Time: DNF in just over an hour.
I thought this was an absolutely excellent puzzle with neat wordplay and loads of really lovely clues (including two crackerjacks) …until the (sorry setter!) horrible NHO that floored me. Hopefully, your drug knowledge is rather better than mine and you were able to polish off this splendid offering.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Where to find an aglet, given few resources? (2,1,10) |
| ON A SHOESTRING – Double definition, one whimsical. I thought I knew what an aglet was (I had heard of the word) but looking it up it is not quite what I thought. It’s the small sheath at the end of a shoelace to help thread it through the eyelets. | |
| 8 | Eatery cooking up roast in Britain (9) |
| GASTROPUB – Anagram (cooking) of UP ROAST in GB (Britain). Neat. | |
| 13 | Every second in bed, love is so for megastar (5) |
| ELVIS – Every second letter of BED LOVE IS SO | |
| 14 | Stage with bear on Broadway, originally (9) |
| BANDSTAND – “With” can be a tricky word, sometimes a connector but also “w” and here AND. Add that to STAND (bear) and place it after the B (first letter (originally) of BROADWAY). | |
| 15 | Grant always wears small jumper? (7) |
| LEVERET – A bit of Yoda-speak. EVER (always) is doing the “wearing” i.e. it has on/around it LET (grant). Lovely, smooth surface. | |
| 16 | Really as nitpicker would act (12) |
| PARTICULARLY – Double definition, one offbeat. | |
| 17 | Fragile set showing weakness alongside tough one (3,7) |
| TEA SERVICE – VICE (weakness) goes after (alongside) TEASER (tough one, as in a difficult problem). | |
| 18 | Constant winner with constant backing — might it make you sick? (6) |
| IPECAC – Nice surface but quite difficult to construct if you have never heard of the word (or more relevantly don’t know that a word that looks like the answer might exist). It’s C (abbreviation for Constant) + ACE (winner, as in tennis) + PI (a mathematical constant) all reversed (backing). The one I had to look up. It’s a drug that induces vomiting. | |
| 19 | Climber encapsulated by Michelangelo, nicer abs! (8) |
| LONICERA – Hidden. Another name for honeysuckle. NHO but rather easier to construct than the previous clue. | |
| 21 | Account he filed in corporation, rejected (6) |
| BEHALF – After I got the concluding F checker I really did want FIRM for corporation but, no, it’s FLAB that we need with HE inserted (filed in) and the whole thing reversed (rejected). Not the first synonym for “account” that springs to mind but it’s a good one. | |
| 24 | Lightly touch flower in delight (6,4) |
| TICKLE PINK – Delight as a verb. TICKLE (lightly touch) + PINK (flower). | |
| 26 | Crystal clear where time disappeared, years repeating (6-6) |
| TWENTY-TWENTY – T (time) + WENT (disappeared) + Y (years), all repeated. | |
| 29 | Food trapped, mouth cleared (4) |
| TUCK – STUCK (trapped) with its first letter (mouth) deleted (cleared). Another neat surface. | |
| 30 | Shower in short, short running gear (8) |
| TRAINERS – RAIN (shower) in TERSE (the first short) with the last letter deleted (the second short). | |
| 31 | Warden initially rearranged trek, as I ride the waves (5-3) |
| WATER-SKI – Again as a verb. W (warden initially) + an anagram (rearranged) of TREK AS I. | |
| 34 | Tip, and golden steed regularly backed (8) |
| ENDORSED – It’s always a bit tricky when a word that is normally part of the wordplay, turns out to be the literal. So, here, we are not reversing anything but instead needing a synonym for “backed”. The parsing is END (tip) + OR (golden, from heraldry for newbies) + the odd letters (regularly) of STEED. | |
| 35 | Hot wrecker’s passion ahead of party (8) |
| FIREBALL -FIRE (passion) + BALL (party). | |
| 36 | Needing rear wiped, rich pro (4) |
| PLUS – This is PLUSH (rich) with its last letter deleted (needing rear wiped). | |
| 39 | Proven devil said king’s boring (12) |
| DEMONSTRATED – DEMON (devil) + STATED (said) into which R (king) is inserted (is boring). | |
| 40 | Heavenly region where one has fed chicken from Canberra? (5,5) |
| OZONE LAYER – A chicken from Australia is of course an OZ LAYER which has inside it (has fed) ONE (in plain sight). | |
| 43 | Creeper with bow of yew — and its missile? (6) |
| YARROW – Y (first letter (bow) of yew) + ARROW (its missile). Yarrow is basically a weed with small whitish flowers. You’d recognise it if you see it though I’m not sure I’d describe it as a creeper from what I have seen/read. | |
| 44 | Nettle is in the soup — relax (6,2) |
| SETTLE IN – Anagram (in the soup) of NETTLE IS. | |
| 45 | Openly acknowledged, a victory outstanding (6) |
| AVOWED – We tend to think of this word meaning to “declare” but “acknowledge” is quite correct as well. The wordplay is A + V (victory as in Victory in Europe Day) + OWED (outstanding). | |
| 49 | Criminal on the prowl? (3,7) |
| CAT BURGLAR – A not very difficult cryptic (and none the worse for that). | |
| 51 | Hurry up — as might worm? (3,1,6,2) |
| GET A WIGGLE ON – Double definition, one whimsical. I knew this phrase but if you don’t you might be struggling as there are undoubtedly lots of things worms do as well as wiggle. | |
| 53 | Energy in cadet enlivened after one drink (4,3) |
| ICED TEA – E (energy) goes inside an anagram (enlivened) of CADET, all of which goes after I (one). | |
| 54 | Fruit, I’m heading for mouth in human! (9) |
| PERSIMMON -IM (in plain sight) + M (heading for mouth) inside PERSON (human). | |
| 55 | Musical verse isn’t at first welcomed by Greek character (5) |
| EVITA -VI (first letters of VERSE ISNT) inside ETA (sixth letter of the Greek alphabet). | |
| 56 | Fellow giant in deep water before doctor returned, possible life-saver? (5,4) |
| DONOR CARD – Nice definition. Quite tricky wordplay here. Fellow is a random name – DON which goes next to ORCA (giant in deep water) with a reversal of DR (doctor) bringing up the rear. | |
| 57 | As tiny draught drunk, time to party? (8,5) |
| SATURDAY NIGHT – Anagram (drunk) of AS TINY DRAUGHT. Brilliant. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Five parts in report under review, add to document (9) |
| OVERPRINT – Nice use of the word “parts” here which of course instructs us that V (five) goes inside an anagram (under review) of IN REPORT. | |
| 2 | Unfavourable jingle? (7) |
| ADVERSE – Double definition, one cryptic. Not all adverts rhyme but if one did it could be an “AD VERSE”. | |
| 3 | Expectorate a minimum of beverage through opening — cordial (10) |
| HOSPITABLE – “Through” is an instruction to include the first part of the wordplay inside HOLE (opening). SPIT + A + B then comes from “expectorate” “a” (in plain sight) and the first letter of beverage (minimum of beverage). | |
| 4 | Metallic element, I’m uber malleable! (6) |
| ERBIUM – Anagram (malleable) of IM UBER. I learned today that yttrium, a word appearing in the daily cryptic I blogged a week back, is one of four metals all of which are named after the same Swedish village of Ytterby with ERBIUM being one of the four. Another six elements were discovered there. A silvery-white solid metal. | |
| 5 | English, every one of them working in the aforementioned American attire (3-6,3) |
| TEN-GALLON HAT – ENG (English) + ALL (every one of them) + ON (working) gives us the meat of the clue which goes inside THAT (aforementioned). | |
| 6 | Fresh sailing close to Southampton? (8) |
| INSOLENT – I wanted an anagram of “sailing” and the last letter of Southampton, in an &lit but instead it is just a play on words based on the Solent being the body of water by that city. | |
| 7 | The very best butter? (4) |
| GOAT – Double definition. I am sure we all know Greatest Of All Time as an acronym for G.O.A.T. Messi or Ronaldo? Incredible we are going to see them again at the World Cup. Whether they can move any quicker than the various statues of them around the world remains to be seen | |
| 8 | Aggro with fiend surprisingly pietistic (3-7) |
| GOD-FEARING -Anagram (surprisingly) of AGGRO + FIEND. | |
| 9 | Publish page penned by whip (6) |
| SPLASH – P (page) inside (penned by) SLASH (whip). | |
| 10 | Pheasants ultimately bagged, worships keen shot (7,5) |
| REVERSE SWEEP – I struggled with the wordplay for this and with a teeny bit of justification as I am not 100% sure that the instruction to place REVERES (worships) around (bagged) the last letter of (ultimately) PHEASANTS, quite works even with fluency in the arcane language of Lord Yoda but I may just not have watched enough Star Wars. Anyways, to REVERSE S we add WEEP (that sort of keen) to give us a shot in cricket that I suspect Don Bradman (perhaps the GOAT of all GOATs) never essayed. | |
| 11 | Zoroastrian in European capital turning tail (5) |
| PARSI – This is PARIS with the last two letters exchanged (turning tail). | |
| 12 | Loving touch by monarch, say, on neck (9,4) |
| BUTTERFLY KISS -A monarch can be a BUTTERFLY to which is added KISS (for which neck is a slang word). Another neat clue. | |
| 20 | Colleague, beauty withholding response when wounded? (8) |
| COWORKER – This was very definitely biffed from checkers towards the end. Looking at it as I write this up, I can see CORKER for “beauty” around OW (response when wounded?). Does withholding work here as a containment indicator? Chambers seems to have a “keep in” sense rather than a “keep back” sense only as an obsolete term. | |
| 22 | Target friend of relative? (4,5) |
| AUNT SALLY – …or as we are nudged to read it “AUNT’S ALLY”. | |
| 23 | Place over river for simple chemical analysis (4,4) |
| SPOT TEST – SPOT (place) + (over, in a down clue) TEST (one of many many synonyms for “river”). | |
| 25 | Palm, where visitor conceals cipher (4,2,3) |
| COCO DE MER – A type of palm tree. COMER (visitor) goes around (conceals) CODE (cipher). Clever. | |
| 27 | Horse OK on circuit hurdling lake (8) |
| YEARLING – YEA (OK) + (on, in a down clue) RING (circuit) all around (circling) L (lake). | |
| 28 | Office visits in financial district not quite happening (8) |
| INCIDENT – Another very smooth and believable surface. DEN (office) is inside (visits) IN (in plain sight) + CITY (financial district) with the last letter deleted (not quite). | |
| 29 | Graceful youth duly chastised when naughty (8,5) |
| TUESDAYS CHILD – This really is a cracker of a clue. Very clever spot to see that DULY CHASTISED is an anagram (when naughty) of our answer. I am sure you all are aware of the traditional nursery rhyme “Monday’s Child” from which this comes. Chapeau, setter. | |
| 32 | American chap going after relative, sergeant perhaps tamer (12) |
| BRONCOBUSTER – This was a late entry with several checkers in place, which enabled the wordplay to deliver the (for me NHO) answer. So, it is BUSTER (American chap) going after BRO (relative) + NCO (sergeant, perhaps). | |
| 33 | Hangover, head on knees at someone playing Buddhist jazz? (12) |
| KATZENJAMMER – Similar late entry but the word was somewhere there in the cerebral recesses. K (head on knees) + AT (in plain sight) + ZEN JAMMER (someone playing Buddhist jazz?). | |
| 37 | App created after encryption, safe from loan sharks? (4-6) |
| RATE-CAPPED – Another smooth clue, simply an anagram (after encryption) of APP CREATED. | |
| 38 | Colour as it happens embraced by Shrek, say, even on the skin? (5,5) |
| OLIVE GREEN – LIVE (as it happens) inside (embraced by) OGRE (Shrek, say) and then the outer letters of EVEN (on the skin). | |
| 41 | Communist and German soldier maybe surplus to requirements (9) |
| REDUNDANT – RED (Communist) + UND (German word for “and”) + ANT (soldier). I don’t think the “maybe” is needed for the “ANT” bit so maybe it refers back to “Communist”? As one of the most biffable answers I am not sure too many folks will be worrying about it too much. | |
| 42 | Pope in command at bottom of Scottish peak (8) |
| BENEDICT – The “in” here is just a connecting word, not relevant to the wordplay which is EDICT (command) underneath (at bottom of, in a down clue) BEN (Scottish peak). | |
| 46 | Little shovel collects end of dandelion — doing this? (7) |
| WEEDING -WEE (little) + DIG (shovel, as a verb) all around (collects) N (last letter of dandelion). One of my favourite clues amongst a good bunch. | |
| 47 | Current piece covering area on a lizard (6) |
| IGUANA – I (the symbol for electrical current) + GUN (piece) around (covering) A (area) + A (in plain sight). | |
| 48 | The last George, English monarch turned up in European capital (6) |
| VIENNA – More clever stuff here. There has never been a George VII so we need VI instead, to add to a reversal (turned up) of ANNE. | |
| 50 | Connection with Phuket hostelry discussed? (3-2) |
| TIE-IN – Homophone of THAI INN (Phuket hostelry). | |
| 52 | Dagger can be located after killer’s unpacked (4) |
| KRIS -The KR comes from the KILLER without its middle (unpacked). I think the IS bit is simply a straight synonym for “can be located”. A common weapon in Crosswordland. If you didn’t know it before, you do now. | |