Times Cryptic 28256

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Having completed all but four answers in 20 minutes I thought I was going to achieve my target half-hour with time to spare, but 13ac/dn, 16ac and 12dn delayed me and I needed 34 minutes to fill the grid.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across

1 Associates bully fat people heading off (2-7)
CO-WORKERS
COW (bully – vb), {p}ORKERS (fat people) [heading off]
6 Needle game’s inconclusive (5)
PIQUE
PIQUE{t} (game) [inconclusive]. A feeling of anger or resentment resulting from a slight or injury, esp. to one’s pride (SOED).
9 Flyer opposing pedestrian facility (7,8)
PELICAN CROSSING
PELICAN (flyer), CROSSING (opposing). It’s a Pedestrian Light Controlled crossing so it really ought to be ‘Pelicon’, but ‘Pelican’ keeps it in line with other UK zoological crossings such as Zebra, Puffin and Panda.
10 Some calumnious old students (6)
ALUMNI
Hidden in [some] {c}ALUMNI{ous}
11 Dredge watering hole briefly — deer returning (8)
SPRINKLE
SPRIN{g} (watering hole) [briefly], then ELK (deer) reversed. In cookery a dredger is a container with a perforated lid for sprinkling powder such as icing sugar or flour.
13 Artless image on smart card contains file (10)
SIMPLISTIC
SIM (smart card), PIC (image) contains LIST (file)
14 Female group by banks of Liffey showing craft (4)
WILY
WI (female group – Women’s Institute), L{iffe}Y [banks of… the river that flows through Dublin]
16 Spot area knight has captured (4)
DAUB
DUB (knight) contains [has captured] A (area). I think a daub e.g. of paint, is more of a smear than a spot, but perhaps it’s close enough?
17 Police escorting the lady when drunk like some spirits (10)
METHYLATED
MET (Metropolitan Police), then anagram [drunk] of THE LADY
19 Left at jail without old locker (8)
LATCHKEY
L (left), AT, CH{o}KEY (jail) [without old]. A somewhat old-fashioned word for a front-door key which survives in the expression ‘latchkey child/kid’ and in frequent revivals of plays by Noel Coward.
20 Seat on elephant who had hiccups (6)
HOWDAH
Anagram [hiccups] of WHO HAD
23 They’re likely to be told to belt up? (4-4,7)
BACK-SEAT DRIVERS
A rather good cryptic
24 Go round little lake circling hotel (5)
WHEEL
WEE (little) + L (lake) containing [circling] H (hotel – NATO). ‘Go’ not standing for ‘wee’ today!
25 Perked up, seeing red cuckoo (9)
ENERGISED
Anagram [cuckoo] of SEEING RED
Down
1 Collar gunmen’s oil supplier (5)
COPRA
COP (collar – arrest), RA (gunmen – Royal Artillery). Dried coconut kernels.
2 Hair around mouth that could form a wet oscular mush (6,9)
WALRUS MOUSTACHE
Anagram of [could form] A WET OSCULAR MUSH. A great clue with a very appropriate arrangement of anagrist for the surface reading!
3 Money lodged in bank not long ago (8)
RECENTLY
CENT (money) contained by [lodged in] RELY (bank)
4 Regularly recognise Times (4)
EONS
{r}E{c}O{g}N{i}S{e} [regularly]
5 It’s about keeping right hole for illumination (5,5)
STRIP LIGHT
IT’S reversed [about|] containing [keeping] R (right), then PLIGHT (hole – risky situation)
6 Part of flower, first planted in raised border (6)
PISTIL
1ST (first) contained by [planted in] LIP (border) reversed [raised]. Remembered from biology lessons.
7 Fleet see Heath maybe coming on board, thinking shrewdly (5-10)
QUICK-WITTEDNESS
QUICK (fleet), then TED (Heath maybe – former Prime Minister) contained by [coming on board] WITNESS (see). ‘Coming on board’ as a containment indicator is probably a nod to Heath’s expertise as a yachtsman.  He captained Britain’s winning team for the Admiral’s Cup in 1971. If only he’d stuck to sailing boats!
8 Vigilant editor follows each elegy in translation (5-4)
EAGLE-EYED
EA (each), anagram [in translation] of ELEGY, then ED (editor)
12 State emphatically split during a glut (10)
ASSEVERATE
SEVER (split) contained by [during] A + SATE (glut). A word dredged from somehwere at the back of my mind.
13 Rider grasps this burden with Bob (9)
SADDLEBOW
SADDLE (burden – vb), BOW (bob – bend). Never heard of this, but apparently it’s another name for for the more familiar ‘pommel’.
15 Ruddy beetroot’s top coming into view (8)
BLOOMING
B{eetroot’s} [top], LOOMING (coming into view). Having a healthy complexion.
18 Tool chap’s placed in church with letter on plate? (6)
CHISEL
HIS (chap’s) contained  by [placed in] CE (church), then L (letter on plate to indicate a learner driver)
21 Watered and weeded around close to beds (5)
HOSED
HOED (weeded) containing [around] {bed}S [close]
22 Carpenter’s former increases announced (4)
ADZE
Sounds like [announced], “adds” [increases). It’s used for cutting and shaping wood.

56 comments on “Times Cryptic 28256”

  1. Nice and simple, if not necessarily SIMPLISTIC 🙂

    Never heard of the SADDLEBOW, but not hard to work out when one letter was left to fill in. And I spent enough time with Mary Berry (vicariously) during lockdown not to be puzzled for too long by that meaning of “dredge”.

  2. EONS and ALUMNI were first 2 in and I was making rapid progress until I received a phone call from the PANORAMIC anti viral trial people, and forgot to pause the puzzle. I tested positive for covid yesterday, although symptoms are very mild as yet. Returning to the puzzle after 12:37 according to my recent call list, I carried on and finished with SPRINKLE, where I didn’t know the dredge meaning. SADDLEBOW was also constructed from wordplay. I submitted at 23:51, so a tad over 11 minutes actual solving time. Thanks setter and Jack.
    PS. Covid brain has obviously set in already. 12:37 was the time I received the call and it actually lasted 5 minutes, so the recalculated solving time is 18:51.

    Edited at 2022-04-05 04:31 pm (UTC)

  3. A very quick (for me) solve over lunch, spurred by the need to get the 2.35PM train.
    LOI ASSEVERATE which took a long look. Before that DAUB and the NHO SADDLEBOW.
    Some of this seemed quite easy but it was all fun.
    David
  4. Exactly the same pattern as Jack. FOI co-workers and went happily on from there until I reached the SE corner. Only saw how ‘latchkey’ worked when I finally gave in and wrote it in. NHO saddlebow. First thought of ‘burpah’ for ‘who had hiccups’. Presumably a cross between howdah and burpee, though what a form of vigorous exercise might have to do with the seat on an elephant escapes me.
    It’s funny the differences in words we know. ‘Asseverate’ is one of my favourite, if rarely used, words. It has a splendid ring to it.
    Thanks to Jack and to the setter.
  5. About half an hour. FOI pelican crossing, eight on first pass. Seven unparsed. NHO asseverate or saddlebow. Tried saddlebag but it left no possibilities for a word where wheel should fit. I biffed quick-mindedness which was only corrected once I got the meths. Lots to like here. I liked sprinkle best. Haven’t seen a dredger since school – we had flour dredgers for sprinkling flour over cakes to give them a “finish.” Not something I do now. If I made a cake other than at Christmas it would be a red-letter day.
    Thanks, Jack, and setter.
  6. 6m 28s with quite a bit of tricky vocab — dredge to mean SPRINKLE was something of a surprise, as was PISTIL. The likes of ADZE & COPRA came from crossword knowledge only.

    Funny that the cryptic for 13d could also have worked with CROSSBOW, which fortunately didn’t fit.

  7. Didn’t know what was up with “Dredge,” though the answer was clear. NHO SADDLEBOW either. Have I ever seen “chokey”? (So many argot terms for incarceration!) Didn’t entirely parse CO-WORKERS—and “porkers” is downright nasty! But this one was not hard. I confidently set it aside last night, after getting (the excellent) BACK-SEAT DRIVER and one or two others, knowing I could finish it over coffee this morning…

    Edited at 2022-04-05 03:48 pm (UTC)

  8. 11:28 finishing with SPRINKLE. Another who DNK SADDLEBOW but it couldn’t be anything else. I liked BACK-SEAT DRIVER best… my wife is possibly the worst imaginable and I regularly have to tell her to just stop it.
  9. Quite a lot biffed so I was happy to see all good. LOI 6d Pistil for no other reason than that I didn’t focus on that till the end. NHO Saddlebow, Asseverate or Sprinkle, in that sense. COD 16a Daub.
  11. No great difficulties. Same observation as others’ re.sprinkle = dredge. Is it a coincidence that blooming = ruddy both literally, and as a mild swearword? I suppose blooming is a way of not saying bloody. And so perhaps is ruddy, but as a rhyme. In which case, it is a total coincidence that they mean the same thing. Unless ruddy developed as a mild swearword because it was a way of not saying blooming! But that can’t be right!

Comments are closed.