Times Cryptic 26512 – September 8, 2016 Both grandmothers, twice

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Another slow solve punctuated by semi-conscious episodes before the caffeine kicked in. I should explain that George has kindly agreed to take next week’s crossword when I shall be loose in France with uncertain communications and I’m doing his this week. Cheers, George. I did enjoy this, there being a good range of devices to play with, and not too much needing to be dragged from the further reaches of concept corner.
You’ll need every one of the 26 letters available in the standard alphabet, which I have displayed for your delight and enlightenment below with a lot of others interspersed. My apologies for  the odd font sizes: as ever, if I mess about in HTML, I get something wrong.

Clues, definitions, SOLUTIONS

Across

1  Clergyman born in Lincoln? (4)
ABBÉ (accent optional)  A French priest, created from B(orn) in ABE Lincoln
3  Unwell feeling queen needs freedom from worry (10)
QUEASINESS   I think this is just QU for queen and EASINESS for lack of worry.
9  Ringing the changes for Stedman Doubles (7)
TANDEMS Has to be an anagram “ringing the changes” of STEDMAN but took a long time to work out the correct sequence. The clever bit of this clue is that Stedman Doubles are (is?) a style of bell ringing providing every possible change on a set of bells without repeating. Named for Fabian Stedman, 17th century innovative bell ringer.
11  South Kent prison initially reported a fugitive (7)
ESCAPEE The initials of South Kent Prison, carefully enunciated.
12  Perhaps sign over one’s property sent mistakenly during meal (13)
CONSTELLATION   A meal might be a COLLATION, and SENT “mistakenly” provides the missing NSTE piece. Sign (here a noun) is intended in the astrological sense.
14  Scheme to destroy each unfinished city square (5)
PLAZA   Each of PLAN (scheme) and ZAP (destroy) is docked one letter
15  Without children, girl in the Hebrides perhaps adopts son  (9)
ISSUELESS Your girl is SUE, the Hebrides are partners in a gay  marriage an example of ISLES. Insert one into t’other and add the S from Son
17  Agreed, ant may be crawling around in this restaurant? (3,6)
TEA GARDEN an anagram (crawling around) of AGREED ANT
19  Forms of insects regularly choosing plum and plane (5)
PUPAE   Take alternate letters from PlUm and PlAnE
21  Coriander and sage blended would be gross (6-7)
COARSE-GRAINED  Another fairly well telegraphed anagram of CORIANDER and SAGE
24  Add label to part of seat-belt — it needs reversing (7)
ENTITLE Reverse-hidden in seat-bELT – IT NEeds…
25  Nan’s taken round city area, one with a certain style of architecture (7)
GRECIAN The City area is EC (it’s the postcode), one is I, surround both with GRAN for Nan.
26  A time saver for surveyors — they cart me around (10)
TACHYMETER One of those things that looks a bit like a camera on a tripod, sued used for the speedy measurement of surveying distances etc. I think I allow this as an &lit, an anagram (around) of THEY CART ME
27  Fish caught off Dorset castle (4)
ORFE The Dorset castle is CORFE – one of the ruins that Cromwell knocked about a bit. Off with its head, C(aught). An orfe is “a golden-yellow semi-domesticated fish, a variety of id.” Semi-domesticated?

Down

1 Look for extraordinary act in one’s meeting with head (10)
ANTICIPATE An extraordinary version of ACT IN I meets with PATE, metonymic for “head”
2  Literary sketcher protects grandma with a source of wealth (7)
BONANZA   My first shot was Boswell, looking at the wrong end of the clue. Dickens in his earliest publication was  BOZ who wrote a series of sketches of London life. In a reverse of 25, grandma becomes NAN and finds herself in BOZ’s embrace. And the indicated A finishes off the solution. If you can complete this clue without thinking dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy dah dah, you weren’t alive in the 60s.
4 Clean casks English agriculturist secured — but a few tons get lost (9)
UNSULLIED Clever, this. Casks are TUNS, Jethro TULL the English agriculturist (and part time flute player), and secured leads to TIED. Put them all together and then remove all the Ts.
5  Neighbourhood introduces new sporting venue (5)
ARENA Neighbourhood AREA, insert N(ew).
6  Banking aircraft generates a form of lift (8,5)
INCLINED PLANE Something of a double definition, the second “one of the six classical simple machines defined by Renaissance scientists” though I’d call it a ramp.
7  Cost of swans kept in river (7)
EXPENSE The two most useful rivers for setters are the Dee and the Exe: the latter being the one we want here. PENS, lady swans, are set floating in the middle.
8  Colour seen in small botanic garden (4)
SKEW Colour is a verb here. I might have been stuck if the botanical garden wasn’t KEW, The initial S for S(mall)
10 Wildly run in a free style? That’s good for cold (13)
EXTRAVAGANTLY Today’s cricket reference, EXTRA being a run not scored off the bat. VACANTLY translates “in a free style” (I had to squint a bit). You are then required to swap the C(old) for G(ood)
13  A short display of anger over ballet’s dominating influence (10)
ASCENDANCE A display of anger is A SCENE, which you shorten by one letter. Add DANCE for ballet
16  Religious assembly heard offence with excited eagerness (9)
SYNAGOGUE   Sounds a lot like SIN (offence) AGOG (excited eagerness)
18  Most self-disciplined detectives in US agency turned up (7)
ASCETIC I might have done without the “most” – apart from anything else, it pushes the poor beleaguered solver towards an –EST. Instead, its TECS (detectives) reversed inside America’s CIA
20  Perhaps hamper girl hemmed in by pillar (7)
PANNIER   Hamper is a noun here, the girl is ANN and the pillar PIER. Arrange tastefully
22  European paired up visiting bridge opponents (5)
SWEDE WED for “paired up” visits S(out) and E(ast), on opposite sides (so to speak) in bridge
23  Succeeded in black form of humour (4)
JEST JET as in Whitby’s contribution to the decorative arts, and S(ucceeded) inserted.

77 comments on “Times Cryptic 26512 – September 8, 2016 Both grandmothers, twice”

  1. Never heard of the castle, never heard of the fish, and not willing to play with the alphabet and _R_E, so I Googled ‘Dorset castles’. I suppose orfes (or is it orves?) sometimes break out of their tanks. I dithered over 4d, 10d, and 14ac, not being able to recall TULL, not knowing EXTRA (and not confident about ‘vacantly’), and not thinking of ZAP, but could think of nothing that would be better, so. I was alive in the 60’s, but never saw ‘Bonanza’, so the irritating theme music didn’t come to mind until Z planted the earworm. Z, you’ve got ‘sued’ for ‘used’ at 26ac.

    Edited at 2016-09-08 02:46 am (UTC)

    1. “DNF in 20:52”? How does that work, Kevin? You are shown as having an all correct entry on the Times website.
  2. … once I got around the unknowns: the meal at 12ac and the castle-fish at 27ac. Just glad I didn’t need to know any campanology to get TANDEM. (In retro., a very clever clue.) Though also liked (t)UNS, (t)ULL, (t)IED.

    Small query: why is VACANTLY “in a free style” (10dn)? No amount of squinting helped here. Anyone else in favour of disqualifying the leg bye?

    Edited at 2016-09-08 03:11 am (UTC)

    1. I wasn’t happy about this either, but at the time I thought that e.g. a hotel room if vacant is free, so maybe vacantly would be in a free style; didn’t convince myself, mind you, but.
    2. With you all the way McT. Alan McGilvray fought this campaign vigorously from behind the microphone, but it seems to have gone to the grave with him.
      1. Ah the Great McGilvray. Second only to Leslie Thomas John Arlott OBE.

        Back to the subject: seems obvious to me that runs should not be scored from a ball that’s neither the fault of the bowler, nor the skill of the batsman. I’m ordering a T-shirt that reads: “The Leg Bye Is Not Cricket”. Hope it’s ready by next Saturday.

        Edited at 2016-09-08 05:17 am (UTC)

  3. Not having heard of the hamper, the castle or the fish, I was at a distinct disadvantage in the SE corner. I really should get out more. Would have got halfway there if I’d thought of PIER for pillar, but I went for PILE instead. Wouldn’t have helped with the fish.

    COD to UNSULLIED. Thanks setter and Z.

    1. I should add that I asked an English / Irish mate over coffee this morning to name a castle in Dorset, and he immediately said CORFE, so I’m not claiming obscurity here, just ignorance.
  4. Late to bed after a birthday dinner in town –

    Started OK FOI ABBE but wilted horribly at 9ac TANDEMS and 10dn EXTRAVAGANTLY therefore DNF. 21ac didn’t flow in.

    WOD QUEASINESS! COD TANDEMS – Dorothy L Sayers would have approved.

    z8 Techically a no-ball and even a wide may be hit off the bat for extras. A boundary off a no-ball is not unusual: a boundary from a wide is far more unlikely but not impossible.

    horryd Shanghai

    1. If it hits the bat it’s not a wide. And if you hit a no-ball, the runs scored are tallied separately, so Z is correct.
            1. Five. But none of these contradict Z’s original point.

              On edit: Sorry Rob, I see you weren’t questioning Z’s statement, you were making the point that a wide that hits the fielder’s unworn helmet would score six. Quite right. Would probably incur the wrath of the captain too I’d imagine!

              Edited at 2016-09-08 03:59 pm (UTC)

  5. No real problems. About 30 mins (cooking dinner at the same time so not really timing it). I knew the castle but not the fish, but it seemed plausible. I toyed with THEODOLITE (I only had the T when I first read the clue) before the penny dropped.
  6. I parsed 1down as “extraordinary act” = antic, “one” = I , “head” = pate. Is that also acceptable? MVS
  7. Considering that I wasn’t able to solve any of the 13-letter answers until I had most of their checked letters I felt I did quite well to complete this in 40 minutes. INCLINED PLANE was unknown along with the specific meaning of “gross” that’s required to define COARSE-GRAINED.
  8. Completed in about three-quarters of an hour, but with probably the 2 best clues – UNSULLIED and EXTRAVAGANTLY – as well as a few others, unparsed so didn’t really count as properly solved. I also liked the misleading def for CONSTELLATION. I’m another who can’t really see VACANTLY for ‘in a free style’.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

      1. Thanks jerrywh, that sounds plausible. Sorry, I’m just being thick, or vacant, I’m not sure which.
  9. 15:56 .. a bit of care and thought needed throughout.

    I needed the helpful checkers for ESCAPEE as I couldn’t parse it despite several minutes of trying. It turns out the only other possible word was EXCIPLE, which being “(in certain lichens) the rim or outer covering of the apothecium” is probably a bit too obscure to be worrying about.

    Some nice things, of which I like UNSULLIED best

    Edited at 2016-09-08 07:09 am (UTC)

    1. I can’t remember this form of soundslike, using just letters, in recent solving. This may mean just that I can’t remember, of course.
      1. Thanks for the excellent blog, Z8.

        This form of soundslike is new to me as well, but clever.

        How did you read the “over one’s property” reference in 12ac? Is the idea that the constellation could be seen over one’s house if one looked up into the sky? If so, pretty feeble padding in my view, but perhaps there’s a better explanation.

        Edited at 2016-09-08 11:52 am (UTC)

        1. Could it be an astrological reference? Property being a term for what a horoscope maps? Can’t face the small print of the dictionary to check.
          20.57. Enjoyed the long-clued pangram.
          1. Yes, I took it as a reference to the type of character typically assigned to a person born under a particular astrological sign. (not that I personally give any credence to astrology)
  10. I’d love to have spent more time on this, but sadly I had to content myself with coming here after my hour with it little more than half-finished.

    On the plus side, I’ve been to Corfe Castle, I remembered Jethro Tull, I got QUEASINESS and JEST early and started looking for a pangram, and although I believed a TACHYMETER was one of those wheels people push along the ground to measure distance, that didn’t stop me from getting it.

    I’d like to think the rest was there for the taking if I had the time (though I’d forgotten Dickens’ Boz incarnation since the last time it came up here.) This was hard in a good way: nothing too unknown, just a little out of my reach.

    All in all some excellent clues. I especially liked UNSULLIED and ESCAPEE, and the surface of TEA GARDEN was lovely.

    Edited at 2016-09-08 07:20 am (UTC)

  11. 15.38 for this enjoyable puzzle with many neat touches. I think the question mark is essential to 10D – suggesting VACANT-LY, cf VAN-ISH the other day.
  12. 19:54, so just coming in on par by 6 seconds according to galspray rules.

    My COD to SYNAGOGUE for a nice surface which made me smile. I also liked ESCAPEE for its originality.

  13. I don’t think I could have known the agriculturalist without the band, who mainly hailed from the country idyll that is Blackpool, as of course did/does Queen Victoria. Found COARSE-GRAINED a difficult anagram, wasting a long time on it. Also TANDEMS wasn’t obvious to me. I got TACHYMETER quickly, confusing it with TACHOMETER and wondering why the surveyors had to drive so much. COD ESCAPEE, which I also gawped at for ages before the penny dropped. An unimpressive 50 minutes after yesterday’s flier.
  14. 20 minutes, no slips, no extras or wides, so level par today, if mixing sporting metaphors is allowed. Corfe is near my birthplace so a write-in; there’s a nice pub just below the castle.
    Not quite sure how SKEW = colour, but wrote it in anyway.
    Nice blog Z, HE-BRIDES ha ha.
    1. I think it’s skew as in ‘give bias to’ which is synonymous with colour. As in you could skew someone’s opinion or colour their opinion.
  15. Couldn’t parse 11ac (I should have remembered a recent Listener which was based on this device), but submitted at 26 min (4 under par – and a couple of minutes before barracuda – yay!) Thanks for help with a couple of others, incompletely parsed: I’m not convinced by the route from ‘vacantly’ to ‘free style’ via ‘not engaged’ but the destination was clear enough.
    The pangram was helpful for 21dn, my LOI.
  16. A steady solve today, ABBE in fast, but like others held up by Stedman Doubles, knew they were bellringing, but thought the GK a bit obscure. For decades, I thought Bonanza was a ranch, so a bit slow on that one too. Not sure where ‘over one’s property’ comes from in CONSTELLATION, unless it’s a reference to the nonsense that is astrology. Knew ORFE, they are the ones that are not quite gold you see in the sinks at the garden centre. COD UNSULLIED, although well known from GoT, took a while. Incidentally, it was Ian Anderson who played the flute, Jethro Tull was the name of the band. 32′. Thanks z and setter.

    Edited at 2016-09-08 10:37 am (UTC)

    1. Yes, it’s to do with astrology as z has indicated in the blog. I can’t quite get my head round it but the clue nearly makes sense to me if I take the apostophe “s” to be short for “has”. So “perhaps sign over one has property…”. “Property” in the sense of some sort of significance.

      I don’t believe in any of it either btw.

    2. “Thick as a brick” would be a better description of me. Very good crossword but I mistyped Bonanza.
      So 30 minutes and struggling over TANDEMS which was a wonderful clue.
  17. I’m another who knew neither Corfe nor orfe, so had a (lousy) shot with ‘erne’. Should have spotted that an F was needed for the pangram. All in all a tough one for me today, 17m 16s with that error.
  18. 40 minutes but with one wrong. Didn’t know the castle and discounted ORFE as I thought it was a sheep disease:-( Eventually stuck in BRI(c)E ‘cos I couldn’t think of anything else, despite knowing it’s a cheese. Liked UNSULLIED and ASCETIC. i found this quite tricky. Thanks to Z for the explanations.
  19. 21:36. Unusual number (for me) of seeing a word from the crossers and then investigating whether the clue assisted. Suspected the pangram but did not need to use it as I knew CORFE/ORFE. Thanks Z for the blog and for spoiling my day by reminding me of the Bonanza theme.
  20. 15 minutes – took advantage of Z taking this one to drink in a baseball game last night, so not solving at full steam today. Pangram didn’t help with the two that inexpeciably held me up a long time – ISSUELESS and ASCENDANCE which I never did figure the wordplay for
  21. 13:02 so just failed to make par again. As with others the tandem and coarse-g anagrams to longer to unravle than they ought to have done.

    Both fish and castle were within my ken but I didn’t spot the pangram.

    Looking at the lower horizontal unches, congratulations to Alan Jen who won a sild. Presumably the fairground had run out of orfes and goldfish.

    1. Ha. I like that.

      I liked the crossword too – very well written (the couple of slightly off clues notwithstanding), with the bonus of a little extra help available once one noticed it was a pangram. (On reflection, maybe the setter’s choice of “abbe” for 1ac was a clue in itself that a pangram lay ahead.) Knowing that I had a J left to find a home for helped me with 23 (jest) – I had put “bile” in here (which I think does fit the clue, more or less).

  22. 46 minutes, but didn’t get the ORFE.

    EXPENSE took me an absurd amount of time to get. Must remember that the river can sometimes be the EXE instead of the DEE. Though I must say, this seems a bit underhand.

  23. I was going to join those who queried vacantly = in a free style, but jerrywh just about makes the case for it so I’ll move on to the ear worm provided by Jethro Tull: “Living in the Past”.
    We’ve had Boz only recently, I think. CODs to 4d and 11ac. Nice puzzle. 43m 25s
  24. 22m, much of that staring at 27ac. Eventually I put in ORFE because either the fish or the castle rang a very faint bell. I’m honestly not sure which!
    For me the question mark covers the slight whimsicality of ‘in a free style’ but I don’t really understand ‘over one’s property’.
  25. 11 mins. This must be the setter that a lot of you have more trouble with than I seem to do. I confess that the CONSTELLATION/UNSULLIED crossers were biffed during the solve, but I parsed both of them post-solve fairly quickly. I say parsed – I then had to check my Chambers to see what kind of meal a COLLATION is, and when I found out it is monastery-related I didn’t fell so bad about not knowing it. I knew both ORFE and Corfe Castle so 27ac was pretty much a write-in with no checkers. ASCETIC was my LOI after TACHYMETER.
    1. I remember collation from reading (several times each) Spike Milligan’s war memoirs where just about every meal seemed to be a “cold collation”.
  26. Again I fell at the end and had to look up my LOI, ORFE. Don’t know either the fish or the castle. I can’t guarantee that I’ll remember them in future, either. Other than that, I just biffed UNSULLIED, CONSTELLATION and the clever ESCAPEE. So I was relatively quick (15 minutes or so) getting to the bottom right, where I found the last one impossible. Regards to all.
  27. Moving from the quick one to the main one, I would be interested to know if there is any day of the week where the main puzzle is any easier? Perhaps one takes ones chances on any given day. Thank you.
    Simon
    1. Seems to be general agreement that Monday’s offering is usually easier Simon. Personally I think there’s no doubt about it.

      Now that I’ve said that, next Monday’s is sure to be an absolute stinker.

    2. Good to see you here Simon. There are often comments about Monday’s puzzles being easier but I think that might be a false perception. In fact I think a setter or the editor might have refuted this idea at some point. I reckon that as you suggest best to take your chances and then you can come here afterwards to see what the general view is for the day.

    4. There is a perception that Mondays are easier and the difficulty increases through the week. Ed and the Setters deny anything of the sort, of course. Experience suggests there may be some truth in it, but I wouldn’t take that to suggest that if you stumble over a Monday you’re not improving. Probably the best guide is the leaderboard on the Club site. Look not so much on the superstars, where 4 minutes is easy and 5 tricky, but at how quickly the scores get up to the 20 mark. Some days it’s page 6 before the 20+ scores appear: that’s clearly an easy one.

      1. I think one time this came up Keriothe whipped out his spreadsheet and definitively settled the matter. Unfortunately I can’t remember which way.
        1. Here is the graph in question. In almost every year for the last five my solving has, on average, got steadily slower as the week goes on. Based on these times it’s clear that I find Monday’s puzzles the easiest of the week, on average. However as I said last time I think this effect would be completely impossible for the setters and editor to achieve on purpose. The steadiness of the improvement suggests to me that some other factor is at work: perhaps I get more tired as the week goes on, or I’m statistically more likely to have a hangover.

          Edited at 2016-09-08 07:49 pm (UTC)

  28. 48 mins but had a hiatus in the middle to eat a tasty sausage casserole so about 28 mins solving time. No DNK’s but some CNP’s (could not parse).
  30. 37m all correct after a slow (and late) start, following a most enjoyable round of golf at Shiskine golf club on Arran with spectacular views across the water in the evening sunshine. Thanks to blogger and setter for adding to the day’s pleasures!
    1. I remember playing at Skelmorlie years ago. It had wonderful views across the Firth of Clyde, but from the mainland. One of my old college friends lives in the town and had invited me to visit. I arrived with a bottle of The Macallan and we knocked it back while playing snooker on the full size table in his basement. Happy days!
  31. 9:44 for this interesting puzzle.

    I’ve visited Corfe Castle and come across ORFE countless times in crosswords, so no poblem with 27ac.

    I’m not entirely happy with INCLINED PLANE = “lift”. Nor (like others) with “property” in 12ac, but in that case I wonder if the clue might originally have read “Sign over one’s house …”.

    1. I too was thinking that, of the simple machines, a lever is more likely to possibly be a ‘kind of’ lift than an inclined plane is – I am not aware of lift having any other meaning than as an active verb (ignore the noun), and and IP is more static.
      1. It seems likely that the setter had in mind the inclined plane as implemented on canals. There is a notable historic example at Foxton. This device, which transported canal boats up and down the hill, could certainly be defined by “lift”.
  32. Me too for cod to UNSULLIED. Me too for not knowing the castle and the fish. (Are fish the new plants?) Me too for not quite parsing ESCAPEE and EXTRAVAGANT. Me too for finding this a pleasant solve – I got through it in close to my usual 45-hour time. And me too for thanking Z8 for another nice blog.
  33. I have a vague recollection that astrologer’s refer to constellations being in or over the house of [star sign]. Could this account for reference to one’s property? Steve
  34. In my case, clearly a lot.

    I would be embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to get TANDEMS, even given the clear anagrist AND all four checkers. I resorted to considering all 24 possibilities before getting there. Quite why it took me so long, I have no idea. I can only assume that some vital part of my brain had gone AWOL on an adventure of its own.

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