Times Cryptic No 27714 – Saturday, 11 July 2020. All porkers watered and ready …

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… and I too flew through this one, until I reached my LOI, 4dn, which took a bit of an alphabet hunt. I won’t be surprised to see reports of fast times, but everything was well clued. 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. Deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 I don’t believe in the possibility of hogging airspace? (4,5,3)
PIGS MIGHT FLY – I’m not quite sure whether this is a cryptic definition or a double definition, but you get the drift.
9 Rise about start of breakfast — odd bits of meal missed (5)
REBEL – RE (about), the start of B{reakfast}, -E-L from mEaL.
10 Tabloid article taken into pub reveals devotee of Star? (9)
SUNBATHER – SUN (tabloid), THE (article) in BAR (pub).
11 Resolute daughter to refuse to eat, with chopped meat in front of her (9)
STEADFAST – STEA{k} (meat, chopped) in front of D (daughter), FAST (refuse to eat).
12 Electric current introduced to harbour crane? (5)
HOIST – I (electric current) introduced to HOST (harbour).
13 Racket returned after line is wound (6)
LESION – ESION=NOISE returned after L (line). I started looking for L{ine} IS, to be followed by something like DIN or ROW, but no joy there.
15 Very severe, with mother replacing son — striking (8)
DRAMATIC – DRASTIC with S replaced by MA.
18 Bishop perhaps finding manse’s transformed after central heating (8)
CHESSMAN – CH (central heating), then anagram of (MANSES*) ‘transformed’.
19 Max coming later perhaps for fish (6)
MINNOW – minimum now, maximum later, geddit? In the words of the White Queen, ‘jam tomorrow … never jam today’.
22 Pipe band’s opening tune recalled by piper at the end (5)
BRIAR – B for B{and}, RIA=AIR backwards (recalled), R at the end of {pipe}R.
24 Unfortunately hit in face or head (9)
CHIEFTAIN – anagram of (HIT IN FACE*) ‘unfortunately’.
26 Stop wasting time in US city bay, backsliding, uncertain (9)
EQUIVOCAL – QUI{t} (stop, wasting ‘time’), in LA COVE reversed (backsliding).
27 Blazing footballers returned anger (5)
AFIRE – AF=F.A. ‘returned’, IRE.
28 Sporting award highlighting the “cow”’ in “coward”? (6,6)
YELLOW JERSEY – a nice pun, that I suspect needs no explanation. Is the setter a fan of the Tour de France? In normal times, that would be on about now.

Down
1 Reading, putting ring round two references to the Queen? (7)
PERUSAL – take R, as in E.R., and US, as in ‘we are not amused’; insert both into PEAL.
2 Male Hollywood star runs from female Hollywood star (5)
GABLE – Clark Gable, Betty Grable. Are any of you too young to remember?
3 Blend not entirely unpleasant? That’s good to hear (9)
MELODIOUS – MEL{d} (blend, not entirely), ODIOUS.
4 Heating engineer to show surprise with power cut? A lot getting cut off (6)
GASMAN – GAS{p}, MAN{y}. Unusual to see two words truncated.
5 Solution? Metal solution must contain source of same metal (8)
TINCTURE – TIN (the metal), CURE (the solution), containing T from T{in}.
6 Life gutted? Remains in control (5)
LEASH – L{if}E, ‘gutted’, then ASH.
7 Name church advanced around end of Lent (8)
CHRISTEN – CH (church), RISEN (advanced) around T from {Len}T.
8 One assessing most of service taken in by military boss (6)
CRITIC – RIT{e} taken in by CIC (Commander-in-Chief).
14 Goggles, receiving promise to pay that’s deceptive (8)
SPECIOUS – SPECS receiving IOU.
16 Computer graduate pictured? (9)
MAINFRAME – MA (graduate), IN FRAME (pictured). Again, are any of you too young to remember?
17 Crazy amateur fliers heading skyward, with Charlie on board (8)
FARCICAL – LAIC (meaning lay, or not professional), RAF all ‘heading skyward’, with C for Charlie on board.
18 We will probe company books finding evidence of neglect (6)
COBWEB – WE ‘probing’ CO B B.
20 Inclined to scoff about a lot of information in cold weather? (7)
WINTERY – WRY (inclined to scoff), about INTE{l}.
21 Treatment given to expression of pain: support in bed (6)
PILLOW – PILL, OW.
23 Show Minister getting one-third of Europe upset (5)
REVUE – REV, EU{rope} upset.
25 Supplier of fake news mostly under cover of a second fake name (5)
ALIAS – LIA{r} in A+S.

27 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27714 – Saturday, 11 July 2020. All porkers watered and ready …”

  1. I thought that was the man who comes to read the meter, not a qualified and trained individual, aka a plumber.
    1. Flanders and Swann’s classic “The GASMAN Cometh” certainly references a fitter rather than a mere meter reader.
      1. Yes indeed. They chose the word GASMAN in orer to reference “The Iceman Cometh” but, as you say, we would have called him a plumber or gasfitter. The GASMAN only reads the meter. Great song btw. I play piano for a pensioners’ singalong and this is one of our favourites.
  2. This was a struggle, though I can’t remember why. I’d say I was off the wavelength, if I thought that meant anything. The setter seems unduly fond of truncating words: Bruce mentions GASMAN, and there’s STEA in 11ac, MEL in 3d, LIA in 25d, RIT in 8d, & INTE in 20d. Speaking of 20d, I’d think the def must be ‘in cold weather’.
    1. Using the test of putting it in a sentence, “it was wintry” seems near enough to “it was cold weather”.
  3. 45 minutes.

    Not really convinced by the second Queen in 1dn. Chambers has this under ‘us’ in support of Bruce’s explanation: the accusative case of we; (in editorial and royal use) one, oneself, me.

    I still think it’s too much of a stretch and a poor clue in an otherwise excellent puzzle.

    1. Damn, I didn’t even notice that. I agree with you. The clue using the royal “we” in the last one I blogged was rather better. Maybe this setter is trying to match that. FAIL.
  4. 41 minutes, so not far off par for a Saturday medal round. I misparsed PERUSAL to have the ring as LAP backwards, around ER and US, which I did see as the royal ‘We’ in accusative form. I wasn’t happy with ‘round’ doing double duty and expected there to be a better explanation. I didn’t parse LOI WINTERY either as I have never used ‘wry’ in that mocking sense. COD to YELLOW JERSEY, and I liked the hogging of PIGS MIGHT FLY too. Decent puzzle. Thank you B and setter.
  5. Worth it for YELLOW JERSEY alone. Given 1a (another fun clue) is Oink the setter?
  6. I thought this was a very good puzzle.
    Thank you, Bruce, for PERUSAL and WINTERY, neither of which I was able to parse at the time. Like Jack, though, I am very dubious about the US in PERUSAL equating to the Queen.
    I loved the reference to “hogging” in PIGS MIGHT FLY and TINCTURE amused me as it reminded me of the “Dear Bill” letters in Private Eye. Dennis was recorded there as being fond of a TINCTURE or two.
    COD: MINNOW.
  7. ….and I only just attained my target, so no YELLOW JERSEY for me. I was 8 clues in before starting, and never got into any sort of rhythm.

    HOIST and PERUSAL (which I didn’t much care for) were parsed later.

    MAINFRAME was very slow in coming to me, despite my having operated LEO3 and IBM360 examples between 1968 and 1974.

    FOI CHESSMAN
    LOI WINTERY
    COD GASMAN
    TIME 19:10

    1. When I was studying “Computing” (we didn’t have IT then) at Durham, we had a link to the 360/67 at Newcastle. First computer to use Virtual Memory. I believe it is still there as a sort of museum piece!
  8. …but all finished at least. In my day, people who worked with gas were known as gas fitters. Definitely not gasmen. I liked this crossword, just the right level of difficulty for me and some amusing clues. COD to 1ac. And , yes, brnchn I am old enough to remember, unfortunately!
    Thank you blogger and setter.
  9. My notes say 11 clues solved in first session,quite tough.
    However the lunchtime session was productive and I sped to a finish at 1.58pm.
    FOI was REBEL. LOI LESION.
    Unparsed PERUSAL and GASMAN. COD to EQUIVOCAL, very satisfying to parse.
    I very much enjoyed this with the riders others have mentioned.
    David
  10. 16:13. I liked this, particularly the pigs. I am too young to remember Betty Grable but I had (just about) heard of her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of her movies.
    I don’t understand the objections to US to indicate HRH referring to herself.

    Edited at 2020-07-18 10:47 am (UTC)

    1. Well, Chambers backs it up. I didn’t have any idea what was going on, though I didn’t let it stop me.
        1. Sure, it’s a logical extension. I guess I never spent enough time with the Queen to hear her use “us” this way.
  11. 19:13. LOI TINCTURE. I took a while to parse PERUSAL, thinking the two references were ER and US. I liked SUNBATHER and EQUIVOCAL, but COD to YELLOW JERSEY.
  12. Another who failed to parse WINTERY, which was my LOI. I certainly didn’t speed through this puzzle, but did enjoy it, especially PIGS MIGHT FLY. I think it was PG Wodehouse who introduced me to the notion of having a small TINCTURE, so no problem with that. FARCICAL and CHIEFTAIN held me up for some reason. 47:36. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  13. I prefer the spelling wintry, but it’s in the dictionary with the e.
    Didn’t think wry was an inclination to scoff really?
    I thought that INTE was half of the Internet and therefore a lot of info, some of it correct 😉
    Andyf
    1. The definitions in the usual dictionaries all indicate mockery as a characteristic of ‘wry’ humour. Collins does it indirectly via ‘sardonic’.
  14. 39:58. Slow and steady. FOI rebel, LOI tincture. I struggled to work out lesion and tincture. The leap from the royal we to the royal us in perusal also took a while.
  15. Faster for a Saturday for Meldrew. 32 mins

    FOI 27ac AFIRE

    LOI & COD 18dn COWEB

    WOD 28ac YELLOW JERSEY

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