Times 25645 – Happy Day!

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
20 minutes, and as predicted I got off very lightly after a testing week of puzzles. One clue gave me pause for thought but otherwise it was more or less a write-in. If I’d not bothered to parse as I went I would certainly have achieved a personal best today. I just realised that this is the first blog following the 7th anniversary of my time here. It’s frightening how time flies and worrying that my solving times have not improved and that I still feel apprehensive on blogging days!

* = anagram

Across
1 SPRINTER – S (small), PRINTER (peripheral – computing)
6 POPLAR – Double definition, the tree and London E14
9 COSH – Casebook Of Sherlock Holmes
10 ANTIPODEAN – A, POINTED*, AN
11 TIE-BREAKER – (RETIRE BEAK). The tennis references on my blogging days continue!
13 OUST – Hidden amongst a lot of superfluous words. On edit: Thanks to janie for pointing out that it’s hidden twice, which I hadn’t spotted. That makes sense of all those extra words and the use of “repeatedly”.
14 CASTAWAY – CAST (players), AWAY (on opponents’ ground)
16 LIKELY – 1 + K inside LELY. Peter Lely was painter to the English court at the time of the Stuarts and also painted Cromwell “warts and all”.
18 TENSER – TENSE (future), R (monarch)
20 OPPOSITE – OP (work), PO (work reflected), SITE (position)
22 IAGO – I ( one, of the Caesars), AGO (in the past). The “villain” in Othello.
24 SEE-THROUGH – (SHEER OUGHT)*
26 SHOPLIFTER – Store Hoping, (TO PILFER)*
28 TROY – Innards of TORY (politician) switched round to make the Ancient Greek city. “Investment” means “siege” here.
29 SNATCH – School, NATCH (informally of course)
30 GREENEST – GREENE (writer – Graham), ST (stumped – in cricket)

Down
2 PROXIMATE – O (old) + X (cross) inside PRIMATE (leader of church)
3 INHABIT – IN (home), H (husband), A BIT (to some extent)
4 TRADE – E (English) DART (river) all reversed
5 RUT – Double definition. The less familiar one refers to the mating habits of deer, the female of which are spelt ‘doe’ despite what Julie Andrews implied in The Sound of Mucus.
6 PAPER CLIP – PA (every year – Per Annum), PER (for each), CLIP (crop)
7 PADDOCK – PAD (walk), DOCK (weed)
8 ADAMS – ADAM (partner of first lady), S (second). I’m not sure what the definition is supposed to be here, but I guess there’s a reference to ‘First Lady’ also being the title of the wife of the US President and there are two President Adams to choose from, assuming they both had partners. On edit: Thanks to Derek for further info that the first Adams was the second president, which ties in nicely.
12 KEYHOLE – Oh dear! Double definition of sorts.
15 WORDSMITH – OR (gold) + DSM (medal) inside WITH
17 LITIGIOUS – LIT (started burning), GI (soldier) inside IOUS (evidence of debts)
19 SHOTPUT – Time + Place inside SHOUT (call)
21 SHORTEN – NORTH* takes in E (opponent at bridge), underneath S (North’s partner at bridge)
23 ASHEN – Double definition
25 HORSE – Double definition
27 TAG – sTrAnGe

37 comments on “Times 25645 – Happy Day!”

  1. This was certainly a breeze after yesterday’s offering.

    I shared your initial puzzlement in searching for a definition in 8dn, but then assumed (correctly as it turns out) that Adams must have been the second president after Washington .

    Edited at 2013-11-29 03:04 am (UTC)

    1. Apparently John Adams was not only the second President, but also the first Vice-President. So he was not only the partner of the second First Lady, but also the partner of the first Second Lady….
  2. Louis-François Roubiliac’s 18th century terracotta bust of Cromwell at the British Museum features a rather nice wart. Must have caught on…
  3. Jack, I’m thinking of going into the fortune-telling business.

    All pretty straightforward apart from not knowing the London district and slowly twigging to the POTUS (6ac/8dn pair).

    Note to self: be on alert when “does” seems to be a verb but isn’t.

    23dn: Ron Knee anybody?

    1. Ah, I tried for a while to make it POTUS, but I don’t know any women called Potu. And it wasn’t a WORKSMITH, then…?
  4. My second-fastest time ever. I can’t remember how I got my fastest time, and can’t imagine solving any faster than I did today. All the more reason to be in awe of the Jasons, Magoos, Tony Severs, etc.

    But for all that, a little less enjoyable as I didn’t stop to parse everything. Would have enjoyed “DOES” if I had.

  5. All ok, in good time, ending with the POPLAR/ADAMS pair. Quite like ADAMS now I understand it. Also like the twice hidden OUST.
    1. Hello and welcome! Indeed, and I thought I implied that in my blog, but perhaps it’s not clear.
      1. First, congrats on your tenure. And, let me say I have both appreciated and learned a lot from your blog.

        Second, I whine (in all good nature) day in and day out about unknown Britishisms, then along comes good old Adams – hard to be more American, and should be right in my wheelhouse – and I couldn’t parse it. A little embarrassing.

  8. 18 minutes, a bit stodgy and wanting to be sure that ADAMS was right. I saw two ways of making the wordplay work – first lady might be A DAM – but the president thing just didn’t occur. Wasted time trying to think of a significant partnership including someone called Adams – apparently there’s an estate agency called Adams and Jones in Leicestershire – and even tried to justify AMASS (of first lady = A MA’S) but that left me without any kind of definition to spare. It’s the sort of clue which gives you pause because the answer might well be something else altogether and would leave you with a DNF and looking stupid.
    Any antipodean wanting to complain about “our” capital?
    And is anyone going to quibble tiebreaker for tennis – isn’t that usually without the -er?
    1. My understanding – by no means correct – is that the Americans originally called it the ‘USTA 12-point tiebreaker’ and then it got abbreviated. Incidentally, for those who may be wondering, it is called a 12-point tiebreaker – when you can win it in as few as 7 points – because, while you may not have a set point before the 12th point, you will always have one on the 12th (with one or other player leading 6-5).
    2. All the usual sources list both with difference of opinion as to which is the variation of the other.

      I can’t see why anyone would object to a UK newspaper referencing its own capital city in the possessive.

      Edited at 2013-11-29 10:05 am (UTC)

    3. Why restrict it to antipodean, other than to make a reference to another clue? Other capitals are available.
  9. 12m, including a couple trying to figure out why ADAMS was ADAMS. A clever clue that was a bit wasted on me, and would have been completely wasted on me without this blog. So thanks Jack.
    Nice gentle end to the week.
  10. Very easy and straightforward.

    I think there will be many UK citizens who don’t know of POPLAR in East London – a bit obscure really. It has the distinction of being heavily bombed in WWI as well as WW2 and was used as an experimental area in building social housing – of which it contains many acres

    As we started blogging in the same week Jack it must be my 7th anniversary as well – many happy returns!

  11. 10 mins with SNATCH my LOI after WORDSMITH. I’m annoyed that I didn’t see the clever definition for ADAMS even though the answer was clear enough from the wordplay. Although it was a fast solve I enjoyed the puzzle, and I liked the &lit clue for SEE-THROUGH.
  12. After a few decent crosswords this week, we get another one of those where all that separates the prizewinners from the also-rans is the speed with which they can write in solutions to SEE-THROUGH clues. Under 15 minutes. Definitely no TIE-BREAKER.

    Though the ADAM (and first lady Eve) plus S(econd) = Second President John ADAMS clue, albeit obvious, was neat!

  13. A gentle stroll this one, but I thought it had some neat clues nevertheless, such as 1ac and 3dn. I had to think about 8dn a little but it was clearly an &lit. Another neat clue, when you look at it. I doubt if anyone would quibble about a London newspaper calling London “our” capital.

    Congrats to the Senior Bloggers..

  14. Not a very fast time for me – I was left with POPLAR and ADAMS, both of which I had to trawl the alphabet for. I wasn’t familiar with POPLAR as a part of London, and I put in “ADAMS” out of desperation without seeing any plausible parsing – I was quite chuffed to have guessed right.

    TROY also took longer than it should have, and IAGO stretched me a little – I clearly haven’t read enough of Shakespeare’s works (though, in fairness, the reverse is also true). Some (such as SHOPLIFTER) were a bit too easy – just a question of parsing the clue after filling in the answer from the definition.

    Still stuck in Malaysia (it’s a tough gig, but someone has to do it…), and visiting a local hospital (in a professional capacity, rather than as a patient). Have to admit that they are pretty good over here, especially for a developing country, and in some respects they put the cash-strapped NHS to shame. If only we didn’t waste so much money sending people on “fact-finding missions” to far-flung destinations.

    On the plus side, though, the rudimentary English of some of the patients (and a small proportion of the medics) has greatly simplified my personal game of “use all today’s answers in conversation”. One of the consultants is, even now, checking their records to see if they’ve had any cases of “Paddock’s glaucoma”.

  15. Yes, very easy, apart from ADAMS, which I could write in anyway. I find this state of affairs a little odd for a Friday, when I require to be tyrannized. Nice clues of course, and thank you muchly for the blog, Jack.
  16. 6:44 so nice and gentle for a Friday. I actually saw all the possible Adams variations in 8d.

    Congrats on 7 years to Jack and Jim.

    PS Any Araucaria fans might like to look at the special puzzle in today’s Graun.

  17. Ah, the perils of the online solve… 3 typos, including GOSH and KETHOLE (which I think is a terribly posh cat-flap).

    But then I also convinced myself that PINNER was almost certainly a type of tree, causing innumerable problems in the NE.

    Is there a German word for the ability to make simple things complicated?

    Happy Anniversary, Jack and Jim. Here’s to seven more.

  18. 25 minutes all done except 8d and 13ac, then saw the double OUST, but stared clueless (well, solution-less) at A-A-S before deciding to read the blog. Now feel very daft. Thanks to the 7 year blogger sloggers.
  19. Yes, a nice easy one today, 9:54 – just as well as I’m still working through a pile from earlier in the week! I worked from home Mon-Wed and didn’t have time to look at any of them.

    Congrats to Jack and Jim for reaching 7 years, but that must mean my own 7-year anniversary came up back in April. I didn’t realise we’d been going so long – it feels the 5th anniversary wasn’t that long ago!

  20. Like others stuck on 6a and 8 d for nearly half of my 32m. Thanks to blogger for explaining them on his 7 th birthday!
  21. The clue is ‘Work reflected position …’, which equates to op + po + site, but should it not read ‘Work, work reflected position …’ or some such?
    1. I think the idea is that if you put the word ‘op’ up against a cruciverbal mirror you would get ‘op/po’. ‘Work, work’ reflected in such a mirror would give you ‘opop/popo’, no? 🙂
  22. 8:02 here, for a puzzle where I never quite found the setter’s wavelength, leaving me feeling a bit old and slow when compared with the fast brigade.
  23. Pretty straightforward as most have found, and I wasn’t trying to rush. Perhaps thud could ask his consultant friend if he has any suggestions for a severe case of snatch in the proximate rut.
  24. I’m a bit late in commenting, but I think jackkt, dorsetjimbo and I started blogging in November 2007, so doesn’t this make it the sixth anniversary (the beginning of the seventh year blogging?)
    1. Yes, I’ve checked and you’re correct George. It’s these musicians you know, can’t count for toffee!
      1. Yes, that must be why I could never get the hang of playing waltzes 1-2-4, 1-2-4…. But I gave up my musical activities many years ago, so what’s of more concern is that I spent the last 16 years of paid employment working in accounting!

        Edited at 2013-12-01 11:44 am (UTC)

  25. A rare sub-20, at 16:30. All parsed except investment for siege (seen before but forgotten), and “one of the Caesars” – wrote in Iago and forgot to parse the clue.

    I think you do 12 dn a disservice, Jack. Wards are the bumps on a key; so a keyhole very definitely gives access to the wards. I liked the clue very much.

    No problems with the ‘our’ in our capital – the Times is a London newspaper, even if owned by an American. Also wrote in Poplar immediately on getting the first P, so not so obscure? I’ve probably spent 10 days in the past 50 years in London, and never in Poplar. Similarly Adams went straight in, with the guess he must have been 2nd prez.

    13 ac presented no problems: Roy Low (found at the “Syndicated Times Puzzle” link up on the right) recently published a crossword downunder with just such a device. And comments at the time it had never been seen before, locally or in the Times. True?
    Rob

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