Times Cryptic 26906

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
My solving time for this one was off the scale. After an extremely slow start which resulted in my falling asleep with only one word in the grid, things gradually came together for a while before petering out slowly towards the end. I shall be interested to know if others found it tricky too.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Drawer closed, fighting to grab book (6)
TOWBAR – TO (closed), WAR (fighting) containing [to grab] B (book). For those in any doubt, I checked that both ‘towbar’ and ‘tow bar’ are allowable.  TO meaning  ‘closed’ divides opinion around here; for me “to” is the same as ‘ajar’ i.e. not quite closed, but  I accept that others see it differently, and theirs is the meaning demanded by the clue today. Does a towbar actually tow/draw?
4 International team’s way to win, holding firm (8)
SCOTLAND – ST (way) + LAND (win) containing [holding] CO (firm). A somewhat loose definition, I feel.
10 Romantic and tender, disturbed by one kiss (7)
QUIXOTE – QUOTE (tender – offer) containing [disturbed by] I (one) + X (kiss). ‘Romantic’ has to be taken as a noun here; one of the many tricks used by this setter to deceive me.
11 Champion after bronze, failing (7)
TANKING – TAN (bronze), KING (champion). After my disastrous encounter with last Thursday’s QC I shall not forget ‘bronze’ = ‘tan’ for a while!
12 Artist encountered in street, typically (4)
ETTY – Hidden [encountered] in {stre}ET TY{pically}. Wiki advises: William Etty RA (10 March 1787 – 13 November 1849) was an English artist best known for his history paintings containing nude figures. But for all that, he’s managed to avoid my attention until today.
13 Handle nothing but risqué plays (10)
SOUBRIQUET – Anagram [plays] of 0 (nothing) BUT RISQUE. There’s no containment  indicator so we have an anagram where one letter of the anagrist is clued indirectly. There have been a few of these recently.
15 Ordinary fellow’s English journal commandeered by Trots (3,6)
JOE BLOGGS – E (Engliash) + BLOG (journal) contained [commandeered]  by JOGS (trots). I can’t find any definitive origin for this ordinary Joe or his brother Fred. I was first aware of them in the 1950s so Joe long precedes the clothing brand-name that’s cited as the origin in some sources.
16 Bit of a bloomer, being as far as possible from NW China? (5)
SEPAL – SE (as far as possible from NW), PAL (china – CRS). Part of the calyx of a flower.
18 Separate set of countries with private code (5)
UNPIN – UN (set of countries), PIN (private code)
19 Lad in trouble with censor that’s pardoned slave (9)
ANDROCLES – Anagram [in trouble] of LAD with CENSOR. I’ll leave you to look him up if you need to.
21 Servants emerging from shadows with forms (10)
DOGSBODIES – DOG (shadows), BODIES (forms)
23 Prejudice from another time restricting author initially (4)
BIAS – BIS (another time – encore!) containing [restricting] A{uthor} [initially]
26 Not exactly promising more staff (7)
CROSIER – C (not exactly – circa), ROSIER (promising more). As carried by a Bishop.
27 Second buffoon given gold watch (7)
MONITOR – MO (second – moment), NIT (buffoon), OR (gold)
28 No longer have desire to score points (4,4)
DROP GOAL – DROP (no longer), GOAL (desire)
29 Army commanders, with informal agreement, are ingratiating (4,2)
COSY UP – COS (army commanders), YUP (informal agreement)
Down
1 Sending up of books in French that is old hat (5)
TOQUE – OT (books) reversed, [sending up], QUE (in French, that)
2 A wide step, moving up to the middle (5-4)
WAIST-DEEP – Anagram [moving] of A WIDE STEP
3 Confess to a vice — at first it hurts (4)
AVOW – A, V{ice} [at first], OW (it hurts). This was my first in, and my only answer for ages.
5 German city’s constant public transport curbing excessive (7)
COTTBUS – C (constant) + BUS (public transport) containing [curbing] OTT (excessive). I thought I knew most German cities but this one has eluded me until now.
6 She’s into wandering about in French sportswear (6,4)
TENNIS SHOE – Anagram [wandering] of SHE’S INTO containing EN (in, French)
7 I’m going to pass on gold rings (5)
ADIEU – AU (gold) contains [rings] DIE (pass on)
8 Enjoy everything, almost, connected with one’s plant (9)
DIGITALIS – DIG (enjoy), IT AL{l} everything [almost], IS (one’s). Once I had a few checkers in place this came to mind quite easily as the drug ‘digitalin’ was in the QC I blogged yesterday.
9 Take some time to get fit (6)
BELONG – And spaced as BE LONG we  have ‘take some time’
14 Flash twin waffling, suffering from loss of memory (5-5)
BLING-BLING – {ram}BLING (waffling) [suffering from loss of memory – RAM] x 2 [twin]. We had this use of ‘twin’ only a few days ago when it was a means of indirectly disguising anagram fodder. Unfortunately it caught me out again today and as a result this was my last one in. It didn’t help that I wasn’t familiar with the hyphenated form of the answer, only the singular ‘bling’.
15 German we agree not cut up but resentful (9)
JAUNDICED – JA (German, we agree), UNDICED (not cut up)
17 Mean to retain notes for future reading (9)
PALMISTRY – PALTRY (mean) containing [to retain] MIS (notes – music)
19 Small nation not forgetting ordinary men in military academy (7)
ANDORRA – AND (not forgetting), OR (ordinary men in military – Other Ranks), RA (academy)
20 Fancied a small drink around start of extra time (6)
DREAMT – DRAM (small drink) containing [around] E{xtra} [start], T (time)
22 I like that treacly stuff, cook! (4-1)
GOOD-O – GOO (treacly stuff), DO (cook – how do you do your sprouts? for example). Another Bunterism, I think!
24 Pet / that barber keeps (5)
STROP – Two meanings, the first being a fit of temper or the sulks, and the second being the leather device used for sharpening razors.
25 News concerning most of Ulster sent up (4)
INFO – OF (concerning) + NI (most of Ulster) reversed [sent up]. Ulster consists of 9 counties, 6 which make up Northern Ireland and are part of the UK, and 3 that are in the Republic.

70 comments on “Times Cryptic 26906”

  1. …had to cheat for that. Also didn’t know ETTY (or remember… it’s been ages since I visited the Tate), but glad to make his acquaintance. Must’ve come across JOE BLOGGS sometime, though he’s a rare visitor to these shores. TOWBAR is pretty obscure, isn’t it, and why is “righto” one word and “good-o” two? I got sleepy after dinner (turkey) and was on the verge of quitting, but then I saw Jack’s comment that it seemed to be a tough one and I persevered.

    The tenses of the definition and the answer for 29 don’t seem to match.

    1. The usual sources between them sanction both goodo / righto and good-o / right-o. H can be added: ho and oh in other versions.

      I also wondered about 29 but came up with ‘they cosy up’ and ‘they are ingratiating’ which work for me as a substitution test, just about.

      Edited at 2017-12-12 07:17 am (UTC)

      1. No surprise that “goodo” can also be spelled as one word; I was just reporting what passed through my head when I worked it out. (Would good-ho really be the same thing? Ell, yes.)

        I see what you mean about the substitution test for COSY UP, but it is also strange to see it just hanging there without a preposition or object (cosy up to whom?), which is not a problem with “ingratiating” (as the latter can be an adjective as well as a phrasal verb).

        Edited at 2017-12-12 07:50 am (UTC)

  2. Like others, I took a long time to “see” BLING-BLING, but finally the pieces fell into place and GOAL (which originally I had as KICK, a pretty violent way to score points off someone) became my LOI. Over the 10 minutes mark, but I really did enjoy the language and cryptic sense of humour of this one.
    1. I fell for that one too! Fore-warned is fore-armed and I saw from the SNITCH this was the hardest for some time. So I warmed up with Monday’s first and put my best thinking cap on. Having got most done bar chunks of the SW corner after 17 minutes, it took me a while longer to finish… not helped by the afore-mentioned DROP KICK. But ANDORRA cleared that up and then GOOD-O and DOGSBODIES got me to the line. Like others I struggled to find BLING-BLING and I confess to not managing to parse it. CROSIER my LOI. I quite enjoyed this, some excellent clues and no obscure vocabulary, although I had to trust the wordplay for COTTBUS. 31:06. Thanks setter for the excellent puzzle and jack for the illuminating blog.

      Edited at 2017-12-12 11:57 pm (UTC)

  3. This was a nightmare after 25 mins I had the east-wing covered.
    But then I took a time out for breakfast – oat porridge banana and Italian roast coffee.

    My LOI was 3dn AVOW! Jack’s FOI!

    I biffed 12ac ETTY and was further delayed as I had 18ac as UNZIP!

    Consequently I just didn’t see 2dn WAIST DEEP as an anagram until very late.

    FOI 29ac COSY UP although the clue does appear, as suggested, damaged.

    COD 10ac QUIXOTE

    WOD 21ac DOGSBODIES

    Time – longer than Jack!

  4. 55 mins with yoghurt, granola, blueberry compote, etc. I so nearly had porridge and banana, but it is only -9C so I toughed it out.

    I really liked this one – very, very clever. I knew Etty (from the statue in front of York art gallery) – but did not know Cottbus although what else could it be? I now have the ear worm of a Germanic Tina Turner singing ‘Ein church house, gin house…etc.’

    Mostly I liked: Scotland, Soubriquet, Joe Bloggs, Waist Deep, Undiced.

    Minor eyebrow raise at the extra ‘a’ in 20dn. How do we feel about these extra articles to improve the surface, but which are superfluous to the wordplay?

    Thanks very clever setter and Jack.

    Edited at 2017-12-12 08:37 am (UTC)

    1. I’ve no problem at all with extra articles used sparingly to enhance the surface of a clue. In my view, puzzles would be very dull and formulaic if they were never allowed.
      1. Thanks, and thanks to Mike below. I shall now feel less restrained in my use of extraneous articles when cluing.
        I guess if the clue passes the “it couldn’t be anything else” and the “I see what the setter means” tests then that is good enough.
        I did like 20dn, but I would have agonised about, and eventually dropped the ‘a’.
        ‘Fancied small drink around start of extra time’ is still a good surface.
    2. I actually thought the “a” was quite helpful – “Small drink” could lead anywhere (truncation, abbreviation). But ‘A” small drink immediately sends me to dram, tot, sip….
    3. Cottbus was on my radar as it was a WWII bombing destination (oil) near Dresden Just about as far east as the Allies went. Dresden is occupying a lot of my time presently.
  5. Beaten by BLING-BLING, which has apparently never crossed me radar. The wordplay sort of got me there but it didn’t seem plausible. Oh well.
  6. 41.21 for this, with the top left going in quickly, then a hideous hiatus on everything else. Got going again on the top right, staled almost to the point of giving up in the bottom left. Jamais couché avec BLING-BLING as a compound form, and was tempted by BLANK-BLANK (or at least something-BLANK giving DROP KICK (perfectly feasible) at the bottom. That messed up ANDORRA, though because I separated “ordinary men” from “in military academy” I wasn’t anywhere near certain. “Not forgetting” was sneaky for AND anyway. All eventually untangled.
    As for COTTBUS, it looks distinctly un-Germanic (even some Germans think so: in Berlin, it’s down as Kottbus). possibly the largest German (even European) city I’ve never heard of. Even the Wiki entry’s a bit sketchy, along the lines of “belonged to various states at various times, nothing much happened”. Perhaps the good Burghers should be notified that their cosy private existence has been outed by the Times.
    1. I think COTTBUS is fair dos, just as a way of teaching us how our American friends probably feel when we happily write WORKSOP or LUTON straight into a puzzle…
      1. 32.07, Cottbus mit einem Gebet. Re Worksop etc., v., it is a UK crossword. And an elegant one at that.
      1. Sadly, we’ve never been eligible for the Brandenburg Cup, which seems to be the highest reach of FC Cottbus. But you never know!

    2. Cottesloe, aka Cott, in my (and McText’s, Galspray’s, Koorakea’s, etc) home-town Perth has an iconic beach and beachside pub. Every summer the local council put on a free bus between the station and the beach – the Cott-bus? English v. local spellings of names often annoy me: Munich or München? Cologne or Köln? Further south it’s always Rome, Turin, Genoa never Roma, Torino, Genova.
      Slowish 27 min for me, but about the last 7 on CROSIER – a full alphabet trawl failed to reveal a single valid word, and the wordplay wasn’t that obvious, though eventually twiggable. And it turned out to be an actual staff.
  7. As for others – a frequent visitor to Germany I’ve never heard of COTTBUS. I’ve come across BLING-BLING before somewhere, Mephisto perhaps

    Very enjoyable puzzle with only 29A causing some raising of the eyebrows

    1. YUP is the barely audible noise made by an away team supporter, illicitly sitting amongst home fans, when his team is inconsiderate enough to score a goal.
      1. A few years ago I was visiting a fiend in Hull who took me to the Middlesbrough/Hull match. I made the mistake of jumping up and shouting Yeeess! when Middlesbrough scored. Just the once, mind you!
        1. Back in 1967, before crowd segregation, I stood on the Kop for a Liverpool v Bolton game. Franny Lee chased a lost cause and met the ball where the goal and penalty lines intersect. He smashed it and it crashed in just under the bar without Tommy Lawrence moving. As I yelled “Fantastic, Franny”, I realised where I was. Whoops! But then the whole of the Kop applauded the goal. How times have changed!
        2. As recently as the first season of the Premier League, I went to Old Trafford from Lancaster to watch my team play Wimbledon, but was told it was sold out. A policeman on the concourse spotted me and asked me which side I supported. When I said I was a neutral, he reached into his coat, took out a wad of tickets and gave me one for the Wimbledon section. United lost the match, but won the league.
            1. Bobbies were bobbies back then. When I started repping (as a callow youth – in 1981), I fell asleep at the wheel and ended up in an orchard in Kent. The sergeant who arrived at the scene asked me what happened, and was rather taken aback when I said I’d fallen asleep. “Mind you don’t do it again,” he said, with a consoling pat on the shoulder.
  8. Took 55 minutes on this with BLING-BLING LOI, a total biff, based on BLING meaning flash jewellery and twin being in the clue. I think I have always spelt CROSIER with a Z before, although I might be confusing the object with the presenter of Family Favourites or the former Chief Exec of the FA. No, William of Wykeham’s crozier had pride of place in New College chapel. I went there religiously once a term on the day when the Chaplain arranged a super supper spread afterwards. With that spelling, I reckon an Etonian must be the setter today. I found this puzzle hard but well worth the effort. COD JAUNDICED but I loved JOE BLOGGS too, which gave the J. My best biff of day COTTBUS, which I’d never heard of.Thank you Jack and setter.
    1. On a technical point, is it possible to biff an answer that one has never heard of? I only got it through wordplay.
      1. I guess you’re right, Jack. I came up with COTTBUS from the wordplay straightaway, but didn’t think it could be correct. I biffed it in anyway as I was going nowhere fast in the NE.

        Edited at 2017-12-12 10:09 am (UTC)

      2. Original sense of the term of art. I guess there’s no term for bunging in from wordplay.

        Edited at 2017-12-12 03:11 pm (UTC)

          1. Dunno. I take “biffed” as a phonetic spelling of BIFD. It’s “bunged in from definition,” not “bung-in-from-definition–ed.” And “biff” is a back formation that negligently drops the “d.” In any case, it must be rare that a word is found from the wordplay while the definition remains an utter mystery.

            Edited at 2017-12-12 03:55 pm (UTC)

            1. I don’t think I’ve ever done the Mephisto without finding a mysterious word I’ve never heard of from the wordplay alone.
  9. Beaten by the staff, a word that has passed me by. Just did not see the cryptic so didn’t even get within biffing range. A real toughie.
  10. About an hour and a half. Back to the real world after some less challenging ones over the last few days. Had to do this in 2 goes with DOGSBODIES helping me back in after the break and BELONG being my last in.

    COTTBUS (chief topic of conversation for the next week: “Did you know there‘s a city in Germany called Cottbus?” and I’m sure there’ll be room for the Sorbs too) and ETTY both new so at least I have learnt something. I did enjoy DROP GOAL and BLING-BLING.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  11. 35′ today, tough it was. BLING BLING 2LOI, unparsed. Fingers crossed on COTTBUS, nhoi. Is a TOQUE really ‘old’? Thanks jack and setter.
  12. Seen to remember when ‘Bling’ was ‘Bling bling’ when first introduced to denote expensive jewellery on rap singers, probably in the early 90s
  13. Time for another repeat of a regular whinge. The iPad Times app does not show hyphens in the enumerations. If I had known that 14 and 22 dn were 5-5 and 4-1, I would have got there earlier. Never heard of COTTBUS but it could not be anything else. Got there in the end, although with a shrug rather than a smile. Thanks for the blog Jack.
    1. I also use the IPAD app (except Sundays when it definitely doesn’t work) but mine is showing the hyphens in the enumerations. Maybe time to update it from the app store?
  14. Having nearly finished yesterday’s puzzle( Sierran problem etc), I felt emboldened to look at today’s.
    I scanned it to see if I could solve at least one clue – I got 29a and then gave up. The puzzle looked very difficult.
    Having looked at today’s answers I do think Cottbus is too obscure. I thought I knew a lot about Germany etc.
    However I think Worksop and Stavanger are OK.
    And I am ready for the return of Habakkuk. David
  15. This clearly hit some sort of sweet spot for me. The fact that I immediately remembered Energie Cottbus suggests I’ve spent too much time digesting the Bundesliga fixture list over recent years. I even paid enough attention to all the wordplay to avoid banging in CROZIER, which would have been my expected spelling. Nice puzzle.
  16. My first run through this yielded nothing until 16a. The NW stayed stubbornly blank, as did the SW and the NE. The SE gradually came together, then SCOTLAND and our heart medication plant from yesterday’s QC came to my aid. NHO ETTY or COTTBUS, but I followed the wordplay and checkers blindly. TOQUE eventually unlocked the NW and I finished in Cornwall with JAUNDICED and CROSIER, saved from mis-spelling the latter by the wordplay. I was helped with BLING-BLING by a similar clue recently, and wasn’t unfamiliar with the expression. Liked DOGSBODIES, which unlocked the SW. An enjoyable battle which kept me busy for 46:40. Thanks setter and John.
  17. 18:26. I really enjoyed this. Some clever clues and interesting words, all fairly clued I thought. I hadn’t heard of COTTBUS either, but the wordplay was clear so why not? Like robrolfe I wondered what’s old about a TOQUE, and like anon I have a feeling (which I can’t substantiate) that BLING-BLING preceded BLING.
  18. Yikes. There wasn’t a red herring I didn’t pursue. Like others I only know CROSIER with a Z and SOUBRIQUET without the U (which may just be US spelling). Chefs do still wear TOQUEs apparently. I’d always thought JAUNDICED meant disillusioned or sceptical (or does that have a K) but I see it has other definitions.

    I spent a long time trying for the wrong dramatist with ANDROCLES, which was rather feeble because I once was third spear carrier in that play. ETTY is featured in the Collins mini crossword dictionary otherwise he’s unknown to me. 31.33

  19. Another in ‘the DNF after an hour’ camp. Now I’ve seen Jack’s blog I’m fairly confident that I would never have finished however long I stared blankly at the many white spots on the grid. Not my cup of tea evidently but hats off to those who completed it. Thanks for the blog, Jack.
  20. Curses! I had 3/4 of it done in 15 mins, until I hit the SW where everything seemed to be totally obscure and nothing jumped out at me. Thought of JAUNDICED then rejected it for some reason – prob because I didn’t like the definition. Once I had that it was fairly plain-sailing, hit the submit button only to realise I had never solved STROP. Still mystified on coming here – didn’t know that meaning of pet and barber’s strop also unknown.
  21. Had a terrible time with this this morning. I thought it was because I’d slept an hour or two longer than usual, but when I came back to look at the third of it I had left over this evening—basically the entire left-hand side—I found I wasn’t faring any better.

    An hour and a half to give up and come here, basically. Not sure I’d have ever spotted JAUNDICED, DROP GOAL or CROSIER, as I apparently didn’t know their definitions, let alone know what was going on with the wordplay.

    At least I didn’t come here to find that everyone else thought it was a bit too easy for a Tuesday…

  22. Spent 43 minutes on the bottom half of this puzzle before setting it aside to go for lunch. The bacon and egg must have worked wonders on the brain cells because I managed to polish off the upper half in 12 minutes. I thought it was quite hard. I go to Germany frequently but have never heard of COTTBUS (My son now tells me I should join him down the local and watch the Bundesliga to improve my knowledge of German cities) Ann

    Edited at 2017-12-12 06:08 pm (UTC)

  23. It looks as though the setter intended 26a to be CROZIER, which would have made it a pangram, but forgot this when it came to the clue.
  24. Eventually managed to finish, but it felt like trying to extract my own wisdom teeth.
    If Tottenham do ever met Cottbus Energie I shall make the effort to commit the place to memory, but until then……
  25. I had very few answers entered after 20 mins this morning and polished the puzzle off in 30 mins at lunchtime but with one error. I managed to spell 26ac correctly (in my opinion) but that correct spelling did not match up with the equally valid variant spelling required by the grid, or the wordplay for that matter (I can’t pretend that I usually spell rozier with “z”). A bit frustrating, firstly because I managed to successfully crack quite a few other tough nuts in this one and secondly because I’m not much of a biffer, I knew full well that I couldn’t parse “crozier” and that should have set the alarm bells ringing. Dnk Etty, so glad he was hiding in plain sight. Dnk Cottbus but trusted wp.
  26. Right hand side was OK. Left, not so much. I put in a hasty “DROP DEAD” instead of “DROP GOAL” which made BLING BLING impossible (I was sure it was BLIND or BLANK something. BLIND DRUNK seemed a bit of a stretch for “suffering from loss of memory” and the crossers eventually put paid to that idea, despite one of them being wrong). So DNF for me. But I really enjoyed the challenge.

    As someone said above, I was pleased to come here and find everyone else thought it hard too. It is annoying when the opposite happens.

  27. Eventually managed to finish, but it felt like trying to extract my own wisdom teeth.
    If Tottenham do ever met Cottbus Energie I shall make the effort to commit the place to memory, but until then……
  28. Over an hour – and then had CROZIER at 26ac as in relief at finishing (with 9dn after seeing which JOE was needed) didn’t want to spend more time on parsing it. I’d originally chose the Z, expecting a pangram, having found Q X & J.
    But I found this really tough to get started, and it was over half an hour before I had more than ETTY, whereas I’m usually done in that time.
  29. Music: none
    Mood: Christmassy (very similar to grumpy)
    Drink: Warre’s Otima 10 which, for reasons unknown and unjustified, only comes as a 50cl bottle.

    Beaten by the south-left corner. I’d considered at least one BLING, but have never encountered two of them together and, in any case, missed the ‘rambling’. DROP GOAL comes under my “unfairly obscure sporting terms” umbrella. I have no plausible excuses for failing on CROZIER and GOOD-O.

    1. Sorry if the blog didn’t make it clear:

      PET noun
      a fit of sulkiness, esp at what is felt to be a slight; pique

      STROP noun
      A bad mood; a fit of temper

      1. Ah……. many thanks for that; new meaning of pet to me.
        And something I am prone to myself unfortunately … taking things too personally.
        I was thinking of petulance … which maybe connected.
        Cheers.
  30. 18:26. I really enjoyed this. Some clever clues and interesting words, all fairly clued I thought. I hadn’t heard of COTTBUS either, but the wordplay was clear so why not? Like robrolfe I wondered what’s old about a TOQUE, and like anon I have a feeling (which I can’t substantiate) that BLING-BLING preceded BLING.
  31. Got bling-bling alright but thought the explanation was bl(ether)ing. Wrong of course, but it didn’t matter!

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