Initially fearing a tough one from Neo, I was saved by the long answers, which I got before the shorter ones. He’s given the puzzle a literary flavour. Thanks Neo for an enjoyable time. Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]
Across
1 Dog attracted to chicken dish with prawn (8)
COCKTAIL : TAIL(to dog;to follow) placed after(attracted to, in an across clue) COCK(a male chicken).
And served in a cocktail glass:
5 Writer on slavery died in luggage compartment? (6)
STOWED : STOWE(Harriet Beecher, writer of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, a novel about American slavery) + D(abbrev. for “died”).
10,24 Rage in The Iliad excited fiery poet (5,9)
DANTE ALIGHIERI : Anagram of(excited) RAGE IN THE ILIAD.
Answer: Italian poet, the first part of whose work, “The Divine Comedy” is “Inferno” – hence “fiery”.
11 Winger after training with team gets cake or biscuit (5,4)
PETIT FOUR : TIT(a small bird;a winger) placed after(after) PE(abbrev. for “physical education”;physical training) plus(with) FOUR(a team of four members, in polo or competitive rowing, say).
12 Routine deportation former spouse avoids (9)
TRADITION : “extradition”(deportation of a fugitive at the request of another state) minus(… avoids) “ex-“(your former spouse).
Answer: As in “We’ve always done it this way – it’s a tradition”.
13 Whirling river drowns female, small and delicate (5)
ELFIN : Reversal of(Whirling) NILE(the African river) containing(drowns) F(abbrev. for “female”).
14 Council drunk has internal struggle (6)
SOVIET : SOT(a habitual drunkard) containing(has internal …) VIE(to struggle;to compete for).
Answer: A council of representatives, part of the government machinery in the former Soviet Union.
15 Example chapter taken from long story book (7)
EPITOME : “c”(abbrev. for “chapter”) deleted from(taken from) “epic”(a long story) + TOME(a thick book).
Defn: A typical, or even, perfect example of a characteristic or class.
18 Grab Victoria for example – leader I must replace (7)
IMPRESS : “empress”(for example, Queen Victoria, one of whose titles was “Empress of India”) with its 1st letter(leader) replacedby(… must replace) “I”.
Defn: To grab the attention or interest of someone.
20 Compound that dresses horse leather (6)
OXHIDE : OXIDE(a compound of an element or radical with oxygen) containing(that dresses) H(abbrev. for “horse”).
22 Reptile to travel round financial district and back to work (5)
GECKO : GO(to travel) containing(round) [ EC(East Central, the London postcode area, which includes most of the City of London, the financial district) plus(and) last letter of(back to) “work” ].
24 See 10 across
25 Boy returned with Jewish girl – husband out for drink (9)
NOR’WESTER : Reversal of(returned) RON(a boy’s name) + W(abbrev. for “with”) + “Esther”(from the Bible, a Jewish girl who became Queen of Persia) minus(… out) “h”(abbrev. for “husband”).
Answer: A drink of strong liquor.
26 Posh knight, loaded, not exactly bright (5)
UNLIT : U(representing “upper-class”;posh) + N(abbrev. for “knight” in chess notation) + LIT(slang for “being drunk” as is “loaded”).
27 Maiden gone, bloke on my back gives fictitious name (6)
ANONYM : “m”(abbrev. for “maiden”, in cricket scores) deleted from(… gone) “man”(a bloke;a chap) + ON + reversal of(back) MY.
Answer: Eg. Neo, the setter.
28 Tube or Metro in motion? (8)
UNDERWAY : Cryptic defn: Mode;way of travelling that goes underground, in London (the Tube) or in Paris (the Metro).
Down
1 Trainees, central pairing from Tredegar, to join Lions? (6)
CADETS : The 2 innermost letters of(central pairing from) “Tredegar ” contained in(to join) CATS(an example of which are “lions”).
2 Fleshy melon bum wobbling to Paul (9)
CANTALOUP : CAN(North American slang for the buttocks;bum, the British slang for the same) + anagram of(wobbling) TO PAUL. It’s a coincidence – Paul and fleshy … wobbling buttocks in the same sentence?
3 He, devil, whose tail unseen, noticed my horribly hellish work (3,6,6)
THE DIVINE COMEDY : Anagram of(horribly) [HE + “devil” minus its last letter(whose tail unseen) + NOTICED MY].
Answer: The work mentioned in 10,24 above.
4 Published at home design from plate (2,5)
IN PRINT : IN(at home;not out) + PRINT(a design transferred from an engraved plate).
6 She thought Eliot could create novel (2,3,10)
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE : Anagram of(could create) SHE THOUGHT ELIOT.
Answer: A novel by the answer to 17,7.
7 See 17 down
8 Called into action – driven mad (8)
DERANGED : RANG(called on the phone) contained in(into) DEED(an action).
9 Caught wearing make up right now (2,4)
AT ONCE : C(abbrev. for “caught” in cricket scores) contained in(wearing) ATONE(to make up for past misdeeds).
16 Strange man finds fraternal member (9)
ODDFELLOW : ODD(strange;peculiar) + FELLOW(a man;a chap).
Answer: A member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, a secret benevolent and fraternal association founded in England in the 18th century.
17,7 American state seducer straddles old writer (8,5)
VIRGINIA WOOLF : VIRGINIA(an American state) + WOLF(a seducer;a man who makes sexual advances to many women) containing(straddles) O(abbrev. for “old”).
19 Song social worker gets embarrassed about (6)
SHANTY : ANT(a social insect, one of whose castes in the “worker”) contained in(gets … about) SHY(embarrassed;self-conscious).
Answer: A song originally sung by sailors accompanying work – sing while you work!
20 Developed moronic character (7)
OMICRON : Anagram of(Developed) MORONIC.
Answer: 15th character in the Greek alphabet.
21 Offensive as the rich can be! (6)
FILTHY : Cryptic defn: Reference to the phrase “filthy rich”;extremely or obscenely rich.
23 Freight, having origin in Colchis, on relevant ship? (5)
CARGO : 1st letter of(origin in) “Colchis ” placed above(on, in a down clue) ARGO(in Greek mythology, the ship on which Jason set out in his quest for Golden Fleece in the ancient country of Colchis – hence “relevant”).
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Thanks scchua and Neo,
This was a great puzzle. THE DIVINE COMEDY was my loi, not far behind NORWESTER. I especially liked AT ONCE, OXHIDE and VIRGINIA WOOLF.
The illustration for PETIT FOUR looks like a plate of biscuits. I usually expect something a bit poncier, often with pastry, for petit fours.
[[pic 2 is Charlie Sheen in Wall Street, playing someone other than Gordon GE(C)kKO, pic 7 is presumably from a painting of DANTE’s inferno, pic 8 looks like a peregrine falcon – for no reason that I can fathom]]
[[4 is George Segal (the one on the left), who was in Who’s Afraid of VIRGINIA WOOLF, as wasthe younf lady in 6, whose name escapes me. 3 appears to be a moon of Jupiter, perhaps Io, whose namesake was transformed into a cow, thus sporting an OXHIDE???[[
[[1 is an aardvark, which eats ants, the “social workers” referred to in the the clue to 19. Best I can come up with. No idea about 5 or the falcon.]]
[[Muffyword & Ian SW3, Charlie Sheen/GEC/kKO, George Segal & Sandy Dennis/VIRGINIA WOOLF are right. Hint: The other 5 are in a class linked to the same answer. You’re on the right track with pics 1, 3, and 8, as regards their depictions, but not the connection. Pic 7 is of another literary work, but not by Dante.]]
[[Ah … of course. Aardvark, Io and Falcon are all ANONYMs of crossword setters, as is Monk, so 5 must be Tony Shalhoub. I can’t make out the artwork well enough to tell what it is, though.]]
[[Ian SW3, that leaves pic7. Have another look, I’ve put in a lighter image.]]
Thank you, scchua; excellent as always.
I completed the puzzle from the clues (always a good thing!) but I had some doubts.
I was unhappy with ‘team’ in the clue for FOUR of PETIT FOUR in 11. I could only associate it with making a four for bridge. I didn’t know that meaning of CAN in 2 and I’d never heard of a NORWESTER drink or an ODDFELLOW fraternity.
[OT – Ian SW3 @2,3 &5, are you the Ian who completes Genius puzzles in record time?]
[I don’t know what Pic 7 is.]
Thanks Neo for an enjoyable crossword and scchua for the blog.
Jan @7 re 11ac: Chambers 2008 gives “four a set of four things or people (syllables, leaves, rowers, etc)”, which seems to cover a team of four. (It also gives “the cardinal number next above three”, so this is not a self-referential definition.)
I was slightly unhappy with 16dn, which seemed a weak clue to me, by comparison with the high standard of the rest of the crossword. The wordplay for the compound noun was simply made up of the two components, one of them (FELLOW) with effectively the identical meaning to that taken in the compound.
Jan @7, I have done a few times. They seem to have stopped reporting the first submissions, so I don’t bother staying up past midnight (or 1am BST for some reason) trying.
[[scchua, the problem isn’t the dimness (of the picture, anyway), it’s the size.
[[Hi Ian SW3, I’ve enlarged the picture.]]
Having had great success with Saturday’s Falcon, Sunday’s Everyman and given Dante’s Monday a good try, I thought I’d step up a gear but as usual fell flat on my face. A whole hour yielded only 4d,22a and 20d.
I knew that 10,24a was an anagram but couldn’t see it and as it happened I’d never heard of the answer.
Ditto 3d
Didn’t know norwester was a drink -I’d have guessed a wind.
Outclassed
Thank you Pelham Barton @8. I am happy with four being a team but not with a team necessarily being four.
Ian @9. I’m in awe. 🙂
[Scchua, I still don’t get Pic 7 unless, following on from Ian’s setter anonyms, it’s a portrayal of DANTE’s Inferno.]
Scchua will be fast asleep by now. He’ll enlighten me tomorrow.
Well, a four is a rowing team just as an eight is. A two is too, but they call that a pair. I think. And sorry for making ODD/ FELLOW too easy, but I was feeling generous. For once.
Very many thanks to all, and to scchua for his usual pictorial extravaganza.
[[Thanks for enlarging 7, but I still don’t recognise the picture, artist or subject.]]
Thanks Neo, for dropping by.
[[Ian SW3, Jan and Muffyword, the painting is “Titania Awakening”, inspired by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, in which the king of the fairies is Oberon, from the French translation of Alberich (like the other 4, another setter ANONYM, specifically in the FT).]]
[[Thanks, scchua. Would never have got there in a million years.]]
A bit behind this week, so I missed the picture fun. (We were supposed to get Alberich from pic 7? Don’t you think that takes indirect references a bit too far, sschua?)
Anyway, in 11a, the “team” that got me to FOUR was a team of horses, as in coach-and-four. Of course, NEO already shared he had a rowing team in mind…
Yours is better …