All you could wish for in this enjoyable offering, I thought; some clever wordplay, a bird and a plant we know, and a couple of things for me to bang on about with a bit of enthusiasm. Half an hour, ending with 20d and 26a, which took a little time to parse.
Definitions underlined in bold, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, anagrinds in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Associate’s satisfied cry after swapping leads (9) |
| BEDFELLOW – a FED BELLOW would be a cry by someone satisfied = fed. | |
| 6 | Weird private radio hosts bringing little comfort? (5) |
| CRUMB – CB (Citizen’s band) being a type of private radio network; insert RUM for weird. A crumb of comfort being a common expression, in UK at least. | |
| 9 | Light artillery in retreat hold firm (3-4) |
| ARC-LAMP – RA (artillery) reversed, then CLAMP = hold firm. | |
| 10 | Large duck with bill for storing of milk(7) |
| LACTEAL – AC (bill, account) “stored by” L (large) TEAL (duck). | |
| 11 | Take delight in spinning dancefloor discs (5) |
| DROOL – hidden reversed as above. Some dogs like Labradors drool with delight, but ours is a proper poodle so it doesn’t. EDIT I’ve just noticed that my HTML has the L of drool in red, but the display shows it as blue like the F before, and it won’t let me highlight the L without the F. Very odd. | |
| 12 | Ill feeling on May 1st, I suspect (9) |
| ANIMOSITY – (ON MAY IST I)* | |
| 13 | Winger joking about training exercises? (5) |
| PEWIT – PE WIT could be joking about physical training. | |
| 14 | Give cards for snap? (3,4,2) |
| GET SHOT OF – double definition, one meaning to fire someone, one meaning to take a photo. | |
| 17 | Leg I planted without assistance (2,4,3) |
| ON ONES OWN – ON (leg, cricket) ONE (1, I) SOWN (planted). | |
| 18 | People had power to cut fees (5) |
| DUPES – P for power goes into DUES for fees. | |
| 19 | Fab to be somehow associated with iconic sort of series (9) |
| FIBONACCI – (FAB ICONIC)*. Fibonacci numbers (the series in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers) are interesting, not least because of the frequency with which they crop up in the natural world; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number if you are as interested as I am. | |
| 22 | Place roughly the wrong way round, causing malfunction (3,2) |
| ACT UP – Reverse PUT CA (place, roughly = circa). Malfunction as a verb here. | |
| 24 | Use a lot of energy, a shade overeagerly at first (3,4) |
| EAT INTO – E (energy) A, TINT (shade) O first letter of overeagerly). | |
| 25 | As Ladies Champions announced, so the stars come out (7) |
| NIGHTLY – sounds like “Knightly”, knights once being ladies’ champions. | |
| 26 | Girl at home suffered back cramps (5) |
| DINAH – HAD (suffered) reversed with IN (at home) “cramped” inside. Not a common name, but it gave me a pleasant earworm of Whispering Paul Mc Dowell in The Temperance Seven, 1966 (“.. is there anyone finer.. in the state of Carolina… “). | |
| 27 | Leading exponent of drag, the outlandish (9) |
| GODFATHER – (OF DRAG THE)*. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Come down in pursuit of bachelor flat (5) |
| BLAND – B for bachelor, LAND for come down. | |
| 2 | TV show of note, worth streaming in company (6,3) |
| DOCTOR WHO – DO (a note) then CO with (WORTH)* inside. Started in 1963, and still running. | |
| 3 | Do like lifting uniform with character, mostly, and something decorative on it? (9) |
| EPAULETTE – APE = do like, copy, “lifting” makes it EPA, U for uniform, LETTE(R) = character mostly; “on it” meaning on a uniform. | |
| 4 | Report of what happened at northern karaoke? Inside, it’s painful, it’s smoky! (7,8) |
| LAPSANG SOUCHONG – “a person from Lapland sang song” being the report in question; insert OUCH for “it’s painful” and you have the smoky tasting Chinese tea. | |
| 5 | With a good end, but not a good ending? (4-11) |
| WELL-INTENTIONED – I’m open to other ideas, but I think this is a cryptic definition, as in you meant well but in the end it didn’t go well. I can’t see any wordplay for another explanation. | |
| 6 | What chance a dog periodically needs a tree? (5) |
| CACAO – alternate letters of C h A n C e A d O g. | |
| 7 | Truck on run, one from which all our deliveries come? (5) |
| UTERI – a UTE or utility vehicle being what my Aussie cousin drives, then R for run and I for one; Latin plural of uterus. | |
| 8 | Game restarts, marred by low frequency fouls (5-4) |
| BULLY-OFFS -(BY LF FOULS)*, where LF is short for low frequency. | |
| 13 | Check cover on trailer after parking (9) |
| PROOFREAD -P (parking) ROOF (cover) RE (on) AD (trailer). | |
| 15 | From hospital yard, mountains and a bush can be seen (9) |
| HYDRANGEA – H (hospital) YD (yard) RANGE (mountains) A. | |
| 16 | Something from the sewer to throw across street (9) |
| TOPSTITCH – TO, PITCH with ST inserted. Mrs piquet assures me topstitch is a thing. | |
| 20 | Stick up only CD of first four, perhaps? (5) |
| BATON – the first four letters being ABCD, NOT AB would leave only CD; all “up” i.e. reversed. | |
| 21 | One books into new hotel for a date? (5) |
| NINTH – N(new) I NT (one, books) H (hotel). | |
| 23 | Petition to exclude a busybody (5) |
| PRYER – PRAYER without the A. | |
25’40” Done a day late. Worth waiting for. It was my kind of puzzle. Plenty of excellent clues. I was going to mention Dinah Washington (introduced to me by Bob Dylan’s wonderful Theme Time Radio Hour) but I see Denise has pipped me. The only other Dinah I know was in a ghastly rugby song that went “Dinah Dinah Show us your legs, a yard above the knee!”
Definitely NOT on the wavelength today! Couldn’t get a foothold at all in the across clues until the easy anagram at 12a – thereafter disaster ensued and all looked and felt impenetrable . Had to read the parsing carefully to ‘get’ most of the answers…but appreciate the overall cleverness of the clueing. Best on field? LAPSANG SOUCHONG – what a take-on!