Times 27,803: Bonkbusted

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Some really good clues in this medium-strength puzzle – I liked 1dn, 2dn and 5dn, all of which withheld their shiny pennies from me for a good while, very much, for instance. But none of it really makes up for the atrocious 4dn I’m afraid, where a less obscure word for strike (BONK) can be reversed to make a less obscure word for boss (KNOB), and this is somehow not the answer.
At time of blogging there are 29 submissions with “errors” on the club compared to 3 without, and I don’t honestly know how those 3 managed to stumble upon the right answer; though I guess it may be a regional thing. If this clue was test-solved by multiple people prior to publication without this issue coming up, though, I will eat my very capacious hat.

Thank you to the setter for the good parts of this curate’s 5dn!

ACROSS
1 It’s well known: new lockdown meme no good (6,9)
COMMON KNOWLEDGE – (LOCKDOWN MEME NO G*)

9 Prod men to interrupt offensive opera (9)
RUDDIGORE – DIG O.R. to interrupt RUDE

10 About to stop low-down tree-hugger? (5)
GREEN – RE [about] to “stop” GEN [low-down]

11 Metal shaving twisted internally (6)
SILVER – S{L<->I}VER

12 Embarrassing mistake about dull, back-pedalling, perennial protesters? (4-1-3)
RENT-A-MOB – BONER about MAT, all reversed

13 They send up runners to welcome leading lady (6)
SKIERS – SKIS to “welcome” E.R. “To sky” means “to send up” (in the air)

15 Inspection kit is redundant, but not one containing catch (8)
OTOSCOPE – OT{i}OSE [redundant, minus I] “containing” COP

18 One unique barrier broken down at first (4,4)
RARE BIRD – (BARRIER*) + D{own}

19 Small bird seen by old man over the hill (4,2)
PAST IT – S TIT seen by PA

21 Penny-pincher demanding full roll (8)
TIGHTWAD – TIGHT [demanding] + WAD [full roll]

23 Intermediate puzzle with intro replaced (6)
MIDDLE – {r->M}IDDLE

26 Fake news: pleas FA regularly rejected (5)
FALSE – {n}E{w}S {p}L{e}A{s} F{a}, reversed

27 Projectile, originally lost, is in the sea (9)
BALLISTIC – L{ost} IS, in BALTIC

28 First on display to arrange big noise for military (3,5,7)
AIR CHIEF MARSHAL – CHIEF [first] on AIR [display], plus MARSHAL [arrange]

DOWN
1 Bending process cracks up on the boards? (7)
CORPSES – (PROCESS*) – as in what an actor who can’t stop laughing does

2 Barbie perhaps receiving doll’s first award (5)
MEDAL – MEAL [barbie, as in barbecue] “receives” D{oll}

3 Dull colour of old poet, ill, withdrawn (5,4)
OLIVE DRAB – O(ld) + reversed BARD, EVIL

4 Coming up, strike boss (4)
KNOT – reversed TONK.

5 One’s constituents beaten over race amidst scuffle (8)
OMELETTE – O(ver) + T.T. amidst MELEE. “One’s constituents beaten” as in, “one has beaten ingredients”

6 Not demanding rest (5)
LIGHT – double def

7 Hunk of bread and peeled tomato mashed together (9)
DREAMBOAT – (BREAD {t}OMAT{o}*)

8 Honour covered up by genteel bonnets (7)
ENNOBLE – hidden reversed in {gente}EL BONNE{ts}

14 Disorderly Irish customer, a familiar one (9)
IRREGULAR – IR + REGULAR [a familiar customer]

16 Harsh critic cries “fair!” unexpectedly (9)
SCARIFIER – (CRIES FAIR*)

17 Pressure to witter on about English introduction (8)
PREAMBLE – P + RAMBLE [to witter on] “about” E

18 Coming up: excellent, fine salt absorbing a liqueur (7)
RATAFIA – reversed A1 F TAR, absorbing A

20 Hawk left after row over church (7)
TIERCEL – L after TIER over C.E.

22 Force needing support on “towpath case” (5)
TEETH – TEE on T{owpat}H

24 Wife departs with face of tough guy scratched (5)
DUTCH – D + {b}UTCH

25 Sheer endless choice (4)
PLUM – PLUM{b}.

108 comments on “Times 27,803: Bonkbusted”

  1. Since I did it on paper, I had no hint that the club site had the wrong answer to 4dn. I’m standing pat with KNOB, and declaring their answer wrong. Yet another win for traditional technology!
  2. 26:43. I solved at lunchtime and found that even after all the time that had elapsed since the puzzle went live I was still 15th on the leaderboard. Felt dizzy and needed the smelling salts. Then read the comments and found that I hadn’t become a crossword genius overnight, I just jumped the “right” way on knot. Once I’d thought of cricketers tonking for six, I was convinced that it was right and didn’t look for any alternatives. So, a perfectly fair clue about which there can be no complaints then. The one in the concise with two equally valid answers on the other hand is an outrage (no prizes for guessing which one I went for). The rent-a-mob clue reminds me of the firm of solicitors who wrote to tell us that they would be representing an applicant on a pro boner basis, which was good to know.
    1. Might be the same firm of solicitors who were told that their office rental was being increased by £x per anum, and replied that they would prefer to continue paying through the nose, as at present ..
  3. That’s the problem with not holding the setter to account on a regular basis. If you keep letting them off their eccentricities with just a polite MER, they get complacent and sooner or later produce howlers like 4D which clearly shows that the crossword isn’t always ‘road-tested’. Not only that, they can’t be consulting the very dictionary that they ask us to consult, as knob is the first definition of boss.

    Is it really too much to ask that clues are tested for an absolute lack of ambiguity? Some of us pay upwards of thirty quid a month for this nonsense. I’ve given up fighting the battle to be honest. Mr Grumpy

  4. Rather late in the day, and a day late, but V, you’ve got the wrong anagrist at 1d.
  5. Can you please help a less experienced cruciverbalist. I had KNOB for 4dn. As both words fit the crossers how would one know which the setter intended? And in what sense would one use KNOT to mean boss? Many thanks.
  7. Wow, 100 comments! I just got to this one (busy workweek!), and I’ll read them after saying I thought I was on the ball to come up with KNOB, I don’t think KNOT fits the definition and am not sure I’ve ever seen “tonk.” Boo, hiss!

    CORPSES cracked me up. You can’t (I hope) say that often.

    Edited at 2020-10-24 05:39 pm (UTC)

  8. Did this on Saturday after Saturday’s which was easier. Of course KNOB is a better answer. Or at least equally good. Didn’t know why CORPSES was right either. Not much fun.
  9. I was another BONKer and really surprised to see a pink square when I submitted. Held up at OMELETTE (my LOI) for some reason. I could only see “operetta” which had nothing to do with the clue.
  10. Finally, a response from David Parfitt, on the Times forum: “Belated apologies for the ambiguity at 4 Down. Our system doesn’t allow us to accept more than one valid answer, so the KNOT will have to stand, I’m afraid. Sorry to all those who understandably opted for the “wrong” answer.”
      1. You’re right! Now it says:

        “Having discussed this further with the Crossword Editor, we’ve decided to rescore this one, so that KNOB is treated at the correct answer. It appears that even the Crossword Ed wrote in KNOB when solving the puzzle, but KNOT was erroneously retained in the solution grid. I think KNOT can probably be just about justified, but it seems to rely on a rather obscure botanical definition of BOSS that really is straying into Listener/Mephisto territory.
        Apologies again for the bewilderment and frustration this caused.”

        Make it up, you couldn’t ..

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