Times 26632 – careful what you wish for

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 22:25. Yesterday I wrote that my slick time would mean that today would be the stinker of all stinkers. And at least to me, it was – there are some better times than mine in the club timer, so it’s possible I was just nowhere near the setters’ wavelength.

And what kept me from that wavelength? Mostly the top left hand corner where three of the answers rely on phrases that are not part of my vernacular making neither the definition nor the wordplay leap out. The top right accounted for at least 10 minutes of head scratching and writing out plausible strings of letters before it all dropped. I spent some time looking for a Z to complete the pangram, but no dice.

Australia Day y’all!

Away we go…

Across
1 TRIPOS: TRIP(jolly, as in to get one’s jollies, I think), then OS(sailor) for a Cambridge exam that has appeared here before
5 CIVIL LAW: VILLA(country residence) in CI(Guernsey being a Channel Island), W(with)
9 PAWNSHOP: PAWNS(tools), HOP(skip)
11 SHINBONE: I wrote this in, erased it, wrote it back in again… apparently “barking one’s SHIN” is a thing? Follow it with vitamin B, and ONE. Would one give a dog a tibia?
12 LIQUOR: sounds like LICKER
13 SLAP BANG: I guess one could SLAP on make up and the report is a BANG
15 SPAS: remove the end from SPASM
17 LOCO: rather fun double definition – potty, and training would require a locomotive at the front
19 REPTILIA: hidden reversed in emAIL IT PERhaps – I was taken by the definition of “cold blooded order”
20 AMANDA: MA(graduate) reversed, then AN, DA(american attorney)
21 OLIVE OIL: O(love), LIVE(as it happens), OIL(painting)
22 EXITED: EXCITED(up) missing the first letter of Centre
23 INIQUITY: remove (presiden)T from TINY with I QUIT inside
24 KING KONG: GONG(one banged on) around K after KIN
25 DUKING: anagram of KID and GUN
 
Down
2 ROAD HUMP: this was my last in mostly from checking letters and I had to look up the parts. We have ROD as the small boy, HUMP(the sulks, according to Chambers) surrounding A – definition is “a calming influence” referring to slowing down cars
3 PUNINESS: PUSS(pet) surrounding NINE(the square of three)
4 SCHOOL AGE: O, LAG inside an anagram of CHOSE
5 COPPER BOTTOMING: COPPER(busy) then BOOMING(doing well) containing TT
6 IN THING: HINTING with the H lowered
7 LOOK UP TO: LOOK(apppear), UP TO(capable of)
8 WATERLOO: double definition
14 NULLIFIED: U(film certificate) inside an anagram of FILLED,IN
15 SODA JERK: first letters of S(erving), O(ur), D(rinks), then A, JERK(yank)
16 AQUARIAN: ANTIQUARIAN(collector of relics) missing NT(books), I
17 LAME DUCK: LAME(lustrous material), DUCK(avoid)
18 CHRISTEN: anagram of CERN,THIS
19 REDNECK: NECK(kiss) after RED(wine)

67 comments on “Times 26632 – careful what you wish for”

  1. Over the hour with a blank at TRIPOS, and wrong ‘uns covil law, and slam bang. Glad to see I was not alone…

  2. I was stuck on 10 across and was looking forward to seeing the solution. What was it?
    1. In an earlier comment, Uncle Yap added the parsing. To reiterate, it’s an anagram (wasted) of “sum to (inves)t”. Definition of maximum being UTMOST.
  3. I buy The Times primarily for the crossword which I nearly always enjoy and, with some head-scratching, usually complete.

    However, occasionally I encounter an impenetrable puzzle which seems to have been set for the setter to indulge in how clever and obscure they want to make themselves appear. I’m afraid this was one of them – if I want to attempt The Listener I’ll do it on a Saturday, not mid-week.

    Not a suitable daily cryptic in my opinion. Sorry!

    1. The Times has always provided a wide range of puzzles, from easy ones, suitable for beginners, to more difficult ones that will give experienced solvers something to chew on. Today’s setter simply provided one of the latter. Nothing to do with self-indulgence.

      If you’re a beginner, then take heart: you’ll find the difficult puzzles become easier with practice. If not, then chin up: tomorrow’s will probably be simpler.

  4. Just over an hour, which seems to be not too bad, and everything correct for a change, including TRIPOS which I vaguely remembered having seen somewhere years ago, and my LOI ROAD HUMP, which took me ages to parse (but there seemed no other way to take care of the s in “sulks” when there was already a P at the end from the crossing word). Actually, I stopped to watch TV after 58 minutes with TRIPOS just entered, and then finished the last clue within a minute or two when I returned. My COD would be OLIVE OIL (for “as it happens” giving LIVE), but I also liked SODA JERK and the Yank in it. Like many others I toyed with COVIL LAW for a while, but that made no sense and then I did see that CI at the beginning would fit Guernsey too.

    By the way, Sotira, where did you get that wonderful picture? (Is that in front of Trump Elementary? He can’t have more schooling, sorry, shcooling than that.)

    Edited at 2017-01-26 10:29 pm (UTC)

  5. It took ages for me to get started. INIQUITY was my FOI after 10 minutes staring at the clues. I finally began to enjoy it and finished in 55 minutes with SODA JERK. Now I can’t see why I had so many problems… Ann
  6. 20:00 after an even slower start than usual and a lot of head-scratching along the way. Like others, I pondered over why the wordplay pointed to COVIL LAW when the answer clearly had to be CIVIL LAW? (Didn’t it?).

    I’m pretty sure I’ve come across SODA JERK quite recently (in the last couple of years, anyway), but I’m blest if I can remember where.

    An interesting puzzle, which I’d have enjoyed more if I’d been a little less tired.

  8. and training would require a locomotive at the front.

    I can understand a train might need a loco at the front. But I don’t understand why training would?

  10. One of those (to me) satisfying puzzles that yielded absolutely nothing in a quick first run through, but which all fell into place correctly in the end.
    It probably helped that though a Brit I have visited 49 US states! – loco is American slang too, isn’t it? I would say tripos is only Cambridge University – to apply to Oxford is a solecism. Its equivalent may be ‘School’; and one takes the exams in ‘Schools’.
    Johnhmproctor
  12. I started out knowing that this would be a slow one, then realized that it would probably require a calendar rather than the club timer. My eventual time can probably only be determined by radiocarbon dating. Hence my late arrival here. To be fair, I did take a little time out to sleep, eat, go to work and do a few other essentials.

    As an English solver, I can’t really plead that the peculiarities of SHINBONE, TRIPOS or ROAD HUMP held me up and, in retrospect, I can’t put my finger on why I found this one so hard. I even tried solving half of it sober and the other half very much otherwise, but that made no difference. The north-left corner was last to fall, with ROAD HUMP my LOI.

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