14:07. I made fairly zippy progress through most of this but then got completely stuck in the NE corner with five clues (LEGS, SOURPUSS, CATHODE RAY, EPIDURAL and SINISTER) unsolved. Those clues took me about as much time as the rest put together. An excellent puzzle.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Part of a striker’s game, to persevere |
| MATCHSTICK – MATCH (game), STICK (persevere). I always thought MATCHSTICK was synonymous with ‘match’. Apparently not! | |
| 6 | Stocking fillers on front of sleigh |
| LEGS – LEG (on/leg side in cricket), S |
|
| 9 | American checks boats on edge of a river delta |
| BANK DRAFTS – BANK (edge of a river), D (delta), RAFTS. The American banking system is remarkably primitive. | |
| 10 | A dictator’s cruel appearance |
| MIEN – sounds like ‘mean’. | |
| 12 | Ladies relatives visit, but not for long |
| LOOK IN – LOO, KIN. | |
| 13 | Crab starter to spoil the family cat |
| SOURPUSS – S |
|
| 15 | No power? Dead motor needs this |
| NUMBER PLATE – NUMBER (No), P, LATE. | |
| 18 | Battling with bugs, a farmer grew bananas |
| GERM WARFARE – (A FARMER GREW)*. | |
| 21 | Heavyweight Tory’s arranged robes for the king |
| ROYALIST – (TORYS)* contains (robes) ALI (heavyweight). | |
| 22 | One in five ice cream centres is fruit |
| QUINCE – QUIN (one in five), |
|
| 24 | English team leader on the way out |
| EXIT – E, XI (a football team), T |
|
| 25 | Think badly of fool for entering seedy bar |
| DISAPPROVE – DI(SAP, PRO)VE. | |
| 26 | Bite lip |
| EDGE – DD. | |
| 27 | East Rye, twice rebuilt in the past |
| YESTERYEAR – (EAST, RYE, RYE)*. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Active way of working on hostility |
| MOBILE – MO, BILE. | |
| 2 | Bug found by a famous model’s PA |
| TANNOY – T (original Ford model), ANNOY (bug). I wonder if someone will observe the long-standing tradition of thinking that brand names aren’t allowed. | |
| 3 | Rwanda has ill-prepared border protection |
| HADRIANS WALL – (RWANDA HAS ILL)*. | |
| 4 | Small creature with digits for ears |
| TOAD – sounds like ‘toed’. | |
| 5 | Particles in a stream or river in China |
| CATHODE RAY – CATH(ODER)AY. | |
| 7 | Number in Labour calling for an injection of backbone |
| EPIDURAL – CD. The ‘number’ here being an anaesthetic. Is this a bit unfair as a CD? If you have kids you’re bound to know exactly what is being referred to here, but if not? I honestly don’t know. | |
| 8 | Left unfinished, wine is returned |
| SINISTER – reversal of RETSIN |
|
| 11 | Huge spirit shown by top athlete |
| TRIPLE JUMPER – TRIPLE, JUMPER. If you think a standard TRIPLE measure of spirits is ‘huge’, remind me never to ask you to make me a G&T. | |
| 14 | Fantastic Four infiltrating premises in disguise |
| IMPRESSIVE – IV in (PREMISES)*. | |
| 16 | A horse — one always turning circles in pain |
| AGGRIEVE – A, GG, reversal of EV(I)ER. There’s an implied ‘which’ between ‘one’ and ‘always’, so REVE (always, EVER, turning) circles (contains) I (one). | |
| 17 | Fish gumbo, originally two other fish |
| GRAYLING – G |
|
| 19 | Snowman’s extremities drip and drop off |
| SNOOZE – S |
|
| 20 | Facing a group of offensive ne’er-do-wells |
| VENEER – contained in ‘offensive ne’er-do-wells’. | |
| 23 | Judgement I must leave unvoiced |
| TACT – TAC |
|
Somewhat similar experience. Had the same passing thought about MATCHSTICK. EPIDURAL took a while (but I think it qualifies as GK) and so did remembering TANNOY. And BANK DRAFTS… my being an American. (Your comment about the US banking system piques my curiosity.)
Well what strikes me as primitive about US banking is the lack of the chip-and-pin security available on credit and debit cards. I the US I left a card behind the bar and some smart alec copied the data off the magnetic strip and used that to make a clone of my card. It was spotted by my bank / building society almost instantly but for security’s sake they killed the card. Fortunately I had a debit card with another bank so could make cash withdrawals and purchases using that, but I had to be very careful of that physical card until I got home and had the first one replaced.
It is VERY easy to copy the mag strip and very hard to fake the chip.
In the UK we’ve pretty much given up the cheque in favour of mobile phones and cards, and BACS transfers on the pc and mobiles.
DNF
I gave up with LEGS and SINISTER to do, came back a few days later and saw SINISTER, but never got LEGS. Which is annoying, as I thought of FEET early on; but the ‘on’ may have eluded me in any case. No problem with EPIDURAL. I liked a number of the clues (I always do, with Robert)–MIEN, TANNOY, TOAD, CATHODE RAY, EPIDURAL, but COD, now that I understand it, to LEGS.
LEGS was my last in, taking quite some time, but the penny drop moment was worth it. Great clue!
Once again, seeing the pangram didn’t help. On the contrary, checking that it was one and there wasn’t a letter missing to help with LOI 6a _E_S merely added to the time taken.
33:19
Funnily enough, (not being a cricket fan), LEGS was my first in (always delight in Robert’s succinct cluing!). Each clue made sense in its own right.
42 minutes with EPIDURAL as my LOI. I knew exactly what the clue was referring to but was unable to come up with the word for ages as I was missing checkers. It was only with the arrival of the final checker, E, that I was able to bring it to mind.
The ST has two of my favourite setters, and Robert is one of them. Lots of lovely clues.. liked the family cat, the PA, the various fish clue.
My two children predate the availability of epidurals but no problem, it counts as GK I think.
Yet again failed to spot the pangram, no surprise there ..
I see my time was 1h30′ so I think that means I got stuck, went away, and came back. But I don’t remember. LOI was SOURPUSS. On the brand-name thing, I think it is interesting that they do show up sometimes but only about once a week, a lot less than I would expect if compilers used them freely. I liked CATHODE RAY…apparently we have lost the capability to build CRTs (especially color) so if we ever need them again we are starting from scratch.
Hmm…
« Some industries still use CRTs because it is either too much effort, downtime, and/or cost to replace them, or there is no substitute available; a notable example is the airline industry. Planes such as the Boeing 747-400 and the Airbus A320 used CRT instruments in their glass cockpits instead of mechanical instruments. Airlines such as Lufthansa still use CRT technology, which also uses floppy disks for navigation updates.[citation needed] They are also used in some military equipment for similar reasons. As of 2022, at least one company manufactures new CRTs for these markets. »
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode-ray_tube
Thought I was defeated by 6a Legs and 8d Sinister but legs came on a second visit with a big DOH! and that was enough to pour myself a retsina.
Fortuitously we have a silly family joke referring to LEGS as “your stocking fillers”, so that was my FOI!
Ho ho!
Thanks Robert and keriothe
LEGS was also my first one in, and immediately applauded it. Strange how we are all different in seeing things ! Took just under the hour to complete the rest of it in a couple of sittings. My comeuppance came with another of the short ones – taking ages to get my last one in – TOAD – just could make no sense of the why and wherefore of the clue for ages.
Lots of other clever clues – including the No for NUMBER, the construct of CATHODE RAY and the athlete. Saw the pangram too late to be helpful and had experienced (not personally, thank goodness) the EPIDURAL with the birth of our first son.
Well, fellow Aussie Bruce, I gave birth to both my sons pre-epidural, and they were no laughing matter! Very clever clue, as are most of the others. I got stuck on two short ones: TOAD and MIEN (which I’ve always pronounced “Mee-en”). Didn’t get the ALI part of ROYALIST, so that was left unfinished, but otherwise had a romp through with lots of PDMs. Great puzzle.
LEGS was my FOI but couldn’t parse it until my POI confirmed the E, making it my FOI, LOI and now I understand it, COD