Times 28023 – not that East London, innit!

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Another witty Wednesday, here and there, and nothing to scare the equine brigade in this, as long as you knew about obscure Scottish places as I did from football results on television. Merit marks to 3d and 15d, but my gold star goes 25a for “something pinned”.
Another Wednesday on a road trip, so it will be later before I can respond to any niggles.

Across
1 Agitator in East London ready on complex brief (9)
FIREBRAND – (BRIEF)* followed by RAND, money used in East London, a smallish coastal city in South Africa.
6 Important aborigine not one to accommodate Jack (5)
MAJOR – MAORI is our aboriginal person, lose the I and insert J for Jack.
9 Dignified senior to receive award (5)
SOBER – SR (senior) receives an OBE award.
10 Desperate to survive drop (4-5)
LAST-DITCH – LAST = survive, DITCH = drop.
11 One’s intended to bank note as money (7)
FINANCE – insert N for note into FIANCE = intended.
12 Keeps quiet about a temperature showing changes (7)
MUTATES – MUTES = keeps quiet, about A T.
13 Some toper in pub interfered with mate (8,6)
OPPOSITE NUMBER – (SOME TOPER IN PUB)*.
17 Cultivated sort names Saracen in novel (11,3)
RENAISSANCE MAN – (NAMES SARACEN IN)*.
21 Greed a wicked habit that holds painter back (7)
AVARICE – A VICE = a wicked habit, insert RA reversed.
23 Revolutionary socialist cause in As You Like It? (2,5)
TO ORDER – RED ROOT = socialist cause, reverse it all.
25 Something pinned to hem in fabric (9)
GRENADINE – Very witty, took me a minute to see how it worked. A GRENADE is “something pinned”, it hems IN. As well as a pomegranate syrup, grenadine is a woven silk cloth mainly used for ties. I still have about 40 ties but haven’t worn 39 of them for years, only the black one when necessary.
26 Everything and nothing close to Boudicca’s town (5)
ALLOA -ALL (everything) O (nothing) A (close to BoudiccA). It’s somewhere in Scotland, I’ve heard of the football team.
27 Honey badger‘s length adding to value (5)
RATEL – RATE = value, add L for length.
28 Fights about casserole containing fine seafood (9)
SWORDFISH – ROWS (fights) reversed, then DISH with F inserted.

Down
1 Escargots presumably not available on such menus? (4,4)
FAST FOOD – no slow snails on this menu.
2 Day was one men overturned skip (5)
ROBIN – Men = OR, reversed = RO, BIN = skip. Sir Robin Day died in 2000, but it doesn’t seem that long ago to me.
3 Busy worker securing wheels needs a cold drink (6,3)
BERING SEA – BEE a busy worker, insert RINGS for wheels, add A. Cold drink, indeed.
4 Dreadful meal in time causes illness (7)
AILMENT – (MEAL IN T)*
5 Refuse to be moved and he could receive summons! (7)
DUSTMAN – cryptic definition.
6 Thick fog that envelops delta (5)
MIDST – MIST around D. Thick as in “in the thick of / in the midst of”.
7 Current setter involved in predicament (3,6)
JET STREAM – (SETTER)* inside JAM = predicament.
8 Go over what appears in eruption (6)
REHASH – RASH appears in a skin eruption, insert EH (what).
14 Common little man seen in bar (9)
PREVALENT – PREVENT = bar, insert AL a little man.
15 Farmer once in rising river amusing duck (9)
MACDONALD – River CAM in Cambridge, rises > MAC, DONALD is the amusing duck. As in Old MacDonald had a farm, I presume.
16 Trespass for one snaring new bird without tail (8)
ENCROACH – EACH = for one, insert N CRO(W).
18 Coin going with shillings to make a group (7)
SPECIES – coin = SPECIE, add S for shillings.
19 Cunning Italian author entertains duke in style (3,4)
ART DECO – ART = cunning, ECO as in Umberto Eco, insert D for duke.
20 Blade worn must have edges switched (6)
DAGGER – RAGGED = worn, switch the ends.
22 Irishman puts island first with everything considered (2,3)
IN ALL – NIALL is our Irishman, move the I to the front.
24 I was in van going north touring hot capital territory (5)
DELHI – I LED = I was in van, reverse it (going north) insert H for hot.

​

50 comments on “Times 28023 – not that East London, innit!”

  1. 19 minutes, plus 12 (!) more for GRENADINE and SPECIES, a brutal crossing, neither parsed — thanks, Pip.

    Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle.

  2. A big thumbs-up from me. From first cab off the rank FIREBRAND, wth ‘in East London’ having nothing to do with dropped aitches, to the ‘cold drink’ for BERING SEA, the ‘something pinned’ wordplay for GRENADE, the ‘Farmer once’ for MACDONALD and the excellent cryptic def for DUSTMAN, this was full of gems.

    Thought I was going to fail at the last, but then saw SPECIES and finished in 30 minutes.

    Bravo setter and thanks to our blogger.

  3. SPECIES then GRENADINE my last two in, finally understood SPECIES but I know GRENADINE more as a cordial than a fabric. 11:40 about bang on my average time.
  4. 49 minutes, like the Reject and the Weissmann finishing with SPECIES.

    Could this be one of those very rare weeks when I actually finish all the puzzles, sans errors, sans aids, sans anything else?

  5. A very good puzzle but like ulaca I needed 49 minutes to complete it, which is slower on the 15×15 than I have been for quite a few days. SPECIES and GRENADINE were my last two in and REHASH was a bit of a guess as I was unable to parse it and I still don’t quite see the definition as you can ‘go over’ something without rehashing it. ‘Make over’ I would have understood. But perhaps I’m missing something?
    1. I think it’s enough that one of the senses of ‘go over’ is to rehash, as in ‘What’s the point of going over this point ad infinitum.’ 🙂
  6. I went with a biffed BARING SEA — the first part of the clue I’d got was the bee so no excuses really, but I was convinced it was spelt that way. After a good run my errors are piling up on the leaderboard. Hopefully my turn of form is opposite to that of the England football team.
    1. Just confirmed my suspicion. This is what I said when BERING SEA appeared two years back: “I was undone by a biffed BARING SEA. Even with the correct answer in the spelling looks wrong as I was so convinced it was A rather than E.” 🤦
      1. I remember the sea cropping up before and I, too, put BARING back then.
  7. …And drinking largely Sobers us again.
    30 mins pre-brekker.
    And I have learned Specie.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2021-07-07 06:46 am (UTC)

  8. Riffled through this quite quickly, but grenadine went in with a shrug on the grounds that nothing else would fit. So thanks for the explanation Pip.
    I liked the old farmer, best
  9. 21 minutes with LOI SPECIES. I only know GRENADINE as a pomegranate syrup, but it wins COD for its construction. This always seemed tricky but the answers kept coming courtesy of helpful crossers, so enjoyable. I’m not sure how far you’d get summoning a dustman though. “No, jump up on the cart.” Thank you Pip and setter.
  11. I think we can safely excuse
    Ducks like Donald when used in the clues
    But what of 2 Down?
    Did that make me frown?
    Well clearly i cannot enthuse

    ROBINs are PREVALENT and not obscure
    But were there other options? Well, sure.
    Riban would have done
    Rubin is more fun
    And there have been Rubens galore

    2. I thought you would be “cock-a-hoop” that the crow had lost his tail.
  12. About 38 mins in one sitting which is good for me.

    Didn’t understand the East London ref in 1ac and I only knew Bering Sea from previous crosswords. Couldn’t parse species and it went in with fingers crossed.

    FOI 8dn REHASH and LOI 4dn AILMENT. I spent too long trying to fit an anagram of meal into a three letter word for time.

    I was unsure about 25ac GRENADINE as I also knew it as some sort of syrup but then penny finally dropped when I had all the checkers. My COD.

    Thanks to our blogger.

  13. Only realised which East London 1a was talking about when I came here and saw the title of this blog, so FIREBRAND was a partial biff. Didn’t know that specie is a coin, so SPECIES needed all the checkers and still went in with a shrug. I’d also have spelt 3d “Baring Sea” were it not for the wordplay, and that was after being convinced that it would be some kind of tea until I got OPPOSITE NUMBER.

    FOI Niall
    LOI Species
    COD Last-ditch

  14. 17:09 I liked this, especially the downs. Failed to parse IN ALL, so thanks for that Pip.
  15. Lots to enjoy in this. The only clue I couldn’t parse was SPECIES so thanks, Pip.
    Two thumbs up for FIREBRAND, GRENADINE, ROBIN,BERING SEA, DUSTMAN and the use of ‘setter’ in JETSTREAM.
    Just a thought re 6ac: in NZ terms, Maori are not aboriginal. They arrived in about the 14th century from elsewhere in Polynesia.
    1. We tend to class as aboriginals anyone living in a country when we invaded and annexed it..
    2. Were there other people in NZ when the Maoris arrived? Or was it empty? I think if they were the first people there, you could class them as aboriginals. We all arrived from somewhere once (East Africa?)
      1. The Maori were indeed the first inhabitants of NZ. I guess I associate the term ‘aboriginal’ with a great length of time as with the aboriginal people of Australia who go back something like 60,000 years of course.
  16. 10:57. I was solving this on the train, and for some reason my iPad decided to stop receiving a mobile signal, so I had to faff about connecting to my phone to submit. After all that I forgot to check my answers so didn’t notice that I had typed JES STREAM, leaving me with two errors. Drat.
    ‘East London ready’ is clever but I’d never heard of the city so it was a complete mystery to me this time, and it will be completely obvious next.
    MACDONALD reminds me of this discussion of DBE: https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2010/06/definition-by-example.html?m=1
  17. I feel like I made very heavy weather of this one, not getting the long anagrams for some time (I thought the second one was going to be a novel) and missing some relatively simple wordplay. Or, to give credit to the setter, maybe it was just craftily written.

    Thanks for explaining GRENADINE & SPECIES, which were my last two, entered in hope. We talk about ‘in specie’ transfers a lot at work, but I’d never actually known that definition of specie.

  18. FAST FOOD set me off to a good start and some FINANCE helped me on my way. After a SOBER assessment I then inserted Mr Day and fell in the drink. I then proceeded in a clockwise direction until held up for a while by 18d, 20d and 25a. SPECIES fell first, helped by my assimilation of the works of PG Wodehouse in my youth, then my RAPIER turned into a DAGGER on reassessment. GRENADINE then assumed material form as I spotted something pinned. Very good. That made it COD for me. 27:16. Thanks setter and Pip.
  19. Managed to beat Jack and Ulaca so I’m a happy bunny. 48 mins. Last two in GRENADINE (another who only knew the drink) and SPECIES, the latter bunged in with a hope and a prayer. Some very witty clues as others have said. I liked the anagram at 13ac. Had a giggle at MACDONALD too. Thanks Pip and setter.
  20. Needed DAGGER to provide first letter of GRENADINE — didn’t know that meaning of it — SPECIE as a coin was unknown to me too.

    The rest wasn’t too bad and went in over two sessions — only other problem was the SEA, I thought for a long time about BARENT (should be BARENTS) before alighting on what ‘wheels’ actually might be…..

    1. I think you’ve clarified the reason for my repeated BARING SEA error — I reckon I’ve been confusing BARENTS and BERING.
  21. 32 mins in total. All fairly straightforward apart from Grenadine (yep, only knew the drink) and Dustman — which I find a rather bizarre clue. Alloa recalled from listening to the football scores read out on TV in the 70s…
  22. Like some others already, I was bewildered by the dustman and the summons. Why on earth would one summon or summons a dustman? Maybe 100 years ago, ‘My good man …’, and all that sort of patrician thing, but today?
  23. Today it was the lower left that pushed my time just past 20, that and Bake Off burbling in the background. And trying to find the wordplay in DUSTMAN.
    I was cleverly working on GREEN for “something pinned”, complicated by looking for the Irishman following, rather than moving I(S). When the also clever GRENADE appeared, and I gave up on trying to justify GABERDINE, IN ALL administered a kick to the shins and SPECIES (I finally recalled that kind of coin) was my last.
  24. I’m sure we’ve encountered ‘grenadine’ as a fabric in a previous times puzzle. I didn’t know it then, but did this time. The useless knowledge one picks up in these blogs!
    Had trouble parsing 8d REHASH, as I saw ASH could be found in a volcanic eruption, EH for what, leaving an unaccounted R. Thanks for the explanation Pip.
    26’01”
  25. Top half went in very quickly then I slowed right down, Grenadine and Species the last to fall. Thanks
  26. Thanks for explaining SPECIES. It was LOI, and I spent ages on it. I also couldn’t for the life of me parse REHASH. Still, an all correct unaided puzzle, and over 100 on the SNITCH, so pleased. I got DISTRAIT wrong on Monday, so this is ample compensation.
    Regards
    Andrew
  27. My worst time for yonks, compounded by a kip in the middle. NHO SPECIE or GRENADINE cloth, so they were my LOI. I’ll go and have a lie down
  28. Made heavy weather of this. NHO specie. One to remember. Flopped over the line after 43 mostly puzzled minutes.
  29. ….as I biffed “rapier” at 20D, and was unable to correct it. That obviously made GRENADINE impossible (the cloth was a DNK and I’d probably not have got it anyway). I also didn’t solve species.

    COD BERING SEA

  30. Like most people, ended up with GRENADINE and SPECIES. And like most people only knew the drink, but it certainly seemed plausible as a name for some sort of cloth. SPECIES took an alphabet trawl, especially as it was unclear whether the S at the start or the end corresponded to shillings in the clue.
  31. After yesterday’s mild dissatisfaction, today’s offering was a joy. About 37 minutes, of which the last four or so were spent dredging up RATEL from the memory banks after which DAGGER (obviously!) and GRENADINE (less so) dropped into place. LOI and COD definitely the ‘something pinned hemming in’. Thanks to setter and blogger.
  32. Nice work. Various pennies dropped in a satisfying manner, as I remembered (or guessed at) all the necessary knowledge. I think the South African Grand Prix was held in East London, when it existed; and long experience has taught me that just about any word can turn out to be a sort of cloth.
  33. 32.40 so not exactly a stroll in the park for me. LOI was Macdonald which provided a bit of light relief as did Bering Sea which I eventually twigged courtesy of a dim recollection of the same answer appearing earlier this year.

    Hopefully I’ll be a bit more on wavelength tomorrow when I won’t have the immediacy of playing like a drain in my latest golf round. Think I should stick to crosswords.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  34. 21:10. I found this quite testing and overall a satisfying solve, having to negotiate my way out of the occasional blind alley (e.g. 1 ac “Firebrand”). A well constructed puzzle in short.
    For 13 ac “Opposite Number” I extracted “person” from the anagram which wasn’t terribly helpful and needed 7 d “Jetstream” to force me to re-consider.
    Biffed 16 d “encroach” but parsed after submission.
    Luckily I was aware of all the GK requirements, which helped.
    LOI and my COD 15 d “Macdonald” which provided a classic PDM after staring at a nine letter word with 5 crossers for too long!
    Thanks to Pip and setter
  35. A DNF here as I did not really get 25ac GRENADINE pah!

    FOI 1dn FAST FOOD – fast one in!

    (LOI) 18dn SPECIES

    COD 3dn BERING SEA – like grenadine not a proper drink

    WOD 19dn ART DECO

    Al feast of excellent clues that occupied me for fifty or so minutes

    On edit — I do not find Donald Duck in the slightest bit amusing!

    Edited at 2021-07-07 06:45 pm (UTC)

  36. I struggled to properly parse 2dn Robin DAY. LOI GRENADINE.　 COD Renaissance Man. Time 12:55. Where is Kevin today? I like to compare times.
  37. Talking of Scottish football results!
    I was well off the wavelength today so this took me ages, but got there in the end. Like Corymbia, I was thinking of ash from a volcanic eruption so was fortunate to get Rehash correct.
  38. Seemed to need all day, on and off, to complete but got there in the end, though with a fair amount of biffing and unparsed answers.
    COD to 25ac GRENADINE
    FOI 6ac MAJOR
    LOI 6d MIDST!
    Thought 5d DUSTMAN a bit weak but otherwise all good.
    Thanks to Pip and setter.
  39. 31.15. I found this a tough nut to crack. I was glad of the long anagrams, opposite number and renaissance man, which opened things up a bit. The reference to East London in firebrand was over my head and left me a little anxious that I might be missing something. DNK grenadine as a cloth but the ‘something pinned to hem in’ was so brilliant, it had to be. That left LOI species which was entered on the basis of checkers and definition, not knowing the specie definition of coin.

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