Finished in 9:23. I had hoped for something a bit faster as I've been working on improving my speed. But when the pressure's on, I seem to slow down! In any case, a tricky puzzle with some unknown words for me. Maybe half the clues went in from definition alone, so I'll be figuring out the wordplay on the fly.
( Collapse )| Across | |
| 1 | Feast keeps old woman in compound (8) |
| DOPAMINE - DINE (feast) insert O (old) PAM (random woman). Dopamine is not an amine that makes you dopey; its name is a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter essential to the functioning of your brain. | |
| 5 | Flower pot almost useless (6) |
| CROCUS - CROC(K) - pot almost; US = useless, unserviceable. | |
| 10 | This, under LA, SF and Santa A, in slippage? (3,7,5) |
| SAN ANDREAS FAULT - (UNDER LA SF SANTA A)* my FOI | |
| 11 | Violin piece by leader in strong position (10) |
| BRIDGEHEAD - BRIDGE (violin piece), HEAD (leader). | |
| 13 | Crone a non-starter in desire (4) |
| ITCH - WITCH doesn't start. | |
| 15 | Key often used by news boss went in (7) |
| ENTERED - ENTER (key often used) ED (news boss). | |
| 17 | Endless respect little man gives senior officer (7) |
| ADMIRAL - ADMIR(E) = endless respect, AL a little chap. | |
| 18 | Soldiers taking area in French town and city (7) |
| ORLEANS - OR (soldiers) LENS (a town near Calais) has A for area inserted. | |
| 19 | Experiment involves cat finding fish (7) |
| TELEOST - TEST (experiment) has LEO (a cat) inserted. Teleosts include some 96% of all bony fish species, from the Greek teleios (complete) + osteon (bone). I had seen the word before and knew it was something to do with fish, but couldn't have told you much more without Wiki's help. | |
| 21 | Work found regularly in two mills (4) |
| TOIL - Alternate letters of T w O m I l L s. | |
| 22 | Warm house and outbuilding very good inside (10) |
| HOSPITABLE - HO (house) STABLE (outbuilding) insert PI (very good). | |
| 25 | Medicinal plant cultivated in vigneron's empire (7,8) |
| EVENING PRIMROSE - (VIGNERONS EMPIRE)*. | |
| 27 | Stupid baronet plunged into river (6) |
| OBTUSE - BT (baronet) goes in the River Ouse. | |
| 28 | Somewhere in France that's cleaner — and very French! (8) |
| CHARTRES - CHAR as in charwoman, or charperson perhaps now, TRES très being French for very. Two days in a row, we're in Chartres. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Where white queen starts, black causes damage (7) |
| DISABLE - On a chess board, the white queen begins the game on the square conventionally labelled as D1; SABLE = black. | |
| 2 | Immobilise leg (3) |
| PIN - double definition. | |
| 3 | Executive rage — animal unleashed (10) |
| MANAGERIAL - (RAGE ANIMAL)*. | |
| 4 | Player, reluctant, eviscerated in classical drama (5) |
| NORTH - Reluctant eviscerated = RT; insert into NOH = classic drama. Player as in bridge. | |
| 6 | Extensive search through ignores luggage at first (4) |
| RIFE - RIFLE = search through, loses its L the initial letter of luggage. | |
| 7 | Pounds raised in Ulster — British in search for weapon (7,4) |
| CLUSTER BOMB - Take Ulster, 'raise' the L to get LUSTER; add B for British; insert it all into COMB = search for. | |
| 8 | Bag male brought into class after exam (7) |
| SATCHEL - SAT = exam, CL for class; insert HE for male. In the UK SAT stands for Standard Attainment Tests. | |
| 9 | Fall that could lead to blindness (8) |
| CATARACT - double definition; a waterfall, and an eye problem. | |
| 12 | Smart but impoverished count supplanting duke (11) |
| INTELLIGENT - Take INDIGENT (impoverished) and replace the D (duke) by TELL (count). | |
| 14 | Grandfather is not such an insignificant person (5-5) |
| SMALL-TIMER - A grandfather clock is not a 'small timer', it's a large one. | |
| 16 | Drive away from one small lake in Kansas City (8) |
| DISLODGE - DODGE CITY is in Kansas; insert I S L (one small lake) into Dodge. | |
| 18 | Busy hospital in Eton failed to operate (2,3,2) |
| ON THE GO - insert H into (ETON)* add GO = operate. | |
| 20 | Greek hero puts article to varied uses (7) |
| THESEUS - THE (article) (USES)*. | |
| 23 | Church under pressure to accommodate gold in hall (5) |
| PORCH - P (pressure) CH (church) insert OR (gold). | |
| 24 | Light touch from one X represents (4) |
| KISS - double definition. | |
| 26 | Rower in loud cry when losing lead (3) |
| OAR - ROAR loses its leading R. | |
