Times Cryptic No 27642 – Saturday, 18 April 2020. Mediterranean Gothic Crossroads.

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This was something of a battle. I enjoyed the challenge, except perhaps when I stalled over my last two outstanding, the Mediterranean 14ac and the Gothic 4dn. If I’d known the shared letter where they met, I may have got them both fairly quickly, but I didn’t … and I didn’t!

For the rest, I enjoyed the small triumphs of cracking each clue. How did you all go? Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Notes for newcomers: The Times offers prizes for Saturday Cryptic Crosswords. This blog is posted a week later, after the competition closes. So, please don’t comment here on the current Saturday Cryptic.

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

Across
1 Hoodwinks detective with naughty piece of intrigue (10)
CONSPIRACY – CONS | P.I. | RACY.
6 Care and affection boxing a cosmetic product (4)
TALC – T.L.C. (tender loving care) ‘boxing’ an A.
10 Most of second drink (5)
LATTE – LATTE{r}.
11 Side of real bacon chopped up (9)
BARCELONA – anagram (‘chopped up’: REAL BACON*).
12 Penned by novelist, put out fake safety guide (5,5,4)
GREEN CROSS CODE – GREENE is the novelist. PUT OUT is ‘cross’. COD is ‘fake’. Assemble as instructed.
14 Rashid once put in list (7)
ROSETTA – SET in ROTA. I assumed Rashid was a person, not a place, and I could see a multitude of ways to read the wordplay, so this clue was too hard for me. Kudos to those who knew it was a port in the Nile delta.
15 Bill in valley is worth seeing? (7)
DATABLE – TAB in DALE.
17 Ready to consume drink, eating dip (2,5)
AL DENTE – ALE ‘eating’ DENT.
19 African men from Wales and Scotland? (7)
IVORIAN – IVOR is the Welshman, and IAN as usual is the Scotsman.
20 Book one’s vehicles, close by after turning right (8,6)
TRISTRAM SHANDY – I’S | TRAMS | HANDY, after TR (RT, ‘turned’).
23 Proving smarter than vamp exposing clothes (9)
OUTFOXING – FOX ‘clothed’ by OUTING.
24 Terror the French revolutionary is to drive forward (5)
IMPEL – IMP (terror), EL (LE, ‘revolutionary’).
25 Recognise obsessive specialist from the east (4)
KNOW – WONK, ‘from the east’.
26 Started diet — it gets broken with nuts (10)
INSTITUTED – anagram (‘broken’: DIET IT NUTS*). It takes some care to work out which letters to use in the anagram!

Down
1 One maybe fired youngster on track? (4)
COLT – double definition: guns, then racehorses.
2 No increase before first of December is made official (9)
NOTARISED – NOT A RISE (no increase), D{ecember}.
3 Switching iPods, entertain the idea each person has a lot (14)
PREDESTINATION – anagram (‘switching’: IPODS ENTERTAIN*).
4 Fiddle around in piece of Gothic fiction (7)
REBECCA – REBEC (fiddle), CA (around). I’d never heard of the string instrument, and although I knew of the novel, I couldn’t have said it was Gothic.
5 Passengers look over area in part of deck (7)
CARLOAD – LO (look) over A (area), in CARD. That sort of deck!
7 Drive past houses in great quantities (1,4)
A GOGO – AGO (past) houses GO (drive).
8 The fickle English, digging into fruit after tea (10)
CHAMELEONS – E in MELONS after CHA.
9 As insolent as it could be eye-catching (14)
SENSATIONALIST – anagram (‘could be’: AS INSOLENT AS IT*).
13 Defence playing worst during counterattack (10)
BREASTWORK – anagram (‘playing’: WORST*) inside BREAK. A break seems slightly different from a counterattack, but they’re not that far apart, necessarily.
16 In poker, stakes pool of money in area of ignorance (5,4)
BLIND SPOT – BLINDS | POT. Both are poker terms.
18 Keep up home, retaining old hedging (7)
EVASION – EVAS (SAVE, ‘kept up’ in this down clue), then IN retaining O.
19 Understanding son during brief stay at hotel? (7)
INSIGHT – S inside I (one) NIGHT.
21 Keen on securing right start (5)
INTRO – INTO securing R.
22 Busy learner entering school, perhaps (4)
PLOD – L entering POD. Two slang words for a police officer.

31 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27642 – Saturday, 18 April 2020. Mediterranean Gothic Crossroads.”

  1. This was tough. FOI TALC went in easily enough, but after that it was work, as my time indicates. DNK GREEN CROSS CODE. I made the mistake of thinking that 9d would end in -ING because of ‘eye-catching’, and that led me to put in INSTIGATED at 26ac. Fortunately I remembered PLOD from a recent puzzle. IVORIAN took a while, both because I couldn’t remember IVOR (only DAI) and because I thought the word was IVOIRIAN. Luckily the wordplay for ROSETTA was clear, and I had REBECCA, because I couldn’t make head or tail of the clue. COD perhaps to OUTFOXING.

    Edited at 2020-04-25 06:27 am (UTC)

  2. I thought this was a nice difficulty for a Saturday. I liked Plod, as much for seeing him again as for the non-chestnut cluing, I twigged Rebecca quickly enough but never parsed it, so the “a” didn’t provide good help toward Rosetta because I didn’t completely trust it.
  3. I might be wrong, but it seems to me that TRISTRAM SHANDY is the default ‘book’ for Times setters, or at least one of them, which is handy as there are lots of books to choose from. Now I’ll probably be told it has never appeared before.

    I found this doable, eventually, but I think Saturday crosswords are generally a bit harder than average. Sterne tests you might say.

    1. A search of the blogs turned up 5 screens of hits for Tristram, so I’d say you’re not wrong!
  4. This took me about two hours, and I think I mostly found it hard because of a lack of knowledge rather than clever clues. Well, that and throwing in SPOT at 25a and not noticing until I’d got completely frustrated trying to come up with the unknown BREASTWORK at 13d.

    On the plus side, it inspired me to buy 4d REBECCA and I’m six chapters in and enjoying it immensely, so I can’t really complain. One day I may even get around to TRISTRAM SHANDY…

    Edited at 2020-04-25 06:17 am (UTC)

  5. 46 minutes, hoping that REBECCA could be described as a Gothic novel without any idea about the fiddle and constructing ROSETTA (are you better?). The only Rashid I know bowls leg spin, and the setter nearly got me out with his googly. (Spellcheck doesn’t know what a googly is.) LOI was OUTFOXING. COD to A GOGO, with special mentions to CONSPIRACY and IVORIAN. Nice puzzle. Thank you Bruce and setter.
  6. ….although TRISTRAM SHANDY was one of the easier clues.

    NHO RASHID, DNK BLINDS in the context of poker (which I wouldn’t ever attempt to play), and though that BREASTWORK was something indulged in by Katie Price.

    I thought that clueing BARCELONA as “side” was rather too trivial, even though it was a very simple clue.

    This took me over my 20 minute target, but then I have all the time in the world these days.

    FOI BARCELONA
    LOI LATTE (though I don’t now see why !)
    COD CHAMELEONS
    TIME 22:08

    1. Didn’t mind “side”. But definitely far short of Real Madrid a few years ago being clued as “Spanish outfit”.
  7. Wrote BLOODY HARD WORK! across the top of my print-out, perhaps in order to give vent to my frustrations with this puzzle, but looking back on it a week later and having calmed down there was nothing here that should have prevented me finishing without resorting to aids which I eventually did with three clues unsolved.

    My only actual unknown was the Rashid reference at 14ac, but I might have taken a punt at the answer with all the checkers in place as I associate the name Rashid with the Middle East (via Coronation Street) and I knew Rosetta from the stone that was discovered there.

    Edited at 2020-04-25 12:42 pm (UTC)

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  9. I’m glad you found it hard, Bruce. I certainly did and so did many others judging by the comments so far.
    My big question marks on my notes are against ROSETTA and BLIND SPOT.
    Thanks for the enlightenment there.
    I have never heard of a REBEC but REBECCA it had to be.
    BREASTWORK took a lot of working out but my notes give it a tick.
    Ticks also to GREEN CROSS CODE and TRISTRAM SHANDY but my COD award goes to IVORIAN.
  10. 24:52. DNK Rashid was the original name for Rosetta, which I put in from the wordplay, so looked it up to check post solve. I did know the early stringed instrument though. LOI A GOGO. I liked PLOD and CARLOAD most.

    Edited at 2020-04-25 07:06 am (UTC)

  11. A bit like Bolton Wanderer, only slower.
    I got 18 clues in my first session of 50 minutes. I was pleased with that.
    FOI 26a INSTITUTED. The difficult ones for me in session 2 were BREASTWORK, REBECCA (was Rubicon as best fit for a while) and ROSETTA (a pure guess). I had completely forgotten about the song; Youtube has just reminded me- the price of fame!
    LOI by some distance was OUTFOXING.
    1d was a problem for me and I bunged in CALF.
    Enjoyable puzzle. David
  12. Cor… À DNF as I had no idea what was going on with 4d and 14ac and gave up just after the hour to come here for enlightenment. Also not helped by carelessly entering PREDESIGNATION for 3d. So well done setter, completely beat me. Not sure about AL DENTÉ for ready to consume though. For me it’s NOT ready to consume yet! Thanks B for the explanations.
  13. I found this hard going too. I managed to get ROSETTA from the wordplay once I’d guessed REBECCA for the novel, although I’d forgotten the early fiddle, and just knew the novel and hoped it was Gothic. SPOT at 25a delayed BREASTWORK until I resorted to aids. As Mrkgrnao mentioned, TRISTRAM SHANDY seems to pop up regularly, so no problem getting that. 40:53. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  14. ….. but with REBECCA and ROSETTA unparsed which never feels quite satisfactory.
  15. 36:27. I was nearly outfoxed by the unknown rebec and Rosetta but crossed my fingers and bunged them in.
  16. Too many intersecting unknowns: Rosetta, Rebecca, rebec as a string instrument, green cross code. Close… considered both Greene and rota, but I was another looking for a person (spinner?) as Rashid. And green cross code isn’t a thing, if you don’t know it. Oh, well. Apart from those obscurities it was quite easy 😉
  17. 17:12. Quite tricky, and the same experience as pretty much everyone else on REBECCA and ROSETTA.
  18. And I really enjoyed this puzzle. I had to reach for the smelling salts when P.Jordan mentioned Katie Price – wasn’t Jordan another name she went by? Might you two be related? Careful now!

    FOI GREEN CROSS CODE an absolute gimme for us Lollipop Ladies, as would be GREEN SHIELD STAMPS (non-philatelic)

    LOI 14ac RASHID

    COD 5dn CARLOAD

    WOD 7dn A GOGO! And it’s always THE PLOD!

    Don’t yer just hate 20ac? Like Gothick Matt prefer 4dn.

    Edited at 2020-04-25 05:10 pm (UTC)

  19. I remember this being hard. I didn’t manage to parse REBECCA having put it in from the checkers. I’d never heard of a REBEC. I knew ROSETTA was a place in Egypt (from the stone in the British museum) but not that it used to be Rashid, but it was at least plausible. I had to drag up Busy being a policeman but then PLOD was obvious. All correct in the end, I just reloaded the grid to make sure it came up all green.
  20. First-time poster, so be gentle with me.

    I may be missing something, but where are the two words for a police officer in 22d? I’ve learned (from this blog, indeed) that a pod is another word for a school of fish, etc, so isn’t that the point of the clue?

    1. Plod, exactly! Mr Plod the Policeman featured in novels by Enid Blyton. ‘Busy’ is another slang term for policeman.

      Cryptic clues generally have two parts:

      Putting ‘L’ in ‘pod’ to construct the answer is called wordplay.

      Giving ‘busy’ as a synonym for ‘plod’ is the definition part.

  22. For BREASTWORK we need “counterattack” to give BREAK. This does not make sense to me – am I missing something?

    The clue for COLT is:
    One maybe fired youngster on track? (4)

    I think it should be:
    One may be fired youngster on track? (4)

    1. Having C # # #, my first guess for “One maybe fired youngster on track? (4)” was CUBE.

      One is a cube (being 1×1×1) and a youngster is a cub… but, of course, this leads nowhere.

    2. “may be” with the space says, here’s a gun – you could fire it. The other without the space says, here’s a gun – it might have been fired. Both are valid within the weird world of cryptic definitions.

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