Times 25255 – is the setter making a statement in the bottom line?

Solving time : 10:43 – I was done about a minute before that, but since it was blog day I wanted to make sure everything made sense and it was taking me a while to justify the cryptic for 6 across. Rather happy when it came back as a correct submission as I am often a sloppy typer (it took me about five tries to get 20 down spelled correctly).

Much like yesterdays, a rather fun sound crossword puzzle, I thought. Hope everyone else is having fun.

Away we go…

Across
1 STRUMPET: S (start of Street) TRUMPET(brassy sort) and an &lit to begin
6 CREATE: C(about), then RELATE (report) without an L. Didn’t know CREATE by itself could mean “make a fuss”, it’s in Chambers
9 TACTICAL ERROR: ACT(do),I,CAL(l) in TERROR. Great clue!
10 our across omission
11 HARD LINE: One that went in from the definition, but now I look it up in Chambers – HARD LINES means bad luck, so take the S off of it
13 BRATISLAVA: (BAR)*, ‘TIS, LAVA. A city that sticks in my mind from the vastly underrated horror film “Hostel”
15 GAS,H
16 CHAR: H(ouse) in CAR
18 INDISPOSED: IN then (SIP)* in DOSED
21 PRODIGAL: ROD in PIGAL(le)
22 FINITE: IT in FINE
23 CONTROVERSIAL: CON(criminal) then OVER(past), (crime)S in TRIAL
25 STUPID: anagram of DISPUTE without the E at the end
26 ROTHESAY: HE in ROT,SAY
 
Down
2 TATTLER: ATTLE(e) in TR(ue)
3 UNCL(e),UTTERED
4 POINT: IN in TOP reversed
5 TRACHEA: TRAIN without IN, then insert ACHE
6 CLEARWAYS: (WALES,CAR)* about Y
7 our downly omission
8 THRONGS: R in THONGS
12 LEGIONNAIRE: anagram of IN,GENERAL,I,0
14 SNIGGERED: EG(as),GINS reversed then RED
17 HARICOT: H then A,RICOTTA without TA(thanks)
19 DELIVER: double def
20 ESTELLA: hidden reversed in bALLET SEemingly
22 FIRST: alternating letters in FaIl ReSiTs
24 NAP: N then PA reversed

23 comments on “Times 25255 – is the setter making a statement in the bottom line?”

  1. I put SHRIFTS in for 8 down without thinking too much about it since I only had the R and S in at that point (not entirely sure what “shrift” means outside of the phrase “to give short shrift to” but lot, as in the sense of fate, seemed plausible).

    That means 11 across had to be HARD LIFE (with LIFE being a type of policy (I guess that would be DBE).

    Eventually got CREATE and so THRONGS ended up being my LOI.

  2. 37′, slogging increasingly slowly, it seemed, toward the end. DK ROTHESAY, CLEARWAYS. I was misled by LEGIONNAIRE for the longest time, indeed until I had virtually all the checkers. COD to TACTICAL ERROR, although the ERROR part was easy enough. Thanks, George, for parsing CREATE; that was another one I knew had to be correct, but couldn’t see how to justify it.
  3. Amazed to find this solved and blogged already. Well done, George!

    35 minutes. Not the most testing of puzzles perhaps but I was delayed by several in the top half and LEGIONNAIRE, my last one in.

    Once again a good half of the answers went in on definition alone and I had to look again at the clue to 4dn to discover why REPOINT wasn’t the answer when I found it wouldn’t fit the grid.

    Edited at 2012-08-30 12:05 am (UTC)

  4. Much like yesterday’s … agreed. But with a bit more in the way of parsing trials.

    CREATE: possibly a northern English expression. My old Mum was always telling me not to do so!

    THRONGS: I never remember what THONGS are in other parts of the world because they’re footwear (of a sort) where I am. Hence, I could never work out why Monica Lewinsky was only wearing the one. I imagined her hobbling around the Oval Office.

    1. I had the opposite problem. My son, who was living in Melbourne, posted a photo of a rock concert he’d been to. There was a big sign saying “No Thongs”. I asked him why it should matter what underwear people were wearing…
  5. 11:16 (discounting the typo that gave me two errors, damnit).

    Much easier for me than the previous couple. Only real pause for thought was over my last in – LEGIONNAIRE.

  6. 20m, so about average for me. Bottom half easy, top half much slower.
    Like jackkt I wondered about POINT. In my experience (and unfortunately I have quite a lot of it) repairing mortar is always “repointing”, but it turns out “pointing” means the same thing. So really everyone’s been saying “re-repairing”, usually in a sentence that includes a reference to a large sum of money.
  7. And … in reply to George’s title question: only if s/he is being deliberately 23ac or making a 9ac.

    Edited at 2012-08-30 08:27 am (UTC)

  8. Real old slowcoach today. 45 minutes, nearly stumped by Rothesay at the end, seemed to work at every clue from the wrong angle. Apart from 7, 16 and 24 which were alarmingly easy. Like the picture, sotira: had that down the road from my house once. Put a full stop after sh and no-one will mind.
  9. Excellent puzzle. I share George’s admiration for TACTICAL ERROR. I also thought BRATISLAVA was a clever piece of deception. Hands up those who spent ages searching for the name of some obscure skin disease? (But, then again, perhaps it was just me). Thanks to George for explaining the “line missing from report” bit of CREATE, which eluded me for some reason. Had to resort to aids to get LEGIONNAIRE, despite having all the checkers – another good clue. I too questioned POINT, thinking that “pointing” was what you did when you first built a wall and “repointing” what you did when you repaired it later. But the dictionaries are explicit on the matter: e.g Chambers – point. v.t. “to rake out old mortar from, and insert new mortar in, the joints of”. Game, set and match to setter.
  10. On form today, all right in 17 minutes, very enjoyable, LOI trachea,which took a minute or two to parse. McText’s vision of Monica in one (footwear) thong made me smile too. What do you call the undie thong thing then? A flip-flop perhaps.
  11. A brisk 11:39.

    I, too, fell for the old “Estelle” ploy and only corrected that when I got Rothesay. After yesterday’s urbanites that’s two bear traps fallen into in quick succession. Must remember to take careful note of the letters needed.

    I had to go back post-solve to understand the wordplay for strumpet, tactical error and prodigal.

    My LOI was flaunt. COD to trachea.

  12. 26/28 today with Trachea and Bratislava missing. Should have got the Slovakian capital but couldn’t help thinking about volcanoes! UK solvers might have seen the Hairy Bikers in Bratislava this year at the start of their Bakeation roadtrip.

    Thought there were some admirably smooth surfaces today, e.g. Gash, Finite and Stupid.

    George, thanks for explaining Strumpet – I couldn’t see how that worked.

  13. Straightforward 20 minute puzzle with no detours or roadworks. Just right after 18 bracing holes in a fierce wind. Whatever is this weather going to throw at us next?
  14. Who’s hijacked our blog? The cheek of it. No problems today. A slowish and steady solve. 30 minutes exactly. Nice to see BRATISLAVA make an appearance. I remember a delightful trip down the Danube from Vienna – only 30 miles. Takes 75 minutes. Spent a lovely weekend there.
  15. Another sub 30 at 28.27 – like buses they must come together. My COD to TRACHEA for sending me down the wrong track.
  16. About 25 minutes, ending with CREATE. Didn’t know of ROTHESAY, or that HARD LINES meant ‘bad luck’. Other than that, no real problems, and I liked LEGIONNAIRE. Displeased by the interloping screeds into our normally tranquil blog. Regards to all others.
  17. This was a largely straightforward puzzle, but was lifted out of the ordinary by some lovely clues, the two &lits at 1 and 12, the neat anagram at 9 and surfaces of 22ac and 25.
  18. 7:55 for me. After another horribly slow start, I suddenly found the setter’s wavelength and rattled through the remainder quite briskly.

    Some very fine clues here. My compliments to the setter.

  19. Can someone detete our political interloper.

    Enjoyed the crossword in spite of two typos and a wrong punt in place of the unknown Rothesay, which in retrospect was so clearly signposted that is should have been unmissable!

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