Unfortunately Neil is temporarily without access to the Internet; so I am filling in for this week. Quite a fair and easy puzzle except for an iffy definition in 19 Across.
ACROSS
1 BLOODLUST *(LOST DOUBL)
6 AESOP A ESOP (rev of POSE, masquerade)
9 EXPEL *(PERPLEXES minus REPS)
10 RICKSHAWS Cha of RICKS (stacks of, say, fodder for cattle feed) HAWS (fruit of the hawthorn)
11 DISTINGUISHED *(HUGE TINS SID I) I am missing a D so I guess there is a typo and the clue should probably have read Made out of huge tins Sid and I’d battered (13)
14 RISIBLE *(LIE RIBS)
16 VITULAR *(I VAULT R, first letter of Railing) adj relating to a calf or to calving.
17 INHERIT IN (at home) + *(THEIR)
19 LUCKNOW Cha of LUCK (good fortune) NOW (present) Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India and I can only venture that the iffy def “great relief” must be a reference to the fact that it was besieged for five months during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
The Relief of Lucknow is a poem by Robert Trail Spence Lowell and The Relief of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny is a painting by Thomas Jones Barker.
21 BOARDING HOUSE Cha of BOARD (directors) IN G (great) H (hospital) OUSE (British river)
24 CHIPOLATA *(CHOP TAIL) + A (first letter of Animal)
26 IDIOT I (one) + ins of I in DOT (spot) Tomnoddy is a fool
27 SUSAN Ins of US (American) in SAN (sanatorium or infirmary)
28 PHYSICIAN *(IS C ANY HIP) Lovely clue, almost an &lit
DOWN
1 BREADFRUIT Ins of *(FARED) in BRUIT (rumour)
2 OPPOSES cd
3 DELHI *(I held)
4 UNREGRETTED Ins of R (river) + EGRET (bird) in HUNTED minus H
5 TIC Sounds like TICK (insect)
6 AESTHETIC ANAESTHETIC (a pain killer like anodyne) minus AN (indefinite article)
7 SCANDAL Allusion to The School for Scandal, a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), pre-eminent Irish playwright, poet and politician
8 POST *(STOP)
12 INVOLUNTARY One quarter of church organ music is automatic (11) Cha of I (one) N (North, quarter) VOLUNTARY (a piece of music played before, during, or after a church service)
13 BROWBEATEN cd
15 BARRACOON Cha of BAR (ban) RACOON (furry striped forest dweller)
18 HOBBIES dd I was surprised to learn a hobby is a small species of falcon.
20 NAUTILI *(UNTIL A) + I
22 HAITI Ins of I in HAT (headwear) + I
23 ACES cd
25 ASP ha
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Many of the clues are quite good, with well-concealed literals and tricky wordplay.
If anybody at the ST is being paid to check and edit their crosswords they need to be given a final warning before being shown the door.
The clue to 11A has been corrected by now (“… huge tins Sid and I’d battered”), and I think it was probably OK by Monday or Tuesday when I tackled the puzzle.
I thought “great relief” was OK as an indicator for LUCKNOW. As iffiness goes, it doesn’t compare with some of the usual ST fare! Thanks for those references, BTW, neither of which I’d come across before – though, just for the record, I think Traill is spelled with spelled so (with two “l”s).
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