Times Cryptic No 27672 – Saturday, 23 May 2020.

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This was fairly easy for a Saturday. It was distinguished by some very clever anagram indicators that took me time to see, and some clever usages I had to look at twice. LOI was 9ac, where I struggled to see the necessary lifting and separating. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

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 [square brackets].

Across
1 When horse is gone, cut round top field (6)
MEADOW – MOW around [H]EAD.
5 Steal coin in collecting dish (8)
PECULATE – ECU in PLATE. The ECU (in capitals) was a precursor to the Euro; écus were various French coins; take your pick!
9 Reduced form of fruit waste (8)
FIGURINE – FIG | URINE.
10 Never returning old novel — a year afterwards (3-3)
ONE-WAY – O | NEW | A | Y.
11 Run with a porky footballer (6)
GOALIE – GO | A | LIE.
12 Whatever is peculiar to New York? (8)
ANYTHING – it’s peculiarly … A *N.Y.* THING!
14 What we must have to get wage — marginal brightness? (6,6)
SILVER LINING – the marginal brightness is of course the SILVER LINING on the cloud. I’m not sure why I need a silver lining to get my wages – what’s that about? On edit: thanks to aphis99: AG is silver, which WE must have to give W-AG-E.
17 Chain Japanese dog in filthy place — it’s odd that (7,2,3)
STRANGE TO SAY – RANGE | TOSA (Japanese fighting dog), in STY.
20 Bar limiting sailors in cap on drink (5,3)
SCREW TOP – STOP ‘limiting’ CREW.
22 Falling down like an idiot, circling right round (6)
DROOPY – DOPY ‘circling’ R | O.
23 Blackcurrant liqueur cut with a substance like cinnamon (6)
CASSIA – CASSI[S] | A. I didn’t know the plant but did know of the drink and trusted the wordplay.
25 Nurse brought in a shirt for one who’s present (8)
ATTENDEE – TEND ‘brought in’ to A | TEE.
26 Make light of gloomy drama (8)
DOWNPLAY – DOWN | PLAY. Nice clue.
27 Hanker after going round to listen (6)
HARKEN – anagram (‘after going round’) of (HANKER*). This was one of the anagram indicators I looked twice at to be sure.

Down
2 Inventor has raised fish with upped numbers (6)
EDISON – IDE | NOS, each separately reversed.
3 Travels twice as quickly to use return repeatedly? (6-5)
DOUBLE-SPACE – DOUBLES | PACE. Use the return key repeatedly to produce a document, perhaps a draft, with every second line blank to let you write in comments.
4 After scrap, English point out something loser might raise (5,4)
WHITE FLAG – WHIT | E | FLAG.
5 Herald quietly agrees to travel around (7)
PRESAGE – P (quietly), then an anagram (‘to travel around’) of (AGREES*). Another tricky anagram indicator.
6 China rabbit’s about right (5)
CRONY – CONY ‘about’ R. My first thought was GRASS, but that came from GAS, which was the wrong sort of ‘rabbit’.
7 Rest, as when king’s away (3)
LIE – LI[K]E.
8 Making every effort, son missed out in education (8)
TRAINING – [S]TRAINING every sinew!
13 One in hotel, say, finally free no more? (11)
HONEYMOONER – a nice cryptic definition. On edit: thanks again to aphis99 for explaining how this one works. It’s a literal definition, and the wordplay is H for hotel | ONE | Y (say, finally) | anagram (‘free’) of (NO MORE*).
15 Like a desperate attempt to survive drop (4-5)
LAST-DITCH – LAST (survive), DROP (ditch).
16 Separated at least three felines going head to head over nothing (8)
STACCATO – two or more cats backwards giving STAC, then another CAT, and finally O (nothing).
18 Attempt outside work, initially in arty garden design (7)
TOPIARY – TRY ‘outside’ OP I[n] A[rty].
19 Species present in region of interest (6)
SPHERE – SP (abbreviation for ‘species’), HERE.
21 Follow time line for trains (5)
TRAIL – T[ime], RAIL.
24 Function without energy and go badly wrong (3)
SIN – SIN[e] is the trig function.

14 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27672 – Saturday, 23 May 2020.”

  2. I think this is an &lit clue, made up of ONE in H(otel) (sa)Y (NOMORE)*.
    Thanks for the blog – I enjoyed this puzzle, and thought FRUIT WASTE was cleverly misleading too

    Edited at 2020-05-29 11:55 pm (UTC)

  3. Started off slow, FOI 27ac. Like Bruce, I didn’t know CASSIA but knew cassis, and like him, my LOI was FIGURINE. I have no notes on my copy, but I did like ‘fruit waste’.
  4. …two full backs and a goalie, the version of the hymn we sang at primary school. About 45 minutes. DNK CASSIA but with crossers trusted the wordplay. I liked STRANGE TO SAY, ANYTHING and SILVER LINING, but COD to LOI FIGURINE. With so many contenders, this must have been a good puzzle. Thank you Bruce and setter.
  5. ….with the GOALIE, and had a three minute attack of solver’s block before netting my LOI. I never did parse MEADOW or LIE, but now Bruce explains them I’m not sure why that should have been.

    A slow start was finally ignited when I wrote in “to say” at 17A having been bitten by the dog, and then worked out the rest.

    A tricky offering, and I was relieved to creep inside my 20 minute target.

    FOI STRANGE TO SAY
    LOI FIGURINE
    COD HONEYMOONER
    TIME 17:29

  6. Fell at the final modest hurdle after an easy solve having bunged in ONE DAY at 10 without being able to justify it fully. Should have persevered. PECULATE was on the borders of my knowledge but the wordplay was helpful.
  7. Was sure it was One Day’ a reference to the novel – the one where the same day each year is featured. Pretty much indicated in the clue, I suggest, or is this just an extremely clever misdirection.
  8. I started with EDISON and got 8 clues in my first session, indicating quite difficult.
    But I must have speeded up a bit after that as I had just two left at 1240 pm. LOI was HARKEN where I was looking for something a bit more complicated; perhaps I’d have got it more quickly if the clue had been in a QC.
    Knew Cassis from the drink so CASSIA not a difficult guess. Not all parsed -especially Silver Lining- but all correct this week. David
  9. Managed most of this without too much trouble. Saw and liked the SILVER LINING, but failed at the end unable to see FIGURINE, for which I needed a word finder. HONEYMOONER held me up and I didn’t see the wordplay. Very clever! 34:33. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  10. 20:43. Held up by, of all things, ANYTHING and ONE-WAY, where fortunately managed to talk myself out of ONE-DAY. LOI CRONY. I liked the head-to-head felines in STACCATO, DOUBLE SPACE and SILVER LINING for the AG in WE. Thanks Bruce and Setter.
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  13. A struggle in which I got but couldn’t parse silver lining so thanks for clearing that up. I eventually worked out how honeymooner worked which was pleasing but beaten to COD by double space.

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