Times Cryptic 29365 – A bit of the UK, a bit of the US

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 19:56

Music: Rimsky-Korsakov,  Sheherezade, Rostropovich/LSO.

I am subbing tonight for my opposite number Ulaca, who is off traveling.   This is the first time I’ve had to blog two days in a row, but at least it is scheduled.

The puzzle was not terribly difficult, with some mild attempts to conceal the literals.   Well, one of two of them may give a little trouble, but then you can turn round and use the cryptic fairly easily -so a Monday puzzle, not a Friday.    I thought I was pretty good at UK towns, but apparently there are even more of them.    UK solvers are invited to see how many towns in Connecticut they can name.

 

Across
1 Stays in my place (6)
CORSET –  COR + SET.
4 Revelling in macho hairstyle (7)
MOHICAN –  Anagram of IN MACHO.
9 Swimmer’s excessive gear regularly pruned (5)
OTTER –  O.T.T. + [g]E[a]R.
10 Unusual red star initially key for constellation (4,5)
URSA MINOR –  U[nusual] R[ed] S[tar] plus A MINOR.   You’ll have to wait for the checking letter to see if it’s A minor or A major.
11 Tool packs seed for bird (9)
SANDPIPER –  SAND(PIP)ER.
12 Subject lying face down (5)
PRONE –  Double definition, with subject as a verb.   The clue would be better with subject to.
13 Change in direction ever changing (4)
VEER –  Anagram of EVER.
14 Expert stops entry happening (2,8)
IN PROGRESS –  IN(PRO)GESS.
18 Mammal just keen, we’re told (5,5)
RIGHT WHALE –  RIGHT + sounds like WAIL, with keen as a verb.
20 Delayed with other people heading west (4)
LATE –  ET AL backwards.
23 Fundamental programming language (5)
BASIC –  A very easy double definition.
24 Friend loses finale after playing game — catastrophe! (9)
MEGAQUAKE – Anagram of GAME + QUAKE[r]….oh, that kind of Friend.
25 Craft with a bow and mast fashioned outside entrance to Portsmouth (5,4)
SWAMP BOAT –  Anagram of A BOW + MAST around P[ortsmouth].
26 Member carrying over a bouquet (5)
AROMA –  AR(O)M + A.
27 Ousted Democrat leaves very upset (7)
EJECTED – [d]EJECTED.
28 Gasp and cries of excitement heard? (6)
WHEEZE – Sounds like WHEES.
Down
1 Angry about combination of two different styles (9)
CROSSOVER –  CROSS OVER.
2 Followers to join up on borders (7)
RETINUE –  R(UNITE upside-down)E.
3 Regret climbing competition lacking base in continent (6)
EUROPE –  RUE upside-down + OPE[n], i.e golf or tennis.
4 Man discards shirt at last — tight one (5)
MISER – MIS[(shir)t]ER.
5 Respect checking record for beginning of site visit? (4,4)
HOME PAGE –  HOM(E.P.)AGE.
6 Comfort individual supporting prisoner (7)
CONSOLE –  CON + SOLE.
7 Old language found in Cameroon or Senegal (5)
NORSE – Hidden in [cameroo]N OR SE[negal].
8 Rest before meal, ignoring large drink (3,5)
RUM PUNCH –  RUMP + [l]UNCH, as in the Rump Parliament, the small remaining group.
15 Downgrade extremely reliable ambassador (8)
RELEGATE – R[eliabl]E + LEGATE.
16 Town flat in the middle of play area (9)
STEVENAGE –  ST(EVEN)AGE, not known to me.
17 Northern location lacks right cooking vessel (8)
STOCKPOT – STOCKPO[r]T.   Never heard of it, but the answer was obvious enough.
19 Empty gesture, say, to develop slowly (7)
GESTATE – G[estur]E + STATE.
21 In battle site to the north of Delaware (1,2,4)
A LA MODE –  ALAMO + DE.
22 Waitress finally put down vegetable (6)
SQUASH – [waitres]S + QUASH.
23 Add juice to some cutlets a butcher sent back (5)
BASTE – Backwards hidden in [cutl]ETS A B[utcher].
24 Produced low frame of mind to conserve energy (5)
MOOED – MOO(E)D.

76 comments on “Times Cryptic 29365 – A bit of the UK, a bit of the US”

  1. I thought there were some clever and crafty clues here, or at least they fooled me. I’m talking about A LA MODE, HOME PAGE, MEGAQUAKE (whatever that is) and URSA MINOR which I completely failed to parse so thank you vinyl. Enjoyable Monday puzzle, 25.54.

    From Can’t Wait:
    I can’t wait, wait for you to change your mind
    It’s LATE, I’m trying to walk the line
    Well it’s way past midnight and there are people all around
    Some on their way up, some on their way down
    The air burns, and I’m trying to think straight
    And I don’t know how much longer I can wait

  2. 38 minutes. NHO RIGHT WHALE or SWAMP BOAT. STEVENAGE has come up in four weekday puzzles and one Mephisto, most recently in a QC in 2023. I’ve lived in locations within an hour’s drive of the place all my life but have never been there other than perhaps passing through the station on a couple of train journeys.

    1. I was always told that Right Whales were so-called as they are ‘the right whale to catch’ due to their comparative ease to catch and their high value. Their baleens were used to make the answer to 1a.

    2. Stevenage is the home of the Wine Society which has several large warehouses containing several cases of my laid-down wine, so it is very well-known to a certain element of the population!

  3. I really enjoyed this. Just a tad tricky for a Monday but nothing that couldn’t be figured out. Don’t think I’ve heard of a MEGAQUAKE before and just assumed that Quakers call each other ‘friend’, or maybe there’s more to it? Slow to parse URSA MINOR being misled by the ‘red star’ thinking it was an anagram. Liked WHEEZE and CORSET. COD to IN PROGRESS.
    Thanks V and setter.

    1. The official name for the Quakers is the “Religious Society of Friends”. I too got stuck trying to parse URSA MINOR as an anagram but overall a nice puzzle to start the week.

      38:29 for me. Thanks V and setter.

  4. After a car crash on the Quickie, this was a mighty relief – aided by the recognition that it was quite possibly a pangram which helped with my LOI, 27a. Oh, and I knew of Stockport and Stevenage of course.

  5. Quick today but I enjoyed it. No problem of course with the towns. Stevenage has the honour to be the home of The Wine Society…

    1. Stevenage is the birthplace of Lewis Hamilton, he grew up there and went to the local school.

  6. A leisurely 41 minutes whilst anchored off Mytilini Port in Lesbos.
    Despite having been on one to see alligators (and crocodiles) in the Everglades, it came as a surprise to learn that it was called a SWAMP BOAT although that. of course, is exactly what it was. Perhaps the almighty cacophony of the fans and the big V8 engines powering them befuddled me.
    COD CORSET for its neatness.
    Thanks to vinyl1 and setter.

  7. DNF in 19 due to a typo with RELEGATR. Disappointed because my LOI was CORSET after 3 minutes of wondering what was going on. Then I recalled dimly that ‘stays’ had come up before as a corset. Short-lived joy alas. Liked MOOED and HOME PAGE.

  8. Distant memories of learning to dance came back – this was a “slow, quick, slow” experience, taking a few minutes to see EUROPE then picking up speed through various write-ins (BASIC, LATE), rather as trains from Kings Cross do through STEVENAGE, then the brakes took hold in the SE corner until MEGAQUAKE and SQUASH fell into place with 27.05 0n the clock.
    Thanks V and setter.

  9. 35:16
    Good start to the week. Only issue was entering CROCKPOT, and leaving it as “must come back and parse that”. That held up the NHO RIGHT WHALE. SWAMP BOAT and MEGAQUAKE were two other NHOs made up of words that I did know.

    COD A LA MODE

  10. Connecticut towns aren’t too bad with Anglo sounding names like Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven. It’s the rivers that are tough, where the settlers kept Indian names, like Connecticut itself, I mean imagine trying to solve for Pawcatuck, Housatonic, quinebaug etc. Setters must dream of the Dee, Usk, Cam, Ure etc.

  11. 23 minutes. I didn’t have too much trouble despite never specifically having heard of a SWAMP BOAT or a MEGAQUAKE; both were easy to get though. STEVENAGE known as being the home town of Lewis Hamilton; as I remember he hasn’t exactly been complimentary about it.

    [As a non-USA based solver, without looking it up here’s my list of known places in Connecticut: Greenwich, Stamford, Lyme (as in the Disease), Mystic (? the Pizza), New Haven, Hartford…, er…, um…, is there a town called Yale attached to the University? Embarrassing isn’t it. As for Merlin’s rivers, I’m impressed.]

    1. Sorry, Yale is named after a benefactor, not a place, it’s squarely in New Haven (spent a month there during uni and learnt more about Conceptual Art than Medicine!)

      I think Housatonic would be a great Clue Competition word!

      Oli

  12. 37 minutes with LOI MEGAQUAKE following SQUASH. I think the setter was using Wanderers’ fixture list with Stockport and Stevenage. Not sure if I knew the whale but I’m going to pretend I did. I’ll be less convincing about SWAMP BOAT. COD to HOME PAGE. Thank you V and setter.

  13. Head in hands at just under 30 mins. Thought it was a sub-20 then spent nearly 10 on SQUASH/MEGAQUAKE trawling every vegetable I could think of. Guess what I cooked yesterday, it wasn’t an earthquake.
    Enjoyed MOOED and Stockport, a regular haunt. Thanks vinyl and setter.

  14. DNF, defeated by RIGHT WHALE, MEGAQUAKE (never considered that kind of friend) and SQUASH.

    – Like others, thought the clue for URSA MINOR would involve an anagram until I got the N checker
    – Happy to trust that there is such a thing as a SWAMP BOAT

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

    COD Retinue

  15. 40 mins with LOI the unknown MEGAQUAKE, a pure guess. Otherwise pretty straightforward.

    I liked A LA MODE.

    Thanks V and setter.

  16. 10’32”, fun.

    Liked HOME PAGE, A LA MODE. Carefully avoided banging in A major. I have been through Stockport, but never Stevenage (a ‘new’ town).

    PRONE was obvious from the start (sadly, the COVID pandemic helped me to remember), but only went in when I mentally inserted ‘to’, as vinyl says.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

  17. No major hold-ups today.
    I don’t remember seeing the term SWAMP BOAT but the things are familiar to me from a TV show I watched as a kid. I can’t remember what it was though. [A Google search reveals that it was Gentle Ben. Now I have the theme tune as an earworm.]
    ‘Subject to’ is synonymous with ‘prone to’, not PRONE, so it would spoil the clue IMO.
    I lived near STEVENAGE for part of my childhood but like jackkt I don’t think I ever had cause to go there.

  18. 15:44. Entering RUM PUNCH at 15D made a mess of my grid. Grr. Several unknowns – RIGHT WHALE, MEGAQUAKE and SWAMP BOAT. Held up at the end by my last 3 in – EJECTED, MEGAQUAKE and SQUASH. I put in PRONE with a shrug as I still can’t see how “prone” = “subject” without a “to” following both. Thanks Vinyl and setter.

    1. I agree that they both need ‘to’ but in the context of a sentence that includes it they mean the same thing, which seems OK to me. I’m sure we see that sort of thing quite often (although I obviously can’t think of an example right now!)

  19. 14.21, with CORSET staying until last, so slowing my start. I decided if SWAMP BOAT was not a thing, it should be, otherwise Police Academy 5 would be short of a chase sequence. MEGAQUAKE looks more like film title than a thing, but apparently such things have happened, are occasionally predicted in apocalyptic futures. I’m glad we rarely get clues like URSA MINOR that you can only answer if you get the crossing clue: it feels a little unfair, but then the J was never going to be likely.
    Pity about the missing X, but then I might have wasted time looking for the F and Y as well.

  20. Pleasant solve, NHO RIGHT WHALE and was worried about PRONE but all green in just under in 15 minutes. Thanks to the setter and blogger.

  21. Jeebus. Somehow MISER became MISTR due to a disconnect between brain and fingers, but that’s a pure typo, so I won’t get bothered by it.

    Otherwise a pleasant work-out, though A LA MODE was a reverse biff, wordplay clear enough, but I’m still not sure about definition, though I haven’t looked it up yet. Ah – fashionable. Despite not being American, I’m more familiar with it meaning a scoop of ice cream atop one’s pie.

    16:27

  22. Completely and utterly breezeblocked by MEGAQUAKE and SQUASH, having thought of possibly every other type of ‘friend’ (synonyms for ‘pal’, characters from 1990s sitcoms), and even invented the vegetable the STRASH.

    I know Quaker buildings are known as “Friends Meeting House”, so once the penny clattered to the floor for SQUASH that made perfect sense. I’d rather a slow success than a fast fail, but this was perhaps a bit much…

    Lessons here include “if you’re stuck, consider the Q”, and “don’t only try an alphabet trawl for the penultimate letter”. As well as “know thy vegetables”.

    1. Comforting (though sypathies) to know the breezeblock cares not when and where it strikes. Suspect it was more than a pennyworth that eventually came clattering down.

  23. Pretty straightforward in about 25′. The towns and the bird came quickly which are often a downfall. WHEEZE strangely assisted MEGAQUAKE as I too started thinking pangram thus giving SQUASH which had previously failed a lengthy trawling. Saw one half of PRONE right away but not the other, though it had to be.

    Thanks Vinyl and setter.

  24. As others have said, a nice Monday puzzle, steady solve in 16 minutes. I liked A LA MODE (LOI) and the neat CORSET. Stevenage is not too bad a place. If I was doing the NYT crossword, @vinyl1, I’d expect to be asked about CT towns; if you do a Brit crossword, that’s what you get. But I could have named New Haven, Hertford, Norwalk and Darien where a pal lived.

    1. In one of the NYT Connections puzzles recently ‘hawk’ was indicated as a homophone of ‘hock’. Obviously for a Brit this isn’t an easy connection to make but it’s a US puzzle so fair enough AFAIC.

    2. Before my mother got up the nerve to drive on the M1 we used to skirt Stevenage and bypass Luton on the A1 from London to my grandparents in Rutland.

  25. 17:04

    Confirmed existence of NHO RIGHT WHALE before submitting. NHO SWAMP BOAT either, but that is all I could make up once all checkers were in place. Both towns well known, but MEGAQUAKE was another new word to me. Didn’t get the first meaning of PRONE whilst in flight – I agree it should be ‘Subject to’.

    Thanks V and setter

  26. All the wordplay here was easy enough, although I never saw why rump = rest in RUM PUNCH (it did seem vaguely OK but my historical knowledge wasn’t good enough), but the large number of odd or never heard of words made it quite tricky. 45 minutes.

  27. A pleasant outing until the SE when the hard work had to start. WHEEZE was the key which eventually unlocked SQUASH, MEGAQUAKE (nho) and loi A LA MODE.

  28. My thanks to vinyl1 and setter.
    1a Corset LOI. Doh! Cor blimey. Biffed Carpet for a while, but finally saw the light.
    12a Prone biffed, didn’t see the second def.
    18a POI Right Whale, so called by whalers because it died easily and the corpse didn’t sink.
    24a Megaquake. Took a long time to think of the Society of Friends. Added to Cheating Machine. Is this a pangram?.
    25a NHO Swamp Boat, added to CM. I knew it existed, didn’t know that name.
    16d Stevenage. Had to go there to visit some part of BAe as it was then.
    21d AlamoDE COD.
    24d Mooed. I didn’t believe in this word but there is nothing wrong with it.

  29. 7:38, nice Monday solve. Like others, I’m not sure I’d ever seen MEGAQUAKE or SWAMP BOAT written down but it was fairly obvious they were what they were. STOCKPOT brought back happy memories of my youth, and being able to afford to eat out in Central London on a limited budget.

  30. I was held up for ages by the SQUASH/MEGAQUAKE pair desite having MEGA, but eventually I remembered the vegetable. The other pair that held me up to the end were RUM PUNCH/RIGHT WHALE. EUROPE was FOI. 24:27. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

  31. 24:50 – not an average Monday but no great problems apart from the nho RIGHT WHALE, a gift of an animal for crossword compilers and one to remember

  32. 20:19. I struggled most with SQUASH, I think. I liked HOME PAGE and A LA MODE.
    Topical Tim, above, remembers the STOCKPOT and now so do I. But where was it? Near Piccadilly circus, off Haymarket somewhere?

      1. Ah, the Stockpot! I have fond memories of that eatery. There were a couple of sister restaurants, including one in Earl’s Court (The GoldenPot?), if I remember rightly. I always had the delicious curried eggs.

  33. Made 25a Stamp knot as ‘craft with a bow’…bow being a form of knot… with a rearrangement of mast both outside P for Portsmouth …which worked with 24d being Mined…as in produced low..simply putting mind around e…preferred this to mooed. Concluded the lateral thinking with Corner in the top left corner as it ‘stays’ in its (my) place and fits the crossers, actually thought it a very clever clue…

  34. I could not finish the QC today but this went in easily enough.
    Last two were CORSET and RETINUE; I was looking for something more complicated.
    Same unknowns as others.
    I used to frequent The Stockpot in Central London.
    And I too have never visited Stevenage, but the answer came quickly as does Stevenage on the train north.
    David

  35. 16.51

    Very well pitched Monday fare. I panicked when ending with the MEGA/vegetable crosser but it came quite quickly in the end. SWAMP BOAT was last and unknown.

    Some first rate clues – ALAMO CORSET and MEGAQUAKE were my faves.

    Thanks Vinyl/setter.

  38. I obviously missed it happening, but when did it become OK for a clue to be ambiguous when taken by itself as per 10?

      1. I don’t have a copy, but I’m pretty sure that the book Ximenese on the Art of the Crossword said otherwise and that was the bible for a long time. He did the Observer crossword from 1939 to 1971. Don’t quote me, but I have a feeling the book was early in that period. But people got bored with the bible and things have been changing slowly since. Might be showing my age here, lol.

        1. The Times doesn’t follow Ximenes strictly: I’m not sure that it ever has. We get cross-referenced clues quite regularly, which Ximenes would probably have frowned upon on the same basis.

          1. I’m 76. My memory goes back further. I came to croswords just at the end of the Ximenese era. Deviating, before the changes started, would inevitably lead to compaints in any paper. OK, so remembering what crosswords I attempted back then isn’t going to happen, but I don’t recall there being deviations until I was a few years in, not may years though. So I may be wrong, but that’s how it seemed. Ximenes was held in seriously high regard by everyone.

            1. Interesting. There was obviously an evolution here because Ximines’ book was a reaction to the much looser clueing style that was prevalent at one time, and which is obvious to anyone who tries an old crossword from the 60s say.
              We owe Ximines a debt of gratitude for the fairer, more rational clueing in modern crosswords – and he is still held in high regard – but as far as I’m aware among the mainstream puzzles only the barred-grid ones (Mephisto and Azed), are avowedly Ximenean.

              1. We’re in danger of having a private conversation, so I’ll just say thanks for all that. Should you, or indeed anyone else, be bored enough to wonder who this guy is. then find me on racingdog.lazenby.me. There is also my summary of arguments I had with an American friend and chemistry teacher cum online poker player cum wannabe author I was proof reading for, on americanisnotenglish.lazenby.me (additional material welcome!).

  39. Very quick for the most part but defeated by MEGAQUAKE and SQUASH and I also foolishly put ‘Europa’, thinking of (c)opa rather than ope(n). Familiar with a RIGHT WHALE but not a SWAMP BOAT. The decision by the setter to define Stockport as a ‘Northern location’ but STEVENAGE as a ‘town’ not ‘Southern town’ was a strange one.

  40. A fairly nippy 31.43 for a relatively easy but enjoyable puzzle. I spent a little while on my LOI MEGAQUAKE before the Quaker Friend connection finally dawned on me. The only other one I had problems in parsing was PRONE, and having seen Vinyl’s explanation I tend to agree with his comment that the clue would have been better with ‘subject to’; I might just have worked it out then.

  41. 20:26
    NHO SWAMP BOAT.
    COD MEGAQUAKE.
    LOI was CORSET, which was a clever clue when I finally saw it.

    Thanks Vinyl and setter

  42. Got stuck in the SW corner on the NHO MEGAQUAKE/SQUASH crossing. Took the latter to give me the LOI, which wouldn’t have happened without the Q crosser. Other vocabulary all fine, including SWAMP BOOAT and RIGHT WHALE.

  43. PRONE was my LOI because though it seemed obvious I convinced myself it was a trap. I didn’t realise it meant LYING FACE DOWN. I thought it just meant prostrate, on the floor, recumbent. Otherwise no problems, though I must register again my feeling that WHALE and WAIL are not homonyms, any more than WHITE and WIGHT are. I know I’m in a minority of one, and make necessary mental adjustments when I solve. 18’59”. Many thanks.

  44. Not the only person to have CORSET and RETINUE as last two in, and had to come here to understand the parsing of the latter, so thanks for that. Enjoyable puzzle
    FOI LATE
    LOI & COD RETINUE

  45. Late posting as Mr SR and I did this over dinner at the beginning of a few days away.
    Thank you Setter, very much enjoyed this and thank you, vinyl1, for the blog which we always enjoy reading even if we’ve managed by ourselves.
    Kicking myself about CORSET which I thought of immediately for 1a but didn’t believe so didn’t attempt to parse .

    “UK solvers are invited to see how many towns in Connecticut they can name.”
    A cordial invitation which I’ll take up when a US newspaper starts to print a crossword that I’m interested in attempting.

  47. One of my best attempts this year, only held up in the SW corner with MEGAQUAKE and SQUASH ( which never comes to mind when thinking vegetable.). So, many PDMs here, especially CORSET, my favourite. (As a young child my sister and I were under-clothed in “stays” which were a kinder version of the adult corset, and were made of thick cotton material with rubber ribs, supposedly to keep us warm in the London winters).

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