Times Cryptic No 26964 – Saturday, 17 February 2018. No style points for the blogger.

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I did this in bits and pieces in the middle of other activities, so I can’t give a time or a difficulty rating. All I can say is it came together in the end.

My clue of the day was 15dn, because the definition fitted so nicely into the surface of the clue. In fact there were many nice surfaces in this puzzle! 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’. Here goes.

Across
1 Check activity of poet not having succeeded (12)
VERIFICATION: since a poet might do VER(s)IFICATION. It took me a while to see the definition here, because I was thinking “check” was wordplay, perhaps meaning the answer would start with REIN.
8 Vertebrate‘s mate in wild catching nothing (7)
AMNIOTE: (MATE IN*), including O (nothing). I’d heard of amniotic fluid, but this word was new and its definition a surprise. There have been complaints recently about obscure words clued as anagrams. Is AMNIOTE obscure enough to fall into that category?
9 It won’t actually cure rank odour (7)
PLACEBO: PLACE (rank), BO (body odour). Another nice surface.
11 Thick grass stuck out, twining round thus (7)
TUSSOCK: (STUCK*) around SO.
12 Keeps out of underworld drinking dens (7)
DISBARS: DIS (the god Pluto, or his underworld), BARS (drinking dens).
13 Group of animals to preserve lives (5)
CANIS: CAN (preserve), IS (lives). Canis is a genus of the Canidae, hence a group of animals including wolves, dogs etc.
14 Mint about to go in Greek character’s drink (9)
COINTREAU: COIN (mint), RE (about) inside TAU (Greek character).
16 Opening bar round home thus essential (9)
INTRINSIC: INTR(o) (opening), IN (home), SIC (thus).
19 I’m off to grab one item of headgear (5)
TIARA: I (one) inside TA-RA (meaning “I’m off”, in the sense of “goodbye”).
21 Criminal Roman pair, seizing £50, back out of town (7)
ILLICIT: II is a Roman pair, “seizing” LL ( the first L being a British pound sign – totally different from what Americans call a pound sign) and the second L being Roman numeral 50), all followed by CIT(y), dropping a letter off the back.
23 Chemist may use this ruler, boxing in area (7)
REAGENT: REGENT (ruler) “boxing in” A (area).
24 See Welsh girl is heavenly (7)
ELYSIAN: ELY is the see, SIAN is the girl.
25 Forbidding old, less inspiring love (7)
OMINOUS: O (old), MINUS (less) “inspiring” O (love).
26 Pro-government covers over upper-class press (6,6)
FOURTH ESTATE: FOR THE STATE would be “pro government”. Insert U for “upper-class”. The first three “estates” are the legislature, executive, and judiciary.

Down
1 See bishop abandoning blessing for food (7)
VENISON: V (vide, “see”), then (b)ENISON.
2 Very funny route north-west from Brazil? (7)
RIOTOUS: so, the route from Rio to the US.
3 Parts of match providing the cheapest thrills? (4,5)
FREE KICKS: double definition.
4 Police arresting leading instigator of romance (5)
CUPID: CID (police) “arresting” UP (leading).
5 Vehicles lowering current time for journey (7)
TRANSIT: TRAINS with the I (symbol for electrical current) dropped to the end, then T (time).
6 Few are volunteering to hold up cow (7)
OVERAWE: reverse hidden answer in fEW ARE VOlunteering.
7 Special fare in EU and China: use it abroad (5,7)
HAUTE CUISINE: (EU CHINA USE IT*).
10 One making complex subtractions erroneously (12)
OBSCURANTIST: (SUBTRACTIONS*).
15 Bring debts upon oneself interest-free? (9)
INCURIOUS: INCUR (bring upon oneself), IOUS (debts).
17 Reckon I’m surprised about rider’s remark (5-2)
TALLY HO: TALLY (reckon), OH (I’m surprised) backwards.
18 Causing more irritation, Christie scrapping second novel (7)
ITCHIER: (CHRI-TIE*), omitting S for second.
19 Imperial ruler cheers, importing lethal weapon (7)
TSARINA: TA (cheers), importing SARIN gas.
20 Wicked, close to bankrupt individual is solvent (7)
ACETONE: ACE (wicked), T (close to bankrupt), ONE (individual).
22 What might be smelt, but no small fish (5)
TENCH: (s)TENCH.

19 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26964 – Saturday, 17 February 2018. No style points for the blogger.”

  1. Thanks, as ever, brnchn, for your blog. The puzzle must have been straightforward as my time of 36.01 was only 3mins more than the average as quoted on the club site. Like you, my COD was 15d. Made oi smile!

    Edited at 2018-02-24 01:05 am (UTC)

  2. Standardly, as in ancien régime France, the 3 estates were the nobility, the clergy, and the commoners; it was certainly these three that the press was added to by whoever coined the term. Wikipedia, I see, does say that the term is sometimes used today to refer to the separation of government power into executive, legislative, and judiciary, which was news to me.
    1. Interestingly, I’ve always known only the “modern” usage. I saw the other version in Wikipedia and assumed it didn’t rate a mention. Sorry -wrong again,
  3. Fairly gentle one, with, as Bruce says, a number of nice surfaces. I biffed TIARA and ILLICIT, then remembered TA-RA from a recent cryptic, when it was new to me. 2d, 3d, and 15d are all cryptic definitions; rather a lot? (I seem to recall one of our regulars animadverting on CDs.)
    1. Sorry not sure I understand the point about CDs, Kevin. I suppose you could say 2dn is a whimsical double definition? 3dn is certainly a DD. To me 15dn looks like a standard clue, of the type some call “charades”
      1. You know, I have no idea what I was thinking at the time; I’d scribbled some comments in the margins and didn’t bother to check what I’d scribbled, is my best explanation.
  4. Well over my half-hour target but never felt stuck or unlikely or finish or the possibility of needing to resort to aids. AMNIOTE the only unknown but having arrived at it via wordplay I assumed it was okay as I knew of ‘amniotic fluid’.

    ‘Over’ in 25ac seems superfluous.

    1. 26ac, and I think it’s worse than superfluous; ‘pro-government’ is adjectival, not nominal, so it can’t be the subject of the verb ‘covers’ (if it could, ‘over’ would indeed be superfluous). On the other hand, what are pro-government covers that they could be over the press?
      1. To me the clue appears correct technically, but has the defect of a surface meaning which is pure gibberish
        2. Well, yeah, but is ‘correct technically’ enough? ‘Good times about about Trollope character’: GREX. Is that correct technically? It certainly has the gibberish part down pat.
  5. Or is there no way back from there? I was 41 minutes on this tricky offering last Saturday on holiday in Lancashire, looking over the sand dunes to the Irish Sea in glorious sunshine. I’ve just retrieved the torn-out copy from the suitcase. As with B, only knew the fluid, and not AMNIOTE, whose definition surprised me but crossers left lttle choice. I liked INCURIOUS and FOURTH ESTATE (where I hadn’t picked up the two logical problems spotted by B and Kevin) but I’d made RIOTOUS COD last weekend and I’ll stick with that. At first I thought it was RIO TO US here in the UK and wondered what strange compass the setter was using. If it had been to the south east I’d have known that the earth’s magnetic field had flipped. My LOI was the well-disguised OVERAWE. Thank you B and setter.
  6. Well, I felt like a ninny when I finally threw in the towel and looked up 6d. Still, at least I come here to find that boltonwanderer also found OVERAWE hard to spot.

    Just a shame I found it harder. I think it was Nick earlier this week who recommended the advice “if you have no idea what’s going on in a clue, it’s probably a hidden”!

    Anyway. The rest of it took me nearly an hour, so perhaps my brain was fried when I got to that point…

  8. I also took the best part of an hour to get through this one. 58:52, but at least I had no typos. Like Jack and Bruce I derived 8a from amniotic fluid. I had a definite blind spot at 1a which was my LOI. I just couldn’t see it for ages. An enjoyable puzzle though. No idea where I started. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  9. 44:51. I got off to a good start but was held up by a few on the LHS. The aforementioned amniote where I knew amniotic but wondered a little over the Def, venison, canis and intrinsic. FOI 1ac. LOI 8ac. COD 7dn.
  10. This was a pleasant enough Saturday Puzzle

    Like Mr. Browndog I didn’t register a time and my COD was 15dn INCURIOUS too.

    FOI 24ac ELYSIAN with a chestnutty flavour.
    LOI 8ac AMNIOTE dnk
    WOD 11ac TUSSOCK

    I love a bit of gibberish so 26ac FOURTH ESTATE a write-in!

    Edited at 2018-02-24 01:33 pm (UTC)

  12. Spent yesterday witnessing a football omnishambles at Deepdale. Even the manager agreed making two substitutions after only 37 minutes. An example of marking your own homework with the lowest grade.
    This puzzle took me a while and required a Sunday session; I ended up needing 1d 6d 8a and 13a.
    I managed to get Venison and the well hidden Overawe but failed on the vertebrate and the animals.
    COD to Riotous. David

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