27718 Thursday, 16 July 2020 In my end is my beginning

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found this rather stiff going, particularly as the NW corner was pretty unyielding, though in retrospect I’m not quite sure why. The vocab is occasionally from the further reaches of the dictionary, particularly the bowl for which even the derivation is disputed.
My personal giggle index suggests 27a as providing full value for the price of admission, but I took the whole set as a teasing and pleasing collection, which occupied me for an above average 27.51.
There is a curious double use of “soon” in the crossword to provide the same four letters.
The French town included has the weirdest and most flea-ridden hotel I have ever stayed in, presided over by madame who drifted around like Morticia Addams, but without the sophistication
The presence of the high ranking Scrabble letters makes you think there might be a complete set, but F, W and X are missing
My workings can be revealed by clicking on the button below, and interpreted by reading italic bits as clues, italic and underlined as definitions, and BOLD CAPITALS as solutions

[Open here]

Across

1 Like rock, and into soft country music (9)
PASTORALE There’s one in Handel’s Messiah, introducing the bit about the shepherds, it’s strictly a style of music invoking traditional rustic music. Here, it’s evoked by translating like rock into AS TOR and putting that into PALE as a version of soft
9 Soon collecting six Roman grandees, initially in old papal residence (7)
AVIGNON The first appearance of ANON today for soon. Six Roman is VI, grandees “initially” gives the G. Assemble as instructed. Avignon, avec son pont iconic ou on danse, mais which seulement goes demi way, was home to VI (sic) popes between 1309 and 1377
10 Unruly mobs almost beat this rap (7)
GANGSTA I was so far off this it became my last. Not so tough, really. Unruly mobs: GANGS and beat: TAN (possibly TAP, or even TAG) without its end (almost). Nice surface
11 Supporters recited no poetry (5)
PROSE If recited, PROS, those supporting, sound like.
12 Mark papers to be returned by a reviewer (9)
DIACRITIC A wiggle, line or dots over vowels to modify the sound. Paper: ID reversed, tagged onto A in plain sight, plus CRITIC for reviewer
13 I comply with movement of games (7)
OLYMPIC Nicely topical with everyone falling into line with the covid-enforced delay. Tiday’s first anagram (with movement) of I COMPLY
15 Blow nose over end of sink (5)
KNOCK CONK being a slang term (dated?) for nose, reversed (over) and added to (end of) sinK
17 Drug taken by US office-holder repelled bug (5)
PEEVE Drug is the setter’s godsend E, and the repelled/reversed US office holder the VEEP currently Mike Pence. Surprisingly the answer  hydroxychloroquine doesn’tquite fit
18 Dish out pounds, with plenty about (5)
ALLOT Pounds gives you just one L, and plenty gives you A LOT to cuddle it
19 Men break into short leap and bowl (5)
JORUM Today’s primary “you what?” word, “a large drinking bowl, possibly from Joram in  2 Samuel 8.10”, though perhaps not. The wordplay is easier: men: the usual Other Ranks, and short leap: JUMp
20 Painting medium under discussion away from university (7)
MATISSE A  work of art acceptably betokened by its creator. M(edium) introduces AT ISSUE for under discussion minus its U(niversity)
23 Method to get cold hen quite cooked (9)
TECHNIQUE An anagram (cooked) of C(old) HEN QUITE
25 Rope’s end quickly on back — that awaited some criminals (5)
NOOSE At least anon doesn’t put in an appearance: Quickly produces SOON, and rope’s end provides the E
27 What pensive writer may give club (7)
NIBLICK A golf club for chipping. And what writer may give? NIB LICK (ho ho!)
28 Trained horse, regularly nervy, to submit (7)
EVENTER The odd (or rather even) letters of nErVy plus ENTER for submit, as in when you press the button at the end of the crossword
29 One in fifty backing East German city overall (9)
TENNESSEE I.e. one of the fifty States. And E(ast) ESSEN (a German city in the West of Germany) and NET for overall (net profit=overall profit? I suppose so)

Down

1 Temple walk, maybe, in flat area (6)
PAGODA The most generic form of walk would be GO, maybe because there are lots of other ways of going, set into PAD for flat (the noun, an apartment)  plus A(rea)
2 Fine weather preferred for smart turnout (6,4)
SUNDAY BEST Fine weather would be a DAY of SUN, and preferred supplies BEST
3 Lacking some energy, my child’s vehicle not working (2,6)
ON STRIKE My child’s vehicle would be ONE’S TRIKE (child belongs to the vehicle, not the my). Remove the E(nergy) and respace
4 A lawyer taking exercise to get fit (5)
ADAPT Our American legal friend A DA, takes PT for exercise
5 Seek actor for stirring poetic quartet (4,5)
EAST COKER An anagram (for stirring) of SEEK ACTOR. East Coker is one of four poems that TS Eliot described as quartets, the others being Burnt Norton, The Dry Salvages and Little Gidding. If you haven’t got a copy, find them here
6 Quietly suggest being so typically adolescent? (6)
PIMPLY P for quietly (as in music) IMPLY for suggest
7 Ruin contribution to Nessun Dorma? (4)
UNDO Today’s hidden, in NessUN DOrma
8 Offer at lower price than tenderloin? (8)
UNDERCUT Tenderloin contains the best and most expensive cuts of beef, so anything else is a lesser cut of lower quality and price. A slightly smudgy clue, but it works. [On edit: works less smudgily as a double definition, tenderloin in some dictionaries being so defined. See comments]
14 Intend to keep a large brood, not just one litter (10)
PALANQUINS “A light litter for one passenger”. The cryptic bits need careful separation. Intend gives PLAN, which keeps A. Lage doesn’t give L, but simply attaches to brood to give QUINS
16 Caught out, protest against race for connoisseur’s piece (5,4)
OBJET D’ART The crossword ignores apostrophes. Protest id OBJECT, with the C(aught) removed. Race is DART. Mentally throw in the ‘
17 Think about beginning to make a holder for perfume (8)
POMANDER Think is PONDER, placed around beginning to Make and A
18 Subject enamel to damage, dropping tar in (8)
AMENABLE An anagram (to damage) of ENAMEL with A(ble) B(odied) for (Jack) tar dropped in. Chambers gives “ready to be led or won over” which is the meaning I’m familiar with, but adds “liable or subject”, so that’s OK then
21 Cover fire in silence (6)
SHEATH Fire provides HEAT (in so many ways) and puts it in silence, SH
22 Perhaps poop extremely loose, showing ragged edge (6)
DECKLE A poop is an example of a DECK, so stop sniggering at the back, and the extremes of LoosE provide te other two letters
24 One soon joining chapter? (5)
CANON Soon reappears to provide ANON, and Chapter provides the C. The Chapter is (loosely) the governing body of a Cathedral, and canons make up some of its membership
26 Beasts, one incorrectly branded with wrong mark (4)
OXEN an anagram (incorrectly) of ONE plus X for a “wrong” mark

47 comments on “27718 Thursday, 16 July 2020 In my end is my beginning”

  1. Quite a bit of unusual vocabulary today, though I’d come across most of it in crossword land previously. That is except for East Coker which I didn’t have a clue about. I finished with a tentative JORUM which I thought could have been JUREM if the men in question were RE thus making it a 50/50 guess. I did have in mind that RE might no longer be in usage and thus normally be clued with ‘former’ but I may well be thinking of TA.
    1. I believe both TA and RE no longer exist officially but to my mind that’s no reason to qualify them as ‘former’ in crossword clues. After all, just as one example, ANNE is often clued as ‘queen’ without us expecting her to be ‘former queen’.

      Edited at 2020-07-16 06:11 am (UTC)

      1. East Coker was unknown to me (I thought) until I found it in my private list of phrases used in the Times crossword over the last few years, so in fact I did know it but had forgotten. Doh!
        Andyf
        1. I can find only one previous appearance of East Coker in the 15×15 in the TfTT era, puzzle 25564 on 27 August 2013 and blogged by topicaltim. My contribution that day didn’t mention it, so evidently it didn’t cause me too many problems. Mind you, I solved it today from anagrist and it didn’t worry me particularly. It appeared also on a couple of occasions in TLS puzzles in the days when we covered those, one of them actually set by myrtilus!

          Edited at 2020-07-16 05:31 pm (UTC)

  2. Quite the range of vocab here, plus some GK I didn’t know. Given that I was unaware of 22d DECKLE, 5d EAST COKER, the 19a JORUM or that Popes had resided in 9a AVIGNON, I think I did pretty well to finish in 51 minutes, and it all seemed quite fair.

    Started off with 1d PAGODA, and circled gradually clockwise, though I petered out a couple of times and had to restart cold somewhere else in the grid. Finally finished off with the SW corner, with LOI OXEN, having wasted some time trying to figure out if there was a pangram to be had…

    Edited at 2020-07-16 06:40 am (UTC)

  3. No solving time for this as I abandoned it overnight with much of the SE corner missing, but it was well over my target half-hour.

    Several unknowns: EAST COKER, JORUM, DECKLE and my LOI PALANQUINS although I knew the type of litter I was looking for. Also didn’t know the required meaning of AMENABLE and still don’t really see it as ‘subject’ suggests external pressure whereas ‘amenable’ suggests a degree of consent is involved, but if it’s in Chambers, who am I to argue?

    Z mentioning Scrabble in his intro is very apt as now that I have the means of playing it against a computer it has become a new obsession that’s preventing me from getting round to a lot of other things I should be doing now that I have so much time on my hands. I’m playing at level 2 (of 5) and winning about 50/50 so it’s probably about time for me to try the next rung up. I’m learning a lot of new words that would be really scary if they were to appear in the Times crossword.

    Edited at 2020-07-16 06:05 am (UTC)

  4. Quite a long time to solve this one, with some tricky words in it. I liked ‘one in fifty’ for a state. Not sure about the ‘and’ in 1ac (PASTORALE).

    COD: DIACRITIC, brilliant surface

    Yesterday’s answer: taramasalata is a 12-letter word with alternate a’s, although interestingly in Greek it transliterates as taramosalata.

    Today’s question: what completes the series fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, astatine, …?

  5. All quite reasonable until, as you say, the NW corner where I spent several minutes agonising over PASTORALE: I didn’t quickly see TOR for rock, I thought soft was probably just P and I couldn’t account for the “and” in the clue at all, still can’t really. So pushed a potentially quick time to a merely average one. C’est la vie!
    1. It’s a little word but that was a big beef for me. As you say it isn’t doing anything in the cryptic reading so put me off the scent for ages.

      Nor was I happy with “taken” in the PEEVE clue which to me suggests insertion.

      1. Or, for that matter, “branded” or indicate “insert x into the anagram”. I won’t whine too much about the words (Jorum
        ?) I just didn’t know
  6. 51 minutes on this toughie. LOI PEEVE, with VEEP not a word on the tip of my brain. DNK JORUM, DECKLE or PALANQUINS so fingers were crossed that the cryptics had been solved correctly. I liked NIBLICK and SUNDAY BEST. But there were too many unknowns for this to be a smooth solve. I liked both ANON clues too, but shouldn’t that repetition have been a no-no? Thank you Z and setter.
  7. My dictionary has “a tenderloin of beef” as one definition of undercut, so perhaps the definition is “offer at lower price than”
  8. Really liked this; several words hovered at the edge of my vocab. but not quite beyond. I have actually been to Little Gidding, only because my parents used to live down the road from there

    8dn is a DD: “offer at a lower price than” and “tenderloin,” which is “the fillet or ‘undercut’ of a sirloin” (OED)

    1. Thanks for tenderloin: the OED clearly makes the clue better. Chambers doesn’t, identifying it as “the tenderest part of the loin of beef, pork, etc, close to the lumbar vertebrae” which barely suggests it’s under anything, and unhelpfully adds “a district where bribes to the police and other forms of corruption are extremely common”
      1. You can buy posters to stick on the wall, that divide the unfortunate bullock or heifer into all of its manifold component portions .. I am not saying every house should have one, but it does buy you a lot of street cred at the butchers ..
  9. A good test.
    Thanks, Z, for decoding MATISSE, TENNESSEE and AMENABLE. I had objections ready for all three.
    We’ve had DIACRITIC fairly recently when it was clued by the inclusion of someone’s name with a diacritic over one of the letters.
    Fortunately, I remembered EAST COKER from a Cryptic a few years ago.
    LOI: PASTORALE
    COD: PALANQUINS.
  10. Like others struggled with parts of this, particularly NW corner. Didn’t know JORUM. Knew EAST COKER from doing crosswords.

    A NIBLICK is an old lofted club like a modern wedge or 9 iron. Watch out also for mashie – an old 7 iron.

    Good blog z8

  11. 16:34. Interesting and tricky in parts, but fortunately didn’t get held up badly anywhere. I somehow remembered EAST COKER, DECKLE, PALANQUINS and JORUM, which helped, and, unlike others, navigated the NW passage without strong headwinds. COD to SUNDAY BEST.
  12. 19:41. A tricky one, mostly because of well-disguised definitions. At times some of it felt not quite cricket: the AND in 1ac, 2dn where ‘weather’ is not a day of any kind, ‘painting’ for MATISSE (I know, but still), NIBLICK without an archaism indicator.
    A couple of unknowns for me: JORUM and DECKLE. I knew EAST COKER but had to construct it from the anagram fodder before I realised that I did.
    I have to take issue with your assertion that the TENDERLOIN contains the ‘best’ cuts of beef, Z. It’s expensive at least in part because there isn’t much of it, but if you prefer something with flavour and you’re in possession of your own teeth you’re better off with other parts of the animal. It’s also generally known as ‘fillet’ on this side of the pond.

    Edited at 2020-07-16 08:55 am (UTC)

  13. Good fun and, even with VEEP, GANGSTA and TENNESSEE, somehow not as irritating as yesterday’s. A couple of smiles too.
  14. I started very quickly but soon ground to a halt and couldn’t crack the SW corner.

    COD: MATISSE.

  15. Too many quibbles for this to be truly enjoyable. At least I remembered palanquin from its previous appearances. Never heard of the poem.
  16. A diacritic need not be over a vowel, nor need what it needn’t be over be a vowel. The cedilla is under a consonant, for instance, and is a diacritic nonetheless, and proud of it.
  17. 20.05. Well that was an education. Almost lost count of the unknown answers that came forth- diacritic, deckle,tennessee and my favourite, jorum. Have to also confess my ignorance of East Coker, am I still allowed on this forum?
    Good news was they were all fathomable from the excellent cluing.
    A bit of humour with peeve and knock was nice to see. Managed to get gangsta due to remembering it from a few weeks back.

    Thoroughly enjoyed this. Thanks to setter( and blogger of course).

  18. Just seen the working out of Tennessee. In the context of 50 states know where T is. My mistake was to think Tennessee was a particular type of overall- duh.
  19. That kept me busy for a while! A few new words to try and remember. PALANQUINS rang a bell, but I needed to check the definition afterwards. JORUM and DECKLE unknown. GANGSTA DIACRITIC and ADAPT went in quickly, but the rest of the NW came much later, with SUNDAY BEST providing the breakthrough. PEEVE, SHEATH and EVENTER were my last 3 in. 49:51. Thanks setter and Z.
  20. TOTS (time off the scale) but happy to finish with all in correctly. I was confident about DECKLE and JORUM even though both were unknown but I had fingers crossed that the poem wasn’t ‘eats coker’ – seemed unlikely but you never know with these artistic types. CANON was v. good.
  21. I had to admonish self to concentrate (for goodness sake) before I could finish some of the stubborn ones. Yes, I was another confused by the “and” in 1a and also had the wrong end of the stick for quite some time thinking “as rock” was the definition and went fishing for “petrolate” or something. Also very slow to see that medium didn’t go with painting in 20a. I knew JORUM because Trollope uses the word to describe the large quantities of tea his Dr. Thorne drinks. When pensive over a crossword like this I’m more prone to chew the other end of the pen, not much liking the taste of ink, but it’s a droll clue. 24.22
  22. Guessed a few without knowing what they were e.g. JORUM, DECKLE.

    NW took the longest, but with only the D in place, considered that the temple might be PAGODA and the rest fell into place – last one PEEVE, took a while to spot VEEP (great TV prog) – a US version of The Thick Of It, the connection being Armando Iannucci

  23. the wrong mark had to be X in 26d, so IBEX looked right. The plural for ibex surely being ibex and not ibices. The BE for incorrectly branded was only as unfathomable as JORUM and EAST COKER…..until the noose awaiting the crims forced a rethink. Happy to finish all correct in 38’47”
  24. but with so many unknowns there was a lot of biffing. Quite a few quickie clues in here, so a mixed bag. LOI PEEVE where I was trying forlornly to enter PIECE instead, as the only word I could think of that fitted.
    NIBLICK reminded me of the wonderful Wodehouse golfing stories, where for some reason a par was a bogie, and I particularly remember the multipurpose iron, which would be very handy if it was legal. That last may have come from the Jeeves stories though…
  25. ….but I do chew the cap of my biro. A fair bit of biffing, parsing PASTORALE, ON STRIKE, and OBJET D’ART afterwards, and needing Z’s help to see MATISSE.

    FOI AVIGNON
    LOI PASTORALE
    COD PEEVE
    TIME 10:33

  26. I realised early on that this was tricky, and abandoned any hopes of a fast finish, especially as I was already more than half watching the Test match (a slightly soporific period of play which I would describe as “absorbing to the cricket cognoscenti”, but which the unenlightened might describe as “not much happening”).

    Others have delivered my plaudits and eyebrow-raises, but certainly an interesting challenge.

  27. It was the SW corner that was my undoing because my mind refused to accept MATISSE as a definition of “Painting” – even though I had all the crossers. That corner took about 15 minutes. A chewy puzzle which I enjoyed very much. I did the Four Quartets for A level back in the day. PALANQUIN reminded me of a trip to India 20 years ago. Lots of them, together with howdahs, in the museums. All very blingy… Finally checked out in 50 minutes. Ann
  28. I liked this and enjoyed the challenge, but I had quibbles with almost every other clue.

    It had a distinctly North American flavour, and, I believe Deckle appeared in the N.Y. Times puzzle within the past fortnight. My view is that regardless of what the Ed says, setters reuse clever words in puzzles they set in close time proximity, or else setters challenge one another with a word and they all do it.

  29. 18:17. I got off to a fast start but slowed down as I had to apply myself in more workmanlike fashion to chisel out some of the answers without ever really getting stuck. Jorum and deckle the only unknowns but I was pretty confident from wp. Was scratching my head for a while over the definition of Tennessee. A very satisfying, snitch-busting solve.
  30. I thought this might have seemed tougher than the others so far this week just because I didn’t start it till very late. I put it aside with one unworked, but looking at it again just now I immediately saw PEEVE. I didn’t know JORUM before.

    I had the same misgiving as others re “painting” for MATISSE, and had I paused to wonder why PASTORALE took longer than it should, I might have noticed the extraneous “and.”

    Edited at 2020-07-16 08:42 pm (UTC)

  31. Okay, I know this is going to sound like sour grapes as the lady wife and I had to use aids to get our LOI Pastorale, but we really didn’t like this crossword. There were a couple of good clues such as 27 across but generally we thought the clueing was poor and surfaces, at best, clunky, reminiscent of yesterday’s puzzle. Really hope this setter isn’t going to become a regular or we will have to consider a swap to The Telegraph!

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