52:18, which sadly included a fifteen-minute struggle to get the last two clues. I nearly gave up, but I’m nothing if not persistent. Quite a good and challenging puzzle, in my opinion.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Drink factory one enters, begging (9) |
| SUPPLIANT – SUP + PLANT around I | |
| 6 | Lighter selection from Tesco welcomed (4) |
| SCOW – hidden | |
| 10 | Anything you hear in Yorkshire’s inaccurate (3) |
| OUT – homophone of OWT | |
| 11 | Italian player substituted sooner given bottle to carry (6,5) |
| SOPHIA LOREN – anagram of SOONER around PHIAL | |
| 12 | Humbug, penny sweet (6) |
| PHONEY – P + HONEY | |
| 13 | Migrant alarming at the border (8) |
| MARGINAL – anagram of ALARMING | |
| 15 | Deadly unit evacuated by hospital — never mind (3,5) |
| LET ALONE – LETHAL ONE – H | |
| 16 | Large amount in account, others short (5) |
| ACRES – AC + RES{t} | |
| 18 | Did champ taking gold first complete circuits? (5) |
| ORBIT – BIT after OR | |
| 20 | Basket lost below clothes son put outside room, finally (4,4) |
| SLAM DUNK – SUNK (lost below) around LAD around M
My last one in. Thanks to Kevin for catching my erroneous parsing! |
|
| 22 | Money provided in case member bet on ace (5,3) |
| LEGAL AID – LEG + LAID next to A
Great definition. |
|
| 23 | Evil German hit interpreter, perhaps (6) |
| SINGER – SIN + GER
Another great definition. I tried HITLER and BADGER before seeing how this worked. |
|
| 26 | Study chapter that discusses basis for subsequent work (11) |
| CONTEMPLATE – C + ON (that discusses) TEMPLATE
I see now that this was quite simple, but I struggled with this one. |
|
| 27 | Yank instinctively felt repelled (3) |
| TUG – GUT reversed | |
| 28 | Discover son with decapitated cat (4) |
| SUSS – S + {p}USS | |
| 29 | Smear cologne on mate’s back, blushing (9) |
| RUBESCENT – RUB + SCENT next to {mat}E | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | So much ice cream commonly sold in small supermarket (5) |
| SCOOP – S + CO-OP | |
| 2 | This jolting the Polo? (7) |
| POTHOLE – anagram of THE POLO | |
| 3 | WI group managed farm, charging tenants (6,8) |
| LESSER ANTILLES – RAN TILL in (charging) LESSEES
Great misdirection with WI! |
|
| 4 | Lake in spring rising where glaciers have melted (4) |
| ALPS – L in SPA reversed | |
| 5 | Having three parties, suffering hosts delayed fourth for year (10) |
| TRILATERAL – TRIAL around LATE + {yea}R | |
| 7 | Examiner questioning how someone passed? (7) |
| CORONER – cryptic definition
Am I missing something? This is nearly a straight definition. |
|
| 8 | Still second behind cycling cheat (8) |
| WINDLESS – S after SWINDLE cycled | |
| 9 | Pull and haul up ropes aboard ship, being very slack? (14) |
| SLUGGARDLINESS – LUG + DRAG reversed + LINES in SS
One of the ones I thought I’d never get. My next to last in. |
|
| 14 | Proper wish maybe taking form of prayer? (10) |
| WORSHIPPER – anagram (maybe) of PROPER WISH | |
| 17 | Republican party ties do very well (2,6) |
| GO PLACES – GOP LACES | |
| 19 | History smashed Boney’s grand forces apart (7) |
| BYGONES – anagram of BONEY’S around G | |
| 21 | Close relationship warmer in bed? (7) |
| NIGHTIE – NIGH TIE | |
| 24 | Due and true correspond in sound (5) |
| RIGHT – homophone of WRITE (correspond)
Fooled by RHYME! |
|
| 25 | A little Jacob male that needs raising? (4) |
| LAMB – hidden reversed | |
Very tricky i thought. Was defeated by the south west corner
COD to Slam Dunk and Lamb…..
SLAM DUNK: You’ve got L twice, Jeremy; ‘lost below’ is SUNK.
Thank you!!
Yeah, liked this. Took a break to eat before finishing. LESSER ANTILLES was LOI, seen before parsed.
40:19
It took me forever to get LESSER ANTILLES; great misdirection indeed. To get it, I first needed to give up thinking that ‘player’ meant athlete and to see SOPHIA LOREN. Like Jeremy, I tried BADGER before SINGER. LOI SLAM DUNK.
Hardest of the week, but no complaints. A steady solve, but the last few in the SW corner had to be picked off, one by one.
Also failed to spot the anagram at 13ac for quite a while..
I liked 7dn because the deception in the surface reading was effective. Certainly not my FOI. Also some very nice use of anagrams. Clever and enjoyable puzzle.
Biffed 3 and 11, but most of the rest had to be carefully worked out. Enjoyable stuff, finishing with SLAM DUNK. If there was a clue-writing competition for this phrase, I think the setter might do okay.
23:42
53 minutes and a very enjoyable challenge. I surprised myself by constructing LESSER ANTILLES quite quickly while being much slower on the shorter ones like LET ALONE.
DNF. It was the SE that did for me. I was so confident that it was RHYME that 27a and 29a were impossible. COD to the LESSER ANTILLES. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
DNF, with a silly PLOVER rather than PHONEY (didn’t know that meaning of humbug anyway).
– Biffed SOPHIA LOREN once I had enough checkers
– Can’t recall seeing RUBESCENT before, but it parsed and looked very plausible
– Didn’t see how RIGHT worked, though I avoided the RHYME trap
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
COD Lesser Antilles
Another long haul but felt some achievement when I cracked some hard ones. Once again though I decided to call time on it as the hour passed and resorted to aids for the last three.
SLAM DUNK went in because it fitted without any idea of the definition or wordplay. I know it only from tennis when it was used to describe a particular speciality shot played by Pete Sampras.
Brilliant puzzle – amazed to finish in 26 mins. No unheard-ofs, all wordplay understood. First in was LAMB, last SLAM DUNK. Out of numerous virtuoso clues, my favourite three: to POTHOLE, LESSER ANTILLES and CORONER; and I also admired ‘Money provided in case’ = LEGAL AID in 22A. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
Gave up on the 30 min mark realising I’d need a lot more time than I have. Might have finished it, but I suspect SLUGGARDLINESS would have done for me.
21.20, prepared to come here with a few gripes only to discover I was being too hasty. Mind you, if I’d had a pink with OUT rather than OWT I would definitely complain: it felt a bit of a toss up. I thought POTHOLE was a poor CD, missing the (pretty obvious!) anagram. I got RIGHT from the two definitions, didn’t see what the rest of the clue was doing. Nearly thought LAMB was another feeble CD, until I spotted the reverse hidden lurking.
This was a well crafted Friday teaser, though, LEGAL AID and SLAM DUNK especially impressing, and the delightful image of Ms Scicolone relegated to the sidelines for Lazio was a jewel. My last was SUSS, trying lion, puma, whip, anything other than puss for cat.