Times Saturday 26742 — June 3, 2017. It’s got my name on it

Pulling on the No 12 shirt again this week while our Saturday Centre Forward is away. If he’s done the puzzle, he surely won’t have missed the several spades (21dn) and one heart (7dn).

The lower half, I found, was harder than the top. An early insertion of 13dn would have helped a great deal. But it required a bit of a look-up after finally getting it from the crossers.

Across

1. Our neighbour pours energy into Stalinist factory (3,6)

RED PLANET: Insert an E (energy) into RED (Stalinist), PLANT (factory).

6. Heavens returning that a hymn covers (2,3)

MY HAT: Hidden reversed in ’thaT A HYMy’. Roughly equivalent expressions of surprise, with ‘My hat!’ in its meaning as ‘Goodness!’; as opposed to the ‘nonsense’ meaning. Collins gives both.

9. Noisy bird kept by family died — utopia! (5,6,4)

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND: LOUD (noisy), CUCKOO (bird) inside CLAN (family) + D (died). Roughly equivalent to ‘utopia’, though with a slighly more derogatory feel perhaps. Thomas More’s alt. title: Cloud Cuckoo Land?

On a very slightly related matter, I’ve often wondered why the first syllable of the name of the bird is pronounced differently from that of an adultress’s husband.

|ˈkʊkuː| vs |ˈkʌk(ə)ld|. And then why some TV chefs pronounce ‘cook’ as if it were the first syllable of the latter. The horrid reversal isn’t confined to chefs either. The TV series on James Cook had a narrator who used the latter pronunciation. I had to turn it off after 5 minutes. By ’eck! ’e were a Yorkshireman and would have cringed. Had he known.

10. Asleep at work? I ask you (6)

PLEASE: Anagram of ‘Asleep’.

11. Ominous as no end of wine is knocked back (8)

SINISTER: Reverse RETSIN{a}, IS.

13. Lose one’s senses and prepare to parade with nothing on (4,2,4)

FALL IN LOVE: FALL IN (prepare to parade, in the military sense) + LOVE (nothing).

14. Opening of bottles: port and spirit (4)

BRIO: B{ottles}, RIO (port).

16. To wander in small wood not good (4)

ROVE: {g}ROVE (small wood) minus G (good).

17. Wish Joy to pull out, in the outcome (10)

FELICITATE: ELICIT (pull out) inside FATE (outcome).

19. Seafood cut back severely (8)

PILCHARD: Reverse CLIP + HARD (severely).

I tend to reserve ’seafood’ for shellfish; but the usual sources include sea fish (in this case a variety of herring).

20. Turning round front of tap, place to dry out washer (6)

BATHER: Reverse REHAB (place to dry out); insert T{ap}.

23. Commonly, genuine regret distorts a person’s proper allegiance (4,4,7)

ONE’S TRUE COLOURS: {h}ONEST (‘genuine’ and drop your H), RUE (regret), COLOURS (distorts).

Slightly odd since ‘honest’ is not aspirated such that the ‘common’ pronunciation might add an aspirated H. As in Sir H-Alf Ramsey.

24. Insect eats it, right? (5)

FITLY: Fit IT into FLY.

25. Some hated to destroy what settler built up (9)

HOMESTEAD: Anagram of ‘Some hated’.

Down

1. Playing-field program cut short, not to cover any new ground (5)

RECAP: REC (Playing-field), AP{p} (program).

2. Contribute fully, though showing no inclination? (2,4,5,4)

DO ONE’S LEVEL BEST: I suppose the second part of the clue could well indicate — albeit in a slightly facetious way — that, if the level is done best, then no inclination (slope) will be evident.

3. Sadly mistaken, start to cheer title (8)

LADYSHIP: Anagram of ’sadly’ + HIP (starting word of the communal cheer ‘hip hip hooray!’).

4. Common sense is all but pointless (4)

NOUS: No us{e}.

5. Speak irreverently of capture to no purpose (4,2,4)

TAKE IN VAIN: TAKE (capture), IN VAIN (to no purpose).

6. Revolutionary teacher upset native islanders (6)

MAORIS: MAO (Revolutionary), RIS, reverse of ‘Sir’ (teacher).

7. In play, chuck earth over series of pots on top of building (10,5)

HEARTBREAK HOUSE: Anagram of ‘earth’ + BREAK (series of pots, in snooker etc.), HOUSE (building).

One of GBS’s little numbers subtitled ‘A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes’.

8. New orders out for house badge (5,4)

TUDOR ROSE: Anagram of ‘orders out’. The house is the royal house of Tudor.

12. Be on the street picking up slippers, not even parking inside (5,5)

SLEEP ROUGH: Reverse EELS (slippers … at a pinch); add ROUGH (not even); insert P for ‘parking’.

13. Strong censure one received, like Abednego (9)

FIREPROOF: F (strong), REPROOF (censure); insert I (one).

Abednego is one of a trio (along with Shadrach and Meshach) who appear in the collection of folktales that make up the OT book of Daniel. These three, Daniel’s mates, were chucked on the fire by Nebuchadnezzar but survived. Oddly enough, four men are seen emerging from the flames. It’s been a while but Jonathan Creek is still on the case.

15. Astonishing events as drivers get through long distances (8)

MIRACLES: Insert RAC (drivers) into MILES (long distances).

Doesn’t work here because (a) our RAC is just another faceless company that couldn’t care less about drivers, let alone be them; and (b) miles are normal sorts of distances. So I guess we have to assume the figurative ‘miles’ as in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0iqg2UanEc

18. Ruined abbey site is a bit close (6)

WHITBY: WHIT (a little bit), BY (close).

Hands up those in the class who were looking for an anagram?

21. Soundly erected, to be knocked down with spades not unknown (5)

RASED: Sounds like ‘raised’. That becomes ‘razed’ (knocked down). Then the alt. spelling of that word is signalled by changing the Z (unknown) to S (spades). Fiendish!

22. Mischievous child, not complete fraud (4)

SCAM{p}.