Solving time : 18:28, which puts me not just first on the leaderboard, but as of right now, only on the leaderboard! I believe we may have our tricksy one for the week. There’s one answer where I did have to rely on wordplay alone and keep the old fingers crossed. Now that I type the answer in to Google (what did we do without Google? Did bloggers go to libraries in the middle of the night?) the reference shows up as the fifth possibility, so I’ll call relative obscurity.
After seeing 24 down I was sure we were headed to a pangram, but we appear to be a J short. Not sure where it could be worked in.
Update: as I’m ready to post this, I check again and I’m still the fastest (out of 5) including some normally far faster than me. So yep, the tricky one.
Away we go…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CUPPAS: C(about),UP(over), then SAP(juice) reversed |
| 4 | SQUADDIE: DIE(make exit) after S(small), QUAD(yard) |
| 10 | PERIHELIA: E in (I,HELP,AIR)* |
| 11 | PIP,ER: the Queen being our leading female |
| 12 | CAM(river near universities),BRAI |
| 13 | T,WO(without),IN(home),CH(central heating): “so long” is the definition I guess meaning a specific length |
| 14 | IN(burning, as in popular),DIE(thing thrown with spots): reference to the common name for the Independent (which has a crossword I’ll tackle in the morning) |
| 15 | TURANDOT: A in TURN(cycle) then DOT |
| 18 | ALL THE GO: H in (LET GOAL)*, definition being “in” |
| 20 | WRATH: RAT(desert) in WH |
| 23 | OCARINA: tricky wordplay – N in AIR, then A CO(carbon monoxide), all reversed |
| 25 | NOW THEN: or NOWT HEN – my favorite clue of a crafty bunch |
| 26 | MILER: hidden reversed in pRELIMinary |
| 27 | EVEN MONEY: EVEN(flat) then ONE(I) in MY |
| 28 | DETOXIFY: anagram of TOYED and FIX |
| 29 | IN SITU: TIS(musical notes) in UNI, all reversed |
| Down | |
| 1 | CAPUCHIN: CAP(limit) then the middle parts of mUCHo vINo – I think the meaning of a friar has been used before, but I usually think of this as a monkey |
| 2 | PYRAMID: P(little change) over YR(year),AMID(on) – more crafty wordplay |
| 3 | ABHORRENT: anagram of ON,BREATH,R |
| 5 | QUARTER, POUNDER |
| 6 | APPRO: alternating letters in wAs PaPeRbOy |
| 7 | DIP INTO: 1,PINT in DO |
| 8 | EARTHY: I think this is L removed from EARTHLY – though in Times clues I thought the convention was to have the word first and the subtraction second? |
| 9 | FLY IN THE FACE OF: FLY IN THE FA, CEO, F |
| 16 | NEWSWOMEN: EW(bridge places) in NSW(New South Wales), then OMEN |
| 17 | THANK YOU: TO,U(bend) containing HANKY |
| 19 | LEAFLET: T in (FEE,ALL)* |
| 21 | ASHANTI: SHAN’T in A1 |
| 22 | ZOOMED: DEMO,OZ all reversed – I think referring to photography |
| 24 | IBROX: another reversal, this time ORB in XI(football team) |
Were I speaking from a sounder position, I’d say that “TWO INCH” was stretching things, and that “ALL THE GO” was suspect too. As it is, it’s just sour grapes.
Thank goodness for patients to take it all out on.