Times Cryptic No 27018 – Saturday, 21 April 2018. A classic beauty – but don’t give me flowers!

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I think that barring some quibbles this is the best Saturday puzzle I have had the privilege of blogging. Clue after clue was a gem of the setter’s art. Sadly, it was beyond my abilities so I don’t have a time to report. My sticking points were the unknown flora and fauna. The plant at 19dn went in on faith because the wordplay was clear, but the other 9ac plant I found unsolvable unless you already knew the answer, which of course I didn’t. Likewise the 28ac bird.

There were so many nice clues it’s hard to pick one, but I’ll go for 4dn! Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. I look forward to more – but without unknowable flora and fauna!

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 It’s painful to catch something hairy (9)
HEARTACHE: HEAR (catch), {mous}TACHE (something hairy). Normally a word like “catch” in the clue suggests “sounds like”, but not this time – it’s just an “assemble the pieces” clue. Neat!

6 Round in possible semicircle, then march to the left (5)
DOMED: the letter D is more or less semicircular. Follow it with DEMO (march) written backwards (to the left, for an across clue). Another tricky clue.

9 A tapering object secures a plant (7)
SPIRAEA: the leading “A” is secured by SPIRE (tapering object). Then another “A” from the second last word of the clue. This was the first of a few clues that left me feeling unhappy – when the answer is the botanic name of a plant I’ve not hear of, I’d welcome a bit more help from the wordplay.

With this clue, the word order seems wrong too. The English language doesn’t do “object” “subject” “verb” (as in “A [which] SPIRE secures”), especially when the verb is in the active voice. Looking at some other puzzles during the week, I noticed similar things. Is this a variant of English we might call “Setterlish”? On edit, Kevin’s comments makes a good case that if “A” is a thing, “thing” SPIRE secures could give SPIR(thing)E. Far from obvious, I must say!

10 Covering two directions, roads moving ahead (7)
ONWARDS: (ROADS*) around N for north and W for west.

11 Those in agreement may celebrate as the process ends (5)
YESES: answer spelled out by the last letters (“ends”) of each word. Somehow always hard to see this type of clue.

12 Engrossed in easier novel, reading Hebrew (9)
ISRAELITE: LIT (reading) inside (engrossed in) (EASIER*). (Thanks, Kevin, for pointing out what I’d missed: LIT., short for “literature”, could be a reading.) I’m not sure all Israelites are Hebrews!

14 Reminder line must be read out? (3)
CUE: sounds like “queue”.

15 Broken down, where in France to camp? (3,2,6)
OUT OF ACTION: OU (“where” in France), TO, FACTION (camp).

17 Backward-looking leading nation cut adrift for periods in Washington, say? (11)
PUNCTUATION: UP backwards, then (NATION CUT*). “Periods” is the American term for “full stops”.

19 Sixties youth defending government department (3)
MOD: “mods” as opposed to “rockers”, if you remember the sixties. (They do say that those who remember weren’t there!) M.O.D. being the Ministry of Defence.

20 Lazily pose with relative crossing over bridge, say (9)
NOSEPIECE: (POSE*) inside NIECE. The definition being the bridge of a pair of spectacles, for example. Nice.

22 Alternative to the round brackets (5)
OTHER: hidden answer inside “tO THE Round”.

24 Cork goalie (7)
STOPPER: double definition. I’ve not heard a goalkeeper called a stopper, but it makes sense.

26 Book unfortunately unfinished, fellow opening it (7)
ALMANAC: ALAC{k} (unfortunately) around MAN.

27 Fine with children’s game (5)
WISPY: W (with), I SPY (the game).

28 Retrieve food for bird (9)
FIELDFARE: FIELD (retrieve a ball for example), FARE (food). Another frustrating clue. Unless you know the bird, which I didn’t, it’s a matter of guessing between FARE, CAKE, PÂTÉ, BAKE or whatever else comes to mind as food. None of them sounded like a bird to me!

Down
1 Rough dog (5)
HUSKY: double definition.

2 A paper in dispute (2,5)
AT ISSUE: or, split differently, A / TISSUE.

3 Delight, as contestant finally was in control of game (9)
TRANSPORT: T for {contestan}T, RAN, SPORT.

4 A dash of old port, suggestion after hot beverage (7,4)
CHARIOT RACE: CHA (hot beverage), RIO (port), TRACE (suggestion). Beautifully disguised definition!

5 Self-esteem to depart after low grade (3)
EGO: E (much lower than an A), GO (depart).

6 Look for water, quantity around opening in well (5)
DOWSE: DOSE (quantity) around W.

7 Drink in vermouth, stuff from the South (7)
MARTINI: IN, IT (vermouth), RAM – all written backwards (from the South).

8 Recognised and understood, order rescinded (9)
DISCERNED: (RESCINDED*).

13 Send round doctor, worried getting chill (11)
REFRIGERATE: REFER (“send”, as in “I’ll send you to the dictionary”), around RIG (doctor), followed by ATE (worried).

14 Something sharp in toothed device spotted – like this? (6,3)
COPING SAW: PIN (something sharp) in COG (toothed device), followed by SAW (spotted). I spotted “SAW” immediately, but took ages to get COPING.

16 Party having come together, toed the line (9)
CONFORMED: CON (party), FORMED (come together).

18 Those missing food, topside of beef gone? (2-5)
NO-SHOWS: NOSH (food), {c}OWS (“beef”, minus the first letter).

19 Great enthusiasm bedding house plant (7)
MAHONIA: MANIA around (“bedding”) HO (house). Another plant I don’t know, but this one was solvable.

21 Blooming thing like modern music (5)
POPPY: jocular double definition.

23 Observation regarding capacity and energy (5)
RECCE: RE (regarding), CC (cubic centimetre capacity), E (energy).

25 Judge rarely enjoying football, all kicking off (3)
REF: first letters of each word (“kicking off”).

23 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27018 – Saturday, 21 April 2018. A classic beauty – but don’t give me flowers!”

  1. It’s a relative clause: A (that a) tapering object secures; most likely the same explanation can apply in other cases you’ve found. But that’s what you wrote above, no? I don’t see the problem.

    Edited at 2018-04-28 01:12 am (UTC)

  2. I took forever on this one, and finally threw in the towel and looked up SPIRAEA; which I think I actually knew! I’ve probably come across FIELDFARE at some time or another; in any case it didn’t cause that much of a problem for me, FARE coming to mind, if not quickly, at least before anything else could. 17ac was a problem because I couldn’t get ‘penetration’ out of my head; Gresham’s law of crosswords (bad solves drive out good) at work again.
  3. It’s LIT (reading) that is ‘engrossed’ in (EASIER)*, the def being ‘Hebrew’. The citizens of Israel are Israelis not Israelites, so the reference is presumably to the biblical Hebrews.
  4. I agree with you, brnchn, that this was a splendid puzzle. It was so good that I made a note of the clues that I liked and I ended up with 12 plus 2 queries. You’ve answered my query on 18d but I’m sory, I still don’t understand Kevin’s point about the position of A in “A tapering object”. (Big sigh from the direction of Japan!)
    I also thought 4d was extra special but my favourite was WISPY.
    80m 27s of enjoyment.
    1. “A tapering object secures”=(the letter) A (that) SPIRE (tapering object) secures (surrounds)= SPIR(A)E
      plus A. My work here is done.
    2. Kevin’s idea is: BOX SPIRE absorbs could give SBOXIRE, to exaggerate the point. I suppose I might give him that one.
      1. Or SPIRBOXE, a plant of the same genus as Mahonia. I’m reminded for some reason of the famous (in some circles) sentence, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. Anyway, I do suspect that at least some of the similar cases you mention are similarly relative clauses (‘the man Fred met’ is superficially O S V).
  5. I don’t have a time for this as my endeavours had many moments of PUNCTUATION packing up youngest son’s bags and car, then waving him off back to his last term at University, followed by Jeff Stelling telling me of another nail in Bolton Wanderers’ coffin. It was certainly well more than the hour on this very good puzzle. Now I’m going to irritate all the urbanites. We have both a SPIRAEA and two MAHONIAs in our garden. Of course we have POPP(Y)ies. I needed crossers for FIELDFARE but I know the bird well. I knew of a COPING SAW. The only clue unparsed was REFRIGERATE. COD to the innocent looking WISPY. Thank you B and setter.
  6. ….or a similar libation, so that we can raise a glass to the compiler.

    FOI ONWARDS, from where I moved quite steadily through the puzzle, finishing in 14:44 without a single biff ! I’m quite proud of that time for this particular offering, which would have graced a Championship final in my opinion.

    Just a slight quibble with STOPPER. A goalie may be described as a “shot stopper”, but a “stopper” is usually an old-fashioned central defender.

    I knew the bird (one of my stronger subjects), worked out the only unknown (MAHONIA), and was lucky that one of my opponents on GrabbyWord had me scrambling for Chambers recently when she played SPIRAEA !

    LOI ISRAELITE
    COD WISPY

  7. 45 mins and enjoyed it.
    9ac was the trickiest. I will grudgingly allow ‘A’ that the spire secures. BUT “tapering object” to clue Spire is rubbish.
    Thanks setter and Brnchn.

    Edited at 2018-04-28 08:18 am (UTC)

    1. Chambers has “A tapering or conical object” as its first definition for “spire”, so I don’t think we can object to that. I wasted a lot of time trying to justify ACONITE, which looked as though it had to be.
      1. And that sweet city with her dreaming, tapering objects
        She needs not June for beauty’s heightening.

        Are we slaves to dictionaries? You know and I know, it’s rubbish.

  8. I have to say my heart sank when I saw the plant clues. In the event, both plants were what I regard as reasonably common. However I was completely unable to find the tapering object. I was also defeated by 17a; did not really see where the clue was going and had Penetration pencilled at the side. I was not helped by not knowing Coping Saw. I did get the unknown Fieldfare.
    I agree with our blogger, there were lots of excellent clues and a generally enjoyable puzzle. David
  9. Like Kevin I gave up on SPIRAEA and looked it up only to realise I had seen it before in a previous crossword. I was also BLINDSIDED by PUNCTUATION, which provoked a howl of anguish when it appeared in the wordfinder. Again, all I’d been able to think of was penetration. How could I have not seen it? Assembled the unknown MAHONIA ok and knew the bird. Liked CHARIOT RACE. It took me 58:59 with the cheats. Tricky puzzle. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  10. 1hr 26 and pleased just to fall over the finish line all correct. LOI spiraea was a lightning bolt that struck just as I was on the verge of giving up. Found this tough all over but especially unyielding in the LHS where heartache, spiraea, punctuation and nosepiece all held out for ages. 6ac and 9ac were unparsed. 19dn unknown but confidently constructed from wordplay. The alack in 26ac reminds me of the lyric:

    The Queen of Hearts
    She made some tarts
    In a great big China basin
    Alas alack, she turned her back
    And a poodle dipped his face in.

    Not sure if that one was Alfred Lord Tennyson or Cooperman from Russ Abbot’s Madhouse, one of the two I think.

  11. being beaten by 17ac PUNCTUATION so a DNF. Funny how this word is both singular and plural.

    No problem with 9ac SPIRAEA or 19dn MAHONIA.

    FOI 24ac STOPPER
    COD 27ac WISPY
    WOD 14ac YESES

    Yeses, a very fine puzzle but not as good as the recent ‘Oldie’.

  12. 42 minutes. Hard work and slow going, but some fun clues. I had no problem with the plants as I have both in my garden. PUNCTUATION my LOI… periods in Washington – very good. I liked NOSEPIECE and WISPY too. Thanks setter and B.
  14. As said above, a fine puzzle. 30 minutes, I knew both plants and the bird. Cod WISPY, when finally saw it, smile time.
  15. I agree with everyone who says what an excellent puzzle this is: clues like 4dn and 17ac are outstanding. Why then do we have the old chestnut 14ac (at least I think it’s a chestnut, since I’m sure I’ve come across the idea of “cue” = “queue” on several occasions)? Surely such a good setter could be a bit more imaginative.
  16. Wife and I had this one on the go intermittently for a week while doing others as well, glad to have finally stumbled over the line just short of midnight on day 7, very good puzzle, COD 4 down!

    Am amazed at some of the solving times claimed, brains the size of large asteroids out there, I guess!

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