Times 25,719

The last time I blogged a daily, I started slowly and accelerated rapidly; today I was fast out of the blocks before grinding to halt in an empty SW corner. Eventually a bit of hard staring gave me 14dn and a way in, so it ended up being a 20 minute solve, even if a bit of an uneven one (though now I come to blog it, of course, I can’t really see why that should have been the case).

Across
1 HAD A BASH – [A DAB] in HASH.
5 PROP UP – or, spaced another way, PRO PUP.
9 DIALOGUES =”DIRE LOGS”. Sounds OK to me, though you never can tell with homophones.
11 TIGHT – sTrInG tHaT. I got this totally a about f, and spent some time wondering if either PLETU or ULDAT might actually be words.
12 ONEROUS – Old NERO, U.S.
13 SPINACH – Samosa, PI, NACHO. Good, if slightly convoluted, surface.
14 DETERMINATION – M1 in DETER NATION.
16 HOME SECRETARY – ME in (ATORYCHEERS)*.
20 RAGTIME – R.A., relaxinG, (EMIT)rev.
21 HERETIC – HER, (CITE)rev.
23 RIGHT =”RITE”.
24 SUPPORTER – PORT, of which Liverpool is an example, inside SUPERintendent.
25 SEE RED – RE(“about”) in SEED(“children”).
26 FLAT RACE – FLuid, A TRACE. The sort of course run by a horse.
 
Down
1 HUDSON – (HOUNDS)*. Large enough, and historically important enough, to be readily familiar to people on both sides of the Atlantic.
2 DRAKE – RAKED with the D raised up.
3 BOOT OUT – BOON, TOUT; the less reputable sort of solicitor.
4 SQUASH RACKETS – SQUASH(“eliminate”) RACKETS(“dishonest practices”). I started trying to research the distinction between racquets and rackets, but it got too confusing, especially after I saw one definition of “racquets, n., a game played with rackets…” Anyway, the game of squash is properly called “squash rackets (racquets)” to distinguish it from plain “racquets (rackets)”.
6 RETSINACANISTER reversed after losing the Circa.
7 PUGNACITY – (‘ANG-UP)rev., CITY.
8 PATCHING – (NIGHTCAP)*.
10 SISTINE CHAPEL – CHurch in (PALESTINEIS)*.
14 DEMAGOGUE – GAME in [E.U. GOD], all rev.
15 CHARTRES – CHAR(=”daily”), TREKS minus the Kilometres.
17 SWIFTIE – (IT)rev. in [Son, WIFE]. In the amorphous language of the English pub, a swiftie might indeed be the proverbial “quick half” (though I’ve known people for whom “a swift half” always means a pint, and possibly more than one).
18 AIRPORT – AIR(“cool”), PORT(“drink”).
19 ECARTE – (CREATE)*. Elegant, simple clue.
22 TATRA – reverse hidden in stART A Trend; a bit like yesterday’s RATHE, something I definitely hadn’t come across before a word I may well have seen before and forgotten, but which couldn’t really be anything else from the wordplay and checkers. For anyone else who’s forgotten, the Tatra Mountains are in the Carpathians, between Slovakia and Poland.

51 comments on “Times 25,719”

  1. 29 minutes, so just inside my target or well within it if I knocked off time spent parsing as I went. TATRA was unknown or forgotten but otherwise this was pretty straightforward stuff.
  2. 30 minutes with loads bunged in for examination later. Last in HUDSON, last parsed RETSINA. Unknown TATRA, which look very nice, and compact along the lines of the Lake District – if a little taller.

    Worked out raked = inclined from the rakish angle of Quentin Crisp’s headgear. Game for strategy had me scratching my head, until I thought of the ‘what’s your game?’ connection.

    Edited at 2014-02-25 02:39 am (UTC)

  3. I had only come across TATRA as a Czech maker of rather eccentric cars, but I figured that they must have got their name from somewhere. Given the Czech love of “Ma Vlast”, mountains seemed a quite possible source of inspiration.

    Subsequent research tells me that Tatra is the third-oldest car company and is still in business producing trucks.

  4. Not sure about 2 down. I worked out that Drake should be the answer but, by definition, surely a drake is not a duck ??
    1. It’s true that “duck” can be used specifically to refer to the female of the species but more generally it refers to either sex.
      1. The thought which briefly crossed my mind was along the lines of “Drakes are always ducks, even if ducks aren’t always drakes”.
  5. With most of that spent in the SW. DEMAGOGUE was a beastly clue that wouldn’t yield at all. Had to be the answer but.

    7dn put me in mind of Sotira’s ’Angonamo joke from a while back. Especially in combination with the surface to 24ac.

    1. This enclitic “but” you use to end a sentence – is it part of your conversation or just a writing tic?
  6. Not so easy for me, with my time going well over my targeted hour, but all correct in the end. Not helped by taking far too long to see the two long down clues. TATRA unknown/forgotten; DRAKE = LOI as I wasn’t sure of the rake=lean bit; SUPPORTER unparsed.

    DIALOGUES made me smile, so gets my COD (I always err on the side of generosity regarding homophones…)

  7. 10m. I thought for a while this was going to be even quicker but then I was held up by poor spelling:
    > I bunged in CISTINE CHAPEL. Yeah I know. [Hangs head in shame]
    > I wasn’t sure it wasn’t DEMOGOGUE (and initially figured MO could be “strategy”), so had to figure out the wordplay, which was tricky.
    HUDSON was no problem for someone linked to Canuckland by marriage. We have a Hudson’s Bay blanket at home. It’s a traditional woollen blanket used by beaver hunters, or moose trappers, or something, easily identifiable by its distinctive price.
  8. 18 minutes, good stuff, I thought. SPINACH for its wordy but smooth food correspondent clue is my pick but there were several in similar style that were good contenders.
    Mild disappointment at 7 – I so much wanted cockney obsession to be “fing”, but no, we just had to lose an H as usual.
    SWIFTIE not in my vocab or Chambers but not tricky and now included. Must be careful to distinguish from a quickie if I try using it.
    The Tatras are indelibly engraved on my memory: in 1975 we essayed a car journey in search of ancestors through East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, and came into the last at the eastern end. The Tatras emerged cloud-like on the horizon as we travelled from Presov towards Poprad, overwhelming to a first-time foreign traveller once we realised those clouds were mountains. Majestic.
  9. Much the same as previous comments. All plain sailing except for SW corner even after CHARTRES went straight in. Then saw RAGTIME and finished in 20 minutes. Also didn’t know TATRA. No quibbles. I liked the anagram at 10D
  10. 18 mins, but unlike some of you it was actually the NW corner that held me up. It took me way too long to see HUDSON, and it was only once I got it that the rest of the corner fell into place, with BOOT OUT my LOI. I agree with z8 that the clue for SPINACH was excellent, although there was plenty of good cluing throughout the puzzle.

    When I first looked at 24ac I only had the P checker, I thought it was going to be a homophonic clue, and I was trying to think of an expression for a Liverpool fan other than Kopite that began with KOP. Then the penny dropped.

  11. 32min: failed to parse 7dn, trying to make something of PUG. Also couldn’t see how to get 14dn – it seemed to me that GOG (or MAGOG) were involved with the EU somehow.
    1. Curiously enough, they turned up in 1970’s rabid apocalyptic writing, where the end of the world was imagined in detail from Bible passages untimely ripped from (especially) Ezekiel, Daniel and, of course, the Revelation to John. As I recall, Gog was identified with Russia, then of course the Communist Soviet Union. It was Babylon/the the great whore that got identified with the European Union, centred as it was on the treaty of Rome. Best example of the genre was The Late, Great Planet Earth. Mind you, you should have seen the hoohah over the first Iraq war, which really did involve Babylon.
      1. To an old Cambridge-type like me, Gog/Magog are inextricably liked with the hils of that name east of the City which rise to a majestic 180ft above sea-level. Purported to be the highest ground between Cambridge and the Ural Mountains, which explains why the easterly wind is so cold.

        25:17 by the way.

  12. Managed to get this one out in a couple of hours, but several went in only partially (or not at all) parsed. Thanks to Tim for explaining Demagogue and Retsina (knew the wine – too well – but missed the canister so to speak).

    Still struggling to make sense of PI as “really good” in 13 (got the S and NACH so had to be the Popeye fuel), and also still don’t get 2 at all (other than Drake being a male duck). Sorry if I’m missing the obvious, but really appreciate any further clarifications. Thanks very much.

    1. Nick, PI is short for “pious” – it’s quite an old-fashioned term for someone who’s good, though often with a rather cynical slant, as if they are possibly not just “good” but “holier than thou”. An old-fashioned term, as I say, but that’s never been a bar to crossword setters, and I think I can say with some certainty that you’ll see it again.

      If “RAKED” = “inclined”, as in the rake of a cinema auditorium, then you can take the “tail” of the word, i.e. “D”, and move it upwards to the top of the word, i.e. have it “held high”, to make the duck.

      Hope this helps.

      1. Aha! Thanks very much Tim, most kind. Pious is in frequent use in our household (a propos a certain relative) but had not picked up the short form (I guess “for the most part” applies to Pious as well as Nacho).

        The particular usage of rake is new to me – need to lock that one away! Thanks again.
        Nick

  13. Really enjoyable crossword, my customary 90 minutes or so, but really enjoyed it. Some fine clues here, Ragtime probably my pick.

    Thanks for the blog and thank you to the setter.

    Nairobi Wallah

  14. 30 minutes but with ACERTE for ECARTE, of which I’ve never heard (or at least don’t remember).

    Other than that got bogged down with 24A thinking the police officer and Liverpool fan was some play on COP/KOP.

  15. I think it no surprise that SWIFTIE has delayed some people, as indeed it would in a public house, where ‘just having a quick one’ usually, or for this contributor at least, results in prolonged research as to the effects of alcohol on the liver.

    Nice puzzle, thanks for the blog.

  16. 39.30 so a bit hard for me and last 5m in NW where DIALOGUES and BOOT OUT simply wouldn’t come for ages – three times through the alphabet until BOOT opened it all up! Thanks for blog, Tim – couldn’t explain 14d for example. My COD to 10d as a neatly disguised anagram but enjoyed 17d too.
  17. Didn’t get the parsing of RETSINA but it was obvious from the definition. Otherwise quite a smooth solve for me. 20 minutes. TATRA reminded me of a visit to Slovakia where I was amazed to discover that they shared a mountain range with Poland. I’d been to the Tatras on the Polish side and never thought they could be anywhere else as well! Geography of Eastern Europe not my strong point. Ann

    Edited at 2014-02-25 03:38 pm (UTC)

  18. 18:14 … was somebody casting aspersions on ducks? That’s deth-picable!

    I did my best to mess this one up, but somehow finished up with all the right notes in the right order. I typed in HABADASH (cloth for brains), I can’t spell Cistine or spinich, HUDSON was my last one in, despite (in Canadian terms) the Bay being up the road from here, and it took me 4 attempts to spell SQUASH RACKETS and squash it into the grid. Otherwise, a smooth solve. Next!

    Oh, COD .. CHARTRES

    1. Hounds/Hudson was also my hold up, which pushed me into leaving the top left section to last. Just couldn’t see it, or believe it could be an anagram.
    2. Here in Sheffield, duck is a term often used instead of pal or mate as in ‘are you alright, duck?’ We also use ‘dead’ to mean ‘very’ – dead good. This can get complex if you point out a long deceased drake – ‘there’s a dead dead duck, duck’.
  19. One of those days with multiple interruptions – mainly from people who I presume are trying really hard to earn a living by ringing up and selling things but sometimes seem deliberately annoying. So – lost threads and an inability to remember ‘seed’ for children made a pretty poor 65 minutes. Having said the above, I’m still always thrilled to finish unaided. Smiles at spinach and pugnacity.
  20. I have been looking at the crossword site and fail to see how to complete the cryptic online. I see the crossword and can highlight the clues and the squares but a keyboard does not appear to allow me to enter the solution. Am I being a bit thick?

    Brian

    1. Are you using an iPad, Brian? If so, it won’t work in Safari. 2 options:
      1. Puffin web browser app. Bit clunky, but it works.
      2. Buy the more expensive digital subscription and get the dedicated Times app.
      If you have a regular web subscription, it will work fine on a regular computer with Windows, OSX or Linux and any standard browser.
    2. I’m an iPad user and had a free subscription to the app for a while but didn’t find I enjoyed it as much as paper – a few anagram rings and crossings out seem part and parcel of a crossword. So I’m now on the £2 subscription and print off the puzzles. Have to do my own timings but then I’m nowhere near good enough for the seconds to count (sometimes its days).
  21. 19:25 with swiftie last in (and joint COD with the ‘ang up) but I had more trouble in the NW than SW, despite Hudson being second in after 1a. I really couldn’t see how a word could end ?u?s at 9 (and yes, I did consider a Q) and couldn’t get more than B??T OUT at 3.

    Like Tim I started solving 11 from the wrong end and, thanks to an inability to count alternate letters across words, very nearly went for pleat.

  22. On a morning dedicated to hanging around in hospital waiting rooms, when I really needed an ONEROUS crossword, I got a Monday SWIFTIE instead, completed on my run into town, under half an hour. It’s enough to make one SEE RED.

    Like others, I ended up with blanks in the SW. LOI SWIFTIE, preceded by RAGTIME and DEMAGOGUE.

    Some nice clues: Spent too long looking for the non-existent anagram in DETERMINATION. Delighted by the economical misdirection of SUPPORTER, my COD. Particularly enjoyed DIALOGUES, DEMAGOGUE and SISTINE CHAPEL. Pleased with myself for getting (eventually) the parsing of DEMAGOGUE.

  23. I flew through this in about 10 minutes, until screeching to a halt with only the TATRA and FLAT RACE pair remaining. They took, say, another 15 minutes, with TATRA going in via wordplay only. I then looked them up; I was formerly ignorant of them, so again I learned something today. Regards.
  24. Oh dear. Am I the only one that DNF? Stupidly it was the NW corner that defeated me, especially as I had “cast out” for 3d (with a shortened CASH).
    1. Nice clueing in this puzzle, I thought. Like most people, had never heard of tatra, but cryptic was pretty clear cut.
  25. // Am I the only one that DNF?//

    Nope. Well, I finished but had two wrong – BLOT OUT for 3d, and a desperate SKINTIE (like, wot you drink if you’re skint, innit?) for 17d. Both were underadequately parsed, so it serves me right. The entire southern half was a bit of a slog for me. I put it down to too much of the wrong type of solvents.

    I liked 7d (PUGNACITY), even though I cringe every time the ‘ackneyed Cockney makes han happearance. Isn’t it about time the Pearly Kings of Crypticdom were allowed to retire?

    TATRA just serves to reiterate the point I’ve made here before: it’s just no good giving in to these Johnny Foreigners’ place names. I’m sure that, like Everest, the Tatras have a proper English name bestowed by a proper English cartographer.

  26. I relatively flew through most (relative to my speed, not most of yours) and then got stuck in the SW. It took some work to get Demagogue (which I couldn’t parse) but that then let me in.

    Tatra was one of my first entries – I used to be a bit of a climbing nut and have a good few Polish friends. They are quite a large range!

  27. Oh dear! I’ve started the week making heavy weather of two easy ones, so I could be in for a hard time when the going gets tough. I began quite briskly – in fact the whole puzzle went pretty briskly apart from 14dn and 17dn.

    DEMAGOGUE has been on my list of difficult words for years (I keep wanting to spell it DEMOGOGUE, taking the O from δῆμος rather than the A from ἀγωγός) and for some reason I got it into my head that the “idol” was GOG (I’m relieved to see I wasn’t the only one). Eventually I twigged GAME = “strategy”, which hadn’t felt obvious at the time.

    After I’d finally cracked that, I returned to 17dn, with SPITTLE still looking as if it might be the answer, but for no good reason that I could come up with other than that it fitted. Eventually I twigged WIFE = “mate”, and finally finished in a miserable 9:45, when I’d thought at one time I might be heading for a clean sweep. (Sigh!)

  28. Even though pi is derived from pious, it has a separate entry in Chambers (and no doubt other dictionaries) so “for the most part” only applies to the nacho.
  29. Yesterday it took the only garage 20 minutes to change a switch, and today the post golf wait for transport was a short half hour. Those were the down times available for the puzzle, so both days I got right through the 2/3 of the grid that comes easily, and then was spared my usual next 45 minutes of staring and slow going. I am obliged to note yet another duck (add to eider, teal, widgeon, mallard, cave!, and douse) which I appreciated seeing.

    Edited at 2014-02-25 11:54 pm (UTC)

  30. Thank you sotira and chrisw . I think I will leave well alone and stick to paper. I do subscribe £25 per annum and will continue with the £100 pa when next due. Perhaps that will solve it.

    Thanks
    Brian

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