Times Cryptic No 27792 – Saturday, 10 October 2020. Now don’t kick up a fuss!

Author   brnchnPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
After an easy puzzle the previous Saturday, this one restored the balance in definitive fashion! It had some general knowledge gaps for me, and many clever clues and cunning definitions. My favourite was 9dn, with honourable mentions to 14dn and 15ac, and a very special groan for 16dn!

Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. Let’s take a look.

Notes for newcomers: The Times offers prizes for Saturday Cryptic Crosswords. This blog is posted a week later, after the competition closes. So, please don’t comment here on the current Saturday Cryptic.

Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 University visits as yet unscheduled, blow it! (4)
TUBA – U for university ‘visits’ T.B.A.
3 Fans of number one casino game milling around (10)
EGOMANIACS – anagram (milling around) of CASINO GAME.
10 Local has got away to see poet’s desert island (9)
INNISFREE – INN IS FREE, so to speak. The poem is The Lake Isle of Innisfree, by W.B.Yeats. I didn’t know it.
11 Smooth coming back from across the pond, then hail (5)
SUAVE – SU for U.S. ‘coming back’, then AVE is ‘hail’ in Latin.
12 Sort of strain you get reversing in volleyball, ultimately (7)
LULLABY – reverse hidden answer.
13 As pyjamas often tear, put in tip (6)
STRIPY – RIP in STY.
15 Don famously did this list: a double dose, initially, of philosopher! (4,2,9)
TILT AT WINDMILLS – TILT is list, A TWIN is a double, D is Dose ‘initially’, and MILL’S=of the philosopher.
18 Artist, English youth and composer meeting in German city once (7-8)
MUNCHEN-GLADBACH – MUNCH is the artist, ENG for England, LAD, BACH. I vaguely knew there was a soccer (football) team called Borussia Mönchengladbach, but that doesn’t help so much since, as the clue suggests, the name of the city changed at some point.
21 New male doctor comes in to treat mummy (6)
EMBALM – anagram (new) of MALE, with M.B. coming in.
23 A case to be made for the car — stick with it? (7)
GEARBOX – a cryptic definition.
26 Judicial decision by which land legally returned (5)
ARRET – I was puzzled by this until I twigged TERRA for ‘land’. Reverse it to get the answer. But, wait a minute … I seem to dimly remember that that’s a word for ‘ridge’? No, the dictionary says that’s spelled ARȆTE. A little learning is a dangerous thing!
27 Something fizzy a comrade’s drunk (5,4)
CREAM SODA – anagram (drunk) of A COMRADES.
28 Remiss in supporting worker (10)
BEHINDHAND – BEHIND (supporting) HAND (worker).
29 Boy to gradually fade, but avoiding rout (4)
PETE – gradually fade would be PETER OUT. Drop the ROUT out!

Down
1 Journey allowed me to maintain current tempo (6,4)
TRIPLE TIME – TRIP, LET, ME all ‘maintaining’ I for current.
2 Enforce a general embargo, mostly lacking impact (5)
BANAL – BAN, AL{L}, almost.
4 Kick up a row, clashing with grey knight (9)
GARRYOWEN – anagram (clashing) of A ROW GREY N, where N is for knight in chess. Clever definition: it’s a rugby tactic, known hereabouts as an up-and-under. Made famous by the Garryowen Rugby Club, apparently, which won three championships in a row in 1924-26 and used it a lot.
5 Faces no longer fitting, sadly, at the top (5)
MEETS – MEET is an obsolete term for fitting, followed by an S, for S{adly} at the top.
6 Normal, presumably, to inject sulphur to bring pet relief (7)
NOSTRUM – NOT RUM might amount to ‘normal’, presumably. Insert S for sulphur, which I believe is now officially spelled SULFUR!
7 Like barbershop, the creation of R Smythe Fitzgerald (1,8)
A CAPPELLA – I had no idea who R Smythe was, but it was easy to guess he must have created Andy Capp. So we have A. CAPP, followed by ELLA.
8 Go after — and get — piece for a mate (4)
SEEK – I assume we are talking checkmate in chess, and what we need to do is SEE the King. Is there more to it, anyone?
9 Where you’ll find eg Madrileños with no common sense gossip (6)
ESPANA – E.S.P. is a very uncommon sense, if it exists at all. ANA is a collection of gossip.
14 Do in marquee finally finishes when public house axes it, sealing off area (10)
ASPHYXIATE – AS for when, P.H. is for Public House, Y and X are the axes of a graph, IT is the ‘it’ in the clue, ‘sealing off’ A for area. Finally, we finish with E for ‘marquee finally’. Assemble as directed!
16 What’s maybe experienced by impatient practical joker in military retreat (4,5)
LONG MARCH – a whimsical suggestion that practical jokers might spend the whole of March impatiently waiting for April Fool’s Day. Like it or loathe it!

The LONG MARCH was a tactical retreat by the Chinese Communist Red Army, in 1934-35. Apparently they travelled 5,600 kilometres in 370 days!

17 A duck, for example, at no time turns this colour (4,5)
NILE GREEN – NIL (duck), E.G. (for example), NEER (at no time) ‘turned’.
19 Pick up catch: that’s raised cheer (7)
HEARTEN – HEAR (pick up), NET (catch) that’s ‘raised’.
20 Expression of dismay in note written by beloved (4,2)
DEAR ME – DEAR (beloved), ME (a musical note).
22 That man’s gripping account turned into short book of verses (5)
MICAH – HIM (that man) gripping AC (account), all ‘turned’. Verses of the biblical king, not verses of poetry.
24 In barracks picked up drink (5)
BOOZE – sounded like (‘picked up’) BOOS.
25 Shot protecting leader in military post (4)
JAMB – M in JAB.

27 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27792 – Saturday, 10 October 2020. Now don’t kick up a fuss!”

  1. I went offline after a half-hour and then lost track of the time; I see my last few (BANAL, LULLABY, ESPANA, LOI PETE) are written in a different ink, so I must have come back to it at some point. Tough, anyway. NHO MUNCHEN-G. LULLABY came late because my chronic inability to spot a hidden was enhanced by the clue being on two lines. Biffed A CAPPELLA, parsed post-submission, biffed LONG MARCH, never parsed it, so thank you Bruce. The philosopher is MILL (of his own free will …), so you need the ‘of’ to get MILLS. ‘The Lake Isle’ is one of Yeats’s earliest poems; here he is in old age, pulling out all the bardic stops.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLlcvQg9i6c
  2. I thought the practical joker was a reference to William Horace deVere Cole in 1930 or thereabouts, who promised his new bride he wouldnt do any more practical jokes, but couldnt resist one last one whilst on honeymoon in Venice. It was the night before April fool’s day and he managed to have a load of horse manure spread over St Mark’s Square.
    Trish
  3. Enjoyable, but very hard work. I had to revisit later in the week to work out some of the parsing, the practical joker reference being the last penny to drop.
  4. Re 1 down…Triple time means 3 beats in a bar (eg a waltz), and this can be a slow, medium or fast speed. Tempo in music means speed – presto vs lento. Triple time isn’t a tempo, at least as far as music goes. (rant over :-)).

    Edited at 2020-10-17 05:55 am (UTC)

    1. You’re absolutely right of course and as a musician (in a previous life) I have made similar distinctions myself, but I suspect this another example of too much specialist knowledge, and to the average punter the clue works. See previous discussions about fitters, engineers and mechanics!
    2. It is normal for triple time music to be presto not lento. And the poor setter is a bit short of alternative definitions for that phrase…
  5. That was very hard and followed on from the Friday puzzle which was just as difficult.
    Thank you, Bruce for clearing up my queries: ESPANA, MEETS, LULLABY and A CAPPELLA.
    My first thoughts in 15ac regarding “Don” were Bradman or Corleone.
    The Lake Isle of INNISFREE is my favourite poem. I first heard it in song form and performed by Judy Collins on one of her albums in the 70s.
  6. 70 minutes. I saw R SMYTHE and thought of Reg Smythe straightaway. My joy was complete as I realised the next word was Fitzgerald, having been introduced to the musical term by The X Factor. I don’t quite know how, as I don’t watch it! Any clue which references Andy Capp and Ella Fitzgerald has to be COD. I too took damn near as long as Mao marched to see 16d. This was all difficult and the 25d/26a crosser was last to fall. Thank you Bruce and setter.
  7. ….A CAPPELLA are “It’s For You” by Three Dog Night, and “Only You” by the Flying Pickets, but then I’m no classicist. “The X Factor” John ? Saints preserve us !

    I really enjoyed this one, though NHO ARRET. As a proponent of the 13-a-side version of rugby (Challenge Cup Final today !) a GARRYOWEN is an “up and under” to me, and forever keeps my memory of Eddie Waring alive.

    The most unpopular football fan in Europe is the BORUSSIA MUNCHENGLADBACH supporter who starts the chant “Give us a B….”

    I needed a couple of minutes at the end before realising that I needed to speak Spanish for my LOI.

    FOI TUBA
    LOI ESPANA
    COD A CAPPELLA (also liked LONG MARCH)
    TIME 14:43

    Only K and Q missing for a pangram.

    Edited at 2020-10-17 08:12 am (UTC)

    1. Surely you can SEE ‘K’?

      Delighted to see Andy Capp too

      In the North Wales Coast West Football League, there is the delightful “Clwb Pêl Droed Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch Football Club”
      How long are their scarves?

      Edited at 2021-01-25 11:16 am (UTC)

  8. 22:40. I found this hard too. I failed to parse A CAPELLA not knowing of Mr Smythe or seeing to separate Fitzgerald. I enjoyed the impatient practical joker and ASPHYXIATE most. Great puzzle.
  9. Somewhere in the region of three hours over three sessions for me, not helped by imagining that the island might be INNISGONE, which fit the wordplay, and also fit the potential anagram fodder for the unknown and improbable GARRYOWEN at 4d. Also didn’t know MICAH or either the previous or current name of MUNCHEN-GLADBACH.

    I wouldn’t have persevered unless I’d been enjoying it, though, and at least I successfully completed it…

  10. Hard going with some enjoyable moments. It took me 64:42 to complete, but I had to use aids to decide between the NHO GARRYOWEN or GERRYOWAN. Liked TILT AT WINDMILLS, A CAPPELLA and ASPHYXIATE. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  11. Took ages, but solved in one sitting, with INNISFREE the last in. Still, I did enjoy this and at least I now know who created Andy Capp (great clue) and the difference between ‘arête’ and ARRET.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  12. 15:57. Quite tough. I had no idea they had changed the name of the city, which is odd, given that they did it in 1960.
    GARRYOWEN rang a vague bell: it’s come up before (last time in 2016 it seems).
    MER at ‘tempo’ for TRIPLE TIME.

    Edited at 2020-10-17 12:21 pm (UTC)

  13. 7dn a cultural collision with Andy Capp and Ella. The setter is obviously a man – of the world.(Pete Green)

    Mr Browndog your honourable 16ac doesn’t exist.

    FOI 1ac TUBA

    LOI 25ac JAMB

    COD 3ac EGOMANIACS

    WOD GARRYOWEN best said by Bill Owen – whilst the UP-AND-UNDER was the preserve of Eddie Waring (Hull KR V Hunslet etc. etc.) as noted by our Mr.Jordan.

    How can one not of heard of BORUSSIA MUNCHENGLADBACH!??
    ‘World Soccer’ was my favourite magazine as a kid. The exotic Velez Sarsfield; Carl Zeiss Jena; Young Boys Bern, Grampus Eight and Dulwich Hamlets all fondly remembered.

    Not many takers! But no ‘virtual Snitch’?

    Edited at 2020-10-17 12:55 pm (UTC)

  14. 1hr for this toughie. As a guitarist I agree with the tempo argument. Thank you horryd for the memory of Peter Green’s Man of the World. a supreme guitarist and a terrific song by a great band. Apparently his unique sound came two magnetically opposed pickups on his Les Paul, as supplied by Gibson. Never did parse LONG MARCH so thanks for that b and the blog.
    1. I last saw him with ‘Fleetwood Mac’ at Buxton 69. ‘Family’ topped the bill but a band called ‘Glass Menagerie’ stole the show and then vanished for ever.
      1. I saw them in ‘69 too, at Parliament Hill (Hampstead Heath) at an all-nighter. Also at the Marquee club and Klooks Kleek. Saw a lot of Family too- what a voice. I don’t remember Glass Menagerie.

        I believe we were so lucky to see, at first hand, some of the best bands ever. The list is endless. I was once honoured to play at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, just around the corner, as it happens, from where I lived. Here’s to great guitarists eh, me NOT included!

  15. 47:45. I found this tough but the uniformly excellent clues made it a very rewarding solve. Too many gems to pick a COD. Had no idea about the parsing of a cappella. I assumed the double-barrelled Mr R Smythe-Fitzgerald was an early proponent of the form. Doh!
  16. Fine crossword, loved it. Having seen both Reg Smythe and Ella, this setter could do no wrong in my eyes. Though Arret is a purely French law term, with no place in an English crossword..
  17. A nice workout for a Saturday – especially as I then had all week to figure the tricky parsings out. In the end, I needed the wiki for Garryowen. I liked the Long March. Thanks, brnchn, and thanks setter
  18. I was held up by convincing myself the short book fitting M-C– at 22dn must be MECUM, which I vaguely knew was a portable book. And that in turn made the worker in 28 look as if it had to be an ANT rather than a HAND. And so it unravelled.

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