Times – 25525 – Back to Basics

A very pleasant, mostly straightforward puzzle that came as something of a relief after my last blog and several subsequent offerings. It still delayed me longer than it should have, taking me 47 minutes to complete, although I resolved recently to work out as much wordplay as possible whilst solving instead of waiting until afterwards. I’ve recognised that I’m never going to be a speed-merchant so now I prefer to enjoy the ride and take in the scenery. I was never stuck, but 27ac was one clue I had to leave and keep coming back to throughout the solve hoping for sudden inspiration, and eventually my patience was rewarded. 14dn also delayed me. I suspect I won’t be the only person who wasted time trying to make CHE part of its solution. This is the second recent puzzle with no hidden answer.

* = anagram, ”    ” = homophone

Across

1 BISMARCK – BIS (once again – encore!), “MARK”. Germany’s Iron Chancellor.
5 UPKEEP – UP (at university), KEEP (withhold)
10 SET OUT ONE’S STALL
11 APPARENTLY – A, PARENT (child minder) inside PLY (work regularly)
13 DIVA – AVID (keen) reversed
15 SINGLET – SINGLETon
17 VENDACE – VEND (sell), ACE (top quality). No doubt I have met this freshwater fish previously, but if so, I had forgotten it.
18 COMMERE – COMMERcE – a female compère before the world went unisex. On edit: Having read comments about some solvers falling into the ‘compère’ trap I wondered whether the equivalent ‘Mistress of Ceremonies’ exists and apparently it does. I never heard it used and it conjures up in my mind something somewhat more exotic than a female ‘compère’!
19 ROUTINE – “RUE” (deplore), “TEEN” (adolescent)
21 ACRE – A,CREw – the Israeli port
22 PROPAGANDA – PROP (support), u/A-GANDA (African country)
25 PICARESQUE NOVEL – SEQUEl* inside (PLAIN COVER)*
27 DENIER – REINED (held) reversed
28 GOVERNED – (DOG NEVER)*

Down
1 BUS PASS – U (posh), SPAS (health centres) inside BrusselS. As bus pass entitlement starts at only 60 I don’t think “perk for oldies” is quite apt. I’m sure I can rely on support from the Dorset area on this!
2 SET – Swot, Expecting, Test
3 AQUARELLES – A, QU, A then SELLER reversed. I wasted time here trying to make it an anagram. Thin watercoloury-type art.
4 CROON – Church, then 00 (loves) inside RN (service – Royal Navy)
6 POST – Double definition
7 EXAMINATION – EX (old), A, M1 (main road), NATION (people)
8 PILLAGE – LAG (criminal) inside PILE (large building)
9 FELL OVER – FELt (suffered), LOVER (mate)
12 PAN-AMERICAN – A, NAME, R (a, bigwig, Republican) inside PIC (film), fAN (supporter)
14 INSURGENCE – (CENSURING Egyptian)*
16 THEORISE – THE (article), 0 RISE (wage freeze, geddit?)
18 CHAMPED – CH (Companion – of Honour), A, MoPED (motor cycle)
20 EMAILED – DELI (shop), mAlMsEy, all reversed
23 PLUTO – U (“you”) inside PLOT*
24 CREE – CREEp (move very cautiously)
26 VAN – VAiN (empty)

23 comments on “Times – 25525 – Back to Basics”

  1. Equally confused by 27ac until the reversal dawned. And the crossing 18dn wasn’t easy either. So: my last two in. Parsing PAN-AMERICAN was no mean feat; though the answer was plain. Main DK was the phrase at 10ac; as well as COMMERE. All new to me. COD to 14dn INSURGENCE for economy, distraction and topical relevance.
  2. 21’30.5″ – I timed it on my mobile’s stopwatch as my preferred analogue watch is in for repair. Rather like Jack, I thought this was going to be a doddle until I got more into it, and clearly missed the wave keriothe caught.
    First hesitation was over the intersecting SETs in the NW corner. Then AQUATINT, which I knew, didn’t fit space or clue and had to be left to much later. The real answer is today’s thing I have learned: I’ll look for one when I’m next in a gallery.
    Otherwise, nailed by most of the misdirections, looking for a particular novel (probably involving Quartermain or Silver) at 25, and an improbable anagram of Egyptian at 14. I tried to make 20 VOW for a while, straining with the definition to accommodate 0 in a VW, which I thought would be clever. Why wasn’t the child minder a sitter or nan(ny) in 11? PAN-AMERICAN went in without understanding where last two letters came from.
    For me, a decent contest, about 6 on my personal Mohs scale. CoD to CHAMPED for the well disguised definition. Who needs hidden clues?
  3. What a shame that the “oldies” nonsense at 1D slightly detracts from an otherwise excellent puzzle. If it really was a perk for the over 90’s say it would be far more affordable and useful.

    Hesitated at 18A but like others went with the cryptic for a word sort of half remembered. Didn’t need to parse 12D whilst solving, which is a shame because it’s a clever construction.

    Good to see you’ve opted for pleasure over speed, Jack – one of the secrets of enjoying a fruitful retirement

    1. I’d never really thought about the roots of compère/commère before – they were just words. Second thing I’ve learned today, then: they’re just French words for godfather/godmother. I’ll never look at Sir Bruce the same way again.
    2. Unfortunately speed’s not really an option for me, Jim, so I thought it best finally to admit it to myself and enjoy solving a bit more.
  4. 8:55 on the club timer. Clearly on the wavelength for this one. I hesitated over 18ac: the temptation to bung in COMPERE was very strong but in this case trusting the wordplay was the right approach.
    Jack this may be what you meant but in 12dn I think “bigwig” for NAME and “republican” for R are separate.
    1. Thanks, and indeed it was what I meant. I have now placed commas between the items in brackets to clarify the point.
  5. Sorry I didn’t identify myself yesterday, but thanks for the generous responses.
    24m 14s today, so I’m quite happy, though some solutions went in on wordplay, to be confirmed later (17a & 18a), and I also needed help with parsing 12d – very well done Jack.
    I can well understand overseas solvers having difficulties with 10a, which strikes me as a very British expression.
    George Clements
  6. 19:45 .. yesterday’s I found hard to start, today’s was hard to finish. 18a an obvious sticking point but the wordplay didn’t leave much alternative.

    Last in .. AQUARELLES
    COD .. CHAMPED

  7. 34 mins post-lunch, so either I wasn’t on the setter’s wavelength or I was nodding off slightly.

    The COMMERE/AQUARELLES crossers were my last two, and before that the CHAMPED/DENIER crossers.

  8. 10.24 for me today. A mix of the straightward and the ‘what?’ not helped by my inability to work out the simple anagram in 28a, probably because like jackkt I spent a bit of time trying to make 3d an anagram.
  9. Just me that fell into the compere trap then? I’ll give myself a Brucie bonus for at least putting a QM next to it to denote not seeing how my answer fitted the wordplay.

    Commere obviously unknown, vendace, aquarelles and picaresque novel all trawled up from my memory’s equivalent of the Mariana trench.

    19:16 for the record, COD champed for me too.

    1. I can ever so vaguely remember when lady comperes were called commeres. Not sure that’s a good thing to admit, but it does help when crossword solving!
      1. I think what did for me was seeing an article recently where Arachne said that she often uses a female noun or pronoun in a clue where one might normally expect the male equivalent and where it makes no difference to the answer.

        So on seeing hostess I thought “Ha! Female setter” and plumped for what I thought was the unisex “compere” (notwithstanding that it’s not supported by the wordplay).

  10. A much easier puzzle today. Am with Penfold and others in falling into the Compere trap. Hadn’t heard of Commere and put in Compere with misgivings and unable to figure out the wordplay.
    Couple of other unknowns too: the ‘bis’ part of Bismarck and the Vendace fish.
    Most of my delays were in the SW corner, particularly Champed and Denier.
    Liked the Routine and Denier clues.
  11. Should have done this online, would have been nice to see my name above magoo (though usually I can for a few hours if I do it when the puzzle first goes live), since I knew COMMERE.

    It’s been a good week for Times puzzles, and this was my favorite of the lot. With apologies to Jimbo, 1 down made me smile (my parents are all about brandishing their senior freebies whenever possible), the temptation to put in DUMBO at 23, the entire clue for PICARESQUE NOVEL and the wordplay for AQUARELLES.

    AQUARELLES from wordplay (though it sounded familiar), INSURGENCE and PAN-AMERICAN without getting the wordplay.

  12. About 20 minutes, COMMERE and VENDACE from wordplay only, otherwise good clean fun. I agree that the COD goes to CHAMPED. The long phrase at 10A was also unknown, but the wordplay was helpful after a few checkers. Regards.
    1. I removed it as an anonymous contribution that didn’t appear to be relevant to anything under discussion here. Sorry if this was unfair but we are constantly bombarded with spam (most of which is only seen by the administrators) and your message got dumped along with that.

      If you would care to join in TFTT discussions you are most welcome to do so but it would be preferable if you begin by saying something on topic even if you then wander off it.

      Also most of our regular “anon” contributors (i.e.those without Live Journal IDs) like to identify themselves in some way by putting a name or nickname in the text of their message, and you may like to consider doing this in future so that we can distinguish you from other anons.

      Edited at 2013-07-12 10:02 pm (UTC)

  13. 10:35 for me. I made a decently brisk start for once, but was held up badly at the finish by 19ac (ROUTINE) and 18dn (INSURGENCE), completely missing the obvious anagram in the latter until I had all the checked letters in place. (Doh!)

    No problem with COMMERE though, since I knew the word.

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