Times 28228 – I’ll take my grapes sour, please.

Time taken: 12:03 but with one incorrect, and my incorrect answer was my pet peeve in crosswords, a proper noun clued as an anagram. I could picture the sculptor’s pieces, those very thin metal men. Could I spell his name from the given letters? Not on your nellie.

So an excellent chance for you all to beat your blogger!

Away we go…

Across
1	Crazed legal expert dismissing judge as handy operator (10)
	MANICURIST – MANIC(crazed) then JURIST(legal expert) missing the first letter. I liked this clue a lot with the crafty definition.
6	Present-day graduate rejected Bede? (4)
	ADAM – AD(anno domeni, present day), then MA(graduate) reversed. Reference to the George Eliot novel
10	Mostly nasty about US city recordings (5)
	VINYL – VILE(nasty) missing the first letter surrounding NY(US City). Hey, look, it’s one of our bloggers in the grid!
11	After surprise, I will abandon unfussy office layout (5,4)
	FLOOR PLAN – FLOOR(surprise) then remove the I from PLAIN(unfussy)
12	Getting quite drunk with ales ruins cocktail (7,7)
	TEQUILA SUNRISE – anagram of QUITE with ALES,RUINS
14	Sort of motor — or band — I refitted (7)
	INBOARD – anagram of OR,BAND,I
15	Harsh Republican political meeting ditching leader about nothing (7)
	RAUCOUS – R(Republican) then CAUCUS(political meeting) minus the first letter and including O(nothing)
17	A hot-looking French lake recalled as product of volcanism (7)
	CALDERA – A, RED(hot-looking), LAC(lake in French), all reversed
19	King Edward possibly suppressing odd bits of talk and gossip (7)
	TATTLER – TATER(King Edward) containing alternating letters in TaLk
20	Absence of work still involving some labour? (9,5)
	MATERNITY LEAVE – cryptic definition
23	Philosophy briefly for every single European leader (9)
	TAOISEACH – TAOISM(Philosophy) missing the last letter, then EACH(for every)
24	Completion of table leads to spare wood (5)
	EBONY – last letter of tablE then BONY(spare)
25	Island valley, not area offering no fruit? (4)
	IDLE – I(island) then DALE(valley) minus A(area)
26	Inducement to abandon English for French city, making measure of similarity (10)
	COMPARISON – COME ON(inducement) with the E(English) replaced with PARIS(French city)

Down
1	Second volume ending in case for advocate (4)
	MOVE – MO(second), V(volume) and the last letter in casE. Advocate is a verb here.
2	Unusual ban on lover expressing love using hand gestures? (9)
	NONVERBAL – anagram of BAN,ON,LOVER, minus O(love)
3	Worked out fast, avoiding first chance after some thought? (10,4)
	CALCULATED RISK – CALCULATED(worked out), then BRISK(fast) minus the first letter
4	Airmen took flight offered by chance? (7)
	RAFFLED – RAF(airmen), FLED(took flight)
5	Patron succeeded with little money, securing bridge team (7)
	SPONSOR – S(succeeded) and POOR(having little money) containing N and S(bridge team)
7	I steered northwards, skirting hot Indian region (5)
	DELHI – I, LED(steered) reversed, containing H(hot)
8	Educationalist provoking storm and noise (10)
	MONTESSORI – anagram of STORM and NOISE
9	Be final: propose that location has area reduced by 50 per cent (5,2,3,4)
	BRING UP THE REAR – BRING UP(propose), THERE(that location) and half of ARea
13	Sculptor, Swiss at heart, came and got it wrong (10)
	GIACOMETTI – anagram of the middle letter of swIss, CAME and GOT IT. And not GIOCAMETTI, as I had.
16	Unaware first pair of lions occupies plain (9)
	OBLIVIOUS – first two letters of LIons inside OBVIOUS(plain)
18	Rapid with notes, I’m accepted by a military association (7)
	ANIMATO – I’M inside A NATO(military association)
19	Nonsense about unknown work being source of material for play (7)
	TOYSHOP – TOSH(nonsense) containing Y(unknown), then OP(work). Another crafty definition
21	Malicious blogger? Right to block impact (5)
	TROLL – R(right) inside TOLL(impact)
22	Printing ink: no source of colour used up (4)
	CYAN – NAY(no) and the first letter of Colour, all reversed.

52 comments on “Times 28228 – I’ll take my grapes sour, please.”

6m 19s, all fairly smooth going. I share your pet peeve relating to anagrams of obscure foreign words (proper nouns or otherwise), but fortunately the unknown GIACOMETTI suggested itself without too much difficulty.

My other pet peeve is loose cryptic definitions, so for a while I left it at ?ATERNITY LEAVE… M was always more likely, but definitely a case for P.

Got myself stuck in the top left a little but knew Giacometti – he’s even Swiss, making the clue nicer.

2/3 done in around twenty mins — fifteen minutes to finish the SE corner and some of the NE (MONTESSORI just wouldn’t come even though I could see it was an anagram and had the first three checkers).

As it turned out, MONTESSORI was the key and got me going again, leading to TATTLER and OBLIVIOUS.

Thought TOYSHOP was cleverly clued.

Edited at 2022-03-03 01:04 pm (UTC)

I had no chance as I never had any art lessons at school.. I was about to put GIOCAMETTI, but then I thought what the hell and looked him up.
I agree with comment above, there are so many words with – – SH which mean nonsense that I was spoilt for choice. At one point I tried BIZSHOP which might be a place for showbiz props?

Enjoyed this.
No problem with Giacometti, though not a fan. The usual problems constructing the Irish bloke.

After a very slow start this was not hard at all (35 minutes), since once I did get going there were almost no holdups. LOI was EBONY because I was having trouble identifying BONY as a single word (meaning spare). The only spelling that gave me any grounds for thought was TAOISEACH, but the wordplay was quite clear, although I don’t know why “single” was needed in the clue.

18.29. A par solve for me. No problem with the sculptor but I had to dredge the educationalist up from somewhere. The European leader was spelt with more confidence than might otherwise have been the case with less generous word play. I liked the idea of the manic (j)urist (I can picture one or two).

Also mildly astonished about the number of nhos for GIACOMETTI — I mean, if even I’ve heard of him…!

Flitted around but never got stuck. CYAN last in

Clever anagram for TEQUILA SUNRISE

Thanks George and setter

Comments are closed.