Times 27925 – Steady Paddy!

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A puzzle that seemed to play to my strengths, so perhaps my time of 18:35 will be around the WITCH, which is very unusual for me on blogging day. Last in was 3 down, as I recall.

ACROSS

1 Irishman reading stuff current in newspaper? (7)
PADRAIG – PAD (reading stuff – I thought it could more accurately be called ‘writing stuff’) I (current) in RAG (newspaper). On the other hand, we can parse it like this: [You may arrive at the Irish man’s name by ‘reading’ the clue as] PAD (stuff) I (current) in RAG (newspaper). The best known ‘Porregg’ must be golfer Harrington, who had a golden spell in the mid/late noughties, winning back to back Opens and a US PGA, if I recall correctly – all in super slo-mo. Thanks to Myrtilus for the alternative parsing of this clue.
5 Way of getting around remoter areas after boat returns (7)
POSTBUS – POST (after) SUB reversed
9 Emperor backed an Iranian language, banning son’s imperial title (3,6)
RAS TAFARI – TSAR reversed A FAR[s]I
10 Speak at length with enough for meeting, no question (5)
ORATE – [qu]ORATE
11 Contribution is not properly used thus at first (5)
INPUT – initial letters of words 2-6
12 Single-minded and certain to hold volunteers back (9)
DEDICATED – TA in DECIDED all reversed
14 In disrepair, old-time banners unable to be shown (14)
INDEMONSTRABLE – anagram* of OLD TIME BANNERS
17 Press particular management groups to act (5,3,6)
TREAD THE BOARDS – TREAD (press) THE BOARDS (particular management groups)
21 Elders apt to get drunk — very drunk (9)
PLASTERED – ELDERS APT*
23 Mammal’s milk, iodine rich primarily (5)
TAPIR – TAP (milk – verb) I (iodine) R[ich]
24 Provide food initially to everyone boarding railway carriage (5)
CATER – T[o] E[everyone] in CAR (railway carriage)
25 Steer regularly seen around short cattle breed for this reason (9)
THEREFORE – [s]T[e]E[r] around HEREFOR[d]
26 The French emperor’s land in Africa (7)
LESOTHO – LES (the French) OTHO (emperor); Otho was the second of four Roman emperors in 69AD – a record held until 193, when there were five
27 Quarrel with one jeweller (7)
TIFFANY – TIFF (quarrel) ANY (one)

DOWN

1 Agree to what one might do to unruly hair (6)
PERMIT – if you had enough hair, you might perm it, if it got a bit long
2 What will help one stay clean in dodgy stand-up (7)
DUSTPAN – STAND UP*
3 Help about element helium separation (9)
APARTHEID – PART (element) HE (helium) in AID (help)
4 Matriarch possibly needs thousand marks extra (11)
GRANDMOTHER – GRAND (thousand) M (marks) OTHER (extra)
5 Hard dividing an irrational number, which Diophantus once showed (3)
PHI – H in PI; The ‘ph’ of Diophantus would be represented by the letter ‘phi’ in Greek. See Rob Rolfe below for a mathematical explanation involving φ (phi), which is very compelling, though all Greek to me
6 Job, perhaps one dividing half of sheep up (5)
STOIC – I in COTS[wold] reversed
7 American boy outside shouting where are hidden presents? (4,3)
BRAN TUB – RANT in BUB
8 Supported small tree that has given up the ghost (8)
STEADIED – S TEA (tree) DIED
13 Is old mattress I found in hollow breaking the rules? (11)
DISOBEDIENT – IS O BED I in DENT (hollow)
15 Complain after ancient coin found in rhubarb dish (5,4)
ROAST BEEF – BEEF (complain) after AS (coin) in ROT (rhubarb); the ‘as’ was a bronze, and later copper, coin used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.
16 Play I act badly out of character (8)
ATYPICAL – PLAY I ACT*
18 Helper of St Paul in eastern Tarsus, travelling (7)
ERASTUS – E TARSUS*; not as well known as Barnabas, Silas and Timothy, Erastus was once sent to Macedonia and once remained in Corinth. Seems like he was a money-man…
19 What might confer a degree of tact when cutting cold Yankee (7)
DIPLOMA – DIPLOMA[cy]
20 Sinister rising member of upper house cutting Young Conservatives (6)
CREEPY – PEER in YC all reversed
22 Raised to desert pack (5)
TAROT – TO RAT reversed
25 Time with old couple (3)
TWO – T W O

74 comments on “Times 27925 – Steady Paddy!”

  1. though Tiffany from EastEnders she isn’t. A lumbering 24’05 here, everything known but slow to parse and therefore quick to pause en route. As I remember a bran tub was a normal part of party or village fair entertainment in my (UK) childhood.
  3. Like many, loads of unknowns here that slowed me down but pleased to have worked my way through the cryptic parts of those in about 33 minutes.

    Tough for a Monday but trying to do better at finishing crosswords that seem difficult at first

  4. Made a right pig’s ear of this one by biffing UNDEMONSTRABLE, which is a pretty stupid error of reading the anagrist (presumably because my brain saw the UN in “unable” and didn’t work it through). Also ended up with INPPT, though I suppose I wouldn’t have done that with pen and paper.

    Slightly annoying, when I’d successfully cracked the more difficult elements. OTHO was on my mind, as I very recently identified the Year of the Four Emperors in a quiz as 68AD, and didn’t even get a “One Year Out” T-shirt from Ken Bruce for my trouble. Also, 1ac reminded me that we are entering the time of year when it is necessary to gently correct Americans who refer to “Patty’s Day”. Pretty bracing for a Monday.

  5. I’m pretty sure that bran tub is originally British, and can also remember village fetes in the 50s where there was a bran tub with real bran.

    Got the parsing of LESOTHO wrong: it seemed to be le + Sotho. Sotho at the back of my mind was an emperor, but now I discover that it’s a rare language.

  6. 22.19, so ATYPICAL Monday fare, though I didn’t help myself by mis-anagramming 14 as UNMENTIONABLES, which I thought was rather clever of me and of the clue – wrong on both counts.
    We seem to be divided between those of us that frequented village and chapel fetes and those that (disgracefully?) stayed away.
    ERASTUS is possibly not the best known of Paul’s helpers, and I would be pushed to identify him securely without looking him up.
    OTHO likewise, really, especially since he managed Emperorship for a bare three months. From my point of view, he might just as well have been SOTHO.
    Quite a lot of Mephisto quality gen in this, requiring either Mephisto style checking in Chambers or lucky, slightly informed guesses. I managed the latter.
  8. On the wavelength today, done in 5m 4s. Some of this was beyond my general knowledge – e.g. OTHO – but I thought that the clueing was mostly generous and allowed a bit of biffing. A few ‘first letter of this’ clues helped.

    My very pedantic MER was DUSTPAN, which I would have thought would help you to get something clean, rather than keep it clean.

  9. For 1ac I interpreted pad as a synonym for stuff in the sense of ‘padding out’. Makes more sense than reading stuff to me, as someone mentioned above — pads have a stronger association with writing that reading
  10. 20.26 so another atypical Monday according to my experience. FOI Ras Tafari, LOI postbus. NHO it so a bit of a guess . Glad to see the blogger’s explanation which shows how dim I was- took me ages before I put the answer in.

    Another unknown was Erastus but once I recognised the anagram seemed pretty straightforward. Lesotho was another sticky one but I believe Otho was number three in the year of the four emperors.

    Good puzzle . Thanks setter and blogger.

  11. Def not Monday fare. Took me longer than Sat’s prize puzzle, which I have to admit I enjoyed more. ERASTUS probably doesn’t deserve a place in the Times backpager, and OTHO is not really suitable imperial fodder. So, bit bah humbug, but then maybe that’s because I was expecting a Monday stroll? (coming soon….)
  12. Considering how much I didn’t know (Otho, As, etc), I really surprised myself by managing to finish, albeit in my customary slow fashion. Loi was 7d, Bran Tub, which I must have come across somewhere, but by that stage I felt I was definitely riding my luck. A very odd solve. Invariant
    1. Ditto! I finished it, but in quite a few clues I didn’t really know how I got there 😅
  13. A struggle, and a long one at that. FOI input. Only four acrosses on first pass. Nothing down until grandmother. Then it began to unravel a bit. Guessed at some, e.g. padding, medic, which later were clearly incorrect as they did not allow more obvious answers. Some suggestions from disinterested husband were appreciated – some were right, e.g. stoic, some led me to make connections. LOI steadied. Had the died right enough, and the small, but tea for tree was not at the top of my list, shall I say. I do enjoy a good struggle, especially if I eventually finish, and even if when complete, it isn’t fully parsed. And lots wasn’t, by me, today. No particular feeling of a job well done by me today, just very pleased to finish. Erastus was a lucky biff as NHO. Held up by the break in Ras Tafari, as did not know there was one. Lots of candidates for COD but choosing one – tapir. Thanks for the blog and the entertainment. GW.
  14. Enjoyed this. Struggled with several parsings -as others have but ended up with two annoying errors -failed to get RAS TAFARI and PHI (which I had pencilled in).
    RIS RAFANA was a guess too far.
    David
  15. “A game of two ‘alves saint” in memory of the late Ian from last week.

    Very slow start then things began to fall into place before returning to the now biffable north west corner. Lots to like in this for me especially as my unknowns such as Otho Erastus and Postbus were all generously indicated. Can’t comment on whether Job was stoic or not but the wordplay left no alternative.

    23:36 thanks U and setter

  16. But for some extraordinary reason I put partit for one down! Can I really have thought the word existed?! Evidently.
    1. I’ve mombled much much worse in the past. And must admit to wondering whether COMBIT was a word here…
  17. 24.52. I struggled to get started with this but eventually built from the bottom up. DNK Otho or the as coin and the presence of both annoyed me. Was able to recall the Hereford cattle but not the Cotswold sheep. Dredged up Erastus from somewhere.
  18. Post dinner, 2 glasses of wine effort. Got there in the end so a superb puzzle naturally but it was in a bit of a fog.

    Thanks all

    Ps Many of you have asked but none have replied … what on earth is a POSTBUS…?

    1. In rural areas the post office did deliveries in minibuses which they also used to ferry people around. Don’t know whether they still do!
  19. FOI 21ac PLASTERED

    LOI 1ac PADRAIG

    COD 25ac THEREFORE

    WOD 9ac RAS TAFARI Tuff Gong!

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