Times 27507 – not ‘1 across’d for too long

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found this fairly easy going, starting with 1a and 1d, always a good plan if they spring to mind quickly. A mild ER followed at the definition of 1a, I thought it was closer to ‘confuse’ or ‘fool’ than cheat, but dictionaries say it can mean either. I like doing that to opponents at bridge, but I don’t cheat. I thought a slow bowler in cricket would be trying to 1a a batsman, but he wouldn’t be cheating either. Anyway, it’s a jolly good puzzle with some wit and nothing to scare the horses; it took me about 20 minutes. 1a and 4d get my CoD awards, because I like fun words with Z’s in (unless they’re in Polish, where there aren’t many words without).

Across
1 Cheat black American — drink outside rear of hotel (9)
BAMBOOZLE – B (lack) AM (erican) BOOZE (drink) insert L = rear of hotel. A jolly sort of a word, origin apparently unknown but it was recorded in use much more in the 1700s than nowadays.
6 Composer has change of heart seeing German river (5)
WESER – Baron Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von WEBER, the composer not the barbeque chap, has his B changed to an S, the Weser being a river in NW Germany.
9 Dark end of mall in part of industrial estate (5)
UNLIT – industrial UNIT has L the end of mail inserted.
10 Petty thief left with dangerous criminal, we hear (9)
LARCENIST – L for left, ARCENIST sounds like ARSONIST.
11 Those honourably discharged, one after army corps backed appeal (7)
EMERITI – REME a British army corps, is reversed, IT = appeal, I.
12 Variable bit of punk now neglected (7)
UNKNOWN – Hidden word, in P(UNK NOW N)EGLECTED.
13 Riding fan got on badly, moving back and forth (5,3,6)
TOING AND FROING – (RIDING FAN GOT ON)*.
17 Amphibious troops choose to cut men in charge, producing power (14)
THERMOELECTRIC – A bit convoluted, this wordplay. I think it goes: THE RM (Royal Marines) ELECT inside OR (choose cuts men) IC (in charge).
21 Fashion associated with posh doctor occasioning offence (7)
UMBRAGE – U (posh) MB (doctor) RAGE (fashion, as in all the rage).
23 Something positive about Ben’s element (7)
SULPHUR – PLUS reversed, then HUR as in Ben Hur. The official British spelling is now SULFUR, not just in America, the RSC changed it in 1992. Sulfur is the 10th most abundant element in the universe and the 5th most, by mass, on / in the Earth.
25 Understanding crowd (9)
GATHERING – Double definition.
26 Bitter account to deliver! (5)
ACRID – AC (account) RID (deliver, as in “who will rid me of this…”)
27 Suspect youth leader replacing drug in Kansas City? (5)
DODGY – Y replaces E (drug) in DODGE a city in Kansas.
28 Terrible shortage limiting introduction of powerful ammo once (9)
GRAPESHOT – (SHORTAGE P)*
Down
1 Dark-haired beast going around trap (8)
BRUNETTE – BRUTE goes around NET (trap).
2 Skirmish in Maine, on the sheltered side (5)
MELEE – ME (abbr. for MAINE), LEE the sheltered side of e.g. an island.
3 Blooming ordeal reportedly, projecting beam (9)
OUTRIGGER – OUT (blooming, in flower), RIGGER sounds like RIGOUR (ordeal).
4 Unspecified multitude laid up in the heavenly city? (7)
ZILLION – ILL (laid up) inside ZION.
5 Organ very loud? Musicians’ Union installed protection for listener (7)
EARMUFF – EAR (organ) FF (very loud) has MU (Musicians’ Union) inserted.
6 Create run, wanting to be outside (5)
WREAK – WEAK (wanting) has R inserted. HAVOC is usually wreaked.
7 Sniper who shot one with floating assets? (9)
SHIPOWNER – (SNIPER WHO)*
8 Appraising man on board … (6)
RATING – Double definition.
14 … occupied fellow, initially wearing monk’s apparel (9)
INHABITED – ED (fellow) is IN HABIT (wearing monk’s apparel).
15 Outstanding Liverpudlian singer primarily tackling early swing (9)
OSCILLATE – OS (outstanding abbr.) CILLA (Ms Black, as in what’s ya name and where d’ya come from?) T E (primarily tackling early).
16 Approve current review newspaper boss accepted (8)
ACCREDIT – AC (current) CRIT (review) insert ED(itor).
18 Opportunity created by old writer in Greek capital (7)
OPENING – O(ld), PEN, IN G(reek).
19 The Spanish commander consuming new Italian dish (7)
LASAGNA – LAS (the Spanish), AGA (commander) insert N.
20 Strong-featured, and wearing a wig? (6)
RUGGED – Double definition, one meaning ‘wearing a rug’, two ways to pronounce RUGGED.
22 Take-off always including elevated material (5)
APERY – AY (always) has REP (material) reversed inserted.
24 Stern leader of regiment entering mess (5)
HARSH – R enters HASH.

​

78 comments on “Times 27507 – not ‘1 across’d for too long”

  1. Not too hard, but still 50 minutes, held up by 17 ac and 22 dn for a while. I had the …OLECTRIC fairly quickly, but couldn’t for the life of me see what went before it (PIEZ(O)? PHOT(O)? HYDR(O)? all didn’t fit and when I finally thought of THERMO it took some time for the Royal Marines’ penny to drop). APERY was clear except that I also couldn’t see why REP was a material and finally convinced myself it was the dramatic material presented in a repertory theatre. Still, all correct and under an hour, at least. COD to THERMOELECTRIC.
    1. You can still edit comments (at least, I can edit mine, using Chrome on a Macbook). If you mouse around just under and to the right of your name, three icons will appear as if by magic, one of which allows you to edit.

      the icon you want is the pencil icon.

      Edited at 2019-11-13 09:34 pm (UTC)

  3. No problems here, say 20 minutes, maybe less. LOI was THERMOELECTRIC, which I paused to actually parse. And that was a lot of parsing. Somehow, no difficulty with WESER, but I think that was because I has all the down clues in so the checking letters were sitting there waiting. Regards.
  4. I’d never heard of the river or the composer, but decided they were both plausible, and had the added advantage of fitting the checkers. Everything else was reasonably straightforward, and I doff my cap to the setter for THERMOELECTRIC.

    This morning, I woke up and discovered what happens when your vestibular system (that’s the balancy-thing in your inner ear) completely shuts down, thanks to a minor viral infection. Simply by turning your head about two degrees in any direction, you can achieve the same result as by drinking a bottle of spirits and then going to Alton Towers, but more immediately and at less expense. Sorted itself out in about half an hour, but left me with a new sense of respect for those who live like that permanently. (The vestibular malfunction, that is, not the spirits.)

    1. Ooh, Labrynthitis. I had it once many years ago and it is the most peculiar thing. I realised something was wrong when, walking down the street in a quite normal fashion, I suddenly fell sideways into a wall.
      In my case it came and went, and the symptoms were largely confined to a loss of balance and some mild dizziness. For a week or two I just had to be aware that it might strike at any moment, at which point I would fall over. It was actually quite fun in a weird way, once I had a diagnosis and knew it wasn’t anything serious.

      Edited at 2019-11-13 09:48 pm (UTC)

      1. It’s lucky the wall was there to break your fall, or who knows how far you’d’ve gone?
      2. I’m not sure this is not what struck me at Pete’s on March 15, 2018. It is possible that I have the ossification of the inner ear that often results from more severe cases than yours… which can result in total deafness. “Serious” indeed.

        Edited at 2019-11-13 10:58 pm (UTC)

        1. Crikey, I didn’t realise. There were perhaps other contributory factors on that particular occasion but if that’s what you have it must have contributed.
          I don’t remember exactly what the doctor said to me but he was quite unconcerned and told me it would go away of its own accord in a few weeks, which fortunately it did.
          1. I never fall down from drinking, if that is what you are implying.
            I wasn’t diagnosed with labyrinthitis before, but I had had fierce tinnitus for a long time. It may be that labyrinthitis afflicted me only after the fall.
            But it is really a mystery to me why I fell. I wasn’t slurring any words, was I?
            Anyway, my “often” was an overstatement. It is only rarely that labyrinthitis causes hearing loss. And, in any case, I’m not sure (still hoping not) that my inner ear has ossified (tests have been “suggestive,” but not conclusive).

            Edited at 2019-11-13 11:12 pm (UTC)

    2. A few years ago I had a virus which attacked one of the cranial nerves(3rd or 4th I think) and sent me crashing to the floor when I stood up from doing my tax return one Sunday evening. I tried to get up, but to my surprise, found myself on the floor again. I was able to get around the house by crawling and called my daughter(an orthoptist) who had to come round for the next few days and feed me as I daren’t go back downstairs. I then developed double vision, just as I was able to totter to my feet. After about 6 weeks I learned to lurch around again and had an MRI scan, an Epley manoeuvre and various otological tests, and was eventually told that the virus had destroyed my vestibular system on the LHS, but that my brain would adapt if I practiced walking on rough ground and went dancing a bit! I didn’t do the dancing, but except when I’m tired or sick, I manage quite well. One of the remaining symptoms is that If I’m in a confined space, such as a busy pub, I can head for the bar and find myself lurching off to one side, crashing into people, so I have to be careful to give myself a reference point to focus on. Fortunately the double vision corrected itself within a few weeks. Turning the house alarm on and off was tricky with the double vision, until my daughter advised me to cover up one eye whilst entering the code!
      1. There is probably material there for an entire episode of House. But the brain is gloriously adaptable, thank heavens, and the redundancy of having two vestibular systems is handy. Glad to hear things have largely resolved, but you should still consider suing HMRC.
      2. It sounds like the 8th cranial nerve of it affected your balance. The 3rd and 4th control eye movements.

        (Julian MK)

  5. Not on the ball today, but didn’t help myself biffing UMPTEEN instead of ZILLION so didn’t see BAMBOOZLE till late on, but it opened up the remaining few.

    Not good on German rivers and not much better on composers so a bit of a punt there.

    Edited at 2019-11-14 01:20 am (UTC)

  6. Lasagna is surely one of the pasta sheets that are used to make lasagne (just as a single spaghetto would not be an adequate meal).

    (Julian MK)

  7. Never heard of “rep” as a material and never used the word “apery” in my life to date. But figured it out and otherwise OK. Luckily, I did know the river because I certainly didn’t know the composer.
  8. Was APERY, after finally realising 27a definition was the suspect, not the city as first put in , making 22d a-e-e , for which the alphabet trawl failed. Our copy of the newspaper here in Oz had the 28a clue incomplete as “ terrible shortage limiting introduction” . It took a while to realise it wasn’t just the enumeration missing, but also the second half of the clue. With the checkers in place it was gettable. In the end all correct in 33mins.

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