Times 27873 – light and dark, hard and soft.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
One of those puzzles which has loads of straightforward clues and a few really tricky ones, with a couple of obscurities at 13d and 16d. I fell into a bear trap at 26a, but climbed out in time to escape being cloddish, although I didn’t much like that either. Nice to see a French person of note cropping up, and strange to see 15a again so soon, obviously different editors at work.
5a, of course, is my clue of the day.

Across
1 Stunned response around high ground reduced for some time (6)
AWHILE – AWE (stunned response) around HIL(L).
4 They keep watch, perhaps, aboard ship (8)
STICKERS – TICKER (watch, perhaps) inside SS for ship. I suppose stickers keep things in place.
10 Revolutionary support about to be attached to dresses (11)
ROBESPIERRE – ROBES (dresses) PIER (support) RE (about). Revolting French chap, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, 1758-1794.
11 Extra work? (3)
RUN – double definition, the first a cricket reference.
12 Photo leading to surprised comment about large instrument (7)
PICCOLO – PIC (photo) then L in COO (surprised comment).
14 Shirt’s back occupied by most of succinct descriptive comment (7)
EPITHET – TEE (shirt) reversed around PITH(Y) = most of succinct.
15 Damaging material in the environment one can pick up? (5,9)
NOISE POLLUTION – cryptic definition, I’m not allowed to tell you where it appeared very recently in case it helps you win a prize.
17 Much older partner lends character, somehow (6,8)
CRADLE SNATCHER – (LENDS CHARACTER)*.
21 Is question on radio about parking in town? (7)
IPSWICH – IS, sounds like WHICH, with P for parking inserted. County town of Suffolk.
22 Live in hitherto untouched tower (7)
MINARET – ARE (live) inside MINT (untouched).
23 Classic character: tense, almost to the end (3)
TAU – Greek T; almost TAUT.
24 Old man, fanatic about missile briefly, not backing emergency device (5,6)
PANIC BUTTON – PA (old man) NUT (fanatic) with ICB(M) inserted, NOT reversed.
26 Gazpacho, say, showing little change? That would be stupid (8)

CLODDISH – I fell into a trap with this one, I wonder who else did? I first put in CHILDISH thinking it was a homophone for CHILL DISH, childish to me could mean stupid. That gave me the Italian art ending in I so I just thought, okay, usually O but maybe a plural version.

So it is not ‘childish’. It’s COLD DISH with the COLD changed to CLOD, which explains why it says  ‘little change’ in the surface. But I wasn’t keen on cloddish as a word to mean stupid either.
27 US writer in recording backing European nation (6)
PEOPLE – LP with POE inside, reversed, add E.

Down
1 Poison left to rise up in a wine unopened (8)
ATROPINE – A , PORT (left) reversed, (W)INE. I could go on about the chemistry of atropine, it’s interesting (to me), but I’ll let you look it up in Wikipedia.
2 Writer’s rating limiting University centre (3)
HUB – HB pencil has U in the middle.
3 Learner is not a little flexible (7)
LISSOME – L, IS, SOME = not a lttle.
5 Agricultural partner was responsible for these detailed figures (5,5,4)
THREE BLIND MICE – De-tailed, ha ha! The farmer’s wife was she, who did it with a carving knife.
6 One dispenses with finally being taken in by church obscurity (7)
CHEMIST – H (with finally) in CE (church) MIST (obscurity).
7 After change of heart, married alternative sensual woman (5,6)
EARTH MOTHER – (HEART)*, M(arried), OTHER (alternative).
8 Possessing reason for one to accommodate fool (6)
SANITY – SAY = for one, insert NIT for fool.
9 Lad keeping it working: are French workers to stay idle? (3,2,4,5)
SIT ON ONES HANDS – SON insert IT = SIT ON: ON (working) ES (you are, tu es) HANDS (workers).
13 Shady image, representation of Horus and Cairo with minimum of colour (11)
CHIAROSCURO – (HORUS CAIRO C(olour))*, if you’re vague about what it is, and interested enough, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro
16 Cotton fabric: there’s concern after losing a large amount (8)
CRETONNE – CARE loses A = CRE, TONNE = large amount. My LOI and needed Mrs K to confirm it was a thing.
18 Day rent fell? (7)
DRIPPED – D (day) RIPPED (rent).
19 Cut on head: not upset? Absolutely (7)
TONSURE – NOT upset = TON, SURE = absolutely.
20 Better information requiring strategy to make switch? (3-3)
TIC-TAC – TACTIC is switched.
25 Point(er)? (3)
TIP – double definition of point/pointer. A TIP can be a point of e.g. a pencil, or a pointer in the right direction, i.e. a hint.

​

83 comments on “Times 27873 – light and dark, hard and soft.”

  1. Very slow start with PANIC BUTTON my only entry on my first pass of the across clues. My LOI was CLODDISH where I thought the definition was OK. As an habitual biffmeister, I had an inkling that there must be a NW French material called “Bretonnne” but fortunately revisited it in an attempt to parse it.
  2. Like many have said, there was a lot of biffing going on, and I also managed a very decent time. ROBESPIERRE was tricky. Originally I had ARB… (reversal of BRA) to start, but once I had the R from ATROPINE my biffing brain clicked on.

    I have on old Times crossword book from 2008 or so and just last weekend had the answer TIC-TAC, so that was fortunate. Ended with CRETONNE where I took a good minute or two to come up with CARE.

    As for ‘possessing reason’ = SANITY, this is the old gerund trick. It comes up every few weeks or so. Eating cake is bad for your health. Skiing is fun. Possessing reason is an admirable thing.

    Edited at 2021-01-13 01:55 pm (UTC)

  3. Some good chewy material there. LOI cretonne. Nice to see the sea-green incorruptible make an appearance.
  4. This from another post:

    The old gerund trick. Eating cake is bad for your health. Skiing is fun. Possessing reason is an admirable thing.

  5. Like others, I felt a certain looseness about this one which left certain clues nagging at me, though I wouldn’t go so far as to say I didn’t enjoy it. I suppose it’s not necessary that every clue have such solid wordplay that there is absolutely no question that you’ve got the right answer. Each to his own goo, as the French have it.
  6. Nearly there. Failed to get ATROPINE and CRETONNE and a couple more.
    Could not improve on CHECKERS at 4a (draughts on a board in US?). That made 5d hard; my first word was HORSE.
    But I knew the shady image and got CLODDISH from that.
    David
  7. 10:56 – reeling from the shell shock of the QC which has now been corrected. Slow but steady solve, of all things my last in and the one I was least confident of was TIP (agonizing over TIP or TOP, since the clue didn’t make any sense).
  8. ….is the TIC-TAC man. They used to be great to watch, and the late John McCririck often used the signals on Channel 4 Racing.

    There was plenty here to annoy the more picky among us, but I switched on my pedantry filter and thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle as a result.

    FOI PICCOLO
    LOI AWHILE
    COD THREE BLIND MICE
    TIME 10:01

  9. I am NO EXPERT with materials but cretonne is not at all unfamiliar. To be fair, I can rarely identify a material from a physical sample, but I thought that cretonne shows up in lots and lots of novels, so eminently gettable.
    Andyf
    1. Well I didn’t know “Cretonne” and therefore resorted to aids for this last clue. Like others, I had a feeling that I had heard of “Bretonne” – any points for getting a wrong answer that rhymes?
      A curate’s egg of a puzzle, I thought.
    3. Does no-one else recall Neddy Seagoon being dressed in a “floral cretonne dress”?
      Gasman
  11. 23:49. I made very heavy weather of this, particularly in the NW where I put in NUB and didn’t reconsider it for ages. Even then it took me a long time to see AWHILE for some reason. Those two clues alone probably doubled my time.
  12. A straightforward solve in 40 minutes despite the obscurities (or CHIAROSCURO ties). TIC-TAC and CRETONNE purely from wordplay. I enjoyed CRADLE SNATCHER, but COD to THREE BLIND MICE.

    Edited at 2021-01-13 07:24 pm (UTC)

  13. 31.08. I found this pretty tricky. Definitely had the wrong end of the baton with LOI Robespierre where I think I was looking for a term from haute couture for dresses. I liked cradle snatcher. Cretonne and cloddish were a bit of a struggle, I was mulling more the soupiness than the coldness of the latter, which always makes me think of the dying words of Arnold Rimmer, no doubt that’s where I first came across it. Ipswich seemed out of place in a puzzle of minarets, chiaroscuro, Robespierre, cretonne, tonsure and epithet (sorry Ipswich).

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