Times Cryptic 27122

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 44 minutes with one error at 5dn. Not easy with some slightly unusual words.

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

Across
1 Ambulance driver recalled police attending a crash in outskirts of Poole (9)
PARAMEDIC – A + RAM (crash) contained by [in] P{ool}E [outskirts], CID (police) reversed [recalled]. Paramedics supplement and support the work of the medical profession. Some of them work from ambulances and some may actually be ambulance drivers but ‘ambulance driver’ does not define ‘paramedic’. Even as a DBE (Definition By Example) it’s extremely dodgy.
6 Belgium’s principal old school artist (5)
BOSCH – B{elgium} [‘s principal], O (old), SCH (school). Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 – 1516). I think Bosch was Dutch rather than Belgian, but historically it’s  something of a grey area. Not that the clue relies on his nationality in order to work, but it’s sort of suggested in the surface reading so I thought I would mention it.
9 Puzzle book used principally during short holiday (5)
REBUS – B (book) + U{sed} [principally] contained by [during] RES{t} (holiday) [short]
10 Like Jesus of Nazareth, is back in different cinemas (9)
MESSIANIC – IS reversed [back] in anagram [different] of CINEMAS
11 They sing very softly, accompanying Queen (7)
SOPRANI – SO (very), P (softly), RANI (Queen). Rani can be a Hindu queen in addition to being a raja’s wife or widow. To my mind, when speaking English the plural of ‘soprano’ is ‘sopranos’ , similarly ‘altos’ and ‘concertos’ etc. Unnecessary use of the Italian form puts me in mind of Emmeline Lucas in the Mapp and Lucia series of novels by E. F. Benson.
12 Film, maybe: High School Musical — not grand, the Spanish admitted (7)
RELEASE – {g}REASE (High School Musical) [not grand] with EL (the, Spanish) contained [admitted].  ‘There’s a new release showing at the local cinema’.
13 The UK dish girl cooked at minimum temperature is sweet (7,7)
TURKISH DELIGHT – Anagram [cooked] of THE UK DISH GIRL, T (minimum temperature). I take ‘mimimum’ to indicate the abbreviation, not that it’s needed for that, but it adds to the surface reading. Full of Eastern promise…
17 Sailor on dry land? A fine fellow (4,2,3,5)
SALT OF THE EARTH – SALT (sailor), EARTH (dry land) with the question mark covering the cracks in the cryptic definition.
21 Proust translated by Henry Percy (7)
HOTSPUR – H (henry – SI unit of induction, according to my dictionary), anagram [translated] of PROUST. Harry HOTSPUR is the nickname of Sir Henry Percy, son of the Duke of Northumberland, as depicted in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I.
23 Road that is going through Tyneside region initially is less bright (7)
NERDIER –  RD (road) +  IE (that is) contained by [going through], NE (Tyneside) + R{egion} [initially]. In some respects ‘nerds’ can be brighter than the average bear but perhaps only when focused on their particular area of expertise. The ‘foolish’ meaning of ‘nerdy’ that’s required here is also well-documented.
25 Nick, we hear, and John providing fish (9)
STEELHEAD – STEEL sounds like [we hear] “steal” (nick), HEAD (john).  ‘John’ and ‘head’ are both slang for lavatory. Not a fish that I knew. but Collins advises it is a North Pacific variety of rainbow trout.
26 Modify rope after horse bolts (5)
ALTER – {h}ALTER (rope) [horse bolts]. A halter can be a rope for constraining animals and also a noose for hanging criminals.
27 I will come in on foot for a makeover (5)
REFIT – I contained by [will come in]  RE (on) + FT (foot)
28 Appreciate some Europeans banning a new drug (9)
DIGITALIS – DIG (appreciate), ITALI{a n}S (Europeans) [banning a new]. Made from dried foxglove leaves.
Down
1 Drone in place of airborne soldiers? (8)
PARASITE – PARA-SITE (place of airborne soldiers – geddit?)
2 Polish food and drink, both originally spurned (3,2)
RUB UP – {g}RUB  (food) + {s}UP (drink) [both originally spurned]
3 Male gets help to engage a good health-spa professional (9)
MASSAGIST – M (male), ASSIST (help) containing [to engage] A + G (good). Another word unknown to me, with ‘masseur’ and ‘masseuse’ being much more familiar.
4 Served up hot drink with crackers, not entirely dry (7)
DAMPISH – H (hot ) + SIP (drink) + MAD (crackers) all reversed [served up]
5 Military base a screen camouflaged (7)
CASERNE – Anagram [camouflaged] of A SCREEN, and yet again we have an obscure word clued as an anagram. This one is so obscure it has never appeared in a Times cryptic since TftT was founded in 2006. I jumped the wrong way and put ‘cesarne’.
6 Great transport company no longer ailing (5)
BRILL – BR (transport company no longer – British Railways), ILL (ailing). Slang derived from ‘brilliant’.
7 Newspaper article outlaw pens for a tanner (9)
SUNBATHER – SUN (newspaper), BAR (outlaw) contains [pens] THE (article)
8 Hearts extremely optimistic ahead of crucial game (6)
HOCKEY – H (hearts), O{ptimisti}C [extremely], KEY (crucial)
14 Cooked meat in pan, leading to complaint (5,4)
ROAST BEEF – ROAST (pan – criticise), BEEF (complaint)
15 Alcoholic drink? After one, fellow is uplifted and full of cheer (9)
INEBRIANT – I (one), BEN (fellow) reversed [uplifted], RIANT (full of cheer). I have no recollection of seeing RIANT before but it came up in wordplay in a puzzle I blogged here in 2009.
16 Plan brief residence in French city (8)
CHARTRES – CHART (plan), RES (residence) with ‘brief’ indicating the colloquial abbreviation as in ‘des res’ – ‘desirable residence’  – much used in the small ads.
18 Stop old car crossing swampy ground (7)
FORFEND – FORD (car) containing [crossing] FEN (swampy ground). An old word for ‘stop’, FORFEND is an archaism as in the expression ‘Heaven forfend!’ but ‘fend’ survives in modern usage e.g. to fend something off.
19 Wretched call to punish murderous cur? (7)
HANGDOG – A straight definition followed by a cryptic
20 Tea and sherry taken regularly — one drink after another (6)
CHASER – CHA (tea), S{h}E{r}R{y} [taken regularly]
22 Religious group in new TV programme (5)
PILOT – PI (religious), LOT (group)
24 During half term learner obtains information (5)
INTEL – IN (during), TE{rm} [half], L (learner). Another colloquial abbreviation, this time for ‘intelligence’.

70 comments on “Times Cryptic 27122”

  1. If you had known about 5d in advance, wouldn’t you have solved the puzzle? That’s what I did (finally).
    1. Not sure I understand your point. Knowing about it in advance wouldn’t have made it any more solvable.
      1. Sorry. I was thinking ‘I knew the word [in advance], so I was able to solve’, where you were (I assume) saying, ‘Had I known this was going to be in the puzzle, I would have dropped it’.
        1. Exactly. There’s something important about a puzzle being a solvable unit, and a fair tussle with the setter.
  2. I was held up at the end, cogitating over C_S_R_E and I_E_R_A_T, but finally got there with the A and E the right way round in 5d, and INEBRIANT got from crossers and definition, as RIANT was unknown. I share the general dislike of obscure foreign words clued by anagrams. Knew the HEAD(S) definition of on board loos, and was familiar with the steelhead as it’s also the brand name of a couple of hardware firewalls I installed in Wynyard Data Cantre shortly before I retired. I liked PARASITE, but had an MER at PARAMEDIC for AMBULANCE DRIVER. I found MASSAGIST to be a rather strange word too. Anyway an enjoyable enough puzzle which I completed in 35:14. Thanks setter and Jack.
  3. All I will say about this one is that if I had known about 5dn in advance I’d have found something better to do with my time.

    Edited at 2018-08-21 01:09 pm (UTC)

  4. About an hour for me, but technical DNF as I used an aid to answer the puzzle over the barracks. HEAD = JOHN was no problem for an ex-Navy man like me, although in the RN they are always referred to in the plural, as opposed to the USN where the singular is used (in my experience anyway). I started with RUB IN (with a G missing in each case), but the impossibility of 11a made me look again.
  5. 21:16 with a successful guess for 5d, although I share all the misgivings already expressed. One or two others might have bothered me more on a grumpier day but the sun is shining, the Wine Society van has just left and all’s right with the world.
  6. Around 20 minutes, and I also ended with a guess at CASERNE, correctly as it turns out, only in that it looked more plausible than the alternative. I certainly didn’t know it, or ‘riant’ for that matter, but INEBRIANT clearly fit the requirement of the clue. Since I’m confessing, I don’t know what a TURKISH DELIGHT is either, but it surely could be sweet, by the sound of it. Regards.
  8. I know it well but with a K. The Kaserne is where the US army used to lurk when I was living in Munich in the 70s. I was a regular visitor to the Stars and Stripes bookshop there. (Signed in as his wife by a friendly GI) It’s also in the famous 1st line of Lili Marlene: “Bei der Kaserne, vor dem grossen tor…”. Proof that one person’s obscurity is another person’s write-in. I enjoyed this puzzle and found it a comfortable solve in 24 minutes. STEELHEAD was unknown and doesn’t sound very fish-like. But was easily gettable from the cryptic. Ann
  9. I would have enjoyed this more had I not tackled it following a particularly irritating time filling in a pointless online form related to money laundering. For the record, I have insufficient money to make laundering it worthwhile, and no, I do not receive income from either Venezuela or Sevastopol. But I digress.

    Fuelled with irritation, I sort of stomped my way through this, knocking things over as I went. I eventually threw my hands up and put CASERNE in for 5d because, well, if they want to clue an obscure word with an anagram then I’m damned if I’m going to agonize over it. I was then even more irritated to discover that CASERNE was, in fact, the right answer, thereby denying me the satisfaction of being further annoyed.

    So, thirty four minutes. And MASSAGIST – really?

  10. 33:59. I guessed at the position of the A and the first E in 5dn. I didn’t know John / head and needed an alphabet trawl before putting in steelhead as the most likely word for a fish at 25ac. I found the nerdier definition in 23ac a bit of a surprise. I failed to parse 18dn properly wondering, until I came here, why Ford was an old car. I also failed to parse inebriant after considering Brian and Ian for the fellow and getting nowhere. Not knowing caserne and that meaning of head made this a less satisfying solve for me.

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