I thought this one was a degree or two more difficult than the first qualifier, it took me longer, 26 minutes, so I'd have exactly 20 minutes remaining to finish the third one and put my hand up, if I were to be in a TCC heat with an hour to make my 90 points.
To my mind it's one of those with quite a few clues which regular solvers will be tuned into, while newcomers may struggle. For example, the animal at 19a is as common in these pages as it is in South America, and obscure Greek coins are not at the forefront of everyone's mind. But the wordplay is fair throughout and it would have been faster had I not had to parse as I went along.
To my mind it's one of those with quite a few clues which regular solvers will be tuned into, while newcomers may struggle. For example, the animal at 19a is as common in these pages as it is in South America, and obscure Greek coins are not at the forefront of everyone's mind. But the wordplay is fair throughout and it would have been faster had I not had to parse as I went along.
| Across | |
| 1Pompous official in Bear Inn in conversation (4-3) | |
| POOH-BAH - Pooh as in Winnie the, BAH sounds like BAR; haughty chap in the The Mikado. | |
| 5Prissy person initially rather lacking politeness (7) | |
| PRUDISH - P(erson), RUDISH. | |
| 9Scarper, finding sheep tick in item of tack (9) | |
| SKEDADDLE - KED, another name for a tick, inside SADDLE. Not a common word these days, my mother used to use it a lot. | |
| 10Capital of industrialist originally in South Africa (5) | |
| SOFIA - OF, I (first letter of industrialist) inside SA. I expect the huge Soviet style murals I saw in 1968 when passing through in our rusty Morris Minor convertible have long since been replaced by McDonalds billboards and such. | |
| 11Soldier's material preceding article in medical journal (5-8) | |
| LANCE-SERGEANT - SERGE (material), AN (article) inside LANCET (the leading medical journal). I was familiar with Lance-corporals but this was a new one on me, although obvious. | |
| 13 Eat with queen, one men must find condescending (8) | |
| SUPERIOR - SUP (eat), ER (Queen), I (one), OR (men). | |
| 15Old coin sanctioned at first by King Edward, say. | |
| STATER - S = sanctioned at first, TATER sounds like it could be a potato. στατήρ literally 'weight' in ancient Greek. | |
| 17 American civil engineer after a new redemption period (6) | |
| USANCE - US, A, N, CE. | |
| 19 Unknown in top pub, a large rodent (8) | |
| CAPYBARA - CAP (top), Y (unknown), BAR (pub), A. | |
| 22French writer's talk with journalist grabbing a university chap (13) | |
| CHATEAUBRIAND - CHAT = talk, then A, U(niversity), BRIAN (chap), inside ED = journalist. I think the 'steak for two' was named after the writer, a toff (a vicompte) who was an ambassador to Napoleon B. | |
| 25 In Kiel it established a size of type (5) | |
| ELITE - Hidden in KI(EL IT E)STABLISHED. In Linotype days, a size with 12 characters to the inch. | |
| 26Cut limb off top of birch in woman's stock farm (9) | |
| DISBRANCH - DI'S (woman's), RANCH (stock farm), insert B(irch). Not a common word, but plausible enough. | |
| 27Possible source of Brazil's ten true reforms (3,4) | |
| NUT TREE - (TEN TRUE)*. | |
| 28 Soldiers in East allowed to fire, perhaps, once (7) | |
| ELEMENT - E(ast), MEN in LET. Element once as in fire, water, earth, air. Our nearest thing to a chemistry clue today! | |
| Down | |
| 1 Afterthought about old lady's last bunch of flowers (4) | |
| POSY - P.S. around O, then Y last letter of lady. | |
| 2coincide in part with deliveries friend sent up (7) | |
| OVERLAP - OVER = 6 deliveries as in cricket, LAP = PAL reversed. | |
| 3 Fine Scottish knight's physical strength (5) | |
| BRAWN - BRAW means fine in Scottish dialect, as in 'a braw bricht moonlicht nicht'. Add N chess notation for knight. | |
| 4 Way in which slow mover enters boundary? (8) | |
| HEDGEROW - HOW = way in which, insert EDGER being a 'slow mover'. | |
| 5Vexed woman tearing into chap under pressure (6) | |
| PEEVED - P for pressure, EVE for woman inside ED for chap. Vexed, good Scrabble word. | |
| 6Ugly university son enters regularly after dark (9) | |
| UNSIGHTLY - U for university, then S inside NIGHTLY = regularly after dark. | |
| 7Break actually taken without resistance (7) | |
| INFRACT - R inside IN FACT = actually. | |
| 8Anguish of ambassador over holiday tour of galleries? (10) | |
| HEARTBREAK - HE = ambassador, ART BREAK could be a cultural vacation. | |
| 12Shield English lad about to dodge church parade at last (10) | |
| ESCUTCHEON - E(nglish), then insert CUT (dodge), CH, E (parade at last) into SON = lad. | |
| 14Wide boy always supporting striker in court (9) | |
| RACKETEER - RACKET as in tennis, E'ER - always. | |
| 16Game left over at end of table (8) | |
| LACROSSE - L (left) ACROSS (over) (TABL)E. | |
| 18Doctor at bar is Middle East scholar (7) | |
| ARABIST - (AT BAR IS)*. | |
| 20 Joiner climbing mountain at a gentle pace (7) | |
| ANDANTE - AND a joining word, ETNA mountain reversed. | |
| 21 Cross about theologian's disorganisation (6) | |
| MUDDLE - Insert DD for the theologian into MULE a cross bred animal. | |
| 23 Someone like Zorba almost; do you concur? | |
| AGREE - Zorba was A GREEK so almost is A GREE. | |
| 24Talk about Panama, possibly (4) | |
| CHAT - C (about), HAT (Panama possibly). | |