Times 25967: Did Poirot ever do crosswords?

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I tried hard to find the corner of this crossword where lurked the unknown that might attract complaints, but I really don’t think there is one. Perhaps the “Road to” clue will baffle those who expect to find Hope, Crosby, and Lamour wisecracking their way along it, but the actual literary reference is pretty well known (though I’ll look it up, just in case I make a fool of myself with the attribution). So nothing too tricky, but there are some pretty clues along the way, including a fine (perhaps pre-loved) answer-as-clue device. Here’s my unravelling of the mysteries:

Across

1 BOW-WOW Dog
The one daddy wouldn’t buy me (sensible chap – you’ve already got a cat). BOW polite greeting, WOW a sensation
5 LEAP YEAR
A Christmas crackerish variant on the cryptic definition. Springs are both leaps and seasons, so all years have them, not just those that divide by 4. Tee hee.
9 RED LIGHT
Another, rather laconic CD. A red light suggests stop (so no go), And of course no member of this august community would consider entering that sort of distrtict, so also no go.
10 MENDED cured
People are men (or some of them are). These ones are DEAD without the internal A, deleted by the phrase “not one”.
11 SHRAPNEL(shot in) pieces
I quite like this one, where shot should be seen as doing double duty as both part of the definition and as the anagram indicator. The anagram fodder is HER PLANS
12 MIRRORPaper
Or, of course, something for hanging on the wall, perhaps a rather vague indicator. There are many Mirror newspapers on the planet, not just the one once owned by Robert Maxwell (he who went swimabout from his yacht the Lady Ghislaine with large chunks of the company pension fund missing).
13 LYING LOW hiding
You just need to weld together LYING for dishonest, and LOW for mean
15 FLUE Escape shaft
Well it is for gases or smoke. Sounds like FLEW, got off the ground
17 SOCK Thump
One of the many Batmanesque words for hit, this one having uncertain origins as far back as 1700. Take H(usband) out of ShOCK, alarm.
19 GREENFLY Little pest
While solving, I wondered where the Y came from for “green” renewable energy. Of course, it’s FL(ourihed), or better Fl(oreat), in an anagram of ENERGY. 
On edit: my trusted proofreaders and favourite pedants have pointed out that it should be FL(ourished) and floruit. I’ve left the post intact so as to save them from appearing foolish and to acknowledge that the last vestiges of my self esteem have been washed quite away.

20 SHELVE slowly get lower
SH “don’t say it”, ELVE from the plural of elf shorter by its S.
21 CONCLAVE selection meeting
The most well known being the one that ends with a puff of white smoke and the muttering among the crowd “who on earth is that?”. Politician is CON(servative, then L(eft) is found in CAVE, a common enough direct synonym for “chamber”
22 MICKEYMouse
One may, if one dares, take the Mickey, hoping the target will see it’s just a joke.
23 LAID BACKrelaxed
If laid back were a crossword clue, it would indicate DIAL. Pretty little clue.
24 BUTTRESSsupport
Wasn’t this a whimsical female goat a while back? Should have been, perhaps. We had the flying version only 3 weeks back, but this time its BUTT – cask, RE – on and SS – ship
25 GEEZER chap
The words do mean the same, of course, but, my dear, they are miles apart in social standing. G(ood) fronts FREEZER, domestic appliance, missing its FR (father).

Down

2 OVERHAUL service
There’s a sounds like indicator here in “called out” which acounts foe HALL, lobby, in a different spelling. Having crossed, you are OVER. Have a care with the “liftng and separating” here.
3 WELDABLEThus possible to repair
A plainly signalled anagram of LEAD BLEW
4 WIGAN PIER The road to it
The Road to Wigan Pier,is – um – George Orwell’s scathing depiction of working class poverty in the North of England. In case you ever wondered, here’swhat Wigan Pier looks like. In the clue, it’s constructed by wrapping an anagram of WEARING round the constant PI.
5 LITTLE GREY CELLSThey think
Or they do, famously, for Poirot. Equally, little grey cells would be a close, confined, hence little, boringly grey place to keep men in confinement
6 PREVIEW TV critic often given this
I think the way this works is that our critic, in the course of his duty, would add a review to the P(age) he was given.
7 EL DORADO fabulous place
The imagined golden city/nation/kingdom sought by the conquistadors, and a catastropihically bad BBC soap. E(ast) with an anagram of OLD ROAD
8  RODERICKboy
RODE is “survived” as in rode out the storm. Strain leads you to RICK. Conflate.
14 OFFENDING liable to arrest
Concerned with is OF, as in Of Mice and Men”. FENDING gives coping as in fending for oneself. Conflate
15 FLASH MOB Sudden gathering
Those participating might not be flashy dressers. Unless they want to be seen on TV.
16 UPPER CUT blow
Possibly in the boxing ring. Part of a shoe UPPER, removed CUT
17 SYLLABLE barely a word
Because its a bit short. ALLY’s (friend’s) reversed, set before (I think) BLEW without its W from “hurried away”
18 CLAVICLE bone
Perhaps (though  not by much) better known as the collarbone. One hanging in the cold is an ICICLE, which is executed by losing its first I. Its remains are thrown around LAV for small room.
19 GIVE EAR listen
Perhaps a rather old fashioned phrase. I’VE gets within GEAR for clothes.

40 comments on “Times 25967: Did Poirot ever do crosswords?”

  1. 41 minutes, with thanks to Zed for unravelling the GREENFLY clue. I finished with RODERICK (which I like though I know some don’t care for this unidentified chap type of clue – Roderick is such a fine name) and MIRROR. Not sure about PREVIEW, which seems a bit too clever for its own good.

    Actually, looking back at it now, this crossword seems to have quite a few clues (MICKEY in addition to MIRROR and PREVIEW – maybe more) where I didn’t quite feel I’d been given enough. A bit like having ‘hotpot’ in Hong Kong…

    Edited at 2014-12-11 03:29 am (UTC)

  2. Oddly enough, ‘The road to it’ immediately suggested Wigan Pier, which I’ve never read. LAID BACK, on the other hand, took a chunk of time, and I never did understand it until Z showed me. (I didn’t help myself by throwing in -able at 14d.) I’d spell 7d as two words; and indeed, I often find myself surprised at single-word solutions here that I’d write as two. I’d almost forgotten RICK, but the checkers worked; on the other hand, does one ride –as opposed to ride out–anything?
    1. Chambers gives “to sustain, come through, esp while riding at anchor” for ride in nautical and figurative senses. Jim Morrison has
      “Riders on the storm
      Riders on the storm
      Into this house we’re born
      Into this world we’re thrown
      Like a dog without a bone
      An actor out on loan
      Riders on the storm”
      …which could cast us as “survivors”, though it might well mean something completely different.
  3. This was a very lively and enjoyable puzzle so I must have been very tired to nod off for a while and lose track of my solving time. I also forgot to go back to it this morning and check the clues not fully understood, of which there were several.

    “The Road To Wigan Pier” has been discussed a lot in the media in the past few days following accusations of bias in BBC coverage of government spending cuts in which their correspondent compared conditions in Britain today with the era Orwell was writing about in the 1930s.

    Edited at 2014-12-11 05:53 am (UTC)


  4. … and that One Error was UPPERCUT, where I had undercut (unparsed, obvs), which, on checking, I see is what an uppercut was formerly known as…

    RODERICK my last one in by ages. Needed to alphabet-run a couple of times for that one.

    Also at MENDED I had MEN+D(I)ED. Can ‘were killed’ = both dead and died?

    Couldn’t parse the BLE bit of SYLLABLE… Wouldn’t have thought of BLEW=’hurried away’.

    1. Well spotted. I think it was Zed’s deliberate mistake, as the Times daily cryptic does not allow A for one.
      1. I’m glad you spotted that, glad I tell you!
        Perhaps if the rule were relaxed we might get AA for 2 (or possibly 11). The possibilities are too horrible to contemplate.
  5. A solve in two halves. Worked away steadily but ground to a halt for a while. Then LITTLE GREY CELLS (COD) fell and I wrapped it up fairly quickly. LOI LEAP YEAR.

    Thanks setter, and thanks Z for correctly parsing GREENFLY.

  6. About 35 minutes steady solving of a neat puzzle.
    I am a bit dubious of defining RODERICK as a boy – surely that would be ROD? Isn’t the convention that names are names, but boy’s names are contractions (Sid, Tim, Al etc.)?
    11 is intriguing in that both “shot” or “in pieces” could be either the clue or the anagrind – neat!
    Thanks for a really entertaining blog and for explaining that pesky Y in 19 (yup, I fell for it too).
  7. It’s a horrible job being a pedant but someone has to do it (?), so it’s floruit rather than floreat at 19ac Z. Anyway, 14 minutes for an enjoyable puzzle with, I agree, some neat clues. On Wednesday 3rd December I was pleasantly surprised to recognise a competition puzzle after the third clue but I suffered a severe relapse yesterday when I finished in 11 minutes without remembering a single clue from my previous solve. I know the small print is there but I get so focussed on reading the clues that I never spot it.
    1. Ah yes, of course, floruit. I was thinking of St Trinians when I wrote floreat, thereby betraying my lack of pedigree by not linking it with “Etona”. Maybe it also illustrates St Trinians’ (where does the damned apostrophe go in that? Are there two?) joyful non-conformity, refusing to latinise the School’s name in its motto.
      Today’s blog was brought to you by the letter A (which gallumphed into two of my explanations in place of the intimidated I) and number 22 (which made two consecutive appearances before I spotted it and edited it to 23)
      1. Whereas I linked it with ‘Dartfordia’, of less distinguished pedigree, and a wretched school song that I still can’t forget nearly sixty years on.
      1. For goodness sake Penfold, I’m a pedant not a proofreader. (Though I did just spot the incorrect space in the middle of the last word).

        Edited at 2014-12-11 02:39 pm (UTC)

        2. Definitely won’t mention the misspelling of “focused” then

          This was almost a PB at 24m; not often I beat some of the regulars, not to mention coming within 2½ Severs

          JB

          1. I thought I was setting myself up for a fall but fortunately both my spellchecker and Chambers allow the double S (and I’m to too idle to check whether there should be a space in spellchecker or indeed whether I have just made it up).

            Edited at 2014-12-13 12:56 pm (UTC)

  8. 12:10 … which I thought was pretty speedy until I saw Magoo’s time. 4:13? Good grief. I need a faster pen. Dear Santa …

    Fairly steady solve, starting with FLASH MOB and ending in LEAP YEAR. Is it possible to clue a puzzle entirely with cryptic definitions (I realise this is some contributors’ worst nightmare)?

    I also liked RODERICK, not least for reminding me, as the name always does, of Life of Brian … Pontius Pilate being urged to release Roderick the Robber.

  9. I didn’t understand ‘gradually’ in 20ac though I see that Collins has it as the first definition. On seeing SHELVE I associated it with the warning ‘be careful, this beach shelves steeply’ a rather different usage.
  10. 4 Magoos. I suppose a Magoo in the future will be an indicator of 5 dn. No reason a boy’s name shouldn’t be in full even if it often isn’t. 18’s surface a little…modern?
  11. Very pleasing middle of the road puzzle – 20 minutes to ramble through to the end

    5D was a write in (it’s my e-mail address that is based on the phrase) but the cryptic definitions held me up as usual.

    Great blog Z8

  12. Quite tough for me at about 65 minutes. After a sub-30 minute solve on Monday I thought I’d be in for a good week, but that isn’t how it is turning out.

    I was convinced that 8 began with LAD and 5 ended with WELL (for springs), which held me up no end, and made the NE my last corner in.

    Very satisfying puzzle though.

  13. Another one grateful for the parsing of this. I’d persuaded myself that FLY=FLOURISHED – or something. Actually it is “Floreat Etona” not “floruit”. No I didn’t actually go there, but given the sort of cousins of mine who did and the teaching they had it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they’d got the Latin wrong. No time for this because I opened it by mistake last night on my way to do the dishes. P.S. Hope the nipper is now flourishing Z.

    Edited at 2014-12-11 11:01 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks, yes, we’re making good process and trying to find out what, if any, damage has been done.
      To clarify floruit for fl, used when indicating when an artist was known to be  active, and floreat, let it blossom/flourish, when you are bigging up your alma mater.

    1. Possible, though not the one I thought of, and if it carries the sense of “hurried” then the bleeder is in serious trouble. Chambers has “to depart from, esp hurriedly (sl)” for blow, and I’ve found a 1912 Variety report of a stage production called “The Family Entrance” which describes the action thus: “The story is of a crook who stole some diamonds. For a sweetheart the crook has a nice young woman who formerly sang in the rathskeller but she blew the joint and a hack driver at the same time because she loved her Joe.” An older expression than one might think.
      1. I used ble(d) at the time but on reflection, while trimming the beard this morning, I think ble(w) is better. An enjoyable crossword.
  15. Actually in this puzzle it’s fl=floruit=flourished. “Floreat” means “let [he she or it] flourish”.
    1. Yes indeed it is and indeed it (the other it) does. I’m losing track of where I am in the “corrections and clarifications” corner.
  16. All completed in reasonable time, but I was unable to parse LAID BACK, CLAVICLE and GREENFLY (fl as an abbreviation for “floruit” was new to me). Thanks to Z8 for the explanations. Good blog, good puzzle.
  17. 25 minutes, held up by a few wrong ideas: thought 4D was going to be WAGON something, had LAID DOWN at 23A and 14D was my LOI as I was looking for something beginning in ON rather than OF.

  18. 17:24 but I felt I was really plodding.

    Thanks for explaining where the Y in greenfly came from and for highlighting the niceties of flash mob.

    Glad to hear the grandson is on the mend.

  19. 6 mins or just under 1.5 Magoos. Lovely straightforward stuff just right for a busy lunchtime.
  20. I struggled to get going having just 4 clues after 25m but then it all clicked and I ‘romped’ home in 48m – approximately 11 Magoos apparently. I enjoyed GREENFLY and LAIDBACK especially so thanks to setter. As I have no corrections to suggest I’ll simply say thank you, Z, for an entertaining blog.
  21. 27 mins. Another tired late solve after a busier day than I’ve been used to, and I took ages to get on the setter’s wavelength. The SW went in easily enough, followed by the NE, but it took me a while to crack the NW and then the SE gradually fell into place, with GEEZER my LOI. I can’t say that I enjoyed this one too much, but that may have just been because of my mood rather than the puzzle itself.
  22. I’m tired, but really couldn’t get into this one. Finally got it all sorted out, though it was a funny solve, the entire left side was in before a single entry on the right.
  23. About 25 minutes, ending with MICKEY, an unfamiliar usage. I want to thank Z for explaining (at length) where the “FL” came from in GREENFLY, which abbreviation is another unfamiliar usage. I think I parsed everything else, except for WIGAN PIER, which was wordplay-assisted. Regards.
  24. Nice puzzle, in 43 mins. Favourite clue LAID BACK – very neat!
    Thanks for parsing CLAVICLE and GREENFLY. I thought they must be right but couldn’t for the life of me see why.
  25. 10:41 for me – tired and never really managing to keep tuned to the setter’s wavelength, though I’ve no complaints about the puzzle.

    I think janie_l_b is right about “were killed” = DIED. I believe the Times rule is that “one” is never used to represent A.

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