TIMES 25796 – 12 ac, 5 dn, and that’s just the weather.

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Raining properly this morning in SW France, it’s not a Bank Holiday but it’s Roland Garros of course, so I passed on the dog walking to make a prompt start on my virgin grown-up crossword blog. A minute or two of panic as the NE corner didn’t give up its secrets quickly while the coffee was still hot, but 5 dn went in and thereafter a steady solve clockwise ending with the easy-when-you-see-it 1ac in 17 minutes. No words here required research and I think I ‘get’ all the parsing, but please put me right if I’m off piste.

Across
1 TETRAD – THE less H (hot) = TE, TRAD=jazz, def. ‘quartet’, a group of four anythings. For a while I was fixated on ‘cool’ featuring somehow in the answer.
5 UPSTAGED – Leading=UP, coach=STAGE, departs=D, def. ‘outmanoeuvred by player (actor?)’.
9 SAND-HOPPER – (DON PERHAPS)*, Talitrus saltator, a small but annoying little beastie found on European beaches.
10 AIDA – ‘Ultimately’ operA verdI composeD pashA, def. the opera he wrote.
11 BLOCKADE – some hair=LOCK, included in instructed=BADE, def. ‘cut off’.
12 WINTRY – Succeed=WIN, score=TRY, def. ‘characteristic of one season’.
13 DELI – Directed to left = LED reversed = DEL, one=I, def. the usual ‘food store’ we find in crosswords.
15 OVERLOOK – Double def. Easiest clue in the grid?
18 CUT GLASS – Naval weapon = CUTLASS, insert G (girl initially) def. ‘refined’, as in a cut glass accent.
19 SINK – Succeed=S, something needed in putting = INK (we’re thinking about putting down on paper, not golf), def. ‘in kitchen.’ At least, that’s one way of parsing it. As commented below, it is better parsed (as Jimbo says, simpler is better) as a double def. SINK = success in putting and SINK = something needed in kitchen. I’ll buy either.
21 BARBEL – BABEL (where confusion reigned) about R=river, def. a genus of carp-like fish found in our rivers. Apparently the roe is poisonous, with unpleasant gastric effects, so refuse it if offered.
23 STREAKER – Amusing cryptic def., following on from ECDYSIAST last week. Same setter?
25 LIEN – A lien is a legal term for a right to something; ALIEN=foreigner, with the A ‘rejected’.
26 TAILOR-MADE – (MATERIAL DO)*, def. ‘for specific purpose’.
27 UNDERDOG – Make rare = UNDERDO, as in a steak; add G = gaffe initially, def. ‘outsider’ as in a tennis match, not the favourite.
28 DISOWN – What comes next = DOWN (this being the last Across clue), with IS included, def. ‘cast aside’.

Down
2 EMAIL – Def. ‘message’, I think it’s a homonym of FEMALE with her ‘top’ F removed.
3 REDACTING – Syndicate=RING, insert ED (as editor) and ACT (operate), def. ‘preparing for publication’. Well, preparing for publication so the good bits are obliterated, more often, or do I watch too much HOMELAND.
4 DVORAK – (VODKA R)*, def. ‘composer’. R from the end of BAR. Underrated chap, in my view, I went through a serious ‘Dvorak period’ in my undergrad days.
5 UNPREPOSSESSING – (PUN)* followed by RE (about) POSSES (legal support groups) SING (confess), def. off-putting. My putting was off on Saturday.
6 SHREWDER – Scold=SHREW (as in The Taming of), duke=D, R = king, I can’t see where the E comes from unless DE is an abbrev. for duke? Def. ‘more crafty’.
7 AGAIN – Double def. Again as in ‘there again’, and A GAIN being a change for the better.
8 EIDERDOWN – RED IE turned up = EIDER, DOWN=blue, def. ‘bedcover.’ When you see bedcover in a puzzle, think eiderdown.
14 EDUCATION – (AUCTIONED)*, def. ‘what may be completed by degrees’. A touch of cynicism here, degrees for sale?
16 LAS PALMAS – LASS is around PALMA, the capital of Majorca, answer the resort and joint capital, full name Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
17 BALLOTED – First of bills=B, assigned=ALLOTED, def. ‘subjected to vote’.
20 ARNOLD – (LANDOR)*, Matthew Arnold, poet, school inspector and son of the headmaster, Tom.
22 BINGE – Def. ‘spree’, EG and NIB heading north i.e. reversed.
24 ENDOW – Hidden in CHILDR(EN DO W)ANT, def. ‘present’ as in give to.

That’s all, folks!

43 comments on “TIMES 25796 – 12 ac, 5 dn, and that’s just the weather.”

  1. I really enjoyed this crossword; I thought it had some excellent clues, eg 9ac, 18 & 28ac, 5 & 14 dn.

    Nice blog too, just a reminder that we bloggers are not supposed to use answers to clues as part of the title, as some get to see the title before having done the crossword..

      1. In my gmail intray, for example
        It doesn’t bother me but when I did it I got told off so I’m passing it on 🙂
  2. Thinks, Pip, for volunteering…much appreciated…

    Quick one for me today, with all complete in 25mins. Reading the blog, I didn’t parse AIDA, nor did I really understand AGAIN, my LOI. Now I realise I was thinking of the wrong sort of better… Didn’t know POSSES as ‘legal support’ groups, but the rest was clear.

    Oh, and I parsed SINK as Succeed (S) in (IN) putting something needed in kitchen (K). Ie you need a letter K to make kitchen. The whole clue is an &lit (I think)

  3. It continues to rain here Pip. A couple of nights ago we had best part of an inch and the same forecast for later this week. Rivers remain high and the land is still very wet.

    Glad to see you coped OK with the blog – well done. Quite a friendly puzzle really. I think 19A is a simple double definition in keeping with the rest of the puzzle. The more complex constructions being suggested don’t chime with the rest of it – or look upon it as a simple application of Occam’s Razor if you prefer.

    Interesting election result down your way and here too!

  4. In shrewder the king is ER, Edward Rex. Can’t see the ink working in sink (it would need ‘putting down’ perhaps) nor the k as kitchen (or the &lit there) while the golf term works perfectly. 22 min. dead. A workmanlike but dullish puzzle I thought.
  5. 10 mins, although like Keriothe I thought it was going to be a longer solve at first. I agree with those who are of the opinion that SINK is a simple DD, i.e. “succeed in putting” and “something needed in kitchen”, and I thought it was clever misdirection by the setter to use “succeed” in both 12ac and 19ac without it referring to “s” in either clue.

    The CUT GLASS/UNPREPOSSESSING crossers were my last ones in.

  6. 11m. This was straightforward in the end, but at first I thought it was going to be tricky, because nothing in the top half before DELI yielded on first view.
    Thanks for the blog, Pip. In 19ac I think we are thinking about golf, because to SINK is to ‘succeed in putting’.
    1. Ah indeed it must be a double def. as well. But there again the INK bit works!
  7. I struggled to finish this with the NW quarter giving most trouble. Never thought of REDACTION – a word I learnt only quite recently in the context of fiddled expense claims and other activities of dishonest politicians (is that a tautology?) so I associate it more with prevention from publication. Also couldn’t think past BLOCKAGE at 11ac though I knew it wasn’t right. The rest of it went in smoothly but very slowly.
  8. Really enjoyed this one, particularly (as some others) 1 and 9 ac, and 14 d. 18 mins of happiness with a sharp pencil. However I thought 24 ac was a bit iffy but clear from the def.
  9. 18 min: joekobi beat me to it on comments.
    11ac was LOI, as it took me a while to think of a message to fit E-A– at 2dn.
  10. I found this rather easy (16 minutes)and not very interesting. There’s very little subterfuge, and what little there is doesn’t take long to see through (eg 1a, 19a, with its odd surface). EDUCATION/AUCTIONED is a bog-standard anagram that doesn’t need any thought, and I’m not sure what the surface means. ‘Lass’ has been used twice for wordplay elements. The rest is a mix of the blindingly obvious (eg 15, 23) and a few that needed a bit more thought, such as 21 and 27.
  11. 10:34 the last 1:34 of which was spent trying to work out 11a. I liked the ‘succeeded in putting’ d’oh moment. Excellent first blog, thank you.
  12. I liked this mix of easy and not-so-easy clues which I finished in well under the half hour. Just right for the start of the week for me.
  13. Not much to say about the crossword as it was quite easy as you indicated, Pip, but I just wanted to congratulate you on your first ‘grown-up’ blog! Incidentally, my wife, Sue, an Aussie but born in N.Z. refers to an eiderdown as a doona. Just off to walk doggies but, although it has been dry for the most part here on the border between Mayenne and Lower Normandy, the sky is looking ominously dark off in your direction, Pip!
    1. Is that you, the MartinP? If so, I thought you had moved back to the UK, but clearly I was wrong about that.. nice to see a picture

      Why doona? Sounds like something that isn’t quite a googly

      1. THE MartinP?! That’s kind of you, Jerry! Yes, we did move from Sydney to England (The Cotswolds) but paying rent was depleting our resources so we returned to our house in France last September. I’ve started a blog about our life here: http://martinsfrenchblog.wordpress.com if you have a few spare moments.
        I don’t comment much on TftT these days and usually only on the Quickie. Oh, Aussies call a duvet a doona – I’ve no idea why.
        1. Envy’s not the word , Martin ; looks glorious. I will regularly visit your blog. Is Bruno any relation to Rothko?
          1. Next time I see Leo, I’ll tell him! He’ll be delighted! And I agree, his work is Rothko-esque.
            1. That’s how I get crosswords wrong ; Bruno iSn’t even an anagram of Baron!
  14. 17:40 .. well done, Pip. Nice work.

    I thought TETRAD was a beautiful clue. Great surface and slick wordplay. It was my last in and my COD.

  15. 20m so a slowish start to the week, held up by three or four I should have seen more quickly. I agree with Sotira about TETRAD and I also liked UNDERDOG. Not helped by bunging in ROLAND in haste at 20d, without stopping to think that he probably didn’t write his Chanson.
    1. another ROLAND ici.. it did occur to me, after a minute or two, that he may have been the subject not the author, but I still think we are showing off our classical credentials here 🙂
  16. 15 minutes, greatly enlivened by the symmetrical opposites at 1 and 28. And (chacun à son goût, M dyste) I actually thought the EDUCATION clue rather good: the clue read reasonably well, and I would be pushed to give a clear distinction between “an anagram” and “a bog standard anagram”. An anagram is just a trestle, isn’t it?
    Congrats Pip on a very decent first “grown up” blog. I hope you’ll feel encouraged to go on the piste to celebrate!
    1. If one is worried about where the first answer is coming from a straightforward anagram might also be a settler.

      Edited at 2014-05-26 05:05 pm (UTC)

  17. 32m here with all parsed as well. Thanks for the blog, Pip, the first of many I hope. No standouts but I liked the EDUCATION anagram and TETRAD.
  18. Very nice blog, Pip.
    I worked this one in bits and pieces between chores; that made the difference between the easy ones and the difficult ones particularly obvious.
  19. Many thanks Pip for a sterling effort. I also thought that the clue for ‘tetrad’ was a nice one, likewise ‘sink’ and ‘disown’.
    Other than that, not much to sat about an enjoyable crossword, so I’ll just add for paul_in_london’s benefit that I appreciate another dog picture.
    1. And a collie, no less. This is Violet as a carry-on size puppy, who is about 30 seconds from climbing out of her bag and romping around the cabin of an airplane.
  20. Enjoyable, with all the clue construction relatively simple, but not always simple to spot!

    Completed while watching a superbly cast, but otherwise pedestrian, version of “Ivanhoe” on the box (well it was a Bank Holiday), so no timings possible.

    My COD goes to TETRAD.

    1. Apparently you are correct, it’s a homophone, but I read Biochemistry not English so excuse my ignorance of these technical terms (in haste didn’t check it first).
  21. I was waiting for one of the comment on thus, but shouldn’t ALLOTTED in 17 down have two Ts? That’s how Chambers spells it and I can’t find any dictionary support for just the one T. There’s no indication in the clue (that I can see) that a T should be removed from the standard spelling.

    I’m surprised nobody else has mentioned this.

    1. The first line should “I’m waiting for someone to comment on” this – I’m sure that’s what I wrote but it somehow got mangled when I posted??
      1. Good question, maybe the setter has an answer !

        Edited at 2014-05-27 06:36 pm (UTC)

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