Times 26,765: &Lit Up Like A Christmas Tree

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I did this one at a precariously late hour, having come back home on the very last possible train after a team bonding night out for the IT department, which turned out just to mean competitive booze intake, so classic verlaine stuff here; however I was just about compos mentis enough to see the nuances of this subtle Friday puzzle and took the time at the end to understand exactly why 5dn needed a MY in the middle (having biffed in ME initially) and whether 20dn could be anything other than my first impulse, which was CECILY. All that pushed my time up to the 14 minute mark, which doesn’t look too bad on the leaderboard this morning, though it’ll surely be lost from view by lunchtime.

&lits hold a special place in every clue aficionado’s heart and this puzzle is fair overflowing with them, we were clearly in the hands of a highly accomplished setter and I doff my topper to the individual responsible. My COD was the veeeeeeery topical 3dn, but 15dn is rather good too, and a special mention also to the above averagely clever 7dn. A really good puzzle then and worthy of its place at the end of the week. Kudos!

Across
1 Like an eager consumer‘s fashion sense? (8)
RAVENOUS – RAVE NOUS [fashion | sense]
6 Evil King Edward blocked by good Harry (6)
BADGER – BAD ER [evil | King Edward] “blocked” by G [good]
9 Our place next to the middle of Shakespeare’s Globe (6)
SPHERE – HERE [our place] next to {Shake}SP{eare’s}
10 Familiarity with one formation for Man. City (8)
INTIMACY – I [one] + (MAN CITY*) [“formation for…”]
11 Pick up extremely huge feet (4)
HEFT – H{ug}E + FT [feet]
12 Gripping but deplorable, banning book and introductory note (10)
PREHENSILE – {re}PREHENSI{b}LE
14 Hard way to admit transgression after rebuffing indulgence (8)
HEDONISM – H [hard] + MODE [way] “to admit” SIN [transgression] reversed [“after rebuffing”]
16 Breaking strike, ring to use non-standard phone service (4)
ROAM – breaking RAM [strike], O [ring]
18 You’ve every right to steer clear of fattened pig in this! (4)
POKE – PO{r}KE{r} [fattened pig (every right steering clear)], semi-&lit. A “pig in a poke” could turn out to be a poor purchase…
19 Loom yarn cut meshed fabric backing (8)
THREATEN – THREA{d} [yarn “cut”] + reverse of NET [fabric “backing”]
21 Capable worker who’s going places? (10)
JOURNEYMAN – literally a capable worker, but suggestive of one going on a journey, i.e. places
22 Out of time, unable to escape creation of partial vacuum (4)
SUCK – S{t}UCK [unable to escape “out of time”]
24 A Brit demolished in cast’s denunciation (8)
DIATRIBE – (A BRIT*) [“demolished”] in DIE [cast]
26 Design interior to go in (6)
TRENDY – END [design] (is the) interior to TRY [go]
27 Objections overturned through being blunt (6)
STUBBY – reverse of BUTS [objections “overturned”] + BY [through]
28 Ascent’s ending in panorama before each climber (5,3)
SWEET PEA – {ascen}T in SWEEP [panorama] before EA [each]
Down
2 Fruit drink containing pip’s husk (5)
APPLE – ALE [drink] containing P{i}P
3 Lie etc, to change single ruling party? (11)
ELECTIONEER – (LIE ETC*) [“to change”] + ONE [single] + E.R. [ruling party], &lit
4 Provide auditor’s initial forms with unearned income (8)
OVERPAID – (PROVIDE A{uditor}*) [“forms”]
5 Expression of surprise on board, beset by palpitations? (6,2,7)
SHIVER MY TIMBERS – MY [expression of surprise] on TIMBER [board], “beset by” SHIVERS [palpitations], &lit
6 Bishop unqualified to give flattery (6)
BUTTER – B UTTER [bishop | unqualified]
7 With poor visibility, just over half a kilometre? (3)
DIM – DI = 501 in Roman numerals, M = metres, 501 metres = 1m over half a kilometre.
8 Embracing large secretary is mate no longer pretty clear? (9)
EXCULPATE – “embracing” L PA [large | secretary] is EX CUTE [mate no longer | pretty]
13 Did something to straighten bed, perhaps, and tables? (11)
SPREADSHEET – if you SPREAD SHEET, you did something to straighten bed.
15 I could be worried to see lost ice go (9)
ECOLOGIST – which anagrams to [“could be worried to see”] LOST ICE GO. &lit.
17 Around theatre season, Baby Jane actor is no blonde (8)
BRUNETTE – around RUN [theatre season], BETTE [Baby Jane actor (Davis)]
20 Girl about town, big one, heads off (6)
VERITY – {o}VER {c}ITY [about | town, big one (both with “heads off”)]
23 Worry about Democratic campaign group? (5)
CADRE – CARE [worry] about D [Democratic]
25 Flap about a bit — that’s more than enough (3)
TAB – {abou}T A B{it}, with the superfluities trimmed

37 comments on “Times 26,765: &Lit Up Like A Christmas Tree”

  1. Shiver my timbers seemed too posh by half but apparently it came first. Just as well i couldn’t decode 18d despite it being quite obvious and gave up
  2. Although I struggled with this one I did at least enjoy my struggles! Rather than giving up early as with another of this week’s puzzles I pushed my time out to 70 minutes to finish things off. I was very glad that my LOI, VERITY, turned out to be right—as with so many other answers here it seems obvious with hindsight, of course…

    FOI 2d, COD 3d ELECTIONEER, but a great puzzle throughout, I thought. I almost gave up when I hit my hour, but brought myself back from a Miles Davis-accompanied reverie when I suddenly biffed PREHENSILE and got over my sticking point.

  3. 2 errors, one being Cecily–LOI flung in desperately–and the other ‘roap’–I had no idea what the definition was. But I did work out 5d, odd as it sounded. BIFD POKE. Very impressive puzzle.
  4. Around 25 minutes, although the Club site claims it was 36 — serious weirdness when I hit the submit button.

    I was all set to gripe about the ambiguity of me/my timbers until I got round to parsing it. One of many excellent clues.

    Top puzzle, with a lot of satisfaction in untangling it.

  5. An hour (pink grapefruit marmalade again: so posh). Although a technical fail it seems as I didn’t bother deliberating over the Me/My timbers issue. Biggest hold up was the SW Stubby Verity. COD to 3dn which seems to have everything. Thanks setter and V.
    1. You must have a whole jar of said marmalade! Beyond posh!
      However, beware if you are taking statins.
  6. What did I biff? It would be easier to say what I didn’t. Daughter was up at the crack of dawn to get to Fort William for the Three Peaks Challenge (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Snowdon where I’ve suggested she catches the train up) and so I’ve been awake since 6am to wave her off. I thought at 25 she’d have more sense. After an hour’s constitutional walk I then started on this. Over two hours later, I’m here. This &lit business seems to confound me. I had ELECTIONEER quickly but was too shy to put it in. Incredibly, all is correct, even the MY in SHIVER MY TIMBERS, although that was because I hadn’t thought of Sotira’s alternative. Thank you V for the blog. To the setter, I suppose a MUNRO was fitting for today but I’d have preferred a hillock to rhyme with what I continually called myself.
  7. Agreed this was excellent and I persevered for 1 minute over the hour to complete it without resorting to aids.

    I needed to check afterwards that BUTTER not followed by “up” can mean “flatter” (it can!).

    There are too many good ones to pick a clue of the day but POKE was up there with the best once fully understood.

    Rather reluctantly I settled (correctly) for MY at 5dn although I can’t believe that any self-respecting pirate as depicted by Robert Newton (and constantly imitated by Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock) would say anything other than “SHIVER ME TIMBERS!!!!”

    Ahaaaarrh, Jim lad!

    Edited at 2017-06-30 08:06 am (UTC)

    1. Unfortunately, I plumped for “me” – and am still not happy about “my”. I’ve only heard “me”.
      1. It seems outrageous doesn’t it, but unfortunately a bit of research does back up “shiver my timbers”. I guess it’s always rendered “shiver me…” just because it’s never actually spoken except by uncouth pirates doing that West Country accent thing.
  8. 32 mins of struggle and one wrong as I didn’t try and parse 5dn and went with “the obvious” ME instead of MY. POKE went in with fingers crossed and ROAM was my LOI after SPREADSHEET. VERITY took a long time to see.
  9. DNF as I ran out of time but great crossword. Thanks setter and V for filling in the blanks. COD to DIM out of a wide selection.
  10. Great blog V. In the happy days when drinking at lunch was a positive part of team building, my software coding was at its best afterwards. The following morning was usually a complete re-work. Anyway I was amazed to complete this in about an hour. All the stuff as above. Loved 3d as it sums up perfectly what most of our politicians are about – we need fewer, better paid ones. Great gig by Elbow last night by the way.
    Thanks V and setter.
    1. In my day (early-70’s), it was code in the morning (with pencil and coding sheet) plus Times and Grauniad crosswords, and then document in the afternoon (with pen and piece of paper) after 2 or 3 pints for lunch.
  11. “Shiver my timbers”? Well, I didn’t ever. Chose Cecily over Verity for two wrong. A wealth of sharp stuff in the right sense. – joekobi
  12. Good puzzle indeed. Took me an age at the end to get PREHENSILE and see why. Nearly 40 minutes, no trouble with MY timbers not me, or VERITY though. My CoD is DIM.
  13. Around 45 minutes in two sessions finishing up in the NE. A biff-fest which naturally meant that I bunged in ME.
  14. Well I’m another who went for Me rather than My for 5dn. I can justify ‘Me’ is an expression of surprise by way of, whenever we were choosing teams, for any sport or games at school. If my name was picked in the top half of the draw, then there would definitely be a surprised exclamation of ‘ME?’.
  15. This was a belter which took me all of one hour.

    FOI 12ac PRHENSILE

    LOI 20dn VERITY

    WOD 5dn SHIVER MY TIMBERS (winter for philately).

    Tomorrow I will be having home made pink grape-fruit marmalade for breakfast – eggs Bendedict – and the Old Blue Mountain

    PS Jack – a GKQ what was Sidney James middle name?

    1. Breaker sounds corking, old bean. You’ll be having a Fat Rascal next.
      1. I can honestly say I have never knowingly had a ‘Fat Rascal’. Biscuits do tend to be somewhat regional and I notice that Harrogate is somewhat central to the ouevre.

        I am a Yellowbelly and biscuits tended to be fairly ordinaire in my youth. My favourites were chocolate Bourbons eaten ‘sideways’ and Marie which are also v.popular in Venezuela. Dunking, however, was not allowed.

        I was later introduced to the ‘Jammy Dodger’ by Nick Park who was an addict. ‘Hob Nobs’ were damn good when they came out and were much liked by Ian Dury when I introduced them to him.

        Shanghai is devoid of decadent bicuits generally speaking – Japanese Digestives are passable.

        Roll on brekker!

    3. Winter for philately? Very good. I like the idea of “shivering” timbres en hiver.
  16. 16.25. Excellent puzzle. I too love a good &Lit so we were a bit spoiled today.
    I didn’t parse 5dn, so thanks for clearing that up v. I put in MY on the basis that the last time it came up I put in ME and it was wrong, so I assumed MY was just the official Times crossword version, rather like it’s always ONES and not YOUR. So a lucky break.
  17. 21:56 for a proper Friday challenge. I left the second letter of the middle word of 5d blank until I figured out what was going on.

    I struggled with the parsing of SWEET PEA as I got the wrong end of the stick deciding that “ending in panorama” was P (I do that sort of wrong end of the word thing a lot) which meant that sweet had to mean ascent.

    Thanks all round.

  18. About 25 minutes with a lot of biffing, but two of them weren’t right. Of course I had ‘ME’ in 5D because ‘MY’ doesn’t really exist, as far as I know. And CECILY. Oops. I knew I couldn’t parse it, but I wasn’t going to come up with any other girl’s name for those crossing letters. Never met a VERITY. I’ll be on the lookout now. But a very fine puzzle, thank you setter. Regards.
    1. Verity Lambert was the first ever producer of Doctor Who (a show well ahead of its time in many ways!) but I’m hard pressed to think of another Verity…
      1. It was Verity Lambert I thought of, though I did meet a Verity in person not too long ago… They also had a Constance and a Faith, so it was a pretty virtuous place all round.

        Edited at 2017-06-30 04:34 pm (UTC)

        1. I googled the name, and Wiki lists 8 ‘famous’ Verity’s, including the aforementioned Ms. Lambert. I don’t know any of them, but as they’re all either English, Australian or South African, that’s not a surprise. But I’ll continue on the lookout. Thanks and regards.
    3. Verity Sharp is a TV and Radio presenter in the UK, known to me chiefly as a presenter of Radio 3’s Late Junction. Good late night stuff – about as eclectic a mix of non-mainstream music as you will find.
  19. I came to this with aching legs after a damp day golfing. Just over an hour later I submitted to find I had one wrong. Aaarr! That one! A bit of a beast with some clever stuff. Got the correct girl from the (c)ITY bit of the clue wondering why VER(a) was at the wrong end(obviously I was confused). Biffed OVERPAID and POKE. I think I’ll have a glass of something derived from grapes now. Thanks setter and V.
  20. Another Friday toughie and a DNF for me. My error was also putting me not my in 5dn. I struggled with this one, after an hour’s toil I still had six or seven blanks in the grid. I put the puzzle away, came back to it later and the rest fell into place. 12ac took ages to see. Poke was biffed. Trendy was painstakingly parsed at the end. I liked the Bette Davis reference at 17dn. I spent far too long at 13dn trying to identify anagrist and anagrind before seeing what was going on.
  21. After the first six across clues yielded only HEFT (and unable to make head or tail of the other five), I switched to the downs, picked off APPLE, ELECTIONEER, BUTTER and EXCULPATE, returned to the acrosses and suddenly found I was on the setter’s wavelength, solving the five I’d missed without any problem. After that, all but three of the remaining clues fell at a first reading. Very odd.

    I dithered over SHIVER MY TIMBERS at the end (I’m not all that keen on &lits because I’m so bad at spotting them) but eventually managed to justify it and finished in 12:51 – not great, but a lot better than I’d originally feared.

  22. Late doing this,as I so often am, but I thought this was cracking Friday fare. Plenty of penny-drop moments as I disentangled the cleverness. All but done in 25 mins, but got s(t)uck for an age on 13d, not helped by not seeing why my biffed SUCK was right for 22a. 15d was my favourite. Thanks Verlaine for the excellent blog, as ever, and our setter for such a corker.

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