Another tricky one.
NOSH went in quickly enough, but the next five acrosses were all unyielding, and a fairly patchy solve continued right up until a bit of a stare at my last two of HARARE and CHECKOUT.
So 9:30 on the money, which is one of my slowest solves in a while (although I didn’t get a chance to try yesterday’s).
We were treated to a wide range of interesting clues and some lovely surfaces, and I very much liked it – many thanks to Jalna!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Boy sent back hospital food (4) |
| NOSH – SON (boy) “sent back”, H(ospital) | |
| 3 | Investigate where payments can be made (8) |
| CHECKOUT – and to CHECK OUT is to investigate | |
| 8 | Heartless fighter lacking experience around conflict (4,3) |
| BOER WAR – BOXER (fighter) “heartless” = remove the heart/centre, RAW (lacking experience) “around” = reverse | |
| 10 | Bit of quiet on a podcast (5) |
| PIECE – sounds the same (ie, heard on a podcast) as PEACE (quiet). BIT and PIECE can both mean COIN, as well as a generic scrap, etc. | |
| 11 | What magnificent mum does, everybody repeats (11) |
| ALLITERATES – ALL (everybody) ITERATES (repeats) | |
| 13 | Greeting king in a doorway every now and then (3,3) |
| KIA ORA – K(ing) I n A d O o R w A y “every now and then”. Literally “good health” in Maori, and also (with the irony typical of what we would now call a UPF) a brand of fruit juice concentrate that seemed to advertise quite a lot back in the 80s – owned by Coke and defunct in the UK as of 2019. | |
| 15 | Schoolkids about to make mistakes (4,2) |
| SLIP UP – PUPILS (schoolkids) about = reverse | |
| 17 | Pick up certain card in Monopoly or choose Risk? (4,1,6) |
| TAKE A CHANCE – double definition | |
| 20 | Language with individual cases (5) |
| HINDI – is “cased” by witH INDIvidual | |
| 21 | Look to comprehend what others are saying? (3-4) |
| LIP-READ – cryptic definition, tricky without checkers. | |
| 22 | Suspect thug in back yard is affected by wind (8) |
| DRAUGHTY – anagram (suspect) of THUG in a reversal (“back”) of YARD | |
| 23 | Payment finally agreed for satellite broadcast, perhaps (4) |
| FEED – FEE (payment), D (“finally” agreeD) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | State banks are overhauled (8) |
| NEBRASKA – anagram (overhauled) of BANKS ARE | |
| 2 | Great surge (5) |
| SWELL – double definition | |
| 4 | Race around river area in city (6) |
| HARARE – HARE (race) around R(iver) A(rea). It’s in the top ten least desirable cities to live on the planet, apparently, just in case you were thinking of relocating there on a whim. | |
| 5 | Sort of characters making up RNVR in naval vessel (7,4) |
| CAPITAL SHIP – CAPITALS are the “sort of characters making up RNVR”, HIP = in/cool/etc. News to me. The RNVR is the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, if you’re wondering, and a capital ship is simply the largest and most powerful ship in a fleet, only coined fairly recently (in naval terms) in 1909. | |
| 6 | Old writer — with drink — starts speaking candidly (5,2) |
| OPENS UP – O(ld) PEN (writer) with SUP (drink) | |
| 7 | Those people ultimately dealt with ample criticism (4) |
| THEM – the “ultimate” letters of the rest of the clue | |
| 9 | Weirdly awe-striking sport (5-6) |
| WATER-SKIING – anagram (weirdly) of AWE STRIKING | |
| 12 | Added software programme shut down (8) |
| APPENDED – APP (software programme) ENDED (shut down) | |
| 14 | One feels soldier maybe upset the Queen at some point (7) |
| ANTENNA – ANT (soldier, maybe) and then “upset” or upend ANNE (the Queen, at some point) | |
| 16 | Story time incorporating book and iPad? (6) |
| TABLET – TALE (story) T(ime) incorporating B(ook) | |
| 18 | Relative from Greece infrequently heading north (5) |
| NIECE – “from” greECE INfrequently “heading north” | |
| 19 | Dull noise so endlessly deafening at first (4) |
| THUD – THUS (so) “endlessly”, D (Deafening “at first”) | |
I found this difficult, but not impossible, and as a solver of Pangakupu’s puzzles, I’m used to a little Maori now and then, if the cryptic is kindly. I did start out with dahl, but soon erased it – that can’t be right, and it wasn’t. Once I had nosh, Nebraska was obvious, and I was back on track. Take a chance was a nice giveaway clue to open up the middle.
Time: 9:27