Times Cryptic 27614

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I’ve no solving time to offer as I nodded of at my first attempt with fewer than a quarter of the answers in place. On resumption a little later I completed the grid in 29 minutes which is not too bad for me, but my overall impression was that it was a toughie and I shall be interested to read how others fared.

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 Game swimmer diving initially into water, doing the backstroke (8)
CHARADES : CHAR (swimmer), then D{iving} [initially] contained by [into] SEA (water) reversed [doing the backstroke]
6 Back   in front (6)
BEFORE : Two meanings, the first in the sense of ‘earlier’, I think.
9 Flag: one green, white and orange, mostly? (4)
IRIS : IRIS{h} (one – i.e. flag – green, white and orange) [mostly]. The plant ‘iris’ is sometimes called ‘flag’.
10 Page missing from new receipt, don’t exchange ticket (6,4)
CREDIT NOTE : Anagram [new] of RECEI{p}T DON’T [page – p – missing]
11 Wife out of hospital perhaps in need of a little drink (6,4)
BETTER HALF : BETTER (out of hospital perhaps), HALF (a little drink – a small beer as opposed to a pint). Brewer’s described ‘better half’ meaning ‘wife’ as ‘facetious’ and adds it can occasionally be ‘husband’ although I’ve never come across that and it sounds somewhat unlikely to me!
13 Only off, it’s implied, for a moment in the day (4)
NOON : If there’s NO ‘ON’ there’s only ‘off’
14 Dealing with issue in hiring of personal assistant? (8)
PARENTAL : PA (personal assistant), RENTAL (hiring). ‘Issue’ meaning ‘children’ as so often in Crosswordland.
16 Resuming at previous pace, old premier when expected to retire (1,5)
A TEMPO : O (old) + PM (premier – Prime Minister) + ETA ( when expected – Estimated Time of Arrival) all reversed [to retire]. Yet another Italian musical term, usually appearing after a rallentando or ritardando that’s slowed the tempo down.
18 Exercise having shifted load in boat (6)
PEDALO : PE (exercise), anagram [shifted] of LOAD
20 One really gutted about taste — that’s sourness (8)
ACERBITY : ACE (one), R{eall}Y [gutted] containing BIT (taste). A ‘bit / taste’ of something can mean just a very small quantity of it.
22 Passage from pithead, I think? (4)
ADIT : Hidden [from] {pithe}AD I T{hink}. It’s actually a passage leading to a mine so ‘pithead’ has relevance although it’s principally needed for wordplay.
24 Architectural feature remains current, broadcast claims (4,6)
SASH WINDOW : SOW (broadcast) contains [claims] ASH (remains) + WIND (current)
26 Wild gorilla in agony ultimately when born? (10)
ORIGINALLY : Anagram [wild] of GORILLA IN, {agon}Y [ultimately]
28 Power to withdraw a check (4)
STEM : STE{a}M (power) [withdraw ‘a’]
29 God in uniform was American president? (6)
URANUS : U (uniform), RAN US (was American president). Apart from having a planet named after him, he was the Greek god of the sky.
30 South American fellow seen, a rogue (8)
GUYANESE : GUY (fellow), anagram [rogue] of SEEN A
Down
2 Classic perhaps, ends in wondrous line, corker penned by old poet (5,4)
HORSE RACE : {wondrou}S + {lin}E + {corke}R [ends] contained [penned] by HORACE (old poet)
3 Floral arrangement put in routine (7)
ROSETTE : SET (put) contained by [in] ROTE (routine)
4 European article about business design (5)
DECOR : DER (European article – German for ‘the’) contains [about] CO (business)
5 Understand letter that’s read out (3)
SEE : SEE sounds like [read out] “C” (letter). In the  QC I blogged yesterday we had Notice third character in audition? (3).
6 Short process for carrier (9)
BRIEFCASE : BRIEF (short), CASE (process – in the legal sense)
7 Back intended to smother header from Newcastle (7)
FINANCE : FIANCÉ (intended) contains [to smother] N{ewcastle} [header]
8 Period concerned with terror, oddly (5)
RETRO : RE (concerned with), T{e}R{r}O{r} [oddly]
12 Eager to know everything corny then? (3,4)
ALL EARS : If everything is corny then ALL has EARS
15 Democrat invested in you, without a good deal (9)
THOUSANDS : THOU (you), then D (Democrat) contained by [invested in]  SANS (without).
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
As You Like It
17 Fickle as Preston supporter (9)
PATRONESS : Anagram [fickle] of AS PRESTON
19 Toxin, an element feasting on skin of grape (7)
ANTIGEN : AN, TIN (element) containing G{rap}E [skin]
21 Blessing thus welcomed by African nation (7)
BENISON : SO (thus) contained [welcomed] by BENIN (African nation). A word learnt from previous puzzles.
23 Painter doesn’t usually respect every rookie, each starting out (5)
DURER : D{oesn’t] U{sually} R{espect} E{very} R{ookie} [each starting out]
25 With sardonic tone, carefree chap called out (5)
WRYLY : Sounds like [called out] “Riley” (carefree chap). Anyone ‘living the life of Riley’ is enjoying a very easy and comfortable life with few worries. He’s said to have been a character in a 19th century comic song but there’s more than one theory as to which one, and he was probably originally spelt ‘Reilly’. There have been many books and films and TV programmes over the years with titles referring to the saying.
27 Pin on (3)
LEG : Two meanings, the second being our obligatory reference to cricket

63 comments on “Times Cryptic 27614”

  1. Trouble in the NW added a bunch to my time. I thought of CHARADES early on, but for some reason didn’t remember the fish, so passed on. 9ac had to be IRIS, but I couldn’t parse it–wouldn’t recognize the Irish flag, or indeed most others. Biffed BETTER HALF and THOUSANDS. COD 7d; took me ages to get ‘intended’.
    1. I don’t think one would be thanked for describing the Irish flag as containing ‘orange‘. A bit insensitive. It’s green white and gold. Mr Grumpy
  2. I enjoyed this one, and was as much on the wavelength as I was off it yesterday. No unknowns and plenty of PDMs.

    I liked URANUS and I also thought of Shakespeare when parsing SANS = without. Thanks, Jack.

  3. It all suddenly came together in 33 minutes.

    More adverts. 21dn & 10ac BENISON & HEDGES

    FOI 9ac IRIS

    LOI 28ac STEM

    COD 11ac BETTER HALF

    WOD 24ac SASH WINDOW

    1ac CHARADES – that takes me back!

  4. Took forever to get BRIEFCASE for some reason, and then filled in my loi BEFORE. I had no idea what was going on there, and still don’t quite see where you could use “before” or “back” interchangeably. Yes, “back in time” means “before” but does “back” on its own?

    I thought this was going to be easy when I filled in 1A in the first two seconds of looking at the puzzle. But there were lots of clues where you had to work hard.

    1. No, I’m not entirely convinced either. In my dictionary trawl trying to justify it I found an example that almost fitted but I didn’t put it in the blog because I knew it wasn’t 100%. Perhaps somebody else will nail it with a rock solid example later?

      Edited at 2020-03-17 07:24 am (UTC)

          1. The meanings are quite distinct. ‘Two days before’ refers to a time that is before another unspecified point in time that is not now. ‘Two days ago’ refers to a time that is before now.

            Edited at 2020-03-17 10:03 am (UTC)

              1. The time from which your are projecting is specified: it’s now.
                A while back = a while ago = an unspecified time before now
                A while before = an unspecified time before another time that may or may not be specified but is certainly not now.
  5. 11:06. I raced through this, somehow, held up only briefly at the end with STEM, my LOI. I enjoyed IRIS with reference to the flag on this day of all days.
  6. Thanks, Jack, especially for process = CASE in 6d, ACERBITY and SASH WINDOW.
    COD = BETTER HALF.
  7. Must have been on the wavelength, as I got through in 15 minutes, with STEM on its own taking up several.
    The fickle Preston supporter amused me no(rth) end.
    I did briefly wonder whether Durer was a painter, as I have a wonderful set of his engravings (in reproduction, of course), but I see he also used a brush from time to time

    Edited at 2020-03-17 08:21 am (UTC)

  8. And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:
    They also serve who only stand and wait.
    35 mins pre-brekker, held up in the NW until I thought to put the ‘a’ after the fish. Before that I considered whether AHakeDES was some sort of game.
    Thanks setter and J.
  9. …and they now let him loose with fast cars. 44 minutes. LOI ROSETTE. COD BRIEF CASE. Retired for a while now, recently I had to carry papers to a meeting in the City. I dug out my old brief case to carry them in. I felt I was looked at as a period piece on the Tube. I can’t see why in retrospect, but I found this enjoyable puzzle quite tricky, taking a long time to parse SASH WINDOW. I see that davidivad1’s getting the clues set for him. I thought Trevor Hemmings owned North End though. Thank you Jack and setter.
  10. Enjoyed this, some excellent surfaces, and found it a steady solve, only held up by a conviction that it was the Dutch flag referred to in 9ac. Fortunately flag = iris is pretty ingrained these days

    I’m no great fan of art but I was taken round the two art galleries in Munich a while back and remember being impressed by their Durer collection .. knew his stuff he did.

  11. Steady and got stuck on STEM for about a minute at the end.

    FOI ISM
    COD 9ac for topicality
    LOI STEM – I seem to find three-letter answers easy and four-letter ones difficult

    Yesterday’s answer, the busiest two-runway airport in the world is Heathrow, the busiest one-runway airport in the world was Gatwick but was overtaken by Mumbai in 2017, inspired by RUNWAY obvs.

    Today’s question: there are five countries, each in a different continent, that you can’t colour in in capitals (i.e. don’t contain A, B, D, O, P, Q or R). What are they?

    1. None in North America (Canada, USA, Mexico).
      Lichtenstein in Europe – needed a trawl.
      None in the continent of Australia (Australia).
      Chile in South America – only a few countries.
      None in Antarctica.
      Two continents left…
      Yemen in Asia – surprisingly easy trawl.
      Can’t think of one in Africa.
      Two shy, and a bit doubtful. Must be small island nations?

      1. OK two fairly well-known islands, Seychelles and Fiji. While Seychelles is arguably part of the continent of Africa, I’m a bit dubious of Fiji being part of the continent of Australia. It’s out in the middle of the ocean, 2000 km beyond the continental shelf (i.e. similar distance between Europe and North America). A check of the bathymetry… Seychelles is not part of Africa, either.
      1. Sorry, that’ll be me for not explaining clearly enough.

        If you write a country name in CAPITALS, would you be able to colour in any of the letters, e.g. in the word CAPITALS you could colour in the holes made by the As and the P. There are five countries in five different continents where no letters can be coloured in that way.

  12. In contrast to yesterday, I stumble through this, taking 58 minutes, despite the requisite biffing.

    Being the last correctly completed submission on the Club website might be called the definition of public humiliation, the online equivalent of the ducking stool. I wish 30 more would submit, so I might be put out of my misery.

    1. You’ve pinched my spot! Retribution will be swift – tomorrow anyway. Only difference is I’ve moved beyond humiliation and take pride in battling for the not so coveted wooden spoon.
  13. 11:33. No major hold-ups but a few trickyish ones to slow the pace a little. ADIT and flag/IRIS are instinctive reactions for the seasoned solver.
    I’m not convinced by back=BEFORE.
    1. “The medic in the trenches was near his breaking point. But he had wagered, some years back, that such an epidemic would occur in his lifetime.”
      “… But he had wagered, some years before…”
      “Ago” wouldn’t work there, but “back” and “before” are indistinguishable.
      1. As I read your first example, you could indeed replace ‘back’ with ‘ago’. To me it’s odd either way.
        I’m not quite sure what to call this sort of thing but it’s like writing ‘Bob was worried, on Wednesday he had felt fine but now he had a cough’ instead of ‘Bob was worried, on the previous Wednesday…’
        It’s a bit like the historic present that annoys me so much when historians use it.

        Edited at 2020-03-18 07:52 pm (UTC)

        1. To me, “ago” would seem applicable to the point in time of the narrator, not the medic in the trenches of the Great War, in this hypothetical narrative.

          To this American né in West Virginia, “some years back” sounds perfectly natural.
          Surely, Anglophones of any stripe might say “some years before.”

          But if you see “back” as exchangeable with “ago” (as I don’t, really), I don’t know why “before” would be any different.

          Not sure I see the relevance of your example, but I would use a semi-colon instead of a comma, and the first formulation is better.

          1. Yeah, the comma is a bit inelegant now that you point it out. Done in a hurry!
            I don’t think ‘before’ is ever exchangeable with ‘ago’. ‘Before now’ is.
  14. Another to be held up by the frustration of STEM at the end and finished in 38 minutes. I liked U RAN US and the surface for BETTER HALF.

    ANTIGEN for ‘Toxin’? I’m far from convinced.

    1. I’m no scientist but I guess it’s an unindicated definition by example?

      Edited at 2020-03-17 09:59 am (UTC)

  15. Completely off the wavelength this morning. Like Johninterred I saw IRIS(h) right away because of the date. The NYC parade has been cancelled of course along with everything else. Same as others with BEFORE=back. What fresh hell awaits us today…. 20.52
  16. 35 minutes for this enjoyable one, with STEM my LOI. Liked URANUS, didn’t parse ChARADES so thanks jackkt, took a while to discard ROSE WINDOW before finding SASH, and some reservations about the BEFORE meaning back. No problem with ANTIGEN, a toxin is one, if it elicits an immune response.
    Am now thinking of more countries with no ‘colour in’ letters, there must be some.
  17. Pleasant Tuesday puzzle; any delays were brief – contemplating the obscure deity ULEDUS for example.
  18. Reduced to helpers at the end for S-E-, for some reason was fixated on the withdraw meaning a reversal. I tend to find that my brain seizes up when faced with so many possibilities.
    Otherwise I rattled through this, saw THOUSANDS but rejected it for a while.
    Waiting for SELF ISOLATION in the coming crosswords. My best effort as an anagram is ALIENIST FOOL. Any cluers out there?
    3. Mine from yesterday (late in the day, so may not’ve been seen) was “Site on sofa, ill?”
  19. ….which I’d incorrectly biffed as “stop”. I found the bottom half generally easier than the top, but still found myself left with 16A/17D at the 10 minute mark.

    NHO A TEMPO, which didn’t help. The double “duh moment” came with the realisation that PATRONESS was an anagram (not like me to miss one !) and that “stop” was therefore patently incorrect. I used a very rude word when the final truth was revealed !

    FOI IRIS (Happy Pat’s Day ! Maybe the curtailment is apposite).
    LOI STEM
    COD URANUS (which you should be able to tell from “urelbo”)
    TIME 13:29

    Edited at 2020-03-17 11:57 am (UTC)

  20. About 26′, back in the swing after a holiday in Tenerife. We got what might have been the last plane out on Friday, planes were turned round mid-air the next morning. Now awaiting the C of E’s advice.

    Sone hard words today, ANTIGEN, BENISON, ACERBITY….

    Thanks jack and setter.

  21. Started off with SEE and made reasonable progress, but was held up by a lot of the NW and NE corners. BRIEFCASE and HORSE RACE eventually opened those up. STEM held me up inordinately at the end and I had to do an alphabet trawl. Finished in 38:11. Thanks setter and Jack.
  22. Thanks for the excellent blog and esp for explaining SASH WINDOW. Thanks also to setter – slightly easier than average puzzle.
    1. Yes – I couldn’t parse Sash Window – I could see “ash” for remains but didn’t clock on to “wind” for current.
  23. Rushed to get this done before my strenuous commute from the sofa to the bureau where I’ve set up a temporary work-from-home spot and as a result managed it in 27 minutes. FOI 5d SEE LOI 28a STEM. Anyway, must dash, the Guardian 15×15 and some baking just ate up my lunch hour!
  24. Just a shade under 28.50. Most went in reasonably quickly but NE corner again troublesome. LOI was 6 ac largely due to thinking 6 dn was intro before realising it was retro. Briefcase took a dog’s age as well. Hope to be better as the week progresses.

    With the current state of the world, the Times Crossword is assuming ever more importance as a release!

  25. Was any one else tempted by CRONOS – i.e. RON inside COS (tume)?

    DNF in at least 50 minutes.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  26. I object to “thousands” being clued as “a good deal” which can either stand for “a lot/ much” as an adverb e.g “I travel a good deal.” or be used with uncountable nouns. “We’ve had a good deal of sloppy cluing lately.” Stephen
  27. Thousands and a good deal both suggest rather a lot. How many have been infected now? Not too worried by back/before either. Tell me, dear, was it yesterday? Back, back. 26.30, another delayed by stem at the end. Failed to parse the Horace clue though a long-time admirer. A pleasant offering not without subtleties.
  28. 38.53. Another one which I struggled to despatch. Wryly was a long time coming as were my LOIs the briefcase / before crossers.
  29. Originally my better half and I began this puzzle at eleven last night and I finally biffed STEM at two this afternoon to complete what was technically a thirteen hour solve! However we both agree that what really matters to us is solving it without aids no matter how long it takes, rather like the Mephisto. Anyway as we now are both practically housebound due to you-know-what the longer it takes us the better. Thanks to jackkt for explaining STEM and NOON both of which were educated guesses.
  30. Slow first half an much quicker second half after a short break.

    Spotting ACERBITY soon after resuming, followed by PATRONESS, WRYLY and SASH WINDOW in short order set me on the way to completion.

    Luckily know musical terms, so A TEMPO wasn’t too difficult.

  31. Strange that no-one has mentioned the Nina in the second row.
    37mins, so fairly tough. Didn’t parse ‘sash window’, so thanks for the enlightenment. Like many above LOI 28a ‘stem ‘ after an alphabet trawl. A pity T is towards the end. Luckily the other alphabet trawl at 5d was only three in length.

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