Well, this morning proved a struggle. It was my birthday yesterday and I'm afraid to say that seven drinks at two separate London hostelries last night may have been three or four too many. Bleary and hungover, I logged into the Times Crossword Club and was not displeased with a time of 15 minutes-ish... until I went to submit and realised I hadn't logged in at all, and had been doing the sample cryptic instead.
Elder daughter dressed and taken to school, I plonked younger daughter in front of the TV and prayed for an easy puzzle at this late stage of Friday morning. No such luck! I found today's really quite arduous, well over half an hour on the clock, with many tricksily concealed definitions and/or complicated routes to solutions. Matters were not helped by more than one false start: CAMP at 1D, MOLE at 28A (always bad when one's FOI is an error!), something TOWN at 11D... I definitely blame the liquor.
LOI was 1D and I must confess I only managed to parse it as I was writing up the blog, I think under competition conditions I might have handed in a doomed and desperate "POSE". It wasn't easy to muster up a COD for a puzzle that I mostly experienced through gritted teeth (last night's overindulgence's fault, not the setter's, I must stress!) but even with a pounding skull I did like "remand aged criminal" at 24A, rather neat.
Okay, no more booze for me until the 18th October I think! Though that could end up being a very boozy afternoon, sorrows to drown and all that...
Elder daughter dressed and taken to school, I plonked younger daughter in front of the TV and prayed for an easy puzzle at this late stage of Friday morning. No such luck! I found today's really quite arduous, well over half an hour on the clock, with many tricksily concealed definitions and/or complicated routes to solutions. Matters were not helped by more than one false start: CAMP at 1D, MOLE at 28A (always bad when one's FOI is an error!), something TOWN at 11D... I definitely blame the liquor.
LOI was 1D and I must confess I only managed to parse it as I was writing up the blog, I think under competition conditions I might have handed in a doomed and desperate "POSE". It wasn't easy to muster up a COD for a puzzle that I mostly experienced through gritted teeth (last night's overindulgence's fault, not the setter's, I must stress!) but even with a pounding skull I did like "remand aged criminal" at 24A, rather neat.
Okay, no more booze for me until the 18th October I think! Though that could end up being a very boozy afternoon, sorrows to drown and all that...
| Across | |
| 1 | PICKPOCKET - a dip: PICKET [fence] "crossing" POCK [pitted area] |
| 6 | YEAH - agreed: E [energy] in HAY [fodder] "about" |
| 9 | SO THERE - sneer: OTHER [different] "at heart" of SE{e} ["see, brief"] |
| 10 | PUFFING - "apparently short of wind": PUFFIN [seabird] + G ["heading for" gale] |
| 12 | SUPERVISOR - head, perhaps: V S [very small] "dipped separately" in SUPERIOR [lake] |
| 13 | RAW - "not yet ready to eat": "peeled" {p}RAW{n} [crustacean] |
| 15 | OPTICS - "visionary study": {c}OPTICS [Christians "not the first"] |
| 16 | ORDINARY - plain: OR DINAR [gold coin] + Y [unknown value] |
| 18 | OLD SARUM - Wiltshire ruin: (SOLD*) ["originally"] + ARUM [lily] |
| 20 | SIERRA - "Range abroad": "sounding out" SEA AIR [ozone] + A [area] |
| 23 | RAY - "shaft": Man, maybe, i.e. artist Man Ray |
| 24 | GRANDE DAME - formidable woman: (REMAND AGED*) ["criminal"] |
| 26 | BARISTA - employee in cafe: (STAB AIR*) ["furiously"] |
| 27 | AGITATE - try to move: IT [thing] "set in" AGATE [stone] |
| 28 | ESPY - spot: punnily, an "electronic eavesdropper" would be an e-spy |
| 29 | MIND READER - stage entertainer: MINER [one in the pit"] "inspiring" DREAD [terror] |
| Down | |
| 1 | POSY - double def: bunch / tending to strike attitudes |
| 2 | CATSUIT - tight costume: (ACT*) ["new"] + SUIT ["diamonds perhaps"] |
| 3 | PREFER CHARGES - put in dock: and one "who doesn't want any offers to be free" punnily prefers charges |
| 4 | CLEAVE - divide: C [a hundred] + LEAVE [have as remainder] |
| 5 | EXPOSURE - double def: revelation / possible cause of death |
| 7 | ERITREA - country: TIRE [weary] "over" + REA{d} ["endless" study] |
| 8 | HIGHWAYMAN - punnily, a criminal proceeding by stages, i.e. stagecoaches |
| 11 | FORTIFIED WINE - port: (IOW + DIFFERENT + I)* ["confused"] |
| 14 | HONOURABLE - decent: H [hot] + ON OUR {t}ABLE ["dinner for us here perhaps""dropping" the T for temperature] |
| 17 | GUJARATI - Indian: I TAR A JUG ["I preserve a piece of crockery"] "knocked over" |
| 19 | DAY TRIP - "where none stay the night": D [daughter] + I [one] "interrupting" (PARTY*) ["wild"] |
| 21 | RIMBAUD - poet: sounds like RAMBO ["a violent tough"] |
| 22 | ID CARD - authorisation: I'D CAR [I had vehicle] + D [rented "finally"] |
| 25 | LEAR - king: CLEAR [unblocked] - C ["having no clubs"] |