Times 25,241

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A rather testing 19:15, lots of it spent in the SE corner, which remained resolutely blank for ages, after I’d got 1 and 6 across at first sight and made pretty quick progress on the rest.

Across
1 RACECOURSE – RACE(ethnicity) + COURSE(of lectures); Doncaster is most famously host to the St Leger among sundry other races.
6 SKIN – SKINT.
9 FLORENTINE – [LORE + N.T.] in FINE.
10 GNAT – (TANG)rev. I had this bit of trivia at the back of my head somewhere, that in blood-sucking insects it’s only the female of the species which you have to look out for.
12 WHIPPERSNAPPER – WHIPPER(thief) + SNAPPER(bad-tempered dog). I paused here momentarily, as I’d always thought the main thing about a whippersnapper was that they were young, rather than insignificant, but both characteristics are mentioned in Collins and the OED, so I guess the setter is perfectly at liberty to emphasise the latter rather than the former.
14 OPTICS – Teacher in [Old PICS].
15 TEUTONIC – (CUTIENOT)*.
17 TASMANIA – This + [MAN in ASIA].
19 ORNATE – N(knight in chess notation) in [OR (other ranks) + ATE] .
22 I’M ALL RIGHT JACK – [ALL RIGHT] in I’M JACK (London). Old phrase (more fully “**** you, Jack, I’m all right”) of uncertain origin, though the fact that it’s Jack, rather than Bill, or Tony, suggests it might be naval; given extra currency by the classic British comedy film.
24 IRIS – cryptic def. pointing to the anatomy of the eye.
25 BREAKWATER – BREAK + [To Engage in WAR]. I first came across the alternative meaning of mole in World War 1 history lessons, when my homework reading about the naval raid on the mole of Zeebrugge conjured up the image of something like a Godzilla film, with a rather more prosaic reality…
26 NATO – actioN AT Oxford.
27 METHODICAL – THO’ in MEDICAL.
 
Down
1 RAFT – Right AFT.
2 CROCHET – CROTCHET (note which is commonly used in musical time signatures) minus the Time. As per Jack’s suggestion, more likely this is your actual Common Time rather than just any old common time.
3 CRREPY CRAWLY – CREEPY + “CRAWLEY“. Overseas solvers who aren’t familiar with the name of the town but have used Gatwick Airport may have seen it from the air without realising.
4 UNTIED – UNITED with the central letters switched.
5 SINISTER – cryptic def. Term derived from heraldry to indicate the illegitimate origins of a person.
7 KINGPIN – KIN + G.P. + IN.
8 NOT CRICKET – something which isn’t done fairly or sportingly is not cricket; as are all insects which aren’t crickets.
11 LANTERN JAWED – LANTERN + Judge AWED. I paused momentarily again, trying to decide if being hollow-faced was synonymous with a lantern jaw, but in the end decided we are solving a crossword, not producing a police photofit, and it’ll do fine.
13 CONTRITION – (ICONTORTIN)*.
16 FILIGREE – (GI)rev. in (RELIEF)*. Nice surface.
18 SEA-GIRT =”SEE GERT” .
20 ASCETIC – (TEC)rev. in [A SIC]. My third and final pause for thought, as I’d always thought ascetic was more or less a synonym for “austere”, with no suggestions of solitude, but upon checking, there is a specific meaning in ecclesiastical circles, indicating someone who becomes a hermit in order to practice their austere lifestyle.
21 SHEATH – HolmeS + HEATH(moor).
23 ORAL – OR (gold) + (LeAf)rev.

21 comments on “Times 25,241”

  1. I was going along quite well but, after 20 minutes I had nothing in the NW quarter. I resorted to Bradford’s for the insect at 3 down and immediately swore and donned the self-kicking boots. I worked in Crawley for around 16 years and we always referred to it as “creepy”!
    Mike O
    Skiathos
  2. Half an hour’s worth of enjoyment today. Took me a while to get SEA GIRT, as I couldn’t get SEA MIST out of my mind.

    I also wondered about the definition of LANTERN JAWED, having always used the term to mean a jutting-out jaw, so I took out my old copy of Brewer, which has this entry:

    Lantern jaws. Cheeks so thin and hollow that one may almost see daylight through them, as light shone through the horn of a lantern.

  3. On the whole not too difficult, but with some trickiness here and there. About 30 mins for me. Some good stuff: I particularly enjoyed LANTERN-JAWED, FLORENTINE, SEA-GIRT, ASCETIC, I”M ALL RIGHT JACK, FILIGREE and WHIPPERSNAPPER. I didn’t know, but guessed, that only the female of the species is a sucker, if you get my drift, at 10 ac, and only spotted the anagram in FILIGREE some while after I had entered the solution, at which I arrived via the checking letters and taking “tracery” as the def. I admired the clue to SHEATH (21 dn) for the number of false garden paths which it tempted us to take..
  4. A bit harder today – 20 minutes – and an enjoyable puzzle.

    I think the “Jack” saying comes from “Pull up the ladder, Jack (ordinary seaman), I’m all right” meaning I’m on board and to hell with everybody else

  5. 25 minutes after a delay to be certain of crochet. (I couldn’t get ‘one beat, commonly’ as ‘crock’ out of my head.) Not helped by carelessly going for United at first. Fine word, lantern-jawed, when you see past the shape of it.
  6. I enjoyed reading your blog Tim. Thanks for filling in the gaps in my understanding (the sinister heraldry and Jack London).

    Not too much trouble with this one but more difficult than yesterday’s canter. Held up right at the end with Breakwater (didn’t know the mole = sea wall meaning) and LOI Filigree. Thought that word ended …gris and the wordplay took some untangling.
    Liked Kingpin. I visited Florence in May so 9 across went in straightaway once I’d got the starting F.

  7. I think this is a reference to Common Time in music which is four crotchet beats to the bar (4/4).

    24 minutes, so my second sub-30 this week, 30 minutes being my daily target which I don’t often quite achieve as there’s usually a sting in the tail that leaves me stuck on the last two or three clues. I thought this was about to happen today too as I was stranded for a while at the end looking for two intersecting names of girls at 18 and 24.

    A really enjoyable puzzle with no unknown words but two queries about the female gnat (what’s with all the insect references today?) and the child in heraldry born the wrong side of the blanket. I forgot to check these after completing the grid so thanks for saving me the bother, Tim.

    Edited at 2012-08-14 09:40 am (UTC)

  8. 4dn: so letters have become “members”? A new one on me.

    And today’s “believe it or not” clue link. Terry Scott played the part of Crawley (3dn) in I’m All Right Jack (22ac).

  9. 39 minutes in the traditional pattern, allegro > andante > largo, but unable to get FILIGREE, where I was bamboozled by the ‘perhaps’.
  10. 13 minutes here, with just a couple of holdups. ASCETIC must be setters word of the week as it has appeared elsewhere quite recently.
  11. Another straightforward one today, once I’d conquered the urge to write “Fiorentino” at 9ac. Also, learned something about gnats. I shall be more friendly to male gnats in future.
  12. 25 minutes. Because the 1’s didn’t click straight away (what do I know from Doncaster?) something inside went click and I went into tough puzzle solving mode. I only kicked out again in the SW corner, when I decided it wasn’t so tough after all, and ended up wondering what all the fuss was about.
    The change of mind set meant I stopped looking for an obscure insect at 3 and entered the one that everybody knows. I believe the England Cricketer John Crawley was inevitably nicknamed “Creepy” by the squad.
    CoD to NOT CRICKET for the idea of a single genus of insects.
    Did anyone else experience a frisson of disappointment at finding that NATO was today’s easily identified “hidden” precluding the possibility of being helped out on a harder one?
  13. Quick for me today, 20 minutes, although wasn’t sure about sea-girt and wanted another -i-t word – does ‘girt’ sound like a woman? Liked ‘whippersnapper’ although my uncle used it to refer to me when less than ten… not meaning I was a nonentity.
    1. Forenames certainly have the power to define your generation, don’t they? I would certainly speculate that any Gert, Gerties or Gertrudes who are with us would be of venerable years (I knew one in the past, and I’d say she was closer in generation to my grandparents than parents), which means it’s not an obvious name to come to mind. Yesterday’s news claimed that Harry and Amelia are the current favourites, while speculating the Olympics may spawn a new generation of Bradleys and Jessicas. Unless Gertrude Stein has a massive and unexpectedly popular renaissance, I can’t see Gert following suit…
  14. 22m. Reasonable puzzle, but a few somewhat obscure clues: the mole, the female gnat, SINISTER.
    It seems to be just me but I thought the definition in 12ac was poor: surely the defining characteristic of a WHIPPERSNAPPER is impudence? Certainly Chambers and ODO think so. Such a person is also lowly and/or young, but this is incidental: to have ideas above your station your station has got to be low to begin with.
  15. 17:09, dithering on 4d–had ‘united’ in for rather a while– and taking time to remember the other mole. I was also under the impression that a WHIPPERSNAPPER was an insolent person, not a nonentity, and that LANTERN-JAWED was prognathous; but my dictionary gives the hollow-faced definition, too. And I wondered about the definition of ASCETIC as well. My heart sank when I saw 3d –God, another British town I’ve never heard of–but in fact I got it from the C,P of CREEPY, and I actually had heard of Crawley. COD to FLORENTINE, which I didn’t parse before submitting.
  16. Between 30 and 35 minutes, and obviously I’m not timing very carefully. My LOI was CROCHET, where since I have no background in music I didn’t get the wordplay. Solved that from definition and checking letters. I agree with those who said that the WHIPPERSNAPPER is more youthful and sassy than a nonentity ( I think of Dorothy being hushed by the Wizard) and that LANTERN-JAEWD describes an elongated jaw. Over here, Jay Leno the TV host – if that means anything to you folks – is often labeled as lantern-jawed, and he’s not hollow-faced at all. So I found this took me a bit longer than usual. And in what I think is another US-centric reference, I got SINISTER by recalling the villian from the Underdog cartoons of 50 years ago, Simon Bar Sinister. I also confess that I didn’t get the original joke until today. Regards to all.
  17. I thought of Jack London the British Heavyweeight Boxing Champion, father of Brian London.
  18. Did this in short breaks during the day, but didn’t find it all that difficult – FILIGREE last in from the definition, BREAKWATER from the wordplay. Liked the clues for UNITED (I think a little leeway is OK for letters counting as members) and the surface for KINGPIN
  19. The Australian national anthem has the line
    “Our home is girt by sea”. My daughter’s nickname at school was Gert and she lives near Port Philip, so we sometimes call her “Gert-by-sea”
    Derek of Melbourne

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