Solving time: 45’
Rover is on the more rigorous end of the Guardian scale: he (she?) typically has both clean wordplay and sensible surface readings. Today’s puzzle has some good puns (1A, 17A, 27A, 1D) and had me going to the dictionary when the wordplay was the only way to the solution (13A, 25A).
Across
| 1 | GNOMES OF ZURICH – cryptic definition: “swiss bread” had me thinking for a long time about bagels (bread with holes)! |
| 8 | MEDIA – Had to use wikipedia to remind myself that Media ruled the Medes (Asia Minor) in olden days. |
| 11 | PORCINI – another pun since in Italian literally means baby pigs. |
| 13 | E+TAPE – New word for me: public storehouse. |
| 17 | EXCISE+MAN – “Duty officer” as in the bored guy at customs. Nicely misleading. |
| 23 | DIGGERS – double definition. Given the crossing letters I got the answer based on the definition – had to use wikipedia to learn that “diggers” is a nickname for Anzac soldiers (who were Churchill’s cannon fodder at Gallipoli). |
| 27 | PLASTIC SURGEON – Best of today’s puns: surgeons operate and credit cards are made from plastic. |
Down
| 1 | GAME PRESERVE – Another pun: pool is kind of game (“perhaps” indicates it’s an instance). And “can” is nicely misleading. |
| 7, | CHANDLERS – Yet Another Clever Pun. It’s Raymond Chandler of “Big Sleep” fame. |
Rover is a he – a retired schoolteacher, and former president of the NUT. Details from Jonathan Crowther’s “A-Z of Crosswords” – which is mostly biogs of current setters of UK cryptics.