Times Cryptic 29391 – Chapeau!

Author   DvynysPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: Nudging the hour mark with an incorrect letter.

The third of the Championship puzzles, hailed as a John Henderson beast and plunging me into the Friday world of Jeremy and William.  I (other recollections might vary) thought it was a superb creation, with some lovely wordplay, though it is fair to say that some of the intricacies didn’t always jump out at first reading.

I struggled a bit not knowing when I was looking for something less common (AMORETTI and MESQUITE) or something more run of the mill (I was convinced I needed some trendy sort of hipster salad leaf). But for those in the Champions’ League, the fez really must be doffed to the couple of dozen competitors who completed this (together with the other two puzzles) in the permitted time.

Across
1 In fiction, Fez is represented as great for models? (4-4)
LIFE-SIZE – (FEZ + IS*) in LIE.

Great as opposed to small.
5 Big bust controlled by ex-PM turned villain (6)
ODDJOB – DD in a reversal of BOJO.

This was an early entry and kept a smile on my face during the subsequent belabouring. Superb.
10 For training perhaps, I see small children time and time again? (6,9)
SPEECH THERAPIST – (PERHAPS + I + SEE + CH + T + T)*.  SMALL here doesn’t seem to be strictly necessary as CH is a valid abbreviation for “children”, so presumably it is either to assist with the w/p or help the surface, or both.

Either way a great “All-in-one” clue.
11 Popular party or parties finally occupying the House (7)
INDOORS – IN + DO + OR + S.
12 Part of town square out of bounds — it’s here, too (7)
QUARTER – (S)QUAR(E) + (I)T(‘S) + (H)ER(E).
13 Italian lovers doing what lovers do: one delayed necking again (8)
AMORETTI – AT IT [what lovers do] which converts to ATTI by delaying the I. You then include [necking] MORE [again].

I didn’t know this word but punted it as a possibility and then squinted very hard at the w/p. I’m not 100% convinced by the surface as, arguably, if you are AT IT, you are not delaying anything let alone necking (kissing) but let’s not go there!
15 Very rich man is taking a fall (5)
DIVES – Double definition.
18 Narrow passageway runs from rear of waste-processing unit (5)
RENAL – LANE + R all reversed.

My LOI. I really struggled with this, both the definition and the w/p thinking I was looking for a dialect word for a narrow passage.
20 Encourage to release article backing chief of police force (8)
PRESSURE – RE(A)SSURE after [backing] P [chief of police].
23 Porridge server going outside to wipe floor with piece of toast (7)
CROUTON – CON outside ROUT.
25 Are changes accepted by you, no longer a social critic? (7)
THOREAU – (ARE)* inside THOU [you, no longer].

I was enormously helped here by (a) generous w/p and (b) getting mixed up with the rather more alive Louis Theroux. Of course, the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) was whom I should have been thinking of, but I have to confess to not really/at all knowing anything about him. The Wiki entry suggests he is worthy of further exploration.
26 Offended Lord Chancellor declines novel (3,3,4,5)
PUT OUT MORE FLAGS – PUT OUT + MORE [Lord Chancellor] + FLAGS [declines].

Possibly the first time an answer has appeared in such quick succession in the daily cryptics, but as Ulaca mentioned yesterday a reasonably regular visitor, with its convenient 15 letters.
27 Visitor coming from far away on flash travel pass? (6)
TICKET – TICK + ET.  I liked this one.
28 Drug contained in pop had a striking effect on down-and-out (8)
DEADBEAT – DAD around E + BEAT.
Down
1 Group of composers – 9? (3,3)
LES SIX – Everyone loves a piece of punctuation forming part of the w/p and here we have a minus sign hidden in plain sight resulting in LESS IX.

The six were Auric; Duress; Honegger; Milhaud; Poulenc and Tailleferre, French composers from post-WW1 reacting against Wagner and impressionist music of earlier decades.
2 Films need high points? (9)
FIELDSMEN – (FILMS NEED)*. HIGH is the anagrind; POINT (for anyone not up with their cricketing terminology) is a fielding position.

Great surface.
3 Comfort one draws from dictator (7)
SUCCOUR – homophone of SUCKER [one who draws].
4 These letters get edited in the production of gazettes (5)
ZETAS – I think the way the w/p works is that you need to add the answer ZETAS to GET which is then anagrammed [edited] to produce GAZETTES.

ZETA a slightly rarer visitor from the Greek alphabet than some of its colleagues.
6 Help picking up D:Ream’s notes audibly diminishing (4,3)
DEAF AID – D + the notes from REAM i.e. E and A, which “FAID” as a homophone of FADE [are DIMINISHING].

Biffed from checkers. Another name for a hearing aid.
7 Spliff being shared with others (5)
JOINT – Double definition.
8 Just lock pier (8)
BUTTRESS – BUT + TRESS.
9 Writer left to probe case of sycamore tree (8)
MESQUITE – ME [writer] + QUIT [left] in SE.

Even though I had the Q from QUARTER, QUIT for LEFT didn’t jump out, but rather unhelpfully QUILL for writer did. Tricky.
14 Horse taking place of head of maths in private Oxford/Cambridge study? (8)
TOPONYMY – A substitution clue where PONY replaces one of the Ms in TOMMY [private].

Unlike some of the other masterly surfaces, this one reads rather oddly (to say the least). My error came here, bunging in a very careless TOPONYMS.
16 Marble entrance opened by five contracted stars (9)
VARIEGATE – GATE preceded [opened] by V + ARIE(S).
17 Bonkers shot upset spinner (8)
CRACKPOT – CRACK + a reversal of TOP.
19 Leaves to switch off TV programmes about cycling (7)
LETTUCE – CUT TELE [TV programmes] which you then have to reverse [about] and “cycle” moving what becomes the first E following the reversal to the end. Easier to biff than explain.
21 Was a parody spoilt with name dropping? (7)
SPOOFED – SPOO(N) FED.

Brilliant.
22 Energy-saving routine plugged by Steve Jobs after vacating Apple (6)
RUSSET – E in RUT which goes around [plugged] by the first and last letters of STEVE JOBS.

I hesitated as to whether the “vacation” could work on a combo of two words rather than the normal one. It seems so.
24 Subject promoting work associated with faculty (5)
OPTIC – TOPIC with the OP bit moved [promoted] to the front.
25 Theatre doesn’t have to worry, beginning to entertain a crowd? (5)
THREE – THEATRE minus EAT + E

61 comments on “Times Cryptic 29391 – Chapeau!”

  1. Crikey. A whopping 75 minutes
    Some rather arcane fare in hear
    Not on the right wavelength this morning
    Loved 5 across for sure

  2. This took me forever, but I managed to get them all except DEAF AID (DNK). But for several I didn’t understand why I got them: DNK BOJO, for instance; didn’t think of Mr Atkins; didn’t see how AMORETTTI worked, or SPEECH THERAPIST. I got ZETAS by deleting (editing) G,E,T from ‘gazettes’, which I guess is what Dyvynys did. All in all, I felt pretty good about doing this well, once I remembered that it was a championship puzzle.

  3. Not even close to being good enough to this one. we managed four clues in a hour and got one of those wrong. A truly humbling day.

    Can’t help but marvel at the cleverness of some of these clues.

  4. Finished eventually. Solving online has many drawbacks for me but I must admit when working on a toughie like this one the temptation to use the Reveal feature three or four times proved too hard to resist. Two of those answers were unknown or completely forgotten so I didn’t feel so bad about it.

  5. 12:51. Very hard. Thought this was the hardest of the lot. Intricate wordplay. Liked SPOOFED.

  7. A 95 minute DNF with exactly the same one mistake as our blogger and with a few others unparsed. Very tough and I was happy to at least get close, whatever time it took.

  8. The stats tell me I got 23/30 of this on the day. I always struggle mightily with JH’s puzzles and this was no exception. It still took me 15 mins to re-do today.

    I can never remember the rich geezer so I had a desperate RAINS at 15 which meant a biffed DEAD AIR was wrong and I had no chance of getting VARIEGATE. I think I was missing PRESSURE, MESQUITE, TOPONYMY and DEADBEAT.

  9. Well, finished it but it was hard. My paper printout has no reveal feature, so forced to struggle through them all. Really crosswords this hard are not my cup of tea. If it is like pulling teeth, better to have a dentist do it. The top half went in reasonably OK (had heard of les six, heaven only knows how) but the bottom half seemed to take forever. Variegate and toponymy, last in.
    Deaf aid is a strange phrase, a hearing aid is far more logical ..
    I’m a fan of Thoreau, his book Walden is interesting, and relevant in this electronic-obsessed age. And not to be political, but his essay “On Civil Disobedience” is also very relevant just now.
    And yet more flags to put out ..
    Well done Dynys, a baptism of fire you seem to have had!

  10. Wow, forgot, for about two minutes, that it is Wednesday. THOREAU FOI, knew the name but not anything about him. Finally parsed AMORETTI, needed as not sure of either the definition or the spelling. Got PUT OUT MORE FLAGS with crossers. RENAL LOI also. Need to find out now what TOPONYMY means. Agree ODDJOB superb, COD.

    I knew LES SIX as a phrase from the Dire Straits album Making Movies.

    Good news, completed in 34’59”!

    Thanks Dvynys and setter.

  12. (Almost) no comment! 40 minutes with the same error, even though I’d spotted TOMMY, seduced by two toponyms. As for LETTUCE (biffed), a constructed reverse cycled? Credit to Dvynys for unscrambling, none to the setter for wilful malice. Not even going to try the next Championship.

  13. 71% on the hour. Most of the bottom half done but the NW empty.
    Interesting to see this level of puzzle occasionally for calibration purposes.
    FOI JOINT, enjoyed ODDJOB. Now we’ve found my level.
    Thanks Dvynys and setter and to the editor for gently priming us with the novel yesterday.

    1. The novel also came up in a Jumbo two weeks before the championship, which sort of helped on the day.

  14. I had no clue what was going in at 14d and bunged in a hopeful ‘toponomy’, since ‘nomies’ are sometimes studies.

    Apart from that, and DEAF AID, by which I was also completely Hendersoned, I managed to finish in over an hour, and, sadly, rather enjoyed it.

  15. My thanks to Dvynys and setter.
    DNF. Very tricky. I did the top half (apart from Dives) then ran out of steam.
    5a Oddjob, biffed. Clever I now see.
    15a NHO Dives and Lazarus. This seems to be a different Lazarus from the one raised from the dead by Jesus.
    26a Put out more flags, nice to see a recent acquaintance. Easier to parse here than yesterday’s.
    1d NHO Les six, and didn’t parse it either. It is too clever for me.
    14d Toponomy NHO, didn’t get it, not surprising. Added to Cheating Machine which confirms to me it is rare. Toponymy, also NHO, was in CM.
    22d Russet. I would not get this in a million years.
    24d Optic, got it!

  16. 43 minutes. If that’s competition level include me out, but I did enjoy many of the clues.
    FOI LIFE-SIZE
    LOI THREE
    COD FIELDSMEN (in a very crowded field….)

    Thanks D and setter

  17. I was a bit behind penfold with 21/30 correct on the day. I did actually remember this one, because when I looked at 1dn (having got 1ac straight off the bat, as I did at the champs) I remembered the previously unknown LES SIX. I didn’t consciously remember many of the other clues, but I still managed to solve them all (including the ones I had failed on the first time) in just over 12 minutes. It’s really remarkable what your brain retains without you even being aware of it. I wonder how much stuff is stored in there, beyond the reach of the conscious retrieval mechanism.
    I need to correct you on one small point, Dvynys: PUT OUT MORE FLAGS is not really a ‘reasonably regular visitor’. It has just appeared four times in the last six months. Before that its previous outing was 2014!

  18. Extremely difficult, way out of my league. What times did the best competitors complete this in?

  19. Thoroughly beaten at 51′. 1 wrong answer (CHAPTER for QUARTER) and 4 more missing (RENAL, FIELDSMEN, MESQUITE, LETTUCE).

    Despite this it was thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks for the nice blog Dvynys, but this is one of those times where one is too drained from the attempt to write an interesting comment!

  20. Six left at the 30min mark; two left at the 45min mark; exhausted towel thrown in at the 48min mark, when the weight of all the guesses, uncertainties and unparsings finally took its toll. RENAL and LETTUCE were the hold-outs. Those damn cycling clues! I never did consider the ol’ reverse cycling.. (Although of course the rather better way into the clue would have been to be less single-mindedly wrong about what “leaves” could possibly be.)

    As our blogger says, a phenomenal effort to anyone who got remotely through this beast at the end of five variously gruelling puzzles under test conditions. Many thanks to Dvynys for all the parsings, and to Mr Henderson for a bonus Friday beast with cracking clues aplenty.

  21. Incredibly hard, brilliant in places, but as with all of Paul (why did I say this? Of course, as pointed out below, John) Henderson’s puzzles I found myself thinking what a liberty (and then usually realising that it was OK really). Several that I struggled with and I’m still not all that convinced by the TOPONYMY clue, where the definition is bewildering and — far be it for me to cast doubt on the setter — but shouldn’t it be ‘… the first head of maths in …’ since there are two ms? 74 minutes, with a few electronic aids used to enable me to finish.

    1. John Henderson, not Paul Henderson! (PH is also a Times setter, known elsewhere as Phi/Kcit/Pangakupu)

  22. Defeated after far too long by RENAL and LETTUCE. I thought this was splendid but would have been horrified to encounter it under contest conditions and was a bit despondent until coming here and finding others had the same humbling experience. I’m sure there is a German word for that.

  23. I would be curious to see what the Snitch rating would be without all the re-solves. Much higher, for sure.

    2. I submitted off-leaderboard today but my original effort wouldn’t have qualified for the SNITCH at all!

  24. Only got 4 of these before cheating. Maybe if I heard a different drummer then I would’ve got THOREAU? I was certainly aware of DIVES, my FOI, mainly due to the famous folk song ‘Dives and Lazarus’ (Child Ballad 56) and hymn tune based on said song (‘Kingsfold’, composed by Vaughan Williams and often sung with the words “I heard the voice of Jesus say”.).

  25. Way too hard for me, massive DNF. A few unknowns – DEAF AID, LES SIX, PUT OUT MORE FLAGS – as an illiterate yob I’d never heard of it before yesterday, conveniently forgetting the 4 other times it’s appeared, and couldn’t remember the third word; and who knew More, T. was Lord Chancellor 500 years ago? Also, too much difficult clueing, I just don’t think like John Henderson does. Chapeaus indeed to the 21 who solved it.
    Some fine clues once you see the answers – ODDJOB, MESQUITE, RENAL etc. A bit annoyed about AMORETTI: as far as I can see amoretti’s an English word not an Italian word? Lovers… amanti! Amoretti? Not in my Italian dictionary. Not gunna mention my other perennial beef (not just in crosswords) of non-technical people interchanging things like force and pressure as if they’re the same.
    Like our blogger I was thinking Thoreaux, not Thoreau who I have heard of. Early Doonesbury had the main protagonists living in a commune attending a college named Walden.

    1. Yes, online sources suggest it’s a diminutive form, ‘little lovers’ or ‘little Cupids’, just as ‘amaretti’ (biscuits) are little bitter(?) things. The latter in more everyday Italian usage I guess. Interestingly ‘Amoretti’ also the name of a Spenser love sonnet sequence that few of us will have read.

      I fear your admonition about observing technical distinctions is going to remain unheeded.

  26. I worked hard for this one and finished in 68 minutes. Sorry to say, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

  27. That was a slog. It took me eighty seven and a half minutes and I got one wrong. AMORATTI. Got the AT IT, but missed the again insert and just biffed. Drat! LES SIX was a bit of a guess although I got the 9=IX part. ODDJOB was an early entry. Was pleased to have correctly assembled TOPONYMY, MESQUITE (delayed forever by QUILL!) and VARIEGATE from the wordplay. Thanks Mr H and Dvynys

  28. Way beyond my capability. I didn’t even get the novel which featured yesterday. Managed only five clues before giving up.

  29. After an hour I threw in the sponge in the end with LES SIX. All my tired brain could produce was the obviously wrong Les Miz. Thought MESQUITE was a shrub not a tree so wasted time looking for a variant of sequoia. My grandmother said DEAF AID which I think went out well before we started talking of “hearing impaired” instead of deaf. Not champs material, me.

  30. Managed to get 3 – LIFE-SIZE, ZETAS, THREE plus I would have bunged in unparsed LETTUCE and RUSSET. Half had THOREAU, saw the FIELDSMEN anagram and would have guessed LES SIX as I saw the IX part.

    Just another level of puzzle that is way beyond me. I don’t try the main puzzle often enough and it seems (as per the NHO novel) that doing so would give me a wider knowledge of the stuff/defs which comes up more often. I just don’t have the inclination to be defeated day-in, day-out so pick and choose

  31. I knew this was going to be a beast from John Henderson so rather than sit down and solve it I thought I would visit it off and on during my breaks and quiet parts of meetings.

    Got a bit of help with PUT OUT MORE FLAGS having come up yesterday and my memory for once serving me well. Not sure I would have got it so quick if this had come out on Tuesday.

    I did a lot better than I thought on it but rather annoyingly got defeated by the comparatively straight forward DIVES (I had DOGES – seeing DES for man and OG-taking a fall). I couldn’t see past it especially as I could then fit GATE around the edge of 16d and just needed to decide what opened it up. Suppose I shouldn’t be too disappointed with two out especially as these sort of puzzles were less than half finished a few months ago.

    Same problem as the blogger with the living Therouxs’ but then my mind started wondering to the Canadian Prime Ministers of Trudeau despite an O being checked.

    Heaps more fun than I usually find this setter. Some good clues in there. COD to SPOOFED.

    Thanks blogger (a few I needed to check or confirm the full parsing on) and setter.

  32. 32:23
    Well I liked it. Must have been fully on Mr Henderson’s wavelength (a rare occurrence) . Admittedly I didn’t bother to parse SPEECH THERAPIST or DEAF AID and thought for a long time that the social critic might be THEATRE.

    COD shared between SPOOFED and TOPNYMY .

    Thanks to Dvynys and Mr Henderson.

  33. Was quite pleased to finish this championship puzzle with all correct and parsed.
    I took my time—never been a speed freak!—and it never got too frustrating.

  34. 54 mins with no errors but it seems I’m some way off entering any championships just yet! Loved ODDJOB.

  35. Like all these competition puzzles, way beyond me. So far, in fact, that I simply can’t be bothered even trying to unravel them. Have fun, all! I’ll be back another day.

  36. Terrific puzzle, all completed, in well over an hour though. Oddjob brilliant.

    In case setters need help with variety in clueing, given that Put Out More Flags is becoming a regular visitor to these pages, how about this: Seal in strange putters of a mogul story. I’ll get my coat.

  39. Managed about 40% of this, but had no chance of getting any further. Kudos to all those who completed it.

  41. A good two and a half hours, albeit well lubricated, but at least all parsed. FOI LES SIX but the parsing took me a while. (Brilliant clue!) This puzzle was so clever/painful that I guessed it must be a Henderson.

  42. AARRGG!! And I wonder how long Magoo took on this. I suspect I would be dispirited if I knew. Did anyone else come up with KANJUS for 5 across? Big Bust (J) inside SUNAK backwards! That threw me completely.

    1. Ha ha – hilarious! And that would at least have involved the actual name of a former PM, rather than a mere sobriquet.

  44. 72:57. DNK DIVES the rich man though of course knew Lazarus. What a beautiful beast of a puzzle. Quite a few I failed to parse, but could only be one thing. Chapeau to the setter and blogger!

  45. Indeed a big beasty-boy. Very happy to have got it all correct in 46’34”. FOI, funnily enough, was 1d. Group of composers 3,3 — if you’ve heard of them it’s a write-in. Coudn’t have named them, mind you, apart from Poulenc, and Darius Milhaud who gave his name to the conservatoire of the 14ème where I used to live. I saw the Boris connection, but didn’t make the leap to BOJO till late. Wasted time playing with SIRDOB and other variations. Should’ve realised sooner that Double-D cup was the reference, not Single. AMORETTI is, I think, the name of an ice-cream outlet. Without the Q of QUARTER I would never have got MESQUITE. Happy to have missed the trap at TOPONYMY but it’s a very weird word. Thanks for a great challenge.

  46. DNF after a very long time. But I enjoyed it a lot. Defeated by the NHO MESQUITE and the unparsed VARIEGATE. But it was all worth it just to solve 5ac, my COD, and probably COY.
    Thanks to Dvynys and other contributors.

  47. Knowing this was a JH was useful, as my expectations were suitably lowered. I certainly didn’t expect to finish and just took my time until I ran out of steam with about 4 to go. AMORETTI NHO, should have got DEADBEAT and CRACKPOT, but an incorrect CANAL for RENAL put a stop to that. Many were not parsed, (PRESSURE, LETTUCE, RUSSET) so the blog was extremely useful, thanks, Twin. I also had a careless TOPONYMS, not seeing Tommy. Just glad to get as many as I did. Onwards and upwards!

  48. A couple short but reasonably happy given the difficulty of the puzzle. I enjoy the odd toughie so no complaints here. Thanks to JH and Dvynys

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