Times 26631 – you need a spirtle and a shot

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
When I’d finished it I realised this puzzle has a bit of a gloomy theme to it – there was much complaining and moaning, gnashing of teeth and misery, at 2d, 12d, 20a, and 1d, probably induced by the unappetising food at 11a and 12a or you might have the 6d of being a 1a enduring all that rain. I needed a shot of 29a to cheer myself up. I didn’t make a 26d of it, in 20 minutes or so, with 12a stuck in from wordplay and checkers and then looked up to see what the story was about. Thankfully there was a bit of familiar chemistry at 15a and one of those ‘Uxbridge Dictionary’ clues (from ISIHAC) at 18a to redeem things. 27a !

Across
1 MANCUNIAN – MAN for male, CAN for prison, insert UN as I; D British citizen, someone from Manchester, up north.
9 INTRUDE – HINT for tip, delete the H(usband), RUDE for cheeky, D chip in.
10 RATCHET – Cryptic definition, I can’t see more to it than that. I suppose a football rattle is a sort of ratchet that sets your teeth on edge, too?
11 GRUEL – GEL for setting agent, insert RU rugby game, D sloppy food.
12 STIRABOUT – STIR for fuss, ABOUT for concerning, D Wexford’s porridge? Apparently while most of Ireland starved when the potato crop failed in the early 1800s, the lucky folk in the sunny south-east around Wexford were growing barley and living on porridge made from it, known as stirabout. The word was also used for porridge generally in northern parts. Is there some other theme here too with STIR and Porridge being synonyms? Anyway I don’t think the good Inspector Wexford is on the case here.
13 CHATEAU – CH for companion, (abbr. Companion of Honour); A U for a posh, insert TEA for a drink; D country house.
15 ALLYL – ALLY for sidekick, L final letter of rebel, D radical. Allyl is the unsaturated hydrocarbon radical —CH2CH=CH2. If you’re not a chemist (I was once) you can probably infer this from the wordplay and A_L_L.
17 DRILL – Double def, BORE and possibly on the square, i.e. parade gorund.
18 JETTY – D breakwater, if it’s black-ish, it’s jet-ty, ha ha.
19 TABLA – Reverse A L BAT being a large club; D something played by drummer.
20 ANGUISH – NG divides AU, (HIS)*, D suffering.
23 UNIFORMED – “Uni for me” would mean I’m choosing higher education, D last letter of dressed; D in regulation gear?
25 ROBOT – ROOT for base, insert B for born, D perfunctory worker.
27 CHEERIO – CH first two letters of channel, E E quarters, RIO port; D so long.
28 BASENJI – BASE for ignoble, N for knight in chess, J for judge, I for one, D dog. An African variety of hunting dog.
29 ADRENALIN – A, DR for doctor, ENA the female, L for left, IN for at home; D stimulant. –
Down
1 MOROSE – D gloomy, St Thomas MORE has OS for seaman inserted.
2 NIT-PICKING – NICKING is the illegal activity, inset IT and P, D carping.
3 UPHEAVAL – UP for at college, HE for chap, A, VAL the girl; D disturbance.
4 INTRO – hidden reversed in AIRP(ORT NI)FTILY, D prelude.
5 NIGHTCLUB – NIGHT sounds like knight, CUB for youngster has L for Lima inserted; D hot spot.
6 STIGMA – AM GI’S are American soldiers, insert T for time, reverse all; D sign of disgrace.
7 ZULU – ZU sounds like zoo, L and U first letters of lacking ungulates; D African.
8 BELL BUOY – D navigational aid, sounds like bell boy.
14 EXTRAMURAL – Ex tram for old vehicle, then the Ural river, D outside city boundaries.
16 LITHUANIA – H(ead) U(nrivalled) = HU inside (ITALIAN)*, D country.
17 DIATRIBE – AID = assistant, reversed, TRIBE = race, arguably; D harangue.
18 JACOBEAN – JEAN the woman asride A COB a horse, D early 17th century.
21 INTEND – IN for home, TEND for care for; D plan.
22 ADJOIN – JO for woman, inside A DIN for a row; D border, as verb.
24 INCUR – IN for popular, CU, R for run; D sustain.
26 BISH – BISHOP loses OP; D mistake.

47 comments on “Times 26631 – you need a spirtle and a shot”

  1. So that’s what Wexford is doing there; I tried Googling ‘stirabout Wexford’ and got an ad for a B&B. Biffed 14d and 16d, parsed post-solve. I wouldn’t have thought the work of a robot was perfunctory.
    1. I took perfunctory as working without any particular interest or enthusiasm, just as a duty, which I think could be replaced with robotic. Robots can do incredibly complex work, but until they get positronic brains, they won’t give a damn about it.
  2. With 26dn solved before I’d finished printing (it caught my eye because I needed to resize the page to included it on the printout) I thought I was in for an easy time of it but I couldn’t have been further from the truth. Apart from three or four other answers scattered around the grid this turned into a war of attrition as the remaining clues offered the strongest resistance to giving up their secrets and eventually I was defeated in that I needed to use aids a couple of times to kick start the stalled process of solving.

    Wordy clues and a number of unknown answers compounded my misery:

    STIRABOUT, TABLA (thought “tabor” for ages), BASENJI (didn’t know it the last 4 or 5 times it has come up either!).

    Not a good day at the retirement home.

    Edited at 2017-01-25 07:51 am (UTC)

  3. Everyone else found yesterday’s easy, perhaps I got my days mixed up.

    Lucky for me that ALLYL and STIRABOUT were generously clued, and I came dangerously close to entering MANCURIAN. Pretty straightforward otherwise.

  4. 19:57 … dithered a long time over ALLYL before clicking submit. Thrown by ‘knowing’ allele, which I think is pronounced the same and is also a sciency thing.

    After seeing the forum comments, I was going to come here and ask if anyone at all was on the wavelength of this, but clearly the Australian Magoo was.

    This may be the first time I’ve spelt BASENJI right in a puzzle (or got it at all).

  5. 31 minutes of steady but not spectacular solving. As Jack says, BASENJI has come up a few times before and it has at last stuck. Had UPRISING for a while at 3dn, with UP, something like SIR and … Er. I had BISH in my mind for a while but was trying to put the OP in the middle. At least I moved on from pOPe. Came to Thomas More a bit late after thinking about Doubting Thomas. I can see what Kevin is saying about the work of a robot being perfunctory but I read it that if an employee works like a robot, he/she is perfunctory.
    Anyway, thanks setter and pip.

    Edited at 2017-01-25 08:21 am (UTC)

  6. Is there another theme as well with Val, Ena, Jo and Jean all making an appearance? I don’t know of any other hidden connection between these names, otherwise I reiterate my dislike of random forenames, male or female, appearing in clues. It is also, of course, a W short of a pangram.
  7. Much the same as yesterday, and completed in a similar time – today 19.10. I liked “Uni for me!” and JETTY. Many of the clues required a bit of grinding out: MANCUNIAN and ADRENALIN both a case in point, working your way through a series of small building blocks.
    I too puzzled about the teeth on edge, and though there aren’t any other words that fit the crossers, I still left it ’til last. I suppose to make a ratchet you set teeth on an edge: is that it?
  8. 30 minutes with the eastern half finished in 10 minutes. Had to check ALLYL (what I know about radicals could be written on a very small group of atoms – I now discover). Couldn’t get enthusiastic about this crossword.
  9. 13m. I rather liked this, perhaps because I always find it satisfying to work out unknowns like STIRABOUT and ALLYL (not totally unknown that one, I don’t think, but definitely not top of mind) from wordplay. Generally this one seemed about half biffable and half not.
    No idea what’s going on with 10ac. A RATCHET has teeth, of course, but beyond that it’s a mystery to me.

    Edited at 2017-01-25 08:49 am (UTC)

    3. …and similarly unconnected. Was anybody on this forum the Times Crossword finalist who was on last week’s “Only Connect”?
  11. A bit chewier today – after a run of easy puzzles one that’s slightly tougher always takes extra effort. Enjoyed deriving answers like the dog from wordplay.

    Can’t explain RATCHET, my LOI and entered because checkers don’t allow for much else

  12. 10ac a RATCHET wheel is denticulated therefore has its teeth positioned on the edge – was my reading.

    Jack’s FOI 26dn BISH was my LOI – I was an indecent 50 minutes but getting there in the end.

    28ac BASENJI rang a Pavlovian bell.

    I was sure 2dn was going to be GUN RUNNING it wasn’t!

    FOI 18ac JETTY COD 1ac MANCUNIAN

    WOD STIRABOUT(DNK)

  13. Spot on 20 minutes today, with LOI NIT PICKING. Time is only accurate to the nearest minute so, in answer to Sotira who usually is 3x quicker than me but the same today, this was on my wavelength. The old dog slept through until 6 am, which may have helped.Manchester in the north? You must be a United supporter, Pip. They’re even drinking Skinny Latte there. DNK STIRABOUT and only vaguely aware of BASENJI but the cryptics were clear. The last school concert I went to before the youngest thankfully went off to University featured a Tabla performance that won best solo. It must have been better than it sounded. The thought of a RATCHET does seem to set my teeth on edge, but it does have a set of teeth which I guess is the allusion.
    1. Southampton. Bournemouth now they’re respectable, and Arsenal in sympathy with Mrs pip, but NEVER MU. Only Chelsea would be worse. ut North, for me, is anywhere upwards of Winchester.

      Edited at 2017-01-25 07:27 pm (UTC)

        1. I’m a bit conflicted on this, John. Old Trafford football ground is the other, Old Trafford Cricket Ground a spiritual home. O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago!
      2. I preferred it when Southampton and Bournemouth were Third Division South sides, in the latter case with supporters in their bath chairs. This new order requires a change in stereotypes I’m too old for!
  14. The unknowns ALYLL and BASENJI were clearly enough clued for me, but STIRABOUT held me up at the end. I couldn’t think of STIR for fuss and nearly went for SPIN as I thought ‘in a spin’ related vaguely to fuss. After trawling the alphabet I finally saw STIR and with the prison link it had to be. I still thought the clue related to Inspector Wexford until I checked the blog.
  15. 30 minutes, but I had to cheat to get ALLYL, which was far too scientific for me. My best guess before looking it up was ‘axlel’, perhaps the Swedish version…
  16. 25 mins, so on the easier side for me…

    Ended with ALLYL (dnk) as it didn’t look right. Assumed there was an historic prison in Wexford…

    Like deezzaa, was looking for a Q, and first thought 8d ended with ‘quay’. Lhs much quicker than rhs, today.

  17. Happy to get my first finish of the week, coming in in 55 minutes, with STIRABOUT and ALLYL entered with a modicum of prayer. Thanks to setter and blogger, especially for the interesting Wexfordian history lesson!
  18. Just crept in under the hour, after sprinting round most of the grid in half that time. The problem was the NW which took a lot of heavy lifting. Cheers all.
  20. I must have been on the wavelength for this one, coming home in 25:30. There were a number of unknowns which were generously clued. I remembered BISH and BASENJI from previous puzzles. Started with ZULU then filled the grid in clockwise order finishing with RATCHET, which I interpreted as an edge(the pawl) going into the teeth on the device. Only vaguely knew the radical and needed the wordplay. I was trying to fit SW (for Cornwall) into 12a, and didn’t get the Eire connection, using Inspector Wexford as a connection to porridge. Got me to the answer anyway. Last time TABLA came up I probably mentioned that my grandkids had a go on them in the village hall at Arinagour on Coll, where a Tabla expert was giving a demonstration before his performance. I did enjoy this one and was surprised to finish well below my usual time. Thanks setter and Pip.
  21. I thought that this was a fairly easy one, with the more obscure words very fairly clued. I did wonder if there was going to be a J theme when I entered it for the third time, but I guess not. 8m 25s all told.

  22. Read through the clues twice this morning before any light dawned and was expecting a lengthy and gritty solve. However, once I started actually analysing the clues I got a foothold and speeded ( sped? spud? ) up considerably, finishing with a flourish on a speculative ALLYL.

    It always helps to have a plant-free grid.

    Time: all correct in 40 mins.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

  23. Did anyone else get chateau from chat ( cat – companion) and eau (water – drink) or is it just me!!! I did think the clue needed a French reference!!
    1. There is a white wine out there with the symbol of a cat sitting on an egg – Chat-en-oeuf
  24. Good puzzle for wordplay fans, particularly helpful for STIRABOUT (though I didn’t like RATCHET). Whizzed through this one in 7:37, one of my fastest all-correct times on the board, and within 30 seconds of a magoo, eeks. This must mean tomorrow’s will be the stinker of all stinkers.
  25. Had plenty of that today, massively tired and in overdrive, 17′. Wasn’t RATCHET in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?. Thanks pip and setter.
  26. Sorry to nit-pick, but isn’t “chip in” rather a loose definition for “intrude”? Technical DNF for me (kudu instead of Zulu). But quite a nice crossword.
  28. 13 mins, with the last minute and a half spent on STIRABOUT. The ? at the end of the clue made me think there was more going on than there actually was. ALLYL was only vaguely familiar but the WP was extremely helpful.

    Regarding the question about “INTRUDE/chip in” from anonymous above, I see them as just about synonymous in terms of butting into a conversation or a site such as this one.

  29. About 20 minutes, ending with the unknown ALLYL from wordplay with fingers crossed. I didn’t mind RATCHET. Naturally though, I had no idea about the Wexford reference. I did what is often useful when encountering such things: I ignored it. Regards.
  30. Sorry to nit-pick, but isn’t “chip in” rather a loose definition for “intrude”? Technical DNF for me (kudu instead of Zulu). But quite a nice crossword.
  31. Bother. I biffed in “kudu” at 7d, thought “that’s wrong – I’ll come back to it”, and then didn’t.

    Apart from that, 27 minutes of fun were had with this one. I didn’t understand the significance of Wexford in 12ac, and wouldn’t have guessed that it was in Ireland. Everything else went smoothly, though, apart from some time spent trying to justify “fly-tipping” at 2d.

  32. 9:51 for another pleasant, straightforward solve. I wasn’t quite on the setter’s wavelength today and made heavy weather of some easy clues, but I wasn’t a million miles off.

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