Times 27957 – Anky Panky

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I’d a prime time in sunny Broadstairs near the ‘arbour over the weekend, saw lots of beachwear, had a pint in the Smugglers, and ended up acquiring a new (rescue) dog – a poodle not a tosa – yet I am glad to be back in the realm of non urban Rutland where the atmosphere is unsullied and the sky is currently free from mares-tail clouds. This epic puzzle kept me amused for 25 minutes; it could have been done on green paper…. [that’s enough of this dismal contrived nonsense; Ed].

Across
1 Article seen by chief is to come (5)
AHEAD – A, HEAD = chief.
4 Fail to get great deal that would assist higher aims? (9)
BOMBSIGHT – Bomb (fail) SIGHT (great deal, as in “a sight more than…”)
9 Correspondence about a break in cloud (5-4)
MARES-TAIL – MAIL about A REST. Mares-tail clouds are those thin, wispy, hooked shaped clouds which appear when a warm front is approaching.
10 Escorts abandoning hotel customers (5)
USERS – USHERS = escorts, lose the H.
11 Star hides much being a deranged killer (3-7-3)
SUB-MACHINE-GUN – the star is the SUN, into which put (MUCH BEING A)*.
14 Henry sort of cross with horse coming first (4)
HANK – an ANKH is a form of cross with a looped top; move the H to the front to get Henry’s nickname.
15 Those wanted are dead? It’s uncertain (10)
DESIDERATA – (ARE DEAD ITS)*
18 Tirade on socialist dog is something fruity (3,7)
RED CURRANT – RED CUR = socialist dog, RANT = tirade.
19 Despite everything one finds legendary creature (4)
YETI – YET = despite everything, I. Not the daughter’s Skoda.
21 Rozzer has run inside: crime writer almost catching us in college (6,7)
CORPUS CHRISTI – Put R into COP, then CHRISTI(E) as in Agatha almost, then insert US. Choose from the Cambridge one founded in 1352 or the relatively recent one in Oxford, founded 1517.
24 Best quality piano introducing old poem (5)
PRIME – P + RIME.
25 Broad line curls round belt (9)
BANDOLIER – (BROAD LINE)*
27 Lady of the Lake (9)
CONSTANCE – as in Lake Constance, Europe’s third largest lake, on the Rhine, otherwise known as the Bodensee. MartinP1 would no doubt point out there’s one in NZ as well.
28 Silver coin added to millions in kingdom (5)
REALM – REAL + M.

Down
1 Mood cheers up with doctor on department (10)
ATMOSPHERE – TA (cheers) reversed, MO (doctor), SPHERE (department). No ENT department, for once.
2 Musical talent gets attention (3)
EAR – double definition.
3 Miserable face sergeant-major wears (6)
DISMAL – DIAL = face, insert SM.
4 Swimsuits composer carried across East River (9)
BEACHWEAR – E (east) goes into BACH, then WEAR as in the River Wear up north.
5 Staff outside the Italian financial centre (5)
MILAN – IL (the in Italian) inside MAN = staff.
6 Runner showing increased complacency circling lake (8)
SMUGGLER – L inside SMUGGER = more complacent.
7 Documents for discussion in genre slammed by media (5,6)
GREEN PAPERS – (GENRE)* then PAPERS = media.
8 Boozer turned on initially amenable canine (4)
TOSA – SOT (boozer) reversed, A (initially amiable). A rare Japanese breed of dog, not a very amenable type I expect.
12 Monk one taking place in church service (11)
BENEDICTION – BENEDICT founder of the Bnedictine order of monks; I (one) ON (taking place).
13 Peaceful border in Asian region (7,3)
PACIFIC RIM – PACIFIC = peaceful, RIM = border.
16 Corrupt state? On the contrary (9)
INNOCENCE – cryptic definition. Is this supposed to be a dodgy homophone for IN A SENSE? Or IN NO SENSE?
17 Zealot on charter round island promoting growth (8)
NUTRIENT – NUT (zealot) then I (island) inside RENT (charter).
20 Bower Eliza Doolittle’s refuge? (6)
ARBOUR – Eliza might have pronounced “harbour” (refuge) as ‘arbour.
22 Duke leaves South African port for city (5)
URBAN – DURBAN loses D.
23 Majestic European prince appearing regularly (4)
EPIC – E (European) P r I n C e.
26 Operatic role thought to release energy (3)
IDA – iDEA loses E for energy; as in Princess Ida by G & S.

​

50 comments on “Times 27957 – Anky Panky”

  1. So did this as well as the QC.

    22:48, so pretty decent for me. A couple of minutes trying get HANK though, I had H for horse, followed by a ANK (being a variant of ANKH) in mind, rather than moving the H of ANKH to the front. The latter is probably the right parsing, but a solve is a solve!

    I liked SUB MACHINE GUN and PACIFIC RIM.

  2. ….but at least I finished this eventually, so I’m on the SNITCH for the first time in a week.

    I was hampered by thinking MARE’S TAIL was a grass, and by wondering why “housers” were escorts (yes, I know. I’m not myself right now for some reason). These two were parsed post-solve, along with SUB-MACHINE-GUN, and ATMOSPHERE.

    FOI AHEAD
    LOI NUTRIENT
    COD ARBOUR
    TIME 14:25

  3. I knew “Ankh” from the science fiction film “Logan’s Run” — as worn beguilingly by Jenny Agutter.
    I knew “Pacific Rim” from the science fiction film … er …. “Pacific Rim”.
  4. A puzzle of two halves, as someone said above, and I also found the bottom half straightforward with a bit more to think about up top. The misdirection at 6D had me scratching the bean for a while. 39 mins plus some for me, which is middle of my range.
  5. But I did not complete – owing to 9ac MARE’S TAIL – which, like the fast phading phil, I thought was grasseous. And ‘the cloud’ was some new fangled type of email, of which I was not cognizant! MORIS-MAIL has sadly not yet been invented, but why then is MARES-TAIL hyphenated? MORIS-MAIL will be!

    FOI 2dn EAR

    LOI Let’s not go there

    COD not 27ac as WINDERMERE is a far better answer, just too long. I was a big fan. Nor the IKEAN 11ac SUB-MACHINE GUN with two hyphens (as per Kevin). So no COD – hyphen-boy!

    WOD 12ac DESIDERATA

  6. Dnf as undone by Hank. Had hand : h for horse and (+) cross. Only Hank I thought of was the Williams variety and he was a Hiram. Google says can also be used for Harry. Prince Hank has a certain ring to it…
  7. 37 minutes, my LOI being TOSA, which I had never heard of. I spent a few minutes wondering whether the canine might be dental again and the answer might be TUSK (SUT being a dialectical alternative to SOT and K being the first letter of kind=amenable), but fortunately I decided that would not be a fair clue and TOSA might be a word after all. HANK was no problem, but then I am almost old enough to have been around in ancient Egypt, where ANKHs were all the rage. I couldn’t quite see how the wordplay for BENEDICTION worked, since my monk was not the founder of the order Benedict, but any old Benedictine. And to top it all, when I wrote in MARES-TAIL, it took me quite a while to refocus from the Latin? word MARES to the female horse, and of course only then did it make any sense at all. So I suppose I must plead my INNOCENCE.
  8. I can tell when a Wednesday comes around… Successful bottom half of this one but top half – above Hank and Desiderata – defeated me. Kicking myself when I see the answers. They’re not so hard once you know, are they? Good brain exercise all the same. Thanks, all.
  9. Only got round to this this morning! FOI DESIDERATA, LOI the wretched TOSA. Wasted too much time trying to parse “tusk”. Agree with all the comments about INNOCENCE. Had to dredge up MARES-TAIL from the dim recesses of childhood memory, but (also) with the nagging feeling that it was some sort of plant.
    COD CORPUS CHRISTI (a.k.a. “Christ Church stables”, but actually a charming place well worth a visit). I also understand they have something named similarly in the other place on the fens, so a double definition!
  10. Reasonably smooth. TOSA seemed right; liked the GUN; couldn’t immediately see what was happening with ATM (POI) and needed a minute or so with LOI HANK but it seemed clear we needed another name for Henry so for a change my alphabet trawl was successful.

    Thanks all

  11. The answer that seems to have eluded everyone is “In Nocence”.

    Nocence being a state of guilt or corruption, and the opposite of being in that “corrupt state” is innocence- “on the contrary”. I assume ‘state’ is used a second time for IN, but you could read it as literally being “in nocence”.

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