A typical Monday offering with nothing too much to tax the grey cells. Apart from mine, that is, as I forgot to extend my alphabet run to the fourth letter of last in 10 across, and paid the price. Not that I should have been doing any alphabet runs in the first place, but I am allowed the odd senior moment. Or two, or…
| Across | |
| 1 | Dinosaur, large one, found in park (5) |
| RELIC – L I in REC | |
| 4 | One yelling about temperature in part of church? (4,5) |
| BELL TOWER – T in BELLOWER | |
| 9 | Gamble without parking permit? That’s indefensible (9) |
| UNTENABLE – [p]UNT (gamble minus P) ENABLE (permit, vb.) | |
| 10 | Spot for rock climbing stuff (5) |
| GORGE – double definition; so not gorse, then | |
| 11 | Musician fighting heavyweight boxing king with energy (4,9) |
| DUKE ELLINGTON – K (king) E (energy) in DUELLING (fighting) TON (heavyweight – well, sort of); much easier to biff and move on | |
| 14 | Crunch some data on a teleconference? (4) |
| BITE – sounds like byte | |
| 15 | Merchant to sell out, with someone saving lots (10) |
| SHOPKEEPER – SHOP (to sell out) KEEPER (someone saving lots [of stuff]) | |
| 18 | Covering up place for gun battery in the end (10) |
| UPHOLSTERY – UP (from clue) HOLSTER (place for gun) [batter]Y | |
| 19 | Profit once more with no capital (4) |
| GAIN – [a]GAIN | |
| 21 | Leader once put chap on hold? Deal’s off! (6,7) |
| NELSON MANDELA – MAN (chap) on NELSON (wrestling hold) anagram* of DEAL | |
| 24 | Scare a Liberal member (5) |
| ALARM – A L ARM | |
| 25 | Trumpeter reportedly went on main thoroughfare? (5,4) |
| TRUNK ROAD – TRUNK (trumpeter – as in, part of the bits of an elephant that produce its distinctive noise) ROAD (sounds like rode, went on) | |
| 27 | Vessel obtained from seabed with top broken (9) |
| SPEEDBOAT – SEABED TOP* | |
| 28 | Spirit shown by Claude Monet (5) |
| DEMON – hidden | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Do urban sprawls then reveal road feature? (10) |
| ROUNDABOUT – DO URBAN * OUT (reveal) | |
| 2 | Item in auction is a good deal (3) |
| LOT – DD | |
| 3 | Study nettle that’s curved outwards (6) |
| CONVEX – CON (study – always this or DEN in Crosswordland) VEX (nettle – seldom a plant in Crosswordland) | |
| 4 | Chap to complain about hospital’s woolen garment (6,3) |
| BOBBLE HAT – BOB (random fellah) H in BLEAT (complain) | |
| 5 | Stay in bed with case of indigestion after pork pie (3,2) |
| LIE IN – LIE (pork pie, AKA lie or tell porkies) I[ndigestio]N | |
| 6 | United to reach this point briefly (8) |
| TOGETHER – TO GET HER[e] | |
| 7 | Leo’s work permit initially accepted by Canada — we’re excited! (3,3,5) |
| WAR AND PEACE – P[ermit] in CANADA WERE* | |
| 8 | Homer, say, to scratch head and hum (4) |
| REEK – [g]REEK; hum as in pong | |
| 12 | Old general almost admits fighting for cooking equipment (11) |
| KITCHENWARE – WAR in KITCHENE[r]; a military leader better known not for his service record but for his index finger | |
| 13 | Band Aid is besieged by press guys (4,6) |
| IRON MAIDEN – AID in IRON MEN | |
| 16 | Most important soldier on horse (9) |
| PARAMOUNT – PARA MOUNT | |
| 17 | Took turns with dancer covering line dance’s opening (8) |
| SLALOMED – L in SALOME D[ance]; although not mentioned by name in the two Biblical accounts that relate the story associated with her (and made famous in works by Wilde and Richard Strauss), Salome’s dancing so pleased her stepdad (one of a fistful of Herods that were doing the rounds at that time – she was the daughter of another) that when he told her he would give her anything she wanted, she consulted her mum (Herodias – naturally enough) and asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter – as a teenage girl would. Mum was upset with John for declaring that her marriage to her second Herod was unlawful. | |
| 20 | Small bare wound (6) |
| SNAKED – S NAKED; wound as the past tense of ‘wind’ | |
| 22 | Musical finale to our plays (5) |
| OUTRO – TO OUR* | |
| 23 | US city really upset state (4) |
| LAOS – LA SO reversed | |
| 26 | Unit of heat measurement primarily (3) |
| OHM – initial letters of words 2 to 4 | |
I see I’m in good company with GORSE. Further slowed by misreading the last word of 8d as “bum” rather than “hum” so biffed REAR. Never mind.
Half an hour, but another BUBBLE HAT. No I idea what that might be, but only after the fact can I imagine what a BOBBLE HAT is.
Fast for me.
Living near Cheddar may have helped me avoid the GORSE trap.
Didn’t parse UNTENABLE so thank you Ulaca for the explanation.
Surprised how many Iron Maiden fans have posted. More of a Led Zep man myself.
No stand out clues perhaps but an enjoyable offering so thank you Setter.
Time: 17:01
A new PB for me, 7:46. Given I solve on my phone, I’m not sure it’s ever going to get much quicker than that… I usually pause for a final scan before entering the final letter, but didn’t actually notice I was there when I shrugged at SALOME in SLALOMED and entered it. A pleasant surprise.
Thanks both.
24 mins but only because I was determined to sort out the parsing of the DUKE, otherwise (probably) a PB. I did manage to appreciate the surfaces as I went, which were lovely and smooth even if the solutions were simple.
COD SLALOMED so neat (in the English sense)
Defeated by LAOS, but otherwise enjoyable plain sailing.