Solving time: 4:21
Very little to say about this puzzle: the clues were generally accurate, if uninspired, while the statutory mistake came in 19ac.
I’m not sure a “pie chart” would be appropriate for the ST puzzle. From this, only the plant ‘gentian’ and the mammal ‘coati’ (both in the ‘Natural World’ category) would count; ‘Marseilles’, ‘Genoa’ and ‘hake’ are common knowledge while ‘adze’ and ‘tithe’ are very common crossword fillers (as, you could argue, is ‘coati’).
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | MEGA; rev. of A GEM |
3 | BRAN DISHES – see 5dn. |
10 | IGNORANCE; (NICE ORGAN)* – as in ‘ignorance is bliss’. |
11 | I(NAN)E |
12 | COAT + I – a mammal worth remembering, also known as the coati-mundi. |
13 | WELL + TO-DO |
15 | UN (= ‘One local’) + READY (= ‘cash’) |
17 | S(HAKE)UP |
19 | SACHETS; (S[n]ATCHES)* – oh dear. The definition here was ‘small bag’ when ‘small bags’ must have been intended. This was the paper version, too. |
21 | DIGESTS; (SET)* in DIGS |
22 | GENT(IAN)S – not a plant I’ve come across before, and it took me a while to think of ‘bog’ = GENTS (as in ‘toilets’). |
27 | [p]OVERT[y] |
28 | DIRT-CHEAP (cryptic definition) |
29 | M(ARSE)ILLES – ‘rump’ for ARSE is surprisingly risqué for the Sunday Times. |
30 | ADZE; “ADDS” |
Down | |
---|---|
1 | MA + IN + COURSE |
2 | GEN + OA[p] |
4 | RUN(A)WAY |
5 | NEEDLES[s] – this can fight it out with 3ac for the title of ‘Most hackneyed clue of the day’. |
6 | I’D + [r]IOT |
7 | HE + ADDRESS |
9 | IR(R + I.T.)ATE |
14 | APOSTROPHE (cryptic definition) |
16 | RACKET + E’ER |
18 | ANGELICA; (A NICE GAL)* |
20 | SCANDAL; SCAN + rev. of LAD |
21 | DESERVE; (SEVERE D[on])* – ‘working’ is a hard but fair anagram indicator… |
23 | T(I.T.)HE |
25 | NO END; (DONNE)* – …whereas ‘fêted’ is fairly obvious but doesn’t make much sense. |
26 | DOOM; rev. of MOOD |
I think I’ve cracked it.
If you take the first letter of every ST clue with a mistake in it from the last year, transmogrify with a simple substitution from Latin to Early Aramaic (filtered with a basic Michelangelo one-time key, obviously) and rearrange the letters, you get the location of the one true Grail. Don’t know why I didn’t see it before.
Looking forward to next week’s ST blog; the puzzle has one clue I completely fail to understand and another in which a 3-letter word manages to clue itself!
Just the 2 “easies” not in the blog:
24a Ship’s bin-bag? (5)
LINER
8d One seeking redress (sure)* is stupid (4)
SUER