Quite an interesting one today, with a mix of classic clues along with some more more idiomatic answers (not much cop, on the money, neat for awesome, for example). I had to guess the protein food but everything else was fair dinkum. I liked ‘botheration’ and ‘burp’.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, DD = double definition, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Cleaner thus hoovers up half of village post office (7) |
| SHAMPOO – SO (thus) has HAM[let] and PO inserted. | |
| 5 | Slavic rider’s bag of lettuce? (7) |
| COSSACK – COS lettuce, SACK. | |
| 9 | Opening of olfactory organ a lot (3) |
| OFT – O[lfactory], FT an organ, the pink paper. | |
| 10 | Scotsman of power has Queen shut in throne room! (5,6) |
| WATER CLOSET – WATT (Scot who worked on steam power) with ER, CLOSE inserted. | |
| 11 | Sanction for use in cigarette lighter (3,5) |
| GAS POKER – OK (sanction) inside GASPER, old slang for a fag. | |
| 12 | Supply worker with what high-protein food (6) |
| TEMPEH – TEMP a supply worker, EH? = what? Apparently tempeh is one of those foods made from fermented soya beans, as all you vegetarians will doubtless know. I guessed it. | |
| 15 | Awesome as it is, landlord! (4) |
| NEAT – DD, neat meaning pretty good, neat without water added. | |
| 16 | Lousy Constable miniature? (3,4,3) |
| NOT MUCH COP – DD, one amusingly cryptic. | |
| 18 | Could one be in flat — here? (10) |
| MAISONETTE – took me a minute’s thought to see how this works, although the answer was clear from the checkers. FLAT is MATTE, you insert IS ONE (?) which = COULD ONE BE (?). | |
| 19 | Result of knocking back last of lager in bar? (4) |
| BURP – PUB with [lage]R in it, reversed, &lit. | |
| 22 | Stake between poles in French city (6) |
| NANTES – ANTE = stake, inside N, S. One of the nicest French cities. | |
| 23 | Blue cheese finally introduced to producer of wine list (8) |
| CERULEAN – CRU (wine producer) with E (end of cheese) inserted, then list = LEAN. | |
| 25 | Fuelled by oxygen, another bit exploding in blast! (11) |
| BOTHERATION – (O ANOTHER BIT)*. | |
| 27 | Discharge extremists ejected from demonstration (3) |
| ARC – [m[ARC[h]. | |
| 28 | Left, with flag in appropriate colour? (7) |
| RETIRED – TIRE (flag) inside RED (right colour for left). | |
| 29 | VIP well stocked with foreign cash? (7) |
| GRANDEE – GEE ! (well!) with RAND = foreign cash, inserted. Is gee! really an English expression, or is this another Americanism? | |
| Down | |
| 1 | What might have pumped bullet ultimately into military leader? (7) |
| SHOTGUN – [bulle]T inside SHOGUN a Japanese military leader. Dodgy &lit., as shotguns don’t fire bullets? | |
| 2 | Evidence when waiting for the train, hours slipping away (11) |
| ATTESTATION – AT THE STATION loses its H. | |
| 3 | Captive to arouse great enthusiasm in discussion (6) |
| POWWOW – POW (captive) WOW! = great enthusiasm. | |
| 4 | Exact location of the King’s Head? (2,3,5) |
| ON THE MONEY – Well, the King’s head is on banknotes these days, I think. And new coins. | |
| 5 | County seal (4) |
| CORK – DD. Ireland’s largest county. | |
| 6 | Prominence of unusual case circumventing legal right (8) |
| SALIENCE – (CASE)* with LIEN inserted. | |
| 7 | Idiot equally soft in the head (3) |
| ASS – AS = equally, S[oft]. | |
| 8 | Sauce finished at bottom of vessel (7) |
| KETCHUP – KETCH a vessel, UP = finished. | |
| 13 | Romeo incarcerated by movie villain — King, say? (7,4) |
| PICTURE CARD – This was easier than I’d feared at first, as I know of few movie villains; but it’s simply R inside a PICTURE CAD. | |
| 14 | Little stuff in grass (10) |
| SMATTERING – MATTER (stuff) inside SING = grass. | |
| 17 | Approach sign on end of avenue while driving, seemingly? (4,4) |
| COME NEAR – OMEN (sign) E (end of avenue) all inside CAR. I supposed ‘inside car’ means while driving, at a stretch. | |
| 18 | Cooler call from little lamb, by the sound of it? (7) |
| MINIBAR – well, a mini-baa could be a little cry from a lamb? Most minibars I find in hotels aren’t switched on to cool, they’re just there to offer you ridiculously overpriced warm beer or tonic. | |
| 20 | Roast a cook cut in style (7) |
| PANACHE – PAN (roast) A CHE[f]. | |
| 21 | Pound plus shilling where the franc is currency (6) |
| GUINEA – 21 shillings in a guinea, I was once taught, and the currency in Guinea is indeed the Guinean franc. | |
| 24 | Housekeeper cooked for the auditor? (4) |
| MAID – sounds like MADE = cooked, as in “I made breakfast”. I’m not sure proper housekeepers would appreciate being called maids, but so be it. | |
| 26 | Drop of the hard stuff, little one (3) |
| TOT – DD. | |
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