Across
1 WRONGDOER – dogowner* + R; the first of our clues with a religious theme.
6 RABBI[e] – the second.
9 ROSSINI – IN (cricket) in ROSS I[sland]; nice clue, as Gioachino – the Stephen King of his day – made a mint from his operas, retiring at 30-odd before making a comeback with his Petite Messe Solennelle, which is rather fun.
10 omitted
11 SOUND+P+ROOF
12 PIER – sounds like peer.
14 omitted
15 STAVANGER – VATS reversed + INCENSE (verb); nice clue. Took me time to decide where the a’s and e’s went – didn’t parse the clue initially, did I? – but even when I got it right, it still didn’t help me with my bete noire, 13dn.
16 ADVENTURE – VENT in A DURE[r]; Albrecht DURER was a woodcutter as well as painter, engraver and all-round Renaissance man.
18 DRIFT – having plumped in desperation for Mary Martin at 13, in even greater desperation I invented ‘yoist’ here. At least it’s in the Urban Dictionary…
20 [tot]ALLY
21 REST+HARROW – today’s plant.
25 CANT+E’EN
26 BITTE[R]N – I thought it was our bird of the day, but I thought wrong.
27 ELEMI – a resin in much demand from crossword-setters and new-agers; reverse hidden.
28 SPRINGILY – RING (group) + IL surrounded by SPY (agent).
Down
1 WORMS – the Diet (Assembly) at Worms (1521) was called to denounce Martin Luther as a heretic and emasculate the pesky Protestants, but things didn’t quite work out the way the powers-that-be anticipated.
2 OBSCURE – rather weak, I thought.
3 GRINDSTONE – cryptic defintion; ditto apologies to setter – my erstwhile ignorance of wines is matched by my ignorance of clue-making – and thanks to Keriothe: ‘hard work’ = GRIND, ‘pit’ = STONE, ‘nosing here’ the definition and a semi-&lit.
4 OSIER – Rosie with the r dropped.
5 RATIONALE – IONA in later*.
6 omitted
7 BOOMING – the distinctive call of the bass section of the heron family.
8 INTERPRET – n + prettier*; speedsters starting with the downs may well have written the first eight in without a break.
13 SAND MARTIN – our second bird, though more like an alto: IN + MART + AND + S[on] on their heads; sadly, not Mary Martin.
14 AVALANCHE – I will be one among several million who got this first and then went and chucked 17 in.
15 SAUTERNES – another partial anagram: usa + sent* around our first lady, Elizabeth Regina, God bless her.
17 VALANCE – ALAN in [do]V[er] + CE; screening over bed, window or wheel, depending on who you’re listening to.
19 ISRAELI – I + [I (one) + LEARS reversed].
22 TIBER
23 WINDY
24 LE[V]I – son of Jacob and Leah; the tribe descended from him got no land when the chosen people turfed out the Canaanites, but they got tithes instead, so they weren’t complaining.
Had billing at 7dn, with a ? until I got TOPCOAT. BOOMING was then my LOI. Missed the elegance of ROSS I at 9ac.
COD to SAND MARTIN, when I eventually managed to work it out.
I think 3dn GRINDSTONE is more than just a CD. Hard work = GRIND, pit = STONE, “nosing here” the definition but with a reference to the rest of the clue for a kind of semi-&lit.
SAUTERNES? Ah yes! I remember it well; along with Hirondelle, Blue Nun and those dreadful suits that were tight in all the wrong places.
Post-solve, I was pleased to find that my original VALENCE (corrected once the snowfall arrived) was not as wrong as all that, since Chambers gives both spellings. Not many (there are some) Alens around, though.
13d had the air of originality about it: I can’t remember the device being used before, but it sat comfortably and immediately in the company of “proper” clues, and I’m sure it will be used again. My CoD.
The boom of a bittern, like the cry of the vixen, is something once heard never forgotten. And Sauternes is an excellent cooking wine!
The pluralisation of LEAR seemed a bit odd, but I guess it’s justifiable (the Lears of Hopkins, Schfield, etc).
I’m halfway through Sunday’s cryptic and look forward to finishing that tonight.
Like Daniel above I didn’t know where the second I in Rossini was supposed to come from but I was fixated on the Ross Sea rather than the shelf.
Durer, Elemi and Levi were far from familiar but I remembered restharrow from its last outing.
Edited at 2013-03-11 12:55 pm (UTC)
My brother and I were only discussing recently that the only wine we remember being on the table when we were children in the 1950s was Sauternes. We liked the grown ups drinking it as the bottles had those domed bottoms just right for those cracker-present divers who with the aid of a tiny amount of bicarb went up and down a water filled Sauternes bottle for ages and ages.
Ad[z] (woodcutter, not entirely) + venture (speculation) = adventure (opening welcomed) slightly easier?
Still not all that happy with my synonym though!
Thanks for a great blog.
Mark I
Edited at 2013-03-11 10:21 pm (UTC)