Times 24566: the adventures of 1ac and Obelix?

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 30 whopping minutes. Kismet came and gave me a chomp on the buttocks, since I had planned a meeting an hour after the crossword came out, thinking “Hey, I’m an old hand at this bloggy thing, an hour gives me my usual 10-15 minutes to finish the crossword, maybe less because I’m sober, 30 minutes to write a blog, come up with some stupid jokes and puns and we’re laughing”. But that didn’t happen, I barely got finished before I had to go to my meeting, and now sobriety has long since gone and the early report I was planning on did not happen. Oh well… I found this one very difficult and couldn’t see what was going on forever, and ended up piecing it together painfully slowly. There is a little UK-centric stuff, but I should probably have done better. Might be time to buy a book or two. I’m struggling with wordplay to two answers, though usually struggles are resolved in a comment or two.

Across
1 CICATRIX: (ARCTIC)*, I(=single), X(=cross) – a scar
5 TARSUS: got this from the bones definition, but it’s apparently the home of St Paul
10 DOWN,TOT,HE,GROUND: definition is UTTERLY. Didn’t see this until nearly the end of proceedings, kicking myself
11 UNROLLS: N,ROLL(=wind) in U.S. and a crafty definition
12 BEV,VIED: another word I don’t believe anyone uses
13 CITY FARM: (I’M,CRAFTY)* – another intriguing definition (“husband in town”)
15 LAG,OS: from definition – the charters are the Ordinary Seamen Edit: no, they’re not, they are the Ordnance Survey… I really did get this one from definition!</a>
18 O,BEA(c)H: my first in (yikes)
20 COSMETIC: at least I think so from the definition – I get I.C. at the back, but C.O.’S MET as the rest? Edit: and in comments mctext comes through straight away – ‘COS,MET,IC
23 WHOOPEE: HOOP(=band) in WHEE
25 A LEVELS: got this from the definition (they’re sat), just now saw the wordplay – EVE in ‘ALLS
26 WORLD WITHOUT END: L(Liberal) in WORD, then W.I., THOU, TEND(=minister)
27 D.A., CAPO: musical instruction to go back to the top
28 KNEE-DEEP: NEED in KEEP
 
Down
1 CAD, MUS(t): from wordplay, didn’t know about Cadmus of Thebes and his dragonocide
2 CO,WARD,ICE: C.O. is Conscientious Objector (waves in the direction of Canada)
3 T(w)O,TALLY: this eluded me until near the end – the definition is in the answer to 10 across
4 I’ve got to leave something out as per the rules, might as well be this one
6 ARRIVAL: RIVAL(=match) after (c)AR
7 SAUDI: hidden reversed in alternating letters in bIlD sUn AlSo
8 SIDE-DISH: because if you move the H to make HSIDEDIS and reverse it, you get SIDE-DISH back
9 SEX BOMBS: EX,BOMB in S,S(=sons). Here’s some not safe for work Peaches
14 AC,CREDIT
16 GUINEVERE: this is my other wordplay question… I can see GIN for shot, and ERE for before, and U for the bend, but can’t see where the EV come from? It comes from the comments section – GIVEN is the anagram before ERE with the U inside, you have to be up early (or late) to beat mctext
17 POW,WOWED: the POW escaped from Colditz and thrilled gives us WOWED
19 deliberately omitted, ask if stuck
21 EXEC(=businessman),UTE
22 USED UP: USE(=benefit) then the Christmas PUD reversed
24 OSRIC: SR(senior) in (v)OIC(e) – a courtier in Hamlet
25 AS,HEN

41 comments on “Times 24566: the adventures of 1ac and Obelix?”

  1. GUINEVERE: Anag (shot) of “given” + ERE (before) around U (the bend).
    COSMETIC. COS (for; therefore, because) + MET (cops) + IC.
      1. Peaches did the Big Day Out a few years ago, I saw her in a show a couple of months ago and she’s still rockin’ and shockin’. I’d seen that video, it is pretty funny. If we both get banned, who is going to do Thursdays?
  3. Strewth. Back to reality with 57 minutes and a clanger. In sheer exhaustion finished with red bumps – couldn’t resist it. COD 13.
  4. The Peaches I know puts those ones in the shade. Anyway, back on topic, I ended up three shy, with TARSUS not attempted (I wanted to work ASSISI in somehow) and 24dn and 27ac in the SW entered incorrectly. I thought my DA PEPE was rather ingenious. Had never heard of ‘da capo’ – not the kind of musical term found very frequently in the stuff we sing. Besides OSRIC, OBEAH was also new to me.

    For those, like me, who got ICTUS (one of the verbotten words) but have no clue what it means, apparently it’s the recurring stress or accent in a rhythmic or metrical series of sounds; also, the mark indicating the syllable on which such stress or accent occurs.

    Intriguingly, I got COWARDICE by parsing pacifist as coward and adding ice. This makes sense given the question mark – the coward overcomes the charge of cowardice by joining up. Any takers?

    Todays’s tiara to SEX BOMBS. Runner-up, COSMETIC.

    1. I had the same fake wordplay for 2D when solving, but George’s version looks like the intended reading.

      For some reason, choral music hardly ever has repetition instructions like ‘da capo’, though solo singing at least recognises the idea in “da capo aria”.
      Switch to some other kinds of music and you’ll see it frequently enough for the abbreviation DC to be a popular alternative.

      1. D.S. (Dal segno) indicating repeat from a sign is also in common usage and may be worth remembering for a future tough puzzle.
  5. Awarded myself a prize for finishing today and as usual I would like to thank all those who contributed to my success, particularly Chambers, Wikipedia and an anagram solver. DA CAPO my first in (not difficult for a Handelian) but that answer made me think Oh! Oh!
    COD to CITY FARM for the literal.
  6. Phew! In my first 23 minute session, usually my quality solving time on a commuting day, I solved only five clues DA CAPO, SAUDI, COWARDICE, OBEAH and TARSUS.

    In the second 18 minute session at the station I solved only six more and at that stage I had very little hope of finishing the grid until I reached work and access to aids.

    But inspiration arrived along with the train and I polished off all of the remaining clues by the time I got off. So 61 minutes for me today and once I got going I really enjoyed this original and lively puzzle.

    There were a few words I didn’t know, for example CICATRIX and ICTUS, and OSRIC was not a name that leapt to mind, but these were getable from wordplay. I knew of CADMUS from studying Handel’s Semele at school but I don’t think his reputation as a dragon-slayer was metioned in that. I haven’t mentioned any old songs for a while but WHOOPEE reminded me of the song Making Whoopee made famous by Eddie Cantor in 1928.

    Thanks to the setter and can we have an easier one tomorrow please, Mr Editor?

  7. Excellent blog George. Thanks for explaining the 21 clues that I couldn’t solve!! I take my hat off to anyone who completed this one.

    Re 15. I took “British charters” to be the Ordnance Survey (map makers), a.k.a. the OS.

    Loved ‘slap on the face’ for cosmetic.

    Daniel

    1. Thanks – I wondered about OS and went to Chambers, but at that time of night, even though OS was in there, Ordnance Survey wasn’t registering.
  8. 23:06 here, stuck for ages (8 mins?) at the end on 1D and 11, trying to work Gr. or even just G into 1D’s wordplay in the role of ‘short Greek’. Eventually saw the ‘is obliged to, short’ interpretation and remembered that Cadmus was someone I’d heard of in Gk. myth. (I don’t think I remembered him from Semele – I was absent from the Proms audience on a notorious night in the early 1980s when some friends of mine got terminal giggles during this aria and had to walk out so that they could corpse harmlessly in the arena corridor. They were still talking about it when I saw them at a silver wedding party about a month ago.)

    Back at the puzzle, 13 across’s def seems a tad naughty – ‘city farm’ is not in COED or Collins unless added to Collins since 1991, and in Chambers it’s definitely a noun. But “husband in town” surely suggests a verbal meaning, and “husbandry in town seems fairer”.

    At 15A, I’d say that the OS=Ordnance Survey were better candidates as charters – OS = Ordinary Seaman seems to be singular, and I suspect their work was more to do with pulling ropes than making charts.

    1. I took ‘city farm’ (noun) to be derived from ‘way (manner, means) to husband in town’.
      1. Quite right – I’d forgottern that I never nailed down the role of “way”.
  9. Stumbled on and on until becoming totally stuck in the NE. Eventually worked out what I was supposed to be anagramming at 1ac and guessed the rest, with the aforementioned devious UNROLLS last in. Didn’t see how COWARDICE worked until coming here, nor the British charters. It gets my COD, among a bevy of other possibilities.

    As for Peaches I thought The Stranglers would at least get a mention.

  10. Great crossword: got 1ac straight off, then nothing of any note until DA CAPO began to unravel the SW corner: I’ve seen DC/da capo enough times in the choral music I sing, plus my conductor’s likely to use the phrase to take us back to the top. Most fiendish clue UNROLLS: I spent ages with all the crossing letters trying to remember all the obscure wind names – or to change the crossing letters. I also got COWARDICE the “wrong” way: what an excellent &lit that is! Not sure how to account for my time, as the Central Line was severely disrupted and I stood some of the way. Probably around 35 minutes.
    Does this one qualify for the most devious cluing prize: so many had definitions callously secreted?
  11. 47 minutes, though for some unaccountable reason I wrote SEABOMBS instead of SEXBOMBS. I suppose at my age I think more of sea than sex.

    Thought 25 down very neat; but though I’ve been obfuscated, pixilated and have Seen the French King, I don’t recall ever being BEVVIED.

  12. definitely one of the harder ones for a while. Nothing much to add except to query “tempting” as an indicator for inclusion (25A). I suppose you could tempt someone into something, but this is pretty much def by example.
    1. I don’t think ‘tempting’ is the indicator. My reading is:

      They’re sat = definition
      in = container indicator
      East End lobbies = ‘ALLS
      tempting woman = EVE – “tempting” with reference to persuading Adam to eat the forbidden fruit.

      1. yup – that makes much more sense. i was thinking of in as the “is clued by” type word, but that is not necessary here.
  13. Top-notch puzzle with a few good laughs along the way. A riveting 64 minutes with one mistake-plumped for DA COPA (last in), so a tad disappointed after such a strenuous test. This is the kind of puzzle we solvers can’t get enough of, however I wouldn’t fancy locking horns with more than one per month. Probably learnt more from this than the preceding 10 put together. Near perfection in a crossword. Think A LEVELS is sublime.
  14. Meant to say can’t get enough of the quality with reduced difficulty. Then it’s perfect.
  15. 29:14 .. very clever stuff, for sure.

    First in, OBEAH. Last in, the CADMUS/UNROLLS pair. Too many candidates for COD.

  16. I knew I was in trouble with this when after going through all the clues I had put in two answers, each (DA CAPO, OSRIC) fairly obscure. Things improved slowly and the central line disruptions gave me plenty of time but it was not enough. After three sessions and about an hour and a half in total I gave up with 11ac and 9dn unsolved, and I’m pretty happy with that.
    There so many unusual words in this: CICATRIX, TARSUS, BEVVIED, OBEAH, DE CAPO, CADMUS, ICTUS, OSRIC. Combine that with some wicked wordplay and you’ve got a real humdinger.
    Bravo.
  17. Really had to work at it today – 50 m but managed to see the wordplays as I went along, so a very fair puzzle. First in 10, then up from the SE corner, last in 6 and 12/9 pair. No new words (just as well!), just splendid clueing. Rather liked 15.
  18. 27 minutes and a really top puzzle – full of originality and a lot of fun. Was ‘arriving at’ a bit of loose padding in 15 ? ( although I really shouldn’t raise anything on what was a great puzzle). 13 was very good and last for me was 25 which I thought was going to be a French expression – so took 3 or 4 minutes to get it
  19. All I did this morning was sigh with relief that this is the Thursday when I did not have to blog. I found most of the clues very convoluted, contrived and extremely difficult (nearly an hour it took me) as thought the compiler were a humourless celibate having a contagious disease that does not allow contact with other human beings. It was very challenging but not much fun to solve. Maybe I am not the masochist that I thought I was. This is definitely not a puzzle for the daily Times. I solved it but must say I did not enjoy the experience at all.
  20. About 45 min in total although 20 minutes of that was on the last 3 or 4 answers, and not helped by guessing CRUCIFIX for 1A when I couldn’t make anything out of the obvious anagram fodder. I wasn’t alone in starting with OBEAH, and the last two were SEX BOMBS and A LEVELS. After half an hour or so I was beginning to think I was completely stuck and would have to cheat to finish, but I persevered with it and got there in the end. I’d never heard of CADMUS the dragon-slayer but I was OK with all the other obscurities. Great puzzle, a real challenge but completely fair.
  21. I don’t mind “arriving at” as a way of saying that the wordplay is a way to get to the answer, as it were. The meaning of “arrive at” given under “arrive” in COED is “reach (a conclusion or decision)”, and from the solver’s point of view every solution is a conclusion or decision.

  22. Thought that this was a cracking puzzle. Kicked off with CICATRIX, CADMUS and TARSUS (although thought of TARSI first) aand made steadyish progress from there. Took in all about one hour.

    I think that virtually every clue qualifies for COD: but particularly liked A LEVELS!

    Wouldn’t be surprised if this is up for “Memories”. Probably depends on what Jimbo thinks.

  23. Well, I was stumped today by the crossing CITY FARM/SEX BOMBS pair. I did manage to get everything else in about 45 minutes, but it was truly a tough struggle with all the obscure words. I think a CITY FARM is what we over here typically call a community garden, so I have an excuse for not recognizing that one. And I don’t think I would ever have made the ‘peaches’=SEX BOMBS connection. Not a complaint, but ‘peach’ to me denotes someone who’s cute, while SEX BOMB goes a good bit beyond, so I couldn’t make that leap. Happy enough to get A LEVELS, CADMUS, CICATRIX, BEVVIED UP, etc. from wordplay alone, not knowing the definitions. Very tricky puzzle. Well done setter, regards to everyone.
  24. As an exiled Merseysider, I can assure all that BEVVIED is (or was) in very common usage there. It was THE euphemism for DRUNK in the 60s and 70s – so maybe the setter is a scouser…
    1. I’m SE England born and bred but I’m very familiar with BEVVIED. I think I first met it on TV in programmes such as The Likely Lads, Z Cars and Coronation Street back in the 60s. I believe getting bevvied up is an associated expression.
  25. Great puzzle, 54 mins. Esp liked UNROLLS (my last answer), CITY FARM, OBEAH, SIDE-DISH, SEX-BOMBS.
  26. Didn’t manage to get round to solving this until Saturday early evening (golf comes first in the summer) but knew from comments seen on the Friday puzzle that it was a cracker.

    And it lived up to its billing. Excellent all round puzzle with lots of clever wordplay and definitions. Very pleased to see that Peter has added it to memories. Thank you setter.

    1. I’ve just Friday’s blog and see a couple of people have asked for more detailed comments.

      My time was 35 minutes. The puzzle suits me because I solve mainly from wordplay (that comes from doing bar crosswords) so the tricky definitions don’t throw me as much as they might. So, for example, I didn’t know CADMUS but saw the wordplay immediately and I already had the starting “C”. Likewise BEVVIED and POWWOWED. I guessed ROLL and verified it afterwards and have seen peaches in that context somewhere before.

      This for me is what the Times crossword is all about.

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