needing to justify RISES = “picks up”; I scraped in just under the 10 minutes bar, but it was a close run thing.
Clue of the day, and runner up COD, to 7dn and 15dn; both only fully parsed after submission, but both amazing. But 7dn pips the brilliantly maintained surface of the park keeper thanks to its beautiful “Duke of Wellington”. Beginner cluers might assume that you can have a random “of” floating about “to improve the surface” but of course you really can’t, and the moment of noticing that it provides the S after “BOOT” was pure cruciverbal joy. And then “fair” fits perfectly with the queen and “porter” so well with the Duke of W. Just a perfect clue really, in a really stonking puzzle. Up with this kind of this thing!
ACROSS
1 Time to put up and shut up, almost (7,2)
QUARTER TO – QUARTER [to put up] + TO [shut up, almost]. “To” as in “he pulled the door to”.
6 Brief to raise over a drink (5)
COCOA – COC{k} [“brief” to raise] + O A [over | a]
9 Refurbished front of tourist base in resort (7)
ANTIBES – (T{ourist} BASE IN*) [“refurbished”]
10 Very little right to be said about sisters (7)
SORORAL – SO [very] + R [“little” right] + ORAL [to be said]
11 Retriever after day’s lost more ground? (5)
FINER – FIN{d}ER [retriever, after D for day is “lost”]
13 Sophisticated weapon to burn and fail disastrously (5,4)
SMART BOMB – SMART [to burn] + BOMB [fail disastrously]
14 Daughter has one final letter — the long version — made shorter (9)
DOWNSIZED – D OWNS I ZED [daughter | has | one | final letter – the long version]. As opposed to just Z, the short version.
16 Underground river no longer flows from the mouth (4)
STYX – homophone (“from the mouth”_ of STICKS [no longer flows]
18 Not exactly cut out for work with canines (4)
CHEW – C HEW [not exactly | cut out]. Canines as in teeth, not dogs.
19 Unusual map is only for those seeking gold? (9)
OLYMPIANS – (MAP IS ONLY*) [“unusual”]. Gold as in medals, here.
22 Surrounding some bridge, modest collection of plants (9)
SHRUBBERY – surrounding RUBBER [some bridge], SHY [modest]. Bridge the card game.
24 Jump, but don’t bounce? (5)
CLEAR – double def. Clear as in “get over”; don’t bounce like a cheque doesn’t.
25 Exercise before small drink (5-2)
PRESS-UP – PRE S SUP [before | small | drink]
26 Get down a word in French, the first word penned (7)
UNMOUNT – UN MOT [a word, in French], “penning” UN [the first word (of the previous)]
28 SE Asian hotel talked of providing commercial extra (3-2)
TIE-IN – homophone (“talked of”) of THAI INN [SE Asian | hotel]
29 Chestnut kid keeps in grand Indian dish (5,4)
ROGAN JOSH – ROAN JOSH [chestnut | kid] “keeps in” G [grand]
DOWN
1 Yard arresting very loud English drunk (7)
QUAFFED – QUAD [yard] “arresting” FF E [very loud | English]
2 Top class training makes us fit (3)
APT – A P.T. [top class | training]
3 TV set, advanced, with knobs (8)
TUBEROSE – TUBE ROSE [TV set | advanced]
4 Picks up brown coat leader of hospital body’s dropped (5)
RUSTS – {t}RUSTS [hospital body’s, with its leading letter “dropped”]
5 Regularly taking position, boy’s outside ready (2,5-2)
ON STAND-BY – ON [regularly taking] + STAND [position] + B{o}Y. “On” as in “on medication”.
6 Rotten egg scoffed? His wasn’t all bad (6)
CURATE – CUR ATE [rotten egg | scoffed], semi-&lit. Referring to the proverbial curate’s egg.
7 Fair queen possibly shunning Duke of Wellington and porter (3,4,4)
CAR BOOT SALE – CAR{d} [queen possibly, “shunning” D for Duke] + BOOT’S [of Wellington] + ALE [porter]
8 One on train fell after receiving large punch (4,3)
AXLE BOX – AXE [fell] after “receiving” L [large], + BOX [punch]
12 Spoils were even, say, this time (3,5,3)
NEW YEAR’S EVE – (WERE EVEN SAY*) [“spoils…”]
15 Raising tip of your sword, strike down Australian park attendant? (9)
ZOOKEEPER – reverse all of: {you}R + EPEE [sword] + K.O. [strike down] + OZ [Australian]
17 Astronaut on reflection best among the stars (8)
SPACEMAN – reverse all of: CAP [best] among NAMES [the stars]
18 What’s replaced septic tanks, finally? (7)
CESSPIT – (SEPTIC {tank}S*) [“replaced”], &lit
20 Tax period (7)
STRETCH – double def
21 Fight organisers with issue the cause of weak interaction? (1,5)
W BOSON – WBO [fight organisers] + SON [issue]. Fortunately basketball player Zach Randolph, aka Z-BO, seems to be both a peaceable sort and singular rather than plural, or else this clue might have proven to have two possible answers!
23 Guy on ornate litter? (5)
YOUNG – (GUY ON*) [“ornate”]
27 Something mysterious appearing periodically in outflow (3)
UFO – {o}U{t}F{l}O{w}
I also think the “body dropped” part of 4d is very badly worded, it should be “head dropped”. To my mind the head of a word is the first or first few letters and the body is the remaining letters, especially for a down clue. Just like headlines and article bodies. Or email headers and message body.
Other than those gripes an absorbing puzzle. Thanks!
TRUST is a “hospital body”, the thing that has dropped is its “leader”.
Glad you enjoyed the puzzle… and very jealous that you did it in the Caribbean!
I now see Tuber has 3rd def. as “a knob” in Chambers. At the time I was fixated on Tuberose wo considering other tubers. No mention of knobs under Tuberose.
32°C here in Trinidad, Cuba. Bit too hot for me but taking thousands of lovely photos. Looking forward to getting back to cold grey London… not!
D
Agree that this was a fabulous puzzle – easily the best since I’ve started doing them again in our local Australian newspaper (about a month behind the published English puzzle).
Wasn’t ever expecting a pangram from a Times crossword but here you go – and obviously of no help to me in the solve. It took just under 50 mins in a couple of sessions and quite a bit of help from references in the end.
I thought that I’d parsed them all, however there were a few in which I had not done so correctly – missed the ZED being ‘the final letter’ – only considering the Z and really wondering how the ED was to be addressed. Missed ON tor ‘taking’ at 5d. Missed the CURATE’s egg reference at 6d and failed to see COCK for ‘raise’ at 6a. Finally didn’t properly TO as ‘shut up, almost’ at 1a.
So in retrospect, was able to complete the grid but the setter wins hands down with the subtlety and economy in which he has been able to construct every clue.
Finished in the NE corner with AXLE BOX (which was new for me) and COCOA (where the drink was straightforward enough but the parsing beyond me).
Great puzzle and excellent blog to complement it !