If the mark of an excellent puzzle is that it parses without much resistance, then allow me to observe post-parsing that this was a rather excellent puzzle: with an honourable exception for the very elaborately constructed 17dn, each clue here succumbs very readily to its cryptic interpretation. Two rather good &lits were a treat and, possibly not uncoincidentally, my Last Two In, after an abortive doomed attempt at MADDAM for 20ac, and with my clock ticking down helplessly for a long time at the end over 6dn until the &lit penny dropped, HOY being an island rather than a boat in my internal cryptic lexicon. 11dn was a write-in for this wannabe computer scientist, and others like 10ac, 12ac, and 26ac definitely went in not fully parsed, once the definition part could be correctly sifted out with the help of a few letters.
Personally as a TLS kind of guy I might have liked a bit more literary or GK in my puzzle, but no doubt others feel the opposite, and will say that 20ac, 26ac and 11dn were more than sufficient in that department thank you very much. Top marks for topicality at 5ac but my Clue of the Day goes to 4dn which just felt neat and well-surfaced. Many thanks to the setter!
Across
1 Flawless screen getting smashed (8)
AIRTIGHT – AIR [screen] getting TIGHT [smashed]
5 Reverence for Muslims sadly rejected by leaders in America? (6)
SALAAM – ALAS reversed [sadly “rejected”] by AM{erica}
9 Coach player wanting change? Not half (3)
BUS – BUS{ker}
10 He won’t serve duke G&T and far odder brews! (5,6)
DRAFT DODGER – (D G T FAR ODDER*) [“brews”]
12 Sulphur rots mineral affected after being carried up? (6-4)
SADDLE-SORE – S ADDLES ORE [sulphur | rots | mineral]
13 Greek god’s drawn in line drawing (4)
PLAN – PAN [Greek god] has drawn in L [line]
15 Arab from India on enemy ground (6)
YEMENI – I [India] on (ENEMY*) [“ground”]
16 Half naked, did a jig, not initially subtle (7)
NUANCED – NU{de} + {d}ANCED
18 Note flipping sharp learner in examination (7)
MEDICAL – ME [note] + reversed ACID [“flipping” sharp”] + L [learner]
20 Woman who’s all-round crazy? (6)
MAENAD – ENA [woman] who has MAD [crazy] all round, &lit
23 Grouse seriously could be a wading bird (4)
RAIL – double def
24 Halt cannon shot, showing composure (10)
NONCHALANT – (HALT CANNON*) [“shot”]
26 Where to find cash one’s put in kitty for painter (11)
POINTILLIST – IN TILL + I’S [where to find cash | one’s] put in POT [kitty]
27 Have time away from built-up area (3)
OWN – {t}OWN
28 Suffering around the eyes, but uncongested, we’re told (6)
RHEUMY – homophone, though some will ever disagree, of ROOMY [uncongested, “we’re told”]
29 Risk money, a pound, after some light shopping? (8)
BETRAYAL – BET [risk money] + A L [a | pound] after RAY [some light]
Down
1 Attack from rising Turkish submarine (6)
AMBUSH – reverse hidden in {turkis}H SUBMA{rine}
2 It’s left for all to see in lodge (7)
RESIDUE – U [for all to see] in RESIDE [lodge]
3 Understanding clue ending badly (10)
INDULGENCE – (CLUE ENDING*) [“badly”]
4 Someone must pay teacher with drink and bread (5,4,4)
HEADS WILL ROLL – HEAD [teacher] with SWILL [drink] and ROLL [bread]
6 Opener from admiral meeting boat? (4)
AHOY – A{dmiral} + HOY [boat]. A hoy being “a small sloop-rigged coasting ship or a heavy barge used for freight”.
7 Sweet, posh lass detained in a jail briefly (7)
ANGELIC – GEL [posh lass] “detained” in A NIC{k}
8 To sit in liquid surrounding trailer is jolly! (8)
MARINADE – surrounding AD [trailer] is MARINE [jolly, as in Jolly Jack Tar]
11 Computer parts ruining the odd computer, theoretically (6,7)
TURING MACHINE – MAC [computer] “parts” (RUINING THE*) [“odd”]
14 Female embraced by guy in film, one with conviction? (10)
MALEFACTOR – F [female] embraced by MALE ACTOR [guy in film]
17 Person selling clothing in Miami returning skirts for not fitting (8)
IMPROPER – REP [person selling] + M{iam}I [“clothing in” Miami], reversed [“returning”], “skirts” PRO [for]. That was probably a good one to be able to biff – whew!
19 Judge admitting one religious offence? (7)
DEICIDE – DECIDE [judge] admitting I [one]
21 Physique some must cover a little bit (7)
ANATOMY – ANY [some] covers ATOM [a little bit]
22 Area with mostly lofty houses working without a key (6)
ATONAL – A [area] with TAL{l} [“mostly” lofty] “houses” ON [working]
25 Staunch, upstanding police force succeeded (4)
STEM – reverse MET S [“upstanding” police force | succeeded]
Some terrific stuff, with POINTILLIST standing out for me. Thanks, V and the setter.
This was a struggle that took me well over the hour but 6dn A-HOY well-known.
FOI was the blindingly simple 1dn AMBUSH.
I thought little of 4dn HEADS WILL ROLL.
8dn To sit in liquid MARINADE or MARINATE? It had to be the former. I thought -ADE was the liquid and -ATE the action (or lack of it!).
COD 19dn DEICIDE WOD RHEUMY
As well as 5ac and 15ac we have a reference to everyone’s favourite orange fascist at 10ac. Unintentional from the setter, no doubt, and probably saying more about the grim purchase he is has my imagination, like some kind of moronic, Twitter-based bogeyman. Sad!
“Canute. What a loser. Can’t even hold back the sea. It’s just water. We’re going to be so tough on the sea. Canute was too soft. Sad.”
48 minutes, but surely not good enough to achieve my target…
Edited at 2017-02-10 09:32 am (UTC)
What we all really want to see is President John McClane.
Edited at 2017-02-10 10:00 am (UTC)
Edited at 2017-02-10 12:32 pm (UTC)
I couldn’t tell you how far over my normal hour I went, but it’s a fairly moot point as I finally, in desperation, bunged in MHERAD for 20a, thinking that it might be “mad” about “her” and possibly a variation of the Irish “Mairead”. Not knowing MAENAD at all, I think this was the best I could have come up with, and it’s nice to know I wasn’t alone—thanks John!
FOI 16a. My last two correct ones in were the crossers of SALAAM and AHOY. Loved POINTILLIST. As a CS grad, my WOD has to go to TURING MACHINE (I can’t give it clue of the day as it was an immediate biff for me…)
Careful with those negative comments about that psycho in the White House. We’ll have a Russian site overseer pretending to be a concerned reader dropping in once more to berate us for straying from our core activity of discussing crossword puzzles …………….
Also defeated by MAENAD – saw the mad, didn’t see the Ena. Nice blog.. Thanks
More difficult than i am used to two of the days this week but enjoyable.
Thanks to V for parsing 9a which i wrongly guessed must be related to a soccer sub(stitute).
Being a keen cyclist , i liked 12a as i have experienced it.
Far too tricky for me today… I still had several blanks after an hour or so… Many thanks V for explaining it all.
I had a lot of it in about half an hour, but the rest was difficult. I was thinking ‘pointillist’, but how is ‘point’ a ‘kitty’? Then I biffed ‘improper’ but I couldn’t parse it except for the opening ‘im-‘, and it might just as well be ‘immodest’. However, witht the ‘p’ in place, I saw how ‘pointillist’ worked, and decided ‘improper’ must be correct. I even managed to parse it.
I then biffed ‘maenad’ – it helps if the first play you read in Greek is The Bacchae – and thought that ‘Ena’ must be a female name of some sort. That only leaves the dreaded A _ O _. Working through the alphabet, a surprising number of words fit the crossers, but not the clue. Of course, I finally ended up kicking myself when I saw it was an &lit, and the nautical flavor of the clue was not designed to deceive you.
I do find these types of puzzle enjoyable, and tend to persist beyond reason. I was playing some nice music too, Paul Simon’s Graceland and The Rhythm of Saints, so the time flew by.
Edited at 2017-02-10 03:23 pm (UTC)
I biffed both POINTILLIST and IMPROPER, and struggled to parse them once I’d finished. Too convoluted for my taste, I’m afraid.
Edited at 2017-02-10 11:56 pm (UTC)
I had no problems with DEICIDE, but surely one of the perks of being a god is that you’re pretty much proof against being killed? Given the long hours and paperwork involved in being a god these days, you’d think there would be some balancing advantages.
I found this a tough puzzle, with some fiendish parses (17d) and some awkward defining (SADDLE-SORE = “affected after being carried up”? MARINADE/marinate?)
The “busker”/’not half’ in 9a was a bit out in left-field I thought.
But a great range of clue strategies: most enjoyable!
There are also semi-&lits, where “the entire clue is the definition but only a part of the clue is the wordplay”. I’ll have to steal someone else’s examples:
Slow-moving mice may get snapped up by them (4) – semi-&lit
One’s cold to walk over (6) – &lit
I don’t think a question mark is required for an &lit or semi-&lit, as they would conventionally indicate that something about the clue may be a bit of a stretch or liberty on the setters part, and indulgence is craved, but you can’t really get more cryptically perfect than an &lit! Hope that clarifies things further.