Times 25295 – A Trip Down Memory Lane

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time 25 minutes

A great puzzle for people of my age, a bit tough I’m guessing for younger folk. A lot of 1940-1950s slang, a good deal of old pounds shillings and pence, some Elvis and even a reference to the fan pack of Frank Sinatra. I thought a lot of this was very clever and my thanks to the setter.

Across
1 KNOCK,OFF – three meanings 1=take out=kill, 2=slang for steal=half-inch, 3=pack in work (at end of shift);
6 CHEAPO – C(HEAP)O; CO=Carbon Monoxide=gas that’s harmful;
9 BAMBOOZLEMENT – BAMBOO-(C becomes Z)LEMENT; I’m guessing Clement is Atlee, leader of the Labour Party?; or more likely E-LEMENT, thanks to Jack;
10 SCYTHE – (chesty)*; using a scythe is all in the rhythm and not taking too much with each swing;
11 BLUBBERY – B(LUBBER)Y; inexperienced sailor=land lubber;
13 BOBBY-SOXER – BOBBY’S-OXER; policeman’s=BOBBY’S (slang); (horse jumping) fence=OXER; 1940’s fan of Old Blue Eyes;
15 RAPT – sounds like “wrapped”;
16 EBRO – hidden reversed (neta)EB RO(f); Spanish river;
18 SPEED,CHESS – SPEE(DC)HESS; DC=direct current (physics);
21 ROUSSEAU – RO(US-SEA)U(t); thrashing=rout;
22 WEEPIE – WEE-PIE; chick-lit;
23 SCANDALMONGER – (grand scale + m=miles)*; one who pretends to be schocked;
25 SMOKER – two meanings; to cure is to smoke as in haddock;
26 YORKTOWN – (know troy)*; US War of Independence;
 
Down
2 NABUCCO – (CUBAN reversed)-CO; company=CO; obscure Verdi opera or better known as the Asia-European gas bridge;
3 COME,TO,BLOWS – COME-TO, BLOWS; to blue is to spend recklessly=to blow;
4 OZONE – OZ-ONE;
5 FUZZBOX – FUZZ-BOX; police (slang)=FUZZ; fight=BOX; a device for causing distotion in guitar notes;
6 CHEQUERED – CHEQUE-RED; a dishonoured cheque is said to bounce; “up and down” is definition;
7 EVE – EVE(n);
8 PIT-PROP – (TIP reversed)-PROP=front row of the scrum player in rugby;
12 BIRTHWEIGHT – (the r=king with big)*; substitution of r=king a bit near the mark in middle of anagrist?;
14 SUSPENDER – (US reversed)-SPENDER;
17 BLOSSOM – B(L)O(S)SOM; L=libra=pound; s=shilling (old money);
19 EQUALLY – E(Q)U-ALLY;
20 SKID,ROW – (WORKS reversed) surrounds ID=one old penny;
22 WOOER – WOO(f)ER;
24 ARK – (h)ARK; attention!!=hark!!;

33 comments on “Times 25295 – A Trip Down Memory Lane”

  1. Back in the saddle after missing a few days taking a rare hol. Liked this a great deal, especially 18ac which is a beaut clue. With Jackkt, I suspected, from 5dn, that we are in the company of an ax-man. Though I think he’s a bass player … no? And left-handed to boot. (See userpic.)
    1. Yes, thanks Jack. I’ve edited the blog. Clearly got too enthused by 1940s references!
  3. Despite going over an hour and then having to resort to aids for the last three or four, the Colonel is not enraged today because this was such an enjoyable puzzle.

    I believe one of the ST setters also contributes puzzles occasionally to the Times and I suspect I can detect his hand in this one. The guitar reference perhaps confirms this.

    There are 13 sets of double letters scattered throughout the grid and we are only a J short of a pangram.

    I only have one minor quibble which is that 1d would not have been the minimum charge before decimalization as we had the halfpenny.

    Edited at 2012-10-16 08:20 am (UTC)

  4. Blimey Jim, that looks quick. I was more than double your time, and even allowing for the sun, the dim computer screen, a wifely interruption and many slightly dressed beach distractions in my Cypriot corner, that pretty fairly represents the level at which I set this one: tough but fine fare.
    For a long time I was flummoxed by believing Speer was my admiral, wrong in so many ways, and my FUZZ started life as boom then beat, both confounding surrounding clues.
    Jack, I can remember having and spending farthings, which don’t fit either!
    Hard o pick a winner. CHEAPO caused me most skull sweat.
    2. True, but they ceased to be legal tender in 1960 so there was at least a decade in which the halfpenny was the smallest value.

      Edited at 2012-10-16 10:23 am (UTC)

      1. Halfpennies also ceased to be legal tender before decimalisation, just as decimal halfpennies in turn ceased to be legal tender before the current day
        1. True but only about a year prior. Not enough of a window for a crossword clue I would have thought!
          2. Does it matter the clue says ‘minimum charge’ in the sense perhaps of not costing much rather than ‘the minimum charge’ where I think the halfpenny point would be spot on?
  5. Much the same experience as Jack, with whom I agree that faction=element at 9 ac. BLUBBERY highly entertaining and BIRTHWEIGHT most ingenious. I was unable to explain the”half-inch” reference in KNOCK OFF – so thanks to Jimbo for putting me out of my misery. Hugely enjoyable puzzle.
  6. Similar experience to Jack. Terrific fare. Thought of BLUBBERY and BIRTHWEIGHT but couldn’t justify them. So only finished after I’d cheated to (re)get the former and then worked it out. Among a great bunch, BLUBBERY got two ticks.

    Might I suggest a setters autumn anti-chestnut challenge? ‘Write a clue for “rapt” without recourse to “wrapped”.’

  9. 1 hour 5 mins and 7 secs with one answer/letter wrong. Cheaps instead of Cheapo. (I went for CS gas in place of Carbon Monoxide).

    Very hard I thought but glad I stuck at it and nearly got them all right. Looking at the scores of regulars here and on The Times crossword club site, even the very good found this one quite tough.

    Oxer, Spee, Blue=blow and Fuzzbox all new to me.

  10. 45 minutes but with 2 wrong – NOBACCO (obviously still subconsciously craving a nicotine fix 21 years after stopping being a 25) and Cousteau for the philospher (no wonder I couln’t parse it but “waves” obviously put me off). Yes I know Jacques of that ilk is best known for swimming around a bit and inventing aqualungs but he does have a few quotes knocking about t’internet, e.g. “The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it.” And if that isn’t philosophy, ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know what is.

    That said this was a cracking puzzle, with many tremendous clues and big ticks against speed chess and blubbery.

    Edited at 2012-10-16 12:37 pm (UTC)

  11. I thought I’d never finish and nearly abandoned this. After 20 minutes I only had 2 answers! A steady crawl to the finishing line. 66 minutes. Some remarkably convoluted definitions would seem to identify the setter as the chap who regularly bamboozles me on a Sunday. Ann
  12. 50m.
    Crikey that was tough. Excellent stuff, but never having come across the teenager or the fence 16ac was impossible for me. I picked a vowel more or less at random, and BOBBY SIXER was not the answer.
    Not a great confidence booster for Saturday!
  13. DNF as couldn’t get near weepie so had entered a blind guess at weevil! Also failed on rousseau as well but an enjoyable hour to get that far. My COD to SUSPENDER for raising a smile. Thanks for blog. Is AS in 19d synonymous with EQUALLY? I couldn’t think of a sentence to make it work.
    1. This puzzle was “as” devious as an Anax. An Anax would be “equally” devious. Well not exactly – I’m sure there’s a better equivalent. Can’t say exactly how long I took because I opened it by mistake last night (with no intention of doing it then) while yakking on the phone so stayed off club leaderboard this morning. Approx.45 minutes with one mistake. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who had trouble with cheapo – I had cheapy (don’t ask).
  14. Shouldn’t have started this after 1am, it kept me up for a good half an hour (though there could have been few better uses for that half hour). Rather fun puzzle, NABUCCO my last in, though once all was said and done everything did make sense.
  15. I can only echo everyone else. This was almost “in the too-hard basket” for me but I struggled through although I had to use aids for Rousseau, wee pie and wooer. And I had to come here for enlightenment on so many clues, especially bamboozlement.
  16. 18:23 here, so a little bit tougher than average but nowhere near as tough as most others here seem to have found it. I also considered CHEAPS for 6ac, but then realized carbon monoxide is also pretty harmful, and even fits the clue! It was my last one in though.
  17. 15:59 for me. Given that I’m not feeling at my best today, I’m actually not too disappointed with that time, which seems to have landed me reasonably well up the Times Crossword Club’s leaderboard, ahead of a couple of Championship contenders. As you say, Jim, our generation probably has an advantage over the youngsters.

    This was an absolutely first-class puzzle, and I raise my hat to the setter.

    1. You have to appreciate my sense of humour. It amuses me that given a choice between a modern usage and an old opera the Times setter picks the opera!
  19. I thought I was doing pretty well online, but came up against a wall at 25′ with 5 or 6 unsolved, and took another 13 minutes before dinner; the 6’s being LOIs. Wonderful puzzle, although I’d add to Jimbo’s qualification about generation (I’m old enough) that it would have helped to be a Brit; I didn’t know the ‘half-inch’ bit, or OXER, or ‘blue’, at least. And the spelling of 6d no doubt helped make it a LOI. COD to 19d, and thanks to the setter.
    1. Apart perhaps from BOBBY SOXER you have a point about particularly the old UK slang which must have been very difficult for you. Thanks for pointing it out because I think it helps a number of US lurkers.
  20. Thanks for all the comments and especially the blog.
    Ref NABUCCO, I have heard of the pipeline of that name, but I suspect that I may be in an even smaller minority than the one that has heard of the opera.

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