27994 Thursday, 3 June 2021 Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I prepared for this by doing the Club Monthly Special, which took a while. Sometimes I find the complexities and obscurities of that one dull the apprehension of the rather more straightforward daily fare, but not, it seems, this time, as I rattled through in 14.26.
As you will see, a familiarity with the quaint practices and antique wording of Choral Evensong turned out to be rather useful, as does a (very) basic understanding of cricket, a knowledge of the NATO alphabet, and the merest smattering of French.
We have a full set of the alphabet to place around the grid, which the setter has managed without too much by way of obscurity. The tyrant may not be in everyone’s day to day vocabulary, but the wordplay leaves little room for doubt.
You have clues, definitions, SOLUTIONS, explanations and ramblings below.
ACROSS
1 Bank accepting support is failing (8)
MORIBUND Bank is MOUND, taking in or accepting RIB for support, more of the structural than the anatomical kind
5 Charlie not wanting two servings of energy drink (6)
COFFEE NATO Charlie, doesn’t want, so is OFF, (something), plus E(nergy) twice
9 Is taken aback a small amount about network making hissing sound (8)
SIBILANT IS taken aback (literally backwards) then a BIT for a small amount (ignore the A) surrounding LAN for (Local Area) network. The old form of the Lord’s Prayer gets very sibilant when it gets to “forgive us our trespasses”.
10 Brooded, putting blame on tyrant (6)
SATRAP Originally, I think, a Persian provincial governor: Darius, who threw Daniel into the lions’ den, had 120 of them. Chambers develops it into a general tyrannical person, so our definition is fine. The wordplay is easy brooded: SAT, with blame: RAP put on.
12 Democrats in race, worn down, offering compromise position (6,6)
MIDDLE GROUND You need two D(emocrats) in MILE for race, and then translate worn down as GROUND.
15 Whole parts of African city with time regressing (5)
UNITS The African city is TUNIS, send its T(ime) backwards a bit.
16 Month exactly right to host second parade (5,4)
MARCH PAST The random month Is MARCH, exactly right is PAT with S(econd) “hosted”
18 Old cigar — it’s unusually immoderate (9)
ORGIASTIC Our first anagram (unusually) of O(ld) CIGAR IT’S
19 Left bar, ignoring last of indecent language (5)
LINGO L(eft) and bar: INGOT without the last (letter) of indecenT
20 Queen is as nothing I suspect, after jack’s special quality (2,2,4,4)
JE NE SAIS QUOI Our second anagram (suspect), though you have to work a bit to get the fodder. QUEEN IS AS O (nothing) I, following J(ack)
24 One cricket club hosting cricket side I considered very special (6)
ICONIC Well, the first Test has started, with NZ rather stretching England, so a cricket clue is surely permissible. Here one is I, Cricket Club is just CC, and the cricket side is ON. I is I. A little deft construction.
25 With no clear candidate emerging, success involves info about European (4-4)
WIDE-OPEN (The hyphen is optional). Success is WIN, with DOPE for information surrounding E(uropean) inserted.
26 One directs roofer to add extra line (6)
TILLER Roofer is TILER, to which an extra L(ine) is added.
27 Recognise power draws in sort without real engagement (4-4)
SKIN-DEEP Recognise is SEE, add P(ower) and insert (draw in) KIND for sort.

DOWN

1 Radio report’s failed to notice obscurity (4)
MIST A homophone, so hearable on the radio, of MISSED for failed to notice.
2 Red Guard initially abandoning sport (4)
RUBY the initial G of guard abandons the sport of RUGBY
3 Somehow a cable is absorbing temperature in marine environment (6,3)
BALTIC SEA An anagram (somehow) of A CABLE IS absorbing T(emperature)
4 Holy woman recording it is involving German with part of evening service (4,8)
NUNC DIMITTIS “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”. A rather atmospheric version by Geoffrey Burgeon covered the end credits of the 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Here the holy woman is a NUN, the recording a CD, IT IS is in plain sight, and the German with, MIT, is involved/inserted.
6  Broadcasting revolutionary extract of Hungarian opera (2,3)
ON AIR Fortunately, you don’t need your extensive list of Hungarian operas, because this is a reverse (revolutionary) hidden (extract) of the same: HungaRIAN Opera.
7 Protocol over occupying uniform part of track for racing (7,3)
FORMULA ONE Protocol is FORM, then O(ver) “occupies” U(niform) (NATO again) and LANE for part of track.
8 Expect to lose half printing speed (10)
EXPEDITION EXPect loses its (second) half, and printing is EDITION.
11 One right, say, to retire, with church living no longer very profitable (3-4-5)
GET-RICH-QUICK One is again I, RighT is represented by its first and last letters, and say give EG. Reverse those (to retire), add CH for church, and then add another bit of Choral Evensong, from the 1662 version of the apostles’ creed in which living is rendered as QUICK: “He will come…to judge the quick and the dead”.
13 Whence meat juices flow in disorderly manner (3,2,5)
OUT OF JOINT Well, yes, that’s where meat juices come from. But Hamlet act 1 scene 5 is the origin of the more metaphorical phrase:
“The time is out of joint—O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!”
14 Flourishing iris loving fresh earth (6,4)
VIRGIN SOIL Flourishing is our anagram indicator, and IRIS LOVING the fodder
17 Sound conclusion, mostly, about vulgar festival (9)
HALLOWEEN (ignore the apostrophe)  Sound is HALE (as in …and hearty) and conclusion mostly is ENd without the D. Insert LOW for vulgar.
21 Take control of French square (5)
SEIZE Oh, clever. It just happens that SEIZE Is French for sixteen, which is the square of four, or in their case, quatre.
22 Environment Agency upset about MPs heading off for recess (4)
APSE The EA abbreviation is in Chambers. Upset (reverse) it and insert MPS without the heading M. Good surface.
23 Lifted slates without much notice (4)
SNAP As in election and such. PANS for slates (criticises) reversed (lifted).

63 comments on “27994 Thursday, 3 June 2021 Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places”

  1. I don’t think I’ve heard of NUNC DIMITTIS since I was in the choir at school before my voice broke. Rather an old-fashioned feel to the whole crossword, I thought. Unfortunately, I figured the grid needed an extra X, and mistyped VIRGIN XOIL. Otherwise, all done in under 30 minutes. But a lot fewer pink squares than in the quickie, where two of the answers have been interchanged.

    Edited at 2021-06-03 02:21 am (UTC)

  2. SATRAP was hard for me, but otherwise I found this puzzle to be the perfect sort of “easier” puzzle, where you still have to work for everything but there’s not a lot of resistance. Never parsed UNITS, though, so thank you, Z!
  3. All done in 39 minutes. It was satisfying to be able to work out the parsing of some such as NUNC DIMITTIS, FORMULA ONE and GET-RICH-QUICK which had initially gone in from the def and crossers. Not exactly new, but I hadn’t come across SATRAP in the sense of a ‘tyrant’, rather than just a governor, before, so thanks for the background info.

    We’ve had more than our fill of bacchanalian revelry this week with ORGIASTIC also appearing on Monday. Time for some of these setters to take a cold shower.

  4. I was in a hurry to catch a train, which I missed of course, and biffed just about every clue, it seemed. Sitting in the hospital waiting room gave me plenty of time to parse everything post hoc, and I think my only query was re SATRAP, where I didn’t see where the ‘tyrant’ bit came from. Trust Chambers to come up with a definition to meet a setter’s needs.
  5. I have removed a comment posted here because it quoted an answer from today’s Guardian puzzle. Many of our members do it and may not yet have tackled it.

    Edited at 2021-06-03 04:25 am (UTC)

  6. 29 minutes. My only query when solving was ‘no longer’ in 11ac. It had to apply to ‘living’ or ‘very profitable’ yet didn’t seem to fit with either. I assume now that the setter was trying to be helpful by advising that ‘quick’ no longer means ‘living’ but in my mind, since I knew it from the Apostles creed, it only served to confuse the issue.
    1. Enjoyed in about 20 minutes. My conclusion on ‘no longer’ was as yours. Thanks all.
  7. I was on the wavelength today which made for plenty of biffing for all but my POI, NUNC DIMITTIS which needed to be carefully put together from the cryptic. I was glad that it offered no ambiguity as Latin and religion are two of my weak points (amongst many others). COD to SEIZE for such a nice succinct surface.
  8. Like jack, I wondered about ‘no longer’. I liked SEIZE, and of course NUNC DIMITTIS.

    13′ 11″, thanks z and setter.

  9. 17 minutes with LOI MORIBUND. The NUNC DIMITTIS actually came quite early in Evensong, well before we were allowed to depart in peace to go to meet the girls putting on the style. There was still agony of the sermon to come. I was right on wavelength for this, so it’s probably right that it has an old-fashioned feel to it. COD to OUT OF JOINT. Very enjoyable. Thank you Z and setter.
  10. A SATRAP (10ac) is a subordinate bureaucrat. Tyranny is part of the DNA! – ‘Trump’s satraps in the ‘alternative fact’ industry took their cues from him to rest easy in a warm bubble bath of denialism. Rush Limbaugh, received a Presidential Medal of Freedom at Trump’s latest State of the Union address.’ David Remnick – New Yorker.

    FOI 24ac ICONIC

    LOI 9ac SIBILANT

    COD 23dn SNAP!

    WOD 4dn NUNC DIMMITIS

    Time 28 mins

    Edited at 2021-06-03 06:48 am (UTC)

  11. …By nightshade, Ruby grape of Proserpine;

    Well it took me the full 30 mins to finish with Units.
    MERs at the ‘no longer’ and the dangler ‘a’ in Sibilant.
    Mostly I liked the two roofing ones, Tiller and Snap.
    Thanks setter and Z.

  12. 47 mins but at least I finished it today. Some pretty tricky clues and one or two unparsed until I came here for wisdom. DNK SIBILANT, SATRAP (LOI) or NUNC DIMITTIS, but worked them out from wp. Loved SEIZE, very clever. Thank you z and setter.
        1. You did not know that because it isn’t. Not according to Collins Robert, at any rate, or according to my experience
  13. z – you rattled through it in 14:27!? That sounds good! I was at just over 14 minutes here. COD 21dn SEIZE. Also liked 13dn OUT OF JOINT but held up by initially putting TUNIS at 15ac!
  14. Vingt-et-un was a very fine wheeze
    A word that we pronounce “seas”
    When in France one says SEIZE
    I think it rhymes with fez
    (If I’m wrong then set me straight please)
    1. You’re right, but that’s irrelevant. The clue is not a homophone, it’s two different meanings of the same word.
  15. 38:54
    Plodded through it. Some very long clues in this. Satrap an old chestnut. Seize was good. Took me ages to see F1, for some weird reason. I was gonna put Fortuna Cup! But after yesterday’s detention in the keepnet I reconsidered. Getting a lot of lag on the online version when moving between clues – probably just my laptop or wifi. Thanks, z – quality blog.
  16. 12:10 with a bit of biffing. LOI SNAP after GET-RICH-QUICK led to SKIN DEEP. I liked the french square. Nice pangram.
    1. I recall that you posted (on another forum) a female chorister doing a lovely rendition of this.
      1. Ah yes. Thank-you for reminding me, Olivia. It is a rather beautiful recording by Ischia, BBC Young Chorister of the year, from 2018. You can listen to it here. Not that the original linked to by Z is bad, but I think this is better for being more closely mic’d…. and you get to see the singer and trumpeter. Whatever. They are both good performances and both make me smile at the chorister’s precisely articulated “d” on “World without end”, and “n” on “Amen”.

        Edited at 2021-06-03 02:27 pm (UTC)

        1. The chorister is just wonderful, hard to improve upon. The trumpet I found rather harsh and think it would have been improved by a softer, more harmonious instrument.
  17. Slow start, looking like it was going to be a long haul; first solve 6dn (I often skip to odd enumerations to get going if I am struggling to get a foothold). Suddenly all started falling into place and relatively plain sailing thereafter. A few biffs as process speeded up but only where I was very confident after yesterday’s VORACIOUS … Thanks to setter and blogger.
  18. My 1983, hence already old, edition of Chambers has ‘quick’ = ‘living’ listed as archaic. I followed the same train of thought as you on the Apostles’ Creed, but then used that to justify ‘quick’ based on its being the oldest version.

  19. FOI: 3d – BALTIC SEA
    LOI: 17d – HALLOWEEN

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 6

    Clues Answered with Aids: 6

    Clues Unanswered: 16

    Wrong Answers: Nil

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 12/28

    Aids Used: Chambers

    In the hour I allow myself with this puzzle I managed to answer 12. Unlike the QC I do not limit my aids use, for now at least. As I progress and get better, I will start to introduce a limit on the number of times I use an aid (“lives”). I limit myself to an hour otherwise I’d spend all day on it, and I don’t really want to do that.

    I am happy with today’s effort

    Edited at 2021-06-03 09:20 am (UTC)

  20. 17.13 . FOI ruby and LOI seize which took me quite a while to grasp, probably my COD as a result. Am I right in thinking there’s a little overlap between Times and ST crosswords? I’m sure orgiastic was clued pretty recently in the ST.
    Re nunc dimittis, just re watching Tinker Tailor on iPlayer, more than stands the test of time. Vaughan Williams, surprise, surprise, has another rather lovely version.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  21. 10:01. A fair amount of biffing this morning. GET RICH QUICK, for instance, where with the enumeration and a couple of checkers including the Q I didn’t really need the clue. I certainly needed the wordplay for the unlikely-looking NUNC DIMITTIS though. I’m with pootle in that this combines two of my bugbears – religion and Latin – but the assembly instructions were entirely clear so no complaints.
    1. Lord Keriothe – Religio!? Your avatar appears to have strong religious overtones……?
          1. Well a cross of course, but that is to identify the vineyard, which I’m sure you recognise 😉
  22. It’s not quite in the William Tell/Lone Ranger class but l Learnt about NUNC DIMITTIS from Tinker Tailor and the two are now soldered together in my brain.
    Enjoyed this a lot. Somehow both MORIBUND and SATRAP are oddly pleasing words.

    Thanks to Z and the setter.

  23. 19 minutes, no issues, knew the Latin phrase although like keriothe I avoid religious knowledge as far as possible.
  24. SEIZE was lovely, and a nice surface as well, COD for me (even if I suspect it’s not the first time it’s been done).

    Some careful spellings for NUNC DIMITTIS and JE NE SAIS QUOI – which is French for something or other, but I don’t know what.

    SATRAP the LOI after 7m 44s.

  25. Nice stuff with all the knowledge acceptably general in my book. BBC4 is re-showing Tinker, Tailor, so I found myself watching a random episode the other night, concluding with the music as mentioned above.
  26. Judging by other speeds, I should have been quicker. I too got fixated on Fortuna instead of seeing the obvious. I half convinced myself there was a race-track somewhere like Hong Kong with Fortuna in the name. Lord now lettest thou thy servant …. yes indeed, school and Tinker Tailor. Lovely memories. Seize was good, but I’m conditioned now to see square as a mathematical device every time I see it , so it was actually an easy clue. Luckily sibilant went in from the cluing, because I am sure I would have spelled it differently.
  27. 27 mins. Just a pause to wonder what was indecent about the word “lingo” until the penny made its long, slow descent.
  28. Thank you so much for explaining the wordplay of 17, the last two words of which I took as the definition- well I find it all a bit vulgar these days!
    An all correct unaided finish for me, as usual solved in bits and pieces between household chores.
  29. Looked at the link, out of interest. Read the book, and it’s prequels and sequels, and liked them.
    Is the background to the youtube video somewhere famous that people instantly recognise? (As a yob Australian I don’t recognise it.)
    1. Famous? It depends how well they know Oxford…that’s a view of Radcliffe Square, from a viewpoint nearly under the Bridge of Sighs. The partially-visible dome is the Radcliffe Camera (part of the Bodleian Library), with the church of St. Mary in the background.

      I feel quite nostalgic as I live about five miles away and haven’t seen the place for over a year…

      1. Cheers. Thank-you.
        Oxford features vestigially in Tinker, Tailor when Smiley visits Connie Sachs (owning digs for students) to get the lowdown on Polyakov, from memory. Graded Persil, but a full-bore Karla spy… can’t remember the exact wording. From memory from the 1980s, yet I can’t remember last week 😉
  30. And in real life Burgess/McLean/Blunt et al attended Cambridge, not Oxford?

    Edited at 2021-06-03 12:31 pm (UTC)

  32. …cheated with the NHO NUNC DIMITTIS. Brought up Catholic (renounced in my teens) — don’t recognise the lyrics — not sure it was part of the goings-on in my church.

    Lots of biffy stuff without fully bothering with the cryptic — COFFEE, MARCH PAST, JE NE SAIS QUOI (from just the J checker), GET RICH QUICK, FORMULA ONE, HALLOWEEN

  33. 35 minutes is around my personal best. Like 84801442, was brought up RC so didn’t know Nunc Dimittis until Tinker Tailor. (Thanks for the link to the credits which still gives me goosebumps.) Have read every novel by Le Carre and am eagerly awaiting the publication of the one he had written before he died.
    Thanks to commenters for the explanation of ‘no longer’ which confused me for a while. COD to seize. Liked out of joint too.
    Thanks blogger and setter.
  34. I started off with MIST, and made reasonable progress towards the MIDDLE GROUND and beyond. MORIBUND eluded me until the end, as I’d tentatively entered M_R_BRA_ until the NUNC DIMITTIS disabused me of that sort of support. Never managed to parse GET RICH QUICK, but I didn’t really need to. Liked OUT OF JOINT, and JE NE SAIS QUOIS. Enjoyable puzzle. 22:12. Thanks setter and Z.
  35. Very satisfying half an hour or so. No time as I was interrupted by a telephone call from a relative who habitually takes a long time to say little of substance and I didn’t think to stop the watch which eventually showed an unreasonable 82 minutes. Let me know, please, if you’d like to screen my telephone calls.

    Edited at 2021-06-03 01:43 pm (UTC)

  36. I trust your hospital visit gives a satisfactory outcome. It’s my turn tomorrow….
    1. Thanks, and the same to you. (Mine was just my regular quarterly visit to have my blood tested and get my meds renewed; no bad news.)
    2. Mine was today… well, it’s after midnight, so yesterday. Which was Thursday. Bilateral hernia repair! Ouch
  37. ….NUNC DIMITTIS was a shoo-in, and was one of four biffs all cleared up quickly afterwards, the others being FORMULA ONE, GET-RICH-QUICK, and HALLOWEEN. The high biffability factor certainly helped my quick finish.

    FOI SIBILANT
    LOI EXPEDITION
    COD SEIZE
    TIME 7:35

  38. Started at lunchtime; had a few left so stared at it whilst watching England struggle. 41-2 at present.
    LOI was SATRAP, a word recently learnt from crosswords. Also held up by EXPEDITION and parsing LINGO.
    By chance I watched the last episode of Tinker Tailor last night and now know how to pronounce “shewed”. And the music at the end has been in my head all day.
    Enjoyed the puzzle.
    David
    1. By more coincidence, I also watched the last episode of the old TTSS last night — but didn’t focus on the music at the end so “Nunc Dimittis” was my LOI.
      I think my wife has a bit of a crush on Alec Guinness!
      Enjoyed today’s puzzle.
  39. because of a personal shortage of hours, so that I solved the puzzle while watching the Test Match. Given my notorious multi-tasking skills I was never going to record a PB for the 15×15! However I got the impression this was of average difficulty as seems to have been confirmed above.
    Good variety of clues with personal COD 21 d “Seize” mainly because I didn’t have the opportunity to study French at school. Our first foreign language was German for some reason which at least allowed me to put the “mit” in 4dn “Nunc Dimittis”.
    Thanks to Z for an enjoyable blog and to the Setter.
  40. I had some difficulty equating EXPEDITION with speed, but as no one else has mentioned it it must be me
  43. Liked JE NE SAIS QUOI

    NUNC DIMITTIS known from somewhere and in from the MIT

    MIST and MORIBUND last two in. Wasn’t entirely sure the former was the same as mist and like John Dun wanted bra in there before the light dawned

    Nice puzzle — thanks setter and Mr Z

  44. Way beyond me, coming up well short of the recommended “familiarity with the quaint practices and antique wording of Choral Evensong… a (very) basic understanding of cricket, a knowledge of the NATO alphabet, and the merest smattering of French.” Add in not having Latin, and I hadn’t a chance. FOI 23d SNAP, LOI – of my paltry four – 6d ON AIR. In fifteen minutes. Sigh – that’s it for me for this week. Off to lick my wounds.

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