Times Crossword 24370

Author   sabine_tkPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 9.04.

Got off to a good start with this, writing in 1A, 1D and 6A at a glance, followed by the long anagram at 4D. The rest mostly flowed at a steady pace, leaving just the bottom left corner, where I took a while to crack the 20D/26A pair (probably also my two favourite clues). Overall I thought the puzzle had a good mix of clues, with enough easy ones to open up the way to solving the rest.
 

Across
1
   VICE VERSA – VICE=evil, and lunatic is an anagram indicator for “raves”.
6
   FU(TO)N
9
   R(ED,F,L)AG – “following” in this clue is not a direction but has to be reduced to its abbreviation, F.
10
   EARL,I,ER
11
   ONION, an expert being someone who knows their onions.
13
   P,IE,CE
14
   TROJAN WAR – I put this in fairly confidently from “disastrous for Paris” and left the “decade of investment” to figure out later. Turns out that in the military sense “invest” means to surround or besiege, and so the term refers to the ten years Troy was besieged after Paris stole Helen from Menelaus, King of Sparta.
17
   I,NS,URGENT – I is the symbol for electric current, NS=poles, URGENT=asking for quick response.
19
   CAL,I,P,HATE
22
   SC(R)AM
24
   TIP,STER(n)
25
   A(LIMO)NY
26
   NINNY – INN (local) inside NY, Gotham being a nickname for New York City. This was a rare example of a clue where, contrary to usual practice, I solved it from the wordplay and left the definition to work out later. Apparently a Gothamite can also mean a simpleton, this deriving from the village of Gotham in Nottinghamshire in the times of King John, though if you read the story in the link it turns out the apparent stupidity of the Notts Gothamites was in fact a deeply cunning plan. This clue is really quite perfect.
27
   SAY CHEESE, the whole clue being a cleverly disguised definition of getting people to smile before you take their photograph. I was fooled into thinking the first word must be SKY until I had every single crossing letter.
 
Down
1
   VERSO, very = EVER SO, which reduces to VERSO when lacking, initially. VERSO is the left hand page of a book (the right being RECTO), so this was a very helpful definition if recognized as such.
2
   CO,-DRIVERS -“together they rally” is a neat definition.
4
   ROGET’S THESAURUS, (users authors get)* – this is one of the first reference works I think of, and so this answer opened up the grid right away.
5
   A,VERSION THE(RAP)Y – RAP here in the sense of a criminal charge.
7
   TWIST, used here with a meaning I did not know, “to swindle”, and therefore to “do”, as in to do a person out of something.
8
   NORTHERLY – nothing to do with music, of course, but a wind (moving air) heading northwards, and therefore to the top of weather charts or maps.
13
   PR,INC,ETON.
15
   A,DAM SMIT,H. Took me a moment to see SMIT for “smacked” – it’s the obscure/poetic past tense of “smite”. Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher.
16
   WATERHOLE, being (lot we hear)*.
20
   L,UP,IN – This held me up for a minute at the end; lacking the last letter I was looking at L_P__ and, due to the clue’s general air of pathos, couldn’t stop thinking about lepers. Then the penny dropped – Lupin is the name of Pooter’s son in George & Weedon Grossmith’s Diary of a Nobody, and therefore “Nobody’s Child” – clever stuff, as is the wordplay, where the two “not so”s refer back to “down” and “out” – hence their antonyms UP and IN.
21
   PIT(H)Y
23
   M(A)YBE – A is the article, inside (by me)*

38 comments on “Times Crossword 24370”

  1. This took me about 45 minutes, despite writing many in at first glance. My experience seems to have uncannily paralleled yours at 14, 26, 27 & 20; I’m Sabine in slow motion again. Thanks for clearing up the definitions of NINNY & LUPIN, which went completely over my head, and for the correct explanation of the construction of VERSO, which I thought was VER(y) on SO=that is (I’m glad it wasn’t that). A very enjoyable puzzle which was too clever for me. I did like ONION & smit.
    1. Oh, I forgot to say, at 8d, I think it’s a double definition, of “moving air” and “heading towards …”, unless maps are held upside down in the UK as well as in Australia. – koro
      1. That’s my understanding too, ie. it must be a double definition but not a CD as a ‘northerly’ blows from the north. I was undone by knowing neither NINNY nor LUPIN, alas, though I suppose I might have guessed them.

        Tom B.

  2. About 40 minutes for me, also having very smooth sailing til a dead stop after around 15 minutes in the SW area with 20, 21, 24 and 26 refusing to yield. Finally got PITHY and TIPSTER together, making LUPIN apparent for less than apparent reasons, and leaving me with NINNY from wordplay only, and pondering the definition. Thought it possibly a sly dig at New Yorkers(!), until Sabine’s blog set me straight; I knew nothing of the native UK Gothamites, didn’t know there was such a place. First entry: VICE VERSA, last NINNY, COD: PITHY, while LUPIN would have got a nod except I didn’t understand it until checking LUPIN on wiki and seeing the reference to the protagonist’s son from Diary of a Nobody. Very clever but too obscure for me. Regards everyone.
  3. 28 minutes plus another 10 trying to work out why 20dn and 26ac. I cracked LUPIN having eventually thought of the Pooter reference but as I didn’t know the required definition of NINNY I could have stared at it all day without understanding it. The easiest Friday solve for a while I think but not straightforward to blog, so well done, Sabine.
  4. Correctly guessed LUPIN (Diary of a Nobody yet again?) and NINNY (parsed the NY INN but too many entries for Gotham on wiki to be bothered to justify). Not thrilled by the obscurity here but have added Nobody to my Christmas list just after Timm Moorey’s book. Only remembered VERSO after twigging ONION. All a bit frustrating as the rest was quick.

    Yesterday.

    Comment prepared after early solve (sort of) but out early and not home until very late.

    Easy, peasy. First in of course was NDEBELE. Goodness! Did they borrow this setter from The Telegraph? The THRIPS in my garden play havoc with the roses to the despair of my BANDICOOT of a gardener, but then they do provide food for the NILE PERCH in my pond.

    Actually, gave up on this quite early in the day with just SKIMPOLE to solve, long before the blog appeared, as was off to Glyndebourne for the day for Cosi Fan Tutti. Incidentally, any opera fans out there should try to catch the touring company’s JENUFA which is seriously good. (Woking, Stoke, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Plymouth).

    Should have realised that GET ONES HEAD DOWN was an invitation. Needed some help to get as far as I did but could not even be bothered to guess SKIMPOLE. Vaguely heard of BANDICOOT (although thought it was a term of abuse), never heard of THRIPS, NILE PERCH and of course NDEBELE which was a case of just shuffling the letters and hoping for the best. Not sure why ON THE NOSE is the same as by a nose, if that is the point.

    1. “just to take first place” had to be read in the sense of “not for any other place”, hence “on the nose” rather than “for a place”.

      On the topic of the Gothamites not wanting a road through their village, is this a common feeling in the UK? The reason I ask is that the last time I was in a carpark in Newtown, near Carlisle, I was intrigued by a signpost to Irthington, which I could read from behind (as opposed to all other signs on the same post which I couldn’t). On closer inspection I found it said Irthington on the front as well; the only explanation being that the sign had been rotated 90 degrees, to point along the continuing road rather than down the stem of the T junction. Thinking this was the result of youthful exuberance, I rotated it back to its correct orientation (which I knew to be correct since I had just driven up that road from Irthington not 5 minutes before). Seated in my car some 5 minutes later, I noticed a respectable looking middleage woman on her way to the shops rotate the sign back down the main highway and away from Irthington. This incident has troubled me for many years and I wondered if anybody could shed light on it? Some ingrained response originally inculcated to confuse invaders?

      1. Isolated rural parts of Britain can be very inward looking and highly suspicious of strangers. I don’t know Irthington but I do have experience of Dorset villages, particularly those that lie to the west of Dorchester. For example those that lie between the main road from Dorchester to Bridport and the coast are very self contained. There I once met a man there who had in his whole life (he was about 80) never ventured beyond Dorchester, which he regarded as a place of iniquity. I could well imagine them turning signposts around to deter strangers.
      2. Sounds like you had a lucky escape, koro. They were most likely fishing for their next Wicker Man, you know the kind of thing: “Who turns the sign with clockwise heave Shall warm our hands this New Year’s Eve.”

        In the same vein as jimbo’s recollection, I used to stay sometimes with the grandmother of a childhood friend in rural Devon who would warn us constantly against venturing into nearby Kingsbridge (pop. 5,000) with the words “’tis wicked”.

        1. Well, Dorchester I can understand being thought of as a den of iniquity, if the Mayor of Casterbridge is anything to go by, but Kingsbridge? Oh, wait, is that anywhere near Midsommer?
          1. I seem to recall that it had several pubs, which was proof enough for her. I’m still searching for Midsomer. The village where I grew up had a pathetically low murder rate – not a pitchforked vicar nor a cricket captain clubbed to death with his own bat anywhere, and the Women’s Institute largely confined itself to assassination of a different ilk.
  5. Ripped into this with childish glee after yesterday’s struggle, and had all but that pesky lh bottom corner done in 15 mins. But it took another 10 to see ninny and then check it (Gotham is in Chambers), and lupin was only possibility from wordplay so I got it in, but needed sabine to give the book – which I have read but did not remember that name… Verso and versa in same puzzle was interesting.
  6. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. All but the 20 dn / 26 ac combo in about 20 min. And that was the end of the road. Was too intent on LEPER to give myself any chance. Considered NINNY (bar in New York) but could not proceed from there. OK, I missed it, but COD has to be LUPIN. Two lots of specialist knowlege intersecting was just too much for me, but no complaints.
  7. For the second day running I found myself unable to complete the puzzle without using references. This time for LUPIN and NINNY. A Google of “lupin yesterday’s child” solved that one and a look up in Chambers of Gotham solved NINNY

    Apart from the SW corner this was straightforward but good fun. I felt the interlocking obscurities in the SW detracted a little from the overall quality of the puzzle. 25 minutes to solve.

  8. i too was a ninny in the sw corner, especially as i had written in lingo for 26ac as a hidden on my first run through. toyed with ninny and nimby, and although i have read diary of a nobody, i did not recall lupin. it might have been 40 years ago, but my recall is normally better over that period than over 40 minutes these days!
  9. Not too much trouble with Gotham as I knew both the Nottinghamshire and New York meanings. Lupin was a bit harder. I immediately got the reference to Nobody but I needed a few checkers before I remembered her name. I’m pleased to see that Nobody gets capitalised today. The last time he appeared in the Times crossword, a few months ago he was in the middle of the clue with no capitalisation.

    Last in and hardest for me was Say Cheese. This despite the fact that I knew that the word snap in a clue almost always refers to a photograph.

    2. Why is not capitalising “nobody” a problem?? Nobody wasn’t his/her/it’s/its actual name
      2. We had this discussion the last time, when nobody was used uncapitalised. The Grossmiths use of the word is irrelevant since we are concerned with the setter’s use of the word to describe Pooter. So it is a sort of nickname and should be capitalised. It reminds me of the Australian rugby player John Eales whose nickname was Nobody, because nobody’s perfect.
  10. 14:26 .. LUPIN and NINNY went in with complete understanding – just wrong understanding. I assumed “nobody’s child” was a folk name for the lupin and surmised that a Ninny was the New York equivalent of a Cockney. Ignorance is bliss.

    No stand-outs, but a number of interestingly different clues.

    1. Snap, Sotira. I too arrived at LUPIN and NINNY from the wordplay and thought that Nobody’s Child must be a popular name for the former. I knew nothing of the NINNY/Gotham connection. All in all, a much easier puzzle than the two preceding ones, helped in my case by getting the two full-length down clues more or less straight off. However, it still took me just under 30 mins.
  11. after 10 minutes I was stuck with 24 and 20 unfilled. Took a break and saw 24, then justified 20. Two cryptic definitions… didn’t see the wordplay in VERSO
  12. What a brilliant puzzle, brimming with wit and with several classic Times-style cryptic definitions – NORTHERLY, TROJAN WAR and the sublime SAY CHEESE. NINNY also a wonderful &lit.
    Even the mundane MAYBE was memorably clued.
  13. … could folk not do an entire piece on a previous puzzle in the current blog?! Some of us haven’t go round to doing a few of the older puzzles yet!
  14. After solving most in 20 minutes with little effort I was completely floored by the SW corner. A careless entry of RESURGENT for 17 prevented me getting PRINCETON, and with no ideas whatsoever for 20, 24 and 26 I didn’t have a hope. I wondered if 21 was LONER, referring to the Beatles song, but couldn’t see that it was justified. A double blow after a similarly disastrous performance on Thursday.
    I very much admired the clue for TROJAN WAR. I don’t know whether it’s been used before, but it’s an example of sheer brilliance.

    To the anonymous poster who appears to have a compulsion to respond to typos with a sarcastic comment complete with exclamation mark, I suggest you learn some internet etiquette and find more important things to comment on. If I carelessly put an apostrophe in the possessive ‘it’s’, it’s not worth the space of an additional comment, especially more than 24 hours later.

  15. On first scanning the clues I thought that the crossword today would present some problems. However, the combination of 5 and 13 down opened it up enough to make its completion quite straightforward. I loved 26 and 27, more please. I’ve only recently come across this website. I think, however, that I met some of you in the Doric Arch last year when I was sitting at the bar doing the Times (as is my wont). 1, Do you need to join anything to contribute to the site and 2, Do you often have meets, inviting compilers?
    1. The heading has this phrase in it and if you go there it is full of Good Things It Helps to Know.
  16. I found this quite easy, 17 mins esp helped by getting the two 15-letter answers straightaway. Understood NINNY all right, got LUPIN from the wordplay, only understanding the Nobody reference when I came here. COD TEST MATCH and liked CO-DRIVERS too.
  17. Quite fast for me and this while watching the World Series.(say 20 minutes)
    Enlightenment on the SW corner only after I came here. CODs, Say Cheese, Trojan War.
    Now must read Diary of a Nobody.
  18. Highly recommended. One of my Desert Island Books.

    In The Times a few years ago there was a clue ‘Nobody’s child’, (LUPIN POOTER). I think this one was much better: the setter didn’t cop out with a mere CD but gave us some wordplay as well.

  19. I was under the impression that a northerly (easterly, etc.) is a wind FROM the north (east, etc.)
    1. Agreed, that’s why kororareka and I have suggested that it’s a double definition – ‘moving air’ and ‘heading…’ rather than one long cryptic definition.

      Tom B.

  20. Ah, yes; it took a while, but the penny finally dropped. Disregard (my) previous message.
  21. Late commenting, because I couldn’t actually finish the s*dd*ng thing until in bed last night..I got down to 4 clues left quickly enough, but found the SW corner hard to finish off.. even more annoying, is that having now done so, I can’t find anything to criticise at all, it’s all entirely fair. Hmph! Well done setter, I s’pose 🙂 – COD is Lupin, solver a ninny!

  22. 6:38 – the second-quickest in my post-holiday recap (about 18 puzzles). Nice to hear from the poor innocent bystander who happened to be in the Doric Arch for one of the “sloggers and betters” meets, and was accosted by me when I saw him solving the day’s Times puzzle.

    Astonished that sabine hasn’t noticed investment=siege from previous Times puzzles – an old favourite.

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