Times 25,259 – The Terry Wogan Show

Solving time 20 minutes

An enjoyable puzzle of average level of difficulty. Some UK centric terms such as BEEB and DG but otherwise a good range of interesting words as answers. Some historical knowledge required from Balaclava to Dallas and a passing acquaintance with the BBC’s Terry Wogan is helpful.

Across
1 DOLOMITES – DO-LO-MITES; tourists “DO” Stratford say=visit (briefly);
6 BEBOP – BE(e)B-OP; BEEB=phonetic version of BBC; 1940s-1960s jazz of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie;
9 STERNAL – STE(RN)AL; RN=Royal Navy; the sternum is the breast bone;
10 MANTRAP – MANTRA-P; security device or Cleopatra perhaps;
11 SHAWL – SHAW-L; thicket or copse=SHAW;
12 TESTIMONY – TEST-I-MON(e)Y;
13 REVISION – RE-VISION; about=RE;
14 RENO – RENO(wned); The biggest little city in the world;
17 MAYA – two meanings 1=illusory world 2=ancient peoples of S America;
18 TARTUFFE – (ff+u+treat)*; Molière’s imposter;
21 UNSPOTTED – not made out=not seen=UN-SPOTTED; “spotted”=stained so un-spotted=pure;
22 RANCH – RAN-CH;
24 TRANNIE – TR(ANN)IE(s); slang for transistor radio on which to listen to Terry Wogan;
25 GUINEAN – (sanguine minus “s”)*; thought it was a “hidden word” when solving!;
26 DODGE – DO(DG)E; DG=Director General (of BBC) made famous by Terry Wogan;
27 SYNTHESIS – SYN (sounds like “sin”)-THESIS; synthesis resolves analysis resulting from argument or contra-diction;
 
Down
1 DISCS – DISC(u)S;
2 LEE,HARVEY,OSWALD – (who slayed reveal)*; official killer of President Kennedy who was himself shot by Jack Ruby;
3 MINDLESS – sounds like “mined less”;
4 TELETHON – TE(LET-HO)N; more Terry Wogan – a long winded fund raising broadcast;
5 SAMOSA – S(AMOS)A; Indian baked pastry with spicy filling;
6 BONNIE – BONN(I)E(t); pretty in Perth or Prince Charley; Tyler; and Clyde; take your pick;
7 BURN,ONES,FINGERS – weakest clue in the puzzle;
8 PUPPY,LOVE – horrid DBE using “young setter” to clue “puppy”;
13 REMOUNTED – (tremendously minus sly)*;
15 CARDIGAN – two meanings 1=reference James Brudenell, Earl of Cardigan, who either disobeyed or misunderstood Raglan’s orders and led a cavalry charge of the Light Brigade against the Russian guns at Balaclava in Crimean War 1811 (on edit should be 1854); 2=more BBC with Val Doonican’s trademark;
16 STARFISH – S(TAR-F-IS)H; F from F(lounder);
19 POUNCE – P(anic)-OUNCE;
20 ATHENS – AT-HENS; as there are more urban fox than rural, it’s at-dustbins these days;
23 HUNTS – two meanings 1=Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridge, where Cromwell came from) 2=illegal chase of rural fox;

27 comments on “Times 25,259 – The Terry Wogan Show”

  1. Held up seriously at the last by cardigan and Guinean – after attempting crossplay with handyman (one making) and, god help me, Zairean. 34 minutes. I guess ‘slayed’ has come to be the new ‘slew’, though I’d have thought it was still only ‘wowed’, as in the aisles. Is 8 horrid? – I quite like it. As I do trannie, for sentimental reasons.

    Edited at 2012-09-04 07:53 am (UTC)

  2. Made a right meal of this one until the assassin stood out from the crowd of letters. Still good to see GWF making what may be a Times first (27ac).
      1. I thought Kevin Pieterson’s middle name was Peter. Has it been changed to Ratfink? Or am I missing something?
  3. Rattled through this in fine style until brought up short by having carelessly written unspoiled at 21ac which made 20dn impossible until the error was “spotted”
    Alas for poor 23dn, falling victim after 1,000 years to the unspeakable Grocer Heath
  4. I found the RH side quite straightforward, took a while to plough through the NW and then came to grief in the SW. 55 minutes in all.

    Didn’t know SHAW as ‘copse’ and lost time by putting the more familiar STERNUM at 9ac before 4dn forced a rethink.

    No objection to the DBE at 8dn because it’s signalled by the question mark. I think ‘bit of food’ as the definition of SAMOSA is both feeble and desperate and 7dn is a gem by comparison! MAYA had to be a guess with two slightly obscure meanings neither of which I knew for certain.

    Edited at 2012-09-04 08:01 am (UTC)

  5. A laboured 25 minutes, partly because I started with a clue that caught the eye rather than the top left, and it happened to be the GWF one (GWF? O yes, Hegel!).
    everal sticky points. MAYA, my last in, without knowing the illusory state (and I’ve “done” Philosophy!) was nearly MAYO in desperation, a county not necessarily known for its pensioners and disturbingly real.
    MINDLESS – I got the sounslike and the mechanical definition but couldn’t see how the two parts of the clue connected coherently.
    BONNIE didn’t succumb until I wrote it out horizontally – I’m finding vertical blindness an increasing affliction.
    ATHENS because I failed to separate City and fox. By the by as I understand it, hunting foxes is only illegal if you catch them.
    I’m getting used to TARTUFFE who turned up a couple of months ago as a rogue and (I think) recently in the TLS.
    CoD to PUPPY LOVE – the ? absolves it from any responsibility, and alone among today’s offering, it made me smile.
  6. Art imitating life, I struggled with the left, getting home in 69 minutes with the excellent TRANNIE last in. I thought this was a good puzzle overall – my only quibble was with SAMOSA, ‘though that may have to do with the fact that I was trying to squeeze Eli into the filling.

    I interpreted 7 while solving to refer to matrimony, and since, in that context, much suffering can indeed come through meddling, on balance I rather liked it. The ruse was good too. Compliments to setter and tranniephilic blogger.

  7. Under half an hour for this very enjoyable puzzle. I’m another who didn’t know shaw, but as I used to live near the Shaw district of Oldham (where lasses, not babies, wore SHAWLS), it was easy enough to guess what it might mean. I’ll add it to holt and hanger in my list of words for a small wood.

    Also had to guess the MAYA illusion.

    TRANNIE will always be associated in my mind with Radio Luxembourg and later Radio Caroline. I see it has acquired a more modern meaning, of which I was only vaguely aware.

    Pedants corner: do STARFISH actually swim? And isn’t it a bit harsh to describe the Charge of the Light Brigade as ridiculous?

    1. John, there was a discussion here last week about swimming and the word was found to have a wider meaning than some thought, at least as far as dictionary definitions are concerned.

      Edited at 2012-09-04 01:11 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks Jack, I’ve found it. Glad I hadn’t contributed to the discussion that day!
  8. 13 minutes with a splitting hangover, so no real problems, though a lot went in from only getting half of the clue – HUNTS, CARDIGAN, DODGE. Hadn’t heard of BURN ONE’S FINGERS, but it couldn’t have been anything else.

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  9. 24 minutes, with no real holdups despite not knowing what Maya had to do with illusion, what illusion had to do with Hegel, what Hegel had to do with Shaw and what DG was at all. My strong belief that the sun will rise tomorrow obviously carried me through. The clues all deserve a second reading for their smooth surfaces alone. COD to ATHENS though, for its nudge, nudge winkiness.

    I did nearly choke on my porridge though at 6’s “latest”. I thought that was only used in another place?

  10. Sailed along until came unstuck for a while in the SW corner, with UNSULLIED for 21ac, and not able to see why CARDIGAN was correct. Ridiculous is hardly a fair adjective for the C of the LB. Eventually got ATHENS and worked out the rest, in 45 minutes or so.
    What’s this dead link glheard ? Have we been hijacked again? I shudder to think what Mitt Romney can do for America.
  11. 36′, once again going offline after 20, then picking up speed. All the slogging was in the LH. DK SHAW, and the only meaning I knew for TRANNIE was ‘transsexual’! I’d actually thought of DOE for 26ac, but couldn’t make it work until I got the middle D. Like dorsetjimbo, I put in GUINEAN thinking ‘hidden’; then I tried to make sense of it with ‘about’ meaning ‘reversal’. COD to 20d, my LOI, but also liked 13d and 15d, although I agree with pipkirby that ‘ridiculous’ is a bit odd here. The MAYA, incidentally, are mainly in Mexico, and are still around.
  12. Not a good day… one wrong (Unspoiled not Unspotted) and so didn’t get Athens… and I lost my squash match at lunchtime. Guessed Tartuffe from the checkers and wordplay.
  13. About 30 minutes before actually stopping and looking up my LOI, TRANNIE. The wordplay was clear, but since my knowledge of the word was limited to precisely that of kevingregg above, I hesitated to enter without checking. We didn’t shorten ‘transistor radio’ to that form over here; in fact, I don’t remember any short name for it at all. I also didn’t know that CARDIGAN was involved in the Light Brigade charge, so that went in from ‘clothes item’ only. I do think, however, Jimbo, your date for that event seems to be a typo. I agreee with koro about the surfaces today, so thanks to the setter, and regards to all.

    Edited at 2012-09-04 06:07 pm (UTC)

  14. Clearly missing something here. Got the at-hens bit, but puzzled by the hungry or not! Would be glad of an explanation. Thanks.
    1. I think it’s a reference to the idea that foxes are said to slaughter whole hen-houses of birds regardless of whether they are after food.

      Edited at 2012-09-04 05:44 pm (UTC)

  15. I made heavy weather of this one, finishing in a disappointing 13:07. I think the main reason was that I took ages to get 2dn, since things picked up once that was in place. Nice puzzle, though.
  16. Messed up on left aide with Ivy League Killer. For 2 d 23 a – Tillers 4 d could not get away from Tennants at first from Dr.Who actor but thenTestimony fit. 19d had Scream From Scram. Still only a novice at this and trying to get the hang of things like Inside means a word surrounded by another etc..

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