Times Cryptic No 28044 – Saturday, 31 July 2021. Who is Maggie Tulliver?

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This was fun. There were several clues here whose answers I guessed but couldn’t explain. I’m sure we’ll clear them up here. A special mention to 15ac – very neat. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. How did you all get on?

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.

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Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions and commentary are (in brackets).

Across

1

A little boy, Winchester’s sixth former (8)

SOMETIME – SOME=a little, TIM=a random boy, E from (Winch)E(ster).

5

Breeding ground cultivated to catch disease (6)

HOTBED – a double definition, although I was a bit unsure where one ended and the other started.

9

Malevolent creature might, if out of bounds (3)

ORC – (f)ORC(e)=power.

10

Attack the rice wine, with days in November being dreary! (11)

GODFORSAKEN – GO FOR=attack, SAKE=rice wine. Insert D=days, and append N=November.

12

Gave in a hundred pounds to get hold of key drug (10)

ACQUIESCED – A, C=hundred, QUID=pound, ‘holding’ ESC=a computer key + E=drug.

13

Broadcast clip showing match (4)

PAIR – sounds like PARE.

15

Go to town three times, the last two prematurely (3,3)

LET RIP – TRIPLE, with the LE moved forward!

16

Tie that’s displaced the first semi, indeed (3,4)

NOT HALF – (K)NOT, HALF=semi.

18

Carter’s wife doomed! (7)

WAGONER – W(ife) is A GONER!

20

Fare reducing entails EU ministers backtracking (6)

MUESLI – backwards hidden answer.

23

Building extensions taken to extend much more than an inch? (4)

ELLS – double definition. An L-shaped building, or lengths of cloth considerably more than one inch. I’m not sure what the ‘taken’ is doing, other than assisting the surface reading of the clue.

24

ie, being ill adapted? (10)

INELIGIBLE – an anagram, and an &lit. definition, although the answer is perhaps more forceful than the clue.

26

Quietly getting shot of horse in one (in some way)? (5,6)

PHOTO FINISH – anagram (in some way) of P SHOT OF H IN I. I’m not sure how much of the clue is definition!

27

Bounder deposing the king of the castle (3)

ROO – the chess piece is a ROO(k).

28

A magpie, for example, heard devouring small cuckoo (6)

ABSURD – put S in A BURD (sounds like BIRD).

29

At home, maybe take time away from flood (8)

INUNDATE – IN + UNDATE, which might whimsically be the opposite of DATE(!), meaning spending time away from rather than with!!

Down

1

“Save our NHS”, say hospital nurses to Chronicle (6)

SLOGAN – definition by example. SAN ‘nurses’ LOG.

2

An eccentric revolutionary, that Spanish primate (7)

MACAQUE – A CAM=a non-circular engine part, all backwards, then QUE is Spanish for ‘that’. With the advent of electric vehicles, will cams become something else that lives on only in the crossword?

3

Pasta to follow: one fabricating popular starter for Italians (10)

TAGLIARINI – TAG=follow, as in ‘tag along’, LIAR=one fabricating, IN=popular, I(talian). I didn’t know the word.

4

After motorway, turned up sideroad on the way to work (5,8)

MODUS OPERANDI – M + an anagram (turned) of UP SIDEROAD ON.

6

Books containing pictures for everyone to remove (4)

OUST – OT are as normal ‘books’. U’S must be pictures rated for everyone to see. I’m surprised to see this form of plural, but here it was.

7

Roast cut by ladies, perhaps, and a cake (7)

BAKLAVA – BAK(e), LAV, A.

8

Scales down, at the outset, original RAF fund (8)

DANDRUFF – D(own), (original) anagram of RAF FUND.

11

Such as Maggie Tulliver, oddly in love: a rarity! (3,2,1,7)

ONE IN A MILLION – The Mill on the Floss is a novel by George Eliot, first published in 1860. Maggie Tulliver is a lead character, so she’s ONE IN A MILL. Then attach an anagram (oddly) of IN O=love. Tricky.

14

Buttress with ends of segment touching, and no good, therefore (10)

STRENGTHEN – S(egmen)T, RE=touching, NG=no good, THEN=therefore.

17

Climber’s later course, kilometre from summit (8)

SWEETPEA – a SWEET is a later course of the meal, PEA(k)=summit.

19

Suffers with effect of freefall here? (7)

GALLOWS – as kevingregg says: G=the gravitational constant, ALLOWS=suffers. My LOI.

21

The state in which old police chief’s bearing left one (7)

LIBERIA – L=left, I=one, BERIA=head of Stalin’s secret police.

22

Part of snooker’s scoring system given a makeover? (6)

REDONE – a RED scores ONE, a black scores seven!

25

Forbidding party game to be taken up (4)

DOUR – DO=party, RU=the game.

28 comments on “Times Cryptic No 28044 – Saturday, 31 July 2021. Who is Maggie Tulliver?”

  1. I can’t remember what slowed me down, but GALLOWS was my LOI, too. But I don’t see how it’s a cryptic definition. I read it as ALLOWS (suffers) with G (gravity, effect of freefall), although I would have thought gravity is the cause not the effect. I know nothing about snooker, and biffed REDONE. I liked WAGONER & DANDRUFF.
  2. 23ac re ‘taken’, it’s a reference to the old expression ‘give someone an inch and they’ll take an ell’. Since the ell went out of fashion this became ‘…they’ll take a mile’.

    I found this quite hard work. I so nearly got there eventually but looked up the unknown variety of pasta and had to remind myself who Maggie Tulliver was before solving 11dn. I had misremembered her as a Thomas Hardy character.

    Edited at 2021-08-07 02:57 am (UTC)

  3. I think the ‘taken’ is for the expression, “Give him an inch and he’ll take an ell” (‘a mile’ is how I learned it, but originally, I believe, ‘an ell’).
  4. I misspelt TAGLIARINI.
    I thought this was a good test. Thanks, Bruce, for explaining LET RIP, NOT HALF, LIBERIA and MODUS OPERANDI.
    Like you, I’m not sure where the definition started and finished in PHOTO FINISH.
    Favourites were: SOMETIME, WAGONER and GALLOWS.
    starting earlier today as I want to be sat in front of the TV for the Bledisloe….
  5. found the SW tough going, but particularly liked 19d GALLOWS. I had never heard of an ‘ell’ as an L-shaped building extension, so thanks to Bruce for that.
    38:08
  6. I struggled for nearly an hour with this and still had no idea why it was ELLS. I biffed GALLOWS assuming it was a pun and not thinking of G forces. I’ve not read The Mill on the Floss but vaguely knew the name from some half watched TV adaptation. I did like GODFORSAKEN, WAGONER, SWEETPEA and REDONE, but overall the pain exceeded the pleasure on this. Thank you B and setter.

    Edited at 2021-08-07 07:06 am (UTC)

  7. ….a bit of a beast. Even though I’ve not read any George Eliot, I knew of Maggie Tulliver. Similarly with Tolkien, where the ORC is a frequent invader of crosswords (although I only parsed “force” afterwards, along with my LOI).

    ELLS led to some activity in our online discussion group before I understood the “building extensions” part of it.

    Apart from the random boy in 1A (tiny rather little ?) I enjoyed the wit and inventiveness of many of the clues. GODFORSAKEN, LET RIP, ABSURD, ONE IN A MILLION, and GALLOWS all received ticks on my copy, but my COD won due to its topical theme.

    FOI WAGONER
    LOI PAIR
    COD SLOGAN
    TIME 23:09

  8. DNF
    Couldn’t see gallows. A mate had to explain the parsing to me. Clever clue.
    Thanks, b.
    1. Random in that nothing in the wordplay leads to TIM rather than any of the myriad other boy’s names from ALF to ZAC.

      “Little boy” bay just tangentially suggest Tiny Tim, but the “little” is doing other duty in the wordplay.

      1. But ALF, ZAC etc wouldn’t really fit unless the answer was SOMEALFR or SOMEZACE. So it may be “vague” (as would “animal” for say, cow be).,

        Don’t see how it’s “random” though

        FGBP

  10. I struggled with this for just over an hour. In the end I had to look up the pasta and who Maggie Tulliver was. ELLS went in on a wing and a prayer. A bit of a beast! 60:24. Thanks setter and Bruce.

    Edited at 2021-08-07 08:42 am (UTC)

  11. Gosh, but I found this one a challenge. Made a fair start in the south-east after FOI MUESLI, but then it was like pulling teeth. Mostly biffed and worked out thereafter, though the why and how of 23ac ELLS, 11d ONE IN A MILLION and 22d BEFORE still escaped me till I read the blog. 18ac WAGONER: that A GONER popped up elsewhere last week; DT Toughie, perhaps… LOI 25d DOUR after approx two hours. Thanks, setter and blogger.
  12. Yes, not easy. I had to work out TAGLIARINI from the wordplay, since the Italians do better than us currently in everything, including inventing pasta names.
    I don’t think I fully worked out ONE IN A MILLION, and would have had to look up the Hardy lady to do so. But what else? Unless inflation has pushed it to a billion, of course.
    ELL as an extension crops up occasionally in Mephisto, and of course there is The L-Shaped Room, an early Kitchen Sink Realism film.
    GALLOWS made me smile, which is not an expression hat turns up often. Unusually, while I see the wordplay version, I prefer the CD variant.
  13. For what it’s worth, Bruce, you’ve got a typo: it’s BERIA what was the secret pig.
  14. That was hard, but a very satisfying puzzle. Yet another DNF though on ells and gallows, having a bad run. Ell for building not in my lexicon, though it has been here before; not sure if inch/ell has but it’s a NHO for me. Also NHO Maggie Tulliver or tagliarini, but they were guessable.
    Parsed 5ac as TB (disease) caught by HOED (cultivated), and PHOTO-FINISH as an &lit, and my COD ahead of dandruff – you wouldn’t want a head of dandruff!
  15. Some of this was impenetrable for me either because it was an unknown word (the pasta) or like 1a the clue did not give me enough scope.
    I didn’t help myself with an unparsed NEGLIGIBLE at 24a.
    Gave up with several gaps including ELLS.
    I liked WAGONER.
    David
  16. A bit of a struggle in the SW corner with GALLOWS and ELLS and I wasn’t able to parse TRIPLET before coming here. Otherwise a slow but enjoyable solve. 41 minutes. Ann
  17. There doesn’t seem to be any other complaints but personally , I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect anyone to know who Stalin’s chief of police was.
    1. I’m guessing you’re a younger solver, as BERIA is quite a chestnut to us old sweats.
  18. I see this detained me for 40 minutes, so was quite a struggle. Another who DNK who Maggie Tulliver was until a post-solve google. LOI SLOGAN bamboozled by the spurious “to”. I have “yuk” against 29A for “maybe take time away” = UNDATE. But I did enjoy it, really.. or so I tell myself. Just a bit “too clever by half”, I thought at the time.

    Edited at 2021-08-07 06:07 pm (UTC)

    1. is in the dictionary meaning “to remove the date from” so if anything there isn’t even a need for the query
  19. I was wondering about that. Never imagined that was the explanation! Thanks, y’all.

    Edited at 2021-08-07 11:43 pm (UTC)

  20. I see I took 62 hours to solve this, which means I started it and then forgot about it, and then remembered later in the week that I never finished and came back. All correct. I knew ELL as a measure, and I knew it is much more than an inch (11/4 yards apparently) and when I looked it up in Chambers just now it even has “give him an inch and he’ll take an ell” so that is clearly it. NHO TAGLIARINI but worked it out from wordplay. I just biffed ONE IN A MILLION since I had no idea who Maggie Tulliver was. I realized how LET RIP was going to work but wasted time trying the idea on “treble” and wondered if “let reb” was a thing.
  21. “I read it as ALLOWS (suffers) with G (gravity, effect of freefall), although I would have thought gravity is the cause not the effect.”

    Interesting: in fact “G” stands for the gravitational constant, but it’s “g” that refers to the effect in freefall due to G (!)

    FGBP

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