Times 26457 – up my street

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Mostly straightforward today, a somewhat classical, Greek, light and dark blue flavour to it with one or two less well known words to slow you down or trust the wordplay; it took me a steady 20 minutes while munching the toast.
10a appearing is probably just a coincidence, but I wonder (and hope) that the Taffs can do the business tonight against the odds, without Ramsey and Davies?

Across
1 MASSACRE – MA (mother) S (son), SACRE (French for blasted, sort of); D butcher.
9 ADHESIVE – A DIVE is an underground club, insert HE’S; D pasty perhaps, like paste.
10 DALI – DAI short fo DAFYDD, insert L; D painter.
11 POPULAR FRONT – In = POPULAR, van = FRONT; D anti-fascist group. The People’s Popular Front of Judaea, perhaps, or the Judaean Popular People?s Front?
13 ANKARA – Egyptian flavour to this; AN, RA = ancient God, insert KA = ancient Egyptian name for spirit or soul; D city.
14 OXBRIDGE – OX for beast, BRIDE for new wife, insert G: D university pairing.
15 BANKING – KIN for family, inside BANG for crash; D financial.
16 CABBAGE – CAB BAG = luggage taken in taxi, E = back from Natalie; D cole, generic name for types of cabbage. as in coleslaw.
20 ACCURATE – AC = account shortened, CURATE = junior minister; D true.
22 TOWNIE – OWN = to admit, inside TIE = link; D urban resident.
23 SQUARE-RIGGER – SQUARE = old-fashioned, RIGGER sounds like rigour = hardship; D sailing vessel.
25 ODDS – Take the odd (alternate) letters of OlD vDuS; D as in odds and ends, bits.
26 AGGRIEVE – AGGR(O) = endless trouble, I, EVE = one, day before; D upset.
27 PRESTIGE – (GET SPIRE)*; D standing.

Down
2 ATALANTA – ATLANTA hosted the Olympics in 1996, insert A; D legendary runner. Greek goddess who was tops at hunting and running and avoided marriage when her suitors couldn’t out-run her and so were killed off instead; until Hippomenes came up with the cunning plan of chucking golden apples in front of her to slow her down. If it wasn’t true, you couldn’t make this stuff up.
3 SKIPJACK TUNA – SKIP for dance, JACK for sailor. (AUNT)*, D fish.
4 CHAPLAIN – CHA for tea, PLAIN for simple; D clergyman.
5 EARLY ON – EARL for nobleman, YON for over there; D at point near start.
6 CHERUB – CH = church, (P)ERU, B for bishop; D winged child.
7 TITO – Hidden in FIGH(T IT O)UT; D revolutionary, Josip Broz Tito, Croatian revolutionary who united and led Yugoslavia from 1943 to 1980.
8 GET THERE – (GREET THE)*: D arrive.
12 RAINBOW TROUT – RA IN BOW would be an artist in London E3; TROUT is a grumpy old woman; D spotted swimmer.
15 BRADSHAW – BAD SHAW = poor playwright; insert R for rupees; D Victorian rail timetable, as brandished on TV by Michael Portillo.
17 ANTIGONE – (L)ANE = ANE, learner leaving road; Insert TIGON = cat that’s crossed; D a tragedy.
18 GUIDE DOG – Rather obvious cryptic definition.
19 DEMIREP – DEEP = a long way down, insert RIM reversed; D woman who’s fallen. OED has the gently understated “a woman whose chastity is considered doubtful”.
21 ALEXEI – This was my LOI as it took me a while to stop thinking of Russian exiles and “lift and separate”. A (start in academia), (EXILE)*; D Russian.
24 URGE – URE = Yorkshire river, insert G for gallon; D impulse.

50 comments on “Times 26457 – up my street”

  1. About 25 minutes for all but two, then got stuck. Was it DEMIREP or depilep? Finally got ACCURATE, and threw in the unknown DEMIREP without much conviction. Thanks for parsing TOWNIE. dnk the train timetable.
    1. You obviously don’t watch Michael Portillo’s TV programmes about rail travel in the UK! His battered copy is the raison d’être for the programme.
  2. I gave up after 55 minutes, the last five spent staring at the few I had left.

    Missed ADHESIVE; had only vaguely heard of ANKARA and didn’t know “ka”; DNK ATALANTA, and didn’t remember Atlanta had been an Olympics venue, DNK TITO and didn’t spot the wordplay; DNK DEMIREP.

    Pleased with myself at least for getting BRADSHAW, partially from memory of it coming up before in a crossword (never encountered it in real life) and partially from the wordplay, though only partially — I got the SHAW but was still playing around with BRASS(IC) for poor when I biffed it.

    I don’t feel too bad when most of my misses are my unknowns. Maybe as I get better at filling in the answers I know I’ll have more time left over to fiddle with those…

  3. Thanks to Mr Portillo whose railway journeys mean that everyone should know be aware of Bradshaws.

    I enjoyed this very much for the seven minutes it lasted.

    1. I think I’d have held it to 7 minutes if I hadn’t spent a little while looking at DEMIREP at wondering if it could really be a word, before (does this make me a vicious villain?) Googling it just to make sure. Great Micawber puzzle in the Telegraph today, eh?
      1. Micawber’s Toughies are always great so I never mind them being on the ‘comfy’ side of Tough.

        The Demirep is one of those words that lurks away in the back of my cryptic grey matter and sometimes as today emerges to allow me to complete a crossword.

        1. My brain is far too high-minded to have room for either loose women or cricketing terminology in it…
    2. The somewhat questionable implication of your comment is that everyone ‘should’ voluntarily endure Michael Portillo.
      1. It is the result of ‘typing while pretending to work’ for ‘know’ read ‘now’
      2. This was my feeling, too. However, given the current state of politics I’m finding myself having increasingly fond memories of eighties and nineties Tories, despite not liking them much at the time. Perhaps I should actually try a sample of what Portillo’s up to these days…
        1. Fair point. Good old Peter Lilley, eh?

          Edited at 2016-07-06 09:33 am (UTC)

        2. A friend of mine works as a producer on Portillo’s Railway Journeys programme and loves the guy — says he’s the exact opposite of the sh** we all remember from the 90s. And she’s not usually complimentary about the ‘talent.’
          1. If, as suggested below, he voted for Brexit and would like Gove as the next PM, he sounds to me as much of a sh** as ever. Anyway I still can’t bear the thought of watching him.
            1. No idea who Michael Portillo was. Watched one of his shows in Australia, and din’t like the man. Or his dress sense. So chose never to watch again. Wasn’t Holmes always enjoining Watson to consult the Bradshaw? Or do I know it from crosswords?
              Untimed but seemed an average 20-25 mins. Demirep from the wordplay, Atalanta from Bergamo (their football team), trout, Ka, Bow as E3, skipjack tuna all unknown but easily gettable. Liked the succinct Popular Front.
              Rob
  4. Could have been more like 11′, but I had to ring all kinds of changes on the alphabet to get 13ac, and to hope for the best as I could make no sense of the clue. KA seems dangerously close to Mephisto territory, what? DEMIREP, too, was a bit of a surprise, although at least I knew the word, from Victorian fiction I imagine. DNK TROUT, and I realized only now that I’d biffed 12d without thinking; just as well.
  5. Stroll in the park this one with no hold ups or queries

    Liked ANKARA with its Egyptian roots. Nearly biffed Biko at 7D before spotting hidden word but entered BRADSHAW straight from definition

    Pob lwc Cymru

  6. 20 mins with only DEMIREP holding me up. DNK that word.
    I briefly had GUARD DOG which luckily didn’t hinder CABBAGE.
  7. Demirep or Depilep? Depilrep or Demirep? Let’s plump for Demirep! Phew..

    Other than that (LOI of course), a nice steady solve.

  8. Seems I found this harder than others from some of the comments, finishing in 30:54. I was worried I was never going to get the ATALANTA/ANKARA crossers with all the mythology going on, so was pleased when I got those. DEMIREP also went in on a wing and a prayer; as Janie said could just as well have been DEPILEP for all I knew!
  9. Venus provided more than enough jotting space today but could do with a Selena on Friday if its up to normal standard .
  10. Confession #1: Michael Portillo = guilty pleasure

    Confession #2: Unlike Jimbo, I didn’t nearly biff BIKO. Reader, I biffed him.

  11. Under 15 minutes today with ANKARA biffed and DEMIREP found by accident when trying to reverse perimeter. I was on the right wavelength, unlike one of our toilet cistens which is picking up a vibration and acting as a trumpet stuck just below Middle C frequency. I’ve tied the ball cock up and it’s stopped. COD ODDS. LOI ANTIGONE.
  12. 30 minutes on the nail with ANKARA biffed. I knew RA but didn’t spot it, didn’t know KA. Dredged up ATALANTA from somewhere.DK DEMIREP having lived such a sheltered life of course!

    Edited at 2016-07-06 08:30 am (UTC)

  13. Rather like Monday, an enjoyable solve apart from the hiccup of a word which really seemed to belong in a different puzzle altogether i.e. DEMIREP. Still, I successfully deduced its existence, so what are you complaining about, the editor might well say?

    Having done a fair bit of European rail travel, I enjoy Portillo’s programmes; you can now download a facsmimile of the original Bradshaw to your Kindle – not necessarily a good way to plan a tight connection at Brussels on today’s network, but fascinating to see what has changed and what hasn’t. (Also, the fact that I find Mr P. far more simpatico than thirty years ago suggests that either he or I has changed our outlook on life as we’ve aged).

    Bradshaw also appears frequently in that other staple, the Sherlock Holmes canon, where Holmes can get a train to or from anywhere in the Home Counties at the drop of a hat. Not recommended reading if you travel by Southern Trains at the moment.

    1. I think years of chatting away to Diane Abbott on Sunday morning TV have mellowed Portaloo – he’s no longer even a member of the Tory Party. Lucky man carries a Spanish passport, so can still choose to be a citizen of Europe.
      1. I was rather hoping TftT might be a Brexit free zone, but since you’ve raised the issue I imagine Mr P is quite content to carry on living in England having been born and raised here and as a supporter of the side that won the vote. The last I heard he was hoping for Mr Gove as the next PM.
    2. I’ll admit that I also find him far more simpatico than thirty years ago but I was starting from a very low base.
  14. I may have not remembered the title all correctly, but this book by Dennis Wheatley scared me as a child. ANKARA and TITO LOIs, Josip being a hero for holding the Balkans together until he died, when it collapsed again. SACRE can surely translate as ‘blasted’ in oaths, we use ‘holy’ in a similar way. 19’10” today, thanks setter and blogger.
  15. 20 minutes but tried the combinations of AN, RA and LA without knowing KA. It was either RIM or LIP back in DEEP – couldn’t decide. Enjoyed 16a and “in van” is a pretty concise clue for a 12 letter answer?
  16. 14m. Quite a few rather daft obscurities in here, but I have picked them all up over the years of doing these things so none of them held me up, and there was usually another way in. Even the ambiguous DEMIREP seems somehow not to have tripped up those who haven’t heard of it.
    1ac is very odd. In fact it would be a bit odd even if SACRE meant ‘blasted’, which it doesn’t.
    I did enjoy this a lot though, so thanks setter.

    Edited at 2016-07-06 09:12 am (UTC)

  18. Took about an hour. A mix of the reasonably straightforward and harder ones with some new words for me (and others I was reassured to see) including DEMIREP and the KA bit of ANKARA. I only knew 15d from the Michael Portillo series and was interested to read that it was re-published in the UK and became a ‘best-seller’ several years ago. As well as being a swift Greek goddess (also new to me), ATALANTA was itself the venue of the 1996 Olympics, at least according to my memory of Juan Antonio Samaranch’s pronunciation on the night the successful bid was announced back in (I think) 1991. I enjoyed the def. for ADHESIVE which was my last in.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  19. Enjoyed this 15 minute romp: one of those which is sort of easy really but gives the impression of being tricky, and so making you feel modestly proud of finishing it.
    Ms Moore’s agent is somewhere deep but accessible in the memory core, and I got the word before working out the wordplay.
  20. And one wrong, but I’m sure you’ll accept OXBRIFGE as an obvious typo.

    Was wondering what happened to the POPULAR FRONT.

    Thanks setter and Pip.

    1. For what it’s worth when I do that sort of thing (and it’s reasonably frequent when I’m trying to poke the answers in on my iPad standing up on the train) I award myself a win and don’t even mention it.
  21. Done in one sitting but had to check DEMIREP as that is where the wordplay sent me but have never heard of it, neither has my spellchecker as it’s got a wiggly red line under it. Vaguely remembered COLE, and KA.
  22. Had to give up after spending an age starting at the empty spaces where ADHESIVE and TITO belonged. No excuses, just me being rubbish.

    I didn’t know that DAI was a diminutive.

  23. DNK ATALANTA, so chucked in AMAZONIA, because it’s something to do with a runner=river, but also completes the pangram.
  24. 45 mins, but with AMAZONIA, which I suspected was wrong. Liked this puzzle, which made me laugh a few times.
  25. 21d had me yelling ‘Sergei!’ at the screen!
    Yesterday there was some discussion about a definition for ‘momble’ but what about one for DEMIREP: a solution that has to be correct but which you’ve never heard of?
    And why should POPULAR FRONT (of Judaea!) necessarily be ‘anti-fascist’?
    1. therefore, anti right wing Martin

      popular front
      noun
      a party or coalition representing left-wing elements, in particular ( the Popular Front ) an alliance of communist, radical, and socialist elements formed and gaining some power in countries such as France and Spain in the 1930s.

      1. A sad reflection on my misspent youth: it was not 1930s history that sprang to my mind, but Woflie Smith’s Tooting Popular Front!

        Edited at 2016-07-06 05:26 pm (UTC)

  26. About 25 minutes, didn’t know KA but it had to be, and while I couldn’t have said precisely what DEMIREP means, I was more convinced than not that it actually exists. So in it went. An odd word, that. Not much else to say today, so regards.
  27. I too put in AMAZONIA but at the ,last realised it was wrong and opted for ATALANTA – I too took 45 minutes.

    My other hold-up was a careless 21dn ALEXIS which made 26ac impossible. I realised it was ALEXEI.

    16ac CABBAGE was tricky.

    COD 16dn BRADSHAW WOD 19dn DEMIREP which was new to me (of course!).

    horryd Shanghai

  28. 14 mins for a 100% alert solve. TITO was my LOI and I thought it was a very well hidden “hidden”. DEMIREP rang a distant bell once I’d deciphered the wordplay so I didn’t consider any of the alternatives. I’ve never forgotten the sad sight of a clearly deteriorating Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic Flame at the Atlanta games so 2dn went in almost as soon as I read the clue.
  29. Just over an hour, with AGGRIEVE and the exceptionally well hidden TITO, and of course DEMIREP and ATALANTA the LOI. I saw the DEPILEP possibility, but it had to be DEMIsomething (a representative of the DEMIMONDE?), so it wasn’t hard to choose. And I also biffed AMAZONIA at first, but when I couldn’t parse the word play I looked for, and luckily found, the alternative. Nice puzzle, whets the mind.
  30. 29 mins but with many interruptions. Knew KA from the somewhat scary The Ka of Gifford Hillary (Dennis Wheatley) but also knew BLIND DOG until 16ac became impossible. Well up to speed on Greek myths, even if they are true and 23ac yet another example of having a U crosser and trying out a Q in front of it. Thank you setter and pip.
  31. 9:02 for me, enjoying this one much more than yesterday’s.

    A delight from start to finish. My compliments to the setter (I even knew SKIPJACK TUNA from reading Giles Coren’s foodie pieces :-).

    1. I also knew SKIPJACK TUNA, but courtesy of the labels on the tins. What with that and RAINBOW TROUT I am now feeling very peckish.

      I was extremely doubtful about DEMIREP, a word which is far too ugly for any amount of etymologising to justify. I was almost as unsure about ATALANTA, but fortunately didn’t think of AMAZONIA.

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