Times 26553

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Not one of last Saturday’s tormentors, no doubt they are to come; a middle of the road puzzle for midweek. If any of the usual suspects has a PDF of the nine competition puzzles, could he / she please send me a link or a PM to connect by email.
I expect the speed merchants will be in single digits with this one.

Across
1 NECTARINE – NINE is your square, insert (CRATE)*, D fruit.
6 PIN-UP – P being initial letter of pursued, behind PI and NU being (Greek) characters abroad; D model, say.
9 DISPORT – DI (princess), S (Aeschylus in the end), PORT (left); D play about.
10 TACITUS – I in TACT, US: D historian.
11 STINT – S (singular) TINT (colour); D wading bird. Usually the Little Stint, but there are other varieties it seems. Birds are next after antelopes and plants when it comes to knowing the obscure ones, or not.
12 REFURBISH – RE(D) = short red, FUR = coat, BISH = mistake; D do up.
14 FAN – Cryptic DD, not very cryptic.
15 USELESSNESS – to USE LESS is to economise, NESS = head, D incompetence.
17 UNCANONICAL – (A COUNCIL NAN)*, D contrary to church law. Not an everyday word, but plausible.
19 SUE – Half of EUS(TON), London station, flipping = reversed; D bring action against.
20 SUBNORMAL – S(ON), U(NCIVI)L, around B(ELLINI), NORMA (Bellini’s opera); D unintelligent. This gets my CoD for bringing the composer and the opera into the same clue.
22 CORAL – CO-RA would be a fellow artist, L = lake, D calcareous substance, coral is mainly calcium carbonate, apart from the organism.
24 OARFISH – OAFISH = like an oik, insert R(uns); D swimmer. An odd looking fish I remember from my kids’ book about such oddities.
26 ANTONYM – (NOT MANY)*; d it means the opposite.
27 ESTER – Sounds like ESTHER, an Old Testament Book; an organic compound formed from an alcohol and an acid, e.g. amyl acetate.
28 STEERSMAN – T S (Eliot) insert E’ER = TEERS inside S(outh) MAN (island); D course director.

Down
1 NODES – DON reversed, E S(andpiper), D knots; cleverly, a knot is also a bird like a sandpiper.
2 CUSHION – CU = copper, SHIN (up) = climb (up), insert O (originaly offered); D protection. I messed about with CURTAIN for ages before seeing it had to be this once I’d DISPORTed.
3 ABOUT-TURN – AB = rating, sailor, OUT = dated, TURN = act; D volte-face.
4 INTERREGNUM – (REGRET IN)*, anagrind ‘aroused’, NUM miners’ union; D break in continuity.
5 EAT – Double def.
6 PACER – ACE in P R, D specially trained horse.
7 NITRITE – TIN = can, reversed, RITE = religious observance; D possibly 27, an ester, could be amyl nitrite for example, once used to treat angina.
8 POST-HASTE – POST (pole) HAS (swallows) TE(A) = most of meal, D with great speed.
13 FRENCH LEAVE – (F EVEN RACHEL)*; D unauthorised absence. The French phrase for this is – yes, it really is – filer à l’anglaise.
14 FOURSCORE – FOR (supporting) insert U(niversity), SCORE = grievance, as in ‘settle a score’; D number historically.
16 SOLICITOR – SO (thus) LICIT (permitted) OR (men, ordinary ranks); D legal advisor.
18 CABARET – Insert BA (degree holder) into CARET (sign used by proof readers to indicate an omission): D floor show.
19 SURINAM – All reversed, MAN (fellow), IS with RU (game) inserted; D country.
21 OSIER – D basket-maker, wot yer East Ender might say for Hosier being a sock retailer.
23 LEMON – I can’t make a lot of this, except a lemon can be a flop or a dud.
25 HAS – Alternate letters of c H e A t S, D swindles.

42 comments on “Times 26553”

  1. Quite straightforward but with one fairly uncharacteristic error .. not having heard of a stint, I eventually put stilt, on the rather tenuous basis that an issue or argument could be tilted or coloured .. ah well.

    Edited at 2016-10-26 08:25 am (UTC)

      1. Chambers has

        the answer is a lemon (informal)
        One is given an unsatisfactory answer or no answer at all

  3. Finished in under the half hour with the NW the only sticky bit. All fell into place once I saw DISPORT and correctly biffed STINT. In 1963 A level Chemistry, ESTER would be organic, NITRITE inorganic but maybe they were trying to save us from the crossover chemical mentioned by Pip which causes my comment to be classified as Spam if spelt out in full. Can’t see why, party poppers can’t do much damage unless pulled too close to a face. I guess Copper Nitrite would be clued as ‘hourly overtime pay in east end constabulary’.

    Edited at 2016-10-26 08:55 am (UTC)

  4. 23′, so back in the swing after a holiday. Had to enter stint with crossed fingers. Liked 27, sounds like one of only two canonical books named for women. Thanks pip and setter.
  5. Mostly straightforward, with two unknowns giving me pause for thought at the end – DISPORT and STINT. I did wonder if a colour could be a hint thus giving SHINT but STINT sounded more likely. I’ve also never heard ‘the answer’s a lemon’ though I might see how many blank stares I get if I start using it.
    1. I’m surprised how few have heard the expression. It has been in common usage all my life, and was last heard by me in a recent board meeting as used by a thirty something happening American, so it’s not just us old farts.
  6. 11:07 .. much biffing along the way until I hit CUSHION/DISPORT and FOURSCORE/OARFISH.

    LEMON went in with a shrug.

  7. Quite an easy one thank goodness 🙂 Rather neatly FOI 1ac LOI 28ac, though hardly clockwork in between. STINT and OARFISH seemed unlikely but not much else they could be. Biffs of the day SOLICITOR and SURINAM – the latter should nowadays be spelt with an -E.
  9. A rather good puzzle that didn’t delay me too long past my 30 minute target. I was helped with 20ac by NORMA having come up in the QC only yesterday when I looked it up to remind myself who wrote it. Never heard of the LEMON expression.

    Edited at 2016-10-26 08:40 am (UTC)

  10. A bit less than three quarters of an hour for this one, which I quite enjoyed, even if it wasn’t a real stand-out. Still there were a few uncommon terms (for me anyway) such as ‘bish’ for ‘mistake’ and DISPORT, my last in. Same ‘stilt’ for STINT boo-boo as jerrywh. I liked UNCANONICAL, which I’ll try (I suspect in vain) to casually drop into idle chit-chat some day.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

    1. I recall that it was Dr Thud who used to try and use unfamiar words from the crossword in his daily work although as a medical man, he has the advantage of being able to come out with almost anything without the majority of us understanding a word.
  11. Amazingly I didn’t biff in something stupid for either 11ac or 12ac, despite having every opportunity to do so – the new virtuous Verlaine is a better man than that. STILT definitely felt more familiar as a bird, and I know BISH now having had a discussing about it in these very comments not too long ago, if memory serves. I had no idea what was going on with the LEMON but that seemed plausible and without viable alternatives. Scraped in under the 6 minute mark, maybe I should try this “good night’s sleep” thing more often… but probably not for the rest of this week, having had a quick glance at my diary…
  13. This is totally in the American ouevre and led to the great Beetle (VW Bug) ad from DDB in the early sixties ‘Lemon’. It was shown and noted in an early episode of ‘Madmen’.

    This puzzle wan’t a lemon, sweeter, more nectarine! I was over the line in bang on 30 minutes.

    FOI 3dn ABOUT TURN and LOI 1dn NODES (shocker!The setter did not mention whether this was the common or the lesser spotted sandpiper.)

    Sandpiper is useful for smoothing wood, downunder.

    COD 4 dn INTERREGNUM WOD SANDPIPER

  14. 26 minutes of enjoyable biffery, with stint possibly the most unlikely sounding bird out there. For tiny wee things, they certainly get about a bit.
  15. Apparently Temminck’s stint (Calidris temminckii)gains the first part of its Linnaeusian binomic from the Ancient Greek kalidris, a small grey wading bird; a word used by Aristotle a few yonks back. Temminick was a Dutch …. mais je digresse…
  16. As others, no problem with this one. LEMON a write-in, also surprised so many not aware of it.
  17. 12m. No real problems, including with the same unknowns as others, including the LEMON expression. I know that a car can be a LEMON, though, and that in that sense they provide a well-known and interesting example of market failure.

    Edited at 2016-10-26 10:23 am (UTC)

  18. According to t’internet, the origin of the phrase “the answer’s a lemon” lies “either in a lemon’s sourness or, according to legend, in an improper, indeed an exceedingly smutty, story circulating during the 1920s.”

    WHAT, NO, YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE IT THERE?! TELL US THE STORY!!

  19. Got there in the end, despite initially guessing “petre” (as in saltpetre) for 27a; didn’t seem unreasonable at the time… No problems with the lemons, and I had no familiarity with either “stilt” or STINT, so STINT went in fine, with a shrug…
  20. As you say, nothing too tricky here – I went for STINT with fingers crossed, and couldn’t parse CABARET, but otherwise fine. 8m 45s all told.
  21. 42 minutes with FOI FAN and LOI (luckily)STINT, having dithered between STILT and STINT. LEMON went in with a shrug. Otherwise no great problems. Enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks setter and Pip.
  22. 15:40. The first few answers flew in but I got bogged down here and there and probably spent too long trying to justify some of the more convoluted wordplay when I should have biffed. I pulled the same faces as others over STINT and LEMON and also did a bit of brow-furrowing over DISPORT, and ESTER.
  23. 20m today and probably because I had no unknowns. The bird and metaphorical usage of the fruit were both very familiar. ESTER was a slight doubt but I thought it was familiar from a previous puzzle or two. 16a reminded me of some heads I worked with back in the day, so raised a smile and gets my COD. Thanks to setter and blogger today.
  24. Easier than the last few I think, with STINT the only real unknown.

    Thanks setter and Pip.

  25. Thought I was on for my first ever Cryptic finish, but fell just short with Disport and Nitrite missing. Annoyingly, as soon as I saw the words, the parsing was clear (although I will be honest and say I haven’t heard the word disport before), so maybe a bit more patience would have seen me complete it. Never mind, we go again tomorrow!
    1. Good to hear of your near finish. Look forward to seeing you celebrate the first finish on here soon!
  26. 10 mins of wide awake solving, and I must have been on the setter’s wavelength. CUSHION was my LOI. If I’d even come across “the answer’s a lemon” I’d forgotten it but the answer seemed obvious once all the checkers were in place. Thankfully STINT was vaguely remembered from previous puzzles, although I can see how some of you made the leap from colour to tilt so you have my sympathy.
  27. No real problems. Around 20 minutes, ending with CUSHION because I always need ‘up’ to follow ‘shinny’, not simply ‘shin’. The LEMON answer thing is unknown, and I think not an Americanism, though the LEMON as a dud car, or other manufactured item, is very familiar and maybe a US piece of idiom. I knew of the STINT, too. Regards to all.
  28. Count me in as another who got in some shoulder exercise after putting in LEMON. STINT from wordplay and the rest tidily wrapped up in just over 10 minutes.
  29. A caret is also the symbol in spreadsheets known as ‘hat’ = to the power of, didn’t know it was a printers’ mark. Above the 6 on a QWERTY.

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