Times 28159 – Time for Breakfast?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 43 minutes
Music: Strauss, Don Quixote, Karajan/BPO

I rather stumbled through this one, either biffing from the literal or working exclusively from the cryptic.   Either way, it was slow going.   I am not too sure of the accuracy of some of the definitions, but that’s why the cryptic is there.   The early rating in the SNITCH shows that some found this easy, but the first solvers are usually pretty good. 

Across
1 Pick scruffy lovelorn Rumpole to inspire court (8)
PLECTRUM – Anagram of RUMP[o]LE around CT.
5 Stars host introduction to solemn prayer (6)
ORISON – ORI(S)ON.   For a long time, I wondered if arises was some sort of prayer.
9 Finished training after Irish backs, past their best? (8)
OVERRIPE – OVER + IR backwards + PE.
10 A broadcast outside more costly: help from abroad found? (2,4)
AU PAIR – A (UP) AIR.
12 Batting ruse team judge to be disrespectful (13)
INCONSIDERATE – IN + CON + SIDE + RATE, and not an angram of RUSE TEAM JUDGE at all.
15 See about, say, dedicated lines (5)
ELEGY – EL(EG)Y, with a detailed literal.
16 Belted clothing needed in the middle (9)
CLOBBERED – CLOBBER + [ne]ED[ed].
17 Church of England admitting fine English cup’s a drink dispenser (9)
COFFEEPOT – C OF (F) E + E + POT.
19 Bread roll: start to bake a set (5)
BAGEL – B[ake} + A + GEL.
20 A hundred troops send mad ambassador to get drink (5,2,6)
CREME DE MENTHE – C + R.E.M.E. + DEMENT + H.E, a brilliant cryptic with an amusing surface.
22 It keeps one blunder within range (6)
SIERRA – S(I ERR)A.   No comment.
23 Greek division with gunners replicated spirit (8)
DEMERARA – DEME + RA + RA.  Demerara syrup is not actually a spirit, although it may be sold in liquor stores.
25 Ring a power unit withdrawing capital (6)
OTTAWA – O  + A WATT backwardds.
26 Gas is initially escaping your tip within hearing (8)
ETHYLENE – E[scaping] + THY + sounds like LEAN.   A total biff – I didn’t have a clue.
Down
1 Foresight of French invading region (10)
PROVIDENCE – PROVI(DE)NCE, a little loose in the definition.
2 Picked up second person’s stock item (3)
EWE –  Sounds like YOU in many, but not all, dialects.
3 Strict rule: radio has to impress Yankee (7)
TYRANNY –  T(Y)RANNY. 
4 A foreign assassin went ahead without scruples (12)
UNPRINCIPLED – UN + PRINCIP + LED.    Gavrilo Princip is the assassin you want – I just biffed this one.
6 What can be a sweet Polish horse with a shed outside hotel (7)
RHUBARB – R(H)UB + AR[a]B.   The vegetable can be used to make sweets, but is not a sweet itself, as the clue indicates.
7 The first gag could be what unnerves performer (5,6)
STAGE FRIGHT – Anagram of THE FIRST GAG. 
8 Bore put up contribution to ground rent (4)
NERD – Backwards hidden in [groun]D REN]t.
11 Mean sub: Connacht’s right wing he hit (5,3,4)
BELOW THE BELT –  BELOW + [connach]T HE BELT.   Not a good surface.
13 Peacenik competent for part of term (11)
COEFFICIENT – C.O. + EFFICIENT, where term has its mathmatical meaning.
14 What mature people pay to import eastern lace? (10)
ADULTERATE –  ADULT (E) RATE, one we’ve seen before.
18 Reported Thamessider’s cultivated fuzz (7)
EYEBROW – Sounds like ‘IGHBROW. 
19 On odd occasions worry with beer manufactured here? (7)
BREWERY – Anagram of W[o]R[r]Y + BEER.
21 Ducks circle outskirts of small city (4)
OSLO – O(S[mal]L)O.
24 Put away articles husband left out (3)
ATE – A + T[h]E.

79 comments on “Times 28159 – Time for Breakfast?”

  1. No bother with this in 23 minutes, although biffed a few and didn’t bother to parse (4d, 20a, 11d). Nice workout for a Monday.
  2. I had SHERRY for SIERRA. Initially I was going for DEMERARA but I hadn’t heard of it as a spirit and nor did I know DEME. So I went with MESERARA.

    COD: STAGE FRIGHT. Nice surface.

  3. Pleased to finish, last 2 were the 3 lettered ate and ewe. Normally get the 3 letter words first.
    Cod stage fright.
  4. 16:42. For once I remembered something from a past crossword and knew DEMERARA as a spirit. Can’t say the same for Mr Princip, though I immediately assumed he shot either Lincoln or the Archduke. Some nice stuff and some a bit clunky.
  6. Solved immediately after getting my booster jab; I struggled slightly at the end while unravelling the SE corner so the nanoprobes clearly aren’t kicking in yet. 11dn has a perfectly cogent meaning if you are at all au fait with Irish rugby (although, admittedly, it does read rather as if written by someone who has English as their second language). Connacht beat the aristocrats of Stade Francais at the weekend (the Parisians clearly didn’t appreciate the charms of Galway on a fresh December afternoon) but I cannot confirm whether there was any foul play by a replacement.
  8. I thought this was pretty good. ADULTERATE, INCONSIDERATE, EYEBROW, UNPRINCIPLED and CREME DE MENTHE all raised a smile. BELOW THE BELT didn’t.

    I once lost a bet (stake- two pints of bitter) by saying that there was no such thing as the RHUBARB triangle. I suppose that’s what they mean by Lifelong Learning.

    Thanks to v and the setter.

  9. I was about to ask why UN = foreign, but I see it now!
    Some nice clues (unprincipled, crème de menthe), some clunky clues (below the belt, clobbered), some shoe-ins (Oslo, Ottawa). In my opinion.
  10. Very much an Old Rhubarbian myself — enjoyed in all sorts of formats: pies; crumbles; stewed with custard — all very yummy.

    Only really slowed down once the last half dozed were reached — solved in this order: TYRANNY, NERD, ORISON (an educated guess once ARISES had been eliminated), ATE (replacing the pencilled EAT), DEMERARA (think the discussion about it being a rum is quite recent), ETHYLENE

  11. Visiting from QC land as I often do when SNITCH < c.90. DNF but pretty pleased with my effort. I get the I ERR bit of 22a, SIERRA but not the S….A bit. Would someone help me out? Thanks to setter for a challenging but mainly manageable 15×15 and to v1 for great help with the parsing.

    Edited at 2021-12-13 03:31 pm (UTC)

  12. It’s high time I stopped lurking. Thanks to all here, the blog is a great resource for those of us learning to solve. Having hung up my scalpel my aim is to solve an error free week. Came v close all of the last 3.

    This took about 30 mins with no cheats. Slowed down a little by guessing cafetiere at 17. Though it was quickly obvious that I was wrong.

  13. Thanks to horryd and the encouragement given last week I stuck at this and had a very rare biggie finish in 3 hours including a couple of long breaks.

    I forget SA and “it” are interchangeable as sex appeal/it. I understand it when fully spelled out, but where does Tye abbreviation SA live? Is that only in Times Xwords? Where else does that live/did it live?

    Also can someone please expand on C.O. as “peacenik”? I can’t see any way to it…

    Thanks

    1. CO = conscientious objector.

      On SA = sex appeal, you’ll find it in Collins Dictionary, one of the the prime sources for the Times 15×15 puzzle, It’s available free on-line here: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sa.

      I had to unspam your message. I can’t see any reason for it being spammed unless it was that you used the new TfTT cross-reference facility to mention horryd. Best avoid it in future as we managed without it for 11+ years and it really adds nothing to the TfTT experience.

      Edited at 2021-12-13 06:06 pm (UTC)

      1. Got it – thank you and will refer to Collins going forward before I raise a gripe!

        C.O. Makes perfect sense – I know the term, but have never seen it abbreviated before.

  14. 28 mins. My last two were orison and nerd after quite a deal of head banging. Clobbered and adulterate were tricky to. Despite the grinding nature of my success, enjoyed the puzzle a lot with clobbered my COD.
  15. Also 43 minutes, very slow going (BAGEL was my FOI) but very enjoyable, truly with nothing BELOW THE BELT. The clues were very clever, which is why it was slow going, but it also made it very satisfying to solve and parse them.
  16. ….but I never got on to the setter’s wavelength, and found it very heavy going.

    FOI AU PAIR
    LOI ORISON
    COD TYRANNY (which I spelled wrongly, and had trouble with INCONSIDERATE as a result)
    TIME 14:45

  17. But with silly mistype – unprinciplec — grr. I saw the worldplay straightaway at 1 ac, but for some reason thought the C and T were the outside. Took a while to click. A nice surface.

Comments are closed.