Times Cryptic 28730

99 comments on “Times Cryptic 28730”

1. Young curate, visiting elderly female parishioner at end of October, trying to make conversation: “Winter draws on, eh?”
   Old lady: “I don’t see that it’s any of your business if I have, young man.”

   But I agree I don’t think you can substitute ON for WEARING in a sentence without using a verb like ‘have’ or ‘put’.

   1. But that is not the requirement. To solve the clue you only have to be able to connect the words in your head.
      If the lady you refer to has winter drawers on, she is wearing them, isn’t she? We all can get that, can’t we?
      We need a word, which I will be happy to add to the glossary, for specious fiddlefaddle complaints (not meaning you, specifically) where it is completely obvious what is meant, but still we object.
      Perhaps we should give our setters a little more wiggle room?

      1. It wasn’t completely obvious to me. I spent longer on that clue because it seemed unclear that “lingerie on” was intended. I considered other anwers such as “linger at” and “linger in” before deciding that “on” was probably what the setter meant.

      2. I agree.
         I’m normally one of their harshest critics but I can see absolutely no problem with it.

         I despair when I see some of the monstrosities that are allowed to pass on here, but then everyone piles in on something inconsequential like this, and which is also grammatically correct (in crossword land).

2. No real trouble here, although there were a couple I couldn’t parse (to be honest, I didn’t try very hard to do so), CARVE and LARGO.

   Every now and then I get irked by a clue; in this case it was 3d, the “Spoonerism” – clunky or what?

3. A pleasant but not too exciting stroll, finishing in 30 minutes. I agree with Bazzock about OSSO BUCCO. I do not have the advantage of an Italian suocera (or an Italian moglie), but every Italian menu which I remember spells it with a single ‘c’. However I see that the alternative spelling is given in my ODE. I also nearly tripped up on 24ac until the crossers showed that SCATTER-BRAINED had to be wrong. Not too keen on the Spoonerism or LINGER ON, but it takes all sorts.
   FOI – DUCAT
   LOI – TOOK SHAPE
   COD – BLUEBEARD (once I realised Henry VIII wouldn’t fit)
   Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.

4. I eventually finished in 44.30 but felt it should have been a good deal faster. Never heard of OSSO BUCCO although from Jackkt’s description I’m sure I’d like it. My main stumbling block was my last two in which cost me well over five minutes. I hate spoonerisms in crosswords and sure enough it was my LOI TOOK SHAPE that nearly had me throwing in the towel. The other difficulty was CARVE where the parsing of it escaped me, and it went in with fingers crossed. Having said all that, I enjoyed the puzzle.

5. 22:38, several minutes of which were spent wondering what L_N_E_ / O_ could possibly be & trying to make LANDED ON work. Must brush up on my underwear.

   Thanks both.

6. 17:15. Fairly straightforward in the solving with some intricate cryptics which I largely ignored in a flurry of biffs. The logic behind CARVE eluded me even after pondering it post-solve. Thanks for the explanation.

7. 34’20”
   The plater again started at his standard pace, and finished at the same.
   Like Jack I found this meccano-esque and I was clumsy with the tiny nuts and bolts. In addition, unlike Galspray, I attempted everything in the wrong order.
   I should have got BLUEBEARD a lot earlier, as I heard Bartok’s opera last year on Rai Radio 3.
   I heard it, rather than listened to it, as I was cooking, not a misspelt osso buco (see above), but cacio pepe (pasta with cheese and black pepper, in the dialect of Rome), a dish requiring only three ingredients but total concentration in its preparation.
   Still, I was fractionally under par, with only one semi-biff, and enjoyed it; thank you setter and Jack.

8. Am I the only one who remembers a 1960s or 70s film Bluebeard, with Richard Burton killing sundry wives? Including Raquel Welch, IMDB tells me, in 1972. Didn’t notice the misspelling of BUCO, but always had trouble with Italian words whether or not to double the penultimate consonant.
   An enjoyable and not too difficult puzzle, like yesterday’s. Hopefully there’ll be more of a challenge in coming days.

9. DUCAT dropped straight into place and I made good progress. NHO OSSO BUCCO but the wordplay was kind once I had some crossers. Took ages to see TOOK SHAPE. SORBONNE was LOI. 23:28. Thanks setter and Jack.

10. 11:27. Should have broken the Ten Minute Barrier but I was stalled by a few. I like Spoonerisms but can’t say I’m that good at them. As Paul Hammond says they are nice occasionally. I couldn’t have fed Sarah myself.

    1. 👍

11. A pleasant if undemanding lunchtime solve.

    CAMUS made me smile.

    Thanks as ever to setter and blogger for explaining ABDOMINAL.

    Time: 27:58

12. SORBONNE also my LOI and it took me an age to get but seems easy now. COD goes to CARBON MONOXIDE.
    I enjoyed it, but then I usually do if I complete successfully.

13. 40 minutes. SORBONNE and OSSO BUCCO were the kinds of complicated clues I have no chance of solving from the cryptic, but they were very biffable. I thought I knew BLUEBEARD as a pirate, but I seem to have imagined him. Fortunately, that was the opposite kind of clue. TOOK SHAPE was very slow at the end. Thanks to jackkt.

14. I have learned to like Spoonerisms, (and homophones) for the simple reason that if I didn’t, crosswords would be less fun and harder to solve.
    I “like” broccoli, and leafy rabbit food, for exactly the same reason. Not enticing, but probably good for you ..
    Amazing, what you can learn to cheerfully put up with

15. 31 mins. No idea that BLUEBEARD was a wife killer, and OSSO BUCCO NHO, esp as I’m a veggie. The CARVE cryptic was a bit cryptic….

16. 25:54
    LOI was FEATHER-BRAINED

    I liked CAMUS, with its reference to Rupert Brooke’s “The chestnuts shade in reverend dream, The yet unacademic stream..”.

    Not fond of 3d. Count me among those who dislike Spoonerisms in crosswords.

17. 32 minutes. Don’t know why I took so long over clues like CARBON MONOXIDE. Not enough chocolate today, probably.

    Speaking of which, I know ‘feather-brained’ and ’empty-headed’ mean roughly the same thing, but my inner pedant protests that if you are feather-brained then your head isn’t empty: it’s full of feathers. I know that’s not how this works. But it did seem a bit clumsy to have two rather similar hyphenated words. ‘Silly eejit’ might have worked better.

18. 9m 14s, with the last 2 minutes or so spent trying to put together OSSO BUCCO from the cryptic – never heard of it, and I tried all kinds of variations before I realised I needed a boss. Other than that, not too tricky, but I didn’t find it as simple as many seem to have done.

19. 19’00”. Would never have spotted the misspelled OSSO BUCCO if it hadn’t been pointed out by our conscientious setter . I’d have assumed two Cs was right. But it ain’t.

20. An enjoyable and not too problematic puzzle, with just a couple of unparsed answers – CARVE and ABDOMINAL, to check up on. I don’t mind the occasional Spoonerism – they are often amusing, and frequently helpful when one is stuck otherwise. To be fair, there are only so many types of tricks that you can use in a cryptic – the hidden, the anagram, the DD or CD, the missing front or back letter etc. And so long as there isn’t more than one per puzzle, I don’t see the problem. In fact it was my last in, but so what?

21. NHO BLUEBEARD so no biff there. NHO either OSSO BUCCO or OSSO BUCO and couldn’t get it from the cryptic as I’d convinced myself that Top Man meant it ended in CEO.

22. 24.41 and banged in took shape without really being sure. Spoonerisms not my favourite and thought generally that you just swap the first letters round. Obviously flawed thinking on my part!

23. I thought this was going to be as speedy as yesterday as clues were coming thick and fast but ground to a halt with CARVE and TOOK SHAPE blank and the clock whirling round so gave up and came here.
    Thanks Jack and Setter. I’m catching up on crosswords after a trip to (La Scala) Milan so I ought to have spotted the extra C in the Italian dish but I think I’ve always spelt it that way myself. Lesson learnt.

24. All has been said (and some even OVER-said, it has to be said), so I won’t. But I had more trouble with this than most of the crew, as complex-construction clues are my downfall, and there were far too many of them. (SORBONNE, OSSO BUCCO etc.). I too fell into the “Doctor, Doctor” trap (having been unable to make a word out of EKJLLY!). But was pleased to get CARBON MONOXIDE early on (another green paint?), saw the hidden LARGO for a change, and also smiled at CAMUS. Thankyou Rob for the sometimes thankless task of setting, and Jack for unravelling.

Comments are closed.