Neither does TBILISI, which is why I went for TSILIBI, which also doesn’t. Probably should have known that one though.

    So a poor result after an enjoyable 40 minutes. CODs to PARLIAMENTARIAN which I got straight away and SUB-POSTMISTRESS which I didn’t. I’ve developed a taste for long-word answers after blogging buckminsterfullerene in a recent Jumbo.

    Well done setter, and thanks to Jack and his trusty Tardis.

  2. Thought I’d be defeated in the SW after the first hour had passed. At 20ac, couldn’t think of anything that would suitably fit I?D?T?N? before I realised TANK TOP at 21dn was wrong. And the actual answer is miles better. Also spent too much time trying to insert an X and a J to complete the pangram. All very devious.

    LOI was PENSÉE, known from pleasant hours reading Pascal.

  3. As tough as they come! 80 minutes but DNF

    as I spelt 12 ac TBILISI incorrectly and messed-up 6dn

    also failed on 15ac SEPTA put SUPRA instead.

    But it was a terrific grid.

    What is the TftT Tardis, pray?

    FOI 4dn COMET

    COD 22 dn PENSEE

    horryd Shanghai

  4. Brilliant stuff, and definitely a tad harder than yesterday’s. The ‘diet’ did me like a kipper, as did the office manager, where I spent ages trying to elongate subcontract* into something.

    I too had ‘tank top’ at 21d, oblivious of the fact that I was giving double duty to ‘to pressure’. Spieth’s collapse has been seared on my mind, it seems.

  5. Really hard going for me. After getting a few early on such as PARLIAMENTARIAN, I came to a halt for about an hour before the rest slowly went in, but it was a pretty painful process. Still, the clues were gettable so I don’t think it was unfair, although I didn’t know PENSEE could be used as an English word. (Incidentally, I parsed this rather circuitously as ‘bird’ = slang for prison = PEN, but that’s a bit of a stretch. (Geddit?)) Count me as another who watched the Masters yesterday and had ‘tank top’ for 21d.

    So many good clues, once solved of course, but my favourites were ANISEED, SCHLOCKS and HEAVIES.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

  6. Timed at 24 mins but I’m claiming back 5 for a cat-related interruption.

    Held up by predictably putting in ‘Tiblisi’ for the capital. Quite a few things went in half-parsed. Last in SHIRAZ. Nice contrast from yesterday’s puzzle and I enjoyed both.

    1. Spooky, I had a dog related incident for which I claim 10 mins yielding a magnificent sub 60 proving once and for all dogs are man’s best friend.
      1. Cats are, of course, the devil’s work. They whisper wrong answers in your ear while solving (at least, mine do).
    2. I’m still trying to work out whether your cat-related interruption was actually a tib-cat luring you into bunging in Tiblisi.
      1. Do you know, Tony, as I was typing my comment I felt sure there was a tib-related pun in there but I decided I was getting confused with tabby or tiddles or something, so dismissed it. I had forgotten ‘tib-cat’. Thank you. I shall file that one away for future reference.
  7. Stopped after 60 minutes with everything but DAPHNE, mind block on. Really enjoyed the puzzle, and perversely heartened by the comments and longish times. TBILISI was FOI, but went back and forth re spelling. Excellent puzzle!
  8. As hard as yesterday’s was easy. Absolutely torpedoed by “diet expert” and the would-have-been-helpful DAPHNE, so came in with a list (but not of complaints) in 31.42. Not only a game of “spot the definition” but also a game of spot what it’s a definition of.
    Nearly snookered by SCHLOCK. Obviously I knew what a yale was as a security device, but a part of my brain had decided that this setter wouldn’t give us anything that simple and was trying to remember what sort of creature it was and thinking probably a bird. Wrong about that too. I did think the crossing PLONKS and “drops” were not much more than kissing cousins – there’s more of a sense of (forceful) placement in the former but hey, close enough.
  9. Super puzzle, I was another one guilty of putting in TIBLISI at first although in the back of my mind I knew it began TB-. So delayed by that, and 1a / 1d were LOI, knew pensee and loved ZANZIBAR (not the easiest word to clue?) interrupted a few times by 4 and 5 year olds but around 45 minutes in total.
  10. 24m, like sotira, and a bit like sotira I’m claiming time back, although in my case it’s for a stupidity-related incident. I spend ten minutes (ten minutes!) staring at 1dn, unable to get the answer. I’m not sure why: I spotted how the wordplay worked pretty quickly. I think I may have got hung up on the certainty that the fourth letter must certainly be a vowel. In any event I have a big bruise from where I eventually kicked myself.
    Before that I actually started reasonably quickly, helped perhaps by a complete absence of unknowns in the answers. I then slowed down with about two-thirds done before hitting my personal DAPHNE wall.
    Great puzzle.
    1. That’s like Jordan Spieth claiming back a couple of shots because there was a lake where his ball landed.
      1. Oh yeah? Well has anyone ever been awarded shots in golf because of being interrupted by a cat? Hmm?
        😉
          1. Oh, well that’s different of course. Who can forget that time a pair of fighting pixie-bobs knocked Fuzzy Zoeller’s ball into the sand-trap at Shinnecock Hills?
  11. A fine puzzle as is witnessed by a blog that looks and reads like a Mephisto blog. Some Mephisto words as well, such as SEPTA, REIKI and PENSEE

    Really enjoyed wrestling with this and great job under pressure Jack. George and I have a week to blog Mephisto

    Disappointed to realise Sotira was talking about four legged cats – thought for a while that she’d found the west country jazz scene!

  12. Got there eventually, with a whole morning now lost. Pascal’s pensées didn’t help mine. I took a long time to think of a diet of worms despite having spaghetti last night. I don’t think PLONKS and DROPS are synonymous. Here I stand, I can do no other. Biffed SEPTA and REIKI, never having heard of either.
    1. Septum came in to the public consciousness when Eastenders actress Daniella Westbrook was photographed with hers shockingly absent due to Cocaine abuse. If that isn’t ringing any bells that’s probably to your credit.
      1. I’ve never failed to get out of the room in under five seconds when EastEnders comes on. The rest of the family watch, but what I’ve seen in those few seconds or heard through walls not thick enough to withstand the noise ( 20 foot thick mediaeval castle walls wouldn’t do the job) helps me understand why Peter Kay said that if he lived in Albert Square he’d shoot himself. But now you mention it, I do remember poor Daniella’s nasal issues and I should have remembered SEPTUM.

        Edited at 2016-04-12 01:50 pm (UTC)

      2. I was going to comment that this was the only reason I knew the word, but then decided that I didn’t want to admit to being so low-brow.
  13. A tough but enjoyable solve left me pondering 22D pensively for an age. Having passed up HENSEE I eventually plumped for MEASLE thinking maybe the definition could be ‘spot’.

    Several candidates for COD, but I’ll give it to ZANZIBAR for an eloquent clueing of an awkward word.

  14. As far as I’m concerned this was just an obscurantist ego-trip for the setter. Sorry!
    1. Slinging mud anonymously rather than engaging in debate is not very constructive. I’m sure there’d be an interesting discussion to be had about the clues you were not happy with but insulting the setter doesn’t get anybody anywhere.
    2. It’s good to remember that what’s obscure to you may be common knowledge to others. For example, all cricket clues are obscure to me but others here seem to have no problem. I find words like PENSEE and REIKI far easier than sporting terminology. (Unless it’s rugby…)Ann
  15. A most enjoyable 50 mins today having to think hard (and usually long) about every clue. LOI was “daphne”. Spent far too long trying to think of a Maori sounding name for South Island that fitted the wordplay and was also completely up the garden path dredging my brain for alternative names for nutritionists. No excuses regarding the cat since he is always asleep or outside except for a few seconds per day when he eats – I do sometimes wonder why we have one.
  16. Did this late last night and had a few raised eyebrow moments, there were question marks next to PLONKS, CROP TOP and SCOURGE. Some very tricky stuff – well blogged!
  17. Another ‘tanktop’ held me up in the SE and once that was fixed I was convinced that 10ac had to be something to do with alimentation, until the penny dropped, as we say. A finely constructed crossword but not a lot of laughs.
  18. Incomplete after 60m so came here as ever for enlightenment which thanks to Jack’s excellent blog I found. In fact I wasn’t so far away as it turns out. I guessed KNOTWEED from the KO for example but couldn’t makes sense of TWEED and rough stuff. I struggled especially in the SE corner with the unknown CROP TOP and SLIGO doing for me good and proper. As Jack said there were a few vague definitions to catch out the unwary ie me. Hey ho there’s always tomorrow!
  19. Elapsed time on leader board over two hours, as had to leave NE corner blank after half an hour, much taken up with DAPHNE, when had to go out shopping (mobility trolley was booked). On return saw ZANZIBAR, and rest fell quickly, so actual solving time about 40 min.
    I remembered REIKI from somewhere, and PENSEE went straight in.
    BTW, it’s a bit harsh to refer to Speight’s ‘collapse’ as after his disaster at the 12th he did hold his game together well enough to finish second. On the other hand, Willetts deserves the highest praise for standing up to the pressure and coming through at the end.
    1. Well, dropping six shots in three holes is a collapse, I reckon. I chose my word carefully, nettled by the widespread use of ‘capitulation’ and ‘meltdown’ on the BBC.
  20. 21:43 with parliamentarian my LOI in contrast to other solvers. Mind you, a hurried REKKI (I seem to have trouble counting alternate letters across words, especially backwards) had me looking for a word ending N-A-K-N until I spotted the gaffe.

    Good challenge.

  21. Not sure of the time as the clock kept running while I had to give daughter’s degree dissertation a final proof-read. I should now know much more about increasingly drug-resistant malaria and how to cope with it but I did not understand a word. Probably about an hour though for this formidable puzzle. Liked the dial and have learned some new words. Thank you setter and blogger
  22. I must have been on the wavelength this morning. I was surprised to see, on coming here, that people had found this difficult. I’m never particularly fast but clocked in here at 31 minutes. No problems except that I couldn’t parse NOBLEST – didn’t recognise OB as “passed on”. I was helped by the fact that one of my best friends is a REIKI practitioner and a good advertisement for it. I’m still sceptical though. (She does something called “Angelic Reiki”. Maybe that’s one for us to remember for the future!) Another good friend comes from TBILISI. She came to UK with a ballet troupe and married a Welshman. Lives up the road… Ann
  23. Time off the scale for me, and even then DNFed with the momble KESSEE for 22dn. PENSEE just didn’t come to mind although it might have done if the clue had pointed to France in some way. FOI COMET, then got nothing until THUMBS UP, TABOO and MATTHAU in the SW. It must have been another 45 minutes before I was able to find another entry! Finally spotted ZANZIBAR, DISTANCE and PARLIAMENTARY which gave me the leads to finish at a trot, although failing on 22dn, as mentioned. A tough workout, not helped by the stomach bug picked up while on a pub golf soc trip to Louth in Lincolnshire at the weekend. At least the knee held out well 🙂 NHO SCHLOCK. Knew SEPTA as I had my septum broken by a “friend” at a New Year party in the dim and distant past, when he fell out with his sister, at whose home we were celebrating, and demanded I drive him home. All I did was mention that I didn’t want to incur the wrath of the local constabulary, as I’d already consumed enough to light up any breathalyser!

    Edited at 2016-04-12 03:25 pm (UTC)

  24. I thought this a very fine puzzle.

    Unfortunately after completing it in 25 minutes or thereabouts, I couldn’t finish, because I didn’t know PENSEE. I thought of it due to the wordplay but wasn’t familiar with it. I looked it up, so a ‘technical’ DNF for me. But still a very good puzzle, COD to SLIGO.

  25. Another knock-free solve, and my 20 mins looks a decent time. I’d come across some of the more obscure answers in other puzzles over the years so they didn’t hold me up because the cluing was spot on. I finished with LANDMINE after KNOTWEED.
  26. Chastened to admit that the North East corner had me completely beaten. Failed on Shiraz, Tbilisi, Reiki and Zanzibar, though I had considered most of the components. I decided that there were words here that I just did not know, though Reiki was the only one that was actually unknown, and even that rang a faint bell. Simply wrong-footed by the compiler. Better performance from me tomorrow I hope.
  27. 21:05 here for this Championship-final-grade puzzle – definitely not one to tackle when feeling as tired as I was! I raise my hat to the setter.
  28. Solving time: 61 hours.
    Drink: Obviously.
    Music: No.

    Well, OK, I started this one 61 hours ago. Actual time spent: 108 of your finest imperial minutes. This, I believe, speaks volumes about my intelligence, persistence, professional integrity and sanity (low, high, low and low in that order).

    I suppose I should be cheered to see that my time was only just over 5 Severs, but frankly I find myself but little gladenned. If this is a “championship-level puzzle” (as someone here pointed out), I can well understand why it is necessary to allow a full year between championships. I am left with not even the energy to quibble over Reiki being defined as a “healing technique”.

    Edited at 2016-04-14 10:40 pm (UTC)

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