Times 24,531

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
No recorded time for today’s puzzle, I’m afraid, as I have been combining crossword with politics (I was happy to deputise after I realised I would be sitting up after midnight anyway, watching General election events unfold) so there has been constant distraction by…well, nobody seems entirely sure what it is we’re watching. Labour appears to have lost, though this doesn’t necessarily mean the Conservatives have won. I expect the result will be reported elsewhere if you’re interested.

Anyway, this turned out not to be one of those occasional Friday stinkers, but a pretty straightforward puzzle, with only the slightest of nods to the world of politics in 25 across. The only real obscurity for most people, I suspect, will lie in 24 down.

ETA: Still nothing decided with half the seats counted, though everyone is getting excited at the possibility of Balls being removed, if you know what I mean.

Across
1 DECAPOLIS – (SPECIALDO)*, an area on the edge of Judaea where people may have asked what the Romans had ever done for them.
6 BASIS – 1 in BASS.
9 CHELSEA – CH(urch) + ELSE + A, the old folk in uniform being the eponymous pensioners.
10 POSTERN – POSTER + N(ame), especially if the tradesmen were delivering to a castle, I guess.
11 APPOSITION – A P(iano) POSITION; the grammatical term for putting two nouns together to form one concept, as per “Ted the milkman”.
12 AGES – (s)AGES.
14 INNER – (s)INNER.
15 POLYESTER – (h)OLY in PESTER.
16 CONSPIRES – CON + SPIRES.
18 PROOF – double def.
20 LOTS – LO(u)TS.
21 MOTIONLESS – double (cryptic) def.
25 ACCLAIM – A C(onservative) CLAIM.
26 ACTUATE – (TAUT)rev in ACE; trip as in “set in motion”.
27 ELDER – (w)ELDER.
28 RECOMMEND – M(arried)MEN in (DECOR)*.
 
Down
1 DACHA – [A H(ard) CAD]rev.
2 CHEAPEN – CHE + A PEN.
3 POSTSCRIPT – POST + SCRIPT.
4 LEANT – =”LENT”.
5 SOPHOCLES – (SCHOOLSPE)*; “Greek” is a fairly loose definition, but hardly impossible when it’s an 9 letter anagram with 5 checking letters.
6 BUSH – B(l)USH.
7 SLEIGHT – =”SLIGHT”.
8 SANS SERIF – cryptic def.
13 PEEPING TOM – (GENTPIPE)* + O(ld)M(ale).
14 INCULCATE – (CLUEICANT)*.
15 PERFORMER – (REP)rev. + FORMER.
17 NOTICED – NOT ICED i.e not “on the rocks”.
18 OPERATE – ORATE round P.E..
22 ISAAC – ISA + A/C; for those unfamiliar with UK tax legislation of the last few years, an ISA is a tax free savings account.
23 STEAD – waSTE A Dump.
24 CARR – CARR(y); I wasn’t familiar with this wetland area.

18 comments on “Times 24,531”

  1. Another game of two halves, with half (mainly the west) going in first in 19 minutes – Usain Boltish for me – and 50 minutes needed for the rest. Delightd that there were 5 anagrams after the rigours of the past week, but still managed to miss the signpost for the hidden clue at 23ac for too long.

    Correctly guessed CARR and ISAAC, the former entirely from the wordplay. COD, on election day, to 21ac. Also liked the tricky 4-letter BUSH, which I got close to with ‘back’ (as in ‘outback’), before going mental walkabouts.

  2. 18m without too much trouble apart from CARR (unknown) and ISAAC (ISA unknown). And, another recent Clue Challenge cross-over at 13dn.
  3. 40 minutes. ACTUATE went in unexplained and CARR (never heard of it) was my last in with reference to aids. The editor was kind not to publish a beast on a morning when so many solvers would have been late to bed, but nevertheless I was glad not to have to worry about it overnight. Thanks for standing in TT.
  4. 11:44 some time in the small hours.

    I thought 21 (“Still not having anything to vote about?”) was another nod to the election, and wonder now whether 11 started off as OPPOSITION.

  5. Doddle in 12 minutes, and would have been less if I hadn’t spent time working through the alphabet twice to get CARR, very much an unknown, and post solve Chambers not being much encouragement, giving “(a copse, esp of willow, in) boggy ground.” (sic).
    I thought quite a few of the answers could be woven into an election commentary: SLEIGHT, CHEAPEN, CONSPIRES, MOTIONLESS, BASIS and PROOF being just a few. Maybe in the circumstances it would have been better to draw LOTS.
  6. Somewhere inside 30 m with many interruptions. Glad of blog to explain apposition, last in Chelsea (I am dim today) then bush and carr – just because they were small and I left them till the end in oversight!
  7. 9.40 and pretty straightforward bar 24d, which I could only glean from wordplay.
  8. Relief – a much easier one today, finished in about half an hour in two bursts. All but the SE corner finished quite quickly and then like ulaca I missed the hidden at 23dn for far too long (again!). CARR was a complete guess which worried me a bit given the common (to crosswords) alternative meaning of “transport”. Last in was ACTUATE, which I liked for the use of “trip”, which was neat and tricked me for a while.
  9. Perhaps an easy one chosen for the day that’s in it, 19 mins, which is very fast for me. COD POLYESTER, also esp liked STEAD which was v well hidden.
  10. Must have been having a good brain day, or Peter was solving at 3:15 am having been up for four straight days while someone played a tuba behind him, as this took 12 minutes. Fair bit of wordplay reliance – CARR (my last in), DECAPOLIS (waiting for the revelation that Jebus went to DICOPELAS), APPOSITION, ACTUATE and DACHA.
  11. Much better from me today after the train wrecks of the last three days.

    Thanks Tim for explaining the two I was missing (ACTUATE and CARR).

  12. CARR was also relevant, given C4’s alternative election coverage last night!
  13. 27:30. No problem with carr as RHS Harlow Carr gardens are not a million miles from here. The clue that held me up for yonks at the end was actuate. Even with all the checkers and a firm conviction that C would be 2nd or 6th I couldn’t spot a word to fit.
  14. No time to post or comments due to no puzzle. Got the 404 error continuously last night and again today. Deleted cookies to no avail. Nevertheless, regards to all.
    1. Got this off the office computer at about 5PM NY time, and I went through it in less than 15 minutes, last in ACTUATE, CARR as a plausible guess just before that. Everything else went straight in, except waiting for some checking letters re DECAPOLIS. Maybe I should change the time of day I do these. Regards again. While trying to log in to the crossword site I kept trying the alternative of going through the main Times page, and thus I also followed the UK election results when passing the ever changing headlines. Best of luck to whomsoever forms a government.
  15. Wrote in a few in desultory fashion about 3 a.m. in front of idiot box and gave up on both. Whistled through (comparatively) this evening; wish I’d left it till then. Seems a humourless composition somehow or maybe that’s me after a night and day of the election. If there’s hell it’s a continuous panel of political commentators.

Comments are closed.