Times Cryptic No 27348 – Saturday, 11 May 2019. A Walk in the Woods.

Author   brnchnPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
If you knew that Terence Rattigan wrote the play mentioned in the title, you probably found this whole crossword a walk in the park! Otherwise, you might have had to tax your mind a bit at 1ac, 26ac and 1dn. Everything else was very relaxing for a Saturday, I thought. Apart, that is, from 2dn which I struggled to parse for no obvious reason.

The clue of the day was undoubtedly 1ac for the refreshing cryptic device. I got there in the end! Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Clues are in blue, with definitions underlined. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, then wordplay. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’. Deletions are in [square brackets].

Across
1 Play filmed three times, four times possibly (8,6)
SEPARATE TABLES: the three-times table and four-times table are separate tables, surely! Separate Tables was filmed once, in 1958.

9 Men rejected notice — factory disruption on the way (9)
ROADWORKS: RO=OR (men) “rejected”, AD (notice), WORKS (factory).

10 Couple dance: miss work (5)
GALOP: GAL (a “miss”), OP (work).

11 Expand study by women’s organisation (5)
WIDEN: WI (Women’s Institute), DEN (study).

12 Veg Tiny Tim initially held in contempt (9)
SWEETCORN: WEE (tiny) T (Tim, initially) in SCORN (contempt).

13 Authorised denomination housed in terminal (8)
ENTITLED: TITLE (denomination) in END (terminal).

15 Student population once almost entirely male in college (6)
ALUMNI: AL (all=entirely, “almost”), then M in UNI.

17 Three couples in precipitate entrance (6)
RAVISH: VI (3 x 2, in Roman numerals), in RASH. I started thinking “precipitate” might be RAIN, but that wouldn’t work!

19 High jumper got back across free-flowing river (4,4)
TREE FROG: TOG=GOT “back”, “across” (FREE R*) “flowing” – an anagram, where the extra R is for “river”.

22 Favoured second crest, reduced, with coloured frame (9)
RESEMBLED: “favoured her mother”, for example. It’s S for second, EMBLE[m] “reduced”, in RED coloured “frame”.

23 Supplement in honour of youngster (3-2)
TOP-UP: the toast would be “TO [the] PUP”.

24 Quick drink recruit drained (5)
ALERT: ALE (drink), R[ecrui]T “drained”.

25 Runner‘s been and got lost, accepting contrary directions (2-7)
GO-BETWEEN: anagram (“lost”) of (BEEN GOT*), accepting E and W, the “opposite directions”.

26 One settlement scheme remains to be covered in Tory speech (4,2,8)
CASH ON DELIVERY: ASH (remains) in CON DELIVERY.

Down
1 Surrounding temperature troubled Byron’s rare war horse (10,4)
STRAWBERRY ROAN: anagram (“troubled”) of (BYRONS RARE WAR*), “surrounding” T (temperature). There seem to be various films and songs about strawberry roans, so I’m not sure if the setter had a specific one in mind. Views welcome.

2 Acclaim mounting for two in the end (7)
PLAUDIT: LAUD=DUAL (for two) “mounting”, in TIP.

3 Tree line primarily advancing north (5)
ROWAN: ROW (line), A N from “advancing north” (primarily).

4 One’s liable to hit extremely tough bit of bacon (8)
THRASHER: “extremely” T[oug]H, RASHER.

5 Charged like king in Mr Heath’s clutches? (6)
TASKED: AS K, in TED.

6 Those attending during Giselle, eg, shortly to get trifle (9)
BAGATELLE: Giselle is a ballet. So we have GATE in BALLE[t] “shortly”.

7 Parasitic threat to crops having me lower supply (7)
EELWORM: anagram “supplied by” (ME LOWER*).

8 Visiting gents dispatching a cage nearly empty, to carry piano (8,1,5)
SPENDING A PENNY: P (piano) in SENDING A PEN, followed by an “empty” N[earl]Y.

14 Make sure striker is fit for international? (4,5)
TEST MATCH: double definition, the first one whimsical.

16 Wartime pin-up girl’s drawn in poster that can be ordered (8)
GRADABLE: Betty GRABLE, “drawing in” an AD.

18 Strangling first person, criminal craves guts (7)
VISCERA: “criminal” anagram of (CRAVES*) “strangling” I (first person).

20 Left at end of theatre season in Paris more than satisfied (7)
REPLETE: REP (theatre), L (left), ÉTÉ (French for summer).

21 Red or white container such as tall staff may have? (6)
FLAGON: well, the flagstaff will often have a FLAG ON.

23 Tribespeople‘s trust, oddly, is rising (5)
TUTSI: TUT (odd letters of TrUsT), SI=IS “rising”.

 

30 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27348 – Saturday, 11 May 2019. A Walk in the Woods.”

  1. I found it easy as well. I didn’t know the play, but it was the only phrase that seemed to fit the crossers, and then I saw the crytic pretty directly. Thanks for the parsing of Resembled – all I will say in my defense is that cRESt is clearly Crest reduced, and once started in that direction I was never going to figure it out.
  2. I typed ROAD instead of ROAN, even though I’d written in ROAN. FOI 1ac, of all things, BIFD without a clue as to the clue. 8d has to be one of the ugliest surfaces in some time. Bruce, you’ve got ‘Tutsi’ at 23d where you mean ‘TrUsT’. Also, I’d say that GAL is just ‘miss’; the upper-class miss is GEL.
  3. Indeed on the easy side, zipped through without problems with 1 ac actually last one in, needing a minute or two to twig.
  4. No problems with SEPARATE TABLES and enjoyed the wordplay in the clue. If one blurs the boundaries between cinema and made-for-TV the play has been ‘filmed’ three times, in 1958,1970 and 1983.

    THE STRAWBERRY ROAN is a track on the classic ‘Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs’ album from 1959 by Marty Robbins. It was also featured in a film of the same title from 1948 starring Gene Autry and Champion (The Wonderhorse). Several others recorded it over the years and the authorship of the song seems to be disputed.

    Edited at 2019-05-18 04:18 am (UTC)

  5. A couple of months ago, in a charity shop, I came across a (pristine!) copy of old Times cryptic crosswords. They date from the era when ‘jerks’ are clued as ECT, not ‘tics’!

    I have the impression of late that there have been a number of similar old xwords that have been recycled (and nothing wrong with that, I’m sure Times readers are all avid recyclers). But I wonder if some of the era-specific clues might be up-dated?

    I was pleased that I got through most of this with little difficulty but came to a grinding halt at the 16 and 21d and 25a intersection: NHO Betty Gable or the Red and White containers. I’ve looked them up now and well, yes, Ms Gable might be well known to those who’ve been doing xwords for decades but I can’t find any reference to flagons being sold in red or white containers. Were they?

    Having just watched an excellent series on Japan’s Enchanted Islands on IPlayer,I had no trouble with the Tree Frogs who had a brief and quite funny starring part in one of the progs. Thanks to the setter (from whenever) and to brnchn

  6. … can be any colour at all. It’s the wine inside that’s red or white.
    1. Ah, I see. Flagon is such an old-fashioned word, I always associate it with ale (as in Yard of Ale which came up recently).

      Regarding the comment below, I haven’t got my paper yet, so it’ll be interesting to see what he or she has to say about ‘gradable’.

      1. I think it’s fair to say, a faint whiff of mustiness is a key attribute of Times Cryptics! Just a matter of adapting to the style!
        1. Aha, I have my paper now so instead of turning straight to the xword as usual, I went to Rose Wild’s column. I see the gist of Mr. Freeman’s comment is similar to mine and note that Mr. Parfitt feels that ‘solvers of later generations would still be reasonably expected to know’. So now I do.

          (Just in case, I think I’ll have to ask Dr. Google if there were any other ‘pin-ups’ I should know about).

  7. Thanks, Bruce, especially for RESEMBLED. That was the only clue I had a question mark against. Several clues with ticks but TOP UP was my favourite.
    Did you notice that GRADABLE gets a mention in Rose Wild’s ‘Feedback’ column in the online paper today?
  8. 36 minutes with LOI PLAUDIT, guessed much earlier but not entered until parsed. COD to the clever SEPARATE TABLES. I used to love the gunfighter ballad spot on Radio Luxembourg, so STRAWBERRY ROAN was no problem. Can anybody remember which show it was on? Kent Walton’s Swinging USA maybe? Streets of Laredo would make a great funeral processional hymn. The GO-BETWEEN was a great novel and beautiful film – Alan Bates, Julie Christie (my teenage crush) and “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” I thought for one awful moment that CASH ON DELIVERY was going to be a speech by aforesaid MP before I constructed it properly. All this and Betty Grable’s million-dollar legs too. Very enjoyable. Thank you B and setter.
  9. I assume we have some sort of a theme here? I count at least four films or plays, plus an opera, not to mention Ms Grable ..
  10. I got 8d quickly which gave me a lot of letters to work with and made steady progress after that.The clues were gettable I thought and the GK suited me as I knew the Rattigan play and remembered Betty Grable.
    There were a couple of unknowns: the horse at 1d only became clear towards the end when I had all the checkers and the EELWORM emerged from the anagrist.
    An enjoyable puzzle. LOI FLAGON. COD to SWEETCORN. Liked ALUMNI.
    David

    Edited at 2019-05-18 07:02 am (UTC)

  11. ….I had them all” (Neil Sedaka : “Betty Grable”). And no, I didn’t like the missing “e”.

    I started badly by slapping in “roadblock”, then had the sense to try 3/4/5D which quickly showed me the error of my ways !

    I had to check EELWORM later, since the word was vaguely familiar, but its meaning wasn’t.

    FOI TASKED
    LOI EELWORM
    COD SWEET CORN
    TIME 10:47

  12. A little under the hour which is about normal for a Saturday. FOI ROWAN, LOI FLAGON, like others. Although I agree the surface is a bit clumsy, I liked the answer at 8 down. NHO STRAWBERRY whatsit but had to be once I had all the checkers in. Thank you B and setter.
  13. I had to work at this one, but nothing was unknown, and I eventually submitted at 37:17. EELWORM/SWEETCORN held me up for some time, but the play was known, as was Betty. An enjoyable puzzle, if not a flier. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  14. 59 minutes, but if I take the hangover into account (leaving bash for an erstwhile colleague) that wasn’t so bad. Lots of question marks and plenty I didn’t know, including the STRAWBERRY ROAN GALOPing over the EELWORM, so thanks for the parsings!

    COD 21d.

  15. 31:30 nice puzzle. Strawberry roan was unknown and needed all the checkers. Dnk the play at 1ac and didn’t twig the wp so that went in mainly from checkers.
  16. 17:57. A few unknowns in this – Ms Grable, the horse, the worm – but nothing that caused me major problems.
    I suspect Terence Rattigan’s work is generally very much less familiar to people of my generation than my parents’. I knew of this play but only vaguely. Having said that the National did The Deep Blue Sea in 2016 so he hasn’t faded completely by any means.
    ‘Favoured’ for RESEMBLED is a usage I only know of from doing these puzzles and I have never encountered it in the wild.
    1. I now remember you not knowing Dorothy Lamour or Vera Hruba Ralston. Kids these days.
    2. Lyrics from the Elkie Brooks song in 1977 may have introduced BG to a younger generation:
      Pearl’s a singer
      And they say, that she once, cut a record
      They played it for a week or so
      On the local radio, it never made it
      She wanted to be Betty Grable
      But now she sits there at that beer stained table
      Dreaming of the things she never got to do
      All those dreams that never came true
      1. This was in my head too as I wrote it in. See you at Sloggers and Betters. Thank you to PNE for the food vouchers for BWFC staff.
  17. I had tradable for gradable and flagin for flagon. All in 27:14.

    COD: Test Match. Clever.

  18. Missed out on 16dn GRADABLE slung in CREDIBLE! Incredible!?

    FOI 1ac SEPARATE TABLES

    COD 28ac CASH ON DELIVERY (Bill Cash came to mind initially)

    WOD 1dn STRAWBERRY ROAN from the ether

  19. Thanks setter and Bruce
    Took around the half hour in three short sessions to get it completed. No issues except unsuccessfully trying to make PIT go around a backwards DUAL at 2d instead of the more obvious TIP.
    That meaning of ‘favoured’ to mean RESEMBLED was new. Had heard of the play at 1a and sort of remembered that type of horse at 1d and certainly remembered the other horse STRAWBERRY ROAD who I think was the first Australian horse to race successfully overseas.
    Finished in the centre bottom with the cleverly defined FLAGON, that RESEMBLED and GRADABLE (which took quite some time to twig to Betty GRABLE as the pin-up).

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