between LANCE and LUNGE for long and agonising minutes. Likewise 13 down, which at least has the virtue that the answer can’t really be anything else, and it clearly works with the wordplay, but the definition part took a lot longer to discern, and I’m not sure I’m completely there even yet, to be honest. Having almost slammed in a careless TONIC at 6dn (frozen has got to be ON ICE, right?) I was in no mood to take chances, resulting in a final time of 14 minutes.
20ac is rarely heard of in the sense of a province rather than an ocean going vessel, is it? Fortunately, again it was the obvious answer but forced to guess its former location I would have gone for Germany, when it turns out to have been Spain. I enjoyed the word and cluing at 24ac but my COD, to compensate for the possibly iffy (pending confirmation) &lit at 13dn is the unimpeachable 1dn. Thanks to the setter!
Housekeeping addendum: I hope to be in Glastonbury taking part in a drum circle in a sacred henge or something next Friday – would anyone care to do a blog swap with me? I think my summer will calm down after that – though I do plan to be in New York for a week over the beginning oF August, if any of the crew out of there would be interested in meeting up?
Across
1 Mushrooms initially served with filling extras (9)
SNOWBALLS – S{erved} + W [with] “filling” NO BALLS [extras]
6 Selector’s mission briefly an issue (5)
TOPIC – a selector’s mission is TO PIC{k}
9 Pair consuming beer, two shakes and Italian port (7)
PALERMO – PR [pair] “consuming” ALE [beer], + MO [two shakes]
10 As funnel often about, oilcan abandoned (7)
CONICAL – C [about] + (OILCAN*) [“abandoned”]
11 Train on line to advance suddenly (5)
LUNGE – double def
12 Telling vet if fee at first completely outrageous (9)
EFFECTIVE – (VET IF FEE C{ompletely}*) [“outrageous”]
14 I don’t like that black pair of spectacles (3)
BOO – B [black] + OO [pair of spectacles]
15 Motorbike prevailing without power greatly increasing (11)
QUADRUPLING – QUAD [motorbike] + RULING [prevailing] “without” P [power]
17 Sweet daughter has got scent in vain (6-5)
TOFFEE-NOSED – TOFFEE D [sweet | daughter] “has got” NOSE [scent]
19 Girl no longer new in the neighbourhood (3)
ZOE – ZO{n}E [neighbourhood, that no longer has N for new in it]
20 Old province of Asia, until broken up (9)
LUSITANIA – (ASIA UNTIL*) [“broken up”]
22 Water flowing round among coins once thrown in Trevi? (5)
LOIRE – O [round] among LIRE [old Italian coins]
24 Turn to young pro United very quietly provided within two years (7)
YUPPIFY – U PP IF [united | very quietly | provided] “within” Y Y [two years]
26 “Absurd” tag one associated with the Listener (7)
IDIOTIC – ID I OTIC [tag | one | associated with the listener, i.e. to do with an ear]
27 Was dressing down deserved? (5)
RATED – double def
28 Collection people are getting on retirement — in euros at first (9)
MENAGERIE – MEN AGE [people | are getting on] + R{etirement} I{n} E{uros}
Down
1 Outer part of some bud? (5)
SEPAL – S{om}E + PAL [bud], &lit
2 US resort where the men network and party (7)
ORLANDO – OR LAN [the men | network] + DO [party]
3 Polish sent up by fresh sequel to parody (9)
BURLESQUE – reverse of RUB [polish “sent up”] + (SEQUEL*) [“fresh”]
4 One could fire unexpectedly at large girl in fleece (5,6)
LOOSE CANNON – LOOSE [at large] + ANN [girl] in CON [fleece]
5 Dry function (3)
SEC – double def, the function being SECANT’s abbreviation
6 Top of barrel frozen, not bottom (5)
TUNIC – TUN [barrel] + IC{y} [frozen, “not bottom”]
7 Italian scorer returning home in charge of trophy (7)
PUCCINI – “return” all of IN IC CUP [home | in charge of | trophy]
8 One worked with dip in range over three miles? (9)
COLLEAGUE – COL LEAGUE [dip in range | over three miles]
13 Putting out of ashes perhaps, one having been used for nothing? (4,7)
FIRE STATION – “putting out of ashes”, or indeed of elms or oaks, is FORESTATION. Use I [one] instead of O [nothing], and find the quirky &lit of the answer. I think a fire station has been used in vain if its human complement has only arrived in time to put out the ashes? But it’s quite late so I may be missing a cleverer explanation…
14 Extra mouthpiece musician’s brought (3,6)
BIT PLAYER – BIT [mouthpiece] + PLAYER [musician]
16 Using bike in gym, Auntie’s boss coming across exhausted (9)
PEDALLING PE [gym] + DG [Auntie’s boss, i.e. the Beeb’s Director General] “coming across” ALL IN [exhausted]
18 On reflection, some laptop’s sufficient for a particular person (7)
FUSSPOT – hidden reversed in {lap}TOP’S SUF{ficient}
19 Unknown surgeon a very minor celebrity (1-6)
Z-LISTER – Z [unknown] + LISTER [surgeon Joseph, 1827-1912]
21 New hit on the way, following earlier couple? (5)
THIRD – (HIT*) [“new”] on RD [the way, i.e. road]
23 A host of terms: clever, but oddly overlooked (5)
EMCEE – {t}E{r}M{s} C{l}E{v}E{r}
25 Pulled up part of spring vegetable (3)
YAM – reverse MAY [part of spring, along with March and April]
Last week, one of the characters–a Victorian soldier on Mars–used “rhino” for money, too..,
Edited at 2017-06-17 06:10 pm (UTC)
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