Times Cryptic No 27786 – Saturday, 3 October 2020. Quick, quick … it’s Saturday.

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This was definitely easier than your usual Saturday! I did enjoy the humour in some of the clues. My LOI was 24dn, where I had a bit of a blank about Glasgow banks. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. Let’s take a look.

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}.Add your introduction here

Across
1 Rid oneself of sin? This woman won’t (3-5)
SHE-DEVIL – SHED EVIL? I guess she won’t.
5 A report of playwright on the beach? (6)
ASHORE – A (George Bernard) SHAW is ashore, we hear.
10 One who’s uncomfortable, absentee from school perhaps (1,4,3,2,5)
A FISH OUT OF WATER – humorous double definition.
11 Rotten placement? That’s discouraging (3-7)
OFF-PUTTING – OFF is rotten, PUTTING is placement.
13 Join police around end of June (4)
MEET – the MET add the E from the end of junE.
15 School acquiring oddly neglected Scarlatti score (7)
SCRATCH – the even letters of sCaRlAtTi are CRAT. Put them in SCH.
17 Allegation by old flame will make you cry (7)
EXCLAIM – EX=old flame, CLAIM=allegation.
18 Stolen ring returned in spring (3,4)
HOT POOL – HOT is stolen, LOOP is reversed.
19 Bamboozled, as a bat may be? (7)
STUMPED – double definition, the second our cricketing reference du jour.
21 Auditor’s humble appearance (4)
MIEN – sounds like MEAN.
22 A nurse covering up daughter’s conduct (10)
ADMINISTER – A, MINISTER=nurse, ‘covering’ D.
25 Old and cowardly, with an absence of bounce (2,6,7)
NO SPRING CHICKEN – NO SPRING=absence of bounce, CHICKEN=cowardly.
27 Book that might be written by Defoe? (6)
DANIEL – an Old Testament book, surely not written by DANIEL Defoe.
28 Excessive anger, leaving university too young (8)
UNDERAGE – UNDUE RAGE loses one of its two U’s for university.

Down
1 Spices up The Times? (7)
SEASONS – double definition: the first a verb, the second a noun.
2 Priest regularly dropping bits of éclair (3)
ELI – odd letters of ÈcLaIr.
3 Anxious the exercising may cause great fatigue? (10)
EXHAUSTION – anagram (‘exercising’) of ANXIOUS THE.
4 Realise time’s running out for northerner (5)
INUIT – INTUIT loses on of its T’s for time.
6 Broadcast not originally by Empress of Blandings? (4)
SOWN – the Empress of Blandings is a fictional SOW, featuring in P.G.Wodehouse novels. Add the N at the start of Not.
7 Foolishly threaten cop? You might find yourself here (2,3,6)
ON THE CARPET – anagram (‘foolishly’) of THREATEN COP.
8 Slip between the sheets? (7)
ERRATUM – cryptic definition. I’m dubious about this. The erratum is actually on the page of the book, surely. It’s the Errata List that’s between the sheets.
9 Member of nobility considers swallowing tablets (8)
COUNTESS – COUNTS ‘swallows’ E’S.
12 Some might say it’s Adam or I, grammatically speaking (5,6)
FIRST PERSON – double definition.
14 Study cites ruins in Byzantine state (10)
SCRUTINISE – anagram (‘in Byzantine state’) of CITES RUINS.
16 Incomplete clue for party? (4-4)
HALF-DONE – because DO is half of DONE.
18 A close relation? Do him in if misbehaving (7)
HOMINID – anagram (‘if misbehaving’) of DO HIM IN.
20 Send mad Commie back, row initially avoided (7)
DERANGE – DER=RED (Commie) ‘back’, then {r}ANGE (row), skipping the initial letter. Thanks to the many bloggers who pointed out my blind spot here!
23 How spam comes from South America in the past (5)
INCAN – doesn’t Spam, the food in a can, deserve a capital S? Anyway, the INCANs were certainly South American.
24 Attention! Bishop turning up in Glasgow bank (4)
BRAE – B for Bishop. EAR for attention. All ‘turning up’.
26 Squawking Antipodean I ignored in chain store (3)
KEA – IKEA is the chain store, of course. The answer is a New Zealand parrot.

23 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27786 – Saturday, 3 October 2020. Quick, quick … it’s Saturday.”

  1. Rather too easy, actually, with a couple of QC-level clues (DANIEL, ELI, for heaven’s sake), although I confess to not parsing UNDERAGE. Bruce, you forgot the ANGE part of DERANGE.

    Edited at 2020-10-10 03:25 am (UTC)

  2. Are you describing my wife?
    I initially thought 26d might be KIWI without an I, and there could be a NHO European chain store called KWI or KIW, and was tut-tutting about the setter not knowing that kiwis don’t squawk. But it was this NZ parrot instead. Astronowt will not be pleased.
    All green, unlike the Kea, in 17:08
    1. Keas have the deserved reputation of being rather naughty. They have been known to be quite destructive of cars.
  3. 29 minutes.

    On Bruce’s two queries:

    Collins has ‘erratum’ as ‘another name for corrigendum’ and ‘corrigendum’ as:
    1. an error to be corrected
    2. Also called: erratum (sometimes plural)
    a slip of paper inserted into a book after printing, listing errors and corrections.

    Chambers (free) on-line has:
    ‘Spam’ or ‘spam’ noun, trademark a type of tinned processed cold meat, mainly pork, with added spices.

    The ‘no trademarks’ rule or convention seems to have been abandoned long ago. As for capital S, all the other usual sources insist on it, including my Chambers printed editions which date back to 2003.

    Edited at 2020-10-10 04:45 am (UTC)

  4. The easiest Saturday for some time. As Kevin suggests, perhaps this was really QC level and a bit too easy. I am waiting for today’s paper to arrive when I might regret bemoaning straightforward crosswords.
  5. Well I didn’t think it was that easy.
    Thanks for HALF DONE, Bruce.
    I liked SCRUTINISE and ERRATUM but COD to FISH OUT OF WATER. As you say, Bruce, it was humorous.
  6. 25 minutes, longer than I should have been with LOI SEASONS. The calendar says it’s Autumn. As I was reaching three quarters of a century the day after I did this, I gave COD to NO SPRING CHICKEN. An understatement though, I think Winter starts here. Thank you B and setter.
  7. I too found this a bit easier than normal but there were a few challenges. FOI was A FISH OUT OF WATER which opened up the puzzle for me -a QC level clue really. Hold-ups were SEASONS (COD to that), the pig as I did not have the GK, SCRATCH, ASHORE and LOI HALF DONE where I spent a long time on the parsing – got there in the end.
    About an hour on this enjoyable puzzle.
    David
  8. ….I was compelled to try the puzzle on my phone, and was therefore truly A FISH OUT OF WATER. I thought I’d spotted all the inevitable examples of fatfinger before submitting, but I’d missed “deranhe” at 20D. My poor time of over 15 minutes would probably have been 12 on paper – which annoyingly arrived 5 minutes after I’d submitted. COD HALF-DONE.
  9. Despite millions of wonderful words
    Yet again we encounter two birds
    They should be slaughtered
    Hung drawn and quartered
    (Or maybe just cut into thirds)
  10. Yes very straightforward, this.
    I don’t think our esteemed blogger has parsed 20dn right .. where would the “anger” come from? It is surely (R)ANGE as Kevin says
    1. I certainly did a poor job of blogging this, but surely “send mad” is ANGER, not RANGE? What am I missing?
      1. The definition is “send mad”. The wordplay is your reversed commie, ie DER. That leaves us with ANGE to find, and only “row initially avoided” to find it from. Therefore (R)ANGE since range = row
  11. So a little under my average time but and enjoyable ride I thought. FOI SHE-DEVIL, LOI SEASONS for some odd reason. COD to 10 ac.
    Thanks B and setter.
  12. An enjoyable although not difficult puzzle. I worked my way from NW in a clockwise direction with HOMINID and HALF DONE finishing the job. Can’t remember whether ELI or SHE-DEVIL started me off. Liked A FISH OUT OF WATER. 20:14. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  13. I liked Half Done. I also kind of liked having 15 extra minutes added to my Saturday due to not needing them for this relatively easy puzzle. Thanks Bruce.
  14. 22:13 a nice quick solve for a Saturday. My only hold up was 14dn where I couldn’t decide whether the anagrist was study cites or cites ruins and whether the anagrind was ruins or in Byzantine state.
  15. I wrote ‘Ipcress File!!’ at the bottom of my print-out.
    I cannot now remember why, or to which clue it referred!

    FOI 1ac SHE-DEVIL

    LOI 1dn SEASONS!

    COD 14dn SCRUTINISE

    WOD 25ac NO SPRING CHICKEN like John O’ Bolton

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