Times 25280

37 comments on “Times 25280”

1. This may be the best of the week; a very-well constructed puzzle with only the DBE (Afghan/COAT) at 1ac a bit unfair. Didn’t know the Priestley play; but very solvable from the wordplay. Possible title for Dave: Guys and Tents?

   Good to see that LJ was working properly in my small corner of the world this morning after all the weirdness yesterday.

2. I am missing the word play on 13ac. Can somebody jump start my brain please?
   1. Lame, as in gammy: as in a game leg.

      Edited at 2012-09-28 01:24 am (UTC)

      1. Certainly familiar with gammy leg, but not game leg. Thanks for that.
3. Once again 30 minutes was on the cards but I got stuck on CANT and ABLEST which took my time to just on 40.

   We’ve a question mark at 1ac so I’m happy with the DBE.

   Didn’t know TIGRE but everything else was familiar including DANGEROUS CORNER which I have seen on stage twice – there’s also a film made in 1934 which has been known to turn up on TV.

   Another very enjoyable and satisfying puzzle.

   Edited at 2012-09-28 12:58 am (UTC)

4. 57 minutes, with the last 20+ spent on the crossing 18ac and 15dn, where I snookered myself by assuming that the island would end in ‘-say’. Interesting to get the 4-letter French author just days after his 4-letter novel (Nana) turned up. Pretty much the unknowns/unfamiliars Dave lists. My COD must go to my favourite composer at 20dn in spite of – or perhaps because of – the cross-dressing connotation. I feel the much misunderstood Hamburger would have enjoyed that.
   1. I held myself up for a while by putting COLONSAY, the birds being LOONS in CAY. Of course it doesn’t stand parsing, but it looked good at the time!
5. 25:00 .. very smart stuff all round. So many good clues but MONEY LAUNDERING has such a clever surface it stands out for me.

   Consolation for our anonymous friend who yesterday complained of invading Americanisms: it seems some Americans are getting tired of Invading Britishisms!

   1. Not only did we give them an entire language, we give them free updates for life as well.. no gratitude, some people!
6. 27 min 32 secs with one wrong.

   I can’t really claim this time as the island of “Bunrassy” had no justification and wasn’t even close.

   Not heard of cant, meaning list before. Nor lame meaning game.

   Edited at 2012-09-28 06:27 am (UTC)

   1. On balance, I think I’d swap your time for my full-house given the brain cells the isle cost me. 🙂
7. Another great puzzle with just the play as my unknown (or forgotten) item – derived it from wordplay. 25 minutes to solve. The MONEY LAUNDERING clue is a real peach.
8. An enjoyable 25 mins that should have been quicker. At 26A Tigre is surely a province and Tigrinya the language? Or so I have thought ever since my daugher had a friend at university from that region.
   1. Collins and COED confirm TIGRE is fine. Also “Tigray”.
      1. According to Wikipedia, Tigrinya is a language from the Tigray region of Ethiopia and is quite distinct from the Tigre language of Eritrea/Sudan, though both come from the same root (Ge’ez). It doesn’t help that the Tigray region was called Tigre in the past.
9. 34 minutes, including interruption, and with a third of it taken up with the GUERNSEY/QUIPPING cross. I couldn’t get away from “no point at first” being -P, even though there was manifestly one there. And the island clue for a while had REST in some odd island, just because it could.
   Otherwise a combative puzzle offering several diversions form the true path, not least the C?N? entry screaming abuse at coprolallics.
   PRIESTESS (religious female, PI woman something?) and the excellently constructed FLAMENCO stood out for me.
   1. I reckon you’ve set Deano’s mind spinning about the possibilities of squeezing it into one of his Sunday puzzles. Or, after his regal and aureal shower at the weekend, Tim, indeed.
      1. It does seem to be a regular habit these days. I looked up the regal phrase hoping to find the origin of the joke, and expecting it to be an old style comedian. I was instead confronted with a pap picture of Wills taking one. Not for the squeamish.
         1. Sorry, Zabbers, I was being too obscurantist. I was simply referring to Tim Moorey’s clue ‘First person to show what the Queen passes daily (it’s said) (3,5,2)’ in last week’s Sunday Times. In the vicinity of the C word, as it were……
10. Ah, despite the non-competitive nature of all truly adult enterprise, it’s with a tiny fierce glow of satisfaction that I beat both sotira and dj to the tape by a minute (24 in all). Didn’t know the play though shd’ve. Couldn’t work out the why of tuck in. Good to see the new PC in 6 dn.
11. Excellent puzzle, though I don’t have a time owing to an endless stream of callers. (The Gas Man Cometh)

    SAGE DERBY I think I agree with the lady who joined the diverse group of protestors demonstrating against the law that made police permission necessary for any demonstration in and around Parliament Square. She was spotted waving a banner on which were written the words:

    “For goodness sake! Stop putting bits in cheese!”

12. All correct today but took an age to get Guernsey and a further ten minutes to get LOI Quipping. Had to go through the starting A-Q letters to get that one. Didn’t get the lame bit of Flamenco so thanks mctext for explaining that. We see Zola now after his play Nana appeared the other day.

    Didn’t comment on Tuesday’s to Thursday’s because too busy at work to solve until the evening. Found Tuesday’s hard (26/31) and Wednesday’s very hard (20/29). Thanks to the bloggers and commentators for explaining all the ones that baffled me. No problems with yesterday’s – solved while watching the BBC’s Wartime Farm.

    Browser open for the Ryder Cup. Go Europe…!

13. 22 fun filled minutes for me.
14. 19:27 with some time at the end wrestling with the SE corner. I didn’t know the play and and didn’t think lammer or coffer sounded right for the second word which meant I struggled down there until I got Guernsey. That said I should have seen prompted and intents earlier than I did.

    COD to the very elegant priestess with nods also to money-laundering and airspace. I’m also a sucker for any clue that exploits the old eh/what ploy.

    Tigre was unknown as was the tilty meaning of cant.

    1 across rock (as it’s Friday): all-girl post-punk outfit Combatant Priestess

15. MONEY-LAUNDERING for me too the best of a pretty good bunch, solved in around forty minutes. God knows how I’ll ever get up to Championship speed! (A voice off says, “you never will”.)

    Thanks for the blog, and another nice one for this week. Have a good weekend.

    Chris Gregory.

16. 44 mins – good for me. I felt on the setter’s wavelength and got 1ac, 1dn and 2dn straight away. Thanks for the explanation of GUERNSEY.
    I knew DANGEROUS CORNER as I appeared in an amateur production of it a few years ago. I can’t remember the name of the character, but he shoots himself and then reappears on stage a few minutes later, none the worse for it.

    Edited at 2012-09-28 03:06 pm (UTC)

17. I just don’t see what “content” adds to this clue; it appears superfluous to me but iI am still not good at this malarkey!
    1. ‘content’ is the containment indicator that tells the solver that the S at the end of SCABROUS in contained within PUNTER.
18. i was never on this setter’s wavelength, so didn’t enjoy this puzzle as much as many others seem to have done. That said, I agree there were some excellent clues, among which MONEY-LAUNDERING stood out. Can anyone explain why “boy” racers at 21 ac and is “deep” supposed to indicate “extreme”?
    1. Extreme = deep as in “deep trouble”. I took “boy racers” as part of a DBE mitigated by the question mark.
       1. Thanks, Jack. I guess you must be right. If so, an unsatisfactory clue IMHO. But, then again, as I said above, I was never on this setter’s wavelength.
19. I got through this in 20 minutes, held up at they end by GUERNSEY/QUIPPED, and not having much trouble with the rest except for not really getting the humor at SPEED TRAP. Didn’t know the play or TIGRE so wordplay only for those. I did see the humor in a lot of the rest, and I’ll nominate the succinct HASTY for its very smooth surface, over MONEY-LAUNDERING, which would have been better, to me, with some substitute for ‘jiggery-pokery’. That last may be in use in the UK, but I’ve never seen it, although it’s not hard to see what it is supposed to mean. Regards.
    1. My memory is that back in the days of books Erle Stanley Gardner’s DA Hamilton Burger was often accusing Perry Mason of legal jiggery-pokery and flim-flammery.
20. Been out and about all day today and only just got a chance to solve the puzzle. 25 minutes, and an enjoyable puzzle, but I spoiled it by bunging in CODA at 14ac. I can’t for the life of me see why.
    Tomorrow’s another day.
21. Another first-rate puzzle, but I finished in a disappointing 14:22 largely through wasting simply ages trying to justify COLONSAY, where the slightly unsettled LOONS looked so obvious. (Glad to see I wasn’t the only one!) I also made heavy weather of the familiar DANGEROUS CORNER – which unhelpfully confirmed the S. (Sigh!)
22. Having only ‘aides’ and ‘mooch’ after two passes I was beginning to think this was yet another toughie. (They do seem to be getting harder at the moment). However an hour later ‘ablest’ was my LOI. As a long-standing toiler on the lower slopes I found this difficult. My point is that Friday’s printed edition contained a useful guide to solving these things, but I think any newcomer emboldened by the advice therein and having a go at this one would have been daunted to the point of giving up, so an easy one would have been the better option for this particular day. A lurker – must emerge from this cloak of anonymity.
    1. Yes, please do. You’ll be very welcome.

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