25:08. Not the most strenuous puzzle on the whole, but there were some very cleverly-worded clues that had me scratching my beard for several minutes at a time.
| Across | |
| 1 | Sawyer’s rubbish leg-pull? On the contrary! (6) |
| OFFCUT – I guess this means that OFF is the opposite of ON (leg), and PULL is the opposite of CUT? | |
| 5 | Charming, animated young explorer visits Italian island on the way back (8) |
| ADORABLE – DORA (animated young explorer) in (visits) ELBA (Italian island) reversed (on the way back)
Sometimes ‘animated young explorer’ means just that! |
|
| 9 | Exaggerated performance [from] dame put him off (6,2,2) |
| HAMMED IT UP – anagram of (off) DAME PUT HIM | |
| 10 | Sticky stuff starts to get under new keyboard (4) |
| GUNK – first letters of (starts to) GET UNDER NEW KEYBOARD | |
| 11 | Conservative, having been found out, fell to pieces (8) |
| CRUMBLED – C (conservative) RUMBLED (having been found out) | |
| 12 | Soften some Lahore lentils (6) |
| RELENT – hidden in (some) LAHORE LENTILS | |
| 13 | Rodent, one escaping from silky fabric (4) |
| VOLE – I (one) removed (escaping) from VOILE (silky fabric)
Couldn’t see past MOLE and TOILE. Then I finally remembered Debussy’s VOILES. |
|
| 15 | Elected Republican in Springfield is hard work (8) |
| INDUSTRY – IN (elected) + R (Republican) in DUSTY (Springfield)
Didn’t know this singer. Does the grammar of the surface reading work for you? |
|
| 18 | Reportedly nothing large eaten by one American sea creature (8) |
| NAUTILUS – homophone of (reportedly) NOUGHT (nothing) + L (large) in (eated by) I (one) US (American) | |
| 19 | 100ml drained from head swelling (4) |
| NODE – DL (100ml [= 1 dl]) removed (drained) from NODDLE (head)
I kept thinking ‘head’ was NOODLE and couldn’t see how this worked. |
|
| 21 | Monstrous female pair denied promotion (6) |
| OGRESS – PR (pair) removed from (denied) PROGRESS (promotion) | |
| 23 | Literary fragments smart guy introduced to workers (8) |
| ANALECTS – ALEC (‘smart’ guy) in (introduced to) ANTS (workers)
This was hard for me, though it was gettable from the wordplay with effort. |
|
| 25 | American uncle knocked back first of home brew (4) |
| MASH – SAM (American uncle) reversed (knocked back) + first letter (first) of HOME | |
| 26 | Criminal force probes chap instructed by director (10) |
| MALEFACTOR – F (force) in (probes) MALE ACTOR (chap instructed by director)
Quite tricky. |
|
| 27 | Seaside fanatic, we hear, that’s brown dressed in shell suit (8) |
| BEECHNUT – homophone (we hear) of BEACH NUT (seaside fanatic) | |
| 28 | English daisy festival (6) |
| EASTER – E (English) + aster (daisy) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Tehran’s ready to turn up in support of feminine talent (5) |
| FLAIR – RIAL (Tehran’s ready) reversed (to turn up) under (in support of) F (feminine) | |
| 3 | Normandy favourite arrived right on time to receive honour (9) |
| CAMEMBERT – CAME (arrived) R (right) + (on) T (time) around (to receive) MBE (honor) | |
| 4 | Little / squiffy? (6) |
| TIDDLY – double definition | |
| 5 | Saturday’s client ordered a book case for a violinist (1,5,2,7) |
| A STUDY IN SCARLET – SATURDAY’S CLIENT anagrammed (ordered)
Never having read the Sherlock Holmes books, I did not know that he played the violin. |
|
| 6 | Making show — and opera, potentially (2,6) |
| ON PARADE – AND OPERA anagrammed (potentially) | |
| 7 | Guardian article on haircare product (5) |
| ANGEL – AN (article) + (on) GEL (haircare product) | |
| 8 | Learning about key battleground at the eastern front (9) |
| LENINGRAD – LEARNING anagrammed (about) + D (key) | |
| 14 | Pop called each day within confines of office (9) |
| ORANGEADE – RANG (called) EA (each) D (day) in (within) first and last letters (confines) of OFFICE | |
| 16 | Stretches / grammatical constructions (9) |
| SENTENCES – double definition | |
| 17 | Florida witch doctor exorcising a bully (8) |
| FLASHMAN – FLA (Florida) + SHAMAN (witch doctor) without (exorcising) A
A reference to Harry Flashman, who I’ve never heard of. |
|
| 20 | Rhubarb / cake (6) |
| WAFFLE – double definition | |
| 22 | What about time in charge of moral code? (5) |
| ETHIC – EH (what) around (about) T (time) IC (in charge of) | |
| 24 | Slithy character burying Romeo[’s] valuable collection (5) |
| TROVE – TOVE (slithy character) around (burying) R (Romeo)
Jabberwocky is perhaps the only poem I can recite from memory. |
|
Even later to the party (a whole month at least!) but it was a joy to solve, even though I. missed the references to both Dora and Dusty! ( This new keyboard placement is a big annoyance). ANALECTS the only unknown, but had to look up a few as well: TROVE ( missed the Jabberwockie ref, and tried to shoehorn an R intTOAD); ORANGE Ade (should have trusted the cryptic); and WAFFLE (a cake?). COD A STUDY IN SCARLET – a big Holmes fan here.