Times Saturday 26700 – April 15, 2017. See you in Ibiza?

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This crossword had a lot of delicious clues. 16dn was an absolute delight! The more obscure answers were all gettable from the wordplay. And happily, no flora, no fauna. A very satisfying crossword. Thanks to the setter.

Looking at the leaderboard, I see that as I prepare to post, the 100th best time was 22 minutes, on the slow side for a Saturday – so it does look like it was rather harder than the average. Perhaps 1dn was a holdup.

Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined. Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised. Then there’s the answer IN BOLD, followed by the parsing of the wordplay. (ABC)* means ‘anagram of ABC’, {deletions are in curly brackets}.

Across
1. The way to keep head from clonking bed (5)
PATCH: PATH [way] “to keep” C{lonking}.

4. Do this and agitate learner driver recklessly? (8)
TAILGATE: (AGITATE L*). Nice semi-literal definition. Do I have the nomenclature right?

8. Giddy time with winos, heading off in skimpy gear (8,6)
SWIMMING TRUNKS: SWIMMING [giddy] T{ime} {d}RUNKS.

10. Brief coming before restricting duck hunting (9)
PREDATION: PREDATIN{g} [brief “coming before”] “restricting” O.

11. See you in Ibiza having ace parties across island (5)
ADIOS: A{ce} DOS [parties, as always] “across” I.

12. Author recited something boring before bed (6)
ALCOTT: sounds like AWL COT to some.

14. What might produce ‘aero-mist’ fancifully? (8)
ATOMISER: (AERO-MIST*).

17. One badger occupying earth when put back in wild state (8)
DELIRIUM: I RILE [one badger] in MUD [earth], all put back.

18. Scattered right around in all directions? (6)
STREWN: TR [RT=right, around] in a scattering of N, S, E and W.

20. Answer with almost complete rubbish (5)
AWFUL: A [answer] W [with] FUL{l} [almost “complete”].

22. Hate to ease up, possessing no time? (9)
ABOMINATE: ABATE [ease up] O [zero=no] MIN [time].

24. Instruction for nose job, perhaps, that requires two pairs of hands (8,6)
CONTRACT BRIDGE: Double definition, first fanciful, the second the four-handed card game.

25. Vacant attendant serving powerless old prince (8)
ATHELING: A{ttendan}T HEL{p}ING.

DNK the word, although I saw it from the wordplay once I had a couple of helpers. Wikipedia tells me: Ætheling (also spelt Aetheling, Atheling or Etheling) was an Old English term used in Anglo-Saxon England to designate princes of the royal dynasty who were eligible for the kingship.

26. Flaming constant punctures on your bike! (3,2)
HOP IT: PI [the mathematical constant] “punctures” HOT.

Down
1. Stuttering king adopts plain type of speech? (12)
POSTPRANDIAL: (R ADOPTS PLAIN*), where R=”rex”. This long anagram was a struggle, even with helpers.

2. Something of a rake pinches women’s threads (5)
TWINE: TINE “pinches” W. I knew forks had tines, so I guess a rake is just a big fork.

3. Meat with less lean is a dramatic failure? (9)
HAMFATTER: HAM [meat] FATTER [less lean]. Didn’t know the word, not sure I want to!

4. Not quite hiding the source of bitterness in wine (6)
TANNIN: TANNIN{g} [a hiding].

5. Attention drifting as temperature drops, say (8)
INTONATE: (AT {t} ENTION*). Chambers says “intonate” means “intone”. (Well then, just say that!)

6. A couple start to go around Dutch town (5)
GOUDA: A DUO G{o}, all reversed. Knew the cheese, DNK the town, but happy to believe it’s in the Netherlands!

7. Put up with children’s quarrel (4,5)
TAKE ISSUE: TAKE [“put up with”, as in “I can’t put up with any more!”] ISSUE [children].

9. Weirdos, perhaps, absorbed by Yvette’s centre parting (12)
ESTRANGEMENT: STRANGE MEN [weirdos] “absorbed by” {Yv} ET {te}. “Weirdos, perhaps” looked enough like a definition by example to misdirect for a while.

13. Virus present that might bring on a chill (4,5)
COLD FRONT: COLD [virus] FRONT [present].

15. Protest about short audition for leading lady (9)
MATRIARCH: MARCH [protest] “about” TRIA{l} [audition].

16. West Indian playing guitar hosts unfinished band session (8)
GUJARATI: (GUITAR*) “hosts JA{m} [unfinished band session]. No, not the West Indies – the west of India. Very nice indeed!

19. Follow diet at last with a good source of information on GI (3,3)
DOG TAG: DOG [follow] {die}T A G{ood}. Clever definition.

21. Turner oil at Hepworth shows (5)
LATHE: hidden.

23. A sweet daughter’s round figure (3,2)
ADD UP: A followed by PUD D{aughter} reversed. Def: “figure”, as in calculate.

19 comments on “Times Saturday 26700 – April 15, 2017. See you in Ibiza?”

  1. 10ac was my LOI with 14ac ATOMISER FOI

    I did not record my time – but this wasn’t too difficult.

    COD 16dn GUJARATI! WOD 3dn HAMFATTER

    Edited at 2017-04-22 02:11 am (UTC)

  2. Didn’t find this too difficult, putting in the unknown HAMFATTER last when no better offer presented itself. Knew ATHELING from all the Anglo-Saxon stuff on BBC4. Was 1066 really the end of England, with Norman rule and perpetual harrowing of the North ever since? Discuss. POSTPRANDIAL had a special meaning in our house until our beautiful border collie died five weeks ago. It was the name of our walk, also called the afternoon constitutional. Please forgive the indulgence of putting his picture up one more time. About 30 minutes, everything understood. Thank you brnchn and setter.
    1. You have my sympathy. . I signed in specially from my phone because my avatar is Grumpy, gone these ten years but not forgotten.
      I don’t know your circumstances but I dare say there is another dog somewhere with your name on it, in due course. ..
      1. Thanks, Jerry. Grumpy looks to have been a magnificent specimen of cathood. I’ve been fortunate to share my life with two fantastic dogs, Rex from 1949 to 1965, and Timmy from 2002 to 2017. We’ve had a few cats along the way too in the middle, Chloe, Adam, Tommy, Shanty and Ginge Pinge, all lovely, unforgettable characters. Our three children are now flying or have flown the nest and a smaller house soon beckons, sadly leaving behind the garden full of Ginge Pinge and Timmy memories along with all the fun and games with the children when they were younger. I doubt there’ll be another pet as I owe my wife many holidays, but I’d rather be walking a dog across fields than eating a glazed scallop on a cruise.
        1. Violet sends her condolences.
          I don’t like to brag, but Violet has a perfect record of preventing over-flying 747s and 767s from trying to land in the back field. Was Timmy equally persuasive?

          Edited at 2017-04-22 05:50 pm (UTC)

          1. Thank you Violet. Timmy’s particular specialism on the beach was to ensure that kites were monitored every inch of the way before they landed. He knew all his many toys by name. For some reason we were once talking about pigs. Off he trotted to his basket in the utility room and came back with Percy Pig in his mouth, from a choice of about twenty different animals. He put Percy down in front of me seeking further instructions. The average intelligence of our household has definitely reduced with his passing.
            1. I know exactly how you feel. It is frightening to have such intelligent creatures in the house.
        2. Sorry, been away .. Grumpy like Timmy was the intellectual type. He could open any door, drink coffee from a mug, lots of things .. over 20 when he died so had a good innings. We have two fine cats now, they are not as bright but nevertheless they still seem able to spend much more time doing exactly what they want than I can ever manage .. I hear what you say about holidays etc., but I do think humans need pets, to remain properly grounded. Some like cats, some like dogs, if you don’t like either there is surely something wrong somewhere 🙂
  3. 47:46 for me, so on the slightly more difficult side. Had to work HAMFATTER and the spelling of ATHELING out from WP, otherwise nothing unknown. I once went to Gouda and looked through an open warehouse doorway to see row and rows of shelves full of large wheels of Gouda cheese. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  4. Much enjoyed. Fairly straightforward. GUJARATI was excellent (I couldn’t get GUYANESE out of my head for a while. Thanks setter and blogger.
  5. Enjoyed this. . Not hard, though it took a little persuading that hamfatter is a real word..
  6. I made the mistake of solving this whilst half watching something on tv and found it very tough to get going. I should have given it more respect because I think there was a lot of novelty, invention and cunningly disguised defs or word play in the cluing that deserved proper concentration. Once I got going the answers did start to fall fairly steadily but in all I took 1hr 42 mins to complete. All fair though, the only unknown was 3dn but easily got from wp.
  7. Never quite finished; kept picking it up whilst making tea then dropping it again. I had the benefit of seeing POSTPRANDIAL right off, which made the parts I got go pretty quickly. COD, DOG TAG Thanks for the blog
  8. This was the hardest for weeks for me. Managed to get about half after a lot of effort including Swimming trunks and Estrangement but struggled with the rest.
    I had so many blanks that I managed to fit Lambasted in at 3d ( meat made fatter and being critical??); a good word for another puzzle perhaps.
    The next day I finished the Sunday puzzle! David
  9. Enjoyable crossword, untimed but reasonably quick until the last 3 – correcting GUGIRATI (GIg!) which I thought must have been an alternative spelling, to get ABOMINATE. Then a few minutes searching for something better than HAMFATTER.
    The clue type is usually “and literally” shortened to &lit, so I’d say 4ac is a semi-&lit. Semi-literal makes sense, though.
  10. A cold is not a virus. And show me a context where “front” means “present”
    1. You’ve got me intrigued – always thought a cold was a virus, which is why they are incurable. No virus ever cured by mankind? If not a virus, what is a cold?
      And as verb: present yourself, front the enquiry. Not perfect, but that’s the sense I took it in. See Chambers and Oxford for more precise definitions.
      Rob
  11. I saw this as ‘Hazel Irvine fronts the snooker’/’Hazel Irvine presents the snooker’.

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