Times 27367 – Lenehan again

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 19 minutes
Music: Bruckner, Symphony 4, Mehta/LAPO

Another easy Monday, although without the chestnuts.   If you deploy stock cryptic elements as directed, you will arrive at the answer quite quickly.   So, although not a hard puzzle, at least a high-quality one.    I expect some quick times from the usual crew, so without further ado….

P.S. As I wrote the blog, I was surprised at how few literals are a single word.   While some puzzles hide their literals in quasi-kennings, as we saw in Friday’s edition, generally speaking longer literals make it much easier to dissect a clue.   Which is probably why everyone was able to solve this puzzle so quickly.

Across
1 Report of one throwing in part of game? (6)
CHUKKA – Sounds like ‘chucker’, if you are a non-rhotic speaker.   This is the one word that some solvers might not know.
4 Donkey joins minister in church, provoking big split (8)
CREVASSE – C(REV ASS)E, all standard cryptic elements.
10 Like part of viewer’s money invested in Madrid team (7)
RETINAL – RE(TIN)AL.
11 Increased payment announced for fertiliser (7)
NITRATE – sounds like ‘night rate’, when presumably the pay is higher.
12 Voice disapproval of Republican oik (4)
BOOR – BOO + R[epublican].
13 Militant greenie backing French king after dreadful race row (3-7)
ECO-WARRIOR – anagram of RACE ROW followed by ROI backwards.
15 Protective coat a Parisian youth put back round tongue? (9)
UNDERSEAL – UN D(ERSE)AL, i.e. LAD backwards.
16 Distinguished Muslim reversed interdiction binding Washington (5)
NAWAB – NA(WA)B, with BAN backwards.
18 Hospital thanks bringer of gifts (5)
SANTA – SAN + TA.
19 Staying power of English knight Mussolini managed to get imprisoned (9)
ENDURANCE – E + N DU(RAN)CE.
21 Like Quisling’s characteristics taking in men in Britain or in France (10)
TRAITOROUS – TRAIT(OR,OU)S.   I like the ‘men’ in Britain, but ‘or’ in France, a typical devious crytpic construction.
23 Unspecified doctrines revealed in one’s writing (4)
ISMS – I’S MS.
26 Diamond thief initially stole entering Arctic vessel (7)
ICEBOAT – ICE + BOA + T[hief]
27 One with pride in French art inspired by celebrities (7)
LIONESS – LION(ES)S. Tu es = thou art.
28 Aim to give up action on pitch (4,4)
GOAL KICK – GOAL + KICK, in entirely different senses.
29 Aristocracy’s grand record (6)
GENTRY – G + ENTRY.   A bit loose; anyone familiar with 17th century history would know that the gentry and the aristocracy were two distinct and competing groups, whose divergent interests led to the Civil War and the Glorious Revolution.
Down
1 Native American’s article read in bed (5)
CARIB – C(A)RIB.   I couldn’t make any sense of ‘read’, and eventually just put in the obvious answer.
2 Description of virgin territory don turned out (9)
UNTRODDEN – anagram of DON TURNED.
3 English architect and landscape gardener known in Scotland (4)
KENT – double definition, a fellow I had never heard of, but easily gettable.
5 Replacement of kidney we set up internally (7)
RENEWAL – RE(N(WE backwards)AL.
6 Like some surgeons in navy, retire unhappily (10)
VETERINARY – anagram of NAVY, RETIRE.
7 How to address Hindu dignitary in the morning in Westminster? (5)
SWAMI – SW(AM)I, where thst postcode of Westminster is presumably SW1.
8 Abhorrent former City mob dismissing head of bank (9)
EXECRABLE – EX + EC + RAB[b]LE.
9 Hat that’s extremely comfortable crossing northern lake (6)
CLOCHE – C(LOCH)E, where the enclosing letters come from C[omfortabl]E.
14 Fortification originally recognised in magnum opus, do we hear? (10)
BREASTWORK – sounds like B(R[ecognized]EST WORK.  I’ve never seen the insertion of a letter into a homonym before, but the answer is quite obvious. Let me give this one another try.   It’s a three-step clue.   Think of a word that means MAGNUM OPUS, which is BEST WORK.   Now put an R in it, giving BREST WORK.   Now think of a word that sounds like that, giving BREASTWORK.   Of course, if you are familiar with the classic fortifications that every 17th-century military theorist described, the answer should be obvious and biffable.
15 Disturbing, being out of bed doing my job? (9)
UPSETTING – UP SETTING.
17 Detective shed tears after a lot of drink, having dishevelled look (9)
WINDSWEPT – WIN[e] + D.S. + WEPT.
19 Capricious fellow concealing deserter (7)
ERRATIC – ER(RAT)IC, one of our favorite fellows, along with Ted and Al.
20 Hand-out covering upper-class bachelor’s drink (6)
DOUBLE – DO(U, B)LE.
22 Live on cape overlooking a palm-tree (5)
ARECA – ARE + C + A, a native of American crosswords.
24 Cheeky American, for example, grabbing seconds (5)
SASSY –  SA(SS)Y
25 Part in this way, missing ex at first (4)
SOME – SO + M[issing] E[x].

65 comments on “Times 27367 – Lenehan again”

  1. CHUKKA @ 1ac is part of the game of polo (with horses rather than water!)
    Cowdrey Park an’ all that palaver! Hindu for ’round'(as in boxing).
    A chucker in cricket is a foul deliverer and they get banned.

    FOI 2dn UNTRODDEN

    LOI 25dn SOME (wretched clue)

    COD 9dn CLOCHE

    WOD 1ac CHUKKA

    SW1 is indeed Westminster a most exclusive address, as The POTUS will inform.

    Tempus XLI

    Edited at 2019-06-03 01:50 am (UTC)

    1. Cowdery was the cricketer who might have faced a Chucker. Cowdray is the park where you can see a Chukka.
      1. Cowdrey, not Cowdery .. remember him well. what batsmen used to be like, before being entertaining was felt to be desirable 🙂
      2. Or even Colin Cowdrey, facing Charlie Griffith. Or perhaps Ian Meckiff. Mind you, we let Tony Lock get away with it for a long time.
  2. As Vinyl says, although ARECA is a NYT chestnut, and ‘French art’ is rapidly on its way to achieving chestnuttery. I didn’t care much for LIONESSES deriving from LIONS. I slowed myself down by flinging in NABOB and TREASONOUS at first, only looking more carefully at the clues later, when I had to. I also took too much time trying to make ROLE (‘part’) work at 25d before finally seeing the light, or lights. V, you haven’t underlined the definitions for the last two downs. I just now looked SASSY up and discovered that it is, indeed, mainly a North Americanism. I think ‘read’ is there mainly to make a more natural phrase; but if we read CARIB, we are reading an A in CRIB, so…
    1. SASSY is an import but pretty common in the UK these days as well.
    2. Totally agree about that, Kevin. I also had NABOB at first, and was trying to justify ROLE for the longest time.
  3. So where does the A come from in BREASTWORK? Before you put the R in it doesn’t sound like ‘best work’ it’s ‘beast work’.

    30 minutes, but not without problems such as wondering if 1ac might be spelt ‘chucka’ or ‘chukha’ – the latter as a result of never having heard of the architect at 3dn so I was missing a checker.

    Edited at 2019-06-03 04:40 am (UTC)

    1. I’m afraid you’re right about that, Jackkt. Not that it occurred to me before reading your comment.
  4. 4:48, but with one error. Seeing I was under five minutes (for the first time in ages) I took a calculated risk with ROLE even though I couldn’t see how it worked. When I saw the pink squares I pondered it for several minutes without coming up with the answer so it would probably have doubled my time on its own. No regrets.
    As is usually the case when solving like this I didn’t fully appreciate a lot of the wordplay while solving but if the clue for BREASTWORK is supposed to work the way it appears I don’t like it at all.
      1. What medal do I get for caution today, after spending over a minute worrying about BREASTWORK? 😀
        1. I think you’re automatically excluded from consideration after completing the puzzle correctly. Isn’t the Verlaine medal for reckless bravado resulting in heroic failure (while using a pen, never a pencil)?
  5. 13:53 … after getting becalmed over both KENT and ARECA for a while —neither familiar, both entered uncertainly — and an even longer delay trying to make sense of BREASTWORK, specifically wondering where the A was coming from (like jacket, above).

    I liked the surfaces for both how to greet a SWAMI and the dishevelled, booze-soaked detective (is there any other kind?)

      1. sorry for the jacket, jackkt — I’m on my laptop which has an overzealous autocorrect!
  6. This one annoyed me from the first homophone (could that be “chucka”?) to the last, I’m afraid. After half an hour I had all but 14, but a quarter of an hour later I still hadn’t come up with the unknown BREASTWORK and threw in the towel. Not a great start to the week for moi!

    Edited at 2019-06-03 06:40 am (UTC)

  7. BREASTWORK, ARECA and ICEBOAT took the longest to break down – wasn’t really sure whether any of these are actually ‘things’.

    Didn’t parse LIONESS either.

  9. A curious experience of brain on autosuggestion today, working anticlockwise round the grid. Seeing Washington in 16 put WA to the fore and sprang into SWAMI, while wondering if that was really a Muslim. Skip to top right to speed things up a bit, saw Hindu dignitary and thought SWAMI (again) and read Westminster as Washington to deliver the WA. 16 I then thought might be NABOB, with a dizzying spin into the people I knew called Bob Washington. Eventually untangled, but feeling disorientated. Add to that the fact that the only NAWAB I knew was of Pataudi, cricketer for both India and England, and not (until now) thought of as Muslim means I think I need a brain reset.
    To be honest, that lot left me unfazed by the curious BREASTWORK, whether LIONESSes own prides and resigned to the fact that CHUKKA, KENT and SOME might produce pink squares. For SOME, I couldn’t work out how any word could become the answer if missing an E. Glad I didn’t think of ROLE, which also doesn’t work like that.
    15.10 and time for a lie down with a cold compress
  10. Out of curiosity, (and clearly ignorance) which Lenehan is being referenced, and why?
  11. 12′ 29”, but unhappy with BREASTWORK (I agree with jack, it just doesn’t work, BEAST would need to be a homophone of BEST). Dnk KENT, and did not parse LIONESS. Nonetheless, happiness resurges at lack of pink and a sub-5 QC.

    I shall spend the day in the garden, avoiding the news, and occasionally watching cricket.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

  13. 20:04, with 5 of those spent on BREASTWORK, which I’d never heard of and entered in desperation expecting it to be wrong. ‘Twas all in vain, though, as I’d carelessly miss-spelled WARRIER, and also had ROLE at 25d, despite not being able to parse it. Only saw the correct answer after getting the pink squares and rethinking. A bad start to the week. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  14. 21 minutes, which would have been at least 5 minutes quicker if it wasn’t for BREASTWORK, which, for all the reasons stated by Keriothe, didn’t work for me. Otherwise, I enjoyed this, a puzzle to be solved methodically. I knew William Kent from his work at Hampton Court, along with Antonio Verrio and Grinling Gibbons. COD to ISMS. At school, we thought it hilarious that police overtime would attract Copper NITRATE. The Vice Squad got Copper Tartrate. I’ll go now. Thank you V and setter.
  15. Very easy today, just a slight hesitation at ARECA nho..
    BREASTWORK is a perfect homophone, with an R in .. can’t see the problem, myself. Rather original, in fact.

    Any news on the glossary I wrote, V?

    1. The cryptic instructions are to insert an R into something that sounds like ‘best’. In my view each of these elements should stand alone, but there is no context in which BEAST sounds like ‘best’.
      1. Not for you, apparently, but to me it seems pretty clear … you are entitled to your opinion, nevertheless
    2. I’m with you on this one, Jerry – an interesting speedbump to keep us on our toes, rather than a dramatically broken clue…
  16. I started off fast – but then ran into some trouble. When I checked the solution, CHUCKA, AGECA, ROLE and GENTTY were all missing in action.

    COD: WINDSWEPT.

  17. I was clearly on my game today, as not quite everything was a word I would have described as commonplace, though the wordplay never left much room for doubt. I solved 12ac as the news was informing me of the arrival of POTUS, which provided a certain resonance.
  18. Straight into the lobster pot with ROLE.

    Edited at 2019-06-03 09:37 am (UTC)

  19. Easy-ish but with a couple of really sneaky ones. “Role” was all too plausible and I wondered briefly if the “carob” tree might be a native American (it isn’t) – not to mention the “nabob” which luckily didn’t fit unlike the others. 11.33

    You’re welcome to DJT. He was sporting a new hairdo yesterday (to this are we reduced). It doesn’t help much. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-changed-hair-for-one-day-swapped-back-uk-visit-2019-6

  20. Took longer than it should have done, held up at the end by BREASTWORK which was a possibly DNK and confused by the homophone. Had to come here for the explanation for NITRATE. Also didn’t know a CLOCHE was a hat you learn something every day in the Times…
  21. Another role-player, going for a fast time, and also unable to contemplate thinking about -o-e. Jackkt’s and maybe others’ complaint on what we hear in 14 is possibly an exactitude too far: if you work from the full word backwards you take the r out and hear ‘best’ before you see ‘beast’. It’s a kind of two-way bet the setter’s licenced to make as I see it. Whenever I see Nawab I think of Pataudi.
  22. ….best work, and more of a beast. BREASTWORK was a simply appalling clue.

    I was down to my last four in just 7 minutes, but hit the rocks. After eventually correcting my “nabob”, and reluctantly inserting BREASTWORK, I fell at the last hurdle – one could say I roled over.

    COD EXECRABLE, since it aptly describes my view on this puzzle as a whole

  23. 10:39 here, slowed down a bit by 25D at the end – I wanted it to be ROLE at first but luckily resisted the temptation to bung it in!

    I don’t think I’ve seen a character inserted into a homophone before either, but I just shrugged and thought “OK, why not?” as I was solving.

      1. Reading the clue again, I think it works fine as a homophone of “R in BEST WORK” taken as a whole. I think you and others complaining about the clue are trying to process the homophone bit first and working back from the entry to get to the non-homophone BEAST WORK.

        But if you insert the R into BEST WORK and then look for a word that sounds like that it’s ok, and probably what the setter intended. Unconventional, and none of us have seen the like before, but I don’t see a problem with it.

        1. Yes I can see that but personally I still don’t like the mixture of homophone and non-homophone elements. ‘Originally recognised’ isn’t a sound. I suppose you can read it that way but that’s not the convention.
  24. I didn’t have the clock running on this one, as I was trying to do it while a spreadsheet was very slowly calculating, but it was probably somewhere around 6-7 mins… except for BREASTWORK. I can’t agree that the answer was “obvious”! I considered it, but having never heard of the term it only brought to mind plastic surgery…

    Since I dislike partial homophone clues at the best of times, I was horrified by this one I’m afraid. Hopefully it’s the last time we see letters inserted in homophones.

    1. A letter inserted into a homophone would be an improvement!
  25. BREASTWORK. Sounds like “r” in “best work”. A little unusual but it seems fair enough to me. I was OK with 25d as well – “in this way” immediately made me think “so”. And CHUKKA’s easy if you get roped in to watch polo as often as I do.

    So a slightly smug start to the week, even if my time was nothing special.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

      1. Sounds like Keith has swallowed the port (8)?

        I’ll get my tin hat 🙂

  26. About 25 minutes, but ending with my LOI, ROLE. Drat. My brain wasn’t supple enough to figure out the wordplay so I went with the obvious answer, which obviously isn’t correct. I for one am not much bothered by BREASTWORK, although maybe I should have kept that to myself. Regards.
  27. A previous query didn’t get an answer so I’ll try again: who or what is Lenehan?
    1. I’m going to guess Jim Lenehan, whom Google assures me is an excellent GOAL KICKer.
      1. I had thought of the hanger-on in ‘Ulysses’ (and ‘The Dubliners’), although I couldn’t come up with a connection to the puzzle.
  28. All done in around 5 minutes, but then I wavered for a full minute over BREASTWORK as I initially couldn’t quite understand how BEAST WORK could be magnum opus, and I’ve learned to my cost at certain championships that if it feels like it might be a mistake then it probably is. But of course nothing else was going to fit those checkers and the penny did finally drop that this was a horrid homophone-but-only-sort-of. Nice Monday puzzle anyway, that knew it was a Monday puzzle! Everything in its right place in the divine hierarchy.
  29. No medals for exercising caution and good sense then, I like it. Into the valley of death rode the 15×15 solvers!
  30. 21:40. Mostly easy and quickly solved but slowed up massively by not being able to make role fit at 25dn. I chose to be tediously cautious and did an alphabet trawl to see if there wasn’t a better answer. There was. That exercise of derring-don’t at least meant I completed all correct even if it added a few minutes to my time. I did wonder how many solvers would biff role. A bit hesitant over the landscape gardener but he did sound vaguely familiar. Also dithered a bit over the insertion into the homophone that’s not a homophone until the insertion has taken place.
  32. Thanks setter and vinyl
    Finished in relatively quick time for me, just over the half hour but with a lingering doubt over that ROLE. Spent ages afterwards trying to find a substitute word but unfortunately, didn’t stumble upon SOME, before giving up on it.
    Naturally inserted the R into BEST WORK and then applied the homophone, so had no problems with that – actually thought that it was an interesting digression from ‘convention’.
    CLOCHE comes quite quickly to me in puzzles as I read a book called Clochmerle by a French writer, Gabriel Chevallier many years ago. It has stuck with me ever since for two reasons – the story was a humorous one about the construction of a public toilet and the word ‘cloche’ which meant a bell-shaped hat.

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