Time: 19 minutes
Music: Delius, North Country Sketches, Groves/RPO
This one was a bit of a biff-fest for me, so I’ll need to figure out the cryptics as I write the blog. As it turns out, there was nothing too difficult, so this puzzle might well be suitable for the Quickie crowd to try their hand on. Bohea is the only word some solvers might not know, so I would expect to see some pretty fast times.
| 1 | Puts down a force during exercise to avoid risk (4,4) |
| PLAY SAFE – P(LAYS A F)E. | |
| 5 | A pig died being transported? (6) |
| ABOARD – A BOAR D. | |
| 10 | Rigorous working out I run over in large chapter (5) |
| LOGIC – L(I GO backwards)C. | |
| 11 | Vegetarian food — way to live during embargo (5,4) |
| BROAD BEAN – B(ROAD, BE)AN. | |
| 12 | A reversal in function makes us gloomy (9) |
| SATURNINE -S(A TURN)INE. | |
| 13 | Distinguished academic receiving alien back (5) |
| NOTED – D(E.T)ON, all backwards. | |
| 14 | Travelling elite carrying National Trust permit (7) |
| ENTITLE – Anagram of ELITE around NT. | |
| 16 | Warship expected to conquer (6) |
| SUBDUE – SUB DUE. | |
| 18 | Left brown furniture items in store (6) |
| LUMBER – L + UMBER, the UK meaning. | |
| 20 | Tweeter, perhaps one MP’s must heed (7) |
| SPEAKER – Double definition. | |
| 22 | Czech region banning motorway drink (5) |
| BOHEA – BOHE[mi]A, a drink common in 18th century verse. | |
| 23 | Tea after test game’s ending (9) |
| CHECKMATE – MATE after CHECK. | |
| 25 | Overflowing with Cape wine almost entirely (5-4) |
| CHOCK-FULL – C + HOCK + FULL. | |
| 26 | Most of tax is on a gold vessel (5) |
| AORTA – A + OR + TA[x] | |
| 27 | Speak about fool’s ability to think straight (6) |
| SANITY – SA(NIT)Y. | |
| 28 | Note bird and rabbit (8) |
| CHITCHAT – CHIT + CHAT. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Column I covered in pargeting (8) |
| PILASTER – P(I)LASTER. | |
| 2 | Jargon central to photography in one way? (5) |
| ARGOT – Backwards hidden in [pho]TOGRA[phy]. | |
| 3 | Bond perhaps needs cover for official crackdown (8,7) |
| SECURITY BLANKET – SECURITY + BLANKET, not one for Linus, evidently. | |
| 4 | Get upset after month’s hot (7) |
| FEBRILE -FEB + RILE. | |
| 6 | See bad bank draft ruined guest house (3,3,9) |
| BED AND BREAKFAST -Anagram of SEE BAD BANK DRAFT. | |
| 7 | Amazed, getting a point before scrum (9) |
| AWESTRUCK – A WEST + RUCK. | |
| 8 | Uncover American guy carrying English name (6) |
| DENUDE – D(E.N.)UDE. | |
| 9 | Lots sleep on ends of nails (6) |
| DOZENS – DOZE + N[ail]S. | |
| 15 | Feel feathers could be alight (5,4) |
| TOUCH DOWN – TOUCH + DOWN. | |
| 17 | Something made café tart peculiar (8) |
| ARTEFACT – Anagram of CAFE TART. | |
| 19 | Win back concerning company before period of success (6) |
| RECOUP – RE + CO + UP. | |
| 20 | Flying latest hot type of military plane (7) |
| STEALTH – Anagram of LATEST. | |
| 21 | Means of calculating account in a computer system (6) |
| ABACUS – A B(A/C)US. | |
| 24 | Oh, no! Overturned mercury runs all around initially (5) |
| AARGH – HG + R + A[ll] A[round] upside down. | |
I remember Bertie Wooster referring to his morning cup as the ‘vital oolong’, but ‘bohea’ was unknown to me. Easy enough to get from the clueing though. Enjoyable 24 minutes.
Ugh. Wasted minutes on LOI aboard….hunting for a word for pig starting with ob…..the penny dropped as I gave up was reaching for the iPad to come here.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Bit late asking but what was the “almost” doing in 25d “Overflowing with Cape wine almost entirely”? It seems redundant and, therefore, misleading.
This much more ‘my level’, and whipped through quite quickly, knowing both pargetting and that meaning of SATURNINE (good one!), but BOHEA defeated me as I didn’t spot the deleted MI, and hadn’t heard of it. At 25a I stubbornly refused to give up on cloak as the first word (for cape), so no chance on CHOCK FULL, but a nearly completed grid in a reasonable time made me happy enough. Oh btw, had never heard of MATE for tea, nor BUS, so learnt a few more today. More at this level would be good.