I thought this was the best, and hardest, Wednesday puzzle for quite a while (since 28083 in fact), with hardly a poor clue among the thirty. Fortunately I’d seen the answers to 3d and 11a before else I might have struggled more; as it was, 29a was unknown to me but a fine clue once I had it sorted. I don’t have a solving time as I was interrupted a couple of times, but it certainly exceeded 30 minutes. Thank you, Mr Setter, I take Ma Hat off to you.
| Across | |
| 1 | Abrasive having advantage over the timid? (6) |
| PUMICE – PU (UP, advantage, reversed), MICE (the timid). My FOI. | |
| 4 | What’s white and sparkling as teeth? (8) |
| CHAMPERS – brilliant double definition. | |
| 10 | Catches held in serious practice session (9) |
| REHEARSAL – HEARS (catches) inside REAL (serious). | |
| 11 | Lemur revealed in signs Darwin oddly ignored (5) |
| INDRI – an animal I remembered, found in the alternate letters of s I g N s D a R w I n. | |
| 12 | Means to get hold of rudely fit swimmer (7) |
| CATFISH – CASH (means, money) has (FIT)* inserted. | |
| 13 | Poet, having released book, remains active (7) |
| EMERSON – EMBERS (remains) loses its B, then ON for active. I vaguely remembered this American poet because of his odd middle name, WALDO, but didn’t get him until I had all the checkers, then deduced how it was constructed. A bit too TLS, if you ask me. | |
| 14 | City — it sits in quite nice area (5) |
| OSAKA – Well, once I had O-A-A, the choice of cities became limited (to two, OMAHA and the right one). SA (sex appeal, IT) goes inside OK (nice) A (area). But I needed to get 1d first. | |
| 15 | Grant say for keeping young sheep round in group (8) |
| CATEGORY – It took me a while to realise ‘grant’ wasn’t the definition; here he’s CARY Grant and he has TEG (a young sheep, two years old) and O (round) inserted. I wanted TUP at first but that’s a ram. | |
| 18 | Ancient governor reverses positions coming into Asian city (8) |
| AGRICOLA – well there were a few Romans of inportance called Agricola, but one was Governor of Roman Britain; I remembered him from Latin O Level nearly sixty years ago. AGRA (city in India, site of Taj Mahal) has LOCI (positions) reversed, inserted. | |
| 20 | Liberal as paradigm taking out erstwhile partner (5) |
| AMPLE – EXAMPLE (paradigm) loses EX (erstwhile partner). If you knew that erstwhile means former, you were going to find this easier to solve. | |
| 23 | Official in trouble breaking strike (7) |
| BAILIFF – AIL (trouble) inside BIFF (strike). An easy one, by the standards of this puzzle. | |
| 25 | To set off, cartoon cat crosses river (7) |
| TRIGGER – TIGGER (as the cartoon cat selling Frosties cereal, and in The House at Pooh Corner and then the Disney cartoon) has R for river inside. Fortunately top of mind, as one of our previous standard poodles was aptly named Tigger because of his habit of bouncing excessively (he once bounced through a high open window on to our dinner table, to the horror / amusement of the guests). I tried to work with TOM for a while as in Tom and Jerry, but TO****M wasn’t productive. EDIT as pointed out below, the Frosties cat was Tony tiger not Tigger, my faulty memory. | |
| 26 | Spenser’s enough to keep duke and bequeath permanent income (5) |
| ENDOW – I was able to put a D into ENOW which sounded like an old fashioned spelling of ‘enough’. I had no idea whether Spenser wrote poems with ‘enow’ featuring; no doubt one of our super-literate solvers (Olivia perhaps?) can clarify. | |
| 27 | Clean out potty with iodine to prevent infection (9) |
| INOCULATE – (CLEAN OUT I)*. Another brilliantly relevant surface. | |
| 28 | Tasters in a mixture masking new pungency (8) |
| TARTNESS – (TASTERS N)*. | |
| 29 | Magnificent group, as an example, needs leader to accept point (6) |
| HEPTAD – My LOI for which I confess I needed an aid to trawl the 33 or so words which fitted *E*T*D. Once I found that a heptad was a group of seven the penny dropped and I groaned and remembered the “Magnificent Seven” movie and music; I should have seen it faster because I was once involved in making a TV ad for a soft drink using the theme. The word play is simple enough – PT inside HEAD (leader) but I failed to see it until afterwards. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Means to enter with surgery to save Kelvin’s rib (4,4) |
| PORK CHOP – PORCH (means to enter) OP (surgery), insert K for Kelvin (as in degrees Kelvin). My pork chops are not always ribs, it’s a bit vague, but a nice bit of word play. | |
| 2 | Sage Derby perhaps feeding old women? (7) |
| MAHATMA – I thought of Derby = HAT first, then arrived at MA HAT MA, and vaguely recalled that, aside from the celebrated Ghandi version, a Mahatma was a general term (in fact Sanskrit) for a spiritual and learned person. | |
| 3 | Big noise in sedan with one delayed going over states (9) |
| CHARIVARI – Fortunately, I remembered this word from the last of several times I’ve seen it in crosswordland, otherwise I’d never have got it from wordplay. CHAIR (sedan) has its I moved back (delayed) then add Virgina and Rhone Island = VA RI. If you’re still in the dark about “big noise” read here. | |
| 5 | Patronising hot and bothered author in hotel (6-4-4) |
| HOLIER-THAN-THOU – H, (AUTHOR IN HOTEL)*. | |
| 6 | Corn one stored in puzzling place (5) |
| MAIZE – I inside MAZE. | |
| 7 | Frenchman taking in French south upset ultimate consumer? (3,4) |
| END USER – our crossword Frenchman RENE makes another appearance here, having SUD (French for south) inserted to make RESUDNE and then all reversed (upset). | |
| 8 | Very thin air that surrounds watering hole (6) |
| SKINNY – SKY (air) around INN (watering hole). | |
| 9 | Witches for Salem endlessly travelling by direct route (2,3,4,5) |
| AS THE CROW FLIES – like me, you probably biffed this in, then worked out which fodder you needed to anagram. It’s (WITCHES FOR SALE)* without the M of Salem. | |
| 16 | Acknowledgement given in Greek view expressed (9) |
| GRATITUDE – GR (Greek) then ATITUDE sounds like ATTITUDE = view expressed. | |
| 17 | Help to turn round ultimately tiresome day (8) |
| BEFRIEND – BEND (turn) goes around E (end of tiresome) FRI (day). I didn’t much like help as a definition for befriend, but the wordplay works well enough. | |
| 19 | Smile expensive when losing a tooth (7) |
| GRINDER – GRIN (smile) DE(A)R = expensive losing A. | |
| 21 | Insect shouldering leaf in elaborate display (7) |
| PAGEANT – PAGE (leaf) above ANT (insect). | |
| 22 | Sailor posted away (6) |
| ABSENT – AB (sailor) SENT (posted). | |
| 24 | American radio wanting shows (5) |
| IOWAN – hidden as above. I wondered about INCAN (IN CAN, ready to show, wanting shows) then saw I was over-thinking it and W was the middle letter. | |
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