I found this an enjoyable puzzle which required a bit of work to tease out some of the parsings. The def in 17 is the only one I’m not sure about. 20 I thought was particularly clever and 19 was my LOI, being an unusual and slightly odd word.
| Across | |||
| 1. | They’re chirpy seeing head of army’s miserable one in retirement (7) | ||
| Cicadas | CIC (Commander in Chief) + (sad a)< | ||
| 5. | Rat with nothing leaves dinosaur muscle (7) | ||
| Triceps | Trice[rat-o]ps | ||
| 9. | Phone’s busy in ‘ackney for this sort of discussion (9) | ||
| Dialectic | Dial + ectic (Cockney hectic) | ||
| 10. | Staff to hold fitness training in a tie (5) | ||
| Roped | Rod round PE | ||
| 11. | Children who might have time for the web (5) | ||
| Issue | [T]issue | ||
| 12. | For managing without tax I’ll be put in jail in place of son (9) | ||
| Privation | VAT I replacing the s in prison | ||
| 13. | One’s barking dog returns to eat it wearing artificial coat (9) | ||
| Fruitcake | (Cur around it)< in fake | ||
| 16. | Perfume conveyed on the air (5) | ||
| Scent | Hom of sent | ||
| 18. | Ornamental plant required after year clearing house for 70s students say (5) | ||
| Yucca | Y + UCCA, which was the University clearing house until it was replaced by UCAS in 1993. | ||
| 20. | Less rapid scattering? (9) | ||
| Dispersal | &lit – (less rapid)* | ||
| 22. | Outstanding feature for manager touring Jersey etc (9) | ||
| Proboscis | Pro + boss around CI (Channel Islands) | ||
| 24. | Patent leather, just a couple of bits in VW say? … (5) | ||
| Clear | Two letters of leather in car | ||
| 26. | … Another German vehicle – love the sound system! (5) | ||
| Audio | Audi + O | ||
| 27. | ‘Getting rusty’ after a neat start’s the translation of an idiot (9) | ||
| Oxidation | Ox (neat) + (an idiot)* | ||
| 28. | Nun, though not stern, doles out some lumpy bits (7) | ||
| Nodules | Nu[n] (stern = last letter missing) + doles* | ||
| 29. | Danger, high energy explosive device (7) | ||
| Grenade | Danger* (high = anag indicator) + e(nergy) | ||
Down |
|||
| 1. | Storage box traps wings of infamous and foul insect (6,3) | ||
| Caddis fly | Caddy around i[nfamou]s and f[ou]l | ||
| 2. | Anarchy and nothing in the endless void (5) | ||
| Chaos | O in Chas[m] | ||
| 3. | Most cunning river midgie say? (7) | ||
| Deepest | Dee + pest | ||
| 4. | Director is absent from disputes over organisation (3-2) | ||
| Set-up | [Dis]putes< i.e. remove the whole of D(irector) is | ||
| 5. | Gaudy quality, a feature of Post-it notes (9) | ||
| Tackiness | DD | ||
| 6. | One new to Greek island, say, making some progress (7) | ||
| Inroads | I + n(ew) + hom of Rhodes | ||
| 7. | Could be Victoria’s holding onto money for right vacancy (9) | ||
| Emptiness | Empress with tin replacing R. | ||
| 8. | Danse macabre? One might be uplifted by it (5) | ||
| Sedan | Danse* | ||
| 14. | Quite visible with ear-piercing, hunched over, all out of heroin (9) | ||
| Unclouded | Loud in [h]unc[h]ed | ||
| 15. | Brazen rogue returns with promises to pay after seeing gold (9) | ||
| Audacious | AU + cad< + IOUs | ||
| 17. | Play cornet, being fuddled with ale (9) | ||
| Tolerance | (Cornet ale)* – not sure why Tolerance is play. Maybe there is a play by this name. | ||
| 19. | Being familiar with land and water, American cut a great deal to secure old lake (7) | ||
| Axolotl | Ax (normal American spelling of axe) + lot around o(ld) + l(ake) | ||
| 21. | Maybe 60s W Berlin, is subject that sees leader of communists ousting Pole (7) | ||
| Enclave | Enslave with c[ommunists] in place of S | ||
| 22. | I may enter Mastermind, Frank (5) | ||
| Plain | I in plan (mastermind used as a verb could mean to plan) | ||
| 23. | Son, relative of 25, to hurl drink (5) | ||
| Sling | S(on) + ling (type of heather, as is 25) + 2 defs | ||
| 25. | Segment of pericarp in plant (5) | ||
| Erica | Hidden in pERICArp | ||
Play and tolerance both mean give and take.
The tolerance of, say, a bearing is the amount of allowable play in the fitting.
I didn’t know AXOLOTL, and although I can see the parsing I’d never have solved it unaided, so a boo for that one but otherwise very enjoyable. I particularly liked FRUITCAKE for some reason.
16 hom of sent (?)
Really teasing puzzle so the helpful blog needed for parsing quite a few.
Heather, SCENT is a homophone (on the air ie radio) of sent = conveyed.
Nice puzzle. And AXOLOTLs are fascinating beasts, true Peter Pans.
This is very good. I liked AXOLOTL, but I can see why it might cause trouble! It was my LOI, but not much else could fit!
Agree with cumbrian@2 re play and tolerance.
Nice puzzle. Defeated by axolotl, and needed the blog to parse ENCLAVE so not bad but must try harder.
Enjoyed this. I had “American cut” = A. X, but your Ax is better.
A lot of Replacement Clues today, but it was fun. Nice for Heather to get a couple of mentions.
I’m sure we had ‘Tolerance = Play’ in The Guardian a couple of days ago – funny how that happens.
Thanks both.
AXOLOTL is one of those words which crop up in crosswords from time to time as useful to fill ‘awkward’ lights; also useful for Scrabble players to remember. In this instance I thought the clue for it was superb.
Thanks NealH and others for the nice comments, which are really appreciated. Nothing to add to that really.
Sorry but I don’t get parsing of AXOLOTL. Surely it’s the OL of old lake that secures LOT (great deal) not the other way around. The blog says lot round O + L but LOT isn’t round anything. Am I missing something?
{AX (American cut) + LOT (a great deal)} [seen as one, or separately] around O (old), then finally + L (lake).
Thanks Sil at 11. I realised this about 10 seconds after I shut down the PC last night but couldn’t justify a reboot.
A couple of extra parentheses in the blog would have helped me but then that’s probably just my maths background!
PS. I learned about axolotls a very long time ago (ca 1958) when my school science teacher so named my first efforts at making a glass animal (a dog I intended) from glass rods using a Bunsen burner!