Times 25,522 – Play It Again, Sam

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time 20 minutes

A pangram containing quite a mixture of characters and objects from a Cuban cocktail to a guided missile. On the easyish side of the spectrum I suspect but great fun to solve, even allowing for the short run of the groan-inducing clues.

Across
1 GOSSAMER – GO-(RE-MASS reversed); on=RE; wings used for a trip to the moon;
5 SQUINT – S(QUIN)T; Rembrandt no doubt;
9 LOVESICK – L(voices)*K; LK from L(a)K(e); Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca;
10 MOJITO – MO(J-IT)O; white rum, lime juice and mint;
12 MENAGE,A,TROIS – MEN-(got a rise)* surrounds A; Mr and Mrs Hamilton and the lodger, Mr Nelson;
15 ILIAD – ILIA-D; the ilium is a bone in the hip; Homer’s Trojan War epic;
16 GUSTATORY – GUST-A-TORY; Egon Ronay’s world;
18 CATAMARAN – C(A-TAMAR)AN; the Portsmouth-Ryde ferry;
19 THEFT – THE-FT;
20 UPRIGHT,PIANO – cryptic definition of Sam’s instrument; a piano has hammers and if it’s upright it hasn’t fallen over – aaagh!;
24 AMUSED – AM-USED; if “am” has been used perhaps “pm” is still available – geddit?;
25 SKITTISH – a SKIT is a sketch – groan – three in a row!;
26 EXOCET – TE(COX)E all reversed; Andy Murray’s groundstrokes;
27 STALWART – ST(law)*ART; more Andy Murray;
 
Down
1 GOLF – FLOG reversed; a game for the discerning;
2 SAVE – S-AVE; what Novak Djokovic does on match points;
3 AMSTERDAM – A-M(a)STER-DAM; lierally the dam on the river Amstel – home to world’s oldest stock exchange;
4 EXCHANGE,RATE – EX-(the carnage)*; slightly odd definition;
6 QUOIT – QU(O)IT; used extensively on cruise ships;
7 INIGO,JONES – IN-I-GO-J(oint)-ONES; influential English architect 1573-1652;
8 TROTSKYITE – T(ROT-SKY)IT-E(ggs); a Marxist rather than a Stalinist;
11 SEASON,TICKET – (OK in test case)*; what you get to the doctor’s surgery once you pass 65;
13 DISCOURAGE – DISCO-U(ncle)-RAGE;
14 VICTOR,HUGO – VICTOR-HUG-O; what Kim Sears gave Andy Murray; nothing=O; creator of Les Misérables,
17 ANTENATAL – ANTEN(n)A-TAL(k); Catherine’s condition;
21 GREBE – GRE(B)E(n); freshwater bird;
22 GIZA – sounds like “geezer” = bloke = slang for man;
23 CHAT – two meanings;

37 comments on “Times 25,522 – Play It Again, Sam”

  1. It’s been a while since I’ve ‘solved’ so many clues without understanding them until after I’d put them in; the checkers were somehow extra helpful today. LOI was EXOCET, which provoked an annoying tip-of-the-tongue reaction; all I could think of for the longest time was ‘avocet’, which at least is a word. AMUSED may be groanworthy, but I’ll give it my COD.
  2. Suffered a bit here with several of the clues; though spotting the MXYZPTLK early helped. The cd at 20ac is horrid. And the conceit at 24ac equally so.
  3. Good fun this over 22 minutes, though one of those which, after about half the time, you wonder if you are ever going to complete. Maybe it’s just getting on the setter’s wavelength, maybe it’s a house of cards thing where one falls and all collapse.
    LOI GOSSAMER, in which I was convinced sage green had to play a part and couldn’t fathom where the definition was.
    AMUSED amused, but CoD to DISCOURAGE amongst several that raised a smile.
  4. 48 minutes after a slow start – no hope of spotting the pangram, as usual, but managed to like all the ones that folks have expressed reservations about so far, so must be in a particularly contrary mood.

    SQUINT gets my COD for a wonderful word-picture of a definition, although I don’t get the Rembrandt reference. Did he have one / paint one?

  5. I didn’t find this particularly easy but I have no complaints about the clues which I found to be a good mix with many quite amusing touches. I did wonder about the function of “various” though, in 4dn. It’s not part of the definition (surely?), so I assume “prepared various” is the anagrind, which seems surplus to requirements and a bit odd.
    1. Chambers has ‘the value of the currency of one country in relation to that of another country or countries’, so the setter is covered.
      1. Thanks. I saw it immediately on returning to it even before I read your response. I really should think twice before posting!
  6. 15 minutes. Led myself up the garden path by putting in DRIVER for 26ac – it fitted a possible definition (“one steering”), it had a “backfiring missile” (V-1 reversed), and, er, it meant that DRER = supporter. OK, maybe not such a good alternative. I then tried to invent the phrase UPRIGHT DRUNK (no, me neither), which suggests I may not be properly awake yet.
  7. I didn’t find this particularly easy either, though only just got back from walking and my brain is still getting back into gear.
    I thought it a good, creative effort though; thanks, setter.
    I did have to google “Kim Sears,” though.. and I find the Daily Mail has about 20 pictures of her, against two or three of Andy
  8. I tried to time myself again today, but had an unavoidable interruption of unknown duration. However, including the ‘lost’ time, I completed correctly in 36 minutes, so I suppose I should be satisfied with that, given that better solvers than me have taken around the half hour mark. Last one in was 24a, which held me up a bit.
    George Clements
  9. 22 mins mid-morning.

    I saw the possibility of the pangram very early but decided to ignore it after being led astray by looking for letters that weren’t there yesterday. I found the RHS easier than the LHS, and the SW was the last to be completed, although in retrospect there is no real reason why this should have been so.

    I’m sure GOLF must have been a write-in for Jimbo, but when I see something like “a round or two” in a clue my first thought is drinking and my second boxing. AMUSED was my LOI. GUSTATORY went in from the wordplay and I was pleased to see it was right when I checked my Chambers post-solve.

  10. Good fun – 6.12 for me – luckily I had met words like GUSTATORY before. HHUHP – Half Hidden Under Horrible Paperwork
  11. 19:30 (WOE*)

    Somewhat red-faced in this corner because ten years of skoolin’ and a blinkin’ A’Level in Latin didn’t stop me repeating a favourite spelling gaffe – ANTINATAL (I have no children so maybe it’s Freudian).

    But this was one of the most enjoyable of the year for me, despite my messing it up. Much to smile about. And the blog is just as witty. Thanks, jimbo.

    COD .. could be any of a number but MENAGE A TROIS for working rather nicely as a rhyming couplet.

    (* With One Error)

  12. I needed to go out shopping this morning, so selected Pause/Save before shutting down. On turning on after returning, when I opened the puzzle the timer at top left was running from when I’d paused, so eventually it showed I’d submitted at something under 40 minutes solving time.
    However, when I went to Stats to check whether I had any errors, my time was over 2 hours, so I assume the time the puzzle is started is stored (as a cookie?) to discourage cheaters.
  13. 16:33 on the club timer. I enjoyed this, and I’m pleased with my time because I’m still suffering the agony of management training today, so my brain is befuddled.
    I’ve encountered couple of delightful new phrases this morning: “charisma audit” and “influencing strategies”. Honestly, I’m not making it up. Is it too early to start drinking?
    1. ‘charisma audit’ is stupendous – thank you, keriothe, for sacrificing so much to bring us that. Re your question, I suspect it’s never too early to start drinking at a management training retreat.
      1. I agree – worth all that torment just for ‘charisma audit’. I have started a list of people who could merit such a thing 🙂
      2. I agree. A MOJITO would be nice. Incidentally, Jimbo, they also involve brown sugar and soda water. It has long been fashionable in this country to serve them with very little liquid but in Cuba it’s very much a long drink and much the better for it.
    2. You’ve probably worked out for yourself that “charisma audit” is an anagram of “Hi. A Muscat raid?” so it would be perfectly in order to use that phrase on a fellow delegate and nip out to the nearest wine bar.
    3. You clearly need a stiff mojito keriothe, permission granted. Are you sure you didn’t get off on the wrong floor of the conference center and end up at a scientology powwow?
  14. 22:45 so on the tricky side of average.

    Thanks Jimbo for explaining 18 (I’m probably not alone in taking just AR to be the river) and 26.

    Like Andy above I was pleased to see that gustatory is an actual word.

    COD a toss-up between discourage and squint.

  15. WOE is me too, today, as I put in ‘pita’ (Egyptian town?) for GIZA. Should’ve got that one!

    Took a fair time, but was never tempted to give up. Was held up at the end for some time, until I twigged that I’d carelessly written an A at the end of MOJITO. Add me to the list of those relieved to find GUSTATORY is an actual word.

  16. A slight inaccuracy here – Amsterdam is NOT the capital of The Netherlands- That is The Hague, or Den Haag as the locals spell it.
  17. I rambled through this in about 20 minutes, but I am ashamed to report, on Jimbo’s blogging day, no less, that I screwed up on GOLF. I immediately assumed the ’rounds’ were the ones served at the 19th hole, and entered GULP. Oops. Beyond that, no problems, even with GIZA, which over here mostly refers not to any old chap, but an older and often curmudgeonly one, so a slight leap of faith was needed, plus a realization that there are only so many Egyptian cities that we would be expected to know. COD to AMUSED, mea culpa to our blogger, and regards to all.
  18. Very enjoyable puzzle which took a while to get going into and brought a few smiles before completion in about 40 minutes, LOI SQUINT and QUOIT, CoD SEASON TICKET for the clever def ‘at length, pass’. And for GOLF just for being in the puzzle.
  19. Started this late last night but couldn’t get it through foggy eyes, picked it up again at lunch and raced through, weird that. MOJITO needs to be in more crosswords and in me. I rather liked GREBE, the concept of DISCO RAGE and despite Jimbo’s remonstration, I laughed at AMUSED. GUSTATORY and INIGO JONES from wordplay.
  20. 8:17 for me, spooked at the last hurdle by the vocalophobia-inducing -I-A at 22dn. With “Egypt” in the clue, I had great difficulty getting AIDA out of my mind. (No, of course I didn’t spot the pangram!)
  21. According to Wikipedia, Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands. Its status as the Dutch capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although Amsterdam is not the seat of the Dutch government which is The Hague.
    (I had to check – I also thought The Hague was the capital!)
  22. About an hour for this but DNF because I couldn’t think of geezer/Giza. Should have got that because I am from the East End and old enough for a young woman to offer me her seat on the bus yesterday. I wouldn’t have minded but it was a priority seat for the disabled. GOLF at 1 down was the easiest clue I have seen for some time, but I struggled with some of the others. Last one in TROTSKYITE, even thought the definition can hardly be anything except red. I was quite taken with (and taken in by) “various notes in a relationship” in 4 down (EXCHANGE RATE) and thought for some time it must be some obscure musical term.

    Edited at 2013-07-10 06:10 am (UTC)

  23. Solved this this morning. Didn’t get a chance to yesterday because it was my birthday and the evening was taken up with a nice meal and phonecalls to family and well wishers.
    Didn’t find this easy. Gobsmacked that Crypticsue and Magoo solved it in six minutes!
    Six missing in all (Golf, Gossamer, Gustatory, Victor Hugo, Giza and Amused). Liked all of those – thanks for explaining them Jim plus Trotskyite which I couldn’t parse.
    Sore not to get Golf given it’s my #1 summer hobby but couldn’t get away from thinking of rounds as ammo/bullets/boxing/beer…
  24. This was my forst Times crossword. I solved it, but for 4 clues, in about 45 minutes. After looking at your solution, I realised that I should have got them all (that’s easy to say now however).

    What I don’t get is the ‘Play it again, Sam’ reference. Is that something that also has to be solved, as in some underlying theme? Also your references after each solution (Rembrandt, etc) – what are they? Also, what is CoD?

    Sorry if the questions are stupid!

    1. We bloggers try to liven things up from time to time. The title is a reference to entries in the blog that refer to Casablanca. The little snipets like Mr and Mrs Hamilton are light hearted references to the clue and its answer – so those two were a menage a trois with Nelson. Its all just banter, really.

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