Times 26198

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This one took me 35 minutes so I’ve got off quite lightly in my swap with Tim who’s on holiday today.

As usual I’ve put deletions in curly brackets and added a few indicators in square ones.

Across
1 LEFT WINGER – Two definitions. I assume “One getting some kicks” refers to soccer or rugby football but I don’t know if it’s just a general reference or something specific to a particular position on the field of play.
6 AVOW – A, VOW (pledge)
9 BOXING RING – BOING (sound of bouncer) encloses [being punched by] X (unknown), RING (phone)
10 FOOL – Two definitions
12 NEWSWORTHINESS – Anagram [dubious] of IN WESTERN SHOWS
14 NATURE – NA (North America), anagram [abandoned] of TRUE
15 DIRECTOR – ID (papers) reversed, RECTOR (clergyman)
17 HAWTHORN – W (Western) + THOR (god) inside HAN (Eastern dynasty)
19 CARMEN – Two definitions, one straight, one cryptic and humorous
22 HOLDING COMPANY – Cryptic definition. Each of the three given words is “holding” CO (company). I didn’t know ‘pecorino’ but it’s an Italian cheese made from ewe’s milk.
24 URAL – Hidden inside {larksp}UR A L{lovely}. The definition is the cryptic meaning of “flower”as a river.
25 IN-YOUR-FACE – Anagram [bombs] of FORCE I (one) U{nleash} ANY
26 EXEC – EXE (water in West Country), C{amembert}. Another river and more cheese.
27 BLOODY MARY – BLOODY (red), anagram [ordered] of ARMY

Down
1 LOBO – LOB (send up), O (old). I didn’t know this as another name for the American timber wolf. I only knew the word at all from the title of the John Wayne film Rio Lobo, an inferior reworking of the classic Rio Bravo.
2 FOXIEST – OX (beast) inside [gatecrashing] FIEST{a} (celebration)
3 WINDSOR CHAIR – WINDS (turns), ORC (monster), HAIR (locks)
4 NARROW – {discussio}N, ARROW (quarrel). This meaning of ‘quarrel’ came up quite recently, I think.
5 EINSTEIN – {al}E, IN, STEIN (mug)
7 VIOLENT – {su}N inside VIOLET (shade)
8 WELLSPRING – WELL (thriving), SPRING (bound)
11 LIBERAL PARTY – Anagram [unsure] of RELIABLY contains PART (role). If one recognises ‘Asquith’ as a former Liberal Prime Minister then this is one for biffing.
13 ON THE HOUSE – Two definitions, one straight, one cryptic
16 ORIGINAL – L{o}AN + I (current) + GIRO (cheque) all reversed [bouncing]
18 WALLACE – WALL (partition), ACE (champion). Another bifferoo, for me, anyway.
20 MONTANA – ANATOM{y} (body) reversed [set up] and enclosing N (new)
21 ROCOCO – ROO (native Australian – the bouncer going ‘boing’ at 9ac perhaps?) encloses [houses] COC{k} (lean). I don’t think of rococo style as specifically French but the origin of the word is so I guess that counts for something.
23 VERY – Two definitions

31 comments on “Times 26198”

  1. For: LEFT-WINGER (I am); BLOODY MARY (drink it all the time sans vodka); CARMEN (currently writing a musical version based on the ORIGINAL Merimée).
    Against: HAWTHORN (through to the prelim final); LIBERAL PARTY (Australian for small-f fascists).

    NB: new guitar!

    Edited at 2015-09-08 08:17 am (UTC)

  2. I wasted time looking for a 5-letter western god to go in HAN, even rejecting THOR at one point; if I said “D’oh!”, I’d have said it then when I saw the light. I figured the COC of ROCOCO had to be K-less, but couldn’t think of a lean meaning. Biffed 11d, all right. Liked 18d, COD to HOLDING COMPANY.
  3. A left winger is a forward positioned on the left wing, a position best occupied by someone who is predominantly left-footed:(football and both English rugby codes.In football occasionally he may move over to the right in order to confuse the opposition’s full back(s); as George Best and Christiano Ronaldo used to for ManU and Ashley Young does these days.

    There are no left nor right wingers in American Football – they have ‘wide-receivers’ who never kick the ball. In fact only two players do that – so why is it called American Football, pray?

    I must get out more.

    horryd Shanghai

  5. I too struggled with ‘newsworthiness’ despite seeing the long anagram, trying inexplicably to find a two-word answer with the enumeration 7,7. I’m pretty sure there isn’t one.
  6. I found this a fair step up in difficulty from yesterday, finishing in 30:10. It was one of those puzzles where part way through I’m looking at blank areas of the grid and their associated clues and doubting I’ll ever finish. Thus rewarding when I did finish. It’s particularly the cryptic definitions which daunt me. CARMEN and HOLDING COMPANY were never going to yield until I had several or all crossers in place.
  7. 21 minutes then ran out of time with 21d unfinished as *O*O*O; was struggling to find an Autralian native other than Aboriginal … next time think ROO.
    Loved some clues today, like 22a and 23a and even 26a. Nice blog Jackkt in the wee small hours.
    1. I did the same thing at first, but–and even though– I’d be willing to bet that every clue I’ve ever seen in a cryptic that referred to a ‘native’ referred to an animal or plant.
  8. Started off slow, blank page until I got to 22ac. Steady progress after that, COD to CARMEN.

    Thanks setter and thanks Jack, particularly for parsing BOXING RING.

  9. 21.13, finishing thinking it wasn’t as hard as I made it. As ever, not getting either of the ones straight off was a set-up for treating the whole thing as tricky, which tends to be a self fulfilling prophecy.
    In retrospect, I’m sure 1ac is something of a chestnut, as are FOOL and CARMEN, and it may be that I just wasn’t making the instant connections today – phone/ring, bound/spring, that sort of thing.
    A broccoli, pecorino and butterscotch tart sounds rather fun.
  11. 21:36. Enjoyed 1a and 22a. Couldn’t parse ROCOCO.. thanks for the explanation, Jack. 5d my LOI, looking for the wrong sort of mug.
  12. 40m on the train to Edinburgh so a bit harder than usual for me. Liked the HOLDING COMPANY best. Thanks to setter and blogger today.
  14. Enjoyable puzzle, but an odd mixture of the absurdly biffable and barely cryptic (e.g. LIBERAL PARTY), and the ingenious and tricky ( e.g. NEWSWORTHINESS, HOLDING COMPANY and IN-YOUR-FACE).
  16. 15:22. I thought this was a lot of fun with some really economical clues. I think the paucity of helpful checking letters is what made biffing difficult. The only things I wasn’t 100% sure of were rococo being French and lobo being a woolluff.

    Big ticks against Boxing ring (for BOING) and Carmen.

    I recently had figs with pecorino and honey at a buffet. Bloody lovely.

  17. Rather fun this one – I got through with everything parsed and liked the WALL ACE, using BOING in wordplay, and everything about the clue for HOLDING COMPANY
  18. About 25 minutes, held up for a bit in the NE. I accept that the “arrow”=”quarrel” may have appeared recently, but as often happens I totally forgot that. Better than average, I’d say, with the long acrosses providing some entertainment. Regards.
    1. How was your time at the Fair Kevin? Our older 4 year-old grandson milked a goat (sort of) and went on the bumper cars and the Ferris wheel (the grown-up ride and rather him than me). I left before it opened and had a long lovely quiet time back at the house by myself. We got 4 ribbons – yay!

      Edited at 2015-09-08 09:28 pm (UTC)

  19. Didn’t like this. Easy ones like FOOL and ON THE ROOF. Laboured clues like 3a and my very really precisely pet hate of 23 a.
    Tomorrow is another 8 letter word.
  20. 15 mins. I thought I was on the slow side but from the other comments maybe not. For some reason I struggled to see EINSTEIN so that definitely qualifies as a Dean Martin, and I finished in the NE with VIOLENT after AVOW.
  22. Considering how tired I was feeling, I’m actually not too disappointed with my 11:24. Nice puzzle.

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