Times Cryptic No 27426 – Saturday 10 August 2019. Big brother is watching you.

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Another neat puzzle. Some from the Style Monitoring Section (definitely not from The Ministry of Truth!) thought it might have been the work of the same setter as the week before. That thought didn’t occur to me when doing it, but the device at 17ac certainly had something familiar about it.

My clue of the day was 23dn. I loved the “up and down” device. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

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

Across
1 Fine liqueur, very exotic, enough for several shots at The Bull? (9)
QUIVERFUL – ‘exotic’ anagram of (F LIQUEUR V*). F for fine, V for very. The bull is on the archery target, of course.

6 First and foremost in nature you may perceive her? (5)
NYMPH – ‘first and foremost’ letters of each word. A somewhat fanciful &lit. definition – see glossary.

9 More attractive class of volunteers? (7)
TASTIER – the Territorial Army volunteers or TA’S are in a TIER or class. Hard to imagine anyone but crossword setters finding the TA’s attractive today.

10 Suddenly dropped bread basket, exhausted? (7)
TUMBLED – TUM (bread basket), BLED (exhausted).

11 Come back from Peru? Certainly, heading west (5)
RECUR – the answer if hidden in (‘from’) the clue, backwards (‘heading west’).

12 Serious consequences of the boy’s going to the Head, indeed! (4,2,3)
HELL TO PAY – HE’LL (the boy’s going to), TOP (head), AY (indeed!).

13 What pre-euro Munich lived through is not progress! (4,4)
MARK TIME – double definition, the first a whimsical reference to the old German currency.

14 Ring from Lima leaving greeting (4)
HALO – L for Lima ‘leaves’ HAL[l]O.

17 Nomad’s extended round trip (4)
LAPP – the round trip is a LAP, ‘extended’ by another P. We saw a similar device the previous Saturday.

18 Drop double-U in “watch” (5,3)
BEADY EYE – BEAD (drop), YE (you, or ‘U’), and YE again (‘double-U’). The definition is as in “I’ve got my beady eye on you”. This was my LOI, and I put it in with a vague feeling of discomfort.

21 What’s indulgently led to a live CD being remade (5,4)
DOLCE VITA – ‘remade’ anagram of (TO A LIVE CD*). A 1960 film.

22 Girl’s mother meeting the First Lady (5)
MAEVE – MA, meet EVE.

24 Series of deliveries: each getting blanket (7)
OVERALL – OVER, ALL. The first cricketing clue.

25 Girl escorted outside I helped (7)
AVAILED – AVA LED, ‘outside’ I. Say not the struggle nought availeth.

26 Far from dear to the Scots, King Edward? (5)
TATTY – double definition. The first referring to cheap things, the second to a Scottish word for ‘potatoes’ – whether or not the King Edward variety. I was surprised they weren’t spelled ‘taters’ or ‘taties’, but then I’ve never been to Scotland!

27 Not post to offer professor (9)
PRETENDER – PRE (not post!), TENDER (offer).

Down
1 Land rating following maintenance of set standards (5)
QATAR – QA (quality assurance – maintenance of set standards), TAR (sailor, or rating).

2 Flies driver away from edges of seismal epicentre, moving fast (6,9)
INSECT REPELLENT – ‘moving’ anagram of (SL EPICENTRE*), then LENT is the ‘fast’. S and L in the anagram are the ‘edges’ of SEISMAL. What a delightfully awkward definition!

3 Leave country house, heading off to get someone’s goat? (8)
EMIGRATE – the [h]ouse is a [s]EMI. Then, GRATE. As we say chez nous, no one glued ‘country’ to ‘house’.

4 Pro’s Glasgow abode that’s an embarrassment! (3,5)
FOR SHAME – FOR’S (pro’s, as in a vote), HAME (Scottish word for ‘home’). Still haven’t visited Scotland. Promise I will, next chance!

5 Added animation to story, cutting a dash (6)
LITTLE – LIT (added animation – as in ‘lit up the room’), T[a]LE (story, cutting ‘a’). Definition as in, ‘add a dash of rum’.

6 Where Wellington is found touring island with German admiral (6)
NIMITZ – Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. Put NZ around I for ‘island’, and MIT (German for ‘with’). A WWII reference.

7 Pleased, somehow, with a miserly “no comment” (2,4,3,6)
MY LIPS ARE SEALED – ‘somehow’ anagram (PLEASED A MISERLY*).

8 Den is Yankee appearing in sitcom briefly on Bravo in Spain (5-4)
HIDEY-HOLE – the sitcom is HI-DE-H[i]. Insert Y (Yankee), and put it on top of OLÉ (‘Bravo’, in Spain). I didn’t know the sitcom, and guessed it might be Hi-de-ho. Close, but no cigar.

13 Inexpert whiskey promotion Ireland stops (9)
MALADROIT – MALT (whiskey), ‘stopped’ by AD (promotion) and R.O.I. (Republic of Ireland).

15 State of light, mounted and switched on (8)
DELAWARE – LED (the light of the moment) reversed or ‘mounted’, then AWARE (switched on).

16 President with trouble speaking’s brought water (5,3)
ADAM’S ALE – John Quincy ADAMS (President, 1825-29), then ALE sounds like (‘speaking’) AIL.

19 What’s left on account: variable amount (6)
LEGACY – LEG (‘on’ – the second cricketing clue), AC (account), Y (variable).

20 Stock at minimum price? That’s a boost! (6)
FILLIP – FILL (stock), 1P (or one penny – minimum price).

23 About to pass on, looking up and down supplier? (5)
EIDER – RE (about) and DIE (pass on), all ‘looking up’. Delightfully disguised definition.

30 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27426 – Saturday 10 August 2019. Big brother is watching you.”

  2. As I recall, I went offline at 30′ with HALO and LITTLE remaining, and took maybe 5 minutes to get them at lunch. I couldn’t make anything of 5d and was ready to throw in the towel, when suddenly the penny dropped. DNK QA, but didn’t really need to, did I? 26ac is nice in that Edward II, loser at Bannockburn, might even now not be that dear to the Scots. Liked ‘down supplier’, but COD to INSECT REPELLENT.
    1. “Flower of Scotland” is sung as a Scottish anthem prior to rugby internationals -including by the patron of the Scottish Rugby Union, Princess Anne- and celebrates Edward’s defeat at Bannockburn.
  3. My notes say “very difficult”. I had any number of clues with question marks against them, now all well explained by Bruce. I did, though, enjoy NIMITZ and that was my COD.
  4. ….when I finally spotted NYMPH. Well, it was a “duh” moment really, since, before yesterday, an aha moment was something given to me by an earworm from a certain Norwegian trio !

    I think that this particular compiler often sets out with a pangram in mind, but sometimes doesn’t carry the plan through. Here, X did not mark the spot, and there was no J. Of course, this could be deliberate, and yet another trap into which the unsuspecting solver might be lured !

    The use of “German” in clueing NIMITZ is inspired.

    After my grousing yesterday, it was a pleasure to revisit this one today, and admire it again. A fine offering indeed – and biff-free !

    FOI RECUR
    LOI NYMPH
    COD HIDEY-HOLE (loved INSECT REPELLENT too)
    TIME 19:39 (just 21 seconds inside my target)

    I wouldn’t object at all at one of these in the Championship.

    1. Nimitz spoke German before he spoke English, over in ‘Fritzville’! It was doubly inspired!
  5. Made a foolish error misremembering the name of the country at 1dn and spelling it QITAR, and then I found this to justify the parsing: Qi (pronounced /tʃiː/ CHEE; from the Chinese word qi) is an open interface standard that defines wireless power transfer using inductive charging over distances of up to 4 cm. I thought it was a bit obscure but it was enough to stop me investigating further and realising my mistake!

    NHO NIMITZ but got him from wordplay.

    Was going to say I had not seen ROI for Republic of Ireland before but then I googled and found a QC blog I wrote last October in which I said I had not seen ROI for Republic of Ireland before!

    It seems a littl anomalous to have U – presumably modern text-speak for ‘you’ – clueing the archaism, ‘ye’.

    Edited at 2019-08-17 05:57 am (UTC)

      1. Yes, dialects that have retained archaisms. Anyway that wasn’t quite my point, more the juxtaposition of having something very old clued by something quite new.
  6. I recall ruminating over MALADROIT for quite some time before the Aha Moment. Liked INSECT REPELLENT. NIMITZ needed careful attention to wordplay. Never did see the wordplay for BEADY EYE. Liked QUIVERFUL. 44:17. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  7. Enjoyed this one, rather meatier than some recent Saturdays
    The USS Nimitz is a reasonably well-known American aircraft carrier
  8. 22:57. I too thought we were on for a pangram after 1A and 6D, but it was just a tease. I enjoyed YE YE at 18A and the down supplier at 23D. Thanks Bruce and setter.
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  10. I found this very difficult and was about to give up with less than half done when I got QUIVERFUL. This inspired me to keep going and I enjoyed the long journey.
    However, I was unable to come up with NIMITZ and also failed inexplicably on Delaware having been trained on US states by Perry Como when I was young. Also struggled with TASTIER. Was delighted to get the unknown Adam’s Ale.
    I had plenty of time last Saturday , unlike today with family coming -soon. David
  11. Breezed through in 19.04, apparently. I don’t recall any major holdups.
    QUIVERFUL reminded me of the text used to encourage large families: “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.” My Hebrew tutor assured me that the Israeli quiver was carefully made to hold no more than two arrows.
    1. Did your tutor explain why just two? One of Trollope’s irritatingly named characters is the Rev. Mr. Quiverful in ‘The Warden’, desperately hoping for promotion to Wardenship to help him support his wife and I forget how many children.
      2. Possibly in reaction to the Quiver full doctrine (mostly US based) that asserts that fecundity is next to Godliness, and contraception is a device of Satan. Equally possibly because we had a couple at college who believed in the faith method of birth control, which the cognoscenti translate as “pregnant”. Their faith wavered after four.
        1. I wouldn’t have thought that OT Israelites would have much cared about what US ‘keep-’em-barefoot-and-pregnant’ ideologists thought; or would think, centuries later.
  12. 42:41 but a quick review shows one pink square for a stupid typo: dolve vita instead of dolce vita, annoying. An engaging puzzle though. Liked quiverful, dolce vita and eider. NHO Nimitz. Didn’t quite crack the double-U bit of 18ac so the same vague feeling of discomfort as the blogger on that one.
  13. A good challenge. NHO Adams Ale, (FYI Brother Jonathan says JQ’s father John was also president, and their cousin Sam – organiser Of the Boston Tea Party – gives his name to the US sort-of-craft beer) so the cross with that and Beady Eye was tough.
    1. At 21ac I wrote yuk! I was not enthralled by the cluing. as it was my LOI.

      FOI 14ac HALO

      COD 6dn ‘Chet’ NIMITZ once said’ A ship is always referred to as ‘she’ because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.’

      WOD 1ac QUIVERFUL

      I am informed The Ministry of Truth will be closed until at least November 2020.

      Edited at 2019-08-17 04:02 pm (UTC)

  14. Thanks for the excellent explanations.
    Where do I find out what the acronyms mean, LOI, COD, etc?
  15. There were so many question marks on my sheet I felt I must have made a mistake somewhere, and indeed I had. I’d bunged in “LAPS” at 17a as the only word that seemed to make any sense. I didn’t know the LAPPs were nomadic. (I’ve been to Lapland, and all the locals seemed to be fairly well settled in place…)

    Shame, as I spent a very long time on this, especially on LOI 18a BEADY EYE.

  16. Thanks for the entertainment Horryd! Informative and amusing. Thanks to blogger for parsing ‘maladroit’ which we biffed. LOI ‘beady eye’ in 43mins. Honourable mention to the down supplier as a handsomely constructed clue.

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