Times Cryptic 27914

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 30 minutes. There were quite a few less than familiar words here but the wordplay was always helpful and fair so they didn’t delay me long.

Yesterday Ulaca dedicated his blog to Jim Biggin (Dorsetjimbo) who sadly died recently. I should like add today’s blog to that dedication because Tuesday was Jim’s regular slot in the TfTT schedule from his very first contribution on 20th November 2007 until 5th  August 2014 when he decided to retire from the weekday blog and I moved across from Fridays.  He then  blogged the Mephisto puzzle regularly for the next 7 years and also of course continued to educate and amuse us with his wise and witty contributions to discussions about 15×15 puzzles. RIP Jimbo.

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 Taxi reversed by such drunken oenophile? (7)
BACCHUS : CAB (taxi) reversed, anagram [drunken] of SUCH. An oenophile is a lover of wine and Bacchus was the God of same.
5 Drink that has a charm about it (6)
MOJITO : MOJO (charm – e.g. amulet) containing [about] IT. A Cuban cocktail. I didn’t know this meaning of ‘mojo’ as it seems more commonly used these days in the sense of having power or influence.
8 Doctor scowled at sign of nervousness (4,5)
COLD SWEAT : Anagram [doctor] of SCOWLED AT
9 Hurts to lose a second battle of wits (5)
CHESS : {a}CHES (hurts) [to lose ‘a’], S (second)
11 One business area’s last resort (5)
IBIZA : I (one), BIZ (business), {are}A [last]
12 Port Vale disheartened to be involved in ultimately brutal Irish game (9)
LIVERPOOL : {bruta}L [ultimately], then V{al}E [disheartened] contained by [involved in] IR (Irish), then POOL (game)
13 Pause and almost sneeze eating unknown soup? (8)
GAZPACHO : GAP (pause) containing [eating] Z (unknown), ACHO{o} (sneeze) [almost]. Crazy surface reading!
15 Old Scottish swimmer discards small item of clothing? (6)
ONESIE : O (old), NES{s}IE (Scottish swimmer – pet name for the Loch Ness Monster) [discards small – ‘s’]
17 Successively caught and put away (6)
INTERN : Sounds like [caught] “in turn” (successively)
19 Island sailor with a vessel returning from part of India (8)
GUJARATI : I (island) + TAR (sailor) + A + JUG (vessel) all reversed [returning]
22 Race K9 around park regularly? (5,4)
GRAND PRIX : GRAND (K – 1000) + IX (9) containing [around] P{a}R{k} [regularly]. For those wondering about the surface reading, K9 was a robotic dog in Doctor Who and spin-offs, and from what I remember of it I can’t imagine it racing anywhere.
23 Ladies back adopting new jargon (5)
SLANG : GALS (ladies) reversed [back] containing [adopting] N (new)
24 Creature, rumour has it, needs oats primarily (5)
RHINO : R{umour}, H{as}, I{t}, N{eeds}, O{ats} [primarily]
25 Wartime pin-up and queen on galley (9)
KITCHENER : ER (Queen) on KITCHEN (galley). An example of the ‘A on B = BA’ convention that applies to Across clues in Times cryptics, though not necessarily in Sunday Times puzzles. In Down clues ‘on’  simply means ‘on top of’ (see 3dn). Lord Kitchener famously appeared on recruitment posters during the Great War alongside the slogan ‘Your country needs YOU’.
26 Starts with leader moving to the back— that’s a nice touch (6)
CARESS : {s}CARES (starts) becomes CARESS when the first S (leader) moves to the back. I don’t think ‘scare’ and ‘start’ means the same thing although one might start as the result of a scare.
27 Humble origin of crane fly (7)
CHASTEN : C{rane} [origin], HASTEN (fly]
Down
1 Vocal supporter of British monarch’s terrible reign framing a century (7,6)
BACKING SINGER : B (British) + KING’S (monarch’s) + anagram [terrible] of REIGN, containing [framing] A + C (century)
2 Company left airhead in German town (7)
COLDITZ : CO (company), L (left), DITZ (airhead). I’ve not met ‘ditz’ before but apparently it’s a back-formation of the more familiar ‘ditzy’.
3 Socks on top of a book (5)
HOSEA : HOSE (socks), A. Book of the Old Testament.
4 Nick, with your old-fashioned support, is unobtrusive (8)
STEALTHY : STEAL (nick), THY (your old-fashioned). ‘Support’ is just a positional indicator meaning ‘underneath’.
5 Reason second up-and-coming musical is cut short (6)
MOTIVE : MO (second – just a mo), then EVIT{a} (musical) [cut short] reversed [up-and-coming]
6 Beginning to jump over a vehicle and a tree (9)
JACARANDA : J{ump} [beginning], A, CAR (vehicle), AND, A. Mainly found in tropical and subtropcal locations.
7 Shocks priest, ultimately, with brief penitence (7)
TREMORS : {pries}T [ultimately], REMORS{e} (penitence) [brief]
10 Joiner hawked bottom of wardrobe on phone— smooth! (9,4)
SOLDERING IRON : SOLD (hawked), {wardrob}E [bottom], RING (phone), IRON (smooth)
14 Where one might land a drug— bar to the north of city (9)
AERODROME : A, E (drug), ROD (bar), ROME (city), with ‘north’ as a positional indicator
16 Idealistic and somewhat unusual to dispense with tee? (8)
QUIXOTIC : QUI{te} {e}XOTIC ((somewhat unusual) [to dispense with te-e]
18 Artisan could become empress (7)
TSARINA : Anagram [could become] of ARTISAN. Chestnuts are a little early this year!
20 Not for   touching? (7)
AGAINST : Two meanings
21 Slows down and snaps on the radio (6)
BRAKES : Sounds like [on the radio] “breaks” (snaps)
23 Common sound coming from some Bosch washers (5)
SCHWA : Hidden in [coming from some] {bo}SCH WA{shers}. SOED: The neutral central vowel sound /ə/, typically occurring in unstressed syllables, as the final syllable of ‘sofa’ and the first syllable of ‘along’.

85 comments on “Times Cryptic 27914”

  1. I wonder why the setter (of this excellent crossword, I agree z8) didn’t have CHEFS at 9ac. Was it because there was already a very good clue for CHESS, or were we just being teased?

    Jack in the blog for 1dn the S isn’t accounted for. I thik it has to be ‘king’s’.

    Edited at 2021-03-02 11:59 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks, Wil, I wondered who’d be the first to spot that….
      The S was in my original parsing but got lost in translation. Corrected now.
    2. I feel we were, indeed, being teased. The false pangram has apparently become a legitimate setter’s tool of late.
  2. I got 1ac “Bacchus” straight away and then nothing else at all on my first pass through.
    A cup of tea later and I was on a roll — about 40 minutes in total.
    Didn’t know “Schwa” but it was fairly obvious and spent too long trying to remember my Old Testament (especially trying to fit an F into H_S_A).
    Nice puzzle.
  3. SCHWA, a word that was unknown to me until recently, was FOI. After that it did not take me too long after my morning walk to get to LOI CARESS-probably 30 minutes.
    I liked this very much; was looking for a pangram but didn’t need that assistance in the end.
    Another vote for GRAND PRIX as COD. No excuse now for not mowing the lawn later.
    David
  4. A very polished and satisfying crossword I thought, for which I was again happily on the right wavelength. Some very nicely constructed clues, of which GRAND PRIX was a standout. 12m35s
  5. 24:37 but with one pink square. My returning vessel in 19ac was a TUG when it should have been a JUG. Otherwise it would have been a PB, beating by more than a minute my current PB set yesterday! What a week. COD ONESIE
  6. Raced through in a quick time (for me) of 40 minutes but DNF. Could not see tremors, chess or onesie. Should have thought of remorse. Lazily looked for a word for hurts with s missing rather than with a missing and s added. Will add Nessie for Scottish swimmer to my crossword vocabulary.
    1. Have you tried putting it to one side for an hour then having another look? Amazing, how different and suddenly, solvable, clues can look ..
      1. It never ceases to amaze me how clues can look so different having taken a break. I guess the top solvers are much better at seeing them differently without a break.
      2. It happened on Sunday – seven or eight clues remained unsolved from the morning – like barnacles. I returned, tired out, after midnight and they were done and dusted within five minutes!
  7. Always helps to see an x or a z. Some fine clues here, I thought, Chasten, Quixotic and Kitchener amongst them.

    I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet used to be a clothes shop in Carnaby Street. Somehow I don’t think he would have approved.

    Thank you setter and blogger.

  8. Although took a short while to get going on my lunchtime walk around Lancaster, was pretty straightforward after the first half dozen.

    Only SCHWA which has been here before and QUIXOTIC — so that’s what it means — had me thinking twice.

  9. No real problems with this . Knew SCHWA and JACARANDA (without having a clue what the tree looks like) but did not parse QUIXOTIC. My LOI was INTERN.
  10. Steady solve today with no major hold ups — 1a and 1d going in straight away was a major bonus.

    NHO Schwa but the flying was generous. Liked Grand Prix and Gujarati but COD to soldering iron for me.

    FOI Bacchus LOI Chasten.

    Thanks for parsing quixotic would never have seen that.

    Thanks Jack and setter — enjoyable puzzle.

  11. Why dyed and legless, I’ve gone and done it again. Two sessions each of twenty minutes with lunch and the ASDA delivery in between, first session solo, second with input from disinterested husband. 3 acrosses and 3 downs on first pass, FOI Bacchus. Gulp. Then it began to flow. Husband contributed onesie, but needed me to say why, likewise chasten. Would have been a DNF for me without his input. These two opened up the rest for me. LOI tremors. Very satisfying. I’m still a bit diffident towards the 15 x 15. Clues were all clues of the day for me. Did not parse quixotic. A really interesting and enjoyable puzzle and blog. Thanks Jack and setter. GW
  12. ….but at least I avoided typos. Lovely puzzle.

    FOI BACCHUS
    LOI MOJITO
    COD ONESIE
    TIME 10:15

  13. I haven’t got a problem with ‘start’ as a synonym for ‘scare’. You can ‘start’ a hare (if you’re nasty), i.e. scare it so that it bolts from cover.

    I learned today that I didn’t quite know what ‘quixotic’ means – I’d always thought of it as prone to deluded fantasies rather than prone to ‘impractical idealism’ (the definition in my dictionary). Didn’t stop me biffing it though as I couldn’t think of another word to fit the letters I already had. And parsing afterwards (it often is afterwards for me) confirmed that it was right.

    Edited at 2021-03-02 03:46 pm (UTC)

  14. Well, this is starting to become habit. No real problems apart from the unknown Jacaranda tree and Schwa, but the cryptic was clear enough in both cases with a few crossers in place. Surprised myself by getting Gujarati just from the final letter (I’ve no idea how — it just came to me), and working out Soldering Iron. I couldn’t parse Quixotic, but I was OK with the others, including Chess. CoD to 20d, Against, a wonderful three word clue. Finally, my thanks to Jackkt for the blog, and today’s setter for a choosing a northern port! Invariant
  15. Most done in 20 or so but had the wrong BRAKES for a while which considerably slowed KITCHENER and a couple of crossing clues in the SE. CHESS and TREMORS last two. The former is my other excuse to “take a coffee break” at work so some slappage to the head needed when the answer revealed itself.

    Like others thought this was a cracking puzzle

    Thanks setter and Jackkt

  16. 10.46. This flowed very nicely. Against was neat and I enjoyed working out K9.
  17. Thank you for giving me the full history and I am very happy to know the proper attribution. I was titillated by the lingerie connection, though I had kept abreast of it previously. Reading the blog from 2007 was interesting — how the TFTT has changed in the last 14 years. Of course, it will still be Jimbo who comes to my mind when I remember this useful solving guide.
  18. ‘Clefs’ would also supply the missing ‘f’. Had to go back and check I hadn’t made an error elsewhere as ‘chess’ was well clued.

Comments are closed.