Times 26,837: Anagram Amnesty

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I was having a debate with one of the Telegraph Toughie bloggers earlier this year about how many anagrams were allowed in a single Times 15×15 – I thought it was probably 4, he was certain it must be 6 – but one thing’s for sure, this puzzle was comfortably inside any limit with only a couple of clues containing any anagrammatic component, late in the down clues.

I found this a very likeable puzzle of medium chewiness – took me a little over 8 minutes on paper, and looking at the Club board I see that the top solvers finished inside 6 and a half. When those guys do under or around 5 minutes it’s easy, when they take closer to 10 it’s hard, so yes, somewhere in between here, and the Snitch is also declaring this to be just a smidge over par difficulty. My FOI was the biffable 11ac, my LOI typically a 4-letter word (14ac), COD to the simple but effective 6dn, honourable mention to the nice semi-&lit at 15dn. Usual Suspect award to 2dn, another substance that like ISINGLASS seems to turn up in crosswords much more regularly than you’d expect. Thanks to the setter for providing satisfying closure to the week.

I’ll be blogging my first Times Jumbo tomorrow so I’ve kept things short and sweet here so you don’t get sick of me! See you then.

ACROSS
1 Feeble course I must enter with the others (8)
PATHETIC – PATH [course] + I “must enter” ETC [with the others]
9 Paul, for example, worried for the French renegade (8)
APOSTATE – APOST{le->ATE} [Paul, for example, “worried (ATE) for the French (LE)”]
10 Not entirely natural athlete, one may be found in the library (8)
BORROWER – BOR{n} [“not entirely” natural] + ROWER [athlete]
11 Most advisable to enter a call for help for material needing removal (8)
ASBESTOS – BEST [most advisable] to enter SOS [a call for help]
12 Banter in itself contains one warning signal (10)
PERSIFLAGE – PER SE [in itself] contains I FLAG [one | warning]
14 Turning to drink, holding one large container (4)
PAIL – reversed LAP [“turning” to drink] holding I [one]
15 Paper taking party line repeatedly: child’s play (3,4)
RAG DOLL – RAG [paper] taking DO [party] + L L [line, “repeatedly”]
17 Nervous about one extremely brief trembling (7)
SHIVERY – SHY [nervous] about I VER{y} [one | extremely “brief”]
21 Cold and bleak for crop (4)
CRAW – C [cold] + RAW [bleak]
22 Exclusive group start to enter through low gate (3,2-5)
THE IN-CROWD – E{nter} through THIN CROWD [low | gate]
23 Club performer’s band doubling power, beginning to rock (8)
STRIPPER – STRIP{P}E [band “doubling (P for) power”] + R{ock}
25 Notices about sheep spurned by old natives (8)
AMERINDS – ADS [notices] about MERIN{o} [sheep “spurned by (O for) old”]
26 Row of pawns kept by instinct beside a rook (8)
ARGUMENT – MEN [pawns] kept by GUT [instinct] beside A R [a | rook]
27 Announced I am able to deploy extremely pretty girl (3,5)
EYE CANDY – homophone of I [“announced”] + CAN [am able to] + D{eplo}Y [“extremely”]

DOWN
2 To gain energy, a partner taking a soothing juice (4,4)
ALOE VERA – to gain E [energy], A LOVER [partner] taking A
3 Made haste to protect animal under stress (8)
HARASSED – HARED [made haste] to “protect” ASS [animal]
4 Fashionable society around west London? (4)
TOWN – TON [fashionable society] around W [west]
5 Vehicle takes a run through county (7)
CARAVAN – A R [a | run] through CAVAN [county]
6 Feature of fat person suggesting good health? (6,4)
DOUBLE CHIN – suggesting CHIN CHIN, i.e. “good health!”
7 Where life is hectic, stop eating on running track (4,4)
FAST LANE – FAST [stop eating] on LANE [running track]
8 Sly, always about to betray our side first (8)
WEASELLY – AY [always] about SELL [to betray], WE [our side] first
13 Writer considered inept, page needing rework (4-3,3)
FELT-TIP PEN – FELT [considered] + (INEPT P{age}*) [“needing rework”]
15 Pulling this, perhaps, strains hard — I sympathise (8)
RICKSHAW – RICKS H AW [strains | hard | I sympathise], semi-&lit
16 Cross-dressing in something transparent, almost, just the thing for party? (4,4)
GLAD RAGS – DRAG [cross-dressing] in GLAS{s} [something transparent, “almost”]
18 Woman one confused with vicar (8)
VERONICA – (ONE + VICAR*) [“…confused with…”]
19 Embarrassed about playwright in a state of nature again (8)
REWILDED – RED [embarrassed] about WILDE [playwright Oscar]
20 Go wrong, tearing into stuff with sharp teeth (7)
SERRATE – ERR [go wrong] “tearing into” SATE [stuff]
24 Leap from aeroplane (its rear) (4)
JETE – JET [aeroplane] + {aeroplan}E

41 comments on “Times 26,837: Anagram Amnesty”

  1. Another to finish the week where I was slower than I feel I should have been with 28.11. Nothing in the top right until some considerable way through, when it all fell in a heap. The last two, RICKSHAW and CRAW led me down the garden path, as I thought the clue for the first had a clever “take ‘this’ out of ‘strains hard I’ then anagram the result” sort of construction, and could only get DERRAINS, which didn’t work. But with that in mind, CRAW couldn’t start with C despite “cold”. Sometimes the clues aren’t that fiendish after all.

    I was relieved to find REWILDED is indeed a thing, and WEASELLY is spelt like that when its not Ron. Thanks V

  2. Beaten by this one in my hour. I desperately bunged in PERRILE for 20d because it sounded vaguely plausible and fit the wordplay, and I was just starting to suspect it was wrong when my hour bell went off, leaving me with that one, the unknown AMERINDS, the JETE—which I’ve been beaten by before—and the obvious-once-you-see-it-and-don’t-have-the-crossers-wrong ARGUMENT.

    Ho hum. It was quite slow going up to then, with the top half quicker than the bottom, but not by much.

    I would have thought SERRATE more plausible if I’d come up with it, but I doubt I’d ever think of “sate” for “stuff”. I suppose it must be in a dictionary somewhere…

    Thanks to setter and V. (I think I I will see you tomorrow, as it’s the first Jumbo I’ve completed!)

  3. … as I was left with a couple of blanks in the top left (the relatively straightforward BORROWER eluded me…), and AMERINDS. Some clever stuff, but too much unknown vocab made this feel like an unsatisfactory solve. Or part-solve: County Cavan, CRAW, AMERINDS, PERSIFLAGE, REWILDED (could Mr Woode have been a playwright too?).

    I’m with V on today’s COD: DOUBLE CHIN

  4. 18:37 … which is part of my clever plan to make the top solvers think they don’t have to worry about me.

    I enjoyed this a lot. A very interesting vocab. selection, and just the right sprinkling of tricky clues — AMERINDS, EYE CANDY, REWILDED, RICKSHAW

    I especially enjoyed the STRIPPER — something I don’t think I’ve said before

    1. …I see your 18 and raise to 33.

      So am I blaming:

      a) a stinking cold
      b) iPad solving
      c) utter denseness

      The correct answer is of course d) all of the above.
      The reality is a pure c) all the way.

  5. … my tribute to an old girl friend. Not a name that’s made a comeback yet. Took a while to join THE IN-CROWD today, 48 minutes in total. I suspect that’s too slow to be accepted. A nice puzzle even so. COD DOUBLE-CHIN although I think you should have more than two to be considered fat. WOD PERSIFLAGE. I see the SW was the Four Seasons corner with RAG DOLL hoping for GLAD RAGS. I can’t sing that high though so it’s Bryan Ferry I’m singing. Thank you V and setter.
  6. Is what I was singing…

    A good Friday offering, done in 31′, held up a lot in NW, had aqua vita in mind. Oddly, did not make connection 18d/2d. EYE CANDY should be gender neutral in this day and age. Thanks v and setter.

    1. That song always makes me think of the puppy who came into my life when I was three and followed me around for the next sixteen years.
  7. Thrice interrupted today, so no time, but it certainly wasn’t a quick one. For much of it the setter and I seemed to be on parallel lines – heading in the same general direction but never meeting. After the third interruption it came together quickly, leaving me to wonder what the fuss was about.
  8. DNF at just over the hour, with PERSIFLAGE being the 50p word I just couldn’t come up with. I didn’t connect GATE/CROWD, and CAVAN was only a vague blur in deep memory (after I blinked three times and was able to see it was county, not country, in the teeny-tiny print), so those went in on faith and definition. I had the same thoughts as Jack regarding PAIL and RAG DOLL, but since I generally liked the clear wordplay I was OK with both. Thanks Verlaine, ta setter.
  9. 21 minutes for all bar the SW, then another 11 for that, finishing like the great man himself with a 4-letter word, but, in the case of this not so great, it was CRAW.

    Felt-tip pen, like aloe vera, is an item that flourishes in crosswordland. Jete, too, leaps to mind.

  10. .. but a stoat is stotally different.
    45 mins (with croissant and plum jam) – then DNF as I had to come here for AMERINDS and PERSIFLAGE: the latter I am kicking myself about. The former, I just couldn’t think of a sheep to drop an ‘O’ from (and I have been known to wear Merino slipovers – so stylish).
    Mostly I liked: Double Chin and Thin Crowd.
    Thanks setter and V.
  11. Another taking most of an hour – 6 minutes under today.

    Is a pail large? It’s just a bucket. I thought for a moment ‘large’ might be part of the wordplay, but obviously it’s not.

    Also I can’t quite square ‘child’s play’ with RAG DOLL. It’s a plaything.

    Edited at 2017-09-22 09:10 am (UTC)

    1. I think even V might think that a pail of Theakston’s Old Peculiar was a bit on the large side, and might struggle to down it in one.
      1. I would fall down and break my crown, and any fellow drinkers come tumbling after. That’s what normally happens.
  12. All done in 51:51 which I was happy with until I hit submit and realised that although my brain had parsed HARASSED correctly, my fingers had still managed to type in HARRASED. That makes three crosswords this week that I’ve made schoolboy errors in – must try harder.
  13. 35 min, with RHS complete before I had more than CRAW on left side – couldn’t see how to parse 26ac, so thanks Verlaine for that. I agree with Jack on the definition in 15ac, which gave me pause, and was then held up in NW by having biffed BALL-TIP at 13dn, so was trying to use AMBER somehow in 12ac for the ‘warning’.
  14. Just under the 30 mins for me. I solve on a iPad from The Times app and for some reason, the enumeration never indicates hyphens. I think that I would have been quicker on FELT-TIP PEN and THE IN-CROWD if I know that the answers had hyphens. Anyway , like others, very taken by DOUBLE CHIN. Thanks V. I can hardly wait to see how many column inches your blog of a Jumbo takes up!
  15. Pleased to hear I finished in around 2 Verlaines today. I’m in agreement with the Snitch rating of middle difficulty – I was given pause for thought a few times but never felt like I was struggling. A definite COD to DOUBLE CHIN which I thought a good pun wrapped up in a great surface.
  16. I arose thinking it was Thursday and so completed this without the usual Fridayitis. 42mins. Hoorah!

    FOI 4dn TOWN – but I’m not sure which one the setter had in mind – Spalding?

    I did spent quite a bit time on my LOI 24dn JETE.

    However, 15dn RICKSHA(W)was a write-in as was 10ac BORROWER and 18dn REWILDED!

    COD 6dn DOUBLE CHIN!

    WOD PERSIFLAGE from Rear Admiral Sir Percival Flage-Watkins NID.

    Is this similar to GUBBINS – from Major-General Colin Gubbins SOE 1941-1945?

    Edited at 2017-09-22 12:09 pm (UTC)

  17. No coconut for me today. I was becalmed with only a smattering of ALOE VERA in the NW, and having already spent an hour wading laboriously through the rest of the puzzle, looked up PATHETIC and then BORROWER. This finally allowed me to complete the grid at 72:56, so an ignoble finish to the week, adding to my chagrin at having a typo in the QC. Bah humbug! Thanks setter and V.
  18. Haven’t we had RAG DOLL very recently? And with a very similar clue?
    Otherwise a very nice steady solve – just the sort of crossword that I like – with no hold-ups till the unknown PERSIFLAGE with the forgotten PER SE.
  19. A little over fifteen minutes but I went for the “wrong” playright, plumping not for the well-known Wilde but for the well I just seem to have made him up Woode.

    I did wonder if serrate could be an adjective, if thin and low were synonymous and which part of the world might contain the “country” of Cavan.

  20. 12:18. Quite similar experience to yesterday’s for me.
    County CAVAN came up recently in a clue for CAVATINA, which annoyed me, so I remembered it this time.
    1. I remember that now you’ve mentioned it.

      Of course, having been reminded I now find that as well as not finishing today’s puzzle, I’d also bunged in CARAWAY with a question mark and not come back to it… (Heck, there’s a “car” in there and County Caraway sounds like a splendid place to retire.)

  21. Too obsessed with RAM for SHEEP and thus trying to make my ‘native’ an ARAMIND: someone who spoke Aramaic.
    Elsewhere, ARGUMENT reminded me of a treasure hunt-type car rally I set around Sussex in the early 70s, before the oil price shot upwards. I set a clue in the town of Forest Row which I described cryptically as an ‘Argument in the Woods?’
    93m 35s and so many guesses as to make me think that my brain is turning to mush.
  22. Usually I first try to see how many I can work without checkers, but this time I found myself immediately chaining each answer to a previous one, quite steadily chugging along, until I lost steam with about five unfinished, took a break for the QC, then came back and polished this off. Hear, hear for DOUBLE CHIN! I put in THE IN-CROWD while still mystified about the “low gate.” Loved the BOR(n) ROWER. I agree with Rob that the clue for EYE CANDY was sexist and the Times should get with the program! Afraid it is far from the first time I’ve said this, Sotira, but I enjoyed the STRIPPER too.

    Edited at 2017-09-22 05:22 pm (UTC)

  23. Enjoyable Friday puzzle. Spent 20 mins on it this morning making slow but steady progress. Had most of the rest done in 37 mins at lunchtime but needed 5 mins after work for 4dn, 10ac and LOI 21ac where I didn’t know that meaning of crop and wasn’t entirely sure there wasn’t a better synonym for bleak than raw so did an alphabet run, twice, just to be on the safe side. COD to the double chin.
  24. Beaten by RICKSHAW (where I went up the same blind alley without a paddle as some others) and CRAW.
  25. Verlaine, Brian Greer’s book gives the upper limit of complete anagrams as five, so you and your fellow blogger got there together (unless it’s since changed).
    This was a very good puzzle, but I found it very tough. I couldn’t parse ARGUMENT, so I appreciate the enlightenment here. Makes straightforward sense, but wood for trees.
    Surprised DOUBLE CHIN was so many people’s COD. It’s funny but it has been done quite a few times before.
    – Nila Palin
  26. If there is not the ‘quota’ it is hard to get a start if you are not on the setter’s wavelength. Gave up far too soon, in the event. Seems mostly straightforward reading the above.

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