Times 29321 – a horse of that colour

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

DNF after 39 minutes.

A rollercoaster of crossword-solving emotions today. After a very slow start, I got into the devious mind of the setter, but then slowed to a complete stop and then cheated to the finish. I had just never heard of, nor could work out from checkers, the (very) last clue. Never mind – I had plenty of fun along the way, and actually enjoyed this more than some puzzles I fully complete in less time.

I hope Jeremy is enjoying his well-earned break, and that you enjoyed (maybe solved?) this excellent Friday tester.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Rob from Norfolk town gathers groups of friends together (10)
DISPOSSESS – DISS (Norfolk town) containing (gathers) POSSES (groups of friends together). Strewth!
6 European chap transmitted message out of America (4)
EMIL – E-MaIL (transmitted message) removing (out of) A (America).
9 Pet cuckoo is tame, welcoming return of experts (7,3)
SIAMESE CAT – anagram of (cuckoo) IS TAME, containing (welcoming) the reversal (return) of ACES (experts).
10 Cutting edge of Romany XV? (4)
CHIV – CHI (X, Roman Greek letter ‘x’) + V. Devious conjoining of the Roman numerals. I knew ‘shiv’ as a blade from crosswords, and eventually stumbled into this. Reading Jackkt’s comment below, I’m inclined to agree. And thanks to Ulaca et al. for correcting my parsing. 
12 Way of overcoming pain through separating object and subject (4,4,6)
MIND OVER MATTER – OVER (through) in the middle of (separating) MIND (object, as in dissent) and MATTER (subject).
14 If upheld, such an appeal would lead to dismissal (6)
HOWZAT – I’m going to go for cryptic definition, since I cannot see any wordplay, and guessed this only from the overall cricketing reference. Advice welcome.
15 Prime minister going round each and every London street (4,4)
PALL MALL – PM (Prime Minister) containing (going round) ALL (each), then ALL (every).
17 Built-in from dollar, get nickels back (8)
INTEGRAL – hidden in (from) the reversal of (back) dolLAR GET NIckels.
19 Get onto English Evangelist about bishop (6)
EMBARK – E (English), then MARK (evangelist) containing (about) B (Bishop).
22 Enthusiastic earl drinks in fine writer’s advice on strategy (4,5,5)
KNOW THINE ENEMY – KEEN (enthusiastic) + E (earl), contains (drinks) NOW (in) and THIN (fine), then MY (writer’s). I happen to be good at guessing multi-word phrases from checkers, which is lucky, since this one was a [insert expletive] to parse.
24 Others take forcible control of broadcast (4)
REST – sounds like (broadcast) “wrest” (take forcible control of).
25 Innovative type charged with taking a look around (10)
PIONEERING – PEERING (taking a look) containing (around) ION (type charged).
26 DJ who promoted many series of changes on radio (4)
PEEL – sounds like (on radio) “peal” (series of changes). In campanology, or change ringing, a ‘change’ is one permutation of the order of bells sounding. Thus, a series of changes could be a peal (but in the bell ringing world, a series of changes could equally be a ‘touch’ (some small number of changes) or a ‘quarter peal’ (1260 changes), with the term ‘peal’ being reserved for 5040 unique changes; please excuse the campanological pedantry).
27 Warned not to pay, might chap be in danger at work? (10)
GARNISHEED – IS HE (might chap be?) contained by (in) an anagram of (at work) DANGER. This is the one that got me – I had never heard of the noun ‘garnishment’ in this context, never mind the convoluted past tense verbal form. Even with every checker and some time to spare, I gave up.
Down
1 Cast down — just a little (4)
DASH – double definition.
2 One encapsulated by rolling waves lapping edge of shore? (3,4)
SEA VIEW – I (one) contained (encapsulated) by an anagram of (rolling) WAVES, all next to also containing (lapping) the first last (edge) of shorE. &lit. My COD.
3 Blasts of air finished game (12)
OVERDRAUGHTS – OVER (finished) + DRAUGHTS (game). NHO but easily guessable when you see the answer.
4 Silence present helpers largely set aside (6)
SHELVE – SH (silence) + ELVEs (present helpers, at Christmas time) minus the last letter (largely).
5 With following wind in last flight (8)
STAIRWAY – W (with) after (following) AIR (wind), all contained by (in) STAY (last).
7 Masters receiving mortarboard for one sage (7)
MAHATMA – MA and MA (Masters) containing (receiving) HAT (mortarboard for one).
8 Being parasitic, one is a success by accident (5,5)
LIVER FLUKE – LIVER (one who lives, is a success) + FLUKE (accident).
11 Puts forward screening method: acceptable protocol for consumption? (5,7)
TABLE MANNERS – TABLES (puts forward) containing (screening) MANNER (method).
13 Securely seal straitjacket? (6-4)
SHRINK-WRAP – cryptic hint: something a psychologist (shrink) might wrap a patient in… maybe… in the past. In the past, right?
16 Black mineral providing the exterior for a great hall (8)
BASILICA – B (black) and SILICA (mineral) containing (providing the exterior for) A.
18 Piggy at last escapes extremely secure pens (7)
TOOTSIE – final letter of (at last) escapeS, which TOO (extremely) and TIE (secure) contains (pens). As in, this little piggy…
20 Crown dependency close to nuclear area turning on cabinet (7)
ARMOIRE – IOM (Isle of Man, crown dependency) + last of (close to) nucleaR + A (area), all reversed (turning), then RE (on).
21 As Charles is no good at all, stop (4,2)
REIN IN – REIgNINg (as Charles is) minus all the letters ‘g’ (no good at all).
23 Old impressionist wanting last piece mounted (4)
AGED – DEGAs (impressionist) minus (wanting) the last letter (last piece) and reversed (mounted).

89 comments on “Times 29321 – a horse of that colour”

  1. I’d have done better if someone had not told me about the SNITCH cruising along at 265 at about the time I started. Not that I panicked or choked: I panicked and choked.

    I did spend some time wondering if there was a way I could reconicile Howazt and “If” to make it a standard two-part clue, but if there is I couldn’t figure it out.

    Thanks, and a tip of the old Stetson to Wm

  2. Gave up with armoire basilica pioneering and garnisheed left and another shiv-er.

    A garnishee order (now a third party debt order) is sought by a creditor against a third party who owes money to the creditor’s debtor. This third party is the garnishee. And far from being warned not to pay they are ordered to pay the creditor. So I think this definition is wrong

    I enjoyed the puzzle though my 9/9 streak has ended. Also lost my 1354 Wordle streak last week but life moves on 😁

  4. GARNISHEED was one of many words I considered for 27 across and rejected for being obvious nonsense. Bad clue. Otherwise got them all except for CHIV — I went with SHIV.

  5. I was busy yesterday and only had time for some of the crossword, finished (?!) this morning with an aid or two in just over an hour. Not so far as I could see super-difficult, and at the time there were some I couldn’t parse; my inability to see now = in, quite OK in my opinion (“very ‘now'”/ “very ‘in'”), stopped me from understanding about KNOWING THINE ENEMY, but not from shrugging and thinking it was probably right. As I didn’t do with TOOTSIE, having thought it was the answer and then rejected it; well it couldn’t be, could it; CHECK and there it is. Goodness knows why, although obvious now.

  6. good grief. romany blade/Greek numeral, DJ only heard in UK, legal term misused. I’m glad I surrendered after 30 minutes.
    Bravo blogger.

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