Times 27337 – I guess why that’s why they call it the blues

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This is an eminently Mondayish sort of puzzle that will terrorise no horses. Indeed, even donkeys and mules – as it were – are likely to find that fear is not the primary emotion with which they are dealing when they come to grips with this offering. Actually, 1 across may well be the toughest clue; so if, like me, you start elsewhere, then you may be at a fractional advantage. Anyway, enough of me – well, no, actually, I was about to say that this took me 15 minutes. However, I expect some very fast times from the like of mohn, Keriothe and the other speedsters. Away we go…   

ACROSS
1 Female hit hard by awful film swindle (8)
FLIMFLAM – F (Female) anagram* (indicated by awful) of FILM LAM (hit hard); I sort of knew the nonsense meaning but not the swindle one. I’ve lived a sheltered life.
6 Dissenting group dropping original lawsuit (6)
ACTION – [f]ACTION
9 Pub with short lease, empty (6)
BARREN – BAR REN[t]
10 Set off from Berkshire college in time (8)
DETONATE – ETON in DATE; sorry, but for me, who used to live in the area, ETON will always be in  BUCKS
11 Numerous staff close to embassy (4)
MANY – MAN [embass]Y
12 Film everyone in wide thoroughfare (4,6)
WALL STREET – ALL in W STREET
14 Periodical trouble working around ornamental tree (8)
MAGNOLIA – MAG (periodical) reversal (around) of AIL (trouble) ON (working)
16 Play‘s length also reviewed (4)
LOOT – L TOO reversed: I know Joe Orton wrote it, but that’s the sum of my knowledge of this piece
18 Pretty good food, reportedly (4)
FAIR – sounds like FARE
19 Scrooge has English note hidden in top drawer? (8)
EBENEZER – Eben-Ezer means the stone of help in Hebrew and is the place where the Israelites and the Philistines went at it hammer and tongs on a number of occasions. I only mention this because I have no idea how the clue works.Thanks to Kevin for the parsing (though since it is a shoo-in as finalist of The Biff of the Year Show, it will be of only academic interest for many): E (English) N (note) in BEEZER (top drawer, as in the PG Wodehousian sense of ‘What ho, Jeeves, that wag really is rather beezer!’). BEEZER can also – apparently – mean nose, person or chap, most attractive and ‘an extreme example of its kind’.
21 Point out top equestrian (10)
SHOWJUMPER – SHOW (point out) JUMPER (top)
22 Overpriced close (4)
DEAR – double definition (DD)
24 Ready for posting? Private, ultimately, in a mad rush (8)
STAMPEDE – STAMPED (ready for posting) [privat]E
26 Number heading off fool my younger sibling (3,3)
OUR KID – [f]OUR (heading off) KID (I fool you not)
27 Small vehicle, a black Beetle? (6)
SCARAB – S CAR A B
28 Work on mock trial (5,3)
DUMMY RUN – DUMMY (mock, as in, on trial as a prototype) followed by RUN (work)

DOWN

2 		Monk astride large beast (5)
LLAMA – L in LAMA
3 Slightly drunk warden, silly clown (5-6)
MERRY-ANDREW – MERRY (slightly drunk) WARDEN* for the name first given to a clown or buffoon in the 17th century 
4 Volatile fellow rounding on one preferring his own company (4,4)
LONE WOLF – FELLOW* around ON; I always think of Lone Wolf McQuade, which is odd, as I have never seen the film. 
5 Pot from medieval times? BC? (6-3,6)
MIDDLE-AGE SPREAD – MIDDLE AGES pre-AD
6 Performer‘s skill is evident at the end (6)
ARTIST – ART IS [eviden]T
7 Loaf in old money? (3)
TIN – a tin can refer to the loaf as well as the tin in which it is baked, which may cause some confusion in a bakery if you’ve just hired someone with no previous experience from the local Jobcentre. Or perhaps a lot of fun…
8 Honest one managed to win (2,3,4)
ON THE NOSE – HONEST ONE*; in betting parlance, this means to win only, i.e. no place
13 Wave hat in race for skaters in New York? (6,5)
ROLLER DERBY – ROLLER DERBY; well, yes, if you were asked to come up with a pithy name a for a roller-skating tournament in Central Park, you might choose Roller Derby, though I remain to be convinced that you will win 
15 Indifferent in a way to quote raised (9)
APATHETIC – A PATH (way) CITE reversed
17 Valuable family piece the man and I left in vault? (8)
HEIRLOOM – HE I L in ROOM
20 Splendid agent aboard coach going north (6)
SUPERB – REP in BUS all reversed
23 Farewell to the French about to depart (5)
ADIEU – DIE (to depart) in AU (‘to the’ in French if you are speaking masculine)
25 Cause harm to planet, not the first in system (3)
MAR – MAR[s] (S – the first letter in system – is deleted)

71 comments on “Times 27337 – I guess why that’s why they call it the blues”

  1. A disappointing 11:30. Nothing was particularly difficult but not enough of the “easy” stuff went in as quickly as it might have.

    DNK Merry Andrew and the clever BC part of Middle-A S was completely wasted on me.

    Our kid known from real life.

    1. Yes, the rift between Mrs Charlton senior and Lady Charlton seemed to accentuate the differences in character of the two brothers.
  3. Finished rather quickly but some biffery required to do so, especially with the ‘beezer’ which was unknown. MERRY-ANDREW new to me as well. I also never saw the ‘pre AD’ hiding in there for BC, which is an admirable piece of setting.
    ROLLER DERBY still exists over here although happily no longer occupying any TV time that I know of. It’s more of a professional wrestling exhibition on skates than it is a race or a sport. Featured a banked racing oval with 2 teams trying essentially to get one of their members to lap members of the other team, aided by a lot of physical contact among the skaters, who often were launched off the high side of the banked oval, flying over the rail and landing, or more accurately, crashing outside. Fighting between the teams was neither discouraged nor rare. A real crowd pleaser, that. Regards.

    Edited at 2019-04-29 04:07 pm (UTC)

      1. Do you mean the movie? Well, the roller derby didn’t involve fatalities, nor did it involve any actual balls.
  4. A rather remarkable time of 19.23, which I’ve exceeded a few times recently on the QC. To be fair it was a bif fest with a number unparsed but still I’m in shock, as I’m usually nearer the hour mark on the odd occasion that I do manage to finish. I knew OUR KID as it’s how Jack Charlton refers to Sir Bobby.
    Thanks for the blog
  5. What a nice start to my evening -a Monday puzzle where I’d solved 3 or 4 clues before going out and a Charlie Bigham lasagne for dinner-just for me, as my wife has gone out. Both were tasty and I managed to finish both.
    LOI the puzzle was ON THE NOSE; I did not spot the anagram till right at the end. Prior to that the unknown Merry Andrew appeared as did the tin loaf. I liked Our Kid and Showjumper.COD to Middle Age Spread.
    I did not time myself but I was much slower than plett11, my fellow QCer. Congrats to him. David

    Edited at 2019-04-29 07:11 pm (UTC)

  6. Like Plett11, I’m also in shock – and for the same reason! A pb for PB of about 18 minutes as supposed to my usual hour or so. I found everything went in easily and parsed in that time, apart from Ebenezer and the latter part of Middle aged spread, which were biffed, and Merry Andrew, which I got from wordplay. It’s a charming phrase which I hope I don’t forget 😊 But i was really entertained by 5d even if I didn’t fully get it, so COD to that. Thanks to the setter for a confidence boost and to Ulaca for the (as ever) entertaining and helpful explanations.
  7. 4m20, not a bad time, much of it spent agonising over whether a TIN could really be a loaf. But it seemed much better than TAN, TEN, TON or TUN, so in it eventually went.
    1. That’s insanely fast. I could barely write the answers down at that speed!
  9. 15:15. A swift romp with no real need to switch the brain on at any stage. Hesitated over Ebenezer which I wanted to spell Ebeneezer, possibly due to The Shamen spelling their biggest hit Ebeneezer Goode (well he was the main geezer), now there’s an ear worm. DNK merry-andrew but it seemed probable. Pre-AD also wasted on me. Always good fun to race through one like this.
  10. Chasing the < 1 hour goal!

    FOI 11. LOI 7. COD 5 but also liked 23 which had multiple readings and 7 which was pithy (groan…) . 19 was biffed as DNK beezer. Like other’s heard the earworm.

    Completed both weekend xw’s – Saturday’s was another PB at around 87 mins so the times are coming down (groan…). Sunday’s was super-slow – around 6 hours in various nibbles, but got there eventually. Now summoning courage to have a look at Mephisto…

    That leaves my 3 month challenge at 10/12 so far.

    Thanks to all
    WS

  12. Thanks setter and ulaca
    As I slowly trawl my nearly year old pile of our syndicated puzzles, found this one of the quickest grid fills that I have done. Having said that I couldn’t, like others, parse EBENEZER after not knowing the beezer term. Didn’t see the clever finish of SPREAD in 5d and took ADIEU to be a basically straightforward clue rather than the clever charade that it was.
    Started with the gimme LLAMA and finished with LOOT and OUR KID (both of which I had to confirm afterwards as a ‘play’ and a term for a ‘younger sibling’). Think that the two latter unparsed ones were my joint clues of the day.

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