Times 25377 – Resisting to the end

Solving time: 42 minutes

Music: Chopin, Polonaises, Lazar Berman

This one was kind of a mixed bag. I had a little difficulty getting started, not being able to find an easy one to write in, and then made rapid progress for about 15 minutes, getting almost the whole right side. But the left half proved tougher, and the SW corner nearly got me. But in the end, I entered ‘slavish’, ‘envelope’, and ‘asphodel’, and finished. I did have a few doubts about ‘nosebleed’, ‘teasel’ and ‘omega’, but I really don’t see what else they could be.

I will probably see a few more of the cryptics as I write the blog, and in the end it will all become clear. If not, we have our faithful early-posting correspondents who are sure to point out the obvious for me.

Across
1	PRESS CONFERENCE, anagram of FEES CONCERN REPS, my first in and a rather obvious one.
9	ACTS OF GOD, double definition, one jocular.
10	AISLE, A(IS)LE, with a thinly concealed literal.
11	TEASEL, T[itian] + EASEL. Mentioning a painter is a bit of a giveaway of what the ‘frame’ might be. I never heard of the flower, but I knew the word ‘teasel’ does exist and must refer to something. Vaguely Shakespearean, perhaps?
12	WASTE BIN, anagram of ISN’T WEB A. And no, it isn’t.
13	Omitted – look for it!
15	HARD SELL, HARD + SELL in difference senses, but not different enough to make a good clue.
18	SUCKLING, SUCK + LING. I was leaning towards ‘duckling’ for a long time, but couldn’t justify it.
19	ON EDGE, double definition, and an easy one.
21	ASPHODEL, A + SP[ecial] + [Britis]H + ODE + L, a rather elaborate cryptic that had to be dissected ex post facto, as I wrote in the only flower that would fit.
23	MESS-UP, M[uddl]E + PUSS backwards.
26	IRATE, [P]IRATE, where ‘appropriate’ means help oneself to without paying.
27	OVERSTATE, O + VERS(TAT)E
28	HOT WATER BOTTLES, HOT WATER + BOTTLE in the slang sense + [goe]S.
Down
1	PLATTER, P + LATTER, i.e. a pawn in chess. I wanted this to be ‘popover’ for the longest time, but couldn’t quite justify ‘modern’ = ‘over’.
2	Omitted, look for it!
3	STONEWALL, ST(ONE W)ALL. A cricket term, evidently.
4	ORGY, [sex]Y [gatherin]G [fo]R [Ner]O, all backwards. An &lit I just put in from the literal, as seemed likely.
5	FADE AWAY, FAD + E[uropean] + A WAY. I had more difficulty with this than I should have, thinking there was some anagram with ‘flag’ around ‘a st’.
6	REACT, RE A + CT.
7	NOSEBLEED, where ‘Roman’ refers to ‘Roman nose’, and ‘claret’ is CRS for blood, so a sort of hybrid clue, not really very satisfactory.
8	ETERNAL, anagam of E[nglish] LEARNT.
14	SYCOPHANT, anagram of STONY CHAP. A ‘sycophant’ is one who shows the fig, but the exact significance of this gesture has been lost in the mists of time.
16	DINNER SET, DIN + anagram of ERNEST.
17	ENVELOPE, EN + V[ide] + ELOPE. This clever clue had me guessing for a long time. At on point, I thought it must end in S[e]E, but not so.
18	SLAVISH, S + LAVISH. I was thinking ‘slowish’ for a while, where ‘lowish’ is a Scots word for a persistent heavy mist. Not so.
20	EXPRESS, EX PRESS, where ‘express’ has the sense of ‘explicit’.
22	OMEGA. The unit of resistance, the ohm, is represented by a capital omega in electrical formulae, and it is the last letter of the Greek alphabet.
24	SMALL, S[hopping] MALL.
25	HERB, HER B[ook].