Times 26,927: Physical Exertion

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Happy New Year! I’m hoping the Friday puzzle’s new year’s resolution may have been to be as consistently dastardly as it was in the good old days, before Tuesday and Wednesday started jostling for its crown, as I found this proper Friday difficult; certainly, if the measure of a tricky crossword is that it takes a long time to write up the parsings, I can’t remember the last time things felt this involved, and there are a couple of clues that I’m still not sure I’ve got to the bottom of, as you’ll see below.

So, yes, an arduous 14 minutes for me, the bottom half going in a lot more quickly than the top if I recall correctly. Quick ones in were 17ac and 11dn but many of the other clues on display here took considerably more thinking through. I think my LOI was 3dn, possibly because it took me too long to discard MAXIMAL as a possibility for 11ac, and embarrassingly since my daughter had a homework project on life in the Stone Age to do over the Xmas holidays.

I enjoyed the two physics references, and really enjoyed the setter’s skill with clever definitions – even if you can quickly work out which is the definition part of each clue in the first place, and sometime’s they’re hidden quite deviously here, I don’t think there are more than a couple of them that you’d reach quickly even with the help of the enumeration. I think my Clue of the Day is 25ac, because it immediately did what the setter surely intended and made me go, “okay, this is a word for fathers, with A, AN or THE acting as a container for a girl’s name, hmm…”

Thanks setter: starting the year strong as we hope to go on!

ACROSS

1 What can you do with mouse, a pest, and very little? (4,3,4)
DRAG AND DROP – DRAG [a pest] + AND + DROP [very little]

7 May produce small hesitation (3)
HAW – double def: the fruit of the hawthorn or may; and as in “to hem and haw”

9 Eccentric, deviant aunt, regularly driven home (6,3)
CAMPER VAN – CAM [eccentric] + PERV [deviant] + A{u}N{t} [“regularly”]. A home that is driven.

10 Eligible bachelor, perhaps, I catch on the rebound (5)
PARTI – I TRAP reversed. Circa the turn of the last century, it seems a parti was a high-status gentleman sought after for marriage.

11 Biggest possible fine for physicist (7)
MAXWELL – MAX [biggest possible] + WELL [fine]. James Clerk Maxwell, the electromagnetic radiation man.

12 Needle to show about absolute zero? (7)
PROVOKE – PROVE [to show] about 0K [zero kelvin = absolute zero]

13 Took heart from one not being the only left-winger? (5)
CORED – if you were a CO-RED, you are presumably sharing your communist duties with another…

15 A year ago passing time in a different part of the Americas (9)
PATAGONIA – P.A. [per annum = a year] + AGO passing T [time] + (IN A*) [“different”]

17 Dinosaur’s undoing: a volcano finally erupting (9)
IGUANODON – (UNDOING A {volcan}O*) [“erupting”]. I always want to spell this IGUANADON, but I learned the lesson the hard way the
last time this came up in a puzzle.

19 Spin doctor functions for notorious locality (5)
SODOM – reverse M.O. DO’S [“spin” doctor functions]

20 Volume one of French dictionary — taped (7)
VIDEOED – V I DE OED [volume | one | of “French” | dictionary]

22 Whistler the artist: popular, it’s often said (7)
REFRAIN – REF R.A. IN [whistler | the artist | popular]. If something is your refrain, you say it often.

24 Shocking lessons from scripture embraced by Law Lord (5)
LURID – R.I. [lessons from scripture] “embraced by” LUD [Law Lord]

25 Fathers miss entertaining article? On the contrary (3,4,2)
FAR FROM IT – FR FR OMIT [(two) fathers | miss] “entertaining” A [article]

27 Urchin that’s returned to very limited diet? (3)
IMP – I think this is a diet as in parliament, to which a meagre 1 MP has been returned…

28 Get out? One leaving to attend church (4,7)
YORK MINSTER – YORK [get out (by bowling skulduggery)] + MIN{i}STER [to attend, with I (one) leaving]

DOWN

1 One who examines letters on parcel turning up? (3)
DOC – COD [= Cash On Delivery] reversed. The doc will give you an examination.

2 Combine 23 with ten, not eight, finally (5)
ADMIX – the answer to 23 is ADMIT: but with X [ten], not {eigh}T

3 A kiss: what each daughter gives a feller? (3-4)
AXE-HEAD – A X EH EA D [a | kiss | what? | each | daughter]. A feller as in that which fells trees.

4 Double-D cups girl bound to get picked up (9)
DEVELOPED – DD “cups” EVE LOPE [girl | bound]

5 Quickly make approach (3-2)
RUN-UP – punctuated differently, to RUN UP is to “make by sewing together quickly”.

6 Maybe chart number of actions in second half of tennis game (3,4)
POP SONG – OPS [actions] in PONG [second half of PING PONG = (table) tennis game]

7 Marx I’d attacked, in the main? (9)
HARPOONED – HARPO [Marx] + ONE’D [I’d]. “In the main” as in “while at sea”.

8 One who’d irresponsibly drive US poet across Eastern Front (5,3,3)
WHITE VAN MAN – WHITMAN [US poet (Walt)] “across” E VAN [eastern | front]. White van men, in this country at least, are selfish and aggressive drivers.

11 All I have I’m deploying to protect Conservative statesman (11)
MACHIAVELLI – (ALL I HAVE I’M*) [“deploying”] to protect C [Conservative]

14 Effect of drugs after drinks that’s not one-way (5,4)
ROUND TRIP – TRIP [effect of drugs] after ROUND [drinks]

16 We hear a few pound this percussion instrument? (5,4)
TENOR DRUM – TENOR is possibly a homophone for “tenner”, a few pound, though wouldn’t “pound” then be doing double duty as a synonym for “drum”?
As such I may well not have parsed this correctly yet…

18 Twelve overs in the dark? (7)
NOONDAY – O [overs] surrounded by NON-DAY [= in the dark]? I think?

19 Appeal, very loud, by boy for orange (7)
SAFFRON – S.A. [(sex) appeal] + FF [very loud] by RON [boy]

21 Ruin suit (2,3)
DO FOR – double def

23 Welcome brief hand with trailer (5)
ADMIT – MIT{t} [“brief” hand] with AD [trailer]

26 Sailor’s waterproof coat (3)
TAR – double def. My first thought, MAC, wasn’t quite sailorish enough.

59 comments on “Times 26,927: Physical Exertion”

  1. 45 mins with croissant (hoorah) and Frank Cooper’s thin cut marmalade.
    My father recently gave me an old Times Crossword book of his (Book 2 published in 2001) and I have been doing a few. Last night’s included: Cinchona and Litharge. Good grief.
    Today, I have more question marks than ticks alongside the clues. Ticks go to: Maxwell, Iguanodon, Videoed, York Minster and Machiavelli.
    QMs go to: Lud, Imp, Drum, Noonday and Parti (never heard of it).
    Thanks setter and thanks for explaining it all V (except drum).

    Edited at 2018-01-05 08:42 am (UTC)

  2. Beaten by haw, not thinking of either “hem and haw” and hawthorn/may is not common down under (or it could be my knowledge of plants is entirely lacking). DNK PARTI but guessed it couldn’t have been anything else.

    Could 16d have percussion as the DRUM and the definition just be instrument?

    A devious crossword – thanks to the setter – and thanks, V, for all the blog explanations.

    1. I thought *someone* would probably fall into the Iguanadon trap, just glad it wasn’t me this time round!
  4. 34 minutes with NE last to fall. This puzzle played to my special interests. Only when I’d seem POP SONG though did I have the courage to enter the unknown PARTI as LOI. James Clerk MAXWELL was a write-in. Reading his name always brings back the terror of the exercises at the end of each chapter in Bleaney and Bleaney, the standard Electricity and Magnetism text book in my day. Apparently Stephen Hawking once managed to solve three of the ten or so problems, to everyone’s amazement. PROVOKE was also a nice clue, this time about low temperature physics, but I’m giving COD to YORK MINSTER, combining as it does cricket and Anglicanism. I went round there shortly after the lightning strike that followed the consecration of the unusually heterodox Bishop of Durham. There were begging bowls out of course to fund the reconstruction. I did put a mite or two in but couldn’t resist saying: “What God hath put asunder, let no man join together.” Good puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
  5. 47 minutes with several not parsed and several unknowns so I was quite pleased to finish with all correct.
  6. 26:04 … I got totally stuck on the HAW / HARPOONED pair, not being able to bring to mind the May fruit or the right Marx brother, despite knowing where the clues were pointing.

    A proper Friday challenge with some fiendish parsing. I really liked the CAMPER VAN, perhaps mostly for the ‘driven home’ definition.

  7. 37 minutes and a real slog. There was an eccentric feel to this. PARTI the only unknown. Got to HAW via HUM,SUM and HER. CODs to CAMPER VAN and YORK MINSTER. Thanks Setter and V for confirming my unsure thinking on a couple of clues.
  8. I was undone by a careless CARED which I thought very loosely fitted ‘Took heart from’. I hadn’t parsed the CO-RED.

    I’d been held up considerably by HAW, HARPOONED and PARTI until I finally thought of hem and haw after which the other two quickly followed. I had previously thought of Karl, Chico and Groucho for Marx but couldn’t recall the fourth brother.

    I agree with verlaine regarding the clever definitions used today, the best of which I thought was ‘driven home’ for CAMPER VAN. Taking that clue in isolation, I don’t think I’d ever had spotted the definition hidden in it.

  9. Devious puzzle that was an enjoyable solve. Had forgotten PARTI and can’t parse the DRUM

    Tricky blog – well done V and thank you setter

  10. 32:56: I found this a real slog and then found I had a silly error at the end. I always want to spell it IGUANADON, and did. Grr.
    I had most trouble in the NE, like a few others. I actually had SUM at 7ac for a while (trust me, it makes sense if you don’t think about it) and then the unknown PARTI crossing with an inability to remember that particular Marx brother held me up for ages.
    I agree with sawbill this had a bit of an eccentric feel to it. I’d love to know who the setter was.

    Edited at 2018-01-05 10:34 am (UTC)

    1. I immediately wanted to put SUM at 7ac but couldn’t *quite* reach sufficient justification for that being “may produce”…

      I read Adolph Marx’s very entertaining biography “Harpo Speaks!” a couple of years ago, so he’s probably the brother that springs to mind most readily these days, much though Groucho was the crosswordiest one.

      Edited at 2018-01-05 10:42 am (UTC)

      1. Indeed. I reached the same conclusion, once I actually bothered to think about it properly!
  11. I have buttonholed the editor about TENOR DRUM and apparently the setter’s intention was indeed a sort of “we hear it’s a few pound for [this instrument]”. Presumably they were unleashing their inner Cockney!
    1. Speaking of Cockneys paying for things, how much does Cockney shampoo cost?

      Pantene

      Edited at 2018-01-05 01:52 pm (UTC)

  13. I found this a real challenge and was very pleased to manage about 80% in about an hour. DNK HAW or PARTI so got stuck in the NE corner, completely failing to see WHITE VAN MAN, dammit. Down in the SW I got corralled into thinking the (correctly identified) definition at 18d *twelve* was pointing me to a synonym for PROVOKE from 12a so I completely failed to consider alternative meanings for *twelve* and, not seeing LURID, didn’t have enough checkers to get NOONDAY. A very enjoyable hour all the same. COD to CAMPERVAN (where once again we see CAM = *eccentric* despite the recent debate here around this usage). Thanks setter and V.
    1. There seems to be an inviolable rule in The Times that a cross-reference to another clue is always in digits, but all non-cross-references numbers are spelled as words. See 2 down for an example.
      As others have said, hard, PARTI unknown, a few unparsed, a slowish 30 minutes.
  14. Liked it, wondered about DRUM parsing and only got PARTI by reversing I TRAP as my LOI. Also had SUM not HAW for a while until the WHITE VAN came along. I can confirm that white van men drive just as speedily and aggressively in France, especially up your a**e on narrow roads.
    Tenner, tenor, sounds the same to me. Who says ten-oar?
    YORK MINSTER brilliant. 30 minutes all done.
    1. Perhaps the YORK MINSTER clue should have been my COD, but it’s against my personal religion to encourage cricketing references from setters…
      1. Thankfully, I hope, cricketing terms will persist, although I’d forgo them if you can ‘Dalek’ the poetry references.

        Am currently a bit impaled by Vlad in the Grauniad today,anyone else found it tricky?

        1. Strangely I was thinking about Daleks in the context of this puzzle already, because the down clues kick off with DOC and end with TAR, which is very Dalekish…

          (I like the cricketing clues really!)

          1. I’ve only just picked up on the parsing for IMP, I had just dropped in an M without much thought; now want to make it my CoD please.
        2. Yes it was a brute and took several goes before I got it nailed. Far exceeded my allotted xword time today and I still haven’t finished yesterday’s Broteas.
  15. Wow, that was devious! Got there in the end, but at times I thought I wasn’t going to get through it. Really well hidden definitions all over the place. AXE HEAD was my FOI, and SODOM my last, after hawthorn blossom gave me the H for 7d and HARPO(I wouldn’t join any club that would have me as a member) popped up. Liked CAMPER VAN and WHITE VAN MAN. Cracking puzzle. Thanks setter and V. 41:34.
      1. So it was. That’s me mixing my Marx Brothers up. At least I didn’t think it was Karl who said it:-)
  16. Fully agree this was a tough one, no complaints though. The drum clue seemed OK to me .. for reasons that were good at the time, but I can’t now clearly elucidate! .. and only now do I understand 27ac so thanks V. I probably would have written iguanadon, but the anagrist didn’t permit it
  17. Right! Back to proper Friday puzzles. This was hard. Just done in an hour. A devious 1a amused me, but I was discombobulated by the peculiar wording “What can one do…” which I misread initially as “What one can do…”. The more I think about it, the more I think this is an unintended garble in the clue.

    Couldn’t we put the hoary old cam=eccentric out to grass now? It only lives in Crosswordland (where it is observed very frequently).

    Just like Pipkirby my LOI was PARTI: DNK, but had to be from ‘I trap’. NOONDAY went in even tho I had the two OOs for ‘overs’ and then couldn’t fathom ‘in the dark’ = NNDAY(??). IMP was an obvious biff, but couldn’t parse the wordplay: so tricky!

    Thanks, V, for elucidation and thanks, setter, for a cracking crossword.

  18. Battered and bruised by this one. It is a long time since I have felt this out of sync with a setter so I shall just retire to lick my wounds.
  19. Tough, but an absolute belter. Just the one unknown, PARTI, which couldn’t really be anything else; and one unparsed before coming here, IMP, which now I see it, is as good a clue as anything else in the grid. As others have observed, the greatest joy here lies in the definitions, but an all-round Friday puzzle indeed.
  20. Not easy to get started, especially as FOI was SUM at 7ac, but eventually done in 38 min. (but with 17ac wrong, as didn’t verify anagram.) Thanks for blog, Verlaine as there were several clues where I couldn’t quite see how the parsing works.
  21. well probably harder than that with all the equipment dentists have these days. I finally got there and submitted in just under the hour, only to find 2 carelessly entered answers, CARED and IGUANADON. As a pensioner’s computer teacher, I much appreciated DRAG AND DROP. Wish I could see anagrams like MACHIAVELLI as quickly as our blogger – took me an age, even with several crossers. Had to come here for the explanation of SODOM.
  22. Yup, I had “iguanAdon” before and managed to remember how much it annoyed me when it turned up wrong. PARTI no problem for the Georgette Heyer brigade. Not a glimmer until I reached 19a and was beginning to wonder. Very tough. 27.41 with a (grrr) typo.
    1. Tricky, but good fun. Thanks for parsing those I couldn’t, V. Like others I hadn’t heard of PARTI and I never got IMP or how to construct FAR FROM IT. Like Sotira, CAMPER VAN my favourite. 23:37.
  23. Oh, I did the Vlad a bit earlier, only took me about half as long as this Times beast, but I agree with you, some delightfully tricksy clues in there!

    I can also recommend the Jan 1st Independent puzzle which I finally caught up on last night… it’s a rather impressive feat.

    1. I finished it eventually, but not yet on the G setters’ wavelengths, day to day they seem to vary quite a lot and it is only my first week at adding them to my daily grind. Will take a look at the Indo. Thanks V.
  24. Over the hour with some recourse to aids to check the last few such as PARTI and I still got the dinosaur wrong anyway. Most enjoyable struggle however and COD to CAMPER VAN. Thanks, setter and V for the much needed explanations; I doubt I would have ever understood IMP beyond it fitted!
  25. Fifty minutes for me, but that’s only because I wasn’t faster. PARTI was an NHO, and seems to be particularly obscure, so I was glad that the wordplay and checkers made it clear. Others that slowed me down (often for no good reason) were DRAG AND DROP, POP SONG, WHITE VAN MAN and IMP (the last because I couldn’t parse it).
  26. V x 3 on this: a right slog, but with a sense of satisfaction at the end. My only grouse is ‘girl’ as part of a clue, where you have a zillion names to run through (same for ‘boy’); I get a little jag of despair when that happens, but it passes, especially if I solve the clue. Same goes for plants and variegated antelopes. Thanks setter and V, top blog.
  27. I screwed up with CARED for CORED, and couldn’t parse IMP either. Overall a very tricky and for me long lasting solve. Regards.
  28. 24:38 for a top-notch puzzle. The clue for CAMPER VAN was brilliant.

    That was the only exact match for a term in the Uxbridge today (a van with more sequins than most) but I can also offer IGUANA, an Inuit dwelling made of bird poo, and HARPOON, Scottish bragging.

  29. 39 minutes, so a little below my par. Liked the inventiveness of this a lot. IMP went right over my head, and – whisper it quietly – I’m still not bowled over by it now I understand it. A bit too pleased with itself, perhaps?

    Yeeeeeeees.

  30. What a lovely puzzle! I got there in the end without falling into any of the traps – I had IGUANADON but corrected it in time. Some great definitions. I especially loved CAMPER VAN. 48 minutes. Ann
  31. Very enjoyable, and I’m glad to have made it through unscathed despite not having heard of the WHITE VAN MAN before and despite the damnable cricket reference. I didn’t know what was going on with the P.A. in PATAGONIA nor (like most of us) the clue for IMP. PARTI is indeed a little obscure, but it didn’t spoil my own party, where any French word is welcome.

    Edited at 2018-01-05 07:46 pm (UTC)

  32. Tough but more-ish. I spent 20 mins this morning not getting very far and needed a concerted 38 mins at lunchtime to complete, only to come here and find that I cannot spell iguanodon, even with all the letters handed to me in the anagrist. How frustrating. 10ac was unknown but gettable, 27ac was unparsed but biffable. I didn’t quite get 16dn either. I liked the innovative constructions at 25ac and 6dn. 9ac, 7dn and 15ac were also very crafty. It was only on coming here that I got to appreciate the driven home Def in 9ac.
  33. A Friday to rember especialy the frozen NE.
    DNfF as like I put in SUM at 7ac- darn!

    DNK 10ac PARTI or 8dn WHITE VAN MAN!
    Especially as I fancied 12ac as OBELISK – dear me a right bugger’s-muddle.

    WOD 19ac SODOM!

    FOI 5dn RUN TO which should have been RUN UP!

    COD 28ac YORK MINSTER

    Resigned of Shanghai – Avatars Monday!

  34. 54 minutes but with one wrong. Unlike everyone else who seemed to find the wordplay entirely unambiguous, I managed to come up with PIRGI for 10a, which seemed perfectly likely instead of the unknown PARTI, “grip” seeming to mean “catch” to me, anyway… I assumed he was some kind of prince from overseas.

    Edited at 2018-01-06 09:00 am (UTC)

        1. Too late to ask. They closed years ago and became a Chinese buffet. I think that closed too:-)
  35. Hello,
    Apologies again for being so behind the times – this Saturday’s puzzle taking precedence over finding out why previous forays have stalled….but could someone possibly provide (words with low numbers of syllables obviously appreciated) the wherewithal to explain IMP?
    Thanks
    IAS
    1. An imp is an urchin (that’s the easy bit). A diet is a parliament. At election time you return a number of MPs to parliament. If the nation returned only one MP = I MP = IMP to parliament, it would be a “very limited” diet. That’s how I read it anyway!

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