Times 27801 – a souper test for your anagram skills.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I liked this, a classic type puzzle with several tricky anagrams and nothing obscure (unless you don’t know French). I particularly liked 14a, 22a, 26a and 16d. I expect many will biff 6d and 10d and move on. It took me about half an hour to do and parse.

Across
1 Habitually drink tea, mostly outside work (4)
TOPE – Insert OP (work) into TE[A].
3 Attainable diamonds regularly found here (2,3,5)
ON THE CARDS – double definition, one cryptic.
9 Drivers, one prevaricating about vehicle on track (7)
RAILCAR – All reversed (= “about”): RAC (drivers) LIAR (one prevaricating).
11 Posh politician one socialist judged (7)
UMPIRED – U (posh) MP, 1, RED.
12 Profanity from guru admitting constant anger (9)
SACRILEGE – SAGE (guru) insert C (a constant) RILE (anger).
13 Aid when strolling round love boat (5)
CANOE – Insert O love) into CANE (aid when strolling).
14 Liquid lunch? Ugly lawman tipsy with it (12)
MULLIGATAWNY – (UGLY LAWMAN IT)*. What an improbable looking but brilliant anagram!
18 Searcher wielding rod more beatific after drink (5,7)
WATER DIVINER – WATER (drink) DIVINER (more beatific).
21 Nitrogen close to ocean absorbed by marine plant (5)
SENNA – SEA (marine) insert N for nitrogen and N end of ocean.
22 Seemingly take the excitement out of stay (9)
DEFERMENT – Well, to ferment could be to excite, so to DE-FERMENT would be to take out excitement. STAY as a noun here.
24 Cunning vehicle for winter trekkers primarily (7)
SLEIGHT – SLEIGH, T = trekkers primarily. As in sleight of hand.
25 Fabled kingdom is lacking a capital (7)
ATLANTA – ATLANTIS with IS lacking, A. Capital of Georgia, USA.
26 Able to grasp floating sphere with line (10)
PREHENSILE – (SPHERE LINE)*. Another cracker of an anagram.
27 Race often won by such effrontery (4)
NECK – double definition.

Down
1 Irritating irregular rise in volume (8)
TIRESOME – (RISE)* inside TOME = volume.
2 Noble needs to practise guarding king in church (8)
PRINCELY – PLY (practise) insert R (king) IN CE (Church).
4 Tend to run up banks of Seine (5)
NURSE – NUR (run up) SE (outer letters of Seine).
5 Servant to take in nuts I’ll crack (9)
HOUSEMAID – HOUSE (take in) MAD (nuts) insert I.
6 Top eastern state bounded by waterway where craft launched (4,9)
CAPE CANAVERAL – CAP (top) E(astern) CANAL (waterway) insert AVER (state).
7 Enthusiastic band of artists? (6)
RARING – an RA RING is a band of artists.
8 Waterlogged lair beneath turf (6)
SODDEN – SOD (turf) DEN (lair).
10 What reviewer usually offers maybe beyond which reflection less than total (8,5)
CRITICAL ANGLE – double definition. If this is all Greek to you and Snell’s Law is unfamiliar, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection
15 Brief relations ceased, not unexpectedly (9)
ANECDOTES – (CEASED NOT)*.
16 Expecting what’s required for defence in test (8)
ENCEINTE – double definition, the first being French for pregnant, the second being the enclosure or ramparts of a fortification. Not sure what IN TEST is adding, unless it implies the defences have to be tested? Ah, at last some one below has pointed out it’s also HIDDEN in DEF(ENCE IN TE)ST so that’s why in test appears. The word enceinte appears a lot in France, on every drug label and in every doctor’s cabinet, telling people what to avoid if in that condition.
17 Young achievers, having defect, quietly coming in second (8)
BRATPACK – BACK = second; insert RAT (defect, jump ship) P (quietly).
19 Finishes milk drink (4,2)
USES UP – USE (milk, take advantage of) SUP (drink).
20 Quick expulsion of unknown European, first seen at sea (6)
SNEEZE – (SEEN)*, Z (unknown), E(uropean).
23 Beat learner driver involved in crash (5)
FLAIL – Insert L for learner driver into FAIL for crash.

​

48 comments on “Times 27801 – a souper test for your anagram skills.”

  1. Mostly easy, except the bottom right: I don’t know French, or Latin, so enceinte was a guess. A confident guess: it’s a hidden (required for defENCE IN TEst). Even so, bratpack and neck took a long time to twig.
    Very enjoyable overall, liked (like) mulligatawny. Thanks Pip and setter.
    1. A technical DNF as I was unable to complete the SE corner without resorting to aids, first for DEFERMENT and secondly for ENCEINTE.

      BRATPACK also delayed me as I had an incorrect checker for a while supplied by 27ac where I had been working my way through the parts of a horse by which a race may be won, first NOSE, then HEAD and then finally NECK.

      ENCEINTE has not appeared before and I’m not surprised I was never taught it in French classes at school because that was a time when the English equivalent ‘pregnant’ would have been referred to only in hushed tones in polite company.

      The rest of the puzzle was rather good.

      Edited at 2020-10-21 06:06 am (UTC)

    2. I hate French words in English crosswords, mostly because I don’t know the language. And I liven in Canada, a bilingual country! My bad.
  2. Going well until hitting a road-block in the SE. LOI ENCIENTE took a good portion of the 51:42 needed. I expected something to do with ‘test’ cricket, on the lines of a box, helmet or pads. Not the Spanish Inquisition. ANTENNAE fitted, but I’ve never seen a batsman wear them….
    Thanks to setter and Pip, most enjoyable.
    1. Yes, I spent a while wondering if having ANTENNAE could make you expectant in some way…
  3. I was held up on ENCEINTE and DEFERMENT. I was pretty sure DEFERMENT was correct but I was looking for something more like DETERPARTY. Then I suddenly noticed that the French word for pregnant fitted. Then I realized something that everyone else seems to have missed too…it’s hidden in “defENCE IN TEst”. That’s what the “in test” is doing there.
  4. Glad I wasn’t alone in taking a while to spot the hidden for the unknown 16d ENCEINTE. Luckily one of my rules for when I’m stuck is to double-check for the obvious, and sometimes I even remember to do it!

    27 minutes all told; I suppose I’m quite lucky in seeing MULLIGATAWNY and CAPE CANAVERAL quite quickly and being able to biff CRITICAL ANGLE and PREHENSILE with barely a second thought. FOI 1a TOPE LOI 16d ENCEINTE COD 3a ON THE CARDS.

    Edited at 2020-10-21 06:17 am (UTC)

    1. Almost identical, except i must award COD to Cape Canaveral. Thanks to the setter for a fine challenge today
    2. I too biffed CRITICAL ANGLE without having much if any notion of what the term mean. In my shorter OED it is defined as “the angle of incidence beyond which rays of light passing through a denser medium to the surface of a less dense medium are no longer refracted but totally reflected”.

      On the face of it, this suggests that the 10d clue is wrong in describing the reflection as “less than total”. That said, I’m no scientist, and perhaps I’ve misconstrued the cryptic parsing.

  5. The last couple took some time, POI NECK and LOI BRATPACK. I had the vague feeling that NECK meant something I didn’t know, and I see that that meaning isn’t in ODE. I spotted the hidden ENCEINTE fairly early–very early for me–thanks to my brother, who a week or so ago sent me a US quiz show question, viz. what was the word used on “I Love Lucy” way back when because ‘pregnant’ was taboo.
      1. That I knew; I didn’t know the other meaning, ‘effrontery’. Lip, yes; neck, no.
        3. Winston Churchill’s reaction to someone saying Britain would have its neck wrung like a chicken: “Some chicken. Some neck!”
  6. Well I found that the toughest puzzle for some time and was well off the wavelength according to the SNITCH rating. Both the NW and the SE corners held me up considerably with nothing going in for 10-15 minutes at one point. I spent quite some time thinking that 9A was going to be RACECAR and that king in church was going to be CRE or CKE. I thought of DEFERMENT for “take the excitement out of” but didn’t think of the right sense of stay so didn’t put it in for some time. I finally finished with the unknown ENCEINTE which I thought a very good hidden. I’m going to have a lie down now.
  7. DNF It was the SW corner, over by IKEA, that did for me – 21ac SENNA! And 20dn SNEEZE – yuk!

    I wanted 22ac to be DECORSETTE…..

    FOI 1ac TOPE

    COD 6dn CAPE CANAVERAL (now and then Cape Kennedy?)

    WOD 16dn ENCIENTE was vaguely remembered. It was interesting to recall that the word ‘pregnant’ was taboo.

    Old Welsh wives’ tale:
    ‘Our Rita’s gettin’ married!’
    “Oh, dear, Blodwyn! Is she…you know…. pre…?”
    ‘Oh no! Not at all!’
    “There’s posh!”

    Rita was therefore not an actress!

    Edited at 2020-10-21 07:04 am (UTC)

  8. 1a going straight in always gives me a boost, and I carried on enjoying each tussle with this skilful setter in steady progress – until the SE corner, where the complex wordplay for BRATPACK, the brilliant DD/hidden for the unknown ENCEINTE and the turfy NECK were like that bone that’s always in your last mouthful of fish. Took ages there, finally seeing the hidden and completing in around 39m.

    Thanks Pip for explaining the biffs, and setter for a great workout.

    Edited at 2020-10-21 07:12 am (UTC)

    1. You’re lucky if the bone is always in your last mouthful of fish. In my experience it’s always in the first which completely ruins the enjoyment of eating, as I’m expecting another one.
  10. 25 mins with yoghurt, banana, granola, etc – left two, the Deferment/Flail crossers.
    Another five mins to crack those.
    Good crossword IMHO.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

    PS Forget to say, I think 15dn is a brilliant clue.

    Edited at 2020-10-21 07:43 am (UTC)

  11. We were taught about the butcher’s, baker’s and perhaps even the candlestick maker’s, but not about the fertility clinic. 20 minutes to the SE, and then a further 15 minutes less than pregnant pause while NECK, BRATPACK and unknown LOI ENCEINTE (as a presumed hidden) emerged. I don’t even know how to pronounce it. COD to USES UP. A workmanlike puzzle with a sting in the tail. Thank you Pip and setter.
    1. I think your mention of 20 minutes has resulted in this being given as your time on the SNITCH giving you the best personal NITCH for today. I suggest you mention 2 minutes in your post each day from now on 😉
  12. ..but like Jack, I had to use aids in the end for a couple of clues: MULLIGATAWNY, BRATPACK and RAILCAR. the former was a really well disguised anagram and I didn’t relate prevaricate to LIAR. I also thought BRATPACK was two words.
    No problem with ENCEINTE, though.
    Excellent crossword and well done, Pip!

    Edited at 2020-10-21 07:44 am (UTC)

    1. Ah, same here re prevaricate. Brat Pack has variable members but I haven’t found it as one word yet.
      Was totally unaware of the defence meaning for the nearly unspellable enceinte, which I now see as a regular noun can be pluralised with an S.
      Andyf
  13. Like others, I spent some time with RACECAR at 9a holding me up. I also have a vague recollection of ENCEINTE appearing in Adrian Mole at some point.
  14. Started off like a train but, like others before me today, struggled with the NW and SE. Did know ENCEINTE of course but not that it is in use in English too! Gave up eventually and had to look up BRATPACK which is a NHO. Like horryd, didn’t like SNEEZE. I also had RACECAR for a while and HEAD for 27 ac. That did not help. I think I liked MULLIGATAWNY, but why at lunchtime?
  15. 30 minutes of gentle solve and no complaints. Enjoyed ‘brief relations’ but COD to ENCEINTE (ironic that it was hidden).
  16. 24:12
    Mainly easy. Feel like a doofus, though, as enceinte took me a few minutes to spot, which is a bit of a blooper for a French teacher. Got it eventually, without seeing the hidden. Thanks pip.
  17. Found this reasonably straightforward. ‘Bratpack’ makes me think of M. Amis, Rushdie and McEwan in their younger days. My memory of the ‘fifties is that the word ‘pregnant’ was perfectly allowable but maybe I was in a more liberated household than some. ‘Enceinte’ is certainly less harsh a word. The clueing for ‘Cape Canaveral’ is nice but a tad otiose, it being almost impossible not to biff before construction. Maybe an &lit (?) needed for such. 24’27.
  18. …which looks pretty good based on the SNITCH.

    LOI ENCEINTE of course. I have more than a smattering of French but have never come across the word which is probably just as well.

    Like Matt and doubtless others I relied on the old rule “if there hasn’t been a hidden and the letters make a hidden possible and you have no idea what’s going on with the clue then it’s a hidden.”

    I knew nothing about the critical angle and having carefully read the pertinent part of Pip’s link I’m still in pretty much the same position.

  20. I felt very sluggish while solving, so glad to realise that it wasn’t just me who ground to something of a halt in the SE corner. All there once you see it, it just took some seeing…
  21. A bit of a trip down memory lane with this one. Which reminds me of the Wodehouse quip that memories are like MULLIGATAWNY soup in a cheap restaurant etc. I recall BRATPACK from the 1980s when that was the name given to a group of young Hollywood actors, modeled on the Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin Rat Pack of the 50s. DEFERMENT was what young men like Trump got to avoid serving in Viet Nam – except he took it a step further and got excused altogether because of an alleged problem with his feet. ENCEINTE I knew (and it was exceptionally well-hidden) because my father insisted on taking me to see Les Parapluies de Cherbourg when I was in my teens – I think he fancied Catherine Deneuve. 22.33

    Edited at 2020-10-21 11:34 am (UTC)

  22. Anyone who has read the blog properly or glanced at earlier comments will already know that.
  23. 27.35 with a lot of effort. FOI on the cards, LOI princely. But two clues had me stumped for ages. Couldn’t get racecar out of my head at 9 ac until it finally dawned on me to look backwards and rail suddenly stood out. Had run out of ideas for enceinte until I went for the hidden word which I had never , ever heard of. So dumb luck that I finished.

    Still, a really good exercise so thanks setter- and not forgetting blogger.

  24. …with DEFERMENT, PREHENSILE, PRINCELY and BRATPACK all going in unparsed.
    Many lovely clues including UMPIRED (simple but effective), MULLIGATAWNY (even though I only tried it once!) and ENCEINTE (which was very well hidden).
    COD goes to TIRESOME which was very satisfying to unravel.
    Thanks to the setter for a 34-minute workout and to Pip for the enjoyable blog.
  27. Tough bottom half after the top went in pretty quickly.

    The same delays to completion as many others – BRATPACK, NECK and ENCEINTE LOI

  28. Submitted just as the hour was up, held up forever by the SE corner. I was hardly expecting ENCEINTE, and although I put in NECK very early, I couldn’t think of anything for 17 down that would end in K — BRATPACK finally arose very slowly out of wordplay, but I have never seen it before. And I DNF: didn’t anyone else have IN THE CARDS? (On edit: Collins tells me this is the US version of the expression. And I thought I was bilingual … )

    Edited at 2020-10-21 06:34 pm (UTC)

  29. An evening solve in 27.50, with PRINCELY, and the SE corner stretching the line out to the crack of doom. I had to write out the crossing letters of PRINCELY horizontally before any kind of light dawned, not least because I was looking for A noble rather than just noble.
    ENCEINTE nicely – um – enceinte, and NECK my last in on the grounds that it could have been anything until BRATPACK suppled the K.
    RACECAR for a while because I thought prevaricating supplied the ER and about the CA, though of course it didn’t work.
    I remember MULLIGATAWNY as sort of brown Windsor with added curry powder and a special treat on cold nights.

    Edited at 2020-10-21 06:48 pm (UTC)

  30. 40:07. I found this an uphill struggle and ground to a halt in the SE. Eventually got neck slowly leading to bratpack, deferment, flail, Atlanta (should’ve been much quicker to think of Atlantis) and of course the inevitable LOI and nho enceinte.
  31. Everything bar 16d in 40 minutes, then wasted another 25 minutes on that before looking it up. Never heard of the word or either meaning. Thanks for the elucidation Pip.
  32. Isn’t there something wrong with the enceinte clue? A double definition and a hidden but with no hidden indicator (that I can see). Happy for someone to point out what I may very well be missing …

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