The usual perfect offering from Dac. His anagram indicators are often very cleverly disguised, and in this crossword a certain amount of general knowledge is necessary.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Measure piece of copper (5)
CUBIT
Cu bit — a cu bit is a bit of cu
4 Private hospital housed inside lofty public building (4,4)
TOWN HALL
t(own h)all
9 Some soldiers showing resistance to work during various parts of year (9)
ARTILLERY
(r till) in (year)*
10 Belgian province where rugby player retired (5)
NAMUR
(RU man)rev. — Google came to the rescue, because I’d never heard of it
11,12 Finds someone to marry, /so is no longer top dog? (5,4,5)
MEETS ONE’S MATCH
2 defs
12 See 11 across
13 Del Shannon hit /such a success? (7)
RUNAWAY
2 defs — you need to know your Del Shannon hits here
15 Rope old man put in ground (7)
PAINTER
Pa inter
17 I will leave old 15 in charge of ship (7)
TITANIC
Tit{I}an i/c — 15 is painter, so old painter is Titian — not absolutely sure why Dac tells us that he is an old painter rather than just a painter
19 Teacher fulfilling backward children’s needs (7)
DESIRES
sir in (seed)rev. — fulfilling in the sense of completing
21,23 Dante’s ancient works about hell initially becoming more influential (2,3,9)
IN THE ASCENDANT
h{ell} in (Dante’s ancient)*
23 See 21 across
25 Lawyer /put in the picture (5)
BRIEF
2 defs
26 Star US general accompanied by military high-ups (3,6)
LEE MAJORS
Lee [US general] majors [military high-ups] — this star
27 Small room is too small, principally, for some players (8)
CELLISTS
cell is t{oo} s{mall}
28 A short time in work, as is fitting (5)
APTLY
a p(t)ly
Down
1 Daily Mail has no trouble covering top royal Lothario? (7)
CHARMER
char M{ail} ER
2 Upturned container holding, say, last bit of lemon squash (9)
BUTTERNUT
(utter {lemo}n) in (tub)rev.
3 Bone is set in hospital, usually (5)
TALUS
Hidden in hospiTAL USually
4,5 One Direction /dance hit? (3,4,3,2,2)
THE ONLY WAY IS UP
2 defs, one of them whimsically referring to the fact that the names of the song and the band have something in common — and there is an &lit. element here because One Direction released a film in 2012 called ‘The Only Way is Up’
5 See 4 down
6 Servants Her Majesty employs along with general helpers (9)
HANDMAIDS
and [along with] in HM aids [general helpers]
7 Film director missing start of sad Spielberg movie (5)
LUMET
{g}lum ET — and there I was Googling a list of Spielberg movies, when all along the crossword setter’s favourite movie was staring me in the face — ref Sidney Lumet
8 Character in radio series /showing greater cunning (6)
ARCHER
2 defs, one of them referring to The Archers
14 Great fun initially with older characters (9)
WONDERFUL
(fun w{ith} older)* — cunningly disguised anagram here, but why did Dac bother to say ‘initially’, when w is a commonly accepted abbreviation for with? Perhaps he feels that material to be anagrammed shouldn’t contain an abbreviation.
16 Top grades received by everyone attending? That makes a change (9)
TURNABOUT
A and B in turnout
17 During bash I put on large black hat (6)
TRILBY
tr(I l b)y
18,19 Writer includes mad Lear’s daughter among cowards (7,7)
CHARLES DICKENS
((Lear’s)* d) in chickens
19 See 18 down
20 Meet one’s family having vacation after end of week (7)
SATISFY
1’s f{amil}y after Sat
22 A short while after tea, say, type of pudding is served (5)
TRICE
t rice
24 Choppy as any lake in Africa (5)
NYASA
(as any)*
Thanks Dac and John.
Perhaps showing my age, I’d parsed the “dance hit” part of 4/5 down as referring to the song by Yazz and the Plastic Population that was a number one (and staple of student discos) in the late ’80s.
I thought this was another enjoyable Dac puzzle, although it was on the easy side for me because I had the required GK.
I think Dac was just being helpful by adding “old” into the clue for TITANIC. TRICE was my LOI after I got BRIEF and CELLISTS.
A good Dac. We solved it fairly quickly unfortunately – we’re on holiday and the weather is dreadful so we would have preferred a longer solve!
Thanks John.
Well, not as hard as yesterday. I finished it eventually with only having to e-search 16dn.
But surely in 26ac, if the General Lee referred to is Robert E. Lee, he was never a US general. His highest rank in the US army was colonel. He was a general in the CS army. (I’m something of a American Civil war fanatic.)
Was I alone in finding an error in 11/12 ac? In my paper it was clued as (4,4,5) whereas the answer was MEETS (5) ONES (4) MATCH?
Same in my paper, Eve.
My copy of the paper had 11/12 ac as 4,4,5 too. Threw me for a while but the rest were pretty straightforward I thought.
Found this useful as just getting back in to cryptic crossword.
We are new to cryptics and finding them pretty hard. Only managed 13 across. -had to look here for answers/ideas on how clues were solved.