Times Cryptic 26722 – May 11, 2017 Taking Steppes

40 comments on “Times Cryptic 26722 – May 11, 2017 Taking Steppes”

1. Ok, the club scoreboard says I have one wrong, but that was INDERPAY, which even I know isn’t a word. So I’m throwing myself on the mercy of the TfTT community, and claiming an all-correct.

   Thought at various points that this would be a DNF, but this one slowly revealed its secrets, making for a very satisfying solve. DNK REFULGENT or TAMERLANE, so they took a while.

   I also struggled with IN ONE for “united”, just can’t quite get it to work. I’m sure somebody will though.

   Thought “ride up in the cold” was worth the price of admission. Thanks setter and Z.

   1. Only known via the Marlowe play of the alt. spelling. I tried to bung it in. But no dice.
      Has anyone ever used “refulgent”?
      Again: a steeple isn’t quite a tower (20ac) … ask them in Ormskirk where the difference became historically important to their church.
      1. Here’s esoteric for you: according to footy magazine When Saturday Comes, commentator Brian Glanville uses REFULGENT often, but nobody else does.
         Personally, I’m with you and Ormskirk on STEEPLE but Chambers isn’t
         steeple n a church or other tower with or without, or including or excluding, a spire; a structure surmounted by a spire; the spire alone.
         1. Wasn’t Granville more of a reporter (Times football correspondent of yore, as I recall) than a commentator? Or are you using the word in a broader sense, i.e. as one who sounds off.

            1. I blame/credit/plead Google

   2. I was thinking of something like an “all in one” computer, like the iMac, where the parts are united into a single piece. Bit of a stretch, though, I admit.
2. Mostly steady but sure solving here but eventually I became bogged down in the NW corner with 1ac and 2dn outstanding and after about 15 minutes staring at them blankly I abandoned them, unsolved, for the night. This morning I cracked 2dn via wordplay but eventually gave up on 1ac and resorted to aids. I didn’t know the word and it appears never to have come up before* so I don’t feel too bad about it.

   I was pleased to work out the also unknown TAMERLANE from wordplay. I didn’t understand the correlation between PALATE and relish and still don’t get IN ONE = united. “One” or “at one” I see but “in one” I can only think of in expressions such as “hole in one”; it’s probably me.

   *a TftT search reveals that Vinyl1 mentioned REFULGENT in 2012 when the answer was actually EFFULGENT

   1. I think the united meaning of IN ONE creeps in through combination gadgets, machines, clothes and such: a printer and scanner in one, a dicer and slicer in one and so on. It hit the pause button for me too, though.
3. I, on the other hand, put in ‘effulgent’–didn’t know refulgent–without a clue as to how ‘efful’ worked, for good reason. This made 1d impossible, but it probably already was, as RUPERT barely exists in my memory banks. That TAMERLANE was a nasty one. He once had 400 Christian soldiers buried alive after they had been decapitated. Well, that’s what the Japanese translation said; the original said he had them buried alive after they capitulated.
4. 7:20, LOI 1dn when I stopped trying to make it REPORT, and it definitely earned a chuckle so I’ll call that my COD. Enjoyable midweeker!
5. 23:54 … I found this tough but really enjoyable — some off-beat vocab and nice misdirections (I fell for all of them).

   There’s clearly a sublime nina going on here, given that combining 12a and 6d gives us a SETTER and a RED ‘ERRING.

   And I can’t tell you how close I was to submitting SUPERCEDE (sic) but the painful memory of yesterday’s SEBACIOUS (sic) was still fresh enough to make me parse the thing.

   I’ll join Verlaine in getting behind 1d RUPERT as COD, not least for that “game on!”

   1. It’s enough to make you sic (sic).
      1. Est, innit
6. About 35mins with porridge. I thought this was top notch, with some lovely ideas: the LoCal, Veep, Erring (is it common to drop the H unhomophonically?).
   My favourite was the Red Setter. I know it comes up a lot, and the sight of ‘Dog’, ‘ashamed’ (3,6) is enough for many – but sit back, re-read and luxuriate in what is a superb little story of everyday life.
   The same is true of the skirt riding up in the cold, and several others. Great work setter and Z.

   Edited at 2017-05-11 07:18 am (UTC)

7. 11m. A remarkably steady solve for me, not desperately easy but the answers going in one by one, usually with the wordplay at least mostly understood, ending with the only unknown at 1ac.
   Collins has ‘united’ as a definition of ‘in one’, but I don’t really see it either.
   Like sotira I paused to check the wordplay for SUPERSEDE. These known unknowns are OK, it’s the unknown unknowns that do the damage.
8. …24.55 for this steady, all parsed, solve. No major delays but very few write-ins, just the right level of difficulty for midweek I thought.
   Relatives used to buy me Rupert annuals for Christmas but I thought he was a bit wet. More of a Victor and Hotspur lad myself. Alf Tupper – Tough of the Track, there’s a proper hero for you.
9. Bah. Took too long on this one, and when after seventy minutes I couldn’t think of anything other than “effulgent” for 1a once it had sprung to mind, I threw “export” in 1d in resigned desperation. Ah well. At least I worked out the unknown TAMERLANE, derived the fielder and can spell SUPERSEDE without a safety net!
10. I find it amusing that EFFULGENT is being considered as an entry even where the clue ISN’T an anagram! Does the fact that the two words share a meaning (or two) make the clue unfair?
    1. Absolutely not. Surely part of the setter’s remit is to ensnare the careless and unwary, whether by deliberate misdirection or a happenstance of the English language.

       If the “close, but no cigar” answer fails to fit all of wordplay, definition and checking letters the the clue is fair in this regard.

       I think you’re of the same view but it’s hard to tell from your post.

       1. I am of the same view indeed.

11. Enjoyed this one, not least because I managed to get it all right, with no biffing. REFULGENT and TAMERLANE from wp, but both sounded vaguely familiar. And I too needed the angrist to spell SUPERSEDE. RAISE CAIN an odd expression, and one I’ve never come across irl, only in crosswordland.

12. I found this tough, taking 51:53 and failing to carefully parse the alternate(but generally regarded as an error) spelling of SUPERCEDE. Annoying, having carefully teased out all the other half knowns, but there you go! FOI was TESLA after a growing feeling of helplessness, as no previous clues yielded an inkling of an answer. LOI was LOCAL with a shrug. The penny dropped as I scrutinised the grid looking for my one error. An entertaining puzzle, and the usual excellent blog. Thanks setter and Z.
    1. I find SUPERCEDE a lot less annoying as an error than MINISCULE, I have to say…
       1. Oh, *thanks*. Now that’s another one that’s going to bother me every time I see it. (Had to hastily avert my eyes from a “restauraNteur” this morning, too…)
       2. According to the Oxford Dictionaries, 52% of occurrences are now spelled miniscule rather than minuscule, even though, like superceded, it is considered an error. Common usage should soon rule the day!!
13. 34 minutes with COD to Rupert. Fortunately, effulgent and refulgent are equally arcane to me, so having considered the former, I plumped for the latter.

    Incidentally, ‘Inderlay’ sounds like the sort of place Orwell or Du Maurier would write about. An eerie place inhabited by a deranged Antipodean, perhaps? Talking of which, where has horryd got to?

    1. Horryd mentioned he’d be under the radar for a while a week or two ago.

    2. Inderlay, inderlay arriba!?

    3. Inderlay goes under very expensive silk carpets, I think?
       1. Only in Sith Efrica?
14. Also struggled with this, after 45 minutes had it all cracked except 1a and 1d. Then put in EFFULGENT for 1a and came here to see what I was missing for 1d E*P*R*. Groaned at my density in not twigging the bear, of whom I was once a fan, but had never heard of REFULGENT so a poor DNF today. Some good stuff here, like ski lift and peeve.
15. 14:47, enjoyed this a lot. I felt on wavelength most of the way through but had to do a fair bit of brow-furrowing to get my last two in, the 1s.

    Thanks all round.

16. Just getting over the wonderful Etna stage on the Giro d’Italia where the leader made it ahead of the peleton (such a wonderfully descriptive word, who needs English Mr Juncker?). So with Italy on the brain I originally put an A in Pasta for Pasata at 21d. I knew it was wrong really and finally made amends at the end of a long stage today. Phew, I need a masage now after 50 minutes of uphill toil. Thanks Z and setter
17. 14 mins, with the last two of them spent on RUPERT, REFULGENT and FLUID OUNCE. Every answer was parsed so I was pretty much on the setter’s wavelength. I’m aware of quite a few variants of TAMERLANE so following the WP for it didn’t present a problem.
18. Did half of this in 29 mins on the train to work this morning and the rest in 34 mins at lunchtime. I was pleased to finish all correct because I found this a stiff challenge in parts: 1ac, 1dn, 2dn, 9ac, 18dn etc. Delayed myself by not checking enumeration at 23ac and spending too long looking for a 9 letter word. Also not one to readily equate relish with palate so grateful for the word play there. FOI 10ac. LOI 6dn which I should have seen a lot sooner. COD 1dn which I enjoyed very much when the penny dropped.

    Edited at 2017-05-11 05:55 pm (UTC)

19. I didn’t time this, but did it in leisurely fashion. Came through all correct, after a while; it seemed a standard difficulty outing. LOI was UNDERPAY, after I finally saw RUPERT/REFULGENT, the latter from wordplay. I hadn’t known of the word, as far as I can remember, but finally cottoned on to ‘rueful’ as the first part. No problems re IN ONE, figured spelling of TAMERLANE from the clue, and enjoyed SKI LIFT and LIBRETTO. Regards.

    Edited at 2017-05-11 07:23 pm (UTC)

20. I’m on hols so tried the 15×15 yesterday and again today as a test from the QC. Encouraged by a handful yesterday, and the blog suggesting I ought to have done better, I managed 12 today. As the proud owner of a 12a and 15a I am going to keep on with both puzzles to see what else comes up. I notice that today we have two answers lifted from recent QC’s – 23a and 24d – possibly others too. The blog is really helpful in understanding how much more complicated the 15×15 than the QC. I won’t have much to post but will be an attentive reader. Thanks to all bloggers!
21. Hi, can anyone explain how the G disappears from Gerbils in 3d. After reversing, “avoiding first” removes the S…but surely we’d need to avoid first AND last? Thx
    1. In the clue, there’s only one pet to “look up”, though my wording suggests there’s more than one, which it shouldn’t. The way the clue’s worded allows you to take the first letter off before you reverse it, providing the answer you need.

       If, like me, you saw the word LIBRETTO before understanding the wordplay, the reversed word OTTER is almost irresistible, prompting diversions such as what letter do I remove from where, how do I get LIB or BIL, and are otters rodents? All that chews up time when you should simply be decapitating your gerbil. I find a swift twist and pull works well enough, just as Mummy showed me (sic). Much tougher on otters.

22. 12:19 for me, feeling exhausted after a busy day – too exhausted to go over the clues again, which I wanted to do before commenting as I sensed this was a fine crossword some of whose finer points I’d probably missed while solving.

    And (in the clearer light of the following day) it turns out I was quite right: a very fine puzzle. My compliments to the setter.

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