Times Cryptic No 26886 – Saturday, 18 November 2017. It’s an Enigma.

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A bit harder than last week I thought, and more exotica, but I got there without ever being driven to desperation.

There were lots of clues I liked, but my clue of the day is 7dn for the reference to the mathematician! The change of vowel sound between wordplay and answer made 2dn hard to see for me, even when I had all the pieces in front of me. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Clues are in blue, with definitions underlined. Anagram indicators are in bold italics. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, followed by the wordplay. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’, deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 Legendary wizard acted as guide (6)
FABLED: FAB=wizard (both expressions somewhat dared I suspect) / LED.
4 Nice way of saying that cap restricts inheritance (7)
BEQUEST: take “QUE”=“that” in Nice, or any other part of France; insert inside BEST.
9 Left needing wash after breakfast, perhaps, sluggish (5)
LEGGY: L for left, EGGY=a face that needs a wash after breakfast. I found it hard to believe the answer meant “sluggish”, but there it is in Collins.
10 Listened, with answer to follow fast approaching? (4,2,3)
LENT AN EAR: LENT is the fast, A for answer, NEAR for approaching.
11 See nursing film — by hospital department, obviously (9)
EVIDENTLY: ELY is the cathedral town in Cambridgeshire, VID apparently means film these days, and ENT is the usual hospital department. Assemble as instructed.
12 Pensioner: a kind, withdrawn, accommodating woman (5)
KAREN: reverse hidden answer, indicated by “withdrawn, accommodating”.
13 State such food should not be eaten in (2,2)
TO GO: TOGO is the state in West Africa. If it weren’t for the enumeration difference this would be a double definition.
14 Thus desires to accept blame for being bad loser? (4,6)
SOUR GRAPES: SO URGES “accepts” RAP.
18 Put flat for sale that’s initially given valuation (10)
PROSTRATED: I guess all PROs (professionals) offer services for sale, and to RATE something is to value it. Put the first letter of T{hat} between the two. On edit, thanks to Isla3 et al: a better parsing is PRO=for, S{ale} T{hat’s} give S T as initial letters, and then RATED.
20 Dark fiend off and on getting close? (4)
AKIN: alternate letters of the first two words of the clue.
23 Ruling dripping with mendacity at heart (5)
FATWA: FAT / A={mend}A{city}.
24 Eat: start on tongue (6,3)
POLISH OFF: Polish is the tongue, OFF is the start (of a horse race for example).
25 Things are getting animated in The Bull, perhaps (5,4)
EARTH SIGN: (THINGS ARE*). Apparently the signs of the zodiac fall into four groups: earth, fire, water and air. The earth signs are Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo. Good to know!
26 Final stage of publication covered by satellite (5)
IMAGO: MAG inside IO. The final stage of an insect’s development.
27 Stray ad appearing originally in the Sun (7)
DAYSTAR: (STRAY AD*).
28 Took constitutional risk, heading off Democrat (6)
AMBLED: {g}AMBLE / D.

Down
1 One rasping advice: about time to find less harmful fag? (6,3)
FILTER TIP: FILER is the rasping thing / TIP is advice. Insert T for time. Apparently “filter tips are less harmful” is another tobacco industry lie, like “there is no proven link between smoking and lung cancer”. https://nysmokefree.com/Subpage.aspx?P=40&P1=4060

2 Trouble Heather’s got making the last post? (7)
BUGLING: to BUG is to trouble, LING is heather.
3 This palace would need piano for Yankee and son to make record (6)
ELYSEE: if you replaced the Y and the S in the answer with a P, you would get ELPEE, phonetic spelling of LP.
4 Give and receive stick (5)
BANDY: to bandy about is to give and take; apparently a bandy is also some sort of club.  So the whole thing is a double definition.
5 Doubt about Wapping journalist’s bad treatment? (8)
QUACKERY: in the East End of London where they reputedly drop their aitches, a journo might well be an ‘ACK. Put him or her inside QUERY.
6 Medicine and tablet you stop using? (3,4)
EYE DROP: E=tablet / YE / DROP=stop using.
7 Base for car makers — but not for mathematician (5)
TURIN: Turin{g} is the famous mathematician who helped the Allies win World War II by cracking German codes. TURIN is the home of Fiat et al.
8 No shortage of fabulous help with rota (8)
PLETHORA: (HELP ROTA).
15 Wine and last of beer that is had with spirit drink (8)
RIESLING: {bee}R / I.E. / SLING.
16 Did arias, maybe, getting rid of alternative being composed in conservatoire? (9)
SANGFROID: SANG / (RID OF*). “In conservatoire” is to suggest we are in France, hence showing sang-froid (literally, cold blood, and with or without a hyphen depending on your dictionary) is to be composed. I was reminded of a bad joke about the Englishman, the Frenchman, and savoir faire, but I’ll leave it to Olivia to give us the promised joke about sang-froid.
17 Boater getting pardon after craft’s capsized (5,3)
STRAW HAT: ARTS or crafts upside down / WHAT=I beg your pardon.
19 Best attempting maybe to hide article in office receptacle (3-4)
OUT-TRAY: OUT-TRY might be an attempt to best others. Insert the article “A”.
21 One unlikely to pass legislation on filling empty landmark up (4-3)
KNOW-ALL: an empty L{andmar}K gives LK. Insert LAW ON, and then turn it all upside down. The definition refers to the person who (thinks they) know all the answers in a quiz, and so never passes a question.
22 Metal rings act, traditionally, as protection for one (6)
OSMIUM: O’S are rings / MUM is a traditional form of acting. Insert I for one. If only I’d known OSMIUM is a metal, this would have been easier.
23 Stag party, maybe, upset by female on the loose (5)
FREED: I’m not quite sure I can tell you why a DEER is a “stag party”, but the rest speaks for itself. On edit, thanks to Isla3: DEER is a plural noun, for a party of stags maybe.
24 Leader of House, one asking too much of Speaker (5)
PRIOR: sounds like PRIER. I didn’t know what sorts of houses Priors might lead, but thanks to Chambers I can tell you it might be a house of “canons regular”! On edit, jackkt points out the beautiful coincidence that this could also refer to the late Jim Prior who was Leader of the House (of Commons) during the Heath administration 1972-1974. It probably doesn’t, because not many people could be expected to remember that if they ever knew in the first place, but it’s a nice thought considering the political overtones of the surface. 

44 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26886 – Saturday, 18 November 2017. It’s an Enigma.”

  1. 24ac could also refer to the late Jim Prior who was Leader of the House (of Commons) during the Heath administration 1972-1974. It probably doesn’t, because not many people could be expected to remember that if they ever knew in the first place, but it’s a nice thought considering the political overtones of the surface.

    This puzzle was an absolute beast to solve and I failed to complete it over several sessions over several days without eventually resorting to aids. I quite enjoyed being tested though, in a sort of masochistic way! Hoping for easier pickings today.

    Edited at 2017-11-25 12:26 am (UTC)

  2. But two wrong: LOLLY and BILLING. Kind of figured they might be wrong at the time, but nothing else seemed to fit. Certainly not leggy, which is not only obscure, but also completely counter-intuitive. Stupid bloody English

    Rest of the crossword was OK I suppose

  3. Indeed tricky, not least with a few unnecessary words in the clues. But tough in a good way – enjoyed the slightly unusual but otherwise accurate clueing, and got there in a reasonable time. Helped by knowing leggy – applied to sportsmen who’ve played too much recently and can hardly run. Only a few unknowns – Earth Sign, and Wapping being East London – though I vaguely remember making the same claim a few months ago. Liked “things are”, Turin/g, last post (which should be capitalised?), bequest, fatwa, straw hat.
    I parsed PROSTRATED with “for” giving PRO, and “sale that’s initially” giving the S & T. And I think the party is a group of deer, rather than deer drinking and carousing. Definitely an unsettling, extraneous word solely to improve the surface. Conservatoire, for me, was also extraneous and unsettling – why do you need to be there to display sangfroid? And unlike Nice which is only in France, a conservatoire might well be in Wapping where they speak Henglish.
    1. Whilst there’s no shortage on-line of references to “The Last Post”, with Wikipedia foremost amongst them, all the usual dictionary sources have “last post” without capitals. This one is in Chambers: the last post noun, military 1 the final bugle call of a series denotes that it is time to retire at night. 2 the farewell bugle call at military funerals.

      For what it’s worth Wapping in the Docklands district of London is where The Times is printed, and terms such as “Fortress Wapping” and “Battle of Wapping” entered the language during the violent industrial dispute that arose when they introduced modern technology that led to the redundancy of many hot metal workers.

      Edited at 2017-11-25 07:56 am (UTC)

      1. Cheers. I’d always assumed the last post was the particular piece, rather than a non-specific piece played at a particular time. As for Wapping, the bitter fight as Murdoch overcame the unions was reported even down here in Australia. But not the location of Wapping, except for it being out in the sticks, not in Fleet Street.
  5. I’m sure this took me a long time; anyway, I went offline after a half-hour. Didn’t spot FILER, so wondered about ‘rasping’, never heard of LEGGY, but as Vinyl says. I took BANDY on faith. Had no idea what Wapping was doing in 5d, but. 16d took me ages simply because I’d have expected a hyphen. COD to 17d.
  6. Tricky, slow, all done in 2 sessions of about 40 minutes, with 4d unsolved; could not justify any option for B*N*Y.
  7. 34:25, with a significant portion of that puzzling over 4dn. I put in BANDY eventually, after considering just about every other possible combination of letters… and looking it up. A very poor clue IMO: what does it have to recommend it that justifies such double obscurity?

    Edited at 2017-11-25 05:35 pm (UTC)

  8. I managed 2 errors in this one, one unforced, the other BENDY after a lot of head scratching, on the understanding that a bendy stick has plenty of give and maybe also take. Obviously my fault for not knowing that a bandy is a stick, and the setter’s for not referencing a bullock cart (sic). We live and learn. And forget, sadly.
  9. A long but ultimately successful battle with this one. 55:40. I dithered between BENDY and BANDY, and LEGGY and LAGGY, but fortunately chose correctly. Hadn’t heard of EARTH SIGN, but what else could it be? I knew OSMIUM as a metal, but if I’d known MUM was a form of acting it would’ve been easier to justify. Liked QUACKERY. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  10. For me this was tough but mainly enjoyable.
    Leggy no problem as common in football these days; when “fresh legs” are needed.
    I was glad I read this blog last Saturday as the newspaper had 4,1,4 for 10a which would have stumped me. Thanks again to BoltonWanderer for the heads up.
    My problems were in the SE – 24a 24d 21d 26a and 28a (where Braved was pencilled in and once there was hard to dislodge).The key was eventually getting 24a and remembering Imago from a recent puzzle. I guessed Osmium and Prior (had no idea about the parsing but thought of Jim Prior). Finally it was back to 4d -Bendy or Bandy. I had to resort to aids to resolve that. Lots of time. David
  11. This took me over an hour. I got a bit stuck at the end having entered “annoy” at 4dn. Eventually getting “quackery” made me realise that 4ac had to be “bequest” and so “annoy” could not be right. With B-N-Y in place I did a quick run through of bandy, bendy, bindy, bondy and bundy and decided that it had to be bandy in the sense of to bandy words but struggled to see the clue as much more than a weak cryptic Def because I did not know that it was also an actual stick as opposed to just the verbal sort that you might give someone when bandying words. Liked 1ac, 4ac, 8dn and 16dn.
  12. About 1h25 here, with only a couple of question-marks in the margins: I never quite parsed 9a LEGGY, wondering where the Y was coming from, nor 6d EYE-DROP, wondering whether the tablet was some kind of play on iDrop, or something. D’oh. Still, at least I was right on both counts.

    FOI 1a FABLED, LOI 22d OSMIUM, though I did know it as a metal and vaguely recalled a bit of mummery going on in past puzzles.

    Glad my computer science background helped me out with the wordplay in both 2d and 7d.

  13. Crumbs. Jim Prior was my first thought; didn’t entertain the other option.
    Entered LAGGY (why??) so DNF 🙁
    Nice blog, thanks.
  14. In New York right now, having barreled in from Canada. I’ve no copy of my solution in front of me but I took about 50 minutes from memory, with BANDY the biggest struggle. We had a discussion in code last week about if SANGFROID was hyphenated and if it could be adjectival. I just bunged it in at the time. I mainly came on today to see Olivia’s joke. The only one I know sounds like yours, B, but I wouldn’t have the SANGFROID to tell that one. Thank you for the blog and also to the setter for a decent puzzle.
  15. Oh no – too much build-up. I should never have mentioned it. Ici l’Anglais avec son SANGFROID habituel. In a slim volume called Fractured French that my father kept in the downstairs loo this was translated to “here comes the Englishman with his usual b….y cold”. Yes I know. Good clue though. Difficult puzzle. 26.34
    2. Love it! and, as it happens, it’s b****y cold here for November compared to recent history.
  16. I must agree with K that 4d was a pretty ordinary clue. Liked LEGGY, though, which is a pretty common word in the sports world to describe someone who perhaps has played too many games in quick succession and is a bit lethargic. Enjoyed the challenge of the puzzle overall and got home in a decent time, as I recall.
  17. This was a complete DNF for me; indeed after three sessions I was less than half way and gave up. This is unusual these days so I must have been completely off the wavelength. Lets see what today brings.
  18. Have come to a halt after eight clues.
    So there must be at least two easy ones I missed! David
    1. You prompted me to toy with the idea of rating the clues. By my count there are 11 “easy”/”easyish”, 9 “hard”, and 8 “very hard”.

      I call them easy(ish) if you can look at the clue and see how it works, even if you then have to spend some time putting the pieces together.

      I’m not sure this will turn out to be a useful classification!!

      1. Interesting idea. I do love our data supremo colleague starstruck’s SNITCH, but I’m not sure how we could capture the data needed to do the equivalent at clue level. Even a keystroke log analysis wouldn’t be able to tell us what the solvee is thinking about. Indeed, I often find I read a clue, shrug and move on, and find later that my subconscious worries away at it and comes up with the answer while I am solving other clues. Best I can think of is to get a cohort of solvers to rate each clue… a sort of Same-day Numerical Indication of Times Clue Hardness. Oh dear… SNITCH as an acronym has been bagged already.
  19. This was quite tricky, I seem to remember, and finished in 40:10 from my records (ahem times-times spreadsheet, I confess). Nice observation from Jackkt about Jim Prior, but I suspect the intent was less devious – I thought immediately of, as wikipedia has it… “Prior, derived from the Latin for “earlier, first”, (or prioress for nuns) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior, usually lower in rank than an abbot or abbess. Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior.”, and I assumed the house to refer to a monastery or abbey.
  20. P.S. Thanks for the ongoing steadfast, reliable and enjoyable blog Brnchn. I hope that your regular solving of the prize crossword on our behalf gets rewarded by winning the £20… which I managed for the first time about a month ago.
  21. Thanks John. My pleasure! It’s fun and a good learning experience doing the blog.

    Well done with the prize too!

  22. I guess whatever was going on here was obvious to everyone else, but how does “Base…not for mathematician” indicate that the last letter of “Turing” is missing? Because it’s not just the base but most of the word, or what?
    1. I think the idea is to take the base (last letter) off Turing, to get Turin, the base for car making.
      1. Yeah, thanks, I see that, and the answer is fairly obvious (if you have the crossers and realize what famous person is involved), but the wordplay is somewhat elliptical and convoluted and, if I think about it too long, seems not to say what is meant.
  23. In my copy the number of letters at the end of the clue was printed as “(4,1,4)” rather than “(4,2,3)”. I looked for a correction next day but there was none.
    1. Yes, mine was (4,1,4)as well!! Completely threw me. Never got it as I only got one other answer in that corner.
  24. My note says ‘Very Hard’ but I got there in the end.

    FOI 24ac POLISH OFF

    COD 7dn TURIN especially as I worked at the Strada factory for a few weeks in 1979, in Turin.

    WOD 16dn SANGFROID

  25. Prior is still commonly used by RCs (like myself) to denote a head of a house of religious (vow-taking) clergy, as Redemptorists, as well as Canons Regular (Austin Canons, Premonstratensians et cetera) so history not needed. Needed mother for Jim Prior.
  27. I learnt that osmium is a metal in 1955. It was mentioned in the very first Guinness Book of Records as the densest metal.

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