Times 26,162

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Just under 12 minutes for a mix of the original and the chestnutty (there again, I suppose those old favourites only become so if you’re a time-served old lag, and not everyone is). Overall, a perfectly decent puzzle of middle-of-the-road difficulty, I thought.

Across
1 UNBECOMING – U(=posh), {ma}N, BECOMING.
6 VIOL – (edit) VI, O{ld}, L{eft}; my original reading was LIV(rev.) around O{ld}, which seemed a little off-piste at the time, so although both are clearly acceptable, applying Occam’s razor suggests the first was probably the intended version.
9 ALIMENTARY – [LIME in ANT] i.e. “worker consuming fruit”, followed by A R{ailwa}y.
10 EPEE – E.P.(=record), then E,E are the two compass points.
12 PRINCE REGENT – N{orth} in PRICE(=charge), RE: GENT(=concerning chap). I’m now picturing Hugh Laurie in some especially impressive trousers.
15 REIMBURSE – BUR(=hanger-on), in REIMS, E. I was led astray by thinking there was something to do with the Bourse going on here, but that’s just a coincidence.
17 STAIN – ST{reet} A, IN(=fashionable).
18 SALSA – music for dancing hidden in rehearSAL SAlieri.
19 GESTATION – E{uropean} in [G{ood}, STATION]. At first I thought there must be a RANCH here, which would lead to a BRANCH but that’s cattle in America, not sheep in Australia, of course.
20 WELL-DESERVED – WELL(=spring), DiEt, SERVED(=distributed).
24 DATA – (A TAD)rev.
25 DRESSMAKER – cryptic def.
26 WEED – {jarro}W {wher}E {som}E {woul}D; dock being the weed which anyone who’s encountered stinging nettles goes looking for.
27 PRESENT-DAY – [RESENT(=”grudge”), D{uke}] in PAY.
 
Down
1 UTAH – lift and separate: U{niversity}, (HAT)rev. gives the state. The Derby hat is the American equivalent of the bowler, most famously worn by Laurel and Hardy.
2 BRIT – B{atsman}, R{un}, IT(=”appeal”, as in “it girl”); “pommy” being the Antipodean term for their former colonial masters, described by my dictionary as “mildly offensive”, presumably in comparison to what Ian Bell will get called tomorrow. Somehow I feel less sanguine about the state of this Ashes series than I did two weeks ago…
3 CHERRY BRANDY – (HER in CRY), BRAND(=class), Y{en}.
4 MATIN – M.A.(=graduate), TIN(=”can”). I was quite familiar with matins, the service, but less so with this adjectival version.
5 NERVELESS – (NEVER)*, LESS(=”not so”).
7 IMPRESARIO – IMPRES{s} A RIO.
8 LIEUTENANT – EN(“in” in French) inside (LATEUNIT)*.
11 NEWSPAPERMAN – (edit) cryptic def. from Crosswordland, where the editor of the UK’s biggest tabloid could easily be described as “the Sun King”? Or, as has been suggested, the more prosaic substitution of NEWSPAPER for “Sun” and MAN for “king”? As with the VIOL, two ways of arriving at the correct solution.
13 GRASS WIDOW – GRASS(=”informer”), W{ith} I.D.(=”papers”), OW(=”that hurt”). Checking my dictionary, a grass widow was originally an unmarried woman with a child, supposedly so-called because the congress occurred, say, in a hayfield rather than the respectability of the marital bed. These days it refers to any woman who isn’t actually widowed, but might as well be because her husband is so frequently absent. See also “golf widow” (insert other time-consuming activity as desired to avoid giving offence).
14 MILLILITRE – [LIT(=”landed”), R{iver}] in MILLIE.
16 REGISTRAR – [GIST(=”substance”), R{ight}] in REAR(=”back”).
21 ROSES – ROSE(=”revolted”), S{on}.
22 SKID – S{mall} KID.
23 ARMY – R.M.(=Royal Marine=”jolly”) in AY(=”always”).

42 comments on “Times 26,162”

  2. About half the time was taken up with 11d, where it took me several runs through the alphabet at various unches and several pointless parsing attempts before the obvious hit me.
  3. Pretty straightforward, but inexplicably I entered GUSTATION instead of GESTATION. Probably because I was looking forward to lunch.

    Enjoyed the DRESSMAKER cryptic when the penny finally dropped.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  4. 29 minutes, with some bamboozlement inflicted by thinking the definition of 16d was ‘injection’. Last in was MILLILITRE, where I was looking for a pipette like thing ending in -ETTE.
  5. 31 minutes, so very near to my half-hour target! Time was lost at the end over MATIN as I took a while to remember it came up here within a month or so and that was the first I’d ever heard of it.

    I agree with mct’s parsing of 6ac though ‘old’ was helpful if perceived as part of the definition as it got me thinking in the right area of musical instruments.

  6. Very quick solve this morning. Dnk GRASS WIDOW, and didn’t pause to parse REGISTRAR, but all others ok. VI(O)L for me too. Ended with NEWSPAPERMAN. Lots of definitions jumped out immediately (PRINCE REGENT, REIMBURSE, WELL DESERVED etc), which made for a quick solve.
      1. Hopefully? You mean you still have hope? Excellent….

        More importantly, congrats on the pb Janie.

  7. Anyone with a bit of time on their hands may want to try Vlad in the Guardian. Tough but excellent and tightly-clued puzzle.
  8. 11:30 … I thought this was fun. Smiles raised by GESTATION, WEED and especially ROSES (great surface — thank heavens there was no “mark” in the grid to go with the SKID).

    General technical question: today’s Telegraph has one of those grids that is symmetrical every which way. Is there a term for that?

    1. 90° rotational symmetry, isn’t it? I admit it’s not very exiting. There is a risk with this kind of grid (which I see this one eschews) that people will complain there ia covert swastika in there somewhere.
      1. Thanks, Z. I think “rotational symmetry” was what I was struggling to recall. Not very snappy, is it? I imagine the Greeks, or the Germans, would have a single-word noun for “a grid with 90° rotational symmetry”.

        Edited at 2015-07-28 08:49 am (UTC)

        1. No such luck. The Germans have Rotationssymmetrie, which just cheats by missing out the space between words, and the Greeks would have peri-something summetria. Homoperitropic, perhaps?
    3. A crystallographer would say that the grid has tetrad symmetry, which is a bit snappier.
      1. Thanks, Keith. I can’t decide whether “homoperitropic” or “displaying tetrad symmetry” will make me sound cleverer. I’ll have to give both a try down the pub, see which impresses the locals (Cornish farmers) most.
  9. 1 second under 12 minutes. There seems to be a lot of kerfuffle over 10d: surely it doesn’t need Murdoch? It’s just two possibles: the Sun is (possibly, but not very) a NEWSPAPER and a king is (much more possibly) a MAN (chess). I’m with others on VI for the girl in 6ac: like boy, the code points to a shortened female name. Left just provides the L. Though the alternative reading is just this side of possible, it’s a little too cute for the level of puzzle we have today.
    I tried to make more of DRESSMAKER, but failed. A decent enough CD, I suppose.
    Wasn’t too sure about BRAND/class: I’m sure, even as I write, someone will provide a perfectly respectable example of interchangeability, so I’ll acknowledge in advance my density. CT has it, mind.

    Edited at 2015-07-28 08:03 am (UTC)

  10. 10.20 and I agree that this was fun. Would have put MATIN in much earlier had I instantly recalled “Pray you dutifully prime your matin chime ye ringers’. Otherwise, one of those fortunate days when successive solutions led to helpful checkers that encouraged biffing.
  11. Easy one today. Straightforward and obvious definitions led to a lot of write-ins without fully parsing. No gripes and no stand-out clues. Add me to the VI-O-L club.
  12. Managed under 10 minutes with no errors for a change, which was a relief. I guess doing the puzzle past midnight with several glasses of wine in me is the route to success for me. If only those were the “competition conditions” in October, you’d all be in trouble!
      1. I wonder how huge a dose of 190° proof alcohol would be required in both Magoo’s and my tea to make our respective ability levels “meet in the middle”?

        Edited at 2015-07-28 11:18 am (UTC)

  13. 8 mins, and from the times above it looks like I was very much on the setter’s wavelength, especially as I parsed everything as I went along with the exception of NEWSPAPERMAN, which was a biffed LOI. Now that he’s pointed it out I agree with the way Z8 has parsed it, and you can add me to those who saw 6ac as VI-O-L.
  14. 17:04 I enjoyed this too and found it mostly straightforward. I also parsed the girl as VI. I thought I was going to get a PB but then screeched to a halt with 16d, 19a and 11d my last three in… and came a cropper by putting in NEWSTATESMAN for the last. Well it fit all the crossers! 26a my favourite.

    Edited at 2015-07-28 08:51 am (UTC)

  15. just inside 30 minutes for me, with 1d LOI. I also saw it as VI O L. Liked ARMY as I worked with Her Majesty’s Jollies for many years.
  16. I’ll put in a request for Massimo* sized cups. That should do it.
    * about a pint, apparently.
  18. Anyone for swimming in the Gillslithe (wherever that may be)? Anyway, that’s what I made of MILLILITRE — LIT is in there all right and the rest was GILL (small amount of liquid) and SHE (the female, of course), the whole being an entirely new British river I dreamed up. Quite a bit of work for one afternoon.

    Oh well, at least the rest was right and pretty straightforward. Last one in was NEWSPAPERMAN, changed at the last minute from ?E?STATESMAN, which might also have fitted, somehow.

  19. 10:07, disappointed not to limbo below the 10′ bar.

    Reimburse and registrar biffed. I very nearly biffed Newsnight at 11, armed with the first two checkers and some potential angrist including king’s. Yes, I know there’s no K and only 8 letters.

  20. 19m for my first sub 20 for a while and two all correct grids in a row so feeling pleased for once. Also because mid solve a lady bullfinch managed to knock herself out on the patio door but has made a full recovery after twitching ominously on the ground for a few minutes and is now feeding happily once again. I might add Mr Bullfinch ate on through all of this quite unconcerned! No stand out clues today but an enjoyable solve. Thanks for the blog.
  21. Late in the day, after golf, hot gardening, shower, sat down with a beer for half an hour’s relaxation, only to find I had it all finished in 11 minutes. Easiest one for a while.
  22. 13:12, which is fast for me poking at the slightly annoying iPad screen where existing crossers have to be ignored when typing so trying to watch the grid and the keyboard at the same time.
    Many just biffed and wondered for a while what a DIOL was.
  23. Something less than 15 minutes for this one. LOI was NEWSPAPERMAN, which read in the same CD way that Tim first mentioned above. That was the only one that required a lot of thought for me, although I hadn’t heard of a GRASS WIDOW and wasn’t up on the hospital connection for REGISTRAR. Easiest one in a while. Regards.
  24. 6:49. Being on holiday seems to agree with my crossword-solving faculties. Lots of biffing with this one.
  25. 9:25 for me, finding some of the convolutions heavy going. If crypticsue and keriothe are going to reproduce their brisk times in October, then you (topicaltim), verlaine and I are going to have to raise our game.

    I’m with Z in leaving the Dirty Digger out of 11dn.

        2. Newspaper, was it not? He already owned Fox, was in New York, walked out of his hotel to buy a newspaper but they wouldn’t sell it to him unless he bought a passport first.
          Rob, with a rare sub-15 mins for an easy puzzle.
  26. 20 mins, but checked the parsing in every answer as I went along. Pleasant solve.

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