Times Cryptic 27788 – Double speak

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

My solving time was 50 minutes with at least the last 15 of them spent on 15ac, 16dn and the second word at 18ac. There are rather a lot of double defintions today

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 Excellent prize fund, mine after retirement (6)
TIPTOP : POT (prize fund) + PIT (mine) reversed [after retirement]
5 Impressive,  refusing to work (8)
STRIKING : Double definition
9 Skill of tennis player,   ace! (8)
SMASHING : Double definition
10 Willing to embrace popular tomboy (6)
GAMINE : GAME (willing – to do something) containing [to embrace] IN (popular). A word only previously met in crossword puzzles but I actually heard it used last week in a film called One Day.
11 Around start of Oktoberfest the diet is going to pot — prompting help? (5,5)
IDIOT SHEET : Anagram [going to pot] of THE DIET IS containing [around] O{ktoberfest} [start]. I’ve heard of ‘idiot boards’ and ‘idiot cards’ but not ‘idiot sheet’, however the OED acknowledges it.
13 Book with info but no introduction (4)
ACTS : {f}ACTS (info) [no introduction]. The Acts of the Apostles.
14 Second   last place (4)
BACK : Two meanings
15 Regarding story about India — not finished yet? (10)
REPAIRABLE : RE (regarding), PARABLE (story) containing [about] I (India – NATO alphabet)
18 Evidence of sickness in canary, weary (6,4)
YELLOW FLAG : YELLOW (canary),  FLAG (weary – lose energy or interest). Wiki advises: Yellow flag (contagion), historically displayed on ships to indicate the presence of disease or quarantine (obsolete); also used in some cities to mark a recent death in a neighbourhood, regardless of cause.
20 Figure 101 suggested? (4)
CONE : 101 = C (one hundred…) + ONE (1)
21 Finish off sweet,  mint? (4)
BOMB : Triple definition a) destroy completely, b) a dessert consisting of ice-cream and/or other ingredients in the shape of a round bomb,  and c) a large amount of money. According to all the usual sources the pudding is spelt ‘bombe’. On edit: The consensus in the comments below so far seems to be that the parsing here is BOMB{e} (sweet) [finish off – i.e last letter missing] with mint as in (c) above, as the defintion. It’s neat and I’m inclined to think it’s what the setter may have intended, however I still think my parsing is a valid alternative as (a) clearly fits the bill and (b) with an ‘e’ was imported from French and is often anglicised as ‘bomb’ on menus and elsewhere, the entries in the usual dictionatries not withstanding. Given the number of double definitions in today’s puzzle I’m not surprised that my first thought was that here we have a triple.
23 Others came down in chains (10)
RESTRAINED : REST (others), RAINED (came down)
25 Route finder took position before vehicle sent the wrong way (6)
SATNAV : SAT (took position), VAN (vehicle) reversed [sent the wrong way]
26 Line in bootees unfortunately no longer in use (8)
OBSOLETE : L (line) contained by [in] anagram [unfortunately] of BOOTEES
28 Baby feeder exciting wee runts (3,5)
WET NURSE : Anagram [exciting] of WEE RUNTS. Most amusing!
29 Pedestrian operating drill (6)
BORING : Double definition
Down
2 Instant review of item impressing newspapers etc (9)
IMMEDIATE : Anagram [review] of ITEM containing [impressing – seizing] MEDIA (newspapers etc)
3 Mass of grass beginning to smell like that, gather bundles up (7)
TUSSOCK : TUCK (gather) contains [bundles up] S{mell} [beginning] + SO (like that)
4 I should add one Greek character (3)
PSI : PS (I should add  – post script), I (one)
5 Follow house guest part of the way? (5)
SEGUE : Hidden [part of the way] in {hou}SE GUE{st}
6 Legal victory over Germany for politician (5-6)
RIGHT-WINGER : RIGHT (legal), WIN (victory), GER (Germany)
7 A ruminant’s heading off south of capital of Kenya, African city (7)
KAMPALA : K{enya} [capital], A, {i}MPALA (ruminant) [heading off]. Capital of Uganda. ‘South’  is just a positional indicator.
8 Nine fish can swim freely with this? (5)
NONET : A straight definition with a cryptic hint leading to the  alternatively spaced answer NO NET.
12 Guard club, securing implement (11)
SCREWDRIVER : SCREW (guard – prison warder), DRIVER (club – golf)
16 Intimate, comfortable position set up (3)
PAL : LAP (comfortable position – lap of luxury) reversed [set up]
17 Visited by leader of gang, suspect not alone in Derbyshire town (4,5)
LONG EATON : Anagram [suspect] of NOT ALONE contains [visited by] G{ang} [leader]. I know nothing about the place other than its name and that it’s in Derbyshire. Its Wiki page doesn’t mention anything of particular note and nobody of much significance is in its list of notable people. Good luck to our colonial chums!
19 Breach of trust by British country (7)
LEBANON : LEAN ON (trust) contains [breach…by] B (British)
20 Cooler   book from Poe, perhaps? (7)
CHILLER : Double definition. Edgar Allan Poe being famous for his horror stories.
22 Old and wise, native American (5)
OSAGE : O (old), SAGE (wise)
24 Laid before heart, spades accumulate points? (5)
SCORE : S (spades), CORE (heart)
27 Loan shark, unspeakable blackguard first of all (3)
SUB : S{hark} + U{nspeakable} + B{lackguard} [first of all]

65 comments on “Times Cryptic 27788 – Double speak”

  1. NHO LONG EATON, of course, but EATON seemed likely with the checkers, and I had to put the G somewhere, so … I’d forgotten the meaning of YELLOW FLAG, but the wordplay was helpful. DNK IDIOT SHEET. Biffed LEBANON, parsed post-submission; my COD. I parsed BOMB as Jeremy did.
  2. Didn’t finish the Quickie today thanks to just one clue (25 Across), and didn’t finish this puzzle either, thanks to 21 Across. After searching word lists of desserts I came across ‘bombe’ and assumed that ‘finish off sweet’ meant BOMB{e} — even though, ironically, ‘finish off’ had suggested BOMB to me at the 25 minute mark, though I couldn’t convince myself of it with the rest of the clue. I didn’t know the mint/bomb meaning.

    15 minutes later, I gave up. Thanks for clarifying!

    1. Thanks for your suggestion re BOMB{e} which I have now noted with additional comments in my blog.
    1. I used to have a lot of trouble using Safari on my MacBook Pro so I switched to using Chrome for the Times crosswords. Famous last words but I’ve not had any issues in a long while now.
      PS…I agree with your parsing of BOMB(e)

      Edited at 2020-10-06 07:49 am (UTC)

      1. Try clearing your browser – this has solved issues on both iPad and MacBook in the past for me.
        1. Thanks. I hadn’t got round to trying alternative browsers (I’m not commuting in the way I used to so I don’t often use my iPad for solving) but having just downloaded Chrome it’s actually working… for now.
          1. A few weeks ago Chrome on the desktop stopped working too – but that’s OK again now.
            1. I get ‘403: forbidden’ from time to time but going back into the crossword club from the main Times site seems to fix it for the time being.
              Generally the site does seem to be excessively beset by these bugs.
  4. Bomb guessed with fingers crossed, but the rest quite straightforward. Even NHO-in-the-colonies Long Eaton went in with just the L in place. Reading the blog where bomb is bombe in the dictionaries I’m inclined to think plusjeremy has got the correct parsing. I’d guessed the same triple-definition as Jack, except my sweet was a sherbet bomb remembered from childhood, a sugar ball full of powdered sherbet. Liked score, and Lebanon with its surface describing Britain’s dealings with the EU. Or is it a breach of law that Boris wants?

    Edited at 2020-10-06 02:55 am (UTC)

  5. As for others, got LONG EATON from the cryptic and wasn’t sure of the parsing for BOMB. On Jeremy/Kevin’s parsing, I wonder why the question mark is required.

    DNK IDIOT SHEET, as we usually call them “cheat sheets”, like this one for the true data nerd.

    1. Thanks for the link. I’ve sent it to my daughter who has a year out in industry from her maths degree course working for the UK ONS at the Ministry of Justice and has become an R developer.
      1. So, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree 🙂 I’m glad you found the link useful. My son has also just finished his maths degree and taken a job as a biostatistician for our Ministry of Health – he’s loving it.
  6. I didn’t get Kampala, because I didn’t second guess my answer for 13: [-t]RUTH.
    Maybe I have RBG on my mind.
  7. I started well in the top half, only leaving 7d KAMPALA for later—geography is definitely my weak point—until I hit 15a REPAIRABLE and started struggling, having to get a toehold at 27d SUB and work my way back up to meet in the middle. I finally thought of “parable” rather than “fable”, and finished off with REPAIRABLE, KAMPALA and BOMB.

    I was looking at a picture of Poe just yesterday, idly browsing while looking something up during my re-reading of Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, which helped with 20d. It’s also full of crosswordy words—I spotted a wild “congeries” and a “jocosely”, among others—so maybe my reading will continue to help me this week.

    Edited at 2020-10-06 07:57 am (UTC)

  9. …Until the town lie beaten flat.

    25 mins with yoghurt, granola, banana, blueberries.
    No MERs, no crosses, no ticks, no dramas.
    Thanks setter and J.

  10. Seems almost as if the SETTER got depressed while compiling this, with three very positive words at the top TIPTOP, STRIKING and SMASHING and three very negative ones RESTRAINED, OBSOLETE, and BORING at the bottom.

    Loved SATNAV of course.

    I would like to make a possible case for ambiguity at 4 down. In chemistry, PH 1, PH 2, etc are measures on the acidity to alkaline scale. So if the “i” in the clue is read as 1, that could be a PH value, and if you “add one”, i.e. put an i at the end, you arrive at PHI, which is obviously a different Greek character.

    I’m sure Jack’s parsing is correct, and I’m probably just looking for sympathy for being one letter short of a correct solution. At least i had some sort of rationale.

  12. Had REFILLABLE at 15 for a while, as I was struggling to see the real answer, due in no small part to have a typo in RIGHT WLNGER.
    Eventually spotted that, which then made me realise that YELLOW WING (well that must be a sign of a disease somewhere right?) was probably incorrect, and perhaps FLAG might be a better fit.
    10.38 so the rest can’t have been too tricky with all that going on. LONG EATON vaguely recalled from trips to Derbyshire back in student days, and BOMB parsed as the (e) variant.
  13. YELLOW FLAG iris is a lovely plant to look at but I have just discovered that it is regarded as a pest plant here in NZ.
    SMASHING, BACK and BOMB were my LOI’s
    1. I had yellow flags in my pond until the incredibly bulky roots (?) took over the entire volume leaving no space for water. Got rid.
      1. That’s very interesting. Maybe that’s why they are regarded as a pest here. My brother-in-law is a retired bio security officer with Auckland City Council. I’ll ask him for his thoughts.
  14. Time dragged out to infinity, saved from recording on the SNITCH by a single typo.
    Couldn’t get the African town, because I had RUTH for the book, like others, Truth is at least as good a synonym for info as facts, especially with both being in short supply in the info we’re being fed these days by Presidents and Prime Ministers. When I resorted to aids to to fill in the gaps, I got several Indian villages and one NZ one, but no African cities.
    IDIOT SHEET I made up from the wordplay, not in my Chambers.
    A bit miffed, but I liked SCREWDRIVER, for which I think “securing implement” is the proper definition, otherwise “securing” serves no purpose.
  15. Liked this one, fairly straightforward for me. Not familiar with yellow flags particularly but given the G it was obvious..
    I was in Edale only recently, but managed to avoid hearing any mention of Long Eaton. But the name did ring a bell
  16. DNF. I had already slowed to a crawl, taking forever to see the FLAG bit of 18ac, PAL and REPAIRABLE, so when I got to the African city I was, um flagging. I couldn’t for the life of me work the city out even after resorting to the usual method of double-checking all the crossing letters. It turns out that, like GdS, my faith in RUTH as an answer for 13ac was misplaced.
    Pfft.
  17. 24 minutes with hesitant LOI BOMB, which I could see all three definitions for but I was still nervous. It took me a while to twig why IDIOT SHEET as right too. I know LONG EATON from my many trips to Ratcliffe Power Station, the jewel in the CEGB’s crown. Even I only just about remembered it was in Derbyshire and not Notts, so I trust people are good at anagrams. I enjoyed the puzzle. COD to CHILLER. Thank you Jack and setter.
  18. Same as jackkt with the REPAIRABLE, FLAG, PAL grouping. Good crossword and no complaints. Liked ‘prompting help’ and ‘breach of trust’.
  19. Finally got my name to appear automatically; maybe an image icon thingy tmw. Not overly impressed today with SMASHING, STRIKING and BORING all in the same puzzle (and all double defs); BOMB was elusive for a while and question mark is probably not required once one twigs … IDIOT SHEET biffable but unencountered in real life.
  20. All fairly routine, but unimaginative setting, as commented on by others. No difficulty with BOMB for me.
  21. 11:57. LONG EATON and REPAIRABLE my last 2 in. I also needed the L from PAL to get the FLAG. Good puzzle.
  22. Just over 50 mins for this and as with others, stuck on last ones in, FLAG, PAL and REPAIRABLE. Quite enjoyable though I thought. I knew Long Eaton as Mrs F used to live in Edale. Thanks J and setter.
  24. Yup, nice steady solve. No dramas, but a bit of dexterity required to find the right shortened dessert and a meaning of “mint” to match up with it. In my mental map, LONG EATON is in Notts, so I clearly need some recalibration after being at home for so long.
  25. Very enjoyable solve so thanks to setter and Jack for parsing Lebanon which I couldn’t immediately see. MER at use of ‘figure’ for ‘cone’ as strictly speaking a figure is 2-dimensional and a cone is a ‘solid’. Well, that’s my view anyway!
  26. TIPTOP was my FOI, followed by PSI. I then made steady progress, although I never did parse the SSO bit of TUSSOCK, so thanks for that Jack. I was fortunate to get KAMPALA before looking at 13a so tRUTH never crossed my mind. Didn’t know LONG EATON, but the wordplay was simple enough. I was eventually left with 19d and 21a. I’d put in LEBANON earlier but took it out again when I couldn’t parse it, but finally saw how it worked, then saw LOI BOMB as a triple definition, although I agree the alternate parsing works too. 33:31. Thanks setter and Jack.
  27. Straightforward 20 minutes, LOI REPAIRABLE, no problems with the Derbyshire place (you could go through it without knowing you had, IMO) only MER at IDIOT SHEET.
  28. I really didn’t like this crossword – it felt much more like a Telegraph crossword – with too many (IMHO) of what our blogger calls “double definitions” and I would call intuitive clues. Put another way, a lack of what I would call technical clues i.e. where an unknown answer may be deduced by putting the pieces of the clue together.
  29. Steady solve but left with a few queries at the end to work on, including PHI which didn’t make any sense, and CINQ which also made no sense, but I was fixated with CI for 101.
    Agree that this isn’t normal Times standard. Nothing stands out as COD.

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