Times Cryptic No 27924 – Saturday, 13 March 2021. Down the middle of the fairway, or into the rough?

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Times Cryptic No 27924 – Saturday, 13 March 2021.

A satisfyingly “Saturday” puzzle. All doable, but not much easy. An obscure term at 22dn, but clear from the wordplay. The best cricketing clue ever at 10ac? On the other hand, 19dn stands out as the strangest clue for a while. Easy to find oneself landing in the rough with that one! Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. How did you all get on?

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 One man (not the Messiah) embracing East European (7)
IBERIAN – I=one, BRIAN (“he’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy”), embracing East.
5 Carriage to pull in, transporting first person in box (7)
CABINET – CAB=carriage, NET=pull in; “transporting” I=first person.
9 Following sentence shows hoped-for future (9)
AFTERLIFE – AFTER, LIFE=prison sentence.
10 Banned cricketer over his fruitless efforts in match? (5)
TABOO – TAB=BAT “over”, O=fruitless score in first innings, O=second innings ditto. As good as a cricketing clue gets!
11 Person in attendance cleared out home (5)
ABODE – BOD in ATTENDANCE “cleared out”.
12 Attempt in essence to conceal vacancy (9)
EMPTINESS – hidden in attEMT IN ESSence.
13 Power behind throne dislocated in emergencies (8,5)
ÉMINENCE GRISE – anagram of IN EMERGENCIES (dislocated). An expression that may not be familiar to all, but it has appeared before.
17 One late to classes nuts must attend having crossed river (6,7)
MATURE STUDENT – anagram of MUST ATTEND (nuts!), “crossing” the river URE.
21 Likeable chap brings freight to dock (4,5)
GOOD SPORT – GOODS=freight, PORT=dock.
24 About to leave proceeds in place (5)
VENUE – RE=about “leaves” REVENUE=proceeds. This was tricky! Once I had the initial V, I saw the answer, and eventually saw the wordplay too.
25 British in Australia finally denounce exploitation (5)
ABUSE – B for British in AUS for Australia, then E from DENOUNCE “finally”.
26 Snail one Yankee cooked with onions (9)
LYONNAISE – anagram of SNAIL ONE Y (cooked). Y=Yankee in the phonetic alphabet.
27 Jumper always having hole in it? (7)
EVENTER – VENT in E’ER.
28 Small number regularly on call to guard M1 (7)
NOMINAL – NO=number, MI, NAL= oN cAlL “regularly”.

Down
1 Book one owns about investing capital (6)
ISAIAH – I=one, then SAH=HAS “about”, “investing” A1 = capital! I always hesitate over the spelling of this name!
2 Sociable old lover leaving drink to grab Rolling Stone (9)
EXTROVERT – EX=old, then TT=leaving drink, “grabbing” ROVER=rolling stone.
3 Asian deity taken in lives with priest (7)
ISRAELI – IS=lives, RA=deity, ELI=priest.
4 Lionesses interfered with mum? (9)
NOISELESS – anagram of LIONESSES (interfered with)
5 Smuggling in ecstasy become cracked and mean (5)
CHEAP – CHAP = become cracked (as in chapped lips), “smuggling in” E=ecstacy.
6 In line to be removed from fighting (7)
BATTING – take L out of BATTLING. Amusing that this answer crosses the other cricketing clue at 10ac.
7 Head seen on pound, English coin (5)
NOBLE – NOB=head, L=pound, E=English.
8 Supplies stolen sent north and dropped in garden store (8)
TOOLSHED – TOOL=LOOT “sent north”, SHED=dropped.
14 Second check where unknown leaves an Ulster district (9)
COUNTDOWN – take the unknown, Y, out of COUNTY DOWN. Clever definition.
15 Failure to concentrate missing out at end (9)
INTENTION – INATTENTION “missing” AT.
16 Russian fighter, traitor in central Greece, to settle abroad (8)
EMIGRATE – MIG + RAT in EE = “central” GrEEce.
18 Particular relaxation inhibits muscle (7)
RESPECT – PEC (pectoral) in REST.
19 Last characters in exchange warn M15 about poison (7)
ENVENOM – E from exchangE, N from warN, then VENOM comes from a reversal (“about”) of M + 1 + 5, which expands to M + ONE + V (Roman numeral). And, to go with the weird wordplay, what a weird answer! It is a verb, meaning to poison.
20 Wingers of value in one Madrid team for show (6)
REVEAL – VE = “wingers” of ValuE, in REAL (Madrid). A football clue, after the cricketing ones.
22 United in free love, this becomes seed (5)
OVULE – U=united, in anagram of LOVE (free).
23 One to lubricate kettle perhaps missing lid (5)
OILER – BOILER=kettle, say.

17 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27924 – Saturday, 13 March 2021. Down the middle of the fairway, or into the rough?”

  1. I don’t have a time for this and went off leaderboard, which is just as well, as I didn’t get GOOD SPORT. I dithered over this, but didn’t like PORT=dock, and didn’t like the definition; a good sport is not a ‘likeable chap’ but someone who accepts defeat or teasing, etc. in a good way. Didn’t care too much for the definition of AFTERLIFE, either; certainly hell is not hoped for. DNK MATURE STUDENT; that is, I didn’t know there was such a lexical item. COD to BATTING.
    1. Lots of scope for eyebrow-raising, for sure.

      The “hoped-for future” is heaven not hell, I suggest. Still an afterlife.

      Interestingly, I can’t find “good sport” in any of my staple iPad dictionaries, but I think it spans both shades of meaning? Merriam-Webster Online has:
      good sport noun
      1 : a person who is not rude or angry about losing
      2 informal + old-fashioned : someone who is kind or generous

      I also didn’t know the expression “mature student”. Here, they are “mature age students”.

      Edited at 2021-03-20 01:54 am (UTC)

      1. SOED has:
        a good sport – a person who behaves fairly, esp. regarding games, rules, etc.; a person who takes a joke in good part or who reacts positively to a challenge or adversity.

        Sounds quite likeable to me!

        Edited at 2021-03-20 04:40 am (UTC)

  2. I found this difficult so my thanks to you Bruce for the explanations, particularly for EXTROVERT and NOMINAL.
    I don’t have any particular gripes with any of the definitions or clues. I enjoyed IBERIAN, VENUE, BATTING and, yes, ENVENOM!
    FOI: EMINENCE GRISE/EMIGRATE
    LOI EMPTINESS
    COD: INTENTION
    PS…Re TABOO, After England’s recent Test match losses in India, that could be called the “Bairstow Clue”!

    Edited at 2021-03-20 06:49 am (UTC)

  3. 22 minutes following the previous day’s best ever personal snitch. I thought maybe I was already in the AFTERLIFE without realising I’d passed. And it was in heaven, with minutes corresponding with eons. Unfortunately, the purple patch soon came to an end as this week’s times have evidenced. I thought LYONNAISE just referred to that way of cooking potatoes. COD to INTENTION. Good puzzle. Thank you B and setter.
  4. I had AFTERTIME; perhaps my company has been making too many “the beforetimes” and “the aftertimes” pandemic-related jokes recently…
    1. Ha! See below. I’d like to be able to use the same excuse but I don’t think it occurred to me. I just bunged it in from the wordplay without engaging my brain even slightly.

      Edited at 2021-03-20 08:59 am (UTC)

      1. Well, it’s nice to know I wasn’t alone, at least.

        I’d be surprised if “the beforetimes”, or some similar variation, doesn’t make it into a dictionary some time. You can see it bubbling under here and there… Might be a while before the aftertimes, though, but I suppose that’s the point 🙂

        Edited at 2021-03-20 09:43 am (UTC)

        1. Yes I’ve used ‘the before times’ myself in the context of the pandemic. I just don’t think it occurred to me here.

          Edited at 2021-03-20 09:48 am (UTC)

  5. 16:45, but with a mistake of such stupidity I hesitate to share it, but will do so in a public-spirited effort to make you all feel better about yourselves. I followed the wordplay for 9ac and put in AFTERTIME, apparently without hesitating to consider whether there is such a word. There, whatever other misfortunes may befall you this weekend, you can take comfort in the fact that you are not quite as much of a prize chump as me.

    Edited at 2021-03-20 08:56 am (UTC)

    1. Aftertime was my first thought. Luckily I stopped to admire the clue’s construction, and realised it wasn’t a word – afterlife soon popped up.
  6. I needed a fair bit of time to do this; 14 clues solved in my first 45 minutes. Once again the pressure of kick-off got me focused and I had three left at 2.55pm. The struggles were INTENTION (great clue),VENUE and finally ENVENOM- unknown, constructed from wordplay and it looked feasible.
    All I had left to worry about was Preston’s result against bottom of the table Wycombe. Oh dear- there is now talk about the manager’s position.
    A good puzzle; ideal for a Saturday.
    David
    BTW the first letter in today’s Times is from a lady called Madeline- see yesterday’s QC controversy. I’m sure the subs will have checked the spelling.
  7. 20 minutes and small change. The one clue I remember from this one after a week is, of course, the brilliant ENVENOM, with its really cheeky use of MI5. I thought the surface was pretty good too, harking both back to the days when swapping spies across the iron curtain was common, and to the present enthusiasm of the Kremlin for distributing novichok.
  8. ….I tend to forget the ISRAELIS when clued as “Asian”. That was one of a number of holdups as I struggled to get onto the setter’s wavelength. It’s happening far too often of late, so maybe my brain needs to be reconfigured !

    FOI IBERIAN
    LOI EMPTINESS (parsed afterwards)
    COD TABOO (why just pick on Barstow ? !)
    TIME 16:12

  9. A most enjoyable puzzle. ENVENOM was my favourite clue, and my penultimate, with VENUE bringing up the rear. IBERIAN was my first entry. EMINENCE GRISE popped into mind from a previous excursion into these realms. No hesitations over AFERLIFE, MATURE STUDENT or GOOD SPORT. 35:36. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  10. 17ac INTERN STUDENT!

    15dn MIGRATEE!

    21ac REAL SPORT!

    22dn ?

    25 ac ?

    ’nuff said!!

  11. Satisfyingly chewy for a prize puzzle, with some clever clues. I rather adminred ENVENOM when I worked it out, for instance. LOI CHEAP. I liked TABOO, the clever hidden EMPTINESS and that BATTING crossed with the cricket clue among others. Thanks Bruce and setter. 29:33, so just under my “this is too hard” threshold of 30 mins.

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