Times Crossword 25,954 – 2014 Championships, Second Preliminary, Puzzle 1

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: Perhaps 20 minutes or so on the day, not entirely sure now. Another reasonably gentle offering from the recent Championships but golly, it does have some elegant clueing, an absolute pleasure to blog. Thank you, setter. Take careful notes, all you who want to contribute to the famous TFTT Xmas Turkey – which will be along next Monday. Don’t miss it!

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

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across

1 parodic – *(RAID COP). A nice easy one to start us off
5 Wicklow – a dd, one d referring to a candle, the other to a small port on the East coast of Eire, a rather attractive place by the look of it…
9 Las Palmas – PALM (tree) + A(driatic) in LASS (girl). Las Palmas is the capital of Gran Canaria and the ninth largest city in Spain. What it is not, is anywhere near the Adriatic, it is in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa. Needless to say I wrote this in quite happily on the day, without worrying too much. Nor do I remember anyone else mentioning the faux pas. I do however remember Times setters struggling with Adriatic geography more than once before Silly me. I did actually spot that this bit of the blog was all completely wrong, and amend it, as I finished the blog a couple of days ago.. but something happened to the amendment and we are back to the original. Of course, it matters not since the clue is not really connecting Las Palmas and the Adriatic at all..
10 metal – M (maiden, cricketing reference du jour) + ET AL, others.. I really liked this clue, even though Iron Maiden are by no means my usual cup of tea
11 cruel – sounds like “crewell,” which is “A loosely twisted worsted yarn, used in fancy work and embroidery” (Collins)
12 resilient – I NEIL (boy) rev. in REST (break)
13 Ford Madox Ford – I pretty much wrote this straight in without parsing it. It’s MAD (in a paddy), in FORD (crossing) + OXFORD (city, not shoe for once)
17 crème anglaise – *(NAME + SACRILEGE). A rich egg custard, though what it has to do with England is unclear. Interesting fact: a condom is called a French Letter in English, and an English Overcoat in France (capote anglaise). Pardon my French!
21 bishopric – BISHOP (chess piece) + RIC(HARD), another neat clue
24 upper – (S)UPPER.. and not (D)INNER, as I initially thought. There must be a joke involving (L)UNCHES in there too, somewhere..
25 organ – a dd. My box set has 22 cds, so he wrote a few…
26 mother wit – *(WITH METRO). And not *(when + metro) after all..
27 shebeen – B(OTTL)E in SHEEN (lustre)
28 sporran – SPOR(T) (games, not quite) + RAN (fled). I did like the definition..

Down

1 policy – I + C(irca) in POLY, a word from when colleges were colleges, and not universities as they seem to be now
2 reshuffle – E (Setters’ usual hallucinogen of choice) + SH (say nothing) in RUFFLE (upset)
3 drawler – TRAWLER, with D(uke) replacing the T. The hell it is..
4 cameramen – CAME + RAMEN
5 wasps – WAS + P(estiferou)S
6 complex – a dd.
7 Lethe – hidden (well!) in littLE THEatre. The Lethe, like the Styx, is one of the five rivers of Hades.
8 well-to-do – WELL (source of water) + TO-DO, a flap or commotion
14 delicates – *(LADIES ETC). The word “delicates” is used on the dials of washing machines and nowhere else. Until now, anyway..
15 overpower – OVER (spare) + POWER (juice)
16 scabrous – AB (able seaman) + R(ANT) in SCOUS(E), the Liverpudlian accent (is it really a dialect? The OED says it is so I suppose it must be). The nasal Scouse accent is said to have been caused by the draught emanating from the Mersey Tunnel.
18 enounce – (FR)EN(CH) + OUNCE, a cat, specifically a snow leopard, one of the most beautiful, and most threatened, of the world’s animals.
19 in utero – *(ROUTINE) – this clue a thing of real beauty
20 triton – TR(Y) IT ON. The son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Another neat one.
22 segue – EG (say) SUE (appeal, eg for peace).
23 Roman – R(ight) + OMAN, a sultanate (aka a dictatorship). Apparently Oman is the 59th most peaceful country in the world. In case you were wondering the UK is 47th, one above France, ha ha… I daresay England would be somewhat higher placed. Though only somewhat.

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

51 comments on “Times Crossword 25,954 – 2014 Championships, Second Preliminary, Puzzle 1”

  1. 38 minutes, so a smidgeon easier for me than any of the first set. I had most trouble with the two long acrosses, being only vaguely familiar with the double Ford and woefully ignorant of all matters culinary (as well as woefully slow to spot anagrams). I imagine TRITON (without its first letter and with its inventive clueing) will have tripped a few up.

    8d reminded me of my cousin, the late Terry Biddlecombe (a larger than life character if ever there was one), who, having missed out on the winning National ride in 1970 on Gay Trip partnered him two years later to second place to Well To Do.

    Does the UK still have polytechnics. Here in Hong Kong they are all ‘universities’, offering anything from PhDs to rich Mainland students to ‘pre-associate degree’ courses to anyone who can pay up front.

    1. All the old polytechnics are now universities as far as I know. Many changed their names to (city) metropolitan university. Others were a bit more original. My daughter goes to Northumbria University, formerly Newcastle Ploy (until 1992). Her second choice was Liverpool John Moores University, formerly Liverpool Poly.

      My alma mater (if one can say that about a polytechnic), has just changed its name to Leeds Beckett University, having previously been Leeds Metropolitan University and Leeds Poly.

      1. Good to see them rebranding themselves after a spendthrift Etonian Tory peer. For a second I was worried it might be named after the member for Derby South.
  2. Surely ‘Adriatic’ is there for the ‘A’ and not as the location of the resort.
    rednim
    1. Speaking from bitter experience, it will not be the first time a blogger has made a faux pas by pointing out an imaginary one by the setter!
      1. Yes, well, I’m a bit annoyed about that having seen it before publication and thought I’d fixed it.. still, worse things happen at sea, as my old granny used to say
  3. Once again, with the first in the series the setter suckers me into thinking I could handle the competition. A couple of these I put in from checkers and definition or enumeration like 13ac, where the X sufficed. Like Jerry, I enjoyed the definition of 28ac, although it did tempt me into putting in ‘sponger’ at first. Also liked ENOUNCE & SEGUE, my LsOI.
  4. 40 minutes steady solve with only MOTHER WIT bordering on the unknown. Thought SPORRAN rather good.
  5. Decided, correctly, at 45 min that I didn’t know sporran or shebeen, and headed for the dictionary and the blog. Otherwise very much enjoyed this, Triton in particular. I will comment that there are more slightly unusual words with S – G – – than I would have guessed before I ran the alphabet.
  6. 52:35, but resorted to aids for 13ac. Spent an inordinate amount of time looking at M_D_X as the middle name, thinking “no, really?”.

    In the cool light of day I’d have to concede that even without knowing the author, it was a fair but difficult clue. A write-in if you knew him, as Jerry says.

    Great puzzle again. Didn’t know MOTHER WIT and wasn’t sure where to find the anagrist, but the checkers sorted that out. Also DNK crewell, but CRUEL seemed a pretty safe bet.

    Thanks setter and blogger. Enjoyed the Ulaca-esque moment at 9ac!

  7. 16:36 … I didn’t get to see the Heat 2 puzzles on the day so this was new to me. Naturally, it seemed easier than the ones I had! It would have been a fastish solve but for my spending an unnecessary amount of time trying make something of (whenmetro)* and wondering if MOTHER WEN was a thing.
  8. Around 17 minutes on the day – I solved each of the three in near identical times. This one stood out for having the most (MOTHER) WIT, with WICKLOW for its whimsy and SPORRAN for its definition both raising a smile even in the heat of the – um – heat. I got as far as FORD MADOX B… before realising he wasn’t much of an author (but did some lovely pictures!)
  9. A good puzzle I’d have enjoyed blogging. Don’t understand why the Jerry moan about Adriatic geog; the definition is simply ‘resort’ I think.
    The French here call custard ‘creme anglaise’; and they call a condom a ‘preservatif’, quite a suitable name; I’ve never heard ‘capote anglaise’ used. There was supposed to be a Dr Condom (inventor) in 1709 but he’s never been authenticated; it’s apparently nothing to do with the rather boring town of Condom in the Gers.
    1. We might add to this list of pairings “to take French leave” (meaning to leave without notice or permission) and its French counterpart “filer à l’anglaise” — the point seeming to be that each country regards various types of disreputable behaviour as peculiarly characteristic of the other.
      1. This is just one of the many reasons you’ve got to love languages!

        I’m sure no Spaniard has ever said they’ve got “Spanish flu”!

        Many countries refer to spanking (during sex) as “the English vice”.

        Creme Anglaise makes more sense to me than the other “A l’Anglaise” that you will see anywhere in France where there is a list of sweets that come in different flavours (ice creams, pancakes etc.). In that situation A l’Anglaise means with mint and chocolate. Where on earth did that come from??

        1. One of the rare repeatable entries in the Viz Profanisaurus is this:

          Scottish sunshine:
          n. Rain.

          1. The tome you mention is new to me, and having googled it I see what you mean about repeatability. I prefer The Devil’s dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, a work of genius though some entries are dated now.
  10. Just to clarify. When I lived in France I came across some expressions such as this which are derogatory towards the English. The English cream referring to custard, because this is cream to the English. Another example is ‘English weather’ for rain. We have similar expressions such as Dutch courage and going Dutch – anything as derogatory during our wars with the French and Dutch.
  11. Never forgetting Jean Condom, who played at lock for Biarritz and France. Difficult to bring down, as I remember – a very slippery customer. Got well oiled after the game too.
  12. For some reason the term makes me wince – it’s so coy. I spent a fair bit of time on this clue because various setters have got me reflexively looking for loos when I see ladies so I missed the anagram entirely on the first and second passes. I shall certainly volunteer for the Christmas turkey and hope to be selected! We are having our Thanksgiving turkey tomorrow. 17.24

    P.S. Just printed today’s Guardian puzzle and was startled to see the by-line – Araucaria. Today is the anniversary of his death and this was his last puzzle, finished by a friend. How very nice.

    Edited at 2014-11-26 10:13 am (UTC)

  13. I struggled with all corners except the NE, finally finishing in 37 minutes when ENOUNCE, SEGUE and ORGAN all fell into place in quick succession having held me up for 10 minutes or so.

    Now some people have mentioned it, I see that FORD MADOX FORD would have been tough without knowing the name. I saw MADOX FORD early but couldn’t remember that the first name was FORD as well until sometime later. I wanted to put ROSE in but I see now I was thinking of the American country singer Rose Maddox. Beyond the names I don’t actually know anything about either of them!

  14. 16m. I thought this was a super puzzle. A few unfamiliar words but all fairly clued.
    Another amusing cross-channel equivalence is filer à l’anglaise, which means ‘take French leave’.

    Edited at 2014-11-26 10:25 am (UTC)

    1. In my company in Hong Kong, Chinese staff still talk about “chucking sickies” years after the Australian who coined it has left.
  15. This took me quite a bit longer than any in the first prelim, even taking into account that I did this one online and the others on paper, and my typing is a lot faster than my writing. Like sotira, held up at the end by using the wrong anagram fodder for 26A, which only became apparent when TRITON came to mind. Also couldn’t remember if it was Madox or Madux in between the two Fords but Uxford didn’t seem like a familiar city.
  16. 25.29. These obstacle courses seem finely tuned – they have me nicely skewered at about 25% over the required rate of three in the hour. Good to see Ford Madox Ford. No-one reads him now but they should. Decades ago I lit on one of the novels of his WWI tetralogy ‘Parade’s End’ – not the first – and resolved to buy the others as I had that, from second-hand bookshops or stalls, and read them as I got them. It took many years, in very much the wrong order, and was wonderful.
    1. I have never read anything by him. I see that you can download his complete works for £2.49 for the Kindle, and some of his novels are free. I may well give him a go.
      1. That was of the four novels in the ‘Parade’s End’ tetralogy and they were adapted for TV in 2012 by Tom Stoppard. Following that, which I enjoyed a lot, I bought and attempted to read the book but couldn’t get on with the style of writing I’m afraid and gave up on it about 200 pages in.
  17. 48 mins, so within the hour limit. Like sotira I wasted time wondering about MOTHER WEN. I also spent ages getting 2, 11 and 17. I slung in CRUEL on a hunch but had no idea what the homophonic yarn was, then worked out the anagram for 17, and finally got 2, but even then it took a couple of minutes to see the wordplay.
    As some have commented, a very satisfying puzzzle.
  18. Another elegant and cleverly clued puzzle. SPORRAN and SHEBEEN were both very good. Although not exceptionally hard, some of the more straightforward solutions were well-disguised. It took me a long time, for example, to spot POLICY at 1D, mainly because I neglected the old “lift and separate” rule and spent many minutes trying to fit the letters PPE into the answer in the belief that these were indicated by “college course”. Did anyone else fall into that trap?
      1. Reminds me of the old joke about St Edmund Hall, the Oxford college famous for its athletic prowess. Schoolboys coming for interview – invariably to read PPE – were thrown a rugby ball as they entered the room. If they caught it, they were accepted. If they passed it back, they won a scholarship.
  19. Very enjoyable. Not sure I’d have fared too well in the comp proper had I had the guts!

    Thanks to setter and blogger, great stuff.

  20. I’m amazed so many of us don’t seem to know of him. “The Good Soldier” is one of the great novels of the world. That apart I would not claim to be an expert but his name is quite rememberable
    1. Well I for one will never forget it. Right up there with Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

      And yes, on googling FMF, I’m surprised that I’ve never heard of him. Typical. When these puzzles require General Knowledge, I rarely rise above Lance Corporal.

  21. I really liked this with its clear and concise cluing, getting home in 20.10 so my best time on a championship puzzle. I wasted a few minutes having pencilled in MOTHER HEN ignoring the fact, before closer inspection, that it didn’t fit the anagrist. I was helped by knowing the more unusual words such as the writer and the lingerie. I predict a DNF tomorrow to put me back in my place!
  22. Loved this! Although it dropped out in just on 14 minutes for me, I was conscious throughout of some great deception and some very polished surfaces. LOI SCABROUS. Too many excellent clue to pick a COD. Many, many thanks to setter and blogger.
  23. 17:39 with Triton and the unknown mother wit last to fall.

    DNK crewell, the author, ramen and mother wit. Like others I was working with the wrong fodder for the latter.

    I enjoyed the creme anglaise anagram and the sporran definition.

    At 21 I thought piece next to king was bishop which left me wondering about RIC for not hard.

  24. Maybe the most amusing banner ever seen on TV. 1985 5 Nations at Landsdowne Rd
    “Our Willie’s too big for your condom” (Willie Anderson)
    1. 1985 – France famously drew to stop Ireland winning their first Grand Slam since 1948, their only other one to date being five years back. Ahead of Italy but behind all the other nations…
  26. The good news is that I wasn’t too far into this one before realising I had completed it previously. It was SPORRAN that rang the bell. The not so good news is that there were still many clues I had to solve as if from scratch. Why on earth could I not remember even the more unusual entries like FORD MADOX FORD? Around 17 minutes first time round and only managed to shave off a couple of minutes today.

    Edited at 2014-11-26 05:32 pm (UTC)

  27. Nearly came a cropper but noticed that I had not solved 2d, having been concentrating on trying to complete the SE corner. Like others, I tried to use the wrong anagrist for 26a, and tried to accommodate PPE in 1d.
    My only problem with 13a was that I thought the middle name was spelled with two D’s.
    Lovely puzzle.

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