Times 27765 – as plain as a sticky thing.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Lots of good stuff here, and not much given away in the form of anagrams. I enjoyed this, although it may not suit our overseas friends so much, requiring some local knowledge and an interest in ducks, the Grand National and LNER railway engines to be fully understandable.

Across
1 Writer’s aim to hold loon, say, back (4,5)
GORE VIDAL – GOAL (aim) has DIVER reversed inside. A loon is a sort of duck that dives. I have yet to read a Gore Vidal novel, and doubt I ever shall.
6 Group beginning to bathe in lake (5)
COMBO – the B of bathe inside Italy’s Lake COMO.
9 Fourth and fifth in racecourse moving to the front — one’s a colt (7)
TRAINEE – the famous racecourse AINTREE near Liverpool, has its 4th and 5th letters moved forward.
10 Low dipstick gathering last drop of oil, visible when dark (7)
MOONLIT – MOO (low as cows do) NIT (dipstick) has L the end of OIL inserted.
11 One persevering as a judge? (5)
TRIER – Cryptic double definition, a trier keeps persevering.
12 Observing party policy, person’s wise to keep schtoom in the end (2-7)
ON-MESSAGE – ONE’S (person’s) keeps the final M of schtoom, then SAGE = wise. I always thought it was spelt SCHTUM but it makes no difference here.
14 Face attack (3)
MUG – double definition.
15 Rules respected? Anaemic affair in store (3,3,5)
LAW AND ORDER – LARDER = store, insert WAN (anaemic) DO (affair).
17 Basic things, arguably lousy and tough (5-6)
NITTY-GRITTY – NITTY (lousy) GRITTY (tough).
19 Piece of meat removed from menu? (3)
CUT – double definition, of a sort.
20 Graduate draws in circles — with this? (9)
COMPASSES – well, you draw circles with a pair of compasses, as I remember from schooldays. And PASS can mean graduate, I think. We have PASS with COMES drawn around. This is this week’s invitation to contribute a better explanation.
22 Where peace may be found, love the same way (5)
OASIS – O (love), AS IS (the same way).
24 Covered by revolutionary, story in retrospect told (7)
RELATED – TALE reversed inside RED. Chestnut time.
26 Awaken Greek character, fellow reclining (7)
EVOCATE – All reversed: ETA (Greek long e) COVE (fellow).
27 German artist doesn’t understand Russian, English and Romanian at first (5)
DURER – initial letters of the words beginning Doesn’t (except “and”).
28 Crew after fish — is that plain? (9)
PIKESTAFF – PIKE (fish) STAFF (crew). Seems to be two opinions about the origin of this idiom, packstaff corrupted, or pikestaff originally spikestaff. See https://evirtualguru.com/meaning-of-plain-as-a-pikestaff-phrase-of-idiom-definition-and-synonyms-use-in-sentence/ if you’re bothered.

Down
1 Reached last of peanut butter sandwiches (3,2)
GOT AT – GOAT (butter) has T end of peanut put in.
2 Value measured in English university (7)
READING – double definition, e,g, meter reading, and the place with a university, originally part of Oxford uni until 1926.
3 Opening exchange to the front (9)
VENTRALLY – VENT (opening) RALLY (exchange). Opposite of dorsally.
4 Food for spineless lot in old assembly (4,2,5)
DIET OF WORMS – Cryptic definition.
5 Not entirely light batter (3)
LAM – almost LAMP.
6 Albatross spitting feathers (5)
CROSS – double definition, cross as in angry, cross as in “cross to bear”, the curse of the dead albatross being the burden the Ancient Mariner had to bear, metaphorically. Well, you know what I mean, or I do.
7 Loco dabbler? (7)
MALLARD – clever double definition, mallard the duck, and Mallard the famous blue railway engine which holds the steam engine speed record. I sold my 1950 Hornby 00 model of it for peanuts, worth £150 plus now.
8 Running north to east though not as tricky (2,3,4)
ON THE TROT – (NORTH TO ET)* where EAST has the AS removed to give ET to the anagrist.
13 Little wooden skewer reportedly for meat dish (6,5)
MINUTE STEAK – MINUTE (little) STEAK sounds like stake = wooden skewer.
14 Better patient of mine, digitally enhanced? (9)
MANICURED – a man I cured would be a patient of mine who has got better.
16 Old axes then again taken into battle, ridiculous things (9)
OXYMORONS – O (old) X,Y (axes, as in graphs), MONS (battle) has OR (then again) inserted. The word comes from two Greek words meaning “pointedly stupid” or “pointedly pointless” which is itself an oxymoron. I always thought there ought to be Cambymorons as well as we Oxford morons.
18 Glass, one dropping to the floor? (7)
TUMBLER – double definition, sort of.
19 Tropical plant fool put in wine (7)
CASSAVA – ASS in CAVA.
21 Topping minister, pioneering politician (5)
ASTOR – PASTOR gets topped. Nancy Astor was the first female British MP to take her seat in Parliament.
23 Little chap following pipe down sandbank (5)
SHELF – SH ! (pipe down) ELF (little fellow)
25 Relish swim (3)
DIP – double definition.

65 comments on “Times 27765 – as plain as a sticky thing.”

  1. Thanks for elucidating CROSS and MALLARD, which I failed to twig. A lot of biffing here and there, including COMPASSES – which seems to be one of those clues with an elided ‘that’ (i.e. PASS that COMES circles, where to draw near or inward = COME). Somehow my time was around average, despite feeling a bit lost.
  2. I finished with a very tentative MALLARD, not knowing this meaning of dabble (I only knew it as to trifle in something) nor the train. I hadn’t parsed the albatross in CROSS either though I can at least say I knew it with hindsight. There’s a song I like called Cross Eyed Bear and it always seemed to me a strange thing to sing about. Took me years before I finally found out the pun.
  3. 17 minutes so I was on-wavelength. No idea how I knew about the MALLARD train (I was never into either model railways nor trainspotting). Wasn’t quite sure about the COMPASSES for the same reasons as everyone else, but I couldn’t fit anything else to do with circles. I like TRAINEE.
  4. I had Aster instead of Astor. Not a typo – an error. Otherwise it would have been 12:10.

    COD: SHELF.

  5. I was writing in LOI 8d ON THE TROT as my half-hour timer went off, which for me means I must’ve been quite on the wavelength. Nothing much to add to that which has been said so far in terms of my biffs and didn’t-quite-understands.

    COD 14d MANICURED, which I thought for a while was going to start “MY…”, just as I’d thought that 3d would start “VAN…” until I saw the light.

  6. …That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
    25 mins pre-brekker. I liked it.
    Having pondered this for a while, I think I quite like that Albatross is enough to suggest Cross, if only in that one very specific sense.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
  7. 40 minutes. Also slightly mystified by wordplay at 20ac and wondered about the singular ‘this’ which I’d have thought would only work for the term ‘pair of compasses’, not for ‘compasses’ alone.

    Slight MER at 19ac too, the second part of which seems a bit odd.

    I failed to spot why ‘albatross = cross’ thinking only that it might be a crossbreed like a mule.

    I was interested to read only this morning that NITTY-GRITTY is on a new list of words and expressions the BBC has banned from the vocabulary of their sports commentators because of their ‘association with slavery’. Further research has failed to reveal anything more. ‘Cakewalk’ is another one that’s gone so we’d better stick to ‘stroll in the park’ when discussing easy puzzles.

    Edited at 2020-09-09 06:35 am (UTC)

    1. Words. eh? What can you do? “A term is racist if perceived as racist” was (probably still is) a mantra in Hackney when I was working there, and here we have two examples which illustrate how easy it is for words to become foul. Cakewalk I sort of understand: it was a form of dance associated with US slaves and translated into the blackface shows, perpetuated perhaps in (offence alert) Debussy’s Golliwogs Cakewalk.
      The nitty-gritty connection appears to be spurious but the connection has been made and will probably endure. Sigh.
      1. People daft enough to take offence where none was intended deserve what they get, or rather have given themselves..
    2. That seems to say more about the BBC than it does about the etymology. Neither word is frowned upon by the OED, which says cakewalk is “A black Americans’ contest in graceful walking, with a cake as the prize,” and which has 1940 as the earliest known reference for “nitty-gritty.”
      1. Perhaps it’s the association with golliwog that’s the problem. ‘E were a bad ‘un, that Debussy..
        1. Yes indeed. And don’t get me started on Robertson’s Jam. All those badges that I can’t even WEAR any more..

          Edited at 2020-09-09 12:30 pm (UTC)

  8. Was happy after MOONLIT,
    But now I’m at a loss,
    I have just found the MALLARD,
    And so I’m rather CROSS
  9. …always a trainspotter. 28 minutes with LOI VENTRALLY, not a word I knew. I took a while to see how the albatross fitted in with CROSS. COD to GORE VIDAL, who wrote beautifully if nothing else. We’ll be getting fat on the Worms diet if we eat it too often, so I won’t crack my Martin Luther joke again. I enjoyed this puzzle, particularly remembering Mallard’s 126 mph run, although I have read since that this was somewhat dubious. Thank you Pip and setter.
  10. Liked MOONLIT, GOT AT, CROSS, MALLARD, ON THE TROT and MANICURED. Wondered about the COMPASSES but it was obvious enough. A taxi comes, a taxi draws in …. ?

    Edited at 2020-09-09 06:56 am (UTC)

  11. I so wanted GORE VIDAL (wasn’t he a hairdresser?) to be gold medal. Time wasted there, not on message when it comes to the nitty-gritty.
  12. Slightly above par (not an albatross, then), flitted about far too much. Does draw in mean come? Morning draws in, perhaps.

    COD: TRAINEE for Aintree.

    Yesterday’s answer: Hattie McDaniel won the Oscar for best supporting actress for playing Mammy in Gone With the Wind.

    Today’s question: if an albatross is three under par, what is the unofficial bird for four under par?

    1. Is four under par possible? I’m no golfer but I would have thought a par five hole would be too long to reach with one stroke.
      1. In the Dream from Julian Barnes’ History of the World, the dreamer in paradise practices his golf for untold ages until he can complete every round in 18 strokes. Doesn’t mean it can be done on earth, of course.
      3. A bit of googling suggests it’s been done a few times, often (or rather mostly, the word ‘often’ doesn’t really apply here!) on holes with big dog-legs (by cutting the corner).

        Edited at 2020-09-09 10:12 am (UTC)

    5. It’s (one better than albatross) called a condor ! The questions was asked years ago by John Hopkins of The Times – comp to suggest a name because a father and son foursome had done one at Gleneagles, with a shot on handicap – a net 1. I proposed condor and ‘that condor moment’ and won the champagne (3 bottles if I remember correctly). Thanks JH.
  13. …but she doesn’t fit. MALLARD, cold and motionless at the NRM in York is rather sad despite her fame and legendary shape. I have climbed all over Sir Nigel, still warm from a day’s work, at Grosmont sheds on the North York Moors Railway and been hauled by her all the way from Stevenage to York. A glorious beast.

    I can’t offer anything more on COMPASSES than has already appeared. Weird.

    Cross was interesting, and I think the explanation is right:
    “Instead of the cross, the Albatross
    About my neck was hung.”
    I’d argue that the cross and the albatross are different burdens, the one speaking of responsibility, the other of guilt.

    I did like the chestnut-flavoured MANICURED, the rather clever TRAINEE and much else in this 17 minute run.

    1. With cricket in the news, I was reminded by today’s blog of an England wicketkeeper who was cruelly named by his mates as The Ancient Mariner because he “stoppeth one of three”.
  14. 14:08 with the unknown EVOCATE LOI after an alphabet trawl. I didn’t get COMES for “draws in” at 20A, but I see Aphis has explained, and, like jackkt, thought it ought to end in “these”. I didn’t parse CROSS either – thanks for explaining, Pip.

    Edited at 2020-09-09 08:23 am (UTC)

  15. Well, I found that difficult.
    Thank you, Pip, for explaining CROSS and ON THE TROT.
    I still don’t see how COMES equates to anything in the clue, though.
    With EVOCATE how does ‘reclining’ equal reversing? Sorry, don’t see that.
    Also, in 1d, I don’t agree that GOT AT = ‘reached’. ‘Got to’ does but that doesn’t fit 9ac.
    I did like MANICURED and OXYMORONS.

    Edited at 2020-09-09 09:57 am (UTC)

    1. Martin if I have to ask my husband to reach me down something from a high shelf I might well say that I can’t get at it – meaning reach – so I think it works.
  16. 9:47. Nice puzzle. I caused myself some problems by putting PAN at 14ac, a perfectly valid answer except that it makes 2dn and 14dn difficult to solve.
    My only other significant holdup was MALLARD, where the train didn’t come to mind for a while.
    I just biffed COMPASSES so didn’t notice the rather odd wordplay.
  17. Interesting discussion to be had on the BBC exclusion of nitty-gritty on etymological background. Where this is pretty well invisible now I’d suggest it’s better to ignore; on the other hand where the racist background impinges on the view better not to. I remember getting steamed up here some years back about cotton-picking.

    Got steamed up here on 1 ac. as had the split as 5,4 and cast about for some time for a writer G—V -D–. Didn’t know the engine but vaguely thought it might have something to do with a scornfully termed mallard being a bit of a dope. Draw in for come seems OK if a little something may be conceded to a pleasing surface. 24’45.

    1. You’ll be pleased to learn, joe, that a Texas high school has used “The Cottonpickers” as its mascot/moniker. Or, has until just now, when the term has begun to raise discussion, and might be changed as a result.
  18. Perhaps you saw MALLARD in the news last year when there was debate over a new statue of Sir Nigel Gresley at Kings Cross Station.
  19. I had no idea until coming here that NITTY GRITTY was contentious. How strange. We live in interesting times. I liked this puzzle. There were some easy write-ins to get me started and enough chewiness for a satisfying solve. 27 minutes. Ann
  20. DNK the ducky train so I missed that reference (thanks Pip). I (finally)arrived at the same explanation as Aphis and Sawbill for COMPASSES. When a train draws into the station it comes. There is a pub in Trollope’s Framley Parsonage called the Goat and Compasses which is said to be a corruption of “God encompasseth” from one of the psalms. I suppose the COMBO of 1d and 20a made me think of that. 18.13

    Edited at 2020-09-09 10:27 am (UTC)

    1. Yes that’s what I thought. Only yesterday I said to my son as he dawdled towards the station ‘quick, the train is coming’, and you might say ‘I’m not going to put my mask on until the train comes.’
  21. GOT AT was my FOI and GORE VIDAL soon arrived, but TRAINEE took ages to figure out. TRIER was eventually my LOI with a “Doh!” moment. I was also puzzled by COMPASSES and the Albatross/cross reference, but shrugged and moved on. VENTRALLY was a new word for me. I bought a model of Sir Nigel at Grosmomnt a couple of years ago and it has had a couple of trips around the layout in my attic. https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=gresley&epa=FILTERS&filters=eyJycF9hdXRob3IiOiJ7XCJuYW1lXCI6XCJhdXRob3JfbWVcIixcImFyZ3NcIjpcIlwifSJ9 26:44. Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2020-09-09 11:29 am (UTC)

  24. ….that Moliére’s train never arrived because it was “La MALLARD Imaginaire”. I’m here all week….

    Thanks to Pip for COMPASSES where I’d not a clue what was happening, otherwise no problems once I overcame a very slow start.

    FOI MOONLIT (didn’t get any of the crossers)
    SOI TRIER (not much better)
    TOI MUG (and then progress began !)
    LOI RELATED (can’t explain why it eluded me at first)
    COD LAW AND ORDER
    TIME 12:30

  25. 20.05. An excellent puzzle I thought but wondered whether mallard would make the international trip. The railway version was a favourite topic for the train spotters who put together quizzes in my lost youth.

    Lots to like here , my favourites being manicured, astor and aintree- another very British clue I suppose. FOI moonlit,LOI evocate, largely due to being blindsided by convincing myself emu was the Greek letter when mu would have been the right memory , even if wrong answer!

  26. Struggled there at the end with cross and dabbler, and shoved them both in more out of hope than expectation. Thanks for explaining. Agree that compasses are plural and require a these not a this.
      1. The clue says COMPASSES, not a pair of. And of course you would say ‘look at these trousers’.

        Edited at 2020-09-09 07:06 pm (UTC)

  27. Thanks for the COMPASSES explanation – I couldn’t for the life of me work out what was going on. Rare case of ‘graduate’ not being MA, BA,…
  28. Start with “Washington, DC” (for the dialogue): then work backwards and forwards in his Chronicle of the United States”. Don’t bother with his earlier novels, or “Myra B” (i never got all the in-jokes)
  29. Sorry that was me …

    … just found out that my first post-lockdown concert at the wonderful St George’s in Bristol scheduled for this Saturday has been cancelled. *sigh*

  30. 22 mins for me so much quicker than my 35m average. I must have been on the wavelength. Quite a lot of biffing helped by some friendly crossing letters and having the required GK for Mallard Astor etc. Thanks setter and Pip
  31. Found this easier than the quick cryptic today. Lucky that MALLARD was right, as I didn’t go back to check!
  32. I liked it, especially Trainee. I was not quite so sure about the link between Cross and albatross, but the meaning was clear. Thanks, pip, thx setter & ed
  33. 42 minutes, and surprisingly, as usual, all correct. My LOI, of course, were CROSS and MALLARD, which were right despite the fact that my explanations of them certainly weren’t: I thought perhaps albatrosses might also be called “crossfeathers” and CROSS is what is left when you spit the feathers. And of course, MALLARD is British slang for “completely mad” (as are so many things, and apparently, as is the whole country). The “dabbler” was no problem. Ah, the cross-eyed bear!

    Edited at 2020-09-09 03:23 pm (UTC)

  34. This took me just over 30 minutes to unravel but I DNK GORE VIDAL, VENTRALLY or EVOCATE (interestingly this spell-check doesn’t know the latter either!) and I had to biff COMPASSES.
    Some nice, simple clues including MUG, OASIS, DURER and DIP – and some laughs along the way at MOONLIT, MINUTE STEAK and MANICURED.
    COD goes to PIKESTAFF for its simplicity – and thanks to Pip for his link plus all the other explanations of course.
  35. 20:42. I found this fiddly in places but enjoyably so, tinkering with different bits and pieces until all fell into place. Not very knowledgeable about trains or old comic actors so flirted with Mullard for a time but Mallard sounded better.
  36. LOI CROSS, looking for a triple definition. Saw albatross as cross, spitting likewise, but then became cross looking for “feathers” to fit this definition. Must be related to feathering a propeller I thought. Obviously at cross purposes with the setter. ‘Spitting feathers’ is not a usage in these parts, we’d more likely say “spitting chips”, or in NZ “spitting tacks”
    26:42
  37. So not on the wavelength today, not helped by DIM rather than LAM leaving me puzzling over the author – GORE VIDAL did cross my mind early on but got no further until VENTRALLY came up (RALLY = exchange?)

    Tomorrow is another day

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