I actually did this one a couple of days ago on paper, thanks to another sneak preview copy from E2R2 (Esteemed Editor Richard Rogan). I hadn’t slept well the night before and it took me what looks to me, returning to it with fresh eyes, like a pretty miserable time of 12 minutes EVEN. Examining the mess I made of the grid I see I made a bit of a hash of the SE, pencilling in PEPPERMINT for 25ac and FLY-ON-THE-WALL for 11dn before thinking them properly through. The clever 16dn was my LOI and I can see that I spent a long time wanting it to be GUSTIEST before the petrel finally dropped.
13dn raised a smile and I always appreciate a shout-out to 1acs, but I think my COD goes to 18dn as there’s just something very neat about “sextet, half of them”. Many thanks setter, whoever you may be! And that’s it from me. See you all tomorrow? I don’t have my invitation to hand – is it in the same place as last year, and what time does registration for the first prelim begin? (Obviously false answers to either of those questions in an attempt to gain competitive advantage will be frowned upon, I warn you now…)
Across
1 Academic from Derby, maybe, in the lead (10)
CLASSICIST – CLASSIC [Derby, maybe] + 1ST [in the lead]
6 Famous model, tiny and rather too cute (4)
TWEE – T [famous model] + WEE [tiny]
9 Island fair, matchless, but one not united (10)
MARTINIQUE – MART [fair] + {u->I}NIQUE [matchless, but I (one) not U (united)]
10 Shred waste in safe place to start with (4)
WISP – W{aste} I{n} S{afe} P{lace} [“to start with”]
12 Troops on best behaviour? One shows no resistance (14)
SUPERCONDUCTOR – O.R. [troops] on SUPER CONDUCT [best | behaviour]
14 Lady taking a minute to cut cheese turnover (6)
MADAME – A M [a | minute] “to cut” EDAM reversed [cheese “turnover”]
15 Edited lines not causing offence? (8)
INSOLENT – (LINES NOT*) [“edited”]
17 Desperate for food in Paris, we put on a party (8)
RAVENOUS – NOUS [in Paris, we] put on RAVE [a party]
19 Chops sent over with firm protective cover (6)
STUCCO – CUTS reversed [chops “sent over”] + CO [firm]
22 Clumsy goat suspected of mischief? (14)
BUTTERFINGERED – BUTTER [goat, as in one that butts] + FINGERED [suspected of mischief, as in “fingered as the thief”]
24 Batsman’s first edge not what one suspected (4)
BLIP – B{atsman}’s first letter + LIP [edge]
25 I’m held up in badly managed plant (10)
DELPHINIUM – (I’M HELD UP IN*) [“badly managed”]
26 Bird food in city changing hands (4)
YOLK – YO{r->L}K [city “changing hands”, i.e R (right) becoming L (left)]
27 i.e. less dirt if fluid is this? (10)
STERILISED – (I.E. LESS DIRT IS*) [“fluid”], semi-&lit
Down
1 Party member behind bill is upstanding (4)
CAMP – MP [member] behind reverse of AC [bill “is upstanding”]
2 Dragon roaming about for all to see, stranded? (7)
AGROUND – (DRAGON*) [“roaming”] about U [for all to see, at the cinema]
3 Rest when playing, feasible after Mass, vital for primate (6, 6)
SPIDER MONKEY – SPIDER [rest when playing (snooker)] + ON [feasible] after M [mass] + KEY [vital]
4 Seize piece of cake with a spot of lemon filling (6)
CLINCH – CINCH [piece of cake] filled by L [“a spot of” L{emon}]
5 Sensational job in a shambles (8)
STUNNING – double def; a shambles is a slaughterhouse, where beasts are stunned with a metal bolt to the brain or via electricity before having their throats roughly slit – anyone for veganism?
7 Shave, although keeping dry (7)
WHITTLE – WHILE [although] keeping TT [dry (teetotal)]
8 With Queen’s intervention, compensation’s coming to an end (10)
EXPIRATION – EXPIATION [compensation], intervened in by R [Queen]
11 Common licence factory owner has? (4-2-3-4)
RUN-OF-THE-MILL – one would after all hope that the mill owner has the run of his own mill
13 “I’d like a little one” learner admitted, to my surprise (10)
IMPROBABLY – “I’M PRO BABY” [“I’d like a little one”], having admitted L [learner]
16 Bird changing direction over street that’s most windy (8)
PUFFIEST – PUFFI{n->E} [bird “changing direction”, i.e. with N (north) becoming E (east)], over ST [street]
18 Words of rancour from sextet, half of them Liberal (7)
VITRIOL – VI [sextet, or at least six, which I guess is close enough] + TRIO [half of a sextet] + L [Liberal]
20 Believes the last thing shown at cinema (7)
CREDITS – double def; the credits being the things that roll once your movie has finished
21 Gunman runs through again from South (6)
SNIPER – REPINS from bottom to top [runs through again “from South”]
23 During month, support’s around (4)
AMID – M [month], surrounded by AID [support]
Edited at 2016-10-21 09:09 am (UTC)
Edited at 2016-10-21 09:11 am (UTC)
Edited at 2016-10-21 08:09 am (UTC)
Good luck to tomorrow’s contestants. Have you thought of any good underhand ways to handicap Magoo?
So DNF. Initially had IMPROBABLE for 13dn but finally got the YOLK at 26ac!
FOI 7dn WHITTLE COD 3dn SPIDER MONKEY
WOD VITRIOL
Still, at least nobody’s going to be giving me a grilling against the clock over the weekend—good luck to everyone who’s off to the Championship!
Edited at 2016-10-21 08:37 am (UTC)
That YOLK was nearly in desperation EELS, because presumably some birds eat them and a city is usually Ely in short clues, but it felt (very) wrong.
Good set of clues though: tip of the hat to the well behaved troops, and IMPROBABLY in particular
Edited at 2016-10-21 09:40 am (UTC)
Good luck to all masochists tomorrow, no doubt I’ll be blogging them in due course and be faced instead with a non-Xim classic tormentor from ca. 1956 or so next Wednesday. RR go easy please!
See you tomorrow!
Edited at 2016-10-21 09:11 am (UTC)
Hence 21dn was LOI, as the D I had got me thinking of the month of December.
I don’t remember coming across that meaning of shambles before – I would say that it could now stand me in good stead for tomorrow, but I’m sure they wouldn’t be kind enough to slip in pointers like that so close to the competition.
Edited at 2016-10-21 12:07 pm (UTC)
Back in c.1991 I went to the Championship alone – I had always been with my wife but we had now split-up.
The event was held at the Picadilly Hotel and I registered and then tried to finish off The Saturday 15×15 with a swift beer: I was a couple of answers short.
An old chap came over and asked how I was doing. I showed him the gaps and he asked if he might venture the answers. I grateflly accepted and soon had both in place and The Saturday finished – ready for the fray.
I noticed his crossword was still virgin – when I asked him if he had started, he charmingly stated he had – but as per usual he never filled it in!
I was staggered and deflated in equal quantities!
Someone may know who he was?
Good Luck to all!
Edited at 2016-10-21 04:36 pm (UTC)
No problem with the shambles for me. I spent a few years as a kid living in Bradford on Avon just up from a street called The Shambles. So I knew that meaning from about the age of 10.
I hear that Magoo is ensconced in a secret location surrounded by armed guards. He will arrive a few minutes before the start, rested and ready, and whip through the puzzles in no time. It’s like Tiger Woods in 2000, you’re all playing for second place….unless his shot hits the flagstick and caroms into the lake. Stranger things have happened.
Didn’t know the required meaning of shambles despite there being a street of that name in my nearest town.
Good luck tomorrow folks, hope to meet some new faces and get sloshed with some familiar ones.
It all went smoothly apart from the north-left corner, where I was thinking of the wrong type of member (arm or leg) for 1d, the wrong type of monkey (howler rather than spider – though I couldn’t see why) for 3d, and the wrong type of Derby (hat rather than race) for 1ac. All this, and no sun-tan.