I liked everything (though the unusual forename at 18ac had a slight whiff of “argh nothing else will fit in this spot, I guess it’ll do”) but my favourite was definitely the exceptionally meta 7dn.
Also it’s very attractive indeed that after obeying several subliminal injunctions to hit the sack contained within the clues, it is also possible to catch a well above average number of Zs during it. Primo stuff from the setter – thank you sir!
Definitions underlined, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
Across
1 Call judge, indeed, a conceited fellow (8)
POPINJAY – POP IN [call] + J(udge) + AY! [indeed!]
5 Note shortage of coffee in much of Europe: familiar experience? (4,2)
DEJA VU – D [note] + JAV{a} in E.U.
10 Do reasonably well trained Omega-1 staff do ok? (4,1,4,4,2)
MAKE A GOOD FIST OF – (OMEGA-I STAFF DO OK*)
11 Kind of permit blocked by regressive German veto (7)
LENIENT – LET [permit] “blocked by” reversed NEIN!
12 Female appearing in court is subdued (7)
QUASHED – SHE in QUAD
13 Some backing spectacular bet, revealing a bit of backbone (8)
VERTEBRA – hidden reversed in {spectacul}AR BET REV{ealing}
15 Are deprived of brief sanctuary (5)
HAVEN – HAVE N{o}
18 Fellow about to interrupt performance (5)
GREIG – RE in GIG
20 Having abseiled, curiously they’re slow to rise (3-5)
LIE-ABEDS – (ABSEILED*)
23 Prize given by leading organiser? (7)
PALMTOP – PALM [prize] by TOP [leading]
25 Go with style round course with sharp double bends (7)
PIZZAZZ – PIZZA [round course] with two Z bends
26 Popular stand-in making a minister revolt (15)
INSUBORDINATION – IN SUB ORDINATION [popular | stand-in | making a minister]
27 Oddly overlooked, unheard, US dean and poet (6)
NERUDA – {u}N{h}E{a}R{d} U{s} D{e}A{n}
28 Try to take too much leave that’s on offer at Christmas? (8)
GOODWILL – GO [try] + O.D. [take too much] + WILL [leave, as a bequest]
Down
1 Spotted hint at bottom of page (6)
PIMPLY – IMPLY [hint] beneath P(age)
2 Get set to rest feet after exercising family dog (9)
PEKINGESE – GE{t} SE{t} after P.E. KIN
3 Most mean, accommodating some seeds, to fit in another (7)
NEAREST – NEST [to fit in another, as in nesting tables] “accommodating” EAR [some seeds, e.g. of corn]
4 Going on to settle, following apprehension initially (5)
AFOOT – FOOT [to settle, as in a bill], following A{pprehension}
6 Passing comment in English, opening with a measure of acidity (7)
EPITAPH – E(nglish) + PIT + A pH
7 What’s dropped from hand, and the result (5)
AITCH – If you drop the aitch from HAND, AND, quite literally, is the result
8 When shot, find a gun fast! (8)
UNFADING – (FIND A GUN*). As in dye
9 Fair article, compared with its last at much higher level (8)
ADEQUATE – A [article] + EQUATED, moving its last letter to the very top
14 Rough plonk had after dance (4,4)
BALL PARK – PARK [plonk, as in plonk yourself down on a seat] after BALL [dance]
16 On ITV, a kid mixed cocktail (9)
VODKATINI – (ON ITV A KID*)
17 For one, a pity to confuse new and ancient language (8)
EGYPTIAN – E.G. + (A PITY*) + N(ew)
19 Was honoured daughter to retire? (2,2,3)
GO TO BED – GOT O.B.E. + D
21 Excitement on the way, chasing a bird (7)
BUZZARD – BUZZ, on RD “chasing” A
22 Missing segments, each removed from flower to seize on (6)
AZONAL – AZAL{ea} “seizing” ON
24 Runner-up maybe less tense after conceding round (5)
LOSER – LO{o}SER
25 One in pair leading second (5)
PRIMO – I, inside PR “leading” MO, &lit
29:00 with one pink
Nice, hard, steady solve, pretty much top to bottom and left to right. When I got stuck in the SE, I didn’t know if this was from tiredness or the difficulty of the clues. Had to get BUZZARD to get PIZZAZZ. Then came AZONAL, where I had been thinking “azalea” for a while already, GOODWILL and, last but not least by far, PRIMO!
PALMTOP seemed redolent of an earlier era.
Edited at 2022-01-21 04:39 am (UTC)
Knowing the Times usual obsession with cricket I’m surprised the clue didn’t reference Tony GREIG, former England captain, but my own choice, although less known to the masses, would have been Stan GREIG, the pianist who played at various times in some of the great UK jazz bands, Ken Colyer’s, Humphrey Lyttleton’s, Acker Bilk’s Paramount Jazz Band, before forming his own.
Edited at 2022-01-21 06:02 am (UTC)
Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer and pianist, whose family name was of Scottish origin and originally spelled “Greig”
Andyf
FOI 16dn VODKATINI and my WOD – ‘From Russia with Love’
LOI 3dn NEAREST which remained unparsed until Verlaine pointed out the nesting tables (which can be ordered from IKEA – under the name KRAGSTA)
COD 1ac POPINJAY which is also an old name for a macaw/parrot
My time was a gritty 58 minutes with little 25ac zzzz! I originally had Bezzazz.
I had some misgivings about GREIG being clued as a random bloke and I’m not entirely convinced by ‘opening = PIT’ but perhaps I am missing something obvious. I failed to parse PIZZAZZ.
Edited at 2022-01-21 06:15 am (UTC)
…but the six or seven remaining bottom-half clues actually went in OK – apart from PALMTOP, which I couldn’t figure even after extensive alpha-trawling (clearly I failed to do that diligently enough). And yes leading = “TOP” was eminently gettable, so feeling slightly foolish – though quite relieved that I made it as far as I did. Thanks V and setter.
I had a Palm Pilot in 1999 but I don’t remember ever calling it a PALMTOP, and it took me forever to work it out from wordplay. They were the future for about five minutes.
Defeated by palmtop 🙁
Thanks, v.
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’
After being a lie-abed and then 35 mins with porridge, I had done but didn’t understand Pizzazz (pizza — dough!) or Nest (which is pushing it a bit).
Good one.
Thanks setter and V.
Edited at 2022-01-21 08:53 am (UTC)
PALMTOP definitely ancient. I worked with an early adopter who had one, but by the time I worked out what it was it had become obselete.
Nho VODKATINI. Had the same experience with the Zs as others. Liked FOI POPINJAY. I use the phrase BALL PARK without knowing its origin.
Thanks verlaine and setter.
I also echo Guy in thinking PALMTOP relates to an earlier era.
Thank you, Verlaine, for VERTEBRA. I missed the hidden reversed. Thanks also for ADEQUATE and PEKINGESE.
LOI: GOODWILL, PRIMO and AZONAL
COD to AITCH. Definitely agree with V there!
AZONAL reminded me of “Pressed Rat and Warthog”…..
“Atonal apples and amplified heat…”
I think it would have been a surprise had they not been!!
Many years ago, Ginger Baker narrated a TV doco about travelling across the Sahara, or something like that. I fully expected him to break into “Pressed Rat…’ at any moment!
I loved the long anagram , GO TO BED and BALL PARK. Luckily I didn’t consider a pangram or I too would have been looking for ax X in 23ac.
Thanks V and setter.
Edited at 2022-01-21 09:04 am (UTC)
Couldn’t quite understand BALL PARK at the time (and it’s often seen as a single word anyway), but it was the obvious contender and definitely helped with my LOI PALMTOP.
Edited at 2022-01-21 04:50 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2022-01-21 05:48 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2022-01-21 06:33 pm (UTC)
Some clever clueing here, though as already mentioned that doesn’t include 18ac. I know two Greigs, the cricketer and the ex Daily Mail newspaper editor that Private Eye is regularly rude about. Not really enough to justify the clue imo.
A 7 letter word containing four Zs must be quite unusual
On edit: having now just read z’s note below I’m completely wrong. However that’s still how I read at the time:-).
Edited at 2022-01-21 12:54 pm (UTC)
Otherwise I quite liked locking horns with a determinedly fiendish setter, and completed in 25.42.
Didn’t know you could put a G in PEKINESE, and I’m in the HAVEN'(T) party.
Thanks to Verlaine and setter
Collins: an attractive combination of energy and style
I think this is a rather brilliant definition, personally.
The combination of EGYPTIAN and PALMTOP held out for a long time and I needed Verlaine to parse PIZZAZZ and ADEQUATE. COD AITCH
Thanks to Verlaine and the setter.
Thanks to Verlaine for salvaging most of my mental health once I came here. I did right to resign, since I’d not have got QUASHED or ADEQUATE, certainly not PIZZAZZ (even if I had got BUZZARD), and PALMTOP had me totally flummoxed. My COD was another that I failed on.
FOI POPINJAY (cue false sense of security)
LOI UNFADING (just couldn’t grind it !)
COD AITCH (not ‘haitch’ as so many on TV bug me by misusing — ‘Lingo’ on ITV, and ‘Countdown’ are particularly offensive !)
TIME 20 frustrating minutes or so.
Edited at 2022-01-21 11:52 am (UTC)
COD: AITCH.
Could have done with the long one at 10ac, but walking around, I didn’t have a pen and paper to write down the anag — got there eventually.
Don’t really understand NEAREST = Most Mean — any ideas?
PALMTOP last in after some thought — I too used to have a Palm Pilot — great little machine.
Edited at 2022-01-21 04:23 pm (UTC)
I didn’t think the brand-name Palm had ever made it to generic status, and I would have thought either two words or a hyphen if it had. My views are influenced by putting in Palmtip for a sole pink square.
Thanks setter for a very nice Friday, and you too RR for putting him or her up to it.
I’d personally never heard either the Palm Pilot or it’s generic kin referred to as palmtops or palm-tops or palm tops, only as PDAs (Personal Digital Assisstants)
Edited at 2022-01-21 06:03 pm (UTC)
(Just got around to looking this up.)
The article uses the term “palmtop computers” generically as well (with a link).
Edited at 2022-01-21 06:07 pm (UTC)