Times 28024 – adverse and perverse

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Greetings all!

Well I am not in the most pristine of solving modes. I went to a friend’s going away party and then a small bender with friends and as the storms came in from the impending hurricane I realised that I needed to get home and then that it was my night to solve. So it is not a surprise that I have two silly typos and a time of 18:27.

I don’t think this is all that difficult, I just managed to make a meal of it. How did you do?

Postscript: Well one of those was not a typo – until pretty late in the day there was an incorrect answer coded in at the crossword club site with YACHTSMEN instead of YACHTSMAN. Funny, I saw it as a pink square when I submitted and then did not change it when I was writing up the blog as it was clear that YACHTSMAN was correct.

Away we go…

Across
1 Small amount of material initially covered in course (5)
PATCH – first letter of Covered inside PATH(course)
4 Knocks loose board in Norfolk town (9)
DISLODGES – LODGE(room and board) inside the town of DISS
9 Millions withdrawn from Square Mile — somehow it restores the balance (9)
EQUALISER – remove M(millions) from SQUARE,MILE and form an anagram
10 Flummoxed announcer’s finished in US (5)
THREW – sounds like THROUGH(finished)
11 Covert adviser hopeless in emergencies (8,5)
EMINENCE GRISE – anagram of IN,EMERGENCIES
14 Joggers do it right, in small measure (4)
TROT – R(right) inside TOT(small measure)
15 Heterosexual couple disheartened evangelical wing of church (4,6)
LADY CHAPEL – the heterosexual couple are a LADY and a CHAP, then the external letters of EvanelicaL
18 Writer following almost all the usual staff for a hike (10)
ALPENSTOCK – PEN(writer)   after most of ALl then STOCK(the usual)
19 In Blackpool, say, where one can walk for miles? (4)
PROM – PRO(for), M(miles)
21 Instructions at race supplied by willing firm before game (5,6,2)
READY STEADY GO – READY(willing), STEADY(firm) and the game of GO
24 Screw up and down (5)
FLUFF – double definition – to mess things up and feathers
25 Suffering trauma? Ask for stimulating reading matter? (4,5)
KAMA SUTRA – anagram of TRAUMA and ASK
27 In the past, US city retreat charged too much (9)
OVERLADEN – OVER(in the past), LA(US city) and DEN(retreat)
28 Opening jump (5)
START –  double definition
Down
1 Current show time? (7-3)
PRESENT-DAY – an all-in-one, since it would be PRESENT DAY if it was time to show off things
2 Team up, selecting the odd foreign character (3)
TAU – alternaing letters in TeAm Up
3 Cry from learner in difficulty close to corner (6)
HOLLER – L(earner) inside HOLE(difficulty) and the last letter of corneR
4 Substance keeping dry, so it appears, inside drain (9)
DESICCANT – SIC(so it appears) inside DECANT(drain)
5 Youngster ultimately despises Holy Joe (5)
SPRIG – last letter of despiseS, then PRIG(Holy Joe as a pious person)
6 Public authority on the spot (8)
OUTRIGHT – OUT(public) and RIGHT(authority)
7 Ridicule rising with refuse appearing outside some outdoor event (6,5)
GARDEN PARTY – RAG(ridicule) reversed then DENY(refuse) surrounding PART(some)
8 Small bristle cut (4)
SAWN – S(small), AWN(bristle)
12 Untimely work in popular haven, French one (11)
INOPPORTUNE – OP(work) in IN(popular), PORT(haven) and UNE(one, in French)
13 Extravagant female youth worker hosting bash (10)
FLAMBOYANT – F(female), and BOY(youth), ANT(worker) containing LAM(bash)
16 Sailor’s shanty came briefly unstuck (9)
YACHTSMAN – anagram of SHANTY and CAM(e)
17 Topless star left the pits unrecognised (8)
UNLAWFUL – the star is the sUN, then L, AWFUL(the pits)
20 Yaks, grand beasts of burden (6)
GASSES – G(grnd), ASSES(beasts of burden)
22 Countryman losing fifty days is bound to work (5)
YOKED – YOKEL(countryman) missing L(50), then D(days)
23 Shock treatment for a criminal? (4)
AFRO –  anagram of FOR,A
26 Three quarters of squad leaves (3)
TEA – three of the four letters in TEAm

85 comments on “Times 28024 – adverse and perverse”

  1. I gave up on 19ac. So far no one has solved the puzzle, it would seem; what’s up?
    1. What’s up is 16 down, which according to the website is supposed to be YACHTSMEN. Whoops!
      1. Well that can’t be right as ‘came briefly’ = ‘cam’ so there’s no ‘e’ available for YACHTSMEN.
        1. I agree. I’ve tried explaining this to the pesky pink square, but it’s not listening – any suggestions?
          1. It has been raised in the Club forum now so hopefully Times management will take note and amend.
  2. Well that’s three in a row for me, and not just because of YACHTSMAN. I also had SPROG for “youngster”, which I wasn’t confident about, but I couldn’t think what else it could be. I originally had SCRAP, thinking that “Holy Joe” could be an expression of annoyance, as could “crap”. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
  3. Like everyone else I had YACHTSMAN which is correct but gets you a pink square. I also had a second one at SPRIG since I didn’t know of it meaning a youngster, but I did know SPROG. And I had no idea what was going on with Holy Joe, so I went with it. Also, not sure what THREW as “finished in US” was about.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 06:01 am (UTC)

  4. This took me to 43 minutes with some of the top half proving more problematic than the lower. I lost most time on two clues. At 4ac I tried to find an anagram [loose] of BOARD to fit into DISS – does any other Norfolk town appear in crosswords? After a few moments it was clearly not going to work but that didn’t stop me trying to make it. I also had anagram problems treating COVERT ADVISER as anagrist and ‘in emergencies’ as the definition instead of the other way round.

    Does ‘in US’ at 10ac mean that Americans write THREW for ‘through’ meaning ‘finished’? If so, I can’t find it in the usual dictionaries.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 05:16 am (UTC)

    2. I thought it just meant that “through” is a US way of saying “finished.” I can’t imagine “you’re through” being said in anything other than an American accent in my head, although I’m not sure that counts as an authoritative reference.
      1. British telephone operators (used to) say “You’re through” to mean “You’re connected”. Do Brits not say, e.g. “Are you through with the paper?”?
        1. If any Brit said “are you through with the paper?” to me I’m afraid my monocle would pop out and I would immediately telegram Lord Reith to complain, pausing only for a sip of tea to quell my outrage.

          I’m probably wrong.

        2. Although you said “British”, mention of ‘telephone operators’ took me back to Lily Tomlin and “Mr Veedle”!
    3. I think “announcer’s” indicates it’s a homophone of thru (finished in the US), definition “flummoxed”
      1. True, but in that case the “in US” is unnecessary, as THREW is also a homophone for THROUGH.
      2. I don’t think I’ve ever seen ‘thru’ used to mean ‘finished’. (Although I imagine texters use it; but I don’t text.)
  5. …I Patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,

    25 mins. Clearly Yachtsman and possibly Sprog (Holy Joe must be a Prog(ramme) somewhere).
    Apart from that, I enjoyed it.
    Thanks setter and G.

    PS A quick google shows there was a 1999 TV prog called Holy Joe.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 06:43 am (UTC)

    1. If it had clued prog as Holy Joe, wouldn’t it have said something like ‘Holy Joe say’?
  7. Bombed out on this. After 52 minutes, three mistakes with another ‘sprog’ for SPRIG at 5d and a wrong, but original, ‘Mary’ CHAPEL at 15a. At least I didn’t mis-read the anagram fodder for YACHTSMEN, even if the computer does say no.

    No excuse for me obviously, but annoying that YACHTSMEN slipped through the net.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

    1. I flung in MARY, too, and it seemed fine; and I knew LADY CHAPEL. Luckily, I gave up on PROM, so a real DNF with no pink squares.
      1. Another MARY here. But from Wikipedia under LADY CHAPEL:

        “The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel”. So it would seem that either might do (although I agree that LADY is clearly what was intended).

        Obviously YACTSMAN as Sailor is singular.

        Otherwise enjoyed the crossword.

  8. I had YACHTSMAN of course, and as a solver using treeware had no reason for thinking otherwise, until I came here. I still haven’t. I also still can’t make out why LOI OUTRIGHT means ‘on the spot’ but after 51 minutes I was through with thinking any more. That’s a usage which comes naturally to me but that might be after many decades of exposure to US culture. I didn’t know a bristle was an awn either, but it had to be SAWN. I was also confused by putting in PRESENT AGE first before ALPENSTOCK saved me. COD to FLUFF. Thank you George and setter.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 07:25 am (UTC)

    1. Awn for bristle was used recently; I remember having to look it up post event.
      Andyf
  9. After figuring out the wordplay for the unknown ALPENSTOCK, eventually realising there weren’t any anagrams going on in UNLAWFUL and seeing how the clever AFRO worked, I was ultimately defeated by SPRIG as I didn’t know Holy Joe as a pious person.

    Like jackkt, I spent time trying to find an anagram of ‘covert adviser’ for 11a until I saw it was the other way round.

  11. Today’s 15×15 is an unholy mess. Thank the Lord I only solve on paper, as receiving ‘a pink square’ appears to be the latest form of plague. I thought of a ‘Holy Joe’ as a new pastor in the RAF or USAAF – a God botherer. Time – with everything correct(ed) nigh on twenty minutes. COD FLUFF.
  12. Seeing that everyone had an error on the leader board, (except someone called escat49) I figured there must be either a brilliant heffalump trap or a glich. I submitted confidently expecting my SPRIG to be pinked, prog being the required but unknown HolyJoe, perhaps linked to a pejorative version of Protestant (Celtic supporters?). I’d have been miffed, and would have lodged an appeal to VAR. But on YACHTSMAN? You know that feeling you get when you see you’ve clearly made a stupid mistake and not checked the anagrist? That.

    But not. I await a penitent administrator some time today putting things right.
    Otherwise a stiffish challenge for me, mostly extended by UNLAWFUL and quite a few at the top right, especially the loose board which so cunningly tripped the unwary. 26.28

    1. It was an obvious dive, and how it wasn’t overturned is beyond belief – must have been a Russian linesman reviewing it. Don’t understand your comment re. Celtic supporters, of which I am one. There are many Protestants, agnostics, atheists, Jews, Sikhs – you name it – who support Celtic.
      1. Of course I’m aware of the true spectrum of Celtic supporters, but (possibly fuelled by Chris Brookmeyer) I am also aware of a perceived Catholic/Protestant Celtic/Rangers divide. If you wish you can claim that no one ever sings sectarian anthems any more, nor never did. But a brief search came up with many terms used by one side of the other, some less than affectionate. Proddy was one such, which is pretty close to our target word.
        Being a Spurs supporter myself (someone has to be) I’m obviously conscious of the Yid/Yiddo offensive or not stuff, despite the fact that not all Spurs supporters are Jewish. Such is life.
        And it was a penalty. The referee said so.
        1. Supporters (like Brookmeyer) of St Mirren, Partick etc. draw a false equivalence between the supporters of Celtic and Rangers – ‘both as bad as each other,’ ‘two cheeks of the same a***.’ This allows them to conveniently ignore the real cancer of sectarianism in Scotland, as evidenced by the scenes we saw recently in George Square. It’s fifty years or so since I heard ‘sectarian anthems’ at Celtic Park; they’re a regular occurence on the other side of the Clyde.

          And here in Scotland referees give penalties when their backs are turned to the play, so giving the penalty is no guarantee that it was merited. The old joke goes:

          ‘What was the score at Ibrox?’

          ‘Nothing each.’

          ‘Who missed the penalty?’

      2. The way things are set up, it’s difficult for the VAR to overturn decisions. Earlier, England had a penalty but it wasn’t given by the ref and wasn’t given on review.
        2. Not just difficult. Impossible unless there has been a clear and obvious error in the original decision. (Mr Grumpy)
      3. It was a dive, but VAR are not allowed to overturn fouls if there is any contact at all, which apparently there was. VAR can recommend penalties but have less scope to rescind them.
        1. Forgive my ignorance of the niceties of VAR, which we don’t have up here, apparently because it’s too expensive, but in reality because it would cost one team upwards of twenty points a season.
  13. Just the one pink square, and it’s the one which will, presumably, be corrected at some point. Otherwise, had all the requisite knowledge and found the wordplay to be clear. Pleasant without being overly exciting, but that’s a perfectly good way to be in life.
  14. Did this after a short sleep after watching England do the business against Denmark.

    Collins has instantly as the sixth sense of outright (‘he was killed outright’), while youngster comes in at number four for sprig (rare, informal).

    Congrats to the Snitchmeister on a blistering time.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 07:47 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks, U. I think you must have all been distracted by the football.
  15. …but with the requisite ‘error’ of YACHTSMAN.
    Among all the comments about that and about THREW and SPRIG, I’m surprised no-one has offered the comment “Oi’ll give it foive” for 21ac!
  16. As surprised as all to see pink square on YACHTSMAN, but not so on SPROG. Love the 99 TV show justification; did have LADY not MARY, though thought of latter first (and it could just about be acceptable). Seems a lot going on, wrong, on this puzzle. Moving swiftly on …
    Russian linesman? Swiss referee? We’ll need ’em if we play same tactics in final. Please play Grealish &/or Foden from the start and let the World see how good the team really could be …
    1. I don’t see why Southgate should change the formula. Winning is the goal, after all.
        1. Alas, Southgate: once a defender, always a defender. There was no need to take Grealish off, especially against a team down to 10 men … but, hey ho, we got through
  17. 45 mins but two mistakes . For some unaccountable reason- obviously not stupidity😠- put in emu for a foreign character which made patch impossible. Hey ho…
  18. A crossword of two halves – after being up until six to watch Engerland give it the Danes. About 45mins.

    At 5dn we had a ‘Holy Joe’ at school, but he only taught the ‘remove’, the ‘Great Unconsecrated’. He looked like a bull-frog; I never knew his real name! SPROG surely!

    FOI 19ac PROM – “Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside, Oh! I do like to be beside the sea!” Tiddly-om-pom-pom! This song obviously never reached Coney Island.

    LOI 27ac OVERLADEN -one of the dullest of words going

    COD 24ac FLUFF – whew! No one’s mentioned Alan Freeman yet! ‘Hi! Pop-pickers!’ Cue music!

    WOD 13ac FLAMBOYANT – Danny la Rue at Blackpool ‘Opera House’ 1977 – dee-vine!

    ‘My life has been rather exciting, but has not made me overly unpleasant!’ Mussolini

  19. About 45 mins in two sittings. I was stuck in the NE corner but it all fell into place, or so I thought, when I came back to it.

    Like others I had YACHTSMAN and SPROG, although I couldn’t parse the latter. Also wrote in ALPENSTICK for 18a, which is a bit daft even though I didn’t know ALPENSTOCK.

  20. I notice that at 25ac the Kama Sutra has not had a single mention! At school this was the most read book, after Shakespeare. Third on the the list was Well’s ‘The History of Mr. Polly.’
    1. Ah dear old ‘elfrid’! That was my favourite book until I left school.
  21. …with the one false YACHTSMAN pinkie which will hopefully be corrected.

    No probs with SPRIG — though if I had thought of SPROG first, I might have glossed it over.

    As with others, initially looking at the wrong anagrist for EMINENCE GRISE.

    Stuck for some moments sorting out the THREW/SAWN crossing.

  22. Had Yachtsman so would have been wrong anyway but LADY CHAPEL OUTRIGHT and THREW did for me. Should have got all three. Thought the rest of the cluing was quite benign.

    Thanks to Jack and the setter.

  23. 113 on the snitch at time of writing, so pleased with the time. Obv I had the yachtsman error. Though now I think about it, does the snitch have any meaning on a day when everyone makes one error. There is just a horizontal line on the graph. Very nearly went for sprog, but something told me to check through the other vowels. Played around with the non-existent French Desechant, which led me to the answer.
  24. Obviously I was a YACHTSMAN, and I was also a SPROG. One of those words that can have the same definition with an I or an O… and I thought I’d done well to dodge the made-up ALPENSTICK.
  25. Had sprig, got caught out by it last time it came up, and actually remembered it this time. But had forgotten the Lady Chapel which I’m sure we’ve had before as well, so guessed Mary.
    I took through for finished to be an Americanism. Though I’m not sure it is, it’s in use down here: “I’m through with that!”
    PROM last in after an alphabet-trawl, after alpenstock and unlawful.
    Thanks setter and blogger.
    1. Waddell knows what side his bread is buttered, hence his argument that both sides are as bad etc etc. You will no longer hear at Celtic Park the one chant that he references. And whatever you think of chants in support of the Provisional IRA, they are political, not sectarian. I would agree that they have no place at football.
      1. I cheerfully concede that Celtic fans are, these days, pure of mind and intent, and look forward to their support of England on Sunday.

        Edited at 2021-07-08 03:47 pm (UTC)

  27. Good point about the snitch, leskoffer, which is said to be ‘based on the time taken by reference solvers to complete the crossword with no errors’. I would have said that 113 was an unduly high rating for this puzzle.
    fourlegger
  28. Irritating to find a pink square where no pink square should be, but hopefully it will be corrected in due course. I remembered the SPRIG/SPROG options from a previous mishap, and didn’t think of MARY CHAPEL. FLUFF and UNLAWFUL held me up for quite a while. 38:56 with the obligatory pink square. Thanks setter and George.
  29. Good point about the snitch, leskoffer, which is said to be ‘based on the time taken by reference solvers to complete the crossword with no errors’. I would have said that 113 was an unduly high rating for this puzzle.
    fourlegger
    1. Be interesting to see if the snitch automatically jumps to the real value when they fix yachtsman.
      1. It should, and did last time this happened. It doesn’t fix the earlier-in-the-day record, but it should just jump to the correct value after it parses a correct leaderboard. And, yes, the value of 113 isn’t any reflection of where it’s likely to end up.
  30. The errant E in YACHTSMAN still uncorrected by the time I got round to this. According to Wikipedia Mary chapel is a perfectly respectable alternative to lady chapel. Unfortunately, Mary and some random chap don’t necessarily fit the definition of a heterosexual couple, at least not as elegantly and certainly not in these gender-fluid times. No time, but it was very long.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 11:55 am (UTC)

  31. Never at the races for this one — I had every problem reported so far in parsing the clues and consequently tripped myself up (oops a bit topical!) over and over. Well over the hour before using aids and still got the pink square!
    Thanks, setter, for the intellectual biffing and George for explaining all.
  32. 7:16 but with YACHTSMAN of course, but also SPROG. Annoying because I’ve been caught out by exactly the same mistake in the past. I had no idea who Holy Joe was but if I had thought about it a bit more I might have realised that PRIG was a lot more likely than PROG.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 11:51 am (UTC)

  35. Disaster today. The across clues were fine; struggled with 3 to 8 down long enough and then turned for entertainment to Test Match Special. And that’s not all that exciting today either. Oh, well …
  36. Lady Chapel helpfully came up in the episode of Morse we watched last night (the one where five people are murdered — four in the church — plus two attempted murders in the church). Fortunately, Morse is saved by Lewis!
    Had to choose between Sprig and Sprog and chose correctly.
    However, lazily chose Alpenstick over Alpenstuck without thinking of Alpenstock.
    Eminence Grise is a phrase that I knew without really knowing its meaning (until now!).

    Edited at 2021-07-08 02:51 pm (UTC)

  37. The puzzles this week have been, on the whole, on the easier side, at least by my reckoning. But they have all contained a small handful of clues which are very difficult and have to be ground out from the wordplay. Today it was: SAWN, PROM, and a few others that I wondered if I’d ever get. Yesterday was GRENADINE / SPECIES. Tuesday had some as well and Monday’s I couldn’t quite finish thanks to an unknown or two. But it definitely all seemed fair, as evidenced by the fact that I was able to finish the puzzle.

    As for the YACHTSMAN / YACHTSMEN bug, I am incensed and requesting a refund immediately!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!

  38. Tried this on the way home after lunch in London by the Thames. FOI PROM; I have been to Blackpool a lot.
    Quite quickly this seemed hard. I got FLUFF (liked that) and AFRO then turned to Norfolk. The town had to end in TABLE (for board).
    And the anagram at 11a was of Covert Adviser meaning emergencies?
    Then I arrived home. Glad I came here without wasting too much time.
    David
  39. Couldn’t see the sprig for the trees. Otherwise toughest clue was 1ac, over which I agonised for far, far, too long.
  40. 23:29 and found this tough.
    All about “wavelength” again. This afternoon I got the wrong end of the stick for 4 ac “Dislodges” and 11 ac “Eminence Grise” in exactly the same manner as Jack and others have alluded to above. But there were other clues too where I was misled. No complaints about the cluing although I thought 15 ac “Lady Chapel” was a tad clunky.
    COD 24 “fluff” where I was searching in vain for a palindrome for “screw up”.
    Incidentally, nice to see that the game of football can still generate such debate. As a Scotsman I confess I will support England if Scotland are out of things, which makes me an almost honorary fan over the last 50 years. This strategy is also in the interests of marital harmony since Mrs P is an avid Liverpool supporter and indeed the reds won the First Division championship on the day we were married back in the days of Barry Davies et al. Portentous, no?
    Thanks to GLH for the blog and the setter for the working over. Now for a well-earned bottle of Californian Pinot Noir.
  41. 38 minutes, not much to say about it. On 5dn I first thought of SPROG, but when Holy Joe as a prog(ramme?) made no sense at all, but a PRIG fit in with Holy quite well, I corrected it. And I first misspelled DESSICANT until the EMINENCE GRISE helped me with that one. How silly of me (I used to be able to spell).
  42. 22.04. This felt pretty tricky in places. I’m glad the yachtsman pink square was corrected in the end.
  43. I’m steadily working my way through a book of old cryptics, and I just solved one from 2009 which has exactly the same grid as this one, EMINENCE GRISE in exactly the same place and SPROG where this one has SPRIG.
    Spooky!
    1. So that’s how they do it! Brilliant wheeze – brilliant discovery!

      Edited at 2021-07-09 02:16 am (UTC)

  44. The Snitch hardly moved after the yachtsman safely entered harbour! Our Mr. Leskoffer was correct!
  45. In 1dn the definition part is just ‘currentl’ I think, it’s not an all-in-one

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