Times 27352 – a number and a number

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time taken: 13:09.

The last two daily puzzled I blogged each had something I didn’t like about them, but the setter has come through today with a rather fun offering that I enjoyed immensely. It took me a little while to pore through some of the anagrams (one for a word that I often mis-spell), and I didn’t record the fastest time, but not too far out of my normal range.

The first definition is underlined – away we go…

Across
1 Possible mafioso’s crime — receiving lashes? (8)
SICILIAN – SIN(crime) contatining CILIA(a lash on a cell). Reference to the mafia family in Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather
5 Small harbour without locks (6)
SHAVEN – S(small), HAVEN(harbour). I am not without locks at the moment, having grown a beard for a role. I am counting down the days until the ratty face plague can be removed.
9 The spirit of Trafalgar, Magna Carta (8)
ARMAGNAC – hidden inside tragalgAR MAGNA Carta
10 Nation grew, say, every second? (6)
RWANDA – Cute clue – the alternating letters in GREW, SAY are R, W, AND A
12 Possible range, to some degree (2,3,2,2,4)
AS FAR AS IT GOES – double definition
15 Double to host a US writer (5)
TWAIN – TWIN(double) containing A
16 Food in some countries the same, or different (9)
HORSEMEAT – anagram of THE,SAME,OR
17 Score also broadcast as mark made on pitch (6-3)
TWENTY-TWO – TWENTY(score), then sounds like TOO(also) – a mark on a rugby pitch
19 Asian’s heading to the Far East, heart of big country (5)
HAITI – the Asian is THAI, move the T to the end, then add the middle letter of bIg
20 Trousers with hole repaired, tailor initially wears the trousers! (5,3,5)
RULES THE ROOST – anagram of TROUSERS and HOLE, then the first letter in Tailor
22 Harpy’s head covered by artist with a plant (6)
DAHLIA –  first letter in Harpy surrounded by Salvador DALI, then A
23 Craft used near submarine (8)
UNDERSEA – anagram of USED,NEAR. Submarine is an adjective here
25 Motorway madness? See it to believe it? (6)
MIRAGE – M1(motorway) then RAGE(madness)
26 Footwear — a slipper? (3-5)
ICE-SKATE – double definition

Down
1 Off masking pretence with it, a hanger-on? (10)
STALACTITE – STALE(off) containing ACT(pretence), IT. A hanger-on of cave roofs
2 River where coat hauled up (3)
CAM – MAC(coat) reversed
3 Shackle on press (3-4)
LEG-IRON – LEG(on, in cricket), IRON(press)
4 Number Ten at sea, this proving disastrous (12)
ANAESTHETIST – anagram of TEN,AT,SEA,THIS
6 Residence fitted with old loo — why? (3,4)
HOW COME –  HOME(residence) containing O(old), WC(loo). This was my favorite clue of a good bunch
7 A disarmingly beautiful work of art? (5,2,4)
VENUS DE MILO – cryptic definition
8 Clean without water (4)
NEAT – double definition
11 As noise all around here, opt for a change in sound (12)
STEREOPHONIC – SONIC(as noise) containing an anagram of HERE,OPT
13 Recent parts more distant, one’s out of touch (4-7)
FLAT-EARTHER – LATE(recent) inside FARTHER(more distant). Out of touch? I live in a land packed with them!
14 Drinks guzzled by band, performance taking off (10)
STRIPTEASE – TEAS(drinks) inside STRIPE(band)
18 Significant relation (7)
TELLING – double definition
19 Control speed rounding bow of naval ship (7)
HARNESS – HARE(speed) containing the first letter(bow) of Naval, then SS(ship)
21 God’s first son on Jesus’ first morning? (4)
ADAM – the first morning of Jesus would be an AD(anno domini) AM
24 Music genre, origins in sunny Kingston apparently (3)
SKA – first letters of In Sunny Kingston

63 comments on “Times 27352 – a number and a number”

    1. I am in Kingston, Mandeville and Montego Bay leading the production of the National Spatial Plan.
  2. Pretty fast but not a PB. Spent far too long thinking that 17a’s broadcast was an anagrind of ‘score also’ and got nowhere with that, obvs.

    Plenty of material here for the archives, particularly broadcast=sounds like

    FOI AS FAR AS IT GOES
    LOI DAHLIA
    COD ANAESTHETIST (classic pun!)

    Three month challenge: 24/26.

    Thanks blogger and setter!

    WS

  4. 25:18. Another fun but not too difficult puzzle. My only hold up was uncertainty over whether it was Venus dE Milo or Venus dI Milo. My instinct was to go with the latter but it didn’t take too long to see that 16ac was an anagram whose anagrist did not feature an I. Glad the letter was checked. Same feeling as others over the looseness (theological and otherwise) of Adam but I could see what the clue was driving at. Luckily spotted that anaesthetise didn’t quite square with the Def number and revisited that one to change the last letter to a T.
  5. Only got to this late, and spent the last minute and a half alpha trawling STRIPTEASE.

    FOI SHAVEN
    LOI STRIPTEASE
    COD FLAT-EARTHER
    TIME 11:22

  6. Thank you. Yes I am enjoying the rum punches and my suit and tie are strangely suited to ska.
  7. Thanks setter and glheard
    A nice crossword that took a few sittings to get out in our sixth week of lockdown. Started off easily enough by writing in LEG IRON and ARMAGNAC immediately, but then it became a bit more challenging.
    RWANDA is a great clue and I think that I’ve seen it similarly clued before. This sense of TWENTY-TWO went straight by me, having no interest in rugger and thought that it must be somehow related to a cricket pitch – so basically just biffed.
    Finished with ANAESTHETIST (had to do a double take to get the T at the end), HORSEMEAT (with a bit of an ewwww – did see it on a menu in Paris once, but would sooner watch them race than eat them !) and STRIPTEASE (which also required an alphabet trawl) as the last few in.

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