Times 28153 – Petite Messe Solennelle pour vous?

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Writing the blog, it would appear that it was in the down clues that the setter really hit his/her stride. However, there was lots to enjoy too even as we were taken on a trip down Crosswordville’s high street in the across section.

I managed this in 26 minutes but there will be a lot of people beating my WITCH (see Crossword SNITCH on the sidebar, if this flummoxes you), methinks. What’s the Snitchmeister on, by the way? He will soon be challenging Gallers for the title of Australia’s brightest male Turing wannabe…

Which reminds me the Ashes starts tomorrow. Why do I feel panicky?

ACROSS

1 Sequence featuring in advert for brewing equipment (3-8)
TEA-STRAINER – TRAIN (sequence) in TEASER (advert)
7 Sweet potatoes, peeled (3)
PUD – [s]PUD[s]
9 Big jar picked up (5)
GREAT – sounds like ‘grate’
10 Muted, odd new pants acquired by fashionable people (5,4)
TONED DOWN – anagram* of ODD NEW in TON (Crosswordese trigger warning: ‘The ton’ [pronounced after the French fashion with a nasalised vowel and a silent n] was Britain’s high society during the late Regency and the reign of George IV; ‘ton’ is also common in Crosswordland for its related meaning of style or high fashion)
11 Dodgy retail stores fight for free computer programmes (9)
TRIALWARE – WAR in RETAIL* for some nerdy thing…
12 A long intro from Hendrix? (5)
AITCH – A ITCH for H[endrix’s] initial letter
13 Artist gatecrashes every exhibition, principally as a complaint (7)
EARACHE – RA (our Crosswordland artist – the Royal Academician from Burlington House) in EACH E[xhibition]
15 A lack of training? That’s not gonna happen! (4)
NOPE – NO PE; ‘nope’ and ‘yep’ are words I have a pet aversion to and will never use. What never? No never!
18 Boss of film company denied one Oscar (4)
STUD – STUD[io: 1 O(scar)]; boss for stud as on a shield or in Cruciverbalalia
20 Fluster in the end a little bit and struggle to manage (3,4)
RAT RACE – [fluste]R A TRACE
23 Duke eclipsing king and cardinal (5)
FIRST – R (rex > king) in FIST (duke: another cruciverbal synonym, much beloved by setters and discussed by aficionados)
24 Within minutes, idiot adviser rebuffed radio and the press etc (4,5)
MASS MEDIA – BOD (Biff of the Day): ASS (idiot) in MM (minutes) AIDE reversed
26 Tranquil, mainly secure island location in Africa (9)
SERENGETI – SEREN[e] GET (secure, as in secure a place at Harvard) I
27 Familiar issue beginning to encumber investigation (5)
PROBE – PROB (a familiar or informal way of saying problem, AKA issue) E[ncumber]
28 Container of eggs nearly knocked over (3)
TIN – reversal of NIT[s], together with ROE and OVA, Crosswordland’s favourite way to do eggs
29 Pie contains nuts, for example (4,2,5)
CASE IN POINT – PIE CONTAINS*; nice one, setter!

DOWN

1 Learned soaring number in concert (8)
TOGETHER – GOT (learned) reversed ETHER (number > anaesthetic)
2 Workplaces had to be located with rest, oddly (8)
ATELIERS – ATE (had > ate) LIE (be located) R[e]S[t]
3 Child joining a large comprehensive (5)
TOTAL – TOT A L
4 Tight flips in the middle of great move (7)
ACTUATE – TAUT reversed in ACE
5 Wings of nylon filled with a strong material (7)
NANKEEN – A in N[ylo]N KEEN (strong, as in keen interest)
6 Terrace positioned externally ruined fancy entrance (3,6)
RED CARPET – TERRACE P[ositione]D*
7 Pair winning almost immediately (6)
PRONTO – PR (pair) ON TO[p]
8 Heroin stashed in dirty vessel (6)
DINGHY – H in DINGY
14 Guy takes a drink in a stupor (9)
CATATONIC – CAT (as in hep cat, or cool cat) A TONIC
16 Type of food in a tin, cooked without opening (8)
TANDOORI – DOOR (opening) in A TIN*; Tandoori is a method of cooking, but an extended sense is a type of food, as in Tandoori chicken
17 Dissolute young trainee mostly overwhelmed with depression (8)
DECADENT – CADE[t] in DENT
19 Moderates needing restraint, being without power (7)
DAMPENS – P (power) in DAM (restraint) ENS (being; the plural ‘entia’ is useful for Scrabble players)
20 Society function hosted by European leader for composer (7)
ROSSINI – S (society) SIN (mathematical function; abbreviation for sine, which seems a bit unnecessary) in ROI (European leader)
21 Provide compensation for bad TV (6)
OFFSET – OFF (bad) SET (TV)
22 Trial a combination of having no booze and exercise (3,3)
DRY RUN – DRY (teetotal) RUN (exercise)
25 Wipe the floor with flash young boxer? (3,2)
MOP UP – MO (flash) PUP (young [canine] boxer)

67 comments on “Times 28153 – Petite Messe Solennelle pour vous?”

  1. 30.20 after a lot of humming and hawing. Never got much forward momentum so a real teaser for me today. Almost gave up before I finally realised actuatewas the answer to 4 dn. Hope to be a bit more on the ball tomorrow!
  2. Relieved to see others finding it difficult but I was tired and not in the right frame of mind so gave up with 12 clues unsolved. Like Denise, my next objective is a full week of correct solves. Oh well.

    Thanks to the setter (grrr) and especially to the blogger for the explanations.

  3. I could have sworn today was Monday. A tricky but very enjoyable puzzle that I made heavy weather of (“of which I made heavy weather” for the more punctilious)

    I biffed DAMPERS and took a long time to see ACTUATE and FIRST. I liked TANDOORI and PUD, but then I always do.

    Thanks to Ulaca and the setter.

  4. Many years ago I corrected my young son’s spelling of his middle name, which he had written as “Jhon”.

    He came back after a period of contemplation and said “if the aitch is silent, what difference does it make where it goes?”.

    1. The great thing about childrens’ spelling is that it makes perfect sense. My younger daughter always spelt IF with 2 Fs.
  5. Top left slowed me down. Actuate was LOI and only after long alphabet trawl. Shame because I got off to a good start.
  6. I liked it, excepting the Ens. I was pleased to get to the right sense of the ordinality vs cardinality of First. The setter had been so meticulous everywhere else it seemed more likely that I was missing something than that there was a simple error.
  7. This was fairly straightforward with COD to 12ac Aitch.
    No problem with Dampens as the clue was quite clear. I also like Case in Point and 1dn Together. Anyone recognize my avatar?

    Edited at 2021-12-06 06:08 pm (UTC)

  8. 18:30 this evening. I didn’t feel particularly sharp today but felt impatient at the same time, which probably explains the number of biffs I decided to go for and my general mood of frustration by the end. Not the setter’s fault, all down to little old me.
    However I did appreciate several clues e.g. the surface of 12 ac “aitch”, 26 ac “Serengeti” and 29 ac “case in point”.
    Thanks to Ulaca for an entertaining blog and to setter.
  9. Strangely enough I thought this was fairly easy despite needing 1h5m to solve it, very leisurely. But everything was correct and correctly parsed, including DAM P ENS (I know almost no Latin, but “entity” must come from something like ENS). I wouldn’t have known NANKEEN if it hadn’t turned up before, and I also didn’t understand why FIRST was a cardinal, but one is forgiving. I was held up in many places by stupid guesses (NEWS MEDIA at 24 ac, PIPED DOWN at 10ac and TEA CEREMONY at 1ac for some reason, and I was sure the bottom three letters of 25dn would be ..T UP. None of this helped much).

    Thank you, setter, for a very fair and enjoyable puzzle.

    Edited at 2021-12-06 06:44 pm (UTC)

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