Times 24763: One dragon on the ground

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 8:15 on the crossword club, which I think is my best time on there so this was definitely on my wavelength. I’m filling in for Uncle Yap as he celebrates the Lunar New Year and I’m sure he’ll enjoy this one while swigging the Berocca later. There some cheeky, some fun surfaces, and some top-notch wordplay to get us there.

I suspect many will get the long words from definition alone, though I am surprised with as many long words as there are in this crossword, the setter has given us no straight anagram clues. And away we go….

Across
1 BODICE-RIPPER: Off to a cracking wordplay start – B,O, and then ICE(hard water) in DRIPPER(faulty tap). There was a clip of Fabio on the Daily Show last night, he’s been on the cover of a few
8 LOOSEST: E (last of adesivE) in (STOOLS)* – the surface is even better if you read it scatalogically
9 let’s omit this one from the acrosses
11 BLOSSOM: LOSS in BOM(b)
12 OCARINA: C in OAR(blade), IN,A
13 ENTER: double definition, one the computer keyboard key
14 RACE,TRACK
16 GO BANANAS: Never seen this before, though it’s kind of obvious wordplay – GOB and then ANANAS(pineapple)
19 COL,ON: A port in Panama that I get to write about twice this week
21 SENEGAL: my favorite clue – what makes you Californian is those L.A. GENES (only backwards)
23 PI,ROGUE: a dugout canoe
24 SEAL,ANT
25 ICINESS: hidden
26 FIDDLESTICKS: as bows can be sticks for ones fiddle, break out the moonshine and let’s get to pickin’
 
Down
1 BLOWOUT: LOW(little) in BOUT
2 let’s make this one the down omission
3 CATAMARAN: A TAMAR in CAN – how nice of the setter to include a Tasmanian river for a change!
4 RAT,IO: IO being a moon of Jupiter
5 PARFAIT: F in PARA,IT
6 EROTICA: E then (ACTOR,I)*
7 FLABBERGASTS: FLAB then RG (alternating letters in dRuGs) in BEASTS
10 FRANK,INCENSE: The local brewery/theatre (what a wonderful place) last week did a screening of Life of Brian
15 CASHPOINT: (HAS)*,P in COIN, T
17 BENGALI: GAL in BENI(n)
18 NIGGARD: DRAGGIN’ reversed
19 CARD,IA,C: the IA coming from dIAmonds
20 LEGLESS: double def
22 LATHE: H in LATE

44 comments on “Times 24763: One dragon on the ground”

  1. Yesterday, I got the first 2 clues in the time it took to read them, and went on to my worst score in months. Today, things started rather slower, but I managed to finish in 27 minutes.I’m sure ‘go bananas’, or at least ‘bananas’, has appeared before; but ‘bodice ripper’ was new to me. As a San Franciscan born and bred, I must protest against 21ac; LA genes, forsooth! I’d prefer to think of Angelenos as the knockout mice of California.
  2. I thought this was pretty good fun and a bit racy. Would 18 ever be used in an American crossword? I seem to recall a public official had to resign for using it. I actually thought 21 was my least favourite today – perhaps I’m too literally-minded.

    I suspect the TAMAR in the setter’s mind may be closer to Jimbo than the one in Tasmania.

  3. I’d be surprised to see ‘niggard(ly)’ used these days in a US crossword, or indeed in print generally. Guilt by (near) homophony; the same reason Americans use ‘rooster’. The incident in question involved a Washington, DC (municipal) civil servant (white) speaking to a couple of black subordinates about a budget matter. As I recall, things were explained and the affair was finally settled.
    1. Crikey! If ever Spurs succumbs to American ownership, our cock on ball is surely going to have to go.
  4. a bit under an hour. took a ridiculous time to get sealant and the legless pirogue cross
  5. 24 minutes. But I baulked a bit on first glance at the economy of the clues: ‘Oh no … another long haul’. Surprisingly, things went OK after that; at least in the top half. The lower end proved more difficult; and not having heard of the Panamanian port or the Caribbean canoe helped not at all. My, uhm, heart sank on reading the clue for 19dn; though it turned out to be deceptively simple once the part-of-speech for the def registered. And that about sums up the puzzle: deceptive at first glance; much easier after just a bit of concentration.
    Knew I could rely on George to continue the scatology from yesterday.
  6. A slowish but satisfactory 31 minutes. Generally do better with what I call perimetrics. I like 1 ac. for the “right” use of steamy though it took me some time. Also 20. Puzzle has a bit of zip – not a bad shot to start the day.
  7. 45 minutes with one wrong at 20dn. A slow start but after that progress was steady until I came to a halt in the SE corner. Eventually I guessed PIROGUE and COLON from the wordplay but wasn’t sure of either so I had no confidence in the first two checking letters in 20dn. So I decided not to waste time on a lost cause, and bunged in LUGGERS and hoped for the best. Needless to say that in all the circumstances I wasn’t very keen on this clue.

    I what context can CARDIAC = ‘heart’ rather than ‘of, or relating to the heart’?

  8. Well, it can substitute for ‘heart’ in e.g. ‘heart condition’, ‘heart surgery’, etc.
  9. 19:30 so not too bad. Got stuck as others did on pirogue and legless for a bit and wasn’t sure about colon = port. Otherwise pretty much OK.
  10. Hard going for me; let’s just say it took well over an hour, which makes George’s time seem ridiculously fast. Some entertaining clues, though. D’oh moments with 1ac (once I’d figured out the hard water wasn’t a rip) and the LEGLESS worms. And despite spending all day at a keyboard I fall every time for the ‘key’ misdirection.
  11. 14.58 on the club clock, a gentle but entertaining ramble. Curiously had three answers, no less, that I’d clued for the church Christmas crossword.
    Some decent chuckles especially in the lower half: CARDIAC, LEGLESS and FIDDLESTICKS for three, but, with apologies to Kevin and all statesiders, my CoD (before coming here) went to SENEGAL. It still does. I think it qualifies as a reverse definition by example which may just be offensive to another set of people.
    If scatology was an inspiration of sorts for 8, did the setter miss a connected opportunity with 19?
  13. This is what I think of as a standatd Times crossword. 20 minutes to solve with a good mixture of entertaining clues that are all completely fair. Thanks setter for the perhaps in 7D and the possibly in 19D.

    The orgininal river Tamar is a little west of me George and a lot closer than the antipodian one that is named after it.

    The commentary on 18D NIGGARD reminds me of the occassion when a BBC commentator mispronounced the river Niger thereby unleashing a tidal wave of ludicrous indignation. These over sensitive self appointed monitors of public utterances have a lot to answer for.

  14. 16 minutes. A pretty standard, if mildly naughty, puzzle on the easy side, I thought. A couple of words I didn’t know (PIROGUE, COLON) but then that’s a pretty standard feature.
  15. What with DRESSER, ENTER & RATIO I thought we were in for an easy one, and then something happened. I was surprised to stop the clock at just over 30 minutes, for it felt much more difficult than that, probably because of the aforementioned concise clueing. I liked FLABBERGASTS & EROTICA but COD to SENEGAL.

    The source of the original Tamar is more difficult to pin down than you might imagine. My preferred choice, on purely personal grounds, is the “Tamar in the wilderness of Palmyra” one.

  16. Easy cruise today, but as Jimbo says, entertaining..

    I don’t often see a word I haven’t heard of in the daily cryptic these days but when I do, I tend to take it as a personal affront.. I look up the entry in chambers, or sometimes the OED, read through it, and generally try to see that it doesn’t happen again.. it does, of course

  17. 22 minutes here, just couldn’t get on the setter’s wavelength. Concentration was also hampered by a protracted argument in the next aisle between the train manager and a group of people with off-peak tickets. That’s my excuse anyway!
  18. I started off well but was extremely slow to get Blowout, Legless and Fiddlesticks!
    Louise
  19. Going well until slowed to a crawl in SE: COLON, LEGLESS, PIROGUE combination. Got there in the end, courtesy of what I have learnt from this site (notably, in this case, ‘pi’ = ‘good’). OK, I didn’t know that COLON was a port or that PIROGUE was a craft but I was reasonably confident that I had sorted out the wordplay correctly. It still surprises me that I now expect to finish each crossword (albeit off the scale on a PB index); coming here is always a pleasure, for full enlightenment of wordplay and the general quality of the banter (which has been particularly good this week). Thanks to you all.
  20. 19:24 today. This was easier than it looked, and than I believed it to be. Penny didn’t drop for 12ac until after I had finished and I was perversely held up by LEGLESS. Could see where the clue was going, just couldn’t think of the word!
  21. 15 mins, stuck on COLON at the end which I couldn’t quite believe to be a port. Great time, George, well done.

    Tom B.

    1. Remember that Christopher Columbus’ name in Spanish is Cristobal Colon.

      The port was named after him, as were the many other places and towns of Colon in Spanish-speaking S America.

      1. Not to mention Spanish-speaking Spain! There are Plaça Colons (or should that be Plaças Colon?) in Madrid and Barcelona, and no doubt many other places.
  22. 20 minute tube ride and a five minute polish off.
    Another amusing crossword to go with yesterday and again I was quite pleased with my time.
    COD to BODICE-RIPPER and SENEGAL. I dragged the PIROGUE from memory and wordplay.
    Thanks to the setter!
  23. I agree with dorsetjimbo – a thoroughly fair and enjoyable crossword of average difficulty, taking me 28 minutes. Many clues solved from the definition, subsequently teasing out the wordplay. I didn’t understand 21 until I came here, though I didn’t spend much time on it.
  24. 16:16 online with a couple of very brief interruptions so I’d say this was teetering on the easy side of average.

    I’m pretty sure we’ve had Colon the port before.

    At 3 down I missed the Tamar and assumed there was a vessel of sorts called a cataman. As a named river is generally a flower, banker or currency in crossword land my subconscious must have decided that “river” could only be “R”.

    Another very witty and enjoyable puzzle. We’re being spoiled lately. I liked the gob ananas, fiddlesticks and the semi &Lit cashpoint best.

  25. Couldn’t get to grips with this one at all, and resorted to aids to finish it. Loads of unfamiliar vocab, particularly geographical (COLON, TAMAR, BENIN…). CoD to SENEGAL, for me, too, or maybe FLABBERGASTS.

  26. A new personal best for me by the Crossword Club timer – 4:33. I don’t think they can get much faster.
    1. Good going, Simon – that certainly makes my 8:34 look pretty pathetic. I’d have been a couple of minutes faster if I hadn’t somehow managed to type in CAMATARAN (dyslexic fingers?); and LEGLESS held me up at the end as I thought of LUG when I had just the L in place and then wasted far too long wondering why on earth the answer should be LUGGERS.
  27. Took me all of 12 Hansons! Liked the economical FIDDLESTICKS and LEGLESS best. Kudos to the setter and editor) for refusing to bow to the PC crowd and giving us 18dn.
  28. 11:12 .. I had a bit of a moan about the ‘wrong sort of difficulty’ last week, but so far this week’s puzzles have all been terrific (funny I should think that when I’m having a good week on the clock. Fickle? Moi?).

    I’d be lying if I claimed I didn’t read 8a à la George. Another one for the screenplay of Carry On Solving.

    Always happy to see an appearance of the lovely FLABBERGASTS, its adjectival form now almost usurped by the unlovely ‘gobsmacked’.

    COD – FIDDLESTICKS seemed rather sweet and is another word I’d’ be happy to see making a comeback.

  29. Thanks for the entertaining blog George and for explaining SENEGAL. That one was far too devious for me. I put it in from the definition and S???G?L checkers, but the best I could come up with for the wordplay was that it’s an anagram of (Los) ANGELES!!

    Very pleased to finish this one without aids, only my fourth without-aids completion in 2011. Took at least an hour on and off throughout the day. Last in FIDDLESTICKS and before that LEGLESS and PIROGUE.

    Lots of very neat clues. Particularly liked the gobby pineapple and FRANKINCENSE.

  30. A very good puzzle that I should have finished more quickly than my 35 minutes, but I dopily misspelled PIROGUE as PIROUGE despite knowing the word, the craft, and how to spell it. This took a while to sort out. As a result, LEGLESS was my last in. COD to SENEGAL for me too. Regards to all.
  31. By the way, George, your link to the page with an illustration of the PIROGUE also shows The Incredible Aluminum Floating Duck Blind! Can hold up to 10 guys! Possibly half in the bag and wielding loaded shotguns! Unbelieveable. I don’t know about any of the rest of you, but I certainly hope these things aren’t flying off the shelves.
  32. Well, I’m sure at least one of the 10 guys inside has at some point wondered what it would be like if they could get one of those babies off the ground.
    1. I was pretty stunned by the page and I’m glad someone else took the time to enjoy that such things exist. I particularly liked that it was an aluminum craft designed to look like a pirogue, how awesome is that!
      1. “Huge floating duck blind?” Looks for all the world like a crossword clue. Can anybody parse it?

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