Times 25328

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 43:10

I found this fairly straightforward for the most part. I got held up for a while at the end on the last 4 (3/8/10/15), although that was possibly due to fatigue as much as anything. The painter and the lemur were both only vaguely familiar.

There’s not much of note here, although I did quite like 19 so I’ll give that my COD.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 BACK + PACK
5 C(HOP)UP – although I’m not sure what the word ‘appropriate’ adds to the clue.
9 GARb
10 STROPPINESS = PINES in SPORTS rev – although I’m not entirely sure about ‘parades’ for SPORTS.
12 NEWSCASTER = CASh in (WESTERN)* – ‘ready’ as in ready money
13 PAPAw – This could be a papaya, but cut would normally infer the removal of a single letter only
15 AYE-AYE (Madagascan lemur) = “I” + “EYE”
16 ECUADOR = DUCE rev + OR all about A
18 MELISSA = (SMILES)* + A
20 OP + POSE
23 ONUS – rev hidden
24 BLUE + PEN + Cutting Immoderate Lewdness
26 TEST MATCHES – dd – ‘strikers’ being the sort of matches that you use to strike a light
27 kItChEn
28 RA(VA)GE
29 P(RU + crowD)ENCE
Down
1 B(EG)INS
2 CAke + RAW + AY
3 POST-CHAISE = POST (station) + CHASE (rush) about I (one)
4 CORPS DE BALLET = S (society) + DEB (gel) + ALL (completely) all in COR (my!) + PET (favourite)
6 H + AIL
7 PREP + AID – homework was always known as prep at my school
8 PISSARRO = S in (PARIS)* + ROdin
11 PIECE + TO + GET + HER – ‘piece’ and ‘man’ are synonymous in chess
14 SUP + PRESS + ED
17 I + M + POSTER
19 LOUIS XV = IS + X (cross) all in LOUVRE (his palace) without the RE (‘about’ to leave)
21 SECTION = S (singular) + ECT (sort of therapy) + ON (available) after I (current) – a section can be a surgical procedure as in Caesarean Section
22 FLEE + CE – ‘Do’ is the definition
25 Smile + MUG

40 comments on “Times 25328”

  1. Much more my cup of tea than yesterday’s, with the tricky top half a contrast to the simple bottom, where I still managed a silly mistake, being unable to see past a nominal ‘counter’ and inventing ‘oppost’. Enjoyed all three French clues, ‘though I never realised the artist was spelt with double r and double s, and learned a new endangered primate. Admired the misdirection in PIECE TOGETHER, but my COD goes to the bolshie character. 44 minutes.

    ‘Appropriate ‘ is a reference to a ‘dice cup’.

  2. 33 minutes with STROPPINESS at 10ac and PIECE at 11dn taking me over the half hour. Only 19dn really stands out. I also wondered about “parade/sport” but they can both mean “display” so I think that covers it. Does 11ac bring back memories of the comedian Jimmy Wheeler to anyone?
  3. 18:21, with 11d and 10ac my LOIs. I finally remembered that ‘Bolshie’ had another meaning, and (post hoc) got sports/parades. I still don’t see PIECE TOGETHER=’marry’. 5ac brought back memories of playing liar’s dice in Oakland bars. AYE-AYE was a giveaway with the enumeration and definition, if you knew what an aye-aye is. There were some nice surfaces, albeit easy clues (1ac,9ac, the all too timely 28ac, 14d), but my COD goes to 19d.
    1. Join together as in ‘Marry cricket and baseball’. ‘Piece together’s’ a bit of a stretch with this sense, admittedly.

      Edited at 2012-11-23 04:39 am (UTC)

      1. That was what I meant; I’d probably feel a bit better about ‘piece together’ as the definition for ‘marry’ (not that much), but ‘marry’ as the definition struck me as a bit much. ‘Piece together cricket and baseball’?
        1. I rather think the setter was influenced by the excellent surface. According to Collins, the two words/phrases are linked by ‘fit’, so it may be another case of indirect definition.
  4. Good solid puzzle with some patches of difficult wordplay, e.g., 4dn. First blush temptation at 8dn was PIRANESI, just from looking at “in Paris” and guessing an artist was needed. And note how many clues there are with very smooth and tidy surfaces. Many of them could well appear in non-cruciverbal use.
  5. Is it IMPOSTER or IMPOSTOR? I thought it should be spelt -OR, but I went with -ER because it fitted the cryptic and I couldn’t parse -OR.

    I had the same answers as Dave’s blog but apparently I have one wrong, and that is the only answer which seems doubtful.

    Derek

  6. Incidentally my first two in were PAPA and AYE-AYE, and I wondered for a moment if this might be themed with repetitious or rhyming answers. There are so many such words in English that I have sometimes mused about the possibility of an entire crossword using them!

    D

  7. Not happy with pack = scout group, I was a cub in a pack then a scout in a troop or have things changed since then?
          1. I think Kevin means that the clue talks of ‘scouts’ not ‘cubs’. So, in response to the original query, scouts can meet in packs so long as they’re cub scouts.
            1. Yes, we were apparently at cross-purposes. I was referring back to anon’s examples rather than the clue itself and didn’t make that clear. The point I was trying to make still stands, but thanks for clarifying it.
    2. The current nomenclature is Beaver colony, Cub pack, Scout troop and Explorer unit. The whole lot taken together form a scout group so you may have a point.
  8. 21 minutes at leisurely pace, wishing in the end I’d put STROPPINESS in much earlier, because without writing it down I couldn’t see the wordplay – my CoD.
    The Aye Aye brought back long buried memories of a board game called Zoo Quest – the beast was what you had to collect from Madagascar, and was worth quite a lot of points. (What an astonishing thing thing memory is – I hadn’t thought of that in maybe 50 years, but it’s suddenly there in HD)
    I liked the seed cake clue, since the stuff was always made with caraway seed, which otherwise only fed budgies. Getting the seeds unstuck from your teeth was the fun part, and the late night taste sensation.
    Are BLUE PENCILS still in use?
    Best wishes to all from what has become a warm cocoon of nostalgia.
    1. Presumably the board game was an early spin-off from the BBC TV series, David Attenborough’s first starring role and which did indeed go to Madagascar to find (and capture!) aya-ayes.. I hadn’t realised they were doing spin-offs that long ago
      1. Certainly was. Someone’s selling one on ebay, but at 67 quid I don’t think even clear quill nostalgia is sufficiently persuasive!
    2. Back in the sixties as a child I had the Treasure Book of Animals, a spin-off from the Treasure comic, and the one thing I can remember from that was the aye-aye.
  9. Very easy one today, 15 minutes with no hold ups along the way and no stand out clues. A sort of old fashioned air to a lot of it.

    Interesting that Jack should remember Mr Wheeler and his violin. I haven’t thought of him in decades but the catch phrase was enough to stir the little grey cells.

  10. Straightforward but much more elegant and satisfying than yesterday.
    Re 1ac, dice are commonly shaken from a dice cup Dave.
  11. Didn’t find this as easy as others did. Was slightly confused by 24A, as the clue seemed equally valid without the last 5 words. 17D went in with the wordplay winning out over how I’d always thought the word was spelled. Not heard of a POST-CHAISE before but the wordplay was clear enough. Was familiar with the aye-aye from Gerald Durrell’s “The Aye-Aye and I”.
  12. No problems today, smoothly from L to R, ending with 11 dn, 20 minutes, some luscious clueing and as Jimbo says, an old fashioned feel to it. I especially liked Louis XV. Also thought Impostor ended OR but was prepared to enter ER on the wordplay.
  13. 15:40 on the club timer, with a few at the end trying to fit a man’s name into P_E_E. Phete? Peete? Piere?
    Another highly enjoyable puzzle.
  14. My iPod Chambers has “put together” as definition 4. When solving I had in mind marrying pieces of a jigsaw or pipework.
  15. …without whom I would surely have gone for EQUADOR.

    15 minutes with fleece holding me up at the end until I spotted the definition.

    2. I put EQUADOR, but rather uncharacteristically hesitated and checked the wordplay, so I too am indebted to il Duqe.
  16. In one of my textbooks on comparative dental anatomy the Aye-Aye is described as “a nocturnal animal of doubtful habits”
    1. Now I remember where I’ve met one before!

      Too funny. Thanks, anon.

      Edited at 2012-11-23 02:30 pm (UTC)

  17. No major hold-ups today. Made a fast start in the NW corner, getting Backpack and Begins at first glance.

    Liked Pre+paid = Prep+aid.

    Louis VX is topical for me. I’m in Paris next week for a few days’ holiday and the Louvre is on the itinerary.

    Almost fell into sotira’s trap by misspelling Ecuador as Equador but couldn’t justify the Q.

    Before solving 2 down I thought Caraway had two Rs not one. You learn something every day…

  18. I found this a puzzle rather more enjoyable than some of the damning-with-faint-praise comments above might have led me to expect. But it’s all a matter of personal taste and wavelength affinity, I guess. I thought POST-CHAISE, STROPPINESS, LOUIS XV and FLEECE were all very good. I visited Madagascar a couple of years ago, so AYE-AYE came quickly. I was among those surprised to find that Pissarro was spelt with two Ss and two Rs, but the wordplay removed any doubt on the matter.
  19. Very enjoyable – though not a fast solve for me. No real problems. 43 minutes. Sorry for brevity. Am off to local am dram for “The Sound of Music” which starts in 20 minutes. Pray for me! Ann
  20. 9:31 for me. Much more to my taste than yesterday’s: a nice mixture of the straightforward and the subtle. Thank you, setter.

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