Times 29289 – not too tiring

A more straightforward Wednesday this week, which took me about fifteen minutes with no hold-ups. My LOI LYNX needed both crossers and a little thought, as hunter was a rather vague definition. I liked the Eskimo home.

Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, DD = double definition, [deleted letters in square brackets].

Across
1 Casino is accountable to some degree over incident (8)
OCCASION – hidden reversed.
6 Reflect in silence, taking in one small wrong (6)
MISUSE – insert I S into MUSE.
9 Mischievous girl missing home match (4)
GAME – remove IN (home) from GAMINE.
10 Couple perhaps finally renovate large part of church (4,6)
LADY CHAPEL – LADY + CHAP = a couple perhaps, [renovat]E, L.
11 Behold to-do when running wild (3-7)
HOT-BLOODED – (BEHOLD TO DO)*.
13 Hunter relates to the audience (4)
LYNX – sounds like links = relates to.
14 Separated daughter is coming to Greek island (8)
DISCRETE – D, IS, CRETE.
16 A single desire, but not old, somewhat recent (6)
NEWISH – ONE WISH loses the O for old.
18 Tricky question when the time of Christian festival has moved (6)
TEASER – the T of EASTER moves.
20 Second phaeton ordered for another carriage (8)
STANHOPE – S, (PHAETON)*. I knew my carriages from re-reading the Barchester Chronicles recently.
22 Blue-eyed boy in swimming pool, length behind (4)
IDOL – LIDO has the L moved to the end.
24 Bequeathed present journal containing tons (10)
HEREDITARY – present = HERE, journal = DIARY, insert T.
26 Man keeping deep affection back, heartless not spiteful (10)
MALEVOLENT – MALE = man, LOVE reversed = EVOL, insert that into MALE > MALEVOLE, add N[o]T.
28 Possibly tire of work on house (4)
HOOP – HO[use], OP = work. Collins give TIRE as “the US spelling of TYRE”, and I’d never use tire here, but I have seen it used in UK.
29 One fighting to censor The Scotsman’s coverage (6)
BANTAM – BAN = censor, TAM (o’shanter) a Scotsman’s hat. As in bantamweight boxer I presume.
30 One getting something done about pit boss (8)
DOMINEER – A DOER gets something done, insert MINE = pit.
Down
2 Tea second, milk mostly first for English tea maker (9)
CHAMOMILE – CHA (tea) MO (second) MIL[k], E[nglish].
3 Lab mice breaking scientific equipment (7)
ALEMBIC – (LAB MICE)*.  One of those old retort things now obselete.
4 Home originally included guest facilities (5)
IGLOO – I[ncluded] G[uest] LOO = facilities.
5 Sleep regularly enfolds (3)
NOD – alternate letters. As in The LAND of NOD.
6 Former kingdom’s obsession involving Conservative European party (9)
MACEDONIA – MANIA has C, E, DO inserted.
7 Bird   down (7)
SWALLOW – DD.
8 Group of geese hide around rear of farmhouse (5)
SKEIN – E (rear of farmhouse) inserted into SKIN. We had this the other other day, was it the Sunday before last?
12 Furniture   one found in theatre (7)
DRESSER -DD.
15 Underground traveller initially travels hours absorbed in catchy music (9)
EARTHWORM – T[ravels] H[ours] inserted into EARWORM.
17 Put over with great attitude (9)
SUPERPOSE – SUPER = great, POSE = attitude. Collins gives “a rare word for superimpose”.
19 Evolving entails forward projection (7)
SALIENT – (ENTAILS)*.
21 Hertfordshire town’s success in protecting church (7)
HITCHIN – HIT (success) IN, insert CH. My trainline to London passes through this station but I’ve never alighted there.
23 Drink before a show? (5)
DRAMA – DRAM, A.
25 Hold back when accepting odd bits of true fact (5)
DATUM – DAM (hold back) has T[r]U[e] inserted. Datum being the singular of data, which all too often is treated as a singular word by the media.
27 Finish repair to remove marks (3)
END – MEND loses its M.

 

Comments are closed.