Times 24714

12:22 on the Club timer, which confirms my feeling that this was pretty straightforward. A couple of not especially common words were clued so precisely that I don’t think they’ll undo too many people; and even my horticultural blind spot wasn’t tested by the common or garden plants which popped up today.

Apologies for slightly delayed posting after getting up later than usual, having been late going to bed – I originally planned to blog late last night, but it turns out a man can’t solve, shout “Come on, Swanny”, and watch nervously for signs of rain in Adelaide simultaneously. No cricket clues today, anyway – perhaps that would have been gilding the lily.

Across
1	PASTRY – PANTRY with N(orth) replaced by S(outh).
4	DJELLABA – D(inner)J(acket) + ELLA + B.A. provides the North African cloak. It took me a while to drag this up from the memory banks after initially thinking I must have got 5 down wrong when it left me with the unusual second letter J.
10	ROCK CLIMBER – LIMB in ROCKER.
11	CON – C(old) + ON.
12	DIFFUSE – DI + F(ix) + FUSE.
14	FALSIFY – F(airl)Y around AL’S IF.
15	SCATTERBRAINED – BRA + IN in SCATTERED; perhaps I spoke too soon, and this is a reference to cricket-watchers by a setter who doesn’t like armchair fans 🙂
17	ACROSS THE BOARD – cryptic def.
21	REPUTED – PUT in REED.
22	BESPOKE – i.e. being a spoke = being part of a wheel.
23	CHI – LoCHInver, the visitor being a Greek, it would seem.
24	HONEYSUCKLE – ONE in (LUCKYHES)*.
26	SWEETEST – S(econd) WEE TEST.
27	STRAIT – S(ongbird) TRAIT; nice bit of deception when it turns out to be a nautical sound, and not the one you might hear from a bird.
Down
1	PARODIST – O(ld) D(uke) in PARIS + (airpor)T.
2	SIC =”SICK”.
3	RE-COUNT – R(abbl)E COUNT.
5	JOBS FOR THE BOYS – cryptic def.
6	LORELEI – LORE + LEI gives the enchanting mermaid.
7	ARCHIPELAGO – P(ower) in ARCHIE + LAG + O. Possibly a little weak to have “male” indicating that one needs a random man’s name?
8	ANNOYS =”A NOISE”.
9	VICE PRESIDENTS – VICE + [I.D. in PRESENTS]; the “papers” being the sort that a border guard might ask you for.
13	FRANCOPHILE – (INCHAPELFOR)*; a bit of a loose definition, but I guess having it as the more precise “lover of France” wouldn’t actually involve much cryptography.
16	ADHERENT – A ‘D’ + H.E. + RENT.
18	OUTSHOT – OUT (=not in) + S(heep) + HOT (=curried).
19	BISCUIT – something that “takes the biscuit” might also be “the cat’s whiskers”.
20	CROCUS – U(nion) in CROCS.
25	KEA – KEATS without the T.S. of T.S. Eliot (rather than the E of Eliot which I was looking for at first) gives us the New Zealand bird.