A new setter for me, I think, and an excellent puzzle.
The handful of gimmes were offset by some superbly sly clueing and inventive definitions elsewhere. No complaints from me (only a plea for help with 3dn.). Thank-you, Chalmie.
ACROSS
1. PRESSURE Reversal of SE [south-east, home counties] + RP [received pronunciation, posh accent] + sure [certain]
5. A MINOR A [one] + minor [young person]
10. LE CARRE Carer [nurse] minus e [east, point] within Lee [General Robert E]
11. EATABLE Hidden in whalemEAT A BLEssing
12. INAPTNESS Pt [point] within inane [silly] + SS [Secret Service]
13. HEADS H(ouseholder) + e [energy] + ads [posters, bills]
15. SMASH S [small] + mash [potatoes]
16. SKIVVIES V [five] + VI [six] within skies [heavens]
19. PIERCING Anagram of nicer within pig [bad-mannered fellow]
20. NADIR Hidden in northamptoN A DIRector
21. PINCH P [piano, soft] + inch [part of a foot]
23. STRESSFUL Reversal of asserts [insists that] minus a + fur [pelt] with l [left] replacing r [right]
25. WATERER T(own) + ere [before] within war [fight]
27. BOILING B [second-rate] + oiling [lubricant]
28. RAPIER RA [Royal Artillery, soldiers] + pier [quay]
29. SLUGFEST Anagram of sets gulf
DOWN
1. PULPIEST (Sandwich)es within pulpit [part of church]
2. EXCLAMATION L [left] + Amati [old violin, fiddle] within ex con [former prisoner]
3. STRETCHER Perhaps a double definition? A stretcher is certainly a brick, but I’m not sure where the urban vomiter fits in [ADDITIONAL: it’s St [street, pavement] + retcher [one being sick] – thanks, commenters!]
4. REEVE Relieve [take over from] minus I [one] + L [pound]
6. MATCH C [the speed of light, constant] within math(s) [school lesson]
7. NIB Reversal of bin [refuse container]
8. REEDS Reversal of deer [animals] + s [sun]
9. FEASTING F [key] + east [point] + (cont)ing(ent)
14. AHEAD OF TIME O [old] + FT [newspaper] within a [one] + he [man] + a + dime
16. SCISSORS C(oat)i within SS [ship] + or [gold] within SS [ship]
17. VANISHING Anagram of in shaving
18. ARC LIGHT Even letters of wReCk within alight [land]
21. POWER We [our people] within Po [river] + r [river] – the allusion is to the presentation software Powerpoint
22. HORDE Sounds like whored [patronised brothels]
24. REBEL B(ack) within reel [dance]
26. TIP Reversal of pit [little stone]
Pretty tough butvfun
3dn RETCHER on ST
Thanks Ringo and Chalmie,
I liked the use of “point” across lots of clues.
re 3 dn: ST + Retcher
3d – Street on a retcher ?
5a – with no flat key. The key of A Minor contains no flats.
12a? – Inaptness.
You’ve omitted 12a: ‘Bodyguard silly to accept point before not being fit’ = INAPTNESS (PT inside INANE plus SS)
Oh, goodness – how did I miss that? Thanks all. I think “pavement” threw me.
12ac. now inserted. Not my best day…
A welcome addition to the FT setters. I liked the fact that there were plenty of clues with more than two elements to them. It makes parsing the clues more satisfying and leads to fewer write-ins.
Thanks Chalmie and Ringo. Could this setter possibly be the same man who sets as Alchemi in the Independent (and Hemical on Cricinfo)?
@Pelham Barton Rumbled.
Thanks to Ringo and those others who appear to have liked it.
Certainly not a pointless puzzle from Alchemi’s younger brother 🙂 .
Actually, a really good one.
So, thanks to Chalmie (and Ringo for cracking it).
I needed the blog for the correct parsing of 12ac (INAPTNESS).
I was clearly on the wrong track thinking of PT (as in personal trainer) as bodyguard, therefore in the end wondering about the second of the SSs.
BTW, I think SS is more the Nazi-German Schutzstaffel (who were founded as bodyguards for Hitler) than Secret Service.
In 19ac (PIERCING) we had ‘meal’ as anagram indicator. I don’t think that I’ve seen this before.
I was not completely happy with ‘school lesson’ for ‘maths’, it’s surely a ‘school subject’.
Learnt today that Americans may call an exclamation mark ‘point’. And very precise of Chalmie to finish the clue with an !.
In 9d I had to convince myself that the use of ‘essential’ was correct. In the surface it is adjectival but to make the cryptic grammar work one should see it as a noun here – didn’t know that ‘essential’ could be a noun but it can.
This clue (9d) was one of the many excellent clues today.
I found this crossword a real unity which may serve as a compliment.
Hugely enjoyable.
@Sil van den Hoek: yes, we in the U.S. call that mark an exclamation point. Also, we would be confused if you called that dot at the end of a sentence a full stop. We only know it as a period. Another thing I love about doing these puzzles and reading this blog–learning about our language and how some of our standards have diverged with the span of an ocean.
Lovely puzzle. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Lovely puzzle. Please can we have some more?
Thanks Chalmie and Ringo
Another puzzle completed really late … but extremely enjoyable. Took a while to get into the style of this new (to me) setter. A good mix of gettable clues with those that took some real work to get through.
Last in was REEVE – although it always looked likely, it still took an age to see how it was so, with the clever placement of the second definition ‘take over’. Laughed at HORDE when the penny dropped.
Looking forward to his next one …