Times Cryptic No 29081 — I guess that’s a thing

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

20:02. It was that sort of puzzle, where clue after clue I would ask myself, “Is that a thing?”, and eventually answer, “I guess that’s a thing.”.

Across
1 Problem with one prisoner is point of no return (7)
RUBICON – RUB + I + CON
5 Fancy ring given to artist (7)
CHIMERA – CHIME + RA
9 An unreal performance by Strummer? (3,6)
AIR GUITAR – cryptic definition
10 Drunk / not willing to buy everyone drinks? (5)
TIGHT – double definition
11 Crazy finance rules surrounding current protection product (4,9)
LIFE INSURANCE – anagram of FINANCE RULES around I
13 Is Cyril Scott finally recollected as a writer of music? (8)
LYRICIST – anagram of IS CYRIL {scot}T
15 I happen to be drawn in by whisky and choice steak (3,3)
RIB EYE – I BE in RYE

Happen = BE? I guess, like, “Where will the event happen/be?”, or something.
17 Cheapskate has yen for being unhappy (6)
MISERY – MISER + Y
19 Bragger’s way of dealing with birthday candles? (8)
BLOWHARD – BLOW HARD
22 At first, total beginner worked with a top, top cricketer? (7,6)
OPENING BATTER – T{otal} BEGINNER anagrammed with A TOP
25 Quirky, picky, periodically retiring little ’un (5)
KIDDO – ODD {p}I{c}K{y} reversed
26 Terrible, terrible actors bearing evidence of debt (9)
ATROCIOUS – anagram of ACTORS around IOU
27 After starters of really excellent duck medallions, have lamb, perhaps (3,4)
RED MEAT – first letters of REALLY EXCELLENT DUCK MEDALLIONS + EAT (have)
28 Japanese school getting hot in its most elevated points (7)
ZENITHS – ZEN + H in ITS
Down
1 House that is free around the centre of Marrakech (4)
RIAD – RID (rid) around {marr}A{kech}

Moroccan house with a garden in the middle.
2 Criminal’s endless desire to be involved in endless clamour (7)
BURGLAR – URG{e} in BLAR{e}
3 Sound of train made by bird captured on tape (5)
CHUFF – homophone of CHOUGH
4 Extremely sharp, odd taste in middle of fruitcake (8)
NATTIEST – anagram of TASTE IN {frui}T{cake}
5 Gentle touch provides safekeeping and, finally, happiness (6)
CARESS – CARES (provides safekeeping) + {happines}S
6 Italian team has to contend with series of probing questions? (9)
INTERVIEW – INTER + VIE + W (with)

When I saw the checking letters …I _ W at the end of this word, I started to get worried I’d made a mistake!
7 Royal princess from Europe with spirit (7)
EUGENIE – EU + GENIE
8 Prepared a little bit, ultimately only to protect that place (2,3,5)
AT THE READY – A TAD {onl}Y around THERE
12 Hit penned by gross, boorish Aussie musician in the 70s? (4,6)
GLAM ROCKER – LAM in GR (gross) OCKER (boorish Aussie)
14 Certain hormone is implicated in my mood (9)
CORTISONE – IS in COR (my) TONE (mood)
16 Prison time accepted by Wimbledon champ (8)
ALCATRAZ – T in ALCARAZ
18 Relative in position to take on parental duties primarily (7)
STEPDAD – STEAD around first letters of PARENTAL DUTIES
20 Tune left for John Lennon, for example (7)
AIRPORT – AIR (tune) PORT (left)
21 In a state of shock? That’s funny, in a good way (6)
AGHAST – HA (that’s funny) in A G (good) ST (way)
23 Electronic piloting system acquired by Delta, cannily (5)
TACAN – hidden in DELTA CANNILY
24 A member of the family producing jumble sale sign? (2,2)
AS IS – A SIS

100 comments on “Times Cryptic No 29081 — I guess that’s a thing”

  1. 1d Riad, had forgotten. When I looked at the Wiki entry all came flooding back to me. I would like to claim NHO 12d Glam Rocker, but Glam Rock was already in Cheating Machine, so I can’t. DNF for this. Didn’t quite believe Kiddo or Opening BatTER or As Is, but they are now in CM. NHO Alcaraz, (now in CM) but I see I ought to have done as despite his youth he has made a big splash.

  2. 25:15. I didn’t know OCKER or TACAN and aaumed RIAD was the name of a Middle East royal family. But all the answers were gettable.

    COD: RUBICON.

  4. 22.28. I had to pause over whether ‘Alcatraz’ was spelt with a ‘C’ or a ‘K’, but chose correctly. Dodgy spelling is often my downfall.

  5. Excellent puzzle to finish the week but unfortunately pink squared due to two silly typos. COW to Air Guitar. I’d have thought Alcaraz more obscure than the recent controversial Hodgkinson. I was racking my brain for 70s musicians until I saw the “ocker” part.

    Thx Jeremy and setter

  6. RUBICON was FOI and I vaguely recalled RIAD, but waited for AIR GUITAR to confirm before entering it. The top half populated nicely, but the SE caused a bit of brow furrowing. TACAN was unknown, but had to be. POI, ZENITHS , allowed me to speculate on the identity of the tennis player as the prison was known. 18:28. Thanks setter and Jeremy.

  7. 41 minutes and generally OK. But I couldn’t understand what the word ‘certain’ is doing in 14dn. It seems to me the clue would have been fine, nay better, without it. On the ‘batter’ matter, we are now told that the correct term is ‘batter’. Makes perfectly good sense to me, quite apart from its availabilty for both men and women. We didn’t talk about a bowlsman so why should we have talked of a batsman? In 12dn Alan Border crossed my mind early on.

  8. 23 – easier than yesterday, though similarly dithered over NATTIEST/NUTTIEST and never saw the anagram (at least not all of it). RIAD familiar enough from the Homes section of The Times a few years back when it seemed every week featured a trendy celeb buying one in Fez or Marrakech. What are they into these days, I wonder (not really).

  9. I agree with Sandy about the original airport tagline, but I also like the proposed alternative. But perhaps it would have been more in keeping with Lennon’s sense of humour to use “Man, I had a dreadful flight” (cf after the chorus in Getting Better “It’s getting better all the time” when you can hear him sotto voce: “It couldn’t get much worse”, although I believe the actual BITUSSR lyric was by McCartney).

    No problems for me even with the obscurities. It’s weird about TACAN though. This was a write-in for me because I am sure I saw it just the other day. I thought it had come up in another crossword and again as a hidden (hence I also found it quite obvious then although at that point I don’t think I had heard of it before, unless maybe on a YouTube flight channel). But Jack is always correct in his searches for past words and he says above that he couldn’t see that it had come up before. I do sometimes pick up a Mephisto but I haven’t done so for several weeks having had a lot on, so it would have had to have been here. I am wondering if I might have had a spooky premonition dream about solving the clue but if so it would have been much more detailed than my normal dreams because I can remember writing it in and finishing the puzzle and then jumping over to the dictionary to verify that it was correct. No, of course I don’t believe that really but I don’t have any rational explanation available at the moment.

    But all that aside, a very enjoyable puzzle and blog and set of comments. Thanks setter and Jeremy and everyone else for the usual banter, Dylan lyrics, poetry etc.

  11. Under 25′ which is quick for me so certainly not Fridayish. KIDDy threw me a bit but CORTISONE was reasonably straightforward and corrected my error. After a “surely not!” when Rolf Harris popped into my head, sense prevailed, though I completely misparsed GLAM ROCKER (G for gross, ROCK for hit surrounded by NHO aussie slang “LAMER”). I also assumed RIAD was a NHO Middle East royal family. I’ll take the win though, thanks Jeremy and setter.

  12. Somewhat surprised that RIAD was generally a NHO. I have been to Marrakech a couple of times, staying in a delightful RIAD one of those times, but I’m sure I knew the word before visiting. But then a couple of people above had heard of TACAN, so it’s swings & roundabouts I guess.

    Mostly dealt with in short time, but 4 or 5 at the end held me up. I finished with ZENITHS after thinking of the prison and then remembering the tennissist. RIB EYE took much longer than it should have done.

    16:45

  13. Very pleasant end to the week and a 5/5 which is a major improvement on last week’s 1/5!
    As ever much thanks to the bloggers as I don’t always comment but nearly always read their work, and to the setters.
    Have a good weekend everyone.

  14. 15:16

    A steady solve with a couple of biffs which slowed me down (FIRE INSURANCE, RAID?) and the same unknowns as others (RIAD, TACAN). Otherwise this was a welcome relief after yesterdays travails. For once I can’t blame my customary sore-head Friday as it all fell into place quite nicely.

    Thanks to both.

  15. I too, thought of Rolf, but dismissed the idea. Had all but four clues done within an hour. Got stuck in the SW.
    Strolled into Cirencester, and walked around the market. Had a coffee, and finished it. Liked KIDDO clue.
    4/5 this week all correct. If it wasn’t for yesterday’s stinker, might have had an all correct week.

  16. One of the few to know of TACAN, but not exactly what it was. Didn’t know Alcaraz or Riad. Remembered chough as a bird though no idea of its pronunciation. No strong opinion on batter/batswoman/batsman. Good puzzle but no real standout COD. Thanks blogger and setter.

  18. 18.43

    Great blog and always nice to see so many anecdotes.

    Last two were KIDDO and STEPDAD which I must confess to not seeing the precise parsing for.

  19. As a former insurance company employee, the correct term is Life Assurance as we are all assured of dying whether we are an opening batsman or woman. Whereas, we insure against the risk that something may or may not happen.

    1. Technically I agree but your ex colleagues are still selling lots of life insurance though, are they not? Try googling it …

  21. 16:20

    Very enjoyable. Held up by that O in the KIDDO/CORTISONE cross. I once won a prize for playing air guitar to T Rex’ Get It On in a pub in Plymouth, so those clues made me smile.

    Thanks all.

  22. I accept that is now necessary to refer to ‘batters’, but I wish I could stop myself thinking how wrong it sounds. It didn’t stop me putting in the answer with confidence however.
    I performed on this one far better than I did on the QC, and crossed the line in a respectable 28.56. My main stumbling block was the se corner where TACAN was new to me, and I wasn’t convinced AS IS was right. Fortunately ZENITHS confirmed it, and it wasn’t AS ON after all.

  23. Agree with so much of the above. An odd week to finish on a high when yesterday I thought a cognitive decline was imminent.
    I had a few mombles, ‘showhand’ seemed a thing for 19ac , maybe a card game term… also surprised Carlos got a nod, rather than Laver . I don’t think the late CMJ talked about batters .. please correct me if I’m wrong.
    Envious of those whose cogitations are so briefly interrupted. I usually have a geopolitical mansplain from other half, a request to find an article in yesterdays Times ( which went in the log burner..) and the oft cited ‘what’s for tea’ . I rest my case.
    FOI Rubicon
    LOI Zeniths
    COD 20D Airport
    Thanks as always to Blogger and Setter and the erudite banter.

  24. No problem with BLOWHARD or OCKER, I seem to remember Simon Shama describing George Bush as a ‘bloviating blowhard’ on Question Time when he was president, though I can’t find evidence of that online. VHO RIAD and NHO TACAN. In the OWL club today though as I foolishly put ‘nuttiest’ instead of NATTIEST. If you go to the tiny Ramsey Island in Wales they have a silly percentage of all the choughs in Britain (something like 1/4 or maybe 1/3) living there and it sounds like they are either saying ‘cheer’ (chee-uh), ‘chee-oh’ or ‘chee-aow’ rather than ‘chuff’, though their name comes from a corruption of an Old English word which is more onomatopoeic.

  25. 30′- ish
    Ridden out with hands and heels; could have done with a couple of slaps.

    Yes, definitely dawdling in the closing stages. Perhaps put off by the Copland symphony in the background, I was in no hurry as I thought I must have already been well into the 40s.
    The CHUFF of my Hornby 00 Princess Elizabeth was effected by a strip of metal around an axle in the tender scraping a fixed strip. When I met the full size version I was delighted that this simple contrivance produced a chuff that exactly replicated the real thing.
    Great fun; thank you setter and Jeremy.

  26. Not hard for a Friday, I thought.
    LOI STEPDAD.
    The only NHO was TACAN and the parsing allowed nothing else.
    Enjoyable and different puzzle. It felt like some rules had been relaxed.
    David

  28. Very gentle for a Friday, all done in 32 minutes. NHO RIAD or TACAN, but the clueing was generous. I still find myself grinding my teeth when I hear or see references to batters in cricket, but I suspect this battle is lost.
    FOI – LYRICIST
    LOI – AGHAST
    COD – RUBICON
    Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.

  29. DNF, giving up with ZENITH and ALCATRAZ unsolved. Kicking myself over the last one, as I have seen Alcaraz play, and have visited Alcatraz.

    Thanks Jeremy and setter

  30. 25.59 with LOI nattiest which I hummed and hawed over before finally putting it in. I was convinced that there was a nut in it somewhere. Otherwise steady if not spectacular. Thought yesterday’s was a tad better.

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