Times 25070 – Bang on the nail!

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time taken to solve – 42 minutes, but it seemed longer because apart from the four 3-letter words that went in immediately I took a while to get properly under way. After that the LH was slow and steady but when I returned to the NE the answers almost wrote themselves in and the SE followed on quite nicely. Apart from 1ac there’s nothing too obscure today, I think, the NZ region being the only other reference that gave me a problem for a while. The poet, composer and opera are all fairly Dorset-friendly ones I would imagine and I get to quote an old lyric so my cup runneth over. Off shortly to see how the commentators’ ‘New Murray’ theories stand up when he is tested by a real opponent for the first time this tournament. 

Across
1 ADMASS – AMASS (gather) takes in D (head of department). This is a word unknown to me, to the Oxfords and to Collins but it’s in my ageing Chambers and at dictionary.com. The meaning required here is the segment of the public easily influenced by advertising in the mass media.
4 APPROVAL – LAVA (molten rock) takes in OR (gold) PP (pennies), all reversed.
10 UNDERWEAR – UNDE (nude*), REAR (back) takes in W (women). ‘Shot’ is the anagrind.
11 GONER – GONERil. My memory of King Lear has faded somewhat but I think he had two ungrateful daughters and I spent ages trying to make the other one fit the clue. The definition is ‘being doomed’. I needed to think ‘a being, doomed’ to understand it fully. On edit: See comment from setter below clarifying how ‘I’ll cut’ works. It’s what I originally had in mind but didn’t quite explain it.
12 HAND IN GLOVE – HANDING (passing), LOVE (fancy very much).
14 OBI – The kimono sash that was invented with crossword setters in mind is hidden and reversed at intervals within ‘In BoOk’.
15 BEWITCH – BrEW (beer having run out), ITCH (long).
17 NATIVE – NAVE (church body) encloses IT (appeal) reversed (to the West).
19 KIBOSH – Bookish* minus an O. To ‘put the kibosh’ on something is to finish it off once and for all, usually with negative connotations in my experience.
21 LIBERIA – LI (some distance in China), BERIA (old secret police chief). I didn’t know the unit of length – c590 yards, apparently – but Stalin’s henchman was within my ken.
23 BIZ – BIZet. The composer of Carmen includes the slang for business as in ‘showbiz’.
24 ADVANCEMENT – AD (Anno Domini, modern times), VAN (those in front), CEMENT (make fast). If I ever knew how AD comes to mean ‘modern times’ I have forgotten it, but I have met it before in crosswords.
26 OTAGO – pOOr (heart of poor) encloses TAG (catching game). I’m sure I have come across this region of South Island New Zealand previously, probably with reference to its university, but it would have eluded me today but for the wordplay.
27 NAIL-BITER – NAIL (catch), BITE (champ), R (close to despair).
29 BAGUETTE – BuTTEr curtailed with its U (posh) replaced by AGUE (fit).
30 CANYON – CANdY (American’s sweet, daughter’s left), ON (leg – in cricket).
Down
1 ABU DHABI – A, BUD (China to US) HABIt (custom briefly). China is CRS for ‘mate’ as in ‘China plate’. BUD is an American equivalent.
2 MID-ON – M (Middlesex opener), I (one), DONald (duck, after ‘a Ld’ – a Lord – has been removed).
3 SIR – reversed and hidden in ‘florist’.
5 PART-OWN – PAR (standard), TOWN (urban location).
6 REGRETTABLE – RE (soldiers), GETTABLE (in range of capture) encloses R (resistance).
7 VANCOUVER – V (see), A, NCOUVER (uncover – show – with its first letter U moved to its centre).
8 LARKIN – LARK ( singer flying), IN (home). The gloomy poet who wrote something rude about parents. Betjeman was much more fun.
9 LENGTH – LEiTH (Scottish port) with its I replaced by NG (no good).
13 IL TROVATORE – (Travel to Rio)* – the opera by Verdi
16 WHIZZ-BANG – WHIZZ (ace), BANG (dead, as in ‘precisely’). I only knew this bomb from the song in ‘Oh, What a Lovely War’:
Hush, here comes a whizzbang,
Hush, here comes a whizzbang,
Now, you soldier men, get down those stairs,
Down in your dugouts and say your prayers.
Hush, here comes a whizzbang,
And it’s making straight for you,
And you’ll see all the wonders of no-man’s-land,
If a whizzbang hits you.
18 CAST-IRON – CON (criminal) encloses ASTIR (moving). Safe as in ‘cast-iron guarantee’.
20 HAVE-NOT – HAVEN (shelter), OT (closed, reversed). If anyone wants to discuss doors open, closed and ajar please feel free, but I shall not be joining in this time.
21 LENTIL – LENT (fast, in the religious sense), ILl (with sickness not coming to an end). Thinking ‘ailment’ may help if ‘ill’ for ‘sickness’ seems a bit dodgy to you. On edit: Thanks to Ulaca for pointing out the misunderstanding, amended now in italics.
22 ABSORB – ABS (muscles), ORB (heavenly body).
25 Haven’t left any out so far so I’ll knock this one on the head…
28 …and unless there’s any other business I’ll wrap up and bid you a good morning.

34 comments on “Times 25070 – Bang on the nail!”

  1. Thought this was a very fine puzzle on the easier side of average, with my COD going to CAST-IRON for the smooth, droll and misleading surface. The marketing jargon was happily unknown, while KIBOSH was last in. I had the Canadian city long before I could justify it. 50 minutes.

    Thanks to Jack for the full parsing of the cricketing term and the Middle eastern city where England are currently trying to claw their way back into the series with Pakistan.

    The li is an interesting unit of measurement round here: different when going uphill than when going downhill, I believe, and, whenever the fabled “Long March” of Mao et al is mentioned, able to stretch to even greater lengths.

    Edited at 2012-01-27 06:49 am (UTC)

  3. 35 minutes for this. Mostly medium-gauge stuff but it took me forever to get ABU DHABI for some reason. Partly because I was put off by not quite believing that ADMASS could be right but still.
    A few (LIBERIA, BAGUETTE, MID-ON) I didn’t understand today, so thanks for the explanations. I always seem to get caught out by these clues where you have to remove things more extensive than single letters. For some reason I associate this sort of clue with the Guardian*.
    In 11ac I think you have to use the alternative spelling “Gonerill” to make the wordplay work. This puzzled me because I didn’t know there was an alternative.
    I know OTAGO mostly from the wine. Good pinot.
    Nice to see LARKIN. Not the cheeriest of fellows but a great poet. Timely because I think there’s a new Collected Poems coming out, although I’m not clear on why it’s needed.

    *For the avoidance of doubt and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing this is not a complaint

  4. Apologies for butting in so early, but to hopefully nip any heated debate in the bud now, 11ac refers to GONERIL with IL (i.e. I’LL cut) removed.
    2. Not for me it didn’t – I just assumed I’d been spelling it wrong (like Shakespeare, apparently) all my life
  5. No problems with this one and a steady 25 minute solve. All the arts references were indeed known in deepest Dorset but the over use of them to the exclusion of other fields is an irritant.

    I knew AD-MASS, a phrase that’s been around some time. At 10A “briefs” is unnecessary DBE. Was too ignorant to know that “Gonerill” is an alternative spelling. At 15A I associate “brew” with to make beer and “a brew” with tea or coffee. I don’t think “AD” can be defined as “modern times”. It’s all niggling stuff that leaves one feeling slightly irritated.

    1. I now see that the setter has indicated that “Goneril” is correct. Thank you setter but of no help to me!
    2. This meaning is supported by the most impeccable of sources:

      Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
      And I just hit town and my throat was dry,
      I thought I’d stop and have myself a brew.
      At an old saloon on a street of mud,
      There at a table, dealing stud,
      Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me “Sue”

  6. 24 minutes today, though it felt harder than that to complete a week (5 day, that is) without a gimme. Again a lot of solving from definition followed by dilligent justification, like trying to work out how Dynamo does it.
    Oddly enough my first shot at 14 was BOA, at intervals but not reversed in “book at”. Would have been a very dodgy definition. Perhaps over influenced by the secret policeman, my first shot at 21 was SIBERIA, and I spent a while trying to get SI by taking some sort of distance from some sort of China, probably for once not from some sort of mate because I’d already got BUD in 1d.
    I knew ADMASS, but thought it meant makeweight until today.
    I also knew OTAGO, but though it might be in Canada. Educational, this thing, isn’t it?
    Again lots of candidates, but CoD on a whim to CAST IRON as a real smoothie.
  7. I’ve always supposed “modern times” as AD to indicate the time since Jesus’s birth – modern if you take a long view.
    1. Not sure you’ve moved things along very much Alan. The issue is how does one justify the use you describe as used by the setter.

      I can see an argument for “modern times” being post the industrial revolution, post various discoveries and inventions of the last 100 years (electronics say), or just the last 20 years. How can something that occurred about 2,000 years ago be described as “modern”

      1. Didn’t give it a second though while solving, as anything indicating “the present age” is usually crosswordspeak for AD. But you’re right – “modern times” doesn’t really work. Besides, shouldn’t we now be using BCE/CE?

  8. Took an age, but got there in the end, with fingers crossed for ADMASS (looks an odd word…).

    Needed blog to appreciate fully the parsing for several, so thanks for that, Jack. New vocab for me today: LI, BERIA, AGUE; and new towns: OTAGO, LEITH.

    Best wishes to all for a good weekend.

    1. Otago’s actually a province, Janie, with Dunedin its capital.

      Edited at 2012-01-27 12:28 pm (UTC)

    2. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, it was a standard test for drunkenness. Basically if you could say “the Leith police dismisseth us” three times, you weren’t.
  9. 15 minutes, for me a bit of a plod in the middle. A few from definitions alone – GONER, LIBERIA, and LARKIN from wordplay.
  10. A lurching 31 minutes, held up at the end by cast-iron. Thanks setter for the I’ll/Il explanation. I wonder if it was not needed by anyone…yet staring in the face once given. A brilliant word-play.
  11. I was about 25 minutes with this, ending with WHIZZ-BANG/OTAGO. I hadn’t known of ADMASS, the Li, or OTAGO before. The WWI bomb I remembered from a song lyric as well, which I think was entitled “I Want to Go Home”, and which was probably from some musical comedy, but I don’t know if that’s correct. I had to learn this song in high school and the chorus has been stuck in my head ever since. One of the lines went: “I don’t want to go in the trenches no more, where whizz-bangs and shrapnel they whistle and roar”. Thanks to the setter for dropping by to explain the wordplay that certainly eluded me. Nice puzzle, thanks. Regards to all.
    1. “I want to go Home” is another song that was in “Oh What a Lovely War”, together with “Hush here comes (there goes?) a whizz bang”. Lots of whizz-bangs in that war. I once had to play the piano for a school production of OWALW. It was on for 6 nights + rehearsals and the lyrics are engraved on my soul!
  12. This all went in smoothly enough though I didn’t see the workings of BAGUETTE until coming here. I whizzed (or should that be whizzbanged?) through the RH side but was seriously held up in the NW by ADMASS. I knew the word but it took a while to click. 31 minutes.
  13. A nice steady and enjoyable 28 min. Thankyou setter. Nice to see my home province, and alma mater getting a mention. Hard to believe that there are now over 26,000 students and staff, while Dunedin’s population is under 120,000.
  14. 9:12 here for another most enjoyable puzzle.

    I’d have been a little faster but for 29ac. The first thing that came to my addled brain was BAGNETTE (food is not one of my strong suits!), and although I realised pretty quickly that the word I wanted was almost certainly BAGUETTE, I was a bit fazed by the whole thing and made heavy weather of justifying it from the word-play.

  15. thanks for blog. Mid on a complete mystery until explained. Goner first in. Great clue. Tried for ages with Fritz Lang until whizz bang emerged from depths. Must try to do this in the morning instead of after heavy day. Anyway thanks to blogger and setter
  16. 34.35 here and glad to finish after a few failures. Nothing that really held me up but I had to ponder nearly every clue. Pleased to see Larkin getting an outing. Thanks to blogger for clarifying the obscurer cryptics.
  17. I too had Boa for 14ac which slowed me down in the NE corner. Wondered if the editor had had an off day with two boas and Abu Dhabi as a US state … So thanks for explaining that one. Admass last in. Never heard of this word. Had to check spelling for the opera. Knew there was one similar to La traviata. 12ac COD for me. Got it from definition but took a while to see the word play. Googled Beria. Not a nice chap it seems. Li well known to scrabble players. Don’t normally finish so pleased to do so with this one.
    1. I might have gone for BOA at 14ac too but fortunately I already had it at 28dn so I looked at the clue more closely and spotted the potential error.
  18. thanks for blog. Mid on a complete mystery until explained. Goner first in. Great clue. Tried for ages with Fritz Lang until whizz bang emerged from depths. Must try to do this in the morning instead of after heavy day. Anyway thanks to blogger and setter

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