10:28. Lovely puzzle from Harry this week. A notable number of definitions by example indicated by question marks.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | European tuning a Cortina |
| CROATIAN – (A CORTINA)*. | |
| 5 | Dog food |
| CHOW – DD. | |
| 8 | Thugs primarily regret being honest |
| TRUE – T |
|
| 9 | A pinko brat upset office temp? |
| PORTAKABIN – (A PINKO BRAT)*. | |
| 11 | Snooker player wants these rests |
| BREAKS – DD. A very tidy clue. | |
| 13 | Oscar-holding group on about those in MASH? |
| POTATOES – reversal (about) of SE(O)T, ATOP (on). Not Alan Alda then. | |
| 14 | Cute, undersized mountain climber |
| SWEET PEA – SWEET, PEA |
|
| 16 | Superhero-outfitted knight by a sofa |
| CANAPE – CA(N, A)PE. As always, N is chess notation for ‘knight’, because the K is already taken. | |
| 17 | Europeans importing carbon balls? |
| DANCES – DAN(C)ES. | |
| 19 | On which line’s dropped by Pole with spade? |
| POSTCARD – POST (pole), CARD (spade, DBE indicated by the question mark). Nice definition! | |
| 21 | Cruelty of Ohio judge upset Columbus? |
| FEROCITY – reversal of O, REF, then CITY. Columbus is, appropriately, a city in Ohio, famous for… not very much. | |
| 22 | Coffee-maker unpacked by old lady? |
| ARISTO – |
|
| 23 | A bend hiker negotiated in town |
| BIRKENHEAD – (A BEND HIKER)*. A town in England famous for about as much as Columbus Ohio. | |
| 24 | Potty or bowl over on the counter? |
| NUTS – reversal of STUN. | |
| 26 | Rounds of drinks |
| LAPS – DD. | |
| 27 | Singer taking long look around Lima |
| STARLING – STAR(L)ING. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Jesus makes appearance in Runcorn |
| COR – contained in ‘Runcorn’. | |
| 2 | Work training delivered in talk |
| OPERATE – O(PE)RATE. I got a bit sidetracked here: ‘work is obviously OP… | |
| 3 | Snacks, milk and a slice of salami |
| TAPAS – TAP (milk), A, S |
|
| 4 | Roman general with a hold over father |
| AGRIPPA – A GRIP, PA. | |
| 6 | Try old wine mostly and become happy |
| HEARTEN – HEAR, TEN |
|
| 7 | Pale soul gets thinner |
| WHITE SPIRIT – WHITE (pale), SPIRIT (soul). | |
| 10 | A stack battered over time in storms |
| ATTACKS – (A STACK)* containing T. | |
| 12 | Basic ingredients cooked up alarm waiter |
| RAW MATERIAL – (ALARM WAITER)*. | |
| 15 | One blocking exit in anger? |
| PASSION – PASS(I) ON. ‘Exit’ as in ‘die’, I think. Once again, DBE indicated by the question mark. | |
| 18 | Record essentially filed in error |
| CLOCK UP – C( |
|
| 19 | Unknown soldiers in mass advance? |
| PAYMENT – PA(Y, MEN)T. And yet another DBE indicated by a question mark. | |
| 20 | Lunchtime worker opens energy drink |
| CHIANTI – CH(I, ANT)I. I here being 1 o’clock. | |
| 22 | One with wind steps out of line |
| ADDER – |
|
| 25 | Yank in corporation getting a rise |
| TUG – reversal of GUT. | |
44 minutes. Off to a good start then ran up against the forgotten CANAPÉ, POSTCARD (v. good), the BIRKENHEAD and PORTAKABIN anagrams and even PAT for ‘mass’ in PAYMENT. COLUMBUS is famous for something, at least this weekend, as the home of Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village GC, part of the PGA Tour – I’m watching a replay of Round 3 at the moment.
Favourites were the surfaces for COR (makes Runcorn famous for something anyway) and CHIANTI, and the ‘One with wind’ def for ADDER.
Thanks to keriothe and to our setter
No solving time recorded. NHO ‘sofa /CANAPE’.
Failed to parse POTATOES and FEROCITY. Not sure about ‘mass / PAT’ in 19dn – how does that work?
I realise now that I misread ‘wind’ in 22dn and parsed it with reference to the puff adder rather than snakes in general!