Times Cryptic 29359 – Not the Championship puzzle!

97 comments on “Times Cryptic 29359 – Not the Championship puzzle!”

1. 24:59 WOE
   DNK 3-DAY EVENT, dnk 2 of the 3 Days, and put in MAN, while wondering about Doris. I assumed, correctly as it turns out, that The Prodigy was a band (just now Googled them). Saw SCHOPENHAUER from a couple of checkers, then parsed it, wondering about ‘miserable’; I know nothing of him. 21d is odd; OMEN is a noun, while ‘portend’ is a verb.

   1. I assumed omen could be a verb, but didn’t check. Looking in Chambers, there it is: omen, vt, to portend.

   2. OMEN is also a transitive verb according to the dictionaries, though I have never heard it used that way

      1. Nor I, nor ODE evidently, which was as far as I looked.

      2. Ill-omened cones to mind

         1. It came to mine, too, later. But is it like ‘well-built’, ‘ill-conceived’, or like ‘thick-skinned’, ‘two-faced’?

   3. He was a pessimist.

2. Interesting that you managed to print the Championship Final puzzle. When I try to print I get an ‘Access Denied’ error code. How did you do it?

   1. Vinyl said in another thread that he got it from the newspaper version, so I’m going to look for it in the e-paper now.

      1. I already looked but couldn’t find it. If you have better luck please advise which page it is on. Thanks

         1. page 17
            Don’t look at 18 or you’ll see the answers!

            1. Thanks, I printed it but the print is too tiny and I hate black squares so I feel I’m at a disadvantage before I start. There have been some complaints in the Forum about not being able to print from the Club so I shall wait and hope for that to be fixed before tackling it.

               1. In case you’re still trying to get a print-out it works via the ‘Crosswords’ link that appears above the ‘Crossword Club’ link on the Times site. I’m using a laptop so what you see may be different to my experience but good luck.

                  1. Many thanks. Perfect! But what a performance to find it!

3. 50 minutes with one look-up of the last remaining hurdle, FAIENCE. If only I’d thought of ‘dodgy dealer / FENCE’! The answer has come up several times before so I really should have got it.

   I lost time biffing MADE SAFE at 1ac and then trying to parse it, but the arrival of SCHOPENHAUER showed me my error eventually.

   Nice puzzle apart from those hiccups.

   1. I had made safe too.

   2. Exactly the same problems (mistakes!) as you, jackkt!

4. I only knew one DAY, Doris (also my sister’s name, and rare these days).
   Didn’t know OMEN could be a verb, so entered that only near the end of a steady and absorbing solve.

   FAIENCE always reminds me of the lines from Serge Gainsbourg’s song about a métro ticket-puncher (obsolete job—“Parâit qu’y a pas de sot métier,/ Moi, je fais des trous dans des billets”), “Le Poinçonneur des Lilas”: “Et sous mon ciel de faïence,/ Je ne vois briller que les correspondences.” One of my karaoke-night hits!

   The French call FRENCH TOAST “pain perdu”—it’s a good use for slightly stale bread. Could be a pun on “peine perdue.”

   The clue for SCHOPENHAUER made me laugh. He did enjoy music and loved his poodles.

5. Interesting one this, lots to comment on. I failed totally at 16:40, with incorrect BUFFALO/THREE-DAY FLEET left in (I had planned to come back and check, but I often forget).

   In case it wasn’t clear, ‘eggy bread’ is an actual term (synonym of french toast), not just a definition. I always thought it was a bit of an unflattering term for this comparatively delicious breakfast with cinnamon sprinkled on it.

   Thanks setter and Vinyl. It seems a very bad idea after that performance but I think I’ll have a go at the Championship puzzle, too.

6. I started out thinking it was an uncharacteristically beastly Monday offering but I gradually got into the swing of things to finish in 29.10. I remain puzzled by the pre-digestif toast and needed vinyl’s help to understand several parsings, such as AMOK, HEART THROB and poor old SHOPENHAUER.

   From Romance in Durango:
   Hot chilli peppers in the blistering sun
   Dust on my face and my cape
   Me and Magdalena on the run
   I think this time we shall escape

   Sold my guitar to the BAKER’s son
   For a few crumbs and a place to hide
   But I can get another one
   And I’ll play for Magdalena as we ride

7. Exactly the same experience as Jack with Made Safe before realising it was MADE FAST, and FAIENCE was a NHO as far as I can recall but really should have seen ‘fence’ for ‘dodgy dealer. Everything else was pretty clear although I’ve never heard it called LEMON DAB, just Lemon Sole. Thought DECKCHAIR was very good for ‘collapses completely’. THREE-DAY EVENT was a write in from Doris and Jason and only vaguely heard of Robin Day. SCHOPENNHAUER constructed from the word play only as I’d never heard of him. LEAN-TO from ‘shed’ as I’d forgotten LEPANTO, and the ‘rowing’ bit I didn’t get but assumed that the boats were oar-driven. COD to MIASMA.

   Also printed the championship puzzle this morning from the times site without issue and just checked and it’s still on the site with no errors showing.
   I managed to almost finish it but I was never going to get the first and last across clues. Some of the parsing was quite tricky but there’s also some quite biffable answers in there along with at least two hiddens. I can only marvel at the winner’s time to finish this.

   Thanks V and setter(s)

   1. Several towns in the pas de Calais specialise in Faience. Desvres comes to mind .. good destinations for a day out. (If you can get through border control!)

      1. Thanks. Yes, after looking it up it seems to include Delftware and the like, but also structural terracotta materials. Given I’m in Oz, could be a while before I get to Franca again!

         1. Yes .. but at least you will be used to oppressive border control 🙂

   2. Robin Day was the kind of interviewer who addressed Prime Ministers as “Prime Minister” and received the reply, “Mr Day”. He was tough but courteous. Public intercourse could do with his style.

8. Enjoyed SCHOPENHAUER a lot. Not the philosopher, I hasten to add, but the clue. Pythonesque.

   15:13

9. Despite rushing down the same MADE SAFE blind alley as other more distinguished solvers, I recovered and eventually finished in 20.22. There were a number of real treats on the way – LEAN-TO, THREE-DAY EVENT – which made this a more than usually agreeable and interesting start to the week.
   Many thanks V and setter.

10. 27 minutes. No idea about PRODIGY as an ‘electronic band’ or about the ‘that precedes a digestif?’ wordplay but managed to parse the rest, including the three DAY(s). I was lucky that FAIENCE appeared elsewhere only last week.

    My favourite was the ‘Miserable German’ def for the SCHOPENHAUER clue too; interesting what Guy had to say about his likes, so at least he wasn’t ‘Miserable’ all the time.

    Enjoyable way to start the week and challenging enough to get me into the swing of things to have a go at the Championship Final puzzle.

    1. Re Miserable: Schopenhauer was a major proponent of the school of Philosophical Pessimism-among other cheerful tenets it held that non-existence was preferable to existence!

       1. Since Schopenhauer had a number of girlfriends, and several illegitimate children, it seems that he figured that as long as he was in existence, he might as well enjoy it!

11. 7.55
    Pleased to find that I can still do The Times crossword, after Saturday’s blow-out*.
    I can console myself that “It’s not me, it’s them”.
    Some nice musical touches – Doris Day was my mum’s favourite. Never heard of the Australian golfer.
    COD INFANT PRODIGY
    LOI BEEFALO.

    *Not a complete blow-out: the top 57 competitors from the first round got through to the semi-final – I came 57th. The top 47 from the semi-final get priority booking for next year’s competition – I came 47th.
    As a more successful entrant commented: “Absolute economy of effort, 10/10”.

    1. Having had a go at the Championship puzzle this morning, I can only say, ‘Well done!’ After about 3/4 through I came here for some light relief solving! Will go back to it, but don’t hold out much hope…

12. 36 mins with LOI HEART-THROB.

    Followed the wp carefully for the unknown German, then checked it. I needed lol the checkers too! I also only knew two of the three Days, but luckily that was enough.

    I liked MY FAIR LADY & LEMON DAB.

    Thanks V and setter. Now to try the competition crossie, if I can print it……

    Yup, as I thought, can’t print it. “Access denied”! Nice.

    1. See my note to Jack above if you have trouble.

       1. Thanks Q. Got it! At least, I found it, then e-mailed to myself, then printed it. Phew.

13. I’m certain I’ve seen FAIENCE clued like that somewhere else recently—must’ve been the Guardian if so. Anyway, not much slowed me down despite the NHO Jason Day and I was done in 21 minutes. I look forward to being humbled by the Championship effort later…

14. 27:52 but could have been a lot quicker if I had spotted the incorrect MADE SAFE sooner.

    Couple of NHOs in here for me BEEFALO and SCHOPENHAUER.

    Shouldn’t have left HONEYSUCKLE until last as it was a rare occasion I had heard of the plant.

    Liked INFANT PRODIGY

    LOI LEAN-TO which was my first thought but couldn’t even make a dent on the wordplay. My new thing learned today.

    Do I dare attempt the championship final puzzle?

    Cheers blogger and setter

15. 21 minutes without aid or error.
    NHO BEEFALO but it looked feasible. Another who strayed up ( can one stray upwards?) the MADE-SAFE alley. Only got ASTHMA after the SHERIFF rode into town. Had only vaguely HO Lepanto so LEAN TO was simply a BIFF. Showing my age perhaps but NHO Jason Day.

    Thanks to setter and vinyl1.

16. 27:04 stymied by the same MADE SAFE biff as others crossing the NHO FAIENCE. My Fair Lady and The Prodigy in one puzzle, nice one. Thanks vinyl and setter.

17. 23 minutes with LOI FAIENCE, a word I’d only heard and can’t begin to know the meaning of. I had also vaguely heard of the Battle of Lepanto but I got it from the shed. And I did know of a combo called The Prodigy but they are after Sergeant Pepper and therefore should be excluded from The Times crossword. Very enjoyable, even so. Thank you V and setter.

    1. Spotify user analysis suggests that the average age at which people stop listening to new music is about 32.
       If we guess the average age of a Times cruciverbalist at 60 that brings us to 1997 so I reckon the Prodigy are just about fair game.

       1. My tongue-in-cheek comment about Sergeant Pepper is a longstanding joke between me and this site. It’s because I left University in 1967, aged 21, to go and work for the man, at the point Sergeant Pepper was released. By then Elvis was only playing Las Vegas, Buddy had died, the Evs and Roy Orbison couldn’t be heard. Of course, sixty years further on, too good to miss, they now dominate BBC4 and Sky Arts. I still listened to new music but only stuff I liked, such as Elvis Costello and The Pretenders, and of course everything Dylan has released. But do people manage to keep in touch until they’re 32?

          1. Yes I guessed you were being humorous, I just thought it was an interesting factoid. I certainly didnt make 32, dating my detachment to the death of Kurt Cobain in 1996. Plus I prefer music from before my time, incl SP.

          2. Sorry BW, reading it back that did come over as a rebuke which was not my intention.
             I have been reading TftT for alot longer than I have been posting so have seen your SP quip before but should have made that clear upfront.

             1. No problem, rv1. I didn’t read your comment that way at all.

       2. Interesting. My cut-off was 36, had a job where I had a 20-25 minute drive into work and home again, and listened to the alternative radio JJJ. Brilliant (except for Judith Lucy, almost as dumb as Donald Trump). After that I was workng on-site, where there was no good music available, so got out of the habit. Since about 2000 I drive silent.

       3. I think many of us get to bands like The Prodigy via our offspring. I remember hanging around a very dodgy part of Brixton (in the car) many years ago waiting to pick my 15 year-old son and his friend up from a Prodigy gig. On reflection, I wish I’d gone.

18. 11’56”, some tricky parsing. Very much liked LEPANTO. Are Frank Herbert, and The Prodigy, famous enough to appear?

    The Championship puzzle will have to wait until later.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

    1. Herbert yes, random pop group no .. imo!

       1. Whereas I would say the opposite! I wouldn’t really, I don’t mind either, but the group is much more familiar to me than the writer. Curious in a way because Dune is currently very prominent because of the movies but you don’t hear about the author of the books very much. Or at least I don’t.

          1. Herbert has been dead for 40 years, so you wouldn’t hear that much about him. I read Dune ages ago and it was fun, but he couldn’t write for toffee.

             1. Jules Verne has been dead for far longer but you are still expected to have heard of him.
                As for Frank Herbert, indeed he could write. If you think not, just try reading one of the Dune series written after he died…

             2. Frank Herbert was a pretty good writer by SF standards, and Dune is one of my faves, though Hellstrom’s Hive is worth a look. His strength was in creating tension.

19. About 15 minutes.

    – Knew of Lepanto without getting the rowing reference for LEAN-TO
    – NHO Jason Day but the other two names made THREE-DAY EVENT clear enough
    – Didn’t know that SCHOPENHAUER was apparently miserable
    – Tried to make AGOG work for 8d before thinking of AMOK
    – Couldn’t parse HEART-THROB

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

    FOI Asthma
    LOI Amok
    COD Made fast

20. 8:28 my fastest for a while. A lot of it obvious from definitions and/or checkers before needing any wordplay, which takes much of the fun away. Have heard of the philosopher but no idea about his mood.

21. Really enjoyed this crossword, some very witty clues. Loved Le(p)anto, loved the Days, though only knew two. Laughed at poor old Schopenhauer. Liked the Afghani pot .. good stuff.

22. 19.56, slowed by unaccountably trying to start THREE-DAY… with a D, and even more by trying to understand (apart from the shed bit) LEAN TO, never quite getting to the battle.
    One of those things that can take best part of a lifetime to dawn: MY FAIR LADY is, of course, how Eliza might have pronounced “Mayfair lady”. Took me most of a lifetime.

    1. Yes. I first saw the movie in the sixties but it was only about ten years ago that I learned of the connection between the name of the movie and how Eliza would have pronounced Mayfair.

    2. Wouldn’t she have said ‘lidee’?

    3. PDM. This minute. This second.
       First time…
       Well, there we are… By George, we’ve got it!

       Let’s hope there is still significant lifetime left for all of us…

23. From INFANT PRODIGY to SCHOPENHAUER in 19,30, but with a careless typo, PLIASTER overwriting CONSERATLVE for 2 errors. Drat and double drat! Managed to not put in MADE SAFE, and even knew of the battle. Liked THREE DAY EVENT. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

24. 5:41. Plain sailing today.
    Had heard of Doris and Robin but not Jason.

25. My thanks to vinyl1 and setter.
    Doable, I thought, but much biffing.
    5a Asthma misspelt as athsma which delayed honeysuckle and sheriff.
    10a Lean-to biffed. I HHO battle of Lepanto but never connected it. I thought some if not all of the ships also had sails, but Wiki informs me that it was “the last major engagement in the Western world to be fought almost entirely between rowing vessels, namely the galleys and galleasses, which were the direct descendants of ancient trireme warships.” So I was wrong then.
    12a Infant P. NHO The Prodigy.
    20a 3 Day Event, NHO Jason DAY.
    2d Dun biffed. I did look up A P Herbert but that was the wrong Herbert. Frank of that ilk added to Cheating Machine.
    3d Faience, HHO, it is used to make King Tut’s blue bits in the gold headscarf thingy. I saw the exhibition at the RA about 50 years ago and the Yorkshireman behind me said “Eee that’s not gold, that’s brass” with a very short A in brass.
    I used to work on “Paki Black” of which 90+% comes from Afghanistan, but it is usually shipped to UK via Pakistan for the obvious reason that there are very few consignments directly from Kabul, so they would stand out and get searched. There are lots of consignments from Rawalpindi and Karachi.
    4d Schopenhauer biffed.

26. One hour, with aid at the end for AMOK. A rare paper solve, as at The Times Cheltenham literature festival they give out free copies. I blame this for my failure at the end where I miss read the LEAN-TO clue as 2,4, which scuppered it, great clue though.

    Was convinced miserable German was SCHADENFREUDE, which fits if you spell it wrong.

    NHO FAIENCE, BEEFALO, LEMON DAB

27. 8:48, enjoyable clueing and all the knowledge ticked as officially “general” in my book. I do like eggy bread, but these days I am part of the metropolitan elite and most of our bread is sourdough, which doesn’t really work (not absorbent enough).

28. 16:26. I didn’t parse LEAN TO, although the battle does seem familiar to me now from previous puzzles. I was surprised to get HONEYSUCKLE as quickly as I did – gardening is not exactly my forte. I also got BEEFALO quickly as I remember swotting up on my hybrids when previous ‘crosses’ appeared. Nice challenge for a Monday – now on to the Championship behemoth!

29. 21.31 WOE

    Completely missed the DUNE reference; thought DANK for dingy and bunged in DAN.

    Must have seen something similar before but liked BAKER.

    Thanks Vinyl/setter.

    1. Glad it wasn’t just me!

30. 25:40 – a bit slow-witted on some that should have been write-ins, not helped in the NW with a biffed FAIL SAFE. The verb/noun problem with OMEN also nagged but the reductive definition of SCHOPENHAUER as “Miserable German” was an unexpected pleasure, though if pressed I would have said all of his ilk probably were to a greater or lesser extent.

31. 25 minutes on a crossword that began as if it was going to be a bit tricky, but fell into place. SCHOPENHAUER appears often in P.G. Wodehouse, and Bertie Wooster has trouble remembering his name. “Ship, Shop, …”. I think to reference Jason Day is a bit unfair to non-golfers. OK he has won a major and he was world no.1 about ten years ago, but he hasn’t really become known widely outside golf, like Seve Ballesteros or Rory McIlroy. One or two slightly questionable answers, but all OK really. I didn’t know about Lepanto, despite the name being familiar. Probably did it in history in my childhood. Is CARAMEL dark-brown?

    1. He’s a golfer?

       1. (Very) occasionally it is advantageous to be Australian. Maybe 3 times in the past 15 years it has proved to be worthwhile.
          Jason Day well known, won heaps more Majors than Brits like Colin Montgomery, though it was many years ago. Is there a Robin Day? Who nose, had to assume it.

          1. That’s cheating .. Montgomery was famous specifically for not having won one. Try with Rory, and say that … 🙂

             1. Rory is a great champion, but he post-dates Montgomery and Day (in my memory – they’re dinosaurs).
                Montgomery shoulda won a US Open, one shot up on the 18th tee, but hit his simple approach into a bunker and lost. While Day beat the best golfer at the time, Jordan Spieth, to win the PGA. Playing in the same group and trash-talking, from all accounts. No pressure there, then.

                1. Still cheating 🙂

                2. Rory is in fact only 2 years younger than Jason Day. They are both still pretty good, but Day has had a number of injuries that have held him back.

       2. he is a former world number one.

    2. Well, to be fair, Robin Day is unlikely to be known by US solvers, who are more likely to know Jason Day since he plays on the PGA tour. I was very surprised that so many solvers had not heard of him, but then again, there are only three or four golfers in the top 100 in the World Golf Rankings who are unfamiliar to me. Jason Day is currently 42nd, between Nick Taylor and Rasmus Hojgaard.

32. Good puzzle. I ‘m another who thought that Peter must meane MADE SAFE. I liked LEPANTO and LEMON DAB.

    I feel a bit sorry for SCHOPENHAUER who always get a bad press but spoke a lot of sense. “It would be a good thing to buy books if one could also buy the time to read them; but one usually confuses the purchase of books with the acquisition of their contents.”. Unhappily true in my case.

    Thanks to vinyl and the setter

33. Great to see the Prodigy getting a name check and I recall we had Wham recently.More clues involving groups from the 80s and 90s please.
    Let down by the unlikely looking BEEFALO in the end.

34. 31:13
    I enjoyed the clue for SCHOPENHAUER. It contained all the pieces needed for assembly, which was just as well, as I could never have spelt his name otherwise.
    LOI AMOK. I was thinking of “lay out” first as an anagram of lay, then as a word meaning spend, both of which stopped me seeing KO.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

35. It took me 38.04 to complete this enjoyable puzzle, finishing up with SCHOPENHAUER who for me wasn’t the write in he appears to have been for others. It took me a while to unravel 1ac where I originally biffed MADE SAFE, and then forgot to check it. This of course caused me problems with the aforementioned misery guts and FAIENCE. Got there in the end though!

36. 17.44 A rare entry into the top 100. FAIENCE and LEMON DAB were dimly heard of but BEEFALO and Jason were new. LOI LEAN TO was biffed. Thanks vinyl1.

37. One of those on-the-wavelength puzzles, very quick, no problems. Particularly liked Schopenhauaer, warplane, and Irving Berlin.

    1. Though some tough clues to parse… e.g remembered LOI Lepanto from past puzzles, but no idea it was a naval battle involving row-boats.

38. 15:08. Another who was held up by bunging in MADE SAFE for 1A. I failed to parse LEAN-TO not knowing that the battle of Lepanto was fought by rowing boats. Thanks Vinyl and setter.

39. 25:05 – had to have a break before doing the last few which included BEEFALO and 3DE. An entertaining puzzle with some interesting vocab FAIENCE was new to me but seemed like it had to be.

40. Had to come here for the parsing of LEAN-TO, as although I’ve heard of Lepanto I didn’t know it was conducted in row boats – I’m sure I’ve seen sails in paintings. Having S-H at the beginning of 4d helped enormously to fill in the clue as directed – excellent. NHO LEMON DAB; I assume it’s the same as Lemon Sole. NHO Jason, but the other two made Day a write-in. LOI FRENCH TOAST, which I wasn’t convinced was the same as Eggy bread. No real problems. Back to the Championship stinker…!

41. I thought the bread serves 2 purposes
    Eggy bread = French toast
    Bread = French
    Precedes a digestif = toast

    1. How does ‘bread’ clue ‘French’?

42. Pleased to finish this one with pen and paper in a loud coffee shop, but unfortunately had fleet for event. NHO BEEFALO and only VHO SCHOPENHAUER although wordplay was kind. Thanks all. Very enjoyable.

43. I was going to show off and quote Dickens as creating the most famous INFANT PRODIGY, but luckily I checked and it is of course the INFANT PHENOMENON who is the ghastly child performer in Nicholas Nickleby. 16’13” all up. Thanks to all.

44. Came to this late and was pleased to finish it after a slow start
    FOI BAKER
    LOI BEEFALO
    COD THREE-DAY EVENT (took me far too long to get and I know all three people well…not personally of course)

45. Quite slow, but got there in the end once I abandoned Made Safe in favour of Made Fast – this parsing the answers business will never catch on 😉 Beefalo, Faience and Schopenhauer went in on trust, and Lean To was unparsed, but I was confident about the rest. Invariant

46. 18:47

    Catching up on a few missed while I’ve been in Japan – seemed very Mondayish – had MADE SAFE at first but soon had the first five letters of 4d as F_H_P which seemed unlikely, so revisited. Heard of SCHOPENHAUER but no idea about him, nor his miserability. Didn’t know what was going on with LE(P)ANTO either – I’ll have to look it up. LOI FAIENCE seemed so unlikely a word, but it had to be.

    Thanks V and setter

47. Ran ( or galloped?) through this, starting with the incorrect MADE SAFE, and the to-me obvious DIM for 2d…. So, not really a great start, but I made good time biffing my way through LEAN TO (NHO the battle) and DECK CHAIR (which didn’t appear to have a complete definition (“which collapses entirely “?). MY FAIR LADY was a write-in, but that left me with problems with the window, so altered my DIM to DEN ( thinking the novel might be EDEN or somesuch. ). But otherwise all present and correct:COD to THREE DAY EVENT.

48. Faience made me correct a biffed made safe, where I’d ignored the need to end in t.
    Others have mentioned the very terse clues for the German and the problem/disease, taking the lateral thinking to new limits.
    At 20a I was wondering if there was a synonym for triple dead heat before the day reference surfaced. I think I’ve heard of Robin of that ilk, but would have guessed his occupation as broadcaster.
    NHO Lepanto from a visit to Genoa, but bunged in lean to from GK. Galleys had sails as well as rowers so the reference passed me by, as our blogger predicted.

    many thanks, a better Monday workout than expected

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