Times 28717 – Four Weddings and an Apt Balm

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Lots to like in this Monday offering. Much that is straightforward (especially in the definition department), but some stuff to get the little grey cells working. 14:13.

Across
1 Historian originally expressing views in press and TV register (11)
MEDIEVALIST – E[xpressing] V[iews] in MEDIA LIST
7 Antelope finally displaying character in Thessaly (3)
GNU – [displayin]G NU
9 Is balm apt somehow for such a church rite? (9)
BAPTISMAL – anagram* of IS BALM APT
10 Compact offered for retail around India (5)
SOLID – I in SOLD
11 Baseball player in jug (7)
PITCHER – doublf definition (DD)
12 Outdoor enclosure used in one’s first broadcast (4-3)
OPEN-AIR – PEN in O (initial letter of One’s) AIR
13 Automated machine to hold up books? (5)
ROBOT – ROB (hold up, say, a bank) OT (Old Testament)
15 Splash that’s more effective outside health resort (9)
BESPATTER – SPA in BETTER
17 To us, a sure assembly for the bottom drawer (9)
TROUSSEAU – TO US A SURE*; one for the Georgette Heyer fans
19 Shy literary bear, do we hear, or beaver-like rodent? (5)
COYPU – COY sounds like [Winnie the] Pooh, the lovable character created by Milne reference to whom is verboten in Communist China. Totalitarian states may always be identified by their lack of humour and their censorship.
20 Laborious exercises accepted by old woman (7)
OPEROSE – PE in O ROSE (random female no. 1); a word no one uses derived from the Latin word for work (opus)
22 Gave a protégé  expensive diamonds to begin with (7)
AWARDED – A WARD (protégé) E[xpensive] D[iamonds]
24 Gallery having trouble with image promotion? (5)
PRADO – PR (image promotion) ADO (trouble); I was there last month looking at Goya’s black paintings, Raphael, El Greco and Velasquez’s magnificent Christ Crucified
25 Con man’s haystacks featured in Times with hesitation (9)
TRICKSTER – RICKS in T T (Times) ER
27 Fish brought back in this cheap paper (3)
RAG – GAR reversed
28 Commotion involving amphibious troops in addition to that (11)
FURTHERMORE – THE RM (Royal Marines) in FURORE
Down
1 Doctor initially braving disorderly crowd (3)
MOB – MO B[raving]
2 Woman keeping record in warehouse (5)
DEPOT – EP in DOT (random woman no. 2); an old-fashioned feel to this one
3 English ambassador inspired by PM’s descriptive word (7)
EPITHET – E HE (His/Her Excellency) in PITT; just 24 when he became PM (The Younger, naturally); just 46 when he cashed in his chips, having been premier for 19 years (bar a few days)
4 Worthy naval officer capturing British frigate ultimately (9)
ADMIRABLE – B (British) in ADMIRAL [frigat]E
5 US soldier set up card-game in ice house (5)
IGLOO – GI reversed LOO (card-game; not sure why there’s a hyphen – seems a bit, er, prissy)
6 Given time, girl produces a square tile (7)
TESSERA – TESS (random woman no. 3) ERA; those things in a roman mosaic
7 Courage shown by everyone digging into bridge support (9)
GALLANTRY – ALL in GANTRY (a word I associate with football commentators perched precariously in a confined space under the eaves of a stand in a proper football ground, e.g. Turf Moor – preferably accessible by a rickety ladder)
8 Where tubers are insufficiently crushed? (11)
UNDERGROUND – potatoes are found in the soil (under the ground), while if, say, you run out of steam with your cardamom seeds in the old pestle and mortar, you might be said to have ‘under-ground’ them. Moving right along…
11 A despicable person in professional theatre, not a fighting man (11)
PARATROOPER – A RAT in PRO OPER[a]; an object lesson in the need to lift-and-separate. No pacifists here! Opera is, collectively, theatre.
14 Aussie missile’s resonant sound echoed around back of house (9)
BOOMERANG – [hous]E in BOOM RANG
16 Prissy son in Paris that friends finally ditch (9)
SQUEAMISH – S (son) QUE AMIS (‘that’ and ‘friends’ in French) [ditc]H. Nice clue
18 Braggart’s display of force (4-3)
SHOW-OFF – SHOW OF F
19 Thin, crisp biscuit — a marvellous thing! (7)
CRACKER – DD
21 Good person, always seen around that compound (5)
ESTER – ST in E’ER
23 The same girl climbing over the top (5)
DITTO – DI (random woman no. 4) reversal of OTT
26 Twisted-sounding cereal plant (3)
RYE – sounds like ‘wry’

98 comments on “Times 28717 – Four Weddings and an Apt Balm”

  1. Unlike BUSMAN I got very little on the initial run through, but then the little grey cells woke up and I finished in 12 minutes, probably a PB. I don’t object to a few random women, and the Latin came to my assistance for OPEROSE. No other issues.
    FOI – TROUSSEAU
    LOI – OPEROSE
    COD – SQUEAMISH
    Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.

  2. 34 minutes (disproportionately on OPEROSE). I think that the clue for UNDERGROUND refers to people who catch the tube (tube – ers) as opposed to potatoes. If the latter had been intended, wouldn’t it have been clued as two words?

  3. They do this on purpose, don’t they? Trick you into thinking you’re heading for a personal best then hit you with the obscurest word in the dictionary. Bah. 26 minutes. Not a personal best.

  4. I don’t time myself precisely but wish that I had today, as I’m sure that this would have been a PB. Under 15 minutes, anyway – practically the time it took me to write in the answers with a slight delay (as others experienced) due to Operose.
    I liked Coypu – a chestnut that I hadn’t seen before!

  6. Bit of a delay thanks to OPEROSE, by which I was ground to a stationary pile of gubbins. Otherwise I’d have been under ten. As it was, 12’24”.

  7. This was mostly very straightforward. I thought I was heading for a sub-20 PB but gave up after half an hour with OPEROSE unsolved.

  8. 28:36. under the half hour so pretty happy with that. I liked Ester the best. LOI was Prado. nice puzzle, not too hard.

  9. 19:13
    A very rare sub-twenty finish for me.
    LOI was FURTHERMORE.
    NHO OPEROSE, but managed it from wordplay.

    Thanks Ulaca and setter

  10. This was an (unworthy) confidence-booster for me, as I started off AND finished off quite smoothly – apart from the dastardly OPEROSE of course! Coming to the blog, I now realise it was “a walk in the park” for all the other solvers too – so not so happy now. Had my only other problem with MEDIAEVALIST, (the aged brain seeing only M-D-etc as starting MIDDLE something!), but after a break, it all fell into place nicely enough. Enjoyed COYPU, SQUEAMISH and FURTHERMORE.

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