Times Cryptic 26474

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I needed more than an hour to complete this one and would rate it as the most difficult weekday puzzle for some time. Only one word and one abbreviation were unknown to me but there were a few shades of meaning I had to struggle for and some of the wordplay was quite intricate. Here’s my blog…

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

Across
1 Advice on food less useful after seeing girlfriend? (4-6,4)
BEST-BEFORE DATE – BEST-BEFORE (less useful after), DATE (seeing girlfriend)
9 Concerned with managing criminal behaviour (9)
OFFENDING – OF (concerned with),  FENDING (managing)
10 Smooth ride at last after a modern vehicle’s secured (5)
SUAVE – SUAV (modern vehicle – Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), {rid}E [at last]. “Secured” seems redundant other than adding to the surface. I didn’t know the acronym so the answer was biffed. On edit: alternative parsings are discussed in the comments below.
11 An Australian native’s at edge of outback in semi-desert (5)
KAROO – {outbac}K [edge of] , A (an), ROO (Australian native). I didn’t know this word either. SOED defines it as: Any of certain elevated semi-desert plateaux in southern Africa; terrain of this kind.
12 Paid after deduction of fine, this member of metal group (9)
PALLADIUM – P{ai}D [after deduction of A1 – fine). Easily biffable with a couple of checkers but it took me an age to spot the wordplay. PD being the chemical symbol for the element.
13 In game, stand at first behind square leg (8)
NINEPINS – NINE (square], PIN (leg – slang), S{tand} [at first]. Nine being correctly clued as a square today, not as a cube!
15 Engineer’s wide corner (6)
WANGLE – W (wide – e.g. cricket), ANGLE (corner)
17 Vehicle carrying fuel / requiring gentle handling (6)
TENDER – Two definitions. I lost time on this one thinking “tanker” to fit the first definition and then being unable to account for the remainder of the clue.
19 I have come in drunk to have a good time (4,2,2)
LIVE IT UP – I’VE (I have) in LIT UP (drunk) – A somewhat old-fashioned term which I knew from the WWII song: “I’m going to get lit up when the lights go on in London”.
22 Matter less: it comes to nothing (9)
COUNTDOWN – COUNT (matter), DOWN (less). De-de, de-de, de-de-de-dum!
23 Curve is symbolically famous, where leader crashes out (5).
CONIC – {i}CONIC (symbolically famous) [leader crashes out]. It’s well outside my field but I feel sure some will dispute the definition here, however the dictionaries seem to agree that a conic section is a curve and a “conic section” can be referred to simply as a “conic”.
24 Regular goalkeeper keeps moving slowly (5)
LARGO – Hidden in [keeps] {regu}LAR GO{alkeeper}. One of many Italian musical terms that have made their way into the language. Perhaps the most famous “Largo” is by Handel, taken from the opening aria in his opera “Serse” or “Xerxes”.
25 Ban traveller at last in international order (9)
INTERDICT – INT (international), then {travelle}R [at last] in EDICT (order)
26 Cards offering credit lines to cover sharp rise in repair work (7,7)
PLASTIC SURGERY – PLASTIC (cards offering credit), SURGE (sharp rise), RY (lines – railway). “Cover” is the containment indicator.
Down
1 Tasks in game for defenders / that do the heavy lifting (5,3,6)
BLOCK AND TACKLE – Two definitions, the second referring back to the first. Or maybe one cryptic. Or maybe &lit. Take your pick!
2 Stigmas arising from small insult, mainly (7)
SAFFRON – S (small), AFFRON{t} (insult) [mainly]. This spice is produced from the dried stigmas of an autumn-flowering crocus and is a very expensive ingredient.
3 One smacked with the hand by head turning to leave (5)
BONGO – NOB (head) reversed [turning], GO (leave)
4 To set program up in stone is not serious enough (8)
FLIPPANT – APP (program) reversed [set… up] in  FLINT (stone)
5 Royal couple’s last to feast (6)
REGALE – REGAL (royal), {coupl}E [last]
6 Organised parade: it’s essentially different (9)
DISPARATE – Anagram [organised] of PARADE IT’S
7 Racing colt finally put to stud, deprived of a run (7)
TEARING – {col}T (finally), EAR{r}ING (stud) [deprived of a run). In case anyone was wondering, I checked that “earring” can include all types of ornamental jewellery attached to the ear.
8 Help me to get away to live with a French lady and cheerful dog (4,2,2,6)
BEAM ME UP SCOTTY – BE (live), A, MME (French lady – Madame), UP (cheerful),  SCOTTY (dog – more usually Scottie, I think, in the canine sense). A catchphrase from “Star Trek” which I’ve never seen so I take it on trust that the definition is accurate.
14 Substantial bonus opera company received, gathering in wings of theatre (9)
PLENTEOUS –  PLUS (bonus) contains [received] ENO (opera company – English National Opera) which in turn contains [gathering] T{heatr}E [wings]
16 Problem in hearing, wouldn’t you say, workers organisations get round (8)
TINNITUS – TUS (workers organisations – Trades Unions) contain [get round] INNIT (wouldn’t you say – slang for isn’t it?)
18 Indifferent sound of original track one released (7)
NEUTRAL – NEU sound like “new”, TRA{i}L (track) [one released]
20 Sort of strength in steel when tempered (7)
TENSILE – Anagram [tempered] of IN STEEL. The SOED defines “tensile strength” as the maximum sustainable stress in a material under tension.
21 Firm having current and former coins (6)
SOLIDI – SOLID (firm), I (current). Coins from the Roman era mainly.
23 Nurse in working life losing some energy (5)
CARER – CARE{e}R (working life) [losing some energy)

60 comments on “Times Cryptic 26474”

  1. Lots of traps here… I was convinced a K+IN+GO(bi) was at Aussie animal for some time (dnk KAROO), and of course, Mr Wright (15ac) was surely a famous engineer, non? dnk SOLIDI, and biffed NEUTRAL and PALLADIUM. Never get those chemical element clues… Thanks for sorting it all out, Jack.
    2. Ha!! I had Koala at 11 ac. “O” (edge of outback) in “KALA” (half of (semi) KALAHARI!!)
  2. Was convinced that 11ac was KOALA = O{outback} inside half of KALA{hari}. It works, but stuffs 2 and 3dn.

    Edited at 2016-07-26 12:29 am (UTC)

    1. Did exactly the same, which is why I wound up with a DNF with knobs on. And I actually knew of the Great Karoo!
      1. ..and me. which is why I am here only now 🙂 For me this works better than the actual answer.
  3. (8dn)(COD) Star Trek’s best known line – was just part of A SCORCHER.

    (It is 40C outside already).

    Took me exactly an hour with FOI 6dn DISPARATE. LOI was 11ac KAROO
    (South African!) not a great clue IMO.

    WOD SAFFRON (Mellow yellow?)

    10ac SUV with last of ride (E) after A secured!??

    Congrats to setter and speedy blogger!

    horryd Shanghai

    2. Interesting. Your version (if I have understood correctly) parses as:

      {rid}E after SUV (modern vehicle – Sports Utility Vehicle) containing A [secured]

      I’d agree this makes better use of “secured” which is somewhat redundant in my version as mentioned in my blog. The only problem then is describing a Sports Utility Vehicle as “modern”. Only a little research is required to find that SUVs have their origins pre-WWII, although they weren’t called that then, but the term has been around since the 1980s, some 30 years ago (OED’s earliest example of its use is 1987), so it’s hardly modern by any standards.

      Either way, they’re acronyms I never met before today, but at least my parsing spares me calling it a rubbish clue!

      On later edit: On reflection I think it’s a rubbish clue anyway because the problem with my version is that SUAV doesn’t appear in any of the usual dictionaries although UAV does, and SUAV is mentioned in Wikipedia.

      Edited at 2016-07-26 05:26 am (UTC)

    3. What was your problem with this one? I think we’re agreed it’s South African but the clue doesn’t say otherwise.

      Edited at 2016-07-26 05:34 am (UTC)

      1. Didn’t get it so didn’t like it 😉 As Thud would say, would have been a perfectly fair clue if I had figured it out.
        After giving up and going for aids I parsed it as KARO (except it’s an Un Zud native, not Australian – all the same when you live in UK) + O{utback}. So part of the reason I didn’t like it was the clue had an error – in my erroneous parsing!
        Agree with others KOALA was a much better fit, but I had BONGO already.
        Also think A secured in SUV the better parsing, but another that I didn’t get – couldn’t equate earring to stud, but no problems with it.
        Loved Beam me up, Scotty, and lots of others to like.
        Rob
  5. Defeated by this one and gave up after close to a couple of hours. Couldn’t get most of the clues up in the NW corner and several others eg PALLADIUM, went in unparsed. Still, looking on the bright side, a few new words and I know what will go straight in if ‘stigmas’ ever appears again.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

  7. Had to look up PALLADIUM after an hour, and had BINGO instead of BONGO, so I think we’ll just move on and say no more about this one.

    Thanks setter and Jack. BTW Jack, I think SUAV is a bit of a stretch at 10ac, and it would make for some very clunky wordplay at best. SUV on the other hand is a very common term for a modern conveyance, so I’m with Horryd on this one.

    1. Yes,I think, you’re probably correct but as I have noted in my comment above, neither the term nor the principle of the vehicle is particularly modern, and the word’s not necessary for the clue anyway.

      SUAV on the other hand is modern, but so much so as not to be in the usual dictionaries unfortunately. The clue needed tweaking.

      Edited at 2016-07-26 06:38 am (UTC)

      1. SUV certainly strikes me as modern insofar as it’s recent that it’s come into common usage. A bit like I’d think of OMG as modern though it was supposedly first used in the early 1900s.
          1. I’m with you now – remove the word ‘modern’ and we have a timeless clue. I’m a keen Ximenean, so I’d go for it.
            1. If you remove the word ‘modern’ the surface makes much less sense. I think it’s better with it!
                1. I have no problem at all with ‘modern’. It’s all relative of course but in the world of cars SUVs are a fairly recent development.
  8. Yes, very tough indeed, the way I (at least in theory) like ’em.

    I did what I often do once my time has exceeded anything I could possibly be proud of and left in a dodgy one – in this case TANKER at 17ac – so one away. Count me as another person who had both KOALA and KINGO in for 11ac at various stages. I was also convinced that 1ac must end DIET too; perhaps I wouldn’t have made such an enormous hash of this puzzle if I’d been able to see the right answer earlier…

    1. I got 1ac immediately but the only dangler I got on first pass was DISPARATE so it might not have been all that helpful.
  9. Ok, I knew it wasn’t a satisfactory answer, and it was obviously a heffalump trap, and I should have got TENDER, but I didn’t. KOALA was a fine answer to 11a, for reasons discussed above, except it wasn’t, and created mayhem in the tricky top right.
    I could be really picky and say a stud is not an earring, but I be in a tiny, Cnutish minority unsupported by the usual sources. But it’s not, is it, bu any definition of ring?
    I wondered if ONRUNNING was a thing for 9, making better sense of the wordplay: managing – fending works only when you think about it quite a bit.
    I’m with the floor on SUAVE. One has to remember that “modern” in the Times is predicated on Chaplin’s use of it in Modern Times (1936) or Fowler’s in A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926 edition). I suspect any vehicle defined by a set of initials qualifies as modern here.
    A difficult and occasionally treacherous crossword this, which I would have liked more if I’d got it all correct.
    1. As I remember, the “Moderns” were an 11th century order of monks who had the radical idea that christianity ought to be relevant to (their) current times. My memory’s probably as unreliable as usual. Still, most historians and philosophers agree that modernity begins some time in the middle of the 15th century. This makes the SUV pretty darn modern. Eh?
  10. AT one point in the struggle, I toyed with SHAVE – not bad for smooth, and it turns out there is a Supersonic Hovering Air Vehicle. Now that’s modern!
  11. 24:01 … I’m going to give myself a pat on the back for successfully negotiating this one, the sort of puzzle that often undoes me. Particularly pleased with not falling into the tank(er)-trap at 17a and for resisting the temptation to throw in something like ‘shave’ at 10a, where the wordplay eluded me for a long time.

    Very satisfying stuff, especially PALLADIUM, PLENTEOUS, OFFENDING and the entertaining Scotty clue. Thanks setter and Jackkt.

  12. About 24.20 – a few seconds after stopping the clock I realised that describing a BANJO as ‘smacked with the hand’ might offend banjo players so corrected it to BONGO. I wouldn’t have got either had SAFFRON not rescued me from KOALA. I would have been less successful at blogging today – well done Jackkt. Apart from the ones I never parsed I assumed in passing that ‘put to stud’ was something to do with (r)EARING.
    1. I think it’s a possibility, malc. I’d say shades of meaning would cover it but maybe the grammar’s not perfect. Anyway it doesn’t matter as long as it leads to the correct answer.
  13. Dnf today, dnk KAROO and failed to get SAFFRON. All parabolas, circles, ellipses and hyperbolas are conic sections, and one talks about the study of conics. However, not all curves are conics. If you are interested, look up Apollonian cone, which gives a nice picture.
  14. 30 mins. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the clue at 11ac offers KOALA as a valid answer so I was stuck there for quite some time.

    Edited at 2016-07-26 08:38 am (UTC)

  15. The NW corner was too much for me. Thought that 9A was ONRUNNING. Never heard of KAROO or that SAFFRON was produced from the dried stigmas of the crocus. Guessed SUAVE, thanks for the explanation.
  16. 18:15 here. I also had KOALA to start with, but changed it to KAROO when I realised 3D had to be BONGO. What a great clue, I thought – two equally valid answers but with different definitions and wordplay from the same clue. I didn’t even think of TANKER, but almost entered SHAVE before twigging that SUAVE was better, just as the pen approached the paper! LOIs were SAFFRON and OFFENDING.
  17. 27 min: KAROO was FOI, so never considered anything else. SUAVE LOI, after trying to make SHAVE work. I think ‘modern’ is OK for SUV, as it’s too new to be in my 2004 Bradford’s Lists. Next to last was TEARING, with idea that (r)EARING was suggested by ‘put to stud’, though a colt would likely be too young.

    Edited at 2016-07-26 12:00 pm (UTC)

  18. DNF after an hour. Got Koala wrong for ages before hearing the beat of the bongo. DNK SAFFRON though biffed it. Did not get KAROO or SOLIDI. COD PALLADIUM. And from the Bumper Fun Book of my youth, I did know the answer, ” because he/she’s got a tender behind.”
  19. Definitely one to sort the men out from the boys. Like Macca and others, I was very pleased to work out ‘koala’, only to deduce it was wrong when nothing fitted around it – not least the devious SAFFRON.

    Some very pleasing stuff, with my COD going to PLENTEOUS – a most pleasing word.

    A tip of the hat to the setter, and to John for sorting out the ones I was short on parsing-wise.

  21. I had a bad feeling about this one when the first clue that I could cleanly answer was 23dn. Persevered though and it gradually filled up from the bottom. Liked BEAM ME UP SCOTTY and fascinated to hear that Kirk never said it but having had ‘Elementary, my dear Watson’ thrown at me for over 60 years, I know about the persistence of nonquotes. Avoided the TANKER and SHAVE traps (just) to limp in at 31:26. Thanks for the blog Jack.
  22. Thanks particularly for the decode of PALLADIUM, Jack. I biffed it so your explanation was welcome.
    Interesting discussion on SUV/UAV. I took the horryd Shanghai route but I think UAV works as well. They come in various sizes. I’ve been alongside a Global Hawk and those things are ENORMOUS!.
    I was a TANKER, too and failed to see TENDER. 8d was fun.
    TST (True Solving Time) 1hr 34m 14s.
  23. You have ruined my life! Captain Kirk looked at Scotty and only said, ‘BEAM ME UP’! In reality the name SCOTTY was clipped by the editor!?

    I believe the full misquote has been used in a British Court of Law on at least one occasion – when the judge asked the accused if he had anything he wished to say before sentencing. The – ‘If it please The Court I have a ‘Get out of Jail Free Card’ has also been contemptuously used, more than once.

    26474 appears to have had the likes of Verlaine & Co in
    turmoil. No time mentionted by The Master.

    Very happy I managed to finish, although the SUV contention does not appear to have been resolved. Is the setter available or is he/she in the naughty corner?

    horryd Shanghai

    1. I think the accused also produced something from his pocket, spoke into it but preceded the immortal line with “It’s getting hot down here…”
  24. 26:18 and somehow all correct. I finished in the NW corner with offending (I’d also considered onrunning) and finally saffron, where I’d been thinking about the wrong kind of sigma and in any event has misread mainly as maybe and for too long was looking for an anagram of insult to follow the S from small.

    I caused myself more problems by unaccountably translating “traveller at last” as T rather than R, something I seem to do a lot.

    I didn’t really want a toughie today as I had a dream about the championships last night, where I finished the first puzzle in ten minutes, had to change desks, and then didn’t solve a single other clue for the rest of the time available.

    I loved the Scotty clue and have even heard of the phrase being used in boring meetings.

    Edited at 2016-07-26 12:28 pm (UTC)

  25. So much more difficult today. I too want Koala until I got 1 down and then looked up KAROO to see if it existed. Biffed 12 and 25 across and 14 down so thanks for explanations. DNF as I put in SKATE in desperation reasoning that KAT must be a variant of CAT for CATAMARAN – no I know it couldn’t be really but I was fed up with it by then as I had gone over my hour. However I did enjoy a lot of the puzzle so many thanks to setter as well as blogger
  26. 19m. Very satisfying stuff. KAROO looked unlikely but the wordplay couldn’t really have been clearer. I considered KOALA but fortunately didn’t think of KALAhari. I don’t think it works as an answer (the word ‘at’ is unaccounted for) but it’s close enough that I probably wouldn’t have questioned it if it had occurred to me.
    I’m pretty sure SUV is intended at 10ac: it’s a common term, and as others have said seems modern enough. It’s even more modern in English English than American English: I encountered it for the first time in a business context about 20 years ago and at that point it wasn’t a common usage in the UK. Neither was ‘monocoque’, another word I learned in the same context.

    Edited at 2016-07-26 01:57 pm (UTC)

    1. SUV seems to have become ubiquitous in the last several months. Everyone seems to be driving one, especially the Nissan Qashqai.
  27. A most enjoyable challenge today I thought – taking around 35 mins. Had the beautifully parsed KOALA for a while until BONGO smacked me around the head. Fortunately I dithered over my LOI between SKATE and SHAVE for so long that I suddenly saw SUAVE.
  28. Maybe it helped that I was tired before I started this, but I remember breezing through it and only being held up by PLENTEOUS, my last in. There was a bit of partial stuff – TENDER from one definition (made more sense that a vehicle could be a TENDER than a gentle handling could be a TANKER), similarly PALLADIUM, and SAFFRON went in from wordplay alone.
  29. 37 mins, about 5 of which were spent drifting off after a hard day at work. I had trouble with PLENTEOUS, the TEARING/SUAVE crossers, and the SAFFRON/KAROO crossers which were my last ones in. Before I had BONGO I’d considered “koala” briefly but dismissed it because, like keriothe, I’d fortuitously forgotten the Kalahari. However, like a few others I saw that “kingo” parsed and it wouldn’t have surprised me if there was an Aussie animal of that name so I couldn’t decide whether to go for it or KAROO until I was sure of 2dn. The most disappointing element of my solve was not seeing AFFRON(T) for so long. A tip of the hat to the setter for a top quality puzzle.
  30. Another KOALA, nicely parsed, which wrecked the crossing clues, invented a drum called a BONGA (as in Berlusconi’s bonking events?) and failed to finish with 2d S-F-a-N. But otherwise all done, a really good puzzle I thought.
  31. About 35 minutes ending with SUAVE, parsed (finally) as SU(A)V,E. So I’m in on the SUV vehicle. Not so in on the TENDER, which I didn’t think of, I threw in TANKER without reading the clue very carefully, so 1 wrong. Dope. I was delighted to find Scotty in the puzzle, not knowing the crew of the Enterprise had ever transported across the pond. Regards.
  32. One hour and twenty minutes and thank God for wordplay, not only for KAROO (for which I had been thinking things like K**GO, the GO being half of GOBI) but also to pinpoint a few other entries and for that matter to remind me of the spelling of PLENTEOUS. I didn’t really like this puzzle much. Difficult, but not very witty, and the definitions often a bit unsatisfying, being just vague (such as BONGO smacked by the hand) rather than fiendishly misleading or amusingly 4 dn. I couldn’t for the life of me parse PALLADIUM, so it went in on a wing and a prayer (i.e. because I couldn’t think of anything else) — thank you for explaining it. It is not one of the elements ordinary mortals are likely to know the chemical symbol for.

    Edited at 2016-07-26 10:08 pm (UTC)

  33. I was beaten by this one with 2 wrong answers and 2 unfilled. Failed on SAFFRON as I had KINGO having discounted KOALA when I got BONGO. I’d thought of KAROO but didn’t know the word and didn’t make the leap from AN to A in the wordplay. Didn’t know the coins and was fixated on CO for firm. I had ONRUNNING for 9a. A tough workout and I’m relieved to find that others found it tricky. Thanks to Jack for sorting out the parsing. As for the setter, ouch! You got me!! Gave up as a DNF after 65 minutes.
  34. …would have been nice, but in fact I DNFd after 55 minutes.

    I also fell for the koala (and who wouldn’t?) at 11ac. I had severe doubts about it, but had nothing better to offer. I might have got it if I’d had the checkers from SAFFRON but, despite thinking about botanical stigmas, I failed here too. The BONGO at 3d also failed to click.

    I could also mention that I failed to parse PALLADIUM (which I got nevertheless – thank you Tom Lehrer), didn’t get TEARING or WANGLE and completely failed on SUAVE – but to do so would make me look foolish so I won’t.

  35. 14:36 here for this interesting and enjoyable puzzle.

    I was tempted by SHAVE, KOALA, TANKER and BANJO, but managed to resist all of them. (I agree with keriothe that KOALA isn’t really a goer.)

    The sort of crossword I wish they’d kept for the Championship!

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