Time taken: 12:14.
I struggled a bit with this one – not a lot of the answers came immediately to me, but I think if you are familiar with the town, the insect and the word for slender that I had to piece together from the cryptic, then you could put in a very fast time. I notice that with the early solvers there is a mixed bag of times, at the time I am writing this, I am third, but there is a big gap to the rest of the field.
The setter is fond of a rather nice surface enhancement – it is kosher to capitalize a word in a clue that does not really need capitalization in the sense it is being used (see Rod in 10 across, Carol in 12 across and Penny in 21 across). It is not OK to go the other way and take a word that needs capitalization in the sense it is being used and make it lower case.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Make sure gullible person’s collecting right fabric (10) |
| SEERSUCKER – SEE (make sure) and SUCKER (gullible person) containing R (right) | |
| 6 | Macho gear periodically sent west for commander (4) |
| AGHA – alternating letters in mAcHo GeAr all reversed | |
| 9 | American coin is fluid capital (7) |
| NICOSIA – anagram of A (American) COIN, IS | |
| 10 | Perform again on time after Rod returned (2-5) |
| RE ENACT – RE (on), then T (time) after CANE (Rod) reversed. | |
| 12 | Scary Carol circling Charlie on long slope (5-8) |
| SPINE CHILLING – SING (carol) containing C (Charlie) after PINE (long) before HILL (slope) | |
| 14 | Wind last of Omega watches at the bazaar in city (8) |
| EASTERLY – the last letters of omegA, watcheS, aT, thE bazaaR all inside ELY (city) | |
| 15 | Mounting agreement by the sound of it (6) |
| ASCENT – homophone of ASSENT (agreement) | |
| 17 | Manage spinning empty half-truths for ages (6) |
| EPOCHS – COPE (manage) reversed, then the external letters of Half-truthS | |
| 19 | Tie small hearts to nameless Xmas card (8) |
| SHOELACE – S (small), H (hearts) then remove N (name) from NOEL (Xmas), ACE (card). This is a fun clue! | |
| 21 | Fault occupant entertaining Penny in deputy’s office (4,9) |
| VICE PRESIDENT – VICE (fault) and RESIDENT (occupant) containing P (Penny) | |
| 24 | Some expel liar bleating about dots on pages (7) |
| BRAILLE – hidden reversed in expEL LIAR Bleating | |
| 25 | Long-suffering saint painting around edges of cupola (7) |
| STOICAL -ST (saint) and an OIL painting surrounding the external letters of CupolA | |
| 26 | Twisted reptile losing tail in mythic poems (4) |
| EDDA – reversal of ADDER (reptile) minus the last letter | |
| 27 | Who’s first seen yeti moving close to tents? (10) |
| EYEWITNESS – had to write all the bits out of this to see it – it’s an anagram of the first letter of Who, SEEN, YETI and the last letter of tentS | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Reasonable except when noun plays part of verb (4) |
| SANE – SAVE (except) with N (noun) instead of V (verb) | |
| 2 | Retired engineers excluded from training duties (7) |
| EXCISES – remove the reversal of RE (engineers) from EXERCISES (training) | |
| 3 | Short nurse taking home English man left in holy place (7,6) |
| SISTINE CHAPEL – SISTER (nurse) minus the last letter containing IN (home), E (English) and CHAP (man), then L (left) | |
| 4 | Cold fish crossing large marsh recalled leggy six-footer (5,3) |
| CRANE FLY – C (cold) then RAY (fish) surrounding L (large) and FEN (marsh) all reversed | |
| 5 | Cycling centre generates electrical connection (5) |
| EARTH – cycling of HEART (centre) | |
| 7 | Slender holy object inscribed with C and E (7) |
| GRACILE – GRAIL (holy object) containing C, then E at the end. Had to get this from wordplay | |
| 8 | Quite good anaesthetic agent bolstering singer (10) |
| ALTOGETHER – G (good) and ETHER (anaesthetic) underneath ALTO (singer) | |
| 11 | Northern town magazine’s covering of macabre shop (9,4) |
| ELLESMERE PORT – ELLE’S (magazine’s), the external letters of MacabrE, then REPORT (shop, rat out) | |
| 13 | Advice Bishop Lee put out is taken in easily? (10) |
| DECEIVABLE – anagram of ADVICE, B (Bishop), LEE | |
| 16 | First son observed husband’s drilling power tool (8) |
| CHAINSAW – CAIN (first son), SAW (observed) containing H (husband) | |
| 18 | Where you may get crabs and more shelled fish on delta (7) |
| ORCHARD – the internal letters of MORE, then CHAR (fish) on top of D (delta). The crabs are crab-apples | |
| 20 | Presenter’s prompt US vehicle at head of line reported (7) |
| AUTOCUE – AUTO (US vehicle) on top of a homophone of QUEUE (line) | |
| 22 | Blues guys alternately backing key song in service? (5) |
| ELEGY – alternating letters in bLuEs GuYs after the key of E | |
| 23 | Replacement handle missing essential part, unfortunately (4) |
| ALAS – ALIAS (replacement handle) minus the middle letter | |
I got in trouble because I biffed spine tingling and never bothered to parse it. Since spine fits the crossers, it must be right – right? Wrong. After twenty minutes of frustration, I finally reconsidered, erased it, and used the cryptic to get the correct answer. Then Ellesmere Port and earth became possible, and I was left with shoelace. I had already considered that you might have to take the N out of Noel, so it was not long before I triumphantly entered my LOI – but a long time I began the puzzle!
Time: 76:54
65 minutes, but I note I’m slightly ahead of the only other commenter to date and I don’t feel so bad about my time now. I enjoyed the challenge.
NHO GRACILE making its first appearance here today, nor AGHA with that spelling.
A 45 minute DNF with a silly typo at the SISTINE CHAPEL. A pity as I really enjoyed the challenge, particularly the SHOELACE clue. NHO ELLESMERE PORT and GRACILE for ‘slender’ also new.