Time: 39 minutes. I found myself stuck on several clues but got there in the end. Some of the parsing wasn’t straightforward either but I think I have it all now.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I use a Caret sign ⁁ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Artist whose career is taking off? (13) |
| IMPRESSIONIST – Cryptic with reference in the second part to another type of impressionist such as Rory Bremner. I’ve seen a very similar clue elsewhere within the past two days. | |
| 9 | Gets better gadget for making coffee to drink (5,2) |
| PERKS UP – PERK (gadget for making coffee), SUP (to drink). I didn’t know ‘perk’ in this sense as a noun but it’s in Chambers and ODE. | |
| 10 | Get bigger chaps to replace us in a month (7) |
| AUGMENT – MEN (chaps) replace US in AUGUST (month) to make AUGMENT | |
| 11 | Rolled oat mix incapable of fitting in small food processor (5) |
| ILEUM – MUE{s}LI (oat mix) [incapable of fitting in small – s] reversed [rolled]. Part of the small intestine. Have we ever had a longer deletion indicator? | |
| 12 | What’ll turn brush to bush just like that (5,4) |
| RIGHT AWAY – Take RIGHT – r – AWAY to turn ‘brush’ into ‘bush’ | |
| 13 | Sap, first person fired during argument (10) |
| DEBILITATE – I (first person) + LIT (fired) contained by [during] DEB⁁ATE (argument) | |
| 16 | Recognised author’s work, needing no introduction, one credited with many works (4) |
| ANON – {c}ANON (recognised author’s work) [needing no introduction]. ODE: canon – the works of a particular author or artist that are recognized as genuine. | |
| 18 | Drink shot (4) |
| SLUG – Two meanings. ‘Shot’ and ‘slug’ can also mean ‘drink’, but for double definition purposes it’s better to think ammunition. | |
| 19 | Sellers may be heard here to make public statement (2,2,6) |
| GO ON RECORD – GOON RECORD (Sellers may be heard here). Long before he became internationally famous Peter Sellers was one of the stars of The Goon Show on BBC radio. Their two most successful record releases were I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas and The Ying Tong Song (1956). I never found the Goons even remotely funny. | |
| 21 | Ropes tied tight and put down again (9) |
| REDEPOSIT – Anagram [tight] of ROPES TIED | |
| 24 | German newspaper article backing off-the-cuff remark (2-3) |
| AD-LIB – BILD (German newspaper) + A (article) reversed [backing] | |
| 26 | Senior US politician firing judge for a loan (7) |
| ADVANCE – J. D. VANCE (senior US politician) losing [firing] J (judge) in favour of [for] A = ADVANCE | |
| 27 | Carry little bug perhaps of symbolic importance (7) |
| TOTEMIC – TOTE (carry), MIC (little bug perhaps – microphone) | |
| 28 | Revival of religious education, basic field of study one’s abandoning (13) |
| RECRUDESCENCE – RE (religious education), CRUDE (basic), SC{i}ENCE (field of study) [one’s abandoning]. ODE: recrudescence – the recurrence of an undesirable condition. I can’t say I recognised the word and this would appear to be its first appearance in the TfTT era. I needed all the checkers before eventually constructing it from wordplay. | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Suggested independent member was being economical with the truth (7) |
| IMPLIED – I (independent), MP (member), LIED (was being economical with the truth) | |
| 2 | Scattered, leaderless, break down (5) |
| PARSE – {s}PARSE (scattered) [leaderless]. Considering I use this word every day multiple times I took far too long to think of it! | |
| 3 | Collective symbol of masculinity alienating male extremists (8) |
| ENSEMBLE – {m}ENS EMBLE{m} (symbol of masculinity) [alienating male extremists] | |
| 4 | Police chief informally to act for The Times in upcoming action (5) |
| SUPER – REP (act for) + US (The Times) reversed [in upcoming action]. ODE: rep – act as a sales representative. | |
| 5 | Ape cutting ends off fruit and eating nut, heading off (5-4) |
| ORANG-UTAN – ORANG{e} (fruit) ⁁ AN{d} [cutting ends off] containing [eating] {n}UT [heading off] | |
| 6 | Switching parts, entered bar (5) |
| INGOT – GOT IN (entered) switching parts = IN GOT | |
| 7 | Part of brotherhood now, Keats put up eastern art (9) |
| TAEKWONDO – Hidden [part of] and reversed [put up] in {brotherho}OD NOW KEAT{s}. Impressive! | |
| 8 | Don’t go drinking Dublin brew, lad (4,2) |
| STAY ON – S⁁ON (lad) containing [drinking] TAY (Dublin brew). I think this is intended as aural wordplay with ‘Dublin’ indicating that “tea” (brew) is to be spoken with an Irish accent. I’m no expert so I would welcome input from those who may know, but the little research I have carried out suggests that whilst one might hear “tay” for “tea” in some parts of Ireland, it would be unlikely to be pronounced like that by natives of Dublin. It’s prevalent in the West Country however – in Devon in particular. | |
| 14 | Vault subject to court order (5,4) |
| BOUND OVER – Two meanings | |
| 15 | Trade union collecting assorted Euros as fund for union in future? (9) |
| TROUSSEAU – T⁁U (trade union) containing [collecting] anagram [assorted] of EUROS AS | |
| 17 | Long in charge, editor stops caring about details (8) |
| PEDANTIC – ED (editor) contained by [stops] P⁁ANT (long), IC (in charge) | |
| 18 | Form of water encompassing small river? (6) |
| STREAM – ST⁁EAM (form of water) containing [encompassing] R (small river). &lit. | |
| 20 | Climbing in the sack, regularly called complete failure (7) |
| DEBACLE – ABED (in the sack) reversed [climbing], then C{a}L{l}E{d} [regularly] | |
| 22 | Fear of god (5) |
| PANIC – PAN-IC (of god). ‘Uxbridge English Dictionary’. | |
| 23 | Adjust it leftwards somewhat, perhaps, Sir (5) |
| TITLE – Hidden in [somewhat] {adjus}T IT LE{ftwards} | |
| 25 | Turning up without Scary or Sporty? That’s a disappointment (5) |
| LEMON – NO MEL (without Scary or Sporty) reversed [turning up]. This is a reference to a pop group called ‘The Spice Girls’ whose members all had nicknames. Two of them were Mel B (“Scary Spice”), Melanie C (“Sporty Spice”). | |
46:07, but with one typo.
Some great clues, especially GOON RECORD and LEMON.
LOI ENSEMBLE (which I never did parse) and ILEUM, VHO but figured out from the Muesli. NHO RECRUDESCENCE which took some figuring out as I was stuck on basic=core.
Central PERK is the coffee bar in Friends.
The parsing for both SUPER and ORANGUTAN were quite convoluted.
COD ADVANCE
Same problems trying to parse STAY ON. The closest I came to an explanation was that there’s a ‘Lough Tay’ south of Dublin known as ‘Guinness Lake’, but not convinced.
Lovely crossword and had a chuckle at GO ON RECORD with very fond memories of The Goon Show from listening on the radio as a child. Bit disappointed to see almost the same clue for IMPRESSIONIST so soon after its last appearance. RECRUDESCENCE came from the wordplay but a NHO. I find it strange that ‘percolator’ is shortened to ‘perk’ with a ‘k’. Thought STREAM was very good with the misdirection of ‘encompassing small’ making you think that an ‘s’ would be in the middle somewhere. Liked ADVANCE.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Oh, shoot, this all went in so easily that I forgot to parse GO ON RECORD and that’s a good one! About as swift a finish as yesterday’s.
Surprised to hear that RECRUDESCENCE hasn’t appeared before. It’s a great word especially for the unwelcome return of something… cruddy.
20 minutes to get within 1, but just could not see SLUG, even after two alphabet trawls.
I too was held up at the end a little seeing SLUG but I got there in the end. Some great clues here. I saw immediately that “sellers may be heard here” was probably going to start GO ON but when SHOW didn’t fit it took me a moment to go for RECORD. I, too, assumed TAY was meant to be an Irish pronunciation of TEA since the most obvious Dublin brew, Guinness, was never going to have anything to do with the answer. I took my daughter and some of her friends to see the Spice Girls in Mountain View, just a short distance from today’s Googleplex, but it was all still Silicon Graphics in 1997, Google wasn’t even in Susan Wojcicki’s garage at that point. Anyway, I knew of the two MELs.
My difficulty consisted of putting title in the wrong slot, not once, but twice. When I finally got it in the right place, I biffed recrudescence and was off to the races. Although parse is one of the answers, I probably parsed the fewest words ever in a full-size puzzle. Biffed debilitate, anon, totemic, ensemble, orang-utan (didn’t even read the clue), stay on, debacle, and lemon. All correct, though.
Time: 32:50.
16:18
I biffed SUPER, TAEKWONDO (never saw the hidden until after submitting), & LEMON, which I never figured out, although I got as far as NO MEL; I know nothing of the Spice Girls). I suspected from the beginning that ‘Sellers’ was Peter, but it was only when I typed in GO ON RECORD that I saw what was going on. I presume ‘tay’ was once more widespread in England, from this bit of Pope (my favorite example of zeugma):
There thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea.
Raced through, then stuck at the end on Ensemble and Ileum, just couldn’t see them. Somehow knew Spice Girls with multiple Mels.
TAY had to be… my later search suggested it might be whiskey? Song lyrics here: https://beerbellyband.com/en/mountain-tay-the/.
Did like GO ON RECORD, but I also love Sellers, Milligan and the Goons.