Across
1 SATSUMA – reversal of A MUST + AS (when) to give Mum’s favourite stocking filler.
5 LANDING – double definition, the second indirect.
9 HOPSCOTCH – HOP (bound) + SCOTCH (put an end to) to give the setter’s favourite summer game, conkers being the autumn one.
10 MIDGE – D[eparts] in MIG + E[rks] to give the things that bite you when you’re playing croquet.
11 OBESE – OB + the middle letters of reprESEnted.
12 MARCH PAST – if companion isn’t pal, ally or china, he (or she) is likely to be your Companion of Honour (CH), so CH + PAS in MART.
13 RUN A TIGHT SHIP – tried to get this with only one checker (H) but failed – needed three; it’s an anagram of trains high ups around T.
17 EXTRAORDINARY – EXTRA (unused) + ORDINARY (a penny-farthing bicycle in the US, according to ODO).
21 PRINCIPAL – sounds like ‘principle’ (rule).
24 TERSE – T + ERSE (the setter’s favourite Goidelic language variety).
25 NICHE – H in NICE; ‘good spot’, as in ‘she’s finally found her niche’.
26 PROCONSUL – PRO + CONSUL[t].
27 EARLY ON – EARL + YON.
28 MONSOON – M[ove] + ON + SOON.
Down
1 SCHOOL – S[torm] + CHOOL (sounds like ‘cool’).
2 TOP SECRET – anagram of street cop.
3 UNCLE+AN
4 AL(TIME)TER
5 LEHAR – hidden; he must have written something besides The Merry Widow, but I’ve no idea what.
6 NYMPHET – (Y + MPH) in (N + ET); more people read about Loilta in crosswords these days than in Nabokov’s novel; Araucaria had an excellent Lolita-themed clue a month ago in the Guardian: ‘People like Lolita — it’s a difficult thing to do (3,7)’.
7 INDIA – IN + aid reversed; is India the new Indonesia?
8 GREAT APE – where parrot = ape.
14 G(RILL) ROOM – where curry = groom.
15 HEY PRESTO – anagram of the osprey.
16 RESPONSE – anagram of persons + E.
18 ARCHERY – because the bull is black.
19 ALTHORN – today’s toughie: it’s A (‘a’) + THORN (‘letter’ – the Anglo-Saxon runic letter, þ or Þ, so named because those hieroglyphics are transliterated into modern English as ‘th’, the first letter(s) of the word in question in its respective stylings) around L[arge]; an ALTHORN is a member of the hybrid saxhorn family pitched in E flat.
20 BERLIN – a triple definition, a Berlin (or Berline) being the horse-drawn equivalent of a Porsche – before they introduced the ugly 4-doors.
22 INCUR – INCUR[ious]; cunning, but the checkers rather give it.
23 POP IN – made me smile.
Ulaca seems to get all the easy ones….
First one I’ve finished all correct in a little while… All went swimmingly, but a little held up in the SE corner with PROCONSUL, TERSE and ALTHORN the last in. Held up by having alphorn for a little while, and thinking the gov should finish with -er.
It appears that LJ’s “suspicious comments” feature has disappeared within the past few days. I know they’ve had a revamp because they sent me a long message explaining it, but I didn’t notice anything there about it, however spam is now appearing in threads without the need to click “suspicious comments” to display it.
Since writing the above I have deleted several spam messages from this thread which were not flagged up as “suspicious”. I logged out first to check these were visible to “anon” viewers, and not just because I have admin rights. Is this supposed to be an improvement? I thought we had arrived at a reasonable work-around for dealing with spam, if not a complete solution, but now we seem to be back to square one.
Edited at 2013-06-03 07:23 am (UTC)
Livejournal is a ramshackle website.
I was chool with the homophone – does anyone pronounce it differently?
I recall the marketing gurus grabbing the word NICHE and batting on about knowing your niche, niche marketing and all the rest of it. I was running a seminar and discussing this concept when one of the more perceptive delegate suggested that once the big boys spotted what you were up to the niche would quickly turn into a tomb
Is this setting a precedent? I don’t know. Anyway, I’m chool with it…
Lehar certainly wrote more than The Merry Widow, and many of the songs from lesser-known works sold well in the UK during the 20s, 30s and 40s, both as sheet music for piano, and gramophone records.
Richard Tauber’s recordings of Lehar were particularly popular. My favourite is Serenade from Frasquita, but You Are My Heart’s Delight from The Land of Smiles was bashed out by many an inebriated, over-emotional uncle at wedding receptions and Christmas parties. Those who wish to wallow in a little nostalgia will readily find these songs on You Tube.
No problem with 1dn.
I can’t remember off the top of my head seeing a homophone where one possible meaning isn’t an actual word, but don’t have a problem with it. As is often pointed out in these parts, there aren’t Immutable Laws of Crosswords, even in the Times; there are conventions, some of which are strict and some of which aren’t.
I didn’t know that a penny-farthing could also be known as an ordinary so 17ac went in on definition alone. RESPONSE was my last in.
I had no problem with chool/cool in the context. Jimbo is being a little unfair to bring up the SANDPAPER/SANDPIPER homophone without the caveat that the setter, if memory serves, alluded to SANDPIPER being pronounced with a cockney accent. It still wasn’t the best of homophones but worked at a stretch if you imagine it was Dick Van Dyke saying it.
For 14d I initially wrote in Green Room (Groom + Reen) which seemed quite a robust answer to me until I got 17a.
Occasionally after I blog the Independent in the morning I have access to a printed copy late in the day. I know the answers, so I sometimes just see how fast I can do it and have never been faster than about 7 minutes. These 4-minute merchants must be in physically good shape, at least so far as their hands are concerned.
Apart from that, general ageing is taking its toll: I lack the raw speed I had 30 or more years ago, and I’m horribly prone to senior moments. However, this is offset a little by the greater knowledge I’ve acquired over the years.