Times Cryptic No 27510 – Saturday, 16 November 2019. Done like a dinner (or lunch).

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I went through this at a brisk clip over lunch and had the blog finished over coffee, but there was lots to enjoy. My last two in were 19dn and 25ac, both of which made me smile. I was glad to see Charles working on protecting the Crown (as always). 18dn stands out as a wonderfully weird word! Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’. Deletions are in [square brackets]. The blog is in Times New Roman font, as part of a gentle ongoing campaign to urge the club site to use a font in which it is easier to tell one’s stem from one’s stern.

Across
1 Eccentric journalist who vacated houses (6)
WHACKO – HACK in W[h]O. Thinking of WO around ED, I was ready to biff WEIRDO, but of course I couldn’t parse it.
5 Most acute threat to crops on allotment reduced (8)
SHARPEST – PEST (threat to crops) on SHAR[e].
9 Military force, male, the last word in cunning (8)
ARMAMENT – M (male), AMEN (the last word), both in ART.
10 Christian writer sees no point returning (6)
BUNYAN – NAY (no), NUB (point), all ‘returning’.
11 Game abandoned, being pressed for time (6)
RUSHED – R.U. (Rugby Union, the game in question), SHED.
12 Old bag‘s name withdrawn, breaking law (8)
RETICULE – CITE ‘withdrawn’, ‘breaking’ RULE.
14 Captain Nemo manoeuvring to secure island’s freedom (12)
EMANCIPATION – ‘manoeuvring’ of (CAPTAIN NEMO I*), where the I is for island.
17 Republic‘s green capital (12)
COMMONWEALTH – COMMON (village green), WEALTH (capital). Australia’s Commonwealth is still a monarchy so far, but of course Cromwell’s was a Republic.
20 Naval detachment crossing loch, all of it dispersing (8)
FLOTILLA – (L ALL OF IT*) ‘dispersing’. L is for loch, and ‘crossing’ just says the L is inside the anagram.
22 Improper question used primarily during mutiny (6)
RISQUE – Q U (‘primarily’) inside (‘during’) RISE (mutiny).
23 Accumulated rent covered by son and daughter (6)
STORED – TORE (rent), covered by S and D.
25 Bigot, heading to the back after commander gets on (8)
COEXISTS – SEXIST, with the first S moved to the back, all ‘after’ C.O.
26 Smugness rife at first in Tamworth farm? (8)
PRIGGERY – R[ife] ‘in’ PIGGERY. (See Tamworth, think pigs!)
27 Proposal from right-wing to co-opt ambassador (6)
THEORY – H.E. (His/Her Excellency) in TORY.

Down
2 Poor start for rebel dons summoned to court (4,2)
HARD UP – R[ebel] ‘dons’ (that is, goes inside) HAD UP.
3 Charles worked with them to provide protection for crown (5,6)
CRASH HELMET – (CHARLES THEM*), ‘worked’.
4 Unknown number supporting past attraction exaggerated (9)
OVERDRAWN – OVER (past), DRAW (attraction), ‘supported by’ N (unknown number).
5 Lascivious youth’s debut in racist novel (7)
SATYRIC – (Y RACIST*), ‘novel’. The Y is ‘youth’s debut’.
6 Range partly divided by motorway (5)
AMBIT – M in A BIT.
7 Sweep pile up (3)
PAN – NAP (pile), ‘up’.
8 Equine, unlikely one to have child astride (8)
STALLION – TALL (unlikely, as in a tall story), I (one), with SON ‘astride’.
13 After pet disturbed chefs, anger flares (7,4)
CATCHES FIRE – CAT (pet), (CHEFS*) ‘disturbed’, IRE (anger).
15 Smallest chum takes a shot at fattest’s bottom (9)
PALTRIEST – PAL (chum). TRIES (takes a shot), [fattes]T.
16 Surveyor‘s bill slashed by two pounds (8)
POLLSTER – POSTER ‘slashed’ by L L (two pounds).
18 Mean church in Ely disheartened diocese (7)
EPARCHY – PAR (mean or average), CH (church), all in E[l]Y. I constructed this from the wordplay and looked at it very sceptically, but yes, it is a word.
19 Fit men one hopes to unionise? (6)
SUITOR – SUIT (fit), OR (men, or Other Ranks). Droll, as signalled by the question mark.
21 Assurance given with no initial projection (5)
LEDGE – [p]LEDGE.
24 Scrap that fiery opponents may well lose (3)
RAG –fiery opponents might ‘lose their rags’ and start a scrap!

15 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27510 – Saturday, 16 November 2019. Done like a dinner (or lunch).”

  1. ….RUSHED into this by biffing “weirdo” at 1A. This is what happens if you only read the first word of the clue ! Luckily, the truth quickly revealed itself when I got my real FOI.

    FOI CRASH HELMET
    LOI SUITOR
    COD AMBIT
    TIME 10:12

  2. I was away for a long weekend and had to polish these off in stolen moments, but I never got EPARCHY (ironically, I knew the word; sort of) or COEXISTS. (Whereas I did, finally, finish Sunday’s.) Unlike Phil, I would never have biffed 1ac; I can’t spell ‘wierd’ sorry ‘weird’ (no red underlines on the grid).
  3. 19:35. My only difficulty was of my own making… having had Sooty recently I went for PUP for 7D (Sweep). But that left me stuck with my LOI, BUNYAN, which needed me to get the alternative answer PAN first. Oddly, I have no other markings on my copy – I normally have a sprinkling of ticks, question-marks and exclamation-marks, but I remember enjoying CRASH HELMET.

    Edited at 2019-11-23 06:56 am (UTC)

  4. … a good name for TfTT. 51 minutes, so not quite the valley of humiliation or the slough of despond, but with no great hosannas as I reached the wicket gate of LOI ARMAMENT. DNK EPARCHY but the demolition and building instructions were clear enough and it sounded like an alternative to episcopate. COD to CRASH HELMET. I liked PRIGGERY too, another phase in Pilgrim’s Progress? I wasn’t that keen on the n of OVERDRAWN being referred to as an unknown number. By convention, it usually means any number, with x, y and z reserved for the unknowns. Thank you B and setter.
  5. I enjoyed this puzzle and eventually managed to finish without aids although I had to check that EPARCHY was a word. Interesting that so few people seem to have come across it.
    Reading Dickens helped with RETICULE. I remember struggling to get FLOTILLA and CATCHES FIRE.
    I also had WEIRDO at 1a initially but then thought What the hell am I doing here? and changed it to WHACKO.
    David
  6. My first thought for 1a was also WEIRDO, but as it didn’t parse I thought again. 2d put me right. I worked steadily through the puzzle, also having to build EPARCHY from the instructions, and finished in a comfortable 24:26. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  7. 33 mins for me, so pretty straightforward. My notes say I found 26a PRIGGERY the hardest, even though I didn’t know 18d EPARCHY at all.

    FOI 14a EMANCIPATION, which I think means I must’ve been trying to get the long ones first, LOI 16d POLLSTER, despite how topical the word is for the UK at the moment. Took me a while to realise “pan” could mean “sweep” even though I’m an amateur photographer and I’ve taken the odd panning shot in my time…

  8. For me the easiest Saturday for a long time – no complaints about that. Today’s is more difficult. EPARCHY was unknown but generously clued.
    1. I forgot to say that from midday today I have been busily preparing for the Championship on the 7th Dec.
      I started drinking white wine promptly at 12.00 and will not stop until 17.00. No idea how the competitors prepare.
      See you in the George.
  9. 40:23. I found this quite tricky. Eparchy was unknown and fiddly to parse. Made life hard for myself by trying to lift and separate pig from farm in 26ac and wondering how gery meant farm.
  10. No one has mentioned Jimmy Edwards in WHACKO! 1ac (BBC TV late fifties) Where’s Our Jack today?

    FOI 21ac FLOTILLA

    LOI 19dn SUITOR

    COD 25ac COEXISTS I found CRASH HELMET a bit of a gimme as it was obvious it were nowt to do with them Royals.

    WOD 26ac PRIGGERY

    Only 12 Disciples so far today!

  12. Tamworth is associated with country music here, rather than pigs. Not to be confused with the Elvis festival in Parkes. Slowed us down for a while. LOI eparchy, which looked more likely than eparcey. Home in 24mins. Olivia must have done it in 12.

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