Times 27,659: 75 Years Of Unconditional Surrender (To Crosswords)

Author   verlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Acceptable Friday fare, not too “abstruse” but not without some little deviosities either. For my part I got well bogged down in the NE corner by having essayed PLAY FIGHT as some kind of weak cryptic def, which wasn’t my best ever idea but the correct solution is no great shakes either. COD to 22ac for stimulating my jaded palate and also 20dn, where separating the definition and cryptic parts was no simple task. Thanks skilful setter and have a happy jumbo-filled bank holiday weekend, everybody!

ACROSS
1 Distance I ran into outskirts of Rome at end of last month (9)
DECIMETRE – I MET R{om}E, at end of DEC [last month (of the year)]

6 Unwanted, like returning drip (5)
SADDO – reversed ODD AS [unwanted | like]

9 Learner driver’s support when bad weather intervenes (7)
TRAINEE – TEE [driver’s support] when RAIN “intervenes”. FOI.

10 Prize article for one returning bird’s coat (7)
PLUMAGE – PLUM A [prize | article] + reversed E.G.

11 A particular chap, fifty-nine in spring (5)
HELIX – HE [a particular chap] + LIX [59 (in Roman numerals)]

12 Engage in an attack, but don’t take it seriously? (4,5)
PLAY ABOUT – PLAY [engage in] + A BOUT

13 Remaining one in residence made for two (8)
RESIDUAL – I in RES DUAL [residence | made for two]

14 Charlatan tailed 1 down in Berlin (4)
FRAU – FRAU{d}. German for “missus”.

17 Change tack at any time, driving leader back (4)
VEER – EVER, its first letter (“leader”) being driven back to later in the word

18 Dined in local, coming back the worse for wear (6,2)
BEATEN UP – EATEN [dined] in reversed PUB [local]

21 Poseur from Germany boarding small punt (9)
SWAGGERER – GER “boarding” S WAGER

22 To find ancient city in this province could be expected (5)
NATAL – if you found the ancient city of UR in it, it’d be NAT{UR}AL. A rare type of clue with the definition part neither at the beginning or the end.

24 Town’s first boozers screened entertainment many years ago (7)
TALKIES – T{own} + ALKIES

25 Hold back burden (7)
REFRAIN – double def

26 Imagine troops breaching barrier (5)
DREAM – R.E. “breaching” DAM

27 Main task that’s easy comes as a blow on the coast (3,6)
SEA BREEZE – SEA [main] + BREEZE [task that’s easy]

DOWN
1 National church supporting reduction in tax (5)
DUTCH – CH supporting DUT{y}

2 Airport‘s gear all scheduled shortly for replacement (7,2,6)
CHARLES DE GAULLE – (GEAR ALL SCHEDULE{d}*)

3 Chemical process involving small number on team (8)
MONOXIDE – MODE “involving” NO on XI

4 One taking part pains the jockeys (8)
THESPIAN – (PAINS THE*)

5 I must stop careless lapse being spotted (6)
ESPIAL – I “stops” (LAPSE*)

6 Shrill cry of ecstasy in brief storm (6)
SQUEAL – E in SQUAL{l}

7 Take loads of money and be laughing? (2,1,7,5)
DO A ROARING TRADE – cryptic def, playing on the suggestion given by “roaring”.

8 Make aggressive move at cards and clear what’s left (9)
OVERTRUMP – OVERT [clear] + RUMP [what’s left]

13 Went back to centre of city with altered housing (9)
REVISITED – {c}IT{y} “housed” by REVISED [altered]

15 Blunder admitted by volunteers turning up gas tanks for reptiles (8)
TERRARIA – ERR [blunder] “admitted” by T.A. + reversed AIR

16 Represent bear (5,3)
STAND FOR – double def

19 During meeting, start to employ one’s discrimination (6)
AGEISM – during A.G.M., E{mploy} I’S

20 After a struggle, takes naps on air (6)
WRESTS – homophone of RESTS

23 Quick butcher’s severing grand knight’s arm (5)
LANCE – A butcher’s (hook), in Cockney rhyming slang, is a look, a quick look is a GLANCE, “sever” the G.

63 comments on “Times 27,659: 75 Years Of Unconditional Surrender (To Crosswords)”

  1. Easy for a Friday. My only biff was NATAL, which I couldn’t figure out but which had to be; seeing V’s explanation engendered a d’oh! response. NATAL, by the way, is an ex-province; it’s been KwaZulu Natal for 25 years. FOI VEER, POI TALKIES (having learned here that ‘boozer’ can mean ‘pub’, I forgot to think of the ‘sot’ meaning), LOI WRESTS. COD WRESTS or (now that I understand it) NATAL.
  2. Home in 46 minutes with PLAY ABOUT as LOI. I mis-parsed NATAL as a double definition, for the ‘province’ and with ‘expected’ being something to do with birth, wondering if there was an ‘ancient city’ called ATA or similar which would have made it a triple def. Wrong again.

    I was another fan of the ‘After a struggle, takes’ def for WRESTS and liked the surface for SADDO too.

    1. There is only the one ancient city, so far as I can see, and Ur is it ..
  3. As with Lord V1 22ac NATAL was no problem but the North East was tricky as with Lord V2. I did not get 7dn DO A ROARING TRADE early enough and was thus living on scraps.
    Fortunately 2dn CdG went in very early and 13dn ‘BRIDESHEAD’ was rather easy. Time 39.

    For a Friday it wasn’t too bad and the ‘deviosities’ were not too devious.

    FOI 27ac SEA BREEZE which dispersed the recent FRET.

    LOI 14ac FRAU

    COD 4dn THESPIAN – no smelling salts please!

    WOD 8dn OVERTRUMP – I wish! Lock him down!

    ALKIES aka ‘The Spitfire Squadron’, are commonly associated wi’ Glasgie – that is before Trainspotting became popular.

    Edited at 2020-05-08 04:46 am (UTC)

    1. Not all alkies are boozers, and not all boozers are alkies. (Though tonight there will be beer.)

      Some nice stuff, in general.


  4. About 50 minutes for this, which must include at least 10 minutes spent wrestling with 20dn. I kept returning to it throughout the solve as I was working from the bottom up and it was my only missing word in the lower half. That continued until the bitter end as it also turned out to be my LOI following a desperate alphabet trawl.

    Very enjoyable.

    TALKIES are still with us.

    We seem to be a J short of a pangram.

    Edited at 2020-05-08 05:29 am (UTC)

    1. I’ve noticed this a few times, recently. I wonder if it’s a deliberate ploy by setters to have us scrambling about looking for a stray x, y or z.
      1. Perhaps the setter was making the point that it isn’t 75th VJ day yet???
        Andyf
    2. We are indeed short of the J. I didn’t consider the possibility of a pangram, but I have observed on here previously that the “one or two letters short” puzzle may be a deliberate ploy by the setter.
  5. Finished! Ha.
    LOI SQUEAL, because POI PLAY ABOUT.
    Distracted and tired, but glad I persevered.

    Edited at 2020-05-08 03:29 pm (UTC)

  6. A 61-minute struggle here, with no great conviction over 22a as I’d never heard of the province. I chose NATAL simply on the grounds that it could mean “expected” as an adjective…
  7. Hundreds of crosswords still have not taught me to see each word separately so I was stymied for ages by wrongly compounding gas tanks, cry of ecstasy and takes naps. DUTCH went in first with the airport entered from numeration alone. LOI was WRESTS as for several others.

    Thanks setter for numerous pennies dropping with metaphorical forehead slapping. And thanks Verlaine for explaining all elegantly as always.

  8. 23:23. A bit sluggish at seeing some of the answers, especially, like Jack, my LOI – WRESTS. No problem with NATAL as I lived there when it was still NATAL in my boyhood. COD to THESPIANS for the image of bad acting at the King’s Theatre.
  9. 28 minutes. LOI SADDO, not seeing ODD as unwanted, although I guess the odd one out is. DNK TERRARIA but trusted the instructions. COD to TALKIES which really aren’t that old. FRAU brought a smile even though it was a linked clue. Easyish for Friday. Thank you V and setter.
  10. Plenty of excellent, and in my case highly effective, misdirections today extending my time to 24.27. Nothing worked in the NE until the TRADE finally succumbed, then everything went in in a rush.
    It helped with the rather clever NATAL clue that the “ancient city” is almost always Ur. I ask you, what have the Chaldeans ever done for us?
    1. I always thought Ur was in Mesopotamia .. but it turns out on investigation, that it is in Chaldea as well, in the same way more or less as Britain and England. Live & learn ..
  11. I think about a quarter of my time was on WRESTS. I’d worked out it had to be a homophone, but the best word I could think of for the rest of the clue was CRISIS, which was ok as a “struggle” but not really “after a struggle”. I worked the NATAL trick out once I’d ruled out NEPAL with a checker. TERRARIA mostly on the basis of AQUARIA (and the generous wordplay).
  12. 40 leisurely mins enjoying a stack of buttermilk pancakes with blueberry compote and lashings of maple syrup. Hoorah.
    Mostly I liked: Alkies and the AGM ageism.
    Thanks setter and V.
  13. Off to a flying start with DUTCH, C-D-G airport and DECIMETRE write-ins. Slowed down after that but never came to a complete halt. Last one WRESTS with its very tricky lift and separate. Entertaining puzzle.
  14. Very enjoyable, though I am not entirely convinced by 7 down – unless I am missing something (very possible). Like Verlaine, I was therefore held up the the NE corner – though I suspect for rather longer than he was.
  16. I found bits of this tricky and had to come back to it a couple of times to finish. I hadn’t parsed NATAL, and though I’d heard of the province like gothickmatt I thought the expected bit was something to do with pregnancy. Having now seen the explanation it’s a strong COD for me. I like the unusualness of the definition being in the middle.
  17. A hard but fair end of the week as far as I’m concerned. 35.56 which I suspect is pedestrian pace but pleased to see it through. FOI dutch but only after failing on the first few both up and down and then trying again!
    LOI saddo, that NE corner almost causing me to give up. Some great clues tackled in the process- saddo, swaggerer, natal and plumage to pick out but a few. Thanks setter for a personally encouraging end to the week.
  18. 32:39 with one pink square. TERRORIA with Iodine as my gas.

    COD: AGEISM.

    1. TERRORIA must be where you keep the really scary creepy-crawlies?
  19. Well, I found it tough going.
    Thank you to Verlaine for NATAL, ESPIAL, MONOXIDE and REFRAIN. I didn’t know a burden could be a refrain.
    I toyed with PLAY ALONG for far too long.
  20. For some reason I decided to put PRISES instead of WRESTS, even though prizes doesn’t mean naps. Oh well. A lot of clues looked harder than they were. LOI TALKIES, thought ‘screened’ was a container indication, nearly put TELLIES to boot.

    COD CHARLES DE GAULLE, nice anagram.

    Yesterday’s answer: Bank is contained in Embankment. I think it’s the only one with that property, although there are some at the start and end like Wimbledon and South Wimbledon.

    Today’s question: the President of France is joint head of state of Andorra, with whom?

  21. Really chuffed as completed in 15 minutes, quickest ever on my iPad. LOI tanks for reptiles as although I know the word could not bring it to mind. Have only just found this site and love it for parsing the solutions that I can’t and love the comments. Have wondered for a while why the Times puzzles aren’t on fifteensquared and now I know! I get frustrated by the leaderboard on the Times crossword club website as it would be nice to know the quickest genuine times for the daily puzzle.
  22. 33’45, stops and starts. I suppose an odd sock is an unwanted one. Remarkable how effective a clue it is for ‘wrests’ – my last in also. I rather like the adaptation of ‘roaring’. I’d liked to have seen ‘one down’ for ‘1 down’ in 14 perhaps.
    1. It is not so much that the odd sock is unwanted, more that the other sock is wanting ..
      there is quite a trend these days for wearing (two) odd socks, which I support. Should be compulsory
      1. The former, and now late, Director of the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney, Edmund Capon, was well-known for his odd socks. In fact the gallery used to sell packs of them (specially made ones rather than unwanted or discarded ones, of course).
    2. It’s definitely a glass-half-empty/glass-half-full thing as to whether you think of the 13th cupcake in a baker’s dozen as “unwanted” or “bonus”.
        1. I think cupcakes may have been a poor choice of example from me there. How about “straws for the back of one’s camel” instead?
  23. Got bogged down in the NE corner and fell at the last hurdle with SQUEAK. Bu**er. 40:54. Thanks setter and V.
  24. The setter had me hornswoggled with several of these and I had to admonish self to concentrate (would you please). Oh THAT kind of punt in 21a and remember to ignore the strategically placed comma in the clever 20d. The latter reminded me of the panda who goes into a restaurant and eats, shoots and leaves. 23.07
  25. 16:05. I thought this was mostly excellent but 12ac PLAY ABOUT and more particularly 7dn DO A ROARING TRADE are both a bit weak. Lots of great stuff already noted though.
  26. Grrr. Having carefully worked out WRESTS, after stopping my brain thinking it must be CRISIS, because that made no sense, the dreaded pink square revealed I’d carelessly written in SQUEAK instead of SQUELL. Nice puzzle, shame about the solver.
    1. Of course, typing in SQUELL wouldn’t have helped much.
  27. ….PLAY FIGHT, and that held me up with SQUEAL and DO A ROARING TRADE until the truth dawned.

    A nod to the day, and subsequently Her Maj at 17A.

    FOI DECIMETRE
    LOI WRESTS
    COD NATAL
    TIME 12:10

  30. 33:32 enjoyable fare pitched at about the right level for me today. Wrests was of course a significant hold up and needed an alpha trawl for the first letter whereupon it became obvious. It also took a while to twig Frau which then helped unlock a few recalcitrant ones on the side of the grid (the roaring trade, saddo, play about and overtrump).
  31. According to all the lizard-fanciers I know, terraria are primarily for plants with soil. Animals should be kept in vivaria and Chinese water dragons prefer paludaria. I knew you’d be interested! Stephen
  32. Late today but want to add my admiration for the Quick crossword today – exceptional.
  33. I’m late on this, but I think the definition in 22a is in fact at the end – could be expected. Then insert UR into the province (Natal), which then is semi&lit. Otherwise, tough and kind of fun. [on edit, I see that Gothic Matt kind of said the same thing]

    Edited at 2020-05-08 07:49 pm (UTC)

  34. But is “could be expected” a definition of NATAL?
    1. Natal and “could be expected” seemed closely enough related when I set about trying to make the clue read like a normal clue – I was thinking about a birth as opposed to just any old birthday, and ahead of a birth there is an expecting mother. On reflection, I’m not sure I’d like to argue the case in front of a jury of my peers.
  35. Finished just after an hour, but with one mistake: instead of WRESTS I had PRISES, perhaps for no good reason at all since I was somehow thinking naps could be kidnaps or whatever. When I saw all the pink squares I realised immediately what it should have been, but unfortunately I didn’t think it over before I submitted. My LOIs were the to me a bit doubtful SADDO and DO A ROARING TRADE (once I understood 14ac would be FRAU). Somehow not too satisfying.

    Edited at 2020-05-08 09:32 pm (UTC)

  36. Not only is ‘drip’ not a synonym but the sheer naffness of using it in a crossword (The Times FFS) is depressing if not mildly vexing. Nor are ‘poseur’ and ‘swaggerer’ synonyms.
    1. I think they may not be exact synonyms, but they’re close enough, qua “social inadequate” and “show-off” respectively…
      1. I beg to differ. A swaggerer has something to swagger about, a poseur is a fraud. A drip is, omnium consensu,a weak, ineffective person, while a saddo is merely a person some judge, patronisingly, to be socially or culturally inferior.
        1. There is nuance to the meanings of course, which you identify, but just taking the first dictionary that comes up on an internet search its top definition for swaggerer is “to conduct oneself in an arrogant or superciliously pompous manner” and saddo “a socially inadequate or pathetic person”… close enough for rock ‘n’ roll probably!

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