Times 27556 – double you fun

Solving time: 12:32, but with one stupid typo, I somehow had an extra U in 1 down. I had been pretty careful lately and this was my first typo in over a month so I’m kicking myself. It is late and I am pretty tired so although I got off to a flying start, this puzzle came in a little bit above my average time.

In case I have made an error, please check the comments first – I will be unable to make any amendments to this blog until much later in the day tomorrow.

Away we go…

Across
1 Blaise, perhaps, having way with pen (7)
MODESTY – MODE(way) and STY(pen) – reference the old comic strip and movie character
5 Occupant of bed regrets you’re taking it back (6)
OYSTER – hidden reversed inside regRETS YOur
8 Rash, one caused by such a fire? (9)
UNGUARDED – double definition, the second one slightly cryptic
9 Man maybe taking risks, losing races (5)
BEING – BETTING(taking risks), missing TT(races)
11 It’s about the tax (5)
TITHE – reversal of IT, then THE
12 Left one timid person squeezing in vehicle (9)
LIMOUSINE – L(left), I(one), MOUSE(timid person) containing IN
13 One large officer, half upset, is unsuitable (3-5)
ILL-TIMED – I(one), L(large), LT(lieutenant, officer), then DEMI(half) reversed
15 Flyer with current data about something resembling egg? (6)
WIGEON – W(with), I(current), GEN(data) surrounding an O(something resembling egg)
17 Junior minister to organise exhibitions (6)
CURATE – double definition
19 Train skater in West Indies to take up another sport (5-3)
WATER-SKI – anagram of SKATER inside WI(West Indies)
22 A tick for one old king skipping posh old school (9)
ARTHROPOD – king ARTHUR missing U(posh), O(old), POD(school)
23 Stuck my job, having abandoned India (5)
CLUNG – the author’s job is CLUING, remove I(India)
24 Pointless showing wit and energy (2,3)
NO USE – NOUS(wit) and E(energy)
25 Capital raging at New Labour (4,5)
ULAN BATOR – anagram of AT, N(new), LABOUR
26 Appropriate article that is very penetrating (6)
THIEVE – THE(article) containing IE(that is), V(very)
27 Five score for former county division (7)
HUNDRED – a double definiton, though I did not know that it meant a county division, got it from the first definition

Down
1 Get on a short distance in a clapped-out Sierra (8,5)
MOUNTAIN CHAIN – MOUNT(get on), A, INCH(short distance) than an anagram of IN,A
2 Fancy one short speech is using computer technology? (7)
DIGITAL – DIG(fancy) I(one), then TALK(speech) missing the last letter
3 Row close to huge wave (5)
SPATE – SPAT(row) then the last letter of hugE
4 Person shouting to muffle regularly good singer (8)
YODELLER – YELLER(person shouting) containing alternating letters in gOoD
5 Old, old Asian brought up a problem with fluid (6)
OEDEMA – O(old) then MEDE(old Persian) reversed, A
6 Boat departs, given access to fuel? It’s undecided (3,6)
SUB JUDICE – SUB(boat) then D(departed) inside JUICE(fuel)
7 Building journalist provided rocks (7)
EDIFICE – ED(Journalist) IF(provided), ICE(rocks)
10 Like good gardener’s area for putting on felt (5-8)
GREEN-FINGERED – GREEN(area for putting) then FINGERED(felt)
14 Moderate papers holding centre ground finally close (9)
INTERCEDE – ID(papers), containing an anagram of CENTRE, then the last letter of closE
16 Ready way around cutting grass (4,4)
HARD CASH – RD(way), CA(around) inside HASH(grass)
18 Improve drench that’s painful (7)
RETOUCH – RET(drench), OUCH(that’s painful)
20 Keep mum, say, closer (7)
SHUTTER – SH(keep mum), UTTER(say)
21 Smart police force once occupying small gym (6)
SPRUCE – RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) inside S(small), PE(gym)
23 Bishop visiting killer’s shack (5)
CABIN – B(bishop) inside CAIN(killer)

68 comments on “Times 27556 – double you fun”

  1. 32 minutes for all but one answer, but after spending 5 minutes on an alphabet trawl at 3dn I gave in and looked it up. There were just too many possibilities – 47 as it turns out – and it was doing my head in. When I found out the answer was No 35 on the list I was glad I had done so.

    DK the old Persian at 5dn but that didn’t prevent me getting to OEDEMA; it would have been a straightforward biff if I’d known how to spell it.

    Edited at 2020-01-09 06:27 am (UTC)

  2. I couldn’t come up with SPATE, although my alphabet-trawling turned up just about every other possible word. Just as well, though, as I put in PIGEON–while wondering about the PI. The only Blaise I could think of was Pascal, which I would have flung in immediately except for the blank square it would leave. Somehow MODESTY finally surfaced from the checkers, although I couldn’t have told you who M. Blaise was. Pretty easy otherwise.
    1. Oh yes, I forgot to say I saved myself from PIGEON at the very last moment having already written it in.
    2. Almost identical. SPATE was my LOI after alphabet trawl. Feeling good until I realised that my PIGEON was wrong – I hadn’t figured out the PI either.
      But I would not have got WIGEON as I have always spelled it as WIDGEON anyway.
      Good crossword despite my error.
  3. Like Kevin and Jack I struggled with SPATE so was pleased to finally get it after several alphabet trawls. What did for me was SUB JUDICE. I didn’t know the term and don’t think I’d have come up with it from the cryptic no matter how long I’d looked at it for. I plumped for SUB DULINE thinking that perhaps a ‘u line’ was something used with a fuel pump.
    1. I was saved from that fate by an episode of Channel 4 vampire series Ultraviolet. All its episode titles are Latin phrases, possibly as a reference to the Catholic involvement in the fight against the vamps…
  4. Reasonable time but with a confidently misspelled ULAN BATUR, plus a headlong dive into the bear trap at 15a, biffing PIGEON while telling the little voice in my head that was saying “But where does the P come from?” to keep quiet while I was busy solving crosswords. That’ll learn it.
  5. 11:04. This was mostly reasonably straightforward but I hesitated for ages over 5dn. I knew the term but was very unsure how to spell it and didn’t know the ancient Persians. In the end I just put in my best guess and submitted with fingers crossed. A bit of a nasty clue if you ask me, which of course you didn’t.
    MODESTY BLAISE took a while to come to mind too: like Kevin my first – and, for a while only – thought was Pascal.

    Edited at 2020-01-09 08:04 am (UTC)

  6. 34 minutes, which would have been 32 if I could have spotted the wordplay at the end of 13a. “upset” would be a much more obvious reversal indicator in a down clue.

    You can see on my sheet where I’ve corrected ULAN BATUR to ULAN BATOR, so apparently having no confidence in my geographical knowledge is a good thing 🙂

    “The law of the Medes and Persians” has come up here before, else I might’ve had problems with 5d OEDEMA, but possibly watching The Death of Mr Lazarescu and thereby spending 2½ hours immersed in hospitals last night helped…

  7. 17:25. LOI SPATE held me up for about a minute at the end. Unlike Sotira, I managed to avoid PIGEON by listening to the little voice in my head saying “where does the P come from”. I derived MODESTY from the wordplay rather than remembering the character. I don’t think I’ve seen the comic strip book or films. Lots of fun clues that raised a smile. I liked OYSTER, BEING and HARD CASH most. Thanks George and setter.
  8. A rapid (for me) solve in 28m spoiled by exactly Sotira’s experience with the P of pigeon. Not sure I knew there was a bird called a wigeon. I do now. Plenty of fun until the dreaded pink square emerged. Thanks setter and George.
  9. 34 minutes. I’d been flirting with the Medes as the Asians for most of the puzzle, but I only saw which of their immutable laws was operating when I finally dug up the OYSTER.That gave enough crossers to construct the unknown LOI OEDEMA. Early on, I was also hung up on Blaise Pascal for too long, for once the the wrong wager, before the ‘m’ from MOUNTAIN CHAIN reminded me of MODESTY, not a virtue displayed by all you smartypants who are much faster than me. What the hell, I got the right bird, though I did want to put another ‘d’ in. Fortunately, it wouldn’t fit. I liked ARTHROPOD too, not that I’d have known what one was without the cryptics.Enjoyable puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
  10. 30 mins with yoghurt, blueberries, granola, etc.
    MER (like Matt above) at ‘upset’ for reversal in an across clue. Surely that’s not right.
    Thanks setter and G.
    1. I wondered about ‘upset’ too but concluded that it was upset as in ‘tip over’ which perhaps works in an across clue?
  11. 1ac a write-in, having devoured a number of Modesty Blaise books as a teenager .. though only now do I discover that there were several later novels as well. I think it may be too late now though; sophisticated, they were not.
    One of the advantages of taking one’s time is that mistakes seldom occur, since each clue is fully parsed. But annoyingly I did manage PIGEON today, despite wondering rather about the P
  12. 35 mins. Modesty went straight in first. Managed to get wigeon, while wondering why there wasn’t a ‘d’ in it, probably because Bertie W has a pal called Freddie Widgeon. Thanks g.
  13. Good challenge. Delayed, like everyone else, it seems, by a debate with myself about pigeons, happily resolved by finding the right bird; and then by an alphabet trawl to resolve the many different synonyms for “row” and “wave”. OEDEMA was much easier to spell when we called it dropsy.
    1. Easier to spell when you drop the damned O, too, as we do across the pond: edema, esophagus, ecumenical, estrogen, …
  14. MOUNTAIN RANGE helped me to come up with MODESTY, but was no help with CURATE, ARTHROPOD and NO USE, the last of which finally put me right. I had the OPOD bit for a while at 22a, before the corrected CHAIN gave me the old king. Fortunately I never considered PIGEON, as the “with current” immediately conjured up WI, possibly due to the juxtaposition with the West Indies clue. SUB JUDICE and BEING were two of the last three to succumb, which left me with an alphabet trawl for 3d. 6 minutes later I came up with SPATE and heaved a deep sigh. 36:55. Thanks setter and George.
  15. 32 minutes but an ill-timed pigeon since though wigeon worked perfectly I couldn’t believe it was d-less. jk
  16. I too read the Modesty Blaise books as a young man, but as a mathematician I was fixated, like others, on Pascal. Also slowed down by biffing MOUNTAIN RANGE.

    UK citizens may know that an MP who wishes to resign has to apply for the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, which is an office of profit under the Crown, in order to do so.

    < 17′, thanks george and setter.

  17. The recent conversation about diphthongs reminded me about the O at the front of this, which then led me to recall that someone has said that the current POTUS has an [O]EDFICE complex. Ditto others on SPATE (which ate up several minutes at the end) and I changed the P to W in the bird right at the end too although I also wanted a D in there. Georgette Heyer uses the D when she so describes a scatty woman. I can’t remember which book it comes in but the OT refers to the laws of the MEDEs and the Persians as being immutable (or something). SUB JUDICE recalled from the Flanders & Swann description of the romance between Orpheus & Euridice. 20.08
    1. Ecumenical was queried earlier. The OED has entries for oeconomy, oeconomics, oecumenical etc οικος-derived as they were. We Brits are just plain inconsistent in our spelling!
      Peter P

  18. I managed to get SPATE fairly easily and avoided the pigeon trap but failed on the awful 5d knowing neither of the required bits of “obscure” knowledge.

    What a rubbish clue, IMHO.

    1. Never heard of MEDE either, but was pretty confident about the answer. I’d agree that cluing an unusual word with an obscure wordplay element is a bit much.
      1. I’m surprised at the number of solvers who had never heard of the Medes; I remember the Medes and Persians from high school.
        1. There was also the anti-Hellene ‘crime’ during the time of the Persian invasions circa 480 BCE of Medizing – going over to, rolling over for, or just imitating the sybaritic lifestyle of the Persians.
  19. Two bloopers. PIGEON and SUB FUTILE (well all the letters were there in fuel and it).

    MODESTY was first in – would’e been a struggle to come up with Pascal – before my time….

  20. That I couldn’t finish. Popped in Mountain Range and Pigeon. Couldn’t get the Oyster/Oedema crossers. Retouch was obvious but I’ve never hear of Ret (drench). Looking up, this means to soak flax – a common event for most no doubt. Obscure to me. Good fun puzzle though. Thanks blogger.
  21. I must have been on the wave-length. I’m normally round the half-hour mark but I finished in 15 minutes this morning. Debated WIGEON V PIGEON but finally saw the W. (Like Olivia, I knew the bird from Georgette Heyer’s epithet for a bird-brained woman – though I only know it as WIDGEON) It helped to get MODESTY Blaise straight away – once I had discounted Pascal. Who can forget Modesty and Willie…?
  22. Sauntered through this in a respectable 24 minutes. MODESTY went in first, then LIMOUSINE and the bottom half, then got SPATE without delay before taking care with WIGEON not PIGEON as W I was clearly with current.

    I see ULAN BATOR is no longer in favour, the transliteration now in use is ULAANBAATAR, which would be a clueing challenge. Any offers?

    1. It’s one A less than taramasalata, but it would make for a tricky anagram. How about “Strangely, 5A’s blunt refusal initially to recognize Asian capital” ?
  23. All fair in my view, no problems with oedema.

    “Darius the Mede was a king and a wonder, his eye was proud and his voice was thunder. He kept bad lions in a monstrous den, and fed them up on Christian man.”

    Surely we all did the Daniel jazz at school?

    DUffer

  24. Yet another pigeon here. Slightly mollified by seeing that (at present), SNITCH has 50 ref solvers, of whom 23 are excluded with errors. Most of those are probably the same error, so nearly half the sample stumbled into the pit the setter left for us.
  25. Modesty and I are well acquainted, and 1ac was may FOI. I also know Varoomshka who is still on the go, and as lovely as ever! God Bless John Kent!

    Did not enjoy this puzzle as my RANGE was limited at 1dn

    COD certainly not WIGEON which was an awful clue IMHO
    so 5dn OEDEMA

    WOD None

    Please Sir, I had 3dn as SPARE : to SPAR – to row (quarrel) with, with the (hug)E.

    Mood Meldrewvian and tomorrow is Friday

    Edited at 2020-01-09 04:08 pm (UTC)

      1. After struggling for a while I toyed with SPARE on the basis that it could mean WAIVE which is nearly WAVE.
      2. I never said it did!

        But as you ask – to spare the rod is to wave (goodbye) to the punishment!

        Pootle you are a gem.

        Edited at 2020-01-09 06:35 pm (UTC)

  26. Not my favourite: and am wondering whether anyone has ever seen a WIGEON (in flight or otherwise)?
    Not a fan of “Blaise” as def for Modesty – would “Day” be fair for “Robin”?
    Bah, humbug
  27. ….WIGEON (or less commonly WIDGEON). I ain’t common guv, and I’ve always used that D. In PIDGEON it only leads to Walter of that ilk. Hence some hesitation before jumping over the bear trap successfully.

    FOI MODESTY
    LOI ILL-TIMED
    COD ARTHROPOD
    TIME 12:05

  28. No time as I fell asleep after a gruelling 18 holes. However I think I completed it quite quickly. Everyone’s confusion over PIGEON, WIDGEON, WIGEON repeated for me, and was clearly put there for the benefit of this blog to argue over.
  29. Should have known better with the bird – wigeon are pretty little ducks with a great scientific name! But biffed pigeon because I was in a hurry to watch Death in Paradise, and I continue to have trouble remembering that with frequently signifies W! I have been thinking about changing my user pic to a wigeon recently – perhaps it would help me remember the bird!

    I did this in two sessions today, so no definite time – maybe 50 minutes.

    I struggled with 1a for ages because I was sure that lurking in the back of my mind was a French author or poet called Modeste Blaise! I do vaguely remember the name from the 60s but don’t think I saw the comic strips etc.

    Mostly I enjoyed this although ret and mede were unknowns so I just trusted the definitions.

    FOI Oyster
    LOI Spate
    COD Tithe

    Off for a bit of winter escapism now 😊

    1. Coo, thanks for the tip. I hadn’t realised it was back on the telly. Excellent gentle escapism 🙂
        1. I’ll have to tell you later. I intend to iPlayer it in the next couple of days, possibly with a hangover, which may impinge on my working-out ability!
          1. My DiP solving results are much like my crossword ones – sort of on the right track but don’t always get it quite right! Enjoy your time in the sun 🙂
        1. It’s a deliberately unchallenging show set in a tropical paradise with definite comedy elements. It’s gentle in the way that watching a David Suchet Poirot or an episode of Columbo can be gentle!

          Edited at 2020-01-10 03:15 pm (UTC)

  30. Started late in the day on the train and finished in a second burst after 10 pm. Found the going tough but completed in a combined 26 minutes. Last two in were arthropod- never heard of it so just an inspired guess which made some sense- and hard cash, made more difficult by struggling with the former.

    If there’s a motto, has to be doing the Times Crossword is always an education!

  31. I Had trouble with the Wigeon Sub Judice crossing, and I think that the Mountain Chain is the Sierras, plural, with no singular possible ( like the Rockies or the Pennines, unlike the Alps), but in really liked the puzzle otherwise. I knew the Medes from Herodotus and Thucydides. Thanks setter and GH

    Edited at 2020-01-09 10:50 pm (UTC)

  32. Commenting late after a concert at the Barbican. It took me about 25 mins to DNF this one. Hard cash wasn’t easy to come by and not knowing the Medes made oedema difficult but having eventually got those two I then followed the breadcrumbs all the way into the pigeon trap.
  33. My Name is Steve Jones from Canada, i turn to a vampire any time i want to, I become a real vampire because of how people treat me, This world is a wicked world and not fair to any body. At the snack of my finger things are made happened. Am now a powerful vampire and no one step on me without an apology goes free. I turn to human being also at any time i want to. And am one of the most dreaded and respected person in my country. i am now also very famous and rich with the help of the VAMPIRES EMPIRE. i get what ever a want. i become a vampire through the help of my friend who introduce me into a vampire Kingdom by given me their email: jamessuccessfultemple45@gmail.com, if you want to become a powerful and a real vampire kindly contact the vampire kingdom on their email: jamessuccessfultemple45@gmail.com for help. it is real. Contact them today. jamessuccessfultemple45@gmail.com

Comments are closed.