Times 27,209: The Sporting Life

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
An excellent crossword with a real sense of cleverness about the cluing, and some excitingly unusual vocabulary to grapple with: a great combo. I was a little bit out of my depth (final time north of 10 minutes) with difficult sportsball terminology such as AFTERS, PYJAMA CRICKET and WING FORWARDs, but the puzzle more than made up for it with such answers as BEER PUMP, CLARET JUG and EGAD which a verlaine runs across on a daily basis, maybe even going for a boozy DHANSAK thereafter. Anyway, yes, I really liked this.

First one in 1ac (quite unusual to see the telescopic hidden at 1ac instead of bringing up the rear, no?), LOI possibly the tricksy 20dn, though 23ac and 24dn were both also late to fall. Very many Clue of the Day candidates but I think I might give a shout out to 8dn: brilliant both in terms of hiding the definition (the mind gravitating to “put up with” rather than “put up”, or at least mine did) and the above-average sneakiness of “do perhaps”. Well played, setter, well played!

ACROSS
1 Repeat of Crécy? Clearly, in part (7)
RECYCLE – hidden in {c}RECY CLE{arly}

5 Former champion from China, these days at home (7)
PALADIN – PAL A.D. IN [china | these days | at home]. Better known to me from D&D than Charlemagne’s court, I’m ashamed to say.

9 Attendance record, perhaps, one might want to keep up (11)
APPEARANCES – cryptic def: “keeping up appearances”.

10 Prime strip of land? (3)
ARM – double def

11 Like cave, maybe, or garden in city, close to cemetery (6)
ECHOEY – HOE [garden], in EC [city] + {cemeter}Y

12 Soothing stuff from peace-keepers following confrontation on pitch (8)
AFTERSUN – U.N. [peace-keepers] following AFTERS [confrontation on pitch]

14 Version of game giving coloured jacket primacy? (6,7)
PYJAMA CRICKET – (JACKET PRIMACY*) [“coloured”]

17 Firing agent giving grass to actor’s horse (7,6)
TRIGGER FINGER – GRASS [finger, as in rat on] given to TRIGGER [actor’s horse, the actor being Roy Rogers]

21 Necessity for pub social event: piano in rear (4,4)
BEER PUMP – BEE [social event] + P [piano] in RUMP [rear]

23 Hides out of panic, small creature (6)
ANIMAL – {p}ANI{c} {s}MAL{l} both being stripped of their “hides”

25 Passed on one’s charm (3)
OBI – O.B. [passed on] + I [one]

26 Extension serving part of hospital, one of fifteen (4,7)
WING FORWARD – or WING FOR WARD, [extension | serving | part of hospital]. One of fifteen rugby union players.

27 Parasite, large, in denial, plainly (7)
NAKEDLY – KED L [parasite | large] in NAY [denial]

28 Acknowledges characters involved in a tussle (7)
SALUTES – (A TUSSLE*) [“characters involved in…”]

DOWN
1 Person taking off after touching farm machinery (6)
REAPER – APER [person taking off, as in mimicking] after RE [touching]

2 Nick takes short trip (3,4)
COP SHOP – or COPS HOP [takes | short trip]

3 Girl on small boat when Jack’s boarded vessel for Bordeaux (6,3)
CLARET JUG – CLARE [girl] on TUG [small boat] when J [Jack] has boarded. Bordeaux as in the wine.

4 Mature, upwardly mobile daughter, dated brother (4)
EGAD – reverse AGE [mature, “upwardly mobile”] + D [daughter]. An old-fashioned word for “brother!”

5 Coastal regions provided one with cover when lifting felon (7,3)
PACIFIC RIM – reverse all of IF I CAP [provided | one | cover], + CRIM [felon]

6 Fabric’s length: an inch under (5)
LISLE – L [length] with ISLE [an inch] under

7 Had snack prepared, leaving out cold dish (7)
DHANSAK – (HAD SNA{c}K*) [“prepared”]

8 Put up with bird gatecrashing do perhaps (8)
NOMINATE – MINA [bird] “gatecrashing” NOTE [do perhaps; as in do-re-mi]

13 What’s invested intelligently after small, momentary lapses (5,5)
SMART MONEY – after S [small], (MOMENTARY*) [“lapses”]

15 E-learning worked, mainly (2,7)
IN GENERAL – (E-LEARNING*) [“worked”]

16 Objections raised, presumably not made difficult (8)
STUBBORN – reversed BUTS [objections] + BORN [presumably not made]

18 What waiter might use to cover in sugar and cream (3,4)
ICE PICK – ICE [to cover in sugar] and PICK [cream, as in the best]

19 Defensive structure in the Suffolk area? (7)
RAMPART – RAM PART [Suffolk, as in the breed of sheep | area]

20 Name that’s good for a female (6)
GLADYS – G [good] + LADY’S [for a female]

22 Happy news about dad is handled inappropriately (5)
PAWED – hopefully PA WED would constitute happy news, though I’d say it might depend if you end up with a wicked stepmother or not…

24 States field officer should cut unexplained overheads? (4)
UFOS – U.S. [states] that F.O. [field officer] should “cut”

50 comments on “Times 27,209: The Sporting Life”

  1. Agreed, an excellent crossword which was very satisfying to solve – some nice oblique definitions too. I was picturing an ICE PICK in the hands of a crevasse-scaler or the like, but I guess it can have restaurant applications.

    Unsure how AFTERS can mean ‘confrontation on pitch’ however.

    1. Yes, I was wondering this too. Collins online has “(slang) a confrontation or physical violence between footballers immediately after they have been involved in a challenge for the ball”. That’s pretty much what I assumed as I hit submit.
      1. “Afters” in this sense is normally preceded by something like “a bit of” and you’ll hear it from the “expert summariser” sitting alongside the commentator on televised football matches.

        “There was a bit of afters after the ball was gone Brian, I fink the lad’s lucky the ref din’t see it or ‘ed of got a card fer that”.

        1. It appears to be in the rugby vernacular as well. This from the Grauniad in a 2006 report on a rugby union international:

          His first brush with the Ireland flanker Neil Best had resulted in a bit of afters. It was not enough to warrant an intervention from the touch judge but, when they separated, it was clear they were not pals.

          1. Wouldn’t you know it? John Inverdale commentating just now on the Barbarians v Argentina match: “…and there’s a bit of afters going on”. Clearly very current!
  2. In puzzles that I particularly enjoy there is often an early clue which says “Ah! So this is going to be like that, then.”. Today, for me, it was Paladin. Just unusual enough of a word, just unusual enough of the use of AD, just, as Aphis says, an oblique enough definition. Nice blog, Verlaine. Thank you, setter.
    Out of curiosity, how many non-race horses do we know by name? Silver, Trigger, Traveller, Copenhagen, Bucephalus. Who else? Mr Ed?
    1. We had a converstaion here some years ago about cowboys’ horses, which unfortunatly I can’t find at this moment. Ones that I can remember were Scout (Tonto), Champion (Gene Autry) and Topper (Hopalong Cassidy).
      1. Well Pegasus, if a horse can fly that’s quite memorable .. Napoleon’s horse Marengo .. and does Shadowfax count? And the other Trigger, that Ernie used to pull the fastest milk cart in the West
          1. Death’s horse, Binky
            Boxer in Animal Farm
            I remembered Caligula’s consul – but didn’t recall his name (Incitatus)
      3. To keep things bang up to the minute, Buster Scruggs’ horse in the Coen Brothers’ new show is called Dan.
  3. Nice crossword. I originally thought FRENCH CRICKET on the basis of (a) I’d heard of it and (b) the leader in the tour de France wears a colored jacket. I’d never heard of PYJAMA CRICKET and when I realized what it must be carelessly put in PAJAMA CRICKET. So one wrong.

    ECHOEY took far too long and even once I put it together and looked at it, it took a moment before I realized it wasn’t a momble.

  4. 10 minutes over the hour. Great fun, with unknowns too many to mention in detail. Fell at the last hurdle with UFOS. In what circumstances does a waiter have need for an ice-pick?

    Edited at 2018-11-30 07:08 am (UTC)

    1. I’ve seen a cocktail waiter use one in real life, but only the once.

      I’ve come across them more in older American murder mysteries, where they were used as a murder weapon, often with the handle loosened, so one could do away with an enemy, leave the pick embedded, and walk off with the fingerprints.

      Edited at 2018-11-30 09:29 am (UTC)

  5. Yeah, this was great. I still have only a vague idea of what “afters” is about in… cricket, ain’t it? And I didn’t really parse RAMPART. I thought the clue for PYJAMA CRICKET was merely a cryptic that would make sense to fans of the sport than it did to me, as I didn’t recognize “coloured” as an anagrind (has anyone ever seen the word used as such before?)… so I wasn’t prevented from spelling it “PAJAMA…,” American style. But I loved the shy creature, the marrying father and much else. It’s a different definition for OBI here from the one you usually find in crosswords.

    Edited at 2018-11-30 08:05 am (UTC)

  6. 40 mins pre brekker. Mrs M has gone out for bananas.
    I really enjoyed it. I have never seen a waiter use an Ice Pick. Sharon Stone yes.
    DNK Pyjama Cricket.
    Mostly I liked: Stubborn
    Thanks setter and V.
  7. Excellent Friday fare that needed concentrated effort. Kept going back to E-H-E- and desperately trawling the alphabet even though it clearly had to end in Y and EC is a real chestnut. Only to discover that the struggle naught availed thanks to SMMRT MONEY – and that after checking the grid. Clearly one sees what one expects to see.
  8. Lovely balanced offering. I had a wonderful doh moment with UFOS. Thank you oh great setter!
  9. Excellent crossword. Enjoyed every clue with only ECHOEY making me think that the clue was wrong but I see how it might work now.
  10. Lovely puzzle, I thought, despite me finding it NAKEDLY STUBBORN, and finally coming home in an hour and ten. That was partly my own stupidity: I’d entered APPEARENCES at 9a, making 4d my LOI. Not sure how I did that. I’ll happily admit that I couldn’t spell DHANSAK, but I should be doing okay with the straightforward English…

    Slowed as much by the devious definitions and wordplay as by the (to me) obscurities. I might’ve got into double figures in my “words to add to my difficult words list” today, not knowing a single one of the sporting references, for example.

    Still, I got there, and I’m happier for doing so. Thanks to setter and V.

    Edited at 2018-11-30 09:01 am (UTC)

  11. Yes, a great one today. 39m of pleasure; thank you setter and V for clearing up ‘afters’. And I didn’t even notice that ‘jacket primacy’ was anagram fodder; I simply took ‘game’ as cricket and ‘coloured jacket’ as pyjama first (having primacy), with the definition being ‘version of game’ (game doing double service). Well, how wrong can you be.

    Edited at 2018-11-30 09:11 am (UTC)

  12. I concur that this is another goodie, with lots of diversions on the way, all leading in wrong directions.
    I rather think there’s a certain not-quite-up-to-dateness about it too, especially in the sports arena: WING FORWARDS are now flankers, PYJAMA CRICKET is Packer era, and now more usually white ball cricket. As for AFTERS, I get it from Starstruck’s elucidation but I can’t recall Motty or even Eddie Waring coming up with it. It’s handbags these days, isn’t it?
    The most famous ICE PICK (nice clue) in history, the one embedded in Trotsky’s skull, turns out to have been more of an ice axe. I like crosswords like this that send you spinning off into such snippets of knowledge.
  13. 38 minutes on a puzzle which played to my knowledge base. As a UK based cricket and football fan, AFTERS(UN) and PYJAMA CRICKET came quickly to me, although I haven’t used the latter for a long time. My school oval ball days made WING FORWARD straightforward too. Saturday morning matinees from the early fifties furnished TRIGGER, along with a short diversion around Bullet, Dale Evans and Gabby Hayes in the Roy Rogers memorabilia section. LOI ICE PICK. COD APPEARANCES. A good puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
  14. Echoing above, excellent puzzle 35 minutes with a few light bulb moments but no unhappiness. UFOS brilliant COD for me. Dhansak tonight, home made as no Indian restaurants here.
  15. Agree with others – great puzzle

    Didn’t know AFTERS as a football punch up or why a waiter might use an ICE PICK but the rest was within my compass

    Thank you setter and well blogged V

  16. Good fun, agreed .. didn’t know afters, pyjama cricket a dim memory. Presumably from the Packer games being played at night under floodlights, as well as the clothing?
    Horses not my strong suit but I observe Wiki has a whole article about Wonder Horses, as well as several other horsey lists and articles. I will mention Red Rum, if only because I always do when the subject of horses comes up .. none like him 🙂
    Lisle a gimme for the Heyer contingent. I seem to remember a couple of you putting a toe in the Heyer waters recently, wonder how you are getting on?

    Edited at 2018-11-30 10:19 am (UTC)

  17. 26:25 of intense concentration to get this beauty sorted. Lots of sporty stuff (hurrah) and particularly liked AFTERS – usually preceded by ‘a spot of’ in my experience.
    Definitely one where spotting the often cleverly disguised definitions was essential. Loved it.
  18. I must confess to a time well over the hour for this toughie (maybe even nearer the hour-and-a-half). Some very nice clues I got without too much agony (APPEARANCES, UFOS, TRIGGER FINGER) — but the top-right corner had me almost at the point of giving up. LOI ARM, but only after ages spent on NOMINATE: I never worked out ‘do’ = NOTE. I’d never heard of ‘afters’ so AFTERSUN was a major hold-up. Yes, the cleverly disguised defs were certainly a notable feature here.
    I thought the RAMPART clue was rather good, so my COD nomination.
    I really needed the blog, today, so thanks, V.
  19. Thought I was doing quite well with this but came a cropper with a few awkward ones at the end. left with A-M I tried AIM instead of arm (strip of land A1(M) maybe?) as I didn’t know that meaning of ARM. Apart from that, a good work out. Thought AFTERS might be best described as Handbags at Dawn.
  20. 24 min. :I hadn’t heard that sense of AFTERS* (to me, it’s pudding) and would have expected a hyphen, so 13ac went in with a shrug. Also didn’t spot the anagrind for 14ac – so needed checkers to enable me to recall that nearly forgotten description of the white-ball version.

    *It seems that Collins is now the dictionary of choice – I see there’s a new edition out now.

  21. Oh dear, another AFTERS to remember in addition to pudding. I think it would be called a rhubarb in baseball. I had a couple of narrow squeaks with the American “pAjama” (like Guy) and ESAU in 4d because I couldn’t see it at all until proofing. I inherited an ICE PICK from my mother-in-law’s kitchen – a really lethal-looking thing I’ve never used either for its original purpose or for something more sinister. 30.57
  22. Oof. One of those where you can see the obvious cleverness (if only when looking back), with perfectly fair wordplay and vocabulary, but which seemed very heavy going at the time. Such are the vagaries of the cryptic wavelength. Still, tomorrow is, indeed, another puzzle.
  23. I found this pretty straightforward at 12:09, having all the required GK although the cricket variant was only vaguely familiar and I didn’t spot that it was an anagram. Like V I started with RECYCLE and finished with GLADYS, as it were.
  24. Drat! After successfully negotiating the many hurdles, I failed on 10a with AIM instead of ARM. I’d put in AIT as a strip of land with A1 as the prime bit and the T unaccounted for, then got NOMINATE and forgot to reassess it. Didn’t know AFTERS as a bust up, missed the anagram for the cricket, wondered about the waiter and his ICE PICK, but otherwise managed to parse it all. Nice puzzle. 43:28 WOE. Thanks setter and V.
    1. I spent a couple of minutes wondering what the waiter was doing on an ICE RINK, before PICK for cream dawned on me. I’ve no doubt that, in these days of themed bars, somewhere there is a bar on ice.
  25. Super stuff for a rotten afternoon when you’re stuck indoors. FOI 1a fooled me into thinking this might not be a huge challenge. How wrong can you be?! So I was thrilled to get an all-correct grid with so many devious definitions and quite a few DNKs. I found the wordplay a great help but still needed to come here to understand a lot of the parsings. Thanks V for the elucidation. More please, Mr Setter.
  26. Nice puzzle, my LOI being the hard to spot (for me) ANIMAL, after RAMPART. My last one in, that is, not including DHANSAK, which when faced with anagram fodder for a word I didn’t know, I decided guessing would be an utterly random exercise, so I just looked it up. Indian food, apparently. Not one of my specialties. Regards.
  27. ….PYJAMA CRICKET only AFTER SUN set ?

    Unable to post earlier due to crap WiFi on various trains. Still, it’ll be better next year when the fares go up again. Yeah, right.

    FOI RECYCLE
    LOI COP SHOP
    COD AFTERSUN
    TIME About 20 minutes – not timed properly due to messing about boarding the train.

    Phil Jordan

  30. DNF in about an hour. Top quality puzzle where I all too frequently failed to see what was going on until suddenly the answer was revealed in all its glory. Unfortunately the Def in 4dn was a stretch too far. Wp led me to egad but I just couldn’t square it with the Def dated brother. In the end I went for Esau as the brother hoping that the wp was beyond me and might involve sau as a homophone of saw – dated. MER at the use of coloured as anagrind in 14ac (probably just sour grapes though since I slowed myself down by writing in French cricket). I thought echoey, smart money and UFOs some particularly good clues amongst a very good set.
  31. Finished finally apart from “Lisle” which is a NHO. Tough puzzle. “Wing Forward” and “Pawed” held me up awhile – Wing Forward is more of a football position than rugby, I would have thought?

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