Times Cryptic No 27834 – Saturday, 28 November 2020. Someone to watch over me?

Author   brnchnPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
This puzzle had some delicious clues. The guardian angel has a Spanish tinge in 17ac, and the politicians are still dealing ineptly with the concept of hardship in 4dn. And as for 24ac: who, me? Gloat?

My LOI was 18dn, not so much because it was difficult but because the surface read took me off on tangents reflecting about the history of Northern Ireland and the troubles. 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.

Across
1 Pay is what umpire draws, at the end of the day (5,2)
STUMP UP – The umpire draws STUMP(s), time is UP at the end of the day. I’m a little uncomfortable with ‘stump’ being in the singular. What do others think?
5 Something from Laurel and Hardy, finally — a fable recast (3,4)
BAY LEAF – anagram (‘recast’) of (hard)Y A FABLE. Nice lift-and-separate of “Laurel and Hardy”.
9 Small, sheltered parking remaining: short stay (9)
SLEEPOVER – S for small, LEE is sheltered, P is parking, OVER.
10 Stroke fawn (5)
CRAWL – double definition.
11 Queen’s request for permission to embrace king (4,1)
MARY I – MAY I? Insert R for king.
12 Where player can be just getting wound, superficially (5,4)
RIGHT WING – RIGHT is just, to WING is to wound superficially.
14 Tale in need of clipping? (6-3,5)
SHAGGY-DOG STORY – ho ho.
17 Best in team, Miguel’s the personal bookkeeper! (9,5)
RECORDING ANGEL – RECORD = best, IN literally, GANG = team, EL = “the” in Spain, where Miguel might come from.
21 Predicament crossing street, after swirling high winds (3,6)
JET STREAM – JAM = predicament, crossing anagram (‘swirling’) of STREET.
23 What consists of old belt and braces? (5)
OZONE – O=old, ZONE=belt. It braces the tourists breathing in the sea air, don’t you know.
24 Who perhaps can, on reflection, gloat? (5)
DROOL – DR=Dr Who, for example. Then LOO ‘on reflection’.
25 Something remaining occupied after emptying, and spring-cleaned (3,3,3)
ODD ONE OUT – OD = o(ccupie)d ‘after emptying’. DONE OUT = spring-cleaned.
26 Records note popular sculptor (7)
EPSTEIN – EPS = records, TE = a musical note (a drink with jam and bread), IN = popular.
27 Palace council that’s dead organised (7)
LATERAN – LATE = dead, RAN = organised.

Down
1 Notice that missile has penetrated oil-producing plant (6)
SESAME – SEE = notice, penetrated by SAM = (surface to air) missile.
2 Reveal jejune arthouse exhibits (7)
UNEARTH – hidden in jej(une arth)ouse.
3 Performer briefly calls number up (3,6)
POP SINGER – POPS IN = briefly calls, REG = (registration) number, ‘up’.
4 Measure of hardship chewed over ineptly (7,4)
POVERTY LINE – anagram (‘chewed’) of OVER INEPTLY.
5 Boozer’s stomach purged of ecstasy (3)
BAR – BEAR = stomach. Purge E = ecstasy.
6 Craft initially handled roughly in river capsized (5)
YACHT – H = handled ‘initially’. C = roughly. Insert them in the river TAY, ‘capsized’.
7 Out of my mind? Cut up? No, I’m seething! (2,5)
EX ANIMO – AXE = cut, ‘up’. Then an anagram (‘seething’) of NO I’M.
8 People had trips, with stay included (4,4)
FALL GUYS – GUY in FALLS. People ‘had’ by a confidence trickster, for example.
13 Gong, or jewel, my boy turned up to receive (6,5)
GEORGE MEDAL – OR GEM=jewel received by GEE=my, then LAD=boy ‘turned up’.
15 Tabloid’s web version, maybe, shielding bishop: that prevents red faces? (9)
SUNBONNET – SUN = the tabloid, ON NET = web version; all ‘shielding’ B = bishop.
16 Hastily try to see where Joshua is falling short (8)
PREJUDGE – Joshua falls between Deuteronomy and Judge(s), geddit?
18 As the Orange Order is to RUC (7)
CITROUS – anagram (‘order’) of IS TO RUC. Delightful clue!
19 Specialist holiday Charlie books round European houses (7)
ECOTOUR – C = Charlie, OT = books, O = round; all ‘housed’ by EUR = European.
20 Caretaker to keep sending explicit messages (6)
SEXTON – SEXT ON, you minx you!
22 Mark on letter “up to date”, removing contents (5)
TILDE – ‘TIL = until = up to, D(at)E = date with its contents removed.
25 Keep climbing Snowdon on a regular basis (3)
OWN – even letters of sNoWdOn, ‘climbing’.

37 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27834 – Saturday, 28 November 2020. Someone to watch over me?”

  1. Just over 20 minutes, which is fast for me. But somehow I typed AMINO instead of ANIMO and didn’t spot it before submitting. So DNF. Somehow I’d never heard of LATERAN palace, but the wordplay was generous. PREJUDGE was clever, although I biffed it and only worked out what was going on later. I assumed that the GEORGE MEDAL was another name for the George Cross, but I see they are different.
  2. Slight quibble re DROOL, the programme is ‘Doctor Who’ and the character is ‘The Doctor’. There is no ‘Dr Who’.
    2. I’d have some sympathy for this argument we’re it not for the fact that the irigrsmne’s name has “reverse engineered” itself into the name of the character.
      “Who is going to be the new Doctor Who”?
      is something we hear a lot.
      Almost as much as “going to the seashore to breathe in the ozone “ 🙂
  3. Slight quibble re drool, having not read the dictionaries to confirm my ignorance: drool and gloat are very different things e.g. dog smells sausages and drools, bully knocks down wimp and gloats.
    Other MER at LOI ozone, which needed an alphabet trawl. Ozone is poisonous, not bracing, and doesn’t occur at the seaside. But that’s me being pedantic rather than entering into the spirit of the saying.
    While it may not seem it, I really enjoyed this, lots of interesting and unexpected clues and well-hidden definitions. Very slow, I found it tricky.
    1. Yes, it’s one of those triumphs of usage over scientific meaning but it’s in ALL the usual sources, with Collins and Chambers both mentioning ‘bracing’ sea air in their definition but qualifying it by saying it’s informal or colloquial.
      1. I’m not sure that’s what’s going on here: people genuinely thought that there was a substance called OZONE that came off the sea, and if you know this isn’t true you don’t use the word in that way. So it’s a matter of scientific knowledge rather than linguistic usage. It’s a familiar enough expression though (like the old ‘elements’) and as Jerry points out the question mark covers the ambiguity.

        Edited at 2020-12-05 08:41 am (UTC)

        1. I liked the clue not least for the penny-drop moment, and think it perfectly fair. I know the saying well and have no problem with people using it – but I wouldn’t say it because I just don’t think that way, having a scientific background. That makes clues like this a little harder for me to solve – the direction I approach it from, and the direction I most certainly don’t approach it from.
          1. You illustrate my point! I don’t really mind it either, I’m just not sure if it should be considered a linguistic artefact rather than a scientific misunderstanding. We all say we have ‘pins and needles’ without thinking that’s actually what’s going on, but people who know what OZONE is don’t use this expression.
            Not that it matters of course, just an interesting distinction.

            Edited at 2020-12-05 10:35 am (UTC)

    2. To be fair the clue doesn’t mention the seaside. Nor does it say ozone is not poisonous. But it is believed to be bracing by many, which is all the setter needs for the clue to be correct given the ?
      1. Absolutely. I think the bracing / sea-air connection as picked up by a couple of the dictionaries may date from the era of sea-side holidays taken by rail when resorts would advertise themselves as having ‘bracing sea air’. ‘Bracing Bognor’ perhaps, or Skegness? I wouldn’t be surprised if the word ‘ozone’ was mentioned as well!

        Edited at 2020-12-05 09:36 am (UTC)

  4. 15d was so clearly Sunscreen that the lower right was a chore. I was under the impression that in small doses ozone is bracing, though maybe that comes from its old association with being outdoors at the shore. I had the same question about gloat: I drool because you have something to gloat about. I liked the Shaggy Dog. Thx brnchn

    Edited at 2020-12-05 01:34 am (UTC)

  5. I have no time for this, but it took me a while. Same MER re DROOL. Luckily we had EX ANIMO recently. DNK DONE OUT or STUMP, but figured in the latter case that it was something crickety. Lots of lovely clues, like RECORDING ANGEL, OZONE, CITROUS, but COD to my LOI, FALL GUYS.
  6. Can we have an explanation for the Cryptic Jumbo of November 21st, two weeks ago?
  7. A puzzle of two halves. The top was dead easy but I really struggled once I got below RECORDING ANGEL.
  8. …I needed aids for SUNBONNET and LATERAN.
    Thanks, Bruce, for explaining those two and for GEORGE MEDAL, PREJUDGE and TILDE.
    I found the SE corner particularly hard.
    COD to SEXTON.
  9. 29 minutes, with DROOL LOI a bit of a biff. I never thought I’d be referencing a Cliff Richard song but then I spent a long time parsing GEORGE MEDAL. Some terrific stuff here. I must have marked up ten potential CODs. For instance, the BAY LEAF/ FALL GUYS crossing was brilliant. I did think though that I would be giving the honour to PREJUDGE, seen early, but them MARY I came along and scooped the prize. Great fun. Thank you Bruce and setter.
  10. 27:38. I found this half very easy, half very hard, and generally irritating. Far too much churchy stuff, ‘gloat’ for DROOL (dictionaries, pah!), SUNBONNET (who on earth ever says SUNBONNET?), the nonsense of OZONE. As above I have to acknowledge that the question mark covers the nonsense element but the clue took me about ten minutes on its own so I’m going to resent it anyway. Bah humbug.

    Edited at 2020-12-05 08:47 am (UTC)

  11. Pay “is” what….
    So STUMP singular works
    Hats off to to those who solved it quickly. I went down too many rabbit holes to finish without a little assistance
    1. I think brnchn was objecting to the wordplay element, where the cricket expression is always ‘draw stumpS’. But I think you have to take the wordplay as a whole: the umpire draws a STUMP UP at the end of the day. Of course this is something he does more than once!
  12. This one was a CRAWL, I recall
    With OWN as the last clue to fall
    To UNEARTH EX ANIMO
    Made me DROOL, don’t you know
    And SEXTON as the COD Is my call
  13. ….the clueing device at 11A. What next, Henry VIIII ? MER at “gloat = drool”, but otherwise I found it straightforward.

    If you could bottle OZONE and use it to poison somebody, would it make you an OZONE SLAYER ? Sorry, I’ll get my coat….

    FOI STUMP UP
    LOI OZONE
    COD CRAWL
    TIME 11:58

  14. 19:38. Held up finding SUNBONNET, finishing with OZONE amused at the scientific inaccuracy. DNK that meaning of DROOL and tried in vain to get BRONZE MEDAL to work for 13D. Stupid boy. I liked BAYLEAF, CITRUS and RIGHT WING best. Thanks Bruce and setter.
  15. My paper copy of this records that I made a very good start on this; 22 solved in my first hour. After that I slowed down dramatically with the SE the main problem. I had managed to get MARY I (first try was DARE I) and also the unknown RECORDING ANGEL.
    I guessed DROOL which seemed just about OK; got LATERAN from parsing and convinced myself I’d seen it before. But in the end I failed on OZONE,SEXTON and ECOTOUR.
    I put all the checkers for Ecotour into a solver and it said no possible word exists.
    So in the end defeated and slightly disappointed. COD to BAY LEAF.
    David
  16. Tough going for me. I didn’t help myself by biffing SUNSCREEN, although OZONE disabused me of that idea. The SE took a lot of sorting out. I eventually crawled over the line in 49:13. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  17. From the setter;
    All the dictionaries give the definition “clean, bracing air” as a secondary definition of OZONE.
    Believe me, I checked this thoroughly before writing the clue, as I’m well aware that real OZONE is poisonous.
    1. Cheers, but I don’t think you need to justify yourself at all, the clue is perfectly valid. Even though I was the one at the start of the thread who said it was not scientifically correct!
    2. As Jack points out, the good folk of Skegness truly believe it is the ozone that gives Skeg its bracing qualities.
      Half of America believe Donald Trump won the Election and that he is not poisonous.
  18. 50 mins for this so around average for me for a comp xword. Enjoyable with a number of tricky moments. LATERAN unknown but well clued. I liked the play with MARY 1. Not seen that before. Thanks B for the blog and setter.
  19. DNF. I found this a real struggle. Beavered away for around an hour but used aids to finish off recording angel and sunbonnet. Didn’t understand ozone.
  20. DNF with LATERAN, SEXTON and ECOTOUR missing in action in the South East. Not often the setter writes in to defend himself/herself.

    FOI 26ac EPSTEIN

    (LOI) 18dn CITROUS

    COD 17ac RECORDING ANGEL

    WOD 15dn SUNBONNET what a lovely word!?

  21. So it took me over a week! Ha
    LOI—sorta, I couldn’t see why (going to consult some dictionaries now, and more closely peruse the comments)—DROOL. I supposed “spring-clean” was argot for thievery, but have no reference for that either.
    1. However the actual dictionaries do.

      COLLINS:
      1. (intr) often foll by over to show excessive enthusiasm (for) or pleasure (in); gloat (over)

Comments are closed.