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

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
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. 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”).

  2. 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.
    2. 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)

  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

  6. 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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