This was an odd solve as I didn’t click with any acrosses until somewhere in the bottom half. The SE then filled in followed by NE and then the rest, finishing in the SW. My last two were the crossing 17ac and 14dn.
This all seemed to take an age, yet I finished 30 seconds within 10 minutes.
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Area covered by second best doctor on a temporary basis (7) |
| STOPGAP – area (A) somewhere inside second (S) best (TOP) and doctor (GP). | |
| 5 | Journalist, heading away from hut (4) |
| HACK – first letter off hut s(HACK). | |
| 7 | Insect having an insect’s tail (3) |
| ANT – an (AN) insec(T). | |
| 8 | I’m blocking a friend’s ill-feeling (8) |
| ACRIMONY – I’m (IM) blocking a friend (A CRONY). | |
| 10 | Scandinavian taking in opening of contemporary ballet? (5) |
| DANCE – Scandinavian (DANE) around (C)ontemporary. | |
| 11 | Information from those on the ground? (3-4) |
| LOW-DOWN – on the ground is low down – especially the older you get or if you have a leg injury… | |
| 13 | Clear evidence of leg injury I had (6) |
| LIMPID – evidence of leg injury (LIMP) I had (I’D). | |
| 15 | One small particle? In favour of 100 (6) |
| PROTON – in favour of (PRO) 100 (TON). | |
| 17 | Relative area reduced by half? Not sure (7) |
| UNCLEAR – relative (UNCLE) half of (AR)ea. | |
| 18 | Joint work brought back large animal (5) |
| HIPPO – joint (HIP – another leg related clue) work backwards (PO). | |
| 20 | Certain sailors appearing with old instrument (8) |
| ABSOLUTE – sailors (ABS) old (O) instrument (LUTE). | |
| 22 | Border crime dismissive of borders (3) |
| RIM – c(RIM)e. | |
| 23 | Quiet appreciation of music bears fruit (4) |
| PEAR – quiet (P) appreciation of music (EAR – as in ‘have an ear for’). | |
| 24 | Crashed bus brought in by worker’s partner (7) |
| HUSBAND – anagram (crashed) of BUS inside worker (HAND). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Dreadful, and almost entirely accepted by Liverpudlian, mostly (10) |
| SCANDALOUS – and (AND) and almost entirely (AL)l inside Liverpudlian mostly (SCOUS)e. | |
| 2 | Frequently become milder after losing head (5) |
| OFTEN – become milder after losing head s(OFTEN). | |
| 3 | Viticulture’s rumour mill? (9) |
| GRAPEVINE – reference to wine making. | |
| 4 | Place bedecked in unalloyed imperial colour (6) |
| PURPLE – place (PL) inside unalloyed (PURE). | |
| 5 | Sound of activity in university Her Majesty is going round (3) |
| HUM – university (U) with Her Majesty (HM) going round. | |
| 6 | Partner is criminal type (7) |
| CONSORT – criminal (CON) type (SORT). | |
| 9 | Ignorant, like many soldiers about end of operation (10) |
| UNINFORMED – like many soldiers (UNIFORMED) about operatio(N). | |
| 12 | Ramshackle Welsh store closing early, offering zero value (9) |
| WORTHLESS – anagram (ramshackle) of WELSH STORe – no ‘e’ as ‘closing early’. | |
| 14 | Spooky horse seen around hackney carriage? (7) |
| MACABRE – horse (MARE) seen around hackney carriage (CAB). | |
| 16 | Squat bed with end of cover tucked in (6) |
| CROUCH – bed (COUCH) holding cove(R). | |
| 19 | Father wrapping large boat in insulated coat (5) |
| PARKA – father (PA) outside large boat (ARK). | |
| 21 | 60 minutes showing no opening for us (3) |
| OUR – h(OUR). | |
Slowish to start but then scampered through this with no significant hold-ups. Never managed to parse STOPGAP and only partially parsed SCANDALOUS but otherwise all good. Finished in 12 minutes, quite fast by my standards, and especially fast for a Pedro, who I often find tricky.
FOI – 7ac ANT
LOI – 13ac LIMPID
COD – 11ac LOW-DOWN
Thanks to Pedro for an approachable puzzle and to Chris for the explanations in the blog.
Over our modest target, found some clues tricky to unravel. Could not see couch for bed in 16d. We blame the weather for our slow brains. However, enjoyed the comments as ever.
Could not get on the wavelength today. Managed to finish but needed aids. Didn’t even try to parse some of them. I think the sun fried my brain at the coast this morning.
Thought I was going to struggle after a lacklustre start, but gradually plodded through. Struggled with some of the parsing, but thoroughly enjoyable. LOI – 16dn which should perhaps have been one of the easier ones to get.
Great blog as ever.