A bit of a cock-up for me on the lift & separate front, as I failed miserably on the very unknown 17 down. That apart, this was, I think, a little tougher than an average Monday, with some tricky clueing and a bit of Anglocentric stuff (19 down combines both).
Anyway, how did you lot do? Answers on a postcard, please…
ACROSS
| 1 | Keep asking family for carriage after midnight (7) |
| PUMPKIN – PUMP (keep asking) KIN (family); referencing the Cinderella story | |
| 5 | Very keen intent to dump one pompous girl (5) |
| MADAM – MAD (very keen) A[i]M | |
| 9 | Selling no alcohol? Notice wood spirit (5) |
| DRYAD – DRY (selling no alcohol) AD (notice) | |
| 10 | To spread my wings, I had turned to write poetry (9) |
| DIVERSIFY – ID reversed VERSIFY (to write poetry) | |
| 11 | Even in pencil, makes public sweet little items (7) |
| ECLAIRS – even letters of [p]E[n]C[i]L AIRS (makes public) | |
| 12 | Seek and find in dilapidated condition (3,4) |
| RUN DOWN – RUN DOWN (seek and find, as in ‘The wife ran me down in the red light district’) | |
| 13 | Sort of order British installed in restored caliphate (10) |
| ALPHABETIC – B (British) in anagram* of CALIPHATE | |
| 15 | Sign of submariner’s return (4) |
| OMEN – NEMO reversed; Nemo as in Jules Verne’s creation, not the little fish | |
| 18 | A bit of a problem in one’s ear (4) |
| SOME – sounds like SUM; I could have underlined ‘a bit’ or ‘a bit of’, instead of ‘a bit of a’, but I didn’t want old Myrtilus moaning about an otiose indefinite article | |
| 20 | Ride — up the aisle, do we hear? (6,4) |
| BRIDLE PATH – a BRIDLE PATH is a path dedicated for horsey types (i.e. a ‘ride’) in Britain; BRIDLE sounds like ‘bridal’, which accounts for the ‘up the aisle’ imagery in the clue | |
| 23 | Boat half removed by hooligan — it may have been chartered (7) |
| BOROUGH – BO[at] ROUGH (hooligan); I looked up chartered boroughs on the internet and rather wish I hadn’t. This will suffice: ‘Borough status is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.’ | |
| 24 | Quite a blow as aborted process throws one out (7) |
| MISTRAL – MISTR[i]AL; it always strikes me that there are more of these (mistrials) than there ought to be | |
| 25 | Josh succeeded joining available Chinese course (5,4) |
| SPARE RIBS – RIB (as in josh or joke) S (succeeded – in history; think monarchs) after SPARE (available); a bit confusing, as SPAR can also have a joshy (bandy words) sense | |
| 26 | Sign is inconsistent? Not very (5) |
| ARIES – [v]ARIES; ‘is inconsistent’ = VARIES | |
| 27 | Check covers a source of power (5) |
| STEAM – A in STEM (check, as in ‘stem the flow of blood’) | |
| 28 | Chap packing weapon in trousers, say (7) |
| GARMENT – okay, settle down, this isn’t Private Eye; we simply have ARM (weapon) in GENT (chap) |
| DOWN | |
| 1 | Ignoring service, doesn’t respect note from employer (7) |
| PAYSLIP – If a woman ‘PAYS LIP SERVICE’ to her husband’s words, she doesn’t respect them. I know… | |
| 2 | Extremely busy girl struggling with a piece of music (8) |
| MADRIGAL – MAD (extremely busy, as in ‘It’s been mad here since the travel ban was lifted’) GIRL A*; ‘Now is the month of Maying’ and all that sort of caper | |
| 3 | Well, peer almost fixed up credit (5) |
| KUDOS – reversal of SO (well) DUK[e] (peer almost) | |
| 4 | Nest turned up full of rats? None of your business (5,4) |
| NEVER MIND – VERMIN (rats) in DEN (nest) reversed; it’s a bit of a stretch from ‘Don’t concern yourself’ to ‘None of your business’, but if you say the expression in a peremptory way you get the idea | |
| 5 | A soldier, one taking part in WW1 battle (6) |
| MARINE – I (one) in MARNE (horrendous maiming and killing event in 1914) | |
| 6 | Godlike experience at last provided in bedroom (7) |
| DEIFORM – [experienc]E IF (provided) in DORM (bedroom) | |
| 7 | Old American never embraced by woman, it’s implied? (5) |
| MAYAN – AY (always) in (or ’embraced by’) MAN; so never by a woman | |
| 8 | Gay Swede worried, so unable to get a word in? (8) |
| EDGEWAYS – GAY SWEDE*; interesting anagram fodder – all the Swedes I know are a bit morose | |
| 14 | Man of the world, wretch regularly visiting area of London (9) |
| EARTHLING -[w]R[e]T[c]H in EALING | |
| 16 | Philistine stripped and thrashed sceptic (8) |
| NIHILIST – [p]HILISTIN[e]* | |
| 17 | Communication about university building and grounds in legal terms (8) |
| MESSUAGE – simply U (university) in MESSAGE; there’s the legal definition for you | |
| 19 | Early spring: keep in seaside resort (7) |
| MARGATE – MAR (March – early spring) GATE (keep in – as in gate students at a boarding school as a punishment) | |
| 21 | Emergency transport’s appearance, a free ride (7) |
| AIRLIFT – AIR (appearance) LIFT (free ride); NB the errant ‘a’ | |
| 22 | Where exhibits are of medium benefit? Not sure (6) |
| MUSEUM – M (medium) USE (benefit) UM (not sure) | |
| 23 | Ground’s breadth unchanged (5) |
| BASIS – B (breadth) AS IS (unchanged) | |
| 24 | Hoarder’s never-ending distress (5) |
| MISER – MISER[y] | |
27:18
Got there in the end but it was a struggle. Must have got out of the bed on the wrong side because I was made tetchy by a few here: MAYAN, SPARE RIBS, NEVER MIND. Now I see that others have merely remarked on them politely and moved on. Sigh…Write out 100 times “Dont sweat the small stuff”
I did like PUMPKIN and MARGATE, the latter bringing back childhood memories of family holidays in nearby Ramsgate.
Thanks to Ulaca and the setter
After lunch solve. Got everything but MESSUAGE. REUSTATE was my effort.
COD to DEIFORM.
David
Bertie Wooster often occupies himself at country houses he visits by wandering around the gardens and MESSUAGES while trying to avoid other guests he has upset, girls wishing to entrap him into matrimony or the long arm of the law, so no problem with that one for this Wodehouse fan. My problems were all in the SW, which took a while to unravel, and I never did parse MAYAN, so thanks to our blogger for that. 45 mins, so not your usual Monday fare, I’d say.
No problems today, loved 1ac pumpkin, which put me in a good mood for the rest.
Margate may seem Anglocentric but to a Londoner it is actually quite cosmopolitan .. not many get further than the Isle of Sheppey
Got home in about 45, for a rare finish of a puzzle with a 3 digit Snitch. Very slow start, eventually KUDOS opened up the grid.
Guessed MESSUAGE, on the basis that many legal forms seem to be based on Norman French. Didn’t really get DEIFORM as didn’t see the elements at all.
24a MISTRAL probably my favourite, but lots of great clues today.
I squeaked over the line with aids for 17d. Give me cricket / medical clues all day. Legal isn’t my area.
Delighted that I am in tune with most other contributors. SW corner especially. Some clues IMHO worthy of the QC , but one hopes for a leisurely coffee with the 15×15 on a Monday morning.
I too was led up the bridal path ( read the question ) which made 17d even harder until I made the correction.
Does anyone think that a Marine is not a soldier? Please correct me .
I liked 14d and 23d.
Thank you to setter, blogger , and all contributors.
marine – A soldier trained to serve at sea, or on shore under specified circumstances.
That’s the first definition as a noun in SOED, similarly in Chambers.
Thank you . Definition digested and appreciated.
Bit late to this – took me a couple of hours interrupted by all the faff involved with getting on a flight which had been delayed overnight by Heathrow storms.
No problem for me with the SPARE RIBS link to a Chinese meal as I first had them, as a 1970’s 8 year-old, on my first ever visit to a Chinese restaurant, which strangely happened to be on a holiday in Addis Ababa. I thought the waiter said “bears ribs” and I was intrigued -but thought it was a pretty small bear to be honest.
Struggled through with MESSUAGE and it was the massively biffed LOI. Will never see or use the word again bar crosswords, I suspect.
Really enjoyed MISTRAL and the clueing and anagramming for NIHILIST.
Thanks Ulaca and setter
34’26” Definitely harder than the normal Monday fare, and I’m surprised to see the Snitch at only 99. Mind you, there was only one serious retardant for me and that was MESSUAGE. I’m a keen Wodehouse fan, but somehow that one passed me by. Got it in the end, so it must have registered somewhere. Glad to make its acquaintance.
I’ve seen the expression “messuage and dwelling house” numerous times in old conveyances. Unfortunately I dwelt far too long over 17d however.
Failed in the SE corner. I’ve been reading Wodehouse of late, but haven’t seen MESSUAGE. I had NOH of MISTRIAL either.
Never mind. The rest of it was very enjoyable.