Times 25910 – Who needs Gibraltar?

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This was gentilisimo. I’m expecting single-digit scores from those warming up for the champs. 25 minutes para mi.

Switching to cose Italiane, it behoves me to affirm that, contrary to indications, Umberto Eco is neither pining nor demised, but alive and well and living in Pinner, um, Piedmont.

ACROSS

1. INVOCATION – IN VACATION with the A (answer) changed to an O (nothing) – among other things, the theological word for praying to saints – a divisive issue if ever there was one.
6. O+MIT
9. CHORUS LINE – refrain as in the bit that’s repeated in a song.
10. ECHO – Italian academic and novelist Umberto Eco is best known for medieval murder mystery The Name of the Rose.
12. VESTED INTEREST – ‘personal stake’; anagram* of EVIDENT + SETTERS.
14. OUT+CRY
15. BUD+A+PEST
17. GARGOYLE – A GORY LEG*.
19. WHITES – cricketers wear whites (or used to) and White’s is London’s oldest ‘gentleman’s’ club.
22. HACKNEY MARSHES – ‘London rec’ (recreation ground); a place where Roy Hodgson hopes to find the next Bobby Moore, even if he’s more likely to find the next Zbigniew Boniek there these days. HACKNEY + MARS around SHE.
24. UTAH – hidden.
25. PAPER CHASE – ‘hare and hounds’; rural parts of Hong Kong look like they’ve been subjected to a series of these currently – the aftermath of the recent festival for the dead (plenty of invocation involved here) during which large wads of paper money are splashed out. PAPER (daily) + CHAS + E[cstatic].
26. HALT – L in HAT.
27. PLATELAYER – someone who lays and maintains track (another person is responsible for clearing it of leaves and the wrong type of snow); LATE (‘former’) inside PLAYER (‘contestant’).

DOWN

1. INCH – [p]INCH.
2. VIOLENT – VIOLET round [cabi]N; okay, hands up those who thought of ‘valiant’ first? Yes, I want to identify the outliers…
3. COUNTER+POINT – ‘foil’ (as in ‘pleasing or notable contrast’, as in ‘the sauce made a piquant counterpoint to the ham’ (ODO), which I must confess to not having said for a long time).
4. TOLEDO – LE in TO-DO; the Spanish have a saying ‘Whoever has not seen Toledo has not seen Spain’. I have – the El Greco Museum and Sinagoga del Tránsito are worth a visit.
5. OWNING UP – ‘admitting’; OWNING (‘having’) + UP (‘to hike’ prices).
7. MACHETE – our old friend (‘China’ in Cockney) Dr Guevara in our old friend MATE.
8. TOOK TO TASK – double definition.
11. METAPHYSICAL – ‘fanciful’; metaphysical is one of those words that can mean almost anything, including stuff relating to what ODO calls ‘abstract theory with no basis in reality’, hence fanciful. SMITHY + PALACE*.
13. SONG THRUSH – SONG (‘air’) + THRUS[t] (where thrust = ‘forced’) + H[ouse].
16. PLAY BALL – P + LAY (‘air’!) + BALL (‘dance’).
18. ROCKALL – ‘Atlantic island’ immortalised by Flanders and Swann ; ROCK + ALL.
20. THERAPY – RAP in THEY; I wasted ages trying to shoehorn something into ‘them’.
21. TALENT – A + L in TENT.
23. HEAR[t].

58 comments on “Times 25910 – Who needs Gibraltar?”

  1. Interesting that Eco was used as part of the wordplay, when there is traditionally a ban on mentioning living people. I suppose that just relates to full answers.
    2. As far as I’m aware the “rule” is taken to apply both to literals and wordplay so either it’s an error as suggested by ulaca, or a deliberate exception and perhaps the start of a change of policy.
  2. Had a bit of trouble with the MARSHES (not my end of the country) and the gent’s club (not my end of the class scale). And they tend to be “creams” where I am these days. Otherwise, felt like we were back into regular Mondays.

    Edited at 2014-10-06 02:15 am (UTC)

  3. Nice to see MIT referred to as a university for once. DNK PLATELAYER, DNK HACKNEY MARSHES (I threw in ‘barouche landau’ at first, for the less than compelling reasons that a) I knew the name (it figures in ‘Emma’) and b) it fit the enumeration.Wondered about 19ac, so thanks for the enlightenment. I also threw in–I’m a little too given to throwing in–‘nick’ at 1d, forgot that I hadn’t parsed it, which made 1ac hard to get.
  4. 23 minutes, which is going it some for me. Would have been sub-20 but for a last minute delay at 22ac. I have not come across HACKNEY without “carriage” as a vehicle nor ever thought of HACKNEY MARSHES as a recreation ground any more than I would think of Hampstead Heath as such.

    As a footnote, has anyone else who selects their user pic (rather than having a default) noticed that for the past few days the picture doesn’t appear when the message is first posted, so it’s necessary to Edit and select it again?

    Edited at 2014-10-06 05:45 am (UTC)

      1. Glad to know it’s not just me! Is there a means of reporting this with any hope of getting something done about it in the next release?

        Whilst on the subject of changes that b***** things up, when I first got my smart phone (about 18 months ago) which uses Android, the LJ app brought up a view of the blog which looked much the same as on my PC, but at the top of each page was an invitation to view in a special format that was easier to read and navigate without enlarging and scrolling from side to side.

        This very useful feature disappeared several months ago without warning and has not been reintroduced in latest LJ for Android release which came out last week. Why do software developers have to keep messing around and ruining things that work perfectly?

        Edited at 2014-10-06 06:06 am (UTC)

        1. Having only just discovered it, I’m unencumbered by nostalgia for version 1.0. I quite like it!
    2. There is the small matter of about 80 football pitches, which as far as I know Hampstead Heath lacks!
        1. Not possible: too convenient. Right next door to the Olympic Park and Stratford International Station (sic). Runways might be a bit short unless you demolish half of Hackney. Um…has anyone suggested it to Boris?
        2. As a resident of South-West London I’d be all in favour of that!

          Edited at 2014-10-06 07:41 am (UTC)

    3. That was where my very first serious boyfriend (long before Z8) took me, in Summer 1967,to tell me that he had started seeing another girl, back in London. (I was his girlfriend in Cambridge, where he was studying.)

      Instead of dumping him post-haste I carried on seeing him till Jan 69… He married the other girl & I definitely got the best result!

      1. And 1967 was supposed to be the Summer of Love…

        I’ll never believe what I read in the papers again.

  5. 14:16 … well off the pace, but as I had almost no sleep last night I’ll take it.

    Should anyone mention it to him, I suspect Umberto Eco will be quite tickled at the thought of being assassinated by a crossword and will likely use it as the starting point for a 600-page novel.

  6. 8m. Very gentle stuff. I thought as I put him in, ‘oh, I didn’t know that Umberto Eco had died’.
  7. Welcome back to a couple of old favourites, the Monday Easy and Revolutionary Che!
    10.49, with LOI COUNTERPOINT slow because of that decent definition, and because I forced myself to check (necessarily) for typos.
    HACKNEY MARSHES was also slow in because I was first looking for an unlikely carriage and then couldn’t quite believe that something so close to me (metaphysically speaking) could be referenced. My (then) impecunious employment charity was working on the Kingsmead estate next door when BBC2 filmed us in a documentary in 1999. It proved the springboard for some serious funding, particularly from Deutsche Bank. The redevelopers of the Estate discovered early on why it was called Hackney Marsh – digging down for lift shafts they found the 5 storey blocks were built on concrete rafts which let the water in when punctured. WHITE’S I knew from one of our successes who, after training at the Hoxton Apprentice went on to a chef position there. More nostalgia: Matchbox cars were die cast at Lesney in their factory on the SW corner of the Marsh. Hackney Marshes survived the incursions of the Olympic Park almost intact and the footie pitches still provide perhaps the most celebrated players’ nursery of all.
    Enough nostalgia: this was indeed a pleasant and gentle puzzle obviously designed to make competitors believe there might be a point in turning up after all.
  8. A very gentle romp in about 8 minutes, as fast as I ever get. The cruciverbal cliches seemed to come thick and fast, but I enjoyed it nevertheless
  9. Ulaca, there is an E missing at the end of your answer for 7d. Thought I’d mention it as no-one else has.

    Easy-peasy today, with all but 2 completed during my 30 minute commute. Like others, the marshes and the railway worker were new to me, but easily gettable.

    1. Ah, yes, of course, right you are – changed now.

      Edited at 2014-10-06 08:28 am (UTC)

  10. 11 mins. I didn’t start too quickly, and was then held up at the end by COUNTERPOINT. I also thought there was more going on than there really was in the clues for BUDAPEST and PAPER CHASE, and I could have kicked myself when I realised they were simple charades.

    As far as HACKNEY MARSHES is concerned I knew of all the football pitches there so no problem with the “rec” definition.

  11. 17 min – started very rapidly, but SE corner slowed me down. HACKNEY seemed to need some sort of carriage, but eventually this came to mind http://www.amaranthdesign.ca/musichall/songs/houses.htm
    (Hadn’t heard about football pitches before above comments)
    LOI was 13dn – first thought was some sort of CHOUGH (air forced = cough + h(ouse) ) but the O from 14ac made SONG likely, an inappropriate description of that bird.
    1. Sorry, Phm; your link must have appeared while I was typing my comment. Looks like Joekobi also recalled the music-hall song at the same time.
    2. I’m another who only knew Hackney Marshes because of the song. (I used to live in Wembley and there’s another line in that song that resonated: something like “and by hanging from the chimney you could see across to Wembley”). The song was featured in the “News Chronicle Book of 60 Music Hall Songs” which was a staple of family parties when I was a child. I used to play it for my uncles to sing. I can even remember the verse!
  12. Half an hour, so not that easy for me. Began badly by writing in MISS instead of OMIT after hearing of a controversy about the term Ole Miss, used for the University of Missippi.

    Unaccountably, it also took me a while to parse OWNING UP, which was, I thought, a very neat clue.

    Thanks for the Flanders and Swann song; not heard it before but now see that the joke about what was left of the British Empire (Sweet Rockall) wasn’t as recent as I had thought.

    The HACKNEY MARSHES are familiar only through Gus Elen’s song with the memorable chorus:

    Oh it really is a werry pretty garden
    And Chingford to the Eastward could be seen
    Wiv a ladder and some glasses
    You could see the ‘Ackney Marshes
    If it wasn’t for the ‘ouses in between.

    Any grouses? Only my usual one about there being plenty of other ways to clue CHE without keeping alive the name of Che Guano.

  13. 13.31; always glad to outrace the quarter-hour. Not that always means often. The Victorian music-hall ‘If it wasn’t for the ‘ouses in between’ has a lovely non-sighting of the ‘Ackney Marshes. Not absolutely sure about band and line in 9. John, you beat me to it!

    Edited at 2014-10-06 10:23 am (UTC)

  14. . . . despite the licking attentions of the Dog. It really is not easy to type with a great tongue all over the keyboard (the Dog’s!). A pleasant start to the week, apart from dogwalking in the rain.
  15. keriothe,

    I asked PB whether the hated ST keyboard for iPad was going to be used for the other 6 days (like Friday). He said
    “bigtone53: I have not been involved in the use of the ST iPad crossword interface for the Times crossword on some days recently, so I can’t say.”
    So watch this space I guess.

    1. Thanks. At the champs last year there were some IT guys hanging around and they asked me what I thought of the ST interface. My response was unambiguous.
  16. 25 minutes, so quick for me also. If the presence of Umberto Eco signals a change in the unwritten rule then I’m all for it. Seems like a silly rule to me.

    I was thinking of moving from an Android tablet to an Ipad because the keyboard is horribly slow on my tablet (the normal keyboard is fine but the crossword has its own embedded keyboard). Seems like I should hold fire for now.

    1. I was told, years ago, that the rule about not mentioning living people came about when a not-very-flattering allusion to someone appeared in a clue published on the day that he died. I’ve no idea when this unfortunate coincidence occurred and the explanation might well be apocryphal.
  17. Pleased with an all correct 16.50 today which would have been a very rare sub 15 but for bunging in ALLEGORY at 17a which held me up for a vital 2 or 3 minutes in the SW. Sigh! More haste less speed again. Otherwise a gentle challenge even for a slow coach like me; no doubt helped by knowing the more unusual references such as railmen and cricket whites. Thanks for blog. I did know the music hall song BTW but have no idea where the Marshes are in relation to anything else around London. Do the pitches suffer from a lot of weather logging I wonder.

    Edited at 2014-10-06 11:42 am (UTC)

    1. The pitches are pretty well drained,  and it probably helps that a lot of rubble from 2WW bomb damage was dumped there. The current google satellite view shows a parched landscape (2013?), so very dry indeed!

  18. PB of 17m for me (little more than a novice). Shocked by how many people struggled with 22a; I’m a Brummie emigre living in darkest Cornwall and I spotted it wivaht resorting to ladders or glasses! You’ll be telling me next that you’ve never heard of a Vesta Tilley lamp!
  19. 9:27 so just in single figures with the SE corner putting up some resistance in the end.

    Given the QM at 19 I took club? for Whites to mean Leeds United. I’ve spent a lot more time at Elland Road that I have at the London club, which I don’t think I’ve even heard of.

    When I was nobbut a lad we used to drive past Hackney Marches on the way to visit grandmothers (2) and mt Dad would always point the pitches out as he used to play on them. Luckily I counted the free squares before taking a punt with a hopeful and unparsed carriage.

    1. White’s is known, among other things, for David Cameron’s having resigned from it in 2008 in protest at the club’s continued refusal to admit women members. I’m sure that had nothing to do with the looming prospect of a general election.
      2. My club, The Naval and Military (aka The In and Out) admits and treats
        all genders equally as serving personnel of either gender are now considered equal in the forces.
  20. All very pleasant today and only 50 minutes which is a triumph for me.My daughter plays footy on Hackney Marshes several times a season so no problem for me there.
    1. Unspammed. Not sure why your message was so treated by the system, but it could be to do with the absence of a space between “.” and “My daughter” which could be mistaken as part of a website address.
  21. Currently, the hated ST format comes up about once a month on the other days. Personally, I solve on iPad with a keyboard and a bluetooth connection which does not work with the ST format, so another reason why I dislike it. Does it have any fans out there?
  22. One of the reasons I gave up the Independent’s crossword was the change of policy re living people – they were often celebs and sports people I’d never heard of. I also note that the answer to one of Saturday’s Jumbo clues was a proprietary brand of dishcloth. The thin end of the wedge?

    Edited at 2014-10-06 01:54 pm (UTC)

  23. On the wavelength today. It probably would have been one of my fastest ever at 15 minutes. But (and there’s always a “but”) I somewhat thoughtlessly put METAPHORICAL instead of METAPHYSICAL. That buggered up the HACKNEY clue for a while. 18mins. Ann
  24. A pleasant and straightforward offering, though METAPHYSICAL needing ye olde pen/paper treatment. Would be interesting to know if Sig. Eco’s inclusion was an oversight or a change of editorial policy – I’m in two minds about which I’d prefer.
  25. Oh dear – this is very embarrassing – I’m a DNF thanks to “HEAR”, of all things

    I sat and stared at it, and eventually resorted to trawling the alphabet, convinced I was just being word-blind. I looked at “HEAR” a dozen times, amongst all the others, and the “try” meaning failed to click. Eventually I gave up, convinced that there was some obscure -E-R word (or meaning) that I was unaware. I really must kick myself more often.

  26. About 20 minutes, ending with HACKNEY… which I (naturally) hadn’t heard of. But the wordplay was clear. WHITES from the checking letters, but unaware of the club. Other than that, no real problem, the only clue where I needed all the checkers was COUNTERPOINT, which was a nice clue. Regards to all.
  27. Stuck in TRACKLAYER without bothering to parse – never heard of platelayers, so took a while to sort out!
  28. Pretty straightforward, and count me among those who thought Mr. Eco had long since departed, so apologies. HACKNEY MARSHES from wordplay but it was nice and clear.
  29. Oh phooey! I was heading for a half-decent time for once, but then spent a good (or rather bad) five minutes agonising over 3dn before finishing in a miserable 11:11. I was reasonably happy with “foil” as a possible definition, but couldn’t think of anything that matched the wordplay – so in the end I bunged in COUNTERPOINT and prayed. It was only after I’d read other people’s comments, and found no-one else had had the same problem, that I read the clue properly – and discovered that the final word was “end” and not “edge”!!!
    1. Oddly enough, I thought foil as definition was especially cute, and made it my LOI. I’m sure the bar/pointy thing wordplay has been used many times before, and I was bruising my shins (again).

Comments are closed.