Times Cryptic No 28865 — Laughably bad

65 comments on “Times Cryptic No 28865 — Laughably bad”

1. Long struggle with this and I finished in 67 minutes, with CHANCEL unparsed. Simpler than I was making it, with ‘opening’ an insertion indicator. ONCOMETER a mystery which eventually I reluctantly entered: ‘come’ doesn’t mean ‘approach’ —it’s ‘come to’ or ‘come near’, as Collins confirms. To me this is no better than the ‘ganging’ which so many people are happy with in 10dn, which surely doesn’t = ‘revolting’. ‘net’s opposite’ being ‘gross’ reminds me of William Brown’s attempt at a crossword clue: ‘opposite of cat’ for ‘dog’.

2. 11:19. I started very slowly on this but picked up speed steadily.
   I knew of Arthur RACKHAM because we had at least one book illustrated by him when I was a kid. I’ve no idea what it/they was/were though.
   I don’t remember seeing the Bombay cat before, or an ONCOMETER. TOUN is rather obscure.

3. A bit of a struggle which started off relatively well but went rapidly downhill. I remembered RHIZOME, but needed TALLIES to spell it correctly. Most of the pain came in the NW corner, where that well known 19th Century woodcarver from Suffolk, Henry RINGHAM, seemed to corroberate my biffed CHANNEL(line) at 1d. I wasn’t convinced, however and suddenly thought of CHANCEL for place to sing and RACKHAM then seemed a better option for 11a. Still failed to parse CHANCEL until I read the blog. Probably 10 minutes spent on the last 4 in that corner. 33:57. Thanks setter and Jeremy.

4. I found just enough crossers from Friday-ordinary-difficulty-level answers to bull my way through the more unusual words or definitions. But the bulling went more easily after I’d put down for the evening and had two stiff morning coffees (ala Denise T) before completing. Thx, +J

5. It’s not often that I come anywhere near competing with the bloggers and regular posters. I am usually over an hour or DNF.
   But today I achieved my aim of finishing in the time it took me to drink a pint of ale.
   My only NHO was oncometer but parsing was straightforward.
   Thank you setter, blogger and posters.

6. 53’55”
   Never nearer.

   Yo-yoing between the balcony -very nippy when the sun vanished- and study didn’t help, so I was relieved to finish in under an hour with only Bombay, nut and Rackham tinkling, rather than ringing, bells. I believe toun wanders south occasionally; a friend in Newcastle often refers to his neck of the woods as ‘the toun’.
   A knotty Friday nut to crack; thank you setter and Jeremy.

7. I eventually finished in 52.25 with my LOIs CHANCEL followed by RACKHAM. I fully expected them to be wrong, having thought that the chancel link to where a choir might be situated was a bit tenuous; even though many moons ago that was where I was located as a chorister when singing anthems! I very nearly gave up on those final two, but am now glad I persevered.

8. Very slow to start and ground through it clue by clue. FOI TONIC, taking the time to parse it and deciding as a result that I was in for a long haul. LOI PLASTIC, from the definition – NHO pice, nor ONCOMETER or INTERCROP, for that matter. I also entered PRESSGANGING, which held me up until I realised 23a had to be ENGROSS. The NW held out the longest, with all blank except RACKHAM and ONCOMETER, but finally APPROPRIATED opened up a window to carry on through. A good Friday challenge – as usual, it’s encouraging to find many with similar experiences.

9. 34 minutes for me, which was quicker than the average Friday. Had the same problems as others in recognising unfamiliar words such as INTERCROP and ONCOMETER, but the clueing left little option. NHO PICE or BOMBAY CAT, and I was also PRESSGANGING until some surrounding answers convinced me otherwise. I was never that keen on colloquialisms like SADDO, but perhaps I should get out more. An engaging struggle.
   FOI – ORTOLAN
   LOI – BITER
   COD – NO-TRUMP
   Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.

10. Well there’s perseverance and there’s banging your head against a brick wall. I congratulate Jeremy on his endurance but I came here with four empty spaces. I’d never heard of Chet Baker and I’m still not sure why I should have done, nor, like Jeremy, could I bring myself to put in CHANCEL which might have helped, would never have thought of RACK for frame, so the top left remained a wasteland. Feeling a bit grumpy.

11. 12:29. Very slow through the last few, but a really good puzzle for trusting wordplay, got ONCOMETER, RHIZOME, RACKHAM directly from wordplay, and it was very clear in sorting out the words I thought could work but I couldn’t quite associate them with the definition like CHANCEL, PRESSURISING and GENEROSITIES. Excellent puzzle!

12. 25.22

    RHIZOME submitted with crossed fingers. Even after getting CAR and thinking ALES it still took way too long to see 1ac. And APPREHENDED failed to fit despite trying a few times. But despite that v happy with my effort after a bunch of sluggish times recently

    Thanks Jeremy (always appreciated when a blogger struggles a bit but comes with a very readable piece) and setter

13. Failed on ‘oncometer’. Just tiredness I think. No time recorded.

14. Too tough for me! ( still don’t really understand certain clues : CHANCEL? COURAGE? BITER? ENGROSS?)
    Too hurried to make “a good fist of it” ( some good clue-fodder there…?)

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