Times Cryptic No 27336 – Saturday, 27 April 2019. Once more intro the breach.

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This was medium difficulty, I thought. Once more I did it during odd moments and don’t have a time, but at least I did finish. My progress was basically clockwise: NW, NE, SE and SW. My LOI was 22dn, but largely because I’d mistyped one of the crossing answers, so had a wrong helper! Next to last was 17dn, which was genuinely harder.

My clue of the day was 18ac, with its delightfully disguised definition. 24dn was also something special. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

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

Across
1 Capture attention of doctor, accepting I have temperature (6)
DIVERT: DR “accepting” I’VE, then T.

4 Mushroom’s round truncated cap in range of colours (8)
SPECTRUM: SPEC is PECS backwards (“round”), then TRUM[p] is to cap, truncated.

10 Spell against an ogre, but not one dragon (9)
TERMAGANT: TERM, A, G[i]ANT.

11 Animal turned peripatetic to some extent (5)
TAPIR: reverse (“turned”) hidden answer (“to some extent”).

12 Listened to more ambitious rock (7)
BOULDER: sounds like (“listened to”) BOLDER.

13 Software to facilitate calm (7)
APPEASE: APP (software), EASE (facilitate).

14 Ointment Victor found in discount promotion (5)
SALVE: V “found in” SALE.

15 In which one may see salsa or tango with a lilt playing outside (8)
TORTILLA: OR T (tango, in the phonetic alphabet) with an anagram (“playing”) of (A LILT*) outside.

18 Curious elk is in front of Huckleberry Finn’s home, perhaps (8)
HELSINKI: anagram (“curious”) of (ELK IS IN H*). The H is the “front” of Huckleberry. Clever clue: the juxtaposition of Huckleberry & Finn is a delight.

20 Be in state of shock about parking and drive off (5)
REPEL: REEL (be in state of shock) “about” P (parking).

23 Man responsible for scale of damage to sluices (7)
CELSIUS: anagram (“damage”) of (SLUICES*).

25 Writer appearing when Grace gets bowled out (7)
LESSING: [b]LESSING, with B (bowled) “out”.

26 Amusing free gift from The Sun (5)
LIGHT: double definition.

27 Trendy new bath filling before getting inflatable ring (5,4)
INNER TUBE: IN (trendy), N (new), TUB (bath) “filling” ERE (before).

28 Comprehensive treatment for plant? (3,5)
THE WORKS: another double definition.

29 Article probes religious group, crossing line (6)
SECANT: AN (article) “probes” SECT.

Down
1 Lead for device at humble computer store (8)
DATABASE: D[evice], AT, ABASE (humble).

2 Like wildfire swallowing Utah up, to all intents and purposes (7)
VIRTUAL: VIRAL (like wildfire), “swallowing” TU (Utah, “up”). Not sure “viral” and “like wildfire” are exact substitutes, but the concept is “spread like wildfire/went viral on social media”, for example.

3 Think again about Miss Scarlett’s clothing possibly concealing answer (9)
READDRESS: RED (Miss Scarlet), DRESS (clothing, perhaps) “concealing” A (answer).

5 Terrier is chasing mine to secure territory (8,6)
PITCAIRN ISLAND: PIT (mine), CAIRN (Scottish terrier; something I didn’t know), IS, LAND (secure).

6 Clue to many unions being affected by separation (3,2)
CUT UP: a backwards clue, in the sense that the answer could be a clue for something in the actual clue. So, CUT “UP” could be a clue for TUC (Trades Union Council) – which obviously covers many unions. On edit: Jerry says it’s a Congress, not a Council. Sorry.

7 Archangel manipulated a harp with panache, sending out a note (7)
RAPHAEL: anagram (“manipulated”) of (A HARP*), then EL[an], missing A N[ote].

8 Poet, with just one line, eliciting wonder (6)
MARVEL: MARVEL[l] was the poet.

9 Goal and penalty for Spurs (6,3,5)
CARROT AND STICK: a bit loose perhaps, but a CARROT is a reward for the metaphorical donkey, and the STICK is a penalty. Can anyone see more to this?

16 Body of persevering rebels available if needed (2,7)
IN RESERVE: anagram (“rebels”) of (-ERSEVERIN-*), i.e the “body” of [p]ERSEVERIN[g].

17 Occasion for many buffets — and one such for hedgehogs? (8)
SLUGFEST: a whimsical definition, and then an even more whimsical one, referring to two different meanings of “buffet”. I don’t know what hedgehogs eat, but I doubt slugs are a main feature!

19 Obstacle dividing EU and English in country-specific text (7)
ECLOGUE: CLOG “dividing” EU, then E for English. One of those words I know only from these crosswords, and then only vaguely.

21 Back I run into a swelling flower (7)
PRIMULA: I R (run) “into” A LUMP, all “back”.

22 Model racing boat docked point (6)
SCULPT: SCUL[l] (racing boat, docked), PT (point).

24 Where to see one of trio delivering portion of song (5)
INTRO: you look at TRIO and, if you’re a cryptic crossworder, you might see I (one) “IN” TRO. We’re a weird mob!

25 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27336 – Saturday, 27 April 2019. Once more intro the breach.”

  1. ….APPEASE of cake, and it was a challenge I thoroughly enjoyed.

    I biffed RAPHAEL (where I tried in vain to do something with “elan”), and IN RESERVE, but parsed both post-solve.

    Bruce : You mean 27A, not D.

    FOI SPECTRUM
    LOI SLUGFEST
    COD INTRO (clue of the month for April contender)
    TIME 17:13

  2. I have no comments on my hard copy, other than a ? by INTRO, where I never did parse it. I semi-biffed RAPHAEL, getting the harp bit and assuming from ‘archangel’ that it would end in -EL, but didn’t get the elan part until after submission. LOI 3d. ON EDIT: Hedgehogs eat snails, so why not slugs? Actually, they’re omnivorous.

    Edited at 2019-05-04 02:47 am (UTC)

  3. My notes say “Good”. I did like “country specific text” in 19d as well as HELSINKI but my favourite was SLUGFEST. And, yes, hedgehogs do like slugs.
  4. 25 minutes with LOI SLUGFEST. I’ve always understood that hedgehogs are good for the garden, eating slugs and the like, and have encouraged them. They can be very noisy at night but it does sound as if they are enjoying each other’s company. Sadly, I found a mainly-eaten dead one on the lawn a few weeks ago. It seems like their predators have wised up to their defensive technique. COD to HELSINKI for the Huckleberry Finn combination. i also liked THE WORKS and INTRO (cue the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band). Good puzzle. Thank you B and setter.
    1. Now I’m thinking of Larkin’s hedgehog poem and feeling a little melancholy.
      1. “…we should be careful of each other, we should be kind. While there is still time.” I’m now melancholy too!
  5. Liked this one..
    TUC stands for Trades Union Congress, nothing so modern or straightforward as a council here, thank you very much
  6. Found this very hard, though after about 90 minutes elapsed 22d finally fell to the “go for a walk and have another look” technique. I didn’t know that a “scull” was a boat. Enjoyed 15a TORTILLA and 16a HELSINKI among others. Very enjoyable in general. Thanks for the parsings, Bruce, especially for 24d INTRO.
  7. 18:13, but failed to parse CUT UP or RAPHAEL. I liked CELSIUS. HELSINKI and INTRO. Good fun. Thanks B and setter.
  8. Quite easy for a Saturday with some excellent clues which make a couple of less than excellent ones stand out.
  9. I looked at this on the train to Crewe last Saturday. I had 5 unsolved when I arrived (19,22 and 24d; 26 and 28a).The final five took a bit of getting and LOI by a mile was SCULPT.
    Lots of excellent stuff in here I thought and hard to nominated COD. INTRO was brilliant but I’ll give a vote to THE WORKS which led me through most of the flora I knew before twigging it.ECLOGUE unknown and RAPHAEL not parsed. One day I will know what TERMAGANT means but I do know it’s a word.
    No trains from Euston today so you can’t get to Crewe – or Birmingham- from there. David
  10. Ah yes, this was the day the Club site went AWOL and I solved on the Times site, and again when the Club came back just to make sure of my prize potential. Can’t remember how long it took, and can’t find out from The Other Place, but I don’t think it caused any grief. I forgot to look up ECLOGUE post solve to understand why it was country specific.
    I concur with the excellence of Huckleberry Finn.
    At this rather scary time for the Yid Army, the “Goal and penalty for Spurs” clue had an added layer of diversion which didn’t help: I agree it wasn’t the best of clues.
  11. I enjoyed this puzzle, which took 37:39. I particularly liked HELSINKI and SLUGFEST. I remembered ECLOGUE from a previous puzzle. A careless TERMAGENT held up CARROT AND STICK. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  12. 14:17. Middle-of the road kind of puzzle, I thought, which in a Times context means very good.
    In 18ac ‘front of Huckleberry’ is like a big red flashing light to the seasoned solver, so the definition isn’t particularly well-disguised, and the clue isn’t hard to solve. But so what? Working Huckleberry Finn in like that is still very clever and made me smile.

    Edited at 2019-05-04 11:09 am (UTC)

  13. 31:27 a very enjoyable, good quality puzzle.

    Edited at 2019-05-04 12:01 pm (UTC)

    1. Well, some people’s are; but it should be CEPS ’round’, i.e. reversed.
  15. I found this enjoyable and relatively easy, with the exception of difficulty where the flower crosses Lessing (the cricket mis-direction fooled me). I am sorry that none of us was able to find more to the somewhat weak Carrot and Stick, but I particularly liked Intro. And I would have liked Cut Up if I’d been able to parse it instead of just entering it.
  16. Got this last weekend in an hour and some. Think I did the paper version with a few lookups to crack the harder words.

    This weekend’s was harder I think…

    Thanks for the blog. Could not see CEPS around = SPEC. TRUM(p) is truncated *captain* (i.e. president Trump), or is cap = hat or a card reference?

    WS

  17. For 25 across I took “bowled out” to mean “last in” and “grace to mean “g”, ending up with “lasting” as the answer and assumed there must be a writer by that name.
  18. Thanks setter and brnchn
    Just going over it now, I also liked the couple of standout clues in HELSINKI and INTRO. Didn’t find this as hard as usual for a Times puzzle, especially for a Saturday edition (which oddly enough is published on a Thursday here).
    My maths background helped get a start with SECANT after which I muddled through the clues willy nilly and ended up with LIGHT and the tricky SCULPT as the last couple in.

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