Solving time: 5:18
Pretty much a bog standard Sunday Times crossword, with a decent set of clues punctuated with one or two very good ones (I liked 10ac (RAPTOR) 21ac (LIP-READ) particularly), a couple of shockers (eg DINOSAUR at 3dn and CURE-ALL at 15ac) and a faulty clue (27dn).
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SLAPDASH; rev. of PALS, + DASH |
| 5 | SPOILS; SP[ecial] + OILS – this looked like it had to be an anagram of paints. Once ‘apnits’ and ‘aptins’ were the only possibilities I nearly assumed it was a faulty clue and abandoned it, but saw the answer just in time. |
| 9 | TRAIN + SET |
| 10 | RAPTOR; (PARROT)* – amazingly I don’t think I’ve seen this lovely anagram before. |
| 12 | ELAPSE; (PLEASE)* |
| 13 | C(A,S)EMENT |
| 15 | CURE-ALL; CU (= ‘Copper’) + L, all around REAL (= ‘genuine’) – ‘x y in’ meaning ‘x [with] y inside’ is bad enough, but the syntax in this clue (‘x in y’ meaning ‘x; insert y’) is even worse. [My apologies – see comments.] |
| 16 | MADE; rev. of EDAM |
| 20 | A + BET – ‘back’ in the sense of backing a horse. |
| 21 | LIP-READ (cryptic definition) – nice clue. |
| 25 | BRACELET; BRA + C.E. + LET |
| 26 | RE(WAR)D – ‘overdrawn?’ cryptically indicating ‘in the red’. |
| 28 | HOT DOG – I think this is just ‘powerful’ = HOT and ‘boxer?’ = DOG, leaving ‘Food served at arena’ as the rather woolly definition. |
| 29 | CALAMINE; CAL[ifornia] + A MINE – according to Chambers, this word is used in America to mean hemimorphite, an ore of zinc, but in Britain to mean zinc carbonate (also called smithsonite). I didn’t know the word anyway and guessed it from the wordplay, so this subtlety didn’t make any difference to me! |
| 30 | PIRATE; I with PRATE around – the capital on Silver was a huge giveaway. Still, rather that than just dropping the capital, which the likes of the Guardian deem acceptable. |
| 31 | SOMERSET; “SUMMER” + SET (= TV) – there was a writer called Somerset Maugham, apparently. |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SITTER (2 defs) – in the sense of a hen sitting on her eggs, I think (Chambers gives ‘a sitting bird’ under ‘sitter’). |
| 2 | AVATAR; A.A. around VAT (= ‘tank’) + [wa]R – a good one. The film won three Oscars. |
| 3 | DINOSAUR; (IS AROUND)* – tragic. |
| 4 | SUET; SUE + [die]T |
| 6 | PLANET; PLANE + [wha]T – not sure what ‘to make it grow’ is doing here. |
| 7 | IN THE BAG; (HAT BEING)* |
| 8 | SPRITZER; rev. of REPS around RITZ |
| 11 | MALLARD; MALL + A + R[oa]D |
| 14 | DE(SIR)ED |
| 17 | LAMB CHOP; L + A + M.B. (= ‘doctor’) + COP around H[ospital] – the definition is ‘cut’, with ‘being’ as superfluous padding. |
| 18 | MEGASTAR; rev. of (RATS + A GEM) |
| 19 | LACE + RATE |
| 22 | RE-SORT |
| 23 | RAPIDS; P[latoon] in RAIDS – not totally sure about the definition here, but I think I’ve heard ‘to shoot rapids’ used as a kayaking term. |
| 24 | ADVERT (2 defs) |
| 27 | FAR + O – so close! But the obligatory error appears at the death (a rogue comma after ‘Portuguese’). Having once visited Portugal’s Algarve I happened to know this city from its airport, where I seem to remember we were heavily delayed – probably the French air traffic controllers, but could have been the Spanish. |
I read 15ac as CU followed by L in REAL; isn’t that OK?
And I liked ‘superfluous padding’!
I wasn’t too worried by 3D, but I do take exception to 8D since surely a SPRITZER isn’t a cocktail!?