Times 27861 – woke and awake

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I know it’s not cricket to blog that something was easy, or easier than another thing, pour pas les autres décourager, but I was surprised to find myself writing in answers as fast as I could use a pen, for most of this; I even wondered if I’d mistakenly printed off the Quickie. It did help that Mrs K and I are keen on our dog-ology, there are few breeds we’ve not heard of, although I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a 8a in the flesh, or coat. 12 minutes is an equal PB for me I think, and the parsing was no sweat either.
I’m not sure what 4d means, in regard to the chap’s scribblings, but I’m sure Verlaine does (and many more).

Across
1 Men in further education giving warning on course (4)
FORE – OR (ordinary ranks, men) inside F E for further education.
4 Fellow pupil beginning to serve chilled infusion outside hotel (10)
SCHOOLMATE – S (beginning to serve) COOL (chilled) insert H for hotel, add MATE being an infusion of a kind of tea.
9 First of several kittens edgy about cheerful little dog (10)
SCHIPPERKE – S K E (first letters of several kittens edgy), insert CHIPPER for cheerful. A little black Belgian dog breed.
10 Conclusion sometimes drawn by an organist (4)
STOP – Organists pull out the stops.
11 Swamp primarily surrounding Irish lake (6)
SLOUGH – Not the charming town near Heathrow; a swamp, derived from S first letter of surrounding, LOUGH as in Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles by area. (Are we still allowed to use the term “British Isles” after tomorrow?)
12 Wooden panelling in old wagons by country dwelling (8)
WAINSCOT – WAINS are old wagons, COT is a term for a cottage.
14 Reportedly something that beats a mature male deer (4)
HART – Sounds like HEART that beats. There are enough pubs called “The White Hart” with a stag picture on the sign, you have no excuse for not knowing this beast.
15 Agree to exchange letters (10)
CORRESPOND – double definition.
17 Fantastic eastern wit, a discriminating drinker (4,6)
WINE TASTER – (EASTERN WIT)*.
20 Catch a glimpse of some state’s pyramids (4)
ESPY – hidden word as bold above.
21 Break in regularly after pinching item of jewellery (8)
INFRINGE – IN, then insert RING into a F t E r.
23 Note that makes us tremble! (6)
QUAVER – double definition.
24 Sole Liberal in west end of Oklahoma City (4)
ONLY – O (‘west’ end of Oklahoma) L(iberal) inside NY (city).
25 Repaired rail is best steadying device (10)
STABILISER – (RAIL IS BEST)*.
26 Africans visit Kent area, taking in Tyneside lass (10)
SENEGALESE – insert NE and GAL into SEE SE = visit where Kent is.
27 Follower of 1980s subculture became stylish in the end (4)
GOTH – GOT (became) H (end of stylish).

Down
2 Outstanding Liverpudlian singer madly into swing (11)
OSCILLATION – OS (outstanding) CILLA (as in Cilla Black, what’s yer name and whure d’ya come from) (INTO)*.
3 English mostly snigger about that French behavioural code (9)
ETIQUETTE – E(nglish) TITTE(R) = mostly snigger, insert QUE = that in French.
4 Download Horace’s first letter, thus written about like his odes (7)
SAPPHIC – APP (download; apps have to be downloaded, usually) H(orace) all inside SIC Latin for thus.
5 Rebel leader from this place fighting duke on the Wash (8,3,4)
HEREWARD THE WAKE – HERE (this place) WAR (fighting) D (duke) THE, WAKE = wash. He was a chap from the Fens who took exception to invading Normans. These days he’d probably be called WOKE instead, as Wake means watchful, kind of PC.
6 Former ace, a man with energy (3-4)
ONE-TIME – ONE (ace) TIM (a man) E.
7 Old Mexican Indian, a variable investigator (5)
AZTEC – A, Z a variable, TEC for detective.
8 Assistant replacing one in flight — one living abroad (5)
EXPAT – Replace the I in EXIT with PA. I’m an EXEXPAT.
13 Ubiquitous old politician with grudge about Islington area (11)
OMNIPRESENT – O for old, MP, RESENT (with grudge) insert N1 postcode for Islington into the MP bit.
16 Coming before what a hawk may be doing (9)
PREDATING – Double definition. A hawk is a predator so he “predates”. Unusual as a verb, but it exists.
18 Confusing names initially is a pathological condition (7)
AMNESIA – (MANES)*, I(s) A.
19 Pay back half of rent? Absolutely (7)
REQUITE – RE(nt), QUITE = absolutely. It’s usually love that is requited. Or unrequited, more often.
21 Clubs criminals were sometimes clapped in? (5)
IRONS – Golf clubs, and bad guys were ‘clapped in irons’.
22 Crook fleeces exec at first, taking half of capital (5)
FELON – F E (fleeces exec at first) LON(don).

​

73 comments on “Times 27861 – woke and awake”

  1. technically a DNF, as I looked up the dog since I only vaguely remembered it from a previous cryptic. I did remember CILLA, which let me demi-biff OSCILLATION. Biffed SAPPHIC (had no idea his odes were), HEREWARD, EXPAT, SENEGALESE. Unfortunately, I typed in QUIVER and didn’t notice for the longest time, which made PREDATING hard to get.

    Edited at 2020-12-30 06:18 am (UTC)

  2. 21 minutes although if I’d been solving online I wouldn’t have pressed Send or whatever one does to indicate one has finished for another 10 minutes.

    PREDATING seemed obvious at 16dn but I just couldn’t see the ‘hawk’ connection so I did a lengthy alphabet trawl in the hope of finding an alternative. ‘Presaging’ was under consideration for a while before being discarded, and it didn’t help that at some point I started thinking ‘hawker’ instead of ‘hawk’ which brought all sorts of possible travelling salesmen into the equation. Anyway I settled on PREDATING and gave up, revealed the answer on the Times site and immediately registered the alternative pronunciation of PREDATING that made it fit.

    Elsewhere I didn’t know the dog, but was pleased to assemble it correctly from the instructions.

    I don’t think the status of the name ‘British Isles’ has ever been in question.

    1. Jack, perhaps not this side of the Irish Sea. But my friends in Dublin do not like the term! The Irish have managed to get the British Lions rugby team officially renamed as the (correct but much more clumsy) “British and Irish Lions”, but the term “British Isles” is more difficult for them. It simply verboten in the Republic, but of course if we use it they can’t do anything about it other than ignore it.

      Cedric

      1. All very well, but none of that changes as of midnight tomorrow, and I was responding to Pip’s comment that it might.
    2. Growing up in Rhodesia we had one of those dogs. Of course I thought it was spelled phonetically. So LOI.
  3. with the little Belisha at 9ac, as per Kevin, vaguely remembered from a previous puzzle. Jack has this featured before? My LOI and WOD.

    FOI 4ac SCHOOLCHUM!

    COD 4dn SAPPHIC

    Nice to see HEREWARD back in the saddle at 5dn

    1. Jan 2013 blogged by ulaca – didn’t feature in my comment.

      Dec 2016 blogged by ulaca – said I didn’t know or had forgotten but got it from wordplay.

      Apr 2017 blogged by Pip – said it gave me problems.

      Plus one appearance in a Mephisto

      1. Of course, I’d forgotten it again and was rather pleased with myself for working out another ‘unknown’.
  4. The dog was my LOI, may have read the name of the breed somewhere before.
    Hereward may be ancient history but he showed up here recently enough that I remembered him early on.
    Pretty sure I learned the meaning of “requite” from Charlie Brown’s unrequited crush on the little red-haired girl.
  5. I would have struggled with LOI SCHIPPERKE if not for my sole previous encounter with the bounder in this very forum.
    Very similar to Pip’s experience, typing in the answers as fast as I could (it’s difficult to be speedy using a beak), for a time of 13’49”
  6. Some of the clues went in very quickly but others were more chewy.
    Thanks, Pip, for SAPPHIC, INFRINGE and EXPAT. All went in OK but parsing them was more problematic.
    11ac: SLOUGH. That’s where we get those picture-postcard Cotswold villages Upper and Lower Slaughter from, of course.
    COD for me was PREDATING.
  7. I completely missed the hawks PREDATING and went for PRESAGING since there seem to be many obscure terms associated with hawks and falconry. I was pleased to discover that the NHO dog I painstakingly assembled did exist, and that Horace’s poetry was indeed SAPPHIC.
  8. 29 mins today so not bad for me. LOI the (NHO) dog which I bunged in when I had all the checkers and then looked up. COD WINE TASTER, naturally. Thank you Pip and setter.
  9. As Steed slumbered I decided to gave a go at the 15×15. I’m happy to report that I finished it with only 4 incorrect letters so it was a technical DNF but a very satisfying PB for me. I stumbled on 9A where I answered schipperne rather than schipperke (never heard of it) and on 16D where I put (in a confident biffing way) preceding instead of predating. All that said, and I know it’s one of the easier puzzles, but I’m really happy and very encouraged!

    FOI: stop
    LOI: schipperke (DNF)

    Many thanks for the blog Pip.

  12. …The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs—
    A woodland rivulet—a Poet’s death.
    Less than 20 mins with yoghurt, banana, granola, etc. LOI was the dog.
    I think this is the “first letter” setter again with over 24% of the clues using it: beginning to, first of, primarily, west end of, first letter, initially, at first.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2020-12-30 08:43 am (UTC)

  13. It’s clearly not good ETIQUETTE
    To boast of the time that you get
    But no QUAVER or STOP
    Filled it in from the top
    ONLY I can’t quite believe it just yet
  14. Morning all, and belated Christmas greetings! Given 27a and the fact I finished in 23 minutes and therefore have some extra time I felt I should pop in and say hello. 23 minutes is pretty good for me, helped by having remembered both the dog and HEREWARD THE WAKE from PREDATING encounters.

    This might have been a PB but for the fact I managed to lose some steam/focus/whatever about halfway through and the bottom took a fair bit longer than the top despite not being much harder, in hindsight. My falling out of the “flow” like that seems to happen quite a lot at the moment.

  15. Like Pipkirby, I rattled through most of this, thinking I was on for a PB but the SE corner proved to be a slough of despond; the hawk being the main problem.

    When I lived there, I always thought Ely should have made more of its connections to Hereward the Wake.

  16. 08:23 Just about as fast I can write them in, hesitating only over REQUITE and my LOI the dog which needed all the checkers. What with the Concise and QC going in quickly too… what am I going to do with the rest of my day? But I see there’s an Enigmatist puzzle for today’s Guardian. That will sort me out, I expect.
    1. Thanks for the tip-off, I will make a point of solving it. I often find John Henderson’s puzzles extremely hard but they’re always very good.
      1. It’s rather more accessible than some today but I’m still stuck on several bits. Good one.
        1. Much easier to solve than to blog, but freed of any such responsibility I had myself a biff-fest and got through it in quite good time.
  17. What a treat to have a SCHIPPERKE as our canine companion today. I would have been happy with that alone but the reminder of CILLA was another highlight. Held up by the not really understood SAPPHIC and a short nod off, so finished in 40 minutes.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  18. Yes, very quick for me at under the quarter hour, only held up briefly by the canal boat dog. I don’t think I can go much faster; maybe one day I might crack 10m if all the cards fall my way. Then I saw Mohn’s extraordinary 3:13. Mind boggling.

    Happy Christmas to all here, especially our tireless bloggers, and to the brilliant setters. I gave myself a pukka telescope this year, which has guaranteed cloudy skies in Orkney ever since. Still hoping for just one glimpse at the conjunction as I doubt I’ll be here to see the next one in 300 years.

    Thanks Pip and setter.

    Edited at 2020-12-30 10:08 am (UTC)

  20. 21 enjoyable minutes. Yes, it was at the easier end of the spectrum, but there were plenty of good clues. I want to thank John Constable for WAINSCOT, King James I for HART, Charles Cruft for SCHIPPERKE and Priscilla White for COD OSCILLATION. Thank you Pip and setter.
    1. Nice quote.
      I associate the hart with Richard II, am unaware of any link to James I & VI.
      Andyf
      1. The link was that the quote was from the King James Bible, but that was more down to the wonderful translation and the translators themselves than the monarch of course.
    2. Oh, I see. I love the King J bible, even as an atheist, but am annoyed with myself I didn’t identify the source of your quote. Thank you.
      Andyf
    3. The modern cheesy version is, of course. “As the deer pants…” known in this household as the Marks and Spencer knicker song.
  21. Another tentative dip of the toe into 15×15 territory, and although not quite completed, an encouragement to keep trying. These “easy” ones are about what I need to make the transition from QCs; clues here tend to have a lot more going on in them generally, easy or not, which makes it harder for the likes of me to get a grip on parsing and solving. These blogs are a huge help in seeing the wood for the trees, thank you all.
  22. Getting better at these, doing on paper definitely helps. Just two short after 40 mins, I had “OLD TIME” which meant that I couldn’t quit winkle out the Dog breed, until I saw CHIPPER, had to look up dog breeds, then “fixed” OLD TIME to OLE TIME (as in Ole Time Music Hall).

    For Horace, I thought he might be a Sophist, so struggled mightily to get that in.

    And on paper, you don’t get little Red letters, so I just discovered that my PREFACING for “Coming Before” turned out to be wrong. I know nothing of falconry, so guessed that some kind of aerial maneuver could be referred to.

    COD HEREWARD THE WAKE

    Edited at 2020-12-30 11:10 am (UTC)

  23. 15:46. I didn’t get round to solving yesterday’s puzzle until very late: so late in fact that I inadvertently solved today’s instead. As it was past midnight and I was the wrong side (for solving purposes) of a couple of G&Ts and a decent quantity of barbera I wasn’t likely to break any speed records, but the fact that I was able to solve it at all suggests a gentle one.
    1. I noticed your unaccustomed early solve and wondered if you had skipped over to Canada to get away (can one?) from it all.
  25. That’s two PBs in two days. Perhaps time off work is good for my solving brain. Like johninterred I’ve been looking for other puzzles to fill my time and have recently been getting into the Listener. Since I got into the mindset for them I’ve been loving the extra layer of puzzle they present. With a few years worth of puzzles available online I’m not going to be bored any time soon!
    1. Congrats on the PB, Pootle. I’m an occasional Listener attempter myself. I found that this Saturday’s puzzle (No. 4639 Hotfoot by Vismut) was a fun one and quite do-able in terms of both the grid fill and working out the thematic element. The fact that I managed to solve it probably puts it at the easier end of the spectrum but a sense of achievement on completion nonetheless.
      1. I enjoyed Hotfoot – it was about my level. By contrast I’ve been looking at Selfie (4617) in recent days and eventually had to give up. I still enjoyed the challenge though and hope I can work up to the tougher ones.
  26. I liked the chipper and perky little dog. I thought we were heading for a pangram but we were a JV short. Pip I think the “sic” in SAPPHIC is intended to stand for “thus written”. I certainly didn’t know that that was what Horace’s odes were. 12.55
    1. “Thus written” seems to be English, in Latin it seems to be just “so” or “thus”. Not sure whether the setter was thinking in Latin or English….
      Andyf
  27. About 8 mins to get all apart from HEREWARD THE ?A?E, then another 5 mins to run through the alphabet long enough to get WAKE. I know it’s come up in a crossword before, but either the clueing or the checking was kinder because I don’t remember having so much trouble that time.

    Wish I’d gone through the alphabet backwards.

  28. Thwarted in my headlong rush to a PB by SCHIPPERKE, having carelessly biffed OLD TIME where it didn’t belong.
  29. No, sadly in Tier 4 lockdown. Until yesterday we were housebound, since my son tested positive for Covid just over ten days ago.
      1. Thank you. He’s fine: no symptoms whatsoever and for a 15-year-old being confined to your bedroom doesn’t represent much of a hardship, or indeed change. And none of us seem to have caught it from him, which is remarkable.

        Edited at 2020-12-30 11:56 am (UTC)

  30. Found this a shade easier than yesterday’s, though I didn’t know the dog, didn’t parse EXPAT and don’t know much about Horace.

    Enjoyable solve.

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