27418 Thursday, 1 August 2019 ..but his face rings a bell

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I thought this was an absolute cracker, even though I whizzed through it in 15 and a half minutes, but I’m fully aware that those who are not fans of Rev Spooner or of interdependent clues will be spluttering into their skinny lattes. Something about the style – those two near-identical pairs of clues perhaps – encouraged a scattergun solving technique rather than a prosaic top to bottom solve. Come on, though, there are some excellent surfaces here: I’ll pick out 10, 1d and 17, but you are welcome to nominate others. It may surprise you to discover that I didn’t know where the Hunchback of Notre Dame got his name from (though I do now).
I present my observations below, with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS distinctively identified.

Across

1 Stores holding over copper taps (4-5)
STOP-COCKS  Stores is/are STOCKS, and here they’re holding O(ver) PC, the Dixon sort of copper. Lose time looking for reversals
6 9 arranged flower (5)
PLATE Doesn’t happen in the Times very often, but here we have an anagram (arranged) of another answer, at 9. Spoiler alert: 9 is PETAL. Here the flower is a river, made famous in its English version by the 1939 victory of the Royal Navy over the pocket battleship Graf Spee. Rather a good movie.
9 6ac arranged flower — just a bit of one (5)
PETAL As it says, an anagram (arranged) of 6ac, the rest of the wording being the definition.
10 Cried out as other half once made demands (9)
EXCLAIMED If your other half is no longer your other half, he/she is your EX. Made demands: CLAIMED. Credible mini story surface
11 Fieldwork concerning question (7)
REDOUBT A military structure sort of fieldwork, an enclosed fortification. Concerning: RE question: DOUBT
12 Prickly sort of letter penned by a dame (7)
ECHIDNA A spiny, egg-laying, toothless mammal that could only come from Australia. The letter is CHI  (I think the “sort” belongs in the definition) and the Dame is EDNA Everage, another mammal that could only come from Australia
13 Wonderful ET (3,2,4,5)
OUT OF THIS WORLD A very kind double definition
17 Parisian refusal put on commune eating aristo food, say (10,4)
COLLECTIVE NOUN Something of the French revolution or The Glums about the surface. Commune supplies the COLLECTIVE, the French refusal is NON, “eating” U for aristo, popularised (but not coined) by Nancy Mitford. “Food” is a random, but rather appropriate, example of the genre.
21 Robin’s temporary accommodation in unassailable fort, according to Spooner (4,3)
NEST BOX Which, when mangled by Speverend Rooner, would be (or sound like, rather) BEST (Fort) KNOX. Goldfinger showed it could be assailed but not conquered.
23 Annual account about chap in Los Angeles (7)
ALMANAC A proper matryoshka: chap: MAN inside Los Angeles: LA inside account AC
25 Novel campanologist the Sunday after Easter (9)
QUASIMODO From the Hunchback of Notre Dame and from Latin of the introit used on the day in question.
26 Number 27 is wrong (5)
THREE Here number means number, as in count. “Wrong” version of the next clue
27 Number 26 is wrong (5)
ETHER Here number means substance that numbs
28 Adherents of cleric, last out of church, first to enter coach (9)
BUDDHISTS The cleric is a D(octor of) D(ivinity), last out of church is H, first gives 1ST, coach is BUS. Assemble dutifully.

Down

1 Half-hearted drinker loves to tour Lima, a lovely place to go? (8)
SUPERLOO A posh –um- bog. A drinker might be a SUPPER, though being half hearted loses his –um- P. Loves provides the two O’s, and Lima in Natospeak provides the L
2 Revealed what solicitor did, blowing cover (5)
OUTED The solicitor TOUTED, but his cover, first letter, is blown
3 Sweary navy, perhaps, drunk in the main (9)
COLOURFUL or sweary language  Navy is  here not to sink anything but just as a representative COLOUR. One informal word for drunk is FULL, “in the main” instructs you not to use all of it
4 Reported crook, well-known speed merchant? (7)
CHEETAH  Sounds like cheater, crook. Clocked at 5.95 seconds for the 100 meters. Here’s me with one.
5 Victory in series when number one over gets dismissal (7)
SUCCESS Timely Ashes themed clue. Series is SUCCESSION, NO1 “over” provides the ION to be dismissed
6 Fruit from Jewish festival left by sons (5)
PEACH One Jewish festival is Passover, more properly PESACH. S(ons) leaves. Those in the know would say the Pesach fruit, haroseth, an apple confection, is far less likely to be left by the younger participants than the maror, or bitter herb usually represented by horseradish.
7 Runs berserk, stabbing a sick old creature (9)
ARMADILLO R(uns) berserk: MAD “stabs” A sick: ILL O(ld)
8 Make attractive, as outerwear and headgear do (6)
ENDEAR I like this sort of clue. Both outerwear and headgear END EAR.
14 PM show including parodies on a regular basis (9)
TAOISEACH currently the very not-Irish-sounding Prime Minister of Ireland Leo Varadkar. I was grateful for the generous cryptic helping to get the vowels in the right order. Show give you TEACH, then include the even letters of pArOdIeS
15 One’s superior throughout marriage (9)
OVERMATCH I wasn’t sure of overmatch as a noun, but it is fully attested in the sources. OVER from through as in throughout the course of, and marriage: MATCH
16 Pants, as footballers maybe around end of run (8)
KNICKERS Footballers are KICKERS, of course, and around end of ruN they produce the required underwear. I leave it to the fans to produce examples of footballers who turned out to be completely pants after a run down the pitch.
18 Vain chap‘s cross, caught in valley (7)
COXCOMB Cross is X, add C(aught) (more cricket) and place both in COOMB for valley
19 To sum up, I go under about hiding answer (2,1,4)
IN A WORD I DROWN (or go under) the latter word inverted (“about”) and A(nswer) hidden therein
20 Sole college question on English (6)
UNIQUE College here is UNI, which you can debate if you wish but I wouldn’t bother. Question provides the QU, and English the E
22 Pipe from India received by brother (5)
BRIER  More Natospeak: India this rime inserted into BRER for brother as in Uncle Remus
24 Spies Poles burying chest (5)
NARKS One of many slang terms. Chest is ARK (Raiders of the Lost) poles provides the N and the S

76 comments on “27418 Thursday, 1 August 2019 ..but his face rings a bell”

  1. Can you tell me in what part of the world is “full” an informal term for “drunk”? I can’t find any references. Thanks
    1. is to be found in Chambers which simply states under full:-

      drunk (coll.)

      Also I note the expression used once by landlords and policemen down at Dock Green,
      ‘I think you’ve had your fill, son!’

      Edited at 2019-08-01 04:54 pm (UTC)

    2. The Danish word for “drunk” is “fuld” and it pronounced rather like “full” with a glottal stop. I think.

      Perhaps that’s how we ended up with this clue. Might have been easier to parse a few hundred years ago.

      1. I think that ‘full’ for drunk also comes up in the words of ‘I belong to Glasgow’
  2. … big MER at spelling of BRIER. The pipe is made from briar wood. While the parsing was clear enough, spelling it as BRIER was probably/possibly initiated by people who can’t spell?

    Naffed off? You betcha.

  3. I loved this puzzle, perhaps not surprisingly as I spent years being a Guardian solver only before being lured back to the Times fold with the promise of a weekly blogger slot.

    The Times should not be solvable on autopilot and mixing things up a bit occasionally is a good thing, not a bad one!

    Top work all concerned, big thumbs up from me.

  4. I’m afraid I shall have to resort to harrumphing over 22d. Harrumph! So, count me as a DNF. I don’t think I’d’ve believed BRIER even if I’d figured out the parsing.

    The two pairs of interlinked clues (PLATE/PETAL and THREE/ETHER) grated a bit. One would be clever, two is just a bit cute. I am also one of those who detest Spoonerism clues and Spoonerisms in general; I missed out on the opportunity to detest Spooner himself by some 32 years, but probably would have – he must have been remarkably tedious. However, I will not be spluttering into a skinny latte (I always wondered how they made the froth), which seems to me a remarkably circuitous way to deliver caffeine.

    Regarding cheetah’s, apparently they can reach 240mph whilst diving. No, hang on, I might be thinking of peregrine falcons.

    1. Cheaters can possibly hit 240mph while diving – Neymar and Suarez come to mind. And Steve Smith hit 144 today….

      Edited at 2019-08-01 06:55 pm (UTC)

  5. My time of 47:12 was in vain because I had briar not brier at 22dn. Two of my dictionaries have the latter as a variant of the former, the third has it the other way round. I didn’t think it through properly and should’ve made the leap from brer rabbit whatever my preferred spelling of the pipe. I was otherwise held up by a typo in overmatch which prevented me from getting collective noun for ages. Cross referencing clues of the sort in this puzzle aren’t really to my taste and I would not like to see them appear too often in the Times, though I did think 26 & 27 were neater and with more entertainment value than 6 & 9.
    1. Etymology: Old English: West Saxon brǽr, Anglian brér, of unknown origin. The direct representative of the Old English and Middle English word is brere , still usual in the dialects, and retained by the poets from Chaucer and Spenser. The rise of the variant brier in the 16th cent. is not easy to account for, especially as the spelling bryer shows that this never rhymed with bier , tier , but with dyer , crier . But the phonetic change was exactly parallel to, and contemporaneous with that of Middle English frere , freyre , to fryer , frier , friar n. Briar is a later variant (compare lier, liar), and is now equally common. The word is historically a monosyllable, but poets have often made two syllables of it, a pronunciation supported by the spelling briar.
  6. A collective noun is a singular noun referring to a group of persons or things.(That is the definition in Chambers.) Examples would be “herd” or “flock”. Some words can be collective nouns in a particular context. For example “parliament” is not a collective noun in its usual sense since it refers to an institution rather than a collection of members of parliament but if we speak of a “parliament of owls” it is. The compiler may be confusing “collective noun” with “uncountable noun or “mass noun”. These nouns have no plural. Examples are “luggage” and “furniture”. “Food” in its usual sense is such a noun. If you have some food and add some more you have a lot of food, not “foods”. (“Foods” means types of food.)

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