Solving time: untimed but pretty rapid (with one undone clue).
Not a hard puzzle – I went through it at a clip last night after a long hard day at work while eating Thai food in one hand and talking on my iPhone to my sister. The naval ref at 20A wasn’t all that hard since I’ve done my fair share of WWI and WWII reading. That said, 11A has me completely befuddled and not filled in. So after all, a near thing.
Across
1 | GANG,LION – it’s a “swelling” (mass) of nerves. |
10 | DEAD AS A DOOR-NAIL – (Island area a dodo)*. Amusing clue (wonder what the etymology of the phrase is though). |
11 | WETS,=rev(stew)U,IT – (I typoed GODWON for 1D so couldn’t solve this!) |
12 | SKI(MM)ER – a MM (millimeter) is our minute distance – or I suppose M could be “minute”, and the other M a meter (“distance”). |
15 | H(OK)UM – “bunk” is the def and HUM is Brit slang for BO I think. |
20 | JELL,I(CO)E – he was a Brit admiral in WWI and/or WWII (Jutland springs to mind). |
23 | CERAMIC – hidden in “sauCER – AM I Certain?” |
25 | CA(PULE)T – PULE means to cry weakly and ref. Will’s Romeo and Juliet. |
26 | BLOOD AND THUNDER – (north double – and)*. Slightly misleading Bridge surface. |
27 | EMBRYO – (by Rome)* – a fine anag &lit-ish clue that slyly alludes to the Catholic position on abortion. |
28 | D(RUDGE)RY – ref. Barnaby RUDGE who actually is a pretty regular cryptic visitor. |
Down
1 | GO,DOWN – needed to look this up: guess what? it’s an “Eastern warehouse”. |
2 | [u]NEAR,THING |
3 | LEAGUES – two meanings |
4 | O,P ART |
8 | D(OLD)RUMS – ref. trade winds (well, lack thereof I guess) in the vicinity of the equator. |
14 | A,D(JAC[k])ENT – in a down clue, “losing his footing” indicates that the bottom letter is removed. |
16 | KNOW=rev(wonk),LEDGE – if you’re reading this in Britain then you’re probably an anorak otherwise a nerd (says this nerd). |
19 | TIM,IDLY – ref. Tiny TIM. The Times house guide for setters no doubt states that “terms that are normally capitalized must remain capitalized even if clue surface would be improved otherwise”. |
24 | RHO,MB – recall that Brit docs are MD, MO, MB, BM |
25 | CATER[pillar] |
11A: WET SUIT – STEW rev., U=university, IT=it. Possibly a phrase you’d expect to be hyphenated or one word…
15A In the dictionary HUM = the verb to pong, not a noun. In real life, I daresay the noun would be understood.
KenG
My thoughts the same as yours when I put in GODOWN, which I always suspected was one of those words specifically desined for puzzles. However, Jason’s comments prove me wrong!
I’ve been doing some past puzzles recently – CRUCIBLE, DRUDGERY and TIPSTAFF have appeared a fair few times.
HO(semi-detached home)+USEFUL(handy)
Some very easy clues dotting around, none more so than 22d, but I didn’t find this puzzle as easy as some people seemed to.
Barb
5a Frightened by note about assault (6)
AF RAID. Note about = FA backwards. That is a long, long way to run.
13a Court official gives helpful information to man (8)
TIP STAFF. Where man and staff are verbs.
18a Valid licence (5)
RIGHT. DD.
6d Provide food overflowing container (7)
F URN ISH. FISH = food – even when raw in these Gollum-like Sushi Days.
7d Burglar deterrent relating to wings and front of mansion (5)
ALAR M. ALAR = to do with wings and flight.
9d Semi-detached home handy for large family (8)
HO (ME) USEFUL
17d Trial held in cubicle, right? Wrong! (8)
C R UCIBLE. The literal is trial, cubicle and r(ight) are the anagrist and wrong! is the anagrind.
21d I am supplied with money as appropriate (7)
IM POUND. Appropriate as a verb.
22d (Oyster)* falls to floor (6)
STOREY