Times Cryptic 28562

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

 

Solving time: 17 minutes

This must be a personal best, or would be very close to it if only I knew what it was! Most answers were written in after a single reading of the clue, with only one (at 26ac) giving me cause for doubt until the checkers confirmed what it had to be.

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 Spicy sauce in vessel at university (7)
KETCHUP
KETCH (sailing vessel), UP (at university)
5 Trendy youngsters torn apart by start of unnerving nightmare (7)
INCUBUS
IN (trendy), CUBS (youngsters) containing [torn apart by] U{nnerving} [start]. Remembered from many a previous puzzle.
9 Stop luxury car hemming in a road-mending vehicle (11)
STEAMROLLER
STEM (stop) + ROLLER (luxury car – Rolls Royce) containing [hemming in] A
10 Teacher, possibly, avoiding time in jail (3)
SIR
S{t}IR (time in jail) [avoiding time]
11 Insect heading off close to rug (6)
EARWIG
{n}EAR (close) [heading off], WIG (rug – slang for a hairpiece)
12 Supporter male chancellor ultimately required during a depression (8)
ADHERENT
HE (male) + {chancello}R [ultimately] contained by [during) A + DENT (depression)
14 Alluring old PM, the centre of attraction (8,5)
MAGNETIC NORTH
MAGNETIC (alluring), NORTH (old PM). Lord North was Prime Minister 1770-1782 at the time of the American war of independence. I lost a moment or two here wondering if we’d had a PM called Field.
17 Eccentric newlywed glum about key varsity sportsman (9,4)
CAMBRIDGE BLUE
CAM (eccentric), then BRIDE (newlywed) + BLUE (glum) containing [about] G (key). This was almost biffable with assistance from enumeration but having been beaten on my last blogging day by ‘eccentric / CAM’ I was onto the wordplay immediately.
21 Attorney framing European legislation concerning US state (8)
DELAWARE
DA (District Attorney) containing [framing] E (European) + LAW (legislation), then RE (concerning)
23 Continental resort in island by border (6)
RIMINI
RIM (border), IN, I  (island)
25 Low state of mind daughter’s thrown off (3)
MOO
MOO{d} (state of mind) [daughter’s thrown off]
26 Predatory reptile in cold air swimming without company (11)
CROCODILIAN
Anagram [swimming] of IN COLD AIR, containing [without] CO (company). I didn’t know this as a noun but I suppose it works as a class of creature in the same way as ‘amphibian ‘ does. I note that it also includes alligators.
27 Researcher originally assisting lab in some way (7)
ANALYST
A{ssisting} + L{a b} [originally] contained by [in] ANY (some) + ST (way – street)
28 Angry about name attached to a religious painting (7)
MADONNA
MAD (angry), ON (about), N (name), A
Down
1 Fate one’s suffered supporting king (6)
KISMET
K (King), I’S (one’s), MET (suffered). I was a bit dubious about ‘suffered / MET’ but SOED has meet – encounter, experience, suffer (one’s death, a certain fate or treatment, etc). There is a musical called Kismet based on music by Borodin.
2 Formula in geometry maybe or English grasped by other people (7)
THEOREM
OR + E (English) contained [grasped] by THEM (other people)
3 Married woman beset by need for food, an excellent person (9)
HUMDINGER
M (married) + DI (woman) contained [beset] by HUNGER (need for food)
4 Share   game on table (4)
POOL
Two meanings
5 Youth taken in by devil is terribly misguided (3-7)
ILL-ADVISED
LAD (youth) contained [taken in] by anagram [terribly] of DEVIL IS
6 Cut up roast, initially restricted by word of warning (5)
CARVE
R{oast} [initially] contained [restricted] by CAVE (word of warning). ‘Cave’ is from the Latin ‘cavere’ meaning ‘beware’, and ‘keep cave’ was very much part of schoolboy slang at one time meaning to look out for approaching masters.
7 Blacken name of woman in pub (7)
BESMEAR
ESME (woman) contained by [in] BAR (pub). Has anyone been named Esme in the past 50 years, I wonder?
8 Sentence on introduction of yellow elastic (8)
STRETCHY
STRETCH (prison sentence), Y{ellow} [introduction]
13 Offer pay for US novice (10)
TENDERFOOT
TENDER (offer), FOOT (pay a bill). I knew this word from an early age as there was an American TV Western series called Sugarfoot which for some reason was renamed Tenderfoot when it came to the BBC. I never found out why, but it was pointless as the show had a catchy title song that mentioned  ‘Sugarfoot’ repeatedly throughout its lyric.
15 Cancelled in full, sadly, by current newspaper boss (9)
NULLIFIED
Anagram [sadly] of IN FULL, then I (current), ED (newspaper boss)
16 A rebel with intent, rising in scholarly circles (8)
ACADEMIA
A, CADE (rebel), then AIM (intent) reversed [rising]. Jack Cade (1420–1450), leader of the Kent Rebellion.
18 State of gang girl cut down at Kent port, do we hear? (7)
MOLDOVA
MOL{l} (gangster’s girl) [cut down], then DOVA sounds like [do we hear?] “Dover” (Kent port)
19 Linguistic device sound on reflection: large one included (7)
ELISION
L (large) + I (one) contained by [included] NOISE (sound) all reversed [on reflection]
20 After struggle, a stricken man finally raised capital (6)
VIENNA
VIE (struggle), then A + {stricke}N + {ma}N [finally] reversed [raised]
22 Crazy procedure to seal ends of cask (5)
WACKY
WAY (procedure) contains [to seal} C{as}K [ends]
24 Voice disapproval of Mike’s resonant delivery? (4)
BOOM
BOO (voice disapproval), M (Mike – NATO alphabet)

97 comments on “Times Cryptic 28562”

  1. 11:22
    Lowest SNITCH in ages. KETCHUP spicy? I took ‘eccentric’ as anagram indicator at first, but then the C and L suggested CAMBRIDGE BLUE, which I biffed. I also took ‘supporter’ to indicate BRA or TEE; took me some time to see the light. I know of only one ESME, but that’s enough: the girl in the Salinger story, “To Esme, with Love and Squalor”.

  3. A sluggish 14:35, held up by a semi-biffed ‘academic’, which put paid to ANALYST for a while.

    Only Esme I’m vaguely familiar with would be the character from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, although I’ve never read the book or knowingly seen any of the film versions. The Disney one might have been playing when the daughter was a nipper, I suppose.

    Not a crossword you want to make a stupid typo on if you want to improve your SNITCH.

    1. Her name is Esmerelda – I don’t think it gets shortened, but I haven’t watched the Disney cartoon version, where it wouldn’t surprise me if it is, since she would be keeping ‘Quasi’ company.

      2. Well, ‘Sailor Beware’ at least. Along with dozens of other light British comedies of the 40s and 50s, which be seen as precursors. But I can’t say I remember her in any ‘Carry Ons’.

        1. She was in Cabby, Cruising, Regardless and Constable. Not many know that she was Australian.

  4. Some very easy definitions today made for a lot of quick entries, especially when, working top to bottom, one or two crossing letters gave direction.

  5. 13:13
    Lucky 13 – second fastest ever time for me, so definitely easy in my view. I thought RIMINI sounded more likely than LIPINI, but had fingers crossed for the submission.

    I vaguely remembered that “crocodilian” could be the animal, not just an adjective. As Jack intimates, it’s the name for any specimen in the order Crocodilia, which includes crocodiles and alligators (and the gharial – apparently – that I’ve either forgotten or never heard of).

      1. Was prompted to have a closer look at the SNITCH website today. Still in awe of it.

        Looking at the “Top Ten Results” that are displayed for the reference solvers, I notice that my four “fastest” are all bogus. Not deliberate attempts to cheat of course, they all seem to relate to problems with the on-line crossword (back in 2017) and retrospective grid-filling. The rest I believe are legit.

        Is it possible to have the offending results stricken from the Hansard? (And now I have a nagging memory that I may have asked this question before, in which case please ignore).

        1. My fastest time on the SNITCH is for a concise crossword. It would be interesting to know why the SNITCH picked this puzzle up.

          1. Yeah that’s weird.

            As an aside, I’ve started doing the Concise recently and I’m hopeless at it.

            1. I do the concise from time to time and my performance varies wildly. Sometimes I do it in about 2 minutes, sometimes it takes me longer than the cryptic, quite often I just fail.

        2. Thanks, Galspray, I cannot remove them immediately but will work on a solution.

          2. I am in a similar position – used to complete on paper on the train and fill in online later, so for me, anything before say, the end of 2019 is bogus.

  6. 7:00, probably the last 30 seconds or so trying to piece together CROCODILIAN. I liked the clue for ANALYST.

  7. Similar to others, either my best or second-best time, can’t remember. And no ditches to die in today.

    As Paul says, once you were on a roll the checkers led quickly to a probable answer, just needed a quick confirmation from the clue.

    Thanks gentle setter and Jack.

  8. Completed. 61:23. Which is 1.11 Snitches. Outside my target.

    LOI BESMEAR. I think the definition is “blacken name”, with just “woman” needed for ESME. Esme Young is on the BBC reality series The Great British Sewing Bee. She must be at least 70, so your theory holds. Although names like Ava, Daisy, Grace are all making comebacks.

    I think there is a dog food called Sugarfoot. Top Cat was renamed Boss Cat by the BBC for a similar reason.

    NHO Cade, or his revolution. They don’t teach us stuff like that at school, too subversive.

    With an empty grid, GREENHORN and SOPHOMORE looked good for US Novice.

    Thought MAGNETIC HEATH might be a thing.

    COD ADHERENT

    1. Thanks. I think my parsing of BESMEAR works too, but yours is probably what the setter had in mind so I have amended the blog. You may also be right about the dog food, but I am more doubtful about that one. I never heard of SugarFoot as a pet food but I checked their history on their website and they say they began over 50 years ago. They’d have to have been well -established in 1960 for there to have been a clash with the brand name when the TV Western was first broadcast in the UK.

    2. Not far from my house there is a dell named Cade’s Hole, where he is said to have sheltered while on the run after his abortive rebellion…

    3. Jack Cade in one of Shakespeares history/Henry plays says “Let’s kill all the lawyers”.

    4. I too spent time looking for a ‘magnetic heath’ Merlin, until I remembered another PM called North… . Apart from that my time was well within my ‘boundaries’ at about 30 mins; but was defeated by RIMINI (NHO).

  9. 18 minutes. Semi-bunged in CROCODILIAN so didn’t notice the def called for a noun rather than an adjective. ELISION was only half-known and I’ve never seen BESMEAR before.

    I suppose it depends on how broad the definition of research is, specifically academic v non-academic, but I wouldn’t regard an ANALYST and a ‘Researcher’ as the same thing. A researcher will usually undertake analysis as part of their work, but an analyst isn’t necessarily involved in research; they might just be analysing the last two years’ Dapto Dogs results for example.

    Thank to setter and Jack – and congrats on your PB.

    1. Now I’ve got that Gunston/Dusty earworm:
      I’ve been to Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong,
      Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong,
      Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong,
      Wollongong, Wollongong, Dapto.
      On the doggy side: Box one statistically the most successful, box 8 the least. Everywhere, not just Dapto – box 8 the hardest to win from. My pet greyhound raced as Mottza, won from box 8 ten times. This might or might not be an Australian record.

      1. “Stand tall, straight and strong, hold your nose in Wollongong”. Norman was great.

        1. Hardly a legend – never qualified for a Group 1 race – but he paid for his board and kibble, and a bit left over for his owner.

  10. DNF. A puzzle with a SNITCH of 54 was a CURSE for me, as in my haste that was what I put in instead of CARVE. “Cut up roast initially” was good for CUR, and from there I thought a CURSE vaguely akin to a word of warning and that was me done for. And I wasn’t even within my 10 fastest times anyway. Rats!

  11. Straightforward but none the worse for that. Ended up, surprisingly, on KETCHUP and POOL. Like Kevin I don’t think of ketchup as spicy, even though it has spices in it, so with the K in place I was half-suspecting kimchi or something, left it and came back to it at the end. A slight geographic feel to it – Delaware, Moldova, Rimini, Vienna.
    WOD humdinger.

  12. Law is God, say some; no God at all, says the fool,
    For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a Pool
    (Tennyson. The Higher Pantheism)

    20 leisurely mins during brekker. Very gentle.
    Ta setter and J.

  13. 31 mins held up in the NE. Not sure why. Now I realise I have bunged in CARRÉ (R in CARE, as in « take care » )= cut, so a DNF.

    DNK ELISION but followed the cryptic once I had figured out CROCODILIAN.

    I liked CAMBRIDGE BLUE especially having just watched the Boat Race this weekend, and lost my bet with Mrs R. Grrrr.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

  14. I cannot solve them any faster than this. No complaints. Occasionally it is good not to struggle.

  15. 14 minutes, and I had a sluggish start. COD to MAGNETIC NORTH, even if the field wasn’t strong enough to hold America. I enjoyed the puzzle but the gloss is taken off if everybody else gets a good score too. Thank you Jack and setter.

  16. Must be my fastest though that’s still around 30 mins. Spent some time thinking “alluring old pm” was an anagram before I got some checkers and nho elision so had to work it out. Enjoyed crocodiles though not confident in putting in right away. Thanks setter for improving my times and blogger too.

  17. Yes, v quick today.
    My wife makes spicy tomato ketchup. Never come across spicy ketchup anywhere else in England …

  18. About 15 minutes. Like Kevin, in 17a I thought ‘eccentric’ was an anagrind (for ‘newlywed glum’ containing a musical key) until I got the C from ACADEMIA, remembered from last week that a cam is an eccentric, and pieced the rest of it together. Hadn’t heard of TENDERFOOT, but the cluing was generous.

    Straightforward otherwise. Thanks setter and blogger.

    FOI Sir
    LOI Pool
    COD Vienna

    1. Pythagoras’s theorem (to take just one example) is usually stated as a formula.

        1. The ‘maybe’ is arguably essential, since it indicates a definition by example. A formula in geometry being one possible example of a THEOREM.

      2. No it isn’t! There can be formula as part of the theorem, but the proper statement of the theorem involves much more, not least a reference to a right-angled triangle.

        1. Of course there’s stuff you need to know to interpret it, but within that context the formula is a statement of the theorem. Seems fine to me. This is a crossword not a maths exam!

        2. Chambers Thesaurus gives (for ‘theorem’):
          “ formula, principle, rule, statement, deduction, proposition
          formal dictum, postulate, hypothesis”
          For a crossword clue this is surely acceptable.

  20. 20 mins for a probably PB. A wonderful experience for a 15×15 solve to just keep on rolling along without the usual blocks. Wasn’t entirely sure of the parsing for ACADEMIA but it was a write in. Dnk ELISION but it had to be. Thanks for the blog.

  21. 8:17. Well I didn’t find that particularly easy. Not terribly difficult, but about double my PB.
    In our household, if KETCHUP is spicy it’s Sriracha.
    There was at least one ESME in at least one of my kids’ classes.

  22. “Kismet, Hardy”, or “Kiss me”? I’ve always preferred to believe the latter. Revisionist historians ruin everything.

    Pretty easy, and would have been sub 10 minutes but for VIENNA. It obv ended in ‘NNA’, but still I couldn’t for the life of me see it until RIMINI fell into place.

    1. I have it on reliable authority from descendants of a sailor onboard at the relevant time that Nelson and Hardy were discussing possible locations for a time-share condo in Florida they were to purchase after the war ended. “Kissimmee? Hardly!” was Nelson’s dismissive rejoinder to one suggestion.

      1. Others still have imagined hearing a valedictory religious message, I believe: “Krishna, Hari”.

  23. New PB for me, too, and it’s not Monday ! 8 minutes of non stop entering and nothing much else to say.

  24. I appreciate that this was an easy one but still really happy with a PB of 5:22 today especially after a disappointing typo yesterday.

    Thanks J and setter

  25. I thought I was doing quite well at 29 minutes until seeing the SNITCH and some of the times and saw the truth of it. Nothing really held me up, but I had the M and was trying to involve Macmillan as the old PM (what is old?). No problem with RIMINI, which always reminds me of Fletch’s daughter in Porridge talking of ‘Ri-meany’. I wouldn’t be surprised if Esme became popular again one day. When I was a boy Emily and Hannah were considered to be very out-of-date.

  27. Nice and easy does it. 12.10 for this pleasant stroll. Good for the self-esteem to have one like this sometimes!

  28. 15 mins. Had to come here to understand CROCODILIAN because it sounded like an adjective. Completely missed the anagram
    Otherwise, not a curates egg in sight.

  29. Almost exactly 30 mins for me, easily timed as I started it when my train departed at 10am. I think close to a PB and a good reason to come out of lurking and post.

    Like Merlin, the Esme I know is from Sewing Bee.

    Thanks to Jack and setter.

  30. Entered more-or-less in order, with barely a hold-up until CROCODILIAN, which foxed me, as I hadn’t realised it was a noun as well as an adjective, so couldn’t account for the ‘reptile’. Then my POI ANALYST was held up by a carelessly bifd ACADEMIC – once that was corrected, all was clear. I couldn’t initially remember the bit after TENDER… but the T eventually brought it to mind.
    With regard to Esme, I can confirm that the name, like many of the Victorian girls’ names, is in common use nowadays, certainly in the school where I work, whereas many of the names common in my childhood have largely fallen out of use. We have Ottillie, Agnes, Sophia etc but no Jane, Caroline, Susan or Jacqueline. Having said that, it’s a fee-paying school, so there are precious few Jades or Britneys either.

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