Time: 43 minutes. Very enjoyable, but I lost momentum part way through and took a while to get things going again.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a Caret sign ⁁ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Student going further out grasped at rocks (12) |
| POSTGRADUATE – Anagram [rocks] of OUT GRASPED AT | |
| 8 | Gold coin supply initially offering liquidity within South American banks? (7) |
| ORINOCO – OR, (gold), anagram [supply] of COIN, then O{ffering} [initially] is the wordplay followed by a somewhat cryptic definition. | |
| 9 | Leader not in mood for beheaded king (7) |
| EMPEROR – {t}EMPER (mood) [leader not in…], {f}OR [beheaded] | |
| 11 | Left apple perhaps containing hard material (7) |
| LEATHER – L (left), EAT⁁ER (apple perhaps) containing H (hard) | |
| 12 | Language is difficult to begin with — it takes up half a lecture (7) |
| DIALECT – D{ifficult} [to begin with], then I⁁T contains [takes up] A + LEC{ture} [half]. A is part of the count. | |
| 13 | Handle strong joint when touring India (5) |
| WIELD – W⁁ELD (strong joint) containing [touring] I (India) | |
| 14 | Hairdo’s damp swimming with duck in stream (9) |
| POMPADOUR – Anagram [swimming] of DAMP + O (duck) contained by [in] PO⁁UR (stream) | |
| 16 | Be first to sympathise, bandaging servant’s facial injuries (5,4) |
| BLACK EYES – B⁁E + S{ympathise} [first to…] containing [bandaging] LACKEY (servant) | |
| 19 | Footwear’s unpleasant smell during day (5) |
| SABOT – BO (unpleasant smell) contained by [during] SA⁁T (day) | |
| 21 | Retired gangster secures daggers for border resident (7) |
| LOBELIA – AL (gangster – Capone) reversed [retired] contains [secures] OBELI (daggers – ††). A bedding plant of the bellflower family. | |
| 23 | Billions invested in base in charge of autonomous machines (7) |
| ROBOTIC – B (billions) contained by [invested in] RO⁁OT (base), then IC (in charge) | |
| 24 | Scored Barcelona’s opener — son was emotional about it (7) |
| SCRIBED – S (son), CRI⁁ED (was emotional) containing [about] B{arcelona’s} [opener]. ‘It’ in the clue refers back to Barcelona’s opener. Collins: scribe (verb) – to score a line on (a surface) with a pointed instrument, as in metalworking. I didn’t know this meaning. | |
| 25 | Capital Radio’s focus is boring live band (7) |
| BRIGADE – RIGA (capital) + {ra}D{io} [’s focus] contained by [is boring] BE (live) | |
| 26 | Jabber sometimes confused things with crew (12) |
| WELTERWEIGHT – WELTER (confused things), W (with), EIGHT (crew – rowing). ODE: welter – a confused mass. | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | A third of prize fund Victor had not overlooked (7) |
| PRIVATE – PRI{ze fund} [a third of…], V (Victor), ATE (had). Along with 12ac, that’s twice in this puzzle that we’ve been required to count the letters of two adjacent words to work out how many letters to delete. | |
| 2 | Second old drunk gulping sherry, half-cut — or worse (7) |
| SLOSHED – S (second) anagram [drunk] of OLD containing [gulping] SHE{rry} [half-cut]. The definition ‘worse’ refers back to ‘half-cut’ which is slang for drunk. ‘Sloshed’ by comparison is more likely to mean very drunk. | |
| 3 | Scientific study hugely lacking content — below average effort, say, all round (9) |
| GEOGRAPHY – PAR (average) + GO (effort) + EG (say) all reversed [all round], then H{ugel}Y [lacking content] sits below it in the grid | |
| 4 | First-class doctor introducing energy and new remedy (5) |
| AMEND – A (first-class), M⁁D (doctor) containing [introducing] E (energy) + N (new) | |
| 5 | City University starts to promote professors in review, unfortunately (7) |
| UPPSALA – U (university), P{romote} + P {rofessors} [starts to…], then ALAS (unfortunately) reversed [in review]. A city in Sweden that caught me out last time it appeared with less friendly wordplay. | |
| 6 | Weapon excessively constrains communist holding power (7) |
| TORPEDO – TO⁁O (excessively) contains [constrains] R⁁ED (communist) itself containing [holding] P (power) | |
| 7 | Stomach ache convulsed bellboy with scowl (12) |
| COLLYWOBBLES – Anagram [convulsed] of BELLBOY SCOWL | |
| 10 | It’ll get you back on time — vessel, flash and extremely elegant (6,6) |
| RETURN TICKET – RE (on), T (time), URN (vessel), TICK (flash), E{legan}T [extremely] | |
| 15 | In some measure, uncovers upset and melancholy (9) |
| MISERABLE – BARES (uncovers) reversed [upset] contained by [in] MI⁁LE (some measure) | |
| 17 | Plant-based food abandoned by popular French eatery (7) |
| AUBERGE – AUBERG{in}E (plant-based food) [abandoned by popular – in] | |
| 18 | I throw cutting equipment in storage unit (7) |
| KILOBIT – I + LOB (throw) contained by [cutting] KIT (equipment) | |
| 19 | Relative’s medical suspension to include iodine and boron (7) |
| SIBLING – S⁁LING (medical suspension) containing [to include] I (iodine) + B (boron) | |
| 20 | Without Hollywood’s backing, Brad Pitt plays minor role (3,4) |
| BIT PART – Anagram [plays] of BRA{d}PITT [without Hollywood’s backing – d] | |
| 22 | Tree in Hampshire town — photograph is taken (5) |
| ALDER – ALDER{shot} (Hampshire town) [photograph is taken] | |
DIALECT and EMPEROR were not difficult, but I found the parsing quite hard. Don’t think I’ve seen the two words divided before in a clue. And for EMPEROR I wrongly took the literal to be ‘leader’ with the king (R) as the final letter in the answer. I think we had POMPADOUR recently, so that was a write-in otherwise I’d never have known it. Didn’t know the required meaning of ‘welter’ in WELTERWEIGHT but with all checkers in place it had to be. Liked COLLYWOBBLES.
Thanks Jack and setter.
LOI PRIVATE, with the definition as elusive as the two-word count in the wordplay. Checked that definition for SCRIBE.
23:21
Biff City; never did parse GEOGRAPHY. It took me some time to twig to A LEC and PRI. DNK SCRIBED. DNK that Aldershot is in Hampshire, and ‘shot’ took me some time to come up with.
One hint for solvers: if you put the answer for 8 across in the space for 6 down, your solve will be very slow. No idea how that happened. Even after correcting, I couldn’t parse emperor or dialect. Is a king an emperor? I also spent ages trying to remember the UK word collywobbles.
Time: 41:31
10:31 – I found this one fairly tricky and WELTERWEIGHT was my last in based on definition.
My LOI was PRIVATE. I also had a MER at “king” and EMPEROR being the same. Also AUBERGE means an inn rather than a restaurant, although many inns have restaurants too. I didn’t know that meaning of WELTER but it was the only WEIGHT for boxing that woould fit so in it went.
Historically king and emperor can be the same but the titles are also interchangeable (along with many other titles) when used colloquially to describe a powerful person. As so often with crosswords, meanings don’t need to be identical in every situation.
10:51 for an enjoyable outing. Took a while at the end to see the parsing of BRIGADE.
COLLYWOBBLES has an entirely different meaning in Australian football. It refers to the propensity of the Collingwood Magpies to find ways not to win a title in the period from 1958 to 1990. Consequently it’s a word that evokes pleasure rather than distress!
Some great clues here, starting with POSTGRADUATE. Also liked the use of “jabber” and “medical suspension”.
Thanks Jack and setter.