Times 25274 – Father Christmas next?

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
After my troubles this week I breathed a sigh of relief shortly after sitting down with this one –  this week’s “Monday” puzzle at last. At the moment my time of 33 minutes would be in fourth position on the leader board if I had solved on-line, but I expect there will be many entries in single figures today. Only one unknown word for me (at 18dn), one tricky parse (at 13dn), no quibbles or gripes.

Across
1 WINDSOR TIE – WIND (turn) + SORTIE (trip). A wide silk tie worn in a floppy bow (COED).
6 OPUS – Hidden and reversed.
9 SECOND BEST – SECOND (support) + BEST (George, the footballer).
10 SCAM – Sport + CAM (river that runs through Cambridge).
12 MEGALOMANIACAL – Anagram of EGO MACMILLAN AlAs
14 ONSIDE – Double definition. Leg is the ON SIDE in cricket and ONSIDE is not offside in soccer, so “legally positioned”. Other sports may be available.
15 SEWER RAT – EWER (vessel) inside TARS (sailors) reversed. “Drinking” is the containment indicator.
17 TWO-PIECE – Sounds like “too peace” (excessively, quiet).
19 UNITED – IT inside jUNE (month without Jack) + Daughter.
22 FOR HEAVENS SAKE – HEAVENS (the sky) inside FORSAKE (desert).
24 IBIS – I + BIS (do it again – encore!).
25 INTIMIDATE – ID (papers) inside INTIMATE (friend).
26 YO-HO – YOrk (Richard III’s house half lost) + HO (house).
27 WEATHERMAN – A THERM (a heating unit) inside anagram of A NEW. The definition is “Met fellow” where “Met” is short for the Meteorological Office who issue weather forecasts.
Down
1 WASP – WAS (is not now) + Picknicker’s
2 NUCLEUS – Anagram of CLUE inside SUN (setter) reversed.
3 SUNDAY DRIVER – Sounds like “sundae” (sweet) + DRIVER (wood, in golf). “Earwig” (colloquially to eavesdrop) is the homophone indicator.
4 RIBBON – RIB ( take the mickey out of) + BON (good foreign – Fr).
5 IN SPADES – A reference to contract bridge.
7 PACE CAR – RACE (compete) + CAP (roof) all reversed.
8 SIMILITUDE – Anagram of UTILISED I’M
11 RISE AND SHINE – What the sun does and an instruction get up and get on.
13 TOOTH FAIRY – Hard + TO, all reversed + FAIR (just) all inside TOY (doll, perhaps). “Having broken” is the containment indicator and the definition is “parent really”. I hope no illusions are shattered by this one!
16 SCAVENGE – SaCk + AVENGE (get even).
18 OARFISH – wateR inside OAFISH (stupid). My only unknown word today. It lives in the deep ocean, apparently.
20 TAKE AIM – Sounds like “Tay came” (river, arrived).
21 ENLIST – Anagram of LINES + Time.
23 TEEN – ThE + EmotioN.

50 comments on “Times 25274 – Father Christmas next?”

  1. A very nice puzzle with lots of phrases, which always aids solving. Somehow (6,4) is more fun than a standard (10).

    14ac may well be a triple definition as I took it to read “leg” is “on (the) side” of “legally”.

    25ac I found tricky to decrypt since I took the consumption part to be the -ATE at the end.

    1. I took the coincidence of “leg” and “leg{ally}” to be a distraction. If what you reckon was intended, then so much the better!
  2. So a bit of relief at the end of the week … but not a lot.

    Three homophonic clues (17ac, 3dn, 20dn) were more than enough for me and 3dn was a killer of a one. Didn’t spot “earwig” = eavesdrop and still think the clue has its crumby aspects.

    The parsing at 13dn (TOOTH FAIRY) was as compex as I’ve seen for a while and took no fewer than four attempts.

    All due respect, then, to jackkt for making the whole thing tidier than my sheet of A4 looks right now.

    1. Sorry, can’t let this one go. Need a golf expert to adjudicate on the “wood” = DRIVER bit. Are all woods drivers, and/or vice versa?
      1. Hmm, well, a driver is an example of a wood so for crossword purposes the clue is fine.

        Usually, when a TV commentator says “He’s using his driver…” it’s taken to mean the big fella, the 1 Wood (which, ironically, is rarely made of wood these days but never mind that).

        Technically, “a driver” could be any flat-faced club used to drive the ball off the tee, so I suppose you could say the 3 Wood or 5 Wood is used as a driver in that situation, but it is not used in that sense in common parlance.

      2. I’m no expert, but Collins has it covered with “Wood – a long-shafted club with broad wooden or metal head, used for driving: numbered from 1 to 7”.
      3. In crosswordland, I’d have thought the close association that people (golfers or not) make between the two words makes the substitution perfectly acceptable. After all, ‘Earwig on sweet hollowed out titanium, probable crawler?’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
      4. Originally all drivers were were hickory shafted with a wooden head protected by persimon and were known as woods. Their prime function was to hit the ball a long way off the tee in what is called the drive and hence drivers although “fairway woods” can as the term implies be used to hit the ball off the fairway as well. Later the shafts were made of metal or carbon fibre and the heads of metal but the old names have stuck. Hope that helps.
  4. 40 minutes but two wrong: ‘pole car’ and ‘slam’. Not happy with that but didn’t twig ‘runner’, which would have resolved things, PACE CAR being unknown, as expression if not entity. Liked both homophone clues*, but COD to the man from the (other) Met.

    Jack, re intro, your unknown is 18dn.

    * on edit, after reading McT’s simultaneous post ‘Liked two homophone clues – had forgotten the forgettable 17ac…’

    Edited at 2012-09-21 01:34 am (UTC)

  5. Took me forever to realize 1ac was not an anagram (turn, loosely, knotted — one of them has to mean an anagram!). I thought it might be something to do with Windsor but still missed it. I was thinking of the Windsor knot for a tie, but that’s not loose.

    6ac I never realized was hidden. I thought it was SOlo (being only, then partially to lose the second half) with UP inside (also reversed although it doesn’t quite work looking at it now) for “work” as the literal.

    I loved “parent really” for 13dn once I saw it. I love clues where the split between the literal and the wordplay is in an unexpected place. I remember one where the literal was “a” and the wordplay led to “indefinite article”.

    About 40 mins or so. Didn’t time myself.

    1. I sympathise re 1ac which was nearly my last in, but fortunately 1dn giving the ‘W’ checker had been my first in and was unquestionably correct so an anagram at 1ac was never an option for me.
  6. Easy today; 18 mins. Familiar with oarfishes but 1ac not known to me, though it couldn’t be anything else..
  7. 21 minutes but with a hopeful second base, simply forgetting the wunderkind. 11 seemed too easy. Bit of a parson’s egg this; I prefer a more consistent, if tougher, workout. And I like wasps. But all is forgiven for the definition of a tooth fairy in two words.

    Edited at 2012-09-21 07:58 am (UTC)

    1. I finished up with SECOND BASE too, just couldn’t make the leap to BEST. I also liked TOOTH FAIRY( thanks for the blog jackkt, I missed the significance of “really” It’s even funnier when you see that!). Not much trouble with the rest and I found it an enjoyable puzzle.
  8. 21 minutes, so as far as I’m concerned, nor quite a walk in the park.
    OPUS – (last in) initially went in very lightly, as there was a lot of verbiage before the hidden bit, and “being” is a pretty loaded word in crosswordland.
    WINDSOR TIE – knew the knot, like my Chambers. I see ODO has it as a dated Americanism.
    NUCLEUS – Sun=setter was interesting: definition by activity?
    SEWER RAT – I wondered about a(n) ewer as a drinking vessel until I couldn’t see the containment indicator. D’oh!
    TAKE AIM – Oh 22. 5.
    TOOTH FAIRY – CoD just for “Parent really”.
    1. Wouldn’t most words ending in -er require a definition by activity? Admittedly this one wouldn’t if it were a dog.
      Identical problems with the tie and the rat here.
      1. In this case, the Sun was defined by what it (usually regularly) does. It might equally (cued by 11) be defined as “shiner” and “riser”. In the UK, perhaps by “hider” and “vanisher”! Could jelly/o and concrete also be clued by “setter”? I’m not sure this isn’t a bit of a departure in cluing terms, but I’m happy to accept I’m just being pedantic.
        1. Yes, sorry, I’m happy to accept I’m just being thick.
          I don’t think it’s a departure though: think “flower”.
          1. Good point. Could flower (accepted as a conventional gimme for river, usually Cam or Exe) also clue lava, blood or air, all things that flow?
  9. I found this a bit of a mixture but not difficult, 20 minutes to solve

    Got the tie from leading W and thinking first of the knot – my father used to moan at me for using a windsor knot on my school tie! At 5D don’t like “where” a contract may be made. The contract is made at the card table “in” spades. Liked “parent really” – very clever

  10. FOI Similitude, LOI Sunday Driver.
    Sunday Driver, Tooth Fairy and Ibis went in from checkers and definitions without full understanding so thanks Jack for explaining those.
    Thought all the homophones were very good and the “parent really” and “Met fellow” defs.

    Re driver:
    In 1991 Callaway introduced the Big Bertha metal driver. Prior to that drivers had wooden heads. Nobody plays wooden-headed drivers nowadays – they’re all titanium-headed. A metal-headed 3 wood is usually referred to as a “3 wood” although I did hear one of the commentator’s at the Tour Championship last night say a player had just hit a “3 metal.”

    1. Can’t let that go unchallenged – I bought my first metal-headed driver in 1983. Steel, with a head the same size as wooden drivers.
      Perhaps the Big Bertha was the first titanium driver?
      Rob
  11. 16m. Easy puzzle but none the less enjoyable for that. 13dn is my favourite clue for a long time. I think my kids have twigged but they don’t let on.
    After BLENNY the other day and now OARFISH, it has become clear to me that the setters have adapted The Octonauts as a core source for these puzzles. Look out for REMIPEDE, SPOOKFISH and DECORATOR CRAB in future. Fortunately HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKAPUA’A is too long.
    1. Not for the Jumbo it isn’t. I wonder if they’ll put the apostrophe in the letter count, or would that be too much of a give-away?
      1. Good point. I’ve lost the Jumbo habit (displaced by Mephisto and Azed) so do let me know if it turns up!
    1. Exquisite. It certainly would confuse me! For a non-anagram clue, how about: Queen Elizabeth II, twice natural killer, is repeatedly contaminated with uranium and plutonium hidden in a rock fish.
      If you know what the answer is, it sort of works.
      1. I’ve only just had a moment to look at this properly: very good, and the surface is certainly better than mine!
        But let’s face it if this did appear in a puzzle the clue would be more or less irrelevant once you had something along the lines of _U_U_U_U_U_U_U_U_P_A_.
  13. Couldn’t finish this. After almost completing it quite rapidly, I just couldn’t get SUNDAY DRIVER. I had an unshakable idea that the answer was a term meaning a toady, and that “sweet wood” was “sandal”; so something like SANDAL LICKER would have done the trick. Barking up the wrong tree entirely, so I gave up after 45 minutes.

    I have never heard of a WINDSOR TIE, only a Windsor knot; and, like Jimbo, I was warned off using it, but in my case by an elderly, military gentleman who confidentially whispered: “Only a cad wears a Windsor, young feller; and never wear brown shoes with a blue suit.”

    Some good clues, though, so one up to the setter.

    1. I was always told something similar but only about a full Windsor. I have always worn a half Windsor as a result. Perhaps I’m half a cad.
        1. I’ve just looked this up and discovered that what I’ve been tying all my life isn’t actually a half-windsor at all. I don’t think it’s a Pratt either. I’ve no idea what it is.
  15. About 35 minutes, so I found it on the harder side, ending with IN SPADES. My hold ups were caused in part by not knowing the cryptic meanings for ‘take the Mickey out’, ‘bis’, ‘Met fellow’ and ‘earwig’, so I had to rely more on either finding the correct definitions, or just the wordplay for WEATHERMAN. I’ll add my COD nod to the seeming favorite TOOTH FAIRY, which is nicely done. Now to display my less than stellar scientific knowledge: Is a NUCLEUS ‘positive’, because it contains positive photons and neutral neutrons, and is thus on the whole positive? (Sorry Jimbo.) Or did I just misunderstand this clue entirely? Regards nevertheless.
  16. Surprised this one is being damned by faint praise – 13 down was the first clue that made me laugh in a long time, and OARFISH and SUNDAY DRIVER are all brilliant. 14 minutes, nothing was a guess, all good fun. Thanks setter!
  17. 11:36 here for yet another most enjoyable puzzle – absolutely first-rate. My compliments to the setter for the third day running.

    I fell for all the traps: trying to make an anagram of “trip as item” for 1ac; trying to justify DODO for 24ac; and finally trying to think of some kind of insect whose first word was SANDAL (which seemed so obviously right that it took me ages to shake off).

    COD to the splendid 13dn.

  19. 37 min 26 secs.

    Guessed Sunday Driver, Oarfish and Tooth Fairy. Toth Fairy very clever but isn’t “Parent really” stretching it a bit for the definition?

    1. Maybe, but it’s a delightful clue that seems to have caught the imagination of many solvers so perhaps we can go a bit easy on the setter over this one. If the puzzle had been full of similar there may have been more complaints.

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