This is a crossword that stands out for me by using the same ‘dash+this+?’ device twice, when perhaps once might have been more than sufficient. Apart from that quibble, I enjoyed this – as I enjoy most puzzles (must be easy to please) – and came home in 18:16.
How went ye?
ACROSS
| 1 | Bear left, with New York to the west — this part? (8) |
| BROOKLYN – BROOK (bear) L NY reversed | |
| 6 | Holiday abroad perhaps is cure when restless (6) |
| CRUISE – anagram* of IS CURE | |
| 9 | Expert, long-serving royal polisher (6) |
| BUFFER – BUFF (expert) ER (our dear departed queen) | |
| 10 | Main network housed in room at the top (8) |
| ATLANTIC – LAN in ATTIC | |
| 11 | Posh car emerging from pronounced gloom (4) |
| MERC – sounds like ‘murk’; in the parts the German taxi is known as a Benz (more accurately, ‘Benzie’) | |
| 12 | Dodgy French boarding house is freezing! (10) |
| SUSPENSION – SUS (dodgy – SUS, or SUSS, can mean suspicious/dodgy, while SUS (n) can mean suspicion) PENSION (French boarding house, non?); you can freeze the sale of weapons to Ukraine (if you are crazy enough), and you can use the -ing form if you want to make it a rather ugly noun | |
| 14 | Blue, having cut short dive — lacking this? (8) |
| AQUALUNG – AQUA (blue) LUNG[e] (dive) | |
| 16 | Bone found in vegan lunch sent back (4) |
| ULNA – reverse hidden in [veg]AN LU[nch] | |
| 18 | Charity event possibly demanding payment: about time! (4) |
| FETE – T in FEE; ‘demanding’ here links the literal with the wordplay | |
| 19 | School’s staff mostly blunt about a head (8) |
| TEACHERS – EACH (a head, as in 20 pounds each/a head) in TERS[e] (blunt) | |
| 21 | Dancing nude foxtrot, finished up exposed (10) |
| UNDEFENDED – NUDE* F (Foxtrot in NATO alphabet) ENDED (finished up) | |
| 22 | Complain when area’s width is cut (4) |
| MOWN – MOAN with A (area) changed to W (width) -‘when Area is Width’ | |
| 24 | Very fine polymath finally getting BA? (8) |
| HAIRLINE – [polymat]H AIRLINE | |
| 26 | Unacceptable to pinch one’s idea (6) |
| NOTION – I in NOT ON | |
| 27 | Extra Times edition’s first for so long (3-3) |
| BYE-BYE – BYE (extra – cricket item du jour) BY (times) E[dition] | |
| 28 | Betting caller will bring spaniel (8) |
| SPRINGER – SP (betting/starting prices) RINGER (caller) |
DOWN
| 2 | About to adopt unfashionable course (5) |
| ROUTE – OUT in RE | |
| 3 | Sour old company porter’s English language dull and verbose? (11) |
| OFFICIALESE – OFF (sour) ICI (old British company that went the way of most manufacturing industry in the UK) ALE’S (porter’s) E (English) | |
| 4 | Prank with egg is bloomer (8) |
| LARKSPUR – LARK (prank) SPUR (as in ‘egg on’); I had ‘larkovum’ for a while, which I thought was creative, if a bit sad | |
| 5 | A nightdress seen poorly with this? (4-11) |
| NEAR-SIGHTEDNESS – A NIGHTDRESS SEEN* | |
| 6 | Charlie, going further back, becoming more distant (6) |
| COLDER – C (Charlie in NATO alphabet) OLDER; talking of NATO again, a big call-out to the USA for their leading role in keeping Ukraine a sovereign, independent country | |
| 7 | Vase you might pick up to bring home (3) |
| URN – sounds like ‘earn’ (bring home) | |
| 8 | War captive sporting black eye? Victory could have been his? (9) |
| SHIPOWNER – POW in SHINER; a reference to HMS Victory, of Nelson fame. Nice clue | |
| 13 | Card player before noon quiet — not up for port (11) |
| SOUTHAMPTON – SOUTH (card player in bridge) AM (before noon) P (quiet) NOT reversed | |
| 15 | Old monarch’s new name in doubt (5,4) |
| QUEEN MARY – NAME* in QUERY; bloody Mary, elder sis of Elizabeth I | |
| 17 | Forgiving person for telling tale? (8) |
| PARDONER – a reference to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in which one of the raconteurs was a pardoner (nice money if you can get it) | |
| 20 | Civil engineer on climb becoming bright red (6) |
| CERISE – CE RISE | |
| 23 | Wife with mechanical routine got down (5) |
| WROTE – W ROTE; nice literal | |
| 25 | Wind up a piece of knitting (3) |
| RIB – double definition |
25 minutes of plodding. Not a typical Monday puzzle or so I thought but worth persevering. LOI suspension after finally solving the NW corner.
Thx setter and blogger.
Finished in three goes over the course of two hours. LOI was PARDONER.
Enjoyed SHIPOWNER.
For the record: an average Monday with a well concealed Nina. The Great Days of the Passenger Liners – with one notable exception.
FOI 2dn ROUTE
LOI 22ac MOWN after having MEWL an abbreviation of sorts for Meldrew!?
COD 8dn SHIPOWNER splendid clue Mr. Onassis!
WOD 14ac AQUALUNG IN TRIBUTE TO Jethro Tull!
My grandmother Lily Mobbs had booked passage in the ‘Titanic’ for a slightly later crossing. Whew! Mewldrew.
All said by others above: started off a bit wary, as couldn’t see what 1a was about, but picked up soon with CRUISE, BUFFER and ATLANTIC going straight in. About 35 mins, I think. Really enjoyed parsing SOUTHAMPTON, MOWN, TEACHERS and MERC, but threw myself off by hastily writing in UNDEFFENDED for 21a, which threw a spanner in the works for OFFICIALESE. Not unhappy with my effort here, as I’ve learnt to carefully parse along the way, at last.