Times Crossword 25,128 – Theobromine, anyone?

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: 28mins, longer than usual given the usual blogger’s adrenalin rush, the SE corner in particular taking time to complete. I suspect this was a harder than average crossword, judging by the number of answers I have put in without properly understanding the wordplay.. let’s hope writing the blog will provide some elucidation. Meantime, it seemed technically perfectly OK and has some very fine surface readings – I enjoyed it, a good effort, thank you setter

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*

Across
1 goalpost – net = GOAL + POST = message, point being that it is unfair to move them
5 pampas – SAP MAP rev.
10 tango – many of us will be familiar with the NATO Alphabet, in which T tango is followed by U uniform. But how does “walk on beat” fit in? I’m missing something here. Is it just a waggish definition of dancing? no, simpler still, just beat = TAN + GO = walk. Thanks Jack, & MC>
11 omitted; ask if needed
12 skydivers – SKIVERS containing yard = YD
13 dry up – dd
14 emerald – ERA + LD containing ME
16 loiter – American volume = LITER is empty, ie has 0 in..
18 uppers – dd – uppers are psychoactive drugs, which the Times likes to include regularly in its crosswords. And if you are unlucky you could be on your uppers, ie unable to afford shoes with soles..
20 dustman – DUST MAN seems relevant advice to someone neglectful of housework. Why a boffin in particular needs to give it, I had no clue, but google was my friend and tells me that the Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend is properly titled “Our Mutual Friend, or the Golden Dustman,” the dustman in question being named Noddy Boffin. Never did like Dickens
22 burst – chest = BUST containing R = right
23 orphanage – cd, point being that if you had them, you wouldn’t be there
25 up-country – no explanation needed?
26 leapt – LEAP + T. I’m not certain of the precise construction of this clue, it has a slightly dodgy feel to it. But the answer is clear enough, so wotthehell
27 Tallis – TALL + IS, to make a composer, Thomas Tallis, that even I have heard of
28 thatcher – T(h)E + R(oof) containing HATCH
Down
1 go to seed – higher being = GOD containing TO SEE = to understand
2 annoy – (t)ANNOY
3 Proxima Centauri – PROM containing XI, + (CERTAIN)* containing AU = gold. My first in, and the nearest star to our own, a piddling 4.2 light years away.
4 suspend – S + US + P(risoner’s) + END
6 A Study in Scarlet – redden, taken apart, = red den, a study in scarlet, geddit? The book in question being Conan Doyle’s first Holmes book. Why have we such a fixation with violent death?
7 pachyderm – (CHAMP RE(a)DY)*
8 steppe – STEE(p) containing PP = pages
9 teasel – (la)TE AS EL(even)
15 empirical – (MIRACLE)* containing PI = good. A very neatly constructed clue, I thought
17 investor – half dressed = IN VEST + the other sort of gold, OR. An angel being a luvvies’ term for a theatrical investor
19 snooty – puppet = SOOTY containing N for North pole. I see Sooty as the complete answer to those who claim that children’s TV used to be better than it is today. It makes Teletubbies seem like Newsnight, in comparison.
20 diptych – get low = DIP, + TYCH, sounds like tick. A double painting, often early and religious in nature
21 abduct – A DUCT containing B = book.
24 abash – the final one I failed to understand, but I now see it is AB = tar in the maritime sense, + ASH = tree

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

29 comments on “Times Crossword 25,128 – Theobromine, anyone?”

  1. And glad I wasn’t blogging today.

    10ac: I read this as TAN (beat) after GO (walk).*
    26ac: T (time) after LEAP (as in leap year) … I guess?

    Still all this was worth the effort and completely fair.

    Minor quibble at 15dn: EMPIRICAL ≠ ‘depending on test’, rather on observation, experience, evidence (whether obtained by test/experiment or not). Another term colonised by the newly-formed “hard” sciences to suit their purposes after the fact of hundreds of years of prior usage.

    With you all the way, Jerry, re Sooty.

    * Cross-posted with Jackkt — I can’t type any quicker!

    Edited at 2012-04-04 01:01 am (UTC)

    1. re 26ac, I suppose I’m uneasy about the “such.” OK with “made spring” as the def., and with time = T but “such a year” to indicate a leap (year) doesn’t feel quite right, you would normally only say that if the year had already been referred to earlier, wouldn’t you? So, such a year as what?
    1. I had real problems solving some of this and eventually completed the grid in 57 minutes with the hidden TEASEL going in last of all so it must have been a good one.

      Boffin/dustman was completely lost on me until I Googled it and I didn’t understand how 6dn worked until coming here, so thanks for that one, Jerry.

  3. 17:41 .. I’m guessing, and it’s just a hunch, that DUSTMAN may not be Jimbo’s Clue of the Year.

    COD – ORPHANAGE .. saddest penny-drop moment in a long while.

  4. 73 minutes, with TEASEL last in, a la Jack. I’m improving, ‘though, as I was looking for a hidden there, just in the wrong part of the clue. I like to think I might have broken the hour if I had known the star, which I had to work out from the wordplay. OTOH, it gave me a very virtuous feeling, which I wouldn’t have got otherwise.

    My PDM came at 24, but COD to LOITER, as I was straight on to LITER but still needed another five minutes to get the answer. Thanks to setter and to Jerry for playing Cumberbatch to my Freeman.

  5. Thanks for Boffin/Dustman, Jerry, but I liked Sooty and Sweep! I also liked The Magic Roundabout and the Saga of Noggin the Nog! Got interrupted by our handyman demanding money so no idea of my real solving time. Somewhere around 90mins. I think 3d must be my COD if only for the complexity of the clue. 10d was fun as well.
    1. I have nothing against Magic Roundabout or Noggin.. but neither are quite in the same league as the great Bagpusss, Best Ever Children’s Programme 🙂
  6. Held up here and there by some rather neat constructions. 49 minutes. Boffin seems a character too far; but still the rest of the clue was laid on. 6 is excellent.
  7. Most of this is good stuff and a pleasure to solve. What a pity it includes 20A, my last in and a guess bsased upon checkers. The clue is simply piffle.
  8. 58 minutes, a goodly portion of which was spent in the SE corner, in trying to parse ORPHANAGE without the assistance of SNOOTY & ABASH. Finally the last two gave the first. I was on a shame = ach, as in “ach, that’s a shame”, path for ABASH with PE as some kind of petty ship’s officer, and Sooty never made it to Oz TV as far as I’m aware. The parsing of 6d was a mystery to me, too, and the dustman, so thanks for the explanations Jerry. COD to the star for its masterful construction.

    When I was at school Alpha Centauri was the closest star to the sun, but it seems the Centauris are a duplicitous lot and have sent out an advance scout. The good news is, Sirius will remain the brightest star in the heavens for at least another 210,000 years. In these days of constant upheaval, that’s something to give solace (no pun intended).

  9. 26 minutes. This is a brilliantly constructed crossword that was very satisfying to solve, but it lacked a certain joy factor for me. A sort of Glenn Gould crossword: you’re full of admiration but secretly you’d rather be listening to Angela Hewitt.
    Thanks for explaining the boffin: a bit of a stretch perhaps but the answer was obvious with checkers and I learned something so I don’t mind.
    I thought “they are up to high jinks” was an odd definition for SKYDIVERS, but a “jink” is an aeronautical term for a turn, and Chambers defines a “skydiving” specifically as “using a special steerable parachute”, so on that basis it’s a rather precise definition.
  10. Glad I wasn’t alone in not understanding why 20d was what it was and indeed like vinyl1 searching in vain for a foreign football team! Thought I wasn’t going to finish and then sped up and completed in 16 minutes.
  11. Just one wrong again today… I had ‘ploxida’ for my star, with PLOD=walk. Ooh, that just looks so wrong!

    Thanks for parsing DUSTMAN and ASIS.

    Found it tough, but enjoyable.

    COD: LOITER

    Edited at 2012-04-04 12:38 pm (UTC)

  12. 28/30 today with Orphanage and Investor missing. Couldn’t think of anything to fit O?P?A?A??. It turns out that Orphanage is the only match! Thought Abduct for “remove” was a bit of a stretch.
  13. Solved this as and when in a fragmented day.
    DUSTMAN way out of my knowledge sphere, and ORPHANAGEs are surely often visited by potential adoptive parents, though obviously I see where it’s coming from. Likewise if I’m just in my vest I’m nowhere near half dressed and you can’t expect me to answer the doorbell.
    TALLIS was not particularly known for writing Masses – lots of settings for Psalms and other liturgical and biblical texts, and the incomparable Spem in Alium for forty (forty!) distinct voices. There are around three masses and some bits, but it seems an odd characterisation. True, but a bit like introducing Lloyd Webber as a Requiem writer.
    Top marks to everyone who knows how to spell DIPTYCH without looking it up – the clue gave no help!
    But lots of clever(-clever) stuff here: the star was my last in because the cryptic was pretty impenetrable until you chanced on the answer, LOITER made good use of the “empty” trick, SUSPEND had me wondering for ages how pen meant prisoner, SNOOTY had me worrying for anyone who has grown up without Harry Corbett’s mute creation on their screen, ‘cos they’ve got no chance. The red den I think I’ve seen before.
    CoD once seen to UPPERS

    Edited at 2012-04-04 04:45 pm (UTC)

  14. A very satisfying 33 minutes here. I took quite a long time to get started because I didn’t immediately see 1a and 1d, which always helps. I had to work from the bottom up but got there in the end. I always associate TALLIS with a canon, not with masses, but I had the initial T and he fitted the cryptic. I remembered Mr Boffin after I’d put in the answer. “Our Mutual Friend” is one of my favourite Dicken’s novels – ever since I saw a BBC version in the late 50s/early 60s starring the lovely David McCullum (before his “Man from Uncle” days) and Rachel Roberts. Nice doh moment when I finally got 1a so I’ll make it my CoD.
  15. Pretty hard puzzle for me, solved in dribs and drabs throughout the day as I was working from home but busy all day. I didn’t know Boffin the dustman, guessing it might be a slang word I was unaware of. Last in was GOALPOST, took ages for the penny to drop.
  16. This took me an hour, due to a lot of unknown UK-isms, such as Boffin, tannoy (which I had to look up), sooty, skivers, on your uppers, and whatever else. The concentration of those in the NW corner made that my problem area, and my LOI was TANGO, with a guess that uniform meant ‘U’ in the phonetic alphabet. So a bit of a slog, as you say. I liked the ‘redden’ device, and LOITER. Regards to all.
  17. After a disastrous week with 3 DNFs, this was the first puzzle I’ve had a chance to try this week. After 30 minutes with only PACHYDERM and THATCHER entered I thought I was going to strike out again, but A STUDY IN SCARLET suddenly sprang to mind(without proper parsing, thanks Jerry) and the rest steadily fell in another 45 minutes. Definitely not an easy solve and it took me ages to get on the setter’s wavelength, but satisfying to finally get a completion. I didn’t understand the parsing for LOITER or the Dickens reference for DUSTMAN so thanks again Jerry for explaining those. Being of a certain age SNOOTY did make me laugh. DIPTYCH went in as soon as I found TRIPTYCH didn’t fit.

    Edited at 2012-04-04 10:15 pm (UTC)

  18. 10:53 for me. I was slow to get DUSTMAN, and groaned once I’d finally thought of it – not because I had any objection to the clue but because I could imagine the reaction it would provoke. I think Boffin used to turn up pretty regularly in the good old days when a far greater knowledge of Dickens characters was assumed. Nice puzzle.

  19. As a beginner I would like to know how you resolved 11A. I arrived at ‘singleton’ but it does not seem to fit
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