Times Cryptic No 27006 – Saturday 07 April 2018. Blink and you’ve missed it!

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I printed the crossword soon after it appeared on the Club site, and solved it in about 40 minutes – so not too hard for me, and no horrible obscurities, I’m happy to report.

The only hiccup was when I went to copy the clues into this blog, only to find the Club site was inaccessible, so some of you early birds may have had hassles!

My clue of the day was clearly 9ac – a lovely Shakespearean reference.

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 Salty lamb joint maybe eaten by mistake (8)
BRACKISH: RACK in BISH.

6 Person thinking about energy in the abstract (6)
RESUME: MUSER backwards, E for energy.

9 Sum for which Richard III would give up his kingdom? (6)
AMOUNT: “My kingdom for a horse!” … or in this case, A MOUNT.

10 Curse a boring song, Sinatra’s finale (8)
ANATHEMA: A “boring”(i.e. inside) ANTHEM, then {sinatr}A.

11 Silly person picked up fabric (4)
KNIT:  sounds like NIT. Can be the end product as well as the production process.

12 Stringendo playing is something to add polish (10)
GRINDSTONE: (STRINGENDO*)

14 Quarrelling Republican blocks moderate (8)
SPARRING: R for Republican in SPARING.

16 Missing in depressed area to the west (4)
AWOL: LOW A{rea} backwards.

18 Panache shown by writer with twisted heart (4)
BRIO: BIRO with the middle letters reversed.

19 Many people apply to wrap back in sponge rubber (8)
MASSEUSE: MASS (many people), then USE (apply) around {spong}E.

21 Jacket nude stripped off, generating surprised reaction (6,4)
DOUBLE TAKE: DOUBLET (jacket), then {n}AKE{d}.

22 Move slowly like a congregation? (4)
INCH: because the congregation is IN CH{urch}.

24 When travelling, a cert to go with the Tube (8)
CATHETER: (A CERT THE*)

26 Like a mule I put across river by track (6)
ORNERY: ONE around R{iver}, then R{ailwa}Y.

27 Top that could be lower? (6)
JERSEY: jokey cryptic definition.

28 He moves unsteadily, visibly embarrassed about consuming more rum (8)
DODDERER: RED backwards, around ODDER.

Down
2 Run country from capital (5)
ROMAN: R (run), OMAN (country).

3 Groom admits furious butler’s one likely to explode (7,4)
CLUSTER BOMB: COMB (groom) around (BUTLERS*).

4 Modish label recalled possibly crude design (8)
INTAGLIO: IN (modish), TAG (label), OIL (possibly crude) backwards (recalled).

5 Trial broadcast interrupted by rascal with poor sense (7-8)
HEARING IMPAIRED: HEARING (trial), AIRED (broadcast); all with IMP (rascal) inside.

6 Something bewitching captured by painter in the country (6)
RWANDA: WAND (something bewitching) inside RA.

7 Small hotels give me some peace (3)
SHH: S for small, then H for hotel twice.

8 Having import from second country to carry round (9)
MOMENTOUS: MOMENT (second), US (country), with O (round) inside.

13 Actress was incensed? That is news empty theatre’s received (11)
TRAGEDIENNE: RAGED (was incensed), I.E. (that is), N N (N for new, twice); all inside TE (empty “theatre”).

15 Family members are getting on, embracing right where father lives (9)
PARSONAGE: PA and SON (family members), AGE (are getting on); all embracing R (right).

17 Single muscle developer’s heavenly body (8)
ASTEROID: A / STEROID.

20 The privileged and the low-down judge (6)
GENTRY: GEN (low-down), TRY (judge, as a verb).

23 Out of shape is large enchantress (5)
CIRCE: CIRC{l}E, losing L for large. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circe

25 Oafish asses, to some extent, would be fools (3) 
HAS: hidden answer (indicated by “to some extent”) in {oafis}H AS{ses}.
 

31 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27006 – Saturday 07 April 2018. Blink and you’ve missed it!”

  1. Nice puzzle; zipped through it in 18 mins (for me that’s zipping). Great blog, cheers.
  2. Enjoyable puzzle, a number of nice surfaces, like 1ac, 6ac, 20d, 28ac. I was trying to think of an example of HAS (have, had) to mean ‘fool’, and could only think of the passive (you’ve been had).
    1. And, yes, he has you! You’ve been had!!

      Or, that trick has me every time.

      Not common, I agree.

      Edited at 2018-04-14 01:26 am (UTC)

      1. I wonder if there’s a US/UK (or US/elsewhere) difference; your two ‘has’ examples don’t work in my idiolect, anyway. (‘He has you’=’He’s refuted your point’ etc. is something else.)
        1. Fair enough. I certainly feel I’m on shaky ground, even if I speak neither UK nor US English.
          1. Hmm. I was a bit dubious about this one too, but Chambers has “to take in, deceive (usu in passive)”, so I guess it’s OK. Same as Kevin, in that form I’m familiar with “You’ve been had”. The nearest I can think of in the active voice is “He has you, there”, but that is the different meaning of “to get the better of”. I dare say you could find an example in Damon Runyan‘s writing of it being used in the historic present.

            Edited at 2018-04-14 06:24 am (UTC)

            1. Yep — the solution is dubious, I think. Like others here, I saw it from the passive “I’ve been had (=deceived/tricked/fooled)”, but this idiom really doesn’t work in the simple present tense form. It’s analogous to other idiomatic constructions like “She will know her onions when she’s completed the training” or “the police had him up for assault”.
  3. Re: “salty lamb joint”, one of my regrets is that, during my time in France, I never got to try the lamb from sheep that graze on the salt marshes around Mont St Michel.
    1. Interesting. On the flats around Mont St Michel, the tide is supposed to come in quicker than a galloping horse so a bit tough on the sheep.

      Edited at 2018-04-14 07:45 pm (UTC)

      1. The influence of salt in the vegetation is felt above the high-water mark. Sheep are everywhere on the flat lands around the Mont.
  4. 25:22. In retrospect, not sure why it took me so long, but I see I wrote something other than CATHETER in for 24a initially, which probably didn’t help. Some nice clues and nothing obscure. RWANDA seems to be a popular destination these days – I’ve seen it in at least one other recent crossword. INCH my favourite. Thanks B and setter.
  5. ….biffing. VERY unsuccessfully. I did the puzzle on Monday morning, and after 12:40 I was stuck with 21A. At 15:09 I biffed ZOMBIE FACE with very little conviction. I was 99% sure it was a DNF, and, despite revisiting the puzzle on four or five occasions during the week, it remained unparsed. So thanks to Brnchn for DOUBLE TAKE.

    That apart, this was an enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI and COD AMOUNT
    WOD ORNERY

    I also liked BRACKISH and HAS (perfectly happy with that one), but was rather less enamoured of SHH.

  6. … was from childhood memory our family’s version of using the verb ‘to have’ to mean ‘fooled’. 55 minutes on this and I can’t see why unless it’s the deep sense of foreboding I feel on a Saturday morning at the moment with my football team in such jeopardy. The thought of a rack of Cockerham Salt Marsh Lamb at 1 ac also maybe over-stimulated the physical senses at the expense of the mental for the rest of the puzzle. I didn’t parse INCH and am not sure it’ s quite there because you need ‘in “in church'”, don’t you? COD to AMOUNT. I’ll just hope, no doubt in vain, that the memory of Bosworth Field is an omen for Lankies to beat Yorkies at Oakwell today. Decent puzzle. Now, nose not quite to the GRINDSTONE on this morning’s. Thank you B and setter.

    Edited at 2018-04-14 08:26 am (UTC)

    1. I thought the INCH clue merited a smile, as it happens: it’s the answer to the question “where do you find a congregation?” Reminds me of a memorable clue in an ST many years ago: Where to find Briton Ferry on a map of Wales? (10). Frustrated me long enough to dig out the atlas to find where it actually was, in relation to Neath.
      1. I get INCH now. UNDERNEATH is a great clue, provided you know of Briton Ferry. At first I thought you meant a Brittany Ferries’ ship sailing across Swansea Bay. Well that would be under Neath on the map too.
      2. Supposedly, decades ago, someone sent a letter to Wood
        John
        Mass
        and the post office delivered it to John Underwood, Andover, Massachusetts.
      3. Great clue! I live near Briton Ferry. The actual ferry is now redundant thanks to 2 post-war bridges over the river Neath.
  7. Well, it was my last one in after 19 minutes steady solving. It’s just that I have never automatically associated brackish water with salt, and I don’t really know that word for water that’s been standing around a while near bracken and tastes – um – brackish.
  8. Battled my way through a few unfamiliar bits and pieces and completed in just over an hour.
  9. I agree with johninterred that RWANDA seems to come up rather too frequently: I think it’s because setters like the oddness of the ‘RW’ consonant cluster (a hypothesis which would account for ECHI{DN}A being a setter’s pet).
    It was a slow start with only AWOL, BRIO and INCH (nice one!) after 5 mins had ticked by. Anyway, 41 mins to complete this. Agree that the Shakespearean 9a was a lovely clue, but I’d single out the jokey cryptic of JERSEY as my COD.
    Thank you, brnchn, for your fair assessment — and setter for fun puzzle.
  10. DNF in 40 mins. Got stuck in the SW corner.

    For those of you unfortunate enough to have missed my 66/1 Grand National “dark horse”, suggested here yesterday, it can be found in my reply to this comment.

  11. 51:24 which felt a bit slow. FOI 9ac. I was held up for ages on the chestnutty 27ac. Once that penny dropped LOI 20dn quickly followed. A pleasant solve.
  12. This was no pushover for me, but I got there eventually in 47:59. I can’t remember much about the solving process, as I did it on Sunday after driving back from Mull the previous day, so was a bit shattered. I did like INCH. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  13. 35 minutes. For some reason, I’ve always thought ornery means ordinary, which doesn’t make much sense linguistically because why would a word derived from the same word mean the same thing. Still, gets me every time.
    1. Years of watching Rawhide accustomed me to the expression “Ornery crittur” when referring to a recalcitrant cow!
      1. Ah, I’m a tad too young for that, but am quite a fan of Clint, especially Gran Torino, which no one else seems to like.
  14. I doddered through this in just one hour.

    FOI 28ac DODDERER
    LOI 4dn INTAGLIO a word a know so well but could not dislodge from a recess in my brain.
    COD 1ac BRACKISH
    WOD 4dn INTAGLIO – all the women come and go etc.

  15. A steady solve with no real problems except HAS which I left until last in case some other answer sprang to mind. 31 minutes. Ann
  16. My performance on this resembled two recent home games I have watched at Preston North End. I could not get out of my own half much of the time and, when I did get near the goal, I did not have a big centre forward to knock the ball in.So at 4d I had INGATOIL- the Eric Morecambe answer- and so on. I solved about half of it before I gave up.
    I did get GENTRY. Every season the Preston fans nominate an away game as Gentry Day when they wear collars, ties and bowler hats. This season was at Bolton.
    And whilst I am mining this seam,I am just back from Loftus Road after an away win which I am still trying to understand -or parse perhaps. David

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