A bit of everything here, with the wordplay, but nothing obscure. Five decent anagrams get you a good way into the puzzle. I remember the Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen scandals from 2001, hard to believe it was over twenty years ago. The meadowlark looks much prettier than our little brown English skylarks. 23 minutes done and parsed.
EDIT at the time I blogged this, I didn’t realise it was the first of the Championship puzzles. No too testing for the first round, then. I did the final puzzle yesterday, it took me 34 minutes (v. Magoo’s 4 minutes 38 seconds to win).
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Employees stick notes here (5) |
| STAFF – a triple definition. Notes go on a musical staff or stave of five horizontal lines. | |
| 4 | Piece containing extremes of emotional range (9) |
| SELECTION – SECTION (piece) with E[motiona]L inserted. | |
| 9 | Feeling guilty about social worker guards confined (9) |
| REPENTANT – RE (about) PENT (confined) ANT (social worker). | |
| 10 | Go back over right step in the wrong direction (5) |
| RECAP – PACE, R reversed. | |
| 11 | Warplane once deployed uranium-enriched device causing great damage (7,6) |
| NUCLEAR WEAPON – (WARPLANE ONCE)* with U inserted (“enriched”). | |
| 14 | Book author’s dedication? (4) |
| TOME – the author could dedicate it “TO ME”. | |
| 15 | Inept force destroyed Utopian state (10) |
| PERFECTION – (INEPT FORCE)*. | |
| 18 | Make a world that’s fitting for US singer (10) |
| MEADOWLARK -(MAKE A WORLD)*. A rather pretty American bird. | |
| 19 | Look around for one constructive thing to do (4) |
| LEGO – LO (look) around EG (for one). | |
| 21 | Green energy company that was of a mind to store insufficient energy (13) |
| ENVIRONMENTAL – ENRON (defunct energy company) stores VI[m] (energy, insufficient), MENTAL = of a mind. | |
| 24 | Guide that woman behind you and me (5) |
| USHER – US (you and me) HER (that woman). | |
| 25 | Obtain expert on those coming first in voters’ eyes such as Greens? (9) |
| VEGETABLE – V E (first letters of Voters Eyes) GET (obtain) ABLE (expert). | |
| 27 | Object to drinks prior to play (9) |
| REPRESENT – PRE (prior to) inside RESENT (object to). Play = represent, e.g an actor playing a real person. | |
| 28 | Severely criticise case of auditors mired in corruption (5) |
| ROAST – A[uditor]S inside ROT = corruption. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Period of growth bound to restrict having millions saved (10) |
| SPRINGTIME – SPRING (bound), TIE (restrict), insert M for millions. | |
| 2 | Ingredient of Christmas pudding being blamed for poisoning (3) |
| ASP – hidden word; allegedly Cleopatra was poisoned by an asp bite, or by the toxin from an asp which she used on herself. | |
| 3 | Individual needing to make contact but also putting up boundaries (6) |
| FENCER – double definition, one in the sport of fencing, one erecting fences. | |
| 4 | Where steps may be taken to look for eavesdropper very possibly (9) |
| STAIRWELL – cryptic definition; one may be creeping down the stairs to overhear a conversation below. Is there more to this? | |
| 5 | Sinuous snake sheds skin (5) |
| LITHE – [S]LITHE[R]. | |
| 6 | What may protect vehicle at high speed? (8) |
| CARAPACE – a car apace being a vehicle at high speed. | |
| 7 | Unable to control movements of monarch barely satisfied to stay at home (11) |
| INCONTINENT – took me while to think of the monarch part; I think it is [K]IN[G] = monarch barely, CONTENT (satisfied), insert IN for at home. | |
| 8 | I’m opposed to that, not to cycling (4) |
| NOPE – OPEN (not to, as in a door), “cycling” = moving the letters around. | |
| 12 | Doctor compared his fraternity with colleagues (11) |
| COMRADESHIP – (COMPARED HIS)*. | |
| 13 | Most wicked criminal singled out (10) |
| UNGODLIEST – (SINGLED OUT)*. | |
| 16 | Broadcast disputed piece for some time (9) |
| FORTNIGHT – broadcast = sounds like, FOUGHT (disputed), KNIGHT (chess piece). | |
| 17 | Meet politician and clerical assistant briefly (8) |
| CONVERGE – CON[servative], VERGE[r] = vicar’s assistant briefly. | |
| 20 | Virulent disease leads to extremely resilient bug (6) |
| PESTER – PEST (virulent disease), E[xtremely], R[esilient]. | |
| 22 | Theatrical production always sent up university dons (5) |
| REVUE – EVER reversed with U for university inserted. | |
| 23 | Person taking action against senior officer is powerless (4) |
| SUER – SUPER(intendent) loses his P for power. | |
| 26 | Wrap last item on the agenda up (3) |
| BOA – AOB (Any other business) reversed up. | |
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