Times Cryptic 27392

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

There were at least half-a-dozen unknown words or meanings in this one so I was pleased to complete it in 37 minutes aided considerably by very fair wordplay. The cattle disease, the bird and the Japanese artist were amongst them, and of course I had forgotten the Chinese dog yet again.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Ring road charge (4)
TOLL – Two meanings
3 One has opus composed for this? (10)
SOUSAPHONE – Anagram [composed] of ONE HAS OPUS
9 Fever’s odd, being brought about by a shower? (7)
MURRAIN – RUM (odd) reversed [brought about], RAIN (shower). Not a word I knew, but apparently it’s a general term covering various diseases of cattle including ‘foot-and-mouth’ which certainly involves fever although I haven’t been able to find the word ‘fever’ mentioned in any dictionary definition of ‘murrain’.
11 Notes saint in screen in church (7)
REREDOS – RE RE DO (notes), S (saint). One of those words learnt many years ago from crosswords and still doing sterling duty.
12 Listen all the way to the end of America’s good cover (9)
HEARTHRUG – HEAR (listen), THRU (all the way to the end – of America), G (good). A somewhat vague definition, but rugs cover things so it’s undoubtedly accurate.
13 Angry, withholding page from copyright infringer (5)
IRATE – {p}IRATE (copyright infringer) [withholding page – p]
14 Socialite’s wordplay for NAMELY? (3,5,4)
MAN ABOUT TOWN – In a crossword clue the wordplay for NAMELY might well be this, to be parsed as: MAN reversed (about ), ELY (town). Referring back to last Tuesday’s QC discussions, Ely is in fact a cathedral city but that doesn’t invalidate the use of ‘town’ here.
18 Tool girl’s holding right after drill, perhaps (6,6)
MONKEY WRENCH – MONKEY (drill, perhaps – a West African baboon ), WENCH (girl) containing [holding] R (right). This strangely named device came up in a QC little more than a week ago. I suspect the setter may need his tin-hat for this one!
21 Lover of loud noise sacrificing little volume (5)
AMOUR – {cl}AMOUR (loud noise) [sacrificing little volume – cl, centilitre)
22 Helpless over everything still in the seed drill? (2,4,3)
ON ONES OWN – O (over – cricket), NONE SOWN (everything still in the seed drill?)
24 Dog — almost more intelligent one (4,3)
SHAR PEI – SHARPE{r} (more intelligent) [almost], I (one)
25 Japanese who drew fish around America (7)
HOKUSAI – HOKI (fish) containing [around] USA (America). Didn’t know.
26 Bird with varied grey tones around wing’s leading edge (5,5)
SNOWY EGRET – Anagram [varied] of GREY TONES containing [around] W{ing} [’s leading edge]. Didn’t know.
27 Pieces turned for joiner (4)
SNUG – GUNS (pieces) reversed [turned]. Snug, the joiner, is one of the Mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the only one not to have been given a Christian name by the Bard.
Down
1 Tiny plant: cat’s sat on leaf (3,5)
TOM THUMB – TOM (cat), THUMB (leaf – as in thumb or leaf through a book or magazine). This is general term for any dwarf version of a plant.
2 Odd for Scots to appear in genealogical list for French duchy (8)
LORRAINE – ORRA (odd – for Scots) contained by [to appear in] LINE (genealogical list). I’ve never heard of the Scottish word but SOED defines it as: Odd, unmatched; occasional, miscellaneous; unattached, unemployed. Didn’t know this as a duchy but the name is familiar as a French region.
4 Possessor of tranquillisers uncovered (5)
OWNER – {d}OWNER{s} (tranquillisers) [uncovered]
5 Lively cunning grabs power completely (9)
SPRIGHTLY – SLY (cunning) contains [grabs] P (power) + RIGHT (completely)
6 Treated pinker sore, upset with burn — this one revolted (6,7)
PERKIN WARBECK – Anagram [treated] of PINKER, RAW (sore) reversed [upset], BECK (burn – stream). A pretender to the throne who came to a sticky end.  I remember his name via Sellar and Yeatman rather than any history lessons at school; does that qualify as ‘Ninja Turtling’?
7 Severe test — exam without notes (6)
ORDEAL – ORAL (exam) containing [without – outside] D E (notes)
8 Regularly take slices in because I hear more like a piece of cake (6)
EASIER – Alternate letters of [regularly take slices in] {b}E{c}A{u}S{e} I {h}E{a}R
10 A yogurt phobia — oddly only a live one can produce this? (13)
AUTOBIOGRAPHY – Anagram [oddly] of A YOGURT PHOBIA
15 Ignorant hunk now in gaol has this? (9)
UNKNOWING – Hidden in {h}UNK NOW IN G{aol} [has – contains – this]
16 Tormented soul none set free (8)
UNLOOSEN – Anagram [tormented] of SOUL NONE
17 Seeking to support small railway operation (8)
SHUNTING – S (small), HUNTING (seeking)
19 Hotel’s out of the base maybe for a sidecar — fruit syrup (6)
CASSIS – C{h}ASSIS (base maybe for a sidecar) [hotel’s out]. Made from blackcurrant.
20 Fruit mum used in toto (6)
TOMATO – MA (mum) contained by [used in] TOTO
23 Mineral containing chestnut pigment (5)
OCHRE – ORE (mineral) containing CH (chestnut  – horse)

64 comments on “Times Cryptic 27392”

  1. @9ac aka Red Water or Texas Fever (Google Dictionary) fyi

    6dn PERKIN WARBECK was not a well-hidden anagram IMO and was further not helped by
    poor kerning (Ed. please take note!) on the word ‘burn’ which appeared as ‘bum’ on my printout. I think gothickmatt, olivia and others would encounter the same issue.

    FOI 13ac IRATE

    LOI 19dn CASSIS (Kir afore lunch!?)

    COD 18ac MONKEY WRENCH with 10dn AUTOBIOGRAPHY simply derived from a yoghurt phobia!

    WOD 24ac SHAR-PEI 沙皮 (Cantonese – sand skin)

    Time 48 minutes

    25ac Katsushika HOKUSAI (‘Kat’ to his mates) made the famed wood block, ‘The Great Wave’ (津波 to his mates)

    Edited at 2019-07-02 03:06 am (UTC)

    1. Luckily I wasn’t distracted by an unlikely bum today, possibly because I was tackling this later in the day, with woken eyes and the sun streaming through the window onto the printout…
    2. I didn’t print this one Horryd but if I had it would, as you say, have been a bummer.
  2. LOI was PERKIN WARBECK, which surely must have come up before, but I had to get thru wordplay. There must be thousands of names of fish, right? Never heard of hoki, but certainly had of HOKUSAI. Nor did I know the Scots word but somehow figured the answer there had to be LORRAINE (of which I occasionally have the eponymous quiche).

    UNLOOSEN is a funny, unnecessary word.

  3. I semi-confidently bunged in ‘raid’ for 1a which mucked up the NW corner for a while. A few uparsed eg MONKEY for ‘drill, perhaps’ and SNUG for ‘joiner’ and I didn’t know the ‘Japanese who drew’ or ‘Odd for Scots’. I liked the long anagrams, especially AUTOBIOGRAPHY and the NONE SOWN bit of 22a.

    Finished in 63 minutes. Maybe about time for a Kir Royale.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

    1. I wouldn’t have known ‘drill’ as such but I’m aware of ‘mandrill’ as one of the largest of monkeys so I sort of assumed from there.
  4. Completed in around 48 mins but a technical DNF, as I checked on HOKI (not knowing the artist) before submitting. For me this was a “double obscurity” that I don’t really enjoy. The other DNKs for me were all very fairly clued.

    On Sellar and Yeatman, I’m sure you’re right that it should be Ninja Turtling. However, growing up in Oz, this and the Farjeons’ Kings and Queens were pretty much my standard reference library in English history.

    Thanks, Jack, for the early and informative blog. And thanks to the setter for an interesting offering.

    1. I’ve lost my copy of “1066 and all That” so can’t check but didn’t they call him Percy Warmneck? If not, they should have.
  5. Around 24 minutes but, like Starstruck, I had to get help on the artist. I was aware of him and his work, but couldn’t remember his name beyond “an H, a K and some vowels”. Was anyone actually helped by the fish?

    SHAR PEI and good old Perkin both forgotten until suddenly remembered with a bit of nudging from checking letters.

    I’ll grudgingly call it 1-0 to the setter as I really ought to have learnt old Kat’s name by now, I suppose.

    I like the MAN ABOUT TOWN clue very much.

    Edited at 2019-07-02 05:36 am (UTC)

    1. Yes, I needed the fish to get to the unknown artist. I’ve heard of it quite a lot over recent years and wondered if perhaps it was an alternative to traditional cod now that we’re into conservation of stocks etc, but more likely it has come up on TV cookery programmes which are so hard to avoid these days.
      1. Fair enough. It hadn’t popped up on my sonar before but if it’s been lightly poached in a seaweed tisane on Masterchef, who am I to say it’s not general knowledge?
        1. Hoki is traditionally poached in Coca Cola which makes the taste buds dance!?
    2. I had the same problem getting the artist’s name, but I eventually remembered HOKI was a fish. I had the same unknowns as others too… ORRA, DRILL (surmised as Jackkt did from mandrill) and WARBECK took a bit of mental dredging. Odd to see the same word (I’d better not spoil by saying which) clued in a similar way here and the QC today. 19:23
  6. Needed Jacks blog to either see which part was the definition or just to keep going.

    My list of crossword words is getting so big its now probably too big to be of much use, hoki orra, and drill added.

    Cod man about town.

  7. On my first pass of across clues I didn’t solve even one so I was surprised to finish this in under 20 minutes (just).

    I was close to throwing in the towel with my LOI HOKUSAI, having assumed America to be US rather than USA and consequently looking for a fish to fit H_K_I. If only I could avoid such assumptions I’d be a much better solver but that is far easier said than done!

  8. 30 mins ignoring my yogurt phobia.
    I liked it – but MER at the Ely/city/town thing. Jack, I see you refer us to the QC, and I looked, but the discussion there seems to be about cathedrals. Can you tell us again why (if we can) we can refer to what is clearly a City as a Town?
    Thanks setter and J.

    On edit – I see now that you say dictionaries define a ‘city’ as a large ‘town’. Hmmm… ok.

    Edited at 2019-07-02 07:29 am (UTC)

  9. No problems with this one other than the Japanese artist who I derived and then looked up. Dear old PERKIN a write in, getting no further than “treated pinker”. SNUG the joiner used to appear quite regularly years ago. Well blogged Jack.
  10. I was going to make MAN ABOUT TOWN my COD but then I remembered that Ely is a city. I’ve even been to choral evensong in the cathedral. I’m afraid that does invalidate the clue. You can’t just be pedantic when you want to be and not at other times.
    In other news, my friend Steve, who runs a kennels/cattery tells me to be VERY careful with SHAR PEIs. Apparently they were bred as fighting dogs and can be quite nasty.
  11. 22 minutes. LOI HOKUSAI, who won the vowel guessing game. I think I must have heard of him. Lambert Simnel and PERKIN WARBECK are imprinted in my memory from Sellar and Yeatman, and Jim Steane’s history lessons at school. I always call the cake Mrs BW bakes at Easter a Lambert Simnel, to her irritation. I didn’t know ORRA for odd but LORRAINE was easy to spot, even without her brother Alsace. I did know REREDOS. It was cruel to have ON ONE’S OWN the day after the last of our children flew the nest, this morning’s constitutional having been taken down Rue Morgue Avenue. But a nice, friendly puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
  12. Spent a lot of time trying to get memory to yield PERKIN WARBECK–much of that time wondering if there wasn’t a Warren Purbeck or somesuch–and finally giving up on FF for the din in AMOUR. Biffed LORRAINE, never even thought of ORRA. With the H, I was sure it was HOKUSAI, but wondered about the fish.
  13. Surprisingly I knew all of the vocabulary (except ORRA – which was not needed to write in LORRAINE). Slightly too many obscure words in this crossword for me.
  14. Another day, another DNF…

    I enjoyed the challenge, but when my hour bell went off I bunged in HOKUSHI in desperation at 25a. I knew the existence of the artist, and even had the image of his Great Wave in my mind, but as I’d never heard of “hoki” for fish and wasn’t sure whether the America was going to be US or USA (or even, possibly, just A: I think that’s happened before…) I couldn’t piece it all together.

    It may not have helped that I wasn’t convinced by 16d, as UNLOOSEN sounded like the opposite of “set free” to me…

    Shame, after managing PERKIN WARBECK, LORRAINE (where I could only recall “unco”, not knowing “orra”), MURRAIN, SNUG, and quite a few others where I wasn’t sure what was going on…

  15. The GOOGLE Dictionary defined it as Redwater Fever so I didn’t have to look further.
  16. 21′ but with HAKUSAI, as keriothe says a lottery if you don’t know.

    I’m not sure that PERKIN WARBECK counts as a ninja turtle since the book has him in his real context….

    Incidentally the QC has one identical answer with the 15×15 with similar wordplay today.

    Thanks jack and setter.

  17. 15:01 but failed in the vowel lottery at 25a. I should have known the artist no doubt but it’s a bit of a mean clue.
    1. If I hadn’t got HOKUSAI I’d no doubt agree with you. As it is I think it is an excellent clue 😉
      1. I think you must be using an incorrect definition of ‘general knowledge’.
          1. Well that’s exactly right, but I didn’t know the artist or the fish so the clue obviously isn’t fair.
            1. But the definition of GK isn’t things you know, it’s things I know; and I knew the artist, so it’s all right.
              1. I think we’ve stumbled upon the Solver’s Paradox – when a clue is both fair and unfair at the same time.
  18. 20 minutes for this one, with that heart-sinking moment with the Japanese artist, one of my should-knows. Obviously terribly famous for the wave picture, but since he himself apparently used over 30 names (I’ve done my Wikiresearch) it was a surprise to cobble it together from the bits and pieces available. Is woodcutting (his best known stuff) drawing?
    Those of us who have been to Passover with a parallel English translation know about MURRAIN, the fifth plague, if you’re lucky with a picture of a dead cow with its feet in the air.
    I liked the reverse clue at 14 enough to not worry about the town/city distinction, though I’d probably have been annoyed if it was (somehow) St Albans.
    I didn’t know (among other things) TOM THUMB as a plant. How we do learn stuff from this pursuit of ours!
  19. Went for hakusai. What else can you do? It’s pure guesswork unless you know one of the two obscurities. An unreasonable clue. Equally bad, I felt, were some of the surface readings, which were of patchy quality: 12ac, 22ac, 6dn, 8dn, 19dn. All of these are a bit clumsy. Sorry to be a grouch, but for me surface readings are important. Thanks jack.
    1. hakusai is Chinese cabbage 白菜. But yes, an unreasonable clue; I can’t imagine what I would have done if I hadn’t known the artist, not knowing the fish.
      1. 白菜 in China itself is strictly translated as ‘white cabbage’ Bái cài, but known as Chinese cabbage elsewhere.
        7月4日快乐
    2. I was amused to think of it’s being worth remarking that one sat all the way thru the single worthwhile cover (song) by (the group) America… known for “A Horse With No Name” (I don’t know if they did any covers).

      And the “sidecar” reference helped me get CASSIS, though the fruity “base” the (bar in the) “hotel” must have been lacking would have likely been lemon juice. But I guess “base” would refer to the cognac and I’m just irresponsibly mixing wordplay and definition. In any case, I have to try a sidecar soon, as I love both cognac and Cointreau. Cheers!

      Edited at 2019-07-02 06:21 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks, guy. You’re right; those clues do have some merit, I guess. I was being a grouch earlier on. Enjoy that sidecar 🙂
  20. 21’45, with a dog, a fish, an artist and a Scots oddity all freakishly lassoed in by a mind at the end of its tether. Not sure about being helpless if on one’s own but I guess one can understand help as with (outside) before it. Enjoyable clutch of words and directions.
  21. ….followed some discussion on the increase in the number of EGRETS in some recent Nature Notes. The letter read “EGRETS ? We have a few, but, then again, too few to mention”.

    DNK HOKUSAI, but, having sampled “hoki” once as a cod substitute, I’m in no rush to repeat the exercise. I found it extremely bland.

    Parsed ON ONES OWN post-solve, but needed Jack’s usual excellent blog to crack the latter half of TOM THUMB.

    An otherwise fine puzzle was slightly blemished for me by the poor clueing of TOMATO.

    I was another to spot the similar clue to the same answer in the QC (nice one today !)

    FOI TOLL
    LOI AMOUR
    COD MAN ABOUT TOWN (take the cathedral out of Ely, and it would become Hicksville overnight)
    TIME 8:10

  22. 10m 26s but I lost the vowel lottery at 25a, distracted by hake and having never heard of the fish or the artist. Well, I may have come across the artist at some point, but I certainly didn’t remember his name.

    Some good clues today – 10d, 12a, 15d were nice – but I lost time on 14a by misreading ‘socialite’ as ‘socialist’. Rather different.

  23. This puzzle started off innocently enough with the LHS providing few problems, but became trickier as I became embroiled in the intricacies of the dexter section. REREDOS eventually reared its head over the rood screen, and PERKIN WARBECK finally surfaced from the depths of my memory, where it lurked from a previous puzzle. UNLOOSEN gave me pause being apparently the opposite of loosen, but it’s just one of those vagaries of the English language. I was working with hake as the fish to try and derive the unknown Japanese artist, but SHUNTING reminded me of HOKI and I shoved the USA in what seemed the appropriate place. I managed to remember the dog, but ORRA and MURRAIN in that sense were derived from wordplay. I glossed over the Monkey/Drill issue. A challenging and interesting puzzle! 35:54. Thanks setter and Jack.
  24. I knew about the fish from reading an article about it turning up disguised as cod in Macdonald’s filet-o-fish where it takes the place of a burger on a bun with American cheese and “tangy” tartar sauce in place of mayo. No further comment. Had (just) heard of the artist. In fact the obscurities in this puzzle all came in the folder marked “just happen to know”. Sirop de CASSIS is the favourite tipple of the infuriating Hercule Poirot. 12.29
  25. Quite tricky in parts, and I’m afraid I had to check the Japanese artist and the dog. Had originally put in Hakusae. Thanks for explaining Snug!

    Edited at 2019-07-02 12:36 pm (UTC)

  26. I’ve probably encountered both the fish and the artist before but neither piece of knowledge stuck, and nor did the last bit of old Perkin War????’s name so a disappointing DNF today.
    1. Thanks for making me feel a lot better, even if I surpassed you by missing LORRAINE too. Oh, and MURRAIN too.

      Edited at 2019-07-02 12:32 pm (UTC)

  27. Not too much problem with this one, although a slow time distracted by tennis. Had same reservations about UNLOOSEN as others – if it is a word, it ought to mean the opposite i.e. tighten, not free.
    Dimly knew the artist and definitely knew Warbeck, the dog, the cow disease and the tool. LORRAINE a write-in unparsed not knowing the Scottish. CoD AUTOBIOGRAPHY for being a fine anagram.
  29. Over 2 hours must have forgotten to pause it again. Some very nice clues here, aside from the wave artist, whose fish was also unknown and in any case I was also working with US rather than USA. COD AUTOBIOGRAPHY
  30. If you can’t buy it with chips in Bridlington, I’ve never heard of it.
  31. This was right on my wavelength with stuff like HOKUSAI and PERKIN WARBECK being must-have knowledge in trivia, though I confess I did temporarily flirt with PARKIN WARBECK and didn’t know the fish.

    Murrain was the name of a scary made-for-TV folk horror play by Nigel Kneale (of Quatermass fame) and so sprang to mind quickly.

  32. Back after missing a few days with IT challenges at home, caused by Mrs. Kevin getting angry at internet supplier and switching service, modems, etc. Anyway, all here was sort of OK except the Japanese fellow, who I looked up. No, I didn’t know the fish either. Perkin known only through his prior appearances here, but the wordplay got me most of the way home. Regards.

    Edited at 2019-07-02 05:14 pm (UTC)

  33. I’ve worked in Glasgow for five years and never once have I heard ORRA to mean ‘odd’. Luckily I’d heard of LORRAINE and so MURRAIN was a lucky guess.

    Talking of cities, Lancaster where I live is laughingly called a city. There exist far bigger towns than Lancaster. If it didn’t have a carhedral, it might even be classified as a small town….

  34. Not the best was it?
    Vague clues , obscure answers. Even the ‘easy’ clue of snug; really? Very Oxbridge elitist
  35. 23:23. Tricky to get started but it all came together in the end. My first pass of the across clues did not bear fruit until my FOI Hokusai. I went to a major exhibition of his work not so long ago in London and have a coffee cup with the Wave on it, so it was a write in even though the fish was unknown. 9ac unknown but wp was generous. Dnk orra but Lorraine was pretty much the second french duchy to come to mind following close behind Alsace (assuming that is also a duchy). Didn’t bother to parse the great pretender at 6dn. Was nicely misled by the yogurt anagram so that’s my COD.
  36. Well, here I am a day late again. Forty minutes for this one, with a few NHOs (MURRAIN, PERKIN WARBECK) and an unparsed AMOUR. Phew.
  37. One where being antipodean helped. Hoki is the commonest fush to be found in fush’n’chups in NZ. It is one the most commercially important fish in NZ, and Is a type of hake. (So Hakusae worth half marks perhaps?) 38 mins, so well outside our target 2 Olivias.
  38. Thanks setter and jack
    Just under the hour for me but with dictionary help along the way. Knew the Asian dog but not the Asian painter, nor the English pretender.
    TOLL was an immediate write in at the beginning quickly followed by OWNER. It took a couple of sessions after that to complete the journey. Thought the MAN ABOUT TOWN clue was among the best and liked putting together the MONKEY WRENCH at 18a (DRILL as a monkey was in the memory bank). Couldn’t find a direct reference for AMOUR being a lover, but more the affair itself, but assumed that some dictionary would have it. It was the penultimate entry with the unknown PERKIN WARBECK the last.

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