Times Cryptic 27128

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 26 minutes. Straightforward. A typical first-working day-of-the-week Times puzzle. Enjoyable but with no particularly outstanding features.

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 Flare-up brought about by so much French spirit? (7)
TANTRUM – TANT (so much, French), RUM (spirit)
5 Reportedly track and creep up on wading bird (5)
STORK – Sounds like [reportedly] “stalk” (track / creep up on)
9 Dog beginning to bark at high fence (5)
BOXER – B{ark} [beginning], OXER (high fence), often with  reference to fences in showjumping
10 Slam former partner consumed by TV soap, so to speak? (9)
EXCORIATE – EX (former partner), CORI sounds like [so to speak] “Corrie” (TV soap – Coronation Street), ATE (consumed)
11 Take back park — Liberal’s first intention (7)
RECLAIM – REC (park – recreation ground), L{iberal’s} [first], AIM (intention)
12 Poet’s current way to receive bearers of gifts (7)
IMAGIST – I (current) + ST (street) contains [to receive] MAGI (bearers of gifts – Three Wise Men)
13 More confident old men Bede converted (10)
EMBOLDENED – Anagram [converted] of OLD MAN BEDE
15 Source of information, perhaps: one rejected by Brecht’s collaborator (4)
WELL – WE{i}LL (Brecht’s collaborator) [one rejected]. Kurt Weill 1900-1950. Here’s perhaps their most famous collaboration performed by Weill’s wife, Lotte Lenya
18 Cooler condition (4)
NICK – Two meanings, slang for prison (as is cooler) and condition – in good nick
20 Old college tutor’s initial robbery, one believes (10)
POLYTHEIST – POLY (old college – polytechnic), T{utor’s} [initial], HEIST (robbery)
23 Rule about marine mammal crossing this coastal defence (7)
SEAWALL – SEAL (marine mammal) contains [crossing] LAW (rule) reversed [about]
24 Showing forbearance, as 28 could be? (7)
LENIENT – Anagram of 28 Down [as 28 could be]. Setters, please avoid this sort of clue.
25 Satan’s chief aim, ensnaring frail innocents, primarily (4-5)
ARCH-FIEND – ARCH (chief – e.g. arch-enemy) + END (aim) containing [ensnaring] F{rail} + I{innocents} [primarily]
26 Possessing nothing, difficult to stockpile! (5)
HOARD – HARD (difficult) containing [possessing] 0 (nothing)
27 Plant soundly identified by groups of sheep or birds (5)
PHLOX – Sounds like [soundly identified by] “flocks” [groups of sheep or birds]
28 Illustrator’s profile finally framed by retired singer (7)
TENNIEL – {profil}E [finally] contained [framed] by LINNET (singer) reversed [retired]. Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914), Victorian illustrator famous for his illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s work.
Down
1 Charge bishop, one about to board hired car (7)
TAXICAB – I (one) + CA (about) contained by [to board] TAX (charge) + B (bishop)
2 No male friend accepts resistance, as a rule (8)
NORMALLY – NO + M (male) + ALLY (friend) contains [accepts] R (resistance)
3 Discharge right hand man originally supporting group of nations (5)
RHEUM – RH (right hand), then M{an} [originally] is placed under [supporting] EU (group of nations)
4 Plant woman found around ridge of land (9)
MACHINERY – MARY (woman) contains [around] CHINE (ridge of land). The latter is more usually described as a ravine but ‘ridge’ is also in some sources.
5 Second best way to attract attention? (6)
SCREAM – S (second), CREAM (best)
6 Express view about gangster being shot? (7)
OPALINE – OPINE (express view) contains [about] AL (gangster – Capone). As in ‘shot silk’ I assume. I’m not entirely sure what that is and whether ‘opaline’ covers it, but I have taken the definition on trust.
7 Welcoming knight, Gael possibly made obeisance (5)
KNELT – KELT (Gael possibly) containing [welcoming] N (knight – chess). I don’t recall seeing this alternative spelling of Celt before but it’s in the books.
8 Unusual beard, even for a poet somewhere in Scotland (8)
ABERDEEN – Anagram [unusual] of BEARD, E’EN (even for a poet)
14 Calming English gang girl that is not without heart (9)
EMOLLIENT – E (English), MOLL (gang girl), IE (that is), N{o}T [without heart]
16 Play featuring singer in a duel, oddly (8)
LATITUDE – TIT (singer) contained by [in] anagram [oddly] of A DUEL
17 City fathers ultimately suspend drunk by word of mouth (8)
SHANGHAI – {father}S [ultimately], HANG (suspend), HAI sounds like [by word of mouth] “high” (drunk)
19 Risk associated with large part of church (7)
CHANCEL – CHANCE (risk), L (large)
21 Part of glacier one notes during visit (3-4)
ICE-FALL – I (one),  E + F (notes) contained by [during] CALL (visit)
22 Message following drivers over crossroads (6)
CARFAX – RAC (drivers – Royal Automobile Club) reversed [over], FAX (message)
23 Quick-witted character on the staff (5)
SHARP – Two meanings, the second with reference to the # symbol that appears on the staff or stave – the set of lines on which music is notated
24 Left port, carrying heavy cargo (5)
LADEN – L (left), ADEN (port)

73 comments on “Times Cryptic 27128”

  1. I didn’t know OPALINE for ‘shot’ although I see that one meaning for the latter in Chambers is ‘showing a play of colours’. The variant spelling of Celt was also new. After PHLOX, I spent some time looking for a botanical 4d, but the crossers eventually helped.

    IMAGIST, as a word, isn’t quite as bad as last week’s ‘massagist’ but pretty close.

    Just scraped in under half an hour.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

    1. Imagism was a movement in poetry in the early 20th century; Ezra Pound was an imagist for a while. So a perfectly legitimate word, unlike [shudder] massagist. (There was a John Wayne movie called ‘The [shudder] Shootist.’)
  2. What Vinyl said; although I certainly would not have bunged in CARFAX from his clue. I remember learning decades ago from some text on the history of English that Carfax derives from ‘carrefour’. V could have mentioned STORK, too (not that I’m objecting, mind you; as a rhotic, I’ve learned to dree my weird here). Had no idea what CORI was doing, although I knew ‘Coronation Street’. DNK OXER. NICK went in on the basis of ‘cooler’, although I had a vague feeling I might have come across ‘in good nick’ here once. I got 28ac from 24ac plus the def.
  3. I scraped home in 52 minutes, which I thought was pretty good at the time. It will be interesting to see how the SNITCH (currently standing at 90, but skewed by my time) compares with yesterday’s, and if anyone else found it considerably harder.

    Didn’t much care for the EXCORIATE clue, but then one of the accomplishments of which I am most proud is never having watched a minute of the programme.

    1. I once confessed on this blog to never having watched a soap called Neighbours. After a certain amount of ridicule I caved in and watched two episodes. Afterwards I had to spend some time lying down in a darkened room in order to recover. Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to follow my weak willed example.
  4. I didn’t know what was going on with CORI, CHINE, CAR<– or OXER, but got through this pretty quickly.
  5. 17dn SHANGHAI didn’t come too quickly

    FOI 5dn SCREAM!

    LOI 15ac WELL DNK but….

    COD 4dn MACHINERY

    WOD 27ac PHLOX

    Time 27 minutes

    Coronation Street – magic! A British Institution if ever there was one.

    1. Please see the message I have sent to your LJ account re your earlier posting.

      Edited at 2018-08-28 05:41 am (UTC)

  6. 40 minutes to fail on 15a, where I bunged in “TELL”, which seemed a reasonable “source of information, perhaps” (as in the “tell” of a poker player). Given I didn’t know Weill, or that he was Brecht’s collaborator, I don’t feel too bad about not getting that one.

    Edited at 2018-08-28 07:20 am (UTC)

      1. I considered CELL too, but I didn’t get as far up the alphabet as WELL before giving up, especially as that third letter could have been something other than “L”, too…

        Edited at 2018-08-28 10:26 am (UTC)

  7. 35 mins with yoghurt, blueberries, etc.
    This was made harder by my putting in Altitude at 16dn. Well it sounds like a Joe Orton play set on an aeroplane running out of fuel.
    Luckily last week at the Edinburgh fringe we saw Adele Anderson singing Ray Jessel’s “That Old Kurt Weill Song” (worth googling) so that helped.
    Thanks setter and J.
    1. Ooh, I’m envious! I always liked Adele as a member of Fascinating Aida but also have two of her solo CDs.
  8. I had an ICE BALL instead of an ICE FALL, which I still think sounds plausible though with hindsight ICE FALL sounds better (not least because it’s correct).

    I’ve not heard of Kurt Weill, though I am quite partial to a bit of Kurt Vile.

  9. Flying today, really liked the UKisms. Finally realised that the famous Carfax is in Oxford, where I have been many times. Actually this was a ninja turtle, since I remember hugely annoying TV adverts for ‘Carrefour’ with a man shouting it in an English accent. Thought ‘of information’ was redundant in the Weill clue, but now realise the ‘source of information’ is the ‘i’, and one of those is rejected.

    14′, many thanks to jack and setter.

  10. Completed on train to Glasgow in 54 mins. 4d took a long time to fall, not helped by my slowness in getting 1a when i had the other three checkers. Biffed Carfax and Seawall – what else could they be? Fortunately knew Weill through Bowie’s fascination with Brecht’s music.
  11. 17:17. Held up a good few minutes on EXCORIATE, which I needed for MACHINERY and then the POLY bit of 20a. LOI SCREAM.. which is odd as it’s a bit of a chestnut. OXER and KELT were my unknowns of the day. COD to LATITUDE.
  12. 19:24 – a bit sticky in the NE corner where ‘shot’ for ‘opaline’ is a contender for the oblique definition of the month award. Otherwise steady progress starting at Aberdeen and working south.
  13. As Jack says easy puzzle with no real features for the natives

    Agree with comment about 24A – very lazy setting

  14. 26 minutes, with LOI RHEUM. I was nervous about KNELT but it passed all checks. I made EXCORIATE COD, though I notice Ulaca didn’t like it. Maybe it’s my northern bias, although the last time I watched a whole episode of Coronation Street was 1961 when Ida Barlow was knocked down by a bus and Ena Sharples was excoriator-in-chief. I tried Gay before I remembered Weill as I liked the idea of collaborators being a couple of centuries apart. I love Ella’s wreck version of Mack the Knife, and Bobby Darin’s too. Slugs don’t like PHLOX and they’re happy in clay, so I have some. It’s as well the illustrator was TENNIEL, the second of the two I know, as Phiz wouldn’t fit. DNK OXER fence, but a dog with B-X-R wasn’t too brave a biff. An enjoyable offering.
      1. Everybody go to the link above. It’s absolutely brilliant from john_dun, our resident folk singer. You might remember GALLIPOLI being an answer a few weeks ago. I remembered the Pogues version of this song, and Sotira said how she’d heard a brillant version when she was a girl. We asked John had he ever sung it. He has now! Fantastic.
      2. Superb! I’m currently reading the original biography of Audie Murphy, and I am humbled by the courage such men showed in battle and atrocious conditions, as well as being reminded of the need to find ways to peace as far as is humanly possible without losing the right to life and the right to freedom – the two inalienable human rights.
        1. Yes, it’s good to see the memory of their sacrifices live on in writing and song long after they’ve passed on.
          1. Thanks for posting this John. Such a moving song. I once saw Mike Harding perform it at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. I think the fact that he was more noted for humorous songs added to the poignancy of his performance.
            1. Thanks Philip, glad you liked it. I saw Mike Harding at Middlesbrough Town Hall years ago, but he stuck to humorous songs that night. Our own local celebrity Vin Garbutt, who sadly passed away last year, had the same ability to have you rolling in the aisles laughing one minute, and in tears the next with a poignant song rendition. We were lucky enough to have him pop into Saltburn Folk Club as an ordinary punter quite regularly.
      3. Many thanks for posting this, John. I was familiar with the song from the Pogues version but enjoyed yours quite as much. I had always thought Shane Macgowan had written it but now I know better. I find it a very moving song
  15. 14.19. A seasoned setter here, who know how many of us quail on the appearance of “plant” in a clue and likes to tease. As again with the random set of notes in ICE FALL. I look forward to his/her cluing of DECADE, GAFFE and ACCEDE sometime in the future, all those words I learned at my piano teacher’s knee.
    Is there a CARFAX (so called) anywhere other than in Oxford?

    Edited at 2018-08-28 08:44 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks: I knew I only had to ask. This place is a well of information (no, that didn’t look right in 15ac either!)
    2. Sorry, Zed, but for me, following Terry Wogan, they will always be Captain and Toenail.
  16. ….I’ll jump in a TAXICAB, driving through London town to cry you a song (Jethro Tull reappear after a long absence from my posts).

    FOI TANTRUM

    DNK that sense of OPALINE, the spelling of KELT, and with ICE-FALL I was fortunate that W isn’t a note !

    I fully concur with Jack about 24A. I picked up a Guardian for free on my Waitrose loyalty card last week, and found the puzzle (by Paul) was riddled with cross-references. I finished it, but it was really annoying.

    LOI MACHINERY (not sure why that one didn’t strike me sooner) and stopwatch reading 8:20

    COD NICK

    1. About 45 years ago I picked up a Guardian and looked at the clues. In there was something like ” 1, 7, 11, 14 and 23 across, see yesterday” . Never again.
    3. And then, on top of it all, they refer to each other, or themselves, in a clue: ‘Yachtsman and Pluck 27, 2 with Scouser at 12’
  17. Hey, Jackkt — snap! 26 mins. This was pretty straightforward for me.
    I thought the setter was being rather generous (and a little clunky?) in giving us so much help in so many of the clues: “track and creep up on”=stalk… and, just in case you were still uncertain, the bird you’re looking for is a *wading* bird; “groups of sheep or birds”=flocks, not ‘herd; as you might otherwise think; “hired car”? – as a hint, you’ve probably got the ‘X’ already.

    But there were some that required more puzzling and delivered more entertainment. I liked NICK. MACHINERY had me wasting time looking for another garden perennial to go with my phlox. IMAGIST was a good one.

    I think ‘shot’ is perfectly acceptable to define 6d.

    Thanks for nice blog. And to the setter for gentle exercise after a run of gruelling challenges recently.

  18. Another who tentatively put in WEIL on first pass, thinking I’d have a more careful look in a minute once I’d confirmed the checking letters; then failed to go back to check that it made sense, which, of course, it didn’t. Various unknowns, such as the “shot” and the Keltic spelling, and I was glad the wordplay made it clear it was ICE-FALL and not ICE-WALL, which looked like a more compelling way to fill in the gaps.
  19. Corrie. Cori. Strewth. Though I liked the lead-in, the rooves and theme-tune when I started to look at it once. Unaware of the diminutive. (On the other hand have been gripped by decades by Eastenders.) Threw in Weil here so dnf in about 28 minutes. Some parts harder than others.
  21. Nor have I, but if it’s confession time, I do happen to like the theme tune. Better than that of the Antipodean equivalents anyway.
  22. This wasn’t too tricky (10m 33s for me) but did require a few fingers to be crossed. I hadn’t come across CARFAX, ICE-FALL, that spelling of KELT, OXER, TANT, TENNIEL, ARCH-FIEND, possibly PHLOX… but other than toying with ICE-BALL for a while, they all seemed the only plausible answers so didn’t cause too much delay.
  23. Thanks for the parse on that – I had no idea what was going on. And even if I had recognized it for Coronation St it still would have mystified me because I’ve always thought the middle part of EXCORIATE sounded like an apple core not a quarry. The wonders of the English language as she is spoke! 12.24
    1. I think that I’ve actually used the word on no more than two occasions, and I’ve pronounced it both ways.
    2. More wonders than I can deal with; for me, the COR of EXCORIATE sounds like the COR of CORE, and so does the QUAR of QUARRY (aside from the W). You reminded me of the Saki story (‘The secret sin of Septimus Brope’; I took the volume off my shelf, thumbed through the pages, and stopped at exactly the right page; scary.) where Clovis says that ‘lory’ won’t rhyme with ‘Florrie’. Maybe on this side of the pond the wonders are fewer, but.
      On edit: I forgot to mention that Septimus’s song goes
      How you bore me, Florrie,
      With those vacant eyes of blue;
      You’ll be very sorry, Florrie,
      If I marry you.
      Though I’m easy-goin’, Florrie,
      This I swear is true,
      I’ll throw you down a quarry, Florrie,
      If I marry you.

      Edited at 2018-08-28 01:05 pm (UTC)

      1. One of those coincidences of crosswordland Kevin. I was just reading that story (among others of his) over the weekend not wanting to schlep Middlemarch which I was in the middle of in the city. I very much like Saki’s malignant children and I think it was actually the evil Clovis who wrote the Florrie ditty.
        1. Even scarier: I find the right page for Saki’s story immediately, and you’ve just been reading the story. His children are wonderful (girls, usually, no? other than in the chilling ‘Sredni Vashtar’ and a couple of others); the niece in ‘The Open Window’ is maybe my favorite.
          1. In my English-teacher days I remember my very average class of 13 yr olds being enthralled by Sredni Vashtar. Saki prooved to be a bit of a hit. Those children obviously struck a chord
  24. As I didn’t know the illustrator, both 24a and 28a had to be teased out from wordplay, 24’s definition and crossers. I share Jack’s distaste for this sort of linked clue. My LOI, CARFAX, was eventually remembered from a recent puzzle. OXER as a fence, CHINE as a ridge, the alternative spelling of KELT and Weill were unknown but extracted from the wordplay. An enjoyable puzzle. 27:15. Thanks setter and Jack.

  25. Spent quite a long time trying to convince myself that MASPINERY could quite easily be some kind of plant until EXCORIATE came to my rescue. This is one ( among many ) of the reasons that I shall never trouble our speedier colleagues on the leader board.

    All correct in 45 minutes.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  26. My sort of puzzle. A very agreeable challenge. Didn’t know this spelling of KELT or this meaning of OXER. But otherwise straightforward. 27 minutes. Ann
  27. Btw, can anyone tell me how to change the email address linked to Live Journal. I’ve been locked out of my email by Google who are under the misapprehension that I’ve been hacked. So have been forced to open another email account until the matter is resolved.
    1. Hi Ann, at the top of the page click on your username at the right hand side, then click Edit Profile. Then scroll down to Contact Info and you can change your email address there. John.
        1. Don’t miss John’s version of The Band played Waltzing Matilda. Ann. He’s posted a link to it in answer to my main comment today. It’s fantastic.
  28. Not sure what time I would have done this in as I fell asleep. On awaking the half filled grid filled itself remarkably quickly so it must have been relatively easy. Liked the 2 anagrams of each other LOI WELL which was a bit tough with -E-L but I had heard of Weill at least. COD NICK for concise clueing
  29. Oh dear. I convinced myself that “Altitude” was a well-known play, and that Brecht had a collaborator called Gena. These two facts might, for all I know, be entirely correct, but they clearly failed to satisfy the need when I submitted.

    Count me as another one who didn’t know that spelling of Celt. There is a story about Sean Connery being asked whether he thought his Celtic accent had limited his career; the questioner pronounced “Celtic” with a soft “C”. Mr. Connery replied “It’s ‘Keltic’, you stupid sunt.”

  30. I’ve been moved to create an account just to comment n this. I find Carfax a completely unacceptable clue – I had all the checkers in and still could not solve. Why am I supposed to know a crossroads in Oxford? I look forward to having a clue based on the blue house roundabout in Newcastle tomorrow.
    1. I knew this as I was at University at Oxford, but I agree entirely with you. I understand that there may be other Carfaxes, if that is the plural, but they are not known outside their locality. The Oxford one may be a bit more known with the city featuring in drama and novels as well as the University providing no doubt a significant proportion of solvers. I suspect though that you could find very few non-Oxford people who would know it. It has been used before admittedly but that doesn’t improve the odds for anyone coming to the crossword for the first time. I argued last week that the very well-known ADELPHI Hotel in Liverpool could have presented a more interesting clue than the Adeplhi Theatre in London as a matter of general knowledge.

      Edited at 2018-08-28 06:06 pm (UTC)

    2. Congrats on creating an id, gussy1927, and welcome.

      The clue doesn’t mention Oxford, and the junction in that city referred to by some contributors is only an example of a carfax. It’s a more general word for ‘crossroads’ as defined here in Collins dictionary: a place where principal roads or streets intersect, esp a place in a town where four roads meet.

      Your not knowing the answer word is unfortunate but that happens to most solvers from time to time (and almost every day in my case!) and it’s just part of the cut and thrust of the battle of wits with the setter. The wordplay provides an alternative route but admittedly if one doesn’t know the target word it’s harder to recognise a possible answer even after arriving at it by following the wordplay correctly.

      Edited at 2018-08-28 05:57 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks for the explanation and apologies to you and setter. That’s what happens when you use google and not a physical dictionary ( perhaps like trump I should blame it on biased search engines). I still think though that those who have lived or studied in oxford will answer this automatically and those of us who haven’t will never have seen the word.
  31. Sorry but as a beginner I didn’t find this straightforward at all. I had numerous problems in the NE corner with the following reveals RHEUM, EXCORIATE, IMAGIST and WELL. Biffed OPALINE and TENNIEL correctly and ALTITUDE incorrectly. DNK CARFAX so that was another reveal. Not up my street today.
  32. I rattled most of this off in about 30 mins but I had put in altitude at 16dn, thinking it might be a play. I could not remember Brecht’s collaborator but was sure those checkers were wrong. I put the puzzle away and came back to it 10 mins later. I saw well and remembered Weill and changed altitude to latitude. Carfax was remembered from its last outing in these parts. Oxer, phlox and Tenniel unknown, opaline rang a very faint bell.
  33. Over an hour, and only completed correctly after I dared to put in CARFAX (from the wordplay, of course, since it sounded completely unlikely as an actual word). The OXER in BOXER and the CORI in EXCORIATE also went in entirely on faith, and although Coronation Street was not unknown to me (although I probably never actually saw an episode), calling it CORI didn’t seem too likely either. So I didn’t really enjoy this at all.
  34. Ice-fall or ice-ball? Flipped a coin, and, with a shrug, entered the latter, in the hope that an ice-fall was an event, and an ice-ball an object, and therefore more likely to be part of a glacier. So DNF 🙁 I think we had carfax not so long ago – might be wrong, though.

    Edited at 2018-08-28 09:32 pm (UTC)

  35. 17:06. Late to this, and I didn’t find it easy at all.
    Definite clue of the day to 4dn though: the setter totally got me with the plant-phobic panic.
  36. Amid the controversy over “shot”, I’m not sure that anyone has mentioned that an OPALINE is “a photographic print fixed in plate glass” (Chambers, 7th ed.), which I discovered when not satisfied with interpreting it as the blogger has.

    Too lazy to look up Brecht’s collaborator and biffed ALTITUDE, so no chance of crossers jogging the memory. Disappointed not to have seen how NICK fitted the defs when working through all the possibilities.

    Untimed.

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