Times Cryptic No 27990 – Saturday, 29 May 2021. Roll up, roll up … fun for all!

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Here we have TV shows, stage plays. Fun parks. Trashy paperbacks. Track and field sports, or a quiet ale. Something for everyone! Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. How did you all get on?

[Read more …]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 struck through.

Across
1 Place one must get out of party game (9)
DODGEBALL – in Gunsmoke, Marshall Dillon regularly told the bad guys to ‘get out of DODGE’. The party could be a BALL. And, apparently, dodgeball is a game.
9 Performer, in part, is terrific (7)
ARTISTE – hidden.
10 Play live match moved outside (7)
MACBETH – BE in anagram (moved) of MATCH.
11 Cyclist’s close with a head coach (5)
TEACH – T from cyclisT’s ‘close’, then EACH=a head, as in ‘tuppence each’.
12 Hurry back around New York, perhaps, to get vehicle (6,3)
ESTATE CAR – RACE backwards around STATE.
13 Country curses bad weather (7)
BAHRAIN – BAH! Humbug! Curses! + RAIN.
15 Person fighting to unwrap a classic film, for example (5)
OLDIE – the fighter is a sOLDIEr. Unwrap him.
17 Mug a writer (5)
STEIN – double definition: a stein of beer, or Gertrude Stein.
18 Primate’s brother’s inviting one in (5)
LORIS – oh brother! LOR’ amighty! Invite I=one in, then append the ’S.
19 Cuban steps over short snake first (5)
MAMBO – O=over, with MAMBa first.
20 Thinner expert has style (7)
ACETONE – ACE=expert, TONE=style.
23 Feel snout working when using it? (4,5)
NOSE FLUTE – anagram of (working) FEEL SNOUT.
25 Symbol of bear market’s beginning (5)
TOTEM – TOTE=bear, Market.
27 Mad man admits it hurts (7)
TOUCHED – OUCH in TED.
28 English house having no heart for environmental terrorism (7)
ECOTAGE – E, COTtAGE. New word to me.
29 Perceptive observer‘s article about one way of voting (3-6)
LIP-READER – LEADER=newspaper article, around I=one + P.R.=proportional representation.

Down
1 Reportedly held back on the way to hell (6)
DAMNED – sounds like DAMMED.
2 Olympian cheated when swimming without permit (10)
DECATHLETE – anagram of (swimming) CHEATED, without=outside LET=permit.
3 Vote in referendum primarily about something negative? (8)
ELECTRON – ELECT=vote in, R=referendum ‘primarily’, ON=about.
4 Hours sunk into soaring piece of music that’s improvised (2,3)
AD HOC – H in CODA, all soaring upwards in this down clue.
5 Awful mark erasable — with this? (5,4)
LASER BEAM – anagram of (awful) M + ERASABLE, with the M being for mark.
6 A sharp pain — darn! (6)
STITCH – double definition.
7 Ladies’ man is regularly head over heels in this region (4)
ASIA – every second letter of lAdIeS mAn, read backwards.
8 Satisfied with hotel signs I would say (8)
METHINKS – MET=satisfied (my wishes), H=hotel, INKS=signs (a document).
14 Possibly made perfect show on book in a hurry (10)
AIRBRUSHED – AIR=show, B=book, RUSHED.
16 Oscar follows blokes into dodgy bar having left work (4,5)
DIME NOVEL – MEN + O in DIVE + L=left.
17 Philosopher king gets hold of rocket ultimately for space programme (4,4)
STAR TREK – SARTRE is the philosopher. Insert T from rockeT, and add K=king.
18 Crazy golf followed by bumpy mule ride (3,5)
LOG FLUME – two consecutive anagrams (crazy/bumpy) of GOLF + MULE.
21 Energy about a brass band’s sound (6)
OOMPAH – OOMPH about A.
22 Kind offer (6)
TENDER – double definition.
24 Exercise set: one’s somersaulting (3-2)
SIT-UP – PUT + I’S, ‘somersaulting’.
26 Set up wrong sort of socialist (4)
TROT – TORT = a legal wrong, ‘set up’=backwards in a down clue.

35 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27990 – Saturday, 29 May 2021. Roll up, roll up … fun for all!”

  1. For 28a I had ECORAGE, thinking the house of Orange missing one of its middle letters. It did leave the C unaccountably dangling, but certainly sounded like a word for a green act of terrorism. I’ve never heard of ECOTAGE. First pink square for a month, but it was never going to last.
    30’17”
  2. For some reason I typed in DAMMED, even though I knew how the clue worked; infuriating. DNK ECOTAGE, LOG FLUME. It was nice to see ‘energy’ cluing something other than E.
  3. no dammed screw-ups! SO moderate!

    FOI 8ac ARTISTE

    LOI 17ac STEIN (Doh!)

    COD 16dn DIME NOVEL

    WOD 28ac ECOTAGE fnil. 1972 David Obst & Sam Love – ‘Ecotage!’ environmental-action book. Also featured in ‘The Monkey Wrench Gang’ – Edward Abbey 1974.

    29ac LIP READER again! I’d forgotten all about LOG FLUMES!

    Edited at 2021-06-05 01:58 am (UTC)

  4. Really enjoyed this, lots of slightly unusual/unexpected clues and answers. Missed the “Get out of Dodge” reference – just thought of “get out of” = dodge. Ecotage in with fingers crossed, but otherwise very enjoyable.
  5. My thought regarding “work” here was that the term is usually used for a more elevated literary, musical or otherwise artistic product.

    Edited at 2021-06-05 04:15 am (UTC)

    1. I thought so too, re both vinyl’s specific title and also Guy’s high-tone flavor. I was a little surprised to see a resident Brit-o-phile give a COD to an obvious Americanism.
          1. I am aware of your somewhat unpleasant jibe – but this is after all London – and not the Bronx. Using ‘Re: oeuvre’ was surely remiss, as it directly followed my comment – with the same header. horryd’s comment was perfectly innocent, was it not, Paul!?
            1. With respect, the “Re: œuvre” heading is a follow on from the trail starting with Guy’s comment.

              And it certainly wasn’t meant to be an unpleasant jibe. horryd is famous for appreciating Britishisms and references to British culture, and equally famous for disparaging the Americanisation of both the language and the puzzle. Dime Novel was a nice clue — in fact it was my favourite last week — it just surprised me that horryd would like it. I expressed that surprise.

  6. 40 minutes.

    I wasn’t sure about wordplay re DODGEBALL. I knew of the game because somebody mentioned it here recently re one of my comments in a blog. I thought of Dodge City from the days of old Westerns but had forgotten its association with Matt Dillon and Gunsmoke which I should have known from the American radio series put out on the BBC Light Programme in the late 50’s / early 60’s. We didn’t have ITV so I never saw the TV version broadcast in the UK as Gun Law (why?). I also missed ‘party = BALL’ which is merely an upmarket version of ‘party = disco’ that comes up regularly; it struck me as odd the first time I saw it but I’m used to it now.

    NHO of ECOTAGE but it makes perfect sense as a portmanteau of ‘eco’ and ‘sabotage’.

    NHO LOGFLUME but it was the only possibility given the anagrist and checked letters.

    Edited at 2021-06-05 06:40 am (UTC)

    1. There was a great outdoor logflume ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, a place of many happy memories for me. Sadly, it’s been knocked down, but there is a great indoor flume called Valhalla which is great fun.
  7. 31 minutes. The last few minutes were me saying what ELECTRON wasn’t before it dawned on me what it was. There were many gorgeous clues, including STAR TREK, METHINKS, OLDIE and my favourite, LIP-READER. I assume the writer was Gertrude, who I’ve not read. Fine puzzle.Thank you B and setter.
  8. ….was that, while “MAMBO Italiano” may have topped the charts for Rosemary Clooney way back in 1955, it wasn’t the correct geographical identification. I’ve been wrong for 66 years !

    NHO ECOTAGE but the parsing was clear. Biffed DODGEBALL with no idea what was going on. Only parsed my LOI afterwards.

    While STAR TREK nearly earned COD, I though LORIS let down an otherwise really good puzzle.

    FOI ARTISTE
    LOI OLDIE
    COD BAHRAIN
    TIME 11:35

  9. Read Rachel Carson’s 1962 ‘Silent Spring’ for the low-down on DDT etc. In 2006, it was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time – by the editors of ‘Discover’ magazine. COD NOSE-FLUTE – I had my first and last performance from one in Casablanca, back in the seventies.
  10. A clue not yet lauded in here
    Is the one that I’d like to cheer
    For when i saw the light
    NOSE FLUTE’s a delight
    Gets my vote for the Clue Of The Year

    Q. Would it be fun to nominate our favourite clues from 2021 at the end of the year and then take a vote on which one we liked best?

  11. Decent effort this I thought, enjoyed it though like Phil, I was less keen on 16ac.

    Also the intensely irritating font The Times uses continues to intensely irritate .. could not for example tell whether 6dn had DARN or DAM.

  12. 28:20, but I did what Kevin did, and dammed myself to failure! Thanks setter and Bruce.
  13. I struggled a bit with this and ended up filling all the squares, but not with the right letters. ELECTION at 3d led to OCHRE at 15a which led to HOME NOVEL. GREEN (a naïve person or mug and Henry Green an author) at 17a did not lead to Star Trek but to GRAY TREX. ECOHATE was also coined.
    I’d spent enough time on it to not bother with the exact parsings.
    Otherwise quite enjoyed it.
    David
  14. I didn’t note times started and completed but I know it was a lengthy interval! However, I’m congratulating myself because I didn’t fall into the DAMMED trap and instead had DAMNED. More by luck than judgement, I’d say. Found this very tricky, and didn’t like DIME NOVEL for work, but that’s pure literary snobbery! Submitted and waiting for my prize now….
  15. 10:51. DODGEBALL is an extremely silly but quite memorable 2004 movie, which helped me with 1ac. Nice puzzle.
    1. DODGEBALL was a game we used to play in elementary school; if I recall correctly, and I seldom do, one of us stood inside a circle of the rest of them, and tried to dodge the ball they threw. More fun than arithmetic lessons, anyway.
      1. In my school Dodgeball was a relatively mild game, played by both boys and girls, with the dodgers inside a circle or square. The more exciting game, played at much higher velocity and with occasional pain, boys only, by two teams facing off across a line, was Bombardment.
  16. An easy Saturday morning, with what I thought were a lot of American phrases. Pink squares here because I’d not known Ecotage and didn’t figure it out from the cluing. We don’t need to go into what letters I actually put into the grid. Thank brnchn
  17. 21:59. I enjoyed this a lot, particularly MACBETH, BAHRAIN, STAR TREK and OOMPAH. Thanks Bruce and setter.
    1. It’s intended to be read as ‘live’ (BE) with ‘MATCH moved outside’ it. ‘Moved’ indicating the anagram.
  19. Avoided the DAMNED issue; in bunged DODGEBALL w/o really knowing what was going on but unfortunately did the same with ELECTION so one pink square

    OOMPAH and ECOTAGE last two in

    I enjoyed it

    Thanks all

  20. I received Paul’s message via e-mail, which means that he directly replied to me.
    I had assumed your previous reply, which has disappeared, must have been addressed to me only by mistake.

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