A curate’s egg from Sleuth
A real mix of good and average clues here from Sleuth (nothing bad, just bland in places).
My favourites were 2dn, 3dn and 17dn.
| Across | ||
| 9 | CONCOURSE | Hundred following correct route in large hall (9) |
| C + ON COURSE (“following correct route”) | ||
| 10 | KOALA | Lover of eucalyptus stunning a large area (5) |
| K.O. (~ “stunning”) + A L A | ||
| 11 | AGELESS | Evergreen set with energy boarding a ship (7) |
| (GEL (“set”) + E) “boarding” A S.S. | ||
| 12 | RODRIGO | Perch good in carnival location for composer (7) |
| ROD + G in RIO
Refers to Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1998), a Spanish composer. |
||
| 13 | LOO | Money falling short in card game (3) |
| LOO(t) | ||
| 14 | HIGH COMMAND | Top brass in tight order (4,7) |
| HIGH (“tight”) + COMMAND (“order”) | ||
| 17 | SPEED | Dash from top player grabbing first of prizes (5) |
| SEED grabbing P(rizes) | ||
| 18 | SET | Arrange group in rosettes (3) |
| Hidden in (“group in”) roSETtes | ||
| 19 | NORSE | Spanish gent cycling from opposite part of Europe? (5) |
| SENOR “cycling”
Imagine a circle with the letters S E N O R on it, if you cycle round to the N and start reading you’d get NORSE instead of SENOR |
||
| 21 | ELBOW GREASE | We bear logs awkwardly close to house? Hard work (5,6) |
| *(we bear logs) + (hous)E | ||
| 23 | CAP | International restriction (3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | INSULIN | Nuns I list (not half) in order showing secretion (7) |
| *(nuns i li) | ||
| 27 | KESTREL | Flier, leading light after one’s gone in part of ship (7) |
| ST(a)R (“leading light) in KEEL | ||
| 28 | IN-LAW | Relative expertise of a barrister? (2-3) |
| (Sort of) cryptic definition | ||
| 29 | MOODINESS | Some don is volatile showing temperamental nature (9) |
| *(moodiness) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCRAWL | Second stroke in poor handwriting (6) |
| S + CRAWL (“stroke” in swimming) | ||
| 2 | ENVELOPE | Cover unconventional novel in English exercise (8) |
| *(novel) in E P.E. | ||
| 3 | FORESHADOW | Anticipate new trouble with wife about love (10) |
| (FRESH ADO + W) about O | ||
| 4 | IRIS | Flower in ruins periodically visited (4) |
| In RuInS “periodically visited” | ||
| 5 | TERRACOTTA | Tot playing with rare cat that’s reddish brown (10) |
| *(tot rare cat) | ||
| 6 | SKID | Son with child in uncontrolled move (4) |
| S + KID | ||
| 7 | MANILA | New driver engaged in obsessive behaviour in Asian capital (6) |
| L (“new driver”) engaged in MANIA | ||
| 8 | CABOODLE | Source of advice on dog without lead in crowd (8) |
| C.A.B. (Citizens Advice Bureau = “source of advice”) + (p)OODLE | ||
| 15 | GASTRONOMY | Grand study of stars and good eating (10) |
| G + ASTRONOMY | ||
| 16 | MONKEY SUIT | Agree under £500 for smart wear (6,4) |
| SUIT under MONKEY (slang for “£500”) | ||
| 17 | SPECIFIC | Particular spice with cooking starts to flavour Indian curry (8) |
| *(spice) + “starts to” Flavour Indian Curry | ||
| 20 | RECORDER | Judge tidiness in sports ground? (8) |
| REC + ORDER | ||
| 22 | BUSTLE | Stir with book on fraud in the East End (6) |
| B + ‘USTLE (“fraud in the East End” ie Hustle with the H dropped, as is the wont of those from the East End of London) | ||
| 24 | POLISH | Refinement in language (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | LAWN | Flaw noticed somewhat in garden feature (4) |
| Hidden in “fLAW Noticed” | ||
| 27 | KNOT | Former wicketkeeper, we hear, in difficulty (4) |
| Sounds like KNOTT (as in Alan Knott), who played for England from 1967 to 1981. | ||
*anagram
Thanks, loonapick — I needed your explanation on a couple of solutions. I found it quite tough, so thanks to Sleuth for a good work-out
Thanks Sleuth and loonapick
Did this mostly on the train ride into work yesterday (9/5) and mopped up in the first break that I had.
Found it quite interesting – good variety of clue types, some new learnings (RODRIGO) and a couple that really made me think to get the parsing (FORESHADOW which took ages to see FRESH for some reason, CONCOURSE in the sense of a hallway rather than outside open space and MANILA where I needed to shift the focus on getting ‘new driver’ = L rather than ‘new’=N). Funny how your mind can overcomplicate things sometimes – was looking for an IRIS river for a while, instead of an IRIS flower !!!
Finished in the SE with MONKEY SUIT (a term that I’d heard of but had to look it up to remind myself exactly what it was), RECORDER (unusual definition of a judge) and the cyclical SENOR / NORSE as the last one in.
Thanks loonapick and Sleuth.
I had SET as a triple (arrange, group, and in rosettes).
I thought CABOODLE for crowd was tough, especially since I couldn’t understand CAB for the source of advice (thanks for the explanation – doh!) – but it could only be that or CANOODLE (which it clearly wasn’t).
All in all enjoyable.