Anyway this seemed adequately Fridayish, with a lot of definition parts that bore plenty of thinking about before their synonyms were revealed – unless of course you’re the sort of human thesaurus who instantly converts “slyboots” to “serpent”. FOI 13a, quickly followed by 20ac; LOI quite possibly 1dn which was obscure in all its component parts. COD to 26ac, which I got from the crossers, and only realised it was a beautifully constructed anagram much later, so limpid and unassuming was its surface. My thanks to the setter – but for now it’s time for bed, need to be fresh and rested in the morning to go roving in the Emerald City…
ACROSS
1 Feverish patient scoffing cold trifle (8)
PITTANCE – (PATIENT*) [“feverish”] “scoffing” C [cold]
5 Slips as one runs away from beasts on the savannah (6)
GAFFES – G{ir}AFFES [beasts on the savannah], subtracting I R [one | runs]
10 Wines administered by man in debt reversed capitalist’s suspicion (4,5,3,3)
REDS UNDER THE BED – REDS UNDER [wines | administered by] + HE [man] in DEBT reversed
11 Lash out, catching end of trowel in shrub (7)
SPLURGE – {trowe}L in SPURGE [shrub]
12 Slyboots told to go, before sneaking back inside (7)
SERPENT – SENT [told to go], PRE [before] reversed inside
13 Never mind what landlords do unaided (3,5)
LET ALONE – LET [what landlords do] + ALONE [unaided]
15 Third ball struck regularly, moving due to gravity (5)
TIDAL – T{h}I{r}D {b}A{l}L, with letters regularly struck out
18 Transporter, one in particular (5)
ARTIC – hidden in {p}ARTIC{ular}
20 Edit punctuation a little to impress with one’s style (3,1,4)
CUT A DASH – or an editor might cut an em- or en-dash
23 Top-quality type of UK bond of no interest? (7)
PREMIUM – double def
25 What Carmen did with melody, returning her drink? (7)
SANGRIA – SANG [what Carmen did] with reversed AIR [melody] – Carmen being Spanish
26 Exterior protection especially designed to be hardwearing (15)
WEATHERBOARDING – (TO BE HARDWEARING*) [“especially designed”]
27 Team of engineers apparently to stay (6)
RESIDE – an RE SIDE could be… a team of engineers
28 Name, after sprinkling, initially, in church service? (8)
CHRISTEN – N [name], after S{prinkling} in CH RITE [church | service] &lit
DOWN
1 Express contempt over first couple of errors, and depart (6)
PERISH – PISH [express contempt] “over” ER{rors}
2 Smallest doll, oddly with sprucest clothing (9)
TIDDLIEST – D{o}L{l}, with TIDIEST [sprucest] “clothing”
3 Area covered by sign early in year after loss of US tanks (7)
AQUARIA – A [area] “covered by” AQUARI{us} [(star) sign early in year (Jan/Feb), minus US]
4 Squad‘s days in custody (5)
CADRE – D [days] in CARE [custody]
6 Dying artist injured outside hotel (7)
ATHIRST – (ARTIST*) [“injured”] outside H [hotel]
7 Basic material to lie on (5)
FIBRE – FIB [to lie] + RE [on]
8 Journalist put away, passing through arch with dignity (8)
SEDATELY – ED ATE [journalist | put away], “passing through” SLY [arch]
9 Chance to thrive when king leaves court (8)
PROSPECT – PROSPE{r} [to thrive, minus R = king] + CT [court]
14 Previously keeping mum about gunners getting shot? (2,6)
ON CAMERA – ONCE [previously] “keeping” reversed MA, + RA [gunners]
16 Seizure, and doctor’s initial effort to stop it (9)
DISTRAINT – D{octor} + STRAIN [effort] “to stop” IT
17 Available workers brandishing weapon in masculine style (8)
MANPOWER – (WEAPON*) [“brandishing”] in MR [masculine style, as in designation I suppose]
19 Overused noun dropped by secure editor (7)
CLICHED – CLI{n}CH [secure, “dropping” N = noun] + ED
21 Old coins from Asian land turned up in heart of Madeira (7)
DENARII – IRAN [Asian land] reversed in {ma}DEI{ra}
22 Glass of beer? Fortified drink from south, in trade terms (6)
JARGON – JAR [glass of beer?] + upside down NOG [fortified drink]
24 On reflection, cut written work for assessments (5)
EXAMS – reversed AXE [cut] + MS [written work]
25 Languorous animal assigned position close to hearth (5)
SLOTH – SLOT [assigned position] + {heart}H
Edited at 2019-08-09 07:42 am (UTC)
Edited at 2019-08-09 08:45 am (UTC)
My biggest struggle was making a word out of the anagrist at 6dn. Like our blogger I biffed WEATHERBOARDING and only recognised it later as an anagram, but unlike boltonwanderer I was fully familiar with the word having lived in a house that featured it around the upper storey. PERISH and SPLURGE were my last two in.
Edited at 2019-08-09 07:50 am (UTC)
CHRISTEN is as fine an &lit as we’ve seen.
Some wordplay passed me by. I looked in vain for the weapon in MANPOWER, and didn’t quite finish REDS UNDER THE BED (didn’t see DEBT backwards, most of the time expecting the debt bit to be cluing in the red or somesuch)
Last in SERPENT, getting rid of ideas such as “told to go” being SCAT and “before sneaking back” being ERE um, backwards (?)
I’ve no idea how V does all this while changing planes, so congratulations, enjoy Seattle, and thanks for ensuring all is revealed.
Edited at 2019-08-09 09:03 am (UTC)
Yes – ‘cos it was too hard.
50 mins pre-brekker, taking ages over Perish and NHO Spurge.
I guess you could shake something when ‘brandishing’ it, maybe.
Thanks setter and V.
Edited at 2019-08-09 09:17 am (UTC)
7d was my COD for its lovely simplicity.
11m 44s – about half the time of yesterday’s monster.
Thanks verlaine and setter.
Agreed CHRISTEN is superb. I also liked CADRE.
This was done in two halves bottom half 20 minutes
Top half with 10ac REDS UNDER THE BED in place, 28 minutes.
Not so bad for a Friday.
FOI 20ac CUT A DASH
LOI 6dn ATHIRST
COD 5ac GAFFES
WOD 10ac REDS UNDER THE BED
I got a few and then ground to a halt and decided to resort to the blog to get a boost. Reading Verlaine’s intro was enough to give me another way in and things started to flow a bit better. I resorted to aids for a couple of anagrams to speed things up as I really have to get on with some jobs!
All in all, a shocking end to a shocking week for me! Here’s to next week 😊
FOI Tidal
LOI about five of them as DNF
COD Gaffes
I’m a bit out of practice because I haven’t managed to do any of this week’s puzzles. Lazing around on holiday is very time-consuming.
Edited at 2019-08-09 03:24 pm (UTC)
I’m sure it was a marvellous puzzle, but I didn’t get much out of it. Biffed DISTRAINT and MANPOWER.
FOI SANGRIA
LOI CLICHED
COD FIBRE
TIME 17:43
I liked Reds Under The Bed, and the stellar Christening.
Edited at 2019-08-09 06:22 pm (UTC)
Hard but fair .. thank you setter, and V ..
Edited at 2019-08-09 07:31 pm (UTC)
ATHIRST was an NHO and, despite its being the only plausible arrangement of the available letters (with the possible exception of ‘athrist’), I refused to believe it. Sadly, I was thinking of the wrong sort of dying, otherwise it would have seemed plausible. I also failed on SERPENT, despite contemplating ‘sent’; alas I have no excuse for this failure.