Times 27793 – Not so complex

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Pretty run-of-the-mill Monday offering, with a couple of weirdish words and a flower that sounds as if it were named after a Victorian maiden aunt. 21 minutes.

ACROSS

1 Male animal that may be made fast? (4)
BUCK – you can make a fast buck…
3 Trauma-resistant old academic goes about with untidy mass of hair (10)
SHOCKPROOF – SHOCK (untidy mass of hair) O in PROF
9 Less expensive-sounding young bird? (7)
CHEEPER – sounds like ‘cheaper’
11 Kitchen appliance ultimately useful in drinking-spree (7)
BLENDER – [usefu]L in BENDER; where I make my hummus using lightly roasted sesame seeds ground in the coffee grinder – no rip-off tahini
12 Swift action is needed to make this course possible (5,4,4)
BIRDS NEST SOUP – this Chinese soup is made from the solidified saliva nest of a swiftlet
14 Political extremist sheltering union leader? Something fishy here (5)
TROUT – U[nion] in TROT
15 Broadcast our clubs initially adjudged beneath the viewers (9)
SUBOCULAR – anagram* of OUR CLUBS A[djudged]
17 Shark, unusually ferocious, gobbling up one’s nanny (9)
NURSEMAID – NURSE (type of shark) I in MAD (unusually ferocious)
19 Patrolled, with due deference to duke (5)
PACED – PACE (little used Latinate word meaning ‘with due deference’) D
21 Greatly increase output of ducal art and equip … (13)
QUADRUPLICATE – DUCAL ART EQUIP*
24 … royals of note overwhelmed by costs (7)
PRINCES – N in PRICES
25 King George leaves French city, receiving knight to elevate (7)
ENNOBLE – N (knight in chess) in [gr]ENOBLE
26 Comparison limits one due for development (10)
SIMILITUDE – LIMITS I DUE*
27 Brought up money for speaker? (4)
BRED – sounds like ‘bread’

DOWN

1 Little in the way of support for such spiteful talk! (10)
BACKBITING – BIT in BACKING
2 Farewell from guerrilla leader to north of European port (7)
CHEERIO – CHE [over – ‘to north of’] E RIO
4 Flowering shrub the rain so damaged (9)
HORTENSIA – THE RAIN SO*; thought it was ‘horse-‘ something at first
5 Old measure of copper coin? (5)
CUBIT – CU BIT (old piece of coinage)
6 Advance idea from papa about beginning of pregnancy (13)
PRECONCEPTION – an idea formed beforehand; we all do it…
7 Like a complex king’s gem worn by English princess? (7)
OEDIPAL – E DI in OPAL; quite nice – the apostrophe is essential to the solution
8 Model’s criminal record (4)
FORM – double definition; form, as in model of the human figure used to display clothes
10 Game to approve the plot? (4,3,6)
PASS THE PARCEL – if you approve a piece of land, you, um, pass the parcel
13 Son leaves Waugh’s house, skirting key part of fortification (10)
BRIDGEHEAD – G (random musical key) in BRIDE[s]HEAD
16 Teacher’s policy primarily delivered cover in retirement (9)
BEDSPREAD – BEd’s P[olicy] READ (aloud – delivered)
18 Soldiers composed unfinished Mass, one for the departed (7)
REQUIEM – RE (Royal Engineers – soldiers) QUIE[t] (composed minus the last letter) M (mass)
20 Room in which daily is invested with award (7)
CHAMBER – MBE in CHAR (as in Mrs Mop)
22 Relax about start of Italian exam (5)
RESIT – I[talian] in REST
23 Rising at university, inspired by outstanding work (4)
OPUS – UP (at Oxford, say, or Fenland Poly, for those with cerebral issues) reversed in OS (outstanding)

70 comments on “Times 27793 – Not so complex”

  1. I thought it was odd that the setter decided to clue CHEEPER rather than CHEAPER at 9 across, the clue was pretty clear but I was wondering if I was missing something. In any case, easy Monday – 6:07
  2. I was hoping to sneak in under 10′, but I spent too long trying to remember if I’d seen FORM=criminal record before. Had the same feeling as George about CHEEPER. All in all a rather meh Monday puzzle.
  3. …which, I imagine, is a time that will rank among the slowest for this puzzle. I took about 6 minutes for the BRIDGEHEAD / BRED crossing and BEDSPREAD, my last three in.

    Also, must remember that HARE’S FOOT SOUP is not a thing.

  4. I thought 9ac was very close to being what used to be called a double helix. In my view it was only the hyphen between expensive and sounding that tipped the scales in favour of CHEEPER over cheaper.
    Not being part of the crossword cognoscenti, I thought it was a reasonable puzzle. I struggled at first but then clues fell into place rapidly.
    COD to OEDIPAL.

    Edited at 2020-10-12 03:03 am (UTC)

  5. My miserable run continues, having managed to enter QUADRIPLICATE today. Oh well, tomorrow’s another day.
  6. With all the gardener Fancy e’er could feign,
    Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same.

    20 mins pre-brekker.
    The fun bit was some of the unusual words as anagrams.
    Thanks setter and U.

  7. 27 minutes slowed by my inability to think Chinese.

    FOI 4dn HORTENSIA = hydrangea – my grandfather’s hortensia cuttings were something to behold (Hyde Rangers post WWII managed by Alex Calvert – morning Phil.)

    LOI 12ac BIRDS NEST SOUP expensive gloop which I first encountered in 1960 in Brighton. Is it eaten by vegetarians?

    COD ditto

    WOD ditto

    So that’s Monday done and dusted now for the supreme court malarky. Sure beats the West Wing.

  8. Well I enjoyed this, especially the nice definition for BEDSPREAD, my COD. Nothing wrong with easing into the week after what I found to be a bruising Saturday prize puzzle. Thanks setter for a pleasant workout and Ulaca for the blog.
    1. If Saturday’s prize puzzle is difficult, I will send it in, hoping I have a better chance of winning. What’s the point, if you can google the answers?
      Jim.

      Edited at 2020-10-12 01:19 pm (UTC)

  9. Loved that – especially 12 ac – the fate of the poor old swift’s work made me laugh. 6 answers starting with B – the setter has been busy…

    Edited at 2020-10-12 07:12 am (UTC)

  10. What is it with 21 minutes today? That was my time too although I would have finished sooner if I hadn’t originally entered the answer to 9ac at 11ac which gave me problems for a while solving 5dn which should have been a write-in.

    No problems once started although I wasn’t aware that swifts in particular were involved in the making of BIRD’S NEXT SOUP and I merred at ‘unusually ferocious’ = MAD.

    I assumed that maiden aunts called HORTENSIA would have been named after the flower rather than vice versa, but I haven’t been able to substantiate this, though Victorians were very fond of naming their children after plants.

    Collins has QUADRUPLICATE as ‘multiply or be multiplied by four’ so I don’t see the problem suggested in an earlier contribution.

    Edited at 2020-10-12 08:20 am (UTC)

  11. Just five clues short today, getting closer. The key strategy is when to throw in the towel. Some great clues today, esp OEDIPAL.
  13. I do wish the setter had tried
    To not leave my brain slightly fried
    Was CHEEPER a keeper
    Or should it be CHEAPER?
    It really was hard to decide
  14. Bah, put CHEAPER even though it is reasonably clearly the bird, wasn’t really thinking.

    COD: PRECONCEPTION, for the surface

    Friday’s answer: lambda is first if Greek letters are internally sorted into alphabetical order.

    Today’s question: which eventual king was Princes Street in Edinburgh named after?

  15. 24 minutes with LOI BRED. I needed all crossers for BIRDS’S NEST SOUP, not knowing before the nest it came from. I also took my time on NURSEMAID, perhaps because one didn’t have a nanny. I would have thought that PRECONCEPTION was more the foreplay than the beginning of pregnancy. COD to BEDSPREAD and BRIDGEHEAD jointly. Thank you U and setter.
  16. Enjoyed this. I thought CHEEPER was unnecessarily complex but loved the ‘swift action’ and ‘cover in retirement’.
  17. An average sort of 14.39, panicking that I couldn’t possibly know Waugh’s house, or the dam’ed shrub. Turns out I knew both.
    Our astrophysicist friends will be pleased to know HORTENSIA is named for Nicole-Reine Lepaute who almost successfully predicted the return of Halley’s comet in 1759, the timing of a solar eclipse, and who created a catalogue of stars. It’s not really derived form her name, but it was meant to be.
    1. To be fair she was generally known as Hortense, or so it seems. She has both an asteroid and a lunar crater named after her, according to Wikipedia.
      1. The sources are wonderfully divided on Mme Lepaute, some asserting that she called herself Hortense in private and some that that she acquired the name retrospectively and erroneously from the shrub, it having originally been named Peautia coelestina in her honour but renamed hortensia shortly afterwards so that everyone assumed that was her name. We may never know.
        One wonders if the craters really should have been named as Étable (de la Briere) for her maiden name, but I suppose Lepaute sounds somewhat more scientific.
  19. But I took 23 mins so obviously slower than most ! I did have an interruption though so maybe it was 21 after all. I enjoyed this jaunt, especially the more unusual words which stretched the little grey cells. SUBOCULAR, QUDRUPLICATE and SIMILITUDE all took some working out.

    Thanks U for the definition of BNS. Never did know that. I saw FORM as form/make/model something as with modelling clay, say.

    COD BNS. FOI CHEEPER, LOI BRIDGEHEAD, nice clue. Thank you ulaca and setter.

  20. 8:15. Very Mondayish. Thanks for the reminder of the source of BIRDS NEST SOUP, U. I just biffed it from the checkers, of course.
  21. 13.28. Swift start gave me hope for a sub ten finish but got bogged down figuring out the anagrams which seemed over represented today. FOI cheeper, LOI bridgehead. Nice start to the week.
    1. I know a French Hortense too. It’s also the name of one of the main characters in Mike Leigh’s film Secrets and Lies
      1. It’s also the name of Lady Dedlock’s French maid and (spoiler alert) the killer of Mr. Tulkinghorn in “Bleak House”.
        1. So it is. Bleak House is one of the few Dickens novels I’ve read but I had forgotten about that Hortense.
  23. Evenly-paced solved, just over the seemingly-modal average of 21 mins, based on the above comments.

    BRIDGEHEAD and BRED last two in.

  24. 8:36. Similar reaction to others on CHEEPER: the wordplay seems unambiguous to me but it’s just a bit of a non-word and the setter could have picked CHEAPER. QUADRUPLICATE is a bit of a funny word too. All in all a little bit rum but no complaints here.

    Edited at 2020-10-12 08:16 am (UTC)

  26. Didn’t think CHEEPER was a word, so I reckoned that the clue must work the other way around. Obviously not!
  27. Unless I am very much mistaken, this is my first time under 20 minutes, ever……..

    Must have been easy!

    17.21

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  29. Paused for thought at the slightly odd-looking CHEEPER. As others have said, the wordplay points indisputably at that answer, though you’d probably expect to see it the other way round. I also exercised enough consideration not to biff my first thought of HORNETSIA, when I realised there was a more likely way to resolve the anagram.
  30. I rarely do the 15×15 these days, finding the slow sprint of the QC fits more easily into my busy schedule now that I am fully retired, but I was pleased to complete this inside 30 minutes – a fast time for me. LOI BNS, FOI CHEEPER (it seemed obvious to me). Thanks Setter and Blogger.
  31. In the heart or in the head?

    I guess both equally in the case of the finest setters. Another 21 minutes here. Not much to comment on, though a few surfaces lingered. ! ac. reminded me of F.R.Leavis to whom I put a question once about T.S.Eliot and Pound; he refused to answer saying he didn’t know “whose side [I was} on”. A brilliant man racked by animosities. 17 ac. is a Rees-Moggian nightmare; the pompous Victorian (?) papa in 6 down is a touch intrusive by modern standards. Maybe his daughter was Hortensia.

    1. You reminded me of the contribution by Simon Lacerous (“Another Book to Cross Off Your List”) in Frederick Crews’s brilliant “The Pooh Perplex”.
  32. Guardian, QC and this one, all v Mondayish. I suppose it is, after all, Monday, but still…

    9:35, which is I think my second ever dip under 10 mins.

  33. Quite a good day, coming in at just under half an hour. And not cerebally challenged despite the lack of any university education at all. Sorry – I don’t want to start any unpleasantness but I really need to get this off my chest! I do understand that it’s an Oxford v Cambridge thing, but these regular comments about an Oxford education (in particular) being so superior just make very feel me very alienated, particularly as I also suspect that I’m one of only a few regular female posters here. I must add that – mostly – I thoroughly enjoy reading the comments and have found the blog extremely helpful. But there are times when I wonder if I am really in the right place.

    Anyway, the crossword: a pleasant solve with a few smiles on the way, although I didn’t fully parse BIRDS NEST SOUP or BEDSPREAD, so thanks for the clarifications. I liked the image of the mad professor hairstyle at 3a.

    FOI Hortensia (I knew it was a plant, didn’t realise it was also hydrangea)
    LOI Bedspread
    COD Chamber
    Time 27m

    1. Pebee, you are definitely in the right place and very very welcome! The Oxbridge types all too often practise a kind of “unconscious aggression” and I’m sure I’m guilty of it. It’s so easy to look for a kind of club which by its nature has just that touch of exclusivity. I’m sorry and I’m sure I speak for others too.
      1. Thank you for your very kind words, Joe – I had just come back to delete my post as I was concerned that I was being over-sensitive and I really don’t want to start any sort of trouble.

        Edited at 2020-10-12 03:12 pm (UTC)

          1. It is noticeable that most of the posters seem to be male (as fas as one can tell). Is this because fewer women do crosswords or because fewer care to post about doing crosswords? I do the Times and my other half does the Guardian pretty quickly, but she wouldn’t dream of posting (he said confidently).

            As to Oxbridge, she is but I ain’t – but I can do the crosswords faster 🙂 Though a slightly slow 16 minutes today, but then I didn’t get much sleep last night.

            1. Well, I am Oxbridge, male, … and pleased to finish the QC in under 15 minutes. Mrs S is not Oxbridge, not male, and disappointed if the 15×15 takes as long as 15 minutes. So much for generalisations! More to the point, I suspect, is that I started doing the QC regularly only about a year ago, while she has been doing the 15×15 for over 10 years.

              Cedric

    2. In my first ever Times Crossword National Final (c1982) they printed a program with short pen-pictures of each contestant. I quickly realised that the other 17 had all been to University. I briefly thought “I’m not worthy”, but then just got on with it.
  35. Like others above, liked 16d “Bedspread”.
    Spent awhile trying to remember Waugh’s House – not read the book but seen the film – spent too long looking for a word ending in …ment – but eventually the copper coin dropped.
    Nice puzzle except, maybe, for “Cheeper”.
  36. Not fast at just over 25 minutes but I enjoyed the challenge so thanks to the setter.
    I couldn’t parse PACED, OEDIPAL (very clever!) or BRIDGEHEAD so thanks to Ulaca for the helpful blog.
    SHOCKPROOF, ENNOBLE and CHAMBER were all very satisfying and my COD goes to SIMILITUDE for its helpful wordplay.
  39. 18:36. I felt a little bit sluggish as I made my way round the grid and probably laboured unnecssarily over some parsings but apart from a minor brain freeze on Hortensia and birds nest soup at the end it was a fairly gentle start to the week.
  40. Came to this very late today as the rest of the day seemed to be filled with other things to do. Was pleased to zip through it in 17:05. A couple of years ago, I spent a very pleasant day wandering around Castle Howard and its grounds, learning all about Brideshead Revisited in the process, so 13d was a write in. Trout was my FOI. CHEEPER seemed to be the obvious answer, so in it went without a second thought. Liked SUBOCULAR. QUADRUPLICATE seemed a bit odd but went in anyway. Took a while for the penny to drop for the soup. HORTENSIA was my LOI. Thanks setter and U.
  41. I thought I was going to complete this in what, for me, would have been a fastest time ever and by a long way. After not much more than 5 minutes I had done all but 7D and 12A. Then I hit one of those mental blocks which I can only clear by stopping and returning later with my mind clear of all previous thoughts. When I went back to it, I saw OEDIPAL almost straight away and was pretty cross with myself for not working it out first time round. So all I had left was 12A; I had been looking for some kind of wordplay and so had completely blind-sided myself; given the letters I already had, it hit me that the answer was probably BIRDS NEST SOUP, and then I remembered that the nests from which it is made are built by swifts. So, all done, but I can’t help thinking that this is clue belongs in a general knowledge crossword rather than a cryptic one.
  42. This is only the second 15×15 we’ve attempted so we’re delighted to be within 1 letter of finishing it. We just couldn’t work out 7D – so thank you ulaca for supplying the explanation and the “e” we just couldn’t get.

    It’s so helpful when those who also complete the QC suggest that the 15×15 might be doable. I don’t have a completion time but guess we finished in about 30 mins.

    Happy days.

  43. Can one be too busy to do the daily Times crossword? Missed a couple of days, so catching up by doing two yesterday and two today. Middle of the road Monday 14’17”

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