Times 27061 – Eternal summer gilds them yet

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
By the time you read this (or not), I will be on the first leg of my Greek tour, which starts in the Ionian island of Lefkada before moving to the Aegean island of Chios, with a stopover in Athens to see how much of the city they’ve finished since my last stay there as a callow undergraduate 40 years ago. Yes, I am older than I look. Anyway, this was your typical Monday fare, not meze at all, in fact, ouzing with class, putting the world to retsina manner of speaking. 20 minutes.

Ας αρχίσουμε…

ACROSS

1 Novel, impenetrable, given to us (4,5)
HARD TIMES – HARD TIMES (us)
6 Drunk unwilling to buy a round of drinks? (5)
TIGHT – double definition
9 Weak local network? Good north of the border (7)
LANGUID -LAN GUID
10 Ruler in mood executed soldiers (7)
EMPEROR – [t]EMPER OR
11 A second class property (5)
ASSET – A S SET
12 Complaint among posh-sounding group? (9)
INFECTION – if you were a posh bloke or gel, one might say ‘Which fection is Cressida in?’
13 University dress mostly rejected in holiday island (5)
CORFU – U FROC[k] reversed
14 Check on English artist beginning to rummage amongst his blessed rulers (9)
HIERARCHS – HIS contains E RA R (first letter of rummage) CH (check)
17 Quickly peruse half of screed filling two pages (5-4)
SPEED-READ – [scr]EED in SPREAD
18 Trouble repulsed in Lyon, naturally (5)
ANNOY – reverse hidden
19 Golfing tournament participant is out (2,3,4)
IN THE OPEN – If you qualify for the Open Championship, you are indeed ‘in the Open’
22 Key European state (5)
MAINE – MAIN E
24 Number one drink in West (7)
IMAGINE – I GIN in MAE gives us the world’s worst song, just edging out ‘My way’
25 Splitting pieces of granite (7)
TEARING – anagram* of GRANITE
26 Family member, German one, returning from Cologne after vacation (5)
NIECE – EIN reversed C[ologn]E
27 Completely ignored single store in back rooms (9)
SIDELINED – I DELI in DENS reversed

DOWN

1 Husband with a meal ticket to get a sweetmeat (5)
HALVA – H A LV A; oh, for the good old days when LV stood for luncheon voucher and not an overpriced handbag
2 Tigers run wild? Sounds about right (5,4)
RINGS TRUE – TIGERS RUN*
3 Investment secured, we hear, and set up with zero loss (5,4)
TRUST FUND – ‘TRUSSED’ F[o]UND
4 Film depicting new detective’s rise in force, say (8,7)
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS – N DI reversed in MIGHT (force) EXPRESS (say) for the film that did quite a bit for the Greek tourism trade, I would 24
5 He tunes fiddle, if discordant, for players (9,6)
SHEFFIELD UNITED – HE TUNES FIDDLE IF* for the team that once boasted Tony Currie. Keep an eye out for the goalie with concussion.
6 Head in charge of subject (5)
TOPIC – TOP IC
7 Author‘s work right superior to “King and I” (5)
GORKI – GO R over K I
8 Truants wandering round New York initially become unpleasant (4,5)
TURN NASTY – N Y in TRUANTS*
13 Spanish performers I catch doing cartwheel (9)
CASTILIAN – CAST I NAIL (as in ‘the cops caught/nailed the crook’) reversed
15 Large weapon beneath a cover, we’re told, is part of early warning system? (5,4)
ALARM CALL – A L ARM sounds CAUL (a portion of the amniotic sac sometimes covering a child’s head at birth); not sure why ‘part’
16 Rider‘s state of health (9)
CONDITION – DD
20 Guy the man sees from time to time (5)
TEASE – alternate letters in T[h]E[m]A[n]S[e]E[s]
21 Cream topping for eclair with few calories (5)
ELITE – E[clair] LITE
23 Guardian leader penned by journalists was slightly moving? (5)
EDGED – G in ED ED

77 comments on “Times 27061 – Eternal summer gilds them yet”

  1. Neat and a few nice touches. No real hold-ups, but one real error: The lesser-known medieval Italian author GORRI at 7dn. Gorky well-known a la BoltonWanderer, but Gorki never seen. I didn’t do the recent puzzle everyone is referrring to where it appeared. Oh, well.
  2. Always happy to see my home town get a mention.

    When I was a lot younger it could be quite dangerous to reveal your allegiance to either of the two Sheffield teams without first establishing whether you were in enemy territory. Nowadays the performances of the two teams are generally so languid (good word) that most Sheffielders would settle for either team doing something unusual – e.g. actually winning something.

    Time: all correct in 37 minutes.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Edited at 2018-06-11 02:41 pm (UTC)

    1. My mother’s boss, before she was married, was a director of Sheffield United .. so I support Liverpool

  3. Good choice, Jerry.

    Both Wednesday and United made the occasional foray into the old Division One but neither could make it stick.

    My favourite all-time game was a friendly at Hillsborough back in the sixties between Wednesday and Santos. Pele sent poor old Ron Springett about five different ways before tapping in a penalty.

    Needless to say, Santos won 5-2 and I think they only allowed Wednesday to score a couple out of politeness. Happy days!

    Regards, Dave.

  4. Another with castanets. Also a biffed influenza didn’t help either. That left the NE a little difficult to finish until Turn Nasty revealed my error. Surprised so many didn’t know Halva almost pure sugar with flavouring.
  5. Around 20 minutes, but I didn’t see HALVA at first pass, so decided to come back to it. I didn’t remember to do that though, and just as well, since even now I wouldn’t have thought of it, and probably would have spelled it HALVAH. And the ‘LV’ bit isn’t within my experience. So really a DNF. Regards.
  6. 22:41 so fairly quick especially since I found my mind wandering a bit during the solve (my fault nothing to do with the puzzle which I found very enjoyable). Slight pause to recall LV and halva and trying to recall the caul at 15dn where I think I was thinking of cowl which might be a cover but is certainly not a homophone for call (in my accent at least).
  7. 13:57. Mostly straightforward but with a few tricky words.
    I thought ‘weak’ was a bit, well, weak for LANGUID.
    I am very much in the ‘unutterably dreadful dirge-doggerel’ camp when it comes to 24ac. Has there ever been a greater qualitative contrast between the collaborative and solo efforts of a pair of songwriters?

    Edited at 2018-06-11 05:51 pm (UTC)

  8. Google “Cynthia Payne” for an imaginative use for luncheon vouchers,

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