Times Cryptic 27608

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 33 minutes with 2dn and 14ac being responsible for missing my half-hour target.

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]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that
requires clarification.

Across
1 Flipping dog pinching good place finally for a roll! (5)
BAGEL : LAB (dog) reversed [flipping] containing [pinching] G (good) + {plac}E [finally]. An echo of 23dn yesterday.
4 Mild casual worker endlessly subjected to censure (9)
TEMPERATE : TEMP (casual worker), {b}ERATE{d} (subjected to censure) [endlessly]
9 Business woman embracing virtuous person’s steadiness (9)
CONSTANCY : CO (business – company), NANCY (woman) containing [embracing] ST (virtuous person – saint)
10 Goods originally conveyed by legendary ship (5)
CARGO : C(onveyed) [originally], ARGO (legendary ship)
11 Lining up, we hear, for prompting on stage (6)
CUEING : Sounds like [we hear] “queueing” (lining up)
12 Passage orchestra leader left out, ultimately unhappy with practice (8)
ALLEYWAY : {h}ALLE (orchestra) [leader left out], {unhapp}Y [ultimately], WAY (practice – way of doing something). The orchestra was founded in 1858 by Sir Charles Hallé and is based in Manchester.
14 Skill on range? Evaluates staff with it (12)
MARKSMANSHIP : MARKS (evaluates), MAN (staff), S (?), HIP (with it). I don’t think ‘man’ can clue ‘staffs’ so the second S does not appear to be accounted for.
17 Nice girl caused me to tour French department lakes (12)
MADEMOISELLE : MADE (caused), then ME containing [to tour] OISE (French department) + LL (lakes). ‘Nice’ in the definition indicates that the lass is French.
20 Like some income a Parisian press chief keeps close by? (8)
UNEARNED : UN (‘a’ Parisian) + ED (press chief) contains [keeps] NEAR (close by)
21 Island zoo initially invested in fat reptile (6)
LIZARD : I (island) + Z{oo} [initially] contained by [invested in] LARD (fat). Alternatively I{sland} + Z{oo} [both initially].
23 A singer graduates in this way (5)
BASSO : BA‘S (graduates), SO (in this way). The Italian for ‘bass’.
24 Jogger welcoming a rest (9)
REMAINDER : REMINDER (memory jogger) containing [welcoming] A
25 Riddle of sister surrounded by fish and alcoholic drink (9)
CONUNDRUM : NUN (sister) contained [surrounded] by COD (fish), RUM (alcoholic drink)
26 Odd about the Bluegrass State being dark and gloomy (5)
MURKY : RUM (odd) reversed [about), KY (the Bluegrass State – Kentucky)
Down
1 Help fellow medic puff out hair (8)
BACKCOMB : BACK (help – support), CO-MB (fellow medic). Layering hair to make it look bulkier, puffing it up or out.
2 Great lines about woman in seabird breeding-ground (8)
GANNETRY : GT (great) + RY (lines) containing [about] ANNE (woman). Not a word I’ve met before but I’m not surprised to learn that it exists.
3 Act wildly — drop one’s capital cover? (3,4,4,4)
LET ONES HAIR DOWN : A straight definition with a cryptic hint
4 Temporary accommodation for sacramental wine (4)
TENT : Two meanings. The wine is sweet, deep-red and low in alcohol.
5 A symbol circulated thus, mistaken at first for hawthorn flower (3,7)
MAY BLOSSOM : Anagram [circulated] of A SYMBOL, then SO (thus), M{istaken} [at first]. The May tree is another name for the hawthorn.
6 In Gt Manchester town one I miscast badly for churchiness (15)
ECCLESIASTICISM : ECCLES (Gt Manchester town), I (one), anagram [badly] of I MISCAST. The local authority is called ‘Greater Manchester’ but I’m not aware that ‘gt’ can stand for anything other than ‘great’, but I suppose the long name has to be abbreviated to something.
7 Like darts that hurt, piercing Cockney bloke (6)
ARROWY : OW (that hurt) contained by [piercing] {h}ARRY (bloke) [Cockney]. I was dubious about this word, thinking it a as candidate for the Uxbridge English Dictionary, but it’s in Collins.
8 English maiden keeping animal for riding: Black Beauty is one (6)
EPONYM : E (English) + M (maiden) containing [keeping] PONY (animal for riding). A reference to the book by Anna Sewell.
13 Civic official, one tolerating spice? (10)
MACEBEARER : MACE (spice), BEARER (one tolerating). The mace is a ceremonial symbol of authority and there’s one permanently on view in the chamber of the House of Commons when it’s in session.
15 Continental river accommodating slender shrub (8)
OLEANDER : ODER (continental river) containing [accommodating] LEAN (slender)
16 Sensitively keep ahead of time, leaving area (8)
TENDERLY : TEND (keep), E{a}RLY (ahead of time) [leaving area]
18 Part of clique becoming Canadian province (6)
QUEBEC : Hidden in [part of] {cli}QUE BEC{oming}
19 She is the third soprano principally engaged in Evita (6)
PERSON : S{oprano} [principally] contained by [engaged] PERON (Evita)
22 This writer’s a male religious leader (4)
IMAM : I’M (this writer’s), A, M (male)

69 comments on “Times Cryptic 27608”

  1. Under 25 minutes for me, so fairly straightforward. I biffed 17a, so thanks for the explanation, Jack, and for the rest of the solution details.

    For MARKSMANSHIP the only way I could make sense of it was to see that marksmanship was a capability for someone to MARK their MAN/staff. But that should really see the question mark to go at the end of the second sentence.

    Edited at 2020-03-10 02:41 am (UTC)

  2. The unusual ones like GANNETRY (there’s one at Hawke’s Bay in NZ in this part of the world) and ARROWY (not my favourite word) went in without much trouble, helped by wordplay or crossers. I was too careless to notice the unaccounted for S in 14a and missed the orchestra name for 12a which I just bunged in from the def. A bit of a chestnut, but I still liked the ‘Nice girl’ at 17a and the ‘She is the third’ def for 19a.

    Home after 24 minutes.

    1. There’s another GANNETRY on the volcanic White Island off the coast of the Bay of Plenty. I see it when the visibility is moderate to good when I walk my dog on local beaches.
  3. Chambers has ARROWY (7dn) too! – so my WOD, but for all the wrong reasons!

    Time 21 minutes, so I would think that the QC brigade could make reasonably short work of this ‘Monday on a Tuesday’ puzzle.

    FOI 22ac IMAM

    LOI 2dn GANNETRY

    COD 6dn ECCLESISTICISM – the love of Eccles cakes.

    I note we have a surfeit of BAGELS already this week.

    1. A good friend of ours came down with that virus over the weekend. I am taking your admirable sangfroid as my model Horryd. Thank you.
      1. Olivia, many thanks for your support. I do hope your good friend recovers quickly.

        I have lived in many cities around the world in my time and Shanghai is the one place that is rather good to be in at a time pandemic. In 2003 during the SARS crisis there were only 8 deaths here, we were commuting from Singapore, which was ravaged, as was Hong Kong.

        Health care is taken very seriously here both by the local government and the 60 million folks who live in the vast Shanghai conurbation.

        My wife should be your model. She has hardly let me into the garden for the last six weeks, and it she who braves the great outdoors for provision, whilst I bash away at the books. I’m 70 in the shade, and classed as vulnerable, due to my clash with Mr. C in 2016. The restaurants, cinemas etc are closed, but there are no shortages. (We were short of masks early on.) We have a great American Doctor Bob and Dr Chen and his staff at the Shanghai No. 1 Hosp. are gems.

        I certainly hope that America handles itself well, and I look forward to getting to Berlin and London once all this is over.

        Please take care.

  4. I was too busy biffing to notice the S problem, or anything else for that matter. For what it’s worth, ODE has Gt=Great, giving Gt. Britain as its only example.
    1. As mentioned in my blog, Gt = Great is in general use in place names as recognised in all the usual sources, but the problem with Gt Manchester in the clue is there is no such place as Great Manchester. The region/local authority is called Greater Manchester and Gt is not a valid abbreviation for Greater as far as I can tell. By the same principal we have Greater London, not Great London, whilst Gt Britain for Great Britain is fine.

      Of course as things turned out for the workings of this particular clue this doesn’t affect anything, but niceties of detail are often very important to clues and could have made all the difference, so ‘Greater’ really should have been written out in full – it’s not as if there wasn’t room for it as the clue ended with only one word occupying the second line.

      Edited at 2020-03-10 05:49 am (UTC)

      1. Sorry; careless reading of your commentary leading to an irrelevant comment from me.
  5. 6:28, so one of the easier ones, though good catch on that stray S that I didn’t notice.
  6. About 25 mins for me, and blasted past that extra S without noticing. Weird to have BAGEL two days in a row. That sometimes happens with the Sunday since there are different editors from Saturday/Monday, but I don’t remember seeing that in two consecutive dailys.
  7. Completed in 58m. Would have been quicker but got stuck on alleyway (couldn’t parse), marksman (s) hip, and gannetry. The last two in were the bearer where I guessed MACE and leander where I guessed the O, even though Oder is on my xwd list of rivers.
    So a lucky day.

    COD backcomb.

    Edited at 2020-03-10 04:51 am (UTC)

  8. I was going to suggest inviting the QC regulars over, but that’s because I didn’t notice that thiss one iss defective (14). GANNETRY held me up at the end, and it was with great reluctance that I accepted ARROWY.
  9. After my near-personal best yesterday, a genuine one today! 18 minutes.

    Slowed down a bit by getting the wrong end of the stick a couple of times (trying to split 4a into TEM and PERATE rather than TEMP and ERATE, for example) but mostly on the wavelength. FOI 1a BAGEL LOI 13d MACEBEARER, COD 24a REMAINDER.

    Given that any time I do well on a couple of puzzles in a row I’m normally firmly put back in my place on the third day, I wonder what tomorrow will bring us?

  10. I found this quite a biff-fest which did worry me that I was going to make a silly mistake but I pressed on thinking I could get a quick time today.

    My only hold up was putting in MADAMOISELLE. It seems intuitive to me that the word should begin with MADAM but once I saw MACEBEARER I realised my error. I’ll have to try to remember for future reference.

    1. I think the last time MADEMOISELLE came up with that “e” unchecked I made the same mistake. I’d also completely forgotten about it until you mentioned it, which means it’s one of those extra-dangerous words where I don’t know that I don’t know how to spell it!
    3. I made the same mistake in a puzzle a long time ago, and have since been very wary of not doing it again.
      1. I’m typically wary of such things for just long enough to forget them before they come round again.
  11. Very quick for me and I even spotted the missing ‘s’. Spent a while trying to find an anagram of SALE + ONE I MISCAST.
      1. Yes – I was also playing with “Bury” for a while.
        By the by, many Liverpudlians pronounce “Eccles Cake” as “Eckless Cake”.

        Edited at 2020-03-10 12:00 pm (UTC)

  12. Thanks for the blog, Jack.
    I didn’t know ARROWY and GANNETRY were words either. But I do know there is a GANNETRY on White Island -the one that erupted – 40kms off the coast of the eastern Bay of Plenty, where I live. I see the island when I walk my dog on local beaches and whenever the visibility is moderate to good. Sadly I also see dead gannets wash up on the beaches from time to time.
    ECCLESIASTICISM sounds like the sort of word a policeman would have asked you to pronounce in pre-breathalyser days.
    My favourites today were LIZARD and REMAINDER as the clues didn’t point in that direction to me.
    I’m keeping a log of my solving times for the month of March to see if I’m losing the plot or not. My last average, taken, oh, about 5 years ago , was 50 minutes or thereabouts. This puzzle today should help the average
      1. …or depending on your state of sobriety…..
        the leaf poleeth dishmop is…..
  13. 12:01. After a bit of a slow start, with 17A my FOI, I was held up only by 6D, which I initially thought used SALE as sawbill did and then that it started ECUMENI… err no that wasn’t going to work either. I biffed a few including 14A so didn’t notice the stray S.
  14. 16 minutes, so the Mancunian theme must have helped me. I also wondered about Gt for Greater but seeing as I don’t even acknowledge the existence of the metropolitan authority I wasn’t too bothered. COD to ALLEYWAY even so. The HALLÉ is Mancunian. An enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.

    Edited at 2020-03-10 08:14 am (UTC)

  15. Slightly slower than yesterday.
    NHO (never heard of – but not too hard to deduce): GANNETRY, ARROWY
    NOD (niggle of the day): Gt for Greater (didn’t notice the stray MARKSMANSHIP s)
    COD 24a, beautiful concise surface yet full of misdirection

    Question prompted by a clue/answer – what is the westernmost point of the island of Great Britain?

    Yesterday’s answer – the two signs always found in libraries are Libra and Aries, prompted by LIBRA yesterday (which actually turned 90 degrees to spell LIBRARY)

    1. Good time Angus.
      Were you thinking of the southernmost pt of Gt. Britain being the Lizard?
      I was going so fast I had entered ARROWS instead of ARROWY. Bother, a DNF on an easy one.
      Did notice the extra S in 14 but just shrugged.
      andyf
      1. Indeed – unless somebody knows otherwise, the westernmost point is Land’s End.
        1. Well that’s certainly true of the mainland of England but there may be calls for a stewards enquiry from north of the border and from the Scilly Isles.
    2. For the island of Great Britain I believe it is Ardnamurchan; only because the road sign is longer than Land’s End.

      For me, the answer is ‘t’ ….. but I have been doing these crosswords for far too long.

    3. Guessed Scotland… not Ardnamurchan as it turns out, but a point about a kilometre south of there.
    4. Looks like your question has already been answered below but a related Interesting Fact that always surprised people is that Edinburgh is west of Bristol.
  16. …In nets of Murk.
    20 mins with yoghurt, granola, etc. I am starting to fancy a toasted bagel.
    5 of the mins spent on trying to find the S in 14ac and searching for the right orchestra.
    COD to Jogger welcoming a rest. Such a great clue.
    Thanks (S)etter and J.

    PS. I recommend the short story, ‘On a Hawthorn Hedge’ by A. G. Gardiner (aka Alpha of the Plough). It’s brilliantly written and food for thought. 5dn reminded me of it.

    Edited at 2020-03-10 08:46 am (UTC)

  17. Shot through this in c8m, which must be near pb territory .. even MADAMing didn’t hold me up long. So, very easy.
    Some nice clues though. Noticed but just ignored the S issue
  18. I fully agree but might this have something to do with the printed version? In my copy the clue fills two lines.
    Also, isn’t this the second recent instance of ‘staff’ being used to clue ‘MANS’? Apologies if I’m referring to something that is sub judice.
    Many thanks for your blog, Bob K.
    1. I’ve now seen the printed version, but even if 6dn were to extend to a third line there’s still room at the bottom of the Down clues for them to end up level with the Acrosses. But anyway I wasn’t aware that it was a requirement for setters to construct their clues in accordance with the space available.
  19. 15 mins. Jack’s right; Gt is wrong. So is the clue for 14ac. Arrowy pfft. Thanks jack.
  20. Not a difficult puzzle, especially if a) you don’t even notice the rogue ‘S’ as you biff away, and b) are prepared to accept ARROWY as a word without stopping for a stewards’ enquiry. I was another who could only hear it in Barry Cryer’s voice, and was waiting for the punchline to follow. (Presumably the setter liked the word, so decided to use it instead of the more straightforward ARROWS, which would have been an easy alternative; as always, he/she cannot be held responsible for the vagaries of the lexicographers who decide what is acceptable).
  21. No problems with this, 25 minutes at leisure hampered by the new dog trying to claim my personal space on the sofa and laptop keyboard. ARROWY looked like an escapee from the Uxbridge ED to me. Didn’t bother about the missing S aspect of 14a, knew how to spell the French lady, and was reminded how much I like Eccles cakes, Mrs K says they’re better bought than home made but I’m willing to put that to the test. Thanks for the usual good blog jackkt.
  22. Another who found this on the easy end of the spectrum. I didn’t notice the missing S, as having most of the crossers, it just took the M from BACKCOMB for me to biff the answer. ARROWY and GANNETRY were constructed from wordplay. Lots of straightforward clues with a few that took more thought. I can’t believe CARGO was my LOI. I was fixated on the wrong end of the clue for the definition. I also tried to fit ECUMENICALISM into 6d. ECCLESIASTICISM was my penultimate entry. An enjoyable puzzle. 21:45. Thanks setter and Jack.

    Edited at 2020-03-10 11:27 am (UTC)

  23. Held up at the end by MARKSMANSHIP, still confused by the S. Despite the easiness of this, I thought it was an excellent crossword with some well thought-out clues. Never did get the parsing for ALLEYWAY.
  24. Nope didn’t spot the dangling S either. I figured if you could have a rookery you could have a GANNETRY and if you could be willowy you could also be ARROWY. I didn’t think of the cakes but was reminded of Eccles in the Goons. And now I’ve got that EPONYMous pilgrim’s song on the brain. 12.04
  25. Seemed to be on the right wavelength today, finishing in 9.17. All the clues made sense , hadn’t heard of gannetry but no different in principle to a heronry I suppose. LOI was macebearer.
  26. ….know what I mean ‘Arry ?

    I know most of you decry Chambers as a primary source, but it agrees with me that a hyphen is essential to MACE-BEARER. NHO GANNETRY or ARROWY, but easy enough to justify.

    FOI BAGEL
    LOI MARKSMANSHIP
    COD BACKCOMB
    TIME 7:33

  27. ….just because a word exists, it doesn’t mean it should EVER be used in a crossword.

    I, disgruntledly, refer to ARROWY. I bunged in ARROWS based on checlers and a cursory reading of the clue alone. Darts = ARROWS.

    Poor show, setter!

    2. Respectfully I would say that’s not how you should be approaching cryptic puzzles unless you are prepared to be caught out sometimes. Regardless of whether ARROWY is obscure or not to your liking, ARROWS simply doesn’t fit the clue. It takes no account of the first word ‘like’ nor of the ‘Cockney bloke’, a pun on the name ‘Arry, whereas ‘Arrs’ as a bloke’s name doesn’t exist. Times cryptic clues are pretty good on the whole, and they deserve to be read in full. Many of our top solvers ‘biff’ answers (please see the Glossary section if you’re not familiar with this term), which is what you’ve done here, and that’s absolutely fine because a quick solving-time is all-important to them, but you won’t hear them complaining when it ends in tears.

      Edited at 2020-03-11 10:22 am (UTC)

  28. I didn’t expect to finish this today but I had some time before the second race at Cheltenham and it all came together.
    LOI MACEBEARER where I had Pepper pencilled in pro tem. Prior to that ALLEYWAY and EPONYM.
    COD to REMAINDER.
    Under an hour on the puzzle; but I did put ARROWS at 7d.
    I think I’ll put the kettle on before the next race. David
  29. I managed a lot of this with no cheating so, as a beginner, I can safely confirm it was at the esier end! Enjoyed it a lot – didn’t manage ALLEYWAY, REMAINDER (need to remember a jogger can be something to remind you!) or UNEARNED but got everything else even if with a bit of help so quite pleased. Thanks for the explanations, such a huge help for learners like me.

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