I submitted in 10:08 and saw not one, but two pink squares. This was not a typo, this was one answer that I got completely and utterly wrong, though I thought I had a valid answer. Oh well, better luck next time.
Funny thing was as I was solving I filled a few in thinking “oh, this could be a trap to catch the biffers” and ended up being caught out by something else altogether. I’m not the only one in the early leaderboard with an error, so maybe I’m not alone.
Elsewhere, this is a fairly tricky puzzle with some long answers that take a fair bit of piecing together. How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Good: this writer’s allowed cocktail (6) |
| GIMLET – G(good), I’M(this writer), LET(allowed). Mmmm, gin and fresh lime. I may never get scurvy. | |
| 5 | Spies sound sheepish stealing abstainer’s bread (8) |
| CIABATTA – CIA(spies), BAA(sound sheepish) containing TT(teetotaller, abstainer) | |
| 9 | Note parts tangled in disorganised angler’s gear (7,3) |
| LANDING NET – N(note) inside an anagram of TANGLED,IN | |
| 10 | Mirror and Times giving tip (4) |
| APEX – APE(mirror) and X(times, multiplied by) | |
| 11 | Point picked up by team where Magpies play (8) |
| TYNESIDE – sounds like TINE(point) next to SIDE(team). I got this from wordplay, the Magpies is a nickname for Newcastle FC | |
| 12 | Once again phone engineers help put back line (6) |
| REDIAL – RE(engineers), then AID(help) reversed, L(line) | |
| 13 | Little bit close to Vanessa Bell (4) |
| ATOM – last letter of vanessA, then TOM(a big bell) | |
| 15 | Permit what diners do during cheese course? (8) |
| PASSPORT – in the cheese course you may PASS the PORT | |
| 18 | A life story packing in sex appeal from page one? (2,6) |
| AB INITIO – A, BIO(life story) containing IN and IT(sex appeal) | |
| 19 | Goidelic tongue repressed periodically (4) |
| ERSE – alternating letters in rEpReSsEd | |
| 21 | High-backed bench and light (6) |
| SETTLE – double definition | |
| 23 | Slipping lead, police dog savaged old president (8) |
| COOLIDGE – anagram of POLICE DOG minus the first letter | |
| 25 | Passes days in Rome (4) |
| DIES – double definition, and not VIAS which I had in as a double definition | |
| 26 | Spoil no child, beginning to expect esteem (10) |
| ADULTERATE – ADULT(no child), then the first letter of Expect, RATE(esteem) | |
| 27 | Fierce combatant once stopped by macho guys (8) |
| VEHEMENT – VET(combatant once) containing HE MEN(macho guys) | |
| 28 | Salad vegetable somewhat excellent? (6) |
| RADISH – somewhat excellent could be RAD-ISH | |
| Down | |
| 2 | One lake-fed river in land around Perugia (5) |
| ITALY – I(one), then L(lake) inside the river TAY | |
| 3 | Distress in a damsel — chap to produce it? (6,3) |
| LADIES MAN – anagram of IN,A,DAMSEL | |
| 4 | Son in practice session raised game (6) |
| TENNIS – S(son), IN, NET(practice session in cricket), all reversed | |
| 5 | Tory politician accepting trustee’s case for cut to commuted offence (8,2,5) |
| CONTEMPT OF COURT – CON(tory), MP(politician) containing the external letters of TrusteE, then an anagram of FOR,CUT,TO | |
| 6 | First time out, savour chance to be star (8) |
| ASTERISK – remove the first T(time) from TASTE(savour), then RISK(chance) | |
| 7 | Struggled to be heard after Takada’s final gong (5) |
| AWARD – sounds like WARRED(struggled) after the last letter in takadA | |
| 8 | House welcomes ambassador’s meaningful work? (9) |
| THESAURUS – TAURUS(zodiac house) containing HE’S(ambassador’s). Fun definition! | |
| 14 | Drink to Scottish having arrived unexpectedly (5,4) |
| TABLE WINE – TAE(“to” in Scots) containing BLEW IN(arrived unexpectedly) | |
| 16 | Empire rebuilt by socialist first shown (9) |
| PREMIERED – anagram of EMPIRE, then RED(socialist) | |
| 17 | Theatre boxes always cheapest way to go? (8) |
| STEERAGE – STAGE(theatre) containing EER(ever) | |
| 20 | Person who can cure wind (6) |
| DOCTOR – double defintion, the second referring to a sea breeze | |
| 22 | In dentist, as terrified, have trying experience? (5) |
| TASTE – hidden inside dentisT AS TErrified | |
| 24 | Some gloomy youth became Home Secretary (5) |
| GOTHS – GOT(became), HS(Home Secretary) | |
Beaten by APEX, tried ABET, wondering if ABE had some abstruse meaning like ‘mirror’, with ‘a bet’ giving ‘tip’, but wasn’t really convinced. Good puzzle overall.
FOI GIMLET, LOI ATOM
COD COOLIDGE. (I’m ok on most US presidents since 1900, apart from Teddy R’s successor.)
29:48
LOI was DOCTOR – I have never heard of the wind, so assumed it was somehow related to doctoring something equalling winding it.
Thanks glh and setter
Just over 18 mins but one stupid typo! Despite checking. TABLE WIME.
COD: TYNESIDE
Defeated by TABLE WINE and stupidly biffed IDES.
Must try harder.
17:50 – spent a while looking for a smoker of fish or other type of curer that would fit 20d rather than the obvious biff-trap of DOCTOR. Fortunately, I couldn’t think of or invent one.
16.05 DNF
Well all but DIES after 16.05 but just couldn’t bring to mind the Latin for days despite doing it to A-Level (a poor effort) and two alph trawls (my alpha trawls are a bit like Keriothe’s end of crossword checks).
Lovely crossword with COD to TYNESIDE as a Toon supporter (but don’t mention last night).
25 mins. Struggled at the end with G.T.S, until I realised that HS must be Home Secretary, never HO. And youth can be plural, hadn’t thought of that either.
Some gremlin decided I had taken 0 minutes to solve this one, my estimate was 20.
Remembered the Fremantle doctor, a lot of interesting comments on this clue.
TABLE WINE was a biff.
COD ASTERISK
Nice puzzle
Finished, but with a sneaky reveal of GOTHS midway through and occasional use of the check button. Biffed but couldn’t parse TABLE WINE. Another to initially try ‘ides’ for DIES until the penny dropped. NHO DOCTOR, LANDING NET or GIMLET (sounds very nice!). Didn’t know what Goidelic was but biffed ERSE from tongue. Liked PASSPORT for the light relief and enjoyed building CIABATTA. Many thanks setter and G.
19:45
Enjoyable grid, though I did have several tentative biffs early doors – CHAPATTI (which has the same checkers as the correct answer), FISHING ROD, RELAID, SETTLE, IDES – only one of which actually turned out to be correct, each of the others being resolved as other checkers went in. Not knowing enough Latin meant I wasn’t sure of DIES but presumed it must be. I’ve only heard of the wind DOCTOR in the Fremantle sense. Several to like but favourite was GOTHS.
Thanks G and setter
I wonder how many people knew what Goidelic meant in 19ac. But nice easy wordplay. 40 minutes, and I never understood the second half of CONTEMPT OF COURT. Rather unconvinced by ‘commuted’ as an anagram indicator, or ‘having’ as a containment indicator in 14dn, although I’ve seen it before.
Well, the UK Celtic languages are either Goidelic or Brythonic – everybody knows that!
30 mins. I too thought of doctoring and winding, having never heard of the breeze. Fortunately, had seen the word “rad” in a newspaper recently; a good clue! A nice puzzle overall.
A couple of literary connections: GIMLETs appear in “The long goodbye”, old TOM is mentioned in “Brideshead revisited” I think.
Took me a while to understand LANDING NET and TABLE WINE, but another all correct, to compensate for my errors on Monday and Tuesday.
Thanks George and Setter
I never time myself but was pleased to finish without any errors. I knew my Latin A level would come in handy one day.
34:46. this week has been a constant struggle. had to guess as DOCTOR as I’ve not seen that before. TOM as BELL similarly. some very clever clues there and I enjoyed the fight!
Fell at the final hurdle defeated by DIES. Couldn’t get IDES to work, not surprisingly, and even considered COLS as a possibility. Forty odd minutes not wasted however as I enjoyed the challenge of the rest of the grid.
23.05 but a lot of effort needed for the SW corner. Vehement was my LOI, after table wine which was a contender for COD alongside passport and my favourite goths which was a bit left field. DNK ab initio but cluing was reasonably helpful.
Good puzzle. Thanks setter, commiserations setter.
Late to this one, but a very nice puzzle, the nicer for a great and self-referential Nina. I spotted I-N-T-E-R in row four and followed it around. I’m exactly the sort of person to miss such things, so a miracle I saw it really. Lots to please this crowd of one, best of the week for me.
Thanks setter and GLH.
An enjoyable puzzle, all done in 26 minutes. No problem with the Latin, but a big problem with the President as it took ages to realise the clue at 23ac was an anagram.
FOI – GIMLET
LOI – COOLIDGE
COD – PASSPORT
Thanks to george and other contributors.
21:21, very pleasing. Struggled with ADULTERATE for a long time. Lots of lovely clues. Many thanks George.
First time this week I’ve managed to finish with all correct so am happy now.
FOI CIABATTA
LOI ASTERISK
COD PASSPORT
This puzzle is 29164, not 21964.