Definitely tougher than standard Monday fare. Several of the clues had quite tricky clueing, some of the definitions were indirect, and then of course we had the mother of nine. Which I very much hope was appreciated over there in Sydney/Perth.
31:00
| Across | |
| 1 | Beetle auto acquired by Swedish competitor half-heartedly (6) |
| SCARAB – CAR in SA |
|
| 5 | Capital gain — choose alternately between 500 and a thousand (8) |
| WINDHOEK – |
|
| 9 | American’s broken working key entering fancy hotel (2,3,5) |
| ON THE FRITZ – ON (working) F (musical key) in THE RITZ; is this one of those Americanisms which Americans will disavow? Stay tuned | |
| 10 | Star very long time back (4) |
| VEGA – V AGE reversed | |
| 11 | Sumptuous, rich cloth covering walls of apartment 1A (8) |
| PALATIAL – A~T IA in PALL (cloth covering a coffin – hence pallbearers) | |
| 12 | The right hand page, right vicar? (6) |
| RECTOR – RECTO (the right hand page) R (right); a rector and a vicar are perhaps as near as dammit the same thing now, but previously the rector was the incumbent who got the tithes, while the vicar was the appointee who got the stipend | |
| 13 | Bible book bishop removed from pulpits (4) |
| AMOS – AM |
|
| 15 | Wherefore people barely go on holiday? (8) |
| NATURISM – a pretty weak cryptic definition, in my opinion | |
| 18 | Polite Belgian crooner got married, according to Spooner (4-4) |
| WELL-BRED – BREL WED becomes WELL-BRED; Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter. An adaptation of one of his numbers, 1961’s’Le Moribond’, became a hit for Terry Jacks as ‘Seasons in the Sun’ in 1974. | |
| 19 | Edge closer to humongous fish (4) |
| SIDE – ~S IDE (fish) | |
| 21 | Plant losing millions in absurd embargo (6) |
| BORAGE – anagram* of EMBARGO minus the M | |
| 23 | Fruit only imported for a day in period of fasting (8) |
| RAMBUTAN – RAMADAN with BUT (only, as in ‘to name but two’) for AD (a day); tasty fruit rather like a lychee with prickle-like hairs on the shell | |
| 25 | Blood group recorded in error (4) |
| TYPO – sounds like TYPE O | |
| 26 | Illegal action picked up after 21s in game (6,4) |
| GUINEA FOWL – 21 shillings was a GUINEA FOWL (sounds like foul) | |
| 27 | Monster insect chasing live man (8) |
| BEHEMOTH – BE (live) HE (man) MOTH (insect) | |
| 28 | Drink with German chap visiting Saxony on vacation (6) |
| SHERRY – HERR in S~Y | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Dance company not available to tour Greece initially (5) |
| CONGA – CO G in NA; I am currently in Astypalaia, the westernmost island in the Dodecanese | |
| 3 | Tries to stop genuine practice (9) |
| REHEARSAL – HEARS in REAL | |
| 4 | Get rid of cases from scientist (6) |
| BOFFIN – OFF (from, as in ‘I got it off a friend’) in BIN (get rid of); ‘cases’ is the containment indicator | |
| 5 | Shiver’d like this frenzied dancer? (8,7) |
| WHIRLING DERVISH – one of those reverse anagram clues; if you whirl DERVISH you will get SHIVER’D | |
| 6 | Tarzan? He swings around town (8) |
| NAZARETH – TARZAN HE* | |
| 7 | Husband served up eggs beginning to create chaos (5) |
| HAVOC – H OVA reversed C~ | |
| 8 | Totally lost part of game, admitting that’s disgusting performance ultimately (9) |
| ENGROSSED – GROSS (‘That’s disgusting!’ > ‘Gross!’) E (~E) in END (part of game) | |
| 14 | Married submarine captain’s crazy yen for mother of nine (9) |
| MNEMOSYNE – M NEMO’S YEN*; this goddess of memory (where are you when I need you?) was the mother by Zeus (he got around a bit) of the nine Muses | |
| 16 | Prime Minister’s announcement that precedes the New Deal? (9) |
| RESHUFFLE – double definition, methinks | |
| 17 | Opera gig involved musical exercise (8) |
| ARPEGGIO – OPERA GIG* | |
| 20 | Like to preserve appearance in French city (6) |
| AMIENS – MIEN in AS; French city north of Paris | |
| 22 | Home Office finally supporting alpha chap? (5) |
| ABODE – A BOD followed by ~E | |
| 24 | Untrained reserves once sent north in conflict (2,3) |
| AT WAR -reversal of RAW (untrained) TA (reserves, once) | |
Done in two tranches owing to being at work, but it took me a while to get GUINEA FOWL, although I am old enough to remember guineas. Very mischievous to mislead some of us into assuming a connection with 21A–speaking of which, I remember people substituting it for mint in Pimm’s!
Very hard for a Monday! Thanks for the explanation of the ones I couldn’t get.
NHO 9a ON THE FRITZ (but biffed it) or 14d MNEMOSYNE. Didn’t read “21s” as 21 shillings so couldn’t work out GUINEA FOWL either..
As ever, it depends on one’s GK as to whether other clues come quickly – I had no problems with ARPEGGIO or WELL-BRED, BORAGE or RAMBUTAN.
Just as well there were no cricketing terms which always stump me – pardon the pun 🙂
Payback for all those who are still convinced Juliet was looking around for Romeo.