The theme at 14ac. took me a little time to crack, and even once I’d got it this was by no means plain sailing. Perhaps I’m just a bit rusty. But it was an excellent puzzle, full of variety, even if there were no stand-out zingers.
ACROSS
1. AMBERGRIS Amber [gem – see 14ac.] + (reachin)g + reversal of sir [address]
6, 24. PEARL HARBOUR Pearl [gem – see 14ac.] + harbour [hide] – pedants will note that the correct spelling is Pearl Harbor
9. MINISUB Reversal of business with ness [head] replaced by nim [mathematical game]
10. ARREARS Cryptic definition: one who is slow to settle a bill will often be in arrears
11. D PHIL D [German] + Phil(lip) [prince, consort of Elizabeth II]
12. TOOTHLESS Double definition: indentures = in dentures, i.e. wearing false teeth
14. See 19ac.
15. EMERALD ISLE Emerald [gem – see 14ac.] + is + le(ft) to give a fanciful name for Ireland
17. DIAMOND HEAD Diamond [gem – see 14ac.] + head [top] to give a Hawaiian peak
19, 14. DODGEM DoD [US Department of Defense] + gem [valuable]
20. OUT OF SYNC Anagram of county of s(ussex)
22, 5. CORAL SEA Coral [gem] + initial letters of s(urrounds) E(ast) A(ustralian)
24. See 6ac.
26. NOTHING Anagram of on night
27. REDID Red [colourful] + ID [personality, identity]
28. TRENDIEST Dies [stamps] within Trent [river] to give ‘most in’, most fashionable
DOWN
1. ARMED Hidden within lehAR MEDley
2. BINGHAM Birmingham [city] minus I [one] + RM [Royal Marine, sailor] to give the English novelist
3. RESOLVE TO Reversal of loser [failure] + veto [blackball]
4. RUBY TUESDAY Ruby [gem – see 14ac.] + Tuesday [alluding to the rhyme that tells us ‘Tuesday’s child is full of grace’]; Ruby Tuesday was a single by the Rolling Stones
5. See 22ac.
6. PORCH Hidden in stuPOR CHarmers
7. AWAKENS Anagram of swan lake minus L [left]
8. LOSE SPEED Lose [yield] + speed [drug]
13. OPALESCENCE Opal [gem – see 14ac.] + escence [sounds like essence, meaning]
14. GODMOTHER (Cal)m within Godot [one awaited in Beckett’s play] + her
16. DEDICATED Edic(t) [pronouncement] within dated [unfashionable]
18. ALTERED Anagram of related
19. DORMICE Not-very-cryptic allusion to the sleepy dormouse at the Mad Hatter’s tea-party
21,23. FLOODLIGHT Anagram of golf hold it
25. RAT Anagram of art
I agree Ringo, took a while to find the theme and then had to work to sort it all out. Nice puzzle, thank you Gaff.
Dare I say that this was a ‘little gem’ of a puzzle.
I particularly liked 10A (in) arrears.
Thanks to Ringo for helping out with part of the word-play for 9A.
Nice one again Gaff. Cracked the theme about midway.
Thanks for the blog R. Needed you for 19d – well I got it but without the Alice link it didn’t fully make sense.
Thanks, Gaff. Ditto what Ernie @2 said about 9a. I’d never heard of Nim.
As for 6,24a, there’s nothing pedantic about noting that the correct spelling is Pearl Harbor. As a Yank, I am often forced to embrace various British spellings, slang and idioms when doing the FT crosswords. I don’t think it’s asking too much for the UK setters/editors to reciprocate when referencing places in my native land.
I can understand Keeper’s complaint about ‘Harbour’; we Brits are quick to criticise American spellings of ‘our’ words.
In my defence, I think most would accept ‘Florence’ rather than ‘Firenze’, and I’d have probably got a lot more flak from Disgusted pf East Grinstead for ‘Harbor’.
As a defence, however, this is rather weakened by the fact that the issue never actually occurred to me when setting the puzzle, so apologies to Keeper and other US friends for the pallor I brought to their cheeks.
(I suppose I could have used ‘Pu’uloa’ which no-one could have complained about, but which would not have worked quite so well with the theme!)
Gaff