Times 25860

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This one took me 47 minutes parsing all as I solved. I found it pretty straightforward so I’ll take this opportunity to write a simple blog and bunk off early for once.

Across
1 GRASS UP – GRASS (drug), UP (at a higher price)
5 POPPET – PP (pages) inside POET (writer)
8 ONSLAUGHT – ON (side – in cricket) then LAUGH (scream) inside ST (street)
9 IN TOW – INTO (keen on), W (wife)
11 YEATS – E (English) inside STAY (guy – rope) reversed. Despite a nice piece of misdirection the answer is the Irish poet W B Yeats 1865-1939.
12 WHOLEMEAL – Double definition, the second jocular
13 WINDFALL – Decent + Fortune inside WIN ALL (sweep the board)
15 YEMENI – YE (you), MEN (people), I
17 STALAG – S (small), T (time), A, LAG (convict)
19 CONSPIRE – CONS (politician’s), Party, IRE (anger)
22 OPPORTUNE – OP (work), anagram of TO RUN inside PE (gym)
23 FLAME – F (following), EMAiL (electronic message, one deleted) reversed. The definition ‘abusive comment’ is not one that I’m familiar with.
24 SCRAN – NARC’S (US agent’s) reversed. Both SCRAN meaning food or provisions, and ‘narc’ are words  I know only from crossword solving.
25 ALICE BAND – A, ICE (sign of freeze) + Barge inside LAND (light)
26 FLEECE – Double definition
27 GOATEED – OATEs (explorer, almost) inside D (died) + EG (say) reversed. “Titus” Oates was most famous as a member of the Terra Nova expedition. He was the one who just went outside.

Down
1 GOODY TWO-SHOES – Anagram of WHO GOES TO SYnOD. She’s a character in an 18th century fable but probably goes back further than that.
2 ABSTAIN – A, B (British), STAIN (spot)
3 SOAPS – Shock, OAPS (older generation – Old Age Pensioners). It’s non-PC to call us that these days!
4 PIGSWILL – Spoonerism of Whig’s (old Liberal’s), Pill (remedy)
5 PATRON – Anagram of A PORT, N (noon)
6 PRICELESS – Double definition, one cryptic
7 EXTREME – EX (old) then M (miles) inside TREE (plane, perhaps)
10 WELL I NEVER DID – Double definition, the first jocular
14 FRAGRANCE – RAG (kid) inside FRANCE (EU country)
16 COVERING – COVE (male), RING (group)
18 APPAREL – PARE (trim – think fruit and veg) inside anagram of PAL
20 IMAMATE – I, M (married), A, MATE (couple)
21 CURARE – Convulse, Uncontrollably, RARE (unusual)
23 FREYA – Reversed and hidden inside plAYER Flaring)

53 comments on “Times 25860”

  1. Left side in in a flash but was then held up on the other side by being unable to get the long down (stupidly writing in ‘A’ as the second word – that’ll learn me). Had ‘on tow’ for a while, which helped make PRICELESS my last in after the excellent POPPET. Didn’t know SCRAN but did know NARC. (Was also working around an unknown Arab tribe at 15 for a while – the We-something-hi.)

    Edited at 2014-08-08 02:32 am (UTC)

  2. SCRAN and ALICE BAND from crosswords only. Liked WELL I NEVER DID, and I always enjoy a visit from the good reverend, but only after the penny drops.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  3. Yes a straightforward crossword, and good to get a similar blog after some recent overblown ones.
    rednim
  4. 18.44, with a fair bit of time lost confidently putting in CRACK UP at 1ac making early progress difficult. I also liked the Rev’s contribution, which sounded as if it really could have come from him.
    SE corner also slow, with GOATEED my last in. It’s an odd looking word, and the courageous Oates did not spring readily to mind as an explorer
  5. After a slow start I saw GOODY TWO SHOES then everything fell into place in 24 mins. Nice to finish all correct after an error strewn week!
  6. 17:20 … Very tidy stuff. POPPET my favourite.

    For those who knew ALICE BAND from the frankly embarrassing fashion for them in the world of Association Football, today’s Telegraph Toughie is a must-solve (and something else for Louis Suarez’ legal team to chew over).

      1. You’re welcome. I had no idea it was by Anax, but that explains a lot!. I solve the Telegraph online and, as far as I can see, they don’t give the setters’ names there. So thank you.
        1. They give names for the toughie in the treeware version at least, and Anax goes by the name of Elkamere in those parts.

          Edited at 2014-08-08 12:06 pm (UTC)

  7. Nothing too complicated but with a couple of minutes’ delay at the end courtesy of the COVERING/GOATEED crossing, the latter because, as mentioned, it’s an unusual-looking word and the EED ending was slow to come to mind. Given that I only know perhaps 2 beard names, it shouldn’t have been difficult to cycle through them. Also wondered about the hyphen in 1D, then realised that Adam Ant songs maybe aren’t a definitive guide to the English language.
    1. I only knew the one beard name until I just did some research (there appear to be some “useful” wall charts on t’internet).

      Anyway, I now have a mental pictorial encyclopedia of beards to rival Keriothe’s sausage dictionary.

      French fork and ducktail might even appear in both publications.

  9. Didn’t quite make my half hour target and carelessly wrote in SKRAN. Most went in very quickly but got stuck on GOATEED: was looking for a word meaning “to confront”.

    Bit melancholic this morning: the cryptic definition in 10 set me thinking of George Gray in “Spoon River Anthology”; not much read these days, but an unsettling and rather moving poem from a once popular work.

      1. I confess to coming to the Spoon River Anthology only after reading a brilliant parody by Sir John Squire entitled “If Gray Had Had to Write His Elegy in the Cemetery of Spoon River Instead of in That of Stoke Poges”. You can find it on You Tube.
  10. 20 minutes, SCRAN and FREYA my LOI, put FREDA in but couldn’t parse it then saw the light. Neat blog Jackkt.
  11. 16 mins. I wasted time at the start by trying to justify “broadside” for 8ac (a tenuous “side street” = “B road”). I had most of the puzzle done in about 12 mins but then struggled to get my last four in the SE corner. For some unknown reason I didn’t immediately see the reversed FREYA despite having looked for it with the E checker in place, and I only saw it after I got the previously unknown definition of FLAME from the wordplay. My last two in were the COVERING/GOATEED crossers which also took longer to see than they should have done. An enjoyable puzzle IMHO.
  12. Thanks for the nice, crisp blog Jack.

    Relatively little obscure GK or vocabulary in this one which made a refreshing change for me at least. ALICE BAND made me smile but why does LAND=light?

    DNF due to IMAMATE and relieved to discover I didn’t know the word anyway.

      1. Thanks dyste. Maybe I’m being pedantic or even stupid but, whilst I can see how land=alight, I can’t understand how light=alight. Does the “a light” in the clue (i.e. with space between) legitimise it?
        1. In one of its meanings light is synonymous with alight. So you can light from a train as you can alight from a train.
          1. Ah, now I see it as the 3rd definition in the COD. Thank you. That’ll teach me to scroll down before posting an embarrassing question.
        2. Also note that the “a light” in the clue corresponds to the AL??? ?AND in the answer, so your space suggestion could not be correct as it would then not account for the initial A.
  13. 30 minutes apart from the last. I was another looking for a word meaning confronted; goatee didn’t occur to me and I didn’t know it could be verbalised anyway.I used an aid in the end. Alice band was unfamiliar. I wondered if Alice Band might be a lock-keeper in a Dickens novel. Another unfamiliarity was the definition for 16, another reason why I resorted to an aid for goateed, since I wasn’t even sure of ‘covering’ though the wordplay seemed to suggest it clearly enough.
  14. Just under the hour. Didn’t know covering, flame. A relief even to finish these days – hope just a temporary blip. Maybe everyone else is getting faster. Just as everyone else is whispering for some reason. Old age.
    1. I wondered when blogging whether more explanation was required on this one.

      Those old enough to have been teenagers during the 50s and 60s will be familiar with the practice of UK singers and bands releasing “covers” of songs currently popular in the USA. It was very common for both versions to be in the UK Top 20 at the same time.

      Also from that era was the Embassy label, exclusively on sale in Woolworths, which specialised in “covers” of popular songs by unknown artistes at knock-down prices.

      Edited at 2014-08-08 01:11 pm (UTC)

      1. I was once told that the producer of Embassy records used session musicians who gave pitch-perfect performances, in many ways superior to the originals. The problem was that they just didn’t sound right; people preferred the out-of-tune recordings of their favourite bands.

        These days, electronic pitch correction enables almost anyone to record in tune. An audio engineer I know despairs at the use of such devices and has been heard to remark: “If Ella Fitzgerald walked back into the studio today, some idiot in charge of the session would insist on Auto-Tuning her”.

  15. Managed most of this in reasonable time but then became a bit soft-headed on conspire, covering and goateed which took my time to 24:21.

    I, too, had on tow for a while at 9. Required meaning of flame unknown, scran and Alice band being familiar enough living in Yorkshire, having daughters and following football (Benito Carbone sprang immediately to mind).

    1. 17 clubs (including loans), I note from Wikipedia. If he was a golfer they’d have to fine him.
  17. 19m, with a few at the end on 16dn. I had no problem with the term (which is still quite common in the world of pop music), but on the iPad app the clue number obscured the end of the the last word in the clue and I read it as ‘recon’. Eventually I checked on the club website, saw that it should be ‘record’, and finished.
    Shouldn’t 15ac be either ‘person’ or YEMENIS?
    1. Def is “from the Middle East” which seems fine for YEMENI. People is part of the WP.
      1. Thanks. I realised that just too late, and got the LJ message ‘you cannot change your stupid embarrassing comment because someone has replied to it’.
        Note to self: read the clue.
        1. I tried to find a polite way of saying “I’m sure you understand the clue really but just haven’t looked at it properly” but gave up when it always sounded patronising.
          1. That’s kind of you. For future reference I’d recommend ‘no, you doughnut…’
    2. keriothe, this is almost my biggest gripe about the iPad app which I have to pay for. Even more annoying is when the ‘clue number’ obscures part of an anagram. They have managed to get rid of the strange punctuations; surely they can do this too.

      Edited at 2014-08-08 05:15 pm (UTC)

    3. YE and I welcome MEN (people) = from the Middle East. A Yemeni is from the Middle East.
        1. No problem, anon. If you sign up for an account you can delete or edit your comments… as long as some pesky blighter doesn’t reply to them first ;). It also allows others to identify you, which is nice.
  18. Did this in dribs and drabs while monitoring Granddaughters and was very glad that it was quite straightforward. It took just over the hour which is good for me and my only doubtful one was FLAME which the word play made clear but without a dictionary I couldn’t check the definition. Thanks for clear explanations in blog. It may be a chestnut, I don’t know, but I did like WHOLEMEAL especially as we were eating it at the time.
    1. suecaro,
      Scrolling up the RHS of this site will reveal free online dictionaries that can be downloaded if you wish.
  19. I didn’t note a time but it wasn’t quick for me, probably 40 minutes, with some language differences needing to be untangled. I didn’t know of the WELL I … saying, but with the checkers it wasn’t hard to guess. ALICE BAND is a headband over here, and WHOLEMEAL is whole grain, usually two words. We don’t have POPPETS or SCRAN over here at all, but while the former has appeared before enough that it should have familiar, it was my LOI, and the latter I’ve never heard of, but went in from the pretty clear wordplay. So, it took a while, and GOATEED held me up for a time as it did others. Regards.
  20. 13:07 for me, held up badly at the end by GOATEED.

    I seem to be going through a rough patch at the moment, at least as far as the contemporary puzzles are concerned, though I’ve had a very good week with my five puzzles from the archive.

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