Times Cryptic 26650 – February 16, 2017: A Lot of Lit

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
With a little tinkering, this could turn up in a couple of weeks as a TLS. Lots of Lit and Arts references, and decent, economical clues including an original-looking idea at 15 which works perfectly well. I managed to cruise through in a respectable tad-under-15 minutes, almost erasing the horrors of my bottom-of-the-table performance yesterday from the memory. The explanations below satisfy me, but rather unusually there may be several where an alternative construction may well be feasible
My usual conventions clue, definition, SOLUTION

Across
1. State capital not quite enough for Cathedral? (2,4)
ST PAUL  The London Wren memorial (or possibly Melbourne’s cathedral) loses its S for the Minnesota State capital
4. Making fist of PE, avoiding usual runs? (3-5)
OFF PISTE  An anagram (“making”, I think) of FIST OF PE for the boldly going version of skiing
10. The establishment no one has a pop at (9)
ORPHANAGE  “So this Jewish kid kills both parents and pleads for clemency  on the grounds he’s an orphan”, the classic definition of chutzpah. Because he has no father, or Pop, he’s given sympathetic accommodation in our answer.
11. Agitated old marshal clutching Bible (5)
NERVY  The Marshal is Napoleon’s faithful Ney (except when it suited him), and the Bible is the R(evised) V(ersion), the 1881/5 authorised revision of the King James, still the only officially recognised revision. Put the one inside the other.
12. Children’s book: due to order one in the morning (4,7)
JUST WILLIAM  Richmal Crompton’s opening salvo in an almost endless run of naughty boy stories. I’d always assumed Richmal was a he. Slightly embarrassing to discover the truth. The wordplay is, I think, due which gives JUST (think due reward), order which supplies WILL, and one in the morning which gives 1AM
14. Swimmer scaled gumtree, ascending rapidly at first (3)
GAR  A relative of the pike (TLS 1159, blogged by me less than a week ago) and therefore a scaled swimmer, drawn from the first letters of Gumtree Ascending Rapidly
15. Red Cross first to attend to damage (7)
MARXIST  X, cross, 1ST, first, MAR, damage. Rearrange.
17. No queen ultimately like a goddess (6)
HECATE  An all purpose Goddess Macbeth had heard of. A queen is a lady cat, so not a queen is a HE CAT. Add the E from the end of like.
19. It falls at start of January, end of July and middle of September (6)
STRESS  Just say the three months out loud. Nice.
21. Care with which the solver obtains qualification (4,3)
MIND YOU Care is MIND, and YOU is the solver. Mind you, that grammar looks wrong.
23. The works visit boycotted by clubs (3)
ALL  Drawn from such as the great British breakfast, where “the works” means everything on the menu fried to within an inch of its edibility. Yum. And therefore ALL. Visit is CALL. Remove the C(lubs)
24. Abuse reputation and profession (4-7)
NAME CALLING  In these sensitive days, mostly illegal. Reputation: NAME and profession: CALLING
26. Made contact on parking — this the result? (5)
PRANG Made contact RANG (as in telephoned) and P(arking) for the RAF slang, usually qualified as “wizard” for a crash.
27. Balkan who achieved greatness by stopping a lover drowning (9)
ALEXANDER  And a merry chase this led me on. I had a background memory of Alexander saving someone from drowning, and though I could not see that as the mainspring of his fame, I had to look it up. Google, I can authoritatively report, knows no such tale. So yes, it’s X for by (maths and timber) inside (stopping) A LEANDER, Hero’s lover who died on one of his frequent swims across the Hellespont.
29. Prevent ideological displays this late in the day (8)
EVENTIDE Today’s hidden.
30. Returning every so often, rushes onto the island (6)
HONSHU  Today’s every other letter, backwards in “rushes onto the”

Down

1. Turn up before start to compete at Hickstead? (8)
SHOW JUMP  Hickstead is equestrianism’s premier site (at least in England). SHOW: turn up, JUMP: start (as in Major Jump).
2. Diarist’s life’s covering years (5)
PEPYS  Diarist beginning with P, 5 letters. Hmmm. PEP is, I suppose, life, and YS an acceptable abbreviation for years.
3. On parts of the continent, a single girl (3)
UNA  Several ways of parsing this, I’ll stick with a Spanish feminine single being UNA (paloma blanca?)
5. Style attributed to Rubens himself, originally (7)
FLEMISH  Rubens was from Antwerp, the capital of Flanders, and therefore an anagram of HIMSELF, quite apart from being the leading figure in the Flemish Baroque style of painting. A rather decent self-referential clue.
6. Short cut parents put a stop to: a large crossing not available (6,5)
PANAMA CANAL  Parsed properly only after submission. PA and MA are the parents, CAN is “put a stop to), A L(arge) tags on the back, and N(ot) A(vailable) goes where it’s most needed.
7. Moving a lot of dope — with good reason (9)
SPRIGHTLY  With good reason is, of course RIGHTLY. The SP comes from the expression “what’s the SP?” (sc “starting price”) which morphed through slang into a request for  information, gen, DOPE. Best I can do.
8. Extremes of endurance long ago for a friend to bear (6)
EEYORE  Who was a friend to Pooh Bear. First and last of Endurance, and YORE (as in days of) for long ago.
9. Scoundrel ordered sailor uprising (3,3)
BAD LOT Ordered is TOLD, sailor A(ble) S(eaman), all reversed.
13. Chess champion? (5,6)
WHITE KNIGHT Essentially a CD. “A person who rescues a company from an unwanted takeover bid” (Chambers), so a champion who rides to the rescue.
16. Get back when expected: I subsequently returned (9)
RETALIATE  When expected: ETA, I: I, subsequently LATER, all reversed.
18. High point of month: girlfriend meeting artist, posh (8)
JUNGFRAU  Month JUN(e), girlfriend GF, artist RA, posh: U. The whole a mountain in the Alps, 4,158 metres, so definitely a high point.
20. Racism upset daughter in mobile phone store (3,4)
SIM CARD  one storage device on a mobile phone. Anagram of RACISM and D(aughter)>
21. What stand-up comedian holds vital — and which satirist takes? (6)
MICKEY Your stand-up holds on to the MIC for dear life, and it’s KEY, vitally important.
22. Maybe weekly case containing food and flyer (6)
MAGPIE  I liked “case holding food” for PIE, and your MAG may indeed be weekly.
25. Asian banker’s great effort to avoid tax (5)
INDUS  See “banker” in a crossword, think river. INDUStry is great effort, and loses try for tax.
28. Song and dance act led by foremost of artistes (3)
ADO  Act is do, tag onto the first letter of Athletes.

58 comments on “Times Cryptic 26650 – February 16, 2017: A Lot of Lit”

  1. 11m. My train pulled in to Charles de Gaulle station just as I completed, cutting off my iPad signal, so I wasn’t able to submit for another minute and a half, approximately. I wouldn’t normally mention this but I thought Don M might be reading and he would want to know.
    Something of a biff-fest for me, this, so I think I missed the finer points. Still fun though.
    I am on my way home from Disneyland Paris, where I met 8dn earlier. The kids enjoyed it, but I can’t say it was my cup of tea. I’m lucky though: I travel a lot so I often get to stand in long queues at passport control. And they don’t even charge!
    1. The greatest joy about retiring nearly 4 years ago is that I never ever have to fly anywhere again.
      1. I don’t really mind it that much, which is fortunate as I am out of the country two to three days a week. I don’t do a huge amount of long-haul and most of the things (people) I like least about my job are in London.
        Still, travelling only by choice will be nice.

        Edited at 2017-02-16 09:30 pm (UTC)

  2. Any musical doubter might try listening again to ” Autumn leaves” sung by Sinatra or Nat King Cole ?

    JFR

  3. At last a chewy one, after the last two days’ offerings (disappointing, as I had long tube journeys both days and was left with little to do – apart from reading the wretched paper – after half-an-hour). Today, the top went in easily – almost write-ins, yet the bottom seemed to take forever although, in retrospect the clues were elegant, meticulous and fair – and absurdly simple after the penny had dropped. Exactly what clues should be!

    And proof positive that one can construct a good crossword without searching the obscure reaches of the OED.

    Mr Editor, if you are reading this, more like this, please!

    FOI St Paul, LOI Magpie, COD Marxist (which held me up for ages, although looking back, I can’t fathom why).

    Edited at 2017-02-16 07:38 pm (UTC)

  4. 2 hours in between table tennis matches tonight left me with one blank clue and had to get my team mate to finish off with MARXIST. Red face! Eniamretrauq
  5. Not easy (just over an hour), but good fun and fortunately no mistakes despite a few guesses. Lots I didn’t know, such as JUST WILLIAM, Hickstead, the SP in SPRIGHTLY and of course the parsing of ALEXANDER. COD to EEYORE (“for a friend to bear”, how delightful!)
  6. Another top-notch puzzle I thought. Not sure that MARXIST is getting the accolades it deserves, I’m giving it COD if not COW.

    No probs with the well-known SP, but have never heard of Hickstead. Resolved after a few checkers went in, helped by the fact that it sounds like a place were they’d do that sort of thing.

    Thanks setter and Z. Great blog. Fascinated by the possibility that any English-speaker could pronounce September with the stress on anything but the middle syllable.

  7. Thankfully I was pretty much on the right wavelength here, leading to a great deal of correct biffing. Unfortunately a DNF owing to my little knowledge of Greek mythology, obliging me to resort to aids to solve 17ac but managed to get everything else … eventually!
  8. Was a bit tired after a day travelling from Fuerteventura to Macclesfield followed by a day driving from Macc to Middlesbrough, almost being wiped out by a Co-op food truck en route, then driving from Middlesbrough to Ryedale and back to see the grandson play trombone at the school recital. Took 68 minutes to complete, but having worked out HERCATE from the wordplay, carelessly wrote in HERCATA. FOI ST PAUL, LOI ORPHANAGE. Liked EEYORE. Thanks setter and Z.
  9. 10:05 for this first-class puzzle, a delight from start to finish. My compliments to the setter. I join others in choosing 8dn (EEYORE) as COD.

    (Sorry this comment is a bit late. I got caught up in something else I really had to finish last night, and was so exhausted by the end of it that I completely forgot.)

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