Times 25262 – Back to normal

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Once again I made rather heavy weather of this one, coming in at around 50 minutes. I was never stuck but there were several words or meanings that wouldn’t come to mind or perhaps I never knew, such as PROSELYTE and TOBIT. But there was a lot of very elementary stuff too. I think blogger’s nerves and not having fully recovered from the traumas of the past two days took their toll.

Across
1 BOGOTA – Answer, TO, GOB (spit) all reversed. The capital city of Colombia.
4 SCIMITAR – I spotted this one early on from the definition and with only the R checker in place but didn’t finally work out the wordplay until long after completing the grid. It’s IM ‘IT (I’m hit with the H dropped – so commonly struck) inside SCAR (evidence – of being hit). Probably the best clue of the day.
10 PROSELYTE – Anagram of POLYESTER. I didn’t know this word.
11 REBUS – Book inside SUER (litigant) all reversed. This comes up regularly it seems but has only stuck in my brain since seeing Inspector Rebus on TV.
12 Deliberately omitted.
13 DETRIMENTAL – Anagram of TRIED, MENTAL (potty). The anagrind appears to be ‘to slop out’ which seems a bit excessive and possibly not quite satisfactory.
14 PILFER – REF (man in black), LIP (insolence) all reversed.
16 TRICKLE – R (river) inside TICKLE (attempt to get trout).
19 REGARDS – RE (Royal Engineers – corps), GARDS (sounds like “guards” who come in brigades).
20 ARGENT – Gold inside AREN’T (cannot be). It’s the colour silver in heraldry.
22 STAR-CROSSED – CROSS (angry) inside STARED (gazed). Romeo and Juliet were star-crossed lovers. Wiki cites Diana and Dodi as a modern example!
25 Deliberately omitted.
26 DROVE – Right inside DOVE (winger). COED specifies “kick (the ball) hard” as an option for “drive”.
27 PREVALENT – A Litre  inside PREVENT (bar).
28 SLATTERN – LATTE (coffee) inside SRN (State Registered Nurse).
29 LESSEN – Left, ESSEN (industrial city).
Down
1 BYPASS
2 GROUNDING – Good, ROUNDING (not being too precise). A form of punishment.
3 TREAD – Energy inside TRAD (jazz).
5 CREDIT TRANSFER – Not the same as direct debit but CREDIT is an anagram of ‘direct’ so you can TRANSFER one to get the other.
6 MARKETING – ET (alien) inside MARKING (teacher’s task).
7 TOBIT – Time, OBIT (passing mention). This is a book of the Apocrypha which, if I have met before, I had forgotten.
8 RESOLVED – SOLVE (tackle crossword) inside RED (Trot-skyist or -skyite).
9 MYSTERY SHOPPER – Anagram of MY PROPERTY SHE’S. A person who visits shops incognito to assess the quality of service etc.
15 FIRECREST – twEet inside FIR (tree) CREST (top). It’s a type of warbler. Another I didn’t know.
17 KINKINESS – KINES (old cows’) inside KIN (family) butcherS.
18 PRESIDES – IDE (fish) inside PRESS (newspapers).
21 SPOT ON – Second, POTiON (drink I refused).
23 AROMA – Sounds like ‘a roamer’.
24 DRAKE – Double definition, the first being Sir Francis Drake who famously played bowls on Plymouth Hoe. I liked this one.

33 comments on “Times 25262 – Back to normal”

  1. I split the difference between my fellow bloggers, coming in at 70 minutes, and like Jack just pleased to finish. I wasn’t too taken with 23ac but liked GROUNDING. Last in PRESIDES, which took rather longer than necessary as my knowledge of 3-letter fish doesn’t run much beyond cod and eel.

    Jack, you appear to have got a little behind with your mystery shopper clue.

    1. But we’ve had ‘ide’ (and once ‘id’) here several times, or else I’d never have known about them.
  2. 42′, then about 30 more to stare at 19ac, 15d, and 26ac, mainly that last. I finally figured that it was RE GUARDS, or at least I couldn’t think of anything better; I looked up FIRECREST once I decided it was FIRECsomethingT; and then I couldn’t make heads or tails of DROVE, but figured it couldn’t be ‘diode’. I knew, sort of (from here), about mystery shoppers and Drake’s bowling, but putting them in was an act of faith not memory. Like vinyl, I tried forcing ‘tend’ into 28ac for the longest time.
  3. … statutory hour. The downfalls were in the beta and delta quadrants. With the former, the problem was oversight: didn’t read the clue for (the easy-ish) 8dn until it was too late to help. With the latter, the problem was the PRESIDES/DROVE pair. The temptation was to look for specific newspapers and to see “is” as something to be included.

    But there was a great deal of similar (clever) misdirection in this puzzle and, having finally got there, I’d give it top marks.

    My COD and first in: DRAKE. Needed a bit of a laff. (Though, as I’ve said before, I think, it does suggest a peculiar gender position for Daffy and Donald.)

    Edited at 2012-09-07 04:31 am (UTC)

    1. … liked the construction for 5dn with the implication: “Could it be direct?” — Yes. “Could it be debit?” — No.
  4. 25:40 with a really irritating fat finger typo. So for the third day in a row not that quick, perhaps, having stepped warily through two minefields, being overly suspicious of innocent ground.
    I wish I’d seen CREDIT TRANSFER, because that was a fine clue. Instead, I put it in as a probable financial term that fitted the setting and shrugged uncomprehendingly. Should have been CoD
    DROVE last in here too, much too long believing it had to be some sort of crossing minus H. So help me, even dzho or one of its variations, so loved of Scrabble, came into the reckoning. Tripped over a dud mine again.
  5. Romped away on the RHS but ground to a halt, had to resort to crosswordsolver.com to get FIRE in ahead of ….CREST, never heard of TOBIT or indeed actually seen a copy of the Apocrypha, is it in print? Struggled home in a hour or so with just TOBIT unsolved. I’ve now read it up on Wiki, so am ready for the next time.
    Some great clues, e.g. mystery shopper, credit transfer, bypass.. not difficult but witty.
    1. The S after KINE doesn’t denote plural, it’s possessive. So cows’ in the clue = kine’s in the answer. It’s nothing to do with Nazis.

      Edited at 2012-09-07 10:20 am (UTC)

  8. Thought we were in for an easy one as I made relatively quick progress across the top and down the right, and then came to a standstill in the SW for some time (in the Captain Oates sense). When I finally sorted out PRESIDES, DROVE, FIRECREST, REGARDS & SLATTERN I had to return for TOBIT, a complete unknown. Another difficult puzzle with plenty to entertain. COD to CREDIT TRANSFER.

    How does the the IM ‘IT get inside the SCAR at 4? Doesn’t “bearing” suggest the opposite?

  9. I think I’ve only come across Tobit before in “Miss Garnet’s Angel” (worth a read if you’re going to Venice).
  10. 37m. Based on my average time of 42m this has been the toughest week ever. To cap it all my birthday present from my wife was a puzzle compiled specially for me by John Graham. A truly wonderful present but she told him to make it tough and by George he took her at her word. It’s about a third done at the moment, and of the clues I’ve solved four are the names of my kids, so the really tough ones are still to come.
    I had a few quibbles with this puzzle:
    > As kororareka says “bearing” in 4ac seems to suggest the opposite of what’s required
    > “Turns to” in 14ac doesn’t seem quite to work. Doesn’t it need to be “turns to give” or some such for the grammar to work?
    > Does “cannot be” mean “aren’t”?
    Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle.
    1. I puzzled over all these clues.

      Eventually justified 4 across to myself by thinking that if were I hit with a SCIMITAR I should bear the scar on the outside.

      PILFER: I agree with Jack on this: “turns” must be a noun.

      Aren’t = cannot be? I contrived various sentences such as “If they fly, they are not emus”.

    2. 4ac: See above (12:15pm) re ‘bearing’.

      14ac: I imagined ‘turns’ as plural, so turns (are given) to ‘man in black’ = REF, with (and) ‘insolence’ = LIP.

      20ac: You cannot be serious!

      Edited at 2012-09-07 12:26 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks. Don’t load-bearing walls hold things up though?
        Yes, I think that works for 14ac.
        I are entirely serious.

        Edited at 2012-09-07 12:35 pm (UTC)

        1. The walls thing was only an example to suggest a train of thought. I’m sure that someone else could come up with a better example of stresses being borne from the inside of something.

          To my mind “You cannot be serious” means roughly the same as “You aren’t serious”.

      2. You could be right about 14ac, Jack, but I was actually quite happy with “turns” as a verb, reading the clue much as if it had read “Nick which turns …”.
  11. Simply awful today but an excellent puzzle. Gave up at over the hour with several gaps in the top half. Hadn’t heard of the mystery shopper before (though it was one of those I got) – a delightful term.
  12. A good steady solve today with no major hold ups. Firecrest (LOI) and Tobit from wordplay, Drake from definition. Didn’t get the Credit/Direct anagram link or know who the bowler was so thanks Jackkt for explaining those.

    I’ll pick up Wednesday’s mind bender again this evening. After two days of effort I’ve got ten left…

  13. I agree that you can construct sentences in which the overall sense is similar whether you use one or the other, but I still think “cannot be” and “aren’t” have quite distinct meanings.
    This is only a very minor quibble though: the intention is entirely clear.
  14. 27:40 .. very tricky one to tune into, and not just for me, it seems.

    CREDIT TRANSFER is excellent, but I’m afraid I lost enthusiasm for this one when I solved 1a. Sensitive flower that I am, I just detest the word ‘gob’, especially used this way. It always makes me feel a little queasy, so I can’t thank the setter today!

    Thanks to all bloggers for sterling work this week.

    1. I did the puzzle from my usual printout this am and have only just got round to reading these comments. Am with you on GOB. I notice I’ve written “Ugh!” in the margin. A revolting word. Ann
  15. 26 minutes for me, last in FIRECREST based on it sounding like an actual bird and having FIR in there. Lots of great clues, and I was never close to the wavelength, though apart from FIRECREST the only one that didn’t make absolute sense when it went in was SCIMITAR.
  16. I’m quite late today, as Live Journal and my computer were not working well together, and I couldn’t view this page til now. I needed about 35 minutes, getting held up in the SW area by PILFER, SLATTERN, FIRECREST and DROVE (my LOI). Never heard of TOBIT, and it seems we mostly all got it, so nice wordplay from the setter. Nice puzzle, and I agree with the comment that this has been one of the more challenging weeks in some time. Regards.
  17. 11:48 for me, held up for a couple of minutes at the end by DROVE. Despite 1dn being very much on my mind at the moment, I still failed to get it first time through.
  18. My fail comes down to entering FIRECROWN, which is a bird, and has the virtue of referring to a treetop by its correct name…the crest of a tree indeed!

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