Times 27460 – hope you approached it 3

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time taken: 16:56. I found this quite difficult and ground to a halt for a while with two left (28 across and 6 down). I was surprised to see so many scores better than mine, so maybe I fell into a few well-laid traps.

I’m writing this fairly late at night here and if I have made a mistake or something needs to be cleared up, I probably will not be able to edit this until early afternoon UK time, so check the comments to see if questions have been answered.

Away we go…

Across
1 I have joined in support, receiving something to chew over (8)
INDUCTEE – IN, TEE(support) containing CUD(something to chew) reversed
5 Doctor joins boat for capital (6)
MOSCOW – MO(doctor) and SCOW(boat)
9 Local people’s unusually big heads (3)
PUB – first letters of People’s Unusually Big
10 Politicians resolve to dishearten ordinary people, — and nearly succeeded later (11)
REPUBLICANS – the outside letters of ResolvE, then PUBLIC(ordinary people), AN(AND, nearly), S(succeeded)
12 Failure to win game that’s raised to shut one out (10)
DRAWBRIDGE – DRAW(failure to win), BRIGHT(game)
13 Post spread by word of mouth (4)
JAMB – sounds like JAM(spread)
15 I had been concerned, short of energy, for a way to prove myself (2,4)
ID CARD – I’D *I had) then CARED(contented) missing E(energy)
16 Poor innings: one’s out for 9 (3,4)
INN SIGN – anagram of INNINGS (since 9 is PUB)
18 Pure English penned by member of church — only the first article appears (7)
ANGELIC – E(english) inside ANGLICAN(member of church) with the second AN removed
20 Take holiday somewhere near Indian state (2,4)
GO AWAY – near the Indian state may be the GOA WAY
23 Huntsman’s strip (4)
PEEL – double definition
24 An independent thinker, like Ariel finally? (4,6)
FREE SPIRIT – At the end of The Tempest, Ariel is freed
26 Entire rota is to be changed, you can bet on it (11)
TOTALISATOR – TOTAL(entire) then an anagram of ROTA,IS
27 Dance, nothing to swell blood pressure (3)
BOP – 0(nothing) inside BP(blood pressure)
28 A doctor in residence perhaps pulled back hospital screen (6)
PURDAH – A. DR(doctor), UP(in residence, perhaps) all reversed then H(hospital)
29 Came earlier and hunted food (8)
PREDATED – double definition

Down
1 Some claim pedestrians get in the way (6)
IMPEDE – hidden in claIM PEDEstrians
2 Expert sort of radio operative (3,4)
DAB HAND – a DAB radio HAND(operative)
3 By using brain, convention latches on to cold beer that’s brewed (10)
CEREBRALLY -RALLY(convention)  after C(cold) and an anagram of BEER
4 Coppers stride out with pride in force (6,2,5)
ESPRIT DE CORPS – anagram of COPPERS, STRIDE
6 Regretful woman is oppressed by sacred text (4)
OTIS – IS under OT(old Testament). My last one in – the reference is to “Miss Otis Regrets”)
7 Man dealing with one piece of bread (7)
CHAPATI – CHAP(man), AT(dealing with) then I(one)
8 Small piece of fowl split between two? (8)
WISHBONE – cyptic definition
11 Encouraging line enclosed by speculator, one after money (7,6)
BEGGING LETTER – EGGING(encoraging) L(line), inside BETTER(speculator)
14 Not hindered, as forgetful picnickers may be? (10)
UNHAMPERED – double definition
17 Behave outrageously, seeing river bed higher (4,2,2)
CAMP IT UP – CAM(river), PIT(bed), UP(higher)
19 Bigger kitchen utensil announced (7)
GREATER – sounds like GRATER
21 In car boot, half empty, a broken tumbler (7)
ACROBAT – anagram of CAR, BO(o)T, A
22 An irrational boss comes across as foolish (6)
STUPID – PI(irrational number) inside STUD(boss)
25 Request enjoyment? Not certainly (4)
PLEA – PLEASURE missing SURE(certainly)

43 comments on “Times 27460 – hope you approached it 3”

  1. I had no idea about the regretful woman, so I went with ODIT assuming it must be an unknown literary reference. Well, it was an unknown literary reference, just not that one. Also took a long time to get PURDAH since PLEA took much longer than it should have.
  3. UP is “in residence, maybe”? If you say so…
    I took it on faith that AT must mean “dealing with,” but really now…
    I had to check that there was some such word as TOTALISATOR (“totalizator” in American).

    Edited at 2019-09-19 05:54 am (UTC)

  4. The definition is ‘expert’; ‘sort of radio’=DAB, ‘operative’=HAND. I’d never heard of DAB.
    1. They introduced DAB here alongside traditional radio broadcasts in the 1990s, and keep threatening to turn the old-style radio off and replace it entirely with digital broadcasts, like they have with the telly.

      I hope this won’t happen anytime soon, as the DAB version still isn’t good enough for me to get Radio 4 in my flat in the middle of a big city, whereas the FM version comes through loud and clear…

    2. Yes, indeed. I skipped over some of George’s explanations, as it was quite late when I got to the blog.
  5. An hour and a minute here, with much shrugging and biffing along the way. I didn’t find this one very satisfying for some reason, and never really got into the flow.

    FOI 1d IMPEDE, LOI 6d OTIS with crossed fingers, not having thought of the song. The only version I know is the Kirsty MacColl cover, and that’s from 26 years ago…

  6. Again slowed down by two clues: POI 8d (d’oh!) and LOI 13ac, which became obvious once I got 8d. I wondered about UP, too. Slow to remember Miss O.
  7. This felt quite tricky to me so I was surprised when I finished in an average time. I was mostly held up by the NE corner until WISHBONE went in; I always find compound words the hardest to spot.

    COD to INN SIGN for successfully misdirecting me for some time wondering how it worked when taking one out of ‘innings’ I’d be one short of the required letters for the anagram.

  8. 11:25 … I whizzed through this, probably not noticing the things that caused others some puzzlement. I rather enjoyed the off-beat nature of a few clues, like heading down Goa way and the forgetful picknickers.

    I must admit to some delay at 15a wondering if an “Id card” was something Sigmund Freud invited his patients to look at. I decided it probably was, hit Submit, and then the penny dropped. Still, as long as you solve ’em …

    1. I used to love Melanie’s song about the Id. I’ll get blackballed if I try to post the link but it’s called Psychotherapy. Well worth a listen.
      “There was a man who thought his friends to him were all superior
      And this complex he imagined made life drearier and drearier
      Till his analyst assured him that he really was inferior
      As the id goes marching on.”

      Edited at 2019-09-19 08:15 am (UTC)

      1. 🙂 fun lyrics. Difficult to search for online as Melanie Klein tends to pop up! But I found it in the end
  9. Wondered about ‘in residence perhaps = UP’ but think it’s a reference to being ‘up’ at university where one may live in halls of residence.

    I doubt I have ever equalled (let alone beaten) George’s solving time in all the 11 or 12 years we have been around here but I take some pleasure today at least in finding this puzzle easier than he did, completing it in 24 minutes which is a very good time for me on any day.

    As a big fan of Cole Porter songs, I enjoyed the reference to Miss OTIS at 6dn although I think we’ve had a very simlar clue previously using the same definition.

    Edited at 2019-09-19 06:18 am (UTC)

    1. I assumed the same for UP, but ‘residence’ (as opposed to halls thereof) for university accommodation isn’t a usage I recognise and it doesn’t seem to be in any of the dictionaries.
  10. Sellar and Yeatman made ANGELIC a write-in. 23 minutes. LOI JAMB after I finally got the WISHBONE I’d been wanting to put in. FOI the nice DAB HAND. Miss OTIS was no problem , a song I’ve known since the year dot, probably from Ella’s rendition, and I have the brilliant Kirsty MacColl version on my iPod. I’m not sure if I got FREE SPIRIT from The Tempest or Disney’s Little Mermaid. Many good clues but COD by a short head to GO AWAY. Nice puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
  13. I thought this was a super crossword, one of those where, at first, you think “this is hard, I’m never going to finish it” then things slot in and you’re impressed with your progress, finally left with a couple of posers – 6d and 7d in my case – then the PDM and before you realise it, you’ve finished. In this case, in 25 minutes. I confess I did put in INDUCTED at 1a but when it refused to be parsed I remembered the old TEE for support thing. Liked OTIS and ANGELIC best. Good blog George, don’t know how you “late at night” people do it, I’m brain dead after dinner.
  14. I came to a screeching halt with Miss OTIS so went and got a second cuppa. I thought GO AWAY was very nice and it reminded me of a golden oldie – South of The Border, Down Mexico Way. Which by some mysterious cerebral process reminded me of the regretful lady. 20.44 with a good 5 minutes of that spent on her. Otis is the name of the ubiquitous elevator company here and I couldn’t get past that for a while, and then I got stuck thinking it was an abbreviation for sending regrets for an invitation, and so on, until I twigged at last.
  16. P.S. George – in 25d it’s missing the last (not first) 4 letters. Like Pip, I don’t know how you do these in the evening – I close down for maintenance cerebrally by then.
  17. 6d was a lovely clue.
    I remember the Fred Astaire version of Miss Otis Regrets.
    Spent ages thinking it must be “RUTH” (sacred test, regretful etc.), but should have waited until I got the crossers.
  18. …but since others have mentioned the Kirsty MacColl version, I’ll give that a try. Apart from the ‘Regretful woman’, the surface of BOP tickled my fancy.

    PEEL was my last in too, despite having heard the song often. The Wikipedia article about him is quite informative.

    Finished in 40 minutes.

    Thank you to setter and blogger

  19. 12:01. I liked this for the same reason as sotira: it felt a bit quirky in a nice way.
    My last in was PEEL: I’m aware of D’ye ken John Peel from doing these puzzles but knew nothing about him beyond the title of the song.
    1. I assumed that among the other things I didn’t ken was that he was a hunter. Later I looked up the song, and indeed he was: “With his hounds and his horn in the morning”.
  20. Quirky indeed, and tricky in equal measure. The NE corner in particular took a bit of working out.
  21. Meeting all day so got this one away early but later delivering comments. Time slow.

    FOI 1dn IMPEDE

    LOI 6dn OTIS ruefully unparsed

    COD 15ac ID CARD – I was looking for some Latin!

    WOD 29ac PURDAH

    Is not TOTALISATOR a horryd word? TOTE is fine.

  22. All a very steady solve until the final 6d which had to be OTIS but why? Post submission I discovered the song, which I didn’t know. As per usual when I come across an unknown like that, I shall learn it on the guitar. The last one was COLCANNON, which was a very fine song by Mary Black which I still play regularly.
  23. I had most of this done in 20 minutes or so, but was left with 1a, and the NE corner.I wanted to put INDUCTED at 1a but couldn’t parse it. It was eventually my LOI as I remembered TEE for support. The big sticking point was the NE. INN SIGN was first to go, then eventually, my cousin, who was looking over my shoulder came up with MOSCOW, and the rest went straight in, WISHBONE leading to JAMB, and CHAPATI bringing up the rear. I then went back to 1a and saw it fairly quickly. 38:44. Thanks setter and George.
  24. In an effort to come in under 10 minutes I went with a rushed, over-optimistic and ill-considered ODIT at 6, putting a woman (Di) in OT, thinking it may be some Latin or Greek word for regretful.

    Odit, Oda, Odictum, Oditus, Odamus, Oditty.

    I know the song from Kirsty MacColl’s version.

    Otherwise I found the puzzle easyish but fun.

  25. According to Wiki ““Miss Otis” entered the lexicon of American pop culture…” so might it not be more suitable in an American crossword? To my mind, there are far too many trans-Atlantic references in the Times crosswords these days. Nicky
  26. Raced through most of this but slowed down by ID CARD and several in the NE corner. MOSCOW was the key though spent a few more mins considering OTIS and what it had to do with a regretful woman. The penny eventually dropped….
  27. ….REPUBLICANS (thanks George) but otherwise had no real problems once I got startef.. I actually finished 10 hours ago, but had no Internet connection – however, York Beer Festival was a blast !

    FOI ID CARD
    LOI JAMB
    COD WISHBONE
    TIME 9:48

  28. 51:08 I found this mostly straightforward but got interminably hung up on 8dn and 13ac. Eventually twigged the cd and 13ac then became clear. NHO the song in 6dn but once Ruth was ruled out by checkers, on the wp I found Otis more convincing than odit or ovit.
  29. One of the advantages of the Times cryptic over my day job is that, in the former, I can just say “nope, can’t do that one” and wander off. Such was the case here, with PURDAH, WISHBONE, CHAPATI, MOSCOW and PEEL all left. (I did get PEEL, but only as a guess that I didn’t enter; I still don’t see how it means ‘hunter’).

    I can’t quite see why these ones caused me such trouble, although I do think PURDAH was tricky.

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