Solving time: 70 minutes with one cheat, and as my timing might suggest, I found this puzzle very hard indeed. But not to worry, as we were due a stinker after Monday’s easy ride which occupied me for only 16 minutes. I only hope I was not alone in finding this tough.
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 | Cockney Bob, say, interrupting female’s call for equality (4,3) |
| FAIR DO’S | |
| {h}AIR DO (Bob, say) [Cockney], contained by [interrupting] F (female) + ‘S | |
| 5 | Scatter cream on wife (7) |
| BESTREW | |
| BEST (cream), RE (on), W (wife). Other than in poetry perhaps a word possibly not spoken since the middle of the 19th century. | |
| 9 | Convey what wrong answers may do (3,6) |
| GET ACROSS | |
| A straight definition and a cryptic nudge in the direction of GET A CROSS | |
| 10 | Canteen in one area in Stoke to the west (5) |
| NAAFI | |
| I (one) then A (area) contained by [in] FAN (stoke), all reversed [to the west]. SOED: The Navy, Army, and Air Force Institutes; a canteen, store, etc., run for service personnel by this organization. I’m not sure that ‘stoke’ and ‘fan’ are synonymous by themselves but ‘stoking a fire’ and ‘fanning its flames’ are in the same area of meaning. | |
| 11 | Star squeezed into little girdle, pirouetting (5) |
| RIGEL | |
| Hidden [squeezed into] and reversed [pirouetting] inside {litt}LE GIR{l} | |
| 12 | Cart around jam that’s a good standard (9) |
| YARDSTICK | |
| DRAY (cart) reversed [around], STICK (jam) | |
| 14 | Shot frenetic Bourne film (5,9) |
| BRIEF ENCOUNTER | |
| Anagram [shot] of FRENETIC BOURNE. One of my favourite films of all time, directed by David Lean who turned up here as an answer very recently. It was originally a short play in five scenes by Noël Coward, written as part of his Tonight at 8:30 collection and called Still Life. Coward wrote the screenplay and co-produced the film and somebody with a touch of genius decided to set it all to music by Rachmaninov. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard starred and light relief was provided by Joyce Carey and Stanley Holloway. The result is an absolute classic of British cinema. | |
| 17 | Joint operation all the rage on work posting (3,11) |
| HIP REPLACEMENT | |
| HIP (all the rage), RE (on), PLACEMENT (work posting) | |
| 21 | A time for cooking, swallowing fish bones (9) |
| METACARPI | |
| Anagram [for cooking] of A TIME, containing [swallowing] CARP (fish). This was my one cheat as I could only think of METATARSI (also bones) and when I went to look up TARS wondering if it could be a fish, I accidentally stumbled upon METACARPI. I wouldn’t normally check anything in a dictionary whilst solving, but my progress had been so slow I decided to bend the rules a bit. | |
| 23 | Right iPhone broken, and no case for phone charger (5) |
| RHINO | |
| R (right), then anagram [broken] of I{p}HON{e} [no case for phone – delete p and e]. I’m not sure whether this devious clue is very good or too clever by half. The deletion indicator seems unnecessarily convoluted, and the definition relies on the catch-all ‘any person or thing that charges’ which without the wordplay to narrow it down could be any number of 5-letter answers. If ‘charger’ has a more specific meaning in the animal kingdom, it’s a horse. | |
| 24 | Meal with Democrat going mental (5) |
| INNER | |
| {d}INNER (meal) [with Democrat going]. Inner thoughts, I suppose. | |
| 25 | Hit runs during a defeat in sub-par performance (9) |
| ALBATROSS | |
| BAT (hit) + R (runs), contained by [during] A LOSS (defeat). Three strokes under par in golf. | |
| 26 | Snake oil, say, in no way unusual (7) |
| NOSTRUM | |
| NO, ST (way), RUM (unusual). After working through the more complex wordplay in some of these clues I was fooled by this one’s simplicity and spent ages trying to construct the answer – one I did know, as it happens. | |
| 27 | Something to depress Everton fans by English port? (3,4) |
| RED WINE | |
| RED WIN (something to depress Everton fans), E (English). ‘The Reds’ are Liverpool Football Club, and Everton their local rivals also based in Liverpool. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Quick-witted stage hero bags one grand in card game (6) |
| FIGARO | |
| I (one) + G (grand) contained by [in] FARO (card game). Okay, Figaro is smart but so are a thousand other stage heroes so we have another very vague definition. I can’t see what ‘bags’ is doing other than serving as some sort of link word. | |
| 2 | Full figure for one clad in Italian outfit (7) |
| INTEGER | |
| EG (for one – example) contained by [clad in] INTER (Italian outfit – another football team) | |
| 3 | Exhibiting bust key, holding pass (9) |
| DECOLLETE | |
| DELETE (key) containing [holding] COL (mountain pass) | |
| 4 | Merchant banks to try out an account provider (11) |
| STORYTELLER | |
| SELLER (merchant) contains [banks] anagram [out] of TO TRY | |
| 5 | Transport not fully occupied (3) |
| BUS | |
| BUS{y} (occupied) [not fully]. An escapee from the QC, perhaps. | |
| 6 | Passage south across the Atlantic (5) |
| SINUS | |
| S (south), IN U.S. (across the Atlantic) | |
| 7 | Heartless rogue stars in Dickens, say (7) |
| REALIST | |
| R{ogu}E [heartless], A-LIST (stars). Another vague definition, this time by signalled example and one for Eng. Lit. aficionados who like to categorise writers and their output. I never managed to get through any Dickens novel so my knowledge of them comes only from TV and film adaptations. David Lean directed a couple of classics. | |
| 8 | Maybe Bourbon queen’s bored with sideboards (8) |
| WHISKERY | |
| R (queen) is contained by [has bored] WHISKEY (maybe Bourbon). I’ve parsed it this way rather than use ER as queen as bourbon is American and ‘whiskey’ with an ‘e’ is the preferred spelling there. | |
| 13 | Conservative member punching chair person high on face? (4,7) |
| ROCK CLIMBER | |
| C (Conservative) + LIMB (member) contained by [punching] ROCKER (chair) | |
| 15 | Intrude roughly to seize this person without warrant (9) |
| UNMERITED | |
| Anagram [roughly] of INTRUDE contains [to seize] ME (this person) | |
| 16 | Defender about to overplay ball breaking leg (8) |
| CHAMPION | |
| C (about), HAM (to overplay) then O (ball) contained by [breaking] PIN (leg) | |
| 18 | Legal documents Lawrence initially put in drawers (7) |
| PATENTS | |
| TE (Lawrence initially) contained by [put in] PANTS (drawers). Thomas Edward Lawrence’s life was celebrated in the epic movie Lawrence of Arabia, another classic directed by none other than David Lean! | |
| 19 | Peer around state north of India’s capital (7) |
| NAIROBI | |
| NOB (peer of the realm) contains [around] AIR (state one’s opinion), then I (NATO India). ‘North’ is just a positional indicator. | |
| 20 | Sweet food in steamer with a sour look about it (6) |
| MOUSSE | |
| MOUE (sour look) contains [about] SS (steamer – steam ship). We had MOUE very recently so it came easily to mind. | |
| 22 | One tends to make a dash with only half the energy (5) |
| CARER | |
| CARE{e}R (make a dash) [with only half the energy – e] | |
| 25 | Goal that’s one in a million (3) |
| AIM | |
| I (one) contained by [in] A + M (million) | |
87 comments on “Times Cryptic 28136”
Comments are closed.