Times 27985 – Humphry Clinker Rides Again!

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A very pleasant Monday offering, which I managed to complete in a little under 20 minutes. Noteworthy I thought were a couple of inchoate chestnuts at 1 and 26 across, as well as an Australian island responsible for Ricky Ponting and a lot of rain. Also popping up is a town in Apulia, which sounds remarkably similar to another town on the heel of Italy – both scenes of naval battles, to boot – if you will pardon the pun. But pride of place must go to the gentleman at 5 across – once described by George Orwell as Scotland’s best novelist. He favoured the epistolary kind, which an old codger like me rather enjoys (see also Clarissa, which is a hoot – if a very long one).

Afore ye go!

ACROSS

1 One leaves intact vessel in warehouse (8)
ENTREPOT – ENT[i]RE POT; a warehouse or, as we had it recently, a port. Hong Kong is still referred to as such – if you’re brave enough to offer an opinion…
5 Maybe Smollett’s books reflected prejudice (6)
TOBIAS – OT reversed (reflected) BIAS
9 Glaring error primarily confronted by advocates generally (9)
BAREFACED – BAR (advocates generally) E[rror] FACED (confronted)
11 Scene of chaos finally disturbing Sackville-West (5)
VISTA – [chao]S in VITA; Sackville-West is best remembered now as the lover of Virginia Woolf, but she was also an author and a gardener of note
12 Game to pen an ode, oddly, or another poem (7)
RONDEAU – anagram* of AN ODE in RU (rugby union)
13 Rich man angry about drug going round university (7)
CROESUS – U in E in CROSS
14 First barrier’s best, somehow, to minimise one’s risk (5,4,4)
HEDGE ONES BETS – HEDGE ONE’S (a whimsical, crosswordian way of referring to barrier number one) BEST*
16 Dissenting criminal class is German, not French to begin with (13)
NONCONFORMIST – NON (‘not’ in French) then CON FORM (whimsical way of talking about criminal class) IST (‘is’ in German)
20 Parting word from esteemed leader in heroic novel (7)
CHEERIO – E[steemed] in HEROIC*
21 Posh theologian visiting landed earl, originally a protester (7)
LUDDITE – U (posh, as in Nancy Mitford’s universe) DD (Doctor of Divinity) LIT (landed – as in ‘the bird lit on the fence’) E[arl]
23 Continue to play, getting stick (5)
BATON – BAT ON – today’s obligatory world’s greatest game reference
24 Antipodean army chap embraced by Welsh girl (9)
TASMANIAN – TA (Territorial Army – still going strong in Crosswordland) MAN (chap) in SIAN (Welsh girl, see)
25 Cleric’s right to run round City area (6)
RECTOR – EC (City area) in R (right) TO (to) R (run – more cricket)
26 Toothless thank you note written by former PM (8)
EDENTATE – EDEN (benighted former prime minister) TA (thank you) TE (note – we have with bread and jam…);’a mammal of an order distinguished by the lack of incisor and canine teeth, including the anteaters, sloths, and armadillos’. When you have tongues like those guys, who needs teeth?

DOWN

1 Board rescue vessel after English doctor (6)
EMBARK – E (English) MB (doctor) ARK (it rescued Noah and a bunch of animals, didn’t it?)
2 City codebreaker briefly identified (5)
TURIN – [Alan] TURIN[g]
3 Aim to secure new life in London suburb (7)
ENFIELD – LIFE* in END
4 Meteorological phenomenon commander took in, in leaving war zone (8,5)
OCCLUDED FRONT – OC (officer commanding) [in]CLUDED (took in minus the ‘in’, which leaves) FRONT (war zone); occlusion refers to the ‘process by which the cold front of a rotating low-pressure system catches up the warm front, so that the warm air between them is forced upwards off the earth’s surface between wedges of cold air.’ I was vaguely familiar with the dental meaning (the position of the teeth when closed).
6 Old boy and girl taking over American patent (7)
OBVIOUS – OB VI O (over) US
7 Urgent aim to protect little sibling (9)
INSISTENT – SIS in INTENT; as in ‘His first avowed intent, To be a pilgrim’
8 Most meagre spring initially spilling into others (8)
SPARSEST – SPA (spring), S (spring initially) in REST
10 Respectable regiment is escorted outside and dispersed (13)
DECENTRALISED – DECENT (respectable) RA (regiment) IS in LED (‘is with the word escorted placed outside’)
14 An ace involved with this medieval league (9)
HANSEATIC – AN ACE THIS*; I believe Hamburg, which I visited some years ago, was part of this grouping
15 Fire consuming nothing at first, except this eatery (5,3)
SNACK BAR – N[othing] in SACK (fire) BAR (except)
17 In the centre, zlotys were sufficient for a port (7)
OTRANTO – [zl]OT[ys] RAN TO (‘our supplies ran to a pretty decent spread’)
18 Self-absorbed doctor with a whiskey in pub (7)
INDRAWN – DR A W in INN; not a word I knew, but useful for Scrabble
19 Irishman caught at European spiritualists’ meeting (6)
SEANCE – SEAN C (caught) E (European) for this phooey
22 Spanish island business located in Iowa (5)
IBIZA – BIZ in IA (caucus country)

51 comments on “Times 27985 – Humphry Clinker Rides Again!”

  1. I could have got in under 10′, but was extra careful to proofread this time. I biffed RONDEAU, figuring R__U. Liked HEDGE ONE’S BETS.
  2. was my FOI – my eldest son is fully named after him.

    Time 18 mins – SCC might fancy a go?

    LOI 8dn SPARSEST

    COD 13ac CROESUS – King of Lydia 560 to 546BC

    WOD 14dn HANSEATIC – as a Bostonian. The Mayor of Boston was entitled ‘Admiral of The Wash’ by Elizabeth I.

    At 14ac I had a MER as both the clue and the answer contained the word ONE’S! Surely ‘to minimise YOUR risk’ might have been preferable in the clue.

    Edited at 2021-05-24 01:28 am (UTC)

    1. I felt the “one’s” in the clue could have simply been omitted.
  3. Not too many hold-ups, apart from the unfamiliar ENTREPOT and OCCLUDED FRONT, both of which weren’t difficult to get from wordplay. Alan TURIN(g) has been making quite a few appearances lately as ‘codebreaker’, mathematician or computer pioneer, take your pick, so this was one of my first in. Expected Monday fare, but an enjoyable solve.

    (Incidentally, the most populous areas of Tasmania aren’t “responsible for a lot of rain”, contrary to what many may suppose. The annual rainfall for Hobart is 566 millimetres (the second-driest capital city in Australia no less) with Launceston, Ricky Ponting’s home town, getting a bit more at 665-680 mm, according to Wikipedia. It is wetter though on the less populated west coast. Here endeth the lesson).

    Thanks to ulaca and setter

  4. 8:41, with fingers crossed that HANSEATIC was a thing. Always nice to see Tasmania visiting the puzzle, my home from 1991-1995.

    Edited at 2021-05-24 03:35 am (UTC)

  5. 23 minutes for me with no major holdups, although I had to dredge OTRANTO up from somewhere. TURINg will appear on the £50 note on June 23rd, by the way.

    Edited at 2021-05-24 04:30 am (UTC)

    1. Yes. Lovely to see that we are now honouring that great father of the computer age. When will we further honour him by retracting the oft-retailed but unwarranted judgement of that homophobic age that he committed suicide.
  6. A Mondayish time for me, but this didn’t feel entirely Mondayish with several unusual answers — HANSEATIC, OTRANTO, INDRAWN, OCCLUDED FRONT. For the latter I presumed the second word was going to be frost but resisted putting it in which may have saved me from a half-biffed error. The other clue where I came up with an alternative answer was TOBIAS where I considered that prejudice could be the definition and BIASED could be the answer presuming there was someone called Smollett Desai. I did at least maintain a large degree of doubt over this possibility.
  7. 32 minutes with eth unknown OTRANTO responsible for missing my half-hour target.

    No problem with 14dn as I did a tour of HANSEATIC ports many years ago with main stops in Bremen, Lubeck and Hamburg.

  8. …Let me not see our country’s honour fade.

    20 mins pre-brekker. All neat and tidy. Mostly I liked Cheerio.
    I suspect the setter is the ‘first letter fiend’: primarily, leader, originally, initially, at first.
    Thanks setter and U.

  9. 17 minutes with LOI DECENTRALISED in a steady, relaxed solve. I’ll give COD to OCCLUDED FRONT because it took a bit longer to parse. I only knew one mediaeval league and Smollett too is a unique identifier. Good way to start the week. Thank you U and setter.
  11. What an enjoyable start to the week. A little bit IKEA at times, and many biffable, but what a lot of smooth surfaces. 16A biffed early, trying vainly to find words where G could replace F until seeing that that was non the answer. 24A too, relying on the familiar Sian. A great romp.
  12. 9′ 09″, among my fastest ever.

    Knew HANSEATIC from boyhood novels, OTRANTO only from the Castle of…, a heard-of Gothic novel, and OCCLUDED FRONT from A level Geography (failed, but I now know from ulaca what one is).

    Thanks blogger and setter, good start to the week, and the sun is out.

  13. Embarked with EMBARK, so I did
    SPARSEST was the word longest-hid
    On wavelength for once
    Didn’t feel like a dunce
    And was this a new type of grid?
  14. Annoyed at a silly typo which I failed to spot on the pre-submit check, otherwise enjoyed in just under 12 minutes.

    I’d be pushed to think of any medieval league except the Hanseatic one, though I’d only vaguely position it geographically. That we have at least one contributor who not only visited the Hanseatic ports but did so because that’s what they were demonstrates impressive dedication to history.

    Is this the first time that SÎAN and SEAN have turned up in the same grid?

    ENFIELD, a former home of mine, describes itself as London’s Top Borough, and gets away with it because it is, if only geographically speaking.

    A fine, cheersome blog today, with much serendipity to be admired.

      1. In Humphry Clinker, one of the characters bemoans the fact that soon there will be nothing left of the county, as London’s spread (in 1770) threatens to subsume it, even as the villages of Kensington and Knightsbridge are coming close to merger.

  15. FOI: 5A TOBIAS
    LOI: 1A ENTREPOT

    Enjoyable but OCCLUDED FRONT mistyped as OCCLUDEEDRONT and OTRANTO missed.

    EDIT: Thank you to ulaca and the setter.

    Edited at 2021-05-24 08:25 am (UTC)

  16. 09:52 OCCLUDED FRONT and LOI ENTREPOT both took a while to emerge from the fog, otherwise all pretty straightforward. I liked HEDGE ONE best.
  17. All done in 29 mins, so a reasonable Monday time. Held up a bit by OTRANTO which I have never heard of. Foi EMBARK, LOI OTRANTO.

    With the O in CROESUS In the « right » place I didn’t have to scratch my head as usual t work out if it’s OE or EO.

    Thank you U and setter.

  18. 34m with fingers crossed for the weather front and the store, after much fruitless head scratching. Thank you, setter, for the challenge and, U, for the entertainment.
  19. 8:15. No real problems this morning but a few slightly trickier ones. My last in by some margin was OCCLUDED FRONT: I didn’t know the term so was wary of entering it without understanding the wordplay, which took a while.
  20. Over the weekend I found an old copy of the newspaper from Friday 9 November 1956, and the puzzle of that day was number 8282. I thought it would be fun to try it (it is not that different: it had rather more quotes, and rather looser anagrinds, but many clues could have been straight out of a modern puzzle), and I finished about 3/4 of it. I’m well aware that the TftT blog didn’t exist 64 years ago, but is there any way of finding the solution to help me with the ones I cannot do?

    Many thanks to anyone who can help
    Cedric

    1. Your (? my) local state library has microfiche copies of Times newspapers back to year dot. Wander in, pick a date at random, and try the puzzle. I’ve tried a few from the 1990s – about half and half either similar to todays’; or full of totally obscure Eton/Oxbridge/classics/local UK knowledge/obscurities.
      And many more very poor cryptic definitions. And much looser clueing. IMHO.
      1. Thank you! I have found a copy, and found the solution grid. I can’t say I understand many of the ones I didn’t get earlier though — and no helpful TftT blog to help me either. But an interesting little diversion.

        Those who found the 15×15 puzzle rather easy today may like to try the Quick Cryptic. Which is anything but quick today.

        Cedric

      2. I can assure you the puzzles on which I cut my teeth in the 1980’s and 1990’s were things of beauty and economy of style. More precise, used standard English and the surfaces always made some sort of sense. They also eschewed foreign words as outright answers, slang and obscure abbreviations. IMHO of course.

        I reached a final of the championships in 1990 (?). I’d have no chance of doing that now with all the self-indulgences of today’s setters.

        Eg today, ‘Non’ in French means ‘no’ does it not? Not ‘not’. That would be ‘pas’. (Mr Grumpy).

  21. Tackled this with a spring in my step after going out nice and early to get my second jab. Not only am I better protected against Covid-19, it seems they may, in fact, have injected me with nanoprobes extracted from verlaine, though it presumably helped that today’s required knowledge overlapped with the sort of things that you come across in quizzes on a regular basis.
  22. though not entirely Mondayish for me.

    NHO ENTREPOT, and I see I never parsed it correctly anyway, so very lucky to get that one! The longer ones I also found tricky. LOI was LUDDITE.

    Still, a reasonable time for me at 17:10.

  23. I noticed that Tobias was clued as ‘Maybe Smollett, but Vita didn’t have any maybe or perhaps or some such. What is the convention about such things? Here it can’t have been because of the rarity of the names as they are both pretty rare.

    Agree with Horryd about the MER over ‘one’s’ appearing in both clue and answer.

    Surely ‘Hanseatic’ is just an adjective describing a type of league. So to define it as ‘medieval league’ looks wrong.

  24. By my standards, a quick solve- under an hour. It is nice to be back on this site once more. Pressure of work put crossword solving on the back burner, but I have now retired!
  25. More ammunition for the “Monday is easy” debate. 10 minutes, with only a momentary pause to consider the merits of OTRANTO but, since I couldn’t think of anything else, in it went.
  26. 7m 30s. All very Mondayish until the ENTREPOT / OCCLUDED FRONT crossover, which stymied me for quite a while. HANSEATIC was put in with hope rather than confidence.
  27. I had to carefully work out ENTREPOT, TOBIAS, OCCLUDED FRONT and OTRANTO from the wordplay and crossing letters, but managed the rest of the puzzle without any wailing or gnashing of teeth. The only Smollet I knew was the Captain of the Hispaniola, but he was Alexander. OTRANTO was LOI. An enjoyable puzzle. 20:55. Thanks setter and U.
  28. the silver birch, and the living-room shelves.
    And we can say we were not poor,
    for the house’s wealth is us ourselves.

    Straightforward going, 16’49.

  29. As Rob says, the Castle of Otranto is a Gothic novel, famous in its day. It was by Horace Walpole who was a contemporary of Smollett, giving this puzzle a bit of a TLS atmosphere. 12.28
    1. The Castle at Otranto is named Castello Aragonese… found that when I google-mapped. Which surprised me: I spent a year or so in Ortona, 500 km north of Otranto, where there is a Castello Aragonese – saw a helicopter view of it about 3 days ago when Il Giro passed through Ortona… So: googled it, apparently there’s lots of them, one at Taranto on the east coast, the most famous one at Ischia on the west coast, built by the Romans in 5th century BC. Some named after the family, some named after the Spanish region.

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