Well, I’m back in what used to be my customary Wednesday FT slot, but only for a couple of weeks whilst PeeDee is away.
I will be honest and say that I didn’t particularly enjoy this solve, though a lot of the niggles along the way were eventually resolved, apart from the definition in 1ac which I believe to be incorrect.
Across
1 Big revolutionary meets resistance in speech to transform country (9)
GIBRALTAR – BIG reversed (revolutionary) R (resistance) ALTAR which sounds like (in speech) ‘alter’ (transform) – can Gibraltar be defined as a country? All my references refer to it as a British overseas territory and it is not included in the list of countries on Britannica.com.
6 Part of clothing line left on mirror (5)
LAPEL – L (line) APE (mirror) L (left)
9 Outclass posh male in gym (7)
UPSTAGE – U (posh) STAG (male) in PE (gym)
10 Our team doctor stands by grassy land, a major sports venue (7)
WEMBLEY – WE (our team) MB (doctor) LEY (grassy land)
11 Pub has that special quality, don’t you think? (5)
INNIT – INN (pub) IT (that special quality)
12 Make breathless little woman outside back off feline (9)
SUFFOCATE – SUE (little woman) around (outside) OFF reversed (back) CAT (feline)
14 Postie’s regular letters for Greek character (3)
PSI – P[o]S[t]I[e] (Postie’s regular letters)
15 Sneer at new head’s serious resolve (11)
EARNESTNESS – an anagram (new) of SNEER AT followed by NESS (head)
17 Authoress, after vacation in Reno, determined to stay in Europe? (4,7)
ROSE TREMAIN – R[en]O (vacation in Reno) SET (determined) REMAIN (to stay in Europe)
19 Byron’s night-time energies end in liaison (3)
EEN – E E (energies) [liaiso]N (end in liaison)
20 Bond’s digital feature not broadcast (5,4)
THUMB KNOT – THUMB (digital feature) KNOT sounds like (broadcast) ‘not’
22 One covers up for swear-word from Liberal during live recording (5)
BLEEP – L (Liberal) in (during) BE (live) EP (recording)
24 Illness putting strain on academic lecturer (7)
MALARIA – MA (academic) L (lecturer) ARIA (strain)
26 Language essential when working out verse by Scotsman (7)
ITALIAN – [v]ITAL (essential when working out verse) IAN (Scotsman)
27 It’s not so common to see limousine carrying a monarch (5)
RARER – RR (limousine) around (carrying) A followed by ER (monarch)
28 The cover’s arranged to protect learner driver in car (9)
CHEVROLET – an anagram (arranged) of THE COVER around (to protect) L (learner driver)
Down
1 I’m amazed, touring university with current architect (5)
GAUDI – GAD (I’m amazed) around (touring) U (university) followed by I (current) – Antoni Gaudi
2 Dog foundation Jack found in middle of Munich (7)
BASENJI – BASE (foundation) plus J (Jack) in (found in) [mu]NI[ch] (middle of Munich)
3 Some soldiers in army switched accommodation (9)
APARTMENT – PART (some) MEN (soldiers) in TA (army) reversed (switched)
4 Does one ensure eg rot is destroyed? (4,7)
TREE SURGEON – an anagram (destroyed) of ENSURE EG ROT with an extended def.
5 Dispute / what oarsmen do (3)
ROW – double def.
6 Dance lift my body half-completed (5)
LIMBO – LI[ft] M[y] BO[dy] (lift my body half-completed)
7 Disease spread around open land, with cattle ultimately cut down (7)
POLEAXE – POX (disease) around (spread around) LEA (open land) plus [cattl]E (cattle ultimately)
8 Non-religious individual remained by relative (9)
LAYPERSON – LAY (remained) PER (by) SON (relative)
13 Old Hollywood star’s left in quick-moving English river (4,7)
FRED ASTAIRE – RED (left) in FAST (quick-moving) AIRE (English river)
14 Brief pitfall that’s upset member of workforce? (4-5)
PART-TIMER – REMIT (brief) TRAP (pitfall) reversed (that’s upset)
16 Former PM’s travelling by rail, at high speed (4,5)
TONY BLAIR – an anagram (travelling) of BY RAIL after TON (high speed)
18 Look in part of cricket ground, detailing filthy state (7)
SQUALOR – LO (look) in SQUAR[e] (part of cricket ground, detailing)
19 Two Europeans, accepting the unknown, like to review spiritual book (7)
EZEKIEL – E E (two Europeans) around (accepting) Z (the unknown) followed by an anagram (to review) of LIKE
21 Dentist perhaps who might send you to sleep (5)
BORER – def. & cryptic indicator
23 Wine keeping cool in container (5)
PINOT – IN (cool) in (keeping … in) POT (container)
25 Feet of yoga instructor, Charlie, bend (3)
ARC – [yog]A [instructo]R (feet of yoga instructor) C (Charlie)
A pangram. I think a lack of chuckles makes this solve a little dull.
Yes, Aardvark’s syntactical obscurity made it a hard solve for me. And, as Steven@1 says, there was nothing to laugh about. On the other hand, I must thank Aardvark for scrambling my brain, and to Gaufrid for soothing it.
Took a while to get going, but after solving a couple of the longer solutions, it fell quite easily into place.
LOI 20a. I quibble as to whether a thumb is a digital feature. It’s a digit 11a?
Thanks Aardvark and Gaufrid
Agree with you on GIBRALTAR but thought that the rest of it was OK. Particularly liked winkling out the four people clues. Wasn’t looking for a pangram, which would have helped a lot with my last one in, POLEAXE.
Took a while to work out that it was ITALIAN as the language at 26.
Thanks to Aardvark and Gaufrid. I did not know ROSE TREMAIN (though the clues were sufficient), needed help parsing the MAL in MALARIA, and had to work out the spelling of BASENJI. LOI was GAUDI where it took me a long time to see the gad.
I actually quite liked this crossword.
But how is LAY = ‘remained’ in 8d?
Many thanks to Gaufrid & Aardvark.
Sil @ 6
“We thought the dead man was only unconscious, but when we tried to revive him he lay/remained still”.
Works for me
Thanks Aardvaark and Gaufrid
Thanks, Simon. Capito!
The definition in 8 down is not correct – a LAYPERSON need not be non-religious. In relation to a church congregation, a layperson is a non-ordained member of it.
On 8 down a “religious” can be “a member of a religious order” such as a priest or monk. So a layperson is someone who is not “a religious” even though she may certainly hold religious beliefs.
That could be stretching the syntax too far: although “religious” has the meaning you say when used as a noun, I can find dictionary support for “non-religious” used only in an adjectival sense (see the OED, for example).