Times Cryptic No 27600 – Saturday, 29 February 2020. A run in the park.

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This week’s puzzle felt like a speed test. 1ac went in at a glance, and then each helper letter seemed to lead to another answer. So, I was finished quite quickly, although I admit I still haven’t parsed 11ac as I write this. I expect it will come to me!

I can’t pick a clue of the day. The clues were all good, but none stood out to me. Did anyone else have a favourite? Thanks to the setter.

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

Across
1 Fibre optics is altering displays (5)
SISAL – hidden answer (‘displays’).
4 Reserve fit after run in field (4,5)
RICE PADDY – R (run) ICE (reserve) PADDY (fit, of rage).
9 Go with a richly varied social system (9)
OLIGARCHY – (GO A RICHLY*), ‘varied’.
10 A creature on River Nile location (5)
ASWAN – with spacing, A SWAN.
11 Break item irresponsible people pass abroad and pass on (4,3,6)
KICK THE BUCKET – KICK (break, as in ‘kick the habit’), THE BUCK (the item irresponsible people pass), ET (‘and’ when abroad, or specifically when in France). Tricky!
14 As I see it, one contains many leaves (4)
TOME – with spacing, TO ME.
15 Post line on English writer’s material (10)
STATIONERY – STATION (post), E (English), RY (railway line).
18 She’s spotted sign, ad press broadcast (10)
LEOPARDESS – LEO (sign), (AD PRESS*) ‘broadcast’.
19 Heather’s dumped a boy, once fine (4)
ERIC – heather is also known as ling or ERIC[-a]. Eric could of course be a boy, and it appears that ancient Irish law once imposed an ‘Eric fine’ for accidental or unintentional homicide, to be paid to the relatives of the dead man. So, I think there are two definitions for the heathery wordplay.
21 Skill in office? Affirms staff succeeded with it (13)
STATESMANSHIP – STATES (affirms), MAN (staff), S (succeeded), HIP (with it).
24 Hot country short of a language (5)
HINDI – H (hot), INDI[-a].
25 Ban disheartened the Republican in charge (9)
INTERDICT – T[-h]E (‘the’, disheartened), R in INDICT (charge).
27 Finished second to last in archery, every aim too high (9)
OVERREACH – OVER (finished), R from [-arche]R[-y], EACH (every).
28 Man who has issue holding on to fear (5)
DREAD – DAD has issue (children), holding RE (on).

Down
1 Inert cashier does this when money runs low? (5-5)
STOCK-STILL – the cashier STOCKS TILL when necessary.
2 Runner‘s jump lacking power (3)
SKI – SKI[-p].
3 After slowly grasping it, article is shed (4-2)
LEAN-TO – LENTO (slowly) grasping A (article).
4 Rotten cedar tree brought back to life (9)
RECREATED – (CEDAR TREE*), ‘rotten’.
5 Not letting cat out of bag, having lead around rodent (5)
COYPU – COY (keeping a secret), UP backwards or ‘around’.
6 Idiot put on weight: it’s the seafood (8)
PLANKTON – PLANK, TON.
7 Practical to have books about stopping shortfall (4-2-5)
DOWN-TO-EARTH – DEARTH (shortfall) ‘stopped by’ OWN (to have) and TO = OT (books), ‘about’.
8 Story with no queen and king in The New Yorker? (4)
YANK – YA[-r]N (story, with no R=queen), then K (king).
12 House of Representatives seen to change judgment (6,5)
COMMON SENSE – COMMONS, (SEEN*), ‘to change’.
13 Strained to spy dance with a certain rhythm (10)
SYNCOPATED – (TO SPY DANCE*). ‘Strain’ is a bit of a stretch as an anagram indicator, perhaps?
16 International screen pairing (4,5)
TEST MATCH – TEST (screen), PAIRING (match).
17 Clay held by underground explorer or one on mount (8)
CAVALIER – ALI (the former CASSIUS CLAY), ‘held by’ CAVER.
20 Said where yeast is lacking essential variety (6)
INBRED – why yeast is in bread, of course. ‘Said’ indicates a homophone.
22 Echo life of e.g. Verdi in musical (5)
EVITA – E (echo), VITA (Italian for ‘life’ in Verdi’s time as now, presumably).
23 Get lost in Oxford, by the sound of it? (4)
SHOO – sounds like SHOE.
26 Let out of hospital for spleen (3)
IRE – [-h]IRE, as in ‘vent one’s spleen/ire’.

16 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27600 – Saturday, 29 February 2020. A run in the park.”

  1. ….and finished very quickly. All 6 biffs were parsed fairly quickly afterwards.

    FOI SISAL
    LOI INTERDICT
    COD DOWN-TO-EARTH
    TIME 7:05

  2. Time 40 minutes

    FOI 3dn LEAN-TO

    LOI 26ac IRE

    COD 14ac TOME

    WOD 11ac KICK THE BUCKET

    1. I’m sure it is a fault in me Kevin but I prefer not to read about crosswords I haven’t attempted yet ..
      1. Sorry, Jerry and Martin; I agree totally, but hadn’t thought my comment–which I’ll now try to delete–would be a problem.
  3. My notes say “Fairly easy”.
    Thanks, Bruce, for KICK THE BUCKET and YANK.
    I wish I hadn’t seen Kevin’s comment as I’m just about to attack today’s!
  4. Yes, easy this.
    An eric was for all murders, unintentional or not: “In the case of murder..the malefactor shall give unto them [sc. the friends], or to the child, or wife of him that is slain, a recompence, which they call an Eriach.” Edmund Spenser, from the OED
  5. 23 minutes, with everything parsed. Definitely at the easier end of Saturday offerings, but a pleasant puzzle. LOI STOCK-STILL. I liked LEAN-TO, DOWN-TO-EARTH and INTERDICT but COD to INBRED for the smile. Thank you Bruce and setter.
  6. 25 minutes. I had a bit of a wobble at 19, putting in BRAC before I realised that bracken wasn’t heather, and also managed to remember the blood fine once I’d worked out the real answer. FOI 1a SISAL LOI 26d IRE WOD COYPU.
  7. DK the ERIC thing,though guessed it was likely to be some obscure old punishment.

    I’m I the only one raising an eyebrow over the clue at 3dn? I can’t get it to read grammatically to achieve the intended result. At the very least it seems a bit clumsy.

    1. Very late so nobody will read this but perhaps you will jackkt: I assume your concern is that it seems to be saying ‘after slowly [lento] is grasping a [where ‘it, article’ is doing service for ‘a’]…’ and ‘it, article’ is not really = ‘a’. I agree: as you say, at the very least it seems a bit clumsy.

      Surprising that nobody mentioned this or commented on your post.

      1. Thanks for responding, Will. Yes, I think that’s more or less what I had in mind. Looking at it again I still can’t make the wordplay work completely, something that’s happened very rarely over my 12 years blogging here. Usually if I’ve missed something somebody will post a clarification but not on this occasion.
  8. Didn’t know the fine definition of ERIC, but was happy enough with Erica as heather. No particular problems with this one and all done and dusted in 26:46. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  9. 11:29, so probably my fastest time for a prize crossword, held up only by the parsing of COYPU. I remembered ERIC from previous crosswords, and I’ve just searched to find them… a Mephisto on 6 Jan and then a few weeks later on 19 Feb 2019. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  10. A week ago I was on my way home from Craven Cottage and I have a note that this puzzle was finished at Mansion House, having had three left at Blackfriars. All this indicates it was on the easy side.
    LOI was EVITA.Prior to that CAVALIER held me up. DNK ERIC in this sense -like many others.
    COD to YANK for the surface.
    David

  11. 15:04. I romped through this with no trouble at all though I appear to have glossed over the significance of abroad and in kick the bucket.
  12. I had the initial H. And the first language I thought of was HAUSA. country=USA and “short of a” somehow meaning USA comes after A.
    Or even… “country short” = AUS (Australia shortened). Somehow ignore the “of”. Giving H AUS A. I hoped that, surely, one of those explanations could be made to work.
    Oh well.

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