Times 28233 – nothing too complex for a Wdnsdy.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A bit easier than last Wednesday, I thought, no really obscure words and a couple of chestnut clues. My CoD is a toss up between 22a (nasty Brexit) and 26a (no swimming costume). 20 minutes all parsed.

Across
1 Quite loud at the end of family party (4,2)
KIND OF – KIN (family) DO (party) F (loud).
5 Tough leader‘s sarcasm about left wingers in Auckland (4,4)
IRON LADY – IRONY (sarcasm) goes around L (left) A D (outside letters of Auckland). No strange birds involved.
9 It excites pique, keeping tots in a rage (3,5)
HOT STUFF – (TOTS)* inside HUFF = pique.
10 I’m leaving — then I’m back for Asian furnishing (6)
TATAMI – TATA (I’m leaving) I’M reversed. Japanese floor matting.
11 Thick bagel given to a school member (6)
OAFISH – O (a bagel, a zero, as in e.g. 6-0 in tennis) A FISH a school member.
12 Knock down hotel along with manual worker (8)
DECKHAND – DECK (knock down) H(otel) AND = along with.
14 Tripe‘s eaten, and sticky stuff in coating of yolk (12)
GOBBLEDYGOOK – GOBBLED (eaten) GOO (sticky stuff) inside Y K (coating of yolk).
17 President, say, no longer chilled: hard and less fresh (6-6)
OFFICE-HOLDER – OFF ICE = no longer chilled, H = hard, OLDER = less fresh.
20 Created hot pants in gold colour (8)
AUTHORED – AU, (HOT)*, RED.
22 So perhaps Brexit nasty for this woman? (6)
EUNICE – if Brexit were nasty, the EU might be NICE for her. Strangely, I’ve just finished an excellent book (Black Diamonds) in which Eunice Kennedy Shriver featured at times, so she was top of mind.
23 Twenty-four hours without any answers for firm (6)
STURDY – SATURDAY (24 hours) loses both of its As (answers).
25 Some in triumph arise excitedly for old sectarian (8)
PHARISEE – hidden as above.
26 Hardy character crossing river, swimmer with no trunks? (8)
TREELESS – the Hardy character is TESS, of the d’Urbervilles fame. Into her insert R and EEL (river and swimmer).
27 Pope concealing weapon smoothly (6)
LEGATO – LEO (popular name for Popes, there were thirteen) insert GAT a kind of gun. Musical term for smoothly.

Down
2 Sign of pressure thus internalised by current staff (6)
ISOBAR – SO (thus) inside I (current) BAR (staff). A line joining places of equal pressure on a chart.
3 Pick out suit with shindig having been arranged (11)
DISTINGUISH – (SUIT SHINDIG)*.
4 Story about alcoholic perhaps going down the toilet (9)
FLUSHABLE – FABLE (story) around LUSH (drunk).
5 Elected communist, one with controversial ideas (7)
INFIDEL – IN (elected) FIDEL Castro.
6 Concerned with one sensory organ stealing power of another (5)
OPTIC – OTIC (concerned with the ear) has P for power inserted.
7 Burned books (3)
LIT – double definition.
8 Control old car seized by gangster (8)
DOMINION – O MINI (old car) goes inside DON (gangster as in Mafioso).
13 Drunk on pungent gin stirred at the top (4-7)
HIGH-RANKING – HIGH (drunk) RANK (pungent) (GIN)*.
15 Ruse by Liberal Party that’s raised game (9)
DODGEBALL – DODGE (ruse) L, LAB (liberal, party) reversed. I’d never heard of dodgeball until we had it recently.
16 Excited gambler may have this (8)
AFLUTTER – a gambler may have a flutter, a small bet.
18 Originator of complex work cut by journalist on paper (7)
OEDIPUS – OPUS (work) is cut by ED (journalist) I (UK paper, the i, was the Independent once).
19 Accountant turned up little cash — this may be grave (6)
ACCENT – CA reversed, CENT a little cash; grave pronounced graahve.
21 Recital of Frost’s poetry (5)
RHYME – sounds lke RIME = frost.
24 Edith Piaf’s way to experience regret (3)
RUE – French for STREET, so Piaf’s ‘way’.

65 comments on “Times 28233 – nothing too complex for a Wdnsdy.”

  1. solve for a puzzle with a suprisingly low snitch, at least in my opinion…

    Lots to like, and I enjoyed the puzzle, HIGH RANKING was last in.

    34:58

  2. 24:35. All fair if a tad unremarkable. I think I have seen the O(P)TIC device quite recently (a Mephisto?) and for once I remembered a cryptic device and slotted it in on sight.
  3. I thought TREELESS was the clue of the day for its very misleading surface. It reminded me of a trip to Rejkjavik years ago when the hosts told us an Icelandic joke.

    Q. What do you do if you are lost in an Icelandic forest?

    A. Stand up …..

    Mind you anything would have been funny after eating the revolting pickled shark!

    Thanks to the setter and solver. This was all very fair I thought.

  4. Quite a good time for me. Seems to help doing all the acrosses then downs (like most others I believe) rather than getting one right and working round from there. (Though I do use that method for the Quickie)

    Here by the end of my passes through most of the blanks were fillable with a bit of thought

    Liked TREELESS though had TUSKLESS for a bit which I thought was rather good till I realised it was wrong!

    No problem with 0 for bagel

    Ps Do I need to send an email to Vinyl or will it already be evident? With my handle (and a quick google) you can imagine that this conflict is causing a lot of worry to the in-laws

  5. 10:57 No hold ups in a steady solve of this neat puzzle. I enjoyed EUNICE and the bagel most. Thanks Pip and setter.
  6. ….of checking every answer as I enter it meant no typos today. I must keep it up ! GOBBLEDYGOOK was thrown in and only parsed afterwards. I enjoyed this one.

    FOI KIND OF
    LOI LEGATO
    COD EUNICE*
    TIME 9:03

    * My neighbour of that ilk definitely voted “LEAVE” 😂

    Edited at 2022-03-09 02:56 pm (UTC)

  7. Enjoyed today’s very much. Thanks, Setter and Pip for the confirmatory elucidation. I particularly liked the ‘Brexit nasty’ clue!
  8. 21.50 while watching the rather excellent cricket (so far). I did like the conceit that produced STURDY.
    Having just returned from my fortnightly pillaging of Tesco’s, I still took a while to remember the shape of a bagel, and confused TATAMI with something to do with sushi.
    I didn’t parse HOT STUFF, as I couldn’t see pique as anagram indicator and thought rage too strong for HUFF, thanks as ever Pip for putting me straight.
  9. 40 minutes whilst Mrs R ascended Arthur’s Seat, which provided a very nice alternative to fat bloke trying to ascend it. Some entertaining clues here, including EUNICE, IRON LADY and STURDY. Thanks both.
  10. OAFISH was the last to go down as I hadn’t considered the possibility of it starting with a vowel, even when I saw how most of the clue worked. Very pleased to get my first sub-30m time today, especially with clues like 18d which I thought had a very nicely hidden def. Thanks P and S.
  11. JUST under an hour for a very enjoyable puzzle. I got off to a very slow start and about 5 minutes before the hour I still had three or four clues to solve, but they all went in very quickly (OAFISH was my LOI, DOMINION, LIT and TATAMI just before that). For OAFISH I spent a long time convincing myself it really couldn’t be DANISH (a bagel is not that which is called a Danish in the U.S. or at least in New York). Many very clever clues, like STURDY and AUTHORED and EUNICE.
  12. I loved this puzzle. Just the right degree of difficulty and so much to smile about. More, please, setter!
  13. 16.56. A fun puzzle much enjoyed. Finished up with the crossing sturdy and aflutter.
  14. Zoomed through the northwest (bar oafish) in about two minutes , but then slowed down a bit. Much fun had. But is Liberal Party for LLAB a bit cheeky?

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