Times Cryptic 29144

89 comments on “Times Cryptic 29144”

1. Around 70 minutes. Slowed down by the SE corner. In 28 down I saw EMU hidden and took a while to see the true hidden word EMO at the other end. Thus SONATA was slow in coming. Saw CREAM TEA as a possibility but finally put it in after confirming it was afternoon tea.
   Thank Jack

   1. I thought it was an unwritten rule that there was just the one ‘hidden’ clue per puzzle, so having spotted EMO I was unprepared for SONATA, my LOI. Harrumph!

      1. Maybe the Times puzzle editor could enlighten us on the number of hidden clues per puzzle. I also thought it was no more than one in a 15×15.

         1. I’m not sure there has been an official statement on hidden answers in recent years but it seems to be handed-down wisdom that 1 and 1 reversed is the limit per 15×15. It has been mentioned here recently that no such restriction applies to the Quick Cryptic, so perhaps it’s best for solvers to treat it as a guideline from the past and be prepared for exceptions.

2. DNF. Bah, would have been one of my fastest if I hadn’t fat-thumbed SOLK ROAD.

   A couple of gentle ones to start the week so presumably tomorrow’s will be a stinker.

   Thanks Jack and setter.

3. No problems (now that Jack’s explained the parsing of SUDANESE) and all done in 17.58. The SW was the most intractable, especially as a typo in one of the crossers made SHREK an impossibility until I looked more closely. A fun puzzle I thought, liked CRYSTAL and ALOHA.

   From Ain’t Talkin’:
   As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden
   The wounded flowers were dangling from the vines
   I was passing by yon cool and CRYSTAL fountain
   Someone hit me from behind
   Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
   Through this weary world of woe
   Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
   No one on earth would ever know

4. 16:06, so around half a minute quicker than the Quickie. Last in was the hidden (as so often) SONATA. I hope DUNE BUGGIES become a thing of the past soon.

5. I felt like I was blundering around a bit. Yes, sphinx and schooner were write-ins, but I put dower, and tried to use stand instead of stall, somehow ending up with some kind of star for the sparkler. I thought of peri right away, but I didn’t see period drama until I had all the crossing letters. Crystal was my LOI.

   Time: 13:45

6. 8:05. Another quick one, though it somehow felt much longer than my 7 or so minutes yesterday. I wonder if the fact that ALOHA means hello and goodbye is ever the cause of confusion. It made me think that The Beatles’ Hello Goodbye would have been quite different: “You say aloha, I say aloha”!

   1. Aloha is a noun meaning, roughly, ‘love’, and is used as a greeting. (I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used to say good-bye, although I’m sure it is. As ‘hello’, it’s all over the place.) Hawai’ians will assure you that it can’t be translated, but ‘love’ will do, at least here.

   2. If it is the Italians (ciao) and French (salut) must have the same problem!

      1. Problem?

         1. Confusion as to whether someone is saying hello or goodbye. Practically speaking of course it’s usually reasonably clear from the context.

7. 15:12 – fastest I’ve done for longer than I care to remember as a part-time solver. Enjoyed that “in the zone” feeling tremendously, slowed down just a little towards the end, finishing with POKER (didn’t know the flower) and SHREK.

8. 38m 14s
   Yet again, I post a time very close to Jack’s!
   RED HOT POKERS are quite common flowers here.
   As is often the case with Italian towns, the old part (‘centro storico’) of BARI(sta) is very pleasant.

9. 6.04 – an embarrassing amount quicker than the QC, in which I got completely breezeblocked at the end.

   Glad I managed, in the end, not to overthink the wordplay for SONATA and invent the BODATA, although I’m a bit concerned that I considered it. I liked the appearance of SHREK & GEN Y.

   Thanks both.

10. 27 minutes. Not too many problems though I should have seen my last in SONATA much earlier.

    Glad to have a ‘Flower’ of the botanical variety at 13d which was almost a write-in thanks to the helpful enumeration and hyphenation.

11. 12’19, no issues today.

    Now we’ve reached Gen Z, what next?

    Thanks jack and setter.

    1. I would suggest using numbers and going to GEN 1, but that’s Chitty.

       1. We could end up with a system akin to our car number plates?

    2. It’s gone Greek. Gen Alpha describes those born 2010-2024, and Gen Z those born 1995-2009.

12. 16:34, I have a feeling looking at the comments so far that this will be one of those days when the QC takes me longer than the main puzzle.
    Had no idea there was a flower called a red hot poker, I know such only in connection with Richard II!
    Thanks setter and Jack

    1. I thought that it was Edward II who had a fundamental problem?

       1. I think you are right. There are a lot of parallels between EII and RII, an easy thing to get wrong.

       2. Definitely Edward. The most buttock-clenching story in History.

13. 30 mins so pretty straightforward. I liked AU NATUREL naturally.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

14. are we now allowed 2 hiddens? took me 5 minutes at least to spot SONATA as we’d already had EMO. Harrumph.

    Otherwise a very straightforward puzzle with some excellent wordplay

    1. Yes, I wondered that.

15. 13.17. For a glorious moment I thought I might make it under 10 but alas it was not to be. Mostly pleasantly straightforward but being considerably over 30, Shrek took a while. For too long I thought the Italian cicy would be the whole of the clue but worked out Bairista in the end. LOI entomb.

    Thx setter for giving me delusions of adequacy.

16. Our garden, first: where I did not invent
    Blinding theologies of flowers and fruits,
    And wasn’t spoken to by an old hat.
    (I Remember, I Remember, Larkin)

    20 ish mins pre-brekker. I liked it, especially Ray Gun and Bari’s Ta.
    Ta setter and J

17. 27 minutes, finishing with the PIU/NEWSPRINT crosser. COD to ORDER A ROUND. After two friendly ones, I suspect that the worst this week is yet to come. Thank you Jack and setter.

18. Encouraged by my 24 minute shocker yesterday I thought I would cope with my insomnia by picking away at this on my phone. Still awake but happy to finish this pleasant puzzle in 49. Never saw SPHINX before and liked it. Good night all.

19. 10:09. I thought this was incredibly easy until I realised I was doing the quickie by mistake. This was a bit trickier and I got particularly becalmed in the SE corner for no obvious reason.
    Nice range of references in here: Greek legend, astronomy, music, drama, poetry, break dancing.

    1. Nice one K, just so you know it didn’t go unnoticed.

       1. 😉🇦🇺

20. At just over 18 minutes, one of my quickest solves. Unsurprised, therefore, by the snitch rating. Top half fairly flew in but raised an eyebrow at RAY GUN as I overlooked the US slang allusion. Unaware that ALOHA did double duty but it was the only word I could think of.
    For this relief much thanks to setter.

21. 15 minutes, finishing with the perplexingly difficult NUB (I keep forgetting cake=bun).

    – Only vaguely remembered TAT, but the wordplay was kind
    – Didn’t parse PERIOD DRAMA
    – Biffed AU NATUREL once I had enough checkers, even though I see now that the parsing is straightforward

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    FOI Shrek
    LOI Nub
    COD Cream tea

22. 14.12, so again missing out on a stellar time, but some of that has to do with my twitchy finger that constantly engages my mouse’s right button revealing possibilities I never knew existed in Windows. AGENCY I left to last, as I couldn’t quite see how it worked and had forgotten about Gen Y – I’m a Boomer and get hazy about such things.

23. A fast 23 mins despite feeling slightly off wavelength and sluggish at the time. V slow to get spot SPHINX at the start and SONATA at the end.
    Only knew PIU from a recent appearance here.
    We’ve also had Stasi => STASIS recently.
    The literal Due = Due threw me and is a QC trick.
    Emo is a bit American. I think they are like goths but without the rock.
    All good fun though, thanks both.

    1. Emo was definitely a thing in the UK in the mid-2000s!

24. Under 12 mins but one error. I knew it was AU NATUREL but I decided character had to be NATURAL and not NATUREL, assiduously ignoring L for left and forsooth I was undone.

    CODs: NUB and CREAM TEA

25. No problems here, a tidy puzzle. only my Italian general knowledge let me down (twice!) but even they were well clued and easily guessed. Thanks for the blog!

26. Fairly quick and easy but not sure if my time as I had to come back to this to finish, I put ‘sand buggy’ instead of DUNE BUGGY which made SUDANESE impossible to begin with. The correct term for the generation after gen z is ‘gen(eration) alpha’ btw.

27. A very rare completion before going to bed, in just less than 20′ which is pretty fast for me. Held up a little by the SAND BUGGY but SUDANESE sorted that out, plus I initially biffed BOLOGNA before crossers proved it wrong. Thanks Jackkt and setter

28. 10a didn’t know of the existence of Sand Buggies, and Beack Buggy didn’t fit. I’m wondering whether to add S buggy to the Cheating Machine. Wiktionary thinks I should.
    14a Piu, I misread the clue and thought there had to be an actual musical called Piu, but no.
    LOI 30a Sonata, a delayed hidden, as so often.

29. 18 minutes which is very fast for me and 7 minutes faster than what I thought was a straightforward Monday puzzle yesterday. Could not parse PERIOD DRAMA but once I saw the ODD part, it left little else.

30. I solve in the newspaper app which insists on telling me that the E in DUNE BUGGY is wrong. It doesn’t seem to have affected anyone else?

    1. No. My app let me have that one

31. Mostly pretty straightforward, but undone by a few at the end, which took forever to tease out. LOI AGENCY, since I had put in E between the N and the Y (initially Embraced) and Y for the Generation, not realising GEN was in the clue. Also held up with BARISTA, looking for a city as answer and couldn’t unthink PRISON DRAMA until the former gave me the third letter R. Also had a tentative SAND BUGGY for a while. On the wavelength, I think I could have polished this off much more quickly than I did. Liked the Not Football clue!

32. 28 minutes, no real problems. I wasn’t sure of one or two words but the wordplay was very kind: DUNE BUGGY, NEUTRON STAR, SPACEPORT.

33. I don’t normally time myself, but this was close to a PB, around 20 minutes. No obscure (to me) GK, other than EMO, which was pretty much a gimme.

34. 14:24

    Pretty straightforward but a few bits missed:

    STAND BY – mixed up the definition and wordplay. I had support = STAND and assumed that STAND BY must be a (e.g. commodity) trading position.
    SUDANESE – failed to parse, bunged in from the D checker
    AGENCY – no idea what was going on here

    BARI – only familar due to England footballer David Platt playing for Bari around 35 years ago.
    AU NATUREL – careful with the spelling!

    LOI – SONATA – took a few moments to spot the hidden

    Thanks Jack and setter

35. I can see, rationally, that this wasn’t very difficult. But I made heavy weather of it, finishing not far off the hour – having spent 20 mins of that baffled by the absurdly easy SONATA.

36. A very enjoyable steady solve, with plenty of wit in the clueing, and some beautifully disguised anagrists (especially RAY GUN). Also liked PIU, PERIOD DRAMA, and AU NATUREL. SILK ROAD raised a smile too.

37. 16’12”
    Two Epsom Dashes in two days, I’m out of breath.

    God knows what the drug test will show up. But I’ve still to find Keriothe’s Greek legend.
    Great fun; thank you setter and Pip.

    1. It’s the Greek sphinx (at Thebes).

38. I thought 19ac for ENTOMB was a perfect clue.

39. 11:35
    A quick time for me and I found this quite straightforward. The NW went in on first reading which is always a positive sign but I dallied on a couple of the easier ones including SONATA, as like others I was surprised to see a second hidden word.

    A mild start to the week so I’m expecting things to ramp up.

    Thanks to both.

40. Took a moment to figure out my FOI, SPHINX, but then got moving fairly quickly until I reached the SE, which slowed me down considerably. PERIOD DRAMA eventually cleared the blockage, but SONATA took an age. Like Amoeba, I considered BODATA, but eventually an alphabet trawl came up with SONATA, at which point I muttered under my breath about SON being a bit loose for person. Didn’t see the hidden until I read the blog. Doh! 19:21. Thanks setter and Jack.

    1. I’m glad that wasn’t just me!

    2. Similar mutterings here.

41. 18:50 – A slightly jetlagged solve, which I am trying to convince myself would have been faster on a normal day, but I am not really sure it would have been, thanks to much fumbling in the SE quadrant.

42. Two silly mistakes: I had ORDERS ROUND, and EVO ( I didn’t think two hidden clues were allowed, and I already had SONATA). How annoying!

43. Straightforward solve.
    The sphinx would have struggled to process the riddle-busting sight of my late mother-in-law trundling into Thebes on her mobility scooter.
    Thanks, jack.

44. Faster solve than the QC today. Not often I can say that, but then again I was spectacularly slow completing the QC 😁
    Very enjoyable. Favourites were PERIOD DRAMA, SHREK and ENTOMB. Thanks for sharing the Riddle of the Sphinx Jack – very interesting.

45. 11.04. Liked SPHINX and AGENCY. Held up by initially writing sand buggy, otherwise straightforward.

46. 15:36

    Nice and easy does it. Only SONATA and ENTOMB(COD) slowed me down. Surprised myself by knowng both EMO and GEN Y. One of my best ever birthday presents was a tin, sparks-emitting RAY GUN when I was seven.

    Thanks to Jack and the setter

47. Fairly straightforward solve finishing in 27.40, however I then discover that I had carelessly put in AU NATURAL. Particularly galling when you know perfectly well how it should be spelt. I also didn’t help myself by biffing SAND BUGGY, but this was soon rectified in solving 1dn.

48. Thanks to setter and jackkt

    No time as I solve on paper, and paused for lunch to boot.

    I thought that the “position trader takes on market” was simply that they stand behind their stall.

49. Well, obviously I got Emo pretty quickly; nice to be name-checked in a puzzle. However, I too had thought that more than one hidden was not allowed. We had red-hot poker plants in our garden when I was a child. (And yes, I have read the Marlowe play!) 16 minutes.

50. 64:32 which may not sound too impressive but as I rarely finish the 15 x 15 (about 1 in 10) I’m happy with it. I’m surprised that some found it easier than today’s QC which I finished in 24:32, not one of my better efforts as my average is approx 17 minutes. RED HOT POKER was a write-in as there used to be some in my back garden when I was younger. FOI – NEUTRON STAR, as one with a lifelong interest in astronomy that was also a write-in, LOI – SONATA as I wasn’t expecting two hidden clues, did this rule change at the same time we began to allow referencing living people? COD – ENTOMB. Thanks setter and Jack.

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