Times 28027 – Rodent infestation – get the cat!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 11 minutes
Music: John Coltrane, Coltrane Jazz

This was definitely very easy, and I was hoping to break 10 minutes.   Unfortunately, my last two, Berliner and newsagent, held me up for several minutes and I was unable to crack the single-digit barrier.   I had to try a number of possible parsings of the cryptic for newsagent before the obvious answer popped into my head, and then I spend another minute on Berliner.   Not a bad try, I just lost a little momentum at the end.

Naturally, going this fast, it was mostly a biff-fest with occasional glances at the cryptics, so I’ll have to parse a few ex post facto.   I don’t think they’ll give me much difficulty.   I’m sure there will be some ridiculously fast times for this puzzle by the fastest solvers, maybe under five minutes.

Across
1 Amuse pedant coming out of his shell (6)
TICKLE – [s]TICKLE[r], my FOI.
4 German bishop to sin — policy for covering up (8)
BERLINER – B + ER(LINE)R, my LOI.
10 Cornish location where Jerry may hide? (9)
MOUSEHOLE – Double definition, where Jerry is the mouse.   Whether Tom is a cat wearing pyjamas is not stated.
11 Bird exercising with tail cut (5)
PEWIT –  PE + WIT[h].
12 Tom’s bedroom attire? It’s the best thing going (3,4,7)
THE CATS PYJAMAS – Cryptic hint, barely.
14 Lukewarm old rocker gets holy inside (5)
TEPID – TE(PI)D.
16 One US President, bad vote-loser (9)
ROOSEVELT – Anagram of vote-loser, for a man who was just the opposite.
18 Work with one university doctor starts to explore new systems in drug centres (5,4)
OPIUM DENS – OP + I + U + MD + E[xplore] N[ew] S[ystems] for an answer most solvers will just biff.
20 The wife‘s language (5)
DUTCH – Double definition, a chestnut.
21 Benevolent female, falling short, yet got rid of harm somehow (5,9)
FAIRY GODMOTHER – anagram of YE[t] GOT RID OF HARM
25 Ecclesiastical wear with which French chum goes to church (5)
AMICE – AMI + CE, appropriately containing some rodents.
26 As a genial drunk, feeling no pain (9)
ANALGESIA – Anagram of AS A GENIAL.
27 A theology graduate absorbing crack is forgiven (8)
ABSOLVED – A + B(SOLVE)D.  Crack as in crack the cryptic.
28 Like some animal bedding that’s crude in pigs’ home (6)
STRAWY – ST(RAW)Y.
Down
1 Desire generated by office worker joining establishment, putting leader off (10)
TEMPTATION – TEMP + [s]TATION.
2 Twosome, left to go away in car (5)
COUPE – COUP[l]E.
3 Haul fish up away from the wind (7)
LEEWARD – DRAW EEL upside-down.
5 Abrasive English line this writer penned (5)
EMERY – E(ME)RY.
6 The situation in Paris for a mathematician (7)
LAPLACE – LA + PLACE, the fellow with the transform.   If you have never heard of him, you might put Leplace, and get a pink square.
7 Original wise fellow with Scripture who purveys information (9)
NEWSAGENT –  NEW + SAGE + NT.  No anagram of wise used!
8 About to absorb old books as a way to learn (4)
ROTE – R(OT)E.
9 Prisoner to wait for nurse (8)
CONSERVE – CON + SERVE, serve as to wait on tables, nurse as to nurse a beer.
13 After a short time that lot will embrace study — keen to get going? (2,3,5)
AT THE READY –  A + T THE(READ)Y.
15 Proper stars in schools (9)
PRIMARIES – PRIM ARIES.
17 Rock band I love is playing (8)
OBSIDIAN – Anagram of BAND I O IS.
19 Poet having something wonderful with extra line (7)
MARVELL – MARVEL + L.
20 Problem bringing dryness? Doctor has nothing, not initially (7)
DROUGHT – DR + [n]OUGHT.
22 It’s good to freak out in a place of grief (5)
GRAVE – G + RAVE, a fine and private place.
23 Man with unfaithful wife among those admired (5)
HOSEA – hidden in [t]HOSE A[mired].   A fact that I did not know, nor did I need to know.
24 A male sheep knocked over a rodent (4)
MARA – A RAM upside down, giving a Patagonian coney.

73 comments on “Times 28027 – Rodent infestation – get the cat!”

  1. PB for me.

    This seemed very straightforward, even the mildly-unknowns e.g. AMICE, MARA, HOSEA, LAPLACE were kindly clued.

    Only TICKLE unparsed but bunged in with all checkers in place.

  2. For those of us playing in the lower divisions where completing the xwd is the goal, rather than concerns about time taken, this was ideal.
    Although a number of DNK’s they were all biffable.
    FOI 16a ROOSEVELT
    LOI 19d MARVELL
    COD 1a TICKLE
  3. Eventually had to get help for the Berliner but managed otherwise, with several unknowns found by concentrating on the clue, so pleased with my effort.
  4. Yes, easy one today – my second fastest ever time, at 4m 5s. I wasn’t sure about MARA but it couldn’t really be anything else.

    It was only relatively recently that I discovered that the actress Kate Mara (and presumably her sister Rooney) pronounce it MARE-A. No idea if that’s true of the rodent too.

      1. I hadn’t come across Kate O’Mara before. Now I’m wondering if there’s a Chris Dowd or a Peter Toole out there.
  5. Thanks for the MARVELLous nudge Vinyl drawing attention to the juxtaposition of the poet with GRAVE and his (probably) best known lines to his coy mistress. Mohn and Jason were on time’s winged chariot with this one, coming in under 4 minutes and I made it in 9.49. On another dismal wet morning in these parts I could have done with something that would take a bit longer but no complaints, it was a nice puzzle.
    1. I noticed that mohn took 3:19 which according to the WITCH was over par for him!
      1. Yes it’s pretty amazing Pootle – I couldn’t do it that fast even if I’d already solved the puzzle and just typed it in.
        1. the quick cryptic today – solved it pretty quickly, so wanted to see where I was on the leaderboard – typed it in, checked for errors, and failed to wait for my actual time to come around before pressing submit. I got the same time as Verlaine, and was slower than other genuine solvers…

          I still reckon some of these guys *think* the solutions onto the site, rather than relying on quaint old writing or typing.

  6. Squeaked a sub-40 finish (OK, I had to look at the clock from an acute angle), so this was comfortably my best time on a 15×15. Feeling quite pleased at getting a few unknowns, Mara, Marvell and Obsidian, from wordplay, and remembering Amice from previous puzzles. The cats pyjamas rang a very faint bell, but the more common cats whiskers didn’t fit the cryptic, nor the available number of squares for that matter, so it had to be. CoD to my loi, Mousehole, which I only saw once I gave up on —cove and realised just what sort of Jerry the setter had in mind. Invariant
  7. About 40 minutes for me with LOI PRIMARIES; was thinking of the wrong sort of schools. Keep it simple!
    Quite a few unknowns -AMICE, LAPLACE etc. -but all derived.
    I did think of Mara the QC setter and assumed that was the answer.
    MOUSEHOLE and BERLINER were late in.
    Good fun.
    David
  8. Not so easy here, but due to fuzzy-headedness rather than difficulty. E.g. saw the elements B / ERR / LINE immediately in 4ac but it was still my third LOI. Closely followed by newsagent – not a thing, no longer exist, need a “once” indicator? – and pewit which I don’t think I’ve ever seen spelled like that.
    Know Laplace, but don’t know if place is French for place which the clue seems to demand, no-one has explicitly confirmed that yet. Hosea was in the bible. OK.
    COD tickle.
    1. … eg Place de la Concorde in Paris

      On edit: or you can have Placer (v) = to place

      Edited at 2021-07-12 03:14 pm (UTC)

      1. Of course! I’ve been following the Tour avidly again this year, and next Sunday they’ll be zipping across the Place de la Concorde at 70 kmh a few hundred metres from the the finish.
  9. Well under the. hour which is good for me as I’m still in transition from Quick Cryptic really. Hosea was a write-in as I first learned about him and his wayward wife in school years ago. PEWIT was my loi as I know it as PEEWIT (or lapwing) so it didn’t occur to me unril it was obvious.
  10. Pretty straightforward even if I had to hope and pray that Mousehole was right … as far as LAPLACE not sure clue works as PLACE means a SQUARE in the context of La Place de la Concorde as seen above … (same idea as PLAZA, PIAZZA, etc) … definitely somethingg cooky going on what with CAT’S (pj’s), MOUSE(hole)/(a)MICE etc
    PS: So frustrated to be proven right re footy… oh if only Grealish had been on from the 3rd minute … (or the first) … and a few others …
  11. Glad this was such a breeze, as I didn’t get to it last night. It really felt like a quickie. Call that gang over!
    MOUSEHOLE came up on one of my Sunday blogging stints, as the home of the ineffable STARGAZY PIE.
    MER at STRAWY. I think 999 times out of a thousand one would just say “straw bedding.”

    Edited at 2021-07-12 03:42 pm (UTC)

  12. About 27 — so very fast for me. It helped that I’ve been to Mousehole on holiday. Agree that “Strawy” is a word that can barely have been used in humany history.
  13. ….is that the parsing should lead you happily to a word that you don’t actually know — in my case MARA and AMICE — but it didn’t work for LAPLACE. Fortunately he was lurking somewhere in my grey matter. Never realised that HOSEA was cuckolded.

    FOI TICKLE
    LOI PEWIT
    COD OBSIDIAN
    TIME 5:51

    Final word on last night :

    (Sigh !) real cock-up. Maybe HE should have taken a penalty (8)

  14. My vegetable love should grow vaster than empires, and more slow. I’m more slow than you lot. Pleased to complete, with the help of the word checking facility online in the NE corner. I had to do an alphabet trawl for newsagent, but it gave me Roosevelt, pewit, Laplace and hence LOI Berliner. FOI tepid. NHO the cat’s pyjamas but whiskers didn’t fit. NHO Hosea or amice. COD Fairy Godmother. Thanks, Vinyl, and setter. GW.
  15. 7:17 after a brisk walk. My personal SNITCH tells me this is my second best time ever but I still can’t make it into the Club Top 40, so I continue to hold no ideas above my station!
    It was clearly one of the easier 15x15s but I nonetheless thought that some of the clues were quite clever.
    Couldn’t see 1 ac “Tickle” immediately so worked from FOI 1d “Temptation” and solved pretty steadily from then on , with the growing realisation that a low time could be on the cards. My LOI was 24 d “mara” which I fortunately changed at the last minute from “rama”, then submitted. Too hasty to even consider the alternative possibility of “tara”.
    Can honestly say I have NHO 28 ac “Strawy” but it had to be.
    Thanks to Vinyl for an enjoyable blog and to setter.
  16. Very easy indeed, under 23 minutes despite a few unknowns (MARA, AMICE). Probably my best time ever. No problem with LAPLACE, but then I’m a mathematician (and anyway, if the whole thing is in grammatical French it has to be that and not LEPLACE). NEWSAGENT, BERLINER and then EMERY were my LOI.
  17. DNF in around 16 mins. I had a hit and hope that like some animal would be stoaty and that oat would somehow mean bedding that’s crude. Back to the drawing board.
  18. I think this one must have been easy because it’s the first 15×15 I’ve completed in ages! Nice feeling all the same. FOI 2d COUPE, LOI MARVELL though NHI. An enjoyable 45 minutes, no records being broken, but hey, I finished it. Thanks to vinyl1 and, especially, kindly setter!
  19. Great puzzle, perfect to take my 13yr old through. Big thank you to the setter.

Comments are closed.