Solid and sometimes novel cluing make for a entertaining Tuesday offering.
I hadn’t seen ‘contact’ and ‘old vice’ in these senses before, both supplying those necessary ‘aha!’ moments that keep us engaged. Good fun: a slow start but mostly write-ins from about the half-way point. Thanks to Sleuth.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SET ASIDE | Preserve prepared ideas for reform (3,5) |
| SET (‘preserve’) + anagram (‘for reform’) of IDEAS. | ||
| 5 | TINPOT | Worthless cap fool returned (6) |
| Reversal of TOP NIT. | ||
| 10 | OCTET | Group that plays in part of autumn blockbuster (5) |
| OCTober (part of autumn) + ET (‘blockbuster’ film). | ||
| 11 | EYE-OPENER | Speaker’s first person by one leading strikers – notable revelation? (3,6) |
| EYE (homophone of I, “speaker’s first person”) + OPENER (cricket batsman, ‘one leading strikers’, although ‘striker’ more usually applies to fast bowlers, I think). | ||
| 12 | PRIMROSES | Sits taking in border by river and flowers (9) |
| POSES (‘sits’) includes RIM + R[iver]. | ||
| 13 | NEPAL | Note for vacation taken by friend in mountainous country (5) |
| NotE (emptied of content, ‘vacated’) so NE + PAL. | ||
| 14 | AGATHA | Saga that incorporates female (6) |
| Inclusion in ‘sAGA THAt’. | ||
| 15 | RAT-RACE | Artist gets to detect futile competition (3,4) |
| RA + TRACE. | ||
| 18 | DIPLOMA | Old map I mistook for official document (7) |
| Anagram (‘mistook’) of OLD MAP I. | ||
| 20 | THAMES | Engineer has met capital banker (6) |
| Anagram (‘engineer’) of HAS MET + cryptic def of London’s river. | ||
| 22 | EQUIP | Supply online joke? (5) |
| I.e., an E-QUIP. | ||
| 24 | FORBIDDEN | Supporting duke beset by old vice that’s taboo (9) |
| FOR (‘supporting’) then D[uke] surrounded by (Joe) BIDEN, ex-veep (‘old vice’) to Obama. | ||
| 25 | ERUDITION | Regret in short cutting form of text in learning (9) |
| RUe (‘regret’, shortened) in EDITION (‘form of text’). | ||
| 26 | INTER | Season with leader absent for Italian team (5) |
| wINTER. | ||
| 27 | SALUTE | Pay tribute to unionist over time in Manchester area (6) |
| U[nionist] + T[ime] in SALE (part of Manchester). | ||
| 28 | BODY BLOW | Organisation with initially big base gets serious setback (4,4) |
| BODY (‘organisation’) + 1st letter of Big + LOW (‘base’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SLOPPY | Slipshod line over work admitted by agent (6) |
| L[ine] + OP[us], ‘work’, in SPY. | ||
| 2 | TOTTING-UP | Liquid put into GT – problem for a driver? (7-2) |
| Anagram (‘liquid’) of PUT INTO GT. Def refs the ‘totting up’ of penalty points for motoring offences, culminating in disqualification from driving. | ||
| 3 | SATURATION POINT | Situation patron manufactured putting limit on possible number (10,5) |
| Anagram (‘manufactured’) of SITUATION PATRON. | ||
| 4 | DEEP-SEA | A European expedition held up relating to some trawling? (4-3) |
| Reversal of A + E[uropean] + SPEED (‘expedition’). | ||
| 6 | IMPENETRABILITY | Arranged timeline by a trip – such creates difficulty in understanding? (15) |
| Anagram (‘arranged’) of TIMELINE BY A TRIP. | ||
| 7 | PIN-UP | Attractive figure revealing speed? (3-2) |
| Read PIN ‘up’wards to find NIP (to ‘speed’). | ||
| 8 | THRILLER | Stream in article on Republican makes for exciting story (8) |
| RILL (‘stream’) in THE + R[ebublican]. | ||
| 9 | TEASER | Guy attracts heart of girls? Tricky question (6) |
| TEASE (to ‘guy’) + middle of ‘giRls’. | ||
| 16 | ANECDOTAL | A name located possibly regarding telling of story (9) |
| Anagram (‘possibly’) of A NAME LOCATED. | ||
| 17 | IDLENESS | Inactivity I had seen before contact about two points (8) |
| I’D then LENS (‘contact’ being short for one such) around E[ast] & S[outh] (2 ‘points’). | ||
| 19 | AFFAIR | Business in a trade show announced (6) |
| Homophone (‘announced’) of A FAIR. | ||
| 20 | TORONTO | Raise corruption virtually dominant in city (7) |
| Reversal of ROT (‘corruption’) + ON TOp (‘dominant’, almost). | ||
| 21 | IN A ROW | Consecutively arguing? (2,1,3) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 23 | USUAL | Customary pub so usable on a regular basis (5) |
| Alternate letters of ‘pUb So UsAbLe’. | ||
*anagram
‘Preserve’ in 1ac is def, I think, and. ‘prepared’ gives SET.
Yes, solid — a steady solve, one corner at a time. Thanks, Sleuth and GB.
Thanks, Rishi. Oops, slip of the eye-brain interface. Typed ‘pre’ and switched off. The def is correctly underlined though.
I completed in short time but had trouble parsing27 across and 2, 4 and 7 down. In 16d, I think you meant A N(ame) LOCATED . Thanks both.
I missed the ‘contact’ and ‘old vice’ wordplay – both very good – and (just being thick) couldn’t see ONTO for ‘virtually dominant’. TOTTING-UP for ‘problem for a driver?’? I thought it was a bit vague and also wondered about the use of the hyphen.
I would describe a good (usually fast) bowler as being a ‘strike bowler’ rather than as a ‘striker’. The use of ‘strikers’ can be justified by a batsman facing the bowling as being ‘on strike’.
I liked the answer-as-clue PIN-UP and the apt 6d anagram.
Thanks to Sleuth and Grant
Thanks to Sleuth and Grant. I was slowed down by some UK items (TOTTING-UP, Sale-Manchester) and had trouble parsing PIN-UP, but I enjoyed this puzzle.
Thanks Sleuth & Grant.
In cricket the batsmen strike the ball. The confusion in parsing 11 across may have arisen because the opening batsmen usually face fast bowlers.
Thanks Sleuth and Grant
A tricky little puzzle in parts, especially with the same ‘local knowledge’ clues mentioned by acd@6 that were both new to me. Forgot to go back and see if I could properly parse both PIN-UP and IDLENESS and don’t know whether I would have been able if I had.
Did have an ‘aha’ moment when Joe BIDEN surfaced for ‘vice’ at 24a and thought that it was quite a clever bit of deception. Liked EYE-OPENER and TORONTO (when I finally got the ON TO[P] bit … wasn’t as enthused about DEEP SEA’s definition.
Finished up the top by correcting SET ASIDE (from PUT ASIDE) after seeing SLOPPY at 1d and that PIN-UP was the last one in.