This was a toughie, for sure, although at the beginning I was terribly distracted by goings-on with children and bedtime, so I didn’t get any flow. Somewhere around the 15–20 minute mark, my brain clicked on and I could pick up steam, but towards the end things ground to a halt again. By the end, I had too much head-scratching to submit, yet all was correct in a hair under 56 minutes.
| Across | |
| 1 | Embassy official catching parent in bed with cop (8) |
| DIPLOMAT – MA (parent) in PLOT (bed) and D.I. (cop) | |
| 5 | As well to carefully consider sounds going back and forth (3-3) |
| TWO-WAY – homophone (sounds) TOO (as well) + WEIGH (carefully consider) | |
| 10 | Inner glow passes for beauty (5) |
| LOOKS – {g}LO{w} + OK’S (passes) | |
| 11 | Blunder after a few drinks that has you back where you started (5-4) |
| ROUND-TRIP – TRIP (blunder) after ROUND (a few drinks) | |
| 12 | Potentially, Swede’s success in war within reach (9) |
| VEGETABLE – VE (success in war, Victory in Europe Day) + GETABLE (within reach)
Not sure why I always thought this was V Day, rather than V-E Day. Probably confusing it with D-Day. |
|
| 13 | Jam, or a piece of cake (5) |
| WEDGE – double definition | |
| 14 | Time to stop payment for experimental substance (7) |
| REAGENT – AGE (time) in (to stop) RENT (payment)
Nice tricky definition, where ‘experimental’ means ‘part of an experiment’. |
|
| 16 | Article by The Thunderer, Times middle section (6) |
| THORAX – A (article) by THOR (the Thunderer) + X (times)
I couldn’t get past seeing ‘The Thunderer’ = RA and ‘article’ = THE, but the answer was clear. |
|
| 19 | Key needed to open a precious metal antique (3-3) |
| AGE-OLD – E (key) in A + GOLD (precious metal) | |
| 21 | Torment of teaching graduate to be recalled (7) |
| BEDEVIL – B.ED. (teaching graduate) + LIVE (to be) reversed | |
| 23 | Major artery that road from the east crosses (5) |
| AORTA – hidden (crosses) reversed (from the east) in {th}AT ROA{d} | |
| 25 | Chemist having gin, and to get going a tablet? (9) |
| BOOTSTRAP – BOOTS (chemist) + TRAP (gin)
What’s being said here? Are we talking ‘tablet’ like iPad or something? I now see that a definition of ‘bootstrap’ is to input initial data so as to enable the subsequent loading of a computer program. Also did not know that BOOTS is a pharmacy chain in the UK. |
|
| 27 | Wielding the axe, maybe, and moving on to alibi! (9) |
| ABOLITION – anagram of ON TO ALIBI
Again not exactly sure what’s being said here. Abolition of slavery? Or just getting rid of something? |
|
| 28 | Port of ME: what’s after that on main road, west of hospital (5) |
| HAIFA – FA (ME: what’s after that) on AI (main road), next to H (hospital)
Do I have my directions wrong? Isn’t this east of hospital? |
|
| 29 | Agent leaving PR info and publicity to Thatcher? (6) |
| OXYGEN – {pr}OXY (agent) + GEN (info)
“Oxygen of publicity” is a quotation attributed to Margaret Thatcher. |
|
| 30 | Leaves, bags packed, for this short time off work? (3,5) |
| TEA BREAK – TEA (leaves) + BREAK (bags packed, for this) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Food store requiring actual consignment (8) |
| DELIVERY – DELI (food store) + VERY (actual) | |
| 2 | Power that group holds in unknown eastern metropolis (9) |
| PYONGYANG – P (power) + YON (that) + GANG (group) around Y (unknown) | |
| 3 | Attack found sleuth oddly lacking (5) |
| ONSET – {f}O{u}N{d} S{l}E{u}T{h} (oddly lacking) | |
| 4 | What would you do without mug and a tumbler! (7) |
| ACROBAT – ACT (do) around ROB (mug) + A
Not exactly sure what ‘what would you’ contributes. |
|
| 6 | State of old wife Dido, who’s abandoned (9) |
| WIDOWHOOD – O (old) W (wife) DIDO WHO anagrammed
Forgot to indicate that this was a semi & lit! |
|
| 7 | Excited jam makers like their strawberries! (5) |
| WIRED – W.I. (jam makers, Women’s Institute) + RED (like their strawberries)
Forgot about my jam makers. |
|
| 8 | One’s delighted to have Year One university exam extended? (6) |
| YIPPEE – Y (year) + I (one) + PPE (university exam) + E (extended?)
I couldn’t find E = ‘extended’ in the dictionary, so I guess PPE –> PPEE is extending PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics), which again is something I forgot. Also, I’m not exactly keen on this definition, but “I’m excited” is certainly YIPPEE and it is a crossword convention to use ‘one’ for the first person. |
|
| 9 | Great conductor, a match for the most appealing (6) |
| CUTEST – CU (great conductor, copper) + TEST (match) | |
| 15 | Musical show chap brought up, bringing back memories (9) |
| EVOCATIVE – EVITA (musical show) + COVE (chap) reversed | |
| 17 | Judge ultimately right to break counsel’s talk up (9) |
| ADVERTISE – {judg}E + RT (right) in ADVISE (counsel) | |
| 18 | Fine, round bowl for biscuit (8) |
| FLAPJACK – F (fine) + LAP (round) + JACK (bowl)
I didn’t know ’round’ could mean ‘circuit’ or LAP. I’d vaguely remembered JACK as being the cue ball of bowls, and I did not know FLAPJACK = ‘biscuit’. I know of biscuit as being a cookie in the UK, a softish scone in the US, and our flapjacks are pancakes. |
|
| 20 | Brief liability and endless danger remains (6) |
| DEBRIS – DEB{t} (liability) + RIS{k} (danger) | |
| 21 | Have cheese sandwiches and cake (7) |
| BROWNIE – OWN (have) in BRIE (cheese) | |
| 22 | Native American’s surprised reaction on seeing a truck overturning (6) |
| NAVAHO – OH (surprised reaction) + A + VAN (truck) reversed
The wordplay was clear but I wonder if some biffed NAVAJO. |
|
| 24 | In possession of Space Hopper given to brother (5) |
| ROOMY – ROO (hopper) + MY! ([oh,] brother) | |
| 26 | A Scottish team lifting second title abroad (5) |
| SAHIB – A + HIBS (Scottish team) with S (second) earlier
Leave a comment below indicating whether you think I’d heard of the football club or not. |
|
Too chewy for my short time allotment! So, despite patting myself on the back for getting a few to get the ball rolling, as it were, there the ball stopped until I looked up a couple of answers and thus it dawned that this was out of my ballpark…
Liked WIDOWHOOD ( even though I don’t), ROUND TRIP and THORAX; maybe because I got them