Times 28215 – boom boom.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
As a Q, an X and a Z appeared quite quickly, I was thinking this might be a pangram, but I can’t see a J, so it isn’t. I romped through it in 15 minutes with no particular delays, only a MER at the spelling of our lazy pantomime lad. Not much here to 12a you, but fun to do.

Across
1 Medicine’s short — not a good time for hajj (10)
PILGRIMAGE – PIL(L), then a GRIM AGE would be ‘not a good time for’.
6 Tribal group determined to seize power (4)
SEPT – SET (determined) has P inserted. A SEPT is a clan or branch of a family. Given S*P* and the word play it was gettable if you didn’t know the word meaning. I’d seen it before.
8 Organisational reason to take one’s temperature (8)
LOGISTIC – LOGIC (reason) has I’S T inserted.
9 Squadron, say, drops one veteran without number (6)
UNTOLD – UNIT = squadron, remove the I > UNT, OLD = veteran.
10 Second person no longer still ignores Grand Hotel (4)
THOU – THOUGH = still, remove the G H for Grand Hotel.
11 Pay corps to recruit a foreign judge (10)
REMUNERATE – REME (army corps abbr.) insert UN (a foreign) add RATE = judge.
12 Fool bishop with pre-noon tipple, swigging litres (9)
BAMBOOZLE – B for bishop. A.M. BOOZE for morning tipple, insert L for litres.
14 South Island’s diving aid (5)
SCUBA – S for South, CUBA an island. Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
17 Celebrate former superior officer (5)
EXULT – EX (former) U (superior) LT (lieutenant). I had EXALT in mind at first but couldn’t explain the ‘superior’. And exalt doesn;t mean celebrate.
19 Like good guy arresting city mugger (9)
ASSAILANT – AS (like) SAINT (good guy) insert LA (city).
22 Spoil bouncer, one in his 70s? (4,6)
BABY BOOMER – BABY = spoil, BOUNCER = boomer, as in kangaroo. Me, for example.
23 Keen lapwing drops it, heading west (4)
WEEP – lapwings are also called PEEWITs. Drop the IT and reverse PEEW.
24 Second fee securing Republican’s easy victory (6)
STROLL – S, TOLL (fee) insert R.
25 Ignorant individual blocks new reduced trail (8)
NESCIENT – NE – NEW reduced; SCENT = trail, insert I = one, individual.
26 Commie wrong to have moved to the left (4)
TROT – TORT = wrong, reversed -> TROT.
27 Panto dame’s son and why his ways are deviant (5-5)
WISHY-WASHY – (WHY HIS WAYS)*. He is Widow Twanky’s elder son in Aladdin, and so Aladdin’s brother; I’d have spelt him WISHEE WASHEE but I expect this is equally acceptable.
Down
1 Raised a drink, something taken at restaurant in Nice (9)
PALATABLE – A LAP (a drink) is reversed, then take a TABLE. No French needed.
2 What first-class fare gets the foreign newly-wed (7)
LEGROOM – LE (the foreign) GROOM (newly-wed).
3 Stylish Hilary for one maintains business link? (8)
INTERCOM – IN (stylish) TERM (Hilary for one, of three at Oxford, but apparently not Cambridge), insert CO (business).
4 Current tributes inspiring small hospital’s skills (15)
ACCOMPLISHMENTS – AC (current) COMPLIMENTS (tributes) insert S H.
5 Perhaps a grey English fruit lacks carbon (6)
EQUINE – E (English) QUINCE (fruit) drop the C for carbon.
6 Dean’s works are so absurdly racialist (9)
SATIRICAL – (RACIALIST)*. As in Dean Jonathan Swift.
7 Sprain muscle going about tango opener (4,3)
PULL TAB – PULL = sprain, AB = muscle, insert T for tango.
13 Notice Yankee attack butter (5,4)
BILLY GOAT – BILL (notice) Y for Yankee, GO AT = attack.
15 Dislike a pint drunk at Hackney Arms (9)
ANTIPATHY – (A PINT)*, AT, H Y where H Y are the ‘arms’ i.e. ends of Hackney.
16 Vestry typically holds object of worship husband left (8)
SACRISTY – SAY (typically, for example) insert CHRIST with the H removed.
18 Kiss player possessing fine special quality (1,6)
X FACTOR – X = kiss, ACTOR = player, insert F for fine.
20 Evergreen duchess’s elegance pointed up somewhat (7)
AGELESS – hidden reversed as above.
21 Current going round Circle Line track (6)
FOLLOW – FLOW (current) insert O (circle) L (line).

65 comments on “Times 28215 – boom boom.”

  1. DNF. I had all but two answers in very quickly – about seven minutes – but after another ten I couldn’t crack those pesky two. I considered SCENT for ‘track’, but couldn’t construct a word I knew from the remaining wordplay. Annoying because NESCIENT is pretty obviously derived from the Latin for ‘not knowing’ so I feel I should have got it. I don’t think I’d ever have considered SAY for ‘typically’ and had no idea what a SACRISTY was (or indeed a vestry, although I’d guess it’s where the vicar keeps his vests) so that one was close to impossible for me. Ah well, I’m certainly not going to try and mount a case that either word is obscure, and it would have been to no avail anyway because I had EXALT.
    I ninja-turtled SEPT from Game of Thrones.

    Edited at 2022-02-16 11:21 am (UTC)

    1. GoT bit apart, I could have written every word of the above.

      Spooky! (Except that it’s not).

  2. I wouldn’t describe today’s as easy, but in comparison to yesterday’s…
    FOI ‘Pilgrimage’
    LOI ‘Sacristy’ – what held me up there was ‘assailant’. I’m so used to seeing the ‘holy man/good guy/etc.’ as St or just S, that I spent quite a long time trying to work out why ‘Ailan’ could mean ‘city’ before the penny dropped.
    COD ‘Bamboozle’
    I didn’t come unstuck at 17ac, even though my first thought was ‘extol’. Both the other options occurred to me and I decided the ‘u’ was by far the best fit.
    Time 13:15.
    Thanks Pip and Setter
    PS not all of us are boomers…
  3. …an EXALT here (which I would have thought perfectly reasonable) so one pinkie.

    No probs with SACRISTY — that’s what it was called, rather than a vestry, in the church near where I grew up.

    Nice grid which revealed its secrets gradually with nothing too ridiculously hard.

  4. 18.42. A little bit of working out required for me over the equine / untold and sacristy / nescient crossers, plus trusting the word play to get to sept but a far gentler and more enjoyable solve than yesterday’s. My Pavlovian response to superior was U so I didn’t even think of exalt.
  6. I’m still squinting at SAY = TYPICAL, but the answer was clear. And I’m really glad to have met the “arms” trick in a simple clue. I made a mental note for when it comes back in something more convoluted. I was Exalt. Alas.
    1. It’s actually ‘typically’ rather than ‘typical’ which I think makes all the difference. We’re used to seeing ‘say’ meaning ‘for example’ in clues when setters employ a definition by example, and ‘typically’ might be used to fulfil the same purpose.
      1. I dunno, jack. I’m fine with SAY = EG = FOR EXAMPLE, but I don’t see any of those really being equivalent to TYPICALLY
  7. ….those last two answers took me practically a quarter of my time.

    FOI SEPT
    LOI NESCIENT
    COD BAMBOOZLE
    TIME 13:07

  8. 50 minutes, but an EXALTed DNF. Otherwise quite a delightful puzzle. When I was born, more explosive things than babies were booming, but fortunately nowhere near me.

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