Times 26,147: The Fourth Estate’s Fourth Plinth

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
After powering through both Wednesday and Thursday’s puzzles yesterday in one quarter-hour sitting, I did have a foreboding that today’s might be a compensatory stinker, and it seems that I was right – I struggled to bring this one down in under 20 minutes. 10a and 6d going in straightaway did allow me to fill in the whole NE quadrant in excellent time, but the rest of the grid was by no means so tractable. In particular the NW: I think of 2d as a SPEED BUMP myself, so was extraordinarily glad of that confirming H; 3d with its apparent typo makes for an oddly jarring clue, and likewise 1a the first half of which isn’t something that one readily thinks of from _R_. And I’ve said it before and people have replied “you’re weird”, but there’s something about a sequence of letters being both a container and also prominent elsewhere in the answer that messes with my OCD.

All that said, I found this a great Friday treat of a puzzle, with loads of involved fun to be have. I “spotted” the Nina in the middle row just in the nick of time to blog it; loved the little connection between 20a and 18d (anywhere else that anyone noticed?); and idly wondered if the increased military presence in a number of clues had any significance. Perhaps the Times team are increasing their defence budget in order to better fight the ongoing war on error?

COD to 20a I think as I watched and enjoyed “Four Lions” not all that long ago. What’s Christopher Morris up to these days anyway? Anyway, many thanks to the setter for slamming the wasps from the pure apple of cryptic crosswords for us. I’d definitely like to see more of this sort of thing.

Across
1 MRS MOP – help (as in a cleaner): RSM [warrant officer, i.e. Regimental Sergeant Major] in MOP [shock, i.e. of hair]
5 BOOSTERS – further shots: BOERS [Afrikaners] guarding {p}OST{s} [“shelled”]
9 PASSPORT – document: reverse of SAP [fool “about”] + SPORT [fun]
10 HAGGLE – “bargain: G G [goods] with HALE [robust] “packaging”
11 CHAPATTI – food: CHAP [man] + ATTI{c} [“not quite enough” room up top]
12 AFLAME – aroused: NCO [officer] expelled from A FLAMENCO [a spirited dance]
13 LEAD TIME – “what’s needed to complete production”: (LET MEDIA*) [“broadcast”]
15 SPOT – pick out: reverse of TOPS [the best “turns”]
17 BALL – dance: homophone of BAWL [to shout “to be heard”]
19 REVEILLE – wake-up call: I [one] “popped” by REVELLE{r} [raver, “all but”]
20 COLUMN – body of men: Nelson’s Column is “central” to the plot (i.e. location) of “Four Lions”, i.e. the monumental bronzes of Trafalgar Square, sculpted by none other than 18d
21 ELDORADO – paradisical location: E [European] + DORADO [group of stars, the constellation of the swordfish] “touring” L [large]
22 INTAKE – new recruits: TAKE IN [fool] “swapped round”
23 FLAUNTER – show-off: (FRAU{du}LENT*) [“heartless”, “dreadful”]
24 GUERNSEY – lower variety, i.e. a type of lowing animal: (ENERGY US{e}*) [“curtalied”, “alternative”]
25 ADSORB – accumulate: ADS + {f}OR + B [publicity material | for “unopened” | book]

Down
2 ROAD HUMP – cryptic def
3 MISSPELT – what “trammp” is: MISS [avoid] + PELT [shower]
4 PROSTRATE – lying: PROSE [words] about reverse of TART [hustler “taken back”]
5 BATS-IN-THE-BELFRY – loco, i.e. mad, cuckoo: reverse of STAB [wound “up”] + (BRIEFLY THEN*) [“let loose”]
6 SNAFFLE – grab: reverse of ELF FANS [those who follow Legolas, say, “from the south”, i.e. down to up in the grid]
7 EX GRATIA – optional: (EXTRA {b}A{r}G{a}I{n}*) [“intermittently”, “flogged”]
8 SHE-DEVIL – spiteful woman: SHED [drop] + reverse of LIVE [as it happens, “flipping”]
14 MELODRAMA – histrionics: (OLDER*) [“upset”] with MAMA [mother] “outwardly”
15 SHOCKING – very bad: HOCK [joint] in SING [pipe]
16 OMELETTE – “one needing to be beaten”: O [old] + TT [race] amidst MELEE [scuffle]
17 BEARINGS – NEWS, i.e. the four compass points: BEARING S [conveying | society]
18 LANDSEER – “he painted”: and “one in the crow’s nest” is presumably posted there in the hopes of spying out terra firma, that is to say a land-seer.
19 RAMEKIN – dish: reverse of K{nif}E [“edges … “raised”] to cut RAM [butter, i.e. butting animal] + IN

25 comments on “Times 26,147: The Fourth Estate’s Fourth Plinth”

  1. I too opted for a road bump and struggled for a while. But great fun overall.
  2. I solved on paper today and I finished with a biffed ABSORB. Without the ipad to tell me I was wrong I realised it must be ADSORB before I came here so I consider this some sort of victory!

    I agree this was a good puzzle, and it took me 20 minutes so about average. I’ll give MISSPELT my COD for fooling me into thinking that trammp was a misprint until about halfway through.

  3. An absolute cracker, my 20.17 just missing that target but still feeling pretty quick. And what fun to have those little Easter eggs in the grid, neither (none?) of which I can truly say I spotted – not my turn to blog, perhaps.
    Though SHOCKING and COLUMN were my last in, it was the NW frontier that caused most head scratching, as often happens when I have to find a vowel-less word (MRS) and am playing around with “WO” because I don’t think the setter is being that subtle. I agree that ROAD HUMP is rarer as a term these days, though not, sadly, as an entity. I wonder if there will indeed be a few BUMPs, and whether, since there’s no confirming wordplay, it’s a legitimate appeal to the umpire? (On edit – not unless the umpire also allows CBAPATTI, of course. Oops)
    CoD to Nelson’s, and a mental note to see Four Lions, which has somehow not been on my radar. I think I had it confused with Four Feathers or some such, much in the vein of NW Frontier (vs) – my kind of movie.

    Edited at 2015-07-10 09:34 am (UTC)

  4. 19 mins. I had many of the same experiences, although it was PROSTRATE that was my LOI after I finally saw MRS MOP. It wasn’t until I had the latter that I was happy to enter ROAD HUMP. I also had a little trouble in the SE where it took me a while to see FLAUNTER, and it was only once it was in that I saw BEARINGS, which in turn led me to ADSORB. I confess that I didn’t bother to try and parse 5dn during the solve, and ELDORADO was biffed because I didn’t know “Dorado”, although it did sound like a likely name for a constellation. As a LOTR aficionado I had no problem with 6dn. Finally, I got round to watching Four Lions a year or two ago and thought it was excellent.
  5. I’m exhausted. Over 90 minutes but delighted to have got over the line in the end!
    I’m also extremely humbled by the other times registered here.
    I suspect quite a few others found this somewhat challenging by the paucity of comments so far.
    Lots biffed (19a, 20a, 5d, 16d, 21d to name a few) so grateful thanks for enlightening me.
    I now realise what a really clever puzzle this was – though I didn’t think so at the time…
  6. Agreed! Fine fare for a Friday. Took me a while to unscramble the omelette and twig the four lions, even then I missed the Landseer subtlety – well blogged! About 40 minutes, with a few interruptions, and MRS MOP was my LOI with a groan, as wasn’t convinced about ROAD HUMP which I thought was a SPEED BUMP usually.
    So many good clues, but I think SNAFFLE takes it for me, although it does require GK of LOTR unless you biff it.
    Verlaine: you OK to do next Wednesday for me then?

    Edited at 2015-07-10 09:47 am (UTC)

    1. I can do next Wednesday if you like – pending any public outcry from people sick of me blogging so much lately, of course!
      1. No outcry from here V. In fact, could you take over from Ulaca as well? I suspect he’ll be unbearable after this Test.
  7. 45 min – an awkward grid, divided by the long and short answers into four separate mini-puzzles. (and I needed the comments to make aware of the Nina.)
    SE first to fall, then NE (delayed by bunging in ET CETERA from enumeration). Next was SW, after seeing ‘Four Lions’ was deliberate red herring (only now after looking it up have I found that it wasn’t about football). Finally NW, as technically DNF, needing aid to find anything to fit _R_ M_P
  8. Hugely enjoyable but took for ever to crack even with some biffing. After the event 19ac was my last parsed where I take it that “all but” is what indicates the shortening of the word meaning “raver”. I had previously supposed “all but a” was telling us to remove an “a” from something.

    Edited at 2015-07-10 09:41 am (UTC)

  9. 19:45 but having scrupulously worked out the wordplay for 25a I apparently then typed ‘absorb’. I think my keyboard is possessed.

    Another vote of thanks to the setter for a very different and entertaining puzzle.

  10. 26:25, but with ABSORB. I couldn’t justify it of course but by that point I was in full-on desperate biff mode and I just wanted to finish. Besides ADSORB clearly isn’t a word. I seem to be in a small minority in that I didn’t enjoy this much: I found it a bit of a grind.
    I’ve never heard a speed bump called a ROAD HUMP but it appears to be the official name, if the Highways (Road Humps) Regulations 1999 are anything to go by. Whatever they’re called, I’m generally in favour. I particularly admire the ones in my street that slow the cars going past my children.
  11. Great puzzle, which took me just under the hour, inclusive of a couple of pesky work emails. Loved MRS MOP, enjoyed the Legolas clue, and nearly biffed “absorb” before I realised the one I’d never heard of must be in some dictionary somewhere.

    Now off to the cricket club to watch the cricket with my Aussie pals. Should be fun.

    The cricket too.

  12. 18:20 including a couple of minutes at the end to “get” adsorb. Have we had it before? I know I’ve been undone by the hump/bump thing before so was ready for that.

    Enjoyable puzzle I thought, thanks for the explanations for aflame and Eldorado.

    COD to snaffle.

    1. Pretty sure I’ve met ADSORB in recent times, though as I do the Guardian every day too I can’t be sure it wasn’t there…
    2. I’m surprised to find that ADSORB doesn’t seem to have appeared in a Times 15×15 cryptic in the last 10+ years, though I’m pretty sure it’s come up in other crosswords.
  13. Sucked into the ABSORB trap, couldn’t bring myself to trust the wordplay.

    Good puzzle, COD to SNAFFLE, thanks setter and blogger.

  14. I’m with Keriothe – possibly sour grapes as I could not for the life of me get MRS MOP, but we have a cryptic definition for a dead phrase at 2 down, a very strange double definition at 20 and some wordplay at 19 that doesn’t quite work for me (though the definition makes it obvious). Grumble grumble groan cricket grrrr
  15. 14:32 here for this delightful puzzle. I was a bit nervous about the unfamiliar ROAD HUMP, but decided there really wasn’t any other possibility. COD to 20ac (COLUMN) for raising a smile when the penny dropped.
  16. A somewhat joyless 90 minute grind for me, I’m afraid. Got there in the end, though. ADSORB went in on wordplay. Had never heard of Legolas, as I can’t be doing with Tolkien, elves, hobbits, etc., but the clue was generous. Good blog.

    Edited at 2015-07-11 08:10 am (UTC)

  17. Excellently formatted blog from Verlaine. Reminds me of minimalist-yet-entirely-fuctional comms from ages past 😉 Should be the standard blogging template!

    Thanks to all for comments.

    The Setter.

  18. Belatedly attempted in a sports hall surrounded by about 200 people… well that’s my excuse for a DNF after 52 minutes… beaten by MRS MOP and PROSTRATE. Didn’t know why 20a was COLUMN, not knowing of the 4 lions, nor that DORADO was a constellation, but I found it an enjoyable challenge overall. 3d my favourite.
  19. Days late but such a good puzzle I wanted to weigh in. Cod to 3d. Don’t know either warrant officers or mrs mop, so really a dnf there and 2d. Thx setter and Verlaine.
  20. Best crossword for a long time – we get it later in OZ of course but it still took my husband and myself a fair time to complete and how satisfying was that!

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