Time: 20 minutes
Music: Sibelius Violin Concerto, Mutter/Previn
I found this a rather easy Monday puzzle, but I did have all the knowledge. The two long answers should be obvious just from the enumerations and literals, which will give everyone a good start. I just had to think a bit to remember Birdcage Walk, but everything else was very straightforward.
| Across | |
| 1 | Seducer reluctant to have a port (8) |
| LOTHARIO – LOTH + A + RIO. | |
| 5 | A bishop caught with horse outside church office (6) |
| ABBACY – A + B + BA(C)Y. | |
| 10 | Cameroon is in her travels, whatever the circumstances (4,4,2,5) |
| COME RAIN OR SHINE -Anagram of CAMEROON IS IN HER. | |
| 11 | Stop supporting a group with no backing (7) |
| ABANDON – A + BAND + NO backwards. | |
| 12 | Name a French poet’s sister’s calling (7) |
| NUNHOOD – N + UN + HOOD, i.e. Thomas Hood, the world-famous poet. | |
| 13 | Where a flyer may go for a walk in London (8) |
| BIRDCAGE – Double definition. | |
| 15 | American industrial leader, old and pale of face (5) |
| IOWAN – I[ndustrial] + O + WAN. | |
| 18 | Additional passage from book court rejected (5) |
| EXTRA – EXTRA[ct]. | |
| 20 | A right pain around Ealing at first, like the bloody Tube! (8) |
| ARTERIAL – A + R + T(E[aling])RIAL. Another one I biffed. | |
| 23 | Trailblazer on expedition initially requiring external support? (7) |
| PIONEER – PI(ON E[xpedition])ER. | |
| 25 | Famous actor originally involved in musical (7) |
| OLIVIER – OLIV(I[nvolved]ER, a bit of a chestnut. | |
| 26 | Most of rite mother used to somehow endure to the end (4,3,3,5) |
| RIDE OUT THE STORM – Anagram of RIT[e] MOTHER USED TO. | |
| 27 | Tin containing damsons primarily in very small country (6) |
| SWEDEN – S(WE(D[amsons]E)N, where SN is the chemical symbol for tin. | |
| 28 | Tear about always, being vicar, perhaps (8) |
| REVEREND – R(EVER)END. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Small expanse of water Belloc handled, partly (6) |
| LOCHAN – Hidden in [bel]LOC HAN[dled]. | |
| 2 | Male keyboard player releasing current for one in kitchen (9) |
| TIMPANIST – TIM + P[i]ANIST. | |
| 3 | A brother helped, we’re told (scraped away!) (7) |
| ABRADED – A + BR + sounds like AIDED. | |
| 4 | Rise of number one team, one bound to be permanently revolutionary (5) |
| IXION – NO I + XI, all upside-down. | |
| 6 | Graduate nurse once, one keeping judge’s dog (7) |
| BASENJI – BA + SEN + J + I. | |
| 7 | Friend has a turn crossing major road (5) |
| AMIGO – A (M1) GO. | |
| 8 | Surrendering crop in conclusion of farming (8) |
| YIELDING – YIELD + IN + [farmin]G. | |
| 9 | Gloomy signal from one who knows the score? (8) |
| DOWNBEAT – Double definition, the second referring to an orchestral conductor. I had put in downcast, but quickly erased it. | |
| 14 | Fervour of Republican entering in civic style? (8) |
| ALACRITY – A LA C(R)ITY. This clue probably would have been better with something like urban style. | |
| 16 | Females endlessly grabbing attention is fatiguing (9) |
| WEARISOME – W(EAR,IS)OME[n]. | |
| 17 | This chap is a Pacific country’s star (8) |
| HESPERUS – |
|
| 19 | A sign erected over Tyneside plant (7) |
| ANEMONE – A + OMEN upside-down + N.E. | |
| 21 | Put out again about subject under discussion (7) |
| REISSUE – RE + ISSUE. | |
| 22 | Hospital preparation military engineers paid to go without (6) |
| PREMED – P(R.E.M.E)D, a word that has a different meaning in the US. Come to think of it, we don’t have the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers either. | |
| 24 | Senior citizen flaying member of fighting force (5) |
| OLDIE – [s]OLDIE[r], a bit of a chestnut. | |
| 25 | Pigment made from mineral aggregate surrounding church (5) |
| OCHRE – O(CH)RE. | |
Must have approached this with more than my usual positivity, as I started quickly ( with NHO LOCHAN, ABBACY and BASENJI); in fact the whole top half went in smoothly, just from careful adherence to wordplay. Bit slower to finish the lower half, but the long across helped sort that out: only look-up was ALACRITY ( which I’d always associated with speed rather than fervour), and the second half of DOWNBEAT. So one of my best and quickest times for a ‘very-nearly solved crossword’. Most enjoyable.