Time taken: 7:45, but with one silly error, showing that I have been in the USA for far too long.
A couple of letter subtraction clues today could be the stumbling point for solvers, but I thought this one was pretty straightforward. Hope you know your stars!
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Huge son going to the end, amusing people (6) |
| COMICS – COSMIC(huge) with the S(son) moved to the end | |
| 4 | Rubbish outside place, last bit of festive decoration (7) |
| ROSETTE – ROT(rubbish) surrounding SET(place), and then the last letter of festivE | |
| 9 | Form of life in river covered in flowing liquid? (5) |
| LARVA – R(river) inside LAVA(flowing liquid) | |
| 10 | Like a monkey’s mistake — a blessing being captured (9) |
| BABOONISH – BISH(mistake) containing A, BOON(blessing) | |
| 11 | Gangster and cleric outside pub — The Star (9) |
| ALDEBARAN – AL(Capone, gangster) and DEAN(cleric) surrounding BAR(pub) | |
| 12 | Give encouragement to holy person leaving diocese (5) |
| CHEER – remove ST(holy person) from the diocese of CHESTER | |
| 13 | Area of ground that’s holy, trimmed at the edges (4) |
| ACRE – SACRED(holy) missing the outside letters | |
| 14 | Old IT feature fills home-worker with fear (4,6) |
| CARD READER – CARER(home-worker) containing DREAD(fear). Never had to use one of these, though as an undergraduate I had an account on a machine running an operating system that was derived from a card reader, so code could also be seen as punches | |
| 18 | Begging access, endlessly worrying (10) |
| ENTREATING – ENTRY(access) minus the last letter, then EATING(worrying) | |
| 20 | Old man is full of energy? Exactly! (4) |
| DEAD – DAD(old man) containing E(energy) | |
| 23 | Smallest lake towards where the sun rises (5) |
| LEAST – L(lake) and EAST(towards where the sun rises) | |
| 24 | Safety device could make car heat up (9) |
| PARACHUTE – anagram of CAR,HEAT,UP | |
| 25 | Search all the players before a session (4,5) |
| CAST ABOUT – CAST(all the players), then A, BOUT(session) | |
| 26 | Look hard, one side to the other, for weeds (5) |
| TARES – STARE(look hard) with the S moved to the other end. Got this from wordplay, both Collins and Chambers list it as being a weed in the Bible, and also vetch which I guess could be a weed | |
| 27 | Decided to add modern light to beastly home (7) |
| SETTLED – LED(modern light) with SETT(badger’s home) | |
| 28 | Class reportedly got older and wiser? (6) |
| GREYED – sounds like GRADE(class). This was my downfall, as I spelled it with an A, like the Americans do | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Small room close to bodega: see red wine store (9) |
| CELLARAGE – CELL(small room), the last letter of bodegA, and RAGE(see red) | |
| 2 | Tower where star has party, right? (7) |
| MIRADOR – the star MIRA, DO(party) and R(right) | |
| 3 | Caught he-man in game (6) |
| CRAMBO – C(caught), RAMBO(he-man) | |
| 4 | Bird — investigating having wings being clipped (5) |
| ROBIN – PROBING(investigating) minus the exterior letters | |
| 5 | Troubled soul, dear Parisian who cannot stand tall? (8) |
| SLOUCHER – anagram of SOUL, and CHER(dear, in French) | |
| 6 | Be ill, needing nurse round? The very last thing you want (4,3) |
| TAIL END – AIL(be ill) inside TEND(nurse) | |
| 7 | Number three at sea (5) |
| ETHER – anagram of THREE | |
| 8 | Lincoln bishop with a set of holy books found to be unorthodox (8) |
| ABERRANT – ABE Lincoln, RR(bishop) and A, NT(set of holy books) | |
| 15 | Branch of thieves’ organisation tried reforming (8) |
| DENDRITE – a DEN of thieves, and an anagram of TRIED | |
| 16 | Garment covered in grass must be put right (9) |
| REDRESSED – DRESS(garment) inside REED(grass) | |
| 17 | This person at social function provides food item (8) |
| MEATBALL – ME(this person), AT, BALL(social function) | |
| 19 | What’s characteristic about conflicting directions in journey? (7) |
| TRANSIT – TRAIT(characteristic) containing N and S(conflicting directions) | |
| 21 | Attendant always round queen, ready first and last (7) |
| EQUERRY – EER(always) surrounding QU(queen) then the first and last letters of ReadY | |
| 22 | Duck in second camp: that is flying off (6) |
| SCOTER – S(second), and COTERIE(camp) minus IE(that is) | |
| 23 | See copper beginning to search place (5) |
| LOCUS – LO(see), CU(copper) and the first letter of Search | |
| 24 | Reminder about being associated with people posh and arrogant (5) |
| PROUD – PROD(reminder) surrounding U(associated with people posh) | |
When I was a child my mother would, at parties, initiate a game of Dumb CRAMBO. I never worked out the difference between Dumb Crambo and Charades – but then I was very young.