Not a typo in sight and nary a bad clue. One new word that had me guessing and quite a few doubled-letters (SSx4, BB, DDx2, EE, TT, RR, LL).
Across
| 1 |
D[own],RIBBLE – “River” Ribble in Yorkshire/Lancashire (thanks to Paul below!) |
| 5 |
BIRCHES – used for flogging in corporal punishment and some BIRCHES are “silver”. |
| 11 |
A+S.S.+IS+T – Not sure why “called for” is called for – unless it’s to make the surface a bit smoother. |
| 12 |
BEFUDDLE – (ed, bed, flu)* — which is a slightly indirect anagram since need to substitute ED for ”newsman” in the fodder first. This is considered a Ximenean transgression but rather mild since it’s such a common idiom. |
| 14 |
NUMBER+LESS – Not a bad double definition with one part being slightly cryptic: “they cannot be counted”. |
| 19 |
R+EIMBURSED – (bruised me)* following R[ing] (“ringleader”). Which of course brings us back to the discussion of whether e.g. “redhead” can indicate R. |
| 22 |
CARNAUB+A – (a cub ran)* followed by A: CARNAUBA is indeed a Brazilian palm tree. Obvious anagram (well, almost: “around” is the anagrind rather than indicating containment) and with some crossing letters and checking in The Big Red Book you can get there. |
| 26 |
IS+LET- LET as an obstacle or “hindrance” crops up frequently in cryptics since it’s almost the opposite sense of its usual meaning. |
| 28 |
HOS(I)E+RY – Not a great surface but I liked the clue nonetheless since the wordplay is meticulous: “Piping I put inside” is a case of “X Y inserted” to indicate “insert Y inside of X”. RY=abbrev(railway ”lines”) and HOSIERY is what you put on only “some” of your “members”, namely the lower extremities. |
Down
| 1 |
DISDAIN – (dad is in)* — “agony” is the anagrind: oddly enough this was my last clue solved since I’d fallen in love with Pa and C for cold. |
| 4 |
ETON – rev(note=”Mark”). Leading capitalization misdirects towards proper name. It’s been done before. |
| 5 |
BURDENSOME – cryptic definition (though you’d think there’s a related clue having to do with Eric Burdon and the Animals). |
| 6 |
REFLU+X – (refu[e]l)* followed by X for “cross”. The perennial question is whether “losing energy” should mean “remove all the Es from the fodder or just as many as you need to make the wordplay work”? |
| 7 |
HE+ADDRESS – nice charade and definition is cryptic: “capital cover” for HEADDRESS.. |
| 13 |
ELDERBERRY – jokey cryptic definition for a kind of berry. |
| 15 |
MAN+DRILLS |
| 17 |
QUESTION MARK – not a bad cryptic definition. |
| 18 |
PECKISH – (chips, e, k)* — another slightly indirect anagram (E for “oriental” and K[ing] for “monarch”). I think these are OK since they are so familiar. |
| 20 |
DIGESTS – double meaning: quite different. The question-mark indicating the shift in meaning of “condensation” from moisture. |
| 21 |
BATTLE – military “encounter” and a town in Sussex. |
Surely it’s D (=heading down) and RIBBLE (the river Ribble in Lancashire). Defn “trickle”
— paul
i’ll update…
The “easies”:
9a Grandeur of (Len’s proud)* turnout = SPLENDOUR
10a Faculty honest about money = F £ AIR – this one was my LOI as I was stuck on 5a, 7d and 10a at the end. I even got “Faculty” = F and “lair” = “Rial” back’rds before I saw the correct parsing. Doh!
16a Girl indicating a meadow hard by = LEA H
18a Kind of needle that’s long = PINE – DD.
23a Demanding a second royalty = A S KING
27a Promptitude with which th(e) last (sardines)* disperse = READINESS – leading me to Question Tame at 17 & 25d. Seeing the light and changing “Time” to “Mark” enabled me to then solve 29a.
29a Sparks off relative riding rickety (sled)* = KIN DLES
2d (L)eft (side)* is wrong – doesn’t work = IDLES
3d Is he in the gang, or excluded? = BAN IS HE D
8d Outcry when loose rocks descend on church = SCREE CH
24d I find wood that’s perfect = I DEAL