Times Cryptic 27860

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 31 minutes. I found this straightforward with two or three quite quirky definitions.

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 Mythical creature in loch captured by heartless city police (7)
CYCLOPS : C{it}Y [heartless], then L (loch) contained [captured] by COPS (police). We don’t often see ‘l = loch’ the Scottish version of ‘l = lake’  which is more familiar (see 20dn).
5 Squirm awkwardly around a nobleman (7)
MARQUIS : Anagram [awkwardly] of SQUIRM containing [around] A
9 Beer delivery outside a stag do activity? (9)
PAINTBALL : PINT (beer) containing [outside] A, then BALL (delivery – cricket). I’ll leave the ‘activity’ to your imagination! ‘A pint’ in the UK usually refers to beer, and ‘a pinta’ is milk.
10 A lady leading the European Union? See you in France! (5)
ADIEU : A, DI (lady), EU (European Union). Much more accessible than the clue to the same word as blogged by Bruce on Saturday .
11 Group of spies mass surreptitiously? (6,7)
SECRET SERVICE : SECRET (surreptitiously),  SERVICE (mass – religious worship)
13 Nick writing tip by a liberal, one with unusual tastes (8)
CANNIBAL : CAN (nick – prison), NIB (writing tip), A, L (liberal)
15 Food processor from Yemen, unfortunately with unknown content (6)
ENZYME : Anagram [unfortunately] of YEMEN containing [with…content] Z (unknown). X, Y & Z are the most common ‘unknowns’.
17 Miss start of couple broadcasting (6)
AIRING : {p}AIRING (couple) [miss start]
19 One leaving someone on standby to search endlessly for battlefield? (8)
WATERLOO : WA{i}TER (someone on standby) [one – i – leaving], LOO{k} (search) [endlessly]
22 Chicago, perhaps, takes charge of game (7,6)
MUSICAL CHAIRS : MUSICAL (Chicago, perhaps), CHAIRS (takes charge of – e.g. a meeting). The musical is by John Kander and Fred Ebb who also wrote Cabaret.
25 Giant brown boxes appeal (5)
TITAN : TAN (brown) contains [boxes] IT (sex appeal)
26 Reportedly lift fabric that’s abrasive (5,4)
STEEL WOOL : STEEL sounds like [reportedly] “steal” (lift – as in shoplifting), WOOL (fabric)
27 Ladies and gents associated with city in a vague way (7)
LOOSELY : LOOS (ladies and gents – lavatories), ELY (city – near Cambridge, more usually clued as ‘See’)
28 Regularly chopped ferns and oaks, say, for starters (7)
ENTREES : {f}E{r}N{s} [regularly chopped], TREES (oaks, say). Definitions of this vary considerably but as far as I can gather in the UK an entree can be a first course (starter), a course between the first and main course, or the main course itself. In the US (according to dictionaries) it’s the main course.
Down
1 Mafia leader‘s way of raising the tone? (4)
CAPO :Two meanings. Collins has the second one as: a device fitted across all the strings of a guitar, banjo, etc, so as to raise the pitch of each string simultaneously. I’ve seen the device in use, but never knew its name. Da capo meaning ‘from the beginning’ is a more familiar musical term.
2 Deep red lips engaged in deception (7)
CRIMSON : RIMS (lips) contained by [engaged in] CON (deception)
3 Procedure over involuntary movement of the eye (5)
OPTIC : OP (procedure – surgical operation), TIC (involuntary movement)
4 What’s often depressed after a period? (5,3)
SPACE BAR : Cryptic with reference to ‘period’, the US word for ‘full stop’. Leaving out the space after a full stop when commenting at TfTT will send your contribution to spam.
5 Harry plants last of mint (6)
MOLEST : MOLES (plants – undercover spies), {min}T (last of)
6 Reposition soldiers on island, for example moving north (9)
REARRANGE : RE (soldiers – Royal Engineers), ARRAN (island), EG (for example) reversed [moving north]
7 Responsibility leader ignored to admit I ignited gas, perhaps (7)
UTILITY : {d}UTY (responsibility) [leader ignored] containing [to admit] I + LIT (ignited)
8 Partner on TV making an instrument (7,3)
SQUEEZE BOX : SQUEEZE (partner), BOX (TV). Collins has ‘squeeze’ as a boyfriend or girlfriend. SOED says it’s ‘chiefly US’. All very non-PC now, I expect.
12 Perhaps waste copper‘s time infiltrating phoney pearl scam (5,5)
SCRAP METAL : T (time) contained by [infiltrating] anagram [phoney] of PEARL SCAM
14 Naivety of establishment at some point concealing church (9)
INNOCENCE : INN (establishment), ONCE (at some point) containing [concealing] CE (church)
16 Search me roughly for fine material (8)
CASHMERE : Anagram [roughly] of SEARCH ME
18 Up-and-coming knight, German fellow, is a dish! (7)
RISOTTO : SIR (knight – of the Realm) reversed [up-and-coming]. OTTO (German fellow). Many similar clues to this word have appeared over the years.
20 Lake with a few houses is graceful (7)
LISSOME : L (lake) + SOME (a few) contains [houses] IS
21 Brilliant Germany gutted to accept defeat (6)
GLOSSY : G{erman}Y [gutted] contains [to accept] LOSS (defeat)
23 Small piece of land isn’t available? (5)
ISLET : IS LET (therefore isn’t available)
24 Railways cut on a regular basis, regrettably (4)
ALAS : {r}A{i}L{w}A{y}S [cut on a regular basis]

51 comments on “Times Cryptic 27860”

  1. Delighted on any day I can get one of my better times. Everything went in smoothly except for the SERVICE of SECRET SERVICE, and the BOX of SQUEEZE BOX (I was worried that little word would do me in).

    My first guess for 12-Down was, amusingly, SCRAM PLATE, which I thought might be a term for getting rid of metal.

  2. My first guess for 12dn was SCRAP METAL, but I was still twice as long as Brother Jonathan, a gentle 27 minutes and shrapnel.

    FOI 5ac MARQUIS which is the same as MARQUESS, the latter being English!

    LOI 5ac PAINTBALL – modern stag-dos

    COD 8dn SQUEEZE BOX

    WOD 26ac STEEL WOOL – the nemesis of Teflon

    A long time since I played 22ac!

  3. After a few tough post-Christmas ones, including here yesterday, I was happy to see this appear. All pretty straightforward, with the second meaning for CAPO the only bit I didn’t know. Favourite was LISSOME – a good word that deserves more of an AIRING.

    Finished in 25 minutes.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

    1. I agree – nice word. Reminds me of the Grantchester curates on lissome clerical printless toe.
      1. Thanks for the English Lit. lessons – Lady Macbeth last week, Rupert Brooke this. Lots more to learn, but at least it’s a start.

        Thank you again.

  4. Which makes me 17 of 18 on the SNITCH at the moment. I was slowed down by my POI CAPO and LOI PAINTBALL. I thought I knew CAPO, but not in its desired sense, and I finally biffed it. I’ve only come across SQUEEZE in ‘main squeeze’, and I see that most (but not all) of ODE’s examples include ‘main’. Anyway, I should have been much quicker in thinking of Q, given the U. ‘Establishment’ seemed like a rather vague definition for INN.
    Nice work, Jeremy! Or as I would have said yesterday, Way to go!
  5. I strolled through this leisurely while doing other things with no big problems. I knew both meanings of CAPO (all three with the going back to the start meaning too). LOI LISSOME
  6. Straightforward enough but my first guess for 4d was SHIFT KEY. COD to CAPO although my first thought included DON.
  7. Very gentle, I thought. COD Space Bar.

    Each to his own, but paintballing sounds pretty hellish to me (come to think of it, so does the whole idea of “stag do activities”)

    1. I have lived through the times in which the typical stag do changed from a pub crawl and perhaps a curry to a three-day excursion to Eastern Europe involving enormous expense and planning. This didn’t improve them, to my mind…
      1. The first of my friends to get married had his stag do in New York. Over the years the willingness of people to give up an entire weekend (kids often a factor here) and spend vast amounts of money gradually reduced to the point where a pub crawl or meal in a local restaurant became the norm again and everyone was the happier for it.
  8. This might be my quickest solve since starting to use the crossword club a little over a year ago. There were a couple I left and came back to which I thought might hold me up at the end but they both yielded fairly quickly. First CASHMERE, for which the best I came up with initially was SACHREME – on another day I could have assumed it was something I hadn’t heard of and thrown that in. Secondly CAPO – here I might have been aided by remembering that my eldest son included one amongst his Christmas presents last week. I’m not sure I knew the other meaning – it feels like it rings a vague bell but I could be imagining it.
  9. …of us, be a crimson-cresseted east.
    15 mins of straightforward fun – with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    I have made no marks on my copy and only “pearlscamt” in the margin.
    Thanks setter and J.
  10. 09:32. CAPO my last one in as I hesitated over the first definition and didn’t know the second. I enjoyed the “one with unusual tastes” definition for CANNIBAL.

    Edited at 2020-12-29 08:47 am (UTC)

  11. I have a CAPO, now fifty years old. However, I too was delayed in solving this, because a capo raises the pitch of a note (the frequency), tone being a wider term involving duration, pitch, overall quality of sound. That’s in UK English anyway – in the US ‘tone’ is synonymous with ‘note’.

    I await a post from a female paintballer.

    12’24” thanks jack and setter.

    1. Capo came rather easily to a guitar teacher. Tone can also mean pitch, in any musical language. We talk about tones and semitones, after all.
  12. I have a collection of CAPOs and eventually remembered the Mafia Don’s other name, but needed the checkers to jog my memory. OPTIC was my FOI. I had most difficulty in the SW, with MUSICAL CHAIRS eventually breaking the deadlock. SCRAP METAL and then CANNIBAL were my last 2 in. 33:47. Thanks setter and Jack.
  14. 11.49. No problem with CAPO (I use one a lot) or anything else come to that. Highly unusual for me. Probably a PB. Maybe getting up a bit later and being wider awake to do these is helping.
  15. SQUEEZEBOX and MARQUIS intersect
    All the letters we’ll see, I suspect
    But there’s no JFK
    So no pangram today
    But maybe a NINA – in some respect

  16. Straightforward. Liked the deep red lips. I like Matt Lipps, too. He is a talented photographer/sculptor from Los Angeles.
  17. I decided to look at his for 5 minutes as a warm-up for the QC.FOI was GLOSSY then I kept going. LOI PAINTBALL. MOLEST unparsed and DNK the musical meaning of CAPO but was sure about the Mafia meaning.
    Great fun. Wish I’d timed it. Now for the QC …
    David
  18. Easy enough in 13.41, after a slow start thinking the Heartless city police had to be M(e)T and failing to think of a monster infill.

    Some good quirky definitions, especially the “one with unusual tastes” right next to the “food processor”.

    I can never see SPACEBAR without thinking Пожалуйста

    “Unconscious bias” training bristled a bit at male only paintballing and the clearly signalled knee-jerk response “what’s often depressed after a period?” Perhaps I should run them past my SQUEEZE.

    1. “I can never see SPACEBAR without thinking Пожалуйста.”

      Took me a moment or two, but I got it in the end. I guess I’m now in the same position.

  19. …the last of the turkey eaten. 33 minutes with LOI CAPO/ PAINTBALL crosser, needing the latter to confirm the former. COD to CANNIBAL, also enjoying playing MUSICAL CHAIRS to the accompaniment of a SQUEEZE BOX. Thank you Jack and setter for a pleasant puzzle.
  20. Easy peasy today. Made 1ac harder than it needed to be by overlooking the word on line 2..
    Calling a main course an entree seems quite perverse to me, given that the word means “introduction.” In France and England it would always be a first course preceding a main course
  21. Not too hard today, last two utility and space bar.
    Not doing paintball again, too painful.
    Knew squeeze box from The Who.

    COD space bar.

  22. LOI CAPO. I use a capo all the time but have no idea or any desire to know about mafia bosses. Some very nice surfaces here, a fairly easy crossword but with a lot of aha moments.
    COD SPACE BAR
  23. A trip down Memory Lane with this, recalling Flanders & Swann’s reluctant CANNIBAL. DNK the non-Mafia meaning of CAPO, otherwise smooth sailing. Nice one. 14.09
      1. These days Jerry I fear the rest of the world thinks the US is not ready for self-government.
  25. 12.06 and my fastest for a good while. FOI marquis, LOI airing but not because it was the most difficult , the clues just fell that way.

    Liked steel wool, musical chairs and paintball- which did hold me up.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  26. Of which about 10 minutes on 4d “Space Bar”. No word play and no double definition – would 4d be described as a “pure cryptic” clue?
    Good time for me today.
    1. Mike, there are veteran solvers around prepared to debate whether it’s cryptic or &lit, a matter that for all my experience is still a grey area for me. I try not to commit one way or the other in my blogs, but if I do, I cross my fingers and hope for the best. Nobody has argued (so far) with what I wrote, so I think I got away with it!
      1. Thanks Jackkt. Please don’t think I was questionning your description – I was just surprised to see a cryptic single definition clue – I don’t think they’re very common in the Times?
        1. CDs are often found here. The kind of clue that often keeps you looking for something else until you identify it…
  28. Most of this seemed to go in smoothly. Short delay in the NW corner before spotting CAPO after which the rest went in quickly.
  29. New technique: printed the puzzle out on paper, almost lead to a PB, but one short in the end. After dropping SHIFT KEY, I never went back to that concept, and am now kicking myself.

    Some great clues here, too many to pick a COD. And, for me, the vocab was quite a bit easier today.

  31. Zippy little puzzle, which is good when I am still feeling generally rather sluggish post-Christmas; even in that time, took a moment to enjoy the penny dropping for SPACE BAR.
  32. Seems we have a healthy contingent of guitar players here. I hardly used my CAPO, when I played… Would have to put new strings on the old Les Paul and build up the calluses again…
  33. ….the musical meaning of CAPO, but finally trusting my Mafia knowledge, I saw this off comfortably enough.

    Some years ago, my much-disliked female manager informed the seven of us in my IT Help Desk group that we were to be “treated” to a team building exercise over the course of a month, and that the first “fun” activity would be paintballing. I said I’d only agree to it if she were to be on the opposing team. “Oh, I’m not doing it, it’s just you lot !” came the response.

    “Count me out then” I responded. There followed a short but heated discussion which ended with her intimating that disciplinary action would follow, and me telling her that in that case my notice would be on her desk on Monday morning.

    My colleagues were horrified, and went to her office to inform her that if that was the way of things they’d all resign.

    We never did go paintballing.

    FOI MARQUIS
    LOI CAPO
    COD LISSOME
    TIME 7:25

  34. 16.50. I didn’t know the guitar device but fortunately the mafia leader made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Some nice light fare to enjoy after the Christmas festivities.
  35. A 41 minute DNF with INLET instead of ISLET (it did seem a bit strange on two counts, but since it is a real word I didn’t catch it on proofreading). I also stared at the clue for CANNIBAL for a while before correcting SPACE KEY to SPACE BAR. By the way, does spacebar have to do with пожалуйста?

    Edited at 2020-12-29 07:07 pm (UTC)

    1. Hi there,

      Space bar sounds like “spasibo” in Russian which means “thank you”

      The person replies “pozhalsta” meaning “don’t mention it “.

      Cheers. Jovan.

  36. Not been solving these regularly over the “holiday” period so I’m pleased with my time.

    Seasonal greetings to all.

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