Times Cryptic 28394

92 comments on “Times Cryptic 28394”

1. FOI JEEPERS CREEPERS, and my second one was CHOCOLATE ECLAIR!
   I found this very easy, but fun from start to finish.
   Only real unknown was what POMPEY is a nickname of. After finishing, I looked it up.

   Jackkt: A luthier is a lute-maker. There used to be one on a corner of rue de Bièvre (I stayed many times at #13, not far from where Mitterrand—long ago—stayed with his mistress), where it opens on the quai across the Seine from Notre Dame. Sigh.

   (It’s odd to see “the Bible” italicized… and “the” capped there.)

   1. Thanks, Guy. A ‘lutist’ is a person who plays the lute (aka ‘lutenist’) or makes them (aka ‘luthier) and I gave both, but the latter wasn’t really appropriate here because the clue definition is ‘musician’, so I have removed the reference in my blog. It’s perfectly possible that the maker may also be a lutenist and therefore a musician but that’d be splitting hairs in an attempt to justify a point rather than admitting it would have been better omitted.

      I usually italicise titles and went with The Bible although on reflection that’s rarely its cover title with Holy Bible seemingly the most traditional nomenclature. I’m not a professional writer or editor so can’t really be expected to get everything 100% at all times.

      1. Quite understood, Jackkt. I hesitated before adding that last bit, but “it was stronger than me,” as they say. Alas, I am a professional editor and have acquired a common occupational disease (and asset), the compulsion to correct others on matters of no consequence. FWIW (there he goes again…!), “Holy Bible” is also not usually italicized , because—although these writings really are just (at best) literature and nothing more (or less!) exalted than that—it is not the prevailing convention to style the title of this compilation of “scripture” as we would the name of any other ol’ book.

         1. Well there we are. I have my own areas of expertise but when one is not being consulted professionally it might be easier to let things pass. But then there’s always that niggle afterwards that one should have said something!

   2. These days the term ‘luthier’ is most usually applied to guitar-makers, there being not much demand for lutes any more. (I know several such luthiers.) However, it is also extended to mean any maker of musical instruments, particularly in France, as I found out one morning, when I wandered into a luthier’s workshop in Brittany, and met a very nice man who made bagpipes.

2. 10m but had POMPEI

   I’d love to claim it was a typo but haha no I was aiming for the doomed city and didn’t realise I’d run out of Is

   Anyway

   How is “descending” supposed to indicate reversal in 3 down JEEPERS CREEPERS? Seems to be a no op

   1. On closer examination, it does seem that “ascending” was what was needed.

   2. descended = came down on (like a ton of bricks)

      1. But the epee needs to be going in the other direction (in much the same way that bricks don’t)

3. 25 minutes. About 5 minutes at the end trying to make ‘a bit of sun’ at 16a work as an S rather RAY. I had come across PONY UP before; he probably never said it, but it’s the sort of expression I can imagine Arthur Daley (or even Dave at the Winchester Club) using. I missed the likely ‘descending’ mistake at 3d.

   Thanks for the link to the beautiful trumpet and organ arrangement of “Ombra mai fu”. Probably the best version of this classic aria that I’ve ever heard.

   1. I’m glad you appreciated it.

      1. Is that a normal trumpet in the picture? Or an ancient one? Or a mini one? It somehow doesn’t look right.

         1. My understanding is that it’s called a piccolo trumpet. More info here

4. 24m 19s but one or two clues were a bit QC-ish, I thought; especially 12ac.
   After yesterday’s debacle when I lulled myself into a false sense of security with HEARTBREAK HOTEL and ended up with 4 errors, I made doubly sure of my answers today.
   First thing to say is, I agree with Lou Weed and with Guy; that should be AScending in 3d.
   I prefer my own NEOLOGISM of ‘crosswordiste’ for a crossword solver rather than the somewhat pompous-sounding cruciverbalist.
   LUTIST or lutenist should not be confused with Lutonist. That’s a fan of Lorraine Chase.
   PS….Pompey is also the nickname for the football team and one of the fans’ chants is “Play up Pompey”
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2UUW_aMt5A

5. 17:25
   I think we once had CHICANE here, but it was as near as dammit to a DNK. Not that it mattered. Biffed BONE CHINA & JEEPERS etc., parsed post-submission, with a query about EPEE/EEPE. Never did figure out AWARD, hence it was my LOI. DNK about Portsmouth.

   1. Sorry if my meaning wasn’t clear, Kevin, but I was referring to ‘John’ and ‘can’ both being US slang terms for lavatory. The usual blogging convention here (followed by most but not necessarily all bloggers) is that a comma between items of wordplay indicates the end of the first item, and that what comes after is being treated separately. If two items (say ‘I’ and ‘John’ in this clue) had needed to be treated together, a comma between them wouldn’t be appropriate – I would actually use a plus sign, and there are examples of this in my parsing of 14ac and 25ac.

      1. I’d no sooner sent off my post and stepped into the shower than I realized my stupid error; hoped to have deleted it in time, but.

         1. No worries. It gave me a useful opportunity to explain a finer detail or two of my blogging style that others may not have been aware of.

   2. I was reading the new UK edition of the Highway Code yesterday, where they’re mentioned under Rule 153, “Traffic-calming measures” (it’s a thrilling life I lead.) Most people probably know them from the rather higher-speed world of Formula One racetracks, I’d guess; I’m pretty sure I first learned the word watching F1 on telly when I was a kid.

6. Top to bottom solve. Wrote in JEEPERS CREEPERS on seeing EPEE and without noticing the mistake. I saw Yes at the Colston Hall, Bristol in May 1975.

7. 6:24, with a minute or so at the end trying to makes sense of 8dn, failing, and bunging in POMPEI which is at least the name of a Roman city which might well have been a port for all I knew. The nickname bit of the clue was beyond me.

   1. *Pompeii

      1. Or Pompei. That seems to be the preferred spelling these days (at least by Wikipedia and Google Maps!)

         1. Shocking!
            Merriam-Webster tells me it “isn’t in the dictionary.”
            Nor is that spelling found in Collins.
            Google Maps doesn’t carry much weight with me, and now I’m reconsidering Wikipedia.

            1. I think it’s the modern spelling, so doesn’t really work as an answer for the Roman city. But it was all I could think of!
               Edit: confirmed, the official name of the city is now Pompei.

               1. Probably just because you were trying for speed. You’d never make a similar mistake on a Mephisto.
                  I wonder how long it will take Merriam-Webster, Collins and (no doubt) others to catch up to the modern spelling. (I think it’s a loss—but if thine “I” offend thee…)
                  In any case—you’re right—it’s not the ancient spelling.

                  1. On a Mephisto I’d just look it up in Chambers. Absent a dictionary I’d never have got it.

               2. Exact.
                  “For the Roman ruins within the city, see Pompeii.”

   2. I learnt of ‘Pompey’ for Portsmouth many decades ago from listening to The Navy Lark on the radio. Not sure that this qualifies as a ‘Ninja Turtle’, but it’s along the same lines.

      1. I’ve probably heard it: some of my wife’s relatives are Portsmouth fans. Mind you I tune out whenever they (or anyone else) talk about football. In any event, if I have heard it I had very thoroughly forgotten it.
         I meant to say that PONY UP was familiar to me. It’s subtly different to ‘cough up’ in my experience, with an implied sense of paying your fair share.

   3. I’m very disappointed about your ignorance of the First Triumvirate.

      1. I’ve heard of Pompey but he didn’t occur to me, and even if he had I would have been equally baffled by the rest of the clue.

8. Wasted a few minutes trying to get 1ac, then moved on and absolutely sped through this. No other holdups except the translator, where neither TEEDALS nor TESDALT seemed likely so LOI once all the checkers were filled. Parsed all as I went, saw the upturned EPEE but didn’t notice the error in the clue. Wanted to write TIE-DYED but the wordplay was unequivocal.
   Liked (like) CHOCOLATE ECLAIR, NEOLOGISM and MIAOW.

   1. Knew both Pompeys, even having never studied Roman history. Didn’t know Austerlitz the other day, having never studied European history. Why one known and the other not?
      TV!
      Seems to be plenty of documentaries on the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar etc. on TV. Can’t ever recall seeing a documentary on Napoleon. Saw one concerning Waterloo once, but from the point of view of the plucky English, rather than about Napoleon. Strange he’s not of more interest.

      1. If you read War and Peace for any other reason than that it is a magnificent novel, read it for Tolstoy’s brilliant description of the Battle of Austerlitz.

9. 15 minutes and all parsed, barring the fact I didn’t notice the ascending/descending issue in JEEPERS CREEPERS. I’d never heard of TYNDALE, but PONY UP was entirely familiar, possibly due to my growing up on the outskirts of London. Or possibly watching Only Fools and Horses; I seem to remember it being deployed there, too…

   1. Just to clarify, I knew the ‘pony’ bit as it’s in the first line of the title song to Only Fools and Horses, but ‘pony up’ unknown to me.

      1. Yes, I think they used both. I’m sure I remember people being asked to “pony up” on occasions, perhaps after losing a bet.

10. Plenty of fun, no major hold-ups, ended with LARGE (“largo” only vaguely known) and LOI GLOBAL. 25m but with POMPEI – relieved to note that I’m the company of some heavy-hitting solvers in that respect.

11. 16 minutes with LOI PRAYER. COD to TIE-DYES, despite not liking Prog Rock at all. I can remember a younger girlfriend trying to introduce me to the delights of Yes. Old rocker that I was, I said I preferred listening to bloody Mantovani. We have always called our glass fruit bowl, inherited from my parents, BIG BERTHA, as they did before us. A very enjoyable puzzle. I didn’t spot the ascending/ descending nicety but could have done without the ear worm. Thank you Jack and setter.

12. By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis.
    But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives …

    20 mins pre-brekker. I liked it. A huge MER at ‘descending’ instead of ascending.
    The clue for Neologism made me smile. The clue: Some lingo freshly made (9) was The Guardian’s ‘clue of the fortnight’ in Nov 2019. I remember because it was from TLS 1298 (by Myrtilus).
    Thanks setter and J.

    1. Aren’t all MERs ascending?

       Liked your TLS clue.

13. 23mins for an enjoyable puzzle Some the answers were easier to biff than parse
    COD 20a which made me chuckle

14. 9:26. I saw the POMPEY clue early then spent the rest of my solving time deliberating in the back of my mind whether the answer was Pompey or Pompei. My wife’s family are from Southampton, whose football team are rivals of Portsmouth. Consequently I gather that Portsmouth football team and its fans are known as “Pompey Scum”. I thought that the place in Italy finished with double I and though I’ve never seen it Anglicised I figured it could be the case. Thus I went with POMPEY. As it turns out I was right but for the wrong reason. I’ve never heard of the person.

    1. My commiserations to your wife on having family in the container port city.
       Portsmouth fans have been referring to Southampton in general as ‘Scum’ and the fans of the football club as ‘Scummers’ for many decades.
       Pompey fans have been more commonly referred to as ‘Skates’ (derogatory slang for Matelot) in return.
       All very tribal, but stemming from a long history of real antipathy between two very different Naval and Commercial Port cities.
       I found the clue very easy 🙂

       1. I’ve not heard of Skates before, so looked it up. The explanation is quite disturbing: “Royal Navy matelots on long voyages were supposedly often denied female company, and would keep skate fish with them to relieve their sexual frustrations.” 😳

    2. Having been married to a Fleet Air Arm man for 53 years, Pompey was a write-in for me: much of their training in the fifties taking place there.

15. I usually do the QC and have been trying to hone my skills over the last couple of years. I completed this, save for a couple within an hour,m. However, disappointed with myself that I didn’t get POMPEY. I didn’t know the Roman general, but have lived in Portsmouth (Southsea) for the last 20+ years, so should have got the clue from the crossers and nickname!

16. Wow, raced through this in fastest ever time of 13 mins. Bang on the wavelength and they all seemed absurdly easy. Only (brief) hold-ups were GLOBAL and LARGE. Wonderful to see William Tyndale mentioned.

    1. Same experience for me, Gideandre! I fully expected bloggers to question whether this one escaped from the QC (though I’ve never seen that), and raced through it in less than 30 minutes ( which is quick for me). Amazed to see JEEPERS etc. as I’d not heard that since the old song about “Where did you get those peepers?” from half a century ago. Only hold up being memory failure on YES ( not a big fan). First success for quite a while now, yay.

17. 25 mins on paper. Something of a record for me. I’m no sprinter usually, but found this almost too easy. NHO ‘pony’ meaning ‘pay’ but it had to be the answer and Chambers confirmed. DEMIJOHN seemed too obvious but fitted the clue, so waited for checkers. My only quibble is LUTIST – lutENist, surely?

    1. I had lute players referenced in my blog but lost them when I edited to clear up a point raised by Guy. A lute player can be lutanist, lutenist, lutist or luter. ‘Lutist’ can also be used as an alternative to ‘luthier’, a person who makes lutes, but to fit our clue today he has to be a musician.

18. Sub 30 which is quick for me and lots of fun. As an ISLANDER and a lifelong YES fan I enjoyed the SE corner. I saw them in Edinburgh this year; Steve Howe at 74 is the only surviving semi-original member, but still plays remarkably well. I think many of us will be losing many of our teen heroes in the next few years: even with vegan food and sparkling water instead of drink and drugs the touring lifestyle is really not for 80 year olds!

19. Accumulated General Knowledge very helpful today.

    POMPEY is in the dramatis personae of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’, and I have been to Portsmouth several times. THANE also through Shakespeare (anywhere else?).

    Didn’t know PONY UP, but knew PONY as different from MONKEY.

    TYNDALE not honoured enough in my opinion. Most of the content of the English translations of The Bible, including the AV, originated with him.

    Knew CHICANE from childhood experiences with Scalextrix – the cars always seemed to come off.

    9′ 47″, thanks jack and setter.

20. 35 mins, but another POMPEi. On the road again so solving a bit sporadic.

    Enjoyed this one. NHO PONY UP but the clueing was clear.

    I liked the two long clues best.

    Thanks Jack for the comprehensive blog. Setter too.

21. 12 minutes, one of my quickest ever solves. Was unfamiliar with PONY UP, DEMIJOHN and TIED-EYES, but all were straightforward enough to work out from the wordplay.

    FOI Ice cap
    LOI Largo
    COD Treason

22. 19:14 but with POMPEI and a typo at 20d where I somehow managed to overtype my already entered DAL. TYNEALE: drat! I knew Pompey as the nickname for Portsmouth, but not the Roman chappie. I also suspected Pompeii should have 2 Is, but thought i was looking for a city. PONY UP was vaguely familiar. Thanks setter and Jack.

23. 14.04 but nearly messed up by putting in here, here. Made islander a bit impenetrable for too long. As to the rest, all good fun. Pony Up not too often encountered but fortunately my command of slang was just good enough.

    A bit obvious but I did like hands on and Tyndale was my COD. Don’t remember him for any evangelical reason but rather for choosing him in a quiz rather than Miles Coverdale as the originator of the first English bible. Or maybe it was the other way round? I’m sure someone can put me right.

    Meldrew- on your marks, get set….😊👍

    1. My dear Mr. B. Here you go! One needs to define the word Bible first for the answer. Tyndale is entirely responsible for the first translation into English, of the New Testament, in all its glory. But Bill carelessly left out the Old Testament.

       Coverdale covered that off withe first translation into English of the very first ‘Complete English Bible.’ Apologia for my tardy reply, as I have been ‘awf the jolly old radar’, due to a day-long visit to the San Jia Hui Bakery’, for muffins and other delights, which have slowed me up (or down) considerably !
       Miles Meldrew

       1. 👏 Knew I could rely on you.

24. 05:39, so something of a sprint today, with all the required knowledge falling into my definition of “general”. When I have my quizzing hat on, I regularly get Tyndale and Wycliffe confused, but no danger of that in a crossword, fortunately.

25. DNK CHICANE without the Y as a bend but now it seems obvious. I remember it came up in Berlin scenes in John LeCarre where it refers to a sort of fence or wicket barrier across railway lines as in Checkpoint Charlie. Also DNK the Portsmouth reference to POMPEY which I feel I should have coming from a naval family and also remembering the Navy Lark from earliest childhood. I did know the old Roman and since Pompeii was a port city thought it might have been some sort of nickname for it. 12a unfortunately reminded me of What Did Della Wear…. 11.51

    1. Pompey is also the pimp in ‘Measure for Measure’.

26. 17:38. All straightforward despite much misjabbing on an iphone keyboard rather than the usual pen and paper. Knew the Roman POMPEY but not the English one; happily that was enough.

27. Didn’t notice the ascending/descending thing in 3dn. In 2dn I guessed that there was a battle of Mia at some time in history, and for no good reason ignored ‘lost’. Nho ‘pony up’, although it looked as if that was what it had to be, so entered it in the hope. Liked AWARD. It was ironic that my LOI was POMPEY, since I lived there for the first six years of my life and then for the next 15-20 near there. I wouldn’t call myself a Pompey fan, but I do follow their fortunes. 30 minutes.

28. 13 mins, but held my breath when I submitted because several cryptics were opaque. In particular MIA which didn’t come to mind and AWARD, where I made the mistake of assuming the king was an R. Never assume anything….

29. 13:05

    One of my better times, but still plenty not fully parsed:

    TIE DYES – the answer was easy enough though it was my LOI, but didn’t bother to parse. Sold plenty during a year or two’s stint at Merton Abbey Mills weekend market back in the 90s. Certainly went through a phase of wearing them myself….
    AWARD – from definition only
    MIAOW – missed the Missing In Action part
    JEEPERS CREEPERS – didn’t bother to parse

    NHO TYNDALE – but the parsing worked

    LUTIST or LUTENIST – that there might be an alternative did not occur to me
    POMPEY – Old enough to be aware that Portsmouth FC had twice been English League Champions just after WWII – no idea about the Roman
    PONY UP – not sure if I’m aware of anyone ever saying this, but being a Londoner, I’m not surprised by it
    CHICANE – as with others, heard primarily in F1 broadcasts

30. 34:05, slower than I should have been. I was stuck for ages on my last two – LARGE and GLOBAL, crossing – just couldn’t see them. DNK PONY UP, but it had to be. At first pass I wanted 26ac to be CROBE (king with medal) but it isn’t a word. I liked CHOCOLATE ECLAIR, especially with the hint of alcohol in the wordplay. Interesting

31. A bit trickier than yesterday’s, I thought, but still doable within 25 minutes. Nice & lit clue at 11a. For 8d I was trying to see it as some sort of homophone clue, though wasn’t convinced. I never bothered to parse JEEPERS CREEPERS, so I didn’t notice the error.

32. Pleased with a fairly quick (for me) finish. Nice vocabulary and clueing. Thanks for the explanation of 20a, which was the only one I couldn’t parse.
    Good to see my favourite pastry (although I think of it as a cake) in there.

33. Not much to add to what’s already been said, but a fun crossword that was well on my wavelength. My husband originated in Portsmouth and was a Pompey fan, so despite abhorring all things football, I couldn’t miss the reference and knew of the general from Anthony and Cleopatra. Unusually, I had to come here for two of the parsings – MIAOW, which I got immediately, but NHO MIA as an acronym for Missing In Action, and AWARD, which I just couldn’t see, so thanks, Jackkt for that. TYNDALE is well covered in the Wolf Hall trilogy, which I would thoroughly recommend for anyone interested in a) a cracking read and b) Tudor history.
    Pace Jackkt’s comments yesterday (?) regarding parsing everything as you go, it’s what I always do – I would never make it as a speed merchant and solve on paper anyway, and for me, it’s how I learn and makes for a far more fun experience as the penny drops!

34. Got stung a bit by yesterday’s puzzle (I did complete, but I fear a sundial would have sufficed as a timing device), but Tuesday is the new Monday this week it seems.

    Stared at the unlikely looking M?A?W for a while before the feline Persian jumped to mind.

    15:07

    1. The “that’s painful” clueing cropped up in another crossword very recently (the Telegraph cryptic?) so my answer went straight in even though I had no idea what “mia”meant. I agree that this puzzle was much easier than yesterday’s.

       1. I’ve also seen it somewhere else within the past few days, but not in the DT as I very rarely go there. It may have led to OW or OUCH as both occur from time to time.

35. An entertaining crossword I thought, not too difficult although I fell into the Pompei trap, despite being a Navy Lark fan. Enjoyed the (mostly easy except neologism) anagrams, never heard of pony-up and had forgotten Tynedale. Fascinating discussion on the finer points of lutes and their players/makers. You learn something every day, so thanks for informative blog, and to setter.

36. Very quick time (for me) of 28.40 with all parsed as I went. The only exception being the Mia of MIAOW which I am grateful to Jack for explaining. No trouble getting POMPEY which seems to have caused trouble for some. As I mentioned a month or so ago, a regular contributor to this blog some years ago often used to finish his comments with a ‘play up Pompey’, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have had a problem here.
    I actually had a fleeting thought that KNEES UP would be a good alternative for HANDS ON at 4dn!

37. Inadvertently submitted without GLOBAL, but it didn’t matter as I’d typo’d TtEASON ☹️

    10:35 for what it was worth, and I felt disappointed enough by that !

    I was never a big fan of Yes, but their take on the Beatles’ “Every Little Thing” on their first album is worth a listen.

38. Another completion and another enjoyable puzzle.
    My problems at the end were parsing LOI AWARD; saw what to do at least. The football side of my brain finally overruled POMPEI where both the spelling and the meaning seemed wrong. Got away with that. Had trouble spelling MIAOW as intended as my parsing was MIA for a long time.
    DNK DEMIJOHN.
    COD to NEOLOGISM.
    David

39. Definitely on the wavelength today with a PB of just under 20 minutes. FOI 1ac – OH preparing them for the allottment grape harvest …
    11ac took me back to revising for a psychiatry exam ? Karl Jaspers …
    Sometimes anagrams divert me , 6d was worthy of remembering. It will come up again I’m certain.
    3d is something OH says but I find it irritating 😠
    My times will only go up from now on,as is the way, but I think the photo above the grid of a grinning Stokes with the D’Oliveira trophy helped today.
    Thank you as always to setter, blogger and all contributors.

40. 21 minutes, after tiring golf match. Thanks for explaining AWARD jackkt. NHO PONY UP but it sounded likely.

41. 11:16, but 1 wrong , done late afternoon after a 15 1/2 mile walk in the Stour Valley. I’m another with POMPEI for 8D. My daughter did her PhD in Portsmouth and I knew the nickname. but never heard of POMPEY the person. I liked NEOLOGISM and CHOCOLATE ECLAIR. Thanks jackkt and setter.

42. JEEPERS!
    I appear to be in a minority of one in seeing no error or problem with 3D.
    jeepers DESCENDING ON creepers, from above. seems perfectly fine to me.

    1. It’s not JEEPERS descending on CREEPERS that’s the problem here it’s EPEE (sword) descending, which in a Down clue would give us JEPEERS. It needs to be reversed (so ascending in a Down clue) to give us JEEPERS

43. Illegal immigrant from QC land here.

    I finished it! In 16:25! I never finish the Big Boy at all, let alone in that sort of time.

    As you were, carry on.

    Templar

    1. Well done! Great time.

    2. GT!

    3. Nice!

44. 11’03”. Hot corn cold corn, bring along the demijohn – an old bluegrass number that conjures up images of mountainy men drinking bootleg from an outsize bottle. This was definitely on the easy side, and on another day I’d have been in under ten. I remember making tie-dye sheets at school for hanging on our study walls, probably to the sound of Tales from Topographical Oceans. I can’t listen to Yes now, but back then we all thought they were great. A couple of years ago I interviewed a woman in her early 100s who remembered hearing Big Bertha, or at least the sound of its shells arriving in Paris.

45. DNF in around 30 mins. Just drew a complete blank on global and large at the end. I was foxed by the type of shot required in global and without that one didn’t have enough to go on for large.

46. I am another who usually just does the QC. I am generally pleased to finish the 15×15 at all, so pleased to manage this one, in 64 minutes. Thanks Jack for the blog, which helped make sense of a couple of words that I had biffed without parsing.

    1. Congrats on finishing, Simon!

47. 19.00 with …

    ..POMPEI. Knew all the references but still bunged in the wrong answer as it was my LOI and I was a little too hasty.

    Liked TREASON in particular

    Thanks all for some amusing comments

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