Times 26,981: Priests and Cannibals, Prehistoric Animals

I’m going to say this *wasn’t* the long-awaited pure stinker, but looking at the current state of the leaderboard, it does appear to have met the requisite level of difficulty for a Friday, and the Snitch confirms that it has pushed most solvers so far over well over their average time. For my part I finished just over the 10 minute park, held up in particular by a couple of clues: 2dn where I hesitated over PIE having anything to do with confusion, and my LOI 19ac where I stared long and hard at _O_R_T drawing a blank before resorting to an alphabet search. Rather embarrassingly as the very first thing I’d thought on my first pass over the clue was “6 letters, solver, could be HOLMES”.

My FOI was 15ac, rather strangely as I couldn’t have told you what the word actually means before today, but having thought of the DG, the answer fell quickly into place. The bottom half of the puzzle was then completed without too many speed bumps, and then I returned to finish off the top, which I have to say would probably have been just as easy if the anagram at 1ac had resolved itself immediately in my mind. As it was, the initial T plus the enumeration was certainly enough to biff the rest in.

I think the vocabulary level of this puzzle is just right for a good Times 15×15, some lovely rare words without resorting to anything dredged up from the lightless depths of the dictionary into which only setters of barred puzzles dare venture. The surfaces are all fine and dandy too without anything jumping out at me particularly. I’ll give my COD to 1dn despite the egregious wrongness in the wordplay: toast is for life not just for myrtilus000‘s breakfast! Thanks to the setter.

ACROSS
1 Only part of the problem is eg the fibre-optic, sadly (3,2,3,7)
TIP OF THE ICEBERG – (IS EG THE FIBRE-OPTIC*) [“sadly”]

9 Act timidly as cat’s-paw (9)
PUSSYFOOT – more or less a double def

10 Lower barrier enclosing empty space (5)
BASER – BAR [barrier] “enclosing” S{pac}E

11 In method of access, university going for good pay back here (6)
AVENGE – AVEN{u->G}E [method of access, mutatis mutandis]

12 Benefit includes free new playing field (8)
GRIDIRON – GIRO [benefit] “includes” RID [free] + N [new]

13 Sound quality of wood finally being turned (6)
TIMBRE – TIMB{E<->R} [wood, mutatis mutandis]

15 Head of BBC wearing curious sleeve that shouldn’t unravel (8)
SELVEDGE – DG [head of BBC] “wearing” (SLEEVE*) [“curious”]. This is a distaff rather than a sword word, so unfamiliar to a macho type like myself, but it is literally the edge on a woven fabric that prevents unravelling.

18 Rabbit’s little problem: caught by predator (8)
CHITCHAT – HITCH [little problem] “caught by” CAT [predator]

19 No time for wildly enjoyable event about to be hosted by prize solver (6)
POIROT – RIO{t} [wildly enjoyable event, m.m.] reversed, “hosted by” POT [cup]

21 Top up, backing partner to drink litre (8)
PULLOVER – UP reversed + LOVER [partner], to “drink” L [litre]

23 With unfulfilled potential, chap starts to question universal education (6)
MANQUE – MAN [chap] + Q{uestion} U{niversal} E{ducation}

26 Report of British members losing way in German League (5)
HANSA – HANSA{rd} [report of British members (of parliament), losing RD = way]

27 A guilty man, I cried uncontrollably after charge withdrawn (9)
PARRICIDE – (I CRIED*) [“uncontrollably”] after RAP [charge] reversed

28 Book on unfinished temple has unusual origin (15)
PARTHENOGENESIS – GENESIS [book] on PARTHENO{n} [“unfinished” temple]

DOWN
1 In part of ship, breakfast food served around wrong time of day? (7)
TOPMAST – TOAST [breakfast food] served around PM [wrong time of day (for breakfast food)]. I must interject here that if you only eat toast for breakfast you are not living live the verlaine way…

2 Type that’s confused about way in mountain track (5)
PISTE – PIE [type that’s confused] about ST [way]. I hesitated over the definition of “pie” here but it can mean “an indiscriminate mixture of printing types”, so there you go. Viz also the Magpie barred puzzle magazine perhaps (in a good way).

3 Be transported by a cigar, strange hallucinogen (3,6)
FLY AGARIC – FLY [be transported] + A + (CIGAR*) [“strange”]

4 Jump round ring; shouldn’t one jump through it? (4)
HOOP – HOP [jump] round O [ring], semi-&lit

5 One seabird in trap where people surf? (8)
INTERNET – I [one] + TERN [seabird] in NET [trap]

6 Fix smart girl and yours truly up (5)
EMBED – DEB + ME [smart girl | yours truly], the whole reversed

7 Is ready to edit royal film (4,5)
EASY RIDER – (IS READY*) [“to edit”] + ER [royal]

8 Wine-producing area has some striking iron deposits (7)
GIRONDE – hidden in {strikin}G IRON DE{posits}

14 Addict under control in a month (9)
MAINLINER – IN LINE [under control] in MAR [a month]

16 Opposed to solitary confinement, ignoring small infringement (9)
VIOLATION – V [opposed to] + I{s}OLATION [solitary confinement, “ignoring” S = small]

17 Pointer the continental snake tailed (5,3)
LASER PEN – LA [the “continental”] + SERPEN{t} [snake “tailed”]. Now that I go to London Saturday crossword meetups once or twice a month I see quite a lot of the setter Serpent, and a good time that always is too.

18 Nick is landed with hard work (3,4)
COP SHOP – COPS H OP [is landed with | hard | work]

20 Greek hero seen oddly in America (7)
THESEUS – S{e}E{n} in THE US [America]

22 Surprised reaction about publication in market town (5)
OMAGH – OH! [surprised reaction] about MAG [publication]. Not sure if the market is the first thing that springs to mind when considering Omagh, but presumably it does have a good one?

24 Throwing game drops ball and walks out (5)
QUITS – QU{o}ITS [throwing game, “dropping” O = ball]

25 Queen boards large sailing ship (4)
BRIG – R [queen] “boards” BIG [large]