I’m not particularly enthusiastic about my 21.12 time – I couldn’t get a foothold in the NW and went around the grid from the NE quarter, sometimes with only bit of answers entered. It all came together in the end. I think there are a few rather iffy bits, and certainly some that derive more from the other side of the Pond rather than from the King’s English. But I don’t think it’s particularly frightening and early times are pretty quick.
Definitions underlined in italics, excluded letters are [enclosed] and I make up most of the rest.
| Across | |
| 1 | One breaking up light or formal gathering so lovelessly (5) |
| PRISM – PRIM for formal gathers, takes in, SO without its 0 or love. | |
| 4 | Spars with parent boxing in street with son (9) |
| MAINMASTS – I would have said that spars were the transverse rods that support the sails rather than the masts, which held me up a while, but I’m prepared to accept Chambers’ definition of spar(s) as being “a general term for masts, yards, booms, gaffs, etc”. Anyway, it’s parent MAMA with IN enclosed followed by ST[reet] and S[on] | |
| 9 | Music practice — it may contain hard, boring bit (4,5) |
| ROCK DRILL – Ah, endlessly running up and down your scales and arpeggios. But not here. Music translates to ROCK and practice to DRILL, and it had better contain a hard bit or it’s not going far. | |
| 10 | Powerful person, one helping to draw the line? (5) |
| RULER – Two definitions, one whimsical. | |
| 11 | Embellished lecture beginning to nark dons (6) |
| ORNATE – To lecture is to ORATE. The N of nark clothes itself therewith. | |
| 12 | Put off agent employed to hold line (8) |
| REPULSED – REP for agent, USED for employed, L[ine] inserted. | |
| 14 | One keen on deserts is most erratic, moving out of south (10) |
| MERITOCRAT – An anagram (moving) of MOST ERRATIC minus the S[outh]. The just pronunciation of deserts helps. | |
| 16 | It’s used in branding record and disc (4) |
| LOGO – That’s LOG for record and O representing disc. | |
| 19 | Romance and alcohol on vacation one’s spent in Rio (4) |
| REAL – Both RomancE and AlcohoL are emptied. Currency in Brazil. | |
| 20 | Traveller must respect this awfully simple diet (5,5) |
| SPEED LIMIT – A simple anagram (awfully) of SIMPLE DIET. | |
| 22 | Pair cycling around interrupts one who dislikes trouble (3,5) |
| HOT WATER – TWO is the pair that cycles to become OTW, placed inside HATER for one who dislikes. | |
| 23 | Race, going from right to left? It helps if one has a break (6) |
| SPLINT – The race is a SPRINT, in which the R[ight] becomes L[eft]. Not a reversal clue, then. | |
| 26 | To a large extent, show assent about menu’s content (2,3) |
| NO END – Show assent NOD, and the EN innards of menu fill in. | |
| 27 | Worshipper, I understood, needing to swap sides (9) |
| IDEALISER – Start with I REALISED for I understood, and swap the R and D from each end. I’m just about OK with the definition, though I don’t think it’s ideal and I’m not loving it. | |
| 28 | Failed to observe friend with gin dancing around (9) |
| INFRINGED – As in did not observed/obey the rules. An anagram (dancing around) of FRIEND and GIN | |
| 29 | One of the Pretenders with cover of Precious — flipping outstanding! (5) |
| PSEUD – The first and last of P[recious] plus DUE for outstanding “flipping”. And here it is! | |
| Down | |
| 1 | A one-time artiste (9) |
| PERFORMER – It’s that sneaky A=PER again, plus FORMER for one-time. | |
| 2 | Hot fire from the US or from South America once (5) |
| INCAN – Hot – the latest thing – gives IN, and (relying on Chambers) CAN, “to dismiss or sack from a job (N Am slang)” derives from fire. | |
| 3 | Requiring change in China, Buddhists may do so (8) |
| MEDITATE – EDIT for change inserted into MATE, Cockney rhyming slang from China plate. | |
| 4 | Lady could employ one male assistant briefly (4) |
| MAID – Not the strongest of clue IMHO, M[ale] plus AID[e] | |
| 5 | Naughty setter’s going to enjoy appearing in plot (3-7) |
| ILL-BEHAVED – Imagine our setter saying I’LL HAVE for I’m going to enjoy but put the HAVE bit inside BED for plot. Evil version of Rimmer from Red Dwarf: “First I’m going to lash you to within an inch of your life. And then….I’m going to have you….” | |
| 6 | Speak unclearly having knocked back double dose of alcohol (6) |
| MURMUR – The reverse of two RUMs | |
| 7 | Morale’s so poor where public flogging takes place (9) |
| SALESROOM – Apparently a N American version of saleroom. An anagram (poor) of MORALE’S SO | |
| 8 | Fiddle with projectiles going heavenwards (5) |
| STRAD – ivarius. DARTS are the projectiles upside down. | |
| 13 | Carol’s drinking some tea and dashing (10) |
| SCUPPERING – Carol is SING. Insert CUPPER which is (apparently) some tea, but I’d have spelled it CUPPA. So does Chambers. Dashing as in destroying. | |
| 15 | Carvery offering pan with grouse (5,4) |
| ROAST BEEF – Pan (criticise) gives ROAST, and grouse (complain) gives BEEF. | |
| 17 | Won glaring competition with revised tour dates (9) |
| OUTSTARED – An anagram (revised) of tour dates. | |
| 18 | Following border by Turkey, one goes on foot (4-4) |
| FLIP-FLOP – F[ollowing] LIP, border, plus FLOP for turkey, again “chiefly N American.” | |
| 21 | Fan of Independence Day in good article by Hello! (6) |
| GANDHI – D[ay] is inserted into G[ood] AN for article and HI for hello | |
| 22 | Chinese people with bits of information in Asian city (5) |
| HANOI – HAN are Chinese people, O and I are digital bits of information. | |
| 24 | Admission made by litigator tackling small problem (5) |
| ISSUE – A litigator might say “I SUE”. Insert S[mall] | |
| 25 | New guided tours advance (4) |
| LEND – LED for guided “tours” N[ew]. | |
36:48
Although I saw INCAN as a possibility quite early, I assumed it must be wrong as I have never heard can=fire. At the point where I had only two clues left I entered it anyway, which then led to my LOI ROCK DRILL.
Took plenty of time over this. Well constructed, I thought, but with the expected MER over Cupper! Satisfying to finish and parse everything, as it began quite discouragingly until I got the setter’s wavelength.
Took 24’55” which I thought was fair enough until I saw other times. Then it felt a bit on the slow side. But I do my crosswords at the end of the day. All the sprightly retirees get to do them in the morning when their brains are on peak form! CUPPER definitely dodgy.
Haha! Always happy to sneak past your time (and read your posts) and have recently fallen into the sprightly retiree category which caused a smile when I read this (a few days late but retirement is proving unsurprisingly busy…🙂)
Was porlocked by some mates who arrived unexpectedly in the pub in the middle of my engagement with this puzzle, so I can’t give a time. Liked PRISM and STRAD. Didn’t approve of ‘cupper’ – feel that a ‘we hear’ would have been appropriate! – and biffed IDEALISER.
Late to it, but a reasonable effort.
Everything has been said already. I liked this a good deal. In my Goldilocks zone.
18:13
I don’t normally comment, but my dodgy sense of humour just has to point out the double definition version of 2d….
Hot fire = CHILLI, as any curry lover knows
from the US = use the US spelling = CHILI
or from South America once = Chile before the Spanish = CHILI