Times 25,013 – a quick dip in the gander bag

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Timed at 13:50, with one error (misread the anagram fodder and plumped for a likely-looking but wrong answer). One of those odd puzzles which was 90% very straightforward, but with two or three elements which left me guessing, thanks to two words I don’t remember seeing before and a missing piece of geographical knowledge. As I’ve said before, I’m quite happy for clues to depend on knowledge I don’t have as long as the associated wordplay is unambiguous enough for me to make an educated guess; and this fitted the bill on both counts. Was I typical? We shall see…

Across
1 MICROMESH – (HOMERICMS)*.
6 HOT UP – HOuse + TUP.
9 DEPUTED – PUT in DEED; I’d have said a deed was an action rather than an activity but that’s neither here nor there.
10 RAMPAGE – [A M.P.] in RAGE.
11 SKI – Second + KIds.
12 FIN DE SIECLE – (IFagEDECLINES)*.
14 FLECHE – CHurch in FLEE; I only knew the literal French meaning of “arrow”, but from there it wasn’t a massive leap to deduce that a tall, thin spire (once lifted-and-separated from the church) could be described architecturally in the same terms.
15 MALAPERT – reversed in ouTRE PAL AMusing; not a word I knew, but again, the instructions in the wordplay (“some” and “on reflection”) are clear and it seemed more than plausible that the derivation was MAL=”bad” and PERT=”cheeky”, and was a term for an impudent person from some old French root.
17 ADVOWSON – VOWS in [A DON]; am I appearing massively ignorant by never having heard this ecclesiastical term? Perhaps I haven’t read enough Trollope. At any rate, the wordplay led me quickly to a very plausible looking solution, which turned out to be right.
19 STORMY – STORY around M.
22 DIRTY OLD MAN – (MIDLANDTORY)*; I put in DIRTY OLD MEN, unfortunately, but I should have realised there’s only one Tory (and more to the point, no E in the anagram fodder).
23 PUB – University in PB, Pb being the chemical symbol for lead.
25 TRIPPER – River in TIPPER (what may be known in other territories as a dump truck).
27 RAIDING – AID in RING.
28 RAYON – R.A. + YON.
29 DELINEATE – (TALEINEED)*.
 
Down
1 MIDAS – MAIDS with the Area moved down the word.
2 CAPSIZE – double / cryptic def. based on the indisputable fact that a large head requires a large size in headwear. I chuckled.
3 OUT OF THE WAY – double def., as geographical description or peremptory exclamation.
4 ENDING – bENDING without the Bishop.
5 HERNE BAY – HE (the man) + (NEARBY)* gives the popular Victorian resort.
6 HUM – Winnie the Pooh composed poems, and “hums” which might almost be accused of being poetry.
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.
Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,
Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,
Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um.
7 TRANCHE – ‘H’ in TRANCE.
8 PRESENTLY – RESENT in PLY.
13 INATTENTION =”INNER TENSION” (more or less).
14 FRAUDSTER – FRAU + [ST in DER].
16 COLLARED – COLL + A RED; since MULLARED didn’t seem very likely, I was forced to conclude there must be an island in the same region called COLL which I didn’t know about; and so there is.
18 VARSITY – SIT in VARY.
20 REPLICA – REP (a fabric, very popular in crossword land) + Chapter in LIAr.
21 AMORAL – Answer + Mark + ORAL.
24 BOGLE – Black OGLE; the more I think about this word, the more convinced I am that I knew it only as part of the repertoire of Rambling Syd Rumpo, and not in the approved meaning at all. Looking forward to the appearance of nadgers and cordwangles in the near future.
26 PAN – PANt.

28 comments on “Times 25,013 – a quick dip in the gander bag”

  1. 15 minuts without ever leaving 2nd gear. Very straightforward except for ADVOWSON which I also didn’t know but the cryptic gives it to you.
  2. 9 minutes. Agree with dorsetjimbo that it was all straightforward – ADVOWSON was obvious from the clue but did need looking up to check. I live about 10 minutes away from Herne Bay so didn’t have any problems with that one!
  3. For some unknown reason, I did know ADVOWSON. A very swift, but nonethless enjoyable, solve by my standards,
  4. Vaguely aware of fleche and advowson and bogle but would not have been able to define them before solving. Found this a little tricky in places and content with my 23 minutes. No, not content; I don’t think a solver is ever content…
  5. A smidge under 20 minutes and the same “hums” as Timbo, to wit fleche, advowson, malapert and Coll.

    Many moons ago I worked for Shepherd Neame brewery and we had several pubs in Herne Bay so once I’d spotted the fodder and “bay” therein the rest was a doddle.

    I was pleased to see that the material at 1ac was of the practical sort rather than somthing only a keen dressmaker would have heard of.

  6. After yesterday’s spooky coincidences I was half expecting FLECHE, ADVOWSON, MALAPERT and the Isle of COLL to turn up in my library reading this morning but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. I never heard of any of them but still managed to complete the grid in 22 minutes, again just failing to break through the 20 minute barrier. I enjoyed 6dn and 22ac, the second of which always reminds me of “Steptoe & Son”.
  7. Another straightforward solve, with the unknowns (COLL, ADVOWSON, MALAPERT) all being clearly signalled by the cryptic.

    (hmm, appears spellchecker’s not familiar with MALAPERT, either!).

  8. Agreed, very straightforward, which means just over 30 minutes for me. The obscure words – BOGLE, ADVOWSON – were eminently get-able from the cryptic wordplay. I had to look up both in the dictionary to check their meanings. I’d never met “bogle” before but I’m pretty sure that “advowson” has cropped up in the past. 1ac (MICROMESH) immediately shrieked “anagram” but it took me far too long to work out what the fine material was – my last but one entry. I thought DIRTY OLD MAN excellent – combining a cleverly contrived anagram with a beautiful surface reading in a classic &lit and witty to boot.

  9. 21:23 …. with a good few minutes at the end trying to find ‘better’ alternatives to the very unlikely looking ADVOWSON. I gave up, hit ‘submit’, and was astonished to find out that it is in fact a word. I’ll be sure to work that one into the conversation next time I see the archbishop.
  10. I agree that it was very straightforward despite the odd unusual vocabulary. I felt some of the clues had very crosswordy surfaces (eg 1, 11, 14a,15, to name a few) but was amused by the anagram at 22.
    25 minutes over sandwiches and tea.
  11. A few unknowns in this one (14, 15 and 17) but nothing that the wordplay couldn’t resolve. The biggest conundrum occurred at 6dn, where I was hemming and hawing between hum and hem before plumping for ‘hem’, on the basis, as Oxford Online says, that it’s ‘used in writing to indicate a sound made when coughing or clearing the throat to attract attention or to express hesitation’. Although I’m familiar with W-t-P, I must confess I tended to hasten over the overly twee parts when I last read it, which would have been to my daughter ten years ago. I would be surprised if others haven’t fallen into the same heffalump trap.

    We stayed in Beltinge, just outside Herne Bay, while over for the Open Championship earlier this year, enjoying views of some of the Duke of Edinburgh’s ‘useless’ wind turbines out to sea. 39 minutes, which I was pleased with until coming here.

    1. I’ve gone off 6dn down having been enlightened that it is a reference to W-t-P. I thought it was to matters strictly lavatorial and I’m disappointed to find that that it’s twee rather than dirty! And there’s no Private Eye puzzle to look forward to tomorrow in compensation.
  13. Those of us of Scottish heritage are familiar with a bogle as part of a “tattiebogle”, or scarecrow, to which my grandmother often compared me in my windswept and careless youth. (I’m even worse now.)
  14. 17 minutes, with no actual words unknown but the apparently contagious COLLection of unknown meanings.
    CoD to the deliciously libellous but believable DOM.
    My uncle’s family used to holiday every year at Herne Bay: I could never understand the attraction of going to the same place even twice.
  15. I’m impressed by the times everybody else seemed to manage on this. It took me ages (41 minutes) and I was glad to finish. I didn’t know ADVOWSON or FLECHE and spent too long working out the cryptics. Even after I’d bunged in MIDAS it took me a good few minutes to reason it out. (BTW my sub ran out yesterday and wasn’t automatically renewed beause the card I’d been using had expired. Instead of telling me this the site just kept opening on the “subscribe” page. It took a couple of phone calls to sort things out. I got an email about the expired sub, which they said I should have recieved this morning, after lunch. By which time I’d already resubscribed. I’m not thrilled with the service!)
  16. About 25 minutes, but like everyone else I was trusting wordplay only for FLECHE, MALAPERT, ADVOWSON, and BOGLE. But I had really no idea how to connect Winnie to the hesitation sound, and I was completely off by tossing a coin between HEM, which I entered, and HMM, so the right answer wasn’t among the finalists. Better luck tomorrow. Regards, and sorry to be so late.
  17. Even an ignoramus like me have been able to get though the last few puzzles : Has the setter changed or relented

    I too went for the lavatorial answer to HUM=Poo

  18. Came roaring to a halt over BOGLE and ADVOWSON which I had to look up. Quite pleased with myself.
  19. 9:16 here – all pretty straightforward stuff, though I was relieved to break 10 minutes at the end of a rather tiring day.
  20. 19.10 so rare sub twenty for me. Odd how none of the unusual vocabulary was hard for me to find today. Bet I struggle tomorrow! And finally defeated Saturday’s after a 5 minute inspired burst punctuated by ‘dohs’!
  21. … for what it’s worth at this time of the morning/night. Didn’t know the Pooh clue and vacillated between HEM and HUM. Only knew 5dn from the one in NZ and knew nought of FLECHE and AVOWSON but, as already said, the cryptics had them.
  22. I’m gradually catching up after a hectic week and visitors left me clueless for a few days. Only one day behind with this one. I finished in just over an hour which is quick by my standards. Got Winnie’s HUM ok but carelessly put in HET UP, otherwise all right with the parsing worked out too. I knew COLL, as I’ve actually been there and will be visiting again next year. There is a colony of corncrakes being encouraged on the island. I’m going to teach the grandchildren to fish. I managed to get the unknown ADVOWSON and FLECHE from the wordplay, and found the rest straightforward, although I don’t expect to manage the times of you experts for some time yet.
    Thanks to Topicaltim for the blog. I considered MULL briefly too before spotting that Tyree’s neighbour fitted the clue much better.
    1. The latter (I am by no means a young man any more, but not quite old enough to have caught it first time round). Not everything of that era has aged well, but you can’t beat a bit of Mr Horne’s bona comedy.

Comments are closed.