Times 26,129: The Bad Revolting Stars

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A very enjoyable puzzle, I thought, with some truly groanworthy puns coming thick and fast until I was sure the setter had been having a lot of fun compiling this. Nice mix of the highfalutin with the fun stuff (15D, 28A, etc). Took me 10 minutes more or less on the nose, well within 2 Magoos, though according to the discussion I see that he apparently got a defective grid with half the clues missing, so that explains that.

Avid followers of the Verlaine saga will be pleased to hear that I have now successfully moved house. Unfortunately my daughter has not yet moved school, which means I must dash off forthwith to take two small children on a hellish commute across the whole of South London. But hopefully all such issues will have been ironed out by the time of my next blog in 2 weeks’ time (I’ll be taking a leave of absence for Glastonbury next week). In the meantime, having left the land of Selhurst Park far behind me, I’ll nominate 3D as my COD.

Sorry about the abbreviated blog, then, but I’ll see you all in the comments!

Across
1 VICE VERSA – the opposite: C{l}EVER [smart “deleting line”, i.e. minus L] in VISA [permit]
6 TOPIC – subject: C [“start to” C{omment}] on TOPI [hat worn once by British]
9 TRUE RIB – “one that’s under your skin”: TRUE [proper] + RIB [tease]
10 PILGRIM – journeyman: GRIM [fell] on reversed LIP [part of face, “twisting”]
11 HIT PAY DIRT – cryptic def
12 KIWI – bird: homophone of KEY WEE [vital | little “sound”]
14 FERAL – wild: {gol}FER AL{most} “hides”
15 STARLIGHT – faint illumination: STARLI{n}G [“nameless” bird, i.e. minus N] at HT [height]
16 BY THE YARD – in large quantities: double def with the more literalistic “next to storage area”
18 OUSEL – bird: O USE [ineffective, i.e. “no use”] + L [large]
20 IONA – piece of Scotland: homophone of I OWN A [“announced” I have bought]
21 READ MY LIPS – “I mean it”: (SIMPLY DARE*) [“to be different”]
25 ALAMEDA – walk between trees: A LAME D.A. is a lawyer who’d limp
26 FRANKER – less evasive: F RANKER [female | soldier]
27 ELDER – office holder: REDE [advice once] to include L [Liberal], and then reverse the whole [“rejected”]
28 KEEPY UPPY – football skill: KEEP YUPPY [retain | young professional]

Down
1 VETCH – the fodder: VET [check] + CH [check] = “double-check”
2 COUNTER – return attack: and if something is “under the counter” it is not allowed
3 VERSAILLES – palace: ({spectato}R SEES VILLA*) [“thrashing”]
4 RABID – infectious: A.B. [sailor] with RID [free] going round it
5 AMPERSAND – “symbol of togetherness”: {h}AMPER [“unopened” picnic basket] on SAND [beach]
6 TILL – money-box: S [son] leaves STILL [undisturbed]
7 PARTING – double def: leaving / something in one’s hair
8 COMMITTAL – “getting ordered to prison”: MA [mother] holds MITT [hand] in COL [lowest point]
13 BLOODY MARY – cocktail: (OLD BOY*) [“drunk”] + MARY [girl]
14 FABRICATE – make up: (CABARET IF*) or alternatively (A BRIEF ACT*) [“out of order”]
15 SKATEPARK – “where youngsters may be on board”: SKATE [fish] + P [{flo}P “at last”] + ARK [vessel]
17 TANKARD – T.A. [army] + (DRANK*) [“in mess”], semi-&lit
19 STICK-UP – robbery: to be supportive of a friend is to stick up for them
22 DEFOE – writer: to remove enemies is, punningly, to de-foe
23 SARKY – sneering: Sark-y is, punningly, in the manner of the small Channel Island Sark
24 TEAR – double def: drop / split

30 comments on “Times 26,129: The Bad Revolting Stars”

  1. 13:54 … If the setter was having fun, so was I. Loved all the punnery.

    Last in, and a big penny-drop moment, was OUSEL.

    Agree that the VERSAILLES clue is beautifully done but IONA made me snicker, so that one gets my COD vote.

  2. Perfectly-paced puzzle, but I managed to bugger it up with an unthinking FOREL at 14ac.

    KEEPY-UPPY? Really? Funny lot you British.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  3. Excellent, fun puzzle. Kicking myself for missing KIWI (after staring at it for ages, could not fathom it so put in PIWI just to complete the grid and in the forlorn hope it might be an alternative spelling of the peewit).

    But I did know Ousel (which I thought was beautifully clued). Thanks to setter for a fine puzzle, and Verlaine for his usual exemplary blog.

    Edited at 2015-06-19 09:01 am (UTC)

  4. Eek… a sorry dnf today after my allotted 60mins. All blanks in the NW: had forgotten TRUE RIB, didn’t get VETCH, and had never heard of the expression HIT PAY DIRT.
  5. 25 minutes for all bar four in the Charlton Athletic quadrant of South London and then another 20 minutes for those, ending with COMMITTAL.

    I’ve certainly never used the slang expression at 11a, and am not sure I’ve ever heard it used, though I have heard of it. I would say “Go figure!”, but it’s such an annoying expression that I won’t.

    Go fig…

  6. All done with much amusement after 20 minutes, except 9d and 12a, stuck because I’d put in TOPEE for the hat – an allowed spelling – and was left with E*M***T*L. Silly boy. Checking TOPEE I saw the TOPI option and the pennies dropped. ALAMEDA from the word play. Hard to pick a best clue here, so many to savour.
  7. 11 mins. I really enjoyed this puzzle and I think the setter must have been in a very whimsical frame of mind when it was being put together. My two favourites were SARKY and DEFOE, although IONA and ALAMEDA weren’t far behind. I finished with ELDER after TEAR/ALAMEDA/TANKARD. I biffed VICE VERSA but parsed it immediately after I finished the puzzle.
  8. Just crept home under the hour. The PAY DIRT thing was beyond my ken as was REDE and I wondered about ‘for friend’ in 19d. I don’t see why friendship is necessarily a factor as often what is being stuck up for is a cause or belief. That apart, I enjoyed being reminded of the sketch “Hand Up Your Sticks” written by Peter Cook:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DInM68YgcC4
  9. 36 min – FOI was confidently DIG THE DIRT, so it took rather a long time to get the NW area sorted.
  10. Another fairly lengthy solve for me at 33:46.

    I used to play KEEPY UPPY often as a kid – got up to about 50 at my best! I remember ALAMEDA coming up some time within the past year and I think I failed to get it, but at the time it reminded me of the character Tony Almeida in the TV series 24. This time round I managed to reverse this process – got the As in at either end, then thought to myself that we had something like this before which reminded me of Tony Almeida which led to ALAMEDA. Then finished off with TANKARD and ELDER.

  11. 24:11 for me, although I thought it would take longer after a slow start. I wrote in DIG THE DIRT for 14a and regretted it immediately, which didn’t help. I didn’t know what a TRUE RIB is or that meaning of ‘fell’ in 10a. making 10a and 6d my last two in. Lots of lovely clues, though. I fell for the “this writer’s” misdirection in 22d, thinking there must be a “my” in the answer somewhere. I liked the 3 birds at 12a, 15a and 18a.
  12. 11:18. I was trying to think of le mot juste* to describe this puzzle, and on reading the comments, I realised Andy had hit it on the head with “whimsical”. And if you can’t have whimsy in the Times crossword, where can you have it?

    *In a comment on Tuesday’s puzzle, anon. put forward his or her belief that this isn’t a common phrase in English, since when my subconscious has clearly been itching to use it…

  13. Great puzzle, I thought. Can TA now be clued as ‘army’ since it has changed its name to ‘Army Reserve’. ‘Former army’?
    1. A clue you should have solved quickly but made a right meal of, from the acronym:
      Depressingly
      Easy
      Answer
      Needing
      More
      Actual
      Reflection
      Thank
      Is
      Necessary
  15. 22:49 ending with a desperate total guess for hit pay dirt. Dean Martins for both counter and feral (anyone else consider something like fogel, an anagram of golfe(r) for the collective noun for elk pelts?).

    Have fun at Glasto V. I “did” Glastonbury for the first time last year. Next Friday while you’re there I’ll be at Hyde Park for The Who, Weller and others including Vintage Trouble who are also playing Glastonbury and I recommend that you seek them out.

    Thanks to S & B.

    1. I was just looking at the line up with a colleague who’s going. It seems a bit middle of the road now – can’t say I fancy seeing Lionel Richie. A few acts I liked in the line up – Belle & Sebastian, Future Islands and Courtney Barnett in particular.
    2. Yep, but wisely settled for FOREL once the checkers were in place.

      Not my finest bit of solving.

  16. 18:54. I had a feeling that I was making really heavy weather of this, because it took me forever to see what was going on with some fairly straightforward clues. It was a great puzzle though so being a bit slow on the uptake just enhanced my enjoyment.
    I knew the expression HIT PAY DIRT: it reminded me of – and will now help me to remember – LODE, which came up the other day. VETCH was my only unknown today.
  18. About 30 minutes, LOI COMMITTAL. Very fun puzzle, with a few laughs, the best being DEFOE.I DNK SARKY, TRUE RIB, rede or the topi, but wordplay or biffing saw me through. Regards to all.
  19. 10:39 here for this delightful puzzle, full of interesting ideas. My compliments to the setter.

    As so often I slowed myself down unnecessarily, this time by assuming that the second word of 11ac was AND (I had VERSAILLES and RABID in place) and consequently that the enumeration was (4,3,3), and later by trying to fit COMMITTED into 8dn.

  20. A pleasing 20m – definitely on this whimsical wave length. Very enjoyable and compliments to setter and our successfully relocated blogger.
  21. I’m surprised no one’s commented on Magoo’s performance – solving this in under 9 minutes from only parts of many clues makes that even more astonishing than usual. Perhaps a similar hadicapping system could be used in the Championship to make for a leveller playing field.
  23. This is unfair since if you don’t know the expression (and I do not appear to be alone in this) you can’t get it from the cryptic.
    Geoffrey
  24. A whisker under an hour for this one, with the SW corner holding me up. Took me a stupidly long time to see TEAR, and only then was I comfortable with ELDER, never having heard of “rede” before.

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