Times 26397 – eventually

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
For whatever reason, I struggled with this one, especially the NW corner. I’d hoped to have had it solved and blogged by my weekly target time of 10.00 CEST, without leaping out of bed at an uncivilised hour; in the event, it took me exactly the hour to finish it off. It also took me a big sigh to settle for 21a spelt thus, although I see it is an allowable alternative of the anglicised version. Thanks to commentators below for pointing out a few slips, now corrected, I was in haste to be somewhere else.

I’m subbing for Verlaine on Friday – V you are batting for me next Wednesday, just a reminder – so let’s hope Friday is less stressful, or I am feeling less dim.

Across
1 LET FLY – Cryptic double definition. With only the T to help me, I took an age to get away from OUT and HIT and SET.
4 ISTANBUL – (BUILT AS N)*, D city.
10 TOECLIP – O inside TEC, then LIP for border; D one puts one’s foot in it. My LOI and not a great clue IMO, one puts one’s toe in it.
11 UNTRUTH – (H)UNT = look for, heading off, RUTH = holy book, D fiction.
12 NETT – NET = goal, add another T, D clear.
13 KEEP TABS ON – KEPT ABS ON would be didn’t fire the sailors, insert an E for the drug, D monitor.
15 SET UP SHOP – SET = solid, UPS = periods of good fortune, HOP = bound; D start trading.
16 LEVER – (C)LEVER = gifted, C stripped; D bar.
18 TROUT – U in TROT; D catch; bit of a vague definition.
19 SOVEREIGN – (GIVEN ROSE)*, D queen perhaps.
21 QUEBECKERS – Although I had QUE I was still reluctant to plonk this in, with its ugly K amidst, but it’s apparently allowed. I’d say quebeçois or quebecers and so would quebecers. BECK = stream, inside QUEERS = ruins, as in queers the pitch.
23 BEEB – BE = live, and reversed; D it does broadcasts. I like this one.
26 ASPHALT – ASP = poisoner, HALT = arrest; D surface.
27 FAN OVEN – FEN = flat, insert A NOV; D cooker.
28 ESSAYIST – I see this as ESSAY = shot, try, In Si Tu = odd letters of in situ, D writer. I tried too hard to think of a novelist beginning E_S.
29 SPARKY S = has, shortened to ‘s, PARKY = cold; D electrician. I thought they were called SPARKS, but it’s possible.

Down
1 LUTON – U T = extremely UnkempT, inside LON = West End of London. So D = English town. I recently had a 6 hour lay over with FlyBe en route Bordeaux – Luton – Aberdeen, and made the mistake of leaving the airport for a look round. Never again.
2 TWENTY-TWO – TWENTY = score, TWO sounds like TOO, D rugby players cross that. I think it’s the twenty metre line these days?
3 LILT – L (lake) inside LIT (easily made out); D movement of air.
5 STUMP UP – Double definition.
6 ART GALLERY – GALL = bitterness, inside ARTERY = major road; D works here. Nice misdirection.
7 BLUBS – BULB = glower, reverse it, add S(on); D cries.
8 LOHENGRIN – HE inside LONG (extended), R(un), IN (popular); D opera. I like Wagner’s music only when there is no singing going on. Is that allowed?
9 SPEECH – PEE(R) inside SCH; D &lit.
14 APOTHECARY – (REACH TO PAY)*, D drug dealer. I liked ‘trembling’ for the anagrind, made for a nice surface reading.
15 SET-SQUARE – (REQUESTS A)*; D drawing aid.
17 VOICE-OVER – VICE = instead of, insert (‘boxing’) O= ring, OVER = some cricket; D commentary.
19 ST KITTS – Take the AR middle of STARTS and substitute KIT (strip); D Caribbean Island.
20 VERIFY – (FIVER)*, Y = tip from my, D vet.
22 EXPOS – Ex post offices; D displays.
24 BONNY – BONY = spare, insert N north pole, D fetching.
25 SNAP – Triple definition; shoot a picture, snap as a card game, snap = without warning, as in election.

27 comments on “Times 26397 – eventually”

  1. … the variety of difficulty here. With the SW a bit of a stroll and, working up from there, a bit harder. But not too much.
    Do we have any evidence of any Earl ever opening a school? If not, we may need “Æ’&lit” for the fanciful variety.

    Nice tip of the hat in the unches to the philosophical boxer, RORTY BEEBOA.

  2. I think I might be blogging in wrong place but can’t find the other one. In the cycling sense, you do put all your toes and a bit of foot in the clip. LOI LILT. 45 struggling minutes but enjoyable enough.
  3. Well this put paid to my streak of ~6 minute times, but I’m pleased to discover that over twice that time still seems to have been fairly respectable. The sport references left me in a bit of a panic but I got there. I did like the device in 1dn.

    Message received loud and clear about Friday. No blogging for me this week, lots of blogging the next! I’ve got a TLS to do at some point but fortunately I don’t think that’s next week…

  4. Fortunately I follow cycling, where, as noted above, the TOECLIP is what you put your foot into. The Giro d’Italia starts on Friday week. Also have in the past followed rugby. The line referred to is now the 22 metre line, used to be the 25 yard line. Not many young people nowadays could tell you what a SET SQUARE is for. NW last in, LET FLY COD, ground as in sense of ‘gate’, also keep on the ground, lots of allusion in four words. An enjoyable 18′ today, thanks setter and blogger.
  5. Cannot remember what I said but I know that it was about 40 minutes (around 3 magoos!) , I mentioned to Pip that the 22m line is still there (it used to be the 25 yard line) and I hope that I thanked setter and blogger.
    1. Thanks bigtone I stand corrected, didn’t know it was the ’25’ before, only started watching some rugby in last few years and never played it. Difficult with specs on!
      1. I started playing rugby when I was 8 and finished when I was 38. I have worn specs since age 14. No specs when playing not an issue (I was a front-row forward) but am not sure whether I tackled the right guys each time.
  6. No idea why it appeared twice, I only posted it once! But now have deleted the one with more comments, it seems. Will see if it can be resurrected.
  7. Tussled with this one for just under an hour, but made a stupid mistake at 27ac by writing FAN OVER instead of OVEN. I’d just worked out VOICE OVER so it must have been entrenched in my brain. This gave me no end of trouble working out BARMY for 24d (Def. Going Spare, BAR for Pole and MY! for fetching) to no avail. Anyway, I enjoyed the rest of it. I toyed with QUEBECEURS for 21ac but the Island put me straight. Thanks to setter, and to Pip for the explanations.
  8. A bit harder than yesterday’s. Best for me were TOECLIP, SET UP SHOP, BEEB and the ‘Glower’ part of the wordplay for BULBS. Held up by LET FLY, so LILT was my LOI. Like you I was expecting the French term for QUEBECKERS and hadn’t come across the English equivalent before, so I was initially put off by the ‘K’ crosser. ‘Parky’ for ‘cold’ was also new.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  9. Trudged through this feeling uninspired and struggling with bits of it. Didn’t know QUEBECKERS only the more usual French form and find it hard to believe it’s used in the City itself. TOECLIP also unknown – I’ve always managed to avoid cycling thank goodness

    Had cause to visit LUTON and BEDFORD last autumn and will endeavour to not repeat the experience

    1. I live in a village between the two and always try my best to follow your future endeavour.
      1. I know nothing of the Bedford villages – no doubt they are excellent places to live

        I first visited Bedford circa 1965 when it was quite a pretty place with excellent walks beside the river. Sadly, I thought by 2015 it had become a shadow of its former self – much of it appeared to need cleaning and refurbishing

        I don’t have such fond memories of Luton which somehow never did appeal to me

  10. Struggled at the end with TOECLIP and LILT, don’t think I knew “parky” for cold, but managed to scrape in under the half hour.

    TWENTY-TWO was a write-in, though the Rugby League diehards in my home town still call the dead-ball restart a “twenty-five tap”.

    COD to BLUBS I think. Thanks setter and Pip.

  11. So.. I can’t find the other blog, so I have deleted Jack’s comment saying we should comment there and not here.. sorry if that was wrong, but my head was starting to swell up.

    To compound matters, I struggled with the soft drink at 3dn and have a rare cockup, as I put sparks for 29ac and ended up with bonus for 24dn.. and question marks against both! Sloppy, but sorry.. sparky is an adjective not a noun in my book.

    I also dislike the word Quebeckers, as I dare say most Quebecois/e do. Though I accept that isn’t the setter’s fault.

    One of those days, perhaps 🙂

  12. DNF… after an hour I still had several gaps. Thanks for the much-needed blog today.
  13. An interrupted an rather dozy 26 minutes today, with LET FLY and LILT soaking up about a decade. Couldn’t justify let rip, but wanted to as I couldn’t think of anything else.
    I’m sure someone somewhere calls an electrician “Sparky” but Sparks is surely more common.
    Sparky for me is indelibly imprinted with Sparky and the Talking Train, bought for me by my parents because of my love for steam engines at age three. Sadly for them, I was terrified by the train’s voice, and cowered in the corner rather than squealing in delight. Didn’t mind the talking piano on the other side, but it was a long time before I could listen fearlessly to the train story.
    1. In Australia, “sparky” is so common that you hardly ever hear the word “electrician”.
  14. Not easy. I had to set this aside and return later to the NW area to complete it, with TOECLIP, LUTON, LET FLY and LILT in that order at the finish. I DNK ‘parky’, but guessed SPARKY from the checking letters. BLUBS is a bit weird. STUMP UP is also less than fully familiar. I found this puzzle alternatively either very clever, or a bit too clever. Anyway, well done Pip and regards.

    Edited at 2016-04-27 04:15 pm (UTC)

  15. A DNF with “let fly” and “lilt” somehow evading me after much staring at the blanks. If I had seen one I’m sure I would have been able to get the other.
  16. Another struggler here taking just less than an hour, finishing with a guess at LILT as didn’t know the definition. Rather a gruelling time for me with quite a few half worked out and entered in desperation: BONNY, ST KITTS and aforesaid LILT to name but three. At least there were some anagrams today to get me started! Thanks for the blog which cleared up a number of foggy patches.
    1. A whisker under three quarters of an hour here, with LILT taking up the last ten minutes or so. I’d more or less resigned myself to DNFing, and bunged in LILT out of frustration at not being able to see the right answer. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to discover that it was right – I had been parsing the clue completely farce about ace, and didn’t know that meaning of LILT.
  17. 18m. Funny experience this: quite a lot of clues that I wrestled for ages without ever figuring out the wordplay (or at least not until after the event). Slow-motion biffing.
    QUEBECKERS looked odd to me too.

    Edited at 2016-04-27 05:46 pm (UTC)

  18. No time to report because I a) took the knock mid-solve again, and b) had to break off for 90 mins towards the end to attend a meeting. I found this quite chewy and I struggled to see LILT like quite a few of you did. However, ASPHALT was my LOI, and I have no idea why I didn’t see it a lot quicker than I did.
  19. 28:58 for me. I’d had an exhausting day and almost dozed off in the middle before suddenly realising that there were over 25 minutes on the clock and a couple of clues – 1ac (LET FLY) and 3dn (LILT) still – to crack. I managed to summon up just enough willpower to solve them within my half-hour limit, but it was close-run thing.

    The ugly QUEBECKERS was new to me, as was SPARKY for an electrician. (I agree with others that an electrician is normally “sparks”. The only “sparky” I know about is the electric chair “Old Sparky”.)

    Some nice clues, but I wasn’t really on the setter’s wavelength.

Comments are closed.