251214 Cricket one left, right?

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Not much of a festive feel about this one, unless you’re antipodean, I suppose, in which case the relative abundance of cricket references might make some sense. As far as I can make out, there are no hidden messages, though there’s a feast in the one of the columns, and 28ac suggests there’s “A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all our….” concealed somehow in the grid, but since I can’t see an M anywhere that would have to be in some sort of code. So since the setter has not seen fit to offer seasonal good wishes in such a form, may I? Oh yes, this took me 17.32, with the majority of the time squandered in the SE corner. I still haven’t seen the working of 17d. Quizimodo says it’s pretty cute, so it must work somehow. Maybe I’ll see it before finishing. Here’s what I do know. Errors will be corrected on Boxing Day, if at all.

Across

1 PUFFING  in need of oxygen
Your “diver in sea” is a PUFFIN, and you get the G form the front end of Gasp. So it’s not something complicated like anoxia
5 GRACE  words of thanks
Competition is RACE, placed after G(ood). Benedictus benedicat, heavenly pa ta, and so on.
9 LONER  not a team player
The individual ONE provides the connection between L(eft) and R(ight) sides.
10 HOLLERING  crying out loud
L(eft) (again) in a HOLE followed by RING for group
11 YIELDER …this?
A sort of &littish clue, in which 1 (one) ELDER (senior person) follows the introductory Y of youngster. I was trying to think of a situation in which a senior would give way to a junior, without much success.
12 SUSPECT  dodgy
Those of us who have ever had to write a business plan will know that unique selling point gives USP. Those who haven’t will just have to figure it out. Bury it in SECT for school.
13 DEDICATION commitment
D(aughter) gets an EDUCATION in which the U(niversity) is swapped out for a 1 (one, again)
15 TEND either nurse or lean – it’s a double definition
18 NOAH  ancient rescuer
Not much of one: in terms of humans, 8 out of the entire world population is a pretty poor return. So there wouldn’t be any point in bringing a N0 (number) of them to A H(ospital) because there wouldn’t be any staff. and the wait would be a lot more than 4 hours.
20 SIDELIGHTS such may not be the brightest
Little girl is SIS, so not Di for once. The little is there to give the cut down version of sister. She is full of DELIGHT, joy.
23 REQUITE  reward
I think this is just RE (about) given QUITE, possibly as in “it was quite/fairly dark at the time”
24 HOBNAIL  bit of metal
HO(use) has N(ame) contained in BAIL. A cricketing piece if wood.
25 CHICKADEE  American songster
I only know this from W C Fields and Mae West in “My Little Chickadee”, for which the title sort of sticks in my memory. The bird, which until now I didn’t know existed, looks like this. C(aught) from cricket, natch, HICK for country bumpkin, and DEE for a river.
26 RHINO Tin
Both fairly antique slang for money. Home gives IN, and is sitting in RHO, a Greek and therefore foreign (unless you’re Greek) character
27 PIECE  a bit
Sounds remarkably like PEACE (and quiet) would to a hearer
28 READERS  people like you
After starting R(ight) (again) set down ERASED in freeform.

Down

1 PINHEAD  Stupid person
IN for at home, HE for the boy, both cosseted in PAD for cushion
2 FOREDECK  part of ship
Towards the front end, best beloved. Anagram of DOCK FREE
3 ICHOR  discharge
Pick one from “the ethereal juice in the veins of the gods” or “colourless matter oozing from an ulcer or wound”. I suppose it had better be the latter. Happy Christmas to all in casualty. It’s 1 (one) (yet again!) and CHORe without end.
4 GALLSTONE  a bodily obstruction

Happy Christmas to all in casualty (again). Girl gives GAL, single gives LONE (see 9 across). Put them together round ST(reet)
5 GREASY  Obnoxiously pleasant
AS from “when” is “entertained” by GREY for dull, which I suppose works unless it’s in fifty shades.
6 ABILENE US city
Marshalled at least once by Randolph Scott. A peevishness give you A BILE, and our frequent milage passenger ONE turns up again, this time spelt out but without its O.
7 ERGOT Fungal disease
In wheat, I think. (checks dictionary) Well alright, usually rye. Cereal, anyway. Bit of work is, in new (?) money, an ERG. OT is a much shorter way to say occupational therapy.
8 PLAYED ON  Made error as batsman
Took a swipe at the ball, edged it into the stumps. Not at all the same as in football. I think the wordplay is that, if you’re being exploited, you’re being played on.
14 TAIL ENDER  who may do duty as night watchman
Cricket again. Usually Anderson, an out-and-out bowler who can bat a bit, sent in towards the end of the days play to protect the better batsmen if wickets are falling quicker than Cook wants, on the dubious theory that he’s less likely to get out than a proper batsman. Anyway, the wordplay is (I think) TAI for Asian (allowed at least by Chambers) and LENDER for librarian
16 DISALLOW  Don’t let
DI (ah, there she is), crosswordlands favourite little princess, gets SALLOW
17 AIRBORNE  floating on high
Right, here’s my best guess. When you look at PAIRS, you see AIR being carried, in this case by P and S. Hm.
19 ACQUIRE Get hold of
A CHOIR, or bunch of people to sing, audibly.
21 HEAVIES  important people
I’d have thought more like the blokes who hang around Al Capone looking menacing until they get mown down by Eliot Ness. In Star Trek, such characters wear red shirts and are eliminated in section one. Important? Ah well, the fellow’s gives HE’S, and a battle is A VIE if you squint a bit and switch noun to verb.
22 PICKLE  Awkward position (see HOLE, 10 across)
Tool is PICK, left is L (again) and the middle of shelf is E
23 RECAP  summary
Cut gives REAP, and takes on C(hapter)
24 HYENA  Beastly type
HAs without S(ucceeded) with YEN for “passionate desire” lurking within

23 comments on “251214 Cricket one left, right?”

  1. Thought I was headed for sub-30 but like the blogger I lost time in the SE corner.

    I had similar queries and misgivings too, but I think the given explanation re AIRBORNE is the correct one. I also never heard of TAI without an H, and rather surprisingly I didn’t know PLAYED ON as a cricketing term, as I thought I had met them all by now.

    News on the Quickie which currently is not on its button: Yesterday’s puzzle was 208 (code 430/) and tomorrow’s is 209 (code 432/) which suggests that, if today’s exists at all, it has been given a special number (like the main cryptic) so as not to upset the sequence published in the treeware version, and it could be anyone’s guess what it is.

    Edited at 2014-12-25 10:32 am (UTC)

    2. As my first posting was marked as spam …

      Today’s quickie is under today’s date with the code 430/

      /timescrossword/20141225/430/

      Merry Xmas, everyone

      Bob

  2. Phew! DNF due to, guess what, the SE corner (17, 20 & 24).
    I don’t think I’d ever have got 17 especially with that clue. Other than that it was reasonably straightforward (8 was my FOI!)
    I’m assuming there is no Quickie today since with no paper today and an error message on the main site, how are you actually supposed to access it?
    Happy Christmas to everyone on this site.
  3. In fairness to today’s setter these puzzles are not specially commissioned for Christmas. However today’s Quick Cryptic IS seasonal and it’s once again disappointing to find that it is not available.
    If the problem persists I may make an executive decision to allow today’s blogger to post it here
    1. It is available on the iPad app so tipped off by the Editor, I will go for seasonal stuff.
  4. I’d hope the editor was enjoying a well deserved day off. Now I’ve seen your take on it Z and Jack AIRBORNE reminds me of the old song “Is that all there is?”. Otherwise a very nice puzzle. 18.28 on a true leaderboard for once, how pleasant.
  5. 13:08 – everything made sense except AIRBORNE which had to be the answer from definition. Mmmm, a Jumbo today as well. Something to do while watching the cricket. Cheers!
  6. There are many complaints about neutrinos, sometimes from those who have posted a time on the leader board and then advised that they haven’t understood this or that clue. The time taken to complete and fully parse a crossword, rather than just complete, would be a fairer indication of the solver’s place in the pecking order, not that it matters.
    1. It might be a fairer indication, but it would be impossible to measure in practice. As a competitive solver, I’m quite satisfied with simply measuring the time it takes to complete a puzzle correctly.
      1. The ‘competitive solver’ bit is what bugs me. I find it strange that the exercise of solving crosswords has become more a test of speed than understanding. But whatever plumps your pillow.
        1. If it’s possible to measure an activity that demands a certain amount of skill, you shouldn’t really be too surprised when makes a competition out of it. In the days when the Times Crossword Championship had proper sponsors, successful competitive solvers could win some quite nice prizes: holidays, Harrods vouchers, books from the Collins list, whisky, and so on. Plus a certain amount of kudos – it’s the only way I was ever going to appear as the answer to one of the questions in the Times “quiz of the week” :-). Nowadays, with no proper sponsor, the winner – Mark Goodliffe for the last seven years – takes the only prize and the kudos all for himself, though I doubt if he’s complaining.

          As far as understanding is concerned, I expect most competitive solvers will go back over the clues after they’ve solved them to make sure they really have understood them – and consult this blog if there’s anything that still baffles them or that they’re doubtful about.

          1. Spouse and I are no doubt completely atypical solvers; we aren’t competitive, share doubts and chuckles, have several semi-finished ones on the go, and only resort to the blog (or the Forum) when stuck.
            But since you mention sponsors such as whisky producers, there was a time when we referred to the crossword as “No-Can-Do”
  7. Like others, top half wrote itself in; bottom left was tougher (wine was beginning to catch up); then DNF due to 17 crossing 26.
  8. 12:46 for me after another slow start.

    I came to the same conclusion as you (and others) about AIRBORNE (my LOI) and am reasonably happy with it. However, I don’t fully understand 11ac, which, as you say, seems to be a sort of &lit. The best explanation I can come up with is that the older person (an uncle perhaps) might be yielding some dosh to a younger (a niece or nephew) by way of a Christmas present. Or perhaps “age gives way to beauty”, though this saying seems to have very little support from google.

    My thanks to the setter (and editor) for providing an interesting and enjoyable puzzle on a day when when one didn’t appear in the past.

    Edited at 2014-12-25 11:28 pm (UTC)

  9. … bits and pieces, with ABILENE the last in. Couldn’t see “peevishness” = BILE for the life of me. Wrote in AIRBORNE with no idea of the parsing, so thanks for the apparently correct suggestion Z8. Don’t think it would win the cluing competition but. (DeLillo fans will remember this one as our very own airborne toxic event.)
  10. The Wiki entry for the “Abilene Paradox” is worth a read for anyone looking to get five minutes away from doing what everyone else is doing.
  11. Late posting as I wanted to thank Z for the blog which I needed for – yes the SE corner! Rattled through the rest in 15m but after another 30 still had 17d and 21d and both 24s undone. So thanks for putting me out of my misery. Glad that some of them held up far better people than me but frankly can’t see any sense in 11a – I thought there must be a word missing in the clue! Didn’t much like 26a either as an obscurity defined by an obscurity – though I had in fact pencilled it in pending learned confirmation. With this in mind per discussion above I’d never have a finishing time if I had to be able parse every clue! Bit like saying that your golf score has to be only the shots you intended to hit; so I’m with Mr Sever on that one. Thanks though to the Times for at least providing a puzzle on Christmas day! Perhaps next year they could use our Christmas Turkey instead!

    Edited at 2014-12-26 10:03 am (UTC)

  12. No I don’t really get this either – entered it as the only other word to fit is DISBURSE, and that was even harder to force the clue to work

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