Times 27625 – David Duckham Remembered

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A gentle start to the week, which took me 15 minutes plus change. Nothing too difficult vocabulary, definition or parsing wise, and the easily misspelt word had the dodgy vowel handed to you on a plate.

For those of you who have been kind enough to check on the progress of my CS Lewis book, it has finally been published (along with a comic novel that I wrote a year or two back). Interested parties can check it out here.

ACROSS

1 Engagement risks him becoming distraught (8)
SKIRMISH – anagram* of RISKS HIM
5 Hang on! Programme’s approaching finale (6)
APPEND – APP END
10 Dukes pinching diamonds took a risk (5)
DICED – ICE (diamonds) in D D (dukes)
11 Half-starved spies held by English couple died (9)
EMACIATED – CIA in E MATE D
12 Individual flogging stolen gin (9)
SINGLETON – STOLEN GIN*
13 Sailor rejecting seafood, being sole (5)
ALONE – [ab]ALONE
14 Ugly sight I witnessed in the auditorium (7)
EYESORE – sounds like I SAW; reminds me of the old joke ‘Who was that woman I seen you with last night?’ ‘You mean “I saw”‘ ‘Okay, who was that eyesore I seen you with last night?’
16 Occasionally driver steals fuel (6)
DIESEL – alternate letters in D[r]I[v]E[r] S[t]E[a]L[s]
18 Lout finally collared by virtuous man (6)
MORTAL -[lou]T in MORAL
20 Conservative speaker losing head, grabbing university steward (7)
CURATOR – C [o]RATOR – U for o
22 Catch an Edith Piaf number? (5)
SEIZE – 16 for a French personage such as zee leetul sparrow
23 Control Spooner’s sweaty fool (9)
CLAMPDOWN – DAMP CLOWN with the initial bits swapped
25 Spiny creature aunt ogles in unseemly fashion (9)
LANGOUSTE – AUNT OGLES*; one of several decapod crustacean thingies
26 Servicemen without place to study causing fight (3-2)
RUN-IN – UNI in RN (Royal Navy)
27 Complaint of a scholarly woman? (6)
MALADY – MA LADY; yeeees, as Pitman might say
28 Perk for those departing, relieved of responsibility (4-4)
DUTY-FREE -DUTY FREE

DOWN

1 Avoid date in Rome blocking advance? (8)
SIDESTEP – IDES in STEP; it was said of David Duckham that he could sidestep three men in a telephone box. It has to be said some Welsh guy copied him quite successfully. Of course, in the modern game, “that try” wouldn’t have counted: two guys would have been sent off for high tackles and the try disallowed for a forward pass. Who needs technology?
2 Where you might find prisoner from Peru, once? (5)
INCAN – IN CAN
3 Dull place that drivers should steer clear of? (6-2-3-4)
MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD – not quite a double definition because of the hyphen, methinks; me, I like middle-of-the-road music that many heavies sneer at. Here’s thinking of you, Randy VanWarmer. WHAT. A. NAME.
4 He hates arranging cover (7)
SHEATHE – HE HATES*
6 Effects of soldier becoming extremely teary? (7,8)
PRIVATE PROPERTY – PRIVATE (soldier) PROPER (becoming) T[ear]Y; the clue where I earn my corn
7 Sociable old commie holding vicar up (9)
EXTROVERT – REV reversed in EX TROT
8 Are unsteady daughters being given more rum? (6)
DODDER – D (daughters) ODDER (more rum)
9 Lost men dad manipulated (6)
DAMNED – MEN DAD*
15 Moving almost everything after fiancée’s latest proposal (9)
EMOTIONAL – [fiance]E MOTION (proposal) AL[l]
17 Arms injunction I ignored (8)
ORDNANCE – ORD[i]NANCE
19 Copper’s in luck, finding stripper (6)
LOCUST – CUS in LOT; more fortune or destiny, perhaps, but luck is close enough
20 Some of public hate Audi estate (7)
CHATEAU – hidden in in last four words; I recently bought my wife a cover for her beloved Audi A5 Sportback, earning several house points
21 Refuge from years in a favela (6)
ASYLUM – Y in A SLUM; catch City of Joy, if you haven’t already seen it
24 Mistress admitted having bottom scratched by king (5)
OWNER – OWNE[d] d replaced by R (rex – king)

59 comments on “Times 27625 – David Duckham Remembered”

  1. Poor memory and careless reading of the clue led to LAGUSTINE at first, slowing things down until I finally noticed what had happened to MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD. LOI maybe OWNER, or SEIZE.
  2. I was on the way to a rare sub-fifteen when I had a RUN-IN with 26ac and 24dn which I originally had as MIDAS
    M-I’D’AD S for scratched (as in athletics)…but… alas no dice and ended up in half an hour instead.
    MIDAS is a better King than OWNER a Mistress! So 26ac and 24dn are not my COD.

    FOI 10ac DICED – as John Foster was won’t to say ‘Yer dicing with carrots!’

    LOI 24dn OWNER and I thought mistresses were kept!

    COD 6dn PRIVATE PROPERTY

    WOD 25ac LANGOUSTE

    Edited at 2020-03-30 04:26 am (UTC)

  3. LANGOUSTE I think I’ve only read in French; interestingly enough, it meant a grasshopper in Old French. (The other French lobster, the one with the pincers, is the homard.)

    “Sore” and “saw” sound nothing alike in standard American English, of course, but that doesn’t throw me anymaw.

  4. I didn’t find this as straightforward as the SNITCH suggests, where it is rated as very easy. I see there that Verlaine finished in under 4 minutes which is rather mind boggling. I had several on the right hand side which held me up, finally finishing with PRIVATE PROPERTY.
  5. The top half was going in so easily that I stopped to check I had printed the right puzzle. The lower half presented a little more of a challenge, delayed by PROPERTY to go with PRIVATE already entered, LANGOUSTE and EMOTIONAL.

    21 minutes. Not sure what my fastest time is for a 15×15, definitely sub-20 minutes, but I don’t recall ever cracking the 15 minute barrier or I’d have been remembered it.

    Edited at 2020-03-30 06:15 am (UTC)

  6. The top half went in quickly enough, but I was taken seven minutes over my half-hour target by a few in the nether region, especially last two in 19d LOCUST and 18a MORTAL. I really don’t do well when I’ve not got the first letter. A bit 3d.
    1. Same last two as me. Took far too long to spot. Can’t even blame it on familial interruptions
  7. Best yet since I started recording times, and always nice to end in :59. The claims that Mondays aren’t easier than other days don’t seem to hold up. I think there is a maximum number of straight anagrams that are allowed but this one seemed to have them all in the NW corner, which helped at the start.

    As a Scot I also don’t think of sore and saw as homophones, what with my rhotic rs, even though I have long lost my Scottish accent. I didn’t used to understand why people misspelt drawer as draw when I came to England.

    COD: 6dn PRIVATE PROPERTY, nice use of becoming.
    LOI: LOCUST – held up thinking it was CU in a four-letter luck.

    Friday’s answer: the mottos (inspired by MOTTO) were (a) think is IBM, (b) think different is Apple, (c) don’t be evil is/was Google, (d) democracy dies in darkness is the rather depressing newish motto of the Washington Post.

    Today’s question: if the French grab a German pixie a single time in Spain, how much do you have?

  8. Well, how did I get here? A gentle puzzle combined with my being both in the zone and on the wavelength created a perfect storm of solving and a sub-15 personal best time that I expect never to better. I don’t think I can type them in much faster on my iPhone! When I saw Verlaine’s extraordinary time, my 6V target seemed daunting – but clues flew by in a blur. Wow. And for a third song quote, oh what a feeling.

    Thanks setter and U for the blog. And congrats on the book!

    Edited at 2020-03-30 07:29 am (UTC)

  9. 12 minutes. I thought I was on for a sub 10, and so cheerfully biffed LANGOUST assuming it was something to do with langoustine, took a minute over each of RUN-IN and CLAMPDOWN and then twigged ORDNANCE. Very Mondayish, which I think must be today, as it was the ST crossword yesterday. COD to CLAMPDOWN. Thank you U and setter. Was the Welsh guy Barry John or Phil Bennett?
    2. Bennett in the barbarian all blacks try he was talking about. Look it up on you tube. It’s worth it just for cliff Morgan’s commentary. Scored by that fellow Edwards. I can’t remember who it was who said of Barry John – he just rolled his eyes at me and I fell over
      1. I missed that there was a link. I’ve checked that out now. I see it was Phil Bennett but they were both magnificent players. Makes me proud of being one sixteenth Welsh.
  11. Was heading for a very rare sub 10, but LOCUST/MORTAL LOsI.

    Shouldn’t 13ac have the words the other way round?

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

    1. I think you have to read it as if there’s a hyphen: ‘sailor-rejecting seafood’.
        1. I don’t know what you mean. For the first three words to work as wordplay the seafood has to be rejecting the sailor, not the other way round. The word ‘being’ is just filler and doesn’t change anything.
          1. Nor do I on reflection. Let me see if this works. Rejecting one seafood (from another), a sailor finds himself on his own. A lot of double-duty going on but it kind of works.

            Edited at 2020-03-30 10:37 am (UTC)

        1. Not as far as I know, but it is conventional to ignore punctuation, which I take to mean that you can assume it when it’s not there.
  12. My first crossword for a while – life having been somewhat disrupted. Felt that my 20 minutes should have been lower, but the inspiration wasn’t quite flowing. A very enjoyable resumption of activity, nonetheless, for which many thanks. These days, it is more vital than ever
  13. Easy puzzle with no stand out features.

    Didn’t realise you’re a fellow author Ulaca. My latest is on Amazon. Called “Not In The Public Interest” it is an insider’s account of the political intrigue behind the reorganisation of Dorset local authorities that culminated in a Judicial Review

    1. I’ll look it up, Jim. Oddly, the protagonist of my novel lives in Dorset. Not so odd, really, as I spent many holidays there in the 60s and 70s.
      1. Well done on the writing front, U. I see you have been unfavourably reviewed by someone because yours wasn’t the book she wanted; this seems rather unfair on you, but I gather this is par for the course as regards critics on Amazon (I have seen authors given even more scathing critiques based entirely on the shortcomings of the postman who delivered the book).
        1. Perhaps you could report the post as inappropriate, Tim. I already have from various machines, but so far to no avail. Jeff Bezos must be taking a break, I guess.
          1. I did that yesterday. Here’s hoping the creaking machine of Amazon review support lurches into action.
          2. I have done so (also, by way of small consolation, her idiocy does not appear on the .co.uk version of the page).
  14. 17:07, but it should have been sub-15 as I made a mess of the SW corner failing to check the anagrist properly for 25A. Thus LANGOUSTE and LOCUST my last 2 in. I liked the hot gin at 12A, although The Singleton is actually a trio of whiskies.
    1. I have a very nice bottle of The Singleton that I acquired at the Glen Ord Distillery last year. I’m savouring it intermittently to make it last:)
  15. The clock says 23.52, but that includes a lengthy interruption from one of my tech-shy friends (there are people more inept with tech than me!) who always takes an age to work through whatever issue he has. I didn’t press pause soon enough, and rather lost heart having previously got halfway through the across clues without a holdup.
    So I rather meandered through the rest of it, and left MORTAL to the end because a “virtuous man” is usually a ST and that didn’t fit anywhere. Just “man”, then.
    I hesitated on LANGOUSTE because on Masterchef it usually has an IN in.
    Gentle start to the week

    Edited at 2020-03-30 09:24 am (UTC)

  16. What felt like a slowish 19’21, last in seize. Nice to get a puzzle that doesn’t take one out of first gear, once in a while.
  18. 6:48. Very easy, but there were one or two in the bottom half that slowed me down just a little.
  19. Since I can’t go and get my daily paper, I’m trying to become accustomed to the online crossword, but I still find it an unpleasant way of doing the things – as witnessed by needing at least a couple of attempts to type SKIRMISH correctly.

    Still, this was an easy one – only my third time under 5 minutes, and the first of those online, all done in 4m 51s with no real hold-ups. Which puts me just about within a minute of Verlaine!

  20. Rather a slow time by all accounts, but for some reason I took about 3 minutes to put the first one in (MIDDLE OF THE ROAD). Rather embarrassed by my initial run through the French numbers and giving up at DOUZE. LOI MORTAL which eluded me for too long.
  21. ….during the lockdown ? Note the juxtaposition of SINGLETON and ALONE. SEIZE and CLAMPDOWN could be a hidden warning that failure to observe the rules could end with you being RUN IN.

    MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD gave us the execrable “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep”. Why should I be the only one with that particular earworm ? It’s good to share….

    I was another who slowed down halfway. The entire top half was a write-in, and was gone in seconds over two minutes. Whilst I would by no means call the bottom half difficult, it still required rather more thought.

    FOI SKIRMISH
    LOI MORTAL
    COD SEIZE
    TIME 6:59

  22. Thought it must be, as this was a walk in the park (not allowed). 18 minutes but was on for a PB before the SW corner slowed me down. Had a MER at OWNER for mistress, as observed above by others. Ashamed to say, in spite of 12 years in France, my LOI was SEIZE.
    I’m trying to imagine how Americans pronounce SAW, if it’s not like SORE (see 14a comment above by Guy de S.)
    I think a langoustine is smaller than a langouste z8?
    Sorry to say I also had to Google to find out who David Duckham was. Thought maybe something to do with motor oil.
  23. Another one here who thought he was going to break the 10 min barrier until the bottom half slowed me down.

    LOI and COD: SEIZE.

  25. Owing to the current internment I have been obliged to begin solving on-line, so I am still getting used to the technicalities ( don’t mock – I’m old and vulnerable according to HMG ). Consequently, I spend quite a bit of time mucking about with the controls instead of actually solving.

    Time: 44.47 ( of which about 10 minutes wrestling with
    the system )

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Incidentally, can some kind soul please explain how to erase a letter from a cell without over-writing it?

    Cheers, Dave.

  26. Thought I was on for a PB after the first few. Alas, it was not to be and a stodgy bit ensured I could do no better than 13.10. Still enjoyed the puzzle though. LOI Alone.
  27. No typos for a change, as well. A pleasant romp for a Monday. Even the dreaded appearance of Dr Spooner didn’t put me off my stride too much. COD, for me, was the elegantly hidden CHATEAU.
  28. Pleasant Monday solve, my slow-down came on the MORTAL/LOCUST nexus; also, I’d already tried counting in French, but stopped at “douze” for no good reason, which meant I was wondering if SEINE, being a type of net, was close enough to “catch”, and if so, had Mlle. Piaf ever sung about the river. Well, it seemed briefly possible, even if I managed to avoid finding out I was wrong by submitting it.

    I was fortunate enough to watch Duckham many times as a boy – as often happens in sport, it was only in hindsight that I realised how lucky I was. (This has set me musing, not for the first time, how it has happened that Coventry have not only become a significantly less successful club than the one Duckham et al. played for, but somehow not even the major rugby club in their own city any more…)

  29. I was obviously off the boil as I took 26:35 to solve this one, which put me at 137 on the leaderboard. I started off well enough but got bogged down in the SE where Doc Spooner refused to yield for ages, and DUTY-FREE, PROPERTY and finally ORDNANCE were reluctant in the extreme to appear. Thanks setter and U.
  30. Most of this done in 20 minutes but another 30 needed to get the last few including COD Private Property.
    Like Gothick Matt my last two were LOCUST and MORTAL.
    On first look at 22a I counted to 10 in French;should have carried on- I do have regrets about that.
    Took Langouste on trust.
    Huge thanks for the rugby clip – a great moment in sport.
    David
  31. And I have regrets for not doing a bit more of an alphabet trawl for 16a – I got bored at around G something something and looked up a synonym for virtuous, hence a DNF. So frustrating – I was on for a good time. Just under 30 minutes for the whole thing bar one, then six minutes faffing around with one clue 😒

    Quite a lot of anagrams, which helped, and the Spoonerism didn’t hold me up as much as they can do! I liked 14a Eyesore, and 21d Asylum – they’re both slightly downbeat clues but I thought the surfaces were good.

    FOI Diced
    LOI Mortal
    COD Diesel – simple but effective
    DNF – technical or otherwise!

    Thanks Ulaca (good luck with the book) and setter

  32. Don’t care if it was easy, a PB is a PB. I have only done sub-10 once before so this brought me some joy after a morning of vacuuming and ironing!
  33. Just means I can actually do most of it whereas most days I can’t even get more than one or two! So good encouragement for beginners who usually stick to the quick one! I finished it with the use of a few aids – a good learning experience! Many thanks.
  34. 13:44. After the top half flew in I was hoping for a sub-10 solve but a little traction in the bottom half meant it wasn’t to be. I liked 6dn.
  35. 12 mins. This has improved the personal snitch after a series of tough ones. The sad & low Nina in the SE was no deterrent today. Will push on for a sub 10 min next week, setter willing!

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