Times Cryptic No 27408 – Saturday, 20 July 2019. All the lonely people …

Author   brnchnPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Today’s puzzle is packed full of brilliant clues. Well done, setter! I got the four 15-letter answers fairly early, but even they didn’t 9ac re the rest of the answers. I was at a bit of a *loss* with 13ac, as noted below, but the rest was delightful. My last one in will be 22dn, when I get there!

I do indeed fancy this setter’s work, although I can’t comment on their dog. My only request for next time is a more upbeat theme song to echo in my head as I write the blog!

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

Across
1 Distinguish between two types of split (4,5)
TELL APART: TELL=split, as in spill the beans. APART=split asunder. I saw the second word at once, but had to search for the first.

6 Fed on fabrication that concludes the debate! (3,2)
END OF: anagram (fabrication) of (FED ON*).

9 Generous grouse shooter may squeal (4,3,4,4)
GIVE THE GAME AWAY: double definition, replete with whimsy.

10 Ring back in no more than fifty-nine seconds? (6)
NIMBUS: SUB-MIN reversed (back).

11 Not fair when superior virtually eclipses career (8)
BRUNETTE: BETTE[r] “eclipses” RUN. The definition fits neatly into the surface.

13 People written to no longer having to stop new casino (10)
COLOSSIANS: obviously an anagram (new) of (CASINO*), “stopped” by a word meaning “no longer having”.  If you were familiar with St. Paul’s various letters, this might have been a write-in. My first effort was COLOSTIANS, but that rang no bells (either). I eventually had to look it up, and I’m at a bit of a loss as to why “no longer” or “no longer having” is LOSS.

14 Short step for man (4)
STAG: the step is a STAG[e].

16 Stratagem an instant success in WWII (4)
MOVE: MO=instant, V.E.=success in WWII.

17 Let one quite quietly correct grasping people (10)
IMPEDIMENT: I (one), MP=mezzo-piano=quite quietly, EDIT=correct “grasping” MEN=people. The definition is as in “let or hindrance”.

19 Following punch, after something for leaning on, by George! (8)
LAMPPOST: Chambers has LAMP as slang for “punch”. POST is obviously “after”. The George in question is of course Formby, and you probably know the song.

20 Avoids runners, keeping right (6)
SKIRTS: SKIS are runners, “keeping” RT as a less usual but setter-friendly abbreviation for “right”.

23 Adorable plays with unnamed stars (9,6)
ANDROMEDA NEBULA: anagram of (plays with) (ADORABLE UNNAMED*).

24 Doctor close to Eleanor? (5)
RIGBY: RIG for “doctor”, BY for “close to”. A Beatles song.

25 Endlessly proclaim Irish politicians fake (7-2)
TRUMPED UP: TRUMPE[t] “endlessly”, D.U.P. Oh, the irony.

Down
1 Can hosts become cross? (5)
TIGON: TIN “hosts” GO. “Become” as in “go blue”.

2 If you fancy this setter, you may also have to tolerate a different one! (4,2,4,2,3)
LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG: delightful cryptic definition, playing on two meanings of “setter”.

3 Selflessness that’s really at heart platitude (8)
ALTRUISM: AL=[re]AL[ly] “at heart”, TRUISM.

4 Jump with blade to cut line (4)
AXEL: AXE=blade to cut, L. Cunning that “cut” is for once not telling us to put something inside something else.

5 Cheering cup fan’s taken ride around, close to skipper (3,7)
TEA DRINKER: anagram (around) of (TAKEN RIDE*), then [skippe]R. The definition is presumably a reference to this poem by William Cowper.

6 Are Leavers not disheartened by Britain’s future status? (6)
EXEUNT: after Brexit, Britain will be EX-EU. NT is N[o]T, “disheartened”. The answer is commonly used as a stage instruction. The wordplay made me smile.

7 Entirely because of article, crushed (4,2,3,6)
DOWN TO THE GROUND: DOWN TO=because of, THE=an article, GROUND=crushed.

8 Smart Kensington postcode written in letters for boxer (9)
FLYWEIGHT: FLY=smart; W8 or, in letters W-EIGHT, is a Kensington postcode.

12 What’s contained in chemical it must establish? (6,4)
LITMUS TEST: hidden answer, and an &lit. definition (see glossary).

13 Material appeared hard in earth (9)
CAMELHAIR: CAME=appeared, then H=hard in LAIR=earth.

15 Note in contract for firing agent (4-2-2)
PICK-ME-UP: ME in PICK UP (contract, measles for example).

18 Mysterious spot round well bores (6)
SPOOKY: O=round and OK=well both “bore” SPY.

21 Go up with champ at last for European trophy (5)
SCALP: SCALE with P from [cham]P replacing E from E[uropean].

22 Capital city of this country backed by its airline (4)
BAKU: UK “backed” after BA, the UK airline. Baku, as I now know, is the capital of Azerbaijan.

38 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27408 – Saturday, 20 July 2019. All the lonely people …”

  1. DNF. I just couldn’t figure out 5dn. I had all the checkers, and assumed the first word had to be TEA, but I took the approach of ignoring the wordplay and just trying to find a recognisable expression that would fit. This was a mistake, because there isn’t one: the answer is a phrase of the type ‘carpet liker’ or ‘textbook reader’. I should have paid a bit more attention to the (not very difficult) wordplay.
    1. Exactly the same here. I wondered if there were such a thing as a TEA ORANGE, decided probably not, and could come up with nothing else; and did not pay enough attention to the wordplay. Not particularly pleased with the solution, for the reason Keriothe suggests. (We (not K, perhaps, but Mohn and Peter and moi) have had some discussion here on this topic, and while TEA DRINKER is not as egregious as ‘carpet liker’, it’s still hardly a lexical item.
  2. 53 minutes with COD EXEUNT. What’s not to like about this with George Formby (Fan Club President George Harrison), The Beatles and Joan Armatrading. I decided that the ‘loss’ in COLOSSIANS meant the state of ‘no longer having’, which was used as a gerund. I’ve been in London long enough to know Kensington might be W8 but I do think the clue is somwhat West London centric. I wasn’t sure if it was an SW zone. Otherwise, decent puzzle. Thank you B and setter.
  3. 5dn TEA DRINKER is cultural rather than lexical: we English are by general definition a nation of tea drinkers, whereas Americans are coffee drinkers. Formal afternoon tea is a pleasure for this tea drinker, who would never has coffee after breakfast – and then only Jamaican Blue Mountain. I note the Supreme Court had already sat.

    FOI 20ac SKIRTS

    LOI and COD 4dn AXEL

    WOD 23ac ANDROMEDA NEBULA

    Also liked 24ac RIGBY .. no…..not Rigsby, Miss Jones!

    Edited at 2019-07-27 06:37 am (UTC)

    1. Kev, on checking TEA DRINKER does reside in Chambers thus it is ‘lexically cultural’; however it does not appear in Merriam Webster.

      fyi we English also drink Orange Tea (available from Bigelow, Tazo, Numi, Myrtilus).

      Edited at 2019-07-27 06:50 am (UTC)

  4. My written comment is “very difficult”, and it was.
    Thank you, Bruce, for IMPEDIMENT, ALTRUISM, FLYWEIGHT and BAKU but I do still have difficulties with LOSS = ‘no longer having’.
    I have ticks ( plus marks not things dogs and cats get) against RIGBY, AXEL, EXEUNT and LITMUS TEST but my COD to EXEUNT.
    I hope that today’s Cryptic doesn’t take as long as this one as the ABs v Boks game is on in a delayed broadcast in just over an hour.
  5. 17.42, helped by the long ones being friendly.
    I wasn’t sure about “no longer having” equating to LOSS either. I wonder if it’s a setter’s dictionary look-up. The first definition in Chambers under LOSS is “losing”, which equates directly, but “I am sorry for your loss” is a bit awkward if it’s translated to “I’m sorry about your no longer having”. I shrugged and moved on.
    I thought the W8 conceit in 8d was amusing. More txt savvy readers can tell me if it’s a thing. Can’t w8.
  6. ….TEA and ORANGES that come all the way from China”. Just on the doorstep for our man in Shanghai ! That thought didn’t occur to me at the time (nor did much else as LOI indicates !) but “Suzanne” is now my earworm of the moment, replacing “Leaning on a Lamppost”.

    By today’s standards, it wouldn’t have “turned out nice again” for George Formby – we’d think of him as a stalker !

    Did you hear about the dizzy blonde who thought a BRUNETTE was a tea strainer ? I’m sorry, I’ll go to my room….

    I took a time-out after 17 minutes with 5 clues left in the NW corner which had been static for a couple of minutes. Everything fell into place fairly quickly when I returned to it later.

    I wasn’t impressed by COLOSSIANS, although it was clearly correct. It just about works, but it’s the only clunky clue in an otherwise excellent puzzle – assuming, of course, that you’re au fait with London postcodes !

    FOI BRUNETTE
    LOI TEA DRINKER
    COD EXEUNT (this leaver is disheartened by our current status !)
    TIME 20:35 eventually (which might allow me to scrape home on Championship day, if there’s actually going to be one this year !)

  7. The first entry under LOSS in Collins on-line is:

    Loss is the fact of no longer having something.

    Does one really need to look any further?

    Bruce’s COLOSTIANS had me imagining all sorts about them had they existed!

    Edited at 2019-07-27 08:46 am (UTC)

    1. ‘We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.’

      Oscar Wilde, ‘The Canterville Ghost’ (1887).

  8. 59 minutes, so just scraping inside my limit.

    I enjoyed this, though some of it passed right over my head—even listening to the Formby song right now it rings not the slightest bell.

    I’m more familiar with songs from later films, which at least meant I was familiar with AXEL as a given name for my LOI 4d (Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F, the Axel Foley (played by Eddie Murphy) theme from the Beverly HIlls Cop franchise was part of the soundtrack of my youth. It’s from 1984; I’d wager the setter’s youth happened a tad earlier.)

    I was happy enough to assume that “loss” and “no longer having” were close enough to call equivalent at 13a, and was just glad that the book rang some vague bell once I thought of it.

    I was also fine with TEA DRINKER as a phrase, especially in “nation of tea drinkers”, as observed above, though it did take me a while. I can see why it’s in Chambers where “carpet liker” isn’t, but I’m not sure I could justify it in words!

    Edited at 2019-07-27 09:00 am (UTC)

  9. Finished the following saturday after several dips into so no time recorded.

    NW held me up the longest – thought of MIN as part of 10a but couldn’t see what to do with it until ALTRUISM dropped.

  10. I enjoyed this puzzle. I didn’t know Kensington was W8, but FLYWEIGHT was the only boxer that fitted. 2d took a while but you could hear the penny drop for miles. I had no trouble with the COLOSSIANS, having had Paul’s epistles to them read to me many times. Liked EXEUNT. TEA DRINKER was my last one in. Another moment when the air resounded with the clatter of dropped pennies. 43:43. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  11. This defeated me but I had some fun en route.I have a friend who lives in Kensington and I send him a Christmas card every year; was pleased to remember the post code but I thought this would stretch non London solvers.
    DNK TIGON and failed to derive it; had TEA but not the drinker. Pencilled Colossians at the side but could not justify it; thought Colessians parsed better but it sounded wrong. Could not get Axel or Nimbus, so quite a few blanks at the end.
    No problems with Eleanor Rigby or George Formby. David
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  13. I liked the puzzle, and was modestly surprised to come here and find Keriothe defending Colossians. The world continues to provide astonishment! Thanks for the parsing of Skirts – I didn’t see the ‘rt’, only the ‘r’. I have heard skits as letter-change slang for diarrhea, but I was having a hard time thinking that the Ed would allow that as a synonym for runners.
    1. I think you’ll find the slang is ‘squits’ or ‘squitters’.
      1. jack – OED, usage 1, definition 2. And to humans, by extension.

        Edited at 2019-07-27 04:40 pm (UTC)

    2. Yes, I think setters should move on to the Apocrypha now to continue our K’s education…
    1. Yes indeed, horryd, and proudly wallowing in my evil thoughts!
  15. Can someone explain how “firing agent” gives “pick-me-up”. I’ve never heard of the term or expression “firing agent” and on consulting Google, it appears I’m not alone.
    2. The way I read it was that a “firing agent” could be something that fires one up. Something of a metaphorical stretch from an actual firing agent (primer in an explosive) to the kind of thing that Jeeves might hand one the morning after, but it worked in my head, anyway.
  17. COLOSSIANS was a write-in but the thrones, rulers, dominions and authorities had the last laugh, as I flunked my astronomy and had to look up the star thingy.
  18. 20:56 with a note “Lovely deceptive definitions!!” on my paper copy. I liked the moon landing reference at 14A – vert fitting. I also liked PICK-ME-UP, MOVE and and BRUNETTE. Great stuff.
  19. The setter writes:

    The moon landing reference (a slight misquote of course) was a complete coincidence!

    1. I accounted for poetic license in my comment. Coincidence? I say serendipity. Whatevs. It brightened up my day. Thanks!
  20. Biffed auto-da-fe at 15d. It fitted nicely with the equally biffed andromeda galaxy at 23a, and seemed close enough for a firing agent. Eventually untangled it all to finish in 54 mins. Got 5d Tea drinker thinking the definition might be ‘skipper’ – the designated driver not drinking alcohol. Or is this just an antipodean expression?
  21. Thanks setter and Bruce
    This took almost the hour and a half to finish, but a very enjoyable solve over three or four sittings.
    Liked all of the long ones and thought LOVE ME LOVE MY DOG was a classic. Got all of the answers and although there were some eyebrow raising with 13a, it was 1a with the ‘split’ = TELL and 17a with the MP- mezzo piano that I needed the blog to verify. Had to check on the postcode for Kensington, but well enough aware of the postcode types there to assume that it would be so.
    Cleverly disguised definition of both the solution and word play parts along with some nifty surface reading made it the more enjoyable.
    Finished with the COLOSSIANS (whether they were a people or not), IMPEDIMENT (crafty definition with ‘let’) and TEA DRINKERS (happy enough with that term, took a guess to assume them as ‘cheering cup fans’.

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