Times Crossword 25,265 – emergency blog

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: About 14 minutes, so average or maybe a bit easier. Still I enjoyed it, and it will no doubt be a relief to those sensitive souls still recovering from the rigours of the last week or so. Owing to an admin error I have been asked to step in and do an emergency blog and here it is; not the usual handcrafted Lamborghini, just a teabreak Lada, but a blog nonetheless… I’ll correct any errors as we go

… 30/10/12: further comments blocked owing to spam!

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–).

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across
1 recipe – hmm, tricky one to start off. Namely = IE containing parking = P, and open space = REC. It confused me, because about normally = RE, as any fule kno
4 crash pad – cold empty = CD containing spots = RASH + PA
10 ice creams – *(CRIME CASE)
11 Boris – teacher = SIR + OB, all rev.
12 filthy lucre – box = FILE containing your = THY + your = Y + LUC(K)
14 left out..
15 loopier – LOO + PIER
17 taming – army = TA + chinese government = MING, the ruling imperial dynasty 1368–1644
19 beadle – busy sort = BEE containing plug = AD + L(ECTURE)
21 bandage – ha, clever one this: circle = BAND (eg of brothers) + (ST)AGE
23 hit – dd
24 eternal city – *(Italy Centre)- the eternal city being Rome
26 Burns – dd., though I’m sure there is more to say about dear Rabbie, chieftain o’ the Scottish race
27 itinerate – I + tin = CAN + “on-lin price” = ERATE
29 co-worker – COW + (P)ORKER
30 uncool – UNCL(E) containing rings = OO
Down
1 rainfall – check = “rein” = RAIN + FALL
2 creel – CEL = “non-u clue, perhaps” containing on = RE
3 per – PE, like RE a school “subject” for the intellectually challenged, + right = R
5 rose-cut – pink = ROSE + CUT(E)
6 subterminal – *(LAST NUMBER I)
7 pyromania – hmm, another tricky one: P(ANIC) + cool = AIRY rev.,containing OMAN and not Romania after all…
8 design – DEN containing soldiers = GIS
9 Mailer – dd. I know nothing whatsoever about Norman Mailer though I believe he was American. And I’m only assuming he is a “was” because he’s here..
13 hairdresser – female = HER containing AIRDR(I)E + SS. *Don’t* tell me you’ve never heard of Airdrie…
16 overthrow – well, overthrow = ruin. And in today’s cricketing reference, an overthrow is an opportunity to keep running. The womens’ 20:20 match I watched yesterday, in which England trounced the W Indies, contained several of those. But it was a fascinating match nonetheless, and I warmly recommend womens cricket.
18 very well – (RECO)VERY + spring = WELL
20 eremite – before = ERE + “might” = MITE. Not a common word, especially these days, but easily gettable I think
21 Bonnie – EIN NOB rev., ho ho. And Bonnie, as in Clyde Chestnut Barrow, of course
22 phobic – shot = PIC containing house = HO + B
25 Idaho – even bits of fInD cAsH fOr
28 eon – energy = E, working = ON

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

23 comments on “Times Crossword 25,265 – emergency blog”

  1. Many thanks Jerry. 27 minutes here. A little surprised at ‘behind’ in 3 down. Good to see Boris after his hilarious comments in London yesterday. I did this on little sleep after staying up for the epic Murray win so relieved to find it fairly straightforward. (Though itinerate’s a new one on me.)
  2. 4.40pm and I’m first* up…thanks to Jerry’s “Grumpy” filling in at the last moment. Oddly enough, when I first saw “Scottish town” I immediately thought of Airdrie…as you do… and I wasn’t disappointed. Re BONNIE, my completion of the crossword was a game of two halves. On the way back home from town, I heard Radio 2 play Georgie Fame’s version of Bonnie & Clyde. That helped! As did discovering “uncle” is shorthand for pawnbroker in a very recent Cryptic.
    *OK, with time taken for typing make that 5th up!

    Edited at 2012-09-11 03:44 pm (UTC)

    1. For those not aware, “Grumpy” refers to the cat which is my avatar and not to my mood…
      Airdrie has a rather fascinating Wikipedia entry, containing characters such as “Aeddam the Perfidious” and the “Wee Blue Devil.”
      1. What a shock! Reading the Wiki entry on Airdrie I discovered that Airdrieonians went bust in 2002 and are now merely Airdrie FC. Who knew?!
  3. Well done Jerry – lucky it’s an easyish one. Nice straight solve, very enjoyable 20 minutes with a nod of appreciation to ETERNAL CITY anagram.
  4. Nice one Jerry. Thanks for the explanation of PYROMANIA. I shoved it in thinking that the cryptic didn’t quite fit but forgot to go back and work it out properly. Enjoyed this one as it wasn’t as taxing as some of last week’s challenges, and finished in just under the hour. I hadn’t heard of EREMITE but the cryptic was clear enough. I got most of the answers in around 45 minutes but struggled with the last 3 which were BONNIE BANDAGE and EREMITE. John
  5. Another comparatively easy one, thank goodness; something between 30 and 35′. I liked a number of the clues, but was held up by doubt as to file=box at 12ac, and the ‘perhaps’ of 2d; I took ‘non-U clue’ to be CLE. Since it’s the anagram indicator, shouldn’t the clue read ‘..you may find…’? There are empty creels, after all. LOI, and COD to 21d. I wasted time first with the inevitable ‘Al’ (but who’s the other?), then, like jackkt, ‘bandit’, and even the Kray Brothers, whose names I don’t know (I assume not Doug and Dimsdale), until the penny dropped. Got 13d from checkers and definition, couldn’t make sense of the clue until now; thanks, Jerry. And thanks for the blog.

    Edited at 2012-09-11 04:27 pm (UTC)

  6. Well done blogging at short notice, Jerry.

    A really enjoyable puzzle that took me 41 minutes. Lots to like here but I’ll pick 21dn BONNIE as my COD. That was the answer I had to revise on checking the wordplay as I had previously bunged in BANDIT in an attempt to cut corners and finish under 30 minutes.

    ROSE-CUT and SUBTERMINAL were right on the edges of my knowledge and solved entirely from wordplay..

  7. 53 minutes here, hot helped by putting in Lateran City, where a little knowledge, not to mention an inability to write down the anagrist correctly, proved a dangerous thing. Last in BANDAGE, a clue where the clever cryptic wasn’t wasted on account of the tricky literal unlike HAIRDRESSER and PYROMANIA. Tried to spell BEADLE at least two other ways before getting it right, while I was concentrating so hard on getting EIN into the gangster clue (forwards or backwards) that I blinded myself to the obvious. Agreed RECIPE was clever while the ugly CRASH PAD was new to me. I won’t be upset if I forget it, which means I won’t.

    * Car of the Year in the UK, I am told. Muchas gratias, Jerry.

    Edited at 2012-09-11 03:40 pm (UTC)

  8. 20m. Steady solve, no real problems. They seem to have taken pity on us this week, and I for one am grateful. I must be a sensitive soul, I guess!
  9. Well done Jerry, thanks for pinch hitting. Fairly straightforward, about 20 minutes, ending with OVERTHROW, due to my solver’s block regarding cricket. I wonder, do they pinch hit in cricket? And of course, I’ve never heard of Airdrie. Regards to all.
    1. Yes and no, Kevin, in that, while the expression ‘pinch hitter’ has come into the modern versions of the game (you know, the ones that take only a day or half a day rather than five), substitutes are only allowed in cricket in the event of illness, injury or, say, family bereavement, but in such cases the substitute is not allowed to bat (or bowl, or keep wicket), only to field. So, the term ‘pinch hitter’ is used typically to refer to a player who would normally bat, say, seventh, coming in first to smash the ball around. If you will, a functional rather than an actual descriptor. But worth looking out for in a cricketing context if the setter is a cricket lover.
  10. For probably the first time ever, I managed to solve today’s puzzle before the corresponding blog appeared on Live Journal. I was a bit perplexed when I looked at LJ around 4pm to find Monday’s solution was the most recent item there.

    Darryl

    1. Yes, it doesn’t happen very often but it’s all my fault I’m afraid. Today’s regular blogger told me he’d be on holiday this week a fortnight ago, but it completely slipped my mind and I forgot to ask for a sub, so many thanks to Jerry for stepping into the breach at such short notice.

      As for the puzzle itself, a fairly average 14:05 for me, but I have to mention the brilliant anagram at 24ac which I don’t recall ever seeing before.

      1. Me neither. I wondered if I was just getting old and had forgotten it. Really top class anagram.
  11. 14:00 for me. Despite feeling desperately tired, I was plodding along quite steadily until I was left with 21ac and 21dn – at which point my brain seized up. Even when I’d eventually thought of BANDAGE, I still wasted time wondering if 21dn could be BANDIT. (Sigh!)

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