Time: 50:35
Looking back, I think I made a meal of it; most of the clues are pretty straightforward. Some unknown vocabulary and some witty little definitions are to blame, I think.
Fun though, and I now know where my next (fantasy) holiday will be (13ac), and what I’ll be doing this weekend (15dn).
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Top Gear delighted guys (4,4) |
| GLAD RAGS – GLAD (delighted) + GUYS (teases, rags). | |
| 5 | Slow mover fails to finish in scheduled time (4) |
| SLOT – SLOTh (slow mover) minus the last (fails to finish). | |
| 9 | Driving instructor placed vehicle in reverse (6) |
| SATNAV – SAT (placed), then VAN (vehicle) reversed. | |
| 10 | Old Indian’s tongue Romeo pierces without tools for the job (8) |
| SANSKRIT – R (Romeo) contained by (pierces) SANS (without) and KIT (tools for the job). | |
| 11 | Cross after Jack admitted reason for loss of fortune? (4) |
| JINX – X (cross) after J (jack) + IN (admitted). | |
| 12 | Earl or lord given makeover way smoother? (10) |
| ROADROLLER – anagram of (given makeover) EARL OR LORD. | |
| 13 | Pacific island recreated in opening of Disney’s Moana (8) |
| MINDANAO – anagram of (recreated) all of IN + first (opening) of Disney’s + MOANA. | |
| 14 | Obsession leads to feelings evoking trauma somewhat? (6) |
| FETISH – first letters of (leads to) Feelings Evoking Trauma, then ISH (somewhat). | |
| 16 | Total pain swapping plaster, essentially (6) |
| GYPSUM – SUM (total) and GYP (pain) swapping order. | |
| 18 | Opening top, appreciate man spending millions on Ferrari? (8) |
| CARDIGAN – DIG (appreciate) and mAN without the (spending) ‘m’ (millions) all after (on) CAR (Ferrari?). | |
| 20 | Tug with replacement coming around will probably land (5,2,3) |
| STAND TO WIN – TOW (tug) contained by (with… coming around) STAND IN (replacement). | |
| 22 | Look average to the audience (4) |
| MIEN – sounds like (to the audience) “mean” (average). | |
| 23 | Withdraw before explosive parents snap! (4,4) |
| SAME HERE – reversal of (withdraw) all of ERE (before) + HE (high explosive) + MAS (mothers, parents). | |
| 24 | Emend good book deleting one TB, for consumption (6) |
| EDIBLE – EDIt BibLE (emend good book) deleting ‘i’ (one) and ‘tb’. | |
| 25 | Cobblers not all into shoes (4) |
| TOSH – hidden in (not all) inTO SHoes. | |
| 26 | Book soon to come out (8) |
| BLOOMING – B (book) + LOOMING (soon to come). | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pregnancy one had through physical attraction (9) |
| GRAVIDITY – I’D (one had) contained by (through) GRAVITY (physical attraction). | |
| 2 | Old queen given the chop wanting head stuck on (7) |
| ANNEXED – ANNE (old queen) + aXED (given the cop) minus the first letter (wanting head). | |
| 3 | Unusual Vermeer: thorned head dedicated to Christ (8,6) |
| REVEREND MOTHER – anagram of (unusual) VERMEER THORNED. Head (of a convent, a place) dedicated to Christ. | |
| 4 | Old Irishmen among others from the south hated cops (7) |
| GESTAPO – reversal of (from the south) all of O (old) + PATS (Irishmen) + EG (among others). | |
| 6 | Minor water leak affected tenancy (7) |
| LAKELET – anagram of (affected) LEAK) then LET (tenancy). | |
| 7 | Twinkling star aircrew noted at certain frequency (5) |
| TRICE – every other letter from (noted at certain frequency) sTaR aIrCrEw. | |
| 8 | Before parking, regarding clamps? (2,10,2) |
| IN PREFERENCE TO – P (parking) which IN REFERENCE TO (regarding) contains (clamps). | |
| 15 | Empty such a barrel full of beer quickly, please (5,1,3) |
| SHAKE A LEG – first and last from (empty) SucH + A, then KEG (barrel) containing (full of) ALE (beer). | |
| 17 | Like the arctic winter? Start to shiver, if not (7) |
| SUNLESS – first of (start to) Shiver, then UNLESS (if not). | |
| 18 | Locating neckwear, dicky bow, in locked room (7) |
| COWBELL – anagram of (dicky) BOW contained by (in) CELL (locked room). | |
| 19 | Muslim married on board cruise going from island to island (7) |
| ISMAILI – M (married) contained by (on board) SAIL (cruise), all contained by (going from…to) I and I (islands). | |
| 21 | Health done for? (5) |
| TOAST – double definition. | |
LOI SAME HERE. Anyone else? Ha
I liked this. Took my time. Had to.
Yup 👍
Not too bad by Friday standards, for a good and enjoyable workout.
Failed to parse 2dn, thinking it was Anne who had got the chop, an occupational hazard in those days.
Starting with GRAVIDITY, JINX and SATNAV, I was sure it was going to be a pangram, but no…
An enjoyable chewy solve in which I failed to parse SAME HERE despite spotting HE as the explosive. On the other hand I was very pleased with myself for finally working out EDIBLE and how it worked.
My pleasure was spoiled at the end when after an hour of rewarding hard work I was prevented from finishing confidently by an obscure Pacific island (making its first appearance here today) clued as an anagram. Not that I was 100% sure that it was going to be an anagram anyway and I never heard of Disney’s Moana so had no idea if it had any particular relevance .
Mindanao is the 2d largest island in the Philippines (‘Pacific island’ is rather misleading), and perhaps more familiar to Murcans; it was easily biffable for me from a glance at (what I later confirmed as) the anagrist.
The island did for me. I had Namdanio having started with Domin… and then I forgot I needed to go back to it before completing the grid with blooming. Not knowing the island I cannot be sure I would have guessed right.
You must have got GRAVIDITY wrong, then. Anyway, namd…is suspect; mand… would be much more likely (wrong, of course, but much more likely).
I’d heard of the MINDANAO Deep which as part of the Phillipines Trench is one of the deepest points of the Earth’s surface. Don’t think I would otherwise have guessed it is also an island.
32:10
Faster than I expected. I wasted a lot of time on 18ac, thinking ‘opening top’ indicated deletion of an initial letter and wondering if Ferrari was a Corsican. Wasted more time failing to think of POI SLOTH (actually came up with LORIS first); needed TRICE to get it. FOI SANSKRIT, LOI LAKELET. I liked the surfaces of GLAD RAGS & GRAVIDITY. Indeed, I liked the whole puzzle.
Was pleased to get as much of this as I did, but some of the answers were beyond my ken. ISMAILI was one I failed on and saw ‘sail’ for ‘cruise’ along with ‘M’ and two Is but couldn’t put it together. And, NHO GRAVIDITY and on looking it up I see it refers to the number of times a woman has been pregnant, whether successful or not. Opening Top for CARDIGAN had me stumped but should have seen it. I was able to see REVEREND MOTHER and IN PREFERENCE TO after I had enough crossers. TRICE was my first in and it’s a word I haven’t heard for donkey’s years. Liked ANNEXED, SATNAV. Eventually saw what was going on with EDIBLE, tricky. Liked the parsing of SAME HERE.
Thanks William and setter.
Re gravidity, Collins says only: “the technical word for pregnancy”
Yes, I just checked my (old) copy and it says the same. Strange that if you google it, the results mostly say it’s the number of times.
I liked the definitions – Top Gear, Driving instructor, opening top and locating neckwear.
Agreed. All very nice.👌
Gave up after 30 minutes: if I’d entered my NHO MINDANAO (the only way I could see of arranging those letters) I would surely have spotted GESTAPO.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
COD REVEREND MOTHER
The deletions in 24 that occurred to me were EDit bIBLE – not that it matters
It matters because it’s the correct reading so definitely worth pointing out.
Yeah – no idea why I chose that selection to delete. Oh well.
59 seconds inside target, ending with 23a.
Good challenge. Thanks steer and Wills.
Struggled with this and in the end a DNF on ISMAILI in just under 50, but I enjoyed the fight.
From Summer Days:
Everybody get ready, lift up your glasses and sing
Everybody get ready to lift up your glasses and sing
Well I’m standing on the table, I’m proposing a TOAST to the King
59 seconds outside target, ending with 23ac.
Good challenge. Thanks steer (???) and Wills.
Okay, a hint. It’s an anagram-cum-deletion clue.
Street?
Can’t get anything by you!
20 mins slower than any of the previous four puzzles this week – 38 mins. I was gliding along quite quickly for a Friday but then spent some 15 mins trying to crack GESTAPO and MINDANAO. Why GESTAPO took so long I do not know but MINDANAO was a calculated guess based on the anagram and the checking letters. First in was GLAD RAGS and last MINDANAO. Several of the clues were brilliant. My favourite three: to GLAD RAGS, SAME HERE (I liked ‘snap!’ = SAME HERE) and BLOOMING (very clever). Thank you Setter and Blogger.
Same as the blogger with this taking 38 minutes and change (double my usual time) but looking back I don’t think it was particularly difficult. Finding it hard to recall the clues I struggled on.
Enjoyed SATNAV
Thanks blogger and setter
DNF: had to look up MINDANAO, which is NHO. Eventually corrected my spelling mistake (SansCrit), and so found LAKELET and SLOT.
I thought this was a great puzzle.
Thought this was a tough one so surprised that I eventually managed most of it apart from the NHO MINDANAO and LAKELET (so didn’t get SLOT). Lots of clever clues – especially liked GLAD RAGS and SAME HERE!
Thanks again to all.
20m on the nose. Smashing puzzle, I really enjoyed it. I confess that I checked the unknown island but in competition that’s what I would have entered so I’m awarding it to myself.
This puzzle, worthy of comment, appears to have attracted comparatively little. Is that because the ‘Too many requests’ gremlin has struck again? It has attacked me three times today without due cause. Has any body else been affected?
Answer … if you can!
Took me just shy of an hour, but I crashed and burned on 18a where I had a desperate CORSICAN. I see now it should’ve been CARDIGAN. Drat! Thanks setter and William.
41:19. quite pleased with that time for a Friday. a teensy bit of bidding required. I took an unbelievable amount of time over GESTAPO and SANSKRIT which I should have got very quickly. Truly great puzzle – lots of diversions without being totally impossible.
DNF
Three left on the hour which I now realise I was never going to get. I was quite committed to GOING TO WIN which made TOAST difficult and TOSH not easy to spot.
30’55” on Monday evening. Glad to make up for my bish of earlier — KRONE instead of KRONA in today’s offering. LOI SAME HERE. I saw the ERE and the HE, but couldn’t spot the reverse. And then I had HERE HERE like a noisome brain worm. Good fun. Thanks.