Time: 28 minutes
Music: Britten, Four Sea Interludes
This is not a difficult puzzle, and I should have finished in good time. My momentum carried me to within three answers, but then I seemed to have lost all solving ability and was stuck for a good 10 minutes – I just couldn’t see the obvious.
Many of the clues here are quite simple, which sometimes makes it hard for good solvers to come down to the puzzle’s level. Not being able to see obvious ones like tears up and abreast really hurt. I suspect we’ll get quite a few sub-10 minute times from those who got onto the wavelength and stayed there.
| Across | |
| 1 | Bosses traversing land — two to shine on journey? (10) |
| HEADLIGHTS – HEAD(LIGHT)S. | |
| 6 | Hurtful remark in pub with beer always going off (4) |
| BARB – BAR + B[eer]. | |
| 10 | Player calls sailor back (7) |
| BASEMAN – NAMES AB backwards. A player is never called just a baseman, but is always prefixed with his base: first baseman, second baseman, third baseman. | |
| 11 | Be a star involved in a row (7) |
| ABREAST – Anagram of BE A STAR. | |
| 12 | Locum office worker with long hair — Eve? (9) |
| TEMPTRESS – TEMP + TRESS. | |
| 13 | European among strangers we’d embrace (5) |
| SWEDE – Hidden in [stranger]S WE’D E[mbrace]. | |
| 14 | Was bad or excellent, given guidance? (5) |
| AILED – AI + LED. | |
| 15 | Like sheep and goats? Extremes in some Bible story (9) |
| SEPARABLE – S[om]E + PARABLE. | |
| 17 | Grand Old Man protecting daughter? Different female sponsor (9) |
| GODMOTHER – G + O(D)M + OTHER. | |
| 20 | Slave in male group (5) |
| HELOT – HE LOT, a chestnut. | |
| 21 | Deservedly get to have chapter put in summary (5) |
| RECAP – RE(C)AP. | |
| 23 | Calming down pal acting out of order (9) |
| PLACATING – Anagram of PAL ACTING. | |
| 25 | A solitary type embracing male officer in hospital once (7) |
| ALMONER – A L(M)ONER. | |
| 26 | Trendy shop ready for future needs? (2,5) |
| IN STORE – IN STORE, what can I say? World’s simplest cryptic clue. | |
| 27 | Block up colon? (4) |
| STOP – Double definition, one a punctuation mark. | |
| 28 | Part of a bigger story provided by Mantel isn’t bad (10) |
| INSTALMENT – Anagram of MANTEL ISN’T. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Hotel given not much custom (5) |
| HABIT – H + A BIT. | |
| 2 | Got together in a muddle, upset and drained (9) |
| ASSEMBLED – A + MESS upside-down + BLED. | |
| 3 | Scot is devout fellow with this sort of firm (7,7) |
| LIMITED COMPANY – Double definition, one jocular – S(CO)T, a ST who contains (limits) a CO. | |
| 4 | Looks for birds for Christmas? (7) |
| GANDERS – Double definition. | |
| 5 | Makes useless drop to drink (5,2) |
| TEARS UP – TEAR + SUP. | |
| 7 | A club with little energy to become less active (5) |
| ABATE – A BAT + E. | |
| 8 | Most cold beer is foreign (9) |
| BITTEREST – BITTER + EST. | |
| 9 | Last chance to get script right? Make shambolic lass re-read hers (5,9) |
| DRESS REHEARSAL – Anagram of LASS RE-READS HERS. | |
| 14 | Reign alas unfortunate for certain Africans (9) |
| ALGERIANS – Anagram of REIGN ALAS. | |
| 16 | Warning signal that is overwhelming because aggressive (9) |
| BELLICOSE – BELL + I(COS)E. | |
| 18 | Bird injected with what you’d expect, one chemical compound (7) |
| HEPARIN – HE(PAR,I)N. | |
| 19 | Sort of philosopher about to be put on a register (7) |
| REALIST – RE + A LIST. | |
| 22 | Band seen from dress circle (5) |
| COMBO – COMB + O. | |
| 24 | Huge gun probed by engineers (5) |
| GREAT – G(RE)AT. | |
The clue for LIMITED COMPANY is not a DD.
The first part is a cryptic hint, not a definition by any stretch!
Sure, a colon is a STOP, and a period is a full stop.
For some reason, my latest comment isn’t showing up here unless one clicks on “Newer Comments.”
Have never seen this before.
And I don’t like it!
Johninterred will know the parameters but there’s a roll-over to a second page when a certain number of comments have been posted, or it may be when a certain number of lines have been reached. It has certainly happened before – I think there was an occasion last week – but we don’t see it too often. We used to have similar at Live Journal where it happened regularly on weekdays because the ceiling there was much lower than here.
Breezed home in 21 minutes, with no serious issues, though I needed the blog to explain 3dn. Thank you for that, and thanks to John B for the link to the Sellars & Yeatman parody. Priceless!
FOI – ABREAST
LOI – ABATE
COD – TEMPTRESS.
Thanks to vinyl and other contributors.
33.18 This felt a bit slow but it is my third quickest solve. I biffed LIMITED COMPANY, was dubious about STOP and ALMONER and COMBO were the last two in. ALMONER wasn’t helped by having HEPATIN for a while. Thanks to vinyl1.
I so wanted LIMITED COMPANY to be Scottish slang for devout fellow (i.e. someone you might not want to be stuck for long with). Did not know HEPARIN or HELOT and have an irrational prejudice against all baseball terminology but all easily guessable. Thanks for the blog!
20:14
LTI were STOP and COMBO
Biffed LIMITED COMPANY. Thanks Vinyl for explaining how this clue works.
Late to the party but 3rd ever solve of the biggie with a 48:15 PB with it snitching at 64. Reached my last pair of HELOT/BELLICOSE at 40mins and never having heard of the former I’d plumped for “heset” (having had “harem”=hare+m in there until BITTEREST presented itself). Also NHO ALMONER, HEPARIN. Fingers were crossed for STOP.
Yes, I too was “too relaxed and sloppy” with several clues bunged in because they fit and I was out of time! For example GANNETS, HEPARON, and BASSIST. They of course had the opposite effect of making several other clues ungettable. Liked the hidden definition for 1a, as I admit the “two to shine on journey” had me completely befuddled. NHO separate BASEMAN, and thought a couple of definitions ‘iffy’, like comb, and STOP for colon ( though I’ve no doubt that they’re justified somewhere). Above just sour grapes, as I made a hash of what should have been a reasonably easy crossword.
It seems I was alone as the only one coming up with BARSEAT (usually involved in a row) for 11ac (until ABATE made me rethink)!