Times 26,234 – Let’s wrestle

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
By the time most people read this, Andy may have published the results of the weekend’s events locally, but in the meantime, people with access to the Crossword Club can see them here. I am happy to have finished exactly where I always finish, in that middle ground between 13th and 25th, so I shall look forward to my invitation to do it all again next year. I shan’t go into details (suffice it to say, if the puzzles are published as they traditionally are, the one fatal clue which I sat staring at for what seemed an eternity, while running through the alphabet, will appear a week tomorrow). Having thus got the business of solving out of the way early, I was in the pub nice and early; sadly not able to stay long enough to meet any new people from these parts as the day went on, but we do have another gathering in the not too distant future where I can hopefully rectify that. Congratulations to Magoo on his win while hoping that all the rest of us who entered also enjoyed the day, or their result, and hopefully both.

Anyway, back to today’s puzzle, and it was pretty much like yesterday’s. The odd familiar feeling at some clues, but some nice touches of novelty in there as well. Net result, a speedy (8 minutes) and perfectly entertaining solve, albeit one which probably won’t live terribly long in the memory.

Across
1 REFUSAL – [F{ollowing} U.S.] in REAL.
5 SOMEHOW – (HOME)* in SOW, and not a sty involved anywhere. I’d have said the right word was “anyhow” rather than “somehow”, but there’s probably not enough there to start an argument with the editor.
9 MERGANSER – A (N,S) in MERGER. Leaps rather off the page once you see “duck” and it can’t be teal or smew or eider.
10 RIYAL – first letters of R{eady} I{n} Y{emen} A{rabian} L{olly} &lit. Used not just in Yemen but across the Arab world, so a perfect example of the &lit. form.
11 A WHALE OF A TIME – [O{ld} in WHALE FAT(=”blubber”)], all in AIM, E{nergy}.
13 DIMINISH – [1 MIN.] in DISH.
15 CAVE IN – C{aught} A VEIN.
17 LOUNGE – O(=round) in LUNGE.
19 GENEROUS – NERO is the emperor, inside GE{N}US without the N at its heart.
22 SKIRTING BOARD – SKIRTING (=avoiding dealing with) BOARD (=top management). It’s the “limit on the floor” of lots of rooms, of course, not specifically ones in shops, but that would remove some of the artifice from the definition.
25 EVITA – (THE NATIVE)rev. without THEN. If original, that “Return of the Native” thing is very good (and pretty good whatever the case).
26 IMAGINING – IN hidden within I’M AGING.
27 TAG TEAM – (GETAMAT)*. It did occur to me that the setter might be a wrestling fan when I noticed the FOREARM SMASH in the NW corner, and here is further evidence. If only there was a famous old-time wrestler called Jet Black Kennedy (there isn’t, I checked). Giant Haywire? No, let’s move on…
28 KENNEDY – KEN (=know, especially in Scotland), [ED in N.Y.]
 
Down
1 RAMP – RAM, as in Random Access Memory, P{ower}. “Ramp up” is more usual, but, the dictionary confirms, not essential.
2 FOREARM – EAR (=organ) in FORM (=shape).
3 SMASH – M{otor} in S{mall} ASH.
4 LISTLESS – (STILL)*, ESS{AY} minus A Y{ear}.
5 SORROW – (ROSE)rev. on top of ROW (=argument).
6 MARMALADE – [ARM A LAD] in M.E.
7 HAYWIRE – HAY (on Wye) is the scene of the famous book festival, so a telegram sent from there would be a HAY WIRE, geddit?
8 WILDERNESS – L{eft} in WIDER (=more open), NESS (=land running out to sea).
12 ADOLESCENT – ADO, LE SCENT. Dare one say that perfume is the faintest hint of chestnut?
14 NIGHTMARE – take the top of the KNIGHT on a MARE, and thus mounted.
16 JET BLACK – JET (=airliner), BLACK (=boycott). Something proverbially dark, and thus not bright.
18 UNITING – UNEXCITING without the EX (=former partner) and C (=about).
20 OLD TIME – (MODELIT)*. Hands up anyone else who tried to create an anagram of (ITNEEDS) instead? Thank you for your honesty.
21 INFIRM – IN (=fashionable) FIRM (=company).
23 ALIEN – LIE (=”factual misrepresentation”) in AN (=”article”). Hands up again anyone who spent some time looking to see where E.T. fitted in.
24 UGLY – there again, we could have another look at those pesky words which could equally well be definitions or anagram indicators and get them the right way round…it is, of course, (GUY)*, L{eft}. Thanks to anon, below. Another one of those “three point turns in the thesaurus” where the general sense is obviously there but I can’t put my finger on a phrase where “criminal” and “ugly” would be interchangeable.

52 comments on “Times 26,234 – Let’s wrestle”

  1. … the FOREARM SMASH that is. Agreed that this is no real trouble and got through before the coffee went cold. (Stopped timing a while ago when the clock kept putting me off the main game.)

    Only complaint could be “waste” for WILDERNESS. A rather old-fashioned idea about such, often very beautiful, parts of the world. (Wonder what the Wilderness Society would think.) But no doubt it will be in one of the usual sources. ODO tells me it’s from OE “wild dēor”.

  2. could ‘criminal’ be the anagram indicator for ‘guy’, and ‘bad’ be the definition
    1. Well only if you will insist on us arriving at the obviously correct answer, of course…

      Edited at 2015-10-20 02:03 am (UTC)

  3. with some biffing. Had no idea about the book festival, or Hay for that matter, but xxxWIRE leaves little to even my imagination. SKIRTING was on the tip of my tongue until my alphabet run reached K. Liked EVITA.
  4. 12’45”, so as fast as it gets for me outside Championship qualifiers. SKIRTING BOARD confused me briefly because of the shopping connection.

    Today’s battle against my ignorance was fought at Hay-on-Wye, which I had always imagined to lie in England, and that despite living in nearby Leominster as a kid.

  5. 34 minutes of enjoyable solving with reservations about 22ac where ‘shop’ was distracting and strictly unnecessary other than for the surface reading. I note we’ve now had two consecutive wordy sets of clues so that I’ve had to reduce my print settings to 95% to fit them all on a page. I usually print at 105% to aid my failing eyesight.
    1. … won’t always fit on a page. I reduce the percentage until the preview shows a single page and it’s gone down as low as 90% on a few occasions. But I can usually get away with 98%.
        1. Or indeed, the grid could be smaller. The folks at the other place almost never go beyond one page.
          1. I just realised that I did not help myself by printing from the Club crossword page where actually I had to resize to 94% to fit to one page. If I’d printed from the newspaper Crossword page (where one accesses the Quickie) I could have printed today’s Cryptic at 103%.
  6. A cautious 14.02, not wanting yet another point in the wrong column. Slowed at the last by having a confident DEMOLISH at 13 (there’s a Minute in there somewhere, and the rest can be safely ignored), making the simple NIGHTMARE a lot more complicated. LOI SKIRTING BOARD, where I thought the definition unhelpfully specific. I mean, I’ve got one here, and I’m not a shop.
    I also hesitated over HAY being a Welsh town, and it turns out I’m a bit right. Some of it isn’t, including the local Co-op, the rather evocative Gussop Dingle, and (you’ll have to take my word for this, or do the same research) Nantyglasdwr Lane. Must make Town Council meetings more interesting, not to mention Six Nations matches.

    Edited at 2015-10-20 06:21 am (UTC)

  7. 11:25 … some fun clues, including the email from Hay-on-Wye (or Hampstead West, as I’ve come to think of it). WILDERNESS and GENEROUS held me up for a couple of minutes late on.

    Is SKIRTING BOARD ever used in the US? In Canada it always met with blank looks and, eventually, “oh, you mean baseboard!”.

  8. 11:26 but not much fun. Too many Bunged In From Crossers (eg a 5-letter answer beginning with E where the first word of the clue is Musical – no need to read the rest of the clue). Crash/SMASH seemed lazy and the shop reference unnecessary. Perhaps I have just got out of bed too early.
  9. Very straightforward. Would have completed it a bit quicker if I had not spelt KENNEDY incorrectly as KENEDDY.
  10. 20 mins and no problems. We have had smew and, now, merganser so I am happy. I just need Goosander to complete my I Spy Book of Sawbills.
  11. I don’t mind these easier ones, especially with what sound like some tricky championship puzzles coming up soon. But really, assassinated politician? Now let me think…

    Thanks setter and Tim.

    1. Well, I only considered it when Spencer Perceval wouldn’t fit. It is The Times you know, old boy.
      1. On another topic, could you please slow down a bit? Can’t remember the last time I beat you. Very annoying.
        1. I’ll be in Japan for few days so rivalries will be renewed next week after I’ve had another round of hormone treatment.
  12. 12m. I started very quickly on this, and it occurred to me (not for the first time) that I am extremely unlikely ever to beat my PB as long as I am solving on an iPad on the train. As it turned out I needn’t have worried, because I got stuck for a good five minutes with GENEROUS and WILDERNESS unsolved. Once I eventually figured out that my bunged-in ALL BLACK didn’t make any sense it all resolved itself quite quickly.
    1. 15:45 and the last 3 minutes stuck on WILDERNESS and GENEROUS too. Well spotted with the wrestling terms, Tim. 6d my COD.
  13. 12 or 13 minutes-ish. Nothing very remarkable and a few clues that seemed rather easier than they really should be; ‘alien’, ‘ugly’ etc

  14. Sorry, Jack but I am all for verbocity!

    For a man of letters Verlaine sometimes sells us a bit short when he’s on the school run.

    I was expecting a couple more wrestling terms but they didn’t emerge.

    A slow 35 mins.

    horryd Shanghai

    1. I apologise profusely for recent lapses in the quality of my service, and I’ll try to lead you all around the houses, walking/talking a whole pack of shaggy dogs, before getting to the point in future…

      5 minutes-ish today, obviously I’m going to hit some kind of career-best stride in the week or two *following* Championships. Obviously.

      ETA: *gasp* A better time posted by me than either Magoo’s or Jason’s? This has literally never happened before, one of them must have phoned the other mid-solve. *faints*

      Edited at 2015-10-20 04:09 pm (UTC)

  15. Not much to say about an easy offering. Agree with the “padding” comments about “shop” in 22A. If setters are allowed to just add spurious words to beef up surface readings we’re in for a very confusing time.
    1. And they’re preparing new solvers for it too. In today’s Quickie at 2dn we have a clock (on a wall) referred to as a ‘waiting room clock’.
  16. 15 minutes for the easiest puzzle I’ve seen in ages. I rarely get as low a time as this. Agree about the surface padding of ‘shop’; most shops are lined with shelves and may not even have skirting boards.
  17. 9:15 and not much in the way of variety where clue types are concerned – pretty much all charades and insertions with the odd anagram thrown in.

    On the wrestling front, does Jet Black being the drummer in The STRANGLERS count?

    1. Definitely. Wasn’t Jet Black in a tag team with Golden Brown? Anyway, Mick McManus’ hair was jet black.
  18. Certainly one of the easiest puzzles for some time. About 25 mins — which is as fast it ever gets for me. But perfectly enjoyable. I agree with the objections to “shop” in 22A. Apart from anything else, I doubt whether many shops bother with skirting-boards.
  20. A whisker under 22min for me with which, awarding myself a hangover-related time bonus, I’m quite happy.

    Congratulations to all the finalists. Interesting to note that there’s only one women amongst them. I’m sure that’s very significant, but of what I am not sure.

    1. One should point out that the woman in question has previously won the whole shebang.

      I haven’t bothered to count, but one woman in the final might well be representative of the total number of female entrants. Which leaves two possibilities:
      – women can’t solve cryptics as fast as men
      – of those women who can, many imagine they have better things to do on a Saturday in October (though what I have no idea)

      Incidentally, I’m sure it’s just coincidence and your reputation in no way precedes you, Thud, but I read your opening line as “A whiskey under 22min …”, which, frankly, seems like a long time for a whiskey. I trust it was a good one.

      Edited at 2015-10-20 04:26 pm (UTC)

      1. I suspect you may be right – in general women have important things to be getting on with. Taking myself as an example of the male half of the population, I can say that most of my life has been one huge displacement activity, of which crosswords are a vital component.

        As for a whiskey under 22min – heaven forbid. Whiskey is for amateur drinkers, just as exquisitely-styled Ferraris are for amateur drivers. Give me a 2-litre fuel-injected gin any day.

        Cheers!

        1. I don’t know whether you are also a chess fiend, Thud, but I see that the Sunday Times Chess column (Raymond Keene) was named after you.
          1. Well, when you get to my age you find that very few surviving people were named before you.

            Alas, I am to chess what Wagner and Beckham were to football and opera, respectively.

      2. >One should point out that the woman in question has previously won the whole shebang …

        … twice!

  22. A relatively quick solve, but no barnburner here, between 15 and 20 minutes. My LOI’s were the HAYWIRE/RIYAL crossers; I was ridiculously slow to see the obvious wordplay for the Arab money. Nothing else to say, so regards.
  23. It is once in a blue moon that I get anywhere near finishing so it was hugely disappointing to get all bar 21d with ?n?i?m . Spend more than the time to get the rest running through the alphabet several times but even guessing that it was in?i?m, still couldn’t get it .
  24. No proper time because I started it when I was feeling very tired and I fell asleep during the solve. The answers came quite rapidly while I was lucid and my time including the zeds was 25 mins. FOREARM was my LOI after the SKIRTING BOARD/UNITING crossers.
  25. 20 mins; MERGANSER LOI as I couldn’t remember if it was called a MERGASSER. Nothing else that caused undue problems, but now very aware I need to get solving time down if I want a chance at next year’s competition!

    It was an absolute delight to meet some of you at the George on Saturday, which was one of the most enjoyable afternoons in recent memory. I even recognised Linxit, once I’d imagined him with a dog on his head…..

  26. Another rapid solve, I guess Wednesday will begin the run of finals puzzles, so it will be Thursdsay when the stinker shows up and that’s my turn, whee!

    I was rather taken with the clue for EVITA

  27. A fairly easy QC today left me time to attempt this one.Unlike some days, I found a way in to this one and after a couple of long sessions was left with 2d and 9a. For 2d I was convinced that”in shape” meant Fit and that led to severe hold-ups. I’m not very good on ducks but eventually saw Merger and then it was done. I too struggled with 22a but couldn’t think of anything else. David
    1. As a Club solver, I don’t normally see the QC, so I tend to forget its existence. On days like this, I should try to remember to flag up the “original” cryptic if it’s at the more straightforward end of the spectrum, and likely to be of interest to Quick solvers who might want to cross over, so thanks for reminding me of that (albeit too late for today).
  28. The easiest puzzle in a long while (TAG TEAM and the Welsh book festival at HAY being the only unknowns for me), finished in just under 30 minutes, perhaps my best time and certainly close to it.

    Sorry I couldn’t come to the George on Saturday (a bit far from Germany), as I would have loved to meet you all. Perhaps I should have sent my daughter — she lives just around the corner! Doesn’t do crosswords though (English is only her second language; actually, BRITISH English is only my second language, too, or is it my third?).

  30. 8:52 to for me, so at least slightly faster than yesterday, but still off the pace. A pleasant, straightforward solve.

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