Times 25,791 – Out To Grass More Like

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I’m returning the compliment to Tim who stood in for me last week when I was away sampling the strudel and beer kellers.

Today we celebrate World Metrology Day with a measured puzzle having some labyrinthian qualities.

With well disguised definitions and some first class “lift and separates” this is a quality offering that may cause some difficulties. I had to work hard at itfor 30 minutes and only saw some of the parsing when writing the blog. Thanks to the setter

Across
1 DEBIT,CARD – DR-ACT-I-BED all reversed;
6 DUMBO – OB-MUD all reversed; OB=obit=died; DUMBO is an elephant;
9 TANKINI – TANKIN(g)-I; “take to the cleaners”=defeat heavily=tank; solved from definition and reverse engineered;
10 MUSKRAT – MUS(ARK reversed)T;
11 MIDAS,TOUCH – MI-DA’S-TOUCH;
12 VETO – VE(racruz)-TO(wnship); red light is definition;
14 STYLI – hidden (dyna)STY-LI(sted);
15 HOLD,COURT – HOT surrounds (could)*-R;
16 WITH,CHILD – WILD surrounds IT(H)CH; the proper phrase for up the duff etc.;
18 ARCED – A-RC-ED; RC=Roman Catholic;
20 OLID – OL(I)D; it means rank smelling;
21 REPRIMANDS – REP-RI(MAN)DS; carpets is definition;
25 TOBY,JUG – TO(B)Y-JUG; prison=JUG; “man getting drunk from” is definition;
26 OUTPACE – OUT-P-ACE; in bloom=OUT; parking=P; fine!=ACE!;
27 REDUX – RE(DU)X; from the French=DU; king=REX; brought back is definition;
28 ROYAL,GALA – (gaa + orally)*; gaa from G(u)A(v)A; eater is definition (it’s a type pf apple);
 
Down
1 DATUM – M(onitoring)-U(nit)-TAD all reversed;
2 BONE,DRY – (by drone)*; the definition refers to using hot air to dry something as in a hair dryer;
3 TRIP,SWITCH – TRIP-SWITCH; acid=LSD which gives the user a TRIP; rod=SWITCH;
4 AMIGO – (l)AM(p)-I-GO; have a crack=have a GO; china=friend=definition;
5 DOMICILED – DO(IM reversed)CILE-(roa)D; I’ll let the lawyers argue about domicile and residence;
6 DISH – three meanings 1=one who’s fetching (good looking); 2=receiver (as for Sky TV); 3=ruin=screw up;
7 MORCEAU – sounds like “morse o” which is – – -;
8 OUT,TO,STUD – OUT TO STUD(y); I love “serving in the field” – nice work if you can get it;
13 SCRAP,METAL – (smart place)*; estate=type of car;
14 SAW,DOCTOR – ROT-WAS reversed surrounds COD reversed; someone who services the teeth of a saw;
15 HEIDEGGER – HE-I’D-EG-G(E)R; ambassador=HE; say=EG; Greek=GR; Martin H 1889-1976 who pontificated about ontology;
17 TWIN,BED – DEBT reversed surrounds WIN=land;
19 CANTATA – CAN-TA-TA;
22 ROOMY – ROO-MY!; hopper=kangaroo;
23 SIENA – (sea in)*;
24 AJAX – sounds like “age (h)acks”; Achilles china;

51 comments on “Times 25,791 – Out To Grass More Like”

  1. Wholly agree – this was a challenging but never quite impossible puzzle full of knavish tricks which occupied me fully for just over 22 minutes – I see I’m still in an unprecedented (apart from just after midnight) third place.
    Two examples of how to do soundalikes in MORCEAU and AJAX that are, lets face it, more that a bit dodgy, that charm their way past the censor with cheerful enthusiasm. Both made me smile.
    “Eater” as a definition in 28 took forever to drop its penny – our Tescos isn’t posh enough and only vends the proletarian variety.
    And I learned, courtesy of crossing letters, how to spell Heidegger after all these years.

    Too many good’ns to isolate a CoD. Well set – um – Setter. And well blogged, Jim!

  2. I took 31 mins to solve this one so was delighted to see that I wasn’t alone in taking so long to solve this great crossword. Lots to enjoy but my top favourite is the ‘man getting drunk from’.
  3. Yes, excellent puzzle, well blogged DJ and good time z8. By the time my first answer went in near the bottom I knew this would be a challenge but well worth the struggle. 33 minutes.
  4. What a stinker !!! Well over an excruciating hour and I got two answers wrong. Fiendish clueing like the kind dished out by John Henderson. I must admit I enjoyed this – after all, aren’t we all masochists?

    Thank you, dorsetjimbo and the setter.

  5. 43:15 .. top-drawer stuff, for sure. And very satisfying, if you could finish it. I suspect in my first 10 years of solving, this would have beaten me. In my second, it would have taken me all day. 6 odd years of hanging around TfTT is the reason I can do this in a session. Just.

    Everything parsed and understood before submitting except ROYAL GALA, an unknown apple for me. But I still felt pretty confident about it, testament to the sure-footedness of the setting.

    So many ingenious clues, but OUT TO STUD made me laugh out loud so it’s an easy COD.

    Thanks setter, thanks jimbo.

    on edit: I see on the leaderboard a rare excursion into double figures for Magoo. Assuming he didn’t stop to make a cup of tea half-way through, this puzzle is officially hard

    Edited at 2014-05-20 08:59 am (UTC)

    1. Thank-you for the timescales – I feel like doing a chart. It seems I’m in the less than 10 year bracket as it took all day (after the Quick blog) but I had to peek at Dorsetjimbo’s blog in the end so DNF. I do like chewing on clues if, eventually, the answer comes. So cod to 13dn – when I had enough checkers to get it, I realised it was nothing like I’d been looking for.
      1. And I, in my first 10 years, was in fact beaten. Badly but enjoyably.
  6. Really enjoyed this challenge, stumbling like Devon Loch at the final fence, which like his turned out to be phamtom, hazarding ‘seno’ instead of the – with hindsight – obvious VETO. Ticks against 8, 10 and 15, and two against 26 (OUTPACE).

    Thanks to setter and Jimbo (especially for the full parsing of AJAX).

  7. Yes, this one stretched me to the very limits and took the better part of 2 hours, though with a break or two along the way and almost certainly at least one short spell of complete unconsciousness. I’m relieved to see my parsing of 9ac was incorrect as I had been working on an anagram of 1+ oN TAKINg topped and tailed. Solving this was not helped by ‘mankini’ being the only word I knew that seemed to fit the definition reasonably well. Very glad I didn’t get this to blog. Well done, Jim!
  8. 24 mins, which I’m more than happy with based on the comments above. I echo Sotira’s sentiment, and this puzzle would definitely have defeated me a few years ago. There were plenty of examples of top quality cluing throughout the puzzle, and deciding which elements of the clues to lift and separate was a real challenge. The REDUX/AJAX crossers were my last ones in.
  9. I disagree with most people here . This was a tortuous crossword and far from enjoyable. Even when I guessed the answers it was difficult to parse them and that , to me , does not make a good crossword.
    1. I tend to agree. If I want puzzles at this level of difficulty I will look elsewhere (e.g. the monthly). Coming on top of the ST (which I still haven’t quite finished) this was all really too much for a Tuesday morning.
  10. Got a sinking feeling when I saw all those lengthy clues and a first pass through didn’t give any footholds. Got even more worried when SAW DOCTOR and TANKINI were the first ones in. Not my kind of puzzle, but as tough challenges go it was a good one.

    COD to 22D, for the reminder of my favoured mode of locomotion during childhood summers.

  11. I took a while to get started and thought this was going to be a real stinker, but once I got into it the answers came steadily and I really enjoyed it – some top quality stuff.
  12. 18m here. I found this tough going to start with but once I had a few checkers it turned into a game of ‘spot the definition’ and over half my answers went in without a full (or in some cases partial) understanding of the wordplay.
  13. After my half-hour target time only 50% complete; took over an hour in total.

    Good stuff, well worth the effort; though I’ve heard of neither TANKINI nor “tanking”, other than in the context of a damp-proof liner for a cellar or in the expression “fairly tanking along”, which has almost the opposite meaning to that used in the clue.

    I might have known the acid was a mind-altering substance; here was I trying to get “tart” into the answer. There must be quite a few ageing hippies on the team of setters, I guess.

  14. . . . and for the first 10 minutes or so, looked like a DNS!

    There are good clues here but I agree with jackkt that this is probably a bit much for a weekday morning. Well blogged Jim.

    This ex-Tax guy is not going to get started on the crucial differences between Domicile and Residence.

    1. Quite right Big Tone, I am domiciled in Britain. Tough crossword, dnf and didn’t really enjoy it. I think these are getting harder.

      Nairobi Wallah

  15. Somewhere around the hour mark, but with RENO at 12A, which I’d hoped might be a place in Veracruz (whereever that is).

    I’m in the camp that enjoyed the challenge of this crossword. I like to feel that I’ve worked hard to squeeze the answers out. I also disagree with the comment about the variation in the difficulty – I have no problem with the puzzles ranging in difficulty from day to day.

  16. It certainly felt as if I’d dodged a bullet in swapping this one (luckily, Jim is clearly still feeling the residual invigorating effects of beer and sausages); I spent long enough just getting the right answers without necessarily being able to show my working in every case, so it was a nice one not to have to blog.

    Obviously a puzzle this tough was never going to please everyone, but I found the struggle well worth the effort (which isn’t always the case with the tougher daily puzzles – as always, I think, it’s that mysterious wavelength thing).

  17. Too tough for me, I’m afraid. The variation in the degree of difficulty of Times dailies is becoming a bit much.
  18. Way over an hour: at that time I was about half done, so saved it and went out shopping: hence saw 1ac immediately on return.
    I didn’t know the apple, but otherwise there were no unknowns, so I think the puzzle proved so difficult because many definitions were so well disguised.
  19. I felt some trepidation this morning when I saw the long clues and the somewhat awkward surfaces on this puzzle. It turned out to be fully justified when after 30 minutes I only had 6 isolated answers – DUMBO, MORCEAU, ARCED, REPRIMANDS, SIENA and OLID. I gave up and got on with my day. Had the builders in repairing the ceiling which had been brought down by a water leak. They’ve just left and I picked up the crossword again. I saw 1a straight away and in 20 minutes the rest fell like dominoes. It’s strange how one clue can unlock an entire puzzle! Didn’t enjoy the morning session and was feeling distinctly annoyed at the level of difficulty. But I enjoyed the storming finish and now feel suitably smug. Ann
  20. Yes, it took ages, but I finished all correct to my surprise, having guessed some answers (TANKINI, which I justified as having something to do with getting a tan in a bikini and OLID, neither of which appear in my dictionaries consulted post-solve, so I was sure I’d got something wrong). I had SET TO STUD for a long time (‘set’ is more akin to ‘intent’ than ‘out’ in my opinion) until I saw MORCEAU (good clue) and DUMBO. But I enjoyed this challenge.
    1. OLID is in Chambers, which seems to be one of the Dictionaries of Record used by The Times
      1. Thanks. I have a very old edition of Chambers, but the dog ate a certain amount of it when she was a puppy, including all the Os and most of the Ps! Collies, eh?
        1. Collies indeed. On my TftT screen (iPad) Chambers + ODE and Collins are available for
          download for free.
          1. Thanks again. I have tried that in the past but it doesn’t give you access to the full dictionary. I just tried to search for OLID and it just says, ‘sorry no entries found’. At one time when I was an editor and proof reader, I couldn’t have done without Chambers, but now I don’t do that any more I’m usually happy with the Oxford that came with my Mac. But I might eventually cough up the money for a new paper edition of the best dictionary!
            1. Again, it might be an iPad thing but I have full free on-line access to Chambers and OLID is a good word there.
              1. That’s the answer then. Get an iPad! I hanker after one, but can’t justify the cost. Seems a bit unfair of Apple/Chambers to offer it on the iPad but not the Mac, but it’s not the end of the world.
            2. I have Chambers on my iPhone and iPad, and it’s the full deal: it has OLID and TANKINI. It’s also much cheaper than buying the book.
                1. Indeed – sorry, I posted this at the same time as your previous reply. Certainly getting the device just for the dictionary would be a false economy… even if the big red book is a bit cumbersome to carry around in your pocket!
              1. I have an iPad but no access to the full works, so that olid for example is not given. Any way to remedy this as far as you know?
            3. No need to do that ,justin; just google the word. OLID isn’t on the Mac dictionary , as you say but most words can be found by googling them with “meaning” after it.
            4. Olid is in both the Collins online dictionary and the Oxford online dictionary. Both free
  21. 50 minutes but with tonkini. Thought of tanking as intransitive and missed the tan effect, going finally for tone. Splendid puzzle, something of the Midas touch about it.
  22. Very slow to get going but finally got a foothold in the SW corner, completed that, then the NW corner, then the SE and eventually had all in except three in the NE corner (Dumbo, Morceau and Veto). Quite a test – thank you setter.
  23. Too hard for me! Managed the SE corner after the first scan through gave me three separated answers across the whole grid, including MORCEAU which I loved. Managed about 50% of the rest with the whole NW corner blank and gave up. Certainly too hard for beginners, but thanks for the blog to explain everything. AJAX was far too contrived, and the others very devious. DNF.
  24. Whew! Definitely a hard one, which took a long while to get started. As it was, over an hour, ending with AMIGO. Very clever and devious, but satisfying at the end, without the setter resorting to many obscurities. OUT TO STUD got a chuckle from me. I hadn’t seen either OLID or MORCEAU before, so had to look them up post-solve, as well as the spelling of the philosopher. Well done Jimbo, and well done setter. Regards.
  25. Sheer doggedness got me through this one. After half an hour I had only 2 answers, but after a couple of sessions of at least half-an-hour each, I managed to complete it all bar 12a which I finally waved the white flag to.
    Bit of a curate’s egg I thought – some clues were fiendishly clever, others I had absolutely no idea how to parse.
    I used to think Tuesday’s were the easiest of the week.
  26. Quite agree with Barracuda 3, far too obscure in parsing for me, and possibly for general puzzle solvers. This puzzle required too much reliance on a guess without the ability to parse.
    I agree with anonymous that the scale of difficulty has recently much increased.
    Mike and Fay
  27. Well, I turned up hoping for a half hour’s enjoyment, then realised that I’d brought completely the wrong size of brain with me.

    I got maybe a third of the way, and was feeling quite cheerful when my usual method for identifying philosophers (reciting Monty Python’s Philosopher’s Song) worked for 15d. For anyone not familiar with this invaluable aide memoir, it begins:

    “Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
    Who was very rarely stable.
    Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
    Who could think you under the table.
    David Hume could out-consume
    Schopenhauer and Hegel,
    And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
    Who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.”

    But, from there on, things went from bad to worse. Had it not been for an amusing, imaginative and original punting accident*, I would have ended the day grumpy.

    (*for the record, when trying to stop a puntfull of people by pointing the pole forward and digging it into the riverbed, it is very inadvisable to have the top end of the pole anywhere near your mouth.)

    p.s. re. [deezzaa]’s comment that “I used to think Tuesday’s were the easiest of the week.” – that may yet be the case.

    Edited at 2014-05-20 09:55 pm (UTC)

  28. 24:39 for me. After an almost unbelievably slow start I eventually got going and worked my way slowly (very slowly!) but steadily from bottom to top, helped by some generous crossing letters. I don’t recall coming across ROYAL GALA before; nor TANK meaning “to defeat heavily”, so I was a bit nervous that I might just be imagining TANKINI.

    I raise my hat to the setter of this brilliant puzzle – pretty well every clue was a delight. This was Championship final grade, so I’m not surprised that some people found it difficult, but experienced solvers do need something a little more testing occasionally.

  29. After yesterday’s “on the wavelength” doddle, I found this a very tricky one, not helped by the two grim Northern Line commutes on which I did it. DNF with ROOMY and OUTPACE blank after an hour and several half-hearted returns. Agree that pretty well every clue was a delight.

    Had never heard of a TANKINI, but guessed it following the delightful bikini and the hideous mankini. Is -kini the fashion equivalent of the journalistic -gate as an entirely silly suffix?

  30. I could not finish this one late last night when I started to tackle it, but returned to the fray this morning and was rewarded. I held myself up by hazarding ‘relax’ at 27a, until I saw ‘twin bed’ then entered ‘redux’ from the wordplay, though I don’t recall meeting the term before. I had only a vague memory that ‘tankini’ had cropped up before: I must try to remember these newfangled things, like ‘mankini’ and ‘monokini’, but don’t think that I shall add any to my wardrobe.
    Thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.
  31. I really should have remembered ‘Phineas Redux’ from the Palliser novels, and, perhaps, ‘Rabbit Redux’, but, while they rang faint bells, I haven’t actually read either.

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