Solving time: 17 minutes
This must be a personal best, or would be very close to it if only I knew what it was! Most answers were written in after a single reading of the clue, with only one (at 26ac) giving me cause for doubt until the checkers confirmed what it had to be.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Spicy sauce in vessel at university (7) |
| KETCHUP | |
| KETCH (sailing vessel), UP (at university) | |
| 5 | Trendy youngsters torn apart by start of unnerving nightmare (7) |
| INCUBUS | |
| IN (trendy), CUBS (youngsters) containing [torn apart by] U{nnerving} [start]. Remembered from many a previous puzzle. | |
| 9 | Stop luxury car hemming in a road-mending vehicle (11) |
| STEAMROLLER | |
| STEM (stop) + ROLLER (luxury car – Rolls Royce) containing [hemming in] A | |
| 10 | Teacher, possibly, avoiding time in jail (3) |
| SIR | |
| S{t}IR (time in jail) [avoiding time] | |
| 11 | Insect heading off close to rug (6) |
| EARWIG | |
| {n}EAR (close) [heading off], WIG (rug – slang for a hairpiece) | |
| 12 | Supporter male chancellor ultimately required during a depression (8) |
| ADHERENT | |
| HE (male) + {chancello}R [ultimately] contained by [during) A + DENT (depression) | |
| 14 | Alluring old PM, the centre of attraction (8,5) |
| MAGNETIC NORTH | |
| MAGNETIC (alluring), NORTH (old PM). Lord North was Prime Minister 1770-1782 at the time of the American war of independence. I lost a moment or two here wondering if we’d had a PM called Field. | |
| 17 | Eccentric newlywed glum about key varsity sportsman (9,4) |
| CAMBRIDGE BLUE | |
| CAM (eccentric), then BRIDE (newlywed) + BLUE (glum) containing [about] G (key). This was almost biffable with assistance from enumeration but having been beaten on my last blogging day by ‘eccentric / CAM’ I was onto the wordplay immediately. | |
| 21 | Attorney framing European legislation concerning US state (8) |
| DELAWARE | |
| DA (District Attorney) containing [framing] E (European) + LAW (legislation), then RE (concerning) | |
| 23 | Continental resort in island by border (6) |
| RIMINI | |
| RIM (border), IN, I (island) | |
| 25 | Low state of mind daughter’s thrown off (3) |
| MOO | |
| MOO{d} (state of mind) [daughter’s thrown off] | |
| 26 | Predatory reptile in cold air swimming without company (11) |
| CROCODILIAN | |
| Anagram [swimming] of IN COLD AIR, containing [without] CO (company). I didn’t know this as a noun but I suppose it works as a class of creature in the same way as ‘amphibian ‘ does. I note that it also includes alligators. |
|
| 27 | Researcher originally assisting lab in some way (7) |
| ANALYST | |
| A{ssisting} + L{a b} [originally] contained by [in] ANY (some) + ST (way – street) | |
| 28 | Angry about name attached to a religious painting (7) |
| MADONNA | |
| MAD (angry), ON (about), N (name), A | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Fate one’s suffered supporting king (6) |
| KISMET | |
| K (King), I’S (one’s), MET (suffered). I was a bit dubious about ‘suffered / MET’ but SOED has meet – encounter, experience, suffer (one’s death, a certain fate or treatment, etc). There is a musical called Kismet based on music by Borodin. | |
| 2 | Formula in geometry maybe or English grasped by other people (7) |
| THEOREM | |
| OR + E (English) contained [grasped] by THEM (other people) | |
| 3 | Married woman beset by need for food, an excellent person (9) |
| HUMDINGER | |
| M (married) + DI (woman) contained [beset] by HUNGER (need for food) | |
| 4 | Share game on table (4) |
| POOL | |
| Two meanings | |
| 5 | Youth taken in by devil is terribly misguided (3-7) |
| ILL-ADVISED | |
| LAD (youth) contained [taken in] by anagram [terribly] of DEVIL IS | |
| 6 | Cut up roast, initially restricted by word of warning (5) |
| CARVE | |
| R{oast} [initially] contained [restricted] by CAVE (word of warning). ‘Cave’ is from the Latin ‘cavere’ meaning ‘beware’, and ‘keep cave’ was very much part of schoolboy slang at one time meaning to look out for approaching masters. | |
| 7 | Blacken name of woman in pub (7) |
| BESMEAR | |
| ESME (woman) contained by [in] BAR (pub). Has anyone been named Esme in the past 50 years, I wonder? | |
| 8 | Sentence on introduction of yellow elastic (8) |
| STRETCHY | |
| STRETCH (prison sentence), Y{ellow} [introduction] | |
| 13 | Offer pay for US novice (10) |
| TENDERFOOT | |
| TENDER (offer), FOOT (pay a bill). I knew this word from an early age as there was an American TV Western series called Sugarfoot which for some reason was renamed Tenderfoot when it came to the BBC. I never found out why, but it was pointless as the show had a catchy title song that mentioned ‘Sugarfoot’ repeatedly throughout its lyric. | |
| 15 | Cancelled in full, sadly, by current newspaper boss (9) |
| NULLIFIED | |
| Anagram [sadly] of IN FULL, then I (current), ED (newspaper boss) | |
| 16 | A rebel with intent, rising in scholarly circles (8) |
| ACADEMIA | |
| A, CADE (rebel), then AIM (intent) reversed [rising]. Jack Cade (1420–1450), leader of the Kent Rebellion. | |
| 18 | State of gang girl cut down at Kent port, do we hear? (7) |
| MOLDOVA | |
| MOL{l} (gangster’s girl) [cut down], then DOVA sounds like [do we hear?] “Dover” (Kent port) | |
| 19 | Linguistic device sound on reflection: large one included (7) |
| ELISION | |
| L (large) + I (one) contained by [included] NOISE (sound) all reversed [on reflection] | |
| 20 | After struggle, a stricken man finally raised capital (6) |
| VIENNA | |
| VIE (struggle), then A + {stricke}N + {ma}N [finally] reversed [raised] | |
| 22 | Crazy procedure to seal ends of cask (5) |
| WACKY | |
| WAY (procedure) contains [to seal} C{as}K [ends] | |
| 24 | Voice disapproval of Mike’s resonant delivery? (4) |
| BOOM | |
| BOO (voice disapproval), M (Mike – NATO alphabet) | |
27 1/2 minutes, one typo caught in time, very easy, not much else to say. Theorems have to have proofs or they are just conjectures. Formulas could be wrong. So they are definitely not the same. But of course some theorems can be expressed by means of a (correct) formula.
Last one in was 24d, BOOM, while listening to Boom Radio. Ask Alexa …
12.19. Probably a P.B. Last one in ‘crocodilian’.
Ye Gods. Not only finished (rare) but finished in 13:08, which is just ridiculous. I might retire now, because I’ll never do it again!
Thanks all
Templar
Don’t do that!
Same Snitch as yesterday but it took me five minutes longer. Bottom right slowed me down. 13’47”
Glad (nearly) all of you found it so easy. I gave up on VIENNA; just couldn’t see it; and after I’d guessed where to put the L in NHO ELISION too.
No problems here except I had to resort to actually reading the news for the rest of the morning’s commute. Thanks for the blog.
12.16
Certainly one of my top ten times
Liked BESMEAR
Thanks Jackkt and Setter
08:42. A belated solve waiting for a train last night. Nice to see CAMBRIDGE BLUE after the clean sweep of the boat races on Sunday. Walking a stretch of the Thames path on Monday which included all of the boat race course (except in the wrong direction) we came across banners annotated with GDBO and GDST, which were a mystery to me until I read this, although “shoe the tabs” remains unexplained – yes canTABrigians, but “shoe”? Thanks Jackkt and setter.
All said: no dramas, except getting CURSE in place of CARVE ( doing what Pootle did).
Another confidence-booster.