I found this crossword to be moderately difficult, but for me it had too many “I suppose it works” clues to be as satisfying as our usual Wednesday offerings. It took me about 40 minutes and a bit longer to parse them all, not least because I had gone astray at 8d and had to re-think. 15a needs a little more explanation, I could see the answer but am not sure I saw what the setter is up to. I liked 18a, and 12a for reminding me of happy times past.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, italics for anagram indicator, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Public transport in need of assistance after cutting capacity (6) |
| BUSHEL – BUS then HEL( |
|
| 4 | A Sierra left running: fuel is provided (2,4,2) |
| AS LONG AS – A, S (sierra), L (long) ON (running) GAS (fuel). | |
| 10 | Police operation in region hard to understand on reflection (5,4) |
| SPEED TRAP – All reversed: DEEP (hard to understand) inside PARTS (region). Slight MER over region being singular and parts being plural, but I can think of situations where they could be equivalent. | |
| 11 | Not the case notes lawyers on vacation should open (5) |
| FALSE -L S (lawyers on vacation) inside FA, E (notes in music). | |
| 12 | Via Angus, Arthur oddly gets you there! (7) |
| VANUATU – Alternate letters of V i A a N g U s A r T h U r. I visited some of the islands in Vanuatu in 1994, on a Pacific diving trip, it was hot and humid, but I didn’t have time to see the volcanoes. | |
| 13 | Wine by sink left mark (3,4) |
| RED FLAG – RED is wine, to FLAG is to sink. I assume here our setter means the red flag is a mark / symbol of the left politically. | |
| 14 | Best blooming party … (5) |
| OUTDO – OUT (blooming) DO (party). We seem to have had OUTDO regularly recently. | |
| 15 | … with people and … (8) |
| DONATION – I’m not sure how to explain this, although I see the wordplay; DO = party, from the previous clue, and NATION = people. Too clever for words. | |
| 18 | … the present holder’s fabulous repartee! (4,4) |
| PEAR TREE – (REPARTEE)*. Present holder, as in the tree holding the partridge my true love gave to me. | |
| 20 | Flyer to take from home (5) |
| ROBIN – ROB (take from) IN (home). | |
| 23 | Model’s comeback cut short by arts institute (7) |
| REPLICA -REPL( |
|
| 25 | Was sluggish old man going outside with light? (7) |
| DAWDLED – W for with inside DAD then LED for light emitting diode. | |
| 26 | Sentimental old you, reflecting on game! (5) |
| GOOEY – GO (game) O (old) EY (YE reflecting). | |
| 27 | Here’s an idea for training hawk to win (1,4,4) |
| I KNOW WHAT – (HAWK TO WIN)*. | |
| 28 | Teaching union introducing delay in support for course (8) |
| TUTELAGE – TU (trade union) TEE (golf tee, support for course), insert LAG = delay. | |
| 29 | Stacks milk products metres to the left (6) |
| MYRIAD – All reversed; DAIRY, M. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | One taking a bow when first in some vivas in biology (4,4) |
| BASS VIOL – BIOL for biology, insert AS (when) and S V (first in some visas). Apparently a viol is like a cello but not; if you are curious see https://www.vdgsa.org/about-the-viol-cello-vs-viol | |
| 2 | Butter producer EU hasn’t replaced (4,3) |
| SHEA NUT – (EU HASNT). As you’d expect, the nuts of the shea tree can be used to make shea nut butter, used in the food industry. | |
| 3 | Shot bound at any time to be heard (9) |
| ENDEAVOUR – END = bound, limit; EAVOUR sounds like EVER = at any time. Shot as in go, try. | |
| 5 | Policeman is wicked, mean and crooked (not the first) (14) |
| SUPERINTENDENT – SUPER = wicked, cool; INTEND = mean; ( |
|
| 6 | FBI agent’s murdered (5) |
| OFFED – of the FBI agent = of the Fed. | |
| 7 | Boxer stars alongside grand old scientist (7) |
| GALILEO – G (grand) ALI (boxer) LEO (star constellation). | |
| 8 | Something to heave across glacial expanse, ultimately? (6) |
| SLEIGH – L E the last letters of glacial expanse, go inside SIGH which is something you ‘heave’. I got in a tizzy here because I had the checkers and put in SLEDGE thinking it was more of a heaving across glaciers thing, then couldn’t parse it and had to revisit my answer. | |
| 9 | Innovative engineers into clay-firing (14) |
| GROUNDBREAKING – well, clay firing could be described as ‘ground baking’, insert RE for the Royal Engineers. | |
| 16 | Cast with a manner that’s casual (9) |
| THROWAWAY – THROW = cast, A WAY = a manner. As in a throwaway or casual remark perhaps. | |
| 17 | I end duet rarely as originally composed? (8) |
| UNEDITED – (I END DUET)*. | |
| 19 | Turn to account, one associated with action hero? (7) |
| EXPLOIT – double definition. Exploit meaning to turn for a profit, turn to account, and exploit as a noun being something adventurers and heroes pursue. | |
| 21 | For dancers, mostly awkward maintaining circle (7) |
| BOLSHOI -BOLSHI( |
|
| 22 | Alarm, just after five, yours truly’s switched off (6) |
| FRIGHT – RIGHT (just) after F( |
|
| 24 | Spruce overlooking lakes, timeless, charming scene (5) |
| IDYLL -spruce = TIDY, delete the T (timeless) add two lakes LL. | |
50 minutes and correct, but I agree with Horryd: too many iffy clues. I too first thought of SLEDGE for 8dn, but it didn’t parse well, so I then saw SLEIGH. I was also tempted by SUPERINTENDANT, but since ?ANT couldn’t be crooked enough, I opted for the correct spelling. My LOI was EXPLOIT and that was also the clue I liked least. AS LONG AS is the one I liked best, although PEAR TREE was quite good, too, except for the nonfunctional ellipsis leading to it (it has nothing to do with the previous clue apart from referring to a “donation”, if that’s what you want to call it).
DNF
RHS went in easily enough but struggled with a number on the other side
Small point – I was thrown by the “in” in 1ac. HELP is not “in need of assistance” but “need of assistance”. And “in” isn’t normally a connector word that can be ignored? What am I missing?
Tend to agree with negative comments about DONATION. If we had an indirect anagram folks would rightly be up in arms and I can’t see this is different. Great clue but just not in The Times