Times 28069

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I am a little dischuffed, alas. It was tough enough not having the crossword code, since I am using my daughter’s boyfriend’s PC and keyboard, which is for good measure set up in Spanish. It was tough enough that I had to toggle between two machines (my iPAd and said PC) to get the job done. To add insult to injury, after an hour and a bit’s work – and having nearly completed the job – I managed to lose everything.

So, rather than my first introduction, which pointed out that this was rather a tricky little number with an especially awkward French customer that took me 35 minutes, I am afraid you are left with this threnody. And, because I just don’t have the energy, this second draft will perforce be shorter than my first, painstaking effort.

Sorry about that, but please ask if you are uncertain of something and someone will help – and that right quickly.

ACROSS

1. SPROUT – R in SPOUT > SHOOT
5. TICK OVER – MOMENT PAST > IDLE
9. HUNTSMAN – final letters of australiaN fruiT flieS in HUMAN (being) > SPIDER
10. REDRAW – reversal of WARDER > CORRECT
11. ABSOLUTELY – SOLUTE (salt in water, say) in ABLY (well) > FINE
13. NOEL – NO(v)EL; a noel can be a Christmas carol, which is a kind of hymn
14. VICE – double definition (DD)
15. WINDOWLESS – WIND (snake) OWLESS (a putative nighttime flier)
18. GET KNOTTED – DD
20. FOOL – DD
21. SCAN – SCAN(t) (barely adequate without final letter)
23. ETHEREALLY – E THE REALLY (if truth be told)
25. EVER SO – kneE V (very) anagram of SORE; literal VERY
26. BADINAGE – BAD (not good) IN (in) AGE (time)
28. GRADIENT – DIE in GRANT; a cant can be a tilt or incline
29. PELOTA – PEL(O)T A; a bizarre game played with ball, wall and basket

DOWN

2. POURBOIRE – POUR (tip) I (initial letter of Items) in BORE (hole); literal ‘A tip!’ from the French ‘for drinking’
3. OUTCOME – OUT COME (as in ‘He issued from the cave’)
4. TUM – initial letters of Terrorising Union Members
5. TINGE – G (good) in TINE
6. CURRY POWDER – CURRY (groom) D (bridesmaiD finally) in POWER (might)
7. ORDINAL – the literal is ‘for example, third’; OR (gold) N (name) in DIAL (ring)
8. ERASE – R (initial letter of Rules) in EASE (facility)
12. UNWHOLESOME – the literal is repulsive; UNWHOLE (imperfect) SOME (a little)
16. NET – a reversal of ‘all fingers and thumbs’, i.e. TEN
17. SPOTLIGHT – SPOT (place) LIGHT (land)
19. KINDRED – KIND (category) RED (rare)
20. FLANNEL – DD; soft soap = flannel = flatter
22. CAVER – a semi all-in-one, methinks; CAVE (Latin for ‘beware’) R (initial letter of Rock)
24. HABIT – H (hospital) A BIT (rather)
27. DIP – hidden in demanD I Predict

62 comments on “Times 28069”

  1. All went well until the top left refused to yield. I couldn’t justify COME so was very tentative about that. I was convinced VICE was actually one of the mechanicals from MSD whose name I had forgotten. Suddenly I thought of VICE out of nowhere, and realized it must mean a screw as well as the sort of thing you attach to a bench. So all correct with no aids, but I only finished it this morning so no time, but probably over an hour anyway.
  2. I think you’re being kind to the setter/editor – a vice isn’t a mechanical screw. For me, it’s two jaws which clamp together. The common ones in people’s workshops include a mechanical screw, but the clamping jaws are the defining part. Other vices include lever action, hydraulics, or ratchets to clamp the jaws together. And arguably over-centre mechanisms, in hand-held vice-grips.
    1. To be even more kind to the setter, one of the meanings in Chambers for vice is “a screw.”
  3. As the owl custodian here, I would like to make it clear that a female owl is not an “owless”, but a hen owl. I know our setter was having a chuckle, but owls deserve some respect.
    I found this tough, didn’t know the spider and didn’t get the dark = no windows, didn’t think GET KNOTTED meant the same as get lost, and spent 45 minutes on it.
    Having seen that animal on the wall, I’m glad I am a long way from Australia.
  4. Very slow today. LOI was 14a: I had to work through the alphabet before I found VICE.
  5. Fraid the POURBOIRE HUNTSMAN crossers defeated me, in spite of the cryptics being fair. Otherwise a bit slow and a few clues, as well elaborated above, a little dodgy.
  6. 37.23. Tough and chewy. After an unpromising start I slowly began to build from the bottom up finally finishing in the NW. Held up at the end by a few such as huntsman, pourboire and absolutely. I was also significantly delayed by vice which needed an alpha-trawl. I blame whoever it was that put the V all the way up the other end of the alphabet.
  7. Very tough. Thanks for the LY in absolutely – got but not parsed. I didn’t get HUNSTMAN (being=human!), POURBOIRE or NOEL though, which is pretty frustrating having struggled (quite happily) for some time with the rest. You have my sympathies on blog technical issues – having toted an iPad (no blog creator – so all manual) round the world and struggling with wifi connections etc. Can’t believe it took me SO long to move from chilli to curry powder. Hats off to our setter.
  8. …to struggle in the NW corner. After over an hour, I resorted to aids to get the last 5 clues so technical DNF.
    No Monday puzzle this — perhaps Bank Holidays don’t count as Mondays?
    Thanks Setter for the challenge and Ulaca for the blog.
  9. This one left me with a very badly scratched head. I couldn’t remember the Po’boy or Spiderman until the end of a very long pause for thought.

    And now I’ll probably dream of spiders tonight and I’m terrifed of them. Thanks, one and all

  10. Same as others with a blank NW for much time but decided that I would assume that OUTCOME was right; then luckily ABSOLUTELY hove into view despise totally misparsing it. I knew of the French tip and the B gave that up to me. The spider was last and could easily have been pluralised as didn’t have much idea with that one either. VICE had come to mind fairly quickly and I certainly didn’t hesitate too long over what sort of screw it might be

    The rest was more or less done in half an hour

    Chewy

    Thanks Ulaca and setter for an enjoyable BH challenge

  12. Embarrassed myself yet again – didn’t know that and didn’t check the dictionaries. Apologies.

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