Times Cryptic No 26862 – Saturday, 21 October 2017. Straight down the fairway.

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This was a fairly straightforward solve, although not very quick. I finished the LHS first, then the top right, and finally made sense of the bottom right. I’m always happy when there’s no weird vocabulary!

The clue of the day for me was 17dn. Nice image! Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle – one on the hard side according to the club stats.

Clues are in blue, with definitions underlined. Anagram indicators are in bold italics. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, followed by the wordplay. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’, deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 Sticks brought back to secure pine frame (6,2)
STITCH UP: ITCH in PUTS reversed.
9 Dancer, say, to check wind instrument’s returned (8)
REINDEER: REIN is a check, DEER is reed reversed.
10 Item cut on the airwaves (4)
PAIR: sounds like PARE.
11 Recalled one’s true story about a process of stagnation (12)
OSSIFICATION: I’S=one’s / SO=true, all reversed, then FICTION=story around A. Easy to see once I had the F to help.
13 Compiler doesn’t look healthy, getting stick! (6)
IMPALE: I’M PALE, he might say.
14 Low-fat starter of radish around lunchtime for the discerning (8)
LITERATI: LITE / R{adish} / AT 1 (PM)=lunchtime.
15 Elucidate where animals were once kept? (7)
EXPOUND: the old animal pound is now an EX / POUND.
16 Finished in bad place after driving, lacking energy (7)
THROUGH: a bad tee shot might land you in TH{e} ROUGH.
20 It could make you get off transport late and numb (8)
NEMBUTAL: (LATE NUMB*). With no helpers for the vowels, the spelling of this was a bit of a toss-up for me.
22 Note what can be mined in Asian city (6)
LAHORE: LAH=note / ORE=what you mine.
23 Sandy rocks crossed by incompetent old criminal (4,8)
BODY SNATCHER: (SANDY*) inside BOTCHER.
25 Pluck guitar, instrument with nothing inside (4)
GRIT: G{uita}R I{nstrumen}T.
26 Daydreaming in dunce’s cap is mindless (8)
ESCAPISM: hidden word.
27 Condemn the amount managers are paid? (8)
EXECRATE: why, we pay managers the exec rate, obviously.

Down
2 Snack when walking dog team around, covering miles (5,3)
TRAIL MIX: TRAIL=DOG / IX=XI backward=cricket team, all around M=miles.
3 Rage which could lead to hot war? (5,1,6)
THROW A WOBBLY: this is one of these backwards devices, where the answer is a clue. Take a “wobbly” of (THROW A*), and get “hot war”.
4 Type of cattle break metal fences close to byre (8)
HOLSTEIN: HOLS as in “holidays” is the break, and TIN is the metal, hosting E from {byr}E.
5 Portrait appropriate to put up in mansion (7)
PROFILE: #. FOR=appropriate to, as in “that’s for them”. Reverse that and put it in PILE.
6 Rising bill including cinematic effects for The Lion King? (3,3)
BIG CAT: CGI=computer graphic imagery. Put that in TAB, and reverse everything.
7 Fairy Queen, seemingly good on the outside (4)
PERI: ER in PI.
8 Hold up cereal bowl (8)
BRANDISH: BRAN / DISH.
12 Mounting kind of bubbly old horse, a source of speed (12)
TURBOCHARGER: BRUT “mounting” / O=old / CHARGER.
15 Gave title to book the French poet from the south pens (8)
ENNOBLED: B=book / LE=”the” in French. Put all that in DONNE backwards.
17 Confident thought about golfer in awful place (8)
HELLHOLE: I’m confident that golfer will sink that putt. HE’LL HOLE it!
18 In essence, a cloth is for mechanic (8)
GARAGIST: A RAG inside GIST. Not a word I recognised, but easy to guess after thinking about A RAG.
19 Fashion model with it or not with it? (3-4)
OLD-TIME: (MODEL IT*).
21 Wrong score overturned in game (6)
TENNIS: SIN / NET, all reversed. Not altogether sure why a score need be net rather than gross. On edit: thanks to isla3 … net=score as in netting a goal at football.
24 Where to see fish brought up by the thousand? (4)
DOCK: COD backwards / K = thousands. A literal definition, I think. Picture the fishing trawler unloading its catch.

24 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26862 – Saturday, 21 October 2017. Straight down the fairway.”

  1. This one took me 41:36, but at least it was all correct. Yet again I have no idea where I started and finished, but I do remember smiling at NEMBUTAL. I liked BIG CAT too. TRAIL MIX is something I’ve only come across once before, in a previous Times puzzle, so at least the long term memory is still working(occasionally). I particularly liked BODY SNATCHER, not that I approve of them. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  2. My time suggests that this was easy, but I didn’t think so at the time. Biffing a few helped, of course, although I parsed them post-solve (well, post-submission; hardly ‘solved’ if I didn’t know why I was right). DANCER was a gimme; I think we’ve had too many of Santa’s reindeer lately. I may have seen 1ac once here, but a DNK as near as dammit. I liked 11ac, where ‘true story’ seems to conflict with FICTION; but I think I’ll give the COD to HELLHOLE, since it took me so long to figure out.
  3. I liked the rough, and the body snatcher, too. Escapism was last one in by a long way, couldn’t make head nor tail of parsing the clue until seeing the hidden.
    I think net as a verb is score, as in put the soccer ball in the net.
    ‘Threw a wobbly’ clued “Lost it (the war, presumably)” is fixed in my memory: Times 24658 says google. I think Anax set it, as I remember he blogged somewhere that he started with throw a wobbly but realised he’d used it some years previously so changed to threw.

    Edited at 2017-10-28 05:53 am (UTC)

  4. I didn’t get round to this until Saturday afternoon, so did it while watching the Jeff Stelling show, hearing Wanderers yet again fail to keep a lead. I guess about a 45 minute solve in standardised time. NEMBUTAL put in with only a faint inkling it was right, as fortunately sleeping hasn’t been a family problem, as evidenced by the fact that nobody else will be up here for another 3 hours. LOI LITERATI, although I’m not sure that to be well-read makes anyone discerning. Is the setter scraping the barrel with GARAGIST? Or does it have an alternative meaning of a member of the literati who likes garage music? Like john_dunn, TRAIL MIX remembered from its last outing. I don’t think I was aware of the term in the UK until relatively recently, although admittedly I’m more likely nowadays to go for the five-star hotel than the camp site. Talking of which, COD HELLHOLE. Thank you B and setter.
    1. Do you yearn for the days of Big Sam when Bolton used to outmuscle those namby-pamby southerners Arsenal on their visits to the north country? Or perhaps for the days when Nat Lofthouse could shoulder charge Harry Gregg (to the extent that the Ulsterman needed smelling salts to recover) into the Wembley goal and thus help secure the FA Cup?

      Edited at 2017-10-28 09:09 am (UTC)

  5. An excellent lively puzzle that took me some time and did not give up all the secrets of parsing until I reviewed my answers with queries against them a little later in the week, HE’LL HOLE being the last for me to realise. I agree with the comment about Santa’s reindeer, but perhaps we shall see them all before Christmas day.
    1. You reminded me of the B. Kliban cartoon, Santa and 6 reindeer, and the caption: The Seven Warning Signs of Christmas.
  6. I don’t remember too much about this except it took me a long time – 83m 29s – so over an hour more than, say, Kevin G. Looking through brnchn’s excellent blog, I remember being impressed by 3d -THROW A WOBBLY. That sort of clue usually takes me ages to resolve but I remember catching on to this one quite quickly.
    Thank you, brnchn, especially for CGI. I biffed BIG CAT.
    Here in France we have a GARAGIST who services our Peugeot, so 18d was no problem.
    Incidentally, in today’s Cryptic there is, in my view, a rather politically incorrect Downunder solution. The term employed is just not used these days.

    Edited at 2017-10-28 09:04 am (UTC)

    1. I assume you’re referring to that one, Martin, and not the vowel? I raised an eyebrow or two myself, although I was primarily bothered by the assumed homophony. And isn’t he a garagiste?

      Edited at 2017-10-28 12:15 pm (UTC)

  7. 1hr and 10 mins for me so I found this on the tough side plus with one error, nambutel instead of nembutal. The word was unknown so I had to take a punt on the likeliest arrangement of the vowels and went the wrong way. Some nice clues though, the hidden had me flummoxed for a while and I liked the simplicity of 8dn.
  8. I solved this on the train to Wolverhampton to watch PNE play at Molineux. I put my LOI -Dock,replacing a dodgy Dace, just before we arrived, so I must have finished in under two hours; and I did other things en route. So a PB for me.
    I did not know Trail Mix and could not parse everything but was fairly confident.
    Enjoyable puzzle and thanks for blog.
    COD to 16a.
    Oh.. a great game with the result being the only adverse factor. David
  9. Bring back the ‘Last Football’ and Walter Pilkington, or before your time David?
      1. Lancashire Evening Post football paper in the fifties and their main writer. PNE main feature but covered all Lancashire sides, including City, United, Liverpool and Everton. Available at our local newsagents in Southport by 6.00 pm. Who needs t’internet? I’m still OK at the moment for The George next Saturady.
  10. 20ac was not NAMBUTEL but NEMBUTAL but it’s a proprietory name and sold under the counter in China and India as NAMBUTEL!! Rotten clue! No place hereabouts!

    FOI 7dn PERI.

    The Lion of Vienna! What was all that about!? I bet most Viennese think Nat Lofthouse is a Fisherman’s Friend.

    COD 8dn BRANDISH

    WOD 18dn GARAGIST!

    Edited at 2017-10-28 04:17 pm (UTC)

    1. A yes I remember Lofthouse’s Fisherman’s Friends. Fantastic for blocked noses and sore throats. I’ve not seen any for years, but I think you can still get them.
      1. Still readily available. Made in Fleetwood. Alfie Boe, who was born in Fleetwood, did a TV advert last year for them. He’d lost his voice in the dressing room but after a Fisherman’s Friend his voice shattered the mirror.
  11. 23:51 for me, which is slightly under average. I remember this being quite fun and being pleased not to get stuck on anything for too long. I enjoyed the REINDEER, and HELLHOLE and THROW A WOBBLY raised a smile. GARAGIST was a new word for me too. LITE at 14a awoke an old itch. At work I’ve just had to do some courses from Workrite. Aaaargh! Whatever next? Fite the good fite with all thy mite!

    Edited at 2017-10-28 04:08 pm (UTC)

  12. I had problems with some of the cryptics which I thought were only guessable after the word had been biffed. I didn’t like PUTS for “sticks” in 1a,IMPALE defined as “stick” in 13a or FOR defined as “appropriate” in 5d. These were all clues where the solution was fairly obvious but where I hesitated until I had all the checkers. It rather spoilt my enjoyment of the rest of the puzzle because it made me suspicious of every definition! About 40 minutes (vague because I was interrupted by the doorbell mid-solve) Ann
  13. Nice puzzle and nice blog. As the man said, straight ahead. Held up because Hellhole was so clearly the right answer, but got fixated on trying to make Els the golfer. Best luck to the TftT team next week; wish I could be there.
  15. I think this was 9-Jan-2018 SCMP, but not sure as I received it at Gatwick on the way back to Hong Kong, and didn’t think to look at the date.

    About 30 mins for 27/28ths, then I put the crossword away for the rest of the flight. As the plane landed, I got out the crossword again, and the final holdout unfolded: PAIR.

    dn really k: NEMBUTAL, HOLSTEIN, PERI

    Very entertaining: thanks to setter, blogger and other commenters.

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