Times 28967 – happy victories

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

39:10

Slow to start (I think I had about 3 answers after 10 minutes), but managed to find a few more accessible clues hidden here and there. Perfectly pitched for me – it seemed witty and testing but gettable. Only 12dn needed additional thought post facto. Biggest hold-ups in the end were in the SW corner, not helped by having put ‘machoism’ at 15dn; it seems such a plausible word.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Industrious man who resembles Herb we hear? (8)
DILIGENT – sounds like “dill-y gent” (man who resembles herb).
9 Establishment’s about to move right in response (8)
REACTION – CREATION (establishment), with its ‘c‘ (circa, about) moving rightwards.
10 Did career woman finally leaving incur expense? (4)
SPED – SPEnD (incur expense) missing the ‘n’ (final letter of woman).
11 Is terrible broadcast about lives fascinating? (12)
IRRESISTIBLE – anagram of IS TERRIBLE containing IS (lives).
13 Provided fine canned food for one? (6)
TIFFIN – IF (provided) + F (fine), all contained by TIN (i.e. canned). A sort of take-away meal delivered in a stacked metal lunchbox.
14 Item that is charged having been chosen and not put back (8)
ELECTRON – ELECT (having been chosen) + a reversal of NOR (and not).
15 Felt bereft as you are possessed by mad demon (7)
MOURNED – UR (you are) contained by an anagram of DEMON.
16 It may be used to cut skin and even bits of peel (7)
SCALPEL – SCALP (skin) + pEeL.
20 Family gathering originally associated with US racket (8)
CLANGOUR – CLAN (family) + forst letter of Gathering + OUR (associated with us).
22 Hang around with hard worker exchanging tips for travel (6)
LOITER – TOILER (hard worker) swapping over the outermost letters of travel.
23 Face time having lost case and significance (12)
IMPERTINENCE – tIMe losing the outermost letters + PERTINENCE (significance).
25 Secure file may be deployed here (4)
NAIL – cryptic hint, alluding to fingernails.
26 Support is not commonly accepted by person one’s interrupted (8)
MAINTAIN – AINT (‘is not’ commonly) contained by MAN (person) with I (one) interupting.
27 Forged green card has caught out member of staff (8)
GARDENER – anagram of GREEN cARD (except the ‘c’ (caught)).
Down
2 Two try to contain male tantrum and complaint (8)
IMPETIGO – II (two) + GO (try), all containing M (male) + PET (tantrum). A skin infection.
3 Lack of concern encapsulated by dispute (12)
INDIFFERENCE – IN (encapsulated by) + DIFFERENCE (dispute).
4 Transport company’s employees make this (8)
ENTRANCE – cryptic hint, a (repertory) company’s employees (i.e. actors) might make an entrance on stage.
5 Part of NHS reportedly given support (7)
TRUSSED – sounds like “trust” (part of NHS).
6 Harry gets one over on solver regularly (6)
HASSLE – HAS (gets one over on) + SoLvEr regularly.
7 Projecting part extends upwards within limits (4)
LIMB – cLIMBs (extends upwards) minus its outermost letters.
8 House officer starts off applying laparascope to do this (8)
INTERNAL – INTERN (house officer) + first letters from Applying and Laparascope. An INTERNAL examination, might be conducted by a junior doctor using such a scope.
12 News report covering first of deaths from poverty (12)
INTELLIGENCE – TELL (report) contained by INdIGENCE (poverty) missing ‘d’ (first of deaths).
15 Male chamois represented typical male behaviour (8)
MACHISMO – anagram of M (male) + CHAMOIS.
17 What could strain relationship with fellow passenger at end of flight? (8)
COLANDER – CO-LANDER (fellow passenger at end of flight).
18 Work out margins of error in tax (8)
EXERCISE – first and last of ErroR contained by EXCISE (tax).
19 Cutting back on heartlessly supporting power (7)
PRUNING – RUNnING (on) missing the central letter, underneath P (power).
21 Ban one of ex-husband’s family? (6)
OUTLAW – cryptic hint, no longer an in-law.
24 Commonest part of appropriate assistance was worth doing (4)
PAID – P (most common letter in ‘appropriate’) + AID (assistance).

65 comments on “Times 28967 – happy victories”

  1. Thanks for the blog. I thought ‘tell’ in 12d replaced (covered) the ‘d’ in indigence.

  2. Bravo William, I found it a lot harder than you and just scraped in on the hour. I very much appreciated the seven or eight answers whose parsing escaped me, including LIMB, INTELLIGENCE and TRUSSED where the NHS reference was an unknown. INTERNAL suggests we are now using med student lingo. One day DILIGENT will be appropriately clued as ‘fellow from East Timor.’ Very good, challenging puzzle.

    From Subterranean Homesick Blues:
    Johnny’s in the basement
    Mixing up the medicine
    I’m on the pavement
    Thinking about the government
    The man in the trench coat
    Badge out, laid off
    Says he’s got a bad cough
    Wants to get it PAID off
    Look out kid …

    1. The first time I heard Subterranean Homesick Blues was a cover by Red Hot Chili Peppers, which little resembles the original. It’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but it does what I like in a cover, which is to say it does something interesting rather than just reproducing the original.

        1. I had a look, but there doesn’t seem to be a video for it – it was an album track and not a single.

        2. Do you think the film – circa 1965 – was the inspiration for, first, MTV and later Instagram and Tik Tok?

          1. Always said to be the first video. I’ll leave to someone younger, like you, the answer the rest.

  3. I found this tough too and needed 52 minutes to complete it. I delayed writing in ENTRANCE until the checkers made it inevitable; the definition was clear but I thought the cryptic element was so feeble it couldn’t be what was intended. I missed the parsing of LIMB and LOITER, so thanks for those, Will.

  4. 12:45. I was expecting someone to have already commented on the dodgy homophone that is DILIGENT. It certainly doesn’t sound like dilly gent when I say it! Having said that I still quite like the wry humour of it.

    1. I’m curious now. It sounds about right when I say it, or in fact when Collins says it .. how do you say it?

      1. When I say DILIGENT the middle letter is a short ‘i’ sound, whereas ‘dilly’ ends in a longer ‘ee’ sound. They’re quite distinct, but close enough for cheesy homophone purposes AFAIC.

        1. Agreed regarding the middle I. Also I pronounce the end as “jernt” with the er short – not as I pronounce gent!

          1. The GENT bit is probably MAN as a synonym, not a homophone? And while the DILI bit is a bit off, it’s close enough to make a great clue.

            1. I don’t think so: I think you have to take ‘man who resembles herb’ as a whole. I still don’t mind it!

    2. I would’ve commented sooner, but the blog wasn’t up when I went to sleep. My LOI was DILIGENT, and I wrote “GROAN” beside it—both for the accent and for “dilly.”

  5. 18.00 (not helped by initially entering MACHOISM).
    It’s over 40 years since I was a house officer, nearly 20 since the name of the grade was changed to Foundation Doctor (FY1 and FY2, FYI).
    LOI LIMB – I didn’t like “within limits” to mean “without limits”.
    COD COLANDER

  6. A proper Friday puzzle which would not have been out of place in the Times Championship. I took quite a while to get any sort of real traction, but at around 12 minutes a series of flashbulb moments wiped out the last half dozen.

    Those of you with time on your hands might like to check out today’s QC – a new setter, and I’ve described it in my comment on the blog as “a shrunken 15 x 15”.

    FOI SPED
    LOI LOITER
    COD GARDENER
    TIME 14:30

    2. 2726 was definitely pitched for seasoned solvers to suggest “you think you’re getting the hang of this? Think again!”

    3. Sorry, late response. You may be interested in my (almost) equally late post which is way, way down the list of comments for the Asp QC No. 2726 you refer to.

  7. 14:51, with a few unparsed. I was another starting with MACHOISM.

    Thanks both.

  8. 17’36” for this solid Friday puzzle. I liked DILIGENT, and was, like others, less keen on ENTRANCE, which went in unparsed.

    I only knew TIFFIN from Raj stories and Salman Rushdie. Is it a thing in other places?

    Thanks william and setter.

    1. It’s a delicious and popular variety of traybake up here in Orkney, albeit very different from the subcontinental variety: a chocolate confection with crumbled biscuits inside.

      1. The traybake sounds not dissimilar to the Cadbury’s Tiffin bar that was a favourite of my Mum’s back in the 1950’s.

    2. There was a small chain of decent Indian lunch places in London called Tiffin Bites.

      1. Am I the only one to believe that the question mark at the end of the clue for Tiffin suggested the time of day for eating it?

  9. With blackest moss the flower-plots
    Were thickly crusted, one and all:
    The rusted Nails fell from the knots
    That held the pear to the gable-wall.
    (Mariana, Tennyson)

    30 mins mid-brekker (pancakes, maple syrup, blueberries).
    I liked some of the originality, but struggled a bit with a couple. Like others, I couldn’t see how 12d worked and for Reaction I was trying to move the ‘about’=RE or ON, rather than ‘about’=C. Doh!
    Ta setter and W.

  10. 18:29 but one wrong – I had an inexplicable TRUSTEE for 5D. I’m another held up in the SW corner by having MACHOISM to start with. I liked ENTRANCE best. Thanks William and setter.

  11. Definitely joined the OWL club today, beaten by the NHO IMPETIGO. The rest took ages and I found it all a bit of a chore. A number unparsed as above so pretty hopeless really.

    Thanks William and setter.

  12. Not too difficult but I did have a bit of trouble parsing a couple .. clearly needed more INTELLIGENCE.
    Tiffin to me just means a light lunch, it is an escapee from “Carry on up the Khyber” or similar.
    Laparascope I assume is a typo for Laparoscope.

    1. LaparAscope slipped past me, but seeing as the medico-chirurgical contingent also hasn’t noticed, I’ll let myself off!

    2. Over in the Crossword Club, Mick Hodgkin admitted there had been a spelling error in 8d but it had since been fixed in the online edition.

  13. Fell at the last after a long slog by entering ELECTION on the basis an ion is a charged particle and the assumption that (like several other unparsed answers) the setter was just too clever for me to understand the definition. As for many others, MACHOISM held me up for ages. Very tough overall, and I was right about the setter. Thanks for explaining them all, William, especially ‘associated with US’ meaning our, which had me completely flummoxed: I don’t remember seeing this before but will remember it this time!

  14. About half an hour.

    Nearly joined OWL Club with ‘impatigo’ before remembering that it’s pet, not pat, for tantrum and correcting to IMPETIGO (I’d never heard of it so relied on the wordplay); missed the theatrical hint in ENTRANCE; and didn’t parse LIMB or INTELLIGENCE.

    Thanks William and setter.

    FOI Exercise
    LOI Impetigo
    COD Colander

  15. 41 minutes after a late night. Like others, I lost my machismo for most of that time. LOI OUTLAW. “But to live outside the law you must be honest.” So I’d better admit that I didn’t have the INTELLIGENCE to parse 12d. Tougher than it looked. Thank you William and setter.

  16. 15:47, solving on my phone on the train because I didn’t want to bring my iPad to Lords.
    A few minutes at the end puzzling over INTERNAL. I didn’t know it could be a noun with this meaning. Collins has it though, with a rather, um, precise definition.

  17. 41:00
    Good challenge – an enjoyable puzzle. I’m with John (above) on ‘limb’.
    Thanks, w.

  18. I too lost my machismo. My Cheating Machine is slow on anagrams, and I had already entered machoism while CM was thinking about it, but it was absent from CM. But machismo popped up. So I had a fast correction (I should have noticed before entering that it was a rubbish answer) and also given an opportunity to add machoism to CM.
    That said I was already a DNF as was foxed by 9a Reaction, and cheated there too.

  19. 52m 29s but in 5d, on the basis of seeing the word ‘support’, I put ‘trusTEE’.

  20. 25.54 with fingers crossed for ENTRANCE. Not seeing the Repertory reference, I contented myself with “well, I suppose they do” and the presumed definition. I did like the UED industrious guy and OUTLAW, and the cleverness of INTELLIGENCE. “On” for run(n)ing passed me by: another of those mean and missable little words.
    Pretty hard going, and having struggled with today’s Quickie I was beginning to think the little grey cells were finally disintegrating, but there were enough flashes of entertainment to keep me engaged.

    1. I’m worried about my grey cells too. After struggling with both Times puzzles I had to abandon Paul’s puzzle in The Guardian as I was guessing answers and even then was unable to account for wordplay.

  21. Spent ages trying to justify REACTION, INTERNAL and LIMB. Still not sure how you can use ‘member of staff’ to define GARDENER.

    1. He probably has accommodation downstairs, along with the scullery maid, and the valet…..

  22. 46:20 with a typo
    A fine puzzle. Found it very tough going particuarly the SW. Originally had STUB for LIMB, having persuaded myself that “buts” could be limits. Like William I went for MACHOISM. When I realised my mistake I managed to get my pink square for typing MACHISMM. Maybe I subconciously wanted the pain of failing.

    Thanks to William and the setter.

  23. 25:32 but…

    I found there was quite a lot here for which I couldn’t understand the wordplay. Unsurprisingly, bunging unparsed answers in left, right and centre leaves one prone to a pink square, in my case, for TRUSTED (arguing that if you are ‘given support’, you are ‘TRUSTED’, but I see it didn’t quite work with the NHS part):

    Unparsed:
    REACTION
    SCALP=skin – was unsure about this
    LOITER
    ENTRANCE – oh, that sort of ‘company’
    HASSLE – didn’t think ‘gets one over on’ was particularly synonymous with HAS, don’t see how it works in the present tense – more familiar with ‘I’ve been HAD’ i.e. someone has got one over on me.
    INTELLIGENCE – no idea what was going on here – would have struggled to see poverty = INDIGENCE
    LIMB – again, couldn’t see the parsing here

    NHO/Not sure I’ve heard of:
    CLANGOUR
    INTERN = house officer – I never knew.

    Thanks William for working it all out

  24. 60 minutes exactly, after rather a slow start. INTELLIGENCE entered at the last since it was clearly the answer but I couldn’t see how it worked. No idea what a laparoscope was, so the full meaning of 8dn a bit of a mystery. I notice that UR is not signposted as textspeak in 15ac and why should it be I suppose. But it would have been a year or two ago. ‘relationship with’ at 17dn seems a bit odd.

  25. Really enjoyed that, great puzzle. Difficult through unusual and unexpected cryptics rather than obscure words. Though nothing unfair. Couldn’t parse INTELLIGENCE, and delayed entering some: PAID, INTERNAL, COLANDER, PRUNING etc. as difficult to see how they worked.
    Trivia: two days in a row with no multi-word answers. Generally one day in a row is unusual.

  26. 53:56 with one wrong, somehow combining TRUST (NHS) with TEE (support) to give TRUSTEE at 5dn. Spent the same amount of time on the Quickie. It’s been a hard morning

  27. Bugger! Spelled LOI, COLANDER, with 2 Ls without looking at the grid after 49 minutes. Didn’t notice I now had IMPERTINEACE. Thanks setter and William. That was hard going!

  28. I was getting nowhere, and then suddenly I was approaching the end. I think it was biffing INTELLIGENCE that opened things up. The same unparsed ones as people upthread. A bit too good for me, but biffs to the rescue, and I finished with EXERCISE in a quite reasonable time.

    20:17

  29. 49:00

    I was genuinely surprised to have no errors. An age spent in the NE, so when I finally got to believe in LIMB (parsed) I bunged in REACTION and LOI INTERNAL because they fit. Also refused to write in totally unparsed INTELLIGENCE, although it seemed certain to be the answer, until the excellent LOITER gave me the final checker.

    Many fine clues and a great job on the much-needed blog.

    Thanks all

  30. 42 minutes, my LOI was ENTRANCE which I dithered over for maybe 2-3 minutes before deciding I couldn‘t see anything better. Thanks for the explanation!
    Tough puzzle
    Thanks setter and blogger

  31. I’ve had impetigo as a child so no unknowns today, a stark change from yesterday. Pretty fun grid!

  32. Well I had more success with this than I did with the QC! It was tough going, but I persevered and finished in 58.15. My pleasure was a little diminished when I discovered a stupid mistake, where I had answered 5dn as TRUSTEE not taking the trouble to properly parse it.

  33. Another TRUSTEE here. Couldn’t justify it, except the TEE was the SUPPORT. Ruined an otherwise smooth solve lasting just under half an hour – the length of my new Paris commute. Many thanks .

  34. The tricky change/replace/cover-this-for/with-that were tough for the way my brain works; I was lucky to have some crossers from the easier charades. Nice blog, wm

  35. Very much as above, with TRUSTEE instead of TRUSSED, failing to parse 12d and starting with STUB instead of LIMB. Other than that, a good, chewy puzzle, and less arduous than the QC.

  36. Biffed 4 down, entrance, but couldn’t scan it. A silly clue, because the connection between a theatre company and making their entrance is very tenuous

  37. 24.08. Slow start with only three across clues sorted in my first pass. Got better with the long clues being sorted and finished with limb. Have to confess that was a guess as was reaction.

  38. A lot of thought and very few clues solved later, I threw in the towel and looked up a couple ( to assist me in biffing, would you believe?). But those answers – without their parsing – didn’t seem to make much sense, where on my confidence slipped a little lower still. Some quite complex parsings here, and (dare I say it?) some unusual synonyms, made for a puzzle a bit above my pay grade. Enjoyed those I did get ‘honestly’, especially ELECTRON, COLANDER, MACHISMO and INTERNAL.

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