Times 27,617: Fridays, How We’ve Missed You

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
You know it’s a Friday, or it bally well should be, when Latinate terms like 11, 20 and 22ac are liberally interspersed with YEAH and SOZ and ALLEY-OOP; and Baruch, Boris and César happily rub shoulders Henry the Green Engine. COD to 1dn but there were a number of other contenders including the phenomenal reverse hidden at 4ac and the impeccable surface of 21dn. Not much bad to say about this one except that it took me an absurd amount of staring at 23ac before its penny finally consented to drop. Bravo setter, great puzzle!

ACROSS
1 Threat to aircraft that’s coming across in style of greeting (6)
SALAAM – SAM [surface-to-air missile] that’s coming “across” A LA [in style of]

4 Location for shooting singular rock opera needs backing (2,6)
OK CORRAL – hidden reversed in {singu}LAR ROCK O{pera}

9 Description of awfully nice gal? (7)
ANGELIC – (NICE GAL*) [“awfully”], semi-&lit. FOI.

11 When nothing legally can be done about one’s dissembling, row! (4,3)
DIES NON – DIN [row] about (ONE’S*) [“dissembling”]

12 One laying track for a green engine (5)
HENRY – HEN RY [one laying | track]. Henry was one of Thomas’ pals in the much-loved works of the Reverend W.V. Awdry.

13 Male bears after time seen in remote areas (3,6)
THE STICKS – HE STICKS [male | bears] after T

14 Penny condemned stout Glaswegian in disgrace (3,2,5)
PUT TO SHAME – P + (STOUT*) [“condemned”] + HAME [Glaswegian (word for) “in”]

16 My parking space rather confined (4)
COOP – COO P [my | parking]

19 Non-standard agreement by UEFA, tho’ consistently overlooked (4)
YEAH – {b}Y {u}E{f}A {t}H{o}

20 One dictated to a football team measures one’s put together (10)
AMANUENSIS – A MAN_U ENS I’S [a | football team | measures | one’s]

22 Legal action once, when reservoir location not finalised (9)
ASSUMPSIT – AS SUMP SIT{e} [when | reservoir | location]

23 Face that a woman usually has on a certain day in May? (5)
BRAVE – BRA [that a woman usually has on] + V-E [a certain day in May]. LOI and by quite a margin of time!

25 Philosopher’s informal apology including staple answer (7)
SPINOZA – SOZ [informal apology] “including” PIN [staple], + A [answer]

25 Award-winning picture of Spooner’s head published (4,3)
RAIN MAN – Spoonerized MAIN RAN [head | published]

27 Visor, indeed, kept between feet, centrally (8)
EYESHADE – YES HAD [indeed | kept] “between” {f}EE{t}

28 Composer’s brother, one released from prison (6)
FRANCK – FRA + N{i}CK

DOWN
1 Irresponsible and secretive about a software substitute for litmus? (4-5)
SLAP-HAPPY – SLY [secretive] about A pH APP! Obvious COD material.

2 Sign name to gain access to system (3,2)
LOG ON – LOGO N [sign | name]

3 Before work, walk over high pass (5-3)
ALLEY-OOP – before OP [work], ALLEY O [walk | over]

5 Person fooling with spray set about new carpet (13)
KIDDERMINSTER – KIDDER with MISTER set about N

6 Girl’s mini-poem? (6)
ODETTE – or an ODE-ETTE!

7 Article put out after race meet (3,6)
RUN ACROSS – A CROSS [article | put out] after RUN [race]

8 Pair in cage suspended, the first to be sent down (5)
LUNGS – SLUNG, with the first letter moved to the end. The cage being a ribcage!

10 Do — but with less relish? (3,3,7)
CUT THE MUSTARD – very nice cryptic def

15 Our lot’s thus working late shift (5,4)
THAT’S LIFE – (LATE SHIFT*) [“working”]

17 Famous Russian from history, butchered near Omsk, finally (9)
PASTERNAK – PAST [history] + (NEAR*) [“butchered”] + {oms}K

18 Quietly go out on beach with recliner? Because beach is this? (8)
PEBBLIER – P EBB LIER [quietly | go out on beach | recliner]

21 Low cape — button it around neck (6)
SMOOCH – MOO C [low | cape] with SH [button it!] around

22 Passage one’s going to read out (5)
AISLE – homophone of I’LL [one’s going to]

24 Running time required by commercial (5)
ADMIN – MIN [time] by AD [commercial]

54 comments on “Times 27,617: Fridays, How We’ve Missed You”

  1. Rough going, but then it’s Friday. Some DNKs didn’t help matters: ASSUMPSIT, KIDDERMINSTER (I knew the Dickens character, and I knew Axminster, and put them together), HENRY the engine. Never figured out BRAVE (DNK that V-E Day was in May). I must have known DIES NON because I thought of it–finally– before getting the wordplay. LOI LUNGS. A satisfying solve, with some impressive clues. On edit: I said I knew KIDDERMINSTER, but not that well: he’s in ‘Hard Times’, and somehow I thought he was the one whose rumored death in ‘Martin Chuzzlewit’ prompted Sarah Gamp’s “He was born into a wale, and lived in a wale, and must accept the consequences of such a sitiwation.” That was Bailey.

    Edited at 2020-03-20 11:54 am (UTC)

  2. 1 hour and eleven minutes on this Friday Frankenstein.

    20ac contained the mighty MANU (Manchester United) and the hope is that they’ll be back in action soon enough. Edwards, Best, Charlton, Law, Cantona, Beckham, Rooney, Stiles, Robson, Ferguson and now Bruno! Cheered me up no end. I’m 1dn.

    FOI 9ac ANGELIC rather too easy.

    LOI 24dn ADMIN

    COD 12ac HENRY

    WOD 15dn ESTHER RANTZEN!

    25 Baruch SPINOZA – an Ozzie Spin Doctor – well before his time.

  3. A MER at 18dn recliners are still used on Skeggy beach where there are no pebbles whatsoever. The worst beach for pebbles was IMHO at Napier in NZ. A small cliff of black pebbles where no recliners were spotted – a no go area. At Pebble Beach CA the seals do not use recliners either.
  4. Brilliant. OK Corral my COD, but universally excellent surface readings and well-hidden definitions and wordplay. The way a crossword should be. Way off the wavelength, took 40 minutes and still had 3 left in the NW so went away and came back later.
    Lots of unknowns – dies non, assumpsit, Franck (I nearly mombled Bronck), VE day & parsing of that clue, Henry, soz but all eminently gettable. And missable.
    Thank-you, setter and blogger.
  5. Managed most of this but had to come here to understand how BRAVE worked.

    At the end I used aids for the unknown ASSUMPSIT and in two other places (DIES NON and SPINOZA*) I was one letter out with my guesses and when I looked them up to see if they existed the dictionary app suggested the correct answers, which was not helpful as it didn’t give me a chance to rethink.

    *I didn’t know ‘soz’ nor the philosopher so went with SPINOLA, a common enough name – Wiki lists 26 famous ones.

    1. The first cryptic crossword I ever saw was in a Dorothy Sayers/Lord Peter Wimsey story. To be completed in the black/white tiled floor of a square pool or fountain or something. I had no idea what was going on, or how it worked, but 50 years later I remember one of the answers was Spinoza. Never heard of him/her before or since so a definite obscurity, but one I happened to know.
  6. 75 excruciating minutes. I’ve missed my early morning constitutional too. Why do I put myself through this? SALAAM was biffed from crossers and the unknown LOI DIES NON constructed using Latin from 1961 O Level. I didn’t expect the never-heard-of ASSUMPSIT to be right either. Penultimate was ODETTE, another clever clue where I nearly biffed the folk and blues singer ODETTA before the pun hit me. OK CORRAL was a brilliant hidden. I really enjoyed the SMOOCH about halfway through but COD has to be HENRY. My youngest and I are just over 50 years apart in age, but the Superhero of both of us as infants was Thomas. Great puzzle, too good for the likes of me. Thank you V and setter.
  7. 42:20. I struggled most with the SE corner finishing with BRAVE unparsed. “That a woman usaually has on” for BRA is devious indeed. Lots of fun including working out ASSUMPSIT and DIES NON (both NHOs) from the wordplay. COD to 1D for the PH APP, but I enjoyed PEBBLIER and HENRY a lot too.
  8. By the time I got to KIDDERMINSTER and then -K my mind was addled, so stopped after 50′. Good puzzle indeed, but I can only go so long without the pandemic kicking in.

    Liked BRAVE.

    Thanks verlaine and setter.

  9. 45 mins and gave up on the last two: Salaam/Alley-oop. The best I could do was Salute/Tilly-hop.
    Well I’d already had to invent a couple of the other NHOs.
    Thanks setter and V.
  10. A 49-minute workout with a lot of high points. I especially liked 8d and 23a. Given that I didn’t know the KIDDERMINSTER carpet, FRANCK, DIES NON or ASSUMPSIT, I have to be impressed with the fairness of the cluing, too. What a nice way to start a Friday!

    FOI 1a SALAAM, LOI 15d THAT’S LIFE, where I didn’t even spot the anagram.

    Hope everyone’s self-isolation is going well. I had spam and eggs last night, but mostly for purposes of fun rather than necessity.

    Edited at 2020-03-20 08:49 am (UTC)

    1. Spam AND eggs – luxury! How the other half live. Washed down with Dom Perrier?
  11. 26:09. What a beast! Very enjoyable to solve though, and all fair, even if it doesn’t particularly feel that way when you’re wrestling with it. A word like ASSUMPSIT doesn’t really belong in a daily puzzle but working it out from wordplay is very satisfying.
    Not sure why you think 23 is semi-&Lit, v. The definition is just ‘face’, and the rest is wordplay, no?
    1. Good point well made – I spent so long on that clue that I completely lost track of how it worked. I was thinking of “(putting on a) brave face” but of course “brave” can just mean “face”, doh!
  12. Well, even in these times of social distancing, when the days start to merge into one, this reminded me that it was definitely Friday. Not at all easy, but ultimately quite fair, and always entertaining.
  15. ….who knows when he’s beaten, and I retired from the fray after 20 minutes without SALAAM and ALLEY-OOP. This decision was made all the more acceptable upon discovering that all three of my biffs were incorrect (2D LOG IN, 8D LINKS, 16A CORP).

    COD ODETTE

    1. I was going to say something but my post was already an essay. My Mum would say alley up (no need for the ‘oo’ which exclusively means the noise found in Blackpool or Liverpool in North English) when she was getting up out of a chair. As a result, I still sometimes do. A usage you know at all, Phil?
      1. Not come across it to be honest. I’ve always assumed it was a corruption of the French “allez”.
  16. Some very deep digging needed here what with the law Latin, a couple of movies I haven’t seen for years and a carpet which(like others) I could only get by inference from Axminster – and it really was a carpet not a reprimand this time. Not to mention all the wrong turns I took along the way. Not Brahms, FRANCK (and memo-to-self) remember that FR=father, it’s FRA that’s brother). And no it was nothing to do with Trotsky in 17d. 13a reminded me of the famous Variety headline “sticks nix hick pix”. 31.18

    Edited at 2020-03-20 10:56 am (UTC)

  17. Not exactly easy, but I just about managed, except that I invented a word ‘alley-hop’. The wordplay suggested this and I guessed that it probably existed and moved on.
  18. Bravo blogger for BRAVE which I never understood. When solving I thought there were a lot of doubled letters, but looking back I see there were only 11 pairs which is probably not many more than usual and not worth mentioning.
    1. Apparently I never quite understood it either (see Keriothe’s comment above)!
  19. Bang went my morning dog walk, and as is par for this week, one wrong. LOG IN which was first in without much thought. Left with 3 at the end. I assumed it was BRAVE but no idea why, and was struggling with CORP for ages. Not too clever with composers either, but BRONCK looked likely – well it fitted as much as AMANUENSIS fitted, but on checking no such composer exists, although apparently he did name the Bronx after himself.
  21. That was indeed a tour de force! I started with LOGON(nearly LOG IN but I checked the wordplay) and then HAPPY, with SLAP coming much later. HENRY came along much later too. CUT THE MUSTARD helped quite a bit, and AMANUENSIS came along as soon as I got the MINSTER bit of the carpet. KIDDER took a while to replace AX in my head though. Some brilliant cluing. Saw how BRAVE worked but missed the reverse hidden for OK CORRAL, just saw that ROCK was reversed in the answer and moved on. DIES NON and ASSUMPSIT were worked out from wordplay and a vague memory of O-Level Latin from 1967. SALAAM was my POI, and ALLEY OOP followed to finish up at 52:56. A tough but very enjoyable workout. Thanks setter and V.
  22. 20m 48s but with BRONCK in 28a. Never heard of this Franck chap and had forgotten the FRA abbreviation.

    Like others, I was most impressed by OK CORRAL, superbly given – THAT’S LIFE was also excellently defined and took far too long to spot.

    I knew SPINOZA from PG Wodehouse, where he is a particular favourite of Jeeves.

      1. The one thing I know about him is that he was excommunicated by the Jewish community of Amsterdam. I had no idea Jews did that sort of thing, or how.
    2. I mostly knew Spinoza from “The Spinoza of Market Street”, a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Is that weird?
  23. This week has been heavy lifting – today’s at 161 presently and the QC has upped the ante as well. (Average over 100)

    Will we get further ‘lockdown levels’ next week? Bring it on Mr. Riddlecombe.

    I note the somewhat forgotten composer Wilhelm Gustav Bronck (1855-1919, a victim of Spamish ‘flu) gets a couple of mentions today. His ‘Cacophony’ in A minor was his most celebrated piece.

    Edited at 2020-03-20 01:51 pm (UTC)

    1. “In order to play the theme 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities”
  24. About 30 minutes of enjoyable toil but like PJ I had CORP for COOP. I did get all the stupid Latin words right and as for the philosopher like others I was helped by PG where Monty P came up short.

    I remembered FRA for brother as that did for me in the champs last year.

    Much to admire here. Regardless of the sort of beach you can recline on I thought “go out on beach” for EBB was just brilliant.

  25. ….is a carpet manufacturer based in Kidderminster, and is one of the town’s major employers.

    Kidderminster Harriers are a team at whose ground Altrincham seldom achieve any sort of result. However, the home made shepherd’s pie they sell is always reasonable consolation !

    1. …. in desperation looked up tellerminster, as in one of those foolers Penn and Teller, search threw up kidder. Too many hours spent but very satisfying to finish (except I logged-in not -on even after researching the differences).
  26. Wasn’t newsreader, the very dapper Tim Brinton related?

    Re- Alrincham FC I presume you and Jackie Swindells were on nodding terms!

  27. A splendid offering. As phil I couldn’t get the salaam/alley-oop pair (didn’t know the latter as a basket-ball pass or indeed anything other than a sort of surprised exclamation) but spent considerably longer than him on the rest of the clues. Knew the first of the above was salaam or salami but didn’t see SAM annoyingly. Delighted at soz which I’ve recently adopted in texts, only to descendants I hope. If the Times can I can, without betraying civilisation or self-isolation. In my view the wit element of these puzzles is almost outpacing the . . . never mind. Good to have one to help cope with the other.

    Edited at 2020-03-20 05:18 pm (UTC)

  28. I was about an hour and ten minutes all told on this fiendish but strikingly original puzzle. Sadly my Pavlovian “cor” response to “my” kicked in at 16ac leading to one pink square. If only the parking space had belonged to Bill’s partner, I might’ve got there.
  29. Did for me, only glad it wasn’t my turn to blog this beast, well done V. I did get Franck though, early on, after FOI the mustard and Pasternak, and the K eventually gave me the carpet. Never heard of ASSUMPTIT or SOZ and didn’t get ALLEY OOP which was not something I knew either, must be northern-ish.
  31. I managed to work out all the unknowns from wordplay. I avoided the COR trap. But I mombled the non-existent Dutch composer BRONCK. I don’t even have the excuse of never having heard of FRANCK. Like others, I had BARTOK for a time just based on the K and “brother” in the clue. But what a wonderful puzzle. It took forever but I was determined to finish it.
  32. I came here to check the parsing of ADMIN and SPINOZA. All I can say about this puzzle is that if this kind of thing becomes the norm I am cancelling my subscription.

    Henry R

  33. The fact that hens lay eggs completely passed me by at 12ac. After all, John Henry was a steel driving man, Lord, Lord.
  34. Not very enjoyable. Too much Latin (which for me, that knows little more than church latin, means that all checkers are usually required. In this kind of crossword, it ain’t easy).

    Did better on the LHS but the RHS was too much of a grind to be enjoyable.

  37. The setter put the Nina in the NW corner. If this degree of difficulty keeps up we’ll have to consider taking out a subscription! Assumed ASSUMPSIT would be correct from wordplay, and the NHO DIES NON similarly. Via Bronck from Bartok to Franck. Tempted by CORP, but held out until COOP appeared. 39 minutes.

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