Times Cryptic No 27372 – Saturday, 08 June. Nearly burning with joy.

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This was a relatively easy solve, and very easy to blog. A few things, like 8dn and 20dn, merited trips to references after solving but before blogging. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

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

Across
1 In delight finally see kangaroo (4)
JOEY: [se]E in JOY.

3 In dry days fungus nearly burned (10)
SMOULDERED: MOULD in SERE, D[ays].

9 Very different when calmer (7)
SOOTHER: SO, OTHER.

11 Call to Bottom: no answer, though (7)
HOWEVER: HO, WE[a]VER.

12 Desperate cricket team almost succeeded, bringing in unnamed reserve (2,4,7)
IN DIRE STRAITS: INDI[a], S[ucceeded], “bringing in” RESTRAI[n]T.

14 Animal’s pelt I put on (5)
COATI: COAT, I.

15 What can go with pear one bites voraciously? (9)
ALLIGATOR: an “alligator pear” is an avocado by another name.

17 Mark you may be left with after intestinal op? (9)
SEMICOLON: if you have half your colon removed, that’s a serious operation! A punctuation mark, of course.

19 Black cats outside monuments (5)
TOMBS: B with TOMS outside.

21 Ordering run or swimming — that doesn’t quite add up (8,5)
ROUNDING ERROR: anagram (“swimming”) of (ORDERING RUN OR*).

24 Stricken boy transfixed by one beastly noise (4,3)
LAID LOW: I “transfixing” LAD, LOW.

25 Check in a most unusual nickname (7)
SATCHMO: CH[eck] in an anagram (“unusual”) of (A MOST*)

26 Make ready a moistener for spreading (10)
MONETARISE: anagram (“spreading”) of (A MOISTENER*). “Ready” meaning money.

27 I climb, expending energy, and flag (4)
IRIS: I RIS[e].

Down
1 For insurance, a judge should be this (4,2,4)
JUST IN CASE: double definition, rich in whimsy.

2 Old radio broadcast giving introductory material (7)
EXORDIA: EX, then an anagram (“broadcast”) of (RADIO*).

4 Weed needs a break, opening letters (5-4)
MARES-TAIL: A REST breaking MAIL.

5 Conduct of drug dealer showing no pressure (5)
USHER: [p]USHER.

6 Trendiest gown tailored for important address (7,6)
DOWNING STREET: anagram (“tailored”) of (TRENDIEST GOWN*).

7 Can this be the vicar coming to call back? (7)
REVISIT: REV, IS IT?

8 Shakespeare’s lady of the night? (4)
DARK: the answer is obvious. I didn’t know/remember that Shakespeare wrote sonnets about the Dark Lady.

10 Courageous duo start to translate a bit of verse (6,7)
HEROIC COUPLET: HEROIC, COUPLE, T[ranslate].

13 Singer goes off full of love for ordinary folk (5,5)
GRASS ROOTS: GRASS, then O in ROTS.

16 In indexes turning up a number of revolutionaries (9)
LENINISTS: ENIN=NINE “turning up”, in LISTS.

18 Maid welcomes opening of The Alien (7)
MARTIAN: T[he] in [Maid] MARIAN.

20 Borderline character needing to keep in step? (7)
MARCHER: I biffed this without understanding the wordplay at all, but Chambers has a second definition for “march” as “border”, making a “marcher” an inhabitant or lord of a border district. Either a cryptic definition, or a double definition. Not sure which.

22 Energetic type secures wide funding for Remainer (5)
DOWER: W[ide] secured by DOER. Don’t be fooled by the capital “R”. A dower is a dowry or inheritance, paid to a widow or “remainder”. Thanks to the anonymous comment for setting me straight.

23 Litre in tankard to pick up and down (4)
GLUM: L[itre] in GUM=MUG “picked up”.

17 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27372 – Saturday, 08 June. Nearly burning with joy.”

  1. Thanks, Brnchn – I found this a leisurely solve, too, but thought some of the definitions were kind of loose – Satchamo in particular. Still, the iffy parsings were all pretty clear. But can you add a little more to Alligator? I get that alligator pears exist, but so do alligator clips, alligator teeth, alligator belts and wallets, etc etc, and I don’t see exactly why pear would lead me to alligator.
    1. I think “bites voraciously “ is the giveaway. Pear is perhaps more close to suggesting the answer than the others you list. Not so many options!
  2. This looked like it was going to be a very leisurely solve, indeed, as my FOI was 27ac. Biffed a couple: HOWEVER, embarrassingly, as I’d forgotten that he was a weaver, and 12ac: ‘cricket team’ to define INDIA? Also biffed GRASS ROOTS, solving post-submission; my COD.
  3. For 22D, I believe a dower is a widow’s share of her dead husband’s fortune, hence she is a ‘remainer’ in that she remains alive after he has died.
  4. If one checks the latest odds, then INDIA are THE cricket team!

    FOI 27ac IRIS

    LOI 25ac SATCHMO

    COD 15ac ALLIGATOR

    WOD 2dn EXORDIA

    I believe Hereward the Wake was a 20dn MARCHER – from MARCH in Cambridgeshire.

  5. …it would have been with Louis Armstrong IN DIRE STRAITS, but he wasn’t what they called Rock and Roll. I didn’t find this as straightforward as others, taking over 50 minutes. I constructed the unknown EXORDIA as LOI. Wasn’t a MARCHER a Knight of the Welsh Marches in mediaeval times, or maybe someone who walks the Offa’s Dyke path today? It’s a toss-up whether to make as COD the macabre SEMI-COLON or the MARTIAN who has corrupted Maid Marian. I’ll make it a joint award. Thank you B and setter.;
  6. Nothing too difficult going on here. The Marches thing has come up here before, the only reason I knew it, and I got the ‘remainer’ / DOWER connection from The Dower House in ‘The Archers’ and the Dowager Countess played by Maggie Smith in ‘Downton Abbey’. But for a full-blown example of Ninja Turtling, I knew about Shakespeare’s ‘Dark Lady’ from references in the sit-com ‘Upstart Crow’.
  7. I made a pig’s ear of this one by biffing SUMACTION(some sort of medical term??) at 17a and then not noticing when my LOI MARES TAIL changed it to SUMACTLON. Mind you I did this after a day in the pub at the Vin Garbutt Tribute Concert. Surprisingly, I got the rest of it right it 28:11. Time to draw a veil…. Thanks setter and Bruce.
    PS a quick google tells me I may have confused 17a with TUMEFACTION, in my lubricated condition.
  8. As Bolton Wanderer says, there are the Welsh Marches.
    Thanks Bruce, especially for DARK and IN DIRE STRAITS.
    For a while I wondered if ‘pelt’ might mean ‘throw’.
    SO OTHER was fun but my COD goes to HO WE(A)VER!
  9. Enjoyed this, although IN DIRE STRAITS was biffed and sorted out afterwards, and I needed to Google the DARK Lady (you can’t get sent down for it !)

    FOI JOEY
    LOI SMOULDERED
    COD SEMICOLON (honourable mention to DOWER)
    TIME 14:40

  10. 13:13. No problems with this but I had forgotten about Shakespeare’s dark lady and didn’t understand DOWER.
  11. I was stuck on two at the end but was able to work out the unknown EXORDIA (very pleasing when that happens) and that led to the forgotten COATI. I had put in DARK uncertainly but it felt right and I thought I understood DOWER because of the house.
    Off to Islay soon for golf and maybe whisky and I may return an expert on those hard-to- remember Scottish islands. David
    PS having seen India beat Australia at The Oval, they are the team to beat IMO.
  12. Not all plain sailing for me. DNK Shakespears’s DARK lady, failed to parse IN DIRE STRAITS. and DNK ALLIGATOR pear was another name for an avocado. Like Kevin, my COD goes to grass roots. Similar time to him too… 23:38.
  13. 38:45 with a couple of question marks at 8dn and 20dn. I thought 15ac was a bit weak.
  14. Thanks setter and brnchn
    … and was able to progress well for the first bit. Some clever clues, unusual definitions and a couple of unknown terms did slow it up later. Liked HOWEVER, REVISIT and GRASSROOTS the most. Thought that SEMICOLON rated a mention as well.
    Finished with a couple of short ones in IRIS (which I guessed earlier on from definition but was hesitant until I could parse it which should have been easier than it turned out to be) and DARK (with the character from unknown Shakespearean sonnets).

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