Times Cryptic 27956

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 31 minutes with one error which I shall come to in the blog. Other than that complication of my own making this was all pretty straightforward.

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 Jean-Paul Sartre’s deep discomfort? (3,2,3)
MAL DE MER :
Cryptic. Sea sickness. Sartre is just a name chosen at random to indicate a French expression.
6 Group that’s very large including agents abroad (6)
SOCIAL :
SO (very) + L (large) containing [including] CIA (agents abroad)
9 On way back, plans to get something to eat (4)
SPAM :
MAPS (plans) reversed [on way back]. Lovely Spam!
10 Yours truly surrounded by Bolshevik’s dogs (3,7)
RED SETTERS :
SETTER (yours truly) contained [surrounded] by RED (Bolshevik) + S
11 Sound of final bell disturbed one within (10)
INFALLIBLE :
I (one) contained by [within] anagram [disturbed] of FINAL BELL
13 Drink in The Feathers? (4)
DOWN :
Two meanings. For the surface reading one needs to know that The Feathers is a popular pub name in the UK. There’s one in Marylebone that’s reputed to be the smallest pub in central London.
14 Outspoken historian in border city (8)
CARLISLE :
Sounds like [outspoken] “Carlyle” (historian). Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881.
16 Big story about parking cut (6)
SPLASH :
SLASH (cut) containing [about] P (parking)
18 Caretaker‘s relations not looking back (6)
SEXTON :
SEX (relations), then NOT reversed [looking back]. The sexton carries out general duties on church premises, caretaking, tending graves,  perhaps bell-ringing.
20 A case of English idiot interrupting play? (8)
GENITIVE :
E (English) + NIT (idiot) contained by [interrupting] GIVE (play – elasticity, flexibility)
22 Old man‘s  code word for a pee (4)
PAPA :
Two meanings, the second as in the NATO alphabet
24 I set nobles up, it’s pretended (10)
OSTENSIBLE :
Anagram [up] of I SET NOBLES. ‘Up’ as anagrind occurred very recently, maybe in a QC, and gave rise to some objections.
26 Plant’s first appearance enthralling Henry (10)
MAIDENHAIR :
MAIDEN (first – e.g. voyage) + AIR (appearance) containing [enthralling] H (Henry – unit of inductance)
28 Having difficulty deciding end for Trueman? (4)
TORN :
T OR N (end for Trueman?)
29 Chuck out Austen novel (6)
UNSEAT :
Anagram [novel] of AUSTEN
30 Resign, being unhappy at blue-eyed boy’s return? (4,4)
STEP DOWN :
PET’S (blue-eyed boy’s) reversed [return], DOWN (unhappy)
Down
2 Sabotaged agenda about Oxford course — not an essential item (9)
APPENDAGE :
Anagram [sabotaged] of  AGENDA containing [about] PPE (Oxford course – Philosophy, Politics and Economics). PPE courses are available elsewhere but Oxford is credited with inventing them.
3 Pole angry about everything and nothing (4,3)
DAMN ALL :
N (pole) + MAD (angry) reversed [about], then ALL (everything)
4 Honourable man wasting time (5)
MORAL :
MOR{t}AL (man – mankind) [wasting – losing – time – t]
5 Endless fish brought up, caught with this? (3)
ROD :
DOR{y} (fish) [endless] reversed [brought up]
6 Writer of Rocket Man, did you say? (9)
STEVENSON :
Sounds like [did you say?] “Stephenson” (Rocket Man). Robert Louis Stevenson was the author of Treasure Island amongst many other novels, and Robert Stephenson (son of George) was the designer of the early locomotive named ‘Rocket’.
7 Solicit a delegate guarding stronghold (7)
CITADEL :
{soli}CIT A DEL{egate} is hiding [guarding] the answer
8 Quarrel? It’s a right ding-dong! (5)
ARROW :
A, R (right), ROW (ding-dong – fight}. There are other types of arrow so this is a DBE, hence the question mark.
12 Too much ale left undrunk? This suggests not (4,3)
BEER GUT :
Cryptic. Too close to home for comfort, so moving swiftly on…
Edit: I moved on too swiftly here, missing the wordplay:
BEER G{l}UT (too much ale) [left – l – undrunk]
Many thanks to Paul_in_London and others for pointing out my omission.
15 Bet on nuns somehow making baby’s hat (9)
SUNBONNET :
Anagram [somehow] of BET ON NUNS
17 Might this way suit you? (6,3)
SAVILE ROW :
Another cryptic, this time referring to Savile Row as the traditional location of London’s finest tailors. “Suit you, Sir” was a catch phrase on The Fast Show; there’s many a clip easily found on YouTube for those not of too sensitive a disposition.
19 Shuffle along after tango? Rubbish! (7)
TWADDLE :
T (tango – NATO alphabet), WADDLE (shuffle along)
21 Screwed up Dickensian guy (7)
TWISTED :
TWIST (Dickensian character), ED (guy)
23 Cooker successfully installed on second occasion? (5)
AGAIN :
AGA (cooker – kitchen range), IN (successfully installed)
25 New husband coming off heroin? Such language! (5)
NORSE :
N (new) {h}ORSE (heroin) [husband coming off]. I missed the wordplay here completely and thought I was working with an anagram [new] of {h}EROIN  [husband coming off] leading to an obscure language I’ve never heard of. Given the number of times recently we’ve been faced with that sort of thing perhaps I’m now too ready to expect it again and a degree of paranoia is setting in. Anyway I botched up well and truly this time.
27 Imbecile soldiers moving south (3)
ASS :
SAS (soldiers) becomes ASS when the first S (south) has moved

53 comments on “Times Cryptic 27956”

  1. ….DNF. That’s my fifth out of six, including Sunday, and assumes I didn’t stuff up on Saturday. Possibly my worst sequence since the 1980’s.

    Stupidly wrote in SAS so couldn’t see MAIDENHAIR.

    COD SEXTON

  2. 39 minutes, the last few being spent agonizing about which of the two gentlemen referred to in 6 dn is spelled STEVENSON and which is spelled STEVENSEN (because obviously they would be different). So I called up a blank screen and as I was typing “Robert Louis Stevenson” on it to see how that would feel, I realized that the other spelling involved a PH for the V (rather than an E for the O), and so wouldn’t fit in the grid anyway. Nothing else gave me any trouble except the wordplay for TORN, which I couldn’t figure out. So thank you for explaining it.
    Incidentally, for the Weizenbier discussion above, Hefe (for yeast) really has only one F. But I think no one in Germany would use that as a name for the beer; instead you would call it a Weizen.
    1. Thanks for your correction on the spelling which I knew but got confused. I have amended my comment above with apologies to Norm0.
      1. Very much unlike English, German spelling really reflects pronunciation. Hefe has one F because the first vowel is long (pronounced approximately like the English I in “bit” if you are dragging it out: bi-i-i-i-t). If you wrote Heffe instead, the vowel would be short, pronounced like the English E in “bet”, and that is not a German word.
    2. Definitely I wouldn’t call it Hefe, but I saw it immediately in the clue, partly because of spending too long in Munich’s beer gardens when I lived in central Europe. Of course, in Munich it’s usually Weissbier rather than Weizen, but, as my Berlinerin friend always says to me, “What do the Bavarians know about German?”. Not a comment I’d be prepared to repeat over my Mass mit Weisswuerst und Brez’n.
  3. It’s usually the QC that I attempt but as my other half had that section of the paper I had a go at this instead. To my surprise I got on remarkably well. DNF as I forgot that relations=sex but I got all the rest even if I had to use aids and didn’t parse them all. It’s a bit late in the day to tell people on the QC blog that today’s 15X15 is worth trying but I’m feeling very happy.
    Thank you!
    Blue Stocking
  4. Done, after a long long time just staring at blanks, then got in the groove and made it with a little dictionary help. A day late, as usual: I do it next morning over breakfast so that when I’m completely stuck and call it quits – often – I can check this blog to understand and learn. Thank you.

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