Times Cryptic 27896

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 30 minutes. Mostly straightforward, I believe, so let’s get on with it…

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 Record struggle for club player? (4,6)
DISC JOCKEY : DISC (record), JOCKEY (struggle – for position). We often have ‘disco’ for ‘club’.
6 Change hands over (4)
SWAP : PAWS (hands – slang) reversed [over]. There’s something recently familiar about this clue.
9 Draw a secretive cuckoo (10)
EVISCERATE : Anagram [cuckoo] of A SECRETIVE. Being hanged, drawn and quartered involved evisceration.
10 Obscure promotion, dismissing second book (4)
BLUR : BLUR{b} (promotion) [dismissing second book – b]
12 Criterion was reformulated in a different way (12)
CONTRARIWISE : Anagram [reformulated] of CRITERION WAS
15 Plant collector finding her way around island (9)
HERBALIST : HER + ST (way) contains [round] BALI (island)
17 Gun control is reversed, not gradually eroded (5)
LUGER : REGUL{ate} ([control) reversed [not, gradually eroded – ate away at]
18 Bachelor leaves dog something valuable (5)
ASSET : {b}ASSET (dog) [bachelor – b – leaves]. More usually ‘basset hound’ but in doggie circles ‘hound’ is taken as read.
19 Start January by visiting and opening base (5-4)
FIRST-FOOT : FIRST (opening), FOOT (base). The New Year custom is usually associated with Scotland, but other places do it too.
20 Second trial dropped in place of overall cuts? (8,4)
SHEARING SHED : S (second), HEARING (trial), SHED (dropped). Lucky sheep! It’s now 14 weeks since my last haircut.
24 Prophet of a second coming before end of Christmas (4)
AMOS : A, MO (second), {christma}S [end]. He has his own book of the Bible.
25 Circulate, but it’s dire going around (10)
DISTRIBUTE : Anagram [going round] of BUT IT’S DIRE
26 A piece of cake is lardy, lacking in grain (4)
EASY : {gr}EASY (lardy) [lacking in grain – gr]
27 Mice emptied place for grain left over in London, say (10)
METROPOLIS : M{ic}E [emptied} then SILO (place for grain) + PORT (left) reversed [over]
Down
1 One using colours of very poor quality, reportedly (4)
DYER : Sounds like [reportedly] “dire” (of very poor quality)
2 Son needs head covering in strong draught (4)
SWIG : S (son), WIG (head covering)
3 Light lifting device round channel navy used to hold tons (4-1-7)
JACK-O-LANTERN : JACK (lifting device), O (round), then LANE (channel) + RN (navy) containing [used to hold] T (tons). This has several meanings, one being simply a man with a lantern e.g. a night watchman. Another is a lantern made of the rind of a large turnip or a pumpkin, in which holes are cut to represent eyes, nose, and mouth – these days ubiquitous at Halloween. And finally, it’s another name for ignus fatuus, a phosphorescent light seen hovering or floating over marshy ground, perhaps due to the combustion of methane. See also 11dn.
4 Vehicle made to carry a weight (5)
CARAT : CART (vehicle) contains [to carry] A. A measure of gold and precious stones.
5 Fan, perhaps, of decommissioned vehicle? (9)
EXTRACTOR : EX (decommissioned), TRACTOR (vehicle)
7 Foot could be protected by this   prime minister (10)
WELLINGTON : Two meanings
8 Commit to preserve right for upper class (10)
PERPETRATE : PERPET-U-ATE (preserve) becomes PERPET-R-ATE when R (right) stands in [for] U (upper class)
11 Article in wood is parking light seen at night (4-1-3-4)
WILL-O-THE-WISP : THE (definite article) contained by [in] WILLOW (wood), IS, P (parking). Figuratively this is used to describe an elusive person but it’s also another name for ignus fatuus – see 3dn.
13 Scrooge, perhaps keeping large amount in rough casket (10)
CHEAPSKATE : HEAP (large amount) contained by [in] anagram [rough] of CASKET
14 Rich oppress our organising (10)
PROSPEROUS : Anagram [organising] of OPPRESS OUR
16 Like children lined up around worker? (9)
INFANTILE : IN FILE (lined up) containing [around] ANT (worker)
21 Butterfly perched on the first down, regularly (5)
SATYR : SAT (perched), {d}Y{e}R (the first down – the answer at 1dn) [regularly]. There’s a convention that direct cross-references to numbered clues have to be written in numerals rather than words but if it still applies it’s circumvented here by use of the ordinal number, ‘first’.  I didn’t know the butterfly.
22 Earthmovers removing sleepers and rubbish (4)
BULL : BULL{dozers} [earthmovers} [removing sleepers]
23 Girl arrested at Stonehenge starts to excavate some stones (4)
TESS : T{o} E{xcavate} S{ome} S{tones} [starts]. This is a reference to Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbevilles. Wiki has a summary for those wishing to know more about her.

76 comments on “Times Cryptic 27896”

  1. 25.18 but held up by a brain fade over swig. Had to go through the alphabet a couple of times before it clicked. Luger and perpetrate also took a while but having worked out the latter, luger had to be right.

    FOI eviscerate, LOI swig.

  2. With 8 minutes alpha trawling for SWIG. In illustrious company with Mr Jordan on that one ( but not on the 6 minutes he took to rattle off the rest!)

    JACK O LANTERN and WILL O THE WISP straight in which helped. Anagrams were tricky. PERPETRATE too neat for me and shamelessly biffed. Liked SHEARING SHED

    Thanks all

  3. I’ll join Phil in the failed to find SWIG club; I could not improve on SLID. I also failed to find the butterfly and the Shed after SHEARING.
    Otherwise I thought this was a bit easier than yesterday.
    Could not parse PERPETRATE- thanks for that.
    David
  4. Very slow out of the blocks but then gradually got a toe-hold until finally I spent a good 5 minutes on 2 down where I wisely decided to continue my alphabet trawl past “SLID”.
  5. I really thought I was set for another (ie a second ever) sub hour finish with just 6 and 10ac, and 8d, extant with a good 10mins to spare. Swap and Blur didn’t take too long, but I was left hopping all over the place in search of the definition in 8d: commit to, right, upper-class, right for upper class all had their day in court, but I needed Jackkt’s blog to understand what was intended. So, a rather disappointing end to what was otherwise a very enjoyable solve. Invariant
  7. 47-ish minutes. I found this mostly straightforward but struggled to get perpetrate and was then completely baffled by LOI first-foot. I had no idea what was going on there and after ages trying to break down the clue and then another age alpha-trawling, ended up throwing it in in desperation, a bit surprised to find no pink squares after submitting.
  8. Me too on couldn’t think of the obvious Swig, and put First Foot in on faith. Luger didnt really work for me, ate is a stretch for gradually erode in this part of town. Thx jack
  9. You have all finished and gone hours ago, but I wandered in from QC Land late this evening, picked at a few clues, then a few more, and eventually finished. Encouraging.
    1. At least the blogger sees late posts as we are notified by email when something new is added. If you usually do the QC and this is a rare attempt at the main puzzle you did very well to finish this one as it was by no means straightforward even for some experienced solvers.

      Edited at 2021-02-09 11:38 pm (UTC)

  10. Wasn’t in the groove today and this took me ages — then LOI I entered “Gems” for “Tess”.
    Inexcusable — it’s not a hard clue and I’ve even read the book — although I don’t remember that she was arrested at Stonehenge. I do remember (spoiler alert!!) that she was hanged at Winchester prison (I live in Winchester).
    Had my jab today — that’s my excuse.
  11. I had 23 Down as ‘gems’. Meg arrested (back) with first letter of Stonehenge = stones

    Valid?

    1. Afraid not. ‘Stones’ could serve as a definition of ‘gems’ but your wordplay fails on several counts starting with ‘arrested’ as a reversal indicator which doesn’t work.
      1. I got Gem from Gemma (i.e. arrested = shortened) plus an S from “Stonehenge starts”. But I acknowledge that the wordplay does not really work. I simply failed to see Tess.

        Edited at 2021-02-10 12:06 pm (UTC)

        1. Mike, it may be helpful to remember that if a word is to be shortened (and I agree ‘arrested’ might indicate that) only one letter would be removed unless there was something else in the clue to indicate more than one letter.
  12. LOI was FIRST-FOOT, which took ages despite having all the checkers. Luckily, I didn’t put my foot in it by putting FIRST-POST thinking the definition might have been ‘base’.
    31’28”
    1. Actually there were two lots of drawing involved, firstly as you have correctly pointed out, the drawing by horse to the place of execution, and secondly (after the hanging) the disembowelling, evisceration or drawing of the innards. Quartering was the final stage, the division of the remaining carcase into four parts. My comment in the blog only said that evisceration was involved, but to fit with the setter’s definition ‘draw’ has to refer to disembowelling rather than the horsey bit.

      Edited at 2021-02-10 01:17 pm (UTC)

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