Times 25,896: You Can’t Derive An “Ough” From An “Is”

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A bit of a toughie this week I thought – I forgot it was my morning to blog, in the excitement of checking the Scottish referendum outcome, so started a bit later than usual, and of course it would be an intransigent one under such circumstances. In my haste to finish inside the half-hour mark I submitted with SCAM at 10A somehow… realised where the mistake was instantly when I saw I had one wrong, but I think we can safely say this one took me over the 30 minute mark. Doesn’t bode very well for the Championships in just a few short weeks now! I hope other competitors reading this are feeling more optimistic, but it feel like my own abilities have only deteriorated since a year ago!

Plenty to enjoy here though, with some borderline difficult vocabulary and neatly devious definition parts. 2D’s homophone is quite well-known but still felt audacious. On the COD front I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone had their own favourite this week, there are all sorts to choose from, from the simple elegance of 7D to the twisty-turny genius of 3D. I might have to plump for 5D myself as it combines classical antiquity (ever dear to this Lit Hum grad’s heart) with my local football team now I live in South Norwood. In fact we’re rather hoping we’ll be able to (part-)buy a house within a literal stone’s throw of Selhurst Park over the next couple of months. Fingers crossed…

Across
1 THANKFUL – relieved: H [husband] in TANKFUL [plenty of petrol]
9 ANACONDA – “one putting the squeeze on”: AND “restraining” A CON [a prisoner] + A [article]
10 SCUM – “top to be taken off”: S [son] + CUM [with]
11 ELEVENTH HOUR – “it’s almost too late”: ELEVEN TOUR [team travel] “consumes” H H [hours]
13 MURCIA – city: from MERCIA [English kingdom] “one character changes”
14 ARMS RACE – “preparing for war”: HARMS RACE [damages nation] “commonly”, i.e. dropping its aitches
15 SHEAVES – bundles: SH [no noise] + EAVES [“where one may drop”, i.e. eavesdrop]
16 PHYSICS – school subject: PHYSIC [medicine] + S [singular]
20 AMPUTATE – cut: AM [in the morning] + PUTATIVE [supposed] – IV [“four dismissed”]
22 NEOCON – American politician: (ONCE*) [“failed”] + ON
23 TOWER OF BABEL – “ancient edifice”: (AFTER WOBBLE*) [“collapsed”] with O [none] “inside”
25 DRAW – double def: arrangement of ties, attraction
26 FAMILIAR – well-known: F [female] + AM I LIAR [“don’t you believe me?”]
27 DISCREET – careful: DIET [to eat less] around SCRE{w} [“wages coming in being short”]

Down
2 HICCOUGH – “involuntary movement”: homophone of “hick up” [countryman towards town, we hear]
3 NOMENCLATURE – “system of entitlements”: NO MEN [only women] + CLARE [one (woman) in particular] “protecting” TU [workers]
4 FUSELAGE – body: FUSE [join] + LA{r}GE [big, having dropped resistance, i.e. R]
5 LATERAN – palace: LATER [after a while] + A {wi}N [a win “at last”]
6 TAM-TAM – gong: TAM{e} [domestic “briefly”], “at the double”, i.e. twice
7 UNDO – to open: {fo}UND O{ld} “boxes”
8 HAIRLESS – “having no thatch”: H [hut’s “top”] + AIRLESS [close]
12 HARD SHOULDER – “largely unused ribbon”: HARD [set] + SHOULDER [bear]
15 START OFF – “put into action”: STAR TOFF [leading aristocrat]
17 HANDBAGS – “argument, nothing serious”: HAGS [witches] “trap” N [knight] in (BAD*) [“awfully”]
18 CHORDATE -“I have some backbone”: COR [my] + DATE [partner] “consumes” H [heroin]
19 SEA BIRD – (IS BREAD*) “thrown out” &lit
21 ATOMIC – type of clock: OM [brief time, i.e. MO, “up”] in A TIC{k} [“a short sound” from a clock]
24 WOMB – “hence child delivered”: WO [without] + MB [doctor]

45 comments on “Times 25,896: You Can’t Derive An “Ough” From An “Is””

  1. Another tough one, with TAM-TAM unknown and LATERAN forgotten from the multiple times it’s appeared in the last couple of years. Missed the correct interpretation of “entitlements” in 3D and was surprised/ashamed to find that HICCOUGH was pronounced the same as hiccup.

    COD to TOWER OF BABEL

    Small amendment – there’s a (second) H missing from 11A.

    1. Oh yes, cheers! I think it’s a tradition at this point that I leave a deliberate (*cough* *cough* *honest*) mistake in my annotations for someone to correct. People would be disappointed if I didn’t…
  2. Been a bit out lately … in several senses. So I did this partly “at work” and the rest at home. But, yep, it’s a toughie.

    11ac seemed odd to me with H for “hours” in the clue and HOUR in the answer.
    Nice trap at 25ac, where a SITE could well be an attraction?

    My downfall was 4dn where I couldn’t see anything but FEDERATE (Join) and bunged it in in desperation. May have to hang up my Space Pen.

    1. Rest assured, I fell into both those traps. SITE was my FOI (oops, though I had mentally noted it as “dubious”, at least) and I also desperately wanted 3D to be FEDERATE.

      One thing I liked is that 11ac started with “ELEVEN”, pleasing somehow.

  3. 28:26 … yes, another rattling good puzzle. I’m in awe at the creativity of the setters sometimes.

    So much to like, but the four-letter-words, certainly, SCUM, WOMB and UNDO, are a triumph.

  4. Enjoyable. Like mctext,I thought that there was something a bit sloppy about 11ac and I confidently scribbled in SITE long before realising what it really was
  5. Oh dear, another dnf for me today…

    dnk either LATERAN Palace or MERCIA/MURCIA, so those were both blanks at the end. And I too put in ‘scam’. And had ‘chormate’ for the unknown vertebrate.

    Also, several unparsed: ARMS RACE, DRAW, DISCREET. Still don’t really get ‘arrangement of ties’ bit? Is it to do with draw=tie in a race?

  6. A few seconds over 30 minutes so toughest of the week for me but lots to enjoy, especially in the definition department. Another SITE pencilled in here on first pass.
  7. Verlaine, you may wish to write in hairless for 8. Good luck with the (part)house. I used to go to Wimbledon away games at Selhurst Park, when the Cinderella team of British sport took on the world. Finally got 10, to my relief as another ex-classicist. An interesting puzzle, untimed here as the referendum took precedence. A number of words jump out with that in mind, thankful, eleventh hour, Tower of Babel, tam-tam…with scum and neo-con hopefully clean off the list now the fray’s over.
    1. Is anyone here not an ex-classicist, I sometimes wonder… after I finished this puzzle I got a phone call saying that we were “highest priority” out of the applications for the house. Good omens are good!

      No idea where that UNHAIRED came from! It’s amazing I solve any of these puzzles with a scatterbrain like mine.

        1. It’s essentially North Croydon, but just northerly enough that you can pretend you’re part of up-and-coming Crystal Palace. Everybody wins. The excellent transport links from Norwood Junction make it an easy place to get out of, if all else fails!
  8. A mere 102 minutes for me – but I’ll settle for 3 times a championship player.

    A wonderful puzzle, surely due a place in the archive, with only one or two able to be entered from the literal. My favourite is HICCOUGH – the homophone was new to me – and I finished with the one that stumped our eminent blogger. After spending so long, I was damned if I wasn’t going to find out why it had to be one rather than the other.

    And a (fellow) Classicist being defeated by a Latin word made it somehow all the sweeter…

  9. 48 minutes for me to complete a week of successful solves. It’s been a while since there hasn’t been the occasional clue which wouldn’t yield or a silly mistake so it feels like quite an accomplishment.

    Today I resisted one of my typical pitfalls of putting a questionable answer in then forgetting that when looking at the crossers. Though I initially had SITE at 25A I did at least remember it was questionable throughout. I did however spend too long down dead ends, the chief one being wondering what ‘My partner’ could be at 18D before finally realising ‘My’ and ‘partner’ were to be taken separately.

    1. That’s reminded me, I spotted COR for ‘my’ immediately and worked out where the H fitted in but I couldn’t get ‘mate’ for ‘partner’ out of my head.
  11. Nearly an hour, and ending with 4d FEDERATE = join, without being convinced it was right; now I know it is FUSELAGE it seems obvious and a very good clue, no complaints. The rest was a toughie with much to be happy about once it was unravelled. Thanks Verlaine for explaining the eaves-drop, a Doh! moment. And (IMO) let’s hope 22ac … the neo-cons continue to fail to get on.
  12. It’s rather a shame that this one appeared directly following the delights of yesterday. For me it had some of the same qualities but was infinitely less enjoyable to solve. In another context I might have viewed it differently.

    SCUM was also my last one in but I was please to write it with certainly after wrestling for ages with the only alternative.

    Like Pip I had FEDERATE at 4dn, vaguely thinking of ‘confederate’ = ‘join’ with ‘con’ = ‘resistance’ (as in pros and cons /for and against) removed.I surmised that a federate body might be a big one. But also like Pip, I wasn’t convinced I was right.

    I thought the same as mct that using ‘hours’ in a clue requiring HOUR in the answer was a bit odd and in my opinion it should have been rethought. And ‘ribbon’ was a bit too cryptic for a lane on a motorway for my taste.

    Glad to say I resisted the ‘site’ trap.

    Should I be ashamed never having heard of MURCIA?

    Traditionally this would have been my blog and I’m very glad it wasn’t.

    Edited at 2014-09-19 09:45 am (UTC)

    1. I only knew MURCIA through having visited it many moons ago when my sister was working in nearby La Manga. Otherwise I don’t think I’ve encountered it.
      1. I had to look up MURCIA to be sure it existed, I’ll confess. Is it in any way cognate with “murcielago” (the lovely Spanish word for a bat) I wonder?
    2. It came up as an answer on University Challenge sometime ago and neither team had heard of it!
  13. 26 mins but with two wrong. I also bunged in “federate” at 4dn without thinking too hard about how it could be parsed, and even less excusably I had the momble “chormate” at 18dn. Although I agree with Jack that yesterday’s puzzle was far more fun I am still of the opinion that this was a very high quality puzzle.
  14. 44 minutes. Phew! That was tough. I thought I was never going to finish, because I spent at least twenty minutes staring at the NW corner without solving a clue. Eventually I saw 1ac and the rest flowed from there.
    This is a great puzzle. There’s little obscurity (TAM TAM was my only unknown) but still lots of clues where it wasn’t obvious how the damn thing worked… until suddenly it was.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.
  15. What a corker! 1a straight in at first glance, and I thought it was going to be as easy as a set of promises to the SNP, but then got bogged down like the First Great Western train near Corsham.

    I spent ages looking for an anagram of teamtravelhh before seeing the light at the 11a. Had SCAM and SITE, but eventually corrected them, never got MURCIA and completely missed CHORDATE.

    Excellent puzzle and a real challenge after a late night watching real democracy at work.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  16. A fairly respectable 20:30 but with one wrong although I’m happy to be sharing the chormate momble with Janie and Andy. Mate is obviously a better synonym for partner than date (which I’d have described as a prospective partner) but chordate is more obviously a real word.

    Tam-tam, lateran, chordate and Neo-con all unknown. Murcia familiar as I’ve previously looked at holiday destinations in the region with flights going to the city in question.

    Nice puzzle, COD to fuselage which held me up on account of the second comma stopping me from lifting and separating.

    Oh, tippex needed to erase site and early at the start of 15 (earl = aristo).

    Edited at 2014-09-19 12:30 pm (UTC)

  17. I wonder if any one else considered NANTWICH for 2dn as I did taking TOWN as the definition word and being seduced by …TWICH sounding like an ‘Involuntary Movement’. I guess it wasn’t a trap, but I fell into it anyway, making a mess, of course, of 10ac.

    I fell into the real SITE trap at 25 and FEDERATE initially at 20 ac; I even tried to force GELATIN in at 16. So I really was trapped by this hugely enjoyable puzzle that occupied me for the entire morning.

  18. SEA BIRD: why is this an &lit? I mean, who throws bread to a sea-bird, unless you are on an island? I felt the definition is insufficient.

    WOMB: Can someone please explain the definition? I simply cannot relate ‘hence …’ and uterus.

    FAMILIAR: Shouldn’t it be F+ AM I A LIAR – or is this OK via cryptic licence?

    HANDBAGS: I read somewhere that HAGS, being a wordplay component, is singular in the cryptic reading; so the clue should have trapping in place of trap, I guess?

    Hat tip to ANACONDA, START OFF and AMPUTATE. I am another one taking the bait of SITE.

    1. 1) Well, that’s the &lit question: IS bread thrown out for one? You could very well suggest that no, it’s a bad idea. But we throw bread to ducks, so I think whether we throw it to sea birds is at least a valid question.

      2) “Hence child delivered” is the definition of womb.

      I guess the other two do employ a little cryptic licence, but I’ll leave it to more setter-y people than myself to decide how close they skate to the line?

      1. Thank you. I see ‘hence’ means ‘from here’ instead of its usual meaning of ‘therefore’. Good crypticism there 🙂
    2. Familiar – I wondered about this too. Perhaps the setter was trying to indicate the looseness of the phrasing via the clueing, “don’t believe me?” in stead of “don’t you believe me?” The problem is that the phrase in the clue is grammatical while that in the solution is not. Perhaps one has to think of the Catherine Tait character saying “Am I bovvered?”

      I think you may be over-analysing the handbags one. Seems absolutely fine to me.

  19. Ouch! About 45 minutes, but with SCAM and FEDERATE. So 2 wrong for me. I knew SCAM was iffy, but now that all of you enlighten me, I think FUSELAGE is a great clue. Another fine puzzle. Thanks to the setter, and to the Verlaine for the quite literate blog. Better luck to me next week, and regards.
  20. Too hard for me today and DNF (3 unsolved)- I did stay awake from 3am watching the referendum results but to be truthful that had no bearing on my failure.
    I lived near Selhurst Park for almost all my youth and my very first date with my now husband was up the Palace when they were in 3rd Division South. We had to go in after half time as we were still at school with no money and you got in free after half time. He is still just as romantic! Memories…………..good luck with the purchase and respect for the blog.
  21. After 68m there was in this part of Co Durham the soft thwack as a towel hit the canvas. I was two short of victory : ATOMIC which now our esteemed blogger has explained seems quite straightforward and MURCIA which if you knew neither place nor kingdom was imo ungettable; so to expand the analogy I am calling that a low punch! Many thanks for the excellent blog and since he has my towel, the setter can also have my hat for the many other excellent and inventive clues!
  22. 12:15 for me, with the last 2-3 minutes spent checking through the alphabet to see if I could come up with a sensible alternative to MURCIA, which I’d never heard of. (I’d already wasted time on this clue earlier, since I reckoned the English kingdom was going to be MERCIA as soon as I had the C in place, and spent far too long trying then and there to think of a suitable city with one letter different.)

    Generally, though, I seemed to be on the setter’s wavelength, and enjoyed this one very much.

  23. Most of it done in about 15 mins, but it took another 10 at least to get the last three, HICCOUGH, MURCIA and SCUM (in that order). Like cozzielex I couldn’t shake off the feeling that 2D might be a town ending in -TWICH, and although I thought of MERCIA straight away I thought there might be another English kingdom that also fit. When I had the U from HICCOUGH, I decided I probably had heard of MURCIA but thought it might be in Italy! SCUM seems so obvious in retrospect, but it took a while for the penny to drop even when I knew three of the letters!

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