Times Cryptic – 25988

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This one took me 33 minutes so I just missed my 30 minute target. There was nothing unfamiliar here apart from 21ac but there were a couple where I lost time working out wordplay. Other than those the clue construction is mostly very straightforward.

{deletions}

Across
1 COCKPIT – COCK (mate), TIP (advice) reversed
5 SUMMARY – SUM (problem), MARY (former queen)
9 ENTERTAINER – ENTER (record), {s}TAINER (composer). John Stainer is best remembered for church music and his oratorio The Crucifixion.
10 DUD – U (university) inside DD (religious scholar – Doctor of Divinity)
11 PLEASE – LEAS (fields) inside PE (exercise)
12 PASTORAL – PAST (history), ORAL (test)
14 ROLLER BANDAGE – ROLLER (one rocking), BAND (group), AGE (long time)
17 UNINTERESTING – N (new) inside UNITE (couple), RESTING (having a break)
21 POLEMIST – Two definitions, one humorous. I had to think twice about this as I am more familiar with the alternative ‘polemicist’.
23 ABLAZE – A, B (black), LAZE (loaf)
25 DIG – Hidden inside {Mo}DIG{liani}
26 SLIDE GUITAR – Anagram of SUITED A GIRL
27 PALADIN – PAL (partner), A, DIN (racket)
28 SAHARAN – NAR{k} (grass – informer) + A + HAS (keeps) all reversed

Down
1 CHEAPO – HEAP (old car) inside CO (officer)
2 CAT’S-EAR – Anagram of CRATES A
3 PORT SALUT – PORT (left) then A inside SLUT (tart)
4 TEAK – T{h}E {p}A{r}K
5 SUNDAY BEST – Anagram of BUT ANY D{r}ESS
6 MARAT – Two definitions, one humorous with reference to “The Pied Piper Of Hamelin” who cleared the town of rats, presumably the offspring of MA RAT (geddit?). The revolutionary is Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793).
7 ANDORRA – DO (party) + RR (Republican repeatedly) all inside ANA (gossip)
8 YODELLER – Anagram of {t}ROLLEYED
13 DEPRESSION – EP (recording) inside DRESS (ensemble), then NO 1 (reversed)
15 NAILBRUSH – AIL (trouble) inside NB (note), RUSH (charge)
16 JUMPED-UP – JUMPED (started), UP (at university)
18 ILLEGAL – {k}ILLE{r} (hitman), GAL (moll)
19 GRAFTER – {de}GR{ee}, AFTER (post)
20 HERREN – ERRE{d} (strayed) inside H{ungaria}N
22 MUSED – USE (practice) inside MD (doctor)
24 WETS – STEW (casserole) reversed

58 comments on “Times Cryptic – 25988”

  1. 28 minutes, so not held up too much despite not knowing POLEMIST, CAT’S EAR, ROLLER BANDAGE or PORT-SALUT. Didn’t see how ‘ensemble’ could mean DRESS till looking it up.
  2. But not too difficult. Except for the SE where I was stuck on 19, 23, 24 and 28. And the last in was 24 (WETS) because I was looking for a hidden answer. Note to self: remember STAINER.

    “Dress”/”dressing” appears three times in the puzzle. Hence perhaps the hidden JUPE in the middle row?

  3. About an hour, so pretty direct for me, with some nice clues – 12a and 21a, eg – where it took a moment for the penny to drop. Took forever in the NW where I didn’t see the cock for quite a while, and was simultaneously thrown off by the somewhat extraneous ‘planted’ in 4d.
    Haven’t we had Stainer recently? (If not, no idea how I knew him).

    Edited at 2015-01-06 03:27 am (UTC)

    1. STAINER appeared in puzzle 25916 last October and in ST4576 last February.

      Given that the answer is the name of a tree I don’t see ‘planted’ as being at all extraneous, rather that it’s an elegant addition to the surface-reading going with ‘in’ to indicate that the answer is to be found within ‘the park’.

      1. Point taken, Jack. As usual, when I see them right away I think they’re elegant and clever; when I have to worry over them I can find dozens of reasons why they’re mis-worded, inexact, dbes, non-Ximenean, or whatever. Fifteen love to the setter on this.
    1. I did contemplate it, if that’s any comfort.

      In passing: thought 28ac could have been clued via “Wicket keeper managed …”, apart from the bar on living persons. Which, incidentally, has now been strangely lifted for the Clue Comp. A sign of things to come?

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

    2. One vote:) and also not keen on CHEAPO at all. I put it in but with a very bad taste in my mouth – don’t like slang.
  5. A bit harder than yesterday but not a lot – 20 minutes to meander through

    After our trip to the 60s today we have SUNDAY BEST which is from an earlier generation and probably died out circa 1960s along with the highly polished front room that nobody except the visiting vicar sat in.

    1. Ha. My grandparents had a front room that was NEVER used.

      Edited at 2015-01-06 08:58 am (UTC)

      1. One of my earliest memories follows the death of my grandfather

        In those days the coffin was placed in the very under used front room complete with corpse dressed of course in his sunday best. I was taken to see this before he was taken away for burial and recall I had never before seen him without his glasses on.

        1. I have a very similar memory from childhood, but even then the front room didn’t get used: it was at the undertaker’s. It was not an agreeable experience.
    2. It was quite usual for the Old Man’s SUNDAY BEST to be taken out of pawn on a Saturday night and returned Monday morning. I forget where I read that, probably in Robert Roberts’s The Classic Slum.
  6. 13:41 … groans of approval for POLEMIST and Ma Rat. A minute at the end working out what lay beneath the surface of DEPRESSION.

    Enjoyed it.

  7. 40 mins. PALADIN, CAT’S-EAR only unknowns, but clearly clued. Spent a long time thinking that 19dn contained -hant–. Also assumed that just the N was ‘note’ in 15dn, and wondered how BRUSH could mean ‘charge’. Doh!
  8. About 35 minutes but far, far too many unparsed (9, 17, 28, 1d, 6, 7 & 13) so many thanks to Jack for enlightening me.
    I knew Stainer (and his Crucifixion) but I don’t think I’d have ever have thought of him in the context of this clue.
  9. 13m. I enjoyed this: straightforward but I needed at least some of the wordplay for most of them, or in one case imagined wordplay: I moved on confidently from 3dn thinking the ‘tar’ was a SALT.
    I had the same thought about POLEMIST.
    To me STAINER is best remembered for his occasional appearance in crosswords. He’s from the same musical school as Thomas Arne.
    After carriages yesterday can I move to ban the word ‘ana’ from the daily puzzles? I’m sure it’s a very helpful set of letters but let’s face it it’s not really a word.
  10. 21:17 so about twice as long as yesterday. Luckily I glided from PUFFED UP to JUMPED UP without thinking of PUMPED UP, where I would probably have rested. COD MA RAT, who used to be in Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors. STAINER always sits in my mind from a bit of a half-remembered rhyme that begins

    Seated one day at the organ,
    I jumped as if I’d been shot,
    For the Dean was upon me, snarling
    ‘Stainer – and make it hot’.

    Edited at 2015-01-06 10:24 am (UTC)

  11. 25 minutes. Used to enjoy PORT SALUT till I discovered Chaumes, which is very similar in appearance but much tastier and a good deal smellier. When I buy it, I am aware of people behind me in the queue for the checkout staring at me and politely trying not to notice the dreadful stink.
      1. If it isn’t, it ought to be; though it’s not as overpowering as the Pont-l’Évêque
        a friend brought back from France. He presented it to me in the public bar of the Travellers Call (appropriately enough), which promptly caused the landlord to eject the pair of us and our cheese.
      2. I think that’s Epoisses. I bought a pretty ripe one a few years ago when we were on holiday in France. We ate some of it, then I put it in a cupboard and forgot about it completely until just before we left nearly two weeks later. Man.
        1. I once trod on a Pont-l’Évêque in the middle of the night while camping in France, at the same time knocking over a bottle of Ricard. Smell? I was reminded of that holiday every time I used the tent over the next fifteen years.
  12. Port Salut is neatly clued but it causes me some unease. Call me politically correct if you like but I’d rather not see words like ‘tart’ and ‘slut’, which are intentionally offensive towards certain women, used in the crossword.
    terencep
    1. Yes. I’d say that’s a level of ‘political correctness’ I don’t aspire to and which I would hold in some contempt. The urge some feel to constantly find something to be offended by would offend me, if that weren’t hypocritical.
      2. But there must be some sort of line drawn – you would never see obscenities or certain sexual slang used. So as to whether tart or slut should be included would depend where you draw that line.
        1. I agree – it didn’t sit quite right with me either. We were 2 today with a third joining halfway through. CAT’S EAR, ROLLER BANDAGE and MARAT all unknown, but clear enough from the wordplay. 23 minutes in all.
      4. The other day I heard Suggs say he doesn’t like to see these words in his morning crossword. It’s Madness gone politically correct.
        Call me contemptible if you like but I’m with terencep.
        1. That punning inversion is utterly groan-inducing and quite frankly appalling … I love it!

          Did Suggs happen to say which crossword he solved? I’ve always liked a bit of Madness.

          1. Given this lyric from Cardiac Arrest I doubt he’s very good at solving (or setting) them:

            …The crossword’s nearly done
            It’s been so hard these days
            Not nearly so much fun.

            …Think of seven letters
            Begin and end in ‘C’
            Like a big American car
            But misspelt with a ‘D’.

      5. Hear, hear! They are proper English words, which might be offensive if used to describe a particular lady who was neither. If not, how anyone but the user can know with what intention they were used is a case of ‘on y soit qui mal y pense’…….
  13. 30 minutes -A bit more like a puzzle today. Not a great deal to say about it but I enjoyed the clueing. I suppose the clue to 3d was irresistible, but I share Anonymous’ misgivings to some extent.
  14. 17:13, so twice as long as yesterday but still quick for me.

    PORT SALUT was my penultimate entry, having been nicely deceived into looking to fit UN or UNE into the answer. I didn’t know ANA for gossip in 7D.

    Did anyone else have reservations about the use of ‘here and there’ to indicate alternate letters in 4D? I’ve always thought of here and there as indicating a less regular distribution.

  15. 14:08 with cockpit, uninteresting, saharan, marat, depression and illegal being parsed after completion.

    Marat and Stainer only known from crosswords.

    1. The main things I know about Marat is that he was both persecuted and assassinated.
  17. 33m today but rather too many bunged in without full parsing : 9a, 5d, 6d (a groan clue), 19d. So I appreciated the blog especially today, Jack. No outstanding clue today but a pleasant solve.
  18. 23 mins but I was nodding off during the solve, which was no mean feat considering I had a decorator caterwauling in an adjacent room. ABLAZE was my LOI and I made much more of a meal of the bottom half of the puzzle than I should have done.
  19. About 25 minutes, ending with the CHEAPO/COCKPIT pair. The MARAT clue made me roll my eyes, I wasn’t particularly offended by the ‘tart/slut’ ploy though mildly surprised, and I thought the word at 21 was supposed to be POLEMICIST. Beyond that, I enjoyed it. Thanks to Jack and the setter. Regards.
  20. 35 minutes, no problems, no issues with slut, in itself not offensive, it depends on the usage surely.
  22. 46 minutes including working the word plays which proved very enjoyable. LOI 6dn as I was hazy on both revolutionary and author but with the checkers the answer slowly revealed itself and caused a chuckle.
  23. Oh dear. CHEAPY for CHEAPO, MYRAT for MARAT, and ABLATE for ABLAZE. Clearly one of my neurons is on the blink again.
  24. Completed in fits and starts as I had time to tackle this one, so no time recorded but an enjoyable puzzle. I scratched my head a bit over ‘polemist’, being more familiar with ‘polemicist’, but it had to be right didn’t it?
  25. 10:29 here for a most enjoyable puzzle. I particularly liked 5dn (SUNDAY BEST) and 6dn (MARAT).
  26. I hadn’t encountered ana for gossip before so couldn’t convince myself about the a to help me into summary, which I should have got. Another convinced that grafter had ant in the middle. The times seems to go in for a lot ?marks at end of clues. I can see why Marat needs one, but I can’t see 18dn needs one as it is staightforward word around another slightly doctored word.
    Goodnight . Alpinecol
    1. Ximeneans demand a question mark at the end of 18dn because “moll” is an example, rather than a definition, of a “gal”. (See the chapter on “Cluemanship” in Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword.)

Comments are closed.