Times 25603

Solving time: 64:01 – with 1 mistake

I found this one incredibly frustrating. I rattled through all but the last three (21, 24 & 29) in just over 20 minutes, then came to an abrupt halt. I thought about those last three for over 40 minutes, and eventually came up with something for them, without much justification. Judging by my score, I must have got two of them correct, so I’m guessing that 29a is the one I got wrong as that one really was a wild guess!

A lot went in without full understanding, mind you, but when I came to write the blog I found quite a few that I wasn’t overly happy about, or just didn’t understand.

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

Across
1 SYMBOL = MY (well) in LOBS (lofts) all rev
4 HIGH JUMP – Not sure how this works. It might be JUMP (going) after HIGH (off), but I don’t really understand ‘going’ for JUMP if that’s the case.
10 OUT (unfashionable) + WITH IT (fashionable)
11 BESOM = MOB rev about Everton Striker
12 G(O)O – ‘match’ for GO as in ‘that shirt and tie combination really doesn’t go’
13 MISBEGOTTEN = (SOME BETTING)*
14 BOOn + BOOn
16 AT LARGE – dd – not convinced about ‘in general’ for AT LARGE though
19 OLD (getting on) + HAND (writing)
20 IGNITE – rev hidden
22 GRAND CANYON = (DO GRANNY CAN)* – A particularly obvious anagram, I thought. Gorge (5,6) would have been obvious enough, but to be given GRAN and CAN in the anagrist can’t have left many people in doubt.
25 rOBIn
26 TA-TA + Return
27 ELABORATE = ALE rev + B + ORATE
28 PARADISE = PARADE about I’S – I think the ‘near the end of’ just implies that the IS is towards the end of the word.
29 I went for REJECT, but it was a wild guess as something returned, so it’s almost certainly my one mistake. I considered DEFECT or REPEAT as well as some other words, but I couldn’t find justification for any. I dare say someone will enlighten me. It’s BEHEST – that’s EH (what) in BEST (perfect), with the ‘or’ implying it can be found either forwards or backwards. Thanks to ulaca.
Down
1 SLOUGH = L in SOUGHt
2 METEOROID = (DIET MORE)* about O
3 ODIUM = Opposition + I in DUMp
5 IN THE FAMILY WAY = FAMILY (folks) in IN THE WAY (being obstructive)
6 HOBGOBLIN = GO (shot) in HOBBLIN’ (walkin’ unsteadily)
7 UP + SET
8 PO(MAce)NDER
9 CHEST OF DRAWERS = (SHREWD FORECAST)*
15 B(L + ADDER)ED – ‘Well away’ is the euphemistic definition
17 RATIONALE = (ORIENTAL)* about A
18 LO(N)GS + TOP
21 DIVERT = DIVERs
23 A + STIR
24 NO ONE – I suppose this one could be wrong as I don’t really have any justification here either, but it’s hard to imagine another solution that fits in N- O-E.

40 comments on “Times 25603”

  1. Side at Old Trafford is ON, reversed, then ONE is united. A no one is a failure but I thought it was hyphenated. I’m as stumped as you at 29ac but I settled on REJECT, the idea perhaps being one buys ‘rejects’ in a sale but they may be perfect as far as anyone can see.

    JUMP is ‘start’ at 4ac.

    I enjoyed 40 minutes steady solving then got stuck on the same three as the blogger + 27ac. At an hour I resorted to aids but got no further, then noticed I had written 9dn incorrectly and was trying to start 27ac with a W resulting in WHALEBONE as the only possible fit! Having sorted that out ELABORATE went in immediately and NO ONE and DIVERT followed eventually. 29 was a desperate guess.

    Edited at 2013-10-11 01:00 am (UTC)

    1. For the sake of overseas solvers we should perhaps explain that Old Trafford is both a cricket ground (hence ON=side) and a football ground, home on Manchester United
      1. Thanks, Jim, and perhaps we should also explain that they are not one and the same facility.
  2. With a fair bit of that pondering BEHEST, along with a few other solvers it would seem. The key for me was the 4 complete anagrams and the 2 almost complete.

    Thanks to Dave for rumbling “match”=GO in 12ac which has been pestering me all morning.

    Liked both of the football clues (11ac and 24dn).

  3. 29a is rather cunning: BEHEST (literal ‘order’); EH (or, reversed, HE)(what!) in BEST (perfect).
    1. Curses! But well done and I’m ashamed to be caught out by EH for ‘what’ yet again. It turned up only yesterday or the day before (maybe in the Telegraph) and I was so pleased I spotted it immediately. I thought I was learning something at last. It’s not a bad clue after all.

      Edited at 2013-10-11 01:22 am (UTC)

  4. 47 minutes, finishing with ‘Those Three’ in the SE, all of which I thought were excellent. Didn’t really know MISBEGOTTEN was a word and the only OBI I know is Obi-Wan Kinobe.

    A first for me, as I got the answer to one clue by reading the clue to another. With the checkers already there at 28a, on the basis of ‘What is returned or found in perfect order?’ (29a) (NB the question mark), I confidently entered PARADISE, thinking the setter was a bit naughty to substitute ‘returned’ for ‘regained’, and mentally translating ‘found’ into ‘lost’!

    Edited at 2013-10-11 07:14 am (UTC)

    1. There’s the Eugene O’Neill play called Moon for the Misbegotten so I was ok on that but I got led astray as a result of doing the NY Times weekend puzzles where “obi” is a kimono sash and the witchcraft is “obeah”. Glad to see I had plenty of company sorting out the SE corner. Thought it was going to be a dnf for a while. 28.24
  5. 33:03 with BEHEST pushing me over the 30 minute barrier. A good day in my battle against the weak law of large numbers, as I strive to get my average up from 658. Who knows, next year I may go up a division and play against the strong law. An amiable puzzle with diversions of the like of HOBGOBLIN & BLADDERED particularly amusing. Also CHEST OF DRAWERS, which always brings a smile to my face, thanks largely to the classified pages of the internet.
  6. Well-blogged Dave, I can sympathise with your frustration!

    In 16ac I think “in general” refers to expressions such as “the public at large”.

  7. 20 minutes for all but behest, which added another few working through the alphabet. Incredibly (or not) I spent quite a while looking at BE?EST or BESE?T without twigging, even though I’d got “probably” against EH for what.
    Some genuinely good anagrams in here, I thought, MISBEGOTTEN, CHEST OF DRAWERS, METEOROID, which didn’t look much like anagrams to start with. For the counter-example, “in mess do, granny can” has anagram written all over it.
    I thought BEHEST was made harder still (though it’s a fine clue) by crossing with DIVERT, one of those with 25 alternative letter endings and a synonym for “delight” that might not be everyone’s first pick.
    CoD to BLADDERED – cheeky answer, tempting with checkers to start with BOA as a large snake then going nowhere, and a definition with a positively Holmesian disguise.
  8. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all this week’s puzzles and this was a delightful Friday one with which to finish: elegant, concise clues, wit, humour and some clever anagrams. With sitars and phasing, some of the clues might have been taken from the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” EP: 27 across in particular could have been from “ I Am the Walrus”. 25 minutes
  9. 18:35 for a typically tough Friday (ignoring the fact that we’ve had lots of “Fridayish” puzzles on days that weren’t Friday lately). All fair and above board, and quite entertaining too, especially BLADDERED.

    As nobody else appears to have mentioned it, Dave, to tidy up 4ac, I think it’s HIGH(=”going off”) joined to JUMP(=”start”), so the def. is “sports event” rather than just “event”. (Once more, I feel happy to be a Tuesday blogger, where I am rarely troubled by these Friday puzzles).

    1. Sorry Tim, your post appeared whilst I was writing mine. Didn’t mean to duplicate your explanation of HIGH JUMP
      1. Ha! Funnily enough, even as I wrote it, I thought “I bet by the time I post this comment, someone else will have beaten me to it and I’ll just be repeating what they said”, so I was nearly right…
  10. At 4A Dave it’s going off=HIGH, to start=to Jump.

    Yes, a frustrating solve grinding to a halt on the same two 28A and 29A. Eventually saw the “near the end of” device and then hit myself for not seeing EH=what. 25 minutes of which about 5 spent on the last two.

    Good puzzle

  11. whizzed through in 15 minutes until stumped by the SE corner like most of us… got bored and read the blog. Still don’t really see NO ONE = failure though. NOBODY might mean a failure, but never heard of this use. And never heard of OBI as witchcraft, only in Star Wars or as a sash, apparently it’s a a rare variant of OBEAH. Pity, because the rest of the puzzle was great fun.
  12. Back online today, no thanks to Customer Services, and it must have been on my wavelength as I rattled through in 5:52.

    Solved 10A first and then worked generally anticlockwise round the grid filling in connecting clues, which left 8D and 4A as the last two.

  13. 10 mins and I was left with 21d. I went through the alphabet (three times) muttered a lot and eventually got it and finished in 13.37.
  14. The full 45 mins+ here but some likeable clues. Still struggling a bit to post a comment by iPhone, having solved by hand. It will be easier back home but not as hot.
  15. 17 mins and all parsed so definitely on the setter’s wavelength after a couple of bad days. My time would probably have been a couple of minutes faster had I seen GRAND CANYON as quickly as I should have done.

    The clue for BEHEST was excellent and really got the grey matter working. BLADDERED was both excellent and amusing, although it is an answer I would expect to see in the Guardian rather than the Times. PARADISE was my LOI after ASTIR, and neither of them should have taken as long as they did.

  16. About 30 minutes ending with DIVERT. I didn’t have that much of a problem with BEHEST, my problems were SLOUGH, and understanding what BLADDERED meant that could be the same as ‘well away’. I never died figure that out, actually. Good puzzle, I thought. Regards.
  17. About 40 minutes in a shrill staffroom at lunchtime. Symbol last in. Steady solve. Liked bladdered: that synonyms list must be one of the most fertile areas of the language.
  18. 10:42 on the club timer, taken over the ten-minute mark (and the nine and eight-minute marks, come to that) by 29ac, where I had to resist a powerful urge to bung in something – anything! – to sneak in under 10 minutes. Fortunately I couldn’t decide between DEFECT and REJECT so kept thinking.
    Anyway, clearly I was on the wavelength for this one.
    It’s been a very good week.
  19. Cantered through this one enjoyably until a shuddering halt at the SE corner. Trying to get RETALIATE to parse at 17dn didn’t help, but even when that one tumbled, total dead end at 24dn and 29ac. Goes against the grain to leave the thing unfinished, especially as the four long ones rolled over without a murmur, pointing to a simple solve! (Or so I thought.)
  20. Me too – about a third of my time spent down there, not helped by starting with NICETY at 21d, also unhappy with definition at 24d, though nothing else fits.
  21. I’m with Kevin, getting BLADDERED from the easy wordplay but having no clue regarding definition until checked later, and with Olivia re not knowing that spelling for OBEAH. But I was pleased to think of both Old Traffords (which still didn’t help much getting to an answer), and to get LONGSTOP. I’d been fearing that would be a proper name of a past star. Also got stuck because FIRE AWAY parses almost as well as HIGH JUMP (start = fire (up), away being a class of sports event), and the I checks.
  22. A disappointing 13:36 for me. I wasn’t really with it today and didn’t enjoy this as much as the previous two puzzles.

    I hadn’t come across that meaning of BLADDERED before, so agonised for a while over it and eventually went for it because it looked a bit similar to BLOOTERED.

    And I wasn’t too taken with “that may ward off infection” as a definition of POMANDER, since it must have been some time since people imagined that to be the case. Or am I missing something subtle – I note that dorsetjimbo hasn’t complained about it!

    And I hadn’t realised that LONGSTOPs had gone out of fashion.

    1. I’m not sure I can give you the best example, but if I could, wouldn’t it be perfect?
  23. I had the same problems as most contributors, but eventually completed successfully without resorting to aids. I’m not really convinced by ‘programme’ to denote ‘set’ in 7d, but this is probably a usage with which I am not familiar.
    George Clements
    1. Back in the old days, we were encouraged to programme our VCRs to record, and a tricky job it was too. Now we just set them.
      1. How about ‘set’as in ‘set list’ , the programme a band plans to play?
        I got stumped on the same two as many others, but was pleased to get 21d.
        COD to ‘chest of drawers’ for a clever anagram.
      2. Many thanks z8, I’m sure you’re right. I usually get a twelve year old to ‘set’ or ‘programme’ any modern electric/electronic devices. Regards, GC

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