Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I rather enjoyed this Robert Teuton offering. Not too difficult, fun clues and a smattering of smut are going to catch my attention all the time.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Lorry driver finally stopping grub, going after place to sleep in apartment? (12, two words) |
| FLATBED TRUCK – the last letter of driveR inside TUCK (food, grub) after a FLAT BED (place to sleep in an apartment) | |
| 9 | Outcast about to offend (5) |
| REPEL – LEPER (outcast) reversed | |
| 10 | Fish heads back to Alaska and drops dead (7) |
| OOLAKAN – LOO (toilets, heads) reversed, then AK (Alaska), then AND minus D (dead) | |
| 11 | French concerned with abandoning German antibiotic (7) |
| ALLICIN – GALLIC (French) and IN (concerned with) minus G (German) | |
| 12 | Prodigy dig out hit — Firestarter? (4) |
| PYRO – anagram of PRODIGY minus DIG | |
| 13 | Stokes before Test giving a quick look to Aussies (5) |
| SQUIZ – S (stokes, the unit) then QUIZ (test) | |
| 14 | Acid to spell time for knight (7) |
| ETCHANT – ENCHANT (to spell) with T (time) replacing N (knight) | |
| 18 | Barrow overturned on brown rat (6) |
| ROTTAN – TOR (barrow) reversed, then TAN (brown) | |
| 19 | Match official assuming marijuana’s forbidden (6) |
| TEREFA – REF (match official) inside TEA (marijuana) | |
| 21 | Misses extremes of fear losing head (6) |
| ERRORS – TERRORS (extremes of fear) minus the first letter | |
| 23 | Possibly cared about potassium’s discharged electricity (6) |
| ARCKED – anagram of CARED surrounding K (potassium) | |
| 27 | Beef jerky tea, something chewed endlessly (7) |
| CHARQUI – CHAR (tea) then QUID (something chewed) minus the last letter | |
| 28 | Fine brush leaving marks from portrait-painter (5) |
| LINER – remove M (marks) from LIMNER (portrait-painter) | |
| 29 | Judge shunning big boss (4) |
| UMBO – remove J (judge) from JUMBO (big) | |
| 30 | Cook inadequately rounded off (7) |
| UNDERDO – anagram of ROUNDED | |
| 31 | Badger entering side of quadrangle for nuts (7) |
| PANNAGE – NAG (badger) inside PANE (side of a quadrangle) | |
| 32 | Webs tangled a beetle wanting to live (5) |
| TELAE – anagram of A BEETLE minus BE (to live) | |
| 33 | Chocolate bar to require cut with knife? (12) |
| SNICKERSNEED – SNICKERS (chocolate bar) and NEED (require) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | International surfer developing method to make waves? (7) |
| FRISURE – anagram of I (international), SURFER | |
| 2 | Ship’s ornament a positive splendour (8) |
| APLUSTRE – A, P (positive), LUSTRE (splendour) | |
| 3 | Framed by cartel I consider showing intention (5) |
| TELIC – hidden inside carTEL I Consider | |
| 4 | White-out tips of black letter Z (8) |
| BLIZZARD – first letters of Black and Letter, then IZZARD (Z) | |
| 5 | Aged to perform sex — twice! (6) |
| DOITIT – DO (perform), then IT (sex) repeated | |
| 6 | Junction heading to Horsham in part of Sussex (5) |
| RAPHE – first letter of Horsham inside RAPE (a division of Sussex) | |
| 7 | Ageless slaughter provided without executioner (8) |
| CARNIFEX – remove AGE from CARNAGE, then IF (provided), EX (without) | |
| 8 | Bosses polled in Kansas (5) |
| KNOTS – NOT (polled) inside KS (Kansas) | |
| 10 | Billy perhaps only child to give birth (5) |
| OCEAN – OC (only child), then EAN (give birth). Billy OCEAN is best known for Caribbean Queen | |
| 15 | Old Scandi thriller’s opening hour in bar (8) |
| NORTHMAN – first letter of Thriller and H (hour) inside NORMAN (a nautical bar) | |
| 16 | Computer programs revalued regularly in groups (8) |
| SERVLETS – alternating letters in ReVaLuEd inside SETS (groups) | |
| 17 | Elder kin working to inflame passions again (8) |
| REKINDLE – anagram of ELDER KIN | |
| 20 | Dressed in well-loved number (7) |
| ADORNED – ADORED (well-loved) containing N (number) | |
| 22 | Old drunkard reeled on the counter eg (6) |
| SPUNGE – SPUN (reeled) then EG reversed | |
| 23 | Evolved ideas privately (5) |
| ASIDE – anagram of IDEAS | |
| 24 | Fish sinks by slipping away (5) |
| SCUPS – SCUPPERS (sinks) minus PER (by) | |
| 25 | Tips scales with minimum of clothes on (5) |
| TRONC – TRON (scales) with the first letter of Clothes | |
| 26 | Father’s new femme fatale (5) |
| SIREN – SIRE (father), then N (new) | |
I just finished this—had three-fourths done but got distracted by catching up with other puzzles I skipped before I realized that my printer still feeds from the rear tray… I hadn’t parsed SCUP(per)S yet (was too impatient to read the blog) but all else was finally clear.
Thanks George. I didn’t get around to parsing OOLSKAN, SCUPS or LINER. Too many other things going on last week to come back to these not least of which was Dean’s offering, which kept me occupied for rather a long time.
Nice puzzle to start the Sunday set.
I didn’t know SQUIZ was Australian. I’m sure we used to say it at (UK) primary school back in the mists of time. Generally a quite benign puzzle and enjoyable.
I had exactly the same thought about SQUIZ. Something I’ve said all my life!
If you watch David Webb’s weekly Times solving videos on YouTube, what does he do when the puzzle is nearly complete? A typo squiz! Thanks to watching these videos, squiz was a write-in for me.
I liked this one too. I found it pretty hard (it took me about 50 minutes) but I never felt I was completely stuck.
In the UK Billy Ocean’s most famous song (certainly his biggest hit) is probably When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going.
This was a puzzle where I kept thinking this clue must be really obscure, only to look at it a different way and see that it was obvious. Ocean was like that, I know O.C. and I know yean/ean, and I know Billy Ocean. How annoying! And unlike many here, I wrote servlets as an IT professional, so that should have been a write-in as well.
It looks to me like the setters have cut back on obscure words a bit, and are going for clever clues instead. Perhaps the editor gave them a bit of a nudge.
To George,
A friend group of US-based treasure hunters are trying to solve a wordplay-riddled chapter (leading to an actual 6-figure+ puzzle box). Your expertise and talent would be helpful. It’s thought to be hidden in Western North Carolina, where the author grew up, and I read that you now reside.
Maybe you and/or your followers from the UK would be interested in guiding the hunt virtually as well? (Book is titled “There’s Treasure Inside” by Jon Collins-Black and the word-play-focused box is chapter 26, called “The Past & Future Box” on pages 222-226. If you email me and I can share more details and my notes for reference. Appreciate your consideration to join our treasure hunt.