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) | |
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