Times 26,903: Fighting Words

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found this not the hardest of Friday puzzles – done on the move so I don’t have an exact time, but in the region of 7, 8 minutes? – but a very likeable one, with lots of innovative wordplay and satisfying surfaces. Cryptically I really liked “notes” for TIME in 2dn, and the clever Bible allusion in 7dn, but my COD is 13dn which is a simple anagram but just a great surface casting our minds back to Andrew Mitchell’s Plebgate incident. Was it really 5 years ago now? Cripes!

First one in was the slightly chestnutty-flavoured 1ac, LOI the well concealed double def at 16dn after 17ac’s Q arrived and made it pretty clear what word needed to precede the obvious “UP”. I’m finding myself without that much else to say about what was just a very entertaining and well put together crossword: thanks setter! Perhaps we *will* have to argue about whether MR BEAN is indeed a sufficiently eminent personage to grace a Times crossword, just to make up the wordcount, after all…

ACROSS
1 Done in the style of curious old warning (6)
ALARUM – A LA [done in the style of] + RUM [curious]
5 Groom guarding enclosure for money (8)
CURRENCY – CURRY [groom] “guarding” ENC [enclosure]
9 Range in which writer figures (8)
PENNINES – PEN NINES [writer | figures]
10 Red blubber that woman slices (6)
CHERRY – CRY [blubber] that HER [woman] “slices”
11 Girl’s forte getting savings account for daughter (6)
LOUISA – LOU{d->ISA}. Forte is “loud” in music; replace its D for daughter with an ISA (Individual Savings Account).
12 Home appropriate for the richer (2,6)
IN POCKET – IN POCKET [home | appropriate]
14 Insects and rat on grain containers (12)
GRASSHOPPERS – GRASS [rat] on HOPPERS [grain containers]
17 Not entirely fit trade, making flannel (12)
EQUIVOCATION – EQUI{p} VOCATION [“not entirely” fit | trade]
20 Pretend that degree is fake, bizarrely (4,2,2)
MAKE AS IF – MA [degree] + (IS FAKE*) [“bizarrely”]
22 Brother returning in poor TV show (2,4)
MR BEAN – BR reversed [brother “returning”] in MEAN [poor]. Is Mr Bean dead, and if he isn’t can he really be in a Times puzzle? What are the rules for fictional people?
23 With this one’s closer to nude model? (6)
LESSON – if one has LESS ON, one is closer to being nude.
25 Reptile and amphibian getting left in cargo (8)
BOATLOAD – BOA [reptile] + TOAD [amphibian] getting L [left] in
26 One needing guard, perhaps, to start shooting (4,4)
OPEN FIRE – double def. An open fire would need a fire-guard.
27 Band vote for parade (6)
SASHAY – SASH AY [band | vote for]

DOWN
2 Take cover from inflatable mattress picked up? (3,3)
LIE LOW – homophone of LILO [inflatable mattress “picked up”]
3 Management notes how long spent watching movie? (7,4)
RUNNING TIME – RUNNING [management] + TI ME [(two) notes]
4 A twin moans dreadfully in close contest (4,1,4)
MANO A MANO – (A MOAN MOAN*) [“dreadfully”]. You have to convert “twin moans” into the appropriate anagram fodder first.
5 Clay, perhaps, brought by small spades into college (7)
CASSIUS – S S [small | spades] “into” CAIUS [college]. Cassius Clay aka Mohammed Ali.
6 Going back through park? Pop over (5)
RECAP – REC [park] + PA reversed [pop “over”]
7 One arriving on day six, or the day before (3)
EVE – double def. Biblical Eve was created on God’s busy sixth day, before he rested on the seventh.
8 Stays, generally, well prepared, on track (8)
CORSETRY – COR SET [well! | prepared] on RY [track]
13 Only a fool would assume this “pleb” scandal resolved (3,3,5)
CAP AND BELLS – (PLEB SCANDAL*) [“resolved”]
15 Our MP was one for arranging campaigns on drug issue (5,4)
OPIUM WARS – (OUR MP WAS I*) [“for arranging”]
16 Prepare to scrap pay (6,2)
SQUARE UP – double def.
18 Upset body organising football legend’s friendly (7)
AFFABLE – FA reversed [“upset” body organising football] + FABLE [legend]
19 Desert padre as hearse turns up, dropping off regulars (6)
SAHARA – alternate letters of {p}A{d}R{e} A{s} H{e}A{r}S{e}, reversed
21 Where commandments received, breaking one leads to fine (5)
SINAI – SIN [breaking one (of the aforementioned commandments)] leads to A1 [fine]
24 We go round it daily (3)
SUN – double def.

46 comments on “Times 26,903: Fighting Words”

  1. 45 mins with porridge and banana – and the last 15 spent on the long 17ac and the dd at 16dn. Like V, cracking the Equi gave the Q for Square.

    I minor eyebrow raise (MER) at model=lesson. I’m sure you will tell me which dictionaries maintain this to be true.

    Mostly I liked: Pennines, Boatload (COD), Opium Wars, Sinai and Mr Bean – although I was slightly disappointed it wasn’t Mr Benn.

    Thanks setter and V.

  2. 9:40, but with a stupid error in CAP AND BALLS. Considering I constructed my answer carefully from the anagram fodder, having identified that it was probably something I didn’t know, this is quite an achievement.

    Edited at 2017-12-08 08:19 am (UTC)

  3. 10ac, of all things, was my LOI, despite my having come up early on with ‘cerise’, for some reason. LOUISA took a long time, as all I could see with the checkers was Monica, and I was looking for __IRA instead of __ISA. Put in EVE because it had to be; very embarrassing to come here to find out what ‘day six’ meant. Reverse-engineered MR BEAN, then had trouble parsing it as I assumed the definition was ‘poor TV show’.
  4. 24dn is a double definition “we go round it” (annually) / “daily” (newspaper).

    Edited at 2017-12-08 08:41 am (UTC)

      2. Ludicrous! With all those elephants weighing it down the poor old tortoise probably takes more like a week.
    2. A very enjoyable solve but unfortunately and incomplete one for me as I needed aids for the unknown 4dn. There seems to be a spate of indirect anagrams at the moment where some of the anagrist is not actually present in the clue.

      I’ve never come across CAP AND BELLS as an expression although the image of a jester so dressed is familar enough. Why “only” though?

      1. I do find it hard to imagine anyone would don a jester’s cap without the explicit intention to look like a fool…
    3. Oops, yes. I guess I could pretend to defend the position that we are going round the sun every day, though it doesn’t take us a single day to get round it…
  5. 21:48 … for a puzzle that seemed to get harder as it went along. Great fun, though. Myrtilus is surely right to question the lesson/model equivalence, and surely wrong. I’ll forgive anything for a good surface.

    Big hold-up over the last two — SQUARE UP and EQUIVOCATION, these only falling once I reconsidered the meaning of ‘scrap’ in the clue for 16 and got the Q.

    I thought I hated Mr Bean until the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, when I did find myself laughing like a drain, mostly perhaps at the look on Simon Rattle’s face towards the end – https://youtu.be/CwzjlmBLfrQ

  6. 21.48, so not the easiest solve. I did wonder whether 23 might be REASON, though why you’d need one to be closer to a nude I’m only partially certain. And 11 did look an awful lot like MONICA, though goodness knows what antique savings account might be indicated.
    Is it time to admit I did, rather carelessly, think we went round the Sun daily, and therefore thought 24 a rather poor clue worthy only of a crossword in the Sun? I’d like to think I’m not that dim really.
  7. I thought this was the easiest of the week, done in 18 minutes with the Q words last in. Lots of quick write ins like 14a and 5d. Nice puzzle though.
  8. COD LOUISA, great clue. Slightly uneasy about MR BEAN, are we to have ‘TV shows’ after plants and obscure Shakespeare characters? The possibilities are nearly endless….
  9. As usual, I approached this thinking it would be hard and so took a while to get going. But answers followed quite quickly. I took time on 5a thinking enclosure must ge Pen, thus looking for twopence/sixpence etc. Chuckled at 2d. But sadly a DNF in about 50 mins as I could not parse 23a. I still can’t see Lesson=Model. Several planetary themes this week, but I agree with above that the universe does circle us and I increasingly believe the Earth is flat (ish). But a lovely puzzle, so thanks setter and blogger.
  10. …of which probably a third was spent staring blankly at the gaps which eventually turned out to contain EQUIVOCATION, SQUARE and LESSON; happy to discover that area was the last to yield to others, and I wasn’t being uniquely dim in not sorting it out more efficiently. Elsewhere, the Plebgate reference was excellent.

    A quick search reveals that Victor Meldrew was once the answer to a clue, so it appears that sitcom characters are fair game (though I suppose he died, fictionally, so…no, I’m taking this too far)

  11. 40-odd minutes, with time spent considering manu a manu and flirting with kegson for the nearly nude model…

    Actually, I don’t see the model sense of lesson, if anyone can elucidate.

    Edited at 2017-12-08 10:52 am (UTC)

    1. Maybe it’s a painting lesson, and it’s the nude model who’s close to having less on? Mind you, if she (or he) is nude then they wouldn’t have anything on anyway…
    2. Model/lesson doesn’t really do it for me either, but a post-solve check found it the electronic Chambers Thesaurus:
      Lesson: noun
      3 example, model, warning, deterrent, moral
      as in: let that be a lesson for you.
      Still doesn’t work for me. So be it, it went in with a shrug as “Really? Ok.” Otherwise straightforward but enjoyable, about 18 minutes.
        1. Thanks for that. Chambers is a bit of a law to itself – the Three Men in a Boat of dictionaries. You feel something amiss if a word is NOT given as a synonym for any other.
  12. …Cassius Clay here I come. I struggled with this one in the NE despite the write-in. Groom to curry just wasn’t obvious and nothing else fell into place until I biffed CURRENCY. After that the CORSETRY tightened things up. In the NW, I still took time to summon up MANO A MANO, despite having all the checkers. The whole thing took 49 minutes. Despite Sotira’s change of heart, I still can’t stand Mr Bean. I suppose playing him and Blackadder does demonstrate versatility. Thank you V and setter.
  13. Speaking of Britcoms, Men Behaving Badly came to mind as a result of all the recent news so it was really no wonder that Monica popped up and wouldn’t go away. An ISA is an IRA in these parts and there was Sotira. As for the CAP AND BELLS – well of course, Kevin’s avatar. Very enjoyable one, once things got sorted out. 17.16
  14. Held up at the end by Louisa (I wish she wouldn’t do that). Some very tricky ones today.
  15. Chose Monica over Lolita and failed to see Louisa at all, so dnf in 26′. An interesting bunch of clues with some offbeat directions yet all kosher. “So-and-so is a lesson to us all” I would’ve thought validates 23.
  17. A slow-but-never-really-stalled 21 minutes

    Was OK with LESSON (just), although 20a seemed a bit forced and clumsy at the time – on a second look I’ve no idea why.

    Also in the “no idea why” seat today is the time taken for the NE corner. By far the last bit to be finished and, well, yes, no idea why.

    Thoroughly enjoyed though, tricky without being unfair……

  18. What was all this about!?

    4dn MANO A MANO!!!!? What was wrong with ‘man on man!?’ Must be Mexican! Build that Wall!!

    11ac LOUISA what is an Individual Savings Account!!!!? What was wrong with Isaiah!!?

    Mood Meldrew.

    Edited at 2017-12-08 03:43 pm (UTC)

  19. It took me an age to get near the wavelength for this one, and then I still struggled on for just over the hour(1:0:42) before getting my last two, 16d and 17a. Glad to see it wasn’t just me. The annoying thing is that I knew I was looking for a DD of pay and getting ready for a fight and I still couldn’t see SQUARE, despite having UP. RECAP was my FOI but I took it out again as I couldn’t see the parsing, eventually starting with ____ AS IF and SINAI. I had to wait for CHERRY before RECAP came back and the penny dropped. I managed to then spot the Genesis reference. All in all a satisfying puzzle as the light bulbs came on. Liked LOUISA, shrugged at LESSON. Very devious cluing I thought. Thanks setter and V.
      1. Well, it goes with Prepare(for the stage) and Pay a bribe, if not prepare for a scrap, unless you want your opponents gloves to slide off you:-)
  20. About an hour today, but I was determined to finish for once and eventually did. Last two, like others, were SQUARE UP and EQUIVOCATION – I just couldn’t get the square bit to come to mind. I too thought SUN was a weak clue, because I misattributed the ‘daily’ reference out of sheer ignorance. I completed the RH side quickly enough but struggled to unlock the LH. There was some quite inventive clueing in there, which I enjoyed so thank you setter and as ever an enjoyable blog,V.
  21. It’s the ‘excellent example’ meaning, is it not: I’m still struggling to equate that in an absolutely precise way to ‘lesson’.

  22. All bar EQUIVOCATION in 30mins, despite having the Q. Reasoned LESSON from ‘Let this be a lesson to you…’, much as JoeK. Also held up by thinking Tuppence or somesort (pen being the ENC), as Norfolkng.

    COD: EVE. Or maybe SUN.

  23. Twenty-six minutes to come out the far end of this one. All seemed very enjoyable, with the possible exception of SUN. Like others, I at first assumed it was a misunderstanding on the part of the setter, before grasping that it was the daily newspaper that was meant.
  25. Never heard of “Plebgate,” and it does add piquancy to the clue.
    Also could not see what LIE LOW had to do with an inflatable mattress. Looking up LILO, I find that it is surmised that the company name may have come from… “lie low.”
    Never heard of the college CAIUS, but what else could it be but the “slave name” (his words) of Muhammad Ali?
    “In pocket” was new to me, in this usage.
    It also took a minute for the relevant sense of “flannel” to swim to the surface of consciousness.
  26. 51 minutes, dotting about hither and thither rather than flowing, but never totally stuck (had to wait for today’s Guardian for that frustrating experience!)

    FOI 24d SUN as I tried to knock off some easy ones after I couldn’t get started in the NW, LOI 12a IN POCKET, if I recall correctly. Felt lucky to get the unknown CAP AND BELLS quite as quickly as I did. I also set up a regular contribution to my ISA just last week, which helped with 11a.

    (Oh, and toast with lemon and lime marmalade. Thanks for asking.)

  27. I did a bit over half of this in 27 mins on the way to work, a bit more in 13 mins at lunchtime and finished off the last few stragglers 11, 23 & 25ac and 8dn in 10 mins on the way home. FOI 12ac. LOI 25ac where I thought for far too long that I was looking for a reptile not a cargo. COD sort of 15dn because it’s a good surface and Def and anagram with the caveat that I’m not keen on the inclusion of “one” in the anagram fodder when actually “one” is not part of the fodder, it represents “I”, which is (I note Jakkt’s comment above about indirect anagrams). A satisfying Friday work out.
  28. Never got Mr Bean – assumed the definition was Brother, so the answer had to be My (something)! Had the same DNK problems as other non-Brits (Lilo?), and agree with Sotira that Lesson passes without discussion due to the amusing surface.
  29. And there I was thinking The Times had moved nicely forward and given up on that silly ‘rule’ they have that A on B must be BA, not AB. As V has parsed it that’s what seems to be the case, but actually I think they haven’t done so and that it should be ‘rat on’ = ‘grass’.
    1. I did briefly wonder whether “rat on” was the full definition for GRASS here, but are they transitive in the same way? I didn’t feel sure enough.

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