Times Cryptic 27176

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

My solving time was already going to be off the scale so by the time I got to the last answer, a mathematician I had obviously never heard of, I’d lost the will to continue the struggle and looked up his two missing letters. Other than that this was quite an enjoyable battle of wits. I have a feeling that most of the regulars will have sailed through it.

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 Club redeployed subtle means to move campaigners (9)
BATTLEBUS – BAT (club), anagram [redeployed] of SUBTLE. SOED: A bus or coach used as a mobile operational centre during an election campaign.
6 Split blades (5)
GRASS – Two definitions –  ‘grass/split’ meaning ‘inform on’; blades of grass
9 Understand a minimum of government file (5)
GRASP – G{overnment} [minimum of…], RASP (file)
10 Hit head (6,3)
NUMBER ONE – Two meanings. A record at the top of the hit parade, for example; chief executive as head of a company, perhaps.
11 Having stolen kiss, on camera, ma fiddling with kilt! (11,4)
EXCLAMATION MARK – Anagram [fiddling] of ON CAMERA MA KILT, containing [having stolen] X (kiss). Definitions like this appear so frequently now that they have become much easier to spot.
13 Run through gardens before accessing sacred hollow (8)
SKEWERED – KEW (gardens) + ERE (before), contained by [accessing] S{acre}D [hollow]. The Royal Botanical Gardens are often referred to simply as Kew Gardens.
14 Strong liquor: relative’s also knocked out by a pint, initially? (6)
GRAPPA – Substitution. The ‘and’ (also) in GR{and}PA (relative) is replaced by A + P{int} [initially] to give us the brandy distilled from grape refuse.
16 In a state, I’m surprised current nation has squandered millions (6)
OHIOAN – OH (I’m surprised), I (current), O{m}AN (nation) [squandered millions].
18 After U-turn, a top politician procrastinating (8)
DILATORY – A + LID (top) reversed [after U-turn], TORY (politician)
21 Fractured no more, I care to protect bone, whatever happens (4,4,2,5)
COME RAIN OR SHINE – Anagram [fractured] of NO MORE I CARE containing [to protect] SHIN (bone – tibia)
23 Evergreen song by artist breaking Chaucer’s heart (9)
ARAUCARIA – RA (artist), contained by [breaking] {ch}AUC{er} [heart], ARIA (song). The monkey-puzzle tree is one example of this.
25 One’s plotted revenge, primarily, in break with French at last (5)
GRAPH – R{evenge} [primarily], contained by [in] GAP (break), {frenc}H [at last]
26 Meeting fate, male serf (5)
HELOT – HE (male), LOT (fate). There’s a convention for ‘on’ as a positional indicator in Across clues that needs to be applied to ‘meeting’ here to prevent the wordplay giving us  LOT+HE.
27 Being obscene about right, comic insisted (9)
DIRTINESS – Anagram [comic] of INSISTED containing [about] R (right)
Down
1 Heading for bar, make eyes at spirit (5)
BOGLE – B{ar} [heading], OGLE (make eyes at). SOED: A phantom; a goblin; an undefined creature conjured up by superstitious dread.
2 Right policy with which revolutionary is splitting room (11)
THATCHERISM – THAT (which), CHE (revolutionary), IS contained by [splitting] RM (room)
3 Mathematician to overtake doctor (7)
LAPLACE – LAP (overtake), LACE (doctor – as in tamper with the contents of a drink). Collins: Pierre Simon Marquis de Laplace. 1749–1827, French mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He formulated the nebular hypothesis (1796). He also developed the theory of probability. Sorry, Jim, but I’ve never heard of him and it’s his very first appearance in a 15×15 since TftT started. I cheated on this one , but I got the LAP bit. The end of my solve was finally in sight but I was in no mood for a lengthy alphabet trawl on ?A?E = ‘doctor’ so I looked him up.
4 Rockers, perhaps old, getting plastered? (8)
BANDAGED – BAND (rockers, perhaps), AGED (old)
5 Top marks repeated in match (6)
SUMMIT – M+M (marks repeated) contained by [in] SUIT (match). M can stand for ‘mark’ or ‘marks’ with reference to the former German currency so we didn’t need ‘repeated’ for the wordplay, but it adds to the surface reading.
6 Bottom of bag has more spare, one gathers (7)
GLEANER – {ba}G [bottom], LEANER (more spare). One can glean/gather information for example, but it originally referred to picking up small quantities of a crop left behind by harvesters.
7 A journey back (3)
AGO – A, GO (journey)
8 Unlicensed bar, getting tip to stop the drink, suddenly emptied (9)
SPEAKEASY – PEAK (tip), contained by [to stop] SEA (the drink), S{uddenl}Y [emptied]. A likely source of the hooch that appeared in yesterday’s puzzle.
12 A m-monkey, say, with caged beast getting loose (11)
APPROXIMATE – A P-PRIMATE (m-monkey, say) has OX (beast) contained within [caged]
13 One teaching a pig, possibly, to catch large snail (9)
SLOWCOACH – SOW COACH (one teaching a pig, possibly), containing [to catch] L (large). ‘Slowcoach’ and ‘snail’ are both colloquial terms for a slow or indolent person, the US equivalent being ‘slowpoke’, I believe. Brits of my generation (and several later ones) may remember SLOWCOACH as the tortoise in The Flower Pot Men – Flobadob in Oddle Poddle.
15 Shape is round about a square (8)
DINOSAUR – Anagram [shape] of IS ROUND, containing [about] A
17 A vessel containing mostly lush fruit (7)
APRICOT – A, POT (vessel)  containing RIC{h} (lush) [mostly]
19 Weapon transported to the north in carriages safely (7)
ASSEGAI – Hidden and reversed [transported to the north] in {carr}IAGES SA{fely}
20 In the Bible he hunted game with stick (6)
NIMROD – NIM (game), ROD (stick). I didn’t know the game but thanks to Elgar I had no difficulty with the answer.
22 Character reference fraudulent, with no truthfulness, all concluding (5)
ETHOS – {referenc}E, {fraudulen}T, {wit}H, {n}O, {truthfulnes}S [all concluding]
24 Trouble when leader vacates post (3)
AIL – {m}AIL (post) [when leader vacates]

38 comments on “Times Cryptic 27176”

  1. How embarrassing to discover how my LOI, ETHOS, worked; just never saw the fairly obvious. Biffed 11ac from ‘kiss’ and a quick scan of what looked like the anagrist; this trick was played a little too recently to fool me this time. 20d struck me as a Quickie clue misplaced, although like Jack I didn’t know of NIM. DNK BOGLE or split=inform on. Did know LAPLACE, mainly for his demon; hadn’t thought of him as a mathematician, but then I don’t really know anything about him but the demon.
  2. BOGLE! Always fun to learn a new word from a cryptic clue.

    I found myself biffing several (did go back and parse though). I would have misspelled ASSEGAI (without an E) if it hadn’t been a hidden word.

    The circle I put around the punctuation at the end of 11, after biffing it with three crossers (actually, without even seeing the definition yet), covered part of the word KILT, so when I tried to work out the anagram, I was at first missing an L.

    Edited at 2018-10-23 07:08 am (UTC)

  3. Failed on the mathematician and the grass. Nice to see ASSEGAI popping up again. They seem to have been shelved recently.
  4. 26 minutes with a mispring, which as ever is annoying.
    LAPLACE was buried slightly deeper than his contemporary Lagrange: it is a tribute to the quality of teaching I received in both Statistics and Physics that neither figured in the syllabus. I think I missed out on so much wonder.
    AIL caused a certain ?? when I pondered whether a post and a RAIL could be the same thing. Thanks to Jack for pointing out they don’t need to be.
  5. 22:11. No typos today. Ohioan took the last 4-5 minutes to uncover.

    I’d not heard of the game NIM either. I recognised ARAUCARIA but did not know it’s meaning. I know my LAPLACE.

    According to Wikipedia, Laplace’s “alleged” last words were, “What we know is little, and what we are ignorant of is immense”. Brings to mind Rumsfeld’s “known knows” and “unknown unknowns”. Wikipedia also reveals that Laplace’s “true” last words were, “Ah! We chase after phantoms.”

    COD: DINOSAUR.

    1. George V’s alleged last words were, “How goes the empire?” I believe it was Max Beerbohm who said they were actually, “What’s on at the Empire?” (I’m not sure who said they were “Bugger Bognor”.)
      1. My favourite last words are those attributed to Henrik Ibsen. His final words, spoken when he heard his nurse tell a visitor that he was feeling a little better, were:

        On the contrary!

    2. I’ve always liked Lytton Strachey’s. If this is dying I don’t think much of it.
  6. I was both on the wavelength and quite lucky with my vocab today. 48 minutes for a puzzle I surely couldn’t have completed a year ago.

    FOI 1d BOGLE—we had a geography teacher who used to describe the scruffier members of the class as “tatty bogles” (scarecrows)—LOI 3d LAPLACE, though I should’ve remembered him from Laplace transforms at University. Not that I remember what those are, but I remember the name. I also remembered passing by 18a DILATORY on my way to getting yesterday’s “nugatory”, which was handy.

    I took a while on the 11a EXCLAMATION MARK—still getting used to seeing those—and did wonder for a while whether a dado really counted as a post but managed to work out that 24 wasn’t ADO. Apart from that, wasn’t held up by too much today. I’m coming to appreciate the harder puzzles now I can sometimes do them.

    Edited at 2018-10-23 07:38 am (UTC)

  7. DNF with yoghurt, etc.
    And a bit miffed. 40 mins to get all but 16ac and 15dn. Having trawled, I could only come up with Dinosaur and Minotaur, both of which I decided didn’t fit the clue (doh!). And Ohioan is an abomination, or that might be sour grapes.
    Thanks setter and Jack for persevering.
  8. Very enjoyable puzzle that required concentrated application to solve. Thank you setter and well done Jack.

    LAPLACE is to France what Newton is to England. A true innovator in a variety of fields such as the study of motion, statistical analysis and astronomy where he predicted the existence of black holes.

  9. A nice puzzle today. Laplace familiar having wrestled with Laplace transforms, many years ago. Surprised at how many don’t know Nim.. perhaps it is just the name that is unfamiliar, everyone must have played it at some point – three sets of counters, take turns to remove as many as you like from any one set, so as to force your opponent to take the last counter.
    My favourite last words are those of Gen. John Sedgwick: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance”
  11. 48 minutes on this. LOI ETHOS. I always miss those ‘pick a letter’ clues. COD to APPROXIMATE. Had a great day in Keswick yesterday, walking about 7 miles including seeing the Castlerigg Stones with Helvellyn, Skiddaw and Blencathra brooding all around us. Mind you, unlike Wainwright, I preferred it when we called Blencathra Saddleback, without Cumbric romanticism. Tricky puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
  12. Stopped after 33 minutes, unaccountably not getting DINOSAUR, as was thinking one four nine…..Also was unwilling to submit with the shaky (but now known to be correct) OHIOAN.

    I once did Skiddaw and Helvellyn on successive days with my daughters…

    Thanks jack and setter.

    1. Impressive, Rob. My daughter did the three peaks challenge last year of Snowdon, Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike in just over the 24 hours, including travelling. I didn’t volunteer!

      Edited at 2018-10-23 11:45 am (UTC)

      1. That is no way to treat mountains.. do encourage her to go back another time, when she can properly appreciate the beauty of these areas
  13. Really enjoyed today’s solve, lots of slight deviations from the norm. Doctor being LACE was unusual, I knew he was French but was working on an MB at the bottom for ages. Have been up in the ARAUCARIA forests in Chile with my brother who lives out there. Tried to explain to the locals about how we call it the Puzle de Mono but just got uncomprehending stares.
  14. ….I saw the open-top double decker that had been UKIP’s BATTLEBUS (COD). No longer in lurid purple and yellow, it’s now totally grey. An omen perhaps ?

    FOI GRASP, but I found this hard work. After 14 minutes I was left with 3, 12, and 15D. It took almost 6 minutes more to nail them. It shouldn’t have taken so long to spot APPROXIMATE, but DINOSAUR was almost COD.

    LOI DNK LAPLACE. If I’d realised that “doctor = lace” after “lace = spike” in yesterday’s tricky Quickie, I could have saved 2-3 minutes.

  15. I should imagine LAPLACE is anathema to yer average Times speed-solver, just the sort of thing that would really hold you up. Not that I want to dwell on that at all.

    Liked the SQUARE dinosaur. I wondered about the M-M being allowed in APPROXIMATE: for some reason I have it in my head that such things are outlawed in The Times. Perhaps one of you knows.

  16. A perfect demonstration of how the mysterious thing we sum up as “wavelength” can work against you. Not entirely sure why, but right from the off – not a single across clue solved on first pass – I felt as if I was wading through treacle, an experience summed up by the time at the end spent cracking OHIOAN (once I solved it, I remembered seeing it here before, and thinking that it was an ugly word, something on which my opinion hasn’t changed). In retrospect, of course, nothing to complain about in terms of vocabulary or wordplay, so I have no explanation for it, simply a quiet prayer that this setter contributes to whichever heat I’m not in next weekend…
  17. I’m another who didn’t know BOGLE – the wordplay seemed to indicate it fairly clearly but I didn’t dare write it in until I had all the checkers, so it was my LOI. Having studied maths back in the day, I was aware of Laplace but still took longer than I should have to call him to mind.

    I quite like the idea of 11a – my favourite of the genre is “Interrogate disciple? (8,4)” – but it was rather an awkward anagram. 15d was very nicely concealed.

    9m 40s in all and an enjoyable solve.

  18. Knew LAPLACE as Napoleon’s math teacher. GRASS, GRASP, GRAPPA and GRAPH made a sort of pattern in an elegant puzzle. Blessings on ARAUCARIA now in the great grid in the sky. COME RAIN OR SHINE reminded me of the American song standard and NIMROD of the Elgar. 24.18
  19. After 30 minutes I was left with 2d, 15d and 16a still to solve. 15d fell first, then THATCHERISM, but OHIOAN held out until I wrote I for current, O(m)AN and OH for I’m surprised out on paper, and wiggled them around. A strangely odd word! Liked APPROXIMATE and SLOWCOACH. EXCLAMATION MARK type clues are becoming more familiar to me now. BATTLEBUS was my FOI. BOGLE and LAPLACE from wordplay, although the latter was vaguely familiar once I’d bunged him in. Nice puzzle. 39:59. Thanks setter and Jack.
  20. As mentioned, another solid puzzle taking half an hour of proper thought to get through the word play. Like JW I knew Monsieur Laplace from his transforms. Put in AIL without clocking it as (M)AIL and was slow to get my LOI BANDAGED. Wondered about 16a as OHIOAN but what else could it be?
  21. Stopped timing after I was well into the second hour. ASSEGAI, DINOSAUR and DIRTINESS had me stumped for a l-o-n-g time: I saw DINOSAUR=square but just couldn’t spot the well-disguised anagrind, so held back from entering it. I failed my Further Maths O-level, but amazingly LAPLACE came to mind quickly. EXCLAMATION MARK for the 15-letter one was no hold-up. DNK HELOT or ASSEGAI. I always enjoy the terse clues (often DDs), so my COD to ‘split blades’.
    Many thanks, jackkt, for this tough blog. And bravo to the setter, too.

  22. Urgh. After 70 mins, submitted, but had not seen DINOSAUR – guessed MINOTAUR – nor OHIOAN – went for the far less likely OMIVAN. 4 pink squares. NHO LAPLACE so resorted to aid for him.
  23. 25:05. LOI OHIOAN, which I could scarcely believe was a word. All in all, I found this quite a struggle, but satisfying to crack. COD to DINOSAUR.
  24. I sailed through in 15 minutes, only to find that I had left 1D as BOG?E. I remember seeing the wordplay which clearly led to BOGLE, but I’d never heard of it. The letters cried out to be BOGIE, to me, although I’d never heard of ‘ogie’ either, and I doubted it meant ‘make eyes at’. So I left it for the moment and went on, and forgot to go back. Rats, although I can’t say which I’d have entered had I remembered to return to it. Anyway, a quick DNF. Regards.
  25. 52:36 with a lot of time spent at the end struggling to put deux et deux together to come up with the unknown french mathematician. I needed an alphabet trawl to get lace but wasn’t sufficiently persuaded by it as a synonym for doctor or that there wouldn’t be a better alternative with -a-e checkers and nor did the resulting Laplace spark any hoped for glint of recognition. So I decided not to go with it until I had finished off the trawl all the way up to Z, extending my time considerably. A nice puzzle though.
  27. 75 minutes, but after reading the comments I feel a lot better, since I did actually finish correctly in that time. LAPLACE no problem, since I am a mathematician (although I did try LAGRANGE first, who obviously wouldn’t fit). A number of obscure words, the most obscure being my LOI BOGLE, whose wordplay wouldn’t allow anything else (although early on I tried out BOOZE, since I thought making romantic eyes at someone might count as oozing (yuck)). I knew ARAUCARIA as the nom de plume of the famous Guardian setter, so it at least seemed plausible from the crossing letters.

    Edited at 2018-10-23 08:58 pm (UTC)

  28. Hubby and I tackle crossword with tea before bedtime, often completing next morning with refreshed brains. 2dn LOI, failing to see RM as room. 16ac finally found after too long considering Omaha. Interesting crossword 40(ish) mins pre-sleep. 10(ish) mins in the new dawn for last three clues.
    1. Welcome .. it is amazing how just a 1/2 hour break can rejuvenate a crossword, isn’t it? One of my secret weapons.

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