ACROSS
1 Withdraw fix (6) REPAIR [DD]
4 Light reading? (6) KINDLE [DD]
8 So endlessly berate furiously: show some backbone! (9) VERTEBRAE {VERy}{BERATE*}
9 One's destined to have hot head in sports event (5) MATCH [DD]
11 Jolly's hiring ship: it's renovated (2,4,7) IN HIGH SPIRITS*
13 Red coat fashioned in '20s style (3,4) ART DECO*
14 Greek character averse to a fruity Red? (7) CHIANTI {CHI}{ANTI}
16 Collection of lies in dispute (2,5) AT ISSUE {A TISSUE}
18 Gap's first day of trading (7) OPENING [DD]
23 Calling, wanting portion of macaroni cheese (5) NICHE [T]
24 Fancy flesh out (9) ELABORATE [DD]
25 Whispered comments in LPs' first tracks (6) ASIDES {A SIDES}
26 Temperament of eg iron, did you say? (6) METTLE (~metal)
DOWN
1 Range demonstrated to have no beginning or end (4) ROVE pROVEd
2 Soldier on some uppers is tingling (7) PERSIST [T]
3 Reworked cheesiest material way up North (3,6) ICE SHEETS*
4 Chills hake, escalope and cod (with head removed) for cooking (5,1,4,4) KEEPS A COOL HEAD {HAKE+ESCALOPE+cOD}*
5 We hear one opposing building in clouds (5) NIMBI (~nimby = cloud type and NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard)
7 Everyman's stuck between bores and rotters in stalls (5,4,5) DRAGS ONES HEELS {{ONES} in {DRAGS}{HEELS}
10 Surprised expression before attacks from airborne in battle (8) HASTINGS {HA}{STINGS}
12 French president's eaten starter of andouilles; later duck and almondy cake (8) MACAROON {MAC{An...s}RO{O}N}
17 Ordains where water flows (7) INDUCTS {IN DUCTS}
19 Mo's coffee (7) INSTANT [DD]
21 Rate of knots in ocean – capsized! (5) SPEED<=
22 Shoe tree regularly rejected as present (4) HERE {sHoE+tReE}
Reference List
Surprised expression = HA!
lengthy anagram could see today's grid. 13,14 & 15. it helps to finish the grid in lesser time.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the recent quartet of THC puzzles by the inimitable Dr. X. They contained the customary bells and whistles and were enjoyable to solve in spite of some overdose of charade- and containment- type clues.
ReplyDeleteI must note one objection. In THC 13999 (Thursday Oct 19), the clue 2D was "Soldier's helmet is so cool to wear (3,3)" with the solution TIN HAT. When parsing the wordplay we see "cool to wear", indicating that "cool"/{IN} is the container, and "so"/{THAT} is being contained. However, the setter's intended parse is {T{IN}HAT}, meaning "so"/{THAT} is the container while "cool"/{IN} is being contained. Is "cool" to wear "so" or "so" to wear "cool" in this wordplay? I think it is the latter, in which case the clue is incorrectly phrased.
I thought this kind of wordplay is seen regularly. To be parsed as
DeleteSoldier's helmet is "so, cool to wear". No?
+1 so, "cool" to wear.
Delete@econ, your doubt about let cleared in 6d.
DeleteThanks
DeleteI stand corrected. The clue I've pointed out is correct. "cool to wear" means that "cool"/{IN} is being contained, not becoming container as I had assumed.
DeleteRe: IXL Round 6. It was nice of the setter to leave his name in the puzzle, along with "clear instructions" and a trademark wordplay device. True to form, the puzzle has a couple of answers for which annotations remain elusive (and perhaps even one setter's error which the adjudicators will catch). I submitted at around 42-43 minutes...if all my answers are correct, I expect to finish around 20th again. Though I could have saved around 10 minutes, it's been hard for me to break 20th in an individual round.
ReplyDeleteYikes. I made two mistakes. See you back on the leaderboard on round 7 :D
DeleteFirst time I was able to submit a complete IXL puzzle. Took me 90 mins I guess. I was stuck with 2-3 clues for a long time !! I hope I didn't make any silly mistakes. Let's see.
DeleteKeep it up, and wish you all the best Kiran.
DeleteAn interesting device observed in The Guardian
ReplyDeleteHarry Kane’s got wind (5)
Categorise Harry Potter’s eye (10)
Harry as anind
DeleteKane's* - SNAKE meaning wind.
(Potter's eye)* - stereotype meaning categorise.