27694 Thursday, 18 June 2020 You simply have nothing to fear

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I took nearly 30 minutes over this, which is odd because that suggests I found it hard, and I’m not convinced it is. I was not helped by failing with the top left corner, and then solving in piecemeal fashion for the rest. There’s more sciencey stuff floating around for once, even if it’s the stuff you might be expected to know, and less arty stuff than is often the case.

The island clued is famous for both wine and cake: in my youth, I wondered why Flanders and Swann’s roué plied the young lady with the latter and why it was so seductive a technique.

I was happy to sort everything out on the way through, and present my findings concealed beneath the press here button with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS

[Press here]Across
1 Gunmen grabbed guards in charge of arms (8)
HERALDIC Gunmen are, often as not, R(oyal) A(rtillery), of which I am a Cadet Bombardier. I(n) C(harge) gives you the IC, and if you read the first bit as gunmen “grabbed” guards, then HELD surrounds the RA.
5 Two coppers join game (3,3)
CUP TIE One copper is CU (Cu if you prefer), the other is P for penny, which used to be almost all copper but is now a smear of copper on steel. Join provides the tie. We used to have cup-tie matches, dear ones, before The Plague.
9 Made notes, more than needed for study (3)
DEN So, maDE Notes is indeed more than needed
10 Tiered display of piping at the match? (7,4)
WEDDING CAKE A bunch of cryptic references, piping referring to the icing, and of course match nothing to do with the previous but one clue.
12 Running down info about militancy, ignored by clubs (10)
NEGATIVISM Info is GEN, turn it about. Add ACTIVISM for militancy, but don’t include the C(lubs)
13 A bunch of flyers withdrawing some way off (4)
AFAR A in plain sight, and the RAF fliers “withdraw”
15 Shooting star, such as Brezhnev (6)
LEONID The Leonids are a meteor shower peaking in November and appearing to emanate for the constellation Leo. Leonid Brezhnev succeeded Khrushchev as leader of the Soviet Union in 1964
16 Ship’s company reduced clipper’s work (4,3)
CREW CUT Ship’s company CREW, reduced CUT. Makes short work of hair.
18 Island produced one member of academy (7)
MADEIRA Produced MADE, one I, member of academy R(oyal) A(cademician), not to be confused with the gunners above
20 One put out, claiming rights to break in (6)
IRRUPT One is again I, PUT “out” produces UPT, and two R(ights) complete the word
23 Left work early, primarily to run (4)
LOPE L(eft) OP(us) and Early primarily
24 Rowdy underworld boss gets hospital attendant (10)
DISORDERLY The underworld boss is DIS, add the ORDERLY hospital attendant. I’d have got there much quicker if I didn’t have an E instead of the O crossing
26 Prior brings in shelter for five affected (11)
PRETENTIOUS Prior is PREVIOUS, substitute the V (masquerading as five) with TENT for shelter.
27 Arm revolutionary centre in seizure (3)
UZI The iconic Israeli machine gun, reverse hidden in the centre of seIZUre
28 Looked into wrong sign always blocking road (1-5)
X-RAYED A rather oblique definition. The wrong sign is X, ever is AYE, the conventional RD for road surrounds.
29 Gather hash in island heading back (8)
ASSEMBLE The island in question is ELBA, and hash is MESS. Um – assemble and reverse

Down
1 Flogging papers in Mercury houses (6)
HIDING Papers ID, in –er- IN, and HG (Hg if you prefer, see copper above) houses both
2 Pull out of plant storing some DNA from the south (7)
RENEGUE “Some DNA” is GENE (good enough for crosswords) inserted reversed (from the south) into RUE, a plant “we may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays” (Ophelia)
3 Lenin wasn’t prepared for activity in court (4,6)
LAWN TENNIS Our first full anagram (prepared), of LENIN WASN’T
4 Independent “at home” almost split posh top celebs (13)
INDIVIDUALIST At home: IN, almost split: DIVID(e), posh: U, top celebs: A-LIST
6 Push prow of gondola into river (4)
URGE My last in: too many possibilities for 3 letter rivers to surround the G of gondola. It’s the URE, as it turns out
7 One very loudly boarding transport upset cars? (7)
TRAFFIC One is (again!) I, very loud FF (music), both are placed on board a CART as transport and the whole lot reversed, “upset”
8 Director and judge can’t stand (8)
EXECRATE I tried several film directors before lighting on the generic EXEC, and adding RATE for judge
11 On cue, visitors spread out, scoffing 19 (13)
INSECTIVOROUS On first reading, I didn’t notice the 19 (see below) but it’s an anagram (spread out) of ON CUE VISITORS
14 Play area secured ground to start again (10)
RECRUDESCE Play area is REC (as in recreation ground) “ground” is your signal to redistribute the letters of SECURED
17 Little river, the tenth causing disease (8)
SMALLPOX Little is SMALL the river the convenient PO, and tenth (as in Louis 10th) is X
19 Flies lower, right into drink (7)
DIPTERA Lower is DIP, drink is TEA, insert R(ight). Any two-winged insect
21 Spin dry theatre ruffle (7)
PERTURB We have BRUT for dry, and REP for theatre, which you spin around
22 British see about masking trendy name on article (2-4)
BY-LINE B(ritish), then the see is the ecclesiastical one of ELY reversed (about) and including IN for trendy
25 What egotist refers to repeatedly in behavioural trait (4)
MEME Much more commonly one of those ubiquitous pic and text thingies that crop up all over the internet. An egotist only talks about ME, ME

52 comments on “27694 Thursday, 18 June 2020 You simply have nothing to fear”

  1. Nice blog, z. I found it on the hard side. I liked By-Line and Cup Tie, both of which took time to unravel even though I had all the parts right away, and also understood the directions regarding what to do with them.

    Edited at 2020-06-18 02:27 am (UTC)

  2. I was going along at a decent clip, but the last four or five brought me to a near halt. I’ve never seen RENEGUE spelled that way–nor has this spell checker–and hesitated until forced to accept it. DNK Hg, but again was forced to assume that’s how they talk about Mercury. With some checkers in, I suddenly saw INSECTIVOROUS, then suddenly saw the anagrist; and that gave me DIPTERA. Which gave me X-RAYED, which gave me SMALLPOX where I’d been stuck on EPILEPSY, a clear non-starter. COD to HERALDIC. Z, you’ve got a typo at 11d; you’ve still got the E instead of the O.
  3. I made this harder by putting NEGATIVITY (which also fits the clue) and MEIN (which is actually spelled MIEN) for MEME. I missed the 19 too, which made that anagram even more difficult (along with the wrong crosser).
    1. Another negativity, but I-T looked dubious for 11 down with the available anagrist, so an easy change.
      1. Another NEGATIVITY here, but tragically didn’t notice that INSECTIVOROUS demanded a rethink. Careless pink square at the end of NEGATIVISY. Doh! 19’42”
  4. Really enjoyed this, the clueing seems not only very tight and precise but also very tricky, lots of PDMs when finally disentangled. Slightly harder than normal, but in a good way. Leonid shooting starts NHO, but everything else known, recrudesce probably the only word first seen in a crossword. COD perturb, but many contenders.
  6. I also found this a steady solve, but I just couldn’t figure out the CUP TIE / EXECRATE crossing, so I am thankful to z for sorting it out for me. Also RENEGUE was a lucky guess. I thought EAR or RYE made better plants but the resulting spelling didn’t work. Plus, I’ve never heard of the RUE plant. So close.
  7. INTER was a good start given the anagrist and the (wrong) checkers (I only had “something” CUT at that point).
  8. No time recorded but it was between 35 and 45 minutes. I thought we were in for a pangram but there’s no J or Q.

    Slowed by a few unknowns such as RENEGUE with a U and RECRUDESCE. I misremembered Breznev as LEONIN and didn’t know the shooting star so that remained uncorrected until the checker supplied by 4dn forced a rethink. Another rethink was forced at 12ac where,like Paul above, I had plumped for NEGATIVITY.

  9. 29 minutes, definitely made harder by the vocab. Glad I knew “rue” as a plant from a previous puzzle as the first I thought of was “rye” and to me RENEGYE only looked marginally less plausible than RENEGUE…

    Luckily we had RECRUDESCENT back in 2018 and it was the only one of several unknowns in that puzzle that I actually managed to remember until today!

    FOI 4d INDIVIDUALIST, having taken a punt on trying the two longer ones running through the centre of the puzzle first, LOI 29a ASSEMBLE, which was much more apparent once I’d finally got the B from 21d PERTURB.

  10. 31:08 but with a careless typo in PRRTURB, presumably upsetting a cat. Forgot my usual proofread after a long struggle with the NW corner, where both rue and RENEGUE, and also Hg for mercury, were unknown; I was also trying to crowbar in IRA for gunmen and failed to make the link to artillery. Thanks to the setter for a tough workout and lots of new vocab, and to Z for the excellent blog.
  11. 24 minutes with the SE last to fall. LOI was IRRUPT. That required seeing UZI and then PERTURB, a word that always brings back happy memories of finding solutions to Schrödinger’s equation, so I’m surprised I didn’t see it sooner. My mother was a baker and confectioner by trade so COD has to go to WEDDING CAKE. A decent challenge. Thank you Z and setter.
  12. …The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy
    25 mins pre-brekker.
    Renegue, Recrudesce, Irrupt – good grief.
    Thanks setter and Z.
  13. Not bad going today, less than half the time of yesterday even though the Snitch only puts it somewhat easier. Thought 12ac might be negativis*t*, but I think it is clear enough.

    COD: PERTURB for join between spin and dry.

    Yesterday’s answer: ‘fifth column’ originated in the Spanish Civil War.

    Today’s question: who is the most famous living person who was born on Madeira (I would be pretty sure).

    Edited at 2020-06-18 07:31 am (UTC)

    2. Amusing, that the Wikipedia entry for Madeira says: “SEE ALSO: Have some Madeira, m’dear..”
      1. I was going to say not the wine… but then it occurred to me that there probably was a wine named after him, and sure enough…

        image

        Edited at 2020-06-18 01:08 pm (UTC)

  14. …which would have put me just behind you on the leaderboard, Z, had I not put INRUPT. It seemed to make sense at the time.
    Thank you, though, for HERALDIC and RENEGUE.
    That’s about the third day in a row I’ve had trouble with 1ac
  15. 17:22 with a few familial distractions. I found that pretty tough, but I enjoyed it because the funny words were clearly indicated and the trickier bits were actually elsewhere.
    I also had NEGATIVITY but fortunately once I’d solved 19d ‘scoffing DIPTERA’ could only really be one thing.
  16. negativist. My first genuine mistake for ages, in what was otherwise a reasonable time for a hardish puzzle. Made more annoying, in that I saw both ‘negativist’ and ‘negativism’, checked the wordplay, and somehow managed to enter the former.

    Maybe a hangover from the earlier ‘individualist’.

  17. 13:28 …unPERTURBed by the odd words. I didn’t know you could spell my LOI, RENEGUE, like that. I was another who had NEGATIVITY at first until disabused by fly-scoffing. There was an old woman… COD to PERTURB.
  18. A good work out with a smattering of Mephisto style clues that were right up my street. Some very precise cryptic portions of the clues. Good blog z8
  19. Liked this one, just the right level of difficulty for me.
    Though I did have negativity to start with, which I then carefully corrected to negativist .. yes, I know
    Look out for the Leonids in mid-November each year
  20. Hard work, this puzzle. RENEGUE just didn’t look right. RECRUDESCE unknown. IRRUPT, EXECRATE, obscure to me, and the same as others with NEGATIVISM.

    26’27” thanks z and setter.

  22. As for Jimbo and JW above, on my wavelength, fairly easy solve in 20 minutes beginning 1d, 1a. Slightly delayed by a foray into NEGATIVITY as others were, until the insect eating emerged. LOI was recrudesce. CoD 11d for me.
  23. ….RENEGUE until discovering after some years that the U was optional (Chambers gives both spellings).

    Biffed HERALDIC, NEGATIVISM, and INDIVIDUALIST. All fell into place once I’d finished. It was helpful on the second of these that I already had INSECTIVOROUS in place (only because I went straight to it from DIPTERA). I may cancel my subscription and switch to the Grauniad if this trend continues.

    Other than that, a decent puzzle, and Z8’s usual excellent blog.

    FOI WEDDING CAKE (Love it, if it’s someone else’s)
    LOI EXECRATE (See 11/19D)
    COD CUP TIE (My team’s playoffs are back on with luck)
    TIME 13:35

    1. I am with you on cross referencing in clues. They may be clever and appeal to the Guardian’s inclusivity of all types of clue irrespective of origin but I find them irritating.
  24. During the Richard Nixon era (when I first came to the US) we had another vice-president who EXECRATEd the press calling them “nattering nabobs of NEGATIVISM”. He and his boss resigned in disgrace – no such luck this time. I was wondering if RENEGUE was a specifically UK way of spelling “renege”, which is what you do at bridge in the US if you fail to follow suit whereas in the UK you revoke. I had a slow start but found the wavelength.15.36
  25. Failed with RENEGYE as I didn’t know RUE as a plant, or that RENEGE could be spelt with a U. Did the rest of it in 30 minutes, but wasted 15 minutes on that one clue. Knew it would be wrong. Bah! Thanks Z.
  26. I found this mostly straightforward and would’ve finished in 21.11 if I’d paid more heed to my misgivings about whether REE really was a plant and whether renegee was a realistic alternative spelling of renege. However I did neither and finished with one pink square to ruin a decent solve.
  28. Nearly finished this but with NEGITAVIST. Problems were IRRUPT and RECRUDESCE. DISTURB which looked iffy prevented Disorderly. David
  29. Interesting vocabulary, indeed, including the odd-looking RENEGUE, but everything, including that one, clued so precisely that I didn’t find myself straying from the path.
  30. I came here because I couldn’t make sense of DIS as “underworld boss”. Apparently it’s so obvious that neither our blogger nor anyone else has explained or questioned it. Please can someone let me in on the secret? Thanks to blogger and all contributors – always an interesting page to visit, whether or not I’ve managed to solve the puzzle.
    2. DIS can also mean the underworld itself: look out for that too, it appears in these puzzles reasonably regularly. You can see why: it’s a very useful little set of letters!
  31. leaving me with a DNF in about an hour.

    FOI 5ac CUP TIE(s) I remember them?

    COD 11dn INSECTIVOROUS

    WOD 2dn RENEGUE

  32. too difficult for me, didn’t know rue as a plant or the alternative spelling of renegue.
    also plumped for the wrong order of vowels with recrudesce
    disappointing with 2d, obtuse plant to give odd spelling of a word.
    Thanks blogger
    1. “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; …… there’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. Hamlet
      Loyal Lurker John Perks
  33. 31’02, need to get back under the thirties for a stretch, late-life crisis building.
  34. Slightly tougher than yesterday for me 29.04. FOI cup tie , LOI uzi. A couple of new ones on me, never seen renegue before and the same for irrupt. Biggest problem in reaching a solution was insectivorous which for some stupid reason I’d convinced myself was erous. Once that dawned on me perturb, disorderly and recrudesce- a nice anagram I thought- swiftly followed.

    I’ve enjoyed all the examples this week, hope I can say that after tomorrow.

  35. Greetings blogger, may i call you z8? An Uzi can be either a submachine gun or a machine pistol as it fires pistol ammunition, typically 9mm or .45 rounds. Jeffrey
    1. Thank you. My knowledge of Uzis is almost entirely derived from Schwarzenegger movies, including the scene in True Lies when Jamie Lee Curtis drops one (it looks like an Uzi) downstairs, from which we learn that the magazine carries somewhere over 200 rounds, and the gun itself unerringly hits baddies and misses JLC. Remarkable and timeless design.
      The Z8 emerged when my chosen nom de blog, Zabadak, turned out to be unavailable until I substituted 8s for As. I’ve never come across the people who pinched my original choice
  36. Late again. Lovely puzzle. I enjoyed every one of the 41 minutes it took to check out. I didn’t know this spelling of RENEGUE but it had to be. My main problem was the SW corner – until I got X RAYED I was at a standstill there.

Comments are closed.