Quite a solve of two halves for me this week. In the first sitting I managed a grand total of one clue solved, the very accessible 20ac.
I may just have been tired because in the end I managed to finish the puzzle unaided, apart from one square (the unchecked final letter of 8 down) and a couple of things to confirm in Chambers before blogging.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | MILLISECOND – MILL + IS + ONCE* + D. |
| 11 | LOCOMOBILE – Lake COMO in (LO + BILE). |
| 12 | NEAP – E in NAP. A neap tide is when the tide’s range is at its minimum |
| 13 | UNTURF – RUT< in FUN*. |
| 15 | CANINE – (N + I) in CANE. |
| 17 | MONARCHIC – RAN[d]OM< + CHIC. |
| 19 | PISOLITE – PI + (IT in SOLE). |
| 20 | TONI – [mal]T ON I[ce]. |
| 21 | SOUM – SO [r]UM. |
| 23 | INOSITOL – IS< in LOTION. |
| 25 | UNWATERED – (NATURE + DEW)* and I think &lit;. |
| 27 | ANTHEA – ANT + HEA[d]. |
| 28 | ALNICO – NAIL* + CO. |
| 29 | GIRT – TRIG<. “Trig” is a Scots word for “sound” or “tight”. |
| 30 | THIN CLIENT – T + ((NC + LIE) in HINT). |
| 31 | DOGBERRYISM – (EMBRYO GRIDS)*. Named after the character from Much Ado About Nothing. |
| Down | |
| 3 | IDEATIONAL – I’D + E + [r]ATIONAL. |
| 3 | LLANOS – (SON + ALL)<. |
| 4 | ICENOLITH – (INTO CHILE)*. |
| 5 | SOME – homophone of “sum”. |
| 6 | EMULATOR – (OUT METAL)*. |
| 7 | OBTECT – OB + TEC + T. |
| 8 | NIUE – IN< + [h]EU. |
| 9 | REFOCILLATE – (COLLIE AFTER)*. |
| 10 | ENCAPSULATE – (N in SPACE<) + [cons]ULATE. |
| 14 | RHINOCEROS – (HORSE + [u]NICOR[n])*. |
| 16 | PRESENTER – RESENT in PER. |
| 18 | NINE-HOLE – (E + LOHEN[gr]IN)<. |
| 22 | MAYING – YIN in MAG. |
| 24 | TAHITI – HIT in TAI. |
| 26 | UNIO – ‘UN + I + O. |
| 27 | AMIR – RIMA<. Rima being the gap between the vocal cords and arytaenoid cartilages, I learn. |
Quite a few I couldn’t parse this week, but I see I managed to get 27ac wrong. I’d ended up with ALTHEA, thinking A Lieutenant (Lt) was the soldier. Can’t see why I thought that now, as ant is so much more obvious and Anthea a much more common name.
This rather messed up 16dn and the only word I could find that fit was PRESELLER, but I couldn’t see why. 🙂