Times 28997 – scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

31:18

A bit of a mixed bag, in my opinion. Quite a few satisfying penny-drop moments, alongside some definitions bordering on weird. Perhaps I just don’t have the requisite knowledge to appreciate some subtleties. I found the right hand side much harder than the left, except for my LOI 15dn.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Fail to take advantage of reasonable mark at university (4,2)
PASS UP – PASS (reasonable mark) + UP (at university).
5 Doing something with unwelcome intruders? (8)
OCCUPIED – double definition / cryptic hint.
9 Legitimate target that is less appealing than soccer? (4,4)
FAIR GAME – FAIR (less appealing than) + GAME (soccer?).
10 Meditative place containing area in a quiet room (6)
ASHRAM – A (area), in A + SH (quiet) + RM (room).
11 Dire omen disconcerted boss (8)
DOMINEER – anagram of DIRE OMEN.
12 Diplomacy initially is clearly expedient (6)
TACTIC – TACT (diplomacy), then the forst letters of Is and Clearly. Nicely switched part of speech.
13 Steps possibly taken by crew in Tube following warning signal (8)
HORNPIPE – RN (Royal Navy, crew), contained by PIPE (tube) after HO! (warning signal).
15 Law introduced with leader of parliament’s agreement (4)
PACT – ACT (law) after first of Parliament.
17 Crop frame of blue movie (4)
BEET – outermost letters (frame) of BluE + ET (film).
19 Note about what listeners practise (8)
REHEARSE – RE (note), containing (about) EH? (what) + EARS (listeners).
20 What solicitor may do about overturning bulk of legal expenses? (6)
ACCOST – CA (about) reversed (overturning) + most of COSTs (legal expenses?). Tout not lawyer.
21 Issued new mandate after start of election (8)
EMANATED – anagram of MANDATE after first of Election.
22 Sport isn’t about entertaining opposing players (6)
TENNIS – anagram of ISN’T containing E + N (East and North, opposing players in bridge).
23 Unimportant, short-lived ménage à trois? (8)
TRIFLING – cryptic definition. TRI-FLING.
24 King was convinced to remove bishop no longer showing concern (8)
RELIEVED – R (king) + bELIEVED minus its ‘b’ (bishop).
25 Moderate urgent legislation’s passage (6)
GENTLE – hidden in urGENT LEgislation.
Down
2 Working in Canada, somehow being able to draw breath? (8)
ANACONDA – ON (working) in an anagram (somehow) of CANADA. Is the definition simply ‘animal that breathes’? I get the feeling I’m missing something clever here.
3 Uninterrupted sound on recording (8)
STRAIGHT – sounds like (on recording) “strait” (sound).
4 Earth possibly reduced grass and other plant life (5,4)
PLANE TREE – PLANET (Earth possibly) + all-but-the-last-of REEd (grass).
5 Theatre objected to supporting extra appearing more often than expected (15)
OVERREPRESENTED – REP (theatre) + RESENTED (objected to), all underneath (supporting) OVER (extra).
6 Steal the show from leading male character at end of performance (7)
UPSTAGE – UP (leading) + STAG (male character) + last of performancE.
7 Short ceremony encapsulated by cross and incense (8)
IRRITATE – shortened RITe inside IRATE (cross).
8 Queen perhaps behind protest involving Republican politician (8)
DEMOCRAT – CAT (queen perhaps, a female cat) after DEMO (protest), involving R (republican).
14 Sharing Standard piece on which Time article is based (9)
PARTAKING – PAR (standard), then KING (piece, in chess) under T (time) and A (article).
15 Newspaper most unlikely to charge for each column (8)
PILASTER – I (newspaper) + LAST (most unlikely), contained by (to charge) PER (for each). Vaguely remembered architectural feature.
16 Expert regularly unveils something hard to get one’s teeth into (8)
CRACKNEL – CRACK (expert) + regular letters from uNvEiLs. What I would more likely call peanut brittle.
17 Happened to live in a corrupt state (8)
BEFALLEN – BE (live) + FALLEN (in a corrupt state).
18 Constant checking by particular type of examiner (8)
EXTERNAL – ETERNAL (constant) containing (checking) X (by, times by).
19 Impatient author’s preceded by everyone else (7)
RESTIVE – I’VE (author’s) after REST (everyone else).

69 comments on “Times 28997 – scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it”

  1. I became bogged down in some parts of the grid – the SW being particularly resistant to my efforts for some reason. PILASTER was my LOI.

    ‘Being able to draw breath’ = ANACONDA because the snake constricts and crushes its prey to death by coiling around it and squeezing with immense pressure so that it can’t breathe and eventually suffocates.

  2. I believe that 9ac is an allusion to “The beautiful game”, an epithet often applied to football.

  3. AHA! Thanks Jack for your explanation of ANACONDA. It was a write-in but had no idea why.
    I thought this was a really gentle crossword for a Friday and even though I missed a couple – Pilaster and Cracknel – I still enjoyed it.
    I think that 13a is simply Horn=Warning Signal before Pipe=Tube, with ‘steps possibly taken by crew’ being the clue for the ‘Sailor’s Hornpipe”, a dance/jig for sailors.
    Thanks setter and blogger.

    1. Ah, so did I. But “Ho” is a specifically RN term meaning “Attention” when marching.

    3. I am with Quadrophenia regarding HORNPIPE. That is exactly how I read it and I find a much simpler and more elegant parsing.

  4. My LOI was PILASTER too, and then it took me forever to parse it. I came to terms with ANACONDA the same way Jackkt did, but it seems to stretch the sense of “draw” and to be maybe a shade too vague. For EXTERNAL, I’m not sure I’ve seen “checking” mean containing one letter before (at least if it’s not a “checker”), thought it meant something interrupting something else, and this is the other way round.

    In UPSTAGE, I think STAG suffices for “male,” with E being the “character at end of performance.”

    NHO CRACKNEL, but I love peanut brittle. Parsed HORNPIPE the way Quadrophenia and others here have. (Edit)

    1. I think we get ‘checking’ meaning ‘containing’ from time to time, and every time we do it fools me

        1. I’m with you. Surely this is X checking ETERNAL, not the other way round. As set, I’m not convinced this clue works with my understanding of English.

        2. I read this as: “checking” can mean “restricting” (eg “checking one’s progress”) and “restricting” can imply placing geographical limits on.

          It’s a bit tenuous, but I think that’s where it comes from.

  5. 33:12, I was doing all right till 5ac and 6dn. I was pretty sure of the STAGE part of 6dn but had a complete blank on the first two letters! On finally getting UPSTAGE, OCCUPIED was obvious of course.
    I understood HORNPIPE the same as Quadrophenia.
    Thanks setter and blogger

  6. I’m with Quadrophenia on HORNPIPE, tbh I wondered how the word crew was justified in the clue but Q’s explanation works. 31.19 for me, compared with William’s 31.18 I notice. Curses! I thought the clue for PILASTER was trying too hard to be tricky, I still don’t really get how ‘being able to draw breath’ equates to what an ANACONDA is (I know what it does) and as for OCCUPIED, I’m getting on with my life. Those quibbles aside there was lots to enjoy here, thanks William you speed demon.

    From Isis:
    I married Isis on the fifth day of May
    But I could not hold on to her very long
    So I cut off my hair and I rode STRAIGHT away
    To the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong

    1. Best I could come up with was squatters occupying a property, but open to something better.
      And, just thought of occupied territory!

        1. I thought of the situation of someone in an OCCUPIED toilet.
          Intruders would be unwelcome—that’s why there’s a sign saying OCCUPIED.
          And then I stopped thinking about it.

      1. It forces the breath out of its victim’s body. It doesn’t pull the breath out.

  7. 11.52. Took me a while to remember which way round the I and A went in PILASTER, which justified my not-fully-parsed ACCOST.

    In-flight I thought ANACONDA was a brilliant def (although Guy is probably right about draw vs squeeze), FAIR GAME less so.

    We’ve not had an all-round stinker for a while…

    Thanks both.

    PS. Please fix the app!

  8. 27 mins but rushed to judgment and put in accuse rather than the correct accost. Annoying but reasonably pleased with the rest. As with others put in anaconda without knowing why that was the answer. I’ll now scroll up for enlightenment.

  9. 42 minutes with LOI RELIEVED, which I was to finish this. I spent many minutes on OCCUPIED and a few on EXTERNAL, not helped by having biffed GINNEL for the passage before seeing the hidden GENTLE. CRACKNEL was always the most disappointing chocolate in the box but wins my COD today. A mixed bag, as you say, with one or two misshapes thrown in. Thank you William and setter.

  10. Not too hard for a Friday, 23 minutes. Still don’t quite see that the ANACONDA definition works. CRACKNEL was LOI as barely remembered what it was. Thanks William for explaining PILASTER etc.

  11. A rare double DNF today. Having already abandoned the QC, I took my bat and ball home after 22 minutes of not being on the setter’s wavelength most of the time. I could have biffed PILASTER, but since I was already breeze blocked by 23A/18D I didn’t bother. Thanks to William for explaining that one. I might also have biffed EXTERNAL I suppose, but I was a letter short, and must remove my headgear to the setter for beating me with COD TRIFLING.

  12. No official time but all within estimated 45 mins.

    FOI: PASS UP
    LOI: TRIFLING

    I failed to parse ANACONDA (thank you, jackkt) wasn’t convinced with FAIR GAME for quite a while and assumed 5A referred to territory as in ‘OCCUPIED Europe’. Also took time over PILASTER and LOI.

    Weekend good wishes to everyone and thank you to william_j_s and the setter.

  13. DNF. Gave up on the hour with no idea what was going on with CRACKNEL (NHO) PILASTER & ACCOST. Bah.

    I found this pretty tough having to weedle the answers out ever so slowly. ANACONDA bunged in on a prayer.

    Thanks William and setter.

  14. DNF, slightly relieved to find I’m not the only one who put ‘accuse’ for 20a rather than ACCOST.

    Agree with tilbee that FAIR GAME is a reference to the beautiful game; parsed HORNPIPE the same way as Quadrophenia and others; and relied on the wordplay for the unknown CRACKNEL.

    Thanks William and setter.

    COD Upstage

  15. About 75 minutes Rather tough in parts FOI PLANE TREE LOI CRACKNEL

    An ANACONDA doesn’t squeeze the life out of its victim. It initially throws its coils around the victim and its muscles hold its body in place. It relies on the victim breathing in and out and as the victim breaths out its coils move to lock around the reduced cross-section . It continues this action until the victim’s heart stops.

  16. DNF. I was another ACCUSE. Despite my boo-boo I really enjoyed this crossword – I thought there were some great surfaces and I loved the definition for ANACONDA. Looking up draw in Chambers several of the 44 transitive verb definitions seem to work:
    To take out
    To withdraw
    To cause to flow out

    1. I agree, Pootle, it seems fair enough to me. I pity the poor setters sometimes having every last nuance of meaning picked over by us lot day after day.

  17. 38 mins. Still not sure why FAIR is ‘less appealing than’ but I’m sure your parsing is right. For HORNPIPE, I had ‘pipe’ for ‘Tube’ and ‘horn’ for ‘warning’, and thought the whole answer was ‘steps possibly taken by crew’. I kept the Royal Navy out of it. The being that is able to draw its victim’s breath took a long time to occur.

    My app has stopped telling me when I’ve completed the puzzle, the little clock just keeps ticking away. Anyone else had that?

    Thanks all

    1. Yes, for a few days. You can still confirm your completion & time by going back to the main crossword page. If you’ve got it correct, it will show ‘Completed’ and the time. If not, it’ll show ‘in progress’.

      I think it’ll need the app to be updated for it to resolve.

      (Bloggers – as this is a common query on both the QC & 15×15 blogs currently, maybe someone could put a note on the posts until it’s fixed?)

  18. All bar PILASTER in 24 mins. Just couldn’t see it. Couldn’t parse ANACONDA, so thanks for that. Wasn’t sold on OCCUPIED. A rather forgettable offering.

  19. As tilbee and ChrisLutton have pointed out, FAIR GAME is a reference to the beautiful game, because the FAIR GAME would be less appealing than the BEAUTIFUL GAME.

    ACCUSE here as well, although luckily I submitted without leaderboard because there were a couple of others which I couldn’t parse.

    1. I watched a match in the 8th tier of the English football pyramid on Tuesday evening. Less than 20 minutes in, the referee sent one player off for elbowing an opponent in the face. It took 5 minutes and a threat of abandonment before the ensuing bedlam was settled. It was more like war than a game, and it was neither beautiful nor fair.

      1. To paraphrase a squash truism: When the EPL plays, it’s like ballet; when the National League plays, it’s like trench warfare.

  20. 14:27

    I rather enjoyed this. Nothing too easy, nothing too hard but enough chewiness to pose a challenge. TRIFLING and HORNPIPE were clever.

  21. Pleasant solve. Think that’s a complete week for me- still a noteworthy event. So it seems appropriate to thank all the bloggers for their work. I don’t often comment (not least because during term time I often don’t get the chance to do the crossword on the appropriate day- I am currently doing some from mid June)
    but I am a much better solver because of their efforts on this site. Thank you.

  22. 16:43. Held up at the end by TRIFLING. A nice PDM when I eventually saw it. PILASTER took a while to parse, but I never got to understand ANACONDA. Thanks William and setter.

  23. I’ve had the same problem as OQ with the App. Any thoughts on how to exorcise this ghost in the machine?

    1. You can still confirm your completion & time by going back to the main crossword page. If you’ve got it correct, it will show ‘Completed’ and the time. If not, it’ll show ‘in progress’.

      I think it’ll need the app to be updated for it to resolve.

  24. 21:27

    I liked this and thought it quite gentle for a Friday, Was puzzled by FAIR GAME till I came here and was reminded of the beautiful one. The Premier League restart this evening. As always this seems ridiculously early; there are still three test matches to come.

    Lots of nice penny-drop moments with TRIFLING being COD.

    Thanks to the setter and William.

  25. 23:08 in two sittings

    My first attempt was in a cafe where the hubbub is generally conducive to a good solve. Not so much today and I found this much more straightforward in the relative peace of home.

    Nothing more to add to those above, no unknowns and I liked some of the wordplay. 23A like Michel was my COD.

    Thanks to both.

  26. DNF. Came here for 5a Occupied which I thought was odd, and that gave me a foothold into the NE corner which was otherwise blank. 6, 7, 8 d and 10, 12 a.
    19a Rehearse, couldn’t parse properly.
    16d Cracknel NHO. Wiktionary says it covers inter alia crackling. Cheated here, searching for c????nel after the dictionary told me there wasn’t a chiefnel.

  27. I got totally stuck in the SE with 14d, 18d, 23a and 25a unsolved. After 45 minutes going nowhere, I looked up GENTLE and PARTAKING, then managed to solve the other two. Submitted off leaderboard to find the rest were correct. Hard going! Thanks setter and William.

  28. 24:20 – fair, if a bit tortured at times (PILASTER). An unparsed ‘accuse’ corrected at the last minute, but had my doubts about ANACONDA (although I got the gist) and still do.

  29. 62:12 today, continuing a run of dreadful times. Held up today by eg HORNPIPE, BEFALLEN and LOI PILASTER. I like TRIFLING. Very good

  30. About 40′ of hard work today. ANACONDA was nearly my FOI, those boyhood stories once again helping. PILASTER was LOI, unparsed. Nho CRACKNEL, POI, after avoiding the ACCUSE bifd.

    Thanks william and setter.

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