Welcome from Tasmania, where the wife and I have wended our way after a couple of days watching the tennis in Rod Laver Arena. This was a pretty regular offering for a Monday, I thought, with a couple of words that we have seen recently popping up again, and nothing too tricky in the wordplay department.
20:32 for me. How did you go?
| ACROSS | |
| 1 | Small dose maybe overwhelming male player (5) |
| THESP – HE (male) in TSP (teaspoon – used in recipes) | |
| 4 | Spiritual being to evolve in a couple of ways? (9) |
| ARCHANGEL – CHANGE (evolve) in A RL (right and left – couple of ways) | |
| 9 | A brief walk with a live navigational device (9) |
| ASTROLABE – A STROL[l] A BE (live – verb) | |
| 10 | Half-heartedly make for island (5) |
| CRETE – CRE[a]TE (CREATE with one [half] of its medial letters deleted) | |
| 11 | Cross king with nothing on sandwiches (6) |
| NARKED – R (king) in (sandwiched by) NAKED (nothing on) | |
| 12 | A bug to move slowly if necessary (2,1,5) |
| AT A PINCH – A TAP (bug – think Watergate) INCH (move slowly) | |
| 14 | Friend initially meets composer outside European resort (4,5) |
| PALM BEACH – PAL (friend) M (first letter of meets) E (European) in BACH (Johann Sibelius or any of his myriad sons) | |
| 16 | Calm bit of music on the radio (5) |
| PEACE – sounds like piece | |
| 17 | Thanks charity, say, for steps taken in Latin America? (5) |
| TANGO – TA NGO | |
| 19 | Heft of punishments accepted by workers, possibly? (9) |
| BEEFINESS -FINES in BEES | |
| 21 | Book written backwards by one fool combined symbols (8) |
| EMOTICON – TOME reversed I CON (fool) | |
| 22 | Gentleman I ditched for a fuddy-duddy (6) |
| SQUARE – SQUIRE with the I replaced by an A | |
| 25 | Pinot Noir seen regularly near a region of Greece (5) |
| IONIA – [p]I[n]O[t] N[o]I[r] A | |
| 26 | Wrong meal cooked — tongue! (3,6) |
| LOW GERMAN – anagram* of WRONG MEAL | |
| 27 | Duly hire new housing minister, ultimately in a rush (9) |
| HURRIEDLY – R (final letter of minister) in DULY HIRE* | |
| 28 | User doesn’t open skin care product (5) |
| TONER – [s]TONER; STONER is not a word I’m familiar with for an addict/habitual user, but I have lived a sheltered life | |
| DOWN | |
| 1 | Coaches author, one quiet and nerdy (15) |
| TRAINSPOTTERISH – TRAINS (coaches) POTTER (e.g. Beatrix, Dennis) I SH | |
| 2 | Chemical to decay with lid taken off (5) |
| ESTER – [f]ESTER; ‘For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds’ (Shakespeare, Sonnet 94) | |
| 3 | Saw dog held by lead (7) |
| PROVERB – ROVER in PB | |
| 4 | Greek warrior with a javelin’s tip and short weapon (4) |
| AJAX – A J (initial letter of javelin) AX[e] (singular British axes have an E) | |
| 5 | Handy guide teaches the cooks (5,5) |
| CHEAT SHEET – TEACHES THE* | |
| 6 | Drink cola mixed by old man (7) |
| ALCOPOP – COLA* POP | |
| 7 | Fruit grower’s head to hire once again (9) |
| GREENGAGE – G (initial letter of grower) REENGAGE | |
| 8 | One from a small place in Leicester then relocated (15) |
| LIECHTENSTEINER – IN LEICESTER THEN* | |
| 13 | Confused deer mostly ran very slowly around lake (10) |
| BAMBOOZLED – BAMB[i] L (lake) in OOZED (ran very slowly) | |
| 15 | One with property left over an unhappy experience (9) |
| LANDOWNER – L AN DOWNER | |
| 18 | Nice friend supporting one in organisation that’s folding? (7) |
| ORIGAMI – AMI (friend in French) after I (one) in ORG (organisation) | |
| 20 | Study one knight before a suitable activity? (7) |
| INQUEST – I (one) N (knight in chess) QUEST (suitable activity for a knight) | |
| 23 | Organisation essential for badminton (5) |
| ADMIN – hidden in [b]ADMIN[ton] | |
| 24 | Note means “not at home” (4) |
| AWAY – A (musical note) WAY (means) | |
A steadyish work through initially, until I was left with 1A and 2D. I nearly gave up at this point, but in the end, having worked out there was no word T—P that made any sense either to the answer or the parsing with M in, I tried HE and THESP hove into sight. ‘Chemical’ was too loose a definition for –T-R for me, so it was frustrating to have two intersecting clues that seemed impossible to solve without one of them giving way.
26 mins. Quite hard for a Monday, never even thought about a pangram as I struggled in the SE. LOI THESP, male is usually M isn’t it?
42 mins with Last two in SQUARE and INQUEST which slightly annoyed me as I’d spotted the pangram but not the lack of a Q! Doh.
DNK ASTROLABE but just followed the cryptic, and guessed at TONER.
WOD BAMBOOZLED as I often find myself. TRAINSPOTTERISH sounds pretty clumsy.
Thank you U and setter.
No undue problems today. Liked PROVERB, did not like (s)TONER; or any other clue involving drug cant, of which there seem to be a lot.
ADMIN is a word I use most days. THESP I knew because it regularly appears in Private Eye, often in relation to Pseuds Corner ..
For the first time ever, spotting that it was a pangram did help me, as my last two were the intersecting “Square” and “Inquest”, and I realised that we hadn’t seen a Q.
So – the opposite of Rosedeprovence above (sorry, can’t figure out how to type an acute accent on my phone keyboard).
I just copy and paste a word like cafe (with the accent) and go from there.
Most of this went in fairly quickly, but I had to leave it and break off to make a long lunch.
The last two clues- BAMBOOZLED and BEEFINESS- took an age.
Still, all correct and fully parsed. Nice start to the week.
Thanks for the blog and thanks setter
A pleasant outing, chewy in parts.
Not worried about THESP or ADMIN.
FYI: 2 Ajaxes, Lesser and Greater!
FOI: PROVERB
LOI: ESTER
COD: BAMBOOZLED
Thanks to blogger and setter.
Just over an hour (the time over the hour being spent pondering about whether STONER might really mean a “user”), but very inhomogeneously spread, the left side going in at a fair pace, but then leaving me with ARCHANGEL, LIECHTENSTEIN, CHEAT SHEET, BEEFINESS, INQUEST, SQUARE all unsolved. And they went in very very slowly (with a number of complaints: the R and L in ARCHANGEL are perhaps directions, but certainly not ways, LIECHTENSTEIN is a small place but with 15 letters not one that immediately comes to mind, even given the anagrist, and so on). I liked BAMBOOZLED and PROVERB. I do not like word constructions like TRAINSPOTTERISH even if they are strictly allowed.
Policeman: ‘When the suspect entered the corridor, which way did she turn?’
Witness: ‘Left.’
OK, you have a point there.
Having decided to limit myself to 30 minutes / day, this has resulted in a string of DNF, but today I managed 30.31. Technically over time, but let’s not quibble. As my last two were INQUEST / SQUARE, for the first time ever I was helped by realising it must be a pangram, which gave me the Q. I liked TRAINSPOTTERISH, BAMBOOZLED and EMOTICON. Thanks b & s.
Postscript-
21a: Could ‘combined’ not mean EMOT+I+CON, and SYMBOLS is plural? 🤔
AJAX and SQUARE/INQUEST went in easily suggesting a pangram, which was helpful in getting BAMBOOZLED. LOI was THESP.
Completed this in 34 minutes, which was in my usual range. I am not keen on words such as ADMIN and THESP but recognise that they are now pretty standard crossword fare. It did not help that I failed to spot the two long ones at 1dn and 8dn until late in the day, nor did I twig it was a pangram as BAMBOOZLED and INQUEST were also late arrivals.
FOI – PEACE
LOI – TONER, having been held up, as others were, by not knowing stoner was a user
COD – BAMBOOZLED.
On the subject of musical jokes I like the one about the customer who went into a music shop and asked if they had something by Verdi. The assistant asked ‘Do you mean Giuseppe or Monte?’ Or perhaps it wasn’t a joke.
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
Finished but took me around 45 minutes. Didn’t spot the pangram or much else to be honest.
I wonder what today holds?
Thanks to you U and for everyone who contributes. You all have helped me improve.
Am late because I complete on paper from The Australian which runs about a month behind.
Don’t know if you like these to be correct for posterity sake. If so shouldn’t the king in 11 across be “R” with naked around it?
Just like you, Barry, I ‘attempt’ the Times crossword in the Australian newspaper about a month late, but don’t often complete it without aids! And, like you, am hugely grateful to all the regular solvers and bloggers on this site, without whom my morning tea and toast would be severely lacking , but I don’t understand your question re 11a, which is exactly how Ulaca has parsed it, no? Please reply if you can, as I don’t often (never before!) come across a fellow ‘better-late-than-never’ solver !
I had a K (for king) instead of an R (rex). You can always pop a comment in, because it will go to the blogger’s email and you’ll probably get a response!
Ulaca beat me to it. Hope it is clear now
Thanks, amended. I started off doing it in Hong Kong six weeks late, and coming here. Back in 2009 or 2010!