This was off the scale for me (95 minutes if you really want to know). There was a lot of very fine misdirection e.g. ‘around’ in 10ac which could have signalled anagram, containment or reversal but in fact was part of the anagrist, and I fell for most of it. Having slogged through the puzzle and prepared the bones of my blog externally, I pasted it into LJ in order to flesh it out, but then, after I had added many erudite and witty comments for your delectation, Chrome froze on me, then errored and closed so that I lost all but the basic blog as originally saved. I thought LJ automatically saved every few minutes but apparently not, at least not in its current version. I’m now too weary to attempt to recreate my masterpiece, so it’s back to basics, I’m afraid.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Deprived female passing hat round (6) |
| BEREFT – BERET (hat) contains [passing…round] F (female) | |
| 4 | Millions involved in dishonourable fraud (8) |
| SHAMMING – M (millions) contained by [involved in] SHAMING (dishonourable) | |
| 10 | Dash around, etc, to put basic cover on (9) |
| UNDERCOAT – Anagram [dash] of AROUND ETC | |
| 11 | Grand people’s starter for meal? (5) |
| GRACE – G (grand), RACE (people) | |
| 12 | They manipulate figures fed to gamblers (11) |
| BONESETTERS – ONES (figures) cointained by [fed to] BETTERS (gamblers) | |
| 14 | Particular type of clue died out (3) |
| OWN – {d}OWN (type of clue) [died out] | |
| 15 | Master’s turnover only one way to serve mince (7) |
| RISSOLE – SIR (master) reversed [turnover}, SOLE (only one) | |
| 17 | Ancient Greek sailor turning in after that (6) |
| THEBAN – AB (sailor) reversed [turning] contained by [in] THEN (after that) | |
| 19 | What Jack and Jill took up‘s come down heavily (6) |
| BUCKET – Two meanings with reference to the nursery rhyme (where it’s actually called a pail) and to heavy rain which may be said to be ‘bucketing’ or ‘coming down in buckets’ | |
| 21 | Spell ‘adipose’ incorrectly without a second vowel (7) |
| EPISODE – Anagram [incorrectly] of {a}DIPOSE [without A], E (second vowel – a E i o u) | |
| 23 | Old partners are obliged to (3) |
| OWE – O (old), W E (partners – bridge) | |
| 24 | Tip uttered in unstable canoe? (11) |
| OVERBALANCE – VERBAL (uttered) in anagram [unstable] of CANOE | |
| 26 | Quoted saw quoted (5) |
| CITED – Sounds like [quoted] “sighted” (saw) | |
| 27 | Everyone needs love — message that can be given out (9) |
| ALLOCABLE – ALL (everyone), 0 (love), CABLE (message). I thought the word was “allocatable” but that word’s appearance in only some dictioinary suggests it’s an alternative that’s less in favour. | |
| 29 | Paints beams on the left (8) |
| PORTRAYS – PORT (left), RAYS (beams) | |
| 30 | Cheap brace was effective (3-3) |
| TWO-BIT – TWO (brace), BIT (was effective) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Winger‘s down time (8) |
| BLUEBIRD – BLUE (down), BIRD (time – slang for time in prison). A type of American thrush. | |
| 2 | Stonecutter‘s staff here (5) |
| RODIN – ROD (staff), IN (here) | |
| 3 | Backing cardinal’s declaration (3) |
| FOR – Sounds like [declaration] “four” (cardinal – number) | |
| 5 | Favourite target for those standing? Hardly (3,4) |
| HOT SEAT – Cryptic. Something that’s ‘hot’ may be ‘favourite’ and a seat may be required by those standing, but a HOT SEAT is the electric chair in US slang or just an unenviable posiiton of difficult responsibilty. | |
| 6 | Commanding troops given relevant housing (11) |
| MAGISTERIAL – GIS (troops) contained [given… housing] by MATERIAL (relevant), | |
| 7 | Beloved patriot, a Romanian, taking part in revolution (9) |
| INAMORATO – Hidden and reversed [taking part in revolution] inside {patri}OT A ROMANI{an} | |
| 8 | Party supplying one of your five-a-day? (6) |
| GREENS – Cryptic or a straight definition (party) with a cryptic hint referring to dietary recommendations that change from time to time | |
| 9 | Dish containing dry leftover from pipe (6) |
| DOTTLE – DOLE (dish – as in ‘dish out’) containing TT (dry) | |
| 13 | Last of capital withdrawn by the German capitalist (11) |
| STOCKHOLDER – STOCKHOL{m} (capital) [last…withdrawn], DER (the, German) | |
| 16 | Sweet and sour concoction that could go to your head? (9) |
| SOUWESTER – Anagram [concoction] of SWEET SOUR | |
| 18 | Even the tail-end of storm at sea’s intense (8) |
| VEHEMENT – Anagram[at sea] of EVEN THE + {stor}M [tail-end] | |
| 20 | Strike stopping other people’s treatment (7) |
| THERAPY – RAP (strike) contained by [stopping] THEY (other people) | |
| 21 | Preserve sweet air after the speaker rises (6) |
| EMBALM – ME (speaker) reversed [rises], BALM (sweet air) | |
| 22 | Retiring drug expert swallowed one to provide kicks, perhaps (6) |
| TOECAP – POT (drug) contains [swallowed] ACE (expert) all reversed [retiring] | |
| 25 | Bigwig‘s arrest reflected personal problem (5) |
| NABOB – NAB (arrest), BO (personal problem – Body Odour) reversed [reflected]. TH emanufacturers of Lifebouy Toilet Soap used the term BO very widely in their advertising. I don’t know if the expression existed before that. | |
| 28 | Subdue / Ayrshire, possibly (3) |
| COW – Two definitions, the second by example, hence ‘perhaps’ | |
104m 43s so a very long slog.
Edited at 2017-11-14 11:14 pm (UTC)