Time taken: 15:59. I struggled with this one, and crawled my way around the grid, relying heavily on checking letters, and in one case I only have half of the answer, but I hope I can figure it out before I’m done writing this up. Since I am solving a little later than usual, I had a look at the SNITCH, and there is quite a distribution – those of us who are usually in the 10ish minute range found it hard, and those with longer solving times found it easier, so there may be some benefit to being on the setter’s wavelength.
Hope you did well!
Away we go…
Postscript (added Thursday about 4pm GMT). As many of you know, I live on the East coast of the USA, so at the time comments come thundering in, I am passed out, so I only get interactive with early comments. I’m going to add a postscript of comments on comments when I blog. It seems the clue causing the most difficulty is 4 down, where I had a bit of an advantage. One of the things you need to memorize for the US Citizenship exam, which I took in 2014, is the names of the recognized Native American tribes and languages, so CREEK came quickly. Similarly CREEK meaning estuary is listed in Collins as a chiefly American usage, though I think it is the case in Australia that the terms are interchangeable. For those of you wanting the author Kingsley Amis, who will return to crosswords soon enough, I would be surprised if the Times clued an author by their first name unless that is their most common pseudonym. Collins also confirms NICE as “calling for great care, accuracy, tact etc”. I often mess up LICENCE/LICENSE but I don’t think there’s any way you could come up with NSE from the last part of the wordplay.
| Across | |
| 1 | A source of energy and relative growth (9) |
| CARBUNCLE – CARB(carbohydrate, a source of energy), and UNCLE(relative) | |
| 6 | Most important horse is fed carefully at first (5) |
| FOCAL – FOAL(horse) containing the first letter of Carefully | |
| 9 | More than a couple of Italians running late (7) |
| OVERDUE – OVER(more than) and DUE(two, or a couple, in Italian) | |
| 10 | Address mostly full of comic potential in epic style (7) |
| HOMERIC – HOME(address) then remove the last letter of RICH(full of comic potential) | |
| 11 | Keep time or we go wrong (5) |
| TOWER – anagram of T(time), OR, WE | |
| 13 | Novelist, not English, has new name for town (5,4) |
| KINGS LYNN – The novelist is Charles KINGSLEY (Hereward the Wake, Westward Ho!). Remove the E(English) and then N(new), N(name) | |
| 14 | Real logic dealt badly with hidden meaning (9) |
| ALLEGORIC – anagram of REAL,LOGIC | |
| 16 | Nielsen, perhaps omitting start of chorus from ballet (4) |
| DANE – remove the first letter of Chorus from DANCE(ballet), referring to the Danish composer Carl NIELSEN | |
| 18 | Card from company doctor (4) |
| COMB – CO(company), MB(doctor) – card can mean to comb wool | |
| 19 | Memorial for Bradley? (9) |
| HEADSTONE – This was one of my last in, and now I see – Bradley HEADSTONE is a character in Our Mutual Friend, which is one of many Dickens pieces I have not read | |
| 22 | Statement offering little put detail awkwardly (9) |
| PLATITUDE – anagram of PUT,DETAIL. Nifty clue! | |
| 24 | Gold jaguars Inca regularly displayed (5) |
| AURIC – alternating letters in jAgUaRs InCa | |
| 25 | Reduced voucher against wine (7) |
| CHIANTI – remove the last letter of CHIT(voucher), then ANTI(against) | |
| 26 | Test chemical engineers by proxy (7) |
| REAGENT – RE(engineers), and AGENT(proxy) | |
| 28 | A number really get Information Technology (5) |
| DIGIT – DIG(really get) IT(Information Technology) | |
| 29 | Note former cane plant with yellow flowers (9) |
| GOLDENROD – G(musical note), OLDEN(former), ROD(cane) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Island area or cape — climbing country (7) |
| CROATIA – AIT(island), A(area), OR and C(cape) all reversed | |
| 2 | Eggs coming inside from hen (3) |
| ROE – the middle letters of fROm and hEn | |
| 3 | Anger after nude running showing a lack of necessary maturity (8) |
| UNDERAGE – RAGE(anger) following an anagram of NUDE | |
| 4 | Estuary language (5) |
| CREEK – double definition, the language being that of native Americans of the southeast | |
| 5 | European friend keeping very good herbal remedy (9) |
| ECHINACEA – E(european), CHINA(friend) containing ACE(very good) | |
| 6 | Go very hungry dividing food around a million (6) |
| FAMISH – FISH(food) surrounding A, M(million) | |
| 7 | Hot dish suggestion — learner’s left to seek approval (5,6) |
| CURRY FAVOUR – CURRY(hot dish) and FLAVOUR(suggestion) missing L(learner driver) | |
| 8 | Freedom from parasites requiring careful attention getting rid of one (7) |
| LICENCE – LICE(parasites) and NICE(requiring careful attention) missing I(one) | |
| 12 | With good intentions, PM’s lacking style going round poor (4-7) |
| WELL-MEANING – the prime minister is Arthur Wellesley, Duke of WELLINGTON. Remove TON(style) and insert MEAN(poor) | |
| 15 | Finding new home for unfortunate neighbours losing billions (9) |
| REHOUSING – anagram of NEIGHBOURS minus B(billions) | |
| 17 | Exploit computer key to copy both sides of advert (8) |
| ESCAPADE – ESC(computer key), then APE(copy) containing AD(advert) | |
| 18 | What’s outstanding in New England? Better eastern seafood (4,3) |
| CAPE COD – CAP(better), E(eastern), COD(seafood) | |
| 20 | Very active Conservative splitting left (7) |
| EXCITED – C(conservative) inside EXITED(left) | |
| 21 | Songbird left where it could be trapped? (6) |
| LINNET – L(left) and it could be trapped IN NET | |
| 23 | Record single rising — around number four in chart (5) |
| ENROL – LONE(single) reversed, containing the fourth letter of chaRt | |
| 27 | Mistake taking rook with queen (3) |
| ERR – R(rook) with ER(queen) | |
Actual time was around 30 minutes which for me is amazing. Left side much easier than the right but I got there.
It won’t last!