Times Cryptic No 28817 — Not exactly 16 down

106 comments on “Times Cryptic No 28817 — Not exactly 16 down”

1. There is an area in West London (W9) where a series of street names all begin with the name Randolph. According to urban legend, it was an area renowned for housing the mistresses of gentlemen who lived in Central London. The term RANDY comes from how such a gentleman felt when visiting such a lady.

   1. ‘Randy’ is a Scottish word dating from the early 1700s (or even earlier than that with a broader sense of rude/coarse/unruly) so sadly this urban legend is, like most of them, unfounded.

2. 1 hour 9 minutes. Tricky and tough. I really enjoyed it. We’ve had some good uns this week. I liked lots, including LOATHING and ADMONISH

   On edit. A minor point, but I meant to say I divided up the PREMISES double definition differently:
   A place for firm / assumptions

   1. I agree on your parsing, but isn’t that what Jeremy said?

      1. No, I did originally parse it that way but then though “a place for firm” didn’t quite sound as good as “firm assumptions”.

      2. perhaps I was confused by the square-bracketed non-underlined word [for] which seems to leave the two definitions as A place / firm assumptions

         1. I’ve changed it now to what you suggested — which was how I originally understood the clue.

3. Not quite as long as yesterday, but an awful lot of shrugging and biffing.

   35:40

4. DNF, defeated by ON THE GAME. Like several others I originally had ‘on the ball’, but even once I corrected myself by figuring out DEADHEAD I was left with _a_e, and I plumped for ‘case’.

   Didn’t really see how shake=flourish (I get it now), but SHEIKH had to be right; got MIGRANTS without knowing M1 as the money supply; only got WATTEAU from remembering a previous crossword, though this time I thought the ‘watte’ was coming from ‘twatted’ rather than ‘swatted’ (oops, a bit too lowbrow!); and didn’t parse LOATHING at all.

   Thanks setter and blogger.

   COD Spiral staircase (don’t often like cryptic definitions, but thought this was a good one)

   1. I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw “TWATTED”!

      1. 😂 Love that!

5. 34:35 but…

   …after several minutes staring blankly at 28a while ON THE BALL was still in place, I gave in and looked up the answer here – completely new one on me and a 100% North Americanism that has not been accepted into British culture spoiled a decent crossword in my very humble opinion – perhaps a clue about lopping the tops off dying flowers would have been a better choice. So, a DNF for me.

   I did appreciate ON THE GAME when I saw it here. Very good.

6. DNF. the NE was largely blank. I often miss hiddens like QUORUM. I don’t think MOLASSES are bittersweet. Missed RANDY altogether, TIE DYES I should have got as we had something like it recently. Considered LOATHING but couldn’t parse it. Thought of UNCLEAN but never thought of “meat” in that sense, sandwich. Oh dear!
   Also foxed by MIGRANTS as never thought of M1 money supply, it is so often a road, so congrats on using a new directive, and it was always going to be right.
   Thought briefly 10a was going to be Sault Saint Marie, but a) no evidence supported it and b) not spelt that way.
   Didn’t know the def of MILK RUN, thought it was Green Paint – wrong. I’ve heard of Milk Round w.r.t. new graduates.
   Didn’t know the def of DEADHEAD except re roses. But I ought to as as a customs officer at Heathrow I spent a lot of time with airlines.
   So all in all learnt a bit.

   1. I believe ‘MILK RUN’ derives from an era when slow, early-morning local stopping trains used to collect milk churns from far-flung dairy farms. (And also, presumably, returned yesterday’s empties.)

7. A sluggish 36.35, although in my defence I was at a wedding yesterday. My LOI was, you guessed it, ON THE _A_E after realising the two words that I’d been trying to start the intersecting answer with were both needed, and so it wasn’t BALL. Took a brief trip through tennis terms before twigging, and I knew both bits of slang. Surely many sorts of sportspeople need to focus on the game, as in the match (or indeed the ball)? And are crabs particularly irascible?

   I didn’t know the painter but was confident that I at least had a wp-valid answer. I’ve only ever pronounced SHEIKH as SHAKE – otherwise the early-2000s tabloid staple the Fake Sheikh wouldn’t have rhymed! Can’t think how else you’d pronounce WEAVE or WE’VE, really. I knew M1 was something or other to do with money supply, tricky but quite good I thought.

   A good challenge overall, and hardly the setter’s fault that they were scheduled right after yesterday’s corker.

   Thanks setter and Jeremy

   1. As crab is “just” anagrist it doesn’t have to be relevant, but crabby def means irascible, so it is very kind or very clever or both.

      1. Ta – still think it’s a little odd, but hey ho!

         1. I was never completely convinced by that clue.

8. DNF. As with others could not reconcile ON THE BALL and DEADHEAD. Which is a pot-smoking Grateful Dead fan, remembering back to the 60s. I fear the setter is many decades older than I am, using on the game? A few other “Beh?”s, like SAGEST. Otherwise OK, but off the wavelength – not at all quick for the ones I got, and not as enjoyable as yesterday. I did like GRAND ONION CANAL (my spellcheck told me), actually recalled from dim memory.

9. Another tricky one. Didn’t get a sniff until TIE DYES materialised. RANDY came next and the NE corner was suddenly complete. The SW was tackled next when the SE refused to yield, and was fairly soon sorted. Then the slog really began. AUNTY, SECRECY and IRASCIBLE led to the eventual conquest of the NW with SAGEST the last component of that corner to fall. 9d was still unsolved and I concentrated on that for a while, even managing to parse it correctly. That led to MIGRANTS, where M1 did ring a bell in the financial sector. Must mention at this point that I really liked SPIRAL STAIRCASE which had gone in much earlier. WEAVE led the attack on the remaining clues in the SE, with WATTEAU coming next, followed by PUREED. This left 28a which was stymied by the ubiquitous ON THE BALL. DIED, DEAD and HEAD were all floating around in my consciousness, but I didn’t know the required meaniong of DEADHEAD, but as I was getting nowhere with -E-D-L-D, I reconsidered 16d and immediately saw how ON THE GAME worked from the Pro perspective. DEADHEAD was duly inserted and the puzzle was submitted. Relieved to have no pink squares! 43:18 and still well inside the top 100 on the leaderboard even at 15:30 in the afternoon! (GMT). Thanks setter and Jeremy.

10. Gave up after 43 mins. Stymied by on the ball , NHO deadhead and just didn’t see loathing which given I had all the crossers was a bit frustrating.

    Good crossword , thx setter( apart from deadhead) and blogger.

11. Like others, failed with ON THE BALL and DK DEADHEAD although thought of it as an option. Not much fun. 35 minutes apart from the fail.

12. Tough one – over the hour. Some nice clues but I would take issue with:
    11a) Being tight-lipped = Secrecy (although I did note plusjeremy’s comment on this).
    9d) Loathing = Disgusted (disgust would have worked much better).
    8d) Are Molasses bittersweet? I thought they were just sweet – happy to be corrected.
    (I’ve just read that there is a variety of Molasses called Blackstrap Molasses that is somewhat bitter in taste – so Fairy Nuff).

13. For Milk Run surely the clue should read manage not managed. Manage is run and managed is ran.

    1. The site is run/managed by ……..

    2. You are totally correct!!!!

14. DNF. Gave up after an hour with only 75% completed.

    I had ON THE BALL, which I then changed to ON THE LINE to make DEADHEAD fit, and never had a hope of seeing SPIRAL STAIRCASE.

    Never saw MILK RUN, possibly because I assumed managed=ran, not run, though I see now that run also works.

15. DNF. Felt I was on the wavelength and made steady progress until coming unstuck in the south east corner with just two to solve; 25a and 25d. NHO of WATTEAU so, convinced it was the frame of (L)AUTRE(C) needing dispensed with, decided AUTREAU (?) for 25a best fitted the _ _T_E_U crossers already held. That meant 25d needed to be A_A _E which stopped me from ever seeing WEAVE.

16. Bang on 60 mins in two sessions but WOE: MILL RUN (run of the mill …?!).

    Like others DEADHEAD and ON THE GAME held me up after inserting the ‘obvious’ ON THE BALL.

    Enjoyed it despite the error. Thanks all.

17. 39.53 Held up by, like may others, having the tennis player focussing on the ball. The clue would have been easier with the reference to tennis omitted, as player would suggest game. Another possibility would have been a hunting reference

18. I thought 28 ac must be SEEDHEAD, since SEEDs have a free ticket to play
    (don’t have to play qualifying rounds), and seed-heads pass on the seeds.

19. Anyone else get Autreau for 25acc
    Lautrec, dispense with frame then gold.
    Stopped me finishing.

20. Loved it!

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