Hi everybody. I hope 2024 is treating you well. This puzzle certainly treated me well as I came home comfortably inside my inner target time and enjoyed the ride as usual. Thanks Orpheus!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Traverse river, taking in old Ugandan dictator to question (5-7) |
| CROSS-EXAMINE — CROSS (traverse) + EXE (river) containing (taking in) AMIN (old Ugandan dictator) | |
| 9a | Young fish always found around lake (5) |
| ELVER — EVER (always) found around L (lake) | |
| 10a | Arriviste promotes baked food (7) |
| UPSTART — UPS (promotes) + TART (baked food) | |
| 11a | No more than moggy, do we hear? It’s a type of mongoose (7) |
| MEERKAT — Sounds like (… do we hear?) MERE CAT (no more than moggy) | |
| 12a | Polish nurse once entertaining ambassador (5) |
| SHEEN — SEN (State Enrolled Nurse: nurse once) containing (entertaining) HE (His/Her Excellency: ambassador) | |
| 13a | Quiet church reportedly in dilapidated state (6) |
| SHABBY — SH (quiet) + ABBY, which sounds like (… reportedly) ABBEY (church) | |
| 14a | Long to take Oxford course in French port (6) |
| DIEPPE — DIE (long) + PPE (Philosophy Politics and Economics: Oxford course) | |
| 17a | Deviating from norm? Not in the Royal Engineers (5) |
| OUTRE — OUT (not in) + RE (the Royal Engineers) | |
| 19a | Loving American politician touring area (7) |
| AMATORY — AM (American) and TORY (politician) around (touring) A (area) | |
| 21a | Lorry driver and friar crossing river with hesitation (7) |
| TRUCKER — TUCK (friar – Friar Tuck) going over (crossing) R (river) + ER (hesitation) | |
| 22a | Bungling fashionable European taking exercise (5) |
| INEPT — IN (fashionable) + E (European) + PT (exercise) | |
| 23a | Is main credit somehow showing bias? (12) |
| DISCRIMINATE — Anagram of (… somehow) IS MAIN CREDIT | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Holiday area, one adopted by Rhode Island girl (7) |
| RIVIERA — I (one) inside (adopted by) RI (Rhode Island) and VERA (girl) | |
| 3d | Hit big wave, getting scab (13) |
| STRIKEBREAKER — STRIKE (hit) + BREAKER (big wave) | |
| 4d | Some people quit Yorkshire, showing fair-mindedness (6) |
| EQUITY — Some peoplE QUIT Yorkshire | |
| 5d | Similar beasts of burden initially in race? That’s killing! (13) |
| ASSASSINATION — ASS and ASS (similar beasts of burden) + the first letter of (initially) In + NATION (race) | |
| 6d | Profile that is restricting publication (5) |
| IMAGE — IE (that is) around (restricting) MAG (publication) | |
| 7d | Friendly understanding in recent enterprise (7) |
| ENTENTE — The answer is hidden in recENT ENTErprise | |
| 8d | Steering apparatus made of hard wood (4) |
| HELM — H (hard) + ELM (wood) | |
| 13d | Caught sight of, like leopards and cheetahs (7) |
| SPOTTED — Double definition | |
| 15d | Demonstration in favour of trial (7) |
| PROTEST — PRO (in favour of) + TEST (trial) | |
| 16d | Grass originally maintaining all rare male sheep (6) |
| MARRAM — Initials of (originally) Maintaining All Rare + RAM (male sheep) | |
| 18d | Excursions in town on River Loire (5) |
| TOURS — Two definitions | |
| 20d | Legendary Himalayan, still impressive to begin with (4) |
| YETI — YET (still) + the first letter of (… to begin with) Impressive | |
12:33
A nice gentle start to the week. Only holdups were AMATORY which I didn’t know but the clue was clear, UPSTART and LOI ENTENTE.
We still are very happy with 11:28 today but, my goodness, 1:38! I don’t think I could type the answers in that quickly if I had someone dictating them to me. Chapeau! Thanks to Orpheus and Kitty.
I was BUNGLING through this with a few hold-ups. Eventually it all fell into place and I ended up enjoying it.
LOI TOURS.