Times 27808 – brush up your Shakespeare

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time taken: 11:59.  That’s a bit slower than my usual, and I was surprised to see that there were a few solvers with much better times already, so maybe I was making a meal of this, but I found it tricky.

I’m also solving an hour later than usual (though only one old-fashioned in) since this is the week between the end of summer time in the UK and the US. Next week I can look for the puzzle at the usual time.

The Times Crossword Club version of the puzzle lists the setter as Richard Browne. Not sure if this is an accident or a new thing, or if there is something significant about the puzzle that requires the setter to be identified. It seems to follow what I like about Richard Browne puzzles as having a real focus on the wordplay (he is Teazel in the QC and Imogen in another paper, and I am always happy to see an Imogen puzzle). Edit: The Times editor has come on and said in comments that this is not Richard Browne, so my apologies if the setter is slighted with the comparison.

Away we go!

Across
1 Leader with due deference to me (10)
PACESETTER – PACE(with due deference to), SETTER(me)
6 In Celsius, one divides hot and cold (4)
CHIC – C(Celsius) then I(one) in between H and C (hot and cold)
9 Material obtained from dollar sign (7)
BUCKRAM – BUCK(dollar) and RAM(sign of the zodiac).  This came to mind from one of the great Falstaff speches “Two I am sure I paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse”
10 A royal flag from the east African land (7)
ERITREA – A, ER(royal), TIRE(flag), all reversed
12 French here penning in rebellious Brits (5)
ICENI – put the French for in (EN) inside the French for here (ICI)
13 Bad actor, trashed, promises to return ready (9)
ATROCIOUS – an anagram of ACTOR, then IOUS(promises to return ready). May be applied to my performance as Falstaff last year
14 Without notice, plans ambush in grand retinue (6-2-7)
LADIES-IN-WAITING – AD(notice) inside LIES IN WAIT (plans ambush), then IN, G(grand)
17 Prediction heard if warning players (7,8)
WEATHER FORECAST – sounds like WHETHER(if), then FORE(warning in golf), CAST(players)
20 Teacher back in classroom? I see teacher returning greeting (9)
MAHARISHI – last letter in classrooM, then AHA(I see), SIR(teacher) reversed and HI(greeting)
21 Woke clutching auntie, oddly, in fear (5)
PANIC – PC(politically correct, woke) containing alternating letters in AuNtIe
23 National football team maintaining king’s backing (7)
ISRAELI – the football team is an eleven (11) containing LEAR’S (king’s) reversed
24 Old Henry, a soldier, forced back Amerindian (7)
ARAPAHO – O(old), H(Henry, the unit), A PARA(soldier) all reversed.
25 Join head of retail bank (4)
TIER –  TIE(join) and the first letter of Retail
26 Native American trails outside of Edmonton in shade (10)
INDIGENOUS – US(American) after the outer letters of EdmontoN inside INDIGO(shade)
Down
1 Hostelry I call chaotic with rules for everyone (6,3)
PUBLIC LAW – PUB(hostelry) then an anagram of I CALL, W(with)
2 Start to chase a red squirrel away (5)
CACHE – first letter in Chase, A, CHE(red)
3 Bill’s extra procedure in court accusation (7,6)
SERVICE CHARGE – SERVICE(procedure in a tennis court), CHARGE(accusation)
4 Monkey stopping to beat one set of drums (7)
TIMPANI – IMP(monkey) inside TAN(beat), I(one)
5 Heard on EastEnders, very cultural feature (7)
EYEBROW – sounds like HIGHBROW(very cultural) in that dialect
7 Not half hard-up, money’s in cash one’s blown (9)
HARMONICA – the first halves of HARdup MONeys In CAsh
8 Husband wearing tops or leather clothing (5)
CHAPS – H(husband) inside CAPS(tops)
11 Design pencilled in, an elementary machine (8,5)
INCLINED PLANE – anagram of PENCILLED,IN,AN.  A simple lifting device. I had an in on this one, as “simple machines” is a challenge in the US Science Olympiad for which I run the regional tournament.
15 Strong beast with three feet lifted junk (9)
DRAYHORSE – YARD(three feet) reversed, then HORSE(heroin, junk, not what Falstaff wanted Hal to call him)
16 Communicate what wrong answer may do (3,6)
GET ACROSS – a wrong answer might GET A CROSS
18 Statesman Berliner once beheaded (7)
RUSSIAN – PRUSSIAN(Berliner once) missing the first letter
19 This person’s given a subsidy, turning up Asian art (7)
ORIGAMI – I’M(this person), A, GIRO(subsidy) all reversed
20 Left-winger, but not a wet (5)
MOIST – the left-winger is a MAOIST, remove A
22 Marsh is often seen by this tree (5)
NGAIO – reference to one of the Queens of Crime, NGAIO Marsh

67 comments on “Times 27808 – brush up your Shakespeare”

  1. I biffed a couple, including TIMPANI (I thought of PAN, which is the genus of chimpanzees not monkeys, but it worked), CHIC (where I got everything but the definition). I liked PACESETTER & CHIC.
  2. 39 minutes for me. There seemed to be a lot of countries, tribes, native americans. Held up a little by foolishly biffing TOMTOMS at 4D before one of the crossers showed me I was wrong.
  3. If you had told me at around 19 minutes that I’d be spending 25 more minutes on the last few clues, I wouldn’t have believed you. For me it was just the bottom few crossings: MOIST / ISRAELI / TIER and INDIGENOUS / NGAIO. I remembered the tree (but not the author) once I got down to all the crossing letters, and was surprised at having done so. I guess MOIST from the M but wouldn’t let myself write it in because the wordplay seemed wrong. I tried G rather than RAEL for ‘king’s backing’, and it looked something like AFGHANI or some such and I kept trying to make that work. Finally, with INDIGENOUS I tried every variation on the wordplay I could think of and still was getting nowhere. At times like this, the definition suddenly hits you, and it’s none of the ten options you were trying! Ha ha.

    I also noticed the author of the puzzle mentioned. If it’s a policy change, I can’t see why it would be a bad thing. As a relative newcomer to the scene, I’d enjoy getting to know the personalities of the setters a bit more.

  4. I was clearly on the wavelength for this one and found it quite a lot easier than yesterday – possibly helped by getting PACESETTER and CHIC to kick things off. Like Kevin, I liked both of those. I was also glad to have had ARAPAHO yesterday (clued much the same way), or I would have struggled.

    Thanks to George for the blog and to Richard (!) for the puzzle.

  5. Hear, hear! As per Jeremy, let’s get to know the personalities of the setters – they must by definition an interesting ‘choir’. What is the collective noun for crossword setters? Anyone?
    Are they paid or do they retain their amateur status? If so, it’s about time this sport went pro like cricket, snooker and tennis did.

    FOI 1ac PACESETTER setting the pace

    LOI 25ac TIER

    COD 20dn MOIST

    WOD 24ac ARAPAHO for the second time this week – there will another bus-load of ’em out of Wyoming by the week-end.

    I failed to parse 23ac ISRAELI – eleven indeed!

    Time 44 mins.

  6. Anyone thinking they recognise Richard’s style this time round may be mistaken as this is not the first time his name has appeared above a puzzle. On the last occasion (puzzle #27292 on 17 March 2017) David Parfitt, the Times Puzzles Editor, wrote this in the Club Forum:

    “That was a slip, I’m afraid, harking back to the days of Richard Browne’s editorship. Occasionally, a file from the “new” Richard includes a mysterious ghost reference to the “old” Richard, and we failed to spot it on this occasion. For the record, this puzzle was not one of RB’s. Apologies for the confusion.”

    I believe either David or Richard Rogan made a statement quite recently about there being no change of policy regarding anonymity of 15×15 setters, but at the moment I am unable to find it.

    Edited at 2020-10-29 06:45 am (UTC)

  7. As to the puzzle itself, I found it one of two halves. The top half gave up its secrets with little resistance – even PUBLIC LAW and INCLINED PLANE neither of which I have heard of – but the lower half was a real struggle and I had 65 minutes on the clock by the time I completed it.
  8. I enjoyed this one, though I was dragged out to 47 minutes by trying to remember the tree that would improbably go in 22d’s N_A_O. I’ve only heard of NGAIO Marsh the last one or two times she’s come up here, so “often” is stretching it a bit when it comes to my GK… I’ve just ordered a secondhand copy of Clutch of Constables to remedy that, at least!

    The INCLINED PLANE is mentioned early on in Richard Feynman’s three-book set Lectures on Physics, which I had in my hands just yesterday, though only because I was using them to weigh something down, I’ll admit. (If you want to know more, the relevant lecture is Conservation of Energy…)

  9. Very on wavelength this morning which made this excellent puzzle all the more fun, with a brisk flow of aha moments as the smart wordplay decloaked like a succession of Klingon warbirds. My COD is HARMONICA with its surface cleverly disguing the definition. Failed to see that ICENI was two French words so initially entered ICINI with disquiet, but the crosser saved me.

    Thanks George and Matt for explaining what on earth an INCLINED PLANE actually is, and setter for a top class puzzle.

  10. …And on thy cheeks a fading rose
    Fast withereth too.

    30 mins left two: the Ngaio/Indigenous crossers. So I stopped.
    And I have read some Ngaio Marsh…and the tree rings a distant crossword-only bell.
    Thanks setter and G.

  11. I should probably nip an understandable misconception in the bud by stating that today’s puzzle is not by “Richard Browne”.
    I am not entirely sure why that name appears there.

    RR

  12. 13:30. I enjoyed this a lot. Several ticks on my copy. FOI ICENI, LOI PACESETTER, COD to MAHARISHI, but I liked MAOIST, EYEBROW and CHIC too.

    Edited at 2020-10-29 08:46 am (UTC)

  13. No idea about either version of NGAIO. I see the tree has come up before but not enough times for me to remember it.
    1. Understandable of course as I can hardly remember what I did yesterday sometimes, but it was only a calendar month to the day since NGAIO last appeared defined as ‘little tree’ and I wrote about the crime writer Ngaio Marsh in my blog. You were involved that day in quite a lengthy discussion about another clue so perhaps that explains why it didn’t register.
      1. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that it didn’t register, at least enough to remember it. I generally need to see these words a few times before they stick. I’ll remember it now!

        Edited at 2020-10-29 10:10 am (UTC)

  14. In the name of the unusual tree
    I transposed the I and the G
    So thanks to the setter
    I must do better
    Half-remembered isn’t like me
  15. 34 minutes with all eventually parsed. ARAPAHO are repeatedly circling us like the actors in a low budget cowboy movie. COD to PACESETTER. LADIES-IN-WAITING brought a smile but the two components were too mismatched in length to be totally satisfying. Or is that just me?INCLINED PLANE brought back memories of Fletcher’s Trolley in the days when Physics experiments involved equipment you could see working. Toughish but enjoyable. Thank you George and setter.
  16. Usual time. Enjoyed ‘dollar sign’, ‘red squirrel’ and ‘Woke clutching auntie’.
  17. Is it me? Too many tired old chestnuts, and very poor to have ARAPAHO on successive days. First use of ‘woke’ in its new sense? Enjoyed that, and (like sawbill) the $.
    1. I think it may be its first appearance, and in case anyone is wondering it has made it to the dictionaries, or at least to Collins. I don’t claim to be an expert on any of this stuff but I’m not at all sure that ‘woke’ and PC are the same things although a person who is one may well also be the other.

      Edited at 2020-10-29 01:43 pm (UTC)

  18. Well, even I couldn’t miss 24 ac as it appeared yesterday as well. Is there an economy squeeze on requiring recycling of clues or maybe a consequence of climate change?

    17.35 which I presume from glheard’s comments, means I’m towards the bottom of the class. Am I bovvered? No.

    Enjoyed the puzzle with my faves being moist and pacesetter. LOI drayhorse having belatedly discounted deadhorse. Duh.

  19. No real problems over 15.37 apart from an inability to type correctly and proofread afterwards.
    Whoever the Setter, they (I’m learning Non-Binary) clearly had a masochistic streak, with no less than 5 clues ending in I, which might be some sort of record.
  20. 17′ 50″, no worries today, after a silly mistake yesterday. A bit disconcerted by the appearance of R. Browne, as discussed above – I’m all for anonymity. I once set crosswords in the student newspaper, a newspaper which I edited. The pseudonym ‘Inebrius’ was useful when people complained, as I was able to say, as editor, that I would speak to the setter about the matter.

    Had no idea about INCLINED PLANE, it just fitted. What is PUBLIC LAW? Is that the same as common law in the UK? Not sure about football team cluing II, but the answer wouldn’t be XSRAELI.

    Thanks george and anonymous setter.

    1. concerns law relates to state/individual such as criminal law AND law relating to the relationships between different elements of the state such as Gov Depots. Law covering individual’s relationships are covered in Private Law including civil cases.
      Andyf
  21. Delayed by POI, Ngaio, which I misremembered as Maomi before re-remembering the correct answer. Then my LOI which was also my COD for its clever misdirection with Native American – INDIGENOUS.
  22. An otherwise excellent puzzle spoiled by the awful clue for NGAIO and I have no qualms at having cheated to get that one.
    1. Is the clue “awful” simply because you don’t have either bit of the GK behind it? Seems OK to me.

      Edited at 2020-10-29 11:20 am (UTC)

      1. Yep.

        If you asked 100 people to name 25 trees and the first names of 25 famous authors how many NGAIOs do you think would come up in the lists?

        For a DD one “obscure” refence is probably OK but not two.

        1. Maybe, but not if it came up in the same puzzle only a month ago to the day and the second reference (to the author) was covered in my blog. Do I toil in vain, I wonder? 🙂
          1. Appearance in the Times crossword is a dubious basis for qualifying a word as non-obscure!
        2. I generally dislike even one really obscure reference in a DD, since it effectively turns it into a non-cryptic clue.
          1. But then almost any clue that relies on GK is non-cryptic. Needing to know the tree Ngaio or the author Ngaio Marsh turns this clue into “Do you know it?” clue not a “Can you derive/construct it?” one, and the question then is, does that invalidate having the clue in the puzzle?

            There are crosswords which would disdain such clues. But the Times puzzles, both this and the QC, do have a mix of clue types, and certainly as a less experienced solver I’m happy with that – often the DD/GK clues are where I start on the 15×15. As today (having read many of Ngaio Marsh’s books).

            Cedric

            1. Part of the point of cryptic puzzles (for me at least) is that the clues don’t rely on obscure general knowledge. You might not know the answer, or an element of the wordplay, but you’ve generally got another way in. I don’t think there should be pure ‘do you know it?’ clues in a good cryptic puzzle.
              The point about doubles is that there isn’t any wordplay: to solve the clue you just have to know one of the meanings. For this reason they’ve often quite weak but where they’re good it’s because they exploit secondary or tertiary meanings of otherwise familiar words, or play with parts of speech, to create a misleading surface reading. If one of the words is hopelessly obscure then practically speaking all you’ve got is a concise crossword clue.
        3. Out of those 25 probably under.1 percent would ever think of attempting the Times crossword.
  23. There isn’t a coffee strong enough for me to have come up with Ngaio. For me, the only famous Marsh is Rodney.
  24. If pushed I would have said an INCLINED PLANE was something in geometry but what do I know. DNK that Richard Browne was Imogen (also my middle name) – he does good stuff. I didn’t notice the “by-line” anyway. This went in much more smoothly than yesterday’s – nice one. 15.06
  25. 52 minutes for me, which I was quite pleased with. Unfortunately, I had never come across either of the NGAIOs so had to resort to aids to get the LOI from N-A-O, so a technical DNF. I really enjoyed this, but didn’t enjoy being semi-forced to download the new livejournal app, which I installed, played with and hated! I ended up uninstalling the app and returning to the blog via my browser. I shan’t reinstall, so if it stops being available via browser, we may lose a QC blogger and occasional commentator.
  26. Much more on the wavelength than I have been for the last couple of days, and did this one in 5m 27s with a few biffs. INDIGENOUS was the last to fall, after INCLINED PLANE took a while.

    Thanks for explaining ICENI – I’d originally put ICINI, with fingers crossed, but happily CACHE corrected it almost immediately.

  27. … in the third age of man. Maybe in the fifth or sixth, all passion spent, he settles for constructing curiosities
    such as this ‘ere. While we’re at it horryd I volunteer a curiosity of setters. Enjoyed this though failed to spot how ‘Israeli’ worked. 18’07.
  28. Quite a few duh moments here, including MOIST ,which I had to come here to understand.
    COD INDIGENOUS for its tortuousness.
    Clever puzzle, setter, whoever you are
  29. Liked this a lot, finished in 20 minutes without any real hold-ups. I think the NGAIO clue is fine, because I knew the answer! I see ARAPAHO is paying a second visit in 2 days, which is unusual. An INCLINED PLANE is just a ramp, defined as one of the six “simple machines” of the Renaissance, added to the Greeks original five.
  30. I found the top half easier than the bottom, with CACHE and ICENI first 2 in. LADIES IN WAITING and WEATHER FORECAST were a long time in arriving, as I’d biffed PUBLIC BAR at 1d. Saw it eventually and made some progress. Strangely, as it’s only a crossword word for me, NGAIO went in from “tree” and the leading N. Not sure I have heard of the author though. PLANE went in before INCLINED. INDIGENOUS was my LOI and was only partly parsed. An enjoyable puzzle. 36:51. Thanks setter and George
  31. One of those where for almost every clue, the first thing I thought of was correct. Only really held up with NGAIO, which I eventually recalled from previous grids, and INDIGENOUS which popped up once the former went in.

    Wavelength harmony today probably means hopeless tomorrow though….

  32. ….four years of torture in the physics lab, but successfully cracked the anagram near to finishing the puzzle.

    I thought the misdirection of my LOI was cleverly aided by placing it immediately below ARAPAHO. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

    FOI PACESETTER
    LOI INDIGENOUS
    COD CACHE
    TIME 10:57

  33. DNF. A 15 minute breeze but a typo in srrvice charge. Very frustrating. I otherwise enjoyed this one very much, it seemed to tickle all my fancies. Ngaio Marsh has come up enough times in the TLS now that I was able to put him in here almost straight away.
  34. About an hour with the last ten minutes trying and failing to work out NGAIO. I didn’t know the M/marsh or the tree and couldn’t see anything in the clue to help me.
    Otherwise I enjoyed teasing out the answers in this puzzle. POI was INDIGENOUS which I got from parsings. Just how many native Americans could there be in a puzzle?
    I liked CHIC and PACESETTER.
    David
  35. The late Dame Ngaio Marsh seems to have been gender re-assigned.
    Ngaio is a hilly suburb of Wellington, New Zealand from whence I once had the misfortune to move my daughter-in-law’s household belongings.
  36. I was on the wavelength – knew Ngaio, but would have struggled if I didn’t have two crossers. Biggest holdup was encasing IN rather than EN in ICI, which gummed up the NE. Thanks george, and thanks to whoever the setter is
  37. Another disaster. DNF with INDIGENOUS and NGAIO beating me. First mistake whacking in ME at the end of ORIGAMI which made indi whotsit impossible. NHO NGAIO, either tree or writer. Disappointed as I felt I fought hard, successfully, with many clues only to be thwarted at the last. As an ex Londoner, I remember vividly playing freezing cold football matches on Hackney Marshes. Brrrr
  38. Steady progress today but always felt like it might defeat me in the end. Lots to enjoy. A certain amount of BIFFing but usually with justification following quickly on. I vaguely knew NGAIO as a tree (thanks Listeners passim) but I didn’t get the Marsh reference so fingers were firmly crossed. I felt this needed bulletproof wordplay rather than a second definition that seems at least as obscure as the first.
  39. I had to biff my way through this – BUCKRAM, ISRAELI (very sneaky), INDIGENOUS, ORIGAMI and, of course, NGAIO – so many thanks to George for putting me out of my misery!
    There were several great clues including ERITREA, LADIES-IN-WAITING (once I’d managed to piece it all together), EYEBROW and PANIC. My favourite was the simple, but amusing, GET ACROSS.
    Thanks to the setter for keeping me occupied for just over 36 minutes.
  40. Very easy … until it wasn’t! DNF only because I knew neither of the meanings of NGAIO and in a very feeble attempt to guess at the answer put in NJARO (as in Kilimanjaro, where kilima of course means “small mountain” in Swahili and njaro is perhaps the name of a marsh nearby?). So I very much agree with Keriothe’s comments above — although this was what we technically would call a cryptic clue, there was in actual fact nothing cryptic about it, and lack of one bit of general? knowledge ruined an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.

    Edited at 2020-10-29 05:30 pm (UTC)

  41. I think there was reference to it in one of Rose Wild’s Feedback columns in the Saturday Times earlier this year.
  42. 36 minutes had to come here for parsing of Service Charge. May I venture a TESTER of setters
  43. A very enjoyable puzzle, but I was defeated by two clues. I’ll see your Rodney Marsh and raise you two famous Rodney Marshes, but I’d never heard of NGAIO. And as for 24ac, there’s only on thing worse than encountering two ARAPAHOs on successive days, and that is not encountering two ARAPAHOs on successive days: I hadn’t seen the previous day’s crossword, and so had never seen that word before.

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