Times 25016 – I’ve not had one of these to blog for ages

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 35:59 – Having been held up for a while by putting in a wrong answer at 24.

For 24, I’d put in TIER. I was thinking ‘fine’ = final, so last letter of AFTER, with ‘match’ = TIE over it. Everything seemed to fit so I stuck it in and moved on. It was only after mulling over R-S-N-T at 28 for quite some time, with the knowledge that I still needed an F somewhere to complete the pangram, that the penny dropped.

I have a bit of a soft spot for pangrams, and I normally start checking for them as soon as a Q or a Z goes in. But I didn’t spot this one until I got JOLLY ROGER with both the Q & Z already in place. By which time I think I only needed an X and an F to complete it.

There were no new words for me today, although three – OTIOSE, MARE’S TAIL & APOSTASY all had to be dredged up from a dark and little-used corner of my brain.

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

Across
1 DYNAMIC = CID about MANY all rev
5 LAMB + ADA
9 SQUIREARCHY = (HUE + CRY + IRAQ’S)*
10 RIO = alternate letters of tRaItOr
11 OTIOSE = OT + (IS about O) + E – I’ve never been keen on ‘book’ = OT. It’s ‘books’ plural, surely.
12 CLAR(IN)ET – the players in an orchestra are often referred to just by their instruments – 1st violin, etc.
14 HEAD OVER HEELS = (HERE HE SOLVED A)*
17 MOBILE + LIBRA + RY = City (in Alabama) / sign / line – where (literary) works are found on the road.
21 CH + rIVALRY
23 ATTUNE = A + TUNE about The – I wasn’t convinced about ‘to orient’ and ‘to attune’ being synonymous, but I can just about see it.
25 bEAT – a weak clue, I thought
26 BEGUILEMENT = (BLUE MEETING)*
27 S + WEAThER
28 FISH + NET
Down
1 DE(S)POT – A czar may be a despot
2 NO(UR + I)SH
3 M(A + REST)AIL – a potter being a snooker or pool player
4 C(Z)AR – ‘unknown’ is usually X, Y or Z, although Z is probably the least common of the three.
5 LOCAL + DERBY
6 MAYOR = MAJOR with a change of middle letter
7 ARRANGE = ARRAN + EG rev – ‘Sort’ is the definition
8 APOSTASY = A + POST + (SAY)*
13 JOLLY + ROGER
15 HEARTLESS – ‘BEAST’ becomes ‘BEST’ when its heart is removed
16 SMACKERS – dd
18 BRITTLE = (LITTER + Bin)*
19 YOU’RE ON – dd
20 S + EXTEnT
22 AB + BOTtom
24 TIFF = (F + FIT) all rev

21 comments on “Times 25016 – I’ve not had one of these to blog for ages”

  1. But should have been a bit quicker on reflection. A very satisfying puzzle. Couple of queries though:
    11ac. “is about OE”: but it’s not quite. iOsE.
    27ac. “season”=weather?
    5dn. “Cheese pub’s displayed”: how are we instructed to put the cheese after the pub?
    2. ‘Season’ can mean to mature, ripen, or condition by exposure to suitable conditions or treatment, and ‘weather’ has a similar meaning.
  2. 50 minutes, delayed by not being able to get any of the long answers until I had several checkers in place and an inordinate amount of time failing to solve 2,3 & 11 in the NW corner. This was my worst solving time this week; I seem to get blogger’s nerves on Fridays now even when it’s not my turn.
  3. I thought this was a really good puzzle, and will stick with that assessment even though I took ages to solve it (87 minutes). Ticks against 3, 5ac, 8, 17 (my COD – not helped by only being able to think of Leo for those dreadful signs), 19, 22 and 24.

    Great stuff, setter, and thanks to Freddie Mercury for helping me parse HEARTLESS. These metacommentative clues always find at least one sucker.

  4. 30 minutes with attune last in after rejecting it and staring at no other possibility – then seeing it. A precise and entertaining puzzle (apart from the substandard 25). I like the power structure in the top half. Well done setter for an agile pangram.
  5. I thought this was a really good crossword.. I too have a soft spot for pangrams, (though not so soft that I actually noticed this one before coming here 🙂 but I enjoy even more the sort of slick, smooth surface readings that many of these clues display. Well done, setter!

    [McText, I sent you a PM.. I mention it just in case you hadn’t noticed]

  6. 16 minutes mostly enjoyable, with some h’ms along the way. Is FISHNET (which Chambers has hyphenated), being mostly holes, material? Is depot headquarters? Can that really be one more outing for Ur of the Chaldees? And, of course, is ATTUNE equivalent to orient? Post-solve checks reveal all are fine, but ATTUNE in particular, (my last in for that reason) “felt” odd.
    Lots of decent, smooth clues, though, with my favourite today being BRITTLE for its neatness. BEGUILEMENT would have been as a striking anagram, but the surface, looking like a double definition but with no real contact between the two halves, rather let it down.
  7. Reasonably straightforward puzzle of no more than average difficulty. 25 minutes to solve.

    I’m with Dave on OT=books, not book but it’s a crossword cliche so shouldn’t delay proceedings. Not desperately keen on “road works here” for MOBILE LIBRARY (sign with line is also not new for LIBRARY which is how I solved it)

    I don’t normally make personal remarks but the sooner you shave that thing off Dave, the better

  8. Back from a three day break and I seemed to get very lucky with this; quite a few of the long answers went in quickly from the definitions alone. 36 mInutes, with APOSTASY last in. The Friday puzzle seems to have become much less fearsome recently, although this was a nice one to come back to.
  9. 21:02 .. Gosh, I thought some moustachioed cad had done away with our Dave, but I see ’tis himself in a cunning disguise (and yes, it is rather Freddie Mercury but that’s a GOOD thing).

    I liked this puzzle. Thanks, setter person.

    Last in: MARES TAIL

    COD… SQUIREARCHY – terrific surface, great spot with ‘hue and cry’

  10. Took an age, but got there in the end, finishing with the unknown OTIOSE (spotting that it was a pangram didn’t help me there!). Had no idea how MOBILE LIBRARY worked until coming here, and hadn’t thought of potter as in snooker etc player, so thanks for those explanations. APOSTASY was another unknown, worked out from cryptic. Never like clues with apostrophes in them (YOU’RE ON), shouldn’t there be some sort of indication such as (3’2, 2)?

    COD to HEARTLESS.

    Lovely day here in Lincs, let’s hope we all have good weather for the weekend!

  11. 83:19 for me. I took a break for several hourse after about 70 minutes and when I returned all of my problems in the top left and bottom right corners were resolved without too much trouble.

    I don’t think I’ll ever be bothered to check if a grid is pangrammatic.

  12. 25:11 but with one gaffe. Possibly thrown by the book/books thing I threw in ODIOSE (something that’s both useless and unpleasant (cf ignoranus)) presumably thinking of the world famous OD, or Oxford Dictionary.

    That and apostasy apart I found the top half very straightforward and spent most time at the bottom, where sextet and attune proved trickiest. ‘Blue meeting’ just didn’t look like anagram fodder so it took me a while to consider the possibility.

  13. Day off today so started several hours earlier but still a bit of a struggle at 52.30. I saw 26 as anagram but took ages to work out. COD to ABBOT for me as it kept me at arms length for a long time too. Thanks for very helpful blog to the spookily Freddie-like blogger!
  14. 8:52 for me. Another easy Monday to Friday perhaps means that we’re in for another toughie tomorrow.
  15. 26 minutes, could have been quicker but I took forever to figure out why 27ac was SWEATER, even though it was one of the first words I got. I also tried to force ‘tier’ into 24d, finally giving up when I twigged to FISHNET. COD to 9ac, but a lovely puzzle all around.Dave, have you tried wearing a straw hat?
  16. i whizzed through the NW and NE in around 30 minutes(quick for me) but then ground on for another hour or more to fill in the rest.I couldn’t justify LIBRARY until reading the blog, thanks Dave, even though it was obvious once pointed out. I was held up with SWEATER by putting SMACKING in for 16d, then finished off with FISHNET, SEXTET and, after pondering for a while, LOI YOUREON, which I couldn’t quite bring myself to believe.
    Enjoyable puzzle again. I’ll try yesterday’s now. I’m usually at least a day behind.

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