Times 27,917: Taken Down A Peg Or Two

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I made a 15-minute meal of this, a lot of that due to having an alternative answer in at 4dn, which made the NHO 11ac much too hard to spot. There were some easy clues but also some tricksterish ploys: not sure how much I liked “the scoundrel” in 1dn and “a street” in 3dn, both of which upped the difficulty level by giving extraneous stuff to try to account for. But I did very much like the “playground rumour” and the multiple definition at 17dn, which made what seems with hindsight like a straightforward clue (albeit with incredibly well concealed anagrist/grind!) my LOI. 26ac was also really rather nice, as was the quality of word manipulation and contortion in general. So while I may have ended 2 pegs down, I still give this Friday puzzle two thumbs up: many thanks, your settership!

ACROSS
1 Can it split? Confess (6)
SHRIVE – SH [can it!] + RIVE [split]

4 Piled in heap, dogs off lead showed visible distress (7)
UPSWEPT – {p}UPS WEPT

9 Totalled up at last, with no case (2,3)
IN ALL – {f}INALL{y} – FOI

10 Understand program, run with what purpose? (9)
APPREHEND – APP R + EH END [program | run | what? | purpose]

11 Feasting greedily in club, liable to waste days (9)
BATTENING – BAT + TEN{d}ING

12 Resin you once put back to inhibit disease (5)
EPOXY – reversed YE [you, once] “inhibiting” POX

13 Try again to get out of fire door (4)
REDO – hidden in {fi}RE DO{or}

14 One curate I trained who has lots to deal with (10)
AUCTIONEER – (ONE CURATE I*). “Lots” in the technical sense

18 Spring flowers I left out in winds (10)
EASTERLIES – EASTER L{il}IES

20 Style of greeting in cricket club (4)
CHIC – HI in CC

23 Better to make this payment with rupees (5)
WAGER – WAGE [payment] + R. As in, something a better makes

24 Church official has wrapped silks, brown, for chapter to wear (9)
SACRISTAN – SARIS TAN [wrapped silks | brown], “worn” by C

25 Some northerners grasp tons I have not taught (9)
INTUITIVE – INUIT “grasp” T, plus I’VE

26 Excuse one replacing a graduate in panto role (5)
ALIBI – take ALI BABA, and replace A B.A. [a graduate] with I [one]: ALI B{aba->I}

27 Disorder puts part of US hospital in no end of peril (7)
DERANGE – E.R. in DANGE{r}

28 Show great respect for son escaping misfortune (6)
REVERE – REVER{s}E

DOWN
1 Poet, the scoundrel, pinching almost all of another (9)
SWINBURNE – SWINE [the scoundrel] “pinching” BURN{s} [almost all of another (poet). I spent way, way too long wondering how BURN{x} could be a type of scoundrel, but obviously the answer was always going to be dear old Algernon

2 Pushed back, gave another performance? (7)
REACTED – or re-acted. Every action has an equal and opposite Newtonian reaction

3 See a street in depression (6)
VALLEY – V ALLEY [see | a street]

4 To set free, amputate limb? (5)
UNPEG – or remove a peg, as in a leg. I had UNPIN in here for a very long time which made things difficult. Given that after you amputate a pirate’s real leg you actually ADD a peg, isn’t unpin the better answer, in some ways? 😛

5 Sort of bob, remarkably sleek fashion (8)
SKELETON – (SLEEK*) + TON. The skeleton bob is an event very familiar to quizzers, but not to be confused with the luge

6 What spoils the view at heart of storm is very concerning (7)
EYESORE – EYE [heart of storm] + SO RE [very | concerning]. Genius which I did not initially spot, thanks KG!

7 Now daughter comes in for a hot drink (5)
TODDY – take TOD{a}Y now and put a D(aughter) in for the A: TOD{a->D}Y

8 Roughly haul about somewhat, as usual (8)
HABITUAL – (HAUL*) “about” A BIT

15 English avoiding wooden ware getting expensive French plate (8)
TRENCHER – TRE{e}N + CHER [expensive, in French]

16 Obscure playground rumour finally true (9)
RECONDITE – REC [playground] + ON DIT [rumour] + {tru}E

17 East European and American statesman are going out (8)
GEORGIAN – (ARE GOING*), with two possible definitions offered. LOI

19 Show exasperation after missing a fine practice shot (7)
SIGHTER – SIGH [show exasperation] + {af}TER

21 Emergency provision in hotel out of order (7)
HOTLINE – (IN HOTEL*)

22 Green plant round field regularly makes fodder (6)
SILAGE – SAGE “round” {f}I{e}L{d}. I’ve been fond of this word ever since I was an audio typist at an insurance firm as a very young man and tried to get this word into a letter in place of “signage”, sadly they spotted my larks.

23 Strange hold-up in river delta (5)
WEIRD – WEIR [hold-up in river] + D

24 Nick’s small cloth (5)
SWIPE – S WIPE. Swiper, stop swiping!

70 comments on “Times 27,917: Taken Down A Peg Or Two”

  1. Completely beaten by the NW corner. No chance of getting SHRIVE, had REACTED, but couldn’t see why that was pushed back, NHO BATTENING nor SWINBORNE. Didn’t get GEORGIAN either. Oh well. Thanks V.
  2. Excellent puzzle but a DNF for me today.

    While NW corner was beset with trouble for me — did not know shrive or Swinburne, I knew we were in for a —-ten(d)ing at 11a but could only get fattening somehow missed bat as club which would have got me the NHO battening.

    Another careless unswept and another looking for a flower instead of a wind.

    Excellent puzzle though — some superb clues — loved wager recondite weird alibi.

    Thx V and setter

  3. Had UNPIN and UNSWEPT. Fooled by the dangler in 3d but still got VALLEY; thought a LLEY might be a Welsh street.
    Thought RECONDITE good.
    Did not get SHRIVE but remember the clue in 27,906 which caused a few problems:”18-Did well sorting out what comes next, having time for son (7)
    THRIVED – I guess we change the S in SHRIVED to a T. Being shriven would get you right with God, so I suppose that gets you ready for what comes next. On edit: thanks to the anonymous comment below for pointing out that this answer, THRIVED, is an anagram of the next answer, DERVISH, if you replace the S with a T. Indeed, as corymbia points out, it’s a WHIRLING DERVISH. Very clever!”
    David
  4. but had to come here to finish. Utterly convinced that 1a was SHRIFT, which as above left me with FALLEN, obviously wrong. So, utterly stuck, I came here.
    The rest was a nice steady solve.
  5. Well I looked at the Snitch and thought shall I bother? But then I had finished the other four this week so decided to have a shot. After 55 mins had done three-quarters of it and I thought it was going well, but then got slower and slower, finally grinding the NW out after 2 hrs 15 mins! But I did finish and got them all right.
    I had unarm at 4d, before deciding 11ac had to end with “ing” and then had to decide between unpeg and depeg (neither were known).
    COD definitely Georgian. LOI Valley- can anybody explain why See is “v” in 3d, and why Fashion is “ton” in 5d ? Probably obvious but brain is now scrambled.
    1. v = vide = see (like in qv)
      ton just means “fashion” or “people of fashion”. Google suggest to me that ‘”The ton” was Britain’s high society during the late Regency and the reign of George IV, and later. The word means, in this context, “manners” or “style” and is pronounced as in French. The full phrase is le bon ton meaning etiquette, “good manners” or “good form” – characteristics held as ideal by the British beau monde.’
      1. Ah, thank you. Not come across either of those, although it now transpires that my good wife knows all about “the ton” from Georgette Heyer.
  6. I suppose I can take some comfort from knowing that I am unlikely to get bored with rattling these off any time soon… Needed help with unknowns like Treen, Ondit and Swinburne, and only knew Shrive from a recent discussion about people dying unshriven because of Covid. Strangely, I worked out Unpeg quite early on, but subsequently struggled with the more straightforward Easterlies and Wager. Really liked 14ac, Auctioneer, for the surface. Invariant
  7. Started brightly but ran out of time at breakfast. Came back at lunch, saw the snitch rating and was initially put off but then rallied since I already had a few in.
    Came back this evening with multiple resources and got it out by hook or crook. Thanks verlaine for supplying the missing parsing and the setter for excellent entertainment throughout the day!
  8. Toughie, but I forced myself to persevere and finally finished correctly in about one hour and a half — felt good.
    Not being up on poets, I thought I had heard of a Walter Swinburne — but it turns out he’s a jockey and spelled Swinburn — never mind, the end justifies the means.
    Also, had to look up the meaning of Shrive and also failed to spot the Sh/Rive parsing so I was lucky there.
    Now I can enjoy the weekend.
  9. …. as no-one will ever read it but, for the record, let me thank all the commenters. I finished the RHS of this plus a few on the left but was left completely flummoxed by many clues. My first reaction was depression that I had slipped back months, if not years, to a level of constant frustration.
    Having read the comments, I see that this was a genuinely difficult puzzle. I still aspire to be able to finish such a puzzle, as many have done, but feel less bad about my failure. Sorry, my learning experience.
    Grudgingly sending my thanks to the setter and wholeheartedly to Verlaine and the commenters.
    1. Don’t worry about posting late, Joe, as late comments will always be seen at least by the blogger on duty as they are notified by email.
  10. Came late to this and enjoyed it over my early evening livener, which is always a nice way to tackle the puzzle. Perhaps fortunate to have been cautious and not taken the plunge on some of the more inviting answers listed by various people above; had to take some things on trust, such as what BATTENING might be, but all entertaining and / or educational, as Fridays should be.

    Mostly astonished, of course, to have to look down, not up, on the scoreboard to find our distinguished blogger – as this is the sort of thing which happens about once every two or three years, I shall open the good port tonight 🙂

  11. 43.28. Difficult. There were some moments when I did not think I would finish and it took some rolling up of the sleeves and persistence to get there. The crossing easterlies and Georgian took ages but it was the NW where I tied myself up in knots having entered both shrift and unpin, was working with fallow, follow, fallen etc, wondering if I was looking for a bishopric sort of a see for the definition in 4dn valley until I finally revised unpin to get unpeg and then battening, looked harder at shrift and wondered if shrive was better and only then seeing valley.
  12. went initially for UNPEG, then changed it to UNPIN as it seemed better, then back again when 11a couldn’t be gerunded into place. BATTENING was last in because it parsed. NHO of it as feasting greedily, and thought it might be English public school slang – the sort of thing Billy Bunter might get up to after lights out.
    39’06”
  13. Red Letter Day — my son passed his probation for his first job whilst I came here expecting everyone to say it was an easy one only to find I was in (and above) company I can normally only see far off in the distance

    Not quite sure why I had such a (comparatively) good time for me. BAT and TEN(D)ING kind of jumped out which helped with the BURNS and the SWINE. As another contributor mentioned SHRIVE came up in a recent clue.

    Certainly helped by never considering UNPIN

    FOI DERANGE
    LOI UPSWEPT
    COD GEORGIAN

    Thanks setter and the ever excellent and enjoyable blog

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