26194 Full of eastern promise.

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

A pleasant little number leavened by flashes of humour – enough for a laugh out loud moment for me – which I compassed in 16.53, including time for making sure I’d got all the wordplay nailed down and no stupid typos. Mission accomplished. There’s no discernable theme*, and the setter gets 24/26 for alphabetic inclusivity, consigning only J and Z to the lonely hearts club. The one word which might be unfamiliar (except to botanists and Scrabble players) is kindly clued with three wordplay standards, and even the shrub (I hate shrubs) isn’t too hard to crack.
*I did wonder whether something could be made of several intersecting answers in the bottom half of the grid, either product placement for a chocolate bar or possibly some mildly libellous comment on one of our current great luvvies, not that dissimilar to Queensbury’s note to Oscar Wilde. Probably not, but as always it’s fun to see what happens when you join random clues together.
Here’s how I put all the letters in all the right places.

Across

1 ARBUTUS fragrant shrub
I fear my knowledge of the shrub phylum is not sufficient to be prompted to the right answer by the modifier, but it may help others, I suppose. The noblest Roman of them all was Brutus. Bury his head (B, natch) into the midst of the remainder, and stick the result by A.
5 VATICAN Roman HQ
“Catholic” understood. There are two vessels, VAT and CAN, guarding the useful (to setters and physicists) symbol for electric current, I.
9 CAMERAMEN Media operatives
Note plural, confirmed by the wordplay. Turned up: CAME; worked: RAN; without, i.e. outside, ME. Those who wonder how without equates to ouside are referred to “There is a green hill far away” and previous entries on the subject in this forum.
10 XYLEM stuff in plane (tree),perhaps
Setter: ME from a certain perspective, 60: XL in the Vatican, unknown: Y,  inserted and the whole reversed
11 OAKEN Wooden
Counter provides TOKEN, scratch the opening T and include A(rea). Job done. Trust ME
12 QUEASIEST most anxious
Another meaning of the word to the more familiar “nausea”. Pursuit supplies you with QUEST, into which you insert Count BASIE with his head missing. Nice.
14 INSULATING TAPE What’s to prevent shocking…?
An offensive recording would be an INSULTING TAPE, and not Max Bygraves or (insert old joke of your choice). Include A from the primary section of abuse.
17 PRIVATE SCHOOLS (sources of intelligence) for the military
PRIVATE is translated from “restricted”, and SCHOOLS from “sources of intelligence”. Those would be places where military privates are educated, then. You are permitted to debate whether this is a conflated double definition or a stab at an &lit or just a piece of whimsy. Just don’t do it for too long. You know who you are.
21 APPETISER Something to stimulate
When I were young, Tizer was theappetiser, but here it’s an EP record (same era, at least in my mind) turned over in an anagram of (exotic) PARTIES
23 NUDGE elbow
Say no more. A bit of grit is G, placed in NUDE for bare (he said, knowingly)
24 KNOWN famous
I don’t know if Che ever visited Jamaica on a break from business of overthrowing capitalism in Cuba, but neither are needed here. WON as a synonym for captured is revolutionary (it turns round) and if you vacate Kingston you get KN. Assemble.
25 FETISHIST Obsessive (noun)
A re-sort of THIEF SITS
26 TREACLYMawkish.
Perfidy is TREACHERY. Replace HER with L(iberal) and hey presto.
27DELIGHT Felicity
D(eparts) coupled with a crew of EIGHT (how come the cox never gets counted?) “crossing” (code for surrounding) L(och)

Down

1 ANCHOR Radio presenter
Needing A N(ew) CHOR(e)
2 BUMPKIN Clown
Comprising a BUMP or impact, and KIN or family.
3 TARANTULAHairy specimen
Take IS from A NATURALIST and scatter the letters abroad.
4 SEMIQUAVERS Characters in bar
Or notes, in this case a quarter of a crotchet. Here I paused for a giggle: an aftershock might well cause your suburban semi to quaver. Well, it might.
5 VAN Lead
Part of a church is a NAVE. Nick/steal its last letter and “elevate” what remains.
6 TEXAS Where ranchers may flourish
By gives X, as in 2X4 timber, and “cuts” TEAS as an example of meals
7 CALDERA possible resiult of eruption
I reverse engineered this one, since the definition is easeier than the wordplay. The tree is an ALDER, C(arbon) goes on top, and you need the A to complete.
8 NO MATTER that’s unimportant.
Another chuckle. A feature of vaccuum is that, if perfect, it contains nothng at all, not even a Higgs boson.
13 EVISCERATE drawn
As in hung, drawn and quartered. Don’t look it up if squeamish. Consider provides RATE, and DEVICES provides, in different order, the surrounding remainder. Second use of “cutting” as an insertion indicator.
15 GROUNDSEL Weed
A favourite of my boyhood guinea pigs. GROUNDS from estate, EL from wELl without its borders
16 UPMARKET
See below under the second Anonymous
18 IMPLODE Cave in
As in the previous clue one word, sIMPLe is deprived of its borders/limits and inserted into ODE for verse
19LODGING digs
A barking (mad) DOG gives the ODG, and a clipped LING(o) the rest
20 BEAT IT get lost
There are two fliers, B(ritish) A(irways), large, and TIT, small. the first bears E(ast).
22 TUNIC Jacket
When worn by, say, a Policeman. Not really suitable for an anagram clue, this is C(ape) and 1/one NUT (oddball) reversed.
25 FRY Small fish
Relieved not to have to dig into my limited I-Spy book of little fishes. Remove Elizabeth Regina (well, we do keep singing “long to reign over us”. Careful what you ask for) from your FERRY boat.

39 comments on “26194 Full of eastern promise.”

  1. After reading the first few clues I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this, but I actually liked it very much, mainly because of the large percentage of clues where the answer emerged magically from the wordplay instead of being biffed.

    As to z8’s comments on 25ac, it seems that at some time next Wednesday Her Madge will become the longest-reigning Bristish monarch. I for one will be raising a glass (well it’s a good excuse).

    Dereklam

  2. Slowed myself down by putting in ‘lumpkin’ for some reason (or none), thinking ‘job shortly’ might be -pos at 1d, thinking LP->PL at 21ac, and wherever else I could, making up time by biffing QUEASIEST & BEAT IT. Schools as the source of intelligence? What a concept.
  3. I think at 19dn the definition has to be “in digs” to equate with “lodging”; “digs” alone would give us “lodgings”. Also there’s a typo at 4dn, Z, where the final ‘S’ is missing.

    I found this tricky but much more enjoyable than yesterday’s adventure, my main problem being able to biff answers but not justify them until much later.

    No problem with ARBUTUS as I got the “noble Roman” connection right away and I knew the shrub through my familiarity with the New National Song Book which contains the traditional Irish air “My Love’s an Arbutus”. John McCormack made a famous recording which for some reason hasn’t found its way to YouTube, but here’s a modern recording by Ian Bostridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf6cDsZeomU

    Edited at 2015-09-03 05:31 am (UTC)

    1. Toss up here. “In digs” could be the def. Or else “in” could just be the link work. I took the latter option. I guess one’s lodging could be one’s digs? But, on reflection, it seems you’re right Jack.

      Liked the puzzle, except for “a bit of” at 23ac. Yes, I know, it’s common in barred-grid puzzles and favoured by Jeff in the ST. But I always have to think … which bit?

      Off topic: seems there’s a spurious author out there called “Dismas Reinald Apostolis”. It must be an anagram, but has puzzled me so far. Any help?

      1. Yes, having looked up ‘lodging’ (which I should have done before) there would appear to wriggle room for either interpretation. I’ve always thought of ‘lodgings’ and ‘digs’ as direct equivalents (which they are) so one might say one is ‘in digs’ or ‘in lodgings’, but ‘lodging’ I’d imagined in a verbal sense, so in answer to the question “where are you living?” one might reply “I am lodging” or “I am in digs”. I think I’m over analysing this!

    2. Thanks, I’ve amended 4d. I see what you are saying on digs, and it’s probably the better reading, but I claim the wriggle room! I would venture that “dig” singular has nothing to do with a place to stay. “Do you want to come back to my dig, bouncy bouncy?” could only really be said by an archaeologist. You could put either lodging or lodgings into that sentence, just about, without losing sense.

      1. I agree. It seems perfectly OK to me for “digs” to be rendered as either “lodging” or “lodgings” — no need for wriggle room!
  4. A shade under 19 minutes. Excellent fare I thought with the same giggly moment as our blogger. Laugh out loud moment at his comment on 17ac.
  5. About 35mins, but a stupid typo (xlyem) gave me no chance of getting 7dn. (Although chymera sounds like it could be a thing…).
  7. A bit of a struggle. Thanks for the explanation of VATICAN even though I have a pretty good knowledge of physics I missed the i.
  8. 25 minutes and I really liked this one. CODs to 4d and 13d.
    Famous revolutionary and not Che? Whatever next?
    At 5d I couldn’t decide if it was NAVE or VANE with a bit nicked.
    1. Yes, I had the vane; not quite sure about elevated for inverted though it sounds all right.
    2. I got it from VANE. I doubt it’s what the setter intended but we don’t have to show our workings!
  9. I was another abrutus for a bit. No time as several interruptions but no real hold-ups either, though puzzled over won. Gentle fare despite the known fetishist.

    Edited at 2015-09-03 08:54 am (UTC)

  10. On wavelength for a change – a bit like all ones puts dropping, doesn’t happen too often these days. No problems with a top to bottom left to right solve.

    Nice blog z8

  11. A leisurely solve with no major hold-ups. QUEASIEST, with its unusual definition, last in after getting the Q from the clever SEMIQUAVERS, which must be COD.
  12. 20 minutes, with the only hold-up caused by putting ‘abrutus’ at 1a, making the BUMPKIN even slower than he ought to be to come out.
  14. Enjoyable puzzle. Solvable without in any way being a push-over. I got off to a good start at 1A, picking up the Shakespearean reference straightaway and, for once, being familiar with the shrub. Steady progress from then on. So a wavelength thing, I guess. The TEXAS/XYLEM cross-over in the NE corner was the last to fall. “Xylem” was a word unknown to me, but the cryptic signposting was helpful.

    SEMIQUAVER must surely be one of the best clues in quite a while.

    Thanks to Z8 for an excellent blog and for explaining KNOWN at 24A. Since our old comrade “Che” was unlikely to be involved in this instance, I tried to persuade myself that NOW was here doing service as a synonym for “revolutionary” in the sense of “very up to date, modern”!

    Thanks setter.

    Edited at 2015-09-03 10:37 am (UTC)

  15. 10m, but with CAMERAMAN. Here’s some free advice: if you’re going to bung them in from definition, it’s a really good idea to read the definition. You’re welcome.
    I’m fine with plants if they’re named after London restaurants, so ARBUTUS was no problem. I will have the same advantage if MEDLAR ever turns up.
    1. Well, you’re missing an identity, but yes, I’m missing a clue. Back in the day we used to miss out one random clue in order to give the Times premium answer line a reason to exist. Not that I have revived that custom, just (in the wee small hours for me) overlooked it. So:
      16 UPMARKET Quality
      U(niversity) PET (favourite) and grading MARK. As instructed, insert MARK into PET and append the resultant structure to the U.
      My thanks – without your intervention, the crossword would miss the alluring upmarket known fetishist (Stephen?) Fry.
      1. Ah – that solves that. I’d been wondering who the libeled luvvie was. Just a few minutes ago I found Very Good Jeeves in the library of our apt. building’s laundry room which reminded me of Hugh Laurie (I’m a fan) which reminded me of Fry. Is the tv series any good?
        1. Olivia,

          I love the books and I also love the Fry and Laurie TV version so I’d say yes, it’s very good.

          1. Tried the first 20 minutes of the first episode. I was a bit unsure at first but then… I quite agree and will pursue. Thank you!
  17. Yep, enjoyed this one a lot. I think there was just something quite satisfying about the vocabulary involved, XYLEM and such. Also not too unhappy with my solving time of just under 9 minutes: seeing as I can’t ever get under 5, under 10 is the next clear dividing line between solving happiness and misery…
  18. Agree with others that it was an enjoyable solve. Just about right for a half-hour slot. Unquestionably fair and precise clues with some wit thrown in for good measure.
  19. I got a bit stuck half way through and eventually teased it all out in 21:30.

    I solved 1ac completely parse about face seeing A BUTUS as a fragrant shrub, sticking R for Roman’s head between the two and arriving at the whole, a noble (whether a coin or an aristo matters not).

    Also at 20d I was wondering where the instruction was to overlap bat with tit.

    I though private schools was a bit weak but semiquavers more than made up for it.

    1. … was a write in, even though I’ve obviously never heard of the plant. Or read the play. The only plants I know (apart from grass) are ones that appear in the Times, but MAQUIS comes up often enough to render MARQUIS simple.
      When it eventually proved wrong I was still parse-about, and had to guess random vowels, and didn’t get that 1-in-25 chance. Oh, well.
      Rob
  20. About 50 min elapsed, but distracted by unsuccessfully trying to get TV to respond to remote – about half spent on puzzle. Couldn’t make anything of 27ac till I noticed that biffing in LODGINGS at 19dn had given an S for the G.
  21. Enjoyable half hour solve, no stumbling blocks, smiled at 4d, and now know what mawkish means.
  22. About 15 minutes, no real hold ups, ending with LODGING and BEAT IT after I finally realized where the definitions were. Thanks for the blog, z8, very nice. I agree SEMIQUAVERS was the best, and I have to admit that PRIVATE SCHOOLS went in accompanied by a shrug. The rest was fun. Regards.
  23. I thought this was rather fun and again came through with full understanding of everything, with BEAT IT being the last one in. Great clue for a great word in EVISCERATE
  24. 23:17. Good fun. Stuck for a while on 17a and 19d, thinking PRIVATE ACCOUNTS initially. Loved 4d. All in all a treacly delight.
  25. 18 mins. I was really slow to get started on this one and didn’t have a single across answer after my first read through. TARANTULA was my FOI and I speeded up as I got on the setter’s wavelength. LODGING was my LOI after PRIVATE SCHOOLS. I agree that SEMIQUAVERS was worth the price of admission on its own.
  26. Nice puzzle, rather sluggish time, but that could be something to do with the similarly lethargic start by Wales against Cyprus. (I have the match on the radio). Too late to improve my time, but I hope that Gareth Bale & Co. have more success in the second half, which starts soon.
  27. 8:49 for me. I made a good start, but my hopes of a clean sweep were dashed by 17ac where PRIVATE ACCOUNT kept crowding other possibilities out of my mind; after which I lost the setter’s wavelength and made heavy weather of the rest of the bottom half.

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