Times Cryptic 27494

54 comments on “Times Cryptic 27494”

1. ….but I did not find it particularly easy. You could easily fail on something you didn’t know, such as Buffalo Bill’s surname. Fortunately, ‘allheal’ and ‘Hessian’ were generously clued, so I got them despite not knowing.

   I believe we have had ‘clamp’ as a pile of potatoes before, perhaps more than once.

2. Well, I knew Buffalo Bill’s last name and failed anyway. Couldn’t get beyond CONY, and an alphabet trawl, evidently managed to skip D. DNK ALLHEAL or CLAMP, but no problem there. Jack, the German state is Hesse. Vinyl has probably forgotten the Hessians, the German mercenary soldiers used by the British in the American Revolutionary War.

   Edited at 2019-10-29 02:51 am (UTC)

   1. Indeed. Typo corrected.
   2. I mean the boot, not the soldiers or the Electorate.
3. Digital is not like an analog computer, but it is like a digital computer.
   Same DNKs, allheal, Hessian, tritone, veridical (first guess vericidal sounds like a word – someone who kills truth! But I’m over Trump, that was yesterday’s 10ac). Cody known, clamp seen here before, Versailles was a red herring a few days ago.
   Started quickly but tricky at the end, femoral and demo the last in
   1. Well yes, but the clue doesn’t say ‘like every computer that was ever built’.
      1. It just sounds wrong. It’s like clueing TWO-LEGGED with “Like an animal.” Not every single animal ever is two-legged, only a small subset are, but that clue doesn’t work for me. Two-leggedness is not an essential part of animalness.
         1. While I agree with your distinction (I was in a mini-lecture about an analogue computer on Saturday, in fact) the ODE does include “typically in binary form” in its primary definition, which I suppose is an acknowledgement that when people say “computer” these days they’re generally talking about the digital variety. That might be enough to give the setter some leeway. Of course, you might see this as a purely binary decision 😀
4. 24 minutes, so on the wavelength. A Trump v Hillary truth or dare would make for compelling viewing.
5. The wordplay + a bit of guesswork was helpful for the four unknowns and I managed to finish with all in after 35-40 minutes. VERIDICAL is a good word, ‘veridicality’ even better.

   Thanks for the CORELLI and especially “The Saint” links. I’d never seen the show in colour before. Love that theme tune and that little Volvo.

   1. Volvo originally supplied two P1800 coupes, one gratis for the production and the other was bought by Moore himself and was often seen being driven locally or parked outside his house minus its ST1 number-plates. Both were used in the programme.
      1. Thanks. Yes, I saw the (very good) Jay Leno segment on the original ST1 P1800 on the YouTube page for which you provided the link. When I heard it was Roger Moore’s own car I did wonder if you’d seen it around.

         I doubt if actors would use their own cars in shows nowadays of course but it started me thinking. “Batman” is about the same vintage as “The Saint”. I wonder if Adam West used the Batmobile as his own private vehicular conveyance?

      2. In the early Saint books he used to drive something called a Hirondelle. Apart from being a French bird was there ever such a car – or did Leslie Charteris make it up?
         1. Sadly the red and cream ‘Hirondel’ (as it was spelt) was made up by Charteris. Before that The Saint had two other fictional cars, firstly a blue 98hp ‘Furillac’ sports sedan and then (very briefly) an 80hp ‘Desurio’.
            1. It’s nice to find another Charteris fan who knows these details. I remember discovering the Saint and reading all 32 books (the entire oeuvre at that time) as fast as I could get them from the public library. We couldn’t afford to buy books. I was about 14 at the time. I’ve still got a few of the Hodder & Stoughton yellow jackets. I started with “The Saint in New York” – set during prohibition! So how old does that make Simon Templar?
6. I concur with your intro, Jack, and match your time but, like Kevin, I opted for CONY for want of anything better. One meaning in Collins is a fool or dupe and that’s as close as I could get.
   1. There were many cony-catching pamphlets in the ephemera of 16th and 17th century England – it was a popular genre.
7. Roughly average time but another CONY. I hardly gave it a thought, being quite certain that this was someone who works at fairgrounds etc — I now realise I was thinking of ‘carny’.

   NHO the ‘truthful’ word, where I was equally tempted by VIREDICAL

   1. Now if you pronounced your R’s the way God intended, you wouldn’t have got into that trouble.
   2. Snap! I realised I was thinking of ‘carny’ but figured this might be an alternative spelling. I didn’t think about it that much though because the wordplay was so clear.
      Annoying, because I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle. I think I can call myself an official member of the Heyer club now, having got HESSIAN immediately from exposure to the various dukes, lords and corinthians who are very particular about how shiny theirs are.
      1. I was expecting it to be Jerry who got in ahead of me but I see it was you Keriothe.
8. 13:23, which is rather quick for me, despite getting 9A at 9A by starting to write ENTANGLE before I realised it was too long and then trying to get AVIARY into 26A. All spoiled in the end by another CONY, thinking there might have been a circus founder of that name.
9. 21′, but with CONY.

   Really liked FEMORAL. Had heard of potatoes being frozen in their clamps in extreme weather.

   A TRITONE was allegedly the ‘devil’s interval’.

   Thanks jack and setter.

10. 30 mins, but the clues have my red pen all over them.
    I liked: Femoral and COD to Stick it out (which summed this one up for me).
    Thanks setter and J.
11. I found this pretty easy at 15-odd minutes, as ever helped by the top row going straight in. But as the rest have noted, there were answers you had to take on trust, backed up by the faintest of connections: VERIDICAL (“deum verum de deo vero…”) ALLHEAL (Cadfael?) CLAMP (tiny distant bell ringing) HESSIAN (fabric if not boot).
    CODY could have been FOXY, except I’m pleased to say John Fox is still alive and presenting on BBC WM radio. Possibly a bit parochial for out overseas constituency!
12. 33 minutes, all present and correct. LOI PRIMORDIAL, but only because I finished in the NW, not because I was TANGLED up in blue. CODY was a write-in for a cowboy like me. I also only knew HESSIAN as a material. DNK CLAMP as a pile of potatoes either, but clam was the only four letter mollusc I could think of. Venturing that led to the SE falling, including COD STICK IT OUT and the unknown ALLHEAL. Does it work on a bad back? I’ve had one for a week. CORELLI was constructed and accepted on the assumption that the mandolin player could well have been named after a composer. A decent puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
13. Count me as another CONY, which is a bit of a shame after I managed to navigate the HESSIAN boot, the non-Captain CORELLI, the (as usual) unknown plant, and so forth. I had no idea who Buffalo Bill was apart from a vague connection to the Wild West, so I probably wouldn’t have plumped for CODY even if I’d noticed it. All in all, 50 minutes to fail.

    Edited at 2019-10-29 09:04 am (UTC)

    1. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show toured mainland Europe and the UK extensively. Here he played to royalty including more than one Command performance for Queen Victoria, so evidently she WAS amused by it! His London shows were mounted at the Earls Court Arena which came up in yesterday’s QC.
       1. As far I can tell, the only overlap he had with any of my knowledge is having a fictional serial killer named after him in Silence of the Lambs! I get the feeling that the whole Wild West phenomenon was going through a bit of an ebb during my formative years…
14. At least some of you only managed to get CODY wrong today. I topped it off by having CHAMP instead of CLAMP. With CHAMP being a mashed potato dish I thought it fitted a cryptic definition of “pile of potatoes” nicely. Admittedly it falls down on there being no such mollusc as a cham.
15. Another Cony. Otherwise I limped over the line in 32 mins. Detained by Vericidal. I had serious doubts about Allheal and initially went with Allvial.

    COD – FEMORAL. Though perhaps a bit risqué to show a bit of thigh!

16. Cue the Georgette Heyer fan club. Jerry doesn’t seem to be around this morning or he’d have beaten me to it. Her heroes’ valets polish their boots to a mirror-like shine using some secret formula (champagne in the blacking perhaps) known only to themselves. I knew Buffalo Bill Cody from Annie (you can’t get a man with a gun) Get Your Gun, but CLAMP was a new one. 15.19
    1. With you all the way on this. The divine Georgette plus Annie Get Your Gun. Btw, assume you know about the GH group on FB. I’m having fun reading their offerings.
17. Negotiated all the bear traps and spelled REFLECTER wrong. Drat! 34:17 WOE.Thanks setter and Jack.
18. Fought gamely against the temptation to throw in champ and trusted the wordplay. Phew. 26 mins. Thanks jack.
19. “Buffalo Bill !” I’m absolutely seething, therefore, at falling into the “cony” trap when I thought I’d broken the 10 minute barrier. I thought it might come from Coney Island.

    DNK HESSIAN as a boot, or CORELLI other than the mandolinist.

    FOI VEGAN
    LOI GET BEHIND
    COD PRIMORDIAL
    TIME 9:44 – GRRR !

20. I had a steady but very slow solve, past the hour. Once I’ve put in one Veridical I get careful about others which aren’t perfectly clear. I didn’t fall into the cony trap, knowing both BB and carny, but I was pretty sure of Nash (it’s an automobile of about the same vintage, but not the same elan or speed, as the Volvo) at 6d, and that made a difficult NE even more so
21. We once passed through Cody Wyoming on a US road trip. At one end of town is The Sunrise Motor Inn and at the other end is the Sunset Motor Inn. We had a reservation at one, but tried to check in at the other – much to our consternation and their amusement!
22. I found this hard but struggled on – as I’m somewhat housebound with sciatica, I’m not going anywhere soon so time wasn’t an issue. In fact it helped fill a boring morning 😊 On the whole I enjoyed it and am glad I didn’t give up, although I didn’t finish. Veridical caused problems – I referred to checkers for the spelling to discover I’d got it right, but it was guesswork. Having got that, it opened up the SW corner. Unfortunately, Femoral defeated me, although I did wonder about the revealing legs. Minis in the disco?

    Clamp also nearly got the better of me – like Pootle, all I could think of was Champ (delicious with sausages or bacon) but, like HarmonicR, trusted the wordplay.

    FOI All-rounder
    LOI Demo
    COD Veridical – although I struggled with spelling, the surface was very clear
    Score 30 and a half out of 32
    Time No idea

23. I managed to fluff two of the unfamiliar words:

    TRINOTE (should have paid more attention to the wordplay).

    VERADICAL (should have paid more attention to the wordplay).

    I was obviously tricked into thinking that NOTE had to be right in a musical clue and that VERA-, as in VERACITY, had to be the right start.

    That’s not to say that I was flying on the rest of the puzzle as I was the wrong side of 17 minutes.

    I’ve changed my “fail” userpic from Beaker from The Muppets to avoid confusion with 84801442, the artist formerly known as Mike Harper.

    Edited at 2019-10-29 01:09 pm (UTC)

24. Same NHOs as others. Liked FEMORAL, thought of CONY but couldn’t reconcile with showman so alpha-trawled…
25. Found this easier then Monday’s, and happily never thought of cony as an alternative to Cody, whose name came to me straightaway. The last two in were centaurus and cut up. Couldn’t parse cut up, and was hesitating over het up – which I obviously couldn’t parse either.
26. Lots of stuff here which belongs firmly in the vocabulary of crosswords rather than the rest of life, but the wordplay led me successfully through HESSIAN and TRITONE and ALLHEAL. I fell, however, at VERIDICAL, plumping for a careless VERADICAL, so chalking up another entirely user-generated error.
    1. Veradical – a member of the extremist wing of the Brenda Blethyn fan club?

       I’ll get me coat….

       1. I guess that means Newcastle is Veracity?

          I’ll get me coat as well.

27. 11:39. Was pretty sure of CODY but was expecting CLAMP to come back in pink squares. Sigh of relief.
28. Felt like a slowish 24’50. Veridical, there’s a word to keep alive for no good reason. One of the things about the Times is how veridical and lolly, for example, can march to the same beat. Liked the hoaxer clue.
29. So a late start at 10.40pm and thru’ in 41 minutes.

    2d NANKING Strictly s’peking the clue should read ‘Old city’s ruler….’ as it has been known for many years as NANJING.

    FOI 4dn REDID

    LOI 20ac DEMO

    COD 14dn VERIDICAL

    WOD 18ac CLAMP Being a Lincolnshire Yellowbelly (because of the Lincoln coach livery), this was a write in. Around Boston, ‘tates are stored outdoors, under earth in a clamp or barrow.

30. Got pushed out to over 30 minutes by some obscure vocab, meaning of course that I didn’t know it. Those were TRITONE, VERDICAL, ALLHEAL and CLAMP as the pile of spuds. But my LOI was CODY. I was tempted but dubious about a possible ‘cony’, so I alphabet trawled until Buffalo Bill rode in. Like yesterday’s Porgy and Bess clue, I was surprised to find the old US-centric bison slaughterer showing up here. Regards.

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