Solving time: 10:15
Very ‘Sunday Timesey’ this week, with a few quibbles: 5ac, 13ac and 1dn are probably the main ones. A few difficult words – 24ac, 20dn and 13ac were all new to me.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across |
| 1 |
FL(A)Y |
| 3 |
SCIENTIFIC; (TEC IN SCI-FI) – using ‘sci-fi’ in an anagram for ‘scientific’ seems weak. |
| 5 |
AMPLIFIER; (LAMP I)* + (FIRE)* – but how can ‘from’ mean ‘after’? |
| 13 |
KICKSHAW; K (= ‘Rex’) + SICK* + HAW – I don’t like ‘Rex’ = K (via ‘king’) at all. This was my last entry as I didn’t know the word but guessed it was some pun on ‘rickshaw’; in fact it means ‘a trinket or worthless article’ and comes from the French ‘quelque chose’ (‘something’). |
| 15 |
RAM + PART – a hasty ‘parapet’ slowed me here. |
| 17 |
ENCHANT (cryptic definition) |
| 21 |
RE + MORSE[l] |
| 22 |
THIN + KING |
| 24 |
AS (= ‘like’) = DIC[tation] – the Wikipedia article for SONAR casts doubt on Chambers’ claim that ASDIC stands for ‘Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee’. |
| 28 |
DILIGENCE (double definition) – the second definition is ‘a French or continental stagecoach’. |
| 30 |
EMIR; rev. of RIME |
| Down |
| 1 |
FEATHER BED; (A BERTH*) in FEED – but I’m pretty sure ‘featherbed’ as a verb meaning ‘to pamper’ is one word, not the (7,3) indicated here. |
| 4 |
CRICK + E + T[eam] |
| 5 |
EAR + AC + HE |
| 6 |
TUN + IS |
| 7 |
FREE AS AIR; (RAISE FARE)* |
| 9 |
DIS + TRACT – Dis is the Roman underworld. |
| 14 |
STEER + CLEAR |
| 16 |
MARS + H + LAND – ‘making it’ is another weak link phrase. |
| 18 |
CAMPAIGN; (C + PM AGAIN)* – a good semi-&lit. |
| 20 |
CHINDIT; (IN DITCH)* – ‘a member of General Orde Wingate’s Allied commando force in Burma during World War II’, apparently from the Burmese ‘chinthey’ meaning ‘griffin’. |
| 21 |
REGULAR; rev. of LUG in REAR |
| 25 |
DENIM; rev. of MINED |
| 26 |
SCUM (cryptic definition) |
A total of 8 “easies” not in the blog:
11a Wants to be noticed returning about five hundred (5)
NEE D S
12a Abandoning (sloth)* becomes a composer (5)
HOLST
19a Unreliable man going about desert (7)
ER RAT IC. RAT = DESERT – apparently from Monty’s Desert Rats – is a convention that often escapes me.
27a Could, tough vegetable (5)
C HARD
29a In church, ministers (roared most)* terribly (10)
MODERATORS. Church leaders in Scotland?
2d Outrage when a chum embraces president (5)
A P P AL. P = PRESIDENT? If you say so.
8d To be snug, woollY SOCks need to be partly pulled up (4)
COSY
23d (Drain)* repair? You can’t sink lower! (5)
NADIR