Times Cryptic No 28230 – Saturday, 5 March 2022. A horse, my blogdom for a horse.

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Far and away my favourite clue here was 1ac. The answer took me totally by surprise, obvious though it may have been to some. Overall, a fun outing. 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. Any hidden answers are in red.

Across
1 A horse hit hard — so turned to shoer? (10)
ANAGRAMMED – A + NAG + RAMMED. I’ve underlined the whole clue as definition, since it describes how the setter would have us get from HORSE to SHOER.
6 Mess is where you’ll find the brass? (4)
MUCK – alluding to the North Country saying: where there’s muck there’s brass.
8 Name briefly associated with animal sanctuary’s birds (8)
TITLARKS – TITL(e) + ARKS.
9 Doctor apparently banged up for a caper (6)
GAMBOL – M.B. in GAOL. ‘Banged up’ gives us ‘in gaol’.
10 Enjoyment to be had with daughter in pool (4)
FUND – FUN + D.
11 What family vet might charge for effect? (10)
PERPETRATE – the vet might charge a PER-PET-RATE, ho ho.
12 Screws not for fixing high platform (5-4)
CROWS-NEST – anagram (for fixing): SCREWS NOT.
14 Keen on keeping West thus divided? (2,3)
IN TWO – INTO=keen on. Insert W.
17 Small spot on ermine (5)
STOAT – S=small + TO A ‘T’=spot on. The origins of ‘to a T’ seem uncertain, but as a wordplay device it’s always worth a smile.
19 Excellent being on leave in a NE region of France (9)
AQUITAINE – A1=excellent, ‘on’ QUIT=leave, all in A + NE.
22 Snuff out of metal box good for everyone? Rather! (10)
EXTINGUISH – EX=of, as in ‘ex factory’.  TIN=metal box. G=good. U = (a movie) for everyone. -ISH=rather, as in ‘green-ish’. I was tempted to read EX=out of, but I think the definition has to be ‘snuff out’ rather than just ‘snuff’. Feel free to debate.
23 County in need of pole for flag (4)
WILT – knock the South Pole off WILTS.
24 Shrub of note with instant appeal (6)
MIMOSA – MI=note + MO=instant + SA=setter’s jargon for sex appeal.
25 Thoughtless fool going on a bender? (4-4)
KNEE-JERK – KNEE=bender + JERK=fool.
26 Giant blunder on field concerning (4)
OGRE – OG=own goal=blunder on field + RE=concerning.
27 Come across non-professional sort of training? (3,5,2)
LAY HANDS ON – LAY=non-professional + HANDS ON=sort of training, not in a classroom.

Down
1 Things made apparent primarily by Irish broadcasters with info (9)
ARTEFACTS – A(pparent) + RTE=the Irish broadcaster + FACTS. The answer can be spelled with an I or an E, so I had to guess the name of the broadcaster, but an E was always the bookies’ favourite.
2 Italian peeled giant onions (7)
ANTONIO – (gi)ANT ONIO(ns),
3 Poison bringing a temperature — turning yellow before long (8)
ATROPINE – A + T + OR ‘turning’ + PINE.
4 Innkeeper is married, I’m keen to emphasise (8,7)
MISTRESS QUICKLY – M=married + I STRESS QUICKLY. She appears in Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
5 Tricky part of course? Company head keeps eye in (3-3)
DOG-LEG – D.G.=director general ‘keeping’ OGLE.
6 Yours truly on way to work organised attorney’s notes (9)
MEMORANDA – ME + M.O.=way of working + RAN + D.A.
7 Act unexpectedly to cut fare for people in US (7)
CHOCTAW – anagram (unexpectedly): ACT, cutting CHOW.
13 Tedious don, I go on a bit! (9)
WEARISOME – WEAR=don + I + SOME=a bit.
15 Passed a range we know south of plain (9)
OVERTAKEN – A + KEN=range. ‘south’ of OVERT=plain, in this down clue.
16 Maybe miss each mail that’s gone astray (8)
MICHAELA – anagram (astray) EACH MAIL.
18 Demanding one stops travelling by cab (7)
TAXIING – I=one in TAXING.
20 Reserve acquired by old company head (7)
ICINESS – I.C.I.=an old chemical company + NESS.
21 Climber on ascent skirting top of glacier’s torn skin (6)
AGNAIL – LIANA ‘on ascent’ ‘skirting G(lacier). Apparently, ‘agnail’ is another name for ‘hangnail’. I didn’t know that.

24 comments on “Times Cryptic No 28230 – Saturday, 5 March 2022. A horse, my blogdom for a horse.”

  1. thanks, brnchn, I needed this today. For whatever reason I really struggled with this — words I vaguely knew, several vagueries possilbly fitting what I read the clues to be, some UNKs.

    You might have the wrong word underlined at County / flag as the definition.

      1. yeah — if i’d made only mistakes of that teensy variety during my solve i’d’ve been done a lot sooner.
  2. Interesting and varied. 2LOI OVERTAKEN, as I had TIRE at 23ac, my (Irish) county was Tiree. Except Tiree’s an Island in Scotland, Tyrone is in Ireland, I looked up post-solve. Liked GAMBOL and the PER PET RATE. Surprisingly knew of Mistress Quickly, also Antonio from Merchant of Venice not attributed, and ATROPINE from Agatha Christie. My one unknown was the Irish broadcaster (Radio-Television Ireland, obviously) so one wrong, but with an accepted spelling of ARTIFACT as Bruce notes.
  3. As I was working, I stopped (no clock running on me, y’know) to text my friend Heather, who has not been initiated into the art of cryptics (but has expressed curiosity) the great (and cute) clue PERPETRATE, thinking of a mutual friend (Emma) who is a (as we say over here) veterinarian.

    I was grateful that the clue made clear which spelling of ARTEFACT was needed here… well, after I looked up the acronym, realizing that ARTE is French & German, and suddenly wondering if “I” wasn’t more likely. Ha.

    AGNAIL was very, very, vaguely familiar. Maybe.

    Edited at 2022-03-12 08:41 am (UTC)

  4. I slowly got to the finish line in 46:27, but had ARTIFACT instead of the correct ARTEFACT, which I’d put in early without checking the parsing. A pity, because I knew RTE as the Irish broadcaster. LOI was WILT ( First year primary school in Lyneham helped with this!}
  5. I had no idea what 6ac was about–NHO the saying– but with M_C_, MUCK seemed the only possibility. Historically, ‘hangnail’ is another word for AGNAIL, but seems to have pretty much replaced it. We had RTE a while back, not that it leaped to mind this time; I checked before submitting. COD maybe to EXTINGUISH.
  6. …I had to use aids to solve 1ac ANAGRAMMED, a really good clue, as you indicate, Bruce.
    Thanks for KNEE JERK and EXTINGUISH.
    Favourite clues were PER-PET-RATE, GAMBOL and AQUITAINE.
    LOI, of course, ANAGRAMMED.
    I’m trying to remember if the youthful Leo in “The Go-Between” referred to ATROPINE or just to belladonna when he was talking about casting spells.

    Edited at 2022-03-12 06:35 am (UTC)

  7. 37 minutes with very few workings in the margins. I must have found this pretty straightforward.
  8. A 35 minute job for me. POI, courtesy of Billy Joe MacAllister, was CHOCTAW, and LOI the dreadful AGNAIL, which I checked afterwards. COD to Mistress Quickly. Good in parts. Thank you B and setter.
  9. Well clearly I hated TITLARKS
    And the CROWS also kinda narks
    So what fate for our setter?
    Well I can’t think of better
    Than a tankful of ravenous sharks
  10. 33 minutes from FOI, TAXIING to LOI, ANAGRAMMED, which I suspected from the start but didn’t parse until later. Saved from ARTIFACTS by the Irish broadcaster! I even remembered MISTRESS QUICKLY once I had AQUITAINE. Liked PER PET RATES which took a while to see. Thanks Bruce and setter.
  11. I had a train journey to Preston and back last Saturday so I had the time and the inclination to crack this. But I did not have the ability. I found it extremely difficult and failed on about half a dozen.
    I’m still puzzled by WILT as IN NEED OF was telling me to add something, not take it away.
    TITLARKS, ATROPINE and AGNAIL were some of the other fails.
    I liked ARTEFACTS and ANAGRAMMED.
    One upside: I was able to spend quite a bit of time reading my book on the train having given up the crossword.
    David
    1. It’s a bit convoluted. The county is Wilts(hire) so if you remove its pole you get WILT = Flag/tire, so the answer, WILT is a county in need of a pole, ie Wilts without S. Hope this helps:-)
      1. Thanks John.
        You have illustrated my problem. WILT is not a county until a pole is added.
        For a long time, I was trying to justify Tire and looking to add N or S.
  12. I was a DNF – NHO TITLARKS or AGNAIL, and I couldn’t see MIMOSA. (My knowledge of flora in general is very poor, so if I can’t untangle the clue I’m in trouble.)

    I got 27A but couldn’t parse it, and I’m still baffled: how does LAY HANDS ON mean ‘come across’? The latter implies an accidental encounter (‘I came across an old friend in the street’), whereas the former implies a deliberate effort to do something (‘I know I’ve got a screwdriver somewhere, but I can’t lay my hands on it right now’). What am I missing?

    1. Chambers has :

      come across
      1. To find or meet by chance

      lay hands on
      1. …
      2. To obtain or find

      there seems to be enough commonality there.

  13. 14:09, but I misremembered the Irish broadcaster (got to be I for Ireland, right?) so got the wrong spelling of ARTEFACT. Before that I had invented the NUTLARK, which held me up. List in ANAGRAMMED, these clues always seem to catch me out.
  14. Another ARTIFACT: such a shame the broadcaster was not Radio Taiwan (or Tatras) International. That’s two weeks in a row with my competition entry ineligibilised.
  15. Is the most trollish clue… I figured out that RT? must be the Irish broadcaster, so that would be an I for Ireland, yes?

    Ha ha, no. Well, yes, for Ireland, but no, not an I.

    Wow

    Thanks

    I think I prefer anagrams of foreign words

  16. had to use aids to get anagrammed, even then could not parse it, but agnail wasn’t even in my solver so DNF.
  18. So far as I can see nobody has a problem with 15dn, so it must be me: ‘Passed a range we know south of plain’ for OVERTAKEN. OK Passed is the definition. overt = plain. That leaves ‘a range we know’ to account for ‘a ken’. As brnchn says, ‘a range’ = ‘a ken’. What then is ‘we know’ doing? The setter could perfectly well have left it out and had an arguably better surface. ken also = know, so I’m bewildered by this.

    Edited at 2022-03-13 11:46 am (UTC)

  19. Got there in the end despite several NHOs. I’d heard of Mistress Quickly but I had no idea she was an innkeeper. Until this crossword.

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