Time: 45:45
Solved in a couple of foggy sessions between Lemsips, due to my being victim to a new and improve version of Covid, so I was slower than the SNITCH suggests. Nevertheless, after rolling back on my original MARKS (disciple + first of Stage) at 1dn, things fell into place quite nicely.
A gentle end to a gentle week.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Little kid held prisoner? One growing up slowly (10) |
| STALAGMITE – a STALAG (German POW camp) + MITE (little kid) may be described thus. | |
| 6 | Scrubbing back, use little brush (4) |
| SKIM – SKIMp (use little) minus (scrubbing) the last (back). | |
| 10 | Damage a lawsuit, leaving English couple shaken (7) |
| MARACAS – MAR (damage) + A CASE (a lawsuit) minus E (English). | |
| 11 | Expand route to tunnel through mountain (7) |
| BROADEN – ROAD (route) contained by (to tunnel through) BEN (mountain). | |
| 12 | European landmark one dreamt in need of reconstruction (5,4) |
| NOTRE DAME – anagram of (in need of reconstruction) ONE DREAMT. | |
| 13 | Line on high-flying group — as running feature? (5) |
| NASAL – L (line) on NASA (high-flying group). Pertinent, in my case. | |
| 14 | Crow, something with feathers and wings in short! (5) |
| BOAST – BOA (something with feathers) + outermost letters from (wings in) ShorT. | |
| 15 | I get paid by word of mouth to carry on boxes during the day (9) |
| DIURNALLY – sounds like (by word of mouth) “I earn” (I get paid, I URN), which DALLY (to carry on, fuss, delay) contains (boxes). | |
| 17 | Brother, I’m no fixer! (9) |
| MENDICANT – MEND I CAN’T (I’m no fixer). A Friar. | |
| 20 | Outdoorsy type, cyclist changing in the van? (5) |
| HIKER – bIKER (cyclist) changing the letter at the front (in the van(guard)) to H. | |
| 21 | Fork skewering item, morsel finally getting consumed (5) |
| SPLIT – SPIT (skewering item) with the last of (finally) morseL contained (getting consumed). | |
| 23 | Failure though not on in wobble for measuring instrument (9) |
| TELEMETER – LEMon (failure) minus (though not) ‘on’, contained by (in) TEETER (wobble). An instrument for measuring distance. | |
| 25 | Access connected with digestive tract (7) |
| ENTERON – ENTER (access) + ON (connected with). Not in my lexicon, but gettable from the common suffix ‘entero-‘. | |
| 26 | Mildly obscene — as love, did you say? (7) |
| NAUGHTY – sounds like (did you say?) “nought-y” (as zero, love). | |
| 27 | Lover of the bottle, very green (4) |
| LUSH – double definition. | |
| 28 | That’s the way the cookie crumbles — but this food’s solid! (4,6) |
| HARD CHEESE – cryptic hint. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Disciple heading for stage, that’s my cue! (5) |
| SIMON – first of (heading for) Stage + I’M ON (that’s my cue). | |
| 2 | A rising rent drops for unconventional vehicle? (9) |
| AEROTRAIN – A + reversal of (rising) TORE (rent) + RAIN (drops). Like Maglev, but using an air cushion to levitate the train rather than magnetism. NHO but was interesting to read about on Wikipedia. | |
| 3 | Dead and buried Corinthians, yet to come alive? (7,7) |
| ANCIENT HISTORY – anagram of ( to come alive) CORINTHIANS YET. | |
| 4 | VIP into dirt — seedy stuff? (7) |
| MUSTARD – STAR (VIP) contained by (into) MUD (dirt). | |
| 5 | Greek character frames clever picture (7) |
| TABLEAU – TAU (Greek character) contains (frames) ABLE (clever). | |
| 7 | Credit, five hundred invested in market on the up (5) |
| KUDOS – D (five hundred) contained by (invested in) the reversal of (on the up) SOUK (market). | |
| 8 | Merely a fluid that’s bottled in vessel (9) |
| MINELAYER – anagram of (fluid) MERELY A that contains (has bottled) IN. A ship for deploying mines. | |
| 9 | Miserable result of eating duck? (4,2,3,5) |
| DOWN IN THE MOUTH – cryptic hint. | |
| 14 | A knockout, knockout blow? (9) |
| BOMBSHELL – double definition. | |
| 16 | Foot on shovel, take out a weed somewhere in the Sierra Nevada (4,5) |
| LAKE TAHOE – last of (foot on) shoveL + an anagram of (out) TAKE + A + HOE (to weed). | |
| 18 | Broadcaster of back-to-back articles around 10 (7) |
| ANTENNA – AN and AN (articles) put back-to-back (ANNA) containing (around ) TEN. | |
| 19 | Nato led astray — hawkish? (7) |
| TALONED – anagram of (astray) NATO LED. | |
| 22 | Flower bunches including text for you (5) |
| LOTUS – LOTS (bunches) containing (including) U (text for ‘you’). | |
| 24 | Frost in interview, right louse for White House, say? (5) |
| RHYME – sounds like (in interview) RIME (frost). | |
Lucky with a few write-ins, such as LAKE TAHOE, known from Steinbeck’s early life. Last in MENDICANT – with a groan, naturally.
23:45
DNK AEROTRAIN (not in ODE, but in my E/J dictionary). DNK ENTERON, which I tried only after giving up on ENTERIC & ENTERAL. I wasted some time trying to figure out how ‘maracas’ could fit in 18d; I had thought that Arabic numerals referred to clues, while number words referred to words. Clearly, you don’t want ‘ten’ in the clue to clue TEN in the solution, but still. I liked MENDICANT & SKIM, inter alia.
Will saying he found this gentle has made me wonder if I’ve become allergic to Friday puzzles in the same way that some QC solvers are immediately wary when they see the names of certain setters.
I found this really hard and when an hour had passed and I still had one answer and two letters of another missing I decided I’d had enough and resorted to aids. It turned out I’d never heard of TELEMETER and I was nowhere near to cracking the wordplay based on ‘failure / lemon’ – not a synonym I’m particularly aware of anyway. I found the wordplay to DIURNALLY impossible to decipher and it’s not a word I’ve come across that often.
There was a lot to enjoy elsewhere but very few answers went in on first reading.
33.51
TELEMETER is both an instrument for measuring distance – how far am I away from this object/event? – and an instrument for measuring at a distance – what is the temperature/radiation level within the Chernobyl reactor?
Held up at the end by a couple of NHOs (ENTERON, AEROTRAIN) but otherwise a pleasing Friday puzzle.
Thanks Will and setter.
Telemetry is a common term in the satellite business, (since obviously we’re routinely measuring things at a considerable distance). Hence a pretty short step to TELEMETER
16.40
I was all geared up for a Friday work-out, and now I feel like I’ve unexpectedly received a bye.
I liked DIURNALLY and HARD CHEESE, but my COD was RHYME. I’ve just been reading Hunter Thompson’s obituary of Nixon, which included: “I beat him like a mad dog with mange every chance I got, and I am proud of it. He was scum.”
LOI LUSH
DNF for me, had to resort to aids. Liked DIURNALLY. With a middle letter M I guessed the wrong disciple which was James.
I have found this week’s offerings difficult so was delighted to finish this in about 40 minutes. NHO AEROTRAIN but it made sense although uI’d forgotten about the MAGLEV. I found many of the clues rather amusing but that’s probably just me.
LOI STALAGMITE. COD MENDICANT (with a chuckle).
Thanks to setter and William.
I finished with an unknown ENTERON to fit the crossers but which sounded possible. I’d done something similar with TELEMETER previously. I started slowly trying to make DOWN IN THE DUMPS work. I couldn’t. Having finally thought of MOUTH, things didn’t speed up much. But, as the other Dylan says, do not go gentle. I didn’t. I’d have raged if I’d had enough energy. A tough puzzle. COD to MENDICANT. Thank you William and setter.