Times Cryptic – 26156

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Firstly, thanks to Verlaine for covering for me a couple of weeks ago when I was indisposed. After a rather slow start I made very good progress on this one and thought I might get away with only a few moments over my target half-an-hour, but unfortunately I ran into a  few  problems towards the end, 5ac, 7dn and most notably 24dn, and time rapidly slipped away. For all that this was a very enjoyable puzzle.

As usual I’ve indicated deletions so { } and indicators so [ ], and I’ve included the definitions in a few places where I thought they may not be obvious to newbies perhaps attempting to graduate from the Quickie.

Across
1 INFUSION – Anagram [somehow] of ON 1(one) IS FUN
5 COWPAT – COW (bully), PAT (conveniently). Definition: waste in field
10 SET GREAT STORE BY – Two definitions, one cryptic, one literal
11 GAME WARDEN – A + MEW (call from queen – female cat) inside GARDEN (park)
13 LAZE – {g}LAZE (fit windows)
15 TURMOIL – Sounds like “term” (expression), OIL (crude, possibly)
17 BUMP OFF – O (old) + PM (Prime Minister) reversed inside BUFF (expert). Definition: top – as in to kill
18 CATALAN – A + TA (word for “Thanks”) inside CLAN (tribe)
19 YAKUTSK – Anagram [touring] of UK STAY, {blea}K. I didn’t know or had forgotten this port.
21 IONA – IO (satellite – moon of Jupiter), NA (not available)
22 ANKLE STRAP – N{ot} + K{nowing} inside ALES (beers), TRAP (gin)
25 PROFESSIONALISM – Anagram [fake] of SPOONERS FILM IS A. It was nice to find that no Spoonerism was involved as originally feared. I think the definition has to be “expert shows that” for the grammar to work but I’m open to correction as it still seems a bit awkward.
27 RARITY – R (rupee) + IT inside RAY (beam)
28 BACKSPIN – BACKS (champion’s), PIN (make fast)

Down
1 INSIGHT – Sounds like “inn” (local), “site” (place)
2 FIT – Double definition
3 STRAW POLLS – A straight definition plus a cryptic hint with “baleful” referring to “bales of straw”
4 ON-AIR – Two definitions, the first with reference to “walking on air” as might be said of someone who’s happy
6 OBOE – {g}O{t} B{l}O{w}E{r}. I’d say the defintion is &lit
7 PRET-A-PORTER – RETRO (rather old-fashioned), PATER (dad), P (quietly) all reversed
8 THYSELF – Anagram [liberated] of SHY FELT. Definition: the reader (i.e. you) emphatically no longer
9 ASSEMBLY – MESS (litter) reversed inside ABLY (well)
12 MARSTON MOOR – MAR (ruin), S (second), TON (century), MOOR (secure). The battle fought in 1644 during the English Civil War.
14 SMOKESTACK – OK (fine) + EST (established) inside SMACK (fishing vessel)
16 LENINIST – Anagram [fragments] of TINSEL IN. Definition: red
18 CHIPPER – Two definitions
20 KEPT MAN – PT (training) + MA (graduate) inside KEN (range of knowledge). Definition: financed partner
23 LEONA – Hidden inside {understandab}LE ON A{eronautic). Definition: miss, perhaps
24 WEST – SEW (stitch) reversed, T{rekker}. Definition: hand – as in one of four at bridge
26 IMP – I{ce}, M{oves}, P{ushes}. A puck is a mischievous sprite independently of the character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so no capital P is required in the clue.

39 comments on “Times Cryptic – 26156”

  1. Jack, you have the wrong anagrist in 1ac. It’s (on 1 is fun)*.

    Not that I can talk, I had two dopey errors and also had to look up YAKUTSK.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

    2. I wondered who’d be the first to spot that! Now corrected, ta.

      Edited at 2015-07-21 02:33 am (UTC)

  2. At 19ac, I read “touring” as a containment indicator. So UK inside STAY. Then couldn’t find a reversal indicator. Thanks to Jack for putting me right on the parsing.

    At 24dn: is WEST a hand exactly? Or is it the player who holds one? Doesn’t really matter.

    Slight correction at 1ac. The fodder is “on 1 is fun”.

    Off now to paint the front door and Brasso my nobs!

    1. Collins has ‘hand’ as the cards dealt or the player holding them so I assume the compass point names can be used similarly.

      Edited at 2015-07-21 02:32 am (UTC)

  3. Flung in ‘Yukatsk’, which was dumb because I’d first thought of Irkutsk, and because I’d finally realized that there was no need to keep U-K in that order (like Mctext, I’d taken ‘touring’ as a containment indicator at first). 7d from enumeration, never got around to parsing it. 11ac ditto. I noticed post hoc that we have ‘make fast’ and ‘secure’ as clues. COD to BUMP OFF.
  4. Back down to earth here. 21:51 but with a daft error. I had biffed ‘chippie’, later ‘correcting’ it to CHIPPIR.

    A lot of smiles in this one. Love the parsing of GAME WARDEN.

    BUMP OFF, KEPT MAN, COWPAT … I’d take any of them for COD.

    1. Bingo! I always knew you were a great mind…

      Lots to like, with ticks against 5a, 3d, 16d and, um, 18d. 49′.

  5. Would’ve topped the leaderboard if I hadn’t put in a VERY careless “STRIP” instead of “STRAP”. I was even thinking “gin, gin, that’s a snare, which is a… oh well, it’ll all work out somehow”. Not my week at all! And I even DNFed the concise today to by opting for a metric rather than imperial unit of weight.
  6. Very enjoyable, for about 25 minutes, and a bit more difficult than it looked at first. COWPAT of all things the last in. Took a while to see the definition. PRET-A-PORTER is clever but GAME WARDEN has to be COD.
    1. 38 mins and 1 wrong. I biffed LEFT for 24d – I should have thought of hands of cards. COWPAT my last too. I liked the non-spoonerism in 25a and 17a. I had quite a few unparsed (7d, 11a, 12d and 21a) – thanks for the explanations, Jack.
  7. 19.01 and, like Sotira, several smiles on the way. Didn’t parse everything while solving so appreciated this one all the more on reading the blog. Thank you Jack and setter.
  8. 34 min – spent a long time on 34dn, eventually couldn’t think of anything better than TENT: a sort of stitch, or what a trekker might have overhead, though the ‘hand’ didn’t seem relevant. Otherwise 5ac was LOI, as I had problems finding anything better to fit the checkers than POL POT.
  9. 13m. My experience was the exact opposite of sidcuppa’s: I found this a bit easier than it looked at first! I only got a couple of answers on my first pass through the acrosses, but the downs proved more yielding.
    Some of this puzzle rewards the seasoned solver for whom ‘satellite’ immediately triggers IO, or ‘red’ a communist of some sort. And, dare I say it, ‘gin’ for TRAP…
  10. Enjoyable puzzle and certainly no walk-over. I agree with Sotira that BUMP OFF, COWPAT and KEPT MAN are first-class. The parsing of GAME WARDEN was ingenious, though I did wonder whether “garden” could strictly be defined as “park”, which to me suggests a much larger open pace. What about Kensington Gardens, do I hear you cry? Well, garden is there used in the plural. But enough pedantry, already! Nice puzzle.
  11. Very entertaining puzzle with BUMP OFF particularly good and no quibbles. Thanks setter. Well done Jack
  12. I found this tough and finished with an incorrect YAKSTUK. With hindsight YAKUTSK sounded more likely but as I’d taken so long already I was less vigilant about checking the last few to fall.
    1. I spent a couple of hours après-solve trying to remember why I knew Yakutsk. In the end I had to Google it.

      Yakutsk is the coldest city on earth. Average January temperature is −38.6 °C. The lowest temperature recorded in Yakutsk was −64.4°C. You may not be surprised to hear that Yakutsk is engaged in major efforts to combat alcoholism.

      Yakutsk is twinned with almost nowhere.

      1. Anyone who’s played the popular board game Risk might be familiar with Yakutsk. As well as Irkutsk and Kamchatka. That’s where I know it from. I was able to write it straight in without need of checkers. An enjoyable solve. 47:52
  13. 20 mins, but at least I was all correct after yesterday. I agree that there were some excellent clues today, and I echo the appreciation for BUMP OFF and KEPT MAN. THYSELF was my LOI.

    Verlaine – don’t beat yourself up for 2dn in the concise. I also went for metric rather than imperial, and because the clue is simply “units of weight” it is definitely a valid alternative.

  15. A pleasant half hour, ending with a slight guess for YAKUTSK, on which subject thank you SOTIRA for the facts provided, it’s firmly on my list of places not to go.
    I had PUT … IN for 10a for a while which slowed me down.
    I liked COWPAT, BUMP OFF and CHIPPER best.
  16. It’s still better than Boring in Oregon which is twinned with Dull in Scotland
    1. I think it’s high time we extended the hand of friendship to Yakutsk by proposing a suitable twinning.

      Based on population size, Brighton and Hove would be an excellent fit.

  17. 18:25 for a most enjoyable puzzle. LOI was thyself after I’d corrected the last word of 10 from ON to BY. I should’ve known summat was up as I’d put a QM next to 10 on account of not knowing what the next-door bit was about.

    The battlefield was a doddle as Mrs Penfold’s workplace is on the Marston Moor Business Park.

    COD to oboe for the & littishness.

  18. Lots of terrific clues including 5a, 17a, 25a and 12d. I initially had IRKUTSK for 19a, not helped by Joanna Lumley’s Trans-Siberian train journey program being on the TV at the same time, this episode finishing at…you know where. 27a also made an appearance in another place today, though with different word play.
    V. enjoyable and satisfying to have finished, even if my solving time is an order of magnitude more “leisurely” than most others here!
    Thanks to S&B.
  19. Some distractions while I was tackling this, but I still wouldn’t have been quick. Pondered ‘put’ as the first word in 10a, but corrected when I solved 1d.
  20. A very enjoyable 35 minutes. I was pleased to get the right spelling for the Siberian town which I had only vaguely heard of. LOI WEST – entered without understanding from the cryptic alone. It was only after I clocked off that I realised it was another bridge reference. It seems that all Times readers, except me, play bridge and follow cricket. I’m slowly picking up some of their arcane terminology. (Ideally, I’d like some more references to interior decorating and the fashions of the Georgette Heyer period! Btw,noticed a reference to a curtain rod in today’s concise – so maybe someone up there likes me after all) Ann
  21. Despite additional time to complete thanks to train delays this morning, DNF and had to look at the blog to get the last couple. Also put in YRKUTSK (apparently it is a valid spelling, although it doesn’t exactly fit the clue of course).

    Feeling particularly old and fragile this morning for some reason. Let’s hope tomorrow is easier.

  22. About 20 minutes, ending with COWPAT after finally seeing PRET-A-PORTER. There are far fewer French terms in common parlance over here, it seems to me. But I wasn’t getting COWPAT without the ‘P’, but once I had that checking letter, I saw it right away. KEPT MAN my favorite. Regards.
  23. Pity about ‘that’ in 25a, isn’t it? The clue would have been so much smoother without it. But many nice clues to compensate.
    1. 25ac seems just fine to me as it stands: it certainly doesn’t work without “that”. I don’t understand your objection.
      1. Oops yes, I was wrong. I think I was thinking of the definition as a vague ‘expert shows’ (demonstrations of expertise), with ‘that’ as a needless link word. I knew it was unconvincing but couldn’t see a better definition! I now see that the definition is ‘expert shows that (thing)’. As jackkt says it’s awkward, because it should be ‘expert shows this’. But of course, then the surface doesn’t work.
  24. 17:57 for me, never really finding the setter’s wavelength, probably because I was exhausted at the end of a busy day. (Too tired to contribute yesterday anyway.)

    I’m probably missing something obvious, but how does INFUSION = “drawing” in 1ac. (I thought of INFUSION quite quickly, but since I couldn’t justify it from the definition, I wasted far too much time looking for an anagram of ONE IS FUN.)

    Some very nice clues.

    1. I didn’t analyse it closely but I thought immediately of drawing as in steeping, say, tea, in boiling water, to make an infusion. If you also thought of that but are querying the grammar you may have a point that didn’t occur to me at the time and I’m not confident enough to pronounce on.

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