Times 27,899: Robots Need Love Too

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A quality Friday puzzle, this, that kept me busy for the full 10 minutes ending in the 1dn/10ac double bill in the NE corner. Some exciting North American, capital city and Cockney solecism content: I thought 18dn was my COD pick for a long time but I’m a sucker for a reverse cryptic so I think 1dn may have won it by a nose in the final stretch. Many thanks to the setter for a good ‘un!

ACROSS
1 Bachelor with a single friend in Worcester, perhaps (4,5)
BONE CHINA – B(achelor) + ONE [single] + CHINA (China plate = mate = friend). FOI

6 Protective garment being worn after thirty days (5)
APRON – ON [being worn, as in clothes] after APR(il). SOI, feeling cocky so far

9 Wonky regulation’s been scrapped: that’s what I want to hear! (3,5,7)
NOW YOU’RE TALKING – (WONKY REGULATION*). TOI. But this is about the point at which Friday kicks in

10 Bomber following one in the role of peace protester (6)
FIASCO – F(ollowing) + I [one] + AS [in the role of] + CO (conscientious objector). LOI

11 Put out left-leaning workers’ organisation: it goes against the grain (8)
CROSSCUT – CROSS [put out] + reversed TUC

13 Purge after bribe by house of old dramatist (10)
SOPHOCLEAN – CLEAN [purge] after SOP by HO

14 Essential oil filling rings is never drunk (4)
OTTO – “filling” O O [(two) rings] is TT (= teetotal = never drunk)

16 Party had endless port (4)
DOHA – DO [party] + HA{d}. Qatari capital

17 Cheat swaggering, say, irreverently (4,2,4)
TAKE IN VAIN – TAKE IN [chat] + VAIN [swaggering]

19 Capital girl, by Jove — a little different! (8)
SARAJEVO – SARA [girl] by (JOVE*). Bosnian capital

20 Before repair, initially aim to stop very old machine giving out (6)
VENDOR – before R{epair}, END [aim] to “stop” V(ery) O(ld). Does anyone really call a vending machine a vendor? Maybe robots are people too.

23 Celebrate? It might be deflating for a Cockney (3,4,4,4)
LET ONE’S HAIR DOWN – or, as pronounced in the vicinity of Bow bells, let one’s ‘air down

24 British-Italian music man recruits others to back shows (5)
TOSTI – hidden reversed in {recru}ITS OT{hers}

25 Give up, when empty, some little cup (9)
DEMITASSE – DEMIT [give up] + AS [when] + S{om}E

DOWN
1 Scottish town to make suffer prosecutor? (5)
BANFF – reverse cryptic: if you BAN “FF” from SU{ff}ER, you get SUER = prosecutor. STLOI, mainly I contend because I think of Banff as a Canadian, not a Scottish town, thanks to my new continental loyalties…

2 Some American people’s unfamiliar, clumsy, and I would add welcome customs (15)
NEWHAMPSHIRITES – NEW [unfamiliar] + HAM [clumsy (as in “-fisted”)] + P.S. [I would add] + HI [welcome] + RITES [customs]. Merrily bunging in NEWFOUNDLANDERS proved a misstep for this one…

3 Pair of hacks get a move on! (4,4)
CHOP CHOP! – CHOP [hack] * 2

4 Ultimate failure of one to pick Bond up is concerning (2,2)
IN RE – take ERNIE, who picks the Premium Bonds, drop his last letter (“ultimate failure”) and reverse. I biffed this from the enumeration but it was a delightful pennydrop just now, much later on…

5 Sweet son coming across bitter, following a flogging (10)
AFTERSALES – AFTERS [sweet] + S(on), coming “across” ALE [bitter]. Flogging as in selling

6 Old supporter of Sky TV kicking off eventually (2,4)
AT LAST – ATLAS [old supporter of sky] + T{v}

7 Come down hard in a way that’s “petty”? (4,4,3,4)
RAIN CATS AND DOGS – cryptic def, “petty” as in “pertaining to pets”

8 Black community on campus giving something to don for retirement (9)
NIGHTGOWN – NIGHT [block] + GOWN [community on campus, as opposed to “town”]. Nice play on two meanings of the word “don”.

12 Poorly after swallowing tablet, David’s developed rash (3-7)
ILL-ADVISED – ILL [poorly] + (DAVID’S*) “swallowing” an E

13 Teams place computers in Canadian building (4,5)
SIDE SPLIT – SIDES [teams] + PL(ace) + I(nformation) T(echnology). I didn’t know this term so had to construct entirely from the cryptic; looking at pictures of sidesplits I guess they do look more North American than British. More land-efficient than a bungalow, apparently.

15 Maybe cricket nets touching under cover? (2,6)
IN SECRET – INSECT [cricket] “nets” RE [touching]

18 Spirit of Belfast radio presenter? (6)
DJINNI – or a DJ IN N.I.

21 Row involving furious Pole? (5)
RANGE – or, fairly reverse-cryptically, N [pole] in a RAGE

22 Close hostilities with ultimatum, finally (4)
WARM – WAR [hostilities] + {ultimatu}M

97 comments on “Times 27,899: Robots Need Love Too”

  1. 50m but DNF — I doubt FIASCO would ever have connected to bomber in my head nor would conscientious objector link to peace protestor immediately. I supected BANFF but could not see a way to make it fit so not beong confident of the F I was doubly doomed. I found this a bit of a grind in truth. So thank you V for the enlightenment and entertainment.
  2. 35.09. A tough puzzle which led me up many a garden path. NHO a side split construction and DNK Tosti. Never did parse LOI Banff or in re. Couldn’t see the instruction giving me the T from TV but from the definition I just put it in after Atlas and shrugged. Satisfying to wade through and come out the other side all correct.
  3. ….after 15 minutes. NHO TOSTI, but got him. However, totally failed on FIASCO, TAKE IN VAIN, and VENDOR (which I thought was unreasonably misleading).

    COD AT LAST

  4. All very ingenious but a very poor and weird set of surface readings. 1dn a prime example .. also 10ac,13ac, 17ac .. and others
  5. Having consulted the SNITCH prior to attempting this, I surprised myself by a) managing to complete it correctly and b) breaking 30 mins. A lot of biffing even for me. My only real DNK’s were the building and the musician but they were fortunately among the clues I was able to parse. Ended in the SE with LOI VENDOR. I cannot really say I enjoyed the journey but thanks to setter and especially V for elucidating my biffs.
  6. Another oh dear oh dear. Quite pleased to finish all but 3 ( 24ac, 20ac & 21 dn).
    Biffed in Franco at 10ac , but pleased to have at least solved the long ones.
    COD 13ac .
    Thank you blogger & setter, at least my Friday efforts are improving.
  8. I think I enjoyed this but I am still a bit in shock. Finished just under the hour (59:54 to be precise and I might have been 10 seconds faster if I hadn’t erased the second F of BANFF in a rush to submit, but I caught it after being told my puzzle was 99% finished). Of course I did not understand the wordplay for BANFF, but banged it in anyway despite thinking, like Verlaine, of the BANFF in Canada. That was my LOI after FIASCO, my POI once I realized it couldn’t be FIANCE. BONE CHINA, strangely, went in right away. NEW HAMPSHIRITES took forever, after wondering about strange countries somewhere in South or Central America and not much closer to home. Nice Friday puzzle.

    Edited at 2021-02-12 07:20 pm (UTC)

      1. Second to last one in. More generally used is POI — penultimate one in which is shorter an’ sweeter, but a big word for some.
        Meldrew FOI

        .

      2. I have no idea what it means. Perhaps you should ask Verlaine instead, since he is the one who used it in his review of the solution.
  9. Having worked in London for years, no cockney worth his salt would ever say “one’s” . Actually nobody these days says “one’s” in the 21st century. Surely it should be Let Your Hair Down!
    1. Hincorrect! Whah abaht ‘er Madge, lik? She were born wivvin’ the sarnda Bow Bells, over at Bruton Street. ‘Er Mum an’ Dad was ‘onnery Sparras! Nonuffink! ‘Why doesn’t one photograph somewhere else?’ Sam Kelly
  10. Didn’t get Banff/Fiasco — haven’t seen f=following before.
    NHO Tosti — no more obscure composers, please.
    Didn’t cotton on to “Take in vain”.
    Knew it must be “In Re” but couldn’t see why.
    Could see why “Otto” but never heard of it.
    All in all, a disaster — despite some nice penny-drop moments elsewhere in the puzzle.
  11. One cheat though — looked a synonym for clumsy and that got me over the line for the Americans (despite having most of the other checkers). Thought of BANFF very early on but just couldnt parse it to the point I was getting rather annoyed with the clue. The hat was doffed though when I came here — will try to remember that type of reverse cryptic for the future

    Got the other tough ones but a number needed some serious eking out

    Nice to have a toughie

    Thanks all

  12. Fiasco was a fiasco. No way can you wriggle a synonym from bomber to be that. Bomb at the outside, but even that’s a stretch.
    Lazy clue. Or arrogant. Or both

  13. I think you overstate the case. I don’t see anyone here so anxious to preserve their air of invincibility that they deliberately withhold uncompleted crosswords. DNF in any case far more often means the contributor didn’t get everything right: this crew is actually pretty honest when it comes to success and failure.
    It’s been a long time since I haven’t submitted because of an incomplete grid: my motive for submitting has far more to do with checking the answers and assessing my own personal faculty with the crossword, rather than measuring myself against others.
    Part of the magic of this site is precisely that (despite its title) it has unapologetic entries from both lightning fast solvers and people who are learning the trade (or just enjoying the challenge) and record calendar times.
    The SNITCH is brilliant (from my point of view) particularly in finding out whether I blitzed a hard one or struggled with an easy one. The niceties created by people submitting or not concern me not the tiniest jot.
    I guess the only way we could manage the kind of purity you seem to be seeking is if we ran each day under competition rules, all starting at the same GMT, and as we all know, that crashes the site. In the meantime, the world (even the world of the Times crossword) is not perfect. I encourage you just to enjoy this insane and wonderful hobby and share your personal pleasure without worrying about perceived “cheating”

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