Times 25374 – we could be in for a long night

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : Well 18:40 on the club timer, but it says I have one wrong. I don’t doubt that, there are two complete guesses here and one that I am not totally sure on the spelling for (or the wordplay for, for that matter). Might need the combined wisdom of the commenteers to help sort this all out, as me and my flu are still pretty well stuck.

I did notice pretty early on that there was a chance for a pangram, and thought that might help me with the last few – it certainly helped to realize an earlier answer for 19 down (NERVOUS) was incorrect, and confidently put in 15 across, but once the Q and X were in place, that was the alphabet in with five or six answers left to place.

When I signed up for this, we only said we had to be able to solve it most of the time, right?

Good news – spotted the slip in writing up the blog, it was one of the ones I guessed, but now I see what it should be. Away we go….

Across
1 NIGHT OWL: NIGH TO then W(al)L
5 MOO-COW: O(old),CO(company) in MOW(cut) – nice clue!
9 DUN: double definition, horse and to nag
10 WINDJAMMERS: remember “craft” can be plural for boats, and the musicians would be WIND JAMMERS
12 SEE THROUGH: sounds like SEA THREW. I guessed at this one, but just looked it up in two dictionaries – “rumble” here meaning to find out about or see through as a transitive verb
13 THUS: even pairs of letters in baTHhoUSes
15 MAQUIS: MA, QUI(p)S
16 EVOLVED: LOVE(nothing) reversed, then V(1)ED
18 LEAVE GO: (Yuletid)E stored in LAV(convenience), EGO(I)
20 YEA,STY
23 MAXI: MAXIM with the second M missing
24 UP FOR GRABS: UP(happy) FOR(because), then RA in G.B.’S
26 our across omission, if you want us to ____ it, ____ us in commends
27 EVA: At least I think so – ‘AVE reversed?
28 DUSTIN(g)
29 E,YES,LEFT
 
Down
1 NUDISM: DIS(criticise) in NUM(numbers)
2 GUNNERA: aaaah… here’s my error – I had GUNAERA. It’s GUN, N(number), ERA (the letters that would be followed by FSB)
3 TOWN HOUSES: (HOW,NOT)*, then USES
4 WINDOW SHOPPED: wonderful clue! WIDOWS(women left), HOPPED(with a bitter taste) with an N (end of TOWN) inside
6 our down omission
7 CHEKHOV: shorten both CHEKA(secret police) and HOVE(rose at sea)
8 WEST SIDE: hidden reversed in orthopaEDIST SEWs
11 JIGGERY-POKERY: 20 is YEASTY, so take the EAST out of YEASTY and replace it with POKER. Then put the dancer (JIGGER) on the top. Clever, but I put it in from the definition alone originally.
14 LOS ANGELES: take the wings off of PLAY and you get LA
17 GLIMPSED: (G.P.,SMILED)*
19 ANXIOUS: XI(the Lord’s chosen cricket team) in A,NOUS
21 TRAPEZE: TRAP(gin) then sounds like E’s
22 ASLAN,T
25 WAD(bundle of notes),1: got this from wordplay, it’s a dry bed, so it’s waiting for rain

49 comments on “Times 25374 – we could be in for a long night”

  1. 24:54 .. some great stuff in here. A few minutes head scratching at the end for me over MAQUIS before the old rule about ‘space before U, think Q’ kicked in. Never did spot the pangram, but then I never do.

    Lovely puzzle, WINDJAMMERS my favourite.

  2. 45 minutes with the last 15 or so spent puzzling three in the NW corner. Spotting the pangram and the missing Q got me to 15ac eventually.

    Several unknowns included DUN meaning to nag, CHEKA, GUNNERA and SHOW AND TELL which I gather is an Americanism. Dredged up WADI from somewhere. I had the same as you for 27ac.

    Edited at 2013-01-17 02:15 am (UTC)

    1. Forgot to say that I failed to explain the ‘XI’ in 19dn, thinking ‘the Lord’s chosen number’ ought to be ‘XII’ as in the number of apostles. Who’d have expected a reference to cricket in a Times crossword puzzle?

      Edited at 2013-01-17 07:24 am (UTC)

  3. 56 minutes with, like Jack, the last to fall being 2, 12 and 15 with a little help with the second part of the plant (FSB had me flummoxed). MAQUIS just shades it for me ahead of SEE THROUGH (‘rumble’ is a fine word). Didn’t know you could spell DIS with just one ‘s’. Of course, one only would (if he spelt it at all), spell it that way in the non-inflected form. I spotted the pangram but the reverse hidden eluded me. Nothing new there…

    Edited at 2013-01-17 02:54 am (UTC)

  4. But it felt a lot longer (and I did take a break mid-solve). Having missed yesterday’s pangram, I was on the look out this time. (As my Dad used to say: “Like the Americans, late for two world wars and determined to be in early for the next”.)

    This is a corker, isn’t it? Just about got all the parsings except for 11dn — though it did have to include POKER, eh? Hops and yeast = my kind of puzzle.

    Surprised Ulaca didn’t mention 22dn: his fave writer getting a mention.

  5. Something like 35′; I gave up after a half-hour with 15ac, 18ac, 28ac, & 25d unsolved and looking hopeless, came back after lunch and got them, except that I forgot to type in LEAVE GO, which was a desperation-based choice anyway. So a DNF. But wottthehell, great clues as has been said above. My COD to MAQUIS, with MAXI and WADI close behind
  6. Ach, same experience as George, 13:49 but with an error. No surprise to find when I came here that it was the plant, my perennial (ha ha) weak spot. I went with GUNDERA, which I was sure I’d heard of somewhere, but which it appears I made up. Ah well, apart from that, I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle; presumably the tasting notes would say “strong hints of beer and cricket”, which usually suits me.
  7. 31m, but with the same error as George: GUNAERA.
    Unlike most people I didn’t enjoy this much at all: time after time the answer went in from definition, and most of the (admittedly very clever) wordplay passed me by altogether.

    Edited at 2013-01-17 09:18 am (UTC)

  8. Excellent puzzle – 25 minutes of real entertainment

    Didn’t know what SHOW AND TELL was but the anagram + t=temperature was easy enough. Can’t see why the plant is giving so much trouble, word play is very specific – weapon + a number of=n + ERA. Read “Lord’s” as cricket immediately – never even considered the possible religious connotation

    Some really excellent clues such as NUDISM with the first class misdirection of “opening book of OT” with “Eden” really leading one up the garden path so to speak

    1. Interesting that you didn’t know what SHOW AND TELL was. I’m pretty sure it’s an American concept, now ubiquitous in the UK: a sort of pedagogical Hallowe’en. But I can’t for the life of me remember if we did something like this at school when I was a kid, and if we did, what we called it.
      1. I looked it up on Wiki and discovered that it involves a youngster bringing an object to school, standing before the class, and talking about the object. It sounds a very interesting developmental concept.

        When I was school children were “seen but not heard” other than when standing up and chanting the “n” times table in unison etc. Trips to the front of the class were for the administration of punishments. It would appear that things have evolved somewhat for the better!

  10. Loved this crossword – great wordplay (some really novel), the clues read beautifully and a pangram to boot. What more can one ask to warm the soul on a chilly winters morning.

    Many thanks to the setter and of course to the blogger who cleared up a couple of my “It must be right, but I can’t see why”s.

    Ready for the snow now!!!

  11. 25 minutes,with the first two down clues and DUN last in. GUNNERA one of the several hundred thousand plants I have no idea about, and while I agree with Jim (nearly) that the cryptic spells it out, GATAERA was a possibility until DUN dropped in,and there was clearly a choice between A and N in the middle, depending on whether you put “number” with “of characters” or with “a” to denote the generic. Unless you know the plant,either is credible, so toss a coin – mine came down heads.
    Great stuff here – NUMBERS is close to a legendary clue (and my CoD anyway), with so much misdirection going on. Perhaps the tiniest quibble – dis is short for disrespect,and it’s a bit of a jump to criticise – I can certainly manage to do one without the other.
    SHOW AND TELL from Peanuts and, more recently, Simpsons, though I think my children and grandchildren have been required so to present.
    GLIMPSED conjured up a nightmarish picture, don’t you think?
    JIGGERY_POKERY was a brilliant use of another answer – it took a while to realise where the two Ys came from.
    Another query. Why “historically” in WINDJAMMERS? My Chambers is not THAT old. Otherwise another fine clue.
    Don’r recall seeing “even couples” before, tricky when I couldn’t initially spell CHEKHOV.
    1. Whilst I can see an argument for it being padding I took it to be a reference to the fact that windjammers – steel hulled cargo boats – have been completely replaced by container ships whereas pure sailing ships are still in use. Can’t say it affected solving the clue.
      1. I would agree wholly except that there are many windjammers still sailing – and even plans to create fleets of modernised versions in the light of high fuel costs. It’s in any case such a fabulous word, it would be a shame to consign it to the ever-expanding list of redundancies that are only of interest to us crossworders. For sure, it didn’t particularly affect the clue. In a Mephisto, though, it might have made me search my Chambers(if desperate) using the word obs, which wouldn’t have found it.
  12. 45 minutes for this excellent puzzle. It was a real brainteaser, which I despaired of even starting till I found THUS; from then on it was a steady solve. An ideal mid-week crossword, I thought: sort of puzzle that brings a real sense of achievement when the last answer goes in.
  13. Sounds like we attended similar schools, Jim. Our village schoolmaster had taught our parents and grandparents and always had a bottle of Lucozade and a packet of Woodbines on his desk. He occasionally brought in an object to show us, for example a World War 1 gas mask, but he was the one who did the talking!
    1. Mine was Inner London (Balham and Brixton) John and I recall the teachers smoking but not the Lucozade. I do recall small bottles of milk that we all had to drink (teachers included). Even when I arrived at Battersea Grammar it was still all “chalk and talk” with the emphasis on punishment rather than reward, but they at least had a debating society and a dramatics club that put on school plays – I was Mistress Quickly for my first appearance (but I try to keep that quiet).
  14. Throughly enjoyable but with incomplete grasp of the parsing, so particular thanks for the excellent blog, George.

    SHOW AND TELL often not a benign practice (isn’t it always the case with children?).

      1. Children can (attempt to) use SHOW AND TELL as a means of self-promotion or congratulation (often implicitly denigrating others) etc depending on what it is they choose to ‘show’ (e.g. latest bit of electronic kit or whatever).
  15. Top-notch puzzle that was a tough but enjoyable work-out. About 60 mins for me. WINDJAMMERS, SEE THROUGH, MAQUIS and WINDOW-SHOPPED stood out among much excellent wordplay. GUNNERA went in from the literal and the assumption that the first three letters were likely to be GUN, but I remain mystified by the FSB reference. Can someone put me out of my misery? Apologies if I’ve missed an explanation by earlier commentators.
    2. I was bemused by FSB too – wondering what on earth “era” and the internal counterintelligence agency of the Russian Federation had in common!!
      1. Trying to work out the Russian connection had me cudgelling my brains too! Even more puzzling was the discovery that FSB can also stand for “Front Side Bus” – whatever the hell that is!
        1. While solving, I thought it was the Financial Services Board, not apparently known (even in what turns out to be its South African home) for its violent espionage activities. Oh well.
        2. Sorry about the typo – I was hurrying to go out and buy a snowplough for my golf cart

          FSB also means Federation of Small Businesses!

          Edited at 2013-01-17 02:07 pm (UTC)

  16. All correct bar one. Had a daft guess at Nanuns for Maquis (Nan = old lady + (p)uns). Trying this week’s Mephisto has shown me that unlikely looking words can sometimes be right… but not this time. The NW corner caused me much delay. I don’t remember a day where I didn’t understand the wordplay for so many clues (Nudism, Dun, Jiggery-Pokery, Los Angeles, Leave Go) so thanks George for clearing all those up.
  17. Pretty tough. Another one taking almost an hour to solve, and even then I couldn’t get WADI and DUN without dictionary help. The vowel in DUN could have been any vowel as far as I was concerned, not being familiar with either definition. It took me a while to break out of the NE corner. I was another who didn’t understand FSB, but I was fairly confident of GUNNERA. which I knew, not knowing any plant that fitted GAT_E_A

    Very innovative clues. Difficult to pick a COD out of so many good ones.

  18. Showing my ignorance here I thought that a pangram had to have the grid answers starting with the 26 letters of the alphabet or does all 26 just have to be anywhere in the grid?
  19. I don’t know if Mark “Magoo” Goodliffe is reading this, but today I sat down to do the Times Crossword puzzle and (I’m embarrassed to say) only realised it was my own handiwork after solving quite a lot of the clues. I decided, as a matter of interest, to press on and finish and see how long it might take. When I checked the times on the Times Crossword Club website, ignoring the cheats, I discovered that Mark’s time was only 30 seconds or so slower than mine. Not that I should be surprised, having also noted his time of sub-5 minutes for Monday, which was truly staggering.

    Ref Jimbo’s comment, the double-significance of FSB is something I’ve found quite amusing!

  20. Brilliant puzzle, and not just because the setter just popped in. Thanks you very much. About an hour, during which I was quite puzzled but eventually saw the light for all, if not all the wordplay. LOI MAQUIS, very nice. No time for more comment so just best regards to all, setter included.
  21. 26 minutes here which I was quite pleased with. I think the Lord’s chosen number is a simply inspired part-definition, between heaven and earth. Congratulations setter, not only for retaining enough of your prior knowledge to stay ahead of the awesome one, but for a delightful offering overall.

    Edited at 2013-01-17 06:41 pm (UTC)

    1. Something seems to have gone wrong with LJ’s dates. You’re pointing at No 25,041 which was published on 24 December 2011, i.e. about 1 year and three weeks ago. (Just saying … 😉
    2. You had me thinking I was getting even more forgetful than usual, there, Jerry! In fact that puzzle was a year and three weeks ago, which I hope makes it a little more pardonable that we all seem to have forgotten ever seeing it before…
  24. 15:58 for me. I made horribly heavy weather of some simple clues, e.g. 11dn (JIGGERY-POKERY), where I parsed the clue correctly but the only five-letter card games I could think of were RUMMY (hopeless) and WHIST (not much better). Another damned senior moment. (Sigh!)

    On the whole I prefer simpler puzzles with shorter clues, but I have to admit that of its kind this was tour de force. If only I was 30 years younger.

  25. Just over the hour for me and I am pleased to say most enjoyable too. After 10 minutes I had one answer OPEN for 13a which was to my desperate mind entirely logical – the even letters in couples in but sadly just wrong. That I enjoyed this devious tester is a sign of progress; a year ago I would have given up. Special thanks to setter and blogger today – I didn’t get near to the LA part of play for example. 1d gets my COD but lots of others to enjoy.
  26. 52 min. Some very tricky wordplay here, but managed to get all except two – forgot to try to parse jiggery pokery after wwriting it in, and invented a new literary lion for my LOI, Incontinentia Askan. – needless to say never heard of Aslan. Askant doesn’t mean inclined, but a quick look-through missed the Kin checkov so I needed it for the pangram, I thought.

    Also didn’t know FSB were the successors to the Cheka, but didn’t need to. Had forgotten GUNNERA since last time and toyed briefly with GUNAERA, like Zabadak. Loved NUDISM, MAXI, SEE THROUGH, and LEAVE GO. Thought EVA was the one weak clue of the day.
    Rob

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