I thought I was on for a very quick time as the top half went in at Quickie pace, but part two appropriately glowed with the red of 15 acrosses, and the pace slowed. I also thought that a couple of definitions were a bit tenuous, requiring that three point turn in a Thesaurus, but I was not aware of anything that would earn an obscurity badge, though perhaps the Italian recipe for developing heart attacks was unfamiliar, and sounded indeed more like pasta. I crossed the line in 16.33, pausing occasionally to do my blogger’s unravelling duty.
Definitions underlined in italics, letters deleted or not included indicated by [], the rest as it pleases me.
| Across | |
| 1 | Choose not to take part in work with solicitor (3,3) |
| OPT OUT – OP for work, as in opus, and TOUT for solicitor, not the legal kind. | |
| 5 | Fine food shop to provide food, mostly (8) |
| DELICATE – A food shop is a DELI[catessen], add most of CATE[r] for provide food. | |
| 9 | Check next to one river and another for animals (8) |
| REINDEER – Check: REIN plus the river DEE and a R[iver] | |
| 10 | Elite individuals go after information (6) |
| GENTRY – Mildly unsure of that definition: Chambers gives them as the rank below the nobility, so not really the top of the pile, but the wordplay – TRY for go after GEN for information – leaves no wriggle room | |
| 11 | Terribly bad, bad local I repeatedly trashed (10) |
| DIABOLICAL – An anagram (trashed) of BAD LOCAL and repeated Is | |
| 13 | Has drinks, but no starter (4) |
| OWNS – One expression for drinks is DOWNS. Take off the first letter. | |
| 14 | Article in Libération covering Northern French city (4) |
| LENS – Libération is a French journal so the definite article in front of a plural would be LES. Insert N[orth]. Appropriately Lens is indeed in Northern France, unless it’s in Belgium. Or Switzerland. | |
| 15 | Beset by trouble, degenerate shows sign of slowing down (5,5) |
| BRAKE LIGHT – Degenerate is RAKE (as in his Progress) enclosed by BLIGHT for trouble – again a rather one step removed equivalence. | |
| 18 | Frequent drinking you ultimately had reduced (10) |
| ATTENUATED – Spent a while working this out, though nothing else fits. To frequent is to ATTEND. insert the last of [yo]U and ATE for had. | |
| 20 | Prejudice in book reported to be cut back (4) |
| BIAS – B[ook] plus SAID for reported cut short and reversed. | |
| 21 | Tool does some calculations, we’re told (4) |
| ADZE – Sounds like (we’re told) adds. | |
| 23 | Vessels requiring knotted ropes at bow (5,5) |
| POWER BOATS – An anagram (knotted) of ROPES AT BOW | |
| 25 | A very loud, cool thing (6) |
| AFFAIR – A plus musical FF for very loud (Fortissimo) plus cool as a verb giving AIR. | |
| 26 | It’s not important to gossip about an award (2,6) |
| NO MATTER – Gossip is NATTER, insert OM (Order of Merit) for an award | |
| 28 | Used sneaky tactic filling in legal document (8) |
| DEPLOYED – Sneaky tactic is PLOY inserted in a legal DEED. | |
| 29 | Short, extremely showy gesture of respect (6) |
| CURTSY – CURT for short and the outer letters of S[how]Y | |
| Down | |
| 2 | In part, Republican denies manoeuvring for the top job? (9) |
| PRESIDENT – R[epublican] plus an anagram (manoeuvring) of DENIES in P[ar]T | |
| 3 | Old writer featuring in upcoming total collected works (7) |
| OMNIBUS – O[ld] plus NIB for writer contain in SUM for total reversed (upcoming) | |
| 4 | Cup match level until just before the end (3) |
| TIE – A level is a TIER. Remove its end. | |
| 5 | Greek party in charge of suppressing resistance (5) |
| DORIC – Party is DO, plus I[n] C[harge] with R[esistance] inserted. | |
| 6 | Support key objective with sources of extra reserved money (5,6) |
| LEGAL TENDER – Worked out post submission: it’s LEG for support, ALT from your keyboard, END for objective and the first letters of E[xtra] |
|
| 7 | Nicola messily devours the filling from any creamy pastry (7) |
| CANNOLI – Not surprisingly, an Italian cream filled pastry. An anagram (messily) of NICOLA plus the content of [a]N[y]. | |
| 8 | Cycle around centre of big Italian city (5) |
| TURIN – Cycle gives TURN, and for the second clue in a row, the extra letter, I, comes from the middle of a 3 letter word, this time [b]I[g] | |
| 12 | Political group identified by your and my piece in LA Times (6,5) |
| LABOUR PARTY – Your and my piece translates to OUR PART, enclosed in LA (given) and BY for Times, with a slightly naughty capital letter. | |
| 16 | Fit cheap, tatty clothes (3) |
| APT – Today’s hidden, in cheAP Tatty. | |
| 17 | Cold male lacking pretence (9) |
| HEARTLESS – male is HE, and lacking pretence ARTLESS. | |
| 19 | I shout out loud and look up and down (7) |
| EYEBALL – Another sounds like (out loud) of I BAWL from I shout | |
| 20 | Somebody maybe taking a punt eating tail of foul fish (7) |
| BLOATER – So not a BLETTER, then, but a BOATER for one in a punt, with the last letter of [fou]L inserted | |
| 22 | Excellent, regularly noted author (5) |
| DEFOE – I think its use is now only in dated hip hop movies, but DEF meant excellent, to which we must add the O and E of nOtEd. | |
| 24 | Overcome, journalist enjoyed the delights of Bordeaux? (5) |
| WINED – Overcome gives the simple WIN, and the Crossword journalist ED. | |
| 27 | One held by host? (3) |
| MIC – An MC is a M[aster of] C[eremonies] or host, I or one is inserted. A neat little &lit. | |
28 minutes which is quick for me (the first time i beat my old 10000 metres PB). Then i read this site and find its easy as pie. Ah well i shall never get down to the Bannister Boys sub four.