Times Cryptic Number 26570

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
As so often these days I needed nearly an hour to complete this puzzle, and on this occasion it was over two sessions. On reflection I can’t say what delayed me as the only difficult answers have come up before, but I seem to have had a few problems with the basic task of distinguishing definitions and wordplay. A careless biffed answer at 28ac didn’t help matters. 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 Desire of party member to take union vow? (6)
LIBIDO – LIB (party member), I DO (union vow). The UK’s Liberal Party was dissolved in 1988 and replaced by the Liberal Democats, but no doubt LIB still stands for Liberal somewhere in the world. Not that it’s necessarily a problem as historically it’s valid for the UK; it’s just that there might have been some indication of that in the clue.
4 Shoot from tree, in clear English (4,4)
OPEN FIRE – OPEN (clear), FIR (tree), E (English)
10 Worry eating cake, about 50 stone (9)
CARBUNCLE – CARE (worry) containing [eating] BUN (cake) + C (about) + L (50). I’m not entirely sure I knew this is a stone as well as being an unpleasant growth on the face or neck or an addition to the Natonal Gallery that once incurred the displeasure of the heir to the throne.
11 Theatre men going over imitation (5)
REPRO – REP (theatre), OR (men – Ordinary Ranks) reversed [going over]
12 Where eg Jezebel appears, suffering love for Venetian (7)
OTHELLO – OT (where Jezebel appears – Old Testament), HELL (suffering), O (love). The Moor of Venice.
13 Pictures the writer’s mature lines (7)
IMAGERY – I’M (the writer’s), AGE (mature), RY (lines)
14 Back’s ripped from dress in theatre scrap (5)
SCRUB – SCRUB{s} (dress in operating theatre) [back ripped off]
15 Excessive anger by fascist group (8)
NEEDLESS – NEEDLE (anger), SS (fascist group)
18 Chinese race run round China’s capital in simple vehicle (8)
HANDCART – HAN (Chinese race), DART (run) containing [round] C{hina} [‘s capital]
20 How a soldier operates device (5)
GISMO – A GI’S M.O. (how a soldier operates – modus operandi)
23 Carnival scene’s penned in time for fooling theoretically (1,6)
A PRIORI – RIO (carnival scene) inside [penned in] APR 1 (time for fooling)
25 Rendered in oils, a romantic episode (7)
LIAISON – Anagram [rendered] of IN OILS A
26 Cossack’s ready to regret pinning leaders of Light Brigade back (5)
RUBLE – RUE (regret) containing [pinning] L{ight} + B{rigade} [leaders] reversed [back]. I’d not come across the Russian currency spelt without an O until quite recently in a previous crossword.
27 Bother! Government department’s cut earnings (9)
INCOMMODE – INCOME (earnings) interrupted [cut] by  MOD (Government department – Ministry of Defence). The exclamation mark is not required for the literal meaning but serves as a handy misdirection.
28 Some data’s hacked by chap with Times, incidentally (2,3,3)
BY THE BYE – BYTE (some data) containing [hacked by] HE (chap) +  BY (times). I bet I wasn’t alone in  biffing “by the way” and then having problems solving 9dn.
29 Desperate man in his primitive form? (6)
URGENT – UR (primitive form), GENT (man). One of the dictionaries defines ur- as: a combining form meaning “earliest, original,” used in words denoting the primal stage of a historical or cultural entity or phenomenon, e.g. ur-civilization; urtext.
Down
1 At Roland-Garros, the shot scores in game (8)
LACROSSE – LA (at Roland-Garros, the), anagram [shot] of SCORES. Roland Garros was a French aviator who is commemorated in the name of the sports complex in Paris that’s the home of the French Open tennis tournament. And speaking of tennis, despite the winning score appearing to be quite respectable, Mr Murray’s form during his opening match at the ATP finals last night suggests that his reign as World No 1 may be short-lived. He looked as if he didn’t want to be there despite being faced with an opponent (Cilic) who was also playing very poorly.
2 Respectable citizen, lady’s after fare rises (7)
BURGHER – GRUB (fare – food) reversed [rises]. HER (the lady’s)
3 Spit on British paper’s leader where people lie (6,3)
DOUBLE BED – DOUBLE (spit – spitting image), B (British), ED (paper’s leader). Rather a feeble definition.
5 Let in respected, working individual heading for office (9-5)
PRESIDENT-ELECT – Anagram [working] of LET IN RESPECTED. No comment.
6 Line cut from standard opera (5)
NORMA – NORMA{l} (standard) [line cut]. This opera by Bellini has come up several times recently.
7 Current female ruler’s topless — wow! (7)
IMPRESS – I (current), {e}MPRESS (female ruler) [topless]. Another exclamation mark as a misdirection as “wow” here needs to be taken as a verb rather than an expression of surprise.
8 Horse breaking into a sort of dash in Dallas or Washington? (6)
EPONYM – PONY (horse) inside [breaking into] EM (sort of dash – printing). Two examples by way of definition. On reflection, and following on from comments below, I don’t really get Dallas as an eponym.
9 Narrative art’s capacity to get brought to book (14)
ACCOUNTABILITY – ACCOUNT (narrative), ABILITY (art)
16 Dancer’s clothing? Stage wear when changing dressing room (9)
LEGWARMER – LEG (stage), anagram [changing] of WEAR containing [dressing] RM (room)
17 Something in bar to drink before ecstasy in club (8)
DOWNBEAT – DOWN (drink) then E (ecstasy) in BAT (club). The definition refers to bars of music, or “measures” as they are known in the US.
19 After a circus’s opening, drum rolls — for him? (7)
ACROBAT – A, C{ircus} [‘s opening], TABOR (drum) reversed [rolls]
21 Bit of a pulse, so dancing with style (7)
SYSTOLE – Anagram [dancing] of SO STYLE. Known from blood pressure readings which are systolic and diastolic.
22 Six in number, gazing round European city (6)
ZAGREB – Six letters, hidden and reversed [round] in {num}BER GAZ{ing}
24 People honoured trade, finally, with large corporation? (5)
OBESE – OBE’S (people honoured), {trad}E [finally]

45 comments on “Times Cryptic Number 26570”

  1. … about 50 minutes. The puzzle arrived just after 8am and Australia were all out just after I finished, slightly less than an hour later.
    Quite a few problems today, but no complaints in retrospect … as so often. Last pair were the 17dn and 29ac. I was sure the latter had something to do with Dan.
    Glad our resident Doctor Who refrained from comment on 5dn — probably a coincidence given the usual lag between compiling and publishing.
  2. 45 minutes, but still feeling a little disorientated after my first trip in the time machine. I had to cheat to get the dancer’s clothing (I thought only Jane Fonda wore those things), but even that didn’t save me from popping ‘ardent’ in at the fiendish 27a,

    If I was Hillary (or an Australian batsman), I would demand a review…

  3. As per Jack (and Vinyl) 65 mins, in two sessions around breakfast. DNK 21dn SYSTOLE – dancing was a well-hidden anagram indicator!.
    NW Corner last to go – even though I had 13ac IMAGERY early, then manged to change it to IMAGING, as I was convinced that 8dn was GEORGE. It wasn’t. Thus EPONYM was my LOI. FOI 26ac RUBLE O-less!

    What is up with Australian Cricket!? Gone to hell in an 18ac!

    COD 22dn ZAGREB WOD CARBUNCLE

    1. Very good question, horryd. Karma for wimping out of their tour to Bangladesh, perhaps?

      Certainly sad to see them sliding down the rankings….

  4. Some well-disguised definitions. Was sure I wasn’t going to finish, but then I did.

    How ’bout them Wallabies eh?

    Thanks setter and Jack.

  5. 17:37 … some brilliant clues — EPONYM, GISMO, ZAGREB, IMPRESS, URGENT among others. Lots of entertaining 13a.

    Last in SCRUBS. I parsed it but wasn’t convinced and submitted with fingers crossed. Perhaps not as sure-footed as the rest. Satisfying solve, though. Thanks setter and jackkt.

    p.s. I did wonder if there was some subterranean nina going on with otHELLo and HANDCART as well as 5d, but if so I’m happy to leave it buried.

    Edited at 2016-11-15 08:03 am (UTC)

  6. 35 minutes with ARDENT confidently in place. Enjoyed ZAGREB especially as “six” and “European city” lead one towards VIENNA or VENICE.
  7. How far I have fallen since the heights of yesterday, almost 8 minutes for this enjoyable puzzle, i.e. twice as long. COD to 5dn naturally. It is to laugh.
  8. Ok, someone has to ask. How is A PRIORI “theatrically”? I’m quite prepared to take a QI klaxon for ignorance, but I only know a priori in its connection with reasoning. Hit me!
    The rest of this was hard graft, so enjoyable in the way that a good work out is enjoyable, satisfying when finished. I spell GIZMO with a zee as in Gremlins, which made both parsing and fitting with Zystole tricky. “In a bar” was in its context was diabolically misleading: it took a while even after wresting DOWNBEAT from the word play. SCRUB my last in: should have thought of American medical dramas. Wouldn’t before now have thought of putting an E on the end of BY THE BY, which means, I suppose, I’ve never written it down before.
      2. You know that thing where you can read any word, no matter how jumbled, so long as the first and last letters are correct? That.
          1. —just waiting for the cataracts to ripen:-)>
            I think it was a slip of perception rather than a physical mis-seeing, a slightly disturbing glimpse into the world of dyslexia which I shall try not to worry about.
  9. Is it Friday already? Tough challenge, but as always, the satisfaction from the solve is always greater in those circumstances. I was another who was desperate to find DAN in 29ac; I also went over-confidently for ALARM at 20ac, thinking that an activity carried out by the Marines might be said to be done à la RM, and that an alarm was a sort of device. Close, but no cigar.
  10. A dismal DNF, giving up after 54 minutes with plenty left to get, mostly the NW and SE. Too many stretches of my knowledge here, and I was never really on the wavelength.
  11. DNF, still not getting DOWNBEAT, after nearly the hour. Biffed SCRUB, not knowing the definition of SCRUBS as operating theatre dress. I know there’s a TV series I’ve never come anywhere near watching, but is this a British term too? Some great clues like LIBIDO, GISMO, INCOMMODE and CARBUNCLE which was known from Sherlock Holmes. A posteriori, it was a good puzzle, too good for me.

    Edited at 2016-11-15 10:00 am (UTC)

    1. According to (pre-American TV series) Scrubs is fine for the “clothing worn by surgeons etc”, no hint of it being an Americanism. Before looking it up, I would have said it was US usage.
  12. Bye the way guilty as found and wasted plenty trying to make some sort of arcane tome ending i-a.Also moved Roland Garros to America which is a worry because up until this morning I knew perfectly well it was in France.Something of car crash today synapses shot but did finish.
  13. Tough puzzle that was very satisfying to solve. So many well crafted clues – liked DOWNBEAT both for construction and “something in bar”. Thanks to setter and to Jack for excellent blog

  14. 24m. I found this very tough, but very enjoyable. Much head-scratching over where the darned definition might be, and teasing out of tricky wordplay. Just the way I like it.
    I slowed myself down by bunging in RANKLESS. Fortunately as I put it in I thought to myself ‘it is just possible that the reason you’ve never heard this word before is that it doesn’t exist’, and even more fortunately I remembered this when trying to solve the two long down clues.
  15. Got there in the end! Enjoyed this a lot. Variant spellings of RUBLE and GISMO disquieted me. I am not sure that A PRIORI can be ‘theoretically’, unless all reasoning can be described thus. 5d set the heart racing too, also sensed the appearance of, or allusion to, ‘hell in a handcart’. Maybe the three superpowers will carve up the world between them? Who’d have thought, thirty years ago, that I’d nowadays massively support the EU and be thinking NATO is quite a good idea, actually? COD OTHELLO. 34′. Thanks jack and setter.
  16. I’d parsed 29ac differently, that is, driven by urges. Dnk the other possibility, which seems very obscure.
  17. … and that One Error was at 29ac, where I had an unparsed ARDENT (which I felt may be just about ‘desperate’). Like McT, I thought Dan had to be fitted in somewhere…

    50 or so minutes for this toughie, done in two parts. Always satisfying to come back and fill in several that refused to come to mind earlier (HANDCART + most of the SE corner).

    Also, couldn’t parse SCRUB, but felt it fitted better than ‘shrub’.

  18. 50 minutes to complete this one with several parsings not fully understood, so thanks to Jack for the enlightenment. FOI, IMAGERY and LOI, LEGWARMER. I struggled in the SE until SYSTOLE and DOWNBEAT finally gave me the keys to the corner. Liked URGENT and GISMO. I wrote BY THE WAY down in the margin to check the parsing, so I had no crossing out in the grid. Like The Toff, I also moved Roland-Garros to the US in my parsing. Doh! Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Jack.
  19. 22:31 so tricky but most enjoyable.

    What I love about Stade Roland Garros is that it’s on Avenue Gordon Bennett.

    I didn’t know the meaning of ur described above and just took it that a gent from the ancient city of Ur would be primitive.

    I don’t get why Dallas is given as an example of an eponym.

    1. I was wondering about Dallas as well. Struck me that there was, of course, the eponymous soap opera…

      Edited at 2016-11-15 01:16 pm (UTC)

      1. Exactly. You’d think setter (& ed) would’ve picked something non-contentious, like Trumpton.

        Maybe Stuart Dallas of Leeds United and Northern Ireland has access to the TftT time machine.

        1. There was a Northerner skulking around when I passed through the portal, and, come to think of it, he did have an Ulster accent. When I told him to leave, he seemed not to understand, but when I said ‘Be off with you, right nigh!’, he was away before you could say Paul Robinson.
    3. Penfold – I presume that that Avenue Gordon Bennett is named after the great sponsor of the Edwardian International Balloon Races and other publicity stunts.

      The derivation of the expression ‘Gordon Bennett!’ was told to me many years ago. It was the exclamation of the day when one of his sponsored balloons wrecked gardens and greenhouses all over England. True or Bluff – I know not.

      I do know that he ended up in Melton Mowbray and at the age of 75 marrying one of the Reuter family.

  20. With the vaguest topicality re 1dn and my comment above, the headline on the ATP tournament site is currently “Murray wins in style”. They can’t have been watching the same match I saw.
  21. This lasted around 35 minutes, somewhat longer than usual. The clue for ZAGREB was clever, but URGENT was my LOI and made me laugh. Very nice, setter. I’m more accustomed to seeing DISCOMMODE rather than INCOMMODE, so I’m thankful for the wordplay leading to that. Neither is particularly common, though. Regards to all.
  22. 23 mins. Like others I found this chewy and I eventually finished in the SE with LEGWARMER after INCOMMODE. I have no idea why I needed most of the checkers to see the “income” element of 27ac, nor the “(e)mpress” element of 7dn. Like Penfold I saw URGENT as a chap from Ur so I can’t claim 100% parsing. Finally, I thought the anagram for 5dn was top quality.
    1. Yes indeed, it used to be a staple of the Christmas cracker trade, along the lines of “why was Abraham always in a hurry? Because he was (an) Ur gent”. Might well be received with bafflement around today’s turkey and sprouts.
  24. I was feeling tired at the end of a busy day, and assumed that my 12:03 would leave me a long way down the TCC leaderboard, but it doesn’t seem to have held up too badly (though still a long way behind verlaine).

    Some fine clues.

  25. Tricky one, I thought, taking just a fraction less than an hour. All very enjoyable, with no especially weak clues. This is by far the best Tuesday puzzle this week.

    I wasn’t aware of the other meaning of CARBUNCLE and, like some others, had “by the way” at 28ac for a while, but it all worked out in the end.

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