Times 25321 – Excruciatingly Challenging

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found today’s puzzle to be excruciatingly challenging with all manners of trickery and subterfuge employed in both the fodder and the definitions. If not for the need to fully understand and explain for this blog, I would have enjoyed all the clever wordplay tremendously. Final word – an excellent puzzle, although a tad torturous
ACROSS
1 PIQUED 
4 DAY-LEWIS *(WIDELY AS) for Cecil DayLewis, CBE (1904–1972) an Anglo-Irish poet and the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake
10 BRAILLE Ins of ILL (badly) in BRAE (Scottish term for the sloping bank of a river) for the system of raised type in relief for the blind invented by Frenchman, Louis Braille (1809-1952)
11 NOTEDLY *(TEN Year OLD)
12 OMIT Ins of M & I (first letters of Marple investigates) in Old Testament (series of books)
13 OUT TO LUNCH What a superb definition taking courses away and, of course, that phrase describes someone a bit cuckoo
15 WHOLESALE Ins of HOLES (places for filling in) in WALES (part of UK) minus last letter, S (unfinished)
16 JUDGE Ins of U (university) in rev of EG (exempli gratia, for example, for one) DJ (disc jocket, personality in record department)
18 TROLL TROLLOP (prostitute) minus OP (opus, work) someone who makes a conscious attempt to provoke controversy or disagreement on the Internet.
19 ACID HOUSE ACID (biting) HOUSE (put up) for the youth movement originating in the 1980s, involving large gatherings of people to dance under bright flashing lights to loud repetitive music featuring complex percussion patterns, and often associated with the use of certain drugs, esp Ecstasy.
21 AT ALL COSTS Ins of CO (company, firm) in A TALL (high) ST (street) S (store minus tore, rent)
23 rha deliberately omitted
26 IN TOUCH dd
27 KEY-RING KEY (pitch as in piano tuning) RING (league)
28 LONGHORN Ins of N (northern) in LOG (part of raft) + HORN (Cape Horn in S.America) for a breed of cattle with long horns, of course, so aptly named
29 PHUKET *(picK UP THE) for an island resort off the south-west coast of Thailand.
DOWN
1 PABLO PA (personal assistant, secretary) BL (rev of lb, symbol for pound, weight) O (round) for a Spanish name of which the most famous holder must be the artist, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
2 QUASIMODO QUASH (crush, scotch) minus H + IMO (in my opinion) + DO (perform). Quasimodo is the titular character in Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame
3 EELS Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flowergirl in My Fair Lady would say ‘eels for heels and we also know that the aquatic creature, eel is a very slippery customer. My COD for making me laugh 
5 ANNETTE Ins of NET (after tax) in ANTE (money gambled)
6 LITTLE JOHN *(THE JOINT Left) for the biggest man in Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest
7 WIDEN Thanks to ulaca, the erudite one WI (Women’s Institutea) + DEN, possible hotbed for the making of jam. I find this such a stretch that I will call it an unfair clue.
8 SAY CHEESE A delightful cd which got me laughing aloud
9 BELUGA Ins of LUG (hump, to carry something heavy) in BEAM (light) minus M
14 BELLY LAUGH *(British ALL HUGELY)
15 WITH A WILL Ins of A W (wife) in WIT (comedian) & HILL (fell)
17 DRUMSTICK Thanks to ulaca, DRUMS (the percussion section of an orchestra is called kitchen) + TICK (second)
19 ANOTHER Another clue that took me a long while to fully grasp. A (ace) + NOT HER but HIS
20 INTAKE I (one) N (new) TAKE (perspective as in “What’s your take on the reelection of Obama?”)
22 ANTON WANTON (abandoned as in wild sex) for Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. 
24 TIGHT dd someone who is tight (strapped for cash) is unlikely to be too choosey
25 Last letters of fodder deliberately omitted
++++++++++++++
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(FODDER) = anagram

36 comments on “Times 25321 – Excruciatingly Challenging”

  1. 46 minutes after a very slow start but things improved along the way. 1ac derivatives have turned up twice in the past week and 18ac once before. Particularly enjoyed the vowel-less answer. Quite a lively puzzle with some nice touches of humour.

    Edited at 2012-11-15 01:52 am (UTC)

  2. WI (Women’s Institute) + DEN – a tongue in cheek rendering of ‘possible hotbed for the making of jam’

    DRUM’S (‘from the kitchen’) + TICK (‘second’)

    Edited at 2012-11-15 04:05 am (UTC)

  3. I found this rather torturous and therefore am tempted to find some of the wordplay (eg 15dn and 16ac) rather tortuous, especially the Yoda-speak in the former(‘touring a wife [is] fell’). Wasted time on LONGHORN, where I tried to fit NC in and was working around ‘lynchpin’, ‘lunch’-anything and one or two invented words such as ‘lanchard’. To show how bamboozled I was rendered by the setter, my last in was NOTEDLY, where I missed the anagram staring me in the face as I struggled to justify ‘notably’.
  4. Uncle, you have a typo after DJ in 16ac.

    I think “get cracking” at 8dn refers to the expression “to crack a smile”, the result of saying “cheese”.

    Further to ulaca’s explanation of 7dn, I might not have been aware of the jam-making reference but for the recent-ish TV sitcom about the WI called “Jam and Jerusalem”.

    Edited at 2012-11-15 05:24 am (UTC)

  5. 27m. As already noted, some quite tortuous and devious wordplay in this, and I suspect it won’t be to everyone’s taste. I enjoyed it immensely.
    I had a couple of queries:
    > is the definition in 24dn “unlikely to be choosing the present”, on the basis that a miser wouldn’t buy a present?
    > I was confused by “kitchen” for “drums”. Thanks to ulaca for putting me on the right track. On reflection I think the whole thing is perhaps best read as “a second from the kitchen” for “a drums tick”. Not sure.
  6. This setter usually ties me in knots but this was less of a struggle than I was expecting, in particular due to the lack of difficult vocabulary. As someone who never spots pangrams unless they’re mentioned in the blog, I thought I was on to something when the Q turned up in 1A and then the J in 6D, but it was a false dawn for that idea …
  7. 36 fabulous minutes waiting for each clue to blossom into its unlikely and (usually) entertaining conclusion. WIDEN provoked an extended BELLY LAUGH once light dawned. Cluing aNOTHER with “his” was breathtaking.
    Not for novices this, except perhaps as a rationale for why we do these things accompanied by lots of patient explaining.
    Hold-ups too many to mention, but for illustration, “places for filling in” suggested PROFORMAS so strongly, with part of a…comprehensive at least hinting at the form bit, that it messed up my right half substantially. Getting the right answer was both a relief and a revelation of yet another canny clue.
    PHUCKET might be regarded as an obscurity, were it not that it’s one of those places on the planet that surely forms part of the test for novice BBC announcers.
    Fine dining, even down to the early deception that this might be another pangram. I was trying for ages to make “tax breaks” in 5d produce the X.
    1. I only knew it because of the tsunami. The novice BBC announcer is a nice thought.
      31 minutes and I spent quite a few of those trying to justify alms house. Great blog – many thanks. Did anyone else have trouble getting livejournal this morning? Only just now was I able to access it (in Yoda-speak).
      1. Yes, it was very slow for ages, then packed up completely for a while but currently seems to be behaving itself.

        Edited at 2012-11-15 06:05 pm (UTC)

  8. PS Well done on the blog Uncle Yap – perhaps just to mention the “at the double” provides the second L for the angrist at 6d. I’m with the others on the miser interpretation of 24d.
  9. …a question on a quiz show about “the kitchen” being the nickname for the percussion section, I might have been further waylaid. 16.50 and much pleasure.
  10. 20 minutes… Widen and anton in from wordplay alone. Puzzle of two halves for me really loved the clues for belly laugh, wholesale and acid house but not so much happy with that top right corner. Got there in the end though
  11. A very pleasing finish in just under the hour today – a tribute to the benefits of this blog as I know I would not have finished this a year ago. So thanks to all contributors and especially today’s blogger. My LOI was NOTEDLY – like others a real DOH moment when I spotted the b….g obvious anagram! My COD to 19d as others have said for the clever definition of ‘his’. Thanks to the setter for creating pleasure without obscurity.
  12. A really good puzzle I thought, difficult without being tortuous, humerous, some splendid definitions and tricky but fair wordplays. 25 entertaining minutes.

    I love the PHUKET and BBC analogy. I recall the river NIGER once getting somebody into hot water on the BBC (Jack de Manio?)

  13. DNF with Widen, Say Cheese and Out To Lunch missing in the NE corner. Found this puzzle difficult. Very well blogged UY – an excellent read.
  14. And not to overlook ITV, how can we forget Trevor McDonald creating an unfortunate spoonerism from “the Kent countryside”
  15. Off the wavelength today, gave up after 40 minutes with most of SE corner undone. Well blogged so now am wiser if not happier.
  16. This was very tricky and took 45 minutes, ending with the pairs at KEY RING/TIGHT and WIDEN/NOTEDLY. I couldn’t see why a WI DEN was a hotbed for making jam, so thanks to all for that. There is too much here today that is very, very good to pick out any single COD. Normally I’d nominate BELLY LAUGH, ANOTHER, SAY CHEESE, OUT TO LUNCH, MYTH, OMIT, EELS, etc., but here they are all in the one puzzle. Thank you setter, and Uncle Yap as well. I still don’t get the sports stadium reference in IN TOUCH, so if anyone wishes to enlighten me, thanks in advance. Regards to all.
    1. Hi, Kevin. As this site’s sporting go-to person (if you want to go to someone and get a dodgy answer, that is) I assert that in rugby, among other sports, all that is beyond the side of the playing area is deemed ‘touch’. When someone runs just over the side line they are said to have ‘put a foot in touch’, although in touch with what, other than the ground, I have no idea. One can also kick the ball (and, metaphorically, anything else you like – a colleague’s lousy idea, say) into touch. Is that helpful?
  17. Sitting pretty after only having two left to answer yesterday I only managed to answer one (yes, that is ONE) clue today. Back to crossword school buddy-boy!
  18. How can “net” possibly mean after tax? This implies “gross” is before tax which is clearly a nonsense. Stretched definitions were one thing today but clueing a word by defining its complete antithesis should be beyond the pale even by this setter’s standards. What a difference a day makes after yesterday’s delightful offering.

    SJD

    1. COED has “Net adj. (of an amount, value or price) remaining after the deduction of tax or other contributions. Often contrasted with gross”
      Collins and Chambers have similar.
  19. This was a struggle and I needed copious aids to get it finished. I was limited in time this morning and had to abandon it after 28 minutes with the LH side done and a random scattering of answers elsewhere. Have just come back to it to try and get it finished. Reckon it was about an hour in all and forever if I’d had to understand all the wordplay. In retrospect very enjoyable though frustrating. I liked the humour in some of the definitions (after I, or TftT, had worked them out!) Laughs for WIDEN, SAY CHEESE, BRAILLE, OUT TO LUNCH and TROLL. Altogether a jolly offering. I just wish I’d been more on the wavelength. Ann
  20. Cracker of a puzzle as all have said. Thanks to Ulaca for explaining the wordplay of WIDEN. Once all the checkers were in place it was the only possible answer, but beyond “spread” being the def I couldn’t for the life of me see how the rest of it worked. I take slight issue with Uncle Yap at 19 ac where I read HOUSE as a synonym for “put up” and not “put up with”, the “with” simply indicating that HOUSE had to go alongside ACID to provide the solution.
  21. 17:05 for me – slowed by curiosity about a more-than-usually persistent yowling from our cat which turned out to have been accidentally shut in the airing cupboard by my wife!

    A first-rate puzzle, full of ingenious clues. Like ulaca I wasted time trying to fit NC into the answer to 28ac. I suspect “the kitchen” = DRUMS in 17dn, and that “From” is simply padding (but entirely acceptable padding).

    1. This is what I thought at first, but it confused me because this would be a bit like using “orchestra” to define “violin”. But a drums tick (or perhaps drum’s tick, or indeed drums’ tick) would undoubtedly be a second from the kitchen, just as a violin’s tick would be a second from the orchestra, so that’s how I preferred to read it. With a question mark to cover the fact that it’s all rather nonsensical!
  22. What a superb puzzle! It took me nearly two hours to complete (I stopped timing after a while) but I am pleased that I did complete it correctly. At the beginning, with a more or less empty grid, I kept dozing off until I discovered I had put in JOHN LITTLE rather than LITTLE JOHN, but then things picked up after a while. My LOI were JUDGE and DRUMSTICK but nothing else seemed to fit, even if I didn’t understand why they were right. Many wonderful and witty clues but my COD are ANOTHER, PSST, EELS and BRAILLE.

    One question to mohn2 or anyone else: how does one know who the setter was?

    1. I don’t think that there’s any way to know for definite who the setter is other than by asking the editor but, to me, the style of this puzzle and others of its ilk sticks out a mile, in terms of clue construction and choice of words. I also do the Indy and Graun regularly, where the setters aren’t anonymous, and there is overlap between those setting teams and the Times setting team, so I have a particular person in mind. However, trying to identify setters appears to be discouraged in the “About this blog” section above, so I’ll leave it at that.

      Of course, it’s entirely possible that I’m imagining this …

  23. I started this after midnight last night and gave up with it half done after 2am. I had another go with my tea and bacon sarnie this morning and managed to complete it. As everyone else seems to have found the cluing tortuous, I was rather pleased to find I had it all correct without aids. My LOI was BRAILLE as I had put PAULO for 1d and it took me a while to spot my error. The NE held me up for ages until I spotted DAY LEWIS, then it all came together. I thought NOTEDLY was a very well hidden anagram; it took me ages to spot despite looking for the fodder. As others have said, this excellent blog is an inspiration, and I wouldn’t have come close to finishing this puzzle without the tips I’ve picked up over the last 18 months, so thanks to Uncle Yap for today(well 2 days ago:-)) and the rest of you too. I only failed to correctly parse JUDGE and DRUMSTICK, the latter as I didn’t know the Orchestra reference, so thanks Ulaca for that one. I’ll start Friday’s puzzle now before I pop out for today’s paper. (It’s been a busy week) John
  24. Re DRUMSTICK, the idea was simply from “from DRUMS and TICK you get a piece of chicken” although you could equally well read it the other way – albeit it that a “drum’s tick” is rather a fanciful idea.

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