At time of blogging there are 29 submissions with “errors” on the club compared to 3 without, and I don’t honestly know how those 3 managed to stumble upon the right answer; though I guess it may be a regional thing. If this clue was test-solved by multiple people prior to publication without this issue coming up, though, I will eat my very capacious hat.
Thank you to the setter for the good parts of this curate’s 5dn!
ACROSS
1 It’s well known: new lockdown meme no good (6,9)
COMMON KNOWLEDGE – (LOCKDOWN MEME NO G*)
9 Prod men to interrupt offensive opera (9)
RUDDIGORE – DIG O.R. to interrupt RUDE
10 About to stop low-down tree-hugger? (5)
GREEN – RE [about] to “stop” GEN [low-down]
11 Metal shaving twisted internally (6)
SILVER – S{L<->I}VER
12 Embarrassing mistake about dull, back-pedalling, perennial protesters? (4-1-3)
RENT-A-MOB – BONER about MAT, all reversed
13 They send up runners to welcome leading lady (6)
SKIERS – SKIS to “welcome” E.R. “To sky” means “to send up” (in the air)
15 Inspection kit is redundant, but not one containing catch (8)
OTOSCOPE – OT{i}OSE [redundant, minus I] “containing” COP
18 One unique barrier broken down at first (4,4)
RARE BIRD – (BARRIER*) + D{own}
19 Small bird seen by old man over the hill (4,2)
PAST IT – S TIT seen by PA
21 Penny-pincher demanding full roll (8)
TIGHTWAD – TIGHT [demanding] + WAD [full roll]
23 Intermediate puzzle with intro replaced (6)
MIDDLE – {r->M}IDDLE
26 Fake news: pleas FA regularly rejected (5)
FALSE – {n}E{w}S {p}L{e}A{s} F{a}, reversed
27 Projectile, originally lost, is in the sea (9)
BALLISTIC – L{ost} IS, in BALTIC
28 First on display to arrange big noise for military (3,5,7)
AIR CHIEF MARSHAL – CHIEF [first] on AIR [display], plus MARSHAL [arrange]
DOWN
1 Bending process cracks up on the boards? (7)
CORPSES – (PROCESS*) – as in what an actor who can’t stop laughing does
2 Barbie perhaps receiving doll’s first award (5)
MEDAL – MEAL [barbie, as in barbecue] “receives” D{oll}
3 Dull colour of old poet, ill, withdrawn (5,4)
OLIVE DRAB – O(ld) + reversed BARD, EVIL
4 Coming up, strike boss (4)
KNOT – reversed TONK.
5 One’s constituents beaten over race amidst scuffle (8)
OMELETTE – O(ver) + T.T. amidst MELEE. “One’s constituents beaten” as in, “one has beaten ingredients”
6 Not demanding rest (5)
LIGHT – double def
7 Hunk of bread and peeled tomato mashed together (9)
DREAMBOAT – (BREAD {t}OMAT{o}*)
8 Honour covered up by genteel bonnets (7)
ENNOBLE – hidden reversed in {gente}EL BONNE{ts}
14 Disorderly Irish customer, a familiar one (9)
IRREGULAR – IR + REGULAR [a familiar customer]
16 Harsh critic cries “fair!” unexpectedly (9)
SCARIFIER – (CRIES FAIR*)
17 Pressure to witter on about English introduction (8)
PREAMBLE – P + RAMBLE [to witter on] “about” E
18 Coming up: excellent, fine salt absorbing a liqueur (7)
RATAFIA – reversed A1 F TAR, absorbing A
20 Hawk left after row over church (7)
TIERCEL – L after TIER over C.E.
22 Force needing support on “towpath case” (5)
TEETH – TEE on T{owpat}H
24 Wife departs with face of tough guy scratched (5)
DUTCH – D + {b}UTCH
25 Sheer endless choice (4)
PLUM – PLUM{b}.
TIERCEL rang a bell from previous crosswords; RARE BIRD was a bit more obscure and RUDDIGORE was completely unknown. COD to CORPSES, my LOI, with a nice definition and well-concealed wordplay.
On the other hand, in my experience, a boner might have been embarrassing, but never a mistake.
Edited at 2020-10-23 07:58 pm (UTC)
NHO KNOT as a boss
On edit: The SNITCH says it all. 67 Reference solvers excluded with errors.
Edited at 2020-10-23 12:13 pm (UTC)
I didn’t know BONER as a mistake but as something embarrassing? Yes.
David Parfitt and Richard Rogan barricaded themselves into an office as an angry mob surged outside shouting “there’s two knobs in there – come out and avoid tying yourselves in knots”.
Frankly, it’s not the standard we expect from this august journal.
(COD CORPSES, TIME 9:42. I wuz robbed !)
One cannot blame the setter, who was obviously having a bit of fun, but the lack of editorial oversight is redolent of The Times presently. Little editorial discipline. Unless the editor was also the setter. Or POTUS perhaps?
However, for us on paper it was fine! Thus no pink square hereabouts.
FOI 2dn MEDAL or was it MYDOL? Thank- you Barbie.
LOI 12ac RENT-A-MOB or was it RENT-A-KNOB?
COD 11ac SILVER or was it SRIVEL
WOD 4dn KNOB or was it KNOT?
Time for a BONK!
Edited at 2020-10-23 05:32 pm (UTC)
If that does not satisfy then I might suggest a duel, with top of the range ‘Luxor Textliters’. You will be pink and I will be orange and yellow.
Methink Ham Green would be a most suitable location, but I cannot guarantee a date or time as I am unable to get back to Blighty presently.
Meldrew
Is it really too much to ask that clues are tested for an absolute lack of ambiguity? Some of us pay upwards of thirty quid a month for this nonsense. I’ve given up fighting the battle to be honest. Mr Grumpy
CORPSES cracked me up. You can’t (I hope) say that often.
Edited at 2020-10-24 05:39 pm (UTC)
“Having discussed this further with the Crossword Editor, we’ve decided to rescore this one, so that KNOB is treated at the correct answer. It appears that even the Crossword Ed wrote in KNOB when solving the puzzle, but KNOT was erroneously retained in the solution grid. I think KNOT can probably be just about justified, but it seems to rely on a rather obscure botanical definition of BOSS that really is straying into Listener/Mephisto territory.
Apologies again for the bewilderment and frustration this caused.”
Make it up, you couldn’t ..