Times Cryptic No 29123 — Yankees prevail

82 comments on “Times Cryptic No 29123 — Yankees prevail”

1. DNF
   I had biffed FLIT instead of SCAT, which made ROADCRAFT impossible to see. NHO COROT, and was wondering whether CLORT was the name of a plant that could be pressed for oil.
   Thanks Jeremy and setter

2. DNF, having spent more than an hour, and a half more on the last two – COROT and ROADCRAFT, which I was convinced was an anagram, as all the later crossers appeared to support. If I’d only thought of the possibility of oil producer being a painter, I’d have got this, as I did know Corot, although I couldn’t name any of his paintings; that might have led me to the correct/only possible answer for 17d. In my defence, I think it a poor clue, as ROAD doesn’t = land, so the clue can’t be solved purely from wordplay, unlike most of the other ‘unknowns’ which I did get, and with much satisfaction. Other than that, an excellent puzzle and thorough workout.

3. 59 minutes. It was indeed a superb puzzle with delightfully misleading phrasings all over the place (“no longer buddy!”, for example). For PUTRESCENT, I put in the first half right away and then tried to figure out how FYING might mean “smell” (I didn’t see SCENT until the very end, for some reason). My LOIs were the wonderful EXTANT followed by EQUID, and then I needed COROT to convince my that 17 dn really would be ROADCRAFT. But I didn’t catch why he was an oil producer. At first the only dipstick I could think of was CLOT, but it’s hard to insert an R into that. COD to FLORAL, but all the rest was very very good as well.

4. Yesterday’s forecasts of a stinker round the corner were correct! Fell asleep at one point so can’t give a time but all correct except Malayalam which I stupidly misspelt as ‘Malayslam’ – although it’s come up before. NHO hyponym but got it from the very clever wordplay.

5. 37.56. I don’t quite know how I got through this with all green squares, but I’ll take it. Several unknowns, but the wordplay led to the correct answers.

6. I know I’m a day late reacting to this. I failed with 4 clues and am still pleased. I don’t use aids so had to do some biffing on what, for me, was a really tough puzzle.
   Hats off to those who complete this unaided.

7. 45:55 fail

   Entered MASON LAMP having NHO the wasp, and looked up another NHO COROT – didn’t think of COOT. ROADCRAFT wasn’t very good I thought as land yachts don’t travel on roads – David Sullivan’s comment about it being a term for a big American car, if true, is a bit disappointing – uncommon American slang in a British crossword, pah!

   Thanks Jeremy and setter

8. COD to 16 for the misdirection , ‘oil producer’ indeed.
   Biffed Clappers at 4 across made hyponym impossible. Should have rethought as an H clearly needed.
   Gave up on 1 down, didn’t notice the pangram.

   Thank you setter for a challenge, and blogger for much needed explications.

9. I’m always surprised by how many learned solvers have not heard of fabulous artists such as Corot! Unlike I p’Doh above I love having him on my wall ( not originals!). The clues that defeated me were ones I’d NHO, like MASON WASP , EQUID and HYPONYM. However, pleasantly occupied for over an hour , and had fun with it. CODs to FLORAL, MALAYALAM and COROT for their misdirection in definitions.

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