Times 27525 – No shuttlecocks required for this.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A feast of word insertion and assembly clues making this one a bit repetitive I thought, pleasant enough but not remarkable. In fact I’m struggling to find remarks to make about it. A MER at 8d and a smile at the neat definition in 3d merit comment. 25 minutes on paper.

Instead I’ll wish all Saturday’s contenders clarity of thought and quickness of mind, not least our Fridays-and more-man Verlaine who I gather will be deplaning from California straight to the event (or at least The George first for a sharpener and a brief nap) before eyes down time. Sadly my plan to make an appearance at said hostelry to take wine with y’all has been scuppered by a clashing family event. Next year, I hope.

Across
1 Scores talk about doctor’s last case (13)
ORCHESTRATION – Into ORATION (talk) insert R (doctor’s last) and CHEST (case).
9 Badminton competition‘s opening by end of June (5)
EVENT – E (end of June) VENT (opening). Reference to the Badminton Horse Trials, a world level annual equestrian event, held at the Duke of Beaufort’s gaff in Gloucestershire.
10 Stone work unit hiding old article stops here (4,5)
PIPE ORGAN – PIP (stone, not me) ERG work unit with O for old inserted, AN an article.
11 Court nails suspect without hearing (10)
ULTRASONIC – (COURT NAILS)*. ‘Without’ in the sense of sound beyond range of our ears.
12 Recurved bananas make quite an impact (4)
STUN – NUTS (bananas) reversed, described here as ‘recurved’.
14 Embed motorway scheme within it (7)
IMPLANT – IT has M for motorway and PLAN for scheme within.
16 Old coin found in early English school (7)
EDUCATE – DUCAT, an old coin, inside E E for early English.
17 Sculptor’s inside say scraping away (7)
ERODING – RODIN the sculptor inside E.G. = say.
19 Response to derisory offer from bishop good in principle (3,4)
BIG DEAL – Big deal as an exclamation, meaning the opposite. B for bishop, IDEAL (principle) has G for good inserted.
20 Keen student’s wife ensconced in boozer (4)
SWOT – W for wife inside SOT for boozer.
21 Identify comic penning verse, in declaring his allegiance? (4-6)
FLAG-WAVING – FLAG (identify), WAG (comic) insert V(erse), and IN.
24 9 attempt to be heard by Irish town briefly (9)
TRIATHLON – 9ac answer EVENT is the def; TRI sounds like TRY = attempt, ATHLON(E) town in central Ireland, shortened.
25 Gourmets quibble, eating banger (5)
SQUIB – Hidden word in GOURMET(S QUIB)BLE.
26 Consult old patient about earth recording (5,8)
VIDEO CASSETTE – VIDE = Latin for ‘see’, consult, O for old, CASE = patient, insert SETT for earth as in where an animal lives.
Down
1 Frank is very involved with unit in education centre (4,10)
OPEN UNIVERSITY – OPEN = frank, (VERY UNIT IS)*.
2 Chief put away person who has had one (5)
CHEAT – CH for chief, EAT = put away, devour. ‘Had one’ in the sense of diddled you / one, cheated.
3 Helped end a hunt organised in European continent (10)
EUTHANASIA – E ASIA has (A HUNT)* inserted.
4 Biggest supporter in ground hit bouncer close to exit (7)
TAPROOT – TAP (root), ROO (bouncer, kangaroo), T (close to exit).
5 A very low increase in brief (7)
APPRISE – A, PP (very low, very quiet volume), RISE (increase).
6 Paper working to limit Republican club (4)
IRON – I (i the UK newspaper) ON (working) insert R for Republican.
7 Tyneside became consumed by one broker (9)
NEGOTIATE – NE (North-East region) GOT (became) I (one) ATE consumed.
8 Obscure name in company entitled to hold line (14)
UNINTELLIGIBLE – Insert N (name) into UNIT (company), then insert L for line into (ELIGIBLE) entitled. A doubtful synonym giving me a MER, but no doubt Mr Collins will allow it.
13 Girls go after celebrated shades (10)
SUNGLASSES – SUNG = celebrated, as in Mass; LASSES = girls.
15 Evidence I’ve altered implicating King’s Head music man (9)
PROKOFIEV – PROOF _ evidence, has K inserted, then (IVE)*.
18 Stargazer‘s delay over current constellation (7)
GALILEO – LAG (delay) reversed, I = current symbol, LEO the star constellation.
19 Say nothing ousting mapmakers in Bosnia plant (7)
BEGONIA – EG (say) O (nothing), are inserted into B NIA which is BOSNIA with the OS (Ordnance Survey, British gov. map makers) removed.
22 Nice night following one husky driver? (5)
INUIT – I (one) NUIT (French for night, and Nice is in France).
23 Boss initially takes in south of France (4)
STUD – T (initially takes) inserted into SUD (French for south).

56 comments on “Times 27525 – No shuttlecocks required for this.”

  1. Completed but with flag making at 21a.
    Didn’t know E for early.

    Good luck at the champs.
    COD stun.

    1. EE is for ‘early English’ as I think Pip has indicated in the clue.

      Edited at 2019-12-04 07:22 am (UTC)

  2. Pretty easy week so far. My LOI was EUTHANASIA, and I thought something was wrong until I realized (just now!) that “helped” is an adjective, “end” the noun.
    (Rather grim, but that’s life…)

    I didn’t know why the EVENT is specifically one at Badminton (nor did I know why, as I supposed, it had to do with birdies and rackets)… and I still don’t. EVENT seems to be a term applied generically to contests in all sorts of sports.

    Edited at 2019-12-04 06:41 am (UTC)

    2. ‘Event’ also has a more specific horsey sense, where eventing takes place, a word I learned here. It still seems like a DBE to me. Not that I had any idea what Badminton was doing in the clue, mind you; I needed Pip’s explanation for that.
      1. It is a DBE I suppose, but a good example of why the ‘rule’ is a bit silly. I mean ‘sport played at Wimbledon’ is a DBE in this sense but how would adding ‘for example’ help anyone? By the same token if you don’t know that Badminton is associated with eventing then adding ‘say’ isn’t going to make much difference.
        1. I think it does matter. The clue suggests that there is something specifically important about it being a Badminton competition, whereas ‘event’ refers to an eventing competition held anywhere: surely eventing is held in other places but Badminton? When I read the clue I thought it was something about Badminton in particular: it isn’t (I think). You could say that this is one of the misleading things about clues; I just think it’s unfair.
          1. Would you object to ‘game played at Wimbledon’ for tennis on the same grounds? The same points apply, it seems to me.

            Edited at 2019-12-04 12:39 pm (UTC)

            1. Yes I would. It should be ‘game played at Wimbledon, say’, or some such. Wimbledon is just an example of the places where tennis is played, and Badminton is just an example of the places where eventing is held.

              Edited at 2019-12-04 12:58 pm (UTC)

        2. I should have made clear that I didn’t object to the clue on DBE grounds. My only objection to the clue was that I’d never heard of Badminton, which I think you’ll agree is valid grounds for objecting.
          1. Absolutely: that’s kind of my point. If you happen to know that Badminton is associated with eventing you won’t have a problem with the clue. If you don’t, you will. Either way the DBE is neither here nor there.
  3. As noted, some twisty wordplay, in EUTHANASIA and with ‘broker’ as a verb. PROKOFIEV LOI as was fixed on audio rather than VIDEO.

    Oddly, it may be difficult to describe the OPEN UNIVERSITY as a ‘centre’, since it’s all distance learning – the campus in Milton Keynes has no students.

    21’42” thanks pip and setter.

    2. I’m glad I didn’t think of AUDIO, as I bunged in VIDEO when I had the D and the O and only thought twice about it when I saw that it made 15d end in that unlikely V. Luckily PROKOFIEV sprang out from somewhere before I could second-guess myself.
  4. FOI SQUIB, which is to say I started off worryingly slow. But things picked up, until I was faced with the puzzling ‘helped end’; which I finally figured out as a participial not a past.
  5. I struggled a bit with this, working from the bottom upwards which is never the easiest way of doing things. CHEAT, ULTRASONIC and my LOI EVENT gave particular trouble. Some nice clues, some with quite complicated wordplay.
  6. Very vanilla offering with no stand out events. Not keen on DBE at 9A or definition at 8D.
  7. 16:34. I found this one quite chewy, and I enjoyed it.
    I’m always wary spelling PROKOFIEV because I want the F to be a V.
    I put in AUDIO too. Strange.
  8. 45 mins, so tricky.
    Some bits felt to be pushing the envelope: Recurved, Early English, earth=sett, very ‘low’=PP.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
  9. 39 minutes. LOI CHEAT. COD to GALILEO Galilei, so good they nearly named him twice. I wouldn’t have quite called this puzzle vanilla. It was more like a McFlurry with hard bits of chocolate in, although it’s a fair number of years since I had one of those. I mean UNINTELLIGIBLE was exactly as described. And I did know about eventing at Badminton but spent too long on the dressage before seeing it. The ride to the Swiss Clinic was a long trip too. A good value puzzle safely NEGOTIATEd. Thank you Pip and setter.

    Edited at 2019-12-04 09:02 am (UTC)

  10. Quite enjoyed this and liked 3dn. I can’t see a problem with 9ac.. if it really is a DBE, so what? – but I was less keen on 8dn because I can’t make obscure and unintelligible properly synonymous..
  11. 30 minutes on the nose, never really getting stuck and working from NW to SE.

    FOI 1d OPEN UNIVERSITY LOI the last bit of the VIDEO CASSETTE at 26a, just after 8d UNINTELLIGIBLE got me the final crosser. Enjoyed spotting the wordplay for 19d BEGONIA and intuiting the INUIT at 22d.

    19a BIG DEAL took me straight back to Sunday night telly as a nipper, watching the hapless Ray Brooks lurch from one crisis to the next.

    I think recent discussions of how “orchestrate” can mean “instrument” helped at 1a.

    1. Collins has: If you tap something, you hit it with a quick light blow or a series of quick light blows.
  13. 30:13 but I had Toproot for Taproot – and knew that I would see red! Well pink.

    I went for Radio cassette which didn’t help. I also had “without hearing” as UN……” for a good while and I made heavy weather of orchestration.

    COD: VIDEO CASSETTE.

    Edited at 2019-12-04 10:50 am (UTC)

  14. ….saw me having to CHEAT to get ULTRASONIC, and still not finish correctly after biffing “topmost” at 4D.

    I was deflected from my purpose by suspecting a pangram for some time. My dislike of “Grauniad clues” such as 24A has been expressed previously.

    I also didn’t care for the definition of UNINTELLIGIBLE, and I’m glad I opted out before my target time elapsed.

    FOI IMPLANT
    COD EUTHANASIA (also liked VIDEO CASSETTE)

  15. A biffed TOPMOST at 4d spoiled my 37:01. I knew as I submitted that I should take another look at it, but rashly carried on regardless. Drat! I thought of AUDIO at 26a but didn’t put it in, then PROKOFIEV came along and all was clear. Liked TRIATHLON. An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Pip.
  16. As Keriothe says, it pays to tread warily with the spelling here – I only noticed I had a V for the F in the middle when I was (appropriately) proofing. We used to stay with a great aunt who lived near Badminton so the horsey thing was no mystery. The only other hold-up was thinking the broker was a person (negotiant) rather than a verb which made a muddle of BIG DEAL for a while. 18.20
    1. I remember falling into the same trap on seeing the headline “Rice Brokers Deal on Gaza Strip”, and wondering why this was newsworthy, until I found out that it referred to Condoleezza Rice.
  17. As j_d above threw in topmost – but must say I like the clue on seeing it sorted out here. 37’30 with the dnf. Liked the puzzle – bit of a tang to it. joekobi
  18. Following lots of other people, I couldn’t see how AUDI made sense, and it took a while to arrive at the right alternative. Likewise, spent a good while at the end not being able to see TAPROOT for TOPMOST. Still, with the Finals mere days away, a reminder that it isn’t really best practice to bung in things you can’t parse and hope for the best…
  19. A mid-solve nap so an approximate time only of about 55 minutes. The tricky ‘Helped end’ def led me up the wrong garden path and the parsing of VIDEO CASSETTE followed the bunging in thereof by a considerable margin.

    I liked the misdirection in the surface of ULTRASONIC.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  20. All seemed a bit of a slog which I don’t mind if there are commensurate rewards ….. but this was just a slog. I live near Badminton in a horsey village so no problems there. COD to EUTHANASIA.
  22. Understood. That’s where we disagree: for me Wimbledon and tennis (and Badminton and eventing, although that’s clearly more specialist knowledge) are so closely associated that indicating the DBE is unnecessary.
  23. Your niece will certainly know it Vinyl – I think it was where the whole eventing thing really got started after WWII.
  24. Going great guns until falling at the last post with – yes – Ultrasonic and Topmost. Nearly had a momble of un-something-ic but gave up and cheated! And I couldn’t parse Topmost but put it in anyway. I was feeling a bit embarrassed to admit this but see that I am in very esteemed company.

    No problem with Badminton as a horsey place – not that I’m remotely interested in such sports. Another similar ‘event’ takes place at Burghley – quite close to Pip, I guess. There are always huge signs on the A1 near Stamford promoting it.

    Quite a musical theme going on today – I wonder if Prokofiev ever did an orchestration for the pipe organ? If he did, I never heard it!

    FOI Swot
    COD Eroding
    DNF in about an hour

    Thanks Pip and setter

    1. Burghley House of Horse Trials fame is indeed not far from our place and I have joined Burghley Park Golf Club, which is now run by the Burghley Estate. It’s flat and in good nick, drains very well, and has good food. If you’re passing with a few hours to spare and want a game let me know.
      Also when she was mixing in posh circles our daughter spent a weekend at Badminton as a guest of His Dukeship, and told us all about the goings on, so the clue was a write in for me.

      Nevertheless I was surprised by the comments here that so many people had never heard of the place or of 3 day eventing, it’s like saying you’ve never heard of Lord’s Cricket ground or Old Trafford IMO.

      1. I’d agree – it’s GK, isn’t it? I’m not a huge sports fan in general, but know of the big name places and teams. Of course, the topmost one round here is the King Power Stadium 😉

        On the subject of Burghley, a few years ago we went on a wonderful fungus foray in some private woods on the estate (with permission of course) and then onto the pub at Barrowden – a great day out. Hope the pub is still as good.

        1. Was good when we visited early last year, but haven’t been since. Lots of better ones though. Have yet to get a ticket for the King Power, any offers gratefully accepted.
  25. As John Dun above, I failed with TOPMOST, entered without reading past the first word of the clue. That’s what comes of falling asleep, then trying to make up the time. I’m just too competitive, methinks.
  26. The TOPMOST minds are (dare I say it?) joined by one more, me. Should of course have tried to justify the wordplay, but couldn’t see anything different to fit and assumed I was being dense about the anagram (ground) of hit bouncer having no discernible use.
    Otherwise 21 minutes, in line with my determination not to finish in the top section on Saturday.
  27. 30 minutes today. Maybe my round of golf made me struggle a bit more than I should but if I’d done the crossword first, I’d probably have blamed my less than exceptional score on the golf course on that!

    Last one in was cheat, other delays were on ultrasonic- helped when I eventually realised how to spell euthanasia and unintelligible. Onward to Thursday.

  28. If one is English then there is no quibble. Re- 9ac

    One wrong – I had TOPMOST at 4dn

    FOI 23dn STUD

    LOI 24ac TRIATHLON

    COD 3dn EUTHANASIA

    WOD 15dn PROKOFIEV

    Edited at 2019-12-04 05:23 pm (UTC)

  29. The muse has currently deserted me, scratching around a bit.

    Don’t really get TAPROOT but it was either that or TOPMOST which I totally didn’t see.

    I seem to be blind to ORCHESTRATION and all its forms – always takes an age to spot.

    Never being taught more than church latin, for all I knew the CASSETTE could have been RADIO, VIDEO or AUDIO with two of the same three checkers. Needed the composer to confirm which….

  30. Bit of a long journey, but got there in the end, albeit with 10ac Pipe Organ unparsed – didn’t spot the ‘ancient’ work unit. Keen gardeners will have had no problem with 4d, Taproot. Invariant
  32. 31:10 a fairly straightforward solve but I took a bit of time at the end over taproot, like others my first thought was topmost and despite its imparseability it was hard to shift.
  33. I don’t know if 24ac is a Guardian style clue or not, but “9” is meant to refer to the number 9 in the surface. Seems ok to me
  34. Well, I plumped for the wrong type of cassette 26ac, leaving me thinking “15d could very nearly be PROKOFIEV”.

    This would have been an annoying failure, but fortunately I managed to fail on several clues in the northleft corner (ORCHESTRATION, CHEAT and TAPROOT). I always say, if you’re going to muck something up, do it comprehensively and enjoy it.

  35. The geniuses on this site would think they could have invented the wheel if they were back in the day.

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