Times Cryptic No 28098 – Saturday, 2 October 2021. Alas poor Yorick – I knew him, Horatio.

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Unlike Yorick, I’d never heard of the character at 3dn. 12ac was a new idea that stretched my mind. I didn’t know 3dn. 16ac featured the best disguised anagram indicator. 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.

[Read more …]Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions and commentary are in (brackets).

Across
1 A case of my being taken in by swindle (6)
COCOON – COO in CON.
4 What’s been well done since old radio presenter died (1,4,3)
A GOOD JOB – AGO=since, as in long since. O=old. DJ=radio presenter. OB=died, as in obituary. I expected to need to know the name of some radio presenter, but no – just assemble as instructed.
10 Drink just for Frank (9)
DOWNRIGHT – DOWN, RIGHT.
11 Note pulse rising and falling? (5)
TIDAL – TI (a drink with jam and bread). DAL is the pulse.
12 Mistake stretching US A&E department? (3)
ERR – E.R. stretched by adding another R.
13 Ask for quiet perhaps to contact Dial-A-Pizza? (4,2,5)
CALL TO ORDER – whimsical hint.
14 Maybe halfway through acquiring something very small (6)
MIDGET – MID, as in mid-stream + GET.
16 Sounded like an Arab, perhaps, heeding orders (7)
NEIGHED – anagram (orders) HEEDING.
19 Sportsman beginning to tacitly flatter hosts (7)
EVENTER – T from T(acitly) in EVENER=more flat.
20 Supplier of pork and game for hamper (6)
HOGTIE – HOG, TIE=(football) game, perhaps.
22 Council employee’s private place in solarium? (4,7)
TOWN PLANNER – OWN PL. in TANNER,
25 Very little change reflected in bureau, ostensibly (3)
SOU – hidden, backward.
26 Rake around garden primarily to remove unwanted plants (5)
ROGUE – ROUE around G from G(arden). Then decide whether to go for ROGUE or ROUGE! I didn’t know the answer as a gardening verb, but it makes sense.
27 Article sounds owlish on US company’s colluding (2,7)
IN CAHOOTS – INC. (US companies are often “incorporated”). A=the article, grammatically. HOOTS sound owlish.
28 Act as mortgagee, one understands, without company (8)
LONESOME – sounds like LOAN SUM.
29 Goal minder may (6)
OBJECT – double definition. OBJECT (n)=goal. Then “do you mind?”. “Yes, I object!”.

Down
1 Club member mostly to avoid upset (6)
CUDGEL – LEG=member, DUC(k)=avoid. All backwards.
2 Firm given fighting chance, shying away from it? (9)
COWARDICE – CO, WAR, DICE.
3 Ancient king, very large and fat, ditching horse (5)
OSRIC – O.S=outsize, RIC(h). Osric was a king of Northumbria in the 8th century.
5 Understand, trendy place for tie — but be dressed down (3,2,2,3,4)
GET IT IN THE NECK – GET IT, IN, THE NECK. Geddit?
6 Being smarter than officer, initially labouring to fix gun (9)
OUTFOXING – O(fficer) + anagram (labouring) of TO FIX GUN.
7 Green dress? Just the top is worn (5)
JADED – JADE + D(ress).
8 City left standing after brigade’s evacuation (8)
BELGRADE – B(rigad)E + L + GRADE=(social) standing.
9 Obscure marginal seat, one I could secure all things being equal? (14)
EGALITARIANISM – anagram (obscure) of MARGINAL SEAT + I + I.
15 Take the lead on social security, as papers do first (2,2,5)
GO TO PRESS – GO TOP, RE, SS.
17 Is welcoming to opponents at table? One’s cold and hard (9)
HAILSTONE – HAILS (hail fellow, well met!) + TO + N(orth) + E(ast).
18 Controversial treatment said to put pressure on chest (8)
PECTORAL – E.C.T. + ORAL on P.
21 Grand having American firm providing joint support (6)
GUSSET – G + U.S. + SET.
23 American serving up filling pasty in English town (5)
WIGAN – GI reversed (up) in WAN.
24 What’s found in pub that’s up for restoration (5)
REHAB – EH=what? in BAR reversed (up).

35 comments on “Times Cryptic No 28098 – Saturday, 2 October 2021. Alas poor Yorick – I knew him, Horatio.”

  1. I was defeated by putting CARTON at 1A (which works if you consider ART to fit “my being” which it sort of does, although now I think about it, it is more “your being”). So I never got COWARDICE. I don’t think I could tell you anything about OSRIC but I had heard of him.
    1. Good point. Obviously P for pressure has to be put ‘on’ the rest of the wordplay. Luckily, chest alone will do for the definition, as in CHEST/PECTORAL muscles. I’ve fixed the underlining accordingly. Thanks.
      1. Didn’t notice the double-duty at the time. Colloquially it’s fine as an adjective, but I can’t find it in any on-line or treeware dictionbary – only as a noun and a verb (e.g. Abbott, T. was going to shirt-front/chest Putin, V.)
  3. 33 minutes. Never heard of ROGUE as a “gardening verb” either and from what I remember I didn’t really understand the ‘minder may’ wordplay at 29a. Otherwise nothing too difficult though I was thankful I didn’t have to know the name of an ‘old radio presenter’ at 4a which threw me for a while at the very start. Instant word association for WIGAN is “pier” for me too, though I learnt only recently it’s not on the coast.

    I didn’t know it before, but GUSSET can also be an engineering term for a strengthening plate across a joint, so I think the def for 21d should probably be ‘joint support’.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  4. I thought that this had some good surfaces … COCOON for example. Liked ‘heeding orders’.
  5. Struggled in Galspray’s Kimberley region, until DOWNRIGHT COWARDICE won through, forcing a rethink of the type of club needed at 1d, which wasn’t the golf club I’d been expecting. Nice pdm for LOI CUDGEL. Like others I hadn’t heard of OSRIC, but he seemed more likely than the nho Aztec XLRIC.
    28:06

    Edited at 2021-10-09 05:10 am (UTC)

      1. An Australian wind methought? Viz (Roger’s Profanisaurus)

        Edited at 2021-10-09 05:37 am (UTC)

  6. was sorted out by Laertes with a poisoned pen letter opener – from memory. This was a decidedly easy Saturday outing lasting 35 minutes here in leafy Shanghai.

    FOI 25ac SOU

    LOI 1dn CUDGEL

    COD 1ac COCOON

    WOD 27ac IN COHOOTS

    All quiet on the Eastern Front.

  7. Assumed “rogue” had something to do with weeding, and I didn’t look it up later (but there it is, in Lexico…). It must have been Hamlet that I knew OSRIC from too, because I surely don’t know all the ancient English kings.

    Edited at 2021-10-09 05:47 am (UTC)

    1. Osric was king of Northumbria from the death of Coenred in 718 until his death on 9 May 729. Bede reports comets were seen at his death, a sign of ill omen. William of Malmesbury praises Osric for his decision to adopt Ceolwulf, brother of Coenred, as his heir.
  8. 32 minutes. I seem to have thrown out my torn-out solution but I remember liking GET IT IN THE NECK and not parsing A GOOD JOB at the time. I was also looking for an old time radio presenter, someone like Franklin Engelmann, and not the morning DJ at W.O.L.D. Decent puzzle, but I’m not sure it’s on to have Americans serve pasties to the pie eaters at 23d, Thank you Bruce and setter.

    Edited at 2021-10-09 05:49 am (UTC)

  9. A bit tricky in the Kimberley region AKA the NW. Though north-east from here. LOI cudgel after the down of downright and cocoon (which didn’t look correct). Liked MID-GET best of all. Always thought Wigan was a seaside town, having heard of The Road to Wigan Pier. Put right by the superb novel Rose, set in Wigan in Victorian times. All about coal-mining and associated disasters, feminism, African exploration and exploitation, and slavery. And astronomy. With gratuitous violence, as if written by an American writing a Hollywood film script.
  10. Ffft… the sound of your comment flying right over my head. No idea what yyou are trying to say. Can’t find baffie in the profanisaurus, or with any relevant meaning in the Urban Dictionary . com.
      1. horryd – I think you mean Bough (boff or boffie)! Constantly mentioned (TIC) in ‘Johnny English.’!
        ‘A short, odorless, basso-profundo. Also, the act of emitting a f*rt.

        As for golf it is technically a ‘Baffing Spoon’.

        Edited at 2021-10-09 10:52 am (UTC)

  11. I found this reasonably straightforward.
    FOI: SOU
    LOI: HOGTIE/HAILSTONE.
    Thanks, Bruce, especially for A GOOD JOB, ROGUE and PECTORAL.
    COD: MIDGET and COWARDICE.
    One query: In 22ac, surely a TANNER is a person and not a place (solarium)?
      1. I see your point, Andy, but I still think it’s dubious. Tell you what! I’ll give you a sixpence for it!
        1. I think if it were the main definition it would be dubious but in wordplay (as here) or a cryptic second definition some laxity is needed to allow for a bit of fun, and the question mark at the end of the clue suggests that’s what’s going on. In my view it’s no worse than ‘flower’ for ‘river’ which comes up all too often, and least it’s not as hackneyed as that one.
  12. ….from QC compiler OINK when I saw HOGTIE. Whoever was responsible, I never quite got any sort of rhythm going.

    WIGAN is now part of Greater Manchester, but to me it’ll always be a Lancashire town. Having pasty in the clue was nigh on sacrilege, since WIGAN is famous for proper pies, as well as Rugby League, and it’s “pier” which is actually a canal wharf.

    FOI ERR
    LOI OUTFOXING
    COD LONESOME
    TIME 16:26

  13. DNK the required meaning of ROGUE and NHO OSRIC but the wordplay was clear in both cases. The one I got wrong was 14ac, my LOI, where in desperation I wrote WIDGET which seemed a possible candidate for ‘something small’ although I was unable to match it to the rest of the clue.
  14. There are a lot of question marks on my paper copy. A lot of answers were guesses either unknown or unparsed: OSRIC, CUDGEL, NEIGHED,PECTORAL etc. But I seem to have got everything right.
    Not sure about the time as I looked at this en route to QPR to watch Preston lose an exciting game. The return journey and more were needed.
    COD to CALL TO ORDER.
    David
  15. Another enjoyable Saturday grid, mostly very gettable in about 45 minutes. FOI the 9d anagram EGALITARIANISM, which was an encouraging start. LOI 8d BELGRADE, though until coming here I didn’t completely understand the how/why, so thanks to blogger for the insight. The only puzzler in this one, though, which seems like progress.
  16. An enjoyable puzzle. I spent a lot of time on CUDGEL and OUTFOXING, and had to construct ROGUE and OSRIC from wordplay. COCOON was FOI. 22:57. Thanks Bruce and setter.
  18. Some nice words with Cohoots conspiring with the owl and Cocoon. COD to Town Planner – do they still exist as in Crittall’s (my avatar) day?

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