Phi has as always given us a very pleasant crossword. In a couple of places my reading of things is slightly at variance with his, but no doubt someone will put me right.
I’m not sure who the person is, but he appears centrally in the unches at the top and the bottom. Oh yes, I’ve just Googled him and this is probably who he is. No doubt there are references to him dotted around the grid.
Definitions in italics.
Across
9 Develop supporting structure placed against stone (9)
PROPAGATE
prop [= supporting structure] agate [= stone]
10 Rings circling label in NZ location (5)
OTAGO
o(tag)o — oh dear, I thought, another of Phi’s obscure NZ words, but the cricketers have played in Otago often enough for this to be no problem
11 A new opening for harbour, blocking jetty’s access to water supply? (7)
MANHOLE
m(a n h{arbour})ole
12 Uncharitable article from Merkel to keep dodging the point (7)
MEANDER
mean der [German for ‘the’]
13 Great happiness: caught European dictator’s spokesman (5)
JOYCE
joy c E — ref. Lord Haw Haw, William Joyce
14 Copies dancing of musical artist (9)
SIMULACRA
(musical)* RA
16 Quantity of water round prison holding English (5)
OCEAN
o c(E)an
17 Stop to arrest revolutionary (3)
BAN
(nab)rev. — here revolutionary means reversed
18 When invited, university advanced a small amount (5)
OUNCE
on cue, with the u [= university] a bit earlier
19 Observational device: research facility invested in 4, possibly (9)
ASTROLABE
lab in (oaters)*
22 Poet recalled work and energy (5)
ELIOT
(toil e)rev.
23 Has nothing to do with dreadful noises surrounding broadcast (7)
DISOWNS
di(sow)ns
25 Artist‘s pile of rubbish including tea (7)
DUCHAMP
du(cha)mp — Marcel Duchamp
27 Shall we back seizing a bargain? (5)
STEAL
(let’s)rev. round a
28 Line in restaurant, curtailed then dropped, is fruit dessert (9)
CLAFOUTIS
c(l)af{é} out is — had never heard of this, but it’s well-enough known to be in Chambers
Down
1 Emails ultimately dispatched by jerk? (4)
SPAM
This looks like an &lit. since the whole clue could be the definition, and ’emails ultimately’ is no doubt s, but how pam is ‘dispatched by jerk’ I can’t see (As Querulous @1 was quick to point out, it’s spa{s}m. When is a parsing that defeats me going to be anything other than very simple really?)
2 Important US town matter: heads of Youth Services worry (6,4)
COUNTY SEAT
count Y{outh} S{ervices} eat — in America a county seat is the town where county government takes place
3 A male in trousers mostly of 17th century design (8)
JACOBEAN
j(a cob)ean{s}
4 No opening for straw hats – stetsons required in these! (6)
OATERS
{b}oaters — this is an oater
5 Queen, importing trees, getting one source of direction (8)
HELMSMAN
H(elms)M an — Her Majesty
6 Important person completely discounted delivery (2-4)
NO-BALL
nob all — I suppose a no-ball is discounted in the sense that it has no potential for taking wickets
7 Mother upset about one daughter? (4)
MAID
(dam)rev. around 1
8 Series of matches getting players involved in national contest (10)
TOURNAMENT
tour na(men)t — I think, at any rate: but the only relevant sense of ‘tour’ that occurs to me is as in ‘European tour’ in golf, which isn’t a series of matches but a series of events (AndyB @2 suggests a cricket tour, and that’s what it surely is) — ‘Series of matches’ could be the definition, since a tournament (in tennis for example) is indeed a series of matches, but if it is I can’t get the parsing to work at all
13 Damaged jeep’s radio put in danger of failure (10)
JEOPARDISE
(jeep’s radio)*
15 Someone to consult if upset during study on poet (10)
CONFIDANTE
(if)rev. in (con Dante)
17 Vegetable in tin (one tin incomplete) (8)
BRASSICA
brass 1 ca{n} — at first this seemed odd, since brass and tin are not the same thing, but then it became clear: they both mean money
18 Make a bad hash of deliveries? Firm’s not too bothered (8)
OVERCOOK
over co. OK — hash as in stew, with the question mark really needing to be after ‘hash’ — over = six balls = deliveries
20 Writer successfully following old rule (6)
ORWELL
o r well
21 Charm book ignored by nag, perhaps (6)
ENDEAR
{b}end ear — to bend someone’s ear is perhaps to nag
24 What sounds like a little estimation? (4)
SPEC
“speck” — but are spec as in specification, and estimation, quite the same thing? Surely the specification is a list of a thing’s properties, whereas an estimation is a judgement?
26 Upper-class, solemn ahead of silence (4)
POSH
po sh — po-faced
*anagram
Thanks Phi and John.
1D is SPASM minus S
I found this a little harder than some recent Phi puzzles but it was a fair challenge.
John, I agree with your first parsing of TOURNAMENT, and the “tour” in the clue probably refers to a cricket tour, which is indeed a series of matches.
I saw the JOHN CLARKE nina but I’m not really any the wiser with regard to his relevance to the puzzle after reading the link.
I struggled in the SE of this puzzle and CLAFOUTIS was my LOI from the wordplay.
I also could not see SPASM at 1D, though the answer was obvious; “emails” appears to be doing some sort of double duty. Had never heard of CLAFOUTIS.
24D sounds like little as in a speck of dust but as spec can mean estimation.
Also found TOURNAMENT a bit dubious.
Phi will probably confirm that most of John Clarke’s work is in Australia, though he is a New Zealander.
Thanks to Phi and John.
Re 1dn I did wonder if there was some subtle allusion to the origin of Spam® as ‘spiced ham’ and the spicy seasoning known as jerk. It would seem not.
CLAFOUTIS defeated both my word finder and spell-checker but when I got it from the wordplay I recognised the word; it must have been in an earlier crossword. OATERS was new to me, though; I only got it after solving 19ac from crossing letters.
A bit more difficult than some from Phi, but thanks all the same to setter and blogger.
Took a while to pin down, this one. I vaguely knew CLAFOUTIS, but struggled to get SPEC, my last one. Like John, I’m not keen on ‘estimation’ as the definition here. Thought ENDEAR was clever, though. As for Mr Clarke, no idea.
Good puzzle, thank you to Phi as always.
24d. I’d taken spec to mean speculation = guesstimate = estimation
I enjoyed the puzzle, though with less success than others. Plus, I went astray at 3d with Pantheon!
Thanks Phi for an enjoyable puzzle and John for the blog.
6dn: I think the “discounted delivery” refers to the fact that a no-ball is not counted towards the number of balls in an over.
24dn: I agree with others that spec is short for speculation not specification in this case: Chambers 2011 gives both (as separate root words).
Thanks John and Phi, and also to Querulous@1 for explaining SPAM.
I thought TOURNAMENT was fine – Tour de France. It is also the key to the theme – a book by John Clarke about a tennis contest featuring DUCHAMP, ELIOT, JOYCE and ORWELL, inter alia.
Great fun.
This was a bit of self-indulgence on my part, as John Clarke’s The Tournament is one of my favourite humorous books. He re-imagines 20th century cultural/scientific/literary/political history as (naturally) the French Open Tennis Tournament. (The men’s singles semi-finalists are scattered round the grid.) it’s less a novel than a sort of revue, with everything from one-liners to elegant literary parody. I first encountered it as interval readings on Radio 3 during a Wimbledon fortnight and was hooked.
I thought he might be a little obscure for the UK, and his name isn’t the easiest to Google (better than Smith, though), so I was pleased to see him spotted.
Bravo Phi!
We’d never heard of The Tournament but Joyce (not that one, but this one) had heard of clafoutis as she used to cook cherry clafoutis quite regularly!
We did however notice John Clarke and the other well known names but came to 225 to find the connection as it was getting late. We are glad that Phi left the earlier message.
Thanks John for the blog.
Only just got round to this one. Clafoutis really, sorry phi but for a daily that’s ott. As for Nina theme well whoosh it went. Ta john that last one beat me.