DNF! This was very difficult. I have a mild case of COVID, which did mean I fell asleep for a few minutes while solving, but that’s hardly an excuse. I managed maybe half of the puzzle, but was thoroughly defeated here.
ACROSS
1 Spurning electronics, ponder cooler mechanical instrument (5,3)
MUSIC BOX – remove E from MUSE ICEBOX
5 Middle Easterner visiting nearby land borders to the west (6)
QATARI – IRAQ (nearby land) around (borders) AT (visiting) reversed
10 Oscar for supporting role (6-2-7)
SECOND-IN-COMMAND – O = Oscar is the second letter in COMMAND
11 Better half by England’s left back (7)
ESPOUSE – SPOUSE by first letter of ENGLAND
12 Make too much of old deficient border guards for example (7)
OVEREGG – O + VERG{e} around E.G.
13 Toffs seen to do this to win (5,3)
CARRY OFF – TOFFS carries the word OFF
15 Superman repelled untold number up to no good (5)
TITAN – reversed N (untold number) AT IT (up to no good)
18 Extremist united with 10 gunmen (5)
ULTRA – U + LT (10 = second-in-command) + RA
20 Protection when deburring metal is mandatory (8)
TALISMAN – hidden in METAL IS MANDATORY
Never seen ‘deburring’ used this way, but I suppose we’re shaving the words down.
23 Coverage of the sixties is what one’s following live (7)
BEEHIVE – EH (what) I’VE (one’s) after BE (live)
25 Old earl in loose gym clothes fell (7)
POLEAXE – P.E. (gym) around (clothes) O (old) + E (earl) in LAX (loose)
26 Handyman locating gemstones around rockfall at base (4,2,3,6)
JACK OF ALL TRADES – JADES (gemstones) around anagram (base) ROCKFALL AT
27 What criminal minds loathe when back on the outside? (3,3)
THE LAW – anagram of WHAT around (minds) outer letters of LOATHE reversed (when back)
28 Left in fog with head that may be cracked (8)
HAZELNUT – L in HAZE + NUT
DOWN
1 Title possibly adopted by male / film producer (6)
MISTER – double definition
Doesn’t MASTER work as well?
2 One sucking up liquid on sides of Cornish pasty (9)
SYCOPHANT – anagram (liquid) ON C{ornis}H PASTY
3 Unknown refused to challenge inferior to do best (7)
CONQUER – QUERY (challenge) – Y (unknown) under (inferior to) CON (do)
4 Volunteer thought cardinal collars irrational (5)
OPINE – ONE (cardinal) around PI
6 Starmer lost support of one member (7)
ARMREST – anagram
7 Time wide ace served with spin on the ball (5)
AWARE – ERA W A reversed
8 In need of one good charging space at front of line (8)
INDIGENT – I G in (charging) INDENT (space at front of line)
9 Round of drinking quietly stems short row, helping to cool one down? (8)
SCOOPFUL – O (round) OF around (drinking) P (quietly) in (stems) SCUL{l} (short row)
14 Noted readily available houses border sewer plants (2,3,3)
ON THE MAP – ON TAP (readily available) around (houses) HEM (border)
What is ‘sewer plants’ doing here?
16 Clear up place for cooking assorted red jams outside cafe (3,6)
TEA GARDEN – AGA (place for cooking) + anagram of (assorted) RED in (jams) NET (clear) reversed (up)
17 High flier’s project involving work over in Middle East (5,3)
JUMBO JET – JUT (project) around (involving) JOB reversed in ME
19 Largely barren region avoiding eastern America (7)
ARIZONA – ARI{d} (largely barren) ZON{e} (region avoiding eastern) + A
21 Gush about place to spend big (7)
SPLURGE – SURGE around PL
22 Limited accommodation? It’s capped by county (6)
BEDSIT – IT under BEDS
Hadn’t heard of this, a combined bedroom and sitting room. Sounds like every hotel.
24 Set me up with spot on the microphone? (5)
EMCEE – ME reversed + homophone of SEE (spot)
25 People abandoning foxtrot, entertained by dad dance (5)
{f}OLK (people abandoning foxtrot) in PA
49.10
I found this easier than some other Friday beasts, seeing SECOND IN COMMAND straightaway and JACK OF ALL TRADES shortly afterwards giving me plenty of checkers to work with. Mostly parsed as well. I liked some of the clues with their clever definitions and admired the skill of the setter but for my taste some of the w/p was too convoluted and the surfaces not always the smoothest. The comment about finding out the answer to a clue is what you thought but you had no idea how it worked is I agree a big red flag. SCOOPFUL almost fell into that category but it just looked like that’s what the setter was hinting at. Tbf I did work it out but it was one of those where you have to guess and post-engineer
Sorry, a bit of a ramble. Thanks setter but hats off to Jeremy as struggling with a puzzle you’re blogging when you’re a solid solver must be quite dispiriting.
Reading Jeremy’s intro on the homepage and taking a brief look at this late last night spooked me a bit but after settling down to this today, I loved it. It took a while, but I took my time. There were many I put in first from definition and at least one crosser (e.g., SYCOPHANT from the C) that it then wracked my brain to parse. The two 15-letter answers helped. I liked a lot the somewhat similar clues for SECOND-IN-COMMAND and CARRY OFF.
This took me about 90 minutes, with fairly liberal use of aids towards the end to finish it off. Very hard, but quite brilliant I thought. Spotting the double pangram helped pick off a few stragglers. The clues all seemed fair enough to me, with many of them being quite breathtakingly beautiful. ARMREST & THE LAW have to share my COD. SCOOPFUL was my LOI. Had to get all the way down to 26a before I found one I could do on the first pass!
A little surprised how many people didn’t enjoy it.
Just over an hour — with MASTER. Grr
Ps Having now listened to Simon’s CtC podcast I wanted to pop back to properly compliment the setter (in case he is still listening). Some of these clues were worldies – especially the &lits. Bravo indeed
Pps Arguably it remains a puzzle to hugely admire rather than hugely enjoy but one of these now again works for me.