Times 27499 – Can you tell a green field…..

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Music: Mahler, Symphony 9, Bernstein/Concertgebouw
Time: 44 minutes

Once again, Monday is no longer very Mondayish, at least in my neck of the woods.  There was some clever stuff here, and as I biffed many of the longer answers I am still figuring out some rather devious cryptics.   Clues I thought were simply vague pointers to the answer are turning out to be perfectly conventional wordplay, very cleverly hidden.    Some solvers may be on the wavelength, but many will struggle – or so I hope, not wanting to be the only one who couldn’t see the obvious.

Tonight’s music is a fine performance, and I highly recommend it.   The two-LP set pressed in Germany is quite rare, and commands a rather stiff price from classical record collectors in Japan and Korea.

Across
1 Writer almost prepared to accept plagiarism (6)
SCRIBE – S(CRIB)E[t].   Once of my last ones in, I needed a few checkers to see it.
4 A very regular writer, skipping intro, may be a cagey type (8)
AVIARIST – A + V + [d]IARIST, a cagey clue, indeed.
10 Heavenly room accommodating one in fancy seat (9)
CELESTIAL – CEL(EST(I)A)L, where the middle is an anagram of SEAT.
11 Exhaust American power restraining group of countries (3,2)
USE UP – US(EU)P.
12 Impress after releasing singular song (3)
LAY – [s]LAY, using the slang meaning of the verb.
13 Foreign areas sadly kept back in recording meal option (6,5)
CAESAR SALAD – C(anagram of AREAS + ALAS backwards)D.
14 “Reduced Beauty Treatment” covering small shop sign (6)
FASCIA – FA(S)CIA[l], my FOI, and I saw right away this puzzle was not going to be an easy one.
16 Wild financier finally not in favour of investing in soccer team (7)
FRANTIC – F([financie]R ANTI)C, where the enclosing letters are the abbreviatino for Football Club…..soccer team, indeed!
19 Support I’ll back, beset by endless stress (7)
TRELLIS – [s]TRE(I”LL backwards)S[s].   It took me a while to realize that ‘stress’ was being used to indicate ‘stress’!
20 Way the world won’t end: in a catastrophe, finally (6)
AVENUE – A(VENU[s])[catastroph]E……well, one of the worlds.
22 All steroids in sport? Incompatible (3-8)
ILL-ASSORTED – Anagram of ALL STEROIDS, one of the few straightforward clues.
25 Dance, taking lead in balletic work (3)
BOP – B[allectic} + OP.
26 Good performance at golf a delight, moving last to first (5)
EAGLE – A GLEE with the last letter moved to the front.
27 Old fogey to rage about source of expensive body spray (9)
DEODORANT – D(E[xpensive])ODO + RANT.
28 Utterly wrong about article offering protection (8)
TUTELARY – Anagram of UTTERLY around A, referring chiefly to tutelary spirits in Roman mythology.
29 This obliges fellow in good shape to spurn hospitals (6)
FEALTY – F + [h]EALT[h]Y – remove more than one hospital!
Down
1 Start of spring with a chill in Mediterranean location (6)
SICILY – S + ICILY,   If you put SACOLD, you lose.
2 Regarding length over Scottish course? Excellent for run (5-4)
RELAY-RACE – RE  + L + AYR  + ACE, an extended charade if there every was one.
3 Essential one Conservative supports party, mostly (5)
BASIC – BAS[h] + I + C.
5 Suggestive behaviour, maybe, with French kept in proportion (6,8)
VULGAR FRACTION – VULGAR (FR)ACTION.
6 Something you shouldn’t attempt when prepared to save face (1,4,4)
A MUGS GAME – A(MUG)S + GAME.   I had supposed this was a silly cryptic definition while solving.
7 Principle that is engaging Democrat most of all (5)
IDEAL – I(D)E + AL[l]
8 Band to adorn recording system (4,4)
TAPE DECK – TAPE + DECK, in entirely different senses.
9 What’ll be anodyne news, I’d fancy, around end of year? (4,4,6)
NINE DAYS WONDER –  Anagram of ANODYNE NEWS, I’D |+ [yea]R, a clever &lit.
15 Weaponry: clubs, historic — a bargain, we hear (4,5)
COLD STEEL – C + OLD + sounds like STEAL.
17 Hitch? Then fix web image (9)
THUMBNAIL –  THUMB + NAIL.
18 Small missile making a loud noise (8)
STRIDENT – S + TRIDENT, a chestnut.
21 Lack of enthusiasm for one heading off around track (6)
APATHY – [s]A(PATH)Y, another one I biffed.
23 Right to run away? (5)
LEGIT – LEG IT, chestnut number two.
24 Army doctor has done with cut (5)
DROVE – DR + OVE[r].   I not entirely convinced a ‘drove’ is an ‘army’, but the answer is obvious enough.  MER.

61 comments on “Times 27499 – Can you tell a green field…..”

  1. Not your average Monday, all right. I think 5d was the only one I biffed; somehow it appeared to me from a couple of checkers. Semi-biffed 21d; had the PATH, couldn’t figure out the AY until Vinyl came along. DNK FASCIA (You’ve left out the C, V). I couldn’t get beyond the ‘snag’ and ‘marry’ meanings of ‘hitch’, and then when I finally thought of THUMB I had a senior moment and couldn’t come up with the name of the picture. Liked FEALTY.
  2. I felt slow on this – because I was. I’ve started showing “tracked” solvers in the daily details of the SNITCH site and this includes myself. My personal NITCH is currently behind everyone else’s 🙁

    I definitely wasn’t on the wavelength and found it a bit of a slog. TUTELARY was the only real unknown (and put in with fingers crossed). But some of the synonyms (e.g. world = Venus; impress = slay; thumbnail = web image; game = prepared) left me thinking “okay” rather than “aha!”. Looking back on it, it might just be me having a slow day. I was a bit worried about the “around” in 9d as the “r” comes only at the end.

    Thanks, V, for describing all the assembly instructions.

    1. The example given in Macmillan online is ‘’His jokes really slay me”. Now, I may be a bit out of touch with the vernacular / the lexicographer’s wit, but I’d have said that if a bloke says that in response to his mate’s gag, then both of them need to get out more.
  3. 9:57. I seem to have been on the wavelength for this one – my personal nitch is 73 – and as I was solving it did feel like I was making whatever the opposite of heavy weather is of it. I worried a bit at the end that AVIARIST might be my undoing but then ‘diarist’ suddenly popped into my head and I was done.
  4. Off to a deceptive start last night as I wrote in 9 or 10 answers quite easily, but then ground to a halt and felt my eyes closing and concentration fading so I abandoned it until this morning. On returning to it refreshed I still struggled but eventually finished it in a 40 minute session.

    TUTELARY was vaguely known as a word but not what it meant. I assumed 12 was parsed as {s}LAY and would have recognised ‘slay’ meaning ‘amuse’ or ‘convulse with laughter’ but ‘impress’ would never have occurred to me.

    Edited at 2019-11-04 06:22 am (UTC)

  5. Staggered around the track in 48 minutes.

    FOI 8dn TAPE DECK

    LOI 24dn DROVE………doctor as DR! I don’t believe it!

    COD 4ac AVIARIST I was too cagey!

    WOD 13ac CAESAR SALAD and not CHEESE SALAD although it is!

    I would not over encourage the Honourable QC Corps here; even Our Kev struggled but Keriothe’s time was excell-ent!

    Edited at 2019-11-04 09:49 am (UTC)

  6. 19:42 … or precisely 10% over nitch, with about 25% of the total 110% on the old-timey pair at the bottom, TUTELARY and FEALTY.

    I’ve lost track of which day is the new Monday, but if this isn’t quite the new Friday it is at least the new Wednesday.

    Excellent puzzle. Thanks, vinyl. Great time, keriothe.

    1. Oh great, now I can’t get that awful advert for Bahlsen biscuits out of my head. The one where they say it feels like a different day of the week and their little fingers keep getting longer.

      Thanks a lot.

      1. You poor thing. That sounds awful. The good news is, I’ve never seen it 🙂

        by the by, there’s a nina in the Concise today that I think might cheer you up a bit.

        1. I’m tempted to post a link that you won’t be able to resist clicking.

          Thanks for the tip on the concise. I’ll have a look.

          1. Sadly I don’t need the link. I’m all too familiar with said advert. But I wonder if it’s intentionally annoying – after all, we both remember it. And I quite fancy a Bahlsen biscuit now I’ve thought of them…
            1. That’s a very good point Pootle except that I couldn’t remember what the wretched thing was advertising and had to look it up. Under interrogation I’d probably have said Kit Kat, maybe due to something subliminal about fingers.
  7. Wondered if it was just lack of sleep and an early start making this appear harder than it was. Only the SW held me up. Thought ILL-ASSORTED a slightly odd term and had LEAVE rather than LEGIT for some time. Spelling DEODORANT with two Es doesn’t help either. Glad to see my time not all that bad after all.
  8. Came in a shade under my hour’s limit today, not helped by not knowing 9d NINE DAYS’ WONDER, 22a ILL-ASSORTED or LOI 28a TUTELARY.

    Tough one, this. I got started off with FTOI (First Tentative One In!) 12a LAY and FOI 2d RELAY RACE, but then petered out and had to have another go from 25a BOP. Dotted around all over the shop, often kicking myself as I finally got the answers on the fourth or fifth look.

    COD 1d SICILY, where I did indeed consider the small Turkish island of SACOLD first…

  9. 40 mins with yoghurt, granola, blueberry compote.
    Held up by Avenue crossing with A Mug’s Game.
    NHO Tutelary and CNP (could not parse) LAY.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  10. Excellent puzzle that gave little away and demanded full concentration throughout. Thank you setter
  11. I had all but two done in about 20 mins. Obtusely I didn’t drop anchor at SICILY, (SACOLD!) and A MUGS GAME eluded me.

    COD: DROVE.

  12. 48 minutes. LOI AVENUE, unparsed, not being a Venusian. I didn’t get along with this one, not that there was that much wrong with it. I’d definitely say ILL-SORTED in that context. Have I got it wrong all these years? COD to the VULGAR FRACTION. Long may they stay in the majority! Thinking about it, they have to be greater than one, so that doesn’t work either. I’m going back to bed. Thank you V and setter.

    Edited at 2019-11-04 09:32 am (UTC)

  13. I struggled somewhat with this and I had done all but DRONE and FEALTY after about 24 minutes, but bamboozled myself by misspelling DEODORANT with an E in the middle. I missed the ‘bash’ for party in 3D, but that was my only question mark on my copy. COD to RELAY RACE. 36:49 in the end. Thanks Vinyl and setter.
  15. Definitely not a typical Monday, but we’ve had so many of those lately that there may no longer be a typical Monday. Anyway, when you’ve been doing cryptics for decades, even the best puzzles usually trigger regular nods of recognition, for amusing devices or bits of terminology: today, hardly at all (LEGIT was the only one where a bell rang clearly), which suggests a very original mind behind it (or simply that I don’t actually remember everything I’ve seen, which seems quite possible on previous form). I can also award myself a medal for not just biffing DRONE, and thinking it through. Very enjoyable.
    1. “Typical Mondays” (or Fridays, etc) always were a figment of the imagination. Our ability, as a group, to pretend that things are what they might seem to be, and not what they really are, is actually quite instructive .. every time it is as we expect, it reinforces our view. Every time it is not what we expect, we contrive to forget it before the next time ..

      Edited at 2019-11-04 04:40 pm (UTC)

  16. ….or, more accurately, I lost patience. Already undermined by Horryd’s spoiler in the QC blog, I battled with this in vain, before biffing “sacold” when I’d had quite enough. Didn’t enjoy this one much, an ILL-ASSORTED batch of clues, and rather A MUG’S GAME.

    FOI USE UP (my patience, rapidly)
    LOI FEALTY (72 next week, never used this word)
    COD APATHY (which had totally set in by then)
    TIME. DNF after 15 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back.

    1. No doubt one can get by without using the word (even if one is a mediaeval historian), but it’s good to have it around perhaps, if only for what it half-conjures up of great halls and hearth-fires and times long gone.
      1. Dear Phil,

        I am sorry I put you off your stroke. I take full responsibility for my delinquency. I always do the ‘Big One’ before the ‘little one’ and simply never gave it a thought.

        I’m in UK in May and it’s my round.

  17. A combination of rather dozy solving and a long recess while leaving the clock running makes for a meaningless time which I remembered not to enter: my snitch would have been somewhere below the infra-red spectrum. But I did like it, and plough more or less steadily through.
    The 9DW clue was an excellent example of the setter’s &lit art.
  18. slowed down by horrid fluey symptoms. Brain like flannel. LOI aviarist – hard to believe the word actually exists.
  19. Just me then who “guessed” wrong and got the unchecked letters of not TUTALERY in the wrong random order?

    Edited at 2019-11-04 12:50 pm (UTC)

  20. Battled away for 80 minutes or so and still DNF. But then I’ll never be one of the high fliers so never mind.

    Hard work, especially after Saturday’s, but rewarding when the fog started to clear a bit! A very slow start, then a flurry of PDMs, winding down to a halt with 2 and a half to go – aviarist, ideal (so embarrassing – I could see the letters but not the order) and vulgar fraction.

    I have terrible problems remembering types of fractions, among many other areas of maths (I used to read my English books sneakily in maths classes, which obviously didn’t help me get any better!) So having decided that the meal option was a cheese salad, despite being only semi-parsed, that obnoxious fraction was never going to reveal itself, and that messed up the NE corner.

    FOI Use up
    COD Legit – an oldie but a goodie
    WOD Celestial
    Score 27 and a half out of 30

    Edited at 2019-11-04 12:58 pm (UTC)

  22. 31.15 which doesn’t seem as dire as I thought perhaps. Last in was the aggravating 6 down staring me in the face. Liked Sicily, for no good reason. Incidentally, could someone tell me how to find one’s ‘personal nitch’? (This is not a letter to an agony aunt!)

    Edited at 2019-11-04 01:13 pm (UTC)

    1. If you are solving via the Times Crossword Club then your personal Nitch may appear here for today’s puzzle: https://xwdsnitch.herokuapp.com/crosswords/1309 (and then it’s clear from there how to browse and look at previous days).

      If you don’t appear here and would like to be added send a message to starstruck_au. I’m sure he’d be pleased with your interest in his site.

  23. Battled through the fog for 42:20 only to finish up in SACOLD and get attacked by a DRONE. Bah! Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  25. Today I am delighted to have found that I’m now appearing on the SNITCH. Many thanks to starstruck for making this happen. My stats geekery is immensely satisfied.

    And today’s NITCH of 66 shows that like keriothe I was on the wavelength for this one. Indeed I thought it seemed like standard ‘Monday’ fare. It’s curious how different puzzles can suit different solvers; here’s hoping for three like this at the Championship next month!

    Edited at 2019-11-04 02:08 pm (UTC)

    1. I didn’t fully parse that clue, but now you mention it that does look like a mistake – “before end of year” would have worked.
  27. Oh hell, now I’ve got 3 little maids from school on the brain. No idea what this stuff means:
    Three little maids who all unwary
    Come from a ladies seminary
    Freed from its genius tutelary
    Oh put a sock in it already. 20.57
  28. so my personal NITCH (thanks, above) not very good. In my defence, I did nod off halfway through. With 3 clues put in and 15 mins on the clock, my dash to complete was rather impressive, I thought. Held up at the end by the MUGS GAME though, a clue which I thought was less impressive…
  29. Hey whaddya know. I was on the wavelength here, done in say 15 minutes, although I have to confess, my LOI, A MUGS GAME, is not in general use over here, so it was sort of a stab in the dark. Perhaps it’s from a vague memory of it appearing here sometime in the past. I don’t know where else I’d have come up with it. Regards.
  30. Late in the day here, about 25 minutes, so seems OK. TUTELARY unknown, long answers took a while to get. Am still not sure where to find personal NITCH.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

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