Times Cryptic No 27978 – Saturday, 15 May 2021. Omigod, I’m surprised.

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Surprised, that is, that I took so long with 20ac, where the answer wasn’t “omigod”. 19dn also took longer than it ought, but I smiled at the answer. A generous run of double definitions in the middle of a very Saturdayish number. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. How did you all get on?


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Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions are struck through.

Across
1 Take covering off books Henry introduced to relative (8)
UNCLOTHE – OT (Old Testament=books) + H=Henry in UNCLE.
5 One responsible for issue with a winning number (2,4)
AU PAIR – a + winning + number = A + UP + AIR (song). Responsible for issue=children. A nice clue.
9 Go off high ground to the west (3)
ROT – TOR backwards.
10 Having pets, fur and vomit is spread round area (11)
FAVOURITISM – anagram (spread around) of FUR VOMIT IS + A=area.
12 Greek siren sports behind most of Greek temple (10)
PARTHENOPE – PARTHENOn + P.E.

Parthenope was one of the Sirens in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of the god Achelous and the Muse Terpsichore.

13 Is one awfully tough, without love? (4)
THUG – anagram (awfully) of TOUGH minus O=love.
15 Very passionate about loincloth one’s taken off (3-3)
RED-HOT – RE=about, DHOTI minus I=one.
16 Fish sandwiches to regurgitate (4,3)
TROT OUT – TROUT is the fish, sandwiching TO.
18 Theoretically, capital keeps leading man in order (1,6)
A PRIORI – A1 = capital, keeping PRIOR = the leading man in a religious order. Like 5ac, I saw the answer long before the wordplay.
20 I’m surprised by fellow doing spells in resistance (6)
OHMAGE – OH = I’m surprised, a MAGE does spells. I wasted time trying to find something along the lines of OMIGOD.
23 Songwriters using enclosed rhyme scheme (4)
ABBA – double definition, although it seems strange to call ABBA songwriters rather than a band. Benny and Bjӧrn did most of the writing.

The second definition is to do with poetry. I found this from John Milton in Wikipedia:

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, A
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! B
My hasting days fly on with full career B
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th. A
24 Watcher and wiretapper, say, spy us abroad, catching name (5,5)
AGENT NOUNS – AGENT = spy, NOUS = us, in France, catching N = name. The definition is a DBE (see glossary), since “watcher” and “wiretapper” are of that type.
26 Popular legend maintaining Noah is at sea (11)
FASHIONABLE – anagram (at sea) of NOAH IS, in FABLE.
27 I’m off for a run (3)
BYE – double definition, the second cricketing.
28 Partners with stake in French city (6)
NANTES – ANTE in N + S.
29 Having no match, with Lords wholly rejected? (8)
PEERLESS – double definition, the too second fanciful for me to underline.

Down
1 Ground in Peru is still green (6)
UNRIPE – anagram (ground) of IN PERU.
2 Camp where one may sleep by lake (7)
COTERIE – COT is where one may sleep, ERIE is the lake.
3 Unable to receive calls for free (3,3,4)
OFF THE HOOK – double definition, the first reflecting old telephone technology.
4 Compare badly with what strippers ultimately do (4,7,2)
HAVE NOTHING ON – another double definition.
6 Soldiers requiring some ammunition (4)
UNIT – hidden.
7 Hearing this, we hear a hanky’s required! (7)
ATISHOO – sounds like A TISSUE.
8 English resort‘s scandal involving male beasts? (8)
RAMSGATE – RAMS-GATE, you see.
11 Gripping, powerless to hold record (13)
UNPUTDOWNABLE – UNABLE holding PUT DOWN.
14 Seize butterfly perched on new grass coming up (10)
COMMANDEER – COMMA is the butterfly, N is new, REED is backwards.
17 Dad drops bottles very loudly, getting flammable substance (8)
PARAFFIN – PA, RAIN drops, getting FF.
19 What a judge has, one with a deep voice (7)
ROBESON – a judge has ROBES ON.
21 Back from fishing, discover carp (7)
GRUMBLE – G from fishing, RUMBLE = discover.
22 Give an appraisal of Jenny? (6)
ASSESS – another double definition, the second jocular, if you are prepared to grant that Jenny the donkey is an ass-ess.
25 Unopened cream of the healthier variety (4)
LITE – drop the E from ELITE.

20 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27978 – Saturday, 15 May 2021. Omigod, I’m surprised.”

  1. But nothing to write home about. Time not recorded.

    FOI 9ac ROT

    LOI 20ac OHMAGE

    COD 19dn Paul ROBESON

    WOD 14dn UNPUTDOWNABLE

    How is Agent Nouns?

    Edited at 2021-05-22 01:22 am (UTC)

  2. DNK that PARTHENOPE was a siren, but the name was vaguely familiar. DNK BYE (LOI) in the cricket sense, of course. Biffed AGENT NOUNS, parsed post-submission.
  4. 28 minutes with LOI AGENT NOUNS. I didn’t know the siren but the crossers and clue were kind. Don’t take umbrage, take OHMAGE. COD to UNPUTDOWNABLE. When I was a lad, Paul Robeson used to have a short slot, singing spirituals as they were introduced as, on the Light Programme every week. It was an absolute delight. Thank you B and setter.
  5. I did consider ACDC as the songwriters before ABBA. It parsed nicely before the crossing B appeared.
    There seemed to be a lot of gratuitous nudity in this puzzle, with ‘unclothe’ ‘have nothing on’ and ‘robes off’- to say nothing of the red hot au pair!
    21’54”
    1. I was rather struck by the instruction across the top row. Sadly we don’t have one.
  6. 9:48 but unfortunately I can’t spell ‘Parthenon’. 🙁

    Edited at 2021-05-22 07:11 am (UTC)

  7. A cheeky and cheerful offering, breezed through in 16.55. Of course. PARTHENOPE was unknown but easily deduced, ADGENT NOUNS the sort of clue which I find tricky due to the apparent superfluity of words, and all the on/off clothing supplying the smirks.
    ASSESS must be one of the original cryptic clues, hilarious in 1930 but perhaps a little hairy now.
  8. Didn’t know the siren and put ABBA in with crossed fingers, otherwise an enjoyable offering. AGENT NOUNS dredged up from somewhere. Starting and end points now lost in the mists of time. 26:33. Thanks setter and Bruce.
    1. It was a clue in the ST cryptic 27 February. Also mentioned in the blog for the cryptic 7th April.
  9. ….and used aids for the NHO PARTHENOPE, and then forced in “UNPUTDOWNABLE”. When did we acquire the German art of making a word as if from an IKEA kit ? I might have seen it sooner if, instead of (13), it had shown (2-3-4-4). Bring back the hyphen !

    FOI ROT
    LOI UNPUTDOWNABLE
    COD AU PAIR
    TIME (with aids) 15:46

    1. I don’t know when, but presumably before antidisestablishmentarianism was coined!
  10. The OED has extensive historical examples of all its words. Neither the original ~1933 or the more modern one ~1990s has unputdownable in it. So this century? I would have said earlier, but don’t trust my guesses.
    1. The online OED has examples of UNPUTDOWNABLE starting from 1839 (hyphenated), and from 1842 (unhyphenated). In the sense of a book which one can’t stop reading, starting from 1935.
      1. Including Raymond Chandler:
        1947 R. Chandler Let. 5 Jan. in R. Chandler Speaking (1966) 66 I found it absolutely..unputdownable.
      2. That’s intriguing. I have a photo-reduced copy of the 1933 edition, and it goes from UNPUT to UNPUTREFIED.
  11. 15.32. A fun puzzle. Highlights for me were au pair, favouritism, agent nouns, unputdownable and paraffin where I really liked the dad drops bottles construction.
  12. I very much enjoyed all 40 minutes of this. COD to FAVOURITISM for the aptness of the surface reading, which very accurately describes the cat we had for nearly 20 years (well, the bad things about him, far outweighed by the good things). A few entries a language purist might turn his nose up at (LITE, UNPUTDOWNABLE, OHMAGE, I suppose), but that is how languages work and grow. ATISHOO might be in that list, but it’s in dictionaries and I have learned this is the standard crossword spelling (I would spell it ACHOO).
  13. Good time (for me) and would have been quicker if the ABBA and ROBESON crossers hadn’t needed a hard think at the end. Like others it’s a bit of a stretch to say the group were songwriters though I think Anna-Frid and Agnetha did write some of the songs.

    I was born in RAMSGATE general hospital (folks living in Deal at the time) Not knowingly been back and was told a few years ago by a client (NHS Estates Director) that he’d knocked the thing down for houses.

    Thanks all

  14. I’m with blogger brnchn in trying for too long to shoehorn in OMIGOD for 12ac, but eventually the pieces all fell into place. Satisfying to complete. I wonder if any of you regulars have ever actually won the prize?

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