Times 28,115: Two Logs Would Be An Extravagance

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Blogged from London. This had a slightly “Saturday Jumbo” flavour to its cluing in parts, but I was tickled by at least a few numbers, including the very interesting homophone at 19dn and the fun of “shabby chic” at 16dn: when all’s said and done, maybe I just like Italian words?

Thank you to the setter and maybe see some crossword people in the pub at Bank this Saturday? Details available if you don’t already have them.

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

Across
1 Bobby keeps preparing a way for Jack, say (7,4)
PLAYING CARD – P(olice) C(onstable) keeps LAYING [preparing] + A R(oa)D
7 Discharge a member of church (3)
ARC – A R(oman) C(atholic)
9 Idle line stops working (9)
POINTLESS – (LINE STOPS*). LOI
10 Current mariners preserving old piece of mast (5)
ACORN – A(lternating) C(urrent) + R(oyal) N(avy), “preserving” O(ld)
11 Discerning diner in assessing our methods (7)
GOURMET – {assessin}G OUR MET{hods}
12 Pity about cutting new individual transmitter (7)
NEURONE – reversed RUE, “cutting” N ONE
13 Democrat spotted backing housing requirements (5)
NEEDS – D(emocrat), housed by reversed SEEN [spotted]
15 Perhaps dish first artist taking risks (9)
AERIALIST – AERIAL [perhaps (satellite) dish] + 1ST
17 Woman’s returning to add belts and collar (9)
APPREHEND – reversed HER, “belted” by APPEND
19 Release old boy from bawdy part of act (5)
SCENE – {ob}SCENE. FOI
20 Pray here for a Conservative female abandoned (7)
ORATORY – {f}OR A TORY
22 What lovers may do in county hotel to some extent (7)
COHABIT – CO(unty) H(otel) A BIT
24 More hostile French company welcomed by Irish (5)
ICIER – C(ompagn)IE “welcomed by” IR
25 Clubs in the past inspiring present consistency (9)
COHERENCE – C ONCE “inspiring” HERE
27 Drive here and there regularly (3)
TEE – T{h}E{r}E
28 Later, old pro distributed crude earnings (11)
PETRODOLLAR – (LATER OLD PRO*)
Down
1 Just beat seed (3)
PIP – double def
2 A little over half of audience riotously cheers (5)
ADIEU – (AUDIE{nce}*)
3 Land bridge exists as shown, covering miles (7)
ISTHMUS – IS THUS, “covering” M
4 Big entry at Crufts perhaps wrecking tea garden (5,4)
GREAT DANE – (TEA GARDEN*)
5 Minister quietly denied crime (5)
ARSON – {p}ARSON
6 Count upsetting a large posh club maybe (7)
DRACULA – reverse all of A L(arge) U CARD
7 Acknowledge wrong record in a balance (9)
APOLOGISE – LOG in A POISE
8 Subject intended to dispel a sense of satisfaction (11)
CONTENTMENT – CONTENT ME{a}NT
11 Tree expert‘s data on each trunk is on time (11)
GENEALOGIST – GEN on EA LOG IS on T
14 English politician holds one small pill for stress (9)
EMPHASISE – E(nglish) M(ember of) P(arliament) HAS 1 S(mall) E
16 Receiver takes possession of shabby chic plant (9)
RADICCHIO – RADIO “possesses” (CHIC*)
18 European collected rent as personal booster (3,4)
EGO TRIP – E(uropean) GOT RIP
19 Broadcast avoids last of Soho’s lively bars (7)
SCHERZO – homophone of SKIRTS [avoids] + {soh}O
21 Berlin’s rowers potentially follow unknown craft (5)
YACHT – ACHT [(a rowing) eight, in German] follow Y
23 Embargo placed on almost entire stock (5)
BANAL – BAN placed on AL{l}
26 Every so often repair organ (3)
EAR – {r}E{p}A{i}R

64 comments on “Times 28,115: Two Logs Would Be An Extravagance”

  1. 27.50. I made progress in fits and starts on this one. FOI gourmet. I was particularly dithersome over LOI aerialist, wasn’t entirely sure that an aerial could be a dish and wasn’t entirely sure that an aerialist was an artist. Ended up putting it in because I couldn’t be bothered with lengthy alpha-trawling to find something better, which wasn’t entirely satisfying as a way to arrive at the solution. Managed to avoid the Skirt-so, Scare-tso, shirt-so conundrum by being too thick to parse the clue and identify the homophone, just bunged it in from checkers and lively bars. I liked the construction of woman’s returning to add belts and collar so COD to apprehend.
  2. Considerably easier than yesterday’s, which utterly defeated me, but there were still one or two answers I wasn’t sure of. I’ve never been confident of how to spell aerial, so even with all the checkers I was left hoping I had the right spelling of AERIALIST. NHO of RADICCHIO, which I pieced together from wordplay, and didn’t see how SCHERZO worked.

    FOI Needs
    LOI Aerialist
    COD Isthmus

  3. Last two in : Pip and Playing card. Clever putting three short words in the clue — Just beat seed — because it made me think this was one of those triple definitions. Otherwise, a lot of clues slipped in with little effort. I saw the shabby chic trick early on, but couldn’t see how it could possibly fit inside a real word; and then I had my light-bulb moment. Like a lot of other solvers, I realise I have never actually articulated out loud the word Scherzo. I’d probably have said Share-tzo. Many thanks setter and Verlaine.
  4. Yesterday I solved two (whole) clues. Today I solved all but two, so quite pleased with a DNF only two short. A really strange solve. I solved NW and SW first, then SE, left with four in the NE. I revealed arc and acorn, then finished with Dracula and aerialist. Took ages as usual, though – over an hour. Lots of biffing, mostly as discussed above. Enjoyed the crossword and the blog. Thanks, V, and setter.

    Edited at 2021-10-22 02:38 pm (UTC)

  5. Gentle for a Friday I thought though AERIALIST and RADICCHIO took a while. SCHERZO was definitely COD.

    Thanks to Verlaine and the setter

  6. Oops, I didn’t parse that. But it relies on a slovenly (mis)pronunciation
    This was sure easier than yesterday’s (which I did finish, just a day late). Had the bottom half of this one done before I was snatched into the darkness by Morpheus. Did the top quickly enough after oversleeping an hour.
  7. No time recorded today but delighted to have completed and parsed it all correctly. Last two in were playing card followed by aerialist. Both responded to my new regime of allowing time and working at the wordplay as the proverbial dog with a bone.

    At one point I was trying to think of an artist who took risks being an a-realist. It was only when first as ist came to mind that it fell into place (hopefully unlike the aerialist).

    Thanks to the setter for the workout and to Verlaine for confirming the explanations.

  8. Another rare excursion to the 15 x 15 for me, particularly on a Friday where its reputation usually scares me off. About half an hour I think, but as my base unit for these is the hour, I can’t be sure. Some lovely clues and devices. I got SCHERTZO just from lively bars, and never stopped to parse it. Like others, AERIALIST was LOI shortly after DRACULA. I liked YACHT and BANAL.
  9. Quick question, please. How does ARC tie in with Discharge. I get the Roman Catholic part but not the link. Thanks, AdrianM
  10. My Pitman dictionary helped by information that a mast is the fruit of beech and oak tree. Nothing to do with the mast of a ship!

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