DNF. I was so absurdly off the wavelength here, there’s very little I can say. I labored to fill in as many squares as I could, but in the end, there were three clues I couldn’t get.
That the SNITCH for this puzzle is so much lower than last week’s puzzle blows my mind. That Verlaine solved this puzzle in 5 minutes explodes my mind.
| Across | |
| 1 | Detectives on Roman force thick and tenacious (6) |
| VISCID – CID on VIS (Latin for ‘force’)
I assume this shares a root with words like VISCOUS. Nevertheless, I managed to piece this one together without quite knowing what was going on. |
|
| 4 | Spotted smoked ham was in the van (8) |
| SPECKLED – SPECK (smoked ham) LED (was in the van)
VAN as in ‘head of the pack’ — think ‘vanguard’. |
|
| 9 | Notice young man secures vehicle after parking (7) |
| PLACARD – LAD around CAR after P | |
| 11 | Last of runners flash past — don’t give up (5,2) |
| STICK BY – last letter of RUNNERS + TICK BY | |
| 12 | Indian side cheers on attack that lacks depth (5) |
| RAITA – TA on RAID (attach) – D (depth) | |
| 13 | Cannonball shortly due to land (9) |
| SHOREWARD – SHO{t} (cannonball shortly) + REWARD (due)
As in, “Give them their due.” Did not solve this one. |
|
| 14 | Ship leaves once loaded (3,7) |
| TEA CLIPPER – cryptic definition
At least I think there’s nothing more here. The surface reading makes it sound like cargo is being put on a ship, which then sets out to sea. But this is a ship [which tea] leaves once loaded. Also did not solve this one. |
|
| 16 | High street business, can it work? (4) |
| SHOP – SH (can it) + OP (work)
The ? is part of the definition by example. I most certainly did not parse this while solving, but fortunately it was easy to get from the definition. |
|
| 19 | Only two-thirds of cutlery put back, oh dear (4) |
| OOPS – SPOO{ns} reversed | |
| 20 | 20C composer’s babel developed technique, all right (4,6) |
| BELA BARTOK – anagram of BABEL + ART + OK | |
| 22 | NZ city with large aviation facility that is in recession (9) |
| WHANGAREI – W (with) + HANGAR + IE (that is) reversed | |
| 23 | Celebration instead of defeat (2,3) |
| DO FOR – DO (celebration) FOR (instead of) | |
| 25 | Blood vessel opened by doctor, one showing concern for the motorist (5-2) |
| DRIVE-IN – VEIN preceded by DR + I | |
| 26 | Adult works at aerobics, desperately wanting shaped abs (7) |
| EROTICA – anagram (desperately) AT AEROBICS – anagram (shaped) of ABS | |
| 27 | Roll touching substance that’s dubious (8) |
| REGISTER – RE (touching) GIST (substance) ER (that’s dubious) | |
| 28 | Little Scottish collars its, on reflection? (6) |
| WESTIE – WEE (little Scottish) around ITS reversed
Not sure I understand the surface here… |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Tiny hole in tank terminal for that old canal boat (9) |
| VAPORETTO – PORE (tiny hole) in VAT (tank) + last letter of (terminal for) THAT + O (old) | |
| 2 | Venerable Hindu perhaps crawled over India (5) |
| SWAMI – SWAM (perhaps crawled) + I | |
| 3 | Wonky line cut by fine horse unsuited to ploughing (8) |
| INARABLE – anagram of LINE around ARAB (fine horse) | |
| 5 | Sit around drunk at four, late out of theatre (4-9) |
| POST-OPERATIVE – POSE (sit) around TOPER (drunk) AT IV (four) | |
| 6 | Conservative begins Hard Times (6) |
| CRISES – C + RISES
Did not solve this one. |
|
| 7 | Fancy something strong to drink quickly (4,1,4) |
| LIKE A SHOT – LIKE (fancy) + A SHOT (something strong to drink) | |
| 8 | Divine young woman in towel commercial (5) |
| DRYAD – DRY (towel) + AD | |
| 10 | Panic spread beginning in economy, a turbulent flight? (13) |
| DISAPPEARANCE – anagram (turbulent) of PANIC SPREAD + first letter of ECONOMY + A | |
| 15 | A bit of skin cook sliced off sounds attractive (9) |
| APPEALING – homophone of A PEELING (bit of skin cook sliced off) | |
| 17 | Sphinxlike features Oscar saw cut in step (5,4) |
| POKER FACE – O (Oscar) + KERF (saw cut) in PACE
Thankfully I was able to get this without knowing KERF. |
|
| 18 | Round of applause a little generous (8) |
| HANDSOME – HAND (round of applause) + SOME (a little) | |
| 21 | Monster logically following that capsized ship (6) |
| OGRESS – ERGO (logically following that) reversed + SS | |
| 22 | What rambler does having lost new waterproof boot (5) |
| WADER – WANDER – N | |
| 24 | Female dressing, a stone lighter (5) |
| FLINT – F + LINT (dressing)
LINT is dressing for a wound. I did not know that. |
|
Didn’t have as much of a problem with this one as I thought I’d had ( if that makes sense!) seeing the reactions of many more seasoned solvers than me. I had less need to look up answers in this one, apart from the NHO WHANGAREI and the difficult CRISES. And I held myself up nearing the end by assuming that I was to rid a plaster (dressing) of the AST, add it to an F, and ….? So was never gonna get FLINT. Started off well in the NE with VISCID, PLACARD and VAPORETTO, and worked steadily south from there. Good workout; know now that I’m not “losing it”!