Times Crossword 24573

Author   sabine_tkPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 20.25

I had hoped for an easy puzzle after a day that had already required considerable ingenuity, with so much sport happening all at once – Messrs. Isner and Mahut arrived back on court bang in the middle of the Italy game, and meanwhile we’re playing the Aussies at cricket! It took 2 different hard disks and considerable dexterity with three different remotes to get the situation under control, and then – this! Definitely not easy – but it’s a terrific puzzle, full of really excellent clues, and I was just grateful I managed to finish it at all.

Across
1
   JUMPING JACK – a straightforward 1 across that gave me some optimism. Things would very soon get worse.
7
   SUQ – the left (West) half of “square”, anagrammed. A suq is a marketplace in Arab countries.
9
   BABY BUGGY – baby as a verb means spoil in the sense of pampering, buggy means “with defects” as in a buggy computer program, and everything else is a detailed, if misleading, definition.
10
   OGIVE – a pointed arch or window. The charity appeal is “O, give!” I just about knew this word as something architectural, but needed all 3 crossing letters to solve the clue.
11
   L(E,G P)ULL – E=English, GP=doctor and LULL=still.
12
   S(W)AGGER – the “one sinking” is a SAGGER, and “bounding with” an instruction to put a W inside (“bound” here meaning to surround).
13
   AH,MED – the waves approaching the beach are those of the Mediterranean, while “on a horse” accounts for the AH.
15
   BOB,BLE (H)AT – Bob Hope, followed by by BLEAT=complain, with an H inside (“without hard”).
17
   FLU,MM,OXED – I was pretty sure this would be the answer when I got the X_D at the end, but took a while to see the word play: FLU=complaint (influenza), MM=2 Frenchmen (M for Monsieur, twice), while OXED is BOXED with the B removed, and therefore “fought with British out”.
19
   TU,TEE – TU is the centre of “future”, “driver’s space” is the TEE (the bit of grass where they tee off, not the little thingy the ball is placed on), and the definition is just “learner”.
20
   OUTSHOT – (thus too)*. I guess the meaning here is from outshoot meaning to shoot beyond? Can’t quite see how it fits otherwise.
22
   I(CE, BOA)T -CE=Civil Engineer, BOA=stole (the garment), all inside IT.
24
   GECKO, last letters of the last 5 words of the clue.
25
   ODD,FELL,OW – ODD=occasional, FELL (verb)= defeat, and OW as in “Ouch!”
27
   DOE. With the clock having passed 20 minutes already, I decided to stick this in from “female”, hope for the best, and look at the wordplay later, though the evil of this setter has been of such a degree that I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if I’d fallen into a trap (is Dee a girl’s name? Is there some death, or a cube with spots on involved?) But all was well – the wordplay is a soundalike (indicated by “airing”) – DOE sounds like dough, the stuff you use to make the crusty loaf called a bloomer.
28
   GOG AND MAGOG – an anagram of (A good + man + ggg) the G’s being the three gallons.
 
Down
1
   JAB – J is “Judy’s foremost”, and AB, the 1st two letters of the alphabet, are the leading characters.
2
   MR BIG, the odd (alternate) letters of “more, being”.
3
   I,NB,O,UND – NB=notice (nota bene), O=old, and UND(o) is ruin, “not close” being an instruction to remove the last letter.
4
   G(OGGLE)-BOX – slang for a TV set, the definition therefore being “set before one”. The wordplay is GB=GB, OX=beef, all around (sandwiching) an anagram of (go + leg).
5
   ABYSS, hidden inside lullABY’S Soothing.
6
   KNO(W-A)LL – with the initial K in place I became fixated on the hill being “kop”, but it is actually a knoll, as in grassy, while WA is the state abbreviation for Washington (here my misguided fixation was DC).
7
   SLINGS,HOT – a sling is a drink of sweetened spirits and water (as in Singapore Sling, presumably).
8
   QUEER STREET = QUEER=rum, STREET+way, and the definition is “the red”, as in overdrawn. When you’re in financial trouble you’re said to be in Queer Street.
11
   LEAPFROGGED – an anagram of “Eg fd pergola”, the FD derived from “hollow framed”. I saw how this was going to work right away, and wrote down the 11 letters, but didn’t get close till I got the L from 11 Ac.
14
   MO(US)T,ACHE – MOT=witty remark, US=American and ACHE=long. I had dreadful trouble with this, being half convinced it would end CAL.
16
   BED,RID,DEN = a BEd is a Bachelor of Education.
18
   MA(H-JON)G – Lift the H in John (the Baptist), and put the result inside MAG (magazine, publication).
19
   TIE, BEAM – a beam connecting the lower ends of rafters to prevent them from moving apart. Didn’t know this, but it was clear enough from the wordplay.
21
   THO,NG – THO is tho’ (short for though, meaning “still”) and NG=no good.
26
   WIG(an) – WIG meaning carpet in the sense of to reprimand – always confusing when rug means wig in the sense of a toupee.

35 comments on “Times Crossword 24573”

  1. With JUMPING JACKS, SUQ and GOGGLE-BOX in, I was looking for the pangram. But no Z. The only possibility I could see was the obscure ODIZE at 10ac. On look-up:
    odize: to charge with od.
    od: Archaic, a hypothetical force formerly thought to be responsible for many natural phenomena, such as magnetism, light, and hypnotism.
    Even scientists get it wrong from time to time.
    34 mins and much fun. CODs to the AHMED/MOUSTACHE pair.
  2. What a mountain to climb. If yesterday’s FINISH was convoluted, it was nothing compared to today’s offerings. 47 min, and with one wrong. Bunged in DYE (sounds like Di) on a wing and a prayer (and bloomers along with other clothes are indeed dyed), then forgot to go back to reconsider. COD would have to be the devilishly cunning OUTSHOT. Or then again maybe MOUSTACHE. Or perhaps …
  3. It took me 70 minutes, aids afterward only to confirm OGIVE and SUQ, neither being in my usual vocabulary. But I went with DYE at 27A, never having heard of bloomers as breadstuffs. Also had to fight through unknowns at BOBBLE HAT, QUEER STREET and GOGGLE BOX, but was able to do so, as vinyl points out, due to wordplay that was clear in the end, though devilish. How devilish? While my first entry was the fairly clear JAB, I hunted through an otherwise blank grid for about 10 minutes before my second, the very clever MOUSTACHE. Ended with the SUQ/QUEER STREET crossing. No single COD to be had, they’re everywhere. Great job, setter, and also Sabine, and best to everyone else.
  4. Only completed two thirds of this cracker, essentially the east (minus OGIVE) plus bits and bobs in the west. Enjoyed the Red Rum clue, as it took me back to the 70s. My cousin-by-marriage Terry Biddlecombe missed out through injury on the winning ride in the Grand National on Gay Trip in 1971, but was back on board the following year only to be pipped by Well To Do. The following five years were dominated by Red Rum, who was, strangely in view of the hero status accorded him later, very much the villain in ’73 when he got up in the final strides to defeat top-weight Crisp. Two more wins and two more runner-up spots later and he was opening more supermarkets than Jamie Oliver.
  5. I took this as an &lit, with the ‘shoot beyond (the target)’ meaning identified by Sabine.
    1. I followed the same logic as vinyl. If you’re OUTSHOT, you’re inaccurate.
  6. Maybe an outshot misses the (e.g. archer’s) target altogether. I appreciate Sabine’s phrase, ‘the evil of this setter’. This was a delight. Glad to get through in 48 minutes.
  7. 11:08 with one mistake at 13: AR=?=Arab+MED, with overoptimistic hope that {ARMED=on a horse} has some foundation. With vinyl1 and kevin_from_ny on ‘outshot’

    The puzzle has 14 Gs in the grid (8 of them checked), and a good supply of Bs too (9 with 5 checked), as well as the intersecting GoGGle box / BoBBle hat.

  8. 65 minutes with no aids, so some improvement on my recent times. I wonder if the spate of more difficult puzzles is actually a change of policy possibly connected with the relaunch of Times Online and other developments at the newspaper.

    No unknown words for me today but I am more familiar with SUQ as ‘souk’.

    I think there was some dispute the last time TEE (area as opposed to peg)came up. No doubt our golfing correspondent will advise whether anything is amiss today.

    A very lively and entertaining puzzle. I was going to comment on the Bs and Gs and missing Z but others have got there before me.

    1. I suggested somewhat tongue-in-cheek a few days ago that we might be looking at a policy shift with regard to difficulty level. I finished this correctly, unaided, with 5 not fully understood. I enjoyed it enormously but then I am retired and today had 3 hours to spare. Those with less time on their hands and less expertise/experience than is generally exhibited here may well be looking for a new hobby by now.
      Much to admire but COD to QUEER STREET.
      1. Measuring the intended difficulty of Times crosswords from evidence like our solving times is extremely difficult – I’d say about as difficult as measuring the effect of man-made pollution from sea level. I just looked at my average times for the last three Mon-Fri weeks – to the nearest minute, the last two weeks both averaged 12 minutes, and the week before averaged 10. If you’re going to say “there you are, that’s what I meant”, you should know that the last full week in June last year averaged 13 minutes. This is just like the variation in sea-level from the tide coming in and going out.

        If you can show a significant change in average timings for a consistent solver over periods of months or years, that might be some evidence of a deliberate change in policy. Or it might just show that the solver is slowing down.

        [Choosing man-made pollution and sea level doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a global warming sceptic, just that linking possible causes of change with measurable observations can be very difficult. I well remember an econometrics lecturer showing the incredibly close statistical correlation between the retail price index and cumulative rainfall since some date in the 1700s – a warning that I still remember.]

        1. I fear this may be the case for me, and it may also be self-perpetuating in that the more frequently one experiences difficulties the more one expects to encounter them. I’m starting to find that unless a couple of answers jump out at me within the first 30 seconds or so I begin to fear the worst, and on blogging days panic soon sets in. It doesn’t help clear thinking.
  9. Exactly an hour: a real brain-teaser for me, but with some very clever clues. If I may say so, I thought the clue for AHMED a bit over the top, and there were a couple of terms such as ICE BOAT and OUT SHOT that almost had me reaching for Chambers, though I’m pleased to say I resisted the temptation. A memorable puzzle.
  10. I got further than perhaps I ought to have in this puzzle simply by looking for double letters – particularly G and B. Ultimately I failed in the NE (again) but having checked SUQ and OGIVE here I managed to complete. Then I realised that I had made no decision on D?E. Some lovely clues though.
    1. There are 15 pairs of double letters in the grid, so it may be those rather than Bs or Ds that the setter was trying to maximise. I see no reason for guilt about spotting something like this while solving and using it!
  11. An excellent puzzle that took me 37 mins – and even then, keeping good company, I was another to put in ARMED rather than AHMED. Spoilt for choice for COD – perhaps 20A OUTSHOT.

    Tom B.

  12. 22 minutes and steady progress throughout. Briefly ventured RUG and GULAG in the SE corner. One of those unusual puzzles where most of the answers took what seemed like a similar amount of time to work out. I was also misled by looking for an obscure architectural term instead of LEAPFROGGED despite having parsed the anagram fodder correctly early on. Too many contenders for COD so thanks to the setter for this one. ODDFELLOW takes me back to one of the favourite sweets of my Scottish childhood, King’s Oddfellows , which sadly are no longer around.
  13. This was definitely a puzzle of two halves for me. I filled the whole of the left-hand side before I had anything on the right apart from the tail-end of 28. Much of the time I was going on instinct rather than deduction. Eventually I was on the setter’s wavelength, but I still took 50 minutes, limping home with SWAGGER and OGIVE as the final entries. I did manage to resist ARMED in favour of AHMED and STAGGER in favour of SWAGGER.

    As has been said, some excellent clues, very satisfying to solve, though I had several question marks en route. The wordplay to 17 completely flummoxed me.

  14. I thought this was an absolute cracker. Like others I had to contend with a few unknowns but it was all very fair. And some delightfully devilish clueing. Done in three sessions – about an hour I think.
    I needed to come here to undrstand 27, having failed to spot “airing” for spoken so thanks to Sabine.
    Several great clues but I did think 8dn particularly brilliant.
    Thanks setter.
  15. I enjoyed it more than the rest this week and finished unaided in 35 minutes. Thought the clue for SUQ was my COD…
  16. Waiting for the last Z in a pangram is like waiting for the second shoe to drop. The fact that there was a brilliant pangram minus Z puzzle a couple of weeks ago makes me wonder if it is somebody’s signature. The one thing that made today’s puzzle doable for me was that there were so many unusual checked letters.

    This was never going to be a puzzle that I could solve in one go over breakfast so I just got on with my housework and finished on automatic pilot towards lunchtime. It’s surprising how much you can solve while cleaning the oven when staring at an empty grid does not get you anywhere.

    I loved the clues to, amongt others, Queer Street and Flummoxed. I finished with tutee and doe, where I eventually worked out the wordplay. I thought I had caught the setter out on the Ahmed clue because the Med, being non-tidal, is not likely to produce waves but a quick post-solve google tells me that there are tides in the Med, albeit only a few centimetres high

  17. A cracker, as all have said. Glad just to have finished (which looked unlikely for quite a time) correctly. Didn’t know OUTSHOT as a term, but guessed from wordplay. Some devilishly ingenious clueing. QUEER STREET, FLUMMOXED, AHMED, ICEBOAT and GOG AND MAGOG were wonderfully good. A real work-out for the little grey cells. I am now going into a darkened room to lie down for a while.

  18. I agreee this was an excellent puzzle; more a game in four quarters for me, with the NE the final bastion. Like Sabine, I couldn’t get DC out of my head for Washington for ages, but when I did, the rest followed. Liked QUEER STREET, but COD to OUTSHOT.
  19. Solved in 2 sessions separated by most of the day – 8 clues in before interruption, then 40 m tonight to finish. Pleased to find got it right, and worked out a lot of it, but thank you for details on 8 and 27. I was delighted with 17 and 28 which led me into the bottom part, last in 6d, 10a, 12a. Bad ideas rejected when crossers solved included bowler hat, suk, and a disease for 17.
  20. 35 minutes of pure joy. Unfortunately had DEE at 27 (girl’s name, quite feasibly one of hundredsof materials I’ve never heard of from which ladies’ unmentionables may be fashioned).

    Not just great clues, but rather satisfying words and phrases like bobble hat and flummoxed.

    Thanks to the setter.

  21. 21:32, with ARMED for AHMED (13ac).  I spent the last ten minutes on 19dn (TIE BEAM) and 22ac (ICEBOAT), which only fell when I realized GULAG must be wrong (23dn OFLAG); these were also my unknowns.
  22. Very late night solve for me. Disappointing that 27a bloomer ref turned out to be dough rather than D’oh. D’oh!
    1. I had DAM (DAMN) for quite a while until I finally figured out moustache. Very enjoyable puzzle.
  23. Unfortunately using my tees once again prevented me from solving this one until Saturday early evening. An excellent puzzle although I didn’t find it quite as difficult as some others. About 25 minutes to solve in a steady progression down and across the grid.

    We’ve had this setter before and I quickly tune into his/her wavelength. I really enjoy the way that he/she structures his/her clues. I can’t see anything wrong with the “tees” reference.

    There is insufficient evidence to say the puzzles have been made harder. It’s not so long ago we had an extended run of rather easy offerings. Quite why the Editor does this defeats me.

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