Times 27049 – The Lord Bless You and Keep You

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I was awful slow to get my last three, failing unaccountably to see 22 across, 16 down and 21 down. I thought this was a very nice puzzle – a degree or two harder than your average Monday with an immediate appearance of the upper-class young lady to reinforce last week’s tutorial. This week’s music, sung at that most memorable and mould-breaking of royal weddings [Hallelujah! Amen, brother, lurve is the answer!], must be John Rutter’s The Lord Bless You and Keep You.

Post-blog note: Nice to see the reference to the Australian Magoo at 10 across.

Cry for help: Does anyone know how to deal with a ‘Your login cookie seems to have disappeared’ message/situation. I can no longer comment on my PCs.

ACROSS

1 Large antelope chasing mammal over plateau (9)
TABLELAND – BAT reversed + L + ELAND
6 Street urchin playin’ for money (5)
GAMIN – GAMIN[g]
9 Promiscuous woman rebuffed by theatre luvvies? (7)
SLAPPER – REP PALS reversed
10 Francophile presumably mentioned plant growth (7)
GALLNUT – If you are a lover of things French,, you might be called a Gaul Nut
11 Definitely a period of nine months? (3)
YEA – YEA[r], i.e. 3/4 of YEAR
12 Look carefully at what makes a typical Tory? (11)
CONTEMPLATE – an average Tory could be made from a CON TEMPLATE. Moving swiftly on…
14 Academic stumbled over words at the outset (6)
FELLOW – FELL + O (over) + initial letter of W[ords]
15 Beach souvenir girl left, eaten by marine creajture (3,5)
SEA SHELL – SHE + L in SEAL
17 Trains do crash in part of arch (8)
INTRADOS – anagram* of TRAINS DO
19 Provide drink before journey regularly (6)
SUPPLY – SUP + PLY
22 Face punishment, omitting initial on census (11)
COUNTENANCE – [p]ENANCE on COUNT
23 Boat that’s unwieldy however capsizes (3)
TUB – BUT reversed
25 Here’s what I think about former style of painting (7)
IMPASTO – IMO around PAST
27 Met doctor on train (3,4)
RAN INTO – ON TRAIN*
28 Brave chap guarding borders of Thebes (5)
GUTSY – GUY around T[hebe]S
29 Not many are inclined to shelter on coast (9)
FREEWHEEL – RE in (sheltered by) FEW + HEEL (‘are inclined’)

DOWN

1 Portion of feta’s typically pleasing to the palate (5)
TASTY – hidden
2 Tussle fixing plug? Tool needed (7)
BRADAWL – AD in BRAWL
3 Assume worker will swallow yellow linctus (11)
EXPECTORANT – OR (heraldic yellow) in EXPECT + ANT
4 Displaying top-quality jewellery item (6)
AIRING – AI RING
5 Bank introducing easy loans from the outset? Nonsense (8)
DOGGEREL – DOGGER (sand bank near mouth of Thames) + initial letters of E[asy] L[oans]
6 Upper-class female in pin-up (3)
GEL – LEG reversed
7 Artist briefly pens label for pictures (7)
MONTAGE – TAG in MONE[t]
8 Hardly our French friend (3,6)
NOT REALLY – NOTRE (‘our’ in French) + ALLY
13 Beyond bend German river turns, skirting northern region that’s unknown? (8,3)
PASTURES NEW – PAST (beyond) + U (bend) + N in WESER reversed
14 Wincing a bit during lively dance (9)
FLINCHING – INCH in FLING
16 Finish series of festivities, principally (5,3)
ROUND OFF – ROUND (series) + OF + F[estivities]
18 Advertise cut of steak in Tweets regularly (7)
TRUMPET – RUMP in alternate letters of TwEeTs
20 Series of books kept by coppers showing future promise? (7)
POTENCE – OT in PENCE
21 Unqualified, one abandons English course (6)
ENTREE – ENT[i]RE + E; could be appetiser or main course
24 Cook first portions of beef rib with alternative to lard? (5)
BROIL – first letters of B[eef] R[ib] + OIL
26 Christian group having variable influence (3)
SAY – SA (Salvation Army) + Y

46 comments on “Times 27049 – The Lord Bless You and Keep You”

  1. Academic stumbled over words at the outset

    I think this may be FELL plus O for over and W(ords).

  2. Slowed down by some DNKs, and by some obtuseness. DNK SLAPPER, for one (I flung in DEMIREP, soon flung it out), or INTRADOS, and I didn’t know that a linctus was an expectorant. I took ‘large antelope’ as the definition of ELAND, which left me looking for a 4-letter mammal. And I wasted time at SUPPLY, taking ‘regularly’ to be an every-other-letter indicator. Biffed 13d, and glad I did. COD to FREEWHEEL.
  3. I made rather slow progress on this one most of the way but it suddenly came together at the end so that I finished rather abruptly in 45 minutes when I had been convinced I was heading for an hour or thereabouts. DK GALLNUT or INTRADOS neither of which seems to have come up before.
  4. Didn’t know the Dogger bank, nor that PASTURES NEW is the way the Brits say “greener pastures,” but they wordplay was as clear as that for INTRADOS, which is new to me too. I think I might have heard of a BRADAWL sometime, somewhere. My last one in was FREEWHEEL.
    1. At last he rose, and twitch’d his mantle blue:
      To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

      The closing lines of Milton’s “Lycidas”.

      1. The adjective follows the noun more often in poetry, and in older poetry at that, of course. I suppose the popular locution likely derives from Milton.
    2. It is not just the “Brits” who quote Milton: “Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new” and the pastures are not necessarily greener.
      1. I never would suggest any such thing, Mr. Anon. Milton is part of our common poetic heritage. But, according to some online sources, Brits use the locution “pastures new” where Americans would say “greener pastures.” I speculated that the former phrase may have become popular because of familiarity with the passage from Milton.
  5. 40 mins pre breakfast on the IPad.
    Intrados is another obscure word as anagram or OWAA! as I will now refer to them.
    Otherwise, I really enjoyed it.
    Mostly I liked Freewheel.
    Now to drive home via Northallerton and stock up on Lewis and Cooper Gin&Lime marmalade.
    Thanks setter and Ulaca.
    1. You may already know this, but the key to avoiding traffic jams in Northallerton (in particular those caused by the level crossing at the north end of town) is to steer clear of the high street. Park at Tesco’s, and use East Road instead.
      1. Thanks for the tip. It was very quiet at 10:30 this morning.
        Home now with 6 Fat Rascals and a stock of marmalade.
  6. Near enough 22 minutes,quite a lot of them hoping there was such a thing as a FROGNUT.
    I knew GAMINE but not its male counterpart. Do gamins grow up to become red-faced splutterers over the Telegraph?
    I couldn’t fully parse IMPASTO, wondering where the O came from. And I slowed for a while wondering how CHIN=bit in 14d.
    Today’s favourites were the delightfully dotty CON TEMPLATE and the Franglais NOTRE ALLY.
    Thanks for the blog Ulaca: I shall now have the tenor line from Rutter’s very pretty piece running through my head all day. There are worse things!
  7. ….just lean on me.

    No “fakin’ it” here, and cleared in 10:10

    FOI GAMIN
    LOI SAY – took a while to spot Salvation Army
    COD the wonderfully Franglais NOT REALLY, and also liked CONTEMPLATE, and the economically elegant RAN INTO.

    Biffed FREEWHEEL and PASTURES NEW, so thanks to Ulaca for enlightenment.

    DNK POTENCE (would expect “potency” ?) but the wordplay was friendly.

  8. I made heavy weather of this. Nearly gave up a few times. Eventually rounded off in 49:48.

    I see Guy popping up again in today’s puzzle. We had Sable yesterday. Is our new blogger going to appear in all the crosswords from now on ?

    COD Contemplate.

    Edited at 2018-05-28 08:36 am (UTC)

    1. Villa were hard done by inasmuch as Fulham should have played three quarters of the match with ten men. OTOH, the Cottagers had two of the three star men on show, and they will grace the Premier League.
  9. 31:03. Not helped by having CONCENTRATE for 12a, EXPECTORATE for 3d and thinking 14d had to end in SOME. Sorted it out in the end ENTREE my LOI. FAvourites today the simple RAN INTO and the sneaky SUPPLY – anyone else looking for a drink + ORE from journey?
    Chewy enough for a bank holiday. Maybe I can get on and make my cheese now.
    1. SUPPLY came easily – as a cab driver I used to “ply for hire”. But the “ore” theory is very plausible, and might have caused me a problem were it so !
  10. 17:55. Tricky and enjoyable. I didn’t know INTRADOS but I remembered BRADAWL from somewhere.
    My technique for getting round the ‘forgotten login cookie’ problem is to remember my password. I’m always slightly puzzled by these comments since all the devices I solve on seem to forget who I am on a regular basis.
      1. Oh good. If that hadn’t worked I’d have pulled out the big guns: turn it off and turn it on again. Once you’ve tried that there’s literally nothing anyone can do and you have to create a new identity.
  11. 19 mins for a puzzle I found chewier than a lot of Monday ones. I finished the LHS a lot quicker than the RHS, and I ended with CONTEMPLATE after PASTURES NEW finally fell into place when I remembered the Weser.
  12. Dogger Bank is more accurately halfway between the east coast of Yorkshire and the west coast of Denmark.

    DC

  13. Tougher than a usual Monday, but you rather hope for that on High Days and Holidays. Two leaps of faith required for INTRADOS and GALLNUT, both of which were strongly indicated by wordplay, and certainly looked like real words, but then again, so does momble.
  14. No sunshine this morning, so the divine COUNTENANCE hasn’t been lifted up yet. It’s Bank Holiday and a hard rain’s a-gonna fall. We’re off to see Joan Baez at the Albert Hall tonight. The Madonna’s not ours for free but £65 each isn’t bad. I do hope she sings Diamonds and Rust. No delivery today, so I’ve had to go to the garage for a paper. 45 minutes on this with LOI BRAD(awl) as a plug emerging eventually from deep recesses. DNK GALLNUT but it had to be. Presumably the nut cracks into three parts. I may have known INTRADOS but needed all crossers. COD to PASTURES NEW. Nice puzzle. Thank you U and setter.
  15. It took a while but I did finally remember Dogger Bank from the shipping forecasts on the radio in my extreme youth. Some very neat stuff in this one. I got stuck trying to make Aintree work in 21d. TRUMPET was a nicely succinct reminder of you-know-who and his (failed – what else) steak venture. 19.23 Good grief – I just saw that we also had “pence”…..

    Edited at 2018-05-28 10:35 am (UTC)

  16. I thought this was enjoyable stuff. Just the right amount of head-scratching and took far too long to see where 29 ac was coming from. 23 mins.

  17. 31:40 finishing up in the NE with doggerel and unknown gallnut. Good fun. As expected a slightly stiffer test than usual to give us all something to on the bank holiday. Spent some time looking at a few the wrong way round but got there in the end. Intrados unknown or forgotten but selected as the likeliest arrangement of remaining anagrist around checkers (preferred at least to intrasod).
  18. Late today as had no internet until a short while ago – three inches of rain in five hours yesterday, although I see a town in Florida has surpassed that. Had to rescue floating plants.

    23′, with same comments as others re unknown words, and GAL for GEL, thought it didn’t seem right.

    The Rutter is one of my all-time favourite anthems, and a fantastic prayer. Amen.

    1. One of my all time favourite singing gigs was at John Rutter’s wedding where he had all his favourite choral pieces… and none of his own music. Parsons Ave Maria, Brahms How lovely are thy dwellings fair, Durufle Ubi Caritas among others. And he came and thanked each member of the choir individually. What a nice man!
  19. No big problem with this one, 17 minutes, although Pastures new went in unparsed. INTRADOS a guess from the letters available.CoD COMTEMPLATE.
  21. Had some trouble finding the blog from Google today. The puzzle is actually number 27049 – transposition error in the blog title. Thanks to blogger even so.
  22. I found this distinctly tough for a Monday, taking 38 minutes. INTRADOS and POTENCE were both NHO, but that’s not enough to explain my slow time; perhaps I was just on the wrong wavelength.

    As a completely irrelevant aside, I spent the bank holiday on a roof, re-roofing it. Mrs. Thud has told me that I am too old for that sort of thing, so I really had no choice but to do it. The downside is that I cannot now disclose the numerous aches, pains and minor flesh-wounds for fear of an I-told-you-so.

  24. Didn’t know INTRADOS so had to choose blind between that and istradon. Went for the latter, as it sounded a bit Greek. Obscure words clued by anagrams…..
  26. Gradually catching up on the long weekend’s crosswords, having spent Friday to Monday at the Great North Folk Festival with a great bunch of people and my guitar. Met loads of new friends. I love being retired! Biffed INTRADOS as it sounded similar to REREDOS. IMPASTO vaguely familiar. Liked CON-TEMPLATE and NOTRE-ALLY. The unknown GALLNUT LOI. 29:21. Thanks setter and U. Now on to today’s collection. I doubt whether I’ll manage all the Jumbos though.

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