Not an easy puzzle for me. Started off well and cracked the theme pretty quickly – but held up for a long time by the NE corner (got the PIGEON/pidgin homophone inverted). I liked the various meanings of PLANE sprinkled around. The central cross reads CARRY-ON LUGGAGE and PAIR OF TRUNKS. If I was a fortune-teller, I would predict a long trip is in the cards for Brendan. Hopefully, not in a MICROLIGHT or in a caravan of camels.
Across
| 9 | ORIGIN – the X and Y axes in graphs “cut” each other at the ORIGIN. |
| 11 | E,MISS,ARIES – ARIES is our sign of the Zodiac. |
| 12 | PLANES – our first PLANE: a tool and a thing that grows that has a trunk (19D): nice shift of “growing” from gerund to adjective. |
| 14 | OVERLONG – I quickly realized this was OVER something due to the cricket (“deliveries”) reference but didn’t think of LONG for a long tedious time. I’m not completely convinced that “by implication” is needed – is this just a way to indicate that OVERLONG is a cryptic way to define “too many deliveries”? |
| 15 | C(‘ARRY)-ON – [H]ARRY’s our Cockney bloke and to CARRY-ON means to make a fuss. |
| 17 | LUG,GAGE – Needed to decide between LUGGAGE and BAGGAGE. 4D resolved that for me. Turns out that LUG is a fruit box (between 28 and 40 pounds for those who care). |
| 22 | JET SET – got this immediately once I had JUMBOS without knowing 3 or 12 – in fact I worked those out from this answer. |
| 23 | M[ass],OLYBDENUM – (men doubly)* – not the most familiar of elements but obvious anagram. |
| 26 | S,MO,OTHER – tough clue for some reason: another meaning of plane. Two seconds: S and MO[ment]. |
Down
| 2 | SAID – rev(Dias) as in Bartholemeu (Portuguese navigator). |
| 3 | FLY,ER’S – FLY is Brit for “shrewd”. Edward Rex is our monarch this time (and FLYERS is alt. spelling of fliers referred to by 22A). |
| 4 | ROU=”rue”,SSEU=”so” – hard but fair and clever clue. Indeed Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU was a French philosopher (incidentally in my last Guardian blog for Paul it was Henri ROUSSEAU who cropped up). |
| 5 | MICRO,LIGHT – Goodness, MICROcomputers are a thing of the past by now, no? |
| 6 | PIGEON=”pidgin” – Smooth surface. Homer the pigeon not Simpson nor that Greek guy. I had this inverted at first which was the reason I was so stuck (on 11A for instance). |
| 8,19 | PAIR OF TRUNKS – another clever clue: 22D is JUMBOS who, when elephants, have TRUNKS. |
| 16 | O(PEN, DO,O)R – Nice to see Oregon in a puzzle (where my parents live now). “Welcoming” is the containment indicator in the sense of embracing I suppose. |
| 18 | GUERNSEY – It’s an island but I don’t see the word play. ”Cast off when finished working on this island”. Offers? |
| 22 | J,UMBOS – with J?M??? I was sure of JUMBOS but I had to check that UMBOS are large projecting bosses on shields. Our final kind of plane. |
| 24 | WATT=”what” – a homophone (that doesn’t work in Scotland apparently) that was in Tuesday’s Times as well. Quite well hidden. |
18D A guernsey is a knitted sweater (just like a jersey – and for that matter, Fair Isle and Aran). For future reference, there are Guernsey and Alderney breeds of cattle, to go with Jersey.
I happen to know that Brendan recently flew from America to Europe, but not by microlight.
I’ve always thought it odd that ‘jersey’ and ‘guernsey (or ‘gansey’ as it is sometimes spelt) are named after the islands from which come breeds of… cattle!
I wonder what happened to Jersey or Guernsey sheep – are their fleece so inferior to the wool(??) from their bovine rivals?