Times 28165 – Rider of waves, indeed!

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This was definitely a step-up from usual Monday fare, with some cunning misdirection, lots of multi-word definitional bits and one or two bits of obscure (for some) vocabulary. I came a bit of a cropper, inventing an inflammation and an archaic northern region, but I enjoyed sorting it all out later and putting myself in a position where I can hopefully give succour to anyone out there who is less experienced/more dumb than me, if he/she exists.

And may I be the first to wish you all a most joyous and silly-argument-free Christmas!

ACROSS

1 Runny glue a shilling? I’m stuck for a name for it! (11)
THINGUMABOB – THIN GUM A BOB (slang for shilling in pre-1971 Britain)
7 Bad actor giving up halfway through major role (3)
HAM – HAM[let]
9 Loud gale circulating round large Welsh town (9)
DOLGELLAU – anagram* of L in LOUD GALE; DOLGELLAU is a town with a population of less than 3,000 in north-west Wales
10 Bird back around a village in Africa (5)
KRAAL – LARK reversed around A
11 Backing my company after way of working leather (7)
MOROCCO – COR (my) reversed after MO (way of working) CO (company)
12 Source of present British managed boat (4,3)
BRAN TUB – B RAN TUB
13 Work out volume — something under a foot all round? (5)
SOLVE – V (volume) in SOLE
15 Be too much to get part of pub mob at soccer turning back? (4,1,4)
COST A BOMB – reverse hidden in puB MOB AT SOCcer
17 Set aside phone receiver (4-5)
RING-FENCE – RING FENCE (receiver of stolen goods)
19 Channels in sea area around island (5)
MEDIA – I (island) in MED (sea) A (area)
20 Melodious South Pacific (7)
SIRENIC – S IRENIC; well, them sirens did a lot of luring with their tonsils
22 Knight and men secure ancient upcountry region (7)
NORLAND – N (knight) OR (other ranks) LAND (secure, a fish)
24 Ends financial penalties (5)
FINES – double definition, first Latinate for end of a book, for example (pronounced FEE-nay)
25 Outstanding concert in marquee, but only one tango (9)
PROMINENT – PROM (concert) IN
27 What’s regularly claimed to be buried in a particular place (3)
LIE – [c]l[a]i[m]e[d]
28 Torched mine, excitedly taking in heat (11)
ENDOTHERMIC – TORCHED MINE*; therm- has just got to be in there somewhere

DOWN

1 Small amount of time used with advantage (3)
TAD – T AD
2 Middle gear learner driver engaged in frightful ride (5)
IDLER – L in RIDE*; ‘a gear placed between two others to transfer motion from one to the other without changing their direction or speed’
3 Sergeant perhaps breaking into song in historic Scots village (7)
GLENCOE – NCO in GLEE
4 Mark every killer whale, any number from Balearic area (9)
MALLORCAN – M ALL ORCA N; IKEAn clue
5 Information on jacket smear, black (5)
BLURB – BLUR B
6 Eastern sweetmeat the French exported from port in Crimea (7)
BAKLAVA – BA[la]KLAVA; sweet but tasty
7 Try a couple over daughter that’s found concealed in trunk (9)
HEARTWOOD – HEAR TWO O D; more IKEAn assembly – the innermost, and dead, part of a tree
8 Rider of waves swelling a way to south of African country (6,5)
MALIBU BOARD – I failed on this, as I was looking for a dude rather than a thing ; MALI north of BUBO (swelling of lymph glands) A RD
11 Suspecting obscure fungus almost directly (11)
MISTRUSTFUL – MIST (obscure – verb) RUST (AKA rust fungus) FUL[l] (as in ‘hit full in the stomach’)
14 Looking well ahead, relative finally settling in without a partner (4-5)
LONG-RANGE – GRAN [settlinG] in LONE
16 Severe damp I eliminated at the far back of the ship (9)
STERNMOST – STERN MO[i]ST
18 At home getting involved in ordinary diplomacy? (7)
FINESSE – IN in FESSE (ordinary or horizontal bar in heraldry)
19 Second fall of water? European glacier could end with this (7)
MORAINE – MO RAIN E
21 Hero accepting elevation as god (5)
CUPID – UP (elevation) in CID (of the El variety)
23 Note fish out of river to the side of the boat (5)
ABEAM – A (random musical note) B[r]EAM
26 Tiny involuntary convulsion, primarily (3)
TIC – initial letters of the first three words

91 comments on “Times 28165 – Rider of waves, indeed!”

  1. I am now at the point of the year where everyone in the house has finished work (or whatever it is that they normally do) until 2022, so days have no meaning, which was fortunate as this was a most un-Mondayish puzzle. Still, I got there without errors, so can’t complain, although it felt like a puzzle where you just had to accept there were some words, or meanings of a word, you apparently don’t know, so a certain amount of finger-crossing.
        1. I don’t know the rules on adoption in the USA but if you are after my millions, you may be somewhat disappointed.
          1. Well I just tried to be your parent and nothing happened – so all our combined millions are safe.
  3. Well, I really struggled with this one. Same unknowns as others and, although I managed to finish, I had SERENIC, and had to look up the obscure IMHO Welsh village. Very tough for any day, let alone a Monday. Roll on tomorrow.

    Thanks U and setter.

  4. I just clicked on ‘Parent’ on my last posting (‘Isn’t ‘parent’ etc.) and nothing happened. Then I clicked on ‘parent’ on your (Olivia’s) posting, and got the sequence of postings, like clicking on ‘expand’.
  6. Too many unknowns to be enjoyable.

    Thought BRAN TUB was a bid odd.

    Didn’t see the reversed COST A BOMB.

    MISTRUSTFUL — awful clue.

    GLE(NCO)E — didn’t understand song = GLEE

    NHO — IRENIC, FESSE — whatevs.

    No problem with DOLGELLAU — never been there, but heard of it.

  7. Enjoyed this after going through the trough of “can’t do this, I’ve totally lost the knack, I’ll never be able to do crosswords” then seeing just one more correct solution and then so on. Solving with several family members here for a visit so perhaps not fully concentrating. Help from 24 year old daughter when asked for Malibu ….. was Malibu Barbie. Oh well.

    Only mistake in the end was Norward (pronounced Norrad) for Norland.

    NHO Norland, Baklava with a K (always thought it was spelt with c), fines as a plural of fine (as in end), full as directly, fesse, moraine (vaguely rang a bell), heartwood, Malibu board.

    On that basis, delighted to have only got one wrong. No idea of time.

    Thanks to the setter for a difficult start to the week. Thanks to our blogger for all the explanations and to all the other commenters for your entertaining, insightful, erudite comments. And, of course, to Astronowt for the limericks and the inspiration given to others to participate.

  8. Time. Almost all day. Had to cheat a little to get Dolgellau. I found the bottom left corner took an age to crack.

  9. “If you ever go to Dolgellau
    Don’t stay the Angel Hotel
    There’s nothing to put in your belly
    And no one to answer the bell”
    1930’s I think
  10. I’ve always pronounced it Thingymabob but it seems you can have Thingumabob or Thingamabob — so I’ve been wrong all these years.
    Those years spent learning about Thermodynamics weren’t wasted, though!
  11. In 42 minutes I, strangely enough, had no problem with the hard stuff (for the first 30 minutes I thought the puzzle was very easy and Monday-ish, despite the obscurities). But still a DNF, because for 1ac, my FOI, by the way, I put in THINGAMABOB and convinced myself GAM must be some kind of (runny?) glue, and never went back to correct it. FINESSE went in as an act of faith and I actually understood most of the other obscurities. What a shame.

    By the way, is anyone else getting advertising in Russian on this site? I think they want me to subscribe to an online broker.

    Edited at 2021-12-20 06:40 pm (UTC)

  12. 22.21. My last three in were sirenic, finesse and fines. All of which were rather more “if you say so” moments than satisfying “aha” moments. On another day I would’ve spent much longer dithering over them but today I just took a swing.

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