Times 27,323: Sandwich Watch

With hindsight there was nothing too intricate about the cluing here, which is just as well as I tackled it after an Anchor Steam Beer (Made In San Francisco since 1896), but there was a lightness of touch and faint sense of mischief about it that slowed me down at least a little. One can only assume though that the beer was solely responsible for me sticking RUN TO HEART in at 9ac for a while and solemnly changing 12ac to HOLD ONES HORSES, both of which howlers slowed me down somewhat. Thanks, and grr, to the setter!

FOI 10ac, LOI 17dn, Liked 26ac, 16dn and 20dn. What were your own favourite fillings in this cryptic sandwich?

ACROSS
1 Type of sandwich? Food, say, to be rejected in change of direction (10)
VEGEBURGER – GRUB, E.G. [food, say] reversed in VEER [change of direction]

6 Type of sandwich, large, fed to youngster (4)
CLUB – L [large] “fed to” CUB [youngster]

9 Find another rut requiring ploughing (3,2,5)
RUN TO EARTH – (ANOTHER RUT*) [“requiring ploughing”]

10 Cheers sources of light comedy — it’s soft stuff (4)
TALC – TA [cheers] + L{ight} C{omedy}

12 Stable-boy’s offer? Not so fast (4,4,6)
HOLD YOUR HORSES – double def with “Hold your horses, sir?”

14 Route through a yard? There’s no interest in it (6)
APATHY – PATH [route] “through” A Y [a | yard]

15 Pop group cut record? It goes to the head (8)
BANDANNA – BAND [pop group] + ANNA{l} [“cut” record]

17 Bull frolicked endlessly in late spring (8)
MALARKEY – LARKE{d} [frolicked “endlessly”] in MAY [late spring]

19 Some weather presenter (6)
SHOWER – double def with “one who shows”

22 Unhelpful union is an impediment to moving on (8,6)
NEGATIVE EQUITY – EQUITY being a union, for workers of a thespian persuasion, and negativity being an unhelpful frame of mind.

24 This love rejected would leave you bitter (4)
EROS – reversed SORE [bitter]

25 Reduced opening for leasing arrangement (6,4)
GROUND RENT – GROUND [reduced] + RENT [opening]

26 Far from expansive lie, heartlessly presented (4)
POKY – PO{r}KY [lie, “heartlessly”]

27 Sheer rage, though not entirely harsh (3-7)
SEE-THROUGH – SEETH{e} [rage, “though not entirely”] + ROUGH [harsh]

DOWN
1 Win or lose, perhaps, it’s some clever betting (4)
VERB – hidden in {cle}VER B{etting}

2 Leave to see the sights of US city, adopting new water transport (7)
GONDOLA – GO to DO L.A., “adopting” N

3 Savage, doing this to body, right and left (12)
BLOODTHIRSTY (THIS TO BODY R L*) [“doing…”]

4 Studies dismissing Democrat regarding intellect (6)
REASON – REA{d}S [studies “dismissing” D for Democrat] + ON [regarding]

5 Outward-looking, not stopping to accept mark of censure (8)
EXTERNAL – ETERNAL [not stopping] to “accept” X [mark of censure]

7 Article is probing famous person’s affair (7)
LIAISON – A IS [article | is] “probing” LION [famous person]

8 Supports sailors imprisoning one behind the scenes (10)
BACKSTAIRS – BACKS TARS [supports | sailors] “imprisoning” I [one]

11 Clearly avoid yesterday’s meat served up today? (4-8)
COLD-SHOULDER – double def, almost, with a cold shoulder of some kind of meat.

13 Place to see flying fish, same on all trips over Pacific, initially (6,4)
SALMON LEAP – (SAME ON ALL*) [“…trips”] over P{acific}

16 Peculiar proposal for paying poets? (8)
PERVERSE – one could pay a poet PER VERSE.

18 It records quantity of wood found on reserve (3-4)
LOG-BOOK – LOG [quantity of wood] found on BOOK [reserve]

20 I will leave to serve meal attended by university artist (7)
WATTEAU – WA{i}T [I “will leave” to serve] + TEA [meal] attended by U [university]

21 First person in Avignon to satisfy Catholic scholar (6)
JESUIT – JE [first person (singular) in France/Avignon] + SUIT [to satisfy]

23 Long pain after exercising to lose stone (4)
ITCH – {st}ITCH [pain after exercising, “to lose” ST for stone]

70 comments on “Times 27,323: Sandwich Watch”

  1. Had to report a joyful correct completion having finally got LOI BLOODTHIRSTY. Something ending Charity was clearly not going to work. 2LOI was the VEGEBURGER and my wife has just called me to dinner.
    You can call me whatever you like, only don’t call me late for dinner.
    And The Masters to follow! David
  2. I really enjoyed this one and managed a sub 30 mins solve. There was only one unknown WATTEAU which I constructed from the wordplay. It wasn’t my LOI, that honour goes to RUN TO EARTH because I failed to see ploughing as an anagram indicator. More like this please!
  3. I very much enjoyed this puzzle (a sharp contrast to yesterday’s). It took me 56 minutes and I found it not too easy, with a number of unusual and fun readings (and spellings), but quite fair and doable. As for the two nonstandard spellings, the COED lists BANDANNA as an alternative and spells Vegeburger precisely that way, with a capital V, because it is a trademark! for a “veggieburger” (which is what we all thought the spelling should be).

    Edited at 2019-04-12 06:09 pm (UTC)

  4. Not sure of my error here as grid does not show on phone once submitted, yet according to the blog, all my answers are correct so must be a typo. Stuck longest on VEGEBURGER for which I’d entered VEGETARIAN. Consequently got BLOODTHIRSTY and fixed that error.
  5. Thanks setter and verlaine
    This one took just under 50 min into a flight back from the Sunshine Coast to Melbourne without internet. Started off with VERB, CLUB and then HOLD YOUR HORSES and then slowly but surely worked my way through this most enjoyable puzzle until finishing with MALARKEY and GROUND RENT (which I had never heard of).
    Had no real problem with VEGEBURGER (based on the construction) and BANDANNA (again based on word play rather than knowing the NN bit).
    Enjoyed it a lot, especially as the plane had to climb through some ugly storm clouds !

Comments are closed.