A pleasant enough challenge, not much tougher than a Monday offering I thought; with nothing I couldn’t explain. Twenty minutes all told.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics
| Across | |
| 1 | Undesirable trade for jam-maker? (7) |
| TRAFFIC – cryptic double definition. | |
| 5 | What peer has, back from old country with retro-style fashion (7) |
| DUKEDOM – D (back of old) UK, MODE reversed. | |
| 9 | Going over part of Glinka score (3) |
| NIL – hidden reversed, as in a football score. | |
| 10 | Close case of burglary, with judge stopping disrespect by low criminal (5,2,4) |
| CHEEK BY JOWL – CHEEK (disrespect) (LOW)* = low criminal, with B(urglar)Y, J(udge) inserted. | |
| 11 | Beginner admitting learner is to have difficulties (8) |
| FLOUNDER – insert L into FOUNDER. | |
| 12 | Fatter? One’s cut out food here (6) |
| LARDER – take the I out of LARDIER= fatter. | |
| 15 | Advanced slowly, for the most part (4) |
| LENT – mostly LENTO. | |
| 16 | With sitar periodically playing sing out forte (6,4) |
| STRONG SUIT – STR (S i T a R periodically) then (SING OUT)*. | |
| 18 | Check energy in sweet food (4,6) |
| STEM GINGER – STEM = check, hold back; GINGER = energy, pep. | |
| 19 | Gnome eating large salad (4) |
| SLAW – SAW (gnome, saying) insert L. Coleslaw, one of the most inedible and revolting foods known to man, IMO. | |
| 22 | Feign problem in sea, swimming (6) |
| ASSUME – SUM in (SEA)*. | |
| 23 | Relieve pressure with everything consumed by me (8) |
| PALLIATE – P, ALL I ATE = consumed by me. Not a word I’d seen but obvious from the more common palliative (care). | |
| 25 | Inexperienced footballer is tender of course (11) |
| GREENKEEPER – GREEN = inexperienced, KEEPER = goalkeeper. Chap in charge of golf course maintenance. | |
| 27 | Evasive sort of scoundrel losing face (3) |
| EEL – scoundrel = HEEL, loses its H. Eels are slippery, so evasive I presume. | |
| 28 | Dismiss site in Yorkshire Dales with no beers (3-4) |
| RED-CARD – REDCAR is a town in Yorkshire, D(ales) = no beers. | |
| 29 | Name of Parisian in hat drinking tea, we hear (7) |
| ENTITLE – EN (French for IN) TILE (hat) with T (sounds like tea) inserted. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Appreciative, after leaving hotel, for some fuel (7) |
| TANKFUL – THANKFUL loses H for hotel. | |
| 2 | Cricketers in a game bagging a couple of fifties (3-8) |
| ALL-ROUNDERS – A, ROUNDERS (game) insert LL (two fifties). Cricketers who both bat and bowl well. | |
| 3 | City plugging financial resource that’s productive (6) |
| FECUND – EC (City of London) inside FUND (financial resource). | |
| 4 | Temperate miner wanting clothing for his daughter? (10) |
| CLEMENTINE – CLEMENT (temperate as in the weather), INE (mINEr unclothed). As in the American lament Oh My Darling Clementine. I only know the rude version. | |
| 5 | Day you will invest a thousand in bank (4) |
| DYKE – D(ay), YE (you) with K (1000) inserted. | |
| 6 | Cardinal left ship somewhere in Florida (3,5) |
| KEY LARGO – KEY (cardinal) L(eft) ARGO (legendary ship). | |
| 7 | Report of outstanding au pair (3) |
| DUO – sounds like “DUE, AU”. | |
| 8 | Spy desert rodent (4,3) |
| MOLE RAT – MOLE = spy, RAT = desert. | |
| 13 | Clad in jacket, a low-down participant in espionage (6,5) |
| DOUBLE AGENT – DOUBLET (sort of jacket) has A, GEN (low-down) inserted. | |
| 14 | Say more than enough after turning over of king (3,7) |
| FOR EXAMPLE – AMPLE (more than enough) after OF reversed then REX = king. | |
| 17 | Narcissist’s failing badly in a game to hold onto ball (8) |
| EGOMANIA – (IN A GAME)* with O (ball) inserted. | |
| 18 | Many fleeing country with ill-gotten gains act confidently (7) |
| SWAGGER – SWAG (ill-gotten gains) GER(MANY). | |
| 20 | Thrilled comment about priest’s riding trick (7) |
| WHEELIE – WHEE ! I’m thrilled, with the usual priest ELI inserted. | |
| 21 | A little bloomer from news source without knowledge (6) |
| FLORET – FT (Financial Times) with LORE inserted. | |
| 24 | Interpret article penned by Marx or Engels? (4) |
| READ – RED (as Marx and Engels) with A inserted. | |
| 26 | Tip, either one from Eve, Norman and David (3) |
| END – either the first or last letters of each of EvE, NormaN, DaviD. | |
A strange mixture of those that found it tough and those that were on the wavelength. I was in the latter camp finishing in a creditable (for me) time of 31.16. My only mistake was initially to spell CLEMENTINE with a middle A, but this was soon corrected when FLOUNDER was solved.
Enjoyable crossword, my LOI ENTITLE
34:40. A good time, putting me with those who found it easier, although I somehow felt I was doing unusually well with a hard puzzle. I didn’t like NIL defined as a (football) score and wondered if there might be more to it (to do with scoring out, say) but no. I enjoyed the rest, including FOR EXAMPLE, WHEELIE, FLORET and DUO
Two things: didn’t know Clementine from the song was a miner’s daughter, so that clue goes way up in my estimation. The only miner’s daughter I know is Loretta Lynn, and only because one of my pet dogs was named after her.
And is stem ginger sweet? I find it kind of sharp and spicy, but sweet is not something I would ever use to describe it. Except of course when it’s glacé, with many kilograms of added sugar.
And. the other second one.. I like coleslaw.
I found some of this easy and some very tricky. The top half went in with little effort, but I was held up by SLAW/WHEELIE/EEL/ENTITLE and SWAGGER/STEM GINGER/RED CARD. TANKFUL and TRAFFIC went in first soon followed by CLEMENTINE, which I liked a lot. SLAW was LOI. I like coleslaw, especially with cheese in it. DUO took a while too. 25:48. Thanks setter and Pip.
Cheese in coleslaw? Interesting concept- I suppose I should try it someday when feeling adventurous. Is it in creamy or vinegary version of coleslaw?
Creamy usually. You’ll find it in all the supermarkets as Cheesy coleslaw or similar.
About 20 mins
Nice puzzle – no dramas.
Thanks, pip.
Never heard of Key Largo. But I knew Key West and Mar-a-lago (where top secret documents are stored) so eventually arrived at the right destination.
“Across the north and south to Key Largo, love for sale” (Sade, “Smooth Operator”, 1984)
“Key Largo, Montego, baby why don’t we go?” (Beach Boys, “Kokomo”, 1988)
29:52
I’m with Normo in that the top half flew in, followed by a much chewier bottom half.
Looking at the blog, realised that I’d missed a considerable amount of parsing and bunged several answers in from definition, sometimes with help from spacing. Really should be more appreciative of the setter’s efforts!
I was in the hard camp for this, making really heavy weather of it. NHO Mole rat, and was slow on Slaw. Liked Clementine and Cheek by jowl. In fact liked the whole crossword after it was done but not while doing it. I’m off to do yesterday’s 15×15 now, which looks easier on the Snitch.
Days like this are where I rely on this community – finished in 22:41 with everything crossed as I did not understand floret, entitle or traffic. Thanks so much for the parsing.
COD to swagger for me.
Thanks P and setter
Little bit Mondayish, but at 29 mins, quite a few holdups. Unfortunately the last letter I typed in was a typo…. I was so convinced that the WHEELIE clue was about horse riding that I started thinking about how you could do that on a horse.
Quite a tough one, but some lovely clues, with cleverly disguised surfaces. LOI was STEM GINGER.
Pleased to get an all correct finish- avoided the OWL club today
Thanks to Pip and Setter
I loved this crossword. Some very inventive ways of making lovely surface readings, and misleading places to break the clue between literal and wordplay. But I fell at the last fence (trying a wheelie maybe) when I didn’t know PALLIATE but I thought MALLEATE was a word. Which it is, although it means to beat thin, so not lessen the more general sense. I convinced myself it fitted the wordplay (“all” in “me” and then “ate”) but by that point I’d forgotten I knew it started with a P.
“forte” in the clue for 16A is an interesting word. In the sense of the clue it is pronounced like fort, since it is from the French word for strong. But people consider you uneducated if you don’t pronounce it fort-ay, from the Italian word for loud, which is not how it arrived in English.
15:02. I really enjoyed this and have half a dozen ticks of appreciation on my paper copy. I’m in neither the “Mondayish” nor “quite hard” camps finishing in a little under an average time for me, with FLORET my LOI just because it was the last one left to solve. No particular hold up, but I had to pause and work out the wordplay for a few. COD to “…Oh my darling CLEMENTINE” with the clue’s clever reference to the ’49er Dad. Thanks Pip and setter.
Judging from the times of my usual cohort, I am behind the pack on 28’37”. End of day solve, maybe. Very much enjoyed it though, especially DUO which was my POI. CHEEK BY JOWL LOI, the definition so cunningly hidden. KEY LARGO is also a great Bogart film, about a hotel, a hurricane and a load of gangsters.
I enjoyed this puzzle, which for me was in the middle ground between easy and difficult. Finished in 25 minutes which is about my average. No beefs.
FOI – TRAFFIC
LOI – CLEMENTINE
COD – STRONG SUIT, not really difficult but still quite clever, I thought.
Thanks to piquet and other contributors.
16:54 for me early evening. So, average difficulty I guess in my book. Not a steady solve with the last few clues in the NE corner falling like dominoes, only once I cracked 10 ac “cheek by jowl” . This had been hampered by my having put in some letters in the wrong order earlier for some reason within 4d “clementine” my COD incidentally.
Plenty of fine clueing, an enjoyable solve.
Thanks to setter and Pip for an informative blog.
I trundled through this one quite steadily. I thought it was a nice puzzle, although I was lucky enough to be sitting on the beach in the glorious sunshine with a stem ginger ice cream yesterday so perhaps that helped me tune in quicker. Thanks for the blog.
27.42.
5a and 5 and 7d held me up the most, as DUKEDOM just wouldn’t appear, and I convinced myself that TWO was the answer to 7d (well, it means pair and outstanding, as in OTT, no?) and by thinking that day was the definition for 5d.
However, appreciated the cleverness of 1a and 4d (both entered with some confidence) with the lovely FECUND helping me into CHEEK BY JOWL – probably my COD. Also held up by forgetting football terminology, so had GREEN?????? for too long a time. NHO PALLIATE, but should have worked it out; enjoyed STEM GINGER (though I don’t normally), and WHEELIE for the fun. SLAW I can take or leave.