I have absolutely know idea why this took me 25.23, as there’s only one word I didn’t know, the cheese, and everything else is pretty straightforward, if occasionally requiring rather more elaborate construction work. All the anagrams are in the down clues, and we have three uncomplicated double definitions, two of them being just two words. In keeping with the new tradition, I’m setting this to post at 0800 GMT.
Definitions underlined in italics, the rest quixotically
| Across | |
| 1 | Winning gamble — result! (6) |
| UPSHOT – When winning you are UP on the rest of the field. Gamble is SHOT | |
| 5 | Brown has muzzled dog, keeping it quiet (8) |
| TACITURN – A matryoshka clue. IT kept in CUR (dog) “muzzled” by TAN (brown) | |
| 9 | Greek character in second statue? (8) |
| MONUMENT – Of the 24 or so possibilities, you want NU, which you place in MOMENT for second. | |
| 10 | Fancy horse that’s hugging rails initially (6) |
| FRILLY – Horse gives you FILLY, insert the initial letter of Rails | |
| 11 | Place no longer functions, decorate building on high street? (4,6) |
| POST OFFICE – If you’re lucky, these days, though the postmaster may soon be a lot better of, and quite right too. Place gives POST (what I’ll be doing around 8 this morning) no longer OFF, and decorate as in cake ICE. | |
| 13 | Wrong pace after retirement (4) |
| TORT – TROT is a pace between walking and running reversed for the legal wrong. | |
| 14 | Something soft on the ground (4) |
| DOWN – Really easy once you see it: two definitions | |
| 15 | OK, one has cut source of fibre — half one’s loaf? (5,5) |
| RIGHT BRAIN – Supposedly the more visual and intuitive side, probably the bit that helps most with solving cryptics. OK is RIGHT, then you have I (one) in BRAN, a source of dietary fibre. | |
| 18 | Courage is lacking in this mug, lovely chap? (10) |
| HEARTTHROB – Courage is HEART, knock is off TH |
|
| 20 | Writer of silent work shut up (4) |
| CAGE – John CAGE’s best known work is 4’33”, this being a very slightly noisy recording. | |
| 21 | A musical, but not a book (4) |
| ACTS – The musical required is CATS. Include the A at the beginning, remove the A in the musical, and you have book 5 in the NT. | |
| 23 | About to fail — like one’s indicators? (2,3,5) |
| ON THE BLINK – Virtually a double definition. You can argue that indicators are not blinking unless they’re doing their job. | |
| 25 | Fines collected, last of those stuffed into trousers (6) |
| LEVIES – Product placement. The E from the end of thosE placed into Levi’s®, a way of making workaday trousers expensive. | |
| 26 | Course that’s hard in Notts town (8) |
| WORKSHOP – The Nottinghamshire town is WORKSOP (if pushed, I would have said it was in Yorkshire). Insert H(ard) | |
| 28 | Ask for private trainee (8) |
| BEGINNER – Ask is BEG, and private INNER | |
| 29 | Old carriage I observed in pursuit (6) |
| CHAISE – I have one from 1902 that is longue and not a carriage, but this one is and is I inside CHASE for pursuit. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Book one has expert on cheese (9) |
| PROVOLONE – Must be a thing, you can get it in Tesco’s. I’ve got an order coming up, maybe I’ll add it and let you know. Book: VOL, one – um – ONE, with PRO for expert on top. | |
| 3 | Move south and north touring old US city (7) |
| HOUSTON – An anagram (first of the day!) of SOUTH plus N(orth) pus O(ld). We have no problem. | |
| 4 | Draw string (3) |
| TIE – So indeed draw as in football score, string possibly intended as that sort of tie | |
| 5 | With all players expressing disapproval, sending off no good (5) |
| TUTTI – Expressing disapproval is TUTTING, knock off the N(o) G(ood) | |
| 6 | Furniture item, rope securing pedal? (6,5) |
| COFFEE TABLE – Pedal means of the foot, or in our case OF FEET. Tie a CABLE rope round the assembly. | |
| 7 | Laugh, glugging whiskey in state of excitement (7) |
| TWITTER – Now X of course. Laugh is TITTER, and the W comes from Whiskey courtesy of NATO. | |
| 8 | Measure sovereign (5) |
| RULER – Two definitions. | |
| 12 | Relative Fleming, say, rubbed out in Russian fiction novel (5,6) |
| FIRST COUSIN – Don’t do what I did and cast around for a Dostoyevsky. Instead, take IAN (Fleming) away from RUSSIAN, add FICTION and scramble (novel). | |
| 16 | Fish swimming around hooks (3) |
| GAR – Today’s hidden in swimminG ARound. | |
| 17 | Clever voiding of guarantee, unions I suspect defending it (9) |
| INGENIOUS – Void guarantee, leaving just the GE, insert into an anagram (suspect) of UNIONS I. | |
| 19 | Italian maestro edges away from junction, heading for Italy (7) |
| ROSSINI – Composer of the Lone Ranger theme. Junction is CROSSING, knock off the edges to leave ROSSIN and put on the first letter (or indeed the IVR code) for Italy. | |
| 20 | English accessing castle, tipsy — is one hammered? (7) |
| CELESTA – The keyboard with hammers, sound of the Sugar Plum Fairy. E(nglish) included in and anagram (tipsy) of CASTLE | |
| 22 | Island oddly curved then (5) |
| CRETE – The odd letters of CuRvEd ThEn. | |
| 24 | Skyscraper, say, erected on what? (5) |
| TOWER – It’s RE for on or about, and WOT the less couth version of what. Chambers does not confirm. | |
| 27 | Mythical bird bigger, so gigantic ultimately (3) |
| ROC – The last letters (ultimately) of biggeR sO gigantiC. | |
Knew the cheese, when I finally cheated and looked it up! ( Have to know what you thought you didn’t know…). Quite a few delightful PDMs, among them COFFEE TABLE , TUTTI, ON THE BLINK and RIGHT BRAIN, but COD to ACTS for its simplicity. Did better than usual today.