Times 28161 – by George, is it Monday?

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
After a run of tricky Wednesdays, this gave some respite, with rather a lot of Quick Cryptic standard clues, I thought. Only one anagram, which is unusual, and no hidden word. It didn’t take me very long, I expect some quick times from our experts. 1a, 1d and 10d went in early, and my LOI UNDIES gets my CoD award.

Across
1 Conservative adviser in small oval rowing boat (7)
CORACLE – C (Conservative) ORACLE (adviser). An easy FOI.
5 Gallery built by posh woman possessing a lot of vitality (6)
UFFIZI – U (posh, upmarket) FI (woman, Fiona perhps) insert FIZ(Z) = a lot of vitality.
8 Finally settled in French Society, formerly in diplomatic corps (9)
ENSCONCED – EN (in, French) S (society) CD (corps diplomatique, CD as on diplomatic number plates) insert ONCE (formerly).
9 Expression of surprise about old politician’s pizzazz (5)
OOMPH – into OH ! (expression of surprise) insert O, MP.
11 Stir up river, one of several in England (5)
ROUSE – R (river) OUSE (one of several such rivers in England).
12 Faulty road manoeuvre finished male ox (9)
OVERSTEER – OVER (finished) STEER (male ox).
13 Breed of sheep daughter kept in her Highland town (8)
HERDWICK – HER, WICK (town in north of Scotland), insert D for daughter. A breed of sheep I’d heard of from watching BBC Countryfile.
15 Hooded cloak displayed by Catholic dignitary in love (6)
DOMINO – DOM (as in Dom Perignon, perhaps) IN O. Vaguely remembered seeing this before as a sort of cloak.
17 Medic, one the French find submissive (6)
DOCILE – DOC (medic) I (one) LE (the in French).
19 Admirer of lilac originally in bloom (8)
FOLLOWER – initial letters of Of Lilac inside FLOWER.
22 Convivial, though apt for cudgelling? (9)
CLUBBABLE – double definition, one whimsical.
23 Fragrant smell drivers hold in memory (5)
AROMA – ROM (sort of memory) inside AA (drivers, Automobile Association).
24 Old coins marketed by Italians primarily (5)
SOLDI – SOLD (marketed) I(talians). I was more familiar with SOLIDI / plural of SOLIDUS, but SOLDI is an early Italian rather than Latin version.
25 George’s car scheme involving head of industry (9)
AUTOPILOT – AUTO (car) PLOT (scheme) insert I (head of industry). I knew the autopilot was often called George by aviators but not why, so I looked it up. As is often the case, there are two possible explanations. Either by RAF pilots after King George VI, in WWII, or after one George De Beeson, an American who patented such a device in 1931. Take your pick.
26 Overdramatic, bringing the old guns back! (6)
STAGEY – all reversed, YE (old the) GATS (guns).
27 Daily customer to begin with, one with a list? (7)
CLEANER – C (customer originally) LEANER (one with a list).

Down
1 Prepare for action — tidy up after card game? (5,3,5)
CLEAR THE DECKS – double definition, one a cliché, one prosaic.
2 Saver, one who regrets concealing key (7)
RESCUER – RUER (one who regrets) having ESC (key) inserted.
3 Fragrant spice clubs think the world of (5)
CLOVE – C for clubs, LOVE for think the world of.
4 Intrude, initially encountering natural resistance in bus (8)
ENCROACH – E N (first letters of Encountering Natural) then R inside COACH.
5 This clothing is resurrected, do we infer? (6)
UNDIES – witty &lit; if something un-dies, it could be said to be resurrected.
6 Pays to look up resting-place for supporters? (9)
FOOTSTOOL – FOOTS (pays), TO, LO reversed.
7 Zulus, one crossing briefly Orange River (7)
ZAMBEZI – Z Z (two zulus) I (one; insert AMBE(R) for orange briefly. At first I was was thinking, IMPI, leading to LIMPOPO, but that was the wrong river.
10 Entertain male teacher, one looking after the port (7,6)
HARBOUR MASTER – HARBOUR = entertain, (e.g. harbour thoughts), MASTER a male teacher.
14 Fit crooner protecting energy and good health (9)
WELLBEING – WELL (fit) BING (Crosby, crooner) insert E (energy).
16 Home help misconstruing extremely dire sitcom (8)
DOMESTIC – an anagram at last. (DE SITCOM)* where DE are the extremes of dire.
18 Left in car, finally digest a little verse (7)
COUPLET – COUPE (car) insert L for left, add T end of digest.
20 Court girl turning up in such a warm garment? (7)
WOOLLEN – WOO (court) NELL (girl) reversed.
21 A bishop past accepting current monastic office (6)
ABBACY – A, B(ishop) BY (past) insert AC (alternating current).
23 Remove son from trial: that’s sufficient (5)
AMPLE – remove S from SAMPLE.

69 comments on “Times 28161 – by George, is it Monday?”

  1. Crikey — nearly under 10 mins — found this something of a breeze with 1a and 1d straight in.

    Only held up really by ABBACY which took a few moments to come to mind, though I did educatedly-guess DOMINO with all checkers and a reasonable certainty that a DOM is a top man in a monastery.

    This really is more or less as fast as I can go, so hat tips to all those who regularly get below 10 mins. Problem with doing it on the ‘phone is that reading ahead to the next clue while typing the answer of the current clue is not possible…

  2. I remembered HERDWICK from a life of Beatrix Potter, and also The Lilac DOMINO , an operetta from which tunes were popular in my childhood.
  4. ….and I can only blame wavelength issues for what was, by my standards, a poor performance. It took me at least half as long again as it should have done.

    FOI HERDWICK (at which point I thought it was a hard puzzle)
    LOI DOMINO (the first half of the answer didn’t come readily)
    COD UNDIES
    TIME 8:34

  5. Having eventually navigated the Limpopo, I ran aground in the unfathomable Zambesi.

    I liked UFFIZI, CLUBBABLE and UNDIES (a wonderfully English word, somehow). Been a good week for puzzles so far, a dreadful one for typing.

    Thanks to Pip and the setter.

  6. Possibly a record time for me — I didn’t time it exactly.
    Didn’t know that “George” was an autopilot and may not have seen “Abbacy” before, but luckily they didn’t hold me up.
  7. I am very fond of sheep especially Shaun, who is a Suffolk breed. Herdwick, which I had only vaguely heard of, was my COD. My time 10:38 mins
  8. 17:50 but with an error at 15ac, not knowing the requisite cloak and running through my stock of three-lettered Catholic bigwigs in a nanosecond or two.
  9. …scuppered by 7 d “zambezi” . First of all, another one besotted by “Limpopo” and then the mis-spelling.
    A pity, because after a few very busy days recently, where the Time Crosswords have had to take a back seat (Shock! Horror! I know), I felt I was back in the groove.
    Was becalmed in the NE Corner after a quick solving process until that point. Getting 10 d “harbour master” then lead to 15 ac “Domino”, which finally convinced me to look for another river.
    CODs 5 ac “Uffizi” and 5 d “undies”.
    Overall a bit grumpy but thanks to Pip and to setter.
  10. 11.15 for a rather quicker solve than previously this week. Reasonably straightforward though abbacy took a while to sort out. Domino not known but the cluing was pretty clear.

    Thanks setterand blogger.

  11. Yes, very easy today with a 32 minute solve for me. My LOI was UFFIZI, because first I had to convince myself that FI could be a girl’s name. And HERDWICK was an unknown, but the wordplay was fortunately easy enough. On 14dn I am wondering why BING was the crooner who immediately came to mind and seemed to fit quite well, although I was expecting B?????ING before I found the breed of sheep. As for ZAMBEZI, I also first tried to spell it ZAMBESI, but I quickly decided I was falling into the trap that often befalls me of using a German spelling (which, however, did not seem to fit the Zulus), and so corrected it. Surprised to find out here that it could have been an English spelling as well. A relaxing but also somewhat boring puzzle.

    Edited at 2021-12-15 07:19 pm (UTC)

  12. Had to look up DOMINO and UFFIZI, and ABBACY was another unknown. I liked the CLUBBABLE clue.
    BW
    A
  14. Not far off a personal best but unfortunatelky I was a Zambesi-er. Definitely of the view that Zambesi is an allowable alternative! The sheep made me think of Bess of Hardwick, but then I saw they’re spelled differently.
  15. When it’s HERDWICK ant say it’s cheesy
    We have ROUSE about words till we’re wheezy
    UNDIES erving I think
    Raise a COUPLET us drink
    To our setter, who made this st UFFIZI

    Edited at 2021-12-16 09:55 pm (UTC)

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