Time: Off the scale, and I looked one up at the end because I knew I wouldn’t know it. I made very heavy weather of this puzzle and after 10 minutes had only two answers in.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Writing surface of French king encircled by bar (7) |
| DESKTOP – DE (of in French), then K (king) contained [encircled] by S~TOP (bar). A very late arrival in the grid. | |
| 5 | Riot eliminating last American barrow (7) |
| TUMULUS – TUMUL{t} (riot) [eliminating last], US (American). I knew I was looking for another word meaning ‘burial mound’ but it took me while to dig it up from the depths of my mind. | |
| 9 | Humbled Conservative had a career? (9) |
| CHASTENED – C (Conservative), HASTENED (had a career?). I assume the question mark is to indicate there’s a bit of fun going on in the wordplay here. | |
| 10 | Fellow, running short, is after instant coffee (5) |
| MOCHA – MO (instant), CHA{p} (fellow) [running short] | |
| 11 | A bit of cork in my French wine (5) |
| MACON – A + C{ork} [bit of…] contained by [in] M~ON (my in French – same device as in 1ac) | |
| 12 | Indication of future performer turning in late, finishing early (5,4) |
| TAROT CARD – ACTOR (performer) reversed [turning] contained by [in] TA~RD{y} (late) [finishing early] | |
| 13 | Two London termini denied King’s top award (8,5) |
| VICTORIA CROSS – VICTORIA + {King’s} CROSS (two London termini) [denied King’s] | |
| 17 | Occasional story about bishop — elemental stuff? (8,5) |
| PERIODIC TABLE – PERIODIC (occasional), TA~LE (story} containing [about] B (bishop) | |
| 21 | Bird shelter driving out one dissolute male (9) |
| SHELDRAKE – SH{i}ELD (shelter) [driving out one], RAKE (dissolute male). Another late arrival. Eventually I remembered the bird and then reverse-engineered the wordplay . | |
| 24 | Alternative difficulty when deposing leader (5) |
| OTHER – {b}OTHER (difficulty) [when deposing leader]. A nice easy one! | |
| 25 | Opinion backing American Idol (5) |
| DOGMA – AM (American) + GOD (idol) reversed [backing] | |
| 26 | Try plain writing with a bit of charm? (9) |
| PROSECUTE – PROSE (plain writing), CUTE (with a bit of charm) | |
| 27 | Full set of documents returned after church addition to letter (7) |
| CEDILLA – CE (church), then ALL (full) + ID (set of documents) reversed [returned]. More French stuff, although the cedilla is also used in other languages. | |
| 28 | SF series about to introduce grand prison (7) |
| DUNGEON – DUN~E (SF series) + ON (about) containing [to introduce] G (grand). Never heard of it myself, but if you want to know more about the Dune SF franchise you can read all about it here. | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Last month for every politician to leave (6) |
| DECAMP – DEC (last month), A (for every – per), MP (politician) | |
| 2 | Set about bringing in a completed upholstery item (4,5) |
| SEAT COVER – SE~T containing [bringing in] A, then C (about), OVER (completed) | |
| 3 | What’s helped to split it — an iceberg? (7) |
| TITANIC – The answer is hidden in {spli}T IT AN IC{eberg} but there’s no specific indication. Dare I risk suggesting the clue is &lit ? | |
| 4 | Italian bread counter popular, too much under glass (9) |
| PANETTONI – PANE (glass), then IN (popular) + OTT (too much) reversed [counter] | |
| 5 | Staff upset, chasing second person in French royal house (5) |
| TUDOR – TU (second person – you – in French) then ROD (staff) reversed [upset]. This is the third time the setter has used the ‘in French’ device in this puzzle. | |
| 6 | Copying piece of news picked up with microphone around (7) |
| MIMETIC – MI~C (microphone) containing [around] ITEM (piece of news) reversed [picked up] | |
| 7 | Synthetic source of confusion in constellation (5) |
| LYCRA – C{onfusion} [source of…] contained by [in] LY~RA (constellation). NHO or have forgotten the stars. | |
| 8 | Leading performer remains for classic song (8) |
| STARDUST – STAR (leading performer), DUST (remains). A classic song indeed, written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1927 with lyric added later by Mitchell Parish. It must have been recorded by hundreds of artistes, but here’s an instrumental version by a band also associated with the next answer. | |
| 14 | Jazz standard trendy with those people — love upcoming party (2,3,4) |
| IN THE MOOD – IN (trendy), THEM (those people), O (love) then DO (party) reversed [upcoming]. One tends to categorise this as ‘swing’ music, but an alternative name for that is ‘big band jazz’. | |
| 15 | Individual upset about hotel employment after work place welcoming everybody (4,5) |
| OPEN HOUSE – OP (work), then O~NE (individual) reversed [upset] containing [about] H (hotel), then USE (employment) | |
| 16 | Big story covering one bit of Earth at intervals (8) |
| EPISODIC – EP~IC (big story) containing [covering] I (one) + SOD (bit of earth) | |
| 18 | Eccentric person reduced chances to join dance (7) |
| ODDBALL – ODD{s} (chances) [reduced), BALL (dance) | |
| 19 | Be dismissive of rest of a branch of algebra (7) |
| BOOLEAN – BOO (be dismissive of), LEAN (rest). This was the one I looked up as I knew I didn’t know it. Turned out I’d heard the word but had no idea what it means or even the subject it relates to. | |
| 20 | Encourage operator to release last of numbers (4,2) |
| URGE ON – {s}URGEON (operator) [to release last of numbers] | |
| 22 | Moved slowly in a jam, losing lead position (5) |
| EDGED – {w}EDGED (in a jam) [losing lead position] | |
| 23 | Expression of surprise about recording considered the most powerful (5) |
| ALPHA – A~HA (expression of surprise) containing [about] LP (recording) | |
29:13, which puts it in the “about average” category for me.
DOGMA was my LOI.
PERIODIC TABLE was my COD.
Thanks Jack and setter
Well I found that hard and took 45 mins which is slow even for me. Better than yesterday; and tomorrow, always tomorrow. Thanks for parsing the,to me, unparsible.
I was so happy to get BOOLEAN that I did a little victory dance at the bus stop, drawing some very strange looks. It proves I do remember some words from on here.
Almost made up for the time lost to the military award I invented, the WATERLOO CROSS (it sounds believable)
Only tackled over tea and top half went in smoothly. I’m wondering whether Jalna is the setter, as the identical answer, similarly clued, appeared in the Quickie today from him. Got a bit held up near the bottom and over STARDUST, where I’d confidently entered ASH for remains and unsurprisingly couldn’t think of a possible answer. TAROT CARD and SHELDRAKE both went in without parsing, as I had nearly finished by then. The one I nearly fell victim to was PROSECUTE, where I had PROCEDURE, and couldn’t either parse it or think of another word to fit. BOOLEAN was totally unknown in terms of Maths, but luckily, I’d seen it on the wall of the IT room at the school where I invigilate, and that memory came to my rescue. MIMETIC unknown, but got from wordplay.
I found this very easy (26 minutes) and was surprised many people found it hard. I think I biffed about half of the answers, then checked the wordplay which I, for a change, didn’t need to rely on to solve the clues. I liked the operator being URGEd ON and enjoyed the rest of it, too, despite not being very challenged. Still, I was surprised that SHELDRAKE came to mind fairly quickly — not a bird at the centre of my universe.
48 minutes. Quite a trudge, particularly the SW corner. LOI SHELDRAKE . How often do we see a puzzle with not a single anagram?
Oh, good spot!
Absolute breeze today. Whizzed through in a record time for me. Most of the answers jumped out!
Defeated by NHO STARDUST (considered Slapdash, due to ash ending, and Soapdish “leading performer”, but obviously didn’t fully parse). Boolean algebra was one of my favourite topics when studying electronic engineering in the 1980s. Seeing Victoria Cross and Periodic Table straight away helped a lot. No problem with Tumulus.