Times Cryptic 29312

65 comments on “Times Cryptic 29312”

1. 8:50. No major problems with this, nice puzzle. Two very neat anagrams in 2dn and 8dn.

2. Pleasant little exercise.
   The definition of BY DEGREES is simply “Gradually,” of course. As Jack’s note says, “acquire” is part of the wordplay.

   1. Thanks. I have amended the underline.

3. Thanks, jack. One of those puzzles where I realized later that I hadn’t fully parsed about half the answers, because a hint here and a definition there was enough to see what was going on and to fill the grid. And consequently there were a couple which would have slowed me down if I had fully worked through the wordplay. BTW, I think the ? is relevant to Maserati ? as a DBE.

   1. Yes, you’re right about the question mark, Paul. I tend not to include question marks indicating DBEs in my underlines and leave it to solvers to draw their own conclusions. I don’t have a strict policy though, so it’s possible that on occasion they will be included.

4. DNF. A very undignified double failure in 10:44.

   As I submitted I thought “now wasn’t I supposed to check something?”. And yes, I’d meant to check why MINORCA didn’t parse. Not sure I was aware of the other spelling anyway, but might have deduced it.

   Not that it mattered much, having entered NOON instead of NEON despite thinking that “such bright lights” was an odd definition for the midday sun.

   Oh well, better to make all the mistakes on one day I guess. Pity though as I thought it was an excellent puzzle. I’d add PARDON ME to the list of nice anagram clues mentioned by Keriothe.

   Thanks setter and Jack.

   1. I also went back to check MINORCA. I think the software could do with an update – maybe a red highlighting tool so we can see where we need to go back to?

      1. Caught MINORCA on trying to parse it, but another NOON thinking it a bit strange.

      2. As someone who did this just the other day the software app I recommend for such situations is called Don’t Put It In In The First Place.

5. Not too hard. VOCATIVE was my LOI once I realized the type of case I was looking for (“valise” fits the last few checkers which was tempting).

6. Well that was OK and challenging in spots. A particular style of deception.
   Liked 1ac CARDSHARP for that reason. 7d THREE MEN IN A BOATand 21ac TALL STORY for directness and better quality Spoonerism respectively.
   Had to look up to locate the suitable 10ac MENORCA. Presume ‘stalking’ was like ‘chasing’ for correct order, unlike the Yoda speak 27ac PATIENTLY.
   Slight ER at ‘shock’ in 5d POMADE, and the instructions in 6d BENIGN.
   Thank you setter and jackkt.

7. 57:46, not too bad.

   Had to check the meaning of LOI SALUTARY, as didn’t really know it. Was trying to get TUC in first my workers, never heard the abbreviation of TU. Also trying to remember that crossword word for “salary” which no one uses (it’s “screw”).

   MENORCA caused trouble as I thought “stalking” was a containment indicator, and both OR and RE fitted into a 5 letter word for hunter (Orion, Diana etc). Even with MENORCA I was thinking that Menca might be another mythological hunter.

   “Copse” is always a word I try in crosswords whenever wood, trees etc are mentioned. It’s not common in everyday usage though.

   Word order is pretty unfair in both PATIENTLY and POMADE. They have implied commas?

   HOLY WRIT is an excellent anagram. COD for that.

   1. In PATIENTLY & POMADE, the implied element is ‘that’. I’d agree an elided comma is unfair (e.g. “Obviously one inside”, perhaps).

      Eliding ‘that’ is common in everyday speech, e.g. “The puzzle [that] I solved contained some very good clues” This sometimes gets referred to disparagingly as Yoda-speak, but it’s perfectly normal English, and I’ve little doubt [that] you’ll start seeing it everywhere now 😉

      1. Does an elided ‘that’ work for 27ac or is that fair for crossword clues generally.
         I think not.

         Hint (in this case): In a normal English sentence ‘that’ would target a noun.

         1. Would it? “The river that runs through Maidstone?”

         2. In a crossword we regularly treat components of a clue as nouns in the cryptic reading. An adverb cannot ‘eat’ something, yet “Obviously eating one” wouldn’t require ‘obviously’ to be a noun. It’s precisely the same idea here: “Obviously [that] one boards” = PATENTLY [that] I ‘boards’.

            There’s also no need for the patronising tone – even if you were right.

            1. Well, what goes around, comes around?

               Also, suggest one cannot on the one hand argue something is everyday speech and then argue the other way when pulled up on it.

   2. I was taught that one of the first rules of solving cryptic puzzles is never to rely on punctuation or the lack of it.

8. 24 minutes, having nearly fallen into both traps already occupied by Galspray. LOI CORPS. I biffed THREE MEN IN A BOAT almost as soon as I started and I’m still not much the wiser. We had a Maserati when I was a kid. It was my favourite dinky. COD to BY DEGREES. A really good crossword. Thank you Jack and setter.

9. 25 mins for this, ‘con I cavalli senza paura’ today. LOI MENORCA because surely it’s MINORCA?

   COD to RUSTLER just because I was convinced the word had to be contained by C~R (gosh, this tilde business does spruce things up a bit).

   1. Its Wikipedia entry is under Menorca, Minorca redirects to it. Unsure why we get a choice in the first place, especially given that the name derives from Latin for small island, insula minor (cf Mallorca).

      1. Because one of the Spanish/Catalan words for ‘small/minor’ is ‘menor’? The British version is obviously ‘minor’, but we only ruled it for about ninety years (on and off). It was ceded fully back to Spain as long ago as 1802, but British habits died hard in the days of Empire. Their Anglicised misspelling of foreign climes persisted well into the twentieth century.

10. Finished without error for once in 34 minutes.
    Delayed by CARDSHARP, where I spent too long pondering supercars, DRAKE, whose rank was new to me, MENORCA, unsure of the correct spelling and POMADE , where I wasted time with an ineffective REMEDY.
    Most enjoyable. Thanks to setter and jackkt.

11. 15:43* (1 x typo)

    Fat finger syndrome is back but aside from the slip a straightforward solve. SALUTARY held me up in the end even though I saw SALARY straightaway, as TU doesn’t often jump into my mind for the oft clued MEN.

    Thanks to both.

12. A slow stumble over the line, pushing my time beyond 30 minutes in what was an otherwise relatively speedy solve for me. VOCATIVE the LOI. Not helped by taking far too long to remember that the men were ‘in’ the boat rather than ‘on’ it.

    CARDSHARP was the only other one which caused me difficulty. Quite liked that clue and the anagrams were also enjoyable.

    Thanks blogger and setter.

13. 29 mins. Nice one, esp the coxed pair and LOI, COD and infuriatingly resistant CARDSHARP.
    NHO VOCATIVE but POMADE is a Countdown staple.
    Thanks jackkt and setter.

14. I have been to MENORCA, which is what it’s called. (cf MALLORCA). A slight MER at RUSTLER, since the UK monarch reigns but does not rule. Worked through ablative, dative, genitive, accusative (O level Latin 1970) before hitting VOCATIVE. I thought THREE MEN IN A BOAT was a neat clue, and an enjoyable book. Only very serious musicians could talk about differences between D sharp and E flat, so I won’t.

    11’44”, thanks jack and setter.

    1. You mean for instruments not using the approximation of the diatonic scale?
       (Am I serious – not as a musician)

    2. Mainly the UK monarch spends.

    3. In most Western music an octave is divided into 12 equal semitones and under this system D sharp and E flat are the same pitch. This is best illustrated on a keyboard where they share the same key, the one between D and E. The technical term for this is ‘enharmonic equivalence’. The name of the note then depends on the context in the music as notated.

       1. Actually, all major and minor keys are based on linked triads. The twelve semitones you refer two are an approximation into which all keys fit quite closely but not exactly.
          For instruments like violins there is a slight difference in certain keys which can be played exactly for the particular key.

          Apologies for being so direct. There is more to this of course, but not appropriate perhaps for here.

          1. No apologies needed. I’m aware of pure / just intonation as practised by string players but hadn’t planned to get into all that.

             1. Good evening (morning here).
                Well, I was not sure – in the same way as my original comment to RobR was intended as an ‘in joke’ presuming he knew the full import.
                There is a good book called ‘The Physics of Musical Sound by Jess Josephs – no doubt out of print.
                I used to make guitars as a hobby.
                As you may know the various fret distances are a geometric progression obtained from the overall scale length by successively dividing by the twelfth root of two.

15. Two errors in just over 14 mins. CARAT for CORPS and TWIST for SKIRT. Neither of my two answers made any sense, so no excuse for my errors. I even considered COPSE for trees and R, of course, for resistance so I’m not sure why I didn’t make the final small mental effort required to get to CORPS. Ah well! At least I got to MENORCA (which I’ve not yet travelled to in real life).

    COD: RUSSIAN ROULETTE

16. About 20 minutes.

    – Put me down as another who didn’t know DRAKE’s rank
    – CORPS was a long time in coming, even with the C and the R in place
    – Couldn’t have told you what a POMADE is, but it sounded familiar

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    FOI Holy writ
    LOI Skirt
    COD Cardsharp

    1. Cut yourself some slack.
       Wasn’t Drake reputedly a privateer?

       1. Nothing reputed about it.
          As a holder of ‘Letters of Marque’ from the Crown, he was authorised to be so. Privateers were instruments of foreign policy and the conduct of war. Most of their ‘prize’ went to the Crown.

17. 45 mins with a frustratingly large amount of time spent on the L2I CORPS & DRAKE.

    Otherwise pretty straightforward with some good mlsdirection.

    I liked the two long clues and the spoonerism.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

18. This just seemed to suit me. I was a bit slow to get going in the top left quarter so moved to the top right and worked clockwise. Once I got going there were no real hold ups. I don’t normally time myself but would guess something like 12-15 minutes which is fast for me.

19. 18.42. The entire NW section stayed blank until I got to RUSSIAN ROULETTE from the nether regions. Still trying to work out how VOCATIVE eluded me for so long, as I am perfectly capable of reciting the full set of cases from Mr Jarry’s Latin classes, even after nearly 60 years. O table… I checked with Wiki after doubtfully entering MENORCA to find that it is, indeed, the more common spelling, and just because we think min- and maj- for little and large is irrelevant.
    I don’t think I’d ever have got CARDSHARP without some crossing letters: Maserati is very specific for just CAR, and by contrast “note” is vague for the very specific D SHARP.

20. FOI was MEMO, and that immediately gave me 3 MEN IN A BOAT. However, I couldn’t parse it for the life of me, and it still doesn’t make any sense. No real holdups, as I skipped anything not obvious until I had more crossers, so a smooth fill of the grid. I took HEADSTONE to be a cryptic definition, missing the anagram. No unknowns, apart from Drake’s rank. LOI POMADE, once MENORCA went in. Nice one, that I wouldn’t have got without the crossers, though ‘shock’ should have given me a hint!

21. 37 minutes. As my LOI, I couldn’t shift SHIFT for the double def at 11a, even though as a dress, a ‘tutu’ is hardly a SHIFT. Thankfully saw sense before having to do an alphabet trawl. Like Merlin, I didn’t know the correct meaning of SALUTARY, despite happily using the word for years. I was also thrown by ‘shock treatment’ at 5d which I initially expected to be ECT.

    Favourite was the reminder of “Et tu…” at 18a; very ‘poignant’ for poor old Caesar.

22. Very pleasant solve finishing in the north west corner. Hadn’t parsed headstone so thanks for clearing that up.

23. Also had trouble with the NW – 10 mins in I had absolutely nothing and feared this was a toughie. The rest of the grid was pretty easy, though, and once I had RUSSIAN ROULETTE the rest fell pretty quickly. Liked CARDSHARP and POMADE.

24. Just under 20′ for an easy-ish day. Didn’t start too well but the bottom half gave itself up quickly giving me the wavelength for the top half. Pondered 18ac for a while before eVOCATIVE came to mind.

    I liked “shock treatment ” for POMADE after I had also earlier pencilled in ECT.

    Thanks Jack and setter

25. Quick today, not a demanding crossword but pleasant and neatly turned out.
    I knew Drake was second in command of the response to the Armada, under one Howard or another, so vice-admiral seemed plausible.

26. What @jerryw said. 20 minutes.

27. Was soooo stuck on 1a being an anagram of Maserati with a note attached (a-g or n)that I would never have arrived at card sharp and therefore failed to get pomade and corps! what a house of cards, but good fun, also really liked three men in a boat, as what other arrangement is there but two rowers and a cox? Great fun, thanks, Cx

    1. Precisely. I was surprised by some comments about THREE MEN IN A BOAT. It’s just an amusing way of describing the arrangement. COD for me.
       Sorry for late comment, I’ve been away and am catching up.

28. 15:47

    On wavelength today, only slowed up at the last, needing CONCRETE, SKIRT, SALUTARY, VOCATIVE, MENORCA and POMADE solved in that order. Didn’t spot the reverse-hidden BENIGN and did not know of DRAKE’s rank. Good puzzle.

    Thanks Jack and setter

29. 31 minutes except that: I’d much sooner have waited until I got VOCATIVE properly, but my impatience got the better of me and after a couple of minutes staring at the checkers (moralise? dopamine? and apparently many others) I used aids to get the obvious VOCATIVE. Had been looking for the wrong sort of case. At 17ac NOON seems to work at a long stretch: the definition is odd but just about plausible; and moving, for dropping completely, is arguably OK despite its unsatisfactoriness. So I had NO-ON[E] for a while.

30. A pretty evenly paced solve with all complete and parsed in 37.50. A major hiccup on the way was failing to spot that 8dn was an anagram, and I initially inserted TOMBSTONE which I took to be a straightforward cryptic clue. Solving BATCH put me back on track and with the corrected answer MENORCA followed on. My LOI CORPS took a little longer than I would have liked however. As usual it took me an age to spot that BENIGN was a reverse hidden, although conversely my hatred of old Spooner was quickly put to one side when TALL STORY came to me in seconds.

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