An invigorating challenge to start the day. Some clues took me far longer to solve than they should have, but I’d still rate this is as an above-average toughie by FT standards. Thank-you, Loroso.
ACROSS
1. THATCHING That [which] chin [facial feature] + g [good]
6. RECAP Reversal of pacer [horse]
9. AURAL A + Ural [river]; ‘air’ is meant in the sense of a tune
10. TARANTINO Tar [pitch] + anti [not for] + no [Japanese theatre] to give the US director and screenwriter
11. HANDSOMELY Hands [workers] + o(ld) m(en) + Ely [see, diocese]
12. JOKE OK [good] within je [French for ‘I’]
14. AIR KISS A + irk [rattle] + I’s [one’s] + s [son]; lovely definition
15. DELISTS (Stil)l within deists [they believe]
17. ST DENIS Den [studio] within reversal of sits [lies] to give the choreographer Ruth
19. BRUISER RU [rugby union, game] + is within B [bishop] + ER [Elizabeth Regina, queen]
20. HAWK Double definition; ‘cry’ as in ‘sell in the street’ or ‘hawk’
22. SEMI-LIQUID Reversal of limes [fruit] + I quid [one pound]
25. TRUTH DRUG Cryptic definition
26. ACT UP Reversal of put [set] + ca [circa, about]
27. CADET Cad [rogue] + ET [Extra Terrestrial, alien]
28. NOT WITH IT No twit [clever person; anyone else wrestle with ‘not wit’ for a while] + hit [success]
DOWN
1. TRASH Tra(p) [mouth] + sh [shut it]
2. AARON’S ROD Anagram of arson or within ad [commercial] to give the yellow wildflower
3. COLOSSIANS SS [steamship] + Ia [Iowa] within colons [::] to give the Biblical book; bravo, Loroso!
4. ISTHMUS Anagram of this + m [mass] + US [American]
5. GARBLED Garb-led could mean ‘led [influenced] by garb [clothing, fashion]’
6. RANK Double definition
7. CAIRO C(loudy) + air [sky] + o(ver)
8. PROFESSOR Of [from] within press [demand] + OR [Other Ranks, soldiers]
13. ILLUMINATI Anagram of mail until + I [one]
14. AESTHETIC Anagram of that I see + C [castle]
16. SASQUATCH SA [sex appeal, ‘it’] + squat [nothing, zip, diddly-squat] + c(onvince) h(er)
18. SWEAR IN Wear [clothes] within sin [offence]
19. BRIDGET Bridge [connection] + T [Thailand]
21. WOULD Sounds like Wood, as in the conductor Sir Henry
23. DEPOT A play on de-pot [cannabis, grass]
24. SHUT S [small] + hut [cabin]
A very challenging work out! Thanks Loroso and Ringo. Like you I entered Sasquatch – but, apart from the ch, I’m rather lost…. Any ideas?
And professor? Completely stumped on this though O.R. may be there…
Sorry Togo, meant to go back and fill those in… but forgot. Have updated PROFESSOR now. Still working on SASQUATCH…
mmm. Maybe sasquatch is zip=nothing=squat (from diddley-squat?) opening (between) it = Sex Appeal) and CH as the starts to convince and her…. Wish professor would explain itself though. Very much agree with your Bravo re: Colossians.
Ah, thanks Togo – I had the ‘squatch’ part, but SA had me stumped. It’s not an abbreviation that readily comes to mind for me. All updated now.
Thanks Loroso for an enjoyable puzzle and Ringo for the blog. Favourite clue 3dn: punctuation is not to be ignored.
Invigorating indeed Ringo, and a lot more difficult than this week’s Anax. I loved Air Kiss, Colossians and Not With It. Loroso normally has a very different style from his erstwhile mentor, Roger Squires but some of the clues today, particularly the one for Truth Drug certainly bear the ring of the master of the cryptic definition.
Ruth St Denis was new to me. I thought Sasquatch was also new to me but it must have been at the back of my mind somewhere because, otherwise, I would never have worked it out from the wordplay.
Who would guess that there are two 9-letter directors beginning with Tar…? I too hastily wrote in Tarkovski before finding that it did not fit in with Cairo.
Yes, this was very good indeed. Esp liked THATCHING, TRUTH DRUG, NOT WITH IT, COLOSSIANS (my last answer), GARBLED. All totally fair, and, yes, on the tough side. Thanks LOROSO and Ringo.
Marvellous, if difficult, crossword. Thanks for the explanations of SASQUATCH and PROFESSOR, which I got (in the end) without parsing. Held myself up for ages by entering BRUSQUE instead of BRUISER. The definition (tough) was a bit of a stretch, but the wordplay seemed to work: B for bishop, RU’S for game is, and QUE for queen… It even gave me a crossing Q for sasquatch, but in the wrong place. Failed on the choreographer.
COLOSSIANS my runaway favourite. Reminded me of the trick for remembering the epistles in the right order: A,E,I,O,U. This gives galAtians, ephEsians, philIppians, colOssians, and… thUssalonians.
Many thanks Ringo and Anax.
A few Loroso’s ago, I made what turns out now to have been an error in saying that I thought Loroso was user-friendly Anax. Since then he has upped the toughness and today’s puzzle, although great fun, did take me a while to sort out. Thanks to him and Ringo too.
Hello everyone – sorry I’m late! Many thanks to Ringo for blogging and to everyone for their comments. Delighted that Lenny makes mention of my mentor; Roger played the major role in getting my crossword career off the ground. I’ve always tried to write clues in as individual a way as I can but it’s great to know that bits of Roger’s influence come through from time to time – it’s unintentional but I’m glad it’s there.
I convinced myself the director was Spielberg – spiel/pitch – and then gave myself a headache trying to justify the berg…