Times Cryptic No 28991 — A week in the woods

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

26:22, although I spent far too long dithering over my last two entries, not really being able to parse them. I’m filling in for William this week, writing this blog from the misty woods of Phoenicia, NY, where we are enjoying cooler than usual weather. I found this puzzle to be gentle, though not without interest. A fitting conclusion to a week of hiking and board games with friends and family.

Across
1 Lioness licked wounds (7)
LESIONS – anagram of LIONESS
5 Sacred place of frenzied Tuscan maidens (7)
SANCTUM – anagram of TUSCAN + M
9 Names withheld, and no fuss (3)
ADO – AND NO with Ns removed (names withheld)
10 Rough male sheep reportedly sported (11)
WEATHERWORN – homophone of WETHER (male sheep) WORN (sported)

I probably spent five minutes trying to justify my semi-biffed (correct) answer. I did not know about the castrated ram, and so I finally submitted without leaderboard out of fear of castration. Er, I mean fear of pink squares.
11 Seated, I get up and take off (8)
SATIRISE – SAT (seated) + I RISE
12 Dance companion for daughter in Russian cottage (3-3)
CHA-CHA – DACHA (Russian cottage) with CH (companion) for D

I had this one straight away but doubted myself because I didn’t understand the parsing.
15 Fool / old lady (4)
NANA – double definition
16 British Airedale angrily biting backside of Cocteau, French poet (10)
BAUDELAIRE – B + anagram of AIREDALE around last letter of COCTEAU
18 Experts study glass eye, perhaps (10)
PROSTHESIS – PROS + THESIS
19 Children cycling slip sideways on road (4)
SKID – KIDS with last letter moved to front (cycling)
22 Well-endowed, society bores thrive marvellously at last (6)
BOSOMY – S in BOOM + last letter of MARVELLOUSLY
23 Am returning jumper boy left behind (8)
MAROONED – AM reversed + ROO (jumper) + NED (boy)
25 Look into endowing missing knight with a vacant title (11)
INVESTIGATE – INVESTING without N (knight [in chess notation]) + A + T{itl}E
27 Regularly envied woman (3)
EVE – every other letter in ENVIED
28 Worms dog, angry-looking figure (7)
HUNDRED – HUND (‘dog’ in Worms, Germany) + RED (angry-looking)
29 With bitterness, start to admonish councillor doing nothing (7)
ACRIDLY – first letter of ADMONISH + CR + IDLY
Down
1 Affair exposed in Australia is ongoing (7)
LIAISON – hidden in AUSTRALIA IS ONGOING
2 Nun’s a poet, so madly impulsive (11)
SPONTANEOUS – anagram of NUN’S A POET SO
3 Oscar moved back and forth (6)
ONWARD – O + DRAWN (moved) reversed (back)

I had trouble convincing myself of this one, which didn’t help with WEATHERWORN.
4 Asteroid affected sailors in front half of ship first (4-6)
STAR-SHAPED – APED (affected), with TARS (sailors) in first two letters of SHIP first
5 Erected huge house in part of London (4)
SOHO – OS (huge) reversed + HO (house)
6 Travelled around with chap who painted sea creatures (8)
NARWHALS – RAN reversed + W + HALS

The chap is Frans Hals.
7 More than is proper, couple made out (3)
TOO – homophone (made out) of TWO (couple)
8 Order male partner for the night (7)
MANDATE – MAN (male) DATE (partner for the night)

Or perhaps MAN DATE is just ‘male partner for the night’? “Check out Lucy’s man date!”
13 Stylish toy boy paid peanuts (11)
CHICKENFEED – CHIC + KEN (toy boy) + FEED (paid)
14 Build on island group after influx of key capital (5,5)
ADDIS ABABA – ADD (build) + IS (island) + ABBA (group) around A (key)
17 Steam iron briefly dispersed spray (8)
ATOMISER – anagram of STEAM IRO{n}
18 Reveal boozer is supporting large hospital (7)
PUBLISH – PUB (boozer) + IS under L + H
20 Comedian periodically nearly faltering (7)
DODDERY – DODD (comedian) + every other letter of NEARLY

Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd.
21 Mostly stick together to protect single or joint beneficiary (6)
COHEIR – COHER{e} around I (single)
24 Object to minute diamonds (4)
MIND – MIN. (minute) + D (diamonds)
26 See case of Italian wine (3)
VIN – V (see) + I{talia}N

70 comments on “Times Cryptic No 28991 — A week in the woods”

  1. Some new twists here! I didn’t know the comedian DODD, but there had to be one.

    1. Ken Dodd (died 2018 aged 90), Liverpudlian stand-up comedian and occasional actor and pop singer. Hugely famous in the UK, but I wouldn’t imagine his humour travelled well.

  2. Interesting and enjoyably inventive. At 34 minutes this seemed easier than the average Friday. I waited for all the checkers before writing in SHAPED at 4dn as I wasn’t sure of the ‘affected / APED’. Oh, that sort of affected! It usually clues ‘camp’.

  3. A nice way to finish the week before the weekends offerings, and if Sunday’s is anything like last week’s from David McLean I’ll be very pleased – it was a cracker.
    I knew 2d was star-shaped but didn’t know that was the meaning of Asteroid. Weatherworn was a write-in knowing BELLWETHER, a leader of the flock usually with a bell around its neck, hence the name. When I saw the comedian at 20d, Ken Dodd, I immediately thought it would present problems for our friends across the pond, but as Guy has said, it had to be. We used to go and see his pantomimes in Liverpool at the Odeon I think at Christmas. Leader of the Diddy People from Knotty Ash and a brilliant comedian. I saw Sandi Toksvig recently on QI telling of how she was at a dinner with him after one of his shows and and kept the table in stitches for hours. A lovely man by all accounts.
    Thanks Jeremy and setter.

    1. Hours is right. Ken Dodd always liked getting value for money but he gave it too. One of my friends attended a Doddy show that went on for so long people were having to leave before it finished because they were exhausted!

      1. Apparently taxi drivers loved him because, as you say, he used to go on for so long that the buses had finished running before he had!

    2. I had ‘rellies’ in Liverpool and lived there myself for a couple of years. I saw Ken Dodd perform at a club one evening and without once resorting to ‘blue’ material, he had the whole place in stitches.

      1. He hid loads of money under the matress to avoid income tax; I’m surprised he got a knighthood after that. He was widely admired (but not by me, old sourpuss.)

        2. He said he had heard of the Inland Revenue, but as he lived on the coast he didn’t think it applied to him.

        3. Ken Dodd was indeed tried for tax evasion but, notwithstanding the large amount of cash he had in his attic, we should recognise here that he was acquitted.

      2. I think he knew who his fanbase were – families. I don’t think he’d have known what a blue joke was. I’d have loved to have seen him in a club gig.

  5. I was convinced that ‘worms dog’ must have meant taking the ring[worm] (O) out of HOUND! And this was despite recalling the schoolboy favourite Diet of Worms while pondering.

  6. Enjoyed this, although I submitted with some trepidation, unable to parse STAR SHAPED, and forgetting Luther. Not too sure I’d ever use the word BOSOMY.

    13’54”, thanks jeremy and setter.

    2. ‘Bosomy’ occurs twice in the poem ‘Wild Oats’ by Philip Larkin. Only place I’ve ever seen it.

  7. Quite quick today, I thought yesterday’s significantly harder., but fun, inventive as Jackkt says.
    Funny about cycling, you never used to see it used at all and all of a sudden, it is everywhere …

  8. 29 mins so speedy for a Friday. Nothing too difficult or unknown for a change,! LOI, STAR-SHAPED.

    I liked CHICKENFEED.

    Thanks Jeremy and setter.

  9. Theirs not to make reply,
    Theirs not to reason why,
    Theirs but to do and die.
    Into the valley of Death
    Rode the six Hundred.
    (The C of the LB, Tennyson)

    30 mins pre-brekker. I really enjoyed it, especially NarwHals, ABaBA, CHacha and, of course “Worms dog”. Good stuff.
    Ta setter and PJ

  10. 11.38, with several minutes spent staring at what proved to be STAR-SHAPED, WEATHERWORN, and ONWARD.

    Gentle for a Friday, but a good one.

    Thanks both.

  11. 8:59 spoiled, not by the usual typo, but by a casually biffed “prosthetic”. Ah well, might as well have two pinks for the price of one. COD to MAROONED.

  12. 27 mins (by stopwatch)

    FOI: LESIONS
    LOI: STAR-SHAPED

    Delayed at the end by LOI but otherwise this seemed good fun to round off the week.

    Thank you, plusjeremy and the setter

  13. I got all but four of these in 15 but needed another 10 to finish. The hold-outs were HUNDRED (Worms dog? Strewth!), WEATHERWORN, ONWARD and STAR-SHAPED. The last two were unparsed and basically guesses, and even after reading Jeremy’s helpful blog I’m not fully convinced. But otherwise there were some terrific clues here I thought, including ADDIS ABABA, ADO, CHA CHA and the nicely hidden LIAISON.

    From Oxford Town:
    Oxford Town in the afternoon
    Everybody singing a sorrowful tune
    Two men died ’neath the Mississippi moon
    Somebody better INVESTIGATE soon

  14. 27 minutes but wrote in PROSTHETIC without thinking, I see I wasn’t the only one!!
    I hesitated a minute or so to write in my LOI WEATHERWORN as it’s not a word I know.
    Also COHEIR took me a while as I was convinced it would be something to do with oiling joints, once you get a fixed idea about a clue sometimes it’s hard to start afresh
    Thanks setter and blogger

  15. 28 minutes, wasting time on Elsa being the lioness and wondering if the glass eye was a prosthetic, whatever a thetic may be. One famous tale of Doddy was when he was playing the Opera House at Blackpool while the Stones were playing the Winter Gardens Ballroom in the same building. Keith Richards, as was his wont, got into a fight with the audience and the venue had to be cleared. The stage manager passed a note up to Ken asking him to stop on a bit longer so that his audience didn’t get caught up in the trouble. He was still telling gags two hours later! A decent puzzle. Thank you Jeremy and setter.

    1. I heard Doddy in his latter years. He warned the audience that by the end of his performance they’d be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

      One of the greats.

  16. Around 70 minutes. Parsing was a problem for some but I worked steadily through them without great problem. FOI LESIONS then SANCTUM. LOI HUNDRED Liked WEATHERWORN and CHICKENFEED

    Thanks Jeremy for the parsing. I think boy in MAROONED is NED

  17. 21:00. Rather slow today but I don’t know why. I discovered I didn’t know how to spell BAUDELAIRE when I saw 6D had to be NARWHALS. LOI HUNDRED which I failed to understand. COD to CHICKENFEED. Thanks Jeremy and setter.

  18. I had ‘Worms Dog’ to mean ‘take something out of a dog, or take something out of a hound, so take ‘o’ out of hound and… bingo’.. but I was ready to vent my spleen about how abstract this was until I was put back into my box by the correct explanation. Thank you Jeremy for saving me from an embarrassing rant..

    1. Good idea, except that when you worm a dog you get rid of real worm parasites such as lungworm, roundworm or tapeworm. Ringworm is not a worm but a fungus.

  19. 30:05
    Not a great week for me but nice to finish off with a green grid.

    Like Jeremy I didn’t know WETHER so WEATHERWORN took longer than it should. Otherwise all within my knowledge base and no excuses for being a bit slow on the uptake.

    Thanks to both.

  20. 36:30
    Decent puzzle – steady solve with no particular difficulties.
    Thanks, pj.

  21. With the consensus today in finding this rather fun over 17.25, with CHIC KEN FEED the first to make me giggle. ADDIS ABABA was one of those rarities when working your way through the wordplay gave genuine penny drop pleasure, as did Worms dog.
    My last in, MIND was delayed by trying to work out how M[inute] ICE (diamonds) could mean object. Thankfully, it didn’t have to.

  22. Good puzzle. Relatively easy for a Friday but with some new tricks to hold one up and make one think.
    25a biffed; never thought of INVESTInG so just shrugged.
    28a semi-biff; know Worms is in Germany and know dog in German is hund but never connected. DOH!
    3d Onward, LOI, COD
    4d Star Shaped; is aped=affected? I suppose you can affect a Scouse accent (although I can’t.)
    7d Too entered without certainty it wasn’t TWO.

    1. I was hoping someone could explain how aped = affected but so far no. Dunno what the Scouse accent has to do with it, am more confused than before! I also thought TOO/TWO was one of those each-way homophones with the key letter being unchecked, I got it right but that was basically a lucky shot.

      1. For ‘affect’ Collins has ‘to imitate or assume, esp pretentiously’, and gives this exact example (‘to affect an accent’). I’m with you in that I don’t think of it as imitation but it’s in Collins so we have to let the setter off the hook!
        7dn seems entirely unambiguous to me: I don’t see how you can read the homophone indicator as applying to ‘more than is proper’.

  23. 15:51
    Very enjoyable and lasting just long enough. The Worms Dog and Aped/Affected both took a good while to resolve. Nice to see Dodd and Baudelaire togethe. I’m sure they’d have got on.

    Thanks to Jeremy and the setter.

  24. DNF after 30

    Just couldn’t see the capital even though I sort of had ADDI-. Not great but struggled a bit with the rest, never really getting up a head of steam (STAR SHA_E_ had me preplexed for ages.)

    BOSOMY and particularly the German dog raised a smile

    Thanks Jeremy and setter

  26. DNF. Good to see another couple of PROSTHETICs here. I have no excuse really – the parsing for PROSTHESIS was quite clear. Frustrating after I’d managed to successfully navigate the tricky SW corner having been MAROONED there for a while.

  27. 19 mins. Never spotted ABBA and just biffed it, tx for the heads up. Last 2 had me perplexed, NHO NANA for a fool and STAR SHAPED for asteroid, again tx for the info about it.

  28. Corrected PROSTHETIC after reading the clue, which is rare for me. Same as everyone else, except this took longer than SNITCH said it should. Loved HUND.

    23:25

  29. 24:36

    Mostly good though thought affected = APED a bit suspect. Didn’t know of the male sheep either, or else had forgotten, but the answer was clear enough. The SW needed me to sort COHEIR out first, but the rest was straightforwardish. I liked ONWARD.

    Thanks Jeremy and setter

  30. I expect in some dictionary somewhere star-shaped is a meaning of asteroid (not Asteroid, but the setter cunningly put the word at the beginning of the clue). The KIDS/SKID question wasn’t determined by the clue, as I think it should but when I mentioned this sort of thing recently some said that waiting for checkers was all part of the game. If the setter had reversed the first two words of the clue the question wouldn’t have arisen. Should it have done? 42 minutes, with aids because I never understood the parsing of STAR-SHAPED, and wasn’t sure of MANDATE, thinking that night meant night not evening.

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