Times 26911 – And to all a good night!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time: 45 minutes
Music: Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Backhaus.

Well, owing to various problems, my blog will be a little terse tonight.   The puzzle itself was not that difficult but circumstances definitely conspired against the blog.   However, I have managed to post it, and I can assure you that the answers and explanations are most correct.

I see our new blogger, astartedon, has also successfully arrived, and I would like to thank him for volunteering, and urge all our regular readers to visit and comment in his Quickie blog.

Across

1 Promotion of friendly relations in House Of Cards? (6-8)
BRIDGE-BUILDING – BRIDGE BUILDING, that mythical monument to friendly card-players everywhere.
9 Wrongdoers finish up hiding among unopened boxes (9)
OFFENDERS – [c]OFF(END)ERS.
10 Casserole reduced by a pound: a bargain (5)
STEAL – STE[w] + A L.
11 Old knave maybe knocked back, seeing stars (5)
DRACO – O CARD backwards, a very obscure constellation indeed.
12 Tatty trousers ’e turned up (9)
RETROUSSE – anagram of TROUSERS ‘E.
13 No bank will accept a single franc, teller revealed (8)
NOTIFIER – NO T(1 F)IER.
15 Book published that is about part of Borneo (6)
BRUNEI – B RUN + I.E. backwards, home of the famous sultan.
17 Man finishes off home brew (6)
HOMBRE – HOM[e] BRE[w].
19 Wader got nervous, seeing canine swimming? (5,3)
WATER DOG –  Anagram of WADER GOT.
22 Theatre promoter briefly keeps male away from the spotlight (9)
BACKSTAGE – BACK(STAG)E[r].
23 College girl turned in several compositions (5)
CLARE – A college, a girl, and a backwards concealed word in [sev]ERAL C[ompositions].
24 Behind a park there’s a nut tree (5)
ARECA – A REC A, easy cryptic in case you haven’t heard of it.
25 Person paid by examination board? I object (9)
PROTESTER – PRO TESTER – they can’t very well use amateurs.
26 They risked all, wickedly pinching large picture (3,11)
THE LADYKILLERS -Anagram of THEY RISKED ALL + L, a film from 1955.

Down
1 Wide minor thoroughfare picked out by car’s spotlight? (5,2,3,4)
BROAD IN THE BEAM – B-ROAD IN THE BEAM of your car.
2 Break actually is around end of summer (7)
INFRACT – IN F(R)ACT.
3 Crazy journey touring round New Zealand (5)
GONZO – GO(O NZ)O.
4 Comparatively tired old king transported to grave thus? (8)
BLEARIER – B(LEAR)IER, that is, Lear in a bier.
5 Pictures how pupils are grouped by ability? (6)
INSETS –  IN SETS.
6 Almost get rid of crude-sounding speech (9)
DISCOURSE – DIS[H] + sounds like COARSE.
7 Composer set up a German school in London, note (7)
NIELSEN – EIN backwards + LSE (London School of Economics) + N
8 Do-gooders distributed the grain in British city (8,6)
BLEEDING HEARTS – B LEED(anagram of THE GRAIN)S.
14 Stop Nottingham team getting ahead of the entire field? (9)
FORESTALL – FOREST + ALL.
16 Hold hair to give protection from the sun (8)
HAVELOCK –  HAVE + LOCK in entirely different senses.   This could be difficult if you don’t know the word.
18 Be involved in cunning match play (7)
MACBETH – BE in anagram of MATCH
20 Rookie in river, grabbing floating platform (7)
DRAFTEE – D(RAFT)EE, our favorite river besides the Ure and the Ouse.
21 Drunk became panicky, losing head (6)
LAPPED – [f]LAPPED, I believe.   Hard if you don’t know the word.
23 Empty container — fish basket (5)
CREEL –  C[ontaine]R + EEL.   Since a ‘creel’ actually is a fish basket, the misdirection here is poor.

50 comments on “Times 26911 – And to all a good night!”

  2. Sorry, latecomer, again. Rec/ park, could someone possibly explain. Also, lapped, is it referring to drunk as in sipped? But then wouldn’t that be drank?
    1. The “rec” is British slang for a “recreation area”. Typically a small park with a few swings, perhaps a marked-out football ground, etc.; usually council-owned. “I’m off down the rec!” was a common call from kids leaving the house during my 1970s childhood.

      Edited at 2017-12-20 04:20 pm (UTC)

      1. Aha! That’s what the ‘red rec’ is in Coronation Street. Never having heard the term, I’d assumed it was some local council art installation for kids, based around pirates of the Caribbean or similar. 🙂 That explains how one plays football on the red rec though. Our local version was ‘the curlie’ , a remnant of the time when it would regularly be cold enough to become a curling pond. ‘course it has been changed to a rec now. Many thanks for the explanation
    2. “the water dog has lapped ein bier” =
      “the water dog has drunk ein bier”
  3. It took me several goes, but got there. Total time maybe 40 minutes. HAVELOCK, ARECA, WATER DOG & NIELSEN were all new to me, but very doable.
    I have a few grumbles as usual, that’s half the fun: shouldn’t “car’s spotlight” be “headlight”. People are *on* biers not *in* them, which would have given us LEARBIER, which really ought to be a word, although the internet conspires to deny that it is. Is a “backer” a particular term for a “theatre promoter” or isn’t it just generally “promoter”, so “theatre” really doesn’t belong there except for the surface (what chess problem composers would call a “weasel”).
    On which subject, I like the critical attention you guys all pay to something as trivial as the use of “a”. I am clearly among kindred folk. I agree that it ought to mean something mostly, but the occasional bluff is ok too.

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