Times 27799 – Lenehan is back!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 27 minutes
Music: Ravel, Daphnis and Chloe, Munch/BPO

Another easy Monday?   Well, easy if you follow the cryptics.    We’re not allowed to use the answers in the blog titles (you bloggers do remember this rule, right?), which is too bad as there are some interesting phrases in here, such as the muntjac autocar and the taurine chianti. 

I did race through most of the puzzle fairly easily, before being slowed down by some of the more chewy parts.   But even the deer rang a vague bell, and the cryptic was very clear, as is usually the case with the more obscure words.   It was actually the old soldier that gave the most trouble, before I started to consider all the possible meanings of all the words.

Across
1 Go, for example, outside of the cell (6)
GAMETE – GAME + T[h]E.
4 A mite invading cloche possibly where a plant is growing (7)
HABITAT – H(A BIT)AT.
9 Understanding directions for pen strokes to draw F on its side? (5)
SENSE – S + E + N + S + E – take your pen, and follow the instructions!   Has anyone seen this device before?
10 Highly regard including unknown trade union in amalgamation process (9)
ADMIXTURE – ADMI(X + T.U.)RE.
11 Sharp reply concerning new member duke introduced (9)
REJOINDER – RE + JOIN(D)ER.
12 Dangerous, like a yeti (5)
HAIRY – Double definition, one far-fetched.
13 Robin needs bravery when second flees (4)
PUCK – P[l]UCK.
14 Junction layout of west end of Central Line covering page (10)
CLOVERLEAF – C[entral] L[ine] + OVER + LEAF.
18 Bush to refuse to accept letter from old England (10)
BLACKTHORN – BLACK + THORN, which along with eth was one of the two letters that represented TH in Old English.
20 Brand of small vehicle (4)
SCAR – S + CAR, a Quickie escapee.
23 Many grabbing uniform: one forgot taking it (5)
LOTUS – LOT(U)S.
24 Regularly uncertain about dodgy refit for African Queen (9)
NEFERTITI –  [u]N[c]E[r](anagram of REFIT)T[a]I[n], also, one of the better Miles Davis albums.
25 Oven I am returning — beware, bank is involved (9)
MICROWAVE –  I’M backwards + C(ROW)AVE.   Caveat solver, that is. 
26 In this year one receives no capital (5)
HANOI –  H[oc] A[nno] (NO) I.
27 Cry out, seeing loose weathered stones on front of church (7)
SCREECH – SCREE + CH.
28 Difficult time with Yankee in boxing venue (6)
TRYING –  T + R(Y)ING.
Down
1 A grub stop when travelling? (9)
GASTROPUB – Anagram of A GRUB STOP, an &lit.
2 Deer climb where oxygen’s lacking, initially judging by account (7)
MUNTJAC – M[o]UNT + J + AC.
3 Statement from UK spying agency (6)
THESIS – THE S.I.S, the Secret Intelligence Service.   Nowadays, the government keeps all its intelligence secret.
4 Author O Henry turned up minutes before the Queen (5)
HOMER – O + H backwards, + M + ER.
5 Container mostly problematic for spiny shrub (8)
BOXTHORN – BOX + THORN[y].   I would have avoided two thorny bushes in one puzzle.
6 Bully, perhaps, volunteers what everyone passes (7)
TAURINE –  TA + URINE, where the literal is the tricky part.
7 Little support over location of UN headquarters (5)
TEENY – TEE + NY.
8 One at the Boar’s Head pub upset old Prince Hal, initially (8)
BARDOLPH – BAR + anagram of OLD + P[rince] H[al].
15 Backed up? However if I edit that will show (8)
VERIFIED –  hidden in [howe]VER IF I ED[it].
16 Understanding what the present is? (9)
FORGIVING – FOR GIVING, another Quickie clue.
17 Badly out of skill, pole is broken here? (3,5)
SKI SLOPE – anagram of SKILL, POLE, a semi-&lit.
19 Court upset with AA and one of their responsibilities (7)
AUTOCAR – Since the magazine is not associated with the AA, this must be the archaic term for the actual vehicle.
21 Official note, mostly opposed to red wine (7)
CHIANTI – CHI[t] + ANTI.
22 Old soldier often looking for a quarrel (6)
ARCHER – CD, looking for a quarrel of arrows.
23 Puts up with masses (5)
LUMPS – LUMPS – like it or lump it!
24 Excellent American hotel down under (5)
NEATH – NEAT + H.

70 comments on “Times 27799 – Lenehan is back!”

  1. I also found this fairly straightforward, letting the cryptics guide the solve. Interestingly, the puzzle is rated quite difficult on SNITCH as of Sunday evening in NYC.
  2. Muntjac was a write-in once the J checker appeared. Not so nho BARDOLPH, for which I biffed RANDOLPH , thinking he might be an obscure character from Chaucer or Joyce. Silly because it didn’t parse. 25:52 with the pinks.

    Edited at 2020-10-19 04:25 am (UTC)

  3. I didn’t get on too well with this one, nor did I enjoy it much as I had so many question marks in the margins to remind me to look things up once I’d completed the grid, but by the time I got there I’d more or less lost interest and decided to wait for the blog instead.

    GAMETE was only vaguely known. I had no idea what was going on with the ‘F on its side’ and didn’t much care as I hate that sort of novelty clue unless it’s really slick, which this one isn’t. If I knew that LOTUS induced forgetfulness I had forgotten it. NHO ‘Hoc Anno’, still less its abbreviated form. NHO AUTOCAR other than as the name of a magazine. Is NEAT = excellent particularly American? NHO TAURINE, though knew Taurean with reference to the star sign. Knew MUNTJAC deer, so that was a bonus.

      1. I studied the Tennyson for GCE English Literature, so had to avoid entering “lotos” as he would have it.
    2. I agree. Vinyl1’s blog answer above was poor as he skimped to explain many of the points I guessed but still don’t understand.
  4. I didn’t know BARDOLPH or MUNTJAC. But I put in LOADS for 23D and then ANCHORAGE for 25A as the only thing that fitted but I couldn’t see why (well, because it was wrong). I didn’t know the HA thing either, but it pretty much had to be. Actually, I was worried it was now called Ho Chi Min City but that’s the city that used to be called Saigon.
  5. Actually, something closer to 35′; I didn’t bother to pause when I threw in the towel with a couple left, then threw the towel back. My problem, other than overall dimness, was that I’d put in PUNK (spunk – S) at 13ac, thinking (hoping) that there was some UK meaning that would connect it with ‘robin’. This made the deer unsolveable, of course. When I came back with my towel, I finally thought of Mr. Goodfellow, got the deer, and then SENSE (no idea what was going on with the clue) and THESIS. NHO ‘hoc anno’, never will again.
  6. I thought this tough for a Monday, and I’m in good company according to the SNITCH rating. I was pleased to have at least heard of BARDOLPH otherwise I’d have been tempted to put Randolph in. I didn’t know the opera referred to though. It was nice to see an original device in the form of SENSE but it was a bit convoluted for my tastes. I didn’t parse it at the time, rather just relying on the definition and the fact all the letters were compass points.
  7. Shakespeare is about as well-known to me as Lord of the Rings, so I was lucky to avoid GANDALPH at 8d. Apart from that and the unknown deer I didn’t find this too hard, enjoying the device at 9a along the way, though I didn’t have a clue what was going on with the HA of LOI 26a HANOI.

    One of the more popular audio clips for TikTok videos at the moment is this snippet of The Simpsons, so an American-accented “neat” was floating near the top of my brain, at least…

    Oh, 32 minutes, by the way.

    Edited at 2020-10-19 06:08 am (UTC)

  8. …And Robin shall restore amends.
    30 mins pre-brekker.
    I liked drawing F on its side. Very risky, but neat.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  9. 16:20. I had almost all the required knowledge for this (everything except the junction) and managed to parse most of it while solving (even the F on its side) but I still found it tricky. I even recognised HA, presumably from Mephisto.
  10. I did Henry V for ‘O’ level, so BARDOLPH known. Clever crossword requiring lots of GK.

    GASTROPUBs will be in demand as they may serve a ‘substantial’ meal; can you cross the Welsh border to visit one?

    Nho the CLOVERLEAF junction, but solving helped by having lots of plants in the puzzle.

    20′, thanks vinyl and setter.

  11. Not that easy at 19 minutes dead, making a mental note of all the NHO answers that IHHO but knew others would complain about.

    MUNTJAC are common enough in the Forest near me, nowhere near as attractive as proper deer. I was held up only a couple of days ago as the Police and the Forest Rangers stopped the traffic to clear a splatted one off the road.

    BLACKTHORN what Shillelaghs are made from, and I was relieved that both thorns in this puzzle were sensible words.

    No-one else but BARDOLPH occurred to me for 8d. Lucky, I suppose. PUCK – well, I’ve recently watched the excellent Culture in Quarantine version of the Dream.

    I thought the M25/M11 junction near me might be a CLOVERLEAF, but it’s more of a Celtic knot. The concept was familiar enough.

    I was amused by the F clue, but probably only once.

    Edited at 2020-10-19 08:29 am (UTC)

  12. Surprised to see two THORNS in one puzzle.
    Re SENSE, I think I have seen that device before but a long time ago.
    I didn’t know about the THORN in BLACKTHORN, nor about Hoc Anno but otherwise I thought it was reasonably straightforward.
    I like FORGIVING but my COD to TAURINE. Bully had echoes of Barry Cryer on ISIHAC describing irony as like steely only different.
  13. Well I found this hard. Nearly an hour but with BLACKSHIRT (why?) and GANDOLPH because I had vaguely heard of him! I still hate words that begin with unches Had to look up NHO BOXTHORN though now of course I see it’s obvious. Certainly never understood what was going on with the F thingy. Can someone please explain in layman’s terms? Thanks vinyl for the blog.
    1. If you put pen to paper and then move it South, East, North, South again then East again you’ll end up with a letter F on its side. Took me some time to understand post-solve.
  14. SKI SLOPE is ill (badly) out of ‘skill pole is’ ?

    Having read the article on Ben Schott’s Jeeves and Wooster in today’s Times 2 (and solved his ‘Times’ crossword), this crossword had the same feel to it ….. a well read amateur trying to set a Times crossword.

  15. 19:55 but 1 wrong… NHO BARDOLPH and put in RANDOLPH forgetting to come back and check later. A.H. was alos unknown and I failed to understand the “F on its side”… makes SENSE now. Held up correcting spelling of NEFERTITI to get ARCHER and CHIANTI and LOADS to LUMPS before I could get MICROWAVE. LOI NEATH. Not my finest solve!
  16. I had loads not lumps, but seeing MICROWAVE corrected that. One thorn too many, black box.
  17. 44 minutes. Maybe it’s Monday morning blues but I didn’t enjoy this, I needed a couple of attempts to draw F on its side before coming up with that sequence, given that we weren’t told that we shouldn’t take our pen off the paper. I may have heard of a CLOVERLEAF junction but if so I’d forgotten. Yet the NEAT of NEATH is in everyday use in our household. I’ve got a box hedge (being attacked presently by a wretched killer moth) but have never added ‘thorn‘. I knew BARDOLPH but this wasn’t the TLS. The HA of HANOI was unknown. Hic haec hoc indeed! A TRYING experience. But thank you V, and setter for the challenge.
    1. We also have the dreaded moth in our box hedge. Mrs Shabbo reckons there is no cure, so the hedge may have to come out.
      Similar thoughts to you on the crossword today.
    2. There is a treatment – my wife found it – I’ll ask her and revert.
    3. The treatment is called XenTari made by a German company called Agrinova – you can get it on Amazon – cheaper, I believe, if you buy the one with instructions in German. It is a biological insecticide. My wife has great hopes that it will work – so far, so good.
      2. Many thanks, Mike. Mrs Shabbo is very impressed that a crossword blog can also solve gardening problems!
  18. A trickier (thornier?) than usual start to the week. Had LOADS for 23dn at first and was convinced the oven was AUTOCLAVE, but it was not to be. NHO HA for this year.

    COD: has to be SENSE for originality.

    Friday’s answer: the densest metallic element is osmium.

    Today’s question: Hanoi is the second-largest city in Vietnam – what is the largest?

    1. Maxwell originally, somehow itchy. 60 seconds inside old Saigon is the solution.

      Edited at 2020-10-19 01:51 pm (UTC)

  19. Right up my street this, I do like the ones with lots of random GK. Nothing unknown except the thorn of boxthorn.
    Held up for a bit by putting LOADS instead of LUMPS but whiffled through otherwise
  20. I thought 9A was effing clever.

    (Sorry, but someone had to make that joke)

  21. Right up my street, with several things which I can see some might describe as niche falling squarely into my definition of General Knowledge (now reminiscing about seeing Bardolph etc. the last time the Henry plays were performed at the RSC, back when we were allowed to go out i.e. roughly a lifetime ago). Enjoyed the F, and think you have to credit something that novel.
  22. I was lucky, in that the general knowledge required happened to be my sort of general. But I wonder what was the stumbling block that caused about a third of SNITCH solvers (at the moment) to be excluded with errors – this seems a high proportion.
  23. Glad I wasn’t the only one wearing the dunce’s cap on SENSE – couldn’t see it even with Vinyl’s explanation so thanks to Francois de Provence for piping up. It’s more the sort of thing you see in a NY Times novelty puzzle. The double exposure THORN effect was odd too although those of us who still do the TLS saw it in a recent one there. 19.38
  25. ‘e done a sight more good than this. For some reason didn’t enjoy this much at all. Very trying. About 45 minutes.
  26. I was unable to access the Club Site when I tried to do this, so I had to do it from the main paper. I found it difficult to get a foothold, but eventually spotted HOMER. ADMIXTURE was my next and gave me partial solutions to some of the rest of the NE, but I had to move on and come back to finish them off. I hadn’t come across the Hoc Anno abbreviation before, but bunged it in and waited for ARCHER to confirm it. The vaguely familiar BARDOLPH was almost my POI, except that it made me reconsider my biffed BLACKBERRY bush, which then led via a slight MER, at the double thorn, to BOXTHORN my actual LOI. The whole exercise took 38:36 and I typed it into the Club site in 3:02, and am currently waiting for the timer to allow me to submit at 38:36, which will be in just under 5 minutes. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  27. Lord Vinyl: Why are ‘we’ not allowed to use the answers in the blog titles!? As you say, ‘which is too bad as there are some interesting phrases in here…’

    Hear hear!

    Our beloved bloggers are being hamstrung and thus so are we. Recently you gave me a sending-off (red card) for mentioning an answer from a GK – to which this blog does not even supply answers or discussion.

    Today we had an extra puzzle ‘Jeeves and the Leap of Faith Crossword.’ Whatever! I finished it in 47 minutes.
    I printed out this and today’s 15×15 and accidentally did the ‘Jeeves’ first – but will it ever be blogged here? And where and when can we talk about it?

    The whole situation is like something from ‘The Prisoner’ If the blogger is ‘Number Two’, who changes every day – then who is Number One’?
    I am definitively ‘Number Six’.

    Only ‘Numbers Three Four and Five’ are involved in the so-called ‘Club Monthly Special’

    Nobody appears to know these days whether the living or Brand Names can be used.

    Please ‘Number Two’ can ‘Number One’ please clarify Our Constitution and explain some of these increasingly Kafkaesque restrictions?

    And finally why cannot we have ‘a virtual Snitch’ for Saturdays as well as weekdays? We have the technology.

    ‘Number Six’

    Edited at 2020-10-19 11:58 am (UTC)

    1. David, I receive the paper copy every morning so have no idea if our fellow contributors have seen the Times crossword and article to which we have both referred?
  28. I too had to change LOADS to LUMPS, having actually started with HEAPS. The mark of a good Times clue is that once you have solved it, you’re sure it’s the right answer. Not here, I’m afraid.
  29. SNITCH suggests that this should be tough, so was unsurprised to find plenty of unusual words – many very fairly clued.

    Lost some time in the bottom left through biffing HOSTS where LUMPS should be – put paid to MICROWAVE for a long time – guessed it included CAVE somehow but with the wrong starter letter I was less confident.

    Too many plants for me on the whole. One type of THORN is plenty – thanks.

    Edited at 2020-10-19 12:57 pm (UTC)

  30. I enjoyed this one especially TAURINE. SKI SLOPE is actually an angagram of skill pole is without ill for badly. Thank you for explaining the complicated pen strokes and HA for this year.
  31. Re. the blog. Don’t know if the government keeps all its intelligence secret, but they certainly keep it well hidden.
  32. *Very* surprised to get an all-green on this one. I’d forgotten THORN, never heard of BARDOLPH and didn’t know SIS either (despite a visit to Bletchley Park a couple of weeks ago). Other than that, everything fell in quite nicely. I enjoyed TAURINE.
  33. 31.51. And glad to finish! Was it just me or was that a toughie for a Monday? Good enough start but thereafter hard slog. SW corner seemed to take me ages, LOI lumps , having originally thought loads . Autocar had me completely fooled, thinking it was a clue with a legal connotation. In the end just guessed it. Never knew the old English reference in blackthorn either.

    COD taurine. Had to laugh when I once looked up the FAQ on the Red Bull site to discover that one of the most common questions was whether the ingredient taurine was produced from bulls testicles- I kid you not.

  34. ….”thorny” for a Monday. NHO BOXTHORN, or THE SIS (for which “statement” is inadequate IMHO). Utterly loathed my LOI.

    FOI HAIRY
    LOI SENSE
    COD TAURINE
    TIME 11:17

  35. I didn’t remember Bardolph, so like Rose and others was a Gandolph.

    Otherwise, it’s not The Boar’s Head, and it’s definitely not The George, but the gastropub we often meet at here in NY when TftFers from out of town visit is Pete’s Tavern – relevant today because O. Henry is meant to have written many of his stories sitting in a booth there.

    thkx vinyl, setter

    1. Gandolf for me too. Oh, well… I just got to the blog and haven’t found the comment explaining who he is. (EDIT: Found it. The history plays are a dim area for me.)
      Our last visit to Pete’s was spooky, the next morning, remembering Chirac looking down on us.

      Edited at 2020-10-19 06:58 pm (UTC)

  36. 23dn as per other correspondents is a dreadful clue – it has no stand-alone qualities. Where is ‘Number 1’.

    I opted for LOADS which left me with 25ac as ANCHORAGE!
    Two -THORNS to boot!

    So a DNF here in Meldrewvia, even though I had all the GK from CLOVERLEAF (Spag. Junct.) to AUTOCAR (The Mag!) and beyond.

    FOI 1dn GASTROPUB the biggest change to British Society in my lifetime

    (LOI) 25ac MICROWAVE (I prefer the Chinese word WEI-BO-LU) sue beats a ‘Baby Belling’

    COD 4dn HOMER

    WOD 3dn MUNTJAC used to see them around Kimbolton in the swivel headlights of my DS21. Not much bigger than a tom cat!

    No time – as I was out and about looking for Bonjela! Nearest source Hong Kong, as it is on the dangerous drugs list hereabouts.

    SIS refers specifically to MI6- its original name until KGV ascended the throne in 1910.

    Edited at 2020-10-19 02:24 pm (UTC)

  37. Surely in 22d the ARCHER (who may be a crossbowman) is looking for a quarrel in his quiver?
    DocG
  38. Well I thought this was tough.
    NHO BARDOLPH, BOXTHORN, but loads of MUNTJACS where I grew up in the Chilterns, where we called them PIG DEER.
    LOI SENSE, which made no sense to me….
  39. I liked this! Couldn’t finish it last night, too sleepy. Not sure I’ve ever seen “hoc anno” before. 9 is outrageous!
  40. I’ve used answers (e.g. “DIVERSIONARY tactics”) in Sunday blog titles and no one’s blown a whistle.
  41. Yes, another “Randolph”.

    I enjoyed the F on its side clue – but seem to be in rare company there.

    Edited at 2020-10-19 07:20 pm (UTC)

  42. 27:35. As with others I found this a tougher than expected start to the week. I never really got stuck just a bit more of a ponderous plod round the grid than usual. The setter’s inventiveness with the F on its side was lost on me, I just biffed sense from understanding. A bit of a double take at the two thorns. Nho HA.
  43. Tougher than usual for a Monday, yes, but I liked the F conceit, and Bardolph was a clever clue that deserves more praise.
    ~ Nila Palin

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