This puzzle had a strange feel to it but I completed it in 24 minutes so it didn’t present much of a challenge. Having said that, I have to admit to one error at 6dn which I discuss in more detail in the blog along with excuses offered in mitigation. There are at least a couple of very feeble clues, stray full stops (or missing following capital letters) in another two, and one where the wordplay doesn’t work logically, at least to my mind, suggesting that sadly once again production of the puzzle (or the editing) is not quite up to The Times’s usually very high standards. On later edit, I’ve now confirmed that all three apparent errors in the on-line puzzle appear also in the printed edition.
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 | Poor actors given boot finally and called “impaired” (9) |
| HAMSTRUNG – HAMS (poor actors), {boo}T [finally], RUNG (called) | |
| 6 | Cardinal is in taxi for return journey (5) |
| BASIC – IS contained by [in] CAB (taxi) both reversed [for return journey] | |
| 9 | Manage at university — so don’t ***-** debts? (3-2) |
| RUN-UP – RUN (manage), UP (at university). The feeblest of definitions of the ‘fill-in-the-missing-word(s)’ variety which really has no place in a modern Times crossword. | |
| 10 | One may provide deal in beds with strong support externally (5,4) |
| SCOTS PINE – COTS (beds) contained by [with…externally} SPINE (strong support). ‘Deal’ is fir or pine timber. | |
| 11 | Chemistry graduate maybe who has seen soft ceramic as a possibility (6,2,7) |
| MASTER OF SCIENCE – Anagram [as a possibility] of SEEN SOFT CERAMIC | |
| 13 | Cheerlessly, unexcitedly cramping listener (8) |
| DREARILY – DRILY (unexcitedly) containing [cramping] EAR (listener). I did a double-take on this as I’ve always spelt it ‘dryly’ so the ‘i’ looks wrong to me, but I now know it isn’t. | |
| 14 | Snake biting girl, no end upset, in Italian house (6) |
| BORGIA – BOA (snake) containing [biting] anagram [upset] of GIR{l} [no end] | |
| 16 | Yours truly’s shout of exultation after quiet dance (6) |
| SHIMMY – SH! (quiet!), I’M (yours truly’s), MY! (shout of exultation) Nothing quiet about this! | |
| 18 | Groovy drunk eats dirt (8) |
| STRIATED – Anagram [drunk] of EATS DIRT. A word I knew vaguely, but not exactly what it meant. | |
| 21 | He. engaging with us all, managed a style of communication we understand (7,8) |
| ENGLISH LANGUAGE – Anagram [managed] of HE ENGAGING US ALL. Another feeble definition. Presumably the full-stop after ‘he’ is a misprint. | |
| 23 | Give the lie to smear (9) |
| DISCREDIT – Two meanings | |
| 25 | Half of the people in our street make a beastly noise (5) |
| NEIGH – NEIGH{bours} (the people in our street) [half] | |
| 26 | Uncertainty makes engineers abandon temporary fortification (5) |
| DOUBT – {re}DOUBT (temporary fortification) [engineers – RE – abandon] | |
| 27 | First person meeting severe monarch may be a North American (9) |
| WESTERNER – WE (first person – plural), STERN (severe), ER (monarch) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Women’s place to run after male? The opposite! (5) |
| HAREM – ‘Run after male’ = M (male), HARE (run). ‘Run before male’ [i.e. the opposite] = HARE (run), M (male). | |
| 2 | Acting as e.g. bishop in mitre, sing rousingly (11) |
| MINISTERING – Anagram [rousingly] of IN MITRE SING | |
| 3 | Finest clothes motorists get into eventually? (3,4) |
| TOP GEAR – TOP (finest) GEAR (clothes) | |
| 4 | A French location around one lake without nasty development? (8) |
| UNSPOILT – UN (a, French), SPOT (location) containing [around] I (one) + L (lake) | |
| 5 | End of sleeping? Wake up and grumble (6) |
| GROUSE – {sleepin}G (end), ROUSE (wake up) | |
| 6 | Part of Australia maybe with unusual language to convey code of honour (7) |
| BUSHIDO – BUSH (part of Australia maybe), IDO (unusual language). A code of honour and morals evolved by the samurai. BUSH was easy enough but unfortunately I didn’t know the word that is the answer, nor the obscure IDO, an artificial language based on Esperanto, so I plumped for IBO, a language spoken by some natives of SE Nigeria, also obscure, but at least it’s an old crossword standby. So we have an obscure foreign word clued partially by obscure wordplay, and something of an elephant trap given the existence of IBO, so by all reasonable standards I’d rate this clue as unfair. | |
| 7 | Jump. missing footing, and slide (3) |
| SKI – SKI{p} (jump) [missing footing]. And another stray full-stop. | |
| 8 | US President not entirely intelligent to come down to earth (9) |
| CLEVELAND – CLEVE{r} (intelligent) [not entirely], LAND (come down to earth) | |
| 12 | Diplomacy that is set up in country: you’ve got stuck in (11) |
| NEGOTIATION – IE (that is) reversed [set up] contained by [in] NATION (country), with GOT inserted [stuck in] | |
| 13 | Having grabbed key, daughter ran out and went downhill? (9) |
| DESCENDED – D (daughter) + ENDED (ran out) containing [having grabbed] ESC (key) | |
| 15 | Island not traced? It’s given name, turning up in map book (8) |
| ATLANTIS – IT + N (name) reversed [turning up] contained by [in] ATLAS (map book) | |
| 17 | Detective has month in Paris, given welcome after losing heart (7) |
| MAIGRET – MAI (month, in Paris), GR{e}ET (welcome) [losing heart].The detective created by Georges Simenon played on UK TV originally by Rupert Davies and more recently by Rowan Atkinson. | |
| 19 | Naive female at home, sincere, not trendy (7) |
|
INGENUE – IN (at home), GENU{in}E (sincere) [not trendy – in]. Don’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington Don’t put your daughter on the stage Though they said at the school of acting She was lovely as Peer Gynt I fear on the whole An ingénue role Would emphasize her squint… (Noel Coward) |
|
| 20 | Follow notice, hugged by escort (6) |
| SHADOW – AD (notice) contained [hugged] by SHOW. I struggled for a moment to see ‘escort = show’, but one can be escorted or shown to one’s table in a restaurant, for example. | |
| 22 | I’m volatile in that place, the first to rise up (5) |
| ETHER – I don’t really get this . ‘In that place’ = THERE but to turn it into ETHER (something that’s volatile) it’s the last (letter) that needs ‘to rise up’, not ‘the first’ – the first having nowhere to rise to anyway in a Down answer. I might have spent longer pondering this but after the errors last week and the misplaced full stops today I’m losing confidence and didn’t want to waste time on it. If I’ve missed something, I’m sure Kevin or one of the other early birds will soon put me right. | |
| 24 | Thus belonging to the upper echelons makes a bit of money (3) |
| SOU – SO (thus), U (belonging to the upper echelons) | |
FROM RICHARD ROGAN
Crossword Editor
Yes strictly (in fact not even strictly) the enumeration for RUN UP needs to reflect the definition provided.
At 22dn however the clue does actually work, though looking at the setter’s explanation it would appear that he was thinking along the same lines as most of the solvers.
E could be said to be the last letter of RISE, moved UP. I agree not the most elegant of “get-outs”
As for the rogue full stops, those were in the original submission and somehow got overlooked. Many apologies
RR
Editor
FROM BARRACUDA
22dn. still doesn’t make sense ; should be the last to rise up.
Edited at 2019-04-09 06:13 pm (UTC)
BUSHIDO is a gimme for anyone brought up in the D&D/videogames generation. I wish I knew it from all the Kurosawa films I’ve watched, or something classy like that, but I don’t.
Finished in average time ~45 min (a long way off many of the folk here). Was surprised that BUSHIDO caused so many issues for people – was aware of it from Japanese -based novels – IDO has been around in crosswords (both straight and cryptic) for as long as I can remember.
BORGIA (with LOGGIA first) and MAIGRET (with POIRROT first) were a couple of clues that held me up.
SHIMMY was the last one in, after finally coming to terms with the right detective.