Times Cryptic No 26988 – Saturday, 17 March 2018. Another good workout.

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Another fine puzzle, but for me much harder than last week. I did about a quarter, and then came to a dead stop, before inching through the SW, SE, NW and finally NE. LOI was 6dn, where I claim a geographic disadvantage. Overall, over an hour and a half solving on paper, but absolutely no complaints.

There were many nice clues, but my clue of the day was 3dn for its originality closely followed by 5dn for the beautifully disguised anagram, and the neat “punniness” of 27ac.

Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

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

Across
1 As quick as a parasitologist is keeping wicket? (2,3,5)
IN TWO TICKS: a parasitologist might be INTO TICKS. Add W for wicket. I got this answer by accident, thinking about whether wickets were “STICKS”.

6 Catch end of baby’s crib (4)
COPY: COP = catch, Y =  end of {bab}Y.

8 Wretched old bird (8)
FLAMINGO: FLAMING = wretched, O = old. Close to being a chestnut.

9 Most definitely not good for one (3,3)
I’LL SAY: ILL (without the apostrophe) = no good, SAY = for one.

10 Secure network protecting one’s back (4)
NAIL: LAN = (local area) network. Insert I=one, and reverse.

11 Recording by school that’s ground-breaking (4,6)
DISC HARROW: DISC = recording, HARROW = school. I feel sure this machine would have a different name on farms near me, but haven’t a clue what!

12 Lives next to club owned by female author (9)
ISHERWOOD: IS = lives, HER = owned by female, WOOD = (golf) club. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood

14 Instant judgment initially dubious (5)
JIFFY: J from J{udgement} initially, IFFY = dubious. Once I started thinking about words starting with J, the answer jumped out.

17 First of editors on the Times to make history? (5)
ERASE: ERAS = times (with a small “t” if you like), E = first of editors. I was stumped by the definition until I saw that erasing a disc makes the contents history!

19 Person who’s left dangerous dose finished unconscious (3,3,3)
ODD ONE OUT: OD = dangerous dose, DONE = finished, OUT = unconscious.

22 Rep left cup game, tense (10)
PLUPERFECT: (REP LEFT CUP*). “Game” is an unusual anagram indicator.

The pluperfect tense denotes an action completed prior to some past point of time specified or implied, formed in English by had and the past participle, as in he had gone by then. Hands up anyone who knew that without having studied Latin, Greek or Times crosswords!

23 Some backing free vote for change of course (4)
VEER: backwards hidden answer.

24 Worried by difficulty, become obsessed (6)
FIXATE: FIX = difficulty, ATE = worried.

25 Dish of rabbit I had on the train regularly (8)
TERIYAKI: I YAK = “rabbit I”, had inside TERI = every second letter of “ThE tRaIn”.

26 Watery part of course abandoned by arachnophobe (4)
WHEY: cryptic definition, relating to how Miss Muffet reacted to the spider.

27 Barer of glad tidings (using central Post Office)? (10)
STRIPOGRAM: I think this is just a cryptic definition, with the PO in the centre just serving to say how to spell it: with a -PO- rather than a -PPER-.

Down
1 Child’s cooler if wearing fashionable hat (9)
INFANTILE: IN = fashionable, TILE = hat, all around FAN = cooler. The definition includes the apostrophe-S, as in “he had an infantile / a child’s vocabulary”.

2 Loathsome, as far as a pretty girl is concerned (7)
TOADISH: or TO / A / DISH.

3 Simplify a couple of clues before complaint finally begins (4,4)
TONE DOWN: T = “complaint” finally, ONE DOWN = the clue two before THREE DOWN. Very original!

4 Go over promise with one of my best friends and me? (9,6)
CROSSWORD SETTER: CROSS = go over, WORD = promise, SETTER = dog = man’s best friend.

5 This is at odds with my place of work (6)
SMITHY: (THIS MY*). Beautifully disguised anagram.

6 Time of depression, maybe, in eastern UK town (9)
COLERAINE: COL = depression, ERA = time, IN, E = eastern. It would be falling into the setter’s trap to assume the UK town was in the East. In fact it’s in Northern Ireland.

7 Under pressure, abandon vital game (4-3)
PLAY-OFF: P = pressure, LAY OFF = abandon.

13 Like pie? With vegetables and last of gravy, especially so! (4-5)
EASY-PEASY: EASY as pie / PEAS = vegetable / Y = last of {grav}Y.

15 My tribute to thrash metal (9)
YTTERBIUM: (MY TRIBUTE*). I knew there was some such element, but couldn’t have spelled it without the anagram.

16 Turn up with possible substitute for stick: carrot? (4,4)
ROOT CROP: I think ROOT is “turn up”, as a pig turns up the soil in search of food. Not quite a one-to-one match, so better suggestions welcome! CROP is a substitute for stick, as in “riding crop”.

18 Explorer mostly just consuming beer (7)
RALEIGH: RIGH{t} = just, consuming ALE = beer. Amazingly, another current puzzle uses exactly the same form of clue for this word, but with different elements to describe each part.

20 Outside broadcast following sporting event (4-3)
OPEN-AIR: AIR = broadcast, following OPEN = sporting event (tennis or golf, for example).

21 Some fungus spreads across touching edges (6)
CREEPS: CEPS = fungus, around RE = touching.

44 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26988 – Saturday, 17 March 2018. Another good workout.”

  1. It took me 40′ to get all but 5d, 6d and 21d, then maybe another ten for them. Finally remembered ceps, and at last figured there must be a town called COLERAINE. NHO STRIPPER/STRIPOGRAM. COD to 5d, with 21d and 9ac close behind.
  2. Creeps was my LOI with a little bit of help from a word finder as ORDERS(edges without a start) also fitted the crossers and I was desperate after an hour slogging away. 62:50 in all. I knew about pluperfect, but miss Bruce’s criteria as I did O level Latin(and passed it, just). I was also grateful for the fodder for Ytterbium! An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Bruce.
    On edit: I meant to say that I knew Coleraine as I went there whilst working many years ago.

    Edited at 2018-03-24 11:53 am (UTC)

  3. I found this fiendishly difficult. In fact my time of 103m 58s is almost exactly what Firday’s fiendish puzzle took me. There were so many clues I had problems with but thank you, brnchn, for your blog. I was one who spent ages looking for a town in Eastern England! Fans of the quiz show ‘Pointless’ will know Ytterbium as that show often features the periodic table.
    1. I have withdrawn “beginner” from the commentary on that clue. Indeed, who am I to talk!

      Edited at 2018-03-24 03:53 am (UTC)

  4. Disappointed that it seems there was nothing more to the STRIPOGRAM clue than I had worked out for myself. I’d hoped I was missing something as otherwise it seems rather forced.

    I trawled the alphabet twice for my LOI (9ac) and then gave up and used aids. Of course with ‘not good’ in the clue I’d considered ILL as the first word but it never occurred to me that inserting an apostrophe would open up a whole new line of thought. Evidently by that stage in the proceedings my brain was not as alert as it should have been.

    The definition at 17ac was the best thing here.

    Edited at 2018-03-24 05:49 am (UTC)

  5. I never got into my stride on this, taking 67 minutes, with LOI FIXATE. I did O level Latin, so can’t participate in your pluperfect theory falsification, B, (verification won’t work on this, perhaps verifying Popper), apart from to say I saw it quickly. I’m giving COD to WHEY as the penny was slow to drop with me, but ODD ONE OUT was very good too. Not sure about the STRIPOGRAM clue, as I couldn’t see a structure to the bare bones. I needed all the crossers for COLERAINE and to have the thought that a UK town probably meant Northern Ireland. If I’ve heard of DISC HARROW I’ve forgotten but once the crossers gave HARROW the DISC could be pressed. Decent challenge overall in retrospect. Thank you B and setter.
  6. About 45m here in fits and starts off Sunday – Saturday spent travelling to and from a very chilly Cardiff for the Wales v France match. Most of this went in easily enough but the town in NI took ages to fall – I was bamboozled by the time of depression reversal and… looking for a town in the east, of course. I also was slow to unpick CREEPS and and the carrot. Thank you for the blog – it had to be TERIYAKI But could I see why? I liked the invention of the clue for WHEY particularly.
  7. Gave up after about an hour an a half, with the last half-hour feeling like pulling teeth to come up with the unknown DISC HARROW, among other tricky ones. Never came up with the NHO 6d COLERAINE, or 21d CREEPS. Ah well.
  8. 43.21 – I did yesterday’s all-time stinker in 10 minutes less, so goodness knows how this one would rate on the SNITCH. Technically, I cheated, because after staring at I_L _A_ for an unconscionable period of time, I looked it up in my clever electronic Chambers and drew a blank. Only then did I remember the crossword’s utter disdain for apostrophes, so (sort of) all my own work.
    STRIPOGRAM is a very odd clue: a standard, cheeky CD which might have been ok on its own, but then a fraction of wordplay suggesting the setter couldn’t think of anything for the rest and knocked off for tea. We wouldn’t think much of “canine with an O in the middle (3)”.
    I think my CoD goes to 1ac, but apart from 27ac there are many competitors. Congratulations, B, on unravelling the whole thing, and chapeau to the setter: it’ll be lovely when its’s finished.

    Edited at 2018-03-24 09:20 am (UTC)

      1. Hm. It’s a pity I can’t find a meaning of DAG, DEG, DIG or DUG that means tooth. I am reminded of the clue we had a while back for INTERMEZZO, which got as far as IN TERM and um…
  9. DNF. Bah! I ran aground in the tricky NE corner with, ahem, more than one clue left unsolved. I think by that stage I was no longer enjoying the challenge enough to persevere with it. Smithy is a very good clue, wish I’d seen it. Although I managed to solve it, I did not like 27ac, mainly because I do not recognise “barer of glad tidings” as an expression as opposed to “bearer of glad tidings”. Perhaps I’m missing something but I don’t think the clue should rely on an obvious misspelling to work, even a jocular, misleading, cryptic Def.
    1. Sorry, but I disagree. As soon as I saw the spelling for that clue, barer rather than bearer, and with PO in the centre it was obvious. Thought it was actually quite clever.
  10. Enjoyed this .. though I thought yesterday’s (Friday’s) cryptic both better and more difficult than this one. I can’t see anything wrong with 27ac, after all if a crossword clue can’t include a bad pun, what can?
  11. 38:38. Yes, I found this tricky too, but entertaining. FIXATE and CREEPS my last 2 in. I enjoyed 3d and 4d in particular. DISC HARROW unknown, but generously clued. A nice crossword. Thanks B and setter.
  12. Same as yesterday – DNF in 60 mins. My brain seems to have frozen the last two days; cryogenically halted by these tough puzzles. I’m going to have to start to eat more spinach or other greens, in a desperate attempt to reboot the little grey cells.

    It didn’t help that I had “In Top Bests” for 1 ac, knowing full well that both this, and the alternative “In Top Wests”, were not phrases that I had full confidence in their existence.

    Onwards. I aim to solve Monday’s puzzle in two shakes of a lamb’s lettuce.

    Edited at 2018-03-24 11:55 am (UTC)

  13. As far as I can tell, Tone Down does not mean “Simplify”. Dumb Down does. This may be sour grapes, as I was unable to finish this puzzle.
    1. The definition of “tone down” is a bit loose, I agree, but I thought about it at the time and shrugged. Depends whether you’re toning down the complexity, or something else – the passion for example.
  14. I made this more complicated by having “odd man out” parked in there for too long. And WHEY took a long time too, partly because as a kid I always thought Miss Muffet was eating her curds “away”. No objection to STRIPOGRAM although I never did work out the exact construction (and I would very much object to receiving such a thing in person if they still exist …). I found it much easier than this Friday’s cryptic. 29.47
    1. An elderly Roman Catholic lady I once knew told me that she spent most of her childhood under the misapprehension that the mother of Jesus was a natant member of a closed religious order.

      When she recited the “Hail Mary” she heard it like this,

      Hail Mary, full of grace
      The Lord is with thee
      Blessed art thou, a monk swimming

        1. I like Dave Allan’s funeral service. In the name of the Father and of the Son and into the hole he goes…..
      2. We had ‘O Jesus I have promised’ at our wedding. I married Janet but I have to own up to singing that I hoped to follow Julie.
  15. It is funny how certain words stick in the mind since one’s school days 15dn YTTERBIUM has always been the star of The Periodic Table. My WOD

    FOI 7dn PLAY OFF

    LOI 9ac I’LL SAY

    COD 27ac STRIPOGRAM

    Time t+ruby

  16. Absolute killer. DNF. Got through yesterday’s snitch-185 with no real bother, but could not complete this. Obscure element clued as an anagram… And how does ‘Barer of glad tidings etc.’ work as a surface, even with the question mark? I think there are limits to the latitude conferred by the addition of a question mark. And the UK town did for me – fair clue; no complaints. Enjoyed the battle, though, so thanks setter and blogger.
  17. Talking of things misheard, reminds me of “Our Father, Harold be thy name.” Regarding the crossword, 9 across threw me. I had “Too bad”, which would have worked if there had been a “we hear” on the end of the clue. By the way, I’m the same anonymous as above. I’m too lazy to acquire an identity.
    1. Well if you’re that lazy anon, you could have typed a name or pseudonym at the end of your posts. Your explanation posted above cost you around 84 unnecessary additional keystrokes by my reckoning.
  18. DNF, giving up with the Two Ticks, the Flamingo, and Tone Down still blank. If I had thought of Tone Down I would have put it in with a small grumble; I get it, but I don’t use the phrase exactly like that.

    I do find that after seeing a loose clue or two — such as today’s Stripogram — elsewhere in a puzzle I am less inclined to really worry the last couple if I haven’t gotten them. I make the assumption that it is the clue, not me. In this case, I was right about missing something at Tone Down, wrong about the other two which beat me fair and square. I really wish I had seen In Two Ticks – it is clever. And, loose cluing or not, I did like the barer pun. thx, setter. Thx brnchn

    Edited at 2018-03-24 06:53 pm (UTC)

  20. 28:28. I didn’t get time for this last weekend, and I’ve only just got round to it. Yes it was tough, and a bit of a mixed-bag in terms of quality. The definition of TONE DOWN seems loose at best and ‘barer of glad tidings’ is weird. But some very good clues too.
  23. Does disK harrow count as well? Both record and agricultural implement are in my dictionary.
    1. You raise an interesting question. Both disc and disk are attested for the agricultural implement.
      So the question really turns on whether a disK is a recording. Chambers says it is a variant spelling for disc, mostly N. American or dated usage.
      Some sources are more adamant that a disK is an abbreviation of diskette, as in floppy, which would be a stretch for “recording”.
      In the Times, and most especially under competition rules, the editor’s decision is final. Undoubtedly, if you did the crossword online, the K would turn the square pink and be marked as an error, and in my experience appeals to the editor are either resolved too late for competition entries or, however sympathetically, turned down.
      Sometimes, if an answer given in the solution is actually wrong, concerted efforts have been known to overturn the result and amend the error records and scoring. But not often!
      I think you have a case, but I also think that’s as close as your’re going to get to a positive outcome, and you may have to rely on enjoying a brief spell of righteous indignation. Best of luck!
      1. Thanks (and to brncn too). I shall righteously ‘indignify’ myself and try again next time. 🙂
    2. Actually, have been looking further in online dictionaries with some saying usage, and consistency thereof is chaotic. So will both variants be accepted? Or have I just wasted 65p?
      1. I speak with absolutely no authority but my guess is that spelling DISC with a C is a Times of London convention, like always using ONE instead of YOU.
  24. Just for the record I managed to solve 11 of these clues before giving up. Properly difficult. David
  25. It is so good to read these blogs when the cross word gets to Australia a month later and find that I am not the only one who thought it was difficult.

    Will need to remember CEPS = fungus should it ever reappear but a disc harrow is something I recall from farming days

    1. I’m not the only one from Australia who uses this blog then? I find it has helped my solving immensely. FWIW I gave up on this one after spending probably the best part of two hours on it – creeps and fixate got me.

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