Times Crossword 25,188 – bringing up the rear

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: 26 minutes, so rather longer than average for me, but it’s been a long day. The crossword didn’t seem all that hard, though it did have a couple of unfamiliar words. I thought it entertaining and sound, with some good surfaces and no cliches to speak of.

I take this opportunity to wish many happy returns of the day, for tomorrow, to my co-blogger mctext. He shares his birthday with Boy George, Steffi Graf and Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury; not to mention a certain Dr Alzheimer, whose eponymous disease our efforts are no doubt helping to stave off…

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–).

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across
1 crevasse – “exam once” = CSE containing REV AS
5 unhook – “a continental” = UN + fair = OK containing house = HO. Bien sûr.
9 noh – HON, abbrev. of honourable, rev. Not sure why the reference to the Mitfords, specifically?
10 delectation – DELEGATION, with court = CT replacing the G (= good)
12 remorseful – REF + U(NUSUA)L containing the Times’ favourite fictional detective, MORSE
13 bail – dd; if your prospects in court appear poor, you can jump bail…
15 admass – AD + MASS. Not a word I am familiar with but it rang a faint bell. I avoid being a member of that group by the simple expedient of never, ever, watching any.
16 tension – PENSION with the P changed to T
18 paprika – PAPA containing RI(S)K
20 reiver – R(E)IVER. As in border reiver. Bless Wikipedia, that is an interesting article. And, repeat after me: “I before E, except after C, except sometimes.”
23 OK, we’ll leave this one out, both coming and going
24 sketchable – black = SABLE containing boat = KETCH
26 credentials – *(LATIN SCREED)
27 red – you can see red, geddit? Red = leftie is perilously close to a cliché..
28 suture – bound to be = SURE containing workers’ group = TU
29 ski slope – *(SPIKES) containing look = LO. Does anybody ever actually say “Lo?”
Down
1 canary – C + NARY containing A
2 exhumed – old = EX + HUME + D. Fortunately there is only one Scottish philosopher in crosswordland
3 aldermanic – *(CRIMEAN LAD).
4 seller’s market – “CELLARS MARK IT,” today’s dodgy homophone (discuss). The sort of market that I encounter, whenever I want to buy something…
6 Noah – NO AH, on the grounds that doctors commonly tell you to “Say ah.” Not ever to me, that I can recall, but still..
7 origami – ORIGI(N) containing American = AM. An elegant clue
8 kindling – KIN + D + LING. A number of species of fish can be referred to as ling, including this one
11 counter attack – token = COUNTER + fit = ATTACK. It is probably a fair definition of a crossword enthusiast: someone who sees the word “fit” and thinks “Ague, attack, seizure, spasm, convulsion…”
14 antithesis – A + N + island = IS, containing taxes = TITHES. Another neat clue
17 up sticks – UP “STYX” = move
19 protest – PEST containing ROT. I know that Buda and Pest were once two towns, separated by the Danube. And I know that beer is very cheap there. This completes my knowledge of the area..
21 embargo – organ = EAR + GO = repair (oh, yes it does) containing doctor = MB.
22 meddle – “MEDAL,” you wait ages for a homophone, and then three come along all at once..
25 we’ll leave this out. It can be brought up, or it can be “of the year.”

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

37 comments on “Times Crossword 25,188 – bringing up the rear”

  1. I thought this was going to be hard when I started solving but it all came together in 28 minutes so a very welcome excursion under 30 for me on a daily.

    Loved NO AH. Didn’t know REIVER, nor its (apparently) more usual spelling ‘reaver’.

    The Mitfords were all HONs.

    Edited at 2012-06-13 12:40 am (UTC)

  2. 19:33, with 1d my LOI. Had to double-check that BAIL was sporting equipment. I knew REIVER from Faulkner, who wrote ‘The Reivers’, not that I’ve ever read it, of course. And I just now realized that I treated ‘organ’ as anagrist, getting the right answer for the wrong reason. Jessica Mitford wrote ‘Hons and Rebels’.
    1. Right. I thought my version was a bit vague so I should have investigated further.

      I can’t say I’ve come across that title but I may have known and forgotten it. By coincidence I’m about to immerse myself in the Mitford era having just bought the DVD of ‘Love in a Cold Climate’ and obtained the biography of Stephen Tennant from the library. I shall now be adding ‘Hons & Rebels’ to my reading list.

      Edited at 2012-06-13 05:20 am (UTC)

      1. I think it was from that book that I remember her governess telling her, as they were about to enter the drawing room when there were guests for dinner, “You are the least important person in that room, and don’t you forget it.” Useful advice, especially for a young aristo, but also for all those people so concerned with ‘self-esteem’.
        2. Just bought it new on-line for £3.80 delivered!

          Edited at 2012-06-13 06:36 am (UTC)

  3. 28 minutes, but would have been a bit faster if I hadn’t bunged in ‘up stream’ at 17. Last in REAR. COD to EMBARGO for the misleading ‘repair’ and the near anagram of ‘organ’.

    I recently watched/rewatched all 33 episodes of Inspector Morse and got Lewis to file a report and a ‘Top Ten’.

  4. All ok today, in not-too-bad time.

    However, I did think CASSE= an old exam – doh! REIVER went in as unknown – a very funny looking word, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it correct. ADMASS is a word I have learnt in crosswordland, never heard it used.

  5. 16’13”, though Janie is not alone in assuming the good old Casse exam was making a comeback. Post solve whimsy reveals that a Casse-tête is a French puzzle, but I guess that won’t do. 5 was very nearly UNLOCK, though with no visible means of support.
    25070 educated me (and others, according to the blog) on ADMASS 4 months ago: I’m pleased to see that we were all paying attention at the back.
    I thought REIVER was a particularly nice clue, setting the historical and geographical context without blinking. CoD for that reason.
    Unusual (?) to see the same device used twice in one crossword: …may be jumped and …can be brought up.

    Edited at 2012-06-13 07:07 am (UTC)

  6. Thanks, Jerry, for sorting out embargo for me and thanks, Kevin, for the Jessica Mitford reference. I knew it was one of the sisters but couldn’t remember which one. While on the subject, I believe one sister referred to one of her siblings as, “8” as she thought that was her mental age. Can anyone shed any light on that? I have read a biography of the Mitfords but it is not to hand. COD to embargo. The use of organ and repair was a nice deception. One more thing: as far as memsahib and I are concerned, it’s a buyers’ market at present. Anyone want a Honda Jazz in vgc. FOB Sydney! Or a 15th century French farmhouse?

    Edited at 2012-06-13 07:18 am (UTC)

    1. Nine was Nancy’s name for Debo (later Duchess of Devonshire) for just that reason Martin. When do you “relo” as they say in realtor-speak in NY?

      17 minutes for me after briefly pausing on 1a which seems to get spelled crevice this side of the pond. Nice puzzle and Noah made me laugh.

      1. We leave Sydney on 24 June, Olivia, and hit the U.K. on 21July. Thanks for putting me straight on the Mitfords!

        Edited at 2012-06-13 11:43 am (UTC)

  7. Easy one today, cantered home in 15 minutes with no hold ups

    Got NOH straight from definition so never needed to concern myself with all that Mitford stuff. Knew REIVER from Mephisto land where the old usage would probably have been signalled “….English plunderer once”. The homophones don’t get any better.

    I recall as a child doctors frequently sticking a bit of wood in my mouth and instructing me to say Ah whilst trying not to gag. Have they stopped doing that?

    1. I can confrm that they do. They did to me in a hospital yesterday. That accounting for my absence from your great blog. It’s hard to figure TRIDENTINE between blood tests and hospital food!
  8. Thanks, jerry. This was a good puzzle but I was far from on top form so never requeried my pencilled-in entry of ‘sketchbook’ for 24 ac. First time through, I got as far as: ‘s’ = sable; ‘ketch’ = boat; ‘OK’ = appropriate – leaving me to sort out later where the ‘bo’ came from and how the definition really worked. SE, in consequence, was ungettable. Ignorance of REIVER would have made me a DNF, anyhow.
  9. Another one pondering the anagram of ORGAN in 21dn and wondering if the clue was wrong. It never is though. “Repair” meaning GO (cf drawing rooms again) sounds very Mitford eh? Had to run the Mac dictionary on REIVER to be sure.

    Thanks for covering on the blog Jerry. I’m extremely glad it wasn’t my turn today.

    And ta too for the birthday wishes. There was every chance I’d be in the operating theatre for the whole of that day. But they needed the bed! Phew!

    Edited at 2012-06-13 08:33 am (UTC)

  10. Pleasant 11:38 with a few things which would be obscure in real life though not in crosswords (I am pretty sure I learned ADMASS from a previous Times puzzle and have never seen it anywhere other than further crosswords since then). Followers of rugby union might well remember the Border Reivers, who represented the appropriate part of Scotland in the early days of professional club rugby, at least until the money ran out.
  11. 20 minutes. One of those puzzles that prove straightforward can be thoroughly enjoyable. My LOI was REIVER: only after writing in 14 could I eliminate RIEVER and RIVEER. (I’m in a puritanical mood this morning and resisted reaching for Chambers.

    The only surviving Mitford sister is Deborah (Debo), Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. In her memoirs Wait for Me! she describes how she and Jessica (Decca) spent hours in the linen cupboard communicating in a private language they called “Honnish”.

    In Honnish, “hon” meant hen …… The Honnish Hons were Decca and me; the Horrible Counter Hons were Nancy, Tom and Diana.

    I recommend her book, not just for the eccentric English aristocrats (Herbrand, the Eleventh Duke of Bedford, whose best friend was a spider …….. ) but for the moving but understated descriptions of personal loss, and the dignity and restraint of her and her contemporaries’ grief; something we don’t do so well since the death of Princess Diana.

    1. True, but both would make the clue a single definition rather than a double one. Mind you, that didn’t stop me considering BALL for more than a moment or two.
  12. Just over the nine minutes for me – I remembered ADMASS from crosswords and REIVER suddenly appeared from the depths but apart from those two, I thought it nice and straightforward.
  13. 16 minutes, didn’t get many at the first reading, so a good head-scratcher. CREVASSE and NOH from the definitions. Liked UP STICKS and ANTHITHESIS
  14. Another 28 minutes solve here and a most enjoyable one at that. True there was that puzzling CASSE exam, not to mention the HON & repair thingys, but apart from that some cracking clues. COD to DELECTATION.

    I was once chasing reiver ancestry all over Cumbria until the Graham in question turned out to be a clerical error. The Wiki article doesn’t mention the forced deportations to Ireland of whole clans, including the Grahams. That sounds a bit drastic, but I guess it beat summary execution. Nowadays, RAF Spadeadam keep them in check.

    I find being asked to say “ah” is not only unnecessary, since one can’t say anything else with a wooden spatula depressing the tongue, but also so stereotypically archaic as to be amusing. I usually try to say “Are you serious?” but can’t get past the “Ar…”.

  15. 12m. Enjoyable yet easy in spite of a couple where I’d got the wrong end of the stick. For instance I was another who thought “casse” must be some sort of archaic exam, and I didn’t even notice there wasn’t an anagram of “organ” in 21dn. Didn’t know REIVER or what “hon” had to do with Mitfords but did remember ADMASS from the last time.
    I heard the other day that they’ve stopped teaching “i before e” because the exceptions almost outnumber the non-exceptions.
      1. That this rule is no longer taught you possibly heard from a QI on Dave. Fry claimed that there are 923 exceptions, but he was not giving the full rule. There is a comprehensive article in Wiki dealing with the full rule, and the exceptions.Just google i before e. There is more suuccint treatment the Spelling rules section of the preface of Chambers.
        1. Quite possibly. It had to be either that or Radio 4. Based on my limited recent TV and radio consumption the only alternative sources are The Killing and Octonauts, both of which seem unlikely.
  16. Longer than usual, nearly an hour, bit dim today, last one was in canary. I had heard of ADMASS but have never heard it used in 30 years of working in advertising. I think it’s in some early marketing text books nobody reads now. CoD Up sticks for me.
  17. 16:45, which is a PB for me. Woo-hoo! Pretty lucky though, because I also assumed CASSE = exam, failed to see that organ was not the anagrist, and had never heard of a REIVER.
    Most fortunately of all, I came across ADMASS for the first time last weekend, when I was catching up on some old Times crosswords. Since then I have mentioned it to several people, because I’m not sure I’ve ever heard such an ugly word. Still, it went right in today!
  18. I knew REIVER from the Lymond series of Dorothy Dunnett. English/Scottish cross border raids for plunder and general mayhem are a prominent feature of her early books. A slowish steady solve. 30 minutes
  19. Since using “repair” to mean “go” in 21 this morning, a half-remembered song has been trying to escape from the mental lumber room. It just emerged as I was walking up the lane:

    It was on the fifth of August
    The weather fine and fair
    Unto Brigg Fair I did repair
    For a love I was inclined

    I shall now be humming Brigg Fair to myself for the rest of the evening, and wondering if “fair” and “repair” were the pastoral equivalent of “moon” and “June”.

    Edited at 2012-06-13 05:11 pm (UTC)

  20. About 40 minutes with head scratching at the end, But 1 wrong with RAIDER instead of the never-heard-of REIVER. BAIL was my LOI, as a likely looking guess, but as usual cricket-like matters whoosh past me without understanding. Regards to all.
  21. 27 minutes, a reasonably enjoyable plod. Good to see ‘reiver’ possibly for the first time since childhood and books of derring-do.
  22. 6:08 – nearly a clean sweep, but I overhastily bunged in COUNTERSTROKE at 11dn. (I also bunged in RAIDER at 20ac, but corrected it before moving on.) A nice easy puzzle for old hands.
  23. noh – HON, abbrev. of honourable, rev. Not sure why the reference to the Mitfords, specifically?
    The “Hons”is a society formed by the young members of the family in “The Pursuit of Love” by Nancy Mitford.

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