18.33 Most of this I found relatively straightforward, and the geographical and literary references were known to me, even if I misremembered the nationality of the writer at 4. Where I hit a bit of a wall was with the unlikely looking dog which has only entered the modern era as a word in a couple of clues in normal crosswords to indicate either its nationality or just to provide its initial letter, and once in a Monthly Special as an answer. Back in 2009, apparently Vinyl’s brother owned one.
I show definitions underlined in italics, excluded letters in [square brackets] and generally try to make clear how everything else works, sometimes successfully.
| Across | |
| 1 | Sends out one’s appeals (6) |
| ISSUES – One’s becomes IS, and appeals (presumably in a legal context) becomes SUES. Chambers gives “entreat” under sue, and “to make supplication or earnest request” under appeal, so a non-legal equivalence is also available, which I prefer. | |
| 5 | Strong defence of royal assistant from reporter (8) |
| PALISADE – A reporter might be (mis)heard to say PALACE AIDE for royal assistant. | |
| 9 | Appliance for cooking tough rabbit heads (6,4) |
| WAFFLE IRON – Tough is IRON (like a lion in Zion? -thanks Bob) to be headed or preceded by WAFFLE for rabbit (see under Chas and Dave) | |
| 10 | Stone arguably regularly deficient (4) |
| RUBY – The odd letters of aRgUaBlY go missing. | |
| 11 | Voluntary work, a lot in labouring (8) |
| OPTIONAL – Work is OP and then add an anagram (labouring) of A LOT IN. | |
| 12 | One of us English showing compassion (6) |
| HUMANE – I assume most of us are HUMAN (AI’s not yet good enough!). Add E[nglish]. | |
| 13 | Prime minister of northern country forgetting first two points (4) |
| EDEN – Anthony of that family, luckless successor to Churchill whose downfall was precipitated by the Suez crisis of 1956. Remove the first two letters of SWEDEN, which happen also to be compass points. | |
| 15 | Fabulous creature’s alien character grasped by child (8) |
| MINOTAUR – The alien character is the T from the Greek alphabet, TAU, surrounded by a MINOR child. It made sure I got the spelling right. | |
| 18 | City companion wearing a short outfit (3,5) |
| ABU DHABI – Companion is the (US) BUD. Clothe him with A HABIT for outfit shortened by removing the T. | |
| 19 | Easily cowed, I’m alarmed by motorway (4) |
| MEEK – Might be easily cowed but not a bad price to pay for inheriting the Earth. If I’m alarmed, I might utter EEK(!) here by M[otorway]. “By” allows you to place the letter before or after. | |
| 21 | Dog that is mainly East European (6) |
| VIZSLA – The checking letters are not encouraging, and the wordplay isn’t that much help. VIZ (not the magazine) is the abbreviation for videlicet, which translates from Latin as namely, as does the more familiar i.e. Most of an Eastern European is SLA[v]. The result also doesn’t help by looking unlikely. | |
| 23 | I depend on girl related to astronomer (8) |
| GALILEAN – I LEAN for I depend (on) attached to GAL for girl. | |
| 25 | Good feeling for music equipment (4) |
| GEAR – G[ood] EAR translating feeling for music. | |
| 26 | Prepare old crime boss for catastrophic conflict (10) |
| ARMAGEDDON – Prepare old crime boss shades into ARM AGED DON. Allenby fought a battle against the Ottoman army in September 1918 partly near Tel (Har) Megiddo, and used the name for the Biblical connection (Revelation 16.16), though it fell rather short of that climactic, world shattering battle. | |
| 27 | An urgent call about top-quality fireproofing (8) |
| ASBESTOS – An urgent call is A S.O.S. Insert BEST for top quality. | |
| 28 | Restricting crossing river is causing strain (6) |
| TRYING – TYING for restricting with R[iver] inserted. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Small instrument out of tune (5) |
| SHARP – S[mall] plus HARP. Out of tune unless its supposed to be sharp. | |
| 3 | Not affected by exhausted urchin feeding in frenzy (9) |
| UNFEIGNED – Exhaust or empty your urchin to produce UN, then add an anagram (in frenzy) of FEEDING. | |
| 4 | Austere European novelist (6) |
| STERNE – Laurence, author of Tristram Shandy. STERN for austere plus E[uropean]. | |
| 5 | In sporting contest a cramp simply worsens with age (10,5) |
| PARALYMPIC GAMES – An anagram (worsens) of A CRAMP SIMPLY and AGE | |
| 6 | Be keen to pass on writing with pen (8) |
| LONGHAND – Be keen gives LONG, and pass on gives HAND. | |
| 7 | Jostling crowd’s right to enter film (5) |
| SCRUM – R[ight] takes its place in SCUM for film. | |
| 8 | Girl presented risk, squandering initial security (9) |
| DEBENTURE – Chambers “a security issued by a company for money borrowed on the company’s property”. A girl presented is a DEB[utant]. Contributors from higher levels of society than me can let us know if it still happens. Add VENTURE for risk with its first letter deleted. | |
| 14 | Name ships in book (9) |
| DUBLINERS – By James Joyce. To name is to DUB, add LINERS for ships. | |
| 16 | Realised line may achieve the same as doing this? (6-3) |
| TUMBLE-DRY – Realised gives TUMBLED, and line R[ailwa]Y. A washing line and a tumble drier, under the right circumstances, have the same effect. The grammar’s a bit iffy and the definition underlining is flexible. | |
| 17 | Lion, say, caught in a desert, falls (8) |
| CATARACT – noun. A lion is a CAT, add C[aught] inserted into A plus RAT for desert. | |
| 20 | Promise extreme hardship (6) |
| PLIGHT – A double definition. Aficionados of the Anglican wedding service know about “thereto I plight thee my troth”. | |
| 22 | Dresser generally holds material (5) |
| SERGE – Hidden in dresSER GEnerally | |
| 24 | Coffee substitute that comes in a cup (5) |
| ACORN – Particularly during WWII, acorns were used in Germany for ersatz coffee, since the beans weren’t readily available. Acorns in their natural state come in quaint little cups. | |
Am not a dog lover at all but knew the dog so I finished this enjoyable offering in an average time for me. Liked TUMBLE DRY thanks setter / blogger.
Started late last night, but was too tired and finished this morning after a good night’s sleep. Got off to a bad start by thinking 25ac was VIBE and that 16 dn was an anagram of REALISE L, but then got back on the straight and narrow. No time recorded, but I enjoyed it. Eventually convinced myself about ACORN from dredging up memories of stories about N Italy in WWII.
FOI – RUBY
LOI – ACORN
COD – TUMBLE-DRY
Thanks to Z and other contributors.
COD to VIZSLA – looked after one for a short time in the 90s, a very sweet puppy. Stuck at times but not fully concentrating the whole time, so time not very important. LOI ACORN was just guesswork.
Thanks Z and setter
Don’t think I’m imprisoned in an “ivory tower”, but I haven’t ever heard of the dog…. Lovely crossword that took an age to get into, but once some of the low-hanging fruit were in, it was a biff-fest for me. Especially liked PALISADE and TUMBLED RY, but was slowed down for an age trying to fit SAN Diego into the town, and not being able to spell MINOTAUR. Ho hum.