Times Cryptic No 26952 – Saturday, 03 February 2018. Normal service has now resumed.

branch10th February 2018 at 11:00 AMWeekend Cryptic

After the mystery clues of the previous Saturday, this was a straightforward solve. I took a wild stab at the botany clue, and took the setter at his word for the geography clue, but everything else was within my ken. I sidetracked myself for a while with an unjustified (and wrong!) guess at 21ac, but the rest was smooth sailing. Around 30 minutes on the clock I would say.

My clue of the day is 16dn. I will forevermore see that word with the fruit inside! 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 Time to run demo and finish out of sequence (6,9)
FOURTH DIMENSION: (TO RUN DEMO FINISH*). To physicists, three dimensions of space and one dimension of time make up the four-dimensional space-time continuum. Let’s agree to ignore string theory and its hypotheses of extra dimensions too small to see!
9 Most ancient item, left to the front as focus of interest (9)
LODESTONE: the OLDEST ONE is the most ancient item. Move the “L” to the front.
10 Romeo lives with woman in palace: it’s a step up (5)
RISER: R for Romeo, IS (lives), ER (woman in palace).
11 It makes one sick, withdrawing article in city (6)
EMETIC: EC(1) is the postcode for the City of London. Insert ITEM backwards.
12 Sponsor about to secure one plant (8)
ANGELICA: your sponsor is an ANGEL, I for one, CA for about.
13 Fellow rambler returning after time (6)
TREVOR: T for time, then ROVER “returning”.
15 Grow roughly fifty for the first time in grounds (8)
ESCALATE: start with ESTATE (grounds), and replace the first T by CA (roughly) L (fifly).
18 Cut police launches here (8)
DOCKYARD: DOCK (cut), {Scotland} YARD (police).
19 The way papers burn (6)
STREAM: ST (street / way), REAM (lots of paper). Nice to put the definition alongside paper, so it’s hard to see the intended meaning. Good work, setter!
21 Insubstantial odd slices of veal with holes (8)
VAPOROUS: VA (the odd letters of VeAl), then POROUS (with holes). I guessed ETHEREAL, which was a hindrance not a help!
23 Notice surrounding layout of hedges, staggered (6)
AMAZED: MAZE inside AD.
26 Telling stories mostly in Greek houses (5)
LYING: hidden answer, indicated by “houses”.
27 Flexible items for test carried back by porter (9)
ADAPTABLE: You need BAT and PAD for the cricket test. Put them backwards inside ALE.
28 Dash for one, scrambling up mountain track (11,4)
PUNCTUATION MARK: (UP MOUNTAIN TRACK*).

Down
1 Choirboy maybe briefly gets up after Fiona and Hazel (7)
FILBERT: FI (Fiona), then TREBL{e}, (the choirboy), backwards (up). Had no idea filbert means hazel(nut), but it looked like a word that fitted the helpers.
2 Excessive burns doused periodically (5)
UNDUE: alternate letters of b U r N s D o U s E d.
3 The setter’s on for blocking grumpy evidence (9)
TESTIMONY: TESTY (grumpy), blocked by I’M (the setter’s) ON.
4 Fate of party, a short time after upset (4)
DOOM: DO (party), MO (short time) backwards (upset).
5 Humble state keen to be represented in pickle (8)
MEEKNESS: (KEEN*) inside MESS (pickle).
6 Minister to fly over home counties (5)
NURSE: RUN (fly) backwards (over), then SE (home counties).
7 Found popular part of US to house retired soldier (9)
INSTIGATE: IN (popular), STATE (part of US) around IG (GI retired).
8 Tell island about the missing hotel (7)
NARRATE: ARRAN (island) backwards (about), then T{h}E (dropping “hotel” from “the”).
14 Freak, not counting overs in nets (9)
EXCEPTION: EXCEPT (not counting), then O (overs) netted by IN. “Freak” is perhaps a bit stronger than “exception”, but they have a similar flavour.
16 Superior fruit eaten by an android (9)
AUTOMATON: U (superior) TOMATO (fruit), inside (eaten by) AN.
17 Talked of steep ditch causing furore (8)
BROUHAHA: BROU sounds like “brew”, a HAHA is a ditch with a concealed wall.
18 Expand day cover, avoiding November (7)
DEVELOP: D (day), E{n}VELOP missing N for November.
20 Wed perhaps feeble, overthrown, undersized king (7)
MIDWEEK: DIM backwards (overthrown), WEE (undersized), K (king).
22 Republican battle lacking leader that’s fair (5)
RIGHT: R (Republican), {f}IGHT.
24 Head of zoo takes age caging black animal (5)
ZEBRA: Z{oo}, ERA (age) around B (black).
25 West African nation, or part of E African one (4)
MALI: MALI in the west, {so}MALI{a} in the east.

30 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26952 – Saturday, 03 February 2018. Normal service has now resumed.”

special_bitter says:

10 February 2018 at 12:56 AM

DNF. Bah! Managed to make up “alastable” at 27ac. I think I sort of half saw 50 (L) BATS in there (even though that doesn’t really work) and it sounded like it might be a word that meant elasticky. I must try and pay more attention!
kevingregg says:

10 February 2018 at 1:02 AM

Pretty straightforward, although I wasted some time taking ‘superior’ to be the def in 16d, and thinking of the wrong dash at 28ac and flinging in RACE. Biffed 1ac from the two Ns and the def, and 5d fro M_E, only parsing post hoc. 25d something of a gimme; it’s either Mali or Togo, and it’s not Togo. At the least, the clue could have read ‘African nation or part of another’. COD to AUTOMATON; also liked 15ac, although the surface wasn’t the greatest.

Edited at 2018-02-10 05:03 am (UTC)
john_dun says:

10 February 2018 at 1:05 AM

Totally screwed this one up by submitting with a letter missing at 21a. VAPOROU. Arrgghh! I typed VAPOROUS, but obviously didn’t hit the S key hard enough. Only took 26:22 as well. I saw it just as I hit the second submit tab. Enjoyed the puzzle apart from that. Thanks setter and Bruce.
vinyl1 says:

10 February 2018 at 3:29 AM

Time was 50 minutes, all correct and understood, pretty easy for a Saturday.

For those who didn’t see it, there is a reply from the editor in last week’s blog, which I will refrain from commenting on.
1. jackkt says:
  
  10 February 2018 at 7:48 AM
  
  Thanks for pointing that out as I had missed it.
  
  What RR says about the BLOOD DONOR clue makes perfect sense to me and I believe my original thoughts whilst solving were exactly along those lines but somehow I lost track of the logic when the discussion started.
  
  But the comment on INTERMEZZOS opens up a whole can of worms so that we might expect anything in the future. Today, for example, at 25dn we have an indirect hidden answer, something I don’t recall seeing before. We’re used to knocking off a letter at the beginning of a word to be deduced, or at its end, or even one at each end if suitably indicated, but not randomly two at one end and one at the other!
  
  Edited at 2018-02-10 07:51 am (UTC)
  1. JerryW says:
    
    10 February 2018 at 9:10 AM
    
    Um, neither today’s cryptic or jumbo have a 25dn Jack.. and 25ac is (spoiler alert!) a simple anagram
    
    Edited at 2018-02-10 09:12 am (UTC)
    1. brnchn says:
      
      10 February 2018 at 9:13 AM
      
      I suspect the ref is to 25dn in this blog, Mali.
      1. JerryW says:
        
        10 February 2018 at 9:17 AM
        
        Ah, so it does.. I got confused by Keriothe’s reference to a different today. The Mali clue is technically accurate, which is all that I care about personally. Since I don’t carry any of these “unwritten rules” in my head, their presence or absence doesn’t bother me
2. keriothe says:
  
  10 February 2018 at 8:31 AM
  
  I’m baffled by RR’s comments on last week’s puzzle, I must say.
  If ‘what one would give’ is blood, the answer to 25ac can only be BLOOD. I can’t see any logical way the clue leads to the answer.
  And his response on 27ac seems very unsatisfactory: if some of the letters in a word are inconvenient, just ignore them in the wordplay.
  Strange.
  
  Edited at 2018-02-10 08:33 am (UTC)
  1. keriothe says:
    
    10 February 2018 at 3:06 PM
    
    Sorry to keep harping on about a clue from a different puzzle, but I think I finally see how the BLOOD DONOR clue works now. You can read ‘one’ as ‘one of these’ and ‘to be’ as ‘is to be’, or ‘will be’: ‘What [one of these] would give [will be] involved in the group matches!’
    No doubt this was completely obvious to everyone else but it was bothering me!
    1. brnchn says:
      
      11 February 2018 at 12:57 AM
      
      I did add that or thereabouts to the blog, but I don’t know how robust that interpretation is.
      1. keriothe says:
        
        11 February 2018 at 10:20 AM
        
        I may have missed something but I don’t think this is the same interpretation. In the blog you referred to z8’s suggestion that you have to think of ‘what one’ as ‘who’, so that ‘what one would give’ is a reference to the donor. But RR specifically says it’s a reference to the blood. So rather than ‘who would give blood’ I think the underlying form of the clue is ‘what this person would give is blood’.
        
        brnchn says:
        
        12 February 2018 at 4:05 AM
        
        Ok … you’re right. They are different interpretations. Since I still don’t really see it, I think it’s time to quit while I’m behind!
3. hydrochoos says:
  
  10 February 2018 at 4:12 PM
  
  What a wise decision (refraining).
4. brnchn says:
  
  10 February 2018 at 9:55 PM
  
  Well on reflection I have two comments.
  
  I still don’t understand the BLOOD DONOR clue, so if it only works one way, I’d like to know what that way is!
  
  And if not clueing part of the answer as in INTERM(EZZO) is a normal practice, can anyone point me to past examples?
keriothe says:

10 February 2018 at 8:32 AM

13m for this, no problems. Very much unlike this week’s, which I gave up on. Life’s too short.
JerryW says:

10 February 2018 at 9:02 AM

Seriously, K? A 10 minute jobby .. leave it a while maybe, & have another look
1. brnchn says:
  
  10 February 2018 at 9:08 AM
  
  I also found this week hard to get into, but not so bad once I got a toehold.
2. keriothe says:
  
  10 February 2018 at 9:09 AM
  
  Seriously. The long down clue sets the tone and I just can’t be bothered with that sort of thing.
  
  Edited at 2018-02-10 09:09 am (UTC)
  1. jackkt says:
    
    10 February 2018 at 11:00 AM
    
    I know we’re not supposed to play “Guess the Setter” here but I’d place bets on who set today’s puzzle.
    1. keriothe says:
      
      10 February 2018 at 11:31 AM
      
      I don’t see the problem with trying to guess the setter: the guesses are almost always wrong! Having said that, I think I’m thinking what you’re thinking.
      1. jackkt says:
        
        10 February 2018 at 11:54 AM
        
        I agree no harm, but it’s in the TftT rules from PB’s day.
boltonwanderer says:

10 February 2018 at 9:47 AM

No problems on this, finished in just over the half-hoir. LOI ADAPTABLE, COD FOURTH DIMENSION. Knew the nut courtesy of Leicester City’s old ground. I’m a bit late posting today and I’ve noticed one or two hints as to today’s puzzle, which I haven’t looked at yet. I know there are problems in deferring gratification when you’re as old as I am because you’re scared you might not be around by next week, but as a general policy it works better. I thought the INTERMEZZO explanation would be as given, but I’m still scratching my head on BLOOD DONOR. Thank you B and setter.
sawbill says:

10 February 2018 at 11:23 AM

BLOOD DONOR, INTERMEZZO, AGNES and, now, today’s 11a. What is the world coming to? And N and S Koreans playing football during a Christmas truce.
Off tomorrow to the Maldives to escape it all ….. oh, damn, really?
horryd says:

10 February 2018 at 11:38 AM

@ 1dn is long gone butb the blues are having a feisty season – can they do City!? Power to the King!

No time for this so it must have been over 35 mins.

FOI 2d UNDUE

LOI 18ac DOCKYARD as I had 18dn as ENVELOP and not DEVELOP!

COD 22dn RIGHT

WOD 25dn MALI no problems with the clue! All is fair in love and war as they say in SOMALIA.
hydrochoos says:

10 February 2018 at 4:09 PM

50 minutes, but a nice puzzle with no unfair clues. LOI ADAPTABLE, just escaping ALASTABLE or AVASTABLE or whatever. My favourite clue was the one for STREAM with the well disguised “burn”.
davidivad1 says:

10 February 2018 at 8:39 PM

Have spent most of the day in Brentford for the Preston North End game. It was not a game for the purist or the uncommitted but I doubt there were many of those in the 9,000 crowd. I did spend some time in the pub beforehand on today’s puzzle -which looks hard.
As for 26,952, I enjoyed it but realised early on it would probably come down to the plant. It did and I couldn’t get it. Nothing wrong with the clue. Adaptable and Mali unparsed but an enjoyable outing even for the neutral. David
Anonymous says:

10 February 2018 at 8:40 PM

LOI ADAPTABLE but could not parse it,thanks blogger for doing so.The anag for PUNCTUATOIN MARK brilliant,l must add.
Ong’ara,
Nairobi.
astonvilla1 says:

11 February 2018 at 1:16 AM

25 min 45 secs with one wrong. Deckyard for Dockyard. Aarggh!
gothick_matt says:

11 February 2018 at 4:34 PM

I did the weekend puzzles using the web interface last week, so I don’t have much in the way of paper notes to work from. However, I know I managed this in 34 minutes and 17 seconds—more accuracy than I’d normally record!—and like 8d and 15a.

Glad to find there weren’t any bits of words missing their wordplay; it was basically just luck that I remembered INTERMEZZO from earlier puzzles last week, otherwise I’d’ve been literally clueless, not being very musical…

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