Times 27,977: Come Friday Bombs

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
As will all multi-double-def-including puzzles, this felt like it might end up being very wavelengthy. I did it relatively speedy, especially as I seem to be having an off-my-game week, but this was helped by 11ac and others feeling really familiar from somewhere: I hope I didn’t test solve this puzzle or something a long time back and forgot about it. But either way there was much to enjoy. I took forever to decide what four letters were going to end 4dn, and managed to have 6dn be my last one in, as of course I was looking for the letter A in a word for “doctor”. Isn’t Rory Tinkear the son of Roy Tinkear? COD for fooling me so well, I guess. I also liked the tricksiness of 1dn and the definition part of 7dn.

Thank you very much to the setter!

ACROSS
1 Tool cauterises wound after third of stitches removed (9)
SECATEURS – (CAUTER{i}SES*) – third of {st}I{tches} being “I”

6 Grant fed cold sweet (5)
DOLCE – DOLE [grant] “fed” C

9 Value in flag, patriotism finally returning (5)
MERIT – reversed, TIRE [flag] + {patriotis}M

10 Swimmer’s incompetent first of four splits (9)
CLOWNFISH – CLOWNISH, “split” by F{our}

11 Plate knocked over: drawer for it? (6,9)
ANIMAL MAGNETISM – reversed LAMINA + MAGNETISM [something which draws]

13 Eccentric, if excellent corporation (8)
CRACKPOT – CRACK POT [excellent | corporation]

14 Two rums originally in strong drink (6)
BRACER – BRACE [two] + R{ums}

16 Subtlety is missing from pest (6)
NUISANCE – NU{is}ANCE

18 Circulating quickly around system, chocolate eggs initially in gut (8)
VISCERAL – VIRAL “around” S{ystem} C{hocolate} E{ggs}

21 Sensing fine things, a fine thing indeed! (3,4,8)
THE CAT’S WHISKERS – literal/metaphorical double def. Note that “sensing” is adjectival here – fine things that sense

23 Best of British beer good after siesta (5,1,3)
BREAK A LEG – ALE G after BREAK

25 Notice what women often don’t give in saying (5)
ADAGE – AD + AGE [what women often don’t give]. I’ve been 29 for decades now, you know.

26 Bone ultimately funny in arm (5)
EQUIP – bon{e} + QUIP; “arm” as a verb

27 Take one back, possibly, as may master for servant? (4,1,4)
RING A BELL – metaphorical/literal double def

DOWN
1 Country: a second where Lesotho located? (5)
SAMOA – Lesotho is an enclave in S.A., so we’re looking for A MO in S.A.

2 Joker maybe behind screens in a Catholic’s office (11)
CARDINALATE – CARD LATE, “screening” IN A

3 One or two fliers? (7)
TITLARK – one flier, or TIT and LARK concatenated

4 Singular noun arranged around punctuation mark, shortly (8)
UNCOMMON – (NOUN*) “around” COMM{a}

5 Shed somewhere in Berkshire (6)
SLOUGH – double def

6 Doctor nursed a performer (7)
DANSEUR – (NURSED A*). LOI

7 Round of bloomers in sport? Certain to be eliminated (3)
LEI – LEI{sure}

8 Short bursts help me, saving time (9)
EPHEMERAL – (HELP ME*), “saving” ERA

12 Put away at home, box packed with extraordinary care (11)
INCARCERATE – IN CRATE [at home | box] “packed” with (CARE*)

13 Ancient study with group of horses he painted (9)
CONSTABLE – CON with STABLE. Nice to see “con” flagged as an archaism, for a change, given that nobody actually uses it outside of crosswords any more (correct me if I’m wrong)

15 Name torn from Chinese book chap pens — one of fifty (8)
MICHIGAN – I CHI{n}G “penned” by MAN. One of 50 US states

17 Increase status in competition (5,2)
CRANK UP – RANK in CUP

19 Tropical plant schmuck dipped in wine (7)
CASSAVA – ASS “dipped in” CAVA. I’ve definitely been there

20 Seen in pebbledash, large piece of masonry (6)
ASHLAR – hidden in {pebbled}ASH LAR{ge}

22 Splendid wave (5)
SWELL – double def

24 Bird: I’m not sure able in the end to soar? (3)
EMU – reversed, UM {abl}E, semi-&lit

60 comments on “Times 27,977: Come Friday Bombs”

  1. 14:19, so I did not find it quite so easy but enjoyed the clever clues, particularly for MICHIGAN, INCARCERATE and CLOWNFISH. My last in was CARDINALATE which had to be pieced together from wordplay and checking letters.
  2. No real problem except I typed CRAMK UP and didn’t notice so a pink square. I wasn’t sure TITLARK was a thing (having started with SKYLARK). And I wondered about CLOTTFISSH for a time too, although I have actually heard of CLOWNFISH. Isn’t Nemo a clownfish?

    BTW you talk about the definition part of 7ac but there is no 7ac…maybe 7dn (LEI)?

    1. It’s annoying when people say ’12’ referring to 12dn and not bothering with the ‘dn’ because there’s no 12ac. They seem to assume that everyone will know what they are referring to. As a result people usually nowadays, it seems, include ‘ac’ or ‘dn’. It’s amazing how often they get it wrong, as V did here.
      1. I clearly use up all my “making sure things are correct” reserves during the solve, and have nothing left for the blogging part! Sorry all…
  3. Three DNFs in a row for me, which was terribly annoying, as I very nearly had this one done in about 30 minutes. But the goddamn SECATEURS! I finally looked up my guess and the correct answer was revealed to me, upon which 3 Down revealed itself. So close!!!!
  4. Yet so-fa! From IKEA!

    An excellent 49 minutes here in Chinatown.

    FOI 13dn CONSTABLE – Charlie Chan

    LOI 6ac DOLCE – dan-tat -yum cha!

    COD 6dn DANSEUR – Yuan Yuan Tan

    WOD 21ac THE CAT’S WHISKERS – Orthosiphon aristatus

    I-CHING – best read in its original form

    Edited at 2021-05-14 03:36 am (UTC)

  5. Found it tricky on the left hand side – Constable, nuance, cardinalate (red squiggly underline = not a word), even crackpot! LOI titlark as a guess. Liked it a lot, especially animal magnetism, the cat’s whiskers, break a leg and crank up. 25 minutes so off the wavelength compared with the snitch.
    1. A search for Constable Nuance reveals he is now attached to undercover operations for Interpol within the Nice-Tyrol Division – as a Sergent détective.
  6. 39 minutes of steady solving, so for once Friday is not the most difficult puzzle of the week. My only half-queries were CLOWNFISH and ASHLAR , though I note the latter has turned up a few times before including once in a Quick Cryptic set by Teazel. My favourite was THE CAT’S WHISKERS although I must admit my first thought was of the canine equivalent which also fits the enumeration.

    Edited at 2021-05-14 05:10 am (UTC)

    1. I also thought of that ‘equivalency’ – but was not brave enough to confide, as we are in polite company!

      Edited at 2021-05-14 08:50 am (UTC)

      1. Seeing as the setter uses ‘schmuck’ elsewhere, It would appear some versions of male appendage are more acceptable than others. I personally think that that word is more offensive than the one you are referring to.

        Not that I’m a prude. Indeed, I’d love to see a Times cryptic offering along the lines of that crossword episode of Steptoe and Son, but it will never happen.

        It would be nice to see more consistency from The Times though. Their hypocrisy levels have reached new heights with the recent introduction of their new comments moderator bot. (Mr Grumpy)

  7. SLOUGH gave me pause for thought to consider how much easier these puzzles are for native solvers — I saw “somewhere in Berkshire” and immediately thought either Reading or Slough. Still, I’m sure SLOUGH has appeared enough times for experienced non-natives to recognise it now. LEI is another old favourite — I remember “Hawaiian garland” in concise crosswords from when I was a child. As far as I can recall it was originally clued today though — I liked “Round of bloomers” and my first thought for sport was “pleasure” which had me wondering how I was going to fit in “plea”.

    Like plusjeremy I found SECATEURS a hard anagram to spot although I had the anagrist early enough. It didn’t occur to me that the definition of a singular “tool” would have me looking for a plural answer. Note to self — try not to make assumptions when solving (fat chance!).

  8. Where crimson-blank the windows flare
    By my own work before the night,…

    After 30 mins I was left with Michigan (one of fifty!) and the cat’s whiskers. And I had toyed with Bee’s knees and, indeed, Spider’s ankles, but not Cat’s pyjamas which might have got me closer.
    Thanks setter and V.

  9. Two (or perhaps three) birds this time
    For me to bemoan in my rhyme
    I did think that EMU
    Was a pretty good clue
    But since it’s a bird, not sublime
  10. Not quite so much thunder at the well today. 42 minutes with LOI TITLARK. COD to CRACKPOT. I was nervous about CLOWNFISH and ASHLAR despite them being generously clued, but needn’t have been. A decent puzzle.Thank you V and setter.
  11. 14:17, but with TITHAWK, which seemed a perfectly good answer. From googling I see it is actually a name for a kind of sparrowhawk but it’s not exactly common and hasn’t made it to any of the usual dictionaries.
    🙁
    1. Please don’t tempt the setters with new obscure birds. It’s quite bad enough already
      2. I know, I checked! If you google it you’ll find a few references (and generally to sparrowhawks) but that’s hardly an authority so I’m not claiming it as a valid answer.
        I’ve actually (vaguely) heard of TITLARKs so if I had thought of that first it would have gone in. But TITHAWK seemed fine.
        1. I also had TITHAWK. It sounded slightly familiar and I haven’t heard at all of TITLARK.
          1. TITLARK doesn’t look like that great a clue in the light of all this. It’s not as if “titlark” is in everyday usage, so if you don’t know it and don’t look it up in the dictionary app, you’re just guessing…
    3. Count me as another TITHAWK. Even if I’d thought of TITLARK I’d never heard of it, so I probably wouldn’t have changed my mind; TITHAWK still sounds more plausible to me…
  12. Not as gritty as yesterday, but still a decent workout over 20 and a half minutes. I had CARDINAL??? for most of the time, since the more normal -SHIP didn’t fit. I was looking for IN A L??? to mean “behind screens” which is one reason why I never match V’s times.

    With TITLARK and, to a lesser extent, CLOWNFISH we had creatures that really needed crossing letters to narrow the field. CASSAVA was another with multiple possibilities both for wine and schmuck for the multiplicity of possible tropical plants.

    Too long trying to think of the horse painter. Stubbs or Munnings if memory now serves.

    The more I look at the EMU clue, the better I like it: not…able to soar! CoD.

    Credit to V for the excellent use of “concatenate”.

  13. 13:53 FOI SECATEURS got me up and running and nothing gave me too much trouble as the answers steadily dropped into place, except the last 4 letters of 2D (is that what our blogger meant rather than 4D?). I liked ANIMAL MAGNETISM for the plate knocked over, but COD to the witty BREAK A LEG. Thanks V and setter.
  14. Great fun. The left side went in reasonably quickly but then there was a longish pause. EPHEMERAL following on from EPHEMERAE on Wednesday.

    ANIMAL MAGNETISM – Apparently, over the last five years, there has been a fivefold increase in “magnet ingestion” by young children in London.

    Thanks to Verlaine and the setter.

    1. Great way of keeping kids from straying too far — a strong magnet on your person and plenty of iron supplements in their diet.
  15. Not sure this is ” adjectival” here – thought this was a present participle i.e. still ” verbal” ?
  17. I thought CRACK UP was a bit weak, as it is, but is wronk CRANK much cleverer.
    Sorry for double answer above.
    Andyf
  18. Held up for at least half my solving time by my LOIs, CRANKPOT and TITLARK. Can’t see what the fuss was about now — as usual, the answers are easy when you know what they are. 43m.
  20. Delighted to come here and find that ASHLAR is in fact a piece of masonry – having never heard of it, I was left desperately hoping that the clue was a simple hidden rather than anything else. CASSAVA was an unknown constructed from the wordplay, THE CAT’S WHISKERS only came once I had almost all the checkers, and I’m not sure I’ll ever remember what a LEI is, only that it often comes up in these crosswords. For some reason it took me ages to figure out BRACER as well. No problems with TITLARK, which I’m sure we’ve had before.

    FOI Break a leg
    LOI Ashlar
    COD Animal magnetism

    1. I was aided by recent historical research; virtually every building within spitting distance of me has a listing that starts with something along the lines of “Limestone ashlar with gable stacks and a slate cross-gabled roof…”

      I’m just waiting for some puzzles that need knowledge of MANSARDs, ORIELs and OGIVEs…

      Edited at 2021-05-14 04:34 pm (UTC)

  21. In 40 minutes, which is good for me. Could not see the definition of 11ac so thanks for enlightening me. Never heard of titlark. Glad I didn’t think of tithawk which is just as likely.
    So much better than yesterday’s on which I did not comment because, having left it aside a couple of times to test whether it was just my state of mind, I only came to the blog late evening (UK time). If it had been earlier in the day I would have complained bitterly about a puzzle which seemed to me both so much harder than the norm to belong in another context and with a number of elements which bordered on the incorrect. Feel better now that I’ve got that off my chest!
  22. DNF. A 21 minute solve but alas I’m another tithawk. Had I thought of it first I would’ve been confident that titlark was the correct answer. Sadly tithawk was just persuasive enough that I didn’t revisit it. I’m beginning to think Astro-nowt may be on to something…
  23. Completely beaten by this one with most of the SE corner blank after 1 hr 10 mins. Gave up. So many NHOs, didn’t see the inclusion, doh!

    Thanks V for the enlightenment.

  24. Having got T?T???? I thought that TITHAWK was a decent bet, which seemed certain to have been borne out when both the A and K proved correct – I guess not. Not a good day for those of us with minimal bird knowledge.

    Anyway, messing up 11a made it more or less irrelevant (entered MAGNESIUM from the checkers; then later figured out ANIMAL MAGNETISM but somehow forgot that’s not what I’d put in the second half).

    8m 12s with one unforced error and one that I don’t feel too bad about.

  25. This one took me well over an hour. Very slow getting started and then spent ages staring at my LOI “Bracer” — as I was sure it must be two R’s in a word for “strong”.
    Overall, I thought this was a great puzzle.
    Thanks V and Setter.
    1. I also read the clue for BRACER the same way and took some time to read it as required. I think such PDMs are a large part of the joy of solving.
  26. Quite pleased with my effort, easier than yesterday. As a lockdown sceptic, MICHIGAN is much in the news at the moment.
    LOI CRANK UP which seemed to have endless possibilities, and I was tempted with CHALK UP.
    WOD ANIMAL MAGNETISM. I was at first tempted by the DOGS B*******S, which I remember being gleefully enunciated to me by a Chilean in a remote Andean hot spring.
  27. Not as tough as yesterday’s IMO, and pleasant enough. Didn’t know TITLARK or was it TITHAWK so left that blank to come here. The rest took 30 minutes watching golf after playing golf.
  28. ….I never got into gear with this. Nice puzzle though.

    FOI SECATEURS
    LOI LEI
    COD SAMOA
    TIME 13:19

  29. 24.07 but at the start I thought it was going to be yesterday revisited. Adage was my FOI- not a good sign, but gradually got on the wavelength and finished in a reasonable time. LOI ashlar which i guessed without realising it was a hidden word. Similarly, with visceral so thanks setter forthe enlightenment.

    A good but fair challenge and amongst my quicker times for an archetypal Friday offering.

  30. After an interruption where I forgot to stop the clock, but 2 pink squares after put in TITHAWK when I had all the crossers.

    LOI was actually BRACER, as with some above, I was looking for a double R in a word for “strong” for quite some time.

    Visceral was my COD, fwiw.

    Thanks Verlaine & setter.

  31. Did I miss the clued instructions for putting A MO inside SA for 1d, or is it a case of assemble so it fits? I had all the component parts, and saw SAMOA was likely but reading the clue I could only justify AMOSA!
    1. It’s a bit of a reverse cryptic, or some kind of cryptic indirection anyway: you have to mentally convert “where Lesotho located” to “in S.A.”, and then solve “a second in S.A.”.
  32. Mercifully Friday’s puzzle was not as demanding as yesterday’s but for me there was still a lot of head scratching and PDMs before recording a time of 20:30.
    Fortunately I’d heard of the Chinese book “I Ching” at 15 down which produced some helpful crossers. NHO Ashlar at 20 down but I quickly convinced myself the answer was hidden, which I don’t always do.
    A lot of excellent surfaces and I particularly liked 11 ac, 21 ac and 13 down once I had rid my mind of strings and Stubbs!
    Thanks to Verlaine for a blog that was so clear and to the point and to the setter.
    Now to the weekend where I always eschew the timer and try to solve the prize puzzles while watching sport on the box. A very good weekend to you all!
  33. Did this before retiring to bed after midnight following a nice day’s golf at Kirkbymoorside. LEI and DOLCE were first 2 in. Dotted around the grid making reasonable progress. TITLARK rang a faint bell, which TITHAWK didn’t, so wasn’t distracted there. Another with CARDINA— for quite a while. Liked THE CATS WHSKERS and CRANK UP. In fact there was lots to like in this puzzle. LOI was MICHIGAN. I didn’t know the book but it wasn’t much of a stretch once I twigged what the 50 were. 36:23. Thanks setter and V. Now I shall and lay down my weary bones.
  35. All just a bit too clever for me, both the crypticness of the clues and the GK required for answers, eg NHO Ching, can’t instantly recall all 50 States, or make the mental leap that that’s what 50 refers to. But hey, it’s Friday, and I didn’t expect any different. Nothing unfair in the clues once shown how to parse them. Managed 14 answers plus two halves! (TIT? and ?MAGNET?) Better than yesterday.

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