Times 26979 – stuff I didn’t know I knew but did …

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found this a serious work-out, more on the way to Club Monthly stlye than a standard weekday romp, with quite a few answers being obscure words known only to cryptic crossword regulars and pub quizzers. It took me 38 minutes to complete it to my satisfaction. Fortunately the wordplay is mainly straightforward and once you’ve avoided the anagram boob at 16a (I didn’t at first) and dredged the muddy bottom of the mind to find the words you dimly knew but seldom used, it all falls into place with a satisfying ‘done that’.

Across
1 Jolt in lifestyle, taking sect’s wine across river (7,5)
CULTURE SHOCK – CULT’S HOCK = sect’s wine, insert the River URE, which flows through the Yorkshire Dales.
8 Opening for Irishman initially involved with diamonds (7)
ORIFICE – (FOR I)*, ICE = diamonds.
9 Formal warning demanding prudence (7)
CAUTION – double definition.
11 Wife wearing top hat, oddly, for walk by river (7)
TOWPATH – Insert W into (TOP HAT)*.
12 Renowned English medic primarily concerned with otolaryngology (7)
EMINENT – E(nglish) M(edic) IN ENT (ear, nose and throat).
13 Bore raring to be heard (5)
EAGRE – Sounds like EAGER = raring. A tidal wave caused by cross currents.
14 Hubbub exposed in daily, one modified when editor’s absent (9)
CHARIVARI – A word I learnt from crosswords, meaning a loud banging of pots and pans to acclaim a wedding or similar celebration; if you don’t know it the wordplay is clear, CHAR = daily, I, VARI(ED).
16 Misusing a mug, slurp something sweet (9)
SUGARPLUM – I had SUGARLUMP written in before realising 3d ending in a U was going to be too strange. The I rearranged (A MUG SLURP)* again.
19 Changing sides, fetch flashy jewellery (5)
BLING – BRING = fetch, change the R for an L.
21 Takes risks with popular exponents (7)
INDICES – IN = popular, DICES = takes risks.
23 Fellow backing judge leaving large aircraft plant (7)
NELUMBO – Today’s plant rang a faint bell as having something to do with water lilies, which the French call nénuphars. LEN is our fellow, reversed, add (J)UMBO. I had the jumbo bit quickly and then the chap followed.
24 Classically simple part of City toured by old lady (7)
GRECIAN – E.C.1 is part of the City of London, insert into GRAN. What’s a Grecian urn, you ask? Not many euros, these days.
25 Monkey, yellow-brown, seen around first day of month (7)
TAMARIN – Today’s primate emerged from another very dusty corner of the grey cells. MAR 1 inserted into TAN.
26 Fuming, one arrests any number for excessive drinking (12)
INTEMPERANCE – IN TEMPER = fuming, then insert N into ACE = one.

Down
1 Gossip’s outstanding feature — wit (7)
CHINWAG – CHIN = outstanding feature, WAG = wit.
2 For example, a currency set up for animal accommodation (7)
LAIRAGE – All reversed; E.G. A RIAL, a rial being the currency of Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Not a word I’d seen before but it seemed plausible from LAIR.
3 Improper distribution of lace in hut (9)
UNETHICAL – (LACE IN HUT)*. I didn’t spend too long looking for nine letter words ending in U, just revisited 16a as noted above.
4 Host’s medal for gallantry mentioned in speech (5)
EMCEE – Sounds like.M.C. Military Cross. A chestnut of a clue.
5 He escaped maybe 45 minutes before policeman turned up at home (7)
HOUDINI – HOU(R) = 45 minutes, 3/4 of hour; DI = policeman, IN reversed.
6 Church artist capturing a chap’s fantasy? (7)
CHIMERA – CE = church, insert HIM, then RA. Corrected, thanks,
7 Keep man in role of monarch without charge (3,3,6)
FOR THE ASKING – FORT (keep) HE (man) AS KING (in role of monarch).
10 Cipher the setter possibly drinks in ? Forget it! (7,5)
NOTHING DOING – NOTHING = cipher, zero; DOG could be a setter, insert IN.
15 Reportedly throw out church carpet (9)
AXMINSTER – Sounds like AXE MINSTER, carpet named after the town in Devon where it is made.
17 Old-fashioned resentment when leader goes for good fish (7)
GUDGEON – DUDGEON is an old fashioned word for resentment, usually heard with ‘HIGH’ in front; amend the D to a G to get a small river fish.
18 Rest in park next to bar (7)
RECLINE – REC = park, recreation ground, LINE = bar.
19 Town crier’s ringer going over island (7)
BELLMAN – BELL = ringer, Isle of MAN.
20 Engross tail end of form in this writer’s language (7)
IMMERSE – Insert M (tail end of form) into I’M (this writer’s) ERSE (poetic name for the Irish language).
22 Dawn’s lad on telephone at university (3-2)
SUN-UP – SUN sounds like SON, UP = at university.

64 comments on “Times 26979 – stuff I didn’t know I knew but did …”

  1. 48 but another with induces. Happy enough with my effort given that I didn’t know nelumbo charivari eagre lairage nor indeed was “for the asking” a phrase that was familiar to me. The “asking” part was on its own for almost the whole of my solving time. An enjoyable challenge nonetheless. Thanks setter and Pip.
  2. This was pretty easy and 38:31 is only 40 seconds over my PB for a weekday cryptic. Unusually I knew all the obscure words and the only clue I couldn’t parse was 10d.

    COD 5d as I liked 45 mins = HOU, although I think I’ve seen it before.

    Thanks for the blog.

  3. The best part of 45 minutes for this one – inexcusably, since I had all but RECLINE and INDICES in about half an hour. I spend ages parsing 21ac farce about ace, and didn’t think of “line” for “bar” in 18d.

    Oddly, LAIRAGE and EAGRE didn’t give me too much grief, even though they were both NHOs for me. NELUMBO (wife, presumably, of the dishevelled Italian-American ex-army detective, Col. Umbo) held me up for a while; I was pretty sure it was right, but could think of no plausible way to explain myself if it turned out to be wrong.

  4. 26:22. I found this mostly straightforward although I hesitated over LOI eagre – only vaguely remembered from crosswords past – and took a while to put the “popular” ahead of the “takes risks” which precedes it in 21ac. Spent too long thinking the wp was “popular exponents” and the Def “takes risks”.
  5. I found this quite a stinker, despite the fact that I only took 30 minutes to solve it (that’s close to my best time), but it was full of obscure words, really stuff I didn’t know I knew but did (did I get that right?). It helped a bit that I didn’t see the other anagram of SUGARPLUM, and CHARIVARI was no problem because Punch, a venerable publication some of you may remember, had a regular column called the London Charivari — I don’t recall seeing it in crosswords before. But I was sure LAIRAGE was made up by the setter, and DUDGEON and GUDGEON were just educated guesses based on a general feeling of what might be a proper (and suitably archaic) word for the concepts involved in the clue. I was simply too lazy to think more about them. And for NELUMBO, LEN seemed a more likely fellow than LON.

    I didn’t really like the clue for EMCEE, because the word itself derives from the pronunciation of the letters MC=Master of Ceremonies, so the cryptic clue here is really just a literal definition.

  6. Came to this very late in the day, probably too late to be overly worried about thorough parsing. Hence a number went in with a shrug, including NELUMBO, INDICES, EAGRE & LAIRAGE. I was very surprised to see I’d finished in a tad under 10 minutes and even more surprised to come here and find all correct. On another day I could easily have had half a dozen wrong.

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