Times Cryptic 27398

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

There were one or two tricky or unknown bits and pieces here but I was not delayed by much and missed my half-hour target only by 2 minutes.

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 Mean girl given ring by boy (7)
BETOKEN – BET (girl), O (ring), KEN (boy)
5 Smothering resistance, recklessly pays up for ancient document (7)
PAPYRUS – Anagram [recklessly] of PAYS UP containing [smothering] R (resistance). I checked that this can mean the ancient document itself and not just the material that it’s made of.
9 Devise principle inspiring a key royal dynasty (11)
PLANTAGENET – PLAN (devise), then TENET (principle) containing [inspiring] A + G (key)
10 Old coin identified by woman on radio (3)
SOU – Sounds like [on radio] “Sue” (woman)
11 Minor initially lacking in vision (6)
SLIGHT – L{acking} [initially] in SIGHT (vision)
12 Produce notes about indifferent lecture (8)
SCOLDING – SING (produce notes) containing [about] COLD (indifferent)
14 Supreme commander lives with short man by common (13)
GENERALISSIMO – GENERAL (common), IS (lives), SIMO{n} (man) [short]. Took me a while to spot all the wordplay here.
17 Adapt without guile, given time inside otherwise (13)
ALTERNATIVELY – ALTER (adapt), NAIVELY (without guile), containing T (time) [given…inside]
21 Servant’s argument at home? (8)
DOMESTIC – Two meanings. Followers of UK police dramas will be aware of a ‘domestic’ in this sense, and Quickie solvers will have seen this only last Wednesday clued (in the plural) as: The arguments for maids? (9). It gave rise to some discussion which can be viewed here.
23 Fruit and wine consumed by two-thirds of withered old women (6)
CITRON – IT (wine – Italian vermouth) contained [consumed] by CRON{es} (withered old women) [two-thirds]. I didn;t know this as a fruit, but SOED has it as ‘a fruit resembling the lemon but larger, less acid, and with thicker rind’.
25 Be sick, spitting out fermented beer? (3)
AIL – Sounds like [spitting out] ALE (fermented beer)
26 Aficionado jumping over arched structure (3,8)
FAN VAULTING – FAN (aficionado), VAULTING (jumping over)
27 Raptor’s way to get into vessel crossing river (7)
KESTREL – ST (way – street) contained by [to get into] KEEL (vessel), which in turn contains [crossing] R (river). It seems to have come up quite a lot recently so I think by now most regulars will know KEEL as a ship, and not just as part of one.
28 Unscrupulous lawyer invested in trashy stereo (7)
SHYSTER – Hidden [invested] in {tra}SHY STER{eo}
Down
1 Go round and reportedly fork out for permit (6)
BYPASS – Sounds like [reportedly] “buy” [fork out for], PASS (permit)
2 Journalist finally in a rush to produce copy? (7)
TRACING – {journalis}T [finally], RACING (in a rush)
3 More eager, longing to replace first European cooker (9)
KITCHENER – ITCH (longing) replaces the first E (European) in K{e}ENER (more eager) to provide us with our answer. I’ve never heard of this before but SOED has KITCHENER as ‘a cooking range fitted with various appliances such as ovens, plate-warmers, water heaters, etc’.
4 Drink thrown up by hotel close at hand (4)
NIGH – GIN (drink) reversed [thrown up], H (hotel)
5 Writing mostly about one’s antibiotic (10)
PENICILLIN – PENCILLIN{g} (writing) [mostly] containing [about] I (one). I made very heavy weather of this by not remembering how to spell the drug and thinking that ‘writing mostly’ was PENNIN{g}
6 Part of stock maybe supplied by papa and others? (5)
PETAL – P (papa), ET AL (others). ‘Stock’ as in the flower of that name.
7 Composer and Arctic explorer in one (7)
ROSSINI – ROSS (Arctic explorer), IN, I (one). The explorer is Sir James Clark Ross 1800-1862.
8 Nurse got ruffled? Something fishy here (8)
STURGEON – Anagram [ruffled] of NURSE GOT. This fish keeps coming up on my watch.
13 Crazy, Gershwin accepting allotment by lake (10)
IRRATIONAL – IRA (Gershwin) containing [accepting] RATION (allotment), L (lake). Here’s the overture to the brothers Gershwin show Girl Crazy with stunning orchestration, I think possibly by Robert Rusell Bennet as used in the original 1930 Broadway production.
15 Vandalised city’s plea for discipline (9)
SPECIALTY – Anagram [vandalised] of CITYS PLEA
16 Ant-bear’s way to board a Bible rescue boat (8)
AARDVARK – A, RD (way – road this time!) contained by [to board] AV (Bible -Authorised Version), ARK (rescue boat). Many seasoned solvers will have known ‘ant-bear’ and biffed the answer without bothering with the rest of the clue.
18 Barrow corporation bully regularly going to America (7)
TUMULUS – TUM (corporation), {b}U{l}L{y} [regularly], US (America)
19 Former partisan’s uniform stolen from the solver’s chest (7)
YORKIST – YO{u}R (solver’s) [uniform – U – stolen], KIST (chest). I didn’t know the chest but the answer was more or less a write-in. The House of York was a subdivision of the Plantagenets at 9ac.
20 Old queen keeping horse and wild ass (6)
ONAGER – O (old) + ER (queen) containing [keeping] NAG (horse)
22 Peter Rabbit’s head is more secure (5)
SAFER – SAFE (peter), R{abbit} [’s head]
24 Mr Fawlty familiarly adopting a South African title (4)
BAAS – BAS (Mr Fawlty – Basil – familiarly) containing [adopting] A. Another word unknown to me.

47 comments on “Times Cryptic 27398”

  1. Yesterday, we had PRESTISSIMO, and today GENERALISSIMO. I don’t know if KIST has come up before, but the answer was obvious, with most of the checkers. My LOI was BETOKEN, when I finally saw the definition.
  2. A DNF in 34 minutes with an unconfident ‘bass’ for BAAS at 24d. I was thrown by the ‘Arctic explorer’, who I thought ‘only’ sailed around Antarctica, in 7d, but a quick look at Wikipedia post (attempted) solve put me right. Up the creek in a barbed wire canoe without a paddle or in the ice in a wooden ship without an engine – I’ll take the first choice thanks.

    Didn’t know the KITCHENER meaning of cooker – makes a change from ‘Aga’ anyway.

    I liked ONAGER, one of the few words I was introduced to by cryptics the definition of which I can still remember word for word (‘the wild ass of central Asia’). I’ve often thought it strange that the siege weapon and beastie share the same name, and was interested to read (yes, again in Wikipedia) that the name of the weapon is derived from the kick of the latter.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

  3. is simply known as BOSS but with a South African accent?

    FOI 15dn SPECIALITY

    LOI 11ac SLIGHT

    COD 7dn ROSSINI

    WOD AARDVARK (why the long face?)

    Time bang on 30 minutes

  4. A pleasant 15.52 torpedoed by a shortsighted typo, though not in the spelling of PENICILLIN in which I had identical troubles to Jack – a typically helpful blog, cheers.
    Not that it matters, but I would have thought that Basil conventionally shortens to Baz.
    There’s the apocryphal story that you should be cautious looking up wild (asian) ass, but all it does these days is give you dozens of entries on crossword solves. Or does that betoken that Google knows I’m a clean-minded soul?
  5. 27 minutes. LOI BETOKEN. BAAS unknown but John Cleese character only too well remembered. so there was little choice. I didn’t know KIST for CHEST either, but it had to be one of the the pleasant PLANTAGENETs from over the hill. As I found out from genealogy, my Y chromosome is from Heptonstall, so I’ve had to stop being rude about them.The AV seems always to be called the King James Bible nowadays, unlike in my youth. COD to FAN VAULTING, also to be found in York Minster. A good challenge with the NW appropriately the last to fall. The old antagonisms die hard. Thank you Jack and setter.
    1. Was in Heptonstall ten days ago .. lovely place, not short of a gravestone. or a hill, come to that. Hebden Bridge/Heptonstall must be the fittest town in Britain
      1. My great-great-great grandfather is buried in the church graveyard in Heptonstall, along with his ancestors. It’s eerie to stand on their graves.
  6. Pretty straightforward again today, finishing with the unknown SOU which I was worried could be spelled SIU or SYU. I went with SOU though as it seemed most likely.

    The clue for AARDVARK has to be one of the most biffable I have seen – what else is ant-bear going to be!

    2. I confess it didn’t spring readily to my mind. They don’t seem very bearish to me!
      1. I thought aardvark might mean “ant-bear” but Google reliably informs me it means “earth pig”.
  7. 30 mins with half a Yorkist Fat Rascal, hoorah.
    DNK Kist, but no bother.
    Mostly I liked Specialist; what a brilliant surface.
    Thanks setter and J.
  8. Very easy puzzle with a number entered from definition alone, including the ant-bear
  9. 14:10 … so not too hard. Enjoyed the wildlife selection, and there were some brilliant surfaces. Myrtillus mentioned the SPECIALTY one, but I also really liked the “mean girl” at 1a. Mean girls are often a bit Barbie-like, so it’s fitting she should get a ring from Ken.

    I suppose you could call Mr Fawlty ‘Bas’ (or even Baz) but I wouldn’t advise it. Wasn’t there an entire episode given over to the outraging of his petit bourgeois standards by a rather too informal family (the ones with the brattish son)?

  11. I didn’t know Italian Vermouth counted as a wine. I thought it was a spirit.

    COD: SLIGHT. Good misdirection in the wordplay I thought.

    1. Vermouth is a fortified wine .. fortified with spirit, so you are not entirely wrong!

      Edited at 2019-07-09 08:52 am (UTC)

  12. I was held up at the end by TRACING, BETOKEN and CITRON, which took up 10 minutes between them. Didn’t know the cooker but it wasn’t difficult to construct. My daughter’s Father-in-law is Baz, short for Barry. I was however familiar with the African BAAS for Boss. A pleasant offering. 34:09. Thanks setter and Jack.
  13. 11’35”, only 4′ longer than the QC. Liked BETOKEN. Dnk KIST. Crossed fingers for BAAS. DOMESTIC came up recently, as well as being in the news – not my favourite word, as can mean anything from a disagreement to abuse to murder.

    Thanks jack and setter.

  14. Very easy today, with lots of BIFD clues .. did anyone else try to make an anagram from aficionado + o, in 26ac? No, thought not
    1. Momentarily. But with the first word obviously FAN, that left C, D and a dozen vowels.
  15. A bit of dithering over BAAS , BASS or BAZS. COD to BETOKEN. AARDVARK was so biffable but I give the setter 10/10 for effort in managing to come up with a believable surface involving the ark. SHYSTER was well hidden too.
  16. 16 min. but with a mis-spelt penicillin through not checking. Wd’ve thought Baz not Bas for the familiar. Easy going.
  17. 51 minutes, starting with 4d NIGH and ending with 2d TRACING just after finally getting 1a BETOKEN.

    I don’t think that was a bad time, given that I didn’t know KITCHENER, BAAS (I was more keen on the double-A after remembering that about the only other South African word I know is “laager”…), “kist”, CITRON, FAN VAULTING, YORKIST, “ant-bear”, “stock” or Sir James Clark Ross. Helpfully SOU and ONAGER have at least come up before.

    I had other problems along the way, among them wondering what “fermented” was doing in 25 (what, fermented beer as opposed to unfermented beer? Hmm…)

    Edited at 2019-07-09 09:37 am (UTC)

    1. That confused me too, and I’m surprised no one else has mentioned it. What is unfermented beer?!
  18. BAAS and the latter four-sevenths of YORKIST were NHOs, but otherwise all fairly straightforward, I thought. The juxtaposition of two animals boarding an ark was a little odd, particularly as the KESTREL presumably didn’t need to. Moreover, the AARDVARK would starve without a steady supply of termites, which are probably not things that you want on a wooden boat.
  19. Got all but three with brainpower at around 32′ and used aids to finish off. A few DNKs here, ONAGER, BAAS and KITCHENER. Quite biffable today including ALTERNATIVELY which I got with a few lights.

    A lot of material here for the archives including peter=SAFE which I DNK.

    Thanks to Jack and setter.

    61/63.

    WS

  20. 15 mins. No dramas. NHO tumulus or baas, but the wp was generous. Two double a’s in one puzzle! Is that a first? Thanks jack.
  21. ….Baz well, as Ken Campbell’s character wisecracked appallingly in Fawlty Towers. Only solving SHYSTER saved my tortured mind from arguing between “basa or baza”.

    DNK FAN VAULTING, but it had to be right.

    FOI PAPYRUS
    LOI CITRON
    COD TUMULUS
    TIME 10:15

  22. 8m 57s with plenty of unknowns, but all very fairly clued. FAN VAULTING, BAAS, TUMULUS, Ross & stock (as a flower) had passed me by until today.

    I biffed a few, including ALTERNATIVELY, which – when I’d parsed it later – was a very nice breakdown, even if the clue’s surface could have been smoother.

    16d was obviously AARDVARK from the checkers I had at the time, but I had to come here for an explanation – reading “Bible rescue boat” as ARK.

  23. An easy ride here, too, but only after I figured out that we were looking for Sou and not Ecu (which, to give the setter credit, would’ve sounded more like a sneeze than a woman, but being in Biffville, I wasn’t thinking about that). I liked Domestic, since I mentally separated ‘argument’ and ‘at home’ to make it a tripe definition, and I’m always partial to triple definitions.
  24. Just under the half hour, although I was worried when my FOI was Fan Vaulting! Couldn’t parse citron, but knew it as a fruit. Didn’t bother parsing generalissimo. I’m just back from Sardinia, where the most common male name is Massimo, so I got a ‘conceptual echo’ there. COD PENICILLIN.
  25. Hold-ups in the obvious places i.e. pausing to contemplate KIST (which a search tells me has appeared in at least one puzzle blogged like me, and has already gone on my list of Words To Make A Note Of, so my brain is clearly on a downswing at the moment), and BAAS, which went in as ABAS to begin with. Otherwise a pleasant and straightforward solve.
  26. Plenty I either hadn’t heard of or didn’t know the meaning of.

    BAAS, ONAGER, KIST, Sir J C ROSS, KITCHENER, FAN VAULTING, BETOKEN, CITRON

    However the clueing was very generous and most unknowns took just a sensible decision as to the missing letters.

    Lots of biffing amongst the rest: GENERALISSIMO, AARDVARK, PENICILLIN, ROSSINI, ALTERNATIVELY all went in without full parsing.

  27. Easy but got bogged down in the NW. Finally broke out with KITCHENER where like others I was trying to put ACHE in. Once that was in it was plain sailing.
  28. Would have been a quickish time for me, but stumbled over sou and citron …Otherwise enjoyable and fairly straightforward
  29. Here also a bunch of the elements here were unknown, to wit: TUMULUS, the kist, and BAAS. But the wordplay was relatively clear, so all correct. Not much else to say, really, so regards.

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