The lower half of this went in smoothly, but I was delayed a while with a few clues near the top where the setter had misled me, the unknown 1 across, and again while I parsed those I’d bunged in from definition. 25 minutes or so had it sorted.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Some dry goods, guarded by three Pharisees (4) |
| EPHA – Well, presented with *P*A and “guarded by” I had to assume this was a hidden clue of some obscure word, and I guessed correctly. Apparently it’s an ancient Hebrew measure roughly equal to a bushel (which as you’ll know, is 2 kennings or 4 pecks). | |
| 4 | Officer to sit with upper-class resident (10) |
| LIEUTENANT – LIE (sit) U (upper class) TENANT (resident). Chestnut time. | |
| 9 | Where eg utensils may be purchased, get her this for mashing (4,6) |
| HIGH STREET – (GET HER THIS)*. | |
| 10 | Game up in Italian river, endlessly deep (4) |
| POLO – The River PO, then LO[W] = endlessly deep. “Game up” as in “up = on horseback”. | |
| 11 | Bard’s work shown in text here and there (6) |
| SONNET – alternate letters of S h O w N i N t E x T. | |
| 12 | Hurt in match, leaves boxing (3,5) |
| TEA CHEST – ACHE (hurt) in TEST (match); tea leaves in a box. | |
| 14 | Party member to avoid leader of Greens? There’s benefit (4) |
| DOLE – Lift and separate, party = DO, member = LE[G]. G being leader of Greens. | |
| 15 | Guinness maybe brought round, second one and last? (5,2,3) |
| STICK IT OUT – STOUT goes around TICK (second) I (one). | |
| 17 | Sheepish expert taken in by counterfeit notes (10) |
| SHAMEFACED – SHAM (counterfeit) E F D (some musical notes) insert ACE for expert. | |
| 20 | Italian author incorporating Homer’s principal nymph (4) |
| ECHO – Umberto ECO has H[OMER] inserted. | |
| 21 | Impresario after concert books Queen (8) |
| PROMOTER – PROM (concert) OT (books) ER (Queen). | |
| 23 | Award‘s military one churchyard elegist accepts (6) |
| GRAMMY – MM (military medal, award) inside Thomas GRAY who wrote “Elegy written in a country churchyard,” of which even I had heard, if never read (or going to read). | |
| 24 | Luxurious establishment on Piccadilly — it’s a cracker (4) |
| RITZ – double definition, the posh hotel and the biscuit brand. | |
| 25 | Choosing body, mischievous spirit with reader on ecstasy (10) |
| ELECTORATE – E (ecstasy) LECTOR (reader) ATE (Greek goddess of rash and impulsive actions, seen before in these puzzles). | |
| 26 | Art deco’s altered with a line of priests (10) |
| SACERDOTAL – (ART DECOS)*, A, L[ine]. | |
| 27 | Second goal brings delight (4) |
| SEND – S (second) END (goal). I think delight here must be a verb, to send someone = to delight someone, as if the definition were “brings delight” it would have to be SENDS not send. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Bacon, perhaps poor, prepared with his help (11) |
| PHILOSOPHER – (POOR HIS HELP)*. Sir Francis BACON 1561-1626. | |
| 3 | Greek character back with a woman in the temple (9) |
| ATHENAEUM – when I had A*******M I wrote in the answer, and had to decipher why later. I think it’s A, ENA (woman) inside THE, then MU reversed. | |
| 4 | Understatement no mature person prevaricates about (7) |
| LITOTES – another where I wrote in the answer and came back later to decipher. LIES =prevaricates, around TOT a non-mature person. | |
| 5 | I choose one to stop Roman Catholic prevailing (8,7) |
| ELECTRIC CURRENT – took me ages to stop looking for ‘prevailing’ as the definition, when C*R*E*T suggested current meaning just that; the definition is I being the symbol for current in electrical notation. ELECT = choose, RC has I (one) inside, and CURRENT = prevailing. | |
| 6 | Bird heading briefly over rescue vessel (7) |
| TITLARK – TITL[E] =heading briefly, ARK Noah’s rescue vessel. We’ve had titlark before, I think, it is not two birds but one, otherwise known as a pipit. | |
| 7 | Isolated as Man United? (5) |
| ALONE – I presume this is AL, a man, ONE = united, a pretty weak clue IMO. | |
| 8 | Fish starters in the restaurant ready (5) |
| TROUT – T R (first letters of the restaurant) OUT = ready, as in a flower perhaps. | |
| 13 | Port sacked in Ottoman push (11) |
| SOUTHAMPTON – (OTTOMAN PUSH)*. Not only a port, but my team, now relegated to the Championship. I’ll have to support Bournemouth instead next season. | |
| 16 | House man’s inside to find reference work (9) |
| THESAURUS – TAURUS the house of the zodiac, with HE’S inserted. | |
| 18 | Articles presented in trifling taste for numskull (7) |
| FATHEAD – A, THE (articles) inside FAD a trifling taste. I don’t think I’ve seen this word in print before, but I’d have expected it to be spelt numbskull, which I see is an option. | |
| 19 | Understand everything — mostly electronic? (7) |
| DIGITAL – if you DIG IT ALL you understand everything; AL[L] = mostly ALL. | |
| 21 | Lives continuing as normal where cathedral burned (5) |
| PARIS – PAR (as normal) IS (lives). Reference to Notre Dame in 2019. | |
| 22 | Looker‘s twitching after surgical procedure (5) |
| OPTIC – OP[eration], TIC = twitching. | |
12.09 with no real headaches though I did biff- athenaeum, sonnet and the unknown epha. Had to smile at Ritz if only for memories of Frank Carson!
7d I hadn’t yet got POLO crossing so had ASIDE, though not sure enough to put in. Took a lot of scrolling to get down to Woe referring to this sound but even weaker alternative.
TimesfortheTimes is notable for its genial and friendly tone. Now someone calling themselves Semillon has posted two unpleasant gibes in one day – do we have a mechanism for excluding such people?
(BTW, afficionados of “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue” may remember how disappointed Samantha, the glamorous and amorous scorer, was to discover that one of her elderly wine-loving admirers only had a Semillon …)
Quite pleased with my efforts today, as I had only 2wrong (TITBARK! and POGO) and 3 NHOs (LITOTES, SACERDOTAL and EPHA )though I entered the last correctly, with crossed fingers, FOI LIEUTENANT, LOI SEND (delight as a verb, d’oh), and COD to ELECTRIC CURRENT ( without seeing the definition). The bottom half fell steadily, the top a bit of a grind, but happy that it didn’t take me forever.
PS: to Semillon – when are you going to get out of the right side of bed??
Australian readers. If you are new to this I recommend you stop buying the Australian and move on with your life. The times has gone beyond a joke in recent years. If you can solve its a fluke…. That’s not what a good cryptic should be about.
Thanks to setter for a good workout, although I didn’t see alone for 7d. I lazily Biffed this from misremembering the Man U theme song, which I now find is actually Liverpool’s (YNWA), so thank s too for the blog which put me right.