Hi everybody. Once again Alex hits the brief – this was my smoothest solve since the last Alex, who has given me two of my last three sub-5s. I liked the curious need in 17a and 10d’s disaster (not to be confused with this). Thanks Alex!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, 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 | Suspect vapour corrosion (8) |
| MISTRUST — MIST (vapour) + RUST (corrosion) | |
| 5a | Fragment caught by joint (4) |
| CHIP — C (caught) by HIP (joint) | |
| 8a | Smarten up stable hand (5) |
| GROOM — Two definitions | |
| 9a | Scent anger (7) |
| INCENSE — Another double definition | |
| 11a | Worldly former sovereign having break during test (11) |
| TERRESTRIAL — ER (former sovereign) and REST (break) inside (during) TRIAL (test) | |
| 13a | Bit of beer I eradicated for stranger (6) |
| EERIER — Hidden: a bit of bEER I ERadicated | |
| 14a | Like group’s property (6) |
| ASSETS — AS (like) + SET’S (group’s) | |
| 17a | Curious need developed over time (2,3,6) |
| IN DUE COURSE — An anagram of (… developed) CURIOUS NEED | |
| 20a | Puzzled birds in sack (7) |
| BEMUSED — EMUS (birds) in BED (sack) | |
| 21a | Start to peel every single fruit (5) |
| PEACH — The first letter of (start to) Peel + EACH (every single) | |
| 22a | Peer is almost ahead of schedule (4) |
| EARL — Without the last letter (almost) EARLy (ahead of schedule) | |
| 23a | Crazy act involving people with time (8) |
| DEMENTED — DEED (act) containing (involving) MEN (people) with T (time) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Remove top of picture for sorcerer (4) |
| MAGE — Alex is instructing us to remove the first letter of (top of) iMAGE (picture) to get the answer | |
| 2d | Gun with small nose (7) |
| SHOOTER — S (small) + HOOTER (nose) | |
| 3d | Sorrel seems strangely savage (11) |
| REMORSELESS — An anagram of (… strangely) SORREL SEEMS | |
| 4d | Thinly slice second piece of offal (6) |
| SLIVER — S (second) + LIVER (piece of offal) | |
| 6d | Back one language (5) |
| HINDI — HIND (back) + I (one) | |
| 7d | Redesigned sleepers beyond compare (8) |
| PEERLESS — An anagram of (redesigned) SLEEPERS | |
| 10d | Disaster as endless pot and ecstasy is introduced by jazz fan (11) |
| CATASTROPHE — AS, TROPHy (pot) without the last letter (endless …) and E (ecstasy) is preceded by (introduced by) CAT (jazz fan) | |
| 12d | Trustworthy about having exposure to risk (8) |
| RELIABLE — RE (about) + LIABLE (having exposure to risk) | |
| 15d | Refined film about strange angel (7) |
| ELEGANT — ET (film) around (about) an anagram of (strange) ANGEL | |
| 16d | Partial to posh, European dish (6) |
| FONDUE — FOND (partial to) + U (posh) + E (European) | |
| 18d | Mostly modest object (5) |
| DEMUR — Except for the last letter (mostly) DEMURe (modest) | |
| 19d | That woman had rudimentary dwelling (4) |
| SHED — SHE’D (that woman had) | |
19 minutes.
This was very hard and I’m struggling to understand how most of you found it so approachable. Sorry if this sounds negative, but it was a blow to my confidence to come here and see so many amazing times.
I struggled with the big crossword, getting about 60% in 75 mins. I’m having a tough time with anagrams again.
Thanks for the blog.
Didn’t get that many of the acrosses but the downs went in nicely, resulting in an overall 13:19. Liked EERIER. Thanks all.