Times 27679 – Can you name all eight?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 21 minutes
Music: McCoy Tyner, Focal Point

This is another easy Monday, in which there are only a few obscsure words, but those are very generously clued.  Since I have become so addicted to Mephisto, making up likely answers from cryptics no longer bothers me.   If it fits the clue and the crossing letters, in it goes.   This does lead to the occasional momble, but usually the likely answer turns out to be correct.  So it proved in this puzzle.

A few weeks back, I posted a link a cryptic puzzle created by one of our commenters, David Crooks.   For those of you who missed it hte first time around, here is the URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DDe_ZikINu-5po9riGrHyy027YA3wJq7/view?usp=sharing    I don’t know how many of our audience downloaded the puzzle and solved it, or whether we should go ahead and blog it, so let’s see a show of hands in the comments.   For the sake of those who have not yet tried this puzzle, please don’t give away any of the answers.

Across
1 Animal, mostly solitary, primarily inhabiting a region of Spain (9)
CATALONIA – CAT + ALON[e] + I[nhabiting] + A.   Phew!
6 Clear-headed Law Lord covering a group of islands (5)
LUCID – LU(CI)D, the Channel Islands, that is.
9 Court divided about Durer’s first artistic creation (7)
WOODCUT – WOO D[urer] CUT.   Since Durer is famous for woodcuts, misdirection is a bit lacking here.
10 Overnight accommodation with neat container for hats (7)
BANDBOX –  B AND B  + OX, very clever use of a common phrase that fits very few words.
11 Republican launching a club in African capital (5)
RABAT – R + A BAT, capital of Morocco.  
12 Sauce only served in pub by church (9)
INSOLENCE – IN(SOLE)N + C.E., stock cryptic elements.
13 Putting off creating space for books, perhaps (8)
SHELVING – Double definition.
14 Film for all to see, introducing current case (4)
ETUI – ET + U + I, a word commonly found in US crosswords because of all the luscious vowels.   It’s a needle case.
17 Long article about explosive (4)
ACHE – A + C + H.E., more stock cryptic elements.
18 Shambolic leaders bizarrely keeping one in trashy way (8)
SHODDILY – SH(ambolic) ODD(I)LY, where ‘leaders’ can evidently now be used for the first two letters.
21 Eroticism somehow of equal measure? (9)
ISOMETRIC – Anagram of EROTICISM.
22 Narcotic: retired army doctor secures more in Milan (5)
OPIUM – M.O. backwards around PIU. 
24 Eternal suffering! (7)
ABIDING – Double definition, my LOI, where I had to think a bit.
25 Small trading centre teens regularly tidy up (7)
SMARTEN – S MART + [t]E[e}N[s].
26 Figure of girl finally exuding sex appeal (5)
DIGIT – DI + [exudin]G + IT, love ‘it’ or leave ‘it’!
27 Turned out badly, lacking education (9)
UNTUTORED – Anagram of TURNED OUT.   “Lo, the poor Indian….”
Down
1 Someone who intimidates us, making us shrink back? (5)
COWER – double definition, one jocular.  
2 Problem-solving husband with foreign coins in London area (15)
TROUBLESHOOTING -T(ROUBLES, H)OOTING.  
3 Relish keeping twin-hulled vessel insured at first, in case (8)
LOCATIVE – LO(CAT, I[nsured])VE.  
4 It nourishes teachers ultimately content with nothing in Paris (8)
NUTRIENT – N.U.T. + RIEN + [conten]T.   You would have thought they’d pick a better acronym….
5 Waylay a doctor attached to American hospital (6)
AMBUSH – A M.B. + US + H, another compendium of stock cryptic elements.
6 See a girl disheartened and isolated (6)
LONELY – LO NE[l]LY.
7 Top politician press initially interviewed in church (7,8)
CABINET MINISTER – CABINET + MIN(I[nterviewed])STER, which most solvers will just biff.
8 Unusually tired, yet transfixed by unnamed person’s deftness (9)
DEXTERITY – Anagram of TIRED YET + X.   Mr X, presumably.
13 Extreme characters in Westminster touch down in African state, once (9)
SWAZILAND – SW(A,Z)I + LAND, easily biffable by those who collected stamps fifty years ago.
15 Heavily built group of little intelligence (8)
THICKSET – THICK SET, hardly cryptic.
16 Endlessly recommend imbibing a liqueur (8)
ADVOCAAT – ADVOCA(A)T[e], easily guessed even if you don’t know it.
19 Oppose son entering repeat exam (6)
RESIST –  RESI(S)T.
20 Tropical palm developed and developed, we hear (6)
GRUGRU – Sounds like GREW GREW.  Also the grub of a weevil.  
23 Vocally object to coal being obtained thus? (5)
MINED – Sounds like MIND.  

54 comments on “Times 27679 – Can you name all eight?”

  2. Another Good Day here. I was happy to get GRUGRU and LOCATIVE from wordplay, as I NHO either of them, and although ETUI was initially a stab in the dark, when I focused on parsing it, it all became clear. I was a little hesitant about ABIDING but turns out it was ok. Lots of fun on the way – WOODCUT, BANDBOX and TROUBLESHOOTING were all lovely clues.

    FOI Catalonia
    LOI Etui
    COD Opium
    Time 22m

    Thanks setter and Vinyl

  4. Only held up by checking grugru, maybe could have done with a couple more hurdles to make it a satisfying solve methinks!
  5. 20:28. I was a bit slow off the mark with this one. Nothing clicked until my FOI shelving. It slowly all came together after that. Woodcut and bandbox were nice. LOI abiding. Grugru the only unknown. I’ll put my hand up. I had a crack at the dcrooks puzzle but was too thick to finish it so would certainly find it interesting to see it blogged and to fill in the gaps.
  6. Late to this today. All dispatched successfully.

    Another vote to unlock the Crooks.

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