Times 27897 – 162 filled in squares of satisfaction

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I loved this puzzle; it had, for me, the perfect mixture of interesting words, clever wordplay, only one anagram, and nothing too obscure; a couple of plants, an animal, a Greek chap, a bit of CRS, and so on. We’re snowed in again, so lockdown doesn’t seem so bad as going out is not an attracive option, although the dog disagrees. Amazon has brought me three more large jigsaws to keep me busy.
I hope you enjoy it too, or can forgive me for banging on, if you felt differently.

Across
1 Smack on behind produces lingering sensation (10)
AFTERTASTE – AFTER (behind) TASTE (smack).
6 Found plough removed from Parisian fortress (4)
BASE – BASTILLE loses TILL (plough). I can see found = base as in “it was founded on / based on…”
8 Gentle exercise taken with a climber (5,3)
SWEET PEA – SWEET (gentle), PE, A.
9 Butcher’s chestnut horse should be returned (6)
GANDER – Reverse of RED NAG. Butcher’s (hook) CRS for look = gander.
10 Pot for reheated meat and vegetables (4)
HASH – Double definition.
11 With villain seen at Parliament, shelter on bridge (10)
WHEELHOUSE – W, HEEL (villain) HOUSE (Parliament).
12 Hanging about in short undies no good (9)
LINGERING – LINGERI(E), NG = no good.
14 Landmark seen in Australian port after docking (5)
CAIRN – CAIRN(S). Port in north-east of Australia. Worth a visit, maybe, on the way to dive the GB Reef.
17 River taking sulphur to Sumerian city-state (5)
STOUR – S (sulphur, which is now spelt sulfur), TO, UR (one of many city-states in the Sumer civilisation; the one you’ve heard of). There are 5 River Stours in England, and one in New Zealand, at least.
19 Miserable chap tucking into toast (9)
CHEERLESS – Insert LES (a chap) into CHEERS (a toast).
22 Corner at 90 — that needs precise approach (5,5)
RIGHT ANGLE – well, you’d need to come in at the right angle, for a precise approach.
23 Lout beginning to cause mayhem when officer leaves (4)
CHAV – C (beginning to cause) HAV(OC) remove OC = officer (commanding). A chav is a “lower class anti-social male dressed in flashy sports clothing”, although I have seen some chavs who are quite well behaved and social, if not well dressed.
24 One suit makes a Scottish outfit (6)
HEARTS – Reference to the Edinburgh football team Heart of Midlothian FC, usually known as Hearts.
25 Plant key behind reptile house (8)
ASPHODEL – ASP (reptile) HO (house) DEL (key on keyboard). A common plant in these pages.
26 Viewer’s sore as regularly sat by set? (4)
STYE – Alternate letters of S a T b Y s E t.
27 Dismal expression to consume small one being humbled (6,4)
LOSING FACE – A LONG FACE being a dismal expression, insert S(mall) and I.

Down
1 Hard to crack clues say rewritten for tragic author (9)
AESCHYLUS – H for hard, inside (CLUES SAY)*. Greek chap who wrote tragedies.
2 Agent’s ultimate motivation is betrayal (7)
TREASON – T (end of agent) REASON (motivation).
3 Parasite in record dispute over millions (8)
TAPEWORM – TAPE (record), ROW(dispute) reversed, M. I wonder how many more years setters will talk about taping for recording and EP and LP for records? But there again, vinyl does have a following!
4 Wind through blades creates unseen danger (5,2,3,5)
SNAKE IN THE GRASS – SNAKE (wind), IN THE (through), GRASS (blades of).
5 Becomes hard to follow case of European political theorist (6)
ENGELS – E..N (case of EuropeaN) GELS (becomes hard).
6 Swine upset everyone after scrap where house calls made (5,4)
BINGO HALL – BIN (scrap), HOG reversed, ALL.
7 Poet having to write in ship on turning turtle (7)
SPENSER – PEN (write) inside reversed RE (on) SS (ship). My FOI, just because it was the first clue I happened to read.
13 Lovelorn cowboy on lake shows tactless behaviour (9)
GAUCHERIE – GAUCHO our cowboy, loses O (lovelorn), on Lake Erie.
15 Kingmaker needs tree for English country home (9)
NASHVILLE – you could write this in from the definition, if you spotted that; to parse it you have to know that Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, was so known, as during the Wars of the Roses he had a big hand in restoring Edward IV and then Henry VI to be King. Then you replace the E in NEVILLE with ASH for tree. And know that Nashville is the home of country music, of course.
16 Play safe with hammer (5,3)
PETER PAN – PETER (slang for safe), PAN (hammer, criticise).
18 Move across to pack explosive in missile system (7)
TRIDENT – RIDE (move across) inside TNT (explosive). I’m not sure why ‘across’ is needed.
20 Greek character embraced by female creature (7)
ECHIDNA – CHI (Greek letter) inside EDNA (a female person). The echidna or spiny ant-eater lives only in Australia and New Guinea and its four variants and the platypus are the only egg-laying mammals. I only knew that because I was reading about them on Wiki recently when Platypus cropped up in a puzzle.
21 One held in contempt to stop call for decoration (6)
TASSEL – ASS (someone held in contempt) inside TEL (call).

​

54 comments on “Times 27897 – 162 filled in squares of satisfaction”

  1. 22.36, very enjoyable. Base went in pretty quickly but after that it was slim pickings for the rest of the acrosses and I thought I was going to find this one troublesome. Snake in the grass and one or two others opened things up though and I was able to make steady progress. It was one of those puzzles where the clues at first seemed impenetrable but yielded after a little application. I ended up in the SE where Losing face, tassel, echidna and Nashville (dnk the kingmaker so had to spot the definition) all gave me problems, until they didn’t.
  2. ….in the SE corner in only 7 minutes, I then ground to a total halt for a further 2 mins before ECHIDNA got me through to the end fairly quickly.

    I had to retrieve my eyebrows from the ceiling over CHAV. Chambers has “someone who apparently has access to money, but not necessarily to taste”. Neither this, nor the definition quoted in Pip’s blog, in any way indicate violence. Louts are prone to violence, so I don’t see the two words as synonyms.

    I thought of Warwick rather than Neville on my first pass at 15D, and just didn’t see CAIRNS at all.

    FOI GANDER
    LOI CAIRN
    COD NASHVILLE
    TIME 10:22

    1. Because (see above) I link CHAVs with Chelsea supporters, I have no difficulty linking them with loutish behaviour. Once I pushed a wheelchair away from a Spurs encounter with Chelsea at Wembley (horrible place or wheelchairs) and was obliged to walk towards Wembley Park in the Chelsea stream. OK, we lost, but their behaviour was vile and definitely loutish. Indelible connection.
  3. Fast to begin with, then ground to a halt in the SW where I thought SAMUR might be a Sumerian city-state ( UR, URUK, SAMUR, why not? ) It parsed, with the river Amur on the China-Russia border added to Sulphur. But it made the rest difficult, necessitating a belated rethink which yielded STOUR, and then TRIDENT ( but ride=move across, really?) and finally in despair TASSEL ( but tel=call, really?)
    35’00” surprisingly all correct.
  5. I really enjoyed this puzzle. I hardly had a care in the world as the answers simply flowed in.

    When ever the setter tries to be creative (ie not boring) he/she gets held to Ransome. Chestnut is in the red quadrant at the 23ac hair salon. And what’s so baffling about TEL and POT? Am I doin’ a 180? Innit!

    Kevin did very well as this was perhaps a very British affair; several of our American friends are missing in action. 24ac must have been particularly tricky. Perhaps they were mesmerized by events in DC – sorry Washington and finding out from Trump’s legal team that Biden won!

    FOI 6ac BASE – a Trumpian word no less

    LOI 23ac CHAV – I equate them with Essex, loutish tendencies and mullets

    COD was a toss-up but I did enjoy 16dn PETER PAN

    So WOD then to 6dn BINGO HALL – do they still exist back in Sarf-end?

    Edited at 2021-02-10 03:40 pm (UTC)

    1. In the late 80s/early 90s I was bemulleted and living in Essex. Not sure my tendencies were loutish. Perhaps I was only 2/3 chav 😉
  6. Was pleased with speed today, especially since I felt some wordplay was iffy (to be kind) or downright not correct (in case of TEL) … but there was something rather satisfying about the whole of the puzzle, which made up for my misgivings. So thanks all round yet again.
  7. I really liked 1ac (even if it went in pretty quick). Just made me smile … (which may say more about me than anything else)
    1. I was too quick and banged in (biffed) AFTERSHOCK!(Which may say more about me than anything else)

      Edited at 2021-02-10 03:44 pm (UTC)

  8. Definitely on wavelength today despite only getting a couple on my first pass of across clues. The down clues at the top went in like billy-o and I progressed steadily thereafter. It was the SW that held me up a bit with my LOI being TASSEL with a MER over ‘tel’. I amaze myself sometimes with my knowledge of the names of plants since I do not even have a garden – I think I just pick them up from seeing them in various works of fiction. I really must read more books set in countries where antelopes live.
  9. I found this rather difficult and obscure, but I did finish (slowly but correctly) in 53 minutes. What surprised me was that I saw BASE right away, including the wordplay, but that was almost the only thing I saw right away. I knew which kingmaker was being referred to but couldn’t think of any name for him until I tried to explain NASHVILLE, which fit into the grid. I rather liked the lovelorn cowboy in GAUCH(O)ERIE, my COD.
  10. Best of the week, I thought. Or maybe that was because I got to this one before bedtime and didn’t have to finish it in the AM.
    Didn’t know CHAV, wonder if he’s been here before, but ID’d him properly. Also, like Kevin (I haven’t read the others yet), I had to guess at HEARTS. As I did also for the name involved in the clue for NASHVILLE.

    Edited at 2021-02-10 07:00 pm (UTC)

  11. I thought I’d finished this in a reasonable time (for me) but had convinced myself that LOI 21D was VASSAL — “one held” — and then tried haplessly for ages to make the rest of the clue fit! Ho hum.

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