ST 4264 (Sun 17 Feb) – Bowled out

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 15 mins

I had a bit of a shocker on this, especially on 27dn (BOWL) and in the top left where I got stuck on 1ac (STALWART), 2dn (ANIMAL) and 9ac (DRIFTERS?).

Clarification on 22dn or 9ac would be welcome.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 STALWART; rev. of TRAWL + AT + S – this stumped me for a good while but is a very good clue with a sound surface reading. I didn’t know this meaning of ‘husky’ and was expecting ‘husky’ = RAW.
5 BOATEL; BOA + (LET)* – not a word I knew but guessable from the wordplay by analogy with ‘motel’.
9 DRIFTERS? – how can a noun be the answer to this clue (‘Not on a set course, at sea?’)? ‘Drifting’ would just about work, but I think I’m missing something as I don’t really see what’s cryptic about this.
10 UP + SHOT
13 IN + VENT + OR
15 FORCE + P.S.
16 L + AIR
21 SP + ARROW – as in: “Who killed Cock Robin?” “I,” said the sparrow, “with my bow and arrow.”
25 HANG + BACK
26 LESLIE; (I’LL SEE)*
29 FORTUNES; “FOUR TUNES”
30 LITTER (double definition)
31 B(L)UD + GEON (= GONE*)
Down
1 SADDLE – good cryptic definition.
2 ANIMAL; rev. of (LA + MINA) – I’m not a fan of ‘to take flight’ meaning ‘going upwards’.
3 WATCH (= ‘hunter, possibly’) + DOG
4 RORY; rev. of OR + RY – it’s a good job this was easy and unambiguous, or I might never have got 1ac or 9ac.
6 OS + PREY
7 TAHITIAN; (A TIN HAT I)*
8 LITERARY; (IT RARELY)*
11 SNIPE + RS – ‘monarchs’ = RS? I don’t like that at all. ‘Monarch’ for R is questionable enough.
14 ICE PACK
17 MOTHBALL; (HOT LAMB L[eft])* – ‘over’ as an anagram indicator is unusual, and I’m not sure how it’s justified, even with a question mark.
18 PLAN(GEN)T
19 MO + LEST + ED
22 OBTUSE – Is this just a double definiton (‘blunt’ and ‘stupid’)? Why ‘thus’? Is it supposed to say ‘To be this…’?
23 P(LUNG)E
24 SEA + SON
27 BOWL (double definition) – why do sport-related clues always catch me out? This took me forever: at first I thought it must be O (= ‘ball’) inside a three-letter word for ‘basin’, then I was side-tracked by ‘pool’ which almost works as a triple definiton: ‘throw’ (as in ‘pool resources’), a ‘pool ball’ and ‘basin’ = ‘pool’. None of these is quite right but I wasted a while trying to justify it.

3 comments on “ST 4264 (Sun 17 Feb) – Bowled out”

  1. I think there’s some sort of reference to fishermen using drift nets in 9A – Chambers gives this for ‘drifter’.
  2. I had written POOL in at 27d. My guess at OBTUSE is that an angle in a triangle can be either “obtuse” or “sharp” (greater and less than 90 degrees), so the opposite of sharp would be obtuse.
  3. The clue at 27d is not a double definition in Cricket as “to bowl” is a distinctly different action from “to throw” such that bowlers can be suspended from the game for throwing. That said – I managed to solve the clue with a bit of a tut.

    I was very glad that 1a did not turn out to be an omitted “easy”. I would never have got STALWART = HUSKY. Consequently I did not get the attached SADDLE at 1d ANIMAL at 2d and thus not DRIFTERS at 9a either.

    There are a mere 3 omissions from this blog:

    12a See one article and then another to despise (6)
    LO A THE

    20d Birds observed in (slow)* motion (4)
    OWLS

    28a Approach a meeting-place (6)
    A VENUE

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