Times 27489 – a European journey

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Well, I thought Monday’s was tough, at least the left side of it, but this one was closer to one I’d expect for a Monday. If it has a theme, it’s a Tour de l’Europe, and odyssey indeed, referring to places in Greece (twice), Romania, Armenia, Germany (twice), and Italy (twice), But this is a mere observation, made to help avoid a blank space before the analysis of clues below, and doesn’t help you solve the clues. It took me 20 minutes and my only MER was in relation to 12d, see below. I thought my clue of the day, 10a, was mildly amusing.

Across
1 Matched level in light drama, backer having withdrawn (8)
COMPARED – PAR (level) inside COMED which is COMEDY without its backer.
5 Seated outside clubs, Hesse emptied small bag (6)
SACHET – SAT has C (clubs) and HE (Hesse emptied) inserted.
8 Wicked deeds at or around large towns (10)
ATROCITIES – AT, OR reversed, CITIES.
9 Poet relieved of diamonds getting payment in advance (4)
ANTE – the poet DANTE loses his D.
10 Why logician won’t accept chair is obvious (6,2,6)
STANDS TO REASON – Cryptic definition ha ha.
11 Daily forced to cancel leader in ridiculous pretence (7)
CHARADE – CHAR (daily) (M)ADE.
13 Headless corpse is sent back for certain journey (7)
ODYSSEY – (B)ODY’S = headless corpse is, YES reversed = sent back for certain.
15 Divine law associated with electoral system (7)
PREDICT – PR (electoral system) EDICT (law).
18 Country folk involved in operatic number (7)
ARMENIA – MEN (folk) inside ARIA.
21 Nobleman to free bananas at this point stuck in tree (4,2,3,5)
PEER OF THE REALM – PALM is the tree, into which insert (TO FREE)* and HERE.
22 Fortify, across the pond, a private thoroughfare (4)
GIRD – GI (across the pond a private), RD (thoroughfare). My loins are frequently girded.
23 One to quit troubled Dáil Eireann — that causes rush! (10)
ADRENALINE – (DA L EIREANN)*.
24 Irishman joins Anglicans for spirited meeting (6)
SEANCE – SEAN the Irish chap joins CE the Church of England. Perhaps not.
25 Outrageous sort of animus (8)
INFAMOUS – (OF ANIMUS)*.
Down
1 Brilliant rescue dog detailed to enter cricket club (7)
CLASSIC – CC cricket club has LASSI(E) a ‘detailed dog’ inserted.
2 Horse carrying disease endlessly spread (9)
MARMALADE – MARE the horse has MALAD(Y) inserted.
3 Song about stinker seen in rural idyll (7)
ARCADIA – ARIA (song, as in 18a), has CAD (stinker) inserted.
4 Style shown in being short with the French (7)
ENTITLE – ENTITY = being, shortened = ENTIT, LE the in French.
5 One to support stocking revolutionary American poet (9)
SUSPENDER – SU = revolutionary American, SPENDER as in Stephen Spender a poet.
6 Husband tucking into liqueur that’s got body (7)
CHASSIS – CASSIS a blackcurrant liqueur, has H for husband inserted.
7 Agreement achieved with three tens, minus tips (7)
ENTENTE – (T)EN, TEN, TE(N).
12 Researcher wanting this instruction to make tea? (9)
DOCTORATE – to get TEA you need to ‘doctor’ ATE. First instincts were that a doctorate is a qualification being sought, or obtained, but here it refers to a person in course of obtaining one, perhaps with an added word ‘student’ being understood. EDIT there again, as pointed out below, if the definition is “researcher wanting this” it works.
14 Romanians on the rampage in small republic (3,6)
SAN MARINO – (ROMANIANS)*.
16 Alligator is one regarding soft floor covering (7)
REPTILE – RE (regarding), P (soft), TILE (floor covering).
17 Prepare without finishing and study in China (7)
DRESDEN – DRES(S), DEN = study.
18 Long article about a provincial Greek (7)
ACHAEAN – ACHE (long), AN (article), insert A. An Achaean comes from an area of Greece in the NW Peloponnese.
19 Wine stain unfortunately showing up (7)
MARSALA – MAR = stain, ALAS reversed.
20 After correction, smile, as lacking purpose (7)
AIMLESS – (SMILE AS)*.

57 comments on “Times 27489 – a European journey”

  1. starts next April when I shall be in Berlin, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Leighton Buzzard and London Town. Unless Boris buggers it up! I did 17dn three years ago – much enjoyed.

    Tme let’s say 45 mins.

    FOI 5ac SACHET

    LOI 22ac GIRD

    COD 17dn DRESDEN

    WOD CASSIS without the husband

    At 2dn – as fond of MARMALADE as I am, I think only of MARGARINE as spread.

    Edited at 2019-10-23 05:33 am (UTC)

  2. Slowed down some in the SW, with LOI 15ac–took a long time to think of that meaning of ‘divine’–POI 22ac. 21ac biffed, didn’t think to parse it until after submitting. I counted 8 clues involving letter deletion–1ac, 5ac, 9ac, 11ac, 1d, 2d 4d, 17d–which struck me as rather a lot, although then again, why not? Also ARIA twice. I took ‘this’ to be the def in 12d. I’d agree with Pip that 10ac was the best of a not that brilliant bunch.
  3. 16 minutes with LOI GIRD and no problems, apart possibly for a MER in the direction of the DOCTORATE student. COD to STANDS TO REASON. I liked SUSPENDER too. Definitely at the easier end of the scale. Thank you Pip and setter.
  4. 37 minutes seemed quite a respectable time after the botch I made of today’s QC.

    Most was straightforward enough although the need to insert an apostrophe in order to parse ODYSSEY delayed me a little and I had to trust to wordplay to come up with the unknown ACHAEAN at 18dn.

    My knowledge of Lassie is more or less confined to the American 1950s TV series and I vaguely remember she was occasionally involved in various rescues of children trapped in deserted mines etc, but I wasn’t sure this qualified her to be defined as a ‘rescue dog’ as in today’s clue. However a little research revealed that the original Lassie as created by Elizabeth Gaskell in a classic short story (later filmed) rescued two half-brothers who were lost and dying in the snow, so the reference is more specific than it had seemed at first.

    Edited at 2019-10-23 05:58 am (UTC)

    1. If you Google ‘Lassie get help’, you’ll be shown a classic New Yorker cartoon that may be relevant.
      1. .. so, I had to do that .. what can I say, very American humor. “lavatory retriever,” that was funny
  5. 35 mins. An iota of yoghurt today with a scintilla of granola and a mere soupçon of blueberry compote. Nothing like the Classic Marmalade Arcadia of the past. Those days will return.
    I agree with Pip and BW: MER at Doctorate and COD to Stands to Reason.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
  6. Oh well, not a good week so far, failed to get DOCTORATE. Am not convinced at all by the reasoning, we do not call someone doing an MA a ‘masters’, the words where ‘student’ is understood are undergraduate and postgraduate. Or am I being unreasonable?

    Liked GIRD.

    Thanks pip and setter.

    1. I don’t see how DOCTORATE can refer to a researcher, either; which is why, as I said above, I took ‘this’ to be the definition, although not all researchers want a doctorate.
      1. “This” has to be included in the definition—“Researcher wanting this”—but the definition has to stand alone, and “this” by itself does not define DOCTORATE.

        Edited at 2019-10-23 03:23 pm (UTC)

    2. The expression is Doctoral Student. Doctorate is the qualification. Yours with a D Phil.
      1. Presumably you wanted your doctorate or you wouldn’t have plugged your way through all those Phils. This doctorate was therefor something you, as a researcher, were wanting..
        1. I had no problem with “researcher wanting this” as the definition. In fact I rather liked this clue.
  7. I started off slowly today then picked up speed before slowing down again in the NE where nothing went in for some time. When I finally got there I wondered why SACHET used such a specific name as Hesse, but now I can’t think of another name that would work.

    Doesn’t DOCTORATE work best with a definition of “Researcher wanting this”, as Pip mentioned as being his initial thought? That’s how I read it.

    1. I wondered why Hesse, too. Wouldn’t Hattie or Hermione have improved the surface? Or have I missed something.

      ….. and club in the singular?

      Edited at 2019-10-23 08:40 am (UTC)

      1. C = clubs, the suit in cards. As far as I’m aware it’s not a valid abbreviation in its own right for ‘club’ (singular).
          1. Well I dare say c = club is in a dictionary somewhere but for Times Crossword purposes it would be very unusual to have an abbreviation that’s not listed in at least one of Collins, Chambers or an Oxford, and this one isn’t as far as I can see.

            I said ‘in its own right’ in my comment because it’s also not usual practice to have a single-letter abbreviation that’s been abstracted from a longer one. So FC may stand for ‘football club’ but that alone doesn’t justify F = football or C = club unless there’s another context in which the single letter abbreviation is valid.

            Having said all that, there are always exceptions, but what I was attempting to do was to justify the setter’s choice of ‘clubs’ in today’s clue.

            Edited at 2019-10-23 10:35 am (UTC)

  8. I thought “Researcher wanting this “ was the definition for12d.
    Just spent 5 mins finding out what MER meant and 20 mins creating an account!

    I’ve followed this blog for a few years now And never felt worthy of making a comment before.

      1. Reading down, yes to Flecker, even Dekker, even Heidegger…but for pity’s sake don’t add to the brekker.

        Edited at 2019-10-23 01:48 pm (UTC)

  9. GIRD detained me as my LOI but no problems otherwise. Quite liked the ‘de-tailed rescue dog’.
  11. Considering my terrible geography knowledge I did quite well to come in just under the half hour on this one.

    Fairly steady top-to-bottom from FOI 1d CLASSIC, though I had to have a few passes at the bottom half when only AV sprang to mind initially at 15a PREDICT, I wasn’t too sure about the existence or spelling of SAN MARINO, Achaea or MARSALA and like others took a while to see LOI 22a GIRD.

  12. ….with raspberries and honey yogurt, I made heavier weather of this than I should have done. I unfortunately began to enter “margarine” at 2D, but then realised that CHARADE ruled it out. To my shame, I needed to alpha-trawl to correct my error – but then, one should never dismiss MARMALADE as a mere spread !

    I needed to write out the anagrist before ADRENALINE revealed itself. NHO ACHAEAN.

    FOI SACHET
    LOI MARMALADE
    COD DOCTORATE
    TIME 14:26

    1. Curiously enough, keriothe’s dig about the non-existence of Homer yesterday sent me off on an internet ramble about the Trojan War, and for reasons I can’t explain, Achaea (and, as it happens, Arcadia) obtruded on my conscious and stuck firmly enough to be an instant connection today. Jung would be delighted.
  13. I had all of this done in 24 minutes, apart from my LOI, GIRD, which took another 14 minutes of alpha trawling and frustration, before I looked it up. Failed to lift and separate and was fooled by the comma which I should’ve ignored. 38:26. Thanks setter and Pip.
  14. 12:29. I enjoyed this, partly just because 10ac made me smile.
    I agree with others that ‘researcher wanting this’ is the definition for DOCTORATE.
  15. My breakfasts are nothing more than functional appetite fillers – cornflakes and coffee usually – though I do love marmalade unlike Mrs 84801442 (formerly known as Mrs Harper) and the children.

    No problems with this – though had to think about the spelling and parsing of ACHAEAN.

    PREDICT took a while as I was thinking law = ACT.

    The tooing and froing over DOCTORATE is above my head – it seemed a reasonable answer with three of the checkers in place.

  16. 11 min with 23a LOI – technical DNF: even having all checkers and writing anagrist down couldn’t see it, so resorted to aid.
    Agree with kevin, pootle and others about 12d being defined by ‘this’.
  17. I managed to finish this before lunch so it must have been easier than average.
    It was an enjoyable tussle for me. ACHAEAN unknown but so pleasing when you work those out correctly.I liked STANDS TO REASON.
    Problems at the end were MARMALADE( I spent too long trying to fit in Margarine or Marge),PREDICT (very clever) and LOI and COD, DOCTORATE which I thought very good. It’s what a researcher is aiming for at university.
    David
  18. Enjoyable spin, not too bumpy. I admit to wondering if a gird was an American private drive. Can’t see any problem with 12 with first three words as a separate enclosed phrase as one parses, a sort of ablative absolute. 21’25.
  19. Thanks for explaining ODYSSEY, which I almost parsed but not quite. One or two unknowns today – e.g. ACHAEAN – but generously clued, so there were no real hold-ups apart from being convinced that 8a was an anagram of DEEDSATOR around L. And trying to get SATCHEL to git into 5a.

    10a was rather weak, I thought. Still, if it raises a smile with some solvers then job done, I suppose. 9m 34s for me, with ENTITLE the LOI shortly after COMPARED (not, as I initially tried, COMBATED).

  20. a rather disjointed solve over about 4 sessions, however I do find that each time I pause, a rash of answers suddenly appear when i look at it again. ADRENALINE was one of those. LOI ENTENTE which I didn’t get until I came here. Thanks for the help!
  22. As above, I rarely post as all has been said (and I hate to admit rarely completing!). But hello to all you regulars and many thanks to you bloggers. Here we go…

    But The World is alright…
    Bolton Wanderers won last night!

    Brekker is often mopping up what the grandchildren leave.

    Completed in under 30 mins.

    See you next year. Alan

    1. I didn’t quite know what to do, it’s so long since we won. So I had a WhatsApp discussion of the game with youngest son while drinking a glass of Rioja. Keep the faith!
  23. Good afternoon all, please can someone tell me exactly what the above acronym stands for? Thanks.
    1. Minor Eyebrow Raise There is a Glossary of jargonon a link towards the top of the page.
        1. Major Eyebrow-Raze – Put out more flags!

          For me a boiled egg (must be brown – 4.45 mins) and Marmite Soldiers.

          Sundays Eggs Benedict -Jamaica Blue Mountain.

          Edited at 2019-10-23 05:17 pm (UTC)

  24. MER at all the granolas on the board. Doesn’t anyone beside me have muesli any more? It seems to be the Israel Folau of the breakfast club.
    1. Granola goes well with yogurt. Muesli doesn’t, unless you can be arsed doing overnight oats.

      I’m very much in the granola camp these days (with Greek yogurt and usually some compote) but will be switching to porridge as winter approaches.

      1. 1. pour muesli into bowl
        2. add a little milk and leave 2 mins
        3. big dollop of plain yogurt, none of that oversweet honey stuff
        4. dollop of fruit on top, raspberries, blueberries, that sort of thing. we are still picking them from our bushes

        .. and enjoy 🙂

  25. A gentle 15.29, with only GIRD causing much head-scratching. At one point I wondered if RIDE was a private road in the US, though nothing else in the clue was encouraging. Needed my alphabet soup strainer to sort it out.
    A bit surprised by the two ARIAs.
    1. Ride isn’t that I know of (but I can see the logic), but Pike is a ‘mostly US’ private road, and pikes are what you would set into the ground to make an Abatis. Given the crossing “I”, I assumed that there was a back-formed verb relating the pikes and the abatis, and you can see how all the trouble with my solve began.

      Otherwise, I liked Entente, and I had no breakfast.

  26. I agree Mr.Mouthful – 10ac was inordinately weak and with Mr. Harper on the tooing and froing at 12dn. HA IRS!

    Edited at 2019-10-23 05:12 pm (UTC)

    1. One might have thought so but in some English dialects ‘sat’ is used to mean ‘seated’ and this seems to be widely accepted in standard English now. I don’t know whether it has made it into any dictionaries yet.
  28. Sorry I’ve been missing around here for a bit. They actually expect me to work and I’ve had fewer chances to visit. This one though, no real problems anywhere, such that I can remember what my LOI was. But still a nice puzzle. Regards.
  29. Catching up after being away, I did this in the waiting room while my son was seeing the orthodontist. Very Mondayish, I thought, but fun. I liked PREDICT, DOCTORATE and teh “deotailed dog”. 10:41.

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