Times 25,189 – Power-Brokers & Grandees

Author   yfyapPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
What an absolutely smashing puzzle today. The more I had to delve into the wordplay for this blog, the more my admiration grew for this setter. One of the most memorable. Thank you, whoever you are.

ACROSS
1 BISECT Ins of SEC (second, instant) in BIT (were effective as in The tough fiscal measures bit)
4 SMASH HIT *(THIS HAS Millions) What a succinct &lit. My COD
10 HOBGOBLIN Ins of GO (turn) in HOBBLIN’ (limping, stunted)
11 PRISE P (pressure) RISE (go up) for an alternate spelling for PRIZE, a cause of swelling (of pride) mctext figured more correctly that it should be P + RIDE (go up as in mount a horse) so PRIDE
12 SOL playerS dO welL (last letters)
13 SEVEN-LEAGUE Seven-league boots are an element in European folklore. The boots allow the wearer to take great strides—seven leagues each step. Sevens League = rugby types with one s missing. I remember attending the Hong Kong Sevens one year with my fellow-cruciverbalist, Dr Gurmukh. The newspaper reported an Australian warship coming in for emergency repairs and when the sailors disembarked, someone was spotted handing out tickets to the Sevens. They say that if ever the Sevens gets boring, turn around and watch the rugby.
14 WELLER dd Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers
16 REBUKED Ins of B (British) + jUnKiE (alternate letters) in RED (scarlet)
19 NON-USER Ins of ONUS (responsibility) in Emperor NERO minus O
20 YORKED House of YORK (Royal house with the rose as its emblem) + EnD (end empty) A YORK in cricket is a ball bowled so as to pitch on the popping crease and pass under the bat.
22 HAND-TO-MOUTH Ins of AND TOM OUT in H (holding) & H (holding) but as mctext pointed out, a simple ha
25 CRU Sounds like CREW (team rowing)
26 VERDI Rev of ID (identify or establish) REV (reverend, minister) for Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813–1901) an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera.
27 ENTHRONED *(sermoN THEN REDO)
28 NEAR GALE NEAR (by) GALE (sounds like Gael, Scotsman)
29 AZALEA Ins of Z (notation for unknown in algebra) in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous, who’d kick bottle) + LEA (meadow) a plant of the group of deciduous shrubs, Azalea, (formerly a separate genus, now a subgenus of Rhododendron with five stamens and annual leaves) popular for their many showy flowers.

DOWN
1 BEHEST Ins of HES (HENS, chickens minus N, number) in BET (YANKEE, a multiple bet on four horses in four races, consisting of six doubles, four trebles and one accumulator.
2 SUBALTERN Cha of SUB (change) ALTER (change) N (new)
3 CROSS dd a tangelo is a hybrid between tangerine orange and pomelo
5 MEN IN GREY SUITS MEANING (intending) minus A + REY (Spanish king, what a remarkable co-incidence – two days ago, I had this identical device in my Guardian blog) SUITS (legal actions) for a term meaning elder statesmen or grandees that pulls the strings behind the stage to plot and put their favoured candidates into office
6 SEPTEMBER Ins of PT (part) in SEEM (appear) BE (live) R (run)
7 HYING DYING (going out) with H (husband) substituted for D (diamonds)
8 THE BENDS decompression sickness, also known as caisson disease; aeroembolism clued as disorder surfacing, Brilliant!
9 OLIVER CROMWELL Ins of V (five in Roman numeral) ER (Elizabeth Regina, present head of Commonwealth) C (first letter or head of Commonwealth) in *(OR LIMO) + WELL (fit) for the military leader who was head of the Commonwealth of England from 1653 to 1658
15 LAST THING LAST (go on) THING (hobby horse)
17 KIEL CANAL *(King ALLIANCE)  a 98-kilometre long canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstei linking the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau.
18 UNSHAVEN UN’S (one’s) HAVEN (secure place)
21 BUDDHA BUD (buddy, friend, mate like China plate in rhyming slang) + *(HAD)
23 NORMA NO (rev of ON or leg side in cricket) RMA (Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst)
24 HERTZ Sounds like HURTS (is given to smart as pointed out by mctext to get the correct part of speech) Gustav Hertz (1887–1975), German physicist

Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

33 comments on “Times 25,189 – Power-Brokers & Grandees”

  1. My compliments on a masterful blog. I did finish, but I wasn’t quite sure how.
  2. … on the blog before I get back later with a whinge about the Club site.

    11ac: I think the answer is PRIDE. With RIDE being “go up” as in horse-riding.
    22ac: It’s a straightforward hidden answer. JosH AND TOM OUT Holding.
    24dn: The def has to be “is given to smart” for “hurts” to get the right part of speech.

  4. Great puzzle that I found hard to get started. First in was MEN IN GREY SUITS, spotted from “meaning” minus A and worked from there. Surely these are what we call “the faceless men”; the grey suits ensuring anonymity for their backroom power dealings?

    Briefly feared there may have been a slur on the Scots character at 28ac until “by” (NEAR) dawned.

    Lots of the rest from defs then working backwards to the parsings. COD to UNSHAVEN for apparent complexity on the surface when it’s actually very simple.

    Now for business:
    Logged on to the Club site today and got the billing options screen.
    https://www.crosswordclub.co.uk/user/billing
    This despite the facts that my sub expires on this day in 2013 and that I have an annual renewal agreement. So couldn’t get to the puzzle at all and had to call upon a friend’s good services for a copy.

    Not good enough Times & WorldPay!

    1. Hope you get it sorted. I’ve never yet managed to have my sub renewed automatically without encountering a problem. It expires in March but for some reason they take payment in October, 6 months in advance, and have always managed to lock me out in the process.
      1. The irony, of course, is that the billing page reads, inter alia:
        “… so you can be sure of uninterrupted access to the club”.
        Is there a Trade Practices Act in the UK?
        1. I couldn’t help wondering how your sub can run out a year hence when you have an annual renewal agreement!
          1. It’s simple. I got a year’s extension as a present. When I can get to the MY Account page (which I can’t now), it clearly states this. If I click on billing, it offers me a sub STARTING on 14 June 2013. So even they know that somewhere in their system.
            1. Ah, I’ve just checked ‘My Invoices’. It looks like they gave me a month free after the ‘handover’ in 2010, after which I’ve paid £19.99 and then £24.99. No free year, but – fingers crossed – no problems yet.
          2. Very easily; that site screws up nearly every year. I once had two subs running simultaneously under two email addresses. But, in the end, things are happily resolved. McText, please email me yfyap88@gmaildotcom when you next have problems. I have a 7 hour advantage to be of assistance.
            1. Yup. It’s a snafu every year so I just ring them rather than chase my tail all round robin hood’s barn.

              Managed this – finally – in about 40, but (of course) with typo. Threw in the US spelling for the suit colour and then failed to notice because it looked normal.

  5. Another 60+ minute job for me today. The RH went in quite easily apart from 13ac in which both references were unknown so I never stood a chance but in the end that was my only resort to aids.

    I became really bogged down in the SW where I toyed with NON-EXEC for a long time at 19ac and resisted putting NEAR GALE at 28ac because I didn’t know it officially existed. I was concerned there may be a lazy stereotype involved in the wordplay here so I was pleased when I was proved wrong about that.

    14 had me looking for a homophone indicator and wondering if Dickens invented a shady character called ‘Geezer’.

    Edited at 2012-06-14 06:10 am (UTC)

  6. Needed aids to get the Lord Protector (ugh!), which then ‘handed’ me the unknowns SEVEN-LEAGUE and NEAR GALE to get me over the line. So many I didn’t parse, but it was one of them puzzles where I was pleased with what I did work out. Congratulations to setter and Yap Suk, with a mention in despatches to McT.

    Prise went before a fall for me too – or my ‘destruction’, to be more accurate. Perhaps.

  7. Mr Yap, you have summed it up so well, even down to making the same mistake (prise) as me! This was an excellent puzzle. Congratulations to the setter and to our blogger! 4ac was such a clever anagram but my COD was SOL. So clever. 13ac made me smile.Re 13ac, a fellow German O-level student all those years ago was so enamoured of the word “Siebenmeilenstiefel” that despite it having nothing whatsoever to do with whatever his essay topic was, he managed to fit that word in. As far as shrubs are concerned I did toy with TYTLEA before sense prevailed! Again, a puzzle to gladdens one’s heart!
  8. 45 minutes. Good stuff. Share the blogger’s admiration of clever definitions, e.g. disorder surfacing.
  9. 29 minutes, but with PRISE. In this grid, I should never have accepted something as simple as “go up”=rise, but can perhaps be forgiven for believing that the literal worked somehow as yet to be devised – Uncle Yap’s go at it was not by any means incredible.
    Another great hidden today, providing a credible little narrative, and all in all there were great clue here.
    There was no way I was going to get old Warts ‘n’ All from the cryptic – it took a lot of post-solve head scratching to break it down. Does that demote it from good clue status?
    In honour of its location, KIEL CANAL originally went in with KANAL before realising that the cryptic wouldn’t permit it.
    CoD to the brilliant &lit SMASH HIT.

    Edited at 2012-06-14 09:08 am (UTC)

    1. I can’t suppose I’ll be the only one who never spotted the anagrist. ‘Buying it’ is almost worth the admission money (or in McT’s case payment in kind – free headaches?) alone.

      Edited at 2012-06-14 09:13 am (UTC)

      1. Again really well hidden by the narrative of the clue. Spotting it was a genuine “wow” moment, one of the top reasons, I suppose, we keep doing these things.
  10. About 80 minutes for me, and had to cheat to get NEAR GALE, although I had considered it earlier. WELLER was a problem also. Now deciding whether to read the complete works of Dickens, or jut memorise the list of characters in Wikipedia.
  11. DNF. Gave up in sight of the line with NEAR GALE and NORMA undone and WELLER just a guess. I couldn’t get NORAH and NIGH out of my head, but they were mutually exclusive and my time was well and truly up. It was indeed a cluing tour de force; chapeaux to the setter. COD to SMASH HIT ahead of HOBGOBLIN & OLIVER (not the Dickens character).

  12. Very tricky one today, but massively satisfying. I was glad to have managed it with only a couple of gaps (but plenty of ?s in the margins: the boots, NORMA (thought it was just Military Academy), REY (the King), Commonwealth heads, KIEL CANAL).

    At 24dn I had invented a physicist called ‘Herte’ (that WAS silly!), so couldn’t get AZALEA, and I had a gap at WELLER (never ‘eard of ‘im).

    Really challenging puzzle today, with a wide range of GK and some brilliant cryptics. Can’t believe I somehow managed to get all three sporting refs correct, now that’s what I call progress!

  13. 30m. Bit rushed off my feet today but just wanted to say thanks setter. Magnificent stuff.
  14. Didn’t get to start on this until the way in to work today, so no time recorded, two sessions of scrutiny. There was a lot here that went in with shrugs and hopes – didn’t know WELLER the character, OLIVER CROMWELL from checking letters and the definition, MEN IN GREY SUITS pieced together from the wordplay, BISECT and BEHEST from the definitions, and KIEL CANAL from the wordplay (CANAL well before the rest).
    Despite myself, I got there! Woohoo
  15. Today managed 18 holes in the complete dry for first time in weeks. There was a strange scary yellow thing in the sky for a short while but thankfully it soon disappeared as the wind rose. Now blowing a gale.

    Decent puzzle that gave me plenty to think about. Loved 4A a real corker. Thank you setter and well done Uncle Yap

  16. No time to post due to constant interruption, which unfortunately reduced my enjoyment of this fine puzzle. Thanks to the setter. My guesses included the SEVEN-LEAGUE boots, WELLER, and why ‘thing’ is a hobby-horse. I confess that I didn’t stop to figure out the CROMWELL parsing, but I had to decipher the MEN IN GREY SUITS parsing because I believe over here they wear blue. LOI was UNSHAVEN, and my COD to KIEL CANAL for the silky surface. Thanks to UY and regards to all.
  17. Hying? Never heard of it. Otherwise, brilliant puzzle, an hour in two stabs, well blogged UY.
  18. 16:37 for me. Undoubtedly clever stuff, but I found some of the clues a little too convoluted for my taste.
  19. Came in late, off to bed considerably later – with it done. Loved near gale. Not keen on hying. Nevertheless – brilliant stuff!
  20. Great puzzle, although I couldn’t parse a couple of them, like OLIVER CROMWELL, NORMA, SEVEN LEAGUE. But seeing Uncle’s explanations, I feel less bothered by that. 33 minutes, plus some time to reconsider ‘prise’–I didn’t like it from the start, too easy and not accounting for ‘selling’–and switch to PRIDE.

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