25094 – Coochy-coo!

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This one took me 45 minutes but I had some problems finishing off – as usual. A couple of really good clues (10ac and 21ac) made up for the odd duffer e.g.19 where you probably don’t need to read past the first three words. The jury is out on one answer which is not yet in any of my dictionaries but may be in the latest Chambers, but in any case the clue was dead easy so it’s no big deal if it isn’t. There’s only one word I was not familiar with (17ac) but again the wordplay was clear. Here we go…

Across
1 ADDICTION – AD (commercial) + DICTION (delivery)
6 Deliberately omitted
9 GONDOLA – along* holding DO (party)
10 SPOONER – A reference to the illustrious Doctor and how he might have said ‘billing and cooing’ which itself might be termed ‘spooning’.
11 SUGGESTIVE – (gives guest)*
12 DOVE – DOVEr – the ferry port with R (resistance) removed.
14 FILCH – FILTH (corrupt behaviour) with C (caught) replacing T (time). To filch is to steal, or nick as the clue has it.
15 PALPITATE – PALATE (taste) contains PIT (compete, as in ‘pit one’s wits against someone’)
16 CUSTOMISE – (suits come)*
18 SPOUT – S (small) + POUT (expression of annoyance)
20 SEND – S (succeeded) + END (purpose)
21 FICKLENESS – F (female) + ICKLE (as a child may say ‘little’) + NESS (head)
25 EXPLODE – EX (former) + PLOD (cop, from PC Plod in Enid Blyton’s Noddy books) + E (ecstasy). ‘Mushroom’ is the definition here.
26 ACADEMY – CAD (rat) inside A and E + MY (surprised remark)
27 TWERP – ToWER (high building) dropping O (round) + P (parking). For this to make sense ‘silly’ needs to be the noun meaning a silly person.
28 EPICENTRE – The definition in COED is ‘the point on the earth’s surface vertically above the focus of an earthquake’ so unless I am missing something, this is a barely cryptic clue.
Down
1 ANGUS – ANGSt (endless distress) contains U (university). ‘Angus’ short for ‘Aberdeen Angus’ is a breed of cattle (steer).
2 DONEGAL – DONE (cooked) + LAG (con, convict) reversed.
3 CLOVEN HOOF – CO (company) contains LOVE (greatly enjoy) + N(ew) H(ampshire) then OF. The Devil is often depicted with cloven hooves.
4 Deliberately omitted
5 NASHVILLE – NE (North-east) contains ASH (wood) + V (very) + ILL (unfavourable). Otherwise known as Music City, this is the home of the Grand Ole Opry and all things Country & Western.
6 DOOM – Two definitions, one of the reverse.
7 PANDORA – P & O (shipping company – formerly the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) + Reluctant + A. Adrian Mole’s girlfriend, for example.
8 HORSEMEAT – Another cryptic definition.
13 KISS ME KATE – (k i set makes)*  With words and music by Cole Porter, this musical is based on The Taming of the Shrew.
14 FACTSHEET – FEET (plates, from CRS ‘plates of meat’) contains ACTS (performance) + H (hot). This often relates to a programme on TV or radio, hence ‘programme notes’ in the clue.
15 PRIVILEGE – PRIG (prude) contains VILE (ignoble) then E (attitude’s ending).
17 SYNAPSE – SNAPS (photos) contains Y (end of railway) then E (English). It’s to do with nerves and neurotransmitters and stuff.
19 OVEREAT – OAT (cereal) contains V (volume) + ERE (before)
22 KHAKI – Take the first and last letter of Knee-lengtH and of AnoraK + I (one)
23 SKYPE – Hidden. This brand name hasn’t yet made it to any of my dictionaries. They are all up to date I think except my old Chambers, so perhaps someone with the latest edition could check and see if it’s in?
24 COUP – CO (county) UP (to the north), but I would go south if I went up to London!

24 comments on “25094 – Coochy-coo!”

  1. A puzzle that rather crept up on you, I thought, with lots of very easy ones balanced by some quite devious clues. While the NE was toughest for me (SPOONER getting my COD – I wish all Spooneresque clues could be this neatly constructed), two clues in the opposite corner were last in; partly because I put ‘coin’ at 24dn, but also because TWERP is a clever clue (misleading, part of speech wise). At 5, I was looking for the geographical centre of a country (England) for an embarrassingly long time. 46 minutes.

    SYNAPSE I knew only because some of the more scientific regulars here use the word from time to time. Isn’t EPICENTRE cryptic in the sense that a second, psychoanalytical meaning can be understood? Still not convinced re the ‘programme’ in 14dn.

    Edited at 2012-02-24 03:23 am (UTC)

    1. SPOONER was my LOI but it did make me laugh out loud. I struggled most in the NE too. I filled in about half of the clues fairly rapidly but then was slowed down significantly. I took somewhere around 90 minutes in two sessions to complete it. I struggled over DOOM and DOVE for ages until the penny dropped.Unusually, I understood all the worplay in this enjoyable puzzle.
  2. 27:16, a pleasant recovery from yesterday’s disaster. I slowed myself down by thinking of ‘expression’ (18ac) as verbal (stush? spooh?), and by putting in (3d) ‘cloven heel’ at first, Lord knows why. Thanks to Jackkt for explaining the PIT of PALPITATE, and how FACTSHEET worked. HORSEMEAT struck me as rather generic for ‘joint’, and I wasted time trying to think of a specific joint of horsemeat, hard to do when I’ve never eaten any horsemeat; would ‘joint complaint’ do as a clue for BEEF?
    1. Before I had the checkers in the second part of the word, I was toying with ‘horseback’, as in ‘back bacon’.

      Add a ‘?’ to your clue and I’m sure it would pass mustard.

    2. Just noticed Uncle Yap’s heading for yesterday’s blog! Must have still been fresh in my mind.
  3. … my completed puzzle with me; but it was a bit over the 35 minutes as I remember.

    Most trouble in the top right, even with the (very simple) DEPTH in place: those that (literally) depended on it were by no means obvious. And I wasn’t confident with HORSEMEAT for the reasons already given.

    I was sure that (with the initial in place) that “centre of country” was just the said N (at 5dn). Should have seen the obvious.

    LOI was DOVE. Easy for those who immeditaely think of Dover; not so for the rest of us and are left with ?O?E.

    18ac: I wonder if we’ll ever get “P” as the wordplay for EPICENTRE — about which I’m as confused as others.

    COD to SPOONER (which I really wanted to be SLEDGER).

    1. “COD to SPOONER (which I really wanted to be SLEDGER)…”

      …on account of Sledge meaning something to you, it being one of your other AKAs?

  4. 33m, so I found this almost exactly as hard as yesterday’s but didn’t enjoy it half as much. I’m not really sure why: I wasn’t keen on the cryptic definitions at 28 and 8 but otherwise there is some first class stuff in here. I suspect it’s just my mood.
    Quite a few of the clues that took me ages to crack look very simple in retrospect, which is a mark of a good clue. My last in, for instance, was SPOUT, where I was looking for something like “drat” as my expression of annoyance.
  5. 37 minutes, a recovery of a kind from yesterday’s fiasco. Rejected twerp for a long time which didn’t help. COD Spooner. I also quite like epicentre for the wording.

  6. I don’t think today’s setter is yesterday’s setter! I found this one so much easier. Flicked on the iPad at 06:30 to get the Round 2 results in the golf at Dove Mountain and then an hour later I’m penning in Dove at 12 across. I like coincidences like that. ‘ickle for “child’s little” and Plod for Cop in Explode made me smile – thanks jackkt for the origin of Plod. LOI Spout. One hour.
  7. 21 minutes, with a lot of time spent in the NE, especially with NASHVILLE. If I had “centre of country” = N for so long, even wondering as the penny slid oozily down a sticky slot why ash is a western wood. If only Country and Western had been written like that. I suspect concise crossworders would have put it in straight away.
    SPOONER, my CoD, was held up by not having its S. I had a tentative DROWNER (someone killing, as a something OWNER might have said) for a while, not helping at all.
    FICKLENESS made me smile, EPICENTRE made me frown. Are we missing something? CUSTOMISE was a very fine anagram.

    Edited at 2012-02-24 09:50 am (UTC)

  8. Jack, SKYPE is in the latest Chambers

    An easier puzzle than yesterday plus a lack of tiredness meant a 20 minute solve. Nearly put “shoot” into 18A when I didn’t read the clue properly.

    Loved SPOONER, can’t see 28A as cryptic.

    HORSEMEAT is delicious particularly when cooked by the French and eaten with a good quality red.

  9. About 20 mins for me as it was much much easier than yesterday and enjoyable to boot – fickleness made me laugh out loud and I did like Spooner being in the crossword rather than one of his -isms.
  10. Following yesterday’s marathon this was a walk in the park. Feel, however, “programme notes” for factsheet is a stretch, if not inaccurate. Is it defined as such in any of the authoritative dictionaries? And ickle as childspeak for “little” is only heard in the setter’s play pen. Agree 10 ac was a smart clue and 27 ac was pretty neat too.

    Enigma

    1. I referred to this above, but the exact entry in Collins is:

      “A printed sheet containing information relating to items covered in a television or radio programme”.

      Collins is, we are given to understand, one of the two principal references for the Monday – Saturday Times crossword, the other being the Concise Oxford.

      Collins also has “ickle” as “an ironically childish word for ‘little'”.

      Edited at 2012-02-24 05:59 pm (UTC)

  11. After having Sky a couple of months ago we now have Skype. Has the ban on trade names been dropped? I stopped doing the Indy crossword because they now allow trade names and living people (celebrities I’ve never heard of)

    1. There are trade names that enter the language and become shorthand for their own use: hoover; google; skype
      1. I see what you mean. I do the hoovering using a Dyson. I suppose these terms need to be in a dictionary uncapitalised?
  12. A couple of LOL moments here with SPOONER and FICKLENESS. I’ve never heard of a FACTSHEET but the initial F was a bit of a giveaway. This was one of those puzzles where I got the NW corner quickly but after that had random answers scattered across the grid which seemed to take forever to join up. I didn’t really get on the wavelength. 42 minutes
  13. 15:10 for me. I found this tougher than yesterday’s, though that could have been because I was feeling more tired – and made ridiculously heavy weather of one or two clues, particularly 5dn (NASHVILLE) which I should really have solved more or less instantly.

    Some clever stuff, and I’ve certainly no objections at all.

Comments are closed.