Times 28203 – no Bette Davis eyes for me.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Not as tough as last Wednesday’s, I thought, but still quite chewy in places. Some I liked – notably 21a, 15d, 17d. Some evoked a mild eyebrow raise, such as 14a; one – 3d – at the time of writing I don’t fully understand, although I’ll amend the blog when someone explains it to us.
EDIT Lou weed gets the hats-off for explaining 3d, before others; see below, I don’t know why I didn’t see it myself.

Across
1 Punched by knuckleheads, youngster declines (6,2)
PASSES UP – PUP = youngster, insert ASSES which presumably equals knuckleheads Collins has ‘fools’ as a synonym.
6 Go over weakness (6)
DEFECT – double definition, different pronunciations.
9 Mythological entity has brought voting system into place (6)
SPRITE – PR (voting system) inside SITE = place. Whenever I see ‘voting system’ in a clue, I think PR, which few democratic countries seem to have.
10 Word: redacted one penned by fool (8)
LOCUTION – LOON = another word for fool; insert CUT I = redacted one.
11 Weaken signal (4)
FLAG – double definition.
12 Soldier’s possible cue to neglect briefs (2,8)
GO COMMANDO – self explanatory, I hope; origin North America in the 70s.
14 Briefly queue for disinfectant (8)
FORMALIN – if you FORM A LINE, you queue. Briefly = delete the ending E. Formalin is a preservative solution of formaldehyde and methanol in water. Not really a disinfectant.
16 Honey, not a sausage (4)
LOVE – double definition, as in 1. darling and 2. nil, nothing in tennis.
18 Let it be said that Europa turned heads (4)
STET – initial letters of Said That Europa Turned.
19 Not well done, what convicts do: that’s most unusual! (4,4)
RARE BIRD – RARE as in a rare steak, BIRD meaning prison time.
21 Presumably picking up nothing in fishing lure with plenty of grit? (10)
FEARLESSLY – IF you’re EARLESS you’d presumably hear nothing; insert this concoction into FLY a fishing lure.
22 Recalled in feud, Russian language (4)
URDU – today’s hidden word, reversed as above.
24 Skewered dish last seen on menu in Slovakia, not entirely cooked (8)
SOUVLAKI – insert U (end of menu) into (SLOVAKI)*.
26 People finally mention jackets — such as this one? (6)
REEFER – REFER = mention, insert the E of peoplE.
27 Stop queen entering Irish house (6)
DERAIL – The lower house of the Irish Parliament is called the Dáil; insert ER for the Queen.
28 Husky, shaking off lead, plunged into meat sauce (8)
GRAVELLY – not the dog, a husky voice could be gravelly. GRAVY has (F)ELL = plunged, without its ‘lead’, inserted.

Down
2 Outrage in a writer of letters to the auditor? (5)
APPAL – A, PALL sounds like PAUL as in Saint Paul who wrote a few letters to various city dwellers.
3 Might this illustrate when left or right in a little trouble initially? I’m not sure (11)
SWINGOMETER – I see the definition but not the reason why; please elucidate and I’ll credit when I amend the blog. EDIT see first comment below.
4 Charmer leaving snakes under schoolboy’s cap (8)
SVENGALI – S (cap of Schoolboy) (LEAVING)*. I never quite knew who Svengali was, real or fictional, but now I’ve looked him up in Wikipedia I do.
5 Building eclipsing cars: no safe place for pedestrians (7,8)
PELICAN CROSSING – (ECLIPSING CARS NO)*.
6 Leader sportingly beaten up, scarper (6)
DECAMP – PM (leader ACED (sportingly beaten) up = reversed.
7 Suit burst (3)
FIT – double definition, fit = burst e.g. of anger.
8 Couple raised in great comfort and luxury, it’s suggested, become gloomy (5,4)
CLOUD OVER – if you’re in CLOVER you’re in comfort and luxury; insert DUO reversed (couple raised).
13 Old picture indicated in A-level, by inference? (3,5,3)
ALL ABOUT EVE – well, if you put All about EVE, you get A L(EVE)L, … a 1950 movie of which I had vaguely heard; but have not seen, nor am likely to watch.
15 Location of bridge where stake may be placed? (2,3,4)
ON THE NOSE – double definition; bridge of the nose, and to bet on the nose is to bet on a horse to win only, with no place bet.
17 Neither one thing nor the other where the sun doesn’t shine? (4,4)
GREY AREA – cryptic definition; not the usual meaning of ‘where the sun doesn’t shine‘, which is rude.
20 Particular Greek character breaking cover when set up (6)
DETAIL – ETA goes inside LID reversed; particular as a noun.
23 Hang out first of washing in valley (5)
DWELL – W in DELL.
25 Wings clipped, bird passing through (3)
VIA – AVIAN = bird, or bird related, as in avian ‘flu. Clip off the A and N.

63 comments on “Times 28203 – no Bette Davis eyes for me.”

  1. Reminded me of the night we watched the UK election returns that made Blair PM. My husband was absolutely entranced by the thing. The closest thing we have here is Steve Kornacki and his election night maps (and very good they are). I got into the doldrums in the SW corner where there were twin *E*A*Ls and it took a while for the sun to shine there. Denise is quite right about All About Eve – it’s very very good and is the source of the Bette Davis quotation “fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night”. 17.54
    1. [Off topic reply. Please don’t feel obliged to tackle it, but if you haven’t already seen it, I think today’s FT crossword by Gozo may be right up your street. It’s at ft dot com slash crossword and is crossword no. 17,008].

      PS. I too agree about ALL ABOUT EVE.

  3. I thought this was going to take a really long time when I completely failed to get a start in the NW corner. NE corner proved much kinder after FOI DEFECT. COD ALL ABOUT EVE, just beating my LOI FEARLESSLY, which I also liked when the penny dropped. Despite not properly parsing ELL in 28ac (Thanks, Pip!), I really enjoyed today’s challenge.

    Hats off to the setter. And thanks, Pip!

    Edited at 2022-02-02 12:07 pm (UTC)

  4. I needed a full hour for this. SWINGOMETER and GO COMMANDO were my last in. The latter was completely unfamiliar, and, post-solve, I couldn’t confirm it in the dictionary. Quite a few needed close attention to see how they worked, such as the very nice clue to REEFER.
  5. DNF in 26.44 spoilt by a typo in All Abuut Eve. Second in a row, very frustrating. It took me a little bit of time to work my way into this one, nothing seemed to yield or open things up after a first pass. Nice to have something chewy to get ones teeth into.
  6. Last two in were DECAMP which took ages to see and LOCUTION from checkers only — failed to parse.

    Also found SVENGALI (didn’t spot the anag for a while), FEARLESSLY, FORMALIN (ho ho) and DEFECT took longer to come to mind than I’d hoped…

  7. Thanks, and well done! Although I’m not sure you entirely qualify as non-UK…

    Edited at 2022-02-02 03:58 pm (UTC)

  8. 35 .53 but put location for locution. Silly mistake but hey ho. I found this effort a bit of a trial. Nothing wrong with the puzzle just couldn’t get on the wavelength quickly enough. Some very good clues I thought especially go commando, formalin and gravelly.
    Thx setter and blogger.
  9. Here, and over on the QC.

    I never actually parsed SWINGOMETER, but assumed it was a (semi) &lit that I couldn’t quite unpick.

    21 minutes and change (for a puzzle that is currently >110 on the snitch, that’s v good for me) — the clock says 27:34, but I had to go and cut up a melon for my daughter and I forgot to back out of the puzzle, so I’ve given myself 5 or 6 minutes.

    Edited at 2022-02-02 05:40 pm (UTC)

  10. Yes, All About Eve is, absolutely! My COD, with WOD Grey Area. My time 11:58 mins. Souvlaki gave trouble as did On the Nose.
  12. Found this far harder than the 112 snitch rating. Maybe it’s because it’s the end of the day. Mistake was On the Tote – yes I know it’s ridiculous! It and Fearlessly had me sweating for a good ten minutes at the end. Failed to parse Fearlessly but at least I got it right. COD definitely the A-level one – brilliant! But overall, there were some great clues there, and interesting vocab.

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