A cunning puzzle for the Championships, I thought, not too difficult as a first round test but with a couple of places where you can easily get one letter wrong; I see only 30 of 88 contestants got 100% on this one so perhaps that's why. Apart from some basic Welsh geography and musical terms there's no heavy duty general knowledge so it is a fair test of solving skills not quizzing skills. It took me just over the 20 minutes with no use of aids, but in exam conditions so not parsing everything, I expect I'd have messed up.
Thanks to Mohn2 for the java update, it worked fine on its first outing once I'd followed the extra bit in the instructions when using a Chrome browser.
Thanks to Mohn2 for the java update, it worked fine on its first outing once I'd followed the extra bit in the instructions when using a Chrome browser.
| Across | |
| 1 | Clean bottom lip, following medic (6) |
| DREDGE - DR = medic, EDGE = lip. | |
| 4 | Warmer place in Wales (8) |
| CARDIGAN - Double definition. | |
| 9 | Lack of honesty old city avoided? That’s not possible (2,3,2) |
| NO CAN DO - NO CANDOUR would be lack of honesty, delete the UR, our usual old city. | |
| 11 | Organ that is held in each hand, further back (7) |
| EARLIER - EAR = organ, I.E. = that is, inside L and R. | |
| 12 | Language family don’t allow, excessively outspoken (5) |
| BANTU - BAN = don't allow, TU sounds like TOO, excessively. | |
| 13 | Needs, somehow, to insert line, tricky without stopping (9) |
| ENDLESSLY - Anagram of (NEEDS L)* then SLY = tricky. | |
| 14 | Staggered— so getting teeth knocked out, possibly? (10) |
| GOBSMACKED - Double definition, one whimsical. | |
| 16 | Superior type seems noisome and obviously bourgeois, initially (4) |
| SNOB - Initial letters of Seems Noisome Obviously Bourgeois. | |
| 19 | Old soldier on back in agony: stretcher found? (4) |
| YOGI - Y = back in agony; O(ld), GI = soldier. At first I had YOGA thinking it was a better definition, but couldn't parse it; perhaps this was one of the little errors people could make in haste. | |
| 20 | Weakness— old empire builder quick to conceal it (10) |
| INCAPACITY - INCA = old empire builder, PACY = quick, insert IT. | |
| 22 | Monarch in clothes, striking (9) |
| BATTERING - BATTING = IN, as in cricket, insert ER = monarch. | |
| 23 | Old firefighter in commercial broadcast (5) |
| ADAIR - AD = commercial, AIR = broadcast. A reference to Paul 'Red' Adair, famous oil well firefighter who died in 2004 aged 89. If you'd never heard of him, or forgotten, the wordplay was obvious. | |
| 25 | Gag vacuously lame, considering skirting round it? (7) |
| SILENCE - LE = vacuously lame, insert into SINCE = considering. | |
| 26 | A set of books inspired by remarkable island capital (3,4) |
| SAO TOME - SOME here = remarkable, as in 'that was some catch'. Insert A OT being Old Testament. I of course had the New one at first making 18d unsolvable. Sao Tome the capital of Sao Tome & Principe, has a surprisingly large 71,000 population. Well, it surprised me. | |
| 27 | Dark liquid drunk by Osage leader, native American bottles (8) |
| CREOSOTE - CREE is the native American, insert O and SOT = drunk. | |
| 28 | Promise I've given? I don't believe it! (2,4) |
| MY WORD - Double definition, one exclamatory. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Traveller on beach in shade, European plagued by insects (4,5) |
| DUNE BUGGY - DUN = shade, E(uropean), BUGGY = plagued by insects. | |
| 2 | Is one’s time up in Labour now, then? (2-3) |
| EX-CON - I think this is a sort of double definition, 1. being an EX-CON means you've served your time, 2. no longer a Conservative so joined Labour perhaps. | |
| 3 | After a couple of drinks, well game! (3,5) |
| GIN RUMMY - GIN, RUM = a couple of drinks, MY ! exclamation = well! | |
| 5 | Protein-rich food source, a new green bean to eat beginning to disagree with us (8,5) |
| ABERDEEN ANGUS - Insert D (beginning to disagree) into (GREEN BEAN)* then add US. | |
| 6 | Lift not working, service called in, so mended (6) |
| DARNED - Not working = DEAD, lif it = DAED, insert RN = service. | |
| 7 | Slides sliding off, it separates (9) |
| GLISSANDI - Musical slides. Insert SA = sex appeal, or 'IT', into (SLIDING)*. | |
| 8 | Terminals in nine ready, five plugs wired (5) |
| NERVY - Insert V (five) into the first and last letters of NinE ReadY. | |
| 10 | Cocky model on cover, if with slight flaw (13) |
| OVERCONFIDENT - (ON COVER IF)* add DENT = slight flaw. | |
| 15 | Beauty smuggling a gun, short piece (9) |
| BAGATELLE - BELLE = beauty, insert A GAT, a Gatling gun. | |
| 17 | Squeeze bone dry, if soused (9) |
| BOYFRIEND - (IF BONE DRY)*. When did you last hear someone describe their bloke this way? Me neither. | |
| 18 | Can, a container of liquid drunk by bird (8) |
| LAVATORY - LORY is a small parrot like bird, insert A VAT. US slang for the loo. | |
| 21 | Rallying mid-morning? Not quite (6) |
| TENNIS - Nearly TENNISH so nearly mid morning. | |
| 22 | Lowest degree, like that (5) |
| BASIC - BA = degree, SIC Latin for thus, like that. | |
| 24 | Back with vitality in abundance (1,4) |
| A GOGO - AGO = back, GO = vitality. | |