Times Cryptic 27890

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Considering the number of bits and pieces I didn’t know, I was pleased to complete this in 31 minutes. Rather heavy on classical stuff and soap operas.

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 1940s swinger‘s cheers returned by male police officer (6)
HEPCAT : HE (male), PC (police officer – Police Constable), TA (cheers) reversed [returned]. This is defined by Collins as obsolete slang – a person who is hep, esp a player or admirer of jazz and swing in the 1940s. ‘Hepcat’ may be obsolete, but ‘hep’ and ‘cat’ both survive in the context of music from that era so it was no great challenge to stick them together.
4 Situation thus involving Asian country backed by church (8)
SCENARIO : SO (thus) containing CE (church) and IRAN (Asian country) reversed [backed]
10 Recommendation of good Scottish priest born in Paris (9)
GUIDELINE : GUID (good, Scottish), ELI (priest), NÉ (born, in Paris).  ‘Né’ is the male equivalent of the more familiar ‘née’ used when a woman has changed her surname. Men tend to change their surnames less often but you might see, for example, George Orwell (né Eric Blair).
11 Student workers’ association given support on course (5)
TUTEE : TU (workers’ association – Trades Union), TEE (support on golf course)
12 Mood palpably altered with two rooks in tree (8,6)
LOMBARDY POPLAR : Anagram [altered] of MOOD PALPABLY RR (two rooks – chess). I can’t say I knew this although I may have met it before. POPLAR as ‘tree’ stood out from the anagrist and the remainder just fell into place.
14 Gunpowder constituent soldiers can put back at front (5)
NITRE : TIN (can) reversed [put back], RE (soldiers – Royal Engineers)
16 Profusion of bakery product served during a social (9)
ABUNDANCE : BUN (bakery product) contained by [served during] A + DANCE (social)
18 Paul was one, always carrying weapon (9)
EPISTOLER : E’ER (always) containing [carrying] PISTOL (weapon). Another word I didn’t exactly know but I am familiar with the The Epistles of Paul the Apostle so I didn’t take long to figure it out. In the long-forgotten days when he was still funny, Eddie Izzard used to do a very amusing routine on the subject of Paul and his epistles.
20 Tragic day briefly captured in very old film (5)
VIDEO : IDE{s} (tragic day – for Caesar –  Ides of March and all that) [briefly] contained by [captured in] V (very) + O (old)
21 Stuck with animal coat, promises to pay, being very quick (4,3,7)
FAST AND FURIOUS : FAST (stuck), AND (with), FUR (animal coat), IOU’S (promises to pay)
25 Revolutionary figure, one about to entertain team (5)
IXION : I (one) + ON (about) containing [to entertain] XI (team). Another unknown that was easy enough given a combination of wordplay and checkers. In Greek mythology Ixion was a king of Thessaly punished by being bound to an eternally revolving wheel in Hades.
26 Shop assistant is large and extremely slothful, sadly (9)
SALESGIRL : Anagram [sadly] of IS LARGE S{lothfu}L [extremely]
27 Residence of Catholic dignitary in charge of French island (8)
DOMICILE : DOM (Catholic dignitary e.g. Dom Pérignon), IC (in charge of], ILE (French island)
28 1 down’s circular hollow in TV soap, familiarly (6)
CORRIE : Two meanings. The first is a cross-reference to ‘Highlander’ at 1dn signalling a Scottish word. The second is a popular nickname for the TV soap Coronation Street which celebrated 60 years on air a few weeks ago. The actor, William Roache, who played Ken Barlow in the very first episode in 1960 is still in it!
Down
1 Eg native of Wick taking school exam without gain? (10)
HIGHLANDER : HIGHER (school exam) containing [without] LAND (gain – e.g. land a prize)
2 Formal setting for a Trojan king (5)
PRIAM : A contained by PRIM (formal) [in a formal setting]. He features in the legend of the Trojan horse. A reminder of another excellent Izzard routine.
3 Mean to declare advancing years? (7)
AVERAGE : AVER (declare),  AGE (advancing years)
5 Inexpensive headgear worn by ambassador (5)
CHEAP : CAP (headgear) containing [worn by] HE (ambassador – His/Her Excellency)
6 Poet messed around with and getting writer’s block? (7)
NOTEPAD : Anagram [messed around] POET AND. At my school a ‘block’ was a pad of loose sheets of lined paper for preparation and presentation of work.
7 Unemotional son leaves, given refresher course (9)
RETRAINED : RE{s}TRAINED (unemotional) [son – s – leaves]
8 Outstanding work of Pindar possibly read aloud (4)
OWED : Sounds like [read aloud] “ode” (work of Pindar possibly). A Greek poet who wrote an ode or two, but  was unknown to me.
9 Sentence about everything a booby may produce? (8)
BIRDCALL : BIRD (prison sentence – slang), C (about), ALL (everything). Collins advises that a ‘booby’ is any of several tropical marine birds of the genus Sula: family Sulidae, order Pelecaniformes ( pelicans, cormorants, etc). I didn’t know that, but assumed it had to be a bird of sorts
13 Insect I see around lakes at end of March? (10)
DEMOISELLE : DEMO (march), I, then SEE containing [around] L L (lakes). It’s a dragonfly. apparently. Another unknown.
15 Neat cover for Indonesian island’s ethnicity (9)
TRIBALISM : TRIM (neat) contains [cover for] BALI (Indonesian island). Let’s move on…
17 Smooth out articles in French about old card game (8)
UNRUFFLE : UN + LE (articles – indefinite and definite – in French) containing [about] RUFF (old card game). I ‘d never heard of the card game but I gather it’s of the whist variety.
19 Some thought it a nice old vessel! (7)
TITANIC : Hidden [some] in {though}T IT A NIC{e}
20 Retired priest is second to identify Puccinian style (7)
VERISMO : REV (priest) reversed [retired], IS, MO (second – wait a mo!). I knew the word but not its meaning in relation to music, but Wiki advises Verismo was a post-Romantic operatic tradition and Puccini was one of its leading exponents. I thought he just wrote good tunes.
22 Like hooter US space administrators lacked at first (5)
NASAL : NASA (US space administrators), L{acked} [at first]. Hooter being slang for ‘nose’.
23 Basket-maker, or provider of stockings in Albert Square? (5)
OSIER : {h}OSIER (provider of stockings) [in Albert Square]. Albert Square is the location of Eastenders, the cockerney soap opera in which  heveryone drops their haitches.
24 Look out! It’s planted with explosives, we’re told! (4)
MIND : Sounds like [we’re told] “mined” (planted with explosives)

89 comments on “Times Cryptic 27890”

  1. I was out of sorts today as it was haircut day. I loathe haircuts – normally I look a little like my dear mother,
    but when my hair wet and shorter, I morph into my old man! Scary – I can’t be a bastard!! I’m sure others will disagree.

    FOI 1ac HEPCAT daddy-o!

    LOI several mistakes OPEN, HEED, WINDFALL,EXION. Which reminds me of the ludicrous Exxon story!

    COD 12ac LOMBARDY POPLAR populus nigra italica – lovely in Italy.

    WOD 16ac ABUNDANCE – because the White House, in both recent, CNN, Fox & Fiends keep using the expression ‘an abundance of caution!’ What’s wrong with ‘cautionmostlyness’? Brother Jonathan!?

    13dn DEMOISELLE is the real winner.

    I love ‘Corrie’, so well written and acted. Why do folks turn their noses-up? Afraid they might become addicted to the magic of Manchunian machinations! Mind, United never get a mention – City have once – but they do ‘ave mitherin’, mild and balm cakes.
    We could get ‘Corrie’ last year in Shanghai. for a while, ‘Er indoors wasn’t too sure about Rula Lenska going after Ken (91 in the shade!) Granada TV were here about 20 years ago trying to set up a ‘Shanghai Corrie’. Right daft!

  3. Thanks for the parse on HIGHLANDER Jack – DNK the exam. I came to a screeching halt at the end with CORRIE but a refill of tea unlocked it. We’ve got 2 feet of snow outside so we’ve got to go and shovel after breakfast – what fun (not). Our plowman was here late last evening and again at 5.30 this morning so I shouldn’t complain. 19.56
  4. 15:20. Tricky in parts, this, with a bit of a hold-up at the end over the unknown IXION crossing MIND, which took me a while to see.
    I’ve been to Wick several times and as others have noted it’s weird to describe someone from a town that is 1) by the sea and 2) surrounded by flat moorland as a HIGHLANDER, but the setter gets off on a technicality.
    I was in a band at university, and our keyboard player used to sub for another band called the Honkin’ Hepcats, which I think is the only context in which I’ve ever come across that word. But it was more than enough.
    I don’t see how TRIBALISM equates to ethnicity. Ethnicism perhaps.

    Edited at 2021-02-02 12:22 pm (UTC)

  5. Like many others I had HE’ed and an unknown EXION. So the fact that the Snitch is (at the moment) at 93 seems surprising when so many people didn’t finish.
      1. Yes, that’s right. I do note that number of reference solvers who have errors. I haven’t found a reliable way to incorporate this error count into the SNITCH score, so I just use the error-free results. But there’s a good argument that the SNITCH will be too low on days when there are a high number of errors.

        I suspect that quite a few solvers who did not finish either didn’t submit or, like me, submitted off the leaderboard. I do this, for example, when I resort to aids to complete the puzzle.

        1. The times website randomly subtracts 300 points from your score if you get an error. Can you not include something similar?
          The other thing I’d take issue with is: solvers are dropped off if they drift out of the top 100, so every day the snitch dips alarmingly in the arvo as slower solvers are ditched. Not the optimum way to run it.
          1. That should only make a difference if a slow solver (one pushed outside the top 100) had a bad day with a personal NITCH above the SNITCH.
            1. You’re right, my late-night logic was faulty. The final SNITCH is always all the valid solvers in the top 100. The fact it goes up in the morning and down in the afternoon makes no difference to the final number.
  6. 30m today with no real hold-ups beyond searching for too long for a mood instead of a tree. New picture of is the beautiful Corrie golf course on Arran, where simply turning 180 degrees from this shot gives you views over the sea. Very happy memories of holidays there in the years BC. Thank you to Jack and setter for a pleasant break from groundhog days.
  7. not being able to get Corrie, and so a dnf in 35-odd minutes. Should’ve thought of possible nicknames. Is a corrie a Scots circular hollow? What am I missing? The rest tumbled in OK.
    1. A useful quote which I can’t wait to use.

      According to Chambers: corrie noun (corries) in the Scottish Highlands: 1 a semicircular hollow on a hillside. 2 a cirque.

  8. 3 errors. Like others I went for HEED and EXION. I also decided that Pindar was an egg producer so the “work” “she” produced was ova. Read aloud it was over. 20 mins with the errors.

    COD: GUIDELINE.

  9. More than the usual number of obscurities, but generously clued so as to make me feel cleverer than I really am for solving them. 26m.
  10. Nobody else seems to have mentioned this so here goes:

    We have SCENARIO and then HIGHLANDER, FAST & FURIOUS and TITANIC as well as the small screen CORRIE.

    Great puzzle, and I can’t believe these are coincidences.

  11. For rallying enthusiasts Lombardy Poplar might make a nice change from Paris Dakar.

    Found this tougher than the Snitch suggests, with several biffed, though fairly confidently.

    COD Hepcat.

    Thank you to setter and blogger

  12. Got there in the end but had to guess Ixion. One obscure bit of knowledge I have (from A N Wilson) is that Paul’s family job was a tent-maker – which unfortunately fitted. Couldn’t get it out of my head.
  14. But gave it a good go and expanded our vocabulary in the process. NHO hepcat, ixiom, Priam, verismo or Pinder but managed to work out bits of the solutions – just couldn’t finish them off. On the plus side we did solve over 50% – onwards and upwards.

    Thanks for the blog Jackkt – we biffed a number of correct answers and it’s so helpful to understand how they were derived.

    1. It’s nice to see a solving couple on here. I sometimes solve with Mrs Pootle. She recalls vocabulary better than I do so if I break down a clue she can often get it from the definition quicker than I would by myself. Do you have complementary solving skills?
      1. That’s an interesting question. Steed likes to ponder on clues in a studied manner whereas I tend to dart about to try and solve as many easy ones as I can (have you ever watched Mark Gungor’s “A tale of two brains”? Steed and I are perfect examples of his stereotypes). Somehow our approach works because when Steed has a Eureka moment it gives me further toeholds around the grid….

        We really enjoy doing the puzzles together. We were complete novices when the QC was introduced and we used it as a learning opportunity. We’ve become addicts!

        1. Actually we do that as well. Mrs Pootle will ask why I’ve just looked at 3 clues when she’s still pondering the first one!
      2. This is Mrs Corymbia here – we always solve together and I joke that Mr C gets the clues involving general knowledge (geography, history etc) and I solve the rest (eg Corrie) 🙂
      3. Not quite the same, but I have a twin who solves and comments on this site. Always nice to see him turn up 🙂 And yes we often get v similar times…
  15. Thought time looked quite good given all the GK required, but then saw that the speedsters were much much faster (well done them). Have to confess o couple of biffs along the way. Someone earlier asked about whether there is a specific word for a Scottish priest. I believe the Sex Pistols’ council used one as a justification for their album title … (and there are others, some even printable). Good fun again; thx to setter and blogger.
  17. 13:34 – the linked Scots clues had me scratching my head for a long time so while I was well under the average yesterday I was definitely over it today.
  18. Failed by entering “Veristo” for “Verismo” and “Open” for “Owed” — the latter being a bit stupid on my part.
    Otherwise ok.
    I think this is the third time I’ve seen “Demoiselle” in the Times 15×15.
  19. ….was Pindar’s speciality, and it took me while to spot SCENARIO before I could put in OWED. I should have been quicker really, but a slow start didn’t help.

    I remember an elderly diesel locomotive being renamed IXION when the technical chaps wanted to remotely crash it at speed into (I think) a nuclear flask on a test track in the Midlands. At least one engineer in there with some Classics knowledge !

    FOI NITRE
    LOI NOTEPAD
    COD IXION
    TIME 9:58

  20. Biffed OPEN at 8 down so DNF in 31 minutes. Knew CORRIE from the soap which we used to watch when I was a child, from school geography and most memorably from the CORRIES – creators of Flower of Scotland, IMO the best of the six nations rugby songs by a country mile.
    1. I find the song a useful reminder that when I see the word flower in a clue whilst it usually indicates a river and occasionally a plant, you do get the odd one or two when it is used in another sense.
  21. 22.11. Nice puzzle. I seemed to have all of the required GK, though I’m not sure where I dredged up that type of poplar from. Left to my own devices I think I would have essayed epistolarian or espistler rather than epistoler.
  23. I must be getting old. I thought I’d done today’s crossword only to discover that I hadn’t!
    I suppose this was a technical DNF as my LOI was OWED, and as I had never heard of Pindar I looked him up.
    Again liked this very much. Good challenge and the rest of the unknowns were quite gettable.
  24. Either knew (Pindar) the GK or guessed it so much flew in but like many others came unstuck with the MIND IXION crossers at the end, desperately bunging in EXION for the latter and giving up on the former

    Quite enjoyed it though

    Thanks all

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