Solving time: 10:15
Not one for the purists this week but nothing too outrageous. I think there might be a misprint in 16dn but it may just be a meaning of the word (PORTFOLIO) with which I’m not familiar.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FOOTBALL STADIUM; (OUT OF BALLAST MID)* – the hyphen here between anagram letters and anagram indicator (‘mid-construction’) was an early warning sign to the rest of the clues. |
| 9 | DISDAIN; (DAD IS)* + IN |
| 10 | RIOTING; (INTO RIG)* |
| 11 | EARN (initial letters) |
| 12 | DISTRAUGHT; (I + ST[reet]) in DRAUGHT – strange wording, with ‘on’ meaning ‘around’ in the wordplay. I suppose you could argue that ‘on’ is in the sense of ‘being worn by’ but the comma still makes the cryptic reading very stilted. |
| 13 | ROADHOG (cryptic definition) – my favourite clue of this puzzle (‘Driving swine on the highway’). |
| 15 | STIPPLE; (IT’S)* + P.P. (= ‘per pro’ = ‘on behalf of’) + LE |
| 17 | UPTHROW; UP + (WORTH)* – a geological word which I eventually spotted; ‘worth another look?’ is pretty dubious. |
| 19 | MINARET; (TIME RAN)* |
| 20 | HAWKS + BEAR + D – my last entry, I was fooled into thinking that ‘carry’ was a containment indicator and then got distracted by the possibility of ‘-berry’. This is one variety of hawksbeard. |
| 22 | AFAR; rev. of (R.A.F. + A) |
| 25 | ABS + CON + D – two crossword staples, ‘sailor(s)’ = AB(S) and ‘trick’ = CON. |
| 26 | OTHELLO (hidden) – like 1ac, this is a bit naughty: the solver has to split ‘into’ into ‘in to’. |
| 27 | THREE MEN IN A BOAT (cryptic definition) |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FUDGE (2 defs) |
| 2 | OBSERVANT; O[ld] B[oy], + SERVANT |
| 3 | BEAT (hidden) – well concealed. |
| 4 | LANDING; AND in LING |
| 5 | STRATUS; R in STATUS – low, layered cloud; why wasn’t this worded ‘What could carry rain…’? |
| 6 | A + DO + RATION |
| 7 | ICING (2 defs) – good clue. |
| 8 | MIGHT + I.E. + ST – the second use of ‘way’ = ST[reet] in this puzzle. |
| 13 | ROUGH + CAST |
| 14 | HOROSCOPE (cryptic definition) |
| 16 | PORTFOLIO; PORT (= ‘left aboard’) + rev. of OF, + (OIL)* – can this mean ‘Cash’? It can mean ‘a list of securities or assets’ but that isn’t the same thing at all. Perhaps the clue was supposed to say ‘Case’? |
| 18 | WHEEDLE; W[ell] + (HEELED)* – another naughty hyphen. |
| 19 | MARCONI; (ROMANTIC – T)* – disappointing to see ‘model’ for T (as in the Ford Model T) infect this puzzle. |
| 21 | WISER; (WIRES)* |
| 23 | ROOST (2 defs) – this can mean a tidal water channel in Orkney and Shetland. It came up recently elsewhere (possibly in The Times) so it went straight in. |
| 24 | RHEA (hidden) |
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