Times 25298 – Got off lightly again

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
30 minutes (I don’t record seconds. If ever I begin to achieve sub 20 minutes regularly I might start, but this seems unlikely at the moment). Once again I have drawn a long straw on my blogging day as this puzzle was undemanding but nevertheless a pleasant and satisfying workout for my failing brain. And as last time I blogged there is really very little to be said so I’ll just get on with it.

* = Anagram

Across
1 FACSIMILE – SIM (phone card) inside FACILE (easily achieved). I learn that SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module.
6 BLAZE – B,LAZE
9 USURP – Hidden and reversed
10 SCULPTING – S{CU(L)P}TING
11 STEPDAD – ParenthooD inside STEAD (another’s place)
12 LADETTE – AD inside LETTEr
13 MEN IN GREY SUITS – (YES MINISTER GUN)*
17 FIRE DEPARTMENT – IRE,DEPART,MEN all inside FT (fort)
21 ONEROUS – O,NERO,US (useless)
23 SHELLAC – SHE + CALL reversed. The answer is in its verbal form to fit the definition.
25 PRECIPICE – P,RECIP(IC)E
26 NOVEL – V inside NOEL (time for Carol). Can anyone remember the convention on the use of capitals in clues such as this?
27 EPSOM – S inside MOPE reversed. The racecourse where the Derby is run.
28 EAST ENDERdisputE,AS,T ENDER (requiring tact). Wapping is in the East End of London.
Down
1 FOURSOME – (MORE OF US)* . The number of players normally needed for a game, or rubber, of bridge.
2 CAUSE – Sounds like “caws”, the noises made by crows.
3 IMPUDENCE – I’M, then DEN (private room) inside PUCE (purplish). The definition is “neck” .
4 INSIDER – (I’D RISEN)*
5 EQUALLY – E,sQUALLY (affected by storms).
6 BIPED – BI(PE)D
7 ARISTOTLE – A then TOTS reversed inside RILE (anger).
8 EAGLES – Two under par on the golf links.
14 NOISELESS – LIONESSES*
15 UP THE ANTE – PUT*, then Nuclear inside HEAT and E (two forms of energy).
16 STICKLER – S,TICKLER
18 EN SUITE – IT (desirable quality – yawn) inside ENSUE (result)
19 ANSWERS – ANtWERp (Belgian port) with its “p” and “t” (each end of port) replaced by S (succeeded). Again the answer is in its verbal form.
20 TOUPEE – Oxford University Press (academic publishers) inside TEE (support – more golf!). “Dome” is slang for the head.
22 ODIUMpODIUM
24 LIVID – 1+Versus inside LID (cap).

27 comments on “Times 25298 – Got off lightly again”

  1. Jack, you need a fuller head of hair at 20…

    34 minutes, with the NW last to fall. Joint CODS to CAUSE and ANSWERS. Clever how the setter worked ‘pd’ into a clue, which was the clear instruction but seemed counter-intuitive. Wasn’t aware neck meant impudence and have I think only met onerous meaning useless in crosswords. Thanks to Jack for the full parsing of the fire service. ‘Ft’ as an abbreviation for fort threw me, though now I come to think of it, I seem to remember it from those westerns I used to (sort of) watch on a Saturday afternoon. And then there’s Ft Knox …

    1. >have I think only met onerous meaning useless in crosswords

      In this case US = useless and onerous = oppressive

      1. Thanks for rescuing me from my Tim Nice But Dim moment. I even thought of US = useless, which just makes it worse.:)
  2. Agree with vinyl about the literals: the main way in today. And look at all that rile, anger, ire, blaze and rage. (Is there a message here for the Colonel?) Found the use of the latter, “rage”, in both 6ac and 17ac a bit odd. And then assumed that rage was “fire” (not ire) so couldn’t find the fort! So an extra minute or two here for the parsing.

    I’m sure we were supposed to be lured into CUPOLA (the other university press) at 20dn; leaving a serious dome-scratching (ASCOT?) at 27ac.

  3. 15:12, although with a couple (10ac, 3d, 20d) I only understood post hoc, and two (15d, 18d) that I needed Jackkt’s help for (how could I have forgotten IT?). Slowed down at 6ac by taking ‘about’ as a reversal indicator, and at 6d by thinking of IOM. DNK ‘in a paddy’, but didn’t need to know, as it turned out. Also DNK ‘neck’, until very recently, when it was in a cryptic. I can’t remember, but I think that it’s OK to capitalize words that don’t need them but verboten to use lower case; that would exculpate the setter at 26ac, anyway. COD to ANSWERS.

    Edited at 2012-10-19 04:40 am (UTC)

    1. I agree with Jack, easy but enjoyable with few if any talking points. A 20 minute vanilla Times puzzle with a couple of tired cliches and some very obvious definitions (including bot of the long across clues)

      As far as Carol at 26A is concerned my advice is to forget the “rules” and ignore punctuation. That “rule” will work for you 999 times out of 1,000

      1. I’ll drink to that. But it seems to me that there was some discussion recently (i.e. this year) about a policy existing with regard to (non-)capitalization; which discussion I was trying, vainly as usual these days, to remember.
        1. I have the same problem with memory as you Kevin so unfortunately can’t help – perhaps some of our younger contributors will recall.
          1. This was covered on Anax’s clue-writing competition site. Kevin is right in that you can use false capitalization but you can’t “decapitalize” real nouns. Where a misleading real noun is used the setter has to make it the first word.
  4. A rare early solve and an even rarer sub-30 at 28.40 so evidently quite straightforward. Held up by entering an unthinking sculpting at 10a so my thinker and golf scores took a little time to land. Thanks for the blog as ever.
  5. No major problems today. FOI Insider, LOI Answers. Fire Department took several looks – same too with Eagles. I think I’d have got that one sooner if the clue had read “… on links” not “… in links”. Thanks Jack for explaining Novel and En Suite – both entered without understanding the wordplay.

    Re Onerous: lawyers and accountants will know of onerous contracts and I guessed the oppressive meaning from that.

    “What does the acronym SIM stand for?” is a good quiz question. Will ask my in-laws it when I see them on Sunday.

    Best of luck to everybody competing in the Championship tomorrow.

  6. 8:20.  Having become a father on the 1st of August, I’m relieved to find that I haven’t forgotten how to do this.  I might see some of you at Murdoch Towers tomorrow morning, but I’ll have to dash straight back to Oxford for a friend’s memorial service.  (I wasn’t expecting to get through to the final anyway, but it’s a shame to be missing the social side of things.)
  7. 10:52. Please can we have this setter tomorrow?

    As has been remarked for a lot of clues it was a case of throwing in the answer on the basis of definition with maybe a hint of the wordplay.

    At 17 like McText I could neither find the fort nor explain the final T. I also read the def at 20 as “synthetic cover” with tee satisfying “support for Dome”, dome being slang for golf ball, natch.

    Good luck to my fellow competitors (or rather participants) tomorrow, except those in heat 1 hoping to sneak into the top 25.

  8. 23 min and 03 secs.

    I thought 1 down was unusually risque for The Times.

    Nice andlit clue at 11 across

  9. Really enjoyed this – done in 30 mins then an enforced break and a further 20 mins to finish. Went in quite easily after I realised I’d put in bogeys instead of eagles – should get out on the course more. Really enjoyed working out ‘answers’ as my last in – very satifsying.
  10. I’ve been out and about all day so only just got to this , but – woo hoo! I did it in just under ten minutes. After a rather dismal run of form recently this will no doubt lull me into a false sense of security for tomorrow.
  11. A disappointing 11:06 here – not the ideal time for me to be going through one of my bad patches. (Sigh!)
  12. Congrats, Mark. Hope to see you tomorrow, but apologies when I don’t recognise you (unless you’re wearing an EAP mask ;-).
    1. Thanks to the pair of you.  Tony: when I’m not wearing my Poe mask, and when someone points a camera at me and forces me to smile, I look a bit like this.

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