Solving time: 3:19, one mistake (10ac).
A long hop pulled straight to midwicket with a spelling mistake at 10ac (‘meso’ for MISO).
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BIG TOP; 1 G+T with BOP (= ‘dance’) around |
| 5 | REGULATE; rev. of LUGE in RATE – ungrammatical: ‘Reversed LUGE has RATE is {definition}’. LUGE is as featured in the Winter Olypmics. |
| 9 | FAIRY LIGHT – Cobweb is one of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a ‘light’ in a crossword means an entry in the grid, hence ‘clue for Cobweb?’. |
| 10 | MI + SO – notes as in the sol-fa scale (do, re, mi, fa, so, la and ti) most of which have alternative spellings and one of which caught me out here (I thought the paste was ‘meso’). |
| 11 | MERE (2 defs) |
| 12 | TAROT CARDS – quite a good cryptic definition, punning on ‘packs’. |
| 14 | ORMOLU; OR + MO[lybdenum] + LU[tetium] – a cleverly innocent-looking ‘or’. |
| 16 | NARCOTIC; (CACTI RON)* – also ungrammatical; either ‘From’ or ‘produced’ (or better, ‘produces’, or better still ‘might produce’) is needed but not both (cf 5ac). |
| 18 | AGRICOLA; (A GARLIC + [cl]O[ve])* – if you’re looking for a board game as a Christmas present I can recommend Agricola – it’s brilliant. The only problem is finding people to play it with. |
| 20 | TENDER – a possible tender is a nurse, and “21 – no way” = NURSERY – Ry. = railway = (just about) “way” |
| 22 | RAMSHACKLE; rev. of MAR + SHACKLE (from HACKLES) |
| 24 | RO(L)E |
| 26 | GOBI; O in BIG – why ‘this’? |
| 27 | PROV(I’D)ENCE |
| 29 | REVERE + N.D. – a messenger in the American Revolution. |
| 30 | MAYFLY; rev. of YAM, + FLY (= ‘knowing’) |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | IRATE; [tr]I[al] + RATE (= ‘judge’) – either ‘At’ or ‘is’ needs to go (the construction is ‘At X, Y is {definition}’); cf 5ac and 16ac. |
| 3 | TORPEDO; TOR + (ED in PO) |
| 4 | POLITBURO; (BUILT + POOR)* – nice anagram. |
| 5 | RUG; R.U. + G[ood] |
| 6 | GET IT; rev. of E.G., + TIT |
| 7 | [p]LUMBAGO |
| 8 | TEST DRIVE; TEST (= ‘river’, as in Hampshire’s River Test) + DRIVE[r] (= ‘wood’, as in a golf club) |
| 13 | RANSACK; R.A. + N[ew] + SACK |
| 15 | RIGMAROLE; RIG + MA + ROLE (= the answer to clue 24) |
| 17 | RUTHENIUM – because its chemical symbol is Ru which is ‘Ur’ backwards. Chemistry isn’t my best area but I was reasonably confident about this, although it’s a harsh word to choose for a cryptic definition. |
| 19 | IN SPIRE – because bells (‘clappers’) are found in a church spire. |
| 21 | NURSERY; [seaso]N + (SURREY)* |
| 23 | A(PP)LE |
| 25 | LOCAL; LO (= ‘Look at’) + CAL[ifornia] |
| 28 | ODD (2 defs) – not sure why this had a question mark. |
Didn’t twig about cobweb, until reading the blog