I'm covering for Verlaine today.
This was going very well but I hit a wall as the half-hour approached with almost nothing in the SW corner. Once I got going again it fell into place quite quickly but my total solving time was 44 minutes. I blogged this at short notice so I've commented very little other than to explain the parsing. I thought it a really good puzzle which required quite a lot of lateral thinking.
After yesterday's talk of anniversaries it's a bit spooky suddenly to find myself back in my old Friday slot where I spent most of my 9 years here.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
This was going very well but I hit a wall as the half-hour approached with almost nothing in the SW corner. Once I got going again it fell into place quite quickly but my total solving time was 44 minutes. I blogged this at short notice so I've commented very little other than to explain the parsing. I thought it a really good puzzle which required quite a lot of lateral thinking.
After yesterday's talk of anniversaries it's a bit spooky suddenly to find myself back in my old Friday slot where I spent most of my 9 years here.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Woman like Bertha Rochester and a Fleming character (5) |
| MADAM - MAD (like Bertha Rochester - Jane Eyre), A, M (Fleming character - James Bond's boss) | |
| 4 | Mastiff's heading after hollow stick — watch out for it! (4,5) |
| CAVE CANEM - CAVE (hollow), CANE (stick), M{astiff} [heading]. "Beware of the dog!" | |
| 9 | This line around ship secured by rope (9) |
| CROSSWORD - ROW (line) around SS (ship) all inside [secured by] CORD (rope). Neat definition. | |
| 10 | Tucked in to endless meat: we might (5) |
| POWER - WE tucked in to POR{k} (meat) [endless] | |
| 11 | Under a roof, complete in wrought iron (6) |
| INDOOR - DO (complete) in anagram [wrought] of IRON | |
| 12 | A one-liner? (8) |
| MONORAIL - Cryptic definition | |
| 14 | Cool criminal in capital of Sicily, Palermo (10) |
| IMPERSONAL - Anagram [criminal] of IN PALERMO S{icily} [capital] | |
| 16 | Ignore / item on a building site (4) |
| SKIP - Two definitions | |
| 19 | Swimmer, a fanatic doing the backstroke? (4) |
| TUNA - A + NUT (fanatic) reversed [doing a backstroke] | |
| 20 | The remote control initially thrown some distance (10) |
| HECTOMETRE - Anagram [thrown] of THE REMOTE C{ontrol} [initially] | |
| 22 | Delivery, piece that's fragile? (8) |
| CHINAMAN - a MAN (piece) made of CHINA might indeed be fragile. Two games for the price of one here - cricket in the definition and chess in the wordplay. | |
| 23 | Island featuring in marathons, hundreds! (6) |
| HONSHU - Hidden [featuring] in {marat} HONS HU{ndreds} | |
| 26 | Last seen of bottle, spare the hard stuff (5) |
| EBONY - {bottl}E [last seen], BONY (spare) | |
| 27 | Killing / beyond value (9) |
| PRICELESS - Two definitions | |
| 28 | Leader kind of tense having stolen passport, say? (9) |
| PRESIDENT - PRESENT (kind of tense) containing [having stolen] ID (passport, say) | |
| 29 | Tips for perfect miso soup side order: lush! (5) |
| TOPER - Last letters [tips] of {perfec}T, {mis}O, {sou}P, {sid}E, {orde}R | |
| Down | |
| 1 | One working on a device that's a hit in film (9) |
| MACHINIST - A + CHIN (hit) in MIST (film) | |
| 2 | Designer starting out, couturier raised as an automaton (5) |
| DROID - D{esigner} [starting out], DIOR (couturier) reversed [raised] | |
| 3 | State has to avoid the ego of The Times? (8) |
| MISSOURI - MISS (avoid), OUR (of The Times), I (ego) | |
| 4 | Fish around lake for dope? (4) |
| CLOD - COD (fish) around L (lake) | |
| 5 | Grotesquely veiny toads — an unpleasant picture (5,5) |
| VIDEO NASTY - Anagram [grotesquely] of VEINY TOADS. This came up very recently in a discussion and some solvers had not heard of it. | |
| 6 | Better prominence for jailer? (6) |
| CAPTOR - CAP (better), TOR (prominence) | |
| 7 | Card game of course? (9) |
| NEWMARKET - Two definitions. The home of UK horse racing. | |
| 8 | Extra large fungus (5) |
| MOREL - MORE (extra), L (large) | |
| 13 | First ten enough, say (3,7) |
| FOR EXAMPLE - FORE (first), X (ten), AMPLE (enough) | |
| 15 | Model punched by rival over hot underwear (9) |
| PANTIHOSE - POSE (model) containing [punched by] ANTI (rival) + H (hot) | |
| 17 | Herald procures new editor, finally (9) |
| PRECURSOR - Anagram [new] of PROCURES, {edito}R ([finally] | |
| 18 | Very short poems ending in sentiment, shameless (8) |
| IMMODEST - 1 MM (very short), ODES (poems), {sentimen}T [ending] | |
| 21 | Old manuscripts deliver cut below penny in wages (6) |
| PAPYRI - P (penny) in PAY (wages), RI{d} (deliver) [cut] | |
| 22 | Chicks originally look to pull up worm (5) |
| CREEP - C{hicks} [originally], PEER (look) reversed [pull up] | |
| 24 | Range is clear (5) |
| SWEEP - Two definitions | |
| 25 | A bomb that's sweet (4) |
| MINT - Two definitions | |