Times Cryptic 26756

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Yet again my solving time was off the scale for this one. After yesterday’s paltry 20 minutes this was a bit of a let-down in that respect but it’s a fine puzzle with some difficult words and some intricate parsing. I’m doing double duty again today with the Quickie, so on we go.

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 Injury in country when crossing river (6)
SPRAIN – SPAIN (country) containing [crossing] R (river)
5 This writer with farewell message conveys commercial information (8)
METADATA – ME (this writer), TA-TA (farewell message) contains [conveys] AD (commercial)
9 Try very hard as upper class male — however kept outside (4,1,3)
BUST A GUT – BUT (however) contains [kept outside] U (upper class) + STAG (male)
10 The thing with one foot rolling over is a wild animal (6)
WAPITI – IT (the thing) + I (one) + PAW (foot) all reversed [rolling over]. It’s a large North American deer aka elk. SOED advises that its name is derived from the Shawnee for “white rump”.
11 Pass quiet loner in the East End? (6)
PERMIT – P (quiet), {h}ERMIT (loner) [in the East End – said like a Cockney, dropping  the ‘h’]
12 Hooligan, first to last crooked, being banished (8)
OUTLAWRY – {l}OUT (hooligan) + L [first to last], AWRY (crooked). I knew this as a collective term for outlaws but not as the state of existing outside the law.
14 Suggestion about king getting harsh in penetration of enemy lines (12)
BREAKTHROUGH – BREATH (suggestion) containing [about] K (king), ROUGH (harsh). I felt a question mark might be in order here as the definition seemed very specific for a term that’s widely used in more general terms, but then I looked it up in Collins and found this:  military – the penetration of an enemy’s defensive position or line in depth and strength. So once again I have learnt something new.
17 All surf there when this clay is dissolved? (7,5)
FULLERS EARTH – Anagram [dissolved] of ALL SURF THERE. This is an absorbent type of clay with multiple uses, one of which is as cat litter.
20 Scoundrel holding the woman in gym is exposed in police account (3,5)
RAP SHEET – RAT (scoundrel) containing [holding] SHE (the woman)  in PE (gym). This is a criminal record of arrests, crimes and convictions. It’s a Russian doll clue in which I think I’ve accounted for everything apart from “exposed” which I assume is there for the surface.
22 Big Aussie thug, the first person to be caught (6)
BOOMER – ME (first person) contained by [caught] BOOR (thug). This is a large male kangaroo.
23 Car feature’s special bargain, reduced slightly (6)
AIRBAG – Anagram [special] of BARGAI{n} [reduced slightly]
25 Most willing to offer cash ahead of time (8)
READIEST – READIES (cash), T (time)
26 Agreement to save pounds with project creating a bit of a stir? (5,3)
DEATH ROW – DEA{l}(agreement) [to save pounds, where £ = L], THROW (project)
27 Magic / periods of limited duration? (6)
SPELLS – Two meanings
Down
2 Down-and-out old man given drug with heart conking out (6)
PAUPER – PA (old man), UP{p}ER (drug) [with heart conking out]
3 A truck’s got fuel in for carrying rabble — they’re on the road (11)
AUTOMOBILES – A, UTE’S (truck’s) containing [got…in] OIL (fuel) containing [carrying] MOB (rabble). Another Russian doll. Phew!
4 Finally sleeping in the raw — this having been cast? (9)
NIGHTWEAR – Anagram [cast] of {sleepin}G [finally] IN THE RAW. I’d say the definition is &lit.
5 Town offering something for mouse — jam! (7)
MATLOCK – MAT (something for mouse), LOCK (jam). It’s in the Peak District and is the County Town of Derbyshire but I’m not sure if its fame has spread far beyond these shores.
6 Namely, a person who is foolish to conceal love (2,3)
TO WIT – TWIT  (person who is foolish) contains [to conceal] O (love)
7 Shoe insole perhaps upside down (3)
DAP – PAD (insole perhaps) reversed [upside down]. I’ve never heard of this type of shoe which appears to be what I would call a pump or plimsoll.
8 Union to get angry giving instruction (8)
TUTORAGE – TU (union – Trades Union), TO, RAGE (get angry)
13 Glorify a poet — he is so fantastic (11)
APOTHEOSISE – Anagram [fantastic] of A POET HE IS SO
15 Trees and barns — home on the run (9)
HORNBEAMS – Anagram [on the run] of BARNS HOME. Not a tree I was aware of until I read Betjeman’s “Summoned by Bells” which begins:
Here on the southern slope of Highgate Hill
Red squirrels leap the hornbeams. Still I see
Twigs and serrated leaves against the sky.
The sunny silence was of Middlesex.
16 Dog show coming up could be therapeutic (8)
CURATIVE – CUR (dog), EVITA (show) reversed [coming up]
18 Not first in race — most of the spectators suffer humiliation (3,4)
EAT CROW – {h}EAT (race) [not the first],  CROW{d}(spectators) [most]
19 Something prickly left under rag (6)
TEASEL – TEASE (rag – taunt), L (left)
21 Nuclear physicist, heading off for a stiff climb (5)
EIGER – {G}EIGER (nuclear physicist) [heading off]. A name known even to most non-scientists I suspect. The mountain is only 33 on the list of highest Alps
24 Cricketer: lure getting one out (3)
BAT – BA{i}T (lure) [getting one out]

52 comments on “Times Cryptic 26756”

  1. Slow and not that steady, with the unknown MATLOCK my LOI. I assumed that MAT here is what I’d call a mousepad. Also DNK DAP, and DNK READIES as opposed to ‘ready’. I was sure that 23ac was an anagram, but gave up on it until I had some checkers. And I was pretty sure that 5ac included ME and TATA, and still took until the end to figure it out. A Bill for the More Effective Preventing Outlawries is presented to the House of Commons immediately after the Sovereign’s Speech, as a way of asserting the house’s right to discuss what it wants and to set its own agenda. (I had mistakenly thought it was presented before the speech, but.) I know the WAPITI from Ogden Nash’s poem: There goes the wapiti/ Hippity hoppity.
    1. Yes MOUSE MAT is a UK version of “mouse pad” although I think the latter possibly became more commonly used here over time.

      READIES (or “the readies”) is, or was, widely used too, often in those old cop dramas we were discussing here the other week. Which reminds me I have a boxed set of “Dixon of Dock Green” on DVD due to be delivered this morning along with a complete set of “The Sweeney”.

      I’d have sworn METADATA came up within the past couple of months as I remember struggling with it and eventually resorting to aids. However this is not so according to a search of TftT, so it must have been in another puzzle – not that I do many others, only the Everyman and Oldie Genius really. Anyway I knew it this time round.

      Edited at 2017-06-20 03:23 am (UTC)

    2. Same on the PAD – I confidently entered PADSTOW, it just sounded like a town’s name. Google tells me it exists, in Cornwall.
      Otherwise very tricky, many unknowns and barely knowns, so a slow 31:30.
      2. It’s a very attractive Cornish resort. Due to the celebrity chef Rick Stein having a restaurant, cafe, deli, shop, etc. there it’s also known as Padstein.
  2. Toughest one for a while IMHO. Managed to get through most of it in reasonable time, but was held up for a while by CURATIVE, a while longer by TEASEL, then much, much longer on the WAPITI DAP crossing (is that a town in the Northern Territory?).

    Was pleased to get away unscathed in the end. Thanks setter and Jack.

    Edited at 2017-06-20 06:15 am (UTC)

  3. … a bit of a toughie. But I liked the nods to Australia: BOOMER, MATLOCK — obviously referencing the town in Victoria — and the UTE in 3dn, even if I’m pretty sure we’d distinguish utes from trucks. (Some of the larger imported US pick-up trucks might count as both?) Advice welcome.*

    Started in the lower half and couldn’t get up north until the pertinent BREAKTHROUGH. The clue for NIGHTWEAR was a bewdy, eh?

    *On edit: just checked Ramson (AND). He gives us: ute = utility = utility truck.

    Edited at 2017-06-20 03:52 am (UTC)

  4. Matlock Derbyshire UK surely!? Noted in the Doomsday book 1083 – Blue John Caves, well-dressing etc. I suspect that this puzzle is a bit UK-centric as it was published in London – in the UK though owned by an Oz. So Matlock, Australia (or Emerald Hill) founded 1863 it must be! I presume that BOOMERS abound? They have wild escapee wallabies in Derbyshire, UK!

    This was a bit chewy especially in the south-west reaches.

    FOI 5ac METADATA LOI 23ac AIR BAG.

    WOD 10ac WAPITI (Canadian of that ilk?)

    COD 26ac DEATH ROW – which fortunately is an all-American institution. ‘One beautiful ‘uge ‘ute!”(D. Trump – ‘Words on Death Row’.)

    Does the New York Times not have a cryptic Crossword?

    Edited at 2017-06-20 05:00 am (UTC)

      1. We need an emoticon for that eh, mate?
        As it happens, I may be the only one on this site to have been to both Matlocks.

        I cycled through the pommy one in my youth. The details of my goings-on there will have to wait for my memoirs.

        If I’d gone further, I’d have mentioned the great TV show of the same name. Maybe Jack should order the box set?

        1. There really is a Matlock in Oz? Always thought it was fictional, from the TV show.
        2. I should confess that memory of the show helped me come up with the solution. (Are we talking about the same show? Isla’s comment suggests something different from what I recall, Whatshisname as a lawyer in Atlanta, and the only person in that city with a southern accent.)
          1. Definitely not the same show Kevin. Matlock Police was an Aussie cop show from the 70’s. I doubt that its fame spread far beyond these shores.

            Edited at 2017-06-20 05:55 am (UTC)

              1. From memory it wouldn’t have mattered what order you played them in. It wasn’t set in Wapiti Dap Crossing was it?
    2. It was all downhill for gospel-singer Andy Griffith from A Face in the Crowd to Matlock. At least they gave Ray Burr a wheelchair.
  5. 17:49. Decidedly tricky this, with a fair number of unknown or only vaguely familiar terms: FULLERS EARTH, BOOMER, MATLOCK, HORNBEAMS, DAP, TEASEL. And I slowed myself down by bunging in OUTLAWED at 12ac and a fat-fingered TUTORATE at 8dn.
    Good stuff, though, most enjoyable.
    ‘Readies’ for cash is more familiar to me than ‘ready’, and not specifically from cop shows I don’t think.
  6. Went wrong with a WAPATI, which felt so right. Otherwise, around 12 minutes for all but APOTHEOSISE and BOOMER, another 10 before uncertainly pulling the trigger on them.

    A few ‘hm’ moments elsewhere.

  7. I was inside 2xMagoo, that’s all I’m going to say about my time today…

    Think I’m on blogging duty tomorrow swapping with Pip… expecting a nice easy Wednesday puzzle now they’ve got the chewy one for the midweek out of the way!

    1. Verlaine, I may be wrong but I think you’ll get a qualifier puzzle and a vintage one tomorrow.
      1. Oh crikey, what’s the deal for the blogger assigned that then? Do I just blog the vintage puzzle, with much colourful language?
        1. Ha, yes.. the usual deal is to blog the vintage one on the day and then the comp. one for release after the solution is published. Fortunately the comp. one is always very easy. Willing to blog the comp. one for you if you haven’t the time..
          1. When does the qualifier’s blog need to go live? If it’s not before Monday it’ll be no problem at all. Or I could write up a blog and postdate it… but then admins of this community could possibly see it too early, is that illegal?
            1. Got it now. The answer is published the Thursday of the following week so this qualifier can be blogged on Thursday 29 June.

              Edited at 2017-06-20 10:30 am (UTC)

            2. Sorry V, didn’t know it was another of Those Wednesdays when I offered to swap! Want me to do one of them, as well as Friday?
              1. Well I’ve done the puzzle – only took me a bit more than the time taken to travel one stop on my daily commute, and then I did yesterday’s Telegraph Toughie too before even getting as far as Nunhead. Not sure it’s interesting enough for me to demand that I do it… but equally it’d be no problem for me to rustle up a quick blog next week, if you like!
        2. I think Pip usually blogs the vintage puzzle on the day and the qualifier when its embargo is lifted. I’m sending you a message to your LJ account.

          Edited at 2017-06-20 10:06 am (UTC)

  8. 57 mins on iPad today as on hols. Found this v tricky and was held up for ages on the wapiti dap crossers. Thanks for toughie setter, and Jack.
    1. I could have done even worse today if I didn’t live in Bristol. “Daps” for plimsolls or shoes in general is very much in use around here. (You can even buy the T-shirt…)
    2. That’s a very Myrtilus joke if I may say so – and very nice too. It reminded me of an old “knock knock” joke:
      Knock knock
      Who’s there
      Watusi
      Watusi who?
      Watusi is what u get.

      Edited at 2017-06-20 03:17 pm (UTC)

  9. Glad other people found this slow going: my time is unreal, as it includes a 15 minute break, but was still up in the high 30’s. Over and again each reluctant solve looked really easy after the fact, even those such as APOTHEOSISE and TUTORAGE where their credentials were at best dubious.
    I had BOOMER for a long time before I entered it in last place: just couldn’t see ME for the first person bit. Just treacly in the hot weather, I think.
    1. I have no dea what a BOOMER is but I do remember the Oz sex fiend singing about Six White Boomers
  10. A technical DNF as I’d parsed WAPITI but typed WAPATI. So no time given by the ipad, but it was about 40 minutes; glad to see I wasn’t the only one who found this tough. One of my main difficulties at the end was working out the anagram for APOTHEOSISE which became much easier when I got to work and was able to write the letters down. Do any other electronic solvers have a good way of solving anagrams or should I start carrying paper and pen on the commute?
    1. I’m getting a bit better at doing them in my head, but I still use a lot of pen and ink!
  11. A DNF here, breaking my run of eight completions in a row. I thought I just wasn’t on the wavelength, but then I started coming up with unknowns like WAPITI and FULLER’S EARTH. Those plus the question marks on the ones I thought were right (not knowing “ute” for truck in 3d, say) made me think this was just a stretch too far for me.

    I was right. The other unknowns—OUTLAWRY (though I had OUTL__R_!), BOOMER, APOTHEOSISE, HORNBEAMS, that meaning of BREAKTHROUGH—finally did for me.

    I was close in a few places. I’d got the “breath” bit of 14, and I’d thought of the right kind of mouse for 5d, though it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone put one on a mat, but even if I’d stretched my hour out to another hour I doubt I’d have finished this one off. Ho hum.

  12. Two more different crime programmes it would be difficult to find, Jack! The Sweeney can be very violent indeed.
    1. True, but it’s all nostalgia as far as I’m concerned, for periods I lived through, whether or not these worlds ever actually existed as portrayed. I’ve an interest in social history, and this is all grist to the mill. I also like spotting actors who went on to greater things, or just served their time steadily in supporting roles. And locations. Anything filmed in London in the 70’s and 80’s is worth the attention of a keen eye.

      Edited at 2017-06-20 01:51 pm (UTC)

  13. Yes a bit harder today.. I disapprove of dap, partly because it is a regional dialect word but mainly because I hadn’t heard of it
  14. First daily done in two weeks, as I soak up the sunshine in Germany. A tough test on return, taking over the hour. Thanks to John for the parsing of 26a, flung in last on a wing and a prayer.
  15. Some tough words – I didn’t know OUTLAWRY, FULLERS EARTH, or HORNBEAMS – but fairly clued. I had a crack at ‘outlawed’ but fortunately TUTORAGE set me straight. 12m 44s in all, with the last two minutes or so spent trying to crack BOOMER.
  16. I don’t mind admitting a DNF. After 60 minutes of, erm, head scratching I finally gave up on 8d. I now realise Outlawed was wrong and the attraction of mouse food on bread got the better of me. Don’t stop in Matlock head on to Bakewell and the wonderful Thornbridge brewery (gratuities accepted). Even better Castleton and the Speedwell cavern, Blue John caves and the awesone Winnats pass (good for cycling up!). Well done to all who completed this puzzle.
  17. The NY Times has a cryptic once every couple of months or so in the Sunday magazine as a sort of “specialty” puzzle. They’re similar to the quickies.
  18. Turns up in Pride & Prejudice when Lizzie Bennet tours Derbyshire with her aunt and uncle. I needed the elk and the data to get DAP which I certainly didn’t know and I never heard TUTORAGE before. DEATH ROW records is an American label specialising in rap – two of its founders met untimely ends. Hard one. 21.58

  19. dnf after a long time. Left with a couple of blanks in the Padstow, UK, corner.

  20. Well that was tough! 74:17, but all correct. LOI was DAP after deciding it couldn’t be anything else with the crossers. Took me ages to get started. Had ELAPSE for my FOI at 11a, but finally cracking AUTOMOBILE put paid to that. First correct one in was TUTORAGE, but it stayed on its own in that corner until the end. 27a finally got me moving a bit and I crawled around the grid extracting teeth as I went. MATLOCK gave me the key to the rest of the NE and I finished with DAP. Liked DEATH ROW as “a bit of a stir” despite the connotations. Thanks setter and Jack.
  21. About 19 minutes for a rare treeware solve. Much indebted to my wife who went to school in Gloucester and introduced me to the word DAP a few decades ago. Don’t recall having heard anybody else use it.
  22. 12:33 for me, for this interesting and enjoyable puzzle.

    I had a lucky break with MATLOCK, as (with just the T in place) it came into my mind for no particular reason (I certainly wasn’t thinking about computer hardware at that point).

    Sadly, any gains I made then were negated by my reading the enumeration of 26ac as (3,5) and spending ages trying to think of “something THROW”. (Eventually I twigged the required “bit of a stir” and kicked myself.)

Comments are closed.