Times 28077 – where the mountains of Mourne sweep where ?

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A middle of the road puzzle for me, it took half an hour while watching US tennis. 11a has the same unusual word answer as 4d in 28065 which I blogged 2 weeks ago, so it didn’t hold me up. 7d made me smile for the well hidden definition and gets my CoD award. 21d was not a word I knew although its derivation was obvious enough to make it guessable. Once again, nice work, Mr Setter.

Across
1 Times in the morning claiming payment back for power unit (8)
MEGAWATT – “back” = all reversed; TT (times) AM with WAGE inserted. I’ve just finished the last episode of the docu-drama CHERNOBYL on Sky Atlantic so I’m in reflective mood and have megawatts in mind. It should be compulsory viewing for everyone and I don’t know how they managed to make it so realistically (in Lithuania) without blowing up another nuclear power plant.
5 Award for third British team in France? (6)
BRONZE – BR (British) ONZE French for eleven hence team.
10 Train hospital department these days (9)
ENTOURAGE – the ENT department again, then OUR AGE = these days.
11 Ancient city street associated with duke’s historic dare (5)
DURST – D (duke) UR (ancient city) ST(reet). See 11a 28065 and comments.
12 Try to introduce new restraint (4)
BIND – BID = try, insert N for new.
13 Head of family more distant, speaking after recurrent trouble (9)
GODFATHER – FATHER sound like farther, (almost), after GOD reversed = DOG = trouble.
15 Ignore me on travels round area below deck (6,4)
ENGINE ROOM – (IGNORE ME ON)*.
17 Russian banker first runs out of country (4)
URAL – That Russian river again, RURAL loses its first R.
19 Round up the lady’s daughters (4)
HERD – HER (the lady’s) D (daughters). Why is daughters plural not DD?
20 Imagist set off in disgrace (10)
STIGMATISE – (IMAGIST SET)*.
22 Small horse ridden by would-be queen more subject to depression? (9)
SQUASHIER – S (small) QUASI (would-be), insert H (horse), ER (Queen), .
24 We’re told of fearful worker changing colour (4)
DYER – sounds like dire = fearful.
26 Scoop a portion of salad leaves (5)
LADLE – hidden as above.
27 Be hesitant to leave housing in a poor state (9)
VACILLATE – VACATE (leave) ‘houses’ ILL = in a poor state.
28 Bear going round coastal city provides fair game (6)
HOOPLA – POOH (bear) goes round = HOOP, LA a coastal city. Game at a fair.
29 Three-foot case carried by pilot? (8)
TRIPODAL – TRIAL (pilot) carries POD (case).

Down
1 Comply with those gathering for the chase (4)
MEET – double definition, second being meet as in the hunting set.
2 Making delayed start on buying drinks, too disheartened (7,6,2)
GETTING AROUND TO – GETTING A ROUND = buying drinks, T(O)O.
3 Causing injury to dog, commonly in flank (8)
WOUNDING – WING (flank) has ‘OUND, a cockney dog perhaps, inserted.
4 Pluck shown by all leading toxophilites when arrow nears gold (5)
TWANG – initial letters of Toxophiles When Arrow Nears Gold; toxophiles being archery buffs.
6 Attempt artwork again and screw up (6)
REDRAW – redraw reversed = WARDER, screw being a nickname for same.
7 Down here, with empty larder another dinner’s off (8,7)
NORTHERN IRELAND – (LR ANOTHER DINNER)*, LR being ’empty larder’, Down being one of the six counties of NI, where the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea, so the song goes.
8 Slowing down in the end, curiously engrossed (10)
ENTHRALLED – RALL (abbr. for rallentando, slowing down musically) inside (THE END)*.
9 Reckless leader to be dying (8)
HEADLONG – HEAD (leader), LONG (to) = be dying (to).
14 Your setter, so vigorous getting up for an old fellow (10)
METHUSELAH – ME (your setter) THUS (so), then HALE (vigorous) reversed. Methuselah lived for 969 years, allegedly, and had a large wine bottle (8 times normal size) named after him. Years must have been shorter then.
16 Save short essays dons always returned (8)
RETRIEVE – TRIE(S) = short essays, inside (dons) EVER reversed. Surely you save something, then retrieve it later?
18 Presumption following country’s downfall, naturally (8)
LANDSLIP – LAND’S (country’s) LIP (presumption).
21 Skeletal bird, previously overlarge (6)
OSTEAL – OS (outsize, over-large) TEAL (a bird). It just means bony or skeleton related, from Greek osteon, bone.
23 Athlete would be naughtier were I to enter (5)
RACER – inserting an i would make it RACIER, naughtier.
25 Went down hill in north (4)
FELL – double definition, even I know that they have FELLS oop north in’t Lake District and such. I’ve seen odd folks running up them on television.

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46 comments on “Times 28077 – where the mountains of Mourne sweep where ?”

  1. This was just about at my limit. A promising start followed by a slow grind that became glacial towards the end, with Vacillate, Landslip, Dyer and Tripodal taking forever. Quite a bit of luck as well. I couldn’t parse Squashier, so Squishier also came into play but guessed right, and I can see now that I parsed poi Tripodal almost back to front. Still, too hot to do much else, so I don’t begrudge the time. Invariant
  2. My second successive pink result. Small horse obviously mean strip the ends off equid and never mind the rest of the words, SQUISHIER must be right. Pedantry would have its rewards I suppose but we Aries will charge in heroically and stuff the paperwork.
  3. DNF. Bah! 38 mins but tripedal not tripodal. Ped for case didn’t sound right but I was foolishly too firmly fixed on bipeds and tripeds to review it. This one was otherwise generally towards the tougher end of the spectrum for me.
    1. I actually had trial for case, and pod for a group of (pilot) whales. Complete gibberish, but I’ll take anything going.
  4. Third typo within a couple of weeks which is infuriating, since I do the puzzles on paper first and wait for my actual time to match up on the Crossword Club before submitting, so I have plenty of opportunity to identify fat finger errors.
    I’ve had some distractions today as our garden redesign work has reached it’s final stages but no excuses really.
    Good puzzle, COD 7d “Northern Ireland”. Exit stage left, muttering profusely.
    Thanks to Pip and setter.
  5. After seeing all the Tripedals I am very happy to have missed that error. Ped- and Pod- both mean feet, but Pod- is Greek, right? Ostern nearly went in on 21 D. An enjoyable close to a long day so thanks to all involved.

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