Times 25533 – Hail Phil!

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Mickelson may not be everyone’s cup of tea but he’s one hell of a golfer. As for this puzzle, I finally got a clear run at it, only to come unstuck in the NE, where, despite multiple attempts to cheat, I remain as clueless as an Australian batsman facing part-time off-spin. Many thanks to all for saving me from complete mental disintegration.

Across

1 CHIN(CHILL)A – ‘China [plate]’ is Cockney Rhyming Slang for mate.
6 SHUN – H[ot] in SUN. The source of all my problems. Although this would work, it’s GASH – H[ot] after GAS.
8 ABSTRACT – A + B[ishop] + S + TRACT.
9 No idea – could it be REPEAT? REVERB: BREVE + R[ight] all reversed.Not a pretty word.
10 P+EAT – breakfast used as a verb.
11 IRREVERENT – anagram* of RETRIEVER + [garde]N.
12 G(A+LING)ALE – an unknown, but very easily clued, sedge.
14 RIDER – double definition.
17 ELITE – easy hidden.
19 WHEATGERM – nice surface: W + HEAT (piquancy) + middle letter of cuRry in GEM.
22 FOURTEENTH – TEEN in FOURTH – nice again.
23 MAGI[c] – reminded me of Sid Wadell’s immortal comment, ‘There’s only one word for that – magic darts!’
24 CAREER – a charade of CAR and EER rather than a containicator clue as it appears.
25 IMPORTED – clever stuff this, as the definition is not where you expect: I[sland] + MED[iterranean] (‘holiday destination’) around PORT (the foreign booze).
26 IDLE – I + [ha]D + LE for my favourite Python.
27 PAGE-TURNER – the definition is ‘there’s no getting away from this’: PAGE for p + the artist (JMW Turner) whose popularity owes much to John Ruskin’s ‘Modern Painters’, which is virtually a paean to the young critic’s hero.

Down

1 CHAMPAGNE – CHAMP + AGNE[s].
2 IN+STALL
3 HEADINGS – dashing + E[arl] *.
4 LATERAL THINKING – AT HEART + L* in LINKING. 
5 ARRIVE – nice again: A + R-RIVE[r] with the definition ‘gain recognition’.
6 clueless GOVERNING – VERGING + ON*.
7 is its UNHINGE? STRANGE – ST + RAN + GE.
13 INTER+VEN+E
15 REM(A)INDER
16 CACHEPOT – CHEAP* in COT for another easily deducible unknown botanically inclined literal.
18 LEOTARD – TOE reversed in LARD.
20 ELASTIN – our third easily gettable unknown, an elastic protein forsooth: E[at] + LASTIN[g].
21 LET RIP – On prend le trip dans le weekend, non?

40 comments on “Times 25533 – Hail Phil!”

  1. 6d GOVERNING (verging on)*
    9ac REVERB (I didn’t believe it either, but I’ve got 2 wrong and this wasn’t one of them) BREVE rev + R
  3. And at 25A although PORT is indeed foreign, “from abroad” is the literal and a British booze would have worked just as well.
  4. Took a while to find a way in, but LATERAL THINKING (missing from the blog as I write) gave a fair bit away. Still … the NW corner was by far the hardest. Largely because of the darned plant at 12ac.

    10ac reminded me of the verse I used to quote to my brother during his lazy period (aka jet-lag):

    Its habit of getting up late you’ll agree
    That it carries too far, when I say
    That it frequently BREAKFASTS at five-o’clock tea,
    And dines on the following day    .

  5. Also entered SHUN almost automatically, then realised my error as 6d had to be an anagram.
  6. My run of disastrous solves continues after a brief respite on Sunday (just as well it wasn’t Dean’s week!).

    I found the top half fairly straightforward with only the unknown GALINGALE holding up the flow for a while until its checkers were in place, but the lower half, particularly the SE corner, I found very hard indeed.

    I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a coincidence that my recent difficulties appear to have begun since I purchased and read Tim Moorey’s “How to Master The Times Crossword”. Perhaps I’ve started over-analysing the clues during the solve instead of going a bit more with my instincts and simply getting the job done.

    Edited at 2013-07-22 05:14 am (UTC)

    1. I think premature analysis can be a problem. You clearly don’t need to study the basics and that deep thought stuff is really only needed on clues you can’t solve by simpler means.
  8. OK here’s a time: 31:58 which is not much good for a Monday, but I did find this quite hard. Agree with the comments about dodgy words/uses of words reverb, and eat for breakfast(!) Some good ones though, and overall an enjoyable solve.
  9. Another not-so-easy Monday puzzle. Didn’t know GALINGALE or CACHEPOT, and ELASTIN was only vaguely familiar. REVERB is in common use among electric guitarists. Put INTERCEDE for INTERVENE purely on the checkers and definition, a mistake I’m pretty sure I’ve made before with this exact pair of words.

    COD to 11A (though I think the surface would be better without the “the”)

  10. A halting 32 minutes, last in by a distance career. Surprised at reverb, heat for piquancy, the word cachepot, and a little wearied by le trip. Little piquancy in the clues somehow – e.g. the final two across.
  11. I also went with SHUN but as others have said 6D is a well signed simple anagram that puts things right.

    Not keen on “breakfast” for “eat” and hate “cyclist” for “rider”. Awful DBE. The clue could just as well be “jockey’s condition” or “commuter’s condition” and so on. 25 minutes to solve.

    Brilliant effort by Phil Nicholson which you can only really appreciate if you’ve tried to play links golf – a nightmare frankly

  12. Happily completed in 22m 58s (important 2s to creep under 23m!). I’m impressed with those who had ‘shun’ for 6a, – that would have been a clever solution: fortunately, in my simplicity, I only saw ‘gash’ and it was my first one in.
    George Clements
    1. No need to rub it in, George. 🙂 I had to do today’s Rufus at lunch to rebuild my shattered confidence.
  13. … and that one was HEADINGS, where I put ‘hearings’ (kind of worked it out from haring + e + plural…never mind!)

    All others done in about 45 mins or so, with LOI ELASTIN. Nearly had interfere, but changed it on checking. Should’ve checked 3dn more carefully…

    Had a ? at breakfast=eat, and am more used to seeing it spelt ‘galangal’ in Thai, eg, recipes.

    Nicholson, Schmickelson… something to do with the golf, I guess Jimbo…?

    Edited at 2013-07-22 08:37 am (UTC)

    1. Indeed Janie. He just won the British Open at Muirfield with a magic final round that left us all in awe.
  14. 13m. I seem to have been on the wavelength for this one, but I’m glad I didn’t think of SHUN. I don’t think “getting” quite cuts it as a containicator, but I doubt I’d have noticed that.
    A few today where vague knowledge was enough. I knew CHINCHILLA of course, but not that it was a sort of rabbit, and I knew nothing about the words GALINGALE and CACHEPOT other than that they existed.
    No problem with REVERB. We had “wow” recently: I’ll be on the look-out for “chorus” or possibly “flange”.
  15. Sorry ulaca, I certainly wasn’t trying to be a smart****. You usually solve much better than me, and after my horrible gaffes last week I needed a good one. I always appreciate your helpfulness. Thanks for the happy emoticon – hopefully I’m forgiven for any unintended nasal abrasion.
    George Clements
  16. 16 minutes dead on the stopwatch. GASH was there in an instant – just as well it seems. I think we’ve had a few “source of energy” =gas/oil &c recently, and certainly that’s where my thinking went, conditioned not to go just for e as that doesn’t need “source of” to clue it.
    Rather surprised to have GALINGALE, ELASTIN and CACHEPOT springing readily to mind in exactly the same way that CAREER didn’t: none of them are in my daily encounters. ELASTIN doesn’t appear to be in my skin much, these days, either. CACHEPOT sounds slightly rude or illegal, but apparently I have some.
    I’ve met galangal in Thai cooking: the wordplay generated plant seemed to be a reasonable alias.
    CoD easily to Le Trip just to drive the Academie bonqueuse.
    Congratulations to Mickelson for whispering “memento mori” into the ear of imperious British sport this weekend.

    Edited at 2013-07-22 09:40 am (UTC)

  17. 17 mins post-lunch so I think I must have been on the setter’s wavelength.

    Count me as another who entered GALINGALE, CACHEPOT and ELASTIN, my LOI, from the wordplay. I didn’t get GASH until after I had solved GOVERNED and I never considered “shun”.

    I found it funny that Ulaca said he was going to do this morning’s Rufus in the Guardian to rebuild his confidence, because as I was solving this one I was thinking that quite a few of the clues reminded me of Roger Squires’ setting style.

  18. 18:09 .. well, I really liked it, which seems to put me in a minority (but then I rarely even notice DBEs or any of that stuff – blissful ignorance).

    And (cover your ears, joekobi) I loved LE TRIP. Merci, Monsieur ou Madame Le Setter.

    I may also be in a minority in having long been a fan of Phil M (for the way he buckles his swash and for never giving up through all those years of coming second to Tiger Woods). Very unpatriotically, I was rooting for him yesterday. Does he like Muirfield any better now?

  19. Apropos of nothing, may I share with you a brief paragraph from a Canadian news website article posted this morning?

    Royal sources have said Kate has planned a natural birth with William, a Royal Air Force search and rescue helicopter pilot, to be at her side.

    One can only hope William’s professional skills will not be needed.

    1. These journos are dreadful. I once submitted a blurb for an upcoming concert, for which the musical director would be unavailable. By way of giving a little background,I mentioned the chair of the choir, by name, but not by title, as she was the first contact point for this prestigious event. The hack duly inserted ‘musical director’. When challenged, he said you always give a title…

      Why not check, I thought.

      Edited at 2013-07-22 12:27 pm (UTC)

    2. Love the Canadian sentence. You’re welcome to all the Franglais in the world if you can come up with these. But I’m a little nervy about clues on a certain theme appearing in the next day or two…
      1. Happily, it seems that the wee Prince of Cambridge found his way out without the assistance of search and rescue. Long live the next king but two!
  20. I was surprised to find the clock stopped at 13.16 as it seemed to take a lot longer and involve Tippex!
  21. I found this fairly straightforward, but fortunately I didn’t think of SHUN and went for GASH straight off. Took a while to get 4 and a few crossing it, but finished just within 30 minutes.
  22. I’m sure I saw him drinking champers on his bike, and other riders SMOKING CIGARS. It is a disgrace in an otherwise reasonably good weekend for Anglo-Kenyan sport. Is EPO where I post my letter?

    Thanks for the blog to this rather difficult, and perhaps a little unwieldy, Monday crossword. Some odd words, and one or two somewhat tawdry clues in a pretty good set. IMPORTED & FOURTEENTH faves.

    Cheers
    Chris G.

  23. It took me far too long to recover from the misplaced SHUN. I even put SOVEREIGN at 6d because I thought I had the initial S (I thought the parsing would turn on something unknown to me!). But having a U to start 7d put too much strain upon my powers of guesswork! I’ve never heard of GALINGALE but it was easy enough to work out.
  24. I found it a tad tricky and needed 30 minutes. I’d never heard of the GALINGALE or ELASTIN either, but I knew CACHEPOT. LOI was CAREER. I enjoyed the PAGE TURNER, HEADINGS, LET RIP and ARRIVE. Nice puzzle. Regards.
  25. 15 minutes with last in PEAT (it was that corner that held me the longest – I knew what a BREVE is).

    Didn’t see the wordplay at 4 down, and the setter could re-use the clue at 23 in the singular for GRAN(d)

  26. My 7:27 felt slow, but seems to have been reasonable compared to other times. (I’m keeping my eye on that crypticsue!) Luckily I didn’t think of SHUN first time through (thanks to another slow start) and had both checked letters in place when I reached it again.

    I’m inclined to agree with dorsetjimbo about “breakfast” = EAT, given that it had only one checked letter in the answer and “Some got energy from this” felt a bit vague as a definition. On the other hand “Cyclist’s condition (5)” is such an old chestnut that I was quite happy to bung in RIDER and move swiftly on.

    It’s still horribly hot here in Ealing, but the planes (which were passing directly overhead this afternoon) seem to have moved away.

    1. The parsing is ‘Eg, sleeper’ (= CAR, as in a sleeping car on a train) + ‘always’ = EER).

      Interestingly, a sleeper can be a train, a car, a compartment or a berth.

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