Times 25,707

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Started slowly, but as I went on I found myself swiftly gathering speed, possibly because this grid is very friendly, thanks to the long clues around each side (assuming you get them, of course…) Meanwhile, thinking of things which gather speed rapidly, I was slightly worried to read that our man Woodsy has taken a tumble in training before Thursday’s big event, though the coach insists he’ll be fine on the day. Still hoping to see him produce what the commentators on the women’s event called “30 metres of pure radness”; I can’t be certain, but I think that’s about as good as it gets. Anyway, this one was 7 minutes of pure crypticness, and another pleasant puzzle on the easy side of things.

Across
1 CZECHOSLOVAK – OSLO in double soundalike [“CHECK”=vet, “VAC”=holiday]. “Old” because it’s now two countries.
8 REORDER – RECORDER minus the key of C.
9 DADAISM – DAIS in (MAD)rev. Famous American painter and photographer.
11 COTERIE – SCOTER I.E. Teals and eiders crop up more often in crosswords, but the scoter isn’t a stranger.
12 SUNDOWN – Lift-and-separate the evening paper; SUN(=”paper”), Democrats, OWN(=”recognise”).
13 SEEDY – SPEEDY minus Piano; have seed cakes come back into vogue as a result of the Great British Bake-Off, I wonder? If not, I think of them as being an old-fashioned sort of tea-time treat.
14 ARTILLERY – TILLER(in this less common definition, a shoot from a plant stem) replaces the teaM inside ARMY(“fighting force”), to give a part of that force. Neat.
16 ILLIBERAL – (BILL I)rev., (REAL)*.
19 MOP UP – i.e. Medical Officer, PUP.
21 NOMINEE – (ON)rev., MINE(=”explosive”), Energy.
23 BALLOON – Large in BALOO, Name. I am now ear-wormed by The Bare Necessities, and hope you are too.
24 LENDING – sLump, ENDING.
25 OBSCENE – Book in [0, SCENE].
26 TRIGGER-HAPPY – one of those cryptic definitions which so divide opinion. Seems fine to me, I should add.
 
Down
1 CHORTLE – CHurch, Other Ranks(=”army members”), (LET)*.
2 ELDERLY – ELDER, LaudablY.
3 HORSEHAIR – cryptic def. requiring the knowledge that horsehair is used in making bows for musical instruments among other things.
4 SIDES – SIDE(=”arrogance”) + Southern. Northern setter today, maybe? A surface which made me think immediately of Jose Mourinho and his poor little horse.
5 ORDINAL – Island in (LANDOR)*.
6 ADIPOSE – A DIP, OS(as in Outsize), exercisE.
7 PROCESSIONAL – (PARISCONSOLE)*.
10 MONEY-SPINNER – where bread=money, of course.
15 TOLLBOOTH – Old LLB(law degree) in TOOTH(“canine”).
17 LAMINAR – (MAIL)*, (RAN)rev.
18 BUNTING – BUN TIN(“cake receptacle”), doG. Back to the Bake-Off again.
19 MILKSOP – i.e. MILKS,OP.
20 PROGENY – GEN in ROY, under Pressure.
22 EAGLE – abovE A GLEn, nice surface.

70 comments on “Times 25,707”

  1. I need to get in and comment earlier – 54 comments already! 12 minutes, everything going in with full understanding, last one in being the LENDING/LAMINAR crossing. Now I need to go back to yesterday and find out about the Tassie bashing (lived there from 92-95)
  2. 13.55 so a rare sub-15. But I’d rather have a harder challenge and get through in 25. Too many gimme clues creeping in I feel.
  4. A disappointing 7:18 for me. I thought I’d been faster, but looking back I spent far too much time trying (and failing) to solve 1ac, 8ac and 7dn at a first read-through.
  5. even for me; but it is good to have a confidence-booster every now and then
    wasted too much time by being determined that 17 was crs and 18’s flagging dog was PANTING
    and just one small issue with 15: isn’t CANINE = TOOTH a dbe?

    JB

  6. Well, as usual I turn up here just as everybody else is heading off. Ah well.

    25 minutesish for me, with which I’m happy. Failed to parse ARTILLERY and COTERIE. “Scoter” was somewhere in the back of my mind, but I didn’t fancy rummaging around through piles of discarded ideals, rusted ambitions and useless medical facts to find it.

    Today’s gorefest was greatly brightened by a sweet child with her head stuck in a saucepan. This is such a clichéd accident that you may be surprised to learn that none of us had ever seen this particular one before.

    In fact, it is really very difficult to get ones head (a large blunt object covered with hair) stuck in a saucepan (a cylindrical vessel with smooth sides). This child had managed it through the combination of considerable force and an unusually-shaped head (“bulbous” would be unkind but accurate).

    You may be surprised to learn that we professionals (as we like to call ourselves in moments of self-doubt) have no more idea of how to remove a head from a saucepan than you do. In the end, we just held the girl down and pulled like crazy on the saucepan, having first explained to the mother that the neck is very strong and would not be damaged by this procedure (we were guessing at that one, to be honest).

    I should also probably mention that the saucepan was not in use at the time of the accident.

    1. I didn’t fancy rummaging around through piles of discarded ideals, rusted ambitions and useless medical facts to find it

      That made me chuckle.
      My brain contains the first two in abundance, and I’m up late cramming it with more of the last (leaving out the medical bit) as I write.
      This forum is always good for a bit of light relief.

    2. I know it’s wrong to laugh at the misfortunes of others, but you do make it very hard not to, B’n’T.

      Don’t stop.

  7. New comer who is trying to figure out how cryptic xwds work.

    5D What provides the straight definition?
    13A How does quiet;y provide piano?
    25A Does love mean ‘O’ ?

    Thanks

    1. The def is “possibly first”, “first” being an ordinal number as opposed to cardinal; p=piano is musical notation, and believe me, you’ll see a lot of it in crosswords – look out for f(loud), ff(very loud), pp(very quiet), and various others I can’t think of right now, not to mention any letter A-G being clued as just “note”; love=zero=0, think tennis scoring. Hope this helps!
      1. Thanks. It’s amazing how much knowledge is needed of unfamiliar subjects to decode clues. It’s impenetrable sometimes.
        Thanks again.

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