Times Quick Cryptic 2896 by Pedro

 

Solving time: 10 minutes

No major problems for me here, but how did you do?

From the Puzzles Newsletter 25/1/25: Times crossword editor Jason Crampton…is encouraging setters to avoid using male and female names as wordplay elements, at least when clued as ‘girl/boy/woman/man’. This will be music to the ears of those who complain regularly about the use of ‘random’ names in wordplay.

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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
3 People watching a nude, ice dancing (8)
AUDIENCE
Anagram [dancing] of A NUDE ICE
7 R and A support item for a different sport (6)
RAPIER
R, A, PIER (support). For the surface it’s best to read ‘R and A’ as one, a reference to the R&A, a governing body of golf,  contrasting with the item for a different sport (fencing).
8 Wrong to restrict core of something remembered for all time (8)
IMMORTAL
IMMORAL (wrong) containing [to restrict] {some}T{hing} [core of…]
9 Without money, having to ditch new comedy performance (4)
SKIT
SKI{n}T (without money) [having to ditch new]
10 Argument against company name (3)
CON
CO (company), N (name)
11 Competition, true, developed item of IT (8)
COMPUTER
COMP (competition), anagram [developed] of TRUE
13 Time to imitate recording (4)
TAPE
T (time), APE (imitate)
15 Tire following delay (4)
FLAG
F (following), LAG (delay)
17 Able to read line and repeat (8)
LITERATE
L (line), ITERATE (repeat)
19 Nature reserve dispatching first rescue vessel (3)
ARK
{p}ARK (nature reserve) [dispatching first]
22 Striking book from the past (4)
BOLD
B (bold), OLD (from the past)
23 Find time to play new record? (8)
DISCOVER
With the DISC OVER it may be time to play a new record
24 Settlement evasive about extended cut (6)
COLONY
COY (evasive) containing [about] LON{g} (extended) [cut]. Collins has coy  – evasive, especially in an annoying way.
25 Investigation here, with cars involved in crash (8)
RESEARCH
Anagram [involved in crash] of HERE CARS
Down
1 Provide funding for riverside function, we hear (8)
BANKROLL
Aural wordplay [we hear]: “bank role” (riverside function)
2 Best end to introduce spinner (6)
TIPTOP
TIP (end), TOP (spinner). ‘To introduce’ indicates placement.
3 River surrounded by support under dry conditions (4)
ARID
R (river) contained [surrounded] by AID (support)
4 Humour mostly upset scoundrel, a US politician (8)
DEMOCRAT
COMED{y} (humour) [mostly] reversed [upset], RAT (scoundrel)
5 Expression of hesitation over tirade as “rambling” (6)
ERRANT
ER (expression of hesitation), RANT (tirade)
6 Cooper’s first to put down the greatest boxer (4)
CLAY
C(ooper’s) [first], LAY (to put down). A very clever and succinct surface! On 18 June 1963, two boxing legends met in a fight that helped catapult Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, towards becoming the Heavyweight Champion. In the early rounds it was Henry Cooper who dominated and in the fourth he became the first boxer to knock Cassius Clay down in a professional fight. However Clay fought back and the fight was stopped in the fifth due to a cut above Cooper’s eye.
12 Discuss buy-out without first European to secure end of deal (4,4)
TALK OVER
TAK{e} OVER (buy-out) [without first European] containing [to secure] {dea}L [end of…]
14 Favourite Disney film losing millions? Start to turn peevish (8)
PETULANT
PET (favourite), {M}ULAN (Disney film) [losing millions], T{urn} [start to…]. I’ve never heard of this 1998 film.
16 Left for France, showing little sensitivity (6)
GAUCHE
Two meanings
18 British twice blocking government showing evidence of collapse (6)
RUBBLE
B+B (British twice) contained by [blocking] RULE (government)
20 Tube platform is packed everywhere to begin with (4)
PIPE
P{latform} + I{s} + P{acked} + E{verywhere} [to begin with]
21 Public demonstration possibly skipping first bridge (4)
ARCH
{m}ARCH (public demonstration possibly) [skipping first]

70 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2896 by Pedro”

  1. 20:15 with no errors. I’m 14th on the leaderboard at the time of writing although I strongly suspect I’ll be out of the top 100 long before I get up in the morning. Should have been quicker but took far too long to parse (LOI) RAPIER. I too have never heard of “Mulan” but answer had to be PETULANT from the checkers and other wordplay(PET_L_NT). FOI – AUDIENCE, COD – DEMOCRAT. Thanks Pedro and Jackkt.

      1. The Times leaderboard is in the Crossword Club so, presumably, only available to subscribers? The SNITCH draws on the leaderboard to produce its own lists, and is available to all. Click on the link at the top right of this page on some platforms, or at the bottom of the page on your phone

  2. 14:55. TIPTOP held me up longest. PETULANT, DEMOCRAT, and TALK OVER were favourites. I remember Henry Cooper losing that championship bout because of the bad cut- heard it on the radio. Muhammed Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, named after the mid-nineteenth century Kentucky Senator.

    1. I seem to recall reading Angelo Dundee* admitted many years later that, at the end of the round, he had used a pair of scissors to create a cut in Clay’s glove and therefore gain him extra time to recover from the knockdown. I don’t know if this was apocryphal or true.

      * Had to look up that up – as Cus D’Amato was the wrong name coming to mind.

      1. Those names D’Amato and Dundee are still faintly somewhere in my brain but I couldn’t say which one had which role. Wait, maybe one or both was Rocky’s trainer?

        1. D’Amato was Mike Tyson’s trainer according to my lookup earlier and he died in 1985.

          I seem to recall Rocky’s trainer was played by Burgess Meredith – who was either the Joker or Penguin in the 1960s Batman TV series. Of this I could be wrong.

  3. 11.17, last in being the NW where I was held up by RAPIER, BANKROLL and TIPTOP. Had to come here to learn about Mulan and be enlightened about the WP for COLONY, DISCOVER and TALK OVER. Many thanks to Pedro and Jack.

  4. Right person, wrong name – once Ali wouldn’t fit in the space left by C_A_ I was stumped and had to come back repeatedly until it was all that was left. Easy once once you see it! Also slow on RAPIER where I took too long to not separate ‘item’ from ‘item for another sport’. I was so desperate I tried to force ‘caviar’ in there at one point. Six on the first pass, mostly in the top, on the way to an all green 16.27.

  5. Doing rather well until we added minutes when flummoxed by 22a… striking?.. BELL? BOLT (of lightening?)
    AH!! BOLD!! How embarrassing. Never mind. We, too, had never heard of MULAN.
    Happy way to start a Monday. Thank you Pedro and Jakkt

    1. Yep – I was embarrassingly slow on BOLD too. Had initially thought BELT which doesn’t even have the correct tense for “striking”

  6. I found this quite tricky, and picked up the last four answers on the third pass through the clues. Biffed PETULANT and thought the unknown film could be “Ulman” or “Umlan” as well as “Mulan”. Fortunately it didn’t matter.

    FOI/COD AUDIENCE
    LOI BOLD
    TIME 5:18

  7. Found this quite chewy in places with RAPIER, where I was looking for a sport, TIPTOP, which I’d expect to be hyphenated, and CLAY being particularly stubborn at the end. All were fairly clued though so no complaints.
    Crossed the line in 9.39.
    Thanks to Jackkt

  8. 26:25 for the solve! I’d say I had major problems. BOLD , CLAY and RAPIER, TIPTOP holding out for the second half of that time with PETULANT and COLONY also having taken me out past ten mins.

    Post solve – highly impressed by the surface of CLAY as Jackkt explains above. By the time I was born he was already Ali and the stories of Our ‘Enry putting him on the floor in Britain’s clamour to have a boxing world champion again were becoming legend. “Splash it on all over” 💦

  9. Thank for posting the info about the random boys/girls/men/women’s names Jackkt.

    Now to start a campaign to get rid of the names of places in Surrey and London … 🤣

    Incidentally wondering whether SA/IT has been warned off as a while since I remember seeing either.

    1. I have a long list of “conventions” due for retirement, SA/IT is top of the list. Last weeks both “guy” (=tease) and “up” (enrol in an Oxbridge college 50 years ago) appeared. Setters get a break on conventions that clue a series of letters that cannot be easily clued differently but these don’t fit into that.

  10. 14:51
    Mainly held up by starting BANKROLL with BACK (provide funding).

    No complaints with Mulan, Disney films are fair play for GK.

    COD DISC OVER

  11. 13:17, and it felt slow throughout. Biffed PETULANT (parsed after entry) and DEMOCRAT (not parsed at all), and confused by TIPTOP, which I would expect to be hyphenated. Not sure ARCH is a synonym for bridge. Major holdups were CLAY (very clever, but surely it wasn’t until he was Ali that he said “I am the greatest”) and LOI RAPIER, where the “different” misled me into looking for anagrams. So not my smoothest solve.

    Many thanks Jack for the blog
    Cedric

    1. His first declaration ‘I am the greatest’ is thought to have been in 1963, as that was the year he released an award winning spoken word album with that title. As Cassius Clay he fought and beat Sonny Liston in February 1964 and it was shortly after that he changed his name to Cassius X and then to Muhammad Ali on conversion to Islam and on being formally accepted into the religion.

  12. We’re also in the group flummoxed by the ridiculously easy bold! It was our LOI and took about 6 of of 35 mins to find, why????

    Some tricky clues today with quite a lot of biff and parse, thanks Jack for the explanation of colony.

    As a Disney fan, Mulan was a shoo in, especially as Mulan 2 was on over Christmas.

    We visited Ali’s grave in Louisville, Kentucky, it’s at the other end of a beautifully kept cemetery to the Grave of Harlan Sanders, also known as Colonel Sanders of KFC fame!
    Thanks Pedro

  13. 10:42 for me today so just better than par for me which reflects general sense that this was of average difficulty. Slowed up at the end by POI TIPTOP and LOI RAPIER.

    Thanks Pedro and JAcktt I think one or two not fully parsed so will enjoy reading the blog at my leisure.

  14. That was a funny one. I found myself unsettled by Pedro (not for the first time) but no complaints -it was a fair and involving puzzle.
    I biffed PETULANT (NHO Mulan), I rather liked DEMOCRAT and DISCOVER but took some time to see my LOI RAPIER. On completion, I was surprised to find I had put my toes into the SCC. Ah well….
    Thanks to both.

  15. A slow, for me, 8’45” today. TIPTOP LOI. Had heard of MULAN but no idea what it’s about. I remember the fight, I think, barbaric ‘sport’. MER at RAPIER – the three swords in the sport of fencing are foil, epée and sabre.

    Thanks jack and setter.

  16. I wasn’t on Pedro’s wavelength at all but somehow ground out the solution. I’m not sure why errant is rambling and don’t understand why the word different is there in 7a. The blog made sense of most of it though so thanks all!

    1. ‘Different’ because R&A is one of the governing bodies of golf whereas rapiers are used in fencing. Historically, “the R&A” was a colloquial name for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. I see now that I should have have mentioned this in my blog.

      On your other query, ‘errant’ literally means ‘wandering’ or ‘straying’. ‘Rambling’ suggests something that goes on for a long time without a clear purpose or direction, often wandering off topic.

      1. Thanks very much. By the way I find that my times for this crossword nearly always match yours but you leave me standing on the main one 🙂

  17. From AUDIENCE to RAPIER in 8:30. TIPTOP and RAPIER took at a minute or two to solve. I loved the clue for CLAY and I can see COMPUTER LITERATE in the grid. Anything else?

  18. No major problems, no, only minor ones. AUDIENCE very friendly start to the week, also its associated downs; rest of RHS followed. Worst was NW corner, RAPIER difficult (NHO R&A, but no delay on that account), TIPTOP (finally) LOI. Had to be PETULANT, but NHO mULAN.
    Found “British twice” and “first European” a bit clunky. Otherwise thanks, Pedro and jackkt.

  19. Clay not Ali had me wondering for a while.
    Only five clues successfully parsed and one half passed, half biffed, disc over. I got the disc but not the over. Fixated on R and A support being a tee.

  20. I was heading for an average time as befits a puzzle of average difficulty but spent an age on my last two – the rapier/tiptop crossing. I finally finished in 23 minutes with petulant biffed (NHO the film).

    FOI – 9ac SKIT
    LOI – 7ac RAPIER
    COD – 6dn CLAY closely followed by 23ac DISCOVER

    Thanks to Pedro and Jack

  21. 13:17, baffled most by LOIs TIPTOP and RAPIER, after spending too long wondering if “to best” might be “to outtop”. Got there in the end

  22. Really good surfaces today. Didn’t know connection of R&A with golf – thanks Jack for explanation. COD CLAY.

  23. 10.27 but with a careless FLOG for FLAG, with “recording” from previous clue still in my head. Several needed parsing afterwards. Another one slow on BOLD. Liked ARK and CLAY

  24. 7a LOI Rapier, setter had me well foxed, never read the clue correctly. And as 1d Bankroll and 2d Tiptop are not exactly gimmes I really thought 7a would be wrong.
    14d Petulant, NHO Mulan. But maybe I have as when I look at the Wiki entry I sort of recognize the poster there.
    COD 12d Talk Over… or maybe 6d Clay. Definitely Clay now I think about it.

  25. A lot slower than perhaps I should have been finishing in 11.48. The majority of answers were straightforward enough, but I made heavy weather of a few. My LOI BOLD in particular cost me about a minute where I couldn’t get BELT or BELL out of my mind, and it was only an alphabet trawl that got me out of trouble. CLAY was another that delayed me even though, or perhaps because, ALI immediately sprang to mind.

  26. DNF

    Slow going. Took ages to get RAPIER. Failed to parse DISCOVER and finally beaten by TIPTOP. Is that really one word?

  27. I found this very hard but was determined to finish. I had a break after 20 minutes and eventually got LOI TIPTOP when I nearly went for AIMTOP just to come here and find the answers. No accurate time, but a lot for me.
    I also struggled with RAPIER (was trying to insert Tee or Bra as support item). COLONY, ARCH and REASEACH all were in the last part of the solve.
    Looking back, this was an excellent puzzle with lots of words in the clues with many synonyms ( Best, End, Item, Support etc.).
    COD to TIPTOP. I like cricket clues; a great surface.
    David

  28. DNF
    I had OUTTOP for 2d (it can mean best, taken as a verb, and out at a stretch can mean end). This prevented me from seeing RAPIER.

    Thanks Jack and Pedro

  29. Held up at the end by TIPTOP and RAPIER, after a sluggish start, but it mattered not as I didn’t know the Disney film to confirm my mis-biffed PETULENT. Drat! 12,41 but with a pink square. Thanks Pedro and Jack.

  30. Pulled stumps for a DNF around the 25min mark. Having spent the last three or four of those dragging out the hyphenless Tip-top, I was unwilling to spend any more time on the remaining Clay and Colony. I would expect to get both of those on a different day, but just not firing on all cylinders this morning. Invariant

    1. For all those concerned about TIPTOP as one word, it’s listed as such in Collins and Chambers but the Oxfords go for a hyphen.

  31. 17:27. held up by TIPTOP for a surprisingly long time. COD was CLAY, really clever surface. thanks both!

  32. Very similar experience to Invariant. Clearly not firing on all cylinders and not feeling like persevering today (very unlike me). Hit reveal with 3 to go: RAPIER, TIPTOP and COLONY. All very good clues but brain just on a go slow! Took a while parsing ARK and TALK OVER. I did like BANKROLL. Thanks for the blog Jack.

  33. DNF RAPIER and TIPTOP, and forgot to go back and solve CLAY. And put Bolt instead of BOLD. Oh dear.
    Otherwise quite fast!
    Liked BANKROLL, DISCOVER, RUBBLE.
    Biffed PETULANT. Like others, NHO Mulan. Biffed COLONY straight away but CNP.
    Thanks for much needed blog, Jack.

  34. This was a lot of fun, entertaining me for not quite 16 minutes. I biffed-then-parsed my way through the east side but strangely stalled in the northwest on BANKROLL and its crossers. I got a little hung up on trig functions there. Was pretty proud of myself for listening to the back office staff whispering “skint” to get SKIT, as it isn’t part of my native tongue. RAPIER was difficult because I had no idea what “R and A” referred to, so a sport different from what? It’s best not to spend time on such quandaries, but I still do it. DEMOCRAT and COMPUTER in a dead heat for COD.

    Thanks to Pedro for the puzzle and jackkt for some much-needed explanations!

  35. We were taken out to 13:46 mostly by the crossing of TIPTOP and RAPIER though also rather slow to see BOLD. Having a daughter of an age to idolise Mulan meant that we had no problems with the parsing of PETULANT, though with the first two checkers it was pretty much a write-in. Jack, thank you for giving us a fuller understanding of the beautiful CLAY.

    1. It must also be something like number 810 as Disney remade it in 2020 as part of their strategy to coin more money by tugging on the nostalgia heartstrings of their loyal viewership with remakes of their cartoons in live action.

  36. I normally have difficulty with Pedro offerings but completed this in 25 minutes..
    Clay LOI was clever but sadly the (Henry) Cooper connection was missed on route by me..

    A couple of answers really required biffing because the construct was harder to see – Literate just in that category, Colony a definite as probably Petulant.

    Good fun though and enjoyable.

    Thanks all
    John

  37. Surrendered @ 25 mins. Beaten by Rapier (really could not decipher clue apart from answer would contain R and A) and Tiptop (convinced it must be – – Stop). Thanks Jack and Pedro

  38. 21 mins…

    Took a while to get my LOI 7ac “Rapier” as I wasn’t sure about “pier” = “support”. The rest went in fairly steadily. I particularly liked 6dn “Clay” (makes a change from Ali) and 2dn “Tiptop”.

    FOI – 3dn “Arid”
    LOI – 7ac “Rapier”
    COD – 14dn “Petulant” – ironically, Disney had at least three films grossing over $1 billion in 2024.

    Thanks as usual!

  39. Done earlier, but only now able to come here.

    About average, I think. Nothing too difficult, but also lots not all that easy. I’d NHO the Disney film and several other clues sat uneasily with me (e.g. BOLD, COLONY, TIP TOP, RAPIER), even after I’d written them in.

    I don’t place Pedro in the Teazel/Wurm/Orpheus category, but his crosswords often have me off-balance.

    Thanks to Jack and Pedro.

  40. Unfortunately I didn’t lift and separate correctly at 7a ‘R and A support item for a different sport’ and tried to find a support item like a tee to make a different sport. So a DNF after ages, including a diversion to the biggie, which I did finish! Just to add salt to the wound, we went to see an exhibition at a city museum which wasn’t open when we got there, due to technical issues, so had to come home again! All in all, a somewhat frustrating day 🙄
    Being the mother of millennials, all those late 20th C Disney films are very familiar. Mulan is an ancient Chinese legend of a heroine who, disguised as a man, joined the army in place of her father and performed great military feats.
    FOI and COD Audience – very chucklesome
    Thanks Pedro and Jack

    I did mention MH’s comment about random names on Saturday, but it may have been too late for many of you!

  41. 13.50 Mostly straightforward but I spent nearly four minutes at the end on TIPTOP and RAPIER. Thanks Jack and Pedro.

  42. 11:39

    Breezeblocked by the four in the NW – after what seems like ages, came up with SKI(N)T, but then assumed that the first part of 1d would begin with BACK. Somehow came up with TIPTOP and stepping back a bit, BANKROLL, before another brow-furrowing few minutes on RAPIER.

    Thanks Jack and Pedro

  43. Struggled with COMPANY (not sure of this meaning of COY), PETULANT (not recalling MULAN), RAPIER and CLAY (trying to fit ALI in!). Steady solve for the rest.

  44. A steady solve in about 50mins. Couldn’t parse DEMOCRAT. Delighted to work out CLAY. Like other, LOI was RAPIER – got the R&A bit straightway and finally got there on the back of taking my daughter to fencing comps many years ago.

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