Times Cryptic No 27010, Thursday, 12 April 2018: Murder in the fourth degree

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
My Polish mother-in-law was considering the relative merits of dogs and, so the possibly apocryphal story goes, couldn’t decide between a Coolie and a Damnation. I’d like to think that the memory of that tale mitigates my otherwise pathetic first mistake, an inability to spell the dog needed in the grid, but of course it doesn’t. I have no excuse whatever for my second pink square, a simple typo that evaded my close check of my completed grid. Otherwise 17 and a half minutes, another average time, for a rather entertaining puzzle, which threatened but eschewed obscurity with such as Persian governors, old criminals and biblical vessels. Maybe the French month is new to some, but is a familiar enough word with crustacean connections.
Here I knit up the ravelled sleeve of care with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS highlighted.

ACROSS

1 Seek Democrat’s favour? Back workers’ representatives in print (7)
WOODCUT You might WOO a D(emocrat) to secure his vote, with the backing of the TUC (which of course gives CUT)
5 Ship giving tough guy new start (7)
CRUISER One of those Change the First Letter to Another Unspecified Letter clues: fortunately, you start with tough guy BRUISER
9 Lively animal at dogshow’s opening? (9)
DALMATIAN Lively signals the anagram, ANIMAL AT Dogshow is the grist. As it happens, most Spotty Dogs I have known, including the one belonging to the Woodentops (6 minutes in) have been pretty lively, so the &lit works just fine
10 Noise from cellar nags intermittently (5)
CLANG Could be any old noise, but it’s derived from CeLlAr NaGs.
11 After workout, equine star one on form perhaps (13)
QUESTIONNAIRE A work out of EQUINE STAR I (one) ON
13 Torn about old information unit (8)
ROENTGEN Torn: RENT circles O(ld) and adds information GEN. Full marks if you remembered that a Roentgen is a measure of exposure to X-rays or gamma rays. Bonus points if you know it’s been superseded by the Sievert or the Rem.
15 Group needing 4 for a score (6)
SEPTET Subtract the answer to 4 (spoiler alert) from 20, then remember what the term for seven players is.
17 Irritated, bring back study about biblical vessel (6)
NARKED  Biblical vessel? Could it be the ARK? DEN is a useful synonym for (a) study, which you “bring back” about the floating zoo.
19 Good! Relative permitted trial (8)
GAUNTLET Easy stuff. G(ood) AUNT LET. A trial if you run it.
22 Out of touch in collective (not English) in charge of a Party (13)
INCOMMUNICADO Collective: COMMUNE (knock off the English) I(n) C(harge) A party: DO. Just work doggedly through and assemble the bits.
25 Fourth bird making a group? (5)
CROWD I like this one. I) crow A, 2) crow B 3) crow C, so 4)?
26 Wrong colours disheartened Persian governor (9)
PROCONSUL Stop trying to remember satraps, khans and such. You only need the PersiaN for its shell. Add COLOURS and present them “wrong” for the right answer. And no, there never was an Anticonsul.
27 Not suitable for evening out? (3-4)
NON-IRON Doesn’t need decreasing.
28 Glasses I picked up at outset wanting attention (7)
EYEWEAR Sounds like (picked up) I – no arguments there, then – plus “at the outset” Wanting and EAR for attention

DOWN

1 Our group circulates papers over extensive area (4)
WIDE Our group is WE (I believe especially in bridge) and ID the papers encircled.
2 Evasive, he passed on national symbol in conversation (7)
OBLIQUE OB is an acceptable abbreviation for obit, he died. LIQUE is an acceptable (if not a real word) soundalike for LEEK, the Welsh national vegetable.
3 Girl lover’s initially got in mind (5)
CLARE Lover initially is, um, L. Needs to be placed into CARE for mind
4 Cardinal, fine, welcoming Rome’s capital support of course (8)
THIRTEEN Fine is THIN, the capital of Rome is, um, R, and the support of (golf) course id a TEE
5 Clergyman’s inspiring time in Geneva area? (6)
CANTON Much amusement can be had in ecclesiastical circles with the rank of CANON (though it’s quite hard to fire one). This one ”inspires” T(ime) for the local government unit in Switzerland
6 Lack of interest in vessel used in North Carolina formerly? The reverse (9)
UNCONCERN Right, this is not vessel URN inside N(orth) C(arolina) ONCE, but the other way round.
7 Settle perhaps accepting equipment brought up typical of island (3-4)
SEA-GIRT Settle might suggest SEAT equipment RIG. Invert the latter within the former. Here’s an example of the word used in Milton’s Comus:
…..Neptune besides the sway
Of every salt Flood, and each ebbing Stream,
Took in by lot ‘twixt high, and neather Jove,
Imperial rule of all the Sea-girt Iles
8 Unpredictable country doctors use OTT gear (5,5)
ROGUE STATE “Doctor(s)” USE OTT GEAR, which looks like a fairly desperate anagram.
12 Religious female published Channel Islands study (10)
FRANCISCAN F(emale) (which I thought initially was Fran) published: RAN C(hannel) I(slands) study, this time SCAN
14 Article on amphibious troops: I stick up for time in France (9)
THERMIDOR Confusingly the 11th month of the French Revolutionary Calendar (August-ish), made up of three 10 day weeks. Article: THE,  amphibious troops R(oyal) M(arines), I: I. Stick “up” DOR
16 Singer from Italian port trying out new example first of all (8)
BARITONE BARI the Italian port, site of the only known poison gas attack (unintended) of WWII. Add the initial letters (first of all) of Trying Out New Example.
18 Rising vehicle business supported by American native (7)
RACCOON CAR your vehicle that “rises”, CO(mpany) and supported by: ON.
20 Having secured agreement, miss energy inspection (4-3)
LOOK-SEE Miss: lose) E(nergy) secures agreement: OK
21 Old criminal’s new direction blocked by sleuth (6)
TURPIN New direction is TURN, sleuth is PI (as in Magnum)
23 Buffalo needs housing away from others (5)
ALONE Today’s hidden, in buffALO NEeds
24 Slight noise from eating, no longer quiet (4)
SLUR Stop looking for a small noise, you want a good, healthy, noisy SLURP before removing its P for quiet.

74 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27010, Thursday, 12 April 2018: Murder in the fourth degree”

  1. The wordplay spelled everything out. Was glad to remember the Anglicism NARKED and the old crook TURPIN. And thanks for the full marks, Z, for remembering what ROENTGEN is a unit of! The definitions were often minimal or OBLIQUE (“time in France,” “American native”). Great fun.
  2. Fairly steady progress made, other than stalling at 9ac, where I took ‘lively’ to be the definition at first. Biffed 4d from 15ac, and only solved post hoc. ALONE took me even longer than usual for a hidden. ‘unit’ struck me as a rather flabby definition (“What’s a roentgen?” “It’s a unit, dummy.”), but then it would be hard to be more specific without giving the game away. I didn’t know it had been superseded; in Japan, it lives on as the word for ‘X-ray’.
  3. 1dn WIDE was such an example – simples – but looked on the surface 2dn OBLIQUE

    FOI 10ac CLANG but then moved from the bottom upwards.
    LOI 4dn THIRTEEN which wasn’t completely parsed.
    COD 9ac DALMATION which I spotted late! Nice &Lit. This charming breed of dogs is notoriously hard of hearing.
    WOD THERMIDOR which is sort of November time: I prefer sashimi lobster to the old thermidor. Humidor is for Cubans.

    No one irons shirts hereabouts. Do 27ac NON-IRON shirts per se still exist on the market?

    11ac was the first QUESTIONNAIRE I have filled in for ages.

    One hour!

    Edited at 2018-04-12 02:42 am (UTC)

      1. Blue eyes and deafness, they do indeed have both, it’s what you get with this pedigree.
  5. CROWD eluded me. I put in CHORD for no good reason. It wasn’t until someone on the club site put me right that I remembered a lovely clue from Cryptic #26019: “Where to expect fourth queue for “Spellbound”” (9). “Entranced”!

    I remembered “Pluviose” so “THERMIDOR” was no problem

    SEA-GIRT caused a chuckle. There’s a line in the Australian national anthem that goes: “Our home is girt by sea”. I keep hoping that a mayor of a seaside town in Oz, one with a sense of humour, will rename the town “Girt-by-Sea”.

    Favourite clues today: 1ac and FRANCISCAN. In the case of the latter I spent too long looking for a “religious female”.
    38m 58s

      2. I used to do it all the time but now only out of habit.

        34 minutes for the crossword. Enjoyed DALMATION, ALONE and CROWD.

      3. Been there, done that, an enormous misjudgement that I shall forever regret. Escaped after three years and I remain unconverted.
  6. Just an hour. I had reading trouble with Torn looking like Tom at 13a, and Irritate looking like Imitate at 17a in my printed version. Or maybe I need new eyewear. I tried Fighter/Lighter and the less plausible Ripper/CLipper for the tough guy/ship, and I bet I’m not alone. Roentgen gets a thumb up for vocabulary, and Crowd gets two thumbs up for cleverness. Nice blog, Z

    Edited at 2018-04-12 04:21 am (UTC)

    1. I don’t know my exact time on this one, but it was probably somewhere between 45 minutes and three-quarters of an hour. I was another one who tried LIGHTER at 5ac, but revisited it after deciding that G_C seemed like a difficult way to begin 6d, and T_A left me few options for 7d.

      I wonder if the French will ever be allowed to forget their foolish calendar-dabbling? Wikipedia tells me that all 365 days of the year also had individual names. My birthday happens to fall on Button Mushroom (8th of Floréal).

        1. I see I was born on Topsoil Day, fortunately a day before my cousin who arrived on Manure Day!
    2. You and me both. I did this from a print-out and had a question mark by 13a. The answer was fairly obvious but I couldn’t see how TOM = RENT. Ann

      Edited at 2018-04-12 02:37 pm (UTC)

  7. Very hard work in the SE quarter but I got there in the end (well, in 45 minutes actually).

    I felt a bit NARKED with myself as I completed the NE quarter early on with the exception of the unches at 15ac where I had identified ‘sextet’,’sestet’ and ‘septet’ as possible answers and resolved to hold off opting for one of them until I had found the answer to 4dn in case that was relevant. However later, after I had completed all the rest of the grid, I came back to 15ac and bunged in SEXTET without understanding why, completely forgetting to refer to 4dn.

    Edited at 2018-04-12 04:11 am (UTC)


  8. 19:04 … excellent stuff. Thanks, setter.

    I was helped by past experiences — I’ve struggled over ROENTGEN enough times now that its starting to stick. More to the point, given Z8’s experience today, I managed to put DALMATION in the 2014 Championship and am unlikely to make that mistake again.

    A lot of entertaining clues, but for COD I have to pick the one that made me chortle — CROW D

    Edited at 2018-04-12 06:16 am (UTC)

  9. Curses. I pushed this out to an hour and ten and still had 13a ROENTGEN left over. Shame, especially as I do know the word. Still, happy enough to get everything else right with this one. I’m even remembering French revolutionary calendar months now!

    Loved 25a. FOI 10a CLANG, LOI I actually managed 26a PROCONSUL.

    Glad to find out that SEA-GIRT was right, among quite a few other unparsed ones. Thanks Z and setter. Next time I’ll get there!

  10. 50 mins with granola, yoghurt, banana, etc. Oh the joy of being back home.
    I checked the iPad Times app to see if 27ac was a (3-4) – but no, it was a (3,4). Something should be done about it.
    So – using the pdf – like Paul above, I thought 13ac began with Tom! When I eventually got out my loupe to see it said Torn, all was revealed.
    DNK Roentgen or Sea-Girt, but do-able and good additions to the vocab.
    MER at 6dn using ‘The reverse’ to switch the containment indication. Not sure if this is brilliant innovation by the setter or a slight cheat.
    Mostly I liked the &Lit Dalmatian.
    Thanks setter and Z

    PS my birthday appears to be Pumpkin. How lovely. I hadn’t played the French Revolution birthday game before. It’s fun.

    Edited at 2018-04-12 07:40 am (UTC)

      1. I generally print the pdf, as today, and solve in a leisurely, technophobe way while enjoying yoghurt, or croissant, or porridge. Bliss.
        But when in a hotel, as earlier this week, I need to use online tools. The Times web site format is not as good (IMHO) as the iPad app – except as I discovered this week, the App says (x,y) when it means (x-y). In my view, the maintainers of the App should fix it.
        I will not mention it again.
    2. It is a regular gripe of mine that the iPad app does not indicate hyphens in the enumeration. Deaf ears.
  11. Yup, I had LIGHTER as well for a long time.
    However in my 44 minutes I also had HEPTET for 15a, which I submit is a valid alternative. OK it’s more obscure than SEPTET, but it means the same and it fits both the checkers and the clue.
    1. I worried that HEPTET might be the answer, but plumped for SEPTET on the basis that at least I knew it existed. HEPTET isn’t in any of the usual dictionaries as far as I can see, which would probably disqualify it.
      1. Well I had HEXTET – a group of 16 – being 4 away from 20.

        Working in IT I think that’s perfectly valid. Others may disagree – the setter and editor certainly do.

          1. In real-world English yes. In IT-world English HEX is base 16.

            Sadly I was detached from real-world English today.

  12. I wasn’t confident on submitting this that ROENTGEN, SEA GIRT and SEPTET (could it be HEPTET?) were all going to be correct so it was a pleasant surprise when they were. I thought I might have heard of ROENTGEN but I’m quite able to make up strange looking words and convince myself I’ve heard of them. A search of this site shows it has come up several times before.
  13. 33 min 12 secs with one wrong. Same as our blogger. A leopard can’t change its spots but a spotted dog can change its vowels.

    FOI 5 ac LIGHTER.

    Edited at 2018-04-12 08:07 am (UTC)

  14. 22′, about half of that in the SE, where I did indeed think of various Persian governor possibilities. Have never got on with this modern marketing term EYEWEAR – have needed glasses since I was seven, not regarded them as fashion items. Karl Marx once wrote a pamphlet called the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, which took a lot of deciphering when I was younger. ROENTGEN got from A level physics. Thanks z and setter.
  15. 23 minutes so quite quick. LOI had to be SEPTET as my penultimate was THIRTEEN. Up to then I was wondering how a sextet plus four made a score. SEA-GIRT was third from last. I think the ROENTGEN was still the unit of choice in the cgs system I did most of my Physics in. There were lots of neat clues in this puzzle which was very enjoyable. We read the relevant bit of William Harrison Ainsworth’s Rookwood at school with DICK TURPIN and Black Bess. I gather he wasn’t so romantic in real life as was represented at the circus. COD to NON-IRON. I just wish that such shirts had been developed in my singleton days. Thank you Z and setter.
    1. Boltonwanderer. You imply that you stopped needing non-iron shirts the day you updated your Facebook status from singleton? If I understand the situation correctly, this was on your wedding day? The day you heartlessly bellowed out, in your unironed shirt, “ I hope to follow Julie” – moments before you married Jackie! That poor woman.

      Edited at 2018-04-12 09:24 am (UTC)

      1. You seem to have got most of the salient features correct but you’ve one inaccuracy and one where you do me a gross injustice. Mr Zuckerberg was two when we married and I don’t believe his plans for Facebook had at that stage reached their full evil intent. And I’m not so cheap as to get married in a creased shirt. I bought a new one.
          1. I’ve just realised. You made two mistakes in your first comment. My wife’s name is Janet. Whoops! Julie and then Jackie usurp her. You’ve got me worried now though. I did have a girl friend called Jackie when I was in the Midlands, but she was a Birmingham City supporter. She wouldn’t talk to a Villa fan.

            Edited at 2018-04-12 09:45 am (UTC)

  16. 10:08, but with CHORD, for no good reason. Read the clue, dummy.
    Nice puzzle though.
  17. Steady and enjoyable. I was another who spotted the possibility of SEXTET very early, but was fortunately suspicious enough to hold back till I’d given it more careful thought. I never studied maths past O-level, but even so, I could see there was something of a problem with 6+4=20. I am also another whose eyewear didn’t seem up to the task of distinguishing ‘tom’ from ‘torn’, though the light is very gloomy this morning.
  18. 22:18 but with COMMUNICATORY for a while, which almost fits the clue. Luckily the crossers put paid to that. A unit with GEN on the end made ROENTGEN spring to mind (happy days of A level physics). Otherwise, a steady solve. Thanks Z
  19. 33 mins. While you guys were all typing DALMATION I was entering FRANCISCON (C[hannel] I[sland] S CON=study)! Doh! Though I am a scientific dunce — barely scraped one science O-level — Roentgen has long been in my passive vocabulary; I think because the umlauted vowel and the awkward consonant cluster has always appealed to my Europhile and linguistic sensibilities.
    I didn’t bother much with unravelling INCOMMUNICADO, BARITONE, RACCOON, EYEWEAR or THERMIDOR, so thank you, Z, for the full explanation.
    Agree COD to the fourth bird.

    Edited at 2018-04-12 09:33 am (UTC)

  20. 32’47, after a final struggle with NW. I think Crow D says it for us all. Ace comment above, sawbill, hope original; if not deserves repeating nonetheless.
  21. 34 min, but needed to resort to aids. Spent too long trying to parse FOURTEEN at 4dn after seeing SEXTET before realising ….C.F was impossible for 1ac.

    Edited at 2018-04-12 11:07 am (UTC)

  22. Another one in the Tom-for-torn club. I just about remember picking up ROENTGEN from The Story of Marie Curie in one of my Christmas Girl Annuals many eons ago. SEA-GIRT New Jersey is a local landfall for hurricanes and later in the year the NYC-based reporters gather there to yell into their microphones while leaning against the wind. It’s just down the seaboard from Asbury Park of Springsteen fame. Is NON-IRON the same as drip-dry? The jumble of letters for PROCONSUL looked rather unlikely for a while. DALMATIANs are firehouse dogs in these parts. 19.33
    1. So that explains Marshal in Paw Patrol then (Sorry, too many children under 6).
    2. I’ve just read up about it on Wiki. What a lovely story! The relationship between two species as far apart as humans and dogs is absolutely uncanny.
    4. I was living in Munich for a year in the 70s and remember a display about Roentgen in one of the museums. It included the first X-Ray photo which was of his wife’s hand. He had been a professor at Munich University. Munich must have a connection with physicists. While I was there I noticed a plaque on a wall saying Einstein had worked there. I think it was the German patent office – not an academic building. I suppose you have to start somewhere… Ann
  23. ….to be presented with this generally excellent offering. Just one slight beef, of which more later.

    FOI CLANG
    LOI TURPIN
    COD SLUR

    WOD ROENTGEN, who I knew as the pioneer of x-rays rather than a unit of measurement. This is the correct spot to thank Z for his excellent blog, and for adding SIEVERT to my woefully scant scientific vocabulary (my grammar school allowed me to drop Physics and Chemistry well before I could disgrace myself at O Level).

    My brother-in-law was ANTI-CONSUL, having owned a Ford of that model that was nothing but trouble.

    DNK ROGUE STATE, didn’t much like FRANCISCAN, and having now consulted Chambers must complain that the GAUNTLET is either thrown down or picked up to instigate the trial, rather than personifying the trial itself (when one might run it I suppose). Luckily it was a “write in” and I only considered it in depth when I’d finished the puzzle.

    Biffed THIRTEEN immediately I spotted SEXTET, but parsed it straight away. Also biffed LOOK-SEE which I parsed after my successful 19:29 completion.

    1. I viewed the GAUNTLET as a synecdoche, or at least would have done if I knew for sure what one was.
  24. Having puzzled over the arithmetic of 15a, I entered SEXTET warily and moved on. Having solved 4d, all became clear and I revisited it with the correct SEPTET. A quick glance at the grid showed that the correctly parsed FRANCISCAN had been typoed in as FRANICSCAN, so I retyped it as FRANSISCAN and submitted, releasing a howl of frustration as the pink square stared at me malevolently from the screen. No trouble with ROENTGEN or the spelling of DALMATIAN(once bitten….) and I also liked CROW D. Thanks setter and Z. 35:00 with a typo.
    1. I didn’t think of that one. But that is three answers that parse perfectly, and one (Ripper/Clipper) that almost parses. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than two at once.
  27. Nice to have a bit of arithmetic for a change. Pleasant stroll of a puzzle, which I had to pause this morning and came back to this afternoon. This grid rather lends to a game of 2 halves, and indeed I had the top half completed, with very little help provided for the bottom half, until the rather obvious NARKED got me going again. LOI TURPIN which I didn’t understand and biffed.
  28. Nice puzzle. Took me around 25 minutes, and my hardest challenge was to remember TURPIN, which came eventually, but took some extra time. Old UK criminals don’t stay in the forefront of my brain, and TURPIN actually arrived mostly via wordplay. And I liked SLUR, cleverly done. Regards.
  29. For the computer minded 15 could be hextet (a group of 16) which needs 4 to make 20
  30. 33:54 for a fun puzzle. A bit of time at the end parsing LOI 15ac. Was reluctant to put the unlikely looking O and E together but it could only be rent about old to start with. Fortunately the word was vaguely familiar once entered. I was slow to connect the 4 in 15ac to 4dn. I did briefly wonder if a heptet was a thing, there is a heptathlon after all but septet sounded more convincing.
    1. I think you’d have to find it in the usual sources, which it isn’t, sadly. It is in the ever expanding list of Egyptian deities, but I’ve rarely found that to be persuasive with the unalterable will of the Editor.
      I suppose if you could find it often enough in the names of musical combos you might be able to make a case: the Temperance Heptet, maybe, S Club Heptet? Apparently it’s become quite common for boy groups and girl groups in something called K-Pop to have seven members, but I don’t see heptet becoming a part of their titles.
      So I think the answer is probably no.
      1. *Forgot to sign in*
        Thanks Z, appreciate your thoughts. I’ll be wise to this in future. Need to ease back on the Greek and think Latin with these -tet words :))
      2. Thanks Z, appreciate your thoughts. I’ll be wise to this in future. Need to ease back on the Greek and think Latin with these -tet words :))

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