Times Cryptic No 26904 – Saturday, 09 December 2017. Diamonds are forever.

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Times Cryptic No 26904 – Saturday, 09 December 2017. Diamonds are forever.

I struggled with this crossword at the end of a long hard week. Others may have found it easier. Lots of general knowledge here outside my everyday ambit … the playwright at 18dn and the fort at 23ac for two. I suppose I have to give clue of the day to 5ac, since I had such trouble with it!  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 Switch witless, regressive escape plan (8)
SCHEDULE: S{wit}CH (“wit”-less!!) / ELUDE backwards.
5 Ring opera company about Shakespearean role (6)
ENHALO: ENO (English National Orchestra) around HAL (Henry, the Shakespearean role). This was my last one in, not being familiar with the word “enhalo” or the ENO (although I think I’ve seen it previously in a crossword), and being convinced by the final “O” that I was looking for a Shakespearean character as the answer. Beaten comprehensively!
9 Ditch, a secure area for kind of root (8)
RUTABAGA: RUT=ditch / A / BAG=secure /A=area. It’s a root vegetable, known in my parts as a “Swede”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga
10 Storm warning around ancient city (6)
FURORE: FORE=warning to golfers in front, around UR.
12 Person who’s demanding to inspect fire training (13)
PERFECTIONIST: (TO INSPECT FIRE*).
15 Cautious line taken by US general (5)
LEERY: LEE=US general https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee / RY=railway (line).
16 Labourer, dressing badly, with yen for hats (9)
MILLINERY: MINER=labourer, around ILL=badly, plus Y=yen.
17 Unsatisfactory porcelain for activity in court (9)
BADMINTON: BAD / MINTON https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mintons .
19 Small drink’s drunk with unobtrusive sound (5)
SCHWA: S=small, CHA=drink around W=with. We’ve had “schwa” (the neutral vowel sound  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa ) in a recent puzzle.
20 Person jumping on kind of software browser? (6,7)
WINDOW SHOPPING: WINDOWS=software / HOPPER=person jumping.
22 A guy giving command for soldier (2,4)
AT EASE: or, split differently, A TEASE=annoy=guy.
23 Criminal drilling precious metal, a source of wealth (8)
GOLCONDA: CON inside GOLD, then A. Apparently the Golkonda Fort once held the Koh-i-Noor diamond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golkonda .
25 System satisfied stretcher bearer (6)
METHOD: MET = satisfied / HOD=stretcher bearer.
26 Restless Cockney striker screened by broadcaster (8)
SKITTERY: a Cockney {h}ITTER inside SKY broadcaster.

Down
1 Belt, suit and kit comes off here! (5,5)
STRIP CLUBS: STRIP=belt, CLUBS=a suit from a deck of cards.
2 Desirable accommodation the Spanish scrubbed (3)
HOT: HOT{el}.
3 Questionable nature of bishop that is in charge (7)
DUBIETY: B for bishop + I.E., all inside DUTY.
4 Making acceptable gaol? In time, it collapses (12)
LEGITIMATION: (GAOL IN TIME IT*).
6 Round Uist’s borders, catch island’s sea creatures (7)
NAUTILI: U{is}T inside NAIL=catch, then I for island.
7 Believer’s role is a help, off to secure job (11)
APOSTLESHIP: (IS A HELP*) around POST.
8 Sign suggesting an absence of people? (4)
OMEN: ZERO MEN, as the answer might suggest.
11 Register in store about good on-line traffic? (7,5)
ROLLING STOCK: ROLL=register / IN / STOCK,  around G for good.
13 Tender women carelessly giving another gift (2-9)
RE-ENDOWMENT: (TENDER WOMEN*).
14 Wow! Magical creature’s hugging boy in film (2,4,4)
MY FAIR LADY: MY / FAIRY, around LAD.
18 Topless dance captivates individual playwright (7)
IONESCO: ONE inside {d}ISCO. I think of a disco as the place, not the dance, but that is definitely not my special subject!
19 Touring currently, get lost in vehicle for winter (7)
SNOWCAT: SCAT=get lost, around NOW.
21 Month gets cold and damp, needing to turn up heat (4)
WARM: M / RAW, all “turned up” since this is a down clue.
24 Name tabs an indicator of first name? (3)
NEE: I couldn’t see how this worked while solving, so I just bunged it in. Now the penny’s dropped, it seems obvious: N for name, then two ecstasy tablets.

20 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26904 – Saturday, 09 December 2017. Diamonds are forever.”

  1. An hour flat, but I went for OPEN at 8d (no people along the lines of ‘is this seat open?’) which seemed close enough that I didn’t revisit it. I was pleased to work the unknown GOLCONDA out.
    Lots of nice clues, but I’ll step up and plump for the rakish s STRIP CLUBS as a favorite. Thanks for the blog.
  2. The last 7 minutes of that were spent on 5ac; like Bruce, I didn’t know the word–I didn’t even see it when I wrote it in, thinking maybe an enhalo was some kind of ring–and for some time took ‘Shakespearean role’ as the def. Finally saw HAL in ENO, but still couldn’t recognize the result. And like Bruce, I biffed NEE, and had to wait to see this blog to find out how it worked.
  3. DNF as 5ac was beyond my realm but I too would make it COD. Baffling simplicity – oxymoronically!

    FOI 2dn HOT

    WOD 23ac GOLCONDA from the diamond city in Hyderabad no less.
    I also enjoyed 26ac SKITTERY and 3dn DUBIETY.

    For 1dn I originally had STRIP JOINT as I assumed a singularity was sought, but soon learnt the error of my ways.

    Saturdays are a very good test presently.

  4. I enjoyed this, taking 65 minutes to get home. COD to ROLLING STOCK, the best form of online traffic. I don’t care too much for WINDOW SHOPPERs either online or in the street. DNK GOLCONDA, although it did sound vaguely familiar once constructed. Similarly for RUTABAGA, which maybe I did know. ENHALO deduced quickly, as I always try Hal first for a Shakespeare character. I must make a point of enhaloing somebody today. Thank you B and setter.
  5. This ended a recent run of fairly easy Saturdays, I thought, mainly because of some esoteric vocab. I didn’t know Golconda, but the wordplay was clear enough and it looked a plausible place.
    There are some interesting articles on Wikipedia about diamonds, some of the larger ones have a fascinating history. One is called the “26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.” .. guess where it was found.
  6. I was stretched ten minutes over my hour by the unknowns of GOLCONDA, IONESCO, ENHALO and the “hod” of METHOD, not knowing it as a stretcher-bearer. Or, upon further research, actually not knowing “stretcher” as a brick, which makes more sense…

    Still, all done and I do enjoy a puzzle with some unknowns I can construct from wordplay. FOI 1d STRIP CLUBS, LOI 25a METHOD, I think, though I probably spent longer on ENHALO, all told. It certainly got an exclamation mark in the margin, which makes it my COD. WOD SCHWA.

    Thanks to setter and blogger—I certainly needed the odd explanation here and there!

  7. I found this trickier than some with some words I hadn’t come across before, ENHALO, SKITTERY and GOLCONDA, but the wordplay was helpful. Can’t remember where I started or finished, but it took 38:39. Liked 1d. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  8. Tough one this. Most done in about 50 mins but simply could not see my LOI 5ac so put the puzzle away after an hour, returned to it later on and solved 5ac fairly shortly thereafter. Thanks to Matt above for clarifying the “stretcher” part of “stretcher-bearer” where I was also pondering it’s equivalence with “hod”. At 1ac it took me far too long to see an 8-letter word for plan beginning sch….At 16ac I spent too long thinking that the labourer was a miller and struggling to see how it parsed. Rutabaga and Golconda were half-knowns. Dubiety one of those words which I said in my head a couple of times to see if it felt like a real word but got no definite sense that it was or wasn’t coming back.
  9. Similar to others, although I spent much longer on it.
    Managed to work out the unknown Golconda and Rutabaga. I knew Ionesco which helped.
    I did not know Nautili ( I’m sure I had one of these on the golf course recently), nor Enhalo. Like our blogger I was looking for a second rank Shakespearean character including ENO which I did know. I remembered not getting Schwa last time and nailed it this time.
    Overall an enjoyable challenge and I was pleased to get so far. And I have just “finished” today’s (with a number of guesses) which ranks as one of my faster times. David
  10. This took me just over an hour. Stuck on 5a and 25a. But it was a great eureka moment when I saw HOD as “stretcher bearer”. I’d been looking for a type of chair. Never thought of bricks. And like others here I was expecting 5a to be the name of a Shakespeare character – there are so many ending in O. For me this was a difficult but satisfying solve. Ann
  11. I’ve been having a rash of typos lately (“clibs” in 1d, must try harder). No particular problems with this although like others I stared at ENHALO for a while. Knew RUTABAGA from a Sesame street song about veg when my children were small, and the supermarkets here seem to think they are the same as turnips which they aren’t, quite. 17.22
  12. I couldn’t parse the wordplay for NEE either.
    Fifteen or so years ago I named a piece of electronic music GOLCONDA. If you heard it, you might guess why.

    Edited at 2017-12-16 05:07 pm (UTC)

  13. DNF despite peeking once in a while over the week. I would never have thought of ENHALO (LONI) if I had thought for month, being completely tied up with IAGO. Luckily, today very different.
  14. Quite tricky this time round but a fun solve.COD SCHWA.Isnt ‘ring’ a verb in ‘to enhalo’?
    Ong’ara,
    Kenya.
  15. 23:29 with ENHALO my LOI too. I was pleased to remember SCHWA from the recent puzzle referred to as I never got it then. Count me in as another fan of ROLLING STOCK. Aha! Thanks to gothick_matt for explaining the hod.. I never knew “strecher” as brick either, so was somewhat mystified. Good puzzle, I thought… and good blog. Thanks blogger and setter!

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