Enjoyable puzzle. Nothing vicious, but always interesting with some very nice surfaces.
No quibbles apart from 28 which is perfectly forgiveable. Thanks Crux.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LETTER BOX | What security-concious Spooner has fitted to front door (6,3) |
| ‘Better locks,’ according to the Rev. Spooner. | ||
| 6 | ETHEL | Woman who’s somewhat above the law (5) |
| Inclusion (‘somewhat’) in abovE THE Law’. | ||
| 9, 10 | WORLD WEARINESS | Unlikely solar winds were cause of general lassitude (5,9) |
| Anagram (‘unlikely’) of SOLAR WINDS WERE. | ||
| 11 | RESTRAINTS | Teach during breaks? There are limits! (10) |
| TRAIN (‘teach’) in RESTS (‘breaks’). | ||
| 12 | PSST | Ship involved in exercise said to attract attention (4) |
| SS (‘ship’) in PT (‘excercise’). An oldy but goody. | ||
| 14 | SOOTHES | Comforts those in trouble after speaking out, initially (7) |
| Anagram (‘in trouble’) of THOSE, after first letters of ‘Speaking Out’. | ||
| 15 | REGALIA | Flipping first-rate beer gets a big cigar (7) |
| A1 (‘first-rate’) + LAGER (‘beer’), all reversed. | ||
| 17 | CLEAN UP | Make a killing, then remove all evidence of it? (5,2) |
| Sort of jocular double-definition. | ||
| 19 | DUNKIRK | Kind of indefatigable spirit appearing in a grey-brown church (7) |
| DUN (‘grey-brown’) + KIRK (Scottish ‘church’). | ||
| 20 | ENDS | Goals from these eleven England players, finally (4) |
| Last letters (‘finally’) of words 3-6 in clue. | ||
| 22 | CONTOUR MAP | Limit restricts travelling by motorway – essential for walkers (7,3) |
| CAP (‘limit’) surrounds ON TOUR (‘travelling’) + M[otorway] | ||
| 25 | SACKCLOTH | Fire material associated with ashes (9) |
| SACK (‘fire’) + CLOTH (‘material’) for the traditonal itchy garb of the penitent. | ||
| 26 | CATER | Possibly a queen (and the Queen) provide food and drink (5) |
| CAT (‘possibly a queen’) + ER (Her Maj). | ||
| 27 | SWARM | Mob invading smashes war memorial (5) |
| Inclusion (‘invading’) in ‘smasheS WAR Memorial’. | ||
| 28 | OURSELVES | What belongs to us little people; prime concern of Brexiteers? (9) |
| OURS (‘what belongs to us’) + ELVES (‘little people’). The definition is perhaps repetitious and certainly tendentious which bothers me not all. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LOWER | Cut the head off the best (5) |
| fLOWER (‘the best’) decapitated. | ||
| 2 | TURNSTONE | Bird changes colour (9) |
| TURNS + TONE. *No picture for copyright reasons* | ||
| 3 | ENDORPHINS | Eastern and northern mammals need right (not left) painkillers (10) |
| E[astern] + N[orthern] + DO(L)PHINS (‘mammals’), their L[eft] replaced by R[ight]. | ||
| 4 | BEWAILS | Internet back-up troubles causing moans and groans (7) |
| WEB (‘internet’) reversed + AILS (‘troubles’). | ||
| 5 | X-FACTOR | That je-ne-sais-quoi? (1-6) |
| Could be. Dunno. | ||
| 6 | EXIT | It may support a former spouse in retirement (4) |
| IT below EX. | ||
| 7 | HEELS | Lists showing despicable people (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 8 | LOSE TRACK | Take one’s eye off the ball and get lost, perhaps (4,5) |
| And again. | ||
| 13 | AGONY UNCLE | Wise counsellor is a terrible pain, mostly grubby (5,5) |
| AGONY (‘terrible pain’) + UNCLEan. | ||
| 14 | SUCCESSES | Sounds like draws in middle of 12 could be wins! (9) |
| Homophone (‘sounds like’) of SUCKS (‘draws in’) ESSES, SS being the middle of 12a. | ||
| 16 | LEITMOTIV | The French reason endlessly about it – a recurring theme (9) |
| LE (‘the’ in French) + shortened MOTIVe (‘reason’) around IT. | ||
| 18 | PRO BONO | Half probably on oxygen in such charitable cases (3,4) |
| PROB (half of ‘PROBably’) + ON + O[xygen]. | ||
| 19 | DITCHER | Irrigation machine tried out around end of March (7) |
| Anagram (‘out’) of TRIED surrounds ‘end of marCH’. | ||
| 21 | DACHA | Retreat some miles from Moscow? (5) |
| I.e. a Russian country ‘retreat’. Good surface, ‘Moscow’ and ‘retreat’ being such frequent bedfellows. | ||
| 23 | PARES | Peels fruit in twos, so to speak (5) |
| Double homophone (‘so to speak’) of ‘pears’ and ‘pairs’. | ||
| 24 | SCAM | Such arms, oddly, may hold a fiddle (4) |
| Odd letters of ‘SuCh ArMs’. | ||
*anagram
Easy, but fun. Had to check regalia was also a big cigar. As usual, the bird ‘turnstone’ was new to me. Thanks to S&B.
Good fun, but I was held up rather as my FOI was RAKES at 7D, which (in the sense of a stage slope) works exactly as does HEELS
It wasn’t easy.
Thanks Crux and Grant
Actually found this quite a bit more difficult than his normal offerings and had trouble with the parsing of a number of the down clues – LOWER (didn’t know that definition of flower), AGONY UNCLE (more about being lazy than anything else), SUCCESSES (was focused on putting something in between the two S’s from 12), LEITMOTIV (assumed motiv was the French word for ‘motive’) and didn’t pick up on the second PEARS homophone at 23.
Still found it an enjoyable challenge, finishing up in the NW corner with LETTER BOX, ENDORPHINS and TURNSTONE (a new bird to me) the last few in.