Times 27009 – aarrr, Jim lad, avast ye!

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
What larks! Three quarters of this little beauty done in under fifteen minutes, with occasional recourse to a sip of the grog. The north-west corner was looking odd, with a two-letter word ending in V and another V lurking in 1a. I re-checked 6d in case I’d made a typo, the anagram was clear enough. Then I dimly remembered my Merchant of Venice for O Level and popped in 4d. Back to 9a. I’m not keen on that as a two-letter word ending in V, but it had to be, unless the answer was a regnal number. I didn’t know the phrase, but it fits the word play. The light dawned on 1a, once I saw the double definition. Leaving us with 2d, H_A_T. Only one thing it could be, but as I write this a completely satisfactory explanation escapes me.
The other three-quarters of the puzzle I thought was witty in places, notably 8d, but not difficult.

Definitions underlined, anagrinds in italics.

Across
1 Break up in manifest cold (6)
SHIVER – double definition. The expression ‘shiver me timbers’ dates back a few hundred years before Robert Newton in Treasure Island, where the word ‘shiver’ has the meaning ‘break up’ or shake apart, as in a cannonball or large wave hitting a ship. And if you’re shivering, you’re manifesting being cold.
5 Give woodwork final smoothing, receiving time and a half (5-3)
STAND-OFF – SAND OFF = final smoothing of the woodwork, insert T for time. Stand-off being a rugby term for one of the two half-backs, the one who is not the scrum half.
9 Fall asleep in wagon, very voyeuristic viewing (3-5,2)
CAR-CRASH TV –  CART = wagon, insert CRASH for fall asleep, and V for very. I didn’t know the term, but I see it is in Collins and not only applied to scenes of cars getting totalled, although YouTube has no shortage of those. Somehow I don’t think of TV as a two-letter word, more of an abbreviation, or the internet domain name for Tuvalu. Which used to be a Pointless answer.
10 Pipe suddenly lowered for sounding (4)
DUCT – Sounds like ‘ducked’ = suddenly lowered. Duck!
11 In fight, large Italian twisting blade (8)
STILETTO – SET TO = fight, insert L IT reversed (twisting).
12 Put off woman and survive without one (6)
SHELVE – SHE = woman, L(I)VE = survive, remove the I.
13 Religion, but no Mass, for Scots girl (4)
ISLA – ISLAM loses its Mass.
15 To wed money, they say, can be a bloomer (8)
MARIGOLD – MARI sounds like marry, GOLD = money.
18 Cherries, see, covered in fungi (8)
MORELLOS – Insert LO = see, into MORELS a tasty kind of mushroom.
19 Pressure on buzzer creates alert (4)
BEEP – Add P for pressure to BEE for buzzer. Seen this before recently, probably on a Sunday.
21 A Sikh has one billion fish (6)
BANGLE – B for billion, ANGLE verb to fish. All Sikhs have a bangle or KARA, one of the five K’s.
23 Concerned with opening blade, I trust (8)
RELIANCE – RE = concerned with, then insert I into LANCE = blade.
25 Some beef? Wrong to eat horse (4)
SHIN – Insert H for horse into SIN = wrong.
26 A detective story, the ultimate gift for cellist? (3,4,3)
HIS LAST BOW – Double definition, one a suggestion. Conan Doyle published a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories under this title. Not sure why our setter chose a cellist, as Sherlock played the violin!
27 Not happy to travel regularly on such rubber? (5-3)
CROSS-PLY – CROSS = not happy, PLY = travel regularly. Do cross-ply tyres still exist on new cars? Maybe in India.
28 Old guard losing heart a total failure (6)
TURKEY – TURNKEY loses its N, i.e. middle letter or heart.

Down
2 Enthusiasm of boxer finally ready to mate? (5)
HEART – MY LOI because I couldn’t parse it to my satisfaction. My current explanation of this is a little woolly, something to do with being ON HEAT = being ready to mate and R (boxer finally) being inserted. But there’s no ‘ON’ and HEAT alone doesn’t. mean ready to mate. I suppose ‘to mate’ could be doing double duty, meaning ‘mate’ the R with the HEAT? Explain.
3 Dither, as everyone is caught up in active moving (9)
VACILLATE – ALL inside (ACTIVE)*.
4 Head from court case over to business centre (6)
RIALTO – (T)RIAL = court case without ‘head’, add TO. ‘What news on the Rialto?’ says Salanio to Salarino in the MoV, Act 1, talking business.
5 Son indifferent about husband, I emphasise in my case, as one dealing with children (15)
SCHOOLMISTRESSY – Messy wordplay for a clumsy old word. S for son, insert H for husband into COOL = indifferent, then insert I STRESS into MY.
6 Warning notice avoids funny lines (8)
ADVISORY – (AVOIDS)*, RY = (railway) lines.
7 Magistrate seizes duke in quick move (5)
DODGE – Insert D into DOGE.
8 Apparently that of Helen being a thousand ships? (4,5)
FACE VALUE – &lit. Witty, if it’s original.
14 Struggling actor hems old garment (9)
STOMACHER – (ACTOR HEMS)*.
16 Rock, overturning large table across front of room (9)
GIBRALTAR – BIG reversed (overturning large), ALTAR = table, insert R(oom).
17 In public he rubbished safe sort of investment (4-4)
BLUE-CHIP – (PUBLIC HE)*.
20 Be very eager to employ Liberal, one that’s flexible (6)
PLIANT – PANT = be very eager, insert L and I.
22 Kind of an Einstein? Not I (5)
GENUS – Einstein was a GENIUS, remove the I (not I).
24 Cut part of bulb (5)
CLOVE – Double definition.

79 comments on “Times 27009 – aarrr, Jim lad, avast ye!”

  1. I thought I had finished and was feeling pretty pleased with myself – then I realised that I had entered “choke” instead of “clove”. Ah well – not too bad otherwise – although I did have to check on “His Last Bow”. Not sure that a lance is a blade – being pointy rather than slashy?
  5. I did most of this in about 30 mins this morning but got very bogged down in the SE corner, which ended up being very attritional and done in about another 20 mins over a couple of further sessions. My last two in, clove and turkey, required a lot of staring fruitlessly at the checking letters whilst desperately willing lightning to strike. I didn’t know the Sherlock tale but it was easy enough to guess, I didn’t know the tyre or the Sikh bangle but got there from wp and checkers. Lots to enjoy with face value the stand out for me.
  6. Like most I had difficulty with 2D. In the end I thought it was that a boxer is often described as having HEART when enthusiastic. So that is the definition. And then if you add on Y (finallly readY) you get the nautical ‘mate’ HEARTY, as in heave ho me hearties! Still doesn’t quite parse though as there seems to be a hanging ‘to’.

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