Times 25,719

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
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 RETSINA – CANISTER 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. 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)

  2. 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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