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I've posted this journal entry at the start of the day to allow those that wish to to add their comments as soon as they've completed RTC. At the end of the day, I shall update it with a report on the day's play.

I shall studiously avoid reading any of your comments until I've competed myself, and I assume that other RTCers will do the same.

If you are locked out of RTC for some reason (e.g. the bird-on-the-box (404 Error) response because the login server has failed - again), you may be able to compete by using the back-door route http://www.timesonline.co.uk/displayPopup/0,,33015,00.html. Casual readers of this blog should note that unless they have a player name, they will appear as "null" (equivalent to the old "undefined").

Congratulations and commiserations: TBS

Fastest time: TBS
Slowest scoring time: TBS
Fastest non-scoring time: TBS
My time: TBS
First to finish: TBS
Number of entries: TBS

Nina: TBS (to be credited to whoever comes up with what seems to me to be the most likely explanation)

Music: TBS

Current Location: TBS
Current Mood: TBS
Current Music: TBS

Hopeless! This wasn't really my sort of puzzle, and I wasn't helped by having been out all evening at an Old Dotheboysians dinner. I don't normally go to this sort of do, in fact it's the first one I've been to since leaving Dotheboys, but it was a bargain offer and was being held at the Cabinet War Rooms, so I couldn't resist - and I fact I didn't have a bad evening, but it wasn't the ideal preparation for crossword solving. I rashly put in ONLOOKER for 3dn (One who watches), but although I realised immediately that answer could well be OBSERVER (as indeed turned out to be the case), I'd forgotten all about that until I reached 12ac (Covered with a fine layer of thin wood = VENEERED) and so wasted time failing to solve earlier intersecting acrosses. I'd thought of ALDERMAN for 1dn (Council member) but hadn't dared to put it in - and then, having forgotten about that as well, couldn't remember whether the answer to 11ac (US TV award) should be EMMY or TONY and wrongly plumped for the latter. Ah well, tomorrow ...

Congratulations to MarkW for leading the field today, and to hjseidman who increases her lead in the monthly table still further. Commiserations to shanson and zebby who until today were the last two solvers to have appeared in the top 10 every day this month. The fact that Magoo and Vicky finished on the second page of results along with me makes me feel slightly less disappointed in my own performance.

Fastest time: 1:27 (MarkW)
Slowest scoring time: 2:17 (Timcsmith)
Fastest non-scoring time: 2:18 (Magoo)
My time: 2:44 (16th)
First to finish: jon88 (12:02 a.m.)
Number of entries: 55

Here are today's top 20.

1	MarkW	1:27		11	Magoo	2:18
2	hjseidman	1:37		12	mistigris	2:20
3	jon88	1:51		13	andyw123	2:20
4	oughamh	2:03		14	Carol	2:28
5	lickert	2:07		15	Vicky	2:37
6	James	2:08		16	tonysever	2:44
7	Jason	2:11		17	HenryBW	2:58
8	Shaun	2:12		18	muffin	3:09
9	Chindit	2:14		19	TOBERGILL	3:16
10	Timcsmith	2:17		20	myles	3:35

Nina (credited to jon88, whom I quote): initial letters of across entries spell ABBREVIATION

Music: goodness! this takes me back: the only time I'd heard this piece before was in the 1950s when the soprano and baritone in a Concert Party doing a summer season at Filey sang it in English, and I'd no idea where it came from until today (there's a good performance of it here on YouTube)

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: Messager: Duo de l'âne - De ci, de là (Trot here and there) - from Véronique

I recorded my fastest time for a while, but it would have been faster still if I hadn't wasted time trying to think what on earth 15ac (Basket lifter) meant. I had several letters in place when I reached this for the first time, and, with (3-3,7) as the letter-counts, felt it had to be easy; but after a few seconds I had to acknowledge defeat and move on. Of course when I reached it again (as the only across clue I'd missed first time through), HOT-AIR BALLOON was immediately obvious from A-R as the middle word, but at least I scored a few points, which was more than I'd hoped for when I saw other people's fast times.

Many congratulations to Vicky for her magnificent new PB, which gives her membership of the elite "sub-1-minute club" where she joins Heyesey (PB 0:53) and neil23 (PB 0:57), the only other solvers known to have broken 60 seconds by fair means. Congratulations also to hjseidman and jon88 for their fast times, and to the former for taking up her customary position at the top of the monthly table.

Fastest time: 0:59 (Vicky)
Slowest scoring time: 1:44 (shanson)
Fastest non-scoring time: 1:47 (Shane)
My time: 1:39 (7th)
First to finish: AlanJC (12:02 a.m.)
Number of entries: 77 (RECENT/FIRST) or 75 (FASTEST)

Here are today's top 20.

1	Vicky	0:59		11	Shane	1:47
2	hjseidman	1:14		12	Jason	1:48
3	jon88	1:15		13	Shaun	1:51
4	zebby	1:34		14	ElTel	1:51
5	richardg	1:34		15	Chindit	1:53
6	MarkW	1:37		16	adamsanitt	1:55
7	tonysever	1:39		17	PeterBiddlecombe	1:59
8	mistigris	1:40		18	Heyesey	2:01
9	Pieman	1:42		19	andyw123	2:03
10	shanson	1:44		20	lickert	2:04

Nina (credited to valerian1967): BEER and SKITTLES, CARRIAGE and PAIR symmetrically placed in rows 3 and 11)

Music: a splendid work, which I don't recall hearing before (Moszkowski was last week's BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week, and I had hoped that they'd at last schedule an old favourite of mine, his Spanish Dances for piano duet, but instead they broadcast a crummy orchestral arrangement of them, so I'll have to keep waiting)

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Moszkowski: Piano Concerto

Damn! I was feeling desperately tired after an exhausting day and became stuck on 16dn (Securely fastened = SEALED). I'd been slowish with the rest of the puzzle but would have scored a few points if that hadn't sealed my fate! It's a relief to find from others' comments that I wasn't the only one to have a problem with that clue.

Congratulations to hjseidman for leading the field today (after yesterday's disappointment), with zebby the only other solver to break 2 minutes. Congratulations also to Shaun who goes into an early lead in the monthly table.

Fastest time: 1:52 (hjseidman)
Slowest scoring time: 2:32 (Pieman)
Fastest non-scoring time: 2:40 (tonysever)
First to finish: Heyesey (12:02 a.m.)
Number of entries: 47 (RECENT/FIRST) or 46 (FASTEST)

Here are today's top 20.

1	hjseidman	1:52		11	tonysever	2:40
2	zebby	1:56		12	lickert	3:01
3	shanson	2:00		13	Chindit	3:10
4	Shaun	2:09		14	mrtoad	3:14
5	adamsanitt	2:19		15	PeterFowler	3:22
6	jon88	2:23		16	Jason	3:27
7	Heyesey	2:25		17	HenryBW	3:27
8	richardg	2:27		18	MarkW	3:32
9	Shane	2:29		19	andyw123	3:32
10	Pieman	2:32		20	kath	3:46

Nina: none identified

Music: Having been out most of the day and only listened to a few oddments of music over breakfast, I was looking forward to listening to a recording of the polka and fugue from Weinberger's Schwanda the Bagpiper, only to find that the BBC's iPlayer was down for maintenance. There wasn't a decent recording of them on YouTube, so I waited patiently for maintenance to finish, but then found that Fritz Reiner, a man who had clearly never danced a polka in his life, had taken it at a ludicrously slow tempo. And now the confounded iPlayer is down for maintenance again, so I've gone back to YouTube for one of my favourite singers, Cass Elliot, singing one of my favourite songs with my favourite pop group, the Mamas & the Papas (I mentioned this song recently in a comment, and it thoroughly deserves to be my music of the day)

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: Fabian Andre, Wilbur Schwandt and Gus Kahn: Dream a Little Dream of Me

One for the Northern Mafia today, for whom the word "small" in 21ac (Small valley = DELL) should have eliminated DALE as a possibility - though I notice that neilr, a fellow Yorkshireman, was some way down the list. I trust you've a good excuse, Neil. I'd rashly put in SATIATE for 17dn (Gratify (an appetite)), and was ready to change it to SATISFY if necessary, but as soon as I reached 16dn (Remaining wine bottle = BIN-END) I realised that neither of these was right, and in the end didn't have too much difficulty coming up with INDULGE. Considering that I was feeling pretty tired (yet again), I'm very happy to have claimed a place on the podium and scored some decent points at the start of the month.

I'd assumed that the Mark in 1st place was going to be MarkW, but further examination revealed the latter to be languishing on the fourth page of results, so I'm guessing that the former is Magoo. Anyway congratulations to whoever it was for being the only solver to break 2 minutes. Commiserations (mingled of course with a certain amount of contempt ;-) to any southerners who put DALE.

Fastest time: 1:47 (Mark)
Slowest scoring time: 2:45 (HenryBW)
Fastest non-scoring time: 2:59 (PeterBiddlecombe)
My time: 2:07 (3rd)
First to finish: Heyesey (12:02 a.m.)
Number of entries: 49 (RECENT/FIRST) or 48 (FASTEST)

Here are today's top 20.

1	Mark	1:47		11	PeterBiddlecombe	2:59
2	Shaun	2:00		12	Peter (aka PeterFowler)	2:59
3	tonysever	2:07		13	Chindit	3:03
4	Jason	2:11		14	JohnPMarshall	3:09
5	lickert	2:25		15	andyw123	3:17
6	Timcsmith	2:26		16	richardg	3:20
7	Heyesey	2:36		17	Vicky	3:34
8	shanson	2:38		18	PeteN1957	3:36
9	zebby	2:42		19	daggers	3:46
10	HenryBW	2:45		20	DianeRS	3:58

Nina (credited jointly to HenryBW and Heyesey): CALL to MIND as a word ladder taking the 4-letter answers in clue order (CALL, CELL, DELL, DEAL, DEAD, MEAD, MEND, MIND)

Music: a lovely work (which I thought I'd already chosen as my music of the day but seem not to have done)

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Borodin (ed. Glazunov): Symphony No. 3

Here are the results for November, with October's positions shown in brackets:
1 [4] hjseidman (125 points, averaging 5 points per day)
2 [1] Jason (117)
3 [2] richardg (106)
4 [8] aphis99 (102)
5 [15] tonysever (93)
6 [13] Heyesey (92)
7 [7] MarkW (79)
8 [5] Vicky (68)
9 [10] shanson (62)
10 [9] gormlessgracie (56)
11 [22] jon88 (50)
12 [11] lickert (44)
13 [12] HenryBW (43)
14 [6] neil23 (38)
15 [19] PeterBiddlecombe (29)
16 [27=] adamsanitt (26)
17= [14] Shane (24)
17= [33=] oughamh (24)
19= [3] Shaun (23)
19= [20=] Magoo (23)
21 [16] zebby (22)
22 [18] Chindit (14)
23= [26] myles (10)
23= [37=] neilr (10)
25 [-] vernonrichard (9)
26 [30=] ElTel (8)
27 [-] Pieman (6)
28 [-] JohnPMarshall (5)
29= [27=] PeterFowler (3)
29= [37=] bobanann (3)
31= [20=] Timscmith (2)
31= [25] andyw123 (2)
33= [-] AlanJC (1)
33= [-] Fred (1)

Congratulations to hjseidman for regaining her place at the top of the monthly table, though she was considerably helped by the absence of aphis99 for the last seven scoring days. Congratulations also to Heyesey, who joined me in regaining a place in the top 10.

As usual my version of the monthly table differs from the one the RTC computer would have produced. I discounted the 10 November puzzle because the answer PUGIN appeared instead of the correct answer PAGAN - this was particularly unfortunate for jon88 since he was the fastest solver that day and the 10 points he would have scored would have taken him into the monthly top 10. In addition Heyesey was credited with Paul's 10 points.

Correspondents to my blog have identified 20 Ninas this month. As usual I've awarded a point for each Nina, splitting it where more than one person has contributed significantly. Congratulations to jon88 for leading the field yet again. Here are the scores in full, with October's positions shown in brackets:
1 [1] jon88 (8)
2 [3] HenryBW (5.5)
3 [2] Heyesey (2.5)
4= [4=] valerian1967 (2)
4= [6] linxit (aka andyw123) (2)

The following solvers accumulated 10 or more points in my "first to finish" table (October's positions are shown in brackets). Congratulations to AlanJC (who may have lulled jon88 into a false sense of security by appearing under other names) for leading the field.
1 [12] AlanJC (156 points)
2 [2] jon88 (152)
3 [3] HenryBW (137)
4 [1] Patricia (116)
5 [6] Jason (108)
6 [5] valerian1967 (103)
7 [7] MarkW (79)
8 [-] scudam10 (76)
9 [4] Heyesey (72)
10 [8] trishwain (70)
11 [10] andyw123 (50)
12 [11] janetreed (37)
13 [14] aphis99 (32)
14 [9] Janice (22)
15= [17] TOBERGILL (19)
15= [25=] Carol (19)
17 [13] xyster (11)
18 [23=] RODNEYLEA (10)

Once again the slate is wiped clean, and there's everything to play for in December.

Music: a great favourite whether to sing or to listen to

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: Mozart: Requiem

What an idiot! Faced with P-N-T-A-E for 17ac (Regularly interrupt) I stupidly put in PENETRATE because it fitted. Of course I was marked "Incorrect", but the letters of PENETRATE got in the way of my seeing what the answer was really going to be and I took longer than I should have done to come up with PUNCTUATE. I now find I wasn't the only person to make the same mistake!!!

Congratulations to Vicky for leading the field today, and to Timcsmith for at last scoring his first points of the month. Commiserations to Heyesey, who was put off by a worrying 20-second delay before the RTC grid appeared and so failed to reach 100 points of the month (or even to beat me).

Fastest time: 1:39 (Vicky)
Slowest scoring time: 2:14 (neilr)
Fastest non-scoring time: 2:22 (PeterBiddlecombe)
My time: 1:58 (5th)
First to finish: jon88 (12:02 a.m.)
Number of entries: 53 (RECENT/FIRST) or 51 (FASTEST)

Here are today's top 20.

1	Vicky	1:39		11	PeterBiddlecombe	2:22
2	MarkW	1:52		12	gormlessgracie	2:29
3	richardg	1:52		13	Chindit	2:41
4	jon88	1:55		14	Heyesey	2:50
5	tonysever	1:58		15	andyw123	2:56
6	lickert	1:59		16	hjseidman	2:57
7	Jason	2:00		17	shanson	3:05
8	myles	2:00		18	kath	3:15
9	Timcsmith	2:04		19	Ilan	3:26
10	neilr	2:14		20	Melanie	3:30

Nina (credited to valerian1967 (aka Philip S.)): lots of BEETLES symmetrically placed: GOLIATH, DIAMOND, CARPET, MUSEUM, CARRION (this last opposite BEETLES)

Music: I've been waiting for nearly three years for a recording/performance I liked of this sublime piece, and the BBC have at last kindly broadcast the recording of Alfred Deller and the Deller Consort with the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Consort of Viols directed by August Wenzinger - it doesn't get much better than that (it was followed by Byrd's O nata lux de lumine and Byrd's Ye Sacred Muses with the same forces - a blissful quarter of an hour of music)

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Gibbons: This is the Record of John

Here are the results for this week (with last week's positions shown in brackets):
1 [9] Heyesey (40 points)
2 [7=] richardg (32)
3 [3=] hjseidman (26)
4 [5] Jason (24)
5 [13] Vicky (22)
6 [7=] shanson (21)
7= [3=] tonysever (16)
7= [6] gormlessgracie (16)
7= [11] HenryBW (16)
10= [20=] jon88 (14)
10= [-] Shaun (14)
12= [10] lickert (12)
12= [14=] PeterBiddlecombe (12)
14 [22] Chindit (10)
15 [-] vernonrichard (9)
16= [18] adamsanitt (8)
16= [-] ElTel (8)
18 [-] myles (7)
19= [-] JohnPMarshall (5)
19= [-] neil23 (5)
21 [2] MarkW (4)
22 [19] neilr (3)
23= [14=] zebby (2)
23= [-] PeterFowler (2)
25= [12] oughamh (1)
25= [17] Shane (1)

Congratulations to Heyesey for returning to form to lead the field this week with a high score. Commiserations to Timcsmith for his two unlucky 11th places.

First places: Heyesey (2), richardg (2), PeterBiddlecombe, hjseidman

Unlucky 11th places: Timcsmith (2), MarkW, richardg, Jason, HenryBW

First to finish: Heyesey (2), andyw123, jon88, scudam10, Jason

Ninas (only 5 identified): Heyesey (1½), linxit (aka andyw123), jon88, valerian1967, HenryBW (½)

Music: another old favourite which I hadn't heard for some time

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: Bruckner: Symphony No. 5

Damn! 8ac (Oklahoma city featured in a 1960s pop song = TULSA) was the last to go in, and when I was marked "Incorrect" I wondered if that could be the problem as I wasn't entirely sure about the Oklahoma city and had absolutely no idea about the 1960s pop song. Eventually I spotted TRASSOM for 3dn (Lintel = TRANSOM), but at least 3 points must have vanished down the drain by then. I still don't know what the pop song referred to is (I think Eric Clapton's Tulsa Time dates from the 1970s, so I assume that's not it), and I'd welcome enlightenment from the Popular Music Mafia. (My thanks to Heyesey for pointing me at 24 Hours from Tulsa.)

Congratulations to Heyesey for leading the field today in a fast time (and scoring a near Grand Slam) and to hjseidman who has now reached an unassailable position at the top of the monthly table. Commiserations to Timcsmith for his second unlucky 11th place of the week, leaving him still with nuls points for the month with just one day to go.

Fastest time: 1:26 (Heyesey)
Slowest scoring time: 2:15 (oughamh)
Fastest non-scoring time: 2:20 (Timsmith)
My time: 2:07 (8th)
First to finish: Heyesey (12:01 a.m.)
Number of entries: 51 (RECENT/FIRST) or 49 (FASTEST)

Here are today's top 20.

1	Heyesey	1:26		11	Timcsmith	2:20
2	Jason	1:47		12	gormlessgracie	2:22
3	hjseidman	1:53		13	neilr	2:22
4	jon88	1:53		14	PeterBiddlecombe	2:30
5	HenryBW	2:00		15	shanson	2:30
6	Shaun	2:01		16	Chindit	2:32
7	richardg	2:03		17	StephenRice	2:49
8	tonysever	2:07		18	valerian1967	2:55
9	lickert	2:14		19	Shane	2:56
10	oughamh	2:15		20	mrtoad	2:58

Nina (credited jointly to Heyesey and HenryBW): I suspect Henry's suggestion that JG originally intended to have PARTIAL FRACTIO(n) in the unches in rows 2 and 12 is correct, since this would be such a typical Nina (in fact I think it may have appeared previously!), so I've been generous and allowed him and Heyesey (who was the first to spot PARTIAL) a half share of the Nina each (perhaps the idea is that NRTCTIO is even more of a PARTIAL FRACTION than FRACTIO would have been)

Music: with reference to 1ac (Evergreen shrub =ARBUTUS)

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Trad. (arr. Stanford): My Love's an Arbutus

Unfortunately my brain was even more fuddled than usual after a meal out with Janet celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary. I'd only drunk a fairly modest amount of wine, but it was enough to make my typing veer towards the more erratic end of its range, and to encourage me to make a rash guess with MARSH GAS for 14dn (Poisonous vapour = NERVE GAS), and to produce another senior moment with 20dn (Algerian seaport), where I initially thought of OBAN (definitely too far away and not even worth trying), followed my OMAN (which I actually tried as exhaustion/desperation was starting to set in), before at last remembering ORAN. Still my 4th place today was enough to confirm my place in the monthly top 10, so I'm happy. (And Janet and I enjoyed our meal.)

Congratulations to richardg for leading the field today for the second day in succession, and to Jason for reaching 100 points for the month.

With two days to go until the end of the month the situation seems more clear-cut than usual. hjseidman can still be beaten, but unless she's away and unable to compete, my money is on her to finish in 1st place once again since she currently has 117 points to Jason's 104 and aphis99's 102. These three are assured of places in the top 10, as are richardg (94), tonysever (84), Heyesey (82), MarkW (70), shanson (62) and Vicky (58). Although gormlessgracie (56) can still be caught, it would require exceptionally bad luck on her part and exceptionally good luck on the part of neil23 (38), HenryBW (37) and/or lickert (37) if she's not to finish in the top 10 (where she could still be joined by jon88 (36)).

Back to today.
Fastest time: 1:42 (richardg)
Slowest scoring time: 2:09 (PeterBiddlecombe)
Fastest non-scoring time: 2:16 (Timcsmith)
My time: 1:57 (4th)
First to finish: Jason (12:03 a.m.)
Number of entries: 47 (RECENT/FIRST) or 46 (FASTEST)

Here are today's top 20.

1	richardg	1:42		11	Timcsmith	2:16
2	Jason	1:50		12	gormlessgracie	2:24
3	shanson	1:57		13	Shane	2:25
4	tonysever	1:57		14	jon88	2:25
5	Heyesey	1:59		15	andyw123	2:30
6	Shaun	2:01		16	neilr	2:52
7	HenryBW	2:04		17	JohnPMarshall	3:38
8	Chindit	2:04		18	RODNEYLEA	3:50
9	lickert	2:05		19	TOBERGILL	4:15
10	PeterBiddlecombe	2:09		20	StephenRice	4:41

Nina (credited to Philip S, aka valerian1967, whom I quote): As on the diagonals

Music: another old favourite

Current Location: Ealing
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Elgar: Chanson de matin