Times 25,642 – Stick It Up Your Jumpa

A chewy 25 minute puzzle with a good deal of GK required including a reference to UK coinage that overseas solvers will find very difficult if not impenetratable. We don’t often see astronomers here and today we have one of the oldest but I’m hoping one of the best known.

Across
1 TRANSEPT – (patterns)*; wing of a church at right angles to the nave;
5 OOMPAH – OOMP(A)H; Bavarian brass as heard at the Octoberfest or in a mildly offensive phrase;
10 PTOLEMAIC – P(T)OLEM(A)IC; TA=Territorial Army=volunteers; Claudius 90-168; he wrote the Almagest, based upon a mixture of theory and observation – the scientific approach – that listed a number of constellations; quite remarkable for his time;
11 CLIMB – C-LIMB;
12 YETI – YE-(IT reversed); the Abominable Snowman from Nepal;
13 OFFERTORY – OFFER-TO(R)Y;
15 LAY,HANDS,ON – two meanings 1=move to confirm=religious rite; 2=attack;
17 HERO – hidden (t)HE-RO(of);
19 CUFF – two mainings 1=hit with hand 2=end of sleeve;
20 GOLDILOCKS – GOLD-I(LOCK)S;
22 SCRAMBLER – two meanings 1=security device on telephone 2=sporty motorcyclist;
24 ROAM – “half hearted”=ROM=Random Access Memory; also (me)MOR(y) reversed; weird clue;
26 E,COLI – IE=that is reversed contains COL=officer; nasty germ;
27 ATTENTION – two meanings;
28 POSSET – PO(SSE)T; milk mixed with spiced wine – disgusting;
29 FLEETEST – FLEE-TEST;
 
Down
1 TAPE – reference “red tape”;
2 A,COMEDY,OF,ERRORS – (eyes card room for)*; modern government;
3 SHERIDAN – S-HER(I)D-AN; 1751-1816 Dubliner who owned Drury Lane Theatre;
4 PIANO – ON-A-I-P=”on a one pence coin” which indeed has a portcullis on it; much puzzling I’m guessing along the lines “It must be PIANO but why?” Full marks if you actually solved it from the cryptic;
6 OSCARS – O-SCARS;
7 POISONED, CHALICE – PO(I’S-(done)*-CHA)LICE; arrested=”held by POLICE”; back to Plato and Socrates;
8 HOBBY,HORSE – mounted policeman=BOBBY on a HORSE then change first B to H;
9 SCAFFOLD – SCA(OFF reversed)LD; “I’m OFF”=run (away); Tyburn;
14 BLACK,SHEEP – B(LACKS-H)EEP; sounds like “lax”;
16 DROP,LEAF – pine trees drop needles not leaves;
18 CLARENCE – CLARE-(o)NCE; 1449-1478 brother to King Edward IV and Richard III,
who had him murdered in prison by drowning in a barrel of wine.
21 UMPIRE – powerful state=empire then chane “e” to “u”;
23 RATEL – RATE-L; the honey badger;
25 GNAT – TANG reversed;

43 comments on “Times 25,642 – Stick It Up Your Jumpa”

  1. I read this as, with either half of its heart (OA) removed or in place, ROAM gives us a word meaning memory i.e. either ROM or RAM.

    I took nearly 90 minutes to get through this rather odd puzzle but I never stood a chance at PTOLEMAIC without resort to aids so technically this was the second DNF for me this week , and it’s only Tuesday!

    Is an empire a state? Has anyone actually ever heard of Poor Clare of Rimini? Otherwise some really good clues which I enjoyed solving for the most part.

    Edited at 2013-11-26 09:22 am (UTC)

  2. I wish I’d been able to time this properly, but a longish interruption made that impossible. Fine puzzle with a bunch of clues that would be CoD in many other offerings.
    I knew I was in trouble when, after the first 5 minutes, I had the A and the Of in 2d and nothing else. Unlike yesterday’s, when obvious definitions made decent cluing superfluous, disentangling definitions was part of the fun: “family reject”, “girl visiting bears” “potentially a last drink” – the last, with its labyrinthine wordplay, a cracker. Easy(ish) once you’ve worked out where to put the dividing line, but the surfaces were really smooth.
    Perhaps a bit easier if you’re an Anglican, when 1a, 13 and 15 are part of the vocab.
    For what it’s worth, I concur with Jack’s reading of 24, though Jim is to be congratulated on making it much more complicated.
  3. No problem with the Poor Clares, but I’d never heard of OFFERTORY and had REPERTORY (collection) for a while which held me up in completing the NW corner.

    I worked out the cryptic of PIANO from the literal – I seem to remember that a threepenny bit had a portcullis on it too.

    1. Hadn’t seen that, sad news – thanks Jerry. Were you going to mention it over on the Forum?
        1. Sad news indeed, even though the day was obviously coming. The famous Jeffrey Archer clue alone ought to guarantee his legendary status.
            1. Awesome!
              40+ years ago, I used to twiddle at the church organ at Grantchester. The highspot for me was on dark December night in an empty church and I started to play some of the spooky music that only a church organ can produce. I did not realise that a couple had entered the church but I did when they screamed and ran out.
  4. 27 mins and I thought this was a cracking puzzle.

    My LOI was CUFF and I interpreted “one on hand” as “handcuff” with the reference to the part of a sleeve as the definition.

    I found the RHS easier than the LHS, but the LHS would have opened up quicker had I seen TAPE a lot earlier. Z8 has already pointed out a lot of the cunning definitions so I won’t repeat them.

    However, the news about John Graham has certainly made this a sad day.

    1. I paused over this, as while a cuff is undoubtedly a hit of some kind, it’s more of a blow with the hand rather than on it
      1. I must admit I never thought of the blow. I just took it to be cuff as in one of a pair of handcuffs which are sort of on the hand, coupled with cuff as in the end of a sleeve.
    2. I saw CUFF in this way too (at least once I’d realised that MUFF didn’t really fit the description of “just above”).
    3. Thanks for the “handcuff” explanation of CUFF, Andy. My addled brain couldn’t fathom it so I came here hoping for enlightenment, but wasn’t convinced by dorsetjimbo’s version. (Sorry, Jim.)
  5. A slow but steady solve, with SCRAMBLER (and UMPIRE) holding me up. Took me ages to parse PIANO (though the answer itself was obvious), and I spent some time trying to convince myself that an AIP was the technical term for that part of castle that houses the portcullis. D’, as they say, oh!

    My only* quibble would be with 29ac – someone who is the FLEETEST is indeed “very quick”, but more aptly described as “quickest”. A bit like “BEST” being clued as “very good”.

    (*This is strictly true only in the context of this puzzle.)

  6. Found this a slog – a puzzle that I could not have been less on the wavelength with. Liked the misdirection of GOLDILOCKS.
  7. . . . and many of them not completely explained. Even now, there seem to be different interpretations of the clear answers.
    The usual story of the death of Clarence involves ‘ a butt of Malmsey’ Not known whether this is one of Shakespeare’s dramatisations (Richard lll) but if true it must have been pretty dramatic. A butt holds 105 gallons so it is not something that you just roll into a cell.
  8. When you only get one answer (CLIMB) on the first run-through you know you’re in trouble, wavelength-wise. I toiled away for the best part of an hour before giving up on the ‘known unknown (x2)’ at 18d and bunging in Florence. I’m not even going to tell you what I put at 4d but it wasn’t PIANO.

    RIP The Rev John

    1. Well, I’m a little less embarrassed now at putting in Prado and leaving it out of sheer exhaustion. Got the rest, eventually. Brilliant puzzle.
      1. OK, me too. And I have no idea why (something to do with ‘dor’ climbing…. er.. ). I was also too tired to think about it by that stage!
  9. Yikes – two long hard looks at this, guessed at CLARENCE (figuring CLARE was better than FLORE for the first part), no clue what the wordplay was for PIANO, and then I was down to 28 across. Had to be POS?ET or P?S?EG and figured PESWEG sounded like something you’d wear or take for a cold. Fail!
    1. For some reason, a line from Mac*eth has stuck with me down the years, Lady MacB assuring Thane MacB that Duncan’s guards would be asleep “I have drugged their possets”. It’s also what a baby brings up after ingesting too much milk, or just because it can and you’re wearing a really nice jacket.
    2. I got to “CLARENCE” from remembering the line from “Galway Races” about the “boys from Connemara and the Clare unmarried maidens”, though I was never sure if the latter were the same thing 🙂
  10. After writing in 1ac and 11ac at first glance, I thought this was going to be straightforward; then worked my way through all the acrosses without getting any further, and upgraded it to “not at all straightforward”. As with many, PIANO was last in, though it was only as I was writing it that the penny dropped (ha! – can’t believe nobody else has said that). Good tough puzzle, and I especially liked 20ac.
  11. Good puzzle on a bad day for puzzles generally, in the sense that a prime mover has departed this world, but I rather enjoyed this tough little Tuesday challenge. LOI Clarence, which clue is jolly obscure, COI the excellent piano, which had to be post-parsed.

    Ta, folks involved.

  12. Lots of clever stuff here. I just wasn;t on the wavelength at all for ages. Not sure I ever recovered from “A Comedy of Errors” It’s “THE Comedy ..” surely if it’s the play?
    The PIANO and FLEETEST clues were my favourites
    1. A comedy of errors is a type of play (cf a farce, a tragedy etc) so there is nothing wrong with it.

      Edited at 2013-11-26 05:04 pm (UTC)

      1. Eh? “A comedy of errors” is an entirely valid phrase, but it just means “a lot of errors”. Defining it as “play” is wrong, therefore. However, a great puzzle IMO.
  13. Sorry, bur I really didn’t like this at all, and not just because it took me ages to finish. The least enjoyable puzzle for quite a while, in fact; thought 15 and 19 pretty dodgy as definitions. (9d also very iffy).

    Edited at 2013-11-26 04:49 pm (UTC)

  14. Well, each to their own tringmardo, I found this a wonderful puzzle, even though it took me a while to get through. I wonder if anyone else immediately thought of a 3d piece for 4dn, rather than 1p?

    On edit: as Jack says, 24ac is not weird but a lovely clue in that both RO(a)M and R(o)AM are memory; read-only and random access respectively.

    The Poor Clares seem to be fairly regular crossword fodder. Google shows three other TFTT appearances, but I’m sure I remember them turning up quite recently. A T2 jumbo perhaps..

    Edited at 2013-11-26 05:49 pm (UTC)

    1. I’m with Jerry. A dnf for a puzzle of this quality is more satisfying than romping through an easy one. The satisfaction of decoding a tortuous clue like many here is what gives me a buzz. Still, chaqe a son gout.
  15. I think I had one answer after 10 minutes. Definitely not my wavelength today despite no unknowns. Eventually made some progress on the West side before limping home in 75 minutes.
  16. This took me an hour almost, ending just as Jimbo describes, trying to find a reason to enter PIANO. I never found the reason, wrote it in, and just shrugged. Neither did I know of the poor nuns, but everything else was eventually gettable. COD’s to OOMPAH and GOLDILOCKS. Condolences to those close to Rev. Graham. I admired his puzzles from afar, though it took many tries before I could complete one. Best to all.
  17. … much enjoyed. But not timed. Did this hidden away under papers during a “workshop” (= total waste of time).

    The “held by police” device at 7dn was what done me in guv. And this stilted the whole RH side. Last in were the UMPIRE/POSSET pair. Only knew the latter with reference to baby puke.

  18. 15:43 here – perhaps not a total disaster considering how tired I was feeling. An interesting and enjoyable puzzle.
  19. Highly enjoyable, with lots to get one’s teeth into, completed in bits during various bus and tube rides throughout the day – about 45-50 minutes in all. A DNF as I didn’t parse PIANO – can’t say “the penny dropped”! More like this, please.

    PS dorsetjimbo Highly unlikely – as totally unnecessary – that Richard of Gloucester had Clarence murdered. You mustn’t believe all you read in Morton’s Tudor propaganda.

  20. Highly enjoyable, with lots to get one’s teeth into, completed in bits during various bus and tube rides throughout the day – about 45-50 minutes in all. A DNF as I didn’t parse PIANO – can’t say “the penny dropped”! More like this, please.

    PS dorsetjimbo Highly unlikely – as totally unnecessary – that Richard of Gloucester had Clarence murdered. You mustn’t believe all you read in Morton’s Tudor propaganda.

  21. 41m. I didn’t get time to do this or comment yesterday. It was an absolute beast but I really enjoyed the battle. It’s nice to have a properly chewy one from time to time.
    I didn’t have a clue how PIANO worked so thanks for clearing that up for me.

    Edited at 2013-11-27 11:48 am (UTC)

  22. Did it with a chum in the pub, but it took us much longer than usual. All in all, a very satisfyingly taxing crossword. And isn’t that what it’s all about?
  23. …but for the sake of completeness, I thought I’d point out that STRADDLER is a very fine answer for 22ac (referring to some stock market bet-hedging) which had my ADMIRE-ation but caused me some grief at 21dn for a while!

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