Some people may be unhappy with one or two of the definitions (eg 12a & 6d) and the number of double/cryptic definitions but I enjoyed this puzzle because in each corner there were some relatively easy clues to get one started and some more difficult ones to get one thinking. I rather liked 4a and 14d though some of the other surfaces left a little to be desired. In 27a, ‘pond life that’s croaked’ immediately had me thinking of yesterday’s ‘literary washerwoman’ (but not for long).
Across
1 BUFFET dd
4 WARPAINT cd
9 ISRAEL IS (one’s) LEAR (king) reversed
10 CHARISMA IS in CHARM (attraction) A
12 DIURETIC U (university) in DIRE (awful) TIC (jerk) – definition ‘tea, perhaps’
13 GLUE ON *(LOUNGE)
15 REAR hidden in ‘motheR EARth’
16 MAYONNAISE hidden reversal in ‘moviES I ANNOY A Man’
19 SHELLSHOCK SHE’LL (woman will) SHOCK (hair)
20 SCAM SCAM[p] (rascal detailed)
23 ARMOUR R (king) in AMOUR (love)
25 SENTENCE dd
27 DEAD DUCK cd&d
28 CANINE IN (at home) in CANE (stick)
29 ON-SCREEN *(CENSOR) EN[d] (climax cut)
30 INSECT IN (among) SECT (body of religious followers)
Down
1 BLINDER d&cd
2 FORTUNATE TUNA (fish) in FORTE (strong)
3 EXETER EX (old) ET (film) ER (The Queen) – the third time (at least) in as many weeks that this city has appeared in one puzzle or another
5 ASHY A SHY (mousy)
6 PURULENT RULE (order) in PUNT (bet) – full of puss pus (‘pussy’)
7 ISSUE [t]ISSUE (topping paper) – another answer (with similar cluing) that has appeared several times recently
8 TRANNIE T (Tango) R (Romeo) ANNIE (musical)
11 PIRANHA RAN (managed in A HIP (a joint) reversed
14 POACHER dd
17 INCENTIVE IN CENT (money) I’VE (I have, when short)
18 FLOUNDER dd
19 SO-AND-SO [h]AND (‘elp’) in SO-SO (fair)
21 MAE WEST EWE (producer of milk) in MAST (post)
22 STRAIN dd
24 MEANS dd
26 ACNE N (north) in ACE (card)
Well, I’m afraid I have to side with the setter on both counts with your ‘dodgy definitions’, Gaufrid.
First ‘tea’ is undoubtedly a diuretic and, together with ‘perhaps’, avoids dread DBE (definition by example) – I’m sure this would be accurate enough for most editors – and PUSSY, in the sense of purulent as used by this excellent compiler, has a separate entry in Collins.
PUS, btw, has just the one S according to my references.
Paul
I didn’t say they were ‘dodgy’, in fact I was quite happy with them. However, had these clues appeared in a Guardian puzzle I am sure that there would have been several comments added to the blog by people who were not happy with them, particularly 12a.
Thanks for pointing out the typo. I ‘copied and pasted’ too many letters.
I didn’t say you had said … they … were … dodgy … um, you get my point. And unfortunately we’ll be in the dark as to what people might have thought of these definitions until such time as they *do* appear in The Guardian! All I’m saying is, each was perfectly defensible.
If you’re saying that a genuinely dodgy definition is more likely to appear in The Guardian than in the FT, then I might be tempted to agree with you.