55:25, making this one of the harder puzzles I’ve managed to complete. Very few clues gave up their secrets easily, but everything was solvable with a bit of chin-scratching. Many references to law, many comparisons and superlatives.
| Across | |
| 1 | Returning explorer in charge of filling ship: a cutter (8) |
| SCISSORS – ROSS (explorer) + I.C. (in charge of) reversed in S.S. (ship) | |
| 9 | Sealed informal refusal to stop nude rambling (8) |
| UNOPENED – NOPE (informal refusal) in anagram of NUDE | |
| 10 | One’s certainly not quietly reflecting — give time to? (8) |
| IMPRISON – I’M (one’s) + reversal of NO SIR (certainly not) + P (quietly — piano, in music)
Great definition that had me fooled til near the end. |
|
| 11 | Need a key to set loose helpless viewer (5,3) |
| NAKED EYE – anagram of NEED A KEY
‘Helpless’ meaning, ‘without help’. |
|
| 12 | Most daring to draw on money, then skint on vacation (10) |
| DOUGHTIEST – TIE (draw) on DOUGH (money) + S{kin}T
Took me ages to think of a synonym for ‘draw’. |
|
| 14 | I would catch cold: never again? (4) |
| ONCE – ONE (I) around C (cold) | |
| 15 | Heading for success within month: euphoric! (2,3,2) |
| ON THE UP – hidden in MONTH EUPHORIC
I could not have been more angry at myself for missing this hidden! |
|
| 17 | Policeman, one with crowd, giving help to direct (7) |
| COPILOT – COP (policeman) + I (one) + LOT (crowd) | |
| 21 | Message of note by journalist’s ending (4) |
| TEXT – TE (note) + X (by — as in 4×4) + last letter of JOURNALIST | |
| 22 | Each week, finally husband wears shirt for work with suit (5,5) |
| BLEAK HOUSE – EA (each) + last letter of WEEK + H (husband) in BLOUSE (shirt)
A Dickens novel I haven’t read, that is apparently about a court case involving conflicting wills. |
|
| 23 | Muscles displayed by four dozen rugby players (3-5) |
| SIX-PACKS – 4 x 12 = 6 x 8
There are eight rugby players in a pack. |
|
| 25 | Appear to have finished scan (4,4) |
| LOOK OVER – LOOK (appear) + OVER (finished) | |
| 26 | Island’s legal system blocking appeals by one (8) |
| SULAWESI – LAW (legal system) in SUES (appeals) + I (one) | |
| 27 | Multicoloured trousers a boy took off (8) |
| PARODIED – PIED (multicolored) around A + ROD (boy)
I didn’t know ‘trouser’ in the sense ‘steal’. |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Drop jokes etc, almost all personal (8) |
| COMEDOWN – COMED{y} (jokes etc) + OWN (personal) | |
| 3 | No good for wife of brother to display fortitude (8) |
| STRENGTH – NG (no good) replaces W (wife) in STREWTH (brother!)
A mild oath. |
|
| 4 | Kilometre trails go from suburbs, always ending in city (4) |
| OMSK – K (kilometre) after last letters of GO FROM SUBURBS | |
| 5 | Moslem, I hesitate to say, is more cheerful (7) |
| SUNNIER – SUNNI (Moslem) + ER (“I hesitate to say”) | |
| 6 | Skin blemish to be somehow acceptable, we note down here? (10) |
| POCKETBOOK – POCK (skin blemish) + anagram (somehow) of TO BE + OK (acceptable)
I only realized upon blogging that I read this wrong, to my benefit. In the US, a POCKETBOOK is a purse, hence where you might keep a ‘note’. I hadn’t read the word ‘we’ at all, thankfully. In trying to make sense of it, I came to learn that for y’all a POCKETBOOK is just a notebook kept in the pocket. |
|
| 7 | Popular expectation, ultimately wild all round, is confounded (8) |
| INFERNAL – IN (popular) + last letter of EXPECTATION in FERAL (wild) | |
| 8 | Sticking poster chap has torn (8) |
| ADHERENT – AD (poster) + HE (chap) + RENT (torn)
ADHERENT as an adjective, not noun. |
|
| 13 | One turned agonisingly from gang after attempts to get picked up (10) |
| THUMBSCREW – CREW (gang) after THUMBS (attempts to get picked up [as a hitchhiker])
Incredibly misleading clueing: none of ‘turned’, ‘agonisingly’, ‘picked up’ having cryptic meanings. |
|
| 15 | Least intelligent pupil previously useless in exam (8) |
| OBTUSEST – O.B. (pupil previously) + U/S (useless) in TEST (exam) | |
| 16 | His return now would make him wealthier? Or poorer? (3,5) |
| TAX EXILE – double definition
A tax exile’s current tax return makes him wealthier. A return to his home country would make him poorer. (The word ‘would’ doesn’t quite work in the first meaning, but I still like the clue.) |
|
| 18 | Saw with difficulty through this unusual, frameless “door-window”? (8) |
| IRONWOOD – anagram of {d}OOR-WINDO{w} | |
| 19 | He passed on one note out of habit? (8) |
| OBSOLETE – OB. (he passed) + SOLE (one) + TE (note) | |
| 20 | Reveal cricketer has time for golf (3,4) |
| LET SLIP – LEG SLIP (cricketer) with T (time) instead of G (golf) | |
| 24 | Sound made by small hole in bucket (4) |
| POUR – homophone of PORE (small hole) | |
Just a quick comment: PARODIED does actually mean “took off” as in ‘aped’ or satirised, rather than steal here.
A steady solve. For some reason I seem to do better on the high snitch puzzles than some of the medium snitch ones.
A total pile of time wasting unsolvable manure. Don’t listen to the twerps on this site they are all bs artists. Do the editors of the rags that shovel this crap to their readers really think it’s gonna sell papers.