Times 27,527: Jiminy Cricket

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I didn’t think this was super hard for a Friday, hitting the submit button at 6m14. A fairly gentle week to soften us up in time for Saturday, perhaps? This was mostly solvable with just a few key devices in the solver’s utility belt, chiefly the containment indicator and the ability to discern when a word must be converted into its first, last or both first and last letters.

FOI 10ac, LOIs 2dn (where I’d been seduced by WATERWAY for a whole) into the clever double def at 1ac, where I’d thought of PLANT early on but couldn’t immediately find where to split the clue to make it make sense.

Favourites were 12ac even though or possibly because it sprang to mind very quickly, and 5dn, which fooled me, as it was clearly meant to, into hunting for a suitable anagram of CHAPPIE.

Thank you to the setter and, jetlagged and bleary, I hope to see you all in just a day or so’s time!

ACROSS
1 Source of cutting gear and machinery (5)
PLANT – double def. Finding the place where one def ends and the other begins is the trick!

4 On paper, maintain shortcut (4-5)
TIME-SAVER – on TIMES [paper], AVER [maintain]

9 Blackmail English team hosting wrong side at Lord’s (9)
EXTORTION – E XI [English | team] “hosting” TORT [wrong] + ON [side at Lord’s]

10 Unseats judge avoiding historic conflicts (5)
OUSTS – JOUSTS [historic conflicts] minus J = judge

11 Records describing campaign returned to lounge (6)
SPRAWL – LPS [records] “describing” WAR [campaign], all reversed

12 Traditional requirements for roasting shrew? (8)
SPITFIRE – To roast something, you’ll traditionally need a SPIT and a FIRE. “Shrew” as in Taming Of.

14 Not too good east of prairies for a picnic (5,7)
PLAIN SAILING – AILING [not too good], east of PLAINS [prairies]

17 Overact badly, receiving worried member’s standard warning (6,6)
CAVEAT EMPTOR – (OVERACT*) [“badly”], “receiving” ATE MP [worried | member]

20 Last of shade still protecting excessively hot canine (3,5)
EYE TOOTH – {shad}E + YET [still] “protecting” TOO [excessively] + H [hot]

21 Niche product ultimately diverted folk (6)
ETHNIC – (NICHE {produc}T*) [“diverted”]

23 Cultivated bush sheltering rook perhaps? (5)
SHRUB – (BUSH*) [“cultivated”] “sheltering” R [rook], and I’d say this is on the cusp between &lit and semi-&lit because of the “perhaps?” proviso…

24 Eg Clydesdale press first to show revolutionary engine (4,5)
IRON HORSE – HORSE [eg Clydesdale], with IRON [press] first

25 Knock over empty potty; headstrong toddler may get it (5,4)
NAPPY RASH – reversed PAN (knock) + P{ott}Y + RASH [headstrong]

26 Try case of larceny hesitantly (5)
SHYLY – SHY [try] + L{arcen}Y

DOWN
1 Part of training regime on ship has youngsters boxing (5-3)
PRESS-UPS – RE SS [on | ship] has PUPS [youngsters] “boxing”

2 Main channel’s receiver concealing coating of rust (8)
ARTERIAL – AERIAL [receiver] “concealing” R{us}T

3 Gain worth cryptically having a fit (8,1,6)
THROWING A WOBBLY – reverse cryptic of: (THROWING A*) [“wobbly”]

4 Last few batsmen lie, so they say (4)
TAIL – homophone of TALE [lie]

5 Engineer chappie on island turned up dead (10)
MANIPULATE – MAN [chappie] on I [island] + reversed UP + LATE [dead]

6 Arguments from rivals after quiet jaunt (8,7)
SHOUTING MATCHES – MATCHES [rivals] after SH OUTING [quiet | jaunt]

7 Tacky individual originally in very small plainclothes unit (6)
VISCID – I{ndividual} in V S CID [very | small | plainclothes unit]

8 Coarse stuff from contrary girl booked after game? (6)
RUSSET – reverse TESS [girl “booked” (by Thomas Hardy)] after RU [game]

13 Composer‘s lightest note in rising melody (10)
PALESTRINA – PALEST [lightest] + N [note] in reversed AIR [melody]. Couldn’t have told you much about Palestrina, but I knew he was a composer; 16th century Italian it turns out.

15 Artist with tight clothing threatening swimmer (8)
STINGRAY – RA [artist] with STINGY [tight] “clothing”

16 China, third-rate location for alpines (8)
CROCKERY – C ROCKERY [third-rate | location for alpines]

18 Conclude sappers like working (6)
REASON – RE AS ON [sappers | like | working]

19 Lash out, taking extremely lucrative journey (3,3)
LET RIP – L{ucrativ}E + TRIP [journey]

22 Brass section’s top piercing note (4)
DOSH – S{ection} “piercing” DOH [note]

42 comments on “Times 27,527: Jiminy Cricket”

  1. About 30 mins for me (40 on the clock but I replied to a few email while doing it). I liked this. I’m not quite sure why IRON HORSE is revolutionary, other than that the wheels go round. I wasn’t quite sure whether VISCID was a word when I put it in early on but when the checkers were all okay I figured it must be. If I knew the word, I’d forgotten it.
  3. So on the wavelength. Slowed marginally by ARTERIAL, looking for a shipping lane, and SPITFIRE as compound words always slow me down.
    Lost it (the war, presumably) (5,1,6) for threw a wobbly is one of my favourite ever Times clues, so 3 dn went straight in. Similarly MANIPULATE, where I had the M so chappie was man, not an anagram. Had to invent Palestrina but maybe a faint bell tolls, and CID unknown as plainclothes but viscid known. Enjoyable puzzle.

    Edited at 2019-12-06 01:57 am (UTC)

  4. Yes, not too challenging. LOI was RUSSET when I eventually worked out the “booked” bit. I was also unsure of shy = try until I had confirmed it with the crossing letters.

    Thanks, V, for the timely blog. Good luck to you and the rest for the weekend comp.

  5. Excellent example of the art! Like Starstruck, I needed a bit of convincing on SHYLY, and even tried spelling it with an I before finally twigging how STINGRAY worked. I could see how a RAY could be a ‘threatening swimmer’, but not how Gordon Sumner could be described as an ’artist with tight clothing‘. Not these days, anyway.

    Edited at 2019-12-06 03:52 am (UTC)

  6. Very enjoyable, only delayed towards the end by SPITFIRE and two or three in the SE corner with SHYLY as my LOI. Had expected HAM to be part of 17ac until I spotted the anagram.

    VISCID from word play – its first appearance, I think, although someone mentioned it in a comment in October last year. RUSSET as the meaning required (rather than the colour or the apple) dredged from somewhere in the depths of my memory.

  7. My FOI was CAVEAT EMPTOR… well, after the A in THROWING A WOBBLY. And CROCKERY was my LOI. This took me a long time, but I had multiple distractions, and I took time to savor (and parse) each clue in this excellent effort.

    The “definitional” aspect of the last part of the sorta-&lit clue for SHRUB is rather superfluous, as we already have “bush” and obviously some sort of bird could hide in such; it’s only absolutely necessary for the wordplay.

    Edited at 2019-12-06 08:09 am (UTC)

  8. 15:14. A very nice puzzle. Fortunately it didn’t matter that I only knew RUSSET as a type of apple as the wordplay was clear, nor that I biffed SHRUB, confirmed by the nice THROWING A WOBBLY. I also failed to get why PLANT was right. Some lovely wordplay. Lots to pick from for COD. I go for NAPPY RASH for making me smile most. See some of you tomorrow, I hope.
  9. …or maybe Troy Tempest will just wobble around a bit aboard Stingray.
    Undone today (after 30 mins) with Spitfire/Russet unsolved.
    Not too unhappy as IMHO they are tricky – but I admit I did stare at 8dn thinking who could be the 4-letter book heroine ending in ‘s’. Doh!
    Mostly I liked the ‘Artist with tight clothing’, brilliant.
    Thanks setter and V. Good luck to all in the Champs.
  10. 14:28 … so somewhere near the Goldilocks zone. PLANT unparsed, with the right meaning of cutting never coming to mind, but the machinery bit and the checkers were enough.

    There’s probably an exact number of puzzles — 1242 at a guess — that you need to have solved before you can work through the wordplay and decide “Yes, VISCID is undoubtedly a thing” and not feel the need to check it.

    Good luck to all involved for the champs tomorrow (sorry I can’t be there again), especially the poor souls doing the admin and marking for the expanded format. When they finally make it to The George they’ll have earned their pint.

    1. Sotira, I still have ‘plant’ unparsed (the cutting bit) and would be most grateful for assistance as you clearly get it now!
      2. Sorry, being very dim. Still can’t see how “source of cutting gear’ gets to be plant. Help!
        Richard
        1. “Source of cutting” and “gear and machines” are two separate definitions for PLANT.
          Cuttings are taken from plants to start new ones; “a PLANT” can mean “a factory,” but without the article, PLANT means the equipment therein.
          1. Thank you. I realised that ‘source of cuttings’ could be the definition, but why ‘gear’?. Machines = plant, doesn’t need the ‘gear” to my mind. Anyway many thanks for your help, much appreciated.
            Richard
  11. 34 minutes. I was pleased to spot THROW A WOBBLY just before I did. Or indeed smash any CROCKERY, my COD. I liked SPITFIRE too, but was hung up on fitting Katherina or Kate in somehow. I’ve often said that I’d give my EYE TOOTH for something, assuming it was a canine, so it was good to receive this confirmation. LOI was unusually a long one, SHOUTING MATCHES, needing all crossers. I think I was suffering viscous drag by then from taking so long over VISCID. The tail wagged. Thank you V and setter.

    Edited at 2019-12-06 09:01 am (UTC)

  12. As Verlaine says, a fairly easy week of puzzles before tomorrow’s turning of the screw. Or, if I was a spitfire, taming of the shrew. For a brief second I wondered what sort of a pal a crockery was?

    COD: STINGRAY.

    Looking forward to seeing some of you at The George tomorrow. I am in the first heat and I am not anticipating being detained by the judges.

  13. In haste, ‘cos we’re off to Ross-on-Wye for the weekend, but just wanted to say that I thought this was an absolutely delightful puzzle. And I absolutely loved 12a. 27 mins.
  14. I made lumpy progress with this, failing to start for some time, then immediately getting 3d THROWING A WOBBLY and all of its crossers, then romping along until 13d.

    After staring and rearranging and staring some more, I finally hazarded PALESTRICA, as I thought C was the likeliest of the musical notes to fit in the hole, never even considering “N” for “note”. Ah well.

    Have fun at the champs, everyone!

    Edited at 2019-12-06 09:49 am (UTC)

  15. Nice puzzle for a Friday when I’m in a hurry to be about my business. Everything correct, and (in the end) parsed satisfactorily as I continue to shout internally “DON’T PUT IN SOLUTIONS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND”, which is one of the mantras I need to keep at the front of my mind tomorrow…

    Looking forward to catching up with some, many or all of you at some point across the day.

  16. 23.36, though with dozy moments. I couldn’t see why PLANT at the top was right, and unfortunately why SLYLY at the bottom was wrong. In retrospect, I would struggle to show that sly means “try”
  17. Same as others with PLANT which took a good chunk of my sluggish 18.55. Very sorry not to be there tomorrow and good solving to all!
  18. Good fun crossword.
    Tomorrow will be PLAIN SAILING!?!
    Well, it will be for me as I am only drinking in the George.
  19. I struggled to get started, with the top half yielding nothing but TAIL. I moved my attention to the SW where EYE TOOTH and SHRUB got me moving. Fortunately I was familiar with PALESTRINA and soon had the bottom half completed. THROWING A WOBBLY opened up the rest of the grid and it wasn’t long before PRESS UPS led to the penny dropping for PLANT. Managed to work out VISCID from wordplay and viscosity. Liked SPITFIRE. I was then left with RUSSET with the wordplay making up for my not knowing that sense of the word. Lots to like in this puzzle. 29:32. Thanks setter and V. Good luck to all those competing tomorrow, and may the rest of you attending the festivities in The George have fun. I can’t join you as I’ll be attending a University reunion in Durham, where I suspect copious amounts of beverages will also be consumed.
  20. Nice puzzle. Waddled through it in about 40 mins on half concentration while drinking tea and listening to James O’Brien dismantling a mob of fruit loops on the radio. Thanks v. Hope it goes well tomoz.
  21. Pretty straightforward, though I biffed a fair number, and russet (LOI) i just had to assume had this extra meaning.
  22. 10m 38s and happy to come here to discover VISCID is a word, and that I guessed the right note from eight options in PALESTRINA.

    Looking forward to tomorrow, especially if the only shrub I need to know is the word ‘shrub’.

  23. Agree with our blogger and many above, a nice moderate puzzle, took me 29 minutes while eating mince pies, only word which required a moment of thought was VISCID which seemed to ring a faint bell.
  24. I was well off he wavelength for this one, judging by how relatively straightforward many of you found it. Having completed Wednesday’s and Thursday’s in about 13 minutes each I was starting to feel confident ahead of tomorrow but now I’m not so sure. Still if I can do two in 13 minutes each tomorrow and one in 30 I’ll be happy (fat chance!). Look forward to seeing some of you tomorrow.
  25. Held up at the end. DNK VISCID and wasn’t aware that CID were plain clothes, tho it seems logical. And shall have to ask the wife about SPITFIRE.
    Enjoy tomorrow, one year I shall make it….
  26. Forty-two minutes for this, with my brain never really getting into gear. My only NHO was PALESTRINA, but I fortnately plumped for N as the note, rather than any of A-G. A good weekend to all, and best of luck to the brave contestants!
  27. Nice puzzle, about 20 minutes, solving a few unknown or semi-knowns via wordplay, such as LOI VISCID. Wasn’t sure of PALAESTRINA as a composer but I knew he was something, and that’s where the wordplay left me. Good luck to those entering tomorrow, I’ll be stateside. Especially enjoy the refreshments. Regards.
  29. 29:15 I thought this was all pretty standard stuff, nothing to frighten the Clydesdales. Spitfire and russet gave me slight pause for thought because they were unfamiliar terms. I liked the intricacy of 17ac and 20ac and the double Def at 1ac.
  30. ….as my timer was already at 2:20 before I broke the ice. Once I got going, it became less daunting.

    FOI TAIL
    LOI RUSSET
    COD SPITFIRE
    TIME 14:58

  31. “Shrew” was the original name for the plane (or one of them) proposed before “Spitfire” was settled on. So not necessarily anything to do with Shakespeare.
    I got all of these except 8 dn where I had “Rushes” as in film rushes before editing.

    from Jeepyjay

  32. Reasonably plain sailing until it wasn’t. Took 27mins for all except 21a. Looked blankly at -T-N-C for another four until the penny dropped that it was an anagram! Particularly admired the way “ throwing a wobbly” was clued. How did the Saturday competition go? We are doing this so late that it is history now.
  33. In HK and our paper runs about 3 months behind The Times.. so happy I managed to finish this without any help!! I’ve been a happy lurker here and it’s thanks to this fabulous blog I am now occasionally able to do these. Many many thanks!

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