Times 28168 – how good are you at your licks?

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

. Solvers of a less Sorry about the late post – I put up a placeholder here earlier.  A friend surprised me with tickets to see a TV show taped and the taping ran hours later than I expected. On the other hand, I did the puzzle on my phone during breaks in the taping, and it has been a long time since I used the phone version and it was much better than the last time I tried it a few years ago.  I did not mean to submit with leaderboard, but I fat fingered it, so sorry if I have thrown the snitch way off, it didn’t really take me 55 minutes, I expect more like 16-20 minutes.

There’s some tricky stuff here!

Postscript: I completely missed that the unches in the left and right column are the beginning and the end of the alphabet.

Away we go…

Across
1 No tips for easy life? Pull the other one (2,2)
AS IF – middle letters in eASy and lIFe
4 Battle soldiers following security into hospital department (10)
ENGAGEMENT – MEN(soldiers) after GAGE(bind by security), both inside ENT(hospital department)
9 Boys’ Brigade penning song of praise, including most of lad’s slogan (3,3,4)
BAN THE BOMB – a double container!  BB(Boy’s Brigade) containing ANTHEM(kind of song) containing BOY(lad) missing the last letter
10 Cardinal in all sections of Voluntary Service Overseas (4)
FIVE – Voluntary, serVice and oVerseas all contain V(5)
11 English father caught turning red (6)
CERISE – E(English), SIRE(father), C(caught) all reversed
12 Permanently go back into splits (3,5)
FOR KEEPS – PEE(go to the toilet) reversed inside FORKS(splits)
14 Trace bones, say (4)
DREG – bones is a DR(doctor), then EG(say)
15 Old leader fooling sucker three hours before 10 (10)
KHRUSHCHEV – an anagram of SUCKER and three H’s(hours) and then V(since the answer to 10 across was FIVE)
17 Making uniform for date, perhaps (7,3)
EVENING OUT – double definition
20 Nibble cheek once taken aback (4)
GNAW – WANG(cheek) reversed
21 Weird church official lacking energy later, and desire (8)
ELDRITCH – ELDER(church official) missing E(energy) then ITCH(desire)
23 Using many words and images, keeping part mostly concealed (6)
PROLIX – PIX(images) containing ROLE(part) missing the last letter
24 Bring up small seat (4)
SPEW – S(small), PEW(seat)
25 Time when battery production may be up in the air? (7,3)
PANCAKE DAY – cryptic definition referring to battery hens making the eggs for the pancakes. Solvers with les twisted minds should read this as the batter for the pancake being tossed (thanks, multiple commenters).
26 More than one Protestant poet cutting alcohol (10)
METHODISTS – ODIST(poet) inside METHS(alcohol)
27 Middle Eastern city’s god coming west (4)
SUEZ – ZEUS(god) reversed
Down
2 Pioneer at least did this in past — a clever eccentric (5,6)
SPACE TRAVEL – anagram of PAST,A,CLEVER. I presume Pioneer is still doing it, we’re just not getting signals anymore
3 Being compatible with drink, supply can in advance (7,2)
FITTING IN – GIN(drink) after FIT(supply), TIN(can)
4 Partners beginning to enjoy kiss in part of bay, say? (3-4)
EWE-NECK – E and W(partners in bridge), then the first letter of Enjoy, and NECK(kiss)
5 Suitable time to stop horns in fog being blasted — they’re useless (4-3-8)
GOOD-FOR-NOTHINGS – GOOD(suitable) then T(time) inside an anagram of HORNS,IN,FOG
6 Prattling 80s boy band rocks (7)
GABBROS – GAB(prattling), and BROS(80’s boy band). Now there’s a deep dive for a band in the Times. When will they, will they be famous?
7 Banish material, two tons of it ditched (5)
EXILE – TEXTILE(material) missing two T’s(tons)
8 Castle not wanting for lock (5)
TRESS – FORTRESS(castle) missing FOR
13 Blab about English vicar after contriving to deceive (11)
PREVARICATE – PRATE(blab) surrounding E(english) and an anagram of VICAR
16 Cheats hiding name sign nicknames (9)
COGNOMENS – COGS(cheats) containing N(name) and OMEN(sigh)
18 Small computer secretary has observed outside (7)
NOTEPAD – PA(secretary) inside NOTED(observed)
19 Tortuous paths to high-level cover-ups? (3,4)
TOP HATS – anagram of PATHS,TO
21 Keep, somehow, to sandwich course (5)
EPSOM – hidden inside keEP SOMehow
22 Remained daily in Berlin — that is to be censored (5)
DWELT – the German newspaper is DIE WELT, remove IE(that is)

52 comments on “Times 28168 – how good are you at your licks?”

  1. I did okay on this – just under 18 minutes – but forgot to submit. (I solve on paper, then take my time carefully typing in online – otherwise, I’d have a couple of dozen mistakes a week.) But agree with several veteran solvers that the GK and vocab required were Listener/Mephisto standard, rather than the daily. It doesn’t matter that I knew COG and GABBRO and various others, and WANG rang a bell from Middle English: that’s beside the point. They’re not the kind of thing you’d expect to crop up in a daily puzzle.
  3. Much too hard for me, 75 minutes. Far too many obscurities in my opinion, and if you’re going to have a difficult word like GABBROS then at least clue it easily. I was largely unaware of Bros. And anyway can you pluralise it? It seems very odd and I can’t think of a sentence that uses it sensibly. Granites? Ambers? Mass nouns?
  4. I found this delightfully difficult. The problem with a puzzle like this is that I always wish I could have another bite at the apple!

    EWE-NECK and GABBROS required look-ups, and would be my only slight complaint with the puzzle. ABCDE & VWXYZ looked beautiful upon completion. (I hadn’t noticed them while solving.)

  5. Loved the clue that contained Pioneer
    T’was ever-so popular here
    I’d say that our setter
    Could not have done better
    It’s my favourite clue of the year
  6. Near total failure on first pass and had to cheat a lot to get anywhere at all. Hard man, too bloody hard, as the grauniad might have said.
    Andyf
  7. Enjoyable but hard, and I failed to finish. GABBROS and EWE-NECK unknown. I’d gone for NINE instead of FIVE at 10a which also made KHRUSHCHEV impossible. I didn’t notice the nina either, which would have helped. Several other unknowns as for many other people, but nothing that held me up.

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