One of Radian’s best. I enjoyed this, just the right level of difficulty for me. There was enough to make you think a bit, but the setter loses gracefully, and does so without any lingering feeling of irritation at not being quite able to see how something worked: everything seems sound and of a good standard. Some of the indicators of anagrams, inclusions and reversals were unusual, but they were all fine in my opinion.
Definitions underlined.
Across
1 Writer’s choked by poor sales, lacking goal (7)
AIMLESS
I’m in (sales)*
5 Virginia burnt out Rolls in plain (7)
VANILLA
Va (all in)rev. — the reversal indicated by ‘Rolls’, something that was new to me
9 Big fall in small swelling (5)
SLUMP
s lump
10 Leaves action at sea in vessel (9)
VACATIONS
(action)* in vas
11 Ginger lady’s band creates diversion (3,7)
RED HERRING
red her ring — red = ginger has always seemed a bit odd, because they are two different colours, or at least ginger is one of many types of red, but I suppose they are equivalent in the terms red-haired/ginger-haired
12 Mexican team caught out in base (4)
MEAN
This was my last one in and I was trying to get things like LEON and PEON to work, but it’s perfectly straightforward: Me{XI c}an
14 Irish reel danced very near a new church? It’s impertinent (11)
IRRELEVANCE
Ir. (reel)* v a n CE — not impertinent = rude, simply the legal sense of impertinent as the opposite of pertinent, which has nothing to do with rudeness — I remember as a child having a pack of cards called ‘Pertinent Questions and Impertinent Answers’ (sample: ‘Is it true your parents are getting married soon?’ ‘Yes, in my bath’) and learning very young that impertinent in its main meaning didn’t mean the opposite of pertinent
18 Dash about, tackling silly question that’s illogical (3,8)
NON SEQUITUR
(run)rev. around [= tackling] (question)*
21 Energy to be paid for by society for a long time (4)
EONS
e on s — at least that’s my parsing, where on = to be paid for by (this drink is on/to be paid for by me)
22 Untidy shepherd said mountains follow river (10)
DISARRANGE
(said)* r range — ‘shepherd’ is the anagram indicator
25 Blunt instruction to overexcited guide? (9)
POINTLESS
If a guide is getting excited he or she needs to be told to point less
26 Wind up patient injecting drug (5)
CEASE
c(e)ase
27 As a rule, green ground adjoins city limits (7)
REGENCY
(green)* c{it}y — ‘As’ is just there for the surface, I think
28 Firm to eat in office during late shift (2,5)
AL DENTE
(late)* round den
Down
1 It’s ridiculous fixing surfboard for going away (6)
ABSURD
(surfboard – for)* — you need to see the second r in ‘surfboard’ as the one that is removed, if you are a stickler and want the letters of ‘for’ to appear in the correct order
2 Rotten way of working duly adapted (6)
MOULDY
MO (duly)* — MO = modus operandi
3 Stars may represent these troopers’ issues (10)
EXPLETIVES
2 defs — if an expletive is deleted the letters are typically replaced by stars; ‘swear like a trooper’
4 Fallen woman’s sister bandages cut (5)
SEVER
s(Eve)r
5 What teacher calls bored class in building site? (6,3)
VACANT LOT
A teacher might call a bored class a vacant lot
6 Flustered nudist: “I’d forgotten these were on show” (4)
NUTS
(nudist – I’d)* — this time the i and the d don’t appear in the correct order, so expect trouble from some quarters — I’m not sure exactly what the definition is here: the sort of &lit. rude jokiness seems to make the clue hard to parse
7 Ladies perhaps noticed director idling at this (5,3)
LOOSE END
loo seen d
8 Spill beans on supporter who’s missing (8)
ABSENTEE
(beans)* tee
13 Finished hyping diamonds doubly unlikely to sell (10)
OVERPRICED
over PR ice d — PR = hyping; the ‘doubly’ refers to the fact that not only do we have ‘ice, we have ‘d’
15 Chef mostly can see as usual (9)
ROUTINELY
[Michel] Rou{x} tin Ely — tin = can, Ely is an example of a bishop’s see
16 Shooting eagle poorly? (5,3)
UNDER PAR
A golfer who is shooting eagle is under par, two under in fact
17 Firm exports barrels non-stop (8)
UNENDING
un{b}ending
19 One invested in trendy vehicle unprofitably (2,4)
IN VAIN
in [= trendy] va(1)n
20 Remove or reduce “No Parking” (6)
DELETE
de{P}lete
23 Eat seal, skinned where it’s caught? (2,3)
AT SEA
{E}at sea{l}
24 Cranks up floor (4)
STUN
(nuts)rev. — the closest I can come to a Nina is the fact that this and 6dn are reversals of one another; which is not very close
*anagram
I really enjoyed this puzzle. I was a little surprised to see three composite anagram clues in one puzzle (1dn, 6dn and 12ac), although if memory serves there was a Crucible puzzle in the Guardian that had as many so this setter obviously likes them. Having said that, it may have been a Philistine puzzle, and if so apologies to the setter. MEAN was also my LOI, and I went through the same “Leon” or “peon” thought processes as John until the penny dropped.
My favourite clue was probably the one for NUTS.
I don’t see a problem with 6D having i & d removed after, rather than before, the letters are rearranged.
And put me down as another who took a long time to finish off with MEAN.
@3hounddog – 6D agree the remaining letters don’t have to be in order, anagrind is “flustered”; ditto 1D where anagrind is “fixing”.
Couldn’t see CEASE for some reason.
Thanks to Radian and John.
@2hounddog – @3 me.
Thanks to S&B,
All a bit depressing isn’t it? AIMLESS, POINTLESS, IN VAIN, IRRELEVANCE, ABSURD, VACATIONS, AT SEA etc etc. Is November 4th World Emptiness Day or is there something else to this?
I agree this is a good puzzle. The compound anagrams are of course fine as long as one possible anagrammed outcome suits the wordplay, but having said that, misuse (or abuse) of tense renders some indication less pleasing, for me, than it might have been. For example ‘danced’: can I ‘dance’ something to mix it up? And if it’s past tense, well, shocking.
Just the right level of challenge to finish the puzzle in reasonable time, and some excellent clues. Couldn’t see the parsing of 13dn, though, till I came here. Several contenders for my CoD, including NUTS and AL DENTE.
Thanks, Radian and John
I didn’t have time to complete this until today, so I’m a bit late…but what a masterful crossword! Lots of quite tricksy little things, but the definitions themselves were usually very generous, so it was always a joy to solve.
Big thanks to Radian and to John for a lovely blog.
Andy B @1, I think those are normally called ‘subtractive’ anagrams (compound anagrams are something different) and there were only two of them; 12a was a simple subtraction, no anagramming necessary!
Did most of these in 30 mins. Missed vanilla and unending. Good fun.