Times 27255 – I’ll make a clean breast of this one

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
For some reason I found the LH side of this one easy while the RH side took me twice as long. In retrospect I can’t see why. There’s a marine mollusc you can guess from checkers if you don’t know it, and a bird deducible from word play too. I should have finished it in twenty minutes but it took me nearly forty, then I had to check that 4d was what I thought it was and not some form of German excrement used in printing. 4d was also the only decent long anagram in a pleasant enough puzzle.

Across
1 Meat and toasted cake, no starters, help in reception (3,7)
EAR TRUMPET – (H)EART = meat no starter, (C)RUMPET = toasted cake no starter.
6 Bark associated with golden retriever? (4)
ARGO – Bark her being an alternative spelling for barque; so cryptic definition, Jason being the retriever.
8 Samoan, maybe large, prepared sardine outside (8)
ISLANDER – (SARDINE)* with L inserted.
9 Bird, first in oven, one having stuffed part (6)
ORIOLE – O(ven), I in (ROLE)*. Role = part. We have some shy golden orioles in the woods nearby, their call is melodious and when you see them occasionally so is their bright yellow plumage.
10 German banker resident in Heidelberg (4)
ELBE – River hidden in HEID(ELBE)RG.
11 Decrepit couple going on strike (10)
RAMSHACKLE – RAM = strike, SHACKLE = couple.
12 Fat soldier catching fish (9)
MARGARINE – MARINE has GAR a fish inserted.
14 Pleasingly plump beast about to be snared by vagrant (5)
BUXOM – OX reversed inside BUM.
17 Follow singular conversation? (5)
STALK – S = singular, TALK = conversation.
19 Scot cleaned out in tightest financial investigation (5,4)
MEANS TEST – ST = Scot cleaned out; insert that into MEANEST = tightest.
22 Wines given opening in naval base (10)
PORTSMOUTH – PORTS for wines, MOUTH for opening.
23 Present suppliers not entirely brilliant (4)
MAGI – MAGIC loses its final C.
24 Substitute monarch posed with Zulu (6)
ERSATZ – ER = monarch, SAT = posed, Z for Zulu.
25 See City peak after job changes one opposes (8)
OBJECTOR – (JOB)*, EC = city, TOR = peak.
26 Graduates find kippers here — tucked in? (4)
BEDS – The graduates are Bachelors of Education or B.Eds
27 Sea slug sends horse back with one limb (10)
NUDIBRANCH – DUN = horse, reversed = NUD; I, BRANCH = limb. An odd word for a rather bizarre creature.
Down
1 Skin layer from duck, breached by pressure spray briefly (9)
EPIDERMIS – Insert P for pressure into EIDER a duck, then MIS(T) = spray briefly.
2 Maybe one resisting turnover finds cake on counter (7)
ROLLBAR – ROLL = cake, BAR = counter. Thing in sports or racing car to make rolling over safer, rather than prevent rolling over, I’d have thought.
3 Potentially unsportsmanlike bowling hypnotised member (8)
UNDERARM – UNDER = hypnotised, ARM = member. I never quite understood why underarm bowling was frowned upon; I’d rather try to hit that, than have Jimmy Anderson hurling a ball at me overarm at 85 mph. Perhaps rolling it along the ground would be unsportsmanlike as it’d be difficicult to hoik for six.
4 Turducken perhaps warmed up — or not — at spread (11,4)
PORTMANTEAU WORD – (WARMED UP OR NOT AT)*. A turducken is probably tastier than it sounds, being a duck stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a turkey and roasted.
5 Tablet provided with article about enormous bird (6)
TROCHE – ROC the fabulous bird ges insode THE. A troche is usually a medicated lozenge.
6 Hostile to royal household in battle (9)
AGINCOURT – AGIN COURT. Self explanatory I hope.
7 Scientist one found in ship after docking (7)
GALILEO – GALLEO(N) has I inserted.
13 Show of charity by saint moved Paul’s audience (9)
GALATIANS – GALA supposedly a charity event, then (SAINT)*.
15 Woman dominant in right manner, shown up in game (9)
MATRIARCH – MATCH = game, has R AIR reversed (up) inserted.
16 Busy hospital in Eton cured one patient (2,3,3)
ON THE JOB – H inside (ETON)* then JOB the patient chap from the Bible. Nice use of cured as the anagrind.
18 Alas you’re right to use horn on French street! (3,4)
TOO TRUE – TOOT = use horn, RUE = French street.
20 Protein and energy supplied to number eleven? (7)
ELASTIN – E for energy, then LAST IN i.e. the last man to bat, number eleven. It was my last in as well, as Elastin wasn’t top of my long list of crossword proteins.
21 Single-breasted styles to suit this warrior? (6)
AMAZON – Cryptic definition I think, as in some sources the Amazon warrior ladies allegedly cut off one breast to improve their archery skills.Other sources suggest they were men mistaken for women as they wore dresses. Today they’d be somewhere along the LGBTI spectrum I guess and impossible to criticise.

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56 comments on “Times 27255 – I’ll make a clean breast of this one”

  1. I studied the old molluscs at A level thus 27ac NUDIBRANCH was vaguely remembered – it is pronounced ‘nudibrangk’ btw.

    FOI 10ac ELBE

    LOI 26ac BEDS

    COD 4dn PORTMANTEAU WORD

    WOD 14ac BUXOM – in Derbyshire

    But a DNF as I too went for PENNY TEST @ 19ac – remembering ‘The Broons’ perhaps!?

  2. 21:48. Held up by spotting the hidden EIDE river in 10A, which made ROLLBAR ungettable. The river I was thinking of was, of course the EIDER…. and not to be confused with the duck in EPIDERMIS, my COD. Must remember to read all the letters when looking for a hidden! NUDIBRANCH and TROCHE (my LOI) were unknown. Nice puzzle.
  3. 20 mins. Similar experience to most other people, never having heard of TROCHE or NUDIBRANCH but pleased they turned out to be correct. I knew what a turducken was, having eaten my share of one at Thanksgiving one year (but luckily not having had to prepare it). Some nice clues, especially ARGO.
  4. 11:01 – looks like we have had a run of easier ones, who’s turn is it to blog tomorrow? Gulp.
  5. Early evening breeze through in almost 16 minutes. The last turducken I roasted i placed on the bottom of the oven, which more or less charred the bottom half, making the different (?) tastes indistinguishable in the crunchiness.
    The excellent golden retriever stood out for me. Another pleasant crossword.
    I believe Wonder Woman was meant to be an Amazon, but I certainly don’t remember her being under-equipped to feed twins simultaneously. But then the bow was not her weapon of choice.
  6. I managed to polish this one off in 31:16 this morning, but didn’t have time to comment as my snooker partner arrived to join me for an afternoon on the green baize, inspired by Judd Trump’s triumph over the Rocket. Having knocked an enjoyable raft of balls around and arrived home to some tea and a couple of glasses of Shiraz, I now feel ready to add my thoughts to the pearls of wisdom already dispensed. I liked this puzzle. ARGO was a highlight. Didn’t know TROCHE or NUDIBRANCH. I remembered PORTMANTEAU WORD from a previous puzzle. A feeling of deja vous has now overwhelmed me, as I’m sure I’ve seen similar comments quite recently. Back to the latest episode of Vera…. Thanks setter and Pip.
  7. 36:08 fun puzzle with some neat stuff in it. My LOI was Magi, like a few others I had difficulty with elastin and also means test. I was glad the margarine had a fish in it, stopped me from spelling it with a -ger- in the middle.
  8. I’m clearly in a minority of one, as I thought this was the worst of the year so far. Then again I would say that as I dnf. To me it was more about lazy clueing rather than anything outrageous. Minor irritants such as the unnecessary question mark at 17a. And conversely, the addition of an exclamation mark at 23a wouldn’t have gone amiss (‘that’s magic!’). 26a is terribly long-winded for such a straightforward answer. No need for ‘tucked-in’. And given that the roc has never existed, ‘bird’ is stretching it a bit. Perhaps ‘legendary beast’ would have been fairer? I agree with the controversy about rollbar. Not only is it the incorrect definition, but I don’t associate cake with roll. To be fair, I see the need to make the cake/turnover connection and (thus) deception, but the clue still doesn’t really work if you’re having to force it in this way. Mr Grumpy
    1. I know one can get on the wrong side of a crossword, so to speak, but….
      Tell me, if the mythical roc was not an enormous bird, what was it? The BFG was just as mythical, but could really only be properly described as a enormous man.
      I’m not going to enter into the rollbar controversy (though it caused me no grief) but what, pray, is a Swiss roll if not a cake?
      Perhaps it’s a bit late for deGrumpyfication, but perhaps you’ll permit me to try?! (Punctuation marks added free of charge).
  9. It’s now tomorrow so far too late for meaningful comment. Enjoyable puzzle. Took me 27 minutes with my morning cuppa. Last in ELASTIN – which I’d never heard of. Ann
  11. Thanks setter and pip
    Was able to get this finished in a single session – but it was a long 48 min over breakfast and coffee in our coastal resort of Inverloch whilst on a Chrissy break down there.
    Was another who completed it in two halves and although the mysterious river EIDE initially presented at 10a, it was quickly amended and the LHS was done. Must admit a cringe with the ‘potential unsportsmanlike bowl’ – wonder if Trevor Chappell ever regretted it !
    Same new terms as others and likewise the word play helped out. Had no problems with ELASTIN (and thought that it was one of the better clues of the day). Finished in the NE corner with MAGI (tricky definition) and the excellent ARGO (which was my cod) as the last couple in.

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