Times 28911 – playtime.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Another Wednesday with nothing to scare even nervous horses. Chestnut time, mostly. One definition was unknown (Karen) but easily gettable from the wordplay. Parsing PICKY took me longer than any of the clues. A 12 minute solve, but enjoyable while it lasted.

Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].

Across
1 Very old ruined city containing Etruria’s first arena (9)
VELODROME – V[ery], E in (OLD)*, ROME.
6 Bloke coming across mile title holder (5)
CHAMP – M[ile] inside CHAP.
9 Fat misshapen toe’s torn gym clothing (7)
LEOTARD – LARD with (TOE)* inside.
10 Spanish football side, big guns regularly failing, change formation (7)
REALIGN – REAL (as in Real Madrid), [b] I [g] G [u] N [s].
11 Italian banker having billions in bank? (5)
TIBER – TIER with B inside.
12 Tory interrupting judge, extremely unpopular storyteller (9)
RACONTEUR – CON (Tory) inside RATE (judge), U[npopula]R.
13 Be denigrating rugby player, part European (8)
BACKBITE – BACK (rugby player), BIT (part), E[uropean].
14 Second day at the Biergarten, just for men (4)
STAG -S[econd], TAG German for day.
17 Green supporter rejected importing iodine (4)
NAIF – FAN reversed with I for iodine inside. Naïf being the masculine form of naïve.
18 Hag having energy cut off acquires old Scottish kettle (8)
CAULDRON – CRON[E] with AULD (Scottish for old) inside.
21 Switzerland with supplies flown in as aid for people in the mountains (9)
CHAIRLIFT – CH (Switzerland, as country code), AIRLIFT = supplies flown in.
22 Fussy and irritable, looking neither to right nor (later) left (5)
PICKY – I think this is PRICKLY (irritable) with the R and (later on) L removed. Complicated parsing for a guessable answer from P*C*Y.
24 Painter: knighted composer — not a writer from Italy (2,5)
EL GRECO – ELGAR our composer; without A = ELGR, [Umberto] ECO the writer.
25 River sparkled endlessly, with woman taking dip (7)
SHANNON – SHON[E] with ANN a woman inside.
26 Thai people live in the outskirts of Kingston (5)
KAREN – ARE (“live”) inside K[ingsto]N. The Karen people are a persecuted hill tribe in Thailand and Myanmar. I guessed they were.
27 Patriarch of drama school in Yale cast you and me (9)
AESCHYLUS – (YALE)* with SCH inside, US = you and me.
Down
1 Man runs away from rascally fellow (5)
VALET – VARLET, a rascal, loses R. VALET for man was in my mind as it appeared on Sunday last.
2 Barcelona: King OK following surgery drama (4,4,2,5)
LOOK BACK IN ANGER – (BARCELONA KING OK)*. Play by John Osbourne of which even I had heard, but will never see.
3 Awful-sounding clan abuse (8)
DIATRIBE – DIA sounds like DIRE = awful, TRIBE = clan.
4 Stubborn old bishop rude at turns (8)
OBDURATE – O[ld], B[ishop], (RUDE AT)*.
5 Increase the wealth of Henri Charrière, somewhat (6)
ENRICH – hidden, as above.
6 Smuggled in Charlie, New York crack (6)
CRANNY – RAN (smuggled) inside C for Charlie, NY for New York.
7 For engineering, lay a main central Tube (10,5)
ALIMENTARY CANAL – (LAY A MAIN CENTRAL)*.
8 Corral fierce woman, an old warrior chief (9)
PENDRAGON – PEN = corral, DRAGON a fierce woman.
13 Rely on report perhaps of Kent financial officer (4,5)
BANK CLERK – BANK = rely (bank on, rely on); CLERK as in Clerk Kent alias Superman. EDIT apparently, he is spelt CLARK which explains the “on report” i.e. sounds like. I didn’t bother looking him up.
15 Christians of note on street in Rolls (8)
BAPTISTS – BAPS are round bread rolls where I live; insert TI a note and ST[reet].
16 California cops wearing symbol of rank in a casual manner (8)
SLAPDASH – the LA PD being the California cops, inside SASH a symbol of rank.
19 Encourage ship’s doctor, having not succeeded (4,2)
URGE ON – SURGEON loses its S for succeeded.
20 Mum’s drunk the setter’s very large cocktail (6)
MIMOSA – MA (Mum) has I’M (the setter’s), OS (outsize, very large) inserted. Posh name for Buck’s fizz I think.
23 Years and years working in flipping outer space! (5)
YONKS – ON (working) inside SKY reversed. I suppose the sky is ‘outer space’ in a way.

 

75 comments on “Times 28911 – playtime.”

  1. The Karen (25 ac) are not Thai people – those currently in Thailand are refugees from their native Myanmar. Fortunately for them the Thais accommodate many refugees, some of whom I have had some association with over the years.

  2. Very enjoyable: hacked my way through this one with no major hold-ups, some minor biffing. EL GRECO went in from enumeration, then deleted, then back in because it was obviously correct. NHO Thai KAREN, and I took a minute trying to decipher “drama school” for NHO / LOI AESCHYLUS, before realising it was plain ol’ SCH. My kinda puzzle, completed in 23:31.

  3. 23.59. I found this reasonably straightforward but obviously it was tougher going for me than for the tearaway piquet. Also they appear to have changed the format of the crossword on The Times site which took a bit of getting used to. I thought CAULDRON (my LOI) was a complicated clue and am grateful to Nelson for explaining what was going on with EL GRECO and SLAPDASH. So Elgar was knighted, right? Does it matter? Anyway, it’s been a pretty approachable week so far and I think we all know what that means.
    From Tombstone Blues:
    John the BAPTIST, after torturing a thief,
    Looks up at his hero, the commander-in-chief,
    Sayin’ tell me great hero, but please make it brief,
    Is there a hole for me to get sick in?

  4. 25 minutes, so each puzzle this week is getting easier for me following on from Monday’s stinker.

    KAREN was unknown and somehow it doesn’t look likely for the name of a people, so I waited for checkers to confirm that it was indeed the answer suggested by wordplay.

    I had intended to return to PRICKLY to consider the wordplay but realised when reading the blog that I had forgotten to do so.

  5. Not great on the ‘WITCH’ for me today. Stuck on several answers in the south-east, including SLAPDASH where all that came to mind for a while was the old TV show CHIPS (California Highway Patrol) – also slow on SHANNON and BAPTISTS

    1. Ah, CHiPs with the legendary Erik Estrada. Now there’s the proverbial blast from the past.

      1. We saw the (rather silly) new Fall Guy movie on Sunday which is another such blast, including a cameo from Lee Majors and Heather Thomas at the end.

      2. Never saw ‘Chips’ or Estrada; for me the CHP was represented by Broderick Crawford.

        1. 18:20
          Another blast from the past. Can still remember the theme tune and his call sign “10: 4”

          1. 10:4 is code for understood / ok.

            Ear worm alert: I know this from the chatter before the lyrics in “Convoy”

            A Chips fan advises Radio codes of Ponch and Jon were “Mary” (motorcycle rider) 4 & 3.

  6. 17:00
    The Karen haven’t been much in the news lately, but I remembered them . I biffed the two long downs (the play from L, B, G and enumeration), never bothered to check for anagrist.A puzzle of equine calm, indeed. Pip, you’ve got a typo at 13d: it was ClArk Kent, hence ‘report perhaps’. The clue wouldn’t work, of course, in Murcan.

  7. This horse might be ready for the glue factory.

    I made a real hash of this – steady if slowish progress, until I confidently bunged in PLACIDLY(?) and EYONS(???), thereby snookering myself for probably close to 15 minutes in the SE.

    That shambles left me with C_C_E (CYCLE? CACHE?) for ‘fussy’, S_N_N_O (er, something JO?) for the presumably unknown river, and AUSTYELUS for the patriarch (could UST be a drama school?!).

    After much wailing and gnashing of teeth YONKS drifted into my head and snagged on something. I eventually parsed it, and that got me to PICKY. SLAPDASH was next, accompanied by a forehead-smack, then the river, and finally the patriarch in drama, who it turns out I have heard of.

    All my own doing, but a little alarmed at what I might do when a real toughie shows up. Relieved to eventually drag myself over the line this time in a bruising 33.26.

    Thanks setter & piquet

  8. 21:12 but 2 typos today so a great start to the week so far.

    Mostly a fairly steady affair but the SE held me up for a while as the first river that our swimmer ANN jumped into was the SWANNEE, and up I went.

    KAREN and AESCHYLUS were the only unknowns but both fairly clued with helpful crossers.

    Thanks to both.

  9. About one hour. FOI EL GRECO What else could it be. Generally straightforward but slowed by lower right hand corner mainly because I started with TRACT instead of CANAL. Reading “old Scottish kettle” slowed CAULDRON. Seemed to remember reading about it somewhere.

  10. 24:02. A steady-ish solve, a bit uneven in places. I think I must have come across KAREN and AESCHYLUS before because I was happy to write them in once they had been delivered by the wordplay. COD BAPTISTS, WOD YONKS.
    It may just be me, but I thought this puzzle had an odd feel to it. Nothing I can put my finger on. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had been compiled by AI, or by a committee

    1. I haven’t checked with GPT 4, but previous iterations were dismal at setting or solving cryptic clues. Possibly due to the lack of dataset if they’re largely trained on US input, but I’d like to think it’ll remain tricky for them.

  11. A very steady solve for three quarters of this one then ground to a halt in the SE, with SHANNON finally opening it up for me.37 mins.

    LOI the unheard of AESCHYLUS which I had to check, but it seemed likely in a Greeky sort of way. I had the ‘TISTS bit of 15d but didn’t get the BAP until CAULDRON dropped into my brain. DNK the KAREN people but the clueing was generous. Thank you pip and Nigel F-H for the clarifications.

    I liked the two long clues and MIMOSA.

    Thanks pip and setter.

  12. 12:30
    I found the SW corner an easy write-in, as my ex-wife’s name is KAREN (who wasn’t amused by the headline I once cut out of The Times, “Karen offensive”) and my son’s name is Clark. LOI was BAPTISTS, despite my own first name.

    2. I don’t normally chuckle reading this blog, but I went as far as a guffaw for that one.

  13. 32 minutes with LOI SLAPDASH. I wasn’t on the right wavelength today. MIMOSA is only a plant in my world, but then we have barm cakes. I’ve known a few Karens but none of them were Thai. But I did manage to dredge up AESCHYLUS. And thanks to Lindsay O, I’m singing “The sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken.” Tombstone Blues indeed. I’ve no finger nails left watching these play-offs. Thank you Pip and setter.

    1. I so wanted to get that line in but it was just too far removed from the Baptist ref and I didn’t want to over-indulge!

  15. 33 minutes. Slow, though I agree that this wasn’t too hard, even if I didn’t know who AESCHYLUS was beyond recognising the name. I did remember the KAREN people from a TV documentary several years ago.

    I liked the surface for VELODROME which had me hunting for an ‘old ruined city’ as intended. Favourite was the surface for CAULDRON with its nod to Macbeth.

  16. 27.00. Perhaps my sluggish time betrays the fact that I didn’t enjoy this very much.

  17. This horse was proper nervous. I put the wrong clue in the wrong space TWICE and had to come here to bring order to the ensuing chaos in the NW. Must get more sleep.

    Thanks P

  18. Flying today, thought again I was on for a sub-10′ but stumbled in the bottom half.

    VELODROME FOI. BAPTISTS LOI after CAULDRON.

    10’40”, thanks pip and setter.

  19. About 15 minutes. Haven’t come across NAIF very often and never heard of the KARENs, but the clueing was helpful in both cases; dredged up AESCHYLUS from somewhere; NHO varlet, but with V_L_T it had to be VALET.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

    FOI Cranny
    LOI Pendragon
    COD Velodrome

  20. Pretty easy, done in 18 mins – fast for me. Only SE corner held me up.

  21. 18:35

    Straightforward working the NW and then clockwise with KAREN my LOI. (Didn’t fully parse PICKY or EL GRECO until afterwards).

    Thank you, piquet and the setter.

  22. 33m 00s
    Thanks, Pip, as ever, especially for CAULDRON, EL GRECO and YONKS.
    Similar to yesterday when I expressed mild surprise that there are people out there who had not heard of that arch-villain, Oddjob, today I’m surprised that, in the former realm of classicists, there are numerous crosswordistes who have never heard of Aeschylus, the father of Greek tragedy….and I never went to any university, let alone Oxbridge.

  23. 10:48. This puzzle was an illustration of the phenomenon whereby a puzzle that is bang-on average in terms of time (which this was for me according to the SNITCH) feels trickier than average. Something to do with the distribution of times, and the fact that your median time is almost certainly lower than your mean. Or is this just me?
    Anyway, a mostly steady solve with a slow-down in the SE corner. KAREN rang a vague bell.

  24. Plain sailing until the SE corner. Possibly prompted by the BAPTIST connection, I was keen on the “woman taking a dip” being the Apocryphal SUSANNA, a favourite excuse for otherwise chaste artists to persuade their models to get their kit off. Alas, not so, it was the more prosaic airport-come-river.
    Working LAPD into a clue was impressive, as was the toil and trouble themed clue for CAULDRON. I also lost time in the SW, trying to get the SE Kent into the clue. Should have realised it was more Kryptic than that.
    15.28 my time.

  26. 22:23

    Three-quarters pretty comfortable all done in about 13 minutes, the rest on the SE corner where I was puzzled for some time – eventually got PICKY with just the C checker in place which gave YONKS, then SHANNON, BAPTISTS, AESCHYLUS and finally SLAPDASH (had been thinking too much about CHiPs for too long!).

    Didn’t know a MIMOSA was akin to a Bucks Fizz but had it as a cocktail in the back of my mind – no idea where from.

    Thanks P and setter

    1. More than akin to, I think a MIMOSA is exactly the same thing as a Buck’s Fizz, it’s just the American name.

  27. All went fairly quickly for me at about 25′ with a bit of time spent on the CHAIRLIFT/URGE ON crosser as I tried to come up with a mountain range starting CHA. Doh. Nice puzzle. Thanks Piquet and setter

  28. The general feeling seems to be that this was pretty easy, but I made very heavy weather of it, finishing in over an hour. The top left corner was a big problem and at one point, before resorting to aids, I thought this would end in tears. 1ac led me astray: I’d never have thought of VELODROME for an arena and was thinking that there was a ruined city, or possibly an old ruined city, there. In 9ac it wasn’t clear to me that ‘torn’ indicated the splitting of a word; I thought it was an anagram indicator and that ‘clothing’ indicated ‘surrounding’.

  29. Steady solve, no aids at all for a change. I wondered if the ‘of note’ in the clue for BAPTISTS might have been a subtle allusion to the significant role music plays in their worship (as well as the TI element). It was what gave me the answer, in fact, as I tried to think of sects which are particularly musical.

  30. 25:05
    I started slow with only 3 answers after 8 minutes but then things picked up, until the end where it took me a couple of minutes to get the baptists, I couldn‘t get yawtists out of my head. NHO the Karen. Thanks setter and blogger

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