Times 27304 – don’t wait until the 20

Author   glheardPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time taken: 9:30.

I didn’t get off to a very good start on this one, but it was a steady solve and fill in the gaps as I went round and I ended up a scratch under 10 minutes, which is pretty good for me.

I had bated breath as there were two guesses (both in the top row) that now I have to work out what the definition is (in one case) and the wordplay (in the other). Maybe I’ll blog the downs first…

The first definition in each clue is underlined.

Away we go…

Across
1 Surface of river reflected man in garden (7)
MACADAM – the river CAM reversed then ADAM was in the garden (of Eden) – the definition is a road surface – I’m more used to seeing it as TARMACADAM
5 Role of Charlton police after soup stolen from bordello (2,3)
EL CID – CID(police) after BROTH(soup) has been removed from BROTHEL(bordello). El Cid was played by Charlton Heston in 1961. Before making it as an Hollywood actor, Charlton Heston ran a theater in Asheville, North Carolina in the 40s, it is now the Asheville Community Theatre and I have performed a couple of times in it. While I’m storytelling, I’m about to start reheasing for my (ahem) biggest role yet, I will be playing Falstaff in a summer production of Henry IV Part 1
9 Secret boozer with beer, half-cut (5)
INNER – INN(boozer) and half of beER
10 Fermenting juice isn’t wrong (9)
INJUSTICE – ANAGRAM of JUICE,ISN’T
11 Stick around, and ultimately you’ll achieve celebrity (7)
NOTABLE – BATON(stick) reversed and the last letter os youlL, achievE
12 Tear about Long Island with a dependent (7)
RELIANT – RENT(tear) surrounding LI(Long Island, an area close to New York City), A. Edit: I had mistakenly identified Long Island as a borough earlier, offending several people and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Apologies.
13 Reportedly rejected everywhere (10)
THROUGHOUT – sounds like THREW OUT(rejected)
15 Drove female mad at last (4)
HERD – HER(female), then the last letter of maD
18 Carve sides of elegant church (4)
ETCH – outer letters of EleganT, ChurcH
20 Play with mates until very late (4-6)
LAST-MINUTE – anagram of MATES, UNTIL – I liked this clue very much
23 Touching delicacy on fiddle (7)
CONTACT – TACT(delicacy) with CON(fiddle)
24 Backsliding setter’s packing trunk for drug dealer (7)
CHEMIST – I’M(setter’s) reversed inside CHEST(trunk)
25 Learning of nude riot, I panicked (9)
ERUDITION – anagram of NUDE,RIOT,I
26 Tease short bloke very loudly (5)
CHAFF – CHA(p), FF(very loudly)
27 Iron resolution possessed by private secretary (5)
PRESS – RES(resolution) inside PS(private secretary)
28 Order wine for relatives (7)
KINDRED – KIND(order, sort), then RED wine

Down
1 Enormous characters in gym, on steroids (7)
MONSTER – hidden in gyM ON STERoids
2 Charlie regularly decries Birmingham thinker (8)
CEREBRUM – C(Charlie, NATO alphabet), then alternating letters in dEcRiEs, BRUM(Burmingham)
3 Doctor Kildare finally trapping medical equipment in zip (5)
DRIVE – DR(doctor), then the last letter of kildarE, containing IV(intravenous, medical equipment)
4 Maori just breaking hearts? (5,4)
MAJOR SUIT – anagram of MAORI, JUST
5 Simply sail off in case of emergency (6)
EASILY – anagram of SAIL in the outside letters of EmergencY
6 Capital extremely tense after cold weather (7)
CLIMATE – LIMA(capital), T(ens)E after C(cold)
7 Lived and died on edge (5)
DWELT – D(died), WELT(edge) – I got this from definition alone, not knowing that a WELT is a strengthening border
8 Ivy signs letter whose contents form word picture (8)
VIGNETTE – the interior letters of iVy sIGNs lETTEr
14 Despondent Scottish football team heading away from Wick (9)
HEARTSICK – HEARTS of Midlothian football club, then (w)ICK
16 Anil perhaps heard to choke on jam? (8)
DYESTUFF – sounds like DIE(choke) on STUFF(jam)
17 Means to suppress report (8)
SILENCER – cryptic definition
19 Carpet originally came with guarantee (7)
CENSURE – C(ame), and ENSURE(guarantee)
21 Close-fitting garment giving rise to bother in university (7)
UNITARD – reverse all of DRAT(bother) IN, U(university)
22 Makes different V-sign (6)
VARIES – V, then ARIES(star sign)
23 Read out tawdry tweet (5)
CHEEP – sounds like CHEAP(tawdry)
24 Law of Swiss state banning introduction of tariffs (5)
CANON – Swiss states are CANTONS, remove T(ariffs)

45 comments on “Times 27304 – don’t wait until the 20”

  1. The last 5 minutes of that time were spent trying to figure out 8d; I never did, but at least I came up with a word that fit the definition. NHO UNITARD, and indeed first thought of UNIGARD, but that didn’t look right. Biffed EL CID, never worked it out either; gave up after trying to delete bordlo to get the EL. I liked 17d and 20ac. I’d say “Break a leg”, George, but it’s my understanding that that phrase has long since been replaced by a 4-letter word I won’t print here.
    1. I dread to think what that 4-letter word might be, Kevin, but I’ve always liked the German version which is ‘Hals- und Beinbruch’ meaning break a leg AND a neck!
    3. In my daughter’s high school drama days I learned that les Francais invoke this a la puissance 13. To Goerge!
  2. I had to check that unitard and chaff were words after solving. Couldn’t parse 20a, had figure on the mind, tried that before seeing last minute so technical dnf.

    Cod erudition

  3. 26 mins. Not too difficult but a terrific puzzle. Hard to pick a COD among so many lovely surfaces but the enormous characters in the gym was my favourite. And I felt for the despondent Hearts team having to travel all the way back from Wick after a shock defeat. Thanks, setter.
  4. 28 minutes with the required meaning of WELT unknown, as was UNITARD. The latter seems something of a misnomer as it’s obviously derived from ‘leotard’ (after Jules Léotard, 1830–70, a French trapeze artist) but that’s also one-piece close-fitting garment. What differentiates the two is that the unitard has long legs.

    Edited at 2019-03-21 06:20 am (UTC)

  5. ….I was in too much of a hurry to break 30mins after spending time on UNITARD (Like Kevin it was a NHO) that I bunged in DIESTUFF.

    EL CID gave me visions of Bobby Charlton playing a Spanish hero!

    Isn’t a VIGNETTE a small grape vine?

    1. I stood next to Jack Charlton at the bar of the Pied Piper pub in Middlesbrough one Sunday lunchtime. He was tall! I’m 6ft but I had to look up to him.
  6. 12:51 … as quailthrush says, a puzzle of terrific surfaces, many of them pleasingly surreal (Dr Kildare getting something caught in a zip, the setter panicked by a nude riot). Nice stuff.

    I’m popping into the confessional to admit quickly checking that a DYESTUFF was a thing and that ANIL might be one such before submitting. I assume a Hail Mary and a quid in the collection box will cover it.

    1. ‘anil’ used to be a favorite of NY Times setters; so was ‘aril’, though, and I could never remember which was which (what neurologists refer to as Gregg’s Binary Amnesia: port/starboard, chalice with the palace/flagon with the dragon, etc.).
  7. It’s been a long time since I got under 10 minutes and it remains a long time. So this must be the quickest I’ve managed for a while putting this puzzle on the easier side. Perhaps my hesitancy over my last two cost me – DYESTUFF seemed like a strange word though I guess foodstuff is similar and reasonably common. And I didn’t know the meaning of welt in DWELT but finally concluded it couldn’t be anything else.
  8. 40 minutes, slowing down as I mostly made my way from top to bottom. FOI 5a EL CID, despite not knowing the film (I’m terrible at films, whether they were made before I was born or not) LOI 7d with the same shrug as others over the “welt” meaning.

    Glad of the wordplay for 16d DYESTUFF, and of the definition for 1a MACADAM, as I never worked out the wordplay. WOD to 8d VIGNETTE, COD 22d VARIES—lovely surface!

    Hope you have fun with Falstaff, George. It was Henry IV that put me off Shakespeare for thirty years, but that may have been more to do with the teacher than the work itself…

    (PS: Bristolians—A Midsummer Night’s Dream is, perhaps unseasonably, on at the Tobacco Factory at the moment, and I enjoyed it very much, though I’m no great expert on the Bard.)

    Edited at 2019-03-21 08:53 am (UTC)

  9. Busy day so, little time for the ‘crozzie’ but finished after repeated distractions.

    FOI 8dn VIGNETTE

    LOI 23dn CHEEP

    COD 5ac EL CID

    WOD 21ac UNITARD!

  11. 22 minutes with NW last to fall. I was held up by the ear worm of the theme music to Dr Kildare and DRIVE was LOI. I just couldn’t see the connection between DRIVE and zip even after I’d constructed the answer. The zip must have gone out of my game after the tension of yesteday, no doubt to be lived through again in a fortnight. I’d never heard of a UNITARD but I’d no better ideas. COD to EL CID. Charlton Heston could just as easily have been Tooting Barnet. I’ve lived in both. Good puzzle. Thank you George and setter.

    Edited at 2019-03-21 09:25 am (UTC)

  12. Just over 12 mins, quite a bit of it spent admiring the oft amusing wordplays. Some really fine clues, many a smile. Same comments as others re WELT and UNITARD (for one-legged gymnasts?).
  13. Had to guess Unitard, though it was easy enough to work out. Nor did I know of Welt meaning edge. Enjoyed the confusing names Charlton and Birmingham. Wasted a fair time thinking of Brummy philosophers. Joe Chamberlain? And trying to remember where Bobby and Jack played on the pitch. Also biffed Vignette without seeing the clever cryptic wordplay. Many thanks.
  14. Add mine to the chorus of approving chirrups for the clues of this very elegant puzzle, which proves it doesn’t have to be a b’stard to generate admiration. Not a duff one anywhere, so bravo setter. And bravo George: I’d have had my work cut out on the EL CID clue: there aren’t many E? ??? answers to think about, but I missed both the brothel and the police. Perhaps I shouldn’t be quoted on that. Missed the parsing on NOTABLE too, possibly disarmed by that beautiful surface. Inside 15 minutes if only by 1 second, but what pleasure!
  15. I must add my voice to the chorus of approval for this puzzle. It certainly had some lovely clues. THROUGHOUT must surely be a setter’s chestnut, but it works for me every time. I was dismally slow in completing this (47 mins) but enjoyed it nonetheless.
    Thanks for your blog, George. And my thanks to the setter, of course.
  16. ….LAST MINUTE with 20A, and only then saw that close-fitting garment.

    FOI MACADAM
    LOI UNITARD
    COD VARIES
    TIME 11:30

  17. I liked the enormous characters in the gym. We’ve got one of them. I try to avoid him because he’s very noisy and sweaty too. Thank goodness he doesn’t wear a UNITARD. 15.06
  18. Interesting that this was supposedly harder than yesterday’s (see Snitch) when I struggled totally yesterday and didn’t even blog it here.
    As a diehard anti Human-caused Climate Change ‘denier’ I am constantly stating that WEATHER is not CLIMATE, but I guess that crosswordland is a different planet…
    1. Agreed. I didn’t want to be the first to say that, in case I was wrong!
  19. Well I have escaped the gulag – sorry, hospital – after 12 days of great care, inedible food and little sleep. I flew through this like a man with a fresh appetite for crosswords, although while embedded I did polish off a couple a day from my stash of Guardian Paul’s reprinted for the occasion.
    Enjoyed this, 20 minutes, with the UNI garment a last entry, I am not a fan of that genre of lycra or of words.
    Well blogged George and hope the Fat Guy part goes well. Plenty of room for Brian Blessed imitations there. Or indeed improvements.
  20. 9m 11s, with the last 2 minutes or so of that spent on DYESTUFF. Nothing too scary here – the checkers for 5a were very helpful, as I wasn’t aware of Charlton Heston’s performance, and I don’t really like the splitting into component parts of V-sign for VARIES, but otherwise a fine puzzle.
  21. As generally agreed, a lovely puzzle which took me a little while to settle into, but was then a pleasure to solve. MAJOR SUIT was my FOI. I didn’t bother parsing the BROTH bit of 5a as I knew the film. At the LAST MINUTE I changed LEOTARD to UNITARD and saw the proper parsing. SILENCER was my LOI. I originally had DIESTUFF at 16d, but a careful re-reading of the clue saved me. I’ve been caught out by DIE and DYE before. No problem with STUFF or ANIL as it’s derived from aniline, a well known compound in Organic Chemistry. I was originally flummoxed by 8d, but saw it with relief before getting too bogged down. 23:05. Bravo setter and thanks George. Enjoy playing the Big Man!
  22. Nice puzzle, all good, with MONSTER the one I found most attractive. You should see the missus HUR HUR HUR.

    ‘Character’ would have worked just as well, it seems to me, even where shorn of its cryptic significance and bunged back towards the definition end of things.

    Edited at 2019-03-21 02:12 pm (UTC)

  23. …and it’s been a good week! Worked on the subway on the way to karaoke, never did fathom the “soup” reference.
  24. Another easy one. Crumbs. Kept falling asleep while solving, so no time, but it was a quick solve.
  25. The snitch suggests that I should have been a lot quicker than 16:37. But I wasn’t, mainly due to getting a bit stuck in the SE corner. I can’t say I’ve ever knowingly worn a unitard and I was also a little unsure about welt.
  26. Preferred the surfaces to the wordplay in this one. I’m beginning to not bother with some parsing, since I know the answer fits the definition. Is this cheating?

    LOI Contact due to thinking far too long about edible delicacies.

  27. I enjoyed this. Presumably Peter Cook’s unidexter might have worn a unitard?
  28. 7:52. No problems today and I think I missed some of the finer points of this one while solving. Still fun though. Same as others on UNITARD and ‘welt’.
  29. 33:42. Home late after a glorious team victory in a quiz at work. Nice puzzle. A bit hesitant over dyestuff at the end.
  30. Stuck for a while with several down near the bottom. HEARTSICK and KINDRED last two in.
  31. Thanks setter and glheard
    Very enjoyable puzzle that I had a very short session at first to get started and then finishing it off quickly in a second one. Didn’t see that meaning of WELT but had no problems with UNITARD … hang on … yes I did … kept getting flashbacks of Borat’s mankini from that unfortunate movie !
    Liked the trick with VIGNETTE, a typical play by Sarah Hayes from the Guardian and the FT – in fact, if she does set for the Times (which I believe that she does), this whole puzzle could easily have been one of hers – the different letter extractions from words and the silky smooth surfaces are her trademark!
    Took ages to see the [BROTH]EL part of 5a, but was happy when I did. Finished in the SW corner with CENSURE, PRESS and the lovely VARIES the last few in.

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