A pangrammatic puzzle today with a good mixture of clue types.
A minor quibble with 31a in that both ‘beaten’ and ‘beeton’ could be entered into the grid and, depending upon how one reads the clue, either could be the correct solution. However, the most straightforward reading leads to ‘beaten’.
Across
1 TRUMAN dd – Harry S Truman (former US President) and homophone (‘in report’) of Fred Trueman (former Yorkshire and England fast bowler)
4 VERBIAGE VERB (part of speech) I (one) AGE (time)
9 NEWTON WT (weight) in NEON (element)
10 DISCLOSE D (date) IS CLOSE (actress, Glenn Close)
12 CLEAR-CUT C (chapter) LEAR (poet) CUT (excised)
13 ABLAZE A BLAZE[r] (part of school outfit not right)
15 TO-DO [pud]D[ing] in TOO (also)
16 KIBBUTZ K[ingdom] I[n] B[ig] B[rother] U[nifying] T[his] Z (unknown)
20 LOBELIA OBE (award) in *(ALL I)
21 WINO hidden in ‘windoW IN Off-licence’
25 VOLLEY dd
26 PUNCTURE cd
28 CHIVALRY CH (church) [r]IVALRY (competition not initially)
29 MAKE UP dd
30 TIGHTWAD W (wife) in *(THAT DIG)
31 BEATEN homophone of ‘beeton’ (cookery writer, Mrs Isabella Beeton)
Down
1 TENACITY *(TY[p]E IN ACT)
2 UNWIELDY U (posh) L (learner) in *(NEW DIY)
3 ABOARD A O (nothing) in BARD (poet)
5 EDIT hidden in ‘contestED ITem’
6 BACKBITE BIT (small amount) in BACKE[r] (sponsor largely)
7 AMORAL A MOR[t]AL (person lacking sign of truth)
8 EXETER E (European) in [d]EXTER (crime writer giving no introduction, Colin Dexter)
11 JUBILEE *(BE[n] JULIE)
14 OBLIQUE dd
17 FORECAST FOR (in support of) E (English) CAST (players)
18 VIRULENT *(LIVE TURN)
19 HOMESPUN HOME (former PM, Sir Alec Douglas-Home) SPUN (given a favourable slant)
22 AVOCET A VO[i]CE (sound I missed) T[ree]
23 FLYING Y (yard) in FLING (throw)
24 SCRAPE SCRAP (fight) [offic]E
27 AREA A REA[l] (largely genuine)
Very good puzzle, not too hard. Favourites, VOLLEY and PUNCTURE. I thought BEATEN was OK as the clue read “On radio, cookery writer is overwhelmed” so the homophone had to relate to ‘Beeton’ ie first part of clue, giving BEATEN as the answer as I saw it.
I haven’t solved any Sleuth puzzles so far, this one was the first.
I am not sure if I liked it.
The main reason is that Sleuth is fond of the take-one-letter-out-of-a-word technique.
13ac: BLAZE[r]
28ac: [r]IVALRY
6dn: BACKE[r]
7dn: MOR[t]AL
8dn: [d]EXTER
11dn: BE[n]
22dn: VO[i]CE
27dn: REA[l]
Gosh, it looks like I am redoing the blog.
See the point?