Times 25770

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 53:20

I solved most of this quite quickly, but came unstuck in the NE, and that took me an age to untangle.

Some good clues here – 19d was a good spot by the setter, also the notes in 10a and the substitution in 12a.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 HORSEWHIP = (HIRE SHOP)* about Wares
6 GU(PP)Y
9 SUGAR – rev hidden
10 brIve + SO-LA-TI + ON
11 TENT PEG – cd
12 MIDWIFE = MID-LIFE with L replaced by W
13 THE BUTLER DID IT – cd
17 SAVED BY THE BELL – cd
21 IN UTERO – hidden
23 ROT + A + TORy
25 AFTERGLOW = (OR WET FLAG)*
26 CU + BAN
27 AUDIT – I’m not sure where the ‘for cooking, say’ comes in – is it just a cd?
28 TURN LOOSE = (OR NO LET US)*
Down
1 HESITATE = SIT (to meet) in HEATEd
2 REGAN = maNAGER rev – one of King Lear’s daughters
3 ENRAPTURE = bridgE + NR + APT + URE
4 HAIR GEL = (RALEIGH)*
5 PROMMER = PRIMMER with I replaced by O
6 GRAN’D
7 P(RIM)IT + I’VE
8 YANKEE – dd
14 EVACUATED = TAU in DEC + AVE all rev
15 IDENTICAL = DENT in II (two) + CAL
16 FLORENCE = LORd in FENCE
18 BOOK + LET
19 TURF WAR = RAW FRUiT rev
20 CI(CAD)A
22 EGRET – becomes GREET if the opening E is moved to the middle
24 TAB + O + Original

51 comments on “Times 25770”

  1. But with many not parsed — so harder than it looks on the time. Yes … the work with notes 5-7 of the sol-fa scale in 10ac was pretty good. But far too many CDs for me today. That is, one is too many and three’s a crowd.
  2. I took 4 or 5 minutes on 5d (LOI) and 10ac; never heard of PROMMER so it took a long time and playing with the alphabet to come up with it. And for some reason, I got the SO LA but didn’t see the TI, so I was looking desperately for a parse. Also didn’t parse 1d and 19d. Which all helped make this a less than satisfying puzzle for me.
  3. What a contrast to yesterday! 12 minutes helped by nine going straight in from first pass of across clues. Some nice touches I thought, like ‘light, lingering’, ‘cleared up’ and ‘books for cooking’. No problem connecting via iPad but still failing to connect via Safari on iMac.
  4. After yesterday, a welcome return to normality, with some fun clueing and no unknowns.
    1. Agreed. Yesterday was not my cup of tea either. I found this on the easy side, with nothing particularly challenging. Quite a few from definition, then reverse engineered for parsing.
  5. Took just over an hour, but got there in the end, with THE BUTLER DID IT as LOI. Not an expression I’ve come across that often.

    HESITATE was unparsed (could it have been hesitant?), so was not sure if the initial T was correct. Also, dithered over PROMMER / primmer, so ISOLATION was another late one, and also unparsed. MIDWIFE also took a second look to make sure of the W.

  6. 16:57 .. I had most of this in less than 10 minutes but ENRAPTURE, EVACUATED and AUDIT took the rest of the time.

    I enjoy seeing phrases like THE BUTLER DID IT in a crossword, and the clue was a nice red herring — I was sure it would be something to do with tennis!

  7. A 20 minute workout for me today with amusement along the way. I chuckled at YANKEE, though I expect I’ve chuckled at it before. SO LA TI was generously scored when it could have been offered as a collection of notes. IDENTICAL struck me as one of those clever clues that offers a hint of smugness when you get it, and I’ll give it my CoD.
    I fell for the IT slant on 13ac, so it didn’t succumb until most everything else was in.

    Kudos and respect to our esteemed Ed. for his comments and action on yesterday’s weirdnesses.

  8. 45.07 so for me the hardest of the week by a stretch. Spoiler? (My last by a mile.) Gran’d? (I see it, but it’s unappealing.) Not my day…but glad to finish.
  9. Straightforward 20 minute puzzle with some good stuff marred by those weak cryptic definitions. I didn’t know PROMMER – thought they were “Prommenaders”

    Perhaps we can hear from an Accountant. I’m not certain than an auditor looks for fraud – I think that’s the job of the Fraud Squad. I think an auditor is more concerned with ensuring an enterprise is keeping adequate financial records and will report suspicion of fraud to the management.

    1. A standard audit report these days makes clear that the responsibility for the accounts and internal accounting procedures in a company falls squarely on the Directors, and the auditor’s job is only to report on whether the accounts are in accordance with those records and with current accounting practice. This comment is typical in an audit report – “We are not required to consider whether the board’s statements on internal control cover all risks and controls, or form an opinion on the effectiveness of the group’s corporate governance procedures or its risk and control procedures” Of course, auditors will report back to management on things that come up in the audit but ultimately, no auditor will take responsibility for not discovering things going on in the company.
      No-one ever said that chartered accountancy was rivetting but we do say Jim that actuaries are trainee chartered accountants who had to jack it in as it was too exciting :-)).
      1. Thanks to you and keriothe for confirming that doubt that was niggling away at the back of my mind.

        You’re right about actuaries of course, although the real turning point for me came when I realised that I lacked the charisma to succeed as an undertaker.

    2. You’re right, auditors don’t really look for fraud (beyond keeping a wary eye out). The reality is that it’s almost impossible to detect. This occurred to me when solving but I figured that 1) there are ways of cooking the books without committing outright fraud if you interpret the phrase loosely and 2) I’m prepared to cut the setter a bit of slack on this sort of techincality!
    3. I think that auditors are there to ensure that a company / business doesn’t overstate its profits (or “cook the books”) – this gives shareholders/investors (some) confidence in the results.

      The auditor’s report usually says something like the accounts give a “true and fair view” of the state of the company’s affairs.

      1. You are quite correct Anon but ‘true and fair’ is a very long way away from ‘accurate’.
  10. I still can’t access LiveJournal from my iPhone or iPad, but my office computer (which I haven’t seen for nearly three weeks!) doesn’t seem to have a problem.
    This took me 9 minutes, so I seem to have been on the wavelength. Quite a nice puzzle, even though quite a lot went in straight from definition. The editor’s taste for cryptic definitions is clearly being indulged by this setter. I’m not a particular fan of them – particularly in such concentration – but there’s nothing wrong with them.
      1. Weird. I haven’t been able to get access on any Mac device, including my wife’s laptop.
  11. Another DNF. Two missing – The Butler Did It and Evacuated.
    Was in Florence in summer 2012 on, by chance, the day the Mille Miglia came to town. Will never forget the sight and sound of all those sportscars, new and vintage – mostly Ferraris.
  12. Guessed this but given your explanation shouldn’t it have been ‘more disapproving when old becomes one’!?
  13. 19 minutes, FOI GUPPY, LOI IDENTICAL and CUBAN, liked the ‘delivery worker’ def. Was expecting more problems as it’s Friday.
  14. 21 mins with EVACUATED my LOI. All the clues were parsed as I entered them, and afterwards I felt that my time should have been faster because there was nothing too difficult here. I agree with those of you who said that this puzzle contained too many CDs, and I also agree that 19dn was a good spot by the setter.
  15. Some nice stuff here, and I reckon quite tough. I was just over the 30 minutes for this. Liked IDENTICAL which was my LOI, and the ‘raw fruit’ reversal was indeed a good spot. Nice Friday puzzle.

    (Apart from PROMMER.)

  16. 10:28 – having eaten lots of asparagus SPEARs from the garden this week, the fact that SUGAR was hidden took a while to spot which held me up with the fawning daughter.
  17. Really enjoyed the half hour or so spent on this. Only unknown PROMMER (like Jim thought they were promenaders) but the i-o substitution made it accessible enough. I liked the CDs (but I’m in the minority that likes this clue type!).
  18. Using safari on my ipad I have been unable to load the page for the past 2 days but if I use google search, I can get to it that way
      1. My site access issues yesterday were mainly on a windows laptop using IE8 but at home I couldn’t get on using either an iMac or iPod either until, on the latter, I selected the option to visit the mobile site. Access from the Mac worked later.
    1. Same here with Safari or Firefox on a Mac. There seem to be some ads loading on a never-ending loop. If you hit reload and escape in quick succession you will get past it.
        1. There must be some way of stopping the page from loading. It may be command or control + .
          Check the keyboard shortcuts. If not, you could use use the mobile version, that works on my iPod.
  19. 12:30 for me so largely straightforward.

    I can see how the two long CDs could cause hold-ups if you don’t spot them quickly with there being no “other way in”.

    Fun puzzle with some interesting devices.

    Thanks for explaining 1d Dave as I couldn’t parse that one.

  20. An hour 15, but all solved and parsed, so on the easier side. Agree with all the comments: some nice clues, unsure of the clue for audit – though the word is fine, and not keen on the word prommer – though the clue was fine.

    paul in london (but away from my computer and login)

  21. About 35 minutes, only due to being fouled up by the CD at 11A, where I confidently entered TENT PIN, because I thought that is what you UK folks called the TENT PEG. That led to HAIR NET. All this only straightened out when I realized that 13 had to be THE BUTLER…, so I had to go back and reengineer those two. So all three, I suppose, are my LOI. When finished I was reminded of the anecdote attributed to Teddy Roosevelt about a fellow of sudden wealth, saying upon meeting the man introduced as his butler: “I have no idea what you are to do, but one thing I do know – you get busy and buttle like hell!”.
    On that note, thanks to Dave and regards to all.
  22. 12:15 for me – currently going through another of my bad patches, I fear. I failed to parse all of my answers before submitting, but the ones I missed seemed blindlingly obvious afterwards.

    I thought this was a classic Times crossword, and, after yesterday’s, all the more enjoyable for it. Some nice cryptic definitions, particularly 13ac (THE BUTLER DID IT), which took me far longer than it should have done.

  23. Any barbershoppers out there will know another meaning. If you’re going to Harrogate, see you there.
  24. I felt like I was grinding through this, and was surprised when I saw I’d finished in 31min. BOOKLET was my LOI, mainly due to my misparsing the clue and wondering if there was some obscure historical term for “rent”.

    I never did manage to parse EGRET, and spent a long time looking for a bird to which an H could be added.

    Glad to see everyone here and well after my brief absence. I had some leave owed, and decided to catch up on my drinking, which has suffered of late due to pressure of work.

    Accident of the Day was a young entrepreneur who had poured half a ladle of molten metal down his boot. When he’s well enough, there are some gentlemen who will be talking to him about his hobby of making his own pound coins.

  25. Highly enjoyable, especially after yesterday’s expedition to the further reaches of the OED. 23 clues on the train Balham-Purley, the remainder, quickly, on the way back, about 35 minutes in all.

    As with nearly everybody, just couldn’t see why “for cooking, say” was part of the clue for AUDIT, and kept that in reserve until I had all the crossers, and even later. “For cooking” implies the auditor is part of the “cooking” process, whereas – if anything – it is the reverse, quite apart from the legal niceties of audit as explained at length above. Poor clue. Especially as many Times readers will have had some experience of company audits, in active or passive roles.

    FOI HORSEWHIP, LOI PROMMER (I was one, many years ago), COD EVACUATED for giving the humble “tau” a starring role.

    1. The way I read it, the clue is desribing an AUDIT as a review of the books to look for cooking. In the same way you might say that an AUDIT is a review of the books for accouting errors.
      1. Yes, thanks, on a second reading it makes sense. I suppose it’s deliberately ambiguous to confuse literal-minded chaps like me. (It’s like one of those pictures where you see a long legged dancer, then look again and it’s the face of an old crone.)
  26. 36 minutes ending with 14 and the excellent 13. Have endured 36 hours of problems – not excluding trying to send this comment – with LJ on PC(s) and iPad.

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