Times Cryptic 27686

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I took 25 minutes for all but 17ac & 19dn, and after staring at these two for another 10 minutes I decided I didn’t know them so gave up and resorted to aids, and I was right, I didn’t. I think the setter must have enjoyed putting together this puzzle that’s rather cheeky in places!

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Spare part nice used in one that goes flat out (7,6)
PERSIAN CARPET : Anagram [used] of SPARE PART NICE. Lovely cryptic definition! Also perhaps a reference is intended to the flying carpet as a speedy [flat out] means of transport in One Thousand and One Nights?
8 Grump driver ultimately bundled into carriage (4)
CRAB : {drive}R [ultimately] contained  by [bundled into] CAB (carriage). In the UK the official term for taxicab is ‘hackney carriage‘.
9 One young fan out for a walk in park (6-4)
CHILDS-PLAY : CHILD (one  young), SPLAY (fan out). Two expressions meaning easy-peasy.
10 Doorbell broken — here one’s invited to knock? (8)
BORDELLO : Anagram [broken] of DOORBELL. A house of ill repute aka ‘knocking shop’. I laughed out loud at the best surface reading – and perhaps even the best clue – for many a month.
11 Eastern ruler last month placed in clinic (6)
SULTAN : ULT (last month – ultimo) contained by [placed in] SAN (clinic). Ultimo / ult. (of last month), instant / inst. (of this month) and proximo /prox. (of next month) used to feature in formal business letters. They probably still do, but not so much now.
13 Connoisseur wants item offered at low price first (10)
SPECIALIST : SPECIAL (item offered at low price – today’s special), 1ST (first)
16 Drink nothing in such dangerous areas? (2-2)
NO-GO : NOG (drink), 0 (nothing). ‘Egg-nog’ is familiar and ‘noggin’, but I’m not sure I have met ‘nog’ on its own. One specific meaning is a strong beer from East Anglia.
17 Lovely being by island (4)
PERI : PER (by – Latin), I (island). This was one I gave up on.  “Originating in Persian mythology Peri has come to mean a graceful or beautiful person”. ‘By = per’ didn’t occur to me, but even if it had and I’d constructed the correct answer from wordplay I wouldn’t have recognised it as fitting the definition.
18 Look for something to say (10)
EXPRESSION : Two meanings
20 Compensate rabble “discontented” with putsch (6)
RECOUP : R{abbl}E [dis-contented – makes a change from ‘vacated’], COUP (putsch)
22 Man going commando? Might one hear that? (8)
NICHOLAS : Sounds like [one might hear] “knicker-less” (going commando). The long-time presenter of Just A Minute, Nicholas Parsons, recently deceased aged 96, used to take care to pronounce the ‘o’ in his first name after being ribbed on air by the regular panellist Kenneth Williams, referring to him as  ‘Knickerless Parsons” and accompanied by his braying laugh.
24 Distant relative, super-polite, smuggles in ecstasy (5-5)
GREAT-NIECE : GREAT (super), NICE (polite) contains [smuggles in] E (ecstasy). I think of distant relatives as, for instance, cousins several times removed and perhaps by marriage. I wouldn’t describe my nephew’s daughter as ‘distant’.
26 Not much material in first thirteen letters? (4)
ATOM : A TO M (first thirteen letters). A dislodged chestnut blown across from the Quickie.
27 Cheesy samples cooked the French way (6,7)
CHAMPS ELYSEES : Anagram [cooked] of CHEESY SAMPLES
Down
1 Knight for one under spell in historical drama (6,5)
PERIOD PIECE : PERIOD ( spell),  PIECE (knight for one – chess)
2 Fanatical attack involving bishop (5)
RABID : RAID (attack) containing [involving] B (bishop)
3 New clue I can’t gradually introduce (9)
INCULCATE : Anagram [new] of CLUE I CAN’T
4 Excellent plunder in some British region’s capital (7)
NAIROBI : AI (excellent) + ROB (plunder) contained by [in] NI (some British region – Northern Ireland)
5 Scandinavians, heading to centre in Peak District (5)
ANDES : {d}ANES (Scandinavians) becomes ANDES [heading – d – to centre]
6 Oil suppliers spot south-east river rising (9)
PIPELINES : SE (south-east) + NILE (river) + PIP (spot – cards / dominoes ) all reversed [rising]
7 Crew unable to finish meal (3)
TEA : TEA{m} (crew) [unable to finish]. In certain households in certain  regions tea (or high tea) can be a substantial meal, not just a cuppa.
12 Old people struggling along with boys receiving a kiss (5-6)
ANGLO-SAXONS : Anagram [struggling] of ALONG, then SONS (boys) containing [receiving] A + X (kiss)
14 Sausage sandwiches with it in drink — thanks! (9)
CHIPOLATA : COLA (drink) contains [sandwiches…in] HIP (with it), then TA (thanks). I’ve always preferred them to the big ones.
15 Attempt to imprison every royal woman — there’s a word for it? (9)
TREACHERY : TRY (attempt) containing [to imprison] EACH (every) + ER (royal woman)
19 Long to receive explanation for viewer’s complaint (7)
PINKEYE : PINE (long) containing [to receive] KEY (explanation – e.g. legend, or key to symbols on a map). This is the other clue I gave up on. I’d seen PINE for ‘long’ and EYE was obvious, but I missed the second bit of wordplay and didn’t recognise PINKEYE as a word when I did an alphabet trawl for the missing letter.
21 Two characters abroad initially pursuing model (3-2)
PIN-UP : PI + NU (two characters abroad – Greek), P{ursuing} [initially]
23 Love shown by wise man in Siouan language (5)
OSAGE : O (love), SAGE (wise man). Remembered from previous puzzles as the language as well as the people.
25 Men climbing caught by enormous bird (3)
ROC : OR (men – Other Ranks) reversed [climbing], C (caught)

68 comments on “Times Cryptic 27686”

  1. I biffed PERSIAN CARPET, CHILDS-PLAY & SPECIALIST; didn’t expect a hyphen in the second. DNK ‘knock’, so the cleverness of the clue was lost on me, although I was impressed by the surface. NICHOLAS took a long time, for a practising rhotacist like me. As did ANDES, where I just couldn’t see the wordplay until the end. Definitely a COD to BORDELLO, now that I get it.
  2. Yes, BORDELLO is a beauty, One of the very best and straight into my file of all-time classic clues.

    I finished in 48 minutes, with over 10 minutes at the end spent on PERI, helped both by a successful not-too-far-beyond-ATOM alphabet trawl (second in a week) and the Middle Eastern association with 1a. PINKEYE happened to go in reasonably early.

    Thanks for the ‘Just A Minute’ and Kenneth Williams reminder. A tenuous link, but the first street I ever walked up in London – Marchmont St in Bloomsbury – was were he spent much of his early life.

    1. If you are me, you also find it hard not to think of him occasionally in that neck of the woods…”I’ve come all the way from Great Portland Street for this!”
  3. Really enjoyable, 17 minutes so slightly easier than average. Bordello COD ahead of Persian carpet, really liked ‘fan out’ and ‘discontented rabble’ as well. Needed a few minutes at the end to rectify some mistakes: Champs ElysSes mispelled making Osage impossible, and Grand Niece preventing chipolata. Specialist POI fixated on the connoisseur being an epicur… and Peri LOI with crossed fingers.
    Pinkeye ninja-turtled from South Park (I thought they made it up, at the time). Kenny got pinkeye, turned into a zombie, and they couldn’t kill him.

    Edited at 2020-06-09 02:31 am (UTC)

  4. My only slight problem was another GRAND NIECE, but I saw CHIPOLATA so quickly fixed that up. No problem with PERI (if you used to be into G&S then you know the subtitle for Iolanthe is “the peer and the peri”). I found it hard to believe that the clue implied there was a valid anagram of doorbell…but there was. Brilliant, especially with the surface.
      1. Well, I used to own a double LP of Iolanthe when I was in my teens. I’m sure I can call all the good parts up on YTbut I haven’t.
  5. Happy to finish this in a quick time for me. Like others I loved BORDELLO (my FOI) and the definition for the PERSIAN CARPET. I deferred putting in GREAT NIECE until I knew it wasn’t GRAND, and had a MER with Jack on how “distant” this is. I was lucky to parse PERI pretty quickly, to put it in with confidence.

    Thanks, Jack, for the timely and illuminating blog and to the setter.

    1. Not related to the puzzle, but have you been following Nathan Panning? Very good times, but looks legit.
      1. Yes, I agree. Strong alignment to the NITCH (0.9) despite the fast times, and the individual results plot (like I show for verlaine on the Neutrinos page) looks sensible. I will add him to the list in the next update.
  6. I knew Peri from past puzzles (none blogged by you, jackkt) but spent ages trying to remember the names of Arthur’s knights to fit the 1d crosser instead of just stopping to think. I liked Treachery, and wondered about Recoup used to mean compensate as opposed to recapture. Thanks, setter.

    Edited at 2020-06-09 03:15 am (UTC)

  7. I gather this was written by Jimmy Kennedy in 1939 and first sung by Tommy Trinder, but I remember it from Alan Breeze and the Billy Cotton Band Show. 21 minutes. NICHOLAS was the LOI, after PINKEYE came from an alphabet trail for the K. Undoubtedly, COD to BORDELLO for the belly laugh. OSAGE could be nothing else, which was as well. Nice puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter
  8. 12:29. LOI NICHOLAS with a groan. I hesitated over SPECIALIST taking a while to see the wordplay. We have our TEA in the evenings and generally something more substantial than a sausage sandwich, although we sometimes have CHIPOLATAS as hot-dogs for lunch. I liked BORDELLO and PERSIAN CARPET best.
  9. 20 mins pre-brekker.
    I liked it, mostly Treachery.
    Thanks setter and J.
  10. Pushed a minute over thirty by 19d PINKEYE and 22a NICHOLAS. Didn’t have much trouble apart from that, though I’m not sure I knew what 3d INCULCATE meant until this morning, and I still can’t quite figure out how to read the surface at 1a. (Works fine for me as “Nice spare part…”? *shrug*)
  11. Whiffled through this pretty quick.
    Loved the bordello clue, but surprised there haven’t been any complaints about it.. we have some pretty prim commenters. Perhaps they aren’t woke up yet 🙂
  12. Dead on ten minutes so shaping up to be a good week (which usually lasts until Wednesday…). Some lovely clues today, BORDELLO of course, and I liked NICHOLAS and CHAMPS ELYSEES too. PERI brings Iolanthe to mind to me too, as that’s where I first came across the word, I don’t think it has anything to do with Nando’s.

    COD: BORDELLO, brilliant.

    Yesterday’s answer: Slovenska, Lietuva and Crna Gora are Slovakia, Lithuania and Montenegro – the first two being somewhat confusing to an English speaker.

    Today’s question: what is the point on the Earth’s surface furthest from its centre?

    1. being an oblate spheroid it should be on the equator- so the summit of Kilimanjaro?
      1. Agreed – on the equator because of the equatorial bulge. Andes more likely I think.
        1. Indeed, this came up in a quiz I did a few days ago. When you measure height above sea level, it’s not even the highest point in the Andes…
          1. Papua: 4800+ m. Nowhere near. Kilimanjaro: 5895 m, didn’t realise it was so tall.
            Two contenders: highest point in Ecuador @ 1 or2 degrees south, which wikipedia lists an incorrect height for, or even higher highest point in Peru @ 8 or 9 degrees south. Or maybe Everest at 36 degrees north… how oblate is the earth? I should be able to work it out, but too tired.
      2. That’s the idea, but apparently not the answer. Hint: the question was inspired by one of today’s crossword entries.
        1. The small township of Nogo, in the Nogo Area of Upper Darqali.
    2. Your question brought back memories of the cartoon series ‘Journey to the centre of the earth‘. Arne Saknussemm. All those characters running diagonally.
  13. Good naughty fun, clocking in at 17.45.
    Bits that stretched the time included no less than three goes at ANDES, trying LAPPS based on a very odd version of the Alps and DANES based on a similar misreading of the Andes, before working out which way round the clue went.
    While I knew OSAGE (but not that it was Siouan) I flirted briefly with OMAGE. PERI was my last in, though I wasn’t aware of the beautiful connection.
    Like others, I was curious as to “compensate” for recoup. Given the Chambers entry, I wonder if its a word that has shifted in meaning to (now) mean recover.
  14. As for others, a straightforward solve. Raised eyebrow at the surface reading for 1A which, as Matt says, is a train crash. Makes no sense. Also the “distant” at GREAT NEICE is superfluous.

    Loved BORDELLO – worth the price of admission on its own

    1. One of the tips I picked up here in the early days of TfTT was to ignore surface readings whilst solving and I’m afraid I often forget to go back to them once I have arrived at the answer. That was clearly the case here as when blogging I concentrated entirely on the cryptic definition which I still think is very good. But the change of word order in the first part as suggested by Matt would have made all the difference.
      1. Easy done Jack. Training yourself to ignore surface reading is key of course. In my early days when struggling with a clue I used to write it down as a column of words to force that separation
      2. I thought the awkward word order was a double fake – it made the anagram fodder so obviously anagram fodder that you looked elsewhere, and “i (one) that goes flat” has the right number of letters.
  15. Well, not quite. All done except PERI. I know the word so am a bit miffed at myself. BORDELLO and TREACHERY are great.
  16. 12:11. Very good puzzle. Like everyone else I loved BORDELLO and I also enjoyed the groan-inducing homophone NICHOLAS. It occurs to me that you can make most of these homophones work but just imagining a New Zealander saying them. 😉
    Is a GREAT-NIECE a distant relative? It depends. My kids for instance have great aunts and uncles they see regularly and others they have never met, and never will if I have anything to do with it.
    The surface of 1ac is weird, as others have noticed. Looks like an accident.

    Edited at 2020-06-09 08:46 am (UTC)

    2. Well, a great-niece (doesn’t need to be grand as far as I can tell) is the grand-daughter of one’s sibling, or sibling’s spouse, daughter of one’s nephew or niece, or one’s sibling’s child’s female child. Phew.
  17. 17’34”, with NICHOLAS LOI.

    Thought PERI was a fairy?

    Thanks jack and setter.

  18. Pink square due to a careless INCULTATE. Curses.

    Other than that it took a while to get going but once I had a start I whizzed through, but got slowed by some stragglers at the end (SPECIALIST which I wanted to begin EPIC-, PINKEYE and NICHOLAS).

  19. Saucy clue. Last one in after a quick alphabet trawl, then a slow alphabet trawl, to find the least unlikely of the contenders… and put PERI with trepidation. 22’41”
  20. 20.01 and found a few roadblocks along the way. FOI crab which gave grounds for ultra optimism which were soon frustrated. LOI Persian carpet.

    Liked the puzzle a lot and thought bordello, Nairobi, recoup and period piece were excellent clues. Took me ages to work out the latter in particular, kept asking myself what was the name of the prince in sleeping beauty- duh!

  21. In one of the many openings to The Simpsons, Bart is writing on the blackboard “I am not delightfully saucy”, but that is exactly what I thought this puzzle was. I was also pleasingly taken back to Monty Python’s bookshop sketch, featuring Knickerless Nickleby by Edmund Wells.
  22. The Arabian Nights theme with the SULTAN, the PERI, the CARPET and the ROC was very nice – I’d forgotten about Iolanthe. My pupil master at Lincoln’s Inn used to call the solicitors on the ground floor of our chambers a “knocking shop”. I had to look it up. 14.33
  23. didn’t issue stamps, so it wasn’t in my album. The setter did have a better option of making 1dn PARSON’S NOSE.And thus Peri would have been avoided. Then 17ac could then have been FOCI and more in keeping with the rest of the puzzle.

    FOI 3dn INCULCATE

    LOI 17ac but not PERI!

    COD 10ac BORDELLO

    WOD Knickerless!

    Done on the road, so no time and a DNF. I believe a precise time to a DNF is somewhat non-U. Don’t you?

    Edited at 2020-06-09 10:13 am (UTC)

  24. A most enjoyable romp. As others, loved BORDELLO and NICHOLAS. I also flirted with Lapps and Danes at 5d until the rug and CHILDS PLAY put me right. RABID was my FOI and PERI my last. My daughter played Iolanthe a couple of years ago, so I should’ve got that sooner! 26:45. Thanks setter and Jack.
  25. Cant believe LOI was NICHOLAS. Especially after the BORDELLO. PERI I knew from doing Iolanthe at school, think I was some kind of maid.
  26. And very much enjoyed, especially Bordello of course. My late mother’s one rudish joke was a knock-knock who’s response was Knickerless ladies shouldn’t ride bicycles. That and a Classical Greek version of Oh Lord what can the matter be, Three old ladies locked in the lavatory. It began Pheu pheu ti pote gegone. I’d be interested if anyone else has memories of that.
    1. I remember that Nicholas girls shouldn’t climb trees and Isabel necessary on a bicycle!!
  27. You’re going to have to change Specialist if you want Parson’s Nose (so to speak). I’d have thought peri as fairy is well known enough. Super doorbell clue, while the commando one’s a pity. Somewhat different levels of wit. Stumbled along in 26’55.
  29. A bit slow but got there in the end.

    Smiled at BORDELLO and groaned at NICHOLAS – it was too much for even my juvenile sense of humour ( according to Mrs. Davest ).

    All correct in 37.36.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  30. Loved this for the whole 25:07 it lasted. Thank you brilliant setter, and Jack for the excellent blog.
  32. ….having entered “Danes” at 5D (understandable error) and “grig” at 8A (stupid error !). However, I was looking at a sub-10 minute finish until I ground to a halt at the 19D/22A intersection. The inevitable alpha-trawling took almost 4 minutes. Grrr !

    FOI SULTAN (of swing ?)
    LOI PINKEYE (but no Perkeye)
    COD BORDELLO (I chortled !)
    TIME 13:28 (Poor – see me !)

  34. I had just two left before lunch: 19d and 22a. Eventually got PINKEYE and looking for an outrageous homophone I could not improve on NOCLOSAN which fits the squares but not much else.
    Was hoping for another pepperoni today but had to make do with Chipolata.
    One further mistake: BENI at 17a. And not all parsed by any means.
    I liked the anagram for Champs Elysees amongst others. David
  35. I took about an hour to not quite finish this, but enjoyed it anyway. I’m afraid I did chortle at Nicholas (reminds me of the knock knock jokes – see above) and Bordello. Hmm – my mind is working overtime at the puns but I’m not going there!

    A couple went unparsed – SPECIALIST and PERIOD PIECE, which I only got having used aids to get RECOUP (discontented – very clever). I’ve always thought the conjunctivitis was two words, possibly hyphenated. For some reason, I was determined that 5d was Alps, despite there not being enough letters! I didn’t think about the Danes for a while, despite the Anglo-Saxons being their near neighbours.

    FOI Tea
    LOI Period piece, but doesn’t count
    COD Champs Elysees – what a brilliant anagram
    DNF

    Many thanks setter for the laughs, and Jack for the great blog 😀

  36. Excellent. Full of enjoyable, and some brilliant, clues.
  37. …but I had to put it aside to finish the next day.

    LOI “Nicholas,” because I don’t pronounce it like that.

    The surface to 1A is indeed a disaster zone, screaming “ANAGRAM” in your ear.
    A shame, because a good surface is half the fun, at least for someone not concerned with setting a speed record.

    Edited at 2020-06-09 05:14 pm (UTC)

  39. 34:38. A fun puzzle which I rattled off fairly quickly apart from 19dn and 22ac. At 19dn the required synonyms for long and explanation just wouldn’t present themselves. At 22ac whilst I love terrible puns and Christmas cracker jokes I wasn’t expecting something quite so bad in a Times puzzle, at least not one that had shown the qualities this one had. I was looking round the top of the barrel when I should’ve been scraping the other end.
  40. Peri appears in alternative title of G & S Iolanthe – The Peer and the Peri
    1. Thank you, but have you read any of the comments above? That point was made very early in the discussion by another poster and responded to by 4 other contributors who in doing so reiterated it. It had not escaped our attention!

      Edited at 2020-06-10 08:41 am (UTC)

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