Times 29305 – Straight into the confectionery stall – and out again

79 comments on “Times 29305 – Straight into the confectionery stall – and out again”

1. 23 minutes for all but one answer for which I resorted to aids, so this counts as a DNF.

   The missing word was the NHO PARAMATTA making its first ever appearance in the TfTT era. For such an obscure answer I thought the wordplay might have been a bit more helpful.

   I got COLON from checkers and ‘mark’. The wordplay was taken on trust. Although I consider my knowledge of Scottish islands to be above the average I don’t recall coming across COLONSAY.

   ‘Graph’ can be a verb meaning to plot or trace on a graph, so the definition in the clue is fine.

   [Edit: Okay, to save someone else the bother, here’s what I wrote about COLONSAY when it appeared in a QC last year: “I got the Hebridean island from wordplay and didn’t recognise COLONSAY although I’d consider myself pretty good on Scottish islands, particularly off the west coast. It came up once before 3 years ago almost to the day.”]

2. Midway through solving, I encountered a strange glitch on the website – I put a letter in, but it didn’t move to the next square, and if I manually moved to another key (using cursor or arrow keys), the letter I had just entered vanished.

   I eventually gave up and reset the grid, only for the same problem to happen in an entirely different part (and much quicker through the solve), at which point I threw in the towel altogether. As such, I will never know if I would’ve correctly guessed PARAMATTA!

   Has anyone else had the same issue, and/or got any ideas to fix it?

   1. I clear cache before going to the club site.

      1. Thanks, I’ll try that

   2. Yes, I’ve been having the same problem on all crosswords and cryptograms. Found I could do the crosswords in the club, now the problem spreads!

      1. Clearing the cache alone didn’t help, but clearing all cookies and data seems to have.

         That means I’ve been logged out of any other website I was logged in to, which is a pain, so hopefully it’s not something I need to do too regularly!

         1. I’ve found over the years that having the Crossword Club in a Private window (or whatever the equivalent name is on your browser of choice – I use Firefox on a Mac) seems to keep these cookie/data/cache problems to a minimum. No idea what to do if you’re using the app, though.

            1. Thank you. I use Firefox on Windows – logging in each time through a private window would be a faff, although I would do it if needed.

3. Is the length of a curtain called its fall? Had the PARA in faintly but not the MATTA, so a DNF. I’d sorted BALLETOMANIA. My vintage, but I don’t suppose a cop pulling up a speeding motorist today asks if he thinks he’s STIRLING MOSS. COD to PEDIMENT. Thank you U and setter.

4. “…nothing too difficult…” ha!
   NHO PARAMATTA, neither has GOOGLE, Bing or Copilot. They both tell me it should be spelt PARRAMATTA. Someone will no doubt tell me it’s in Chambers or OED though.

   1. Despite my misgivings about the clue (see above) PARAMATTA and PARRAMATTA are in all the usual sources, Collins, Chambers and the Oxfords. It originated in Australia, apparently. Search engines are not the most useful means of verifying words and meanings as they find misspellings and other dodgy info. Collins is currently the best completely free source of words likely to appear in Times crosswords.

5. 11.40. A bit different to last week’s offering. All went swimmingly till I reached the juncture of frumpish and length.

   Hopefully, back on form.

6. 22 mins for this lovely Monday offering. Merely nice and chewy if you’ve come across AGAR-AGAR and HUGGER-MUGGER before around these parts? PARAMATTA was a matta of ‘trust the wordplay’ in my case. Never did parse LENGTH so that had me all aquiver when I pressed the button. A week of no pinks here we come?

   COD to BALLETOMANIA, which only went in once I saw it was the fixation meaning I was looking for, not musical notation ( play this section …. passionately?)

   Thanks setter and blogger!

7. 37 minutes but 16 of them on PEDIMENT/JASPER. I became fixated it ended MINE (the writer’s) and then made a futile attempt to find a four letter word for ‘bar ignore’. Really should have twigged earlier but I’m on holiday so I will forgive my brain.

   Didn’t know PARAMATTA but got it from the word play so it was possible.

   BALLETOMANIA new to me but obvious what it means.

   Don’t think I’ve ever come across HUGGER MUGGER before either but again the wordplay was kind.

   ROMANIAN caused me pause for thought after a surely not that easy, it must be a trap moment

   I solved LENGTH as a cryptic definition with fall being the length of a curtain (I think).

   COD: CARTOGRAPHER

   Thanks blogger and setter

8. I’d also never heard of it but paramatta cloth was apparently named from the town (Parramatta) near which it was apparently first made. The Google source for this does not explain the loss of one ‘r’.

9. Fall over = measure one’s length, old piece of verbiage

   1. Thanks. That would make sense of the clue which didn’t mean anything to me. Never heard of it, but it’s in the dictionaries (not the Collins app though).

10. 14:47
    No real problems until I panicked when I reached the last two and thought I didn’t know the French for 0, nor the Hebridean island. I eventually filled in the blanks so no, I regret nothing.

    A more Mondayish fare than of late and an entertaining solve so thanks to both.

11. Same as jack above, no idea at all re PARAMATTA, now know it’s a place in Australia. Bit obscure really.

    Also agree with Tim above, one measures one’s LENGTH on the floor when fallen over, or more likely knocked down. I was held up by putting in ‘height’ – one falls from a height, it is a dimension and I had two crossers.

    So a dnf, otherwise 12′.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

    1. Did exactly the same with Height, D’oh!

12. I found that fall is an archaic Scottish measure of length (18 feet). But fall is also used in expressions such as ‘the fall of her hair’ which means its length. When solving I was thinking of the length of curtains, but on reflection I think that’s called the drop.

13. 20 mins. A QC with 1 absolute stinker thrown in. PARAMATTA took at least 5 mins and was submitted with a WTH. Thought I was on for a pb until that. NHO BALLETOMANIA but it had to be.
    COD LENGTH but also liked HUGGER MUGGER.
    Thanks both.

14. DNF, failing on the unknown PARAMATTA

    – Didn’t know Colonsay, but COLON had to be
    – Wondered about rank=range for ORANGEMAN, but the explanation makes sense
    – Couldn’t have told you what a PEDIMENT is

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

    COD Shave

15. LENGTH: Chambers gives “measure one’s length – To fall or be thrown down at full length.” I was quite familiar with the expression.

16. 14 minutes. The one I found most difficult was the NHO PARAMATTA which seemed a reasonable guess from crossers and wordplay. I also had no idea that Richie was Parramatta’s most famous cricketing son (followed closely, at least in Australia, by Doug Walters). LENGTH was also a mystery, but the def helped and it has now been explained by Tim et al.

    As a motor racing fan, favourite was the ‘Lawgiver primarily educated in Stirling’.

    1. Richie was born in Penrith – a little further west.

       1. And Dougie Dougie came from Dungog…

17. Was going well until the last, where only FRUMPIST would work. This is a made up word for a man who has a thing for crones. I had to engineer it because HEIGHT looked solid as a dimension, and height=fall as in measuring a waterfall or an acqueduct.

    I had HAWAII, where the Japanese film director Shikegi Awai fits nicely into HI. I thought this was pretty unlucky.

    In tribute to Richie, and his tu tu tu fir tu (222 for 2), I recently predicted that 12345 (123 for 5) would happen soon, which did occur in the last Test when Jadeja was out in the first innings. Aussie commentators can also look for 54321, (5 for 321).Simply marvellous.

    1. I started out with HEIGHT also, but luckily realised the char had to be a fish and changed the dimension. I think this clue is dodgy.

18. 15:07 with LOI (surprise surprise) PARAMATTA. The PARA bit was a fair bet but MATTA for issue was really a lucky strike, I hit it and hoped!
    Thanks setter and blogger

19. Couldn’t HEIGHT be the dimension measured in the fall? Odd clue, for me.

20. 11.02 Pretty much straight through, though time lost trying to remove EG or AS or anything but actually SAY from the Hebridean island. PARAMATTA from somewhere appropriately in the outback of the mind. And yes, HEIGHT until the FISH insisted on being there and I remembered measuring one’s length, which I occasionally manage these days, so far without serious injury.

    1. Me too, until I remembered the phrase “measured his length” from my youth, in the context of “a shot rang out, and the sentry measured his length on the ground!”

21. Dimensions. Hmm. SPACE, TIME, SPACETIME, LENGTH, BREADTH, WIDTH, DEPTH… HEIGHT! Of course! Obviously the dimension required! But then the even more obvious FRUMPISH revealed itself. So HEIGHT had to change to LENGTH although I couldn’t see why, but I did think it likely that there was a meaning that I just didn’t know and so it proved. As usual there was reason in the apparent madness and as ever I am grateful for the occasionally educative nature of crosswords in microexpanding my vocabulary one lexicosliver at a time.

    Thanks setter for an enjoyable Monday and thanks ulaca for an entertaining blog particularly with the Benaud reference. Yes, I can just about hear a voice from beyond the grave pronouncing PARRAMATTA!

22. 25 minutes so very surprised to see such a low snitch score. Took a good while to get PARAMATTA, but I had also confidently entered height for the dimension, until I saw char = fish forced a rethink. Glad to have started the week correctly, unlike last week!
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

23. All fairly straightforward except the Aussie town/fabric which gives me a DNF on day one. As others have said, not the easiest clueing for such an obscurity. Didn’t parse (a still don’t tbh) LENGTH except for the broad sense of falling.. HEIGHT fits the clue better in my opinion, though not the crossers obviously!! Thanks Ulaca and setter

24. Easy Monday for once, 13 minutes with no hold-ups, guessed the LOI PARAMATTA which even Mrs piquet hadn’t heard of. Knew where COLONSAY was, as I was in Mull last year. No whisky distillery on Colonsay, but just a well regarded gin distillery, so not worth a visit for me.

25. An unexpected PB of 7.50, straight through from CONSOMME to PARAMATTA. I fear this has to be filed under the heading “blind pig finds occasional truffle”.
    Thanks U and setter.

26. NHO PARAMATTA but chanced it to finish (for once) in about 25 minutes. Pleased to renew acquaintance with AGAR AGAR which used to appear quite frequently as I recall.
    A pleasant start to the week. Thanks to setter and ulaca.

27. I agree with the apparent consensus that this was an enjoyable but fairly straightforward puzzle but for one clue. I did piece together the likely solution to PARAMATTA after a couple minutes and was relieved to find it correct, but have some sympathy with those suggesting that the wordplay for such an osbscure word could have been more helpful. It doesn’t help that for rhotic speakers matta and matter are not homophones.

    The problem with an easier puzzle with one difficult clue can be that solvers end up feeling that they haven’t had much of a challenge but didn’t get the satisfaction of completion either, the worst of both worlds.

28. 8:04 WOE. I bunged in an unparsed PARAMETRA for the unknown fabric and would never have thought of “matter” for “issue”. I was another who didn’t know that “fall” can mean “length”. Otherwise a fun puzzle. Thanks U and setter.

    1. I think the key in the clue is “measure” as a verb: this from Chambers: measure one’s length:
       to fall or be thrown down at full length

29. LENGTH was a mystery at the time and I entered it from checkers and the apparent definition. ‘Measure one’s length’ seems to explain the wordplay. PARAMATTA and COLONsay at the very back of my mind. Otherwise no problem really, 27 minutes.

30. Started with NOODLE and finished the NW before moving on. Darted around the grid a bit after that, with PARAMATTA totally unknown, and going in a a wing and a prayer. ROMANIAN gave JASPER and PEDIMENT to complete the NE and I was left with a few in the SE corner. I confidently entered HEIGHT, which is what you fall from, at 20d, and was flummoxed when 27a had to be FRUMPISH, as height was so obviously correct. “Is the grid wrong?” I asked myself. Eventually I remembered going full length as falling and sanity was restored. 17:47 with 3 or 4 minutes wasted on LOI, LENGTH. Thanks setter and U.

31. 11:15
    Lots of unusual words but generously clued.

32. Thanks ulaca and setter.
    This one was easy until it wasn’t. DNF, NHO 21a Paramatta cheated, 27a Frumpish. I was put off by having biffed height rather than length for 20d. Not that height is wrong, just that it doesn’t fit with frumpish. Doh!
    NHO 12a Colonsay.
    COD 13a Orangeman.
    14a Balletomania, HHO balletomane but not mania.
    22d Moses. It’s a while since Sir Stirling Moss came to ones lips. It would be Sir Lewis Hamilton now. Sir Stirling was said to be the fastest driver never to be World Champion.

33. The only way LENGTH works is due to the equivalence between ‘a length of hair’ and ‘a fall of hair’. The phrase ‘the fall of her hair’ is not equivalent to ‘the length of her hair’ and waterfalls, cascades and river systems have both length and height (unless a ‘plunge waterfall’ is being referred to, as it only has a height). ‘To length’ is an obsolete equivalent of ‘to lengthen’ but I fail to see how that can mean ‘to fall’ or ‘to fall over’ and I can find no examples anywhere of people referring to the ‘fall’ of a curtain or blind in any context where ‘fall’ could be substituted with ‘length’ (as has been said previously, ‘drop’ is a better synonym).

    1. There is a phrase to measure ones length (on the ground) meaning to fall or be knocked down. E.g. a boxer measured his length on the canvas.

    2. I simply took it as “to measure one’s length” when falling flat on one’s face. As a dyspraxic, that’s been a not uncommon occurrence for me.

34. A PB at 9:24, finally cracked the 10′ mark albeit on a very low SNITCHer. Judging by comments I was lucky that Paramatta came to mind so quickly (although I didn’t trust myself to put it in until a bit later); is it an NRL/AFL/RU team maybe? [edit: looked up, NRL] Can’t think where else would have heard it. I convinced myself that ‘3 Para’ sounded army-ish enough, so that para could work for a unit and not just an individual.

    I am celebrating with a moderately priced bottle of wine (it’s late enough here). Enjoyed the cricket references, and the puzzle.

    1. Congrats 👍

       1. Thanks!!

35. 11:08

    Pleased to finish quickly but some guessing going on. Some thoughts:

    JASPER – with _A___R, not sure how I dredged up JAPER before JASPER, but that’s how it worked out
    COLON – not great on Scottish islands and had forgotten COLONSAY, have holidayed on Mull before so it was possibly in the back of my mind, but easy answer with all checkers in place
    BALLETOMANIA – not sure I’ve heard the term before, but taking BALLET out of the mix, left me with six letters to unjumble
    HUGGER-MUGGER – it’s been here before but I’d forgotten what it meant
    PARAMATTA – with all checkers, entered with a shrug. I’ve heard of neither the place, nor the material
    PEDIMENT – dragged out of the memory banks, though not sure why it was in there in the first place
    LENGTH – had HEIGHT at first, but corrected by FRUMPISH. Didn’t get this, was thinking ‘curtains’ but think Jack’s old Scottish term for ‘fall’ is better

    Thanks U and setter

36. Very jolly. Knowing someone wha had attended PARAMATTA High School helped.
    No problem with AGAR AGAR or HUGGER MUGGER. Took COLON on trust and LENGTH “had to be”.

    A nice start to the week. Thanks to Ulaca and the setter.

37. NHO PARAMATTA, but the parsing was comparatively friendly. No problems otherwise.

    FOI WISDOM
    LOI PEDIMENT
    COD INGEST
    TIME 6:10

38. Had no problem with LENGTH because the old expression about ‘measuring one’s length’ was well-known (from my father). Since it has been explained by so many previous contributors I’m surprised that it is still being challenged. I feel for anyone outside of Oz as regards PARAMATTA, it caused me no probs because the missing letters just fell into place but you had to be in the know I think. A nice puzzle and a speedy (15.25) solve, thanks Ulaca.

    From When the Deal Goes Down:
    In the still of the night, in the world’s ancient light
    Where WISDOM grows up in strife
    My bewildering brain, toils in vain
    Through the darkness on the pathways of life
    Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air
    Tomorrow keeps turning around
    We live and we die, we know not why
    But I’ll be with you when the deal goes down

39. about 10 mins.

    I knew Hugger-mugger from Hamlet: Polinius was killed accidentally by Hamlet, and “we have done but greenly/In hugger-mugger to inter him”, meaning it has been done in secret, without the ceremony which should have attended the burying of such an important person.

    A Descent into the Maelstrom is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, in which a man describes how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool.

    1. From the Department of Classic References: I knew “measure his length in the sand” from the Illiad. I cannot remember who did so measure, who did him to cause said measuring, or which translation, but the phrase stuck with me. Thanks for the Hamlet reference.

40. Pretty straightforward for me. Even with a question mark against LENGTH, not being entirely sure of the parsing, I had no trouble working down the grid from top to bottom, unlike my usually scattergun approach, going for the low-hanging fruit to give me crossers. I left just the unknown material until the end, but luckily, years of seeing PARA in crossword references to soldiers gave me enough confidence to enter PARAMATTA. Nor have I heard anyone say LYRIST, but the clueing suggested nothing else. I have to say, this is the first time a 15×15 has taken me less time than the Quickie.

41. Unlike anyone else I think, I put CASPER unfortunately so am kicking myself now that everything else was fine.
    FOI WISDOM
    LOI PARAMATTA
    COD MICROCLIMATE

    1. If it’s any consolation, I had CASPER too. My only hesitation was that, without the wordplay, I would have spelled it CASPAR. I thought it was a semi-precious stone, but it doesn’t seem to be

42. A pleasant Monday offering, all done in 16 minutes, probably a PB. It would have been quicker but for a struggle to find something to add to PARA in 22 ac. Eventually I settled for MATTA which luckily for me was a good choice. I was nearly led astray by HEIGHT at 20 dn, until FRUMPISH put me right.
    FOI – JASPER
    LOI – PARAMATTA
    COD – MOSES
    Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.

43. Well this was fun despite a DNF due to not believing that PARAMATTA was a fabric (and I’d never pronounce Matter like that…) hence not getting the M for MOSES (and Stirling Moss is a bit before my time!)
    Wasn’t sure about COPECK (thought it started with a K) but once that was resolved the rest of that corner fell in quickly. And I thought COLON was quite obvious 😀
    Thanks again to setter and blogger.

44. Paramatta got me three and out: fabric; Australian geography; bad homynyms.
    Otherwise, cluing consume to give the c in consomme; take ‘in’ to clue ‘in’ gest; and having char appear twice in close proximity even if one was a fish and similar made things go pretty quickly

45. Flew through this today taking parramatta on trust so 13:40 to complete. Not much to comment on the crossword today but what a tremendous, entertaining and informative blog.

    Thx U and setter

46. I’m another who thought height made more sense for 20D. No clue where I’d heard of Paramatta fabric before but I dragged it up from somewhere.
    Pleased with a PB of 10:43 (okay, so it’s the first I’ve ever finished but that makes it a PB by definition!) Thanks to setter and ulaca.

47. Mildly interesting coincidence of MICROCLIMATE and ORANGEMAN returning after only two or three weeks, the latter with a very similar clue.

48. 12 mins, should have been quicker if I hadn’t dithered over PEDIMENT, forgetting about IMPEDIMENT.

49. Well now third time under ten mins; enjoyed this. Thanks to setter and blogger( for explaining why i was right on two clues i biffed)

50. 37 mins. NHO PARAMATTA but, as so often, wordplay came to the rescue. Didn’t really understand LENGTH.

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