Times Cryptic 27872

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 24 minutes. Very enjoyable without being particularly challenging. I raised an eyebrow a few times along the way.

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 Putting bible back, I can’t suspect authority of church (7)
VATICAN : AV (bible – Authorised Version) reversed [putting…back], anagram [suspect] of I CAN’T
5 220-yard run with golf shot (7)
FURLONG : Anagram [shot] of RUN GOLF
9 Nervous crossing peak, in need of a pick-me-up (11)
RESTORATIVE : RESTIVE (nervous) containing [crossing] TOR (peak) + A
10 Old priest first to finish pork pie (3)
LIE : ELI (old priest) becomes LIE when its first letter (E) moves to the end [first to finish]. ‘Pork pie’ is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘lie’, more usually shortened to ‘porkie’.
11 Menial career collecting rubbish Jack disposed of (6)
FLUNKY : FLY (career – run) containing [collecting] {j}UNK (rubbish) [Jack disposed of], The Royal Family are thought to employ lots of these.
12 European pleased to find info online (1-7)
E-CONTENT : E (European), CONTENT (pleased)
14 Trait shown by English pet tucking into meal with sauce (5,5,3)
STIFF UPPER LIP : TIFF (pet) contained by [tucking into]  SUPPER (meal), LIP (sauce – cheek). I have misgivings about ‘tiff/pet’ and I’m almost certain we’ve had this before; a tiff is a minor quarrel or disagreement, but a pet is a childish sulk. Not the same thing at all in my book although one may very well be the result of the other.
17 Sharing problems aboard? (2,3,4,4)
IN THE SAME BOAT : Cryptic
21 Nothing taken from a month’s provision toasted with cheese (2,6)
AU GRATIN : AUG (month), RATI{o}N [nothing – o – taken]
23 Plan second church straddling border (6)
SCHEME : S (second), then CE (church – of England) containing [straddling] HEM (border)
25 Queen, say, regularly represented in charts (3)
CAT : C{j}A{r}T{s} [regularly]. A female cat; Tom being the male.
26 Title adopted by British author’s a clever one (6,5)
BRIGHT SPARK : B (British), RIGHT (title – right of ownership), SPARK (British author – Muriel). Most famous for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
27 Rabble drained particularly potent brew (7)
SCRUMPY : SCRUM (rabble), P{articularl}Y [drained]. Traditional farmhouse cider best kept under the counter out of the sight of passing grockles.
28 Someone sticking nose in fruit, by the sound of it (7)
MEDDLER : Sounds like “medlar” (fruit). Robert Price gave us this in his Sunday Times Christmas Jumbo: One poking his nose in heard something fruity (6)
Down
1 Confirm return of top-class racing with ideal setting (6)
VERIFY : Reverse [return] of F1 (top-class racing) contained by VERY (ideal) [with ideal setting]. I wasn’t sure about ‘very/ideal’ but then thought of ‘the very/ideal thing’.
2 Even risks reversing American vessel into position (4-3)
TOSS-UPS : USS (American vessel – United States Ship) contained by [into] SPOT (position) and all ‘reversing’
3 To hit hard, experienced hands move like this (9)
CLOCKWISE : CLOCK (hit hard), WISE (experienced). One for keriothe  kevingregg: Does experience bring wisdom?
4 Not quite    intimate (4)
NEAR : Two meanings
5 Inaccurate piracies of works as published (4,6)
FAIR COPIES : Anagram [inaccurate] of PIRACIES OF. I looked twice at ‘inaccurate’ as anagrind as I don’t quite see it, but it’s in the Chambers lists.
6 A German pursuing extremely rich banker locally (5)
RHEIN : R{ic}H [extremely], EIN (a – German).  ‘Locally’ indicates the German spelling of the river.
7 Painting efficiently’s a boring source of income? (3,4)
OIL WELL : OIL (painting), WELL (efficiently), and a rather fine cryptic definition
8 Man’s close relative leading parrot (5,3)
GREAT APE : GREAT (leading), APE (parrot – copy)
13 A fine feminine capacity for kindliness? (10)
AFFABILITY : A, F (fine – e.g. pencil lead), F (feminine), ABILITY (capacity)
15 Freed from other responsibilities primarily during duty days (9)
EXORCISED : O{ther} + R{esponsibilities} [primarily] contained by [during] EXCISE (duty), then D (days). The malign spirit is expelled and the affected person or place is set free.
16 Penalties restricting overseas party funds (8)
FINANCES : FINES (penalties) containing [restricting] ANC (overseas party – African National Congress)
18 Meaner pugilist using wrong side of fist (7)
TIGHTER : {f}IGHTER (pugilist) changes F to T [using wrong side of fist], but why ‘wrong’ side – surely ‘other’ or ‘opposite’?
19 Extremity one struggles to cut? (7)
TOENAIL : Cryptic definition. On edit: Alternatively: anagram [struggles] of ONE is contained by [cuts] TAIL (extremity) and the defintion is @lit – thanks to Paul for suggesting this. 
20 Drug-injecting worker in need of dough’s a mug (6)
BEAKER : E (drug) contained by [injecting] BAKER (worker in need of dough)
22 Record-holder, somewhat egotistical, bumptious (5)
ALBUM : Hidden in [somewhat] {egotistic}AL BUM{ptious}. Not the family one for sticking things in this time.
24 Fancy man in particular supporting wife (4)
WHIM : W (wife), HIM (man in particular)

71 comments on “Times Cryptic 27872”

  1. Not being a member of the Crossword Club (which seems to be an uphill battle judging by the number of grumbles I see) but doing the crossword after simple subscribing to The Times and going to its mindgames I haven’t been able to see today’s yet, as they’ve given yesterday’s. Apparently I shall have to wait until 5.00, even though I told them before the midday update and the person I talked to told the IT people at 11.50.
    2. Thinking further on this, I wasn’t aware it was possible to subscribe to the Times without having access to the Crossword Club. It used to work the other way round in that we could subscribe to the Club for a knockdown price around £8 a year but then they forced us to take the newspaper as well if we wanted to continue with our hobby. Would you care to give details of your subscription package?
      1. I’m using (tablet) a basic Samsung Galaxy, not sure what browser it uses but Firefox I think. On my desktop (where I am at the moment) I use Windows 10 and Firefox is my browser.

        Goodness knows what my subscription package is. All I know is that when I first got my tablet I went to the Times site on my desktop and subscribed. I have an icon on the front page of my tablet which I click on and up come the last seven days’ papers.

        Occasionally there are problems and I use Chrome and all is well. Quite different, but it has everything that the Firefox experience gives me (and I use it on Sundays sometimes as it actually says who set the ST crossword, something I don’t get in Firefox).

        1. I can’t advise you on the tablet situation I’m afraid, but on your desktop I think you need to clear your Firefox browser cache and then follow the link I sent previously.

          To clear the Firefox cache:

          Click the menu button – that’s the 3 horizontal lines icon at the top right of your screen.

          Select Options.

          Select the Privacy & Security panel.

          In the Cookies and Site Data section, click the Clear Data button.

          Here are two items both with check marks against them:

          Remove the check mark in front of Cookies and Site Data.

          Leave the check mark in front of Cached Web Content.

          Click the Clear button.

          Then back out, closing the preferences page and try the link to the puzzle again.

          Hope this helps.

          1. Well this is very helpful of you Jack but I can’t see what the problem is: on my desktop I can get the puzzle you sent me as a link in your post above. I can’t solve it interactively but I can print it out and that’ll be good enough. Why do I need to clear my Firefox browser cache?

            What’s going to happen tomorrow though is anyone’s guess.

            1. I thought you had said you were still getting yesterday’s puzzle when clicking on my link on your desktop running Firefox, and clearing the Firefox cache would be a good place to start in trying to resolve that issue. Apologies if I misunderstood. Anyway you seem to have access to today’s puzzle now, and that’s the main thing. I hope you enjoy it!
  2. As I understand it, au gratin doesn’t specigically mean ‘with cheese’, rather it means ‘with scrapings’, such as breadcrumbs etc. Can be cheese of course, but I would suggest at the end of the clue, an added ‘for example’ would be a useful addition.
    Great crossword though; about 15m.
    1. Your point is supported in some of the usual sources but if I ordered ‘au gratin’ in a restaurant and there was no cheese involved I would feel very disappointed. Cheese or cheesy breadcrumbs, fine.
    2. ‘Gratin’ really refers to the production of a browned surface. Cheese isn’t necessarily involved (classic gratin dauphinois for instance doesn’t always contain cheese) but I’d say that’s the exception.

      Edited at 2021-01-12 10:28 pm (UTC)

  3. The top half went in apace with VATICAN leading the field for the first FURLONG, then it was a TOSS-UP whether I was near enough to VERIFY if I was proceeding in a CLOCKWISE direction. I kept a STIFF UPPER LIP until some BRIGHT SPARK put SCRUMPY in a BEAKER as a RESTORATIVE. I then spent a couple of minutes attempting to parse BEAKER, before EXORCISING my fear of pink squares and submitting regardless. OIL’s WELL that ends well! 19:30. Thanks setter and Jack.
  4. A reasonably gentle canter which turned out to take longer than I’d expected. I liked Flunky and Toe-nail. Does the queen use one to deal with the other?
  5. ….. which is pretty quick for me. The QC today took me over 10 mins for the first time this year, so I approached this with some trepidation. I solve on an IPad, so anagrams are often a problem and I seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time on my LOI which was FAIR COPIES.
  6. Can’t understand why some solvers don’t bother to fully parse the clues, seemingly rushing to just complete the grid. Surely it’s fully understanding how the clue works is what makes it more enjoyable, and perhaps makes future clues easier/quicker to solve. Or is that naive? Just saying …
    1. Not at all, and it’s a fair point, but some solvers are competitive and prefer to go for speed. Each to their own , and all that…
    2. A lot of the TfTT bloggers and commenters are regular participants in the annual Times Crossword Championships where there are prizes for being accurate and quick but not for proving you’ve understood the clues. The regular crossword year is a constant training exercise / practice drill for that.

      And who knows, maybe “fully understanding how the clue works” to make “future clues easier/quicker to solve” can even be done after the puzzle has been completed.

      Just saying…

      1. It was the original focus of the blog – solving times as a kind of weekly competition. Since this was before the Crossword Club with a timer, we all self-reported times.
  7. Very good of you Jack. Most odd, because I still get the Monday crossword. It’s obviously in the memory and I can’t (or at any rate don’t know how to) refresh.

    I’ll wait until 5.00 and if necessary print out today’s from the link you gave.

    1. We crossed. What device are you using and what browser? Can you try my link in another browser?
  8. Started the puzzle with a headache, which is never a good idea. Finished the puzzle with same headache but all correct. Off for a restorative lie-down!
  9. ….unhealthily large corporation, I seldom cut more than one TOENAIL at any given time. The joys of age !

    I needed Jack to parse FURLONG for me, and now I don’t know why I couldn’t see it. VERIFY was parsed afterwards. A decent puzzle, which I enjoyed after the overly “smart alec” QC I did before it.

    FOI VATICAN
    LOI SCRUMPY
    COD TOENAIL
    TIME 7:12

  10. Late on parade as ever, as the present Mrs Shabbo and I save the delights of the Times Crossword for our evening meal. I guess it saves talking to each other!
    A very pleasant solve, with one truly outstanding clue in 19d. What a delight! Hats off to the setter.
  12. Not sure what I thought of this puzzle, struggled in the NW but all slotted in when I came back to it. Liked the golf run as a clever anagram, also I think I could run 220 yards faster than I could move a golf ball in a straight line!
  13. A steady (ie slow) pre and post dinner, confidence boosting, solve after today’s rather unusual QC. Lots to enjoy, with Toenail a particular favourite. Still needed Jackkt’s blog for a couple of parsings, but now feel in a much better frame of mind re crosswords. Invariant
  14. 18.40. Took a while before I found anywhere to get started. Filled the bottom half of the grid first. Found the NW tricky at the end.
  15. Not on my wavelength, as it took me nearly an hour to complete correctly. But I did understand pretty much all of the wordplay. I had a slow start and then the NE and SW corners filled in, but not the other two. For 24 dn I had WILE for a while until I realised that this is not the English spelling of what Man is, and finally WHIM got me BRIGHT S????, BEAKER the K at the end and TOENAIL (and the realisation that title would be just RIGHT and not RIGHTS justified BRIGHT SPARK.
  16. TOENAIL last one in, and a clear clue of the day.
    Doing this one a day late. It’s amazing how little time one has when semi-retired.
    The green streak continues ( a cross between the Flash and the Green Lantern).
    15’08”

Comments are closed.