Time taken: 10:47, but for the third day in a row I submitted and found I had made a silly mistake!
Not too difficult a challenge for those who are not fat-fingered, though there is a clue at 2 down that requires two bits of general knowledge, and when I saw the 1 error I thought I might have messed that one up and would have to look some things up for the blog. Then I saw CFILE PINE. Well done!
Some tricky insertion clues, it looks like most of the early solvers are around their usual times. I won’t be bothering the scorekeepers!
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | One third of fruit’s been eaten? Get stuck in (6) |
| ENGAGE – remove the first third from GREENGAGE(fruit) | |
| 4 | Second key Oscar and BAFTA, say, for original direction of Titanic (8) |
| SEAWARDS – S(second), E(musical key) and Oscar and BAFTA are both AWARDS | |
| 10 | A sign of spring — family eat outside house at last (9) |
| CELANDINE – CLAN(family) and DINE(eat) surrounding the last letter of housE | |
| 11 | Be very protective of girl in US city (5) |
| NANNY – ANN(girl) inside NY(US city) | |
| 12 | Bread or dough? No big difference (5,6) |
| SMALL CHANGE – double definition based on SMALL CHANGE being money and not being a big difference | |
| 14 | Have the ability to finish off academic article (3) |
| CAN – last letter from academiC, and AN(article). I originally thought you could turn CANT into an academic article and chop the end off it, maybe in the jargon form | |
| 15 | A check on waterproof road surface (7) |
| MACADAM – A DAM(check) after MAC(waterproof) | |
| 17 | Deserts, concerned with local political division (6) |
| REWARD – RE(concerned with), WARD(local political division) | |
| 19 | Column briefly mentions iconic characters primarily associated with the cinema (6) |
| FILMIC – FILE(column) minus the last letter, then the first letters from Mentions Iconic Characters | |
| 21 | Character Ibsen created in Councillor, a big cheese? (7) |
| CHEDDAR – the Ibsen character is HEDDA Gabler, inside CR(councillor) | |
| 23 | One step saving leader (3) |
| ACE – PACE(step) minus the first letter | |
| 24 | State current saving after what HS2 no longer will do to Leeds? (11) |
| CONNECTICUT – I(current) and CUT(saving) after CONNECT(what HS2 will no longer to do Leeds) | |
| 26 | Almost every diver wanting protection for breathing (5) |
| ALIVE – ALL(every) minus the last letter, then DIVER minus the external letters | |
| 27 | Unknown coin got in change (9) |
| INCOGNITO – anagram of COIN,GOT,IN | |
| 29 | What cuts light from space views? Pluto mainly (8) |
| EYESHADE – EYES(views) and HADES(Pluto) minus the last letter | |
| 30 | Shifting sand blocks Greek port (6) |
| GDANSK – anagram of SAND inside GK(Greek) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | I think I’m in the wrong dance (6-2) |
| EXCUSE-ME – double definition | |
| 2 | Roman emperor good with Scotland (5) |
| GALBA – G(good) and ALBA(Scotland). Emperor who followed Nero. ALBA for Scotland appeared a few months ago in a Jumbo. | |
| 3 | Partly engineering a machine to remove cotton seeds (3) |
| GIN – hidden inside enGINeering | |
| 5 | Queen one earl upset (7) |
| ELEANOR – anagram of ONE EARL | |
| 6 | Crop weight reduced during unseasonable warmth (6,5) |
| WINTER WHEAT – W(weight) inside WINTER HEAT(unseasonable warmth). Got this from wordplay. | |
| 7 | Be frightened under cars being repaired (3,6) |
| RUN SCARED – anagram of UNDER,CARS | |
| 8 | Saw Twitter introducing a letter signifying unknown (6) |
| SAYING – SING(twitter) containing A and Y(letter signifying unknown) | |
| 9 | Director and unsubtle actor get ready in the UAE (6) |
| DIRHAM – DIR(director) and HAM(unsubtle actor) | |
| 13 | Queen not wanting to be spotted on stage? (4,7) |
| LADY MACBETH – Cryptic definition based on Lady Macbeth saying “out damned spot, out I say” | |
| 16 | Country long showing significant growth (5,4) |
| CHILE PINE – CHILE(country) and PINE(long). My undoing today! | |
| 18 | Twerk for dancing? This must be cut out (8) |
| FRETWORK – anagram of TWERK,FOR. Very fun surface in this clue. | |
| 20 | Preserved vessel lost power (7) |
| CANDIED – CAN(vessel), DIED(lost power) | |
| 21 | Compel using spoken Gaelic when having company over (6) |
| COERCE – a homophone of ERSE(Gaelic) under CO(company) | |
| 22 | Friend had sense of taste (6) |
| PALATE – PAL(friend), ATE(had) | |
| 25 | Terrier — mine’s escaped from Pacific island (5) |
| CAIRN – remove PIT(mine) from PITCAIRN island | |
| 28 | Idol in precious metal, not large (3) |
| GOD – GOLD(precious metal) minus L(large) | |
I did start with GAM, but then CELANDINE put me right. No problems there, as my garden was overrun with the things, and I spent 2 springtimes pulling them out, very carefully, in order not to leave the seeds behind to re-germinate. NHO the emperor, or the UAE currency, but clueing was generous. Also I didn’t know the Araucaria had another name – I’d known it only as the Monkey Puzzle. Liked ENGAGE, LADY MACBETH and CHEDDAR. All in all, a very satisfying puzzle, and took the time to appreciate it.
Astonished that I had this all correct given how many were really just guesses, which I’ll claim now as being of the educated variety, of course.
FOI CAN
LOI CHILE PINE
COD EXCUSE-ME
36 minutes, first finish of the week. GALBA and LOI CHILE PINE were new.