Times Cryptic 29060

 

Solving time: 39 minutes

I found this fairly straightforward. How did you do?

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Great ruler Henry pursues around border (6)
CALIPH
CA (around) + LIP (border), H (Henry – SI unit of inductance)
4 Wrong way to fill pastry, following one’s own path (3-5)
OFF-PISTE
OFF (wrong), then ST (way) contained by [to fill] PIE (pastry)
9 Exploit really quiet, timid individual (7)
MILKSOP
MILK (exploit), SO (really), P (quiet)
11 Range around East Timor’s capital in train again (7)
RETEACH
REACH (range) containing [around] E (East) + T{imor’s} [capital – not Dili or centavo!]
12 Temp left firm over sign of indecision (5)
LOCUM
L (left), CO (firm) reversed [over], UM (sign of indecision). This is a professional stand-in, doctor or clergy etc, not an office worker.
13 Case of luxurious rings made of gold for distinguished people (9)
LAUREATES
L{uxuriou}S [case of…] contains [rings] AUREATE (made of gold). I wouldn’t have known ‘aureate’ but fortunately it turned up in wordplay here only last Thursday.
14 Caught  short, perhaps (10)
CONTRACTED
Two meanings
16 Retiring female loves husband, maybe a bit of an ass (4)
HOOF
F (female) + 0 0 (loves) + H (husband) reversed [retiring]
19 Sandwich, say? Wife tucked into large quantity (4)
TOWN
W (wife) contained by [tucked into] TON (large quantity). One of the Cinque Ports, in Kent.
20 Supposed snobs mixed with elite (10)
OSTENSIBLE
Anagram [mixed with] SNOBS ELITE
22 Stand, carrying a single wide hamper (9)
STONEWALL
STALL (stand) containing [carrying] ONE (a single) + W (wide – cricket)
23 Cast is entertaining, pocketing 50 grand (5)
FLUNG
FUN (entertaining) containing [pocketing] L (50), then G (grand)
25 Spurs ground is lit, letting in header from Man United (7)
STIMULI
Anagram [ground][ of IS LIT containing [letting in] M{an} [header from…] + U (united)
26 Cheesy dish cooked just a little moment (7)
RAREBIT
RARE (cooked just a little), BIT (moment  – in a bit)
27 Advance across shifting sand in coastal site (5,3)
LANDS END
LEND (advance) containing [across] anagram [shifting] of SAND. The most westerly point on mainland England.
28 Fan of grass cuckoo nest that’s covered round river (6)
STONER
Anagram [cuckoo] of NEST containing [that’s covered] O (round), then R (river). A person who habitually smokes marijuana.
Down
1 Officer suggested dismissing one involved in crime (9)
COMPLICIT
CO (officer), {i}MPLICIT (suggested) [dismissing one]
2 Pale colour of phone casing this person brought round (5)
LILAC
CALL (phone) containing [casing] I (this person), reversed [brought round]
3 Frank’s back from trip, one spent in former East Germany (8)
POSTMARK
{tri}P [back from…], OSTMARK (one spent in former East Germany)
5 Riches given to bank worker, one trading in futures (7,6)
FORTUNE TELLER
FORTUNE (riches) TELLER (bank worker). This appeared in the QC last Thursday and was hyphenated on that occasion..
6 Invest Asian currency, turning up a bit of capital (6)
PUTNEY
PUT (invest), YEN (Asian currency) reversed [turning up]. An affluent district on the Thames in south-west London.
7 Guided munition to fail after vehicle’s overturned (5,4)
SMART BOMB
TRAM’S (vehicle’s) reversed [overturned], BOMB (fail)
8 English Master’s ditched by doubtful fellow showing spirit (5)
ETHOS
E (English), THO{ma}S (dountful fellow) [Master’s ditched]
10 Force workplace staff to accept extremely idiotic post (6,7)
POLICE STATION
POLE (staff) containing [to accept] I{dioti}C [extremely], then STATION (post)
15 Curiously wanting one less good qualification for mechanics (9)
NEWTONIAN
Anagram [curiously] of WANTIN{g} ONE [less good]. My AI assistant advises that “while Newtonian is not a formal qualification like a degree, it is a significant term in the field of physics that denotes a specific approach and provides a valuable reference point for understanding and studying the laws of motion.” Edit: Thanks for early contributions that clarify the point and that ‘qualification’ here simply means ‘qualifier’, an adjective that qualifies another word. So ‘Newtonian  mechanics’ as opposed to any other type.
17 Goods transporter about to board plane (9)
FREIGHTER
RE (about) contained by [boarding) FIGHTER (plane)
18 Court disaster, like pro donning sportswear (3,3,2)
ASK FOR IT
AS (like), then FOR (pro) contained by [donning] KIT (sportswear)
21 Entertainment shows gun users regularly ignored (6)
REVUES
REV (gun – engine), U{s}E{r}S [regularly ignored]
22 Producer of fibre products is altering bags (5)
SISAL
{product}S IS AL{tering} hides [bags] the answer
24 Time to leave religious headgear for Pope (5)
URBAN
{t}URBAN (religious headgear) [time to leave]

72 comments on “Times Cryptic 29060”

  1. The trickiest thing AFAIC was the definition of POLICE STATION’s being “Force workplace”(!) rather than (too) simply “post” (no, that wouldn’t have been sufficient, would it). Having “qualification” instead of “qualifier” for the adjective aka modifier of “mechanics” was apparently another attempt at misdirection, but, hah, can’t fool me… not tonight, anyway…

  2. Some tricky bits here, for me anyway. Thought STIMULI was going to be an anagram of spurs (ground) with another two letters until I saw what was going on. Assumed that 25A was an anagram of loan and sand. Everything else was ok and quite clever and learnt a new word, aureate. COD to STONER.
    Thanks Jack and setter.

  3. I found this tough in places, but enjoyable and fair. 32.34, which I thought was OK on the day for me.Thanks Jack for sorting out POLICE STATION (force workplace!) and explaining (P)OSTMARK. I struggled in the NW and down the bottom, where my LOsI were REVUES, STONER and URBAN. There were eight Pope Urbans but none of them will ever supplant my favourite, Pope Hilarius.

    From If You See Her Say Hello:
    I see a lot of people, as I make the rounds
    And I hear her name, here and there, as I go from TOWN to town
    And I’ve never gotten used to it, I just learned to turn it off
    Either I’m too sensitive, or else I’m gettin’ soft

      1. Ah. That’s annoying, I forgot about that fortune teller and once I got town I didn’t give it any more thought. Idiot Wind refs don’t seem to come up very often, I missed the chance!

    1. You realise Papa’ Ilario was actually named Ilario, and Hilarius is only an English transliteration from the Latin from who nose what century?

  4. 8:33, my first time solving on the crossword club rather than my phone (where I am Amoeba89 as some git got there before me, possibly by several years).

    Pretty gentle, but some high points – I liked the ‘force workplace’ and my LOI, the ‘bit of capital’. Now I understand it, the ‘qualification for mechanics’ is excellent as well.

    Thanks both.

  5. DNF I found this quite tough and after 90 minutes only had about half finished. FOI FORTUNE TELLER. NEWTONIAN which I did not get covers the normally used Newtonian laws of motion and force, mass, time relationships involved. These are used more by graduate engineers than mechanics with a non-university diploma.
    Thanks Jack

  6. I found this a little tougher than our blogger but came home all done and dusted in 50 mins. L2I CONTRACTED &NEWTONIAN (which I didn’t really know but worked out the anagram ok) held me up for a while.

    Lots of good stuff as has been mentioned. I liked the two long clues and the crunchy anagrams.
    I was pretty ill at the end of last week after a Covid jab (no 7, as Guy I think) that left me in tatters for a few days, so didn’t see the AUREATE thingy.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

  7. 13.40
    Not too tricky, though I had to rethink the misbiffed SLING for FLUNG at 23ac.
    There are some fun videos of non-NEWTONIAN fluids on YouTube.
    LOI CALIPH
    COD POLICE STATION

  8. 45 minutes, so I didn’t find this that easy. As Isaac told us in his three laws, a body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion unless it doesn’t. LOI STONER. I might have been in the Labs at the same time as Howard Marks but he was the more venturesome. COD to ETHOS. Thank you Jack and setter.

  9. 13’24”, steady solve, right to left as it happened.

    Jack, LAND’S END is the most westerly point in mainland England, not the most southerly, which is the Lizard.

    ‘NEWTONIAN mechanics’ does trip off the tongue. I’m a mathematician rather than a physicist, knowing that Newtonian mechanics works at any normally perceived level on Earth, but fails at the sub-atomic (quantum) level, and at the astronomical (relativistic) level – and can’t do a three-body problem. Very useful though, a bit like Euclid.

    Thanks jack and setter.

    1. Thanks, Rob, duly amended. I used to know it wasn’t the most southerly and must have doubted it when writing the blog because I attempted to check, but then evidently didn’t read the source properly.

    2. I remember reading or being told that even at the relatively short (compared to astronomical) distances involved in GPS technology you need a bit of relativity.

      1. To do with gravity, rather than (astronomical) distance. General relativity is required, the bit that Einstein got completely wrong, pre-Hubble. As gravity changes time (including the atomic clocks on GPS satellites) slows down or speeds up. One second elapses in more, or less, than one second, depending on gravity.
        As a normal person, or even a physics undergrad, try to get your head around that!

        There was one identical twin who went up on the Space Station for a while, where time runs slower, so he was younger than his twin when he came back. Pictures are available by googling. I suspect the difference is due to the rigorous training/diet/lifestyle of an astronaut rather than the few nanoseconds difference in age.

        1. There are two competing effects regarding the passage of time on the ISS. Time runs faster the further you are from a source of gravity (general relativity), but runs slower the more rapidly you move (special relativity). On the ISS, the effect due to speed is roughly ten times greater than that due to the distance from Earth, so overall the astronauts on the ISS experience time dilation relative to someone on Earth.

    3. Also not the most westerly point on mainland Britain, because that is Ardnamurchan Point in Scotland. Britain doesn’t run as due north-south as most people think, it is tilted toward the northwest.

        1. Yes, when my parents lived in Bath and I was at university in Edinburgh, people didn’t believe I was going west.

  10. 12:04. This puzzle felt loosely themed around my and my wife’s mini-tour of the South West. We’re currently in Cornwall not too far from LAND’S END and tomorrow we’ll be in Lyme Regis visiting one of our favourite restaurants, LILAC. Erm, and we’ll probably visit another TOWN. OK, maybe no such theme then.

    It was nice to finish the puzzle under par for a change, having been off the wavelength for much of this month. I thought my time was going to be pushed out by my LOI, PUTNEY. However my decision to alphabet trawl the fourth letter quickly came good.

  11. Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
    Has Flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
    And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
    The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.
    (The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam)

    30 mins on IPad with brekker. Nice one. I was held up by the crossing Newtonian anagram (I am better at anagrams when using pen and paper) and Contracted (nice clue but not much to go on).
    Ta setter and J

    1. I still remember the first time I encountered the word “aureate”, a long time ago, also in the Rubaiyat:

      “And those who husbanded the Golden Grain,
      And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain,
      Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn’d
      As, buried once, Men want dug up again.”

      It’s meaning was immediately clear, as I was a Latin student at the time and knew ‘aurum’ means ‘gold’ and, obviously, it was referring back to something already mentioned.

      1. For me, it must have been Hart Crane’s “Emblems of Conduct”:
         …the volcano burst
         With sulphur and aureate rocks …

  12. 17:27
    Not too much to scare the horses but I took a while to piece NEWTONIAN together and that led to my last-in CONTRACTED.

    As mentioned by Kenso I was thankful that AUREATE appeared recently otherwise LAUREATES may have taken longer.

    Thanks to both.

  13. About half an hour, with about 10 minutes of that spent on CONTRACTED – and even when I got it, it took me even longer to understand it. No major problems otherwise.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    FOI Locum
    LOI Contracted
    COD Stonewall

  14. 8:09. I hit ‘submit without leaderboard’ by mistake.
    No problems today. My last in was PUTNEY, which is a bit embarrassing considering I live there.

    1. Phew! I was wondering why the SNITCH did not pick up your time – this explains it. I now record your time from the blog, so you’re at least included in the SNITCH stats. PUTNEY my LOI also.

  15. 28a Stoner, worst WOD.
    POI 15d Newtonian physics make no allowance for Einstein’s theories, and therefore do not work at speeds approaching that of light, approx 300,000 km per second, which is pretty quick. Mechanics in the clue is a branch of physics, rather than people who fix cars. I think jackkt’s AI assistant is waffling, probably out of ignorance.

  16. Revealed a couple along the way (OFF PISTE, LILAC), otherwise finished in about the same time it took me not to finish today’s QC! Biffed then parsed a fair few. Very enjoyable. Thanks Jack.

  17. An enjoyable struggle for me, appreciating the humour but slow on the uptake otherwise, and completing in just under 26 minutes.
    Trickiest was the SE corner, where I diligently separated goods and transporter and spent time trying to turn a cart or somesuch upside down in a plane (tree, tool, flier, surface?) to come out with goods. Headgear for Pope was obviously TIARA, except it wasn’t, and I failed to separate the 50 and Grand for whichever meaning of cast was required. As for the word salad at 28a, which turned out to be entirely logical, I had no idea what was wanted.
    At the top end, I terrified myself at 6d by staring at my long list of Asian currencies before sussing what “bit of capital” meant. Bamboozled by everything, really, and hoping it doesn’t signify some long, slow decline.

  18. Did this fairly quickly, in less time than it took for my coffee to get cold – but too quickly, because I made a couple of really stupid mistakes by not fully parsing the clues involved. Too embarrassed to say which ones as they weren’t even difficult.

    LOI was CONTRACTED. I think “short” as a synonym is stretched rather than contracted.

  19. Nice crossword, all straightforward enough until COMPLICIT appeared — I put it in because it fit what appeared to be the definition, then checked it and discovered that it was correct, but I couldn’t parse it, doh. Likewise PUTNEY, which was I guessed a part of London, but I simply couldn’t see it from P_T_E_, doh again. Eventually Pears Cyclopedia gave it to me. But put = invest? 43 minutes.

    1. Yes, I thought put = invest was very loose too. Without ‘in’ it doesn’t really have much meaning.
      But it seems to have passed muster with ye crossword gods who surveyeth everything, so who are we mere mortals to doubt it?

      1. From Collins: PUT(v) to invest (money) in; give (support) to. “they put/invested five thousand pounds into the project.”
        There are also put options etc., although that is actually an offer to sell not buy.

  20. 27:06
    I found this quite tricky, and blundered into many of the setter’s traps. COD was POSTMARK.

    Most embarrassingly, PUTNEY was my second to last one in; this, having lived just across the river in Fulham for over twenty years.

    Thanks to Jack and the setter.

  21. 16:55 – a very pleasant solve without any particular problems. I thought the two long downs were neatly clued and surfaced but failed to see the relevance of “less good qualification” in the Newton clue, which seemed like a reference to an unlikely G exam grade.

  22. 33:05

    Mostly OK except for the NW which I found difficult to break into. Even after LOCUM and COMPLICIT went in, it was still a while before getting CALIPH then LILAC, and a further minute or two for MILKSOP and finally POSTMARK which looks totally obvious now it’s in…

    Thanks Jack and setter

  23. Nice puzzle, and all correct and parsed. No obscure vocabulary either. NEWTONIAN mechanics reminded me of A level maths: “a mass m is on a smooth inclined plane, angle theta, and a force F is applied…” etc etc. enjoyed it more than statistics (the other optional module). It was a long time ago.
    Thanks for the blog, Jack. It took me an age to get PUTNEY!

  24. 16.16 with a typo

    Really liked this – HOOF was amusing and always nice to have a bit of RAREBIT.

    PUTNEY last in partly as it was my last one looked at. Slight delay but YEN gave it. As I used to live there glad it didn’t detain me too long

  25. Took a while to get going, with TOWN and HOOF my first 2 in. FREIGHTER was delayed as HOOF had somehown gone in as HOOR. Doh! After 23 minutes I was left with P-T-E-. I almost gave up, but eventually an alpha trawl came up with PUTNEY and I breathed a sigh of relief. 31:49. Thanks setter and Jack.

  26. Solved in 22 mins. Very nice puzzle with some interesting clues but I felt on every clue I had an idea where it was going as opposed to having some where I was mystified. C OD to force workplace, lovely misdirection.

    Thx J and setter

  27. 40 minutes. Held up by NEWTONIAN and STONER. Had no idea that ‘cuckoo’ was used to define an anagram; is this v unusual? is it just for the birds? Also, surely ‘turban’ is far from being an exclusively religious piece of headgear?

  28. All done in 23 mins bar PUTNEY, which I still hadn’t seen after another 20 mins had passed, so threw in the towel.

  29. Nice crossword. Delayed at the end by NEWTONIAN (my LOI) since I didn’t realize it was an anagram at first.

  30. I found it a bit harder too taking 32:25, but a good and enjoyable puzzle
    Thanks setter and blogger
    PS
    Just out of interest I’ve been practising on old puzzles from 2018 and have definitely been finding them harder than the current ones, especially a lot more unknown vocab

  31. Exactly half an hour, which makes this ‘not too tough’ by my own measure. Can’t begin to explain why PUTNEY was my LOI, especially as I had the yen in mind right from the start, but so it was.

  32. 56:45 but a correction required. Unfortunately I didn’t do last Thursday’s puzzle so was left looking at LAU-E-T-S as I didn’t know what “made of gold” meant. Chucked in something like LAURENTIS – thinking of Dino De Laurentiis the old film producer thinking perhaps his name was originally connected to being distinguished. Oh well.

  33. 28.21, definitely not my finest hour. Took ages to get on the wavelength then a surge was followed by a hiatus till the top left finally succumbed.

    Amongst the roadblocks were laureates which I liked – eventually- milksop, lilac and turban. No complaints, good puzzle I just wasn’t on the ball.

  34. 39:30. took me far longer than I thought it should. nothing too tricky as commented above. nice level of puzzle for a Tuesday!
    thanks both!

  35. 25.48. One of those days when I felt that I should have been quicker, but no complaints as I enjoyed the puzzle.

  36. Same time as Jack and yes, it was quite straightforward, but also very enjoyable with clues which made me laugh. Among them were P OSTMARK and HOOF as a bit of an ass.

  37. I was slowish at 45 minutes – for quite a while I fancied “train again” might be Retrain (!) and Ethos was my LOI.
    Freighter reminded me of the old Bristol Freighter which was, in fact, a plane – so the clue could have been “Plane about to board plane”.

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