Times Cryptic No 27012 – Saturday, 14 April 2018. A walk in the park?

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This was a straightforward exercise, although in several cases I had to stop and think twice about well-disguised definitions. Finished in under 30 minutes, so I expect some fast times from the experts.

My clue of the day was 13dn. I also liked 26 across, perhaps for its messy structure.

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}.
[… and click here for the answers …]

Across
1 Reported James before indiscretion in schoolgirl attire (7)
GYMSLIP: GYM sounds like Jim, followed by a SLIP.

5 Drop accomplished without a sign of damage (7)
DISCARD: DID (accomplished), around SCAR (sign of damage).

9 Fish in sudden increase leading to extra demand (9)
SURCHARGE: SURGE (sudden increase), around CHAR (fish).

10 Old support avoiding bishop in quiet spot (5)
OASIS: O (old), {b}ASIS (support, avoiding bishop).

11 Deceit admitted by an outsider (5)
ALIEN: LIE in AN.

12 Ill-fated liner left United States and hit (not hard) an island key (9)
LUSITANIA: L (left), US, {h}IT, AN, I{sland}, A (key). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania My first parsing of this clue started L, USA, TAN=hit, … until I decided I really was confident the spelling starts LUSI … not LUSA … !!

14 Operation to prepare fabric workers during strike (3,11)
HIP REPLACEMENT: that is, PREP LACE MEN, inside HIT.

17 Runny chocolate drunk all the time (6,3,5)
AROUND THE CLOCK: a choice of possible anagram indicators here! Use “runny” as the pointer, so “drunk” is part of the anagram fodder, giving (CHOCOLATE DRUNK*).

21 Report civil disturbance about what carnivores eat? (5,4)
RIFLE SHOT: RIOT around FLESH. Terse but satisfying definition!

23 Soup’s unpleasant smell after overturning cup (5)
GUMBO: BO after MUG backwards. Down the Mississippi, down to New Orleans.

24 Bitter free on account (5)
ACRID: AC, then RID.

25 Legion having to carry not as much weight (9)
COUNTLESS: COUNT LESS (with a space) would be to carry less weight.

26 Distracted English prommer missing minutes in piano concerto (7)
EMPEROR: (E PROM-ER*). One of the “M”s (minutes) is missing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._5_(Beethoven)

27 Family character appearing embarrassed (7)
KINDRED: KIND (character), RED (embarrassed).

Down
1 An amusing thing to catch one who can’t stop talking (6)
GASBAG: GAS (amusing thing), BAG (catch). For a while, I tried fitting ASB or BSA inside GAG, without success!

2 Damage can come with one cocktail (7)
MARTINI: MAR (damage), TIN (can), I (one).

3 Most of Rheingold’s rewritten, leading to new Wagner opera (9)
LOHENGRIN: (RHEINGOL-*), then N for new. The final D in Rheingold is dropped from the anagram.

4 Pulp chapter needing rewriting for over-ornate passage (6,5)
PURPLE PATCH: looking at the first helpers, I expected the answer to be PURPLE PROSE, but the anagram is clear enough: (PULP CHAPTER*). To me a “purple patch” is a spell of good luck or good form, but Chambers lists “purple passage” as its first definition.

5 Appropriate work for a couple lacking time (3)
DUE: DUE{t}.

6 Small bird’s made to fly (5)
SCOOT: S, COOT.

7 Bishop interrupts dodgy seance for failure to show presence? (7)
ABSENCE: B in (SÉANCE*). My first thought was that the definition might be “presence” – quite the opposite!

8 Aversion therapy’s beginning during endless misfortune (8)
DISTASTE: T{herapy} in DISASTE{r}.

13 Steps on top of lorry, compelled to act (5-6)
STAGE-STRUCK: STAGES, TRUCK. I saw STRUCK immediately but found STAGES elusive. Part of my problem was that I was thinking of acting in a more concrete “doing” sense. In the end, this was my LOI.

15 Make cultivated land with river rising around it (9)
ENLIGHTEN: NENE (the river), backwards around LIGHT.

16 Conduct beginning of civil wedding, though Mark’s gone missing (8)
CARRIAGE: C{ivil} {m}ARRIAGE.

18 Flawless turning needed after bad test for fit (5,2)
OFFER UP: PURE backwards, after OFF. Another definition I found elusive, but Chambers gives “offer up” as “In eg joinery, to position on a trial basis, in order to test for size and suitability before fixing”.

19 One of similar ability is one likely to succeed without exercise (7)
COMPEER: COMER around P.E. Not a word I would feel confident to use!

20 Pressure on Love Island has top journalist ready and prepared (6)
POISED: P{ressure}, O (love), IS{land}, ED{itor}.

22 Duck always found around one delta (5)
EIDER: EER (ever), around I and D.

25 Aggressive dog runs after copper (3)
CUR: CU, R.

 

27 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27012 – Saturday, 14 April 2018. A walk in the park?”

  1. Quite a gentle one for a Saturday, with some clues, like 25d or 7d, that could have wandered in from a Quicky. 3d’s including ‘Wagner’ made it pretty much a gimme; and ‘ill-fated liner’ ditto, although it took me a minute to retrieve the name from memory. (Titanic, Lusitania, Andrea Doria; any others?) DNK NENE the river, only the Hawai’ian bird; DNK GYMSLIP; and DNK the relevant meaning of OFFER UP (just now checked in ODE). I also threw in PROSE at first, and chose the wrong anagrind in 17ac. I had some trouble with STAGE-STRUCK, as ‘compelled to act’ is a rather misleading definition; a stage-struck person may very well never become an actor, hence never be compelled to act.
    1. I found this a clever definition. I think the idea is that the stage-struck person has an inward drive to try to get into show biz.
      1. Right, and I wasn’t faulting the setter–after all, misleading is a setter’s job–just noting that the clue caused me trouble.
  2. Fairly straighforward so that I missed my target half-hour by only one minute. Delays caused by not knowing COMPEER and having to arrive at it from wordplay. Also trying to think how OFFER UP could mean ‘test for fit’. I have found it defined as such in SOED but I still don’t really get it as it’s an expression or concept completely outwith my experience.

    I was a bit surprised by the River Nene, which I only know because it flows through Northampton, not that many miles from where I live.

    Edited at 2018-04-21 05:27 am (UTC)

    1. I’ve copied the definition from Chambers into the blog: In eg joinery, to position on a trial basis, in order to test for size and suitability before fixing
      1. Thanks, Bruce. Rather a specialised meaning, isn’t it, perhaps something only known by chippies?
          1. Yur; I think I know it from the Haynes car manuals. “Offer up the flange to the nipple spigot, and press home firmly once the pinwheels are aligned…”
  3. 19 minutes on this, so I was in a PURPLE PATCH. I’m not going to describe my extreme, ecstatic elation in purple prose though, but I use the terms similarly to B. COD to HIP REPLACEMENT. DNK COMPEER but cryptic and crossers got me there. LOI ENLIGHTEN. Thank you B and setter.
  4. 18 minutes to solve, so no real problems. COUNT LESS was my favourite, and though I too liked HIP REPLACEMENT, I thought it was crying out for a clue-as-answer variation such as “operation phi?”
    Pip. I thought this week’s much more testing, so no trend towards dumbing down.
  6. 15:32. I too found this on the easy side. My only problem came from biffing PURPLE PROSE for 4d, which held me up with AROUND THE CLOCK and RIFLE SHOT. The meaning of CARRIAGE at 16d was new to me and COMPEER unknown, and my LOI, trusting to the wordplay. I vote for HIP REPLACEMENT as COD too. Now, do I do today’s this morning or save it for the Beer Festival this afternoon?
  7. 17 minutes, slightly delayed by biffing PURPLE PROSE at first. Seems easy for a prize puzzle. Hope not a trend (am about to find out).
  8. I started to solve this on my way to Loftus Road to watch Preston play at QPR. FOI was Titanic … rapidly replaced by Lusitania. There were a number of accessible clues and I managed to finish the puzzle after the match. Last two were Rifle Shot and finally 18d where I could not improve on Offer Up and assumed it had to be. Very enjoyable. David
    1. Meant to say that a friend of mine runs a business called Compeer -that helped. And I also had Purple Prose for a time. D
  9. I found this on the easy side too. I also biffed PURPLE PROSE originally. GYMSLIP was my FOI. COMPEER(LOI) from wordplay and crossers. Liked HIP OPERATION, but will be pleased to avoid the need for one! 18:45. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  10. 31:52, pretty straightforward. Didn’t know the river Nene and compeer worked out from wp.
  11. Re 15dn ENLIGHTENMENT the Nene runs through Peterborough right past the Posh’s football ground. Some fans have been thrown off the bridge into the water, in the bad old days. Enlightenment indeed.

    FOI 22dn EIDER
    LOI 23ac GUMBO
    COD 21ac RIFLE SHOT
    WOD 12ac LUSITANIA
    Wagner! Yuk!

  13. Hello all, as a rank newbie, I wondered if you could explain why O = love = O in 20d?
    1. Hello. I am reading this over a week late so you may not see it. LOVE =O as in tennis (e.g. Fifteen-love. It comes from the French for egg, l’oeuf, i.e. Ovoid shaped. And welcome, by the way. Francois.
  14. 5 Drop accomplished without a sign of damage (7)
    DISCARD: DID (accomplished), around SCAR (sign of damage).

    I had _ _ _ _ A _ D

    … and I produced the solution BANDAID

    Drop => BAN (as a transitive verb)
    accomplished => DID
    without => around
    a sign of damage => BANDAID. If you are wearing a Band-aid this is a sign that you have suffered some damage.

    Ho-hum.

      1. The clue is unusual in having a superfluous article (“a”) in it. Without that “a” my solution would not work.

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