I really enjoyed this one. Sadly I don’t have a time for it, as I was interrupted three times by the postman and two phone calls. I’d guess it would be around the half hour on a clean run. I liked the somewhat geographical and river-related theme. 7d seemed an obvious biff but it took me a while to see how it worked, and I’m unconvinced about the definition of 9a. I particularly liked 3d (once I saw it) and had a MER with 6d.
| Across | |
| 1 | Room for messing with Cuban a bit in communist/capitalist divide (6,7) |
| BAMBOO CURTAIN – (ROOM CUBAN A BIT)*. This smelt of anagram, just a matter of getting the right 13 letters to fiddle with. | |
| 8 | Dropping head, insignificant English artist (4) |
| ETTY – PETTY loses its head. William Etty was an English 19c artist. | |
| 9 | Gas container about right for heavy-duty machine (10) |
| JAWBREAKER – I don’t understand this definition, although the word play is clear. JAW = gas, chat; BEAKER = container, insert R. I thought a jawbreaker was a hard sweet or a word that’s tough to pronounce. | |
| 10 | Dissident heading for jail in October, following revolution (8) |
| OBJECTOR – J inserted into (OCTOBER)*. | |
| 11 | Take for a ride to see river beyond field (4,2) |
| LEAD ON – LEA = field, meadow; DON the river in Aberdeenshire, for one. | |
| 13 | Opener managed to bag hundred initially in draw (4,6) |
| DOOR HANDLE – RAN = managed, ‘bags’ H, then is inserted into DOODLE = draw. | |
| 16 | Bear, little one, last of three (4) |
| TOTE – TOT = little one, E = last of threE. | |
| 17 | Tease to the right of second slip (4) |
| SKID – S(econd), KID = tease. | |
| 18 | Discuss where continents meet? Get serious! (4,6) |
| TALK TURKEY – Self explanatory, I hope. | |
| 20 | More than one couple stays (6) |
| BRACES – Double definition. | |
| 22 | Producer of Asian music includes piano in strategy (4,4) |
| GAME PLAN – a GAMELAN I knew was an Asian instrumental band; (well I said instrument but Kevin corrected me below). Insert a P into it. | |
| 24 | Bring down the sardine to cook (10) |
| DISHEARTEN – (THE SARDINE)*. Another whiff of anagram, if not fish. | |
| 26 | On the phone, try to get hold of someone in India? (4) |
| SIKH – ‘On the phone’ = sounds like; SIKH sounds like SEEK. | |
| 27 | Innings sees cricket side getting better by miles (5,5,3) |
| KNOCK SPOTS OFF – KNOCK = innings, SPOTS = sees, OFF = opposite to ON side in cricket. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Happen upon label stuck on key drug (4-7) |
| BETA-BLOCKER – BE = happen, TAB = label, LOCKER = something that locks, a key. | |
| 2 | West? Northbound via the interior, perhaps (5) |
| MAYBE – The West referred to is MAE, we insert BY (via) reversed i.e. northbound. | |
| 3 | Stream bisecting rivers, beautiful thing? (5,4) |
| OBJET DART – Or objet d’art. My LOI, as I forgot the possibility of an apostrophe being disregarded in an answer. JET = stream, bisects two rivers, the OB (the world’s seventh longest, in Siberia, as you no doubt knew) and the DART, one of the prettiest, in Devon. | |
| 4 | By the sound of it, poltroon looked fearful (7) |
| COWERED – sounds like COWARD, which is what poltroon means. | |
| 5 | Country river, one in Russia (5) |
| RURAL – R for river, URAL another one in Russia. | |
| 6 | Smooth and white, a plant undergoing tests? (9) |
| ALABASTER – I think the plant undergoing tests is an ASTER being tested in a LAB, hence A LAB ASTER. | |
| 7 | Born in the nude first of all? No! (3) |
| NEE – Well, NÉE means born in French, if you’re female. The word play, I think, is to take not the first but the last letters of iN thE nudE, which spells NÉE. | |
| 12 | Riding close behind (2,3,4,2) |
| ON THE BACK OF – double defintion. At first I had UP the back of … and so an UP in 11a, which was temporarily a problem. | |
| 14 | Salad ingredient broadcaster eats cold with over half of chips (9) |
| RADICCHIO – RADIO is the broadcaster; insert a C for cold and CHI being more than half of CHIps. Radicchio is the purple-tinted lettuce I try to leave behind when I am forced to eat salad, which is seldom. | |
| 15 | Men sit and eat nuts in bistro (9) |
| ESTAMINET – (MEN SIT EAT)*. | |
| 19 | Crossword answer done, cheer! (5,2) |
| LIGHT UP – A LIGHT is a word for a clue, UP = done. | |
| 21 | Heap — time bagged? (5) |
| STACK – If T for time is ‘bagged’ it is in a SACK. | |
| 23 | Ingredient of recipe, stonking Ligurian food (5) |
| PESTO – Hidden inside RECI(PE STO)NKING. | |
| 25 | Roof blown from church, upset (3) |
| IRK – KIRK = church loses its roof i.e. top letter. | |
ETTY is well known as an artist who comes up in crosswords all the time, thanks to his fortuitous letters, but I don’t expect many of us could call to mind any of his actual work.