Times 24,450 – Bridging a gap?

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
16:12; to be precise, that was the time at which I stopped the clock, believing everything was answered and entered correctly, albeit with a certain amount of wordplay left to be explained to myself as I wrote the blog (specifically 10a, 13a and 4d).

Across
1 BALUSTER – A(rea) in BLUSTER.
9 ESCALATE – (CASE)* + (ET AL.)rev.
10 STOP – I might need some help confirming my reading of this clue from any bridge experts (of which I am sure there are many in the crossword community). I went with STOP, as it’s defined by “knock out” in the boxing sense, and I could only see ATOP, or STEP as alternatives with the checking letters _T_P, and neither is defined by anything in the clue; so I came to the conclusion that there must be a context in contract bridge where STOP meant “high card”. However, everything I can find on Google suggests it should be STOPPER rather than STOP, so I am open to illumination. All alternative, and possibly more correct, readings gratefully received.
11 RIDER HAGGARD – double defs; nice to see the man himself in a clue instead of his work (this means, of course, that when “She” is clued as “novel” next time, you can’t say that Rider Haggard is never talked of in this day and age).
13 SULTAN – something of a guess, but it sounded plausible and looked the best fit from the checking letters; and as it turns out, it’s entirely possible someone reading this has some in their Eglu.
14 WILDLIFE – (L. IF) in WILDE.
15 CHASTEN – C + HASTEN; well-disguised answer, as I was sure the first bit was the definition, and this would end -EST; instead, C = speed of light in a vacuum = maximum possible speed.
16 TRISECT – [SITTER + C(atch)]*; nice cricketing surface for those who like cricket (and presumably vice versa).
20 MARIACHI – MARIA + C(ape) + HI; to be honest, I was writing in the answer as soon as I saw it involved Mexican music. Meanwhile, I guess you can take your pick of the Bernstein / Sondheim Maria or the Rodgers and Hammerstein Maria. Any more?
22 LLAMAS – [S(A)MALL]rev.
23 STAGE MANAGED – STAGE=coach, MAN=bloke, AGED=getting on.
25 deliberately omitted
26 LISTLESS – if you don’t lean so much, you list less. Ba da boom.
27 HAND DOWN – double def.
 
Down
2 ALTHOUGH – A L(earner) THOUGH(t).
3 UNPROTESTING – UN-PRO + TESTING; not sure I ever have heard, or ever will hear, an amateur described in a real world context as “un-pro”, but as always, if it doesn’t stop you solving the clue, it’s fine.
4 TAP DANCE – [DAN + C(aught)] in TAPE.
5 deliberately omitted
6 deliberately omitted
7 BABA – double def, the meaning of “little one” comes from the childish noise, I guess, though the derivation of the word suggests someone old, not young (the cake meaning comes from the Polish word for “grandmother”, it seems).
8 DEAD HEAT – cruDE AD HE ATtacked; close to the last to go in, always the sign of a well-disguised hidden word.
12 GOLD STANDARD – cryptic reference to this economic term, and being “good as gold”.
15 CAMISOLE – (1 MAC)rev. + SOLE
17 RELIGION – beLIef in REGION.
18 CHAT SHOW – = CHATS – HOW?
19 FINNISH – N(ame) in FINISH; this is the sort of finish alluded to.
21 CAMPER – CAME round P(arking) + (mete)R; I spent a youthful summer driving round southern Europe in one of these campers and remember it with great fondness.
24 APSE – S(ingular) in APE.

27 comments on “Times 24,450 – Bridging a gap?”

  1. 20 minutes with one mistake – one of those puzzles where one corner kills you. After 9 minutes, had 1, 3, 10, 13 to finish off. I managed STOP, possibly from my mother calling the same thing a stopper when teaching me solo whist. Then saw 13 and 1, but for ?U?T?N I got the “nothing seems to fit” blues, and wrongly looked for a 4-letter chicken + AN = one, which is impossible based on the rule discussed with Ilan yesterday. PULTAN sounded plausible – it turns out to be an word in Chambers. SULTAN just never made it onto the list of possibles.
  2. 15:55 .. with three intuitively guided assumptions (yeah, guesses) – STOP, BABA and SULTAN all going in on a wing and a prayer.

    Thanks for the Sultan link, Tim. I love the bit about how their “crest feathers have a tendency to freeze when the temperatures drop below zero”, which must leave them looking like albino punk rockers, or one of the brothers from Jedward.

    COD 3d UNPROTESTING, for making me wince.

  3. I did most of this in two 15 minute sessions but then I got stuck – also in the NW cormer – and lost count how long it took to finish it off. In the end I guessed STOP and cheated on SULTAN picking it off a list of possible words and taking a stab in the dark that as it means a ruler it might also be a breed of chicken. Not sure that it’s a very fair clue actually but I’ll reservbe judgement until I’m home to consult the usual sources.

    I first met BABA in teh early days of Wimpy bars where they sold a ghastly concoction called a Rum Baba.

    The musicians at 20ac have stuck in my mind ever since first hearing the Tom Leher song In Old Mexico: “The mariachis would serenade/ And they would not shut up till they were paid/ We ate, we drank and we were merry/ And we got typhoid and dysentery”

    1. This morning I expressed doubts about the fairness of this clue having only checked dictionary.com which doesn’t even mention “sultan” as a breed of chicken.

      I’ve since had the opportunity to refer to the usual dictionaries all of which have it as either the second or third meaning, so I’m now convinced the clue was okay and put my failure to solve it without aids down to my own ignorance.

  5. I’m another member of the club with STOP and SULTAN being the last two in at around 30 minutes.

    I had 9 across starting ASCE…. for a time thinking there must be some variant of ASCEND to go in.

    Is SMALL really a definition of ‘not long’? at 22a. Surely SHORT is ‘not long’.

    Got MARIACHI from the wordplay (or should I say the non-definition bit, or subsidiary indication, or letterplay, or ludograph (?!) – reference to another message board which is debating this subject at the moment).

    I liked FINNISH and UNPROTESTING and thought C for maximum possible speed was very clever.

  6. I’m going to venture the thought that 10A is wrong! The high card referred to in bridge terms is a stopper. “Stop” in bridge is a verbal bidding convention to signal a jump bid. Thus if instead of replying “3 spades” to partners bid of “2 spades” one wants to go straight to “4 spades” the convention is that one says “Stop – pause – 4 spades”.

    I also had most trouble in the NW corner and also with STOP, SULTAN and UNPROTESTING. Got there in the end in about 30 minutes. I liked the use of “Japan perhaps” at 19D. Good reasonable standard puzzle.

    1. This is what I was angling towards, though I really don’t have the knowledge to be dogmatic – but going from my research into bridge terminology, either we are talking about the high card which prevents one’s opponents winning a slam, and which should, as Jimbo says, be referred to as a “stopper”, not a “stop”; or we are talking about a stop, as described above, in which case the clue ought perhaps to be “high bid in bridge”, rather than “high card”.
      1. I’m sure we’re talking about the high card. Concise Oxford lists this meaning under stop, and so does Collins. Chambers is pretty useless – “a card that interrupts the run of play” – no game specified, and a referee’s red card in soccer arguably fits the bill. A Google search for [“stop in spades” bridge] suggests to me that at least some bridge players use “stop” with the required meaning.
  7. As a regular bridge player, I also feel STOP is poorly clued – I wasted time trying to make sense of it, but can’t. Even a stopper is not necessarily a high card, just one that happens to be higher than any the opponents have left in their hands, to be pedantic.

    Had to guess SULTAN and MARIACHI, and was very uncertain about CAMPER.

    Not sure how long I took, 17 or 18 mins, I think.

  8. I struggled with this one this morning, solving it in about 35 mins in the end. I blame tiredness after sitting up till 2am struggling (successfully in the end) with a Magpie mathematical puzzle. Glad of confirmation that SULTAN is right, as it was my last in as a complete guess. STOP was 2nd last in, also a guess but with a bit more confidence. The SW corner gave me the most trouble apart from those, but I kept nodding off and found it hard to concentrate.

    (Foot of white space removed, but I had to delete the comment and repost)

  9. Similar problems to most others (just slower). NW corner last to fall, guesses for SULTAN & DAN in TAP DANCE, elsewhere CHATS as singers. Also of course STOP (knew it had to be the card game, just when I think I’ve learned the terms a new one appears…). Unlike others, did spend a while wondering why ETAL was a plural of cases reversed in 9, perhaps something to do with etui? but got there in the end.
  10. Dare I venture that 10a is just a three definition clue with Bridge=Stop. To “bridge” a gap is also to “stop” it?
    1. I can see your point but I’d give you odds of about 10 to 1 that if asked, the setter would explain it as two defs.
  11. 20.15 Same problems as most. Eventually got 1 (having had pilaster(?) in my mind since the start)and then got 2 which led me to STOP although if Knock out is a boxing reference then it is not the same thing. Also agree that stopper for bridge is more usual , although I don’t disagree with the ‘high card’ definition as the stopper will ,when it comes to the crunch, be the ‘high card’ remaining in the suit.
    Last in SULTAN which I had never heard of and I was also reduced to going through the alphabet – and worse, it wasn’t until I was going through it for the third letter , after failing with the first, that I found this semi-plausible answer
  12. Seems like I’ve had the same experience as most, about 10 minutes for the rest of the crossword, 5 more to try to find good words for 10 and 13. I liked 3 down.
  13. Same as everyone else, and took about 40 minutes. I got STOP from ‘stopper’, via the Bridge reference, and thinking that over in the UK they must say ‘stop’ instead. SULTAN was a guess from the checking letters. I also had trouble with the Japan reference, thinking it must be a fish, and getting stuck on the tribal leader in 4D meaning ‘T’, not Dan. Beyond those, much of the rest was very good, esp. CHASTEN. Regards.
  15. This is getting boring – much the same experience as others, with STOP, SULTAN and UNPROTESTING the last to go in. No timing as I returned to it in short bursts over the day. A fair bit of tricky stuff for this early in the week, coming on the heels of a by no means easy Monday puzzle. I liked CAMISOLE, the clever anagram at 16 ac (TRISECT), and, following Jimbo, the unusual use of “Japan” at 19 dn. I suspect I was not alone in hitting on the correct solution to the latter fairly quickly and then hesitating for some while to put it in because I couldn’t initially see how the “japan” bit fitted. I was chuffed to guess MARIACHI – previously unknown to me – from the non-definitional wordplay alone at 20 ac.
  16. Similar experience in the NW corner. I couldn’t find any dictionary support for BABA = baby, but would recommend to Jack to buy his “baba au rhum” from a French patisserie rather than Wimpy Bars! As I type at one, I wonder how long before “IMAC” is defined as “computer” rather than “one outer garment” (15dn).
    1. I think the Wimpy version I tried once about 45 years ago must have put me off rum baba for life. The only French patisserie I’ve had the opportunity to visit regularly was Patisserie Valerie in Soho and don’t recall ever seeing baba au rhum on sale there. I’ve just checked their menu on-line and it’s not listed.
  17. Tough one. But when I played bridge, if you had a stop in hearts, say, you had ace, or king low, or queen and two lows, etc., i.e. a very good chance of a winner in that suit.
  18. Late getting to this, owing to finding time for all the historical puzzles. Found it a little harder than average, over the 30min mark. Just to be different, my last in was baluster, same NW quadrant though.. don’t see a problem with “stop.”

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