Times Cryptic 29246

53 comments on “Times Cryptic 29246”

1. Took me ages to figure out the parsing of AMIDSHIPS, thinking hat the ‘quiet’ was ‘P’ but eventually saw it. ARCHIEPISCOPAL I figured out from the parsing but didn’t understand ‘Pisco’ and had to look it up. THEIR seemed obvious but after being away from the UK for 50 years I didn’t understand the past tense in the clue, thanks for the info Jack.
   Some very neat clues today I thought along with a few write-ins, such as PREMEDITATED, ANTIPERSPIRANT, FRAGRANCE. Liked RAFFIA and thought UN(ED)ITED clever. Thought DISPERSE a bit week as ‘perse’ was in the clue. COD to TRANSEPT.
   Thanks Jack and setter.

2. 14:11
   POI UNITED, had to be, but it took me a while to see why. LOI AMIDSHIPS: I finally thought of where the P could go (‘quiet’), saw SHIPS hence AMIDSHIPS. It was only when I parsed it that I realized P wasn’t ‘quiet’. NHO PISCO.

3. Forgot that I was looking for some brandy when I saw ARCHIEPISCOPAL was the answer—POI. Then I got AMIDSHIPS.

4. Ha! I have drunk many pisco sours in one of our locals. Everything else solved in the wee small hours trying to go to sleep! Thanks setter and Jack but nothing to wake up to in the morning!

5. Nice puzzle. FOI ANTIPERSPIRANT (it was an answer not long ago) then DRIER, STASIS and PREMEDITATED gave a good base of crossers. Had to look up the spelling of ARCHIEPISCOPAL. Easy Tuesday for a change.
   Thanks Jack

6. Well, I merrily biffed away, as the answers effortlessly popped into my head – no idea why. I only really needed the wordplay for archiepiscopal – ah, pisco must be some kind of brandy. The only one I couldn’t parse was their, and I was a bit worried about it, but that had to be the answer.

   Time: 15:33

7. 21.48, though my first crack at 8ac (ARCHetc) drew an error notification and I had another guess which came up trumps. This was a really enjoyable crossword and thanks Jack for pointing out the wiliness of Angers friend (!) and THE IR. FRAGRANCE took a while until I realised this was a UK puzzle and the neighbour wasn’t Indonesia.

   From It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding):
   Even the President of the UNITED States
   Sometimes must have to stand naked (apologies for that image)

8. 11’37”, up early. ARCHIEPISCOPAL great word, still doesn’t look right. Nho PISCO. Missed the Angers reference, but had to be AMIDSHIPS.

   How quickly we have forgotten IR.

   Thanks jack and setter.

9. 18.17, would have been a few minutes quicker if I’d been clever enough to understand the construction of AMIDSHIPS. Chapeau, setter! And thank you Jack.

10. 28:33
    I made heavy weather of this. I wasn’t sure about the spelling for ARCHIEPISCOPAL (PISCO was unknown so I was looking for VSPO or VSP and I toyed with ESP) so I needed AMIDSHIPS which I laboured over. I think I’ve fallen for the random French placename gambit for maybe the thousandth time now.

    I thought this was a mixed bag with plenty of easier clues to give a foothold and a mix of more difficult ones to keep it interesting.

    Thanks to both.

11. 36 minutes with LOI AMIDSHIPS needing the crossers. I thought the word was ARCHEPISCOPAL and just stuck another I in so I could move on. I’ve not heard of the brandy. COD to ISOTHERM for its economy. Thank you Jack and setter.

12. 48 mins and a bit of a grind. Tough. Another with LOI AMIDSHIPS. I saw the « AMI » bit early but just couldn’t see the rest until I finally sorted out TURNSTILE. A lot of clever stuff I have to admit.

    I liked ANTIPERSPIRANT.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

13. DNF, beaten by the unknown POPLIN (I never thought of call=pop in anyway).

    – Eventually entered ARCHIEPISCOPAL with a shrug as I didn’t know that pisco is a brandy
    – Took ages to see TURNSTILE
    – Never parsed THEIR
    – Was convinced that ‘found in’ in the clue for 1d was a containment indicator, which held up QUARTERSTAFFS for a long time
    – The PDM for what ‘Angers’ in the clue for AMIDSHIPS was doing only came after I’d entered it (incidentally, I always like it when ‘struck amidships’ is used euphemistically in cricket for when the ball hits a batter in a delicate place)
    – Took an inordinately long time to see how DRIER worked, despite it being fairly obvious

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    COD Transept

14. 24 mins. Took ages to spot QUOTE/QUARTERS and RAFFIA and
    POPLIN while plenty of others were write-ins barely checking the fodder. Other puzzles might punish me for that.
    The cleric was the key and LOI, I needed all the crossers. NHO PISCO but I know Episcopal pertains to church matters somehow so it seemed likely.
    Thanks jackkt and setter.

15. 15:24
    Nothing in the NW corner at first glance then sped through the rest before returning to the struggle. PISCO unknown/forgotten which made 8a tricky and the parsing of AMIDSHIPS came long after the vessel had sailed.

16. This must be one of my fastest times at just under 15′. All fell into place very quickly though I only half-parsed a few since I was on a bit of a run. Angers passed me by as a French indicator, lovely city though it is, and a mistake in spelling the cleric held me up slightly (… also didn’t know the brandy, but the other building blocks and crossers got me there). Off to the gym earlier than I thought! Thanks Jackkt and setter.

17. 15.13, working my way anticlockwise round the grid after I couldn’t find enough letters for my spelling of the bishop thing, and couldn’t come up with a suitable word for angers with a P in it.
    Special mention for the artistic construction of OPPONENT, which, while not exactly challenging, was very smooth.

18. A steady solve in 20 minutes, ending with TURNSTILE and AMIDSHIPS crossing. Biffed the clerical one, assuming PISCO must be a brandy. I agree with above, DISPERSE was a bit limp.

19. 30.29

    What Rowlie said. Really struggled with the NW partly because I didn’t know PISCO so struggled to piece ARCHIEPISCOPAL together (though the IE bit does ring a bell). Think I thought of every single synonym for servants and accommodation without getting the right ones for yonks. D’oh!

    Thanks Jackkt and setter

20. A frustrating effort as I managed to TYPE QUATA over OCCUR thus invalidating my 20,01. Drat and double drat! QUARTERSTAFF, QUATA and ARCHIEPISCOPAL were my last 3 in. NHO PISCO=brandy. Thanks setter and Jack.

21. Amidships totally defeated me. Brilliant clue.

    I think we also had On The Spot in one of this weekend’s crossies. But they have been recycled so couldn’t check.

22. 12’33”. Liked very much the ANGERS clue, not least because I’ve been thinking of it and other French towns that could be cunningly used like this. The famous ones are Nice and Nancy. But there’s (off top of head) TOURS, LENS, ORANGE, APT, and the departments LOT and TARN. Didn’t know PISCO was a brandy but had to assume it was. Couldn’t work out how UNITED worked, but see it now. Many thanks.

23. 26:05

    Hard to finish in the NW today, not getting 1a or 1d until the last few minutes. Not heard of the brandy nor come across the spelling of 8a before, so had to build that carefully. Left with TURNSTILE, POPLIN and AMIDSHIPS solved in that order.

    Thanks Jack and setter

24. 12:25 – saw the brandy/pisco connection but wasn’t aware that pisco is, itself, a brandy. I had always assumed it was just part of an invented name for the better-known cocktail. Everything else slotted in nicely, though I needed all the crossers for RAFFIA.

25. A very straight down the line crossword, I thought, with nothing to complain about. I had heard of Pisco, thought immediately of AMI for friend from Anger and everything parsed, with a minor hiatus over the parsing of AMIDSHIPS, as I was trying to remove the P, rather than SH. FOI TRANSEPT, LOI UNITED, only because it was the last I looked at.

26. 7 mins pen and paper, started to time when I saw it was going to be quick. Didn’t parse AMIDSHIPS, but love the explanation. 8a had to start ARCH, and thanks to crossers had to end EPISCOPAL. After 2 easy days, looking forward to a stinker tomorrow.

27. Agree with comments of alto_ego above, except that I had never heard of pisco and put in ARCHIEPISCOPAL as it was obviously right. A fairly quick solve was assisted by some friendly anagrams, and I was all done in 20 minutes. Nothing to complain about. What! No Americanisms?
    FOI – THEIR
    LOI – POPLIN
    COD – FRAGRANCE
    Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.

28. Smugly pleased with my doings on this one. Some lovely wordplay, and nothing to frighten the horses. A definite Finish, with no aids, and no problems (first time for a while) but enough of a challenge. I didn’t even need to work the anagrams on paper, they seemed to reveal themselves so readily.
    FOI the 8 ac bishopy one
    LOI TANGERINE
    COD FARAD

29. An enjoyable 24 mins solve in the mental fog of the morning after a transatlantic flight (westbound) which, though not really hitting me with jet-lag, something which I have fortunately never struggled with greatly, did, in part due to the generosity of my American hosts, lead me to go 21 hours without sleep on Monday. COD AMIDSHIPS, which took a couple of visits before the centime dropped.

30. Finished everything bar AMIDSHIPS in 38 mins. Then spent the next 22 mins staring at the crossers. Couldn’t see it. Gave up on the hour.
    *rages*

31. NHO ‘pisco’ and only faintly familiar with POPLIN (nowadays it’s just a meaningless marketing term, apparently, as it rarely refers to its original meaning of a wool and silk blend). Easy enough in general but I had 5 clues unsolved in the NW corner in the end.

32. Reasonable effort spoiled by fat fingered PRANH and EDHED. Fat fingered the Concise too. Bah.

    Liked Angers friend in my LOI AMIDSHIPS. Constructed ARCHIEPISCOPAL having spotted pisco = brandy.

    14:45

33. DNF This was really annoying, because I had all but 5 done in 13 minutes. Then I took about 3 minutes to get QUARTERSTAFF and QUOTE. That left me 3dn, 4dn and 8ac. 10 minutes later (!!!) got AMIDSHIPS so I was left with
    ARCHIxxxSCOPAL and PxPxIx.
    5 minutes of alphabet trawling finally got me POPLIN, which I have in fact vaguely heard of. But after another 5 minutes or so, I started googling brandy and then gave up totally and came here 🙁
    I was slightly fooled by thinking the “that is” was going to be the SC, and wondering where the O came from. Maybe if I had gone back to basics, I would have thought of IE. But even so, the brandy is unknown to me.
    Thanks setter and blogger!
    Steve

34. Well 30:19 is a pretty good time for us but it nevertheless felt unsatisfactory because a) our LOI UNITED went in solely from checkers without a clue what was going on. Totally missed that the meaning might simple be ‘one’ otherwise we might have worked it out and b) more gallingly, having correctly reasoned that LOI 8a was likely to end …COPAL I’d put that in and then forgotten that we didn’t have the source for CO. Spent too long thinking ‘surely brandy can’t be PIS?’ PISCO I would have recognised. Anyway, finished with two shrugs and a sense of ignorance. Thank you, Jack, for ending our misery! I take solace in having realised pretty much straight away that ‘angers friend’ was likely to be AMI, for which reason I make that my COD.

35. 20 mins and all parsed within the time. Much easier than yesterday’s in my view. I’d heard of a pisco sour without knowing what it was, so assumed that PISCO must be a type of brandy. Loved AMIDSHIPS. Very nice surfaces generally!

36. 12:07. A bit off the wavelength with this. Not sure why.
    I didn’t know that PISCO was a brandy, but I didn’t know that it wasn’t either so it didn’t hold me up.

37. Pleased to finish under target at 32.57, although I did get a little bogged down towards the end. I had to assume pisco was a brandy having remembered the word ARCHIEPISCOPAL from the distant past. My LOI was actually UNITED as I took a while to parse it.

38. 23.30. Reasonably accessible but some nice teasers. Last ones in were amidships and turnstile having finally got archiepiscopal. Only time I’ve tried Pisco is in South America in a sour- personally enjoyed margaritas and caipirinhas more. But any port in a storm.

    COD amidships but I quite liked united as well.

39. 18.56 DNF. Quick but a typo gave me ERCHIEPISCOPAL and QUERTERSTAFF for two errors. AMIDSHIPS and LOI RAFFIA were unparsed. Thanks Jack.

40. Personal best for me, felt like a Monday! Had to guess archiepiscopal but hey! Drank many pisco sours but had no idea they were brandy! Also studied physics but had no memory of Farads, luckily easy to parse! Great start to the day, many thanks, Carolyn

41. Finished all correct, but had to reassure myself with the check facility a couple of times. Like many, I finished with the very clever AMIDSHIPS. Nice clue Setter.
    Thanks for the blog Jack.

42. Another gentle one – nearly as quick (14:32) as yesterday’s – and very enjoyable. Struggled with Angers, just thought ‘friend is AMI, so what’s that all about?’ and biffed POPLIN, the parsing of which is so obvious when seen.
    Thanks setter and Jack.

43. Got it done, with a few aids : Needed Chambers Crossword Dictionary for “pop in”, then was able to finish off, with LOI UNITED. I was convinced that the mysterious ELL was the “length for fabric” on the basis that it is a word I only ever see in crosswords.

    I knew PISCO but refused to belief that the prefix was “ARCHI”, what’s the I doing in there? I rather fancied the belief in authority, but not actually bishops, such as the Superintendent Minister of a Methodist Circuit, a QUASIEPISCOPAL.

    Very slow with the QUARTER part of 1D, knew pikestaff, and was looking for the Barrackstaff.

    “Angers” for the French indicator is pretty obscure stuff.

    1. The IE is “that is” in the clue/ that’s how I parsed it anyway

       1. Well yes, but why is the word not arch-episcopal, we don’t say archi-bishop. Or archi-enemey.

44. 29:30. Well I made hard work of this. Most of it seemed easy but then I got stuck on half a dozen clues or more.

    COD: AMIDSHIPS

45. Took an age to get fourth answer and then flew through it to end in 15 mins which is good for me. Inland Revenue eh. Bet that confised those who still have to face the IRS. Answer would then be theirs maybe.

46. 17:43

    Mostly straighforward apart from ARCHIEPISCOPAL and QUARTERSTAFF, two words that I managed to dredge up, having learnt them from previous Times crosswords. Needed Jack to explain THEIR.
    COD AMIDSHIPS.

    Thanks to Jack and the setter

47. 20:46, with LOI AMIDSHIPS, unparsed. Count me among those surprised by the spelling of ARCHIEPISCOPAL, where the first ‘I’ came as a surprise.

    Thanks Jack and setter

48. NHO Poplin took an age LOI
    33‘ in the end
    Liked The IR – I still slip in to talking of the Inland Revenue instead of HMRC – old habits die hard
    COD Antiperspirant- I like a good anagram now and again
    NHO the brandy

49. NHO pisco and couldn’t parse AMIDSHIPS but still finished in a respectable time. It seems I’m in good company.

50. Spent far too long on 3d – I had ‘ships’ but thought quiet indicated the ‘p’………………was very stuck and never would have thought of either ‘ami’ or ‘dips.’ Got it in the end but the clue alone brought my time up all the way over the hour. Some other excellent clues though – my favourites were 17a; 25a; 9d and 7d (a rare hidden word clue that wasn’t stupid!)

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