Aretxlen is this morning’s compiler.
A straightforward enjoyable puzzle with no surprises and only a very small amount of general knowledge required (Thomas Arne, MARRIOTT and RANGE ROVERS), none of which is obscure. I had more than half the answers in on my first pass, giving me more than enough crossers to fill in the gaps second time around – possibly a good puzzle for beginners?
Thanks Artexlen
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SKIN-DEEP |
Superficial manner to plug leak (4-4)
|
| KIND (“manner”) to plug SEEP (“leak”) | ||
| 6 | CATTLE |
About to struggle with opening shed for livestock (6)
|
| C (circa, so “about”) + (b)ATTLE (“struggle”, with opening (letter) shed) | ||
| 9 | POOTLE |
Leisurely walk up to lost alien oddly overlooked (6)
|
| (u)P (t)O (l)O(s)T (a)L(i)E(n) [oddly overlooked, i.e ignoring odd letters] | ||
| 10 | CONFORMS |
Agrees to fiddle official documents (8)
|
| CON (“to fiddle”) + FORMS (“official documents”) | ||
| 11 | PLAY |
Parking place causing drama (4)
|
| P (parking) + LAY (“place”) | ||
| 12 | THUNDERING |
Below breaking object making loud noise (10)
|
| UNDER (“below”) breaking THING (“object”) | ||
| 14 | MARRIOTT |
Hotel chain rising in market (8)
|
| RIOT (“rising”) in MART (“market”) | ||
| 16 | NEAR |
Cycling composer is approaching (4)
|
| (Thomas) ARNE (Englidh “composer”) could become NE-AR if you “cycle” the letters. | ||
| 18 | SPOT |
Notice spinning toys revolving (4)
|
| <=TOPS (“spinning toys”, revolving) | ||
| 19 | ENTREATY |
Earnest request to dine in lobby (8)
|
| EAT (“to dine”) in ENTRY (“lobby”) | ||
| 21 | BABYLONIAN |
Boy in banal novel is from ancient city (10)
|
| *(boy in banal) [anag:novel] | ||
| 22 | OPAL |
Gem father gets in centre of Honolulu (4)
|
| PA (“father”) gets in [central] (Hon)OL(ulu) | ||
| 24 | DIABOLIC |
Devilish and bold, I messed with CIA (8)
|
| *(bold i cia) [anag:messed] | ||
| 26 | PIERRE |
French fellow is irrational and sinned endlessly (6)
|
| PI (“irrational” number) and ERRE(d) [endlessly] | ||
| 27 | AGE-OLD |
A lodge in disrepair is ancient (3-3)
|
| A + *(lodge) [anag:in disrepair] | ||
| 28 | SET ASIDE |
Save time entering coastal area (3,5)
|
| T (time) entering SEASIDE (“coastal area”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | KNOLL |
Characters coming back from mill on Kenyan hillock (5)
|
| Hidden backwards in [characters coming back from] “miLL ON Kenyan” | ||
| 3 | NITTY-GRITTY |
Essence is lousy and full of bits (5-6)
|
| NITTY (“lousy”) and GRITTY (“full of bits”) | ||
| 4 | ERECTION |
Coterie moving around new building (8)
|
| *(coterie) [anag:moving] around N (new) | ||
| 5 | PICK UP THE PIECES |
Article in truck men recover after adversity (4,2,3,6)
|
| THE (“article”) in PICK-UP (“truck”) + PIECES (“men”, as in chess) | ||
| 6 | CANADA |
Short watercourse starts to deviate across land in North America (6)
|
| [short] CANA(l) (“watercourse”) + [starts to] D(eviate) A(cross) | ||
| 7 | TWO |
Cardinal is extremely audible (3)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [audible] of TOO (“extremely”) | ||
| 8 | LEMON TART |
Sticky stuff filling molten whisked dessert (5,4)
|
| TAR (“sticky stuff”) filling *(molten) [anag:whisked] | ||
| 13 | RANGE ROVERS |
Element of driver anger over stalling cars (5,6)
|
| Hidden in [element of] “driveR ANGER OVER Stalling” | ||
| 15 | APPEALING |
A very quiet London district is pleasant (9)
|
| A + PP (pianissimo, so “very quiet”) + EALING (“London district”) | ||
| 17 | STINKPOT |
One smells fruit ultimately in small container of fluid (8)
|
| (frui)T [ultimately] in S (small) + INKPOT (“container of fluid”) | ||
| 20 | FOILED |
Frustrated fat FBI agent eats (6)
|
| FED (“FBI agent”) eats OIL (“fat”) | ||
| 23 | AIRED |
First-rate inspector’s case journalist made public (5)
|
| A (“first-rate”, as in A-grade) + I(nspecto)R [‘s case] + Ed. (editor, so “journalist”) | ||
| 25 | BOO |
Signal disapproval when boozing loses its sparkle (3)
|
| BOO(zing) loses ZING (“sparkle”) |
Yes, as per the blog, a pleasing and straightforward puzzle from Artexlen, with ENTREATY and PLAY (smooth surface) my picks today.
Thanks to Loonapick to Artexlen, naturally.
Yep, lots of fun, thanks to Artexlen and Loonapick
SKIN-DEEP and NITTY-GRITTY were my favourites. An enjoyable puzzle with only the hotel chain holding me up. You get so used to separating phrases, that you can miss the obvious.
Thanks Artexlen and Loonapick
9ac: I had TOOTLE here. Although Chambers 2016 and Collins 2023 both suggest that tootle refers to travelling by car, ODE 2010 p 1874 has the definition “a leisurely journey”, which fits. The main problem is that the word “up” is not needed for the wordplay, which would be TO + (l)O(s)T (a)L(i)E(n). I am not going to claim “up to” = TO for the wordplay, and I readily accept that POOTLE fits the clue better. However, I will say that TOOTLE fits well enough that one could reasonably feel no need to look for a better answer when solving on paper.
Thanks Artexlen for a great set of clues with my top picks being PLAY, PICK UP THE PIECES, TWO, RANGE ROVERS, and AIRED. I enjoyed the simplicity of many of the surfaces. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
Great fun and a quick solve.
Nitty-Gritty and Range Rovers my favs, the latter because I didn’t spot it immediately.
Thanks.
I agree with Pelham Barton.
A pleasant solve with no real difficulties, our only hold-up being because we initially had ‘old age’ instead of AGE-OLD for 27ac; once we corrected that everything was fine. No problems with 9ac; we saw it as POOTLE at once. Favourite was NITTY-GRITTY.
Thanks, Artexlen and loonapick.
Not much to add.
Thanks ARTELELEN loonapick
I tried to make the hotel chain Fairmont, but, alas, it wouldn’t parse.
Two consecutive days of enjoyable solves – bliss!
Many thanks to Artexlen and Loonapick.
Agree fave – Nitty gritty.
Very nice. Thx both.
I’m in the POOTLE camp. Wasn’t there a character on children’s TV named Pootle? I remember a white hat and malapropisms.
I liked SKIN DEEP when I finally got there. For too long I was searching for an anagram of plug leak, especially when I got the K and P crossers.
We tootled