I found this a bit of a grind with lots of quite involved clues and a number of off-centre or obscure word usages making the clues seem more difficult than they actually were.
29 was a good example of this. There were a couple of places where the hyphenated phrases were treated as a single word, which I’m not keen on. 22 was my favourite for the cunning definition.
| Across | ||
| 1 | GOLF COURSE | Habitat for game beginning to grow naturally around lake (4,6) |
| G[row] + of course around l(ake) | ||
| 6 | ACTS | Book features a chapter on Eliot (4) |
| A c[hapter] on TS | ||
| 9 | ELITE | Switching letter inonline Scrabble? It’s for the best (5) |
| Swap the l and t in e-tile, a fanciful online Scrabble piece | ||
| 10 | HEARTACHE | Discover facial hair and get upset (9) |
| Hear + tache | ||
| 12 | MARITAL | In backing strike, write unrestricted article relating to union matters (7) |
| ([W]rit[e] + a) in lam< | ||
| 13 | PLEAT | Watery ditch is to the rear of sheep fold (5) |
| Leat on [shee]p | ||
| 15 | OSTRICH | Old twitcher’s first to capture small, colourful bird (7) |
| O(ld) + t[witcher] around s(mall) + rich(=colourful). | ||
| 17 | WHOOPEE | Boxing ring is where, regularly, you’ll get boisterous behaviour (7) |
| Odd letters of where around (=boxing) hoop | ||
| 19 | REVOLVE | Right-armer’s beginning to develop spin (7) |
| R[ight-armer] + evolve | ||
| 21 | TRAINER | Shoe drops into the middle of Worcestershire river (7) |
| Rain(=drops) in [worces]te[rshire] r(iver) | ||
| 22 | EYING | Getting a load of money in gilt-edged stocks (5) |
| Hidden in(=stocks) “moEY IN Gilt-edged”. The def refers to the phrase “get a load of” i.e. have a good look at. | ||
| 24 | LAUNDRY | Washing one left around, possibly wet? (7) |
| (A + l(eft)) + undry | ||
| 27 | TOP-FLIGHT | Half of police force needs a shake-up – it’s handled by strict superior (3-6) |
| (Pol[ice] + f(orce))* in tight | ||
| 28 | ON ICE | When one interrupts, one gets delayed (2,3) |
| I in once(=when) | ||
| 29 | SETT | One of many paving blocks laid at end of street (4) |
| Set(=laid) + [stree]t | ||
| 30 | BENEFICENT | Charitable fellow with a small amount of money has been around previously (10) |
| F(ellow) + I cent(=small amount of money) with been* at the front. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GHEE | My hotel’s introduced an element of Asian cuisine (4) |
| Gee(=my) with h(otel) included | ||
| 2 | LEITMOTIV | With title cut, movie to get reworked theme music? (9) |
| (Titl[e] + movie)* | ||
| 3 | CLEAR | Jump over net (5) |
| DD – as in net profit etc. | ||
| 4 | UNHITCH | By the middle of June, husband has yearning for divorce, perhaps (7) |
| [J]un[e] + h + itch | ||
| 5 | SHALLOW | Sickly in hospital? On the contrary, it’s superficial (7) |
| H(ospital) in sallow | ||
| 7 | CYCLE | A hundred years, approximately, before the French Revolution (5) |
| C(=100) + y(ears) + c(=approx) + le | ||
| 8 | SWEETHEART | Dearest wife gets covered in foam when visiting works (10) |
| W(ife) in seethe + art(=works) | ||
| 11 | TAPIOCA | Sports administrators tucked into endless snacks and pudding (7) |
| IOC in tapa[s] | ||
| 14 | COURGETTES | Squashes impulse in bed, getting ready to turn over (10) |
| Urge in cot + set< | ||
| 16 | ILLEGAL | Criminal with affliction held up mature student (7) |
| Ill(=with affliction) around (age + l)< | ||
| 18 | PENNY WISE | Economical? Yep, new Nissan’s 50% smaller – that’s revolutionary (5-4) |
| (Yep new nis)* | ||
| 20 | ECLOGUE | At first, even critics lacked objectivity, given unusually explicit verse (7) |
| Initial letters of “even critics lacked objectivity given unusually explicit”. | ||
| 21 | TRUSTEE | Guardian essentially loathes Republican with American support (7) |
| [Loa]t[hes] + R(epublican) + US + tee | ||
| 23 | INPUT | In turning up on time, one makes contribution (5) |
| In + up< + t(ime) | ||
| 25 | DHOTI | Policeman seizes stolen loincloth (5) |
| DI around hot | ||
| 26 | DEBT | Bill‘s in bed – rising temperature (4) |
| Bed< + t | ||
*anagram
Nicely blogged-I agree there was a bit of obscurity-at least it wasnt a doddle. Like it? Dunno
I liked this a lot more than NealH and copmus. Some ingenious clu(e)ing, particularly liked COURGETTES, WHOOPEE, PLEAT. Needed to return to it a couple of times to finish. An unusual but enjoyable style.
Thanks to Anglio and to NealH.
I’m with Gwep on this one. I liked GOLFCOURSE and LEITMOTIV.
Plenty to like here, though it did take a bit of getting into. My favourites were WHOOPEE, LEITMOTIV and CYCLE.
Thanks, Anglio and NealH.
Monday mornings are busy for me workwise, so I couldn’t really get into this. After that it was Crypticsue’s rule of ‘three strikes and you’re out’, so I didn’t get to appreciate much of it.
I didn’t like this. Took me about an hour to get just six answers and I ground to a half. After that, I only completed it by cheating.
Well, we enjoyed it!
We do however have doubts about 9ac as it seems to require two cryptic steps. 29ac was in our opinion quite straightforward. It often seems to happen that what is obvious to some is obscure to others. 26d also seemed to be rather easy but the surface reading was good.
24ac raised a smile which is always good at this time of the day.
Thanks Anglio and NealH.
9ac according to me was what you get switching (reversing) E-TILE (letter in online scrabble).