Times 24978: Tie me polo down sport

Author   mctextPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 43 minutes.

Fine, fine, fine.

Across
 1 STRA(WBER)RY. Anagram of BREW inside STRAY inc R (river).
 6 S,PEW.
 9 DEC{k}LINE. ‘Go through cases’ as in grammar.
10 MARENGO. MARE (horse), N, GO. A battle in 1800 which gave rise to the name of a chicken or veal dish.
12 Omitted. In Old English: British Ecological Society. That’s gross.
13 A,LLIG,A,TOR. Reversal of GILL (breather).
14 DOUBLE-BARRELLED. Lift and separate after ‘shotgun’.
17 ROLE-PLAYING GAME. Fine clue. Anagram of ‘employing a large’. ‘Cast’ is the indicator.
20 CYCL(A,MAT)E.
21 LA(PP)S. Makes a change from EL, eh?
23 PHILTRE. Homophonic for: “Brit. an arrangement whereby vehicles may turn left (or right) while other traffic waiting to go straight ahead or turn right (or left) is stopped by a red light: [as adj.] a filter lane”. We call it an arrow.
24 TIE,POLO. Cf. Fragonard.
25 DO{d}GE.
26 GREASY POLE. Anagram of first two words in the clue.
Down
 1 SIDE ORDER. RED RED IS inc O; reversed.
 2 Omitted. Game revolutionary? What a frill?
 3 WHITE ELEPHANT. The animals are Indian or African; a European may (comparatively) appear to be WHITE. So should the clue read ‘may be’ rather than ‘maybe’?
 4 EWE LAMB. Homophone of YOU and LAM.
 5 R,AMBLER.
 7 P(AN)ATELLA. Prefer Toscani myself.
 8 WO,O,ER. & a touch of &lit.
11 ROGUES GALLERY. Another fine anagram.
15 UNLOC,KING. First bit is an anagram of COLUMN, minus M{ile}.
16 DRESS CODE. Cryptic def.
18 A(MATE)U,R. AU for gold; R{ings}.
19 INERTIA. Two defs. The first is a seat-belt; so called because, as it happens, it’s reluctant to move.
20 CU(PI)D. PI = good.
22 P(HOT)O. OP = work.

33 comments on “Times 24978: Tie me polo down sport”

  1. 21 minutes, so I knew it wasn’t a Saturday puzzle. LOI was 23, since I didn’t get the traffic part; thanks to mctext for enlightening me.
  2. Did this online on Saturday, when it appeared as a bonus puzzle. 51 minutes. 2dn is obscure enough to include, I’d have thought: ODE defines RUCHE as ‘a frill or pleat [i.e. gathering] of fabric as decoration on a garment or soft furnishing’.

    With nothing to do this morning, I went back to Oct 12, 2009, which was a little easier, at least for me (40′).

    1. Didn’t know it was also a bonus. I thought RUCHE was blindingly obvious. But that may be because I grew up in a dress-making household. Which down clue would you have omitted?
      1. Also got RUCHE from wordplay but checked with my wife, who is a quilter, and got the nod. Had to look up filter in the sense it is used but was familiar with PHILTRE which has appeared several times. Otherwise this puzzle was handled readily along with the two others at the weekend despite being engrossed in baseball playoffs.
        1. The Venerable used to say that we should not gazump the Times hotline. Be happy to give up omissions if that’s the official judgement. Over to Andy?
  5. 19:49 here when solved on Monday morning, a bit sluggish for me but I’ll claim tiredness as it was the fourth one I’d tackled on the journey.

    Somewhat relieved to see it reappear today, as it saved me having two to blog on Saturday!

  6. I’ve struggled with Saturday puzzles recently so it was a pleasure to solve both this and 29475 in quick time. Needed to check TIEPOLO after solving …
  7. Came unstuck with the two ‘love’ words: PHILTRE (never heard of it) and WOOER (should have got this one). CYCLAMATE, MARENGO and TIEPOLO from wordplay.

    Other than that no real problems today.

  8. Fast then slow. 38 minutes. In 3 ‘maybe’ is better than ‘may be’ as the latter casts doubt on the answer, not the European’s colour. Stuck for too long with ‘spit’ for ‘spew’ which made 8 harder to get. COD 16, last in. Surprised by 18 definition.
  9. This is, of course, a mistake – crossword was previously published a short while ago. The upside, is that I set a record in solving it!
    1. A deliberate mistake? Ulaca seems to think it was a bonus, at least online. Is there a different puzzle in the paper today? Were there two online puzzles on Saturday? (I had other otters to fry that day.)

      Help,

      Confused of Tunbridge Wells

      1. I’m in Spain so access the times via their website. It was the same crossword as I completed last week. So, can’t speak for the paper copy.

        However, the Times support people for the website, said that it was an error – BUT, they haven’t yet changed it.

        I shall demand a refund.

  10. Didn’t know about the bonus puzzles. Straightforward 25 minute solve of a good standard puzzle.

    PHILTRE can also be PHILTER so not keen on a clue format that fails to distinguish the alternative spellings and needs AMATEUR to resolve the conflict. No quibbles other than that.

  11. Similar experience to yesterday, where I gave up with the NE corner unfinished. When I came back to it, I found I’d entered ROUGES GALLERY. Doesn’t even decline properly. Sorting that quickly sorted the rest. The anagram at 17 was so good I didn’t spot it and was left thinking it was a cryptic definition I didn’t understand. Mind you, I still don’t get the real cryptic definition at 16. COD to CUPID, although 17 is a damn fine clue.
    2. To dress [in], wear = to sport (a garment). That’s what I thought but, to quote: “That may be bollocks”.
      Partly signalled in the blog title.

      Edited at 2011-10-12 10:25 am (UTC)

      1. Dress code defines the type of clothing that is or is not acceptable at a sporting venue. Most golf clubs stipulate no jeans or sleevless T-shirts whilst golf shoes are mandatory. It also crops up at social functions.
        1. In Australia it’s usually “no thongs (i.e. flip flops)”, but it applies to more than sporting clubs. That’s why I think mctext’s soltion works better i.e. the rule to select what you sport.
  12. Made hard work of this, with problems in the NE, the SE, the SW and the NW. Managed the bit around the equator ok though. Something over an hour. Monday’s fast time seems like a distant memory.
  13. Far easier than yesterdays, though philtre didn’t come quickly to mind until I had CUPID, and CYCLAMATE was unfamiliar. 32 minutes. I like the clues for 9 and 14 (though I hadn’t realised at the time of writing my answer that it was an anagram). I was less keen on 8, where the definition strikes me as unsatisfactory, whether &lit or not.
  14. 36:41 – no real problems. Held up for a bit at the end by four in the NE (4,6,8,13) and five in the SW (18,20a,20d,23,25), but I walked away for five minutes and they all fell into place upon my resumption.

    I didn’t understand all the wordplay until coming here, or indeed all the definitions, but then I didn’t try too hard at the time. There were a couplr of new words for me – MARENGO & CYCLAMATE, but TIEPOLO crops up so frequently I’d be surprised if any regulars haven’t heard of him.

  15. I did this on Saturday. Very odd to have it twice – a mistake I assume. Nothing for me to solve today.
    Anyway, it took me 19 minutes. It felt a bit trickier than that, with quite a few terms that had to be dredged from the recesses of memory: MARENGO, CYCLAMATE, TIEPOLO, RUCHE. Only PHILTRE was completely unknown and it felt wrong as it went in.
    I read 16 in the same way as mctext, i.e. just a cryptic definition with “sporting” meaning “wearing”.
  16. This was a very enjoyable 30 minutes for me. I found no particular problems. Last in PHILTRE – the homophone made me laugh when I finally got it. I notice our old friend TIEPOLO has been resurrected. I’ve missed him!
  17. Surprised no-one else ruffled by lover=amateur. Is “an amateur of old brass instruments” or whatever really used these days? (Yes, I know it’s in the dictionary.)
    1. That AMATEUR = lover was specifically (and coincidentally) mentioned by Kevin McCloud in Channel 4’s “Grand Designs” tv programme tonight (Wednesday 12th October) – and that was about 2 minutes after I’d written AMATEUR into the paper’s grid!

      Darryl

  18. This seemed like one of the easier puzzles. MARENGO cropped up in a Guardian crossword last year, otherwise I wouldn’t know that one.
  19. I had done this Saturday, and I don’t remember my time, but it was pretty quick other than PHILTRE, my last entry, which I didn’t know, and had to resort to aids to get. I enjoyed the WHITE ELEPHANT and the ROGUES GALLERY, excellent anagram. Regards.
  20. 11:55 for me. I’m still feeling tired, and today it showed as I made horribly heavy weather of some easy clues.

    17ac is definitely my COD – and a likely candidate for my COY.

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