Times 28987 – Yes, that hotel!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time:  19 minutes.

I cannot say that this was another easy Monday, as the last several answers proved very elusive, including two words that were not in my vocabulary.   I raced through most of it – well, raced for me – despite several tricky bits.   I suspect beginners would be thoroughly foxed, while experienced solvers will be able to pick their way through.

On another topic, I remind all commenters that insulting and abusive language toward either the setter or your fellow solvers is not permitted here, even in jest.     Yes, we do delete these comments.

Across
1 Quiet game ultimately inviting dismissive gesture (5)
SHRUG –  SH + R.U. + [invitin]G.
4 Woman finally delighting in breakfast food, like the governor (9)
VICEREGAL – VI + CERE([delightin]G)AL.
9 Draws principally involving a plant in Asia (9)
RAFFLESIA – RAFFLES + I[nvolving] + A.   This was the one that had me, until I saw what sort of draws would fit.
10 Guru took to the water alongside island (5)
SWAMI – SWAM + I.
11 Fellow originally residing in Donne’s island? (6)
NORMAN – NO (R[esiding] MAN, presumably a man named Norman and not a fellow from Normandy.   No man is a an island!
12 Scottish city’s currency recognised by auditors (8)
STIRLING – Sounds like STERLING.
14 Lively new routes to east of French wood (10)
BOISTEROUS – BOIS + anagram of ROUTES.   The French vocabulary used in these puzzles is gradually growing.
16 Set about a Highland Scot (4)
GAEL – G(A)EL, an escapee from the Quickie.
19 English landscape gardener known north of the border (4)
KENT – Double definition, William Kent, 1685-1748.   As a former grad student of 18th century English Lit, I really should have heard of him, since he designed Pope’s garden at Twickenham.
20 Heavenly phenomenon recognised at first in celebrity’s squad (4,6)
STAR STREAM – STAR’S T(R[ecognized])EAM.
22 Sport the French must carry over (8)
LACROSSE – L(ACROSS)E, another starter clue.
23 Deadly human being! (6)
MORTAL –  Double definition.
26 Painter working in US opera house? (5)
MONET – M(ON)ET.   In the US, the Met is either an opera house or a museum – and we also have the NY Mets.
27 Seaman doing what seamen do, we hear — making a sharp descent? (9)
ABSEILING – AB. + sounds like SAILING, a frequently used clue.
28 Old archdeacon given money prepared in advance (4-5)
OVEN-READY – O + VEN + READY.
29 Leave former partner to take courses (5)
EXEAT – EX + EAT.   I solved this from the cryptic, and recognized the third person singular subjunctive of exire, but I was not familiar with this usage in English.
Down
1 Season very good for trapping black antelope (9)
SPRINGBOK – SPRING  (B) OK.   Once I had the B, I knew it had to a bok of some sort.
2 Advert displayed in Hampshire ferries (5)
REFER – Hidden in [Hampshi]RE FER[ries].
3 Dashing young men annoy workers (8)
GALLANTS – GALL + ANTS.
4 Huge area included in visits regularly (4)
VAST – V[i](A)S[i]T[s].
5 Maritime force’s phantom provider of credit, might Spooner have said? (10)
COASTGUARD –  Spoonerism of GHOST CARD.
6 Refuge in holiday location, perhaps (6)
RESORT – Double definition – The Last Resort?
7 Be drawn to fireplace, embracing Sackville-West (9)
GRAVITATE – GRA(VITA)TE, a write-in for Bloomsbury fans.
8 Relaxing, retailing pork pies (5)
LYING – A very simple double definition.
13 Capital initially invested in urchin’s discharge (10)
BRATISLAVA – BRAT(I[nvested])’S LAVA.
15 Guilelessness of civil engineer in pub in past times (9)
INNOCENCE – INN O(C.E.)NCE.
17 Dawn entertaining male priest in glare of publicity (9)
LIMELIGHT – LI(M, ELI)GHT.
18 Poisonous substance manufactured in a European port (8)
ATROPINE -Anagram of IN A E PORT.
21 Hospital worker, possibly, left with little sign of hesitation (6)
PORTER – PORT + ER.    Presumably porters also work in other establishments.
22 Neglected state of bachelor in big car (5)
LIMBO – LIM(B)O.
24 Work hard on back of durable fabric (5)
TOILE – TOIL + [durabl]E.
25 A coconut stall, pale greyish in colour (4)
ASHY -A SHY, i.e. a coconut shy at a fair.

94 comments on “Times 28987 – Yes, that hotel!”

  1. 22:51
    Slowed down in the NE, with STIRLING annoyingly my LOI, even though I had the -ING. No problem with DNK RAFFLESIA, as I knew Raffles. DNK KENT & STAR STREAM. Can’t remember how I knew EXEAT; Forster? Powell? Monty Python?

  2. 11:24. Quite a few unknowns (RAFFLESIA, KENT, STAR STREAM, EXEAT) but all were generously clued. Frustratingly I was held up for ages at the end with COASTGUARD. Just couldn’t see it.

    Liked “Donne’s island”. Thanks Vinyl and setter.

  3. Hard to believe that EXEAT hasn’t been used in a Mephisto before, but haven’t tried to check. I know I’ve seen it somewhere. My LOI was STIRLING too, but nothing was much of a stretch. A nice exercise!

  4. 29 minutes. My unknowns not hard to solve were RAFFLESIA, VICEREAGAL (making its first appearance here), STAR STREAM and KENT. Fortunately I had no problem with ‘known north of the border’ but I didn’t know the designer and having thought of KENT I was slightly distracted by a possible reference to the county of Kent which is known as ‘the garden of England’. Whether or not this was intentional it was irrelevant.

    EXEAT comes up in many a schoolboy story from the days when Latin was taught in most schools of a certain type. Tom Brown, Jennings and possibly even Billy Bunter for example.

      1. Mrs E was ill-informed. It’s because of Kent’s long history of fruit-growing. The only other county that may have a claim to the title is Worcestershire.

        2. Mrs. E also refers to her husband as her ‘cara sposo’, so I wouldn’t trust her on the garden counties of England either.

          1. The ‘Surrey is the garden of England thing’ (‘No, I fancy not,’ replied Mrs. Elton, with a most satisfied smile, ‘I never heard any county but Surry called so’) is of course done deliberately to make her look a fool.

                1. What with Elton and Collins, I’ve often wondered what Miss A’s beef was with the clergy. I quite liked Edmund the curate, but he too is not short of knockers among the critics.

  5. 10:51. I thought this was going to be tricker when I couldn’t solve any of the four outside clues straight off, but once I got going it proved to be fairly benign.

    Of course the appropriate response to Donne’s “No man is an island” is “What about the Isle of Man?”

  6. I know KENT as “The Garden of England” (Gerry Rafferty’s song refers) but as a gardener he’d passed me by. I got STAR in place before STREAM was confirmed by crossers – DNK but sounded plausible enough. No problems otherwise.

    FOI SWAMI
    LOI GAEL
    COD NORMAN
    TIME 8:10

    1. I rather thought Gerry Rafferty was referring to Susex as he once lived in Hartfield in Sussex; but great song and great album!

  7. 18 minutes with LOI the unknown RAFFLESIA taking me beyond the quarter hour. My headmaster would give the same homily at the end of every year about no man being an island and I imagined it being in the Pacific Ocean. So, for old times’ sake, COD to NORMAN. A witty and enjoyable Monday offering. Thank you V and setter.

  8. Well I found this easy until it wasn’t. I was cruising along nicely when I hit the brick walk that was RAFFLESIA, COAST GUARD (NHO GHOST CARD), BRATISLAVA, and ATROPINE. which took ages. The last straw was staring at -A-L at 16ac and finally giving up. Now I see the answer of course it’s easy. D’oh. Madame RdeP had a very disturbed night so I put my befuddled brain this morning down to that.

    Oh well, here’s to tomorrow.

    Thanks v and setter.

    1. I don’t think you’re meant to have heard of GHOST CARD until now: it’s another of those pretend Spoonerisms that doesn’t exist until our setters swap the initial letters round and think “that’ll do as a clue”. Note to moderators: intended, more or less, as a compliment.

      1. Aha, I see, I think? My online dictionary doesn’t have it. Probably that’s your point, of course. Ta.

        1. The opportunity to mix bad puns with unknowns and both with even badder homophones must be like catnip for setters. I’m surprised we don’t see them more often.

  9. Lucked in with the unknown ATROPINE, my LOI that I was relieved to see gave me the CONGRATS! screen. Got RAFFLESIA before twigging to the draw reference because of his presence in Singers, as they used to call it in the G&T days. I was at the hotel decades ago, before they tarted it up. Noel Coward’s piano was out of tune and riddled with borers, Hayley Mills’s name was misspelt on her door plaque and in the writers’ room one of the photos (alongside Somerset Maugham, Kipling etc) was of a notorious Australian tabloid sub-editor named Wally Crouch. Pleasant solve, 20.18, thanks vinyl1.

    From Shelter from the Storm:
    In a little hilltop village, I gambled for my clothes
    I bargained for salvation and they gave me a lethal dose
    I offered up my INNOCENCE and got repaid with scorn
    Come in, she said, I’ll give you
    Shelter from the storm

    1. But wasn’t it fun crunching the peanut shells underfoot whilst sipping your « sling »!

      2. I have indeed done just that. It is at the same time something that you have to do and a sort of cliché that you should be above doing.

        1. Absolutely. It was one of my top four « must do’s » many moons ago. The others were: Harry’s Bar, Venice (Hemingway), Bellini; The Crillon Hotel bar in Paris, (Sam White wrote his Sam White’s Paris column in the Evening Standard there and had his own telephone on the bar to ring it in!) Gin Fizz and finally Harry’s Bar, Paris (Hemingway again) Bloody Mary. I did manage them all.

            1. The Jolly Sailor, Macclesfield – Draught Bass. Another blow struck for the working classes!

              1. Sometimes the NY posse – and with visitors including Verlaine and keriothe in tow – have gone to Pete’s Tavern.
                Guy du Sable’s favourite, but the booth along the wall is meant to be where O. Henry wrote Gift of the Magi, among other stories.

              2. I frequently visit Stow on the Wold in the Cotswolds, and a pint of the local hooch, Donnington bitter, is a great drink.

  10. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
    When we have shuffled off this Mortal coil …
    (Hamlet, obvs)

    25 mins mid-brekker. It felt like the start/end letter fiend again, but a bit toned down. Only seven today.
    Ta setter and V.

  11. Nho KENT, which went in with crossed fingers as the best guess. Really liked NORMAN, and COASTGUARD was brilliant.

    9’35”, thanks vinyl and setter.

  13. 23:50, with the probably-never-heard-of ATROPINE my last in by some way. There were enough alternative parsings to keep me confused, before I realised the letters I needed were right in front of me.

    Thanks both.

  14. 33m 30s….but it appears I don’t know how to spell the Scottish city.
    I’m wondering if Row 5 is our setter’s dedication to a particular person…..?

  15. 21 minutes but stupidly spelt STIRLING with an E grrr (despite the “sounds like” clue)
    NHO RAFFLESIA and took me a couple of minutes to parse it
    Enjoyable puzzle though and a reasonably gentle Monday I thought
    Thanks setter and blogger

      1. Thank you .. but I note it “contains some upsetting scenes,” and I am easily upset, particularly if blood or surgery is involved … RIP Dr Mosley

  17. 13.13, switching from STERLING to STIRLING just in time with my decaying brain telling me the currency got its name from the town, so why the auditors? KENT and STAR STREAM (unknown to my Chambers) on trust, ATROPINE from (probably) Poirot, RAFFLESIA from the bits of my brain that still work, and possibly Listener/Mephisto, very nearly LAMPLIGHT because I still don’t know what lamplighting is, and MONET rather than a biffed MANON (opera-prompted) because I actually read the clue.
    Pleasant start to the week, with just enough booby traps to convince me I’m not yet a booby.

    1. Star stream is in Collins: “one of two main streams of stars that, because of the rotation of the Milky Way, appear to move in opposite directions, one towards Orion, the other towards Ara”
      It’s not in my treeware Chambers, which I find a bit surprising as it has star-everything else pretty much.

      1. As a physicist with a passing knowledge of astronomy, I have never heard of Star Stream.
        Stellar Streams are well known, but no one respectable would call them as the setter has.
        Other than this dubiosity, a fair puzzle.

  18. DNF having fluffed the NHO EXEAT even though the clueing was fair; otherwise a fairly straightforward sub 20′ solve. The other NHO, RAFFLESIA sort of rang a bell and also generously clued. Thanks Vinyl1 and setter

  19. 41:08
    Nice puzzle. I pulled out atropine via Atropos, whose name I learned in 1971 from ELP’s suite ‘The Three Fates’. Rafflesia I assembled from wordplay.
    Thanks, v.

    1. A lovely reminder of Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. I must dig that first album out and reminisce while playing it. “Lucky Man” is a blast through headphones!

      1. It is. That Moog solo at the end was improvised in one take. The piano solo – Lachesis – is a nice composition.

  20. All correct but with fingers very much crossed for KENT. Saw BOISTEROUS so I was lucky I didn’t need to know the French for wood- why would I?
    Thanks to setter and blogger

      1. “in a (e) port” where E is first to be identified as European rather than, say, Eastern. Rather like a two step clue, and apparently contrary to the Times Setter’s style guide.

  22. Glad to complete this one, fully parsed, in 27 mins: it certainly didn’t feel like a Monday. LOI was RAFFLESIA, which I’d NHO, with COASTGUARD my POI and those two holding me up for a good three or four minutes. I loved the reference to Donne’s island which reminded me of one of Mike Harding’s lines from about 40 years ago: ‘No man is an island except Fred Madagascar’. Sorry, but it still makes me smile.

  23. 22 minutes, or actually 20 or 21 and kept getting the silly ‘Unlucky’ message that was caused simply by fat fingers two or three times, so strictly speaking I suppose a DNF. I know I should check it over but can’t be bothered. STAR STREAM unknown but I took it on trust that there was such a thing. It seemed odd that in 21dn a PORTER was ‘a hospital worker, possibly’. A porter is a hospital worker: when you list all the possible hospital workers a porter is one of them. You wouldn’t clue NILE as ‘River in Africa, possibly’, even though nile is also a sort of green.

    1. If the “possibly” wasn’t there, folk would be complaining about a dbe… as there are lots of different porters Wil, not just hospital porters but the one that delivers my luggage to my suite, or onto the Orient Express… but very few Niles: River, green, Rogers, all I can think of..

  24. I’m surprised no-one has commented on’limelight’ at 17d being a somewhat below par clue in an otherwise excellent crossword. Double use of ‘light’ grated rather. 28m.

  25. 15.46

    Totally failed to parse VICEREGAL but once I heard COASTGUARD it had to be. A few tricky clues but I had the GK such as EXEAT which I seem to remember from school.

  26. 21 minutes. I found this quite gentle until I had to spend several minutes at the end trying to work out BRATISLAVA and COAST GUARD. EXEAT well remembered from boarding school days as a pass to be allowed out for the day or weekend and RAFFLESIA as a crossword land plant that I recognised with the help of wordplay.

    Thanks to our blogger for the Latin lesson; you encouraged me to look up where another Latin term used in English, “exeunt”, fits into the conjugation of “exire”.

    1. I got exeat initially by remembering exeunt from Shakespeare plays, and working back via wordplay…

  27. 18 mins. Surprised at ATROPINE being NHO, but had to get the answer before I realised it was an anagram. LOI KENT, didn’t know either definition

  29. Hmmm. What ‘heavenly phenomenon’ exactly is a STAR STREAM in astronomical terms, I wonder. Not one I’ve ever heard of, having studied it a bit. Apart from that, a good Monday starter, though RAFFLESIA defeated me.

    1. As stated above: in Collins: “one of two main streams of stars that, because of the rotation of the Milky Way, appear to move in opposite directions, one towards Orion, the other towards Ara”

  30. Pretty steady solve with many going in on first pass. My only problem was the poison at 18dn where I failed to appreciate it was an anagram. Having never heard of ATROPINE, I concocted an answer not a million miles away with ATROMINE. So effectively a DNF in 26.14. That old habit of getting one letter wrong has returned to haunt me.

  31. As for others quite a few unknown words, but not too difficult to construct them. Knew the Scottish KEN, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch to the past tense. I didnae ken STAR STREAM, but it was easy enough to assemble. SHRUG was FOI with a feeling of deja vu from somewhere else over the weekend. POI was RAFFLESIA, where it took a while to see what sort of draw was required. LOI was NORMAN with a bone jarring clang as the penny dropped. 15:51. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

  32. 22:20. i found this fairly straightforward. was a bit stuck with the Asian plant, until I corrected REFER into REFER. nice puzzle for a Monday! thanks Setter and Vinyl! 0 errors

  33. I may be alone in disliking in principle clues which annex the first or the last letter of an otherwise capricious word by means of an adjective or adverb such as “principally”, “ultimately”, etc. Obviously I accept that the trope is an essential part of any setter’s toolbox, and it is all a matter of proportion. But methinks reasonable proportion has been violated when, as here, five out of sixteen across-clues rely upon this same device: “ultimately” (1ac), “finally” (4ac), “principally” (9ac), “originally” (11ac) and “at first” (20ac).

  34. I remember applying for an exeat when at college and I wanted to stay with a friend in London for the weekend. NHO rafflesia but it seemed likely. My Scottish wife confirmed ” kent.”Nice Mondayish offering.

  35. 13 mins with LOI exeat. That had me sweating a bit so very relieved when I saw the eat connotation. Seen rafflesia in Borneo, in a locals back yard in the mountains. Incredible plant to see in the wild. Viceregal went in easily enough but wasn’t parsed till later. COD to oven ready.

    1. As a matter of interest, how is RAFFLESIA pronounced? Is it Raff-lesia or Raffles-ia? (Seeing you’ve met one I thought you might know!)

  36. Quick and no problems on this one. EXEAT from daughter’s schooldays when we’d fly in to visit.

  37. I got seriously stuck on RAFFLESIA and COASTGUARD. I’m not fan of Spoonerism clues in any case, which added to my irritation with what was, for the most part, a pretty reasonable crossword.

  38. 26:42

    Strolling Lancaster’s suburban streets saw me off to a poor start – FOI LACROSSE- though things improved somewhat after that. Didn’t know the plant, my LOI, nor KENT the gardener. STAR STREAM and VICEREGAL also unknown but helped to cement in the weak RESORT and LYING. Saving grace was that though I was never exposed to more than church Latin, our fifth form year master insisted on dishing out EXEATs to pop to the bakery at lunchtime for an excellent chip butty.

    Thanks V and setter

  39. Same experience as everyone else with a lot of easy Mondayish clues and a number of unknown or nearly unknown words that had to be assembled Ikea-style from the instructions. But got there in the end.

  40. 7:05. I’m in Canada at the moment so when I solved this just after 7pm I was the only person on the leaderboard! Curiously satisfying.
    No problems with this: RAFFLESIA from wordplay although it rang a bell.

  41. 33′-ish BUT….
    ….. Stopped dead when digging his toes in yards from the post.

    Thank you Zabadak; I’m glad I wasn’t alone on stopping to muse over which sterling/Stirling was which.
    My 1983 Chambers also lacking star stream, I too have been wondering about the date of its coinage. I see the Arcturus version was discovered in 1971, but might it have been known as a stellar stream in those days. AstroNowt, where are you? Help!
    I liked the little semi-archaisms of advert as a verb and resort for refuge.
    All very enjoyable; thank you setter and Vinyl.

  42. Atropine known from watching episodes of Poirot and Miss Marple. Bratislava known from having just returned from a trip there. Exeat known from heaven knows where. This puzzle fell nicely for me and took 20 minutes. LOI Gael.

  43. Needed some help with my last three. Might possibly have got the nho Rafflesia, if I had spotted the draw, but didn’t (x2), should have got Bratislava but couldn’t decide whether I was looking for a capital or a discharge, and never spotted that 18d was an anagram. In fact, even with Atropine revealed I was still looking for the port. . . I did enjoy Norman and Viceregal, but Refer/Advert is still a mystery: could someone give me the context please? Invariant

    1. Advert has two meanings, as one can see in Collins but I can’t reproduce the pronunciation symbols here. If the emphasis is on the first syllable it’s an advertisement; if on the second, it means ‘to draw attention (to), to refer (to)’.

  44. In my former life I would use ATROPINE many times a day, so to see it often defined as poisonous makes me a little queasy. It is of course, along with scopolomine (also a usable drug), the dangerous stuff in Deadly Nightshade.
    COASTGUARD LOI, COD and LOL when eventually cracked
    I did know other schools used EXEAT where we used “absit” for that purpose
    Thanks everyone

  45. Quick and easy, with two minor things to think about. One is the mental disconnect between Donne’s meaning that man isn’t, and the clue’s requiring that he is; the other that I see all the parts, and everyone knows the answer, but the assembly instructions for Lacrosse don’t work for me. What am I missing?

    1. Possibly that ‘must carry’ is providing the containment instruction? A slightly ungainly one IMO, but it does appear from time to time, at least in other puzzles. To reach ‘sport’, LE must carry ACROSS.

      1. Thanks – you’re right. I put a “mental comma” in the wrong place.

  46. 30 mins with a few left in the bottom corner.

    Indirect anagram for ATROPINE seems against the Times rules and ximenean principles?

    I had ANIMAL for “deadly human / being”. Someone who is an animal, such as a murdrerer ; then animal = being. That broke what would have been a good time.

    Also missed GAEL, which did not feel like a QC clue as suggested.

    Liked COASTGUARD and VICEREGAL

    1. I agree that an indirect anagram is against The Times rules and Ximenean principles. But is this an indirect anagram? I always thought that it was acceptable to have abbreviations as part of the anagram fodder.

      1. In this case the abbreviation wasn’t clearly defined in my opinion (see earlier post) but then I am the resident pedant on here 😂

  47. Nice puzzle. I’m starting to get used to solving without paper, but I’m not great at doing anagrams in my head.
    RAFFLESIA and KENT last in as guesses.

    1. I find that typing the anagrist into the grid, usually alternating letters (or, even more usually starting at the back of the word and alternating letters) (i.e. S E T L E T R for letters), then exchanging known crossing letters into their proper position takes a little time but is almost as good for seeing the answer as the circle-of-letters thing. If it’s a complicated word, I use the pencil thing for the unks

  48. Mostly enjoyable, although took a while to get LOI GAEL. Must know ‘exeat’ from the Chalet School books or some other literary classic(!) NHO RAFFLESIA but easy enough to work out once a few others solved. 16:31

  49. 18:05
    I went to the sort of school where you had to ask for an EXEAT to go away for the day, so OK with that. I had also heard of RAFFLESIA. However STAR-STREAM and ATROPINE (my LOI) were both unknowns.

    Thanks Vinyl and setter

  50. Surprised and relieved to have this all correct given some biffing here and there.
    FOI SWAMI
    LOI ATROPINE
    COD BOISTEROUS

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