Times 25668 – The morning after…

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
About 50 minutes for this one but my brain is still addled following the festivities of the past couple of days. An early Z made me think we might be in for another pangram but J, K and Q are missing, however I’m pretty sure that there are no anagrams, partial or otherwise, which is  something of a novelty in itself. I’m running late so I’ll get on with it…

*OHF = Or Had Forgotten

Across
1 REBUFF – Or “be rough” as Spooner might say
4 POMPOUS – POM (Brit),P (power), 0, US
9 COZEN – CO (firm), ZEN (religious school). I didn’t know OHF* this word meaning to deceive.
10 CHICANERY – CHI (Greek character), CANE (corporal punishment), RY (lines as in railway)
11 VERTEBRAE – VERT (green), onE, BRAE (hillside)
12 RHONE – Sounds like “roan” (horse)
13 REEF – The F of FREE (no charge) moves to the end to give this part of a sail. I’m not sure I ever knew this, but I imagine it’s connected to the reef knot that I learned to tie at Cub Scouts.
14 VERBALISED – BALI (island) goes inside VERSE (poetry), barD. There’s good misdirection here leading one (or me, anyway) to expect another soundalike.
18 DEMOLITION – DEMO (protest), LIT (fired up), 1, ON (addicted to). I’m not convinced that “on” is the same as “addicted to” necessarily.
20 OHMS – Double definition. The electrical units and On Her/His Majesty’s Service used on envelopes containing  tax demands and other generally unwelcome official communications from the Civil Service.
23 CANON – C (chapter), ANON (soon)
24 PRONOUNCE – PRONOUN (maybe “we”), CE (national church)
25 EXTRICATE – EX (old lover), then CA (about) inside TRITE (worn out)
26 GHENT – H (hour) inside GENT (fellow)
27 PIROGUE – a PI, ROGUE would be a hypocritical baddie. I didn’t know OHF this word for a type of canoe.
28 LESSOR – Sounds like “lesser” allegedly but not when I say it.

Down
1 RECOVERED – EC (city) inside ROVE (wander), RED (florid)
2 BIZARRE – BIZ (business as in “show biz”), A, ERR (blunder, reversed)
3 FINGER – G (good) inside FINER (better)
4 PRIZE – Supposed to sound like “pries” and does this time, to my ear
5 MEAGRELY – AG (silver) inside MERELY (just)
6 ONEROUS – O (old), NERO (emperor), US (not fit for purpose, useless)
7 STYLE – Hidden
8 SCARIEST – CARIES (decay) inside ST (street)
15 BLOW OVER – B (bishop), then W (with), 0 (nothing) inside LOVER (mistress)
16 DISSENTER – SS (saints) + ID (I had) reversed, ENTER (record)
17 BLENDING – END (stop) inside BLING (jewellery)
19 MINSTER – N (any number) inside MISTER (layman’s address)
21 HUNTERS – The S of SHUNTER (little locomotive) moves to the end to give these old style pocket watches
22 MORGUE – GUests inside MORE (additional). I’m not convinced by the use of “room” in the definition.
23 CHEEP – Sounds like “CHEAP” (despicable)
24 PLANE – Double definition

19 comments on “Times 25668 – The morning after…”

  1. 18 minutes, though I had to check twice because it felt longer after struggling in the top left corner. I think it was a combination of that unlikely Z, trying to come up with a Spooner for refuse (rubbish, deny?) in only 6 letters and the likely CO for “firm” in 9 trammelling options for “business” in 2. As always, in retrospect, not so hard. Easy when you know the answers.
    I assumed the REEF was just a knot, though I (sort of) knew about reefing, so today I have learned (thanks Jack) another new thing.
    I quite like the hypocritical rogue, even if as I was writing it in I was thinking of Polish dumplings.

    Edited at 2013-12-27 10:12 am (UTC)

  2. I sort of trudged through this in 25 minutes never really getting up either speed or enthusiasm. Too many “sounds like” clues perhaps or just weary.

    I rather liked 18A and don’t have any problem with “on” as signalling “addicted to” as in “he’s on heroin” or “room kept cold” for MORGUE

  3. Nice work, Jack, with a thick head!

    Like you, LESSOR does not sound like LESSER the way I say it and I got COZEN from the wordplay as opposed to actually knowing it. LOI PLANE

    You used to be able to write OHMS on an envelope instead of a stamp when replying to official letters from the taxman etc but this has been stopped. I have always wondered what Royal Mail actually does with such letters these days but I am pretty sure that they do not deliver them.

    Edited at 2013-12-27 10:16 am (UTC)

  4. One wrong today – a guess at Porogue for the unknown Pirogue.
    Solving on the iPad is working like a dream!
    1. I solve on an iPad and apart from being able to write quicker than poking the screen, my main gripe is the layout. You have to poke a question mark by a clue to be given the spaces to insert the answer but more frequently now, the question marks cover a bit of the clue. When it covers a bit of an anagram, it is especially tough. At least they seem to have solved the strange punctuation issue, where commas, apostrophes etc were replaced by letters from foreign scripts.

      Bah Humbug!

  5. Not the hardest of Friday offerings, which was perhaps just as well after several days of over-drinking and over-eating. I largely agree with what’s been said above – particularly re the dodgy LESSOR/lesser homophone. PIROGUE was nice – not an especially tough clue, but I liked the concept!
  6. 25 mins and I found this pretty chewy, but not in an enjoyable way. I found the RHS easier than the LHS, and the NW in particular held me up until I finally saw BIZARRE. FINGERS was my LOI after COZEN and REBUFF. I agree with Jimbo that there were too many homophone clues.
  8. DNF for me. Hadnt heard of hunters and didn’t work out OHMS, so thanks for the parsing.
  9. Nice one to come back to after a short break – yesterday’s paper not delivered – and a steady right to left solve in under half an hour. Entered REEF and PIROGUE (my LOI) without full knowledge of their meanings – and this a seafaring nation, for shame. Knew COZEN from Shakespeare, but two relatively obscure words in one puzzle may be a tad unfair. And BLOW OVER = fade away. Really?

    Nothing stands out as particularly tricky or witty, but there is probably a bishop and actress joke struggling to be let out of 15d.

  10. 48.38 but all correct for once! As others before not sure why it took so long but probably nervous about committing to homophones too soon and regretting it. Trouble is there were a number I was doubtful about but eventually got there. Thanks for blog – sterling effort after a touch of over indulgence!
  11. Thanks for a nice blog, Jack. Perhaps the residual influence… (You could test this with a simple experiment)
    Knew both PIROGUE and REEF. Found 4d ambiguous until VERTEBRAE gave an E and not an S. Agree with the team regarding LESSOR and LESSER.
  12. Some interruptions but probably about 35 minutes. Blow over seems good to me for fade away – it’ll soon etc. Phraseology an interesting take on style – seems to work well enough. But 28 does seem rough.
  13. 28:29 .. solved this straight after yesterday’s (which I found much less problematic).

    The SW almost did for me here, with an assemblage of slightly off-beat clues. MORGUE and PRONOUNCE are both very artful. Not so sure about lessor/lesser, but I’m getting used to thinking about homophones in terms of “could they be pronounced the same?” rather than “are they, by me or anyone I know?”

  14. About 25 minutes, ending with OHMS, because I don’t know of UK postage abbreviations. I also didn’t know the name for a watch, so had to rely on only checkers and wordplay for HUNTERS. But I knew the rest, and LESSOR and lesser sound pretty alike to me. Regards.
    1. Kevin,

      I think that the differences here are between LESS – ERR and LESS – OAR. The latter was certainly the way I heard and used it in too many years to count of accountancy/tax when referring to a person who leases.

  15. Not speedy, but just grateful to be all correct without aids after yesterday’s dismal performance.
  16. 20m.
    Very late comment here, but there seems to have been a bit of negative feeling about this puzzle, but I enjoyed it a lot, so I thought I’d just say so.
    PIROGUE is, in a way, the sort of clue I hate. I think that both the boat and the word “pi” are obscurities, and you need one or other to solve the clue. But I suppose “pi” is just a crossword staple that will be known to anyone who has been trying these puzzles for a while. You’ll never hear it in real life, but you just have to know it.

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