25632

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
27.02, but then I did do a thorough post-solve check before submitting to make sure everything was in order. Still makes me 3 Andy Gilhams again, but this time I’m solving with a head full of cold and can claim some sort of handicap. Things I have learned today: the Balkan peninsular is much more inclusive than I thought; the insect is for real and primitive; you can sometimes drag up the green shoots of vocabulary recovery from extreme depths, but still end up with a word you’re never going to work into a conversation (not in A&E anyway); 7d doesn’t end in Y and ever has done. There are a lot of standard crossword conventions here: E for energy, N for knight, P for pressure, D for Duke and so on – almost a compendium.. Here’s my version: .

Across

1     MATCH Double definition, the second taking lighter as a thing wot lights.
4     ABSORBENT Def “taking everything in”. Away gives you ABSENT, which you place around this splendid ORB. Works just as
      well without the question mark, the wordplay ensures you spell it with an E
9     GHASTLIER “more repellent”, an anagram of lighter gas without one of its G(ram)s
10   BATHE B(lack) – in crosswordland it’s hardly ever the modern K -plus indefinite and definite articles gives you a chance to
      take a dip in the rollers such as the ones you get at the seaside.
11   BUTLER The steward is a butcher with L(eft) replacing CH(urch). So nearly an Agatha Christie clue to mark the passing of
      Suchet’s Poirot
12   INFLAMED Angry produced by fumbling around with the letters of fieldsman without the first letter of Surrey
14   CAPITULATE where the definition is “to give up” indicated by recapitulate without the RE.
15   TOMB “Regardless of pressure” alerts you to a missing P, and since a leading doctor might just be a top MB, taking the P
      gives you a place where you’ll find remains
19   SOUP qualifies as a preliminary course. The wordplay is, I think in order as in just SO, and UP as in at Oxbridge.
20   OMNISCIENT Descriptive of gods and Times crossword solvers. Needs careful parsing: its “I’M ON” winding and SCENT for
      track round I(sland). While I had a misspelled EXTEMPORY crossing (looks really wrong when you write it out flat), I was
      trying to work CAY into it somehow.
22  FOOTSORE Exactly like weary runners, S(on’s) TOO reversed into the FORE. The van(guard) is the front of an attacking
      army most likely to get into trouble.
23  MANGLE Not the old rollers for squeezing the water out of the washing, but “hack, tear, or crush into a misshapen state”.
      M(otorway) plus ANGLE, as in reporter’s “approach” to a story.
26  AGREE Looking for a foothold in the SE, I was trying to justify CROAT, certainly a Balkan, and perhaps therefore a King
      missing something but gaining AT from somewhere. Abandoning that line forced me to accept that Greeks are Balkans
      too, and A GREEK missing his K(ing) gives you “to get on”.
27  STALEMATE The good Oxford Don, William Archibald Spooner is supposed to have swapped the beginnings of words
      to unintended comic effect, and would putatively have given MALE STATE (masculinity) as his version of our answer.
28  COTYLEDON Look it up to confirm it: green shoots that are and anagram of LED TYCOON. I look forward to alternative
      arrangements. Last appeared 2 years ago in 24702
29   DWELT I stumbled over recognising abode as a past tense verb rather than a noun. Wordplay is WET (rain) absorbing
      L(ake), next to D(uke), which in this case is at the front.

Down

1    MEGABUCKS …which are, of course, many grand, given by BUCKS (males) following a wild anagram of GAME. Not too tough
      a starter for the top left
2    TRAIT “Quality”. see I within TART backwards
3    HITHERTO A success is a HIT followed here by HER and O(ld) T(estament) “up”. To date is a neat, terse definition.
4    ALIT “settled” as in bird on a branch. A(rea), initially L(acking) IT for (eg sex) appeal.
5    SPRINGTAIL “any member of the Collembola order of primitive, wingless insects” as any fule kno. SPRING for bound and
      TAIL for follow.
6    RIBALD Rhymes with dribbled, apparently. “Near the knuckle” a decent enough definition, if obscure in origin, meaning
      indecent, which RIBALD also does. Most of bone gives RI(b), exposed produces BALD
7    EXTEMPORE “On the spot”, EX (former) (R(oyal) E(ngineer) enfolds TEMPO for time.
8    TREAD DART for spring, upwards, takes in E(negy) to give “step”
13  GLAMORISED A “nice spot” anagram of girl made so which allows a decent enough &lit clue
15  PLUTOCRAT The planet Pluto was downgraded to a “dwarf planet” in 2006, “recently” enough, following the discovery of
      Eris, three times further out and 27% larger, and the expectation that there might well be others out there. There are:
      so far Makemake, Haumea beyond Neptune, and Ceres in the asteroid belt has been “promoted” to join the club. Be that
      as it may, the CRAT bit of our magnate derives from “pack up” shortly giving CRAT(e), and not, as I reasoned “pack”
      backwards.
17  BITTEREST I so wanted this to be BITCHIEST, but it’s just start of B(attle) followed by INTEREST with the (k)N(ight) replaced
      by T(ime)
18   SCRAG END A cheaper cut of meat indicated by CRAG (bluff) within SEND (convey)
21   AS WELL “with equal effect”. A the W(ife) in SELL (trade)
22   FRANC  still a foreign currency even if not in France, created by depriving the founder of the Franciscans, he of Assisi, of
      his “IS”
24   GRAZE  Definition crop, as in sheep nibbling away at the grass, which sounds like greys (grays for US viewers, works just
      as well), or “loses colo(u)r”
25   PAWN  Pop is a synonym for pawn, as in “pop goes the weasel” so we have a double definition.

47 comments on “25632”

  1. Just my sort of puzzle. Clues of variable difficulty and types. Some new vocab (SPRINGTAIL, COTYLEDON). Well-hidden defs (e.g., “to date” in 3dn). A sense of achievement on completion.

    4ac: “on round-the-world trip” is either a brilliant coup or a liberty, depending on your taste.
    29ac: “abode” is very nice since we rarely use or think of this past tense of the verb.
    15dn: “one now downgraded” is rather loose for PLUTO. The world is full of downgraded things and stuffs these days.
    18dn: “dons” is wonderfully misleading.

    COD to 1dn (MEGABUCKS) where the def is especially well disguised.

    Z8: you still have two As in 4ac!!

    Edited at 2013-11-14 03:45 am (UTC)

        1. Nah, mate. Our roll call includes Andrex and its cute puppy (never could hold the dam’ thing still enough), and Cushelle which is Swedish and inexplicably advertises using a koala. Then there’s the ever popular Izal, non-absorbent, somewhat scratchy (less than it used to be).
          Though I gather both the brand and the generic are falling out of favour, we over here still cross our legs when we think of you using your Durex for the same purpose we use ours…
      1. Tried the combinations of vowels with all the consonants already in and went for the most likely. Then turned to Chambers for confirmation. Not quite legit. But what else is there?
        1. I’m just impressed that you managed to identify a “most likely” at all, never mind that it was right.
  3. 77 minutes, but a finish. Liked MEGABUCKS too – and BATHE – but GRAZE (which we had clued similarly recently – but not recently enough or identically enough to help me much) gets my COD. Didn’t know SCRAG END – even though I must have eaten enough of the stuff at school – which made things a lot more tricky.

  4. Snuck in within the hour, all correct, but I failed to parse several, so thanks for the explanations of: SCRAG END, PLUTOCRAT, FRANC. Would have been quicker if I hadn’t carelessly written 9ac in 4ac’s place.

    Like the sound of the word COTYLEDON, must have learnt it many moons ago (and have rarely, if ever, used it since…)

    LOI: MANGLE (yep, after I’d corrected bitchiest…)

    1. All the time I was writing up the blog, the phrase “my cotyledon has been struck by lightning” kept running through my head, and some allusion to that in the title might have appeared if I had remembered to write it in the blank space after the puzzle number.
      Yes, I know it’s postillion really.
  5. I made very heavy weather of this one in a slow but steady solve lasting 70 minutes including two look-ups, COTYLEDON and SPRINGTAIL. I’m hoping this is the hardest one of the week and I am in for an easier time on my watch tomorrow.

    I would have blogged SO at 19ac as an abbreviation for Standing Order but I now see that SO works as in ‘just so’ too and that’s probably what the setter intended.

    Edited at 2013-11-14 05:57 am (UTC)

  6. 15:48 and very elegantly clued, I thought, pace those who dislike Spoonerisms (can’t remember whether it’s here on the Club forum that there has been a groundswell against them recently). Worked out SPRINGTAIL purely from wordplay but COTYLEDON rang a bell from O-level biology; when I checked the last appearance as mentioned above, it turns out this is exactly what I wrote when I blogged that puzzle, so I am happy to say my brain can still remember things from thirty years ago, if not necessarily two years.
  7. An enjoyable puzzle with, as z8 says, many favourite cluing devices and two new words for me. Good to see much-maligned Pluto making an appearance. My tenuous connection with Pluto is that the suggestion of Pluto as its name was made by the wife of my English teacher. I believe that she lived to see it downgraded.

    Edited at 2013-11-14 10:00 am (UTC)

  8. Agreed, a nice puzzle that gave a lot of satisfaction when solving. 25 minutes to complete. Like Tim my O-Level biology actually stood me in good stead for COTYLEDON

    I also think “one now downgraded” a bit loose for pluto and wonder why the setter didn’t consider “oil transporter” to go with “magnate”. PLUTO was the pipe line placed under the Channel during WW2 to take oil into France faster and safer than using ships.

  9. 26m. I mostly enjoyed this, but it was ruined for me by 28ac, which I think is dreadful. The term isn’t exactly everyday fare, and if you don’t know it there is just no way of getting it from the anagram fodder. I tried various permutations of vowels to see if one looked more likely than another, but almost anything would work and the actual answer wasn’t even in my top 5.
    Harumph.

    Edited at 2013-11-14 10:58 am (UTC)

  10. 26 mins but I needed to look up COTYLEDON because I didn’t remember it from two years ago and there were a few different ways to arrange the vowels of the obvious anagram fodder.

    I found it difficult to get on the setter’s wavelength and the NW was blank the longest, and only really opened up when I saw that 9ac was an anagram. Other than the answer I had to look up HITHERTO was my LOI after MATCH.

  11. 32min, with ARID LOI at 4dn, reluctantly after several minutes trying to think of anything better than getting RID from ‘settled’.
    As botany had been a schooldays hobby, 28ac went in immediately.
  12. Forty minutes spent on this one. A slow start with few entries after ten minutes, then sped up a bit. I recognized the anagram fodder for COTYLEDON but couldn’t immediately dredge the precise word from memory. I knew it started with CO, and that TY or LY was in there somewhere, but had to wait for checkers.

    Nice puzzle.

  13. I’ve already moaned once this week about puzzles having anagrams of words that most people don’t know. No objection to words I don’t know, but I like to be able to solve the clues for them. Please Mrs Compiler.
  14. 18:36 with the NE corner taking the longest. COTYLEDON is one of those words I remember so no probs there – it first entered my life when we had to grow a runner bean seed in a jam jar with blotting paper and then draw the results every day and label the relevant parts of the plant. Not sure I like the American spelling of 13d but then the English word wouldn’t have fitted!!
    1. Is there an English word GLAMOURISED? Chambers and the shorter OED think not and the former gives the US version as GLAMORIZED
  15. There’s a little feature on the origin of some common words in the Grauniad today which I suspect might interest people round here. It’s on the main page of the web edition.
    1. Interesting. It’s left me wondering if there’s a large hairy man living somewhere in Northern Europe called Bjorn Medved.
  16. 70 mins with 25 spent on SE because of an obsession with “bitchiest”. “Cytelodon” was unfortunately my stab at 28ac since “cyte” seemed vaguely biological.
  17. I made the same unlucky COTYLEDON guess as y_g, for the same reason, but didn’t sweat that because I was too busy trying to figure out how the K of RANK (=order) in 22d could be converted to a C. No idea of who or what MB is, and not familiar with SCRAG-END.

    Thx, keriothe, for the steer to the etymology article. And, no such hairy man, topicaltim, orso they say. (sorry).

    2. The medics provide several of those crossword conventions-
      DR (obviously)
      Medical Officer/Doctor MO/MD
      MB – thanks Jim, I should have put it in
      DCh/DS Doctor of Surgery or surgeon

      1. Thanks, guys. I knew DR, MD, and thought I was doing well with MO – now I know MB too.
        1. MRCS LRCP used to be a medical qualification for a doctor as a sort of fallback but I guess that it will not appear in a crossword! Ditto my father’s qualification MB BS. Thud_and_Blunder, any comments?

          Edited at 2013-11-14 05:43 pm (UTC)

  18. Remembered COTYLEDON from somewhere, thought the PLUTO clueing was amusing and good, not ‘loose’, but went astray with a determination to have BITCHIEST so couldn’t crack 23ac. Also failed to see ALIT. I put in DWELT although this was my first introduction to ABODE as a past tense verb. All in all a struggle, feeling dim today after another tiring, muddy, damp tour of the golf course. Well done to those who were less dim today.
    1. I’ve given up playing in all that mud. Add in a gale and it’s just an exercise in getting dirty whilst losing ones balls.
  19. 45 minutes including an unspecified post-work nodding-off. A neat challenge. Initially I jibbed a little at the downgraded one but oddly it seems OK, I suppose the knowledge being likely to lurk in the Times solver’s aether. Good to see a possible chess reference – stalemate – with the wonderful match now in progress.
  20. Not a great time but at least all correct today without aids. Dredged up ‘cotyledon’ from deep recesses. At 19a, I parsed ‘so’ as in ‘so that’ denoting ‘in order that’.
  21. Forgive me – nothing to do with the crossword per se (but I shall take the opportunity to congratulate those that managed this; I was missing almost half before finding salvation here).If you come to Pyecombe (just north of Brighton) you will enjoy the benefit of a course on chalk. The rain disappears as fast as it arrives.

    John Mck

  22. Only sat down to this after 9pm, and completed – with two look-ups, one under protest – about an hour later. Having said that, there was much to enjoy! Liked MEGABUCKS and Dr Spooner’s machismo, and long missed the anagram for GHASTLIER. LOI MANGLE.

    COTYLEDON is not part of my normal vocabulary – had to look it up to check it. And, according to Wiki at least, a SPRINGTAIL is NOT an insect, which this fule only discovered after looking that one up too: it’s actually “the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects”.

  23. 10:22 for me, but, sensing I was on the setter’s wavelength and heading for a decent time, I was over-hasty checking my solution and missed a glaring typo: AS WEKL for AS WELL. My fifth mistake of the year, just when I was beginning to hope I might be able to squeeze under my usual tally of between five and ten. (Deep sigh!)

    1. About 45min, with “megabucks” my last one in. “Hitherto” also produced a moment of word blindness – I had to pencil it in before I stopped seeing it as “hit her to”. D’oh.

      I’m not a fan of Spoonerisms – it’s an unsubtle method of clueing, in my opinion. Still, not as bad as the ‘ackneyed use of hapostrophes or desperate references to East Enders whenever the loss of an ‘aitch is called for.

      A relatively easy game of “use all the answers in conversation with patients” tonight, though I did have to cheat slightly by telling one patient that they had a “subdermal cotyledon”. I don’t think they twigged. “Mangle”, “graze”, “absorbent” and “inflamed” more or less threw themselves together in one sentence, thanks to a patient who had injured himself quite disproportionately using nothing more than a sliding patio door whilst dashing to the loo after a litre too many of vodka.

      1. Hello there, thud_n_blunder – or should that be pus_n_chunder?

        You keep replying to my comments, but perhaps you really just mean to “Leave a comment”, as you can do using the link at the bottom of the page.

  24. Did no one else enter ‘Bethel’= ie a church or chapel ? I thought ‘Bethe’ must be a villain in an obscure novel.
    Geoffrey (must de-lurk myself).

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