Time crossword 25656 Hands up if you knew all the answers.

In the frame within a gnat’s crotchet of 20 minutes, in a bit of a hybrid puzzle that mixed the pretty straightforward with some arcana. There’s definitely some stuff I didn’t know in here, and it was a relief (and a bit of a surprise) to get a clear round. I reckon there’s only one way to fill in 2d, two ways to complete 3d, and I haven’t finished counting the possibilities for 18d if you’re missing a nautical term (as I was) in your otherwise comprehensive vocab. “Opposing sides” turn up without reference to bridge, “book” isn’t either OT or NT, and “leg” turns up without reference to cricket, all of which must count for something.
Here’s my reasoning.

Across

1   CRACK UP A nice ‘n’ easy double definition to get things started. The first has largely been replaced by ROFL in some
    circles
5   EARLDOM Perhaps not the first thing you think of with “dignity” as a definition, but BRB gives “high office”. Insert A R(ight
    and) L(eft) into EDOM, a kingdom said to be the descendants of Esau, the hairy twin of Jacob.
9   COMPADRES  “Friends”, M(arried) beside PADRE surrounded by COS, a Greek Island I’ve heard of, not just because of the
    lettuce.
10 TITAN  “Huge character” found in the odd letters of ThIs TrAiN
11 GET AWAY WITH IT “Avoid being caught”. Become smart gives you GET WITH IT and “road” gives you the WAY. A bypass
    does, after all, go round something, so counts as a containment indicator.
13 ACRIMONY  Poison in the sense of a poisonous relationship rather than a chemical. A matrioshka clue: nest MO (doctor)
    inside IN (home) inside A CRY
15 SIRRAH  Crops up often enough in Shakespeare and such, usually addressing a fellow you regard as inferior. Harris is the
    southern part of a single island in the Outer Hebrides. Viewed going westwards, i.e. from right to left on the page, it
    provides our answer.
17 KIMONO  A garment I have heard of. “Being worn” gives ON, honour is O(rder of) M(erit), I(sland) K(ing), all reversed.
19 PANGOLIN  The scaly anteater, in several varieties, but all (uniquely amongst mammals) with keratin scales. LONG is twisted
    in its suffering and encased in PAIN.
22 DOUBLE PARKING  I quite liked this &littish clue. Double P(arking) turns up in the middle of shoPPing.
25 AMITY The March sisters of Louisa M Alcott’s immortal work are Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth. Amy is our choice here and IT,
    “the thing” is in her grasp.
26 AT ONE TIME  “In concert” the definition, NET (catch) 1 (one) is buried in A TOME.
27 LEG IRON A LEGION, 5000 Romans in close formation, capture a R(ook) masquerading as a castle.
28 SLINGER  David delivered his knock out blow to Goliath with a slingshot, and was also the celebrated harpist who pacified
    King Saul in his madness. The musician, a SINGER, engrosses the last of (Sau)L. I liked the narrative style of this clue

Down

1   COCK I initially went the wrong way about this, looking for some sort of shard, but it’s CROCK for broken pottery ignoring
    its R(iver) for a generic bird.
2   ARMIGER  An antique term for a squire, and an anagram of GRIM AREA, which has the kindness to look like anagram fodder.
3   KRAIT  “A deadly S Asian rock snake (Bungarus caeruleus)”; you may well have heard it here first. I preferred it to KAIRT.
    It’s derived from “at risk” without the serpentine S and written “badly”.

4   PORT WINE A “drink” in which TWINE (for wind) follows P (piano/soft in music) and OR for gold (standard heraldic)
5   ESSAYS “Attempts”. A chance to speak as in have one’s SAY in mESS without its leading M.
6   RETAINING I.e. “not giving up” IN ANGER IT gets the tricky anagram treatment.
7   DITCHER  A Double definition, whimsically one leaving a partner and er… someone who digs ditches. In the countryside.
8   MINUTE HAND. Mimi, the consumptive heroine in Puccini’s opera La Boheme, is the subject of the song “Che gelida
    manina” – “Your tiny hand is frozen”. Which gives us, pronounced otherwise, our bit of a watch.
Christmas cracker time.
    Why do you call your newt Tiny?

12 MASKED BALL  A rolled around version of SMALL BAKED – rather a neat anagram, I thought.
14 MINELAYER  “This person’s” gives MINE, coating as in a LAYER of paint.
16 PATRIOTS  Perhaps an oblique reference to the entirely artificial row about Milliband’s “Britain hating” Marxist father. The
    old man conventionally gives PA, insert 1 into TROTS and you get a flag waver.

18 MOUSING this clue gave me most pause: I considered MAULING (big cats do) and some variation on MIAOWING spelled to fit.
    I also worked around variations on flogging without success, cats being
used for the process and which I think the clue
    was mischievously
intended to call to mind. I settled on MOUSING, and subsequently discovered a mouse or mousing is a
    nautical “knot or knob to prevent slipping”. More info in several Wiki articles.
20 LAGGING  Insulation material, like Uncle Bulgaria always behind the times.
21 SPRAIN  “Unwelcome twist” Spring gives you SPA, remove the first sign of A(ny) and sprinkle on a helping of RAIN.
23 ICENI The most likely answer to “old tribe”, called into use whenever a setter has to fill in I?E?I. “Province” gives N(orthern)
    I(reland), ICE is colloquial for (diamond) stones.
24 GEAR  “Effects” such as those on board ship that need to be stowed. G(rand) EAR (an organ, in this case, of the body).

33 comments on “Time crossword 25656 Hands up if you knew all the answers.”

  1. Another puzzle that started well but ended in disaster running to well over the hour with time lost mainly in the SW segment where I convinced myself that 14dn was MAYFLOWER where A goes inside MY and FLOWER = something special, as in the finest or the pick of something.

    Didn’t-knows or forgottens included ARMIGER, KRAIT, EDOM, MOUSING = lashing, SIRRAH and PANGOLIN.

    Edited at 2013-12-12 03:11 am (UTC)

  2. Just catching up on yesterday’s excellent puzzle. I really liked the PASSATA clue until Tony S. reminded us of the precedent.

    This one’s a bit harder with several unknowns that require a bit of sorting — mostly those mentioned by Jack above.

    My COD has to go to MASKED BALL where the anagram is hiding in plain sight. But the possibility of “small” = S and “baked” as the indicator is so tempting.

    I suppose we’ll find that the Mimi clue’s been done before. I have a vague memory of that … and making a bad pun on “Martini” at the time.

  3. Similar to yesterday’s – just pleased to finish. Held up unaccountably by AT ONE TIME, where I was trying every other phrase of the type ‘at/as one something’.

    Once had pangolin in China and very tasty it was too. Thanks to Zabadak for sorting out DOUBLE-PARKING, COCK and MOUSING. Glad it wasn’t my blogging day. My compliments to the setter.

    A search for armiger (‘arms bearer’) throws up the following nugget:

    ‘By the end of the 16th century, the pretentious use of the title, especially in its Latin form, Armiger, was being mocked by Shakespeare in his character, “Robert Shallow, esquire”:

    …a gentleman born, master parson; who writes himself “Armigero,” in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, “Armigero.”

    Joint COD to this and MASKED BALL.

    Edited at 2013-12-12 03:42 am (UTC)

  4. 1 second slower than our blogger at19:48 and with a similar solving experience. Somehow felt fairly confident, even on the unknown ARMIGER and MOUSING.

    Really liked MINELAYER and DOUBLE PARKING

  5. There’s an update to the post at http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1045460.html

    Most of those who volunteered should find a word to be clued waiting for them in their LJ (or FB) inbox. I’ve had problems reaching a few people. Please see the post for details.

    Edit: Thanks to all volunteers. In theory we now have all words covered but I’m still having problems communicating with a few people so reserves are welcome. Otherwise, a few individuals might be asked to do a second clue. Thanks again. Entries received so far look very good to my eyes (but they may come under tougher scrutiny on publication).

    Edited at 2013-12-12 04:16 pm (UTC)

  6. I went up several garden paths here, thinking of ‘shard’ and wondering if there was a shad bird (evidently there is, but I didn’t know of it, luckily), trying to get ‘ex’ in 7d, trying to rearrange the letters of ‘lashing’ (‘at sea’), thinking of every poison I knew of, fortunately not many (I’ve always found arsenic to be satisfactory when dispatching enemies), and so on. Had no idea why MOUSING worked. I actually took ‘rolls’ as anagrind in 12d, but without including ‘small’ (which I took to be S); finally noticed that ‘small baked’ has 10 letters.All in all, I’m surprised I finished. COD to 12d.
  7. Ah, because it’s my newt! Nice one Z, but I had to google it.

    A lot of unknowns today (for me at least) but all gettable by wordplay, which adds up to an excellent puzzle IMHO.

  8. About average overall but an uneven puzzle with quite a melange of the easy and the difficult. A classic example in the SW where 22A DOUBLE PARKING is laughably easy and the intersecting MOUSING is unsolvable (as against mauling) without a dictionary – my chosen path – or some very arcane knowledge

    I liked 12D, good surface and well disguised anagram

    1. Arcane indeed – the computer in my brain threw up “don’t forget to mouse the sister-hooks” from some sailing-themed book in my past or I would not have got it.
  9. Started off on the wrong foot with 1D SHAD, from shard, without recalling for sure whether it was a bird or a fish. MOUSING was a complete and unexplained lucky guess, this being what cats do. COD 12D
  10. Enjoyable puzzle with a number of unknowns for me – EARLDOM (in that sense), MOUSING, ARMIGER, Mimi’s hand. Another COD vote for 12D, as it just doesn’t seem likely to be an anagram.

    KRAIT will be familiar to anyone who has played the computer game Elite, in which all spaceships were named after snakes – “anyone”, I suppose, meaning mainly males whose teenage years coincided with the 1980s.

  11. 16min: ACRIMONY was LOI – a poison had to end -INE, and there was A DR at the start, so the rest just needed to be worked out, so took a few minutes berore getting out of that blind alley.
    I had come across that sense of MOUSING, and agree 12d was best of today’s clues.
  12. 23 mins. I was held up for a couple of minutes at the end by the ARMIGER/ACRIMONY crossers. I suspected the former was the most likely answer from the anagram fodder, but I didn’t want to enter it until I had an answer for the latter.

    DOUBLE-PARKING was easily solved but I liked the clue. MOUSING went in with my fingers crossed as a more likely answer than “mauling”. Although a similar clue for MINUTE HAND has almost certainly been done before it raised a smile.

  13. A curate’s egg of a puzzle, as others have said.

    A clear round in the end, but I needed Z8’s top-notch blog to explain the wordplay in several of the clues. I’d recently come across ARMIGER in a different context, but didn’t know KRAIT, the Biblical kingdom of Edom, or the obscure nautical meaning of MOUSING (though there wasn’t much else the solution could be once the cross-checkers were in place).

    As an opera buff, I enjoyed MINUTE HAND – easyish if you knew the reference but otherwise not, I guess. And MASKED BALL was an excellent anagram. Jimbo is surely right about DOUBLE PARKING: lovely surface read and ingenious worplay, but the &lit gives the game away, so all the cleverness is rather wasted.

  14. Echo the comments above – a nice-ish mixture of good clues with the wilfully obscure – had never before come across MOUSING in a nautical context and suspect the KRAIT’s natural habitat is word-puzzles of all kinds. Both went in on the wordplay, but under protest. I hold firmly to the view that a daily crossword may legitimately call on wide GK, but never on dictionaries or aids.

    My first in was wrong! Mixed up SHAG with SHA(r)D, the latter being, of course, a fish. Saw the light after COMPADRES, and righted my COCK-up!

    Noted with amusement the return of the TROTS – ah, those heady 60s!

    Came in at under an hour, across several journeys.

    Edited at 2013-12-12 12:50 pm (UTC)

  15. 14:55 for me and I would agree with the curate’s egg description. Double parking has appeared elsewhere fairly recently (don’t ask me where – I solve far too many cryptics to remember)
    1. Having just been to visit my parents and raided their heap of old newspapers, it was in Telegraph Toughie 1098 on December 10th.
  16. The problem with the inclusion of recondite words, and it looks as if many here agree that today’s offering is littered with them, is that an extra degree of difficulty is introduced just for the hell of it: no tricksy clueing, no lovely or novel indication, or not necessarily, it’s just plain hard work.

    Manley does this as Pasquale quite frequently just to irritate people in another place, it seems, and so I’m wondering…

  17. Rather enjoyed this one, it was the top left corner that was the last to fall, with ACRIMONY eventually getting me there. Only knew one definition of MOUSING, got SIRRAH from the definition and I didn’t know of CRACK UP meaning to praise. But there was a nice challenge here, hat’s off to the setter – I think the curate’s egg is out of place here.
    1. Only knew CRACK UP from the phrase “it’s not all it’s cracked up to be”. Not heard (or read) it in any other context.
  18. About 30 minutes, ending with ACRIMONY, which had me misled all along. I didn’t know of ARMIGER, the nautical mouse, or the biblical kingdom either. I think of a crock as a bit of pottery that’s not broken, which would be a shard, so that’s a bit of a quibble from me. I do like the SPRAIN clue for the very smooth surface. Regards.
  19. Done in bits and pieces so no time but a DNF anyway as regrettably went for a mauling. Smart puzzle but not entirely happy with acrimony as poison. And che gelida manina was a stretch for general knowledge I thought, even if the answer was a gimme. But some great cluing.
  20. …but got there in the end. ARMIGER was new to me, as was that sense of MOUSING, but in they went. I failed to parse DOUBLE PARKING.

    Having served a long time in East Anglia, SODOM was the only biblical kingdom that sprung to mind, which held me up. Never heard of EDOM (except possibly as a companion to GAUDA). 13ac also caused me some delay, as I was trying to justify ANTIMONY. Wasn’t over-impressed by SLINGER or DITCHER, though I suppose they’re legitimate enough (though this blog’s spell chequer doesn’t like them). Like others, I tried to remember if a SHAD was a fish or a fowl for 1D.

    All in all, it was a slow plod, and I got there in a Drosophila’s foreskin* over the hour. The only levity, for me, was in KIMONO which reminded of a phrase,”Open kimono time”, which equates roughly to “laying one’s cards on the table”.

    Had the opportunity today to treat both an earl and a titan. Alas, the earl turned out to be an Earl rather than an earl, so the average demographic of our patients remains only marginally above that of a rock-pool. What kind of Norfolk farmer names their son ‘Earl’, for goodness’ sake? As for the titan – 18 stone of wobbling flesh; and the uninjured leg was probably the same. I really do think it’s time we reconsidered our “open door” policy for A&E.

    *slightly larger than a gnat’s crotchet.

  21. As so often, I thought we protest too much. Knew mousing from Hornblower,(is he really “very arcane?”),kraits from heaven knows where, Attenborough probably, and one of my nephews married a Sally Armiger. Operas as well known as la Boheme surely can’t be considered arcana, not that I claim much expertise in that particular area.

    Try seeing it as an opportunity to broaden self, rather than a problem.. or there’s always the Sun & the Mail 😉

    Edited at 2013-12-12 09:32 pm (UTC)

  22. 11:42 for me. I was bang on the setter’s wavelength when it came to the wordplay, but made heavy weather of some of the definitions. For instance, with A‑R‑‑‑N‑ in place for 13ac, I wasted ages trying to fit in ATROPINE – and then, when that failed, trying to think of a similar poison that would fit. I spent a couple of minutes at the end agonising over MOUSING: it sounded vaguely familiar (I must have come across it some nautical novel or other), but I couldn’t convince myself I wasn’t just making it up.
  23. Once again I failed to check the letters of an anagram because I thought I knew the answer: in this case I entered ‘armager’ instead of ‘armiger’. Will I never learn?
    I knew ‘krait’ and correctly guessed ‘mousing’, failed to parse ‘double parking’, and also toyed with ‘antimony’ and ‘atropine’ before correctly parsing and solving the clue at 13a.
    Time with the error 25m 30s.
    I really must try to attempt the puzzle earlier in the day when my concentration is better.
    Perhaps I was distracted by watching Tottenham score four goals – no doubt z8 will share the joy.
    1. Yes indeed. Except that I was supposed to be there and the normally more-fanatic-than-I missus was not well and we missed it. Still, probably saw it better on TV, and on that version we scored some 23 times, though some of them looked very similar. Soldado scored five penalties.
  24. 23:50. There was some fairly obscure stuff in here, but I rather like that as long as it’s gettable from the wordplay, which it was. It’s probably lucky I didn’t consider MAULING but MOUSING is a much more archetypal feline activity.
  25. Failed, embarrassingly, to parse DOUBLE PARKING. This left M___I_G for “lashing at sea,” it had to be MARLING – lashing using a MARLINE, later unpicked using a MARLIN(E) SPIKE. Eventually got there – knew mousing involved ropes, but thought it was sending a small one through the hole first to drag the big one after. So right answer but wrong reason.

    Also a bit embarrassed not to spot the surface of that clue, lashed with the cat… I usually ensure I read and enjoy the surfaces.

    As others have said, the arcana rendered it slightly less enjoyable, but eminently gettable in 29 min, so just on the hard side of average.
    Rob

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