Times Crossword 25,978 – 2014 Championships Grand Final, puzzle 2

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: 22 minutes (as written on the sheet) – which is a bit more than average, for no reason I can now see. Perhaps it was the excitement of – almost – finally finding a crossword without a capital letter clue.. since there are none in the acrosses (Spain in 13ac doesn’t count, obviously) and only one in the downs

This is the penultimate Championships crossword, and the last I shall blog, and I think they have been a splendid set, full of wit and imagination. After the giddy fun of the recent Turkey, I began to harbour ambitions of setting a crossword or two myself.. but looking through such a seemingly effortless, professional production as this one, convinces me otherwise!

I am scheduled to blog one crossword on Christmas Eve, and one on Boxing Day.. so I hope no-one will mind if I do them in advance and leave Livejournal to publish them on the due day. fingers crossed nothing goes wrong, and Happy Xmas all!

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

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across

1 proscribe – CRIB (card game) in PROSE (talk tediously) – to prose is now a rather dated phrase but the Heyer fan club will be very familiar with it
6 hosts – dd, hosts being what parasites live on – or off – and any large body of people
9 reign – RE(S)IGN
10 play-actor – LAY (wager) in PACT (bargain) + OR (gold)
11 austere – *(TEA SURE)
12 interim – E((nergy) in IN TRIM (fit). Neat clue
13 castles in spain – CAST (players) + LESI(O)NS (injuries) + PAIN (suffering). The phrase is nothing to do with Don Quixote, it is from an ancient French phrase
17 holding pattern – *(RIGHT TO END PLAN), a very neatly hidden anagram
21 optimum – OP (work) + TIM(E) (date cut short) + UM (hesitation)
23 scherzo – R(esistance) in S (sons) + CHEZ (at home of) + O(rder). Scherzo, a word I couldn’t tell you the meaning of, can’t spell, and can’t even pronounce properly…
25 tractable – CART (vehicle) rev., + TABLE (put forward)
26 undue – U(ranium) in UNDE(R) (below)
27 nudge – G(leam) in NUDE (uncovered)
28 abstinent – TIN (element) in ABSENT (missing)

Down

1 parlance – PAR (norm) + LANCE (to cut)
2 olios – O (round) + SOIL (land) rev. My new word du jour. The OED says: “A spiced meat and vegetable stew of Spanish and Portuguese origin. Hence: any dish containing a great variety of ingredients”
3 cancelled – CELL (small group) in CANE (defeat) + D(ied), the def. being simply “off.”
4 impress – I (current, the electrical variety) + P(ai)R in MESS (chaotic state)
5 evasion – V (see, an abbreviation for the latin “vide,” as in qv.) + A(rea) in NOISE (row) rev.
6 heart – EARTH, with the last, first.. this clue a thing of beauty
7 saturnine – TURN (change) + I (one) in SANE (not mad). An old joke from the days when buses had conductors and London Country buses were green: american tourist: “Conductor, why is this bus green and not red?” conductor: “Don’t worry madam, a few more days of this sunny weather and she’ll soon turn”
8 scrimp – SC(issors) + RIM (margin) + P(age)
14 shorthand – SH (be quiet) + *(HARD NOT)
15 patchouli – *(UP A CLOTH) + I(odine). Another neat clue. Patchouli is a fragrant tropical plant, from the leaves of which an essence is distilled
16 indolent – IN (at home) + DO (act) + LENT (fast)
18 Namibia – MAN (fellow) rev., + IBI(z)A (island, ignoring unknown)
19 possess – (con)S(ort) in POSES (presents, eg a problem) + S(ucceeded)
20 cotton – COT (bed) + TON, fashionable style, another gimme for the Heyer fan club
22 metre – MET (touched) + RE (on)
24 ridge – RID (clear)+ G(uidanc)E. Nice finish

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

18 comments on “Times Crossword 25,978 – 2014 Championships Grand Final, puzzle 2”

  1. And I think the reason may have been the cunning single-word defs hidden at the end of some of the clues: “bar” (1ac), “acting” (12ac), “dreams” (13ac), “movement” (23ac), “off” (3dn), and “strike” (4dn). Anyway, that’s my excuse. Will finish at that before I prose further.
  2. My LOIs –UNDUE, RIDGE– had me thinking I’d never make it under the half-hour; I couldn’t imagine a word U___E, until finally I could. OLIO, Jerry, is yet one more NYT warhorse, although it took me a while to remember it. At 1ac I thought ‘prose’ immediately, but I’d never heard of CRIB. 6d lovely, but ‘world’ triggered ‘earth’ almost immediately. Lots of nice clues, but I think I’d give SCHERZO my COD. Merry Christmas, one and all.
  3. A total disaster for me as I was unable to finish without resort to aids and I had several still unparsed when I came here. Just as well I have no ambitions competition-wise.

    Edited at 2014-12-24 03:40 am (UTC)

  4. This is a bit more like it – surely a puzzle fit for a championship final. First class fare throughout. Well done setter and good stuff Jerry

    Writing blogs in advance and letting Livejournal post them at the appropriate time works very well. I do it with all my Mephisto blogs

    Compliments of the season to everyone

  5. Paid-up member of the Heyer fan club here.. Excellent puzzle this. The only one I dithered over was 3d because I didn’t associate “cane” with defeat. Thanks for the editorial guidance Jerry, and enjoy the holidays. P.S. Sorry, forgot to say – 21.52- so in the zone.

    Edited at 2014-12-24 10:47 am (UTC)

  6. A tough challenge but one I managed in under 60 minutes (54 mins) though I thought I wouldn’t make it when I had several gaps in the top half and only ten minutes left. I took ages getting 13 and sorting out the anagram at 17.
  7. Muzzy with an impacted wisdom tooth making an untimely appearance but unlikely to have gone much below 49.26 in any case. Some very neat clue-wordings. One may not be superfast but one can enjoy the art of it, and the science of it, in one’s own time as much as any. A fine holiday to all fellow connoisseurs.
  8. 28:39, including time at the end to get the wifi working again and then retype all the answers.
    I thought exactly the same as Jimbo: this is a bit more like it. First class stuff.
    Happy Christmas everyone.
  9. Just under 20 minutes and much appreciated. No gimmes at all, but everything is there if you look hard enough. As an indication of this, Jason comments on the Club site that it took him 10 minutes to solve today, despite having already done it once in the actual final only a couple of months ago (and presumably in about the same time then)…

    Seasonal greetings to all.

  10. I did see this one on the day and, for some reason, found it almost a write-in from start to finish. Definitely the easiest of the Final puzzles for me, but that’s the way it goes. Looking at it again, it is a really beautifully assembled crossword.

    Merry Christmas to all, and thank you to all bloggers and commenters for another year of entertainment and enlightenment.

  11. A mere 88 minutes for me, so just as well I took the day off. Will defer the Pasquale to another day, methinks,. Yesterday’s Izetti is more what I need right now. COD to 3d since I was onto ‘off’ in a flash…but not the required meaning.

    A Merry Christmas to all.

  12. The clock said 32m+ but I conveniently remember a number of interruptions. Certainly not less than 20m though so still need to up my game if I am going to participate next year. A great puzzle though.

    Merry Christmas to all editors, setters, bloggers, contributers and lurkers

  13. 46 mins including falling asleep in the middle of it, so I haven’t got a clue how long it really took me. This is another one that seems a fair bit simpler than last year’s GF puzzles, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a quality offering. I found the bottom half easier than the top half, and I finished in the NW with OLIOS after the PROSCRIBE/PARLANCE crossers.

    Merry Xmas to everyone.

  14. 45 minutes for this, so I’m a long way short of championship standard. But a very good puzzle, I thought. Happy Christmas everyone. Crossword-free day tomorrow as the newsagent is shut.
  15. A nicely constructed puzzle that I thought was marginally harder than an average daily. Seasons greetings to all.
  16. About 45 minutes for me, so I’m not up to competition level at all. LOI was SCHERZO. Overall, though, a very lovely puzzle, with my only quibble being ‘cane’ as ‘defeat’, while the simple ‘off’ as the definition makes it a great clue. Regards and Merry Christmas everyone.
  17. Either everyone is on holiday or remember doing this in the finals – I was heading for under 10 but got stuck on the trio of PROSCRIBED, OLIOS and CANCELLED, each of which were very tricky, so 15 minutes, which still puts me in the top 10 of the club timer (for now).
  18. On the day I found this a bit harder than the first puzzle, but still on the easy side for a Championship final, so I was left feeling nervous about the possibility of a stinker for the third puzzle even though I still had over half an hour to finish it in. OLIOS, PROSCRIBED and CANCELLED were my L3I too.

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