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). | |
I, too. failed with ENTERIN but had also heard of telomeres so went for TELOMETER, being unable to account either way for the L-M in the parsing. However, did get the NHO AEROTRAIN. Not too displeased overall.