I like it.ġ2) UNKEMPT : -unk empt- : 'guts' might be imprecise.

Nice surface.ġ1) PREVENT : PR event : one of the last two. I don't recall any real obscure knowledge needed as well.ġ) DEFEATIST : de( s/feat)ist : 'solving opener'=s.ĩ) GUN : begun : 'blonde tips' = b-e. And the last two answers to fall turned out to be clever clues that were not complicated but were just neat. There seemed to be a better sense of surface reading today. Hmm again.Ģ5) RED-LIGHT CAMERAS : (this,larger,d-)*cameĢ7,9ac) EASTERN BARRED BANDICOOT : -e,astern,hm(bard),band,I,coot : a bit of a slog to arrange this one properly. Hmm.Ģ1) STUB : ddefish : delight=de-light=stub (out a cigarette). And the clue is pretty clunky.Ģ0) WALLOONS : wall(-o-o-n-)s : immured=surround with walls. Is there a better explanation ?ġ0,14dn) KNOW BACKWARDS : know=foe ruse B ebb : an obscurer answer should have an easier clue but this doesn't. And AD=contemporary ? I don't think contemporary harks back to 1st Century AD. Fix=addiction ? Would've seen fix as one element of an addiction. It took a fair bit longer than last week to finish.ġ) REPUTED : re(put)ed : an easier sort of start.ĥ) DICTION : addiction : is the best guess. The clues reverted to back-solving often, some answers were obscure with hard clues and the ere wasn't much flow in other clues. ( Collapse )Īfter yesterday's disaster, what might DA serve up? It wasn't as enjoyable as last week.

I'd see 'gutless' as 'all guts removed', hence b-y.Ģ2,17dn) UNFINISHED BUSINESS : fir m : simple enough.Ģ8,13dn) GENERAL ANAESTHETIC : (thirteen,as,clean,age)*Ģ9) SIDECAR : side,hm(Carr) : party=group=side. I don't think that's a good thing.ġ5) WRATHFUL : (auth-r,W-lf)* : not too bad.ġ6) UNSAID : (ad-us-in-)* : interesting construction.ġ8) BALLSY : (bas-lly)* : took a while to see how this worked. I guess the surface allows it.ġ0) MARTIN SHEEN : hm(machine)tin : hmmm, I don't like partial homophones, now we have a less-than-perfect homophone going around another element. The long answers weren't too hard and so they seeded the whole thing quite nicely.ġ) MAKES IT : (ski,team)* : I can't decide is 'slalom' is good enough or not. One or two went in on high suspicion but I think I've got them all sorted out. Was doing this one as quickly as possible and may not have examined each clue critically.

Decent misdirection.ġ9) ROWS : ddef : but the two word clue is meaningless.Ģ2) VIRUS : -vi-,-ru-,-s- : nice enough.Ģ4) LEASTWISE : ddefish : 'least wise' is one of them. Melbourne's transport card.ġ4) SNOWFIELD : (files,down)* : aah, really should've been Mt Buffalo but it may be a local usage.ġ7) HUMAN RACE : Hum(an,car<)e : I guess 'US' for 'us' is okay. Six other answers were 'lost arts' while five other clues' wordplay ignored the 'ART' component of the answer.ġ) LOST ART : lo,start : 'this clue' being the first clue, so the 'start'.ĥ) MACRAME : mac(ram)e : I had the theme properly by this one, so it was pretty easy.ġ3) MYKI : -my ki- : thankfully I had one in the drawer, so knew. I got 1,20dn soon enough and was looking for calligraphy/fonts etc. But it was the answer that was definition. I thought the rubric meant that the clue itself was the definition to six other clues. This is the storm after last week's calm.

He lost to rmn crossword