Times Cryptic 26612

55 comments on “Times Cryptic 26612”

1. … almost the first hour of the Aust/Pakistan 3rd Test. (Of which, was surprised to hear Imran Kahn had been called up … but not that Imran!)

   As to the puzzle … I found this about medium difficulty and glad of a few exact parsings from our resident Time Lord. LEYLANDII was unknown — a bit of trouble seeing LEY on its own to mean “line”, but got there eventually; then confirmed by the Wik. The sheer simplicity of 16ac had me wondering for a while. Sign of a good clue I guess.

   26ac: banning golf! That won’t go down at all well here.

   (Back to the old userpic … dragged out the old Tele for repairs and it still sounds good.)

   Edited at 2017-01-03 01:13 am (UTC)

   1. Yeah, I reckon Warner scored about 70 while I solved this one. He was seeing them better than I was.
2. I had ‘gin’ as well, causing me to take 51 minutes. I finally decided to just try anagrams of ‘work annals is’ after a ‘P’, and was rewarded, so I realized ‘win’ was the last piece to the puzzle.

   I just biffed ‘leylandii’. ‘Ley’ is a bit obscure; “A supposed straight line connecting three or more prehistoric or ancient sites, sometimes regarded as the line of a former track and associated by some with lines of energy and other paranormal phenomena.”

3. with LEYLANDII my LOI. We’ve had it before, or I would never have got it, since I’d totally forgotten LEY, which we’ve also had before. Had no idea how NUDE worked, but it was a safe biff.

   Edited at 2017-01-03 02:25 am (UTC)

4. A careless crunch spoiled my sub-21 minute time. Nice number, if a fair bit of semi-biffing. Does that put me on a par with Magoo and co?
5. Leylandii has been common in the UK since the late fifties and has caused many arguments as it is used as garden hedge. Obviously not known down-under or in Connecticut (where it may have other names). Ten years ago, in Gloucestershire, a film director Paul Weiland was taken to court and forced to cut his ‘hedge’ as it had grown to well over 40 feet high. In the south-west the tree is laughingly known as Weilandii.

   I too started with a GIN although I suspected 1ac was PARKINSON’S LAW and not in fact PARKINSON’S LOG. LOI 12dn SOCIAL MEDIA. I thought 20 ac included RET for a while 16ac DUCK was indeed simples, but not for those who do not know their cricket!

   Took me around 50 mins – interrupted by breakfast..and gin.

   COD 26ac NUDE WOD WEILANDII

6. Knew about LEY lines, but thought they were LAY lines. Good to have my first error of 2017 out of the way early.

   Also brought undone by GIN (not for the first time), until I spotted the anagram at 1ac. And had no idea how NUDE worked until coming here, so thanks for that Jack.

   Overall, no match for the HKM today.

   1. Yeh … as noted (sort of), I’m used to “ley lines” (bldy hippie brother!*) but not “ley” on its own to mean a line. After the fact, the usual sources show my vocab is deficient.

      * He goes to Glastonbury every year. I just go outside, cover myself in mud, pour a warm cider and listen to some decent blues.

7. Thank you Jackkt, and a Hapy New Year!

   Another GIN at 3dn here, which was only corrected once I had all the checkers to PARKINSONS.

   I was also misled by “Noted” in 5dn, but are there any other Swedes likely to appear in a crossword?

   No problem with LEYLANDII – I managed to have 3 of the filthy things removed from my front garden last year.

   Dereklam

   1. There’s the Rutabaga?
      1. Off the top of my head,Ingmar Bergman, Dag Hammarskjold (recently used in the 15×15), Greta Garbo, Anders Celsius, Carl Linnaeus, Stieg Larsson and August Strindberg

         Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Britt Ekland and the Abba ensemble might appear on a Sunday as they are still with us. I guess Ann-Margaret Olsson might not make the grade these days.

         1. Celsius even scored a mention today, in the clues.
            Slow 29:13, due to tiredness. Like our blogger I’ve heard of pen-pushers and paper-shufflers, but never a paper-pusher. And while I avoided the gin trap, my first guess at the tree was a plausible-sounding Rowlandii (Parkinson’s Law one of the last in).
      2. When I saw noted Swede I thought ah! A composer. Post solve, I looked up the list and realised I had not consciously listened to music from any of them, all the better Scandinavian composers being not Swedish. So I wrote this to provoke a deluge of comments from, say, Disgusted of New York. I brace myself.
         1. The only Swedish composer I could think of (as mentioned in my blog) was Dag Wiren whose most famous work is possibly his Serenade for Strings. It came to my attention at an early age as part of it was used as the title music for the BBC-TV arts programme MONITOR which ran from 1958 to the mid-1960s. Since blogging I have also come up with Hugo Alfven (1872-1960) who in 1903 wrote a Swedish Rhapsody that later became a huge international hit for the likes of Percy Faith and his Orchestra, and in the UK for Mantovani: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbS4s-bWGk8.

            Edited at 2017-01-03 10:01 am (UTC)

            1. I’ve now spent the last twenty minutes tunelessly whistling the Swedish Rhapsody. Even the dog’s telling me to shut up, and it’s your fault!
            2. There are surprisingly quite a few additional very accomplished Swedish composers that are worth listening to: Johan Roman, Carl Stenhammer, Franz Berwald, Lars-Erik Larsson and August Soderman to name a few. Somehow though I don’t think they’ll be featuring in the Times Crossword anytime soon.

               Edited at 2017-01-03 10:12 am (UTC)

         2. The only two I have in my 4000-LP collection are Hugo Alfven and Alan Pettersson.

            Pettersson is the one of the leaders in the contest for the title of “the world’s most depressing composer”>

            1. Presumably just after the late Leonard Cohen.
8. “Get,” gain, “a-reduced”… yep, seems that would work, sans the checkers. After also working the New Year’s Jumbo and almost finishing this (I used an aid for the tall tree), I gave up on this last one and came here. Sure I would’ve remembered PARKINSON’S LAW eventually. But recognizing one’s own mistake is often the biggest hurdle.
9. Glad I wasn’t the only one who fell into the “Gin Trap”

   Other than that fairly straightforward start to the year on my first day back.

10. 35 minutes and surprised I didn’t fall into the Gin trap. I knew the two trees LEYLANDII and FLAMBOYANT. I see that LEYLANDII “have waxy leaves” – please do not tell Izetti.
11. 11:34 .. finishing with RUNIC.

    I found it easy but enjoyed it — some great surfaces in this one. “A chance matter” for CATCHMENT AREA is perfect, and PAPER PUSHER for a newsagent made me smile. Excellent stuff.

12. Very enjoyable if straightforward puzzle

    LEYLANDII are guaranteed to raise tempers being both an invasive species and if uncut a major pain in the posterior. The current legislation on them comes under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 which allows councils to take action where the trees have grown to an unacceptable height

13. A bit of a sprawling, interrupted solve over 29 minutes. A couple of clues managed that trick more often seen in the TLS of making the surface resonate with the solution: TENOR the better one, and, given the kerfuffle in the late 70’s about their proliferation, LEYLANDII the other.
    I knew LEY for (and with) line from my days in Totnes. Less commercial and probably more properly mystical than Glasto, Totnes (twinned with Narnia) had more leylines crossing it than any other known location, though how you decide which weird site you connect to which other weird site is a mystery.
14. 14:21, but with LAYLANDII. I think I might have spelled the plant right in isolation, but for some reason I was confident the lines were spelled LAY. Must brush up on my new-age hogwash.
    So a 100% failure rate for me so far in 2017.
15. After yesterday’s QC didn’t have the patience, and despite many minutes staring at 1ac and GIN, decided to cut my losses. Thanks jack and setter.
    1. Oh dear, Rob. I referred to it in my QC comment today as a confidence killer as it certainly had its effect on the only puzzles I have solved since tackling it, namely today’s QC and the Jumbo which I started last night as I had solved this one previously for blogging purposes. I abandoned the Jumbo eventually with less than a third completed as I ran out of steam. If it affected experienced solvers and actual bloggers negatively I wonder how the newbies will fare post-waxy!

       Edited at 2017-01-03 10:10 am (UTC)

16. The time taken to parse a crossword expands so as to fill the time available. That’s the excuse furnished by 1ac to explain why I took 50 minutes today. Also I didn’t have the muscle to solve this quickly. And our old dog had me up at 4am for a call of nature. I may be a little liberal, but LEYLANDII are the biggest threat to humanity I know and their felling should be compulsory. COD CATCHMENT AREA, living in which is anything but a chance matter round here. Many are ECONOMICAL with the truth. In this Financial Services world, It’s a long time since I heard PAPER PUSHER.
17. Must’ve been my kind of puzzle, as I finished with 23mins on the timer, and that included making a cup of tea… I would say almost a PB for me! Much better than yesterday’s which seemed to take all day on and off…

    Have heard of LEY lines, but wouldn’t’ve been able to define them Luckily the tree was familiar. Again, lucky not to have thought of g(a)in at 7dn. Lucky too to have heard of today’s golf term! PARKINSONS LAW from anagrist.

    Only one unparsed was TENOR, but what else could it be?

    1. I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to define ley lines, it distracts from the mysticality. To find one, take a ruler, start at any place with ancient resonances, line up with another such place, and see if the line crosses any more. Totnes, for example (see above) lines up with Stonehenge and on to Verulamium and sundry other places. Aren’t you glad you know that?

       Edited at 2017-01-03 12:06 pm (UTC)

       1. I always thought that they were isopleths for high incidences of gullibility?
18. 49 minutes, having also fallen into the gin and stared at my remaining two crossers of 1a and 4d for far too long. No problems with LEYLANDII—I think growing up in the UK in the 70s and 80s helped a lot with this one, as there were many mentions of ley lines and the perils of untrimmed cypresses on the telly.

19. Pleasant puzzle despite never feeling on the wavelength. Encapsulated by processes such as “Aha, 5dn will be a Swedish composer, that’s easy…wait, I don’t actually know any Swedish composers…(time passes)…oh, it’s not a composer, is it.”
20. Another 33 minutes today with all correct. I spotted the anagram at 1a without solving it immediately, so that prevented me falling into the gin trap, which I put in quite late in the solve after getting 1a and 9a. My FOI was SPIN, and LOI DUCK which took me longer to see than it should have. Liked the muscle clue and CATCHMENT AREA. No problem with Ley lines or Leylandii. My back garden used to be surrounded by them until one day after working on the computer for several hours wondering what the buzzing noise was, I looked out of the window to find a whole new vista of neighbouring houses overlooking my previously private garden. I then had to buy blinds for my kitchen window! Saw the parsing of NUDE which then gave me MEDIA although SOCIAL took a bit longer to spot. My first thought for 15d was an unparseable HIGHLIGHT, but then I got the S from 13a and wondered about SCUPLIGHT until I hit the jackpot. An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Jack. I wonder what the Quick Cryptic has in store today!

    Edited at 2017-01-03 12:24 pm (UTC)

21. Not only held up by GIN I then decided it must be PIN(t). Warner had his ton by then. Needed an alphabet scan to finally get there. Dad was a newsagent which meant I avoided jobs in retail all my life as far too hard. At least they get Christmas Day off lucky b@@@@@s.
    Alan
22. 11:24 – biffed PARKINSON’S LAW and needed the wordplay for LEYLENDII as my last in.
23. 
    Fell into the GIN trap, and then briefly considered PARKINSON’S DOG which not only failed to match any relevant parameters for meaning/sense, but also had nothing at all to do with the clue.

    Stumbled over the finish-line in about 45 mins. but with all correct, so much better than yesterday.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

24. Just over 20 min – as 1ac was FOI, no risk of GIN trap.
25. Back to work today, and based on the comments above my 12 mins doesn’t appear to be too bad. I felt I was going to be quicker because I had the top third completed about as quickly as yesterday’s top third, but then I ran out of steam a little. Even if I hadn’t known how to spell LEYLANDII I knew how to spell ley (lines) so I’d have been able to get it from the wordplay. I’d entered the PAPER element of 1dn quite quickly but needed the final checker from QUADRICEPS before the PUSHER penny dropped, and I agree with those above who are of the opinion that it’s a phrase that doesn’t seem quite right. OneLook shows that ten online dictionaries record it, but they aren’t the mainstream ones for the most part. ECONOMICAL was my LOI and I’m not sure why it took me so long to see it.
26. Having also fallen for the GIN trap, and thus convinced myself that the ‘annals’ part of 1a was LOG, I then imagined that ‘labour’ might be in the sense of giving birth, and that we were looking for an expression fitting P-R-I-S-N-, with everything after the P meaning ‘work’, for something recorded during the birth process, which I was never going to get. So easy to pile complexity on needless complexity.

    Jim, near Cambridge (UK)

27. Well, a happy new year to all and one. I’m fairly happy with my 22min (just on the good side of my average), and this one felt rather Mondayish to me.

    Uncharacteristically, I avoided the gin. As an aside, sloe gin appears to be the currently fashionable beverage – I received no fewer than three bottles of the stuff for Christmas from sundry people, and am conscientiously working my way through it. RUNIC went in biffwise, because I read the clue parse-about-face and was expecting something beginning with “cinur…” meaning argument, which was clearly a non-starter. Thanks to Jack for clarifying.

28. This took a while, since I too had GIN in there until the very end. I only knew LEYLANDII from prior appearances here, though I know nothing of ley lines, and reading the above convinces me I am better off for that. PAPER PUSHER is common in the US, so no problems there. Happy New Year to all. Regards.
29. Just over an hour. But DNF with LAYLANDII as my only mistake. No matter, since I knew neither the LEY nor the trees; instead I was thinking of a song as a LAY (having some lines of lyrics, of course) or maybe the LAY of the land, whatever that might have to do with it. So under the circumstances, I did as well as I could have expected.
30. Having retired a year or so ago, and having lurked in the shadows throughout 2016, I am seeing the light of day in 2017.
    The lurking has paid off and I am now regularly getting to within a handful of a finish – with success currently defined as completion with less than 5 uses of ‘aids’
    Today’s completion in 55 mins is entirely due to a year of invaluable blog explanations and clarifications for which I am eternally grateful and which have saved my sanity on many occasions.
    1. Hello, honeonthegrange and welcome in out of the shadows! Congrats on your progress.
    2. Welcome homeonthegrange to one of the most friendly discussion sites around.
31. I got to DUCK as a synonym for ‘love’, in the sense of a casual endearment; you know you’re in the Midlands when folk call you ‘duck’ rather than ‘love’!
    But I suppose it doesn’t need a triple definition …
    Johnhmproctor
32. A disappointing 16:34, without even the excuse of too much GIN. For some unknown reason I had about 5 minutes in the middle of the puzzle where I got absolutely nowhere, but I eventually recovered a little and managed to stumble home.

    Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who tried to come up with a Swedish composer at 5dn.

33. I’m not sure where it came from but a PB of 14′ today, a mere 41 years into my cryptic career. As an aside, I interpreted ‘and two further’ in 6d as two further lines, i.e. the letters ii. A smoother surface then the Roman for 2.
    GeoffH
    1. I’m probably being dim, Geoff, but how do the letters ii equate with two further lines?
       1. As in two vertical strokes or lines when written in upper case. Then again, my interpretations are often suspect! GeoffH
          1. Interesting, Geoff. Of course it’ll vary according to font, but to my mind upper case “i” (I) is the number one in Roman numerals so II = the “two further” required in the construction of the clue with no reference back to “line upon line”. But anyway it doesn’t really matter as long as we got to the correct answer.
    2. A PB’s a PB’s, Geoff, whenever it comes. Well done.
34. Im liking these puzzles more as each word has a meaning towards the solution.
    thanks for these blogs folks.
    jake.

    1. Welcome, Jake. Glad you find them useful.

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