Times Crossword 25,678 – A Geography Lesson

Solving Time: 33 minutes.. I started off like a rocket, and was set for a quick time but got held up first in the SW corner and then worse, having stupidly put SCARPER for 2dn 14ac became impossible. Eventually I realized I hadn’t actually parsed 2dn and sorted it all out.. not my finest hour, or half-hour rather, but it is not the fault of the crossword which I thought excellent. One or two clues such as 17ac, 3dn are very fine.

Back home now from sunny Qatar to the wind and the rain, here in Kent. My strategy of buying a house half way up a hill is looking good at present, it gives me a good view of the flooded river Beult down at the bottom..

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

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across

1 disavowal – *(VOIDS A LAW) this anagram telegraphs itself rather, making for an easy start
6 locum – officer = COL(onel), rev., + U + M
9 chapati – academic post = CHAI(R) containing PAT, a man or woman.. tricky clue if you see man = chap first..
10 figures – river = URE in fruit = FIGS. The Ure flows through one of my favourite places, Wensleydale.
11 tip – dd.. as in a felt tip, ha ha
12 indubitable – trendy = IN + style = DUB + I + board = TABLE. Dub is not a word I use much but I suppose if someone is dubbed something they can also be styled it..
14 hoopoe – HO(use) + O + (Edgar Allan) POE
15 dormouse – (w)ORM in soak = DOUSE Everyone loves a dormouse, don’t they? My cats certainly do
17 maritime – tricky, tricky.. it’s chap briefly = MA(N) + IT in RIME, (of the Ancient Mariner, who stoppeth one of three). The def. is seafaring, which has to be separated from the chap
19 eclair – city = EC + refuge = LAIR. First of two London references
22 speakership – *(SHEIK’S PAPER). Another London reference, in a way
23 tub – only = BUT, rev.
25 elegist – supporter = LEG + IS in everybody’s favourite alien, ET
27 brusque – R(epublican) in (campaign) BUS, + French “that” = QUE
28 dirty – DITTY, with the first T turned into an R
29 inclement – favoured = IN + (Pope) CLEMENT. What recent UK weather may be described as

Down

1 ducat – A in DUCT
2 shampoo – get lost = *(MAP) in SHOO, used to treat hair = shock. Took me ages to sort out this not-too-hard clue
3 vladivostok – opposed to = V + boy = LAD + four = IV, + note up = SO rev., + TO K. Lovely clue. Glad I didn’t have to clue that, in the recent Turkey..
4 weirdo – you & I = WE + R in current = I + party = DO. If the V in 3dn had been clued using volt, we would have had the whole of Ohm’s Law..
5 lifebuoy – sentence = LIFE + U in BOY (ie YOB, rev.). Where would setters be, without snobbish Nancy Mitford?
6 log – dd, a record or a logarithm
7 caribou – A RIB in COU(P), a stroke
8 musketeer – MET + E + ER crossing a Welsh river, the USK
13 time capsule – a cd, a type of clue apparently our latest object of scorn, after homophones and &lits..
14 Hampstead – *(HATED) containing A MPS. MPS stands for lots of interesting things but none of them are anything to do with pharmacists that I can see. Chambers has only member of the philological society. The ODO (and OED) don’t have it. Collins does have it, but MRPS would seem more accurate.. oh well, at least it wasn’t members of parliament this time
16 amoretti – A MORE TT I .. amoretti being putti, little fat cupids, and not an Italian sweetie after all
18 roe deer – oriental = E in staff = ROD + ‘EER, = ever = permanent.
20 antique – A + N + “teak”
21 phobic – tramp = HOB(O) in film = PIC. For two seconds I carelessly had phobia, but 29 ac was easy and put matters right
24 Brest – BREST, sounds like breast, to confront as in to breast a wave I suppose. A major French naval dockyard.
26 icy – bIsCaY

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

50 comments on “Times Crossword 25,678 – A Geography Lesson”

  1. As Jerry says, easy to get started, harder to finish.

    For 5dn I had the U in YOB reversed (“lout over”).

    On the whole, a good puzzle that lures one into a totally false sense of expertise. As noted, the cryptic def at 13dn is a bit sad. (Not sure I’d ever put even a half-good &lit in the same category as dubious homophones and pretty much all CDs.)

    Typo in 17ac: “seafaring” for the def.

  2. 10:31 .. only hold-ups my usual misspelling of BUOY and the slow trawl through my rusty knowledge of London districts for HAMPSTEAD.

    COD … MARITIME

    Jerry – you may have to build a big fence to keep the sodden plain dwellers out if things carry on. Are we going to see the emergence of an ‘up / down divide’?

    1. Good thinking sotira, I’ll get onto it. I have lost four trees (!) (well, not precisely lost, I know just where they are..) so have the materials available. Regulars here will be welcomed inside, however..

      Edited at 2014-01-08 11:21 am (UTC)

  3. Nodded off again so no accurate timing. I was unable to explain CHAPATI having spotted man = chap first…

    What mct said re 5dn.

    Good puzzle.

  4. Like Jack, I went for man=chap, but decided it had to be CHAPATI, even though I can never, ever remember how to spell WEIRD, and was dubious for a long time about 9ac ending in I. I had guessed that MPS meant ‘Master of Pharmaceutical Science’, but my (Japanese) dictionary gives ‘Member of Pharmaceutical Society’ as one reading.2d was especially irritating, as I got ‘shock’ right off as well as (MAP), but took forever to come up with the SHOO part. Definitely COD to MARITIME.
  5. 31 minutes – the first time I’ve been sub-Jerry, as far as I can recall (although it’ll be a while before I match his times for the Club Monthly – or finish more than half unaided).

    ‘Breasting assaults’ is the type of thing you might find in nineteenth century novels. I like ‘dub’ and often use it in the sense given here. Vladivostok was a write-in once I had the K (even though I wanted to spell it with a -ck). Not mad about the CD at 13…

  6. Alan Connor’s latest Guardian article fails to mention our band of illustrious American solvers. Grist for his next one?

    Edited at 2014-01-08 03:38 am (UTC)

  7. First excuse was a colleague coming over to talk about work, wasted about 10 minutes. Fool.

    Second excuse was that even though I wrote DUCIT, I swear I meant DUCAT. I mean, it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. So I’m claiming all correct in about 35 minutes.

    Having said that, was delighted to find that BREST was a town, CLEMENT was a Pope, HOOPOE was a bird and AMORETTI was a thing. Good puzzle (except for 13dn which I think is the least cryptic clue I’ve ever seen in a cryptic crossword).

    1. One of the Clements (the Vth) was responsible for moving the papal court from Rome to Avignon in the 14th century and for stacking his cardinal pool with Frenchmen to ensure a line of Gallic pontiffs.
  8. 14m, despite initially bunging in LIFELINE and CIABATA, for no reason other than wanting a quick time. Ridiculous.
    As others have said, a nice puzzle apart from 13dn. I’ve nothing against CDs but this was more of a D.
    1. I see your lifeline and raise you a lifeboat and a lifebelt. I could have done with a lot of crypticsue’s tippex.

  9. All correct in about 35 mins, so a good time for me today.

    I too thought DUB referred to the music style, didn’t get the ORM bit of DORMOUSE, and didn’t stop to parse TIME CAPSULE.

    Ended with AMORETTI, once I’d corrected the second M in MARITIME. I had ‘maritine’ thinking it was an alternate spelling, putting IT into the MARINE – r.

  10. Fastest ever at 15.54 so well pleased. Not sure why – it all just fell into place. Had a good few drinks, an excellent steak, and some bedtime fun last night. Might have to try that again!
    1. Until today, I’d always pictured you in those shorts…

      Edited at 2014-01-08 08:44 am (UTC)

      1. I’ve mentally substituted a picture of a pyjama-clad napasai reading an engaging chapter of Wodehouse before lights out. For my own sanity.
    2. Perhaps napasai could clarify whether his personal best time relates to solving the crossword or the bedtime fun. I like the idea of his formula for success, but these days only the steak seems to offer potential for improving my crossword prowess.
  11. 17 minutes, a start-stop-start again crossword, which got going the second time round with TIME CAPSULE, with a brief period wondering whether there was anything at all cryptic about it. It did put me in mind of the timeless John and Mary tiff:
    “Don’t let’s dig it up again”
    “You never liked me being an archaeologist.”
    For the record, I like &lits, most homophones (the more wince-worthy the better) and proper, misleading CD’s unless I need help with the spelling.
    VLADIVOSTOK was a particularly valiant effort with a setter’s nightmare (well done!), though for me it was more a case of how many longish cities do you know spelled V*K. My fave of the day was AMORETTI, for blatant sesquipedalianism.
  12. 20 mins and I agree with those of you who said that it was an easier puzzle to start than to finish, although some of that was down to my own stupidity. There was some very good cluing in this puzzle, other than 13dn as some of you have already pointed out.

    HOOPOE was my LOI after HAMPSTEAD once I decided the latter wasn’t the misspelled and unparsed “Tamesmead” (see comment in first paragraph about stupidity).

  13. Chuffed with my time today as I felt that this puzzle seemed harder than it actually was (if you see what I mean).
  14. Nothing complicated – just a steady grind.

    I believe that the current appropriate ‘letters’ for a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society are MRPharmaS. MPS is the older version.

  15. Another incorrigible wierdo here, looking for a chap in 9a. 16.49.
    Has it been 40 days and 40 nights yet? Perhaps Jerry should build an ark with all that lumber
  16. Leaving the parsing until afterwards went through quite well to then get held up in the SW with Maritime proving the key to getting the others. Put in Phobia by mistake and had to realise this before LOI Inclement dropped. CoD 12ac for itself and also it’s Jeevesishness.
  17. 36 minutes, with 2 and 14 being the last ones entered. Tempted by SCARPER for 2, but suddenly saw the sense of ‘shock’ needed; I stared at H_O_O_ for a minute before dredging HOOPOE from the recesses of my mind. Some devious wordplay in places, though not I’m not keen on “from definition, wordplay”, as in 7, and I agree with earlier criticisms of 13.
  18. Would have been 24:30, but connection broke just as I was finishing with CARIBOU. (I’d been toying with CEREBRA, because of ‘bone’ till I got 12ac,) Then it needed over half an hour to get back in and refill blanked grid.
  19. Must have been on the right wavelength. For me this one of the easier of recent offerings and I made steady progress without any great hold-ups. Nice puzzle – the best clues already well highlighted above.

    I agree that TIME CAPSULE was a bit feeble – a barely, if at all, cryptic def/&lit.

  20. 14:43 with a good few thrown in on the basis of def and checkers only (in fact I had 8 QMs against clues to go back to post-solve for enlightenment).

    Caribou, of course, is a genuine Monty Python “woody word” and not at all “tinny” like elegist.

    I raised half an eyebrow at “perhaps” as an anagrind in 2.

    1. CARIBOU also features of course in the early verses of that poetic Rugby Football classic The Ballad of Eskimo Nell.

      Edited at 2014-01-08 05:39 pm (UTC)

  21. It seems Times compilers are always happy to take on a difficult word, though unfortunately this means that solvers in turn must take it on, usually as a write-in. I got to V/ LAD and that was it. 13 held me up because it is an awful clue, but most of the rest of this is usual good Timesy stuff.

    Thank you for the link to Alan Connor’s words, which are sufficiently philistine as to warrant inclusion in that rag. He can keep his book.

    Not that I’m biased or anything.

  22. All correct today after I’d corrected two iPad typos.
    FOI Disavowal LOI Brest. Didn’t mine Time Capsule. Until then the SE corner was blank and I was glad of the gimme!
  23. I had no problems with this – except for my normal dithering over the spelling of WEIRDO. 19 minutes. Ann
  24. 28.25 for a steady solve. I don’t think 13’s a real clunker though there must be a better surface to be unearthed. Nice Speakership anagram.
  25. 23 minutes. I started like Usain Bolt but ended like a tortoise in the NE corner. LOI “musketeer”. I normally start solving around 16:45 with the target of finishing before Pointless starts – so happy today.

    Edited at 2014-01-08 05:24 pm (UTC)

  26. About 30 minutes, ending with the HOOPOE, which we don’t have over here, so it wasn’t on the tip of my tongue. I didn’t find 13D as bad as most others here, but I did find Alan Connor’s article (thank you Ulaca, and to Chris Gregory: Yeah!) to be quite parochial as regards US crossword solvers, and indicative of someone with his head up… well, as an American, I can’t say anything more. Regards to all, including Mr. Connor. After all, I have an aversion to being rude.
  27. HOOPOE was my LOin – too many damned Os! I had to trawl the alphabet.

    Like some others, I had “scarper” for 2d for a while before the penny dropped. I also failed to parse CHAPATI – thrown by the initial CHAP, and left with an ATI.

    HAMPSTEAD wasn’t so bad. I assumed that MPS was “Member of the Pharmaceutical Society” – which was (and as far as I know still is) a designation for a qualified druggist. Of course, whether any pharmacist can be considered “qualified” is hotly debated amongst we hewers of flesh, but that’s a different matter.

    Didn’t enjoy “TIME CAPSULE” – spent a while trying to parse it in some cunning way, before realising there was nothing to parse.

  28. Sorry to correct you Thud but as mentioned above, MPS is history. Members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society are designated as MRPharmaS . A lazy clue.
    1. Always happy to be corrected after the event. It’s the malpractice suits that really annoy me.

      I guess there’s no law against using historical abbreviations, but on the whole I agree that it wasn’t a great clue.

      1. As a retired Chartered Accountant (letters FCA), I wait for the years to tick by so that any malpractice claims are deemed out of time.

        My Old Man considered long and hard about whether to sign up for a lifetime coverage from the Medical Defence Union. In the end, he did, for £29. What does it cost now?

        Edited at 2014-01-08 07:30 pm (UTC)

        1. £29!!! That wouldn’t even cover the cost of the stuff I lose in patients. If you’re a GP, you’re looking at £6-8k.

        2. This was 60 years ago. Even in my time, I could buy a pint of beer for 2/-d so things do go up in price
          1. My first pint was1/10d in the Edinburgh University Union in 1963

            Edited at 2014-01-08 11:03 pm (UTC)

  29. 25 minutes, with a Mondayish feel to it. The top half more or less wrote itself in, and then I slowed down, ending up in the SW, with AMORETTI my LOI. Nothing exactly stands out for complexity, misdirection or wit, except, perhaps, MARITIME, my COD. Didn’t know MPS, but it could have scarcely been anything else. A bit disappointed by the clueing of 13dn – a sort of “quick crossword” clue?

  30. 35m or so here – interrupted by wretched telephone calls. (Note to put it on silent when solving!)Found this straightforward but enjoyable – I must confess to spending a fair few minutes trying to make 13d a nonCD, having spotted the US going backwards. No amount of invention however seemed to do the trick so have to agree with previous comments.
  31. A sluggish 10:20 for me, never really finding the setter’s wavelength, and being even more than usually plagued by senior moments, particularly with INDUBITABLE, which simply refused to emerge from the back of my mind.

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