Times 26967 – nearly as fast as Elise Christie yesterday

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Sad to see our world champion Elise crashing out of the speed skating yet again. There again, £32 million of taxpayers money in four years to chase a few medals in elite winter sports does seem a questionable use of the dosh.
Once I had my skates on I whizzed through this in quick time for a Wednesday, the smoothest run I’ve had for ages. Nevertheless, an enjoyable puzzle with neat wordplay and no especially silly words (like MANA from last week). Lots of insertion clues and only two and a half anagrams.

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Across
1 Smoked sausage the Spanish served in cabbage (7)
SAVELOY – Insert EL into SAVOY cabbage.
5 Extravagantly publicise place in military band? (6)
SPLASH – Insert PL(ACE) into SASH = military band.
8 Church worker priests in centre employ as singer (9)
CHANTEUSE – CH(URCH), ANT = worker, (PRI)E(STS), USE = employ.
9 Cry about reviewer’s initial description of book (5)
BLURB – Insert R(eviewer) into BLUB.
11 Provide for Parisian who has broken old record (5)
EQUIP – Insert QUI = French for ‘who’, into EP = old record.
12 Eg Miss Prism’s turn for home in Scottish city (9)
GOVERNESS – INVERNESS is the Scottish city, swap IN = home for GO = turn. Miss Prism is Cecily’s governess in The Importance of Being Earnest.
13 Vocally opposed to tweet maybe describing form of betting? (4-4)
ANTE-POST – ANTE Sounds like ANTI and POST for tweet.
15 Strip joint finally established by rich man (6)
DIVEST – Add T (joint finally) to DIVES, Latin for rich or a rich man.
17 Yankee priest with right to rabbit on (6)
YABBER – Y for Yankee, ABBE = priest, R = right.
19 Genuine doctor almost stops providing a cure (8)
REMEDIAL – Insert MEDI(C)
22 Injected journalist next to where whisky is made (9)
INSTILLED – Whisky being made IN STILL, add ED.
23 Cloud enveloping English female in spongy ground (5)
BEFOG – Insert E F into BOG. Cloud as a verb.
24 Lived in part of Oxford, perhaps, with daughter (5)
DWELT – Daughter = D, WELT part of shoe.
25 Notes male attorney’s written about return of capital (9)
MEMORANDA – Insert ROME reversed into MAN, DA.
26 Actors in Greek drama about Egyptian god (6)
CHORUS – C = circa, about, HORUS = Egyptian god.
27 Bear last of gifts to Austrian physicist (7)
STOMACH – (GIFT)S, TO, MACH, Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach d. 1916, Austrian chap who studied shock waves; in his honour is named the Mach number, the ratio of actual speed to the speed of sound in the medium e.g. air.
Down
1 PS, offer to secure run for African predator? (9,4)
SECRETARY BIRD – PS I think here is abbr. for Private Secretary or Parliamentary Secretary; then insert R into BID. On my best holiday ever (and there have been a lot) I was reluctantly persuaded to ‘do’ the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa and found myself enjoying it greatly; seeing one of these large, eccentric looking birds perched on top of a dead tree was a memorable highlight.
2 By way of tube, reaching bridgelike structure (7)
VIADUCT – VIA = by way of, DUCT = tube. More incidental drivel. Pottering around Rutland last week checking out the best pubs and villages while house hunting, we stumbled across the WELLAND VIADUCT, the longest masonry viaduct across a valley in England, very impressive, 30 million bricks of Victorian engineering.
3 Break allowed on way to London, perhaps (3-2)
LET-UP – LET = allowed, UP often used as in ‘go UP to London’.
4 The solver gets sent out with note, being most junior (8)
YOUNGEST – YOU = the solver, then (SENT G)* where G = a note.
5 Change direction suddenly: work with forces protecting West (6)
SWERVE – Insert W into SERVE = work with forces.
6 Row about French composer showing rakish tendencies (9)
LIBERTINE – Insert IBERT into LINE = row. Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert (15 August 1890 – 5 February 1962) was a French classical composer.
7 Hug cat mostly unknown in Kent area? (7)
SQUEEZE – SE = South-east, Kent area; insert QUEE(N) = cat mostly and Z = unknown.
10 The phrase Glubb endlessly misused in such communication (4,9)
BUSH TELEGRAPH – (THE PHRASE GLUB), deleting a B from GLUBB. The surface works, there was such a chap as Glubb, the setter hasn’t made him up; Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb, known as Glubb Pasha, was a British soldier, scholar and author, In his picture on Wikipedia he looks rather like Jonesy from Dad’s Army.
14 One foresees image-promoting men accepting ruling (9)
PREDICTOR – PR = image promoting, OR = men, insert EDICT = ruli.g.
16 Seems mad changing form of address in Lyon? (8)
MESDAMES – (SEEMS MAD)*.
18 Beg directions to cut into tree (7)
BESEECH – Insert S, E into BEECH.
20 Trendy supporter cheers European royal (7)
INFANTA – IN = trendy, FAN = supporter, TA = cheers.
21 Scottish castle is very attractive to begin with (6)
GLAMIS – GLAM = very attractive, IS. Childhood home of QE the late Queen Mother.
23 Pack animal’s underground home, with leaves (5)
BURRO – W = with leaves BURROW. Spanish / Mexican and Portuguese word for donkey.

68 comments on “Times 26967 – nearly as fast as Elise Christie yesterday”

  1. Shout out for the East Midlands today! Rutland and Leicester in the blog 🙂 The Harringworth Viaduct (aka Welland) is a fabulous sight, and just as good to cross over by rail as to drive or walk under.

    I must admit I thought it was George Best who said he’d spent his money on women, booze and cars – and squandered the rest. No matter – it’s still quite wry.

    Fun crossword; dnf because burro was being very stubborn! So obvious too 🙁 PSB (lurking in Leicestershire)

    1. I’m sure Georgie will have said it earlier, but I was at Wembley in corporate hospitality on 2 April 1995 when Frank was guest speaker at the Liverpool v Bolton League Cup Final. He definitely said it, along with the Tommy Smith anecdote. He was good value as a public speaker.
  2. Nice one. No problems with GK, though I didn’t like PS for SECRETARY. Our choir once did a cantata called “Dives and Lazarus” by Alan Hoddinot. These things tend to stick. 28 minutes. Ann
  3. 12 minutes – most of it very quick, but some head-scratching at the end over DIVEST and GLAMIS and if there were other plausible answers.
  5. 32 minutes, so super for me, despite there being an awful lot I didn’t know: SAVELOY, ANTE-POST, DIVESt, YABBER, dWELT, GLAMIS. But biffing and wordplay saved the day.

    BLUB seems to be cropping up a lot recently. Is there one setter for the week who tries to get a good run out of his presumably not really very limited vocabulary?

  6. I did most of this in 20 mins on the morning commute but had to start work before getting the last four: 5ac, 5dn, 12ac and 7dn, which occupied me for another 3.5 mins at lunchtime. Knew the rich man. Knew Glamis from Macbeth as one of the ambitious Scotsman’s Thaneships. Dnk ante-post but was reasonably confident from wp and checkers. I also knew of the Italian Berti but not the French Ibert, it mattered little though. A gentle puzzle but very entertaining.
  7. Super fast for me at 23:21 but sadly with an unchecked befug. In contrast I attempted last Thursday’s at lunchtime and abandoned it with half a dozen completed after half an hour. My brother told me that puzzle was hard and today’s was easy and I can’t help but think that knowledge subconsciously influenced my solving time.
  8. I polished this one off fairly quickly, but the blog wasn’t up yet when I hit the hay, and now I have a lot of interesting comments to catch up on. All I had to say, really, is that my LOI was SAVELOY, a word absolutely new to me, but discovered through the wordplay, one of the cryptic game’s most gratifying experiences.

    Edited at 2018-02-21 10:33 pm (UTC)

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