Times 27847 – Mad Plan leads to Nervous Antelope

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 20 minutes
Music: Holst, The Planets, Previn/LSO

We’re back to a typical Monday, as I trotted through in 20 minutes with scarcely a pause….except to erase answers I had put in the completely wrong place:   this sort of thing can really mess up your solve.   I also  managed to misspell the WWII battle, despite it being a hidden.   But in the end, I was all good in this pretty easy puzzle.    There were some rather feeble attempts to obfuscate the literal, which might puzzle the inexperienced solver, but the crew we have here  will merely use the cryptic and the crossers without breaking stride.   Without any obscure vocabulary or esoteric knowledge, I think we can expect some pretty fast times on this one.

OK, now for a word from TftT Management.   Some of the commenters have been posting pictures in their comments, which takes up a lot of space on the page and may be distracting to others.    Live Journal is not consistent in their treatment of these posts, and you may get just a picture URL on the platform you are on, but that doesn’t mean that the whole picture won’t show up for those using actual computers.   I am therefore requesting that you, our honored and honorable commenters, not do this.   Thanks for your cooperation!

Now, on to the puzzle.

Across
1 Bachelor, say, crazy to put down fruit (9,6)
BUTTERNUT SQUASH – B+ UTTER + NUTS + QUASH.
9 Singer to surround source of beer, Spooner says (3,6)
BOB MARLEY – A perfect spoonerism of MOB BARLEY.
10 A fight ending in gold medal, perhaps (5)
AWARD – A WAR + [gol]D
11 Area is overrun by flipping tiny creatures! (6)
LLAMAS – SMALL backwards containing A.
12 Toes tilt awkwardly in this? (8)
STILETTO – Anagram of TOES TILT.
13 Northern European that was close relative? (6)
NEPHEW – N + E + PHEW!
15 Survey the view (8)
PROSPECT – Double definition, hardly cryptic.
18 Document banks called crazy (8)
DERANGED – DE(RANG)ED.
19 Plan start of play set in Titanic’s hull? (6)
TACTIC – T(ACT I)C, where the hull is T[itani]C.
21 Naval agreement, we hear, with ship producing make-up (3,5)
EYE LINER – Sounds like AYE + LINER.
23 Not oddly worried after controversial coat causes uproar (6)
FURORE – FUR + [w]O[r]R[i]E[d]
26 Antelope I caught leaving the country (5)
ELAND – [ic]ELAND, every setter’s favorite antelope.
27 A kid on medication, powerless and uncomfortable (3,2,4)
ILL AT EASE – [p]ILL + A TEASE.
28 Study hesitatingly prepared for oral examiner? (6,9)
DENTAL HYGIENIST – DEN + anagram of HESITATINGLY.
Down
1 Youngster to yearn endlessly for ruined city (7)
BABYLON –  BABY + LON[g], torn down by Bob Marley, perhaps.
2 Bone idle at first during a little uprising (5)
TIBIA –  A(I)BIT, all upside-down.
3 Site of a battle in Basel — a lame insurrection (2,7)
EL ALAMEIN – hidden in [Bas]EL A LAME IN[surrection].
4 River‘s inlet almost diverted (4)
NILE – Anagram of INLE[t].
5 Plays conservative film (3,5)
TOY STORY – TOYS + TORY.
6 Old writer briefly covers a game (5)
QUAIL – QU(A)IL[l].
7 Paintings by men put in suitable studio, maybe (9)
APARTMENT – AP(ART, MEN)T, like my former residence in Manhattan.
8 Most of repulsive regiment finally retreat (7)
HIDEOUT – HIDEOU[s] + [regimen]T.
14 Beer batch served up in delicate containers (9)
PORCELAIN – ALE CROP upside-down + IN
16 Sand layer from ancient city covered by modern one? (3,6)
SEA TURTLE – SEAT(UR)TLE, one that lays its eggs in the sand, that is.
17 Hot swimmer is accommodating at any time (8)
FEVERISH – F(EVER)ISH.
18 Part of pool table ultimately breaks bank (4,3)
DEEP END – DE([tabl]E)PEND.
20 Merciful post-war prime minister, say? (7)
CLEMENT – CLEMENT Attlee, that is.
22 I help Northern Island from the south (5)
INDIA – AID N.I. upside down.
24 Middle Eastern country without borders (5)
OMANI – [r]OMANI[a].
25 Game’s up for hawk (4)
FLOG –  GOLF upside-down, a chestnut.

47 comments on “Times 27847 – Mad Plan leads to Nervous Antelope”

  1. Put in HYGAENIST at first and then thought to check the letters to double check and I’m glad I did! I agree that this was on the easier side, though I did need our blogger to sort out ILL AT EASE and DERANGED for me — thanks!

    Vinyl, I think you left NUTS out of 1 Across.

  2. 20 minutes! As fast as it gets for me although with the top half of the grid completed I thought I might have been even quicker. The lower half proved marginally more difficult.
    1. Thanks to your comment on the QC blog, Jackkt, I gave this a go today and had my first ever sub-15 solve.

      Must be an easy one!

  3. Finally an all-green grid after a run of outs lately. Finished in 27 minutes, with only SEA TURTLE to cause much of a hold up. The amusing anagram for STILETTO and the CLEMENT Attlee clue were my favourites.

    If I could humbly make a suggestion. Anyone in search of somewhat chewier fare could do worse than have a look at today’s FT.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  4. I found this fairly straightforward, but there were several surfaces and nicely concealed definitions to admire along the way. I liked “sand layer” for SEA TURTLE and the brevity of the definition for INDIA. But my COD goes to NEPHEW for the great surface. Hats off to the setter.
  8. …Babylon to bits.
    After 15 mins pre-brekker I only had the Survey the view left.
    How can “the” be used, I thought, surely it is not a dangler?
    Another 5 mins of alpha trawling confirmed it was.
    Nice-ish to see some crossword favourites: Llamas, Eland, Omani, Ur.
    Sea Turtle the stand out COD for me.
    Thanks the setter and Vinyl.

    Edited at 2020-12-14 07:45 am (UTC)

    1. In 15ac, to my ear “Survey the view” sounds better and more natural than “Survey view.” The “the” is therefore fulfilling a useful function, and I would not personally regard it as a fault since “the view” can be an agreeable (or not) prospect
      1. I have sympathy with this view. Maybe your comment helps to define a “dangler” as: a word, typically the indefinite or definite article, included in a clue to help the surface reading sound better or more natural, but which cannot really be justified as forming part of the solution definition or wordplay or acting as a suitable link from one to the other.
  9. 21 minutes with LOI FEVERISH. COD to NEPHEW. I haven’t usually drunk beer out of porcelain but it can come in useful later. Lots of nice clues in this to solve once I was emancipated from the mental slavery of the Spoonerism. Thank you V and setter.
  10. 11:50. Not hard, but not that easy for me. Very nice stuff though: NEPHEW and SEA TURTLE the highlights but lots of good ‘uns.
  11. At the easier end (just). Much enjoyed (even with the chestnuts in various interesting ways). Well it is Christmas.
  12. I was doing fine til I got stuck in the NE. Took me a while to work out why 10ac, which seemed an easyish clue wouldn’t fall. Then I saw I had carelessly bunged in QUILL for old writer and not read the rest of the clue. Der. So just under the hour in the end. Liked NEPHEW and ILL AT EASE. Thanks vinyl and setter.
    1. I also made it tricky for myself by inserting initially “Quill” then correcting it to “Quial” (sic) but got there in the end.
      Otherwise, one of my quicker solves – probably around 40 minutes which is a good time for me.
  13. 8:07 One of my top 10 fastest solves. It must be Monday. Held up only by looking for a bird for 9A and the “sand layer” – SEA TURTLE my COD, but I liked NEPHEW too.
  14. We had “singer”, and “layer” and “hawk”
    A FURORE if these are a squawk,
    Was it stILL A TEASE?
    No, the setter’s disease,
    Struck with QUAIL, and DERANGED this dork.
  16. Should have been quicker. Spent too long trying to think of a singer second name Barley. Silly as I’ve been listening to a fair amount of BM. To my mind the early stuff is the best – when they’re just called The Wailers. Catch a Fire, Burnin’ and Soul Rebels. COD stiletto
  17. Strangely tricky for me, struggling in the SW corner for a lot of my nearly 22 minutes. Didn’t see the definition for INDIA (!) and wondered how to make “delicate containers” without an S on the end. Just me, then.

    Edited at 2020-12-14 09:55 am (UTC)

  18. No major problems with this, and some very nice clues. Didn’t parse INDIA, and needed most of the checkers in place for BUTTERNUT SQUASH.

    FOI Award
    LOI Feverish
    COD Nephew

  19. Can’t seem to get under 20 minutes these days. Held up by porcelain (fine word) having slung in demented for deranged. Sad to see quail dismissed as game. 24’01.

    Edited at 2020-12-14 10:42 am (UTC)

  20. I did the same thing as Vinyl with the battle (mind may have been running on ale) which put the LLAMAS out of reach at the end until I saw my mistake. I was also slow to think of the squash as a fruit – I use it as veg – and I went looking for a mandarin orange or something like it. 17.29
    1. Remember being a bit confused when asked at Subway in Florida which vegetables I wanted thinking some salad would be nice . At another diner I asked for ‘cutlery’ only to be met with blank looks, I do the knife and fork mime ‘oh you mean Silverware!’ Fionnbarr
  21. We got Toy Story in the quickie yesterday, similarly clued.
    I also misspelled El Alamein and Hygienist, but not for long I’m glad to say. LOI DEEP END 18d, because I was misled unlike our blogger by pool tables. I couldn’t think of anything except baulk which was never going to be helpful.
    Andyf
  22. Another MER over whether BUTTERNUT SQUASH is a fruit. LOI PROSPECT where all I could see was crescent.
    Liked PHEW and the sand layer. It sometimes worries me that the setter must spend ages working out an anagram, in this case, TAL HYGIENIST, only for it to solvable in seconds.
  23. Couldn’t get a toehold in the top for some reason so started at the bottom with the 28ac write-in and worked up from there. Not the quickest way to solve but home in 25m with a bit of a tut at Spooner’s mistreatment of Bob Marley.
  25. Fast (by my standards), but would have been even faster if I had not started off with 13ac as GERMAN – well, it fits northern European, and you have cousins german, who are close, being first cousins. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
  27. Rather chuffed, as this was my first unaided finish of the 15×15 in several months!! Took about 90 mins all told.

    FOI Dental hygienist
    LOI Bob Marley
    COD Porcelain

    Thanks vinyl1.

    Back to QC land until next Monday!

    Ged

  28. Time not recorded but about 35mins.

    FOI 12as STILETTO

    LOI 17dn FEVERISH

    COD 13ac NEPHEW which at first I thought was NEARER!

    WOD 9ac BOB NESTA MARLEY

  29. A pleasant journey through North Africa and Mesapotamia, followed by a bit of Reggae and a ride in the Andes. The vegetable masquerading as a fruit then made me QUAIL at the PROSPECT of a STILETTO wielded by someone with a DERANGED TACTIC lurking in a HIDEOUT. Feeling FEVERISH and ILL AT EASE I then visited the DENTAL HYGIENIST. Loved SEA TURTLE and NEPHEW. 15:35. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

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