Thursday, 18 July 2019 In which the miller’s son turns up late

Author   johninterredPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
27406  Thursday, 18 July 2019
A struggle for me, midnight solving not necessarily to blame, extending to all but 32 minutes and producing an improbable but annoyingly pink error. As disclosed, I have some minor quibbles with several of the clues, but it’s more than possible I’m just being picky. I am, however, inclined to the opinion that there are no wilful obscurities in this display, for which credit and thanks to the setter. 21a I only parsed while preparing this entry, and little 1a was my last in because I
couldn’t see the hidden in plain sight “with”.
I present my findings and Boris-level meanderings with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS thus displayed
ACROSS
1 Backing horse with an appreciable amount (4)
MUCH Time taken to justify this. It’s that “with” that’s the unconsidered trifle, which of course translates to CUM (Latin) found in place names such as Chorlton-cum-Hardy (Manchester) or Shingay-cum-Wendy (Cambs), and in degrees summa cum laude. Anyway, add to the H(orse) and reverse (backing)
3 Farm animals of various colours, around fifty held in reserve (10)
STOCKPILED Farm animals are stock, and if multicoloured might be PIED. Stick in more Latin, L for 50
10 Old boy on express entering part of Ireland’s capital (7)
NAIROBI  The word order is tricky, but O(ld) B(oy) goes on the back end of AIR for express (air ones opinions) and the construction as a whole is entered into N(orthern) I(reland)
11 Banned act top in sport (7)
OUTPLAY A charade of banned: OUT and act: PLAY. Top in sport is a verb phrase here.
12 Eg. Panamanian chap in a near miss at sea (7-8)
SPANISH-AMERICAN There’s an anagram here, indicated by “at sea”. Your required letters are CHAP IN A NEAR MISS. Is a Panamanian a S-A?. Depends on how you Google it. Wiki says S-As are Spanish descent US citizens, as distinct from Spanish speaking migrants from Latin America. Panama itself is (mostly) Spanish speaking, but with a considerable ethnic mix. I’d have said Panamanians were Latin Americans. But what do I know?
13 Tipple that comes in pairs? (6)
SHORTS Is a tipple more than one short. It is here, and shorts come in pairs
14 Complaint from serviceman backed by Republican in US state (8)
MIGRAINE The serviceman is GI, backed (reversed) by R(epublican) and place in MAINE, your US state.
17 Indulgence? European in communist city forgetting it (8)
LENIENCY E(uropean) is found in LENIN, undoubtedly a communist, and CITY without IT completes the entry.
18 Shot, or dram, boy’s swallowed back (6)
SNIPED is the answer, and it’s NIP for dram in DES for boy (shortened male names are often clued as boy), reversed. You have to assume the “back” refers only to the boy. Iffy
21 Such people deserve respect, primarily in services (7,8)
WARRANT OFFICERS An &lit, I think. Deserve gives WARRANT, and R(espect) primarily finds its way into OFFICES, equivalent to services as acts of worship, or possibly as lavatories: take your pick. I lost a lot of time trying to think of a WO who was also a DR
23 In the company of Doctor in Distress (7)
AMONGST And wouldn’t you know, here’s a military officer who’s also a Dr, in this case an MO, immersed in ANGST for distress. Doctor in Distress as capitalised is one of a series of 60’s comedies starring Dirk Bogarde as Dr. Simon Sparrow
24 Carrier making earlier entry with misplaced aspiration (7)
HOLDALL Earlier entry is  OLD HALL. Misplace the H(aspiration)
25 Departs, mad about motorists and their sport? (4,6)
DRAG RACING D(eparts) plus RAGING mad surrounds the RAC, the other motoring association in the UK
26 Provocative Kentish couple yet to be identified (4)
SEXY  Kentish gives you SE, because that’s where Kent is, and X and Y are our unidentified couple.

DOWN

1 Considers getting to grips with home’s unattractive points (7)
MINUSES Considers MUSES, and home IN comfortably gripped.
2 Foreign god elevated in prominent feature in ethnic quarter (9)
CHINATOWN A prominent feature in most people is their CHIN. The foreign (Norse/Asgardian) god is WOTAN (Wagner’s Ring spelling), to be “elevated” and inserted
4 Making 50% reductions, tailor child’s exercise regime (3,3)
TAI CHI. Knock off half of TAIlor and CHIld’s
5 I must chop pieces at bottom of dog dish (4,4)
CHOW MEIN  Oddly enough, I recently queried whether protesting Koreans defiantly eating tradition dog meat might be eating chow mein, and this wordplay is not a million miles away. Dog is CHOW, and pieces are (chess) MEN, which I chops into.
6 Hierarchical rule first announced under first Pope (5,9)
PETER PRINCIPLE “the theory that members of an organization, etc, are generally promoted to posts one stage above their level of competence”, so I suppose it’s a rule about hierarchy. PRINCIPLE, which sounds like principal: first, is found under PETER, apostle and traditionally first Bishop of Rome.
7 Shade reversed in optical illusion (5)
LILAC  Todays (reverse) hidden, in optiCAL ILlusion
8 Unopened Eye penned by poet one respected in class (7)
DOYENNE “the most senior (female) and most respected member of an academy, diplomatic corps, class, or profession”. EYE loses its opening E, and tucks into poet John DONNE
9 Perverse defender doing badly? Team’s boss has only one answer (3,2,3,6)
DOG IN THE MANGER Neat, if perverse definition. DOING badly give the DOG IN, then Team’s boss is THE MANAGER, removing one of the A’s. Those of you with extensive and critical knowledge of football can make up your own jokes.
15 Curse devil found with head lowered (9)
IMPRECATE Devil is IMP, found (verb) is CREATE, drop the C down the rankings
16 High church from South making no progress (8)
ECSTATIC Church in these things is often CE (of England), which viewed from the south gives EC. Making no progress: STATIC
17 Plain member of parliament in saddle? (7)
LOWLAND You cant stretch MP or TD to fit, but the collective noun for OWLs is parliament. Saddle gives LAND as in burden with.
19 Demonstrate upcoming range in home improvements (7)
DISPLAY Another upcoming reversal, this time of ALPS (range) in DIY home improvements if no making work for the working man to do.
20 National force in a part of Africa suppressing base (6)
AFGHAN a bunch of whom improbably shone in the Cricket World Cup  F(orce) finds its way into A GHANA with its final A missing, believed suppressed
22 Girl in Resistance initially has trouble getting up (5)
RHODA Boy (girl?) did I struggle with this eventually misentering the improbable RHONA for no reason I can now imagine. I began with in Resistance initially for IR, added a reversed ADO and Imagining IRODA was a name which I then confused with IRONA the Robot Maid. Eventually I worked out that Resistance is R without the qualifying “initial”, which instead separates the H from Has. Somehow the N survived uncorrected.

31 comments on “Thursday, 18 July 2019 In which the miller’s son turns up late”

  1. It did not bode well that I got no acrosses on my first pass–FOI 4d–and things didn’t pick up much after that. I never did get the MEIN part of the wordplay, or the ‘with’ in MUCH. And once I got 1d and 18ac, it still took me ages to figure out why they were indeed the solutions. LOI 17d, where the owls were slow in arriving. Plains aren’t necessarily lowlands; are lowlands plains?
  2. 75 minutes, so obviously I was not on the setter’s wavelength. Actually I was fine with the RH side if one imagines the grid divided by a diagonal running NW to SE but I struggled with most of what’s on the LH side.

    I didn’t like ‘tipple’ as SHORTS plural.

    The reversal at 18 is ambiguous in my view and since we have several reversals every day and I am never usually in doubt as to what’s being reversed I think something is wrong with this clue.

    I failed to parse AFGHAN but it was my LOI and I was past caring by that stage.

    Full marks to the setter for not mentioning Dr Spooner at 24. I’d be happy never to hear of him again.

  3. A slow start and I took a while to get the correct girl’s name (? Irlia) near the end, finishing in 49 minutes. SHORTS was my LOI and I too wondered about ‘Tipple’ being singular. Completely missed WARRANT OFFICERS as an &lit, just assuming it was one those hardly cryptic cryptic defs.

    I liked the surface for CHOW MEIN and ‘Ireland’s capital’. MUCH was my favourite, an example of one of those clues which looks so simple at first sight and so obvious once solved – the only difficult bit was actually solving it.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  4. 26:31 … great puzzle, which was scarily blank after 10 minutes.

    A self-inflicted wound with ‘pampass’ at 17d, which might almost parse if only ‘pampas’ were spelt that way. Sorted out in the end by Comrade Lenin.

    My COD vote to SEXY — can’t help wondering what the provocative Kentish couple have been up to that they should need to be identified. Ta, setter and Z8

    1. Sorry if this is stating the obvious but it might help in future to remember that ‘pampas’ is the plural of ‘pampa’.
  5. 40 mins with yoghurt etc.
    Like Jack and Z, MER at Tipple and 18ac is very iffy.
    Mostly I liked the very long (but worth it) Dog in the manger.
    Thanks setter and great blog Z.
  6. Slow to start. Struggled with LOWLAND before penny dropped. Held up by putting in MIEN, DOUBLE (for the tipple), and PRINCIPAL. Got there in the end, with HOLDALL LOI. 29′, thanks z and setter.
  7. My discombobulation occurred at 12, where I tried both Central and Hispano before settling on Spanish.

    Edited at 2019-07-18 07:36 am (UTC)

  8. DNfF I was out and about early at the san and luncheoned at our local Japanese where I had the Tempura set and little joy with this ‘crozzie’.

    I just couldn’t get the IKEAN 4dn DOG IN THE MANGER!
    This didn’t help the south-west plain, and I ended up three short. 4dn 23ac and 22dn

    FOI 7dn LILAC (shades of Ivor)

    LOI technically 15dn IMPRECATE

    COD 26ac SEXY

    WOD 6dn CHOW MEIN

    Along with 5dn TAI CHI and 2dn CHINATOWN I was expecting the full Chinese monty.
    Back to Japan, I believe the word TEPENYAKI sounds divine in a Geordie Accent – a la King-gy!

    Edited at 2019-07-18 08:13 am (UTC)

  9. I gave up on this at the end of my hour with plenty left outstanding. I was very far from the wavelength. It didn’t help that I’d bunged in EXPLETIVE at 15d because it fit the crossers I had and I was getting desperate for more letters.

    Edited at 2019-07-18 08:19 am (UTC)

  10. 14:17. I didn’t have too much trouble with this, although it was knotty in parts.
    The word ‘tipple’ is only really seen these days in the rather irritating phrase ‘what’s your tipple?’, in which it refers to a category (favourite thing to drink in general) rather than an individual drink, so SHOTS seems OK to me.
    I also think the cryptic grammar in 18 is OK although you have to squint a bit.
  11. CHINATOWN was my FOI, after which things slowed down until DOG IN THE MANGER got me moving again. A careful check of the wordplay stopped me falling into the LENIENCE trap as I changed the E to a Y with a sharp intake of breath. I struggled with WARRANT OFFICERS until the OWL had succeeded the MP as a member. Proof reading saved me from an error at 8d where I’d mombled DEYANTE, not noticing I removed the wrong end of the EYE. I had MUCH for 1a for ages before seeing the correct parsing. So obvious once you’ve seen it! A tough but enjoyable workout. 49:03. Thanks setter and Z.
  12. 28 minutes after taking car halfway across North London for service and driving back in unfamiliar courtesy car. At least this time it was my own, and not one of the kids’ cars, I was taking in. I enjoyed this puzzle. LOI was SNIPED, the weakest clue, I thought. I liked DOG IN THE MANGER, STOCKPILED and CHOW MEIN. Mrs BW dragged me in to Twining’s posh tea place in Coventry Street last night, overlooking the gate to London’s CHINATOWN, so that was easy. I had a coconut tea, would you believe? I didn’t parse MUCH so thank you Z and of course to the setter, neither of whom the COD PETER PRINCIPLE applies to.
  13. Quite tough this one that required some concentration.

    I liked 21A – very good &lit. Share the quibbles about SHORTS and location of Panama. Luckily it was an anagram and AMERICAN was an obvious try which just left an easy 7 letter shuffle. Nice blog z8

  14. In response to the prediction that some fool would biff LENIENCE, here I am. Good and difficult puzzle, finishing with the same hesitation over SHORTS as others.
  15. 35 mins. Same issue as everyone else with the shorts – that ‘back’ seems to cover everything, not just the boy. Equally concerning is the random name. I know it’s part of the crosswording landscape, but it’s irritating nonetheless. And we already have a name in the puzzle (Rhoda). The surface reading of 8dn is pretty marginal, I thought. Thanks, z.
  16. Those parliamentary owls have me snookered every time. Relieved to come here and find that many others struggled to the same degree with this puzzle. CHOW MEIN really is a dog’s dish. According to you-know-who all Spanish-speaking Americans should go back where they came from which would be a bit difficult to do if you were of mixed descent. 29.57
  17. Nearly 20 minutes for this one, sorry you got it, Z. My last in was SHORTS and SPANISH AMERICAN went in with a shrug, it’s a term I don’t think you would see used these days, though who knows what might get said in a political rally next!
  18. In particular 1d, one of the easier ones, which stubbornly refused to reveal itself. Would have helped if I’d understood MUCH. A puzzle for me where the hard ones were easy and vice versa. COD SEXY
  19. I didn’t think this was all THAT card, but it looks like getting in under 10 minutes was actually a pretty good time. I enjoyed this interesting puzzle and am hoping for an even nastier one tomorrow, obviously!
  20. Took around 30 minutes, I think, so a tad longer than usual. LOI was SEXY. A couple of parsings I didn’t really get, but everything eventually was clear. Regards.
  21. Thrilled to get a 100% correct solution on paper in about 1hr and then find the Snitch score is up at 145!! All parsed too except for 15d IMPRECATE where I knew it was the right answer but tried and failed to parse IMP and some construction of ERECT rather than CREATE.

    COD: 26a SEXY

    Thrilled too (Spoiler Alert: UK politics) regarding BoJo’s imminent coronation as PM. I’m no fan of his, or indeed roller-coaster rides, but this can only bode well for Scotland’s longer term welfare as an independent nation.

    Edited at 2019-07-18 08:00 pm (UTC)

  22. 32:28 but….DNF. For some reason I decided to biff my LOI 17ac in haste and am now repenting at my leisure. As Vinyl1 sagely predicted in the first comment and like TopicalTim above I biffed lenience. I’m normally tediously cautious about parsing and not much of a biffer at all but for some reason I chose that moment to experience the heady, illicit thrill of entering the solution without full parsing. I pressed submit and worked out the correct parsing in the time it took for the grid to reappear with pink square in place, it would have added about one second to my time. I’m still kicking myself.
  23. 1a is rather elitist for my common tastes. Why is ‘earlier entry’ ‘old hall’? If it’s suggesting that a hall is an entry to a house, then I beg to differ. That is a porch. The hall is the space after the entry. Perhaps I have the wrong end of the stick. . .? I think the setter would have to have the tin hat on when suggesting to Ulstermen (and women) that they are part of Ireland. Historically perhaps, but a political and social hot potato. Much safer to use ‘Province’, and which would also work in the clue. Mr Grumpy
      1. Yes. But that is a compound noun-which is not what is used in the clue-, and is not the entry. Mr Grumpy
  24. ….due to Trans Pennine Express’s WiFi. It’s a good job it’s free – if it was a horse they’d shoot it.

    I struggled to get started, and found it a real plod, just going over my limit.

    Biffed CHINATOWN.

    FOI DRAG RACING
    LOI AMONGST
    COD DOG IN THE MANGER
    TIME 21:01

  25. Thanks setter and z
    Started this one over a month ago and it was left languishing with 1a unfinished whilst more accessible puzzles were done. Eventually a light bulb went on and some Latin re-entered the thinking realm … and finally it was done.
    A tough solve, which thankfully was reflected in the Snitch and took over 3 hours of thinking time to do – but well worth the battle and was super pleased that it all ended up correct.
    For what it’s worth all this time later, had ‘saddle’ as the definition of LOWLAND, being a depression between two higher pieces of land, usually in a mountain system – and had ‘plain’ for LAND.
    Was another who initially went down the LENIENCE path, before the final parsing check showed that it needed the Y on the end.
    As stated, finished in the NW corner by finally seeing MINUSES as the ‘unattractive points’ and later again that pesky MUCH as the last one in.

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