Times 28009 – Rice pudding without the skin

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Well, aside from the beartrap at 1 across, this was pretty much your straightforward Monday offering – just the thing to come home to when you’ve spent the day ferrying people round the People’s Republic of Hong Kong.

A PB or two in the offing, methinks. 19 minutes for me.

ACROSS

1 Article of clothing seen round parts of Austrian province (8)
TIROLESE – ROLES (parts) in TIE (article of clothing); this is essentially the Italian version of ‘Tyrolean’
5 Chamber to expand endlessly when storing too much! (6)
GROTTO – OTT in GRO[w]
9 Too much is done badly without looking, at heart (8)
OVERKILL – [loo]K[ing] in OVER (done) ILL (badly)
10 Wide hook used for carp (6)
WHINGE – W HINGE; you can get hinge hooks, if you are short of space to hang your anorak, but otherwise I don’t really get the connection
12 Petrolhead finally has a year to take in every US motorsports venue (7,5)
DAYTONA BEACH – [petrolhea]D A Y TO NAB EACH; a write-in for a sports fan
15 Florid tribute read out for esteemed lecturer (5)
REITH – sounds like ‘wreath’; John Reith was the first Director General of the BBC, whose name lives on in the Reith Lectures, broadcast by the Beeb since 1948. Pretty sure I’ve never heard one of these
16 Summoning energy with one’s chosen job (9)
EVOCATION – E VOCATION
18 Travelled through part of Ireland, avoiding Castlebar, finally, and Pontoon (6-3)
TWENTY-ONE – WENT in TY[r]ONE; one of the nine traditional counties of Ulster / six of ‘Norn Irn’; another year, Rory, congratulations, Mr Incredible
19 Note: always book returns (5)
BREVE – EVER B reversed
20 Cool show on TV leading to complaint (3-9)
AIR-CONDITION – AIR (show on TV) CONDITION (complaint)
24 Fansite chiefly, but not entirely, for computer enthusiast (6)
TECHIE – hidden in eth first two words
25 Piece that cannot be left out of a big tool needing repair (8)
OBLIGATO – anagram* of A BIG TOOL
26 Really bad senior cops strike back (6)
DISMAL – DIS (Detective Inspectors) LAM reversed
27 Impulsive times full of extremely enjoyable emotions (8)
FEELINGS – E[njoyabl]E in FLINGS (impulsive times)

DOWN

1 Excessively large plane? (4)
TOOL – TOO L
2 Equipment for catching river fish (4)
REEL – R EEL; the setter took to this clue type…
3 Fancy a quick drink right now? (4,1,4)
LIKE A SHOT – ‘Would you LIKE A SHOT, sir?’
4 Mere moments after dessert comes another portion (5,7)
SPLIT SECONDS – [banana] SPLIT SECONDS (another portion)
6 Treatment time dismissed by retired person trying to get clean (5)
REHAB – BA[t]HER reversed
7 Perplexed worker possibly overwhelmed by different details (10)
TANTALISED – ANT in DETAILS*
8 Liberal old writer has last drop of scotch with editor (4-6)
OPEN-HANDED – O PEN [scotc]H AND (with) ED
11 Change or tokens then fit a gaming device (7,5)
SNOOKER TABLE – OR TOKENS* ABLE; I believe my highest break is 21, but then I used to play a lot
13 Long, flexible carpet rod, tacked at the front (10)
PROTRACTED – CARPET ROD T[acked]*
14 Shelves part of LP and the songs on it? (10)
SIDETRACKS – SIDE (part of LP) TRACKS (songs on an LP)
17 Delicious German bread, mostly covered in fresh salami (9)
AMBROSIAL – BRO[t] in SALAMI*; Brot is the German word for bread
21 Board seeing positive responses from two Europeans (5)
OUIJA – OUI JA, French and German for ‘yes’, respectively
22 One of the first people entered, ignoring me (4)
CAIN – CA[me] IN
23 Nothing works — sorry about that! (4)
OOPS – O OPS

56 comments on “Times 28009 – Rice pudding without the skin”

  1. Didn’t know that AMBROSIAL means delicious, but the cluing was helpful. Otherwise this was reasonably straightforward. Instinctively I would have spelt 1a ‘Tyrolese’, but clearly either is fine.

    FOI Whinge
    LOI Reith
    COD Rehab/Air-conditioning

  2. 23 minutes, a steady solve after a sluggish start. LOI TIROLESE, confounded for a while by the spelling. COD to SPLIT SECONDS. Nice puzzle, not too Mondayish. Thank you setter and U on return.
  3. I spent far too long to spot my error of having put in SWEET SECONDS. It’s not a phrase I’d heard of, but thought “dessert” must be SWEET. Eventually having looked at 9A for some time and having been tempted to throw in OVERKEEN (“Too much”?) I eventually saw OVERKILL and was able to correct my error and finish. I must remember crossword law #342 — if nothing seems to work you probably have something wrong.

    The SNITCH is reporting a lot of solvers with errors today. A biffed TYROLESE maybe? I was tempted myself.

    1. I put in Tyrolish as I couldn’t think of another word for Tyrolean. Doh!
      COD to 18A TWENTY ONE as it mentioned Puckoon; my Aunty Doff bought me this brilliant Spike Milligan book for my 14th (I think) birthday, and having read it herself (without making the slightest mark on it) had to check with my mum that the naughty bits were not too naughty.
      Andyf
  4. Held up for about half the time (ie far too long) by the OVERKILL/SPLIT/REEL/TIROLESE crossing(s). Poor start to the week. 41 m
  5. Surely it’s obbligato? No, obligato is a variant spelling. But although the dictionaries record usage they don’t say whether variant spellings are just a few people ‘getting it wrong’ or about 45% of all users spelling it that way. So I went to Google and obligato was redirected to obbligato, with many fewer results than for obbligato when I initially entered it. My guess is that it really ought to be obbligato, but no doubt someone will tell me that I’m being a stickler.
    1. Indeed obbligato, a pure Italian word, as all(?) musical directions are.
      That broke the run of three successive Italian words spelled correctly in blogs since Friday: Napoli, Bologna, and Tirolese!
      1. is given as a variant spelling to obbligato by Merriam- Webster. So do we have an American setter today? Air Condition, Daytona Beach, rehab plus Reith misunderstood?
  6. The first definition of hinge in Chambers is ‘the hook or joint on which a door or lid turns’ so I think that works — and nice reminder of that very funny comedy duo of the last century (80s?).

    An enjoyable workout which took me under 30 minutes, marred only by a MER at TANTALISED which as others have noted does not mean perplexed.

    Ole to Jon Rahm. Many more to come methinks.

    Edited at 2021-06-21 11:03 am (UTC)

  7. Another who immediately thought “Tyrolean” for 1, the only part of Austria I know. But it didn’t parse so spent a few seconds getting it right. Similarly 4dn had to be SWEET, mind went immediately to “mere… dessert” = “just ice” except that also doesn’t parse, so spent a few seconds getting it right. Apart from those, and protracted where i needed to write down the anagrist, sailed through without troubles. Pleasant, Mondayish solve.
    Hope all is well in the Republic of Hong Kong.

    Edited at 2021-06-21 11:37 am (UTC)

  8. Fine clueing, as ever. I got bogged down in the upper left corner, leading to a merely average time by my standards.

    REITH: easy clue, but I wasn’t aware that he delivered lectures himself?

    1. From Wikipedia:
      The Reith Lectures is a series of annual radio lectures given by leading figures of the day, commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. The lectures were inaugurated in 1948 by the BBC to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Lord Reith, the corporation’s first director-general.

      The list of Reith lecturers does not include Reith himself.
      As an academic he may have given lectures, but not a major feature.
      Andyf

  9. 9:41. I initially biffed TYROLEAN but fortunately — and uncharacteristically — I took a moment to resolve the wordplay when SPLIT SECONDS made that impossible. It’s also fortunate that ‘another portion’ for SECONDS is quite obvious and A_L_T looked unlikely anyway. A narrow escape.
    MER at ‘perplexed’ for TANTALISED. Not the same thing at all if you ask me.

    Edited at 2021-06-21 10:27 am (UTC)

    1. Agree on TANTALISE. Also, I was nonplussed for a short while by OBLIGATO – the more correct version has two Bs.
      1. My knowledge of orchestral musical terms and how to spell them is sufficiently sketchy that I didn’t think twice about that one.
  10. Fell for the Tyrolese at 1a. Knew that tie was not spelt Tye but had no idea you could spell tyrol with an i and thought the definition must be “if Austrian region” ie someone who is Tyrolese. Oh dear.

    Also held up for a long time having put overseen and sweet seconds neither of which made sense until I realised my error.

    31:25 with a pink square at 1a.

    Very enjoyable puzzle

    Thanks U and setter.

  11. Just under 50 mins so a bit longer than it should have been, apparently. Took a while to see how the top left worked, so that’s what held me up. I liked TWENTY-ONE but COD to DAYTONA BEACH, right up Horryd’s IKEA strasse! FOI GROTTO, LOI RÉEL.

    I remember Ambrosia creamed rice pudding from my youth, hardly delicious, but I got what they were on about.

    Thank you U and setter.

    Edited at 2021-06-21 10:43 am (UTC)

    1. Oh I loved it. Here in Shanghai rice pud is not a thing – except for sticky black rice. However, in Thailand sticky (white) rice with coconut milk and fresh mango is to die for! AMBROSIAL!
  12. When I first looked here there were only 3 comments and I was wondering what had become of everyone. Perhaps it was the errant Y in 1a that put people in a bad Monday mood. I was moving like molasses this morning (it is very hot and sticky here) so like Keriothe I was able to go back and correct the Austrian. No idea why I was so lethargic could it be (lack of a wavelength sotto voce)? Pretty good one. 20.27
    1. When I first looked here there were only 6 comments. I added mine but now realise these were all cleared away. I most unfortunately entered Tyrolese at 1ac early and did not return to check – thus spoiling my recent good run.
  13. Nearly fell into the bear trap with TIROLESE as my last in. Good job I checked the parsing!

    Top left was generally slow as I could not think what went in front of SECONDS, but spotted OVERKILL and the two short words filled themselves in.

  14. LOI SIDETRACKS couldn’t for the life of me think of the 1st and 3rd letters, then when I got it, I thought “that’s a completely different meaning from shelves”. Still think so. Otherwise, excellent for a Monday
  15. Steady solved, avoiding the issues at 1a by going through the wordplay carefully to see what variant of the word was going to be required. I don’t think I know any other provinces in Austria so just as well it was that one. Same minor worries about whether a HINGE was a hook, but close enough to put it in and move in. And I was perplexed by TANTALISE like everyone else, but the wordplay was too clear to really consider any other choice.
  16. 14.11 a nice puzzle to work through nothing really held me up except to change Tyrolean to Tyrolese and then, when that wouldn’t parse, to Tirolese.
  17. 13:47 Yet another who tried TYROLEAN at first but modified to the unknown spelling via the wordplay. COD to DAYTONA BEACH.
  18. All done in under an hour, which is good here. A joint effort with a few contributions from my husband (Reith, Daytona, Tyrolean modified to Tyrolese or Tirolese, opted for the latter since it parsed) which were keys to solving this. Would have been a DNF without. I had open-minded for liberal which didn’t parse, but with husband’s Daytona and my Beach open-handed fit and parsed. LOI split second, revealed by the change from Tyrolean to Ty – Tirolese. Did not parse grotto, overkill, Daytona Beach, techie, rehab or get the Scotch in open-handed. Agree with comments above about obbligato. COD protracted. Thanks, U, for the blog, and setter for the entertainment. GW.
  19. Fortunately TIROLESE was one of my last in and cribbed together from wordplay, so no trap there. I thought DAYTONA BEACH was particularly clever. 9:39 so not a doddle, but on the easier side.
  20. This was straightforward but for the NW corner of which I got none. NHO Tirolese for Tyrolean, reith is not a lecturer, surely floral rather than florid, couldn’t get beyond t seconds, and having seen the solution, can’t believe i didn’t get 1 and 2 down.
    And now we have a power cut. Doh.
  21. I was on the verge of inventing a new word — Sabromial — until the penny dropped.
    Also couldn’t remember whether it was Reith, Reeth or Reath until I saw Sidetracks (I was hung up on Backtracks).
    Enjoyed this one. Thanks Ulaca.
  22. Not very far from me is the glorious village of Matching Tye, which I’ll claim as a major influence on my confident TYROLESE, which still looks more right than its Italian variation. Now, if only I could find justification for matching tye to an item of clothing.
    Otherwise a smooth enough Monday slowed a little by the unparsable DAYTONA FLATS, vaguely remembered but apparently only available to rent from estate agents.
    AMBROSIAL, of course, is rice pudding available in Bristol.
    Is a SNOOKER TABLE a device? Not convinced.
    I hope all went well earlier today, U, and congratulations on getting a blog out at all.
  23. Oh, and how long is it (apart from the Listener a few weeks ago) since a knowledge of German was required?
  24. Some very nice clues for what was a puzzle on the easier side. I, like Aston Villa, enjoyed OOPS.
  25. Nothing particularly tricky here, which frustrates as I was absolutely unable to get a start on this one. Just one of those days, I suppose. (Couldn’t find anything interesting in the paper either. Maybe a day to cancel altogether.)
  26. This was for me as Mondayish and as of average difficulty as you can get but still very enjoyable.
  27. but Lord Ulaca was out and about in HK. I enjoyed this a lot as it was a Monday+! It took me around 55 minutes with my LOI 1ac TIROLESE – I had forgotten that a TIE was once an item of clothing! I can’t remember the last time I wore one. Terrible things.

    FOI in 23dn OOPS!

    COD 12ac DAYTONA BEACH

    WOD at 18ac Vingt-et-un – Blackjack – Pontoon – what you will.

    Edited at 2021-06-21 03:52 pm (UTC)

  28. I convinced myself that a fansite could be a buffery; being stuck I looked in the dictionary and Whay! buffery ~= fansite, so raised a MER at BUFFER for a computer nerd. Fortunately buffer hit none of the crossers so got deleted.
    Andyf
    1. If it’s any consolation, that clue was difficult. Before seeing the well-hidden hidden.
  29. Back to completing 15x15s – and this one went very quickly and enjoyably. I’m used to getting stuck on several clues and having to chew over for an hour or so but today all went smoothly with a slight gnaw at TIROLESE – but didn’t get trapped.
  30. With all the reservations about TANTALISED, I at least want to thank the setter for including the oft-omitted but in my opinion necessary qualifier “possibly” after “worker”. Not all ants are workers.
  31. As already observed, a puzzle where I stopped to think “Really?” about a couple of things – the lecturer, the Italian spelling, that meaning of Perplexed – and can consider myself fortunate not to have fallen into the elephant trap (which, to be fair, is only a trap if you don’t read the wordplay properly, which is nobody else’s fault).
  32. 24 minutes, so not only solvable for a change, but very easy, certainly my best time ever. Nothing much to say about it, except that SPLIT SECOND would be my COD for its wit. No problem with TIROLESE — Tirol is the German spelling anyway (but of course it is an English puzzle).
  33. 20:01. I’m not surprised at the rash of quick times today but I certainly wasn’t sharp enough to join them, particularly in the NW corner which held me up for too long at the end.
    MER at use of florid in 15 ac “Reith” as I didn’t think it meant floral but a subsequent check of my Chambers proved otherwise.
    COD 17 d “ambrosial” .
    Thanks to Ulaca and setter
  34. Nothing to add save I thought there were some excellent surfaces today and some very nice clues. Surprised no one has put a shout out for OUIJA but maybe it’s a chestnut? Also AMBROSIAL and OOPS had large metaphorical ticks (I solve fat fingered on a phone). Never done German but brot was in the memory bank somewhere

    Thanks setter for a very pleasant Monday offering indeed and our esteemed blogger

  35. Came to this late after a day travelling home from the Scottish Borders. FOI, OVERKILL, led to REEL, TOOL and LIKE A SHOT, quite quickly, after which a postulated TYROLEAN which didn’t parse was uneasily pencilled in. The correction came after SPLIT SECONDS ruled it out and the wordplay was finally understood. I didn’t see the TO NAB part of the famous race track, but it didn’t stop me entering it confidently. As others, I had MERs at OBLIGATO and TANTALISED. Liked AIR CONDITION and OUIJA. LOI was DISMAL. 30:58. Thanks setter and U.

    Edited at 2021-06-21 11:08 pm (UTC)

    1. No-one else? Is a tie an item of clothing? Maybe, but not as convincing as a Tee(-Shirt). Had I heard of Tyrol? Possibly, but Tirolese wasn’t reminiscent of it. Should I have verified my guess via google? Probably, but I’m trying to kick that habit.
  36. No problems with TIROLESE, but when I submitted I found I had entered a mystifying DAYTONE BEACH. Very strange…
  37. Thoroughly enjoyed the lower half of this one but hit a wall across that top half. Couldn’t see 1,5,10ac, nor any of those top row downers bar LIKE A SHOT. FOI AIR-CONDITION. Liked OOPS!
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