Times 25435

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 1:10:48

As you can tell from my time, I found this an enormous struggle from start to finish. There was a lot of fiendish wordplay, quite a few unusual words, and some very well disguised definitions. Overall it was an excellent puzzle – tough but fair. I just wish I hadn’t had to blog it, particularly while I’m still on holiday in Portugal!

There were plenty of contenders for COD here – 13a, 7d (my LOI) and 15d were all very good, but 25a just takes it for me.

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

Across
1 PORTICOED = OR (men) + Training all in PI (religious) + COED (school)
6 BATCH = MATCH (pair up) with B replacing M
9 RAVES = RAVEN (jet as in black) with S replacing N
10 TRAFALGAR = RAG (old cloth) + LT (lieutenant) about AFAR (at a distance) all rev – Cape Trafalgar in SW Spain, the location of the famous Battle, of course.
11 DILEMMA = EMMA after LID rev
12 HOS(TAG)E
13 STRAIGHT AS A DIE = SIGHT (seeing sense) about ART (drawing) rev + A + SADIE (girl)
17 CONCRETE JUNGLE = (CONJECTURE GLEN)*
21 CHE + QUERy
23 EVACUEE = VAC in EU + completE nightmarE
25 THEME TUNE = THE MET (police force) + UNE (French one) – ‘Air show may start with’ was the well disguised definition.
26 OXEYE – rev hidden
27 HAlTED
28 FORTY-FIVE = (OVER FIFTY)* – For those under the age of 30, before CDs we had records made of vinyl, and singles used to spin at 45 rpm so were known as 45s.
Down
1 PAR(OD)IS + T
2 RIVAL = V in LAIR (Earth, as in a fox’s den) rev
3 INSOMNIAC = (CONMAN IS + I)*
4 mOUT(WAS)H
5 DRA(CH)MA – No (or Noh) being a form of Japanese drama that crops up quite regularly in these puzzles
6 BRASS – dd
7 TOG RATING = TO (not coming from) + GRATING (ventilation cover maybe) – The tog rating is the measure of how much insulation a duvet offers.
8 lusH + ARDEN
14 ROOSEVELT = (VOTE-LOSER)*
15 ADULATORY = A in ADULT / TORY using a shared T, two alternative meanings of ‘blue’
16 GENEVESE = GEE (My!) about SEVEN (cardinal) rev
18 EARMUFF = (FAME + FUR)*
19 EYEWEAR = Afternoon in YE rev + EWER
20 SCOTCH – dd
22 UP (produce bubbly?) + END (aim), ‘tip’ is the definition – someone will have to explain to me why ‘produce bubbly’ is UP. On edit: Produce may just be filler, meaning bubbly is UP, as in happy, which makes a certain amount of sense. Thanks to mctext.
24 UTERI = alternate letters of CULT REFRAIN

31 comments on “Times 25435”

  1. Well blogged, Dave. Guess I dodged another bullet there!

    A delightful puzzle on which I crept home just under the hour after taking nearly 5 minutes to find my first answer at 24dn. It was a very slow but steady solve but I never felt stuck once I had got started.

    25 and 28 were my favourites with 8dn and 10ac as my last ones in. My heart sank when I saw ?E?E?E?E at 16dn but eventually I worked out what it had to be. OUTWASH was either new to me or long-forgotten from Geography lessons.

    1. 8dn and 10ac were two of my first in (and almost my last, but persevere I did…)
  2. … to finish this one. But a great sense of achievement on completion. Had no idea about the two sets (BATCH & HARDEN) at 6ac and 8dn until I saw “foot in lusH”.

    “Produce bubbly” is, I agree, a bit of a puzzle still. Can see why “bubbly” is “up”, as in mood. So maybe “produce” is just one of those occasional padding-type linkwords that sometimes occur at the start of the clue? Otherwise, no idea at all, I’m afraid.

  3. Brilliant stuff, almost as going as the Good Friday offering 3 years ago. So many excellent clues. COD to the reverse hidden for frustrating me for the last 10-12 minutes of my 87. When will I learn?! One wrong, though, with ‘fold’ for school at 1ac making my grand entrance ‘portifold’. Talking of sheep, must hasten to the concert hall for the first of this weekend’s two Messiahs. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    I took ‘produce’ in 22 to mean exhibit, as in produce a rabbit from the hat.

  4. Found this tough, with PORTICOED (unlikely set of checkers), BATCH, and HARDEN taking about 10 minutes at the end. Didn’t see the parsing for the latter two, eventually explaining away BATCH as some strange charade of B(ishop) AT CH(urch).
  5. An excellent 30 minute work out – very much the opposite end of the spectrum from yesterday.

    I was helped by getting the two long across clues straight away. 13A from definition “honest” in 8/2/1/3 couldn’t be anything else. Then saw the anagram at 17A immediately.

    There are some excellent clues here such as 8D but my pick is 25A both for definition, word play and surface reading. Not sure how the younger folk will cope with 28A. Watch out for seventy eight as well!

    1. 33 1/3 is definitely trickier to clue. And is my memory playing tricks or didn’t they have some at 17 as well?
      1. 16 2/3 if I remember correctly. I never came across a disc to play at this speed but it was a setting even on bog-standard Dansettes in the early 1960s.

        And whilst we’re on curiosities, I have a couple of shellac recordings that are intended to play at 80!

        Edited at 2013-03-29 09:59 am (UTC)

      2. The following is from Wiki;

        Some recordings were pressed at 162⁄3 rpm. Prestige Records released jazz records in this format in the late 1950s, for example, Baritones and French Horns. Peter Goldmark, the man who developed the 331⁄3 rpm record, developed the Highway Hi-Fi 162⁄3 rpm record to be played in Chrysler automobiles, but poor performance of the system and weak implementation by Chrysler and Columbia led to the demise of the 162⁄3 rpm records. Subsequently, the 162⁄3 rpm speed was used for radio transcription discs or narrated publications for the blind and visually impaired, and were never widely commercially available, although it was common to see new turntable models with a 16 rpm speed setting produced as late as the 1970s.

        Can’t say I remember them!

        1. I dimly recall that the Private Eye discs given away with the magazine on occasion, used that speed
  6. 24 minutes so definitely harder than the past few days. Noting the J, X & V in the SE corner I decided it must be a pangram, and spent the rest of the time hunting for a Z that never came. 28ac a particularly fine clue.
  7. 34 minutes of muttering, tippex and lots of smiles. An excellent puzzle. My favourites include 25a and 28a but I could list more. With regard to 28a, I had recently to explain to a young setter what an EP was, as he called it a ‘single’ (which I suppose it is, but it isn’t!)
  8. Despite this being a DNF for me, I thought it a fantastic puzzle, so much more satisfying than some of the easier ones.

    A DNF by only a few letters: I had CHE, but not QUER, I had END, but not UP, and the only word I could fit in at 26ac was obese. So I didn’t!

    Funny how, though I know I’m very much on the slow side of the solvers on this forum, I found the top right to be much easier than the rest of the puzzle!

    Don’t think I’ve come across OUTWASH before, but, like most of the other clues, the cryptic was pretty unambiguous. Apart from ADULATORY which went in on def. I’ve come a cropper on the adult=blue bit before, alas.

    COD to FORTY FIVE, a most elegant clue!

  9. Top right did for me. Hit the old mind-jam after making slow but ocnsistent headway the rest of the circuit. An outstanding, crucifying puzzle.
  10. 33 minutes, one of those top notch puzzles which you always hope for on holidays and high days. Page 1 of the leaderboard showing that Magoo and Jason had both clocked well over 10 minutes gave due warning that this was going to be a proper challenge, and it didn’t disappoint. Like others, I spent a long time at the end working out the 6ac / 8dn corner; tough but fair.

    And well done, Dave; it seems that Friday bloggers do have to take one for the team occasionally, doesn’t it?

  11. Hardest but best of the week. It took me 45 minutes, but I gave up on 1. I just couldn’t see anything in the checked letters. I started slowly and the first solve was 17 – thank goodness for a long anagram that I could see quickly and got me going.

    Some first class clues throughout with lots of devious wordplay and clever definitions. I was also puzzled by “Produce” in 22, but mctext’s suggestion is probably right; I see it as an instruction to the solver to come up with two synonyms “to get” the answer.

  12. Great puzzle much enjoyed, finished all but 16 dn in 35 minutes, agonised over _E_E_E_E for a while before asking crosswordsolver for ideas, from which of course GENEVESE was the first. I was in Genoa recently so maybe I’d dismissed the obvious answer having GENOVESE in mind.
    Theme tune, brilliant.
  13. 19:57 … one error, but I’m going to claim my time on the grounds that I don’t think I’d have written SCOTHH with a pen.

    Excellent stuff – it’s all been said above. My compliments to the setter. And Obrigada, Dave. Go pop the top off a Sagres and put your feet up.

    Edited at 2013-03-29 12:46 pm (UTC)

  14. Cracking puzzle, Gromit, though it must have taken me over an hour on a day when I should be preparing for guests.

    Delighted in the definitions: “Air show may start with“, “unable to stand” and “set” which all cleverly put me off the scent. Then there was the double bluff: “socks” had to mean “hits” or even Bill Clinton’s cat, but not stockings, didn’t it?

    I wonder if the anagram of Roosevelt was ever used in his lifetime; can’t say I recall seeing it before today.

    Congratulations to the setter; I’ll get on with my preparation now, though I think I deserve a brandy first; Dave certainly does.

    Edited at 2013-03-29 01:17 pm (UTC)

  15. Excellent and tough puzzle which I was pleased to finish in a time roughly on a par with Dave’s. Mightily impressed by all those who completed in 30 mins or under. Lots of very clever wordplay, much of it already commented on. I particularly liked PORTICOED, DILEMMA, EVACUEE, THEME TUNE, INSOMNIAC and ADULATORY. I’d never heard of OUTWASH (at an rate in the sense used here) and TOG RATING, but was chuffed to get both via the wordplay alone – always satisfying. Agree with Mctext about UPEND. I got FORTY-FIVE from the anagram fodder, but completely missed the reference to pre-CD records. I took the clue to be an ironic reference to someone over the age of 50, and still unsettled and single, pretending to be only 45 in the hope of making themselves more attractive to members of the opposite sex!
  16. Just over the hour here at 63m so definitely a challenge but as others have said well worth the struggle with lots of excellent clues to enjoy. My COD to 25a but mention in despatches to 28a and 8d. Well done to the blogger and thanks to the setter for the entertainment!
  17. Needed time 67 mins and no distractions, and on any other day would have thrown in the towel and said ‘life’s too short’. Share other people’s admiration for the clueing except 6 across. Even with the bloggers excellent translation I am still unable to agree with ‘set up to pair with Bishop for Mass’ can be ‘Batch’. Where is the signpost that directs one to substitute the M for B?

    Enigma

  18. I found this a tough test, as befits a Bank Holiday. Five missing after an hour’s effort (Porticoed, Drachma, Harden, Oxeye and Genevese). Much to admire elsewhere. Thank you setter and well blogged Dave.
  19. 21:21. I’ve been laid up in bed with the flu for the last couple of days, so came to this with some trepidation. I started very slowly but seem to have found the wavelength. Fine puzzle, very tricky wordplay.
  20. Sorry to be so late, but I need to say this is a brilliant puzzle, which took me nearly an hour. Alas, I didn’t finish, forgetting to go back through the alphabet to fill in T?G RATING, but after reading Dave’s heroic blog, seeing TOG as what’s needed, I wouldn’t have recognised it anyway. Great stuff from the setter, as pointed out by others. Blogger as well. Regards and Happy Easter.
  21. A minute over the hour for me. A very challenging puzzle and one I was pleased and relieved to finish. Congratulations to setter and blogger. Ann
  22. I don’t know whether I have interpreted the clue correctly, but I have assumed that up simply refers to high spirits, and one may take ‘uppers’ (antidepressants) to produce such feelings.
  23. 16:54 for me. I made a horribly slow start with the acrosses, but then switched to the downs and plodded slowly but steadily through. An absolute delight from start to finish. I raise my hat to the setter.

    The OED includes “to improve, to ‘boost’ (colloq.)” among its definitions of “up”. However, I’m not sure whether that quite justifies “produce bubbly”, so I think mctext may be right about “produce” just being a filler.

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