Times 28093 – Racing Demons

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
What a weekend of sport it was! For me, disappointment followed disappointment, as Europe was handed a lesson in the Ryder Cup set in one of the scarier states of old US of A, and Manchester United demonstrated the folly of having a ton of forwards and virtually no creative midfielders. For my mate Mal, there was the indignity of his team, the Western Bulldogs, failing to get even half the number of points of their adversaries, Melbourne – that after leading at half time. The only silver lining in my cloud was to see the Davids of Brentford coming back to draw with the Goliaths of Liverpool.

As for the puzzle, it was just the pick-up I needed: a bit of classics, no sciency stuff, some vaguely obscure vocabulary and to cap it all one of my all-time favourite dishes! Perfect with plenty of burnt bits and a shedload of tomato ketchup.

20 minutes

ACROSS

1 African state‘s brief ploy, spiking articles (3,6)
THE GAMBIA – GAMBI[t] in (spiking) THE A
6 Missile launcher putting to sea leaves capital (5)
SLING – S[ai]LING; AI means excellent or capital. In this clue, finds one rather Yoda-ish word order, thinks me
9 Spin dry fabric, causing worry (7)
PERTURB – reversal of BRUT (dry) REP (fabric)
10 Keenly observe what’s in orbit (7)
EYEBALL – double definition (DD); one’s eyeball may be found in the boney cavity of the skull, AKA orbit
11 Prepare most of cereal order (5)
DORIC – DO RIC[e]; from memory I can recall one other order of classical architecture, the Ionic
12 Controlled ray and bream sale at sea (5,4)
LASER BEAM – anagram* of BREAM SALE
13 Current agreement’s the last word (5)
IDEAL – I (electrical current – okay, one sciency bit) DEAL (agreement)
14 Part of joint held by Bill regularly paid off (9)
AMORTISED – MORTISE (‘a slot or recess, usually rectangular, cut into a piece of wood, stone, etc, to receive a matching projection [tenon] of another piece, or a mortise lock’ – Collins) in AD (bill)
17 Record communist facing Italian calumny (9)
DISCREDIT – DISC RED IT
18 Waste processor’s name set in concrete (5)
RENAL – N in REAL
19 Rubbish English landowner ignoring Irish like Hyde? (9)
GROTESQUE – GROT (rubbish – why do I think of Reggie Perrin? Here’s why: https://youtu.be/93bWZV3485I) ESQU[ir]E; think Dr Jekyll’s alter ego
22 Stone barrier adjoining rear of villa (5)
AGATE – [vill]A GATE; well done, you Villans!
24 Make an entrance under it after a fashion (7)
INTRUDE – UNDER IT*
25 Zulu found in a deep gorge, initially staggering (7)
AMAZING – Z (zulu) in A MAIN (deep) G[orge]
26 Craft of university’s last rowing team in Berlin? (5)
YACHT – [universit]Y ACHT (eight in German)
27 Vital action in pool for typist’s depression? (9)
KEYSTROKE – KEY (vital) STROKE (action in pool)

DOWN

1 Apathetic leader of party in regime overthrown (5)
TEPID – P[arty] in reversal of DIET, which is a kind of regime
2 Impeccable European Republicans with various roles succeeded (9)
ERRORLESS – E[uropean] RR[epublicans] ROLES* S (succeeded)
3 Kind of bible used by a French cult abridged by Arabian (9)
AVUNCULAR – AV (kind of bible – really ought to be Bible, I reckon) UN (a French) CUL[t] AR (Arabian)
4 Cook squabbled with EU bank for recycled food (6,3,6)
BUBBLE AND SQUEAK – SQUABBLED EU BANK*; nice surface, suggestive of food snobbery, non?
5 Off-putting remedy, a kind the Gunners pity, not having it (8,7)
AVERSION THERAPY – A VERSION (kind) THE RA (Royal Artillery, AKA Gunners) P[it]Y; not such a felicitous surface
6 Sybil absorbs temperature guide (5)
STEER – T in SEER
7 Fancy scrapping up-to-date copy (5)
IMAGE – IMAG[in]E; don’t even get me started on the dreadful song!
8 Miss crossing familiar sea for first prize (4,5)
GOLD MEDAL – OLD MED in GAL
13 Set off shortly in US races in shame (9)
INDIGNITY – IGNIT[e] in INDY (US races)
15 Expression on worker catching a good shrew (9)
TERMAGANT – A G (good) in TERM (expression) ANT (worker)
16 Enclave Romanians damaged (3,6)
SAN MARINO – ROMANIANS*
20 Choose one conservative measure in bar (5)
OPTIC – OPT I C; not overly taxing
21 Become active in English sport, joining gym (5)
ERUPT – E RU PT; ditto
23 Explore a glen, coming across one of its residents? (5)
EAGLE – hidden in [explor]E A GLE[n]; pretty much an all-in-one, I think

82 comments on “Times 28093 – Racing Demons”

  1. I think it’s E = English, then squire = landlord. Although an esquire is given by Lexico as, amongst other things, a country squire, what about esquires from Wales, Scotland or Ireland (I don’t know of any esquires from elsewhere)? Surely the setter intended it to be E then squire.
    2. I’m sure you’re right, but I’ll leave it as it is, in the hope of attracting a few fly-by anons. A rare sport around here.
  2. I agree with Isla’s parsing and example. You’re right that ‘a renal’ sounds awkward but putting a definite or indefinite article in front of ‘renal’ would require it to be a noun, which it isn’t.
    1. Ah. the penny drops. read it as a contraction, not a possessive. thx. I still think it’s awkward, but I’ll concede on the grammar.

      Edited at 2021-09-27 10:22 am (UTC)

  3. This would have been a very nice canter for me but I was having trouble corralling my concentration this morning and had to get to LASER BEAM before the board lit up. I quite like a few sprouts now and then with plenty of butter and pepper (and so long as they haven’t been boiled within an inch of their life) but B&S, boarding school food, noooo thank you. Before calculators and computers we had a heavy volume in the law library with the amortisation tables. Good clue that. 15.15
  4. I thought the ‘The’ in ‘The Gambia’ might be one of those ones we’re not supposed to use. Like ‘The Lebanon’. But apparently it is indeed part of the official title, so fair enough. Very much liked Avuncular. I suppose it’s more or less synonymous today with ‘kind’. Are there any other uncle-like attributes?
        1. The voice of experience! Thank-you Uncle Phil!

          The planned Boxing Day stir-fry will have you ‘Trafford-Parking’ well into the New Year!

  5. All seemed fine except the NW corner where I struggled to fill in the country for ages — was thinking something ARABIA but clearly on the wrong track — seemed like the key to the rest, and once gotten, the final half dozen went in quickly.

    Curiously I had already heard the word MORTISE this morning so filling in AMORTISED was a small jump with a few checkers in place.

  6. I struggled quite a bit over 2D, thinking there had to be EU for European, as there is a superfluous R in ERRORLESS, which I came here to seek enlightenment over, but nobody has commented on it so far. I can only assume RR = Republicans. Did not know Amortised or Mortise as part of a joint. Otherwise, a strange mixture of the very easily BIFD and the puzzlingly obscure.
    Gill D
  7. 15.04. A bright and breezy Monday solve. I thought bubble and squeak was a very good clue.

    When ‘midst the frying pan in accents savage,
    The beef, so surly, quarrels with the cabbage.

  8. 3.30 to 3.54 p.m., no issues, although missed that INTRUDE was an anagram. I love bubble and squeak.
  9. 12:47 this afternoon. An enjoyable Monday puzzle, with the SNITCH comfortably in the “easier” band. A pleasing variety of clues and particularly liked 5 ac “aversion therapy” and 26 ac “yacht” where, despite German being my foreign language at school, I was unaccountably delayed in the process of identifying the Berlin rowing team.
    13 d “indignity” was biffed with a fair degree of confidence in view of the crossers and then parsed after submitting.
    “Marmite” in the QC earlier, followed by “Bubble and Squeak”, have not exactly got the digestive juices flowing for the evening meal tonight.
    Thanks to setter and Ulaca for the blog. I share your sporting observations regarding the golf over the weekend and am heartened by your description of Liverpool as Goliaths — a few years ago pre-Klopp that wasn’t always the case. Assuming you are a Bees fan, I think you could have an interesting season ahead. I was impressed with their speed and organisation and hope they can work their magic on our major rivals in the months to come!
  11. Congratulations, all above, I didn’t get very far with this at all. 6/23. Thanks for the blog, Ulaca, and setter for the puzzle. GW.
    1. ‘Grotesque Agate’ would be a decent title for a thirties murder novel, he ventured. And ‘Doric Laser Beam’ a seventies Soft Rock ensemble. A most enjoyable outing which lasted all of 18:38 minutes. COD the chestnutty San Marino.

  12. 14 mins. Late entry after a very long round of golf and a fruitless search for petrol to get me to the NW for the weekend. Wasn’t panicking, honest.

    Good Monday puzzle.

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