Greetings from Galicia!
I must have biffed half of these clues, so working out the parsing now is going to take a bit of doing. 12:34, held up a bit at the end on the right-hand side, as I recall.
| Across | |
| 1 | Girl with small outhouse, reduced in status (10) |
| DIMINISHED – DI MINI SHED | |
| 6 | American boxer attending Mass in African state (4) |
| MALI – M ALI | |
| 10 | News welcomed by a murder victim’s woman (7) |
| ANNABEL – NN in A ABEL | |
| 11 | Contemptible soldier thrown over by peer, perhaps (7) |
| IGNOBLE – GI reversed NOBLE | |
| 12 | High-spirited former worker sheltering over in Munich (9) |
| EXUBERANT – UBER in EX ANT | |
| 13 | Small group united in Holy Writ (5) |
| NONET – ONE in NT | |
| 14 | Sign of tooth decay displacing top of crown (5) |
| ARIES – [c]ARIES | |
| 15 | Like several religions mentioned at first in revised Bach aria (9) |
| ABRAHAMIC – M in anagram of BACH ARIA | |
| 17 | Boatman, one with no future outside lido, sadly (9) |
| GONDOLIER – LIDO* in GONER | |
| 20 | Fibre in vegetableS IS A Luxury (5) |
| SISAL – hidden | |
| 21 | Month the Spanish must produce literary work (5) |
| NOVEL – NOV EL | |
| 23 | Fuming about tribe’s consignment to hellfire (9) |
| DAMNATION – MAD reversed NATION | |
| 25 | Banned drug swallowed by sick young woman (7) |
| ILLEGAL -E in ILL GAL | |
| 26 | Reported out-of-hours charge for fertiliser, perhaps (7) |
| NITRATE – ‘night rate’ | |
| 27 | Culturally pretentious leader leaving political group (4) |
| ARTY – [p]ARTY | |
| 28 | Lewdness of French composer transfixed by posh English trains (10) |
| DEBAUCHERY – DE U in BACH E RY | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Old buccaneer finally turned libertine (5) |
| DRAKE – [turne]D RAKE | |
| 2 | UK citizen, male copper, one visiting granny (9) |
| MANCUNIAN – MAN CU I in NAN | |
| 3 | Declaration of responsibility badly belies one’s blog (8,6) |
| NOBLESSE OBLIGE – BELIES ONES BLOG* | |
| 4 | Domestic fowl given to a Muslim ruler’s wife (7) |
| SULTANA – SULTAN (domestic fowl) A | |
| 5 | One throwing out England’s first conqueror (7) |
| EVICTOR – E VICTOR | |
| 7 | Vestment seen on an early Christian martyr (5) |
| ALBAN – ALB AN | |
| 8 | Just the same perfect setting for conservationists in charge (9) |
| IDENTICAL – NT IC in IDEAL | |
| 9 | Cool chute Tunisians engineered (14) |
| UNENTHUSIASTIC – CHUTE TUNISIANS* | |
| 14 | Traveller crossing river in a Spanish-speaking country (9) |
| ARGENTINA – R in AGENT IN A | |
| 16 | Chew acorns, say, consumed after mince regularly (9) |
| MASTICATE – MAST (fruit of forest trees) [m]I[n]C[e] ATE | |
| 18 | Pander to popular Law Lord going over notes (7) |
| INDULGE – IN LUD reversed G E | |
| 19 | State of Arab entering Burlington House (7) |
| ROMANIA – OMANI in RA | |
| 22 | Farewell ultimately apt for a gentleman’s gentleman (5) |
| VALET – VALE [ap]T | |
| 24 | Impoverished woman brought up in US city (5) |
| NEEDY – DEE reversed in NY | |
53:42 – a touch slower than my only ever solve of 52mins back in March. Slightly disappointed because someone over in the QC hinted that a certain answer was replicated. That got me over the hump when I was stuck with 5-6 left but I feel like it wasn’t a clean solve with that hint suddenly popping to mind.
First pass of clues only turned up NOVEL, VALET (bif), ILLEGAL, NEEDY and ARTY so I wasn’t feeling quite as confident about it as everybody suggested. Then the biffing began with ARGENTINA, ARIES, GONDOLIER. After that went to the NW and then had most of the right side to do. Just couldn’t unravel UNENTHUSIASTIC until the end so that was a real hold up.
Anyway pleased to have got a solve
👍
Over from the QC and pleased to complete with few problems. Last three in were DAMNATION, ROMANIA and finally INDULGE. Nho sultan and vaguely remembered mast, otherwise all parsed. Enjoyable. Thanks for the blog ulaca.
Damn! 10.30. Thought I was on for my first sub ten in a while. Nothing too daunting but almost caught out by thinking Rumania rather than Romania. No doubt more difficult trials to come.
15:29 from Exeter
Thanks to those who suggested those of us from the QC club give it a try.
Enjoyed getting somewhere with these wordy clues. Parsed mostly. Will remember that about news.
Was a DNF, ALBAN never came to mind, and although I’d done NONET in the QC and read the blog, I was trying to find some obscure RC word for a Holy Writ.
Thanks to the compiler, Ulaca and all the commentators, see you next Monday.
I did this while listening to the Test Match, so it did not have my undivided attention. No problem with any of the clues and finished in 24 minutes, just as Broad took the final wicket.
FOI – MALI
LOI – NONET
COD – NITRATE
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
18.39 WOE. In my enthusiasm I fat-fingered LOI UNENTHUSIASTIC. It’s ten minutes faster than my PB so I’m still very pleased, even if it was an easy one. I’d never heard of the fowl and I didn’t understand how ARIES meant crown, but it doesn’t. Thanks to ulaca.
I’m another visitor from the QC. Very pleased to have finished this in a couple of sessions.
I parsed just about everything, but don’t understand why an agent might be a traveller.
9:57. First sub 10 min in a while.
A little holiday from some recent stinkers, but suspect normal service will resume shortly. Didn’t know ALB so just looked that up for next time?
Thanks all.
My fastest time too, but not anywhere near most of the others! (And certainly under the half-hour.) knew I was onto a good thing when the first few acrosses went in automatically: little bit of a struggle sorting out ABRAHAMIC (NHO but possible), SULTANA (of course), and mostly ROMANIA ( where NHO RA for BURLINGTON HOUSE). No other problems and pleased to feel part of this great community of intelligentsia once more!