Time taken: 11:28.
Even though the puzzle has been out for nearly an hour, I’m thus far one of two times on the board, so I suspect this is more difficult than the average puzzle, though my time is not that far outside of my usual range.
The wordplay is tricky, but very good, which might add to the difficulty. There’s some unusual words and phrases here that I had to unravel, along with a higher number of definitions by example than I am used to seeing.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Here’s our phone number — is that corny? (6) |
| CALLUS – Here’s our number, so CALL US | |
| 5 | Venture by enchanting company in English city (8) |
| COVENTRY – TRY(venture) after COVEN(an enchanting company of witches) | |
| 9 | Help cheat in game (10) |
| BACKGAMMON – BACK(help), GAMMON(cheat) | |
| 10 | Attack in African country briefly stopped by leader in uprising (4) |
| MAUL – MALI(African country) minus the last letter surrounding the first letter in Uprising | |
| 11 | Cuban for example who has been vilified by me (8) |
| ISLANDER – if I SLANDER, you have been vilified by me | |
| 12 | Small and delicate — so? (6) |
| SLIGHT – S(small) and LIGHT(delicate) | |
| 13 | Touch zip (4) |
| DASH – double definition for a small amount and a fast move | |
| 15 | Something frozen, cheese melting in it (3,5) |
| ICE SHEET – anagram of CHEESE in IT | |
| 18 | Capital adversary invested in cereal (8) |
| SANTIAGO – ANTI(adversary) inside SAGO(cereal) | |
| 19 | Flooring material in centre of oblong houses (4) |
| LINO – IN inside the central letters of obLOng | |
| 21 | Lazy old walk into land of sleep (2-4) |
| NO-GOOD – O(old), GO(walk) inside the land of NOD | |
| 23 | Boater has taken more than one craft backwards, eh? (5,3) |
| STRAW HAT – ARTS(more than one craft) reversed, then WHAT(eh?) | |
| 25 | Fin, say, scales stripped off (4) |
| LIMB – CLIMBS(scales) minus the exterior letters | |
| 26 | Launch one past it into country east of India (10) |
| INITIATION – I(one) after IT inside NATION(country) after I(India) | |
| 27 | Show one off that’s attached to heel in blizzards? (8) |
| SNOWSHOE – anagram of SHOW,ONE after the last letter in blizzardS | |
| 28 | Reversal of dreary practice critical for country (6) |
| TURKEY – RUT(dreary practice) reversed, then KEY(critical) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Hoover, say, has got stuck in like US president (5) |
| ADAMS – the Hoover DAM inside AS(like). Much America in this clue. | |
| 3 | So fired without hesitation? (4,1,4) |
| LIKE A SHOT – double definition | |
| 4 | Drink: Warhol should can it! (6) |
| SHANDY – If you want to tell the pop artist ANDY Warhol to be quiet, you could say SH, ANDY | |
| 5 | Whatever racehorse I’m on in horsing around! (4,4,2,5) |
| COME RAIN OR SHINE – anagram of RACEHORSE,I’M,ON,IN | |
| 6 | Front I dispensed with, gone (8) |
| VANISHED – VAN(front), I, SHED(dispensed with) | |
| 7 | I say I don’t want them near me, dark clouds (5) |
| NIMBI – sounds like NIMBY(not in my back yard, I don’t want them near me) | |
| 8 | Crude, when by inference? (5-4) |
| ROUGH-HEWN – since WHEN is an anagram (ROUGH) of HEWN | |
| 14 | A military alliance secure when set up in part of 28 across, say? (9) |
| ANATOLIAN – A, NATO(military alliance) then NAIL(secure) reversed. I got this before solving 28 across (which is TURKEY, but if you made it this far you know that) | |
| 16 | Stand up, as might pitcher? (4,5) |
| HOLD WATER – double definition | |
| 17 | Introduce American hero? (8) |
| SANDWICH – double definition based on SANDWICH meaning to squeeze something into, or introduce, and that a hero in the USA is a type of sandwich. Arguments about whether a hero is a sandwich in the comments in 3, 2, 1… | |
| 20 | Drive away, passing through Faro in truck (6) |
| AROINT – hidden inside fARO IN Truck | |
| 22 | Two bovines, the second with head slightly back in lake (5) |
| OXBOW – the bovines are OX and COW, move the first letter of COW back from C to B. I thought this was hyphenated, and it is in Chambers, but Collins gives it as a single word. | |
| 24 | A nozzle evolved (5) |
| AROSE – A, ROSE(nozzle in a shower) | |
Sorry to be a lone voice, but when did ‘anti’ (18ac) become a noun (‘adversary’) – surely this should be ‘against’, or ‘averse’ – seems a bit lazy (but I suppose that makes me an ‘anti’!)
Jules
My ODE gives it as a noun, with an origin in late 18th century. Very useful for crosswords!
28 minutes but with the dreaded pink square – I came up with acone for the evolved nozzle believing acone to be something to do with the evolution of eyes from distant memory of my biochemistry degree. Turns out it is but it’s not what the setter was after😊 thoroughly enjoyed this even with the cross reference. COD to Coventry.
Thx G and setter
Very funny because acone was my first thought right at the beginning of my long alphabet trawl just now, luckily I never learnt biochemistry so couldnt convince myself it was a word
DNF as I didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on with ‘sandwich’. It was the only word I could think of that would fit, but I have never heard of a hero sandwich and sandwich ‘ as a synonym for introduce is a bit of a stretch. Unlike E Bradford, I don’t want any more like this.
I agree sandwich is a dodgy clue
Finished all but one in 20 minutes, then AROSE took me another 8 minutes of alphabet searching (finally on the third or maybe fourth run through I stopped at R and it finally clicked)
So finally finished in 28:01.
Thanks setter and blogger, und bis morgen
Steve
Fell asleep after 30 mins and bunged in the final few when I woke up. One error – anose – but reasonably happy. Nice puzzle. Thanks Setter and blogster
23’ or so. Loi sandwich. Felt American, this one.
43 mins. Started this last night and took a rest after 36 mins with 8 clues still to solve.
Just returned and polished off said clues in 7 mins. Memo to self do the crossword early when you’re fresh.
Very pleased I finally cracked sandwich. Good puzzle but I should have been quicker.
I enjoyed this puzzle, although that may be because I completed it! A few unknowns but managed to work through those. About 40 minutes. CODs Rough Hewn and Santiago.