Fair puzzle and a nifty solve
ACROSS
1 DEAD RINGER LATE dead RINGER caller
7 FIST hand FAST firm swapping A for I
9 PLAN design PLAN[t] most of factory
10 JOLLY ROGER flag JOLLY party ROGER understood
11 APPEAR APPEA[L] unfinished attraction R right
12 ENLISTED (TILES)* in END to finish
13 PERIANTH calyx and corolla P[ut] (IN EARTH)*
15 ONYX stone ON working [quarr]Y X vote
17 ONUS responsibility ON US our treat
19 NEEDLING annoying L lake in NEEDING wanting
22 PREACHES advocates R[oughage] in PEACHES
23 SPRAWL lie about RAW inexperienced in first letters of Scottish premier league
25 TAILOR-MADE (MODEL RAITA)*
26 IBEX animal I one B[RI]E X ten
27 HERD crowd HEARD tried minus A
28 BREAKWATER mole 5th meaning in Chambers BREAK pause T[HES]E in WAR
DOWN
2 ECLIPSE E European “CLIPS”
3 DANCE steps Desperate DAN CE church
4 INJURING causing offence IN popular JU[RY] RING call
5 GOLDEN HANDSHAKE &lit reward for workers HANDS in GOLDEN HAKE
6 ROYALS hidden backwards in miSLAY ORders
7 FOOTSTOOL furniture FOOTS pays TOOL saw eg
8 SCENERY double definition
14 INSTALLED (IT’LL END AS)*
16 NEWSPEAK language NEWS all quarters (compass) PEAK summit
18 NARRATE recount RAN< hurried up RATE evaluate
20 NOWHERE not found NOW at moment HERE present
21 CHERUB innocent (BUTCHER)* minus T
24 RAITA Indian yoghurt dish cRAb ITY A
( )* = anagram < = reversed “ “ = homophone [ ] = omit
Possibly the most straighforward solve of the day (and I have done the other 5) only needed to check that the result of the very clear wordplay/checking letters of 13a ‘existed’ . Thanks to Orense and Jed.
Thanks Jed and Orense – a complete contrast to yesterday’s Loroso in terms of degree of difficulty but still an enjoyable solve. There’s a typo in the parsing of 24d – I think you may have accidentally hit the ‘Y’ key at the same time as the ‘T’.
Thanks Orense for a pleasantly straightforward puzzle and Jed for the blog.
5dn: I would not call this even a partial “& lit”. The word “Reward” forms no part of the wordplay, and is a sufficient definition on its own. The definition could be stretched as far as “Reward for workers” but not to the whole clue. Still a good clue.
6dn: Slight grumble with this one. I am not convinced that “sending back” is a sufficient indication for a hidden reversal. “Holding back” would be fine, and would in my view have as good a surface: “back” would be the appopriate reversal indicator, even in a down clue.
On re-thinking, the question mark on the end of 5dn allows the whole clue to be the definition, so the (partial) “& lit” is justified.
Apologies also for the typing error in my comment on 6dn: “appopriate” should of course read “correct”.
Reward for workers in yellow fish?
As a newly retiring or redundant employee, I’m sure I’d be hugely pleased to be paid off with a lump of smoked haddock. ‘Reward’ too I’d query, since a golden handshake is a compensatory payment of one kind or another. Thus even with the effects of double duty I’m not sure ‘reward or workers’ does it either! Bah. &lit my eye.
I stand very wittily corrected
IMHO this is a standard clue with the definition being ‘reward’ = ‘golden handshake’ I would say. The rest then is wordplay, I’d think. What maybe muddied the waters is use of ‘hands’ = workers. My guess is that the setter chose this to create a good and amusing surface which is probably why the clue is the subject of this discussion.
Many thanks for comments – PB and nmsindy have correctly interpreted my intention re 5d. In 6d I stand by the “sending back” as a transitive verb with an enclosure.