Times 25708: Pulling a few punches

Author   mctextPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 38:44

About as hard a Wednesday puzzle as I’ve seen in a while. Trying to get the parsings for the blog slowed things down even more. There seem to be a fair few letter substitutions and homophone plays in this one. And I suspected a pangram at one point … but not to be.

Across

1. MILK STOUT. That is: MILKS TOUT (in French, “everything”, the works). Is it strictly a porter?

6. DUBAI. Possible (dubai-ous?) homophone for “due” (fitting) and “bye”. (The Oxfords show the yod to be optional.)

9. TV MOVIE. What’s needed here is MO (doctor) inside V & V (W, for “wife”, chopped in half!) and all that inside TIE (bond).

10. NEOZOIC. Anagram of “I once” around OZ.

11. ERA. Hidden in “thEatRicAls”. The def is “stage”.

12. NOW AND AGAIN. That is NO WAND (!) and A GAIN (an advantage).

14. FRAMED. F{inalist} + ARMED with its A moved along a bit.

15. MAGRITTE. MATE including GRIT.

17. COGENTLY. This is GO GENTLY (don’t rush) with a C (cold) as the replacement starting letter. The literal is “with great weight”.

19. AVOCET. Reverse OVA, add an anagram of “etc”.

22. ST JOHN’S WOOD. STOOD (paid for, say, drinks) including JOHNS (US toilets) and W (with).

23. POW. Can be read as P.O.W.

25. VERTIGO. {a}VERT, 1, GO. Literal: “attack at altitude”.

27. MARATHA. Substitute A (ace) for ON (cricket side) in “marathon”. Didn’t know this one. The various Oxfords have: “a member of the princely and military castes of the former Hindu kingdom of Maharashtra in central India. The Marathas rebelled against the Moguls and in 1674 established their own kingdom. They came to dominate southern and central India but were later subdued by the British”.

28. RAT ON. RA is our artist; plus TON (2,240 lbs).

29. FASHIONED. Anagram: “find a shoe”. Today’s easiest answer perhaps, giving me some hope in the SE corner.

Down

1. MITRE. It’s hidden reversed in “over time”. The elliptical def is “See boss gear” where the “See” is a bishopric.

2. LAMBADA. LAM (leather, whack), BAD (pants, rubbish), A.

3. SEVENTEENTH. SEVE (Ballesteros, our golfer), N (one “new”) & another N inside TEETH (“champers”). Prematurely, we assume, because it’s the penultimate hole.

4. ONE-TWO. Sounds like “won” (landed) and “too” (also).

5. TENON SAW. ONE inside WASN’T (failed), all reversed.

6. DUO. U (united) inside DO (act) with an &lit flavour.

7. BUOYANT. Anagram of “by O aunt”. Think “bed” as in “sea bed”.

8. IN CONCERT. Two meanings.

13. ARRIVED,ER,CI. ER for the doubts and CI for the Channel Islands.

14. FACE-SAVER. F (female), ACES (serves, tennis), AVER (state).

16. BLAST-OFF. Anagram: soft flab.

18. GUJARAT. Reverse of JUG (cooler, prison), A (area), RAT (desert).

20. CAPSTAN. CAPS (eclipses), TAN (effect of sun).

21. COSMOS. That is “everything”. Substitute MO (doctor … again) for the T (time) in COSTS.

24. WEALD. Sounds like “wield”.

26. INN. Turn “ZZ!” 45˚counter-clockwise and it sort-of looks like INN. Of course I wanted the answer to be TOP.
On edit: as Jack points out it’s “—ZZ” that’s turned, and 90˚ in the other direction! A bad case of VD (Vertical-letter Dyslexia). Doh!

59 comments on “Times 25708: Pulling a few punches”

  1. Almost excellent clue, took me a long time to get. But I justified my failure to see it because contracting isn’t the same thing as containing. If ‘over time’ contracts, it’s still ‘over time’, just smaller. Surely there were ways round this.
  2. Great puzzle, and very tricky. About 45 minutes, ending with the DUO/DUBAI pair, right after MITRE. Thanks to the setter, and brilliantly blogged, I must say, so thanks to mct as well, since I didn’t fully parse everything. Regards to all.
  3. I didn’t think this one was too bad, and I enjoyed it over about 40min. Loved some of the clues, my favourite by far being 12ac, followed by 18d. 1d was especially cunning, and I’d have called it unfair if I hadn’t got it. Well done, setter!

    I hadn’t come across the rebi of 26ac and 9ac here before – is this an innovation for the Times? I can’t help feeling that a W chopped in half ought to give you two Us. Can we expect to see d or p as “half a lollipop” soon?

    Got, but failed to parse, MARATHA. I was thinking of a cricket side as an XI (or is that rugby?), but didn’t get anywhere with that. Is “ON” really a cricket side?

    1. No, rugby is definitely XV. It’s V per chukka, I believe. In cricket there are of course three sides: left, right, and the other left. Or vice versa if you’re leg-handed. ON is one of them.
      Hope that’s cleared it up.

      Edited at 2014-02-12 11:58 pm (UTC)

      1. Ah yes. It’s all coming back to me now. So the long-offs stand in dummock while the spin-side’s short bowlers bail the wicket-keeper. How I could have forgotten that I’ll never know.
  4. Didn’t understand 26d, but what else could it have been once the checking letters were in and ‘local’ was in the clue? I also got 1d after much deliberation and finally spotting the reversal, but I failed to parse it fully.
  5. 17:54 here for a wonderfully inventive puzzle. Like Andy B, I was held up for ages trying to make COLE the first word of 1ac (despite being completely unable to think of any 5-letter second word that would make sense with it).

    There were lots of splendid clues, but I particularly liked 10ac (TV MOVIE), making it both my LOI (it’s not the first time I’ve struggled with this answer!) and my COD.

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