Times 27097 – Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

This bright and breezy, somewhat prototypical Monday offering took me 27 minutes, doing my NITCH no harm at all = not that I care or follow that type of thing very closely at all. Sometimes whole hours go by without me checking how I am stacking up against my fellow League One opposition. This puzzle’s claim to fame is that it features two weird sounding fish.

Congratulations to Frankie Molinari for breaking the Americans’ stranglehold on the golfing majors with his win at Carnoustie. The course has vivid memories for me, as it was there that, as a callow 16-year-old, that I had a stupendous round – by my standards – of 96. The tipping point was the sixth hole, where I was in a greenside bunker in five. I thinned my attempted splash out, the ball flying low across the green, hitting the broad metal flagstick and plummeting into the hole like a ferret down a Yorkshireman’s trousers.

ACROSS

1 Baseball players each finding home in London? (9)
BATTERSEA – BATTERS EA
6 Pernickety female quietly leaving Bombay, perhaps (5)
FUSSY – F [p]USSY for the rather scary looking hybrid black cat
9 Deceived, having leave withdrawn, broken by pressure (7)
TRAPPED – P in reversal of DEPART
10 Resentful judge has militant executed (7)
JEALOUS – J [z]EALOUS
11 Social misfit returned, having lost a Swedish coin (5)
KRONA – reversal of ANOR[a]K. I was working around NORK for a while, until I realised it wasn’t a word, before looking it up and finding it was. Those Aussies!
12 Uncover articles on a French novel (9)
UNSHEATHE – A THE on UN (‘a French’) SHE (‘novel’)
13 Fish this person’s caught in parts of Wales (8)
ALEWIVES – IVE in anagram* of WALES
14 Little resistance disturbs this form of jazz (4)
TRAD – R in TAD
17 Demon driver in Paris I hated unreservedly at first (4)
JEHU – JE (‘in Paris I’) + first letters of H[ated] U[nreservedly]
18 Haphazardly hosted party, then left in motor yacht (8)
RANDOMLY – RAN DO then L in MY
21 Outstanding feature, a draw at new part of city (9)
CHINATOWN – CHIN A TOW N (abbreviation for ‘new’ as in NY and NYC)
22 Salmon served in hotel in my quarter (5)
COHOE – H in COO E (quarter)
24 Element the same, only different one old poet’s misrepresented (7)
ISOTOPE – I O POETS*
25 Reluctant to wear church’s habiliments? (7)
CLOTHES – LOTH in CES (or C.E.’s)
26 Record books kept by English queen (5)
ENTER – NT in E ER
27 A man’s work introducing extremely holy religious doctrine (9)
THEOSOPHY – THEOS OP H[ol]Y for one of the many weird attempts to make Christianity mystical. Me, I’m with the bloke who said ‘It’s not the bits of the Bible I don’t understand that worry me; it’s the bits I do understand – they worry me.’

DOWN

1 Graduate set up equipment for printing process (5)
BATIK – BA reversal of KIT
2 React with irritation, greatly reducing one’s shock? (4,4,4,3)
TEAR ONES HAIR OUT – shock as in a shock of hair
3 Stress politician in east suffers on island (8)
EMPHASIS – MP in E HAS (‘suffers’ as in suffers nightmares) IS
4 Ancient Jew unhappy leader in Rome close to gate (8)
SADDUCEE – SAD DUCE [gat]E. The Sadducees were a politico-religious grouping in Israel that didn’t believe in the resurrection. They didn’t pretend to believe in it either, so at least they weren’t pharisees.
5 Settle bill, like Wallace’s four men? (6)
ADJUST – AD JUST (as in Edgar Wallace’s Four Just Men, which I’ve neither heard of nor read, tho’ I have a feeling that horryd may have done both – and even met the author)
6 Blonde with casual attitude swallowed up by bog (6)
FLAXEN – LAX in FEN
7 Speak bluntly, seeing film supplied by trendies? (5,4,3,3)
SHOOT FROM THE HIP – another sort of cryptic definition cum extended definition clue along the lines of 2 across, but not so good, I feel
8 Cry of joy about desert transformed very recently (9)
YESTERDAY – YAY around DESERT*
13 Part of speech club employee finally made, being in voice (9)
ADJECTIVE – DJ (club employee) [mad]E in ACTIVE (cf passive)
15 Hanger-on, one locking up pound by farm building (8)
BARNACLE – BARN L (pound) in ACE (one)
16 Greedy chap with plenty of room, ignoring the odds (8)
EDACIOUS – ED (chap) [sp]ACIOUS (SP is starting prices)
19 Courage of woman round ancient city (6)
VALOUR – VAL O UR
20 Secret deliveries taken into court (6)
COVERT – OVER (6 deliveries in cricket) in CT
23 Composition — first of Elgar’s symphonies, for example (5)
ESSAY – first letter of E[lgar] S[ymphonies] SAY (for example)