Times Cryptic 27902

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I worked at this for 50 minutes but eventually had to give up with two answers unresolved, and resorted to aids. One of them I might have stood a chance at as I have blogged the answer before, a couple of years ago, but the other I never had a hope in hell of getting as the word itself is obscure and I didn’t know one of the elements in the wordplay. In several other places I biffed and couldn’t see the wordplay until writing the blog.

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 Recipe containing an obscene thing served on board? (6,4)
DANISH BLUE : DISH (recipe) containing AN, then BLUE (obscene). That is to say, ‘cheese board’.
6 This pest in nursery   could get fired (4)
SLUG :  Two meanings. In the nursery garden, and bullets for a gun.
10 Considers working during breaks, ignoring wife (7)
RECKONS : ON (working) contained by [during] {w}RECKS (breaks) [ignoring wife – w]
11 Clothworker’s protector brought him bleach bottles (7)
THIMBLE : Hidden in [bottles] {brough}T HIM BLE{each}
12 King Charles, with little notion, screwing up (9)
CRINKLING : CR (King Charles – Charles Rex), INKLING (little notion). If or when the current heir succeeds to the throne the insignia on new post boxes will be CR. It is rumoured however that he may use ‘George’, one of his middle names instead, in memory of his grandfather.
13 Drove across area, getting caught (5)
HEARD : HERD (drove) containing [across] A (area). I thought at first there was a homophone going on here but it’s not required for the wordplay and serves as a possible misdirection.
14 Lovers from EU kept apart by English barman? (5)
BEAUX : EU contained [kept] but separated [apart] by BAX (English barman – Arnold Bax, English composer). I biffed the answer and pondered on the wordplay for ages before spotting it.
15 Tell me to get the better of winner (3,4,2)
OUT WITH IT : OUTWIT (get the better of), HIT (winner – success)
17 Composer last seen in wet Sussex resort has called round (9)
BEETHOVEN : {we}T [last seen in…] + HOVE (Sussex resort) is contained by [has…round] BEEN (called). Another where I biffed and then struggled with the wordplay. ‘Has the postman called / been yet?’
20 Egyptian character, grand lady pharaoh evacuated (5)
GLYPH :  G (grand), then L{ad}Y + P{harao}H [both evacuated – emptied]. I can’t say I knew this word existed but of course I knew ‘hieroglyphics’ so it was no great stretch.
21 Pick up skinny guards close to border (5)
LEARN : LEAN (skinny) contains [guards] {borde}R [close]
23 Unique contest taking off (9)
MATCHLESS : MATCH (contest), LESS (taking off)
25 Comic routine not yet delivered (2,5)
IN UTERO : Anagram [comic] of ROUTINE. Before birth.
26 Skin problem slowly covering soldier from behind (7)
LENTIGO : LENTO (slowly – music) containing [covering] GI (soldier) reversed [from behind]. Much experienced in older age.
27 Part of anatomy   list (4)
HEEL : Two meanings
28 No vegetarian’s likely to   be dismissed (3,3,4)
GET THE CHOP : A cryptic hint precedes the straighter definition
Down
1 Order from Greek physician involving king and emperor (5)
DORIC : DOC (physician) containing [involving] RI (king and emperor). More arcane royal stuff. British monarchs from Edward VII to George VI were King Emperors (of India) and would sign RI (Rex Imperator) after their names. The only other one to use RI was Victoria but as she was Queen Empress, the RI stood for Regina Imperatrix.
2 Bat an eye, seeing new forms of technology put away (9)
NICTITATE : N (new), ICT + IT (forms of technology), ATE (put away). This was the one that I never stood a chance at. I didn’t know the word so it was never going to be biffable. I had the checkers and had spotted the possibilities of N (new), IT and ATE (put  away), but I didn’t know ICT as  ‘Information and Computing Technology’ so I was unable to construct the answer from wordplay. It doesn’t look particularly likely as a word so I’m not sure I would have noticed it as a possibility if I had indulged in a lengthy alphabet trawl. Disappointing, but I don’t feel too bad because having found the answer using a word-search I checked TfTT  and received the very rare response ‘Nothing found’, so evidently this is its first appearance in a Times crossword of any type in the TfTT era. And at least it exists, unlike NEWHAMPSHIRITES.
3 Where many seek security in trite conversations (5,9)
STOCK EXCHANGES : STOCK (trite), EXCHANGES (conversations)
4 Black American repressed over feudal code (7)
BUSHIDO : B (black), US (American), HID (repressed), O (over – cricket). My second failure. As mentioned in the intro this has come up before and I even blogged it myself in 2019. I didn’t remember the word so once again I was relying on wordplay to get me to the answer but ‘repressed’ = HID failed to come to mind
5 Nervy, like Scrooge after heading for London (7)
UPTIGHT : UP (heading for London – on the ‘up’ train),  TIGHT (like Scrooge – miserly)
7 Balance made up by supporter, under £1 (5)
LIBRA : L (£), I (1), BRA (supporter). ‘Libra’ in the Zodiac is represented by a balance.
8 German originally devised code, thus settles for no other (4,5)
GOES DUTCH : G{erman} [originally], anagram [devised] of CODE THUS. Each person paying for themselves. A saying alleged to have its origins in trade disputes between England and the Netherlands. Such things wouldn’t happen these days!
9 Post-war churches retaining an opportunity of success, given effort (8,6)
FIGHTING CHANCE : FIGHTING (war), then CH + CE (churches) containing [retaining] AN. ‘Post’ is simply a positional indicator.
14 Winter transport goes down line with crew one short (9)
BOBSLEIGH : BOBS (goes down), L (line), EIGH{t} (crew – rowing) [one short]. I think strictly speaking ‘bobbing’ involves movement both down and up.
16 Tomboyish old Disney jockeys feeding horse more than once (9)
HOYDENISH : O (old) + anagram [jockeys] of DISNEY contained by [feeding] H + H (horse more than once). Hoyden as ‘tomboy’ came up a couple of times last year.
18 Bolt low within water-filled vessel (7)
VAMOOSE : MOO (low) contained by [within] VASE (water-filled vessel). It’s from the Spanish and  I suspect I may have learnt it from The Cisco Kid – “Let’s went!”
19 Card from TV fundraiser raised no hope initially (7)
NOTELET : TELET{h}ON (TV fundraiser) [no hope initially] reversed [raised]
22 Zoo’s first uniform in time turned blue (5)
AZURE : Z{oo} [‘s first] + U (uniform – NATO alphabet) contained by [in] ERA (time) reversed [turned]. Basildon Bond writing paper used to be available mainly in ‘white’ and  ‘azure’.
24 Sudden drop in trade, nothing being imported (5)
SWOOP : SWOP (trade) contains [being imported] 0 (nothing). We’ve had ‘swap’ several times recently including my last 15×15 blog so it’s nice to be reminded of the alternative spelling.

50 comments on “Times Cryptic 27902”

  1. You and me, Jack! I was doing well enough on this one. It was going to be a 30-40 minute solve for me if I finished, no matter what. That’s thanks to those I was able to hack out like BEAUX, BEETHOVEN, CRINKLING, where a lack of knowledge of the requisite wordplay elements delayed those entries considerably. (And now thanks to you for clearing it all up!)

    I probably could have gotten DORIC, even though I did not know RI (I know it now), but like you, NICTITATE was never going to happen. Cool word, though!

  2. I was surprised to see the SNITCH numbers, as this went by very fast for me, albeit with a whole slew of biffs, including two–BEAUX, BEETHOVEN–which I never got until Jack revealed all. I knew of BAX, but would never have thought of him in a million years. And I guessed that HOVE was in Sussex, but that’s as far as I got. Also biffed NICTITATE, a familiar word though I don’t know why; never got the ICT, but wotthehell. I knew 1d had to be either DORIC or IONIC, and the R decided that. DNK RI but inferred it. BUSHIDO of course was a gimme for me. A word not that much used until the samurai class had been abolished. LOI, oddly enough, GOES DUTCH even though I had the DUTCH early on; needed POI SLUG to jog my memory.
  3. It is like winking with both eyes!
    And this one went for the full on Nictitation.
    Not my cup of tea.
    Thanks setter and J.
  4. I feel pleased with myself for solving that without aids.
    Thank you, Jack, for explaining DORIC, NICTITATE, BEAUX and OUT WITH IT. I solved them all but without parsing them. Somewhere in the dim and distant past I had come across NICTITATE.
    FOI: HOYDENISH and GLYPH
    LOI: NICTITATE and BEAUX (Never heard of Bax)
    COD: GOES DUTCH (I liked “settles for no other”
    No problem with Hove. It’s where “my” county, Sussex play and where Brighton used to play until they sold the Goldstone Ground.
    Gloom in the cricket. Postponed gloom in the Prada Cup. Wednesday’s sailing postponed because of the snap lockdown in Auckland.
  5. This was tough but I made it tougher for myself by having put in a confident FOR THE CHOP. When I finally thought of VAMOOSE and corrected my error the rest fell into place.
    We have almost seen NICTITATE before in the form of “nictate”. I presumed I had misremembered it when the parsing gave “nictitate” but subsequent referral to Chambers confirms both are valid, though it gives “nictate” as the primary entry. A tough one for non-native solvers given that the term ICT is only used as a British school subject.
  6. For the record, I would venture to state
    That I thought today’s puzzle was great
    Some clues were just mint
    And when giving a hint
    A nod’s as good as a NICTITATE
  7. 18:54. FOI THIMBLE, LOI RECKONS after NICTITATE. No unknowns for me but I took a while to parse BEAUX and had IN ROUTE for 25A until I found AZURE. I liked FIGHTING CHANCE once I worked it out.
  8. On wavelength: knew all the gk apart from Bax which was easily biffable. Held up a bit at the end by having FOR THE CHOP until I saw VAMOOSE
  9. I’m with Astro: I thought this was a beauty with plenty to chew on, over just short of 21 minutes.
    FIGHTING CHANCE was pretty much my last in, not least because of that “post-war churches” misdirection.
    Unlike Kevin, I found this almost unbiffable, working through the wordplay to get the answers, the definitions being often pretty inscrutable, to me at least.
    Is LENT I GO in because it’s Shrove Tuesday, do you think?
  10. 14:38. I confess I checked NICTITATE after constructing it from wordplay, because it didn’t look particularly likely. Having school-age children helps, as pootle suggests, because the subject is often called ICT. I also remembered what RI stood for and BUSHIDO from past puzzles. This is the sort of thing I often forget so overall this felt like a bit of a narrow escape.
  11. I had biffed 15a “get with it” instead of “out with it” which made 4d Bushido as LOI impossible. Took several minutes to GET to sort OUT. Thanks for parsing BEAUX,Jackkt. I don’t think I’ve seen a composer referred to as a ‘barman’ before. MER at this device.
    23’24”
  12. 34 minutes with LOI RECKONS. COD to GOES DUTCH. I didn’t parse BEAUX, and wouldn’t have done till the cows come home as, if I knew Bax, I’d forgotten. LENTIGO was constructed but not known. I did know NICTITATE. Some clues were clunky, Ludwig Van particularly, but there was lots of good stuff too. FIGHTING CHANCE gave me just that to solve in an average type of time. Thank you Jack and setter.

    Edited at 2021-02-16 09:40 am (UTC)

  13. Despite failing to solve NICTITATE and BUSHIDO, and conceding on the hour, this was a very enjoyable puzzle, with lots to admire in wordplay (e.g. BEAUX, NOTELET, GOES DUTCH).

    Thank you, jackkt and the setter.

  14. Enjoyed this, lots of cheeky definitions and interesting wordplay. I also started with FOR THE CHOP, until I decided there couldn’t be a word which fitted __MOO_O; I also briefly wondered what an UMPLING might be, when it’s at home, before seeing the right alternative. I did at least avoid biffing EN ROUTE for 25 across, though. Good stuff.
  15. Tricksy. Cocked up with WRINKLING at 12a instead of Crinkling, making Doric 1d impossible, and wondered stupidly where Charles had gone. DOH. Bushido easy because I read and enjoyed Shogun by James Clavell.
    Never parsed nictitate 2d and had totally forgot about ICT. I always thought that was a right mouthful, and promptly banished it from my vocabulary when I met it 20 odd years ago.
    Andyf
  16. Sometimes school zoology and medical school anatomy help; the nictitating membrane is a transparent third eyelid which draws across the eye from inner corner of eye to wipe the surface, often in response to a stimulus causing blinking. Occurs in many animals but there is only a vestigial remnant in humans. Unfortunately the aforesaid training doesn’t help with plant names.
  17. 28 mins
    Didn’t know nictitate, but I thought the wp was fair enough on that. NHO Bax, either, but with an x at the end it had to be beaux. Thanks jack.
  18. A bit of a workout! UPTIGHT, then THIMBLE were my first 2 in, then a few more clues in the NE presented themselves before I settled down to the long slog. Occasional flashes of inspiration kept me going and I eventually got a FIGHTING CHANCE to fill in the SW. LENTIGO resisted for a while as I’d carelessly typed SWWOP at 24d. BOBSLEIGH and an inspired BEETHOVEN opened up the SW and I VAMOOSEd back to finish in the NW with CRINKLING and NICTITATE(which I checked after constructing). STOCK EXCHANGE took a while before the PDM. Nice puzzle. 44:03. Thanks setter and Jack.
  19. I didn’t enjoy this one at all. Some answers like Beaux and Beethoven couldn’t really be anything else but not a smile or groan of enlightenment anywhere. Well done to those who stuck it to the end, I gave up after 40mins. Tough for a Tuesday.
    Thank you Jakkt for the explanations, I would never have finished this one.
  20. Didn’t know the tech meaning of ICT and of the five options I considered for n*ctitate I went for one of the four wrong ones. The rest was a bit chewy too I thought, but nothing else unknown.
  21. Zoomed through the top half and then got thoroughly bogged down. Once I had the CHOP business sorted out finally VAMOOSE went in smoothly (knew there must be a moo in there) and I knew it from the hard-boiled school of Hammett and Chandler (from the Spanish vamos). Wondered idly if Emanuel Ax did Bax in a box set. Enigmatist and Soup have a special puzzle over in the other paper. After 20 minutes I have 3 clues so it’s going to take all day, which is just as well because we’ve got an ice storm. 21.27
  22. but I had to check on NICTITATE as I’d never heard of ICT. Also NHO BAX and RI as a crossword cryptic was also new to me. Otherwise enjoyable. LOI HEEL wasn’t sure of the list definition.
  24. 40m with quite a lot of head scratching. I worked out NICTITAE from the cryptic, so a good clue. I think, as others have said, ICT is a common abbreviation in schools so that’s how I would have heard of it via my boys. I did like FIGHTING CHANCE and CRINKLING so thank you setter and Jack for the explanations.
  25. I’m relieved to find others also found this a tough one. I was about to give up when I dredged a bit of biological terminology from the recesses of my memory: birds and reptiles have a kind of transparent eyelid called a nictitating membrane. I’ve never heard ‘nictitate’, but the existence of ‘nictitating’ implies it. Btw I spent some time trying to find a type of bat (the flying mammal) beginning with ‘n’ that would fit the crossers!
  26. A bit of a grind and didn’t get 4 dn. A few medical clues, remembered the nictitating membrane from student days, why remember something so irrelevant ? Tried to fit largo into 26ac . Had the light bulb moment ( when doing a menial chore ) for 12ac, liked 16 & 8 dn.
    Is it unusual to see the same solution for a clue in both 15×15 & QC on the same day ,albeit with different clues?
    Some biffing and baffing , I’m not talking English batsmen either. 😢
    Thank you setter and blogger.
  27. Too many NHOs for me and gave up after the hour with 5 unanswered. Thanks Jack for the blog.
  28. Strewth! That made me nictitate. A fine puzzle. I, too, had For The Chop but finally accepted that Limpopo wasn’t going to work. Some cracking clues including Going Dutch, Crinkling and Beethoven. Good to see Bax. I’m listening to Tintagel as I type.

    Thank you setter and blogger

  29. Good to know I wasn’t alone in putting in “For the chop” before seeing VAMOOSE and correcting.

    As pootle said above, ICT is a common name for the school subject in the UK, which helped me get NICTITATE (though I was by no means confident it was right). I hadn’t heard of LENTIGO, but with the checkers in place and clear wordplay it couldn’t be much else.

    FOI Thimble
    LOI Nictitate
    COD In utero

  30. ….Bax ?

    To me, ICT stands for International Computers & Tabulators, one of whose mainframe computers I operated at the old North West Electricity Board. Didn’t know it in this context, but luckily I knew NICTITATE.

    Enjoyable challenge.

    FOI DANISH BLUE
    LOI HEEL
    COD BEETHOVEN
    TIME 11:31

    1. They were ICL by the time I started my programming career in 1973 on the venerable 1900 series,
  31. My slowest of the year by far. I just could not get a decent foothold – nothing I did not know but I struggled with a lot of the wordplay. NICTITATE was not a problem once I had some crossers as a classical education and a career in computing helped. I also had FOR instead of GET for a while which did not help. My LOI was SWOOP – I always spell it ‘swap’.
  32. 39.30 but had to check nictitate , another one for the scrapbook of unwelcome unknowns. As to the rest, a really good puzzle with a plethora of tricky clues. Not sure Danish Blue would appear on many cheeseboards these days, especially if you want to retain any social kudos but what the hell.

    Lots to like but bushido one of my favourites only beaten by beaux. Was introduced some time ago to Tintagel which is a lovely Bax piece.

    Thanks setter and blogger for crinkling. Knew it was right but an aargh moment when I saw why.

  33. But since I solve as an amateur rather than a pro I won’t get told off for not submitting my work.

    I’m probably the only one who thought of Brat at 6a (the other kind of nursery, and a barbecue staple) but I was clever enough to hold it pending a crosser. I liked the clever wording and hidden definitions. Thanks, jack

  34. I thought this was going to prove impossible (spoiler: it did) when a first pass barely troubled the scorers. Fortunately Doric and Bobsleigh (nice clue) were both in that select group and they gave me a foothold. I nearly gave up several times during the afternoon, but each time another answer would restore confidence. Hoydenish was unknown, but seemed marginally more likely than Heydonish, Thimble was a head slapping pdm and Glyph went in with a shrug. I had no idea what was going on with 2d, but thought it might contain Chips, but Bisex for lovers? So pulled stumps with those last two unanswered. CoD to 3d, Stock Exchanges for the smile. Invariant
  35. I’m curious to know how unusual it is for the same word to appear in both QC and C grids on the same day, as UPTIGHT did today.
  36. 32.04. I found this pretty tricky but enjoyed teasing out some of the harder to get answers and was pleased to finish all correct, particularly with nictitate where I was fairly confident about ICT and IT but it was still unfamiliar enough and unlikely looking enough as to give me a moment’s pause.
  37. This was a Tuesday? I did finish, but it took 78 minutes and a longish break in between, with many clues not entirely understood (because of not knowing obscure elements of the wordplay). Otherwise it was like wading through treacle. At least I recognized NICTITATE (and assumed ICT would be a kind of technology). For 25, I also first had IN ROUTE (which sounded very unconvincing) until AZURE forced me to find the correct anagram.

    I might want to say that it was too hard, but considering I did solve it without mistakes, maybe I should just be happy I managed to coax the right answers out of myself! So on that note: nice puzzle (but too hard). It even seems to have aged Olivia considerably, I see.

  38. For the record: Time 55 mins

    FOI 14dn BOBSLEIGH

    LOI 4dn BUSHIDO

    COD 9dn FIGHTING CHANCE

    WOD 16dn HOYDENISH

  39. I did… blink at NICTITATE, one of my last in, but had encountered the word before; trouble was parsing, as I am not familiar with ICT, only IT. And speaking of computers, GLYPHS is often an option in a typesetting menu, for non-alphabetic characters and other symbols. This was really chewy in spots, but overall didn’t seem much harder than yesterday’s.
  40. Did all the hard work and then rushed to finish by putting in STOOP rather than SWOOP. Doh! I always thought it was simple NICTATE but guessed it could be padded out with more computer stuff; rest I found doable if quite stretching. Good puzzle, dumb error by me. Thx.
  41. Please do not encourage this setter. A crossword should lift the spirits of the reader, delighting in penetrating the subtlety or exclaiming “Why didn’t I see that” if the solution is not seen. Any “How the heck could I ever have got that” responses to the setter’s antagonism should consign the crossword to the ‘rejected’ spike.

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