DNF
After 1ac went straight in, I should have noticed that the setter was toying with me. I spent a frustrating 53 minutes guessing, half-parsing and hoping, before throwing in the towel at 3dn. Maybe I should have had one last guess, but I felt thoroughly beaten.
I can’t say I particularly enjoyed the challenge either, but hope you got more out of it…
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | New science lab is difficult to get to (12) |
| INACCESSIBLE – anagram of SCIENCE LAB IS. | |
| 8 | Decide to work out again (7) |
| RESOLVE – double definition, one with a silent hyphen. | |
| 9 | Person with no faith in country where Democrat gains advancement (7) |
| INFIDEL – IN FIELD (in country), with D (democrat) coming earlier in proceedings. | |
| 11 | Continuous exercise almost causes stroke (7) |
| SOLIDUS – SOLID (continuous) + almost all of USe (exercise). | |
| 12 | Wooden support used to raise contents of beds (7) |
| STILTED – STILT (support used to raise) + innermost letters of bEDs. My first mistake was putting in ‘sleeper’, and sort of realising the plural-ness didn’t work. | |
| 13 | You are wearing top that’s brightly coloured (5) |
| LURID – UR (you are, in text speak) contained by LID (top). Less of this please. | |
| 14 | Bold daughter wanting sisters of parents? (9) |
| DAUNTLESS – D (daughter) + AUNTLESS (wanting sisters of parents). | |
| 16 | How long it will take obligation to overwhelm spirit (9) |
| TIMESCALE – TIE (obligation) containing MESCAL (spirit). This was a biff-and-back-into-it effort for me. | |
| 19 | Advocate spending week in bed (5) |
| LAYER – LAwYER (advocate) minus the ‘w’ (week). | |
| 21 | Most of team learning endless filth (7) |
| SQUALOR – most of SQUAd (team), then LORe (learning) endless. | |
| 23 | Half of people in cast like glamour models? (7) |
| TOPLESS – that half of peoPLE, which went in with a couple of checking letters, followed by a long wait for the required mental image. Contained by TOSS (cast). | |
| 24 | Sweeten start of contract providing opening fittingly (7) |
| DULCIFY – first of Contract + IF (providing), all contained by DULY (fittingly). Not a word I’m familiar with, but guessed DULCe-something, and backed into it again. | |
| 25 | Spotted duke in Berlin dancing (7) |
| BRINDLE – D (duke) in an anagram of BERLIN. Easy clue, but a word on the very edge of my concsiousness. It’s like a spotty/stripey animal coat colour. | |
| 26 | Difficult test checked by German and not disputed (12) |
| UNCHALLENGED – CHALLENGE (difficult test, you’re telling me) contained by UND (German for ‘and’). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Narrow strip of land lacking enclosure for animal runs (7) |
| INSULAR – penINSULAR (strip of land) minus ‘pen’ (animal enclosure). ‘Isthmus’ tried and failed, first. | |
| 2 | Referred deal, subject to review involving Law Lord (7) |
| ALLUDED – anagram of (subject to review) DEAL, containing LUD (of the m’ variety, law lord). | |
| 3 | What flows when measuring unusually dry places? (9) |
| CLEPSYDRA – obviously an anagram of DRY PLACES, with which I had little chance, despite all the checkers being in place. Like an egg timer with water instead of sand. | |
| 4 | Decreases 40 per cent of lines in text (5) |
| SLIMS – LInes (two fifths of) contained by SMS (text). | |
| 5 | Angers policeman involved in international deal (7) |
| INFLICT – FLIC (Angers policemen, i.e. ‘cop’ in French), contained by INT (international). OK, I admit to liking this one, but refer to my previous comments about having to know more and more French! The penny finally dropped for me, only because we used to drive to France in a car with the registration number FL10 UEE, and everyone laughed at us in petrol stations, until I eventually asked what was so funny. Were it not for a chance encounter with some mildly amused random strangers, I would never have known the slang word for policeman in French! | |
| 6 | Lively girl cut short character embracing Bill (7) |
| LADETTE – LETTEr (character) without its last, containing AD (bill). | |
| 7 | Converted period styles in a novel way (12) |
| PROSELYTISED – anagram of (in a novel way) PERIOD STYLES. Needed a lot of checkers for this one, too. | |
| 10 | Mistress places importance on flowers (5-7) |
| LADYS-TRESSES – LADY (mistress?) + STRESSES (places importance on). Got the second bit, guessed the rest. | |
| 15 | Terminal losing one-third of trains is not right for board? (9) |
| UNEATABLE – UNtrEATABLE (terminal) minus the first two letters of ‘trains’. | |
| 17 | Sentimental alumni upset about closure of Harvard (7) |
| MAUDLIN – anagram of ALUMNI containing the last letter of harvarD. | |
| 18 | Inconsiderate bank is putting husband down (7) |
| SELFISH – SHELF (bank) + IS, but with H (husband) further down. | |
| 19 | Drinking game finishing midway after friend’s return (7) |
| LAPPING – PING-pong after PAL (friend) reversed. | |
| 20 | Bore gave way under pressure (7) |
| YIELDED – double definition. | |
| 22 | Republican replacing head of firm in support of monarch (5) |
| ROYAL – R (republican, for balance, naturally) replacing the ‘l’ in lOYAL (firm). I spent too long fruitlessly trying to justify ‘support’ = ‘foyal’/’fegal’/’felic’. You? | |
Bragging is not the issue here, at least for me. But it is curious that there are some who can rattle along almost as if they knew the answers in advance (which of course they do not) whereas for others there is more often than not a bewildering daze which eventually, mostly, clears. We all, I guess, have those moments when we are “on a roll”. The question for scientific enquiry is why for some of us those moments are much more sporadic. What I am referring to is those moments when the word seems to drift unbidden into consciousness. I suppose that the answer to this riddle is one of the reasons we find the puzzle-solving activity so addictive.
Strictly – an infidel is a person not of your faith (not of no faith)
Quite a few I had no hope of solving! Happily I find out that I am not alone in giving up on this eventualy, so no disgrace there…
Like others, tempted to bung in ISTHMUS, but couldn’t parse, and the water clock was a NHO obscurity. Likewise DULCIFY and the plant and the certainty that SLEEPER was somehow too good for an answer to that clue was right. Several others evaded me, and I gave up after about a hour. Liked LADETTE and LURID,