Times 26041 – Like Webster’s?

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Well, this was certainly not your average Monday. The SE corner went in on a wing and a prayer – not to mention a knowledge of a cricketing legend of the mid-twentieth century – so I will need to unpack that before sending this despatch off. I’m never sure what a ‘technical did not finish’ is, but it sounds better than shoving one in wrong and then checking the letter pattern on ‘crosswordpuzzlehelp’ to ascertain the correct answer, which is what I had to do today with the darned Murdoch clue. My punishment, I suppose, for never having read a word of the lady in question’s prose. 44 minutes for what I could manage correctly.

ACROSS

1. CALVADOS – apple brandy from Normandy, never knowingly tasted; SODA + VAC around L reversed. Not a gentle one to get off the mark with.
6. TWINGE – a well concealed hidden, no Ls no PORTs no TROTs, or OWs and OUCHes, even if I spent plenty of time working around them. One out of the back of the hand.
9. BOOM – a double definition. A straight full toss – probably enough to get an Englishman out in Adelaide later today.
10. BARBERSHOP – true to form I was working around PORTER, IVES, BERLIN but not Samuel BARBER, even though I sang something of his recently; BARBER + HOP. A well disguised slower ball.
11. MEMOIRISTS – better if truth be told than my ‘penoirists’, if for no other reason than it exists; ‘authors’ is the definition, arrived at by taking MS (manuscript > ‘writing’) and filling it with TOME reversed (‘in review of book’) around IRIS. The bouncer aimed at the throat merely fended off to leg slip.
13. GANG – I reckon this is GA[mi]NG with its innards removed. Possibly a googly, maybe a leg break. Might even be a doosra, if I knew what that was.
14. PARENTAL – PA (per annum) + RENTAL gives the genitivised ‘child minder’s’. Fingers across the seam stuff here, for a delivery that didn’t do as much as you thought it would.
16. RETYPE – 9, 9! R[eliabl]E + TYPE (‘sort’); Graham Gooch doing his impression of Bob Willis.
18. ADORER – anagram of ROARED. All together now, ‘My eyes adored you’.
20. MOROCCAN – MORN around OC (‘officer in charge’) + CA (‘about’); club cricketers might be bamboozled by this one, but a mere Dilscoop for the hardened pro.
22. GILL – G[ood] + ILL; short and wide again from Broad and clubbed over cover for 6 by the Bangladeshi tailender to win the game off the last ball.
24. INSTRUMENT – MEN in IN (‘trendy’) + STRUT (‘bar’); nice idea, but if you’re bowling to a 6-3 field, you don’t pitch it on middle and leg and expect to get away with it.
26. INDIGO BLUE – anagram of I (‘one’) + DOUBLE GIN; one in the corridor of uncertainty, which has Sir Geoffrey purring.
28. TEAK – [s]TEAK; a huge appeal, the umpire finger’s goes up, the batsmen confer (another unsuccessful review here would mean no more reviews for bats 3-11 and ructions in the dressing-room afterwards), they go upstairs and the umpire’s original call stands. STEAK is after all ‘any of various cuts of beef of varying quality’.
29. CRIKEY – CRI[b] (‘foreign text translation lacking book’) + KEY (‘glossary’); a brilliant swinging delivery, but all to no avail as the umpire has called the bowler for over-stepping. Only one COR, CRIKEY, LUMME, LORD or LORDY allowed per innings, and this bowler had already slipped one in.
30. DOYENNES – anagram of NEEDY + SON; sometimes the gentle off-break is all you need, as Jim Laker would have told you, especially if you’re playing proper cricket on uncovered pitches. You play down the wrong line with ‘dowagers’ and you are back in the hutch.

After a shortened interval because of a slow over-rate, we’re straight back with the…

DOWNS

2. AFORESAID – FORES[t] in A + AID; meat and drink to McCullum, who clubs this bouncer off the front foot over deep extra.
3. VAMOOSE – V[ide] + A + MOOSE; England brings on their sixth change bowler to try something different, but all to no avail as the batsman reverse sweeps this to the third man boundary.
4. DEBAR – B[read] in DEAR (‘ducks’, as in a Les Dawson sketch accompanied by a hitching up of the artificial rack); you can’t beat line ’n’ lenth, as Fred would say.
5. SIR – first letters of S[hould] I[mpose] R[ules]; the sort of delivery to provoke howls of derision from the drunks on the Hill and the good folk on the Times Crossword Club forum.
6. TREASURER – anagram of RATE + SURER; good variation – my bowling coach (Ray the wicket-keeper) told me that if you were going to bowl a slower ball, make it only marginally slower, not, like, half as slow. Unfortunately, he told me that after they fetched it out of the river.
8. GROAN – take the ROOM (‘space’) from GROOM, replace it with ROAN (why did the Injuns always used to ride these in the B&W movies?) and you get this; the bowler successfully persuaded the umpires to change the ball, but forgot that a harder one goes further.
12. SALAMIS – double definition: Greek island & site of famous victory for Greek fleet over invading Persians in 490BC and the cooked cold meat; another wasted review, as the batsman says une charcuterie is a shop selling cold meats, but the television umpire tells him the word is derived from the meats themselves, so he must walk.
15. TERRITORY – IT[alian] in TERROR + Y[en]; having been hammered for five consecutive boundaries, the bowler tries something different – hoping to make the batsman play down the line of IMP rather than TERROR – but the batsman has been around too long to fall for this trick and it’s 30 off the over.
17. PLAIN-JANE – the literal is ‘unremarkable’, and the wordplay [n]INJA in PLANE; the bowler really bends his back and this one is past the batter before he realises it.
19. ROLLICK – I’LL (sort of ‘I shall’) reversed in ROCK (‘stagger’); the umpires have a quick glance at each other to check this was below head height and therefore legitimate – the batsmen and David Lloyd are unhappy, but was the batsman standing upright at the popping crease? This one could go viral…
21. COMPTON – …until this one comes along. Is this cricket? Okay, yes, Denis Compton was a fantastic player for Middlesex and England (not to mention, Arsenal and England), yes, he was the original Brylcreem Boy, yes, he wrote for the Sunday Express, but should non-British solvers or non-cricket fans be expected to know all this? So, it’s the first letter in M[iddlesex] (the fact that he went in at number 4 is irrelevant in this brilliant &lit) in COP TON (get a century). Will this turn out to be the moment that is still debated 35 years after this World Cup, immortalised like Trevor Chappell’s underarm delivery?
23. INNER – phew! a chance for everyone to get their breath back with this gentle floater: [w]INNER.
25. REEDY – I’m afraid this has beaten me all ends up, unless – as I fear it isn’t – it is merely a weak sort of &lit with the plant material doing double duty before the final letter of [sa]Y. Over to the TfTT DRS team for this one. And it’s thanks to my predecessor in the Monday slot, Koro, for extending the scope of finality to compass three words, viz. [th]E [ground]D [sa[Y], all to follow RE (‘on’).
27. LAD – L + AD; a half-decker to end proceedings in the 13th over.

47 comments on “Times 26041 – Like Webster’s?”

  1. Yes, it was quite tricky. I got there eventually without resort to aids but failed to understand GANG before coming here (thanks for that)and still don’t see how REEDY works. I knew of Compton and his connection with Middlesex despite having no real interest in cricket, but that’s my home county and back in the 40s and 50s he used to put together a side every year to challenge the local team to a charity match. My father was interested in all this so I got dragged along to it a couple of times.
      1. … and it only took me from very nearly the start of my solve to very near the end to work out. Mind you, at the same time, I was puzzling over whether GAmboliNG could be correct at 13 or was GOing stroNG some UK trade union I had yet to encounter. Well, there’s a union called United Voice in Aus, so anything’s possible.
  3. Geateful if anyone can explain this – I see the charcuterie component, but can’t see the rest.

    Also … anyone care to comment on 21d – which turns out to be the name of a cricketing chappie.
    For one who lives very far from the UK, and has no interest in cricket, this clue and its answer was a complete and insoluble mystery. Or am I not trying hard enough?

    1. Salamis is an island near athens. And the site of a famous sea battle

      I had vaguely heard of compton and it couldn’t be anything else once i had the checkers

      Not confident of either GROAN or GANG

    2. get = COP, a century is a score of a hundred in cricket, often referred to as a TON.
  4. Needed a bit of help with CALVADOS and a reminder about charcuterie. I’m quite fond of food and drink, just don’t know much about them.

    Another excellent puzzle, didn’t feel like a Monday. Thought the hidden TWINGE was hard to spot, and wasted a lot of time trying to cram various four-letter words into 11ac to describe Murdoch. Sorry Iris.

    Loved the CWC-themed blog Ulaca, but I’m going for the DRS on 29ac, where I think the definition might be “My foreign” as “Crikey” is more Australian than British. Not that many people use it, despite Steve Irwin’s best attempts.

    Also Brendon McCullum might not be a latter-day Denis Compton (COD), but you should still spell his name correctly at 2dn.

    Edited at 2015-03-09 05:58 am (UTC)

    1. I really shouldn’t bother using Google if I still end up being unable to carry the information in my enfeebled mind for the ten seconds it takes to plonk the correct spelling in. And I was so proud too of learning recently that he spelt the first bit of his name with an O.

      I think the television umpire would leave 29a with the in-field umpire, as ‘foreign’ may not be unnecessary with ‘translation’, since a crib is traditionally of a foreign text rather than say Shakespeare, or legalese (or this blog for some people, I guess). Not only that, but Collins has ‘a translation of a foreign text’.

      Edited at 2015-03-09 06:16 am (UTC)

      1. And in true Australian fashion, I’ll accept the umpire’s decision with grace. While I continue to enjoy this partnership between Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur.

        1. Just keeping it interesting – very short lateral boundaries at the Adelaide Oval, you know.
    2. Crikey may be more used in Australia now, but those of us brought up on Billy Bunter (aka “the Fat Owl of the Remove”) will be more than familiar with the phrase, as in “Crikey, you chaps, it wasn’t me that filched those rotten buns from your tuck box”.
  6. Started fast, thoughts of a PB and usual Monday fare, but much slowed by some excellent, tricky clueing, to finish in 40 minutes with 11a and 25d only partly understood; thanks Ulaca and Koro for parsing those and an entertaining start to the week, I wonder if this sets a trend for us, as CWC followers, to pursue this week. If I’d not been watching Bell and Hales just about coping with a third rate Bangladesh attack, I’d maybe have stopped the clock sooner, but there are priorities. And now Hales is gone.
    I can recommend Calvados, it tastes nice but can lead to a nasty hangover if taken to excess; better kept for pouring on pancakes.

    Edited at 2015-03-09 09:11 am (UTC)

    1. The only Calvados I tried was a home brew (distillation?) which my car would have happily run on. Needed to bypass taste buds and most of the digestive system.
  7. Tough, not just for a Monday, and toughened up still further by one of those errors you only get when typing in the clues, starting the entry with the second letter in the first square, which gave me EBARR at 4d and the impossible A?R?E?S??? the US music clue. Staring at that stretched my time to 29.43, but I was never on for a record.
    GROAN was never going in without the additional checker either; replacing 4/5 of a word with another four letters is a nasty little daisycutter when you’re expecting a long hop with (say) replacing EM or EN with G or H. Stellar themed blog, by the way! This one could run and run. And without that, GANG stays blank (too many options).
    COMPTON is a brilliant &lit, though on a pitch specially prepared for the English players (if they have any special skills left) it might be termed not – um – cricket.
    MEMOIRISTS invented from the wordplay once Rupert was dismissed (hit wicket).
  9. 19m. Slightly tricky fare this.
    MEMOIRISTS took a while: I identified the right Murdoch but then thought she would go on the end to give some obscure book or term for lit crit ending IRIS.
    I also got held up in the SE where the cricketer was only vaguely familiar.
    I had 13ac as GAddiNG. Whatever works I suppose. GAllivantiNG, GAllopiNG, GAlravagiNG, GAmbadoiNG, GAmbitiNG, GAmbliNG, GAmbolliNG, GAudiNG…
    Last in REEDY, where I never figured out the wordplay, so thanks to koro for that one.

    Edited at 2015-03-09 10:57 am (UTC)

  10. 20 mins. This definitely wasn’t a straightforward Monday puzzle and some of the answers needed to be teased out from the wordplay because the definitions weren’t obvious. PLAIN-JANE and CRIKEY very much fell into that category, although MEMOIRISTS didn’t because I was sure of the definition and the use of IRIS. I needed all the checkers before I saw CALVADOS because I had convinced myself when I had ?A?V? at the start of the answer that it was going to be a reversal of “Evian”. REEDY was my LOI and it took me a minute or two because I wanted to parse it.
  11. i know nothing about cricket but i know an excellent sustained gag of a blog when i see it. it certainly belongs in the pantheon with jimbo’s april first pippin last year. i managed COMPTON ok thanks to generous clueing, but i had to come here for the parsing of REEDY and GANG. yes i had a look at evian but knew it was ng because it’s still, and there was no room for perrier. i think i’ll stick to cider if i want an apple drink. 27.31
  12. 27:18 … I made heavy weather of this. Good puzzle, wrong mood. I did eventually parse GANG as GA(mi)NG but, like a few others, I’m not sure the clue is quite cricket. Talking of which, great blog, ulaca.

    MEMOIRISTS is a pretty stunning piece of orthographic engineering. Bravo.

  13. Crumbs. I was so far off wavelength I think NASA are getting their signals back from Ceres faster than I twigged what was going on here. Stopwatch says 31:52 but I took a while (maybe as much as ten minutes) to spot that I’d forgotten to restart it after an interruption so today I was very much England to the setter’s Bangladesh.

    At one point I was close to declaring in a losing position (can you do that?) but soldiered on finishing with reedy which went in with a shrug so thanks for the parsing.

    Maybe I’m like Sotira and the puzzle came on the wrong day.

  14. I had to have two bashes at this, eventually finishing in 47:22. I’d not been able to parse DEBAR or REEDY, so thanks for explaining these. I thought the latter particularly devious.

  15. 42m – no doubt slowed down by the chill of NE England after the heat of Perth WA (from 33 to 3C in 24 hours!). Enjoyed today’s challenge and for once managed to be all correct, despite having BIFD the cricketer, the writers and reedy. Blog much enjoyed and appreciated. My COD to 1a not so much for the clue as for the mention of a favourite tipple, though this is one where cheap is nasty and you gets what you pay for!
  16. Full of admiration for the sustained cricket commentary blog – though I didn’t understand half of it. I hate cricket clues and I thought the Middlesex one was particularly sneaky. I only remember him for the Brylcreme. 45 minutes before I gave up and googled C*M***N. I had thought 28a was probably TEAK but didn’t think of “cut” as a cut of meat until I had the initial letter. Ann
  17. First time on this site, and first time for a while not submitting, down entirely to 13ac, which I still find problematical even after reading the other comments. I was for gadding myself, but now think gaming is probably the one, though no more logical than gambolling. Not sure I get all the cricket references but even I have heard of Denis Compton, and if he played for Middx that makes it a really clever &lit, if wasted somewhat on non-sporting types like me. I’m very impressed that this blog exists, and will return next time I’m stuck, maybe even before…
    2. Welcome, indeed. And do come back, whether you’re stuck or not. Some of the most interesting conversations here seem to happen on days when there’s not much crossword to talk about.
  18. What a pity that only the end of his cricket career was recorded on (black and white 425 line) television and, knowing the BBC, probably thrown away. He was an extraordinarily gifted batsman and a “player” rather than a “gentleman” in the contempory parlance. I think it was in 1949 that he enjoyed his great record breaking year. He had dodgy knees and enjoyed a drink and a smoke so would not fit into today’s mode for sportsmen. Despite that, he also played football for Arsenal, on the left wing I think. Shame that so many of our current footballers have to give cricket up. No such thing as sporting seasons any more. A great man, Denis. Strange that so few are aware of him.
  19. As you might imagine, the blog went over my head, most of it as undecipherable as the COMPTON clue was for me. That was my LOI, and I admit I first looked up the unlikely COMTTON (not a cricketer, not even a word) before going with the correct COMPTON. If that’s a DNF, so be it. Everything else went in with a bit of a struggle but correct and understood, except my inability to parse the wordplay for MEMOIRISTS. Pretty clever. Regards to all.
  20. My 27 mins today is looking pretty respectable based on comments above. No DNK’s but couldn’t parse REEDY which was my LOI.
  21. Completed correctly, but add me to the list of those who failed to parse ‘reedy’. I it hadn’t bern for Rufus in the Grauniad I would have thought that I had slept through Monday.
  22. Thank you for an excellent blog, ulaca! Very entertaining! And thanks for GANG and REEDY. I was at the crease for 61mins 52secs and didn’t play a false stroke.
  23. 15:03 for me, solving most of the clues quite quickly, but wasting far too much time trying to justify the rest, with 25dn (REEDY) taking much the longest (I did get there eventually) even though I couldn’t see what else it could really be.
  24. I felt like the chap facing the fast bowler and a long slog with an “innings” of 47 minutes which is not as shaming as I first thought. Crompton was a boyhood hero to my schoolmates and, like reedy, I rather guessed these – both LOI. I used to enjoy Mondays but they are increasingly hard work. Did try and sign up but it seems to have failed.
    Chris M-W
  25. Yes, I’m late again. Partly because this was very hard work.
    1/ Pedants’ corner: salami is already plural; the singular is salame (thank you, Elizabeth David).
    2/ I’m old enough to remember Compton (and the Bedsers, Cowdrey, Evans, Graveney…) but I thought this was OTT. Or are we now in the age when everyone who doesn’t know something will Google the answers anyway? If so, where’s the limit? Are we going to get clues about, say, Gordon Pirie? And despite being thoroughly English, I think cricket is vastly overrated (ok,boring) and that you can have too much of it in crosswords.
    1. The dictionaries (English dictionaries note) give salami or salamis as plural for the word, while noting the Italian singular salame from which they are derived, so a pedant of a different sort would approve.
    1. I bow to your French, but again, in an English crossword, a charcuterie (count noun) is a shop and charcuterie (non-count noun) are meats. Just like chocolate(s) – in two senses.

      Edited at 2015-03-11 11:03 am (UTC)

  27. Well, I utterly DNFd this one. I am here only to defend Calvados (breakfast of champions) against z8b8d8k’s comments.

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