Times Crossword 25,595

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: Quick one this, somewhat under 15 mins, but none the worse for that. A number of deft touches (eg 5 & 28ac, 14dn) made it a pleasure to solve. I dare say there will be some fast times today.

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online


Across
1 catfight – about = CA + F(EMALE) in drunk = TIGHT
5 bounty – a dd, one of them being a reference to the ship of that name, captained by the much maligned William Bligh but taken by the mutineers, headed by the first lieutenant, Fletcher Christian.
10 personal trainer – *(ON A REAL SPRINTER)
11 barbary ape – unknown = Y in BARB + A RAPE. Barb on a fish hook, as in “barbarous”
13 Etna – nEpTuNiAn
15 excerpt – (LABOU)R in less = EXCEPT
17 acronym – friend = CRONY in A M(OTORWAY). nimby is of course an acronym, very frequently employed nowadays
18 chequer – CHE, the setter’s revolutionary of choice, + QUER(Y). I would regard chequer as a rather doubtful word in this meaning. The OED has it as meaning a chessman (“obs. and rare”), and as regards draughts it is a pure Americanism, moreover usually spelt checker. It could be taken as a piece in the game of Chinese Chequers, I suppose..
19 enchain – N(OON) in E + CHA + IN
21 Acre – hidden, rev.
22 black widow – avoid = BLACK + relict = WIDOW. That seems a very easy clue now, but I spent ages thinking it was an anagram of avoid + relict
25 consumer durable – study = CON (as in conning tower) + problem = SUM + queen = ER + *(BAD RULE). The ODO gives cars and household appliances as examples. I was about to make some sarcastic comment but on reflection I think it is a fair description of modern cars and most white goods
27 leeway – L(EARNER) + not great = WEE, rev., + AY = yes = certainly
28 messmate – jam or pickle = MESS + tea = MATE. A fine clue this, I thought, neatly avoiding several cliché possibilities

Down

1 capable – PA in CABLE. I thought this was another nautical reference at first but it just means electric lead/cable I think
2 tar – a larga amount of acid = TAR(T)
3 idolatrous – *(OL(D) AUDITORS). Graven images nowadays much less popular than once they were..
4 hoary – HOAR(D) + Y(EARS), the def. being just “old”
6 opal – polish = LAP + round = O, all rev. To lap means to polish, esp. a gemstone. Possibly by a lapidary, in a lapping shop..
7 non-standard – ON + STAND (of trees) in NARD, which the ODO defines as Spikenard, and then rather more helpfully says it is a Himalayan plant formerly used in perfumery. I hadn’t heard of it but it didn’t hold me up
8 yardarm – *(MY RADAR). What says it is time for a drink when the sun is over it
9 stoppage – TOP + P in SAGE.
12 rocket range – “ROCK ETRANGE” to produce reagent. Rocket range has a rather fifties, Boys Own Paper sound about it, like aerodrome..
14 brickworks – reliable person = BRICK + WORK + S, the clever def. being “baking outfit.”
16 thriller – stream = RILL in THE R(IVER)
18 chancel – CHANCE + L. “the part of a church near the altar, reserved for the clergy and choir, and typically separated from the nave by steps or a screen.” ODO
20 nowhere – drama = NO + W + being = HERE. Where any horse I back comes
23 cadre – D in CARE
24 tuba – A BUT, rev. But surely only one band member would play it?
26 boa – BOA(R)

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

42 comments on “Times Crossword 25,595”

  1. Getting back to normal after yesterday’s lousy time. Only had to re-think parsings of BARBARY APE and NON-STANDARD after solving. NARD is a bit obscure and required a dictionary look up.

    Jerry: for 20dn, I’d parse it as “drama” = NOH, include W (wickets), add ERE (before).

    Edited at 2013-10-02 05:07 am (UTC)

    1. Morning, Alec. Yes, I think your parsing is better, since I am having trouble now with being = here: “We need to ask ourselves, why are we being?” … doesn’t quite cut it 🙂
  2. Pretty strightforward, except that I still can’t parse MESSMATE. I expect I am just having a senior moment, but I don’t see how tea=MATE.
    1. This had me scurrying to the dictionary, Derek. Maté (tea) is ‘a bitter infusion of the leaves of a South American shrub, which is high in caffeine’.
        1. Derek: I’d only vaguely heard of maté and ruled it out. So went for “pickle with tea” as an anagram of “tea” which left me with an unexplained M in the solution. So include that among my previously mentioned couple of retro-parsings. Thanks for jogging the failing memory.

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

          1. That was just about where my attempts ended up. Given the checkers it seemed to be close enough!
  3. No idea on a time since I did it in 3 sessions with interruptions, probably 30 mins. I also spent some time looking for an anagram of avoid+relict without noticing it was the wrong number of letters!
  4. 50 minutes with a few necessary hold-ups (eg maté, rocket range, lap=polish) and a few unnecessary ones (eg relict=widow). COD to EXCERPT, though THRILLER was nice too.
  5. No time recorded today but it was around 40-45 minutes with time lost trying unsuccessfully to parse everything as I solved and eventually giving up on that. There were several I needed to come back to after the grid was complete and three I failed to parse completely, 28 as I didn’t know tea= MATE, 6dn as I didn’t know polish = LAP and 7dn as I didn’t know STAND of trees or NARD. “Didn’t know” includes “or had forgotten”.
  6. 22 minutes, which felt fairly compact given that I didn’t get 1ac until well on into solving. I’m another thrown by the addition of “small” in the clue for BRICKWORKS, and I still think “has a job” produces “works” not “work”.
    I liked the clue within a clue for ROCKET RANGE – being a child of the Blue Streak era, Woomera sprang to mind most readily. CoD though goes to BOUNTY for the grammatical trickery. I did try, briefly, to fit something inside Dior, the recent Christian of choice in Crosswordland.
  7. 25: 51.. good challenge, neat surfaces, creative constructions. I liked this a lot.

    Been somewhat hampered the last few days by listening to my parents doing their morning solve of the Telegraph Concise. This involves my father sitting in his armchair with the dictionary and thesaurus while my mother wields the pen and reads out the clues and enumerations. It’s quite a challenge because Mum gets almost every enumeration wrong, so Dad spends ages looking for words which don’t exist. But he doesn’t mind a bit. I’ve come to the conclusion that solving the puzzle is not the point of the exercise for them at all. There’s some sort of unspoken communication at work which only people married for sixty years can understand.

    Edited at 2013-10-02 07:56 am (UTC)

    1. I can just picture your parents Sotira – truly lovely image. I started doing the cryptics about 15 years ago after my mother handed me a stash of unfinished ones of my father’s left over from his last illness (she couldn’t bear to look at them). With great difficulty I did finally fill all the lights he’d left empty and by then I was hooked.

      On another subject, as you probably know Tony Sever is no longer going to be doing his weekly “neutrino-free leaderboard”. Between now and early November I won’t have time but after that I’m willing to have a go if no one else steps in. I did take your name in vain on the Club Forum, though, because I have a feeling you’re much better at that sort of thing than I could ever be.

      20.51. Enjoyed this one.

      1. Hi Olivia,
        I can understand why you became hooked. Wonderful that you’re keeping up the tradition.

        I hasn’t realised Tony had now stopped the N-free leader board. I’m travelling in the UK at the moment and only have an iPad with me so am not spending much time online.

        I’m not sure I could commit to anything just now as I’m here scouting for an intended move back here on a permanent basis in the next few months. I have a million things to do and feel a bit overwhelmed by it. Once things have settled (and we have) I would be happy to try it if no one else has jumped in, but the next few months are likely to be just too chaotic.

        1. You’ve got your hands full and so for now have I so we’ll wait and see. Good to hear from you and good luck with the move.

      2. Dear Mr Sever

        …

        We can confirm that your complimentary access to The Times and The Sunday Times Web Pack is now live and you have access to the sites, including the Crossword Club until 30/09/2013.

        I assumed this meant that at 01/10/2013 I’d be bounced; but I still have access, for the moment at least – though presumably the plug could be pulled at any time.

        So keep solving those puzzles, and I’ll keep producing my neutrino-free leaderboard as long as I’m around.

        1. Oh, super. And quite right, too, Tony. If anyone deserves complimentary access it’s you. What with your Beat the Clock thing and the Neutrino-free leader board, you’re virtually staff. Long may it continue!
          1. >…
            >What with your Beat the Clock thing …

            Thank you for those kind words, Sotira. But you seem to be confusing me with Bruce Forsyth 😉


  8. Not good today. Had a gap at EXCERPT, and failed to parse quite a few, several due to unknown vocab (mate, stand, nard…). Very different from yesterday’s…

  9. Very steady slightly pedestrian 25 minutes with no real stand-out moments along the way. Didn’t know NARD and like Jerry was puzzled by CHEQUER, thinking it had to be “checker” – just went with the cryptic since 3D is an anagram and I was confident I had it correct. I liked BOUNTY and MESSMATE
  10. 16 mins with the last minute or so spent on the CATFIGHT/TAR/HOARY crossers.

    Although I enjoyed this puzzle there were some that I didn’t bother to parse once I had a few checkers, such as BARBARY APE and NON-STANDARD. I’m in agreement that the clues for BOUNTY and MESSMATE were excellent.

  11. No stupid mistakes today, and managed to parse everything in 30m 44s, so I failed to beat my half- hour target, but I offer in mitigation the fact that I was hampered by a. very persistent border terrier who insisted on sitting on my lap as I struggled to manipulate the newspaper. (I still hate the format which makes the handling so unwieldy: much prefer the clues alongside the grid).
    Thanks to sotira for the charming description of parents tackling the Telegraph crossword: a touching image.
    George Clements
      1. The dog in the picture sits next to me on the couch and requires constant attention, otherwise he comes over and licks my right hand which is trying to enter things on an iPad. Perhaps I should sit at the other end so that it is at least only my left hand that is tied up.
  12. Chrome running here in fits and starts, so for a few minutes at a time could read clues but not enter solutions (clock still ticking).
    Thanks for parsing 11ac – got stuck with BAR = preventing, so just relied on definition.
  14. 16:49 which seems reasonable given the unknown nard, lap and mate.

    At 22 faced with -L-C- –D– I found it very hard to shake Black Adder from my mind and I momentarily forgot what a relict is.

    Nice puzzle but does anyone know what just is doing in 15?

    2. I couldn’t make head or tail of this: “just” can’t just be padding, surely?
  15. As of yesterday I’m a Times subscriber (digital + weekend pack) so crossword access is assured for at least a year. Happy days!
    Slow and steady solve today with FOI Boa and LOI Bounty.
    Had the same unknowns as some others (lap, nard, mate) but the definitions for those answers were all straightforward. Put Hoard initially at 4dn until I got the ape (several of which I met on the Rock last summer).
  16. 11a: Historically, ‘barb’ (beard) is unrelated to ‘barbarous/ic’ (anc Gk impression of those who didn’t speak Gk); 3d: still quite popular if you include icons, as we noted the other day. Still, you solved it an ellavalot faster than I did. cheers
    1. Thank you, joe. It was nice to share a little of my mother and father. I’m rather proud of them.
  18. Two short breaks during work again, so no massive hold-ups though I didn’t see the wordplay for NON-STANDARD and I needed it for the rather ungainly-looking term CONSUMER DURABLE. I guess we’ll see what tonight brings.
  19. It’s bad enough having a Monday morning crossword on a Monday, but to have one on Tuesday and Wednesday as well seems unnecessary. This only survived one and a half of my (short) commutes, so under half an hour, which is hardly straining the grey cells.
  20. 23m. I didn’t enjoy this very much: too many bunged in from definition, and some unnecessarily Mephistoish stuff (lap, nard, mate). Some good stuff though, especially BOUNTY, my last in.

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