Time: 18 minutes
Music: Sibelius, Symphony 5, Gibson/LSO
Easy Monday continues for me, although I can never be sure when I am just on the wavelength. But starting from the first across clue, the answers were pretty evident – what word starting with rip- means “on the bank”? Not many. So I continued at a steady pace, with only a MER here and there, and came home in a pretty good time for me.
We have had some complaints about heated exchanges here in the comments. It’s certainly acceptable to press your point, but please try to keep it civil. We do have administators, and we can delete comments if things get out of hand, verbum sap and all that.
On with the show!
| Across | |
| 1 | Rest peacefully by a river with Scot on the bank (8) |
| RIPARIAN – RIP + A + R + IAN, evidently the only Scot. | |
| 5 | Novelist who would keep the fire burning? (6) |
| STOKER – Double defintion for the author of Dracula. | |
| 10 | What can you write on? Anything but the electronic version of The Times! (9) |
| NOTEPAPER – NOT E-PAPER. | |
| 11 | Come across for hearing — guilty party may be this (5) |
| FINED – Sounds like find, in nearly all dialects, too. | |
| 12 | A rescuer of creatures missing the last animal (4) |
| ANOA – A NOA[h]. | |
| 13 | Dodgy Rhodes uni promoted (9) |
| NOURISHED – Anagram of RHODES UNI – a bit of a MER. | |
| 15 | Holding power opening very big meeting (10) |
| POSSESSION – P + O.S. + SESSION. | |
| 17 | Drink only partially satisfies a king (4) |
| SAKI – hidden in [satisfie]S A KI[ng], second MER for this variant spelling. | |
| 19 | French refusal to engage English? I don’t react (4) |
| NEON – N(E)ON, an inert gas that doesn’t react with anything. | |
| 20 | Bertha cuts fresh bread (10) |
| BRUSCHETTA – Anagram of BERTHA CUTS – you’ll have to count the letters carefully. | |
| 22 | Worker coming to one cold region or another (9) |
| ANTARCTIC – ANT + ARCTIC. | |
| 24 | Faction‘s ostentatiousness (4) |
| SIDE – Double definition. | |
| 26 | I would set about getting hold of fashionable garment (5) |
| DHOTI – D(HOT)I, the opposite of fashionable, which is why lift and separate is important. | |
| 27 | Learner in audience puzzled about classical geometry (9) |
| EUCLIDEAN – Anagram of AUDIENCE around L. | |
| 28 | US city minister returning to study (6) |
| DENVER – DEN + REV backwards. One of the few states where the largest city is the capital. | |
| 29 | Appreciator of pictures in East sitting in class (8) |
| CINEASTE – C(IN E)ASTE. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Old boy not being seen putting on dress or skirt (4) |
| RING – R[ob]ING. | |
| 2 | Decide firmly how one may go faster? (3,4,4,4) |
| PUT ONES FOOT DOWN – Double definition, one allusive. | |
| 3 | Rough material getting criticised and substituted (8) |
| REPLACED – REP + LACED. | |
| 4 | Like enclosure for tree (5) |
| ASPEN – AS PEN. | |
| 6 | Can containing one doubly fine meal (6) |
| TIFFIN – F(I, FF)IN. | |
| 7 | Frank in Devon shows such benevolence (4-11) |
| KIND-HEARTEDNESS – [fran]K IN D[evon] is the clue to the answer. | |
| 8 | Unfortunate lad married flighty type (3,7) |
| RED ADMIRAL – Anagram of LAD MARRIED. | |
| 9 | Criminals admitting defeat? They may be in the soup (8) |
| CROUTONS – C(ROUT)ONS. | |
| 14 | Not showing dukes to be charitable (4-6) |
| OPEN-HANDED – Double definition, one jocular. | |
| 16 | This beast ultimately tried to attract partner and swaggered (8) |
| STRUTTED – [thi]S [beas]T + RUTTED. | |
| 18 | Revolutionary’s charter in part of England (8) |
| CHESHIRE – CHE’S HIRE, where, presumably, they have lots of cats and cheese. | |
| 21 | Cook belonging to place with famous restaurant by the Thames reportedly (6) |
| BRAISE – Sound’s like Bray’s – possibly the clue should have read “famous restaurants”. | |
| 23 | Islands full of fake plants (5) |
| CACTI – C(ACT)I, the Channel Islands. | |
| 25 | With regard to home, start to replace source of energy (2,2) |
| IN RE – IN + R[eplace] + E[nergy] | |
I’ve never heard of ANOA, and even if I’d worked out who the rescuer of animals was (I was thinking RSPCA), I would not have put ANOA in….