Times Cryptic No 27108 – Saturday, 04 August 2018. Hurricanes hardly happen!

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Finished in 32 minutes, so I would rate it easier than average.

Very nicely clued but all within my ken. My clue of the day was 25ac with the clever wordplay. Also, a call-out to 12ac for the memories of My Fair Lady! Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Clues are in blue, with definitions underlined. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, then wordplay. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’, with the anagram indicator in bold italics. Deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 Good to eat food after knocking back a drink (9)
PALATABLE: TABLE (food) after “knocking back” A LAP (a drink).

6 Graduate returned key that’s packed up (5)
BALED: BA (graduate), DEL (key) “returned”.

9 Piece of music has encore to follow (5)
CHASE: hidden answer, in {musi}C HAS E{ncore}.

10 Wretched envoy clutching register prepared for a probable roasting (4-5)
OVEN-READY: (ENVOY*) “clutching” READ (register).

11 Discharges rents (4,3)
LETS OUT: double definition, the first perhaps as in “discharges the dam water”?

12 Pair from Hampshire that shouldn’t be dropped? (7)
AITCHES: since the letter “h” appears twice in “Hampshire”, and as Henry Higgins insisted, Eliza shouldn’t drop her aspirants in Hertford, Hereford or Hampshire!

13 Widely dispersed characters from Oval help others batting (3,4,3,4)
ALL OVER THE SHOP: (OVAL HELP OTHERS*).

17 Restraint from junior diplomats not having succeeded, time’s added (14)
UNDERSTATEMENT: UNDER (junior), STATE-MEN (STATESMEN being diplomats, but losing one “s”), T (time).

21 Game official and others sent back balloon again (7)
REFLATE: REF (the canonical official), ET AL (others) “sent back”.

23 Sea creature fed last of people on island (7)
MANATEE: ATE (fed), {people}E, all on MAN (island).

25 One-time prisoner avoiding judgment in Prohibition (9)
EXCLUSION: EX (one-time), {con}CLUSION (CONCLUSION for judgement, “avoiding” CON for prisoner). Tricky, but nice!

26 Discrimination in annual meeting one’s held (5)
AGISM: AGM holding I’S (one’s).

27 What makes a good barrier? Avoid a straight answer (5)
HEDGE: double definition.

28 Drug all jockeys catching a new type of fever (9)
GLANDULAR: (DRUG ALL*) “catching” A N (a, new).

Down
1 One’s own special rum (8)
PECULIAR: and another double definition. On edit: thanks to Philip Jordan for pointing out it’s actually a TRIPLE definition!

2 Spare part finally listed (5)
LEANT: LEAN (spare), {par}T.

3 True love dancing with husband within sight of Paris (3,6)
THE LOUVRE: (TRUE LOVE*) with H (husband) “within”.

4 Rocket part made by South African with East German investment (7)
BOOSTER: BOER (a South African) with OST (German for “east”) inside it (“invested”).

5 Facial hair I flog for audition (7)
EYELASH: sounds like “I lash”.

6 Stranger on vacation in Bath turned up broke (5)
BURST: S{trange}R (“on vacation”) inside TUB (bath), all “turned up”.

7 Dreadful old hat daughter’s thrown out not entirely repellent (9)
LOATHSOME: (OL- HAT*), then SOME (not entirely). The D{aughter} is omitted (“thrown out”) from the anagram.

8 Doctor still nursing son, extremely dehydrated (6)
DRYEST: DR (doctor), YET (still) “nursing” S (son).

14 Dismal, like ever-recurrent problems? (4-5)
LONG-FACED: double definition, the second based on the idea that an ever-recurring problem would have been faced for a long time.

15 Marshal keeping seamen en masse further back (9)
STERNWARD: STEWARD (marshal) keeping RN (Royal Navy – seamen en masse indeed!).

16 Flag officer’s base aboard ship (8)
STREAMER: {office}R “aboard” STEAMER (ship).

18 Moderates rising in government initially feeling the heat (7)
STEWING: WETS (moderates) “rising”, then IN, G{overnment}.

19 Country gents with something to sing about? (7)
ARMENIA: MEN (gents) with ARIA “about”.

20 Disagreement among speakers for non-standard type of delivery? (6)
BREECH: sounds like BREACH.

22 Raise a smile in morning service (5)
AMUSE: AM (morning), USE (service, as in “put into use/service”).

24 Wheel starts to turn wildly in opposite directions (5)
TWIRL: first letters of T{urn} W{ildly} I{n}, then R (right) and L (left) are the opposite directions.

24 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27108 – Saturday, 04 August 2018. Hurricanes hardly happen!”

  1. It took me 39:02 to get through this one, so a little bit on the tricky side. Last week was a busy weekend so I can’t remember much about it now apart from the fact that I finished with MANATEE. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  2. I seem to have tossed my copy, or failed to print one, and I have almost no memory of doing the puzzle. “Batting” unexpected as anagrind. A number of nice surfaces, as in 1d, 2d, 6d.
    1. Agree it’s unusual. It fits the cricketing theme of the clue, and I suppose one “bats ideas around”.
      1. To bat eyelids is to flutter them (Collins online confirms), which is how I took it as an anagrind.
        – Nila Palin
  3. Thank you, Bruce.
    Kevin mentions ‘batting’ as an unusual anagram indicator. We had a few of those yesterday including ‘high’ ‘motoring’ and even ‘anagram! This fits in with them I think.
    UNDERSTATEMENT and BREECH took a while and CHASE was clever but, of course, AITCHES stood out. That was definitely my COD. Other than 12ac my notes say “Nothing remarkable”.
  4. About an hour.

    FOI 10ac OVEN READY – would have been more suitable for a Sunday.

    LOI 24dn TWIRL (Remember Toby Twirl?)

    COD 16dn STREAMERS

    WOD 13ac ALL OVER THE SHOP

    Victor Meldrew is away for a fortnight

    1. I checked out your new (I think) image with Googles search facility. You’ll be delighted to know it came up with “Best guess for this image: gentleman”.
  5. 38 minutes with COD to AITCHES. LOI MANATEE. Had LETS OFF rather than OUT until I got a BOOSTER jab. Perhaps a shade easier than a normal Saturday. Thank you B and setter.
  6. Just on an hour, I think. With all the talk of strange anagrinds I’m surpised no-one has mentioned ‘jockeys’ at 28ac which I failed to spot until it was pointed out to me.

    I expect AGESIM rather than AGISM which I would be tempted to pronounce a-GIZm if seen out of context.

    Wasted time at 23ac considering MANITOU having confused the supernatural spirit with the sea cow.

    Edited at 2018-08-11 05:50 am (UTC)

  7. I strained a bit through this one over 29 minutes, though the only hold up I remember was trying to justify LONG FACED. I was OK with DISMAL, but tried to make more wordplay-y sense of the rest of the clue – sums, rebuses and the like. Thanks, B, for putting me straight.
    I liked “non-standard type of delivery?” for breech, which probably places me firmly in the male 50% of the population, in case there was any doubt.
    I note, with some frustration, this week’s puzzles are not yet available on the Club, and I can’t stop the clock on the Times site, even though I seem to have found a way of submitting an entry.

    Edited at 2018-08-11 07:05 am (UTC)

    1. I’d be curious to know how you submitted; I can’t even submit a message to the forum.
      1. I right clicked on the submit button, having completed the puzzle on the Times site, clicked “open link in new tab” and got an invite to put in my details for submission. Can’t repeat (which sort of makes sense).

        Edited at 2018-08-11 07:36 am (UTC)

        1. Thanks; having asked you, I realized that in fact I had done something similar (I can’t right- or left-click), was asked my name and e-mail address, and then was acknowledged. (Living outside the UK, I’m not eligible for a prize, and I’m not sure my time will be put on the club leaderboard; and of course the time will be a good deal longer than the actual time it took me to solve.) I also can’t submit a comment to the forum, and can’t make sense of (and of course can’t ask for elucidation of) David’s explanation. I suppose we should be grateful that David was around to tell us of the snafu.

          Edited at 2018-08-11 07:52 am (UTC)

      2. There is also further information from David Parfitt in the Club forum General section: it seems we can’t expect any resolution before Monday.
        1. I managed to submit a comment on the Saturday Concise after reading the Forum Rules by clicking on the link.
  8. Only got round to this yesterday, and more or less strolled through it in 14:26 with no biffing required.

    FOI BOOSTER as I’d pencilled in the “able” of 1A.

    LOI HEDGE as I was held up slightly in the SW corner until spotting BREECH

    COD BURST, though I agree that AITCHES was good too.

    Isn’t PECULIAR actually a triple definition ? (One’s own; special; rum)

    Thanks Bruce and setter.

  9. My note says ‘15:48, pretty easy’, so I don’t seem to have had any problems although I can’t remember much about it now. No unusual words and lots of definitions in plain sight certainly helped.
  11. This seems to have taken me 34minutes, but I don’t remember it being that hard. Thanks for parsing EXCLUSION… I wa staring puzzled at LUSI in CON for some time and eventually just went with it. I enjoyed AITCHES and the triple definition for PECULIAR. Thanks Bruce and setter.
  12. There are two ant eaters in a pub having a beer and the landlord says, ‘Gentlemen – why the long faces?’!

    Edited at 2018-08-11 09:45 am (UTC)

  13. 43:17 average Saturday puzzle. Never worked out the parsing of exclusion so thanks for that. Like Jakkt I would probably have stuck an ‘e’ into agism – looks a bit odd to me without. I liked the use of jockeys to indicate the anagram in 28ac.
  14. Am now in Northumberland looking at grey skies and rain; the English summer is back. The puzzle is at home but I remember finishing this in a couple of sessions on the day.
    I got Aitches straight off but Baled, Sternward and Glandular resisted till the end. Nothing too obscure in this, which I liked; and easier than some recent Saturdays. David

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