Times 26,933: A Stern Talking To

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Having managed to render my sleep schedule completely topsy-turvy this week I found myself doing this puzzle not long after 4am, which might in other circumstances occasion a rather grouchy blog, but fortunately today’s is a very likeable puzzle. Few speed bumps in the way of one’s steady solving pleasure, some entertainingly oblique definitions, and a couple of interesting cryptic devices; plus a bit of a “European tour” (with a brief diversion to the Middle East) feel to the across clues that I enjoyed.

FOI 12ac, LOI 17dn after the I from 28ac made me sure it couldn’t be SUBPOLAR. COD to 20ac because who doesn’t like a reverse cryptic type clue. Many thanks to the setter and now I’m going back to bed for an hour or two I think, see you all later on!

ACROSS
1 Denunciation of photo by Spanish king (9)
PHILIPPIC – PIC [photo] by Spanish king [PHILIP, probably II of Armada-era fame]

9 Books first half of musical play (7)
OTHELLO – OT [(bible) books] + HELLO {Dolly}

10 Concerned with rail service, prepare to change line? (7)
RETRAIN – as in make preparations to be in a new job. RE TRAIN = concerned with | rail service

11 High tension on apparatus is OK (5)
RIGHT – HT [high tension] on RIG [apparatus]

12 Sculptor’s broken tool handle — that’s not hard (9)
DONATELLO – (TOOL {h}ANDLE*) [“broken”, H for hard removed]

13 Those remaining live around university (7)
RESIDUE – RESIDE [live] around U [university]

15 Fire goddess saves tapers only partly used (5)
VESTA – hidden in {sa}VES TA{pers}. Goddess of the hearth, not of arson.

17 Needle from small tree (5)
SPINE – S PINE [small | tree]

18 Drives in light shoes (5)
PUMPS – double def

19 Question desert area retreating in place with lots of sand (5)
QATAR – Q [question] + RAT A reversed [desert | area, “retreating”]

20 What collectively gives lover something to put round girl’s head (7)
BANDEAU – B AND EAU = B + EAU = BEAU [lover]

23 Chef offering European food that is right (9)
ESCOFFIER – E SCOFF IE R [European | food | that is | right]. Semi-&lit for Auguste Escoffier, 1846-1935.

25 Seafood needing force to get out of mould (5)
ORMER – Remove F for force from {f}ORMER = that which forms = a mould.

27 Soldiers back taking drugs can be spirited (7)
ROUSING – OR reversed [soldiers “back”] + USING [taking drugs]

28 Barge in run with tide on the turn (7)
INTRUDE – (RUN + TIDE*) [“on the turn”]

29 Possible cause of a fall in canned air being manufactured (4,5)
RAIN DANCE – (CANNED AIR*) [“being manufactured”]. Possible, though perhaps not quite “probable”, cause of rainfall.

DOWN
1 Staff cutting wages is a travesty (6)
PARODY – ROD [staff] “cutting” PAY [wages]

2 Where immigration must by definition be rising or falling? (10)
INTONATION – immigration, my definition, happens INTO NATION.

3 Still it gets held up in unfortunate cave-in (8)
INACTIVE – IT reversed, inside (CAVE-IN*) [“unfortunate”]

4 Suddenly rush up holding new body part for car (5)
PANEL – LEAP reversed [suddenly rush, “up”] holding N [new]

5 Bird’s jolly in funny cartoon (9)
CORMORANT – RM [jolly (jack tar)] in (CARTOON*) [“funny”]

6 Egyptian god under constant burden (6)
CHORUS – HORUS [Egyptian god] under C [the speed of light, = constant]. The musical, not heavy, type of burden.

7 Heartless seabirds turned up mollusc (4)
SLUG – GU{l}LS reversed

8 In favour of some hair protection for men? (8)
FORTRESS – FOR TRESS [in favour of | some hair]; protection for men as in soldiers.

14 Protest fired up in getting round old building’s destruction (10)
DEMOLITION – DEMO LIT [protest | fired up] + IN “getting round” O [old]

16 Isolate soil pipe with search for its centre (9)
SEQUESTER – SE{w->QUEST}ER. A soil pipe is a SEWER, replace its central letter with QUEST [search].

17 Such a speed’s not shocking, seeing warships nearly stranded in the Antarctic? (8)
SUBSONIC – SUBS [warship] + ON IC{e} [“nearly” stranded in the Antarctic]

18 Learned being in favour of institute (8)
PROFOUND – PRO FOUND [in favour of | institute]

21 Harangue’s horrifying, but not loud (6)
EARFUL – {f}EARFUL [horrifying, losing its F for loud]

22 Runs for Lima during epidemic in capital (6)
PRAGUE – P{l->R}AGUE. PLAGUE [epidemic], with R for runs in place of its L for Lima.

24 My soldier’s a favourite of the queen, perhaps (5)
CORGI – COR GI [my! | soldier]

26 Dull gospel writer wanting cut (4)
MATT – MATT{hew}, without HEW [cut] at the end. All the Matts who frequent this blog are very interesting, present blogger excepted!

71 comments on “Times 26,933: A Stern Talking To”

  1. I did this puzzle around midday, but didn’t have time to comment then as I had to rush off to see a Physio about my new knee which has been playing up over the festive period. Nothing drastic, he reckons I must have over-stressed it at some point, and to carry on the exercises and tender care, so I followed up with a visit to the Snooker club. Now that I’m home and wined and dined, I can report that I did the puzzle in 31:18, but crashed and burned on BANDEAU, for which I had to use a word finder after flapping about for over 5 minutes. I could see the BEAU bit, but that was it. Even with the word in front of me I couldn’t see the parsing. Thanks V! Where does the “girl’s head” bit of the clue come from? Google reckons it’s a support normally provided by that other crossword stalwart, a Bra. I was able to deduce the other unknowns, ORMER, PHILIPPIC and the half known ESCOFFIER. Liked RAIN DANCE. A fun puzzle. Thanks setter and V.
    1. I had a vague recollection of BANDEAU from the last time it came up, and I think back then it was used in its “boob tube” sense, but it can also mean a hairband. A search for ‘bandeau hair’ does the trick.

      Edited at 2018-01-12 08:24 pm (UTC)

  2. 36 minutes, which is pleasing for me. But, if anyone can help me with “RM” and “jolly”, I’d be very grateful.
    1. Hi. A “jolly” is an old slang term for a Royal Marine. Crops up from time to time in crosswords and is always worth considering when you see the word jolly in a clue.
        1. Tee hee. I win 🙂

          (though I’m far too mature to care about such things …. )

          Edited at 2018-01-12 08:24 pm (UTC)

          1. I was severely impeded by some stoopid spellchecker repeatedly changing arine to rain in the bit in brackets.

            Not that I’m bothered who won and who lost of course.

    2. In some dictionaries you’ll find jolly as a noun being slang for a R(oyal) M(arine).

      File it away as it will come up again.

  3. 9:10 … breezy but fun. Burden and Philippic vaguely known from crosswords. Cheers, all
      1. See penfold? Just the same way that we get the same slightly annoying words over and over again (Tiepolo, etc) we get the same complaints over and over, too!

        I know i knew how to spell Horus, but chores were so obviously burdens that in they went. And we had that version of burden a couple months ago, too.

        Meantime, I still don’t understand bandeau. I think I’m not seeing the and. What am I missing?

        1. I struggled with BANDEAU too. It’s a “B” and an “EAU” collectively give a lover, BEAU, thus B-AND-EAU is the hair band or boob tube depending on which definition you need.
          1. Of course. Hard now to see how I got misdirected and missed that. Thank you, John

            Edited at 2018-01-12 11:50 pm (UTC)

  5. I got off to a quick start, and for a moment I had a horrible fear that it might be Monday again. However, I then got bogged down in the south-left corner. EARFUL still looks for me like it’s missing an L, but only because my spelling is awfull. ORMER was half-known, and turns out to abalone – I have a polished shell of one or the other just next to my desk now. BANDEAU held me up for a very long time; I’ve never heard the word, and it wasn’t until I’d tentatively put it in that the parsing clicked. That left SUBSONIC, my LOI, for a total of 40 minutes.

    Thanks, as ever, for the blog, and a happy weekend to one, all and others.

  7. 30:03 – always nice to see Monday’s setter escape and take over on a Friday once in a while. A very pleasant puzzle and I was not held up by not knowing ormer. FOI 9ac. LOI 8dn.
  8. DNF. Found this very hard, not helped by entering 2d incorrectly which utterly threw me off on the NW – I had as a write in as borderline – which I think arguably works with the clue, but none of the crossers bar spine! Rest of the puzzle ok except DNK escoffier or ormer and didn’t get from wordplay.

    Mighty

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