vinyl1 tells me that 14ac was his personal undoing, not realising that it is just the American word for ARCHIE BUNKER. Who in turn is just a modern Josh Billings, maybe? Josh Billings gets second billing as a josher to Mark Twain, ironically enough.
Cryptically I found this a teensy bit bland with a preponderance of clues that are just “put x inside y”, in one direction or another, and Cryptic Jumbo style just-about-serviceable surface stories. Credit where it’s due though to 25dn which managed to fox me into failing to lift and separate “nil by mouth” for a very long time, and I did also like 8dn for its namedropping of a quality band. (5dn? Never heard of ‘im!)
Definitions underlined, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
Across
1 King had this made specially for crossing river (5)
DREAM – (MADE*) “crossing” R. That’s Martin Luther King, who Had A Dream.
4 Craft should go round Scottish lake to find border (9)
GUILLOCHE – GUILE should go round LOCH
9 Small Liverpudlian singer inspiring in tango? Just a little (9)
SCINTILLA – S CILLA “inspiring” IN T
10 Tribute nicely written about saint (5)
TOAST – TO A T, “about” S
11 Complete religious work in Ireland (6)
ENTIRE – N.T. in EIRE
12 Check when coming aboard earlier vessel (8)
SCHOONER – CH “coming aboard” SOONER
14 Reactionary TV character bringing stone into converted flat (3,7)
ALF GARNETT – GARNET “brought into” (FLAT*)
16 Portuguese saint imports good grain for pudding (4)
SAGO – SAO [as in Paolo] “imports” G
19 Sort of red polish unknown (4)
RUBY – RUB Y
20 Nonchalant during escape, one ought to be strung up (5,5)
FAIRY LIGHT – AIRY “during” FLIGHT
22 Game in which Josh Billings initially behind bars? (8)
CRIBBAGE – RIB B{illings} given the reverse cryptic treatment: behind bars = in CAGE
23 Understated, it should be expunged from screen translation (6)
SUBTLE – SUBT{it}LE
26 Spiritual icon I see at last in Nebraskan city (5)
OMAHA – OM [spiritual icon] + AHA! [I see at least]. Not quite sure how om is an “icon”
27 Act to defend author penning nasty piece of work (9)
BARRICADE – BARRIE “penning” CAD
28 Reported truce spread by degrees (9)
PIECEMEAL – homophone + PEACE + MEAL [= spread, as in a lovely spread]
29 Horse cooked in casserole wife chucked out (5)
STEED – STE{w}ED
Down
1 Disastrous couple keeping son in poor state (9)
DISREPAIR – DIRE PAIR “keeping in” S
2 Clubs in correct order (5)
EDICT – C in EDIT
3 Like woman raising issue or unusually alert man (8)
MATERNAL – (ALERT MAN*)
4 Bird with raucous call not quite making channel (4)
GULL – GULL{y}
5 US violinist sectarians upset (5,5)
ISAAC STERN – (SECTARIANS*)
6 No calcium needed for spot cream (6)
LOTION – LO{ca}TION
7 Labour Party not likely to split? (5,4)
CHAIN GANG – cryptic def: hard to split up when you’re shackled together, as has been the plot of many a movie featuring chain gang workers
8 Metallica finally exits festival compound (5)
ESTER – E{a}STER
13 Elusive Iberian leaders snarled up outside (10)
INTANGIBLE – IB{erian} “inside” IN TANGLE [snarled up]
15 Make note about time in cheese-producing region (9)
FABRICATE – FA [note] + CA T [about time] in BRIE. Never really knew that BRIE was the region as well as its famous cheese, but it makes a lotta cheesy sense
17 New idea put into Bond, leaving book, getting better (2,3,4)
ON THE MEND – N THEME “put into” {b}OND
18 Worst thing is to accept twin returning commendations (8)
PLAUDITS – PITS “accepting” reversed DUAL
21 Burning a jacket king’s taken off (6)
ABLAZE – A BLAZE{r}
22 Problem breathing arises where coating on pills removed (5)
CROUP – CRO{ps} UP
24 One article written about another Macbeth for example (5)
THANE – THE “written about” AN
25 Artist having lamb to start with after nil by mouth (4)
ORAL – R.A. having L{amb} after 0
For me this was a real mixture of some simple answers, DREAM (for me) SCHOONER, ON THE MEND, ALF GARNETT (went straight in vis recent remarks about same series) RUBY, ORAL (odd vis V’s comments) and THANE and then completely troublesome ones, CROUP, UNTANGIBLE, OMAHA.
Altogether a great crossie, shame I couldn’t finish it..
Thanks V and setter
Was there a blog for last December’s Monthly Club Special? I don’t seem to be able to find one. Verlaine normally does an excellent job of it.
COD — a popular food fish, becoming increasingly unsustainable
DREAM — anag of MADE and insert R — the MLK reference completely washed over me
GUILLOCHE — wouldn’t have known what this was, but followed the cryptic
CRIBBAGE — only spotted this having entered CROUP at 22d, was thinking JAILBIRD (behind bars)
ISAAC STERN — never heard of him
Guilloche 🙁
Thanks, v.
As per my reply to dyste, om is indeed an icon, purple ones being very common on acid tabs in the early 90s. Apparently.
🕉
No children were injured during the two day shoot in a Paddington studio – you can’t see the matresses either side of the conveyor belt. Mike Seresin directed with aplomb.
We had the Clarks account for several years and a trip to Somerset was always a pleasure.
For the’Rugger Buggers’ – The Mayor of Bayswater’ and his lovely daughter come to mind at 20ac, my COD & WOD Fairy Light.
4a was the big problem where I had NESS as the Scottish lake and was then looking for a word for Craft. That stymied 6d where I rejected LOTION. SWEAT BAND at 7d seemed unlikely, but nothing better emerged.
Some good clues. I particularly liked DREAM and ENTIRE.
David