Times Cryptic 29084

85 comments on “Times Cryptic 29084”

1. Found this quite difficult and some of the long anagrams were lost on me. Eventually remembered the cat experiment in 2D but the spelling was not easy. So, Muswell Hill is N10! Who knew? Not me, but whenever I see ‘court’ I usually think tennis. Liked the LIVING DEAD link to 2D but normally find links to other clues/answers a pain. COD to OWLISH as Member of Parliament.
   Thanks Jack.

2. Several entries I biffed but didn’t know all the bits of the wordplay anyway, such as N10 postcode, MUSH for face as opposed to mouth, and I think a couple more. I hate really long anagrams where basically you have to biff the answer and then work out which words in the clue are the anagrist if you care by then. No problem with SCHRODINGERS CAT since I had to study quantum mechanics (my second least favorite course with only Fluid Dynamics being even worse). I have been to Elba twice as a teenager so that is an island that always springs to mind (even when it is the wrong island). But an enjoyable crossword overall.

   1. Absolutely snap. Part of my Biochemistry course at now defunct UMIST in the 70s had to cover some physical chemistry – quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics all like being hit over the head with a soggy bag of sugar.

3. I got SCHRODINGER’S CAT immediately from “paradox” in the cross-reference. I didn’t bother parsing the actual clue. Only question about the spelling (an unseen umlaut on the O, or OE?) was settled by the enumeration.
   Didn’t know OWLISH could mean “stupid”—and it seems so wrong!—and didn’t check Chambers. Whew, that’s OK then.
   Got the answer, but didn’t know what was clued by “Muswell Hill,” a name I learned from the Kinks’ “Muswell Hillbilly.”

4. 17:24
   I did a lot of biffing; the cat, LAWN TENNIS, SPECIAL DELIVERY, RHINESTONE, inter alia. NHO Muswell Hill, which made parsing impossible (NHO Murthly either, but that didn’t matter). I was surprised to see SPARE TYRE again; and surprised to see it equated with ‘corporation’ (=paunch); a spare tire is a roll of fat around the waist. I liked BLAB, my LOI.

5. Around 45 minutes allowing for interruptions. Most enjoyable. SCHRODINGERS CAT, the most quoted thought experiment was a write in as was LIVING DEAD. Loved OYSTER BED and BACKSEAT DRIVERS. NHO London postal districts let alone N 10. No problem biffing the answer.
   Thanks Jack particularly for clarifying OWLISH.

6. Sandy isn’t the only one who remembers that Kinks album, but really, nearly everything here was a biff. Lawn tennis, music hall, oyster bed, backseat drives, living dead – it all just flowed in very nicely. I was pleased to remember Schrodinger’s cat, as well as about how to spell it.

   Time: 20:06

7. 7:49. My FOI was JEHOVAHS WITNESS and with all those nice crossing letters it was full speed ahead from there. I thought SPARE TYRE rang a bell, though I didn’t realise it was only yesterday it appeared! Like others OWLISH for stupid was a new one on me.

   My quick time enabled me to complete a rare double – cryptic and concise in under 10 minutes. Good timing with the busy work day I have today!

   1. Excellent time(s).

   2. Outstanding!

8. Thanks to jakkt and setter. But I can’t quite resolve 8d despite seeing all of the elements. “BEF endlessly destroy supply ships” gives one BE and DESTROY, which can “supply” an anagram of “oyster bed”. But what are the “ships” doing there?

   1. It’s ‘ship’ in the meaning of ‘take on board.’

   2. Here “supply” is an anagram indicator (“supple -y”, ho ho, worth remembering because it comes up so often I now remember it). So it’s “destroy supply” [anagram of destroy] “ships” [has inside it] “BEF endlessly” [be, being the first two letters of BED]. You have to read the clue in a Yoda voice for the grammar to make sense! Hope that helps.

9. 24 mins fully parsed but with a silly typo, which happens very often because I’m solving on my phone on a train and often standing. Really enjoyed this – lots of clues raised a smile including OYSTER BED, BACKSEAT DRIVERS, SCHRODINGERS CAT and LIVING DEAD. I didn’t know Muswell Hill was N10 but it didn’t hold me up. Unlike some others here I am quite partial to the occasional cross-reference. One a week is enough for me.

   1. That’s even more impressive than Pootle’s stunning double. How do you hang on to the strap?

10. Owls — they whinny down the night;
    Bats go zigzag by.
    Ambushed in shadow beyond sight
    The outlaws lie.
    (Outlaws, Robert Graves)

    35 mins pre-brekker. Nice and chewy. Mostly I liked ‘pearl harbour’, backseat driver and Elbacover.
    Ta setter and J

11. 16.05
    A lot of biffing going on there, but at least I did manage to spot the tremendous anagram at 9ac.
    I hesitated with OWLISH as I couldn’t see how it meant stupid, but then remembered Billy Bunter, ‘Fat Owl of the Remove’ (unlikely now to undergo a revival).
    LOI BLAB
    COD JEHOVAH’S WITNESS

    1. It is actually an 18th-century thing – in the world of Pope and Swift, the owl was the symbol of solemn stupidity.

12. 37m 00s
    Like Guy says, Muswell Hill reminds me of the Muswell Hillbillies from The Kinks.
    Regarding ‘OWLISH’, Billy Bunter was the ‘owl of the remove’ but was that because he was dim or because he lookjed owlish?
    Thanks, Jack.

    1. A bit of both – illustrations actually do show him resembling an owl, have a look.

       1. Yes, several sources including Chambers mention ‘bespectacled’ when referring to looking owl-like / owlish and I suspect that’s why Bunter came to be nicknamed ‘the fat owl of the remove’ rather than his stupidity. Actually in some respects he was quite wise, just not very keen to follow school rules.

          1. 👍

13. 14:16 with a typo.

    Like the cat I thought this could be considered both hard and easy at the same time.

    For the most part I raced through it before slowing towards the end. When I saw the final clue I rushed to press submit and came a cropper. I stubbornly refuse to learn my lessons though.

    Thanks to both.

14. 28 enjoyable minutes with LOI BLAB.I know many hate linked clues but the combination of SCHRODINGERS CAT and the LIVING DEAD borders on genius. And who’d have known what ELBA COVER was like in reverse? I’ve lived in North London long enough to deduce N10 but that perhaps was unfair. A lovely puzzle otherwise. Thank you Jack and setter.

15. 26:21 (1 error)

    All went well (only partly parsing 5D before bunging in) only to enter my LOI at 6D as LTTION. How owlish is that?

    Thank you to jackkt and the setter.

16. Really enjoyed this puzzle (second day running).

    You know those amusing videos of cats playing with cardboard boxes? Always struck me as advertising ideal presents for budding young physicists.

    I read all of Billy Bunter as a boy (after being given a free copy of ‘Billy Bunter at Butlins’ when we went on holiday in Clacton). I’ve just now, more than sixty years later, made the ‘dim’ connection.

    14’23”, thanks jack and setter.

17. 8:36 but with a careless “atEopine”. Is “finger thinning” available on the NHS?

    COD HASTE

18. 9:10. Thought SPARE TYRE was familiar. Decent puzzle.

19. 7.31

    Another very enjoyable one I thought. I stuck in LIVING DEAD from the enumeration, and that gave me SCHRODINGERS CAT before looking at the clue, which rather helped. Needed to construct ATROPINE, although I’m pretty sure it’s been seen before.

    I spotted the familiar SPARE TYRE, and also the echo of yesterday’s QC in IDEA.

    Thanks both.

20. Yes, liked this one.
    Owlish, like others, from Billy Bunter.
    Schrodinger devised his cat experiment as a criticism of quantum superposition, not an explanation of it.. and its subsequent adoption as a cornerstone of quantum theory must have irritated him, one would think.
    Sadly biffed several of the longer clues so never noticed the Muswell Hill Problem.. once you have L_W_ and court action, the answer leaps out rather.

    1. Useful to know – thanks.

21. Just under 20 minutes.

    – Had to construct the unknown ATROPINE from wordplay
    – Didn’t parse RHINESTONE as I assumed the river in the clue was the Rhine, not the Rhone
    – Can’t recall seeing OWLISH mean stupid before
    – Slightly disappointed to see SPARE TYRE two days in a row
    – Not familiar with Jo as a Scottish word for a sweetheart, but MAJOR was obvious enough
    – Didn’t fully parse LAWN TENNIS

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    FOI Idea
    LOI Atropine
    COD Blab

22. Just under 17 mins.
    I paused at 17d, as on this side of the Irish Sea the preference is for WHISKEY. All good – biffed LAWN TENNIS without knowing or noticing the N10 complication.

23. Wow, a lovely one for me, my first time under 10 minutes on the 15×15. I think I must have got lucky on the way somewhere, as I biffed quite a few. Also had JEHOVAHS WITNESSES and BACKSEAT DRIVERS in very quickly, which would have helped a lot.

    Thank you to Jack and the setter. Really enjoyed that.

24. “While I pop upstairs and ROOTLE
    for another safety pin.”

    Betjeman, ‘The Flight from Bootle”.
    The whole poem (too long to quote here) has to be read to realise that it is not as jejune as it would seem.

25. “John Anderson my JO…”
    R. Burns
    Gosh! That’s two today!

26. Liked this one, in about 25 minutes, especially the quantum cat which I studied at uni but always found a difficult notion to swallow. I’d never have thought of spelling revocable with a k although I use the verb revoke in bridge games. Thanks jackkt.

27. 8:38. N TEN and ‘stupid’ are both a bit of a stretch but you don’t really need either to solve the clue so I’m inclined to cut the setter some slack. I’m not generally a huge fan of cross-references but this one is very clever. ‘Pearl Harbour’ is also excellent, I wonder if it’s been done before.
    On the various incarnations of ‘revoke’, looking for logic in matters of language is generally a recipe for frustration!

28. 23:43

    Good fun, No problems with OWLISH having read all the Bunter books as a boy. Eddi Reader’s “John Amderson my Jo” helped with MAJOR.

    I agree that MUSWELL Hill seems a bit niche – I cetainly didn’t know its post code. COD BACKSEAT DRIVERS.

    Thanks to Jack and the setter

29. 21.06 with a typo

    The CAT was further to the back of my mind than others as was the spelling but got there. A few things here straight in from previous puzzles (jo and the owl thing) which helped.

    Nice crossword – thanks all

30. 13a Misparsed as eston in Rhine. Didn’t understand. DOH!
    1d Major. I think we had a discussion a while ago about jo=Scottish sweetheart.
    2d S’s Cat came to me as I was pondering if 17a could be Living Dead. So the cross reference helped as well as irritating me.
    4d Misspelled Agah as can’t spell aghast. Delayed J’s Witness.
    5d Lawn Tennis. Couldn’t resist checking that Muswell Hill is N10.
    15d EggWhite present as 2 words in cheating Machine; added plurals and all-one-word.

    1. If you want to start a fight with casual scrabble players, JO and XI are good ways to wind them up.

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