Times Cryptic 27002

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I needed just a few minutes over my target half-hour for this one, a very enjoyable lively workout with a few bits of wordplay that were lost on me until I buckled down to writing the blog.

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 Round small lady’s filling image (7)
SPHERIC – S (small), HER (lady’s) contained by [filling] PIC (image)
5 A German infringes protocol for drug (7)
CODEINE – EIN (a, German) contained by [infringes] CODE (protocol)
9 Our cousin appearing intermittently in nappies (3)
APE – {n}A{p}P{i}E{s} [intermittently]
10 Woman captivating fellow primarily in the flesh? (5,6)
FEMME FATALE – FEMALE (woman) containing [captivating]  F{ellow} [primarily] contained by [in] MEAT (flesh). &lit.
11 Maybe use foil to wrap large golden girl (8)
FLORENCE – FENCE (maybe use foil) containing [to wrap] L (large) + OR (golden)
12 Nice goods, sweet (6)
BONBON – BON BON (Nice goods – i.e. French for ‘good’ x 2)
15 The part of the choreography that precedes foxtrot (4)
ECHO – Hidden in [part of] {th}E CHO{reography}. In the NATO alphabet E (echo) precedes F (foxtrot).
16 Best perhaps to pay danseuse, in a cast (10)
FOOTBALLER – FOOT (pay), BALLER{ina} (danseuse) [in a, cast]
18 In which the outline’s represented, nameless? (10)
SILHOUETTE – Anagram [represented] of THE OUTLI{n}E’S [nameless]. Semi-&lit.
19 Pouch, conveniently, sat empty (4)
CYST – C{onvenientl}Y +  S{a}T [empty]
22 You don’t say upturn has to save energy (6)
REALLY – RALLY (upturn) contains [has to save] E (energy)
23 First couple missing earlier action at Wimbledon? (8)
FOREHAND – {be}FOREHAND (earlier) [first couple missing]
25 Unwitting duke very nearly stops in a marquee (11)
INADVERTENT – D (duke) + VER{y} [nearly] contained by [stops] IN + A + TENT (marquee)
27 Bill’s companion loves following clubs (3)
COO – C (clubs), 0 0 (loves)
28 Groom learnt to control horse’s first entrance (7)
ENTHRAL – Anagram [groom] of LEARNT containing [to control] H{orse} [‘s first]
29 Timber supplier still rings wife about source of elm (3,4)
YEW TREE – YET (still) contains [rings] W (wife), RE (about), E{lm} [source]
Down
1 Eleven German admirers upended Nick (7)
SNAFFLE – ELF (eleven German) + FANS (admirers) reversed [upended]. For those not familiar with them, both ‘nick’ and ‘snaffle’ are slang terms for ‘steal’.
2 Moved home with a bad hip, back trouble, blood problem (11)
HAEMOPHILIA – Anagram [moved] of HOME A, anagram [bad] of HIP, AIL (trouble) reversed [back]. It’s not often we have two anagrams indicated separately in the same clue.
3 Beam from Heyerdahl? (6)
RAFTER – Two definitions, the second vaguely cryptic with reference to the Norwegian, Thor Heyerdahl, who in 1947 sailed the Pacific in a hand-built raft named Kon-Tiki.
4 Book stand-up very briefly during Christmas (5,5)
COMIC NOVEL – COMIC  (stand-up), V (very briefly) contained by [during] NOEL (Christmas)
5 Division reduced? Sign on staff (4)
CLEF – CLEF{t} (division) [reduced]. The ‘staff’ or ‘stave’ is the set of 5 lines on which music is notated.
6 Oblique call about endless pain (8)
DIAGONAL – DIAL (call, telephone), contains [about] AGON{y} (pain) [endless]
7 Gershwin in a state, no question (3)
IRA – IRA{q} (state) [no question]. George’s brother and sometime collaborator as lyricist.
8 Old duchess, European, and thin old queen (7)
ELEANOR – E (European), LEAN (thin), O (old), R (queen). The Duchess of Aquitaine who married first Louis VII of France and later Henry II of England.
13 Call ‘er bendy, shimmying? (5,6)
BELLY DANCER – Anagram [shimmying] of CALL ER BENDY. &lit.
14 What’s needed for office still to be picked up (10)
STATIONERY – Sounds like [to be picked up] “stationary” (still). As computers started appearing on every desk 30-35 years ago  I remember being told  that the age of the paperless office was just around the corner. Did it ever arrive anywhere?
17 Stun fan of The Archers? (4,4)
BOWL OVER – A fan of archers might be called a ‘bow lover’.
18 A doctor turning up in function’s not much of a catch (7)
SARDINE – A+ DR (doctor) reversed [turning up] contained by [in] SINE (function)
20 Little swimmer‘s a little pale (7)
TADPOLE – TAD (little), POLE (pale). I wasn’t sure that a pole and a pale were the same thing, but SOED advises that a pole was originally  a stake (as is a pale) before coming to mean a more-or-less cylindrical piece of wood or metal.
21 Top Town Centre award (6)
BESTOW – BEST (top), {t}OW{n} [centre]
24 Ring opposing sides about a test (4)
ORAL – O (ring), R L (opposing sides) containing [about] A
26 What’s right in heart of Tate (3)
ART – R (right) contained by [in] {t}AT{e} [heart]. &lit.

78 comments on “Times Cryptic 27002”

  1. Is this going to be an easy week? Well, we’re only two into it… The QC is very easy today too.
    For some reason, or none, I did the four three-letter answers first.
    Over here, we like two Ls in our ENTHRALs.
    I am all too familiar with the prefix HAEMO right now, as I am still afflicted with haemotympanum, blood behind the eardrum, from my unfortunate tumble, which may very well torpedo my plans to fly to France in three weeks (as of tomorrow). But it will only take time, I am told.

    Edited at 2018-04-03 01:31 am (UTC)

  2. A name that lives-on in crossword puzzles much to Verlain’s chagrin. I first saw Best play at Old Trafford back in August 1969 against Sunderland – FOI, Georgie scored after 8 minutes and it was all over (3-1). 12s 6d to get in 50,570 crowd.

    FOI 5ac CODEINE
    LOI 23ac FOREHAND
    COD 3dn RAFTER (Thor Heyerdal- Kontiki – Shads did the music)
    The raft was launched in Peru by a maiden with an alcoholic coconut! According to Sir Harry Luke.
    WOD 10ac FEMME FATALE

    Time 33mins.

    I wanted 18dn to be TIDDLER not SARDINE!

    Another lovely day in Shanghai- dental appointment at 2.30!

    1. Actually saw Besty make his debut against West Bromwich Albion in 1963, having already seen him turn out for the reserves a few times. Heaven only knows what he’d fetch in today’s ridiculous transfer market.
    2. Couldn’t the poor chap be given a holiday? The Times’s setters are already far too happy to use some word as an answer, with a different clue, a few days after they’ve just used it. But now Best is being forced to play, either as part of a clue or of an answer, about once a week.
  3. 38 minutes, so recovering after yesterday’s travails. Interesting to see another hidden ECHO – but I guess that’s what they do, keep coming back.

    Thanks for WP on the ones I was too lazy to work out, J, and confirmation of the pale/pole thing.

  4. Had to cheat on a few to finish today (codeine, diagonal.

    Can you explain Bill’s companion please.

  5. 37 minutes here, with some good clues along the way, i thought, especially 18a SILHOUETTE and 12a BONBON. Glad 3d had a non-cryptic definition as I’d never heard of Heyerdahl.

    FOI 1a SPHERIC LOI (unaccountably) 14d STATIONERY.

    How high up should I learn to count in German for the purposes of crosswords? In French I can get up to around sixty-eleven before I get too confused…

    Thanks to setter and Jack. Needed several parsings today!

    1. All German numbers 1-100 can fit into a 15×15 grid apart from those in English that end in -seven, and 36 which would need a double-S (taking it to 16 letters) as the scharfe S (ß) is not available.
      1. …and now I’ll kick myself if I don’t remember scharfe and it comes up, too!
      1. Fortunately, Steffi doesn’t qualify yet, but her dad Peter does. Shouldn’t be too taxing for a setter to squeeze him into a puzzle, preferably with a paper bag motif.

        Edited at 2018-04-03 08:10 am (UTC)

          1. I typically avoid Maskarade these days. Protecting what’s left of my brain.
            1. I normally do as well but the weather here was awful over Easter so I had more crosswording time (not that I’ve made much progress on that particular puzzle mind you).
    3. Fortunately you’ll probably never need four-twenty ten-seven!

      Edited at 2018-04-03 09:33 pm (UTC)

  6. 20 mins for me, so fast. No problems, although several I didn’t parse completely and a couple I couldn’t even see afterwards.
  7. 12:30 … thanks to jackkt for the parsing of FEMME FATALE, one of several answers bunged in without full understanding. Puzzle much enjoyed, all the same.

    Watching BBC2 last night I was reminded that the best “stand-up” of them all was a sit-down.

    And talking telly, commiserations to Topical Tim and his posse, who hit a brick wall on Only Connect. An impressive run, all the same

    1. I saw Dave Allen at the Liverpool Shakespeare Club back about 1971. He was brilliant, heckled as he was by both the orange and the green. This time it ended peaceably but a year or two later finished in a big punch-up.
      1. Ironic, or perhaps predictable, that his contempt for hypocrisy and intolerance so often provoked more of both.

        I envy your having seen him live, especially in Liverpool. As a one-time resident, I can imagine how electrifying that must have been back then

    2. Good contest on Only Connect last night, sorry to see Tim’s team lose by a solitary point. The opposing team seemed to pull their wall out the bag at the last minute which probably won it for them.
      1. Thank you both for the support – I didn’t post here yesterday because I’d gone off to London to, amongst other things, do a pub quiz, where the Detectives plus a couple of reinforcements won the first prize, then gambled for the jackpot, and had it cruelly snatched away. Story of our lives…
  8. 30 mins of fun with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    Delayed briefly to unravel the parsing of Femme Fatale and Baller.
    Mostly I liked the few &Lits, Bow Lover and ‘Call er bendy’ (COD). Oh dear, now I have vision of Bruno Tonioli commenting on Felicity Kendal.
    Thanks setter and Jack
    1. I had forgotten Felicity Kendal on Strictly, and now I’ve been reminded I think I need a little lie down. One of the very few real people to run Marge Simpson close in the sexiest women on television stakes. Richard Briars was a very, very lucky man.
  9. Nothing to frighten the horses here. Like others relied on Jack to parse FEMME FATALE

    Yes, Jack the “paperless office” is a reality in some places with the decreasing number of letters sent to offices being captured as images at outset before they join the e-mails in the workflow system.

    What is exciting is the rate at which Artificial Intelligence is now invading the white collar workplace

    1. My last boss at Independent Insurance was an example of artificial intelligence. She had an Economics degree. I had a labrador with more common sense, so I quit. This was a great decision, since the company went down like the Titanic soon afterwards following a massive fraud by some of its directors.
      1. As you know every year in Economics exams they ask the same questions as the previous year but with a whole new set of “correct” answers

        One of the applications of AI that I worked on was the detection fraud – shame this company wasn’t using it!

        1. This old chestnut is a very unfair characterisation of economics. It’s not very good at unconditional forecasting but then neither is medicine: asking an economist to predict the course of an economy is like asking a doctor to predict your weight in a year’s time. There are plenty of areas of economics that are as well understood, and with equally robust data sets as (say) the effect of a high-fat diet, or smoking.
    2. A huge amount of invoicing is now done paperlessly as well.
      I print far less than I used to with the advent of the iPad: it’s a very convenient way of storing and reading vast quantities of material, and you can write your own notes, highlight and so on.
      On the other hand I still see people printing out two-line emails. What on earth is the point of that? And the real data (paper usage) suggests that the paperless office is some way off.
  10. No newspaper delivery, with the local garage having none either, so I had to talk to the family all day yesterday. They hated it! Found this easyish today, in 24 minutes with LOI BONBON. I’ve dropped some sugar dusting on my pullover just from thinking about them. COD to RAFTER. We were told all about the Kon Tiki expedition at primary school, althougn it had happened a few years earlier. I loved Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole in Robert Bolt’s wordy epic. Bad luck to Tim in a great contest. The other side got a much easier Wall. Pleasant puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
  11. You can add me to the long list of people who didn’t feel much need to actually parse FEMME FATALE. Or BOWL OVER or HAEMOPHILIA now that I look at them. But I still understood *most* of this puzzle in a quickish 5-6 minutes.
  12. Good fun. Good surfaces. COD to RAFTER which made me, well, beam.
    Commiserations to Tim on Only Connect last night.
  13. I enjoyed a relaxed solve on the sofa this morning, extending the Bank Holiday with a couple more days off work. I liked ‘Best perhaps’ as a definition for FOOTBALLER but my COD goes to BONBON – a neat little clue which perhaps chimes with my current drive to pick up French having left it at school 30 odd years ago.
  14. With half the grid filled in about 10 mins I thought this was going to be one of my better efforts — I was moving pretty steadily from north-west towards south-east. Nor was it feeling like an easy-peasy one (pace guy_de_sable’s comment). But I was slowed by BESTOW, FOREHAND and YEWTREE and finally came in at 33 mins: matching the times of Jack and horryd, as I very often do.

    With its misleading ‘Nice’, its hint of a triple def, and its brevity, 12a is my COD.

    And let’s hear it for the single L of ENTHRAL – whoo-hoo! I have been fighting my own little campaign for ‘instil’, ‘instal’, ‘fulfil’ and the rest for decades. I’m losing it, of course. Won’t be long before ‘committ’ and ‘travell’ become the norm.

    Thanks to Jack and to the setter. Very enjoyable puzzle and blog.

    Edited at 2018-04-03 09:50 am (UTC)

  15. 21 minutes with many either biffed or stuck in from crossers so thanks jack.
  16. Nice to see my late mum at 11A today.

    10:59 for a generally straightforward puzzle which I enjoyed.

    FOI APE

    LOI SNAFFLE (my German counting ability stops at ten I’m afraid). Thanks to Jack for parsing that one, explaining pale=pole, and demonstrating that I’d parsed ENTHRAL quite wrongly (I was using groom in quite a different way !).

    COD RAFTER. Also liked ECHO, FOOTBALLER, SILHOUETTE, COMIC NOVEL, and BELLY DANCER.

    Thanks to the setter for a very entertaining puzzle.

    1. 26 min 25 secs but with some errors that are really too embarrassing to mention. But I will.

      Here they are in ascending order of toe curling perturbation.

      Eyat for Cyst, for no other reason than it fitted and I thought it was a word. Haemophelia. Two for one next. Stationary and Inadvertant!! And worst/best of all, Bally Dancer!!!

      Edited at 2018-04-03 11:13 am (UTC)

      1. Well if only to make you feel better, I will reveal here that my main hold-up in this puzzle was having EWE TREE at 29ac. A relative of the Baabab tree, no doubt. Or perhaps the ramson, or lambson.
        In my defence I tackled this late, and after a few glasses of wine. How verlaine tackles these things in under ten minutes when half cut I will never know.
        21:48, by the way.
    2. I thought for a minute you were saying your mum was a FEMME FATALE! Not that such is incompatible with being a FLORENCE…
      1. I notice the name is becoming fashionable again. My mother always said I’d come to regret not using it. But I always thought that Nightingale woman had a lot to answer for. Florence Ann
    3. And my mum, who started me on cryptic crosswords, is at 8d. Though I can still call her on the phone 🙂
  17. Another easy one, less than 20 minutes although I had to correct 5d at the end to get LOI CODEINE. I had put in OMEN for sign thinking O MEN for division reduced. Then saw the musical staff which I used to call a stave.
    I thought ENTHRAL had 2 Ls also. Like INSTALL does.

    Recorded Only Connect to watch tonight, so (no) thanks for the heads up.

  18. Like others, I didn’t parse FEMME FATALE – I also biffed FOOTBALLER, INADVERTENT & RAFTER. LOI was CLEF at 5d. After the appearances of ein, elf and bon, I was wondering just how much European I was going to need today, but that seemed to be about it. 7m 17s in total.
  19. Flying today, ORAL and ECHO are making frequent appearances. Lovely wordplay in 18ac wasted on obvious answer. Have learned about pale and pole. Thanks jack and setter.
  20. Not difficult but very neatly done. The one I couldn’t see for a while was SILHOUETTE. I see Verlaine just squeezed past Magoo by a couple of seconds. 15 and change for me.

  22. Steady solve which I enjoyed very much.

    I liked BOW LOVER, having done a few years of archery when I was a lad. The radio progamme, however, leaves me cold – I would rather ( channelling Ros from “Frasier” ) cut off my arm and eat it than listen to an Archers omnibus.

    I will now retreat behind the nearest wall and await the fallout.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  23. Thirty-three minutes, from which deduct an unknown number of minutes spent Skyping Mrs. Thud while I left the timer running. Add a correction factor for jet-lag, compensate for British Summer Time and divide by latitude, and it would seem that this was a fairly easy one.

    I’m glad that STATIONERY’s antepenultimate letter was a checker, or I’d’ve had to flip a coin. “Stationary Stationery” was the B-side to “Temporary Secretary”, but that doesn’t help.

    1. May I suggest that when you Skype the long-suffering Mrs Thud you do not use a timer?
  24. Sounds like my solve was a lot like others: didn’t bother parsing the wordplay fro FEMME FATALE or FOOTBALLER, and got through pretty quickly. LOI was COMIC NOVEL, which I did (eventually) parse. Regards.
  25. Not fast but a comfortable smooth solve. My unused name put in a guest appearance at 11a. 28 minutes. Ann
  26. 16 minutes of steady late afternoon solve, avoiding the spelling traps at SIL@%#^ETTE and the primary school pair 14 and 25.
    I fear I remember the STATIONA/ERY conundrum from the elderly rag week joke “Excuse me Miss, do you keep stationery?” the answer to which I can forward to you in a plain brown envelope.
    One of my Turkish workers in Hackney was an excellent BELLY DANCER, the reminder of which adds to my need for a little lie down (see on Felicity Kendal above), but I could also add Eleanor Bron and possibly Florence from the Magic Roundabout now she’s old enough and singing with the Machine. Does all that Femme Fatale stuff count as some kind of Nina?
  27. 35 minutes, not too hard, but very enjoyable with many clever clues (once one did bother to parse them). Maybe using the foil in FLORENCE makes it my favourite clue today, but there were other good ones.
  28. 39:24. I thought there was some neat stuff in this. I dragged my heels a bit by working out the parsings of some of the more obvious ones before entering. FOI 9ac. LOI 5dn – I was sorely tempted to biff “crew” but fortunately decided to hang on for an alphabet trawl whence I lit upon clef. I am sure I have been faced with similar checkers for clef in a previous puzzle and biffed incorrectly, so pleased to hang on and get this one correct. COD 28ac.
  29. I’ve been getting into the quick cryptic since its early days, now finishing more often than not, and I’ve found this blog particularly helpful for helping to explain the answers I couldn’t quite see. It’s a very good resource.

    Turned my hand to the main crossword, whilst I’ve managed to do the giant one (twice), this one has always evaded me with one near miss last year (PROTEUS). So quite pleased to finally complete it at last LOI FOREHAND about eight hours after the first.

    1. Congrats on your progress and glad to know the blog has helped you improve. Hope you will contribute regularly. It would be good to get to know you so please add a name to your anon posts or you can set up a Live Journal account and give yourself a user-id and picture. It doesn’t cost anything.
  30. I caught up with this puzzle after another busy day, when I did yesterday’s puzzle before dinner after a busy day described in yesterday’s blog, and then added to lunchtime’s MacEwans 80/- with a fair quantity of Sauvignon Blanc, before starting this one. I found the puzzle quite easy, and completed it in 27:40, but with a very careless SILLOUETTE. Boo hiss hic! Started with APE and finished with COMIC NOVEL. I knew ELF from the Dutch rather than the German. I echo Z8’s comments on the divine Barbara Good! Thanks setter and Jack.
    1. MacEwans 80 Bob … happy memories of my schooldays in Newcastle and the Crown Passada on the Quayside …
      1. Been there, done that, and spent many a happy hour in the BRSA club on the other side of the High Level Bridge knocking back Federation Ales and playing snooker. I met John Virgo there in the dim and distant past!
  31. Whisper it quietly, but that’s another one that I have managed to finish, without aids, on the same day that I started. If this carries on, I will soon be taking my shoes and socks off to keep the score. Invariant
  33. Great mind stretcher. Really had to think and COY (year) was George Best
    Ordinary bloke
  34. I’m new to all this however much enjoying comments etc. I’m afraid still measuring my times in days and hours rather than minutes. Did manage this one unaided but got stuck for a while on 5Dn. Did anyone else think it could have been HIRE – {s}HIRE being “a division” of the country?
    1. Well done for perseverence, spinneyfarmer, and be assured it will get easier with practice although there will always be setbacks. I set myself a target of half-an-hour (but without rushing for the sake of it as I like to understand the clues as I go if possible) but quite regularly exceed the hour.

      I think your suggestion for 5dn just about works but of course the checkers put paid to it.

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