There are a couple of clues here that are a little difficult to categorise, but that won’t hold most people up. In general terms, I would say this is pretty much a glorified Quickie, but we have a homophone clue that could be read either way (the classic double helix), so there will be objections and perhaps a stewards’ enquiry.
12:42
| Across | |
| 1 | Dog chasing black bird (6) |
| BEAGLE – B EAGLE | |
| 4 | Most amusing peer recalled in case (8) |
| DROLLEST – LORD reversed LEST | |
| 10 | High season issue (9) |
| OFFSPRING – OFF (high > rancid) SPRING | |
| 11 | Reptile beginning to generate reverberation, from the sound of it (5) |
| GECKO – G~ ECKO (sounds like echo) | |
| 12 | He campaigns against nonsense and expects to make a killing (11) |
| BULLFIGHTER -a sort of extended cryptic definition, with a whimsical reference to those who take on BS | |
| 14 | Broadcast outstanding work of poetry (3) |
| ODE – sounds like owed | |
| 15 | Some royal PR I agree brought about radio exposure (7) |
| AIRPLAY – reversed hidden | |
| 17 | Trees usually shade this ace location (6) |
| AVENUE – A VENUE | |
| 19 | Femme fatale forgetting ultimate sacred word (6) |
| MANTRA – MANTRA |
|
| 21 | Lay rug in a street in Paris to the west (7) |
| AMATEUR -MAT in A RUE reversed | |
| 23 | Nick has suspension reversed (3) |
| NAB – BAN reversed | |
| 24 | Repel big man, somehow withstanding all attacks (11) |
| IMPREGNABLE – anagram* of REPEL BIG MAN | |
| 26 | Adult expressed hint of exasperation (5) |
| GROAN – sounds like grown; alternatively, could sound like groan. So, not the world’s greatest clue, methinks. | |
| 27 | After work, I phone Leo — he loves a good whine on the blower (9) |
| OENOPHILE – I PHONE LEO* | |
| 29 | State vessel evacuated American elite troops (8) |
| ARKANSAS – ARK A~N SAS | |
| 30 | Copenhagen cybersex hosting business (6) |
| AGENCY – hidden | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cow’s lick below forehead (8) |
| BROWBEAT – BROW (forehead) BEAT (lick as in achieve a victory over another) | |
| 2 | Terrible entertainment briefly interrupts boring item (5) |
| AWFUL – FU |
|
| 3 | Have friend over for drink (3) |
| LAP – PAL reversed | |
| 5 | Event where competitors use craft? (7) |
| REGATTA – cryptic definition | |
| 6 | Tricky deception shocked Nigel? Dear me (11) |
| LEGERDEMAIN – NIGEL DEAR ME*; skilful use of hands when performing tricks | |
| 7 | Pen accompaniment to letter (9) |
| ENCLOSURE – double definition (DD) | |
| 8 | Tense argument leads to engineer lobbing tool (6) |
| TROWEL -T (tense) ROW (argument) E~ L~ | |
| 9 | Shabby-looking husband boards small boat (6) |
| DINGHY – H in DINGY | |
| 13 | Tender cut of ling I’m often cooking (5,6) |
| FILET MIGNON – LING IM OFTEN*; this turned up recently on my watch, I believe, when I referenced the classic Blackadder sketch featuring Baldrick’s idiosyncratic version of filet mignon in sauce Béarnaise | |
| 16 | Bardot endlessly tossed hair; that’ll stop the traffic! (9) |
| ROADBLOCK – BARDO |
|
| 18 | Place for putting every other sample of early plants? (8) |
| GREENERY – GREEN (nod to golf) E |
|
| 20 | Jar American artist filled with noodle soup (7) |
| AMPHORA – PHO (Vietnamese noodle soup) in AM RA | |
| 21 | Getting older, each caged dingo freed from captivity (6) |
| AGEING – remove the outer letters (free from captivity) the words |
|
| 22 | Ecstasy and booze upset mother — it’s a complex problem (6) |
| ENIGMA – E GIN reversed MA | |
| 25 | Northern child I must shelter in farm building (5) |
| BAIRN – I in BARN | |
| 28 | Boxer dog with a flat, wrinkled face (3) |
| PUG – DD; think pugilist for the first one | |
19:51
AVENUE was my LOI – not sure why I didn’t spot it earlier. I took a while to get AIRPLAY as I was slow to see that it was a reverse hidden.
Thanks Ulaca and setter
As above, REGATTA and AVENUE were my LOsI, and until REGATTA occurred to me, I hadn’t a clue about 17a. Agree that there are some very unusual directions which made it trickier than the usual Monday, but luckily I went for GROAN, while noticing the ambiguity and resolving to award myself an all clear if it happened to be the wrong choice. Really enjoyed OENOPHILE, though I bifd it from the crossers and remaining lettes and only appreciated the wordplay afterwards.
I tossed the coin the right way (Heads I won?). Not sure I’ve seen T=tense before – feels a bit strange. My COD to Drollest.
15 minutes, one of my fastest.
In case you missed it (and most of you did), the clue for 26ac was updated to remove the ambiguity and now reads “Hint of exasperation adult expressed”. Fortunately I solve rather late, in the evenings. The only clue I had any trouble with was AVENUE, which needed an alphabet trawl. 28 minutes for me, in all.
The dreaded grown/groan crux struck here. (Titus was not grown until Gormenghast).
Otherwise v quick, hard to estimate as laptop had to be abandoned after 2 mins, it keeps playing up.
17:52, on the easy side definitely but (at least for me) not in pb territory, sadly.
Thanks setter and blogger
Encouraged to try this by comments in the QC blog that it was very approachable, and rewarded by a PB of 13:30 – best by about 3 minutes I think. Definitely helped by doing it late when that clue had been rewritten.
Many thanks Ulaca for the blog.
Congrats!
10.12
Unusually swift for a late night solve. Synapses obviously firing after watching another episode of Shogun!
22 mins. I knew that whichever option I chose for 26 would be wrong – and yes, I plumped for GROWN!
Grown! But never mind, I got there eventually… as others have said , a few misdirections threw me off ( the BEAGLE one, which had me looking only for a bird, and the GROAN.) Blaming being off-colour this morning for a very slow work through the grid, and in no way realising that others found this a ‘quickie’. I think MANTRAP is a bit of a stretch from “Femme Fatale” ( didn’t even see it as a word), but lots to like, especially OFFSPRING, BULLFIGHTER and OENOPHILE, of course.