I am a last minute stand-in and it may be difficult for me to remember what I did a month ago, particularly with the festivities in between, so please excuse any errors or omissions.
We were told that six pairs of clues represented 9dn and had no definition. 9dn and one other clue also had no definition. The other clue turned out to be 7dn which, with 9dn, gave Samuel Langhorne Clemens whose nom de plume was Mark Twain.
Six symmetrically placed pairs of undefined answers were synonyms or examples of ‘mark’ and ‘twain’ (1/29, 10/27, 12/24, 17/16, 28,5 & 22/6). For a while I was held up by the apparent lack of a definition in 23ac and spent some time trying to include it as part of the thematic material until I realised that the ‘six pairs’ in the preamble referred to symmetrical grid entries.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCRATCH | RA (men with big barrels {Royal Artillery}) replacing o (nothing) in SC[o]TCH (whisky) |
| 5 | DUALITY | ALI (boxer) in DUTY (obligation) |
| 10 | SPOT | S[u]P[p]O[r]T[s] |
| 11 | BRAZIL NUTS | BRA (support) ZIL (Russian car) NUTS (crazy) |
| 12 | GOSPEL | GO (travel) SP (Spanish) EL (American railroad) |
| 13 | URETHANE | URETH[r]A (wee canal (not river)) NE[w] (mostly new) |
| 14 | RAFFISHLY | *(HIS) in RAF (servicemen) FLY (do their job) |
| 16 | BRACE | BR (British Rail) ACE (excellent service {tennis}) |
| 17 | STAIN | STA[y] IN (don’t go out without your hat) |
| 19 | PLANGENCY | EN (tiny space) in P (soft) *(CLANGY) |
| 23 | PAROXYSM | O (nil) in *(X-RAYS) in PM (afternoon) – I cannot see a definition in this clue. |
| 24 | COUPLE | UP (out of bed) in COLE (old king) |
| 26 | RECOMBINES | RE (sapper {Royal Engineer}) B (bay) in MINES (tunnels) |
| 27 | DUET | DUE (expected) T[wins] |
| 28 | APOSTLE | OS (sailor) in *(LEAPT) |
| 29 | PAIRING | P[rovisional] *(IRA) IN G (government) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | COPPOLA | PP (very quiet) in COOL (not excited) A (American) |
| 3 | ACT UP | PUT (lay) CA (about) reversed |
| 4 | COBBLES | COBBLE[r]S (run out of balls) |
| 6 | UNITED | IT (sex appeal) in *(NUDE) |
| 7 | LANGHORNE | [mea]L *(HANGER-ON) |
| 8 | TITANIC | *(AT[la]NTIC I[ceberg]) &lit |
| 9 | SAMUEL CLEMENS | Unclued |
| 15 | FRIVOLOUS | I (one) VOL (book) in *(FOURS) |
| 18 | TRADE UP | D (Germany) EU in PART (some) reversed |
| 20 | NICOSIA | I (island) in *(A COIN’S) |
| 21 | COLLEEN | [be]LLE[ek] in *(ONCE) |
| 22 | SYMBOL | LOB (throw) MY (writer’s) S (son) reversed |
| 25 | UDDER | [sh]UDDER (shake mum avoided) |
Thanks Gaufrid. I wouldn’t have been able to complete this without some hints on the web.
I started thinking 12 was PORTAL, as por is Spanish for by and ‘tal’ has some obscure reference to an American railroad.
I think you have a typo in the answer to 20.
Well done Crucible for a very testing puzzle.
Thanks Robi, typo corrected.
There was indeed an error in 23A and I apologise for it. The original clue read “Fit new x-rays …” until I stupidly ’embellished’ it in the final edit, thus adding an extra definitionless clue. Lesson: don’t tamper with the editor’s approved version.
Very enjoyable, thanks all.
Thanks, Crucible, for admission of error at 23a.
Having found PAROXYSM, I eventually decided it had to be a reference to some unfamiliar work of Mark Twain, though my searches were fruitless.
Thank you for the blog, Gaufrid. I hadn’t noticed the symmetry of the solution positions, so, forgive me and thanks, Crucible, for a very enjoyable puzzle.
Paroxysms apart, I chuckled when the significance of GOSPEL and APOSTLE dawned – my mind was fixed on scratches and scars.
I thought 8d was a superb clue.
My only little gripe was with the definition in 3d. I can see why ‘act up’ could fit ‘tipped to replace his boss’, but I thought that some reference to ‘act up’ as naughtiness would have been better, especially as a layabout was involved. I could well be missing something obvious.
Sorry, I shouldn’t have included ‘tipped’ in the definition, just, ‘replace his boss’.
re ‘acting up’, I’ve often heard this applied at work where a manager leaves and a junior temporarily fills the post (usually without extra pay!) – sometimes leading to a permanent promotion to the senior post.
It took us a long time to twig the theme, so whiled away many frustrating hours over the festive period !