Times 27151 – A dragonfly flew by, perhaps….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 63 minutes
Music: Magic Lady, Mandy Morton and the Spriguns

Yes, a bit of a shock for a Monday puzzle.   This should not really have been as difficult as I made it, but the general level of the puzzle had me reaching for complexities that were not there.   If the puzzle had been even more difficult, I might have done better.  But you certainly will have to throw away your biffing pen, and pay careful attention to what is going on in each clue, if you want to finish.

What always amazes me about these more difficult puzzles is that the answers are perfectly ordinary words and phrases, and there is nothing that should be unfamiliar to a moderately well-educated solver.   When answers like ‘never’ and ‘Athens’ give you a lot of trouble, and the clues are completely easy and natural, you know the puzzle must be of very high quality.

If anyone is curious about tonight’s music, the whole album is available on YouTube.  It’s not for everyone…..

Across
1 I don’t know where ship may be heading, or what passenger may need? (8)
PASSPORT – PASS + PORT.  My STLOI, believe it or not; although I had ‘port’, I could not imagine what the first element must be.
5 Correspondence course’s leader wearing a tie (6)
ACCORD – A (C[orrespondence]) CORD
10 No way in, game finally remarkably short (5)
NEVER – [i]N [gam]E + VER[y], as indicated, quite tough.
11 Out of shape, seeking familiar place — working out (9)
FATHOMING – FAT + HOMING, which I think I’ve seen before.
12 Painting clasped, an original (9)
LANDSCAPE – anagram of CLASPED, AN.
13 Chiefs formerly cross, by the sound of it? (5)
EXECS – sounds like EX X.
14 Orange-yellow salve initially applied to slight cut (7)
SAFFRON – S[alve] + AFFRON[t].
16 Old fogey, eighty-one perhaps? (6)
SQUARE – double definition, the second being 9 x 9.
18 Huge hole right behind box (6)
CRATER – CRATE + R.
20 Ultimately, glamour all there is about it: flash Italian resort (3,4)
SAN REMO – SAN([glamou]R)E + MO
22 Completely covered in straw, a shed (5)
AWASH – hidden in [str]AW A SH[ed]
23 Asian giant oak’s last big acorn cracked (4,5)
KING COBRA –  [oa]K + anagram of  BIG ACORN.
25 Aged don is awfully determined (9)
DIAGNOSED – anagram of AGED DONE IS.
26 Decency in good people (5)
GRACE – G + RACE.
27 Negligent fail again? (6)
REMISS – double definition, one jocular.
28 Bottom Irish number, reportedly? (8)
DERRIERE – sounds like DERRY AIR, the only chestnut in the puzzle, and one I had a hard time remembering with the unpromising crossers.
Down
1 Optimist’s carpet acquiring shine (8)
PANGLOSS – PAN + GLOSS, my LOI.   I spent some time on ‘panelist’ and ‘penalise’ before seeing the obvious.  Curiously, I had though of and dismissed Candide at the beginning of my solve.
2 All dwarfs, small and equal (5)
SEVEN – S + EVEN, another one that required far too much though.
3 Swine bagged first in physics, gold mark in college (4,11)
PORK SCRATCHINGS – P[hysics] + OR +K(SCRATCH)INGS.   I thought for a long time that ‘college’ was the literal, and I’ll bet you did too!
4 Stop the music (7)
REFRAIN – Double definition.
6 Conservative icon gets Labour rattled, almost (5,3,2,5)
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR – C + anagram of ICON GETS LABOUR, with a brilliantly hidden literal.
7 Large plant as it happens in books, always coming up (5,4)
OLIVE TREE – O(LIVE)T + EER backwards.
8 Process like the litmus test ends (6)
DIGEST – DIG + [th]E [litmu]S [tes]T
9 Capital letters reading across from left of keyboard? (6)
ATHENS – A, THEN S.   I’ll bet this one kept many solvers guessing, even if they biffed it.
15 Strong stocking material with a safety device (4,5)
FIRE ALARM – FI(REAL + A)RM.
17 Observe something other than a buzzer outside initially needed (4,4)
NOTA BENE – NOT A BE(N)E, our first Latin phrase.
19 Libertine in cap of khaki, one covered in spots (6)
RAKISH – RA(K[haki], I)SH.
20 Work I need is yet to be rescheduled (4,3)
SINE DIE – anagram of I NEED IS, the second Latin phrase.
21 Run, don’t walk beneath it! (6)
LADDER – Double definition.
24 A pair to hold up (5)
BRACE – Double defintion.

50 comments on “Times 27151 – A dragonfly flew by, perhaps….”

  1. DNF. Bah! I had all but 28ac done in about half an hour but just couldn’t get that last one. I was thinking homophone but of number in an Irish accent and ended up with defreeze. I knew it was wrong when I entered it (as if The Times would allow anything so atrocious) but couldn’t think my way out of the cul-de-sac I had entered. Perhaps I went into this Monday challenge a little too lightly, there were so many neat bits of wordplay and definitions suddenly appearing from nowhere, it really required a bit more concentration and application.
    1. One of the more amusing sporting nicknames (a low bar, I know) is the England rugby player Billy Twelvetrees, who was christened “36” by his captain at Leicester, Geordan Murphy, because, as the latter would explain in his Dublin accent, twelve trees are tirty-six.
  2. I failed on both SAN REMO (nho) and NOTA BENE. For 28ac, the closest I got was the charming if oddly-named beach resort of Sun Sera, noted for its sun and sea. I’m blaming my failure on the fact that I’m still jat-legged from a recent US jaunt.
  3. ….90 mins. I lost count as lunch was over and had to keep glancing at the unfinished puzzle propped up on the desk. Of course, the pesky work continually stunts the trains of thought. Could not pass SAN REMO but the checkers seemed clear enough, PANGLOSS I had vaguely heard of, PORK SCRATCHINGS was a neat clue, and SQUARE a surprising kickself. LOI – DERRIERE – sadly had to resort to checkers. Cleverer than most Mondays….
  5. A few weeks since I tried the main cryptic but I had a go today and really enjoyed it. A couple of hours spent in happy contemplation with a few laughs along the way. Very witty, clever, thought-provoking – everything a Times Cryptic should be. Many thanks to setter and to vinyl for an excellent blog. John M
  6. I did really badly today, less than half the clues solved – felt terrible as I am usually capable of completing a Monday puzzle. I’m sorry, I still haven’t worked out how you get to ATHENS and SAN REMO (which I’ve heard of and visited). Could somebody explain please? Oh, and I can’t believe that CLOSE AND NO CIGAR can possibly be a real expression – how and why?
    Best wishes to all and keep up the good work
    Richard J
    1. If you look at the keys on the middle row of a QWERTY keyboard next to the caps lock, you have an A then an S. AthenS. Ultimately glamour is R, the last letter of the word glamour. “All there” is SANE, ie not daft. All there is round (about) R, thus San Re, then a flash is a moment, or short time ie MO. Assemble as Zabadak would say. A cigar is often a reward for an achievement so almost succeeding is getting close to a result, but you don’t get the prize.
  7. 34 months later, did this online in less than a third of the first time around.

    As before, DERRIERE was the last one in!!

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