Time taken: 11:36
I’m going to declare this one Tricky Thursday even though there are few completions at the time of writing. There’s some unusual phrases, not a lot of obvious definitions and only one or two places I saw that things could be biffed.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Manifest impatience that I bet wrongly on winner (5,2,3,3) |
| CHAMP AT THE BIT – anagram of THAT,I,BET after CHAMP (winner) | |
| 8 | Extensive note put in record (4) |
| LONG – N (note) inside LOG (record) | |
| 9 | A member of corps on dock finally dropped in the shade (10) |
| AQUAMARINE – A then MARINE (member of corps) after QUAY (dock) minus the last letter | |
| 10 | Came across entertaining American lounge singer (4,4) |
| MEAT LOAF – MET (came across), containing A (American), then LOAF (lounge). Clever surface. | |
| 11 | That woman, married, proved old-fashioned (6) |
| SHEWED – SHE (that woman), WED (married) | |
| 13 | Rewritten document is about politician with feeblest case (10) |
| PALIMPSEST – double container! IS surrounding MP (politician) all inside PALEST (feeblest) | |
| 16 | Leave to be sick, but not very (4) |
| OMIT – VOMIT (be sick) minus V (very). There were two vomits walking down the street. One started crying. The other asked if he was OK, and the first said “Sorry, I get emotional, I was brought up here”. | |
| 17 | This blocks sibilant in front of mouth? (4) |
| LISP – S (sibilant) inside LIP (front of mouth) | |
| 18 | Show of green largely amid crop (10) |
| RIVERDANCE – VERDANT (green) minus the last letter inside RICE (crop) | |
| 20 | Allot gold “star” (6) |
| METEOR – METE (allot), OR (gold). Did myself no favours by entering CAST,OR here originally | |
| 22 | Not so good to contribute to a little light teasing (8) |
| RAILLERY – ILLER (not so good) inside RAY (a little light) | |
| 24 | Return of service plus extra run covering great area (3,3,4) |
| FAR AND WIDE – RAF (service) reversed, then AND (plus), WIDE (extra run in cricket) | |
| 26 | Stick by hot tub (4) |
| BATH – BAT (stick) then H (hot) | |
| 27 | Donning hat, set out for Brief Encounter (3-5,5) |
| ONE NIGHT STAND – anagram of DONNING,HAT,SET | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Helpful craftsman, local, scratching head (11) |
| COOPERATIVE – COOPER (craftsman) then NATIVE (local) minus the first letter | |
| 2 | Dread carnage, on and off street (5) |
| ANGST – alternating letters in cArNaGe, then ST (street) | |
| 3 | Look with difficulty round a small publisher, in this? (9) |
| PEASOUPER – PEER (look with difficulty) surrounding A, S (small), OUP (Oxford University Press, publisher) | |
| 4 | More than one fine lady at first clothed in real delicacy (7) |
| TRUFFLE – two F’s (fine), and the first letter of Lady inside TRUE (real) | |
| 5 | Carries items on back of camel (5) |
| HUMPS – the only double definition in this crossword! | |
| 6 | City pub Charlie alone wrecked (9) |
| BARCELONA – BAR (pub), C (Charlie), and an anagram of ALONE | |
| 7 | One full of alcohol perhaps is expelled from Arab city (3) |
| TUN – remove IS from TUNIS (Arab city) | |
| 12 | Saver confused with deceit is gutted (11) |
| EVISCERATED – anagram of SAVER and DECEIT | |
| 14 | Naughty lad on cocaine initially had to swear (9) |
| IMPRECATE – IMP (naughty lad), RE (on), the first letter of Cocaine and ATE (had) | |
| 15 | Being late, celebrity cycling round has something to eat (9) |
| TARDINESS – STAR (celebrity) cycling surrounding DINES (has something to eat) | |
| 19 | Disappear, having run in for coat (7) |
| VARNISH – VANISH (disappear) containing R (run) | |
| 21 | Minute hands, in relation to face? (5) |
| RADII – cryptic definition, based on the minute hand of a clock being the radius of the face | |
| 23 | Scales not fully calibrated (5) |
| LIBRA – hidden inside caLIBRAted | |
| 25 | Answer the same as before? Bother! (3) |
| ADO – A (answer), DO (ditto, the same as before) | |
I found this straightforward, it went quite fast but I was also making soup so I don’t have a time. I was amused to see MEAT LOAF turning up in The Times. I derived IMPRECATE from wordplay. I knew the word but not really what it meant. It took me some time to see how RAILLERY, my LOI, worked. I assumed ILL was “not so good” which left the confusing RAERY to account for. Eventually the penny dropped and I realized it was ILLER and everything fell into place. 36 mins including making the soup, probably 20-25 mins of actual solving.
I did find this tricky at first, but towards the end I sped up considerably. I never parsed Riverdance, so thanks for that. My chief problem was taking so long to see the should-have-been-obvious champ at the bit. Once I had that, Barcelona and humps were obvious, and I eventually got cooperative as well. Radii was my LOI, a mysterious clue that suddenly became clear.
Time: 48:11
32:59
I spent far too much time following wrong hunches: that ‘front of mouth’ was M, that ‘deceit is gutted=DT, that ‘rewritten document’=(document)*. I also biffed BADINAGE at 22ac and CHAFE AT THE BIT, wasting more time before correcting them.
I hit a wall about half way through and should have put the puzzle aside for completion later, however I soldiered on and eventually completed all but one word. The missing answer was PALIMPSEST which I vaguely remember coming up before but I would never have constructed it from the wordplay on offer despite getting as far as ?A?IMPSEST.
I enjoyed the solve when I wasn’t completely stuck and took some satisfaction from the tricky clues I did manage to unravel.
If this doesn’t have a SNITCH over 100, I’m quitting forever.
Super puzzle. I was fortunate to have the required GK, which helped with the last two, PALIMPSEST and PEASOUPER.
20:59