Amid some chestnuts there were several really obscure or tricky clues in this one. I’m not one to complain easily, but I do think some of the clues here, not least 26a, 28a and 3d, are stretching what’s fair to the limit. I needed help from Wikipedia to complete.
I’ll be interested to read the comments.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, DD = double definition, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Drink and hot dog after spending penny (5) |
| HOOCH – H[ot], [P]OOCH. My FOI. | |
| 4 | Right after litigation, women damaged garden equipment (9) |
| LAWNMOWER – LAW, (WOMEN)*, R. | |
| 9 | Made steady jockey stable lad (9) |
| BALLASTED – (STABLE LAD)*. | |
| 10 | Fundamentalist thanks liberal (5) |
| TALIB – TA = thanks, LIB[eral]. | |
| 11 | In tent, turn back what culture may have produced (6) |
| YOGURT – GO (turn) reversed inside YURT. | |
| 12 | Warped behaviour breaks contract (8) |
| DEFORMED – FORM (behaviour) inside DEED = contract. | |
| 14 | No promises broken in garbled statement (10) |
| SPOONERISM – (NO PROMISES)*. Nice one. | |
| 16 | Rear is fine part of the body (4) |
| FARM – F[ine], ARM. As in rear animals. | |
| 19 | Stop baseball team returning (4) |
| STEM – METS reversed. I believe the METS are a baseball team somewhere. | |
| 20 | Well-versed expert hosts charming Democrat (10) |
| ACQUAINTED – ACE with QUAINT inserted then D for Democrat. | |
| 22 | Wife with better method of contraception (5,3) |
| DUTCH CAP – Dutch being slang for wife, CAP = better, beat. I’ve never worn one of these, I guess they’re no longer a thing. | |
| 23 | Possibly ram Greek character (6) |
| LAMBDA – a LAMB DA or dad could be a ram! | |
| 26 | Piece of music at last in 4/4 time (5) |
| NONET – I wrote in the answer then stared at the clue trying to see a parsing. The best I can offer is it’s a sort of hidden word clue, as 4/4 = ONE and IN ONE TIME includes nonet. If this is correct, it’s pretty devious. | |
| 27 | Nobleman punches to avenge shiner (4,5) |
| REAR LIGHT – EARL inside RIGHT = avenge. Took me a while to see this one, a bit of a dodgy surface I thought. | |
| 28 | Part of heel-bone sore when twisted a bit (4,5) |
| ROSE NOBLE – I had no idea what was going on here, looking at the anagram fodder, (L BONE SORE)*, thinking it was something anatomical. But a search of ROSE NOBLE told me she/he was briefly a character in Doctor Who, a BBC TV program which I have avoided watching for all of its life (since 1963!). I think it’s unreasonable of our setter to expect us to know this and get it from a vague definition. There may be other real-life people called Rose Noble, none of whom seem to be famous, but ‘part’ indicates it’s not someone real. | |
| 29 | Inhibit weightwatcher? Not I (5) |
| DETER – DIETER loses its I. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Falcon is extremely tedious for keen birdwatchers, perhaps (9) |
| HOBBYISTS – HOBBY (kind of falcon) IS T[ediou]S. | |
| 2 | Concerning prisoner in prison camp (5) |
| OFLAG – OF (concerning) LAG (prisoner). | |
| 3 | Investigation about Duke’s representation of manhood (8) |
| HEADRING -D for Duke inside HEARING for investigation. I guessed this and had to look it up to check (and see if it was rude). Collins says “an African head decoration and symbol of maturity”, not specifically male, so again, Mr Setter, I am not impressed. | |
| 4 | Dead on time? No (4) |
| LATE – double definition. | |
| 5 | Publication supporting club is source of disagreement (5,5) |
| WEDGE ISSUE – WEDGE a golf club, ISSUE a publication. Not a phrase I’ve ever used but it seems reasonably well known. | |
| 6 | Procedure of drug overdose (6) |
| METHOD – METH a drug, OD and overdose. | |
| 7 | Very parsimonious treasurer initially with good intentions (4-5) |
| WELL-MEANT – WELL = very, MEAN, T[reasurer]. | |
| 8 | Fanatical Scotsman regularly wild (5) |
| RABID – RAB a Scot as in Rabbie Burns, [W]I[L]D. | |
| 13 | Break into building and suffer injury stealing clubs (5,1,4) |
| CRACK A CRIB – CRACK A RIB has C for clubs inserted. Again, not a phrase I have ever used, I’ve led a sheltered life it seems, but it’s not just modern-speak, it crops up in Conan Doyle’s novel in 1891 (I discovered). | |
| 15 | Subtle meanings in obvious jokes (9) |
| OVERTONES – OVERT ONES = obvious jokes, at a stretch. | |
| 17 | Irrational individual had misinterpreted boring question (3,6) |
| MAD HATTER – MATTER = question, insert (HAD)*. Not for the first time I need to point out, being a Lewis Carroll fan and pedant, that the character in AAIW was just the “hatter” and the March hare was probably mad. Not that it’s important. | |
| 18 | Incapacitated, carried out clutching fur (8) |
| DISABLED – DID with SABLE = fur inserted. | |
| 21 | Go pale, affected in crowded city (6) |
| WHITEN – HIT = affected, inside WEN = crowded city, as in London described as “The Great Wen”. | |
| 22 | Entrance to building opened by new benefactor (5) |
| DONOR – DOOR with N inserted. | |
| 24 | What might be seen in jackboOTs? (5) |
| BIGOT – an &lit clue (I think!) where a big OT is seen in the word. | |
| 25 | Beware large hole in the ground (4) |
| CAVE – double definition, one Latin for beware, as in “cave canem”. | |
Hated this and surprised it was judged by snitch as only moderately difficult
Pleased to finish in not too much above my typical time with no errors and no aids but agree with others that a few clues were a bit much. Never heard of a ROSE NOBLE although it had to be that once the checkers were in place and I spotted the reverse hidden. I didn’t know what the definition was until I came here. Likewise NONET had to be, but I couldn’t parse it. I didn’t know HEADRING or TALIB although the cryptic was generous with the first and the association with TALIBAN allowed me to write in the second with confidence. A weird mixture of several rather pedestrian clues, some rather good ones, and some that were decidedly odd.
Ingenious but not my cup of tea. From memory, DUTCH CAP clues usually mentioned Cruyff but that may have been in the Guardian.
Thanks to Pip and the setter
da for dad, I think, not uncommon in some dialects.
23:36 but with errors.
I enjoyed this even though I had never heard of OFLAG and entered ONLAG. My other error was a typo, so no excuses. Thank you, piquet and the setter.
19’39” and all correct. I had no idea what a ROSE NOBLE was, and half-assumed it must be part of a heel bone! Didn’t matter because it had to be the answer once I’d seen the hidden reverse. WEDGE ISSUE also guessed. Don’t like the expression at all, but if it’s in use so be it. CRACK A CRIB and HEADRING unknown too but work-out-able. I liked LAMBDA. Cheeky but clever. All in all, some challenging stuff but no complaints.
I liked this, either despite or because of there being several unknowns (found them all!). I looked up ROSE NOBLE, after spotting the hidden (found the coin, the “bit,” but not the Doctor Who reference). Some of the parsings—like that for NONET—were pretty amazing. LOI the NHO DUTCH CAP—which Pip could never have worn, as it is a form of diaphragm, for the female partner.
I remain convinced that any reference to Doctor Who is entirely coincidental and unintentional, so you shouldn’t worry that you didn’t find it.
With you. Too many bizarre clues here
Rose Noble was the name of the chief villain in ‘Blind Corner’, the first of Dornford Yates’ Chandos series of novels. That didn’t help at all …
Took me about 60 minutes to complete, but this achieved by biffing one or two of the nasties. Agree completely with blogger’s comments and think that ROSE NOBLE was a particularly idiotic solution. However, did learn one or two things, viz a CAVE can be a chamber in the earth as well as a hill or mountain side and an OFLAG was reserved for officers by the Germans. For tyros attempting a crossword as esoteric as this one CAVE!!!
I think the first N in NONET comes from “at last in”? It is a word that appears quite frequently in Times crosswords, so not to hard to biff?
I’ve just “done” this one for the second time (don’t ask!), and I still fell on four: HOBBYISTS ( where I wanted to insert kitty hawk), METHOD ( my motion), AQUAINTED ( just couldn’t relate charming with quaint, I guess), and CRACK A CRIB (NHO). But I think I really enjoyed it, the first time around!