I thought this was a bit of a cracker with plenty of entertainment and some rather high quality cluing, characterised by smooth surfaces that really keep you on your crosswording toes. Those who skipped Sunday School classes might well be mystified by the fireproof character at 22a, though it is, to my mind, one of the better told Bible stories. Again, the spy referenced at 10a managed to keep himself out of the limelight for so long you could be forgiven for not recalling him. There’s a homophone that defies you to complain about homophones, and a fine “hidden” answer, and a creative way of getting you to think in Spanish (it makes no mention of Spain). All in all, well crafted stuff: I had fun and have no regrets over taking almost 33 minutes to complete.
I provide you with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS below
Across
1 Yankee maybe goes around touching cap (5)
BERET Not too tough to start with. Gamblers among you will not only know that a Yankee is a bet, but also how it works. Here, it just “goes around” RE for touching.
4 Dig this good dance party album: the very thing! (6,3)
GRAVEL PIT Certainly something that can be dug. G(ood) party: RAVE (allegedly), album: LP, the very thing: IT, as in “that’s it!”. Assemble and divide.
9 Got up from a cot, cured, miraculously (9)
ACCOUTRED “Miraculously” tells you to create a new and wonderful assemblage of the preceding letters, A COT CURED (so nothing to do with Simon Peter’s mother in law, then). Got up in the sense of dressed in, this form usually in the sense of dressed for battle.
10 Chief impact of old British spy changing sides (5)
BRUNT Anthony Blunt was Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures and a spy from the same Cambridge stable as Burgess Philby and Maclean. Arguably he did indeed change sides, spilling the beans to MI5 in return for immunity from prosecution, making this a particularly sophisticated clue. For out purposes, turn his L(left) to R(ight)
11 Shelf containing note about wheels for assembly (3,3)
KIT CAR Shelf: RACK, note TI (# a drink with…) Insert B into A and reverse (“about”)
12 Arrived in large numbers — if casually late (6,2)
ROLLED IN A double definition of sorts: ODO attests to both meanings, but I think they’re common enough.
14 Old statesman to stand up in grand fashion (10)
WASHINGTON It’s no use saying that won’t wash as a clue because it does. So in that sense, stand up: WASH, in: IN G(rand), fashion TON.
16 Our second city councillor finally coming in behind (4)
BRUM Affectionate version of Birmingham. NB minor crudity alert. Last letter of councilloR in behind: BUM.
19 Something often common seen in pre-1945 Manhattan? (4)
NOUN A common noun is such as cat as distinct from proper noun Siamese or tiger*. Before 1945, Manhattan had NO UN. For what it’s worth, the UN building was completed in 1952
* On edit: as I am reminded, tiger is also a common noun rather than a proper one. Let’s imagine I wrote “Tigger”
* On edit: as I am reminded, tiger is also a common noun rather than a proper one. Let’s imagine I wrote “Tigger”
20 Very badly twisted bearing corroded — then left (10)
WRETCHEDLY WRY is from “twisted”, ETCHED is from corroded and Left give the L. Assemble as instructed.
22 One protected from being fired retired with new self esteem (8)
ABEDNEGO I’ve always thought that the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the burning fiery furnace should be heard in an Oliver Postgate Welsh accent, such are the mellifluous repeated lists. Retired: ABED (no reversal here) N(ew) and self-esteem: EGO
23 Departs with perfect set of exam results for the City (6)
DALLAS D(eparts) (railway timetables and such) and perfect exam results: ALL A’S
26 What’s inside leading Asian capital (5)
HANOI Right. Now. The inside of what is HA, and leading is № 1
27 Something with element of wood, not of earth, let out (3,6)
TEA KETTLE might well have an (electric) element. Wood is TEAK, not of earth is phone home ET, let “out” gives you TLE
28 Recording conducted in which nothing’s made public (9)
DISCLOSED Recording is DISC (take your pick which sort), conducted: LED, containing nothing’s: O’S
29 Traveller accompanying Venezuelan for the drive back (5)
REPEL So come on, then, what’s Venezuelan for “the”? Stick it on the end of REP for traveller, as in salesman.
Down
1 Refuses to touch pasty, something most rare (5,4)
BLACK SWAN “rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno (“a rare bird in the lands, and very like a black swan”) Juvenal, Satires. Which was true until Australia turned up thousands of them. In our word play, refuses to touch: BLACKS, pasty: WAN
2 Reflected about opening bank account (5)
RÉCIT (extra points for the accent). “Reflected” is a reversal indicator, bank give TIER, and about the inserted (“opening”) C(irca)
3 Waves finally at vessel carrying a friend across Channel (8)
TSUNAMIS Finally aT, then the vessel is the nautical SS, and a friend across the (English) Channel is UN AMI, carried by the SS
4 Again, rely on ignoring the odd miss? (4)
GIRL leave out the odd letters of aGaIn ReLy
5 Scaled down demands of orthographer, etc (3,2,5)
AND SO FORTH One of the best “hiddens” (scaled down) I can remember seeing. In demANDS OF ORTHographer. The pairing of scaled down with orthographer as one who produces perspective drawings, is especially deceptive.
6 To stop the rot in political party Frenchwoman secures backing (6)
EMBALM Rather a whimsical, if entirely accurate, definition. MME for a Frenchwoman “secures” LAB for political party, the whole “backing”.
7 Principal gutted as newspaper’s staff are sacked (9)
PLUNDERED Principal gutted is PL. As (the way) newspaper staff are is UNDER ED.
8 One enormous purse, perhaps, you might pick up (5)
TITAN An honestly gruesome homophone ( the setter warns you with both perhaps and “you might”), asking us to mumble tighten for “purse” and hear our mythical giant.
13 Comes to get garages refurbished (10)
AGGREGATES Comes to as in the total number of words in the clue comes to. A “refurbished” GET GARAGES
15 A white and gold bird found in South Eastern sierra (9)
SAUTERNES A white, sc. Wine. Gold: AU, bird: TERN contained within S(outh) E(ast) S(ierra) (NATO)
17 Mexicans going by balloon: and why not? (3,2,4)
MAY AS WELL The MAYA are our Mexicans, place the by SWELL for balloon (verb).
18 Don gets early round in for singer (8)
WHEATEAR Don is WEAR, and an early round in athletics and such is HEAT. Assemble.
21 Dramatist’s outspoken appeal to those about to pray? (6)
O’NEILL That’ll be Eugene. Might just say to a congregation about to engage in intercession “Oh, kneel”
22 One keeping mum, possibly, after turning up concealed bug (5)
APHID The WW2 poster urged us to “be like Dad: keep Mum”. The dad in this instance is PA, who turns up and adds HID for concealed.
24 Drunk conspicuous after dark? (3,2)
LIT UP two meanings, memorably combined in this immortal commentary.
25 One minded attraction being withdrawn (4)
WARD And an easy one to finish: DRAW for attraction, backwards
As a speaker of American English, my ‘Titan’ and ‘tighten’ do sound very close indeed.
A few American references – DALLAS, WASHINGTON, O’NEILL, ‘Yankee’ in 1a and ‘Manhattan’ in 19a (great clue) – were a reminder of Thanksgiving Day, even if they don’t really make up a theme.
It’s pin the tail on the donkey to pick the best, but the hidden in 5d was exceptional and the ‘A white’ at 15d had me fooled for ages.
142 minutes of my life (really!) well-spent.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Another vote for tiger as a common noun.
We had a clue not long ago that required us to think of the location of the headquarters of the United Nations, so that was a help. At 14ac my first thought was WELLINGTON (Duke of, and former Prime Minister) but I was paying close attention to wordplay today so I discovered my mistake immediately.
RECIT was unknown but I spotted the wordplay and hoped for the best.
If I have one minor gripe it’s the definition at 1dn as I’ve seen black swans in various locations around the UK, so whilst they may be rare I’d query ‘most rare’, and even if they were it’d be an extremely non-specific definition. If it’s a reference to a quotation (is the blog suggesting this?) then it’s an utterly obscure one. I had no problem solving it from wordplay and it was my second answer to go in so it didn’t hold me up at all.
Edited at 2018-11-22 07:00 am (UTC)
Of course, it’s next to impossible to look up on the interweb, which naturally defaults to the film of the same name, but try “black swan theory” for a discussion of the phrase and its metamorphosis once the news reached the rest of the world from Australia.
All black swans seen elsewhere in the world are derived from the Australian ones, introduced as a novelty and occasional forming viable populations, which takes some doing as (apparently) around a quarter of the pairings (which are usually for life) are gay.
Edited at 2018-11-22 08:58 am (UTC)
I’d not heard of BLACK SWAN as being a ‘thing’, so doubted its qualification for inclusion (cf Manley’s distinction between BROWNSHIRT, a ‘thing’, and YELLOW SHIRT, not a ‘thing’). But if you’re all saying it is a thing I’m okay with it.
I’m not sure the Manley example is a very helpful one as BROWNSHIRT is all one word anyway, but I know what he means 😉
FGBP
How does ‘RE’ mean ‘Touching’ ?
“Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of the war, the Roman wars? In the way of argument, look you, and friendly communication, partly to satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction, look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of the military discipline, that is the point.”
Edited at 2018-11-22 08:56 am (UTC)
I gave up after 50 mins with the Wretchedly/Wheatear crossers left. I was never going to think to put ‘etched’ in ‘wry’.
I think ‘waves’ for Tsunami is a tad understated.
Mostly I liked: Abednego
Thanks setter and Z.
How can you pronounce ‘tighten’ so that it doesn’t sound exactly like TITAN?
Edited at 2018-11-22 08:54 am (UTC)
I’d be curious to know if anyone pronounces these words differently. The pronunciations given in the usual sources are all identical.
This one had so many unknowns and missed parsings that it might hold my record for the number of question marks in the margin, so thanks Z for all the elucidation! FOI 4d, then I painstakingly got everything bar 19a on the left-hand side, spent about an hour filling in the right, finishing with the WRETCHEDLY and unknown WHEATEAR crossers, then finally back to get NOUN as LOI. And quite the roller-coaster along the way.
I’m starting work nearly an hour late and I feel much stupider than when I woke up. Nevertheless, I thank the setter for the challenge.
LOI was NOUN. Actually I failed by entering NOUS (sharing john_dun’s desperation) but then saw the real answer. Chuffed to get the Old Testament martyr the moment I saw ‘ego’ = self-esteem at the end.
Spiffing puzzle, spiffing blog. Thanks, both.
I agree with Vinyl1 that this is tougher than the Championship puzzles so far….but the really nasty ones won’t appear until after Christmas if the Wednesday pattern is continued.
I lost a few seconds by biffing “Wellington” incorrectly at 14A.
Thanks to Z8B8D8K for his usual excellent blog, and especially for unravelling my LOI where I again failed to spot the “hidden”. It was a really good one though !
FOI ACCOUTRED
LOI AND SO FORTH
COD BRUNT, with honourable mentions to WHEATEAR and PLUNDERED
TIME 21:08
Edited at 2018-11-22 10:42 am (UTC)
I had ABEDNEGO in a long ago blog (for the TLS probably) which reminded me of Louis Armstrong’s take on the story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r1baNdgImo
A very hard-fought 32.57. Doffed BERET to the setter. P.S. I loved the LIT-UP commander. Sounded like an episode of the Navy Lark.
There was a point when I had about 8 clues still unsolved at which I thought I was never going to finish. Bravo setter and well done Z for unraveling everything.
WHEATEAR was almost a write-in for me – last seen at Cape Wrath in August. Our guide to the Cape pointed out WHEATEARS as we drove across the moors on the single track that serves the lighthouse. Part of his “Scottish banter” – his definition not mine – was to explain the origin of the name. The WHEATEAR has a conspicuous white rump. According to the story its original name was WHITEARSE. However – when these things were formalised – possibly in Victorian times – this was considered a bit vulgar so it was changed to WHEATEAR. I don’t know how true that is but I like it.
Great puzzle – was that one of our regulars? – and blog – thanks Z8.
More sporting than political …
The setter
Stuart DALLAS, Conor WASHINGTON, Chris BRUNT, Jamie WARD and manager Michael O’NEILL at the time all part of the Northern Ireland football team.
Not something I’d expect anyone to pick up on, but the oddity of the Kennedy assassination anniversary prompted me to mention it
Was there something about a kit car rolling into Washington (brum brum)- some anniversary of Knight Rider, or Hasselhof making an unlikely bid for the presidency? Thank goodness that wasn’t it.
I’m quite pleased that the NINA I missed this time was one I would only spot with the relevant clues lit up in neon. and even then with some judicious Googling.
I trust it’s clear that the appreciation level for this puzzle has gone through the roof, and congratulations on fitting in the extras without straining the grid.
Many thanks from me, and, it would seem, the rest of the party.
I would declare “DNF”, but that would be like declaring that I didn’t make it to the summit of Everest, having only managed a stopover at Kathmandu airport.
Edited at 2018-11-23 10:23 am (UTC)
And the nina, which I never would have spotted but now it is kindly pointed out, makes the identity of the setter perfectly clear, for once 🙂
I also find the definition for AGGREGATE “dodgy,” as one of our regulars said. Maybe “come together,” instead of “come to”—but it would more properly be “put together.” (Oxford: “Form or group into a class or cluster.”)
As for aggregate, I didn’t have an issue with it while solving: Chambers includes an informal use meaning to amount to. Comes to and amounts to look close enough to me, even if technically improper.
I didn’t see that hidden word, in any case, could only wonder what was going on there!
This was an older puzzle that I finally got around to doing and has been said, it was a beauty! I can’t believe that I messed up on the key word on the publication date – had an unexplained NAPLES instead of DALLAS with a note to come back to it … and didn’t !! Am afraid that the rest of the theme was a complete waste on me down here.
Also missed the complete parsing of TEA KETTLE (missing the phone-home character) and glossed over the common NOUN part of 19a.
Many clever clues – in fact it would be hard to nominate one that wasn’t. Finally finished after breaking the ton of minutes with SAUTERNES (which scuttled my ‘Wellington’), the fixed up WASHINGTON and RECIT (a completely new word for me) as the last few in.