Times 28135 – Erica lingers on….where?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 20 minutes
Music: Kempf, Beethoven Piano Sonatas

We are pretty much back to easy Monday here, as I trotted through this puzzle at a fairly easy pace.   Only fleuron gave me pause – is that a subatomic floral arrangement?   Otherwise, I found it pretty routine, but with a number of good-quality clues embodying original ideas.   However, if you don’t happen to know all the words, then you may chose to differ. 

Across
1 Scottish island’s current proprietor mentioned in speech (4)
IONA – I + sounds like OWNER to the non-rhotic. 
3 Cautious about girl serving wine (10)
CHARDONNAY – CHAR(DONNA)Y.   Serving seems to be just a connecting word, since Donna is an honorific in Italian.
10 Plain southern woman digesting version of Bible (7)
SAVANNA – S(A.V.)ANNA.
11 Fine plan, regularly collecting cash for floral ornament (7)
FLEURON – F + [p]L(EURO)[a]N. 
12 Reward for service having the Midas touch? (6,9)
GOLDEN HANDSHAKE – Double definition, one allusive.
13 It gets confused with Mao’s Chinese philosophy (6)
TAOISM – Anagram of IT and MAO’S.
14 Dull quality of poet backed by head (8)
DRABNESS – BARD backwards + NESS.
17 Country dweller got cat doctored with little hesitation (8)
COTTAGER – Anagram of GOT CAT + ER.
18 Ill-fated high-flyer in charge of a sport stadium originally (6)
ICARUS – IC + A + RU + S[tadium].
21 State of French uniform received by this method? (7,8)
EXPRESS DELIVERY – EXPRESS + DE + LIVERY.
23 Importuner ultimately serving a long time in prison cell (7)
DUNGEON – DUN + [servin]G + EON – the American spelling, not indicated.
24 Famous conductor in West, possibly, initially taking Ravel in thus (7)
MAESTRO –  MAE [west] + S(T[aking] R[avel])O.
25 Performer, one who’s rational about one in court (10)
RECITALIST – RE(C(I)T)ALIST, a real Russian doll construction.
26 Where cattle may be kept near river Exe at first (4)
BYRE – BY R E[xe], a word often found in Chaucer and such authors.
Down
1 Visible capacity for understanding (7)
INSIGHT – IN SIGHT.
2 Rock plant! Want lover replaced! (9)
NAVELWORT – Anagram of WANT LOVER – you should usually try a -wort with letters like that.
4 Blooming troll finally dismissed, like Erica (6)
HEATHY – HEA[-trolL)THY.  
5 Factory initially releasing extremely showy clothing (8)
REFINERY – Releasing] E[xtremely] FINERY.
6 Signed too much, having too many clients (14)
OVERSUBSCRIBED – Double definition, one a bit fat-fetched.
7 Operatic heroine, not quite typical (5)
NORMA – NORMA[l].
8 US city taking ages to welcome English king (7)
YONKERS – YONK(E,R)S.  No complaining from the UK crew, we just had this a couple of weeks ago.
9 Subject to update from bank? That’s putting it mildly (14)
UNDERSTATEMENT –  UNDER + STATEMENT.
15 Seriously bring in new style (9)
EARNESTLY – EARN + anagram of STYLE.
16 Eg Christmas fastener broken by a young relative (8)
SEASONAL – SE(A SON)AL.
17 Male theologian trapped in vehicle? Hard cheese (7)
CHEDDAR – C(HE DD)AR.
19 Extremely pretty hotel protected by lone method of checking callers (7)
SPYHOLE –  S(P[rett]Y H)OLE, usually call a peephole here in the US.
20 The messenger god — or some other messenger? (6)
HERMES – Hidden [ot]HER MES[senger].
22 Peacekeepers in film relating to ancient Carthage (5)
PUNIC – P(UN)IC.

98 comments on “Times 28135 – Erica lingers on….where?”

  1. Very Mondayish. Almost a PB but FLEURON and NAVELWORT gave me pause. The later sounds like a Harry Potter character. Somehow, I can’t imagine the one-time prime minster ever being referred to as HEATHY

    Not much time for puzzling at present. Visiting in-laws in BLairgowrie last week and off to London to visit daughters tomorrow. For me, travel always seems to broaden the waistline more than the mind.

    Thanks to Vinyl and the setter.

    o

    1. I had no idea about the floral things but I did know them as the little puff pastry crescents that are used to garnish sole Dieppoise when I can be bothered to make it.
      1. I had to look up Sole Dieppoise -it looks very nice, but I can see why one might not be bothered.
  2. At 19d I shoved in SHINGLE having half read the clue, (Hotel in lone) which left me wondering how the EMPRESS BERIBERI related to the clue at 21a!
    Andyf
    1. is alive and bilious and living in Fernando Po, according to ‘Our Man in Port Harcourt’.

      Edited at 2021-11-15 02:49 pm (UTC)

  3. 22 minutes, having spent two minutes on HEATHY, not believing that it could possibly be a word and eventually succumbing to aids, only to discover that yes it was, and in my bewilderment over it all failing to understand how the clue worked, which was easy really. Never knew what a fleuron was — in fact I still don’t really — but it had to be.
  4. 12:58. A rare excursion into sub-teen territory in spite of the unknown but very gettable FLEURON. I had forgotten about the debt-collector type of DUN as well but it didn’t slow me down.
  5. foray into the sub-15 club for me, and nearly a second ever sub-10, had not the NHO FLEURON taken a while to construct.

    10:42

  6. ….FLEURON, I flew through this. I wondered if crossing HERMES and EXPRESS DELIVERY was deliberate.

    FOI CHARDONNAY
    LOI FLEURON
    COD COTTAGER
    TIME 5:58

  7. Sometimes when I spend Monday morning completing the Listener the regular crossword suffers as my brain over-complicates the clues. But this was indeed a gentle and undemanding piece of work. The clocked ticked over to 10.01 as I put in the last letter, so I decided to check properly rather than whack in a sub 10. So I can confirm it takes 40 seconds to do a proper check, and even then I omitted to work out the (hidden! again! wordplay for HERMES. Round here, HERMES is either a ridiculously expensive fashion accessory or a (product placement alert) delivery and courier service, so I thought that second would do if a bit feeble as a clue.
    The Listener, by the way, as a bit of a cracker.
    1. I had a look at the Listener but it seemed like one of those that just have too many moving parts. Maybe I’ll give it another go.
      1. It certainly has moving parts: you may need a second print of the grid. I was daunted by the jumbled entries, but once you get the quotation, googlable from the across entries, that resolves as the thematic items appear.
  8. Not bad, as I seized up briefly before NAVELWORT appeared, and I cursed myself for being so dumb for not seeing the WORT bit. After that, I discovered that I had missed reading most of the easy clues, and went from zero to hero in 4 minutes.
  9. An easy Monday with lots of biffing opportunities – I thought I might be on for a PB but came in about half a minute slower than that, finishing on the unknown FLEURON.
  10. Another day making it about 75% of the way through before grinding to halt.

    FLEURON – NHO, and got myself in a fine tizzy trying to figure it out
    14ac – not come across NESS=HEAD before, can anyone explain?
    23ac – NHO Importuner before, but I see it’s been explained above already
    24ac – MAE for WEST seems obvious in retrospect
    4dn – why is Erica HEATHY?

  11. ‘Heathy’ according to Chambers means ‘abounding with heath’, whatever that means, and one of the definitions of heath is of any shrub of genus Erica. ‘Ness’ is defined as ‘a headland’ — you see it in place names like Orford Ness and Stromness.
  12. I realised there would be some quick times today as I completed this correctly 7 or 8 minutes faster than I’ve ever managed previously. A Bob Beaman moment for me. It feels great now but having reduced my pb by so much in one step it could be a very long time before I get near to it again.

    NHO navelwort or fleuron but throughout the wordplay was pretty straightforward.

    Thanks to the setter for a gentle start to the week and to our blogger.

  13. Good progress on this gentle week-opener for 13 mins or so, took the remaining 5 mins or so to unlock the five remaining in the NE (already had OVERSUBSCRIBED and NORMA in place) — in order YONKERS, CHARDONNAY, REFINERY, FLEURON and finally the less-than-satisfying HEATHY.

    As with others, FLEURON was unknown as was DUN. No eyebrow was raised over the spelling of EON.

  14. Was hoping for an under-tenner but it was not to be. Fleuron comes easier to French-speakers because it is a commonish word, meaning flagship, pride and joy, cream of the crop kind of thing. Navelwort was a guess. Yonkers I’d heard of but could not have placed on the map. Simple Monday fare for the most part, but plenty of fun.
  15. 11.32. This was something of a sprint for most of the way. I dithered slightly over the unknown fleuron until all the checkers were in. For some reason I had put maestri which meant a delay over LOI, the not particularly difficult spyhole, until the error had been corrected.
  16. Good Monday stuff. Like nearly everyone else, I didn’t know FLEURON but it was one of those clearly-clued unknowns that doesn’t worry you when you press Submit.
  17. Sub-30 minutes, comfortably, which is quick for me. Navelwort, Punic and Fleuron (LOI) were all new to me, but all gettable clues, so no real holdups. Thanks both.
  18. Could be a personal best. I’ve done less than 8 mins before but not sure of my exact previous best time. So I will claim it as this. Yay!
  19. I normally take over an hour to complete a 15×15 so was amazed to finish this in a PB of 14.51. Many thanks to the setter. Simon
  21. Late to the party as I tore out the puzzle to do on the train then left it in the house. Instead I read a bit of my book and the Evening Standard on the way home (not much to read these days).
    No big problems when I sat down to this. Like others FLEURON was new; and the meaning of DUN.
    LOI was EARNESTLY. Done over a coffee but no time recorded. It was fun for a Monday.
    Glad I did the QC before lunch.
    David
  22. Which is as fast as I get.
    Happy I selected “Navelwort” over “Nevalwort”, the latter sounding very wrong, fortunately.
    LOI “Heathy” being a word I shall never use in the real world.
    Thanks for the blog.
  23. Can anyone explain how you get SEASONAL from Christmas? Shouldn’t it be Christmassy?

    Robin

    1. Christmas can be an adjective – for instance, “I’m sending you a Christmas gift” (which equally is a seasonal gift)
  24. Most of this was fairly easy for me. I took an age over 11,14 and 6d.
    It’s nice to have a puzzle a week I can manage ok!
    BW
    Andrew
  25. Most of this was fairly easy for me. I took an age over 11,14 and 6d.
    It’s nice to have a puzzle a week I can manage ok!
    BW
    Andrew

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