Times 28191 – Personally, I’d rather go back to the past.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I was quickly into this one, with 1d and the long clues at 14a and 17a opening up several more answers. It was all done in 20 minutes with ABUTTAL my LOI and no half-understood solutions (I hope). I quite liked 5d and the ‘last product to help an athlete’. This could be a good puzzle for those graduating from the Quick Cryptic to tackle.

Across
1 Criminal striking line of workers outside pit (10)
PICKPOCKET – PICKET, a line of striking workers, has POCK, a pit, a mark e.g. on the face, inserted.
6 Southern feline polluting atmosphere (4)
SMOG – S, MOG as in moggy, cat.
9 Target area within terms of annual meeting (7)
ABUTTAL – BUTT (target) inside A, AL where AL are the terminal letters of annual.
10 Last product likely to aid athlete? (7)
TRAINER – cryptic definition, last meaning made on a last i.e. a shoe. And a trainer in the personal sense too, if you wished.
12 Miserable Hindu exhausted his devoted compatriot? (5)
SADHU – SAD (miserable) H(ind)U. A Hindu ascetic.
13 Exploit effective power such as child gradually loses (4,5)
MILK TEETH – MILK = exploit, TEETH = power.
14 Presumably facing what lies behind film series? (4,2,3,6)
BACK TO THE FUTURE – cryptic definition.
17 Makes contact after battle, showing signs of commitment (10,5)
ENGAGEMENT RINGS – RINGS = makes contact, after ENGAGEMENT = battle.
20 English leaving liberal gratuities for musician (9)
GUITARIST – (GRATUITI S)*, the E having left.
21 Wine we’re stocking of comparatively recent vintage (5)
NEWER – hidden as above.
23 Determined late series of games at Wimbledon? (4,3)
DEAD SET – DEAD = late, SET = games of tennis.
24 Maybe she‘s supporting sister without love (7)
PRO (supporting) NUN (sister) with O inserted (without love).
25 Elusive figure still leading India (4)
YETI – YET (still) I(ndia).
26 Chieftain pursuing game reaches good strategic position (10)
BRIDGEHEAD – BRIDGE (game) HEAD (chieftain).

Down
1 Appalling pill abuse that might occur (9)
PLAUSIBLE – (PILL ABUSE)*.
2 Half of us wrapped up in chilly May (5)
COULD – U (half of us) inside COLD.
3 Made to retire, as disturbed informer might be? (3,3,2,5)
PUT OUT TO GRASS – cryptic definition.
4 Case of unspecific metal being moulded into symbolic pipe (7)
CALUMET – (UC METAL)*, where UC = case of UnspecifiC. Native American peace pipe, or similar.
5 Is she crossing the channel? (7)
ESTELLE – “est elle?” being French for “is she?”
7 Name of horse briefly sat on by male model (9)
MANNEQUIN – MAN (male) N (name) EQUIN(E) = horse briefly.
8 Item tightened by jockey needing high tension apparatus set up (5)
GIRTH – HT RIG reversed.
11 Garfield’s successor published an impressive author (6,7)
ARTHUR RANSOME – Chester A. ARTHUR succeeded James Garfield as POTUS; RAN = published, SOME = impressive, as in ‘that was some party at Downing Street”.
15 Informed company worker reversed pipe plugs (9)
COGNISANT – CO (company) ANT (worker); insert SING (pipe) reversed.
16 Cherished sinner — he’d reformed (9)
ENSHRINED – (SINNER HE’D)*.
18 Tiresome European leaves ground, carrying more water (7)
MOISTER – (TIRESOM )* where the final E has left tiresome.
19 Secretary in well-known office block (7)
NOTEPAD – PA (secretary) inside NOTED (well-known).
20 Righteous man‘s best friend turned fifty on fourth of July (5)
GODLY – GOD (man’s best friend, DOG, turned) L (50) Y (fourth letter of JulY).
22 Put down weight, something we can learn by (5)
WROTE – W (weight) ROTE (learn something by rote).

48 comments on “Times 28191 – Personally, I’d rather go back to the past.”

  1. 16.15. Nice puzzle, felt like I was back on terra firma with this one after struggling with a couple of recent puzzles. Abuttal my LOI. I also liked Estelle.
  2. Very gentle, with the two long ones helping considerably. No problem with ABUTTTAL but a moment’s pause while parsing COGNISANT. Kept thinking of Nissan and Datsun Cogs.

    Thanks to Pip and the setter

  3. Nice and easy till the last couple. CALUMET rang some kind of bell, but it was ABUTTAL which threw me at the end. I loved BACK TO THE FUTURE, a classic in its day.
  4. Usual hour plodding through this. NHO calumet, tried cloud before seeing it must be could for may. Also tried figurehead instead of bridgehead, corrected by moister and notepad. Biffed quite a few. FOI smog, LOI abuttal, nine on first pass. Liked all the clues. Thanks, Pip, and setter.
  5. If one reads “of horse briefly ” as the shortened adjectival form of equine then MANNEQUIN parses more precisely.
  6. You’re right about the puzzle being a good one for those making the transition from Quick to 15×15 — that’s been me in recent months, and I did this one in under half an hour. I have to say I’m really encouraged that at last I’m making progress — I can complete both crosswords more or less every day now, which certainly wasn’t the case even a few months ago. Sustained practice with other family members over Christmas seemed to make quite a difference to both our combined confidence and ability!
  7. From 1ac Pickpocket to 25ac Bridgehead. COD 9ac Abuttal. WOD Calumet – known as there is a Calumet Street, in Boston, Mass. which runs of Fitzgerald Park.

    Edited at 2022-01-19 03:51 pm (UTC)

  9. Exactly 30 minutes and no real problems, except for not knowing the author. ARTHUR was clear once I realised Garfield was not the cat. CALUMET not a problem, since I once bought (presumably a fake) one as a souvenir (I hope I’ve thrown it out). I rather liked ESTELLE, too.
  10. An infuriating misprint on mannequin. Earlier …. I was racing for an under-tenner, and would have made it had it not been for Abuttal. I guessed right but I’d long passed the mark by then. The rest slipped in very easily.

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