Here are the results:
Across
1 PASO DOBLE The classic Latin dance in which the partners attempt to reproduce the passion and excitement of the
bullring, perhaps most memorably demonstrated by John Sargeant stomping around the dance-floor dragging his
long-suffering partner behind him. The “dance” firmly established JS as favourite to win that series of Strictly Come
Dancing until he decided that was unfair on the rest of the competitors and withdrew. PASO DOBLE just means “double
step” in Spanish, which is rather dull, and is formed for our purposes by an anagram of A BOLD POSE.
6 STROP Not the whisper of razor on fine leather, but the fit of anger sPORTSmen have within them when forced to go
backwards
9 PERUSAL Examination. Enter SURE backwards (“about”) in PAL
10 ADAMANT Definition “unshakeable in purpose”, formed by the concatenation of A DAM (staunch, sort of) and ANT the
crossword’s perennial worker
11 PIECE An unexciting soundalike for PEACE, be still for a generic bit of music.
12 AT ONE TIME “In former days”. The building blocks are A TOME (book) NE (Tyneside) and IT recalled as TI. Nest the latter
two inside the former.
14 LOT Double definition, a French department in the middle south-west, named after its river. Looks pretty enough in
parts. And, of course, fate. Hands up if you got this one from the department.
15 AQUAFITNESS Damp exercise regime, like it says, a straight build up of A QUAF(f), short drink, IT and NESS, a head(land).
One of my late entries.
17 APPROPRIATE Definition just “Take”.. A P(enny) PRO (for) PRI(v)ATE, a soldier missing V(ery)
19 CON Two bits of slang for prisoner, LAG being disguised as insulation. Sides of CisterN with 0 in (empty)
20 DISCARDED D(etective) I(nspector)’S plus CAR and DE(a)D – “one left” – for “abandoned”
22 EXALT Promote feels like a slightly lacklustre synonym, but it will have to do. EX L(ieutenan)T hiding head of A(rmy)
24 DRAWING Surround W(ife) IN (as ever, in crosswordland “at home”) with DRAG for pain (think boring person at party) for a
picture of sorts
26 DROPLET A rare concession by a doctor before an operation. DR plus OP(eration) plus LET for “permitted”. Smooth
cluing.
27 OBESE Another easier peripheral clue: O(ld) B(oy) fEaStEd (even letters) aiming for Billy Bunterdom.
28 LAY PERSON Chambers has it as one word, more familiar as layman before that was regarded as sexist. Anagram of
PLAYER’S NO.
Down
1 POP UP Pop is what we old fogies used to call fizzy drinks (sodas across the pond, I believe). UP is high. Almost always
unwelcome “appearance” on the interweb.
2 SURFEIT And while on the subject of the interweb, you would “surf it” to become more familiar. Sounds a lot like “too
much” for our answer.
3 DESPERADO Traveller’s is REP’S and it’s reversed inside DEAD (very as in “dead interesting”) O(ld) for a non-Robin-Hood
outlaw.
4 BELEAGUERED This took a while. BE RED means (i suppose) to support left wing views. LEAGUE is a coalition. Nest one
inside the other for “being in trouble”
5 ETA the Greek letter η (the long E) formed by E(nglish) T(erritorial) A(rmy)
6 SHAKE Swimmer is the fishy HAKE placed under S(mall). Wave and shake are about the same when done with the fist.
7 REALISE “See” created by an anagram of SERIAL plus the last letter of (cabl)E
8 PATTERSON Floyd of that ilk was one of the perennial heavyweight contenders of my youth, who annoyed loud-mouth
upstart Mohammed Ali by insisting on calling him Cassius Clay. The latter was more likely to fit the “won’t stop talking”
description, but anyway, such a person “patters on”. Tee-hee.
13 OFFHANDEDLY “Without preparation” is our definition. Remove the head from (p)OLY(technic) and wrap it round
F(emale) HANDED (“passed on”)
14 LLANDUDNO Features in a rude college rag week joke about ludo, but is definitely in Wales. Final part of (vacation) plus
DUD (failure) inside LLANO, which is to South America what steppes are to Russia.
16 THEREFORE “So” is our cut-price definition. Old fashioned “you” is THEE, strangling REFOR(m) with its M(oderation)
rejected
18 PASSAGE Double definition, “a narrow channel or route” or, um, “a crossing”
19 CHABLIS A dry white wine. CHA is your drink, as in tea, and BLIS(s) is your “almost” heavenly something.
21 AGILE Oddly enough, this one caused me most delay because I failed to spot the lift and separate definition, just
“athletic”. E(vent’s) beginning after A GIL(l)
23 TITAN Atlas, holding up the sky near Gibraltar, was one of the Titans. TIT(us) is a book of the New Testament and the A
and N come from A(ssisting) N(avigators)
25 GEL An upper class female, mimicked pronunciation, which is, of course, a LEG up or boost.
A high-quality puzzle, IMHO.
Liked 28ac best of all.
In a photo-finish, I reckon I got LOT through the department, having holidayed twice in the area. THEREFORE last in, as pesky grammatical words often are – when hiddens aren’t.
Is it possible that the end of this is D{i}ED rather than DE{a}D? “One” for A is a bit of a no-no in the Times.
I really liked the homophone at 2dn as it made me smile. Why can I never remember to consider all those wretched abbreviations for sections of the OT when ‘book’ is clued? Having spotted the answer at 23dn I wasted ages thinking about TIT.
Some beautiful clues, but APPROPRIATE and DRAWING pip it for me.
Thank you, setter. And thanks, McT (and Wittgenstein) for making me laugh. Not often anyone says that about Wittgenstein, I imagine.
Ludwig J. Wittgenstein
Cautioned the Junge with
Whom he had erred,
“Don’t spill the beans to that
Psychohistorian
W.W.
Bartley III.”
It’s been suggested that the Tractatus is intended as one big philosophical joke, with McT’s quote as the punchline. (ROFL)
(Sorry, can’t get the logical notation to appear correctly here. The original is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractatus_Logico-Philosophicus#Main_theses)
But not much of a joke eh?
McT – Received and mostly understood (I had to Google a couple of things). The Bertrand Russell line got the second snicker of the day out of me, and I really liked the mice. Bless you. It’s a treat.
Might lead to having a look at the incredible Gwen Harwood, a much bypassed Tasmanian poet.
Alec
Edited at 2014-05-15 11:41 am (UTC)
Another one of those crossword coincidences that afflict me every now and then: I was discussing with family the origin of the term BELEAGUERED just yesterday evening.
I have been transcribing the almost illegible pocket diary of an uncle who fought in the Tunisian Campaign of 1943. One word kept occurring and I deciphered it only yesterday: LEAGUER, as in “broke leaguer at 6 a.m.” and “leaguered up for the night”.
Chambers informs me that it is an archaic term to do with encampments, particularly those of a besieging army; though it was clearly everyday parlance for the British Army of seventy years ago. Are there any soldiers out there who can tell me if it is still in use?
Anyway, back to the puzzle, I also struggled in the centre, and my last four in were OFFHANDEDLY, BELEAGUERED, AQUAFITNESS and THEREFORE.
Edited at 2014-05-15 09:52 am (UTC)
I never thought passive watching of Strictly Come Dancing would prove useful, but 1A proved me wrong today.
If you had asked me to name one panda before yesterday I’d have been unable to do so.
Much to enjoy today, especially the “getting harder as it went on”. My COD honours shared between THEREFORE and the oh so simple AGILE which caused so much trouble.
I was held up at the end by PATTERSON (at the time I could only think of Ottilie, who I suspect didn’t do too much boxing – or at any rate wasn’t well known for it – and Sir Les, though Floyd was familiar enough once I’d looked him up afterwards) and STROP (wondering what kind of sportsman a “port” could be – Doh!).
Nice puzzle.
All help appreciated
There’s three bits to the wordplay: “End of vacation” just gives you the N, “a failure” (in this case ignore the A) gives you DUD.
There are many words for plain (as in Salisbury) but in this case you need the South American LLANO – perhaps another of today’s relatively odd bits of vocabulary.
Place NDUD inside LLANO, and the fine Welsh seaside resort emerges.