Times 29041 – Include me out

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I wasn’t overly keen on this crossword, though I like to think I am generally easy to please. Masses of letter deletion clues and three weak cryptic definitiony clues are some of the reasons why it didn’t seem, to me, at least, quite to fit the bill. 20:40

Across
1 A large study probing small fish and bird management (8)
FALCONRY – A L CON in FRY
6 Innermost nature without love? Attempt to become passionate (6)
SULTRY – SoUL TRY
9 Decorative item beginning to sparkle for a horse, not tail (6)
SEQUIN – Sparkle EQUINe (for a horse, as in characteristic of a horse)
10 Insolence and criticism for cosmetic (8)
LIPSTICK – LIP (stick) STICK (criticism, as in ‘he gave Harris a lot of stick’)
11 Rewrite government order after Conservative withdraws (4)
EDIT – EDIcT
12 Promote the redesigned camera accessory (10)
PHOTOMETER – anagram* of PROMOTE THE
14 Without air at first, heating elements retaining temperature — they don’t provide much coverage (1-7)
G-STRINGS – T in GaS RINGS (heating elements)
16 Spot, head removed — delicate stuff (4)
LACE – pLACE
18 Rebuke R & A support for golf being curtailed (4)
RATE – RA (from the clue) TEe (support for golf ball)
19 Book idiot opened, but not finished —notes follow this (4,4)
BASS CLEF – B ASS CLEFt (cleaved means split, and so by extension opened)
21 Learn the moves in revolutionary soccer team? I might (6,4)
CENTRE HALF – LEARN THE* in FC (football club) reversed; a bit weak
22 Doomed to receive reduced data (4)
INFO – IN FOr (if you are ‘in for’ it, you are doomed)
24 Various papers distributed after union session (8)
CONFETTI – cryptic definition; I was slow to see this for some reason
26 Bar mostly wrong to offer this form of the grape? (6)
RAISIN – RAIl SIN
27 Source of colour against capturing quantity of light (6)
CRAYON – RAY in CON
28 Guess there’s one million in bequests? (8)
ESTIMATE – I M in ESTATE
Down
2 Leading article picked up, but ignoring editor’s conclusion (5)
AHEAD – A (article) HEArD (missing final letter of editor)
3 Bar right to suppress last of booze of fake origin (11)
COUNTERFEIT – COUNTER (bar) boozE in FIT (right)
4 Point among squares in game (8)
NINEPINS – PIN (point) in NINES (squares)
5 Burly seamen, I fancy, may be seen around deep vessel of note (6,9)
YELLOW SUBMARINE – LOW (deep) in BURLY SEAMEN I*
6 Function to bring in noodle soup in liquid transfer system (6)
SIPHON -PHO (Vietnamese soup) in SIN (function)
7 Rental abandoned after female pulls out (3)
LET – LEfT
8 Far-fetched European enthralled by Right and Left-wing figure repeatedly (9)
RECHERCHE – E in R CHE (left wing figure) R CHE; far-fetched in the sense of pretentious refinement
13 Borrowing many ideas, church backing the French reviews dismissing religious instruction (11)
ECLECTICISM – CE reversed LE (‘the’ in French) CriTICISM
15 Family turning up outside old part of theatre (5,4)
STAGE DOOR – AGED (old) in ROOTS reversed (family, as in the Alex Haley book sense)
17 A spoof about class mostly is to invite trouble (3,3,2)
ASK FOR IT – FORm in A SKIT (spoof)
20 Racy phone message given to working church employee (6)
SEXTON – SEXT (racy phone message – never knowingly sent or received one) ON (working)
23 Deceptive move in ruling? (5)
FEINT – a FEINT is a deceptive move, such as sleight of hand; feint-ruled paper is writing paper with light horizontal lines printed across at regular intervals. I’m not mad about this clue either
25 Surreptitious and quite lacking in attitude (3)
FLY – FairLY

61 comments on “Times 29041 – Include me out”

  1. Back from holiday, I found this a pleasant solve over lunch.
    LOI SEQUIN.
    I had a big question mark about FEINT. And I also had SYPHON before a parsing check.
    I should have checked FEY at 25d which went in early on, also with a question mark.
    So DNF in the end but enjoyed it.
    David

  2. I finished under target at 42.18, but would have been about three or four minutes quicker if I hadn’t put in SLY which made 24ac unsolvable. Eventually I remembered that SLY wouldn’t parse, and without the offending S I was able to see CONFETTI which then allowed me to get FLY which I could then parse.

  3. 27:51 with most trouble in the south-west where the STAGE DOOR, CONFETTI, CENTRE HALF framework just wouldn’t come. COD RECHERCHE

  4. I’m a QC player but encouraged by a relatively easy 15×15 a few Mondays ago. Gave this one a very good go. DNF due to Recherche and Fly but got all the others many without parsing. Thanks All

  5. Didn’t really notice all the letter exclusions, but, on review, I agree there were a lot here. But it’s Monday, and this felt like a Monday puzzle. Parsing STAGE DOOR took longer than it should have, but all done even so in a shade under 20 mins. Thanks to our blogger, as ever.

  6. 27’00”
    Fairly good clip early on, and managed to maintain it, just.

    Help! I’m probably being very dense, but I cannot pinpoint how PIN is equivalent to POINT, either as nouns or verbs. All of the rest were parsed, but quite a few in retrospect.
    I enjoyed this quite stiff test for a Monday; thank you setter and Ulaca.

    1. I can’t either, I parsed it as being P=point and IN=among surrounded by NINES=squares without being entirely convinced of my logic. I’m another member of the OWL club as I put ‘fey’ instead of FLY so DNF.

      1. The wording of the clue would require the P to be contained in NINESIN, which can’t get you the answer. And P isn’t an abbreviation for POINT as far as I know.
        The 6th definition of ‘point’ in Collins is ‘a pin, needle, or other object having such a point’.

  7. 45 minutes. This Monday and last Monday seemingly harder than usual. I liked Recherché although I would not have known the meaning of the word precisely. Also liked Eclecticism. Feint counts as something I learnt tangentially at school – I always did my homework in feint-ruled notebooks.
    Would have preferred “He might” rather than “I might” in the Centre Half clue.

  8. 28 minutes. Was hoping for something faster but got bogged down in the CONFETTI, CRAYON, PARSON corner.

    I remembered FLY from Brat Farrar, where it’s used to describe a horse:

    ‘He’s a fly one that, sir.’

    As he turned his right into the little lane he considered the implications of that very English adjective. It was a long time since he had heard anything called fly. ‘Fly’ was ‘cute’ – in the English sense, not in the American. Fly was something on the side. A fly cup. Something sly with a hint of cleverness in it.

  9. I noticed in deletions, was less annoyed than I would have thought I’d be, but kind of got bored toward the end. In US slang FLY can mean smart (brains), smart (appearance), smarting off (laddishly brash).

    1. Yes, I think that’s now its modern meaning, isn’t it. — ‘Pretty fly for a white guy’

  10. 11:11 but with a few unparsed until afterwards apart from FLY. Thanks U and setter.

  11. I enjoyed this unlike ulaca apparently, finding a good variety of clues. Finished in 19:00. LOI was CONFETTI where I was held up by having biffed SLY for 25dn. I almost did the SYPHON thing mentioned by several people above, but luckily had a final quick scan when I was close to the end and realised my mistake.
    Thanks blogger and setter

  12. Some of you are very hard to please. Even the miserabilist professional curmudgeon that I am thought this was rather good?
    Consistent enough across the grid, and I’d guess that no extended consultation of Chambers/Collins was required. Even the surfaces mostly made sense (for once).

  13. 16’09”. Nearly put in LIPGLOSS. GLOSS = CRITICISM? Sort of, but not really. So I steered clear. Many thanks.

  14. 29 minutes with a pink square. Like Zabadak I chucked in FEY. Everything else was parsed except for CENTRE HALF. Thanks ulaca.

  16. Pretty much exactly an hour to solve. I agree with many of the criticisms, but what I found particularly disappointing were the surface readings of the clues, many of which sound like Donald Trump talking (i.e., they make no sense at all). Insolence for a cosmetic? Spot, head removed — are we talking about dogs and immigrants? Of course this doesn’t invalidate any clue, but it severely diminishes my enjoyment of them. I found my LOI RECHERCHE a bit, well, recherché, but actually it was not a bad clue. I really needed the wordplay to solve it. For 27ac I was thinking of rods and … which for a time led me to COLUMN, which fits the wordplay perfectly. FLY, vaguely remembered, then led me to the right answer.

  17. 19:30. V v late solve, only entering this in the hope that the Quitch picks up this PB, by about 15 minutes. Really chuffed.

  18. 40:51. Felt very stodgy going through this. I enjoyed most of it until the SW corner, which I found a bit forced. CONFETTI was my LOI. Thanks both!

  19. 17.01

    Late entry. Agree with those who noted the overuse of initials etc but nevertheless liked it. Dare I say I thought CENTRE HALF was rather good?

  20. Is the setter somehow equating CENTRE-HALF with player number 1 (‘I’)? In soccer that would be the goalie.

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