17.58, but as I was going through this write up, I was increasingly convinced that it should have been quicker. Lots of clearly telegraphed first, last and middle letters, and a compendium of very common single letter abbreviations. The word IS turns up four times in both clue and answer (once backwards, admittedly). Most of the definitions are pretty straight translations not requiring much lateral thinking. Towards the end, three consecutive clues require reversing all or part for the entry. I did like the way the Burning Man festival was used. I didn’t like the fact that my whole week with a zero error record was fatally compromised. Oh well.
Definitions underlined in italics, Excluded letters are indicated in [square brackets], and everything else should make sense.
| Across | |
| 1 | Business is secure in refuge (7,6) |
| TRAFFIC ISLAND – Business translates to TRAFFIC, and secure to LAND, with the plain IS added. | |
| 9 | Chuck book back in library corridor (5) |
| LOBBY – LOB from chuck, plus B[ook], plus the back of [librar]Y. | |
| 10 | Flashy vehicle regularly involved in accidents (9) |
| AMBULANCE – A just about cryptic definition, which fell out once I stopped trying to use alternate letters of vehicle. Reference the blue lights, of course. | |
| 11 | Diet of mother possibly bearing Irishman’s son? (10) |
| PARLIAMENT – That meaning of diet. Mother is an example of a PARENT, insert LIAM, who might just as well be an Irishman or his son. | |
| 12 | Half of rabble repeated notes (4) |
| RIFF – A rabble is a RIFF-raff. | |
| 14 | Tricked, go back to capture pawn (7) |
| TRAPPED – Go is to DEPART, which is reversed (back) with P[awn] inserted. | |
| 16 | Destructive little creature: call it home at last (7) |
| TERMITE – Call: TERM plus IT and the last of [hom]E | |
| 17 | Chants relax tension (7) |
| INTONES – An anagram (relax) of TENSION | |
| 19 | Honest about element of visual receptivity (7) |
| RETINAL – Honest is REAL, the inserted element is TIN. | |
| 20 | A band item (4) |
| ALSO – One hopes the London Symphony Orchestra doesn’t mind being called a band. A before the initials. Chambers says the also meaning is archaic, a direct translation of Latin. | |
| 21 | Russian city is, in different ways, working OK (10) |
| PERMISSION – PERM is on the banks of the Kama river near the Ural mountains. Add IS both forwards and backwards and ON for working | |
| 24 | One takes first bit of LSD at Burning Man we hear (9) |
| LARCENIST – The first of L[SD] plus a soundalike (we hear) of ARSONIST, a man who burns things. | |
| 25 | A bit kept to one side (5) |
| APART – Very simply A PART for a bit. | |
| 26 | Appearance of male lice, possibly, not new (13) |
| MANIFESTATION – Male gives you MAN and lice are an example of an INFESTATION, from which you delete the N[ew] | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Broadcast each little play on psychic channel (14) |
| TELEPATHICALLY – An anagram (broadcast) of EACH LITTLE PLAY | |
| 2 | Warning signal is a gong, right? (5) |
| AMBER – A plus the MBE medal, or gong plus R[ight] | |
| 3 | Race, leaning over and dropping in the wrong place (3-7) |
| FLY TIPPING – I gather if you live in strike-hit Birmingham at present you don’t have much option bar this otherwise antisocial practice. Here it’s FLY for race and TIPPING from leaning over. | |
| 4 | Heart of sanctum violated given special protection (7) |
| CHARMED – The middle letter of sanCtum plus HARMED for violated. | |
| 5 | Small section of cake executive eats (7) |
| SUBUNIT – A colloquial executive is SUIT, taking in a BUN or cake. | |
| 6 | Turner cut round back of panel (4) |
| AXLE – AXE from cut, and the back end of [pane]L inserted. | |
| 7 | Study Renaissance artist’s sound teeth (9) |
| DENTITION – Everything in me was screaming O not A at the end, but for some reason I thought the definition was sound teeth, still wrong. Study is DEN and the sound of the artist TITIAN give you the rest. | |
| 8 | Often, wellbeing results from cooking this rich food (4,10) |
| BEEF WELLINGTON – An anagram (results from cooking) of OFTEN WELLBEING. | |
| 13 | City urchin is hot stuff (10) |
| BRATISLAVA – Capital of Slovakia. Urchin: BRAT, plus IS, plus LAVA for hot stuff. | |
| 15 | Lower oneself, rolling round in rotten manure: it conveys immunity (9) |
| ANTISERUM – Lower oneself is SIT, which is reversed (rolling around) and inserted into an anagram (rotten) of MANURE. | |
| 18 | Official in force shoots up, injecting heroin (7) |
| SHERIFF – F[orce] plus FIRES from shoots reversed (up), with H[eroin] inserted. | |
| 19 | Viewer about to hold annual test for wireless devices (7) |
| REMOTES – Viewer is SEER, to be reversed (about). In the UK, the MOT (Ministry of Transport) test is mandatory for cars over 3 years old. Insert. | |
| 22 | I spoil one type of porcelain (5) |
| IMARI – You might guess, correctly, that it’s Japanese. I plus MAR for spoil plus I (one) | |
| 23 | Humble, with endless resources (4) |
| MEAN – resources are MEANS from which the end disappears. | |
DNF. My NHOs all discussed above so I won’t revise them unnecessarily.
Difficult and annoyed by 20a . LSO = band , I don’t think so, and Item = also – it certainly is archaic!
DNF
I’ve deleted my long rant and will just say ALSO was not my favourite clue. I got it but didn’t put it in as it was “obviously” nonsense. Grrr!
LARCENIST takes the COD prize and pays for ALSO!
Thanks everyone
No time to report as I was doing this while watching the world athletic championships this afternoon. I did find it fairly tough however, and struggled to finish in the sw corner. I thought I’d made it only to discover I’d joined the long list of those who went for DENTICIAN.
20A “Also” for Item! NHO
Back to normal taking 21:58 today
LOI ALSO which was one of only a few words I could think of that fit. Then I realised LSO and decided it ‘had to be’ even though I didn’t really understand the Item bit.
Also had NHO IMARI though I felt confident.
Thanks setter and blogger
40:59
My LOI, AXLE, required an alphabet trawl
Thanks Z and setter
Slow to even start, as I only had half of 1a, but happily PARLIAMENT jumped out at me TELEPATHICALLY, and I was off and (not exactly) running. NHOs were ANTISERUM, FLY TIPPING, SUBUNIT and PERM the city. So, a few lookups, but was rewarded for hard work eventually, with MANIFESTATION, BEEF WELLINGTON ( very much in the News here in Oz atm), and DENTITION all ok. As I work with pen and a paper printout, I have no issue with the typeface, etc. enjoyed, Especially DENTITION and IMARI.