Times Cryptic 28,109. A Friday Classic.

Author   oliviarhinebeckPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Here I am pinch-hitting in the baseball play-off season, soon to be the “World Series” (sometimes known as the Fall Classic) while Verlaine is in transit back to the UK.  This was a Christmas pudding of a puzzle and I felt like Little Jack Horner pulling out plums – it remains to be seen if I’ve been good but the puzzle was excellent.   We’ve been given an old-fashioned panorama of Crosswordland:  Shakespeare, Bible stories, cricket, rowing, sailing, classical mythology.  As I write this there is one clue I can’t parse and one where I feel I’m missing something.  If dawn doesn’t break before I have to post this, no doubt one or more of the clever people here will enlighten us.  This took me almost exactly 20 minutes – I prefer not to dwell on what Verlaine’s time might have been.

Definitions in italics underlined.  Answers in bold caps.  I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how to render the clues in that pretty blue colour so you’ll have to make do with B&W.

Across

1.  Tiny contribution I’d placed in bowl over by clock (6,4)
WIDOWS MITE.  ID in WOWS=bowled over.  SMITE=clock.  Story from the NT about the small donation by a poor widow representing a much greater share of her goods than the larger amounts given by richer people.
6.  Arena, somewhere you go round in reverse (4)
OVAL.  LAV O reversed.  Famed cricket ground in South London which even I know.
10.  Stern and bow of ship going in one sudden movement (7)
ASCETIC.  ACE=one containing S=first letter (bow) of SHIP with TIC=sudden movement.
11.  Cause of malfunction of foreign government changing leader (7)
GREMLIN.  Change the K in Kremlin.
12.  One who’s retiring to keep hotel by remote country dwelling (9)
FARMHOUSE.  FAR=remote.  MOUSE=one who’s retiring containing H[otel].
13.  Closing bars best at Henley, perhaps, when whiskey’s run out (5)
OUTRO.  If you remove the W (NATO alphabet whiskey) from OUTROW=beat the other boat at Henley Royal Regatta, you get the music term.  The members of the Leander Club would not be happy if the bars were closed and the Pimms ceased to flow, never mind the whiskey.
14.  One swallowed an orange juice after returning hot (5)
JONAH.  AN OJ reversed with H.  An OT story this time – in which he is swallowed by a whale.
15.  One might get bite in water tank, following one earlier (9)
FISHERMAN.  F 1 with Sherman=tank.  WWII US tank named after William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War Union general.  Liked this one a lot.
17.  Drink from tap’s to sell (4,5)
MILK STOUT.  MILKS=taps.  TOUT= to sell.  I had to circle back to solve this one because I’d initially got the wrong first word in 18d.
20.  I’m surprised to find a Communist being driven with Poles (5)
OARED.  As in – Oh, a Red!
21. Misbehave in a court — in a court!  (3,2)
ACT UP.  A – CT – UP.
23.  Sail in front of dishonest judge, interrupting what he’s telling?
FLYING JIB.  It’s a kind of fore-sail.  LYING=dishonest.  J=judge. Contained in (interrupting) FIB=what he’s telling.  Neat one.
25.  Joint protection from men on board, with movement for peace (7)
KNEECAP.  K=king and N=knight on a chessboard with anagram (movement) of PEACE.
26. Bun to have when consuming most of a pop (7)
TEACAKE.  TAKE=have containing (consuming) EAC[h]=a pop.
27.  Queen alter The Colour of Money for radio (4)
DIDO.  Sounds like (for radio) dye dough.  Queen of Carthage jilted by Aeneas.  Our classics reference.
28.  Trinket taken from jug — gift we might pick up (10)
KNICKKNACK.  KNICK sounds like (we might pick up) nick=jug.  KNACK=gift.

Down

1.  Landing place with fifty percent changing hands (5)
WHARF.  W[ith] HALF changing L to R.
2.  Bones initially needed in experiment to do with teaching (9)
DOCTRINAL.  DOC=bones.  TRIAL=experiment containing N[eeded] initially.
3.  Chap set a switch incorrectly; pay attention in future!  (5,4,5)
WATCH THIS SPACE.  Anagram (incorrectly) of CHAP SET A SWITCH.
4.  The implication is one would let in old Scottish lord (7)
MACDUFF.  Our Shakespearean clue and the one I don’t understand.  Macduff is the Thane of Fife, born by caesarean section.  His wife and children are murdered by Macbeth (“the Thane of Fife had a wife”).  In the final reckoning between the two, Macbeth believes the witches’ prophecy that he can’t be killed by “a man of woman born”, not knowing about the caesarean which apparently didn’t count as a proper birth.  He says “lay on Macduff” and is beheaded.  Um, any ideas?  I know I’m going to feel stupid.  On edit:  I thought of a duff Mac but rejected it as unlikely.  Thanks to BletchleyReject (maybe they should have had him/her after all) et al infra as confirmed by setter/editor.
5.  Vicious female gets sir wound up (7)
TIGRESS.  Anagram (wound up) of GETS SIR.
7.  Servant present finally after so long in Rome (5)
VALET.  VALE=goodbye in Latin.  [presen]T (finally).
8.  Dream location maybe, where you only get green lights? (4,2,3)
LAND OF NOD.  Where you go when you sleep.  Or the OT place East of Eden which always gives you the OK.
9.  Bug I planted on advocate to be avenged ( 3,4,3,4)
GET ONES OWN BACK.  BUG=get to.  ONE=I.  SOWN=planted.  BACK=advocate.
14.  Heaving bag into the sea after approval from Hans?  (3-6)
JAM-PACKED.  JA=German approval.  PACK=bag contained in MED=sea.
16.  Ruin a jam after smashing a pot (9)
MARIJUANA.  Anagram (after smashing) of RUIN A JAM with A
18.  Does away with secure feature of delivery (3,4)
OFF SPIN.  OFFS=does away with.  PIN=secure.  I  started out with “top spin” but had to re-think when 17a didn’t work.
19.  Pathologist’s outside, I see, after sample of enzyme (7)
TRYPTIC. P[athologis]T contained in TRY=sample and IC=I see.  Of the enzyme trypsin which is something to do with digestion and may be related to the sleepy feeling you get after too much Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey – or is that another one?
22.  Current minister to set about Republican (5)
TREND.  R contained in TEND=minister to.
24.  Rest?  One may be needed during it (5)
BREAK.  This is the one I see but I don’t see.  A rest is a break and is also a pause in music notation when nothing is played, or what you tell someone to give you when they’re bothering you, or what?  What am I missing? I completely dropped the snooker ball – in fact I never thought of it.  Thanks again to BR et al infra.

88 comments on “Times Cryptic 28,109. A Friday Classic.”

  1. Hello from Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon where I’m in travel limbo for a few hours.

    I’m not sure if I’ve slept (it’s 4am my time or something?) but it only took 6m41 to solve this puzzle regardless. I biffed in quite a few, most of which have been well trodden in comments elsewhere.

    Onwards to London!

  2. I have deleted my own comment made late last night as the bletchleyreject and horryd nailed it! The editor has subsequently stated he wasn’t involved! Why ever not!?
    I would surmise that it was the setter who made the change from ‘wet’ to ‘cold’ off his own bat. A Mackintosh’s prime purpose is to keep out the ‘rain’ and secondarily the ‘cold’. Yes, it does both, however the latter is more 19dn. (I know!) My time was 14:54 and this was a pleasure – Jam-Packed with goodies – my COD
    1. As previously stated I am both the setter and the editor and no change was made to the clue 🙂
  3. Got there in the end, but with no great certainty. Didn’t understand MACDUFF or KNEECAP, had to work out the unknown WIDOWS MITE and FLYING JIB from wordplay, wasn’t sure that ASCETIC means stern, didn’t parse the first half of KNICKKNACK, and had to trust that TRYPTIC relates to enzymes. A very enjoyable challenge nonetheless.

    FOI Wharf
    LOI Ascetic
    COD Fisherman

  5. Didn’t find this as easy as others with several unparsed/unknown — about 8 mins over over my target time. Certainly not the easiest Friday for a while as some have suggested (the SNITCH backs me up on this — 116 when I first checked, 97 for last Friday) — suggest it’s a wavelength/general knowledge thing — my two unknowns imho both specialist knowledge.

    NHO: WIDOW’S MITE; FLYING JIB (another ridiculous sail name);

    Unparsed — OUTRO from definition without seeing OUTROW; KNEECAP from the chess pieces — didn’t parse the rest; EAC(h) in TEACAKE — didn’t get it; MACDUFF from definition — no idea what was going on here; BREAK — missed the snooker reference

    POI — DIDO took a while to spot
    LOI ASCETIC from checkers — I had A-something-TIC rather than ACE with an S in it.

    Liked FISHERMAN

    Edited at 2021-10-15 01:18 pm (UTC)

  6. A pleasure this lunchtime to complete most of this. The sun’s out and I’ve got to mow the lawn now but I wanted to see the answers to my blanks and check for mistakes.
    The SE was my problem partly caused by two biffed mistakes: MILK SHAKE and AXE SPIN (not proud of this as a cricket man).
    Did not parse MACDUFF. COD to DIDO.
    David
  8. 25.30. Very enjoyable. Plenty of head scratching but all worked out in the end. Having the P and the S from the outside of pathologist’s rather than the P and the T from the outside of pathologist gave me trypsic which had to be revisited in order to get LOI teacake. The ‘a pop’ in that LOI was a nice pdm too, I had been thinking along the lines of a da(d) or a ban(g) for quite a while.
  9. Just over the hour, stuffed by banging in TOP SPIN as others seem to have done. Perhaps more tennis (my ex game! ) than cricket. I found this more difficult than some getting stuck in the SE.

    MACDUFF was a guess as was WIDOWS MITE (NHO). Yes I had had probs in the NW too! I did like LAND OF NOD and KNICKKNACK.

    The trouble with coming late to the party, is that everything has already been said. So I will just thank Olivia for the blog. Well done.

  10. I whizzed right thru this, top to bottom, slowing a bit in the southeast—LOI TRYPTIC. Totally biffed MACDUFF, though! Nice blog, Olivia!
  11. As usual this week, being on hols, I was very slow. MACDUFF was just biffed without any consideration of the cryptic. I had trouble with my LOI DOCTRINAL, where I didn’t see the trial or the bones, which are usually tarsi or similar. Not sure if he is still alive, but maybe BONES should have gone into space too?
  12. 36 mins but a DNF. Undone by putting in pool at 6 ac which meant I could never get valet. Disappointing end to a good run over the last fortnight and so simple when it’s explained. Argh!

    Despite the failure , really enjoyed the puzzle and loved macduff and wharf. Thx setter and blogger.

  13. 20:37 late this afternoon. I tend to be strapped for time on Fridays and so this afternoon started biffing all over the place to try to complete within the time I had available. I simply got lucky. The picture of a bull in a china shop with miraculously no breakages, springs to mind. Come to think of it, as well as keeping a personal record of my times, perhaps I should also record the number of biffs for each puzzle. I feel a new database coming on.
    COD 24 d and LOI “break” which I couldn’t parse but by that time my neural circuitry was totally mac-duff.
    Thanks to Olivia for a top notch explanatory blog and to setter for the workout (to put it mildly)
  14. An hour spent waiting for deliveries so it felt like time well-spent. DNF – me, 24, setter, 4 – doctrinal, Jonah, jam-packed and milk stout. Makeson makes great Carbonnades Flammandes. Lots of biffing. Thank you for the blog, Olivia, and for the entertainment, setter.

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