Times Cryptic 29375 – toil but no trouble

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 27:17

I will be offline when you read this, so here’s hoping no edits are required. Thankfully, and for a change, I understand all of the elements of this relatively easy Friday offering.

Apart from my two blanks in the top half (2dn and 5dn), the bottom was the harder to solve. I thought there might be a Halowe’en theme to begin with but, with the exception of the vampiric 1ac and witchy 16dn, I can’t really see it now.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Affected by brilliance all the rage in act, invites around (14)
PHOTOSENSITIVE – HOT (all the rage) in POSE (act), then an anagram of (around) INVITES.
9 Veronica’s in good health following career (9)
SPEEDWELL – WELL (in good health) after SPEED (career). The plant genus Veronica is commonly known as a speedwell.
10 Join backing group (5)
TENON – reversal of (backing) NONET (group). Of mortice and tenon fame.
11 A little fear or remorse over slip-up (5)
ERROR – hidden in (a little) the reversal of (over) feaR OR REmorse.
12 Came across piece of poetry set in jazzy style (9)
TRAVERSED – VERSE (piece of poetry) contained by (set in) TRAD (jazzy style).
13 A drop of chalk, say, in cataract on Hudson? (8)
ROCKFALL – FALL (waterfall, cataract) on ROCK (Rock Hudson, American actor). A pretty lateral definition alluding to a rockfall from a limestone face.
15 Firearm’s a variety of gun carried by French gentlemen (6)
MAGNUM – A plus an anagram (variety) of GUN, all contained by MM (Mm., monsieurs, French gentlemen). Thanks DJ for the notes. 
17 Tie up dog during visit (6)
SECURE – CUR (dog) contained by (during) SEE (visit).
19 Alert because of conflict between bridge opponents (8)
FOREWARN – FOR (because of), then WAR (conflict) between E and N (bridge opponents).
22 Dorset village scheme turned to chaos, losing millions (9)
TOLPUDDLE – PLOT (scheme) reversed (turned), them mUDDLE (chaos) minus (losing) ‘m’ (millions).
23 For beginners, take up the trombone in passage all play (5)
TUTTI – first letters of (for beginners) Take Up The Trombone In.
24 Pope dismissing foremost artist’s work for stage (5)
OPERA – pOPE missing its first (dismissing foremost) plus RA (artist).
25 Radiation possibly is weak round about an atom that’s charged (9)
EMANATION – TAME (weak) reversed (round), containing (about) AN, then ION (atom that’s charged).
26 Collected beside Iris Murdoch novel delivered just in time (5,2,3,4)
SAVED BY THE BELL – SAVED (collected) + BY (beside) + THE BELL (Iris Murdoch novel).
Down
1 Source of sterility in badly-written Utopian satires (14)
PASTEURISATION – anagram of (badly written) UTOPIAN SATIRES.
2 Omit tasteless stuff before disturbing recitation of dreams (7)
ONEIRIC – remove (omit) ‘tat’ (tasteless stuff) from RECItatION before anagramming (disturbing).
3 Men embarrassed over request (5)
ORDER – OR (men) then the reversal of (over) RED (embarrassed).
4 Viewer’s support certainly needed in European discussion (8)
EYESTALK – YES (certainly) in E (European) and TALK (discussion). The appendage on which the eyes of certain creatures (e.g. slugs) are supported.
5 Small domestic fowl finish off fruit (6)
SULTAN – remove the last letter from (finish off) SULTANa. A small Turkish chicken that took me a while to enter, since I thought I should be adding a fowl without the last letter to ‘s’ to find a fruit.
6 What duke has attendant beginning to work? (5,4)
TITLE PAGE – TITLE (what duke has) + PAGE (attendant).
7 Meat cooker missing lid is working (7)
VENISON – oVEN (cooker) without the first letter (missing lid) + IS + ON (working).
8 Like a line that goes straight? No main line does, sadly (3-11)
ONE-DIMENSIONAL – anagram of (sadly) NO MAIN LINE DOES.
14 Lucky having strength to catch large fish (9)
FORTUNATE – FORTÉ (strength) containing (to catch) TUNA (large fish).
16 Half of West End area accepts a new contract (8)
COVENANT – half of COVENT garden (West End area) containing (accepts) A and N (new).
18 Large crater in Central America sheltering tree (7)
CALDERA – CA (Central America) containing (sheltering) ALDER (tree).
20 Advanced series of steps in audition for dancer (7)
ASTAIRE – A (advanced) + a homophone of (in audition) “stair”. American dancer.
21 Five in a horse race with no unknown, perhaps unusually (6)
ADVERB – V (five) contained by (in) A + DERBy (horse race) minus the ‘y’ (no unknown). “Unusually” is an example of an adverb.
23 Old noble in northeastern Kent mainly (5)
THANE – THANEt (a district of Northeastern Kent), minus its last letter (mainly).

53 comments on “Times Cryptic 29375 – toil but no trouble”

  2. I was defeated by the NHO ONEIRIC. Much of the rest of the crossword was pretty easy since I could put in 3 of the long answers from the definition and the hint of the letters. By the time I got to the bottom of the grid, I put in SAVED BY THE BELL without even looking at the clue, I guess bunged in without definition. I completely missed Rock Hudson and assumed “drop of chalk” was ROCK FALL since chalk is a rock, and I assumed ROCKFALL was an American term for a cataract, since my daughter lives near the Hudson river in New York.

  3. 15:51 – this was indeed a merciful Friday after two tough days. I know ONEIRIC mainly from an Allan Holdsworth song, ‘Oneiric Moor’. And there was I assuming that EYESTALK was referring to human anatomy!

  5. 27:14 with spending a bit of time getting the long perimeter clues paying off after a very feeble first pass.

    ONEIRIC, THANE and TOLPUDDLE went in with a shrug (at least I could explain my workings for all) and was glad to see all green for a rare full week of completions.

    COD TOLPUDDLE

    Thanks blogger and setter

  6. 19’33”, with LOI SULTAN after a triple alphabet trawl. We have chickens, had never heard of said ornamental bird.

    Knew ONEIRIC as a word but not what it meant.

    Thanks william and setter.

  7. Unlike our blogger, I found this quite tough, finishing around 50 mins having had to look up LOI & NHO ONEIRIC.

    Had to work hard on a couple of the long ones and bunged in SULTAN without having any idea what was going on.

    Thanks William and setter.

  8. DNF, with a stupid ASTRIDE rather than ASTAIRE… don’t really know what I was thinking there.

    – Didn’t parse EMANATION as I thought it involved an anagram of ‘an atom’
    – Hadn’t heard of the Iris Murdoch novel, but SAVED BY THE BELL was clear from the clue and enumeration
    – NHO ONEIRIC, but it was all that would fit after I’d worked out what we needed to do
    – Didn’t know the SULTAN chicken
    – Nearly biffed ONE-DIRECTIONAL for 8d before the checkers pointed me towards ONE-DIMENSIONAL

    Thanks William and setter.

    COD Tolpuddle

  9. 46 minutes. LOI the possibly unknown ONEIRIC, the only solution to the anagram left with crossers in place. I’ll now be singing Dylan’s Series of Dreams all day. A great track. He’s playing Brighton next Friday and I’m going with my nephew and a couple of his pals, young men, only in their sixties. I’ve read The Bell, so feel slightly miffed that folk who haven’t will be able to biff the answer. Rock Hudson saved me from biffing RAINFALL, so COD to ROCKFALL. This wasn’t as forbidding as it looked with those long anagrams to start with.Thank you William and setter.

  10. A slow but steady 49 minutes, with ROCKFALL LOI once I’d realised that I needed ONEIRIC rather than my guessed ONEIRAL. I’m collecting terms of divination for a project at the moment, and “oneiromancy” is divination via dreams, so the beginning was the easy bit!

    1. Rain made me come to this early and finish far sooner that most recent Friday fare 22 mins is fast for me. Wing and prayer with sultana as fruit and her hubby as a bird all in same clue. Nice crossword today thanks

  11. 15:06. I think I’d seen ONEIRIC before but couldn’t have told you what it meant and NHO the Turkish fowl. Thanks William and setter.

  12. Another DNF after revealing the unknown ONEIRIC – missed the wordplay completely. The rest went in quite quickly and I didn’t have the patience to stick at it.

  13. Well I thought this was at least medium hard. Didn’t know veronica = speedwell, fortunately Mrs W did. Didn’t know the Murdoch novel, but that didn’t matter.. nho or forgot oneiric, but with the crossers in place, only one alternative. I feel a bit lucky to have survived all that intact ..

  14. What I did I did quickly but had 5 left (PHOTOSENSITIVE,ONEIRIC,SULTAN, THANE and EMANATION) with ONEIRIC and that sense of SULTAN NHOs. Tricky for foreigners I’d imagine (TOLPUDDLE and THANEt)

  15. DNF. All but two done in 20 mins. I finally saw SULTAN but failed to solve the unknown ONEIRIC.

    COD: TOLPUDDLE

    Thanks to our blogger and setter.

  16. 20.16, with THANE entered with a smidge of trepidation, because although I knew Thanet, I thought it was a town, not in Kent, and missed the “chop the end off” hint. Saved by not knowing any old nobles bar the ones in The Scottish Play. The rest was fine, even ONEIRIC, though all the long ones I got from definition, and left decoding until after submission. Long anagrams aren’t always helpful!

  17. DNF. Gave up unsubmitted on 29 mins so quick to that point. I had guessed SULTAN with insufficient confidence and ONEIRIC was never coming. Not quite a Spalpeen but close. I had typoed CONENANT anyway so good choice I think.
    Lots of positives: TOLPUDDLE, ROCKFALL, ONE D despite the end result. Thanks both.

  18. 15.58. Sluggish on the anagrams, and fortunate to know ONEIRIC – I wasn’t getting beyond ‘pap’ for tasteless stuff, so just put it in once I had the crossers. SULTAN was an unknown, but it seemed unlikely there’d be another plausible option.

    Thanks both.

  19. 26,11 but my antepenultimate fat fingered ASRAIRE ovewrote TUTTI with TURTI for a pink square and 2 errors. Drat and double drat! PHOTOSENSITIVE and the unknown ONEIRIC were last 2 in. An enjoyable puzzle otherwise. Thanks setter and William.

  20. 12:18, with a long pause at the end over SULTAN. I’ve never heard of the bird of course and ‘fruit’ is a bit inadequate as a definition of ‘sultana’: to my mind the fruit in question is a grape and a sultana is something you make from it. With that and the unknown ONEIRIC I was relieved not to see a pink square.

  21. 17:01 but…

    …double-checked for the existence of the unlikely and NHO ONEIRIC before submitting. Hadn’t heard of the fowl either, but SULTAN(A) suddenly came to me when all of the checkers were in, so went with it. Didn’t know the Iris Murdoch book either (only ever read The Sacred And Profane Love Machine). LOI ASTAIRE after A STA(I)RE at the four checkers…

    Thanks William and setter

  22. My thanks to william_j_s and setter.
    Well not too bad as Fridays go, but unlike william_j_s I could not parse a few such as…
    1a Photosensitive.
    22a Tolpuddle; I didn’t think I knew any Dorset villages until the martyrs came to me.
    26a Saved by the bell, NHO The Bell, novel. Have drunk there.
    2d Oneiric not in my vocabulary.
    5d NHO Sultan in this sense.
    23a Thane biffed, oh Thanet! Never thought of that. If you are a fan of “1066 and all that” you will know that Thanet is the correct landing place for invaders, who then overrun the country from right to left with fire, and of course the sword.

  23. Decent puzzle with no real problems. Th long ones certainly helped. I liked ASTAIRE and TOLPUDDLE.
    Learnt ONEIRIC from a crossword some time ago -either here or the Grauniad. Not all Dukes have titles according to today’s papers.

    Thanks to William and the setter

    .

  24. 30.20, with LOI the NHO ONEIRIC which was one of several I successfully figured out from WP. This one was just my speed, challenging but not to the point of being incomprehensible. Thanks William.

    From Absolutely Sweet Marie:
    Well anybody can be just like me
    Obviously
    But then now again, not too many can be like you
    FORTUNATEly

  25. A pretty quick DNF in that most of it fell into place apart from NHO ONEIRIC where I didn’t see the wordplay (and tied myself in knots trying to make an adjective from Oberon…). Then gave up.

    Thanks William and setter

  26. 25:10 – at the easier end of difficult for me, with some trouble over the NHO domestic fowl and the vaguely heard-of ONEIRIC.

  27. I’m becoming so used to struggling on Fridays that for this one I probably made it harder than it really was, 65 minutes. All OK if slowly done, no major problems. SULTAN was somewhere there at the back of my mind, but as K says a sultana is doubtfully a fruit. It’s not in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary list of fruits. And there I was thinking that the chap in the TV programme is called MAGNUM.

  28. Biffed Sultan, otherwise no probs. I read The Bell not long ago. Does anybody (apart from me) still read Murdoch?

  29. 26.10

    Enjoyable until spending 5 minutes on SULTAN at the end. What Keriothe said. But glad to get it at last.

    PASTEURISATION and MAGNUM were cracking clues I thought.

    Thanks William/setter.

  30. 28:47. NHO ONEIRIC but with the crossers in, the anagrist sorted itself into place. LOI SULTAN. Nice crossword

  32. DNF. Defeated by ONEIRIC.
    Entered SULTAN, but never heard of the chicken.
    On 26a I wasted a lot of time trying to fit THE SEA into the grid.
    I almost convinced myself that RAINFALL worked. The artist Thomas Hudson gave RA, followed by “in cataract ” for the INFALL. However this did not explain the chalk.

    Thanks William and setter

  33. Yoohoo! Completed a Friday puzzle (over lunch). I was very happy to have worked out SULTAN and ONEIRIC – nho but had to be. Always challenging but completable. Thanks all.

  34. 8 minutes for this gentle Friday offering, luckily I had all the required GK. Broke my usual rule on parsing everything for EMANATION, for the sake of a sub-10, so thanks for unravelling that, William. As someone said above, got fixated on an anagram of AN ATOM and never thought of ION.

  35. 40 minutes. NHO ONEIRIC but having worked out the word play it couldn’t be much else with the crossers. Also NHO SULTAN in the given context.

  36. I was weak on those UK locales and weak on the fancy words for dreams, birds, and falling rocks meant I needed all the crossers and a good amount of time for this. SNITCH says 94 but it felt like a lot more than that to me today.
    Some nice clues, setter. thx, wm.

  37. All good except the unknown chicken SULTAN. I agree with @keriothe, for once; a SULTANA is made from a fruit, not a fruit, although it does get referred to as “dried fruit” in recipes. Nice to see TOLPUDDLE famous for the martyrs getting a mention, I spent some of my youth messing about on or in the River “Piddle, Puddle or Trent” as it is called locally.
    I liked the long clues at top and bottom, and Rock H.

  38. Fingers were definitely crossed that SULTAN was the required fowl and that my placing of the unchecked letters in the unknown ONEIRIC where corrrect. That and carefully parsing EMANATION where I frequently confuse the M and N means a clean sweep this week! Hurrah. A busy return to work will scupper any chance of tackling Monday or Tuesday next week so I’ll enjoy my success a little longer. Many thanks to setter and blogger.

  39. I’m the Vicar of Tolpuddle and I failed to get that one. Disgraceful! Also struggled with oneiric and sultan as didn’t know either

    1. If you would like one of us in the laity to say a few appropriate words for you, just give the nod.

  40. Didn’t know the village. I see TOLPUDDLE had a population in 2013 of 420. Also mystified by the parsing of THANE. A bit surprised so many didn’t know ONEIRIC, but I’ve read a lot about surrealism. Collins defines “sultana” first (1a) as the raisin and secondarily (b) as the grape it is made from (though the Cobuild speaks only of “dried white grapes”)—but Merriam-Webster (US) has it the other way around!

  41. 31:03. i found this tough to get started with, looking at a lot of the grid wondering where to begin. eventually found CALDERA and the next load of clues went in from there. LOI was SULTAN, which was a NHO but seemed to fit. Is a sultana a fruit though? knowing botanists, its probably a berry.

  43. 47:30 but with THAmE needing correction. The Thames is in NE Kent isn’t it?! I must have vaguely heard thane somewhere in the past as thaMe is so close it seemed to ring a bell. Have to say geography is one of my kryptonites so struggled with Convenant Garden and Tolpuddle – despite living in Dorset – for a while. Pleased to figure out ONEIRIC from the clueing as it was my LOI in taking up 3-4mins on its own. Bunged in unparsed neurosensitive until I realised there’s no P in the pasteurisation anagrist. Good puzzle for a Friday for someone of my level.

    1. MacBeth is where I know Thane from. It helped that I also have heard of Thanet, which occasionally pops up as a particularly downtrodden and Reform-friendly part of the world – South Thanet was one of Farage’s earlier attempts at becoming an MP.

      1. Thanks for your reply. I could backparse to get to Thanet but wouldn’t have thought of it. It’s come up in the news a few times in recent years due to Farage-related issues.

  44. As everyone has said, a relatively easy Friday — completed as usual (for me) on Sunday evening. ONEIRIC — from Greek ὄνειρος meaning dream — is surely not that unusual a word, and the VERONICA – SPEEDWELL thing is a bit of a chestnut. The Dorset village had to be a village with some kind of fame attached — otherwise the range of possible answers would be too vast — and the only famous Dorset village I could think of was TOLPUDDLE, though I dare say there are others. The Hardy places all had different names in the books. 20’24” all up. I bet the SNITCH is quite low. Much enjoyed, so thanks to setter and blogger.

  45. Returning to treeware after two weeks of vacation solving online meant I didn’t have to search for a slip of paper on which to solve the long anagrams.
    Two weeks of road tripping the Queensland coast meant I had to readjust to UK centric clues.
    hho Tolpuddle, had no idea it is in Dorset. ditto Thanet being in Kent, but both fairly clued.
    I should have got sultan, oneiric a step too far for me without aids.
    A much appreciated puzzle and blog.

  46. Was pleased with my effort today, working as I do on paper it is easier to ‘see’ the long anagrams, so 1d and 1a were a big help to start the ball rolling. SPEEDWELL I must have heard of somewhere, so the danglers from there were helpful. Some of the clues were indeed easier for a Friday (ORDER, EYESTALK, VENISON, TENON and ERROR, but I couldn’t justify SULTANA as fruit per se, couldn’t get the PAGE part of 6d ( though now I see it’s very clever definition!) or the reference to Rock Hudson. ( I had RAINFALL, which I couldn’t parse of course). “Younger folk” would surely falter at clues like this? But overall a good romp: thankyou setter and blogger.

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