Times 28015 – A bit peckish, perhaps?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 30 minutes
Music: Stan Getz, Sweet Rain

I must admit I found this puzzle a little strained.   There were some good ideas, but some of the definitions and wordplay were just a little off, not even enough for a MER, but annoying.   Maybe I’m just tired after doing all the weekend puzzles, including the Guardian prize.   Anyway, I wasn’t really on the wavelength, and am not wildly enthusiastic about the puzzle.    But I did solve it, even if I had to parse a couple of the more obscure clues ex post facto.

I am a little late tonight, sorry about that.   I just had to watch all 8 holes of the sudden-death playoff, so my whole schedule got pushed back two hours.

Across
1 Champion runner an adulterer, they say (7)
CHEETAH – Sounds like CHEATER, to the non-rhotic crowd.
5 Charlie departs from Kentish Town in disguise (5)
COVER – C [d]OVER, where your first impulse is to remove a C from something.
9 Saw how old Bill is? (5)
ADAGE – AD AGE, my FOI.
10 Strangely, no US gaol area is comparable (9)
ANALOGOUS – Anagram of NO US GAOL A[rea].
11 Piece — but not the leader? (7)
ARTICLE – [p]ARTICLE.   A particle is a piece of something, but an article is a piece  in the newspaper.
12 For that reason I’m not sure about appearing in The Times (7)
THEREBY – TH(ER)E BY.
13 Relation providing clue for spooks? (4-6)
HALF-SISTER –  HALF-SISTER would be SIS, the Secret Intelligence Service. 
15 A singer engaged in amorous activity (2,2)
AT IT –  A TIT…..no tittering, please.
18 What’s put on table occasionally annoys husband (4)
NOSH –  [a]N[n]O[y]S + H.
20 Hot-headed peasants roughly grabbing one with nothing (10)
PASSIONATE – Anagram of PEASANTS around I and O.
23 One who’s directing sexist perhaps to keep quiet (3,4)
BIG SHOT – BIG(SH)OT.
24 I couldn’t care less what you might do with Olive (5,2)
STUFF IT – Double definition, one rather literal-minded.
25 Suspect cold nurse is a rogue (9)
SCOUNDREL – Anagram of COLD NURSE.
26 Shackles press savagely at first (5)
IRONS – IRON + S[avagely].
27 State of shock yours truly’s in (5)
MAINE – MA(I)NE, nothing to do with MINE, although that might lead you to stumble upon the answer.
28 On return, keep catching fish — in this? (7)
DRAGNET – TEN(GAR)D backwards.   As in shepherds keeping their sheep.
Down
1 This property might cause gossip if it changed hands (7)
CHATTEL – CHATTE(-r,+L).
2 Problem created by monarch introducing tax? The opposite (8)
EXERCISE – EX(ER)CISE, a chestnut.
3 English rush north for work (5)
TRADE – E DART upside-down, giving work in the sense of what you do for a living.
4 Later she’s horribly cruel (9)
HEARTLESS – Anagram of LATER SHE’S
5 Apple from which grub might emerge? (6)
COOKER – Double definition, one contrived.
6 Frenzied sex over before period of abstinence (7)
VIOLENT – VI + O LENT, where sex is the Latin word for six, giving the Roman numeral.
7 Titian, easily irritated, blowing top (5)
RUSTY – [c]RUSTY, giving the hair colour.
8 Honourable to support revolutionary in the long run (8)
MARATHON –  MARAT + HON. 
14 Found here and there, as desert cat is (9)
SCATTERED – Anagram of DESERT CAT.   Where is the anagram indicator?   In the answer!
16 Study agreements head of state promoted (8)
TREATISE – TREATIES with the S moved up.
17 Sailor rejecting forgiveness, finding way out (8)
SOLUTION – [ab]SOLUTION, where the clue needs to be read as “Sailor-rejecting forgiveness”.
19 Two Gentlemen of Verona? (7)
SIGNORI – Cryptic definition.   Fortunately, there is no dual number in Italian.
21 A reporter’s pushiness causing offence (7)
AFFRONT –  Sounds like A FRONT.
22 Fortune down to Dutch ancestry in part (6)
CHANCE – Hidden in [dut]CH ANCE[stry].
23 Centre succeeded in time of growth (5)
BOSOM – BO(S)OM.   The literal is a little loose, IMO.
24 About 50 soldiers going to a dance (5)
SALSA – SA(L)S + A.   A dance, a dip, a dog, whatever.

53 comments on “Times 28015 – A bit peckish, perhaps?”

  1. I wasn’t particularly dissatisfied with this, although I too didn’t care much for BOSOM=center. I suppose I should be glad that ‘sex’=VI raised its ugly head yet again, as it gave me the chance to actually spot it on sight for the first time; but we have had it rather too often. COVER was cleverly misleading. LOI SOLUTION, where I was slow to reject PO and read the clue as Vinyl says.
    2. Collins defines bosom as ‘a protective centre or part’, while Lexico has ‘a person’s loving care and protection’. ‘Bosom of the family’ is the example given in both instances. The Lexico definition strikes me as more accurate but it’s notable that the two are so different.
  2. 30 mins. Enjoyable enough with my LOI as RUSTY. I felt that clue probably needed a question mark.

    Natives of Kent are traditionally divided into Kentish Men or Maids, those from west of the River Medway, and Men or Maids of Kent if they are from the east. By the same token Dover on the east coast should perhaps not be described as a Kentish town but ‘town of/in Kent’. Just to confuse the issue further, the area known as Kentish Town (part of the London Borough of Camden) is in the north-west of the inner city and within that confine couldn’t be much further away from Kent!

    Edited at 2021-06-28 01:01 pm (UTC)

  3. I found this fine too. Held up at the end since I’d lazily type ANALAGOUS and it took me too long to notice and correct it, whereby the COOKER became obvious for my LOI. As I’m sure was intended, I fell for the feint at COVER, looking for a town to remove C from having even considered DOVER but it was too short and didn’t contain a C. Eventually I kicked myself and saw what was going on.
    1. I made the same sloppy mistake, which made COOKER my last one in. Worked late last night.
  5. No need for a puzzled expression
    As this was no MARATHON session
    Thought HALF SISTER was best
    And breezed through the rest
    With SOLUTION my final SOLUTION
      1. Spooks=spies are the Special Intel Service (SIS).
        So a clue for Spooks=SIS might be ‘half’ SISter.

        Edited at 2021-06-28 10:36 am (UTC)

  6. Close Bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

    20 mins pre-brekker. Very gentle and enjoyable, but with several MERs:
    Keep=tend, work=trade, centre=bosom.

    Thanks setter and Vinyl.

  7. I was hesitant about submitting today, not wanting to follow my DNFs of Thursday and Friday. My main doubt was RUSTY where I thought Titian could refer to a hair colour and I thought rusty might too but I wasn’t 100% confident. The clue had perturbed me even more earlier when I thought I was looking for an anagram of “easily” minus the e. Anyhow, pleased to make it across the line.
  8. Has anyone else noticed the number of clues with at least oblique references to a certain item in the news recently (beginning with 1A)? It’s probably a coincidence – the crossword may have been compiled before the story broke, but it was noticeable anyway.
  9. I did this very early this morning half asleep. I bunged in STONE ME (Well, it’s what you do to an olive?) which slowed me down. Enjoyable but nothing stand out.
    1. Stone me! I did the same as you, thinking that’s a new meaning.
      I also had SIGNORE before I gave up and came here.
    2. What I do with an olive is spit it out, but that didn’t fit…. unfortunately “stick it” did, and a delay in the SE quadrant resulted.
  10. 30 mins. I agree with vinyl that there are some odd definitions and clues. Not too difficult though but several unparsed which needed the expertise of our blogger to unravel for me. LOI COOKER. Liked SCATTERED. Thank v and setter.
  11. 31 minutes with LOI COOKER, hindered by a previously misspelt ANALOGOUS. The bottom half solved quickly but the NE was like pulling teeth. I did like THEREBY, but COD to STUFF IT, matching my wet Monday morning mood. Thank you V and setter.
  12. 16:37 LOI SOLUTION with a shrug… I never did parse it. I liked ARTICLE best.
  13. I felt I needed a whole box of question marks! And another who went for ANALAGOUS at 10ac.

    The North East and 5ac was the clue with the wrong IKEA instructions and THEREBY 5dn, which should have been easy, wasn’t. Sadly there is no such thing as ‘a cooker’ (cooking apple) here in China. ‘Scrumper’s Revenge’ – halcyon days.

    As part of ‘the non-rhotic crowd’ 1ac was my FOI – CHEETAH. I heard it out on Merriam-Webster and it sounded OK! And on The Trump Organization web-site.

    LOI 6dn VIOLENT as it is the sort of sex I had a boy and had forgotten about, again!

    COD 16dn TREATISE

    WOD 28ac DRAGNET – the fifties b/w series – lerved-it!

    At 24ac STUFF-IT I thought this referred to Olive Oyle – with Popeye doing the talking! ‘Naughty-naughty little man!’

    Time an hour-ish. Painful for a Monday!

    Edited at 2021-06-28 08:32 am (UTC)

  14. All been said, a few felt a bit strange, uncertain about RUSTY and started with a carelessly misspelled ANALAGOUS, after having spent half my life working with analogue (or analog) electronics. Nothing really stood out as COD, perhaps SCATTERED.
  15. I’m really piling up the pinks at present, this time an incomprehensible typo, which is rather taking the gloss off the joy of solving. 17 minutes for this, too, which felt slightly treacly. Like others, I wondered about Rusty, but Chambers goes close enough under Titian with “reddish brown”.
    I liked the generous inclusion of two clue-in-the-solution offerings for SIS and SCATTERED, and (for once) the CD for SIGNORI, though I lost time trying to remember what Will called them, and being paranoid about the spelling.
  16. A better effort from me than recently. I also put in analagous which slowed me down a bit.

    COD: SCOUNDREL. Nice anagram.

  17. Fairly comfortable but didn’t see the parsing for either MAINE or HALF-SISTER.

    NE corner was last in, ANALOGOUS and VIOLENT going in easily enough, but didn’t see what the setter was getting at with 5a for a while. COOKER and RUSTY both went in with a post-COVER shrug.

  18. I rather liked this although CHEETAH is rather a chestnut, isn’t it. Favourites today were COVER, HALF-SISTER and SCATTERED. SOLUTION was my LOI.
  19. CHEETAH went in straight away and the rest of the NW followed quickly, apart from MARATHON which took a bit longer. Another with ANALAGOUS delaying the apple for a while! I also wasted some time trying to remove a C from a Kentish town, but saw the error of my ways. The SW fell next, leaving me to puzzle over the SOLUTION to 17d which didn’t arrive until I had the correct military outfit at 24d and STUFFed the olive. AFFRONT was my LOI. 22:59. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  20. 10:11. This felt trickier than my time suggests: not a lot of biffing involved, and several clues that did that thing of seeming completely impenetrable until suddenly they weren’t. I liked HALF-SISTER and the SCATTERED device is very neat.
  21. I agree with V in that I found a few of these a little strained, particularly RUSTY. HALF-SISTER was a leap in the dark, though it shouldn’t have been really.

    I did like STUFF IT and AT IT.

    Thanks to V and the setter

  22. I rather enjoyed this puzzle , no doubt because I happened to be on the setter’s wavelength, and found it fairly straightforward. No complaints from me about “centre” as a possible definition of BOSOM (as “in the bosom of the family”). There were lots of smooth surface reads. I can imagine that some purists might have found the clues a bit anagram-heavy. Thanks to Vinyl for the blog and for explaining HALF-SISTER which I biffed without decoding the parsing. Not sure why I couldn’t see it. Simple really.
  23. 28 mins typed into a recalcitrant iphone. The keyboard is just too small for my eyes or fingers. No issues otherwise for a vanilla-ish offering with the same misgiving for RUSTY others have mentioned.
  24. Can be a nickname for a redhead in the US. There was a famous baseball player called Rusty Staub who played with the NY Mets among others and he certainly had Titian hair. The ADAGE clue reminded me of the (probably apocryphal) story about Cary Grant. Reporter wires him the question “How old Cary Grant?” and he wires back “Old Cary Grant fine, how old you?”. No complaints form this quarter. 14.18
  25. Totally seized up on RUSTY. Had no idea titian was a colour, was wondering about (p)rissy maybe it was his nickname, but then Titian was a nickname already as it turned out.
    Otherwise, fine by me!
    1. The only colour I am reminded of with Titian is included in his Limerick:
      While Titian was mixing rose madder,
      His model reclined nude on a ladder.
      Her position to Titian
      Suggested coition
      So he nipped up the ladder and ‘adder

      Lucky there were no smoke detectors in those days.

  26. A right old slog, 32.24 so not a normal Monday for me. Got really bogged down in the NW corner before finally putting in half sister – without knowing why it was correct-and as soon as that went in the rest followed reasonably swiftly. Good puzzle, half sister a real trial but made sense when I saw the blog. Cheetah my COD .
    Thanks setter and blogger.
  27. 41.47. I was never really at the races with this. I agree with those who found it strained and roundabout to the point where I never felt that certainty you so often feel when you know you have alit upon the correct solution. The more I thought about it the worse it got. A cheetah is the fastest land mammal but I don’t know why it would be a champion runner, what medals or championships has it won? Of course I spelt analogous as analagous and it took a lot of time before I revisited the anagrist and corrected in order to get cooker. I was hesitant at rusty too. I was pretty sure that the Titian colour would be rusty but my first associations for crusty were old and set in one’s ways rather than easily irritable. Got bogged down in the SE too. Was thinking of some pretty dreadful things to do to olives before that corner came together. Sour grapes but I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this very much.
    1. Especially as Cheetahs don’t actually run very far and give up quite easily. (Mr Grumpy)
  28. Worked all this last night, and was off to a flying start with 8 across answers before I tried any downs. But then a few slowed me down. I didn’t know exactly what was happening with HALF-SISTER but I went to sleep and forgot about it till now. RUSTY was long in coming for Titian.

    Edited at 2021-06-28 04:33 pm (UTC)

  29. Crawled to the finish line, thanks to the AFFRONT / STUFF IT crossing (I don’t think I’d have ever found FRONT = ‘pushiness’, and I thought we were looking for (something) PIT on the olive clue), and of course staring at C _ A _ E _ for the apple for a good 3-4 minutes before I realized I’d spelled ANALOGOUS wrong!

    Thanks to vinyl for explaining HALF-SISTER and VI = ‘sex’.

  30. Dear Horryd, would you please be kind enough to check your comments before posting as I am extremely worried about your misspent youth! 🙂
    1. My dear Rose, I can assure you that my youth was very well-spent, despite every effort to have it otherwise.
  32. was the line! As told by David Niven. I have been away at the week-end to Dawlish in Devon. Bliss! This was not particularly Monday-ish although I was! So just over 20 minutes. COD to Half-sister and a nod to Scattered.

    Edited at 2021-06-28 04:47 pm (UTC)

  33. ….in finding this unnecessarily tortuous. I’ve already discussed the olive above

    I needed Vinyl to explain HALF-SISTER and VIOLENT, both of which I biffed correctly.

    This was an easy enough puzzle, but took me twice as long as it should have done. Therefore I was not on the setter’s wavelength. End of.

    FOI ANALOGOUS
    LOI TRADE (I was seriously slow with CHEETAH)
    COD SIGNORI
    TIME 12:00

  34. Late in the day, watching Andy Murray after a very wet golf match, so, sleepy and dim. Nevertheless finished off in reasonable time, with COVER and COOKER the LOI after too long removing the C from a town in Kent. HALF-SISTER was good.
  35. A few seconds over one hour, with the last quarter of that spent staring at R?S?Y. I decided that BRASSY might mean easily irritated, with some imagination, and perhaps RASSY was Titian’s first name? Fortunately I then went off to watch some television and when that was done my conjecture seemed entirely unlikely, so I filled in the correct answer with almost the correct parsing, assuming however, that Titian was associated with a rusty red in his paintings, therefore called Titian red. Absolutely no idea that it was a hair colour (considering how much hair I have left, it couldn’t really matter all that much to me).
  36. Maybe I’m too much of a glass half full man but I liked this and didn’t see any of the problems others did.

    Started v late last night after TdF highlights and the penalty shoot out so happy enough with my time

    Also unaccountably delayed on my last two STUFF IT and AFFRONT. Forgot/didn’t know the “reporter” thing for a homophone so was running through cub hack ed etc

    Was born in Ramsgate so familiar with the Men of Kent thing but I was another looking for a C being deleted

    Thanks all

  37. Add me to the looking-to-delete-the-c in Kentish Town, and also trawling through London boroughs…. Never did come up with COVER, nor COOKER, nor VIOLENT. Took 40+ minutes but didn’t enjoy this. Found the clues/answers imprecise which, when you’re still in training mode, adds an unwelcome layer of tricky. Thanks to vinyl1 for all explanation and illumination.
  38. Done on Tuesday eve. Like so many others, I was held up a long time at the end by Dover and Violent. Hadn’t seen the sex = vi trick before. I rather like it.

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