29:19
A treat for those who like their Friday puzzles solvable, and their blogs brief.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 |
Some forgot Sir Alan turned into Lord (6) |
| ARISTO – reverse hidden in forgOT SIR Alan. | |
| 5 |
Rifle fire has spread to the front (7) |
| RANSACK – SACK (fire) with RAN (has spread). | |
| 10 |
Yet to iron out effect of bad press? (9) |
| NOTORIETY – anagram of (out) YET TO IRON. | |
| 11 |
Common type of piano part (5) |
| PROLE – P (piano) + ROLE (part). | |
| 12 |
Fellow greeting attack on castle in adventurous spirit (3,3,4,2,2) |
| FOR THE HELL OF IT – HE (fellow) + HELLO (greeting) + FIT (attack), on FORT (castle). Thanks to Nicola and Guy for fixing my mistake. | |
| 14 |
Swimming beaches west of Deal covered with sewage from east (5) |
| LIDOS – first (left) of Deal contained by (covered in) the reversal of (from the east) SOIL (sewage). | |
| 16 |
Dispatch delicate candle (9) |
| RUSHLIGHT – RUSH (dispatch) + LIGHT (delicate). | |
| 18 |
Adjustment to dole is big inconvenience (9) |
| DISOBLIGE – anagram of (adjustment to) DOLE IS BIG. | |
| 20 |
Underground hacker is under 18, reportedly (5) |
| MINER – sounds like (reportedly) “minor” (under 18). | |
| 22 |
How cocaine gets in, sometimes at high rate (7,3,4) |
| THROUGH THE NOSE – double definition. | |
| 25 |
Line at end of letter triggers turning over (5) |
| SERIF – FIRES (triggers) reversed (turning over). | |
| 26 |
Clear system of exchanges applied to Tallinn’s university (9) |
| UNINSTALL – anagram of (exchanges applied to) TALLINN’S U (university). | |
| 28 |
Time left after sport for passing practice? (7) |
| FUNERAL – ERA (time) and L (left), all after FUN (sport). | |
| 29 |
Hitman gets Tesla for one pound in good condition (6) |
| KILTER – KILlER (hitman) with T (Tesla) replacing one L (pound). | |
| Down | |
| 2 |
In bed knackered again? (7) |
| RETIRED – re-tired (knackered again). | |
| 3 |
Bashful painter taking hour to finish wine (5) |
| SYRAH – SHY (bashful) and RA (painter), with the ‘h’ (hour) going to the end. | |
| 4 |
Spanish go on parts of golf course out of bounds (3) |
| OLÉ – hOLEs (parts of golf course) without the outer letters (out of bounds). | |
| 5 |
Bill’s OK, sadly driven after Oscar’s taken by railway (5,6) |
| ROYAL ASSENT – ALAS (sadly) + SENT (driven), all after O (oscar) in (taken by) RY (railway). | |
| 6 |
Simple, impressive housing for millions (2,7) |
| NO PROBLEM – NOBLE (impressive) containing (housing) PRO (for), then M (millions). | |
| 7 |
Affectionate seal burdened by publicity (7) |
| ADORING – O-RING (seal) with AD (publicity). | |
| 8 |
Recognised antelope by one of its sounds (4) |
| KNEW – sounds like “gnu” (antelope). | |
| 9 |
Nicked supporters upped and ran (8) |
| SNAFFLED – FANS (supporters) reversed (up) + FLED (ran). | |
| 13 |
Scavenger slipping back off bin-bag in city (7,4) |
| HERRING GULL – ERRING (slipping) + last (back) of bin-baG, all in HULL (city). | |
| 15 |
Booming speaker upset coach and umpire around court (9) |
| SUBWOOFER – separate reversals of (upset) BUS (coach) and REF (umpire) containing (around) WOO (court). | |
| 17 |
Oddly stranded in that place with river rising, row across regularly? (5-3) |
| THREE-PLY – THERE (in that place) with the ‘r’ (river) moved up (rising) + PLY (regular across row). | |
| 19 |
African, unused to water, has capsized out of trim yacht (7) |
| SAHARAN – reversal of (capsized) HAS, then trimARAN (yacht) without the ‘trim’. | |
| 21 |
Bananas eaten on delivery yesterday? (7) |
| NEONATE – anagram of (bananas) EATEN ON | |
| 23 |
Stand when fish bites (5) |
| EASEL – AS (when) that EEL (fish) contains (bites). | |
| 24 |
Ace is overturned with loud “You cannot be serious” (2,2) |
| AS IF – A (ace) + IS reversed (overturned) + F (loud). | |
| 27 |
Kind KC yields initial point (3) |
| ILK – sILK (KC) without the initial. | |
50 minutes. I always thought Kilter meant condition, rather than good condition, but the dictionary proves me wrong there. I shall try to remember never to say “in good kilter”.
Done in two sessions so no time to note, but about fifty minutes I would think. In the end it was to no avail as I had a few mistakes. Never heard of SYRAH so went with the unparsed SARAH with little hope of success. I also had POSTLIGHT for 16ac which meant 13dn was unsolvable, although I did insert HOPPING BULL as a very optimistic answer!
24:35
COD to 1a.
LOI was SERIF.
Thanks William and setter
I finished apart from 3dn in 18 minutes but after 2 alphabet trawls for the second letter I just tried SARAH and so DNF 🙁
I think now (a) I have vaguely heard of SYRAH and (b) I really should have been able to construct it, but there you go
Thanks setter and blogger
I was surprised to finish this in 40 minutes, or indeed to finish any Friday puzzle in less than 90 minutes. Could not parse HERRING GULL (forgot HULL as a city) or SAHARAN (couldn’t think of trimaran, only got as far as a catamaran), so thank you William for the much-needed blogging, and thanks to the setter for giving me another do-able one contrary to expectations.
49.13 Slow in the SE. SAHARAN and ILK were biffed. Finished with KILTER, which I’d never seen in a positive sense. Thanks William.
Tackled this not knowing it was a Friday puzzle ( in Oz we get it about a month later), so that helped me strive forward positively ( go figure). Result was that I answered most without too many hitches, and enjoyed getting the ones I did AND understanding the parsing. Then PROBLEMs arose in the form of ADORING, UNINSTALL (missed the anagram), KILTER, and the second word of THREE ??? ( not knowing PLY in that sense.) Kicking myself for not seeing THROUGH THE NOSE earlier (COD), but “passing practice” has to have a gong for FUNERAL.