Here’s my reasoning.
Across
1 CRACK UP A nice ‘n’ easy double definition to get things started. The first has largely been replaced by ROFL in some
circles
5 EARLDOM Perhaps not the first thing you think of with “dignity” as a definition, but BRB gives “high office”. Insert A R(ight
and) L(eft) into EDOM, a kingdom said to be the descendants of Esau, the hairy twin of Jacob.
9 COMPADRES “Friends”, M(arried) beside PADRE surrounded by COS, a Greek Island I’ve heard of, not just because of the
lettuce.
10 TITAN “Huge character” found in the odd letters of ThIs TrAiN
11 GET AWAY WITH IT “Avoid being caught”. Become smart gives you GET WITH IT and “road” gives you the WAY. A bypass
does, after all, go round something, so counts as a containment indicator.
13 ACRIMONY Poison in the sense of a poisonous relationship rather than a chemical. A matrioshka clue: nest MO (doctor)
inside IN (home) inside A CRY
15 SIRRAH Crops up often enough in Shakespeare and such, usually addressing a fellow you regard as inferior. Harris is the
southern part of a single island in the Outer Hebrides. Viewed going westwards, i.e. from right to left on the page, it
provides our answer.
17 KIMONO A garment I have heard of. “Being worn” gives ON, honour is O(rder of) M(erit), I(sland) K(ing), all reversed.
19 PANGOLIN The scaly anteater, in several varieties, but all (uniquely amongst mammals) with keratin scales. LONG is twisted
in its suffering and encased in PAIN.
22 DOUBLE PARKING I quite liked this &littish clue. Double P(arking) turns up in the middle of shoPPing.
25 AMITY The March sisters of Louisa M Alcott’s immortal work are Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth. Amy is our choice here and IT,
“the thing” is in her grasp.
26 AT ONE TIME “In concert” the definition, NET (catch) 1 (one) is buried in A TOME.
27 LEG IRON A LEGION, 5000 Romans in close formation, capture a R(ook) masquerading as a castle.
28 SLINGER David delivered his knock out blow to Goliath with a slingshot, and was also the celebrated harpist who pacified
King Saul in his madness. The musician, a SINGER, engrosses the last of (Sau)L. I liked the narrative style of this clue
Down
1 COCK I initially went the wrong way about this, looking for some sort of shard, but it’s CROCK for broken pottery ignoring
its R(iver) for a generic bird.
2 ARMIGER An antique term for a squire, and an anagram of GRIM AREA, which has the kindness to look like anagram fodder.
3 KRAIT “A deadly S Asian rock snake (Bungarus caeruleus)”; you may well have heard it here first. I preferred it to KAIRT.
It’s derived from “at risk” without the serpentine S and written “badly”.
5 ESSAYS “Attempts”. A chance to speak as in have one’s SAY in mESS without its leading M.
6 RETAINING I.e. “not giving up” IN ANGER IT gets the tricky anagram treatment.
7 DITCHER A Double definition, whimsically one leaving a partner and er… someone who digs ditches. In the countryside.
8 MINUTE HAND. Mimi, the consumptive heroine in Puccini’s opera La Boheme, is the subject of the song “Che gelida
manina” – “Your tiny hand is frozen”. Which gives us, pronounced otherwise, our bit of a watch. Christmas cracker time.
Why do you call your newt Tiny?
12 MASKED BALL A rolled around version of SMALL BAKED – rather a neat anagram, I thought.
14 MINELAYER “This person’s” gives MINE, coating as in a LAYER of paint.
16 PATRIOTS Perhaps an oblique reference to the entirely artificial row about Milliband’s “Britain hating” Marxist father. The
old man conventionally gives PA, insert 1 into TROTS and you get a flag waver.
18 MOUSING this clue gave me most pause: I considered MAULING (big cats do) and some variation on MIAOWING spelled to fit.
I also worked around variations on flogging without success, cats being used for the process and which I think the clue
was mischievously intended to call to mind. I settled on MOUSING, and subsequently discovered a mouse or mousing is a
nautical “knot or knob to prevent slipping”. More info in several Wiki articles.
20 LAGGING Insulation material, like Uncle Bulgaria always behind the times.
21 SPRAIN “Unwelcome twist” Spring gives you SPA, remove the first sign of A(ny) and sprinkle on a helping of RAIN.
23 ICENI The most likely answer to “old tribe”, called into use whenever a setter has to fill in I?E?I. “Province” gives N(orthern)
I(reland), ICE is colloquial for (diamond) stones.
24 GEAR “Effects” such as those on board ship that need to be stowed. G(rand) EAR (an organ, in this case, of the body).
Didn’t-knows or forgottens included ARMIGER, KRAIT, EDOM, MOUSING = lashing, SIRRAH and PANGOLIN.
Edited at 2013-12-12 03:11 am (UTC)
This one’s a bit harder with several unknowns that require a bit of sorting — mostly those mentioned by Jack above.
My COD has to go to MASKED BALL where the anagram is hiding in plain sight. But the possibility of “small” = S and “baked” as the indicator is so tempting.
I suppose we’ll find that the Mimi clue’s been done before. I have a vague memory of that … and making a bad pun on “Martini” at the time.
Once had pangolin in China and very tasty it was too. Thanks to Zabadak for sorting out DOUBLE-PARKING, COCK and MOUSING. Glad it wasn’t my blogging day. My compliments to the setter.
A search for armiger (‘arms bearer’) throws up the following nugget:
‘By the end of the 16th century, the pretentious use of the title, especially in its Latin form, Armiger, was being mocked by Shakespeare in his character, “Robert Shallow, esquire”:
…a gentleman born, master parson; who writes himself “Armigero,” in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, “Armigero.”‘
Joint COD to this and MASKED BALL.
Edited at 2013-12-12 03:42 am (UTC)
Really liked MINELAYER and DOUBLE PARKING
Most of those who volunteered should find a word to be clued waiting for them in their LJ (or FB) inbox. I’ve had problems reaching a few people. Please see the post for details.
Edit: Thanks to all volunteers. In theory we now have all words covered but I’m still having problems communicating with a few people so reserves are welcome. Otherwise, a few individuals might be asked to do a second clue. Thanks again. Entries received so far look very good to my eyes (but they may come under tougher scrutiny on publication).
Edited at 2013-12-12 04:16 pm (UTC)
A lot of unknowns today (for me at least) but all gettable by wordplay, which adds up to an excellent puzzle IMHO.
I liked 12D, good surface and well disguised anagram
KRAIT will be familiar to anyone who has played the computer game Elite, in which all spaceships were named after snakes – “anyone”, I suppose, meaning mainly males whose teenage years coincided with the 1980s.
I had come across that sense of MOUSING, and agree 12d was best of today’s clues.
DOUBLE-PARKING was easily solved but I liked the clue. MOUSING went in with my fingers crossed as a more likely answer than “mauling”. Although a similar clue for MINUTE HAND has almost certainly been done before it raised a smile.
A clear round in the end, but I needed Z8’s top-notch blog to explain the wordplay in several of the clues. I’d recently come across ARMIGER in a different context, but didn’t know KRAIT, the Biblical kingdom of Edom, or the obscure nautical meaning of MOUSING (though there wasn’t much else the solution could be once the cross-checkers were in place).
As an opera buff, I enjoyed MINUTE HAND – easyish if you knew the reference but otherwise not, I guess. And MASKED BALL was an excellent anagram. Jimbo is surely right about DOUBLE PARKING: lovely surface read and ingenious worplay, but the &lit gives the game away, so all the cleverness is rather wasted.
My first in was wrong! Mixed up SHAG with SHA(r)D, the latter being, of course, a fish. Saw the light after COMPADRES, and righted my COCK-up!
Noted with amusement the return of the TROTS – ah, those heady 60s!
Came in at under an hour, across several journeys.
Edited at 2013-12-12 12:50 pm (UTC)
Manley does this as Pasquale quite frequently just to irritate people in another place, it seems, and so I’m wondering…
Having served a long time in East Anglia, SODOM was the only biblical kingdom that sprung to mind, which held me up. Never heard of EDOM (except possibly as a companion to GAUDA). 13ac also caused me some delay, as I was trying to justify ANTIMONY. Wasn’t over-impressed by SLINGER or DITCHER, though I suppose they’re legitimate enough (though this blog’s spell chequer doesn’t like them). Like others, I tried to remember if a SHAD was a fish or a fowl for 1D.
All in all, it was a slow plod, and I got there in a Drosophila’s foreskin* over the hour. The only levity, for me, was in KIMONO which reminded of a phrase,”Open kimono time”, which equates roughly to “laying one’s cards on the table”.
Had the opportunity today to treat both an earl and a titan. Alas, the earl turned out to be an Earl rather than an earl, so the average demographic of our patients remains only marginally above that of a rock-pool. What kind of Norfolk farmer names their son ‘Earl’, for goodness’ sake? As for the titan – 18 stone of wobbling flesh; and the uninjured leg was probably the same. I really do think it’s time we reconsidered our “open door” policy for A&E.
*slightly larger than a gnat’s crotchet.
Try seeing it as an opportunity to broaden self, rather than a problem.. or there’s always the Sun & the Mail 😉
Edited at 2013-12-12 09:32 pm (UTC)
I knew ‘krait’ and correctly guessed ‘mousing’, failed to parse ‘double parking’, and also toyed with ‘antimony’ and ‘atropine’ before correctly parsing and solving the clue at 13a.
Time with the error 25m 30s.
I really must try to attempt the puzzle earlier in the day when my concentration is better.
Perhaps I was distracted by watching Tottenham score four goals – no doubt z8 will share the joy.
Regards,
George
Also a bit embarrassed not to spot the surface of that clue, lashed with the cat… I usually ensure I read and enjoy the surfaces.
As others have said, the arcana rendered it slightly less enjoyable, but eminently gettable in 29 min, so just on the hard side of average.
Rob