Times 25428 – Spotted Youngsters

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
What a delightful morning’s work-out. Cryptic clues with definitions that are cryptic in their own right. Nearly an hour with much time spent trying to unravel the wordplay as I know I have to explain the clues fully for this blog.
ACROSS
1 SWEEPS Ins of WEEP (blubber) in SS (ship)
5 SIDE ARMS Ins of ARM (member) in SIDES or ARM splitting SIDES (having apparent fit of giggles)
9 AIREDALE Cha of AI (A one, excellent) RED (ginger) ALE (beer)
10 UPTURN UP (with an advantage) TURN (go)
11 METATARSAL Ins of TATARS (fearsome invaders once) in MEAL (food) of that part of the foot, or its bones, between the tarsus and the toes
13 OTTO The Castle of OTRANTO by Horatio Walpole, (1717–1797) minus RAN (legged it). Thanks mctext@1 for the wordplay. A house name of many HRE from the 10th Century.
14 HAND H (hour) + AND (with)
15 PRIEST-HOLE *(HERE IS PLOT) a secret room providing a hiding-place for a Roman Catholic priest in time of persecution or repression.
18 ELECTORATE E (last letter of Burke or Hare) LECTOR (academic) ATE (worried) for the body that chooses. The allusion to the two names got me googling to get Burke and Hare who committed serial murders in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1827 and 1828
20 ha deliberately omitted. I hope you don’t mind
21 CAIN CAIRN (a variety of Scottish terrier, dog) minus R (runs in cricket scoring)
23 CHICKENPOX CHICKEN (yellow) PO (river) X (cross) with a most misleading and original def, youngsters spotted with it. My COD for making me laugh
25 MEDICI MED (Mediterranean Sea) ICI (here in French, as indicated by in Marseilles)
26 STALKING S (son) TALKING (giving interview)
28 STRANGLE Ins of L (line) in STRANGE (novel)
29 PARADE PAR (norm) + alternate letters in AnDrEw
DOWN
2 WHITEHALL WHITE (in continental Europe, anti-revolutionary, therefore conservative) + H (hard) ALL (each person) for the London street with government offices; the British government or its policy.
3 EMERALD Ins of ME (writer of this clue) in ERA (time) + L (left) D (symbol for the old penny before 1971 when the pee came in when Sterling went decimal) Beryls are precious stones occurring in hexagonal crystals, of which emerald and aquamarine are varieties
4 SPA S (first letter of sick) PA (father, old man) for a health resort with springs
5 STEPS Rev of S (small) PETS (animals we love)
6 DOUBLESPEAK Quite self-explanatory if you write it doubles the peak
7 ANTIOCH AN + TI (rev of IT, sex appeal) O (old) CH (Companion of Honour)
8 MERIT Rev of TIRE (tax) M (millions)
12 APPROACHING A P (piano) PRO (player) ACHING (with strong desire)
16 IDA IDEA (thought) minus E (energy) for Princess Ida, or, Castle Adamant, a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert.
17 LAND OF NOD *(OLD FAN) + NOD (lapse in concentration) Reference to Genesis 4:16 And Cain (answer to 21Across) went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
19 CANTINA CANT (insincere talk) IN (at home) A (answer) with concern (a business, in this case, a business house) for drinkers as def
20 MONIKER Rev of ins of E (English) + KIN (family) in ROM (gypsy) alias, nickname or real name aka handle
22 AGENT AGE (get on) + NT (New Testament, books) with vehicle as def
24 ISSUE IS (lives) SUE (girl or in Johnny Cash’s case, a boy 🙂
27 ASP WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, supposedly representing the most privileged class in US society) minus W (wife)

++++++++++++++
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
yfyap88 at gmail.com = in case anyone wants to contact me in private about some typo

42 comments on “Times 25428 – Spotted Youngsters”

  1. 45 minutes with a hiatus or two along the way.

    Didn’t know the Walpole reference but guessed the emperor correctly. Didn’t know white for conservative at 2dn. Enjoyed splitting sides.

  2. Best puzzle of the week so far with much post-solve parsing to be done: ELECTORATE and SIDE ARMS in particular. This grid must be a setter’s nightmare with 4 x 4-letters and 3 x 3-letters to fit in and clue. CHICKENPOX raised a bit of discussion at the breakfast table.
  3. No time, I got interrupted, but probably 40 mins or so. Lovely puzzle with some wonderfully disguised definitions. “after game” and “children spotted with it” for example. LOI was SIDE ARMS when the penny dropped (I thought it was going to be something ARMY but SODA ARMY and SIDE ARMY didn’t seem too likely)
  4. Top puzzle, 45 minutes. Had ‘mark’ for MIND before I saw the hidden and ‘dad’s army’ for a while, wondering how they might be killers along the lines of double-Os. ‘My name is Mannering, captain Mannering,’ does have a ring to it, though.
  5. Gave up on agent/Cain. They went in fine till then. Annoyed with myself. I shall acquaintance strangle and look strange, as the bard said. Still able, faintly, to realise I enjoyed some of the twists and turns till then.
  6. Hardest puzzle for quite a while made more difficult by coming after a longish run of relatively easy ones so that one struggles a bit to up ones game.

    I don’t think there’s a poor clue here and some are real gems – particularly the quirky definitions. Well blogged UY and thank you setter

  7. Thought this was slightly tougher than yesterday’s. Was unsure that a cairn was a dog but 17D confirmed that CAIN was right. Was confident that OTTO fitted the definition of 13A but I didn’t recognise the Walpole reference and, even with assuming that “legged it” was ran, I couldn’t see a likely-looking word combining OTTO and ran. Submitted with fingers crossed.
  8. Excellent workout, 24 minutes, without getting the Walpole reference. Quite a few in the “guess the answer, work out the cryptic later” category: ANTIOCH (even though the cryptic turned out pretty straightforward) and SIDE ARMS (easily my CoD) as examples.
    In my family, the “Land of Nod” was synonymous with going to bed. Perhaps, if Philip Pullman is listened to (Times, Monday) such allusions will not quite disappear from public vocabulary.
    I appreciated 12, with its use of “player” for “PROfessional” conjuring an image of the bygone days of gentlemen amateurs in sport.

  9. Yippee! All right for once. Liked this puzzle a lot, and was confident that all were ok. This must be because the cryptics all seemed to be very clear (once the penny had dropped). Tried to fit acne into 23 ac for some while (would have thought CHICKENPOX was two words). Didn’t know the Walpole ref, but assumed the castle thing could have been ‘ottoran’.
    FOI: SWEEPS; LOI: METATARSAL; COD: SIDE ARMS.

  10. 23:48 … but with the dreaded typo (I really do know how to spell METATARSAL, even though it seems like a while since a famous footballer ‘done one’).

    Brilliant puzzle. Misleading, sly, inventive and educative. What more could you want?

    COD: SIDE ARMS .. or CANTINA or PRIEST-HOLE or CHICKENPOX [on edit: or ELECTORATE, which I forgot to mention before … so many choices]

    Edited at 2013-03-21 03:50 pm (UTC)

  11. Came to a halt about 30 minutes in, with most of SW to do – had CAIN from 17, but 12 was recalcitrant. I was sure ‘player’ had to be PROP, as to setters the only game seems to be RU ;-), while at 23 ‘Yellow river’ suggested something with OR & R. (I did eventually finish, but well outside the hour.)
    Had my doubts about 5, as I think side-splitting is more like ROFL than just giggling.
  12. Another excellent puzzle that plays on lots of double meanings. I didn’t help myself by marking the bars for 17 wrongly, so rejected LAND OF NOD initially because it didn’t fit. Finally sorted out the problem, but the error took my time to over the hour.
    Like the previous solver, I also had PROP for player in 12, causing another delay until I had a re-think.
  13. A really excellent puzzle with many superb clues.

    This one took me about 50 minutes, but there was quite a lot to savour, as others also seem to think. Perhaps the many misleading definitions were ultimately responsible for this, as the cryptics were all beyond reproach.

    The brilliant ELECTORATE is my CoD with all its body-snatching reference.

    Thanks Uncle Yap, and to a fine setter.

  14. ANTIOCH – “upheld” – is that a reversal indicator and insertion indicator in a single word?
    1. Sort of, in that “up” indicates reversal and “held” indicates insertion and “upheld” happens to be a single word. But it could also have worked using the two words “held up” perhaps not quite so neatly in my opinion.
      1. It also works:
        Appeal upheld (TI) by an = ANTI
        (pause)
        old companion – OCH
  15. Didn’t have time to do yesterday’s puzzle, but thoroughly enjoyed this one which took 12 minutes. Might be one of those where it helps if you do all the cryptics as CAIN is in one of them today, and Walpole’s castle was somewhere else the other day.
  16. 19:01. That’s two top class puzzles in consecutive days.

    Antioch only known from the eponymous holy hand grenade in Monty Python and the Holy Grail so a youth wasted watching the Pythons is good for more than just learning names of philosophers.

    I mis-parsed 8 thinking there must be a type of ancient tax called an ermit or emrit with the M raised to the start of the word.

    Ref 20d I once worked with someone who, when he wanted me to sign something, would ask me to put my monocle on it.

    I think I’ll give COD to Medici but it’s hard to choose from such a good bunch.

  17. I surprised myself today. For the last week or so I’ve found the puzzles to be pretty easy, either finishing them or having one or two crosses left that this blog could help me finish.

    Today’s puzzle seemed much harder, and indeed when I had done all I could I had empty squares all over the grid! But I gave one final push and started guessing all over, throwing in several answers that seemed to be right, even though I couldn’t understand the wordplay. Before I knew it, the puzzle was complete.

    I came here to check my errors and, somewhat unbelievably, I didn’t have any! This is probably one of my most satisfying solves, with no aids. Time probably under an hour?

    Maybe I’m just getting better at these things?! Many thanks to the blogger for explaining all the clues that vexed this poor US solver!

  18. I assume that 20a must be obvious as it is not explained. I can see “mind” for watch but how is “d” disorderly house?
    Or is the answer something completely different?
    I know this has been raised before but what is the point of omitting answers?
    This is not the first time that I have failed to understand one of the answers and have come here only to find (annoyingly) that it has been chosen to be omitted.
    1. It’s hidden (mada)M IN D(isorderly) and “house” is the containment indicator

      Personally I see no point in omitting these answers and do not do so in my blogs

    2. Dear Anon,

      If you click on the “about this blog” link at the top of the page there’s a bit about why some bloggers omit certain clues/answers from their blogs.

      Regarding the specific clue the “ha” in yfyap’s explanation at 20a is his own shorthand for “hidden answer” although I guess it could be confused for just “ha!”

      I have to confess that I’m not a fan of yfyap’s abbreviations but others seem to like them.

      1. Surely the abbreviations are not there to be liked or disliked but to serve as a guide to my blog. There are only so many common cryptic devices; so abbreviation of these devices save me time while I struggle to solve, research and get the blog out in a timely manner.
        1. Your hard work and dedication is much appreciated but you’ll have to forgive me for having an opinion on your presentational style.
  19. Had to do this in two short sessions but enjoyed it a lot – last in was the CAIN/CANTINA crossing (alliteration!). Didn’t see the wordplay for SIDE ARMS or OTTO, really liked the clues for CHICKEN POX, the craftily hidden word at 20 across, and an all-time classic surface for MEDICI.
  20. 28/31 today with Otto, Issue and Stalking missing. Should have got the latter but the other two were difficult. I didn’t have the GK for Otto.

    What is the meaning of “upstairs” in the Issue clue? I can’t understand the wordplay for that one.

    Thought Medici was an excellent clue – the pick of the bunch.

  21. 25m for a tricky and excellent puzzle. I slowed myself down no end by putting PROFIT in at 10ac. It works perfectly, apart from being wrong. Eventually I saw that 7dn had to be ANTIOCH and thought again.
    I didn’t remember the Walpole reference, although I’m sure it’s come up before. And I didn’t know where CAIN went on his holidays.
    I can see the concept but I don’t think the wordplay for 5ac quite works. I’m probably missing something.
  22. 29′, could have been 4′ quicker if I’d been able to convince myself of AGENT; thanks UY for the explication (also for explaining 3d). I generally dislike cross-referencing clues like 17d, but this one convinced me that CAIN was right. Lots of wonderful clues, especially the acrosses, but I think my COD would be 5ac or 23ac.
  23. About 45 minutes for this very clever puzzle, ending with the CAIN/AGENT crossing. Cain was a killer indeed, but my biblical knowledge is lacking because I only connect the LAND OF NOD with sleep, so that clue was somewhat tough. The CAI(R)N wordplay finally came to light, but only due to the very dimly remembered dog. The AGENT clue is my only quibble, as ‘agent=vehicle’ works, yes, but seems a long stretch to me. Otherwise, as everyone seems to be saying, an excellent puzzle with very clever and well disguised definitions. I’ll join the group nominating MEDICI for COD due to its travel brochure silky smooth surface. Thanks to the setter and Uncle Yap for the blog. Regards.
  24. I agree with the general verdict – a top-notch puzzle. By far the hardest for quite a while. All the good clues have already been amply praised. Well done setter – and blogger.
  25. Hi Martin

    The wordplay features three elements, madam, in, and disorderly. This is not to say that these couldn’t be considered as a single entity either, but while your reading is available, so is one in which plural usage for the three parts is deployed. Therefore, ‘house’ ought to be all right.

    Cheers
    Paul.

  26. 11:18 for me. Very much my sort of puzzle, and if I wasn’t in the middle of a bad patch, I think I might have posted quite a decent time. As it was I spent ages working out the wordplay for SIDE ARMS and ELECTORATE, even though I was almost certain there were no other possible solutions. My compliments to the setter.
  27. Over an hour here but eventually all correct. Indicative of my relative inexperience as a solver I actually found quite a lot of this irritating rather than enjoyable. I appreciate that regular and longstanding solvers seem always to approve of puzzles which take them longer to solve but at my standard it’s just a bit of slog. I wonder for example where else ROM equals gypsy. Many thanks for blog – I also appreciate the style and the clarity though I hadn’t twigged the HA reference until now!
    1. Some gypsies refer to their ethnicity as Rom, so I think it’s fine along with Romani and Roma.

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