Times 28735 – Fearful symmetry?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Music: Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet

Time: 18 minutes

Well, easy Monday is back, and I don’t have much to say.    If you are an experienced solver, you won’t find much to delay you here, and even novices may do well.    It was only 1 across that held me up; yes, I put in Beeb, but the rest had to await a crosser.     I was a bit concerned about how to spell Saskatchewan, but Ewan seemed like the only possible version of the name.     Most solvers will just enter one answer after another, and there should be quite a few clean sweeps.

Across
1 Pollen mix studied by national broadcaster (8)
BEEBREAD – BEEB + READ.
9 Hill-dweller terribly rude about one leaving flat terrain (8)
UPLANDER – U(PLA[i]N)DER, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of RUDE.
10 Fateful day Cockney goes to ground? (4)
IDES – [h]IDES.
11 Thinker involved with grant, a quixotic type (6,6)
KNIGHT ERRANT – Anagram of THINKER + GRANT.  Quixote is a knight errant, in a sense.
13 Grass English composer found in odd parts of dale (6)
DARNEL – D[a](ARNE)L[e].
14 Leader of squad softening and extracting metal (8)
SMELTING – S[quad] + MELTING.
15 Time to accept work initially slicing cut of beef (7)
TOPSIDE – T(OP, S[licing])IDE.
16 Rule out ditching Chopin’s first short composition (7)
PRELUDE – PRE[c]LUDE.   Since Chopin did compose numerous preludes, not a very deceptive clue.
20 Short story about Oscar approaching a curve (8)
PARABOLA – PARAB(O)L[e] + A.
22 Quietly leaves to view cricket, for example (6)
INSECT – INS[p]ECT.
23 Crack troops reportedly seize Scotsman maybe in province (12)
SASKATCHEWAN – SAS + sounds like KATCH + EWAN, the third-most popular Scotsman in crosswords.
25 Dash shown by Hassan, a legend from the East (4)
ELAN –  Backwards hidden in [Hassa]N A LE[gend].
26 Inflexible gear old American soldiers carried (8)
RIGOROUS – RIG (OR) O US.
27 That girl’s boyfriends include extremely dubious animal minders (8)
HERDSMEN – HER  (D[ubiou]S)  MEN.
Down
2 In Spain, the dolphin’s place of great abundance (2,6)
EL DORADO – EL + DORADO.   The only obscure thing in the puzzle – the fish commonly called the mahi-mahi can also be called the dolphin or the dorado.
3 Requesting silence in sailing ship, seeing marine creature (7,5)
BASKING SHARK –  B(ASKING SH)ARK.
4 Having right to be honoured (8)
ENTITLED – Double definition.
5 Something chewed over by ambassador’s son and noblewoman (7)
DUCHESS – CUD upside-down + HE’S S.
6 Rip off woollen coat (6)
FLEECE –  Double definition.
7 Snake endlessly turning up in Old Norse poems (4)
EDDA – ADDE[r] upside-down.
8 Charge made by expert Europeans keeping sheep (8)
PROTEGEE – PRO (TEG) E,E.
12 Severity shown by head supporting girl to a reduced extent (12)
RUTHLESSNESS –  RUTH + LESS + NESS.
15 Wall hanging records sporting achievement (8)
TAPESTRY – TAPES + TRY.   A try doesn’t sound like much of an achievement to me, but what do I know?   Instant biff.   Further information may be found in the first comment, for which I thank our friend from down under.
17 Waterproof clothing found by artist in northern river (8)
RAINWEAR – RA IN WEAR.
18 Wipe out rodents on the rise in time (8)
DECIMATE – D(ECIM)ATE.    Unfortunately, only one mouse in ten is killed in this operation.
19 Hallucinogenic drug a chap’s smuggled into mess (7)
HASHISH – HAS(HIS)H.
21 Be more cunning than unfashionable founder of Quakerism (6)
OUTFOX – OUT + FOX – that would be George Fox, 1624-1691.
24 Appeal inspiring a good heroic story (4)
SAGA – S(A.G)A, a compendium of cryptic crossword cliches.

105 comments on “Times 28735 – Fearful symmetry?”

  1. I don’t suppose anyone will ever read this a week after the event, but this is the first “grown-up” cryptic that I have ever completed unaided and I am very happy. The time on the clock is 4:22:00 but that included making dinner and assorted faffing about – I imagine I probably spent getting on for two hours on the puzzle.

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