Times Cryptic No 27726 – Saturday, 25 July 2020. Intimations of immor(t)ality?

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This was all done at a relatively brisk pace, although I had an unaccountable block at the end with 16ac. I particularly liked that the clue told me specifically how to spell 10ac … although I confess even after following the instructions, I had trouble believing it is a real place!

18ac reminded me of the schoolboy version of Wordsworth’s Ode on the imitations of … (well, you get the drift).

Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Notes for newcomers: The Times offers prizes for Saturday Cryptic Crosswords. This blog is posted a week later, after the competition closes. So, please don’t comment here on the current Saturday Cryptic.

Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 Showing hair nets provided by Victoria, say (13)
MANIFESTATION – MANE (hair) ‘nets’ IF (provided), ‘by’ STATION (Victoria, say).
8 Slight noise made by drinker is reduced (4)
SLUR – SLUR{p}, ‘reduced’.
9 Regret road is winding, going downhill (10)
RETROGRADE – anagram (‘is winding’) of (REGRET ROAD)
10 Celebrity keeping tuxedo by North American capital (8)
N’DJAMENA – NAME (celebrity) ‘keeping’ DJ (tux), ‘by’ N.A.  Yes, it’s a real place! The capital of Chad.
11 Stop using computer symbol with great noise (3,3)
LOG OFF – LOGO (symbol), FF (very loud).
13 I see wave swamping English vessel (10)
ICEBREAKER – I, C (see – it’s always a surprise to me that you can spell the names of letters! It didn’t happen at my school), E (English), BREAKER (wave). 
16 Head to lounge (4)
LOAF – double definition.
17 National chief in newspaper covers (4)
FINN – hidden answer. The definition refers to a national of Finland.
18 For one in dire need, naughty immorality (10)
DEGENERACY – E.G. (for one), in anagram (‘dire’) of (NEED), then RACY (naughty).
20 Intermittent surrounding echo — it’s not repeated (3-3)
ONE-OFF – ON-OFF (intermittent), surrounding E (echo).
22 Love convenience during breaks in Alpine scenery? (8)
SNOWCAPS – O (love), andWC (convenience) ‘during’ SNAPS (breaks).
24 Blemishes covering a material for liqueur (10)
MARASCHINO – MARS (blemishes) ‘covering’ A, then CHINO.
26 Player of music school led by upright character (4)
IPOD – I (the upright character), then POD (school). Sorry, I think the clue is a comment on how the letter is written, not on your or my moral purity!
27 Featured by tabloid, awful bile is beyond words (13)
INEXPRESSIBLE – IN [the] EXPRESS (the tabloid of the moment), then anagram (‘awful’) of (BILE).

Down
1 How men enunciate curse (11)
MALEDICTION – MALE DICTION, geddit?
2 High priestess and not mother (5)
NORMA – not pa, NOR MA, eh? The heroine of Bellini’s opera. She was a Druid priestess.
3 Stuff from police agent in US containing drug (5-4)
FORCE-FEED – FORCE (police), FED (US agent) containing E.
4 What hinders determined rugby player (7)
SETBACK – SET (determined), BACK (one of the better-looking rugby players). Since you ask, yes, I played in the forwards.
5 A charge for a bunch of keys? (5)
ATOLL – A, TOLL. Chambers tells me an atoll is “A coral island consisting of a circular belt of coral enclosing a central lagoon” (ORIGIN: Name in Maldive Islands). And, a key is “A low island or reef“. So, I’m not at all sure what “bunch” is doing in the clue!
6 Current Republicans holding a gun up for soldier (9)
IRREGULAR – I (the symbol for electrical current), and R+R (2 x Republicans), ‘holding’ A LUGER ‘up’=backwards.
7 Greeting teacher returned (3)
NOD – DON ‘returned’.
12 Ruling general on call, one like de Gaulle (11)
FRANCOPHONE – FRANCO (the Spanish general), PHONE (call).
14 Carrying nothing in bag, envoy arranged send-off (3,6)
BON VOYAGE – O (nothing) in anagram (‘arranged’) of (BAG ENVOY).
15 Under Egyptian sun abroad we must drink my bitter (9)
RANCOROUS – RA (the Egyptian sun god), NOUS (‘we’, in France), ‘drinking’ COR! (my!).
19 After raising flag, let go of heater (3,4)
GAS FIRE – GAS=SAG (flag) ‘raising’, then FIRE (let go an employee).
21 Football club bagging a leading trophy (2,3)
FA CUP – F.C. (football club), ‘bagging’ A, and UP (leading, at halftime for instance).
23 Conservative member to seek higher position (5)
CLIMB – C (Conservative), LIMB (member).
25 Is this person a foreign ally? (3)
AMI – ‘AM I?’, you ask.

21 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27726 – Saturday, 25 July 2020. Intimations of immor(t)ality?”

  1. ….as the F.A.CUP Final is today, when Arsenal and Chelsea meet at Wembley.

    RANCOROUS parsed post-solve, no other problems.

    FOI SLUR
    LOI MARASCHINO
    COD FRANCOPHONE
    TIME 10:10

  2. FOI LOAF, POI SNOWCAPS, LOI IPOD (that one took me a while). Biffed BON VOYAGE, parsed post-submission. I didn’t understand ‘tuxedo’, but knew NDJAMENA. COD to MANIFESTATION or DEGENERACY.
  3. Thanks. I think I got most of this. I usually give up on Saturday.

    Isn’t 5d about reefs in Maldives etc?

  4. About the half hour, with RANCOROUS not properly parsed until later, strictly entre nous. COD to FRANCOPHONE. I liked iPod too, which is impossible to put fully into capitals without losing Apple’s endorsement. I still use an old iPod Classic, which did everything I wanted and so was bound to be discontinued. I’ve never wanted to shuffle, which is too much like God playing dice. Very pleasant puzzle. Thank you B and setter.
  5. An atoll is rarely just a single island. More commonly the circular coral reef will break the surface in a number of places to form a ring of small islands – hence ‘bunch’ of keys.
  6. My solving time was 55 minutes which on reflection seems rather excessive considering my print-out has almost no workings in the margins, normally a sign that I sailed through without problems.

    My only query is the wordplay at 25dn where I might have expected ‘Is the setter…?’ (for example). Surely ‘Is this person…?’ = ‘Is he or she…?’ rather than ‘Am I…?’.

    1. I could swear we’ve had ‘the setter/setter’s’ = me/my/I’m etc. And wouldn’t he/she be ‘that person’? Needless to say, no examples come to mind, nor ever will.
  7. …but I just couldn’t solve 26ac so I bunged in ICON.
    POD for school eluded me for some reason.
    1ac, 1d and 5d were good clues but my COD to RANCOROUS.
    There is an organisation of Francophone countries, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Similar to the British Commonwealth, I guess.
  8. I’m glad the unknown capital of Chad was generously clued. LOAF was my LOI, but FRANCOPHONE wasn’t far ahead of it. No problem with IPOD. 27:59. Thank setter and Bruce.
  9. 20:44. I didn’t find this as easy as some. Like Bruce I was surprised that N’DJAMENA was a real place name. The things we learn here! LOI the innocuous IPOD. Thanks Bruce and setter.
  10. Managed this ok apart from the African capital.
    I had FAME for celebrity. It didn’t look right but neither does the correct answer.
    David
  11. 33:18. Nice puzzle. DNK the African capital so grateful for the helpful wp. I had enough patience at the end over LOI 16ac to wait for loaf to arise rather than biffing lead.
  13. Struggled with a few – 10ac, 18ac. Major misses which I must learn – L?A? – couldn’t get away from lead, and just couldn’t see the WC in 22ac. Otherwise enjoyed. Thanks.
  14. 16 ac was also my nemesis, despite an alphabet trawl which only found load for the O. So I entered LEAN (if you lounge on something, you are leaning on it, and if you lean towards something, you are heading in that direction — not very convincing). But I did get NDJAMENA, and that makes up for everything else.

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