Times Cryptic 26918

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

This one delayed me for 40 minutes and was mostly straightforward so shouldn’t cause too much difficulty for those of a delicate disposition this morning.


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

Across
1 Patient / investigation (4)
CASE – Two meanings, one medical and one potentially criminal
3 Dejected, post-exorcism? (10)
SPIRITLESS – A straight definition and a cryptic
10 V — a sign that’s rude in vacuous affront (7)
AGAINST – Anagram [rude] of A SIGN contained by [in] A{ffron}T [vacuous]
11 Progressive at first, stay moderate (7)
PRESIDE – P{rogressive} [at first], RESIDE (stay)
12 In brief, total out after strike action (6,2,7)
BATTLE OF BRITAIN – BAT (strike), anagram [out] of IN BRIEF TOTAL
13 Great queen backing formula (6)
RECIPE – EPIC (great) + ER (queen) reversed [backing]
14 Concentration of turbines turn a long way, miles (4,4)
WIND FARM – WIND (turn), FAR (a long way), M (miles)
17 Island placed to the west has overly excited state (8)
TASMANIA – SAT (placed) reversed [to the west], MANIA (overly excited state)
18 Washers the wrong way round in gun (3-3)
POM-POM – MOP + MOP (washers) reversed [the wrong way round]
21 Reinterpretation of Anglicanism here in the words of Martin Luther King, say? (8,7)
AMERICAN ENGLISH – Anagram [reinterpretation] of ANGLICANISM HERE
23 Very simple thing for bird to catch worms, ultimately (7)
PROTIST – PRO (for), TIT (bird) containing [to catch] {worm}S [ultimately]. I didn’t know this word for a primitive organism and this appears to be its first outing in a Times crossword. Given a couple of checkers, the wordplay was helpful and I relied on that to come up with the correct answer.
24 I doubt decaying houses beginning to crumble (7)
SCEPTIC – SEPTIC (decaying) contains [houses] C{rumble} [beginning]
25 Bid already made for a living (5,5)
DAILY BREAD – Anagram [made] of BID ALREADY. SOED has: Daily bread; food; livelihood. rare.
26 Thin / British film director (4)
LEAN – Two definitions. David Lean was nominated for  ‘Best Director’ Oscars seven times and won twice, for ‘The Bridge On The River Kwai’ and ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’.
Down
1 Hard to invest in bank for legislative assembly (7)
CHAMBER – H (hard) contained by [to invest in] CAMBER (bank – slope)
2 Bag gripping role on American movie (9)
SPARTACUS – SAC (bag) containing [gripping] PART (role), US (American)
4 Quality arousing sorrow has power over Dumas character (6)
PATHOS – P(power), ATHOS (Dumas character – one of the Three Musketeers)
5 Trace accommodating auberge in France, perhaps? (8)
REPUBLIC – RELIC (trace – something that’s left behind) containing [accommodating] PUB (auberge)
6 Great Britain initially led astray with something that’s bizarre! (3,4,7)
THE MIND BOGGLES – Anagram [astray] of G{reat} B{ritain} [initially] LED SOMETHING.
7 Plant, one breaking some land up (5)
ERICA – I (one) contained by [breaking] ACRE (some land) reversed [up]. This group of plants appears frequently in crosswords and includes heathers and azaleas amongst others.
8 Bone problem besetting winger (7)
STERNUM – SUM (problem) containing [besetting] TERN (winger). The breast bone.
9 Composure needed — lack of power in broken wings? (14)
UNFLAPPABILITY – A straight defintion plus a cryptic hint
15 Reason ecclesiastical leader in primate is the chosen one (9)
APPOINTEE – POINT (reason) + E{cclesiastical} [leader] in APE (primate)
16 Column I bandaged? (8)
PILASTER –  I is in PLASTER and therefore ‘bandaged’
17 Bottom edge of bat hit, caught (7)
TRAPPED – {ba}T [bottom edge], RAPPED (hit)
19 Murmur about this Latin style of punk (7)
MOHICAN – MOAN (murmur) containing [about] HIC (this, Latin)
20 Japanese entertainer in bondage is handmaiden (6)
GEISHA – Hidden in {bonda}GE IS HA{ndmaiden}
22 Mushroom fine in the midst of evening (5)
ENOKI – OK (fine) in {ev}ENI{ng} [midst of]

19 comments on “Times Cryptic 26918”

  1. I did this in two sittings and made heavy weather of the SW corner. Took forever to work out which bits formed the anagram and what the answer was to the boggled mind, despite all the checkers (my LOI).
  2. 18 mins but my broad-minded approach to spelling caught me out again, this time with Sparticus. I suppose I should have parsed the clue properly.

    Last in was a very slow penny-drop on the V of 10a, staring for a long time at A_A_N_T and feeling sure there was no word in English that would fit.

    Thanks again, jackkt, doing a sterling job over the hols.

    Edited at 2017-12-26 09:24 am (UTC)

  3. 59 minutes, but it would have been a lot faster if I’d not confidently bunged in “dispirited” at 3a and had to sort it out later.

    So, FOI unknown, because it turned out *not* to be 3a. I’d also’ve been another minute faster if I’d been more confident about bunging in my LOI, the unknown 23a PROTIST.

    DNK POM-POM, ENOKI or the film director, but at least the wordplay was kind.

    Now I just have to tackle the backlog of the last couple of days! Back to work tomorrow, sadly, so I may not have time…

    Edited at 2017-12-26 08:52 am (UTC)

  4. 40 mins with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    Biggest hold-up was the Protist/Enoki combo. Eventually guessed the fine must be OK and the bird must be Tit – but DNK either word. We live and learn.
    Mostly I liked The Mind Boggles.
    Thanks setter and Jack.
  5. Like Matt, I bunged in the obvious, and rather more clever DISPIRITED at 3, and generally faffed around for 30 minutes. I’ve never knowingly eaten (or spelled, come to that) an ENOKI and, as for PROTIST, that’s a South African demo, isn’t it?
    At least we were spared the two down under whingers to clue POM-POM, and given the state of the cricket, that’s kind of the setter. Mind you, expecting the England team to play at 2 o’clock in the morning probably explains a lot: that’s usually chucking out time for them.

    Edited at 2017-12-26 09:38 am (UTC)

  6. THE MIND BOGGLED over this one probably because I couldn’t work out which bit of the clue the anagram was. COD UNFLAPPABILITY. Had to do this on the iPhone which is always tricky so no sensible time
  7. 30 minutes, 2 coffees, with thick head after getting home so late that the cricket had already begun, then watching it for longer than was wise (a form of torture, seeing Warner score 100).
    PROTIST unknown but guessed from WP as the LOI.
    Liked 9d best.
  8. Another “dispirited” here which caused some problems until STERNUM sorted it out. Also don’t recall meeting PROTIST before. Liked 10A

    Well done Jack

  9. 47:52 mostly straightforward but a few tricky ones, pom-pom as a gun was unknown, protist cautiously entered from wp, trouble at 24ac where I first thought it was an &lit with the wp being an anagram of I doubt housing the initial c from crumble, then an anagram of houses containing the initial c from crumble until finally I saw that there was no anagramming going on at all. Also had trouble identifying anagrist and Def in 6dn. Couldn’t help but think of Verlaine at 19dn’s Latin style of punk. A pleasant start to boxing day, now for the Jumbo!
  10. Aha, DISPIRITED, I thought, very clever. And, as just about everyone else seems to have discovered, very wrong, so something of a false start. Elsewhere, I am always happy to learn a new word if it’s indicated by unimpeachable wordplay, as PROTIST and ENOKI were. All in all, a pleasant challenge to be tackled after a breakfast of left-overs.
  12. 30 mins. Most of it went in fairly quickly but I didn’t want to enter PROTIST until I had 9dn, a clue which took me an age because I didn’t recognise it as a straight cryptic anywhere near as quickly as I should have done. Like Sotira I had a lot of trouble with AGAINST, although once I got it I was kicking myself for being so slow to see how the clue worked. At least I didn’t fall into the “dispirited” trap but that’s only because I didn’t think of it when I first read the clue and when I went back to it I had a couple of checkers.
  13. I had STERNUM before 3a, so also didn’t fall into the dispirited bear trap. Struggled to get a foothold, tentatively entering ERCIA as my FOI, until eventually getting PRESIDE, much later in the solve. Didn’t know PROTIST or ENOKI but the wordplay was unambiguous. Liked SPARTACUS and THE MIND BOGGLES. UNFLAPPABILITY brought up the rear at 37:29. An enjoyable puzzle before a Boxing Day stroll with the family and Sonic the greyhound. Thanks setter and Jack.
  14. Hello all, and Happy Boxing Day. It’s just another workday here, so I hope you enjoy it. The puzzle took a good 30 minutes after cleaning up from the holiday dinner, LOI was the unknown but gettable PROTIST. AGAINST was the highlight. UNFLAPPABILITY also took a while, both for being an unusual word and for the unusual clue. Regards.
  15. SW corner wasn’t helped by having both PROTIST and ENOKI unknown, plus having PUERILE fit the 23a crossers I had. I took a long time to enter CASE, thinking that both parts were examples of the same thing and so looking for something less direct.
    But a pleasant Boxing Day puzzle, and another nice blog. Thx, jack
  16. QC 984 (December 15th 2017) was set by Felix and contained the word UNCTIOUS. In The Times of December 23rd Richard Rogan admitted that it was he who had set that particular QC.
    Malcolm
    BTW I always solve the QC after I have purchased the paper edition, and then always look at Times for the Times, which I thoroughly enjoy. Many thanks to all the bloggers and a Happy New Year.
  18. Not tackled on the day as I was busy letting my children beat me at board games. I enjoyed this and was nearly finished in 25 minutes, only to take 15 more to work out AGAINST, PROTIST and my LOI, 9a failing for ages to think of wings that couldn’t flap even when I had all the checkers. Anyone else think “in broken wings” referred to a word starting with in and finishing with a word for broken?
    P.S. Nice to see it’s turning into a decent game in Melbourne.

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