Solving time: 42 minutes
An enjoyable solve.
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | One telling stance about current balance (12) |
| COUNTERPOISE | |
| COUNTER (one telling), PO~SE (stance) containing [about] I (current). A teller may count out money in a bank, for example. | |
| 9 | Criminals backing plan involving a little force (5) |
| MAFIA | |
| AI~M (plan) reversed [backing] containing [involving] A + F (little force – i.e. an abbreviation) | |
| 10 | Area covered by scariest running and climbing route (9) |
| STAIRCASE | |
| A (area) contained [covered] by anagram [running] of SCARIEST | |
| 11 | Remains of animals dead inside tree in stream (8) |
| ROADKILL | |
| D (dead) contained by [inside] OA~K (tree), all contained by [in] R~ILL (stream) | |
| 12 | Reverse, still limiting velocity (6) |
| INVERT | |
| IN~ERT (still) containing [limiting] V (velocity) | |
| 13 | Greed for money I had to follow up in financial centre (8) |
| CUPIDITY | |
| UP + I’D (I had) contained by [in] C~ITY (financial centre). I didn’t know this meaning although I now find it has appeared a few times over the years, including a puzzle I blogged in 2012 where it was defined as ‘avarice’. I wondered what it had to do with the god Cupid and found in addition to his erotic duties he is the god of desire more generally, and his name derives from the Latin cupidus meaning ‘eagerly desirous’. | |
| 15 | Raised edge of tart gets half broken off (6) |
| FLANGE | |
| FLAN (tart), GE{ts} [half broken off]. I never knew exactly what this is, but ODE has: a projecting flat rim, collar, or rib on an object. | |
| 17 | Tough having part of transport network in decay (6) |
| ROBUST | |
| BUS (part of transport network) contained by [in] RO~T (decay) | |
| 18 | Pneumatic weaving machine, reportedly a family treasure (8) |
| HEIRLOOM | |
| Aural wordplay [reportedly]: HEIR LOOM / “air” loom (pneumatic weaving machine) | |
| 20 | Everything eaten by ruminant is green (6) |
| CALLOW | |
| ALL (everything) contained [eaten] by C~OW (ruminant) | |
| 21 | My kind (8) |
| GRACIOUS | |
| Two meanings – the first an exclamation | |
| 24 | Medley I purport to play, containing little old (9) |
| POTPOURRI | |
| Anagram [to play] of I PURPORT containing O (little old i.e. an abbreviation). Definition and answer both mean a mixture of various things. | |
| 25 | Do volunteer work in east (5) |
| OPINE | |
| OP (work), IN, E (east) | |
| 26 | Ancient relative emoting about boring member of religious community (12) |
| PRIMOGENITOR | |
| Anagram [about] of EMOTING contained by [boring] PRI~OR (member of religious community). | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Fine fabric mostly appeared reddish-brown but with no finish (7) |
| CAMBRIC | |
| CAM{e} (appeared) [mostly], BRIC{k} (reddish-brown) [but with no finish]. The material is mentioned in the lyric of the traditional ballad Scarborough Fair – ‘Tell her to make me a cambric shirt…’ | |
| 2 | Palpably unfit, I worked out in calmness (14) |
| UNFLAPPABILITY | |
| Anagram [worked out] of PALPABLY UNFIT I | |
| 3 | Line of song (5) |
| TRACK | |
| Two meanings – railways and recordings | |
| 4 | Firm concerned with a feature of liquidation? (8) |
| RESOLUTE | |
| RE (concerned with), SOLUTE (a feature of liquidation). I didn’t know ‘solute’, which ODE defines as the minor component in a solution, dissolved in the liquid solvent. | |
| 5 | Not bothering with being right or wrong, am missing exam (4) |
| ORAL | |
| {am}ORAL (not bothering with being right or wrong) [‘am’ missing] | |
| 6 | Weird Romeo outside Lima is a potential killer (9) |
| STRANGLER | |
| STRANG~E (weird) + R (Romeo – phonetic alphabet) containing [outside] L (Lima – phonetic alphabet again] | |
| 7 | US expert in what’s excavated and moved to glean topsoil (14) |
| PALEONTOLOGIST | |
| Anagram [moved] of TO GLEAN TOPSOIL. ‘US’ indicates the American spelling of ‘palaeontologist’. | |
| 8 | Police force report does not include American character (6) |
| METTLE | |
| MET (Metropolitan police force), T{a}LE (report) [does not include American]. ‘Met’ refers specifically to London police where the title was changed from ‘force’ to ‘service’ over a period that began maybe 25-30 years ago. | |
| 14 | Is ace, say, following diamonds? Shame (9) |
| DISHONOUR | |
| D (diamonds – cards), IS, HONOUR (ace, say). In bridge, honour cards are ace, king, queen, jack and ten. | |
| 16 | Wanting most of income after end of May (8) |
| YEARNING | |
| {Ma}Y [end of…], EARNING{s} (income) [most of…] | |
| 17 | Something cooked and ready to eat around the city (6) |
| RECIPE | |
| R~IPE (ready to eat) containing [around] EC (the city area of London) | |
| 19 | Mob with European manipulator (7) |
| MASSEUR | |
| MASS (mob), EUR (European) | |
| 22 | Clever lads initially have comic (5) |
| CLOWN | |
| C{lever} + L{ads} [initially], OWN (have) | |
| 23 | I’m attached to outside of bowler? (4) |
| BRIM | |
| B{owler}R [outside of…], I’M. I might risk praising this as a rather fine &lit (but as always, subject to the approval of the &lit police!) | |
I’m in from the QC world, having resolved to attempt the Big One most days starting this week. Auspiciously, my time on this one, 33:12, was way better than my average so far, about 50 minutes. And that’s just on the sub-90 Snitch ones.
Enjoyable puzzle, with GRACIOUS and BRIM special favorites. Somehow I was dimly aware of the bridge meaning of HONOUR, fortunately.
Thanks setter and jackkt.
Well done! Beat me all ends up – 41 WOE (precious for gracious).
All OK but a bit delayed by the larger than usual number of somewhat rare words, like CUPIDITY, CAMBRIC and PRIMOGENITOR. 37 minutes.
37:48. Felt like it all went in fairly smoothly – nothing really holding me up other than my own slowness. I didn’t think of Scarborough Fair for CAMBRIC, but another song – Come And Buy My Toys by a very young David Bowie (who pronounces it cambrake iirc). Perhaps a little more niche …
lovely puzzle.
I found this comparatively easy compared to some, finishing in a tidy 26.10. The bottom half was finished quite rapidly first, but I had to work a bit harder on the top. I dredged up CAMBRIC from the back of my mind which kicked off the nw corner, although I struggled to complete with my LOI being COUNTERPOISE which cost me the best part of two minutes. I give myself a pat on the back for sorting out the American spelling of PALEONTOLOGIST which looked so wrong when writing it in. It seems quite a few others thought so too!
I stared at this for a while and found only a couple of answers on the first pass. Then I got into the groove and thought I would kill it off fairly quickly. But the fog descended again in the NE corner, and it all took 43 minutes, with 8dn and 12ac for some reason being particularly obstinate. A pleasant puzzle nonetheless.
FOI – UNFLAPPABILITY
LOI – INVERT
COD – STAIRCASE
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
Enjoyed this one a lot – tricky, clever, and doable within my 30 min limit. DNK CUPIDITY, but it had to be, and the rest fell into place over time.
Thanks setter and Jack
19.57
Had COUNTERPOINT but the N for the killer didn’t look right. And despite counting the letters in the grist I still almost managed to get PALEONTOLOGIST wrong. But got there.
Liked DISHONOUR.
Thanks Jackkt and setter
33:55, I thought I had done OK but looking at other people’s times, apparently not.
I was held up especially by CAMBRIC and COUNTERPOISE, neither of which were words I knew so I had to build them from the clues, and also by being convinced that the ancestor was something to do with CROMAGNON… till finally getting PROGENITOR.
I thought that was a good puzzle despite my slow time, and I do appreciate it when words I don’t know are clued in a way that I can still get them!
Thanks setter and blogger
Done late last night, but worth mentioning that it was a pleasant and regular solve, with a couple of holdups over METTLE and DISHONOUR, the latter because I didn’t know, or had forgotten, about honour cards. Liked ROADKILL and COUNTERPOISE, though needed most of the crossers, and carefully checked the vowels of 7d on writing in!