A pleasant workout with a couple of unusual words but nothing exceptional. So far I have failed to parse 21a to my satisfaction. I liked “announcement about match” best. No hidden word clues. Not much more to add.
EDIT can’t believe I failed to see the explanation for KNOCK, thanks jackkt and others for the input.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Crucial moment of stomach workout? (6,4) |
| CRUNCH TIME – cryptic definition | |
| 6 | Seize boat that’s docked in reverse (4) |
| GRAB – BARG[e] = boat, docked, then in reverse. | |
| 10 | Construction of bars seen around extravagant home (7) |
| COTTAGE – CAGE around OTT = over the top. | |
| 11 | Was on the bench, say, with team lacking water carrier? (7) |
| SATCHEL – SAT (what judges do), CHEL[sea]. Team, lacking sea / water. | |
| 12 | Time taken up by mixing delicate drink (4,5) |
| ICED LATTE – (DELICATE T)*. | |
| 13 | Grumpy after end of director’s cut for Taxi Driver (5) |
| CABBY – CRABBY (grumpy) loses R the end of director. | |
| 14 | Over Tannoy, makes illegal announcement about match (5) |
| BANNS – sounds like BANS, but wedding banns. | |
| 15 | Exploits Democrat blundering before event (7-2) |
| DERRING-DO – D, ERRING, DO = an event. | |
| 17 | States things in a camera incorrectly? (9) |
| AMERICANA – (IN A CAMERA)*. | |
| 20 | Said yes, ignoring a deadly sin (5) |
| GREED – AGREED loses A. | |
| 21 | Period spent in strike? (5) |
| KNOCK – well, knock can mean strike. But “period spent in”? Is this a slang term for prison time? I can’t find it in prison slang dictionaries. How else does “period spent (in)” mean knock? Enlighten us, please. | |
| 23 | Detectives lost out (9) |
| DISMISSED – DI’S (Detective Inspectors), MISSED (lost). Out as in cricket perhaps. | |
| 25 | Refuse place in sport workshop (7) |
| WEBINAR – BIN (refuse), inside WEAR (sport clothing). My LOI, as I’ve never been at a webinar, having retired from proper work in 2004 before such exotica existed. | |
| 26 | Delivered beer intended for infirmity (7) |
| AILMENT – sounds like (“delivered”) ALE MEANT. | |
| 27 | Star returns seizing time for snack (4) |
| NUTS – SUN reversed with T in it. | |
| 28 | Queen, potentially, with even less money for merchant? (10) |
| PAWNBROKER – a pawn can become a queen in chess; someone broker = more broke, has even less money. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Prickly types caught opening of play (5) |
| CACTI – C[aught], ACT 1 of a play. | |
| 2 | Put ethane in a new configuration to add more risk (2,3,4) |
| UP THE ANTE – (PUT ETHANE)*. | |
| 3 | Islanders check out novel writer (7,7) |
| CHARLES DICKENS – (ISLANDERS CHECK)*. | |
| 4 | Sweet Edward posted to followers (7) |
| TWEETED – TWEE = sweet, TED = Edward. | |
| 5 | Back worker to assemble bulk of money? (7) |
| MASSEUR – MASS (assemble), EUR[o]. | |
| 7 | Right, what was that muscle treatment programme? (5) |
| REHAB -R[ight], EH? (what was that?), AB[dominal muscle]. | |
| 8 | Boy secures lines on trees for film industry (9) |
| BOLLYWOOD – put LL into BOY then WOOD = trees. | |
| 9 | Present lady’s leg? (8,6) |
| STOCKING FILLER – double definition, one whimsical. | |
| 14 | Bishop doesn’t have pale or dark pen, perhaps? (5,4) |
| BLACK SWAN – B[ishop], LACKS, WAN (pale). A pen being a female swan. | |
| 16 | Cries of surprise reach a climax after grand technical jargon (9) |
| GEEKSPEAK – G[rand], EEKS! PEAK. Not a word I knew existed but obvious enough. | |
| 18 | Fixed radar on small European country (7) |
| ANDORRA – (RADAR ON)*. | |
| 19 | Pass with two good marks and a bad one (7) |
| ABSTAIN – A, B (two good marks) STAIN (a bad one). | |
| 22 | Tour regularly has scrap round route (5) |
| ORBIT – [t]O[u]R, BIT = scrap. | |
| 24 | Possibly does without roof of tower block (5) |
| DETER – DEER (possibly does, lady deer) with T[ower] inserted. | |
I correctly guessed KNOCK because of the reference to “strike”, but despite being an avid follower couldn’t see “time spent IN” as being a cricketing allusion. SATCHEL was the only word to fit, but I worked it out only after finishing the whole puzzle. Favourite was definitely PAWNBROKER.
(New Zealand v England second test starts tomorrow at 10.00pm GMT, so another late night is in the offing!)
45 minutes with one mistake. Although CRUNCH TIME came to mind right away, I wasn’t convinced enough by it to reject lots of alternatives, like CLUTCH TIME, CLUNCH TIME (whatever that might be!), or finally CHURCH TIME, which is literally a crucial moment. Unfortunately that is what I entered, just to find out what the correct answer is. I also very much liked the potential Queen.
24 mins. Didn’t know the cricketing reference so biffed “knock” but enjoyed all the rest. Didn’t know that a pawn could become a queen in chess either, but worked it out!
26:31. LOIs MASSEUR and then TWEETED which was going to be a desperate TREATED until a welcome last moment PDM
Spent about an hour on this. Needed help parsing KNOCK. Particularly appreciated PAWNBROKER, SATCHEL, BLACK SWAN (lovely PDM) and ABSTAIN. A really fun puzzle. Thanks for the blog.
We’re nearly always late at night with this one so rarely comment but I would like to record a new PB of 20:48! FOI 1a for us two gym bunnies. LOI GEEKSPEAK. Slapped foreheads at the effort it took for DICKENS to emerge after writing in CHARLES. Liked the PAWN element of 28a. Thanks to setter and piquet.
13:34. COD: REHAB.
Really enjoyed this romp: after staring at the first few clues and getting nowhere, I suddenly “saw” CABBY, and I was off and running. Another exercise in “follow the cryptic” -this one became easy once I adhered to that. Only problem was forgot to spell BANNS properly. I liked solving the NHOs for a change, like WEBINAR and GEEKSPEAK. More of the same please, editor!