Times Crossword 25,439 – barking mad

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: 22 minutes. It would have been five minutes or so less, but see 1ac below.. Still, only about average difficulty overall, I would guess. I found nothing significant to disagree with or complain about; but then, I seldom do. A solid, entertaining piece of work, thank you setter

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”
ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across
1 woofer – a dd, one cryptic – the lab being a dog of course. I began by entering BARKER with a knowing nod, (a fairground barker, geddit?) and it was not untill I completely ran aground on 2 & 3dn that I started to question it and finally the hi-fi component emerged.
5 knotwork – “not work.” Knot my cup of tea.
9 alongshore – A + pine = LONG + support = SHORE (up). Not a word I remember coming across before
10 vain – individual = I in front = VAN
11 prunella – (SU)P(ERVISORS) + manage = RUN + ELLA Fitzgerald, a fine singer
12 thrown – short tim = hour = HR in TOWN
13 wadi – poster = AD in WI
15 heredity – HE + RED + IT(AL)Y. Al being Mr Capone, is there any other gangster?
18 scorpion – S(U)C(H) + P in ORION. Scorpio is latin for scorpion. Continuing belief in astrology is one of many reasons that give one to wonder if the human race can really survive..
19 Sark – S + ARK
21 billet – dd.
23 oat-grass – *(OR A STAGS)
25 tiny – TOY, with the O(ld) replaced by funky = trendy = IN. I hesitated over this clue, which felt a little loose for some reason, but little else fits -I-Y
26 anticlimax – *(I AINT CALM) + X. a clever clue, though the “ain’t” gives away the anagrist rather
27 stiletto – fired clay = TILE in ST(REET) TO. Another clever clue. It took me a while to see that the fired clay was a tile
28 sugary – US rev, + GARY. I can’t remember where, but I swear I have come across Gary, Indiana in another crossword within the last couple of weeks. It is where Michael Jackson comes from, and if the Wiki entry is anything to go by, I suspect he was quite glad to leave it
Down
2 oiler – (B)OILER. Just a tanker really, adapted for refuelling at sea
3 financier – at home = IN in (pigeon) FANCIER. The gnome being of the Zurich variety..
4 result – U(SEFU)L in relax = REST.
5 know a thing or two – cd. On edit: or maybe a dd, see comments
6 overturn – (D)OVER TURN. Just down the road from me
7 waver – a dd I suppose, though whether waving and gesticulating wildly are equivalent I rather doubt. Is the “wildly” really adding anything?
8 rainwater – island = I in *(ARRAN WET)
14 archivist – chief = ARCH + VISIT with a I “brought up”
16 deserving – D + E(SSEX) + in action = SERVING
17 distract – neighbourhood = DISTRICT, with the I changed to A
20 sticks – dd, assuming a stick is indeed an old fogey, of which I was not aware. I did know that in conjunction with stones, sticks can cause physical harm but words can cause only deep psychological trauma
22 loyal – ROYAL, with the R replaced by L(EFT)
24 stair – T(UNISI)A in teacher = SIR

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

35 comments on “Times Crossword 25,439 – barking mad”

  1. Like Jack, held up by TINY at the end. Went through a lot of options for this one. Is 5dn a cryptic def or two defs with one facetious? Glad I didn’t have to blog this one!

  2. 18 minutes taking a lot on trust but I needed nearly as long again to work out all the wordplay, with TINY taking the most time by far.

    OATGRASS, KNOTWORK and ALONGSHORE seemed unfamiliar but I’ve probably met them in the past and forgotten them,

    Edited at 2013-04-03 05:51 am (UTC)

    1. Great time Jack. Hesitate to say I told you so but I remember predicting you would speed up once you stopped all that terrible commuting
  3. 21:38 .. yep, a lot of untangling the knotty wordplay after guessing the answer. And a lengthy period staring at _I_Y before seeing the light – for a long while I was scrambling for a synonym of ‘smelly’ (funky).
    1. I think one of the problems with this clue is the large number of meanings of “funky”. I suspect not many will think of “smelly” or indeed “smokey” or “fearful” but all are correct along with “soulful” as in jazz and “kinky” as in other walks of life. I think “in” as in “fashionable” is relatively new.
  4. although TINY came to mind, I couldn’t see how to make it work, largely because I would never have made the connection from ‘funky’ to ‘in’. So I went with ‘jivy’, in sheer desperation.
  5. 47 minutes, held up by spelling STILETTO as ‘stilleto’, which made DISTRACT and ANTICLIMAX less accessible.

    With McT that 5dn is a double definition.

    Top time, Jack!

    1. Thanks, Ulaca. Yes it was one of my better efforts. I have recently signed up to the Telegraph puzzles on-line so am doing their cryptic everyday and maybe this is bearing some fruit as I rarely go past 20 minutes there.
      1. As Peter Biddlecombe always was at pains to stress, you can’t beat practice.
  6. After struggling all weekend – Saturdays as yet unfinished- I flew this for me at least in 21.10. I almost start to believe in the wavelength theory! Held up a little by not being able to spell the dagger. Otherwise all plain sailing here.
  7. Thanks, jerry, for the fine blog particularly for the plausible explanation of TINY which otherwise had me totally confused. COD to OVERTURN: a real smile-maker when the penny dropped.
  8. About 20 minutes, but needed another 5 to understand the word play for TINY, which I’d hopefully written in, knowing it was something to do with TOY.

    It occurred to me, then, that I had no idea of the meaning of “funky”: I recall “in a blue funk” from boys’ adventure stories, and The Funky Gibbon by The Goodies, (don’t look it up, it is typical of a period best forgotten) but “funky” seems like one of those ephemeral words, uttered to suggest mild approval, or disapproval, or to fill an awkward silence.

    Yes, it is about time we had a new gangster, preferably from fiction rather than one of those unpleasant people who, with the passage of time, mutate into endearing characters with eccentric ways who really loved their mothers and only nailed furniture to people’s heads in extremis. I nominate Vito; he might do the job quite effectively.

    1. From the ODO: Funky: modern and stylish in an unconventional or striking way: “she likes wearing funky clothes.”

      So far as gangsters are concerned, I would prefer to ignore them completely. We can always replace them with yet more characters from the OT, like Lot, Nod, Micah etc etc etc.

      I do wish you hadn’t reminded me about the Funky Gibbon, John 🙂

  9. 16.48 though tiny went in on a wing and a prayer. Funky can be trendy and trendy can be in, but funky as in is a stretch. There’s a sentence for a time capsule. Alongshore new to me too, but I rather like the word. May have recovered somewhat from a brain-dulled reaction to a feverish following of the chess candidates’ tournament fortnight. At least that’s my excuse for a poor showing yesterday. As long as one can think of an excuse, it’s not all lost.
    1. I think I got this via Miller’s A View from the Bridge with Eddie Carbone, the ‘longshoreman’. I misremembered him I think as alongshoreman!
    2. ‘As long as one can think of an excuse, it’s not all lost.’

      Classic! I knew ‘alongshore’ from playing ‘The Dictionary Game’ (based on the TV show ‘Call My Bluff’) many moons ago chez famille. My brother picked this unlikely sounding word from the dictionary, we all created palusible defintions for it, but in vain: the real answer was just ‘along the shore’.

  10. A case of steady if unspectacular progress through a steady if unspectacular puzzle. 20 minutes to solve with some time like most others pondering TINY and getting from funky to “in”. In the end I stuck in TINY taking “minature” to be the definition and then looked up “funky”. No real stand out clues today.
  11. Pretty straightforward puzzle with the only hold-up being TINY where – like others – I was unsure that funky and IN were equivalents.
  12. 9:31 on the club timer. Clearly a puzzle designed specially for me.
    I had a feeling at the end that 25ac was going to hold me up for ages. TINY looked likely but I was very reluctant to put it in without understanding it. Fortunately I saw the light quite quickly. “Funky” for “in” is a little bit loose but close enough for me. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I?
      1. Thanks… I think. 
        Towards the end of his long life, as his physical condition deteriorated, our much-missed pet Georgie could have been described as a “funky cat”. But I don’t think that’s what you mean.
        1. Ours is a cat house, too, so I know what you mean. But no, that wasn’t what I meant. Great time, anyway.
          1. Thanks. We’re a dog house now. It’s similar, only more so, with much more noise.
  13. Reasonably straightforward puzzle. Like others, I fussed over TINY for quite a while, assuming it had to be the answer from def alone, but taking some time to spot the “funky” = IN bit of the clue. KNOTWORK, OAT GRASS and ALONGSHORE (in the adjectival sense used here) were all unfamiliar to me, but accessible via the cryptic indicators. I liked the double def at 5 dn and the ingenious wordplay of STILETTO.
  14. Well so much for that. I decided KNOTWARE worked better from the wordishplay at 5 across.
  15. I found this very straightforward apart from TINY, which I entered in the end on definition alone. Solved in 22 minutes. The wordplay to most of the clues was perhaps a bit too straightforward for my taste, but ideal for those chasing fast times. I imagine there will be some under 5 minutes.
  17. I had neither the reckless courage to enter TINY without parsing nor the patience to wait until I twigged…
  18. 11 minutes dead so I was certainly on the right wavelength, or at least alongshore.

    The clue for wadi caught my eye right off so I started there and worked anticlockwise only having to go back to put in sticks which I didn’t know in that context. Even tiny went in with not much thought having spotted the definition and the substitution ploy.

    knotwork unfamilar, overturn very good indeed.

    Jerry’s comment on scorpio put me in mind of Sir Patrick Moore’s quote: “Astrology proves just one scientific principle. There’s a mug born every minute.” I wonder when he’ll crop up as an answer now he’s no longer with us.

  19. Put in TINY as nothing else was better, don’t like In for Funky as many above have noted, otherwise good fare, 6 / 10 on Ohms.
  21. About 15 minutes, LOI being TINY, for the same reasons everyone else had. Not much else to say, except that I did enjoy the ‘Dover turn’ ploy. And that Professor Hill in The Music Man famously hailed from Gary, Indiana. Regards.

    Edited at 2013-04-03 06:45 pm (UTC)

  22. No problems today (unlike yesterday where I had two missing – Jupiter and Jumble). Oat-Grass and Sticks from wordplay and checking letters.
  23. 10:50 for me, held up by a brainstorm at 19ac where I somehow managed to convince myself that “small vessel” was both definition and wordplay – and wasted time mulling over whether the Cutty Sark could possibly be regarded as small! Eventually I read the clue properly, but by then I’d squandered even more time than I’d spent on TINY. For a while I also wanted 21ac to be PILLAR, and didn’t actually twig how BILLET = “post” until after I’d finished.

    Nevertheless I enjoyed this one very much, particularly 6dn (OVERTURN). It’s possible I’ve met this before, but if so I’d forgotten it.

    Edited at 2013-04-03 10:02 pm (UTC)

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