Times 28263 – a work of art.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I really enjoyed this one; not especially hard, it took me half an hour to do and parse, but full of fun and bits of General Knowledge slipped in here and there. I know my vitamins, of course, and vaguely remembered what a panegyric was, I’ve seen 24a before in these pages and I’ve sailed past the 2d. And my Chilean history was up to the mark, I remember Mrs Thatcher being far too nice to General Pinochet in his dotage. All good stuff, but my favourite was 1d for “reproduction method”. The error in the clue online was corrected later in the day, see below. 26a got a smile, but haven’t we seen it before?

Across
1 Staff and volunteers each ringing one caller, primarily lawmen (6,8)
POLICE OFFICERS –   POLE = staff, OFFERS = volunteers; into both insert I C being the primary letters of one caller.
9 Most of silver parts reduced in size (9)
LARGENESS – ARGEN(T) = most of silver, insert into LESS = reduced.
10 Fruit drink without the odd bits of pip (5)
APPLE – ALE = drink, insert P P being the odd bits of me.
11 Admit altering order for small marine arm (5)
INLET – I presume this is LET IN rearranged, although it’s not very exact wordplay.
12 Convincingly toppled leader in seventies denied last drink (3,4,2)
ALL ENDS UP – the toppled leader in seventies is Salvador Allende, a reasonable if socialist chap who got toppled with the CIA’s backing so that the right wing military dictator PINOCHET took over for 20 years. So much for USA promoting democracy. [enough politics – Ed.] So we have ALLEND(E) and SUP = drink.
13 Child following current affairs (6-2)
GOINGS-ON – GOING = current, SON = child.
15 Improvised panegyric mother recalled (4,2)
MADE DO – ODE (a panegyric is an ode of praise) DAM (mother) all reversed.
17 Address system in centre certain to cause bother (6)
TANNOY – I wanted to construct something using PA, but no, it’s T the centre of certain, ANNOY to cause bother. It’s one of those brand names like Hoover which has become generic.
19 Fellow bachelor carrying less weight (8)
BLIGHTER – B for bachelor, LIGHTER carrying less weight. A Wooster-ish type of tricky fellow, not sure if it transposes to our non-British friends?
22 Flaw is found in disheartened team’s intimidatory tactics (9)
TERRORISM – TM is disheartened TeaM, insert ERROR IS.
23 Sound coming from furrow on the level (5)
PUKKA – homophone for PUCKER = furrow. It’s a Hindi and Urdu word originally.
24 Retro company regularly built in circular windows (5)
OCULI – CO = company, reversed = OC, then alternate letters of bUiLt In.
25 Academic not for but against King Edward? (9)
CONFESSOR – PROFESSOR our academic changes the PRO for CON, giving us Edward the Confessor, last Saxon King, 1042-66.
26 Wearying, as today’s successful solvers must be? (7,3,4)
GETTING ONE DOWN – witty cryptic definition.

Down
1 Key fact in reproduction method where crosses accumulate (7,7)

POLLING STATION – took me a while to see how this works. the reproduction method is POLLINATION, into which insert G (key) STAT (fact). EDIT as pointed out below, G STAT in POLLINATION would give us POLLING STATATION so the clue doesn’t work like that, but I think that’s what the setter intended. I did wonder about key fact = GIST but there is then a surplus I.
EDIT 2 for the record, the paper edition had ‘key way’ not ‘key fact’ and this was corrected by The Times later in the day for the online edition. G ST being = key way.
2 Travelling collier, heading off round eastern rock (7)
LORELEI – I didn’t see this until I had the final I from getting 13a, then the penny quickly dropped. It’s (OLLIER)* with E inserted, for the rock on the Rhine steeped in myths.
3 Case confined to research establishment (5)
CHEST – hidden as above.
4 Person using drill interrupts speaker (8)
OPERATOR – PE (drill) inside ORATOR.
5 Nancy’s son importing American firearms (6)
FUSILS – FILS being the French for son, hence from Nancy the main city of Meurthe-Moselle. Insert US.
6 Cons that are bound to work? (5,4)
CHAIN GANG – cryptic definition.
7 Sally‘s position in office (7)
RIPOSTE – I think this is POS for position inside RITE for office, as in Mass, as POST for position inside RIE is nonsense.
8 Make the locks secure and calm down! (4,4,4,2)
KEEP YOUR HAIR ON – double definition, one literal, one an idiomatic expression.
14 Scientist initially examining old journal, in essence (9)
GEOLOGIST – GIST = essence, insert E (initially examining) O (old) LOG (journal).
16 Bird very hot sitting on egg? (8)
FLAMINGO – FLAMING, O for egg. A chestnut methinks.
18 Return, resolved to acquire university education (7)
NURTURE – U inside (RETURN)*. Collins has these as synonyms, after upbringing and training.
20 Starts using bags, a couple wife cast out (5,2)
TAKES TO – TAKES = bags, TWO a couple loses W for wife.
21 Third person tipped trendy vitamin (6)
NIACIN – CAIN allegedly was the Third Person because he was the eldest sone of Adam and Eve, ,according to the Old Testament. Reverse him and add IN for trendy. Niacin is vitamin B3 or nicotinic acid, if you dont’ eat enough of it (there’s plenty in Marmite so I’m okay) you get pellagra, which I’d imagine is unpleasant.
23 White House deputy turned up European bug (5)
PEEVE – VEEP being the short name for the Vice President, reverse and add E for European.

46 comments on “Times 28263 – a work of art.”

  1. Found this rather tough, although I did have a nap in the middle. A friend is experimenting with very high doses of NIACIN to cure her arthritis, going quite well so far. Main difficulty was keeping ONES hair on, which made the BLIGHTER and MADE DO rather hard to get. I see that I am not the only one…
  2. I felt as though I was finding this hard but finished in a reasonable time. Annoyingly failed to remember that Nancy is a French indicator so assumed I didn’t know some famous Nancy from literature. Could only think of the one in Oliver Twist but didn’t remember a son. Bunged in fusile in order to fill the space. Otherwise all correct with some failures to parse (i.e. guesses). Didn’t remember argent for silver so had no idea how largeness worked. As others with wondering where the RIE came from in riposte. Didn’t remember that lorelei was a rock. COD to peeve.
    Thanks to setter and to Pip for the explanations.
  3. Amazed that my guessed PUKKA was right, as well as my guessed parsing (which seems a bit out there). I don’t know if I’d ever heard of TANNOY, but I had to cheat a little (perusing a wordlist) before I guessed at that. Never figured out the parsing of NIACIN either. I have to start working these earlier in the evening again!

    Edited at 2022-04-13 05:50 pm (UTC)

  4. Long wait at the end for riposte and niacin. I’d forgotten the third person for Cain trick. Neat. I suppose fourth person must be Abel, and fifth person Seth (Adam and Eve’s third).
  5. 40 enjoyable minutes for a somewhat strange puzzle, strangest of all being that the many answers I didn’t really know came to me very quickly (TANNOY, PUKKA, ALL ENDS UP) and more of the ones I did know popped right into my mind than is usually the case. POLLING STATION had been corrected by the time I solved and it would perhaps be my COD, or maybe the CONFESSOR.
  6. Late entry just before entering the land of Nod. 24.38. Very enjoyable puzzle and I always like the long clued borders. But police officers and polling station took a while. Of the many good clues my COD was fusils. Very droll.
    Thx setter and blogger. Happy zzzz.
  7. Plenty of biffing and lots that I didn’t quite parse e.g. POLLING STATION, INLET

    Thought LARGENESS was good for its misdirection.

  8. Great humour, nice surfaces, clever red herrings.
    Just over half an hour. COD apple.
    A truly enjoyable start to the day.

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