ACROSS
1 Can it split? Confess (6)
SHRIVE – SH [can it!] + RIVE [split]
4 Piled in heap, dogs off lead showed visible distress (7)
UPSWEPT – {p}UPS WEPT
9 Totalled up at last, with no case (2,3)
IN ALL – {f}INALL{y} – FOI
10 Understand program, run with what purpose? (9)
APPREHEND – APP R + EH END [program | run | what? | purpose]
11 Feasting greedily in club, liable to waste days (9)
BATTENING – BAT + TEN{d}ING
12 Resin you once put back to inhibit disease (5)
EPOXY – reversed YE [you, once] “inhibiting” POX
13 Try again to get out of fire door (4)
REDO – hidden in {fi}RE DO{or}
14 One curate I trained who has lots to deal with (10)
AUCTIONEER – (ONE CURATE I*). “Lots” in the technical sense
18 Spring flowers I left out in winds (10)
EASTERLIES – EASTER L{il}IES
20 Style of greeting in cricket club (4)
CHIC – HI in CC
23 Better to make this payment with rupees (5)
WAGER – WAGE [payment] + R. As in, something a better makes
24 Church official has wrapped silks, brown, for chapter to wear (9)
SACRISTAN – SARIS TAN [wrapped silks | brown], “worn” by C
25 Some northerners grasp tons I have not taught (9)
INTUITIVE – INUIT “grasp” T, plus I’VE
26 Excuse one replacing a graduate in panto role (5)
ALIBI – take ALI BABA, and replace A B.A. [a graduate] with I [one]: ALI B{aba->I}
27 Disorder puts part of US hospital in no end of peril (7)
DERANGE – E.R. in DANGE{r}
28 Show great respect for son escaping misfortune (6)
REVERE – REVER{s}E
DOWN
1 Poet, the scoundrel, pinching almost all of another (9)
SWINBURNE – SWINE [the scoundrel] “pinching” BURN{s} [almost all of another (poet). I spent way, way too long wondering how BURN{x} could be a type of scoundrel, but obviously the answer was always going to be dear old Algernon
2 Pushed back, gave another performance? (7)
REACTED – or re-acted. Every action has an equal and opposite Newtonian reaction
3 See a street in depression (6)
VALLEY – V ALLEY [see | a street]
4 To set free, amputate limb? (5)
UNPEG – or remove a peg, as in a leg. I had UNPIN in here for a very long time which made things difficult. Given that after you amputate a pirate’s real leg you actually ADD a peg, isn’t unpin the better answer, in some ways? 😛
5 Sort of bob, remarkably sleek fashion (8)
SKELETON – (SLEEK*) + TON. The skeleton bob is an event very familiar to quizzers, but not to be confused with the luge
6 What spoils the view at heart of storm is very concerning (7)
EYESORE – EYE [heart of storm] + SO RE [very | concerning]. Genius which I did not initially spot, thanks KG!
7 Now daughter comes in for a hot drink (5)
TODDY – take TOD{a}Y now and put a D(aughter) in for the A: TOD{a->D}Y
8 Roughly haul about somewhat, as usual (8)
HABITUAL – (HAUL*) “about” A BIT
15 English avoiding wooden ware getting expensive French plate (8)
TRENCHER – TRE{e}N + CHER [expensive, in French]
16 Obscure playground rumour finally true (9)
RECONDITE – REC [playground] + ON DIT [rumour] + {tru}E
17 East European and American statesman are going out (8)
GEORGIAN – (ARE GOING*), with two possible definitions offered. LOI
19 Show exasperation after missing a fine practice shot (7)
SIGHTER – SIGH [show exasperation] + {af}TER
21 Emergency provision in hotel out of order (7)
HOTLINE – (IN HOTEL*)
22 Green plant round field regularly makes fodder (6)
SILAGE – SAGE “round” {f}I{e}L{d}. I’ve been fond of this word ever since I was an audio typist at an insurance firm as a very young man and tried to get this word into a letter in place of “signage”, sadly they spotted my larks.
23 Strange hold-up in river delta (5)
WEIRD – WEIR [hold-up in river] + D
24 Nick’s small cloth (5)
SWIPE – S WIPE. Swiper, stop swiping!
Edited at 2021-03-05 01:09 am (UTC)
I think the ‘the’ in ‘the scoundrel’ is quite bad, because it very clearly indicates that the word to put inside should be another synonym of ‘scoundrel’, not another poet. In any case I didn’t know SWINBURNE.
My true undoing was EASTERLIES. I was convinced we needed an anagram of I LEFT inside a word meaning ‘winds’ to get some spring flowers. Unfortunately this theory was greatly supported by the crossing letters. TRENCHER was another — I had T _ _ _ CHER and couldn’t go farther.
The trouble with these really tough puzzles is they only come around every so often…. I want another crack at one!
As for the ‘the’, I didn’t notice at the time, but I think it’s rather like the ‘a’ in ‘a street’, i.e. otiose. But I don’t see how it indicates inclusion one way or the other. The commas, on the other hand, make it ambiguous who’s doing the pinching, the poet or the scoundrel.
Actually, now that I read the surface of 2 Down, the required reading does actually work. I was so in “wordplay mode” that ignored that, grammatically, ‘another’ refers back to the grammatical subject, not the embedded clause. (I had ignored the commas!)
It took me five sixths of an hour
Seventeen’s COD
And the last one for me
EASTERLIES, which wasn’t a flower
Edited at 2021-03-05 03:12 am (UTC)
My big problem was unpin, which had started as unarm. I saw battening at once when I returned, and realized 3 must be valley, and not valste. Returning to the SW, I saw how Georgian worked, with a MER over whether Georgia is really in Europe or not. I was working with an anagram of I left, thinking my target was winds in the sense of coils up. Entangles nearly fit, and encircles. I realized the gap was probably an I, which made me think of lilies – ah, eastlilies, Well, not exactly, but the correct answer soon followed. Sighter was my LOI, easy once you have the opening S.
Previously, I struggled with trencher because it is often a wooden plate, and I though you had to manipulate a trencher to get something else. Then I remembered treen, which used to appear all the time in the 2005-10 era, and saw how that one worked.
Upon completion, I understood everything except for the literal of skeleton, but that had to be the answer. No time, of course.
I filled the grid eventually after resorting to aids but never stood a chance as SHRIVE ‘confess’ and BATTENING ‘feasting greedily’ were completely unknown to me, and even though I got near to considering both via wordplay I didn’t recognise them as possibly fitting the definitions. And finally I was put off finding what should have been an easy answer at 4dn by the redundant ‘a’ and as a result I am now fully signed up to Myrtilus’s school of thought.
Never got near SWINBURNE either as I was missing the two most important checkers, but I did at least know him.
Edited at 2021-03-05 05:48 am (UTC)
Collins has similar also at 3. Your definition is at 1 in both.
After 35 mins I gave up on Shrive/Swinburne even though I was sure ‘can it’ would be Sh. Go figure.
Also Battening, unhelped by having Unpin at 4dn, which is a shame as I have loved the word ever since reading The Kraken as a youth. Imagine lying at the bottom of the sea for years battening upon huge sea worms in your sleep. Heaven.
Thanks setter and V.
NHO BATTENING, SHRIVE or TRE(e)N in TRENCHER.
LOI SHRIVE/BATTENING.
Marginally more enjoyable than yesterday but only marginally.
Edited at 2021-03-05 08:47 am (UTC)
I further note the American Gerund Club is back in town!
FOI 20ac CHIC
(LOI) 3dn VALLEY – I once went to Chad Valley!
COD 1dn SWINBURNE – a poet associated with ‘indecent themes’, no less!
WOD 4dn -“UNPEG the basket on the house’s top.
Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep
And break your own neck down.”
Edited at 2021-03-05 09:15 am (UTC)
Undone by shrive and valley. I would have got valley if I’d known V was a clue to see but shrive would still have been a mystery, NHO that as an alternative for confess.
Despite not finishing, I really enjoyed the challenge . Lots of tough clues as far as I was concerned and I was especially pleased with myself for getting Swinburne.
Thanks setter and blogger for explaining the gaps in my workings out.
Liked INTUITIVE and TRENCHER which were well constructed.
EASTERLIES preferred over westerlies, but then much thought before SWINBURNE. Thinking 11ac might end in ING had me pencil in UNPEG, but had to work through the cryptic for the unheard of (in this sense) BATTENING.
Down in the SE corner, pencilled in the not-quite-sure-of-its-meaning RECONDITE — also never heard of ON DIT but then I was never very good at French – which helped with REVERE, and finally last in HOTLINE which on the laptop was an anagram over two lines so perhaps a shade harder to spot.
It helped that I got the NW corner pretty smoothly, not giving the proverbial about the dangling A in 3d and processing BATTENING without blinking. That meant UNPEG couldn’t be anything else. Pace everyone else it seems, I would venture that in this case it IS the better answer.
Now then, that dangling A. It’s difficult to equate ALLEY with street, except in a particular case (two cases if you count the US version). Put Tin Pan in front and it’s Denmark Street. A street gives ALLEY, while any street does not. (A) Small point, perhaps, but I think it smudges the issue beyond an automatic tut, tut.
My last in was GEORGIAN with its clever suggestion that you had to remove something from an American to get a European, and one of the best disguised anagrams you could hope to see.
I liked this one.
Thanks setter and Verlaine
Thank you setter and blogger.
I didn’t consider UNPIN but I did go up, down, and back up again every other blind alley going:
18a EASTERLIES – tried to put I L or (I left)* in a word for winds to get some flowers.
1d SWINBURNE – convinced myself that the truncated inner poet could only be BAR{d} and the whole would be some bleeding Roman or Greek poet I’d never heard of ending -BARUS or summat like.
17d GEORGIAN, – thought I had to remove ARE from an American statesman to get the E. European. Went through many instances of both, to no avail obviously.
Good puzzle; enjoyed it. Thanks v.
Happy to finish with all correct and to come in under the hour at 57 minutes.
Thanks to setter and blogger (and to “Bargain Hunt” for teaching me what TREEN is).
After yesterday I was a little disappointed that the scoundrel in 1D was not a Greek, or maybe a Turk or a Cypriot for balance 😉
I have fired literally hundreds of sighters in my time, so no trouble there. Shrive a bit of a stretch, it has a religious feel to it .. what the Inquisition insisted on, no doubt. And then executed you anyway.
As for the dangler at 3dn, its intended function is obvious and I will continue treat antidanglers with the utter contempt they deserve.. 🙂
17dn is a very fine clue indeed, worth the price of admission all on its own..
While NW corner was beset with trouble for me — did not know shrive or Swinburne, I knew we were in for a —-ten(d)ing at 11a but could only get fattening somehow missed bat as club which would have got me the NHO battening.
Another careless unswept and another looking for a flower instead of a wind.
Excellent puzzle though — some superb clues — loved wager recondite weird alibi.
Thx V and setter
Thought RECONDITE good.
Did not get SHRIVE but remember the clue in 27,906 which caused a few problems:”18-Did well sorting out what comes next, having time for son (7)
THRIVED – I guess we change the S in SHRIVED to a T. Being shriven would get you right with God, so I suppose that gets you ready for what comes next. On edit: thanks to the anonymous comment below for pointing out that this answer, THRIVED, is an anagram of the next answer, DERVISH, if you replace the S with a T. Indeed, as corymbia points out, it’s a WHIRLING DERVISH. Very clever!”
David
The rest was a nice steady solve.
I had unarm at 4d, before deciding 11ac had to end with “ing” and then had to decide between unpeg and depeg (neither were known).
COD definitely Georgian. LOI Valley- can anybody explain why See is “v” in 3d, and why Fashion is “ton” in 5d ? Probably obvious but brain is now scrambled.
ton just means “fashion” or “people of fashion”. Google suggest to me that ‘”The ton” was Britain’s high society during the late Regency and the reign of George IV, and later. The word means, in this context, “manners” or “style” and is pronounced as in French. The full phrase is le bon ton meaning etiquette, “good manners” or “good form” – characteristics held as ideal by the British beau monde.’
Came back this evening with multiple resources and got it out by hook or crook. Thanks verlaine for supplying the missing parsing and the setter for excellent entertainment throughout the day!
Not being up on poets, I thought I had heard of a Walter Swinburne — but it turns out he’s a jockey and spelled Swinburn — never mind, the end justifies the means.
Also, had to look up the meaning of Shrive and also failed to spot the Sh/Rive parsing so I was lucky there.
Now I can enjoy the weekend.
Having read the comments, I see that this was a genuinely difficult puzzle. I still aspire to be able to finish such a puzzle, as many have done, but feel less bad about my failure. Sorry, my learning experience.
Grudgingly sending my thanks to the setter and wholeheartedly to Verlaine and the commenters.
Mostly astonished, of course, to have to look down, not up, on the scoreboard to find our distinguished blogger – as this is the sort of thing which happens about once every two or three years, I shall open the good port tonight 🙂
39’06”
Not quite sure why I had such a (comparatively) good time for me. BAT and TEN(D)ING kind of jumped out which helped with the BURNS and the SWINE. As another contributor mentioned SHRIVE came up in a recent clue.
Certainly helped by never considering UNPIN
FOI DERANGE
LOI UPSWEPT
COD GEORGIAN
Thanks setter and the ever excellent and enjoyable blog