Times 27325 – Settlements Abounding

A rare excursion under 20 minutes for me, so easy, but perhaps not as easy as I made it, since it had very little sciency stuff. No, looking at it again, I’d say this was pretty darned easy. Apologies to anyone who was done by ACRE or PRENUPS or whatever, and no aspersions aimed towards the setter, as this was a very enjoyable run-out and hopefully a graduation opportunity for fledgling solvers seeking to give their wings a good flap and take to the sometimes rarefied air of the main cryptic.

ACROSS

1 Finger problem exhibited by party pooper (4)
TYPO – hidden in[par]TY PO[OPER]
3 Fail to criticise a suggestion about power (10)
DISAPPOINT – P (power) in DIS (variant of diss) A POINT
9 Completed a couple of lines on average (7)
OVERALL – OVER A LL
11 Confident when taken to court about source of revenue (7)
ASSURED – R[evenue] in AS (when) SUED
12 Living area accommodating French art gallery (7,6)
HOUSING ESTATE – HOUSING (accommodating) ES (French for ‘[you (s)] are’ – as in ‘Tu EStrès méchant’) TATE
14 Emperor backs a follower of another one (5)
RASTA – reversal of A TSAR; besides carrying a ghetto blaster a RASTA traditionally reveres Haile Selassie, erstwhile Emperor of Ethopia
15 A nice long novel can be relaxing (9)
CONGENIAL – anagram* of A NICE LONG
17 Stimulate boxer to eat large starter (5,4)
SPARK PLUG – SPARK L in PUG
19 Reserves place for supplier of ham that’s appetising (5)
TASTY – TA (Territorial Army, renamed Army Reserve in 2014 after Gareth Keenan had done irreparable harm to the body’s reputation STY
21 Real sociable type’s a help for builder (8,5)
CONCRETE MIXER – CONCRETE (real) MIXER (sociable type); not the sort of clue they’d give you if you were an aspirant to Bletchley Park duties
24 Fortress initially constructed with ornate detail (7)
CITADEL – C[onstructed] DETAIL*
25 Running races after rocket: that’s guts! (7)
VISCERA – VI (a rocket developed by the Nazis) RACES*
26 Take weight off Green politician in bandage (10)
DECOMPRESS – ECO MP in DRESS
27 Turning, smack annoying flier (4)
GNAT – TANG reversed; ‘tang’ as in ‘You’ve given quite a smack to your spaghetti alla puttanesca’

DOWN

1 Also spotted singer keeping book cleaner (10)
TOOTHBRUSH – TOO (also) B (book) in THRUSH (spotted singer)
2 Union rules schools introducing new uniform (7)
PRENUPS – N U in PREPS; prenups should be banned and couples forced to have joint bank accounts instead
4 Having no base in Paris he meets soldier in pub (9)
ILLOGICAL – IL (in Paris ‘he’) GI in LOCAL
5 Stockpile a lot of documents head of army sent in (5)
AMASS – A (a) A (head of ‘arm’) in MSS (manuscripts/documents)
6 Frank often replaces these collector’s items (7,6)
POSTAGE STAMPS – a cryptic definition (CD); franking is a means of replacing the good old stamp, which can be valuable enough to collect
7 Someone in acre with capital? (7)
ISRAELI – another CD; ACRE is in northern Israel
8 Flap over Dorothy lifted (2-2)
TO-DO – reversal of O (over) DOT (abbreviation of Dorothy)
10 A milkman doing trips for beasts in general (6,7)
ANIMAL KINGDOM – A MILKMAN DOING*
13 Miss school drama article placed for son in trust (4,6)
PLAY TRUANT – PLAY (drama) AN instead of S in TRU[s]T
16 Original shots, say, drunk by locals (9)
NEGATIVES – EG in NATIVES
18 Frugal, like soccer team having had to spend pounds (7)
ASCETIC – AS (like) [Glasgow] CE[l]TIC sans the L
20 Observed transporting nine tons in square (7)
SIXTEEN – IX T in SEEN for the number that is 4×4
22 One who regrets imprisoning Liberal head of state? (5)
RULER – L in RUER; an escapee from the Quickie
23 Dispatched two varieties of diamonds (4)
ICED – ICE D; 22’s accomplice…

47 comments on “Times 27325 – Settlements Abounding”

  1. A Monday puzzle if ever there was one, but pleasant. I liked ISRAELI and PRENUPS; but I wouldn’t mind if there was a moratorium on French art (especially in the same puzzle as ‘in Paris he’). It’s Haile, U.
    1. I thoroughly agree – I dislike the ‘French art’ chestnut, and have done so ever since it bewildered me on first encountering it (decades ago), despite my degree being in French and Latin. ‘French art gallery’ is of course a gimme for ESTATE, but let’s have something more imaginative and accurate.
  2. I failed at the last hurdle, Israeli, thought it was a currency, what does the with capital mean?

    Otherwise very enjoyable.

  3. 14:33 … and just about the right amount of thought required for a Monday on my part.

    I had no sweet clue how ISRAELI worked at the time and was even starting to type the question “What’s ‘with capital’ got to do with it?’“ when it finally occurred to me that the city of Acre has a capital letter. Curse these setters and their cunning ways.

    Good fun. Thanks setter and u

  4. Nice and straightforward this morning finishing with a biffed ISRAELI. I hesitated over this one wondering why acre wasn’t capitalised and thinking I’m sure it’s not the capital of Israel. It was only when I checked here I put two and two together (or had them put together for me)!
  5. 26 minutes wih ISRAELI as my LOI and gets a rare COD award from me because of its devious bending of the rule that states that words that require capital letters in the cryptic reading must have them; I don’t recall seeing that trick before. Other than that, this was all fairly straightforward.

    Not questioning the validity, but isn’t SPARK PLUG a more recent addition to the language than the ‘sparking plug’?

    1. I’m going to guess yes, on the basis that I have never heard it referred to as a ‘sparking plug’.
  6. 28 minutes, and add me to the “biffed ISRAELI with a shrug at the end” crew. Doesn’t help that I’d never heard of Acre…
  7. What a jape it would have been had TYPO turned up in pink on submission! Ah well.
    I’m happy enough with 14.45, with most answers going in promptly. DISAPPOINT took longer than most, and CONGENIAL resisted while I tried to make it end in -ING.
    I could be ultra picky and aver that no Israeli lives in Acre: to them it’s Akko (I transliterate and reverse for those of you not familiar with Hebrew), but I liked the clue well enough to make it my COD for originality.
    The TO-DO clue fell into place without much reference to the wordplay, rather because that’s what, throughout the film, that’s what Dorothy calls her dog
    1. By that principle no Germans live in Munich, no Russians live in Moscow… I could go on!
      1. Yes .. though unusually, Swedes do live in Gothenburg, even though it is an anglicisation of Goteborg. My friend from there says that they were so chuffed at being the only anglicised Swedish city that they have adopted it for their own local use too ..
      2. Indeed. And Indians live in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, Chinese live in Peking, Nanking and Hangchow, Congolese live in Albertville, Léopoldville and Stanleyville. I grew up in Verulamium, my Father-in-law in Eperjes in Slovakia. Maybe one day I’ll visit Ayre’s Rock. We could go on… a long, long time.
        Sometimes (admittedly not always), we just go with the flow.
  8. 25 mins with yoghurt, granola, banana, etc.
    DNK Acre so bemused by Israeli. But hat off to the setter for cluing it without the usual reference to Disraeli or Lear.
    I thought the pug/boxer had to be a dog breed thing that I didn’t know, but it looks like it is a boxer/pugilist slang thing that I didn’t know.
    Mostly I liked: Citadel with the ornate detail.
    Thanks setter and U.

    PS. I wonder if the boxer pug is pronounced ‘pyooj’. I’ll ask a couple.

    Edited at 2019-04-15 07:38 am (UTC)

  9. …on train. ISRAELI last in – my knowledge of Acre only coming from a very old Dr Who story (Hartnell – The Crusaders). Otherwise all very straightforward.
  10. 22 minutes with LOI and COD PRENUPS. Is a boxer a pug? They have similarities, but I had them as different breeds. Or are all dogs pugs at a general level? Also, is there a distinction between midges, gnats and mosquitos? Or should I spell them as mosquitoes? Too many decisions for a Monday morning. I didn’t twig why Acre was a capital until coming here either. A decent start to the week, nevertheless. Thank you U and setter.
  11. 9:36. It must be Monday. I didn’t know Acre was a city in Israel, but the checkers made it clear that it was. Nice clue. Thanks for the video link U.
  12. Monday puzzle, but a nice one of the genre. Concluded, as is apparently obligatory today, with the intitially mysterious ISRAELI.
  13. .. and if so, just try starting an engine with one. Of course you can’t start one without them either, but that’s not the point – the same would go for connecting rods. If one component is to be identified as a starter it would be the button on the dashboard, or similar, one would think

    Regardless, I enjoyed this crossword, clever and neatly clued; not hard but none the worse for that. Liked Acre..

  14. DNF as I had KNOT for 27ac. Smack=Tonk (sort of) which only leaves the failure to account for “annoying” as the one flaw in my reasoning.
    Clever it may be, but I disagree about ISRAELI being a good clue on the basis that the surface makes no sense without the capital letter.
  15. 18′ 32”, could have been a lot less, but ISRAELI and PRENUPS took the time. Thanks ulaca and setter.
  16. 10:02. Nice and straightforward. I too liked the cunning device for getting round the capital letter rule in 7dn.
  17. It must have been at the easier end of things as I finished it in one sitting. On the rare occasions I manage to complete the 15×15 it usually takes several revisits over the course of a day. ISRAELI was unparsed and it took me a while to spot the hidden at 1a which then gave me my LOI PRENUPS.
    Thanks for the blog
  18. Technically, the V1 was not a rocket, it was propelled by a pulsejet engine. I remember them only too well, doodlebugging over my childhood home in Surrey.
    DavidB
  19. ….TOOTHBRUSH and guitar, got no tail to drag. Gonna leave on the next passing breeze” (the sadly missed Rory Gallagher).

    No real problems here, although I only parsed ILLOGICAL and DECOMPRESS after finishing.

    FOI TYPO (avoided those today)
    LOI DECOMPRESS
    COD POSTAGE STAMPS
    TIME 8:10

  20. Like a lot of others, I would have been a lot quicker but for the downs 2 and 7. Both good clues. Have we had German or Spanish art? I don’t mind the device so much. It certainly had me good and proper the first time I saw it.
  21. The capital device sailed right over my head but I did somehow remember that the Siege of Acre (is it pronounced as in “acre”?) was what finally persuaded the Crusaders to leave that part of the world to its own devices. Slowed up by a sticky T key (must find Qtips) 16.13
  22. I was another one who biffed ISRAELI without understanding the parsing in any way whatseover. Apart from that, all good clean fun and over in 26 minutes.
  23. As two increasingly confident quick crypticers, who rarely get very far on the 15×15, we really enjoyed finding our wings here!
    Thank you setter – you’ve made our day!,
  24. Another one who biffed Israeli (LOI) while gettng cross that Acre isn’t the capital of said country when – suddenly – the Penny dropped! A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle for me – some fun surfaces (15a, 24a and 27a in particular, and yes 7d, because it was worth the trouble). I’m always happy when I manage to complete. About 45 minutes. Thanks all 😊
  25. 2d. Did anyone else write in plexure as in the weaving together or union with lex (rules) within pure (new)??
  26. I biffed my LOI, ISRAELI, while being chivvied to get a move on to join the family on the trip to Rogie Falls. I hadn’t a clue why it was ISRAELI, but it fitted. PRENUPS was my penultimate, also entered under duress, finally seeing that it wasn’t going to be some play on PODS for school. The rest of it slotted in quite nicely and I submitted at 17:45. Thanks setter and U.
  27. Also on a train today. Guessed Israeli and LOI was NEGATIVES. Enjoyed the puzzle.
    Very windy and cold in Northumberland.
  28. 17:28. I found this fairly easy but still fun to solve. My LOI was 7dn. The cleverness of the clue passed me by, I just threw in Israeli from checkers and the word capital, I think, hinting at the solution being a citizen of some such.
  29. Thanks setter and ulaca
    Done over a couple of short sessions – the first one being an interrupted coffee break. As with most, everything went in very smoothly until coming to the tricky PRENUPS and the devious device used for ISRAELI (made for a “You (un)shifty beggar!” when the penny dropped.
    Didn’t quite get the ‘Frank’ part of POSTAGE STAMPS – and another clever (shifty again) trick.
    It has always been a SPARK PLUG for me, although it did trouble me a little as being the ‘starter’ rather than just a component of the starting process.
    Nice and enjoyable puzzle.

Comments are closed.