Times 27175 – Put on your nightcap and try a little bit

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 27 minutes
Music: Carol of Harvest

This is a puzzle that might seem difficult at first, but yields easily if you trust the cryptics.   Even if the answer is a word you are only vaguely familiar with, you can be confident that it must be correct.   The vocabulary is not necessarily obscure, but it is not the stuff of everyday conversation, either.

While some of the clues were a little awkward in their surface, I don’t see a hint of controversy or error.  The worse I can say is that ‘hooch’ is not necessarily inferior in current usage, although that was its original connotation.   So there are really no excuses; skilled solvers will finish quickly.

Across
1 Depart at speed following bishop’s abrupt dismissal (5-3)
BRUSH-OFF – B + RUSH OFF.
5 Save pounds ultimately, meeting accountant over wine (6)
BARSAC – BAR + [pound]S + CA backwards, i.e. Chartered Accountant.  A wine I had a hard time remembering. 
9 Study lines on creative work from East? That’s awkward (8)
CONTRARY – CON + ART backwards + RY.
10 First of Iraqi kings locked up by crazy old emperor (6)
MIKADO – M(I[raqi] K[ings])AD + O.
12 Isolation unsettling Spenser at sea (12)
SEPARATENESS – anagram of SPENSER AT SEA, presumably when he can’t think of a suitable archaic word that rhymes!
15 Inferior liquor husband loves — cold and hot (5)
HOOCH – H + OO + C, H.
16 Result of boring climb amusing to Spooner? (9)
DRILLHOLE – Spoonerism of  HILL, DROLL.
18 Leap dancer made at last before talk with hospital department (9)
ENTRECHAT – ENT + [dance]R [mad]E + CHAT.
19 Pearl’s mother, a credit in the Sunderland area? (5)
NACRE – N(A CR)E, a write-in from the literal.
20 Wide boy’s lookalike, one distributing diamonds etc? (6-6)
DOUBLE-DEALER – DOUBLER + DEALER, in entirely different senses.  ‘Wide boy’ is UK slang.
24 Claim member pitched into porter, say (6)
ALLEGE – AL(LEG)E
25 Trivial piece rejected by Ted Heath, for one? (8)
NUGATORY – GUN backwards + A TORY, so the PM, not the bandleader.
26 Phoney European hotel with appeal for Irish leader (6)
ERSATZ – E + R(-i,+SA)TZ, a nifty word-for-letter substitution clue….well, a word if you are a crosswordian.
27 After exercise, rings cook about game for children (8)
PEEKABOO – PE + OO BAKE backwards, 
Down
1 Male animal enterprising Americans may make fast? (4)
BUCK – double definition, alluding to the fast buck everyone is looking for. 
2 Bone up primarily on article supporting London’s banks (4)
ULNA – U{p] + L[ondo}N + A.
3 Possible hack’s garden implement, a token of good luck (9)
HORSESHOE – HORSE’S HOE.   A hack was an ordinary riding horse, typically one suitable for unskilled riders.
4 Starchy doctor’s alter ego with notes on pungent gas (12)
FORMALDEHYDE – FORMAL + D,E + HYDE. 
6 Delicate priest’s left up displaying nimbleness (5)
AGILE – [fr]AGILE.   Nothing to do with Eli, as it turns out, although he appears upside-down in the answer.
7 Vehicle for men only on green next to a church (10)
STAGECOACH – STAG + ECO + A CH.
8 Sheltered girl appearing in court before duke (10)
CLOISTERED – C(LOIS)T + ERE D.   A clever clue, in that ‘before’ is not a position indicator, but part of the wordplay.
11 Wise men’s true art excited law administrators (12)
MAGISTRATURE – MAGI’S + anagram of TRUE ART.
13 Ragged crowd, they say, digesting poster over pub counter? (10)
THREADBARE – THRE(AD BAR)E, two’s company, three’s a crowd!
14 Left to reduce size of one’s protective grating (10)
PORTCULLIS – PORT + CULL + I’S.
17 Soldier caught in narrow passage, held up by sailor (9)
LANCEJACK – LAN(C)E + JACK.   A word I had never heard, but the cryptic gives it to you.
21 Reasonable, in a word, to do a runner (3,2)
LEG IT — LEGIT.
22 Search valley, missing centre (4)
COMB – CO[o]MB
23 One who lacks experience in quality roofing (4)
TYRO – Hidden in [quali]TY RO[ofing].

45 comments on “Times 27175 – Put on your nightcap and try a little bit”

  1. As far as I am concerned, Formaldehyde is not a gas. Re 16A, is Drillhole really a thing? I don’t think BARSAC is very fair, even in the 15×15. Thanks for the blog. Richard J
    1. That was my first thought, so I looked it up. Boiling point -19 or -20 celsius, so very definitely a gas in this part of the world. Maybe a liquid at the north pole. In winter. Guess it must have been formalin we occasionally came across for preserving things, formaldehyde dissolved in methanol.
  2. ‘Lance Jack’ is Army slang for the rank of Lance Corporal and is in common usage. Interestingly it is definitely two words, yet Collins initially lists it as one. The next rank is (full) Corporal, the vernacular being ‘Full Screw’. Screw in this case refers to wages. Having served in both ranks i can personally attest to this.
  3. just before i sAw the receipt for $6821, i did not believe thAt…my… sister woz like reAlly mAking money pArt time At their lAptop.. there sisters neighbour hAz done this for under eleven months And At present pAid the loAns on there ApArtment And purchAsed A top of the rAnge lotus cArlton. reAd more At,
    COPY AND PASTE……. www .jobsish.com
  4. just before i sAw the receipt for $6821, i did not believe thAt…my… sister woz like reAlly mAking money pArt time At their lAptop.. there sisters neighbour hAz done this for under eleven months And At present pAid the loAns on there ApArtment And purchAsed A top of the rAnge lotus cArlton. reAd more At,
    COPY AND PASTE……. www .jobsish.com

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