Times Cryptic No 26898 – Saturday, 02 December 2017. A sunny spot in my day.

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Easier than last week I thought, and again with the admirable quality that one could write answers in with the confidence that yes, that must be it … although I had to look twice at 9dn (my LOI), and I had to look up 1ac, 18ac, 23ac, 9dn and 17dn before writing this blog!

My clue of the day (and, I suspect, Horryd’s word of the day!) is 17dn, with 26ac as runner-up. 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 US student to be inquisitive about revolutionary Oxford course (6)
PREPPY: PRY around PPE backwards (Philosophy, Politics and Economics – did Sir Humphrey Appleby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Appleby study PPE at Oxford? Sadly, it seems not!). I was surprised that “preppy” can be a noun, not just an adjective.
4 Meet to chat: that’s good for society (8)
CONVERGE: change the S to a G in CONVERSE.
10 Free university tuition at last? There’s a problem with that (7)
UNHITCH: U for university, N for tuition “at last”, then HITCH.
11 With show of diplomacy, regularly discuss strategy (7)
TACTICS: TACT, then every second letter of d I s C u S s.
12 Far from shiny English coin (4)
DIME: DIM, then E for English. The coin in question is of course not English.
13 Liz unsteadily carries a container with single dish (10)
ZABAGLIONE: A BAG inside (LIZ*), followed by ONE.
15 To keep going is hard after benefit cut (9)
PERSEVERE: PER{k}, then SEVERE.
16 Tony, perhaps, embarrassed having week away (5)
AWARD: take WK out of A{WK}WARD.
18 See dog without lead jump (5)
OLLIE: the dog is a Collie, the jump is done on a skateboard I discovered. “See” in the clue seems to just be padding for the surface of the clue.
19 Craftsman‘s moan: tenant has blocked off entrance (9)
CARPENTER: CARP, then {r}ENTER loses its R.
21 Display of emotion for Parisian during trip (10)
OUTPOURING: POUR (“for” in Paris), inside OUTING. The definition seems a bit loose to me – should it just be “display”? You have to say “outpouring of emotion” to mean “display of emotion”, I would  have thought.
23 Money illegally obtained from raffle proceeds sent back (4)
PELF: reversed hidden answer.
26 One travelling to historical city is needing extra time (7)
TOURIST: at first glance this looks like TOUR+IS+T, but (whoops) the city is TOURS, so I think that the idea is put “I” (aka the one travelling) inside TOURS, then add a T (extra time) at the end. So, where’s the definition? I think it’s a literal! Surely you all appreciate the value of spending more time to see all the attractions of the historic city? Well done, setter! On edit: a more plausible parsing is that the historical city is UR; TO + UR + IS + T (time), def ‘one travelling’. Thanks Kevin.
27 More bananas, look: old and terribly ripe (7)
LOOPIER: LO=look / O=old / (RIPE*).
28 A1 partially closed? Proceed round outer parts of capital (3,5)
TOP CLASS: TO=partly closed / PASS = proceed, around C{apita}L. Nicely understated definition.
29 Sorted out early part of play for broadcast (4,2)
SEEN TO: sounds like “scene two”.

Down
1 Beat poet? (5)
POUND: double definition. Ezra Pound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound.
2 Short-lived recording with Elgar’s 1st and Mahler transcription (9)
EPHEMERAL: EP=recording / (E MAHLER*).
3 Loaf and meat spread (4)
PATE: double definition, PATE=head, as in “bald pate”=”loaf” or PATÉ=liver spread.
5 Republican central to current problem causing scandal (7)
OUTRAGE: R inside OUTAGE. And a very nice allusion to current affairs!
6 Liverpudlian singer introduced by Virginia and Edward lacked confidence (10)
VACILLATED: VA=the Commonwealth of Virginia / CILLA = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilla_Black / TED.
7 Cash crop, you say? Not so (5)
RHINO: RHI=sounds like “rye”? NO=not so! And a nice nod to the homophone police!
8 Cockney boss heading off after packing gun (4,5)
EAST ENDER: STEN=gun, inside {L}EADER. How unusual – Cockney actually means what it says, not some cryptic wordplay element!
9 Most of the people in old Balkan land (6)
THRACE: TH=most of “th{e}” / RACE=people. I knew that Thrace was a place, but not that it was Balkan.
14 Ritual in church, one almoner organised (10)
CEREMONIAL: CE=church / (I ALMONER*).
15 Send attachment without content? Insert latest copy (9)
PHOTOSTAT: POST A{ttachmen}T, around HOT. Does anyone use photostats these days?
17 One wild cat endlessly confronts another in sunny spot (9)
ANTHELION: {p}ANTHE{r} + LION. A new word for me, but as it says, a sunny spot, on a cloud or fog bank, perhaps. I contemplated A / TIGE{R} / LION, but felt much happier when I thought of the panther! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthelion
19 Initially, congregation unanimously values members of clergy (7)
CURATES: C{ongregation} / U{nanimously} / RATES=values.
20 Bug scampered over wild animal standing up (6)
RANKLE: RAN / ELK backwards.
22 Strike that has union members protesting, initially (5)
THUMP: first letters!
24 N Dakota city: a long way to travel (5)
FARGO: a wonderful movie! The spin-off TV series, not as good.
25 Scourges regularly making you — (4)
SORE: odd letters of S c O u R g E s, giving what I guess is a literal definition.

18 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26898 – Saturday, 02 December 2017. A sunny spot in my day.”

  2. I think the historical city is UR; TO + UR + IS + T (time), def ‘one travelling’.
  3. Nice puzzle, 25 mins with the NE last to fall. OLLIE the only total unknown, waited for all 3 checkers. Perihelions, aphelions etc known, so the -HELION part was a write-in, and the panther leapt out. Knew Thrace as part of ancient Greece, and it still exists it seems – in the news yesterday with Erdogan visiting. Liked zabaglione, pelf for the word, and ephemeral.

    Edited at 2017-12-09 01:16 am (UTC)

  4. Fairly easy for a Saturday, although I didn’t know OLLIE or ANTHELION. It took two earlier cryptics, but this time I knew who Cilla was. 24d was something of a gimme, given the paucity of North Dakota cities one might know. I now notice that I never did parse 28ac and failed to parse 16ac, so thanks for the enlightenment.
  5. 9:26. Straightforward, it would seem, which probably explains why I can’t remember anything about it! This week’s caused me more trouble.
  6. 41:10 so nothing too difficult. Held up a while at 15ac and 15dn, the old-fashioned photostat just took a while to surface, as did the type of jump in 18ac. Apart from that dnk the word at 17dn but reasonably confident from the wordplay and from knowing Helios in Greek mythology and another -helion word perihelion.
  7. All correct in 41:47. Can’t remember much else as my results are wiped due to (ongoing) issues with the club site. I do remember constructing ANTHELION with the help of knowing aphelion and perihelion. New words PELF, OLLIE and PREPPY. ZABAGLIONE known only from crosswordland and easily constructed. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  8. 18.20 so quite easy for a Saturday. OLLIE unknown so needed a dictionary check but otherwise no problems and enjoyable.
  9. Thanks for the blog. It took me almost an hour and a half to plough through this one, but I got there eventually. Still not sure why TO = partly closed in 28a though?
  10. Have lost my copy of this but I found it enjoyable and easier than the previous one.
    There were a few novelties and difficulties: Anthelion was unknown and I was trying to shorten the lion and the panther-but I think I just about got there, my LOI.
    Pelf was completely unknown to me and then it turned up in the Sunday Sports section the next day -I think the game involving Spurs. The ultimate London bus having waited for decades. Did not know Pate as a loaf; and Ollie I thought had to be wrong but nothing else fitted. COD to 28a.
    Must have finished this on Saturday as I did the Sunday puzzle. David
    1. Sorry – I was too terse. Pate = head, as in “bald pate” = loaf. I’ve expanded the blog entry.
  11. The late arrival of Andre Grey indicated Silva was reluctant to take just one point even at the death, but Spurs’ 10 men always sensed pelf and in added time, shortly before the non-penalty, the battered Kane almost snuck the winner that neither team deserved to concede.
  12. An hour and five, with “fun!” being my scrawled note. FOI 2d EPHEMERAL, LOI 9d THRACE—I’ve never been good with answers where there’s no crosser for the first letter, so at least this grid wasn’t full of them like some.

    Apparently I also liked 17d ANTHELION. I didn’t know it specifically, but the wordplay worked for me, and I know enough words like “perihelion” and “aphelion” to be pretty sure I’d got it right.

    Nothing unparsed, and I knew 18a OLLIE, though that was from the few snowboarding holidays I’ve done rather than from a misspent skater-boyhood…

  13. @ 13ac are mainly known from San Lorenzo’s in Soho when puds were par for the courses! Fave! My WOD

    Not too bad for a Saturday as it only bothered me for 48 mins.

    FOI 27ac LOOPIER
    LOI 17dn ANTHELION which I DNK

    COD 1dn POUND!

    Edited at 2017-12-10 03:36 am (UTC)

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