Times Cryptic No 27324 – Saturday, 13 April 2019. Heads down, tails up.

Author   branchPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Well, nothing easy about this one, although it is all solvable. Certainly there was no biffing for me – each clue required work to unravel. I only got two answers on my first pass, and slowly struggled through the rest. LOI was 19dn. I still have one clue, 12ac, unparsed as I start the blog! Well done indeed, setter!

There were too many good clues to nominate a clue of the day. I liked 1ac, 1dn, 7dn and many more. PS: now I’ve finally deciphered 12ac, I’m going to put it in a category by itself, and ask whether you all loved it or hated it!

Clues are in blue, with definitions underlined. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, then wordplay. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’. Deletions are in [square brackets].

Across
1 Report men wearing stockings: caught in the act! (4,2,6)
BANG TO RIGHTS: BANG=report, OR=men, “wearing” TIGHTS=stockings.

8 Repair of concrete fencing not everyone wanted at first (7)
RENEWAL: REAL=concrete “fencing” NEW=the first letters of Not Everyone Wanted.

9 Liberator’s shame is recollected (7)
MESSIAH: “re-collection” of (SHAME IS*).

11 Sound introduction to science encyclopedia? (7)
VOLUMES: VOLUME=sound, as in “turn the volume/sound up”. S is the introduction of S[cience].

12 Boy who’s lost both parents, or lacking sight of one of them? (7)
PHANTOM: the boy who lost his parents might be ORPHAN TOM, and “lacking OR”, that makes him PHAN TOM! A sighting of either of his dead parents would of course also be a PHANTOM.

13 It’s dangerous to consume canned beef (5)
TOXIN: OX in TIN, aka “canned beef”.

14 Liquid hotter — not running (2,3,4)
ON THE TROT: “liquify” (HOTTER NOT*).

16 One’s hardest defeat: on the floor! (5,4)
LEVEL BEST: BEST=defeat, “on” LEVEL=floor.

19 Articles dipped in warm salt water that nanny did? (5)
MAAED: the MED is the warm salt water. Insert the article A twice.

21 Let out room Oscar has got in a state (7)
VERMONT: RM is an abbreviation for room, Oscar the phonetic name for the letter O. Put them in VENT=let out.

23 An element of revulsion after personnel turned away (7)
RHODIUM: take HR=personnel and “turn it away”. Then add ODIUM.

24 Like a hand recalling web designers? (7)
SPIDERY: a cryptic definition, relating to shaky handwriting.

25 Somewhat overwhelmed by Balmoral, maybe, finding the place haunted (7)
HABITAT: I’ve seen a Balmoral HAT as part of Scots dress, but didn’t know the name. Insert A BIT=somewhat.

26 Visit, at home, one indebted to doctor for energy and strength (7,5)
STAYING POWER: STAY=visit. IN=at home. GP=doctor. OWER=one indebted, i.e. owing. Assemble.

Down
1 King who sang by accident’s heard in three countries (7)
BENELUX: I didn’t know BEN E. King, but of course did know some of his hit songs as lead singer of The Drifters. LUX sounds like “Luck’s”.

2 Reporter’s cardinal sin, dropping in plugs (7)
NEWSMAN: NEWMAN is the Cardinal. “Plug” with SIN, after dropping the IN.

3 Contract that’s far-sighted (9)
TELESCOPE: double definition. The first definition jarred with me initially, but “telescoping” can, I guess, describe either opening (extending) or closing (contracting) the optical device. Chambers says specifically ‘closing’, so ignore me.

4 Deservedly get to cover number one in music chart again (5)
REMAP: REAP=deservedly get, M=number one (first letter) in Music.

5 Be unused, perhaps, to rage (2,5)
GO SPARE: another double definition.

6 Do bird? Third time, not second, for conman (7)
TWITTER: TWISTER=conman has two T’s. Replace S for “second” by a third T for “time”.

On edit: there is interesting discussion in the comments below on why the definition should be “do bird” rather than “conman “. I thought that “time, not second” must mean change S to T, not vice versa, so that pointed me to the answer. Even more subtly, if you were to read the wordplay as saying change the third T to an S, the result should be TWITSER!!

Still, like the commentators below, I admit I don’t enjoy clues where you come away thinking, “I’m still not really sure which end of the clue is the definition”!

On further edit: I think this clue is unambiguous, although with the tricky definition (“do bird” meaning “imitate birdsong”) and the cunning editing instructions, it’s undoubtedly a challenging clue!

7 Coward’s acts, as it happens, concealed by soldiers (7,5)
PRIVATE LIVES: I thought of Nöel Coward at first glance, but it took a long time to think of the play.

10 Obligation to accommodate politician after seat, his disastrously lost (6-6)
HUMPTY-DUMPTY: HUMPTY=a type of seat. DUTY=obligation, “accommodating” MP=politician.

15 Odd trip south coach can take (9)
TUTORSHIP: “odd” arrangement of (TRIP SOUTH*).

17 Short change perfect pest (7)
VARMINT: VAR[y] = change, MINT = perfect.

18 Places to go and see? Not exactly (7)
LOOSELY: LOOS=places to go (nudge, nudge). ELY=see.

19 Night light to display behind dish briefly (4-3)
MOON-BOW: MOON=display behind. BOW[l]=dish.

20 Fellow celebrity (7)
ALISTER: the celebrity might be an A-LISTER, so the definition is this random fellow.

22 Wear for the first time fashion clothing line (3-2)
TRY-ON: TON=fashion, “clothing” RY=railway line. I’m not sure the definition is consistent with the hyphen in the answer. I would think a try-on is a scam or such like, to try on is to wear for the first time.

 

45 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27324 – Saturday, 13 April 2019. Heads down, tails up.”

  1. I liked Orphan Tom, but then it was almost my FOI, plus having it resolved some other questions in the NE (eg, could Twitter really be ‘to bird’?). I had the agony of quickly seeing exactly how many of the tricky bits were meant to work (Med as warm salt water, Ely as the See, Noel Coward) but then struggling to come up with the goods by way of the bits needed to complete the answer.

    I did think that there were more than the usual number of clues with what I think of as setter’s latitude – for example where it’s not really &lit, but the definition still overlaps with the wordplay and a bit of a leap is needed to connect it all together: the orphan’s parents being phantoms, the connection between a spidery hand and web designing spiders. But perhaps it’s just that I get slowed up on those intricacies when the puzzle is difficult. Which this was.

    Thx and a tip of the Balmoral to setter and to Brnchn

    1. I meant to say in my comments that I have swum in the Med in May sunshine and it was very cold.
  2. Bruce, It’s a HUMPTY (not a humpy) that’s a kind of seat, apparently. I didn’t know it so thank you and thank you for explaining the other seven queries I had (13ac, 25ac, 18d, 6d, 12ac, 21ac 19d)
    I got PHANTOM because it had to be but although you explained it well, it put it into the too-hard-basket to parse for me.
    I really wasn’t sure I had 6d, TWITTER, correct. It was too much of a double helix as Val used to say. One can read it that ‘for conman’ meant conman was the answer.
    1. Yes, we had exactly that point in a QC this week when faced with this clue:

      Lacking strength, reportedly, for seven days (4)

      and having to decide whether the answer was ‘week’ or ‘weak’, it was the word ‘for’ that tipped the balance in favour of ‘week’.

      1. In that previous example, I thought the “for” was conclusive for a different reason: because it forced “reportedly” to qualify “weak”.

        In the current clue, I thought “time, not second” must mean change S to T, not v.v. Even more subtly, if you were to read the wordplay as saying change the third T to an S, the result should be TWITSER!!

        Edited at 2019-04-20 07:19 am (UTC)

        1. That was my initial interpretation, but having dismissed it as impossible every other reading seemed flawed in some way. Shame, because ‘Do bird?’ was brilliant until the wordplay confused matters.

          Edited at 2019-04-20 08:55 am (UTC)

    2. Thanks Martin. Just a typo, which I’ll now fix.

      Edited at 2019-04-20 06:43 am (UTC)

  3. No time to give as I’ve cheated on 20 down, not knowing that spelling of ALISTER and being too gormless to twig A-LISTER. I had decided it must be MAAED too, as opposed to BAAED, as the sheep were separated from the goats. It was a nice welcome to the puzzle. , seeing 1d and thinking of the last song at every sixties dance I went to, hoping that the girl in my arms … and I’m going to have Spanish Harlem as an ear worm all day too. So BENELUX was a write-in. There were many other good clues with LEVEL BEST, MOON BOW and PHANTOM my pick of the day. Very enjoyable. Thank you B and setter.

    Edited at 2019-04-20 06:04 am (UTC)

    1. I had an unfair advantage. I actually know a chap called Alister, although every time I email him I’m sure I’ve spelt it wrongly,
  4. I got off to a good start with this one, filling in 1a,8a,9a,13a,14a with not much hestitation but thereafter, it all became a slog. Like Paul above, I managed to find so many pieces of the clues but struggled to put them together and often could not determine which should be the definition.
    This is probably not a good place for a learner to put themself in but I find this setter (whom I’ve nicknamed ‘Him Again’) obtuse to the point of not wishing to even try to get on his wavelength. Ultimately, I gave up and, having seen the answers (for which thanks brnchn) was glad I didn’t waste any more time.
    1. Fair enough. They do get easier with practice, I promise. Although today’s had me thinking dark thoughts!
  5. A worthy struggle for the most part but I still don’t fully understand the mechanics of 6dn where I put TWISTER, though without much conviction. I’ve no problem with ‘do bird = twitter’ as we have had ‘do = imitate’ many a time, but but the syntax of the clue suggests to me that we are headed for ‘conman’ as the definition of the answer. Can Bruce or someone else have another go at explaining it for my addled brain please?

    Edited at 2019-04-20 05:55 am (UTC)

    2. The word ‘for’ is performing a similar role to that in phrases like ‘it’s curtains for you’ or ‘no pudding for you young man.’ So it indicates that TWISTER is getting a third T (time) instead of an S (second).
      1. For me the problem was that the ‘for’ comes after everything – it doesn’t say ‘third time for second’, it says ‘third time, not second, for…’. You don’t say “it’s curtains you for’ unless you’re Yoda. So I saw where all the pieces were, just the assembly instructions didn’t exactly work for me. I guess my problem was reading the ‘for’ as ‘substitute’, but the instructions are just the ‘time, not second’.

        Edited at 2019-04-20 04:11 pm (UTC)

        1. ‘Curtains for you’ strikes me as perfectly normal idiomatic English, no Yoda required.
          The third T is ‘for’ the answer in the way three ice-creams are ‘for’ Freddy because he’s been such a good boy. It’s not a substitution indicator.
          I can’t see any problem with it.

          Edited at 2019-04-20 04:23 pm (UTC)

          1. Finally get it. I was reading it as a substitution ‘x for y’. I might quibble that that tells you no S, add a third T, but doesn’t tell you where the third T goes. But my heart wouldn’t be in it.
            Paul offline
  6. Another TWISTER here. Too convoluted for me! Otherwise a 47:53 struggle. Setting off for England soon, so won’t be doing today’s puzzle just yet. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  7. I really liked this one. Don’t personally see a problem sorting out which end of 6dn is which, surely you have to start with the conman and end with the birding, which therefore becomes the def? “Twister” doesn’t work. Perhaps it’s just the way I first read it. Struggled rather with MAAD and ALISTER but got there in the end.
    Love “Bang to rights,” as in “It’s a fair cop guv’nor, you’ve got me bang to rights and no mistake..” shades of Dixon of Dock Green, and the good old days when burglars had principles. Whereas nowadays, even cabinet ministers don’t
    1. Nowadays?
      I started with DEAD TO RIGHTS, which is how we say it, but of course it wouldn’t do; never heard of BANG TO etc.
      1. Must be an episode or two of Dixon of Dock Green on youtube, Kevin .. fascinating historical comment. Almost every value and attitude displayed, in stark contrast to those of the present day.
  8. Happy to have plumped for TWITTER, though it took me a bit of wrangling to convince myself. Think that was LOI. FOI 1a BANG TO RIGHTS. Lots enjoyed along the way, especially 18d LOOSELY and 12a ORPHAN.

    At 59 minutes, I thought this was a hard crossword (well, I did until I tried today’s!) and I had a lot of question marks in the margins, so thanks to the setter for the challenge and to Bruce for unpicking it all for us.

  9. Another TWISTER here. Also looked at MAAED and thought, nah, that can’t be a word, which left me stymied for ALLISTER. So a DNY again, doh. I did love “display behind” and “places to go” definitely raised a giggle. Thank you brnchn for the explanations as ever.
  10. 20m on the nose. I agonised over over 6dn for ages at the end, and eventually got it right because I could just about justify it from the wordplay, whereas TWISTER made no sense at all. I wasn’t quite sure though: I found it hard to accept that the second T was the third one, although I suppose there’s no reason why not. I didn’t know the word TWISTER for a conman either, but it seemed perfectly plausible.
    I also struggled with the MAAED (is that really a word?) and ALISTER (does anyone spell it like that?) crossing pair.
    1. It’s the third T in that it takes the total from 2 to 3. The added T doesn’t have to be third in position.
      1. Yes I get that, but the third T is still the second one! It just short-circuited my crossword brain a bit, probably because it’s such an unusual device.

        Edited at 2019-04-20 09:34 am (UTC)

          1. Even when the penny dropped I couldn’t quite believe it, and spent a while checking that I really couldn’t make TWISTER work. For the avoidance of doubt though I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it: the problem is with my convention-bound solving brain!
            1. But also for the avoidance of doubt, I still think it’s a flawed clue. Anything that causes so much difference in interpretation between so many seasoned solvers and bloggers must surely have something wrong with it?

              Edited at 2019-04-20 12:57 pm (UTC)

              1. I can’t find a polite way to respond to that Jack. Suffice it to say I could not disagree more. It is no responsibility of the setter’s to ensure we all agree.
                1. In fact, it might just be his or her responsibility to get solvers into a twist.

                  Edited at 2019-04-20 04:17 pm (UTC)

              2. I don’t think there is any difference in interpretation: there’s only one valid way of reading the clue and I don’t see anyone arguing for another.
  11. I solved this on paper and have just found my copy with notes. At 8.45pm on Saturday I had three left: 19a, 19d and 20d. In a joyous moment I met ALISTER (COD for me) and then decided on BAAED and a barely plausible BUOY BOW just to finish the puzzle off.
    I also had TWISTER at 6d.
    So a few errors but generally a very enjoyable challenge.
    I must mention Alister MacKenzie, a Northern grammar school boy made good who went to Cambridge to study medecine and afterwards became one of the world’s most renowned golf course designers, including Augusta National where The Masters was being played on the day of the puzzle. A coincidence? David
  12. DNF in 34:58. I was another twister instead of twitter. This solve lacked the surefootedness of most solves where, however difficult the clues are, once I’ve cracked them, I feel pretty confident about what I’ve entered. There were too many here where I felt out on a limb and still uncertain even after entering the answer: phantom, maaed, rhodium, habitat, moon-bow, Alister and of course twitter which I got wrong. An off-wavelength solving experience.
    1. I knew of rhodium and Alister, and got the wordplay for habitat at the time, although it was one of my last in. Twitter and phantom are whole separate topics! The others in your list I was happy(?) to enter trusting the wordplay and look up afterwards.
  13. ….had me thinking “goat’s pee”, and I eventually gave up after half an hour without MAAED and ALISTER.

    Thanks to Bruce for parsing RENEWAL and NEWSMAN.

    Although I was never on the setter’s wavelength, I got TWITTER without too much trouble, and, much as I liked MOON-BOW, my COD was PHANTOM.

  14. 1a) Why does report=bang
    26a) One indebted and doctor seem to be in the wrong order, is that allowed?
    For to difficult for me.
    1. A report from a gun might be a bang.

      If you borrow from a bank, I suppose you might be a bank-ower? It’s a bit clunky, but I guess that’s where the clue is coming from: a GP-ower.

  15. Thank you so much for the blog. I usually do complete the Saturday Cryptic at a leisurely pace but this one totally defeated me. I think I gave up after about an hour with just 4 answers in the grid. I’m rather glad I did having read your blog.
    1. … although your comments very much echo mine on this week’s puzzle, in next week’s blog!
  16. I thought 6 down might have some people all of a twitter: it was not my intention to present a controversial clue, and had it been the championship I might have reconsidered allowing it, as we don’t like to create bad feeling unnecessarily.
    However the answer really can only be TWITTER: the “for” is I suppose the confusing issue, but A for B can only mean “put A instead of B” so there is no suggestion of a “double helix” or whatever
      1. Indeed, I thought writing the blog that it only needed a succinct explanation! I struggled a bit while solving, but was then happy that the answer was clear. I missed the controversial elements entirely,
  17. Thanks setter and brnchn
    This took an elapsed fortnight to get out … but glad that i persisted – it did sit idle with an unfinished 20d for most of that time. The satisfying thing was that was able to navigate through all of the tricky ones that gave others lots of trouble as well and finished with a correctly filled in grid at the end.
    Many clues to like – well had a lot of time to get used to many of them !!
    Had parsed 4d differently – had ME (number one) in RAP (music) – and only after coming here can see that it doesn’t deal with ‘deservedly get’ – anyway ended up with the right answer.
    Finished in the SE corner with MOON-BOW (a new term for me and a humorous word play), MAAED (took ages to come up with the word and then to deal with the ‘loose-isn definition of MED) and ALISTER (which defied me for ages until the penny dropped with A-LISTER.

Comments are closed.