Times 26992 – don’t get 27 in the 22, it’s rather a 15

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 11:46.

Greetings from New Orleans – I’ve been at a conference here the last week and been pretty “busy” so I haven’t been keeping up with the puzzles this week. Relieved that this one wasn’t too too difficult, since I’m full of etouffe and dark beer. I am having a hard time with some of the wordplay, but hopefully that will come clear as I work through the blog.  I am traveling tomorrow, so if I have any errors, you might want to check the comments first. I will not be able to edit this until late tomorrow night if necessary.

Definitions are underlined – away we go…

Across
1 Thriller writer, slow mover (6)
AMBLER – double definition, the thriller writer being mystery writer Eric Ambler
4 Two blows exactly (4-4)
SLAP-BANG – SLAP and BANG are both blows – I had about five different stabs of this one
10 Might exhibitionist stand naked under this? (5,6)
POWER SHOWER – POWER(might) and SHOWER(exhibitionist)
11 Female rhino picked up by the ears? (3)
DOE – sounds like DOUGH(rhino, money)
12 Male grasped by a more desperate lover (7)
ADMIRER – M in A, DIRER(more desperate)
14 Drunken layabout virtually abandoned (7)
SLOSHED – I can see a definition, but the wordplay is completely eluding me.  Thanks to the commenters for showing that is it SLO(b), SHED, with “virtually” indicating not being all there
15 Sadness caused by sacking? (14)
DISAPPOINTMENT – sacking could be a DIS-APPOINTMENT
17 Admitting failure finally, collapse of town shocked neighbourhood (4,2,3,5)
NECK OF THE WOODS – (failur)E in an anagram of OF,TOWN,SHOCKED
21 Padded seat without ends even, a great deal (7)
UMPTEEN – The padded seat is a HUMPTY. Remove the ends, and add EEN(even)
22 Nice place where I fight in middle of barrage (7)
RIVIERA – I VIE in (ba)RRA(ge)
23 No friend is false, did you say? (3)
FOE – sounds like FAUX
24 Soul even, in tool (6,5)
SPIRIT LEVEL – SPIRIT(soul), LEVEL(even)
26 Period of ten years passed amid restrictions (8)
TWENTIES – WENT(passed) inside TIES(restrictions)
27 High street name in dictionary (6)
STONED – ST, then N in OED

Down
1 Father standing, Paul turning, police officer salutes (8)
APPLAUDS – PA reversed, then an anagram of PAUL, DS(police officer)
2 Surrender weapon (3)
BOW – double definition
3 A way to fill hole up in pendant (7)
EARDROP – A, RD in PORE(hole) reversed
5 Islanders’ war, I gathered, about Hebrides at first — here? (5,3,6)
LEWIS AND HARRIS – anagram of ISLANDER’S,WAR,I surrounding H(ebrides)
6 Some style about supporting act (7)
PERFORM – PERM(hair style) around FOR(supporting
7 Initially nearly 500 gatecrashing ’ouse in Greece? Considerably more to follow (3,4,4)
AND THEN SOME – N(early), D(500) inside an ATHENS ‘OME
8 Little boy feeding horse like a pig? (6)
GREEDY – ED(little boy) inside GREY(horse)
9 Manipulating tactic, something attractive and repulsive (5,9)
CHARM OFFENSIVE – CHARM(something attractive), OFFENSIVE(repulsive)
13 Recipes with meat in a stew, tour de force (11)
MASTERPIECE – anagram of RECIPES, MEAT
16 Fool suffered, getting criticised strongly (8)
ASSAILED – or ASS AILED
18 Head supporting king, and in French parliament (7)
KNESSET – NESS under K, then ET(and, in French)
19 Reportedly disregard impediment to create a ripple (7)
WAVELET – sounds liek WAIVE(disregard), LET(impediment)
20 Counter blow (6)
BUFFET – double definition
25 Victory achievable, Napoleon heads for the front (3)
VAN – first letters of VIctory Achievable Napoleon

65 comments on “Times 26992 – don’t get 27 in the 22, it’s rather a 15”

  1. ..is what our neighbour from Harris always calls it so I slapped it in. Confusion until I counted the letters. Anyway, daft to give one island two names
    1. I’m astonished that wasn’t mentioned in any of the previous 50 odd comments. Lucky for you, or you’d have looked a right idiot.
  3. DNF. I entered SLAM BANG at 4A, meaning I had an M at the head of what should have been PERFORM, and thus didn’t see what it could be. It didn’t help that I was sure SLAM BANG was right, and that I’m not familiar with the SLAP version. Oh well. Regards.
  4. And I’m sorry to hear of Guy’s misfortune, and pleased, Guy, that you’re on the mend. Best wishes.
  5. This took me some 55 minutes, though I think some of that was spent leaving the meter running while I did something else. Even so, it was a slow time even for me. My first pass gave me only MASTERPIECE, and then it was all stop-go until only the south-left corner was unfilled. I’d never heard of a humpty, and failed to spot the homophone faux/FOE, but in the end I just wrote them in regardless, whereupon BUFFET presented itself.

    Good value for money, this one. Thanks to the setter and to George for the blog.

  6. 51:33 seem to be struggling to get any rhythm going or tune into any wavelengths this week. This was a bitty solve in fits and starts around the grid. An erroneous discontentment didn’t help (I was thinking of sacking in the “of Troy” sense – not that it helps make any more sense of discontentment). Finished up in the SW with umpteen, buffet, foe and twenties all taking time to materialise. I didn’t even twig the parsing of twenties I thought “passed amid restrictions” was a cryptic reference to prohibition – not that there’s any reason it would appear unqualified in a UK paper where the decade was not subject to prohibition.
  7. 10:10. I seem to have been on the wavelength for this one. I have spent some very enjoyable time on LEWIS AND HARRIS, which helped a little bit. Loved POWER SHOWER.
  8. Thanks, James. Great to be back. And yes, I think that is a capital suggestion.
  9. Really liked this puzzle. Neat and amusing clueing no obscure literary or scientific references and the first fully correct solve this week. Thank you blogger and setter. Approx 50 mins.
  10. UMPTEEN means “a great many”. It flatly does not mean “a great deal”. For the umpteenth time, setters rightly are allowed a great deal of liberty, but that does not include simply reinventing the English language. “Umpteen of liberty”?–don’t make me laugh.

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