Time taken: 14:11
Phew this was a tough one! I had to rely on a lot of wordplay and I was waiting for the pink squares when I hit submit, but fortunately it was all correct. Now to unravel the few I biffed, and sort out a few definitions.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | English teaching fundamentals old dons bungle (5) |
| ERROR – E (English) and the three R’s (teaching fundamentals) surrounding O (old) | |
| 4 | Hare found at sea is unprecedented (7-2) |
| UNHEARD-OF – anagram of HARE,FOUND | |
| 9 | Lady Georgia everyone recalled eating cheese (9) |
| GABRIELLA – GA (Georgia) and ALL (everyone) reversed, containing BRIE (cheese) | |
| 10 | Vigilant group from regiment relaxed having retreated (5) |
| ALERT – hidden reversed in regimenT RELAxed | |
| 11 | Drip of fluid going over plant (6) |
| SALVIA – SAL (salt that could be in an IV drip), then VIA (going over). Thanks to many commenters – I struggled to come up with a good parsing, but it does seem the setter’s intention was IV (drip) inside SALIVA (fluid) being reversed. I apologise for strife and gnashing of teeth due to my oversight. | |
| 12 | Great volumes of letters backing Albert Camus, a French author (8) |
| TSUNAMIS – the last letters of AlberT CamuS, then UN (a in French) and the author Kingsley (or Martin) AMIS | |
| 14 | Obstinate duo — nurses, they regularly skipped nursing classes (12) |
| UNREGENERATE – alternating letters in dUo NuRsEs ThEy containing GENERA (classses) | |
| 17 | Ink they ordered with price moving excessively (12) |
| HYPERKINETIC – anagram of INK,THEY and PRICE | |
| 20 | Last of public spirit drained and crushed (8) |
| CRUMBLED – last letter of publiC, then RUM (spirit), BLED (drained) | |
| 21 | Set cycling is safely turning around corners (6) |
| ASSIGN – hidden reversed in cycliNG IS SAfely | |
| 23 | Slowly left ship (5) |
| LARGO – L (left), ARGO (ship) | |
| 24 | Laziness of Conservative penning papers in bed (9) |
| TORPIDITY – a double container! TORY (Conservative) containing ID (papers) inside PIT (bed) | |
| 25 | Blue team’s flaws (9) |
| DOWNSIDES – DOWN (blue) SIDE’S (team’s) | |
| 26 | Flexible movement of snake sloughing skin (5) |
| LITHE – SLITHER (movement of snake) minus the external letters | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Just beats bridge player lacking hearts with superior advantage (5,3) |
| EDGES OUT – SOUTH (bridge player) minus H (hearts) under EDGE (advantage) | |
| 2 | Coarse humour of novel library finally banned (8) |
| RIBALDRY – anagram of LIBRARY and the last letter of banneD | |
| 3 | Fruit I declared second rate covered in mushrooms, causing surprise (7,8) |
| RAISING EYEBROWS – RAISIN (fruit), then EYE (homophone of I) and B (second rate) inside GROWS (mushrooms) | |
| 4 | Unpleasant using lavatory on vacation (4) |
| UGLY – external letters of UsinG and LavatorY | |
| 5 | Illness others take casually (10) |
| HEATSTROKE – anagram of OTHERS TAKE | |
| 6 | American to pile on the pounds and guzzle involuntarily (7,4,4) |
| AGAINST ONES WILL – A (American) then GAIN STONE (pile on the pounds) and SWILL (guzzle) | |
| 7 | Abstracted nest boxes before noon (6) |
| DREAMY – DREY (a squirrel’s nest) containing AM (before noon) | |
| 8 | Thing from buffet is horrendous (6) |
| FETISH – hidden inside bufFET IS Horrendous | |
| 13 | Curious wearing on parts proven reliable (10) |
| INTERESTED – IN (wearing), then RE (on) inside TESTED (proven reliable) | |
| 15 | Atheistic rogue ignoring lead authority in moral standards (8) |
| ETHICIST – anagram of ATHEISTIC minus the first letter | |
| 16 | Lebanon-based compere is comedian (8) |
| MCINTYRE – a Lebanon-based compere could be a MC IN TYRE. I guess this is referring to Michael McIntyre, who I have never heard of. | |
| 18 | Peak in Snowdonia cold Welshman climbed (6) |
| SCALED – first letter of Snowdonia, then C (cold) and ALED (Welshman) | |
| 19 | Earth ridge shelters ancient city (6) |
| BURROW – BROW (ridge) containing UR (ancient city) | |
| 22 | Olympian challenges eliminating beginner (4) |
| ARES – DARES (challenges) minus the first letter | |
43:56, but technically a DNF as I relied on Google maps to get TYRE as a place in Lebanon, having failed to think beyond Beirut.
SALVIA was biffed, as familiar with the plants, but needed the discussion here to make sense of it.
LOI was ASSIGN. I spent so much time trying to “cycle” SET that I failed to see the reverse hidden.
Thanks glh and setter
Never heard of the comedian Downunder, so guessed. Later looked up Wikipedia; first thought was they’d mistakenly put in a picture of Ronnie Corbett. NHO drey so dreamy was a(n obvious) guess, salvia vaguely remembered but nowhere near parsing so another guess. DNF on assign – we’d already had a forward hidden and a reversed hidden, there was no chance of a third so I was trying to make wordplay happen.
Did enjoy the crossword, COD to the NHO comedian.
Ok, boys! Let’s let up a little on poor little MCINTYRE! He puts a lot of effort into an average performance, but, ….
Thought myself clever having got my first in UNHEARD OF, but couldn’t see the first half of GABRIELLA – who is she! Also missed out on TSUNAMIS ( as a synonym for great volumes), but liked the raised eyebrows at 3d, despite not seeing the ‘grows’ part. NHO UNREGENERATE, and neither had my on-line dictionary, nor ALED as a Welsh name. But that’s partly what I’m here for: to learn while I’m having fun. Enjoyed the ride.