Times 26212: need your vocab chords stretched?

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 18:18, which is on the higher end of my solving times, so I was finding this one a challenge. I see on the Crossword Club timer that there is an 8 minute time in, so it might just be that my vocab was deceiving me, as there were a number of entries that I had to come back to wordplay in order to figure out, and in the end I was relieved to see it come back with no errors.

There is an element in the grid, and strangely enough I did not get it on the first pass though! Yikes.

Away we go…

Across
1 BLATHERSKITE: anagram of THIS TALKER inside BE. Even though I saw what the wordplay should be, I needed all of the checking letters to get this
9 SWAMP: M(1000, so many) inside SWAP
10 CHARACTER: double definition
11 APHORISM: an anagram of RO(pe) with MISHAP
12 SKINNY: INN in SKY
13 DOCUSOAP: US, OAP(old age pensioner) after DOC – an ugly portmanteau word for an even uglier form of “entertainment”
15 BENIGN: BENIN containing G(uerrilla)
17 BARI,UM: the answer to “what do you do with a dead chemist?”
18 GOOSE,GOG: there’s a statue of GOG inside a mall in Melbourne, so I always get a smile when I see him popping in to a crossword – another name for a gooseberry
20 CASTLE: L in CASTE for the man in chess
21 PEA GREEN: PEN surrounding AGREE
24 PRIMITIVE: RIM in PIT, then I’VE
25 ‘AITCH: or A ITCH
26 INCANDESCENT: anagram of NICE,AND followed by SCENT (sense as in smell)
 
Down
1 BUSTARD: you might be waiting if BUS TARDY, take the ending off
2 AGATHA CHRISTIE: A, GATH, then (CHARITIES)*
3 HYPER: hidden in toucHY PERson
4 ROCK STAR: TAR after ROCKS
5 K,HAN
6 THANKLESS: H(ordes) in TANKLESS
7 STINGING NETTLE: NETTLE(bug) after (ven)T inside SINGING(piping)
8 C(andle),RAYON
14 SQUILLION: QUILL,1 in SON
16 BONEHEAD: ONE,HE inside BAD
17 BICEPS: BIS(once again in music) with CEP inside
19 GUNSHOT: this one I got from the definition – a SNUG ROOM is a small room in a bar, so that is reversed then an anagram of THO’
22 GRASS: double definition, skunk meaning marijuana here
23 VISA: VIA containing S(wedish)

52 comments on “Times 26212: need your vocab chords stretched?”

  1. Bit of a distracted solve, so I guess this one was about average difficulty. Though, like Jack, I got off to a very slow start with the across clues.

    Delighted to learn that GOOSEGOG is a word, but I can’t say that DOCUSOAP triggered the same reaction.

    Thanks setter and George.

  2. I liked the vocabulary exercise – blatherskite, squillion. I think i’m with Galspray regarding docusoap.

    Edited at 2015-09-24 01:12 am (UTC)

  3. This was another of those puzzles that I struggled to get started (25ac was my first one in) and even harder to finish, but in between I made slow but steady progress so that I never quite lost heart. BLATHERSKITE was a new one on me and BARI the port.

    I never see CASTLE clued as a chess piece without thinking of the mad colonel who used to visit us on occasion and berate us on the subject and declining standards in Times cryptics in general. I have resurrected the Bateman cartoon illustrating how I imagined him, as my userpic. The caption is “A quiet half-hour with the Times”.

    George, you have a typo at 24ac

    Edited at 2015-09-24 12:49 am (UTC)

      1. Two boneheaded errors is not bad for me – just back from rehearsal, I’ll fix them in a mo, thanks!
        1. Seeing BONEHEAD again has reminded me I meant to say I have never come across “numskull” without a “B”.
  4. Never heard of GOOSEGOG, never heard of DOCUSOAP or of docusoaps; certainly sounds like a concept whose time should never have come. DNK that meaning of ‘skunk’, either. Biffed 2d once I had the checkers in AGATHA, only later realized what a nice anagram was there; a bit of a waste, since it’s so easily biffable. Oddly enough, I spotted BLATHERSKITE right off, although I thought it meant the nonsense, not the speaker of same; I see from my dictionary that it means both. COD maybe to SQUILLION.
  5. 37 minutes, held up for at least three by putting QUILLSION at 14d. Must have been wondering how the Green and Yellows could possibly have missed out on that bonus point against the south sea islanders.

    BARI known because of Serie A largely, David Platt having begun his peregrinations there.

  6. I didn’t like this. An obscure Italian town, horrible television jargon, drug slang, and some dodgy definitions (RIM=seam, GRASS=weasel). Just not my cup of tea.

    Dereklam

  7. Liked that although I was held up for ages by being “unthanked” rather than “thankless”
    Napasai (don’t know where my login has gone)
    1. There is a village in Leicestershire called Newton Unthank. Every time I drive through it I wonder at the origin of this strange name, and then do nothing to answer the question. Just had a quick look on-line, triggered by your comment, and can’t see anything obvious. Any ideas?
      1. Just had a deeper look and the best option seems to be that it is derived from ‘unþanc’ where the þ is actually pronounced ‘th’, and the word means without leave, i.e. occupied unlawfully.
  8. A gentle solve but stuck a bit in the SW.I had trouble with PRIMITIVE as I didn’t see SEAM as RIM. How are the re-introduced Bustards doing on Salisbury Plain, I wonder?
    2. In the Giles cartoon from the Seventies, one bird says to another while looking at the newly-reintroduced birds : “I should consider myself a very silly little bustard to make a comeback
      looking like a turkey just before Christmas.”
  9. I enjoyed this one which was a tussle at times. I knew all the words, which is always a help. I don’t think it’s a first appearance for any of them. Didn’t bother to parse the NETTLE

    Thanks Jack for reminding us of the Colonel – probably died of apoplexy by now!

    1. Quite so. If The Times puzzle didn’t do for him, the emergence of the DOCUSOAP surely would have.
  10. 21:51. I found this tough, and I wasn’t helped by not getting 1ac for ages. I’m not sure I haven’t come across it before, but it it didn’t exactly spring to mind.
    I also struggled with 13ac where I wanted the answer to be DOCUSCAN. It obviously didn’t make sense but it’s amazing how having one answer in your head can prevent you from thinking of others.
    I always thought that GOOSEGOG was a silly made-up word we only used in our family!
  11. 17:00 … with the abysmal TV genre last in. Much enjoyed the puzzle, though. As Jack said, it was one of those puzzles where you always felt you had something to work with.

    COD … GOOSEGOG, because that’s what we always called them growing up (mind you, I hated the things but was forced to consume them).

  13. I was surprised to stop the clock at 16 minutes, because this felt a great deal more difficult than that (usually it’s the other way round, of course). Glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who went blankly through the acrosses before finally getting a start at 25ac. Assuming it was done deliberately (and I know from setter’s blogs that it’s usually their intention) this was a great example of using the easier clues to gradually open up more difficult sections of the grid, which may explain why I enjoyed it a great deal.
  14. I enjoyed this; it felt very difficult as it went in but at c.25 minutes clearly (by my standards) wasn’t. Blatherskite is familiar from home although I’ve no idea if widely used across Northern Ireland; on the other hand the regional ‘goosegab’ was nearly in before the cryptic had time to register.
  15. 50m struggle with same unknowns and dislikes as others before. I had ? at 17a for the ‘found in’ part of the clue. Thanks for the blog – more enjoyable than the puzzle today!
  16. One of the reasons I read the blog even when I don’t get to the puzzle is in hopes that he’ll be back.
  17. When I got on the train this morning I found there was a problem with the ipad app so moved to solving on the iphone which was surprisingly good. I found it tough though, looking at it on and off all day up until now when I just finished with GOOSEGOG and BONEHEAD.

    I feel like I’ve missed out on the rantings of the colonel mentioned above. I may have to trawl the archives to experience some of his undoubted wisdom.

  18. 16:55. I got completely stuck for a bit and was fearful that I’d stay that way as I thought I wasn’t going to know the word for an American senior citizen at 13, the historical writer at 14 and the plant (Stinking Bettie?)

    I also didn’t help myself with an unparsed blathermouth at 1a which made Khan impossible.

    Edit to add that I can’t see a proper definition for incandescent.

    Edited at 2015-09-24 12:52 pm (UTC)

    1. It’s an anagram of “nice and” indicated by “furious” which also serves as the definition [as indicated by the question mark]. Add “scent” as in sense.
  20. Since updating to ios 9.0.1, the times cryptic crossword on my ipad doesn’t work properly. The keyboard hides the input box so I cannot see what is being typed. I also cannot download the quick cryptic. Has any one else got the same problem and are there any suggestions?
    Barry Dobson.
    1. I have not updated yet to ios.9.0.1 but am having all sorts of iPad problems, perhaps because I haven’t. Had to print off the cryptic today rather than solving on line as usual. I do this through The Times app, which appears to have collapsed.

      Edited at 2015-09-24 02:53 pm (UTC)

      1. @bigtone – I had to delete and reinstall the app to get it working (I’m still on IOS7).

        Edited at 2015-09-24 04:00 pm (UTC)

  21. 27:37, and a bit of a struggle. FOI 2d, having read all the across clues without inspriation. Biffed STINGING NETTLE without understanding and then worried it was wrong. Thanks for explaining, George. Never heard of a BLATHERSKITE, but it couldn’t anything else, and not heard the fruit called a GOOSEGOG since my childhood. Got there in the end without needing aids, though. Coincidentally, I drove past the Gog Magog hills twice earlier today.
  22. Really enjoyed this one, having felt on the wrong wavelength for a couple of days. For a London boy who’s spent time in the north, Blatherskite and Goosegog were evocative! LOI 14dn
  24. About 25 minutes, though I’d never heard of the GOOSEGOG. LOI was BUSTARD, which was only vaguely familiar, but I finally saw the wordplay. Not much else to say about today’s offering, so regards.
  26. 19 mins. I spent the last couple of them on the PEA GREEN/GRASS crossers, which was a little surprising in retrospect because they weren’t the most difficult of clues. I don’t recall coming across BLATHERSKITE before, and to me it looks like it would be a more meaningful word if it had two Hs and no K.
  27. Blatherskite FOI. A word learned and never forgotten from Bernard Levin’s evocative description of Neil Kinnock as a “Welsh blatherskite”.
    John B
    1. I think he was usually known as the “Welsh Windbag”, but I suppose it’s a similar question to whether Margaret Thatcher was better known as “Attila the Hen” or “Attila the Nun”?
  28. I also found this puzzle tricky, and I’m pleased to see that my completion time is not too far beyond many contributors who are usually home and hosed before I’m half way through. Perhaps it was a reaction to completing the Grauniad successfully today, despite being able to parse only about 75% of the clues. Excellent stuff though, and a mind boggling Nina.
  29. Time extended by doing this at a particularly dozy time of day. It would appear that at least four of us believed until today that GOOSEGOG was a private, family designation that we were either too embarrassed to use in polite conversation, or simple never had the chance.
    DOCUSOAP is a perfectly good portmanteau word. Will it survive until next week? Dom dom dom-dom-dom…
  30. 12:21 for me. I got off to a good start with BLATHERSKITE going straight in, but struggled with the next few clues, and then (with S and I in place) stupidly bunged in SUETONIUS for 14dn, half aware that I in TONS wouldn’t quite produce TONIUS and that SUE = “issue” might not really be a goer. This held me up for quite a while so I was surprised to finish in not too disastrous a time.

    Like others I’m not convinced by RIM = “seam”, but apart from that a pleasant, reasonably straightforward solve.

  32. The exact opposite to everyone else – out of the gates like greased lightning, hoping for a PB or a grand slam until DOCUSOAP proved recalcitrant. Then was still heading for a very quick sub-20 until held up by INCANDESCENT (had an S from SquillionS where the N shoulda been), GOOSEGOG unknown, GRASS unknown, and PEA GREEN just general dimness on my part. Finally limped home in 28 mins.
    Rob

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