38:00, with the last four or five clues taking 10–15 minutes! I worked on this one with my seven-year-old son, who had several good ideas, and was racing alongside me, trying to figure out how these things work.
The puzzle started easily enough with 1 Across, but I got bogged down on the right-hand side towards the end and had to grind it out a letter at a time. Still, I imagine others will find this on the easier side.
| Across | |
| 1 | One’s depressed so one will stay in bed a little longer! (6,6) |
| SNOOZE BUTTON – cryptic definition | |
| 8 | Not for good, but as regularly, arriving at island (7) |
| ANTIGUA – ANTI (not for) + G (good) + {b}U{t} A{s} (regularly) | |
| 9 | Say nothing about a Book Club day (7) |
| SABBATH – SH (say nothing) around A + B (book) + BAT (club)
I somehow got it in my head that this was going to be SAY + O, or something like that, and thought there might be some English version of the Spanish SABADO! |
|
| 11 | Single keen on encounter (3,4) |
| RUN INTO – RUN (single) + INTO (keen on)
Does ‘single’ not need a question mark? |
|
| 12 | Vessel, one making gradual progress on way back (7) |
| DREDGER – EDGER (one making gradual progress) on RD (way) reversed | |
| 13 | Judgement, substantial, was cut short (5) |
| FATWA – FAT (substantial) + WA{s} (cut short) | |
| 14 | Cow’s advance, just losing way by entrance to field? (9) |
| SUBJUGATE – SUB (advance) + JUST – ST (way) + GATE (entrance to field?)
Didn’t know SUB = ‘advance’ but Chambers has ‘to lend money’. |
|
| 16 | Attack on PC maybe not originally viewed without interest (9) |
| HACKNEYED – HACK (attack on PC maybe) + first letter (originally) of NOT + EYED (viewed) | |
| 19 | Retiring perhaps as exam failed first time is a shocker! (5) |
| TASER – RESAT (perhaps as exam failed first time) reversed (retiring) | |
| 21 | Where documents kept neat after what’s done initially badly (4,3) |
| DEED BOX – OX (neat) after DEED (what’s done) + first letter (initially) of BADLY | |
| 23 | School run avoiding centre was better (7) |
| GAMBLED – GAM (school) + BLEED (run) without the middle letter (avoiding centre) | |
| 24 | Some lean back to front, getting in danger (7) |
| GRISKIN – RISKING (getting in danger) with the last letter moved to front
Didn’t know this one, so thanks to the wordplay! |
|
| 25 | Top goalkeeping feat — recalled ducking (7) |
| EVASION – NO. 1 (top) + SAVE (goalkeeping feat) reversed | |
| 26 | Son experiencing criticism that’s got dad foaming at the mouth? (7-5) |
| SHAVING-STICK – S (son) + HAVING (experiencing) + STICK (criticism) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Protested “alien” material man-made (7) |
| SATINET – SAT IN (protested) + E.T. (alien)
Didn’t know this one either. |
|
| 2 | With small body, old WWI soldier needs trimmed dress fabric (7) |
| ORGANZA – ORG (small body) + ANZAC (old WWI soldier) without the last letter (needs trimmed dress)
As opposed to a new WWI soldier. This is the best I can manage for the wordplay. Let me know if you can do better. |
|
| 3 | Awfully lazy soul injecting energy with passion (9) |
| ZEALOUSLY – anagram (awfully) of LAZY SOUL around (injecting) E (energy) | |
| 4 | Established old penny not made of precious metal? (5) |
| BASED – BASE (not made of precious metal?) D (old penny) | |
| 5 | Players frozen here: cricketer turning blue, we hear? (7) |
| TABLEAU – BAT (cricketer) reversed (turning) + homophone (we hear) of LOW (blue) | |
| 6 | Scrapping a goal — it’s a pain (7) |
| OTALGIA – anagram (scrapping) of A GOAL IT
An earache. |
|
| 7 | Remedy we find in our best friend’s coat? (4,2,3,3) |
| HAIR OF THE DOG – cryptic definition
And a good one! |
|
| 10 | Tough negotiations / where punches exchanged? (5,7) |
| HORSE TRADING – double definition (‘punch’ is a kind of horse) | |
| 15 | Be greedy, after ordering seconds, but not all at once (2,7) |
| BY DEGREES – BE GREEDY anagrammed (after ordering) + S (seconds) | |
| 17 | Marcher is hoping demos are entertaining (7) |
| CHERISH – {mar}CHER IS H{oping} hides the answer (demos)
This is a weird definition. Chambers has CHERISH = ‘to entertain in the mind’. |
|
| 18 | Arrest and fine upset very old writer (7) |
| NABOKOV – NAB (arrest) + OK (fine) + V (very) O (old) reversed (upset) | |
| 19 | Daughter fleeing as mouse circles vessel in part of kitchen (7) |
| TIMPANI – D (daughter) removed from (fleeing) TIMID (as mouse) around (circles) PAN (vessel) | |
| 20 | Small deer to annoy castaway (7) |
| SELKIRK – S (small) + ELK (deer) + IRK (annoy) | |
| 22 | Gas: current, presumably, rising (5) |
| XENON – NON-EX (current, presumably) reversed (rising)
My only biff, and thankfully, as the wordplay was quite tricky! |
|
A couple of people said GAM = School. Could someone explain why please?
According to Merriam-Webster, one of the meanings of GAM is a school (of whales) – No, I didn’t know this either, but it is clearly useful for crossword setters and solvers.
I wasn’t helped by seeing that gherkin fit the G,K,N crossers I had when I first got to Griskin – gherkin was a hard word to get out of my head. I was ultimately helped because it seemed as if every third word had a reversal or a shift in it or in the clue somewhere. thanks jeremy
Another who went for XETON which made the NHO GRISKIN impossible.
Shame as like Notreve I had had a faultless week until today and 5/5 is unusual for me (and only one letter wrong last week…).
Ah well there’s always next week. And I do have the silver lining of having solved a CD (SNOOZE BUTTON) confidently and quickly which for me counts as a rara avis
Time: 43 mins W2E
I still don’t see the function of ‘demos’ in 17a. Can anyone explain?
A hard slog for me, finishing in 60 minutes after a long sojourn in the SE corner. Tough but fair. Having identified MUNTJAK as a small deer with the K of STICK as the only crosser, it took a while to convince myself that 20dn had to be something else. Not sure what ‘dad’ was doing in 26ac, but if he is just hinting at ancient shaving kit perhaps ‘granddad’ would be more helpful. Agree with Rosedeprovence about ORGANZA (Sorry, can’t do accents).
FOI – DEED BOX
LOI – GRISKIN
COD – HAIR OF THE DOG
Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.
Sunday solve, so this is a late last comment. 24’40”. V. nice.
My Husband cheating on me I really need to know I want to do a background check i suspect him he is on like different dating sites. I hired an private investigator Wong best Wizard. he grant me access remotely into his phone i was able to see all his activities . He has like different phone numbers he linked to other phone of mine he keeps telling me he was hacked. We been together for 10 years I’ve had almost heart attacks and he tells me he don’t have another phone number updated on phone so i called it with other number he answered it said it was his real number I know he not saying the trust he still going on my identity stolen my ss number has been froze he has paid someone to block me so i can’t see what’s going on. I really need help to put my mind at rest before I meet Wongbestwizard(@)gmail.com so far he doesn’t know about this. your husband cheating on you and you wish to get his account hacked, this is the chance you have long been waiting for. as reliance hackers is here to render you all the services. are services include, Data Base Clearing, Mobile Hacker, BTC Refund, Facebook hack, WhatsApp hack, or any from of hacking services Tested and trusted.
Slifhtly bemused to have all correct but many NHO or unparsed.