Times Cryptic 26450

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I wasn’t giving this my full attention whilst solving (I was listening to referendum fall-out) so although I filled in about two-thirds of it fairly quickly, say within 25 minutes,  I then got stuck and made very slow progress, and needed another hour on and off to complete the job. 2dn and 22ac gave me the most trouble but other than those I can’t recall what the problems were. Off we go…

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [indicators in square ones]

Across
1 In Italy you study that country’s dialect (6)
TUSCAN – TU (in Italy, you), SCAN (study)
4 One scornful of various presidents disregarding religious text (8)
DESPISER – Anagram [various] of PRESIDE{nt}S [disregarding religious text – NT – New Testament]
10 Attack American woman’s detailed theory (9)
BROADSIDE – BROAD’S (American woman’s), IDE{a} (theory) [de-tailed]
11 Brief alarm, perhaps, after setback (5)
REMIT – TIMER (alarm, perhaps) reversed [after setback]
12 Stout fellow needing no introduction (3)
ALE – {m}ALE (fellow) [needing no introduction] or could be {d}ALE if you prefer. According to some sources ale does not include stout (or lager or porter) but I dare say the definition may be looser in some circles.
13 Footballer conserves energy after initial portion of this fruit (5,6)
SWEET PEPPER – SWEEPER (footballer) contains [conserves] T{his} [initial portion] + PEP (energy). I’m not sure whether this is a fruit in the same sense as apples and oranges as I’d tend to think of it as a vegetable,  but in any case it’s the fruit of the plant that bears it.
14 City wasn’t prepared for revolution (6)
WARSAW – WAS RAW (wasn’t prepared) reversed [for revolution)
16 Hand over tax: a tiny bit charged (7)
OVATION – O (over), VAT (tax), ION (a tiny bit, charged)
19 A sober type isn’t subject to loss of rights (7)
ATTAINT – A, TT (sober type – teetotaller), AIN’T (isn’t). I constructed this from wordplay and checkers and remembered it (just) from when it came up last September.
20 Coal, left out, is set alight (6)
IGNITE – {l}IGNITE (coal) [left out]
22 Trendy schools investing capital in Greek courses? (11)
HIPPODROMES – HIP (trendy), PODS (schools) containing [investing] ROME (capital). Courses for chariot and horse races.
25 Character from the thirties (3)
ETH – Hidden in [from] {th}E TH{irties}. A letter from Old English. The Eth that I remember was a character from the fifties played by the incomparable June Whitfield, still going at 90!
26 Expressive subject rejected in school (5)
TRAIN – ART (expressive subject) reversed [rejected], IN
27 Shoe in Spooner’s jewellery bag? (9)
SLINGBACK – As Spooner might say “bling” (jewellery) “sack” (bag)
28 Calls about an area in Spanish community (8)
CANARIES – CRIES (calls) contains [about] AN + A (area)
29 Queen once draped in British flag (6)
BANNER – ANNE (queen once) contained by [draped in] BR (British)
Down
1 Fellow against prejudice (6)
TOBIAS – TO (against), BIAS (prejudice)
2 Between streets one gets about a few feet? (9)
STONECAST –  ONE + C (about) + A contained by [between] ST and  ST (streets). I didn’t know this word but apparently it means the same as “stone’s throw”, hence “few feet” as the definition. Some may have a slightly different parsing with  CA (about) which then leaves “a” in the clue as part of the definition. I had that at first but then thought better of it, not that it really matters much.
3 Mountain range with exceptionally scenic peaks (5)
ANDES – AND (with), E{xceptionally} + S{cenic} [peaks]
5 Sent cellmate ironic message (10,4)
ELECTRONIC MAIL – Anagram [sent] of CELLMATE IRONIC
6 Awfully nice pal, or “china” (9)
PORCELAIN – Anagram [awfully] of NICE PAL OR
7 Concisely describe problem at university (3,2)
SUM UP – SUM (problem), UP (at university)
8 Lacking confidence, / heading for the bedroom? (8)
RETIRING – Two definitions, the second vaguely cryptic
9 Weird historic novel, English literary work (5,4,5)
CIDER WITH ROSIE – Anagram [novel] of WEIRD HISTORIC, E (English)
15 Boatman sporting black eye when punched by prisoner (9)
SHIPOWNER – SHINER (black eye) contains [punched by] POW (prisoner – of war). Leaving aside the not inconsiderable matter of terminology re boats and ships, I can’t find any definition of a boatman necessarily being the owner of a boat.
17 Where to see ships, /  mostly (2,3,4)
IN THE MAIN – Two definitions, the first vaguely cryptic
18 Sad film about a crime in which female is eliminated (8)
PATHETIC – PIC (film) contains [about] A + THE{f}T (crime) [female is eliminated]
21 Band in Brassed Off losing heart (6)
CHOKER – CHO{c}KER (brassed off) [losing heart].
23 Seafood starters in posh restaurants aren’t wholly nourishing (5)
PRAWN – First letters of [starters in] P{osh} R{estaurants} A{ren’t} W{holly} N{ourishing}
24 What sounds like a fag, postgraduate producing letter in Greek (5)
SIGMA – Sounds like “cig” (fag – cigarette), MA (postgraduate)

48 comments on “Times Cryptic 26450”

  1. …with some early signs of dementia as I neglected to fill in the unchecked letters for CHOKER. Which incidentally I didn’t get the parsing of because over here CHOCKER means full. (As in the airline booking agent apologetically informing his customer “Sorry ocker, the fokker’s chocker”).

    COD to ELECTRONIC MAIL I think.

    Thanks setter and Jack. (BTW Jack, you’ve switched the anagrind and anagrist at 9dn).

    1. Many thanks. Now amended. I misread the annotations on my printed copy and then failed to engage brain. Whilst solving and before I had checkers to help me I agonised for ages whether “weird” or “novel” was the ‘grind.
      1. Having written the above in haste and used the word grind for anagrind I wonder if we might start a new trend by dropping the “ana” bit. We’d all know what was meant by “grind” and “grist” and it’d save us a few more precious keystrokes. Just a thought!
  2. A bit more than an hour for me. I didn’t know STONECAST (I wondered if it might be a poem of some sort) and same comment about CHO{c}KER as galspray. I remember ‘Take It From Here’ from an old record my parents played endlessly in the 60’s and that’s what ETH conjures up for me too. HIPPODROMES is a bit of a cryptic chestnut, but was my favourite.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  3. although in two segments: at 18′ I had 2d and 21d left, but had to go to class. Came back 3 hours later, figured out the wordplay in 2d (I read it as ‘about’=CA), without having a clue as to what STONECAST meant, and deciding that the only band I could think of was the necklace; never heard of ‘chocker’ in any sense. Biffed SWEET PEPPER (DNK sweeper)–if it’s got seeds, it’s a fruit is my rule, Jack. ATTAINT from attainder, which I learned as a schoolboy the US constitution prohibits a bill of.

    Edited at 2016-06-28 04:04 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for the “seeds” tip. Re “choker” I was thinking necklace too, or possibly collar. My thinking at 2dn was that “a few feet” would be cluing “a stonecast” rather than just “stonecast” so the A in the clue needed to be accounted for by other means. But on reflection I suppose it could just be a linking word and ignored – again not that it really matters a jot except as duty blogger one has to put something.
      1. I’m reminded of the old saw – intelligence is knowing that tomatoes and peppers are fruits. Wisdom is not adding them to a fruit salad.
  4. 23:01 … I found this pretty tricky but rewarding. I spent quite a while trying to find something other than STONECAST for 2d before realising it did make a kind of sense, and almost as long diligently searching for the parsing of TRAIN, where I suspected I was falling into a trap.

    Does anyone use CHOCKER to mean ‘brassed off’? I’ve only ever heard it used to mean full.

    COD … PATHETIC, which the setter cleverly anticipated would be the word of the day here in England

    Edited at 2016-06-28 07:05 am (UTC)

    1. If you think of it as meaning “fed up” it covers both.

      Edited at 2016-06-28 08:16 am (UTC)

  5. 28.04, with at least 5 minutes at the end adding STONECAST, TOBIAS and BROADSIDE (last two much easier than I made them) to the underpopulated North West. We could have an interesting and erudite conversation over whether a STONECAST is more than a few feet, given that I reckon even I could chuck a smallish one quite a lot of yards. I got the word from the word play after writing the checkers out horizontally.
    Couldn’t do anything else with it when I revisited an unsatisfactory CHOKER: for me it’s “full”, too, whichever antipode you’re standing on, but Chambers adds the post England match feeling too. (As a Spurs fan, I think I should apologise for our boys’ contribution. Sorry).
    Glad to see I wasn’t the only one to wrestle with an anagram of HISTORIC NOVEL E: I got as far as LOVE’S HERO splodge before the penny dropped.
    Eth soon-to-be Glum turned up in the TLS recently: if you’re of that vintage, it’s impossible not to think of her rather than the letter. Setters please note.
  6. After last week, when I felt like I was starting to get the hang of this lark, this week is a return to feeling a bit dense. There’s a few I probably wouldn’t have got here, looking at the explanations, but I finally gave up after 55 minutes with virtually all the west and a few of the east side incomplete.

    It would probably have helped if I’d been in the year above at school: they did CIDER WITH ROSIE whereas for our year they swapped it out for Stan Barstow’s rather more obscure Joby. Sadly I also fell for the HISTORIC NOVEL E trap, but even if I hadn’t, it was one of those mornings where the letters just weren’t falling into place.

    Edited at 2016-06-28 08:47 am (UTC)

  7. Is how Henry VIII and some other monarchs got rich, someone would be accused of treason and their property taken by the crown. I am with kevin on the fruit/vegetable. dnk STONECAST, but now makes sense, thanks. However, the phrase itself is not literal, and means a short distance, otherwise trebuchets might create a definitional problem. 22′ today, thanks setter and blogger.
  8. Howw Ron. Takes me back – all the way to the nursery. Those days weren’t nearly so rosie as some would have us believe. That character (alphabetic) turns up quite often as EDH in the NY Times puzzles. Same as everyone else on STONECAST (I see the spell-check here flags it) and CHOKER.

    Doing these puzzles while distracted can put you right off your stroke, as Jack says. It can also make you weirdly concentrated, which is what happened with me this morning. In the middle of the night I found I’d got 2 deer ticks attached to me (they’re epidemic where we are upstate) and was desperate to take my mind off them until I can get to the local urgent care and get them removed for testing. So I clocked in at 15.39.

    Edited at 2016-06-28 09:02 am (UTC)

    1. Good luck with those, Olivia… when I went to our GP with some recently he took em out, and just told me to look out for rings… no suggestion of testing the little blighters…
      1. Thanks Janie! The deer ticks in the NE US carry Lyme disease which is nasty. It doesn’t show up in the human for several weeks after the bite but it does show up in the tick right away if tested after removal, and the medical labs all do this now. The immediate reaction is to rip the little b…..s out with tweezers but I’ve done that and then dropped it (they’re minute) whereupon it becomes invisible. So it’s better to wait and let the doc do it properly as you did, squirming all the while it’s on you…. Hope you have no rings!
        1. That’s interesting… my story was something similar to yours… picked them up in Norway a couple of years ago, and hubby tried unsuccessfully to get them out with tweezers, so came back to the UK with tick parts in me. Don’t know if the Norwegian ones carry Lyme, but I think the ring thing was to do with Lyme disease… Hope they find nothing in the labs!
          1. My grandson came back from scout camp a couple of weeks ago with a tick in his leg. My daughter poured vodka on it to paralyse it, and then successfully removed it whole with tweezers. No rings so far, fingers crossed.
            1. Waste of vodka, methylated spirits is much cheaper. Then again, metho and orange juice tastes much nicer than vodka and orange.
              Way off the wavelength on the crossword, eventually went for aids for NW and WARSAW of all things.
              Rob
  9. CHOCKER is in Chambers as both full-up and annoyed, fed up so no issues there. Slightly surprised to see that Chambers also defines chock-a-block, chock-full and choke-full as ‘quite full’. Not sure whether the ‘quite’ here means relatively or totally (as in ‘I am quite exhausted’).
    Anyway 32 mins of steady stuff with no real surprises or d’oh moments. Thanks jack
  10. Is how Henry VIII and some other monarchs got rich, someone would be accused of treason and their property taken by the crown. I am with kevin on the fruit/vegetable. dnk STONECAST, but now makes sense, thanks. However, the phrase itself is not literal, and means a short distance, otherwise trebuchets might create a definitional problem. 22′ today, thanks setter and blogger.
  11. I did this while tiddly from beer and whisky after trying my hand at watching a “footy game” with “the lads” – I made the schoolboy error of managing to turn up after all the goals had been scored, so I still don’t realy see the appeal, but it’s nice to know that England’s performance is looking consistent this week across all ids of arenas.

    Didn’t know CHOCKER (though it meant “full”!) but guessed that that must be the route to the answer anyway. I think I spent around 12 minutes in total on this puzzle, which doesn’t look like it has much memorable about it from a quick scan back over the clues, but nothing to complain about either! Thanks setter and blogger.

  12. Took about an hour for all but three in the NW (same as others…). When I came back after a walk with the dog, they fell into place, although I dnk STONECAST, and dnp the IDE(a) bit of BROADSIDE.

    Same gap in vocab of chocker=fed up. dnp TRAIN or get the PEP bit of PEPPER. Tough puzzle, but one which I knew I could finish given time.

  13. I found this easier than some above, finishing in 26 minutes. My main hold-ups were in the NW (1a, 1d, 2) and 28. BIAS seemed so obvious for ‘prejudice’ at the beginning, but TOBIAS didn’t come to mind until I got TUSCAN after guessing the unknown STONECAST. For 28 (LOI) I was looking for something rather more esoteric than CANARIES.

    I had the wrong anagram fodder initially for 9, but R_S_ _ (the only letters in place) had to be ROSIE. A wonderfully evocative and lyrical work.

    I thought 14 was a very neat clue – cryptically concise with a good surface. Possibly it’s an old chestnut (though I don’t recall it), but none the worse for that.

  14. 13:21, with a few at the end puzzling over STONECAST and CHOKER: in both cases the wordplay seemed clear but I couldn’t make sense of the definition. I’ve never heard of STONECAST, and didn’t think of the ‘stone’s throw’ equivalent. As z8 says ‘a few feet’ seems unsatisfactory, unless it’s a two-year-old doing the throwing. And like everyone else it seems I’ve never heard of CHOCKER meaning ‘annoyed’, but it’s in Collins and ODO as well as Chambers. In the end I couldn’t think of anything else so I just bunged them in and crossed my fingers.
  15. My performance was as abject as England’s and the final whistle blew after 31:26. The whole LHS seemed to take forever to fall into place. I wasn’t just getting the wrong end of the stick, I was picking up the wrong sticks.

    I did enjoy the Spooner clue, I have to say.

  16. 44 minutes for me, starting with SUM UP and finishing with CHOKER after trying to work TICKER in, but then plumping for the unknown ETH which gave me enough checkers to finish correctly. I did actually know the chocker usage which I’ve always associated with brim full of tears as well as stuffed to bursting point. For a change the Spoonerism sprang straight to mind! Hadn’t heard of STONECAST, but it wasn’t much of a leap from Stone’s throw. I also had the wrong anagram fodder for 9d until I got WARSAW. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Jack
  17. Similar story with CHOKER and STONECAST, and all in all not a rewarding experience. Liked the Spoonerism, though. I’d be happy never to see anagrind, anagrist or biffing again.
    1. Agree with you completely Sidc on anagrind and anagrist but BIFD, biffed, biffing etc is a beautiful shorthand way of explaining how you got there. What would you suggest instead in our postings here? Thank you grestyman!

      Edited at 2016-06-28 03:30 pm (UTC)

      1. I should have been clearer. Grestyman’s BIFD is great, it’s the tough guy biff, biffed, biffing that bugs me.
  18. Just under 30 mins today but a bit stop and start. Same as most with the “chocker” definition and STONECAST. Based on successes in our other national sports we should clearly be looking to OZ for a new manager.
    1. We’ve got a few washed-up political leaders you can have as well Meg. No charge.
  19. Hi all. I thought this simpler than yesterday’s until held up at the end by the literary work (unknown to me, sorry) and STONECAST. Also I was inexplicably slow to see BROADSIDE, which I liked when finally understood. I put in CHOKER without worrying about the wordplay really. So in all about 25 minutes, despite the quick start. Regards.
  20. Rather nice puzzle I thought – some easy ones, some chewy ones, and a few where you had to cross your fingers and hope you understood, in this case CHOKER (from definition) and STONECAST (by crystal-clear wordplay).
  21. 19 mins with TRAIN my LOI after the SHIPOWNER/CANARIES crossers. “Chocker” was used a lot in the required context when I was growing up on Merseyside so I had no problem with it. Like others I got STONECAST from the WP and when I looked in Chambers afterwards to see what it meant I felt, like some of you, that the “a few feet” defininition isn’t strictly accurate. Like Penfold I struggled on the LHS and I went down a few blind alleys. For a while I was convinced the prisoner in 15dn was going to be “con” and I wasted time wondering if there really could be such a thing as a “shiconner”. Eejit.
  22. If you are looking for the comment you posted earlier I have deleted it as it was not in the spirit of what this forum is about. Anything along similar lines, targeting and attacking individual bloggers or other bona fide contributors will also be deleted without hesitation.

    Edited at 2016-06-28 05:24 pm (UTC)

  23. This one took up my whole lunch hour and then some. Nothing like yesterday’s trolley dash.

    Me too with CHOCKER and STONECAST. Also, in what context could ‘to’ mean ‘against’? I’m probably missing something obvious.

  24. Late in the day, after for once managing to match my handicap on a sweltering golf course, failed to do so with this puzzle; the RHS went in quickly but I struggled to hole out with 1d, 10a and the unknown 2d. Liked the anagram for CIDER WITH ROSIE, and the reminiscing over ETH and Ron.
    I add my vote to the ANA OUT campaign, grist and grind is all we need.
  26. A late post having spent a pleasant day at Lords with 20 year old youngest son watching Middlesex v Lancashire. I can’t multitask and I needed to get home to finish the crossword off. Like other oldies posting, I remember Eth only too well. DNK STONECAST. Time taken about 80 overs plus extra half hour. A hard but fair puzzle like the battle between bat and ball, with a splendid knock by a young man called Nick Gubbins.
  27. 11:07 here for this interesting and enjoyable puzzle. Like others I hadn’t come across STONECAST before, and took an alarmingly long time to twig why it would almost certainly match the definition as well as the wordplay.

    While holidaying near Slad some years ago (when Laurie Lee was still alive) we dropped in on his local pub, The Woolpack, for a drink, and I bought a signed paperback copy of Cider with Rosie. I can’t help wondering if whenever they run out of signed copies now, they simply ask him to sign a few more.

    1. You remind me of the old gag about someone selling a very rare and valuable unsigned copy of the autobiography of [insert name of self-regarding C-list celebrity].
    1. Hear, hear!
      What’s next, just “gram” for anagram?
      I have arthritis, and I type all day, but three more keystrokes aren’t going to kill me. (If that is really a problem for anyone, I have a feeling there are other ways their labor could be economized.)
      In any case, I hope that no one seriously tries to make some kind of forum rule about this.
  29. The fact that I am here tomorrow, so to speak, rather than yesterday, will reflect the fact that I found this one dispiritingly tough. Total time was probably well over an hour, but in segments interspersed with despondency.

    STONECAST was an NHO, but went in tentatively. Having “Atlas” for 3d didn’t help, and although I then considered ANDES, it took me a long time to spot the parsing. ATTAINT was also unknown, but eventually seemed the only option.

    LOI CHOKER. I’d considered it early on, but that meaning of “chocker” was completely unknown to me, so I was left in doubt. More annoyingly, I entered “chocer” for some reason, so a technical fault.

Comments are closed.