Times Cryptic No 27606 – Saturday, 07 March 2020. Of imaginary beasts and fanciful fractions.

Author   brnchnPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
This puzzle took me several times longer than the week before. No walk in the park here! I wrote in 1ac at a glance, and then there was a long interlude before I solved 20ac. Strangely I then finished the whole bottom half of the grid, bar 15dn, before I got another answer in the top half.

I ended with four outstanding in the NE corner: 4 and 12 across, and 6 and 8 down. They all fell quite quickly once an alphabet trawl suggested a ‘T’ before the ‘W’ in 12ac.

Overall, this was a mix of delightful clues, and the downright weird. For weirdness, the COD is clearly 12ac. For delight, it’s a tossup between 25dn, 15dn and 26ac, but I think I’ll nominate the Cornish corn! What did all of you think?

Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. (Who was that masked setter, by the way?)

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

Across
1 On reflexion, throwing game is expensive fiddle! (5)
STRAD – DARTS, the throwing game, on reflection. (How Times-y to spell that with an x, by the way.)
4 Imagined primate crouching in school (9)
SASQUATCH – ASQUAT (crouching), in SCH.
9 Bishop stopping out to lunch clamours for wine (9)
LAMBRUSCO – B for bishop inside (stopping) (CLAMOURS*), ‘out to lunch’.
10 Pumped up dinghy, perhaps, that’s shrunk (5)
HYPER – hidden answer (‘that’s shrunk’).
11 One in exaltation embracing a new Scottish town (6)
LANARK – A, N[-ew] in LARK. An exaltation of larks is one of those quirky collective nouns.
12 this would be the making of one (8)
TWELFTHS – well yes, twelve twelfths do make one. But I confess, I can’t get my mind round this clue. Is the lower case ‘t’ on ‘this’ meant to tell us to read the clue number as part of the clue text?
14 Which of the Napoleons holds a tirade in isolation? (10)
QUARANTINE – QUE (French for which or what), holds A RANT IN.
16 Stretch, maybe, or where to do it? (4)
STIR – double definition. The first is by an example of something you might do when you stir in the morning, the second is where you might do a prison stretch.
19 Yellow tie at audition (4)
YOLK – sounds like YOKE ‘in audition’.
20 Raw pine should, after treatment (10)
UNPOLISHED – (PINE SHOULD*), ‘after treatment’.
22 Very small wedding buffet (8)
MATCHBOX – MATCH (wedding), BOX (buffet, in the sense of ‘boxing one’s ears’ for example).
23 Set on carol singing without wife (6)
ASSAIL – [-w]ASSAIL. Apparently, wassailing is a ritual drinking of cider for good luck, but there’s a carol about it, Gloucestershire Wassail.
26 Use four-letter word: the “corn” in Cornwall? (5)
SWEAR – SW (south-west, like Cornwall), EAR (corn).
27 What French article’s appearing in press in another language? (9)
IROQUOIAN – QUOI (French for what) A (article of the grammatical kind), in IRON (press). It was a struggle to put this one together, especially since I wasn’t sure how to spell IROQUOIS!
28 Locals keen to include Japanese school after Italian one (9)
CITIZENRY – CRY (keen), to include IT (Italian), I (one), and ZEN (Japanese school).
29 What TT competitors get back, or relinquish (5)
DEMIT – TIMED backwards. Another Times-y word, DEMIT.

Down
1 Lousily made up old queen comes in talking to himself? (9)
SOLILOQUY – O (old) and Q (queen) in (LOUSILY*), ‘made up’.
2 Starter in restaurant? So be it! (5)
RAMEN – R (starter in Restaurant), AMEN. The first three words of the clue are both definition and wordplay.
3 Scandal, reportedly successfully endured, that’s not surfaced (4,4)
DIRT ROAD – DIRT (scandal), then ROAD sounds like RODE, ‘reportedly’.
4 Frame you need when lifting belt up (4)
SASH – SA is AS (when) ‘lifting up’, then SH (belt up!).
5 Chance to display grass snake without looking up (4,6)
SHOP WINDOW – SHOP (grass), WIND (snake), W/O (without) backwards (‘looking up’).
6 Inclined to dress boy in uniform, large (6)
UPHILL – PHIL (today’s random boy), between U (uniform) and L (large).
7 Something from the sewer closed thoroughfare going through field (9)
TOPSTITCH – TO (closed, as in ‘push the door to’), then ST in PITCH. I didn’t know what a top stitch is, but I gather it’s both decorative and functional. The wordplay is clear once you unravel it.
8 Some time’s needed to raise river god (5)
HORUS – HOURS with R for river moved up a place. An Egyptian god.
13 Love intranet to be resigned, with business finally booming (10)
STENTORIAN – (O INTRANET S*), ‘resigned’. (Resigned seems a stretch as an anagram indicator, BTW. Perhaps it was intended to be ‘redesigned’?). The O is for love, the S is the last letter of ‘businesS’.
15 Stag party with Adam, Job etc, at time share (9)
ALLOTMENT – a stag party is of course ALL MEN. These specific people are from the OT (Old Testament), and stand on T for time.
17 Do new plot for film about end of civilised world (3,6)
RED PLANET – REPLAN (do new plot), and ET (film), around D from [-civilise]D.
18 Chart successes by Yard to find killers (3,5)
HIT SQUAD – HITS (chart successes), QUAD (square).
21 Wine producer, his ground not quite level (6)
SHIRAZ – (HIS*), ‘ground’, then RAZ[-e] being to level.
22 I total up, roughly, the score? (5)
MUSIC – I SUM, upwards, then C (roughly).
24 Saw American chopper land in Irish Sea (5)
AXIOM – AX (American spelling of ‘axe’), IOM (Isle of Man).
25 Small hopper full of cracks, except for the centre (4)
JOEY – JO[-k]EY.

33 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27606 – Saturday, 07 March 2020. Of imaginary beasts and fanciful fractions.”

  1. ….something of an UPHILL struggle. I wasn’t helped by failing to spot myself hiding in there !

    DNK TOPSTITCH, and was far too slow to spot the hidden HYPER. I’m not sure why JOEY eluded me until I was almost finished either.

    I’d marked SWEAR as COD early on, but when I finally realised that 12A wasn’t flawed by a typo there could only be one winner. The effort to plug on beyond my usual 20 minute cut-off was fully justified when the penny finally dropped.

    FOI STRAD
    LOI/COD TWELFTHS
    TIME 24:33

  2. At 12a I spotted the lower-case “t” immediately, and wondered if it was going to be something like MISPRINT. In the end, it was my last one in once I finally twigged how it worked. As you say, I think the “t” is to imply that the clued doesn’t start there and so the “12” is part of it. When I got back to the clue having got all the crossers, it was a most unpromising set of letters and I went and checked all the other clues to see which ones was wrong. Five consonants in a row will do that.

    I didn’t know the exhaltation of larks, but I assumed it was another of those like parliaments of owls. However, I’ve been to New Lanark (famous from the industrial revolution) so that came to mind easily (even though the New is part of the wordlplay).

    Edited at 2020-03-14 12:57 am (UTC)

  3. Lots of good stuff, here, in a puzzle with lots of Qs. Thanks for explaining TWELFTHS, as I hadn’t a clue what was going on there. SASQUATCH always catches me out. It sounds more like a fruit or a jazz term to me.

    COD to STENTORIAN for sounding nice and being a classical word. What more can you ask?

    1. This must be how I learned the word, singing the carol in elementary school under the direction of the nasty Mrs. Gorecki.
  5. Liked this a lot, especially 12; the lower-case opening wasn’t necessary—I’ve seen similar clues that left the first letter alone—but it didn’t hurt. EDIT: Actually, the exact way this clue is written would only work with the first letter lower-cased. There are other ways to do this, but that goes without saying. The only true unknown was TOPSTITCH, but the answer was clear once I got the stink of subterranean plumbing out of my nose.

    Edited at 2020-03-14 10:01 pm (UTC)

  6. Spotted the lower-case t all right, but could make nothing of it, and could make nothing of the checkers either, until at long last the proverbial dropped; but I still didn’t get the clue. Now that I get it, it gets the COD; also liked SWEAR and ALLOTMENT.
    1. Snap! I was writing my comment as you posted yours, which is uncannily similar.
  7. 32:56. Like Bruce, I was held up mostly by the NE corner, struggling to remember SASQUATCH and puzzled by the “the” in my LOI, TWELFTHS until the penny finally dropped with a mighty clang. I also have ticks against several other great clues including the SW EAR of corn and the OT stag party. Like Ulaca, I noticed the superabundance of Q’s and I was expecting to find this a pangram, but we have no G or V. Thanks Bruce and setter.
  8. I had this labelled as ‘difficult’
    Thank you, Bruce, for explaining clues I have question marks against such as TWELFTHS, TOPSTITCH and ALLOTMENT.
    With TWELFTHS, like others, I spotted the lower case ‘t’ and like Kevin, I could make nothing of it
    My FOI was SHIRAZ so I came a long way down to get a toehold. My LOIs were YOLK and JOEY.
    At the time I had QUARANTINE as my COD but now you have explained things, Bruce, I’ll go for ALLOTMENT.
  9. 55 minutes on this quite difficult but enjoyable puzzle. On TWELFTHS, I needed all crossers before the penny dropped. I parsed it as B has with twelve twelfths equalling one. I’ve often said DIRT TRACK but never ROAD, not that it presented any problems. ‘Only Connect’ certainly helped on HORUS. I find chopsticks an instrument of torture, but I have been forcibly taken to a Japanese Restaurant recently and learnt the word RAMEN. COD to SHOP WINDOW. Thank you Bruce and setter.
  10. I was out all day last Saturday including a trip to The George where I can confirm that the outdoor tables were all occupied by people drinking and having fun,but not apparently doing crosswords. So my time for this puzzle was reduced.
    But no matter how long I would have had available, I would not have finished this. The NW was relatively OK although,DNK RAMEN. Lots of blanks elsewhere including SASQUATCH. JOEY and others too difficult for me. I got HORUS from Only Connect but had YOKE at 19a and 15d remained blank.
    I’d rate this very hard. A learning experience. Thanks for unravelling it. David
  11. I quite liked the thought of Napoleon holding a rant in isolation (14a QUARANTINE), little thinking that just a week later it would be me. Barely two days into my self-isolation and already tearing my hair out (metaphorically speaking – it fell out all on its own years back). How I respect those like our friend Horrid for whom this way of life has become a new norm. Missing my first Ealing Trailfinders RFC home match for over ten years will be tough this afternoon.
    Enough self-pity, this was an excellent puzzle. My thanks as ever to setter and blogger.
    1. Could I express the hope that the Ealing Trailfinders match might be postponed, maintaining an impressive record? And of course the devout hope for a speedy recovery from the beast from the East, or perhaps that it was a false alarm.
        1. Not tested but recently in extended close proximity to a subsequently confirmed case. Game was ultimately and sensibly postponed.
    2. Thank you Mr. Meadvale for your kind words – looks like things are getting back to normal soon with Wuhan clearing up quite fast. Shanghai is looking better….. after six weeks.

      Edited at 2020-03-14 08:07 pm (UTC)

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  13. I failed miserably with this one, needing aids for HORUS and IROQUOIAN, but then also managing a typo and a spelling mistake with ALLATMENT and TWELVTHS. A shambles. Into the dunces’ corner for me. 53:43 of torture. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  14. I might as well acknowledge that I needed Bruce to drop the the twelfth penny into place. 132 twelfths, indeed: I nearly had id it, but was (in the end) content to let the ideas around 12 smudge through to the answer.
    A bit tougher than average, taking me nearly 30 minutes, despite the setter’s enthusiasm for Q helping somewhat: IROQUOIAN, answer and spelling, was tricky otherwise.
    I assumed it was a pangram, which helped with JOEY and AXIOM. Who checks for the G?
  15. 29:57 but with two errors. Having spotted that 10ac was a hidden I somehow managed to write in HYPED, which left HADES as the only answer that seemed to fit 8dn. By that time I was feeling quite beaten down by a fairly tough puzzle so I just bunged it in. Not my finest solving hour.
    12ac is a brilliant clue but I confess I didn’t spot the lower-case t so had little idea how it worked.
  16. Curses! Not only have I lost my original paper sheet, but I see that I made a typo when transcribing this one, leading to TOPSTICHH (and SCIR). Normally I double-check before submitting, but clearly my mind was entirely absent last week…
  17. and decided the jumper was a cony (rabbit) and the joke cracker was corny. Umph
    Andy fisher
  18. 43:06 pretty tough. Soliloquy, sasquatch and the unfamiliar topstitch took ages to emerge. I entered twelfths and swear without really understanding them. I liked Joey.
  19. This predates my switch to online solving on Monday so not sure of my time.

    Pretty sure ‘resigned’ is a misprint for ‘redesigned’, as the former is neither an anagram indicator nor does the surface make sense. That made me question the lower case ‘t’ in 12ac as another misprint.

    Some great clues, though, and my COD is 24dn AXIOM.

  20. at 9ac should only be imbibed a locale – it doesn’t travel well at all.

    FOI 1ac STRAD

    LOI & COD TWELTHS I finally spotted it – wow!

    WOD IROQUOIAN which I think was used by American ‘spotters’ in the Ardennes II campaign.

    Very good work out – over an hour.

  21. Could this not equally be ‘cony’? Corny could be full of ‘cracks’ and the r could be removed to reveal the small hopping rabbit….
    1. I quite agree: I, too, put cony as being much more likely to be found in an English rather than Antipodean crossword. Jeffrey
  22. CONY is what I put too but now that it is explained JOEY looks right. All will be confirmed on Monday, I guess.

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