Times 26452: You spin me right round baby, right round.

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 27:07. Yikes! This is the most difficult puzzle I can recall in a while. It may have been that I started on it three pints in, but right now I am the only punter with a correct solution on the club timer, making me the winner by default. Yay, default!

Everything makes sense wordplay-wise, but there are some phrases in here that were not exactly the version that I use. Maybe there is a planet were people walk around saying 13 across, 4 down or 27 across.

Away we go…

Across
1 CATCHING: double definition
5 AGHAST: A, G, then anagram of HAT’S
9 ASPERITY: A, then PROSPERITY without PRO
10 LIMBER: CLIMBER missing the C
12 BINGO: after you BIN, GO, you get another game
13 AS REGARDS: RE(soldiers) in ASGARD’S (heaven’s – well for the Norse)
14 BILLINGSGATE: B, then an anagram ofLEGISLATING
18 DEAD AND ALIVE: double definition
21 SUPER,NOV,A
23 ROUGE: ROGE(r) – I acknowledge, detailed, containing U
24 EXTANT: remove the first letter from SEXTANT
25 MILL RACE: this was a biff for me – ground pepper comes out of a MILL, and now I look in Chambers to see RACE is a rootstock of ginger
26 SINGLE: S(h)INGLE
27 IN MY BOOK: double definition, though I had IN MY HAND and WORD before getting BOOK
 
Down
1 CRABBY: R in CABBY
2 TAPING: TAG surrounding PIN
3 HARMONICA: anagram of CHAIRMAN,(ma)O
4 NOT CALLED FOR: double definition, though I’m used to seeing SPOKEN FOR as the social one
6 GRIEG: E in GRIG(cricket)
7 ARBOREAL: BORE(drilled) in the ARAL sea
8 THRUSTER: RUST in THE, R
11 CRENELLATION: NELL in CREATION
15 SEVER,ALLY
16 ODYSSEUS: definition is “wanderer”. Reverse all of SUES(begs), S(hyl)Y, DO(ditto)
17 RASPUTIN: or RA’S PUT IN. Whether he was a bad influence or not is subjective
19 RUBATO: double sportsball! RU, then BAT ON missing the last letter. In Test cricket, once you reach your desired score, you have the option of declaring (closing the innings) or BATTING ON
20 BEDECK: BECK containing alternating letters in bEaD
22 RENAL: hidden in childREN ALter

48 comments on “Times 26452: You spin me right round baby, right round.”

  1. …and didn’t get ASPERITY. Agree that this was the hardest for a while.

    Thanks setter and George.

    Hope everyone made it home safely from the Red Lion.

  2. Took slightly longer than blogger. Got 25A but did not know the ginger bit until I came here. Thank you, George and of course, the anonymous setter
  3. I took ‘harsh tone’ as a sound, and came up with ‘aspirate’, although I couldn’t make sense of the wordplay; and of course failed to come back to it and think. Biffed MILL RACE from pepper, with maybe a vague memory of RACE and ginger, but mainly with an inability to think of MILL ANYTHING ELSE. Vinyl at least thought of the right word at 11d; I biffed in ‘machicolation’, which fortunately didn’t fit. DNK DEAD-AND-ALIVE. A slow beginning, followed by a very slow middle, then everything fell into place (but 9ac), with RUBATO LOI.

    Edited at 2016-06-30 02:01 am (UTC)

    1. Yeah, I eventually went for the unparsable ASPIRATE as well.

      Glad you mentioned DEAD-AND-ALIVE. I’ve never heard of it, although Google confirms its existence. Would be interested to know if other commenters are familiar with this usage.

      1. Haven’t heard it used for a while and, now I think about it, only in the phrase ‘dead and alive hole’ to describe an uninspiring venue (usually a pub in my youth).

        Edited at 2016-06-30 08:11 am (UTC)

  4. Thought it was just me and, having checked the calendar, assumed GH would, as usual, sail through it. So nice to have confirmation from the horse’s mouth.

    As regards 13ac, if I had 50¢ for every time I’ve seen this in an undergrad. essay, my pension fund would be much better off. Thus we see that when you have to read a pile of these things, the strange usages infect you by osmosis and you can’t hold a decent conversation until the effect wears off.

    LOI was ROUGE. Bloody Roger!

  5. In my book a stiff 55min but failed at RUBATO thus DNF with ROUGE LOI (unparsed)

    Some excellent clues – with a few uncalled for phrases.

    DNK RACE as Ginger root (Lat.radix)

    COD 14ac BILLINGSGATE – fish-wives’ (slapper’s) English!

    FOI 3d HARMONICA WOD 17dn RASPUTIN

    horryd Shanghai

  6. I think the wordplay in 4d is that if her date stood her up, she’d be waiting at home “not called for”.
  7. I completed the grid in 46 minutes, albeit with one incorrect answer at 9ac where, like kevin gregg, I plumped for “aspirate” for the same reasons he did. Having checked and found it should have been ASPERITY I was unable to parse it. Also unparsed were AS REGARDS and RACE with its ginger connection. I don’t think I have met BILLINGSGATE as “bad language” before. I had got off to a flying start and for a while thought it was going to be a walk in the proverbial.

    Edited at 2016-06-30 06:01 am (UTC)

  8. 27.55 in a rather piecemeal solve. There were far to many possibilities for “regarding soldiers” in 13 to make it a write in: I had REGIS pencilled in where it (sort of) fitted, and IN REGARDS for a while before remembering my Norse (or if I’m honest, my Avengers).
    Despite thinking I had to parse everything to be sure, ASPERITY being a case in point, I blanked at MILL RACE, partly because MACE is there and I got confused both with my spices and my personal defence sprays. ILLR didn’t make any sense, of course. Entered on a what else? principle.
    Impressed by the use of Chairman Mao as anagrist: has it been done before?

    Edited at 2016-06-30 06:57 am (UTC)

    1. I was once asked at the BA business class check-in at JFK whether I was carrying mace. My look of surprise on being asked whether I was carrying a spice must have been obvious as they kindly explained the previously unknown defence spray (or is it defense in this context?)
  9. Decent time, shame about the ASPIRATE. I knew it didn’t parse but also couldn’t imagine another word that fit. Bear trap duly sprung with me in it.

    Another excellent puzzle, though, in which I learned a few things.

  10. 10m, though I had no idea how a RACE could possibly anything to do with ginger.

    Just the kind of puzzle I like with a fair sprinkling of general knowledge and technical vocab… enjoying this week so far! Thanks setter.

    Great to meet ulaca and Barry (?) at the pub last night… if all your ears were burning for a couple of hours then that’s why!

    Edited at 2016-06-30 07:07 am (UTC)

  11. Goodness. I got about a quarter of it in 55 minutes of my hour before giving up in frustration. I still can’t see some of it — even 1a, where I thought of CATCHING quite a few times but couldn’t parse, I still can’t parse…

    DNK ASPERITY; BILLINGSGATE in that definition; DEAD-AND-ALIVE; MILL RACE (or “race”); that definition of NOT CALLED FOR. Sad not to have got HARMONICA, even though I saw the anagram and there’s one in this very room. At least I got RUBATO, musically-speaking.

    Very much not on the wavelength. Ah well. As a relative newcomer, I suppose I shouldn’t worry too much about my performance on puzzles that the seasoned find quite tough…

    1. Infectious is CATCHING, that bit’s not uncontroversial I hope?

      The other bit I reckoned was from the definition of catch that is “to stick somewhere, or to make something stick somewhere”; if your skirts are catching on brambles, their progress is being checked…

      1. Ah, I suppose. I could only really think of catching a ball, but that seemed to have the subject and the object the wrong way round for the wording. Thanks!
  12. In my book a bit of a slog this one with it’s plethora of rather dated phrases that have fallen out of common use. As regards BILLINGSGATE, unless you visited the old fish market I doubt it would make much sense to younger folk. Can’t say I enjoyed this all that much as I found it a bit dead and alive.
    1. I was actually surprised by Jack’s comment, since this was the only meaning I knew (isn’t the market gone?). Can we hope that the missus is feeling better?
      1. Yes, fish market long gone although the smell lingered for years afterwards

        Thanks for asking. Mrs J is out of plaster and sporting a huge robocop boot. I no longer have to inject her every day and she has slight mobility using a zimmer but still unable to shop, cook, etc.

  13. DNF. Failed to get ASPERITY and RUBATO. DNK Asgards so I couldn’t parse. No complaints, however. Solving this staring into a mill race gave me one small advantage.
  14. 15 mins for this. Had the feel of a different setter we hadn’t seen before, not sure if that’s the case.
  15. Like Sotira I biffed ASPIRATE and learned a few things, specifically that BECK could be a gesture made with the head rather than a finger and that GRIG existed.
  16. I’ve used this expression from time to time to indicate the type of place which is closed when you arrive, as Brussels was on a Sunday the first time I went. I seem to have gone faster than some of the elite squad today, finishing in 40 minute, but DNK RUBATO and had to look up. I biffed BEDECK and have never used BILLINGSGATE for coarse language, although the anagram solved nicely. I guess it serves the same purpose as a Fleetwood Fishwife did in my youth. Liked 16d but didn’t know ODYSSEUS was a Bolton supporter.
  17. Longest time for a while, and like many others, had nothing but ASPIRATE. 46′ dnf therefore. Dnk DEAD AND ALIVE, or RACE. Liked CRENELLATION, you needed a ‘licence to crenellate’ from the monarch in the old days. COD 16d. Thanks setter, and blogger.
  18. Steady solve but with no real unknowns. BILLINGSGATE was obvious but I dont associate fish-wives and their language with there. I always thought that the fish-wives in question were the wives of the fishermen, namely the gutters and cleaners at the ports. Knew RUBATO as my family tell me that I am time-deaf when playing. I prefer to say either rubato or variable syncopation. Thanks setter and george
    1. It was something my Mum and others would say, probably just in the Fylde. “She swears like a Fleetwood fishwife.” ” She dresses like a Fleetwood fishwife.” Etc.
  19. I found this one incredibly difficult, labouring to a finish in 29m 43s – but, like others, I’d messed up 9a. Unlike others, I went for the unlikely ASPERATE, having followed most of the wordplay but stumbled at the finish.

    I was confident I’d failed on this one, but only because I’d never heard of MILL RACE or ‘race’ in that context, and threw it in in desperation. Turns out that wasn’t the issue!

  20. 38m. Light years away from the setter’s wavelength for the second day in a row. Having the unknown BILLINGSGATE and DEAD AND ALIVE in the middle of the grid didn’t help, but the difficulty was more in the wordplay than the vocab for me.
    I agonised over 9ac at the end: I considered both ASPIRATE and ASPERITY, but couldn’t parse the clue either way. Eventually I bunged in the one I thought marginally more likely and got lucky.
    MILL RACE is a harsh clue: it’s a relatively unusual term clued with an even more unusual one. Fortunately I happened to know them both, or might never have finished.

    Edited at 2016-06-30 11:27 am (UTC)

  21. In tune (so to speak) with vinyl1, I chose to have a musical background.I subscribe to the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall and I chose one of their recent offerings. It included “SingalongaShostakovich”! Symphony Number 13, a jolly story of the composer’s protest against rising anti-semitism in 1960s Russia with the textual theme being Yevtushenko’s poem “Babi Yar”, which is about a WWII massacre of Jews by the Nazis. What fun!
    Thank you, Mr Heard for explaining RUBATO. As for “stood up”, I have always taken that to mean that one’s date failed to turn up so I’m thinking it doesn’t quite fit the solution. When I was waiting for my first serious girlfriend to arrive for our first date, all I could think of was a Sandy Shaw hit of the time, “Girl don’t come”. She did, though.
  22. I’m another pirate instead of a perity.

    The SE corner was a beast again, not least because I’ve never, ever, ever heard of beck in that sense. I did consider bedeck early doors but needed the tricky IN MY BOOK to confirm it and that, in turn, needed to no less tricky RUBATO.

    Billingsgate fish market still exists, but they’ve moved it to Canary Wharf.

  23. I found this v. difficult and spent goodness knows how long on it, eventually only missing out on ASPERITY like many others. The previously unknown RUBATO was also my LOI. A bit frustrating but satisfying in the end with a few new words/terms learnt along the way.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  24. Having read all the comments on ASPIRATE/ASPERITY I feel like I dodged a bullet. Particularly as one of the reasons I plumped for the right answer was that I thought ‘tone from a professional no longer’ might be an instruction to remove LA (a tone) from LAITY (professional no longer). Totally wrong, and totally daft, but the best I could come up with!
  25. I thought I was very slow at 40 minutes but feel a bit better after coming here. Didn’t enjoy this much – I biffed far too many lucky answers. Ann
  26. No time as I had 2 goes at it but I estimate around 50 minutes – however thinking a pirate made money and was therefore a professional I plumped like some others for “aspirate”. Very tricky today I thought.
  27. I also had 2 goes at this, as I had to go out to meet my brother to resume our misspent youth at the snooker table. I like being retired! Golf tomorrow:-)I spent slightly over 30 minutes on the first session filling about two thirds of the grid and another 30 minutes or so finishing off. Having read the comments I’m quite pleased to have got all the answers correct, although I couldn’t parse ASPERITY. I also didn’t know the required meaning of ginger, but did know the speedy stream. I had to take BECK and GRIG on trust as I hadn’t come across them before. Didn’t know BILLINGSGATE as bad language but the crossers left no doubt. Toyed with CASTELLATIONS for a while but didn’t put it in as I couldn’t parse it, then the fish market gave me the crosser I needed. Took me a while to remember the Norse heaven, but got there eventually. FOI, AGHAST, LOI ODYSSEUS. I quite enjoyed this one. Thanks setter and George.
  28. A knock-ridden 34 mins and a fail under competition conditions because, out of a mixture of desperation and boredom, I biffed “aspirate” for the same reason others did after considering the two possibilities for at least 5 mins. I had also spent time wondering if the “professional no longer” was “ret”, as in “retired”. If I’d been sure of what ASPERITY meant I’d have gone for that instead, but I couldn’t parse it either. However, I spent another 15 mins or so mulling it over and I eventually saw (PRO)SPERITY, so I got it right in the end. I’m afraid you can count me as another who didn’t particularly enjoy this puzzle.

    Edited at 2016-06-30 07:49 pm (UTC)

  29. A DNF for a number of reasons, biffing IN REGARDS didn’t help, using Roget’s is against my rules and I needed it for BILLINGSGATE. I knew DEAD AND ALIVE for the same reasons as mentioned above, generally a pub or a town. Needed Chambers for RUBATO, I had worked out the wordplay so this is not against my rules. Normally I don’t resort to Roget etc but today I thought I’m going to get this sucker. A toughie, thanks to the blogger for explaining the parsing of more than one. Thanks to the setter, I am now going to have to lie down in a darkened room or go to the club for a couple of pints. Who am I kidding, mine’s an MPA.

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