27634 Thursday, 9 April 2020 Uncle Bulgaria Remembers

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Cop and robbers turn up in equal measure in this puzzle, and there’s also a barrister in attendance and a former criminal keeping us company. I rather breezed through this after a shaky start, with a minor panic setting in after the first few clues seemed opaque. As it turns out, they weren’t really, and I settled into a more confident pace which lasted right until the last clue.
There’s an alcoholic beverage making its second appearance in as many days, though I think today’s version was the rather easier one.
It shoudld be noted that there is considerable economy of cluing today, with almost half the offerings being of 5 words or less. Commendable restarint in a setter, if not necessarily matched by your blogger du jour. Sorry!
I’ve provided my considered reflections on the proceedings, with clues in italics, definitions therein also underlined, and solutions in BOLD.

Across
1 Man in play catching female criminal (10)
MALEFACTOR The first of two criminals, this one formed by man in play: MALE ACTOR catching F(emale)
6 Gathering, following complaint (4)
BEEF Once I discovered that the F(ollowing) came at the end of the word, I sussed where the definition was and stuck BEE for gathering, such as for sewing, in front of the F
10 See in lodge retired contestant (5)
RIVAL V is one of the possibilities for “see”, from the Latin vide. Take the lodge to be LAIR, “retire” it, and lodge the V in the centre
11 Going straight on for motorway in middle of night (9)
REFORMING It’s that “straight on” bit that throws the unwary solver, but you need on to provide the RE, FOR in plain sight, M(otorway), IN in plain sight, and the middle of niGht. Going Straight was the BBC’s vehicle for Ronnie Barker as the immor(t)al  Norman Stanley Fletcher when released from Porridge. Not that you need to know that to solve the clue.
12 Film barrister in French bar (5,9)
BRIEF ENCOUNTER Cue Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 2 as Laura meets Alec, falls wildly in love without ever, you know, actually, um, doing it. For our purpose, the barrister is a BRIEF, French in is EN, and bar is COUNTER. For Glenda Jackson and George Segal in “A Touch of Class”, watching Brief Encounter signals the realisation that their just-for-sex relationship is getting more complicated. You don’t need to know that either, but I thought I’d throw it in.
14 Clothes: a paper reviewed line (7)
APPAREL Our first anagram (“reviewed”) of A PAPER and L(ine)
15 End of year hold-up involved seasonal visitor? (7)
RUDOLPH And immediately our second (“involved”) of end of yeaR plus HOLD-UP
17 Section of government — it leaked name (7)
ENTITLE Today’s hidden, signalled by “section”: governmENT IT Leaked
19 Quite upset the Parisian spirit (7)
TEQUILA No anagrams for ages then three come along almost at once. This one (“upset”) of QUITE plus the lady version of “the” in Parisian (French)
20 At the back of this newspaper, out of date (6,3,5)
BEHIND THE TIMES One for the Womble fans, a sort of double definition, the first more prosaic
23 Tyrant not quite accepting challenge over reckless criminal (9)
DESPERADO The tyrant is a DESPOT (though here minus his T) and the “accepted” challenge is DARE, which being “over” is reversed. Our second criminal
24 Burrowing creature — assess length (5)
RATEL Or honey badger, though it’s not at all a badger. Assess: RATE plus L(ength)
25 Want work on radio (4)
NEED If you heard need on the radio, only context would tell you whether it was need, knead (to work dough) or, come to that kneed.
26 Generally lighter across outskirts of Yeovil? (2,3,5)
BY AND LARGE What are the outskirts of Yeovil? Why, Y AND L. Now find a lighter, realise it’s a BARGE, and conflate
Down
1 Further fabric I rejected (4)
MORE So the fabric would be MOIRE, the I then being rejected
2 Be on river and notice skin blemish (5,4)
LIVER SPOT Be: LIVE, on R(iver) plus notice: SPOT
3 Deceptive behaviour of bogus prelates breaking barriers (5,9)
FALSE PRETENCES I’ve only now worked out the wordplay here, thinking bogus supplied the FALSE and the rest could, well, be worked out later. But bogus is an anagram indicator, of PRELATES, which when suitably jumbled is/are breaking into FENCES, or barriers.
4 Zero service inside small room in US university (7)
CORNELL An Ivy League University in NY state, currently diverting itself to combating Covid-19 while more conventional Uni activity is off. In the clue, zero gives the 0/O, the service is the R(oyal) N(avy), and the small room that contains them is a CELL
5 Policeman in charge on board tender (7)
OFFICER Our first of two policemen, formed from I(n) C(harge) carried by tender: OFFER
7 Clubs in correct order (5)
EDICT C(lubs) (the cards) place inside EDIT for correct
8 Reckon fellow, a duke, is a leader in name only (10)
FIGUREHEAD So it’s reckon: FIGURE, plus fellow: HE, plus a: A, plus D(uke)
9 Rodent in field seen by gent circling right then left (6,8)
GROUND SQUIRREL Such as the chipmunk. The field is a GROUND, the gent is a SQUIRE, which “circles” R(ight). L(eft) then follows the assembly.
13 Book a quiet room, again in foreign town (5-5)
BADEN-BADEN I suppose a DEN is a quiet room, here tagged onto B(ook) plus A, the whole assembly repeated
16 Tudor queen’s favourite city? (9)
LEICESTER Elizabeth 1 is the Tudor queen who was chummy with Robert Dudley, latterly Earl of Leicester, throughout most of his life, though more Brief Encounter than A Touch of Class. The clue’s a double definition.
18 Form of English inlet (7)
ESTUARY …English is as she is spoke in the Thames estuary area and in quite a lot of the UK. An estuary is an inlet of the sea, innit.
19 Fix match? Sad (3,4)
TIE DOWN Match is TIE, and sad: DOWN
21 Rush hour measure, no parking round area (5)
HASTE Hour supplies its H, measure provides STEP, but without the P(arking). Insert the A(rea)
22 Moody policeman (4)
BLUE Is moody blue? I suppose so. But is a policeman (a) blue? I mean, yes if he has bottle tagged on, and he is one of the boys in blue. I hesitated for a while before putting this, my last in.

83 comments on “27634 Thursday, 9 April 2020 Uncle Bulgaria Remembers”

  1. I was off to a flying start with MALEFACTOR and kept going until slowed slightly by ESTUARY, BLUE and BY AND LARGE. CORNELL was a late entry too. An enjoyable puzzle. 18:15. Thanks setter and Z.
  2. Surprised to find only 14 minutes, hardly one coffee, without trying to be in a hurry. Had to ask Mrs K if MOIRE was a fabric, I thought it was a interference pattern in physics. I have plenty of liver spots. Liked BEEF when I eventually saw why a bee is a gathering. Otherwise no issues.
  5. No pb (congrats Kevin) but smooth enough, once I realised Flying Squirrel wouldn’t, er, fly. I liked Ratel for the unusual animal, and Beef and By And Large for the Nice flying. ThanksZ, and setter.
  6. I seem to have found this harder than many on here. Maybe I spent too much time deliberating on whether BADEN-BADEN was Bath’s twin town, and wondering whether I preferred Johnny Cash’s “Desperado” to the Eagles’ original – although the “reprise” at the end of the Eagles’ album is superb.

    FOI BRIEF ENCOUNTER
    LOI RIVAL
    COD RUDOLPH
    TIME 9:19

  7. Nice and quick today, but unfortunately a boo-boo in typing BY ANY LARGE. I’d written the YN in already and forgot to change the Y for a D on discovery of the AND. Had been hoping for a record time too. Over hasty!
  8. I managed to finish this at 4.15pm sitting in the garden on a break from cleaning the patio. LOI was EDICT and the NE corner was where I was stuck. BEEF and FIGUREHEAD preceded the last two.
    I did not find this easy but managed to keep going. Shared doubts about BLUE. MORE and MALEFACTOR (I was toying with GOLDFINGER at the time) were my big breakthrough.
    The best version of Desperado has to be Linda Ronstadt’s.
    David

    Edited at 2020-04-09 04:03 pm (UTC)

  9. Keep thinking it’s Friday. Clearly not! That was fun. Possibly a PB (I’ve only recently been paying any kind of attention). A new benchmark, anyway. Happy Easter everyone.
  11. Just over half an hour, and it would have been just under if I hadn’t tried to explain ESTUARY to myself (and finally decided it could be the name of a dialect, though I wasn’t thinking of such a common one). LEICESTER was also just an educated guess, but a correct one, and with the correct parsing.
  12. 18:05 I think I could’ve gone a bit quicker but was lulled into thinking this was harder than it was by not getting anything going until Rudolph finally went in. I was also a bit hesitant over Leicester and ground squirrel. I liked the clues for reforming and brief encounter. Didn’t stop to parse by and large. The fabric at 1dn was an educated guess. A bit of a tonic after yesterday’s toughie.

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