I think the thing about this puzzle is that there’s almost no clue you don’t have to think your way through just to check it’s right. On the easier end you have the &lit at 15ac, my FOI, and the more obvious anagrams at 28ac and 17dn, but beyond those few a lot of mental sifting and sorting is required to get through almost every clue. I don’t think a lot of people would be able to biff e.g. 6ac, 18ac or 7dn from “Scottish council”, “court poet” or “king once” – you need to do the cryptic work and then be happy that the answer that you’ve come to *probably* fits the bill. And then there are some really tough “three point turns in a thesaurus” that you have to do at e.g. 11ac, 4dn, 5dn, 15dn… look, it was hard, okay?
Some brilliant stuff in here though, dependent on your tolerance for elaborate cluing. I found 26ac (if I even parsed it correctly) a step too far in the direction of barred-crossword-ville, but 21ac’s ingenious service of its surface delighted me whether or not it a little over-egged. I love stuff like “break promises to pay”, “check privy” and “female on the game”, but perhaps my COD will fall to 1ac just because the surface is so smooth (11ac also good on this score). Not a word or syllable cryptically wasted by this setter, to whom I say very good indeed, sir. But without further cryptic ado… to the school run with me!
ACROSS
1 Sweetener and tea bag in cups (9)
SACCHARIN – CHAR [tea] (that) SAC IN [bag | in] “cups”
6 Scottish council keep us in suspense, dismissing leader (5)
ANGUS – {h}ANG US [keep us in suspense, “dismissing” the first letter]
9 Set down outside hotel, briefly went wandering (7)
WRITTEN – outside RIT{z} [hotel, “briefly”], (WENT*) [“wandering”]
10 Routine trip organised, following exploit (4,3)
MILK RUN – RUN [organised], following MILK [exploit]
11 Congestion likely here: take train? (5)
PINCH POINT – PINCH [take, as in steal] + POINT [train, as in train a gun on someone]
12 Group of females don’t speak for long (4
WISH – WI [Women’s Institute = group of females] + SH [don’t speak!]
14 Punished after withdrawing shelter provided (5)
FINED – after reversing, DEN IF [shelter | provided]
15 A winsome, inconstant Romeo? (9)
WOMANISER – (A WINSOME*) [“inconstant”] + R [Romeo], &lit
16 Break promises to pay after girl becomes animated (9)
VIVACIOUS – VAC IOUS [break | promises to pay] after VI [girl]
18 Court poet, somewhat showy at times (10)
WYATT – hidden in {sho}WY AT T{imes}. Thomas Wyatt is the poet and the court in question is that of Henry VIII.
20 Sore about hotel charging indeed! (4)
ACHY – C H [about | hotel] “charging” AY [indeed!]
21 Grand players evidently having won by say more than a whisker (3,7)
EGG BEATERS – G [grand] + BEATERS [players evidently having won… because they’ve “beaten” (someone)] by E.G. [say]. One egg beater is “a whisker”, egg beaters plural are more than that.
25 The writer’s quiet on the subject of artistic technique (7)
IMPASTO – I’M [the writer’s] + P [quiet] + AS TO [on the subject of]. Impasto is painting with oils in very thick layers, you’d certainly know it if you saw it.
26 As birds of prey wheeling round, we must hide (3-4)
OWL-LIKE – O’ [of] + KILL reversed [prey “wheeling round”] (that) WE “must hide”. Whew!
27 Fellow quickly went about banishing the third duke (5)
EDDIE – EDDIE{d} [quickly went about, “banishing” its third D (for duke)]
28 Work with skin X-ray timed badly (9)
TAXIDERMY – (X-RAY TIMED*) [“badly”]. Taxidermy being quite literally “skin-arrangement” in Greek.
1 Secure and consequently, it’s reported, cheerful (3,2)
SEW UP – homophone of SO [consequently, “it’s reported”] + UP [cheerful]
2 Check privy to put outside good arrangement of locks (7)
CHIGNON – CH [check] + IN ON [privy to], “put outside” G [good]. Locks as in locks of hair.
3 Success is on the cards, then fall (3,3,4)
HIT THE DECK – HIT [success] is on THE DECK [the cards]
4 Do for weakling with salvo, finally (3,2)
RUN TO – RUNT [weakling] with {salv}O. I think this is as in “a crossword setter’s salary won’t run to champagne”.
5 Celebrity couple’s split (4,5)
NAME NAMES – NAME NAME [celebrity “couple”, i.e. x2] + ‘S. “Split” meaning to “betray secrets” or “inform on someone”, not a definition I’d run across before now.
6 Bar ten beer bottles (4)
AXLE – X [ten] (that) ALE [beer] “bottles”
7 Our digs fit for a king once (7)
GORDIUS – (OUR DIGS*) [“fit”]. King Gordius or Gordias of Phrygia was mostly known for his intricate knots, at least until he became a setter for the Guardian.
8 Hospital dared to cross the heart of the military establishment (9)
SANDHURST – SAN DURST [hospital | dared] “to cross” {t}H{e}
13 Went ballooning and did winter sport? (10)
SNOWBALLED – to “snowball” is to balloon, and throwing snowballs in winter may be deemed fine sport.
14 I have quiet words with female on the game (4-1-4)
FIVE-A-SIDE – I’VE ASIDE [I have | quiet words], with F [female] on.
15 Disadvantage involving lover, ultimately, got girlfriend upset also (5-4)
WRONG-FOOT – “involving” {love}R, WON GF [got | girlfriend] + reversed TOO [“upset” also]
17 Eva’s PhD dispatched in the form of a letter (1-6)
V-SHAPED – (EVA’S PHD*) [“dispatched”]. Presumably the first letter of this could be anything and still match the definition? Fortunately the anagrist is unambiguous.
19 Devoured fiction, reading maybe in studio (7)
ATELIER – ATE LIE [devoured | fiction] + R [reading maybe, as in one of “the three R’s”]
22 Sailors regularly intervening in fight in city borough (5)
BRONX – B{R}O{N}X – RN [sailors] interleaved in BOX [fight]
23 Unhealthy-looking girl, type to avoid exercise classes (5)
SUETY – SUE [girl] + TY{pe} (“avoiding exercise classes” = losing its P.E.)
24 Man maybe upset woman refused tip
ISLE – reverse of ELSI{e} [woman “refused tip”]
Must admit, I didn’t find this as tough as the rest of this week, and finished in 30mins, about par for my course. Yes, ANGUS, WYATT and GORDIUS (Gordian knot?) were worked out from wp as they were unfamiliar, as was SUETY, but there were other times where a biff worked, and then the wp came next (‘sweetener’ must be either aspartame or SACCHARIN, no? ‘work with skin’ a gimme for TAXIDERMY, ‘military establishment’ leads straight to SANDHURST). Eventually worked out the wp for OWL-LIKE (as per V, with o’ for ‘of’ as we have had it recently), but couldn’t for the life of me see how EDDIE worked. Was convinced this devious setter had used ‘about’ to indicate a reverse, and assumed ‘eidded’ was an unfamiliar word for ‘quickly went’. Oops.
Three like this on 4 November please.
Edited at 2017-10-13 07:40 am (UTC)
I had a similarly-inclined Australian friend to stay for a few days a few months back, and it took me a while to recover, so I sympathise. It’s a holiday for them.
Last in SUETY – what an odd word.
Most puzzled by: NAME’S NAMES
Clever puzzle.
Edited at 2017-10-13 12:08 pm (UTC)
One tricky thing about this one is that “of prey” could be seen as doing double duty.
Edited at 2017-10-13 08:44 am (UTC)
Edited at 2017-10-13 08:26 am (UTC)
A real toughie for me far worse than Tuesday – it is Friday after all!
FOI 14ac FINED SOI FIVE-A-SIDE
COD 5dn NAME NAMES
WOD WOMANISER – very current!
I can’t say I care much for 21a or 26a even having read the explanations. In particular “As birds of prey” seems a better definition but that would obviously require more wordplay.
Anyway, COD 15a as I like &lits and phonetic alphabet clues.
Thanks as always for the blog.
Edited at 2017-10-13 09:38 am (UTC)
On edit: forgot to say, one wrong in 37:28.
Edited at 2017-10-13 12:26 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2017-10-13 04:27 pm (UTC)
When my hour was up I still had a few leftovers, so I polished it off this evening in about fifteen more minutes, finishing with 24d ISLE.
Not sure I’ve seen a puzzle with more question marks scrawled in the margin at completion, as so much was beyond my ken. The spelling of SACCHARIN, the ANGUS, SUETY (glad I’ve been reading PG Wodehouse this week; it’s just his kind of word), GORDIUS, which I worked out from his knot, at least, and more besides…
Thanks to setter, and V, for providing answers to all my question marks.
Definitely the toughest of the week. Several times I was about to biff in the answer, then tried parsing it and discovered it couldn’t possibly be wrong, only to then discover that it was right when the parsing was done properly. Excellent puzzle, I thought.