Times 27,011: Friday the Sporteenth

114 comments on “Times 27,011: Friday the Sporteenth”

1. Developing crossword resilience, like mathematical resilience, takes time – and input from others. The unknown opera was last in, from wordplay alone. I love the Yeats poem too. COD to MULTIGYM, which has never appealed, is it a sort of high-tech Bullworker? Incidentally, shouldn’t it be West ‘am? Thanks verlaine and setter.
2. Well, this was a ticklish number, that stretched me out to around 40 minutes. Never parsed ANGUS, and I PURITANI and INNISFREE from wordplay only. LOI was CONK, which I didn’t know meant a nose, but I finally saw the hidden. Regards.
3. Nothing to add. Very enjoyable. 33 minutes Ann
4. The lesson being that my vocabulary is spottier than I thought. I knew I Puritani (I saw an excellent production in Munich once) (the beer gardens must have been shut) and I knew Charlie Chan right away; I didn’t know Conk or Shrug, and couldn’t parse Ang. I liked the shifty eyeballs and the Troll. Nice puzzle, setter. Nice blog, Verlaine
5. 38:41 for a very satisfying puzzle, just the right level of challenge. The LHS went in very quickly but I slowed down in the RHS at least until the snooker player and the law-breaking were identified, did know the opera though from past puzzles. Shrug the only unknown I think. Delighted to see our blogger in his prologue count snooker as one of seven “athletic” activities. Hear hear, Verlaine, hear hear. The late Big Bill Werbeniuk (a man whose wiki entry contents page include the chapter headings “Alcohol Consumption” and “Split trouser incident”) and I salute you.
   1. I still revere Bill W for managing to get the IRS to give him tax relief on the 6 pints of lager he needed to steady his nerves before a match!
6. I agree, but are we sure it’s a Sir and not a Madam?
   1. Good point. And these days there are other possibilities, too. But how do we resolve this? Surely not “Well played, Sir and/or Madame!!”
      1. I suppose it’s a conundrum that those who wish to remain anonymous will have to accept:-)
7. Genius!
8. I managed to get a few of these clues and I’m ashamed to say that having seen I Puritani live (a long time ago) I could not remember it today.
   I’m still struggling to see how we get US from Useless in 2d to make Angus.
   Incidentally David Moyes was a very successful manager of Preston North End before he went to Everton. David
   1. “U/S” is used as an abbreviation for “unserviceable”, hence useless. I have actually seen this on signs in real life (once on a Air Force base and once in a school, I think; it seems to be particularly a shorthand of technicians, at least in the UK.)

      It’s in Chambers.

      1. Many thanks -and to John. D
   2. US is slang for useless, probably from UnServiceable.
9. I tried Big Bill’s methodology once. Having a choice of 30 reds simply isn’t helpful.
   1. 🙂
10. 30 mins; this was no pushover. Long queue on the A45 at the Rushden Lakes roundabout today, but passed the time listening to some early Genesis.
    1. Tsk! You forgot your title.
11. I had it all worked and parsed (except for the “soldiers” at breakfast) well before this was blogged, and haven’t managed to get back to it till now. Was eager to be the first to post, but I couldn’t stay up that late! Ha.
    What is this “Hancock” stuff about?

    Edited at 2018-04-14 03:17 am (UTC)

    1. Good title.
       Tony Hancock – English comic actor, famous for “Hancock’s Half Hour” on radio and TV. Try googling for videos – e.g. The Blood Donor
    2. Hancock is just a little bit (let’s say at least a decade) before *my* time, but don’t let all these oldies know I said that, they’ll be aghast… Monty Python’s the point at which my comic sensibilities start, basically.
       1. He lives on, though. I’m reminded of him most often by my love of (whisper it) Pete Doherty, who peppers Hancock references about like confetti.

          Probably the most direct reference is the title of his song Lady, Don’t Fall Backwards, which is the book in The Missing Page…

          Edited at 2018-04-14 12:35 pm (UTC)

12. It’s rarely done, and it would give Verlaine a big thrill.
    1. I fear that this bus will explode if we press the pedal down to the metal any harder.
       1. I see that we are nearly there but feel it would be cheating if I were to make any more comments.
13. We are well over 100 comments now .. congratulations to the blogger and to the setter, whose crossword must surely have played some part 🙂 .. and to the anonymous troll too.
    Wonder how many comments before you get to page 3? Always been a fan of page 3
    1. I had p 3 before, then lost it. Is Zuckerberg getting his own back on the Ruskies, I wonder.
14. Not page 3 yet. I saw the comment count and thought I must see why. And now I am compelled to compare with an incident from my distant past… Whizzo toys for traveling executives, which got to about 700 comments.

    Edited at 2018-04-14 08:34 pm (UTC)

15. Only got to this today but glad I bothered. An enjoyable solve and my only fully correct, if slowish, one this / last week. (Approx an hour).
    Thank you Gothick Matt for the explanation of u/s, an abbreviation I don’t recall coming across before.

    Baffled by anon’s criticism – for my part I love reading the blog and its occasional quirkiness only adds to its charm

16. But disappointed in 28a with by adjacent to the answer which started with by

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