Times 27727 – ” I saw yin o’ the travelin’ folk, along the open road….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 31 minutes
Music: None, another outdoor solve

I found this one rather tough for a Monday.   There are some uncommon words and allusions that not everyone will know, meaning solvers may have to make a leap of faith and put in the most likely answer even if they’re not sure why. 

I normally use rather allusive blog titles, but tonight I’ll give you the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiBuINcv-Mo
This is a fairly recent song, but there’s quite a bit of Scots dialect in the lyrics.

Across
1 Phlegmatic type almost shut in thus (5)
STOIC – S(TO)IC, where the door is to.
4 Live at end of lake with beadle — a worker, possibly (9)
BUMBLEBEE – BUMBLE + BE + [lak]E.   Bumble was a beadle Oliver Twist – if you don’t know this, you’ll have to biff.
9 Infamous old port protected by other people? (9)
NOTORIOUS – NOT(O RIO)US, that is, NOT US. 
10 Woman’s contribution finally accepted by Times (5)
AGNES – AG([onctributio]N)ES, today’s random woman. 
11 Surprisingly their purser’s accepting a fund manager’s position (13)
TREASURERSHIP – Anagram of THEIR PURSER’S around A.
14 Genuine old Spanish coin (4)
REAL – Double definition, where the coin is pretty widely known.
15 Marine creature reportedly saw a taxi crossing river (6,4)
SPIDER CRAB – sounds like SPIED A + C(R)AB – if you are non-rhotic.
18 Degrading form of feuding overwhelming one in Scotland (10)
UNEDIFYING – Anagram of FEUDING around YIN. 
19 New Zealander’s answer you and I heard (4)
KIWI – sounds like KEY + sounds like WE.   A key would be a little booklet that has the answers. 
21 Key army corps almost crazy about hotel’s liqueur (5,2,6)
CREME DE MENTHE – C + REME + DEMENT(H)E[d].   Most solvers will probably biff here.
24 Work trapeze artistes are ill-advised to have (5)
NONET – NO NET, haha.
25 Hint from small Scouse singer inspiring in tango (9)
SCINTILLA – S C(IN T)ILLA.   Cilla Black, that is.
27 One who guides bullocks to west of island (9)
STEERSMAN – STREERS + MAN, the Isle of Man, that is. 
28 Manage to catch son in wood (5)
COPSE – COP(S)E.
Down
1 Hospital doctor originally operating in Sumatra (10)
SANATORIUM – anagram of O[perating] IN SUMATRA.   Many solvers will automatically go with hospital = san, but it’s the whole thing today.
2 Choose to put up around centre of Newport (3)
OPT – O([new]P[ort})T
3 Reddish church at top of hill (6)
CERISE – CE + RISE. 
4 Considerable criticism gathering round extreme parts of Henry’s life (9)
BIOGRAPHY – BI(O)G RAP + H[enr]Y.
5 Cheeseparer, one initially swimming in sea off Nice (5)
MISER – M(I + S[wimming])ER. 
6 Tough left restaurant, having consumed hot starter (8)
LEATHERY – L + EAT(H[ot])ERY. 
7 Good French painter capturing old man, an emperor’s supporter (11)
BONAPARTIST – BON A(PA)RTIST. 
8 Not entirely secure as top bridge-player (4)
EAST – [secur]E AS T[op]. 
12 Church body upset over spirit audibly fading away (11)
EVANESCENCE – NAVE upside-down + sounds like ESSENCE.
13 Remove monastic devotee adopting revised rite (10)
OBLITERATE – OBL(anagram of RITE)ATE. 
16 Bloomer made by teacher going round a new food shop (9)
DANDELION – D(A N DELI)ON, one that most solvers will biff.
17 Woman priest, one giving orders? (8)
DIRECTOR – DI + RECTOR, another random women.
20 Eg Welsh commander-in-chief welcoming English officer (6)
CELTIC – C(E LT)IC. 
22 Racecourse record thus misrepresented at first (5)
EPSOM – EP + SO + M[isrepresented]. 
23 Responsibility — and where ours lies (4)
ONUS – ON US, a chestnut.
26 Drink Scandinavian nomad left unfinished (3)
LAP – LAP[p]. 

66 comments on “Times 27727 – ” I saw yin o’ the travelin’ folk, along the open road….”


  1. About half of this went in easily and then I ground to a halt.Forgot about Mr.Bumble being a beadle and spent a long time on 7 down looking for G followed by a French painter – good bear-trap, that.

    All correct in 38.13.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  2. A speedy (for me) 22 minutes. Must have been on the wavelength. Almost fell into the sanitarium trap. Didn’t parse east but nothing new in my missing a hidden. DNF on the QC so pleased with a clean solve on this one.
  3. One of those odd days where I took longer over the allegedly Quick crossword than the 15×15. Happily, I didn’t realise there was a trap into which one could fall with spelling 1dn,and the only spelling I knew was the right one today.
  4. Buoyed by Villa’s great escape I almost achieved a sub 6 minute time! Which would have been a lifetime record for me.

    I did this on paper – which I think can help your time enormously if you are on song. But I entered a sanitarium. If I wasn’t mad before, I am now.

  5. 46 minutes, after a leisurely solve. It’s good that I took my time about it, because I was able to correct several misspellings. And I thought I would be the only person facing problems with SANITARIUM or whatever, but apparently not. Of course it can’t be that, because it’s an anagram involving an O, but I did catch my SANOTARIUM just in time, along with SCINTELLA (Ella Fitzgerald the singer?) and I actually wrote down EVANESCENCE on paper to make sure the last sibilant really is a C. Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle, and above all a solvable one, despite my being rhotic.

    Edited at 2020-07-27 03:48 pm (UTC)

  6. 10.31 so a decent start to the week. Steady progress with bumblebee FOI and director LOI. Lots of decent clues but my favourite was scintilla, cilla’s been used at least a couple of times for the Scouse singer so maybe I’m not the only fan.

    Nearly messed up with putting essence rather than escence but managed to see my mistake before it was too late.
    Thanks setter and blogger.

  7. Workus interruptus saw me break off at about 17 mins.

    Returned to complete the job in just 5 more minutes – everything just seemed to fall too easily.

    Didn’t bother parsing CREME DE MENTHE, KIWI or LOI STOIC too closely.

  9. DNF in about 15 mins. Good grief! An open goal and I manage to shin it over the bar. I submitted without noticing that I had not filled in the answer to 28ac. No unknowns. Liked the expression cheeseparer. Took a little bit of time to find the big rap in biography and the upset nave to get evanescence. Otherwise this was a light, fun puzzle which I romped through.
  10. First time I’ve managed to complete one of these on the day and time it, so despite my tardiness, I thought I’d post a comment. Only a few things I hadn’t heard of, such as cheeseparer and beadle, and a few others that I’d heard of but didn’t know the meaning of, such as EVANESCENCE and SCINTILLA. My time of 97:16 puts me at the bottom of the ladder I’m sure, but it’s nice to be off the ground for once.

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