Times 27541 – Baldrick meets Benny Hill

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I was bang on the wavelength for this one, romping home in 11 and a half minutes. I never thought one of CS Lewis’s favourite expressions would become a chestnut, but MARES NEST is in danger of becoming just that. (COD meaning ‘trick’ or ‘tease’ attained that status some time ago.) A bit of everything here (apart from the Classics), with a couple of French words, one of which may have caused prolonged head-scratching/cries of ‘Zut alors!’, as well as a sciency word with which I was vaguely familiar.

A very happy Christmas to all my readers- and even those who go straight to the comments!

ACROSS

1 Store had several drinks put back (5)
DEPOT – TOPED reversed
4 One wise person not totally right in action took issue (9)
DISAGREED – I SAG[e] in DEED
9 Against staying still presumably when advancement is needed (9)
PROMOTION – If you are against staying still you are ‘pro motion’, and a promotion is an advancement (well, at least in theory)
10 Big sound in very small space (5)
VROOM – V ROOM; the sound of the motorbikes below my 14th floor window at one in the morning. Cue Baldrick’s masterpiece ‘The German Guns’
11 Channel in easternmost part of Solent getting turbulent (6)
TROUGH – [solen]T ROUGH
12 Stomachs turned by row that’s less seemly (8)
SMUTTIER – TUMS reversed TIER. Cue anything by Benjamin Hill
14 Stepfathers may be seen to be so brave within (5-7)
STOUT-HEARTED – The way that FAT is in the centre of stepFAThers may be construed as STOUT-HEARTED; ‘Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men and I’ll soon give you ten thousand more-ore’, etc
17 Admire idealist (without taking notice at first) out to get free from guns (12)
DEMILITARISE – anagram* of [ad]MIRE IDEALIST
20 Celebrity’s in high-speed transporter (8)
STARSHIP – STARS HIP (in – sometimes ‘hep’)
21 To abandon the cause shows weakness (6)
DEFECT – double definition (DD)
23 Game about to get explosive — one may be on edge (5)
RUCHE – RU (game) C (about) HE (high explosive); ‘a strip of pleated or frilled lawn, lace, etc, used to decorate blouses, dresses, etc, or worn around the neck like a small ruff as in the 16th century’; if this hasn’t cropped up in Georgie Heyer, I will eat my bodice
24 Point made by Cockney school principal (9)
ARROWHEAD – ARROW (Cockney school, as in Harrow with the aitch dropped) HEAD (principal)
25 Somehow sense in market phoney item being offered? (5,4)
MARES NEST – SENSE* in MART
26 Positive response when claiming record — cries of delight? (5)
YELPS – LP in YES; the question mark reminds us that a dog might yelp if you trod on its tail…

DOWN

1 Provide cover for places around India swamped by river (8)
DEPUTISE – I in PUTS in DEE
2 Maybe original army officer’s code of conduct? (8)
PROTOCOL – PROTO- (the prefix denoting firstness) COL (colonel)
3 Glutton she’s repeatedly slammed for selfish behaviour (15)
THOUGHTLESSNESS – GLUTTON SHES SHES*
4 Small daughter having trouble in Dublin house (4)
DAIL – D AIL; the lower chamber of the Irish parliament, to be sure
5 Have man raid nest naughtily, with no care ultimately for bird (4,6)
SAND MARTIN – MAN RAID N[e]ST*
6 Act as a generous hunter maybe and talk indiscreetly (4,3,4,4)
GIVE THE GAME AWAY – DD
7 Alluring old lover twitching, concealing love (6)
EXOTIC – O (love) in EX (old lover) TIC (twitching)
8 Modest protest over issue’s ending (6)
DEMURE – DEMUR [issu]E
13 Walk with chum around lunchtime, OK? (10)
LEGITIMATE – I (1pm, AKA lunchtime) in LEG IT (walk) MATE (chum)
15 After wickedness has been overturned you and I will prosper (4,4)
LIVE WELL – EVIL reversed WE’LL
16 Energy comes with new diets and chemical substances (8)
PEPTIDES – PEP (energy) DIETS*
18 A quiet river in the morning as a place of retreat (6)
ASHRAM – A SH R AM
19 The German holding party in Africa, one providing entertainment (6)
DANCER – ANC (African National Congress) in DER
22 Animal, apart from its tail, is dry (4)
BRUT – BRUT[e]

40 comments on “Times 27541 – Baldrick meets Benny Hill”

  1. Quite an impressive time, U! I plodded in comparison, my FOI being 26ac (I did think of VROOM, but wasn’t confident, and waited for the V). Spent too much time on 8ac thinking it would begin with CON (‘against’), but finally saw the light.
  2. A technical DNF for me as I was unable to come up with a word meaning ‘energy to fit with ?E?TIDES. I really should have thought of PEP. PEPTIDES has come up only three times, I think in the past four years, in two QCs set by Izetti and one 15×15, but seems to have taken me by surprise on each occasion.

    Other than that I found this reasonably straightforward. although I was not entirely convinced by VROOM = ‘big noise’ whilst solving, but on reflection it seems perfectly okay.

    Edited at 2019-12-23 03:43 am (UTC)

  3. That chemistry degree finally came in handy for PEPTIDES and this was done and dusted in 7:35 with no quibbles. Excellent time, ulaca!
  4. No mysteries, though the definition for DEPUTISE threw me for a bit. COD STOUT-HEARTED, because it took me so long to see.
  5. COD: STOUTHEARTED. Took me ages to see. LOI was LEGITIMATE.
    I presume PEPTIDES are somewhere between spring and neap.
    Thanks, Ulaca for the Baldrick interlude.
  6. Nothing too tricky though my brow was furrowed for a while over the final two in – LEGITIMATE and STOUT-HEARTED. Suspect I won’t be alone there…

    Edited at 2019-12-23 08:24 am (UTC)

  7. Quite an impressive time, U! I plodded in comparison, my FOI being 26ac (I did think of VROOM, but wasn’t confident, and waited for the V). Spent too much time on 8ac thinking it would begin with CON (‘against’), but finally saw the light.
  8. A slow 28′ but with a very careless biffed DESERT. At least ten minutes on STOUT-HEARTED/LEGITIMATE.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

  10. Well done U – good time even for an easy one. Twigged the STOUT HEARTED device straight away for a change so no problems in a straightforward solve
  11. 11:45 … so slightly outdone by the Bootleg Magoo (though oddly his leaderboard time says 14 minutes … not that I’m obsessively checking ulaca’s times or anything.

    Terrific puzzle with a fun range of references. I happened to meet STOUT-HEARTED in a book last night — I’m always delighted by this cruciverbal serendipity.

    Can’t see past LIVE WELL for the COD — it reads like a line from LOTR (just add “, Frodo”)

  12. 14:13. A bit slow to get going, SMUTTIER my FOI, and held up in the end by STOUT-HEARTED, being seduced into trying to think of a quality of step-fathers, and STARSHIP, not a means of transportation any of us will have been on. I liked THOUGHTLESSNESS. Cracking time U, and a WITCH of 50!

    Edited at 2019-12-23 09:06 am (UTC)

  13. 23 minutes. LOI was STOUT-HEARTED, a good clue but one which I needed all crossers and time to clear the bemusement caused. I’m giving COD to PROTOCOL because I saw it without crossers. I realised today that I’ve spent my whole life confusing MARE’S NEST and HORNET’S NEST in my head. I wonder if I’ve ever done it out loud and made a total pillock of myself. I tend to see LEG IT as something conducted in a run rather than walk, but I can just about hear it being used that way too. Decent start to the week. Thank you astoundingly quick U and setter.

    Edited at 2019-12-23 09:17 am (UTC)

  14. VROOMed through much of this, slowed down by LEGITIMATE by focusing on the wrong end of the clue (which is very common for me) and obsessing over some unknown variant of perambulate – then all efforts trashed by a sloppy biff of SONG MARTIN which sounded great but failed to match the anagrist. COD to STOUT HEARTED which I guessed but did not understand until coming here. Thanks setter and Ulaca and congrats on that time.
    1. ‘walk’ and ‘leg it’ are both used in the sense of ‘run away from something, ‘walk out in protest’.
      1. To me, “leg it” implies a certain amount of haste, so “walk” didn’t work I’m afraid. Thus it was LOI.

        FOI TROUGH
        COD STOUT-HEARTED

        Didn’t time it, but around 12 minutes at a guess.

        Edited at 2019-12-23 03:25 pm (UTC)

      2. If you walk out you are not running!
        But all the usual dictionaries support the use of the phrase ‘leg it’ to mean walking. It’s just something I’ve never heard: to me it’s always meant specifically running away.
  16. I started with DAIL and made good progress, although the NW resisted my efforts encouraging me to leave it until the end. Liked the nascent colonel. My last 3, STARSHIP, LEGITIMATE and especially STOUT-HEARTED caused most problems, with the latter taking a good 3 minutes of dither before I submitted without seeing the parsing. I did see how it worked about 10 seconds after submitting though. GIVE THE GAME AWAY did just that in the RHS. No trouble with PEPTIDES. Cracking time U! 31:41. Thanks setter and U. Festive felicitations to you too.
  17. I couldn’t see LEGITIMATE so I bunged in “PERIMINATE”! All but that one done correctly in 18:13.

    COD: VROOM.

    1. That was one of many not-quite-words I thought up in my attempts at 13, along with PERIGINATE and some even more unlikely candidates…
  18. Rest assured, U, I hardly ever skip straight to the comments.

    I was not on the wavelength for this one, starting off with 8d DEMURE after having dotted about all over the place looking to get started. Fairly slow progress from there, and I limped over the finishing line with 13d LEGITIMATE (I’m fairly sure I’ve only seen LEG IT! in the imperative, and it didn’t mean walk) in 49 minutes.

    Had my fingers crossed for RUCHE at submission, too, though I suppose there’s not much else the wordplay could point to. My crossword-inspired reading list means that I’ve at least seen MARE’S NEST in the wild, though, I think in one of the Essays of Elia.

    1. I met MARE’S NEST in the rather less advanced context of Rupert the Bear – there was a story called ‘Rupert and the mare’s nest’, or something along those lines.
      1. I remember that story too, I wonder why. I think it features an actual mare sitting up a tree in a nest.
      2. Weird – why has that Rupert Bear story also taken up valuable space in my fading memory banks since what must be the 1950’s?
  19. My family has been going down in relays thanks to a nasty little stomach bug that’s making the rounds in NYC and I was the latest. Luckily it seems to last less than 24 hours but I was feeling a bit fragile this morning. At least that’s my excuse for a ho hum time for this one. I agree with Guy that the def for DEPUTISE looked odd, at least from this end of the pond. Yes, I’m sure RUCHE turns up in the Georgette oeuvre. 15.06. Great time Ulaca and happy Christmas and New Year to you.
  21. Perhaps a little slow, but was held up at the end by several answers where there were only vowels to help eg LEGITIMATE, DEMILITARISE and also DEFECT had a lot of possibilities. I agree that LEG IT wasn’t the first walk that came to mind. DNK RUCHE but had to be that.
  22. Nice start to the week and finished in 13 minutes. On a good run at the moment but will it last till the end of the year?
  23. About 35 min, with fingers crossed at Ruche. Nice time Ulaca. Keep that up and you’re going to have to go to the Championships next year.
  24. Managed to foul this one in by putting in EROTIC, thinking “hmm, that’s not right”, and leaving it as a “placeholder” – always a mistake, as I’d completely forgotten about it by the time I hit the submit button. Doh!
    1. I was, as you may have already imagined, “emboldened” by the lion’s share of a bottle of wine.
  25. Legitimate and stout-hearted took forever. But got there in the end in 45 mins. Cheers, u – good time.
  26. found this one to be a reasonable challenge and came home in 40 mninutes.

    liked stouthearted.

  27. 19:55. I found this a fairly smooth solving experience with a couple of chestnuts for company, I’m sure I’ve seen give the game away before. I would’ve been home sooner if I’d not pondered de-armalise and other similar non-words for demilitarise. But then again I would’ve taken longer if I’d stopped to parse stout-hearted and legitimate.
    1. Lift and separate. The Cockney school is ‘Arrow – I think you have to captalise the A? – and head as an adjective can mean principal.
  29. Could anyone explain how RU is derived from ‘game’ in RUCHE? It’s really bugging me!

    Thanks in advance!

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