Times Cryptic 28022

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 41 minutes but I needed aids for my last one in. Otherwise very enjoyable.

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 What annoying person might get up for one stroll? (6)
DANDER
Two meanings. Brewer’s: “To get someone’s dander up’ is to annoy or anger them. This is generally considered to be an Americanism, but ‘dander’ as a synonym for ‘anger’  has been a common dialect word in several English counties. It may represent a colloquial form of ‘dandruff”. The second meaning is ‘stroll’, either as a verb or a noun, and that was unknown to me. This was one of my very last entries as I had been hanging on for ages trying to resist writing ‘wander’, which might have fitted with ‘stroll’, but I was determined to make sense of the rest of the clue.
5 Strait-laced English woman, very old (8)
PRIMEVAL
PRIM (strait-laced), E (English), VAL (woman)
9 Being rich, we fuss about £2 (4-2-2)
WELL-TO-DO
WE + TO–DO (fuss) containing [about] LL (£2). Wiki has this on the £ sign: The symbol derives from the upper case Latin letter L, representing libra pondo, the basic unit of weight in the Roman Empire, which in turn is derived from the Latin word, libra, meaning scales or a balance.
10 Royal couple caught in corruption overthrown? A nightmare (6)
TERROR
ER + R (royal couple – HMQ + King/Queen) contained by [caught in] ROT (corruption) reversed [overthrown]
11 Riverbank creature, female, shrieking horribly (10)
KINGFISHER
Anagram [horribly] of F (female) SHRIEKING
13 So monster’s seen as revenant? (4)
ERGO
OGRE (monster) reversed [seen as revenant – returned]
14 Players in form? (4)
CAST
Two meanings, acting and moulding
15 Tango and polka will put paid to cosy chat! (6,4)
PILLOW TALK
Anagram [put paid to – destroyed] of  T (tango – NATO alphabet) POLKA WILL
18 Artilleryman given huge sum, heading off stronger (10)
BOMBARDIER
BOMB (huge sum of money), {h}ARDIER (stronger), [heading off]
20 Outspoken opposition from Munich cardinal (4)
NINE
Sounds like [outspoken] “Nein!” (opposition from Munich – German for No!)
21 Escape cries from the audience (4)
OOZE
Sounds like [from the audience] “Oohs!”. This was the one I failed on. After I had finished the rest of the puzzle I stared at this for 5 minutes but got nowhere so I looked it up.  I’m not sure I would ever have thought of it  from ‘escape’ but on the cryptic side I had considered ‘boos’ which was obviously wrong but if spoken out loud it might just have nudged me towards the correct answer.
23 Juvenile going up to claim benefit (10)
ADOLESCENT
ASCENT (going up) containing [to claim] DOLE (unemployment benefit)
25 Conflict? Wife has trouble with it (6)
STRIFE
The cryptic hint refers to the CRS ‘trouble and strife’ = ‘wife’.
26 A holiday that will make you jolly? (4,4)
HALF TERM
One of those clues where the wordplay is in the answer, so: {te}RM (jolly – Royal Marine) [half]. I’m not sure how far ‘half-term’ has travelled outside the UK but it’s a brief holiday in the middle of a school term.
28 George unexpectedly acquiring Times, ambitious chap (2-6)
GO-GETTER
Anagram [unexpectedly] of GEORGE containing [acquiring] T+T (times)
29 In denouement, seek to entertain (6)
TRENDY
TRY (seek) contains [to entertain] END (denouement)
Down
2 This coffee has surprisingly nice aroma (9)
AMERICANO
Anagram [surprisingly] of NICE AROMA
3 Transport, from foodshop, Henry in sports car (7)
DELIGHT
DELI (foodshop), then H (Henry – physics) contained by [in] GT (sports car – Gran turismo). Cue Flanders & Swann A Transport of Delight.
4 The end of Hector, as Homer wrote it? (3)
RHO
I think the idea is  ‘the end of Hector’  = ‘r’ and the ‘r’ sound in Greek [Homer] is represented by the letter RHO. But since ‘rho’ is actually written as ‘p’ I’m not entirely sure that the logic of the clue works.  No doubt the Classics scholars amongst us will advise…
5 The one responsible for mess by church? (5)
POOCH
POO (mess),  CH (church). Rather amusing, but not a pleasant image to bring to mind if solving at the breakfast table! On edit: It didn’t occur to me when blogging that some may not know this word, but since the query has been raised in the comments below and although somebody has kindly already explained it, I am adding now that it’s a dog, usually small and pampered, but not necessarily so.
6 Italian side dish provoking conversation? (11)
INTERCOURSE
INTER ((Italian side – soccer), COURSE (dish)
7 Thoughtful article about Hemingway? On the contrary (7)
EARNEST
‘On the contrary’ indicates we have to switch the containment, so ERNEST (Hemingway) contains [about] A (indefinite article).
8 In the company of a financier, mostly retired (5)
AMONG
A, then GNOM{e} (financier) [mostly] reversed [retired]. Wiki: ‘Gnomes of Zürich’ is a slang term for Swiss bankers. Swiss bankers are popularly associated with extremely secretive policies, while gnomes in fairy tales live underground, in secret, counting their riches. Zürich is the commercial centre of Switzerland.
12 Fugitive‘s announcement that he’s here to stay? (11)
IMPERMANENT
The cryptic hint leads to an alternative reading requiring a space and an apostrophe: I’M PERMANENT (here to stay). I’ve only met ‘fugitive’ as in ‘fugitive from justice’ and the like, but apparently it can simply mean moving from place to place.
16 Priest moving east — for money? (3)
LEI
ELI (priest) becomes LEI when E (east) is moved.  Leu (pl. lei) is the monetary unit in Rumania.
17 Daughter learning about the St Petersburg of old (9)
LENINGRAD
Anagram [about] of D (daughter) LEARNING. Easily biffable if one has the GK.
19 Place buzzing   1960s style (7)
BEEHIVE
Two meanings, the second being a female hairstyle popular in my youth
20 Snog someone from Bangkok, you say — perhaps undoing this? (7)
NECKTIE
NECK (snog) then TIE sounds like [you say] “Thai” (someone from Bangkok). Don’t let’s go there…
22 Better blooming perform! (5)
OUTDO
OUT (blooming), DO (perform)
24 More trouble, billions missing (5)
OTHER
{b}OTHER (trouble) [billions – b – missing]
27 Set fire to Jean-Paul Sartre’s bed? (3)
LIT
LIT (bed – French) [Jean-Paul Sartre]

72 comments on “Times Cryptic 28022”

  1. Double-checked DANDER before submission for the stroll definition. otherwise it was the NE and OOZE that I was a bit slow with.

    HALF TERM well known in the UK, biffed through checkers though failed to parse

  2. 19:32
    No problem with ooze – those ones where the ‘sounds like’ target word is a plural often end -se or -ze.
    Dander went in with a shrug, based on the only one of the two definitions I knew. That said, I did wonder if the Scottish word dauner had anything to do with it; dcrooks has already discussed this. Thanks, jack.
  3. 13 mins. Plain sailing but for HALF TERM, which I never parsed and spent a while looking for something starting with HOL-. The conversational definition of INTERCOURSE is not the first to spring to mind, but I got there.
  4. Great puzzle but defeated me on dander which was unknown to me so I fell into the un parsed wander trap. It was at least my 3rd unparsed answer as I had no idea of RM = jolly or impermanent meaning fugitive.

    COD Trendy for me as even with the checkers and the obvious answer it took me forever to see the beautifully misdirected definition of In.

    Thanks J and setter.

  5. An enjoyable hour or less over lunch with much time over LOI 21a.
    I started with BOOS; was not clever enough to see OOZE; and ended with LOSE as it fitted the escape definition best.
    COD to INTERCOURSE which, if a chestnut, I had not seen before.
    David
  6. Homer did not write anything. The Iliad and the Odyssey were oral epics. The Times is rather intellectually downmarket these days but nonetheless…
    1. The word “write” in this context is slippery. Consider:
      “David and Solomon lived very merry lives
      Had 40,000 concubines and 30,000 wives
      Later in their lives to settle all their qualms
      One wrote the Proverbs and the other wrote the Psalms”
      A favourite quiz question of mine is “Who wrote Paul’s letter to the Romans?” to which the correct answer is Tertius.
      Again, if Homer ever wrote the name Hector, even in a message to his greengrocer, the name would have finished with a rho. The clue is not making assertions about authorship of the epics.
  7. ….INTERCOURSE, I spent a little time trying to justify “nightie” at 20D. I’m not sure if this says more about me or the setter.

    IMPERMANENT was new to me, and I biffed it with crossed fingers. DANDER was an unknown definition, but a perfect fit for the surface, so I was a tad more confident.

    I always contend that the hardest thing to crack is a four letter answer with the second and fourth letters in place. My SLOI was CAST, but at least that had a consonant already entered. My LOI took an alpha-trawl approaching two minutes. How many word fit “-O-E” ? An excellent time reduced to very good unfortunately !

    FOI WELL-TO-DO
    LOI OOZE
    COD BEEHIVE
    TIME 9:55

  8. I spent about as long on OOZE as the rest of the crossword. First, it was not one of the most obvious of the zillion words that fits _O_E and it doesn’t really mean escape. And oohs has to be just a cry, since “from the audience” is a homophone indicator. Or maybe it is doing double duty. But I had WANDER since I didn’t know either meaning of GANDER so, while I half suspected WANDER was wrong, I couldn’t find anything better.
  9. Not much to add to above except to say that the second (Stroll) meaning of DANDER is dialect(North English or Scottish, take your pick) and there should have been some indication of such. Advanced cryptic setters would never be allowed to get away with this omission and nor should back-pagers. Had there been “stroll in the Highlands” say … I think far few solvers would have got this wrong as it would have put them more on their alert… Almost the same criticism could be levelled at OOZE clue which would have been so much fairer if it had been, say: “cries of pleasure” or “cries of surprise” …
    Enough beefing for one day (and I did get both DANDER and OOZE right); rest of puzzle was oddly easy in comparison to these two outliers, and I thought – whilst perhaps unseemly – POOCH clue was a full-on smirky smile delight. Many thanks to blogger; mild tsk to editors and setter …
  10. 15:09. As a perennially late poster, I realise that much of what I was going to say about this puzzle has been explored already.
    Like many I wasn’t 100% sure about 1 ac “Dander” meaning a stroll, but my vague recollections of the Scottish word “dauner” convinced me it was my best bet.
    My LOI, which took some time, was 29 ac “trendy” where I just couldn’t figure out the clue’s construction. So I applaud the setter for completely misleading me.
    I enjoyed several clues along the way 25 ac “Strife”, 26 ac “half term”, 4 d “rho” and 20d “Necktie”.
    I always associate “Bombardier” with one Billy Wells, a British boxer who belted a huge gong to introduce any cinema film made by the Rank Organisation. Apparently there were four different “biffers” in total. Mmmm, yes I know, should get out more…..
    Thanks to Jack and setter for an entertaining blog and puzzle respectively
  11. Completed it in two sessions which is usual for me.

    FOI 1ac Dander though I didn’t know the second meaning.
    LOI 21ac Ooze which I was about to give up on before yet another alphabet trawl. Took me a long time also to see 29ac Trendy. Duh!

    Liked the puzzle, but then I usually do if I can finish it.

  12. Forty minutes entertainment with one wrong – did not get dander. DNF, then. FOI well to do. only three acrosses on first pass, but everything started to fall into place as I read the down clues. LOI 1ac *a*d*r, last asterisk guessed as an e. Clueless as to the other two *’s. Very enjoyable and a good result for me, only two letters short, and only one (half term) unparsed. Thanks, Jack and setter. GW.
  13. 30.22. Nearly screwed the pooch on this one with an errant fisher king in at 11ac for the longest time but eventually saw the error and corrected. That only left the alpha-trawl for ooze and then the Hobson’s choice between dander, which fit the what annoying person might get up bit but was unknown as a stroll, or wander which fit the stroll but I just couldn’t see it being something an annoying person might get up. I plumped for dander but it was unsatisfying to lack the required knowledge. I liked the lift and separate of Italian side dish.
  14. With only _O_E to get I gave up thinking I had probably made a few mistakes elsewhere, which I hadn’t. Still, that probably saved me another half hour. And I thought OOZE was quite good so had no problem with the clue.
  15. Liked INTERCOURSE a lot

    POOCH also

    No problem with OOZE but couldn’t be bothered with 1ac once I had WANDER in my mind but knew it wasn’t right. Did think of DANDER but also GANDER. As a previous poster said, life’s too short

    21 minutes bar that one, 2 minutes to alpha trawl and then come here

    Thanks all

  16. My usual day-after post simply because that’s when I do it! FOI 2d AMERICANO – a super neat anagram. LOI PRIMEVAL But a DNF because no idea about RHO. Being Scottish, no problem with DANDER – use it regularly, “Gaun for a daunder doon the road.” Personally don’t feel it needed to be signalled as Scots. Many clues left equally open. Biffed several of the answers here because they seemed to work and now I know why, so thanks, jackkt. 50 minutes.

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