Times 24944 – Jolly hockeysticks!

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 30:59

Much like yesterday’s, I found this another good fun puzzle with plenty to enjoy. 1a, 8, 9 & 11 all made me smile. Lots of great words like TICKETY-BOO & DULLSVILLE.

23 was a real old chestnut which must have cropped up many times before clued in this way.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 BRANDY SNAP = RANDY + Sugary Nectar in BAP – Randy for ‘hot’ nearly made me spit my tea out all over my computer! Cheeky!
6 Deliberately omitted – simple reversal
9 DULLSVILLE = DUE about 4xL about (S + VI) – it entertains me no end when I see the Times including great new words like this
10 BLOC = B + COL rev – Col for ‘pass’ is an old chestnut that crops up fairly regularly. I remember studying cols and arretes in geography lessons at school.
12 LA DONNA E MOBILE = LAD + ON + MEAN rev + O + BILE
14 Deliberately omitted – hidden
15 ATROCITY = (RICOTTA + gravY)*
17 HO(TemplE)LIER
19 LE(GAT)O – Gat as an abbreviation/colloquialism for Gatling Gun is another common element. Legato is a musical direction.
22 NEAR THE KNUCKLE – dd
24 SET + messiaH – Adam’s third son, born when he was a sprightly 130 years old, according to Genesis.
25 RACE + C(O)URSE
26 Deliberately omitted – another reversal
27 RETROSPECT = (CRETE’S PORT)*
Down
1 BIDEt
2 ALL EARS – dd, one cryptic
3 DISCONSOLATE = (TO ASCEND SOIL)*
4 SK(INN)Y
5 AILMENTS = (SALT MINE)*
7 BELL + IN + Irish – Vincenzo was an Italian composer of operas
8 TICKETY-BOO = TICKET + BY rev + Ox2 (old twins) – How quintessentially English.
11 POP ONE’S CLOGS – dd, with ‘die’ being the second, and everything else being the first.
13 DISH + ONE’S + TummY
16 SERENADE – cd, well-disguised, I thought. My last one in, and the reason I didn’t finish in under half an hour.
18 TO + ASTER
20 AT LARGE = criminaL in TAR in AGE
21 END + EAR
23 Deliberately omitted

53 comments on “Times 24944 – Jolly hockeysticks!”

  1. 17 minutes, much assisted by the long split clues and the anagrams. So I found this a bit easier than some of this week’s puzzles. Thought 11ac could have been “In Dutch pawn-shop…”. And while 23dn may be a chestnut, it’s not quite right. “Touch” is a verb of attempt, “feel” a verb of achievement. Cf. “listen” and “hear” — which makes me wonder why P. Simon got it exactly reversed in “The Sound of Silence”.

    COD to DISHONESTY: had me fooled despite the simplicity of the charade.

    1. Just remembered that when I lived in Dullsville (N. Queensland), I found myself in the haberdashery section of its (one) department store, asking the not-unprepossessing assistant where I could get felt.
    2. I can’t remember who sang it, but I do remember the song: ‘Don’t Touch Me There!’ — certainly referring to a (potential) achievement. Whereas ‘I felt for the light switch, but couldn’t find it’ sounds like underachieving to me. I don’t think the distinction holds, in short.
    3. My Dad was very good at ‘hearing without listening’, so I have no problem with that.

      I prefer ‘Homeward bound’, though.

      1. I quote the great grammarian, R. Starr:
        “I listen for your footsteps coming up the drive.
        “I listen for your footsteps, but they don’t arrive”.

        Oh and this:
        http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2011/02/success-verbs.html
        summarising Ryle’s argument which, I believe, is irrefutable.

        And anyone who has ever suffered from cubital tunnel syndrome (involving atrophy of the Ulnar nerve) will know how frustrating it is to touch but not feel. Particularly if it happens to be a guitar fretboard.

        Edited at 2011-09-02 04:36 am (UTC)

        1. ‘Listen’ with its core meaning of attending to something is neutral I would say in respect of attempt and achievement. The effort/attempt meaning of the phrase ‘listen for’ owes much to the pronoun. I can’t see the difference you claim for ‘touch’ and ‘feel’ either. In fact, ‘feel for [something]’ has the same idea of attempt as ‘listen for’!
      2. Re Simon and Garfunkle: I have to share this piece of absolutely useless knowledge with someone. I was playing the piano rendition of “The Boxer” and noticed that the word “mumbles” in the first verse is on the same note as the word “railway” in the second. The Mumbles Railway is(was) the oldest passenger railway in the world – closed in the 1960s. I still have my last season ticket for it.
  2. 16:18 .. much to smile about.

    COD – ALL EARS … just the right amount of corn.

    Last in .. RACECOURSE

  3. I was doing just fine, thank you, with all but three clues solved in 19′; but those last three (11d, 25ac, 16d) took me almost half an hour. I will say in my defense that POP ONE’S CLOGS was new to me, nor did I know that Bath has a racecourse. I also wondered about 1d; thanks to Dave for enlightening me; I suppose. I can’t say I was taken with ‘several liberals’ in 9ac meaning, in effect, ‘as many L’s as are needed’. Nor did I care for the unnatural surfaces of clues such as 12ac and 4d. COD to 22ac: another term I didn’t know until the ‘Clue Challenge’ judge used it in criticising my submission a couple of years ago.
    1. I sometimes wonder if the Rigoletto aria is the only one that exist in Crosswordland, but I suppose trying to clue “Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fête!” or “Die Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” might be a bit tricky.

      As for 4dn, as a Guinness drinker, I rather liked that one.

  4. I agree with Dave’s comments – an enjoyable puzzle.

    The breakdown of DISHONESTY recalled the pleasure of the Blackadder epsode “Dish and Dishonesty”.

    Is 23 a chestnut? I nearly spilt my tea when faced with – – – T and wondering if the setter was drawing on the Urban Dictionary and whether this might be a cryptic def. I was relieved to find that it wasn’t,. ‘Nuff said.

  5. Dave, if you were amused by 1ac I’m surprised your computer survived 1dn’s ‘behind cleaner’ without a major soaking! But maybe you had finished your tea by then?
    1. After ‘instruction to boxer’, it’s definitely my week for missing the bleeding obvious, as I wondered how exactly ‘bidet’ meant ‘cleaner’ (of course it does, but I was thinking of amahs and Jif and stuff like that) and how exactly ‘bide’ meant ‘stay behind’.
      1. Probably something of a solecism to mention here but yesterday’s Guardian had SANITARY TOWELS. Also, as a warning to non-cricket buffs, a new term to add to the list: DUCKORTH LEWIS.
        Undone by the definition for DISHONESTY today and by the cd for SERENADE. To add to my blushes I spent sometime looking up TOASTER as an obscure flower.
        2. Hah! I was saved by my penny-drop moment from starting to see how Dee, Exe, Axe, Eden, Ouse, Cam, etc. might fit in.
  6. An excellent puzzle which I would have completed in 25 minutes but for 16dn. A slightly obscure cryptic definition with only vowels as checkers made this a tough clue to crack and it delayed me a further 10 minutes.

    TICKETY-BOO has come up before, most recently in January 2010. It can also be spelt with a double T.

    Loved 1dn.

  7. 4i minutes for this seaside-postcard of a puzzle. If they ever put one inside a stick of Blackpool rock, this one must be it. COD to POP ONE’S CLOGS. Like many others, the racecourse and the air were last in.

    Thanks, setter – not forgetting the blogger.

  8. I whizzed through this is under 30 minutes apart from 16 down where i still struggle to see the CD…can anyone help please?
    1. Serenade: A piece of music appropriate to the evening, characteristically played outside the house of a woman.

      (Collins)

      Hope this helps.

  9. Jaunty, enjoyable puzzle this, a bit easier than yesterday’s at 15m, and I agree that some of the surfaces are a bit poor.. though some are very good, eg 1, 2 & 4dn. Cod to 1dn by a nose from a strong field..
  10. 19 minutes, a mix of good, schoolboyish fun and h’m moments, SERENADE definitely in the latter category and last in. Cryptic definitions tend to need all the crossing letters for the penny to drop, but with a feeling of “is that it?”
    12 looked like work in progress as a clue, and I thought the definition as “song” was a bit ClassicFMish, like referring to the 1812 overture as a tune.
    CoD to the dying footwear, though if I had seen the delicious “behind cleaner”, that would have to have it. I was trapped by “stay behind” = BIDE (“’tis you must go and I must bide” – Danny Boy) into seeing this as a pretty average clue.
  11. An enjoyable, but frustrating, challenge completed in two sessions, probably about 45 minutes in all (difficult to assess the subconconscious time used during the interval). LA DONNA E MOBILE painstakingly worked out from wordplay; ages to remember ‘pop’ in POP ONE’S CLOGS; SERENADE only came to mind while thinking of ‘love song’ in 12ac; and seemed like an eternity to crack the wordplay for BIDE (LOI).

    COD to LA DONNA E MOBILE: unknown to me and, I thought, ungettable – but it was all there in the wordplay. (Admittedly I did check before coming here that it was a valid song title.)

  12. I got through most of this quickly, and was left with just 16dn after 13 minutes. 15 minutes later, I kicked myself and put it in. I can’t understand why I made such heavy weather of it, even if “air” is a word with many meanings. Hey ho.
    1. I think the window is the distractor here. I was trawling my very shallow architectural lexicon for something like ‘fenestre’, even though I latched on to the tuneful meaning of air right away.
      1. Yes possibly. I also saw the tuneful meaning early on, and went down a “fenestre” blind alley. However I went down a lot of others!
  13. I rather like the idea of putting this puzzle in a stick of Blackpool rock as it somehow sums up a strange mixture of the clever, the bawdy and the rather clumsy

    Any puzzle that makes me laugh out loud has to be good and BIDE is the best of them – really excellent. Not difficult (20 minutes – helped by SERENADE not being original)

  14. Not too easy, which is what you want on friday. A fine puzzle. But, I’ve got to say it, don’t get upset, but if you want to see a real crossword have a look at yeaterday’s guardian. Man, that’s good…
    1. Really? The Haagen Dasz clue was pretty good, but SANITARY TOWELS is just advertising. 1 down has no sound alike indicator, and you have to know Noddy Holder was a Brummie for the neckwear to make any sense. Loose cluing, and quite a few (very) parochial references. Not much fun for me.
      1. “Picking up” is the soundalike indicator, no?
        Generally I agree with you though. I quite like to do the Guardian precisely because the style is looser but I find myself harumphing quite a lot. KIPPER TIE is awful.
        1. I did The Guardian on the long train journey home last night and enjoyed it. I tend to think that if the Times is Test cricket, the Guardian is a 20/20 game. Both have a place in the world, but they aren’t really the same game.
            1. I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s Guardian puzzle. The Noddy Holder clue made me genuinely LOL.
        2. Picking up” – I stand corrected. KIPPER TIE is an old joke, but none the better for that. I haven’t done the Grauniad for ages, and trying it on this recommendation, I was actually quite shocked. GOSSIPPED is just wrong. Chacun à son goût, I suppose.
    2. Pretty much runied for me by ‘gossipped’. Really surprised the editor didn’t spot that.
  16. Like others, slowed by SERENADE at the end, and by not knowing Bath had a racecourse. BRANDY SNAP was good but BIDE better. Enjoyable end to the week.
  17. Here’s another solver delayed considerably by 16dn. All but that completed in 30 minutes, but then another 10 to finish. Enjoyable clues, especially 1dn. 23 was the weakest, probably an old chestnut, but I didn’t get it until I had some letters since I’d convinced myself that the setter was being more devious than he was, using ‘touched’ as a synonym for ‘mad’.
  18. 15:11, straightforward and enjoyable. LOI racecourse, COD bide.

    Is the juxtaposition of bidet and touch cloth deliberate I wonder?

    I once met a dutch girl with inflatable shoes and she gave me her phone number. When I rang her a week later to arrange a date she’d popped her clogs.

  19. La Donna E Modium never really convinced me as a love song, but caused a bit of a delay until I cheated to get the correct answer.
    Didn’t realise what a great clue 1dn was until reading Jack’s comment above.
  20. I didn’t know either the opera song or POP ONES CLOGS, and even with all the checkers there was no way I was going to get them, so I resorted to the internet. RACECOURSE from wordplay only, and COD to the amusing BIDE. I got through everything else in about 25 minutes. Regards all.
  21. I’m back in my “normal” routine, haven’t been able to comment much lately. Liked this, but last in was SERENDADE. I can’t say enough good things about the wordplay for LA DONNA E MOBILE – I’m sure most people know of it, but with wordplay that crystal clear it’s impossible to miss. Also liked BIDE and TICKETY-BOO – thanks setter!
  22. I was held up in lots of places. I had ONES CLOGS but couldn’t remember what you had to do with them in order to die. The Rigoletto aria, LEGATO and SERENADE made this a very musical puzzle. I didn’t know that Bath had a racecouse which made it difficult to get SERENADE. Finally limped past the winning post in 37 minutes.
  23. Great apart from Bath as a racecource and serenade just didn’t come. Awful time therefore. Unhappy.
  24. 7:21 here – another reasonable time in an up-and-down week for me.

    Interesting facts about Bath:

    …
    No. 154: it has a racecourse.

    (Yawn!)

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