Times 28144 – run away, run away!

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time taken: 16:55, with about three minutes agoising over my last one in, and after crossing my fingers and hitting submit I found I had a very silly typo elsewhere. The early indications are that this is on the more difficult side, but I didn’t do myself any favours.

With this blog I enter my 14th year of writing up every other Thursday puzzle for the site. Hope we are all still having as much fun as I am.  It is also Thanksgiving in the USA, not a holiday I completely understand, but I will be enjoying a late morning and so may miss most of the comments coming in. I’ll check in Thursday afternoon UK time with a postscript.

Postscript – well I made three silly errors in writing it up, so with the one in the grid that makes four. Consensus does appear that this is a trickier one.

Away we go…

Across
1 That can be published after undoing triple ban (9)
PRINTABLE – anagram of TRIPLE,BAN
6 Firm punch nails cheating brother (5)
JACOB – CO(firm) inside JAB(punch). Jacob cheated Esau out of a blessing.
9 US runner returned old cap and waterproof (7)
POTOMAC – reversal of O(old), TOP(cap), then MAC(waterproof). River that notably provides the border between the District of Columbia and Virginia.
10 Hook right in front of gas cooker? (7)
GRAPPLE – R(right) inside the first letter of Gas and APPLE(cooker is a type of apple)
11 Maybe “medal’s” sounding like “meddles” (5)
PRIZE – sounds like PRIES(meddles)
12 Few bolder twists in the plot of The Black Tulip? (9)
FLOWERBED – anagram of FEW,BOLDER.  The Black Tulip is a Dumas novel
13 Good, nowadays, to obtain line in fashionable devices? (8)
GADGETRY – G(good), AD(nowadays), GET(obtain), RY(line)
14 Head off for shelter? (4)
FLEE – This was my last one in and I was not completely sure about it. I think it is an all-in-one with the wordplay being the first letter of For, then LEE(shelter)
17 Just by lake has left stone (4)
ONYX – ONLY(just) and X(multiplied by) missing L(lake)
18 Occupied half-forgotten, antediluvian houses (8)
TENANTED – hidden inside forgotTEN ANTEDiluvian
21 Flap that is holding in large crate (3,6)
TIN LIZZIE – TIZZ(flap), IE(that is) containing IN, and L(large). A decrepit car.
22 Feeling less in need of new pigment (5)
UMBER – NUMBER(feeling less) missing N(new)
24 Being continually lucky registered somewhere? (2,1,4)
ON A ROLL – if you were registered you would be ON A ROLL
25 Kick-start on your bike (4,3)
BUZZ OFF – BUZZ(kick, high), and start OFF
26 Poor tips from men we maybe trusted implicitly (5)
NEEDY – last letters of meN wE maybE trusteD implicitlY
27 Craft excellent courses on plain English speaking (9)
AIRPLANES – got this from the definition and now I’m struggling with the wordplay. I think it is AI(excellent), and the three R’S(courses) containing what sounds like PLAIN, but there might be a better reading.  Nope – it is AI(excellent) and LANES(courses) with RP(Received Pronunciation, plain English speaking).
Down
1 Appear suddenly with report before judge (3,2)
POP UP – POP(report, make a loud sound), UP(before judge)
2 Detaining a shady criminal for now (2,4,3,3,3)
IN THIS DAY AND AGE – anagram of DETAINING,A,SHADY
3 Clutching honour, weary and full of beams? (8)
TIMBERED – MBE(honour) inside TIRED(weary)
4 Defender has boot out for rebound (8)
BACKFIRE – BACK(defender), FIRE(boot out)
5 Drink for one lifting medal (6)
EGGNOG – EG(for one), then GONG(medal) reversed
6 Mexican city university involved in conflict — centre for rendezvous (6)
JUAREZ – U(university) inside JAR(conflict) and the middle letters of rendEZvous. Short name for Ciudad Juarez
7 Gardener with top rating, one landed gentry ultimately toast (10,5)
CAPABILITY BROWN – CAP(top), AB(sailor, rating), I(one), LIT(landed), the last letter of gentrY, then BROWN(toast)
8 Broadcaster’s raised promotion after he’s become materialist (9)
BREADHEAD – sounds like BRED(raised), then AD(promotion) after HE
13 Its community spirit all that remains? (5,4)
GHOST TOWN – cryptic definition
15 Look back on motorway with a glower (8)
REMEMBER – RE(on), M(motorway), and EMBER(glower)
16 Fairy tale ending for Viktoria Plzen: United run ragged (8)
RAPUNZEL – anagram of the last letter of victoriA, PLZEN, U(united) and R(run). Viktoria Plzen is a Czech football club
19 Buying church benefits my son, I suspect (6)
SIMONY –  anagram of MY,SON,I
20 Areas containing unknown meadow plant (6)
AZALEA – A and A(areas) containing Z(unknown), then LEA(meadow)
23 Firefly, maybe, with silky coat from South America (5)
RUFUS – FUR(silky coat) reversed, then US(America). I think this refers to the Groucho Marx character Rufus T Firefly

76 comments on “Times 28144 – run away, run away!”

  1. 14.12. I was definitely on the wavelength for this one. I’m sorry to say the setter’s painstaking work in putting together the word play for Capability Brown was wasted on me as he was my first thought on seeing gardener and I didn’t hang around to break it all down properly. I didn’t get the Marx Brothers reference to Rufus T Firefly but the word play seemed clear and I was happy enough with that. A nice smooth solve for me.
  2. A mix of satisfying and irritating here, the latter led by the gettable but, to this Brit of a certain age, American import which is AIRPLANES. Yes, I know it’s in the British English dictionaries nowadays, but it will ever grate with me. I wasn’t too keen on the clueing for FLEE and I can’t even now see how kick-start gives us BUZZ OFF. I don’t doubt our blogger’s explanation, but I’ve never heard ‘buzz’ to mean ‘kick’: to me and Nigel Molesworth, it means ‘throw’. BREADHEAD was also unknown. On the plus side, GHOST TOWN and RAPUNZEL were nice, and it was especially gratifying to a long-time Czech resident to see Pilsen rendered in Czech rather than German, albeit without the háček. But Plzeň would admittedly have been a surprising find.
    1. Does:

      I get no kick from champagne
      Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all
      So tell me why should it be true
      That I get a kick out of you

      Work for you?

  3. 14:15 Done on the train from Norwich well before Diss, without getting too dizzy. What a lot of zeds. Well done George on the anniversary. Failed to parse couple and dnk BREADHEAD, RUFUS or JUAREZ. Loi JACOB. Good fun if s little chewy in places. Thanks George and setter.

    Edited at 2021-11-25 04:26 pm (UTC)

  4. I agree with everything you say .. but you do have an unlikely avatar for an Americanismophobe ..
    1. Norm Petersen was a great character and had a huge repertoire of wonderful one-liners. I think he could probably have been persuaded to be an Americanismophobe as well, given the right amount of beer.
  5. I didn’t see LANES as “courses” so never thought to put RP together and never managed to parse AIRPLANES… even suspecting a mistake (as seems to happen occasionally…)!

    BREADHEAD was a new one.

    The clue to FLOWERBED was delightfully and deceptively ornate.

    RAPUNZEL was hard to see and parse because I kept reading the L in Plzen (wha…?!) as an i.

    The left side held me up this morning, till I finally remembered the names, the long one at 7 (vaguely known from somewhere) and the short one at 23 (ditto).

  6. While on a 2 hour call.

    Maybe distracted, more likely not on wavelength and a bit thick.

    Got my LOI, RUFUS from wordplay, and thought “firefly” might be a term for “redhead”. BREADHEAD my favourite — it’s a hippy phrase isn’t it? He’s a real breadhead, man.

    51:44

    1. I was exposed to BREADHEAD at university, in the context of low-level drug dealers – many of whom were selling to friends with whom they socialised, getting continually stoned and consuming their profits.

      A breadhead dealer was someone who was strictly in it for making money – get the deal done, and move on to the next one.

  7. 34.30 but totally guessed flee and breadhead, the latter of which was new to me. Not helped by trying to fit in beeb for broadcaster for far too long.

    Otherwise, reasonably straightforward.COD for me was tin lizzie.

  8. Did not expect to get far with this but persevered and have just finished with BREADHEAD LOI. The NE was my main problem. Dylan helped me as well with JUAREZ. EGGNOG a key breakthrough when I was about to give up.
    PUSH OFF at 25a was not helpful but RAPUNZEL had to be right despite the NHO PLZEN.
    No poets or birds today to trip me up.
    David
  9. I completely agree with others who feel it is unreasonable to expect us (London Times crossword solvers) to know not merely long-dead American comedians but the characters portrayed by long-dead American comedians. Huffily, Stephen
    1. Well it’s all a matter of whether one knows them or not. I knew Groucho, but not the character so I felt out of it today. But a week back we had Phil Silvers of Sgt Bilko fame whom I knew but many didn’t, so I can’t really complain this time.
    2. I don’t know, the Marx brothers seem far closer to the present day than most of the centuries-old irrelephant stuff we’re expected to know
  10. 17:06 late this afternoon, having decided earlier to get out for a walk, before the storms forecast for the next couple of days kick in.
    Found the puzzle a little irritating but perhaps that was due to my “stop-start” performance. Biffed 27 ac “airplanes” which I wouldn’t have parsed in a month of Sundays, so thanks to George for the explanation and interesting to note you didn’t see it immediately either.
    Whenever I see “houses” in a surface, I immediately look for a “hidden clue”, until today, when I got befuddled by the surface thinking of arks and Noahs, and had to accept that the setter had got me.
    Also several NHO instances — 8 d “breadhead”, the 23d red Marxist and 19 d “simony”, for all of which I had to rely on my analysis of the wordplay.
    Just to add to Groucho’s great one -liners, I think in the final scene of “A Day at the Races” he proposes to Margaret Dumont with the immortal words “Marry me and I’ll never look at another horse again”
    Although I could see what was going on with 11 ac “prize” I found the surface a tad unsatisfactory.
    COD 17 ac “onyx” which took a bit of teasing out.
    Thanks to George for his blog — and congratulations on your long service to the cause — and to setter..
  11. Completed in two sessions including this rather late offering. No idea about RUFUS either. L2I were TENANTED and BACKFIRE, probably the 2 easiest clues on the grid. Always thought I was clever but dumb.
  12. 52 minutes, done in two or three sittings because of life intervening. I stupidly had pries not prize, so had trouble with the one down and so used aids on that and was told that tumesces/d were the only ones, which slowed me down. And never heard of breadhead so used aids on that one too.
  13. On the wavelength and knew some of the GK.

    Tin Lizzie very specifically refers to the Model T Ford (not necessarily decrepit). The Dandy character came much later, and Thin Lizzie (clever, that) later again.

  14. I missed your point, I’m afraid, but Robrolfe (below) has given me an example which I guess you were also alluding to.

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