The puzzle can be found here.
I found this very straightforward, with most of the answers presenting themselves fairly quickly. Only one clue (2dn) slowed me down a bit. Most of the clues were OK, but some of them didn’t scan well. 14ac’s surface clumsy (the setter could simpy have used “near” instead of “put by”) and I also wonder if “right-wing” is good enough to indicate R in 4dn, thus removing the need for “leader of” and Iris Murdoch is famous enough not to require the £female” qualifier, surely?. I have assumed that 25ac is &lit. but it’s a bit of a stretch in my opinion,
My favourite clue was 12ac.
Thanks Sleuth
| Across | ||
| 1 | DOWNTIME | Men do it haphazardly around start of weekend in leisurely period? (8) |
| *(men do it) around W(eekend) | ||
| 5 | SPADES | Garden tools in section of a deck (6) |
| Double definition, the second referring to a deck of cards. | ||
| 9 | SLIPPERY | Evasive – like a mule? (8) |
| A mule is a type of soft shoe or slipper, so could be described as slippery. | ||
| 10 | SATURN | Body noted for rings gives a second backing performance (6) |
| <= A S(econd) + TURN (“performance”) | ||
| 12 | OLD-SCHOOL | Traditional works sold by companion with retired gents? (3-6) |
| *(sold) + CH (“Companion” of Honour) + <=LOO (“gents”, retired) | ||
| 13 | TIBER | Take minute out of wood in river (5) |
| TI(m)BER (“wood”, with M(inute) out) | ||
| 14 | POSH | Parking put by very large hotel that’s top-class (4) |
| P(arking) put by OS (outsize, so “very large”) + H(otel) | ||
| 16 | ACCLAIM | Praise a demand in speech (7) |
| Homophone of A CLAIM (“a demand”) | ||
| 19 | KILL JOY | Having a complaint, woman in Kentucky is a misery (7) |
| ILL (“having a complaint”) + JO (“woman”) in KY (“Kentucky”), so K(ILL-JO)Y | ||
| 21 | CALM | Assured piece of topical mimicry (4) |
| Hidden in “topiCAL Mimicry” | ||
| 24 | LOGIC | Man serving in pub dispensing a litre shows reason (5) |
| G.I. (“man serving”) in LOC(al) (“pub”, dispensing A L(itre)) | ||
| 25 | REPROBATE | Put another way, bore apt to follow first signs of roguish excess? (9) |
| *(bore apt) to follow R(oguish) E(xcess) and & lit.? | ||
| 27 | STADIA | Return of help at small sports venues (6) |
| <=AID (“help”) AT S(mall) | ||
| 28 | PULL RANK | Use authority wrongly to withdraw facility for taxis (4,4) |
| PULL (“withdraw”) + RANK (“facility for taxis”) | ||
| 29 | TIDIER | More organised inspector enters area of stand (6) |
| DI (detective “inspector”) enters TIER (“area” of stand”) | ||
| 30 | GENDARME | Representative of order and greed man unleashed (8) |
| *(greed man) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DESPOT | See supporting extremists in dispute: autocratic type (6) |
| SPOT (“see”) supporting D(isput)E | ||
| 2 | WEIRDO | Word I supply to encapsulate eccentric principally? (6) |
| *(word i) to encapsulate E(ccentric) | ||
| 3 | TOPIC | Bring up religious books and film as subject (5) |
| <=O.T. (Old Testament, so “religious books”) + PIC (“film”) | ||
| 4 | MURDOCH | A lot about leader of right-wing party in female novelist (7) |
| MUCH (“a lot”) about R(ight) + DO (“party”) | ||
| 6 | PRACTICAL | Republican bound by agreement I term not quite feasible (9) |
| R(epublican) bound by PACT (“agreement”) + I CAL(l) (“term”, not quite) | ||
| 7 | DRUMBEAT | Odd patrol behind rear of crowd making percussive sound (8) |
| RUM (“odd”) + BEAT (“patrol”) behind (crow)D | ||
| 8 | SYNDROME | Condition in Asian region, it’s said, and European capital (8) |
| Homophone of SINDH (province of Pakistan, so “Asian region”) + ROME (“European capital”) | ||
| 11 | PLEA | Excuse accepted by couple amazingly (4) |
| Hidden in “couPLE Amazingly” | ||
| 15 | OBJECTIVE | Aim to be free of prejudice? (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | SKILLSET | Doctor likes list I put out – showing range of abilities (5,3) |
| *(likes lst) | ||
| 18 | SLUGGARD | Idle sort has to carry gallon in half of Italian island (8) |
| LUG (“carry”) + G(allon) in SARD(inia) (“half of Italian island”) | ||
| 20 | YARN | English is excluded in long tale (4) |
| Y(e)ARN (“long”, with E(nglish) excluded) | ||
| 21 | CAPSULE | Medical case in part of spacecraft (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | BAZAAR | Arab arranged to tour Arizona in charitable fair (6) |
| *(arab) to tour AZ (“Arizona”) | ||
| 23 | HECKLE | Jeer abusively man, clerk that’s awkward right away (6) |
| HE (“man”) + *(clek) (“clerk” with R(ight) away) | ||
| 26 | OILED | Priest upset in excessive amount becomes tipsy (5) |
| <=ELI (Old Testament “priest”) in OD (overdose, so “excessive amount”) | ||
*anagram
Enjoyable, if not too difficult. Favourite was SLIPPERY. Agree with your criticism of 25a but, at least, the answer was clear. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks Sleuth and Loonapick.
Not too difficult as you say, but I didn’t parse DRUMBEAT, so thanks for the clarification.
In 4d MURDOCH, the R isn’t ‘right-wing’, but ‘leader of right-wing’.
19a KILLJOY was the best for me. Thank you, Sleuth and Loonapick.
Thanks Sleuth and loonapick
Pretty straightforward apart from a couple of little holdups – couldn’t parse SLUGGARD and my last in, SATURN, took an age to see the clever definition (am thinking that many others would have seen that and it would’ve been a write-in). It also took a while to get that OD was the ‘excessive amount’ in 20d.
Think that right wing just about works – as one of the ‘wings’ of right is R and the other one is T.
@4 Bruce, as stated earlier, R = “leader of right-wing”, i.e. the first letter in the (hyphenated) word ‘right-wing’.
Hi Nila … oops sorry … shouldn’t be doing posts at that hour of the morning over here – I see it now.
Hey Bruce, it’s easily missed. (It’s 2am right now in the UK and you should see the rubbish I’ve posted on a handful of forums in the last hour.) 😀