I didn’t find this John Grimshaw production too difficult, although he has certainly found out some interesting words. I was able to get some of the longer ones early on, which made my solve a little easier.
A fair number of answers were words I knew or could reasonably presume, which gave me the crossing letters needed to crack some of the more obscure ones. Answers like chattelsreal are not much of a jump if you have the anagram letters and some crossers. I got potichomania with very little to go on, so it can be done.
| Across | |
| 1 | Girl Air Police located in Kentucky grass (7) |
| CHAPESS – CH(A.P)ESS. Yes, chess is a grass – I’m surprised we haven’t seen this in double definition clues. | |
| 6 | Arabic sign: pork zone active (5) |
| HAMZA – HAM + Z + A. | |
| 10 | What’s not good for fish eggs, a group on the turn internally (8) |
| ROTENONE – RO(NONET backwards)E. A commonly used poison. | |
| 11 | What was behind uncommon energy, taking first run later? (5) |
| ARERE – RARE E with the first R in rare moved to the back. A variant spelling of arear. | |
| 12 | Cause of division in Jamaica? Standard wealthy type (7) |
| PARTOFF – PAR TOFF. | |
| 13 | Craze for fake Ming earthenware — aim for confusion with old china (12) |
| POTICHOMANIA – POT + anagram of AIM + O CHINA. A 19th-century crafts fad. | |
| 14 | Nag child, little one (5) |
| TITCH – TIT + CH. Yes tit does mean, among many other things, nag. | |
| 18 | Father and I left eating lamb mince that’s fried (8) |
| FRICADEL – FR + I (CADE) L. | |
| 20 | Going over European ravine containing titanium mineral (8) |
| ALLANITE – E (TI) NALLA backwards. | |
| 23 | Makeshift Zambian currency’s not weak (5) |
| KACHA – K[w]ACHA. A variant spelling of cutcha, not to be confused with kaccha, of course. | |
| 25 | Rebuilding chalet alters category of property (12) |
| CHATTELSREAL – Anagram of CHALET ALTERS. | |
| 26 | Two birds getting round Zulu councillors (7) |
| ANZIANI – AN(Z)I + ANI. These birds are native to American crosswords. | |
| 27 | Sort of Radiohead album holding little new (5) |
| KINDA – KI(N)D A. Definitely not in Chambers! | |
| 28 | Quality of three, nothing, minus four or minus six? (8) |
| TRIALITY – TR[iv]IALITY or TRI[vi]ALITY, take your pick. | |
| 29 | At great cost not starting in good time (5) |
| EARLY – [d]EARLY, a bit of a beginner clue. | |
| 30 | Yes, one’s redeployed the old excuse (7) |
| ESSOYNE – Anagram of YES, ONE’S. Described as old due to archaic spelling. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Adjust pressure in jacket, perhaps (5) |
| COAPT – COA(P)T. | |
| 2 | The woman’s unctuous, accepting about how Hector behaved once (8) |
| HEROICLY – HER + OI(C)LY. | |
| 3 | What assistant gives a black coffee up? (7) |
| ABETTAL – A + B + LATTE upside-down. | |
| 4 | Mate swallows English fine tea served up — I like particular leaves (12) |
| PERICHAETIAL – P(E + RICH + TEA upside-down + I)AL – now there’s a cryptic for you! If you thought it was A.1. tea as you solved, you’re probably not the only one. | |
| 5 | Jewish scribes work here mainly in reproducing program (8) |
| SOPHERIM – S(OP + HER[e])IM. Sim refers to a computer simulation. | |
| 6 | Head — perhaps one of the sculptress’s parents? (5) |
| HERMA – HER MA. The head of Hermes on a pillar was used as a boundary marker. | |
| 7 | Square pilaster head initially raised is variant of capital (12) |
| ANTANANARIVO – ANTA + NANA + R[aised] I[s] V[ariant] O[f]. Nana can mean head, among other things. The capital is in Madagascar. | |
| 8 | Fatuous low state of America (5) |
| MOONY – MOO + N.Y. | |
| 9 | In Lochnagar, honest aged fellow, old for a Scot (7) |
| AEFAULD – AE + F + AULD, some Scots for you. | |
| 15 | Know old British drunk on southern African liquor (8) |
| WITBLITS – WIT + B + LIT + S. Wit meaning to know was common in Old and Middle English, but not any more. | |
| 16 | Fish — chaps angle any number (8) |
| MENHADEN – MEN + HADE + N. Hade is a term from mining. | |
| 17 | Baggy ancient sat around accompanied (7) |
| SACCATE – S(ACC)ATE. | |
| 19 | Decline in standards doing away with advert fairness (7) |
| DECENCY – DEC[ad]ENCY. | |
| 21 | Indian official unknown among Keralan people (5) |
| NAZIR – NA(Z)IR. The Nair are a group of castes with unique customs found only in Kerala. | |
| 22 | State of recurrent methylation (5) |
| ITALY – Backwards hidden in [meth]YLATI[on]. | |
| 24 | With wings advanced towards the end (5) |
| ALATE – A + LATE. Alae are wings in Latin. | |
I did complete this by close of play on Sunday, but didn’t fully understand 27ac or 7dn. Your explanation of 7dn has cleared that up for me – thanks – (Anta and Nana were missing from my vocabulary), but I still don’t understand 27ac. KINDA = SORT OF is in Chambers which allowed me to complete this clue. But what does Radiohead have to do with it?
The clue means exactly what it says – Kid A was a Radiohead album released in October of 2000.
OK thanks. It’s a genre I’m not familiar with, so not surprising l missed the connection.
Relieved for a gentle one as I had family visiting last weekend and was only able to do crosswords while they were asleep and I was mildly sober. I got a giggle out of 27 – a lot of my friends worshipped that album and I didn’t think it was that good.
This describes my general experience with Radiohead. For me the ultimate Radiohead song is Videotape, where they do something odd with the time signature which people used to call inspired genius and all I could ever think was ‘what’s the point? Why not just write a song?’
I found this mostly plain sailing but the I got quite badly stuck on a small number of clues at the end. I can’t even remember which they were now. KACHA was one I think.