Times 24898 – The last resort!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 66 minutes

Music: Mozart, Smetana, Ma Vlast, Talich/CPO

My time was atrocious, which I attribute to choosing to play 18 holes on a blogging day. I got back home at 6:45, only 15 minutes before the puzzle comes out, and was more than a bit tired.

I dd race through about half the clues in ten minutes before coming to a sudden and complete halt. There are a lot of chestnuts, and for all I can say they may all be chestnuts and I should have just kept going. Certainly the ones I struggled over turned out to be ridiculously easy

once I saw them.

Across
1 BANDWAGON, BAND + W + AG + ON, an easy one.
6 MOSES, double definition, alluding to Grandma Moses. I wasted a lot of time with ‘nan’ and ‘nana’.
9 Omitted, he’s hiding in the underbrush.
10 BRAVADO, BRA + V + ADO, another compendium of common cryptic usage.
11 Omitted.
12 EXPRESS LIFT, EXPRESS + LIFT, were ‘word’ is a verb as well. Strangely elusive for me, although I saw ‘express’ early on.
14 STEAMY, S(T)EAMY, another piece of cake.
15 LAW AGENT, L(A WAG)ENT. My last in; I thought for a long time that ‘salt’ or malt’ would be the enclosing word, and could not remember the other 3-letter word for a wit.
17 CLAPTRAP, C + LAP + TRAP. I was puzzled by the literal and the crossing letters for a while, then I just followed the cryptic and there it was.
19 BLOW UP, double definition, another gift from the setter.
22 PUSSY WILLOW, double definition, where a cricket bat is made from willow. For those of you in the UK, what is a baseball bat made from?
23 NAG, double definition. The first definition is simply ‘keep on’, but the second alludes to the pub The Nag’s Head.
25 AIRPORT, AIR + P OR T[rumpet]. I never knew there was an airport named after the Beatle, but there is. The cryptic hands it to you.
27 GRAFTER, GR + AFTER. I made heavy work of this. I had though of ‘grafter’ but wasn’t familiar with this meaning, a market stall laborer.
28 Omitted!
28 CATALONIA, C(A TALON)IA. I put this in from the literal, and figured it out later. I never heard of a talon in the sense of a pile of cards, so noted for future use.
 
Down
1 BOGUS, BO(-N +G)US.
2 Omitted!
3 WALTER MITTY, spoonerism of MALTER (sounds like Malta) WITTY. I was afraid for a long time this would be some UK figure I had never heard of, but finally put the cryptic to work and got the answer.
4 GRAPPA G.(RAP)P. + A. This slang meaning of ‘rap’ has been driven out of common usage by rap music, but it can still be used in puzzles.
5 NOBLEMAN, NOB + LE MAN[s]. A bit of a weak clue, because ‘nob’ is a slang shortening of, er, ‘nobleman’.
6 MOA, M(O)A, a snap if you’ve heard of this bird, a native of American crossword puzzles, where vowels are in demand.
7 SEASIDE, anagram of DISEASE, my last in. Upon writing this in, I thought to myself what a weak double definition it was. Then I saw it. For a long time, I thought ‘popular’ was the literal and it started with ‘spa’.
8 SHORTSTOP, SHORTS + TOP. I was expecting a cricket position. The shortstop is the only named fielder in baseball, the others having to make do with first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, right fielder, center fielder, left fielder. Very dull compared to cricket positions.
13 SWALLOWTAIL, SWALLOW + TAIL. Rather easy.
14 SYCOPHANT, S[warm]Y + anagram of CHAP, NOT. It means one who shows the fig in Greek, sykon phainein. Unfortunately, the significance of showing the fig is not known, but there are many interesting theories.
16 SADISTIC, S(AD I[t]S)TIC[k]. The cryptic is so complex, it hardly comes into play.
18 ALSO RAN, A L[yceum} + SO + RAN, or something like that.
20 WINSTON, WINS + NOT backwards.
21 BLIGHT, B(L)IGHT. ‘Bight’ is not a common word, but the crossing letters should help with this.
24 GARDA. DRAG backwards + A. Since ‘drag’ is what you do to search a lake, the clue should be helping you. I declined assistance.
26 Omitted.

55 comments on “Times 24898 – The last resort!”

  1. 36 minutes and I liked this for all its chesty-nutty bravado; and thought it might be a good nursery puzzle for learning some of the common conventions. Agree with our esteemed blogger and ulaca that SEASIDE was nicely disguised: yep I was looking for SPA (except we’d had it already in 11ac), IN (popular), A (area) and so on. Not my last though: that was GARDA — hadn’t heard of the lake, only the Polis.

    John Lennon is the old Speke Airport where we used to go on school trips after the requisite visit to Speke Hall. The ancient and the modern in one day out. Always seemed very exotic to me.

    GRAFTER: is this the guy on the market stall or just a generic for someone who works hard? Not known in my native (or any of my acquired) dialect(s).

    Slight typo in 14dn: “smarmy”, not “swarmy”.

    And a brief note on NOB. The US Oxford has:
    ORIGIN late 17th cent. (originally Scots as knab): of unknown origin.

    Edited at 2011-07-11 02:44 am (UTC)

  2. Nothing special here, I thought. Should have beaten the half-hour target, but took 7 minutes on the last two, the unfamiliar MOSES and then the crafty anagram SEASIDE to finish at 33 minutes. BIGHT is familiar to all those of a certain age who grew up listening to the radio, as it feautres in arguably the most evocative of the sea areas around the British Isles, German Bight. As a kid, I always opened my mouth at this point and snapped at an imaginary enemy.
  4. 18 minutes, all the speedier for me given that I didn’t know John had an airport named after him, nor did I know GRAFTER in that sense, or Lake Garda, ‘talon’ in that sense, and that I suffer from rhoticism, so that the Walter/Malta thing didn’t register for ages. (And I may as well say that these quasi-homophones leave me cold.) Somehow 7d came to me immediately (it is a lovely surface); and the only bight I know of is, I think, in Australia–just checked, and that’s the one.TGIM.
  5. 30 minutes with a slight hold-up in the SE that prevented me beating that barrier.

    A slightly strange puzzle but quite an enjoyable solve.

    I thought I didn’t know TALON as the remainder of a deck of cards after dealing but it’s starting to ring a faint bell and I may have met it before.

    20 is a DBE with knobs on.

    1. Hmm … I wonder. Guess we’d have no problem with “Prime minister” clueing CHURCHILL, despite the thousands of Churchills who were never prime ministers. Ditto, then, for the thousands of WINSTONs (including — for most of his life — John Lennon) who were not either. More a case of over-familiarity then?
      1. Maybe that’s more to the point, but it certainly struck me that a question mark or ‘perhaps’ might have been present.
    2. ’20 is a DBE with knobs on.’

      I don’t see how. If ‘Winston’ was in the clue and the definition ‘prime minister’, then yes.

      It’s not a bad &lit to describe what happened in the UK’s first general election for ten years at the end of the war.

  6. Thankfully easy on a cricket day. Very quick by my standards although didn’t understand EXPRESS LIFT, didn’t know TALON and if 26 is OUT I don’t see how?
    1. Double def:

      Smoking is out in pubs now.
      The last News of the World was out yesterday.

      1. Yup! Jack by a nose, or perhaps by a keystroke.
        Well at least it required a bit of thought. Thanks to both.
    2. I think the idea of ‘in the shops’ is that it’s on teh shelves = out rather than in teh warehouse/stock-room.
  7. Slow today at 33m. after cantering through most. Depressing enough to have an airport named after a pop star let alone be reminded of it here. Liked seaside – with the extra touch in the surface of dis-ease being treated there.
    1. One could argue that Kennedy and de Gaulle were no more nor less worthy. (That one is not me though.)
      1. One can be as relativist as one likes and argue for a Harry Potter airport. Or one can go for real-life wittering idiots as with George Best – thanks, ulaca, I didn’t know about that, gloomed my morning. Or one can stay with civic icons, for want of a better phrase – don’t see what’s wrong with that.
        1. John Lennon and George Best? Add Joyce to the list and you’ve got the three great genius Irishmen of the 20th C. You call the revolutionary composer a ‘pop star’. Are you a high court judge?
          2. Lennon wasn’t Irish. He was born and raised in Liverpool. Apparently his grandfather was Irish but that’s about as close as he gets.
        2. The reason they renamed it John Lennon Airport is that it was the first place he went when he had got some money!
    2. Imagine flying across the Irish Sea from John Lennon Airport to George Best Airport in Belfast. Enought to drive you to drink.
  8. Just under 30 minutes with SEASIDE (well disguised anagram) and CLAPTRAP deadheating for last in. Fortunately, 3dn, the only ‘fantasist’ coming easily to mind was WALTER MITTY so my usual distaste/difficulty with ‘Spooner’ clues presented no problem this time. GRAFTER, with its pejorative implications, referring to someone with dedication and industry but perhaps little talent (a bit like me doing these crosswords), was well known. No particularly outstanding clue but I did like the elegance and simplicity of WINSTON.

    Thanks for the blog, vinyl.

  9. A dead-heat, I see, but I rather fancy Jack gets the decision in the stewards’ room.
    1. As far as my wife is concerned “out” and “in the shops” are pretty nearly synonymous.
  10. 12 minutes, so a gentle Monday trot with GRAPPA, NAG and BLIGHT the only (inexplicable) hold-ups. Not a bad Spooner clue (are we in for a rash of them?) for those of us living in Essex and therefore oblivious to sounding our R’s. Best chestnut of the day to CLAPTRAP.
    And the answer to the baseball bat challenge: it’s aluminum, isn’t it?
        1. I was rather telescoping my response – I can still recall the furore made by the non-willow cricket bat at the WACA more than 30 years ago.
          1. Understood. Lillee’s bat was a decent example of the British (English?) propensity to believe that everyone knows what the rules are without bothering to write them down.
    2. So far as I know, in the major leagues at least, bats are made of ash; I’d be surprised if there are any aluminum bats in the MLB.
  11. 23 minutes. I had all but two after 11 minutes but then more than doubled my time on MOSES and SEASIDE. I thought 7dn was going to start with SPA and just couldn’t get the idea out of my head. A huge doh! moment when I finally saw it.
  12. 29 minutes. Derek Jeter of the NY Yankees got his 3000th hit this weekend – 28th player and first Yankee to do so. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one bamboozled by 7d – my brain kept insisting on spavine (or something).
    1. Well done Jeter (I assume this is an achievement of note). The only baseball match I ever attended was at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 2002. Jeter got carried off that day with what I think was a season-ending knee injury.
      Loved the hot dogs and beers in the hundred degree heat. If my ancestors had fled to America instead of Australia 160 years ago, I suspect I would have spent as much time at Yankee Stadium as I have at the SCG and the WACA.
  13. 27 minutes, with only MOSES putting up much resistance, on a day when crosswords are in the news. Congratulations to the News Of The World crossword team for their show of defiance.
    1. Priceless. Thank you. One for the archive of crossword folklore.

      Just goes to show – never underestimate a cruciverbalist.

    2. Tell us more! Sorry, I’m in the US and this didn’t cross the pond yet.
  14. Apparently News International brought in a couple of outside proofreaders to make sure the final edition of the paper didn’t contain anything untoward – but they failed to check the two crosswords which contain heaps of clues and answers that seem to refer to the situation and the much malingned former editor Rebekah Brook. It’s a good story, although I suppose you could find such things in any puzzle if you looked for them. Who is the SADISTIC GORILLA in today’s puzzle, I wonder?
  15. Gentle start to the week, rich in chestnuts – much needed after golf in the oven. Couldn’t write the blog after a round and the life saving 19th – will you do it again vinyl?

    MOSES my last in, couldn’t quite recall the singer but guessed MOSES had to be right. 25 minutes with no problems along the way

    What’s this about NOW crossword team?

  16. Nice puzzle today, last in was CLAPTRAP. I was surprised to see WALTER MITTY as I thought he was purely a US phenomenon. To Anon, above: v. as in ‘vide’ or ‘viz.’, = ‘see’. For the trap, think of the cotton gin. And, in much of baseball today, especially younger leagues, I think there is a real fear that the ball comes off the aluminum bat far more sharply, causing potential injuries, especially to pitchers.
  17. By the way, as all the Americans already know, Derek Jeter is a SHORTSTOP. Reaching the 3000 hit mark essentially guarantees his eventual entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame, unless he does something incredibly awful and stupid, a la Pete Rose. For the benefit of the non-Amerks, Rose was found to have been betting on games in which he was managing, sometimes against his own team, and was banned for life from any further connection with baseball, despite being the all-time leasder in hits, with over 4200.
  18. Help me with the ‘v’ in Bravado?
    And with gin = trap?

    For cultural information: Americans would consider all baseball fielders to be ‘named’ positions – we wouldn’t see ‘catcher’ or ‘first baseman’ as substantially different from ‘silly mid on’. Major league bats are ash, but due to the cost of frequent breakage junior, high school, and university bats are aluminum. Or aluminium. There is concern that using metal bats doesn’t develop full batting skills, and that because they hit balls harder, penalises (and discourages) developing pitchers. 3000 hits is a very rare achievement requiring skill and longevity – only 28 players have done it in the 150 years of recorded baseball.

  19. The most famous example of betting against one’s own team in cricket occurred in 1981, when two Aussies, including the afore-mentioned aluminium-wielding Dennis Lillee, couldn’t, allegedly, resist having a punt on England to win when the bookies offered 500-1 against that possibility. Whatever is to be said for the rights and wrongs of betting against your own team, Rod Marsh and Lillee showed a commendable grasp of probability theory (or the like – I’m no mathematician) as only four results are possible in a Test, i.e. 5-day, match (win, loss, draw, tie) and 500-1 in a four-horse race is generous, to say the least.

    England duly won and the two Ausssies duly, allegedly, collected.

  20. Vinyl: Thank you for the gin and v help. An American would recognise gin as a specific machine, and probably also as a shortened version of the verb to engineer. But as an animal trap, well, that’s why we work the puzzle: to learn the non-standard English uses.

    Meantime, right that aluminum bats are viewed as a threat – due to hitting the ball harder – to pitchers. Not to mention that they degrade the otherwise superlative nostalgic quality of the game. And that they sound wrong when they hit the ball. And… but I’d better stop before I get into the evils of night baseball, artificial turf, and the designated hitter.

    Just a note, Pete Rose has always denied betting on games in which his team was playing.

  21. This “Amerk” got all but two. Some of them I got but never understood the clue. “Claptrap” I STILL don’t get, even after reading the above. I used an aid, a word finder that gives possibilities based on the word patterns. Even looking at the possibilities I could not see anything. My thesaurus doesn’t give anything for “cobbler.” I still don’t get Walter Mitty either, but I never read the work. I never heard of a lake Garda but got it anyway. Same for John Lennon “airport.”

    Pretty happy getting all but two w no aids. And didn’t take very long this time either. Seems I may be getting better…

  22. good grief … in an effort to understand this I’ve imbibed several glasses of malted prune juice washed down with a flagon of Mothers Favourite Sparling Lexia – but to no avail

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