Times Cryptic 26446 – June 23, 2016 You find that there comes a time for making your mind up

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A relatively benign brew which resulted in a time of 19.17.  As I write, the seasonal thunder is rolling around the North Weald, ominously presaging the upheavals  of the day ahead, and clearly our setter has taken the Referendum into account with a puzzle that is redolent with direct and (sometimes very) indirect glances at the poll, its campaigns and its aftermath, as I have attempted to clarify. Our setter very nearly discloses a preference: from the bottom up the middle column reads CAN BIM EU.Is the misprint towards the middle for AIM or BIN? We may never know. In the same spirit, I believe I have failed to disclose my own preference. AS for the puzzle itself, there were two answers I didn’t think I knew, the hotel and the plant (natch) but the wordplay is kind.
Here’s what I done:
Clues Definition SOLUTION

Across

1 Taken for a ride and abandoned, miles away  (5)
DUPED  The fate of many British voters, abandoned, DU(M)PED, M(iles) away from where they thought they’d be. Duped indeed.
4 Snake tot found stuck in engine  (4,5)
PUFF ADDER  One of those snakes that has daily been increasing political hot air, perhaps. ADD/tot inserted in PUFFER/engine. Those were the days, proper steam.
9 Old-fashioned rickshaw initially boarded by English traveller  (9)
PASSENGER  Old fashioned gives you PASSE, R comes from the initial of Rickshaw, and put ENGlish on board. Which handcart you board and which hell it is bound for is your privileged choice.
10 Group of democrats easily confused  (2,3)
AT SEA  A small group of letters from democrATS EAsily characterises the majority of voters. Does this setter have an agenda, do you think?
11 Supported United player, perhaps, after attempt to score has fallen short  (6)
SHORED  One of the teams that plays in RED is Manchester UNITED, and an attempt to score is a SHOT. Dismiss the T as the shot falls short, as one side or the other will.
12 Have fewer objections? That’s insane  (8)
MINDLESS  I hope we will MIND LESS about the objections to remain and leave as it all calms down, but I freely admit the whole thing is driving me crazy. A simple double definition, with or without a space.
14 In operatic cycle, a French diva starts off very loud?  (10)
THUNDERING Spookily ratling the windows even as I write, and which no doubt our beloved Times will be doing once it’s worked out which side it’s on. THE RING is an interminable German set of four operas. UN is French for A, D is how Diva starts off. Assemble.
16 Watering hole appears empty, animal found  (4)
BOAR  A BAR with nothing (0) in it appears empty, probably after we’ve all drowned our sorrows/celebrated our win.
19 Runs with champion in athletics event  (4)
RACE  “Runs” is helpfully capitalised for you to hint at the R, and a champion is probably an ACE. An athletic race between, say, Dave and Boris might be a better way of deciding the outcome.
20 With great joy, William mentioned worker will stop several weeks  (10)
JUBILANTLY  An Ikea flat pack of a clue. “Mention” little William, and that’s BIL. A worker is often an ANT in these acres. JULY contains four and a bit weeks. Insert parts A and B into part C. I hope to be celebrating in this style tomorrow.
22 Fellow accompanying queen, working for attendant  (8)
CHAPERON Something you’re not supposed to have when you go to vote. Fellow: CHAP, queen ER, working, ON.
23 Blooming learner interrupts start of French test  (6)
FLORAL  Start of F(rench), ORAL test, L(earner) carefully inserted in the right square.
26 Clean the floor — order rejected by arrogant youngster  (3,2)
MOP UP  Order is the O(rder of) M(erit), reversed and attached to PUP, as in “you arrogant pup, pretending you know how to vote.”
27 End part of story still to be heard  (9)
TAIL PIECE  A two-word homophone (to be heard) of TALE/story PEACE/still. I don’t think we’ll have heard the end of it even after all the votes have been counted.
28 Military men taking steps to introduce one new regulation  (9)
ORDINANCE  Another Ikea clue, fine if you follow the instructions. I seem to have to explain almost every time that military men are O(ther) R(anks). Steps is (are?) DANCE. One is I, and new is N. Attach part one to part two, insert parts three and four where they make most sense. Whichever side you’re on, be grateful at least it’s not the military making the new regulations.
29 Line on fabric  (5)
RAYON  Line: RAY, on – um – ON. A clue which even I can’t push into political commentary.
Down

1 Bank customer tied up, stabbed by unusually big Italian  (9)
DEPOSITOR  Tied is ROPED, which travels upward in the grid. The unpleasant Johnny Foreigner in this clue is an O(ut) S(ized) IT(alian), who knifes his way into the rest of the entry.
2 Bother to put on duck sauce  (5)
PESTO   Pest is bother in the sense of “a person causing bother” or someone continually trying to change your mind on in or out. Give him 0, a cricketing duck.
3 Rests, conserving energy for challenging areas to swim?  (4-4)
DEEP ENDS  Where we will be according to both sides if we get it wrong.  Rests gives DEPENDS, insert E(nergy)
4 Young servant, bookish type?  (4)
PAGE  Something we are about to turn. I think the “bookish type” is simply a whimsical way of saying “page”
5 What’s supporting e.g. India in turmoil?  (7,3)
FOREIGN AID  A neat &lit. What’s supporting is FOR, EG INDIA in turmoil gives the remaining EIGN AID. If it all goes pear shaped, the direction of aid may need to be reversed.
6 Name of female lawyer in America, with a husband to support  (6)
AMANDA  A lawyer in America is (and thanks to reruns of Perry Mason always will be) a D(istrict) A(ttorney), a husband is A MAN (though other permutations are available). To be loved or not? That is the question.
7 Served hideous tripe in diet that is deficient (6,3)
DISHED OUT The clue a decent description of our recent political experience, but also offering the rather clever anagram (tripe the unusual indicator) of HIDEOUS contained within DIET from which you’ve poked out the IE/that is.
8 Chinese societies, heading off for Moroccan hotels  (5)
RIADS  Chinese (secret) societies are either tongs or triads, and since ONGS doesn’t fit, RIADS must be the hotels we’re looking for. Trust the wordplay, unless of course you’ve stayed in one. Heading off for Moroccan hotels might be a good idea for a while until the dust settles.
13 Several nations meeting up to forge new coalition, ultimately  (5,2,3)
GROUP OF TEN  According to Google, “The Group of Ten is made up of eleven industrial countries”. Do you think we can get the same mathematician to count the votes, in case it goes the wrong way? The letters of UP TO FORGE and the N at the end of coalition are newly cast in a second elegant &lit.
15 Released killer apprehended by relative (daughter)  (9)
UNCLASPED  The killer is an ASP, a relative UNCLE apprehends it and the afterthought D(aughter) completes our entry. To clasp or unclasp, that is (also) the question
17 Leafy plant rogue left on a ferry  (5,4)
ROYAL FERN Our first almost pure anagram, of L(eft) ON A FERRY. I trusted  the wordplay, in exactly the  same way that I don’t trust any in/out advocates.
18 Striker fighting to preserve European election coming up  (8)
WALLOPER The most blatant topical clue. So I will just say it’s WAR/fighting set about a reversal of E(uropean) POLL/election. Apparently a walloper is also an Aussie policeman. Is this true?
21 Maybe gun points down at gangster, avoiding head and foot  (6)
WEAPON  How many crossword gangsters do you know. Yup, it’s CAPONE, whose innards provide the rest of the entry after you’ve determined that W and E are the randomly selected (compass) points you’re going to use. Randomly selecting might be a good way of deciding.
22 Old crooner engages British group  (5)
COMBO  Perry COMO is your crooner, old in the sense of dead, who embraces B(ritish). Choose which British you wish; I will still try to go on singing “And I Love You So”
24 Tall, gangly male avoids medicine perhaps  (5)
REEDY  As in of the nature of a reed, tall and thin. M(ale) goes missing from REMEDY. Apparently REMEDY goes missing from our future whichever way the vote goes.
25 Regularly train chef to provide food  (4)
RICE  The even letters from tRaIn ChEf. Hopefully the result will not go against the grain.

57 comments on “Times Cryptic 26446 – June 23, 2016 You find that there comes a time for making your mind up”

  1. It took me a while, and a checker, to give up ‘tongs’, and more while to get TAILPIECE (or rather PIECE), and I was taking it on faith that United dress in red. Never did parse BOAR–stuck on ‘oasis’ as the watering-hole, never thought of ‘bar’–so thanks to Z for elucidating. I yield to no one, not even Z, in my floricultural ignorance, but as he says, the wordplay. COD, if COD there be, to 7d.
  2. Nice middling puzzle I thought. Thanks setter and great blog Z.

    In answer to your question at 18dn, to tell the truth I thought “walloper” was British usage. If it’s not, then I guess it must be Australian, though you never hear it used.

    Good luck with your vote today.

    1. Good old Ramson has this from Frank Hardy’s Power Without Glory (1950):
      “Police! Everyone out! The bloody wallopers are on their way!”
      Can’t recall that line getting into the old TV series but.
      Ramson’s last recorded instance is 1983; though the AND itself appeared in 1989, so there may be later examples. Anyone have a decent Macquarie?

      1. What’s Ramson? My 1981-vintage Macquarie has walloper as policeman, with no etymology/dates/usage. Having read lots of Banjo Patterson, Henry Lawson et al growing up I’d say it dated from 1800s but has been out of fashion for decades. Though I saw it recently in Rupert’s “The Australian,” James Jeffries’ column Strewth included a description of the police force as The Wallopery.
        19:09 for the crossword, so quite straightforward with no major hold-ups, and enjoyed it along the way.
        Also enjoyed the blog. Excellent!
        Rob

  3. I managed to complete yesterday’s Championship entry and today’s grid in one hour – even Stevens.

    FOI 1dn DEPOSITOR COD and LOI 17dn ROYAL FERN WOD RIADS

    22dn was indeed Perrry COMO and not BING Crosby – for a change.

    horryd – Shanghai

  4. … all pretty good stuff. The RIADS and the FERN were unknown but clearly indicated. Liked the “diet that is deficient” device in 7dn. Very clever.
  5. 34 minutes, taken over my half-hour target by 13dn and 27ac and 15dn where close attention to parsing was required to avoid biffing “unclamped”.
  6. Just snuck in under my 30min target…haven’t we had REEDY several times recently? Thanks for the topical blog, Z. Wonder how the world will have changed by this time tomorrow…?

    *yawn*

  7. 13:47 .. total contrast to yesterday’s oldie, with surefooted clueing leading any seasoned solver inexorably towards a finish. To me it felt just a little boring in comparison. I think I prefer that frisson of doubt. I’m tempted to offer a parallel with another question occupying the nation’s breakfast tables, but as I don’t really know what I think about that either I’ll resist. I rather wish the answer to both the referendum and the Ximenes vs. maverick genius questions could be “a bit of both”.

    No quibbles, no real stand-outs. Last in BOAR, which did raise a smile.

    1. Surely The Clash would have provided a more appropriate and more tolerable ear-worm than Bucks Fizz, although I’m guessing it’s been done to death as a theme for the big day?

      Just remember…if you stay it could be trouble…if you go it could be double!

      Or is it the other way around, I forget now.

      Have fun!

        1. Don’t worry. That’s sort of in the spirit of the total confusion of the day.
  8. Very few, the way we live and conduct discourse has changed. As for the crossword, some tricky parsing required, also not helped by crossing out the wrong number hence reading the wrong clue for the light for several minutes. Don’t forget to vote. 30′.
  9. Sadly I fell at the last hurdle on this, not spotting the anagram for ROYAL FERN and finally crowbarring in ROYAL BEAN in frustration. I blame having got up before my normal time to go and vote. “Vote early, vote often,” as they say.

    Still, nearly all correct inside an hour on a Thursday isn’t bad for me.

  10. 14:44 here, but with UNCLAMPED left in despite a note to self to have another look at it. Speaking of the referendum, have a look at the extra puzzle the Guardian have published on their crossword blog today.
    1. Thanks to you and olivia I have spent some time on the Guardian special, but cannot be absolutely sure I’ve done it, using a pencil.
  11. With regard to 5 down, the direction of aid has been reversed for nearly a decade now. India’s Tata Group has been the largest private sector employer in Britain since 2007, after acquiring Corus and JLR (Jaguar Land Rover).
  12. Mostly a neat little number today although the plural DEEP ENDS is inelegant. Liked BOAR best and it was LOI. One does still hear WALLOPER, usually jocular and not as an everyday term like “cop”.
  13. Excellent blog, z8. Very clever and thoroughly entertaining.
    My solving was interrupted by me going to cast my X so an unknown time. An hour after they opened my polling station had had almost as many votes as for the whole of the Police Commissioner’s election. Draw your own conclusions.
  14. Only 20 minutes today, despite also searching for a killer amp for a while and being held up as ever in the south east. The floor didn’t fall out of the car as it once did in my 1962 MG Midget. Nice puzzle, great blog.
  15. Back, after a roaringly good start to the week, to my normal level of being “pretty good, but nowhere near the big boys”, with a time of just over 10 minutes. I think it’s well documented that I prefer crosswords heavier on the interesting GK and vocabulary to these almost pure wordplay fests – oh well, it’s my turn at the TLS blogging tomorrow!

    I second the praise for this really excellent blog, and can confirm that I voted in no uncertain terms to bim the EU this morning. Interestingly I just searched for BIM and at the top of the page it very cryptically only says “mid 19th century: of unknown origin.” Our course of action at the polls is clear!

    1. I’ll second, or third or whatever, the praise for Z8’s wonderfully entertaining blog (as ever) EXCEPT that I now have yet another ear worm — this one with visuals — featuring that skirt-ripping, key-changing moment.
      1. I’ve just watched Portugal’s 1982 entry “Bem-Bom” to see if it provides any clues as to the meaning of “Bim”. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.)
  16. Thoroughly enjoyable 30 mins. Held up a bit by pondering on ‘rangy’ for 24d but couldn’t think of a medicine such as ‘rangmy’. I’m sure you know what I mean.
  17. 11m. Lots of biffing this morning. Having gone through it afterwards there are a few things in here that I don’t like:
    > MINDLESS, which doesn’t mean ‘insane’
    > ‘diva starts off’ as an indication for D.
    > the plural DEEP ENDS: a bit of a non-word to fill an awkward set of checkers. It exists in theory, sure, but would anyone ever actually say it?
    > ‘tripe’ as an anagrind: it’s not an adjective
    Probably just being over-picky for some reason, although I don’t feel especially grumpy this morning, even if it’s muggy and wet and the trains were up the spout.
    1. I can accept ‘Diva starts off’ for D but I agree with your objection to ‘tripe’ as an anagrind. I have the same objection to ‘pants’ meaning rubbish. Some people have told me it’s an adjective, but it’s certainly not given as such in Oxford or Chambers, both of which say it’s nounal.
      1. I can’t really fault ‘diva starts off’ technically I suppose, but I find it clumsy.
        ‘Pants’ as an adjective is in Collins. It’s been a familiar and common usage to me for years, even decades.
  18. Yes, great blog Z Up there with your Raymond Chandler “hommage”. I have no vote but that doesn’t mean I have no stake. My mother is “in”, my brother is “out” and I haven’t liked to ask my sisters, yet. The orange baboon in these parts is for “out” so my knee-jerk goes the other way. I hope he’s “out” permanently come November.

    Oh yes, the puzzle. I seem to remember PUFF ADDER as a “chain smoker” and voted it my favourite clue in the much-missed Christmas Turkey. On Andy’s recommendation I’m now going to look for the Guardian special. 12.22

    P.S. Thanks a whole bunch setter – now I’ve got “Where has Oregon, If you want Alaska, She went to pay her Texas” stuck in my head.

    Edited at 2016-06-23 10:27 am (UTC)

    1. Oh thanks, so have I now. We had a CD of songs for kids with this on it when ours were little. Good grief it was irritating.
    2. Well thanks to you and linxit have spent some time on the Guardian special. I think I’ve done it, but being unable to fully parse one part of one of the two clues I’m not sure….use a pencil.
    3. I always thought it was “If Mississippi wore her New Jersey, what did Delaware? Idaho, but Alaska”.
  19. 26 minutes, so on the easy side. RIADS was new and I didn’t have the confidence to enter it at first. I cannot see the purpose of ‘down’ in 21d. It looks a simple charade to me. I can see that ‘looking down on’ for the first part of a down charade makes sense, but ‘down’ or ‘down at’ doesn’t make a lot of sense to me in the cryptic syntax. Perhaps I’m missing something, or perhaps it’s just a bit of looseness for the sake of the surface.
  20. 11:23 but the entire thing was spoiled for me by “United player, perhaps” leading to red. The setter has been brainwashed by the media into believing that the only “United” worth bothering with, or indeed the only “United”, period, is that bunch of miscreants, ne’er do wells, cutpurses and puff adders from Manchester.

    Try referring to Rooney et al as “United” in the watering holes of Leeds, Newcastle, London’s Olympic Park, Dundee, Sheffield, Colchester etc and see where it gets you. Walloped in the tailpiece I shouldn’t wonder.

  21. I’ll append my approval of z’s entertaining blog. I also enjoyed the puzzle, which took me 40 minutes, the last 5 of which were spent agonising over BOAR, until I twigged the correct sort of watering hole. FOI, PAGE, LOI, BOAR. Liked JUBILANTLY, DNK RIADS or the plant, but the wordplay was kind. Toyed with UNCHAINED(but there was an H inside the killer so I wasn’t Abel to parse that) then thought of unclamped, but heeded the WP to finish up with UNCLASPED. We seem to have had a lot of reedy recently! Also liked the larger than life European.
  22. Yes to z8’s entertaining blog (is something happening today?) but otherwise not a particular exciting puzzle. Agree that REEDY seems to be the popular answer of the month. Otherwise, pretty normal fare I thought.
  23. Thirty-eight minutes here, but it felt longer – I was definitely not on any wavelength. That said, it was all good stuff, with RIADS and ROYAL FERN my only NHOs.

    No.1 Daughter (and boyfriend) graduated today (he did languages, and she studied a subject) and I’m glad the rain held off. Am hugely proud of her.

    1. It’s always nice when the offspring achieve milestones in their lives. I remember being chuffed when my daughter graduated from Sheffield and got her first posting in the Orthoptics dept at Norwich. Her boyfriend had graduated a year earlier and was living in my spare room. He wore a rut in the road between Middlesbrough and Norwich at weekends:-) Seems like yesterday, but it must be 17 or more years!!(and 3 grandkids)
    2. Congratulations to both your daughter and her boyfriend on their achievements.
      As an arts wallah, I contend that sciences are about how we live, and arts are about what makes it worth living.
      Two of my four children are graduates, but the other two have done good things in different ways, and I’m daftly proud of them all.
      George Clements
      1. Thanks, George! I’m sure all of our respective progeny (and even boyfriends of said progeny) will make their marks!
  24. 29 mins with the plant (as usual) my LOI. DNK the hotels and couldn’t get Tongs out of my head. For me REEDY always used to mean a thin voice but after a plethora of recent appearances as gangly it is almost a write-in these days.
  25. Glad it wasn’t my week, there was a lot of shrugging when I did this, while chatting with friends at the pub, and then this morning needed a longer look to eventually slot in RIADS, JUBILANTLY and BOAR. In the end it all made sense.
  26. 20 mins, but this was another puzzle I drowsed in the middle of. I was too slow getting ROYAL FERN because I have definitely come across it before, and I took much too long to parse DEPOSITOR despite suspecting it was the answer quite early on. Count me as another who needed the wordplay for RIADS. I found the NW a lot trickier than the rest of the puzzle for some reason, and DUPED was my LOI after PESTO.

    As far as MINDLESS/insane is concerned I see them as synonymous when the definition of mindless is “not marked by the use of reason”, as in “mindless/insane violence”.

    1. If ‘not marked by the use of reason’ means ‘insane’ then a lot more of this referendum campaign has been insane than I previously thought. 😉
  28. Excellent blog. With regards to 29a I think the French refer to us as Rayon Umi?
    1. Love it. Not so Umi at the moment, I think, and possibly even less so when we get the result.
      1. I have just realised that my comment thanking you for the excellent blog didn’t make it through. I followed it with a comment on today’s events that I thought strayed a bit too close – even if obliquely – to an actual opinion, so I thought better of it, but obviously deleted a little too vigorously.
        So anyway, very entertaining, thank you.
  29. Another DNF here due to RIADS, which I didn’t really know, and skipped, but alas I forgot to return to it. Upon reading the world-class blog (thanks z) I came to RIADS, was rendered at sea, because I mindlessly neglected to finish it off. Bear in mind though, I’ve never heard of RIADS or any other term for a Moroccan hotel. I can’t say whether I would have gotten it if I spent more time pondering alternate, i.e. non-Tong terms for a Chinese society. Oh well. Good luck either way with your referendum. Regards.
  30. Thanks, John. I’m hoping to avoid grandparenthood for a little longer, touch wood! And if it ever does happen, I hope to become the irresponsible and potentially hazardous sort of grandparent…Kids these days are so sensible!
  31. Much the same as others. Royal fern was only vaguely known and ‘riads’ depended entirely on the wordplay.
    Thanks for the entertaining blog. As for the referendum, I await the outcome with trepidation.
    George Clements
  32. 9:45 for me. I didn’t know RIADS (though I feel I ought to have done) or ROYAL FERN, but the wordplay was helpful enough.

    A meaning of WALLOPER not sanctioned by any dictionary I’m aware of is “clog dancer”, as in the Lancashire Wallopers (whose annual Weekend I used to go to each year in my clog-dancing days for Sam Sherry’s class).

  33. Hi I would like to know if any reader/contributor is aware of a word to describe pairs (or more) of words of the same length, and same constituent letters , but not anagrams.
    please reply to [email protected]
    cheers,
    peter Hewkin

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