Times Cryptic Number 26552

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I needed more than an hour for this one but as 60 minutes approached, when I might sometimes have decided to cut my losses,  I was still confident that I could solve it without reference to aids and I was really pleased that I persevered and eventually managed to do so. There were a few gifts along the way but I felt the majority of clues were quite chewy in one way or another. Here’s my blog…

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Not European, yet poet comes round at intervals (2,5)
BY TURNS – BURNS (poet) contains [comes round] Y{e}T [not European]
5 In socks that are rinsed? (5)
HOSED – Two definitions of sorts although I think the second leads more naturally to “hosed down”.
9 Am about to monitor missing answer (5)
GONNA – This is a homophone of “gone” (missing) followed by A (answer) with [monitor] as the sound-alike indicator. Mctext (below) has this as GO{a}NNA (monitor- lizard) [missing answer], which I suspect is more likely to be what the setter had in mind, though I think my version works too.
10 Orgiastic and noisy, I must be drunk (9)
DIONYSIAN – Anagram of AND NOISY I with [drunk] as the anagrind. I’d tend more to associate the Roman equivalent “bacchanalian” with orgies, but what would I know?
11 Brother’s in control: keep away (7)
REFRAIN – FRA (brother – friar) in REIN (control). I wasn’t too sure of the definition here as “refrain” usually means to stop doing something, but apparently it can also mean to hold someone back from doing something and I suppose in that sense it is keeping them away.
12 Safely store sulphur beside plant, cropped (7)
SHEATHE – S (sulphur), HEATHE{r} (plant) [cropped]
13 Brings takeaway home, having to work hard (3,5,2)
GET STUCK IN – GETS (brings), TUCK (takeaway – well “food” anyway), IN (home)
15 Big beasts latest to broadcast (4)
GNUS – Sounds like [broadcast] “news” (latest), unless one has fallen under the spell of Flanders and Swann.
18 Set up a capital — or two states (4)
RIGA – RIG (set up), A. Or alternatively RI (state #1 – Rhode Island), GA (state #2 – Georgia). An unusual clue with one definition and a choice of wordplay. Having the definition in the middle is also a bit unusual.
20 Entering fine games field always brings state of excitement (5,5)
FEVER PITCH – F (fine), EVER (always),  PITCH (games field)
23 Be defeated in competition and snap? (5-2)
CLOSE-UP – LOSE (be defeated) in CUP (competition). I thought of “snap shut” at first but of course we’re talking photography here.
24 Participant in French/English wedding has clearance (7)
LEGROOM – A straight but somewhat loose definition of the answer and a cryptic one that gives us LE GROOM as participant in wedding conducted in Franglais or Frenglish.
25 Silent, not one to interrupt what joiner does: woodwork (9)
MARQUETRY – QU{i}ET (silent) [not one] is contained by [to interrupt] MARRY (what joiner does)
26 A Welsh girl or Chinese? (5)
ASIAN – A, SIAN (Welsh girl)
27 Little girl’s back and stomach on front, swollen (5)
TUMID – TUM (stomach), DI (little girl) reversed [back]
28 Miss very keen on voices (7)
AIRSHOT – AIRS (voices), HOT (very keen)
Down
1 Pope half suitable for welfare (7)
BENEFIT – BENE{dict} (Pope) [half], FIT (suitable)
2 Conservatives still on the up, keeping separate (3,5)
TEA PARTY – YET (still) reversed [on the up] containing [keeping] APART (separate), with “Conservatives” referring to a US political movement just for a change.
3 Gas attack announced, and taking place (5)
RADON – Sounds like [announced] “raid” (attack), ON (taking place)
4 One needled drunk, pierced with cold quill (5,4)
SCOTS PINE – SOT (drunk) contains [pierced with] C (cold), SPINE (quill)
5 Tomboy’s Orkney retreat (6)
HOYDEN – HOY (Orkney – an island in the group), DEN (retreat). It took me ages to dredge this word up from memory, one that I learned from crosswords years ago but have not seen for ages. Or so I thought, as on checking I found that it’s only appearance in TftT records was in a Quick Cryptic last February when I also had problems remembering it.
6 Mostly quiet and not up to it, I have a place on the board (7)
STILTON – STIL{l} (quiet) [mostly], NOT reversed [up…]. A rather cheesy cryptic definition.
7 Caught hiding in sand? I never learn (5)
DUNCE – C (caught) contained by [hiding in] DUNE (sand)
8 Seaweed’s energy expended by a motor-home on a run (4-4)
AGAR-AGAR – A, GARAG{e} (motor-home) [energy expended), A, R (run)
14 In moving cart, big cat, no way a queen (9)
CLEOPATRA – LEOPA{rd} (big cat) [no way – road], in an anagram [moving] of CART
16 One Robert that is sort of being nice to start with (8)
SCHUMANN – SC (that is – scilicet), HUMAN (sort of being), N{ice} [to start with]. Robert Schumann, composer (1810-1856)
17 Happier to arrange to install grand inscription (8)
EPIGRAPH – Anagram [arrange] of HAPPIER contains [to install] G (grand)
19 Coarse fabric is rum stuff (7)
GROGRAM – GROG (rum), RAM (stuff). Has Mr Corbyn’s “ram-packed” made it to the on-line dictionaries yet, I wonder?
21 Follower of philosopher, but with haziness (7)
THOMIST – THO’ (but), MIST (haziness). Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
22 Part of speech some teenager understands (6)
GERUND – Hidden [some] in {teena}GER UND{erstands}
23 Arrive on time in old plane (5)
COMET – COME (arrive), T (time)
24 Hen in brief losing weight (5)
LAYER – LA{w}YER (brief) [losing weight]

44 comments on “Times Cryptic Number 26552”

  1. … hard going this morning. 18ac was, as blogged, pretty strange given the [cryptic + def. + cryptic] formula. I parsed 9ac as GO{a}NNA, a monitor lizard in these parts.

    A mummy gnu, a daddy gnu and a little baby gnu were crossing the road today when they were killed by a semi-trailer. That’s the end of the gnus. Now the weather forecast.

    2. The lizard is no doubt what the setter was getting at. And thanks, I’d never heard of it. “Monitor” indicates nothing specific to the sense of hearing.
      2. SOED has this under monitor: 2b Listen to and report on (radio broadcasts, telephone conversations, etc.).

        1. Listen, but also report. And monitoring can also be done visually. I don’t think it would work as a “sounds like” indicator.
          1. Does “gonna” really sound like “gone-a”? I pronounce “gonna” a lot like “gunner”. Mind you any route that gets you to the right answer is a good route.

            Edited at 2016-10-25 12:27 pm (UTC)

            1. “Gonna” is not in everyday usage in my household but “I’m gon-a wash that man right out of my hair” sounds about right to me.

              Edited at 2016-10-25 01:08 pm (UTC)

            2. In the USA, it doesn’t sound like “gunner.” Or “goner,” for that matter. Well, maybe in Boston. I know someone who says and spells it “gunna.”
    3. I’m going to insist that the lizard explanation is correct too, having spent ages puzzling over it (no more biffing for this solver!) only for the penny to drop. I didn’t much like “am about to” as the definition for GONNA, I have to say… surely just “about to”?

      Edited at 2016-10-25 10:41 am (UTC)

      1. I think you’re right. After all, it could just as well be “s/he is gonna,” “they are gonna”… And you wouldn’t say, “I gonna solve this… in three minutes.”
  2. Over an hour and a DNF, missing 4d and 12a. I thought this was quite hard, with a few good crossword-land words such as HOYDEN and GROGRAM. Had no idea about SCHUMANN, and having been brought up listening to Flanders and Swann, took me a while to spot GNUS. GONNA, parsed as per mctext, was my favourite. ‘Goanna’ is the name not only of a big lizard, but also the code name by which an Antipodean media magnate and high roller was known at the time of a government enquiry a few decades ago.

    Thanks to setter and blogger (I’ll even excuse the 6d comment).

  3. COD to SCHUMANN, which I failed to get. An unparsed SCHEMING was pretty feeble now that I think about it.

    Thanks setter and Jack. BTW Jack, heroic attempt at parsing GONNA, but I think McText has it right.

  4. Socks = HOSE!? – in Chambers half-hose.

    DNF after 45mins defeated by 5ac HOSED 5dn HOYDEN and thus 6dn STILTON (poor clue) and 15ac GNUS (silly). DNP 9ac GONNA.

    FOI 7dn DUNCE. At least I managed to spell 10ac DIONYSIAN correctly – but all to no avail.

    COD 16dn SCHUMANN
    Mood Meldrew.

  5. After 45 minutes and with two missing, I had visions of doing a Keriothe and turning to drink, so did the sensible thing and cheated to get SHEATHE. Sadly, I was looking for something technical (to do with dynamite, say) which I gnu I wouldn’t know, so wasn’t really in with a sniff. That enabled me to get my last in – the excellent STILTON. No idea what got horryd’s goat there – maybe he prefers Danish Blue.

    Since it occurred last time, and I was put right by Jack, I am now (pace Bletchley Reject, I think) able to restore its rightful, pre-Flanders pronunciation to the alternative aardvark.

      1. God knows what they’d pay for horryd’s goat in the great metropolis of Shanghai, but I’ve got a feeling he wouldn’t part with it for a million yuan.
        1. There’s another name for yuan in this recherché land of the crossword, but I can’t renminbi what it is.
    2. I considered the same approach as minute 25 came and went, but I’ve still got a hangover.

      Edited at 2016-10-25 05:39 pm (UTC)

  6. Meaty, for which ready both chewy and enjoyable, over very nearly 30 minutes. TEA PARTY and GONNA cost most time, none of the usual Conservative candidates taking part in the selection process. For a variety of reasons, I am strongly against maintaining GONNA in the English dictionary, and I think even more now. Why doesn’t the local spell checker underline it in red?
    HOY from a distantly remembered three day long broadcast in B&W of an attempt to climb the Old Man of Hoy in which the cameramen clearly had the toughest job. No faulty memory this: here you go!.
    I wonder how many teenagers, in these non-Latin days, understand GERUND? Perhaps our setter is right in his implied estimate of one.
    And come on Horryd: GNUS silly? Oh gno gno gno…
    1. That’s a fantastic film, Z. I just had a quick skim but will have to watch the whole thing some time. The bit around 8 minutes showing “Sidney Wilkinson, the climbing parson” is the definition of tough. And I love that first comment on the site:

      “9: 34 LOL! Joe Brown making his way up puffing on a fag! When men were men! ;)”

  7. I have nothing against Stilton. I used to live round the corner in Godmanchester. The aforesaid cheese is actually made up in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire – never at Stilton (the Bell Inn at Stilton was the first coach stop to London). I’m OK with Danish Blue but you can’t beat Roquefort, a sheep’s cheese. I’m sure they do a passable blue cheese or two down in Perth

    I still keep two goats, under contract, in Huntingdonshire (as it was) and encourage them to roam freely at crossword time. One is a billy the other a nanny.

    As for gnus….! No gnus is good gnus.

  8. A total fail for me. I’m a bit mentally wiped after the weekend’s exertions and I couldn’t find the will to persist with this. I’m not sure I would have finished it, anyway. I always forget ‘that is’ -> s.c., and to me all GNUS are pronounced with a G. Didn’t know HOYDEN and was nowhere near GONNA or SHEATHE or the cheeseboard reference at 8d.

    I’ll call this a comfortable win for the setter.

  9. at 20m because I had to go out and had already spent far too long staring at S?E?T?E. I suspect my fixation on the truncated plant being a tre(e) would have detained me even longer. Good chewy puzzle.
  10. Well I did, after an hour with GROGRAM and GONNA missing. From yesterday, yes I do pronounce GLACIER and GLASSIER identically, but I’m GOING TO make a cup of coffee when I’ve finished this. Also I do usually say GNUS as per those two well known working men’s club performers, Flanders and Swann, although I guess I know I shouldn’t. Also didn’t know AGAR was so good that they had to name it twice, but I biffed correctly. Didn’t know HOYDEN either but biffed from the Old Man. COD THOMIST, only because I saw it once I’d dismissed Marxist and Kantist. Off to the dentist this affo. Could Arthur Dent be called a philosopher?
  11. The new virtuous Verlaine does not biff even when sorely tempted, so I spent the requisite time to be fully satisfied I understood GONNA and others, this taking me over the 15 minute park today. Actually the one I had most trouble with was 28ac, where I thought it was clearly AIRSHOT but was just completely failing to parse it, thinking A_R_ had to be a girls name, and the whole answer a synonym for voices. Perhaps if I was a bit sportier-minded an AIRSHOT as a miss would have sprung to mind more readily, though now I think about we have definitely seen this word before in puzzles over the last couple of years.

    16dn and 19dn also gave me plentiful difficulty. Tough crossword!

  12. Another one who struggled but got there in the end.My first training attempt to really go for it, no bacon eggs, coffee and a rollup.. 20 min timer on the oven set.Timer went off with 10 completed.Ho Hum gonna have to get stuck in.
  13. I had to tackle this one in several goes. After an early rise to hotfoot it to my daughter’s house to let the plumber in, I started with DUNCE, then chewed my way around the grid, gettting to the bottom before spotting more answers, COMET and TUMID. I then flitted between the kitchen and bathroom with cups of tea for, and consultations with, the aforementioned plumber, whilst grinding out more answers, until the radiator and shower had been refitted and exchanged respectively, and I was left with 9a, 6d, 12a and 15a. The good gnus is that I got home after a lidl shopping, and with the accompanyment of a nice cup of tea, polished them off in another 5 minutes, GNUS and SHEATHE being the keys to the cheeseboard. Was glad to complete this successfully in what was probably around an hour all told. I parsed 9a, my LOI, using the lizard approach and worked out the unknowns, GROGRAM, HOYDEN and THOMIST, from wordplay. An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Jack.

    Edited at 2016-10-25 12:48 pm (UTC)

  14. Glad I’d seen HOYDEN somewhere else. I slipped through in 12 or so minutes in a bit of a biff-fest, not getting the wordplay for SCHUMANN, HOYDEN, or MARQUETRY. Some days you get lucky!
  15. 26 mins with some drifting off in the middle, so not too bad considering how difficult a few of you found it. I spent way too long on 16dn wondering how on earth to justify “scheming” (no definition or wordplay) before the parsed SCHUMANN penny dropped. SHEATHE was my LOI after STILTON.
  16. Hi all. This lasted 30 minutes or so, ending with GONNA. Biffed, actually, no real memory of the lizard. SCHUMANN also biffed, from ‘Robert’. I forgot about ‘sc’ also. I enjoyed STILTON for the strange reason that I actually really like Stilton. Regards.
  17. 30m. I got to this late and found it so tough I almost gave up for the same reasons as sotira, particularly when I had only four left with the minutes ticking by. But I’m not going down like this twice in one week I thought, nosiree, and then fortunately remembered Hoy and the monitor lizard.
    Good puzzle for which I was just too knackered.

    Edited at 2016-10-25 05:41 pm (UTC)

  18. Circumstances did not allow my usual solving time (over breakfast) so I went for the Verlaine approach, namely after a few at the end of the day. And it went surprisingly well, except for a thick-fingered typo of DYONYSIUS, which I should have known from an incredibly tedious school play I once had to attend which seemed to consist of people whispering DIONYSIUS throughout. Perhaps I should add the alcohol to the regular breakfast solving, although this way madness lies!

    Edited at 2016-10-25 09:59 pm (UTC)

    1. I used to play darts for the pub team, but the captains at away matches all became aware that I had a wooden arm until I’d had a couple of beers, so they always put me on first. I got over this by having half a bottle of wine before I went out on darts nights, but then it became a bottle and I had to give up the darts for the sake of my liver 🙁
  19. I had gunna, maybe a more n.american spellng of gonna.i was thinking of guanna, also a large lizard.
  20. 15:42 for me, still feeling tired. (Must try for an early night at some point, but at the moment I seem to have rather a lot of catching up to do with various things.)

    I didn’t enjoy this as much as I might have done, but there were one or two nice touches.

  21. This may be pretty much the most difficult puzzle I have ever actually completed correctly, although it took an hour and a half with a longish break in between. HOYDEN and GROGRAM were just pure guesses (apparently intelligent guesses, though, although my Orkney geography is miserable and I have never heard of the fabric). And there were some other bits of wordplay I didn’t entirely understand before coming here.
  22. This week continues to be a needlessly vexing one, and my temper was not improved by DNFing thanks to SHEATHE. Having trawled the alphabet, I managed to convince myself that the only possible answer was going to be some obscure term of which I’d never heard. After throwing in the towel and up my hands, I was dismayed to realize that I had missed what turned out to be a completely unobscure word after all. Shame on me.

    On the plus side, bailing out of this one means that I have a chance to catch up and finish today’s puzzle today. We shall see.

  23. I think 18a is a triple definition – ‘rig a’, ‘Riga’, and ‘RI GA’.

    Cardorojo

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