Not as difficult as the mini-theme might suggest…
Neo has put some words in here that suggest difficulty (HARD, SEVERE, STIFF, METTLE, TOILSOME etc), but the puzzle itself was very straightforward with no particularly obscure general knowledge required and a smattering of common devices such as chemical symbols and the phonetic alphabet popping up.
This did not make the puzzle any less enjoyable, howver – it just seemed to be over a little too quickly.
Thanks Neo.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HARD UP | Harsh at university on the breadline (4,2) |
| HARD (“harsh”) + UP (“at university”) | ||
| 5 | COALPITS | Shaped plastic covers over mines (8) |
| *(plastic) [anag:shaped] covers O (over, in cricket) | ||
| 9 | SCENARIO | Storyline involves endless fuss at a port (8) |
| [endless] SCEN(e) (“fuss”) at A RIO (“port”) (8) | ||
| 10 | ATOMIC | Very small American male in charge (6) |
| A (“American”) + TOM (“male”) + IC (in charge) (6) | ||
| 11 | SEVERE | Difficult to endure cut close to bone (6) |
| SEVER (“cut”) + [close to] (bon)E | ||
| 12 | STIFFEST | Most difficult singular argument is in French (8) |
| S (singular) + TIFF (“argument”) + EST (“is” in “French”) | ||
| 14 | STANDARD TIME | What passes locally as distant dream, fragmented (8,4) |
| *(distant dream) [anag:fragmented] | ||
| 18 | MELTING POINT | State changes in this at home within cultural mix (7,5) |
| IN (“at home”) within MELTING POT (“cultural mix”) | ||
| 22 | GOALPOST | Poor apologist one having withdrawn support (8) |
| *(apologst) [anag:poor] where APOLOG(i)ST has had I (“one”) withdrawn | ||
| 25 | SPOKEN | Said thrust pierces tin (6) |
| POKE (“thrust”) pierces Sn (chemical symbol for “tin”) | ||
| 26 | PILATE | Governor in India having dish brought round (6) |
| I (India, in the phoentic alphabet) having PLATE (“dish”) brought round | ||
| 27 | EMOTICON | Smiley’s People’s last chapter something not still around (8) |
| (peopl)E [‘s last] + C (chapter) with MOTION (“something not still”) around | ||
| 28 | OCEANAUT | Marine explorer at once excited about gold (8) |
| *(at once) [anag:excited] about Au (chemical symbol for “gold”) | ||
| 29 | METTLE | Loud rock music on Radio Heart (6) |
| Homophone [on radio] of METAL (“loud rock music”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ARCHER | Marksman at Agincourt more cunning? (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | DINNER SET | Basis for the table d’hôte meal? (6,3) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 4 | PORCELAIN | Shattered replica – no Ming items? (9) |
| *(replica no) [anag:shattered] | ||
| 5 | CROSSED | Angry news boss came over (7) |
| CROSS (“angry”) + ED (editor, so “news boss”) | ||
| 6 | ABACI | Summers Greeks and Romans could count on? (5) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 7 | PROOF | Page covering mathematical sequence (5) |
| P (page) + ROOF (“covering”) | ||
| 8 | TOILSOME | Needing much effort to place paintings in book (8) |
| OILS (“paintings”) in TOME (“book”) | ||
| 13 | FAD | Idiosyncrasy regularly detected in fraud (3) |
| [regularly detected in] F(r)A(u)D | ||
| 15 | RAINSTORM | Collapsed minor star in meteorological phenomenon (9) |
| *(minor star) [anag:collapsed] | ||
| 16 | TATTOOIST | One pointedly engaged in enhancing body image? (9) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 17 | DEMONIAC | Comedian frenzied? Exactly that! (8) |
| *(comedian) [anag:frenzied]
The “exactly that” relates to “frenzied” |
||
| 19 | IMP | Devil one among many at Westminster? (3) |
| 1 MP (one MP would be “one among many at Westminster”) | ||
| 20 | PATIENT | Job description from client in surgery (7) |
| Double definition, the first relating to the Biblical character of Job,, who could be described as patient (hence, “the patience of Job”) | ||
| 21 | RECOIL | Shrink back in horror on meeting snake (6) |
| RE (“on”) meeting COIL (“snake”) | ||
| 23 | LLAMA | Andean native in Lima with Buddhist monk (5) |
| L (Lima, in the phonetic alphabet) with LAMA (“Buddhist monk”) | ||
| 24 | OMEGA | Character from Titanic going after duck (5) |
| MEGA (“titanic”) going after O (“duck”, as in cricket) | ||
*anagram
No excuses, the theme passed me by, so a fail in that sense, but otherwise not too difficult and everything was more or less explained. I liked PATIENT which I parsed as a sort of double definition &lit, although I’m sure there’s no such thing!
Thanks to Neo and Grant
A quick but enjoyable solve. Had to look up meaning for “table d’hôte” (essentially a “set” menu) in order to understand 3d. Thanks to Neo and loonapick (not Grant).
Woops, sorry about that loonapick. Wrong day and blogger. Just plain carelessness my only excuse.
I saw the theme and, as I always do, enjoyed this Neo crossword. Thanks to him and loonapick
Thanks to Neo and loonapick. Enjoyable. I took a while getting GOALPOST and especially OCEANAUT, my LOI.
Lots of possibilities with these clues, so much so that I failed to complete this challenge. For example I missed COALPITS — I didn’t see “shaped” as an anagram indicator but considered “plastic” to be one. I also missed the homophone METTLE, getting hung up on “d” being the “radio heart.” Finally, I couldn’t parse OMEGA, being thrown by the capital T and knowing nothing about cricket. Thanks Neo for broadening my future solving and to Loonapick for the blog.
Unintentional ‘theme’. In that sense a ‘hard’ puzzle I suppose.
Thanks all and Loona.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Not particularly hard but with enough grist in it to make it entertaining. Whether there was a theme or not, it certainly passed me by anyway.
Find his clues always crispy clean without too much wriggle room which I quite enjoy. Think that my favourite out of a pretty good bunch would have to be the DINNER SET / SET DINNER clue at 3d.
Finished in the SE corner with EMOTICON (getting side-tracked down the John Le Carre alley for a while), RECOIL (easy definition but had to twig to ‘snake’ as a verb) and the tricky homophonic METTLE as the last one in.