Times 24,474 – I’m All Right (I hope)

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
12:47 here, so I’ll take my life in my hands and definitively describe this as a nice even puzzle, with nothing overly demanding in terms of knowledge or wordplay. The trick, of course, with this level of difficulty is to offer a puzzle that will be a decent challenge for less experienced solvers, without making older hands sigh; I’d say this one gets a definite pass. I even got the two plants on my first look through, and botany is normally an area where I depend on wordplay and checking letters.

Across
1 JOURNALIST – J(oin) OUR N(ew) A-LIST.
6 ARMS – as in the phrase “up in arms”; my immediate thought was of canal boating, as the UK inland waterway network contains many subsidiary canals where the naming convention switches between “branch” and “arm”.
10 CADET – CADE + (inheri)T; more usually a junior military rank, but originally a younger son, thus not the heir, all from the Latin via the French. As far as revolting peasants go, Wat Tyler is probably better known, but Jack Cade has certainly appeared in these pages before. (ETA In fact a more precise check reveals he appeared in 1981, in one of the recently re-printed anniversary puzzles, and again on at least four occasions since this blog began).
11 GERMANDER – R(oyal) M(ilitary) A(cademy) in GENDER.
12 RADIO TELESCOPE – (DECLAREISOTOPE)*.
14 BIGOTRY – B(ook) I GO TRY.
15 deliberately omitted
17 OUT OF IT – O.U. TO FIT. O.U as in O.U.P., home of the O.E.D. (ETA, as per first comment. I show my Oxford bias, of course, it could just as well be the Open University. Though probably not Oklahoma U.)
19 BESIDES – B(ishop) + (r)ESIDES, letters as per chess notation.
20 UNCONVENTIONAL – [CONVENT in UNION] + AL.
23 IN THE DOCK – double def.
24 IMPEL – I’M PEL(t).
25 NAPE – lift and separate to get NAP + (fractur)E.
26 ALL NIGHTER – (LEARNLIGHT)*.
 
Down
1 JACK – nicely disguised, until I spotted that the – was not a dash but a missing word. If “I’m All Right Jack” wasn’t shown on TV as a tribute to the recently deceased Ian Carmichael, it should have been.
2 UPDRAUGHT – UP (=”in revolt”) + DRAUGHT, i.e a playing piece which can (“perhaps”) become a King by crossing the board (though I was always taught that the term for a promoted piece was Queen, which appears to be the European convention, and this meant I didn’t twig instantly.) And if you’re an American English speaker, of course, it’ll probably take even longer because the game is what you call checkers.
3 NOT LIFT A FINGER – one of the regular cricket references; here’s a perfect example, as cricket’s most famous umpire is immortalised in the act. For the avoidance of doubt amongst non-cricketers, that raised finger is the prescribed way for an umpire to indicate a batsman is out, not a comment on his innings.
4 LIGHTLY – [(sprin)G + H(o)T] in LILY.
5 SURPLUS – “SIR” PLUS.
7 deliberately omitted
8 SURREALIST – SURRE(y) + A LIST. Just “a” list this time, not the “A-LIST”.
9 PASSIVE SMOKING – PASS IVES MO KING.
13 ABSOLUTION – A ‘B’ SOLUTION.
16 RED CARPET – cryptic def.; I started out thinking what sort of special shoes VIPs might wear before realising it was what was underneath their soles.
18 TREFOIL – (TORIFLE)*.
19 BETOKEN – BET + 0 + KEN, as in “beyond our ken”.
21 CUT UP – T(rade) U(nion) in CUP.
22 SLUR – SLUR(p).

42 comments on “Times 24,474 – I’m All Right (I hope)”

  1. At 17 I thought of OU = Open University or possibly O’ (short for the OF in the clue) followed by U for University.
    1. Perfectly good thinking, of course. I imagine that unless the setter cares to tell us, we will never know which was intended.
  2. I finished this in 35 minutes over three sessions and found it fairly straightforward.

    I didn’t know the meaning of CADET required at 10ac but CADE has come up so often in the past it couldn’t be anything else.

    I didn’t understand the cricketing reference at 3dn before coming here as I had forgotten to consider the umpire’s role.

    I wasn’t quite sure how “pirate” came into 23ac and wasted ages trying to make the third word HOOK.

    I wondered about the presence of “using” in 12ac and whether it is justified. Still not sure.

  3. Got all but 6ac and 8dn in the first run-through (54’) then came back after lunch and polished those two off in another minute.

    First in RADIO TELESCOPE, last in ARMS (6ac). Wasted most time on the former, going through all the shires in my mental map before realising it was the county where I spent most of my early (British) life.

    COD to BESIDES, because grammatical words rather than function words as the definition have a cachet only exceeded by punctuation marks.

    As a qualified cricket umpire, I should point out that the Laws specify that it’s the index finger that shiould be raised (above the head). No mention of whether it needs to be straight, a loophole exploited by exhibitionist Antipodeans.

  4. 8:16 for this – I missed all of the first four acrosses on first look, though 10 should have been possible. 3 went in without seeing the umpire reference. I haven’t tried a search, but I’d guess that we’ve seen composer=IVES even more times than rebel=CADE.

    I guess few American tourists make it to Barnsley, otherwise that statue would be a classic Kodak moment.

  5. Hey, cracked the 10; just under 9 minutes. R. North please note my rise from the ranks! Started later than usual after a day’s driving — that always seems to help. But this just fell into place, top left to bottom right. COD to 9dn for a wonderful straight charade.
    Didn’t much like “Using” in the clue for 12ac. And, having spent countless hours trying to get first-year Sociology students to understand the difference between sex and gender, I was a bit peeved at their conflation in 11ac — which I once saw clued as “The flower?”.
    Tim’s right: a good nursery slopes puzzle without too much to cringe about.
    1. Your promotion is duly noted, Major McText. Congratulations. Meanwhile, at 52 minutes today, I’m still stuck in the ORs.

      After being gently corrected over BACK TO SQUARE ONE yesterday, I feel hesitant about mentioning this, but…isn’t the ‘ken’ in BETOKEN a different chap to the one in ‘beyond our ken’? It seems to have two distinct meanings: knowledge; and range of vision. I think it’s the second ken that’s referred to in this clue.

      1. ODE has “range of knowledge or understanding”, Collins has “range of knowledge or perception”. Neither makes “beyond our ken” any more specific. For practical purposes, your knowledge and the range of your knowledge are the same thing – so I think both dictionaries mean “range, of knowledge or understanding/perception”, rather than “range of knowledge, or understanding/perception”. If you’ve seen a def that goes “range of perception or knowledge”, that might explain why you’ve seen “knowledge” as one of the possibilities.
        1. Thanks Peter. I really must invest in an English English dictionary. The (Australian) Macquarie Dictionary only has 1) range of sight or vision and 2) knowledge or cognisance; mental perception.
  6. Is 2 anything to do with promoting a man? I just read it as ‘in revolt against’ = ‘up’ and ‘king, perhaps’ = ‘draught’. No time here as there were too many interruptions. COD to 1ac as I hadn’t made the connection until coming here.

    Also enjoyed 22 and 16. Regards to all. Enjoyable blog tim.

    1. I think Tim’s comments following “UP + DRAUGHT” all relate to the “draught” component of the wordplay. Guessing the reason for your question, the resemblance between “promoting” a draught to make it a king and the word “raises” in the clue is an unfortunate coincidence. For what it’s worth, I’d read “in revolt” as UP, and “against” as a “goes next to” indicator.
      1. Peter is correct in what I was reading, but I can see where you’re coming from, so I’ve amended the original entry to avoid (hopefully) any ambiguity.
  7. McT, perhaps you could explain why it’s the same people who say that sex is to do with biology and gender to do with identity who use “transgendered” to describe someone who changes their biology.
      1. “Many transsexual people have a wish to alter their bodies. These physical changes are collectively known as gender reassignment therapy and often (but not always) include hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery.” (from wikipedia)

        But, since men wishing to alter their bodies (to “change sex” in common parlance) do so most typically on the grounds that they were born with the female gender, it is not the gender that is being re-assigned – this is a constant – but the sex. Thus, “sex reassignment surgery” is accurate, but “gender reassignment” misleading at best.

  8. A cadet’s puzzle one might say. Much the same as yesterday, a gentle 15 minute stroll with no real sticking points.
  9. Written earlier so forgive repeating some of the above. Well this relative beginner found it a bit of a struggle but one of those you look back on and wonder why. Only CADET as a younger son/daughter unknown but cliche enough clue. Either the clues were deceptive or I am thick? Don’t all answer at once. The prize for deception was the wickedly misleading surface (?) for PASSIVE SMOKING (for so long I was looking for the name of a song), but COD to RODEO for “mounting excitement”.
    Is there a verb “to radio telescope”? Otherwise, why “using”?
  10. A pleasant stroll at 30 minuts. There were some clues I liked a lot here; e.g. BIGOTRY, PASSIVE SMOKING & RED CARPET. 1d isn’t my favourite device, but not worth a quibble.
    1. Indeed, if you know your back episodes of Thunderbirds, which I hope you don’t, you’ll remember the one in which the hijacked plane pilot was allowed a single call to base to assure them that all was well. The savvy pilot began his call … “Hi, Jack…”.
  11. I completed this, as far as I could, from bottom to top. JACK, ARMS and CADET missing and a wrong guess at GARLANDER for GERMANDER. The rest was pretty straightforward. I’d misremembered Jack Cade as Jack Cage which didn’t help. Enjoyed in particular RODEO, PASSIVE SMOKING and SURREALIST. The giant Jodrell Bank radio telescope is only a few miles from where I work. It’s a famous landmark in east Cheshire.

    COD to JACK. I’ve not encountered this clue construction before. Thanks for explaining it topicaltim.

  12. I still consider myself a cadet even though I have been trying the puzzle since The Times came back on line following the Wapping dispute of 1986/87. I enjoyed this puzzle and completed all bar 22ac in 55 min. Similarly, I was hooked on ‘Hook’! I am finding this blog a great help in understanding and deciphering clues. Thank you all.
  14. Started with clues that caught my eye, 23,21,20, 3, 12, and worked from there. Last in 1a/1d. 15m and enjoyed. 1d & 6a seemed to require similar thought process.
  15. Just under 33 minutes. A very pleasant steady solve. Started with JACK, then JOURNALIST giving lots of first letters – always a help. Finished with ARMS & BETOKEN.

    Quite pleased to have achieved a runner-up spot two months on the trot in the Monthly Clue Challenge. Now, I just need to break into the top three…

    1. Well done Dave – but on the site the explanation for your clue has been confused with that for your BAY clue!

      Tom B.

      1. It’s not even my BAY clue, it’s just the one that happened to be in that position last month! I have left a comment on the page pointing this out, but as yet nothing has been done about it.
  16. 15 minutes with lots of fun on the way. Like others I enjoyed passive smoking for once.

    Like Jack at 17 I took U to be university with the leading O coming from “of” as in cat o’ nine tails or whatever.

    I’m struggling to see how 18 is meant to work. If “to” isn’t doing double duty then we’re expected to treat modifications (or making modifications) as an anagrind which for me falls grammatically short.

  17. Just under 30 minutes, but must have spent at least 5 minutes staring at U___A_G_T before the answer came. Final one in then was CADET.

    I enjoyed this. It was a fair test with some clues that made me smile as I solved them – e.g. JOURNALIST, OUT OF IT, LIGHTLY, SLURP and ALL-NIGHTER.

    Interesting to see the different ways in which the wordplay for ‘A LIST’ was handled in 1a and 8d.

  18. Straightforward interesting puzzle which challenged me for just under the hour. Despite doing the weekly puzzle every day since retirement several months back haven’t quite got off the learner slopes yet. Didn’t understand the parsing/construction of UPDRAUGHT, CADET, NOT LIFT A FINGER or GERMANDER before arriving here so thanks for the explanations. Not sure that egg = impel? Particularly enjoyed NAPE, RODEO and JOURNALIST
  19. Didn’t time myself, but breezed through this one – CADET and BETOKEN from wordplay, PASSIVE SMOKING and GERMANDER from definition. Liked the cryptic definition part of 3, and had IN THE ???? for 23 forever (thinking BRIG until I got TREFOIL).
  20. I paused at CADET until I consulted Chambers which told me cadet = descended from a younger son and therefore not a heir.
  21. Finished in approx 20 minutes save for IN THE ?O?K; I couldn’t figure out where both the pirate and his ship would be. I put the puzzle down for about 20 more minutes, came back, and saw it right away, so 40 minutes altogether, say. I didn’t fully understand the wordplay on 1D, 2D and 3D til returning here; all have appeared in this puzzle before, I think, but I failed to recall “I’m all right Jack”, ‘draught=’checker’ and the finger signifigance in cricket. I liked 8D as COD. Regards.
  22. Got stuck over the NE corner, having problems with GERMANDER. Only after speaking to my wife about it, did I suddenly twig what the answer was, having first been led astray by thinking Sandhurst was the Royal Military College. Once that was in, I got SURREALIST, ARMS, and RODEO. Being a complete cadet, I won’t reveal my final time.
    1. If you’re a beginner, there’s nothing wrong with this puzzle taking you an hour or two, and no-one here will laugh at a “slow” time – we were all cadets once, and the times that look absurdly fast are only partly a reflection of solving ability – starting young and recognising lots of the tricks from previous experience are equally important.
  23. A pleasant 19 min. Held up a bit at the end with the 11/9 cross. Joint COD: to the slick JOURNALIST and PASSIVE SMOKING. Two easyish in a row, The tension mounts …
    1. It’s easy to say when I didn’t make the same mistake, but I don’t think many of the Times setters would allow themselves to define {catalogue synonym}+LESS as “needs a catalogue” – “needing a catalogue” would be much fairer and probably wouldn’t spoil the wordplay.
  24. Moderately easy with only the NE corner causing a delay in what otherwise would have been a 15′ solve.

    9dn was a fiendishly clever piece of misdirection only properly apparent when 15ac went in with the ‘V’ available in the connector.

    The use of the word ‘Using’ in 12ac gave the clue an uncharacteristic clunkiness, given the smoothness of the remaining twenty seven.

    Solving time 27′

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