Times 28,079: He Who Controls The Spice

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
No complaints about insufficient Fridayness today – lots of chewy stuff to think one’s way through here. “Mela” seemed a bit hard but then again “Kumbh Mela” does ring a bell, now I think about it. COD to 21ac – a plea I’d like to receive more often. I’m on holiday in Spokane (of all places) as of today, so I’m not going to go too in-depth but suffice it to say, thanks to the setter for a great puzzle!

Definitions underlined, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Send up Times campaign? (5)
LOBBY – LOB [send up] + BY [times]
4 Spot if the criminal makes call after crime (4,5)
STOP THIEF – (SPOT IF THE*). FOI
9 Champions were upset, sloping off to the rear (9)
BACKSWEPT – BACKS [champions] + WEPT [were upset]
10 Very short saying: time to go for length (5)
MOLTO – MOTTO, with T [time] replaced by L [length]
11 To be exhausted after race not acceptable (3,3)
RUN OUT – after RUN [race], OUT [not acceptable]
12 Wellington Arch is in front of small fox (8)
SLYBOOTS – BOOT [wellington] that SLY [arch] is in front of, + S
14 Unruly players’ union blocks invitation from minister (3,2,4)
LET US PRAY – (PLAYERS*) “blocked” by T.U.
16 Girl welcoming yours truly in at four o’clock? (5)
ESMEE – ESE [east south east = somewhere around 4 o’clock] “welcoming” ME
17 Classic venue where doctor’s exercising back (5)
EPSOM – MO’S P.E. reversed
19 Vital during day teachers should get a little food (6,3)
MONKEY NUT – KEY [vital] “during” MON N.U.T.
21 Plea to sleep in? So easily achieved! (2,1,5)
ON A PLATE – O, NAP LATE!
22 The Dutch avoid the UK? (6)
MISSUS – or, MISS US
25 Close to harbour, sailor in coat bows (5)
ROSIN – {harbou}R O.S. IN. To rosin is “to coat (violin) bows”
26 Take risks to manage punishment (3,2,4)
CUT IT FINE – CUT IT [to manage] + FINE [punishment]
27 Coming across short story about party-goers (9)
TRAVERSAL – TAL{e} “about” RAVERS
28 The writer Thomas Hardy languishes, greatly diminished (5)
DYLAN – hidden in{har}DY LAN{guishes}
Down
1 Politician, unusually calm deliberator (7,8)
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT – (CALM DELIBERATOR*)
2 Flyers to rip off? Someone’s might be saved (5)
BACON – B.A. [as in British Airways] + CON [to rip off]
3 Buy sets for modelling: they come with reservations? (3-4)
YES-BUTS – (BUY SETS*)
4 State of regularly neglected wreaths revolting (4)
STEW – reversed W{r}E{a}T{h}S – in a STEW = in a state
5 Jolly entertaining drama, overwhelming in arena? (10)
OUTPLAYING – OUTING [jolly] “entertaining” PLAY
6 Like Katherine’s mother to have food served all round (7)
TAMABLE – MA with TABLE all around. Katherine from Taming of the Shrew
7 Lion following, being after one’s territory (4,2,3)
ISLE OF MAN – LEO F MAN, after I’S
8 New storefronts met with mockery at first throughout (4,4,2,5)
FROM STEM TO STERN – (STOREFRONTS MET + M{ockery}*)
13 Food items for battering in the kitchen? (10)
DRUMSTICKS – double def, culinary/musical meanings
15 Distant waves and cheers when minister’s house opens (6,3)
TASMAN SEA – TA [cheers] “opened” by AS MANSE [when | minister’s house]
18 Confusion, with religious festival returning as new (7)
MELANGE – MELA [religious festival] + reversed E.G. N
20 Was previously top, top journalist (7)
EXISTED – EX 1ST ED [previously | top | top journalist]
23 What launches spacemen do in craft (5)
SKILL – S{pacement} + KILL [do in]. LOI
24 Left after expected time with others (2,2)
ET AL – L after E.T.A.

86 comments on “Times 28,079: He Who Controls The Spice”

  1. 29.01. An excellent puzzle and I much enjoyed the tussle. The setter had me bamboozled at nearly every turn. Slyboots, the four o’clock bit of Esmee, coat bows, the hidden Dylan, the distant waves and tamable where I got the right Katherine pretty early but was trying to force in termagant or some such synonym for shrewish before the penny dropped.
  2. Great puzzle but disappointed to find that I seem to be the only person who managed to put rasin (able seaman) instead of rosin. And thanks to the devil goes down to Georgia I knew the word rosin but somehow did not make the connection. Doh!

    37 enjoyable minutes otherwise.

    Thx V and setter.

  3. 41 mins but very pleased to finish. Got completely stuck in the middle and it was only after finally working out outplaying that backswept, drumsticks and monkey nut fell into place. Guessed melange but couldn’t see any other option. Mela now embedded in the memory which no doubt means something else will have been forgotten.
    Thx setter and blogger.
  4. For some reason I didn’t find this hard and polished it off in 20 minutes, although didn’t stop to parse MELANGE or the four o’clock device in ESMEE, so thanks V for those. Getting the long down clues at 1d and 8d quickly made the rest just flow. Liked the TOTS reference at 6d and the late sleeping at 21a.
  5. ….and it was a somewhat frustrating experience as a result.

    FOI STOP THIEF
    LOI ESMEE (without quite seeing it — cheers V)
    COD ROSIN
    TIME 11:03

  6. Was pleased with my time, but not so pleased to discover that I had MOLLO.
    A few revelations: I never knew that Liberal Democrat’s were calm deliberators and I’d never heard of a MELA. Duh of the day was how long it took me to see DRUMSTICKS.
  7. Squeaked in just under 30 mins with a current SNITCH of 134 (target time of 56 minutes).

    Another decent start similar to yesterday’s, with another similar dropping off once about a third of the way in.

    Pleased to get the long anag on the right with just two checkers in (SLYBOOTS and DYLAN), which really opened everything else up.

    Bits missed: no idea who Katharine was, my excuse — I’ve only seen The Taming Of The Shrew once (starring Josie Lawrence) more than twenty years ago; MELANGE guessed with all of the checkers in place.

    DRUMSTICKS and LOI SKILL both took a while to come to mind.

  8. This was a bit of a challenge – but I holed out on the 18th with MELANGE – in 17:50 mins. COD 22ac MISSUS. Also liked Dylan
  9. Tricky today.

    I’m going to take pedantic issue with 16ac “Esmee” since ESE is 3.45 (and I’ve never heard of the name Esmee in all my born years — only Esme). Ah well!

      1. Thanks Myrtilus. I’ve just realised that you made the same point previously and more succinctly!
        I presume that the Setter was left with E_M_E and didn’t have too many options.

        Edited at 2021-09-10 07:59 pm (UTC)

      1. When the hour hand is pointing east it’s 3pm, south-east it’s 4.30, so strictly east-south-east is 3.45. Close enough if you ask me.
        1. “When the hour hand is pointing east it’s 3pm, south-east it’s 4.30, so strictly east-south-east is 3.45. Close enough if you ask me.”

          Doesn’t the clue say: “roughly”?

  10. 20:15 late afternoon. This wasn’t easy (as the SNITCH would suggest) and I was content with my time.
    Solving 1d quickly helped a lot. Interestingly, I seemed to get on the setter’s wavelength quite frequently but then failed to follow through my hunches. For example for 6 d “tamable” I identified the Shakespearean connection and for 23 d “skill” I picked up on “do in” in the sense of murder but didn’t crack either clue until after a subsequent visit.
    However eventually all was resolved, albeit with a Biff for 18 d “melange” where “mela” was unknown to me and I couldn’t parse “nge” and I thought that melange was more of a mixture than a mess, but still went for it.
    COD (plenty of candidates today) 7d “Isle of Man” where with a little patience the elements fell into place.
    Thanks to Verlaine for a succinct blog and to setter for the mental stretch.
  11. Instead of tackling in the morning while I was at what passes for my sharpest these days, I went old school, Pairing the crossword with an eary evening beer, so while the solving time was rather dilatory, I enjoyed the struggle.
  13. V — enjoyed your reference to Dune.

    I believe that there is a new film coming out soon — can’t wait — that will be sufficient to get me back in a cinema.

  14. Well, sitting in New Plymouth and looking out to sea, 15d was obviously an omen of an easy Friday. 45 minutes later, I was still looking at 23d.

Comments are closed.