Times Cryptic No 27954 – Saturday, 17 April 2021. Not in this parish.

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Well, that was easier than usual, I thought. I didn’t have the parochial knowledge to understand 13dn, but I got it from the helpers. For the rest, I can see the blog will be straightforward.

As an aside, it is the London Times, so their setters are entitled to use the odd parochial reference. Certainly they don’t have as many such as in the Friday crossword in my home-town newspaper, which has very dinki-di Aussie leanings!

Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. How did you all get on? Here we go.

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.

[Read more …]Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions are struck through.

Across
1 Bacteriologist‘s gone his own way in retirement (7)
PASTEUR – he’s PAST or gone, and since he was French, his RUE gives EUR on retirement.
5 Plain couple crossing river “discovered” pier (7)
PRAIRIE – the PAIR cross R, and then pIEr loses its ‘covers’.
9 Putting board on reversing vehicle is easily managed (9)
TRACTABLE – reverse a CART, in front of a TABLE.
10 Broadcast of maximum annoyance (5)
PIQUE – when broadcast (on radio), might sound like PEAK or maximum.
11 Joint approach in general stores (5)
HINGE – hidden answer.
12 Wide-ranging former contract split by four (9)
EXTENSIVE – EX TENSE (former / contract, as of muscles), ‘split’ by IV.
14 What one may be paid to keep quiet after a Conservative coup (14)
ACCOMPLISHMENT – A, C for conservative, then COMPLIMENT (what one may be paid), ‘keeping’ SH (quiet).
17 Fancy seeing you at Lord’s, Williams — sadly, I must go! (3,1,5,5)
ITS A SMALL WORLD – anagram (sadly) of AT LORDS WLLIAMS, with one I removed.
21 Realistic photo frames with a dull finish on paper (9)
PRAGMATIC – PIC ‘frames’ RAG + MAT.
23 Maybe sommelier’s forgotten one drink (5)
WATER – WAITER loses the I.
24 Days during prophet’s Passover ritual (5)
SEDER – D for days in SEER.
25 Head of governors giving rough idea of foundation (9)
GROUNDING – G for governors, then ROUNDING.
26 Most weary gastropods turning tail (7)
LIMPEST – LIMPETS, with the tail (the last two letters) turned.
27 Doctor Watson injecting drug: easy! (2,5)
NO SWEAT – anagram (doctor) of WATSON + E for ecstasy.

Down
1 Irregular route skirting cape close to Whitby (6)
PATCHY – PATH around C, then Y from whitbY.
2 Capable of making tin cans? (7)
STANNIC – anagram (capable of making) TIN CANS. Tin oxides come in stannic and stannous forms, either of which could presumably be smelted to give the material for tin cans.
3 Intelligence-based short course not for sharing (5,4)
ENTRE NOUS – the course is an ENTRÉe. Shorten it, and put it on NOUS (intelligence).
4 Tropical tree‘s position beneath a little bridge (6,5)
RUBBER PLANT – In the olden days, the card game of bridge was scored in RUBBERs. To PLANT is to position.
5 Oddly priced dish (3)
PIE – odd letters of PrIcEd.
6 When to fence in tree (5)
ASPEN – AS | PEN (when | fence).
7 Reimburse troops to some extent (7)
REQUITE – R.E. are the troops, QUITE is to some extent.
8 What gets round Liberal contest’s late hour? (8)
ELEVENTH – EH = what? Put that around L + EVENT.
13 Fifteen bob award for outstanding home team? (6,5)
TRIPLE CROWN – A crown is or was five shillings, so fifteen bob (or shillings) is triple that.

American baseball has a triple crown, and horseracing has two(!), but I didn’t understand the reference to “home teams” until Wikipedia told me that for a British rugby fan, the four “home” nations are England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. (Please note the Oxford comma there! Just trying to go native.) If a Home Nation beats all three of the others, they win the Triple Crown. Wales won the honour this year!

15 Legendary outlaw has a flutter and cheats (9)
HOODWINKS – HOOD (Robin Hood, of course). WINKS (has a flutter of one’s eyelashes).
16 Scrapping bribes contrarily pocketed by controller on set (8)
DISPOSAL – SOPS ‘contrarily’, ‘pocketed’ by DIAL.
18 Rising doctor mildly curses fame (7)
STARDOM – M.O. DRATS, all ‘rising’.
19 Tactile floating web (7)
LATTICE – anagram (floating) of TACTILE.
20 Shock following fit (6)
FRIGHT – F for following, RIGHT for fit or proper.
22 Love once forsworn by sullen sleuth (5)
MORSE – MOROSE loses an O.
25 Instinctive reversal of leading vessel (3)
GUT – TUG is the vessel.

17 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27954 – Saturday, 17 April 2021. Not in this parish.”

  1. I had no idea what was going on in 13d, but the checkers were friendly. I spent my last 5+ minutes working on REQUITE & PIQUE. I liked PIQUE (‘broadcast of maximum annoyance’: BBC on Prince Philip?).
  3. 25 minutes. IT’S A SMALL WORLD gave me an awful ear worm, bringing back memories of a quarter of a century ago, when my then very young daughter wanted to go on the wretched Disney ride time after time after time. COD to NO SWEAT. Elementary, my dear Watson, as Sherlock apparently didn’t say. An OK puzzle. Thank you B and setter.
  4. ….which left me alpha-trawling REQUITE before I could nail my LOI. I enjoyed this, and it followed 3 consecutive DNF’s. Unfortunately, 3 more followed it, and I probably won’t be tackling this week’s until. Tuesday, as I’m giving my tortured brain a break !

    I biffed IT’S A SMALL WORLD and parsed it quickly enough afterwards.

    FOI PASTEUR
    LOI PIQUE
    COD TRIPLE CROWN
    TIME 10:18

  5. Yes, whistled through this.
    A crown is still legal tender, it is a 25p piece. You wouldn’t call it common, though I have some in the attic somewhere. Must try using one in Sainsbury’s.
    1. Do Sainsbury’s still take any kind of cash? Mine does the point and shoot gismo, and my mobile does the paying (no cash limit), though I see some people still queue up at the tills. I’ve got my visits down to one a fortnight.
      1. I believe they have a legal duty to. So far as I know legal tender cannot legitimately be refused. Wife still uses the tills, technology has a nasty habit of failing to work in her vicinity ..
  6. I found this tricky at first. Only 5 clues solved in my first 30 minutes. FOI was PIE. But another session after a walk saw good progress and I was all done by 1.46pm.
    LOI was the unknown SEDER. EXPANSIVE? had been at 12a until the nearly LOI TRIPLE CROWN occurred to me.
    I enjoyed this. Obscurities (to me) like STANNIC and SEDER were gettable.
    I liked NO SWEAT and ENTRE NOUS.
    David
  7. I enjoyed this puzzle. Took me ages to see the TRIPLE part of 13d and LOI, ELEVENTH. PIQUE took a while too. 35:27. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  8. A whizz through in 13.40, so it can’t have been hard. I imagine SEDER might not have been a write in for those who have had no occasion to attend Passover, but the wordplay was unmistakeable.
    1. Normally, no. But this is a special type of clue, called an &lit. or all-in-one, where the whole clue, read one way, is wordplay; and read another way, is all the definition.
  11. Of course, if it’s a French dance.
    Or indeed a French boy detective.

    Milou

    Edited at 2021-04-24 05:49 pm (UTC)

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