Rishi is usually an early poster so I think it is safe to assume by now that he is unable to join us today. I have therefore produced this relatively brief substitute blog. Nothing too difficult in this puzzle except perhaps 26d where the checked letters (_e_s) were of little help. 4a appears to be flawed and I’m not particularly happy with 17d, as explained below.
Across
1 THEORY OR in THEY
4 BREACHED R in BEACHED – no containment indicator for the ‘R’
9 ATHENA hidden in ‘sunbATHE NAked’ – the Greek goddess of wisdom amongst other things
10 CONTRITE CON TRITE
12 CHOW MEIN CHOW (dog) MEIN (‘my’ in German)
13 CHEESE cd
15 EPIC *(PIEC[e])
16 SUTHERLAND dd – Graham Sutherland, artist, and Sutherland the region in Northern Scotland. If the clue had been ‘She paints’ instead of ‘He painted’ it would have been an &lit since Wendy Sutherland is a Highland based landscape artist (though less well known than Graham)
19 WENDY-HOUSE cd – Wendy Darling, the daughter in Peter Pan
20 USED hidden reversal in ‘handmaDE SUits’
23 STREAM ST REAM
25 SEAQUAKE cd
27 ELICITED ELI CITED
28 SIENNA *(INSANE)
29 NONSENSE NON SENSE
30 ASTRAY AS[h]TRAY
Down
1 TRANCHE RANCH in T[roubl]E
2 ETHIOPIAN *(PIANO THE I)
3 RENAME *(MEN ARE)
5 ROOK dd
6 ANTI-HERO ANTI HER O
7 HEINE [t]HE [l]INE – Heinrich Heine, German poet
8 DEEP END PEN in DEED
11 SIT-UPON U in *(POINTS)
14 CHASTEN C[hemistry] HASTEN
17 ABSTAINER cd – I’m not sure I agree with the ‘in more ways than one’. Chambers defines a party-pooper as ‘someone who spoils the enjoyment of others at a party or social occasion by their lack of enthusiasm or unwillingness to participate’. COED is more succinct, ‘a person who casts gloom over social enjoyment’. An ‘abstainer’ is a person who doesn’t drink alcohol and so *might* be consideded dull by those who are under the influence but this is not always the case, some people are quite lively when sober. S/he can also a person who doesn’t vote thus possibly displeasing other members of a (political) party, but this is not supported as ‘party-pooper’ in the dictionary definitions. Thus it is only possible to equate ‘abstainer’ with ‘one who is unwilling to participate’ (unless, of course, I have missed something).
18 DYNAMITE *(IT MAY END)
19 WESTERN WE STERN
21 DIETARY ET in DIARY – ‘et’ can be ‘extraterrestrial’ (Chambers) or *that* film character again! Why can’t we have a change, such as ‘Journal about emergent technology initially concerned with food’ or ‘Journal about the beginnings of emergent technology relating to food’?
22 EQUIPS [rud]E QUIPS
24 REIGN G in REIN
26 SEAS homophone of ‘seize’ (appropriate)
Yes, a nice assortment of answers but no real penny-droppping moments along the way. (Although I did had to confirm 16A post-completion.)
17D is a little tenuous, but didn’t make me foam at the mouth and – on balance – I’d allow it to pass muster on the grounds of lateral thinking.
My quibble of the day is 1A; to my mind, either the definition suggests a verb, or “reveal” need to be “reveals” to allude to the wordplay.
Re: Extra Terrestrial overkill. Hear, hear!
First cryptic I ever tried to solve. Only got 13A and 28A without help. Don’t know how experienced solvers would rate this puzzle but I was left a little non-plussed even after checking the answers.
Congrats on dipping your toe into the water, Daniel. Come on in, the water’s fine, and hopefully we’ll have you solving an entire puzzle unaided before the year is out. :>
Do have a stab at Wed’s FT- it’s probably more accessible and user-friendly puzzle for a novice solver.