Time: 36.52
I suspect that I will be below par for this puzzle, where there were plenty of gentle clues, but I got frustratingly stuck on a few at the end where I had plenty of checkers but just couldn’t bring the relevant word I was looking for to mind, nor nail the wordplay. Elsewhere, there were a few clues where the setter used what looked like w/p as part of the definition, which made them a bit tricksy. If you could quickly spot the definition and bring the relevant synonym to mind you probably did pretty well.
Overall, I liked it (all the more when writing up the blog), notwithstanding my travails. Some smooth surfaces and clever definitions, not least the three clues with musical references.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Brief press about fool blocking state (7) |
| IMPASSE – This is IMPEL without the last letter, surrounding ASS. I was certainly duped into thinking “blocking” was a containment indicator, so well played setter. | |
| 5 | Police almost get man behind bars (7) |
| COPLAND – “Almost” relates to shortening COPS, and then GET is LAND. More tricksy (but entirely fair) w/p; and another clever definition. Setter 2:0 Dvynys. | |
| 9 | Group ready to establish firm (3) |
| SET – Quadruple definition. | |
| 10 | Time Out to better The Face? (6,5) |
| BEAUTY SLEEP – Cryptic.
I didn’t know The Face was a magazine, which on reflection is pretty obvious. A very nice cryptic, I would say. Published from 1980 to 2004, The Face was relaunched in 2019. |
|
| 11 | Feeble quote about pursuing course of action (8) |
| PATHETIC – Reversal of CITE behind [pursuing] PATH. | |
| 12 | Child visiting area in work to play (6) |
| SONATA – SON + AT + A.
A gentle one, but another where I was wanting work to be OP and “play” to be an anagram indicator. |
|
| 15 | Manage to avoid ignominious score in test? (4) |
| DUCK – Double definition.
Again, this should have been easier than it was, but I was wanting something cleverer along the lines of a three letter word for “avoid” followed by a D or E. The lower case TEST put me off, but it doesn’t need to be capitalised. |
|
| 16 | Make money from openings provided by India’s small enterprises (10) |
| CAPITALISE – The idea here is that you look at the last three words of the clue and notice that one is capitalised and the second and third aren’t, so you would describe the openings as “capital I [followed by] s and e. Whether CAPITALISE is actually a synonym for making money is moot, as it means providing capital or converting into capital, which doesn’t necessarily equate to making money (investments can go up and down). Close enough though.
This clue was my nemesis, causing me to stare bleakly at the unhelpful checking letters at the end as the minutes ticked round, trying to get an IF in there; an I in there, and not understanding why the word couldn’t be something to do with financing, or monetising, or profiting. |
|
| 18 | Detail many works with passion (10) |
| ANIMATEDLY – (DETAIL MANY)*.
Great anagram and clue. Here “works” is indeed the anagrind. |
|
| 19 | Arrest suspects to populate jails (4) |
| STOP – Hidden [jails]. | |
| 22 | Managing part of machine storing means of authentication (6) |
| COPING – COG around PIN. | |
| 23 | Understood I’m allowed to embrace power (8) |
| IMPLICIT – (IM + LICIT) around P. | |
| 25 | Publicity surrounding heartless wise man had improved (11) |
| AMELIORATED – Publicity here is AD (not PR) which you put around a wise man without its middle. No, not a sage, or a guru, nor even a magi in its generic sense but specifically MELCHIOR without his middle two letters. You then have to add ATE for “had”.
Difficult w/p so if the correct synonym for “improved” immediately jumped out at you, you did better on this clue than me! |
|
| 27 | Feel bad coverage must be removed from newspaper (3) |
| AIL – MAIL without its first letter. Coverage could refer to the outside letters of a word as well, but here it is just the first/top letter. On edit: It is indeed the outer letters which should be removed from DAILY. | |
| 28 | City lent money to auditor introduced by firm (7) |
| COLOGNE – The CO bit is straightforward. “Lent money” implies a past tense of “loan” so the words here must mean a nounal phrase meaning “money that has been lent”. | |
| 29 | Football team lease empty historic ground (7) |
| CHELSEA – (LEASE HC)*.
Nice clue. Other adjectives are available for the team. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Popular drink, by turns mild and short on taste (7) |
| INSIPID – IN + SIP + ID | |
| 2 | Savoury casserole with stewed apricots (6,5) |
| POTATO CRISP – POT [casserole] + (APRICOTS)*.
Lovely surface. SAVOURY here as a small item of food. |
|
| 3 | Give advance payment to authorise rent from tenant? (6) |
| SUBLET – SUB [give advance payment to] + LET [authorise]. | |
| 4 | Time, demonstrating commitment, wants top editor removed (10) |
| ERADICATED – ERA for time then we have DEDICATED as a synonym for “demonstrating commitment” from which you remove the first time ED appears in the word, giving you DICATED.
The “removal” indicator is – again trickily – not “removed” but “wants”. |
|
| 5 | Musical technique in 20th-century song cycles (4) |
| CATS – This must be SCAT where the first letter cycles to the end.
Another cunning bit of w/p where you need to lift and separate between “Musical” and “technique”, and where “cycles” does make a lot of sense in the surface reading. Apart from CAPITALISE, this answer together with the crossing COPLAND, caused me most difficulties. SCAT is a word I knew but, looking it up, now realise I didn’t know what it meant. Apparently, in jazz, the use of nonsense syllables and other wordless effects in singing. |
|
| 6 | History exam dealing with life in the country (8) |
| PASTORAL – PAST + ORAL. | |
| 7 | A church service making a simple point? (3) |
| ACE – A + CE.
Very nice, simple clue. |
|
| 8 | Corrupt party led by deputy (7) |
| DEPRAVE – DEP + RAVE.
Verb not adjective. |
|
| 13 | Peers across at mother’s bottom — it’s out of order! (11) |
| ARISTOCRATS – (ACROSS + AT + R + IT)*
Another sneaky example of the setter using a term (ACROSS) that normally is a synonym for A or AC or is indicating the placement of words/letters as part of w/p, in a different way (as part of the anagrist). |
|
| 14 | Qualification reduced credit for demonstrating negotiating skills (10) |
| DIPLOMATIC – DIPLOMA + TIC(K). | |
| 17 | Forbidding relative at home to wear dog’s coat (8) |
| DAUNTING – (AUNT + IN) inside the outer letters of DOG. | |
| 18 | Pre-eminent American in charge of antiquities? (7) |
| ARCHAIC – ARCH + A + IC. | |
| 20 | Joint coverage in a report carried by Press Association (7) |
| PATELLA – (A TELL [report]) inside PA.
Great definition. |
|
| 21 | Page provided guidance for one withdrawing guarantee (6) |
| PLEDGE – P + LED [provided guidance] and then a reversal of EG [for one]. | |
| 24 | Provider of notes on staff deserved to lose case (4) |
| ARNE – EARNED with the outer letters removed.
Our second composer and third musical reference. Another lovely clue with a believable, misleading surface, but possibly tough if you don’t know the composer. |
|
| 26 | Fish swim, not run (3) |
| EEL – (R)EEL. | |
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