Times Cryptic No 26830, Thursday, 14 September 2017 Make mine several doubles.

77 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26830, Thursday, 14 September 2017 Make mine several doubles.”

1. This wasn’t the stinker we’ve been anticipating/dreading/hoping for, as the case may be. I got NEW SCOTLAND YARD second or third, remembered the cricket term “overs” and the Territorial Army, but didn’t work out BEANO till last. And the first thing to come up on Google is an anti-flatulence pill! I guess British old beans (and beanettes) here saw that right away. I think you must have more dudes named “Des(mond)” over there too. And, as I am not from Boston, “absconder” doesn’t sound like it ends in an “a” when I say it!

   Edited at 2017-09-14 01:42 am (UTC)

   1. Most of us will know the word from the children’s comic. I was in the Dennis the Menace fan club when I was a nipper. It was only much later I found out it was an actual word in real life, too; it’s not exactly in daily use for “party”, or not in my circles, anyway.
      1. I was also a fan of the Beano. I think the term is derived from ‘beanfeast’ defined, amongst other things, as: a festival, a celebration, a merry time
2. 8:47 for this one – I rather liked it, and I thought the wordplay was solid all the way round – needed it for PUTTI. JACARANDA and NEW SCOTLAND YARD were write-ins.
3. I’m not sure I would have spelled jacaranda properly if I hadn’t known it – Ada, Ida, Ana, maybe Eda all give the right kind of sound. But I found the two trees I didn’t know precisely clued. Otherwise no problems after I decided that B-last probably couldn’t mean vote against. I liked oasis and beano. Nice blog, Z, thank you.
4. 4 plants, 2 insects, a sheep, a kingdom, and some anglocentric slang

   38 minutes, including is-that-really-a-word-I-better-look-it-up time. At least I learned something

5. I share some of our blogger’s mild irritation with this one. I needed 48 minutes to complete the grid with probably 8 of those considering the possibilities at 1ac once all the checkers were in place. In the end I plumped incorrectly for ENA as the random woman – another name to add to Paul_not_in_London’s list of candidates. Such clues are bordering on the unfair in my view.

   DOR-BEETLE was also unknown. According to SOED the DOR prefix is to do with making a buzzing sound and it gives examples dor-bee, dor-fly and daw-hawk. I’m not aware that a dormouse buzzes unless it snores (ZZZZZ) during the long periods of hibernation for which it is renowned.

   Perfect (aka Absolute) pitch came to my attention earlier in the week as an attribute possessed by Arturo Toscanini who appears to be Conductor of the Month at the moment as far as crosswords are concerned. He played cello before taking up the baton.

   Edited at 2017-09-14 05:09 am (UTC)

   1. People always claim the dormouse name comes from the Latin ‘dormire’, though I don’t know if there’s any real proof of that. I do know the Romans liked to eat them. Bastards
      1. Ah well, the Romans got theirs, in the end, while the dormouse is still clinging on, just about. we have some in our garden, you can tell by the cobnuts with neat little holes gnawed in them. Also the cat brought one in once, but don’t tell the authorities..

         On the etymology, the OED says: “Origin obscure: the second element has been, at least since c1575, treated as the word mouse, with plural mice, though a plural dormouses is evidenced in 16–17th cent. The first element has also from 16th cent. been associated with Latin dormīre, French dormir to sleep, (as if dorm-mouse; compare 16th cent. Dutch slaep-ratte, slaep-muys); but it is not certain that this is the original composition.
         (Skeat suggests for the first element Old Norse dár benumbed: compare also dial. ‘dorrer, a sleeper, a lazy person’ (Halliwell). (The French dormeuse, feminine of dormeur sleeper, sometimes suggested as the etymon, is not known before 17th cent.).”
         Dormouse is a much nicer word than sleep-rat…

         1. In my youth I worked for a local conservation trust in Gloucestershire, where my ‘job’ for a year involved surveying the local dormouse population. The primary technique was to fix empty milk cartons into the upper branches of hazel trees in ancient woodland sites, load them with hazelnuts, then come back every few days to check for those telltale neat little holes made by the dormice when gnawing their way into the nuts. I became an expert on ‘nut forensics’. It was a year of strange joys.

            You’re very lucky to have dormice in your garden, and I wont hold it against your cat, who’s just being a cat. But I haven’t forgiven the Romans.

            1. Yeah, what have they ever done for us?
      2. The English eat them too? Vaguely remember Heston Blumenthal travelling to Czechia or somewhere and returning with a few kilos of dormice, which he then cooked and served on sticks a la ice lollies. An Alice in Wonderland feast? With a pink drink flavoured with… quick google… cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast.
         I’m half way between hallucinogenic drugs as a youth and Alzheimer’s as an oldie, so that’s quite possible wrong and my memory is totally fried.
         Didn’t enjoy the obscure plants/insects/random names but must be getting better at them, a very speedy 12:49 I guess it’s standard Times fare, and the more you practise, the luckier you get.
         1. That sounds like something Heston B would do. I’ll happily file him along with the Romans 🙂
6. I knew all the plants and insects so it was 3dn that gave me long minutes of agonising pause – I think I got stuck on the golfer being ELS, if that’s even a golfer? It sometime is, in some crosswords, but maybe not the Times. About 8 minutes then on something I was thinking for a good while would be another 5-er. Look on the bright side, though, everyone, tomorrow’s almost bound to be the hardest of the week now! Unless they’re saving all the real tough puzzles now for Champs in a couple of short months, ulp.
   1. ELS is indeed a golfer. Although, unless something happened overnight Ernie is still alive and kicking.

      If they’re saving the toughies for the championships I may as well save the train fare (and embarrassment) now – this was the latest in a poor run of times and stupid mistakes. Blaming iPad solving will only get me so far and I think that time may have come…..

      1. ..not to mention that “golfer, perhaps” would have been rather damning of his talents.

         I seem to recall him appearing in crosswords other than the Times daily, given the helpful collection of letters that make up his name.

      2. Keep blaming iPad. I do.
7. 7:49 … Sometimes setters must feel like the elegant host who spends hours preparing an elegant buffet of finger food only to see it demolished in two minutes flat by a ravening horde. I’m afraid the only things I parsed with any care were the beetle and ABELE.

   Most of us who like a biff do, I think, spend some time post-solve appreciating what we missed along the way, and I’ll give a particular tip of the hat to the nicely corny ABSCONDER

   Edited at 2017-09-14 06:55 am (UTC)

   1. The element of the carefully crafted clue that is usually completely lost on me is the surface reading. If the definition is clear and I’ve cracked the wordplay, that’s it for me, job done! The surface, more often than not, is there to deceive or mislead so it makes sense (to me) to ignore it.

      Edited at 2017-09-14 08:08 am (UTC)

      1. I do like to see why each element of the clue is there. That’s the excuse I give to myself as to why I take longer than you guys, althought it’s probably far more to do with ageing brain cells that were never that good in the first place. It’s better though if the clue is shorter. HOLLYHOCK today was close to perfect, although it’s a pity hock’s not a red wine.
   2. Great time, Sarah, and under 1V – well done! There must be an art to biffing with no errors 😉
      1. thanks, and thank you for restoring me to the land of Snitch 🙂
8. 25 mins with overnight oats – and it felt like a picnic with all those plants and bugs.
   As one who raises eyebrows at the appearance of random ‘blokes’, I was at least amused to find Big Andy this time.
   And as one who blenches at the word ‘plant’ this could have been a blencher. But after Olivia brought James Bond to our attention yesterday, I vaguely remember James (Sean C) mentioning Jacarandas in Dr No? And it turned out to be a ‘spell it as you hear it’ word.
   Mostly I liked: Perfect Pitch, Be A No, and the Fat Bloke.

   By the way – I have tapped in to Rocky Flintstone now – and I cry with laughter too.

   Thanks park ranger setter and Z.

   PS. I guess you know Abe Lincoln’s famous last words.
   “If they don’t have any tubs, I’ll have a choc-ice”.

   Edited at 2017-09-14 07:19 am (UTC)

   1. I watched Dr No recently, and can’t remember a jacaranda. No sign of it in the screenplay, either: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=dr-no

      There was, of course, a mango tree, underneath which Connery and Ursula Andress duetted

      1. Hmmm… now you have me wondering. I was sure someone would help track down the reference. I’m sure I’m not thinking of the Junkanoo in Thunderball (quite a different thing) – and what a great crossword word.
         1. I’ve started working my way through all the older Bond films, having not watched them in many years. I’m up to Goldfinger, so Thunderball next. I’ll keep an eye out for jacarandas (and yes, junkanoo — John Canoe? — is a fabulous word)
            1. In case you are interested – and there is no reason why you would be – I have eventually worked it out. I am ashamed to say – I was thinking of Sean Connery in Marnie. The scene just before the Thunderstorm in Mark Rutland’s (Sean’s) office. He shows Marnie (Tippi Hedren) his Jaguarundi! Ha!
               So no idea why I know Jacaranda.
               1. I am interested. Thanks for letting us know (I’ve never seen Marnie)
                  1. Well if you like early Sean (and Hitchcock) – I recommend it. Pre knowledge of the jaguarundi isn’t a plot spoiler.
            2. We started watching old Bond films with our kids a year or so ago. My daughter was outraged by how sexist they are, and to be honest I thought they were crap, so we stopped.
               1. You’d be better off with TV shows such as On the Buses – and Dick Emery of course.
                  1. The next time I get round to watching anything at all on TV (now that Game of Thrones is finished) it will be to give Breaking Bad another chance. But that plan has already existed for at least a year with no progress so it may be a while before I get to Dick Emery…
                     My daughter is currently obsessed with something called Riverdale. It’s probably wholly unsuitable but I have no say on these matters.

                     Edited at 2017-09-14 02:36 pm (UTC)

                     1. You ought to. Second time round, I stuck with The Wire (just finished series 2) and although I prefer BB (bleaker, less formulaic, less manipulative, more innovative, in my book), it has much to recommend it.
                        1. Thanks, I will. I love the ambitious scope of The Wire, which from what I’ve seen is not there in Breaking Bad. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing: I don’t want to choose between Austen and Tolstoy.
                           1. One advantage of BB is that you don’t need subtitles. And the creativity of the killings in New Mexico outstrips anything in Baltimore.
9. Defeated by brigandry and beano. Another word for party to add to the list.

   Didn’t know quite a lot of the words today but the cluing was helpful.

   COD overshoot.

   In 4d, does scot = tax? Edit can see it does.

   Edited at 2017-09-14 07:40 am (UTC)

   1. Ah, yes. The top cop shop was so biffable I skipped the scot=tax in posting. It does, but is archaic, so maybe prefacing it with “new” was something of an oxymoron.
10. Biffed a number of clues, and never did bother to work out NEW SCOTLAND YARD; almost gave up on ABSCONDER, the rhoticity being a major problem. JACARANDA a write-in once I had the J, and DOR-BEETLE & CADDIS-FLY almost write-ins, in both cases the hyphen giving me pause. Not to mention I thought a DOR just was a beetle. I didn’t know the ABELE was native to Morocco; I thought it was native to the NY Times, where it struggles for territory with the acer. I sort of liked BEANO, my LOI, not many of the others.

11. About 45 mins for me today, so a lot tougher than of late. I only got (LOI) STEAK after I looked again at ‘hollyrose’ and realised that another wine could fit -O– (and could give a plant that actually existed, and that I’d heard of…)

12. Found that rather fun, though a little stretching for my vocab. 32 minutes. Glad the extra minute convincing myself that Ada was the most likely woman was worth it—my step-grandma was an IDA so I always think of her first…

    A steady solve from start at 1d JACOB, gradually circumnavigating the grid back to the NW corner to finish off with 3d, then the tree. Enjoyed 13d BRIGANDRY and 11 BEANO. WOD JACARANDA—aren’t they pretty?

    It might have been a different story if I’d not got NEW SCOTLAND YARD with just a “W” in it, or not double-checked the wordplay for the spelling of AIREDALE, which I always seem to think has a “Y” in it. Thanks setter and Z.

    Edited at 2017-09-14 08:01 am (UTC)

13. I enjoyed this one, it has a pleasing mix of general knowledge that played to my (one remaining) strength. A good vocabulary test. 1dn a write-in, after which 1ac was too. I struggled more with the Airedale, embarrassing as my father had two.
    Note to self: must remember to bother to look up rhoticity one day..
    1. Think ‘Forfar’ according to the legendary James Alexander Gordon.

       As if you didn’t know anyway, being the Club Monthly King…

14. It must be a stinker tomorrow. Zipped through this today in 16 minutes, despite seeing 4d NEW SCOTLAND YARD more or less as I picked up the paper and writing it in at 5d. Fortunately an AIREDALE TERRIER immediately came to help. You’ve summed up the Book of Job perfectly, Z. Wanted 26a to be DYLAN but thankfully his Bobship is still with us, and I arose to see YEATS. Knew all the plants, still liking a summer glass of COD (HOLLY)HOCK despite the world deciding it to be naff. Thank you Z and setter.

    Edited at 2017-09-14 08:34 am (UTC)

    1. I did exactly the same with NEW SCOTLAND YARD, which extended my time by a lot.
15. Strolled through this helped by knowing the obscure plants. As for others, lot of biffing (1A starting “J”; clue 3,8,4 relating to the police, sort of lens starting “T” ending “O”; and so on

    My soprano daughter has perfect pitch and agree it relates to singers more than players. Not keen on “golfer perhaps” for PRO – though only spotted after I’d finished as was actually reading clues I’d biffed.

    Nice blog Z8 and with you on “random blokes” – as Jack says, it became mildly irritating

16. 22′, despite writing 4d as 5d like boltonwanderer. ABELE and DOR BEETLE both with crossed fingers, so two too many. On BEANO – I learnt this word from my father who used to go once a year on a works’ outing, a BEANO, which was a pub crawl by hired minibus or coach, a giant drinking bout. Thanks z and setter.
17. 19 minutes with at least five of those on the BEANO/REPROCESS crossing pair. The ‘golfer perhaps’ for PRO seems very loose to me. Hey ho.
18. Lots of answers without parsing helped me to complete in about 30mins. Some unknowns as per above. I mention Bifferama in honour of Hatfield and the North’s wonderful first album containing the track Rifferama (and Big John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw). Sorry you didn’t get a stinker Mr Z – not looking forward to Friday when the tough setter sticks my head down the loo.
19. 22 minutes, with BEANO LOI – if ‘party’ isn’t political it’s usually DO. Entering 2dn (with a careless typo, not noticed before submission, so marring my record again) put me on right track.
    1. Or RAVE…
       1. Rave on John Donne. Van the Man nearly worked his magic for you!
          1. 🙂
20. Another one for the Aussies perhaps. Jacarandas come out around exam time (late October) in Sydney. There is a famous one in the quad at the University of Sydney which had a reputation as follows:

    “For many years our students have lived by the folklore that any undergraduate who fails to study before the tree’s first bloom appears will fail their exams.”

    The original tree from 1928 died last year and has been replaced with a clone this year.

21. What does ‘ biffed this from enumeration ‘mean, please ?
    1. It means that real speed merchants will look at e.g. 4d, see the word detectives, and the letter count (enumeration) 3,8,4 and think NEW SCOTLAND YARD and write it in without dismantling (parsing) the clue. Biffed = bifd means ‘banged in from definition’.

       Edited at 2017-09-14 09:54 am (UTC)

       1. Bunged in, Rob?
          1. I hope that grestyman (who coined bifd) is still around. I dont think that I have seen him recently.
    2. You see 3,8,4 and with a whiff of the possible theme from ‘detectives -here?’ you jump to a very possible answer. – jk
22. 19.53. Can’t believe I spent a few of them looking for a poet not a lens. The gifted Ronald Knox, stuck for a rhyme for hollyhock while at school, came up with ‘Gardener, tolle hoc / infamous hollyhock!’ OK, OK, one or two might appreciate. – joekobi
23. Twenty-eight minutes, and it all went fairly smoothly, with REPROCESSED/BEANO my LOsI.

    I’d never come across CAT’S PAW, and spent a while trying to justify “cash cow” before spotting the cat reference.

24. About 20 minutes. I feel a tropical storm brewing for tomorrow.
25. 9:04 and I knew jacaranda from somewhere so didn’t need to worry about the woman (if only real life were so simple).

    Despite the random name content in BRIGANDRY I though it a great clue which made me not exactly hoot but chuckle.

    Oh, I meant to add, Z, that I didn’t easily spot the hidden at all. I parsed it as BAT = club and HE = Hendon and expected to find your discourse on the well-known HE abbreviation that had somehow passed me by.

    Edited at 2017-09-14 12:06 pm (UTC)

26. This one took me 4 seconds longer than yesterday at 16:54, so tomorrow’s puzzle is bound to wipe the smug look off my face. JACARANDA went straight in, immediately followed by the parsing and JACOB. I flirted with BLACK for BEANO(as in vote against) but was rescued by spotting PRO for golfer fairly quickly. At 12 minutes in I still had the SW to complete, but there were no particular hold ups, and ABSCONDER brought up the rear. Liked BIG ANDY and HOLLYHOCK. 4d went in from N_W and enumeration, again closely followed by spotting the parsing. 5d took longer(and more crossers) to spot. I didn’t know the DOR BEETLE, but trusted the wordplay and was rewarded. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Z.
27. Thought this was lightweight and not very interesting, too many random people, but a second equal PB this week 12 minutes. Thought PRO for golfer was OK Jimbo?
    1. I think a member of the world’s oldest profession might have something to say about this clue.
28. 23 minutes, so around average for me.

    NOT! Ever since that blasted SNITCH arrived, my mean time is there for all to see.

    Just joking, in case anyone around here is new.

29. I enjoyed this one, even though it took me over an hour to finish.

    I’ve actually got friends called Des and Andy – I must invite them round to share a bottle of holy Hock some time.

    Mr Chumley

    1. Des the name is given a particularly hard time in My Dad Wrote a Porno.
30. 10:52, with two or three minutes at the end puzzling over 18ac until I realised that HOLLYROSE at 8dn wasn’t right. It looked damned feasible to me.
    A curious mix of the easily biffable and obscure words that were nevertheless easy to construct from wordplay. I don’t remember coming across JACARANDA before but I must have done because I was sure it was right. Not a brilliant clue IMO.
    1. …but a good word. Sounds like an exotic tree ought to.
       1. No objections to the word, just the ambiguous wordplay.
31. A second day around the 15 minute mark, so as with others, expect hell tomorrow. In the i (tabloid UK newspaper) today, there is quite a large article on how to go about cryptic crosswords, by John Henderson, 1996 Times winner and editor of i’s Inquisitor crossword. Apparently, he holds the record for the fastest solve of a Times Championship crossword (under 3 minutes). Come on lads and ladettes!

    Edited at 2017-09-14 02:41 pm (UTC)

32. JH, AKA Enigmatist, Elgar etc, is also the world’s most devilish setter. His thematic (after a fashion) puzzles in the Telegraph Toughie are brain-melters.
    1. And he was the setter for our TFTT commemorative puzzle a couple of Decembers ago and a right brute it was!
33. 28 mins 41 secs for me so on the easy side. Loved big Andy and I find the word it clued rather satisfying vocab-wise too. Hosta the only unknown but generously clued and checked. Jacaranda tree known, not sure where from.
34. I completed this on a trip through the rush hour traffic from 7.10am – 7.54am yesterday morning – oh how I prefer pen and paper (never pencil!)

    FOI 13as BATHE closely followed by 1ac JACARANDA and 1dn JACOB baaaa!

    I don’t think I would recognise a 12ac CADDIS FLY if it flew past nor a 29ac DOR BEETLE except that it might be golden! I imagine the Romans ate them.

    The Chinese ate all the dormice many moons ago!
    They don’t understand how we can eat rabbit or apricots – separately or together!

    LOI 6dn PUTTI as used in Leonardo’s Windows 7

    COD 8dbn HOLLYHOCK

    WOD 13 dn BRIGANDRY

    Today’s 15×15 is a tougie after half an hour – I am just starting to win! Over you Verlaine!

    Edited at 2017-09-15 08:10 am (UTC)

35. Folk: Jack, Des, Andy, Cath, Ada (& Abe & Job)!
    Animals: Bee, Dor Beetle and Caddis Fly (& Jacob & Airedale Terrier)
    Plants: Jacaranda, Hollyhock, Hosta & Abele
    I had not heard of Dor Beetle, Hosta or Abele but fortunately the cryptic parts were easy.

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