Times Cryptic No 27216 – Saturday, 08 December 2018. Clues for all topics.

19 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27216 – Saturday, 08 December 2018. Clues for all topics.”

1. ….as I ran into a brick wall with two clues unsolved after about 12 minutes. I put the puzzle down after a further five minutes, but despite returning to it on two separate occasions, I gave up in the end and used a word search to identify QUAGMIRE, and TINSELLY (I hate Christmas, and this one did nothing to moderate that view).

   DNK ALBI, but the parsing was clear. Wasn’t enthused by the clue for FRIGATE.

   COD THREADBARE

2. I found this on the chewy side, taking 44:49 to bring it to a conclusion. I did manage to winkle out the tricky wordplay though. APOSTOLIC was my last one in when I finally saw the definition and slapped my forehead metaphorically. TINSELLY took a while, as did DOUBLES. I liked MAD HATTER and SKID LID. Thanks setter and Bruce.
3. Never got TINSELLY, put in ‘tenderly’ (offer) with little hope. Biffed AMENHOTEP from some checkers, parsed later. DNK 26ac. I had DUTCH UNCLE at first until forced to change. Thanks, Bruce, for explaining the other RECEPTION. I wasted time taking ‘centre for heretics’ to be ET, before realizing it meant centre for heretics. I’m no doubt being dense here, but just how does APPAL work? ‘Papal’ is an adjective; the head of the church is the pope.
   1. I think the whole phrase “from head of church” is meant to give “papal”.
      1. As I said, I was being dense; I actually thought of that, and for some reason rejected it. In the words of the poet, D’oh!
4. DNF here as I had to look up AMENHOTEP and, like Kevin, I bunged in TENDERLY at 27 based on nothing more than ‘tender/offer’. DK ALBI but worked the answer out.

   On 13ac, we’re used to ‘man/staff’ as verbs but I don’t recall seeing ‘men/staff’ as nouns before and am not entirely sure that it works. Anyway I didn’t think of it.

5. Quite Easiy Done in 22 minutes with LOI TINSELLY after deciding that “tenderly” only half-worked. I knew it was something like AMENHOTEP but neede the cryptic and crossers. I like the idea of SHABBY GENTEEL but can only manage the first half. It was good to see I NEVER DID as a phrase from the past not recently heard. COD though to AGONY UNCLE. With my Dad sadly gone, I need one of those every Saturday afternoon as the scores come in. We played like an amateur side this last couple of weeks, which was fair enough as the players hadn’t been paid. I think they were yesterday. I won’t know how we played this week as the Bolton News reporter has been banned from the ground. I didn’t realise that naming the stadium the University of Bolton was to justify providing a safe space for the Chairman.
   Sorry everybody. Good puzzle. Thank you B and Setter.
   1. I had to Google this to a see what was going on … madness. In ignorance I didn’t know Bolton now had a university or that the Reebok was now so called. Mrs K is saddened by this news. And snowflakes to boot.
6. No real problems here as the tricky spellings like AMENHOTEP were supported by wordplay. As a Lewis Carroll aficionado I had the usual irritation at seeing MAD HATTER; he was only ever the hatter, in the book, the march hare was more inclined to be MAD. But of course hatters did suffer from mercury poisoning. Hence the expression.
   ALBI was the centre of the Cathar insurrection to which the Pope took exception and he had them persecuted and slaughtered. It is a pleasant small city on the Tarn, allegedly the warmest in France.
7. Unknowns aplenty, but thankfully all derivable from wordplay. My problem was accepting just one BEE as ‘work team’. But what else could it be?
8. 29:37 slow going – spending ages staring at QUAGMIRE at the end. Saved by the where there’s a U look for a Q rule
9. This was a game of three halves for me. I started well as I have been looking at trips to Islay for 2019. It’s famous for whisky and has one noted golf course recently refurbished. It’s hard to get to though.
   I got most of the NW and SE in my first session. Then Olive Branches opened things up in the NE. I managed to construct the unlikely looking AMENHOTEP.
   A first try of Shabby Elegent ( I know how it should be spelt) was corrected by my Agony Uncle but I failed to find TINSELLY; and ALBI I had as Alii.
   Some good stuff in here but I am still tender about Tinselly.
   I had not realised quite what was happening at Bolton. I only realised the stadium had been renamed watching Championship highlights last Saturday. Leeds will be a big test today.
   David
10. 50 minutes for me, not too bad considering this was the morning after the office party.

    Started off with hair of the dog at 1a; Islay is one of my favourite places. Next time you get to a decent bar, perhaps try a Bunnahabhain, Bruichladdich, Caol Ila, Laphroig, Kilchoman, Bowmore, Ardbeg or Lagavulin—all from this small isle (let’s hope some of those don’t come up in the 15×15 in the future; I still have to look up the spelling of one of them even though I’ve been to all the distilleries multiple times!)

    Finished off with 7d APOSTOLIC, religion not being my strong point, though at least I recognised AMENHOTEP from somewhere (probably Stargate: SG-1!)

    This was a different story from today’s, which I struggled with terribly, then managed to leave one letter out when transcribing and submitting! D’oh.

    1. I go from Laphroaig to Bowmore and back; I think I’ve tasted Ardbeg and Lagavulin, never heard of the others. First heard of the blessed isle when my local supermarket offered some–not particularly great–variety. Thanks to their labelling the stuff in Japanese, I realized off the bat that the place wasn’t called Izzlay.
       1. Knowing how to pronounce it already puts you ahead of a few bartenders I’ve met, but as this crossword keeps on pointing out to me, you can’t know everything about everything!
11. Yes, took me a while to get there, too, but finally “spelling bee” sprang to mind. This seems like a mostly US-ism to me.
    1. Ah yes.That makes more sense. Many thanks.
12. 29:27 – I also finally thought of the see a U try a Q mantra to finish off with quagmire. I liked 22ac. I thought that perhaps it was an appearance too soon for the double-S device at 9ac, coming so hot on the heels of the double-T device from the previous Saturday. A satisfying solve.
13. This didn’t feel too difficult when I was doing it this morning. But I was surprised to find that it had taken me 44 minutes. Either I had fallen asleep or it was harder than I thought. I was held up by ????HOTEP because once I’d discounted Cleopatra I remembered there was a guy with a name ending that way. Just couldn’t get the first letters. Ann

Comments are closed.