Times Crossword 25,989 – Penguin Edition

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: About 13 minutes. I thought I was heading for a really fast time, but then got a little held up in the NE corner, with 6dn and 8dn last to go in. Some lovely clues here, (I did like 26ac), a little racy in places (is 21dn quite rude, or is it all in my mind?) and a couple our overseas friends might perhaps struggle with – though I think Rod Hull was fairly well-known in Australia

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

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online


Across
1 keep back – .. because keep back is PEEK, a sly look, geddit?
5 access – C(onservative) in ACES (ones) + S(ociety)
10 alternative vote – *(VET + VET + RATIONALE). One of the various voting systems the two main parties have always been too scared to consider implementing to replace “First past the post.”
11 emulate – EMU + LATE (deceased.) For those unfamiliar with the late lamented Rod Hull & Emu, see here. A lot of people thought he was very funny, but I’m not sure Michael Parkinson did..
12 glory be – RY (line, of the railway type) in GLOBE (the earth). The def. is just “my.”
13 stake out – S(ecurity) + TAKE OUT
15 Tosca – hidden in phoTO SCAnning
18 fudge – EG (say) + DUF(f), both rev. A duff is a pudding (unless you are up it)
20 abrasive – BRA (lingerie) in AS (while) + In ViEw. Nice surface!
23 skid lid – KID (child) in SLID(e) (short slippery track). A skid lid being a crash helmet
25 squalor – LO (look) in SQUAR(e) (old fogey, briefly)
26 on top of the world – a dd, penguins (in the wild) being restricted to the southern hemisphere. Beautiful surface
27 trover – (claiman)T + ROVER, the archetypal pet dog. Today’s unknown word for me, but not a difficult clue
28 Fosse Way – *(SAY SO FEW). The Fosse Way is a Roman road that goes straight across England, linking Exeter with Lincoln, via Bath & Leicester. No planning enquiries in those days..

Down

1 kraken – RAK(e) (lothario almost) in KEN, (know).
2 entrusted – ENT (hospital department) + RUSTED (degraded through inaction)
3 barrack – ARR (arrives) in BACK, to champion
4 craze – C (clubs) + RAZE (level)
6 cheroot – HERO (leading man) in COT (bed)
7 epoxy – (remov)E + POXY (poor quality). Epoxy, or epoxy resin, is a type of adhesive, Araldite being a well-known example
8 skeletal – LATE (former) + LEKS (Balkan currency, specifically Albanian). My last one in. Leks, you will be interested to learn, are named after Alexander the Great, whose name is LEKA in Albanian
9 fidgeter – *(FIRED GET). This clue took me a while to unravel
14 on and off – dd
16 Savile Row – VILE (obnoxious) + OR (men) rev., in SAW, a proverb. I’m sure Savile Row appears disproportionally often in crosswords. When did we last see Borough High St, or Marylebone road?
17 offshoot – S(pecial Branch) in OFF + HOOT (joker). Presumably to off is a US euphemism for murder
19 eclipse – C(old) + LIPS (feature), in E(xpensiv)E. A clever clue
21 squawks – SQUA(t) (short dumpy) + W(ife) + K(isse)S. I suppose kissing someone’s toes is not all that rude..
22 Friday – I + D(uke) in FRAY (brawl)
24 intro – R(iver) in INTO, digging, ie appreciating
25 schmo – SCH(ool) + MO, medical officer, a military doctor. More US slang

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

52 comments on “Times Crossword 25,989 – Penguin Edition”

  1. Well, I struggled mightily with this. Can’t agree that 27a is not a difficult clue, as it can be read the other way round, which will give ‘trovet’ – as it did for me (in both senses). Not helped by bunging in ‘Rotten Row’, but it was to be fair a 70-minute struggle for me. SKELETAL last in and my favourite, with FIDGETER not far behind.

    I remember seeing that Parky interview when it was first broadcast. Great ego-deflating stuff – ‘I knew we shouldn’t have booked him’, indeed.

  2. I also thought I was heading for a quick solve with all but 3 answers in within 30 minutes but I then spent more than that again on 7 & 8dn and 12ac. In the end I used aids on the two Down clues so technically it was a DNF for me. I would have known SKELETAL but couldn’t piece it together from wordplay because of the unknown or forgotten currency and I simply didn’t know EPOXY, although no doubt I have said that before! A somewhat humiliating experience after such a promising start.

    Jerry, you’ve skipped the answer to 13ac and after that your Across numbers are out until 27ac.

    Edited at 2015-01-07 02:08 am (UTC)

      1. On reviewing my notes this morning I see I was missing 4 answers after 30 minutes, not 3, and the additional one was TROVER at 27ac which I solved without aids eventually.

        Edited at 2015-01-07 06:14 am (UTC)

    2. Sorry about the formatting problems, not sure where they came from as my copy is fine. Corrected, more or less
  3. 2d DNF in a row (yesterday I thought of GRAFTER, couldn’t make any sense of it), brought down by SKELETAL–could only think of lev/lei. DNK Hull, but that didn’t matter, DNK SKID LID, but ditto, DNK TROVER, but it seemed to fit, and it sounded like Law French (oyer and terminer, for instance). ‘Off’ is definitely slang for ‘murder’; hardly a euphemism, though, given that it was popularized by the Black Panthers, who were rather fond of shouting ‘Off the pigs!’–‘pig’ being slang, not euphemism, for ‘policeman’.
  4. I too had a hard time with this, and needed aids to finish, but I thought many of clues were clever with particularly well-hidden definitions. Schmo might be more Yiddish than American. We’ve had skid lid before, and I tried skid pad last time, too. Thanks for the parsing, and thanks to the setter.

    Edited at 2015-01-07 03:02 am (UTC)

      1. Yes. One of those words that we used a lot until our Jewish friends wised us (or our parents) up. But it does raise the drawing-room etiquette question, doesn’t it?
        1. We’ve had ‘berk’ quite a few times, which is worse and always surprises me a bit when it comes up.
          I don’t really mind this sort of thing though. I’m far beyond being capable of being shocked by rude words. I draw the line at terms that I consider inherently insulting or demeaning to a particular group of people. Even then I’m not usually upset enough to want to Occupy anything.
          1. I’m pleased that we can agree on this, if not on triggering and firing. I don’t mind a bit of dirt but I draw the line where you do.
            terencep
  5. Guessing it would be over the half hour today. All the trouble in the NW where I couldn’t figure the reverse cryptic for KEEP BACK. And have now forgotten that BARRACK means “boo”, since it means just the opposite in Australia.

    Had to look up TROVER just to be sure but, as Jerry says, not hard to get from the clue. Though I wonder why the setter chose this when the crossing letters allow for so many other possibilities.

  6. schmo, schmuck, schlemiel, schmendrick, schmegeggy, schmaltz, all Yiddish; I have no idea how many of these, if any, are in use in the UK, and I’ve always wondered why it is that ‘shtum’, on the other hand, is only UK (or rather, not US).

    Edited at 2015-01-07 03:13 am (UTC)

    1. I like ‘schmick’, whose origins I believe can be traced to the New England region of New South Wales, my stamping ground.
      terencep
  7. Resorted to aids for SKELETAL after 28 minutes. Would never have known LEKS, but should still have got there with all checkers in place.

    Pretty straightforward other than that, with FOSSE WAY the only unknown. It rang a bell, but I thought it was one of my shortcuts to work when the freeway’s blocked up. Oh well, it’s the result that counts.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  8. All done in about an hour, then I went to bed and woke up to fill in ACCESS followed by SKELETAL. TROVER was the one that did it for me, partly because I was convinced there should be a J in it (!) to complete the pangram.

    Only unknown was SCHMO, and I couldn’t parse BARRACK. Must remember ARR for arrives, I’m sure it’s come up before.

  9. Very enjoyable and took up a fair chunk of my lunch time. ON TOP OF THE WORLD is as smooth as they come and SKELETAL is OK too.
    Good to see that bloody bird in action again.
    terencep
  10. This was generally quick, helped by ALTERNATIVE VOTE going straight in, with all bar one done in 15 minutes. I then spent another 15 minutes staring at S_E_E_A_ before giving up. Having come here and seen that others struggled with this one I don’t feel like such a schmo.
  11. 14.12, with SKELETAL last in. After Monday’s definite 60’s feel, this one, with the bird, SKID LID and all, felt a little more 70’s.
    Loved the penguin clue, really smooth. I think I may have been fortunate in the eclectic range of my GK.
    Didn’t Emu originate Down Under?
  12. 21:45 … with a good 8 minutes on SKELETAL. I’m afraid the words “former currency” have the same paralysing effect on me as the word “plant”, only more so. Had it been a concise clue, as

    8. Wasted

    with a couple of checkers in place it would have been a write-in, so I feel like a cricketer who’s been “done by the one that goes straight on”. Well bowled, the setter.

    Smashing puzzle. The penguin clue made me smile, and SCHMO always makes me smile just by being.

  13. Like others, my LOI was SKELETAL for which I had to turn to aids. Presumably a TROVER is someone who hunts for treasure trove – at least that’s how I justified it.
    I too was looking in vain for that elusive J to crop up.
    Is it me or following comments on these pages that there was too much UK slang does there now seem to be a preponderance of transatlantic patois?
  14. About 15.30 and another LOI SKELETAL, but only a couple of minutes wasted before homing in on that as the definition. Enjoyed the vocabulary and the clues too. Pencilled in HAT initially at 23ac until the parsing of SKID HAT proved problematical.
  15. What a strange experience. I found most of this extremely easy (‘sidekick of Rod Hull’?!), and even the strange-looking unknowns (TROVER, FOSSE WAY) went in pretty quickly. So I had it all done except one clue in under 8 minutes. Then the last clue took my time to 22:52!
    I just couldn’t see what was going on with 8dn. I was convinced for ages that I was looking for a ‘former Balkan currency’ made up of a word meaning ‘raised’ and an anagram of ‘and’. I eventually cracked it by looking at individual words (‘former’, then ‘wasted’) and seeing if there was anything that would fit. This gave me SKELETAL, but even then I couldn’t see the wordplay. In the end I interpreted it as a reversal of LEKS (which I didn’t know) and ETAL for ‘and’, which I thought was strange.
    So I feel like sotira, only more so.
  16. Another one where I seem to have been in the zone. Just waiting for the other shoe now. I don’t know if law students still have to learn all that law-French stuff to get through the exams – strange how it sticks in one’s head. Like Ulaca I had Rotten Row for Savile about a year ago and was so annoyed it too stuck in my head. During my Christmas flu affliction I re-read Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Time of Gifts so the LEK appeared readily. Thank you setter for finding a fresh way to use BRA. 14.57
    1. PLF is one of the very few authors I ever re-read (my personal favourite is Mani), even if reading him always makes me feel quite dim, and reading about him makes me feel generally inadequate.
  17. What is it about SKELETAL which makes it unrecognisable even with all the checkers? It was also the one I had to resort to aids for, even though I’d heard of leks.

    Add my voice to praise for the penguins

  18. Last year a penguin was seen on Genovesa (marginally north of the Equator) in the Galapagos – they’re coming …
  19. No real queries or comments here – even SKELETAL didn’t trouble me as luckily I saw the construction immediately even if I didn’t actually recall LEKS as the currency

    The two long across clues were immediate write-ins and that helped a lot. 20 minutes to solve.

  20. As many above, SKELETAL was Loi, when I remembered LEKS having been hung up on LEVS; didn’t know SCHMO or its variants (never been exposed to Yiddish, must have led a sheltered life), although it was OK to get from wordplay. The rest was a 20 minute pleasure.
    1. You seem to have had pretty much the same stumbling blocks as us. There were four of us doing it at work today – 22 minutes.
  21. Another one who thought he was going to finish quickly, with most clues solved in about 20 minutes. but 9, 20, 21 and 25 all held me up for another 15 minutes. Once I saw 9 was an anagram (very skilfully worded definition), 20 followed fairly quickly, the other two more slowly.
  22. just under 8 mins with TROVER the last one in. Had to brush up on my foreign currency knowledge the other day for another crossword so I did know LEK.

  23. Gave up on skeletal. Couldn’t get beyond looking for a former balkan or his rhino to fit the def.
  24. Same story as others with 8dn my stumbling block. I gave up as I was certain it was a deceased Balkan I’d never heard of ending in dan (and wasted). Looking at the other times I’m happy with the 52 minutes it took to get to all bar the last 4 letters. The only other real problem was 21dn as I couldn’t think of anything relevant that ended with WKS but this eventually got sorted out. Starting to find the time to get back into 15x15s and enjoying myself! Thanks for the explanations.
  25. As I solved this, I thought that it was a bit Britcentric but apparently not. Fosse Way along with Watling Street and Ermine Street were standard fare at prep school. Like almost everyone else, 8d LOI.
  26. 14 mins. Late to the puzzle today but managed not to nod off during the solve. Count me as another for whom SKELETAL was the LOI, and like Janie I only got it after I finally saw ACCESS. Although I don’t recall having come across TROVER before I trusted the wordplay. I agree that the penguin clue was a gem.
  27. 55m all correct and that is definitely progress. Same LOI at 8d but it came just as soon as I had worked out ACCESS. I really liked penguins and also FIDGITER – took far too long to spot it was an anagram. In fact many definitions seemed to be well hidden. I was duly impressed by our blogger’s time and by the setter’s skill – even the unknown TROVER fell quite quickly.
  28. Ack! Count me among those who threw in the towel and used aid for SKELETAL. The lek is beyond my ken. Otherwise, a really nice puzzle where the definitions were pretty clever and the unknowns except as noted above were reachable through wordplay (i.e. TROVER, SKID LID, and FOSSE WAY). When I looked up FOSSE WAY I got the tersely unhelpful def.: a road with a fosse on each side. Regards to all.
  29. Three missing today, all in the NE corner – Access, Epoxy and Skeletal.
    The penguin clue was delightful – so good I’ve tweeted about it!
    Saw Schmo at the weekend when looking through Chambers for a Mephisto puzzle.
  30. I thought that I had spent much longer on this than I actually did,- probably because of the inordinate length of time I spent looking at 8d before the proverbial descending coin.
  31. In 12ac how is globe = earth, when it surely = Earth?

    Edited at 2015-01-07 10:30 pm (UTC)

    1. The planet can be ‘earth’ or ‘Earth’ and all the dictionaries I have checked have lower-case as the first entry.
  32. Held up as, for 23ac I figured it was an anagram of track which led me to put in hat as a definite and waiting for a crosser for the first word. Liked the penguins and also a mention for abrasive cleverly using two meanings for wear.
    I’ve never seen why “out” is an anagram indicator, if anyone knows?
    1. But why would it not be? I’ve come across a few anagram indicators I’ve thought were stretching things a bit but I don’t understand how ‘out’ could fall into that category. Here’s one definition that I’d say covers it pretty well: Out – From an appropriate, normal, or equable state; into disharmony, disturbance, confusion, etc.
  33. A disappointing 15:05 for me. I stupidly bunged in OFF AND ON at 14dn and took simply ages to spot that this had changed to OFF AND NF when I filled in 26ac. And, like others, I took ages over SKELETAL: I’ve probably come across “lek” before, but “lei”, “leu” and “lev” were the only currencies that came to mind and reversing their plurals didn’t produce any obvious start to the answer so I was difficulty seeing how on earth to parse the clue.

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