Times 24796 – Ginger & Fred by the seaside

Solving Time: 45 minutes

Not a stinker, but a thorough workout for my besieged little brain on a Monday. 6ac went in almost immediately and then nothing but a tentative MAT? for several very long minutes until ROTA started the deluge, or more like the steady light rain, until I was left with 14 and 26 for some 10 minutes of gut-wrenching turmoil. Excellent puzzle all round, which brought a smile to my face on more than one occasion, and that’s not to mention the seemingly effortless clue constructions. Take it away, Fred…

Across
1	PIQUE for “resentment” about CARES for “concerns” = PICARESQUE as in Tom Jones’s The Ginger Man; nicely setting up the tone of this puzzle.
6	Deliberately omitted, despite what ill might wind it’s way through the comments
9	OVERLAY = plOVER for “no place for lapwing” next to LAY for “produce eggs”
10	BANSHEE = ~~mad~~E place by, in this case behind, SHE for “woman” after BAN for “bar”
12	FORESHADOW = FORE for “sportsman’s warning” + HAD for “taken in” around SOW for “broadcast”.
13	MAT, double definition, as in “I, say. I, say. I, say. Feel this mat. There, it’s felt.”
15	USANCE = US for “American” + ACE for “champion” around N for “(north) pole”.
16	DEBONAIR = DEB for “society girl” + ON AIR for the remainder. A classic.
18	E for “English” + MP for “politician” + HAS for “owns” + IS for “island” = EMPHASIS
20	STRICT = diSTRICT
23	DON, triple definition, “fellow”, “put on” and “one of several rivers”
24	(LoW BITE FROM)* = TIMBER WOLF
26	PIERROT might have been brought down by pier rot. Your worst nightmare? Not by a long chalk.
27	ILL-BRED = R in BED for “Republican retired” placed by, again behind, ILL for Illinois.
28	ROTA = A TO R for “eighteen letters”, reversed
29	CRANKSHAFT = CRANKS for “nutters” + F~~itted~~ inside HAT for “Derby, perhaps”.

Down
1	Deliberately omitted, although it snookered me for a time.
2	ROMANCE* = CREMONA
3	ROLLER for “wave” placed on top of COAST for “shore” + RE for “about” reversed = ROLLER-COASTER
4	CHEST* about Y for “unknown” = SCYTHE
5	B for “bishop” in DUNEDIN* = UNBIDDEN
7	BOHEa on top of AIM for “train” reversed = BOHEMIA. Another classic? Bohea tea would be familiar to all lovers of literature.
8	ELECTORATE, a cryptic definition
11	NEWS for “information” + OUT for “released” on top of (LAW HE’S)* = NEW SOUTH WALES, which, now you mention it, is in the grip of election mania as I type. Follow all the excitement here.
14	SUPER-DUPER = SUPER for “police officer” written down the page, on top of DUPER for “perpetrator of hoax”. For a minute there, what with the NSW connection, anti-modernists (see 26ac) & my own personal avatar, I thought it might have something to do with Angry Penguins, but I was wrong.
17	DIMETER for “poet’s line” about A = DIAMETER
19	P for “pressure” above UN for “a Parisian” and GENT for “bloke” + PUNGENT.
21	ILLYRIA = ILL for “badly” + AI for “road” and “RY” for “railway” reversed. Somewhere in the Balkans, not all that far from Bohemia. Yet another classic?
22	BENIGN = G~~overment~~ in BENIN.
25	ADIT = D for “departs” in AIT for “island”. Perhaps not a classic but certainly a campfire favourite. Didn’t I have adit last time I blogged? I’m not sure if “taking” is in the sense “obtaining” or “deriving” or if it’s part of the definition, in the sense of “intriguing”.

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