46:37
A stiff enough test for a Friday, if workaday.
I had only one (wrong) entry in the top half before starting again more successfully in the bottom. The NE corner held out for the longest, accounting for at least a third of my time.
LOI 5ac, somewhat inexplicably. COD to 12ac for taking me through a rapid series of feelings (What? Maybe? Aha! Are you sure? Hat tip).
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | When acting clumsily journalist is overcome by remorse (7) |
| ASHAMED – AS (when) + HAM (acting clumsily) + ED (journalist). | |
| 5 | What’s left after touching electricity supply? (7) |
| REMAINS – RE (touching) + MAINS (electricity supply). | |
| 9 | What bacilli regularly can make you (3) |
| AIL – every other letter from (regularly) bAcIlLi. I scanned this one quickly looking for somewhere to get a start, and bunged in ‘ill’. 1dn showed me the error, eventually. | |
| 10 | Frank has cut short walk clutching right shoe (5,3,3) |
| WARTS AND ALL – all but the last of (cut short) WALk, containing all of RT (right) + SANDAL (shoe). | |
| 11 | Britain for one day leading way, finally (8) |
| MONARCHY – MON (day) + ARCH (leading) + last of (finally) waY. | |
| 12 | Pretended to beg money from speaker (6) |
| PSEUDO – sounds like (from speaker) “sue” (to beg) and “dough” (money). I was looking for a homophone of a currency, and would not usually think to use either of the words defined. The PS at the start also threw me off. | |
| 15 | Very loud goodbye from texter leads to slap! (4) |
| CUFF – FF (fortissimo, very loud) that CU (see you, goodbye from texter) is in front of (leads). | |
| 16 | Mother keeping small object in hatch (10) |
| MASTERMIND – MATER (mother) containing (keeping) S (small), then MIND (object). I spend a while trying to justify term=object (from maths/computing or the like), then wondering where the D came from / why DAM was reversed. | |
| 18 | Outside help needed with repair, surprisingly (10) |
| PERIPHERAL – anagram (surprisingly) of HELP with REPAIR. | |
| 19 | Uncertain period after expulsion of old member (4) |
| LIMB – LIMBo (uncertain period), minus (after the expulsion of) O (old). | |
| 22 | Modest earnings for salesperson, potentially a predator (6) |
| COYOTE – COY (modest) + OTE (on-target earnings, earnings for a salesperson, potentially). This is not my thing, and I had to guess ‘overall take-home earnings’ or something, but could see what we were after. | |
| 23 | Delegating eg pundit for broadcast (8) |
| DEPUTING – anagram (for broadcast) EG PUNDIT. | |
| 25 | Making disclosure about an old soldier’s farewell (5-6) |
| LEAVE-TAKING – LEAKING (making disclosure) containing (about) VET (old soldier). | |
| 27 | Husband turning to one during the match (3) |
| TIE – ‘h’ replaced by (turning to) I (one) in ThE. | |
| 28 | Get down tips on symphony for composer (7) |
| DEBUSSY – DE-BUS (get down, from bus) + first and last from (tips on) SymphonY. | |
| 29 | Left winger beginning to backtrack, as requested (2,5) |
| TO ORDER – RED (left winger) + ROOT (beginning), all reversed (to backtrack). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Bloodless revolution for agents capturing base (7) |
| ANAEMIC – reversal of (revolution for) CIA (agents) containing MEAN (base). | |
| 2 | Classic beauty peculiar to English female — only her (5,2,4) |
| HELEN OF TROY – anagram of (peculiar) TO + E (English) + F (female) + ONLY HER. Almost hidden in plain sight, but it took me ages to count the letters of the fodder! | |
| 3 | Gracious thing that I should keep! (2,4) |
| MY WORD – double definition. | |
| 4 | Villain in film shoot, female, interrupted by very short commercial (5,5) |
| DARTH VADER – DART (shoot), then HER (female) containing (interrupted by) V (very) with AD (short commercial). | |
| 5 | Grew flower: one used for spray? (4) |
| ROSE – triple definition, the last pertaining to the device attached to the end of a watering can. | |
| 6 | Government department tax giving certain cars priority (8) |
| MINISTRY – TRY (tax) preceded by (giving priority to) MINIS (certain cars). | |
| 7 | Great part of Crete seen during holidays (3) |
| IDA – hidden in holIDAys. Mountain in Crete. | |
| 8 | In depression collecting pounds in aid of English city (7) |
| SALFORD – SAD (in depression) containing (collecting) all of L (pounds) + FOR (in aid of). | |
| 13 | Lay egg, fine on reflection, as one must eat (11) |
| UNINITIATED – UNITED (as one) contains (must eat) NIT (egg) with AI (A1, fine) reversed. UNI(NIT)(AI<)TED. | |
| 14 | General way to assess meaning (10) |
| STRATEGIST – ST (way) + RATE (to assess) + GIST (meaning). Any person acting as leader, planning tactics or management. | |
| 17 | Place not so clean (8) |
| SPOTLESS – SPOT (place) + LESS (not so). | |
| 18 | Cream light source is preserved (7) |
| PICKLED – PICK (cream, of the crop) + LED (light source). | |
| 20 | Stomach infection introduces source of irritation (7) |
| BUGBEAR – BEAR (stomach) that BUG (infection) introduces. | |
| 21 | Extremely enthusiastic piece first to highlight boring essay (4,2) |
| GUNG HO – GUN (piece), then first of Highlight contained by (boring) GO (try, essay). | |
| 24 | Unknown quantity, some clown (4) |
| ZANY – Z (unknown quantity) + ANY (some). | |
| 26 | White garment turning up in shrubland (3) |
| ALB – reverse hidden (turning up in) shruBLAnd. | |
Salford also have a team in the football league, run by 4 ex Man Utd players..
The second puzzle this week with two hidden clues. Is it now official that the “only one hidden clues left” has been relaxed?
Friday done Sunday evening, as per usual with me. 29’30” which I feel pretty good about because it seemed tough. Glad I got PSEUDO before SALFORD, otherwise I’d have fallen into the ESCUDO trap. Didn’t know SALFORD was a city, but then it occurred to me that there are probably a lot of places I don’t realise are cities (Yes! e.g. Milton Keynes and Chelmsford – I’ve just checked). See Snitch has settled at 115, which feels about right. Many thanks.