Times 25748 – And a warm welcome to the return of BST!

Solving time: 38 minutes

Music: Chopin, Mazurkas, Michelangeli

This was a medium-difficulty puzzle, where I was greatly aided by being able to get some of the long ones relatively early on. For me, 2 was a write-in, and 7 didn’t take very long to figure out. That gave me a lot of crossing letters, and I solved most of it in about 20 minutes only to get stuck for a bit at the end, mostly due to some well-concealed literals.

I had spent most of my weekend on my Federal, New Jersey, and New York income tax returns, so getting back to working on something I enjoy was refreshing. I could have relished a little more challenge, but that is always a dangerous wish on your blogging day.

Across
1 NEED-BLIND, double definition, one semi-jocular.
6 DEPOT, double definition, where the first is ‘de-pot’.
9 VICTIMLESS CRIME, VIC + TIM + LESS CRIME, with a DBE properly indicated by ‘perhaps’. Not such a great example, however, at least from the point of view of the honest policyholders.
10 RUMBLE, [g]RUMBLE.
11 COMANCHE, CO(MA)NCH + E[xplode]. ‘Native’ is not a good literal to indicate any sort of primitive or tribal individual, because everyone is a native of somewhere.
13 TOURNIQUET, anagram of OUR QUINTET, with a twisted literal that has to be taken to mean that it is of use for non-bleeding.
14 ASHY, A + SHY, a starter clue.
16 IBID, I + BID, an bibliographical abbreviation of ‘ibidem’.
17 MATTERHORN, MATTE-R + HORN, another jokey one.
19 UNABATED, U + NAB A TED. Yeah, let’s send the rozzers to Dorset, they might be able to catch one of the last surviving ones.
20 COBWEB, C + OB[it] + WEB, one from Midsummer Night’s Dream.
23 PRIVY COUNSELLOR, anagram RUNS LIVERPOOL C[it]Y.
24 DONOR, DO(N)OR, another starter clue.
25 TOTALISER, anagram of ARISTOTLE. Would he have had a flutter?.
 
Down
1 NEVER, half of NEVER-NEVER, a UK expression many overseas solvers probably won’t know.
2 EXCOMMUNICATION, [t]EX[t] + COMMUNICATION, rather obsolete nowadays.
3 BRISLING, BRIS[t]LING, nothing to do with ‘ling’ as I first supposed.
4 IDLY, [b]I[g] D[e]L[a]Y, another rather easy one.
5 DISHONESTY, DISH(ONE’S [par]T[ner])Y. My last one, just shoved in from the literal.
6 DECLAW, DEC LAW, one that the cats probably voted against!.
7 PRINCESS OF WALES, anagram of C + ASPERSIONS FLEW. The title is vacant because Camilla did not think it would be proper to assume it.
8 TREVELYAN, T(REV + ELY)AN, where TAN = ‘tangent’, a trigonometric function.
12 SQUARE ROOT, SQUARE + R(O)OT, with an unindicated DBE of ‘for one, one’.
13 TRICUSPID, anagram of IS CURT + P[age] + ID.
15 ARBOREAL, [g]ARBO + REAL, another clever literal.
18 SAWYER, double definition, with ‘deal’ referring to pine boards, as is often the case.
21 BORER, BO(R)ER. Yes, the Boer War is certainly yesterday’s news.
22 KNIT, K(N)IT. I nearly put in ‘ring’, which fits the cryptic but not the literal. Sometimes you have to read the whole clue!

66 comments on “Times 25748 – And a warm welcome to the return of BST!”

  1. Another one with the wrong COUNCILLOR and so ARBOREAL in last. But the clue for the latter is very good indeed and couldn’t possibly have led to ARMORIAL! What is it with SAWYERs lately?
  2. 77 minutes, finishing with ARBOREAL after I’d corrected ‘councillor’ to COUNSELLOR. I didn’t know the ugly NEED-BLIND, so that and the clever NEVER (my COD) also formed part of the rearguard. A nice mix of clues, I thought, with the delinquent ted at 17 making me ponder, if only for a second, whether this might not be the work of a certain setter who has expressed concerns about the power of the cruciverbal blog.
  3. Not so much a DNF as a HS (hardly started). I had a handful of answers after 30 minutes and gave up.

    This was one of those cases where I think the setter must live in a different world from me.

    For what it’s worth I don’t think insurance fraud is a victimless crime – that normally refers to consensual (but illegal) acts such as prostitution, drug-taking and gambling.

    Edited at 2014-03-31 03:46 am (UTC)

    1. I agree – no fraud is victimless. With insurance all the other policyholders and the shareholders are victims.

    2. I too gave up on this one early doors, as I felt I was getting nowhere. Looking at the blog (thanks!), I’m glad I did… too much unknown vocab today (NEED-BLIND, COMANCHE, BRISLING, TREVELYAN…) for me to make it an enjoyable solve…
    3. I’ve struggled to think of what would truly constitute a victimless crime, and perhaps insurance fraud would merit at least a question mark at the end. Arguably, though, Vic and Tim’s offence is as nothing compared to the crimeless victims created by insurance companies’ spurious charges. Did I not read recently of a small pension that was wiped out by the charges. Ah yes, Sunday Times yesterday, reprinted for those who won’t afford the entrance fee:

      “Abbey, now owned by Deustche (sic) Bank, and Allied, part of Swiss insurer Zurich, routinely impose high exit fines on pension savers of up to 25%. Advisers have cited a case where Allied Dunbar demanded a 64% exit penalty on a personal pension.

      Abbey Life told a customer that his small pension of £140 would be wiped out completely if he tried to leave.”

      Not to mention the cold calling agents who try to sell you insurance you already have and in any case don’t need.

      Edited at 2014-03-31 08:00 am (UTC)

  4. Quite a chewy puzzle for a Monday, I found. It took me 50 minutes including parsing. A rather slow start was not helped by writing FIAT at 16ac which put paid to any hope of solving 2dn at an early stage. I never heard of NEED-BLIND (it’s hyphenated, btw) and I’d never have thought of the historian without having most of the checkers in place.

    Teddy boys nearly always get a bad press in Times puzzles and I have often remarked how unfair this is, but I have recently been reminded of unfortunate events in which some of them played a leading role in the late summer of 1958 and I imagine this may be the source of those negative connotations, however unjust that may be to the majority of them who were not involved.

    Edited at 2014-03-31 02:28 am (UTC)

        1. I think the main event that started the popular press tarnishing the Teddy Boy was the murder of John Beckley on Clapham Common in 1953 – some 5 years before the Notting Hill riots. As was and is usual with such press coverage it created far more myth than anything else – as we have both said often enough.
  5. I struggled with this, never quite getting on the setters wavelength. I guessed 1A – my last in – from checkers; not a phrase I’m familiar with. 30 minutes to solve.

    Vinyl, I doubt the Met know where Dorset is!

  6. 19’9″, good stuff too, where very little yielded at first glance.
    NEED-BLIND was my last in, not in my dictionary, the ever-popular Big Red Disc (2003) version. I was going to conjecture that it was Miltonian and nobody had bothered to use it since, but I see it’s alive and kicking in US college admission policies.
    At least 7d wasn’t Princess of Hearts – yuk – but is took me a while to disentangle the anagram fodder, and even to see that it was an anagram – it was pretty smooth and appositely referenced conspiracy theories. Perhaps the setter has a moonlighting job on the Daily Express.
    DECLAW was my Fave of the Day, with a special mention for TREVELYAN for spelling assistance.

    Edited at 2014-03-31 08:01 am (UTC)

  7. Grateful of your help … I get the “matte” and the “horn”, but where does the “r” come from?
    1. It’s “not so bright” which leads to the comparative “MATTER”. Whether that’s a real word or not is an interesting question, but in croswordland, it’s logical and grammatical so it’s also OK.
  8. 29:42 .. and I struggled to find anything to make up for the truly ghastly NEED-BLIND. Whoever coined that one should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

    I’m glad somebody enjoyed DECLAW because I sure didn’t. I was imagining the look on my (non-solving) partner’s face while I tried to explain that ‘Dec law’ was a ‘rule for Christmas’. I think the look would best be described as pitying.

    Just not my cup of tea at all so I’ll shut up.

      1. Why, thank ‘ee, B’y.

        Of course, I shall now have to learn Cornish. I found a website which offers my sort of language learning, kicking off with:
        Leun a sylli yw ow skath bargesi (My hovercraft
        is full of eels), which I gather will be immediately familiar to certain Python-loving visitors to this site.

        I’m bunking in a holiday flat as of yesterday, jimbo, but the great house search starts tomorrow.

        1. Welcome back to Blighty, Sotira. And I’m with you on DECLAW – surely one of the silliest clues in a long while; should have been strangled at birth by the crossword editor! But then again there’s no accounting for taste. This just wasn’t mine.
  9. I was pleased to get the historian off just the Y, and even more pleased to recognise the delinquent straight away – thereby opening up the entire SW. Didn’t know totaliser at all, never-never well enough to drag it up, and am only familiar with the form needS-blind — very important to financial aid for US college tuition.
  10. My experience was very much like sotira’s: 29m and I didn’t enjoy it much.
    Anyone who drives a car in the UK is a victim of insurance fraud in the form of bogus whiplash claims.
    1. In Hong Kong, passengers standing on buses have a disturbing tendency to fall over as soon as a driver hits the brake pedal, an action which is followed by writhing around on the floor and much screaming – often accompanied by a friend capturing the writhing about on their phone – and swiftly followed by a lawyer’s letter to the bus company.
    2. I agree, too, DECLAW an awful clue and I didn’t get 1ac, apart from that it was a strangely unenjoyable puzzle, 35 minutes to DNF.
  11. Thought this a superb crossword. Just the right amount of challenge and considerable enjoyment gained from many of the clues. Thanks, setter. About 32 mins.
  12. A few seconds under 29 mins and I was very much not on the setter’s wavelength, particularly in the top half of the puzzle. I agree with those of you who are of the opinion that it wasn’t a lot of fun. DECLAW was my LOI when I went back to it after I finally got NEVER (good clue), VICTIMLESS CRIME (there should definitely have been a ? at the end of the clue) and NEED-BLIND (previously unknown and finally teased out from the wordplay once all the checkers were in place).
  13. I quite enjoyed the struggle too, with enough pretty decent clues to outweigh the ones I wasn’t so keen on. 27 minutes.
  14. A good three-quarters of an hour or more on this, but no complaints. I too was held up by NEED BLIND having only met the expression “needs blind”; delayed also by 9, thinking that there must be a victimless something else I was searching for. Liked 24 (my COD) and 13; this setter has found some fine anagrams.

    Always think of Beyond Our Ken when seeing the answer to 17, vaguely remembering a recurring joke about “What’s the matter, Horne?”

    Teds. The Battle of St Mary Cray, Saturday 24 April 1954. From the Orpington & Kentish Times:

    ”Gang Battle” At Railway Station: Edwardian Youths In Half Hour Fight: Wooden Stakes, Sand Filled Socks As Weapons

    The national press gave the story wider publicity and Teddy Boys became symbols of indiscipline and moral decline. They also provided the theme for a gruesome playground song, sung to the tune of Davy Crockett.

  15. 42min : first read through of clues gave only two answers in about 5 minutes, so an unexpectedly hard Monday. I’d not come across 1ac before, but eventually saw what was required, though Chambers was no help.
  16. Very slow and steady today, and nearly fell foul of failing to check the grid when I noticed that I had not filled in 21d. Count me as another who didn’t know ‘need-blind’, and I sincerely hope that I don’t need to know it again. Why do people invent neologisms when there are already perfectly good expressions available to them?
  17. 45 minutes. Like some others, I made a very slow start but after getting 2 and 23 it all started coming together. Last solves were 1dn and 1ac, the latter being totally unfamiliar, one of those words that one might come across in a crossword or a dictionary but never in any other printed text.
  18. I too was in the ‘wrong spelling of counsellor, couldn’t get 15d for ages’ club – 18:27 altogether.
  19. 17:05 so certainly trickier than a “normal” Monday although I didn’t find this the joyless slog that others clearly did.

    Need-blind unknown, Trevelyan and brisling dredged from outlying parts of my knowledge pool (if my brain were the solar system they were floating around between Jupiter and Saturn).

    Delighted to hear that our precious cargo has arrived safely in that Cornwall. According to Wiki Trevelyan is “is a Cornish surname derived from a Cornish place meaning “Village of Elian” so even the crossword is paying tribute.

    1. I did notice that but modesty forbade … plus, the Trevelyan in question was from Stratford-on-Avon, which rather takes the icing off the cake.

      And thank you. “Precious cargo” definitely beats “excess baggage”, which was a valid alternative.

  20. Born in a billiard hall in Battersea,
    joined the Teds when he was only three.
    Coshed a cop when he was only four,
    and now he’s in Dartmoor for ever more
    Davy, Davy Crocket, king of the Teddy Boys.
  21. 59m and needed aids for the dissatisfying 1a and 6d both unknowns and ungettable for me with the help offered in the clue. 13d was also unknown but the cryptic at least gave me a chance to work it out. This I find is never true of these question mark clues for which you have to be on the setter’s ‘wavelength’ and I never was today. I was grateful for the blog to explain the various obscurities so thanks to blogger.

    Edited at 2014-03-31 02:04 pm (UTC)

  22. “NEED-BLIND […] but I see it’s alive and kicking in US college admission policies.”

    Since only one person has said they know the expression, and I’ve never heard it, can you give an example please of how ‘need-blind’ is used and/or what it means?

    1. I’m quite happy to acknowledge that my crossword solving brain has a (post solve, of course) direct connection to the sum of human knowledge plumbed through my fingers. That said, I’m actually slightly disappointed it’s not Milton.
      One of the great joys of cryptic crossword solving is that you don’t have to have a word in your vocabulary to solve it. If the clue had just been the concise “Regardless of circumstances” I would have struggled. With its wordplay, it’s gettable, and even amusing.
    2. ‘Beginning with the Class of 2007, Brown implemented its need-blind admission policy. Need-blind admission simply means that an applicant’s ability to pay for their education will not be a factor in the admission decision. In other words, a candidate’s financial need will not be taken into consideration when deciding to admit, wait list, or deny an applicant.’

      Isn’t Google great? 😉

      Edited at 2014-03-31 01:41 pm (UTC)

  23. I’ve taken the view recently that the Times Cryptic is always solvable (by me) even if the answers have to be dragged out kicking and screaming.

    That was certainly true today with probably less than half done in 40 minutes but perseverance paid off, limping home in about 90 minutes.

    I particularly liked the clueing of SQUARE ROOT as ‘For one, one’.

  24. Nicely blogged vinyl1.
    All correct today but only thanks to a lucky guess at the unknown Need Blind.
    I beg to differ with you Sarah, Mike and pipkirby – I thought Declaw was great fun!
    FOI Excommunication, LOI Need Blind.
    1. As Mike said, it’s a matter of taste, and where one’s personal limits of setter’s licence lie. And the truth is I get pitying looks from my partner if I’m asked to explain almost any cryptic clue, even the great ones. Some people just don’t understand our obsession (and it’s funny how many of us seem to end up living with one of them!).
  25. I got there in the end with this, guessing NEED BLIND, of which I’ve never heard. Like others, I found it a slog and not in the least enjoyable. The Times hasn’t bothered to reply to my query as to why the new quick cryptic crossword is not available in the Dublin-printed paper, so all in all I’m feeling particularly grumpy. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
    1. There was an answer from the Crossword Editor but elsewhere and I cannot immediately trace it. Apparently the Irish version just has less space for Mindgames and something has to suffer. If I find the quote, I will forward it.
      1. Thanks for that. Personally I could do without some of the other puzzles ( Quick Crossword, Polygon, Codeword, Chess etc) Perhaps The puzzles Editor might like to consult the readership as to which puzzle they’d prefer . . .
        1. This from the Crossword Editor

          Question

          Does anyone know why the Quick Cryptic is not available in the Irish version of the hard copy newspaper?

          bannman ie Editor

          RE: New Crossword in the Times From Monday 10 March
          posted 29/03/14 09:08

          I’ve made some enquiries about that. The Mind Games section of the paper is scaled down in Irish Republic editions. I guess it just hasn’t “made the cut”

          RR

          Edited at 2014-03-31 06:46 pm (UTC)

  26. I struggled with this but after 30 minutes I had everything except 1a. Fortunately there weren’t many options that fitted the checkers. It was NOEL/NEED followed by BLIND/BUILD. I’ve never heard of the answer but it made a bit more sense than the alternatives. I don’t remember the Davy Crockett parody but the reference to Teddy Boys reminded me of the “Ballad of Bethnal Green” –

    “One fine day in the month of May
    She found her true romance.
    He was tall and sleek with a scar on his cheek
    And a pair of drainpipe pants….”

    This protagonist also ended up in clink

    “He went before a man of the law
    Who said ‘This will not do.
    I have had enough of the sort of stuff
    That I get from the likes of you…'”

    Sung and written by Paddy somebody. Ann

      1. Of course. I’m getting forgetful. I think I’ve got a song book of his stuff somewhere. A sort of Tom Lehrer Lite. He wrote a boy-scout/girl-guide ditty that compares with “Be prepared” but, unlike Lehrer, his humour is always gentle. Thanks for reminding me.
  27. Over an hour for this one, not really a fun puzzle, but a challenge. As with others didn’t know 1ac or 9ac. I don’t think any crime is victimless, think of the parents of the teen-ager who takes drugs, for instance.

    I know I am old fashioned in this view, but Trevelyan is one of my favourite historians. Yes he was biased but his analysis was excellent and I always found his writing elegant.

    Nairobi Wallah

  28. I think I was too tired when I started on this one, 25 minutes, but I felt I should have been able to get through it a little easier, having encountered NEED BLIND and NEVER NEVER elsewhere recently.

    I used to teach a composition class where I had students learn conventions of clueing and wrote their own clues – one of my clueing challenges was ARISTOTLE and I got almost the reverse of the TOTALISER clue from a student.

  29. Not quite a write-in Monday, but a slow, steady solve, from south to north, about an hour, and fairly enjoyable. LOI NEED-BLIND and DECLAW, which were not quite within the orbit of Saturn for me, more like the Oort Cloud. Guessed the former, needed aids to get to the latter – but when the light bulb came on and it seemed like a fair clue after all. FOI TOURNIQUET.

    TRICUSPID slightly easier than last week’s PAEDODONTIC, but gives rise to the thought that our esteemed setter has just got round to reading that long-ignored “Dentistry for Beginners” volume.

    VICTIMLESS CRIME reminds me of Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) explaining to Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) “… one farthing, on all the premiums, on all the policies, for all the next year …” (film clip on YouTube under “The Ladykillers (1955) – Can’t return the money”).

  30. Vinyl, thanks for the blog. I guessed cobweb, but still don’t really get it. Is “Ob” short for Oberon or “obit”? If the former, is there an abbreviation indicator? If the latter, how does “died” mean obit? I am the only one to query, so must be having a senior moment.
    Thanks.
    1. From the OED:
      Ob., v.
      intr. Placed before the date of a person’s death (past tense): died.

      Etymology: Shortened < classical Latin obiit, 3rd singular perfect indicative of obīre to die

      Edited at 2014-04-01 04:19 am (UTC)

  31. About 40 minutes, ending with NEVER/RUMBLE. I’m apparently one of those overseas solvers who hadn’t heard of NEVER NEVER. I had heard of NEED-BLIND, but as others have said only in relation to college admission, so I was surprised to see it here. I liked DECLAW for the silliness. Regards.
  32. I knew this one from watching the “The Andy Griffith Show” reruns. There was a recurring character on the show by the name of Malcolm Merriweather, played by the Welsh actor Bernard Fox. Malcolm hailed from Heckmondwike in West Yorkshire. He used many British idioms, never never, bobby dazzler, bubble and squeak, a good dressing down, afters, clemmed and several currency references bobs, farthings, guineas, shillings etc. Very funny character.
  33. Well, I squeaked in at just 50 minutes over the quarter hour, with which I’m quite happy seeing the times of some of the greats here. I thought this was going to be a DNF (or, worse, a DEGHW), but it yielded to slow grinding.

    Like many here, I loathe NEED-BLIND as a phrase, and it seems to be generally unfamiliar. On the other hand, I’d probably say the same about a wide range of cricketing terms, obscure trees and alternate names for salmon.

    Didn’t know TREVELYAN as a historian, but got it from wordplay. I also misspelled COUNSELLOR as COUNCILLOR initially, until I stopped and checked the available letters properly.

    COD for me was SQUARE ROOT, because I thought it was cleverly disguised, and because it made me slap my forehead (it being the nearest to hand) when it clicked.

    FOI IDLY, LOI DISHONESTY.

    Nice to see a little triptych of medical terms appearing in the SW, especially TOURNIQUET. Brings to mind an episode a couple of years ago where a gentleman turned up with a badly gashed hand, and a piece of bungee cord wrapped tightly around his upper forearm as a tourniquet. He was very proud of himself for having stopped both the bleeding and the pain, so effectively that he’d been able to finish his afternoon’s work before coming in. His hand was a discouraging shade of grey by this point. In blatant contradiction of received medical wisdom, he only lost one and a half fingers. I suppose it’s lucky he hadn’t gashed his head.

  34. 17:59 for me. Despite never really being on the setter’s wavelength, I enjoyed this puzzle very much, particularly DECLAW (my LOI).

    Like others I hadn’t heard of NEED-BLIND; and I’d forgotten (if I ever knew) that PRIVY COUNSELLOR could be spelled that way, and wasted some time wondering if ARBOREAL could conceivably by spelled with an I instead of an E.

    On the subject of “teddy boy” songs, there’s one that includes the lines

    Don’t bother to wash, it’s sure to rain,
    Just remember your cosh and bicycle chain,
    For today’s the day the teddy boys have their picnic.

    I once heard someone attribute this to Noel Coward – but I’m not convinced.

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