Times Cryptic No 27888 – Saturday, 30 January 2021. The red flames of Hell.

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This was a smooth and quick solve until I was left only with the red at 20ac and the reference to the underworld at 7dn. Unlike the reference last week to Trotsky, this week’s red was definitely not a name I knew! Still, these last two also yielded with application. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. Does anyone have fast times to report?

Notes for newcomers: The Times offers prizes for Saturday Cryptic Crosswords. This blog is posted a week later, after the competition closes. So, please don’t comment here on the current Saturday Cryptic.

Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 American, say, has zero chance to lose face (10)
OCCIDENTAL – O=zero, (a)CCIDENTAL=chance, as in ‘chance encounter’. The definition is to do with the geopolitical divide of the world into East and West.
6 What may, paradoxically, be evens? (4)
ODDS – a cryptic definition relating to bookmaking.
9 Scholar thus comprehending old sayings of Christ (10)
THEOLOGIAN – THEN=thus, taking in O=old and LOGIA=sayings of Christ.
10 Emperor of eastern half of Sikh city (4)
TSAR – I looked for something starting with KH, but no, it’s just the RHS of (amri)TSAR.
12 Marshal bans turncoat for malice or deceit, say (8,4)
ABSTRACT NOUN – anagram (‘marshal’) of BANS TURNCOAT. A definition by example.
15 Like e.g. sprinting writer after running on area (9)
ANAEROBIC – BIC=the writer, after an anagram (‘running’) of ON AREA.
17 Not becoming trendy, a parent’s gutted (5)
INAPT – IN=trendy, A, P(aren)T ‘gutted’.
18 Pottery, fifty artful bottles (5)
DELFT – DEFT ‘bottles’ L=fifty.
19 Staggered about European Court sitting again (2-7)
RE-ELECTED – REELED=staggered, ‘about’ E=European + CT=court.
20 Can spinning coppers turn everything red? (12)
VALPOLICELLA – LAV=can ‘spinning’, POLICE=coppers, then ‘turn’ ALL=everything. Assemble all that and get a totally implausible word, which turns out to be a red wine!
24 Fabric which is green and needs cutting (4)
LAWN – double definition, the second for grass.
25 One seen in cave is a little bit camp, at first (10)
STALAGMITE – MITE=a little bit, STALAG=camp.
26 Rake in vase, so we’re told (4)
EARN – sounds like (‘we’re told) URN=vase.
27 Final reckoning with child, a learner on piano (5,5)
GRAND TOTAL – GRAND=piano, TOT=child, A, L=learner.

Down
1 Excessive love for extract of roses (4)
OTTO – O.T.T.=over the top=excessive, O=love.
2 Mixed school member welcoming Eton’s Head (2-2)
CO-ED – COD=fish=member of school, ‘welcoming’ E(ton). It feels like the definition should be ‘mixed school’, but the ‘school’ is part of the wordplay, and indeed is not necessary to the definition.
3 Thought opera composer wants second helping (12)
DELIBERATION – DELIBES is the composer, RATION is the helping. ‘Wants second’ tells us to throw away the S.
4 Most of the alcohol knocked back? Time for bed (5)
NIGHT – TH(e), GIN ‘knocked back’.
5 Guerrilla supporting a wild naval barrage (9)
AVALANCHE – A, anagram (‘wild’) of NAVAL, CHE=guerrilla.
7 Inconstancy of underworld rulers switching sides (10)
DISLOYALTY – DIS=the underworld, LOYALTY=the other side of ROYALTY (switching right to left).
8 Bound to precede current period of the year (10)
SPRINGTIDE – SPRING=bound, TIDE=current.
11 I’m surprised to settle after industrial action (6,1,5)
STRIKE A LIGHT – STRIKE=industrial action, ALIGHT=settle.
13 This entertains upper-class rogue in depression (10)
VAUDEVILLE – U=upper-class, DEVIL=rogue, all in VALE.
14 Failing to store pounds up, dourer retiring person (10)
WALLFLOWER – FLAW=failing, ‘stores’ L=pound, and all goes up (i.e. backwards), followed by LOWER=dourer.
16 Brief exchange about teacher from the south (9)
BARRISTER – BARTER=exchange, ‘about’ SIR=teacher, ‘from the south’.
21 Girl: in Paris, she’s given name (5)
ELLEN – ELLE=French for ‘she’, N=name.
22 What’s essential to distinguish, in this clue (4)
HINT – hidden. Very well hidden, too.
23 Chap’s going to the pit (4)
HELL – HE’LL=he will. Double definition.

23 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27888 – Saturday, 30 January 2021. The red flames of Hell.”

  1. Like Bruce, I was looking for a KH word at 10; tried KHAN for a while. DNK that Amritsar was a Sikh city. I biffed a number, including STALAGMITE, which I originally biffed as STALACTITE and then re-biffed. COD to VALPOLICELLA.
  2. Not a fast time here, Bruce!
    I thought this was a very good puzzle.
    HELL (as distinct from DIS) was very good but my COD to ABSTRACT NOUN.
    FOI: OTTO. LOI:HELL.
  3. struggled mightily with the unknown red wine, but careful assembly of the ingredients finally yielded fruit. No doubt most of the bloggerati will have visited the place often, and spent many a pleasant evening quaffing the stuff. It just gave me heartburn. LOI HELL, which was also COD.
    23’45”
  4. I’m a little surprised at the consensus (so far at least) that no-one is familiar with Valpolicella. I know very little about wine and never touch the stuff these days, but Valpolicella was hard to avoid hearing of in the UK when it became very popular here in (I’m guessing now) the late 1960’s / early 1970’s and it’s still around now. Those were the days when there was little general knowledge of the variety of wines available so people when presented with wine lists in restaurants or faced with shelves of options in off-licences would ask for a name they knew. ‘Blue Nun’, ‘Liebfraumilch’ and ‘Mateus Rose’ were others of that ilk.

    Edited at 2021-02-06 06:09 am (UTC)

    1. In the mid seventies, a couple of bottles of Bull’s Blood would go down well with the management team on our Friday lunchtime visit to the local wine bar. Not too much would get done in the afternoon.
        1. is an acquired taste – and I have acquired it – I am a ‘supertaster’! Retsina must very chilled; it is delicious with all Greco-Cypriot savoury dishes particularly grilled haloumi, feta, kioftedes and the other metza. The ‘Kebab and Humus’ at the far end of Charlotte Street was just ace! The Saatchi-CDP hang-out.

          Edited at 2021-02-06 04:59 pm (UTC)

        1. You people haven’t lived until you’ve had Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill Fine Wine. (Use your imagination, and yes, what it said on label was pretty much what you got). It went especially well with Swisher Sweet Blueberry Cigarillos.
    2. There’s a local music venue where if you want wine, the options are Black Tower or Blue Nun. I thought I’d travelled back in time when I saw them. On the other hand I’d only vaguely heard of VALPOLICELLA and it was one of my last two in, along with VAUDEVILLE. I was born in ’73, so I missed out on its more popular phase, I suppose.
  5. Straightforward, mostly.

    Valpolicella, perhaps better known to us in the UK than across the pond, being Italian. I had a sublime Valpolicella Ripasso only the other day.

    I feel that describing any form of physical exercise as anaerobic is a scientific error. I see what they are trying to get at, but still. You try sprinting, without oxygen.

  6. I found this quite tough and took 44 minutes, without ever feeling lost. I enjoyed the red wine clue, a wine I haven’t drunk in many a long year, and the Russian ruler was very clever, as was the upwardly mobile calcium carbonate, my COD. So, a good puzzle.Thank you B and setter.
  7. FOI OTTO which shows how crossword words can take root (like Joe who’s just got out).
    Made good progress on this with two left after an hour or so. I like Italian wines and drink Valpolicella frequently but it still took me ages to realise that Red meant a wine. LOI VAUDEVILLE which came immediately after the middle V was evident.
    Good, clever puzzle I thought.
    David
  8. ….and Kevin’s time looks pretty quick in context !

    I biffed ANAEROBIC (thanks Bruce) and hadn’t a clue what was going on. “Bic” is a trade name for a biro, which is itself a trade name. Are there no longer any limitations on this kind of thing ?

    FOI OTTO
    LOI DISLOYALTY
    COD VALPOLICELLA
    TIME 19:27

  9. Like David, my FOI was OTTO, something I’d never heard of until I started doing these crosswords. I had a THEOLOGIST which I couldn’t parse until AVALANCHE put me right. LOGIA then rang a faint bell. VALPOLICELLA wasn’t a problem as I regularly drank it in Italian restaurants in my younger days, if I wasn’t imbibing Chianti or Frascati. Liked the spinning can. Liked STALGMITE and DISLOYALTY too. 21:29. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  10. at 20ac is where we used used to holiday in the Lago di Garda area, throughout the eighties. Know it well. My WOD.

    COD 12ac another ABSTRACT NOUN with Mr. Martin Onepenny
    Same time as him too. 50 plus change.

    FOI 6ac ODDS

    LOI 18ac DELFT! Doh! There is also a Delft in the north of Sri Lanka.

    We have recently had GOOSEBERRY and now at 14dn WALLFLOWER!

  11. 22:21. Quite tricky. I’m surprised at the number of people who haven’t heard of VALPOLICELLA. It’s quite common, although I can’t remember ever having drunk it. I’m sure I must have at some point.
  12. 18:05 I think I may have had some VALPOLICELLA (my COD) some time in the last month – I like to drink Italian wines with Italian recipes and my son (who is not allowed back to University’cos of you-know-what) is a pasta fiend so we have pasta regularly. DISLOYALTY was my LOI and needed a PDM to get me over the line. I remembered OTTO and LAWN from previous crosswords, which helped. I also enjoyed ABSTRACT NOUN. Thanks Bruce and setter.
  13. The Valpolicella / Vaudville crossing took me a while — I wanted the A in Vaudeville to be part of ‘cad’ and couldn’t get back on track. I second davidivad’s thought about Otto. Thanks brunch
  14. I don’t remember too many difficulties with this. No problem with the Italian red having drunk my share in student days (and when in Italy). DELFT was my LOI since without the checkers it is an unlikely combination of letters.
    1. I knew DELFT as I went there as a callow youth when visiting a Uni friend who was working for Polygram in Baarn.

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