The second puzzle in the Championship first round, but new to me today. I am glad I didn’t enter this year, as I was unable to finish this one with out using an aid (or hoping to guess correctly). I had 90% of it done inside the 20 minutes, but the SE corner stumped me for too long. I ought to say LEASHES was the best clue, for its cunning definition, but it has to be PREFLIGHT which made me smile.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Dog training ahead of test? It requires careful manipulation (8) |
| PUPPETRY – PUP PE would be dog training, add TRY for test. | |
| 5 | Summit where clubs vote to accept overseas capital (6) |
| CLIMAX -C for clubs, X for vote, insert LIMA the capital of Peru. | |
| 8 | Significant time to worry about losing face (3) |
| ERA – worry, about = ERAC, lose the C. I nearly biffed ETA (estimated time of arrival) then realised I needed to “lose face”. | |
| 9 | Protest ignited India towards destruction (10) |
| DEMOLITION – DEMO (protest), LIT (ignited) I[ndia], ON (towards). | |
| 10 | Heading for shelter from conflict in city (8) |
| LEEWARDS – WAR in LEEDS. | |
| 11 | It contains stuff from the east, infused with a soy-based sauce (6) |
| TAMARI – take IT, insert RAM, reverse it all, insert A. It’s like soy sauce but different. | |
| 12 | Collection of people having no right to enter university (2,2) |
| GO UP – GROUP loses R for fight. I went up in 1966; do people still say “go up” to uni? | |
| 14 | Huge fuss around finale of spectacular TV show (3,7) |
| BIG BROTHER – huge fuss = BIG BOTHER, insert R the last letter of spectacular. Glad to say, I have never watched it. | |
| 17 | Pips possibly from fresh limes in a G&T (4,6) |
| TIME SIGNAL – (LIMES IN A GT)*. | |
| 20 | Machine part broken by large blockage (4) |
| CLOG – L inside COG. | |
| 23 | When power and fury combine, shoot for the stars! (6) |
| ASPIRE -AS (when) P, IRE. | |
| 24 | Certain animals, primarily horses included in my analysis info (8) |
| CHORDATA – H (primarily horses), inserted into COR (my!), DATA = analysis info. Animals with a spinal cord, including all vertebrates. | |
| 25 | I’ve nothing more to say about a fancy donut! (4,3,3) |
| OVER AND OUT – OVER (about), A, (DONUT)*. | |
| 26 | Angry and tired, though not at first (3) |
| HOT – [S]HOT. Shot can mean tired. I couldn’t see it in Collins but it appears as No. 21 in synonyms for tiredness at https://fluentslang.com/slang-for-tiredness/ | |
| 27 | Finest head journalist outsmarted (6) |
| BESTED – the BEST ED would be the head journalist, or at least they’d be the boss journalist if not necessarily the best. | |
| 28 | Young relative also thus taken in by good prank periodically (8) |
| GRANDSON – G[ood], [p]R[a]N[k], gives you GR…N, insert AND (also) SO (thus). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Official caught in tricky situation on the runway? (9) |
| PREFLIGHT – REF, our official, inside PLIGHT a tricky situation. | |
| 2 | Flatten out gold beneath thin sheet of silver? (7) |
| PLATEAU – AU for Au, gold, below silver PLATE. Plateau can be a verb as well as a noun. | |
| 3 | Make charming final piece on organ (6) |
| ENDEAR – END + EAR. | |
| 4 | Providing corrective action in respect of me fizzling out (9) |
| REMEDYING – RE, ME, DYING. | |
| 5 | Lesser celeb’s monastic life devoid of love (1-6) |
| C-LISTER – monks can live in a CLOISTER, drop the O for love. How many lists are there? D-listers? Z-listers? When is a celeb not a celeb? | |
| 6 | Fellow almost entirely overwhelmed by daft vernacular (9) |
| IDIOMATIC – IDIOTIC (daft) with MA[n] inserted. | |
| 7 | A plane maybe circling popular race venue (7) |
| AINTREE – A (plane) TREE with IN = popular inserted. | |
| 13 | In part, Republican denies freaking out leader (9) |
| PRESIDENT – PT (part) with R (DENIES)* inserted. Sort of topical, this one. | |
| 15 | Holidaymaker perhaps heading for basically every Indian state, we’re told (9) |
| BEACHGOER – B[asically], EACH (every), GOER sounds like GOA. | |
| 16 | Singing centrally features in one great new style of music (9) |
| REGGAETON – [sin]G[ing], inside (ONE GREAT)*. I’d never heard of this kind of music, but knew about REGGAE, so had to guess the TON part from the remaining letters; not being too convinced about the crossing HOT didn’t help. | |
| 18 | This month, material of mine is available to buy (2,5) |
| IN STORE – INST = this month, ORE what comes from a mine. (I was taught INST. was short for instante mense being Latin for ‘this month’, but less erudite websites seem to think it’s simply short for instant. I haven’t seen it on a formal letter for years.) | |
| 19 | Horned mammal seen to the south of one cold country (7) |
| ICELAND – I (one) C[old], ELAND a horned antelope. | |
| 21 | The French tennis great ultimately squanders lead more than once (7) |
| LEASHES – LE (the French), ASHE (Arthur, tennis player of yesteryear), [squander]S. This took me an age as I was fixated on the tennis player being [L}AVER and couldn’t for the life of me see the clever definition, ‘lead more than once’ = more than one dog leash. | |
| 22 | Dish that’s initially covered in a tiny amount of salt (6) |
| GRATIN – A GRAIN of salt, with T[hat’s] inserted. | |
25.35 with most completed in under 20 mins but held up in the SE corner until I got reggaeton and leashes before finishing with chordata and gratin. Bit of a guess with chordata but the cluing was very helpful.
Gave up at the hour with my last two of CHORDATA and GRATIN unsolved. Feel like both were gettable – just couldn’t think of GRAIN or see COR=MY which I really should have. Pleased to know REGGAETON – my daughter made me listen to some a few years ago – it’s awful.
Late to this owing to being at a funeral on Mull (and driving both ways). Not overly difficult and completed successfully, though with fingers crossed for REGGAETON and TAMARI, NHOs, both. LEASHES took some working out, but LOI was LEEWARDS, which doesn’t seem to have held up anyone else!
No time as I only sporadically looked at this, but scanning the first few acrosses threw me a bit. However, when I returned to it, the NE began to fall in quick succession, starting with CLIMAX, then C-LISTER. Rest of the top half filled relatively quickly (apart from PREFLIGHT, where I was looking for an official at first, of course). Needed 3 ‘reveals’ for the bottom half, as I couldn’t get a toehold : BEACHGOER, LEASHES and PRESIDENT, which shows my frustration only. Finished off the rest quite without a problem, apart from a MER at REGGAETON. NHO TAMARI, but easy to deduce. Liked ICELAND and OVER AND OUT, even if that expression makes no sense!