Times 27,989: There’s Only One Way To Solve, And That’s Your Own, Your Own, Your Own

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Tersely clued, but with a good sense of humour throughout. I liked 15ac a lot: a short and unusual word makes for a good “hidden”, and groaned appropriately when I worked out the logic behind the initially biffed 3dn. 16dn also excellently concise. The laconism is proving a bit contagious so I will say: thank you setter! And leave it at that.

ACROSS
1 Get back on with putsch (6)
RECOUP – RE [on] with COUP [putsch]

5 Getting at bandleader wearing nothing ostentatious (8)
NOBBLING – B{and} “wearing” NO BLING

9 Old radical populist with two pounds in bank at end of year (8)
LEVELLER – L L in LEVEE at {yea}R

10 In bowl, article that may accompany coffee, (6)
DANISH – in DISH, AN

11 A sort of dance? Move slowly if necessary (2,1,5)
AT A PINCH – A TAP [sort of dance] + INCH [move slowly]. FOI

12 Thought anyone but myself available (6)
NOTION – NOT I [anyone but myself] + ON [available]

13 Similar-sounding old name given to animal and insect (8)
ASSONANT – O N given to ASS, and ANT

15 Stage a new abridged production of The Cherry Orchard (4)
GEAN – hidden in {sta}GE A N{ew}. The sweet/wild cherry

17 Fresh United back finally ready (4)
DEWY – reversed WED + {read}Y

19 Liked a river, but forced to divert round it (5,3)
CARED FOR – A R, with (FORCED*) around that

20 Close contract finally, with some help around (2,4)
AT HAND – {contrac}T, with A HAND around

21 Poison developed from a protein (8)
ATROPINE – (A PROTEIN*)

22 Better organised revolutionary holding one childish opponent back (6)
TIDIER – reverse all of: RED “hilding” I, + IT [the person trying to catch you in a children’s game]

23 Members of union run into worries (8)
BROTHERS – R “into” BOTHERS

24 Two dots, for example, representing small island (8)
COLONSAY – COLON, SAY. Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides

25 Me and my best friend? (6)
SETTER – double def, one human and one canine

DOWN
2 Regular and predictable movement late in the day (8)
EVENTIDE – EVEN [regular] + TIDE [predictable movement]

3 Such an office aiming to eliminate handwriting? (4-4)
OPEN-PLAN – or O PEN PLAN = zero pen plan

4 Yearn extremely to visit the ends of the earth: one reaches a group of islands (9)
POLYNESIA – Y{ear}N “visiting” POLES, + I + A

5 One of Jane’s, her baby not unusually filled with rage (10,5)
NORTHANGER ABBEY – (HER BABY NOT*) “filled” with ANGER. Jane Austen, ofc

6 Confirm escape of wild animal? (4,3)
BEAR OUT – with a jokey second def

7 Start bland description of restaurant experience (8)
INITIATE – or “IN IT, I ATE”

8 Suspended, getting in bloody fast (2,6)
GO HUNGRY – HUNG in GORY

14 Wicked Olympic city unfortunately unsafe to tour (9)
NEFARIOUS – RIO, “toured” by (UNSAFE*)

15 Really great performance — furious father’s left (8)
GIGANTIC – GIG [performance] + {fr}ANTIC. LOI

16 Lily has a special house key (8)
ASPHODEL – A SP(ecial) HO(use) DEL(ete)

17 Some medicine stolen? One may win in court (4,4)
DROP SHOT – DROPS [some medicine] + HOT [stolen]

18 Supply wren with suet feeder (3,5)
WET NURSE – (WREN + SUET*). Anagrind is “supply” as an adverb, not noun

19 Is youngster allowed to eat here? (7)
CANTEEN – CAN TEEN [is youngster allowed], semi-&lit

60 comments on “Times 27,989: There’s Only One Way To Solve, And That’s Your Own, Your Own, Your Own”

  1. Slow start, with FOI SETTER. My main problem was the SW. I didn’t know GEAN, and was reluctant to accept it; when it led me to GIGANTIC, I looked it up to verify. It was COLONSAY that did for me, though; NHO, and once I thought of COLON, I tried KEY or CAY, not noticing that that would leave me without a definition. Finally used aids to get it.
  2. I didn’t know GEAN and it didn’t seem 100% likely as a cherry word. But I couldn’t make the clue work any other way, and the answer wasn’t BING, the only other 4 letter word associated with cherries I knew, and the “abridged” mean I might have been looking for a 5-letter word. I knew COLONSAY since I’d been to Islay and Jura and see it (though never visited). Google says it has a wild beach and goats…I think that could equally apply to, say, Tunisia. I didn’t know that meaning of LEVELLER but worked it out from the wordplay “drove my Chevy to the levée” and all.
  3. I managed to stretch this out to an hour when the north-east finally caved in. I should have had 10ac Danish in far earlier.(Not a particularly British thing, but one I like, a lot! And ‘er indoors too).

    FOI 21ac ATROPINE

    LOI a dead heat between 8dn GO HUNGRY and 12ac NOTION – neither clue being particularly sparkling IMHO.

    COD 24ac COLONSAY for ‘the jewel of the Hebrides’.

    15ac GEAN was a very fine clue and it took some time to sort out. My new WOD to go nicely with yesterday’s mûre.
    Jammy!

  4. Can’t complain; haven’t finished a Friday in weeks.

    Like Kevin, my problem was that lower-left corner. Vinyl encouraged me that it was all gettable, and indeed with that encouragement I was able to finish. I had COLONSAY in 20 minutes earlier, but it just didn’t look like a thing. Didn’t know GEAN, didn’t understand {fr}ANTIC (thanks, Verlaine!), etc etc.

  5. NHO GEAN or COLONSAY but figured them out. Didn’t remember the LEVELLERs for a long time…
  6. I remembered GEAN from a recent Listener — picking up that and the Mephisto over the past year has helped with some of the more unusual words that come up. LOI COLONSAY which I had some doubt about — sounded more like Beyoncé’s sister than an island. LEVELLER went in recalling A Level history but I didn’t think of the awful band until I read the blog title and now I have them as an earworm. Thanks Verlaine!
  7. Going by the time it took me to get started I was initially doubtful as to whether I would ever finish, but having written SETTER at 25ac as my FOI I was able to build steadily from there until the whole of the RH side had fallen neatly into shape.

    The LH was a bit more problematic as it contained three unknowns, LEVELLER, GEAN and COLONSAY, but I trusted to wordplay and was rewarded with three correct answers.

    42 minutes.

    Edited at 2021-05-28 05:23 am (UTC)

  8. 39 minutes, with a slow start that made me think I’d take all day. It then all fell into place. LOI TIDIER. COD to the truly dreadful IN IT I ATE. Better than GO(ing) HUNGRY though. I hope the DANISH had vanilla filling or apple in them. I didn’t know the cherry. I enjoyed this. Thank you V and setter.
  9. Unusually clear-headed this morning, good for a Friday, nearly solved top to bottom. Dnk GEAN. I have been to the Hebrides. NORTHANGER ABBEY not my favourite Austen since you have to study it to realise it’s a satire on Gothic novels.

    Double MER at BROTHERS, archaic. COD to BEAR OUT.

    Thanks verlaine and setter.

  10. 33:56
    School day again. Gean. Colonsay. Gigantic took a while – fell into place when I spotted the hidden.
    Thanks, v.
  11. Well, finally got there in what seemed like an age. Same NHOs as others. LOI LEVELLER. FOI EVENTIDE. Looked at GEAN forever thinking, is that really a word. Just realised that I have carelessly put ASPHODIL in so technically a DNF. Thank you V as ever.
  12. Foiled by NOBBLING – I thought ‘nothing’ was giving ‘nil’, even though that didn’t work properly, and put ‘nibbling’. Blast. Didn’t know GEAN, though happily I didn’t have to, and my 50-50 punt on ATROPINE (rather than ‘atripone’) turned out to be correct. Really liked GO HUNGRY.
  13. Feeling pretty good about my 20 minutes and 7 seconds for a steady solve.

    Sometimes (especially on a Friday) you can over think these things. I started with REVOLT at 1ac, definitely some sort of putsch and re-volt being get the power back on. Clever, eh?

    IN IT I ATE is out of a Christmas cracker. Then I had a split second wondering whether GO HANGRY was a thing.

    The lower left was fun. COLONSAY rang a faint bell, and the two dots gave the game away. Just as well GEAN in the same quarter didn’t need to be solved or even understood. Spent too long trying to find an anagram of LILY HAS A while wondering what the arcane word for a house key might be. The “childish opponent” eluded me until post-submission.

    Lots to like.

    Edited at 2021-05-28 08:34 am (UTC)

  14. 13:03 DNK LEVELLER or GEAN which finally led to GIGANTIC. Good stuff. I liked OPEN PLAN, SETTER and INITIATE, although I suspect the last may be a bit of a chestnut. Thanks V and setter.

    Edited at 2021-05-28 07:50 am (UTC)

  15. RHS wasn’t too bad. LHS was stinkier.

    Like others, GEAN and COLONSAY were my hold-ups. ASPHODEL only went in once I’d got the D from TIDIER.

  16. Damn! 23.15 but convinced that 15 dn was galactic on the basis a gala is a performance. Unfortunately, disregarded the disappearance of the furious father.

    The rest went in reasonably quickly. Faves today colonsay and setter woof, woof.

  17. Plenty of opportunity for biffing or semi-biffing today, and the more obscure words – GEAN, COLONSAY – were generously clued. Nice to see the classic INITIATE make a reappearance (when do we get SIGNIFICANT again?) and my second favourite Jane Austen novel. 6m 08s today.
      1. I think so. It’s a Jane Austen novel… it’s got anger in it somewhere… ah, Northanger Abbey. Semi-biffing? Semi-parsing?
  18. Nice one .. no problems with Colonsay, and managed to solve GEAN without understanding the clue or even spotting the hidden, thanks to the accommodating grid.
    .. and then wrote NIBBLING, dash it, even though it only nearly works
  19. Embarrassing not to spot the hidden GEAN, so 15a took a lot longer than it should have. Luckily the crossers solved it for me. LOI DANISH, after a brain-wrack for coffee partners ….not cake, cream, marshmallow, cigarette, old uncle Tom Cobbly et al. A slow and steady Friday. Thanks to setter, and Verlaine for revealing that ‘supply’ was to be adverbalised. We’ve had it used as an anagrind previously, but I’d forgotten. 37’05”
  20. Can’t see it as an adverb? As an adverb it can only mean ” with suppleness” surely? which I can’t relate to the clue?
    1. With suppleness = able to be bent around all over the place? As you would do when anagramatticising a word?
  21. Seemed to be on wavelength again today. The layout of the grid made the unknown GEAN inevitable and I only spotted the hidden on proofing. I started out with “notorious” in 14d – must have been thinking of the movie with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. Enigmatist has a nice tricky one in today’s Guardian. 16.20
  22. A GALACTIC error to round off a woeful week of solving. Two puzzles with errors and an average WITCH of 143 for the other three. Mojo lost.

  24. FOI: 21a. ATROPINE
    LOI: 25a. SETTER

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Managed to answer 8 clues, which is the same as yesterday.

    21a. ATROPINE – I wanted to answer this one, seeing as the clue included the word Poison. My FOI.

    25a. SETTER – My LOI. Nice clue.

    I am going to copy and paste the blogger explanations of the clues for the 15×15 each day, and study them. In that way I am sure I will learn much more.

    1. You’re doing fine: today’s was a tricky number which many found even harder than that. This blog is definitely helpful: looking forward to your first hurrah.
        1. I’ve been doing this for a number of years now and still struggle sometimes, like today for instance.

          Keep plugging on and you WILL get there. Good luck.

    2. Stick with it, my friend! It took me years before I was regularly completing cryptic crosswords, and I still record a DNF every now and again – three this week, in fact. But nine times out of ten I find the struggle enjoyable, even if the setter wins. This blog is really helpful and I’ve no doubt you’ll be getting used to the conventions (and tricks) used in The Times before very long. Have fun!
  25. Colonsay, that is. From the south of Mull. Not to make you jealous or anything…
    28 hard fought minutes, with an aha moment which wasn’t. I thought the setter was very clever by removing Pope or pop from apoplectic to make galactic, with the gala being the performance, but it didn’t quite work… LOI LEVELLERS where I didn’t see the LEVEE and biffed it.
  26. 45m but a game of two halves with LHS taking about 15 and the RHS, particularly the southern part, all the rest. Same problems as recorded by others with the cherry and the lily. Liked the GO HUNGRY clue and SETTER. Thank you, V and setter, for the entertainment.
  27. 22 mins. I thought I was in for a record slow time after staring at a blank grid for an uncomfortably long time but things sped along after that. Great puzzle.
  28. I had come across GEAN before, but didn’t remember it so thank goodness it was a hidden and all of the letters were checked. NHO LEVELLER but wordplay eventually gave the answer. Favourite was NEFARIOUS, a useful word to describe all sorts of dodgy goings-on.

    Home in 33 minutes.

    Thanks to verlaine and setter

    1. Sorry, not good to post as “Anonymous”, even if inadvertently. That was me.
  29. I thought this was going to be easier than it was when I rattled off RECOUP, EVENTIDE, OPEN PLAN, AT A PINCH and POLYNESIA with barely a pause for breath, but was soon disabused of this idea. NIBBLING was tempting at 5a, but I had reservations and didn’t enter it. Quite a while later NOBBLING occurred to me once I had the novel. I spent a while trying to rearrange LILY HAS A into a key, but the penny dropped eventually. At this point I returned to 9a and spotted LEVEE instead of tier or rely. That left me with the 15s. I was diverted by wondering if David Lean had done a production of The Cherry Orchard, but eventually saw GIG for performance and then the hidden at 15a. Job done! Nice puzzle. 43:48. Thanks setter and V.

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