If only … it weren’t for 26 across, this would have been very easy. But, I needed help with that, my LOI, since I knew neither the answer nor the wordplay element.
Still, good fun. Thanks to the setter. How did you do?
Note for newcomers: The Times offers prizes for Saturday Cryptic Crosswords. This blog is for last week’s puzzle, posted after the competition closes. So, please don’t comment here on this week’s Saturday Cryptic.
Definitions are in bold and underlined. Instructions copied from the clues to explain the wordplay shown thus. Anagram material (THUS)*. A “~” symbol indicates where text is to be inserted.
| Across | |
| 1 | Commander’s leading question for German? (8) |
| COMPOSER – COM [commander] leading POSER [question]. Sir Edward German: English, of Welsh descent. So – no, not a German! |
|
| 9 | What could be game that is interrupted by day when light fades (8) |
| EVENTIDE – EVENT [could be, game] + I~E [that is] interrupted by D. The ~ indicates where to insert text. |
|
| 10 | Educated at home because of medical (8) |
| INFORMED – IN + FOR + MED. | |
| 11 | Speaking at length with a fine cast (8) |
| WAFFLING – W [with] + A + F [fine] + FLING [cast]. | |
| 12 | Criterion for judging type of telephone that’s small inside (10) |
| TOUCHSTONE – TOUCH~TONE that has S inside.
Once upon a time, this type of phone was just the latest thing! I also wondered what a touchstone actually is: it’s a piece of fine-grained dark schist or jasper formerly used for testing alloys of gold by observing the colour of the mark which they made on it. |
|
| 14 | Truth of account in newspaper (4) |
| FACT – AC in F~T. | |
| 15 | Creature one’s seen swimming round a large island (3,4) |
| SEA LION – SE~ON [anagram, swimming: ONES] round A + L + I. | |
| 17 | Passionate about quiet school’s location? (7) |
| FISHERY – FI~ERY about SH. | |
| 21 | Hives perhaps knocked over in Noah’s Ark (4) |
| RASH – hidden (in), backwards (knocked over). | |
| 22 | One dragging otter along? Alarm went right off (10) |
| TRAWLERMAN – anagram, off: (ALARM WENT R)*
What have otters got to do with anything? Britannica has this: The otter trawl is the most widely used bottom-fishing gear. As it is dragged forward, a pair of flat plates called otter boards—one on each side of the trawl net and weighing several tons—spreads horizontally to keep the mouth of the trawl open; at the same time, a long rope with steel weights keeps the mouth open along its bottom edge. |
|
| 23 | Foreign cathedral city, one English ignored, French king overturned (8) |
| EXTERIOR – EXETER [a cathedral city, with one E ignored] + IOR [ROI, overturned]. | |
| 25 | Hinted at one politician getting sanctioned (8) |
| IMPLICIT – I + MP + LICIT [sanctioned]. | |
| 26 | Trinity College rascal’s topped record during term? (8) |
| SPALPEEN – ELPEE during SPA~N [term].
I’ve never understood why anyone would replace MC [master of ceremonies] by EMCEE. Why is 5 letters better than 2? NHO the answer, either. I gather it’s an Irish word meaning “rascal”, as indicated by the reference to Trinity College; the one in Dublin in this case. |
|
| 27 | Fish around that location could be grouper (8) |
| GATHERER – GA~R around THERE. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | More vino flowing? One will swallow anything that’s going (8) |
| OMNIVORE – anagram, flowing: (MORE VINO)* | |
| 3 | Formalities for device being used outside clubs (8) |
| PROTOCOL – PRO [for] + TO~OL [device being used] outside C. | |
| 4 | Put together ring for wrestling (4) |
| SUMO – SUM [put together] + O. | |
| 5 | One growing tall is embarrassed to court daughter (7) |
| REDWOOD – RED [embarrassed] + WOO + D. | |
| 6 | Flee island in confusion, giving up everything one loves? (4-6) |
| SELF DENIAL – anagram, in confusion: (FLEE ISLAND)* | |
| 7 | Dispute in law illuminated initially indistinct entry (8) |
| LITIGATE – LIT [iilluminated] + I [initially, Indistinct] + GATE [entry]. | |
| 8 | Yarmouth fisherman foolish to conceal source of cod? (8) |
| PEGGOTTY – POTTY to conceal EGG [source of cod]. Clara Peggotty is a character in David Copperfield. Her brother was the Yarmouth fisherman. |
|
| 13 | Temporary sporting shoes including right and left I have (5-5) |
| SHORT LIVED – SHOD [sporting/sports shoes] including (RT + L + I’VE). | |
| 15 | Relief once certain to include sad case (8) |
| SURCEASE – SURE to include CEAS [sad CASE]. | |
| 16 | Police dog mutilated assailant but a second’s escaped (8) |
| ALSATIAN – anagram, mutilated: (ASSAILANT)*. An “s” escaped. | |
| 18 | Refusing to change what actor might have difficulty with (8) |
| HARDLINE – as two words, it’s a cryptic hint. Ho ho. | |
| 19 | Verbal attack avoided by British by the way? (8) |
| ROADSIDE – BROADSIDE, avoiding the B. | |
| 20 | Disturbing call in support of Indian government rising (7) |
| JARRING – JAR [RAJ, rising] + RING [telephone call]. | |
| 24 | Ejected well on time (4) |
| SPAT – SPA [well] + T. | |
I have long used the word SPALPEENs to describe the green Port Lincoln parrots that eat our apples. So the Trinity College Dubliners went in with moderate confidence, though the parsing was a mystery. Thanks to our blogger for the explanation , which is undoubtedly correct . ELPEE for LP! Large eyebrow raise and much groaning!
34mins
24:09
DNK GERMAN, otter. Didn’t understand the wordplay (and don’t much care for it) in SPALPEEN, but somehow knew the word. I knew SURCEASE from Poe’s ‘Raven’: ‘vainly I had sought to borrow from my books surcease of sorrow’… I read David Copperfield untold years ago, somehow remembered the name PEGGOTTY (actually, I remembered the female P, not the fisherman); looked him up to make sure he was from Yarmouth. Rather a tough clue, some might say unfair.
62 minutes. Not easy for me. PEGGOTTY retrieved from the Mariana Trench of Year 10 English and although I vaguely knew the word, I had no idea of the parsing for SPALPEEN beyond seeing the letters LP in the answer. ELPEE as a spelled out initialism; really? As far as I’m concerned, the ODE / Oxford Dictionaries online deserves brownie points for being the only one of the three usual references not to include it.
A few other difficult ones, particularly TOUCHSTONE (yes, a blast from the past) and my LOI JARRING, with the ‘Indian government’ wordplay and -ING as the last three (all checked) letters making it hard to identify the def. I liked the misleading ‘German?’ def for COMPOSER.
Thanks to Bruce and setter
I can’t comment on this as my printout has been thrown away by mistake and the bins have long ago been emptied. If it had printed properly instead of cutting off the end of some clues it would have been safely filed away for the week, but I kept it out in order to refer to it when writing my complaint to The Times. At least the printing problems have been solved apart from the missing header on the Jumbo clue sheet.
Completed this one, but not last Sunday’s.
Liked 23ac EXTERIOR and 5d REDWOOD. Similar to blogger, and no doubt others, have some concerns with a couple of clues, requiring one actual cheat:
Got 26ac because of crossers, ‘span’ was likely part of it, and Chambers had SPALPEEN listed under ‘rascal’ – Trinity College being the likely Irish reference. 8d PEGGOTTY assembled from the clue, but had to be research/checked. My friend happened to know SURCEASE 15d – which fitted clue.
Had to check what an ‘otter’ was (purely to rule out animal cruelty). This setter also seemed to like clues where multiple words reduced to single letters.
Thank you branch and setter for the challenge.
Very hard…I don’t think ELPEE is frankly acceptable- I can’t think of any context where this would be used . Am I missing something?
What next, BeeBeeSee?
Don’t give them ideas!
Done in 70 mins, but needed help with the NHO SPALPEEN, although I saw SPAN, and EP/LP, did not see EE, and the word looks very unlikely. Also had to have help with the easy BROADSIDE, I knew it was a missing B, but couldn’t find either word.
Forgot that I had never heard of GERMAN, until reading the blogs today. What is it with composers? I think I know a fair bit about classical music, but setters do dig up the most obscure ones. Whereas Scientists or Sportsmen are only ever top tier.
No idea about that otter either.
SURCEASE is a word I was only vaguely aware of, but it was well clued. And the hint “once” that it was archaic was generous.
When I was growing up ALSATIAN was the term for police dogs. Someone changed it to German shepherds, and I always thought they were different breeds until I checked today: The name “Alsatian” was a wartime name adopted by the British to distance the breed from its German origins during World War I and was changed back in the 1970s.
SEALIONs are not the same as Seals.
Guessed PEGOTTY, and confirmed that he was indeed from Gt Yarmouth. Never read much Dickens, but aware of characters such as Barkiss, Trottwood etc.
Thank U for dealing with the German Shepherd. Even though it matters little in this context, that dog did not originate in that French border region (Alsace-Lorraine).
Apologies for the pedantry, Merlin, but rather Peggotty, Barkis, and Trotwood! Early in the novel David’s widowed mother remarries a horrible Mr Murdstone. Also his aunt Betsey wants to rename him by replacing his Christian name with her surname, Trotwood. This leads to the thought would Dickens’ beloved novel have been so successful if titled Trotwood Murdstone?
84 minutes WOE. I found that hard and failed with SCAMPEEN as a guess at an Irish rascal. It’s mostly OK in hindsight though I’d forgotten PEGGOTTY’s brother and NHO German. Thanks branch.
Thank you for the blog: particularly interesting about TOUCHSTONE, and “otter trawl”.
I remember a 2005 CD by Ivor Cutler called “An Elpee and Two Epees”, which was a compilation of his first three records from the late 50s, early 60s (one LP, two EPs).
PEGGOTTY was apparently one of several surnames invented by Dickens. However, it always makes me think of the famous 1973 Hovis bakery commercial “Boy on the Bike”, directed by Ridley Scott:
Last stop on round would be old Ma Peggotty’s place. ‘Twas like taking bread to the top of the world.
If ever there was a clue that should not have got past the editor’s blue pencil SPALPEEN was it.
DNF. Do we have a pithy acronym or other jargon for a perfectly good puzzle ruined by one ridiculous clue?
I was enjoying it up to there and feeling pleased with myself for getting the Dickens reference albeit from the TV adaptation with Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins and Harry Potter. Thanks all round anyway.
I squinted at SPALPEEN and PEGGOTTY in all ways except apparently the correct one. Couldn’t make sense of either. I should have at least remembered the PEGGOTTY family were from Yarmouth but I couldn’t make Trinity’s rascal work in any sense. Everything else seemed straightforward. Thanks as always for the illumination, Bruce, and to all for the wonderful nuggets of information I learn here.
Thanks to branch and setter.
My paper has been recycled due to my carelessness. If I got Spalpeen it was by cheating. If I had got it I should have added the plural to Cheating Machine, which I did only today, so maybe I was lazy or forgot. I think the word was at the very tricky end of acceptable but the wordplay was rubbish. Elpee indeed! I agree Emcee is daft too.
Must have cheated for Peggotty as well as I never read any Dickens apart from Tale of 2 Cities when I was 10 or 11 which was too early IMO.
There were a lot of fishy refs here, clearly a theme. I never see Ninas but did notice this one. HHO otter in the fishing sense, no idea why.
Overall an OK puzzle spoiled by Spalpeen.
The really annoying thing about SPALPEEN is that the setter could have chosen other words: SLATTERN, SEA-GREEN, …. My Chambers app just defines SPALPEEN as a rascal – no mention of Ireland or Trinity College. I think if you’re going to have a clue like this the wordplay has to be squeaky clean!
As a Times Cryptic Crossword puzzler and a graduate of Trinity College Dublin I can’t say that I’d ever heard the word SPALPEEN before now. However, I did find it in The Free Dictionary online and that does note the word is of Irish origin. Don’t suppose we will hear any mea culpa as regards the appalling parsing of the clue from our compiler, but we can only hope!
DNF, defeated by SPALPEEN (where enough has been said already) and PEGGOTTY, neither of which I knew.
– Didn’t know that meaning of otter as used in TRAWLERMAN
– NHO SURCEASE but got there from wordplay
Thanks branch and setter.
COD Omnivore
51 mins. Held up by TOUCHSTONE – and the parsing of LOI SPALPEEN, taking too long to recall ELPEE which used to turn up in barred grid puzzles such as The Spectator which I used to do regularly. I can’t see its use in wordplay here as in any way unfair (both elpee and emcee are in Chambers, for example). COD RASH – simple but elegant.
I didn’t fully work out SPALPEEN wordplay but knew the word from my voracious reading of old girls’ school stories, where warm-hearted Irish madcap Pat (in a series about a school called Greylands) sometimes referred to her friends in this way… Rather enjoyed having an intellectual use for this reading!