A witty challenge from WANDERER who seems to have been in a playful mood in setting this.
FF:9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1, 6 | ON A HIGHER PLANE | Flying in more rarefied air? (2,1,6,5) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 9 | ICED TEA | Terribly emaciated old woman wanting cold drink (4,3) |
| EmaCIATED* (without MA – old woman) | ||
| 10 | TILLAGE | Farmer’s work is up to date (7) |
| TILL (up to) AGE (date) | ||
| 11 | ETHER | Number one The Ramones covered (5) |
| hidden in “..onE THE Ramones..” | ||
| 12 | HECTORING | When actors find ego all boundless bluster? (9) |
| Hidden in “wHEn aCTORs fINd eGo..” (without extreme characters – boundless) | ||
| 14, 25 | POTASH | Alkaline compound ordered at shop (6) |
| AT SHOP* | ||
| 15 | CONCENTRATE | Prisoner taking heart, with a time inside to focus (11) |
| CON (prisoner) [CENTRE (heart) containing A T (time) ] | ||
| 17 | REPOSSESSES | Takes back letters Post Office’s held in reserve earlier (11) |
| [PO’S (post office’s) in RES (reserve)] ESSES (letters) | ||
| 19 | See 5 | |
| 20 | IDEALISTS | Thoughts including tip for dreamers (9) |
| IDEAS (thoughts) containing LIST (tip) | ||
| 22 | MORES | What Japan has, compared with England, say? Manners! (5) |
| pronounced MORE-A’s (which jApAn has compared to englAnd) | ||
| 24 | MANAGUA | Month a war briefly returned to capital city (7) |
| reverse of AUG (month) A NAM (short for vietnam war) | ||
| 26 | RETSINA | Wine stain remover? (7) |
| i think the clue has to be read as STAIN RE – mover with mover indicating the anagram | ||
| 27, 28 | NIGEL HAWTHORNE | Actor not initially feeling iffy about Bush (5,9) |
| fEELING* (without first letter) around HAWTHORN (bush) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | OLIVE | Love sending up wicked girl? (5) |
| O (love) LIVE (wicked = EVIL, reversed) | ||
| 2 | APESHIT | Going this mad – this crazy – after climax, when getting end away (7) |
| THIS* (anagrind – crazy) after APEx (climax, without the last letter) | ||
| 3 | INTERACTS | Gets involved with others when team plays (9) |
| INTER (team) ACTS (plays) | ||
| 4 | HEADHUNTERS | Those helping to recruit top people after game (11) |
| HEAD (top) HUNTERS (people after game) | ||
| 5, 19 across | RATTAN | Palm brown rodent’s sat on (6) |
| RAT (rodent) TAN (brown) | ||
| 6 | POLIO | One held in car brings complaint (5) |
| I (one) in POLO (car) | ||
| 7 | ARABICA | Coffee originally cultivated in Asian region (7) |
| C (Cultivated, first letter) in ARABIA (asian region) | ||
| 8, 23 | EVERGREEN STATE | Washington takes revenge, upset about imprisoned First Lady, say (9,5) |
| REVENGE* [ containing RE (about) ] STATE (say) – clearly my parsing is incorrect as i haven’t accounted for first lady (~eve? / L = yell?) | ||
| 13 | CHEESE STRAW | Dairy product with unsightly lumps turned up in a long thin pastry (6,5) |
| CHEESE (diary product) STRAW (unsightly lumps = WARTS, reversed) | ||
| 14 | PERSIMMON | One male with no sperm surprisingly bears fruit (9) |
| I (one) M (male) NO SPERM* – witty surface! | ||
| 16 | TEST MATCH | Try by rival in international game (4,5) |
| TEST (try) MATCH (rival) | ||
| 18 | PFENNIG | Fellow in prison pulled up short, seeing little change from before Berlin Wall came down (7) |
| [F (fellow) in PEN (prison) ] NIG (short = GIN, reversed) | ||
| 19 | TERRIER | Model happier when topless? She’s probably barking! (7) |
| T (model, ford) mERRIER (happier, without starting letter) | ||
| 21 | LEGAL | It’s allowed on a lake (5) |
| LEG (on, from the game of cricket) A L (lake) | ||
| 23 | See 8 | |
| 25 | See 14 across | |
*anagram
The ‘first lady’ in 8,23 is ER.
Lots to enjoy in this one. Smile of the day has to go to the reference to the ‘strain removing’ qualities of 26a
Sorry forgot to say thank you to Wanderer and Turbolegs
Excellent puzzle as to be expected from this setter.
I’m grateful for the parsing of MORES. I saw this as MORE S and guessed that there must be more sulphur deposits in Japan than in England (with “say” indicating this as an example). Needless to say, your explanation is obviously correct and mine wasn’t!
Superb! Really enjoyed this. Was held up awhile on 1,6 assuming it was a song and an anagram of ‘in more rarefied’. HEADHUNTER eventually put paid to that idea. Also took a long time to get 8,23 since I didn’t know the term. Thanks to S&B.
Once again, I agree entirely with crypticsue [but I think she meant to write ‘strain’ 😉 – it’s dreadful stuff, anyway, as I’ve said here several times before [it’s an anagram of NASTIER, of course – as it’s often clued – or as a reversal of [c]ANISTER].
I enjoyed ICED TEA, MORES, PFENNIG, and NIGEL HAWTHORNE [in both respects] very much, too.
Many thanks to Turbolegs and to Wanderer for the fun.
Eileen@6 that’s two of us who can’t type the word we intend to 🙂
While I enjoyed the challenge (but couldn’t explain MORES because I don’t pronounce this Latin word like the Brits apparently do), there were a couple of things that I didn’t like.
(BTW, I do like this setter’s crosswords in general)
In 11ac the insertion indicator (‘covered’) is in the past tense which is, IMO, not as it should be.
A setter will be ticked off in The Times when doing this.
That said, I cannot see a way around it here without ruining the surface.
The same in 5,19ac: ‘sat on’?
It ‘sits on’ or ‘is sitting on’.
More serious is the anagram indicator in 26ac.
Not so very long ago a setter (forgot who it was) used ‘turner’ as the anagrind, here Wanderer comes up with ‘mover’.
Similar and just as unacceptable.
And not just because it’s a noun.
Glad others liked it – glad for them, I mean.
Thanks TB and W.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Only got to this one earlier this week and it was well and truly worth the wait. Lots of interesting twists in the wordplay, misleading definitions and more ribaldry than I’m used to seeing from this fellow – nearly laughed out loud when I got my last one at 2d for it’s sheer unexpectedness.
Didn’t parse REPOSSESSES – more through laziness and forgetting to go back and re-look at it.
Sil, I suspect the early Romans more than likely pronounced it the same way as the Brits too ! 🙂