Rather more challenging than a typical Monday, with one clue I can’t account for. Quite a lot of letter removals, but more than usual? I’m not sure.
29:06
| Across | |
| 1 | Cleans clothing for performer in theatre (6) |
| SCRUBS – double definition; ‘performer in theatre’ referring to a surgeon or anyone else helping out at an operation | |
| 4 | Going along with engineers getting on ferries (8) |
| AGREEING – RE in AGEING (getting on) | |
| 10 | Soldier on island track (9) |
| LEGIONARY – LEG IONA RY; as simple as that | |
| 11 | Wood part taken back from trade customer (5) |
| CEDAR – a hidden reversed | |
| 12 | Advanced Scout Leader more successful than others (5,2,3,4) |
| AHEAD OF THE PACK – A (advanced) HEAD OF THE PACK (Scout Leader – not sure why it’s capitalised) | |
| 14 | One’s written extreme letters to Santa, we’re told (5) |
| ESSAY – the outside letter of the word Santa are S and A, AKA ES & SAY | |
| 16 | Officer directed ten cops with tips from informer (9) |
| INSPECTOR – anagram* of TEN COPS plus I~R | |
| 18 | Shooter no good behind short fences (9) |
| DERRINGER – NG in DERRIER |
|
| 20 | Very small car carrying case of old alcohol (5) |
| VODKA – OD (the outside letters of O |
|
| 21 | Unstoppable rebellion near Bali at sea (14) |
| UNRESTRAINABLE – UNREST (rebellion) NEAR BALI*; cunning mixture of anagram and non-anagram elements – my second last in | |
| 25 | Benefit of a face covering reported (5) |
| AVAIL – sounds like ‘a veil’ | |
| 26 | So rushed to acquire present by first of February (9) |
| THEREFORE – HERE (present) F (initial letter of February) in TORE (rushed) | |
| 27 | All night before event English greyhound regularly feeds (8) |
| EVERYONE – E (English) |
|
| 28 |
Different people turning to that woman and son (6)
|
| OTHERS – TO reversed HER S | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Mexican sauce one thrifty daughter secured in deal (5,5) |
| SALSA VERDE – SAVER (one thrifty) D (daughter) in SALE (deal) | |
| 2 | Right fashion to do away with top villain (5) |
| ROGUE – R |
|
| 3 | In general, minor route empty lately (7) |
| BROADLY – B ROAD L |
|
| 5 | Character boringly photographs sandwiches (5) |
| GYLPH – hidden; a GLYPH is a symbolic character | |
| 6 | Runner starts to extend strides and head east (7) |
| ESCAPEE – E |
|
| 7 | Showed dedication forgetting nothing that’s arranged (9) |
| INDICATED – DEDICATI |
|
| 8 | European wanting a new beginning (4) |
| GERM – GERM |
|
| 9 | Wonderful rising throw is hard to grasp (8) |
| BAFFLING – FAB reversed FLING | |
| 13 | Stand to cut salad plant showing no sign of bending? (10) |
| CREASELESS – EASEL in CRESS | |
| 15 | Reduction in size as gherkin gets pickled (9) |
| SHRINKAGE – AS GHERKIN* | |
| 17 | Boat bearing king’s flag (8) |
| STREAMER – R in STEAMER | |
| 19 | I would ultimately love partner in a perfect world (7) |
| IDEALLY – I’D |
|
| 20 | Man taking wine and bread from France (7) |
| VINCENT – VIN CENT | |
| 22 |
Giant bird wings in action (5)
|
| TITAN – TIT A |
|
| 23 | Poor man’s dismal in the end being replaced by Romeo (5) |
| BROKE – BLOKE (man) with the L ( |
|
| 24 | Select prime locations in Bearsden for facility (4) |
| EASE – I don’t get this besides the need to extract the E A S and E out of the word Bearsden. Explanations welcome | |
36 minutes for a mostly straightforward puzzle.
At 26dn we’re required to select the ‘prime locations in Bearsden’ i.e. letters, 2, 3, 5 and 7, with reference to prime numbers.
There’s a typo in GLYPH, u.
To my mind 12ac only works in the context of Cub Scouts (formerly known as Wolf Cubs) as they exist as packs whereas more senior scouts belong to troops. Others may disagree however, as discussed at some length in the comments posted re puzzle #29014 on 5th September last year.
DNF. Anyway, should have known it before but I’ve now hopefully learned that 1 is not a prime number and 2 is. A pity because BASE works for the def too.
Not too difficult otherwise though UNRESTRAINABLE took a bit of winkling out.
13:48. I remembered the “prime” device from previous puzzles, so no problem with that one. I liked TITAN and my LOI BROKE. Thanks U and setter.
In at last having been made to wait for 20 minutes for incorrect password. It wasn’t that at all: it was because I first used my email rather than user name, only then to find that user name wasn’t boltonwanderer. By then I was a spent force. 43 minutes with LOI BROKE, taking a long time on the Mexican sauce. COD to the short French backside. Quite tricky. Thank you U and setter.
47:14, with an age on UNRESTRAINABLE, where I had all the checkers and the last eight letters. Spent too long on looking for words starting with I.
Also went with BASE, since it fits the definition, and alternating letters seemed plausible enough.
I expect we’ll have fewer visitors today, from those who forget to save the URL. Site seems to be working well. Is it me or is the default font smaller on this new site?
The default font and size settings haven’t changed.
Something has changed – the text is finer and looks more broadly spaced.
I agree, it’s definitely smaller.
In that case try increasing Zoom in your browser. The settings throughout are still 12pt Merryweather.
Yeah, that works.
19:09
GERM took me quite a while, and I only parsed DERRINGER, SALSA V, & INDICATD post-submission. I liked the ‘prime’ clue, which I thought was new. The setter likes misleading verbs disguised as nouns: ferries, fences, sandwiches. U, that’s ESS and AY.
Chemo today so had to get up early, which may account for me being a bit slow with this.. got there though and some nice clues. Liked the prime numbers, which I have seen just once before, I think.
We should have the normal url back at some point today I think..
39 mins with hold-ups LEGIONARY, UNRESTRAINABLE and LOI, GERM. Never did parse EASE and didn’t get the “prime” bit but guessed. correctly.
Quite a lot to like and reasonably gentle for a Monday.
Thanks u and setter.
Just over half an hour. Funny how our brains work so differently – GERM was ulaca’s LOI, whereas it was my FOI!
– Didn’t fully parse AHEAD OF THE PACK as I failed to separate ‘a’ and ‘head’
– NHO DERRINGER but eventually got it from checkers and wordplay
– Didn’t bother parsing EVERYONE
Thanks ulaca and setter.
FOI Germ
LOI Derringer
COD Salsa verde
Base was my downfall, I knew it didn’t fit the prime hint but never went back to it. Took an age to see UNRESTRAINABLE even with ‘rainable’ from near Bali. Initially had toddy for VODKA. Liked DERRINGER when I finally remembered derrière. Misled again by theatre before seeing the light for SCRUBS. Got LEGIONARY from the wordplay but didn’t know the word. Also missed GERM.
Thanks U and setter.
WOE is me with a stupid SALSA VERDI! Not only have I made it recently but I parsed it all and still missed what my semi-autonomous fingers had done.
Otherwise 33m suggests a toughish Monday with LOIs STREAMER and GERM holding me up.
Disliked DERRINGER dredged from old James Bond novels.
Liked VODKA and much more. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
DNS clearly not caught up yet, could be a quiet day.
SALSA VERDI is what you serve with enchilaidas.
😊
It’s a Requiem with a Tango rhythm.
22:00 minutes bang on although a good chunk of that was on the DERRINGER (vaguely heard of but wanted this to end gun before STREAMER was entered) and STREAMER for which I have no real excuse for.
COD ESCAPEE
Thanks blogger and setter (and to the person who posted the link on Reddit)
8:52. No dramas today. I assumed Advanced Scout Leader must be some kind of official title somewhere in the scouting world but have not bothered to check.
So I was going to come in today and be clever, pointing out that the setter had missed out 2 as a prime number, but have shown myself up as a base and incompetent fool. Pity, because all the rest of this was completed in a reasonable 16.42, even though I didn’t know the Mexican sauce until I realised I actually did. It also helped not knowing the hierarchy of Scouts.
So frustrated to carelessly stumble into the “base” trap and miss “ease”. But it’s a neat device by the setter to use primes rather than odd numbers. Thanks for the blog.
14:58 but EASE from definition only. As a non-mathematician prime numbers don’t really feature much in my thought processes.
Hear Hear!
20:47
Another MER here for PACK, which surely refers to Wolf PACKs, and not to Scout troops. I thought of AHEAD OF THE REST and GAME well before thinking it must be PACK. After a steady start, suddenly switched into a higher gear which left just five to get after further thought – UNRESTRAINABLE, BROKE and CREASELESS, then ESSAY and SALSA VERDE in that order.
Thanks U and setter
28:48. Nice puzzle. I never parsed LEGIONARY. Thank you ulaca for explaining. Very neat.
I saw the prime trick for EASE but then had to figure out if 1 and 2 were primes. Now I know.
I was tricked twice by the same device – ferries and fences – until the PDMs. Well done setter
18,37 but with a carelessly unparsed SALSA AIDA. Drat! Thanks setter and U.
And a blank space, to boot?
No I was extrapolating. I had VERDI of course 🙂
EASE was my LOI it’s the prime numbers 2,3,5,7 in case noone noticed already
No time because I fell asleep in the middle!
I agree with our blogger that this was rather more testing than the average Monday fare. All done in 34 minutes, too many of which were spent on 8dn, my LOI. But an enjoyable exercise overall, with some clever clueing.
FOI – AGREEING
LOI – GERM
COD – DERRINGER
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
27.50.
Some very clever cluing here, with a lot of inventiveness. NEspecially liked GERM (left blank) and VINCENT ( also nearly fooled by that one). I had OF THE PACK for a long time before the first word hove into view, but SALSA VERDE helped with that one. Stuffed up 6d as I was looking for a different sort of runner (river). Great fun otherwise.
24 Down : EASE are the prime number positions of letters in Bearsden, namely 2,3,5, and 7.
A clue for the mathematicians among us.