Times 28,043: Sei Nett, Spule Zurück

Author   verlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found this relatively gentle overall, finishing in under 7 minutes, though I was definitely helped by having come across 10ac before and that therefore being my FOI, rather than a source of puzzlement. There were some really nice moments in this grid though, 12ac, 16ac and 14dn particularly tickling my fancy. All in all a good Friday, and I anticipate agreement. Thanks setter!

Definitions underlined, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Diverts variety acts with half of recording? (5,5)
TURNS ASIDE – TURNS [variety acts] with A-SIDE
6 Twelve back-to-back refusals (4)
NOON – NO + reversed NO
9 Innovative artists in revolutionary city flourish (3,4)
NEW WAVE – reverse WEN [as in The Great Wen that is London] + WAVE [flourish]
10 One grazing animals gets air exercising (7)
AGISTER – (GETS AIR*). This has come up in Times puzzles before, thank goodness
12 Vagrant blacked out a lot (10)
BUCKETLOAD – (BLACKED OUT*)
13 Wrath in country deprived of land (3)
IRE – IRE{land}
15 Forest close to airport burning (6)
ARDENT – ARDEN [as in the forest in As You Like It] + {airpor}T
16 Faithful friend concealing Conservative party’s latest fraudulence (8)
QUACKERY – QUAKER [as in, member of the religious Society of Friends] “concealing” C, plus {part}Y
18 Butt from corner disposed of outside area (8)
HOGSHEAD – HOG [corner] + SHED “outside” A
20 Ships seized by war-mad admiral? (6)
ARMADA – hidden in {w}AR-MAD A{dmiral}
23 Last of seamen to swig drink (3)
NOG – {seame}N {t}O {swi}G
24 Nonconformists waste nothing they say (10)
REFUSENIKS – REFUSE [waste] + homophone of NIX
26 Missile turned over HQ, crossing river (7)
TORPEDO – reversed O DEPOT, “crossing” R
27 Not always where top columnists work? (2,5)
AT TIMES – somewhat ingratiating double def
28 Celebrated dynasty (4)
SUNG – double def. This is the Wade-Giles romanization, bad luck if you put SONG (which doesn’t mean celebrated) or SANG (which isn’t a dynasty). If you somehow put SENG though I have no sympathy
29 Provocative church featured in local chronicle (10)
INCENDIARY – CE in INN DIARY
Down
1 Leader leaves men in dry shelter (4)
TENT – {m}EN in TT [teetotal = dry]
2 Turned back, being hurt again? (7)
REWOUND – or RE-WOUND, as in “wound for a second time”
3 Mr Ed supporting son who’s standing provokingly? (8-5)
STALKING-HORSE – S supported by Mr Ed the TALKING HORSE. A political candidate put forward to divide the opposition, e.g.
4 Nosily picks up small coins (6)
SCENTS – S CENTS. “Nosily picks up” as in, “picks up with one’s nose”
5 Face villain failing to initiate exchange (8)
DIALOGUE – DIAL plus {r}OGUE
7 Strikers on team? Not likely! (7)
OUTSIDE – if you are on strike, you are OUT, and a team is a SIDE. As in “an outside chance”
8 Breeder runs many dodgy houses I hesitate to say (10)
NURSERYMAN – (RUNS MANY*) “houses” ER…
11 Forcibly conditioned with art, not love? (13)
INDOCTRINATED – (C{o}NDITIONED ART*), &lit
14 Pals inspiring another’s schemes (10)
MACHINATES – MATES “inspiring” CHINA
17 Rugby player hits low note, roughly a fortnightly occurrence (4-4)
HALF-MOON – HALF [rugby player] + MOO [low, like a cow] + N
19 Pioneering Russian paper set up in advance (7)
GAGARIN – reversed RAG in GAIN
21 A barrister recalled eponymous heroine before 6 once (3-4)
ACK-EMMA – A + reversed KC [king’s counsel] + EMMA [Austenian heroine], for a.m. or pre-noon as spelled out in the good old days. I feel like I never heard of pip or toc or ack emma for decades and then suddenly they’re all over the place in crosswords…
22 I’m off to appraise housing development (6)
ESTATE – EST{im}ATE
25 My investment company’s base (1,3)
I SAY – ISA [investment, as in Individual Savings Account] + {compan}Y

50 comments on “Times 28,043: Sei Nett, Spule Zurück”

  1. I misread 4d as ‘Noisily …’ and was expecting a homophone. DNK AGISTER, of course, but the checkers settled matters. A gentle Friday puzzle, for which I’m grateful.
  2. Thanks for parsing NEW WAVE, Verlaine. I couldn’t do so, and left it until last, expecting the pink squares. The great wen for London we’ve had before, but it remains in London fog for me. I saw that 12a would be an anagram, and wondered if BULKCOATED could be English regional slang for a lot. Anyroad, got it eventually. Biffed TRICKERY for QUACKERY until U put me right.
    33:16
  4. 27.10. Perhaps not as stretching as many Fridays but tough enough for me. Agister was a NHO but with all the crossers in place seemed the only plausible answer. Ack Emma was a similar discovery but got the emma bit and KC had to be the barrister.

    FOI noon, LOI and source of considerable angst till I did the old alphabet trawl, was quackery. I thought that clue was going to mean a DNF so very glad to sort it. Can’t remember another time where Q worked on an alphabet search!

  5. 30 minutes for all but 16ac where I had to do a lengthy alphabet trawl to arrive at the answer. That added another 10 minutes to my solving time.

    I came across AGIST years ago but it had been languishing in a forgotten corner of my mind until last week when it was mentioned by Dictionary Corner on Countdown. Handy for today!

    I was also lucky picking SUNG at 28ac which was something of a lottery.

    Edited at 2021-07-30 06:29 am (UTC)

  6. …He passes forth into the charmèd air

    35 mins and a struggle for me. I never remember the Ack-Emma thing, had never heard of Agister don’t think of Quakers (except porridge) and didn’t like the “I’m off to appraise” construction.
    But lots to admire. Mostly I liked: Bucketload and COD to Machinates.
    Thanks setter and V.

  7. 31:07
    Nice puzzle. Flipped the coin the right way on sung/sang. Remembered ack emma from Kingsley Amis’s short novel Ending Up, where it is used by a character who was in the army in WW2. One of his bleakest works, imho.
    Thanks, v.
  8. Don’t ask me why but I found this the easiest of the week, helped by knowing AGISTER and following the rule if there’s a U there must be a Q. I was delighted therfore to go to the SNITCH to find I am leading the NITCH, this surely can’t last, screen shot on the way to my whole contact list. Thanks for the blog V but no video? I was looking forward to that. Thank you setter for making my day.

    Edited at 2021-07-30 07:42 am (UTC)

  9. I found this extremely tough and gave up after 40 minutes, with two answers remaining: ACK EMMA and QUACKERY. Kicking myself over the latter, in particular.
  10. 27′ but with SANG, must learn the Chinese dynasties.

    Nho AGISTER, and BUCKETLOAD took a while. Liked HALF-MOON, having considered back, lock, wing, prop….

    Thanks verlaine and setter.

  11. Slightly slower than yesterday, over 19.15, looking at the last for a dog to be the faithful friend, of course.
    Good to see GAGARIN get a mention: Pointless contestants struggled to bring him to mind, and the Right Stuff’s Gemini series scored no recognition at all recently. How can we neglect to celebrate true heroes!
    1. My all-time favourite “Pointless” answer was a few years ago. A young woman chose to answer the question:
      “Who was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas?” with J.R.! She even hesitated after the J but partially redeemed herself by quickly adding, “I think I’ve got the wrong Dallas”!
      1. One I watched only yesterday, someone was asked to name a country that took part in the last Commonwealth Games and said “North Korea” ..
  12. A bit slow in comparison to others. I only now got the faithful reference, which I didn’t get at the time. Quite a clever misdirection. As a scrabble player, AGISTER is standard fare.
    LOI SCENTS where I was also misdirected by a very conventional clue.
  13. 30:11 Lots of unknowns for me today contributing to my laboured solving, but I got there in the end. LOI QUACKERY after an alphabet trawl. DNK who Mr Ed was or what a STALKING HORSE was, AGISTER or ACK EMMA and held back on NEW WAVE as I couldn’t parse it, forgetting WEN for London. ON PAPER, my first answer for 27A didn’t help. But I enjoyed lots of this, especially SCENTS, MACHINATES and I SAY. Thanks V and setter.

    Edited at 2021-07-30 08:53 am (UTC)

  14. 35 minutes for me too. Helped by knowing AGISTER (or rather “agistment” from farming links) and by having heard of ‘Pip’-EMMA, if not the ACK- variant. I was surprised that ‘Mr Ed’ was known in the UK. I suppose he’d have to be a computer-generated version these days, more’s the pity. LOI and favourite was QUACKERY, both for the ‘Faithful friend’ bit and because I managed to see it before having to do the A to Z run through.

    Thanks to Verlaine (including for the reference to the NHO ‘Wade-Giles romanization’) and to setter.

    1. I, too, wondered how many under 65 non-Americans would know Wilbur’s pal

      Edited at 2021-07-30 02:27 pm (UTC)

  15. Liked it a lot, bucketload the highlight. No problem with agister, well known in this part of the world. NHO or forgotten wen, but an easy guess. Sung also guessed, seemed most likely. LOI quackery after ignoring the U implies Q rule and wading through the alphabet.
    A question that occurred to me: if you’re a QC or a KC are you one for life? If QEII pops her clogs and Charles becomes king do all the current QCs become KCs, or remain as QCs?
  16. I found this tricky, not helped by confidently writing TRIDENT into 26ac. That took a bit of unravelling. No problem with ack emma or the dynasty (Thank you, Tale of Genji) but nho agister, though I should have.
  17. That can be your job, V. But I managed to finish this. About 35 minutes in two sittings again. LOI QUACKERY. I wasn’t sure of OUTSIDE as I thought strikers for out really needed something else. And AGISTER was a guess from the anagram of which I wasn’t totally confident. Otherwise I liked this. I know it shouldn’t win COD against better candidates but I give it to STALKING HORSE for the fond memories of Mister Ed. Otherwise MACHINATES or BUCKETLOAD could have won. Good puuzle. Thank you V and setter.
  18. But put SONG DYNASTY, so one wrong. I wavered between SONG and SUNG: As far as I’m concerned SUNG isn’t a dynasty while SONG doesn’t fit the clue. Chose the wrong one.
    No problem with AGISTER as I’ve come across it many times in my airline days with horse people. Initially, though, I had OFFSIDE iso OUTSIDE which messed up AGISTER, of course.
    Mr Ed confused me. I didn’t know the talking horse but friends of mine have a cat called Ed…but he’s named after (Sir) Edmund Hillary.
    Besides being annoyed about SUNG, my COD was QUACKERY.

    Edited at 2021-07-30 09:27 am (UTC)

    1. I put in MARRAKESH earlier this week as it’s my preferred spelling. So I feel your “it’s right but it didn’t fit the clue” pain…
      1. I should have known better than to pick a word that sounded right over one that fitted the clue. Oh, well; tomorrow is another day.
  19. I agree this was relatively easy for a Friday but very enjoyable nonetheless. QUACKERY was COD for me, but honourable mentions for REFUSENIKS and MACHINATES.

    I can just about remember seeing MR.ED on the telly. More eloquent than Muffin the Mule, but not quite as light on his feet.

    Thanks to Verlaine and the setter.

  20. What do you mean there’s no SANG dynasty? Pfft.

    Also had the same trouble as others misreading nosily as noisily and had a brief encounter with the Russian pioneer Vladimir LOGARAN (rag reversed in loan).

  21. 26:17, but with SANG. B*gger! Thanks setter and V. Apparently there is a SHANG Dynasty!
  22. 12:20 but with SANG. Seemed most likely based on TANG. If you google ‘Sung dynasty’ you get a lot of articles about the Song Dynasty. What a nasty little clue.
    1. Well, I knew it, and the clue could in no way be construed as referring to SONG. Never heard of a Sang Dynasty, so…

      Edited at 2021-07-30 05:46 pm (UTC)

  23. There used to be an advertising slogan ‘Top People Take The Times’, which may have been in the setter’s mind at 27ac.

    I was less than comfortable with OUTSIDE. Because of The Times’s convention with ‘on’ it would have led to SIDE… so presumably one has to look at the whole clue and regard the strikers on the team as an out-side, or something like that, rather unsatisfactory. Perhaps there’s better?

  24. A rather old-fashioned feel to this — but maybe its just a spillover from GAGARIN, Mr Ed, REFUSENIKS and that other wartime sweetheart, Emma. Relatively painless for a Friday. 23 mins.
  25. Like Bletchleyreject I wasn’t at all sure that Mr. Ed ever crossed the pond. Not sure either how I came to know AGISTER – The Children of The New Forest possibly. Dithered over the Chinese dynasty but concluded that the U was more likely. 17.42

    Edited at 2021-07-30 11:11 am (UTC)

  26. Found it quite hard. Didn’t know ACK-EMMA so gave up on that, thinking I had the rest of it correct. But I also had SANG, the celebrated non-dynasty.
  27. ..at 36.20 (PB is about 35 minutes) but I opted for Sang. I could only think of Ming and Tang so Sang seemed a good bet. Frustrating. NHO of agister but with a choice between that and asigter it looked obvious. I agree that the clue for 7dn is shaky.
    After a poor run of form recently (too many distractions?), it was satisfying to complete a puzzle in a reasonable time.
  28. 9 minutes, left with 16A. Just couldn’t see QUACKERY and retired hurt at 14 minutes.

    COD STALKING HORSE (“Gee Wilbur….”)

  29. I didn’t know Agister (and missed the anagram), so went with what looked like a cryptic exercises in air — Aviator. Otherwise I liked Machinates and didn’t at all like Sing Sang Sung the Song.

    A couple weeks ago when one of the older English comedy or TV references came up, it might have been Eric Morecambe, I got to thinking what some of the equivalent known-immediately-to-all-Americans-but-maybe-a-bit-less-to-others might be, and Mr Ed was high on my list. Sgt Schultz, Beaver, Jeannie, and Amanda were also there

    1. Being in Oz, recognise all but Amanda, we got most of the US sitcoms. Can I essay a few more: Dobie Gillis, Maxwell Smart and 99, Corporal Agarn, Jed Clampett.
      1. Good ones. Opie. (plus a typo — Samantha)

        I guess this raises the dicsussable question:
        Is Oz just an extension California, or is California really an extension of Oz?

        Edited at 2021-07-30 11:56 pm (UTC)

  30. …so late to the party. I hadn’t encountered AGISTER before, but QUACKERY was actually my LOI. (I haven’t gotten to Thursdays yet.) Alas, I had ASK-EMMA (agony aunt?), which I knew must be wrong, but hadn’t ever seen ACK-EMMA, and I’m still going to have to look it up, Verlaine… (Ah, British signalman’s code. Hmm…)

    ♬ People yakkity-yak a streak
    And waste your time of day, ♫
    ♪ but Mister Ed will never speak
    Unless he has something to say! ♩

    Edited at 2021-07-30 05:43 pm (UTC)

  31. I didn’t know AGISTER but it couldn’t be anything else once I had the checkers. But I went for the non-existent SANG dynasty without even considering SUNG. So DNF.
  32. I struggled with the top half and in the end DIALOGUE, a very good clue, was one of two to beat me. The other was the excellent QUACKERY. The faithful friend was obvious once I saw the answer, but I don’t think I’ve come across it before. An enjoyable DNF – something not all may understand, but if you’ve been following English cricket as long as I have, you’ll know that the result really isn’t everything.
  33. 17.51 for an enjoyably stretching but not-too-tough afternoon’s entertainment. I enjoyed the unlikely looking anagrist, blacked out, which was hiding in plain sight and also the faithful friend and the fraudulence.
  34. I still have no idea what ACK EMMA is or woz! And I don’t give a damn!
    WOD QUACKERY I have tried to use AGISTER In sentence but failed most utterly.

    COD 7dn see yews OUTSIDE Pal!
    DNFS FOI And LOI same, as
    MOOD Meldrovia

    Edited at 2021-07-30 07:46 pm (UTC)

  35. 🤣🤣 In the unlikely event I ever get to appear on The Chase, I will tell Bradley W that my main ambition is to not say anything that would get me into the “Dumb Britain” column in Private Eye.
  36. With GAGARIN and also HALF MOON
    This grd’s playing an Astro-Nowt’s tune
    I guess many ducks might be
    Known as a QUACKERY
    No real birds to upset this space loon*

    * Yes i know it’s a bird — that’s what makes it funny!

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