Times 27931 – No, not the Audiophiliac…

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 27 minutes
Music: Bach, Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould

This was a perfectly simple Monday puzzle, and I did most of it very quickly, before slowing down at the end.     There were some rather complex cryptics, and you needed some general knowledge, but there was nothing to slow down really skilled solvers.  I just don’t remember things as quickly as I used to, but my instincts are still pretty good.     I expect some fast times tonight. 

Across
1 Long to return carrying silver dish with piping (6)
HAGGIS – SIGH backwards around AG.   A haggis is traditionally served accompanied by a piper.
5 Charming girl who comes out holding Mike? (8)
DEBONAIR – DEB ON AIR, a chestnut.
9 Some people wait here — others rave about a uniform (10)
RESTAURANT – REST (A,U) RANT, one that should not have held me up as long as it did.
10 Writer, one in ball, pirouetting (4)
BIRO – OR(I)B backwards.
11 Memorable Beagle’s mission? Collecting flora ultimately (8)
HAUNTING – H(A)UNTING, where the beagle really is a dog, misleadingly capitalized.
12 Incorporate space by taking in odd edges (6)
EMBODY –  EM B(O[d]D)Y. 
13 Romeo abandoning trio’s second person once (4)
THEE – TH[r]EE.   The second person dative or accusative, that is.
15 A sturdy husband strays once a week it appears (8)
THURSDAY – Anagram of A STURDY H.
18 Call wife or mistress initially making a complaint (8)
RINGWORM – RING W OR M[istress].
19 Part of film dealing with the Spanish dance (4)
REEL – RE + EL, sandwiched in with two literals for good measure.
21 Characters in good book mixed items for sale (3,3)
JOB LOT –  Two Old Testament characters – I nearly put box lot, but I couldn’t bring to mind that Box fellow.
23 Force units beset with housing projects (3,5)
NEW TOWNS – NEWTO(W)NS.   A clue with lots of possibilities, since housing is often used as a container indicator.
25 Back sport involving driving belt (4)
FLOG – GOLF backwards, a chestnut.
26 Colourless chief scented bottles (10)
ACHROMATIC – A(CH)ROMATIC.
27 Talent’s accompanying hard work: the making of small store? (4,4)
GIFT SHOP – GIFT’S H OP.
28 Run through gardens in series (6)
SKEWER – S(KEW)ER.
Down
2 Lots of seats here are not available (5)
ARENA – ARE N/A.
3 Old printer’s good German book in sickly green (9)
GUTENBERG – GUT + B in anagram of GREEN.  I thought he had two T’s, but that’s another fellow..
4 Dim boss recruits gumshoe (6)
STUPID – STU(P.I.)D, the kind of boss you find on a shield obtaining a private investigator.
5 Skill in visualising successful movement of men on board? (15)
DRAUGHTSMANSHIP – Double definition, one jocular and referring to playing draughts.
6 Wild flower, less cold and flatter (6,2)
BUTTER UP – BUTTER[c]UP.
7 Tycoon, snooty type, entertains one on deck? (5)
NABOB – N(AB)OB, our old friend the able seaman.
8 Irish judge accepts help lifting light up (9)
IRRADIATE –  IR + RA(AID upside-down)TE.
14 Hospital treated polio with oil for masses (3,6)
HOI POLLOI – H + anagram of POLIO + OIL.   A Greek expression meaning the many, often used in Plato’s dialogues.
16 Substitute old piece in county briefly (9)
SURROGATE – SURR(O GAT)E[y]. 
17 Maybe paved way for short op that’s botched (8)
FOOTPATH – Anagram of FO[r] + OP THAT.
20 Small courts absorbing first of police raids (6)
SWOOPS – S WOO(P[olice])S.   Police does a bit of double duty, indicating what sorts of raids are meant.
22 Gentle drunk outside Grand Hotel (5)
LIGHT – LI(G,H)T, one from the Quickie.
24 Top seed’s English racket (5)
NOISE – NO I’S + E.

53 comments on “Times 27931 – No, not the Audiophiliac…”

  1. held up at the end by SKEWER, GIFT and HAUNTING, none of which were difficult aside from the SER which I’d not seen before. I was also looking for the series as the definition which didnt help.
  2. Quite chewy imho, but the snitch disagrees. No time, as did it in 3 goes. Probably around the half-hour mark. Thanks v.
  3. As per Zed – 12.30 on all but three up in’t’ north west – then another painful 12.30!! 1ac HAGGIS and 2dn ARENA! And my…

    LOI 11ac HAUNTING – most daunting.

    FOI 15ac THURSDAY on a Monday!?

    COD 1ac HAGGIS which I adore. Which I once had piped-in at St. Andrews. Never had or heard of the tinned stuff! ‘Tinned Lettuce’ yes! – from ‘The Theory and Practice of Lunch’ by Keith Waterhouse – hilarious and highly recommended for Fleet Street gastronomes.

    WOD 14dn HOI POLLOI – a Yorkshire writer I once knew, who shall remain nameless, thought the hoi-polloi meant the well-to do! He was befuddled by the ‘hoity-toity’!

    How else could one possibly and fittingly spell DRAUGHTSMANSHIP!?

    Edited at 2021-03-22 03:33 pm (UTC)

  4. Directed here from the QC. FOI thee. Then ringworm. Tried Saturday as some of it fit. Butter up, (which corrected the weekday), hoi polloi and noise followed. Dotted about for a while and filled in the bottom half. I found the rest decidedly tricky and taxing on the grey matter. So I enjoyed it enormously, but it took me a long time, about an hour, I needed to check several words, had immediate instead of irradiate so once that showed up to be incorrect, and was fixed, the rest opened up except for haggis and stupid. I stared at ha*g** for ever, and finally the penny dropped. Stupid fit – but I couldn’t see why. COD ringworm. Lots more to enjoy, though. Thanks, V and setter. GW.
  5. ….during the course of which I considered practically every incorrect definition, used incorrect anagrist, and never quite got going. My NITCH of 170 and WITCH of 217 are by some way the worst on view.

    With SURROGATE I wasted ages trying to use Dorset as the county.

    NHO GUTENBERG, and my German vocabulary didn’t stretch to the word for good.

    FOI THEE
    LOI HAGGIS
    COD SWOOPS
    TIME 16:13

    Edited at 2021-03-22 05:23 pm (UTC)

  6. Found this enjoyable and mostly easy. Even saw what beagles do reasonably quickly. But was defeated by something that nobody else has even mentioned. I still don’t see the short words em or en so couldn’t solve 12 ac embody. Embarrassing, as I had E—OD-. As a result of that I didn’t see Nabob but as that is such an antiquated word I didn’t feel so bad.
    Thanks to the setter and to Vinyl1 for the reference to one of my favourite recordings.
  7. Bit tired to start this after 2 hour brisk stroll round Bath with my daughter: felt more like wading through mud — some v easy ones but struggled with a few others. HAUNTING did come to mind quickly but SKEWER didnt and added a couple of mins at the end.

    Always happy to finish correct under the half an hour even if I’m a bit slower than normal

    Thanks all

  8. 17.41. I found it hard to get started with this one but slowly pulled it together. Momentary panic at the end over LOI haunting where I couldn’t make anything of the clue and the available letters weren’t suggesting anything. Not too long before it yielded though.
  9. A steady, enjoyable solve this evening, apart from loi New Towns, where a careless DraftsmaMship had me puzzling over Mew/Maw until I spotted the error. Lit for drunk was unknown (the word, not the effect) but it had to be. CoD to Job Lot. Invariant

  10. Late to the party as I didn’t get around to looking at this until this morning. However, I had to post as I actually completed this without any aids or errors, which I don’t think has ever happened before. I guess that proves it was at the easy end of the scale, with no unknown words or obscure people. I even parsed them all except REEL. Where does the RE come from?

    1. I’m also a late rare finisher and saw your entry. I think RE comes from “dealing with” in the clue, similar to “REgarding”.

      1. Ah yes, it was the definitions at both start and end that threw me.

        Edited at 2021-03-23 08:14 pm (UTC)

Comments are closed.