Times 27781 – St Aubrun, anyone?

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A combination of some very easy literals and some very generous cluing (plus a smattering of chestnuts) means that this puzzle will fall into the very easy Monday category for many of us. 14 minutes for me, so we’re looking sub-4 from the speedsters like V, K, mohn, Topical and Herdy.

PS For those who are following the story, I am now on the final chapter of Ulysses. Absolute nightmare reading this chapter (a mere 25,000 words) online, as knowing where I have got to is even tougher with no punctuation and no paragraphs. Can’t hide the fact that Molly was a bit of a goer, mind…

ACROSS

1 Joke with one wearing raincoat like a king? (8)
MAJESTIC – JEST I in MAC
5 Unknown fate when swallowing drug with a fanatic (6)
ZEALOT – E A in Z LOT (fate)
10 Ensures tutorial is a shambles — that’s a risky game! (7,8)
RUSSIAN ROULETTE – anagram* of ENSURES TUTORIAL IS
11 TV alien you wouldn’t want to drop? (7)
CLANGER – Not sure I ever watched The Clangers, but they made weird moaning noises, so far as I recall, and had some pretty basic sci-fi stuff, essentially, coat-hangers, sticking out of their head, simulating satellite dish type things. Again, all from memory. Whereas you might well want to drop one of these things on its head – coat-hanger allowing – you wouldn’t want to drop a clanger, in the sense of committing a faux-pas. Something I don’t think I do very much at all, but apparently the frequency of such alleged action increases exponentially when in the company of my wife.
12 Quick show (7)
EXPRESS – double definition
13 Therefore copes without alcohol at first, and becomes clear-headed (6,2)
SOBERS UP – SO BE[a]RS UP
15 Senior metalworker loses weight (5)
ELDER – [w]ELDER I hope I’m not going too fast for you (bless you for reading this, by the way)
18 Loosen link, it’s back to front (5)
UNTIE – UNITE with the IT bit reversed
20 Lacking mercy, like an incomplete Bible? (8)
RUTHLESS – Ha! If you left the book of Ruth out of the Bible, you wouldn’t have the full monty, as it were
23 Heard about place for better Italian town? (7)
CASSINO – sounds like casino; CASSINO was the site of a famous battle in the harsh and bloody campaign to boot the German military out of Italy preparatory to the emancipation of the rest of Europe
25 Space to stretch, sleep regularly, and prepare (7)
LEGROOM – [s]L[e]E[p] GROOM
26 Fizzy drink delivery outside extremely shoddy base for armchair sport? (7,8)
FANTASY FOOTBALL – S[hodd]Y FOOT (base) in FANTA (sparkling sugary water allegedly flavoured with orange) BALL (delivery in cricket)
27 Perhaps male ruler backing Persian king (6)
XERXES – reversal of SEX (perhaps male) REX (ruler)
28 Hungry retinues becoming unruly (8)
ESURIENT – RETINUES*; one of those words in the ‘bung it in but buggered if I know what it means’ category

DOWN

1 Turn over a vehicle in the morning — it rattles! (6)
MARACA – reversal of A CAR AM; usually found in the plural, because otherwise what on earth are you being paid to do with the other hand
2 Almost deserved a fight (4,5)
JUST ABOUT – JUST A BOUT
3 Play with English pebbles on the beach (7)
SHINGLE – ENGLISH*; this is the sort of clue about which I used to say things such as ‘even an Australian might get this’ till I saw the light. Talking of Oz, check out the film Wake in Fright if you get the chance. It’s amazing.
4 Gold medallist takes head off part of the target (5)
INNER – [w]INNER
6 Cover English prunes with cellophane, finally (7)
ECLIPSE – E CLIPS [cellophan]E
7 Unlimited selection of food and coffee (5)
LATTE – [p]LATTE[r]; maybe, just maybe, someone out there couldn’t parse this. If so, please say so in your comments below and it’ll make me a happy camper
8 Nurse briefly with certain valuables (8)
TREASURE – TREA[t] SURE
9 Eastern typhoon destroyed something alluring (8)
HONEYPOT – E TYPHOON*
14 Gemstone from Saxony tossed across road (8)
SARDONYX – RD in SAXONY*
16 Girl passes up a tango, with nose ultimately put out of joint (9)
DISLOCATE – DI reversal of COLS A T (tango) [nos]E; you biff this, and you don’t get to appreciate all the thought that went into it
17 Fast bowler with stick for support — a temporary solution (5,3)
QUICK FIX – QUICK (fast bowler – cricket again) FIX (stick for support – answers on a post card, please)
19 Remove hair extensions, initially, before short exercise class (7)
EPILATE – E[xtensions] PILATE[s]; remove hair from the body (where it always seems to delight in growing, however much you ask it to do its stuff on your head)
21 Boat that’s easier to carry (7)
LIGHTER – DD
22 Charm left out of a hairdo (6)
AMULET – A MU[l]LET; not sure if anyone could better Chris Waddle’s
24 Fellow in Madrid taking top off upset ugly old ladies (5)
SENOR – [c]RONES reversed
25 Items, including old sacks (5)
LOOTS – O in LOTS (as at an auction)

49 comments on “Times 27781 – St Aubrun, anyone?”

  1. Couldn’t get under 10′, alas. I biffed RUSSIAN ROULETTE, assuming that the anagrist was all there; and biffed FANTASY FOOTBALL from the Y, later parsing it with the assumption that delivery=BALL. If you don’t know ESURIENT, U, John Cleese will explain in the cheese shop sketch.
  2. A pangram minus the car. Nina referencing this in 2nd and 12th rows? NHO the 11a clangers, so perhaps their TV show didn’t make it down under. Put in CLINGON for a while, but thought it should be KLINGON, and rejected it. Green Monday in 14:35
    1. I never heard of the clangers either, but I vaguely remembered the phrase about dropping one.
  3. Mostly easy, except for the last 4.
    Crossing clanger and shingle… Aussies have no experience of pebbles on beaches, we have sand. Plus the “with” in the clue negates the possibility of an anagram. In my opinion. Others might disagree. And as corymbia says, Clangers unknown in these parts: a guess from the crossers.
    If you’re going to watch Wake in Fright, watch the original (1971) not the recent remake.
    The other crossing pair that proved tricky were NHO esurient and amulet, where I didn’t see the mullet. So thank-you Ulaca, for solving the mysteries.
    1. I wasn’t unaware they’d remade it, but then I watch very little modern stuff, while the 70s rock.

      It’s a film that creeps up on you and mugs you.

    2. Yeah you do. “Singing Stones Beach is about 800m south of Pretty Beach in Murramarang NP between Ulladulla and Batemans Bay on the NSW South Coast.” So there.
  4. but no biffing whatsoever.

    FOI 4dn INNER

    LOI 19dn EPILATES a Greek Governor of yore

    COD 26ac FANTASY FOOTBALL – good rubbish

    WOD 11ac CLANGER

    Welcome to the paradise all QC merchants.

    Edited at 2020-09-28 03:58 am (UTC)

  5. Have only seen this so not commenting on the crossword but the printed version has a new typeface which seems a big improvement
    1. Yes, I noticed that in the heading and commented about it in my intro to the QC blog, but wasn’t sure about the clues. Looking at the word ‘turns’ in 8dn of the QC it hasn’t resolved the ‘r n / m’ problem.

      Edited at 2020-09-28 05:33 am (UTC)

  6. About as quick as it gets for me. There were a few unknowns/half knowns – CASSINO, ESURIENT, SARDONYX – which I bunged in with a slight worry that I might be making an error in my hastiness, so pleased to find that not to be the case.

    Football seems more of a nightmare than a fantasy at the moment with some of the VAR decisions.

    1. You should try the Scottish game, where there is no VAR, and referees have carte blanche to award penalties etc as they see fit – for example, yesterday’s match at Motherwell, where Rangers were awarded two penalties, only one of which was justified, and the home team none out of three claims, two of which were stonewallers.

      Edit to say I’ve just watched slo-mo of both Rangers penalties, and neither should have been given.

      Edited at 2020-09-28 08:30 am (UTC)

      1. There’s something freakishly nightmarish about seeing penalties being ‘correctly’ given for hand ball according to the new rules. It reminds me of judges priding themselves on applying unjust laws without fear or favour.
    2. Unless you’re a supporter of Leicester of course, and their star striker Var-dy (as noted on the BBC sports pages last night).
  7. 33 minutes. Would have been quicker if I’d biffed a few as UNTIE took me ages to parse and I never did work out what ‘bowler’ was doing in 17ac as I’ve never heard of ‘quick’ as a noun in that sense.

    Was very pleased to get XERXES as the Persian king before noticing the wordplay. I don’t know any other Persian kings but this one came to my attention at a fairly early age because Handel wrote an opera about him. It’s the one that opens with an aria later adapted as his famous ‘Largo’.

    Edited at 2020-09-28 05:00 am (UTC)

  8. I didn’t find this too easy; it pushed me out to 41 minutes (44 if I count watching the trailer for Wake in Fright :D) I didn’t help myself by knowing for sure how to spell SARDONYX *and* that it was clued with an anagram but putting in SARDONIX anyway. Still, once the FOOTBALL bit was clear getting the rest of 26a sorted that out in the end.

    FOI 5a ZEALOT, which started me looking for a pangram, LOI 16d DISLOCATE, which finally put paid to the anagram theory for sure. I may now go and watch an episode of The CLANGERs; it seems a bit more morning-friendly than the Outback film…

  9. (20 mins pre-brekker. Like Kevingregg above, I remember Esurient from the Cheese Shop. Thanks setter and U)

    … the public library on Thurmon Street just now, skimming through ‘Rogue Herrys’ by Hugh Walpole, and I suddenly came over all peckish.

    O: Peckish, sir?

    C: Esurient.

    O: Eh?

    C: ‘Ee I were all ‘ungry-like!

    O: Ah, hungry!

    C: In a nutshell. And I thought to myself, ‘a little fermented curd will do the trick’, so, I curtailed my Walpoling activites, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles!

  11. Not that quick, really, coming in at 13.15.
    The Clangers were wondrous, though as far as I remember they didn’t have satellite dishes of any kind on their heads, just woolly, sticky-out ears. And a Soup Dragon. Here they are in a lesser-publicised New Horizons photo of Pluto image

    I had not trouble parsing LATTE, but didn’t get the UNTIE wordplay (should have done, of course).

    Edited at 2020-09-28 07:58 am (UTC)

  13. 21 minutes with LOI EPILATE. Mrs BW once dragged me to Pilates. I’d have preferred RUSSIAN ROULETTE, it would have been over quicker one way or the other. There is no fantasy to be had in football for some club supporters. A dozen years ago I had one that we were in Europe beating Atletico Madrid and drawing with Bayern. Didn’t know SARDONYX, which sounds like an interesting branch of philosophy, but eventually got there. I’m sorry for biffing DISLOCATE because it could have been COD if I’d parsed it. I’ll give that honour to XERXES. There were enough tricky ones in here to make it a decent puzzle. Thank you U and setter.
  14. Fast going even for a Monday. Tackling the Guardian first definitely gets the crossword juices flowing (plus ENGLISH/SHINGLE was in both, sorry if that’s a spoiler). ESURIENT also evoked the cheese shop sketch for me and with mention of a CLANGER (the soup dragon, anyone?) I think the setter is the same age as me. Don’t understand the inclusion of ‘bowler’ in 17d, though.

    COD: MARACA for the surface.

    Friday’s answer: All Time High was the theme tune for Octopussy.

    Today’s question: what was Long John Silver’s occupation?

      1. Apologies, not logged in. Finished the crossword in my usual time despite a couple of unknown words.
  15. About 25 minutes for me but with a couple of biffs (SENOR and UNTIE) and a couple of NHOs (SARDONYX and ESURIENT), so thanks to the blogger for the explanations.

    FOI Elder
    LOI Untie
    COD Russian roulette

  17. Liked this … NHO quick as a noun for fast bowlers before but no other unknowns.
    Esurient we have seen a few times before, notably last year when Jackkt blogged it.
    Loved the Clangers ..
  18. 16.27 after a few struggles in the SW corner and a guess with esurient. I hate these anagrams where if you don’t know the word , getting the answer becomes a lottery though in this case a 50/50 bet . Perhaps we should have a phone a friend option on the site?!

    FOI zealot, LOI xerxes, but that was simplified by finally recognising quick fix. Liked clanger and fanfasy football. Did The Clangers cross the pond? Ditto for Fanta.

    Thanks blogger, especially for showing why senor was the right answer.

    1. Scottish League Division Two Forfar four, East Fife five! James Alexander Walker

      Edited at 2020-09-28 04:48 pm (UTC)

  19. 4:51. I haven’t managed a sub-5 for ages: in fact I think this may be my first of 2020. Surprising because somehow the puzzle didn’t feel that easy, and there were quite a few unusual words in it: CASSINO, XERXES, ESURIENT, EPILATE, SARDONYX.
    I remember the Clangers, although it was originally broadcast before I was born so I guess it must have been repeated.
  20. The cheese shop sketch is far more fun, but people who have sung in a choral society will be familiar with ‘esurientes’
  21. Clangs
    The bell.

    Only not for me in the SW for far too long. Contentedly ignorant of the alien behind the scenes. 20’37.

  22. Didn’t quite meet the demanding target set by our blogger, but a nice Monday solve all the same. Impossible not to want some cheese now, thanks to 28ac and John Cleese.
  23. ….called the Bollocks I found this easy enough. Minor quibble at 8D – doctors treat, nurses tend !

    FOI ZEALOT
    LOU XERXES
    COD SOBERS UP
    TIME 6:22

  24. SARDONYX NHO sounded more like a character out of Asterix. Seen ESURIENT here before.
    Struggled with the QUICK FIX. If it’s a u…..
  25. Completed all but SW corner in about 22 mins, then a long think about words beginning with X.

    Failed to parse SENOR which only went in after XERXES. Finally CASSINO and then EPILATE (guess the definition but could not remember the word).

    Hey ho

  27. The top half flew in but I was reined back down below. NHO QUICK for fast bowler and spent a while wondering where the bowler came into it. ESURIENT was unfamiliar despite having apparently been here before. SARDONYX was a new one on me, but the wordplay was kind. Totally failed to see what was going on with UNTIE, so didn’t put it in until I had the crossers, despite it being my first thought early in the solve. Like Jack, I was familiar with the Persian king, through Handel, and having got FIX from FANTASY FOOTBALL, bunged him in and reverse engineered him. EPILATE took a while to sort, even though it wasn’t unfamiliar once I had it. 24:10, which put me at 142 on the Leaderboard, so I obviously found it trickier that most, although it is a late solve for me, having travelled back from my break in Helmsley(and stopped off to stock up on provisions before the probable lockdown) before tackling it. Thanks setter and U.
  28. 16:18. It wasn’t that hard. Braindead from 6 hours round-trip taking son to University in York, I suspect. Pleased to see the reference to the cheese shop sketch at 28A. You can see the list of cheeses that weren’t for sale here.
  29. Piece of cake, I see same SNITCH as last Monday. Thought it might be a pangram, with Z X X X K and J, but I can’t find a V or W. I liked the Clangers, with their penny-whistling talking noises.
  30. 14:59 – my first sub 15 so I must have been on the wavelength. Having played fantasy football for nigh on 20 years, that clue was a very fast write in. Slight crossed fingers for untie and latte which I didn’t parse and sardonyx and esurient but with the crossers it was fairly simple to guess the correct order of the letters. Thank you setter and U.
  31. I didn’t find this easy (51:30), never having heard of SARDONYX nor ESURIENT (but quite sure that it couldn’t be USERIENT, which helped a little) and not being able to think of LOOTS nor DISLOCATE for quite a while. I knew somehow that you shouldn’t drop a CLANGER, but didn’t now them as TV aliens (wrong TV). COD perhaps to XERXES, which on the surface would seem to be very difficult to clue.
  32. 16:52. I went through quite a few clues before anything would stick and I was able to get a foothold. That did make me wonder if it was going to be one of those Mondays but no, it turned out to be one of those Mondays.
  34. Ulaca asked for a postcard explaining why “stick for support” leads to “fix”. Although there has been some discussion about whether “quick” is a noun meaning fast bowler no-one seems to have sent ulaca his (?her) postcard

Comments are closed.