Times 272363

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A fair, middle of the road puzzle today, with some straightforward wordplay and parsing, nothing especially witty or memorable, but nothing to complain about either. 20 minutes with DENOUNCER my LOI. I did remember the tropical bird and the nymph, which helped.

Across
1 Flying mammal healthy cricketer observed, disturbed by game (5,3)
FRUIT BAT – A healthy cricketer would be a FIT BAT, insert RU the game.
5 Diamond is article giant bird’s swallowed (6)
TROCHE – THE swallows ROC the fabulous bird. A troche is a diamond shaped lozenge or pill, EDIT even though it can be / should be circular from its etymology, see comments below.
9 Castigator denied swapping sides (9)
DENOUNCER – Denied = RENOUNCED, swap the first and last letters round.
11 Performer meddling in movie at first with little hesitation (5)
MIMER – M eddling I n M ovie then ER.
12 Conflict dividing city mostly on the sheltered side (7)
LEEWARD – LEED(S) has WAR inserted.
13 Prognostication connected with terribly bad stomach (7)
ABDOMEN – (BAD)* then OMEN = prognostication.
14 Cap charges for clothing new son, a royal (5,8)
CROWN PRINCESS – cap = CROWN, charges = PRICES, insert N, add S(on).
16 Reporter’s right to interrupt person cited in divorce case (13)
CORRESPONDENT – Person in divorce case = CO-RESPONDENT, insert an R.
20 Draw game? He painted frescoes and altarpieces (7)
TIEPOLO – TIE = draw, POLO a game. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, b. Venice 1696, d. 1770.
21 Letter and old poem about Islamic territory (7)
EMIRATE – All reversed; ETA Greek letter, RIME old word for rhyme.
23 In retrospect it heralded support for the church (5)
TITHE – IT in retrospect = TI, THE. &lit. EDIT: and / or parsed as a hidden, RETROSPEC(T IT HE)RALDED
24 Conductor’s chosen way to be announced (9)
ELECTRODE – ELECT = chosen, RODE sounds like road = way.
25 Wild dog old Yankee kept in small shelter (6)
COYOTE – COTE = small shelter, insert O and Y.
26 Woman associated with revolutionary king (8)
ETHELRED – ETHEL is associated with RED revolutionary.
Down
1 Scam exposed by theologian dipping into dossier (6)
FIDDLE – DD (doctor of divinity) goes into FILE = dossier.
2 Bones a girl finally broke grabbing end of wall (5)
ULNAE – UNA a girl, E end of broke, insert L end letter of wall. Plural of ulna.
3 Travel firm covering area producing crested bird (7)
TOURACO – TOUR = travel, CO = firm, insert A for area. African bird more interesting than some, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turaco
4 Liable to mishaps, confounded doc with recent pain (8-5)
ACCIDENT-PRONE – (DOC RECENT PAIN)*.
6 Graduate in drama school gaining name fast? (7)
RAMADAN – RADA = drama school, insert MA, add N for name.
7 Source of protein politician fed to pet? (9)
CAMEMBERT – MEMBER = politician (not MP for once), insert into CAT a pet. Seems an odd choice of definition as camembert is 20% protein and 36% fat.
8 Ghostly atmosphere always hanging over island loch (8)
` EERINESS – E’ER = always, I = island, NESS a loch.
New layout of back row designed to exclude centre (13)
REARRANGEMENT – REAR = back, RANGE = row, ME(A)NT = designed with centre A excluded.
14 Better access securing backing for woodworker’s craft (9)
CARPENTRY – CAP = better, verb; ENTRY = access, insert R being the backing of foR. Or as below, the def. is just ‘Craft’ and the R is from the end of woodworker.
15 Rapturous new sect — Greek, by the sound of it (8)
ECSTATIC – (SECT)* then ATIC sounds like ATTIC, for Greek.
17 Dashed over to save animal shelter wearing away (7)
ERODENT – TORE = dashed, reverse it and insert DEN = animal shelter.
18 Communication left in European skiing area (7)
EPISTLE – E(uropean), PISTE = skiing area, insert L.
19 Nymph originally nameless before getting identification (6)
NEREID – N, ERE = before, ID = identification.
22 University lecturer’s back after a second affair (5)
AMOUR – A, MO = second, U(niversity), R = last letter of lecturer.

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61 comments on “Times 272363”

  1. Fairly easy, that is until the end with TROCHE first, from wordplay only, then CAMAMBERT which I parsed after seeing that it fir the checking letters. I hadn’t heard of the TOURACO either, but it didn’t present a problem. The word, when constructed, sort of looks like it should be a bird. Regards.
  2. ….and statistics. My finishing time would suggest that I found this straightforward, but in fact it was a battle. I was amazed when I stopped the timer, as I seemed to take much longer.

    Started to write “cockatoo” into 3D and was immediately in some difficulty. Luckily I knew TOURACO and soon enough got out of the hold I’d dug.

    I biffed three. EMIRATE and CARPENTRY were parsed post-solve, but I just couldn’t see ERODENT until I came here. My LOI caused a “duh !” moment.

    FOI MIMER
    LOI CAMEMBERT
    COD RAMADAN
    TIME 9:41

  3. 30 mins. I’m undoubtedly being dense here, but the wordplay in 5ac (TROCHE) looks back to front…
    1. I’m with you – I didn’t get this clue (today’s puzzle being well beyond my abilities, I retreated after a while to the quick cryptic), but I agree I was looking to put an article in a bird.

      The requirement to read “article giant bird’s swallowed” as “article; giant bird [i]s swallowed [by it]” as opposed to the natural “article [which] giant bird [ha]s swallowed” always strikes me a rather artificial way of justifying a dubious clue – I don’t regard it as particularly fair if I’m required to infer a whacking great semi-colon into the clue in order to make the cryptic bit make sense. There’s enough ways to mislead and trick me at the setter’s disposal without having to resort to leaving out critical punctuation.

      But no doubt I’m just grumpy because it always stops me in my tracks.

      1. Thanks anon. You’re right, I think the setter’s being a tad unfair in this case.
  4. Whether the definition is iffy or not, ‘troche’ Is completely out of sync with the rest of the crossword, which is basically a write-in even for me. Camembert was a bit iffy as well I suppose. . .Mr Grumpy
  5. DNF, and it now occurs to my that I should be able to use my solving time (or abject failure in this case) to estimate my recent alcohol intake (zero), rather than vice versa.

    I had the same thoughts as [harmonic_row] regarding the back-to-frontedness (or rather, inside outedness) of 5ac. I read it as “…[that] giant bird has swallowed”, but I now see that it should be read as “giant bird is swallowed”. In any event, TROCHE is beyond my ken I failed to get it.

    I also failed on CAMEMBERT, because I was thinking only of MP, rather than member. It’s a shame, because only recently I was thinking what a complete member-up they’ve have made of Brexit.

  6. Finishing one of these is still a rare enough event that I don’t begrudge the 2 hours required. Today’s success was particularly pleasing as three of the answers (Troche, Touraco and Tiepolo) were completely unknown words. Invariant
  7. 30:57 nice puzzle. Held up by the unknown or forgotten troche (though it seems not being fully conversant with the definition was advantageous) and by spending too long trying to fit an article into a giant bird rather than the other way round. Also took time over the crossing camembert with its sneaky definition and thinking of MPs first before members.
  8. Thanks setter and pip
    Like others got off to a flying start in the NE corner which continued through the rest of the puzzle with it only taking 25 min (quick for me) to complete it. Had parsed 23a the same as the original blog, but see that the hidden is a much better way. Thought that CAMEMBERT had a clever word play and didn’t think too much about the definition when I’d worked out the ‘polly in the pet’.
    Finished in the NE corner with EERINESS (which had to be corrected from AIRINESS) followed by that TROCHE (where my ignorance on all things lozenge and round, caused no issues with the definition until coming here).

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