Time taken: 9:30.
I didn’t get off to a very good start on this one, but it was a steady solve and fill in the gaps as I went round and I ended up a scratch under 10 minutes, which is pretty good for me.
I had bated breath as there were two guesses (both in the top row) that now I have to work out what the definition is (in one case) and the wordplay (in the other). Maybe I’ll blog the downs first…
The first definition in each clue is underlined.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Surface of river reflected man in garden (7) |
| MACADAM – the river CAM reversed then ADAM was in the garden (of Eden) – the definition is a road surface – I’m more used to seeing it as TARMACADAM | |
| 5 | Role of Charlton police after soup stolen from bordello (2,3) |
| EL CID – CID(police) after BROTH(soup) has been removed from BROTHEL(bordello). El Cid was played by Charlton Heston in 1961. Before making it as an Hollywood actor, Charlton Heston ran a theater in Asheville, North Carolina in the 40s, it is now the Asheville Community Theatre and I have performed a couple of times in it. While I’m storytelling, I’m about to start reheasing for my (ahem) biggest role yet, I will be playing Falstaff in a summer production of Henry IV Part 1 | |
| 9 | Secret boozer with beer, half-cut (5) |
| INNER – INN(boozer) and half of beER | |
| 10 | Fermenting juice isn’t wrong (9) |
| INJUSTICE – ANAGRAM of JUICE,ISN’T | |
| 11 | Stick around, and ultimately you’ll achieve celebrity (7) |
| NOTABLE – BATON(stick) reversed and the last letter os youlL, achievE | |
| 12 | Tear about Long Island with a dependent (7) |
| RELIANT – RENT(tear) surrounding LI(Long Island, an area close to New York City), A. Edit: I had mistakenly identified Long Island as a borough earlier, offending several people and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Apologies. | |
| 13 | Reportedly rejected everywhere (10) |
| THROUGHOUT – sounds like THREW OUT(rejected) | |
| 15 | Drove female mad at last (4) |
| HERD – HER(female), then the last letter of maD | |
| 18 | Carve sides of elegant church (4) |
| ETCH – outer letters of EleganT, ChurcH | |
| 20 | Play with mates until very late (4-6) |
| LAST-MINUTE – anagram of MATES, UNTIL – I liked this clue very much | |
| 23 | Touching delicacy on fiddle (7) |
| CONTACT – TACT(delicacy) with CON(fiddle) | |
| 24 | Backsliding setter’s packing trunk for drug dealer (7) |
| CHEMIST – I’M(setter’s) reversed inside CHEST(trunk) | |
| 25 | Learning of nude riot, I panicked (9) |
| ERUDITION – anagram of NUDE,RIOT,I | |
| 26 | Tease short bloke very loudly (5) |
|
CHAFF – CHA |
|
| 27 | Iron resolution possessed by private secretary (5) |
| PRESS – RES(resolution) inside PS(private secretary) | |
| 28 | Order wine for relatives (7) |
| KINDRED – KIND(order, sort), then RED wine | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Enormous characters in gym, on steroids (7) |
| MONSTER – hidden in gyM ON STERoids | |
| 2 | Charlie regularly decries Birmingham thinker (8) |
| CEREBRUM – C(Charlie, NATO alphabet), then alternating letters in dEcRiEs, BRUM(Burmingham) | |
| 3 | Doctor Kildare finally trapping medical equipment in zip (5) |
| DRIVE – DR(doctor), then the last letter of kildarE, containing IV(intravenous, medical equipment) | |
| 4 | Maori just breaking hearts? (5,4) |
| MAJOR SUIT – anagram of MAORI, JUST | |
| 5 | Simply sail off in case of emergency (6) |
| EASILY – anagram of SAIL in the outside letters of EmergencY | |
| 6 | Capital extremely tense after cold weather (7) |
|
CLIMATE – LIMA(capital), T |
|
| 7 | Lived and died on edge (5) |
| DWELT – D(died), WELT(edge) – I got this from definition alone, not knowing that a WELT is a strengthening border | |
| 8 | Ivy signs letter whose contents form word picture (8) |
| VIGNETTE – the interior letters of iVy sIGNs lETTEr | |
| 14 | Despondent Scottish football team heading away from Wick (9) |
|
HEARTSICK – HEARTS of Midlothian football club, then |
|
| 16 | Anil perhaps heard to choke on jam? (8) |
| DYESTUFF – sounds like DIE(choke) on STUFF(jam) | |
| 17 | Means to suppress report (8) |
| SILENCER – cryptic definition | |
| 19 | Carpet originally came with guarantee (7) |
|
CENSURE – C |
|
| 21 | Close-fitting garment giving rise to bother in university (7) |
| UNITARD – reverse all of DRAT(bother) IN, U(university) | |
| 22 | Makes different V-sign (6) |
| VARIES – V, then ARIES(star sign) | |
| 23 | Read out tawdry tweet (5) |
| CHEEP – sounds like CHEAP(tawdry) | |
| 24 | Law of Swiss state banning introduction of tariffs (5) |
|
CANON – Swiss states are CANTONS, remove T |
|
Very enjoyable puzzle that I had a very short session at first to get started and then finishing it off quickly in a second one. Didn’t see that meaning of WELT but had no problems with UNITARD … hang on … yes I did … kept getting flashbacks of Borat’s mankini from that unfortunate movie !
Liked the trick with VIGNETTE, a typical play by Sarah Hayes from the Guardian and the FT – in fact, if she does set for the Times (which I believe that she does), this whole puzzle could easily have been one of hers – the different letter extractions from words and the silky smooth surfaces are her trademark!
Took ages to see the [BROTH]EL part of 5a, but was happy when I did. Finished in the SW corner with CENSURE, PRESS and the lovely VARIES the last few in.