Time taken: 9:54.
I got almost all of the down answers on a first run though, and probably could have been a little faster than this on a good brain day. I’m in my last week of rehearsals for a show, so I’m a little behind in the regular solving regimen.
I got almost all of the down answers on a first run though, and probably could have been a little faster than this on a good brain day. I’m in my last week of rehearsals for a show, so I’m a little behind in the regular solving regimen.
I thought today’s was a good puzzle for wordplay!
First definitions are underlined in the clues…
Away we go!
| Across | |
| 1 | Youth from east extremely knowledgeable about robot (5) |
|
DALEK – LAD(youth) reversed, then K |
|
| 4 | Eg top young woman’s hairpiece, might Spooner have said? (9) |
| WHIRLIGIG – Spoonerism of GIRLY WIG. There’s a bunch of discussion as to whether WHIRLYGIG should be accepted. I don’t recall seeing any other spelling, and WHIRLIGIG is the only spelling given in Collins (the usual standard dictionary for The Times), Chambers or Oxford. | |
| 9 | Phoney’s daily beat circling US city (9) |
| CHARLATAN – CHAR(daily), TAN(beat) surrounding LA(US city) | |
| 10 | Church land where bird has swapped river for lake? (5) |
| GLEBE – the bird is a GREBE, replace R(river) with L(lake) | |
| 11 | Unusually dire prospects for group loyalty (6,2,5) |
| ESPRIT DE CORPS – anagram of DIRE,PROSPECTS | |
| 14 | Fix some olla podrida, for example? (4) |
| STEW – double definition – fix being an uncomfortable situation here | |
| 15 | Tearing of delicate fabric in front of allotment (10) |
| LACERATION – LACE(delicate fabric), RATION(allotment) | |
| 18 | Copyist, one visiting a team in French quarters (10) |
| AMANUENSIS – I(one) inside A, MAN U(Manchester United, soocer team), EN(In, in French), S,S(quarters) | |
| 19 | Charge for accessing remote estates, primarily (4) |
| FARE – First letters of For Accessing Remote Estates | |
| 21 | Loyalty old railways originally showed, adopting alternative tracks? (13) |
|
BROTHERLINESS – BR(British Rail, old railway), and S |
|
| 24 | Friend’s note written during a match (5) |
| AMIGO – MI(musical note), in A, MATCH(go, as in go with) | |
| 25 | N European’s proposal for first daughter in run (9) |
| LAPLANDER – PLAN(proposal) instead of the first D in LADDER(run) | |
| 27 | Excellent, solidly attractive fish (5-4) |
| HUNKY-DORY – HUNKY(solidly attractive), DORY(fish) | |
| 28 | Tree-dweller appearing in sundry advertisements (5) |
| DRYAD – hidden in sunDRY ADvertisements | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Surprisingly Nice is dank, squalid and poverty-stricken (10) |
| DICKENSIAN – anagram of NICE,IS,DANK | |
| 2 | Grassy area providing shelter for listeners (3) |
| LEA – sounds like LEE(shelter) | |
| 3 | Fellow entertaining Liberal physicist (6) |
| KELVIN – KEVIN(fellow) containing L(liberal), for Lord Kelvin | |
| 4 | Uncommunicative comedian lured outside hotel (9) |
| WITHDRAWN – WIT(comedian), DRAWN(lured) with H(hotel) inside | |
| 5 | Like an order mocking customer finally leaves (5) |
|
IONIC – IRONIC(mocking) missing |
|
| 6 | Rest taken after member’s ball (3,5) |
| LEG BREAK – BREAK(rest) following LEG(member) – a ball in cricket | |
| 7 | Rough evaluation of visitor hugging son and current chum (11) |
| GUESSTIMATE – GUEST(visitor) contaning S(son), then I(current), MATE(chum) | |
| 8 | Anorak Stavros possibly needed, disregarding end of winter (4) |
| GEEK – Stavros (as opposed to Davros) would be a GREEK, remove the last letter of winteR | |
| 12 | Quiet about eccentric man from way back in history (11) |
| PRECAMBRIAN – P(piano, quiet), RE(about), CAM(eccentric motor), BRIAN(man) | |
| 13 | Limitless and, in Germany, without poetic rhythm (10) |
| UNMEASURED – UND(and, in German), outside of MEASURE(poetic rhythm) | |
| 16 | Rage hippy stirred up studying ancient inscriptions (9) |
| EPIGRAPHY – anagram of RAGE,HIPPY | |
| 17 | Independence of a posh man accepting prestigious award (8) |
| AUTONOMY – A, U(posh), TONY(man) containing OM(order of merit) | |
| 20 | Enchanting chap island zoo initially put in charge (6) |
|
WIZARD – I(island), Z |
|
| 22 | Greeting a man will love? (5) |
| HELLO – HE’LL, O | |
| 23 | Expression of disgust about leader of socialist party (4) |
|
BASH – BAH(expression of disgust) surrounding S |
|
| 26 | One of those appearing regularly in diary (3) |
| DAY – alternating letters in DiArY | |
[On edit] Not surprising to find its gentle for a Friday – it’s only Thursday! In my defence I’ve got the day off work tomorrow so the weekend starts here!
Edited at 2018-09-20 07:36 pm (UTC)