Times 28111 – You can bank on it!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 18 minutes
Music: Sibelius, Symphony 5, Gibson/LSO

Easy Monday continues for me, although I can never be sure when I am just on the wavelength.    But starting from the first across clue, the answers were pretty evident – what word starting with rip- means “on the bank”?   Not many.   So I continued at a steady pace, with only a MER here and there, and came home in a pretty good time for me.

We have had some complaints about heated exchanges here in the comments.   It’s certainly acceptable to press your point, but please try to keep it civil.   We do have administators, and we can delete comments if things get out of hand, verbum sap and all that.

On with the show!

Across
1 Rest peacefully by a river with Scot on the bank (8)
RIPARIAN – RIP + A + R + IAN, evidently the only Scot.
5 Novelist who would keep the fire burning? (6)
STOKER – Double defintion for the author of Dracula.
10 What can you write on? Anything but the electronic version of The Times! (9)
NOTEPAPER –  NOT E-PAPER.
11 Come across for hearing — guilty party may be this (5)
FINED – Sounds like find, in nearly all dialects, too.
12 A rescuer of creatures missing the last animal (4)
ANOA – A NOA[h].
13 Dodgy Rhodes uni promoted (9)
NOURISHED – Anagram of RHODES UNI – a bit of a MER.
15 Holding power opening very big meeting (10)
POSSESSION – P + O.S. + SESSION.
17 Drink only partially satisfies a king (4)
SAKI – hidden in [satisfie]S A KI[ng], second MER for this variant spelling.
19 French refusal to engage English? I don’t react (4)
NEON –  N(E)ON, an inert gas that doesn’t react with anything.
20 Bertha cuts fresh bread (10)
BRUSCHETTA – Anagram of BERTHA CUTS – you’ll have to count the letters carefully.
22 Worker coming to one cold region or another (9)
ANTARCTIC –  ANT + ARCTIC.
24 Faction‘s ostentatiousness (4)
SIDE – Double definition.
26 I would set about getting hold of fashionable garment (5)
DHOTI –  D(HOT)I,  the opposite of fashionable, which is why lift and separate is important.
27 Learner in audience puzzled about classical geometry (9)
EUCLIDEAN – Anagram of AUDIENCE around L.
28 US city minister returning to study (6)
DENVER – DEN + REV backwards.   One of the few states where the largest city is the capital.
29 Appreciator of pictures in East sitting in class (8)
CINEASTE – C(IN E)ASTE.
Down
1 Old boy not being seen putting on dress or skirt (4)
RING – R[ob]ING.
2 Decide firmly how one may go faster? (3,4,4,4)
PUT ONES FOOT DOWN – Double definition, one allusive.
3 Rough material getting criticised and substituted (8)
REPLACED – REP + LACED.
4 Like enclosure for tree (5)
ASPEN – AS PEN.
6 Can containing one doubly fine meal (6)
TIFFIN – F(I, FF)IN.
7 Frank in Devon shows such benevolence (4-11)
KIND-HEARTEDNESS –  [fran]K IN D[evon] is the clue to the answer.
8 Unfortunate lad married flighty type (3,7)
RED ADMIRAL –  Anagram of LAD MARRIED.
9 Criminals admitting defeat? They may be in the soup (8)
CROUTONS – C(ROUT)ONS.
14 Not showing dukes to be charitable (4-6)
OPEN-HANDED –  Double definition, one jocular.
16 This beast ultimately tried to attract partner and swaggered (8)
STRUTTED – [thi]S [beas]T + RUTTED.
18 Revolutionary’s charter in part of England (8)
CHESHIRE – CHE’S HIRE, where, presumably, they have lots of cats and cheese.
21 Cook belonging to place with famous restaurant by the Thames reportedly (6)
BRAISE –  Sound’s like Bray’s – possibly the clue should have read “famous restaurants”.
23 Islands full of fake plants (5)
CACTI – C(ACT)I, the Channel Islands.
25 With regard to home, start to replace source of energy (2,2)
IN RE – IN + R[eplace] + E[nergy]

139 comments on “Times 28111 – You can bank on it!”

  1. 14:27 Stuck on 15A for ages at the end because I had EVEN HANDED for 14D, which left me a word starting with the V for very. Having CAMP for 24A for a while didn’t help either.
  3. ….(there are three surplus letters in my heading). I entered “open-handedness” at 7D, and then realized it must be wrong when I quickly got OPEN-HANDED at 14D. Unfortunately I cocked up the correction by leaving the N of “open” in place, and failed to see it. I wasn’t happy with my time anyway (8:15 for a dead simple puzzle).

    I had no trouble with BRAISE as I read the restaurant reviews, even though I’m a steak and kidney pudding, chips, and mushy peas in a tray with gravy kind of guy.

    COD RIPARIAN.

    Edited at 2021-10-18 09:51 am (UTC)

  5. My PB very much held up by IN RE, RING, SIDE and BRAISED, all of which I had to bung in in hope rather than expectation.
  6. No trouble with Bray – a few years ago Heston Blumenthal relocated down here for a few months while his restaurant in Bray was rebuilt or redecorated or something, and became an instant celebrity. Sold off seats to his Melbourne restaurant, $550 a pop, and presumably almost as much again for wine and drinks. They sold like hotcakes – all the merchant bankers (not CRS) and stockbrokers bought them to use as rewards for clients & potential clients after someone noticed you weren’t limited in how many tickets you could buy online from one IP address – a few bots bought about 80% of the available places.
    Also heard of Greggs surprisingly, mainly in the context of “Who ate all the pies?”
    NHO anoa was easily clued, RING was the only other holdup until I put the OB in the middle, the rest was fairly straightforward.
  7. DNF, beaten by ANOA and RING, and pulled stumps at 40 minutes rather than delay getting started on the new (and last) Le Carre any longer. Otherwise, I enjoyed this and was pleased to see and parse KIND HEARTEDNESS — good clue!
  8. All complete at Shepherds Bush.

    Pleased to parse everything but NHO ANOA. Started with the two long down clues which helped with the quick time. Enjoyed EUCLIDEAN, BRAISE and RING (one I’d worked out the last two).

    Thanks setter and v.

  9. 16:20. Didn’t know — or rather didn’t think of — the criticise definition of LACE, though the answer was obvious, and thought promoted was a bit of a stretchy definition of NOURISHED. Some of the other definitions seemed slightly off-centre but on review it was all very fair.
  10. At 27 minutes only had 1dn and 12ac to complete. I had parsed 1dn but couldn’t find a word from which to remove OB until an alphabet trawl on the final letter got to G.

    Which left anoa. For the life of me I couldn’t think of a ‘rescuer of animals’ from which to remove the last letter. I realise this is a sad admission but the delight of this forum is the honesty of the comments. Eventually gave up after 35 minutes.

    My innovation of the day was to write in bellow for 5ac. I realise that it would have to have been bellows to work but it was close.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  11. Please could someone explain the hearted’ bit of ‘kindhearted’? (Am attempting the step up from the Quick Crossword so struggling even with ‘easy Monday’).
    1. The idea is that if you take the 12-letter string FRANK IN DEVON and then look for the central letters (or ‘heart’ of the string), you will find KIND!
  12. Paul Bunyan (lumberjack in American and Canadian folklore) had a blue ox called Babe which sometimes used to turn up in NY Times crosswords clued as an ANOA, I don’t know why. Haven’t seen her lately but I did manage to remember.

    Speaking of Oxon, I had no particular recollection of famous restaurants in Bray and thought (wrongly) that maybe it referred to the one called (annoyingly) Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons – why leave off the RE in quatre? It sounds as affected as a CINEASTE. 12.07

    1. Apart from the Fat Duck there is also the (far better imo) Waterside Inn, a Roux Brothers initiative.
      Le Manoir is (imo) better still and is run by a Frenchman, Raymond Blanc, and so perhaps not all that affected. He certainly isn’t.
  13. The NHO ANOA defeated me, but pleased to have thrown the towel in quickly, as would never have got it.
    NW was hardest with REPLACED late in (neither REP or LACED made much sense, still don’t)

    RING was slow to see, as I had been trying OB at the start as in oblong, obtain etc.

    KIND HEARTED was too clever for me to parse. Thanks for showing how it worked. CINEASTE was easier than it should have been with “INEAST” sitting right there. I’m happy to guess that CE must equal “class”. No more obscure than OS = outsized? Really, surely XL is used everywhere now.

    I was actually born in Bray, before the swanky restaurants turned up, and the Hinds Head was as good as it got.

  14. 26/29 for a DNF. Didn’t get ring, the re out of in re, NHO and couldn’t get or biff cineaste. Did not parse ring, replaced, Euclidean or braise. Quite pleased with my effort nonetheless. Enjoyed all the clues but would never have got the ones I didn’t get. Ever. Thanks, V, and setter.
  15. A disappointing DNF in around 20 mins. I was off to a quick start and had hopes of a PB but ground to a halt with cineaste, anoa and replaced. I pondered An AR(K) for a long time without making the leap to its builder. I also had replaced for some time but couldn’t see how it parsed, rep and laced didn’t seem quite right though they had to be. In the end submitted to find I had a pink square for a typo at NN RE.
  16. Well, a finish to start the week, for which I am grateful, but still without needing to use any units smaller than hours. Had quite a bit of fun trying to get 15ac to start with a V, having put Even Handed (no idea) for 14d. Loi Cineaste went in with fingers crossed, as I couldn’t see how it parsed. I still have no idea how side and ostentatiousness are synonyms, but everybody seems happy with it and I don’t think it’s going to trouble me again. On the other hand, I did manage to parse Anoa, Ring and Kind Heartedness, so there is some hope. Invariant
    1. It’s arguably a bit of a stretch but the usual dictionaries have variously ‘boastful or pretentious manner’, ‘insolence, arrogance, or pretentiousness’ and ‘a pretentious air, arrogance.’
      1. My issue was more that I couldn’t see what ‘side’ had to do with pretentious etc, but apparently Mrs Invariant has come across it used in that way, so it seems it’s just me! Thanks.
        2. The expression I have used (and my parents would have more frequently) is “he has no side to him”, meaning he not pretentious or ostentatious. I can’t remember them using it of somebody who does have a side to them.
  18. Done in 20 minutes before dashing off to make my golf tee time, with RING pencilled in but not understood. Somewhere on the front nine the PDM came to me. Nice puzzle today. ANOA was a new animal for me. RIPARIAN remembered from Hyacinth Bouquet’s riparian feasts.
  19. 42 minutes, but the last 10 or so needed to find DHOTI to confirm that BRAISE was really the answer to 21 dn. I really had to guess that Bray was the location of a famous restaurant and that it was on the Thames. So a MER for that (or rather a MEH, since I am rhotic) but many others as well: REP, SIDE, LACED for “criticised”, ACT for “fake”, RING for “skirt”, none of them wrong but all seeming a bit stretched. Which would be okay in the odd clue, but if it occurs all over the place gets to be a bit irritating. COD to KIND-HEARTED, of course, which is a good thought to end on.
  20. Was heading for an under tenner, but slowed right down at about minute 6. Misread 11 ac and put in Felon, which would have worked if the clue had been in the past tense. Tempted by Raki, sted Saki, but held firm. We sang The Vicar of Bray at prep school in Ireland in the early 70s. Odd, because the Irish town of Bray was just down the road.
  21. I don’t think it’s possible to enter an answer if you don’t know the word.
    I’ve never heard of ANOA, and even if I’d worked out who the rescuer of animals was (I was thinking RSPCA), I would not have put ANOA in….

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