Times Cryptic 29006

80 comments on “Times Cryptic 29006”

1. Around 75 minutes. Very tricky when biffing words that look right. Got a number all wrong and had to rethink them. FOI GAMETE LOI RUTHLESS. Put in WAGON-LIT which I had NHO and looked crazy. Liked BORODINO, JIU-JITSU, WRITHE, CROSSBAR, EMOTICON. Very enjoyable puzzle.
   Thanks Jack for the parsing.
   For TAJ MAHAL possibly “what” is the definition and the rest is the wordplay.

2. Yeah, not very easy. LOI KENDAL, strictly from wordplay. But yes, it was fun. SEE PAGE indeed! I liked WAGON-LIT because it’s French. I didn’t know or remember the title of the famous Browning poem but the rest of the clue was clear enough. Took a while to remember BORODIN; I really should read War and Peace one day.

   Pretty sure TAJ MAHAL is, or wants to be, an &lit. It was built by a prince (cum emperor) to entomb and memorialize a departed wife, or “consort,” Mumtaz Mahal.

   1. I wondered about prince but ruled it out as I couldn’t find anything to associate that title with the guy who built TAJ MAHAL. He seems to be described only as Emperor or Shah. I suppose he’d have been a prince prior to that.

      1. Well, I don’t know another title that could have clued HAL.
         Definition 4 in Collins is “any sovereign; monarch.” The builder of the Taj was a son of the previous emperor (he took extreme measures to eliminate all rivals to the throne), but of course he was emperor when he ordered that the mausoleum be built (she must’ve been quite a dame!).

   2. You may need rather more than one day to read “War and Peace”. Mind you, it only took me 20 minutes before giving up at around page 30…..

      1. You managed about 25 pages more than I did .. no great fan of Russian literature generally. Too depressing.

         1. I don’t think I ever got beyond “Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes”, rather like overhearing a conversation on the bus where you haven’t a clue what is being discussed.

   3. It’s a semi-&Lit. As KensoGhost points out the definition is, technically ‘what’, although of course the whole clue is also the definition. This is a standard structure for a semi-&Lit. You can tell it’s that and not a full-fat &Lit because the word ‘what’ doesn’t contribute to the wordplay. I think we’re just supposed to overlook the prince/emperor thing!

      1. Of course. I sometimes call these “wannabe” &lits. They always seem impossible to accurately notate by our conventions, as “What” or some such is really no sort of definition on its own.

         1. Yes, the notation was my concern rather than wanting to classify the clue. I’ve more or less given up on mentioning &lit and semi-&lit in my blogs because of the discussions that inevitably ensue that I don’t really want to be party to. But what to underline is sometimes a problem. If I’d underlined ‘what’ today I don’t think that would have been very helpful to our newer solvers so in this example I decided on underlining all the words I could relate to the answer. I omitted ‘by prince’ because the person who commissioned the Taj Mahal was no longer a prince at the time.

            1. But definition 4 in Collins for “prince” makes that irrelevant.

         2. Yes they’re curious beasts. I think of them as having two definitions: a technical or structural one, which is a definition purely because it is not part of the wordplay (in this case ‘what’) and a semantic one which is always (as here) the whole clue.

   4. If you can read War and Peace in one day then you have my admiration!😀

      1. Ha. I meant, of course, “someday”: at some indefinite time in the future.

         1. You should: it’s wonderful. Don’t listen to the h8ers!

3. I thought there were some really good clues in this, especially EMOTICON, ELIGIBLE and ALACRITY. I failed to see LOWS, not knowing the cyclonic meaning and not helped by the strange and NHO WAGON-LIT. Shuddered when I saw COAT again after yesterday’s quick cryptic but saw REEFER and tree fern quickly. Had no idea what was going on with OVERSEAS, knowing it had to be O + VERSE but couldn’t account for the AS. OPAL seems to be a bit overused of late.
   Thanks Jack and setter.

4. This was a biff-fest for me – I didn’t parse half of them. It seems like there were a lot of extra words in the clues, which I ignored. However, I did see tree fern and I do know what a ju-ju is. I was wondering about counterargument for a bit, but semolina put an end to that. My biggest problem was biffing lots, which does mean more than one, but when I couldn’t get 18 I erased the T. I saw wagon-lit at once, but couldn’t parse it. However, I did finish, and felt content to leave the parsing to tonight’s blogger.

   Time: 28 minutes

5. Very much suited to my GK and (lack of) technique. All done in 20:57. COUNTER-whatnot proved the biggest holdup. Unsurprisingly, since it’s so weak.

6. 37.59, a better time than I expected and due more to good luck than good management. I had a list of eight that I was unable to parse post-solve without Jack’s help, including REEFER, OPAL, RAINDROP…I won’t go on. It took an age to get COUNTERMOVEMENT and also EMOTICON, and now (thanks again Jack) I find it’s an anagram. All up a terrific puzzle I thought, with many crafty touches.

   From Subterranean Homesick Blues:
   Keep a clean nose, watch the plain clothes
   You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind bLOWS…

   (OK, OK, I got nuthin’…)

7. DNF. Excellent puzzle but too hard for me. The left-hand side went in rapidly despite a minor kerfuffle with a misspelt JUI-JITSU but the right side had me heading for the forty-minute mark.

   Couldn’t get the bottom half of COUNTERMOVEMENT and took much longer than I should have over LATINISM, GAMETE, EMOTICON, TAILORING, LOWS and WAGON-LIT. All great clues though, especially EMOTICON where it never crossed my mind to look for an anagram.

   The one that eventually did for me was BORODINO as I lacked both the required bits of GK. I’ll get it next time. Thanks setter and Jack.

   1. It’s not an excellent puzzle if it’s too hard to be solved

8. 42 minutes, all told, with a couple of bits not that fully parsed along the way. Finished off with OVERSEAS, where the Browning reference passed me by. I wonder how often I’ve thought, “oh, yes, I should read War and Peace” before immediately forgetting about it again…

9. Got it, in 42 mins, good going for me.

   Some great clues like EMOTICON (but word is already dated, as is concept of construction out of separate characters). Also liked ALACRITY which I got quickly following a discussion in the QC blog today.

   NHO INDRA, but saw Op, leading to Drop, and built the clue up from the bottom.

   I visited the TAJ MAHAL last week, so I’m quite up to date on Mughals. Although my guide was keener on cricket.

   LOI REEFER

10. 13:55. I was close to joining galspray with a DNF thinking I probably didn’t know the composer and I certainly didn’t know the War and Peace reference. However BORODIN rang a vague bell and BORODINO sounded plausible so I threw caution to the wind, shoved it in and submitted fully expecting to see pink squares. Thus finishing with all correct was a pleasant surprise.

11. 32:13, LOI was REEFER which was pretty much a biff though (honestly!!) I was wondering if there was such a thing as a tree fern when I put in in. I was thinking I’d been quite slow, so I’m relieved to see I’m not the only one to have found this on the hard side.
    Thanks setter and Jack

12. 31:31. Some good tricky stuff. LOI SEEPAGE, which I really liked, and I liked TAILORING too

13. Didn’t have a Scooby about the composer and I’ve never read War and Peace, so that was that. BERGDINO was my invented word. Particularly nasty to have that double unch there, not that it would have rescued me.

    Thanks both.

14. 29 minutes with COD SEEPAGE. I liked BORODINO too, but I’m not sure that moment of triumph fully compensated for the many hours I took over War and Peace in the bedsit years. The book did prove to be a handy replacement when one of the legs on the bed broke though. LOI was of course EMOTICON, one of the many modern inventions I regret. Excellent puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.

15. 28:06

    FOI: SORCERY
    LOI: WAGON-LIT

    Struggled on REEFER and for a long while I had BORODINA until I saw LOWS. Submitted answer with fingers crossed for unknown LOI based on wordplay.

    Thank you, jackkt and the setter

16. I rather staggered through this. I’d never seen ju-jitsu spelt with that extra I before, I never actually solved LOWS as all the lights were conveniently filled by other answers – as was the case with OPAL which I initially refused to enter because I didn’t know “lap = polish”. I had no idea about GAMETE, but saw the parsing quickly enough, and I shamelessly biffed my LOI.

    FOI CROSSBAR
    LOI EMOTICON
    COD SEEPAGE
    TIME 13:34

17. 25′, so comments about level of difficulty surprised me as, for once, I seemed to have much of the GK and was on “wavelength”. Maybe that just means I didn’t (or couldn’t!) overthink it. Like Vinyl I had LOtS for a while, wondering what the missing letter might be, before WAGON-LIT came to me (and to be honest I knew Wagonlit from the travel company rather than the sleeper coach of orient express fame). Enjoyed it, thanks Jackkt and setter.

18. 50 mins and definitely on the tougher side. Had the COUNTER in early but took an age to see the MOVEMENT bit. When the penny dropped EMOTICON, my LOI sprung out. DNK GAMETE but worked it out from the wp.

    I knew the composer but there were some very hard clues which have been mentioned above.

    Thanks Jack and setter. PS, I liked your bit on AI.

19. Managed to fly through this today. I’m another who has read War and Peace all the way through – I remember almost nothing – apart from the Battle of BORODINO.

    LOWS LOI, unparsed. The intricacies of the clue for SEMOLINA passed me by, too many bad memories.

    14’42”, thanks jack and setter.

20. Quick today, but I enjoyed this.
    Borodino was a very serious battle .. a quarter of a million combatants and around 70,000 killed. A total not beaten until WWI.
    I shudder whenever I see the word “semolina.”
    No idea what Collins is on about, since wheatmeal is definitely a thing, eg:
    https://afrobuy.co.uk/products/honeywell-whole-wheat-meal or
    https://www.soothills.co.uk/products/large-wheatmeal

21. 33m 10s
    The 1970s TV serialisation of War & Peace was my first sighting of Anthony Hopkins. He played Pierre Bezukhov.
    COD to EMOTICON.
    Thanks, Jack for IDEALIST and OVERSEAS and well done on your mention in Mick Hodgkin’s piece

22. About half an hour.

    – Had heard of Borodin, but mainly because of the Borodin Quartet rather than for his works as a composer, and was happy to trust that BORODINO was a setting for War and Peace
    – Not familiar with REEFER as a coat so it went in with fingers crossed that I’d parsed it correctly from tree fern
    – Didn’t know that a juju can be a fetish for JIU-JITSU
    – Only dimly aware that ARARAT was where Noah’s Ark is said to have ended up;
    – Completely misparsed LOWS, thinking we needed to take R for runs out of a word meaning force (luckily we didn’t need to parse it at all)
    – Didn’t know the god Indra, but RAINDROP had to be
    – God the wordplay for OVERSEAS without knowing the poem being referenced
    – Took absolutely ages to see that ANTERIOR was a hidden

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    FOI Gamete
    LOI Reefer
    COD Wagon-Lit

23. Many thanks for explaining emoticon. A huge benefit of this blog is that one learns something almost every day.

24. 32.53. I found the puzzle very satisfying and was pleased that the Genetal Knowledge required was within my diminishing range.

    1. Would that be genital knowlege for 25a Gamete ; -)?

       1. : – D

25. 11.25
    Tremendous! I considered several CODs including SEEPAGE, BORODINO, OVERSEAS and KENDAL, but WAGON-LIT’s “crashed when travelling” got it over the line.
    LOI REEFER
    LOL (literally) EMOTICON

26. Beaten by REEFER (NHO), KENDAL and BORODINO – and furious about the latter, because it was a super clue and I should have got it. Otherwise quite straightforward.

27. I struggled through this in 26.29 but was scuppered by my inability to solve 17a and my lack of knowledge of War and Peace. I knew Borodin, but put him over A (composer gets over A, sneaky misdirection Ref!), thus finishing with 2 errors (LAWS). Thanks setter and Jack.

28. 23.09, with a lot of time draining away at the OVERSEAS/REFFER intersection. I knew I didn’t stand a chance of getting REEFER without the initial letter (“woody plant – aargh!) and it’s surely unfortunate that ODYSSEUS fits with echoes in the wordplay. I won’t initiate the argument that a reefer is a coat, not a jacket…
    I’m OK with TAJ MAHAL being a full, and rather good &lit: “prince” covers a wide range of the high and mighty, and Shah Jahan (“King of the World”) is surely no exception.
    Lots to like in this one, even if you didn’t have to solve two of the clues.

    1. So you’re agreeing with the clue over reefer being a coat? Or did you mean the other way round? I admit I had only ever heard of ‘reefer (or reefing) jacket’ and was preparing to challenge the definition until I looked it up in Collins and the first I found was ‘coat’. Further down in Collins and in other dictionaries I found ‘coat or jacket’.

       1. I put that the wrong way round, didn’t I!

29. 23:06

    Fast start, slowed a bit, then picked up towards the end – needed all checkers for 7d, had heard of BORODIN but not the location in W+P, but seemed a likely possibility. I didn’t get the AS in OVERSEAS while in flight, and puzzled over 21a for a minute or so before the pdm and then LOI TAILORING.

    Thanks for the entertainment, setter, and for the enlightening blog Jack

30. 51:26
    Tricky. Had to stare at Borodino for ages before it cracked.
    Thanks, jack.

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