33:09, indicating middle-of-the-road difficulty (by normal Friday standards!). I thought this puzzle was just great. Wonderful word choices, lovely definitions which were misleading without being hopelessly vexing. I can stand harder, but I was quite happy with this.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Difficult problem learner assimilated by heart (7) |
| TICKLER – L in TICKER | |
| 5 | In club, drop shot of ecstasy (7) |
| BATTING – BAT + TINGE – E | |
| 9 | Base can just be forming a foundation (9) |
| SUBJACENT – anagram of CAN JUST BE
Sounds like a math term! Which is how I got it. |
|
| 10 | Number days before turning eighteen at last (5) |
| SEVEN – EVES (days before) reversed + N | |
| 11 | 1 or 2 perhaps are reported to be aboard mobile air ambulance (6,7) |
| ARABIC NUMERAL – R (are reported) in anagram (mobile) of AIR AMBULANCE | |
| 13 | Poor old Scandinavian receiving pardon (3-5) |
| ONE-HORSE – O + NORSE around EH (pardon)
Wish I could have gotten this one faster but I couldn’t think of EH for ‘pardon’! |
|
| 15 | Appeal against book supporter censoring hard subject reference (6) |
| ITSELF – IT (appeal) + S{h}ELF
Great definition. |
|
| 17 | Key information guided claims (6) |
| LEGEND – LED (guided) around (claims) GEN (information) | |
| 19 | Fabulous maiden having rejected frilly skirt this short (8) |
| MYTHICAL – M + LACY reversed around THI{s}
Wonderfully misleading. I was trying to think of mythological ladies before I saw LACY and realized I needed to lift-and-separate. |
|
| 22 | Doctor cutting tremor at emergency room with a large lozenge? (13) |
| QUADRILATERAL – DR in QUAIL + AT + ER + A + L
A diamond-shaped parallelogram or rhombus, says Chambers. |
|
| 25 | Retired gentleman greeting hosts from Dublin? (5) |
| IRISH – HI (greeting) around (hosts) SIR (gentleman) reversed
I can’t actually get ‘retired’ to apply to (SIR in HI), but only the SIR. I think this is technically a grammatical error. |
|
| 26 | Trying Morris dancing beset by calamity (9) |
| WORRISOME – anagram of MORRIS in WOE | |
| 27 | Probably missing middle notebook leaf (4,3) |
| LILY PAD – LI{ke}LY + PAD | |
| 28 | Have workers for university succeeded in imposing raise? (7) |
| AUGMENT – MEN replaces U + S in AUGUST | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Hard drinker served up moonshine (4) |
| TOSH – H SOT reversed | |
| 2 | Appropriate to have unclosed trunk tossed outside Savoy? (7) |
| CABBAGE – BAG (appropriate) in CABE{r}
I found this quite hard. |
|
| 3 | Pounds advanced to secure leather and wool (5) |
| LLAMA – L + A around LAM (leather) | |
| 4 | Recheck less exposed cracks in most piping (8) |
| REEDIEST – {l}ES{s} (exposed) in (cracks) RE-EDIT (recheck)
This fooled me — I thought for sure this would be some synonym of HOTTEST. |
|
| 5 | Thin fencing erected at field of flowers? (6) |
| BOTANY – BONY around AT reversed | |
| 6 | International pilot heading for Chicago entering course to the US (4,5) |
| TEST MATCH – TEST (pilot) + C in MATH (course to the US) | |
| 7 | Counter popular bible passage (7) |
| INVERSE – IN + VERSE | |
| 8 | Greek keeping isolated housing touched up for posh people (10) |
| GENTLEFOLK – GK around (LONE around FELT, reversed) | |
| 12 | In local cast, see Belgian who’s dictionally informal (10) |
| COLLOQUIAL – LO (see) QUI (Belgian who) in anagram of LOCAL
A bit convoluted, but fortunately quite gettable. |
|
| 14 | Daughter’s wiped out by sedatives in possession (9) |
| OWNERSHIP – DOWNERS – D + HIP (in) | |
| 16 | Wheeler-dealer disposing of small island with a show of emotion (8) |
| HYSTERIA – SHYSTER – S + I + A | |
| 18 | Extremely slow golf amateur almost everyone stood up (7) |
| GLACIAL – G + reversal of LAIC (amateur) + AL{l} | |
| 20 | Pizza toppings in Calabria acknowledge local region (7) |
| CALZONE – C A L + ZONE
This took me much longer than it should of, because, despite understanding the wordplay, I kept thinking the definition was ‘pizza toppings’. |
|
| 21 | Digitally extended audio recording of Debussy? (6) |
| CLAWED – homophone of CLAUDE | |
| 23 | Bit of a ladder in stocking one could be regretting (5) |
| RUING – RUNG around I
What is ‘in’ doing here? |
|
| 24 | Capture minds by succeeding (4) |
| NEXT – NET around (minds) X (by) | |
should of???
Thank you!
There is no excuse! Mea culpa.
It took two sessions totalling 32 mins. The second after a particularly convivial Christmas lunch with former work colleagues. I found it easier than many Friday puzzles. It was friendly with nothing too tricksy in it. I didn’t know GLACIAL = extremely slow. I particularly enjoyed the clue to CLAWED. Nothing to complain about. Thank you setter and blogger.
PS I’ve just looked at the SNITCH number. It’s at least twenty points too high where I’m concerned. I’ve found recent puzzles appreciably harder.
Great crossword – but miles off wavelength. Took well over an hour.
Well off the pace with this one – not particularly mild with a Snitch in the 140s – gave up with 5 left
Thanks PJ