I don’t know about you, but I found this quite difficult; there were no words I didn’t know, but some of the definitions were cunningly hidden and deceptive. But I finished it in about half an hour thanks to unravelling some good wordplay and a few moments of clarity. I didn’t know the American aspect of 21a or the star part of the gem at 18d but guessed them correctly.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Puts waterproof coat on — so Cleopatra survives a little longer? (8) |
| ASPHALTS – Cryptic definition – if the ASP was HALTED, Cleo would last a bit longer. A bit contrived, but I guess it works. | |
| 5 | Decoration got by medic turning on splendid display (6) |
| POMPOM – POMP (splendid display) then MO reversed. | |
| 10 | Area, so long closed, prepares for work (1,8,2,4) |
| A FAREWELL TO ARMS – A, FAREWELL = so long, TO = closed, as a door is ‘to’, ARMS = prepares. Early book by Hemingway, not his best IMO. | |
| 11 | Drug arrived concealed in hollow, with accompanying note (10) |
| MEDICAMENT – ME (note) DINT (hollow) with CAME (arrived) inserted. | |
| 13 | At least a dozen answer, giving approval (4) |
| VISA – VIs would be at least 2 sixes in Roman numerals, and A = answer. In Collins it gives VISA: 2. any sign or signature of approval, although I’d never seen it used that way. | |
| 15 | Irish girl learning to gatecrash parties (7) |
| DOLORES – DOS (parties) has LORE (learning) inserted. I worked in Dublin for several years with a formidable Irish lady called Dolores, but it’s not only an Irish name, it’s common in Spanish speaking Catholic countries. | |
| 17 | Inviting mockery, perhaps, no good for Charlie’s evening out! (7) |
| IRONING – IRONIC (inviting mockery perhaps) has C (Charlie) turned into NG. | |
| 18 | Some insects drop right into your cuppa (7) |
| DIPTERA – DIP (drop) TEA (cuppa) with R inserted. Insects with only two wings. | |
| 19 | Italian physician returned home — a very small delay (7) |
| GALVANI – All reversed, IN (home) A, V(ery), LAG (delay). Luigi Galvani, we remember, was the Italian chap who messed about with frogs legs and electricity, and for whom the galvanometer is named. | |
| 21 | What sort of jerk would keep lawman on the case? (4) |
| SODA -yet another American clue in our British crossword. A SODA JERK is apparently the guy who works a soda machine in a drug store. I think it is made from DA a US district attorney, after SO = the case, it is so, it is the case. Is someone raiding US puzzles for clues? Editor, what’s going on? | |
| 22 | For a year restricted to college broadcast (10) |
| PROPAGATED – PRO (for) PA (per annum) GATED means restricted to college (or did in my time there). | |
| 25 | Celebrate arrival of Sabbath, yet heed working at start of week (3,3,5,4) |
| WET THE BABYS HEAD – (SABBATH YET HEED)* after W[eek]. | |
| 27 | Short track: primitive instinct to stop to perform it? (6) |
| SIDING – ID (the primitive part of your psyche) inside SING = perform. | |
| 28 | Finishes off masterstroke, N English dish and N African one (8) |
| COUSCOUS – I think “finishes off” here means remove the end letters, of COU[P] for masterstroke and SCOUS[E] for N English dish. As you’d guess, and I did, SCOUSE is a stew from Liverpool. I’d prefer a good French couscous. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Concerned with wings on sea (7) |
| ALARMED – ALAR means to do with wings, and MED[iterranean]. | |
| 2 | Climber to copy, getting head down (3) |
| PEA – APE = copy, move the A to the end. | |
| 3 | Part of church, one Cranmer reformed (4,6) |
| AMEN CORNER – (ONE CRANMER)*. I know more about Augusta National’s golfing Amen Corner, and the rock group, than I do about churches, but I gather that amen corner is the area of a church, typically a black gospel type, where devout worshippers shout “amen” responses at frequent intervals. I doubt if Cranmer would have approved. | |
| 4 | A little heat coming through leather muffler (5) |
| THERM – hidden as above. One therm is quite a lot of heat energy, there’s about 1.5 therms in a gallon of petrol. | |
| 6 | Instrument that’s not broken, but odd bits missing (4) |
| OBOE – alternate letters as above. | |
| 7 | Maybe marathon runner’s standard habitual reaction: a single short breath (11) |
| PARTICIPANT – PAR (standard) TIC (habitual reaction) I (a single), PANT (short breath). | |
| 8 | Bow Street’s obliged to suspend one for breaking in? (7) |
| MUSTANG – another “cockney speak” clue, “obliged to suspend” being “must ‘ang” in Bow Street. | |
| 9 | Harsh-sounding tribal chief? (8) |
| CLANKING – well, a clan king could be a tribal chief. | |
| 12 | Shabby upside-down top and old hat worn by a detective (11) |
| DILAPIDATED – LID reversed (upside-down top), A PI (private investigator), DATED = old hat. | |
| 14 | Scientists from south Australia first to break old records (10) |
| ZOOLOGISTS – OZ (Australia) ‘from south’ = ZO, O LOGS = old records, insert IST = first. | |
| 16 | Busy art dealer finally flogged gem (4,4) |
| STAR RUBY – (BUSY ART R)*, the R from dealer finally. I’d never heard of this ruby, but got it from the anagrist, see https://blueearthgems.com/gemstones/star-ruby-meanings/ | |
| 18 | 22 hell-bound rejects (7) |
| DISOWNS – well, 22 is propagated, which doesn’t really mean sown, for me, but I think it’s intended here; DIS (hell) has SOWN (synonym for answer to 22a) inserted. | |
| 20 | Compounds ten days with a fateful one (7) |
| IODIDES – IO (ten) D[ays] IDES (a fateful day). | |
| 23 | A possible Castilian naval officer keeping fit, mostly (5) |
| PABLO – PO (Petty Officer) has ABL[e] inserted. | |
| 24 | Object when gallons going spare (4) |
| THIN – THING = object, loses its G for gallons. | |
| 26 | Finally give acclaim to a form of music (3) |
| EMO – final letters as above; some kind of rock music, I am told. | |
In my search for an Irish girl I found Dolores O’Riordan, the Irish singer-musician-songwriter who performed in a range of rock genres from 1990 to 2018. Her life was cut short when she accidentally drowned in the bath whilst intoxicated. In the months following her death, she was named “The Top Female Artist of All Time” on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart (Wikipedia). I listened to her on YouTube and she has a great voice. Perhaps the setter is a fan.
Soda jerks, in ice-cream parlors in the US, who pulled handles on taps on the bar to dispense sodas into a glasses to get ice-cream sodas were around in my teen years in the 1950’s. In Australia at least, at that time, there wasn’t any real ice-cream alternatives as refrigerators didn’t have separate freezers. You could buy an ice-cream brick which was a cardboard packet filled with frozen ice-cream and a family would share this out for dessert shortly after buying it and bringing it home.
As an Australian I didn’t have a clue about Bow Street but go MUSTANG. In my search for how it was the answer I found Mustang is the brand of a modern “bow” used in Archery.
I only just started doing the Times and print them out and do them when I can in no particular order. I find them quite hard but am improving as I get used to the style.
Immediately stonkered by the jokey ASPHALT ( on reflection, should have gotten), I searched all over the grid for a foothold: first in by a mile was THIN! Which unfortunately did NOT lead me to SIDING – not sure anything would’ve. Or COUSCOUS, for that matter. An unhappy tale of being beaten by an over-clever setter – VISA, SODA, really? Not helped by NHO GALVAN, and the clearly wrong clue to MUSTANG ( ‘though very clever definition), I battled bravely on to (not much) avail…and couldn’t get Dylan Thomas’s “Call me Dolores, like they do in the stories” out of my head, with no reference to Ireland there, alas. All in all a shambolic attempt to solve the (to me) unsolvable. “ Moving forward” as they say, to my dismay…