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. |
|
Pretty quick time by my standards of 28.36 but spoiled by MOLE for unlucky 13ac. I managed to convince myself that the fabric was moile, even though on seeing VOLE was the answer I then recalled I’d heard of voile. Enjoyable puzzle even though I’m frustrated at not quite getting there.
17:05, having shrugged and put in NODE, like Jeremy having assumed the head was NOODLE. Pleased to finish after a pretty unsuccessful week.
I’m British and have no kids, but am aware of Dora the Explorer, so she’s made it across the pond somehow…
Thanks both.
15:48 – great puzzle. Perhaps I should be surprised that anyone old enough to be doing the Times crossword hasn’t heard of Dusty Springfield, but having just discovered that a couple of young people in their 20s I know had never heard of Tina Turner, it just makes me feel even older!
25 or more likely 30, on paper with my customary thick-head Friday.
ANALECTS was the only unknown, and all parsed for a change.
Not too difficult for a Friday but I agree with Jeremy that there were some nice definitions therein.
Thanks to both.
The names of Sherlock Holmes stories are always interesting, A Study in Scarlet, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, but COD to Flashie, made me think of Horryd.
41:41, so a good time for a Friday.
Lots of fantastic clues here, with slithy toves, Dora the Explorer and Smart Alec. And the topical EASTER. I did not see the Iranian Rial, or Dusty Springfield, but put in from definitions.
Regarding OFFCUT I think Pull and Cut have the same meaning as they both mean remove as in the magazine pulled the article and the director cut the scene.
A very enjoyable puzzle, with good mix of elegant clues and GK. NHO Dora the explora, but HHO Dusty Springfield – there is a green plaque in her honour stuck on a school in West London, not far from me. All done in 24 minutes, good for a Friday.
FOI – HAMMED IT UP
LOI – ANALECTS
COD – CAMEMBERT
Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.
9 Across
Surely HAMMED IT UP is a past tense answer to a noun clue?
‘Exaggerated’ is a verb in the cryptic reading.
Not if you read it as (He) exaggerated (his) performance.
Thought I’d posted early on but I hadn’t. I first saw Mary O’Brien aka Dusty Springfield at the Blackpool Hippodrome in 1960, singing in a group called the Lana Sisters (they weren’t). Along with Ella, Chrissie Hynde and Emmylou, my favourite female vocalist. And no, I have never heard of Dora even if some of my kids were the right age. 19 minutes. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
Did this early before golf this morning in heavy showers, it was fun and took me about 20 minutes. Good to see Jabberwocky getting a mention, and Dusty. As a teenager I was “in love” with Dusty until I heard she was a lesbian, and then discovered what a lesbian was. But I still like her music.
Not a Friday stinker by any means, but a couple of clues that taxed the grey matter! NODE went in with a shrug and I was glad to think of Smart Alec before submitting ASAGENTS! No problems with the animated explorer, either my kids or grandkids had made me well aware of DORA. FLAIR was FOI and ANALECTS LOI. 13:55. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
Ditto re ASAGENTS! Great time 🙂
Thank you 🙂
That was pleasant! All the literary/ musical references right up my street.
Proud of myself for being strict enough not to settle for MOLE, but it was close.
OFFCUT set a standard that advised against rash biffing but allowing brief thought to be rewarded.
Only delay was the first jackdaw of the year coming down the chimney…
Thanks everyone
16 mins so not the expected trial for a Friday. In my case, that arrived yesterday.
Adorable was a puzzle as I didn’t get Dora as the explorer- and didn’t after reading the blog either- so I’ll look in earlier comments to see if anyone else had the same experience. Waffle followed by analects were my LOIs. The latter was runner up in my COD estimation, a close second to industry.
Thx setter and blogger.
Could not parse NODE ( I’m another one in the head= noodle camp), and stuck for ages on my LOI ANALECTS, not being able to see who the smart guy was. Given that DORA the explorer had made an appearance, I even googled the protagonist of Smart Guy, but that turned out to be TJ, so no help. Finally spotted the smart ALEC to finish in 31:50.
Thanks Jeremy and setter
Late to this having had granddaughters all day. They were far more taxing! As others say, pretty straightforward for a Friday at about 23′ for me. However I’d never have properly parsed OFFCUT, and the violinist reference was missed (not a huge Sherlock fan). Similarly I couldn’t get Bart Simpson out of my head for the Springfield reference, eventually wondering if the city might be in the dust belt, though I knew it wouldn’t be…poor old Dusty never came to mind. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
Moles are not rodents though, are they?!
14:41
Greatly enjoyed with some clever clueing. Nice to see DORA the explorer – amused my children fifteen or more years ago – perhaps we should watch out for her nemesis Swiper the fox and cousin Diego in future grids?
Wasn’t sure how NODE was constructed and missed the cryptic part of 27a – ha and indeed, ha. Both the curtain material and ANALECTS were new to me, but kindly clued.
Well, I got all the hard bits in 40 minutes, but ruined my success with MOLE, being two tired and perhaps disinterested today to question it. Of course, once I knew it was wrong VOLE sprung to mind immediately — but unfortunately not while proofreading.
Late to the party, and with only a very minor observation regarding the parsing of 17d. Surely all American states are abbreviated to two letters and to exorcise is to take out rather than away, so the parsing should, I believe, be FL + ASHMAN (with the first A exorcised and placed in front). COD A Study in Scarlet, for both the smoothly devious definition and the very satisfying anagram.
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.