Times 25818 – Bring The Jubilee

Hello again, it’s good to be back. I must first apologise for my no-show two weeks ago today: I happened to be in a hotel room in Berlin, and was quite looking forward to getting clue-stuck over Frühstück when it came to my attention that my laptop charging cable had stayed behind in London. A true hero would have blogged that morning’s puzzle on a mobile phone, to hell with roaming charges and the well-known difficulties of editing HTML markup with one’s thumbs. But it turns out I am just a man, so said to hell with it and went out to look at the Brandenburg Gate or something instead.

Today’s grid, which I am given to believe is the work of the New Boss himself – know him by the initials RR, the same as Rolls Royce, a mere coincidence, or IS IT? – was a satisfying puzzle for me chock full of cleverly misleading surfaces with fun words hidden behind them. (Is it just me who has an unseemly predilection for any word containing any of Scrabble’s “Big Four” letters? I could roll the phrase “1D 17D” from this puzzle around my mouth all day.)

Talking of Scrabble, 19A was surely the obscurest piece of vocab in this puzzle, not a word you’ll hear at many bus-stops alas, but probably part of many a tile-scrabbler’s arsenal. I liked the shout out to Wodehouse at 13A and the pair of clues located in the 18th century, though sadly Louis Quatorze and George I died before the birth of the master’s mate of HMS Bounty so the three of them were probably never at a party together.

I’m rarely the kind of person who can polish off one of these babies in single digits of minutes, but it passed my usual test of being pleasantly solvable between points A and B of my London perambulations, A and B being on this occasion Wandsworth and King’s Cross. Last one in was I think 22A, not a term I’ve come across before, but easily gettable from the crossing letters. Maybe it was just that I was on the trains at the time but I wanted so badly for the “steel band” to be the Tube map’s very own éminence grise, the JUBILEE LINE.

COTD probably has to be 12A, due to it encapsulating the essence of English participation in the World Cup. I drew Chile in our office sweepstake by the way, which initially filled me with a powerful existential despair, but things have definitely started looking up since then. ¡Viva Chile!

Across
1 CLASSY – stylish: CLAY [earthenware] “drinking” SS [vessel]
4 UPSTREAM – “away from estuary”: (PASTURE)* [ploughed] + M [miles]
10 COME OFF IT – “I refuse to believe”: COMET [space traveller] “is clothing” OF FI [belonging to girl]
11 UTTER – unqualified: pUTTER [club with “leader dismissed”]
12 OOH – to sound excited: 0-0 [blank scoreline] + H [hard]
13 HOORAY HENRY – typical member of Bertie Wooster’s Drones Club: (HONORARY)* [new] “receiving” Y HE [unknown male]
14 MUMBAI – city: MU [letter from Greek] + MBA [business graduate] + I [one]
16 ROYAL WE – sounds like Louis’s “royal oui”, and is also an English king’s “I”
19 AGELAST – mirthless person (i.e. “one impervious to cracks”): AGE [get old] + LAST [shoemaker’s mould]
20 ICE AGE – time long ago: sounds like [“to listen to”] EYE SAGE [watch + one who is learned]
22 JUBILEE CLIP – a type of steel band: a short sequence from the Thames Pageant would be a different kind of Jubilee clip
25 TUT – expression of disapproval: TUTOR [teacher] – OR [men, i.e. “other ranks”]
26 IONIA – old territory: certAIN OIl “reserves” this after reversal [“turning over”]
27 OWNERSHIP – having: (NO WISH + REP)* [getting involved]
28 TROUSERS – bags: T [time] + ROUSER [alarm] + S [seconds]
29 THE WHO – rock band: eleganT [“close to”] + HEW [fashion] + HO [house]

Down
1 CUCKOO – double def: “hourly you might hear this” [from a cuckoo clock], and “sound? hardly!” [since “cuckoo” is “of unsound mind”]
2 ALMSHOUSE – place for poor: AL [little boy] + MOUSE [timid creature] keeping SH [quiet]
3 SLOTH – aversion to industry: SLOT [opening] + H [hours]
5 PITCAIRN ISLAND – probable [Fletcher] Christian burial site: PIT [hollow] + CAIRN [stone mound] + IS [one’s] + L [left] + AND [with]
6 TOUCH-TYPE – cryptic definition
7 EAT IN – have fare [at] home: sEATINg [places to sit with “no room for case”]
8 MARTYRED – done in [i.e. killed] Apostle style: M [mass] + ARTY [pretentious] + RED [cardinal]
9 A FOOT IN THE DOOR – early opportunity: AFOOT [abroad] + (I’D NO OTHER)* [alternative]
15 BE ALL EARS – attend exclusively: B [British] + (REAL ALES)* [original exhibition of]
17 LIGHT SHOW – “series of moving beams”: LIGHTS [comes down] + HOW [the way]
18 BANJOIST – musician: NAB [collar] reversed [“raising”] + JOIST [beam]
21 STOP-GO – “continually checking progress”: STOOd [“briefly” tolerated] “stifling” PG [parent guidance]
23 BINGO – cry on discovering something: BIN [axe] + GO [split]
24 PERCH – double def: a fishy perch is a catch, a wooden perch a pole

50 comments on “Times 25818 – Bring The Jubilee”


  1. Oh dear, another bad time for me (over the hour), but at least I got them all right this time…

    Didn’t get the (s)EAT IN(g) bit of 7dn or the ‘catch’ bit of PERCH, dnk PITCAIRN ISLAND or AGELAST (spellcheck doesn’t know it either). Lots of clever misdirection.

    Cod: TROUSERS

  2. Nothing too troublesome here except AGELAST as vocab. (Sounds like a character in Beowulf.) But the cryptic hands it out. I shall remember it for the next puzzle without a trace of humour: “our agelastic setter”?

    Not sure that (9dn) “abroad” and “afoot” are quite the same. Imagine Holmes: “the game is abroad”. Poor old Watson would be thinking “Where, Brazil?”.

    1. Henry V might have said it, I suppose. I agree afoot and abroad are not the same, but they share a kind of dogleg affinity via around, about, current (that meaning of abroad). None of those would have sounded convincing at Harfleur either, but then direct synonyms wouldn’t. “Once more into the hole dear friends” “I see you stand like dull dogs in petticoats”.
      1. Hmm, surely if you’re going around “afoot” you’re not sitting around at home, and are therefore by definition out and about/”abroad”? Though now I’m worried that perhaps it *is* possibly to be afoot at home. My wife would like me to a bit more afoot indoors while she’s out at work, vis-à-vis the housework…
  3. Rather tough, I found, and unfortunately I had to abandon ship with my lunch-hour due to finish. But as for AGELAST, yes, it is a relatively well-known solution to AAEGLST (along with ALGATES and LASTAGE). And AGELASTIC provides a beautiful hook to the similarly useful GELASTIC, which means ‘pertaining to laughter’.
  4. Thought there were some brilliant clues here, with penny-dropping moments for CUCKOO, PITCAIRN ISLAND, STOP-GO, ROYAL WE and JUBILEE CLIP, to name more than a few.

    I’m constantly amazed at the day-to-day quality of these puzzles.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  5. Rod, pole and perch are old Imperial measures of the same length so I don’t think we’re in parrot cage territory here.

    Just over an hour for this one. I’d already posted in the Forum that I thought this was the work of a new setter or an “old” one trying a bit too hard to be different, so I’m interested that you say this is by the hand of the new Ed himself. I’m not over-keen, to be honest, though some of it was admittedly very good indeed.

    Edited at 2014-06-20 07:09 am (UTC)

    1. Oh yes, that makes more sense than my parrot-pole interpretation to be sure! I was probably on an ornithological roll from CUCKOO at 1D.
      1. I was going to add this to my posting but was too late to include it:

        In the light of the Ed’s efforts I note two breaks with convention and wonder if they are of any significance. 29ac refers to people still living, and AGELAST is not in either of the two usual sources for Times dailies, namely COED and Collins, nor even in ODE. It’s in Chambers and the two-volume SOED, however.

        1. Not sure the convention applies to corporate entities. We couldn’t have Roger Daltrey (though we could have Keith Moon), but the group as a whole? I’m sure we’ve had The Beatles, and at least one Rolling Stone if not the full set.
    2. Before coming here, I’d written in my notes that this was probably one of RR’s, as one of his hallmarks for me (based on his puzzles in the Indy) is the inclusion of an above average number of words/definitions I’ve never heard of.
  6. 75 minutes for this one, which was done in many bit and bobs first online and then on paper after my computer put in a performance worthy of the England team, hitting the deck like Sturridge with a couple of assists from Gerrard.

    Nice mix of the colloquial and the weird (AGELAST, JUBILEE CLIP) with BE ALL EARS getting my COD nod. My refusal to read Wodehouse cost me only a minute, which would satisfy most cost-benefit analysts, I suspect.

    By the way, if you are unable to blog for any reason, you can always run it by your confrere Jack in the first instance, or, indeed, if the need is urgent or the hour inhospitable, send an LJ message to a regular on the board, such as myself, who is out east and therefore “active” in the early hours UK-time.

  7. Excellent toughie, devouring 31 and a bit minutes of my time. I got caught up in the NW, where I was convinced that BEAKER was a decent enough answer, being both stylish earthenware (qv Beaker Folk) and a drinking vessel. The real answer is cleverer, if less erudite, and has the additional virtue of allowing completion of the grid.
    Thanks for the parsing of BINGO, which eluded me.
    AGELAST: I confess to checking before pressing submit: I couldn’t think of any other solution to the wordplay. Fortunately I check in Chambers. The pronunciation guide confirms that I’ve never come across it before.
    My fave of the day from an excellent bunch PITCAIRN ISLAND, though I think they probably threw him off the cliff if he sounded anything like as insufferable as Marlon Brando. Much prefer Mel Gibson (and more especially Anthony Hopkins as Bligh).
  8. 26 minutes and still chuckling over ‘done in Apostle style’. Welcome back Verlaine and commiserations on your tribulations a fortnight ago. You seem to be well informed about setters so are you able to confirm that 3dn will appear in every puzzle you blog? Even after Ulaca’s suggestion I still can’t see how 25ac works.
    1. Well we won’t know for sure until next time (three times in a row = statistical proof), but it does appear to be some kind of cosmic sign, doesn’t it? Maybe to withdraw my life savings and bet them on Costa Rica (home of the famous 3dn sanctuaries) winning the World Cup.
  9. Another perfectly timed puzzle, taking 40 minutes with BINGO the LOI just as we rolled into Waterloo. After about 35 minutes I had a lot of blanks in the NE and SW but when ROYAL WE and BANJOIST fell into place the floodgates opened.

    My COD to 27A as I always like the clues where the definition is well hidden, as was ‘Having’ here.

    1. Ooh yes, I love that kind of thing to. I’ve seen “to”, as a definition for “closed”, a couple of times recently and it always seems very stylish.

      Glad to see someone else measuring out their crossword puzzles in commutes!

  10. 29m. Tough and chewy this one. Bad characteristics in a steak, but good in a crossword. Several things I didn’t know, but all constructable from the wordplay… eventually. I didn’t help myself by bunging in A BIRD IN THE HAND.
    I was puzzled by 7dn but I suppose the clue is saying that there’s no room for the ‘case’ of SEATING because there is only room for five letters.
    A couple of quibbles:
    > Does the wordplay work in 25ac? ‘Men ignoring teacher’ seems the wrong way round.
    > PG stands for ‘parental guidance’, not ‘parent guidance’.
    1. I took it as a sort of compound gerund qualifying the teacher: “Men-ignoring”. Only works in Crosswordland.
        1. …and I thought I was being so persuasive (said in my sceptic-ignoring voice).
          1. There you are, you see. Try as I might I can’t read ‘sceptic-ignoring voice’ as a phrase meaning ‘a voice without a sceptic’. 😉
    2. I think TUT works if you think of it as ‘men neglecting teacher’. I had the same thought about PG.
      1. The letters OR aren’t there. I can sort of see how you might equate this with neglecting, but not ignoring.
        1. I think I’m with keriothe on this. A few years back a similar clue in one of my crosswords was rejected by the editor. Ever since then I’ve avoided ‘X ignoring Y’ for ‘Y without X’.
  11. 47 minutes including a couple of interruptions for emails, during which some pennies seemed to drop on return to solving. Stuck for a while on the SE corner until the J of the clip went in and removed my first thought for 18d being BAND++++. Never heard of AGELAST and not in my dic but hoped it was correct from the wordplay. Some great clues here, Mr Setter, bring it on.
  12. Not the nightmare that sometimes appears on Fridays, but still a puzzle which had me chasing dead-ends like an England defender trying to mark Luis Suarez, so full marks for misdirection. Count me among the many who’d never heard of AGELAST; a bit obscure for the daily, perhaps, but I accepted long ago that if I don’t want to come across strange new words from time to time I probably shouldn’t have made crosswords my leisure pursuit of choice…
  13. I found this pretty tough, taking 63 minutes to complete it. At one point, about two-thirds of the way through, I wondered if I’d finish it, but then got 22, which was a bit of a breakthrough and the rest of the unsolved clues fell reasonably quickly.
    An excellent puzzle with lots of deceptive elements. Difficult to pick a best clue, but I particularly liked 1a, 1d and 3d.
  14. Tough puzzle, as Friday expects, and with PITCAIRN ISLAND my best. 55 mins though, worth the entrance fee.

    One’s to equal IS though?

    1. There may be arguments both for and against but it has certainly been used here before.
  15. 25:20 and most enjoyable so thanks setter.

    Verlaine, if you’ve never encountered a jubilee clip before then you’ve obviously never had to attach hose A to tube B. Having the requisite knowledge didn’t stop me writing in jubilee line initially mindst.

    Hard to choose a favourite with so many top-notch clues in one place, but for the chuckle I’ll go for the royal we.

    1. I may have *encountered* a jubilee clip – however I would have referred to it by the technical term “hose-A-to-tube-B-thingummy-whatsit”.
  16. 21 mins. I never used to complete the Bannsider puzzles in the Indy that quickly so I’m happy enough with my time, although the Indy and Times house styles are quite different which must have helped.

    Count me as another who had never heard of AGELAST, and when I checked it post-solve I found out I didn’t know how to pronounce it either. BINGO was my LOI after TROUSERS. Until I couldn’t parse it and admitted to myself that it wasn’t really a proper expression I wanted 22ac to be “Jubilee flop”.

  17. Hugely distressed that the perfectly-parsed AGECAST couldn’t be my COD, so that goes to TROUSERS my LOI after three and a half hours.
  18. A DNF here since there was no way I could unravel the unknowns HOORAY HENRY and JUBILEE CLIP, which I had to look up, clearly UKisms which hadn’t crossed the pond, at least in my direction. The other unknown, to join the chorus, was AGELAST, but the wordplay was too clear not to throw it in as a correct guess. Despite my failure, though, I thought this a great puzzle, with CUCKOO, PITCAIRN, THE WHO, MARTYRED, etc. all being outstanding clues. By the way, in 10A is ‘Fi’ a diminutive for Fiona? We don’t have many Fionas over here either. Thanks to Verlaine and regards.
  19. Hi Kevin, yes, Fi is a diminutive of Fiona, and it took me a while to see it.
    1. Thanks Andy. I assumed so, but I don’t remember ever seeing that one before.
  20. Very nice blog- loved the clue-stuck over fruhstuck line. Very enjoyable puzzle too, lots of intricate clueing, I liked the ‘Royal we’ clue the best. The one clue I disliked was 24ac- is it within the unwritten crossword rules to combine the 2 definitions rather than stick a comma between them(even if it makes a legitimate word?).
    1. >… is it within the unwritten crossword rules to combine the 2 definitions rather
      >than stick a comma between them(even if it makes a legitimate word?)

      Interesting question. I’m pretty sure it’s not the first time of seen this – in fact I think it may have been used in the early decades of the Times crossword – and if this puzzle really is the current crossword editor’s handiwork, it probably won’t be the last. I can’t say it’s my favourite type of clue, but I regard it as quite legitimate.

      At least you’ll be ready for it next time.

      1. Without wishing to give too much away, there’s a nice example of this device in today’s Guardian puzzle by Paul.
        1. I’ve just got round to solving Paul’s puzzle. (I’ll be tackling his handiwork more often when my membership of the Times Crossword Club expires shortly.) As you say, a nice example.

          I forgot to say earlier that I enjoyed your interesting blog entry.

  21. What a delight of a crossword! Even the entirely unknown AGELAST – my LOI – couldn’t dampen the joy of PITCAIRN ISLAND, MARTYRED, OWNERSHIP or UPSTREAM, any one of which might have been a COD on a normal day. Took a bit of cracking, though – about 40 minutes over three sittings.

    For 9dn “a bird in the hand” had insinuated itself into my brain so effectively – even though obviously wrong – that it took time for the inevitable penny to drop.

    OOH, CLASSY!

  22. 18:45 for me. I thought this a delight from start to finish and agree that it could well be the work of RR.

    I seem to be one of the few (perhaps the only non-Scrabbler!?) who knew AGELAST, which went straight in from the definition – though I did have the E in place when I reached it.

    1. I just scraped in under the fortnight on this one, or so it felt. However, the timer said just over an hour.

      I thoroughly enjoyed this one, difficult though it was. I do think that the bar has been raised over the last few weeks – or perhaps I’ve just lost another tranche of grey cells. Excellent clues, with many gems. Lots of cunning but fair misdirection, and the chewiest clues always ended with an “aha!” rather than an “oh, alright then”, which is as it should be.

      I’d quibble, though, over “AGELAST” (never heard of it, despite being surrounded by them), which failed to meet my definition of the ideal clue: a perfectly ordinary word hiding in plain view.

      I’d quibble too (as others have) over “TUT”. I suppose “men ignoring tutor” could, at a pinch, be read as “men staying away from tutor”, but it seemed rather clunky to me, especially as “teacher ignoring men” would have worked just as well.

      It’s too early to award Accident of the Day with certainty – it’s Friday and the night is young. It’s May Ball season, so at least we’re getting a better class of poisoning. However, the award may well go to a guitarist who fell off the stage and landed very unfortunately on his instrument. That’s one guitar I wouldn’t want to have to tune.

    2. AGELAST straight in for me too. I’m not sure when I first came across it, but I remember Henry’s definitive usage of it on RTC3.
  23. Enough to make me give up doing crosswords forever. Could not get going at all. Seeing the answers is no comfort…..

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