Times 25104 – a matter of definition

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: 17mins, about average. However I quite liked this effort, especially for some beautifully misleading definitions, such as 17dn.

Humble apologies for the late arrival of this blog, due to a combination of events beyond my control and subsequent amnesia..

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*

Across
1 swoops – bribes = SOPS containing sgt major maybe = WO
5 Gujarati – JUG rev. + A + RAT + I
9 far-flung – females = FF + LUNG containing a run, A + R
10 Bootle – BOOTLE(G).. Ah, Bootle, jewel of the Lancashire coast
11 peppermill – PEP + PERM + ILL
13 Tito – alternate letters of TrIp To Oz
14 easy homophone, we’ll leave this one out..
15 come to pass – COME TOP + A + SS
18 left-handed – gone = LEFT + HANDED = given. Apparently a synonym for a backhanded compliment. As a left-handed person myself, I think I see that as a leftist remark..
20 grip – GRIP(E)
21 another easy one to leave out..
23 discourage – DISCO, + URGE containing A
25 bistro – life = BIO containing ST(A)R
26 front man – groupie = FAN containing (TORN)* + M
28 chandler – C + HANDLER, I liked this clue
29 la-di-da – line = L + “those who’d be dry” = Alcoholics Anonymous = AA, containing DID = suited “that did for me,” at least I think that’s how it works 🙂
Down
2 whalebone – “with British” = W + B containing healthy = HALE + ONE. Nice, misleading definition, “It could make stay.” Nice clue altogether in fact
3 off spin – obligatory cricketing reference – is it like hidden clues, has to be one in every grid? Anyway, not keen on = OFF + SPIN, what spin doctors do but even medical doctors also do these days it seems..
4 sou – SO U
5 Gigli – concert = GIG + LI, or more properly Li, the lightest metal there is and hey, science gets a look in!
6 jubilate deo – (TO BE JAILED)* containing U. Latin for “rejoice in God,” it usually refers to psalm 100
7 rooftop – men = OR rev, + OFT + OP. Rooftops are mainly a location for protests by those who are not allowed access to the outdoors.
8 to let – TO(I) LET. Another nice clue
12 rock and roll – er, ROCK + AND + ROLL.. But a nice definition ” that group may serve up at party”
16 mud – DUM(B) rev.
17 shin guard – SH + IN + GUARD = police (as a verb).. Yet another nice def.
19 one to leave out perhaps..
20 gyrated – (TRAGEDY)*
22 weigh – opposite wings = W + E + (R)IGH(T)
24 so far – hidden, rev., in SandRA FOSter.. Are we all OK with the capital letters in this clue?
27 owl – (F)OWL or so I suppose.. An owl is a fowl?

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

38 comments on “Times 25104 – a matter of definition”

  1. 34:22 .. another day, another hare start and tortoise finish. Today it was SWOOPS/WHALEBONE that kept me staring dumbly for 15 minutes before I could finish the thing. No unknowns to blame this time – just dimness.

    Loved the Sandra Foster clue. Great use of South Shields.

    1. Well I took twice as long as you (give or take a minute) so extreme dimness here!
  2. 18 minutes here, with a slightly panicky couple of minutes at the end staring at the WHALEBONE/SWOOPS corner before – thankfully – the penny dropped. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.
    I liked this one a lot. I thought the South Shields device was particularly brilliant and I also liked “one stops barking”. Lots of good clues though.
    I knew a compliment could be back-handed, but not LEFT-HANDED. And the religious text was new to me, but then they generally are.
  3. Count me in the back-handed set. That gave me “key it in” for 19d. Luckily it made no sense at all which forced a re-think. Terrific puzzle. 43 most enjoyable minutes.
    1. I had back-handed too. Not sure I ever heard of a left-handed complement, but Google returns 695,000 hits for it and only 395,000 for back-handed.
      1. Surprised at that Jack – it goes back a long way methinks. If you remember that being left handed (sinister) was looked upon as being close to the devil you can see how it came about.
  4. Good puzzle this one with SWOOPS and WHALEBONE particularly difficult. Some great word plays with the hidden SO,FAR in Sandra Foster outstanding. 25 minuites to solve.
  5. Rock and roll is what a group may serve up at a party? And an owl is a beheaded fowl?
    1. I seldom reply to anonymities, but the answer to both is yes. For the fowl for example, ODO gives: “birds collectively, especially as the quarry of hunters: an abundance of game, fowl, and fish”
  6. 36 minutes for all bar four clues (1, 2, 5 & 11) and then another 40 for those, with most of that time spent on the devilish, nay ‘bosomy’, 1/2 crossing. In common with others, I had ‘back-handed’ at 18 for a time – I’m not sure I’ve ever heard ‘left-handed’ used in this sense.

    Agree that ‘did’ for ‘suited’ is a bit of a stretch at 29, but then with these verbs with multiple meanings you’re going to get this from time to time. COD to SHIN GUARD, which I only fully appreciated post-solve when I looked up ‘bark’ and discovered the relevant meaning.

    Edited at 2012-03-07 02:27 pm (UTC)


  7. Two errors today – Scoops not Swoops and Chapernone not Whalebone – but the rest all complete. Hadn’t heard of the WO acronym. Chaperone went in on the basis that it fitted the checkers! FOI Rock And Roll.

    Put in La-Di-Da, So Far and Weigh from defs and checkers without any understanding of the clueing, so thanks jerrywh for explaining those. The setter’s ingenuity with Ms Foster was completely lost on me!

    I too hadn’t heard of Left-Handed compliments and made a first stab at Back-Handed for 18A.

    After yesterday’s Steroid it was good to have more chemistry today (Li = Lithium in 5D). I remember lumps of it in bottles of mineral oil at school, cutting pieces with a knife, dropping them into water and watching them fizz over the surface as they reacted.

  8. Glad to see we have now at least one other contributor who went over the hour. I took 67 minutes and it was a steady slog all the way through rather than a swift start and slow finish.

    GUJARATI nearly did for me, then later this morning I opened the newly arrived Oldie magazine and read a letter about a Gujarat poet!

    Rather surprised no-one has complained about Gigli who surely is forgotten even by most opera-lovers these days.

    1. He died in the 1950s so surely hardly forgotten. We had Jack Hobbs the other day who died much about the same time but who hadn’t played cricket for decades and no complaints about him.
      1. Not by me at least: I have never encountered either Gigli or Hobbs in real life, and you can’t forget what you don’t know. To me they are crossword people. A bit like Gemsboks.
    2. I think Gigli also got a vicarious boost through the truly terrible movie of the same name (Al Pacino, Jennifer Lopez, Christopher Walken inter alia,) which came out a few years back. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to Google Gigli at the time and accidentally learn about the opera singer.
      1. When I was a kid GIGLI was the most famous tenor. A household name in my household. Caruso was already dead and G was the crown prince. Another fat Italian.
        1. I wonder if Mario Lanza would ever make it here and who would remember him. He was massive in his day of course.

          Edited at 2012-03-07 04:07 pm (UTC)

          1. I’m sure someone could fashion a decent clue along the lines of ‘Italian race track where Burmese ethnic group fall victim to digital age’.
        1. Assuming you mean the film – me too!

          Can’t see why Mario shouldn’t qualify. Remember him well. Was “massive” a deliberate pun?

  9. 50 minutes. Superb puzzle. Too many good clues to mention. Well, since you insist, WHALEBONE, FRONTMAN, SHIN GUARD and the superb SO FAR. Well done that setter.
  10. Not a concentrated solve today, so no time recorded. Bit of a left field one, I thought, with screwball definitions and some very twisty wordplay.
    I was disconcerted by Sandra Foster (is/was she real?) and by “religious text” for JUBILATE DEO – one of those where specialist knowledge is a hindrance, not a help.
    WHALEBONE and SWOOP last in, with the majority, apparently.
    GIGLI is obviously still THE crossword tenor. PAVAROTTI will just have to wait a bit longer. Just being dead is not enough.
    GUJARATI gets my CoD, though I’m open to persuasion on most of the others.
  12. I spent far too long struggling in the NW. At least 15 minutes to get SWOOP and WHALEBONE. I should have seen “stay” as the definition straight away but didn’t. The rest took about 30 minutes but clock off time was 45 minutes. Nice puzzle but my brain still hurts.
  13. This one took me over 2 hours but I enjoyed it immensely. I got a nice leg-up with 2dn by having 2 whalebones for a shirt on my desk and also with remembering the loud indiscretion of one of my schoolmates when Psalm 100 was being performed by our Abbey choir!. Clever cluing.

  14. Same as Daniel with ‘scoops’ and ‘chaperone’, so I guess that means I won’t get my ‘three in a row’ this week!

    Never heard of ‘barking’ your shins, or of the WO initials in SWOOPS, and BOOTLE would not be my first port of recall. All others ok, and gettable from either cryptic or def.

    Cod: PEPPERMILL

    1. From the setter:
      “Fowl” here is the term as used collectively for all birds – hence “it and others” in the clue.
      Many thanks as always for the blog and interesting comments!
  16. About 40 minutes for me today, held up for no apparent reason by the pesky NE corner.
  17. About 40 minutes, for a fun puzzle. My first entry was actually WHALEBONE, so I never had a temptation to go for ‘back-handed’, though it came to mind immediately when reading the clue. My mistake was trying ‘rajarati’, which stayed til the end and needed correcting after I realized that 5D was GIGLI. As with Sotira, I recognized him due only to the gadawful movie of a few years back. Hadn’t known this meaning of ‘bark’ before either, so I learned that today. Some great and amusing stuff today, setter, so thanks for stopping by and for the puzzle. COD’s to SO FAR, TO LET, SOU, and the aforementioned GIGLI. Regards to all.
  18. Now this was a true Times – a mixture of economy, misdirection and humour – wonderfully wry. Done in snippets so no time recorded but probably about 35 minutes. I have one feeble objection, still finding pants … no, I can’t say it! Nice one setter. – joekobi
  19. Incidentally I’ve recalled Gigli singing La Donna Mobile, heard in my boyhood, all my life.
  20. 15:27 for me. I took ages to find the setter’s wavelength, but then suddenly homed in on it and plodded steadily through. Absolutely first rate puzzle.

    GIGLI will no doubt be familiar to members of the Musical Mafia, but he must surely be by far the most frequently occurring Times crossword tenor, cropping up regularly about once a year, most recently in No. 24,912 (27 July 2011): “Tenor’s fifty-first performance (5)”.

  21. I think Hooter means owl, the latter when combined with other birds leads to fowl, from which you discard forte (f)?? Not sure tho’

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