Times Cryptic No 27322 Thursday, 11 April 2019 Definitive

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Not as much “fun” as George had last week, which is probably just as well. I didn’t initially get much at the top end, and bumbled through the lower clues steadily enough before discovering that the upper ones weren’t that tough after all, coming in just under 20 minutes.
There are an inordinate number of first/last letters variously indicated with a veritable Thesaurus of words for, um, first and last, and what seems like a lot of English and foreign definite articles.
One clue, 14a, I only parsed when I had to in order to satisfy any curiosity you may have.
There’s a Latinate plural that is perfectly sound, but which is not in Chambers (other dictionaries offer it while noting the rarity of its usage)
I offer you clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS to be discovered by clicking on any random pixel on the screen

[any random pixel]

Across

1 Fur or feather stole, acquired in that city (6)
BOGOTA The fur or feather stole is BOA, and in that place GOT for acquired
4 One appraises a couple of vessels taking gold round east (8)
ASSESSOR A is A, the two vessels are both SS , with OR gold, all placed strategically round E(ast)
9 The listener’s part in a murder resolved (7)
EARDRUM Much simpler than I thought, an anagram (resolved) of A MURDER
11 Two bachelors in farm machine, one muttering incoherently (7)
BABBLER Your two bachelors are both B, falling into the BALER farm machine as if in a gruesome episode of The Archers
12 Article framed by extremely emotional woman (5)
ETHEL The extremes of EmotionaL surround THE article
13 Worldwide rules Ivan abused (9)
UNIVERSAL Abuse the letters of RULES IVAN
14 Ominous, having shelter with spongy walls! (10)
PORTENTOUS Ah, right. I thought the shelter was (any old) PORT (in a storm), but it’s not. It’s a TENT, and its wall are constructed by POROUS for spongy
16 Deficiency of the Spanish sierra (4)
LOSS the LOS bit is the plural Spanish “the”, and S is the Nato Sierra
19 Guy appearing in Weber opera (4)
ROPE One of the easier “hiddens”, in WebeR OPEra. Not a random bloke, then
20 Newspaper mostly covering African party’s ritual (10)
OBSERVANCE The Observer (the one I know) is the venerable British Sunday newspaper, first published 1791, the world’s oldest. It’s not quite all there, with an insert featuring the ANC, Mandela’s party, founded in 1912
22 Parts of theatres represented in Paris once (9)
PROSCENIA The presumed plural of proscenium. The letters of PARIS ONCE are re-presented
23 Fast mover reversing army vehicle (5)
RACER The army is represented in brief by the Royal Engineers their vehicle an unprepossessing CAR. Engage reverse gear
25 Employ Aussie truck to tour the Italian islands (7)
UTILISE An antipodean  truck is a UTE (utility vehicle, presumably). The Italian is IL (as in Trovatore) and the islands IS
26 French city mayor originally adopting current travel industry (7)
TOURISM The French city is the rather wonderful TOURS, with a reconstructed 18th century bridge named for Woodrow Wilson. Add the “original” letter of Mayor and insert I (electrical) current
27 Edicts primarily embracing the old will get you the gold (5-3)
BULLS-EYE Edicts are (Papal) BULLS, and we have E from Embracing “primarily”. Add YE for the old version of the. Early printers substituted Y for þ, thorn, and it should always have been pronounce as th, before  Olde Tea Shoppes got hold of it
28 What Smith may be doin’, we hear, being sure to win? (4-2)
SHOO-IN Derived from US slang for a dead cert, sounding like a blacksmith shoeing (a horse) while not botherin’ with the g.

Down

1 Breeder providing accommodation for drones? (9)
BEEKEEPER I assume this is a (not very) cryptic definition, drones being, well, bees. Wiki rather sniffily says “Honey bees are not domesticated and the beekeeper does not control the creatures”: rather like cats, the most we can hope for is that we are suffered to provide them with home comforts and unstinting service. But Wiki also says that “Queen breeders are specialist beekeepers who raise queen bees for other beekeepers”, so that’s alright then
2 Courtyard right in centre of Goliath’s city (5)
GARTH Fine if you know that Goliath came from GATH, and that a garth, once you put the R(ight) in, is “an enclosure or yard (now dialect ); […] a courtyard within a cloister” (thanks, Chambers)
3 Certain type of singer engaging husband as pageturner (8)
THRILLER Your singer (once you have discarded altos and mezzos and such) turns out to be a TRILLER, engaging his/her Husband
5 Naval officer’s place secured by rent-payer (13)
SUBLIEUTENANT Place is LIEU (French/military)and the rent payer is a SUB-TENANT. It is indeed a specifically naval rank
6 Symbol English doctor associated with the Parisian Metro at first (6)
EMBLEM French the provides the LE, after E(nglish) MB (doctor as in Medicinae Baccalaureus). Finish off with the first bit of Metro
7 Old sailor readily assuming power — Silver, possibly? (4,5)
SALT SPOON Old sailor: SALT, readily SOON, plus P(ower) carefully assembled. The result might indeed be silver(ware)
8 Country river, one in central Russia (5)
RURAL River provides the R, and defines what the “one” is, namely the river URAL, which forms much of the border between Europe and Asia
10 Put on play ultimately about key financier’s charlatanism (13)
MOUNTEBANKERY Put on: MOUNT, plus the “ultimate” letter of plaY surround random one of 7 notes E and BANKER for financier
15 Reportedly criticised exam absorbing one like a hobby? (9)
RAPTORIAL It helps if you see hobby and think falcon. Criticised would be rapped, but sounding as RAPT, the exam an ORAL surrounding I, one
17 Person driving oxen over island (9)
STEERSMAN Does  a helmsman “drive” a boat? Close enough for our purposes, perhaps. Oxen STEERS and the random island MAN
18 Excessive deliveries initially made at a London hospital (8)
OVERMUCH Today’s cricket reference, 6 deliveries producing an OVER. “Initially” Made and University College Hospital (on Euston Road, yours for a hundred quid).
21 Bags of writings showing no end of talent (6)
SCRIPS The writings are SCRIPTS, but with no (neither?) end of talent. The clue would work perfectly well with just the first three words as a DD.
22 It sounds like a fruit tree? Exactly (5)
PLUMB Hooray for silent B!
24 Senior officer drinking in atmosphere in African capital (5)
CAIRO Our senior officer is a CO, and AIR is the atmosphere imbibed.

76 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27322 Thursday, 11 April 2019 Definitive”

  1. I didn’t know the ‘bags’ meaning of SCRIPS, but what else could it be. As an aside, I spent a pleasant afternoon people-watching in Tours, finding its denizens to be some of the handsomest on offer in any city. And thanks for the his/her at 3dn.
  2. The only clue to hold me up was 21d- SCRIPS. Like aphis99, I didn’t know that meaning of scrip. I believe the Loire Valley, of which Tours is part, of course, is where the most correct French is spoken. Apparently that dates back to the time when the whole area was hunting territory for royalty and nobility, hence all the chateaux.
    1. Widmerpool was of that opinion; but what–nay, what the hell– does ‘the most correct French’ mean?
      1. You got it from Anthony Powell. I got it from a guidebook. Either way I believe it means the French that the Académie Française would recognise as the most correct
      2. PS…And I also assume it means French spoke with the Gallic equivalent of Received Pronunciation.
      3. Just to note, Z’s blog doesn’t collapse when I go to add a comment so it may be a device thing or browser issue. I’m using a standard desktop, Windows 10 and Chrome.

        When I present my blog in LJ I just highlight what’s to be hidden and click the ‘scissors’ icon to hide it. I don’t know any other way of doing it.

  3. I went offline at 15′, having to get to the hospital for exam results–totally negative–and finished while sitting in the waiting room. DNK SCRIPS, my LOI. I imagine I did know ‘hobby’ once, but in any case RAPTORIAL suddenly appeared among the checkers. What is 1d doing in this puzzle? or even a QC?
  4. DNF in 55 minutes. Frustrating, as I got all but a couple in half an hour, then spent ages seeing 1a BOGOTA, and finally plumped for GARCH as my random guess at 2d, knowing neither the city nor the courtyard. Oh well.
  5. Around 13 minutes, but unsubmitted as I decided to just acknowledge my ignorance and find out where Goliath came from. Not knowing the courtyard either, that left a few possibilities.

    Out of curiosity, does anyone know which dialects still use GARTH? New one on me.

    Thanks setter and enlightened blogger

    2. Some Yorkshire placenames use garth (Aysgarth, Arkengarthdale) but I don’t think cloisters came into it .. just farmsteads
      1. I looked at buying a house in a road called Aysgarth near where I live now in Hampshire. I never knew where the name came from – until now!
        1. It is from Old Norse (hence its appearance in Yorkshire) .. according to the OED it means: “A small piece of enclosed ground, usually beside a house or other building, used as a yard, garden, or paddock”
    3. When we first moved to Yorkshire and rented while we were looking for a house to buy I had to go and pick up the keys from a house on Butts Garth in Thorner. Tautologically (or perhaps neoplasmically) it’s just round the corner from Butts Garth Court.
    4. I take it you don’t know the famous “poem”…

      Goliath of Gath with hith helmet of brath
      Was theated one day upon the green grath.
      When up thprang young David, the thervant of Thaul
      Who thaid I will thmite thee although I’m tho thmall…

      There’s lots more but you get the idea. No one hearing it could ever forget Goliath’s place of residence.
      And I didn’t get to my favourite line “Goliath fell down in a thwoon on the thward…” My FIO by the way. Ann

      Edited at 2019-04-11 05:01 pm (UTC)

  6. 30 minutes with no problems other than the unknown meaning of SCRIPS, but it was easy to arrive at from wordplay. Oh, and a slight hold-up at 28ac where I started with SHOE-IN as, never having seen it written down, I’ve always thought it was based on something being easy like having a shoe-in-the-door already – one lives and learns!

    Speaking of The Observer, it’s the home of the Everyman cryptic puzzle which has always in the past been of the finest quality, a little more challenging than, say, our QC, but somewhat easier than the Times 15×15, so an excellent intermediate training ground for those who want to advance their cryptic skills. For a long time up to March 2015 it was set by our own QC man, Tracy, and when he retired Colin Gumbrill took over, but in February this year Colin left and the puzzle quickly became a disaster area, possibly whilst a new regular setter was awaiting appointment, or another theory is that management contracted the puzzle out. Anyway things seem now to be settling down slowly although it’s still a bit erratic, and the level of difficulty is not as finely tuned for the everyman solver as it used to be.

    Edited at 2019-04-11 06:31 am (UTC)

  7. I failed with GARTH, not knowing either the courtyard or Goliath’s city. I’d plumped for GERTH having a vague notion they Geth might be a biblical city.

    Otherwise a fairly steady solve except in the SE corner where I’d biffed ODDS ON for “being sure to win” and taking some time to spot my error.

  8. GARHH! just about represents my reaction on finding what I has mistyped at 2dn, and after proof-reading too. No problem with Goliath of Gath and hith helmet of brath and afterwards I googled ‘Cloister Garth’, which seemed familiar. only to find that it’s a street in my home town.
  9. 30 mins with yoghurt, granola and apple (yes, we have no bananas).
    Knew Gath and, vaguely, Garth. DNK Scrip=bag but guessable.
    Nice to be reminded of Bulls-eye (British ’70s game show) and the remarkable Jim Bowen.
    Jim: The next contestant is Mick from Stockport. How are you Mick?
    Mick: Well, I’ve just been sacked and my wife has left me.
    Jim: Lovely, smashin’, super.

    Thanks setter and Z.

  10. My daughter studied French at Nantes University and was told (constantly) that the Loire accent is the purest French accent. As to who decided so, who knows? One of the various kings born there perhaps..
  11. 27 minutes with LOI BOGOTA, once BEEKEEPER dawned on me. I knew the Philistine Goliath was from Gath, so GARTH was ventured early. GARTH is a character in Ivanhoe, as seen long ago on ITV with Roger Moore, when he was still married to Dorothy Squires. I don’t know if the character was in Walter Scott. And, as we all know so well, it is also the courtyard in Gloucester Cathedral. I didn’t know SCRIPS but it could be no other. WOD to MOUNTEBANKERY, COD to SHOO-IN. Still wall-to-wall sunshine on our hols here in Lancashire, five days in a row. It’s August that’s the monsoon season. Enjoyable puzzle.Thank you Z and setter.

    Edited at 2019-04-11 08:37 am (UTC)

  12. Another straightforward puzzle except GARTH that I had to look up to check GATH was correct and a guess at PROSCENIA
  13. 17 minutes, also thought it was spelt SHOE-IN but it had to be Cairo so SHOO. 1A MY FOI and the too easy 1d. Liked SALT SPOON.
  14. ..How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath… (2 Samuel 1:20). I think the Bible is trying to tell us something.
  15. In a school play, I once had the *honour* of playing the front end of a reindeer. Our moment of glory was a two minute piece on said part of stage whilst a quick scene change was taking place behind the closed curtains. At the end of which some delicate manoeuvring was required to turn us around in the narrow space left without falling off at the feet of various visiting dignitaries.

    Unfortunately, this caused my *head* to fall forward and I blindly trotted us off, mistakenly, straight down the steps at the side (which had been disguised by some scenery) where we hastily squatted, swearing and hissing recriminations at one another, all overheard by, and much to the amusement of, said dignitaries and parents in the front rows. No chance I’ll ever forget the name of that particular part of the theatre!

    This was a quick (for me) solve today. LOI, NHO 21d. Thanks to setter and Z

    1. Now if you were kind enough to repeat the action in another theatre, we might be in a position to use the first recorded authentic use of PROSCENIA. There’s power in this here community!

      1. Thanks, but no thanks Z. That was the (ignominious) begining and end to my thespian career!
  16. Well, I’m on another planet this morning, or perhaps gone through the black hole into a parallel universe. After a wearisome QC showing, I got an all-time PB of 9′ 23”, with no shrugs or struggles.

    Thanks for the fine blog, and thanks to setter.

    Edited at 2019-04-11 10:04 am (UTC)

  18. didn’t know SHOO-IN was spelt like that so I learnt something. Slightly confused about ‘that’ in 1a, but I suppose it’s OK. Nice to complete this in reasonable time, and get some other stuff done today!
  19. After biffing ODDS-ON at 28a, I was disabused of the notion that it could be correct, by getting CAIRO. Unfortunately I corrected it to SHOE-IN, thus giving myself 2 errors, which my cursory proof reading failed to spot. Drat! No real problems with GARTH. Although I didn’t know the yard meaning, I knew the word having driven through Arkengarthdale and stopped at and absorbed the beauty of Aysgarth Falls. RAPTORIAL and PROSCENIA were constructed confidently from the wordplay. Nice puzzle. 28:15 with 1 letter wrong. Thanks setter and Z8.
  20. A slight whiff of old radio here with SUBLIEUTENANT (Phillips of the Navy Lark) and ETHEL (of the Glums). And then there’s “party-on” GARTH from Wayne’s World which my children thought hilarious in the early 90s. 17.28
  21. Or comment, perhaps? – the GK given the odd checker and that flicker of word-sense possibilities isn’t off the Times scale, if not at the easier end. Found this a bit of a stroll with an unusual sub-15 by a minute. Word of the day, mountebankery.
  22. A Monday-ish Thursday puzzle, all done in 6m 36s. GATH rang a bell but GARTH was my LOI, hoping that confidence would grow as the puzzle progressed.

    I had PLAIN at 22d, which is probably a bit of a stretch for ‘exactly’, but fortunately 25a soon indicated the right way to go.

  23. The idea that one version of French (or any other language) is more or less ‘correct’ or ‘pure’ than another is, of course, complete ordure
    1. An acquaintance of mine was on a tour of China some years ago, and witnessed another member (American, of course) cornering the guide at one point and saying, “Now, you’re sure this is the most beautiful temple in China?”
  24. 9:29. A few years ago Dean Mayer used the phrase TELL IT NOT IN GATH as an answer in one of his puzzles, and for some reason the phrase stuck with me. Fortunate because otherwise I’d have had no idea about 2dn. What an unnecessarily nasty little clue.
    2. Whereas I would have thought that “tell it not in Gath” was something of an Old Testament chestnut, and that the Old Testament was within the realm of GK. (The Old Testament, on the other hand, is unnecessarily nasty.)
      1. Well that crossword is the only time I’ve ever come across the phrase in my life. As ever ‘general’ knowledge is a matter of debate but scripture features less in education and general culture than it once did.
  25. At one point I thought I was heading for a record, but then slowed down in the top-left. I always thought it was “Whjsper it not in Gath, tell it not in the streets of Ashkelon” – but I see that “Tell it not in Gath” is the commonest version. What we are enjoined not to speak of is the death of Saul and Jonathan in battle — “lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice”.
      1. I’m a theist physicist who finds that explanation more rational than any atheist/ humanist alternative. This view is surprisingly common among modern physicists, perhaps less so with life scientists. This isn’t the place to argue why I think so, although I’ll just mention the names of Gödel, Nagel and Heisenberg along with all the mysteries of quantum uncertainty and entanglement. Indeed, the atheist philosopher John Gray’s most recent book ‘Seven Types of Atheism’ presents the most savage critique of Humanism I’ve ever read. Admittedly, I am culturally a cradle Angican, claiming to be the last Victorian and the first baby boomer, brought up in that mix of the memory of the great Victorian Anglican revival still around in my youth and rock music. My reason for replying to your comment is that both some of the posters to this site and some of the setters are clearly of a similar disposition to me on this, and are not fools. Listen to the music of Dylan and Leonard Cohen and their words are suffused with religious imagery. To seek the transcendent is part of modern culture
        1. I don’t mean to suggest that I think anyone is a fool, and that’s really not my point. I’m an atheist, which perhaps explains my lack of interest in the finer details of scripture, but more pertinently it didn’t feature at any point in my education. Some knowledge of the bible is of course part of general culture and knowledge, and I would expect solvers to be familiar with the story of David and Goliath, but knowing where Goliath was born is a step too far into obscurity, in my opinion. And I would submit as evidence the number of solvers here (not an ignorant bunch) who didn’t know it.
  27. 17:20 with about 7 minutes on my last 3 in the NW corner:
    1a – thought of both BOA and GOT but the Yoda-esque construction stopped me putting one inside t’other for so long.
    2d – didn’t have a scooby whence Goliath hailed.
    3d – until I had the initial T I couldn’t work out where to put the H. ?HR? didn’t strike me as a likely combo for the start of the word.

    At 28 like eniamretrauq I thought it was a “shoe-in”. Speaking of 28, isn’t it a farrier who fits the shoe a smith has made? Not that I’m an expert, but I did once apply for a job as a farrier’s apprentice. At the interview he asked me if I’d ever shoed a horse. I said “No, but I once told a donkey to f**k off”.

  28. No problem with GARTH, but held up for nearly 2 minutes at the end looking for SCRIPS – a new meaning if the word for me. 12:49
  29. ….until I took almost 2 minutes over my LOI, where the hospital – even with its full Sunday name – was a DNK.

    Still just broke 10 minutes, but I didn’t rate it particularly highly on my enjoyment scale.

    FOI EARDRUM
    LOI OVERMUCH
    COD SHOO-IN (nothing to do with footwear !)
    TIME 9:45

  30. Well, I failed at the obscurity clued by an obscurity, plumping for “gorth”. I knew from the outset that I had no way of getting that one other than by chance, which left me a little downcast for the remainder of the puzzle. SCRIPS also held me up – I was unconvinced by it as an answer, and so plodded through the entire alphabet to see if I could find something better.
  31. A rare sub-15 minute for me as knew Gath (from ‘tell it not …’) and the required meaning of ‘scrips’.
  32. 30:52. I had a bit of trouble remembering The Observer newspaper for some reason. Didn’t know scrips but I was confident from word play and the answer seemed to click. In contrast I was maybe 70 per cent sure that the big man came from Gath but garth didn’t chime with me at all and there was no real satisfying click when that one went in. Definite WOD to mountebankery.
  33. I think the setter’s geography may be a bit off regarding the Urals? If referring to the River, that is actually close to the border with Kazakhstan-ie SW Russia. If referring to Ural as in simply ‘a mountain’, that would be Western Russia, and the Range terminates at the Ural River in the south. But nevertheless completely biffable of course. Mr Grumpy
  34. 21 minutes with no real problems. As I said above in reply to Sotira, I’m surprised that no one else has mentioned:

    Goliath of Gath with his helmet of brath
    Wath theated one day upon the green Grath etc…

    But I now see there’s only one reference on Google and even that’s not the exact version I know. It used to be a favourite in the rugby club in spite of its U certificate. More verses available on request… Ann

  35. Where is the blog? Apparently some solvers received
    it, but I wasn’t one of them.
    Barbara
  36. DNF, but only because of 2dn (GARTH, for which my guess was GORCH). There is often obscure vocabulary in the Times cryptic, fair enough if the wordplay helps, but a combination of obscure vocabulary and obscure Biblical references is a bit too much in a puzzle which one is supposed to be able to manage, if only just, without consulting aids. And of course if I had consulted a reference, it would have been too easy. SCRIPS went in with a prayer, but at least it was right.

    Edited at 2019-04-11 06:15 pm (UTC)

  37. I’m another who knew not of Gath, nor GARTH, so instead of guessing I just stopped musing over it and looked it up. So a DNF, and if I had been forced to guess at it, would probably have taken a flier on GERTH, as Geth sounds somewhat biblical. Oh well, better luck tomorrow. SCRIPS was unknown too but the wordplay was blatantly obvious. Regards.
  39. Did first half on paper then finished online so my recorded time of 23:18 is not correct. More like 45 mins. Nothing too hard here…
    1. Hm. Well, practice has a lot to do with it. The cryptic clues generally give you two ways of getting to the answer, definition and wordplay, which means you’re not just trying to pick words out of thin air.
      But also it’s a bit like golf. You can cheat if you want, but it’s self defeating. The pleasure is in meeting the challenge head on and getting a result.
      You’ll notice that most days, there’ll be solvers who have to look up answers, but usually record it as “did not finish” – in other words, the crossword defeated them.
      Doubtless some people “cheat” without admitting it, but then what would be the point?
  42. Thanks setter and z8b8d8k
    A bit the other way for me this solve … seemed to get through a good deal of the top in double quick time but then hit the skids, particularly in the SW corner. The only hold up on the other side where I’d hopefully penned in NOEL in at 16 with the -O– in place, which only came good when the clever STEERSMAN landed.
    Finished with PROSCENIA (which I had to check when had worked out the word play), RAPTORIAL (similarly, well more checking that ‘hobby’ was a member of the raptor family) and that SCRIPS (that was completely unknown).
    Knew GATH as a biblical place from some distant memory and presumed that was where Goliath hailed from – did need to check GARTH though (couldn’t be anything else from the word play). As with a lot of others MOUNTEBANKERY was my best of the day – vaguely recalled it and also needed to double check that.

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